June 25, 2017 Pastor Luke Kuenzli
Pentecost 3A St. John Lutheran Church
Psalm 69:7-18; Romans 6:1-11; Matthew 10:24-39 Mineola, IA

Today is a special day for a couple of reasons. On June 25, 1530, a mere 487 years ago, Martin Luther’s right-hand man Phillip Melanchthon presented the Augsburg Confession at the Diet of Augsburg in an attempt to convince the German rulers and Catholic leadership that the Lutheran movement was, in fact in keeping with the Catholic tradition. This effort to maintain Christian unity failed, of course, but the conversation has not ended.

But more recent important events make today special, too. Just over three years ago, Rachel, Jeremiah, Isaac and I drove out from Ohio to interview with a Church Council at a congregation in a small, unincorporated village in southwest Iowa about the possibility of that congregation calling me as pastor. On June 22, I preached my first sermon in this place, on these scriptures that we have just heard, for the 3rd Sunday after Pentecost. I briefly contemplated using the same sermon again, just to see if anyone would recognize it…

But it wouldn’t work, (first of all, because in that sermon I spoke about the possibilities and uncertainty of that particular circumstance) but also because today is special for another reason, too. Today, we welcome a new child into God’s family, the Church. In a short time, Stella will be washed with water and the Word, anointed with oil and the Holy Spirit, and claimed as a daughter of the God of creation, a sister for you and for me. This is an occasion of the utmost significance – much more important than the three-year lectionary anniversary of my “interview sermon,” and more personally important to the Sobbing and Thomas families and to this congregation. What we do today, in these waters of baptism, is to point to God’s promise of resurrection.

The writer of Psalm 69 witnessed to God’s unfailing help in the midst of trouble and distress. In the literature and mythology of the ancient Hebrew world, the sea, the crashing waters of the deeps, were a symbol of chaos and trouble. In the beginning, when God spoke creation into being, a wind from God blew over the waters of chaos, and God brought order to the universe. Then in the story of Noah and the flood, God released the power of chaos into the world so that he might renew the face of the earth, ensuring that through the drowning of the world, two of every kind of animal might be saved and order might be restored to a world that had become disordered by sin.

The Psalmist picked up on that same symbolism, using the common literary device of “Hebrew parallelism” to associate a troubled experience of life with the raging sea. Listen to what the Psalmist said, in verses 14-15: 14Save me from the mire; do notlet me sink; let me be rescued from those who hate me and out ofthe deep waters. 15Let not the torrent of waters wash over me, neither let the deep swallow me up; do not let the pit shut itsmouth upon me.

The salt sea was the power of chaos, of trouble, of distress in Hebrew literature. But equally important was the symbolism of fresh water, running water, often called living water in the scriptures. In the arid environment of ancient Palestine, fresh water was the source of life. Clean, fresh water was for drinking, and for cooking, and for bathing. It was for watering the herds and the crops that would provide food when the wet season had ended. A year without rain, a year in which the rivers ran dry, was a year of distress and trouble.

Before the rain we have had in the last week and a half, I had begun to hear various conversations in which worry was expressed over whether the corn was going to get enough water. A week of 90-degree heat with no rain was enough to cause some concern. Imagine a summer or a year of drought – some of you may not have to imagine, perhaps you have memories of talk about water rationing in 2012 and 13, or in earlier years of worse drought in 1988 and 89. Water was and is necessary for us to live.

Sometimes, in our own lives, we go through times of drought – we cannot find the living water that refreshes us and nourishes our growth. And at other times, we feel as though we are being inundated by a deluge of distress, as we are smothered by the circumstances, trying simply to keep our heads above the surface of the chaos around us. Busy schedules, the stress of work and kids, the grief of losing beloved family members and friends, the pain and discomfort of illness, injury, aging… And for some reason, these things all seem to come at the same time, don’t they?

Our world and indeed our very life becomes so disordered that we do not know where to turn for relief. The Psalmist reminds us that in such times, we have a source of life to whom we can turn, saying; 16Answer me, O Lord, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me. 17Do not hide your face from your servant, for I am in distress—make haste to answer me. 18Draw near to me, redeem me, set me free because of my enemies.

And in faith, we trust that God does draw near, does redeem, does set free. Not from times of trouble – in fact, if we take Jesus’ words from our Gospel lesson to heart, following Jesus might cause us trouble from time to time, may cause division and strife between families and might demand our very life of us… But in the midst of that trouble and every trouble, God draws near and redeems and sets free from the power of trouble, of distress, of chaos. God in Christ brings order to a troubled world, that has been disordered by sin.

Sin, that scary church word that none of us really like to talk about; that all-too-familiar reality of life with others; that condition in which we find ourselves, as humans, of being in broken relationship with God, others, self, and world. We are born into it, and we learn it, and we sometimes make the mistake of thinking we can use it for our own personal benefit.

In the Lutheran Church, we acknowledge that we are sinful, we don’t try to hide it! But we’re not proud of it either. In naming our sin in confession, we ask for God to draw near to us, redeem us, set us free, just as the Psalmist did. People are not our enemies – sin is our enemy. The enmity that we experience with other people is the result of sin; our relationships are broken, and so even in our families we strive against one another, just as Jesus said we would.

But it is the sinful self who strives against family, against those of other nations, against those of other faiths. It is the old self who continues to live in sin who cannot find reconciliation and forgiveness and grace for self and for others, regardless of who they may be. As St. Paul wrote to the church in Rome, we who have been baptized into Christ Jesus are baptized into his death. Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. … we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin.

What we do today is to proclaim that Jesus Christ has drawn near to, redeemed, freed Stella from the bonds of sin and death, for if we have been united with Jesus in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his! The water of life, the pure and living water that Jesus gives is for her, and for us who are gathered, and for all the world, so that it might be renewed and brought from disorder to orderliness.

Brandi and Jesse, as Stella’s parents, are promising to teach her what the reality of grace looks like – life among God’s faithful people, hearing the Word of God and receiving the holy supper, knowing the faith as expressed in the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the holy scriptures, nurture through faith and prayer, trusting God, proclaiming Christ in word and deed, caring for others and the world God made, and working for justice and peace. This baptismal promise is one way of defining a life of grace and of resurrection, a life of trusting in God’s promises.

Stella’s life in Christ may not be easy. There will be times of drought and times of storm, but thanks be to God, Jesus Christ has given to her and to all of us the living water of holy baptism to refresh and nurture us in our journey. Today is a special day, because together with Stella, we renew our commitment to follow God’s call wherever he leads us. Just as God led you and me into this relationship of pastor and congregation three years ago, and just as God was leading Luther and Melanchthon in their efforts to faithfully reform the Christian Church, so God is leading us now, to move and live and grow in him, and him in us. Thanks be to God. Amen.

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