Re*Formation: Living, Growing, & Walking with Jesus

Living, Growing, and Walking to the End

Rev. Michael Stadtmueller

Sermon Scripture: : MATTHEW 15:14-30
[Jesus said to the disciples:] 14“For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; 15to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. 17In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. 18But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. 20Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ 21His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ 22And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.’ 23His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ 24Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; 25so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ 26But his master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? 27Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. 28So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. 29For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 30As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ ”

Re*Formation: Living, Growing, & Walking with Jesus

Growing and Preparing for the Day of the Lord

Sermon Scripture: MATTHEW 25:1-13

[Jesus said to the disciples:] ¹“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. ²Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. ³When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; ⁴but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. ⁵As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. ⁶But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ ⁷Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. ⁸The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ ⁹But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ ¹⁰And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. ¹¹Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ ¹²But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ ¹³Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

Re*Formation: Living as All the Saints

Rev. Michael Stadtmueller

Re*Formation: Walking in the Word

Rev. Leta Arndt Behrens

No Audio Recording

Sermon Scripture: MATTHEW 22:34-46

³⁴When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, ³⁵and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ³⁶Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest? ³⁷He said to him, ” ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸This is the greatest and first commandment. ³⁹And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
⁴¹Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: ⁴²What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he? They said to him, “The son of David.” ⁴³He said to them, “How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying,
 ⁴⁴‘The Lord said to my Lord,
 “Sit at my right hand,
 until I put your enemies under your feet” ‘?
⁴⁵If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?” ⁴⁶No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

Sermon Text: If I titled sermons this one would be play doh + gummy worms, + Jesus = everything you need to know about the reformation.

As you heard with the children, Reformation and re*formation are not really about a one time event that happened 500 years ago but they aren’t not about it either. The idea of reformation is not to change because one is bored, or in need of a new style or just to make those around you raise your eyebrows. Re-formation is about taking what is there already as gift and living into it in a new way. Play doh allows for us to explore with creation and re creation while still remaining play doh, just as the church, our faith, our own walking and growing and living with Jesus allows us to explore this life with God in so many ways and still, the gift and grace of Jesus remains in and with and through all our explorations.

A woman I have never met came to visit me this week. She warmly and comfortably settled into a conversation with me in my office and in a very straight forward manner said, “I have lost my way a little bit and decided I better go back to my roots and give that Lutheran Church a try. I heard good things about you and this place pastor, so I decided I better just go check you out. You seem young (so that was awesome) but I like you anyway. But what I really am worried about is if I will fit here. I know what I believe and it has put people off, I am not like the strong Christians who we see so much of lately. I am afraid people will not want me and my beliefs around.” So after I got over my young self, I asked her, well what do you believe? She told me she believes in Jesus, knows him as her savior and she believes that doesn’t mean that God isn’t speaking to and leading people of other faiths. She said she believes there is room for us all in this world and she knows where she stands, as a Christian, but also wants to approach and embrace others with love and humility and space for all the ideas and thoughts and explorations.  My answer was simple, I believe that too. And I believe this is a place where even if someone disagrees with you, we create space for dialog and openness and walking with one another in grace and love.

Do you know how awesome it is to get to have that conversation? And to get to say with full confidence every single time I am asked—Yes, you are welcome here. It is beautiful and life giving and the best part is that we embrace being full of welcome and we remain we who are, centered and formed on Jesus. This is  part of re-formation, just welcoming people to live their faith, explore their thoughts and know that they are held in God’s grace reforms not just those who are lost, seeking or willing to speak up but it reforms all of us as we are in community.

Re-formation, unlike play doh, is not about being completely malleable into anything anyone wants us to be. We don’t get to be wishy washy either. Re-formation happens best, when we know our core and move from that center of Christ into our thoughts, our hearts, our community. Luther, 500 years ago, knew this to be true and was pushed to the limit of his core when he was summoned to the diet of worms—(hold up gummy worms)— ah, now the teenagers are listening. But sorry, this Diet of Worms was not really about Halloween candy. A diet was a meeting and Worms was the place where they were gathering. It was here that Luther was questioned and pushed and told to recant what he had been teaching about God and scripture, to recant his 95 Thesis, to give up on this trajectory of being against indulgences and keep the people from knowing scripture and exploring and knowing God’s deep unending love for them. It was here that Luther stood his ground and answered them:

“ Since your majesty and your lordships desire a simple reply, I will answer without horns and without teeth. Unless I am convicted by scripture and plain reason–I do not accept the authority of popes and councils for they have contradicted each other–my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise, God help me. Amen.”

And this bring us to the Bible, the word of God where Luther stood centered on Christ. Luther knew to his core that Jesus was messiah who had come to justify, to save, to embrace each of us with grace. That there was no way to earn our way or buy our way or think our way or feel our way to the life eternal with God but that God was and is right here and right now bringing that word of life, that promise of the cross that through Jesus we are already right where we need to be, right with God.

Jesus too was pushed by the Pharisees, sadducees, leaders in the synagogues and political authorities. He was pushed on what he knew about the word of God, the laws of the Torah and the laws of the land. In our scripture today we find Jesus in a final argument with these authorities and here Jesus stands on the word of God and on the experience of God being revealed through him. Jesus recites the Shema as the center of who God’s people are called to be—Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul. And then he continues to recite scripture and re-forms this core to include Love your neighbor in this same way. And finally he says, I am the messiah, the one from God, the one who has come to stand here with you and bring you to myself and into the fullness of that love and grace God promises. This is the word of God Luther stands on, Jesus stands on, and we now 500 years later come to stand on—welcoming, embracing and reaching out to the world with love, centered on Christ.

This is the gospel we embrace and hope for our children and their children to know and live as well. Our middle school confirmation students spent this past month exploring many things Luther taught from this center. They did several interactive stations and lessons on the catechism that Luther wrote for the purpose of teaching and exploring faith. One of the activities was to learn about these words of Luther and then to offer their own Here I Stand about their own faith. Here are some of them.

Video—1:30

How would you answer that question? Where is it that you stand? If you know now, write it down during sacred space time. Or give it some more thought and talk about it on the drive home or over dinner later today.

No matter your answer, hear this today. The reforming, the calling, the voice of God to you invites you into this life where the law and the gospel all hang on love. And that love is for you, with you, in you and among you. It calls you and roots you, it sends you out to explore new ways of living and growing in faith and it draws you into Jesus himself. You in this place, are a place for others to stand and you in this place, are held in this refuge of love.

Re*Formation: Growing in Generosity

Rev. Michael Stadtmueller

Sermon Scripture: MATTHEW 22:15-22

¹⁵Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap [Jesus] in what he said. ¹⁶So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. ¹⁷Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” ¹⁸But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? ¹⁹Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. ²⁰Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” ²¹They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” ²²When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.

Re*Formation: Living, Growing, and Walking with Jesus

Walking in the Vineyard

Rev. Michael Stadtmueller

Sermon Scripture: MATTHEW 21:33-46

[Jesus said to the people:] ³³“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. ³⁴When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. ³⁵But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. ³⁶Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. ³⁷Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ³⁸But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ ³⁹So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. ⁴⁰Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” ⁴¹They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”
  ⁴²Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: 
 ‘The stone that the builders rejected
  has become the cornerstone;
 this was the Lord’s doing,
  and it is amazing in our eyes’?
⁴³Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. ⁴⁴The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”
  ⁴⁵When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. ⁴⁶They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.