Sermons &

Urland Lutheran Church
Know, Love and Serve God
to Make Him Known"

Home Sermons Writings Confirmation stuff Contact me Urland home

Sermons
Check out my past sermons. Keep in mine they were ritten to be peached and were not poofed to well since I wuz the won who was going to peach it. If anything is incorrect or offensive, that's not what I meant. Pastor Arte

	2009		2008			2007			2006
Rev. Arthur Sharot Jr. Urland Lutheran Church 6940 Cty 9 Blvd Cannon Falls, MN 55009 Office: 507 263-5544 cell: 507 384-1818 HOME: 507 263-0438	January		January February March April May June	July August September October November December		January February March April May June	July August September October November December		January February March April May June	July August September October November December

January 2009

January 3, 2009

January 3, 2009 / John 1:10-18 / Rational thought and Relationship (personal)

I have become somewhat addicted to the TV show House. It is one of those Doctor shows. The main character is the reason people either love the show or hate the show. Dr. House is a very intelligent, arrogant, self serving so –n- so who is self consumed person. His sole purpose for life is the pursuit of the truth. He does try to save people but it is questionable whether he really cares about them or not. House’s world is all about the pursuit of the truth.

One thing I think is amusing is that while he is a self professed atheist he is exactly what some people think God is. Some people think God is a self serving being who does sometimes do things to help or save people but it doesn’t seem that he cares about them. Instead this god is only after the truth or righteousness. This god is all about himself.

I also find it interesting that while House is almost the opposite of the God, I believe in, he did remind me of what God did and does for us in the incarnation. But we need to back up first and talk about God incarnate.
During Christmas, we celebrate the love of God in Jesus as we remember how he was born to be like one of us. But the incarnation is not that simple. The Christian church has struggled with understanding this historical Jesus. Is Jesus God? Yes. Is Jesus human? Yes.

Throughout history one way people dealt with this question is by avoiding it. There are false teachers, the church calls heretics who even today say Jesus was just a man, a great man, a great teacher, great prophet but just a man. So they deny Jesus’ divinity. Other heretics say that Jesus was pretty much God in a human shell. So they deny Jesus’ humanity. The church has said No, Jesus is both fully human and fully God. So, how do we get our mind wrapped around this?

Historically scholars and lay people alike have dealt with this in at least three ways.

You could say that it is impossible for the all knowing, all powerful, omnipresent God to cohabit with a limited human being, this is the avoiding type.
You could say, “It is a mystery, you just have to believe it and stop asking questions about it.” Of course then the question would be what exactly are you believing?
Or you could say, as the church did in Nicene creed, That Jesus was both fully human and fully God. They believed that if Jesus was not both human and divine salvation falls to bits. The councils tried to preserve the fact that Jesus was not ½ human and ½ divine, but fully both.

William Williman says that visually we cannot imagine 2 things in the same space at the same time. They are either on top of each other (like ply wood), or mixed together (like recipe ingredients), or pieced together (like a puzzle).

If we view Jesus like that, we do exactly what the Council of Chalcedon told us not to do. The Christian church when faced with false teachings about the nature of Jesus got together at what was called The council of Chalcedon. They said that the 2 natures should neither be confused, changed, divided nor separated.

But we still have this problem envisioning Jesus, fully Human and fully Divine. What if instead of using visual images to help us understand we use auditory images? Let’s let music come to our rescue, and let auditory images make our theology less confusing. Instead of a visual metaphor, Willimon suggests an auditory metaphor.

Prudy would you play a “C”? Now you all heard that note. That “C” was up there, it was all over the sanctuary, it was behind the altar, there was no place in this room that that “C” was not.

Prudy would you play an “E”? It is different from the C but it too was everywhere in the room.

Prudy would you play them both together? What if the answer to the fully God, fully Human question is in the relationship between the two? The relationship between the divine and the human. The two together but not mixed, maybe something like melody and harmony together or a cord.

I know some of you like this kind of talk and some of you, now that I have woken you up, are wondering more about the Vikings right now.

What does this have to do with Jesus, Christmas, and that weird tv show? Just as the relationship between the divine and the human natures of Jesus is important, the relationship between the divine and human relationship of Jesus and us is important.

One of the episodes I watched was about a woman who was raped. For some reason she wanted Dr. House to be her doctor and talk with her. This seemed very strange because she didn't need too much physical treatment. Physical treatment is what House is good at. She needed someone, a real caring person to talk to. Which if you have seen the show isn't what House is.

She only wanted Dr. House but she would not share her story with him until he shared part of his life with her. Which he didn't want to do. He doesn't share his life with anyone. He only wants to talk about rational, logical facts. She didn't care about that, she wanted to know him. She wouldn’t or couldn’t share her story, her life until he shared his, or at least part of it. She didn’t want to just talk to a brick wall she wanted a human relationship. She needed to talk with someone about the attack but she wanted to share this terrible experience with someone she had some kind of connection to.

In the end he shared part of his life with her. He told her about something that happened to him. When he did that she told him she wanted to tell him what happed. The real miracle came when he said, and I believe he meant it. She said I would like to tell you what happened, he said, I would like to hear it.
Don’t we all need someone who is willing to share his or her life or at least part of it with us? If it is all only one way, just one person sharing it isn’t really a relationship is it?

God is all powerful, all knowing, everywhere at once. This is true and important to know. In Jesus, God shows us that we are not just his creatures part of God’s creation. God comes to us incarnate in Jesus to share his life with us. Jesus knows human existence, the good the bad, the joy, and pain and death. This enables us to have a relationship with him. We can go to a god that is not just this all knowing, all powerful, god. We go to our God, will is not just divine but was also human. Someone who shared his life with us. We can have a real relationship. Jesus shared his life with us so we can share our life with Jesus. 2 notes playing together?

In Christmas we receive an investment in a relationship. God’s investment in a relationship with you.
One of the great things about the gifts we get at Christmas is that in the new year, we get to see what these gifts really are and what they can do.

What can the gift of Jesus do for you? Merry Christmas

	January 2007 7th Luke3:15-22 21st Luke 5:1-11	February 2007 21t Ash Wednesday 18th Transfig Sunday 4th Luke 5:1-11	March 2007 25th John 12'1-8 18th Lk15'1-3,11b-32. 7th Lent Faith Story 4th Luke 13'31-25	April 2007 15th Palm Sunday 29th Confirmation	May 2007 6th John 13'31-34 20th Acts 16'16-34	June 2007 3rd Trinity Sunday 17th Gal ations 2'15-
	July 2007 15 Luke 10:25-37 29 Genesis18:22-33	August 2007 12th Luke12:32-40 2 6th Luke 13:10-17	September 2007 9th Luke14'25-33 1 6th Luke 15:1-10 23rd Luke 16:1-13 30th Luke 16:19-31	October 2007 7th Luke17:1-10.07 28th John 8:31-36.07	November 07 4th Luke 6:31-38 11th Luke20:27-38 18th Walk with Jesus	December 2007 2nd Matthew 24:36-44 9th Matthew 3:1-11 16th Matthew 11:2-11 23rd Matthew 1:18-25

Jan 08

6th
13th
20th
27th

Feb 08
6th
10th
13th
17th
20th
24th
27th

March 08
2nd
5th
9th
12th
16th
23rd
30th

April 08
6th
13th
20th
27th

May 08
4th
11th
18th
25th

June 08
1st
8th
15th
22nd
29th

July 08
6th
13th
20th
27th

Aug 08
10th
17th
24th
31st

Sept 08
7th
14th
21th
28th

Oct 08
5th
12th
19th
26th

Nov 08
2nd
9th
16th
23rd Thx Giving
30th

Dec 08
7th
14th
21st
Christmas eve
28th