2024

Sermon 05/19/2024 – Church is: A Testimony

/ John Langenstein / 2 Comments

The New Testament Lesson                                                      Acts 4:5-12

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every people under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Fellow Jews and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.

Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

Sermon Text

Pentecost is the sort of day that you can never run out of things to talk about. The Spirit shows up in a big way. Languages appear among God’s people and they are suddenly able to tell the story of Christ to people they’d never be able to reach before. We are not given any account of what the believers preached that day, only Peter’s explanation of why the miracle they are participating in is even possible. The words of Pentecost, the words made possible by the Holy Spirit, are ironically lost to time.

It seems that whatever was spoken was powerful enough to change hearts and minds all the same. The Testimony of the Gospel on that day was enough to light a fire in the hearts of the crowd such that, “daily,” people were joining the Church. Peter goes on, past where we stopped reading today, to give an overview of what the Gospel consists of. Christ came to live among us and showed his divinity in signs and wonders. Christ was then killed, something that did not stop God’s work through him, but that accomplished what God set out to do. Christ’s death was only a temporary state as he was soon raised from the dead and in that resurrection confirmed to be “Lord and Messiah.” We are called then to be baptized and repent in response to this show of God’s love. To be transformed and to find new life bursting within ourselves.

It is a very early presentation of the Gospel. It has no frills and does not try to do anything other than describe what had happened. Christ came to save us, Christ has saved us, and Christ will return to finalize that salvation at the end of all things. Until then, we have the Spirit to guide us, but not just to guide us, but to perfect us through repentance, and not just to perfect us, but to fill us with the means to share what God has done in our life. The whole existence of the Church is a testimony of God’s work. On Sinai, at the Cross, in the Resurrection, and in the continual pouring out of the Spirit. God is at work in all time and space.

I’m a historian at heart. My undergraduate work – the part that wasn’t chemistry – focused on historical theology. How do God’s people talk about God in different periods of history and what does that tell us? What have different eras revealed to us about God’s will and what are the universal truths that transcend the eras we find ourselves in? This attitude transfers over to every aspect of my life. I always want to know the, “Why,” of a text as much as I do what it says.

When I stand here in this Church, its history has decided a lot about what it is. Whether the foundation is Methodist Protestant or United Brethren, the roots of our theology go deeper than the sign on the front of the building. The local flavor always adds a twist to it too. The people that sit in the pews always affect more than anything else. Our stories, our legacy, they all change the trajectory of a church in ways larger forces never could. We are all wrapped up in the midst of rivers of time and culture, but we are steering the boat – that is always true.

What we do as a Church, every moment that we are working or teaching or proclaiming the word, is a testament to what God has done in our lives. In Greek the word for testimony is “Μαρτυριον (Marturion,) from which we get the word, “Martyr.” The idea was not just that you stand up and say something, but that every part of life became the story you told. To testify is to embody, proclaim, and live the life that we have received from Christ. Testimony as we know it, telling that story, is a part of the equation, but it cannot be the sum of the matter. We should be able to explain how we came to faith and what that faith has meant to us, but it should show in much more than just our words.

            With that being said, I would like to give you all my own testimony. Afterall, I should have hopefully demonstrated some fruits of the Spirit by now in other aspects of my life. However, the story of my faith itself, I’m not sure I’ve ever given to you all.

            I was born to two unmarried people, barely adults. I was not intended in any way shape or form. Yet, the two of them did their best for me, and had the support of my maternal family throughout my life. Eventually my parents split up, which was long overdue for both their sake and mine. My father would remarry, and I would be introduced, for the first time, to the Church. At First United Methodist Church of Berkeley Springs, my stepmother began the work of showing the Gospel to my unchurched self. It took time for the seeds to germinate, but by sixteen I was able to consider myself Christian and I was baptized just after my 15th birthday. I had a religious experience  – seeing God appear to me and promise I would see God fully one day, just “Not yet.” I had the zealous faith of a new convert, but that was short lived.

            Despite feeling that God was leading me to ministry, I shut myself up. I finished school and went to college to be an engineer. That was too much like business… So, I tried to be a teacher… That didn’t feel quite right either… In my personal life, I had stagnated. I still was faithful, I was still doing my best to live out my faith, but I wasn’t growing in my faith either. Finally, a professor of mine told me to follow my initial feelings of call – I went after it, and before I knew it, I was enrolled in seminary.

            This is when my life would reach its lowest point. I was in a toxic relationship and horrifically depressed, I had not yet escaped one or treated the other. My faith suffered, my family relationships suffered, I became increasingly cruel and critical. The light threatened to be snuffed out within me. Finally, I had a moment of complete despair. While take Greek and learning about Methodist History, I had a realization. “I’m not a good Methodist and I am hardly a Christian.” Sure, I’m in Seminary and I go to chapel every week, but I was just following the motions. I finally broke down, I wasn’t able to sleep for weeks, I was constantly violently sick to my stomach. The crisis pushed me to do what I needed to… I finally found a therapist to sort out my mind and I recommitted myself to my faith, because something had to change or I would be dead within the year – one way or another.

            My life began to grow again. Christ was able to break through the walls I’d been putting up. My heart began to soften again, and my prayers became more regular and earnest. I escaped the relationship that had been feeding my worst habits and I began to repair what I could between me and my family and those friends I had not completely alienated. I worked hard and, with God pushing me forward, I began to resemble what I had long ago wished to be. I took on a Church and my longtime friend, Grace, and I started dating. Within a year we would be engaged, and within three months of being engaged we would be married. Ministry worked at my heart alongside the Spirit, and I became more and more what I wanted to be.

            Since then, mostly, I have been with you all. You’ve been present for my growth since then. To the observers around me throughout all this, maybe the story would not seem as dramatic – except to those who knew me best. Yet, I can tell you that even in my short life I have seen rises and falls in my faith. I am thankful to God that I had the breakdown I did in Seminary, because it saved my soul and my life. I stand before you, not as someone with an especially dramatic story of faith, but one that nonetheless has been a result only of what God has set up in my life. I am here today because God is good, because Christ forgives sins, and because through all that – redemption is possible.

            In the early days of the faith, the disciples did not have the fullness of doctrine and history that we do. Christ had just ascended to Heaven, there wasn’t time yet to formulate complicated ideas of faith or doctrine. All they had was their story, their scripture, and the Spirit – and wouldn’t you know it, that was more than enough. I hope that we can begin to see God at work within us, can tell our stories without hesitation, and can proclaim Christ in word, in deed, and in prayer upon, upon prayer. People of God, we the people of God are a testimony to God’s goodness. Tell that testimony and live that testimony well. – Amen.

Sermon 05/12/2024 – Church is: A Verb

/ John Langenstein / Leave a comment

The New Testament  Lesson                                          Acts 1:15-17, 21-26

In those days Peter stood up among the brothers and sisters (together the crowd numbered about one hundred twenty persons) and said, “Brothers and sisters, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit through David foretold concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus, for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.”

“So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection.” So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed and said, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was added to the eleven apostles.                  

Sermon Text

When I read the scripture that we have before us today, I am made to wonder. What would have happened if Judas had turned back to God? What would it look like for the murderer of all murderers to chase after God’s forgiveness? If God’s mercy truly is infinite then the option to return was there for Judas and yet, as our scripture tells us, “[he] went his own way.” The ministry of Judas ended, but the mission of the church was not going to end, it could not end.

When the disciples gathered after Christ’s ascension, they did so with the desire to fill the ranks of the disciples once again. They saw a need to keep twelve leaders in those early days, an echo of the twelve tribes that once defined God’s people. They found someone who had been with the Church from the beginning. Finally settling on Matthias as a replacement for Judas. The title of apostle was passed on, the authority of the twelve rested on him, and, for my part, I believe even Judas’s coin purse – the funds that were given to those in need – passed to rest in his hands. The mission of the Church goes on, no matter who is present to do it.

There was a sad reality that set in at General Conference last week. The realization that, because we had not gathered in eight years, many of the faces that were present at these meetings for decades were no longer there. Time had taken its toll: delegates, agency members, and church people from all lands and positions had left the General Conference to join that Holy Conference in glory. There were people who could not be visibly present with the people called Methodists, and yet… the mission of the Church goes on.

Church, as it appears in scripture as ἐκκλησία (ecclesia,) means “those who are called out.” Called out from the world as it is into the world as it could be. From slavery to Sin and Death into abundant lives defined by joyful obedience. Called out, to go forward, and to transform this world with the Spirit ahead of us and the Cross as our banner.

The Church cannot be separated from the work it does and so today I put forward the idea that Church is really a verb. Sure, those of you who grew up diagraming sentences will proudly tell me that we aren’t even dealing with an adverb when we look at “Church,” but trust me when I say, you cannot rightly call anything “Church,” unless it is doing the work of a Church. The Church is a place that transforms, that builds up, that sends out!  We are always active in the Church because… the mission of the Church goes on.

Amidst the many calls of spectators throughout General Conference was the hope that God would be with the people who were there. I believe God was. In the midst of deep troubles and conflicts, the Church was able to gather together and praise God, do the hard work of budgeting and legislating and we managed throughout it all to mostly behave ourselves. Mostly. While the work was being done in the sessions, there were people who went to keyboards and cameras to cast all manner of dispersions on the work of the Conference. God, however, was present in the room. For those who were willing to follow the Spirit, there was a wellspring that bubbled up from the deep parts of our souls, a wellspring for eternal life.

It is hard to describe unless you were there. I do not know how much you heard last week about Conference, but let me tell you what happened this year. For the first time in living memory, people were gathered together and laughing and singing and praying throughout the conference. For the first time in living memory, people were sharing their hopes for what God was going to do with the Church, not worrying about whether or not people were going to rip it to pieces. For the first time in a long time, the worries of the present age and the struggles we face as a Church in a world that is so deeply broken, all seemed to melt away. We were the people of God, gathered to chart a way forward for the work of God. We knew we had to do this work, because with or without us… The mission of the Church goes on.

During General Conference, Bishop L. Jonathan Holston gave an episcopal address that covered a great deal of the anxiety of the Church. In just a few years we have seen wars and rumors of wars, a global pandemic, insurrections, growing radicalism, and division upon division – within and without the body of Christ. In the midst of all that, the Church never ceased to work! Globally, churches worked to provide housing for refugees fleeing war, educated people in places where education once was impossible, fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and met people in the midst of tragedy with love and open arms. Local churches and global institutions worked hard to do the work of God, even in the midst of hardships that seemed impossible. Why? Because the mission of the Church goes on.

We also saw in this General Conference big changes to how the Denomination talks about human sexuality. We no longer, as Methodists, mandate one view on matters of same sex relationships. The General Conference voted to remove all language condemning it, leaving the Discipline as a neutral document that allows for every Christian, every minister, every Church, to live as their conscience dictates. Like Paul long ago speaking to Corinthians about differences in opinion, the United Methodist Church has embraced allowing latitude on non-essential matters. About 720 people gathered from the four corners of the Earth – conservative, progressive, African, Asian, European, and American – all voted with an average approval rating of over 90% for these changes. Because it is time to move on from fighting toward the work of the Gospel.

It is naïve to think this change does no hit people differently. Some see it as capitulation to culture or betrayal of tradition, while others see it as a letting go of centuries of prejudice and an opening up of God’s grace. I should be honest and say that from the moment the first set of restrictive rules were voted out, I wept for joy, to see the Church I have always loved embracing what it could truly be, a place where all people have a home.

Yet, beyond my view or anyone else’s – both extremes and all people in-between, believe what they do while using the same book to justify their idea – our shared Holy Scripture. All are led by the same Spirit – the Holy Spirit. All are saved by the same Lord – Jesus Christ. Somehow in the midst of these extreme differences in this matter and all others, God is not divided or mocked. We alone are the ones who cast separation after separation between ourselves.

The episcopal address, having reviewed the various challenges we have all seen and the work the Church has to do at all times and in all places, put a question to the body that rocked our souls. “When was the last time you led someone to Christ? When was the last time you made a witness with your words and your life that led someone into relationship to Christ? Friends, if we are not doing this, then we are not being the Church. That is God’s purpose.” John Wesley made a similar point referring specifically to ministers. “The roads of Hell,” Wesley said, “are paved with the skulls, of ministers such as these.” If we as the Church are not able to bring people into a place where they know Christ, then we have been left behind – because the mission of the Church goes on…

When is the last time we saw fruit? Can you think of an example of someone finding faith because of what you have done? I struggle to think of one myself, in my six years of Pastoral Ministry, in my twenty-eight years of life, I can think of plenty of people I have been a part of bringing closer to God. I can think of people of God I have helped revive faith within. Yet I struggle to see how God has used me to be the spark that lit the fire of faith where it had never been before. I imagine many of us are in similar places. Maybe we raised some faithful children, maybe we have encouraged our faithful friends, but what have we done to bring those outside the faith, into the faith? We can sing “Rescue the Perishing,” we can talk about God’s “Amazing Grace,” but have we done anything to bring anyone to know what it feels like to be saved, really and truly?

I preached recently about how distracted we as the Church have been – obsessed with culture wars and petty differences. What have we lost in the mean time? Biblical Literacy is at an all time low. Even in this room, we have work to do. If we talk about Mephibosheth and King Asa do we have any idea who we’re talking about? What about the difference between our Spiritual existence and our Physical one – as Paul describes life before and after Christ? Doctrine is in an even dimmer place. Do we know why we see God as a trinity? Why we proclaim a God who gives us a choice to be saved? Why we believe that grace overcomes all evil and is found uniquely in the waters of baptism and the elements of the eucharist?

Our ministries have lost depth. We can feed and we can clothe, but what are we doing to embrace and to lift up? Do we know the names of the people who come through our doors? What about the people who walk up and down our street? Can we name our neighbors, and do we pray for their needs? For their hearts? For their souls? Are we comfortable telling people about Christ or are we only doing our best to trick them into sitting down on a Sunday, hoping that will do the trick? We are missing something vital in our work, the Spirit is here among us, but we must not be listening, because we are not doing the work of the Church in the irreplaceable way we ought to. We sit and wonder why the Church does not grow, but I sometimes think our desire to see it grow has a lot less to do with Christ and a lot more to do with our own pride.

We want the pews full, we want the choir loud, and we want the people singing all the songs we know and love. We want this for our own edification – for the pride of having a large and vibrant church. I would rather us seek this for the good of those we bring in and for the Kingdom which we are growing. If we had been focusing on that sort of ministry, that sort of development of self, that sort of willingness to do what God was calling us to… What wonders might we have achieved? It would have paid off a lot more than what we have been doing.

The United Methodist Church was founded in 1968 with the merger of the Evangelical United Brethren and the Methodist Church. This merger was a long time coming, after all the only reason that the Brethren was separate was because they originally spoke German. The theology and the Discipline the two shared was nearly identical. This family reunion was celebrated as a new beginning for our ministries. Yet, we immediately began to fight with one another. 1972 we added a clause to our Social Principles to make clear that while we believed all people deserved rights, “Homosexuality is incompatible with Christian Teaching.” In the 80s, as the AIDs Crisis raged – rather than extending more love and care – we doubled down. We added line after line to the discipline to make something clear – God may love gays, but the UMC did not.

This year we got rid of that language. We have not mandated any changes beyond a willingness to acknowledge that there are gay Christians and straight and that both are valid. Pastors do not have to marry anyone they do not want to, and if a Church really does not want a gay minister or to host gay weddings, then they are allowed that decision just like they always have been. In the next few years, plenty of churches will invest plenty of time into shutting up their doors in the face of a new era of the Church. Trustees will write building contracts to keep weddings out, ministers may be traded around to find ones that the congregation completely agrees with, and in the meantime the world will still keep spinning its old broken routines. We will hide ourselves away as good and holy Christians, we will create fortresses to keep the past locked up in our walls, and we will slowly atrophy and fade in the meantime. Because while we shut our eyes and clench our fists and lock our doors… The mission of the Church goes on.

In a moment we are going to take bread and juice in hand. We will drink God’s grace. The hands that took a cup before you did are the hands of people with different views. They may be the hands of people of another sexuality than you. They may be the hands of someone who will vote differently than you. They may be the hands of anyone and they will receive the same grace you do. Why? Because the hands that take the bread and give the cup are not important… The hands that matter are the ones that bore scars to cleanse us of our sins, the hands that hung on a cross and gave us hope for a resurrection.

I could go on and on, my mind is ablaze with how we might do more and better, but that is not the energy we should leave this moment on. Our scripture shows the Church dealing with replacing one of the most central positions it held, one of the twelve disciples. They did so following a period of worry, of fear, but that nonetheless ended with joy and resurrection. People of God, fear will be with us always, but God is greater than that fear. God is greater than our differences. God is greater than the squabbling we have taken part in over the past 52 years and beyond. God is greater than anything we can imagine, and God’s mission is marching forward toward the realization of God’s kingdom. Are we willing to take part in that? Or will we go on circling the same drain of conflicts, of hot takes, of controversy.

“When was the last time you brought someone to Christ?” Let that question motivate you more than any other, and you might find yourself taking steps toward that goal. We will be holier and kinder and more open and loving and Christ like, when our goal is demonstrating Christ’s love. I look at this room and I see the love that each of you holds. Let us work to perfect that love, let us put the past behind us, and let us charge forward – as Christians and as United Methodists – to do God’s will. – Amen.

Sermon 04/21/2024 – Church is: Healing

/ John Langenstein / Leave a comment

Acts 4:5-12

The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. When they had made the prisoners stand in their midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are being asked how this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. This Jesus is

‘the stone that was rejected by you, the builders;

    it has become the cornerstone.’

“There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.”

Sermon Text

The early Church existed at a dangerous time for small sects of any faith. There was one religion that was fully accepted in the Roman Empire, and that was the Imperial Cult itself. While local deities, and even national deities, could be worshipped freely – the one person who needed to be worshipped was the Emperor. Properly speaking, a spirit known as the “Genius,” was worshipped to the benefit of the Emperor. This spirit was the highest spiritual ideal of a person, their source and also their sustaining principle. When the Emperor died they were usually deified as gods, but in life this sustaining Spirit was what was worshipped.

All people were meant to offer sacrifices toward this personal deity of the Emperor alongside their other gods. For the polytheists throughout the empire, this was not a problem, but for anyone who was a monotheist that simply was not possible. For the Jews they were given an excuse, they were older than the Roman Empire and so their rituals and deity were given special status – monotheism was permitted where it was usually forbidden.[1] Other cults that formed around singular deities were not permitted the same allowance. The denial of worshipping local deities and especially the Genius of the Emperor was considered a form of treason – how could the gods sustain the empire if they were not honored? How could the spirit guarding the Emperor act without propitiation?

Of the dissident faiths of the Roman Empire, only one would survive into the present era. Christianity, founded on the premise of worshipping Jesus of Nazareth as God, had neither the ancient status of Judaism nor the benefit of Roman tolerance. The refusal of worshipping the Genius or worshipping local deities was unforgiveable treason and grounds for execution.

Later historians would inflate the persecution of Christians, at least in terms of numbers, but the reality of Christian persecution is clear. Pliny the Younger, a Roman Governor, seemed to regard Christians as mostly harmless despite their seditious lack of imperial faith. He would ask suspected Christians to recant their faith three times, each time offering them food and wine to offer to images of the Emperor or of a god. When they refused three times they would be executed or extradited. This was the standard form of persecution – particular to specific cases and carried out by people who disliked minority religions more so than by people who hated Christians specifically.

Paul, the writer of most of the New Testament, experienced more hardships than most. Having traveled to new regions and presenting Christianity for the first time, he was often cast out of town and abused by their inhabitants. Those who he left behind likewise would suffer social ostracization and abuse. Within a few years of Paul’s death, itself execution for religious dissidence, the emperor Nero would establish an empire wide ban on Christianity, blaming them for the destruction of Rome. Christianity was persecuted in a way it had never been before and the people of God looked to scripture to understand what to do.

Amid the many instructions of Christ and the disciples was a consistent rhythm regarding personal conduct. On top of the general teachings of the Church, the commandments given by Moses and by Christ, the Christians were meant to live a life that was so obviously good that any accusations laid at their feet would be ridiculous. 1 Peter 3 makes this clear, saying explicitly that someone who lives a blameless life will put their accusers to shame – even if they are killed the people who knew them would know the truth, erasing the power of their oppressors. The same is true of Romans 13, an admonition against violating civil power in order to respect God, but also to preserve the reputation of God’s people.

One problem of the modern Church is that we defend ourselves through obfuscation far more often than we defend ourselves through positive example. Whenever a scandal happens in the Church, we point the other way and try to say that because the majority of the Church does not engage in something harmful, then the Church is not actually responsible for that offense. When a minister in another conference of the UMC was found having inappropriate relationship with a parishioner, he was the sinner in the situation that is true, but when the decision was made to moved him to another church rather than defrocking or rehabilitating him – it seems to me that we all suddenly became complicit in that situation.

That’s a bigger example though, we can look at smaller instances. There is a meme that goes around all the time, “If you left the Church because of something someone did, the Church didn’t hurt you, people did. Come back.” A fine idea, and with some truth behind it. However, there is one problem in this idea from my perspective – what is the Church? The institution? The building? I’ve often been of the impression that the people are the Church, and if the People hurt you, then you do have a legitimate problem with “The Church.” Our defense against people who have been hurt by the Church is to pretend that they were actually hurt by something else, something over there, anything but by us.

Sometimes people I know will distance themselves from clergy and Christians they disagree with. I myself will tell you openly when I think talking heads in the Church-sphere are not good people to listen to. Yet, I do not deny they are Christians and that I am responsible for them to a certain extent. The body of Christ is one body, and even though we have a created a bunch of sects and individual buildings, and barriers betwixt us, we are all one people. Even the parts of us that are hurtful and that we wish were not part of the body, are part of the Church. If they are unwilling to change, they will continue to be both harmful and Christian.

The scripture we read today shows the apostles being brought before the Sanhedrin, a group of leaders in Jerusalem who oversaw religious happenings in Jerusalem and some civil cases as well. Peter and crew would be brought before them several times in the early parts of Acts. Each time the disciples thwarted the accusations against them with a simple truth – they had done no harm to anyone, in fact they were helping other people. The powers that be could organize a mob to hurt them, they had done so with Christ and secured a conviction, however this was not a midnight meeting like the one that convicted Christ. The whole council was there, not just the conspirators, and they were not as zealous in their hatred of Jesus as those who met on Good Friday were.

Peter is asked how he healed these people, and his defense begins simply with the truth, “To be clear, I am here because you did not like how I healed someone! I’ll answer your question, but I want it on the record why you brought me in today!” The tactic worked, and they were released after being reprimanded by the court. A later trial would have them gaining the respect of Gamaliel, teacher of Paul of Tarsus and prominent teacher. It was not until a Greek Speaking Jew, Stephen, was brought before the council that enough animosity could be brought against a Christian to kill them. Again, not by law, but through mob violence. His sin, again, was in feeding the hungry and in proclaiming the Gospel.

If a Church and the people in it aspire to live well, then it will be hard to accuse them of anything. If they are founded on taking care of people, in feeding the hungry, in clothing the poor, then anyone who says “Well you know how those Christians are,” will be able to be told, “Well, I don’t know about all Christians, but these folk are good folk.” That’s the reputation we need to strive for, the thing that makes people question their criticism of faith, and that provides a positive association with Christ. That is what the Church is meant to do.

This is, perhaps, the completion of our message from last week. The Spirit leads us to repent to change, and in so doing we become people that no one can deny are truly seeking to do good. Will we fall short and fail? Of course. However, an earnest attempt at doing right on the part of an individual and of a church makes a huge difference. The Church has fallen out of the good graces of the public, not simply because people don’t want to be a part of us, but because when people pointed out the wrong we have done, all we had was trite and rehearsed responses. If we truly were doing the good work we are called to, no one could shame us and find support from people who know us.

The key thing here is that we do not do good to have a good reputation, but that we understand that the importance of consistently doing good is not just one dimensional. First and foremost, we seek to do good and heal this world because it is good and right to do so. Secondly, and we know it is good because of this, we do so because it benefits the people around us, and if we love people we want them to flourish. Somewhere down the list of reasons to do good is this matter of reputation, but it is important to think that beyond the singular moment of an action and its consequences, there are infinite ripples. Ripples in expectations, ripples in understanding, ripples in truth.

We have to live a life so that the perspective people have of us, of the Church, of Christ, is one of love and truth and power. When we fail, we need to be up front and apologetic, because if we cannot truly make amends for wrong, we will never grow as a people. Yet, if we do all these things, if we can be the Church as it is meant to be – a place of Healing, of Redemption, and of Communion – then we will see the glory of the Lord in this life. We will see the Body of Christ, be as it was always meant to be. – Amen.

[1] This claim is somewhat controversial among scholars. Partly this is because of the clear antisemitism of Roman society. There was also no official status given to the Jews, except by individual emperors. This is why people like Claudius was able to expel the Jews, their status was dependent upon those in power and not secured in the writ of law.

Sermon 04/14/2024 – Church is: Redemption

/ John Langenstein / Leave a comment

The Epistle Lesson                                                                     1 John 3:1-7

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.

Sermon Text

 The business of the Church, in all lo and places, regardless of context, is to repair the broken things of the world. This redemptive mission undergirds every part of our work. The problem with redemption, however, is that it is hard. It is hard to make the world better and it is hard to make ourselves better and because of this we settle for a hundred thousand lesser missions than this. Redemption is a work that only God can achieve and that we are privileged to partake in, but the work that we begin is much more manageable, and much easier to control.

Look at the way we address most problems in life, reactively rather than proactively. The potholes in our streets could be addressed if we funded regular upkeep of our infrastructure instead of hasty repairs when the road is already damaged. Health can be improved by taking measures as simple as taking vitamins and keeping up on vaccination, and yet most preventive medicine is not covered by most insurances. Finances are more secure when savings are put away, but oftentimes the demands of life make it hard to put much at all away, especially as prices have soured across the last decade or so. Our hope to fix things, even mundane things, is stopped by hundreds of confounding factors we face at any given moment.

Yet, God calls us to restore this world to something like what it was in Eden. There is to be a growth in trust where we have given ourselves to doubt. There is to be a mutual love and care where there is currently apathy and forgetfulness. There is to be a better world in the place of the one that is currently suffering under the reign of sin and death. We are to be people who want to see the world change for the better and who want to change our own lives to be better at contributing to that goal.

Faith is not meant to be an oppressive thing, Christ is clear again and again that what he offers us is a much better alternative than what the world is offering. This does not mean, however, that the life of faith does not have its own hardships. It is hard to grow, it is hard to do what is right, and it is hard to face the fact that we are all of us in need of change. The simple fact is, as we draw nearer to God we should experience a contradictory emotional swell. On one hand we should enjoy the joy that comes from knowing God and feeling the joy of salvation, the freedom it brings. On the other hand we should become more and more aware of our own failings, of the way our carelessness hurts others. There is a need to grieve even as we rejoice, because we take part in the brokenness of the world unless we live perfectly.

The idea of perfection is scary, but it is the goal we have to chase after. As John says in our Epistle reading, if we live fully in Christ than we ought not to sin. The person who does what is right is righteous, but the one who does wrong is lawless – without God’s instruction. There is no room in John’s presentation to imagine that this warning is only for perpetual sinners or especially profound wrongdoing. John wants us to see every sin that we commit for what it is, a wedge that gets between us and God. If we see sin as this, as something that keeps us from God, and we see God as the source of life and joy and happiness itself, then we should be upset that we choose sin again and again and again.

The more I grow in faith, the more I am sure that I am a deplorable person. There are things that I cannot seem to escape that I just go back to again and again, like a dog to its own vomit. The good things I do, for me, are swallowed up in the wickedness I participate in. The hateful thoughts, the judging eyes, and all manner of other corruption is not unique to those who make a habit of it. We are all guilty of sinning, all prone to erring in a way we should not. We all, if we are honest, are not living the life we should be – not even close most of the time. There is a need for us to be holy, and that need is apparent in the fact that the world is so sad so often, so bleak and violent and miserable.

1 John offers a contradictory path throughout its pages. While it is so clear again and again that we are sinful and that our participation in sin means that we cannot call ourselves righteous, the mourning of our failings is not meant to make us lock up. It is not meant to be something that we hate ourselves for. It is not even something that the scripture seems to linger on. Instead, John gives us a way out of the mess. Firstly in saying that those who do sin, all of us, can depend that Christ is faithful to forgive us. Praise God! That we can seek forgiveness from God and those we hurt and know that we can receive it from one source at least.

The second reiteration, again and again, across all of the Johennine Epistles, is so simple. “People of God, we are sinners, but thank God we are redeemed in Christ. The same Christ who gives us a new commandment, which is not new but has with us from the beginning.” That commandment, can anyone guess what it is? That we love one another. The secret out of sin is not self-loathing, it is self-love. Love enough to grow out of the things that hurt us and those around us. The secret out of sin is not hatred of others, but a love that promises to grow alongside each other. We are all in this together, and unless we all can search our hearts and accept our part in the mess around us, it will never be healed.

The Church suffers when we see Sin as something that is either wiped away with a simple prayer or that is mostly other people’s problems. On the one hand, we forget that we are called to grow closer to Christ’s perfection every day. On the other, we pretend that we are righteous in a way no one else is. In reality, we are all stuck in the mud. We all need to help to lift each other out of it.

I think one of the problems we have had in the Church is that for the past hundred years we have been caught up in culture wars, rather than wars against the Sin that we all know lives within us. We fought in the 20s against Evolution, in the thirties against socialism, in the fifties against communism, in the sixties against civil rights, in the seventies against rock and roll, in the eighties against Dungeons and Dragons, in the nineties against rap, in the oughts against gays, and now against trans people. Always a target moving from one person to the other to the other, but never a moment of introspection for ourselves.

What would have happened, if all that energy then and now that went into interrogating other people’s business and chasing after the supposed enemies that someone told us we had, we all just tried to be holier? What if we aspired to live like Christ did? To feed the hungry, to care for the sick, to push back when others try to exclude people from the table. One may say, “Ah, but I saw sin in what those people I was yelling at were doing!” Be that as it may, John’s instruction was to be better at loving each other, to repent earnestly of your own sins, and to grow in holiness that way. Sin is real, people of God, but the fact it only ever exists in “that person over there,” should probably tell us we do not care much about sin and our salvation from it, but do care a great deal about looking and sounding like we have nothing to do with it.

There is one thing that John describes as being “Anti-Christ,” in all of this book. Yes, it is possible to be lawless as a person, but only one thing is antithetical to the work of the Church, says the Epistle. That one thing? Denying Christ’s bodily life, death, and resurrection. This is why I believe that all Christians can come to terms, if we accept those three things. If we accept Christ came and lived among us perfectly, then we have an image to aspire to. If Christ died for our sins, then we have a reason to hope that we too can overcome sin and death. If Christ rose again, then there is a life everlasting and an advocate who will hear my prayers and hold my hand as I take the long narrow road to perfection in Paradise.

People of God, do you believe God can redeem you? Then repent today, not tomorrow. Repent for your own sins, not your neighbors, and seek to grow in love, which is the essence of all the Law and the prophets. The work of the Church is redemption, and we must take part in it and be recipients of it. – Amen.

Sermon 04/07/2024 – Church is: Communion

/ John Langenstein / Leave a comment

Acts 4:32-35

Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

Sermon Text

Every year, after the Easter Season has begun, one of the first scriptures to appear in the lectionary is the one we read this morning. It tells a simple story, the disciples were doing the work of the Church and because they did what God called them to do, the Church grew by leaps and bounds. This message gives relief to us today. The secret to vitality is not something hidden away, unknowable to the average person. A Church flourishes when it follows the Spirit where it goes. If we let God teach us to speak as we have never spoken, love as we have never loved, and do as we have never done… Then we will find that life naturally flourishes within our community.

We are coming up on General Conference, the long delayed and anticipated meeting of the United Methodist Church’s legislative body to determine what the next four years of our denomination looks like. There are a lot of things on the table this year, after all we skipped 2020 due to the pandemic. This means that everything that was supposed to be renewed then is overdue now, and all the legislation that had been proposed then has been gathering dust. It will be an emotional gathering and it will be a tense one. There will be people there ready to further the work of the Church and people there who would very much like to see the whole thing burn. Yet, it will be a gathering of the Church, and we will keep it holy somehow.

As we enter into that season, we have three Sundays to address a question we should already know something about. What is Church? What does it mean that we gather together and worship? How do we serve the world? What are we doing? We will do this in part through the General Conference study we are offering across the next two weeks, but we are also exploring it through our gatherings here. Scripture has a wealth of information for us, if only we are willing to read it and understand.

The scripture we read today describes the Church immediately after Pentecost and it captures a moment where the Church functioned as it never would again. The people of God had perfected their vision of the Body of Christ. For a moment the Church gave up on anything worldly – people sold their property so that everyone had the food and clothing and shelter they needed. The word used here (ὑπάρχω, huparcho,) suggests that people were selling everything they had the ability to sell. I do not mean, everything that was left over after they took care of themselves, I mean everything they legally owned and therefore had the authority to share. The people sold everything they had, to make sure that everyone had what they needed.

The reason this was possible was not because of any specific economic reality that was present in the first century, but because the Church developed an understanding of a term I absolutely adore,  κοινός (Koinos,) which simply means “Common.” The term can be used to describe something vulgar, but it is used here in the sense of something held by everyone. It is turned into a more abstract idea elsewhere in scripture, being described as “Koinonia,” the state of being in unity, in connection, in Communion. Our celebration of the Eucharist took on the name Communion to reflect the unity it gives us together, but Communion itself is something we strive for in all we do.

Why were the disciples willing to sell everything they had and live together as one people? Because they trusted each other as they trusted themselves. The Church was willing to give all they had, because they knew if they needed something they would be able to get what they needed, because everyone was fully participating in this resurrected community. When I know that you will not take advantage of me, and I do not want to take advantage of you, then both of us are more willing to share than we ever would be before.

The purpose of the Church is to create an alternative community to the one which the world builds for itself. We do this by proclaiming the world that Christ showed us in his time among us. A world that does not bow to civil power plays or the politicking of the same. A world based upon the revelation of God to all people and the transformation of lives for the good of everyone, not just the select few. We preach a Gospel that is transformative precisely because it invites people to come together and be something different together. We cannot be a Christian on our own, we need the full people of God together to truly be our fullest selves.

As a conference we have set a discipleship goal to transform our worship spaces. Not just concerned with Sunday morning, we want to get people to live life together. I would say that we are blessed in our congregations that we already do some of this of hard work together. We are a church that likes each other and that is a blessing. The change we are striving after is to be more intentional in the way we live life together. As a parish we are working toward beginning Class Meetings again, where those who wish to grow deeper in their faith and love toward one another can do so together.

The Church does not grow by having better music or more programs. It grows by being willing to go into the world, to share all it has with one another and with those around it. The Church grows when it becomes the image of God for all the world to see. Why? Because when people see God they cannot deny they want to be a part of what God is doing. We have the ability to be that vision to the people around us, but only if we stand together. The Church must embrace its Communion fully – we are one in heart and soul, born of the same waters of baptism and worshipping the same Lord. If we wish to be all we can be, we have to be wiling to take hold of the life, the light, and the resurrection – not as individuals – but as one people living, loving, and serving together. – Amen.

Sermon 03/31/2024 – Terror, Amazement, Hope

/ John Langenstein / Leave a comment

The Gospel Lesson                                                                    Mark 16:1-8

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

And all that had been commanded them they told briefly to those around Peter. And afterward Jesus himself sent out through them, from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation. Amen.
Sermon Text – Easter Sunday

Easter is here! We celebrate Christ’s resurrection and proclaim that death has no claim over life. In dying Christ has set us free from Sin and in rising again Christ has opened the door for use to live eternally. The resurrection is the foundation of our faith. If the resurrection did not happen then we would have no reason to gather together as God’s people. The Kingdom would have remained closed, a potential that never came to be. Despite the many different cultures and contexts, opinions and practices that Christians have – here in the resurrection we find common ground. We all share in this New Birth and we all proclaim it today as one people.

Our scripture for the day captures the first reaction that Jesus’s followers had to the resurrection. Several women came to Christ’s tomb to properly bury him. He had been left without any preparation because a holy day was starting as he died. The women gathered to give him a proper burial, to show him the honor that a life like his was worthy of. They worried as they waked there, realizing that they were not capable of opening the tomb which had been sealed with a large rock. They walked on though, confident that they would enter somehow and finish their work.

They arrive at the tomb to find the rock has already been moved and the guards on duty had left their station. Thoughts flood through their minds of what could have happened. Did the soldiers take their teacher and hide him away? Worse yet, have they put him out as an example somewhere? Maybe they left and grave robbers pried open the door looking for treasures that simply were not there. Whatever has happened it must not be good…

They enter though, not sure what is going to happen. Inside they find a man dressed in white, and he tells them that Christ has risen from the dead and is no longer there. They are told to leave and tell the other disciples what had happened, and where Christ would find them.

The women are described as fleeing the scene, not just leaving. They run as fast as they can because they are terrified. The two words translated as fear and amazement literally mean “trembling and ecstasy.” On one hand they are shaking with fear, but on the other they are so shocked at what just happened that they seem to be in a different world entirely. Elsewhere, “Ecstasy,” is used to describe religious visions. The women fleeing the tomb are in a new reality from what they had been in before. Before this moment, death was absolute, and now resurrection is possible. Before this moment, Christ had lost to the powers of this world, and now Christ had overcome them all.

The other Gospels include stories of the disciples meeting with Jesus and him giving further instructions of how to conduct themselves on their way to Galilee. Mark keeps it simple. Older Bibles may include a longer ending to Mark, but this was added later to make it seem more like the longer Gospels. In the original version of Mark the story is left open, because the story of what Christ has done is not over. The terror of the moment, the amazement of a new world being born, all leads to us being in this room today – and to us going into the world to do God’s will.

We all get to enjoy God’s goodness and we all are able to take part in God’s new Kingdom. The light shines in the darkness and it cannot be stopped. The sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal life is ours to make and the world needs to hear it. Our life is always meant to tell the story of God’s work in this world, but today especially we must proclaim God’s goodness. Go out into the world then, to all people you meet, and let the love of God shine out. Proclaim the resurrection and the life and celebrate. Christ has overcome all obstacles let us worship him and take part in the life we have been freely offered. – Amen.

Sermon 03/24/2024 – Adora(tion) – Palm Sunday 2024

/ John Langenstein / Leave a comment

Mark 11:1-11

When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this: ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’ ”

They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” They told them what Jesus had said, and they allowed them to take it. Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting,

“Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple, and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

Sermon Text

 When we gather together on Sundays, what do we tend to call our meeting? Two terms come to mind – we gather for “Service,” and we gather for “Worship.” The two terms are related, but how do we make that connection and why? What about our gathering is a service and how are we ever able to define “worship?”

The first is easier than the others. We are not, as my initial thought when I started looking at these words, calling what we do “Service,” in the sense of us helping God. That would be a strange way to talk about Sunday mornings. Service, it turns out, does not actually mean “help,” not in its literal meaning at least, though we use it that way all the time. If we trace it back to origin of the work in French and by extension Latin, then the focus moves from just helping to a more wide-reaching action. To serve is to make oneself available, to pay homage, to give oneself over to work for someone. Servitum, from which we derive the word service is also the root of “servitude,” after all.

To make the statement that we are gathering for “service,” means that we gather here on a Sunday to offer ourselves up to God. We offer ourselves up to follow what God is asking us to go into the world and do. We offer ourselves up to receive what God is offering to give to us. We offer ourselves up and empty ourselves of anything but what God would have us do and be and receive. We offer ourselves up in worship and that is why we call it, “Service.”

Worship then is the word we still have to define. What does worship mean? I’ll open that up to you all, what does it mean to worship God? All of these are aspects of what we are getting toward with worship. In English, “Worship,” comes from an older word which essentially means “to give what is owed to what is worthy.”[1] Specifically this came to mean giving something to a god that fit the status of that god in the giver’s heart. So, on this level “worship,” means to give something to God, simple enough right?

Not apparently. The concept of giving something to God is complicated enough that the Church developed two different words to describe how people give honor to something. These terms were “latria,” and “dulia.” Latria is what we give when we honor great people, lifting up heroes or saints that we celebrate for the example they give us to follow. Dulia was meant only for God though, a special kind of honor. The gifts we bring to God, whatever they may be, are therefore meant to be different and more significant than that kind we give to anything else in our life. “Worship,” then, is something special we offer up to God. Something that can be captures in presence, in prayer, singing, and in the work and resources we offer to our neighbors.

I think there’s a simpler way to understand “worship,” though, and that is with a bit of an antiquated word, “adoration.” Adoration is another word that comes out of ancient terms for worship, but it conveys something that connects more clearly to our modern understandings of language. When we hear old hymns and prayers that describe Christ as, “Our most Adorable Lord, Jesus,” it may seem weird, but I want to give you a direct examples of why that language still works. Babies. If you bring a baby into the room, people immediately and often involuntarily react. “Aww!” “How cute!” “Wow so much hair!” All kinds of reactions just happen. While this is an example of “latria,” in the old way of naming these things, I think it shows us something about how Palm Sunday happened the way it did so many centuries ago.

Today is a day that the Church celebrates “worship,” in its purest sense. When we see something come and offer ourselves up  to God, when we give God all that we can in a way we can only give to God. There was a natural outpouring in response to Jesus entering the city and it was not like anything Jerusalem had seen for years and years. People were ripping their clothes off and throwing them in the roads, tearing down trees so they could shake them and throw them on the ground as they sang. They screamed out “Hosannah!” A word we do not fully understand the meaning of today, but seems to be a deep, heart felt cry meaning something like “Save us!”

In worship we are often waiting for something to inspire us to react this way. However, the only thing that can really bring us to that place, authentically, is God. Music is nice, prayers written well are nice, but it is only an authentic meeting with God that causes us to cry out “Hallelujah!” and “Amen!” When God shows up, we react, and that can take so many forms. Hands in the air! Tears streaming down our face! Or, most frightening and powerful, a sudden impulse to give everything we have to all that God would have us do.  There are wonders at work in God’s creation and when God shows up, I pray that we can cry out like the crowd did by the gates of Jerusalem long ago.

We have Palm Sprigs in hand, we have the songs of our faith resting in our mouth, now we need to let ourselves embrace the Spirit when it comes. In Bible Study recently we saw two ways that God meets with people – spontaneously and suddenly – but also whenever God’s people called on God’s name, God appeared. We have to trust that God shows up when we gather, trust that God is at work on every day that we wake up and say “Yes!” to what God is doing. We have to be willing to see what God is up to and celebrate when the divine crosses our path. Open your eyes, open your ears! Salvation is coming! Hallelujah! Hosannah! Amen!

[1] Online Etymology Dictionary. https://www.etymonline.com/word/worship,

Sermon 03/17/2024 – Confirma(tion)

/ John Langenstein / Leave a comment

John 12:20-33

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew, then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say: ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.

Sermon Text

 There are many triumphs in a life of faith, as there are many triumphs in Christ’s story. When we look at the progression of Lent and the texts we’ve looked at, we should see that there are highs and lows for God’s people. Sometimes we are rejected by others because we pursue righteousness, yet other times we are lifted up to do something exceptional. There are times when we are called to shake the foundations of this broken world we live in and times where we are permitted in faith to simply live in the knowledge that God has done the hard work for us. We are able to do all of this, not because of our own skills or worth, but because God was willing to take on all hardship for us and raise us up in the same way Christ was raised. Every calendar year, every Church year, every aspect of life is wrapped in this ebb and flow, this rise and fall.

Today, we stand seven days from Palm Sunday, the height of Jesus’s acceptance before he was rejected and crucified. If next week brings us a high, then today we are allowed to see a low. Christ stands before his disciples and has something of a crisis as he hears that people are interested in hearing him speak. It seems strange, that Jesus should have this moment of realizing his death is near and expressing how troubled he is just because several men are asking to hear him speak, but I think there’s more to it than that, there almost always is.

The passage tells us a few things in quick succession that set the stage. Several “Greeks,” come to Phillip and ask to speak with Jesus. These are not Greek speaking Jews, there’s a different word to describe them, these are Greek God-fearers – Gentiles that worship the God of Israel.[1] They go to Phillip, who is named as a disciple from Bethsaida, a town relatively south in Galilee, but far away from central Judea. It was a place where people spoke Greek as much as they did Aramaic. They find Philip, perhaps because he was speaking Greek, and ask if he can take them to see Jesus. Philip decides to check before he does so, and so finds Andrew, and only after the two of them discuss the matter do they go on to Jesus. Jesus hears that the Greeks are looking for him and then he has the chilling reaction we read about here.

The sudden arrival of Gentiles into the story means that Jesus has succeeded in his mission of reaching the people of Judah. The selective Gentile believers here and there were just a side-affect of this outreach, but now Jesus has become known beyond his own people in a much bigger way. The era of Christ’s ministry to Judah was ending and soon his universal, resurrected ministry was going to begin. The resurrection of Christ requires something before it can happen though, and that is death. Now Christ’s time had come to free all humanity from Sin, now he was to destroy death and chase out Satan from his throne, now was the time for him to die.

We are given clues throughout Jesus’s ministry that one of the things that was given up when he took on humanity was the ability to see exactly how the future was written. Though not losing Godhood, Jesus lost many of its benefits in becoming human. There is an ability then for Jesus to be surprised, to react to something as it happens, and in this case, to have a sudden realization. Christ always knew his journey ended in a cross, but in this moment, when this message comes to him, the sudden weight of what is to come overtakes him. Jesus is no longer composed, not even especially holy, he speaks frankly to his disciples.

“I am so worried. What should I even do, ask for help? That’s not what I’m here for… I came to do this… but does that make it easier… Father, glorify your name.” A voice booms from the Heavens, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it.” The crowd thinks an angel has spoken to comfort Jesus, but Jesus responds differently, and I won’t modernize his response because the language cuts deep, “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself”

Jesus was speeding toward the hardest day of his life, the day he would die a miserable death. Facing the realization of how inescapable that fate was and how close it had become, Jesus could not be comforted. A voice came from the Heavens, but not for him. His disciples would spend days with him, doing their best to lessen his pain, but Jesus moved forward intentionally, not yielding in his focus. He was worried, he was afraid, and yet he kept going because he knew what he had to do. Jesus was going to bring all people together and Jesus was going to do it by giving his life for everyone.

There is a deep sadness in this passage, but as we make the move toward Easter, I hope we can also see that there is a strange hope to it as well. Jesus unflinchingly walked toward Death, not just because he was strong – but because it was that important that he completed the work ahead of him. Jesus was afraid, Jesus wanted anything but what was set ahead of him, and yet he was willing to keep moving. Why? For us.

The voice of God thundered from Heaven, not to comfort Jesus – he knew that God was going to follow through even in this dark moment – that voice was for us who hear it even today. Christ lived a life of sacrifice, a life meant to bring life to others, and Christ did so despite fear and anxiety and a strong desire to avoid this awful pain.

If you ever feel like you cannot face what lies ahead of you, know that Jesus had that moment too. If you are ever deeply concerned, know that Jesus was too. Still, in the midst of all our worry and our fear, remember what Christ faced all his trouble for. He faced this to free us from needing to fear, from needing to face troubles alone or without hope. Christ suffered so that the judgment of the world would be settled, so that evil would lose its claim over our lives, and so that our faith would be confirmed in our consolation. Take heart, for Christ has overcome the world. – Amen

[1] The word for “Greek,” is “Ἕλλην,” (Hellen,) while the word for “Greek Jew,” is “Ἑλληνιστής” (Hellenistes.)

Sermon 03/10/2024 – Redemp(tion)

/ John Langenstein / Leave a comment

Ephesians 2:1-10

You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient.

All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, doing the will of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else, but God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we may walk in them.

Sermon Text

 Life is full. It is full of work that needs to be done and worries that we can have. It is full of those moments we could just sing and the moments where all we want to do is cry. Wherever we go, whatever we do, we are always stepping into a deep river of things. They can become overwhelming, demanding everything of us at every moment. It is hard to take a rest, to find any place of security in the great sea of experience that we all struggle through. Despite that, rest is essential, and finding a foundation we can rest upon is the only way we can really find any peace.

Sometimes it can feel like a marvel, as we walk through the concrete surroundings that defines so much of our life, that plants grow up in the midst of the cracks between the cement. However, for the right kind of plant, that concrete is an ideal place. Unlikely to wash away or break, it shield their roots from their elements. Meanwhile, that little stem poking out and spreading leaves and flowers is able to take in all the sunlight and water and air it needs. Is there anything especially shocking that a well rooted, protected plant can thrive? The anchor need not be anything extravagant as long as there is something for it to grab onto.

In our own lives, as people of faith, there is a strange foundation on which Christ asks us to find rest in. We sing, of course, of Leaning on the Everlasting Arms, we trust in Christ’s transformative Spirit, but that is not the image that scripture conjures again and again to give us a foundation for our ability to rest. No, I would say that those are the natural conclusions of scriptures mantra regarding why we should not worry or wrap ourselves up in fear. Strangely enough, when scripture asks us to be at peace it is almost always in the context of our own limitedness. Christ bids us come and rest  because we are all sinners who have fallen short of the glory of God, and we mortal beings who are here today and gone tomorrow.

Why is that comforting? How can we look to our short time on Earth and sign in relief instead of anxiety? Likewise, what in the world does my sinful foundation have to do with my future hope of redemption? Why are we constantly reminded of these seeming shortcomings when scripture is trying to inspire us to something better?

There is a contradiction in our lives as people of faith. We are able to be confident in what we do, not because we are especially holy or talented or good, but precisely because we are not the best at everything we set out to do. While God gives us gifts and talents – God does not make those talents perfect nor does God give us every possible talent. There are blind spots and weaknesses that we all face and those are common to all people. Despite appearances, the most sainted person in a Church community has their fair share of failings and the person who is seen as an outcast or a troublemaker, probably has something God gave them that they either do or could excel at.

Let me provide myself as an example. I was an angry child. My family was not good at expressing their feelings, and so I learned from them that shouting was a good way to get things across. That was a limitation of my flesh, imposed partly by innate predispositions in my soul and as a product of my raising. However, when I was fully aware of my limitations, I asked God and others for help, and suddenly I was not working toward being a calmer person alone. I had God on my side, I had people willing to understand my journey. Now, only two things ever make me snap at people regularly – anytime I have to put together furniture and sudden and very taxing problems.

The foundational truth of our limited nature is build upon a larger truth, namely that God is not limited. Though we can easily see scriptures description of us as having hearts prone to sin, bodies that rebel against God’s law, and minds that just don’t get it as a reason to beat ourselves up – to fall down spiraling rabbit holes of self-hatred – God means us to see this as a leveling statement. We are all of us sinners, yes, but we are all of us loved by a God who went from Heaven to Earth, Earth to the Grave, and all the way back again just so we could had a chance to break from all that trouble.

Ever wonder why God forgives us our sins, long before we get any better at not sinning? Why we can come back to God when we fail and trust we will be given another chance? It is not because God wants to write as many blank checks for salvation as God can. No, instead it is because God earnestly believes that the foundational thing shared by all humans is our mortality, and the greatest gift God can give us is hope for a second chance.[1] It can seem paradoxical that we are freed and lifted up by acknowledging our weakness, but the foundation of our faith is that while we are weak God is strong. Again, not so we develop complexes about how awful we are, but so that in every good things we do and every good habit we develop, we can see God’s Spirit at work,

I said at the outset that scripture often gives us our own human failing as the foundation of our hope in what Christ did. I say that intentionally because the reality of my shortcomings is often more obvious to me than anything God has done. I know I will die and I know that I sin. Those two things I trust will always lurk in my mind. If I know that is true about me, and scripture tells me that I am not alone, but that all people have this same struggle, I can look around and see that it is true. No wonder then, that I feel hopeful when scripture tells me that God is greater than either death or Sin. That I can grow to become better, and enjoy more of this life, because God is not done with me or with humanity.

I grew up in a church that wanted us to be ashamed a lot. Girls were always told that they were tempting boys, boys were always told that they were neglecting God for sports. If we did anything commendable, anything good, we were also reprimanded with the idea that even our best work was like dirty rags to God. It was not an environment that inspired hope. I believe it is because the youth minister I had, had never understood what we talked about this morning. God does not hold sin and death over our heads, God breaks the chains of sin and death. We bring the reality of sin and death with us wherever we are, God simply points to it, holds out a key, and asks if we would like to be free.

Free from the need to chase after empty things that do not comfort us. Free from the need to fight each other over crumbs of attention. Free from the need to sin and sin again, just for an inkling of something meaningful. God points to our sin, not to send us down into a bog of self-hatred, but to acknowledge what we already know. We are lost and weighed down and we need help to get out. We are offered redemption and we are given it freely. My hope is built upon Christ and all that he has done, and when I need inspiration to keep moving toward his ideal, oddly enough it helps for me to take a moment and acknowledge first how frail I am.

Christ did not sin, so he did not have these problems I have. Yet, he lived a life just like mine. If I follow his example, I may just be able to live a fraction of the life Christ lived. Yet, I am limited, I could not do it alone. Thanks be to God, that when we remember our sin, we as people of faith are not called to be lost in it. We mourn the harm we have caused, we make up for the damage we have inflicted upon others, but we do not sit and wallow in it. When we see our Sin for what it is, it naturally follows that we see how much bigger Christ is than it, and somehow we can grow, we can be redeemed, as we once never could have dreamt. – Amen

[1] This is discussed at length in Barbara Brown Taylor’s Speaking of Sin.

Sermon 03/03/2024 – Reclama(tion)

/ John Langenstein / Leave a comment

John 2:13-22

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, with the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Sermon Text

As we make our way through Lent we have looked at two different things that happen when we jump into what God is doing in the world. We are set aside and transformed into something more than we once were and that transformation may be upsetting to the world around us. Now we look at a more actionable part of our Christian life. That is the work of joining with God to reclaim the good things in this world that we, well intended but sinful humanity, have twisted to be something other than it was meant to be.

We never have to stretch our mind very far to see how things are not how they should be. People go hungry outside of luxury apartments, government programs meant to help people are so limited in scope they can barely help those who need them, churches are seen as exclusionary places rather than welcoming, and the list goes on and on and on. Anywhere you look, there is ample reason to be disappointed with the world we live in. As soon as we left Eden, we began to build cities and towns and we built them on a foundation of our own human fragility. We may reach up toward the ideals we all know to be good, but the foundational aspects of humanity always leave room for those ideals to be brought down.

The story that we read from our scripture is not a story of Jesus striking out against something that was meant to be evil, it was a necessary part of the work of the Temple on one hand. However, his striking out against them was meant to point toward something that people had denied. God had created the Temple to bring people together in worship and God’s people had begun to use that place in a way that excluded people from worshipping God. Jesus was seeking to reclaim a place and a service that were meant to serve God’s people and this work of recommitting a thing to God is something we have to be constantly willing to do as people of God.

We sometimes forget that the places in scripture were not just flat buildings with single rooms. The Temple is so monolithic in its presentation that we can forget people were using it every day. It was not some far off ideal, it was a place that people could go to and experience a unique encounter with God. In Jesus’s time the Temple was possibly at its most grand size and presentation. The building itself was ten stories tall and just shy of two football fields long. All around it was a massive courtyard that was itself part of a massive, raised platform. All around the outside of the courtyard were covered walkways where people set up administrative and commercial operations.

We do not have a complete catalogue of what was in these porticos, but I imagine they ran the gambit. Gift shops are not a new thing, so you could probably get souvenirs of the Temple and all kinds of other things. The most important stalls were the money changers and the animal sellers. The money changers would convert regional currency into one of several standardized currencies that people could spend in Jerusalem. The animals were sold specifically for sacrifices. It was not feasible for people to bring animals over many miles to offer as a sacrifice in the Temple, so they would bring money to buy the animal once they got to the Temple. It made perfect sense.

The problem is that these shops did not stay in the porticos. They spread out and grew, taking up more and more of the courtyard. The courtyard began to fill and inevitably there was less room in the courtyard for worshippers. In the week of Passover this place was going to be filled to the brim with people, and they were being pushed out for the money changers and the animal sellers to make money. Worse yet, the courtyard that was being encroached upon was the Gentile courtyard – this is where people who had found God outside of Judea were allowed to worship. People were coming to encounter God, and finding that money was more important than their presence. That is a lesson that needed to be refuted – one that Jesus took seriously.

We like to look at this story and see it as a gross abuse of excess. The opening of shops and the encroachment into worship space with them is an obvious evil, something we would never take part in. However, I think we all need to accept that we easily fall into traps where something created for good can become something that causes harm for other people. This can happen in the Church, in government, even in our own homes. If we are unable to review how they perform, what they actually convey to people when they encounter them, then we will inevitably drift into our own versions of the same sin.

If you go to most churches today, the first thing you will notice is how many signs they have up telling you what not to do. “Don’t park here!” “Don’t loiter!” “Don’t have any fun in our parking lot!” Signage that makes it clear, this is our space and you are not welcome in it. Many of them have gates up to keep people out of the nicer parts of the property. Gardens and awning that are locked away to make sure no one improper can use them. All of this for what? Appearances? Insurance liability? Perception by neighbors? None of it is for the Gospel that’s for sure.

If you get in the Church, then there are tons of obstacles to feeling at home. Inadequate signage means you have no idea where anything is. If you do not know about how the order of worship goes, you can easily be lost. Congregational responses that everyone knows through practice and experience can make it obvious you are not a usual guest. Small little things that quickly compound into an implied reality – this building is ours, and all those people who step into it and are aliens until they are completely assimilated.

As I said, these are all small things. Yet they add up to something much larger. There are bigger problems, more systemic in the Church and in the World. Yet, I’ll keep the scope small for now. When come together we do so in a space we have set up for worship. How do we make space to allow more people in, to meet God when they come to find him? For the people in the Temple, Jesus needed to throw over tables and swing a whip to get people to listen. I hope we do not need as much convincing to change our mindset.

Christ has opened his Church, his table, to all people. We must be conscious of how the things we do – even the good and necessary ones – can be twisted to be for us and by us. Let us repent of our shortsighted planning to keep the space for worshipping God wide open. – Amen