Rev. Reed Lee Pedersen's
My lovely wife turned me on to a song by Lauren Daigle called, “Salt and Light”. This song calls back to Matthew 5:13-16: Salt and Light These words from Jesus are pointed towards his disciples, but as we read this text we can also insert ourselves into the picture. He tells the believers of Christ they are the true salt of the earth. By calling us salt of the earth he lets us know that we are the representation of graciousness and goodness for the world. By calling us the light of the world he lets us know that we are to be seen. We are supposed to eliminate the darkness of this world by shining the light of graciousness, goodness, and love to the whole world. Do you think the last two paragraphs reflect the Christian church today? Can you say that the people of Christianity are the salt of the earth and the light of the world? I believe I can comfortably say that the people of Christianity do not always live up to Jesus’ words. How do we, the followers of Jesus, become more salty and shine brighter? Lauren Daigle helps us out through her song. Here is her refrain: For You are salt and light Jesus is the saltiness. Jesus is the brightness. If salt has lost its taste then it has lost its whole purpose. Salt, like any seasoning, has a single purpose of bringing more flavor to something. When Jesus tells his followers to not lose their saltiness he is telling them to look to him for direction and strength. If Christians fall away from Jesus and his purpose to bring salvation, graciousness, goodness, and love to the world, then they lose their saltiness. So the seasoning (purpose) we have in this world is to let the flavor of God’s love be known and shared. We are only true representatives of graciousness and goodness when we represent Jesus instead of ourselves. As for light, we find a similar theme. This Sunday we get the Transfiguration text in which Jesus shines bright (Luke 9:28-36) and God’s light makes Moses’ face glow (Exodus 34:29-35). Jesus also calls himself the ‘Light of the world’ (John 8:12). The light we are shining is Jesus. He is the source of our brightness. As we work to share his love to the world instead of hiding that light under a bushel basket, people will be able to see the work of God shining through us. Lauren Daigle finishes the song with these words: Let my eyes see Your kingdom shine all around Representing Jesus and shining the light of Jesus are one in the same. This is done by letting people know about the love of Jesus. It seems to be done even greater when it is shown through action. When we help those in need we represent Jesus. When we support ministries and charities trying to make a difference for the betterment of our world we shine the light of Jesus. By tasting and seeing the love of Jesus, which is done when our lives reflect who God is to others, Jesus promises that witnesses to this salt and light will come to give glory to our Father in heaven.
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This week’s rambling is an adaption from my sermon last Sunday based on Luke’s version of Jesus’ Beatitudes (Luke 6:17-26). Jesus Teaches and Heals Lord Acton was a 19th century British historian who famously penned, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” This phrase helps us think about the intentions of those in power. I bring this up because just before the blessings and woes people are attempting to latch onto Jesus because “power came out of him and healed all of them.” This can bring light into Jesus’ following words commonly known as ‘The Beatitudes’. Perhaps, blessed are the poor, hungry, weeping, and hated because they seek the power of Christ for restoration. That is what Jesus promises in the blessings. What about those who belong to the woes that were grabbing for power from Christ? Perhaps, Jesus lets them know woe to the rich, full, laughing, and loved because they only seek more of what they already have. They do not seek restoration. Instead, they seek to increase their own power instead of seeking to restore those who have none. Does this mean Jesus hates all of those in power? According to Lord Acton, does this mean anyone with means is corrupt? Psychologists did a study to test if power truly corrupts everyone. What they found was that the characteristics and personality of a person became intensified the more power someone had. Both good and bad characteristics intensified. The characteristics of loving, caring, and helping intensified but so did lust, jealousy, greed, need for control, and a need to be liked. What seems to happen is that many of the negative characteristics do not get acted upon when a person has no power because they require power in the first place for those negative characteristics to take hold. For example, someone with no money may try to steal to get some, but that does not necessarily mean they are greedy. Someone who has a billion dollars and always wants more of it would be considered greedy. For the first person there is a need and the second there is a desire. To those people who have a stronger ideology towards helping the greater good than their own desires they seem to increase in their caring and helping the more power they get. So…it seems that not all people with power are corrupt. (Even Acton uses ‘tends’.) If it were true that everyone with any power in this world were corrupt we would never be able to trust anyone. Democracy would fail. Capitalism would fail. The point of all of this power talk is to recognize the only being which has Absolute PoweràGod, Almighty. If we go back to Jesus’ words of blessings and woes and insert God into the equation they begin to make sense. Who is bestowing the Kingdom of God to the poor? Who promises to fill the hungry, bring laughter to the weeping, and reward those who are hated because they believe in Jesus? God. God. God. God. Why is it woe to the rich? What is their consolation? Their consolation is their wealth, but wealth does them no good after death. The full will be starving for grace and mercy. The laughing will weep for they did not know the true joy of Christ. The loved will suddenly come to understand that God’s eternal love is way greater than that of any human. This is important to remember because we can be found in both groups of people. There are times when we truly thirst and hunger for God, but there are also times where we trust in what we have more than what God has for us. Any time you have spent money frivolously when you could have given it to someone who needed it, Jesus says, “Woe to you”. Any time you have walked away from a meal absolutely stuffed even though you know there are people starving around the world, Jesus says, “Woe to you”. Any time you back off from talking about Jesus’ love for you so that other people will love you more, Jesus says, “Woe to you”. Even though we falter and come up short to God’s expectations Jesus came down to us. Just as he did in Luke 6:17 for the crowd he did so for the whole world. Because of that love shown to us through the cross and empty tomb the forgiveness and blessing of Jesus claims us first and foremost. We are guided to live for God and others, but for the times when we find ourselves in the “woes” of Jesus’ preaching I leave you these beatitudes: Blessed are those who sin and seek God’s forgiveness for it will be forgiven. Blessed are those who come to partake in the Body and Blood of Christ for you will receive his benefits. Blessed is the whole world for Jesus died and rose again for it. Points to Ponder:
February 14th marks the world day of love in the Christian world. It is also extremely secularized and monetized to convince people to spend money to show our loved ones just how much we care. Men, show you love your partner with diamonds, chocolates, teddy bears, and flowers. Women, show your love by getting him a nice pair of socks or testosterone supplements! (I will admit I am not sure what is commonly advertised for women to get men. I will say that I like flowers, too! My apologies for the heteronormative examples. These are just the ones I see in advertisements.) I remember bringing a fun size Valentine’s Day candy for all my homeroom classmates every year in elementary school. Even as a child we are instructed that showing love is done through giving things. Is this really what love is all about? So many businesses try to teach about what love is and so many authors try to unravel its secrets. This leads to the question many preachers sermonize about at weddings and philosophers, poets, and musicians try to describe in their work. It’s the question the title of this rambling calls back to: Haddaway’s, “What is Love”? St. Paul writes very clearly about what love is: Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. -1 Corinthians 13:4-8a The question then becomes how this love plays out in your own life. What does this love look like in the real world rather than just in a letter? It certainly seems more than just giving things to others. For those fortunate to have someone you love, which moments in your relationship were highlighted by some of these characteristics? Do you remember the things or the moments themselves? Love is not about the giving of things. It is the giving of one’s own self to another. When St. Paul writes of love he understands there is only one person who fully embodied this love, the incarnate Son of God, Jesus. Jesus agrees about what the noblest form of love actually is: No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. -John 15:13 Human relationships have highs and lows, but Jesus’ love for the world was a constant to the cross and grave and is still a constant in our lives today. Whether you have a special sweetie to enjoy Valentine’s Day with, just the memory of a deceased loved one, or no one at all, please know that Jesus celebrates this Valentine’s Day with you as he does every day. He laid down his live for you. He bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things for you. The love of Jesus endures forever. Feel free to answer any of the questions posed in the comment section! February 5th in the ELCA calendar commemorates the 26 martyrs who were crucified in Japan back in 1597. These people were killed by the Japanese government the way Jesus was crucified by the Roman Empire. They, like the many martyrs before them, were killed because of their faith. They didn’t turn away from God. Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego they chose the possibility of death over turning away from our Savior, Jesus Christ. Unlike Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the 26 martyrs didn’t survive and change the heart of the king. Commemorating martyrs reminds us of the bravery which past disciples of Jesus had. It also reminds us of the deep cost their faith had on their earthly lives. They could and would be killed for believing. Nowadays that is not the case in the United States and most of the western world. You may be able to point to a small number of individual instances where people were murdered for their faith in Jesus, but today the majority of the Christians in the United States are safe. What is the cost today for believing in Jesus? I fully understand that Jesus requires nothing from us to receive his love and forgiveness. I understand that works do not enable the eternal life we have. Jesus enacted it when he died and rose from the dead for us. That is not the point of the question. More specifically, the question is this: What does it cost to be a Christian who belongs to a church today? You may be asked to help out or participate in special events, committees, and worship. Again, this is not required. The category of costs for a Christian in the United States today seems to be broken down into time, money, and effort, but you would be amazed at how low the cost actually is. The church I serve, Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church, requires at least one donation and/or one time receiving communion in a calendar year to keep one’s official membership. At Augustana Lutheran Church it literally can cost as little as a penny and/or an hour of your Sunday in one calendar year to say, “I belong to Augustana in Andover.” Jesus’ love is a free gift and it costs very little time, money, and effort to be considered a member of a church. This makes me wonder if Christianity has become cheap. It no longer has the danger it once had in the early church and in late 16th century Japan. There is no pope calling for your execution because you challenge the use of indulgences. Jesus only calls for us to love our neighbors as ourselves. So is being a Christian just some cheap country club with extremely low standards? Could this be another reason why people do not find being active in our churches worthwhile? The cost seems so low that perhaps people just don’t find it important anymore. Perhaps this cheapening of Christianity is why so many people swarm to do something else with their time, money and effort during the week and especially on Sundays. Why worry about the hour I could spend at the cheap country club on Sunday when I could get my rest? Why waste a day or evening devoted to the cheap country club when my child’s possible sports and academic career could be boosted by a different activity? Why would I ever want to be on the board or a committee of that cheap country club when I have more important things to do? I find that churches and church leaders can have a tendency to buy into this cheap mentality too. They carry themselves as if they do not matter in people’s lives. They worry about requiring too much effort because they do not want to scare away the members that are still coming to the weekly meetings at the cheap country club. I want you to know that Jesus’ love and life for us is free, but it’s not cheap. Calling the gospel cheap is like calling a $325,000 2019 Rolls-Royce Cullinan cheap because you didn’t have to pay for it. Just because it is free doesn’t mean it’s a junk car or a/an __________________ (please insert whatever you consider to be a bad car brand). How we treat that glorious and gracious gift is where we can go wrong. We live out our faith by driving the car. Driving the car, living out our faith, is done by devoting our time, money and effort to God and the world in need. Every time we do that we get to experience the power, class, and awesomeness of God’s love kicking our bodies back into the seat. If we never drive the car, don’t keep up the oil change, and occasionally take a bat to the headlights of that Rolls-Royce it can be cheapened. It is still an amazing car. It is still free. Yet, we have chosen to not use it as it is meant to be used. Christian churches are the living Body of Christ which get to celebrate, praise, and enact God’s love for the world. It is the place where we get to actually do the Work of God. It is not a cheap country club. It is a Rolls-Royce owners club. (I am assuming these exist and that they are full of rich people). The only reason the club is so easily affordable is because the Rolls-Royce was free!!!! What does the club do? The members live out their faith. They get into their cars and drive. Dear God I give thanks for those willing to sacrifice themselves for the one who gave his life for the world. Specifically, I give thanks for the 26 Martyrs of Japan who died in 1597. Thank you for the dope car of your son’s love. Please allow for your Holy Spirit to inspire me to drive this car for Your sake. When I forget how valuable my faith and my church are help remind me of the power of Jesus’ love for me and the whole world. Amen. Points to ponder:
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AuthorPastor Reed is a first call pastor at Augustana Lutheran Church in Andover, Illinois. Archives
July 2019
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