Author: MASadmin

A Reflection on the End of Job

The first reading today is from Job 38:1-7,12-13; 40:1-5.

Last Sunday, we saw the beginning of Job. Today, we’re seeing it’s end. The story began with God and Satan, the Accuser, playing a game. They want to see if there anyway that Job, an upright person who is faithful to God, would curse God. God empowers Satan to take away his family, his wealth, and his health. He’s left with his wife and three friends who come to comfort him. In a dialogue that lasts the bulk of the book, Job’s friends try to convince him to repent. They believe that his punishment is caused by something he did. If Job returns to God, God will turn his life around. But Job, knowing that he did nothing wrong, instead argues his innocence and a desire to take God to court. Job’s words are directed to his friends and to God. Job dwells on suffering, pain, and what kind of world we live in. It’s at the end of the book when God finally responds. 

God never answers Job’s questions. Instead, God points to creation. God asks Job if Job was at the beginning when the universe was made and if Job can create like God can. God takes Job on a whirlwind trip through all of creation – from the stars to the sea monsters that lurk in the deep. Job sees God’s “bigness” and can only affirm his smallness. God challenges Job to take on God’s attributes and defeat the wicked. Job, knowing he’s only human, cannot accept the challenge. 

In the end, Job admits that an assumption he carried isn’t true. His goal to bring God to court was built on the assumption that human beings are the center of God’s creation. God affirms, however, that humans are a part of God’s reality. The summation of everything is bigger than just the human experience. Humans might not be the center of the universe but they, along with the rest of creation, do receive God’s love and care. Suffering is a part of what humans experience but God isn’t absent and God doesn’t desire our suffering. Instead, God is present with us through it because God loves us. And God doesn’t run away from our suffering but walks through it, even to the cross. 

Each week, I write a reflection on one of our scripture readings for the week. This is from Christ Lutheran Church’s Worship Bulletin for 6/12/2016.

Which Were Many: A sermon on Jesus the Critic.

One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner.’ Jesus spoke up and said to him, ‘Simon, I have something to say to you.’ ‘Teacher,’ he replied, ‘speak.’ ‘A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?’ Simon answered, ‘I suppose the one for whom he cancelled the greater debt.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘You have judged rightly.’ Then turning towards the woman, he said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.’ Then he said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, ‘Who is this who even forgives sins?’ And he said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you; go in peace.’

Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.

Luke 7:36-8:3

My sermon from the 4th Sunday After Pentecost (June 12, 2016) on Luke 7:36-8:3. We celebrated a First Communion at the 10:30 am worship.

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A Reflection on Job, Satan, and Suffering

Our first reading is Job 1:1, 2:1-10.

Who is Satan? In Job, Satan isn’t who we think they are. In the Hebrew text that our English translation comes from, Satan isn’t a proper name. Satan is a title (“the Satan.”) A better translation would be “Accuser” or “Adversary.” In Job, Satan is like a prosecuting attorney. God gives this divine being, this angel, the job to investigate wrongdoing and bring it to God’s attention. In Job 1:7, God asks this accuser what they have been doing. The Accuser has been traveling the earth, seeking out things to bring to God. God points Job out to the Accuser. The Accuser claims that Job, if all that he has is taken away from him, will eventually curse God to God’s face (1:11). The parameters of the game are set and the Accuser is given the power to make Job’s life miserable.

Why does God let this game take place? This is one of the harder questions from the book of Job and is a question the book doesn’t answer. To me, the book of Job isn’t a historical book. Instead, it’s a meditation on the problem of undeserved suffering. The Lutheran Study Bible shares that Job is tackling questions about the suffering of innocents, where God is in our suffering, and what kind of world we live in.

The vast majority of the book of Job is a dialogue between Job and three friends. His three friends come to console their friend in his suffering but also to tell him why he is suffering. Job’s friends do not know about the game between God and Satan. Instead, they assume that Job did something to deserve what happened to him. But he didn’t. Suffering came to Job. The dialogue they share is the conversation we all share when senseless suffering happens to us or our family members. We sometimes know why we or others suffer. But there are times when something sudden, like an illness, disease, or tragic accident, just happens. Like Job, we wonder, “why?” And, in the end, we’re left with a mystery that even the book of Job doesn’t fully explain.

Each week, I write a reflection on one of our scripture readings for the week. This is from Christ Lutheran Church’s Worship Bulletin for 6/05/2016.

Sat Up: A sermon on Jesus, seeing, and someone’s first communion.

Soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’ Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, ‘Young man, I say to you, rise!’ The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, ‘A great prophet has risen among us!’ and ‘God has looked favorably on his people!’ This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.

Luke 7:11-17

My sermon from the 3rd Sunday After Pentecost (June 5, 2016) on Luke 7:11-17. We celebrated a First Communion at the 10:30 am worship.

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Introduction to the (new) Church Directory

What’s church?

Whenever I’m asked a question like this, I tend to get visual. I close my eyes, think on the words, and let my mind wander. When I hear the word church, I see buildings with white steeples, crosses on the top, and with bells in the tower. I see a bright red door, long wooden pews, and stained glass windows telling stories about Jesus. The more I think about church, the more the buildings change. My mind visit the buildings I’ve seen, from the neo-gothic stone giants that dot urban spaces to the first church we know, a house church from 233, currently on display at Yale University’s Art Museum. Sacred spaces, set apart to be places where God is encountered, have been a part of Christian identity since Jesus’ ministry.

But buildings are not the limit to what a church is. Churches exist to house communities. They serve as focus points where God’s people gather. Our church more than the building on the corner of Pascack and Church Road. Our church is what you’re holding in your hand. Our church is people, called to walk together as Christ’s people in Northern New Jersey. Like scripture says (Colossians 1:18), we are here as part of Christ’s body in the world. We are connected to each other through the God who calls us to be together. If you find yourself living just down the road from the church or on the other side of the world, through the Spirit, we are always together. We are friends and members, called to love each other and the world.

I invite you to use this directory as a way to connect with each other. And as the information changes and grows, use this directory as a living document. Cross things out, add information, and keep space open for the new names and addresses that we’ll hand out as new people join our community. This is Christ Lutheran Church. This is Christ’s church. We are doing God’s work with our hands.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Marc

We’re reprinting an updated church directory. The last one was printed in 2012. I wrote this to be an introduction to the directory itself.

Dependency: a sermon on worth, Jesus, and the National Spelling Bee.

After Jesus had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. A centurion there had a slave whom he valued highly, and who was ill and close to death. When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave. When they came to Jesus, they appealed to him earnestly, saying, ‘He is worthy of having you do this for him, for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us.’ And Jesus went with them, but when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say to him, ‘Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed. For I also am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, “Go”, and he goes, and to another, “Come”, and he comes, and to my slave, “Do this”, and the slave does it.’ When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, ‘I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.’ When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.

Luke 7:1-10

My sermon from 2nd Sunday After Pentecost (May 29, 2016) on Luke 7:1-10. Memorial Day weekend so only one worship service at 10:30 am.

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A Reflection on Nehemiah and Worship

The First Reading for May 29, 2016 is Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10.

Why do we stand up so much in worship? Part of that answer is in our first reading from Nehemiah today. The books Ezra and Nehemiah (which were originally one book before they were split in two) tell the story of Jerusalem after the return from Exile. Cyrus the Great, after destroying the Babylon empire, sends the Israelites back to Jerusalem. The returnees start to rebuild the temple but local politics and infighting stop the project fron continuing. The Temple is eventually rebuilt but Jerusalem is not allowed to become the kingdom it use to be. Nearly 65 years after the first wave of exiles return to Jerusalem, Ezra and another group arrive in Jerusalem. Ezra comes to reform the community, teach the law (the Torah – the first five books of the Bible), and develop the Jewish identity.

In our reading today, everyone – men and women – gather in Jerusalem. When Ezra opens the book of Moses (the Torah), all the people stand up. Ezra reads the book, from early in the morning through midday, while everyone stood and listened. As Ezra read, the leaders would stop to offer an interpretation of what was heard. This is similar to what we are doing today. We’ll read scripture, stand up when a story of Jesus is read, and listen as I (with prayers and help from the Holy Spirit) offer an interpretation of what is heard.

Ezra, at the end of our text, tells the people to not mourn or weep. At this point in the story, the people are weeping because they’ve discover how much they haven’t followed God’s law of love and mercy. But Ezra reminds the people that worship isn’t only about focusing on what we’ve failed to do but is an opportunity to celebrate God. God doesn’t let us travel through our life alone. Instead, God offers teachers, the Word, scripture, and even Jesus’ body and blood to help us do what God is already doing in the world. Worship is more than just hearing God’s stories. Worship is discovering that God is helping us to share God’s love out loud.

Each week, I write a reflection on one of our scripture readings for the week. This is from Christ Lutheran Church’s Worship Bulletin for 5/29/2016.