Conversations

 

My sermon is entitled Conversations with God and Others, and my focus is on Genesis (18:1-10) and Luke (10: 41-42). Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are standing within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

Conversations mark every moment of my day. My wife, Cindy, and I engage in conversations about family, jobs, news, chores, and plans for the future. At work or school, conversations focus on accomplishing goals, executing tasks, reporting outcomes and assigning blame or credit. Conversations in public settings – as we enter and leave church or the supermarket – are friendly and short. Certain conversations with a pastor, counselor, physician or attorney are so confidential that a court of law cannot force us to reveal them.

Conversations generally involve one or two people, but sometimes more. Right now, we’re having a conversation, and most of us are holding separate conversations in our heads. You’re wondering where I’m going with this, and I’m wondering if you’re following me.

Then there are conversations with God. In those conversations, we pour out our thoughts, emotions, desires and disappointments. We cry with the psalmist, O God, you are my God—it is you I seek! For you my body yearns; for you my soul thirsts. In the end, we admit that the Lord probes us and knows us. Conversations with God often start with, “Lord, listen to me,” while the Lord asks us to listen to Him. Let’s look at how our Scriptural characters conversed with God and how those conversations apply to our lives today.

Abraham and Sarah offered hospitality to the Lord, and are models of faith in the Old Testament. Genesis records that they believed God would make Abraham the father of a great nation; that Abraham listened to and obeyed God’s Word; and that God indeed fulfilled His promise.

From their conversations with God, we learn that in contrast to a resistant, mistrustful world, Abraham and Sarah are responsive and receptive to God’s Word. The correlation between God’s call and their response reveals God’s promise and human faith. God promises. Abraham and Sarah listen, accept and obey.

Is it as simple as God promises and Abraham listens, accepts and obeys? What does God promise and to whom? God says: “Go forth from your land and your father’s house to a land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the families of the earth will find blessing in you.”

God promises a 75-year-old childless nomad that He will make him the father of a great nation. Abraham thinks for a moment and responds, “Two problems, God. I’m gonna need some land and a son.”

Read Genesis 12–25 and see that Abraham does not accept God’s promises blindly. He made backup plans. To spare his life before Pharaoh, he passed Sarah off as his sister. Because Sarah bore him no children, he took her suggestion to father Ishmael through Hagar, her Egyptian maid. Even when God reaffirmed his promise, Abraham, like Sarah, laughed and asked, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth at ninety?” He then said, “God, listen to me. Let my son Ishmael live in your favor.” God replied, “Abe, listen to me. Your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you shall call him Isaac. I will make an everlasting covenant with him whom Sarah shall bear to you by this time next year.”

Abraham’s faith did not occur in a vacuum. It was not without anguish. He was not always sure and often formed backup plans. Nevertheless, the faith to which Abraham is called and for which he is celebrated demonstrates that he acknowledged that God can shatter the normal definitions of reality and bring about newness.

Abraham’s story has meaning because it is set against a fixed and settled world. Our world is no different. We are taught that the world is entrusted to us, that we can construct our own future, or that inequality and oppression run so deep that there is no power on earth or in heaven that can make real change. Our world dictates either inordinate pride or deep despair. Abraham reminds us that God did not abandon creation to us and to our backup plans. Our gracious God promises the amazing gift of life, and God always fulfills His promises.

God always fulfills His promises. Do you think Jesus said that to Mary the moment Martha interrupted Him? Like Abraham and Sarah, Martha and Mary offer hospitality to the Lord. The sisters are models of discipleship in the New Testament. We know from the raising of Lazarus that they believed that God was working through Jesus. As Abraham wanted God to listen to his backup plans, Martha wanted Jesus to listen to her, while Jesus wanted Martha and Mary to listen to Him.

We can appreciate Martha’s predicament. Jesus came to dinner. We do not know how many of his disciples accompanied him, but the passage begins by telling us that they went on their way. Earlier in the chapter Jesus sent out an additional 72 disciples. We also know that the Twelve were not among this second group of disciples. So, it’s possible that Jesus showed up with 84 disciples – the 12 plus the 72. Martha’s problem is threefold: the demands of hospitality are immense; she alone is fulfilling them; and Jesus does not notice.

Surprisingly, Jesus rejects her solution and assessment. “Your problem,” he says, “is that you are anxious and troubled. It’s not that you have too much to do. You are busy with secondary and unneeded matters. Attend to me and listen to my word.”

In the wider context, today’s passage begins with a reference to Jesus’ journey. He is not alone on his way to Jerusalem. His disciples join him, and along the way, he meets would-be followers and a lawyer before he reaches Martha’s house. Some express interest in following Jesus, but must perform important tasks – burying the dead and bidding adieu to family. Luke reminds us that would-be followers must disengage themselves from these responsibilities and relationships.

Without diminishing the importance of her duties to her guests, Martha’s fault, like the lawyer who claimed he was prepared to do his duty for his neighbor, was in not letting Jesus love her as neighbor. As Peter at the foot washing thought, she too made the mistake of thinking that she was the host and Jesus was the guest.

Now, how do these passages apply to our lives? How do we offer Christian hospitality? Are we models of faith like Abraham and Sarah? Are we models of discipleship like Martha and Mary? Do we take time to listen to God? Do we believe God’s promises to us will be fulfilled?

First, hospitality. In the Lutheran tradition, there are three elements of Christian hospitality or table fellowship with Jesus: teaching, eating and the presence of Jesus. When we gather for worship those three are present. At times as ordained ministers, elders, ushers and sacristans, we are so busy preparing and celebrating liturgy that we forget that the posture in which we receive Jesus’ divine service is not the busyness of human doing, but the stillness of listening to His words. As the Apology of the Augsburg Confession reminds us, faith is the highest form of worship. Be still and know that I am God.

Second, are we models of faith like Abraham and Sarah? Several years ago, I attended a presentation by Pastor Joel Bierman entitled Man and Woman in Christ. He challenged pastors to preach like Paul, saying, unlike the Apostle, we’re too timid to say, “Imitate me!” So, I’m going to reveal something about my life, and challenge you to imitate me.

Less than a year into our marriage, my wife, Cindy, made two announcements in two weeks. For the longest time, even before we met, she considered retiring and moving. Retiring and moving, like any change causes stress. … My life changed dramatically since I left the Catholic priesthood in 2008 after 21 years of ministry. I became a well-paid fundraising professional in Berkeley, California when I met Cindy in July 2009. Neither of us was “looking to get married,” but God brought us together, and the rest is history. History in the making.

Cindy’s desires to retire and move made me anxious about our finances. While I was in the colloquy program, I would have to find a new job in whatever city we landed. So, like any reasonable person, I made plans … but they collapsed.

Recall that in his conversations with God, Abraham created backup plans; however, God would fulfill His promises not according to backup plans, but according to His plan. I found myself in a similar situation. I made plans for employment, and God rejected them, much in the same way that the Lord rejected Abraham’s and Martha’s plans.

Has God ever rejected your plans and said something like He did to Abraham and Martha, “Listen to me!”? Listening to God means that we are not only models of faith but also models of discipleship.

Models of faith, models of discipleship listen to God. We know that God speaks to us through creation, history, Word and sacrament. Do we consider that God speaks to us through other people? Have you ever considered that God speaks to you through your spouse or other family members?

You know, the person who drew me to the Missouri Synod is my wife. Did your spouse or someone close to you draw you into a deeper relationship with God? I would like us to consider that Mary, by sitting at the Lord’s feet listening to what He said drew her sister into a deeper relationship with Jesus.

Because you love the Lord and those closest to you, what are you doing to be drawn closer to God? Some have made a Marriage Encounter weekend or some other marriage enrichment weekend. I know from presenting dozens of such weekends how they deepen a couple’s love. Some people dialogue daily on matters deeper than family and work activities. Cindy and I spend time together each day praying, journaling and dialoging. We also read a number of “couple books,” such as Couples of the Bible: A One-Year Devotional Study to Draw You Closer to God and Each Other. This keeps us focused on our relationship, on each other and on God’s plan for us. It challenges us to be hospitable to our gracious God, and to be models of faith and discipleship.

In short, imitate us. Be models of faith and discipleship. Know that God has called you into His immense love, to be attentive to His Word, and to be models of faith and discipleship to others. Today, I ask you to do just one thing. Set aside 14 minutes (the length of this sermon) to listen to God speaking to you and reflect upon His promises. Only one thing is required – that you sit and listen.

I encourage you to do this because we need a church full of people who are humble before the Lord, but bold enough to say to other people, “Imitate me.” Let the Holy Spirit speak to your heart daily, and when you do, may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.