Most Recent Sermon / Calendar of Events / Activities

First Sunday in Advent
November 28, 2004 Sermon by Aron Kramer, Associate Rector

I am not sure if these words from Isaiah are words of comfort, or words of warning. I am not sure what they mean for us today. We are currently at war with a people in a land far away from us; a people that most of us will not ever fully understand or even get to know. Yet the people of that land are linked to us in a strong and intimate way. They are the inhabitants of the land that is at the heart of our Biblical story. They were the people that the writers of the Old Testament told stories about. They are the people who struggled to understand how God existed in their world and in their lives. They are the people who celebrated God’s presence in their world and God’s blessings on their lives. Here we are at war, and not with swords, spears and shields, but rather, tanks, guns and missiles. It seems the swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks rhetoric from Isaiah might be a little lost on us. What do you turn a tank into, or missiles, or guns.

What do these words hold for us, call us to do in this world, and what do they call us to be in this world. Taken by themselves they are difficult and ambiguous to understand, but placed in the context of the whole reading and the larger story, it becomes clear. God is not the fire breathing dragon God we tend to think about when we hear the Old Testament lessons, rather, God is vastly different from that vision of a vengeful God. Isaiah talks about a God who is an arbitrator, a mediator, someone to help resolve conflicts. Isaiah also talks about God as a teacher. The nations will all flock to Zion to learn the way of the Lord, is one section of today’s readings. The nations will flock to sit at the feet of a God who is passionate about teaching, not about judging. A God that is open to hear all the sides of the debate, not just up and choose who wins. Placed in this perspective, it becomes clear that instead of our swords, spears, shields, tanks, guns and missiles, we need to depend upon God to solve our problems, and conflicts. And God does not just solve the conflict, God sits with us as we each tell our story, God mediates the stories and allows us to resolve our differences through dialogue. Now THAT I imagined up myself, but it does not seem all too unreasonable, God does not want to be someone who flashes a lightening bolt and destroys one side of the argument giving instant victory to the “correct” or “righteous” side. God, through love and intentional relationship calls us to resolve our differences without raising weapons and threats against our neighbor.

That love that is alluded to in Isaiah is clearly laid out in Paul’s letter to the Romans. Sometimes I really enjoy Paul and other times I wish he would have never lifted a pen. Today I like Paul. If you love one another, if you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the law. If you truly love the people around you, Paul tells the Romans, you will not have to worry one iota about the commandments or other laws that govern the land. Think about that for a moment. If you love, you obey the law. How many times in our lives have we been challenged to think of our love through a moral or ethical lens? How many times have we been challenged to discover that love does not just happen to us? I believe that we tend to think of love in the same way an Adam Sandler movie thinks about love, something like 50 First Dates, it will take a little leg work, but one morning we will wake up and love will be there, it will just happen and come into our lives and that will be it. But is love truly that simple and is love truly that narrow, narrow about simply finding the one or finding someone to live your life with. What is love for us, what is love in our lives and how does love manifest itself.

Paul would be pleased, for the most part, if he were writing to us, Paul’s letter to the Duluthians would be one that generations of bible readers would enjoy reading. He would say things like keep worshipping God in the way you are, you do it well. He would say, pay attention to that building of yours, but don’t let it become the center of your community. Paul would say keep up the amazing ministry and mission to the neighborhood. God’s word is being spread profoundly through the telling of your individual stories as they exist in the larger story of St. Paul’s. I imagine Paul would chastise us for not having more college students in our doors. But for the most part Paul would be pleased with what is going on at St. Paul’s, the Church in Duluth. However, I think he would be a bit concerned as well, with how we were going to be able to keep up that ministry.

As seems not unusual in this day and age, we have a significant deficit to overcome, and as we look at our budget and try to figure out where to cut back and where to cut completely I am reminded again and again of these words from Paul. To love is to fulfill the law. Look closely at what your own family members are involved in here at this magnificent church.

If you have a child in 7th to 12th grades, Betsy Baumgarten is shaping and forming and being present to these young persons in profound and excellent ways. You have heard of the mission trip that they are planning; you know they gather every Wednesday and Thursday night. Did you know that Betsy had a whole group not only of youth group kids, but also neighborhood kids to her house for Thanksgiving and that Christmas is next? Betsy does tremendous work in the Diocese and with Teens Encounter Christ, in which many more of our kids are involved. What is that worth to us as a community? Her work is priceless. Our children are priceless.

Linda Paulsen also does tremendous work for this place. Did you know that in the past year she has written several grants and received over $25,000 in grant monies for various projects? Did you also know that she visits people regularly in their homes, people who can’t leave, bringing them the stories and news of this place? Now that we are down to just one priest and maintaining the daily visitation of those in the hospitals and those who are sick is virtually impossible, she is visiting people who are sick and in the hospitals. He work and ministry is priceless. Our sick and homebound are priceless.

Many of you know the absolute and invaluable presence of Terry Roberts, without her, this whole place is different. Terry’s ministry is important and we pay her pennies for it. If she were working for a fortune 500 company her salary would be in the millions, but it is not here. Terry welcomes people into our building, she carries much of the management and administration load at the Church, and she is on the Board of Directors for the National Church, the Executive Council. She plans, organizes and implements programs for all the seasons we celebrate and she is one of the best babysitters money can’t buy. All of her ministry is based out of the love that Paul speaks about in his letter; all of what she does is out of love that is reflected, chewed upon and intentional for this place and for God. Terry’s work and ministry is priceless. All of your time and talents to this place are priceless.

Lastly, you are sitting on clean pews, in a room with a clean carpet. You walked in here on clean floors; the bathrooms you use are not covered in muck. The lawn is mowed, the sidewalk will be shoveled. There are lights in this building to help us see our way around. Garbage is picked up and not lying in the halls or outside of our building. The first thing that guests of St. Paul’s experience when they walk in the door is what this place looks like, and without Kathy and Peter it would not look as good as it does. They are arguably the most important ministers this church employs. Kathy does tremendous work and it is also out of a love for the world and for God that is very powerful. Kathy and Peter’s work and ministry is priceless. Our building and this place is priceless.

Those are only a couple of the stories that we are all about at St. Paul’s. Chris has graced us with music for years, Bill Bastian and the other soloists give us their voices. Ginger does great work on the phones and in the front office. Mary Lou works with the kids and makes beautiful bulletin boards. Laurie Fiebiger runs the Sunday School, talk about priceless! Those are just some of the paid staff at St. Paul’s, if you want to talk about volunteers I will need to take up another four pages of this already too long sermon. If you have not pledged yet, please do so and do so with an eye toward and your mind dwelling upon the value of the ministries you experience in this place. If you have already pledged but know you could increase your pledge $250 or $2500 dollars, please do so. What are the values of the love that we express to the world and to our community in your hearts?

The next year will be a time of telling our story; we are telling and sharing our story so that we can attract good, solid and strong leadership; leadership that will build this place even taller and stronger upon the foundation that so many others have created. We must tell our story and tell it well, we must understand the value of the story that is this place, this place that links each of us together intimately and totally. Part of our story is how we never fall asleep at the wheel, as Jesus warns us about in our Gospel. We are awake, we are doing ministry in the world as if today will be the day that Jesus returns to our doorstep. We are doing ministry out of urgency and immediacy, because it has to happen now. We are not worried about when the end of the world will come, we are not worried about whether or not we will be saved; and hopefully we are not worried about how our budget will impact the ministry we do. We are worried about the poor and the orphans and the widows. We are worried about those who are the weakest part of this community and this world. We are worried about justice for the poor and strength for the weak. That is our story and we must not falter in any way as we tell it. We are prepared for anything, because we are passionate about our ministry and most of all we are passionate about our God. Amen.