Saturday, August 13, 2005
The Rev. Angela K. Zimmann
Holland, Ohio


Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,

"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart."

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.

Gospel: Matthew 13:31-33

He put before them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches."

He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened."

As I sat with you in plenary sessions this week, I began to think that five minutes was entirely too long for me to stand up here. I fervently hoped that the two-minute rule might also apply to the pulpit. In fact, at one point I turned to the faithful woman seated next to me and I queried, "Do you want to preach on Saturday?"

The church has been in a discernment process. We spend a lot of time at the congregational level and at the synodical level and at the churchwide level in complex discernment processes with Robert's Rules of Order, figuring out what we as a church should do, when to do it, whom to do it with, where to do it, why to do it, and how long to do it. We discern with the best of intentions. We discern because we want to be faithful to the Gospel - faithful to the message of the cross. We engage in these complex discernment processes because we earnestly want to do what is right in the eyes of God.

In First Corinthians, the Apostle Paul reminds us of God's words. "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart." Considering that we have spent nearly 40 hours in the Palms Ballroom this week, discerning and seeking wisdom, this verse does not sound like good news.

And so, today the question and the challenge that stands before us is this: How can we discern God's word so that the message is the power of God for us, rather than foolishness. Logically and faithfully, we say as Christians that God's Word is Christ, and Christ's word is the cross. What does this say, this cross? This crucifixion? This resurrection? What does he require of us, this Christ?

Yes, it is true: people of faith can faithfully stand in disagreement on issues of faith. We can look at the cross of Christ and be faithful to that cross and still disagree. Let me say again, people of deep faith can faithfully stand in disagreement on issues of faith, yet people of deep faith can never stand in disagreement on the heart of our faith. It was Christ who forgave sinners from the cross, Christ who told us that the greatest commandment was to love God and to love our neighbor. Christ, the answer to every question and the greatest discernment of all.

It doesn't take much discernment - certainly not 40 hours in the Palms Ballroom - to look at the cross and discover that the Christ who loved the unlovable and forgave the only unforgivable calls us - requires us - to treat one another - every other - with dignity, respect, empathy and hope, and to lift one another up in prayer.

There is no room for hatred in the kingdom of God that grows from the mustard seed. No room for any hatred of any one. No space for any acts of unkindness. The cross beckons us toward abundant grace, extravagant compassion and genuine repentance. That is what he requires of us, this Christ whose praises we sing.

Where does this grace, compassion and repentance lead? As I was writing this sermon I spent a lot of time trying to discern (we're back to that word) what you all would like to hear - what you need to hear - and how much preaching I can get away with and still have a call when I get back to rural Michigan. Can I preach to people who hail from California to North Dakota to the coast of Maine - and one from Delaware, bishops, farmers, professors - children of God - all of us?

After much time (too much time) spent discerning, I realized I needed to get on with it and trust that God would lead me. And I think that's the clarion call of the Gospel for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. We need to keep going as one body, and trust that God will, indeed, lead us. That is what the grace, compassion and repentance of the cross require of us.

We take our foolish human wisdom, our thwarted discernment, and we do the best we can. Maybe we did the best we could this week - all of us - and together we act with bold humility, knowing that we have made and will make mistakes, that we err, that we discern and seek answers, and still we fail.

But all we need to know is the cross, and that cross frees us to sin boldly and love God more boldly still.

We have heard before this week - and indeed it is true - that God is watching us. In the days and years ahead, may we discern faithfully and act boldly as the completely unified yet utterly unique Body of Christ known as the Church.

People of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America - daughters and sons of the most high God. Saints and sinners alike, arise, for your light has come! The gracious power that tumbles walls of fear and gathers in one house as strangers far and near. Let us join our voices and sing. We praise you, Christ; your cross has made us one! Amen