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Text of the page (random words):
that should actually be about the glory of god not the glory of paul or luther or us the parable from matthew gives us a variation on the theme the tenants in the story aren t wicked so much as delusional as they work in the vineyard they begin to believe a lie amongst themselves their work means the vineyard should belong to them did they make the soil the sun the seeds or the rain is the fruit actually theirs no but their own song of human rewards social goals and thirst for power drown out the music of the song of love of the vineyard owner an allegory for the god whose farm vineyard and ranch is all creation remember that matthew is also the gospel that says let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father in heaven matthew 5 16 to let our lights shine means to listen for god s walk up music to learn to recognize the verses of love grace mercy inclusion hope justice and peace then beyond recognizing the song we yield to the spirit s work of making that music our own song the beat that guides our lives we are invited through our baptisms holy communion our ongoing spiritual maturing and our life together to be a part of the chorus of god s music when we join in with our words and our deeds people are drawn to divine irresistible grace we all know what it s like to have a song stuck in our heads the song of the beloved to the vineyard should be that song all the time a song that says you are mine i love you i will pull these weeds i will help you grow i will prune what does not produce i will spend time with you i love you you are mine this is the walk up music of the lord the song that tells us who is deciding the outcome of the game the game that has already been won continue to help each other and your neighbors to hear this music beloveds hold fast to the truth that you are god s vineyard the song of the lord is a song to you and to all of us carry that song with you into the world and learn to perceive it playing all around you may god continue to bless and keep you today and always amen at october 04 2026 no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels parables sermon year a sunday september 27 2026 the cost of discipleship in june of 1939 the german theologian dietrich bonhoeffer returned to union theological seminary in new york city he had visited and studied there in the 1930 1931 school year and was returning as a potential lecturer in the years between those visits bonhoeffer had been a founding member of what was called the confessing church a movement of committed christians clergy and laity who were resisting the state church s alignment with the government of the third reich bonhoeffer had been offered several opportunities to leave germany to teach and preach elsewhere in safety when he came to the united states in 1939 he was doing so for his safety and to escape conscription into the german army he was in the u s for two weeks before he realized he d made a mistake he wrote to his friend and fellow theologian reinhold niebuhr these words i have come to the conclusion that i made a mistake in coming to america this time i must live through this difficult period in our national history along with the people of germany i will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of christian life in germany after the war if i do not share the trials of this time with my people christians in germany will have to face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that a future christian civilization may survive or else willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying our civilization and any true christianity i know which of these alternatives i must choose but i cannot make that choice from a place of security bonhoeffer s seminal work the cost of discipleship was published just two years before in 1937 in that book he wrote about the idea of followers of jesus who take the commitments of discipleship too lightly in the words of today s gospel reading bonhoeffer was watching many who called themselves christian say yes to jesus but then fail to do the very things that the savior commands in daily living one of the most famous passages from the cost of discipleship is this cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjacks wares the sacraments the forgiveness of sin and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices the essence of grace we suppose is that the account has been paid in advance and because it has been paid everything can be had for nothing since the cost was infinite the possibilities of using and spending it are infinite what would grace be if it were not cheap cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance baptism without church discipline communion without confession absolution without personal confession cheap grace is grace without discipleship grace without the cross grace without jesus christ living and incarnate in 1939 bonhoeffer felt that by coming to the united states he had availed himself of a kind of cheap grace in less than a month he was on a boat back to germany he continued to preach to train up new pastors and vicars in the confessing church and to try to rescue jews and others condemned to die the latter is what eventually got him arrested and then hanged in a prison camp when bonhoeffer wrote about cheap grace he did not mean that the church should fail to offer god s assurance of forgiveness or the consolation of the sacraments he was specifically addressing the idea that people who consider themselves disciples of christ cannot do whatever they want say whatever they want live however they want and then say but i am forgiven by the blood of the lamb to understand the cost of grace in bonhoeffer s mind one must be doing absolutely everything in one s power to live in accordance with god s will in that willingness to take up the cross every day one will stumble or make a mistake it is then that the grace of god covers us not through erasing harm caused through carelessness or intention but pain caused by accident in the effort to do what was right and bonhoeffer understood that intention cannot override impact his intent by going to the united states was to be able to write preach and offer encouragement but he realized the impact of being so far away from those who were suffering in the day to day was too great the pain of receiving sermons from safety would cause a wound greater than his words could heal among the people whom he loved this same tension is evident in our readings today the people listening to god s words through ezekiel cry out about the unfairness of the lord the creator responds with wonder at how humans can think divine action is unfair when their days are filled with injustice destruction and unfaithfulness the religious elders ask jesus a pointed question but not because they re curious or want to learn they want to protect their turf their system and their fragile peace with the roman empire jesus answers them with parables about obedience truth and heart change but the deeper question underneath their interrogation echoes down to us where does authority come from and what does it look like when it is handed to us paul gives an answer in his letter to the philippian followers of jesus in observing the christ we see a different way of being a different kind of authority though christ was in the form of god he did not count equality with god something to be taken advantage of or exploited instead he emptied himself taking the form of a servant worldly authority says get yours and hold on to it climb to the top protect your power and command others christlike authority says hold everything lightly for the sake of the gospel descend into the mess wash feet empty yourself and love to the point of cross bearing the authority jesus gives his followers is never a badge for domination status or spiritual pride it is an authorization to love sacrificially to speak truth to power and to serve a broken world it is instruction equipping and empowerment to make choices that reflect the cost of god s grace and our understanding of that cost when paul says work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is god who is at work in you enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure he does not mean that we have to make our own salvation happen he is reminding those who hear his words to continue to strive every day to understand the gift of salvation to live into it and to pray once more to have joy in that gift years ago i was in a church meeting in a different congregation the young child of one of the council members was playing with cars on the floor next to me as i sat at one end of the table i heard him talking but when i turned to look at him i realized he was speaking to me i hadn t recognized that before because he wasn t saying my name jesus jesus he said looking at me are you asking me something i said to him yes jesus he replied watch this he then sent a car flying down the ramp of the toy garage we corrected my identity later but i have always known that for children the role of the pastor can sometimes be conflated with the role of god the same goes for parents elected officials community leaders or ever present volunteers anyone who takes action and is known as a follower of christ will be assumed to be acting in accordance with their faith someone is watching us and either recognizing jesus in us or not and i know some of you are thinking not every action has to do with my faith in jesus sometimes it s just buying an apple getting my car washed or venting with a friend that s the thing about costly grace though if we believe in it if we do not wish to cheapen it if we want it to change the world in us and through us then it does and it will affect everything our yes to jesus in song and devotion in the sanctuary means very little if it becomes a no in the vineyard of god s world a no to jesus coupled with the right actions means very little in terms of our evangelism and pointing toward the one who knows and loves us best we all must come to the same understanding as bonhoeffer in june of 39 our words and our deeds must match and they must do so for the sake of christ in our neighbor the grace of god is free but it will cost everything we have to understand its worth and it is by living out that value in every aspect of our lives that we can be part of how the irresistible grace of god continues to redeem the world amen at september 27 2026 no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels bonhoeffer grace sermon year a saturday september 26 2026 carrots ranch and something else this might be a post about ranch dressing or maybe not last september i was so sick i felt awful and not being well kept going on and on i tried to hide it as best as i could even downplaying the situation when i told people that i wasn t well or when i had to step back from a responsibility it wasn t that i don t know how to stop it was that stopping meant time to consider how bad things were i didn t want to eventually after not quite two months i was diagnosed with celiac disease there were many medical tests and a lot of contradictory advice that finally led to the diagnosis by the time i was diagnosed i felt weak sick and confused an autoimmune disorder was better than what we had thought might be happening but learning the shape of my new life seemed like a climbing a mountain shrouded in fog i could keep climbing but i had no idea what would come next i had been in a place before where i thought i might choose to walk down a path and not return i knew how that felt i needed something as a marker for myself i will do this every day it may be the only thing good in my day if it is it is still one thing one gift one perceived grace if it does not bring me even a little joy i must ask for help carrots and litehouse buttermilk ranch this was my emotional cairn so many foods and so much convenience and so much history felt taken from me and after years of not feeling well and two months of acute pain i needed a very small joy and it needed to be easy to replicate every day so every day i sat down to carrots and ranch in the afternoon every single day and i paid attention while i ate the sharpness of that specific brand the crunch of the carrots the combination taste a tiny ritual that became an oasis of hope that things would get better every day i would ask myself am i okay is this okay do i need to call as long as i could taste the carrots and the ranch i was okay if they became tasteless that was my signal i have a therapist i have praying friends i had gotten a doctor i trusted i have used 988 for other people i did have a plan for help the taste didn t fade a very slow journey toward feeling better took shape there were tears and very hard days and other difficulties along the way no one s life is the same on the inside as it looks on the outside prior to last fall i did not buy ranch dressing i liked it but not enough to have it around ranch dressing did not save my life but it gave me a way to help myself stay in touch with me it is easy for me to think my value is only in my brain and intellect but my body matters my whole self is a gift from god carrots and ranch help me remember that mystic sweet communion indeed if you have lost sight of joy if what was meaningful to you just isn t anymore if the pain feels like too much please reach out and let someone know please tell a friend please call 988 or a trusted helper please know that life does not have to feel that way call me we can have carrots and ranch together at september 26 2026 no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels mental health thursday september 17 2026 next steps to saving a life what s the next step when you pull up to a gas pump what are the steps to making pasta what order do you put your clothes on provided you re not superman what happens at a stop sign for most of us the way we do these things is ingrained in us we ve done them so many times we probably don t think about them anymore there are other situations that occur less frequently for which we need to memorize what to do what are the signs of a heart attack in a man in a woman what are the signs of a stroke what to do if a rancher says the hospital might be necessary we can learn what to do in each of these situations and we should you should know what your first second and third steps will be there are fridge magnets flyers and all kinds of internet guidance for these situations do you know what your next steps are if someone tells you that they don t want to be alive anymore do you have a plan for if a friend says i just wish i could go to sleep forever have you thought about what to say to the friend who is always funny and has now gone quiet have y...