Youth Sunday always seems like a good idea when it first comes up.  After all, in theory it offers me a week off from sermon preparation and preaching.  It gives the youth the chance to “take charge” and get up in front of the congregation.  Members of the congregation have the opportunity to see how full of faith and life our young people really are.

In practice, however, the Youth Sunday services require more time and planning than any other services we do.  Our confirmation youth started writing parts of the liturgy for the Youth Sunday service way back at the beginning of Lent.  As they studied the disciplines of Lent, specifically confession and prayer, they learned about those parts of service and how they are written.  They then wrote the confession, words of forgiveness, offertory and post-communion prayer in their small groups.

Our Spirits! youth group made up of 3^rd-6^th graders also started working on the liturgy back in Lent.  They played the old party game “telephone” to learn about the prayers of the church and how often times the people/things for which we pray as congregation get passed along to us through many different people.  We pray knowing that even if we have not fully received the message, that God knows exactly what is needed.  They then wrote the prayers of the church for this coming Sunday.  I have never seen this highly energetic group tackle something with such joy and seriousness.

Then came the recruiting of youth musicians, the assigning of parts, the practicing and, of course, the last minute scrambling that happens when you suddenly have over 30 youth between 3^rd-12^th grade taking on leadership roles spread between two services on a Sunday morning.  The have practiced at church with the microphones, at home (I hope!) with their parents and now all that is left is for them to lead worship tomorrow morning and for me to…well…worry that our services will come together as planned!

The more that I have thought and worried about our upcoming Youth Sunday, though, the more I have realized something.  Worship is a rehearsal for what life will be like when we are together in the kingdom of God.  We gather each week at a time and in a place that is holy, set apart from all of the ordinary things of our life.  We do so to worship – to confess our sins and received forgiveness, to give our thanks and praise to God through songs and prayers, to head God’s proclaimed through the reading of the scriptures and the sermon, to lift up the needs of our community in prayer, and to be fed and nourished at the Lord ’s Table.  On any given Sunday it takes a handful of lay leaders, church staff and clergy to make this happen.

On Youth Sunday, however, it takes each and every one of our youth (and many dedicated and supportive adults, too)!  If you are a young person tomorrow who shows up and does not yet have a part, we will assign one.  If someone does not show up, their absence will be felt by the whole community.  No one will laugh if someone stumbles over a line because everyone knows that their turn up at the microphone is coming.  These youth will take on one of the greatest fears many people have – public speaking – as they lead prayers and share their faith in front of the whole community.  I have a feeling that worship in the kingdom of God will be a lot like this!

So, if you are looking for a place to worship tomorrow, I hope that you will come join us at Abiding Presence Lutheran Church in Burke, VA as we rehearse what our life and worship will one day be like in God’s kingdom.

First, God and human were joined as one in the child placed in Mary’s womb. That child was the Son of God who was conceived through the Holy Spirit and the power of the Most High. But at the same time, the exact same time, he was the Son of Man. The baby that was born from Mary’s womb entered the world the same way as every other human child. Jesus arrived through the labor pains, pushing and tears of joy of his mother. His conception was divine, but his birth, his birth was quite ordinary. He would be known, therefore, as the Son of God and the Son of Man. Jesus took on all of the characteristics of God and all of the characteristics of humanity simultaneously.

The second miracle Saint Bernard declared was that Mary conceived and yet she remained a virgin. Never had conception happened this way before and never has it happened this way since. We will never understand the biology of how this worked. Mary herself, in fact, asks, “How can this be?” As the angel reminds her, though, “Nothing will be impossible with God.”

The third miracle was that Mary had such faith to believe that these previous two mysteries would be accomplished in her. Put simply, Mary believed. This young girl, probably no more than thirteen years old, was visited by an angel, told that she was going to give birth to God’s Son and actually believed it. Maybe, just maybe this is the greatest miracle of all.

Mary was not a woman of greatness, or power, or prestige. Nothing had happened in her life up to this moment to suggest that she would be called upon for so great a task as being the mother of the Christ-child. When she sings her song a few verses later in the gospel, she describes herself as a lowly servant. Until that moment when the angel Gabriel showed up, she was just another unremarkable small town girl. Martin Luther once preached, “The Virgin birth is a mere trifle for God; that God should become human is a greater miracle; but most amazing of all is that this maiden should credit the announcement that she, rather than some other virgin had been chosen to be the mother of God.” (Bainton, Roland H., ed. Martin Luther’s Christmas Book)

I mean…think about it for a moment…had it been you who the angel Gabriel visited, how would you responded? As a teenager in the midst of everyday life, what would your reaction be to the news that giving birth to the Savior of the world was going to be your responsibility? Would you believe? Would you disregard? Would you run and check yourself into the nearest hospital thinking you were going nuts? Really…think about it…

If it had been me, I seriously doubt the words, “Here am I…let it be with me according to your word,” would have come out of my mouth.

The question which we wrestle with this Advent is, in many ways, the same one Mary did long ago. Do we believe? Hearing the message sent from God to us, do we have faith that it is true. Again, to quote Martin Luther, “This is the word of the prophet: Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given”. This is for us the hardest point, not so much to believe that He is the son of the Virgin and God himself, as to believe that this Son of God is ours.” (Bainton, Roland H., ed. Martin Luther’s Christmas Book)

For Mary, God was not some distant, abstract, ruler in the sky. God was personnel. God was intimate. God was in her very being and coming to life inside her womb. May we, like Mary, have faith that our God is with us as intimately and personally as he was with Mary long ago. May we trust that God continues to come to life in our world today. And, may we believe that as Christ first came to earth bringing peace and joy long ago, that he will come again. Soon and very soon.

So, blessed Lent to you as we once again begin the journey to the cross, to Good Friday and, eventually, to Easter Sunday.

This Lenten season I’m joining with six other pastors to blog a daily Lenten devotional called “Many but One”.  If you are looking for a devotional, please check us out.

The Gospel is Luke 5:1-11.

            Off the shores of Lake Nicaragua there sits a canoe.  Each day a little after 7 o’clock in the morning two teenage boys wade out into the water, hop into the canoe and set sail.  They paddle to the nets that have been placed out in the water overnight.  The boys carefully paddle along the nets, picking it up out of the water every few yards to remove any fish that have been caught in it.  Some mornings the catch is plentiful and other days it is light.  The process of checking the nets takes about an hour or so and then the boys paddle the boat back towards shore.  One brings the fish to shore, rinsing them off and handing them over the ladies in the kitchen.  The other boy begins the process of cleaning off the boat.  With a brush in one hand and a small bucket in the other he splashes water from the lake into the boat so that he can scrub it down.  When he has finished scrubbing down the boat he then takes that same bucket and bails the remaining water out.    

            I imagine Jesus this morning on the shores of a lake like Lake Nicaragua.  Our St. Paul’s mission team spent about six days there during their time in Nicaragua about two weeks ago.  As the crowds press in on Jesus he is nearly forced into the water.  The crowds want to hear Jesus, but they are giving him no room to speak.  He cannot possibly teach them like this.  Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, Jesus spots some fishermen cleaning up their nets and boats after a night of fishing on the lake.  Jesus gets in one of the boats and boldly asks the fisherman to paddle a few yards out so that he can teach the crowd.  Once they are out a little ways Jesus sits down in the boat and begins to teach.  The crowd hangs on each and every word that comes out of Jesus’ mouth.  The fisherman, a man named Simon, cannot help but here what Jesus is saying.  In fact, he has the best seat.    

            But did you notice that it is not Jesus’ teaching that inspires Simon.  It is what comes out of Jesus’ mouth that causes Simon to fall down at his knees.  It is not Jesus’ speech that reveals to Simon that he is in the presence of someone of great power.  No, it is not Jesus’ words, but his actions.

            Finishing his teaching, Jesus commands Simon to let his nets down into the lake.  Simon has already fished all night and caught nothing.  As an experienced fisherman he knows that the prime fish catching time has passed.  Yet Simon does as Jesus commands.  Maybe he wants to see if what Jesus was saying was for real.  Maybe something of what Jesus taught sparked his curiosity about the man who had come into his boat.  Maybe he is just too tired from being up all night to fight with him.  We cannot know what was going through Simon’s head when he let down those nets one last time.  We simply know that for some reason he follows Jesus’ command.  He put down his nets and fish flooded into them.  They came in abundance to the point that the nets nearly break and the boat becomes overflowing with fish.  For this experienced fisherman who made his living out on the lake this was the catch of a lifetime.

            Then, only then when his boat is filled to the brim with fish, does Simon fall down at Jesus’ knees.  Surrounded by fish, Simon begins to realize that there is something extraordinary about this man in his boat.  He is one who seems to have control over the fish of the lake.  He has never seen anyone like this before.  Leaving an empty boat to follow Jesus had never crossed Simon’s mind, but leaving a full boat, well that was another story.  As the old saying goes, “Actions speak louder than words.”  In our gospel lesson for today, it was certainly Jesus’ actions, not his words that got the message across to Simon.  It was God acting through his Son Jesus that compelled Simon to leave behind the catch of a lifetime and follow Jesus.

            On the shores of Lake Nicaragua our St. Paul’s Mission Team never saw and abundance of fish.  The catch that the boys brought in never broke the nets or overflowed the boat.  One morning the boys did catch enough for us to have fish for dinner, but 14 fish was not exactly a miraculous catch.  Still, there on shores of Lake Nicaragua we were constantly seeing God act.  God was acting in the sunset each evening over the lake that was breathtaking and indescribable.  God was acting in each batch of cement that somehow came together as we mixed it by hand, one shovel turn after another, to become the foundation for a new foster house on the ground of the orphanage where we were staying.  God was acting through the embrace of a little one or a game of soccer organized with the teens through our broken Spanish.  God was acting in the incredible story of a woman named Hellen who responded to God’s call to build up that orphanage.    

            One of the blessings of a mission trip is that the team members have the opportunity to focus on God’s actions outside of their normal environment.  It is not that God is acting more in Nicaragua than here in Washington, DC.  It is, however, easier to realize it when the stress of everyday life is lifted for a week or two and everyone’s eyes are tuned in on God’s work.  But if we focus our eyes, we can see that God has been acting here among us now as well.    

            For five and a half years I have been blessed to see God acting here at St. Paul’s.  I have been privileged to watch as the Holy Spirit has stirred in the lives of people like Jaime who answered the call to spend a year as our missionary in Zambia and Evan who answered the call to go to seminary.  I have seen God raise up countless leaders as youth advisors and Sunday School teachers, council members and ministry team members.  Oh, there might have been a few sleepless nights in there where I wondered if we would have enough people to lead a ministry, but each and every time one of you came forward and I was reminded that God was working in the life of this community of faith. 

             New opportunities for ministry came up and God acted in incredible ways.  I will never forget the first meeting for the Zambia mission trip when I walked into the room after church with my five copies of materials for people interested in the experience and was met by fourteen people sitting on laps, the floor and wherever else they could find a space.  We sent nearly 30 people to Zambia that year.  Things like the expanded food pantry and the Ask a Lutheran at the metro station started out as someone’s brainstorm in a ministry team meeting and quickly became realities as God acted through you as you answered the call to reach out to those in the neighborhood around us.  In more ways than I can even begin to enumerate in a sermon, you have been like the fish that came flooding into Simon’s nets.  You have been an example of the ways that God is at work.   

            In the end, Simon and the other fishermen leave their boat overflowing with fish to follow Jesus.  They leave behind abundance, trusting that with Jesus that instance of overflowing nets was not a onetime fluke, but a lifetime promise.  Simon and the fishermen must have believed that following Jesus that there would always be plenty.  So Simon and the other fishermen left the waters that were comfortable and familiar to follow Jesus to someplace new. 

            Brothers and sisters in Christ, as I leave you today I feel a little bit like Simon.  Here at St. Paul’s my boat is certainly overflowing.  In so many ways my call here to St. Paul’s has been the call of a lifetime.  I have come to love you and the ministry we do here deeply.  But it is precisely because my boat is overflowing among you that I can step out in faith to answer God’s call to someplace new.  Having seen how God has acted in this congregation I can trust that it is not a onetime fluke, but a lifetime promise that God will continue to act.  At Lutheran Church of the Abiding Presence where I am headed I believe that God will provide plenty.  And so I pray that my leaving this overflowing boat of ministry to follow God’s next call might be my final sermon to you.  I ask that these words might only be a precursor to that action. 

            But I am not the only one who has the opportunity to preach this morning.  Each one of you has the opportunity to preach as well.  And so I hope that you, too, will be tuning your eyes to see God acting in your life.  That in the midst of whatever abundance you have in your life that you will hear God’s call to act and step out in faith.  And together, together we will preach not with our words, but with our actions.  Amen.

Consider lighting a candle to help transition to a time of worship and prayer. 

Pray: Gracious God we give thanks for this time to pause in the midst of digging out from the snow to worship you.  We are grateful that we are safely on the other side of the storm.  We ask that you would now lead us through the day as we seek to serve you.  We pray in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Read: Luke 5:1-11
Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, ²he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. ³He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. ⁴When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” ⁵Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” ⁶When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. ⁷So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. ⁸But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” ⁹For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; ¹⁰and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” ¹¹When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.  

Reflect:

Read:
Sunday morning’s sermon will be available here following the 11:00am worship service.

Confess with the words of the Apostle’s Creed:
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
            creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,
            who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
            born of the virgin Mary,
            suffered under Pontius Pilate,
            was crucified, died, and was buried;
            he descended to the dead.
            On the third day he rose again;
            he ascended into heaven,
           he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
           and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
            the holy catholic Church,
            the communion of saints,
            the forgiveness of sins,
            the resurrection of the body,
            and the life everlasting. Amen.

Pray for the People of God:
Let us pray for the whole community of God’s people and for all their needs.

God of creation, you rule over all that you have made.  Be with all those who are working to remove snow, care for those who are vulnerable, restore power and provide for the needs of our community.  Lord in your mercy.  Hear our prayer.

God of peace, you send your peace that passes all of our human understanding.  Bring help and hope to those who are experiencing unrest through disaster, war or political turmoil.  We especially pray for the people of Haiti and all those who are coming to their aid.  Lord in your mercy.  Hear our prayer.

God of healing, your hand touches all those who are in need.  We pray especially for those who are sick, grieving or hurting this day.  Lord in your mercy.  Hear our prayer.

Add any other prayer petitions that you wish.

God of Grace, we entrust all of our prayers to you knowing that you will hear them and trusting that you will respond with that which we need.  We pray in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Pray the Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
           hallowed be thy name,
           thy kingdom come,
           thy will be done,
                       on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
           as we forgive those
                       who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
            but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
            and the power, and the glory,
            forever and ever. Amen.

Benediction:
May the Lord bless you this day and everyday of your life.  In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen. 

Dismissal:
Go in Peace.  Serve the Lord!

Community gathering place built with LWR funds

What a difference five years makes!  Five years ago, I first visited the cooperative project in La Reyna.  The community had just started the eco-tourism project when I visited with a group from Lutheran World Relief on a fair trade coffee growing tour.  This week I visited the community again, this time with the St. Paul’s Mission Team. 

There have been many changes to this rural coffee growing community.  When I stayed with them five years ago there was no indoor plumbing whatsoever.  There were latrines and bucket showers.  Now, all the homes that hosted members of our team had a working toilet and some had a shower.  A new pavilion had been built as a gathering place for when groups like ours come to visit.  Many of these improvements had been the result of a partnership with Lutheran World Relief.   

To my knowledge there is not a single Lutheran in the cooperative at La Reyna.  There are two churches associated with the community, one Catholic and one Evangelical.  Yet, when you mention the word “Luterana” (that’s “Lutheran” in Spanish) everyone knows what you mean.  Luterana is how they refer to Lutheran World Relief, one of the international outreach organizations supported by Lutherans in the United States. 

To this community “Luterana” means toilets (indoor ones) and better wet mills for coffee that reduce pollution from the “honey water” that released during the process.  “Luterana” means funds to build a community gathering place and a new shrine to the community’s patron saint after the old shrine was knocked down by a tree.  “Luterana” means training in English and tourism for their young people and funds to help build homes in the cooperative.  “Luterana” in the cooperative doesn’t necessarily mean a group of people who gather by themselves on a Sunday morning in a church, it means a group of people who stand ready and willing to support when the community identifies a need. 

 This isn’t a bad definition of “Luterana”.  In fact, it is a definition of our faith community that I wish more people had.  For those who are interested, you can learn more about what Lutheran World Relief is doing not only in Nicaragua, but also around the world at www.lwr.org.

Here in Nicaragua they suffered their own devastating earthquake in December 1972.  Tens of thousands of people were killed, the city of Managua was flattened and today, 37 years later, the earthquake is still a part of life.  The clock on the old cathedral is forever stopped at the exact time that the earthquake struck.  Buildings that were devastated in the earthquake still stand in ruins and have become inhabited by those in need of shelter.  Throughout our tour today, we heard about where things used to stand.  In fact, many addresses of houses and businesses still reference landmarks that are no longer in existence.  (Using landmarks in addresses is a common practice here.)

Touring Managua, our group learned the life changing impact of Haiti.  Our meeting with representatives from Lutheran World Relief (LWR) this afternoon began with an update on how LWR was responding to the crisis.  They have already committed one million dollars to the relief efforts and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans has pledged to meet that commitment with an additional million dollars in matching funds.  Our team continues to pray for the people of Haiti and the relief efforts.  Please join us in doing so and consider making a donation to LWR at www.lwr.org. 

Tomorrow (Sunday) we leave for three days and two nights spent with coffee growing families in the community of La Reyna outside of Matagalpa and about two and a half hours from Managua.  In this rural coffee growing community there will be no wireless internet, so stay tuned for an update on our experience when we return to Managua on Tuesday.

In my mind, there are vacations and there are trips. A vacation is all about relaxation and usually involves multiple days in a row of doing absolutely nothing. The location of a vacation really doesn’t matter, but access to a beach, pool and maybe a few restaurants is usually helpful.

A trip, on the other hand, is all about the location. There is an itinerary of people to see and things to do. On a trip one explores new places, doesn’t mind getting up early and occasionally has those “once in a lifetime” kind of experiences.

When I try to explain to my husband my different definitions of vacation and trip, he often laughs at me. “Why can’t we do both at the same time?” he asks. In my mind, though, the two cannot be combined.

Then there is a mission trip. A mission trip is definitely not a vacation and is quite different from any other trip. On a mission trip, the focus is community. A mission trip is never about one person and is always about a
much larger group of people that spans the globe.

St. Paul’s mission trip is not about the 14 people who are on their way to Nicaragua today. It is about the entire congregation that is behind them. It is about the people who ate pancakes to help us raise funds, who purchased backpacks and filled them for us to take as donations to the orphanage, and who are faithful praying for us as we travel. St. Paul’s mission team is made up of people who have answered God’s call to travel on behalf of the St. Paul’s community and then return to share experiences in which everyone can share.

Today I give thanks for the community of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and for the ways that the Holy Spirit has been moving there to make this mission trip possible.