“Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.  The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:31-36

“Jesus speaks to us today of truth. And of slavery to sin. And of his being our freedom as he both models and grants this unfathomable acceptance. And we know in our gut, don’t you think, as well as in our experience that truth sets us free? But first it has to be spoken, received, and embraced. Or so it seems to me. First we have to acknowledge our utter slavery to that which binds us up. And our need to be set free. And that we have nowhere to turn but to the only one who can bring this marvelous gift of freedom to us.

This is the wonder of Jesus’ words for us today and every day. It’s not up to me or you. You and I are to simply stand still in the unparalleled gift that as broken and hurting and yes, hurtful, too, as we are— Jesus came to set us free. We can’t do it. All we can do — all we have to do — is know our need and be grateful in the gift. All we have to do is cast aside the biggest lie of all: that we can do it all ourselves and that our value rests in that. It does not. And sometimes coming to that larger truth begins in simply speaking what truths we know here and now as best we can. Jesus says today that our freedom can only come from outside ourselves:  that we have to be ‘set free’ by him.  How do you see this coming to be?  How have you experienced this?” (The Rev. Dr. Janet H. Hunt, “On Truth and Freedom and the One Who Sets Us Free”, October 19, 2014, word.dancingwiththeword.com)

Thomas Merton, Catholic priest and mystic, a prolific writer wrote these words about society:

“We are living in the greatest revolution – a profound spiritual crisis of the whole world, manifested largely in cynicism, violence, conflict, and ambivalence…we do not know if we are building a fabulously wonderful world or destroying all that we ever had, all that we have achieved.”

I look around at the world and society that I live in, and I couldn’t agree more.  I see an explosion of technology meant to free us – and all that it does is enslave us more and more.  For example, no one looks at one another – no one is talking to one another – what I see are people who are slaves to their technology.  There is a commercial on television lately that is very telling.  The commercial is a camera panning down a city street.  And all along its path, it shows people all standing or sitting still, staring into their handheld devices (phones and music/video devices).  No one is looking at one another, no one is talking to one another.  I worry about my children and their friends and their ability to interact with one another.  In their world, if you want to ask someone out on a date, you send them a text or an email.  If you want to break up with them later on, you do the same.  I wonder what they say to one another when they actually stand face to face?

And at the root of that belief and that relationship is “faith alone” (sola fide) and “Scripture alone” (sola scriptura), and “Grace alone” (sola gratia). But that does not mean that we can go it alone.  Justification means that we are made right in God’s eyes only through “faith” that comes to us when we hear, read, and live out God’s “Word”.  That should not mean that we come to this congregation on Sunday to worship hoping that people will leave us alone.  As Lutherans, we historically have focused too much on the word “alone” and the word “grace”, and not enough on the words “faith” and “Scripture”.  In other words, instead of being comfortable with being “evangelists” and doing “evangelism”, we would rather have people leave us alone so we can live out our lives of faith.  That used to work enough to sustain a faith community – at least up until the 1990’s.  However, we no longer can think that just our presence (church building) in the community will attract people to our message and ministry.  I ask you, for the near future and beyond, to return to the five pillars of Lutheranism:  Word Alone, Christ Alone, Grace Alone, Faith Alone, and Christ’s love.  Allow God’s Word to compel you to live “In Christ”, to live in God’s “Grace”, to strengthen your “Faith”, to give you the courage to get involved and to share God’s love, not only when you feel it is right, but every day, in every way, with everyone you meet. 

Pastor Dave

“Do all things without murmuring and arguing so that you may be blameless and innocent.” Philippians 2:14, 15a 

“There are so many small things in the world today that capture our attention. Most of them don’t deserve the energy or focus we give them. How often do you find yourself with no time left to accomplish a pressing task, because your time was consumed by something unimportant? It happens, for example, at those times when we misplace an item and can’t recall where it might be. We may put aside everything else in order to search for what’s missing. Our inner agitation keeps us focused on the misplaced item; meanwhile the novel we should be writing, the walk we have been planning to take, the friend we want to call is put aside. Then, after searching diligently for what is lost, we feel incompetent and forgetful if the item is not found.

How often when we are faced with a situation like this do we argue and murmur under our breath about what we have done? Who has not said, “Oh, I am so stupid. Why did I do or not do that?” These murmurings may seem to come naturally, and may even seem unimportant in the big picture. Yet, they have the effect of pulling us away from our spiritual center. When we degrade ourselves, our soul gets scratched and raw. We may take great effort to spend time with positive rather than negative people, but it is equally important not to speak negativity about our own lives. Over time, the negativity we heap on ourselves for our imperfections keeps us from knowing our own wonder.

Valuable possessions will be misplaced. Tasks that are important will be left undone. Mistakes will be made. Failures will occur. The only murmuring that is needed is the soft murmur of God’s certain love.” (Cleophas Carter Jr., explorefaith.org, Signposts – Daily Devotions, “Silence the Murmur”)

I come from a long line of mumblers. When my wife and I were first dating, she told me she wondered if she was having difficulty with her hearing. What she learned is that I tended to mumble – and that tendency came from growing up in a family who liked to mumble. Now, hear me, we were a loving family – but instead of more confrontation, I just chose to make my complaints under my breath. And lately I have noticed that my daughter has learned the art of mumbling. I often hear her speaking, but I find myself turning to my wife to ask her “What did she say?” I suspect I am realizing how my parents felt all those years.

Often when we are mumbling, we are complaining about life, about relationships, complaining about the government, or murmuring about the church. Perhaps instead of murmuring about life, we should be murmuring to G-d in prayer, praise and thanksgiving. And, we should be sitting in silence more so we can hear the murmurs of G-d’s love and mercy and Grace in our hearts. That is the only mumbling we should accept: the mumbling of our prayers to G-d and the murmur of G-d’s still small voice.

Pastor Dave