Dear Paul

What is your most scandalous opinion? Well, it’s not really scandalous; it is just treating a serious subject lightly, but sometimes that is necessary. I could always elicit gasps and chuckles by saying “The Apostle Paul is just the best advice columnist of all time.” And then by defending the statement. Of course with the demise of papers and reading in general, the advice columnist has kinda disappeared. Ann Landers and Dear Abby are long gone along with their upper-middle-class striver pragmatism. I think Dead Prudie still writes over at Slate.com but it feels so 200X. And her questions and advice always left me muttering “sheep without a shepherd.” You were better off taking advice from blast from the past Dan Savage who wasn’t as insulated from the craters Prudie’s advice would create. He might still give you the same terrible advice, but he’s also leaven it with reality. I see that Tucker Carlson, as part of his new media adventure, has created an “ask Tucker” forum. His first answer to the Father who is worried about his daughter starting an Only Fans, oh my. But I promised to get around to the Apostle Paul.

We all know that Paul wrote letters. And if we have read those letters, we realize that Paul was in almost constant contact with his fledgling congregations. It wasn’t the USPS, but letters in the Roman world would get to their destination on good Roman roads. Most of Paul’s letters are not theological treatises that he made up. Maybe Romans is that. Romans is also a prospectus for investment in a missionary endeavor. “I preach the gospel, I want to go to Spain, please support me (Romans 15:24).” But most of Paul’s letters are responses to multiple letters asking “Dear Paul.”

Paul would answer at length two or three big questions. For example, in 1 First Thessalonians – probably the first book of the New Testament written – Paul reminds the Thessalonians of the Work of the Lord in their midst and how the Thessalonians are now the example for those around them (chapters 1-3). He then reminds them what that looks like and reinforces the hope of the resurrection (Chapter 4). You can imagine the questions. “Paul, how do we go about evangelism?” “Paul, what about those who have died?”

But then Paul has this stack of other questions and the letter is already feeling long. So what does he do? He does things like our short Epistle reading this week – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24. The world’s first lighting round of rapid fire advice answers.

Paul, what does Jesus really want from us anyway? “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Paul, my brother is always babbling about the Spirit this and the Spirit that. I’ve seen a vision brother. Please tell him to stop! “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast to what is good.”

Paul, to get ahead at work I occasionally have to do things that you probably wouldn’t approve of. Is there a way to get a dispensation or an indulgence? “Abstain from every form of evil.”

And like all good advice columnists, Paul’s missives are occasionally shocking. They are probably not the advice you want to hear. But they are good. They are good in the deep sense of that word. Paul wants the best for you. As he says in his sign off. “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely.” That is what Paul’s advice wants for you. God has called, gathered and enlightened you. Keep running. God will also sanctify you and on That Day glorify you. It is Good advice.

Reconciling Canaan

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Biblical Text: Matthew 15:21-28

Recording note: there are a couple of rough things. 1) We were still having some trouble with the sound system. We’ve got a temporary cheap mic while the good ones get fixed. The result is louder and just higher pitched fake sounding. 2) I was under the weather. You can probably hear the scratch in the voice. Sorry.

That said, I tried to say something meaningful with this sermon. I’m not sure I accomplished it. But it comes down to two things: 1) The church has a calling to be The Church to all peoples. That starts with Jesus being the messiah who comes from the Jews, not the Jewish messiah. While things like nation, people, tribe and language are important enough they have signifiers in the eschaton, they must be secondary to our unity in Christ. 2) Making these things clear – as Jesus does in this text – is often contrasting the good with the nice. Sometimes pointing out ugly things isn’t nice. Getting to reconciliation required a cross, not something nice, but it is on Good Friday.

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Future Opportunity

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Biblical Text: Genesis 1:1-5

This sermon is a bit more philosophical that I typically get. It is also leaning of a work of systematic or dogmatic theology I’ve been reading by the Lutheran theologian Robert Jenson. Classic theology is build around what in Latin are loci. In English it is much less impressive, merely subjects of focus. And the classic first loci is God.

There is a blatant problem with that. Absent revelation we can know nothing about God. Most everybody would disagree with that. That is the inspiration for every rational and forced mystic quest for God. It is the thinking behind “seeking”. And all those quests seem to have the same goal, to get under or behind or beneath our existence to the eternal timeless reality. But the God of revelation is not timeless; He is the creator of time.

This sermon invites us not to be driven by fear into seeking some unchanging reality, but to hear Jesus is risen as the invitation to a way through time, through God’s good creation from alpha to omega.

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Only God is Good

Biblical Text: Mark 10:17-22
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In my reading one of the biggest shifts from the church fathers to the kids of stuff written and preached today is the concentration on the person of God. The church fathers would preach and write constantly about what we might call metaphysical or philosophical points – like the goodness of God. When you read modern works there is rarely if ever any words on the person or attributes of God. Everything for the modern is about the human experience. When I reflect on that the human experience is quite varied, and we have a giant ability to lie to ourselves. Generalizing from human experience is tough. The church Fathers through some sturdy logic, rhetoric and understanding of the sacred text come to a solid understanding of what God has revealed about himself. And when you have a solid understanding of who God is, both a general application and specific applications to our varied situations are possible.

The text today is a perfect example. The church Fathers all were interested in the goodness of God. In my experience this text, combined with next weeks, are typically turned into stewardship items. The difference I think is between the gospel in the text and the law. The gospel is that God is good, and he invites us to share in that goodness. In no other way can we or anything be good, other that a participation in the divine.

This sermon is in part an invitation to that goodness. It is also an examination about what that goodness means to how Christians then prioritize actions in light of that goodness. It is a pondering of the call of the first commandment.

Worship Note: I moved out hymn of the day to the end of the recording. LSB 753, All For Christ I Have Forsaken, is one of my favorite hymns. It never fails to just kill me. If you do a little research on it and it author Calvin Chao you’ll be torn up more. They’ve set a very Chinese text to the Southern Harmony tune “Restoration”, and it works wonderfully. I usually don’t do this, primarily because it is illegal, but I’m doing it here because this hymn is so good. Most of us will never live a life as dedicated as Calvin Chao, but here are the words of many who heard the invitation clearly.

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