249 Monterey Park

   (Note: This blog entry is based on the text  for “Monterey Park”, originally shared on January 26, 2023. It was the 249^th video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)

   Are you blessed? You may think so, but when you read today’s telling of what Jesus calls “blessed” it might make your hair stand on end! And it will give you a clue for how to process the horrific violence we saw last Sunday in Monterey Park, where I have been temporarily serving very part-time in retirement since last June.

   We had an earthquake last Tuesday night. It seemed an appropriate expression of the upheaval we felt in Monterey Park last Sunday.

   I started doing “supply preaching” after I retired, leading worship and preaching at area churches when they needed someone to fill-in for their pastor or were between pastors. I served several Sundays at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Monterey Park.

   They asked if I could come every Sunday plus 6 hours during the week in the Spring of 2022, to help them emerge from the pandemic and develop as they prepared to search for a new pastor. I started in June.

   Trinity Faith Lutheran Church, a Mandarin Chinese-speaking congregation of our denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, shares St. Paul’s facilities.

   This is significant because Monterey Park, according to the 2020 census, is 65 percent Asian, most of whom are ethnically Chinese. St. Paul’s is mostly white, but with a few Asian members and regular visitors.

   Monterey Park is a family-oriented community and has relatively little serious crime. That stability was shaken last Sunday morning.

   My wife, Rev. Sally Welch, is a docent at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. She had to get up early to get to the museum for a gathering to honor another volunteer there who had died suddenly. We got up at 6:00 a.m., and when we turned on the TV news we saw the headlines: “Mass Shooting in Monterey Park: 10 dead and 10 injured.”

   The shooting had taken place about 1.5 miles north of St. Paul’s, near the same street on which the church is located. “10 dead and 10 injured.” (now 11 dead and 9 injured)

   I stared at the TV, trying to process what I was seeing. Nothing about that headline made sense. In what universe do the words “Monterey Park” and “mass shooting” go together? None. Except, now, one.

   Sally went to her event, and I went to mine. I called our son to make sure he knew what had happened before he came to worship and drove to the church.

   I rewrote my sermon in my mind on the way.

   I drove up the street, past the church, up to where traffic was being detoured away from the crime scene. I felt that I needed to be there. I needed to be a witness, to take it in, to let the reality sink-in, if even from a distance.

   I returned to the church to begin worship in the midst of a catastrophe and shared some thoughts at the beginning of the service, thoughts that I’m sure many others had as well, but would benefit from hearing said out loud.

   What can the Church say in a moment like this?

   First, that this was the fifth mass shooting in the United States this year. This year! And it was only January 22^nd. Since then there have been several dozen!

   Second, that we seem to have become numb to these things, until perhaps they happen nearby or to people we know and love. How could that happen? Because every time they do, we hear people, both officials and just people we know, saying the same things. And nothing changes. That needs to change.

   Third, we need common sense gun control laws that are also respectful of our rights under the 2^nd amendment to our constitution, including a national background check required.

   Fourth, there is a moral aspect to that discussion. Just because we have a right to have something doesn’t mean that we should have it. We have a right to bear arms. Whether or not we do is a moral question. We need to have that discussion.

   Fifth, we need a common resolve among tax-payers and voters to provide affordable destigmatized mental health care for everyone at every level. That treatment must include dealing with issues of perfectionism and conflict management.

   Sixth, citizens of our country who care about building a civil society must turn away from our current culture and learn to put the interests of others ahead of their own. We must learn to make our default impulse to love and not hate, to seek reconciliation and not violence. We will need to practice comprehensive community engagement and community based prevention programs. It will take everybody to reform our culture or it won’t result in a lasting contribution to our society at all.

   Seventh, what has become our radical individualism needs a correction. Our first thought when slighted should be reflection on what outcome benefits the community. Our last thought should be the same.

   Eighth, we must communicate the message of the Gospel, that Jesus died for sinners.

   I think that it’s possible that the shooter in the Monterey Park murders allowed his hurt feelings to grow into rage, and then he gave into it and acted in that rage. In that moment, he wanted to make others pay for his pain.

   How do we overcome everything we know about the nearly universal value, “Thou shalt not kill”, stealing a life that is not ours but belongs to God?

   But, violence never satisfies that rage. And, in the end, when the man returned to his right mind, and the enormity of what he had done closed in on him, he saw no way out. No path to forgiveness. No possibility of grace. Why do you think the guy took his own life, again stealing something the belongs to God? The Gospel tells us that no one is beyond redemption. We need to do a better job of finding the isolated and bringing them to the community of Christ that is the Church. We need to do a better job of communicating the message of mercy seen in the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.

   Ninth, I attended the first community vigil at City Hall on Monday night. Political and religious leaders spoke to the pain people felt, a dull confused uncomprehending pain. A nearby fire truck blasted a burst from its siren as it headed out on a call. It sounded like someone crying. More than one person quoted an idea that we call all people to live, one that is found in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, and seen in Matthew 22:36-40,

³⁶“Teacher, 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.”

   Tenth, and most importantly, we as Christians need to do a better job of leading sinners, all those living in separation from God, to the transformational relationship with God in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. We cannot change the human heart, but we can point people to the peace that passes human understanding. We can’t force human behavior to change, at least not for long, but we can introduce to people to Jesus Christ, who makes everyone who turns to Him into a new creation.

   We see the key to that transformation in a sermon of Jesus commonly referred to as “The Sermon on the Mount,” our main Bible reading for today.

    It points away from everything that the world values and points us to the reign of God, who makes all things new.

   What would you need to call yourself blessed?

   What does the world think it would need?

   Take a look at who Jesus calls blessed, in Matthew 5:1-12,

   ¹When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. ²Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

³“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ⁴“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. ⁵“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. ⁶“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. ⁷“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. ⁸“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. ⁹“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. ¹⁰“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ¹¹“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. ¹²Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

   Could this be any farther from the values of the world?

   Jesus describes what it means to be blessed in the reign of God.

   Being blessed is knowing that you have nowhere to turn but to God, and that you have Someone to whom you can turn.

   Being blessed is living in the freedom that knows that this world is not all there is, that there is a better life that has been prepared for us.

   Being blessed is knowing that you are not alone, that God enters into our weakness, our mourning, our desire for a better world, our work for peace and our testimony to the reliability of God in Jesus Christ and He meets us there.

   The comedian Garry Shandling once reflected on Leo Durocher, the ruthless coach of the Dodgers when they were the Brooklyn Dodgers, who famously said, “Nice guys finish last.”

   Garry Shandling said, “Nice guys finish first, and anyone who doesn’t know that doesn’t know where the finish line is.”

   God calls for justice among all his people but justice, in the Bible, is in God’s hands. Justice is doing God’s will.

   May we bring this message to our hurting community. May our message be that you are not alone, that God brings a message of comfort and love, one of mercy and justice, one of grace and peace, and that we sinners who have received the mercy of God, offer you our community of faith, here and now and for abundant life everlasting. 

248 Following Jesus

    (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “Following Jesus”, originally shared on January 18, 2023. It was the 248^th video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)

   Have you ever been a team captain, taking turns picking the players for your side? What if you were an employer, what kind of person would you be looking for? How do you decide who to vote for? Jesus doesn’t seem to look for any of the qualities that we would choose when he selects his disciples. Today, we’re going to find out who Jesus is looking for. It might be you.

   We’re still getting rain in Southern California. I set out every container I could find to save some for dry spells.

   We pray for those who live in the burn areas or are struggling to fix leaks or are otherwise negatively affected. But, for most of us, the rain is welcome after years of drought.

   However, officials tell us that we have only moved from an “extreme drought” to a “severe drought”, and that it will take several years of wet winters to get out of drought conditions.

   When I hear that I think, “Come on! Can’t you just let us enjoy this rain while we have it?” 😊 This is a blessing!

   God ended three hundred years of prophetic drought with the appearance of John the Baptist. There had been no word from God through a prophet for all that time. And then almost immediately John points to Jesus as the sacrificial lamb of God, and then John gets thrown in jail and taken out of the picture! But that’s another story for another day.

   St. Matthew tells us that the imprisonment of John was a turning point for Jesus.

   Jesus moved. He changed his place of residence to fulfill a prophecy. And if that prophecy sounds familiar, it’s because we just heard it on Christmas Eve! We see it starting in Matthew 4:12,

¹²Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. ¹³He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, ¹⁴so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: ¹⁵“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— ¹⁶the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.” ¹⁷From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

   Jesus, the light of the world, has dawned, bringing life to the world that has been sitting in darkness. It’s an epiphany!

   And what message does Jesus, the light of the world, bring to “the people who sat in darkness”, and “in the region and shadow of death”?

   “’Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’” It’s time for a change!

   We consider the meaning of The Magi during the season of Epiphany, the wise men who came to see the baby Jesus. They were the first non-Jews, or “gentiles” to encounter Him.

   How could they not have been changed by that encounter?

   In T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Journey of the Magi”, he writes as one of the wise men,

“All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.”

   To encounter Christ is to be transformed. His age is not important. His being is. Everything is made new in Him, and he calls us to repent.

   Repentance means to turn around, to receive an inner reorientation. We receive the gift to repent and to become a new creation in the living relationship with the one true living God, to turn away from “an alien people clutching their gods.”

   That is exactly what happens when Jesus calls Simon, Andrew, and James and John to follow Him. It’s exactly what happens to us.

   Watch how long it takes for those four fishermen to consider what to do with their lives once they have received the call from Jesus to follow him, continuing in verse 18,

¹⁸As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. ¹⁹And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” ²⁰Immediately they left their nets and followed him. ²¹As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. ²²Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

   They clocked out “immediately.” How could that happen?

   Some of them had encountered Jesus before. Now Jesus was inviting them to respond. And they responded. Immediately.

   When Apple Computer was getting started Steve Wozniak was the tech guy and Steve Jobs was the visionary/marketer guy. As the company began to grow, however, it became obvious that they were going to need a highly able CEO to run the business side of the company. Steve Jobs was focused on recruiting Jim Scully, the CEO of the Pepsi Corporation, one of the largest multi-national corporations in the world.

   John Scully was reluctant to say yes to this little tech start-up. Until one day, Steve Jobs turned to him and said, “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life or come with me and change the world?”

   That was convincing. He relented and helped grow Apple Computer into a major corporation and social transformer.

   Jesus made no such promises to his disciples. But God did change the world through their faithfulness.

   And they weren’t recruited with a romantic appeal to a life filled with challenges, like the way young men were alleged to have been recruited to deliver mail for the Pony Express with the poster, “Wanted: Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over eighteen. Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred.” 

   But every one of the disciples would die because they followed Jesus. And God changed the world through them.

   The invitation to follow Jesus is what we refer to as a “call”. Our word “vocation” comes from the Latin word “vocare”, which means “to call”.

   The Lutheran understanding of work is that we all have a vocation. It’s our job.

   The Lutheran understanding of work is that every job is what we do in answer to God’s call.

   Some people are called to be teachers. Some are called to be artists, or lawyers or nurses or electricians or businesspersons or homemakers, shoemakers, athletes, or pastors.

   We live our Christianity in our daily lives by being good at what we do and, thereby, glorifying God.

   The disciples were called to literally follow Jesus as their primary jobs for a particular reason. They glorified God by their obedience. Nothing else qualified them.

   Of all the people God could have called, he did not choose the rich and powerful, the well-known and respected, the popular or the influencers.

   God called regular people. Their only distinguishing trait seems to be their willingness to say “yes”. Remember the rich young ruler that Jesus called to follow Him? He said “no”.

   God has God’s own standards. As has often been said, “God doesn’t call the qualified. God qualifies the called.” God often sees things in us that we don’t.

   When the prophet Samuel was sent to anoint the next king of Israel after Saul from among the sons of Jesse in Bethlehem, Samuel saw Eliab and thought for sure he was the one. But David wasn’t there. Jesse hadn’t even called his son David in from the fields. He thought he was too young, not King material, and he thought Samuel would feel the same.  

   Instead, we see in 1 Samuel 16:7, speaking of Eliab,

But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”

   Likewise, God calls us to change the world through Him who strengthens us.

   We are, all of us, called to be disciples of Jesus Christ, whatever the form our particular vocation might take.

   And even though few of us are called to fish for a living, we are all called to be fishers of people, to make disciples.

   That means going to where the fish are. Sometimes that means being quiet, as in the title of a book on evangelism says, Out of Their Faces and Into Their Shoes. Sometimes it means being patient. Sometimes it means enduring long stretches when nothing seems to be happening.

   But what is always means is saying “yes” each day to living as the disciples of Jesus Christ.

   And what did the disciples see when they followed Jesus? We see in the conclusion of our main Bible reading for today, in Matthew 4:23

²³Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.

   What does Jesus want his disciples to see?

   Jesus taught and he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God.

   He performed miracles, not as suspensions of the laws of nature, but as signs of what nature was intended to be from the beginning, pointing to the Creator and the Redeemer and the Sanctifier of all that is: God.

   Jesus’ miracles are signs of the greatest miracle of all: the reconciliation of God and humanity at the cross, restoring the relationship with the one true living God for which we Created.

   When the wise man in the poem says, “I should be glad of another death,” he is speaking of dying to his old life, dying to sin and rising to new life in Jesus Christ. Repentance. Baptism. Things in which we participate every day. And he speaks of the death of Jesus on the cross that makes our new life possible, so that we can say “yes” to Jesus’ invitation to us to be his disciples and “yes” to his command to us to make disciples.

   Do you want to change the world?

   Margaret Mead, the anthropologist, once said, “Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has.”

   We aren’t any better than anyone else. But our God is greater than everything else.

   Paul writes, in Romans 5:6-8,

⁶For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. ⁸But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.

   Jesus is looking for followers whose lives begin with the transformation that comes when we encounter Jesus. Jesus is looking for followers whose eternal life begins when we say “yes”.

   Jesus is looking for followers whose commitment comes in response to what Jesus has done for us on the cross.

   Jesus is looking for you.