Lent 3B: Series: #MakingFaithMatter

NB: You can listen to the sermon by clicking here.

Familiar words from Jesus, eh? Those of us who’ve been around the church long enough have probably forgotten the punch that this passage packs. It’s become for many of us, perhaps, too familiar. They’ve lost their edge. We’ve house-trained these bible verses spoken by a house-trained Jesus. At least that’s what we’ve tried to do with him because what he asks us to do makes no sense when we stop and think about it.

Some of these phrases have become so commonplace that they’ve made their way into our everyday language and they threaten to morph into cliche.

“Turn the other cheek.”

“Go the extra mile.”

Or even...“Love your enemy.”

Easily recognizable words spoken by a Jesus with whom we’ve become far too comfortable. 

But if we step back and see Jesus from a distance once again, and take Jesus’ commands seriously, we might see things a little differently. But then again, when we re-hear Jesus’ words as if they were first spoken, I’d worry that we might become a first class doormat.

“If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also...”

Hmmm....not sure about that one. If someone punches me in the face, I’d hit them right back. I wouldn’t point to the other side of my face and say, “missed a spot.”  

“If anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well

Not entirely sure I know what he’s talking about here. If someone sues me, they better have a good lawyer because I’m going to protect what is mine. 

“ ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you...”

Really? I have enemies for a reason. Loving them is not one of them. Especially since they don’t have my best interest in mind.

And then comes the command that puts all the others in their place:

“Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

That’s were we REALLY run into trouble. Perfection, especially for us Lutherans, is not a spiritual value. Perfection is a burden. Grace is a gift.

This doesn’t sound like good news to me. It actually sounds kind of dangerous. We know we aren’t perfect. We know we have flaws. We know that we struggle along trying to do our best with what we have where we are. After all, isn’t that why Jesus came to earth, so that God could share our limiting imperfections?

So what’s happening here?

Well, if we dig a little deeper into the language, we see that the word  for “perfection” would be better translated as “holy.”  “Be HOLY, as your heavenly Father is holy.”

Does that help us any? “Be holy” may not sound much better than “be perfect.” When we think of “holy people” what do we think of? I don’t know about you but I often think of super spiritual people who walk just a couple inches off of the ground, people who live a life of prayer, who exude serenity and luminate with peace. And most of us know we are not that person.

But, “holiness” in scripture wasn’t reserved for those super spiritual Godly men and women who appear translucently semi-divine. In fact, in the bible no such person exists.

Holiness” according to the bible is simpler than that. Holiness means being set apart. It means being different, unique, distinct.

So, you could translate this passage as “Be unique, just as your heavenly Father is unique.” Or be set apart, separate, just as your heavenly Father is set apart and separate.”

As Christians, we are called to be different than others, we are made and re-made in God’s image, not the world’s. We are re-created to be alternate visions to the world God loves, but needs repair and restoration. We are called to be different.

And that’s not always easy.

One of the charges some of our evangelical friends have laid on us mainline churches is that we are “too close” to the culture, that there’s nothing unique about us to distinguish us from the rest of society, that we’re no different than the Rotary Club, except that we meet at a more inconvenient time.

I hear this all the time. That Lutherans and other mainline Christians, such as Anglicans, Presbyterians, and United Churches, have compromised their moral standards to ingratiate themselves to a secular world, and have watered down our theology to make it palatable for mass consumption.

Those charges are usually laid by Christians who seem to delight in stirring up trouble, often operating out of a robust persecution complex. If they’re not being passing moral judgment on others to the point of being hated, then they’re not doing their jobs as Christians. And since we’re not hated like they are (or perceived that they are), then we’re clearly not as Christian as they are.

They’re not completely wrong. But it’s not that we’ve sold out to culture, we’ve just been part of it for so long that we’ve forgotten how to be a minority. And we take from the culture and use it for gospel purposes.

Lutherans, and other historic state churches, had become cozy with the culture. By definition, that’s what a state church is and does. A state church blesses national ambitions.

And we’ve carried that tradition across the pond to Canada. While this is changing, clergy still are called upon to bless whatever the culture deems “good.”

And, Lutheran and other mainline clergy, including myself, are schooled in secular counseling theory, which carries with it, certain moral assumptions about human behaviour.

Even the language we use about being an “inclusive” church comes from the social sciences and not from the bible (which is one of the reasons I don’t use that word).

Our organizational structure is borrowed from a model frequently used in the 1970’s and 80’s by non-profit organizations. We’re deeply invested in the surrounding culture.

But Evangelicals and other Christians who criticize us for being too close to the culture need to relieve themselves of the logs in their own eyes before pointing out the speck in ours. Many of these churches are expert marketers, using secular business models to draw a crowd. They preach while waving iPads rather than bibles, and use latest technology to create multi-media worship experiences. They the culture’s tools to get peoples’ attention. The tools then become the message.

At best, these churches that could be mistaken for shopping malls tells the visitor, “Don’t worry, there’s nothing new for you here. Being a Christian is just like every other part of your life.”

At worst, these churches bless peoples’ consumer impulses, turning faith into a consumer choice, pulling people further away from the poor man from Nazareth. These churches may take strong moral stands, but their message gets lost in their medium.

My intent isn’t to trash these churches. That would make me a first rate hypocrite. (but what else is new?) My aim is to point out that ALL churches cozy up to the culture - or at least the part they’re comfortable with. No church is exempt.

I think our inability to disengage from culture shows us how hard it is to be a Christian. It reveals just how difficult it is to be different, just as our heavenly Father is different. It’s tough to be separate, set apart, just as our heavenly Father is separate, it might be impossible to be set apart as our heavenly Father is set apart.

But that’s what we’re called to be. But what does that look like? And how do we get there?

I think the answer lies hidden in the text.

It’s obvious. Of course, people aren’t going to offer the other side of their face to be smacked. Of course people aren’t going to give more than asked of them. Of course, people aren’t going to go the extra mile for someone who is oppressing them. Of course, people aren’t going to love their enemies.

But Jesus did. And he gave his listeners tools to live set apart from others.

Back then, if someone hit you on the right cheek, they had to use the back of their hand, which was usually a punishment for slaves. But to hit you on your left, they’d have to use an open hand, which was considered low class behaviour. To hit you on your left would lead to public embarrassment.

And people would usually have only two garments. If they gave their enemy both of them, you’d be naked. And your enemy would be shamed for requiring you to go without clothes.

And Roman soldiers were only allowed to require people to carry their packs for one mile. If someone carried the solider’s pack an extra mile, that person would embarrass the soldier and probably get him into trouble.

I could go on, but you get the idea. Jesus was giving his listeners tools for resisting those who were oppressing them. He was providing a different way of dealing with their enemies. He gave peaceful solutions to conflict. He was teaching them how to be set apart. He was showing them how to make their faith matter.

Jesus wasn’t asking people to become doormats. Just the opposite. Jesus was giving people back their power. He was providing non-violent forms of resistance against oppressive authority. He was equipping a beaten down people with the tools to defy the forces that made them feel less than human.

He was giving them back their dignity, helping them regain their sense of personhood, lifting them up, empowering them, so they could live out their lives with a renewed feeling of self-worth, after so many defeats. He was given them back their self-respect after so many years of finding their noses in the dirt. He was endowing them with nobility, reminding them that they were God’s people, servants of the Most Hight God, created in the image of the one through whom everything came into being, in the face of an empire that stripped them of everything they had.

He was making their faith matter.

While Jesus doesn’t provide a solution to every oppressive encounter, he’s pretty clear about what it means to be different.

This is how Jesus calls us to make faith matter:

When the someone lashes out in anger, you respond in love. When others demean you, you have creative solutions to maintain your dignity.

You will not let other peoples’ destructive behaviour turn you into your enemies. Your enemies will not dictate your actions or let them define you. You will not become who they are.

You will not let setbacks, shattered dreams, injustice, or abuse define you. You are more than that. You will not let circumstances tell you who you are. You will not let those who hurt you rob you of your dignity. You will not let those who do not have your best interest in mind tell you who are. You will not let your past decide your future. You will not let the principalities and powers destroy the love that is within you. You will not let the power of death steal your joy.



You are more than what people have done to you. You are more than the sadness and pain that has been thrown at you. You are more than your broken past. You are more than your stolen dreams. 



When life treats you as little more than a chew toy, you have the power to stand up and say, “Enough!” 

When life punches you in the face, you turn your head sideways and say, “I dare you.”You won’t be like everyone else. You will be different.

You will be different because you ARE different. You are God’s holy house, you are a living sanctuary, you are a dwelling place of the Lord. 

You are God’s people. You are a light to the nations. You are a people of mercy and love. You are a people of peace and justice. You are a people of forgiveness and freedom.

You are a chosen people, set apart to be a beacon of the divine. Your life bears witness to the love God has for the world and everyone and everything in it.

You are a resurrection people whose eyes are fixed on God’s new horizon, where all sorrow, pain, and suffering is transformed into an abundant future for all.

You have welcomed with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.

You may not know this about yourself. You may not see this in yourself. But you are tomorrow’s people because that’s who God has made you. That is who you are becoming.

You are God’s holy temple, where the Lord, the giver of Life dwells. You shine with the light of God’s glory, where the spirit of the crucified and risen Jesus radiates love in a world so often devoid of hope.

You are all these things because that’s who Christ is. And you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

That is who you are. That is how you are making faith matter.

May this be so among us. Amen.

Lent 1B Series: #MakingFaithMatter

NB: Click here to listen to the audio.


“Be doers of the word and not merely hearers…”

The one question I always ask myself when preparing a sermon is, “So what?” meaning, “What does this have to do with anything?” 

All this study and thought might be fun, in a nerdy sort of what way, interesting to dig into the layers of meaning of scripture, and apply fine points of doctrine to come up with a unique interpretation of the bible passage.

Yes, Paul is quoting Isaiah out of context. Interesting.

Yes, John is channeling Genesis at the beginning of his gospel. Sure that helps provide deeper insight.

Yes, Mary’s song is a ripped off from Hanna’s song. Curious.

But there comes a point when I have to wake up from out of my intellectual stupor, and ask where the passage hits people in their lives. I ask, “So what?”

I’m guessing that you do to. Most people wonder what faith actually looks like, what it actually does, what impact it has on people’s lives and the world.

That’s probably why you’re here. You sing songs. You pray prayers. You greet one another. You listen politely to what comes from this pulpit. And I’m guessing that in the back of your mind, you’re asking, “So what? How does this apply to me? How does this impact my life? What does this mean for me?”

Those are fair questions. Questions that Lutherans have been shy to ask, until recently. And that shyness, that hesitation, come from a fight that Martin Luther, our father in the faith from whom we get name “Lutheran,” had with this scripture passage.

“Be doers of the Word, not merely hearers.”

 Many Lutherans hate the letter of James. In fact, Martin Luther once said that the letter of James was made out of straw, only good to help light his fire.

Inflammatory language about scripture, don’t you think? Wanting to rip out a whole book from the bible to use for kindling doesn’t quite have the reverence we attach to the reading and study – let alone, the application - of scripture.

As one who has been trained in the Lutheran theological method, I always need to reach for the Tums when I see passages from James coming up in our Sunday readings.

“Be doers of the word and not merely hearers, lest you be deceived,” James sneers at us, waving his finger in our faces.

Those words stung Luther’s ears. He spent most of his formative years hunting after a God who loved him because all he heard at church was how much God demanded of him – and how God was furious with him for his failings.

All he heard, day after day, was how he wasn’t good enough, how he wasn’t doing enough, how much God was disappointed in his shabby attempts to be the good Christian he thought God wanted him to be.

But while studying Paul’s letter to the Romans, Luther read these words, “…all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God; they are now justified by God’s grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an atonement by his blood effective through faith.”

In other words, “stop trying so hard to get God to love you. Stop trying to work your way into heaven. God loves you and gave you Jesus. Jesus is your way into heaven.”

Luther was never the same after reading that. And neither was the church.

When Luther had to preach James’ letter where the apostle thunders at him “Be doers of the word and not merely hearers, lest you be deceived!” - Luther felt like he was back to square one. James assumed that Luther wasn’t doing enough for God. That all his studying and praying, teaching and preaching were not enough, and that he had to work even harder to prove he was the Christian he claimed to be. At least that’s the way that Luther heard it. No wonder he wanted to use the letter for kindling!

And that’s the way that many commentators and preachers hear it as well. I talked once with a pastor who said he loved this letter because to preach on it was his chance to “give it” to his congregation, and not in a good way. “To make sure they got off their butts and did something for Jesus.” I worried for his listeners.

I worried because I remember when I was in university and enduring a “get up off your butt and do something for Jesus” sermon based on this text, and thinking to myself, “I have six courses this term. I’m writing music for campus ministry, I lead a bible study, and I serve on the nominating committee for Laurier Christian Fellowship, what exactly am I not doing that you want me to do?”

And I think you might respond the same way: “I work 50 hours a week, one kid has swimming lessons while the other has piano. I’m a Stephen Minister, and I coach my kid’s soccer team. I usher at church and sometimes run the sound board. There are only so many hours in the week. What exactly am I not doing that Jesus want me to do?”

But I don’t think that’s what James was getting at. The church that James was writing to was really good at the “worship and study” piece of church life. They gathered in their holy huddles to pray and sing and study the bible. These are good things. But they didn’t know how to make the jump from worship and study to living and acting out what they learned.

James wanted them to bridge the gap between Sunday morning and Monday morning.

And I don’t hear James the way Luther did. I don’t hear James haranguing his church, because right there in the passage he says, “…anger does not produce righteousness.” I think he was trying to be gentle with this group of young believers, giving them a soft nudge out of the nest.

He knew the danger of religious people secluding themselves away from the rest of the world because he was probably standing 5 feet away from Jesus when some of the religious leaders were hassling Jesus because his disciples didn’t wash their hands before eating.

The Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, ‘Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat.

The religious leaders weren’t worried about the “ick” factor of not washing their hands before eating. They were upset because Jesus’ disciples – this supposedly great rabbi from Galilee – ignored basic Jewish traditions.

Then Jesus reminds them and the crowd standing there that silly little traditions aren’t important, but how we live out the faith that’s inside of us. That’s what’s important. Losing sight of how God wants us to live is a consequence of being too removed from the world around us.

James was worried because he could see the same thing happening at his church. The congregation wasn’t able to see that living out the faith is just as important – perhaps even more important – than spending all their time praying and worshipping.

James was placing practical love for neighbour and care for others at the centre of their life together, because they already knew how to worship. He just wanted them to take the next step. He was asking his people for their faith to find its feet, because their faith was already strong in their hearts. He was telling his followers that faith is something you DO, not just something you believe or something you feel.

But for those who might have gotten the wrong idea, and jumped off the other end and made good works a requirement for faith, James also reminds them that everything, every act of giving, every gift received, is from God, offered freely. That’s why you do good works, because God loves you. Not get God to love you.

You do good works BECAUSE you have faith, not to receive faith. You care for others because that’s who you are. You help hurting people because that’s what you faith tells you to do.

That’s why you’ll never get a “get off your butt and do something for Jesus” sermon from me. Because it’s bad theology, and it’s not what James is saying. I think Luther was wrong in his assessment of James. I think Luther couldn’t break out of his anger over the medieval church’s judgmental demands, demands which he read into James’ letter.

While Luther confronted abuses within the church, and offered a much needed corrective against church leaders who were more interested in power and control rather than love and forgiveness, the legacy he left was that good works were looked upon with suspicion, and the full content of our faith was personal piety; prayer, bible reading, and going to church.

But we have a saviour who healed the sick and raised the dead. We follow a messiah who confronted abusive powers. We bear the name of the one who was deeply immersed in human suffering and had the temerity to believe that he could do something about it.

He did all this because he had to. He had no choice. He had no choice but to reach out to those who were in pain. He had not choice but to love those who were abandoned by the rest of the world. He had no choice but to bring life to a world that was dying.

He had no choice because that’s who is was. And that’s who we are because we have his name stamped on our foreheads, that’s who we are because we have our names written in his book of life, that’s who we are because we have been joined to his life, death, resurrection, and ascension.

And because we bear the name “Christian” we have been given an opportunity, we have been given an opportunity to change the world in Jesus’ name by living out what we have been freely given.

We have been given an opportunity to be a ray of sun to those struggling in the darkness.

We have been given an opportunity to be a healing presence in our community, known for our care, and not for the financial challenges of another church body.

We have been given an opportunity to tell a different story from the story we usually hear; a story of life and abundance, a story mercy and justice, a story of peace and reconciliation, a story of love and care.

And I think we’ve taken that challenge seriously.

We are, as James puts it, keeping our religion “pure and undefiled before God,” not by cloistering ourselves away so the stain of the world leaves no blemish. But by caring for others, by growing in love, by deepening our compassion.


That’s why we’ve made a change here at First Lutheran. We’ve changed First Lutheran Church’s slogan from “Living Jesus Inside Out” to “Making Faith Matter.”

This change is to signify a renewed emphasis on the practical side of the faith, our ambition to make our presence felt more deeply in our community, to show others that the business we do in here, makes an impact in what you do out there.



So, for my time with and among you, I want us to focus on the DOING of the faith. 

I want us to get our hands dirty by having a stronger presence in the community. I want us to be known by our love as we live our faith in the workplace. I want us to be ambassadors for Christ in how we care for those who need our help. I want us to be beacons of light and agents hope at home.

I want us to be known for Making Faith Matter, in our lives and in our community.

And we’re off to an excellent start. We already have important ministries that impact others in Jesus’ name. I want us to build on the solid foundation that has been established by your hard work.

Stephen Ministry is being revived, with four people beginning their training. Stephen Ministry being the one-on-one caring ministry that helps people through challenges and crises, by being a listening ear and caring heart.

Inn From the Cold provides food and shelter for those who have no home.

Ladies’ Time Out offers women a chance to fellowship with each other.

Confirmation Class has service project requirements to put feet on the faith that the students will be confirming.

Small groups have a missional component to their gatherings, where they engage in some action that benefits others.

Youth group, which is being re-imagined, will have a strong faith-action connection, to reinforce the notion that faith is to be LIVED.

And we will be building on the strength of what we’re already doing. We will be making faith matter.

Also, those of you on social media, I want us to take over the hashtag #MakingFaithMatter, I want that hashtag to be connected with us, to celebrate the ways we are impacting our world in Jesus’ name, and to invite others into the conversation, and into our life together as we live out our faith in practical ways.

So be doers of the word and not merely hearers. Keep doing what you’re doing, and even more so. Be generous. Be compassionate. 

Let’s celebrate our successes. Let’s build on the good things that are happening. Let First Lutheran Church be known in our community for #MakingFaithMatter.

May this be so among us. Amen