"Faith, Created" Easter 4 April 29, 2007

(First, read the text for this sermon: John 10:22-30)

Why is it that some do not believe in Jesus the Christ?

That question was a matter of life and death for the community that produced the gospel of John, and it is behind the story we read this morning from John. The first part of chapter 10 provides context for this story. There, Jesus uses the imagery of himself as the good shepherd sent from the Father, and his followers as the sheep. And, as we read through chapter 10, we find that there is increasing tension between Jesus and his opponents.

This morning’s story takes place on Hanukah. (That’s the festival celebrating the Maccabean victories of 164 BC, and the dedication of the newly-consecrated temple). As the story begins, Jesus is strolling in a very public place: a public arcade outside the great Jerusalem temple. Here’s what we read: At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the [Jewish leaders] gathered around him and said to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly."

Here’s the thing about the Jewish leaders’ question: Jesus has told them who he is! Jesus answered, "I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep.

Spend a moment with that reply. Why don’t the Jewish leaders believe in Jesus as the Christ? It is because they “do not belong to [his] sheep.” Does that answer the question? Not really! But determining those who were among Jesus’ “sheep” and those outside the fold appears to have been very important for the community that produced the gospel of John. (This community also produced the three short letters of John near the end of the New Testament.) This community of Jesus people is called, “the community of the beloved disciple.” That’s the disciple Jesus especially loves, a favorite disciple, referred to several times in the gospel of John. Tradition has had it that this beloved disciple is the apostle John himself. But the best guess these days among Biblical scholars is that the beloved disciple is an unnamed follower of Jesus, who was the founder of this particular community of Jesus people in the late first century, and who has been “written into” the gospel.

This is a community worried about survival. Members are being persecuted by the leadership of the local synagogue. The Jesus people are a Jewish sect within the synagogue, struggling to understand their relationship to the synagogue. (All followers of Jesus, at this time, were Jews. Many of you know that. And so, in the gospel of John, whenever we encounter the phrase, “the Jews,” we should translate that, “the Jewish leaders.”)

Enough historical context. What might God be saying to us, through this story?

These days, in America, we’re much more comfortable than the community that produced the gospel of John and the letters of John. That’s good and bad, of course! With comfort comes lukewarm faith. Many, many people profess a “belief” in Jesus, but that appears to be only a head trip; because in their day-to-day decisions and actions, they live as if there is no God. Such folks live as atheists, in all practicality, despite what they say they “believe.”

So, for us, in our culture, pressing questions would be, “Why are there so many who have been baptized, but who haven’t been formed in the faith?” “Why are there so many, for instance, who equate Christianity with American foreign policy; or who see no disconnect between “believing” in Jesus and, at the same time, putting their primary effort into getting as rich as they can get?” “Why are there so many who say they believe in Christ, but who do not practice the faith?”

The Jewish leaders challenge Jesus: “If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered, "I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep.” Then Jesus says this: “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.”

This is a strange sort of self-proof, isn’t it? Jesus’ followers believe because they do! The Jewish leaders do not believe because they can’t!

We are into the mysticism of how God the Holy Spirit creates faith. Faith is created within us and among us.

I am presenting classic Lutheran teaching, of course. In the Small Catechism, as Luther explains the Third Article of the Creed, he writes that you and I cannot believe by our own volition or choosing; that it is all the doing of God the Holy Spirit. All you and I can do is to respond to the Spirit. Listen to what Luther writes: “I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but instead the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, made me holy and kept me in the true faith.”

Faith itself is created by God, as God opens us to God’s working as Holy Spirit. Can it get any more radically grace-filled than that?

For many, faith is only “belief” as a head trip. (It’s the same as when someone says, “I believe that a Toyota is a better car than a Honda.”)

But as God the Holy Spirit opens us, God forms us as people whose faith shows up in our daily lives. God forms us through practices of the faith, such as worship each week, and prayer each day, and prayer over a passage of Scripture each day. God forms us as we listen for how God is moving in our lives. (Often that requires the help of a spiritual director.)

Through these and other practices of faith, God produces the fruit of the Holy Spirit. What does that look like? Paul has several lists of specifics, in his letters in the New Testament. For example, to use one of Paul’s lists, in his letter to the Galatians, he writes, [T]he fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. As you and I live in those counter-cultural ways, God is able to use us as missionaries in the locations and situations in which God has placed us.

Pray for openness to God the Holy Spirit who creates faith, so that you will continue to be formed in the practices of the faith, producing the fruit of the Spirit that grows from that faith in Christ.

In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.


Pastor Andy Ballentine
Saint Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia

"Openness To God" Easter 3 April 22, 2007

(First, read the text for this sermon: Acts 9:1-20)

In our culture, if you’re not sure of yourself, it’s considered to be a weakness! For instance, can you imagine one of those running for president, when asked, say, about the best way to stabilize Social Security, to reply, “You know, I’m not sure about that. It’s a big problem, and there are so many good ideas of how to approach it, from across the political spectrum. I need to get together with some people who will help me understand the complexity of it.” How long do you think that person’s presidential candidacy would last?

But there is great danger in being sure of yourself! Someone who’s sure of himself can easily close himself off from others’ opinions and feelings when they don’t fit his set picture of reality. Someone who’s sure of herself can easily become judgmental towards others who think and feel differently. Someone who’s sure of himself can tend to look at the world in black and white terms, good and evil, those on our side and those who are our enemies.

To me, some of the scariest people of this sort are religious people who are sure about God, and about what God is doing in the world. At the extreme, such a person will equate God’s purposes with his own, and will even justify violence in the name of God.

In contrast to all of that is the witness of spiritual ancestors, and many spiritual guides today, who model a certain kind of prayer: a prayer, simply, for God to open me to what God is doing.

There is a humility in that, you see. There is a recognition that God is mystery. The Bible and the church’s tradition of teaching lead us to have ideas about God, and certain understandings about how God acts in love and judgment. That, of course, is necessary and good. But God is mystery, beyond any intellectual construct we can have of God. And so, our prayer is for openness to God, who may just be about bursting all of our assumptions!

That is the God who is presented in this morning’s story from Acts. It’s a story that’s familiar to many ( which is often a problem because it’s easy not to pay attention to a story that you’ve heard before). So read it with new eyes. Look at what’s happening here. We read quite a shocking story about the conversion of an enemy of God, because God has chosen that enemy to bring God’s name to those who haven’t heard it!

At the time of this story, of course, all followers of Jesus were Jews. But there were other Jews who thought the Jesus movement to be a destructive sect in Judaism, and that it would be God-pleasing to stamp it out. This has become the purpose in life for Saul (later to be re-named Paul). And so, as this morning’s story begins, Paul is on a search and destroy mission, entirely sure of himself, believing that he is pleasing God in his actions!

Look at what happens. Some kind of bright-light vision causes Saul to fall to the ground. He hears a voice: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Remember Jesus’ teaching: what we do to each other we do to him! )

Conversion is always something God does to us. Surely, conversion from self-centered surety to an openness to God’s purposes is a life-long journey of being led by the Holy Spirit. For some, the journey includes an encounter that is sudden and dramatic. That’s what happens with Saul, and notice how it confuses and frightens him and everyone around. What used to make sense doesn’t anymore. He is blind. What he used to be sure of is now in a shambles. He is helpless. Blind and helpless: that’s how Saul is about to enter the kingdom of God! It is all grace.

Here’s what we read: Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank. (“For three days”: do you get the reference?!)

Then we read this: Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias." He answered, "Here I am, Lord." The Lord said to him, "Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight."

Wait. Hold on! This is Saul! This is the enemy! How would you have felt, if you had been in Ananias’ position? Well, that’s the same way Ananias feels! [He] answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name." But that is when God drops this bombshell on Ananias: "Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name."

Imagine the courage, the foolish faithfulness that it took for Ananias to do what he does next. We read this: So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit." And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength. For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus.

Look at what’s going on here. Saul has lost all self-assurance. That’s an infallible sign that God is doing something in Saul’s suffering. But there is healing. There is receiving sight. There is receiving of the Holy Spirit. It is all openness, receiving. It is all grace. And this isn’t something that’s happening to Saul as a private matter, just “him and God.” Instead, Saul is immediately incorporated into the community of the Jesus movement. He is baptized. Saul’s conversion is happening within the faith community, which receives and supports Saul. That’s incredibly important to remember, counter to our culture’s teaching that religion should be individualized and privatized.

Even more important to notice is how shocking God’s actions are! This is the baptism of the enemy! Incomprehensibly, unfathomably, God has in fact chosen this enemy! Through baptism, Saul is made to be brother Saul!

Who could be open to a God who acted, and who continues to act, in this startling way? Only someone who approaches God with humble openness, rather than a self-centered, closed-off, judgmental surety.

This is where I’ve found myself, while working with this passage in the context of the mournful events of this past Monday morning at Virginia Tech. The more we have learned about the shooter, the more we have learned about his illness, his pain, his suffering. What he did was evil – horrific, unspeakable, unimaginable evil. But could it be that God loved him in his own suffering, this one who is the enemy, this one who is so vilified and despised? If only he would have been open to conversion, as God was working through teachers and mental health healers who were dealing with frightening warning signs of violence.

Perhaps you read the self-assured theological understanding of a local mother, reported by the Daily Press this past Wednesday. As the killer advanced, her son rolled himself up in a ball and covered his head with his arms. The killer fired. The bullet “only” wounded the boy in one of his arms. And his mother proclaimed to the newspaper reporter: “I want everyone to know” that God had protected her son.

But, good God! What are the implications of that self-assured theology? That God chose not to protect those who were killed? Or that God chose which ones would die? What a monstrous God that would be.

I have found myself praying this week, simply, for the openness to see what God has been doing, and is doing still. The prayer has led me into the sufferings of all involved: the killer; those who were killed and wounded and their families and friends; those who are campus pastors at Virginia Tech, and medical people and counselors, and the college administrators, and our Governor, and their suffering, as God uses them to bring compassion and healing.

There is God, in the suffering.

And where there are acts of compassion, there is Easter – because life overcomes death.

You and I are baptized into the community of people, of all times and all places, who are open to the promise that, through Jesus’ death and resurrection, life overcomes death; and that conversion, turning to God, is possible; and that God loves everyone who suffers, including even the one we define to be the enemy.

Pray for such humble openness in faith.

In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.


Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia

"What Is Killing You?" Easter Sunday April 8, 2007

(First, read the text for this sermon: Luke 23:54 – 24:12)

“Why do you seek the living among the dead?” That’s the question two mysterious men ask the women at the grave site of Jesus, in this morning’s story from Luke. The men who had followed Jesus are in hiding, huddled in fear. The women have remained faithful to Jesus. According to this gospel writer, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and…other women have come to Jesus’ tomb, to do the work that women did, when a loved one died. They have come to anoint Jesus’ body.

Think of what these women have been through. What shape do you think they’re in, emotionally, here on the first day of the week, at early dawn? By now, Jesus had been dead for two days. The women have not been able to tend to his body! According to this version of the story, a Jewish leader named Joseph, from a village named Arimathea, had taken Jesus’ body off the cross and laid it in a tomb, and he had done that hurriedly because the sun was going down and the sabbath was beginning. The women followed and they saw where the tomb was. But on the sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

Do you think it was an easy time of rest for them? You know how, when you’re feeling especially anxious, you like to keep as busy as you can? You know how, when you just sit around, your anxiety builds and builds? Then you know what shape the women are in, emotionally, as this morning’s story begins!

Oftentimes, in ancient Middle East burial gardens, the entrances to tombs were covered by large stones. The stones were inserted into slots, so they could be rolled aside. In the story we read this Easter morning, when the women approach the tomb, the sun barely up in the sky, they find that the stone has been rolled to the side! The tomb is open! And not only that: the tomb is empty! Jesus’ body is gone!

The gospel story teller describes the women as “perplexed” about all of this (which is the understatement of the ages). And it gets worse. [S]uddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” Or, as Eugene Peterson has the two men saying in his paraphrase of the story: “Why are you looking for the Living One in a cemetery?” As if: “Duh!”

But, of course, this is anything but expected. What’s expected, what’s assumed, is that death has won. The women, after all, had seen Jesus, dead, on the cross. They had seen Jesus, dead, put into the tomb. To all appearances, it is obvious that death has won.

* * *

What is killing you? What is death, in your life?

Is it literal: an illness you are fighting? Perhaps you are mourning over a loved one who has died? It could be the death of a relationship that’s causing you to struggle, mightily.

Or is it something more metaphorical? For instance, is it the burden of maintaining possessions that is killing you? Do you find yourself putting so much time and effort and worry into maintaining material things, that the anxiety kills joy?

A need to be in control all the time has a killing effect on some people. There is little joy when a person’s best effort and energy is spent trying to maintain order!

What has killed much joy in me over the years have been the expectations I lay on myself – for my own performance. What anxiety that causes! What fatigue and over-seriousness. In recent months, though, I have not been allowing those self-imposed expectations to kill me emotionally, since I nearly literally died this past fall! I’m much better able, now, to avoid worrying about the stupid little things that we spend so much time worrying about – that aren’t important!

The Easter gospel is that God intervenes into death, with life! The Easter gospel calls you and me to repent – that is, to turn away from what makes for death, and to turn towards God, who gives life! To use the baptismal imagery that we explored during these past Wednesday nights in Lent, the Easter gospel calls us to die to whatever it is that is killing us – so that you and I can live as the joyful, liberated, sparkling human beings that God created us to be! To live as Easter people!

* * *

Look at what happens with the women in this morning’s story from Luke. [The two mysterious] men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again." Now, here’s the important part: Then [the women] remembered [Jesus’] words. Here, God creates faith in them! The Easter gospel now becomes the motivating force for the women! It restores their joy and excitement! Then they remembered [Jesus’] words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.

In the story, the women die to their hopeless assumption that death has won, in what has happened to Jesus. And now, God is able to raise them up to life, as God created human life to be – Easter life, full of delight and grace, forgiveness and love!

And so it happens with us. First we follow on the way of the cross. We die to whatever it is that is killing us. God the Holy Spirit works within us, to turn us away from it. And then God raises us up out of that muck. And there is salvation!

In the Bible, salvation shows itself when peace ends war, when food follows famine, when health supplants sickness, when freedom trumps oppression.[1] In our lives, God reveals salvation when God breaks through what is killing us so that we rejoice to receive each day, because each day is a gift of God’s grace. How joyful it is to receive all we have – each day, each breath – as a gift from God! How that entirely re-orients our assumptions!

What Good News the Easter gospel brings to us! Death does not win! Christ is risen! Alleluia!

In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.


Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia

[1] Barbara Brown Taylor, Leaving Church (HarperSanFrancisco, 2006), page 226.

“Freed For Humble, Loving Servanthood” Maundy Thursday (April 5, 2007)

(First, read the text for this sermon: John 13:1-17, 31b-35)

In tonight’s worship we confess our sin. We hear words of God’s forgiveness. We feel hands on our heads, communicating God’s forgiveness in a physical way. We eat and drink God’s forgiveness in the Holy Communion meal. And we receive the example of Jesus – who demonstrates his lordship in humble, loving servanthood.

This is stuff of profound depth. In what we are doing tonight, God is inviting us into our deepest need, and God is offering us freedom for life that is joyous.

Here is the parable: life that is joyous is life marked by humble, loving service. It’s the joy of following Jesus the Christ: “For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.” Humble, loving service is what we’re commanded to do! “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

Can you command love? What mysticism there is, on this night.

In the account of the “Last Supper” in John, there is no narrative of the meal itself – of the words and actions that became our Holy Communion! Instead, there is a unique story (not in any of the other gospels) of a foot washing.

Think of how shocked the disciples would have been, when they experienced this: And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.

Shocked? Offended would have been more like it. Jesus was their “Teacher” (see verse 13) – and according to the custom of the day, the teacher sat as a master, his students or followers at his feet. The hierarchy was clear. And so, Peter’s reaction is entirely understandable: he protests! He declares that he will not take part in this! [Jesus] came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" Jesus answered, "You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand." Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet." Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no share with me." Still not understanding, Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!" But, you see, Peter is missing the point. As Eugene Peterson paraphrases Jesus’ response, “My concern is holiness, not hygiene.”

Jesus’ washing of his followers’ feet is a sacramental act – to present a model, to offer an example, inviting his followers into the love that is expressed in humility and servanthood. Humble, loving servanthood is the path of salvation.

I think of a story told about one of my heroes, a woman named Dorothy Day. (If I had been around when our building’s stained glass was being conceived, she’d be up there!) Dorothy Day founded the Catholic Worker movement, attracting people who wished to live in humble, loving servanthood in a radical way, establishing “Houses of Hospitality” in the worst neighborhoods of our inner cities. One day Dorothy was cleaning the toilets in the New York City House of Hospitality, when she was told that the bishop had just arrived and wished to speak with her. Dorothy replied that the work she was doing was too important to interrupt, and that the bishop would just have to wait. Cleaning toilets, you see, she was working as a humble servant to those who were poor and homeless and that took priority.

We hear words as from Jesus the Christ: “For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.” And, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

The first thing we did tonight was to speak words of repentance for our sin. We then felt hands laid upon our heads and we heard words of God’s forgiveness.

That liturgical enactment was not simply for our own sake, to make us feel all warm and fuzzy inside! Instead, God forgives you and me of our sin so that we can be free to live the life of repentance! You and I are freed to let go of our fear that we need to earn God’s love; we are freed to simply receive that grace. We are freed to let go of our self-centeredness (which often results in anger and resentment and envy); we are freed to relax into our love for others. We are freed to turn away from illusory promises of joy! We are freed to turn towards God, from whom comes true, deep and lasting joy.

All of that is made possible only through the death and resurrection of our Lord, Jesus, the Christ. Tonight, tomorrow night and Saturday night, in the drama of our worship, we enter into that death and we celebrate that resurrection of our Lord, Jesus, the Christ – who demonstrates his lordship in humble, loving servanthood! And we are then sent away from the empty tomb, freed for our ministry, with Jesus’ example as our model.

In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia