January 30, 2017
Peace of Bautzen

“The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.” John 14:26-31

Henry II
Holy Roman Emperor

On this date, January 30, 1018, the Holy Roman Empire and Poland conclude the Peace of Bautzen. Bautzen was a hill-top town in eastern Saxony, Germany. Polans was a West Slavic tribe. The Peace agreement between the Holy Roman Emperor Henry II and Bolesław I, duke of the Polans brought to an end a series of Polish-German wars over the control of Lusatia and Upper Lusatia as well as Bohemia, Moravia, and Slovakia. The contemporary German chronicler Thietmar, who was generally ill disposed towards Poles, commented on the peace with the words “non ut decuit sed sicut fieri potuit”, meaning “not as it should have been but as was possible in the circumstances”.

Peace is often elusive. For many people in our world, peace is just a pipe dream. Peace should be neither – elusive nor just a pipe dream. One of the purposes of the Christian church is for disciples and followers to be messengers of peace. It was for this and other purposes that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit – so that as people of G-d, we would move into the world, emboldened with the Spirit, to be messengers and teachers of peace, love and the Grace of Christ. This is also why we cannot just sit back and do nothing when evil is unleashed into the world – by people, by events, by governments.

We often say that Jesus gives us the “Peace that surpasses all understanding”. If we believe that Jesus does, and we have had a glimpse of that peace, then let us go forward and share the Peace of Christ – not just on Sunday morning, but every day.

Pastor Dave

January 29, 2017
Epiphany 4A

“When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew 5:1-12

“When I hear the Beatitudes, it’s hard for me not to hear Jesus as stating the terms under which I might be blessed. For instance, when I hear “Blessed are the pure in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” I tend to think, “Am I pure enough in spirit?” or “I should try to be more pure in spirit.” Or, when I hear “blessed are the peacemakers…,” I think, “Yes, I really should be more committed to making peace.” At least with “blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted,” I have the assurance of knowing that on those occasions when I am mourning I will be comforted. But, to be perfectly honest — and if you’ll pardon the pun — that’s relatively small comfort because the truth is I don’t want to mourn, and hearing this beatitude doesn’t make me any more eager for additional mourning. (Ditto for being persecuted!)

Maybe this predilection is peculiar to me, but I don’t think so. I’ve heard too many Christians — whether in the pulpit or pew — complain about the Beatitudes over the years not to suspect there’s something going on here. Reading them again this week, I began to wonder whether our difficulty with the Beatitudes isn’t symptomatic of a larger problem most of us have; namely, that we are far less eager to be blessed than God is to bless us. Or maybe “eager” isn’t quite the right word. Maybe it’s more that we have a hard time believing God wants to bless us in the first place. It may be that our picture of God is distorted, that we can only imagine God as a stern, demanding law-giver, and so it seems out of character for God to bless without requirement. This isn’t the primary picture of God in the Bible, but it may be the one that we were taught and have a hard time letting go.

Or maybe it’s not that we don’t know God well enough to recognize God’s grace, maybe it’s that we know ourselves too well to feel worthy of that grace. After all, we are intimately familiar with our faults and limitations, our insecurities and failures. And knowing ourselves this well — and knowing that God knows us even better! — we may find it hard to believe God loves us unconditionally. Very little of anything in our world is unconditional. We’re used to paying for our mistakes, paving our own way, toeing the line and reaping the consequences when we don’t, and so it may not only be unexpected, but downright unsettling and nearly inconceivable to imagine that God behaves differently, showering us with blessing apart from anything we have done, earned, or deserve.

But let’s be clear — or at least pay attention to the fact that Matthew is quite clear — Jesus isn’t set up conditions or terms but rather is just plain blessing people. All kinds of people. All kinds of down-and-out, extremely vulnerable, and at the bottom of the ladder people. Why? To proclaim that God regularly shows up in mercy and blessing just where you least expect God to be — with the poor rather than the rich, those who are mourning rather than celebrating, the meek and the peacemakers rather than the strong and victorious. This is not where citizens of the ancient world look for God and, quite frankly, it’s not where citizens of our own world do either. If God shows up here, Jesus is saying, blessing the weak and the vulnerable, then God will be everywhere, showering all creation and its inhabitants with blessing.” (David Lose, working preacher website, God Bless You, January 23, 2011)

In Thornton Wilder’s play “Our Town”, Simon Stimson, the town drunk appears and speaks from the dead – this is what he says about his human existence: “…That’s what it was to be alive. To move about in a cloud of ignorance; To spend and waste time as though you had a million years.”

My friends, each and every day that we wake from sleep is a day where we need to remember we do not have a million years to live. The truth is, we have no idea how many, or how few days we will be blessed with on this earth. But each day is another blessing from G-d – another way we are blessed by G-d for no other reason than it is G-d’s desire to bless us. And as such, we receive another day to be in relationship with Jesus, and to be in relationship with each other. Today I want you to lift up the countless blessings G-d has blessed each one of us with in this life:

We are blessed with family, church family, friends, and loved ones.

We are blessed with air to breathe and food to eat and the opportunity to worship, pray, sing, and share the peace of the Lord.

We are blessed with the sacraments, the meal and the bath, where Jesus is incarnated with us.
Finally we are blessed to keep on living – maintaining the faith we learned from our loved ones, teaching the faith, living the faith – for however many days we will be blessed to share our blessings.

Pastor Dave