I had the privilege to be with God’s people gathered as American Lutheran Church in Ashland, Nebraska on Sunday September 22, 2024. Thank you Pastor Suzanne How for the invitation and to the whole congregation for the warm welcome. It was a wonderful day of conversation, worship, and sharing stories. I was invited to bring greetings from the Bishop, a word of gratitude for the ministry of the congregation, and to preach a sermon about stewardship and what the congregation is discovering by being in the Nebraska Synod’s Vitality Initiative for Congregations. What follows is the majority of the manuscript I preached from, based especially on Mark 9:30-37 and Psalm 54, appointed readings for the 18th Sunday after Pentecost (Year B- Lectionary 25). The livestream of the service can be watched or listened to here: https://www.facebook.com/alcashland/videos/376851425498020

Grace and peace from God in Christ, who is with you, for you, and who loves you. Amen. [1]

A story about Childlike Wonder
American, it’s so good to be back with you in worship this morning. I was last with you on a Sunday morning back in the fall of 2017. And the biggest change for me at least since being with you last is that I am now a dad of two young girls. They are wonderful. They are handfuls. But I wouldn’t change a thing. As I think about today’s story, I am reminded believe it or not of Christmastime. That’s not to get ahead of ourselves here, or to think about the fact that Costco, Target, Walmart and what have you, already have Christmas decorations for sale, which is ridiculous by the way. But, because Jesus ends the story today welcoming a child, I am reminded of the experience of the first couple Christmases with these girls of ours.

We like to decorate, and we love Christmas lights. So I distinctly remember holding them by the tree, and watching their eyes fill with wonder and awe at staring at the lights and ornaments for the first or second time. There’s nothing like it. The childlike wonder was on full display. A wonder filled with joy. Filled with hope. Awe. And perhaps imagination and curiosity. As a parent, if I have one hope for my daughters is that they never lose that sense of wonder, curiosity, and imagination. It will serve them well. And hopefully it will always lead them to ask questions to learn and grow.

I start there because the disciples in this story today seem to be afraid of asking questions. So I wonder, have you ever been too afraid to ask the question? Have you been too afraid that by asking a question you might be seen as someone who isn’t very smart because you don’t understand something? Have you ever just decided to not ask a question for fear of being found out? This goes for you in class at school, for those of you in Bible Study, and each and everyone of us in daily life as we try to make sense of what is happening in the world around us. We all do it, I suspect, from time to time. And if you too, find yourself saying yes to any of these questions, you have good company with Jesus’ disciples. And in the spirit of confession as another person who fights the urge to be a perfectionist and who doesn’t often like to be seen as not knowing something, I’m right there with you.

Joining Jesus and the Disciples Along the Way
This week we hear a story about Jesus and the disciples being on the road through Galilee. The disciples may not have been aware of what was going on, but Jesus was intentional in this journey about teaching them, in fact he was hoping no one noticed so that he could take the time to teach the disciples a bit more.[2]

As they journey along, we hear a number of teaching tidbits from Jesus about what it means to be a disciple and to share and show God’s deep abiding and abundant love. But before he digs into teaching, he begins with a passion prediction. Jesus says, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.”[3] To those of us on this side of the resurrection, we know what Jesus is saying. But to those first disciples, these words confounded logic and likely caused a good deal of fear.

When faced with fear people often confront it or hide from it. And it seems the disciples, because “they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him” chose the latter.[4] Perhaps they weren’t ready to ask, “What does this mean?” Perhaps they feared that Jesus thought that they should already understand? Perhaps they were afraid that the idea that they might have about a triumphant Son of Man coming into the world to change everything by force and with all authority and power, wasn’t exactly what Jesus was painting a picture of here? Whatever the case, they didn’t ask the question. They didn’t ask Jesus to go further and explain what he was talking about. Instead as they continued on to Capernaum, Jesus heard the disciples arguing. He confronted them and asks, “What were you arguing about on the way?”[5] But again they were silent.

Perhaps they are yet again afraid to be found out, for they were arguing about “who was the greatest.”[6] Jesus obviously knew what they were discussing though because he used it as a teaching moment. He sat down and taught through word and deed. He said, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.”[7] That might seem straight forward enough about the importance of service that is part of the life of being a disciple and steward, but Jesus then took it a step further. He embraced a child and said, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”[8] Jesus turns the fear the disciples seem to have of asking questions on their head. He turns the focus on power and greatness that they might have, to service and welcome. I wonder what the disciples might have been wondering about at this point. Would they finally be getting what Jesus was saying? Or might their fear, worries, or anxieties, still be keeping them from being open to the questions on their hearts and minds, and the insights and wisdom Jesus was trying to show them? What do you think?

Learning, Growing, and Using what God Entrusts are part of Discipleship and Stewardship
In Psalm 24, we hear that “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it.”[9] We’ll come back to this psalm, but I am drawn there because part of discipleship and stewardship is remembering that as all things are God’s. That includes our questions and our brains. We’re called to use them. We’re called to wonder. We’re called to learn and grow. That’s how discipleship spreads and deepens.

If we are too afraid to ask the question on our hearts and minds, we’ll never find out about what deep yearnings we might have, or even more so, what deep yearnings our neighbor might have. If we’re too afraid to ask, we might never find out the deeper sense of connection and relationship that God is inviting us into with God and one another. So perhaps Jesus is trying to illustrate today that part of living faith as a disciple and steward is to take the risk to ask the questions. Risks can be hard. But as God’s beloved, we don’t take them alone, remembering that God walks with us.

Admittedly, sometimes we also avoid asking the question though because we may not want the answer. We like our perceptions the way they are. We like being comfortable with the way things are. We don’t want to deal with the hard things that come with change or a new understanding. The problem with that, is that that’s not usually what the life of being a disciple looks and feels like. Perhaps that is at the heart of the lesson Jesus is trying to teach the disciples this week. He sees and hears their arguing. He knows that they haven’t been asking the question. So he takes a step and connects the dots from their questions to service and welcome. Connecting the thread of faith from the work of God through the events of the cross, with the response of God’s people. Connecting God’s work that God alone can do, to the work and response we all share as stewards and disciples.

What is Stewardship?
This might beg another question then. What do I mean by that old churchy word of “stewardship?” For me, stewardship is first and foremost a response for all that God has done, will do, and promises to do, for me and for you. When we sense who God is, when see God’s love made real, when we witness God’s work being done, we can’t help but want to come closer and see that the Lord is Good. When we know that God’s love has come near for us, and we ourselves are changed because of it, we can’t help but want to join in with God in some of God’s on-going work here and now today. That’s stewardship. The act of admitting this, and then being moved to do something in response.

Before you worry about works righteousness, stewardship is a response for what God alone does and can do. Jesus dies once and for all, and beats death once and for all. God’s saving work for us, is God’s work. Work we could never do ourselves. And it’s pure gift and grace we could never earn or deserve. So instead, we have the opportunity to respond through thanks, praise, joy, and gratitude. We have the opportunity to declare with the psalmist today, “I will offer you a freewill sacrifice and praise your name, O Lord, for it is good.”[10] We have the chance to take hold of the abundant life that really is life, that God alone provides. But to know that this life as a disciple and steward won’t always be easy. It’s full of challenges. There’s a cross at its center after all, and we know the rest of the story. We know what lies ahead. But we also know, because of this that this life as disciples is deeply meaningful and full of purpose. It’s a life of service grounded in love and lived out in response to the promises of our God who comes near.

This is what stewardship looks like. Where we recall again the words of the psalmist in Psalm 24, “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it.”[11] The earth is God’s. And all who are part of the earth, are God’s too. Everything is God’s. You are God’s. I am God’s. And all that we have, and all that we are, is God’s. Everything that makes you the unique person and Child of God that you are, is God’s. Your time, talent, treasure, assets, and finances of all kinds. Your lives, health, bodies, hearts, souls, and minds. Your passions, strengths, vocations, gifts, relationships, ideas, dreams, stories, imaginations, and even your questions. All that is yours, is really God’s. And all of creation that surrounds us, and which God entrusts into our care in the beginning of Genesis, is God’s too. All of this and more, is God’s. And God chooses to entrust some of it into our care. God does this because God wants life to go well for God’s people. Because God wants to be in relationship with us. And because God hopes that we might live lives of deep meaning and purpose, in part through caring for our neighbors with all that God entrusts.

God does this and so much more, for you. God will go to and through the point of death on a cross to bring life for you. God welcomes us as children, just as we are, and calls us to do the same. God does as only God can do, bringing life, hope, and salvation. And this is Good News. Good News which we are entrusted with. News which then leads us to respond as stewards and disciples. News which calls us to keep growing too as God’s beloved. To ask the questions on our hearts and minds. To not let fear and worry keep us from asking questions, growing, and learning. But to lean in with hope, with child-like wonder and imagination. From which understanding might just grow too.

Vitality, Signs of Life, and What might God be up to and Inviting?
In today’s story, Jesus might just be inviting us to ask the questions we haven’t asked or that we might be too afraid to ask at times. In connecting the idea of welcome and the wonder that a child has, God might just be inviting us to live with a sense of child-like wonder and imagination. For with such wonder and imagination comes the chance to better sense God doing something new with and for all of God’s beloved here and now. And with it too, comes the chance to not only sense God up to something, but to then respond and join in with God too.

American Lutheran, I know you get this. You are a living sign of this. You do this. You lean in. You wonder. You grow as disciples here in Ashland. I know this especially because I have the joy of being your congregation’s coach in the Vitality Initiative for Congregations right now. Together your vitality team and your whole congregation have been invited to reflect on big questions like: Who are you? Who are our neighbors? What might God be up to and inviting? What might your congregation’s unique congregational vocation be? These are all big questions which take time for deep conversations, discernment, and experimentation. And you all have been doing the work and continue to do the work. I can attest to this. And having met with your vitality team for a year now, I have seen the joy and hope and great ideas on full display. Dare I say it, I have even seen child-like wonder and have certainly laughed more in evening meetings than I ever usually do.

All of these are signs of life. God is up to something with you, in you, and for you, American Lutheran. God is up to something as Ashland continues to grow, and so do you. God is up to something in you as you meet your neighbors where they are at- at the parades, in your community’s schools and businesses, through the Kids Cupboard and The Closet. All of these and other ways of showing up are signs of God’s love being made real with and through you.

Thank you for not avoiding the questions. Thank you for being as hopeful and joyful as you are. Thank you for so fully diving into the vitality initiative, and for really being open to the Spirit’s movement with wonder and curiosity.  God is up to something. What exactly? I’m not sure. But I am sure God is up to something and I can’t wait to keep discovering exactly what that might be with you all. Keep doing what you are doing. Keep asking the questions. Keep listening, wondering, and experimenting. And know that as you do all of this, you aren’t alone. For God in Christ is very much with you, for you, and loves you. Always. Thanks be to God. Amen.

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Citations and References:
[1] Much of the first half of this sermon comes from a commentary written by me for the Stewardship of Life Institute, entitled, “From fear to wonder: Ask and grow in understanding,” 17 September 2024, as found here: https://www.stewardshipoflife.org/2024/09/from-fear-to-wonder-ask-and-grow-g/
[2] Mark 9:30-31, NRSV.
[3] Mark 9:31, NRSV.
[4] Mark 9:32, NRSV.
[5] Mark 9:33, NRSV.
[6] Mark 9:34, NRSV.
[7] Mark 9:35, NRSV.
[8] Mark 9:37, NRSV.
[9] Psalm 24:1, NRSV.
[10] Psalm 54:6, NRSV.
[11] Psalm 24:1, NRSV.