February 12, 2017. In Matthew 5:20-37, Jesus warns us that we cannot enter the kingdom of God unless we exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Pastor Keith talks about how righteousness isn’t just about adding up all the right actions, but about being in right relationships — with God, with those we love, and within the Christian community. Righteousness was a difficult concept for Martin Luther until he realized that God has already done everything so that we can be in perfect relationship. When we come to God every week, he helps us avoid temptation, to reconcile, and to make peace. *** Transcript *** We look at this text from Matthew as we begin in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. We hear a gospel like today's and it sounds pretty difficult. Jesus says that unless we exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, we cannot enter the kingdom of God. That's pretty hard on its own. But then he gives examples, and none of us find ourselves very clean as we hear that long list of things that doesn't just talk about actions, but what goes on in our mind as well. The scribes and Pharisees had dedicated themselves to keeping every little bit of the law. They said that it was important that everyone keep all of them. They had 613 extra ones -- the Talmud -- that bolstered the Ten Commandments and the other things that were in the Old Testament. So they were really into keeping all these little laws about the things that you're supposed to do, and to keep the Jewish faith and to be a good Jewish person. And so all that was going on. But Jesus says that's nothing compared to what I expect from you. To be more righteous than that is a very tough assignment. And Jesus goes on and says how they weren't even keeping the law very well, because he takes into account the motives and what goes on in the mind and the heart, besides what is written. It sounds very impossible. We know how we seem to innately kind of want to shrink the law, make it to a size that's manageable. We can shrink it to say "I won't steal," and so we don't steal. Or we say "I won't commit adultery," and we don't commit adultery. We find areas where we think we can keep it and we say, well I've done okay in these areas. Maybe that's good enough when I'm measured against the rules. But then we hear Jesus describe this process, and it's very unnerving. We wonder how we can ever be saved if all of our inner motives and our desires or temptations are condemning us -- let alone the small parts of the holy law that we break each week. How can we or anyone have a chance? This is what drove Martin Luther nearly crazy for quite a while in his life. When he was a monk, his confessor said he was spending way too much time in the confessional booth, and way too much time up at night feeling sorry and feeling convicted by his sins. How could he ever enter heaven, he wondered. He couldn't control his thoughts. He would think of something bad, and he would go back and have to confess it. And as soon as he'd do that the thoughts would enter his mind again, and it would start all over again. He never found peace in this period. And some believe he damaged his health permanently by the stress he put himself through in this time when he could never find peace, because he just knew he was always convicted by this word of Jesus. But through his study of scripture, Luther began to see the forgiving love of God. He began to see it wasn't a matter of being perfect or of having no hope, or being perfect in heart and mind and action, and then having to be condemned forever. He began to see that God in Jesus had come to save him and everyone from this problem. There was a way for him to have righteousness that exceeded that of the scribes and the Pharisees. There was a way to have peace with God. And it could change all those human relationships too, that Jesus was so concerned about. Jesus had said unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you are condemned. When we look at the Old English word of "righteousness" it literally means "right-wise" or "right way" or "right relationship." Its early true meaning wasn't to center on adding up all the rights and wrongs in a person's life. It was a measure of relationship. That's what Jesus is getting at here: being in a right relationship with God. When you're in a right relationship, you don't focus on the little actions and the words and the rules, and make them the main thing. Rather, you focus on your love for God or for the other person, and their love for you. And you act in ways that are loving for them. You do that automatically. You don't go to the rule book and say, I'm supposed to be doing these things for that person. You love them. You love God. And you do the things that naturally flow from that. When we have this right relationship with God, we are one with God. And indeed then, our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, because we are in a loving relationship with our God and our thoughts and our actions are redeemed by God. We will naturally then live out what is best for the relationship. Then it's not so much that we have to do certain things, but we get to do the best things for the relationship. But Luther figured out finally that it wasn't all up to him. It had all been done for him by God in Christ. Jesus knew what all happened with people. That's why he could name all those temptations and things that people do. He was willing to take all those things upon himself, keep them all upon himself, and die with all those things. And when he did, a righteous or right way relationship with God became possible. He died with all those things and he rose, and with that God brought forgiveness to us and gave us righteousness. That is a right way of being with God. We began to be in a good relationship with God. We began to do those things and live in those ways that God wants us to do, because God sees us now as little Christs, people wearing Christ around with us. God cares for us, and we know that we have someone in God whom we can trust and love, rather than someone we need to fear and try to placate all the time and live despairing that we will never do enough to please God. Jesus accomplished the way for us to live right-wise, in a good relationship with God. In many ways it's like how we see marriage. That is, we love the person that we're married to, and have a good relationship with them. Because we love them, we do things for them. We live for them. We want them to flourish in life. We want them to be satisfied. We want them to have happiness. We don't go around with a rule book saying I need to do this or that to please my spouse. Because we know them and love them, we do what will build them up. Our relationship comes first, and the words and the actions follow. Jesus is saying that when it gets turned around, then the relationship's pretty much gone. When we focus on doing the right little things and not on the relationship, we're going the wrong direction. We may be doing okay on this small scale doing some of the correct things. But if we do it without the relationship things like Paul says, or like a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal, they're empty. They are noises without meaning. The love needs to be there. We know how we don't always keep the love in the relationship right, and we wander off. We do things wrong. We focus on the little things rather than the relationship. We start to feel that things aren't right and we know that we need to find our way back. We may need to step back and think about where we are with God, with those we thought we loved, and with those in our Christian community. Jesus uses that example in our lesson today. Two people have forgotten the good relationship they have in Jesus. They go to make their offering at the worship service, but they don't like each other as they do make their offering. Jesus says stop, go and make peace with the other, and then come back and bring the offering. Jesus isn't interested in money that isn't given in love. When we share and make the peace in our worship, that is what we're doing. We're making God happy by showing our love for our Lord. We're restoring our faith relationship so we can be in good relationship as we stand before the Lord. So sometimes we do need to step back and evaluate where we are in a relationship, whether with Jesus or with someone else. We need to mend that relationship to be right with that person. Then we can proceed into a right relationship with God. It doesn't work to say we love God but not to love those who are around us, especially fellow ones in Christ. There are right times to make reconciliations, to heal wounds, and to do what's necessary to make things right with others, so that we can be in a right relationship with God. Peter Steinke is a Lutheran pastor, but also a psychologist. He's written a number of books on things that make healthy people and healthy congregations. He notes that relationships often get into trouble when they get fearful and anxious, and the people in the relationships begin to pull into themselves, become more self-centered, and less open to what's happening around them. For good health he says it's good to keep an outward focus and be engaged with the world around. And the same, he believes, is true for congregations. When congregations become self-centered and self-oriented they don't do so well. They get ingrown and tend to fight among themselves. But when congregations look outward, work together to do mission and projects outside themselves, they do things together and it builds up the spirit of oneness and enthusiasm for mission, looking outward rather than inward. The temptations are always there. There are always temptations to look inward, to focus on the small things instead of the relationships we are a part of, to think about ourselves and to ignore or harm those who are around us. We find these temptations in our relationships, especially when we aren't feeling very good about ourselves. We find these temptations in our communities of faith when we lose sight of the mission we all have as God's family, and think more about how things are with me. And we're tempted to do it as a country or even as the world, as people in countries draw back into individualism and tribalism rather than thinking of the whole world as having the potential to be a whole world wide community. We come together here every week because we know how easily we forget and go back to our old ways. So we come here every week to be reminded that it isn't about us, but it's about us and our Lord. Just like in our human relationships, we can get sloppy sometimes and don't care for them very well. We need to come every week to be strengthened in our relationship with our Lord. We receive the good word of God's love. We receive the meal that God offers us. It's a meal of reconciliation. We make our peace. We make our offering. We can offer ourselves because God has made that peace with us, and declare that we are at one with God. God has done everything so that we can be in a perfect relationship. Because of God we can have and live with righteousness -- even righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and of the Pharisees. Amen. Now may this peace of God which passes all understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen. *** Keywords *** 2017, Christ Lutheran Church, Webster Groves, sermon, podcast, transcript, Pastor Keith Holste, Matthew 5:20-37

January 29, 2017. Today we hear about the Beatitudes, the eight blessings from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew, and consider a new way to look at blessings. God has a plan to make life better for the poor in spirit; those who mourn; the meek; and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Pastor Penny preaches that by honoring them, those of us who are merciful; pure in heart; peacemakers; and persecuted for righteousness sake can provide strength and comfort to the downtrodden, and then everyone is blessed. *** [Keywords: Aleppo Bana Alabed Beatitudes Gospel of Matthew Jesus Latin Palestinians Pastor Penny SUV Sermon on the Mount St. Louis Syria Tom Lake argument bad choices badmouthed beautiful reward begging blessing civil war comfort comforted contractor crayon on walls crowds of people destitute disciples doormats down and out downtrodden drugs employees employers followers greatest reward homeless honor honorable house being sold inherit the earth insulation justice kingdom of Heaven merciful middle class might makes right murders never solved no hope no land no power peacemakers persecuted pity police officer poor in spirit power pure in heart refugee camp righteousness safety net satisfied second third chance shot spiritless stains on carpet stand up strength success teenager the meek those who hunger and thirst those who mourn translated translation tweeted]

January 8, 2017. Baptism is a two-way street. God promises us his unconditional love, and we too make a promise. We promise to follow in God's way. The roles we play in our lives may describe us, but only God can define us. He has made us more. Pastor Penny talks today about how we can use the encouragement God gives to us to live out his way and fulfill the promise we made at our baptisms. *** Transcript *** We begin in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It has been said that when Sam Houston, famous politician and soldier and also given to fights, was baptized as an adult in a spring in a river, when he came up out of the water his friends congratulated him and they said, "Well general, now all your sins have been washed away." "If that be the case," Houston said, "Then God help the fish." He was an honest politician. And certainly when we think of baptism, as I mentioned with the children, we think of our sins being washed away. But baptism is so much more. And it kind of caught me off guard in our text study: baptism is a two-way street. We think of baptism as God's promise of unconditional love and strength. But we make a promise too. We make a promise at our baptisms, as a response to God's gracious offer. We promise to stay away from sin and to follow in God's way. I think it's really hard to keep in mind that second part. You know, it's wonderful to know that your parents love you. But then if that means you have to clean your room, that's a little harder. It's wonderful to know that God loves us unconditionally, but it's not always easy to pry ourselves out of a warm house on a cold January morning -- which you did -- and write out that check for the offering when you have other needs. It's easy to focus only on what God is doing and not what we do. Maybe when our response seems hard, when it's hard to come to focus on our response to God's promise, we need to look at God's promise again. What is actually being promised in baptism? Jesus' baptism is a good case in point. And it may have surprised you, as it does every year, that Jesus was just born two weeks ago and now he is an adult and he's being baptized. Well, of course it's because we know so little about his life in those intervening years. There's one story about him. But it serves our purpose well today to think that Jesus arrives at his baptism with a clean slate. He has not begun his ministry. He's done no miracles. He's done no teaching, no healings, no self-sacrificial acts. And still God says to him in baptism, "This is my Son, my Beloved, in whom I am well pleased." We hear God also saying a similar thing to another unnamed servant, in the Old Testament lesson in Isaiah we read this morning where God says to his servant, "My soul is delighted in you." Those are the words that are meant to be conveyed to us in our baptisms: that God is delighted in us. And you know, this is unconditional. Just as Jesus had not done anything yet in his ministry, just as an infant has done nothing to deserve God's love, and the promise is made -- so that promise continues throughout our lives unconditionally, whether we begrudgingly came to church this morning, or whether we have had an argument with our best friend, whether we have recently fallen off the wagon (whatever that could mean in your life), whether we have shirked our duties and instead involved ourselves in activities that gave us pleasure, whether we have hurt someone we love. Even then God is delighted in us, because that is who God is. Because that is who God chose to be. Because God chose us as children. Now I think we need to know, I think we have a yearning to know, that God loves us unconditionally. A few days ago Keith and I went to the movie "Fences" starring Denzel Washington. He plays a man in the early 20th century who is from a poor neighborhood, but he does have a job, a home, a wife. He loves a child, but he has a yearning for more. He has a yearning, he says, to be able to laugh from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head, to be able to sing. I think he needed fulfillment. He needed to know he was more than his job or his marriage or his parenthood. And I think we can understand that, because we are many things too. We play many roles. We have many interests in life. We are husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, children. We are doctors, lawyers, students, teachers. We are knitters, we are bridge players, we are runners, we are golfers. And these things bring us joy, and sometimes they don't. But is that really who we are? Don't we have a yearning to know that there's more to us than that? These things come and go. These things might describe us, but they do not define us. We are more than all the things we do and all the roles we play and all the things we've accomplished. And God tells us what does tell us who we are. And it is God's promise of unconditional love, no matter what, that we are bringing delight to God's soul. That is what defines us. And when we focus on that, that does give us the encouragement to live out our part of the bargain, to live out God's righteousness. The word "righteous" comes up a couple times in today's texts. And it has a lot of meanings. But you notice that at first, John wouldn't baptize Jesus because Jesus had no sins to wash away. But Jesus insisted. He said no, we'll do it to fulfill all righteousness. And then in Isaiah, the passage that Brett read, God says to this unnamed servant, "I have called you in righteousness to be a covenant to the world, to be a light to the nations, to bring sight to the blind, to open the dungeons of all those who are slaves." Now, this isn't talking about keeping the rules. When we pledge to God at our baptisms we are not saying that we are going to keep all the rules, because we know we won't. But what we are pledging is to let God use us to bring righteousness to the world, to make the world all right. Sometimes we see that done in people's lives, that response to their baptismal vow in such a clear way. Many of you know about Harriet Tubman. I don't know a lot about her, but I've been hearing more about her lately, and she is so intriguing. An African-American woman who was born in the early 1800s, born a slave in the state of Maryland. And she was in a horrible situation, as most slaves are. And by using the Underground Railroad, that network of people that helped slaves escape, she was able to get away to her freedom in Philadelphia. She was a strong Christian. She felt that God called her to certain things. She had dreams. So she went back into slave territory 13 times, risking her own freedom and her own life so that she could free hundreds of others, hundreds more slaves than herself. And this is the reason she did it. She says, "Twant me, 'twas the Lord. I always told Him, 'I trust to you. I don't know where to go or what to do, but I expect you to lead me,' and He always did." Because not only does God give us this promise of unconditional love but God gives us the Holy Spirit and our baptisms. God gives us strength. In the Old Testament lesson, God said to this unknown, unnamed servant, "I take you by the hand." And that is what God does: God takes us by the hand. God has our back as we work to free people from their various dungeons. God gives us the courage, for instance, to talk to the woman who comes to work every day with eyes red from crying, and ask her what's going on in her life. God may give us the courage to talk to a family member whose behavior we feel is getting really self-destructive, to talk to them about it. God may give us the courage to write a letter to the editor of a paper about something we see going on in the community that is unjust. God may give us the courage to stand up when we hear someone being badmouthed, whether they're there or not, or whether someone is being bullied. God gives us this courage because we have the Holy Spirit. We are not alone. And maybe when we shy away from these things, when we want to forget about our part of this bargain, our response to God's unbelievable promise -- maybe the only thing we can do -- is very simple: maybe we should just ask at the beginning of each morning just a simple prayer, a simple thought that as we're washing our faces, as we're taking our showers, as we're cleaning our bodies, to ask God to remind us of how we were baptized. And how everything that will happen to us that day, all the things we'll be involved with, the things that we'll throw ourselves into and maybe we'll be successful or maybe we won't, they are not us. They may describe us, but they do not define us. That God has made us more, that we are sons and daughters of God, beloved ones in whom God finds delight. Amen. *** Keywords *** 2017, Christ Lutheran Church, Webster Groves, sermon, podcast, transcript, Pastor Penny Holste, Isaiah 42:1-9, Matthew 3:13-17

December 4, 2016. People flock to find a leader. Why did people stream from all over to hear John the Baptist? Did his stark message of repentance represent an alternative reality for them, a new hope? Today Pastor Penny wonders whether it's time for us as Americans to not just repent, but to bear fruit too. A new American dream, a kingdom of God, is unfolding right now in our lives. How can we work with God to make it a reality on earth? *** [Keywords: Bernie Sanders Charles Dew Chicken Coop Church Donald Trump Grantsburg WI Hail Mary full of grapes Holy Redeemer Howard be thy name John the Baptist Our father Martin in heaven Pastor Penny Pharisees Roman government Romans Sadducees The Making of a Racist Wisconsin alternative reality animal skin clothes baptism bear fruit children of God confess confession conservatives country end of life options flock healthcare historian holy fishes income tax kingdom of God leader leaders liberals lifestyle mental health issues new American dream new hope new laws oppressed peaceable kingdom poor racism recovering addicts repent repentance stark message tour unfolding unjust wild wilderness willing to change]

November 20, 2016. If he were alive today, could Jesus have been elected president? In his own time, he was running to be the son of God, the Messiah. The religious leaders of the day saw him as a threat to their power, so they demanded his crucifixion. But the thief being crucified alongside him saw what he was. Jesus said he would be with him that day in paradise. In her sermon, Pastor Penny talks about the nature of paradise. Is it a place? How do we know? *** [Keywords: Gandhi India Jesus reigns Jewish Martin Luther King, Jr. Messiah Remember me when you come into your kingdom Today you will be with me in paradise action assassinated be there becoming right with God blinded campaign commander in chief crucified crucifixion defame opponents die by the sword elected end of the story face of God king king of love live by the sword mocking no formal leadership out of control pacifist paradise power president presidential material religious leaders salvation savior show up son of God spoiler take part thief threat undermined unpopular]