e-vo for week of May 21

Dearest e-votees-

I am out of the office next week for a Festival of Homiletics in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Here is an e-vo in advance.

Have a blessed day.

Peace,
Karl

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Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God's mysteries. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself. I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive commendation from God.

1 Corinthians 4:1-5, NRSV

There is a sermon I have given in different forms over the year that uses the geometry of circles to discuss God's grace.

Circles are plane-bound forms defined by two things:

• The location of the center
• The length of the radius

When we try to draw circles of inclusion and exclusion in the kingdom of God we often get them both wrong. We center the circle around ourselves and our ways rather than around God and God's ways. And we make the radius determining who's in and who's out way too small.

The good news is that God's circle is much bigger than we imagine and not so closely tied to our own understandings or performances or practices. Thanks be to God.

Here is another way to get at the same truth. There used to be a Special Forces t-shirt around that said rather crassly "Kill them all. Let God sort them out."

Perhaps we can reclaim that. Baptism is not a nice ritual. It is a drowning of the old Adam or the old Eve. It is a death (joining us to the cross) and a rebirth (joining us to the empty tomb). It is God's work bringing life out of death (much like the flood which is why fonts are so often 8-sided—tied to those on the ark).

What if we as the church go out of our way to baptize all that we can. We can go and make disciples to the ends of the earth (sounds like that Great Commission from last week's texts). As we do we bear death and a resurrection promise in the form of a font.

When we let God sort them out we find there is room for ones even as corrupt as us. God's grace and mercy are new and wondrous every morning. When God sorts them out the tares and unclean fish and the goats won't be as many as we think. God sorts in a kinder and more gracious way than we do. That's the hope and the good news of the gospel. All who look at that bronze serpent on the stake will be saved.


God, thank you that we are free from judgment from others. The only judgment that ultimately matters is yours and you have declared us your sons and daughters. Help us be people who bear your baptismal death and life out into the world that thinks life is found in things that so often smell of the grave and decay. Amen.