May 8, 2016
The Foundation of Faith
Series: (All)
May 8, 2016. How do we pass on the faith to our children? On this Ascension Sunday and Mothers Day, Pastor Keith reflects on how, just as the early church was based in Jerusalem before it went out into the world, our children's faith begins at home. Discussions around the dinner table, friends from church who share common experiences, church music, and Sunday School teachers are all important factors in children's learning the basics of living out the faith, demonstrating to children in concrete ways the love of God. *** [Keywords: 20 year plus pin Acts Ascension Day Christian education God in conversation God's gift God's love Jesus Loves Me Jesus as friend Judea Mothers Day Pastor Keith Holste Samaria Saturday night Sunday School teacher Sunday morning This Little Light of Mine active adults affirmed any time or place in life ascended aunts baptismal sponsors basics of living out the faith began in Jerusalem believing brothers and sisters care for each other childhood days children of Jesus children's music children's songs church friends church participation college commitment common experiences community building community of caring Christians concrete way congregation context craft project or activity demonstrating development of faith devotionals dinner table disciples discipline discussions early church begins at home efforts elders factors faith begins at home faithfulness families firm love forgiving formation of faith foundational family life funeral service good times goodness of faith grandparents growing up hang out together hard work healing heavens home base home makers hug important work imprint on our minds interplay invisible it takes a village knowing child life events moms and dads motherhood mothers and fathers music of the faith musicians nursery class out into the world parenting parents part of our mindset pedigree piano player play activities praying at meals quality of faith raise the child recognized reinforces relational resistance resurrection routine school singing sports strong base sympathetic talent taught as child teach tell the story tender thankful they are loved touch two uncles died we need each other week to week western Kansas who taught who whole world word and meal workers worshipping community young children young or old]
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  • May 8, 2016The Foundation of Faith
    May 8, 2016
    The Foundation of Faith
    Series: (All)
    May 8, 2016. How do we pass on the faith to our children? On this Ascension Sunday and Mothers Day, Pastor Keith reflects on how, just as the early church was based in Jerusalem before it went out into the world, our children's faith begins at home. Discussions around the dinner table, friends from church who share common experiences, church music, and Sunday School teachers are all important factors in children's learning the basics of living out the faith, demonstrating to children in concrete ways the love of God. *** [Keywords: 20 year plus pin Acts Ascension Day Christian education God in conversation God's gift God's love Jesus Loves Me Jesus as friend Judea Mothers Day Pastor Keith Holste Samaria Saturday night Sunday School teacher Sunday morning This Little Light of Mine active adults affirmed any time or place in life ascended aunts baptismal sponsors basics of living out the faith began in Jerusalem believing brothers and sisters care for each other childhood days children of Jesus children's music children's songs church friends church participation college commitment common experiences community building community of caring Christians concrete way congregation context craft project or activity demonstrating development of faith devotionals dinner table disciples discipline discussions early church begins at home efforts elders factors faith begins at home faithfulness families firm love forgiving formation of faith foundational family life funeral service good times goodness of faith grandparents growing up hang out together hard work healing heavens home base home makers hug important work imprint on our minds interplay invisible it takes a village knowing child life events moms and dads motherhood mothers and fathers music of the faith musicians nursery class out into the world parenting parents part of our mindset pedigree piano player play activities praying at meals quality of faith raise the child recognized reinforces relational resistance resurrection routine school singing sports strong base sympathetic talent taught as child teach tell the story tender thankful they are loved touch two uncles died we need each other week to week western Kansas who taught who whole world word and meal workers worshipping community young children young or old]
  • Apr 10, 2016Feed My Sheep
    Apr 10, 2016
    Feed My Sheep
    Series: (All)
    April 10, 2016. Pastor Keith talks about John 21:1-19. Following his resurrection, Jesus appears to the disciples, who are fishing but not catching anything. He tells them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat, and then they catch fish in abundance. Peter, now recognizing Jesus, jumps into the water to get to him as quickly as possible. We too have the opportunity to jump in and follow Jesus. He calls us too with the water of baptism, and sends us, as he sent Peter, into the world to feed and tend his sheep.
     
    *** Transcript ***
     
    We begin in the name of the Father, and Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
     
    There's almost a sense in the Gospel of John that you can say, "Here we go again." John does well at starting themes early on in the ministry of Jesus, and then picking them up late in the end — and taking them a step further. The scene of the disciples in the boat that night was not the first time that Jesus had been with them when they had been fishing. Very early on in his ministry, you'll remember that the disciples were fishing all night and caught nothing, and Jesus said cast your nets to the other side, and they did and they caught many fish. That was the time when Jesus was first calling the disciples, and it was the moment when Peter first heard the call that he should be a follower of Jesus. So now again, after the resurrection, eight of the disciples are fishing one night. Again they catch nothing. In the early morning they hear this man on the shore say, "Cast your net to the other side." So they do, and the net is full of fish — so much that they had trouble pulling it into the boat. This is the time when John recognizes Jesus. At first they don't quite catch what's going on, but then they realize this is Jesus who's over there on the shore. John says, "It is the Lord!" And Peter jumps in the water as soon as he can, and Jesus has a special conversation with Peter, in a sense re-commissions him as a missionary and caretaker of the church.
     
    The little fire that Jesus has on the shoreline reminds us of a previous fire in the Book of John. It was on the night of the trial of Jesus that Peter was close by Jesus, but not feeling very confident as the leaders and the crowds were out to get Jesus. And in the glow of that little fire outside the hall where Jesus was on trial, the maids were there and the men were there who were kind of interested in this trial also. And they identify Peter and say hey, you're one of his disciples aren't you? And Peter denies it. And three times Peter says, "I don't know the man." So now on the lakeshore, where the disciples gather around Jesus, there is a fire. Jesus uses it to cook some fish that they caught. But also Jesus has a conversation with Peter. Three times he asks Peter, "Do you love me?" Three times Peter replies, "Yes Lord, you know that I love you." And Peter re-commits to the Lord. Peter re-commits to such a degree that he is a powerful spokesman for the church and a missionary for the Lord. And as this reading foreshadows, he will die because he is so committed to the Lord. He will be bound. His arms will be outstretched. And Peter dies on a cross himself for the sake of Jesus.
     
    The third thing that takes us back to the beginning of John is that there is this abundance that we just talked about with the young people. John is a gospel that proclaims the abundant love and grace of God. And it's presented in the miracles of Jesus that he does in the Book of John. The first miracle we hear about in John, that we talked about earlier this year, was when he and his mother Mary were at a wedding and the hosts run out of wine. Jesus makes wine miraculously and in abundance, with huge jars being filled with wine. This is the first sign that John wants us to know: this man does things with abundance. So now at the end, Jesus is still making miracles in abundance. After catching no fish all night, at the command of Jesus to change the sides of the boat where they throw the net out, they catch so many fish they have difficulty pulling the net back in then. It says it was a hundred and fifty-three we assume large fish. Again, Jesus points to this not as a small thing. They go from zero to so many they can barely pull all the fish into the boat.
     
    Jesus says in John, "I came that they might have life and have it abundantly." Jesus shows us that God is not stingy with love. God loves in abundance. Jesus loves in abundance when he reclaims the disciple Peter and commissions him to, "Feed my sheep. Tend my sheep." Jesus also loves in abundance when, with this fire he started, he uses some of the fish that they have caught to cook fish for them and serve it with bread that he has. These are the same people who, on that night when Peter had denied the Lord three times, were also fleeing themselves and hiding and getting as far away from Jesus as they could, because they were fearful. They were hiding on the morning of Easter. A couple of them did go out to look at the tomb, but rushed back where they hid behind closed doors. They had sold Jesus short along the way, not trusting him on that previous occasion. But yet on another occasion when Jesus was going to feed a whole crowd of people and they questioned him then, they said how can you feed so many with so little? This little boy had his lunch with some fish and bread in it. There again was an abundance of fish and bread. The disciples had doubted that Jesus could feed with abundance. Now Jesus is abundant in his forgiveness of them. He cooks the meal for these men who had denied him that night and run away from him and fled and hidden as much as they could. He lets them know that they are back in the fold. Even though they had run away, he receives them back to himself and commissions them to be disciple missionaries to the world. His love, his forgiveness are abundant.
     
    This abundant love, this true and abundant forgiveness we see demonstrated in this shore lunch, with the disciples and re-commissioning of Peter, is something that's really a game changer we could say — or better said, a life changer and a vision changer — for those who see the significance of what Jesus means for the world. The world tends towards zero sum thinking, saying there's only so much and we have to share or get by with what we can in the world. The world worries that there isn't enough and that God is out to judge them. And now Jesus comes with this new vision, proclaiming through John that through him we might have life and have it abundantly.
     
    When the disciple John puts together that the man who was over there on the shore and said "cast your nets on the other side" is Jesus, he told Peter, "It's the Lord." And so they made haste to get to the shore to be with Jesus. He knew that this was a man who could make abundant fish appear. He was the one who had taught and lived by law. When they saw him it was a literal God sighting.
     
    A few years ago, as part of the language we learned with the Missional Church project, one of the words we learned was "God sighting" — how to look for God sightings in the world around us. There's a way to see God at work in the world, how abundant life and love in Jesus can be lived out in different ways. We learned such things as dwelling in the word as a spiritual practice, to be better in tune with the word and with the world, that we might perceive God at work. We did interviews with people in the congregation, outside the congregation, in the community. We see where our acting out this love might be beneficial. We experimented to see how and where this might happen. And I was pleased a couple years ago when I was with the youth on the trip to Hastings, Michigan. The youth group YouthWorks Camps do work in the community, but by night they gather and worship in a youth-friendly kind of way. And some nights they give the kids the opportunity to share their God sightings from the day. And two of our kids that night — Tommy and Taimika — got up before four or five hundred kids and said what their God sightings were during the day. It shows how we can be trained to see how God is at work in the world. John and Peter saw and heard the Lord. We all want to be ready to see God at work and present in our world and in our lives.
     
    I hear the experiences our members have as they enter into conversations with people they haven't met before, and discover a need and begin to talk with that person more deeply. The relationship develops and it creates a place for God to dwell. Some will enter into deeper conversations with people they've known previously, and good things develop from that. Opportunities become apparent, and the presence of God can be seen and known. A person is open to seeing God in that conversation or in that relationship. We may not see Jesus in the flesh, but we can see the love of Jesus and the presence of God in what transpires. We can see the presence of God in what we do each day.
     
    When John told Peter that it was the Lord who was on the shore, Peter put on some clothes as quickly as he could. He leaves the others in the boat behind, and jumps in the water to get to Jesus. Peter knew, when he saw Jesus, that he needed to get to Jesus right away. Peter reminds us that when we see an opportunity to serve with Jesus, we need to jump in too. Our tendency can be to hang back. The tendency can be to strategize too long and think about doing something, and while we're thinking about doing something we lose the opportunity to do it. This doesn't mean we lose all sense about things and just go without thinking. Peter did think to put his clothes on before he went to the shore, so there was some thought before he jumped in. So we want to give some thought too. But it's a reminder that just as Jesus asked Peter, "Do you love me?" and then told him to "Feed my sheep," Jesus forgives us, invites us to a meal with him and into a relationship with him, and expects us to love him and to feed his sheep. Jesus sends us out also with the command and with a promise. Sometimes we don't engage. This lesson is an encouragement for us to jump in where there is an opportunity to see Jesus in the action that we take.
     
    Jesus began the ministry with the disciples, and after his death and resurrection he was with them again, and sent them out again before he ascended. Jesus has come and claimed us. He calls us, and with water — the water of baptism — he begins anew with us. He calls us. Just as he called them, he calls us, to come in out of the wet water — the wet water of baptism — and to receive others as he says to us as well, "Feed my sheep. Tend my Lambs." Jesus wants us to be feeders and tenders as well of the people who are around us. And as we come out of the waters of baptism, we are called also to feed and tend. We're called to see opportunities where God may be present, and to jump in and multiply the love of God that's there, so the abundant life of God may be seen and known.
     
    We're sustained in that through the bread and through the wine in the meal that Jesus gives us. It may not be on the beach most of the time, but we have this meal with Jesus, with bread and wine. He's present with us. He receives us where we are, forgiven sinners as we are, just as the disciples were that morning. They were forgiven sinners. But he receives them back, and as he sent them out he sends us out from the meal of communion to feed and tend, just as he sent out the disciples. Amen.
     
    Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
     
    *** Keywords ***
     
    2016, Christ Lutheran Church, Webster Groves, sermon, podcast, transcript, Pastor Keith Holste, John 21:1-19
  • Mar 20, 2016The Passion According to Luke
    Mar 20, 2016
    The Passion According to Luke
    Series: (All)
    March 20, 2016. Pastor Keith discusses the Passion according to Luke versus the story as presented in the other gospels. In Luke, Jesus is all-forgiving and uses his power to heal and save all people, including those who persecuted and betrayed him. In Luke, Jesus offers forgiveness to Judas. The question to us, as to Judas, is will we receive it?
  • Mar 13, 2016Extravagant Devotion
    Mar 13, 2016
    Extravagant Devotion
    Series: (All)
    March 13, 2016. In John 12:1-8, Mary anoints the feet of Jesus with expensive perfumed oil. Pastor Keith preaches on how this extravagant devotion goes beyond a simple action, how the sweet smell of oil filling the room is like the love Jesus has for us, and we in turn have for one another, going out into the world.
  • Feb 21, 2016Under the Wings of Jesus
    Feb 21, 2016
    Under the Wings of Jesus
    Series: (All)
    February 21, 2016. In Luke 13:31-35 Jesus compares himself to a hen gathering chicks under its wings. Pastor Keith preaches that the reality of Jesus' resurrection keeps hope alive for us when divisions or circumstances seem too hard to solve, and to sustain that hope we come together, like chicks gathered under the wings of Jesus.
  • Jan 31, 2016God Sightings
    Jan 31, 2016
    God Sightings
    Series: (All)
    January 31, 2016. Pastor Keith discusses the text of Luke 4:22-30, in which Jesus is rejected by his own hometown, and relates it to unpleasant truths we face if we don't remember that Jesus is there for us and we instead focus only our ourselves.
  • Jan 3, 2016New Beginnings
    Jan 3, 2016
    New Beginnings
    Series: (All)
    January 3, 2016. A new year is a time for new beginnings. We make resolutions -- to have better behavior, to lead a healthier lifestyle. It's a time to start over. Pastor Keith preaches on how Jesus coming into the world was a new beginning too, and how this is relevant to our world today. We may not be optimistic in the new year, given the terrorist attacks, refugee crisis, racial violence, floods, and other struggles we've faced in the past year. But we're reminded again of God's love for us, and how his word is stronger.
     
    *** Transcript ***
     
    We continue to talk about our reading from John in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
     
    Well, this week a typical greeting has been "Happy New Year." It's the proper thing to say this week as we've turned the calendar page and started a new year. We've drawn the previous year to a close and now we start dating things with a new number -- that time when you have to remember not to write 2015 anymore, but to start to write 2016 when you date something, the time for new beginnings. Not just for pages in account books, but as we consider the difference that the new year will make for us, we're more likely to think perhaps of better behaviors we could have for our own care. We figure out ways to maybe lead a more healthy lifestyle in the new year. We want to get started on the right track, and so we resolve that we're going to do this, and call those resolutions -- things that we're going to do differently in the new year, because it's a new beginning, a new time to start over.
     
    In our gospel today, the first verses of John we've heard are about new beginnings also. We hear John write, "In the beginning was the Word." And as we hear that, we remember that we've heard some words like that before. If we go back to the very first page of the Bible it says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." So, John seems to be making a bold statement here, quoting from the ancient scriptures to start writing his gospel. But it's no accident. He's being bold, because the occasion calls for it. He's quoting Genesis as he talks about the beginning of the ministry in the life of Jesus, because this is a new beginning for the world. History is starting over here. Humanity is starting over here. This is a new beginning of God's involvement in the creation. John doesn't just want to tell us this. He wants us to have a deeper knowledge, a feeling for what it means to have a whole new beginning to the world. It's a new promise, a new living promise from God for a new beginning of human history. And so, just as the whole physical being of the world came at the first word of God, when God spoke and the world was created, now a re-creation for the world and for humanity comes in the person of Jesus. This is the new word of God.
     
    Bible scholars have noticed for a while now how the first part of the book of John is structured as seven different signs. The first sign you know is when Jesus turned the water into wine at Cana in Galilee. And the last sign, the seventh one, is when he raises Lazarus from the dead, who was the brother of Mary and Martha. That last sign though so angered the priests and the authorities of his day that they start to plot to kill him from that point. And they do. But Jesus rises from the dead, and that's the eighth sign. It's a sign of a brand new beginning. Jews typically thought of things coming in groups of seven. Seven was a complete kind of number. There were seven days in the week, capped by the Sabbath day. So, a week was complete after the seventh day. Now Jesus was raised on the eighth day, which meant that John is telling us that this is the first day of the week, and it's a brand new beginning. It's a sign that his resurrection is on par with the creation of the world. This is a new creation happening. There was a creation and the world came to be. Now, there's a creation of the new world because Jesus has not only come and died, but he's also risen for all of us. This is indeed new life for the world.
     
    And in John's writing, the place of creation is the same as well. I don't think it's just any accident. We usually think of the Garden of Eden as the place where things were beginning, and where creation happened as humanity came into the world. But where was Jesus raised from the dead, where did Jesus talk with the women, where did the disciples go to see the empty tomb? It was in a garden. This likely again is by intention. John wants us to know Jesus is the beginning of the new creation of the world. So we have these meaningful signs of a new creation, and we're at the beginning of a new year, but we may not be all that optimistic, even though it talks here about new beginnings. After the difficulty we've had the past year or so with troubles, with terrorist attacks, and hearing the plight of refugees, and unparalleled gun violence, and racial injustice, and major floods now in our area to end the year, we're ready for a new year and a new beginning.
     
    But here we are on the 3rd of January already, and we wonder how will it go? Will it be so new or will it just be more of the same? Our resolutions may be intact so far, but after three days into the year, we know that almost always it's just a matter of time until we break them. We know we don't let the resurrection and the new beginning of Jesus influence us all the time. So where are we at then, in these beginning days of 2016? Does John have relevancy for us? Or is what he says just some sort of a mystical hope that comes from his sometimes-sounding, kind of "otherworldly" dreams? And is John just kind of giving what's more dream talk that really doesn't hit us where we are?
     
    Well, we take two things in particular from John to remind us that the word still has bearing for us. For one thing, the fact that it is the word that comes to us is a good thing. The word is the essence of God. The powerful word that created the world is incarnated in Jesus. Jesus is that very power of God in the world. Jesus is also the language of God. We communicate through words. And so Jesus is there, in with our communications. We use words to talk, and they convey meanings between us. We have Jesus, who allows us to know the meaning of God. Because we have words, we can talk with people. We can have meaningful discussions. We can work on things together. When God wanted to thwart human beings, when they were about to build the tower so high that God was not pleased, the way God stopped them was to stop letting people understand one another, and he messed up their languages so that they couldn't understand one another anymore and allow them to communicate. Now in Jesus is the correction for that. Jesus is the Word. Jesus shows us that God is still communicating with us. A couple of years ago, you likely noticed that many of the UCC churches had banners in front of their churches saying "God is still speaking," comma, then an ellipse. It ended in that way to show that indeed God, the word of God, is ongoing. We need to remember that in Jesus, God is still speaking to us. He has shown us a way to change the world. The signs Jesus did when he was on earth were about healing, restoring life, and bringing goodness and wholeness to life. Jesus is still about that as we are his people in the world. God is still speaking, as we let God speak through us and bring healing and life and goodness to the world around us.
     
    The second way that connection is made between God and these words to bring hope and goodness to our world in our times is to remember that word from the lesson that "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." God didn't just beam out some radio signals, hoping that we would have the right kind of radio to know that he loves us. God sent his son in the flesh to say: I love you. Jesus was saying that in his ministry, but it wasn't always received very well. As we said before, the greater response to him was to be rid of him and to try to silence him permanently. And they did that with all their might, and they killed him. In doing that, he received the brunt of our human sinful tendency to want to go on our own way. Our sin rejected Jesus and put him on a cross, even as he was trying to bring life to us. But he was God's word in the flesh on the cross. In the flesh he died, and he died for us. He was God's communication to us of the depth and extent of God's love for us. He was the new word of God to us. He showed us that there's nothing that God wouldn't do, no place God wouldn't go, no suffering God wouldn't endure, to make the point of God's deep love for us. It was God's word in the flesh that showed the extent of God's thorough love for us. He wants there to be no doubt that we are God's beloved children, worthy of honor and love.
     
    We need to know this good, saving, loving word of God. But sometimes words come in one ear and go out the other, so we need more than words. We need a sign for it also, so we can be reminded of it again and again and again, when we forget and go our own way, that God's love is so deep for us. So as this morning we receive Leah Elise in baptism, in her baptism we are reminded of the baptism of each one of us. That's the sign that God became flesh, comes to us through the waters of new creation, to make us part of his new creation as well. Baptism is that sign, and it's a way to remember that God indeed has loved us so much. We think back to that sign: "I was baptized. That's true for me." Just as we witness it for Leah today, it's a reminder too for all of us that God in the flesh has come to love me that much.
     
    Water seems to have always been key to God. In the beginning, water and earth had to be separated. When the world went bad, God used water to destroy it with the great flood. When God chose the take it back then, he had Noah in the ark with his family to be the ones to start creation and humanity over again. Our fonts now have eight sides normally, to remember the number of people in Noah's family, to remember how God's water recreates the world and brings a new world to us. God's word is stronger than any floodwaters. It can can even hold back the Red Sea when necessary, as Moses found out. God is stronger than all things in creation, and uses those things in creation like water as a sign of life, not a thing of destruction.
     
    It's that power of God that's shown in the first creation, and in the second creation with Jesus, that's with us by virtue of baptism. That's why we can have hope, even when it seems like the new year is daunting. That's why we can have faith, when a little one is born into it. The one who created the world will continue to create and give new life. All the baptized have been sealed with the mark of baptism, according to John, to receive the inheritance from God. He claims Leah and all of us who are baptized, to be receivers of this inheritance of goodness and grace, and then to be speakers and assurers of this word, as we are the bearers of this hope to the people around us in the world.
     
    God's word became flesh in Jesus, but God's word becomes flesh in us also. As we act on his behalf, doing the kind of good that Jesus did on earth, God is showing that God isn't ephemeral, out there, distant somewhere. But God is in the world, bringing about the new creation. And the God who created the world in the beginning has created again in Jesus, and God continues to create in our time. We have that hope as we encounter challenges. And the promised now have an enduring relationship that God has made by the sign of baptism for all of us. Amen.
     
    Now, may the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
     
    *** Keywords ***
     
    2016, Christ Lutheran Church, Webster Groves, sermon, podcast, transcript, Keith Holste, John 1:1-18
  • Dec 27, 2015Being About the Father’s Business
    Dec 27, 2015
    Being About the Father’s Business
    Series: (All)
    Pastor Keith, December 27, 2015
  • Dec 23, 2015The Promise of Micah
    Dec 23, 2015
    The Promise of Micah
    Series: (All)
    December 23, 2015. On this last Wednesday of Advent before Christmas, Pastor Keith preaches on the promise of Micah. Micah lived in a time similar to ours in some ways, with love of money, corruption, scandals, and fear running rampant. But then he prophesied that a new ruler would arise from Bethlehem and be a person of peace, unlike the military leader the people expected. God delights in doing what's not expected. We should be prepared to be surprised. *** [Keywords: Abraham Advent Mid-Week Service Assyrians Bethlehem Christmas David God's covenant Herod Isaac Isaiah Israel Jesus Joseph Judah Mary Micah 5 Nazareth New Testament Old Testament Pastor Keith Holste Samaritans Samuel Sarah Syria barter cash for goods clan of Ephrathah corruption countryside eternal everlasting expected fear fragility gentile government leaders he who laughs hill town intermarried king lowly occupations military leader money nations new economy new ruler not always predictable occupied oracle people will dwell secure perpetual fear person of peace playing a joke princess promise of Micah prophecy prophesied scandals sex abuse shepherd small town surprised surprising terror village girl what's not expected yearn for security]
  • Dec 9, 2015The Messenger
    Dec 9, 2015
    The Messenger
    Series: (All)
    Pastor Keith, December 9, 2015