More Certain Than the Sun

Ben Franklin once said that, “the only certainties in life are death and taxes!” If we really think about it, there are very few certainties that we can count on. It is pretty much assumed that the sun will rise and the sun will set. This does not mean you can actually see the sun every day, because it could be covered by clouds, or obstructed from view, like in a forest. But we still see its light, and most days, feel its warmth. The sun is there; we can count on it.

The apostle Paul wrote his letter to the people in Rome who had come to believe in Jesus Christ. Though Paul himself had not yet traveled to Rome to establish a church there, he writes to them in what Luther calls “the purest gospel proclamation in all of the New Testament.” Chapter 8 from Romans is where we can hear the promise from God that is more certain than the sun rising, and because he gave His Son to claim those whom he has called through the gospel, it is even more certain than death, because Jesus has even overcome that “certainty.”

We are called and claimed through the gospel as God’s children, adopted … chosen to be a part of the royal family along with Jesus as the firstborn. Join us for worship this weekend as through the witness of St. Paul, we proclaim the certainty that nothing … absolutely nothing in all of creation (because God created ALL!) can separate us from the love of Christ Jesus! Amen.

The Spirit is Life

“To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”
Romans 8:6 (NRSV)

I want more life and peace – so why can’t I just set my mind on the Spirit? Daily I am pulled between “the things of the flesh” and “the things of the Spirit.” Or as St. Paul said in our reading from Romans 7 last week, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate… I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” (v. 15, 19)

If St. Paul struggled mightily, in his call to follow Jesus, what chance do I have? O Lord, what will end this struggle within me?

Would more maturity allow me to follow Christ more devotedly? That is, wait a few years and the struggle will be nonexistent? I don’t think so. I’m turning forty this year, so there’s no denying anymore that I am an actual adult. Although I have a little more self-control than the days of my youth, the struggle between the flesh and the mind is as real as it ever was.

Would more money free me from earthly cares and desires and help me follow him more single-mindedly? Pretty sure that would just cause me to struggle more between the spirit and flesh, so that’s a no. Would more free time allow me to achieve a Spirit-based mindset? Well, if how I use my free time now is any indicator, I’d probably find a way to squander that too. What about more sleep? Would that help me in this struggle? Real talk: as someone who has only had a handful of uninterrupted nights over the past ten years, I’m going to mark this one as a maybe.

No, the struggle isn’t ever going to end as long as I am in this body. In other words, the struggle will actually kill me. But here’s some amazing news: “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.” (Romans 8:11)

Christ dwells in me – that’s not something I have achieved, it’s the promise of my baptism. That knowledge leads me on through the struggle. Knowing that I’m surrounded on every side by the support of a Christian community, like the one we’re in together at First Lutheran, encourages me too. And we have the gift of the promised Spirit among us to “help us in our weakness” and daily forgive our sins in the name of Jesus Christ. Yes, the struggle is real, but God is greater!

See you in church,
Pastor Katherine

Roots and Fruits

“For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under the law but under grace” (Romans 6:14). This Sunday we explore what it means to live in Christ, without the possibility to sin.

Baptism into Christ is both a Christian’s greatest comfort and assurance, and the sinners' greatest fear. Therefore you are always caught in the middle between new and old, comfort and fear. On one hand, you have the promise of forgiveness and eternal life from Christ – but it’s only a promise. And on the other hand, you have yourself, your talents, your accomplishments and (most importantly) your heart. Which one rules you?

We all hope, in vain, that we can keep both. We imagine that baptism is just a washing off of some dirt that surrounds our life. But Romans 6 insists that it is far more. Baptism unites us with Christ, specifically it unites us with his death and life, and therefore baptism is both the beginning of our life in Christ and the end of our life in ourselves. It cannot be any other way. For all that you do, earn, or produce leads to death, and everything that Christ gives is life. “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

Death Un – Done

At the conclusion of this week’s focus on Chapter 6, in our summer series on the Book of Romans, St. Paul witnesses: “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23; RSV). A good deal of the first half of St. Paul’s letter is spent showing how Sin and Death go together. He wants us to understand that death is not simply a natural process, but a Power (cf. Ephesians 6:11) linked with Sin to deal destruction to our human race.

This is not a popular concept in our optimistic, positive-thinking America, but the great writers have understood it – especially the great prophetic playwrights of 20th century America. One such playwright was Tennessee Williams. Today, if you take a walking tour of the French Quarter in New Orleans, you’ll see the house on St. Peter Street where “Tennessee” wrote his most famous play – while living on the third floor. He’d been tinkering with various titles for it – making his final decision when he realized that the house he was living in was located between two streetcar lines. One streetcar went in one direction to Desire, the other went the opposite direction to Cemeteries. There it is: Sin (desire) and Death (cemeteries). The devices and desire of our own hearts’ imprison us in Sin, and “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23; cf. 7:24). And we all live in this house. So are we stuck here? … Is this our permanent address? …

 In Chapter 6 of Romans, St. Paul leaves behind the long descriptions of how we have fallen into the grip of Sin and launches into a kind of rhapsody about what happens to Christians when we are baptized.  

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death,
so that [and here comes the life-giving good news!] as Christ was raised from the dead
by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:3-4)

This coming weekend, think about your own baptism and the baptism of your children, and others whom you love (such as little Michael, Christian, and Carson who will be baptized into the life of Christ this weekend, among our family of faith at First Lutheran). Think also on this: all the things we find upsetting about ourselves, the habits we cannot seem to shake, the personality traits that get us in trouble, the secret obsessions and perversions that we struggle to hide even from ourselves – all of this has been put to death. Yes, as St. Paul and Martin Luther observe: the old Adam in us still weighs us down with sin; however, because we now live in Christ, the new Adam … sin and death no longer determine us (Romans 5:12-18; cf. I Corinthians 5:15). We are sinners, yes, but everything has changed because we are now justified sinners by God’s saving grace in Christ – who has overcome our Sin and Death by taking it upon himself.

In the biography, "Conversations with Tennessee Williams" by Albert Devlin, we learn that the house Williams finally owned and lived in on Toulouse Street was not his first choice. Rather, he had wanted to buy a large old Victorian on the corner of Orleans and Dauphine. The reason he wanted it was that the upper windows afforded a view of the statue of Christ behind the St. Louis Cathedral. Christ is lifting his hands in blessing, and at night the spotlights cast a shadow much larger than the statue itself, making the statue’s embrace seem universal. Tennessee said that it seemed to him as if Christ was comforting the suffering world and it gave him a sense of peace to look at it. Perhaps Tennessee had the Psalmist’s word of blessed assurance in mind, even in the valley of the shadow: “And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever” (Psalm 23:6b). Another sage author, with deep insight into our fallen, yet redeemed human condition in Christ’s resurrection, shares this amazing witness:

“Death be not proud, though some have called thee mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so …
Why swellest thou thee? One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.”
(John Donne; Holy Sonnets #10)

Bring your “swim-suits” this weekend…
We’ll be having baptisms at every worship service :) How perfect!

John Christopherson
Senior Pastor

Hope in the Face of Suffering

This Sunday, we'll begin a summer sermon series on the Book of Romans. Out of our selected scripture passage for Sunday, we will focus in on these famous words, written by the Apostle Paul:

"We also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us."

Yes, we'll reflect on what it means to live in this world as people of hope, even in the midst of suffering. We'll also reflect on how God alone, by the power of the Spirit, can lead us from a place of suffering into hopeful and joyful living.

We'll also keep coming back to this question: "How can we continue to live in this world as people of hope, even though many of our wishes may remain unfulfilled?"

I'll be honest; I still have a lot of work to do on my message for Sunday! For now, I will leave you with a prayer written by Henri Nouwen in his wonderful little book “With Open Hands.” In God's hands alone we place our reflections, questions, and prayers regarding suffering – for it is in God that we ultimately find rest for our aching and longing souls. 

Dear God,
I am full of wishes, 
full of desires,
full of expectations.
Some of them may be realized, many may not, but in the
midst of all my satisfactions and disappointments,
I hope in you.
I know that you will never leave me alone
and will fulfill your divine promises.
Even when it seems that things are not going my way,
I know that they are going your way
and in the end your way is the best way for me.
O Lord, strengthen my hope,
especially when my many wishes are not fulfilled.
Let me never forget that your name is Love.
Amen.

Amen, indeed. See you in church,
Pastor Katherine