Tag Archives: Jesus

Pastor Thoughts, Theology & Culture

Only half way getting it with Jesus – Pastor Thouhts for Lent

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Our Lenten journey has taken us from the wilderness where God waited for God’s people for 40 days. And when we didn’t go out, God came to find us. 

The next stop of Lent is the hustle and bustle of Greek Caesarea Philippi. A busy tourist stop where Jesus gathers his disciples to teach about what the Messiah must endure. Just before Jesus has asked them who people say that he is and who they say he is. Peter declared that Jesus was the Messiah. 

Then moments later Peter seems to forget and scold Jesus for talking about the Messiah dying. 

It seems that Peter only kind of got it, he only halfway saw just who Jesus was. 

Only kind of seeing or only halfway understanding feels normal these days. All the chaos surrounding us feels like struggle and hardship swirling around. We try to make sense of our world, of the division, conflict and struggle that permeates our lives. Picking Jesus out of the storm can feel like a futile endeavour. 

Living our faith can seem like a mystery that we just don’t have the time to unpack or another burden added to our ever-growing list of burdens. How are we supposed to take up our crosses and follow Jesus if, like Peter, we only halfway understand who Jesus is and what Jesus is doing?

I think that is kind of the point. Jesus’ invitation to take up the cross is about accepting that the burdens and struggles are part of walking the path of faithfulness. But also a reminder that in the end, Jesus is the one who carries and then climbs up on the cross. 

Living a life of faith isn’t necessarily about perfectly understanding what God is up to in the world or what God is calling us to. But taking up the cross is practicing faithfulness amid the storms and chaos, understanding that hardship and struggle are part of the journey. 

And that ultimately, Jesus is going to be the one doing the Messiah’s work – the work of faith. We are the ones being worked on. 

Pastor Thoughts, Theology & Culture

Filling in Mark’s wilderness gaps – Pastor Thoughts for Lent

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Each Lenten season takes its own shape and form, at least in my experience. Whether it is things going on in the world, things happening locally in the congregation, things happening in our personal lives or simply the fact of getting older, each year Lent has a different slant to it. Who can forget the Lenten season of 2020, during which we learned just how quickly the world and the church can adapt to change?

In addition to things happening in the real world, the variety of Lenten stories we hear in the yearly lectionary cycle also adds character to the season. 

Lent always begins with the story of Jesus facing temptation in the wilderness.  This year, in the year of Mark, we hear the shortest version of Jesus’ temptation. So short in fact, that the baptism story is tacked on before, just to give the text some length. Matthew and Luke provide extended narratives between Jesus and Satan or the Devil, describing three different temptations faced by Jesus. 

But Mark simply tells us that Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 days, to be tempted by Satan, with the wild beasts and waited on by angels. 

Mark’s version of the story is brief and to the point… at least on first reading. But when you slow down to hear and consider the picture that Mark paints with an economy of words, our imaginations are left to fill in the vast empty spaces. How did Satan tempt Jesus? Who or what are the wild beasts? What was Jesus doing for 40 days? What does it mean to be waited on by angels?

As we come back to the journey of Lent year after year and take the time to reflect on our own journeys—as a society, as a church community, as families and as individuals—the differences can be striking. Some years we get the struggle described in vivid narrative, as Matthew and Luke tell it. But other years we get Mark—a few details that evoke a lot of questions. 

This year may very well be a year for a Markan Lent. We know that we are in the wilderness and we know that the journey ahead is long. But it is hard to identify who or what the wild beasts are. We don’t know what the tempter is up to. The wilderness is hazy and unclear. We are left to fill in the gaps with our imaginations. 

And somewhere in all of that, God has sent angels to wait on us. We cannot always perceive them, but we know that somehow the mercy and grace of God come to us just the same. 

Pastor Thoughts, Theology & Culture

Making decisions above my pay grade – Pastor Thought

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In 15 years of serving as a pastor, I have remained a mostly “by the book” person. That is to say, when it comes to worship and liturgy, I tend to stick to the orders, texts and traditions of the church. It is not that I am unwilling to try new or different ideas,  nor is it the case that I feel compelled to follow the rubrics (stage notes in our hymnals) as if they were written in stone. However, I find the structure and careful attention of our established liturgies to be the most compelling means of proclaiming the Gospel in the worshipping assembly. Or to put it another way, you would need to convince and show me how our liturgical worship practices are not the best for saying the important stuff about God for me to change a lot of stuff. 

So this Sunday, as we observe Christ the King Sunday at Sherwood Park, there is a small part of me that is uneasy. The reason for that is that we are technically a week early! … Gasp!

This year, the 4th Sunday in Advent falls on the morning of December 24th. As you all well know, there are evening services that are pretty important to a lot of folks that day as well. 

So rather than packing Christmas full of services from morning to night, we are leaving the Sunday morning of December 24thopen and moving all of Advent forward one week, as well as moving Christ the King Sunday. 

And yes, it was my idea. Even if changing the liturgical calendar feels beyond my pay grade.

In some sense, Christ the King Sunday is a strong reminder that so much of our life of faith is not up to us – beyond our pay grade, so to speak. It can be easy to reduce faithfulness to things like following the rules, being a good person or earning our salvation. 

But as we hear the readings for Christ the King Sunday, which paint a picture of God’s intention to restore and reconcile ALL creation into something new, we can begin to see that, as individuals, we are just small pieces in the great unfolding of God’s divine work.

As creation hurdles towards God’s future, we as the Church bear witness to something that extends far beyond our personal and individual faithfulness. We are witnesses to the work of God taking place all around us, to God’s transformation of all things into the reconciled and recreated beings that we were meant to be. 

So while we move Christ the King Sunday forward by a week, we do so knowing that while we can shift the calendar around here or there, it is God who is moving all creation into a new future that we have yet to see fully. 

Pastor Thoughts, Theology & Culture

I don’t know what to think about Israel and Palestine – Pastor Thoughts

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I am sure many of us have been paying attention to the news this week with heavy hearts and uncertainty about what to think. 

As news of the attacks by Hamas on Israeli citizens⎯rockets, soldiers, kidnappings and murders⎯it felt like yet another setback in an already shaky and unstable world.

Reports of the violence and tragedies have been dominating the news headlines. They were hard to hear and see. Yet, people started taking sides as soon as images, reports and videos of the violence were released. 

The safety and security of Israel, and the horrific acts of Hamas are claimed to be justification for Israel’s response in kind. The occupation and blockade of the Gaza Strip are claimed to be the cause of Hamas’s actions. While there is truth in each claim, neither are those claims the whole story of this complicated situation. 

I cannot help but think of that childhood refrain, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”

I also cannot help but think of the story of Noah’s flood. A story baked into the DNA of people of the book – Judaism, Christianity and Islam. A story rooted in the decision of God to blot out the wickedness in all the earth. Because of the wickedness of humankind (after God had done the work of creation only four chapters prior in Genesis), God decides to wipe out all of creation. 

God determines to wipe out the wickedness of humankind with an even greater act of violence by drowning all creation in a flood, save a few righteous families and animals. God erases one wickedness with an even greater wickedness. God responds to the corruption and violence of humankind with even greater⎯though righteous⎯violence. 

Significantly, as God gives Noah and his family meat to eat after the flood (Genesis 9), God adds the caveat that the blood must be properly drained from the animals – a reference to Kosher or Halal food preparation. The implication being that a part of humanity’s pre-flood wickedness was the improper worship of God and failure to keep the purity laws. These issues persisted throughout the Old and New Testament, and remained issues at play between Jews, Muslims and Christians throughout history to today.

This cycle of responding to violence with greater and righteous violence has been a part of the human story for 3,500 years. Versions of the flood story are not only told in the Torah, Old Testament and Qu’ran but in many of the mythologies of the Ancient Near East like the Gilgamesh Epic and Atrahasis Epic. It is part of the DNA of humanity and it is part of the cycle of history of that part of the world. 

Violent acts committed by the righteous in the name of blotting out the wicked and unfaithful are condoned by God… at least that is the rationale. 

Of course, the point of the flood story is that God realizes God’s mistake. God realizes that responding to wickedness with greater wickedness, to violence with greater violence, doesn’t solve anything. 

Instead, it takes the remainder of the Old Testament and the beginning of the Gospels to see what that rainbow covenant truly means. God’s promise never to flood the earth again is realized in the Christ who finally answers humanity’s death-dealing ways with Resurrection and New Life. 

In response to news headlines that we are seeing and hearing, let us pray for Peace and Reconciliation. We pray for Resurrection and New Life to take hold among us now.

A Prayer for Peace Among the Nations:
Gracious God, grant peace among nations. Cleanse from our own hearts the seeds of strife: greed and envy, harsh misunderstandings and ill will, fear and desire for revenge. Make us quick to welcome ventures in cooperation among the peoples of the world, so that there may be woven the fabric of a common good too strong to be torn by the evil hands of war. In the time of opportunity, make us be diligent; and in the time of peril, let not our courage fail; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
(ELW Occasional Services for the Assembly)

Sermon, Theology & Culture

Choosing paths with Jesus – A Sermon for the 6th Sunday in Easter

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GOSPEL: John 14:1-14
Jesus said to the disciples:] 1“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4And you know the way to the place where I am going.” 5Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me…

*Note: Sermons are posted in the manuscript draft that they were preached in, and may contain typos or other errors that were resolved in my delivery. See the Sherwood Park Lutheran Facebook Page for video

“How can we know the way?”

This is the question that is asked of Jesus this week in the gospel lesson. 

We have arrived at the 5th Sunday of Easter. After 3 weeks of resurrection stories, and then a week to uplift Jesus as our Good Shepherd, we now start to head away from Easter Sunday and orient ourselves towards Pentecost. Towards that moment when the rag tag group of Jesus’ followers are driven by the Holy Spirit out into the public square. There they become the visible community and body of Christ in the world. But before we get there, this aimless group of disciples needs to figure out what it means for them to become the Body of Christ – without Jesus leading the way as he had done for the 3 years prior. 

So we go back a bit in the Gospel of John. We hear a conversation between Jesus and the disciples that is taking place around a table. The table of the last supper on Maundy Thursday where Jesus is giving final instructions for the community he intends his followers to become – even though they still have not fully realized that within hours Jesus will be arrested, on trial and nailed to a cross. 

In a passage that is the most common gospel reading heard at funerals, Jesus promises that there is a place for his followers in his Father’s house. Thomas, ever rationalizing may be sensing something ominous behind what should be a promise of welcome and belonging.  Thomas interjects, 

“Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

How can we know the way?

Then Philip, speak out loud the anxiety of all of Jesus followers. He wants Jesus to just show them the father. Thomas and Philip want to know the way, the destination. They want the roadmap, they want to be able to get there themselves. If Jesus can provide the directions and a destination, maybe the journey won’t feel so scary to imagine. 

It is a feeling we share. We all much prefer knowing the directions, having a map, knowing the destination… whether it is a literal trip or journey, or whether it is the journey of life choices and experiences. We want to know where we are headed and how we will get there. Whether its finding a job or vocation, settling down and starting a family, choosing a place to live. Whether it is making sure that the church community we love continues on, or that the Jets don’t leave town again, or if we can let ourselves start worrying less about a 3 year old pandemic and on and on. We are full of wonderings and questions about our futures, our destinations and the paths we will take to arrive at them.  

When I was little, maybe four or five, my mother took me to the University of Alberta (UofA) for “an appointment.” We met a kind woman there who took my mother, sister and I on what felt like a long walk through the UofA campus. At one point, she just stopped and looked at me and asked, “Erik, do you think you can find your way back to the office?”

So I started leading our little posse back to the office where we had first met this nice woman. I know that I made a few wrong turns along the way, but I eventually figured out our way back to the office. All along the way, I remember the woman asking me questions about why I had chosen the path I was taking, landmarks I was using, my sense of direction etc…

Years later when I recalled the experience to my mother, she told me that I was part of a study about direction sense in children. There were three groups. The first group was told they were going for a walk and would need to find their way back. They’re also given help and hints as they led their way back. The second group was told about the walk and the need to navigate their way back, but were given no help once they started to lead the way. The third group – the group I was  in – were not given any notice about the task and given no help finding our way back. 

If on the various journeys we take in life we had the option of getting clear instructions and then help navigating where we were going, or at the very least, the knowledge that we were going to have to find our way to our destination, we always choose to be in group one or group two. We wish that the path to find our way through ministry as a church, and in life in general, had a kind researcher reminding us to make note of landmarks as we travel, and gently correcting us when we make a wrong turn. 

Yet, we know that life after a certain point the parental figures, teachers, guides and coaches have to let us figure it out ourselves. And all of sudden we are in that 3rd group where we do not even know that we are getting lost and then someone turns to us and says, “Do you think you can find your way back from here?”

When you are navigating blind, you don’t really know if you have taken the right path or made the right choices until you get to where you are going. Providing a map or turn by turn directions or a guide we can hold onto, is not what Jesus is about. Instead, Jesus has a very different idea of what it means to navigate our way down life’s paths and what it means for us to know the way. 

“How can we know the way?”

As Thomas and Philip press Jesus for more than a promise that there is a place where they belong, they are casting about for something that they can do, something they feel like they have some agency. But they have also missed tthat Jesus has shown them everything they need. 

Jesus promises them a place in his Father’s house. Jesus reminds them that he is the way. Because they know Jesus, they have seen the Father. 

Because they know Jesus, they can make the journey. 

Because they know Jesus, they belong already to the Kingdom of God. 

The dimples want roadmaps and directions, they want the certainty that the destination is a good place to end up. But that is about their own fears and anxieties, those are just means for their own control.

Jesus provides community. 


It isn’t just that there is one room, or one place at the table. It is that there is a whole community of faithful disciples who are now part of God’s house. There is a whole table of siblings in Christ who are on the pathways with us. Knowing the way isn’t so important as is knowing that we are not going alone, we have the people who are walking with us, to rely one, to support one another, to care for each other. 

Jesus gives us himself. 

It isn’t just that Jesus is a teacher and friend. Jesus is the one whom brings God close and near. Jesus reveals the Father to us. Jesus show us God: God’s face and voice, God’s flesh and image. Because the disciples know Jesus, they know God. And God knows them, in the flesh, face to face. 

Jesus is the way. 

As we struggle like the disciples to know where we are going, to know what is going to happen to us, what we should do as people living our lives of faith, Jesus reminds us that he is the place, the One, to whom we are going. Faith isn’t a task or job or set of instructions to follow. Faith is relationship with God who promises us new life. In a world that always ends with sin and death, Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. 

And in Jesus the way, we are transformed. God declares that we belong no matter where we are. God goes with us no matter what path we walk.

So like those disciples who were trying to figure out what it meant for them to become the visible Body of Christ in the world, Jesus reminds us that the destinations or pathways that we imagine might not be the point. Instead knowing the way is about God who promises a place to belong, room in God’s house. 

Hear again the reminder from 1st Peter”

 9But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

 10Once you were not a people,

  but now you are God’s people;

 once you had not received mercy,

  but now you have received mercy.