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Sermon
for the Week of August 29, 2010 |
SERMON
Genesis 2:18-25
Lord of Life Lutheran
John 15:9-17
Baxter, MN 56425
Rev. Darrell J. Pedersen
August 29, 2010
CHILDREN’S MESSAGE
Kids, I have a Life Saver candy to give to each of you. My father
used to always carry Life Savers in his pocket. Whenever he saw
little kids, he would give them one. He also gave them to adults
sometimes. Dad loved kids and people and just wanted to let them
know that they were special.
Our Father God is like that too. God loves kids and adults and
everyone. God may not carry Life Savers in his pockets, but God
does carry love in his pockets. God, just like my dad, wants to
share that love with everyone.
Kids, I’d like to share a Life Saver with everyone here
today. It would take me way too long to do that by myself.
Would you be willing to help me pass along some sweet treats so that
every person gets one?
Wait, do you think that God maybe would like us to help God pass along
some of God’s love to other people too? Yes!
That’s God’s plan for us – to help God to pass along
love to every person. First, let’s do the Life
Savers. Then, later and again tomorrow, let’s do what we
can to help God pass along some love. Amen.
ADULT MESSAGE
Have you seen the movie “Patch Adams?” A friend
mentioned this movie to me last week. It is based on a true story
about a young man who committed himself into a mental institution due
to possible suicidal thoughts. He felt hopeless until he
discovered that he had the ability to help his fellow patients.
Long story short, he enrolls in medical school and while there focuses
not just on treating diseases, but on caring for the whole
person. He bucked the system and eventually started a free clinic
with the help of some of his friends from med. school. He fell in
love with one of his female colleagues and she helped him at the
clinic. However, total disaster soon struck. One of the
emotionally troubled people that Patch let help-out around the clinic
killed his beloved. Patch Adams was overwhelmed with loss, grief,
anger and guilt. His dream was broken. Please watch this
little snip of film to see what happens next.
(Movie Clip – Patch standing on edge of cliff and questioning
God.)
Patch asks, “Where are you God? What kind of a God are
you?” The friend who gave me this film has been through his
own emotional struggles. Maybe he saw himself in this
movie. My friend will help anybody. Money doesn’t
matter much to him. Despite his personal struggles and the fact
that some people have taken advantage of him, he is so thankful for
God, for God’s creation and for the people God has made.
Did you see the butterfly that landed on Patch Adams? My friend
watches for monarch butterflies too. He counts those butterfly
sightings as a reminder of God’s faithful and loving presence in
his life.
So many people have never known Jesus. So many others have long
ago stopped believing that there is a God who cares. I attended a
writing class in Minneapolis this past week. It was a class where
you read aloud excerpts from your memoir/life story. Among my
class mates were the following people. One was:
- dealing with her husband’s stroke,
- grieving the death of both of her parents
when she was a teen,
- a divorced, out of work realtor,
- pursuing information on his brother who
is MIA in Vietnam,
- has been fighting an eating disorder for
40 years,
- is a gay man, who left the priesthood to
have a relationship and has returned under the promise of
celibacy,
- was a former priest, who left in order to
marry a woman,
- grieving the death of her three year old
who had been born with multiple sclerosis,
And then there was me with my simple, happy little story. A
couple of them were Jews, some were Roman Catholics, there was a
Unitarian, and some Lutherans. Many of them don’t believe
in God at all. “Where are you God – in our
struggles? What kind of a God are you anyway? Do you
care?”
God’s answer begins in the first chapters of the Bible. In
Genesis 2 God creates the first people to be in a helper/partner
relationship. It comes about like this.
1st – God gives himself as the greatest helper/partner for
us.
2nd – We are invited to be helper/partners for God.
3rd – We are invited to be helper/partners for our spouse
and family.
4th – We are invited to be helper/partners for our
community.
5th – We are invited to be helper/partners for the whole
creation.
And good news – spouse, family, community and creation are
invited to be helper/partners for us too! God is there for us no
matter what! Can this faith community at Lord of Life also be
there as a helper/partner for you? Can we be helpers/partners for
each other? A little butterfly flew up in front of me as I stepped foot
out of my car to come in and finish typing my sermon here yesterday
afternoon. Did that mean anything about God’s presence
here? Our church logo is a butterfly reminding us that Jesus rose
from the dead to give us new life in God.
You may have heard about the Impact Brainerd House Repair Mission that
fifteen of our high school youth did a couple of weeks ago. As
they concluded that time, they had a powerful prayer experience
together and then asked Pastor Erika if they could share it with the
rest of the congregation during worship. When they invited people
to step into the aisle for special prayers during worship this past
Sunday, Warren Benedict, who has long been suffering from
Parkinson’s disease, heard the call. Warren’s illness
has been getting much worse. He is pursuing a special surgery
that might be able to help drive the disease back. Warren said
the Holy Spirit literally moved his legs into that aisle. When
the teens put their hands on his shoulders and prayed, he felt filled
and lifted by that same Spirit. On Friday morning, at Men’s
Breakfast, Warren told his story and then said that the dozen or so
guys there were his “blockers” as he runs toward the
goal. He said he can’t run very fast. I believe
twelve guys are running with him.
I was looking for some help from those Impact Brainerd kids too.
I stepped into the aisle at Wednesday worship to receive their
prayers. I had heard Pastor Erika’s prayer petition about
us trying to be the hands and feet of Jesus. I had just returned
that day from two wonderful weeks of vacation and writing class.
I was coming back to trying to do ministry in a depressed economy, with
short staff, deficit spending and knowing that more and more people are
suffering and in need of help. I needed to be lifted too. I
needed blockers too. I needed the assurance of God’s
presence too. Those kids’ prayers worked for me too.
Psalm 100 tells us that we were created by God, belong to God, and that
God’s steadfast love preserves us. God promises to grant us
love, hope and peace as we seek to follow the butterfly, life-giving
signs of God in our own lives. I can get impatient, but God
won’t. I can become hopeless, but God won’t. I
can throw in the towel, but God won’t. God has been lovingly
pursuing people for thousands of years. God won’t stop
pursuing us until the last day. In our second lesson, (1 John
4:7-12) John tells us, “God’s love was revealed among us in
this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might
live through him.” John goes on to say, “… if
we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in
us.” That’s where God is. That’s what
kind of a God we have – a self-giving, loving God.
Jesus himself counsels that we need to “abide” in
God’s love. Jesus invites us to live, to build our home and
our relationships in God’s love. “I have said these
things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may
be complete.” That’s were God is. That’s
what kind of a God we have – a joyful, joy-giving God who
literally dwells within each of us. God’s creation plan to
this very day is for all people to live in relationships of joy –
from our family, to our faith family to even all of humanity!
That’s crazy! That’s God’s kind of crazy
– love and joy even in a chaotic, limping, doubting world.
Is Lord of Life a helper/partner kind of place? Are you a
helper/partner kind of a person? What hopeful, helpful word do we
have to share with each other and with all of those folks out
there?
- Its not religion – its hope!
- Its not poetic words – its help!
- Its not moral teaching – its self-giving love!
- Its not even us – its Jesus for and in and through
us!
We are the lovers of God and of each other. We are the Good News
bearers. We are the rescue squad for the ones who do not know or
who have given up on God. God knows them. God has not given
up on them. God moves in us right now, right here, out there, for
them!
We have 49 kids who could be coming to our Third Grade Bible Class this
fall. Fifteen teens lifted a house, a family and me. Twelve
Men’s Breakfast guys are blocking for Warren Benedict. One
little child, Avery Elizabeth Coonfield, is baptized/adopted into
God’s faith family today. And you are here
too… She is your sister… We are your
family…
Anne Lamott (Traveling Mercies, Pantheon, page 55) tells of a seven
year old girl who finds herself lost in her big city, home town.
She runs up and down several streets but nothing looks familiar.
Eventually a policeman comes to her rescue and loads her into his squad
car to help look for her home. Finally they drive past the little
girl’s church. It is then that she tells the officer,
“You can let me out now. This is my church and I can always
find my way home from here.” Anne Lamott concludes,
“And that is why I have stayed close to (my church) –
because no matter how bad I am feeling, how lost or lonely or
frightened, when I see the faces of the people at my church, and hear
their tawny voices, I can always find my way home.”
According to the movie, Patch Adams went on to do a whole lot of good
in his free clinic. Lots of others have since joined his
work. That’s where God is. That’s the
kind of God that we have. God is our helper/partner for life and
forever. Hang onto that promise and live like its true. So
many haven’t heard, don’t believe, need Jesus, need us,
need you. Amen.
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