Rev. Don Erickson

For the next few Sundays, we’ll be looking at the central vision of Jesus, the Kingdom of God. Knowing and understanding what Jesus meant when he talked about the Kingdom is crucial in our day, with talk and signs of Christian Nationalism out there. To know and understand what Jesus meant when he talked about the kingdom, is good to rule out first what the kingdom is NOT. Seeing what something fully is, often begins by noting what that something is NOT. So, this morning we begin our look at the kingdom of God by asking what the kingdom is NOT? To answer, I’ll be relying heavily on scripture. Scripture is crucial to differentiate the original vision of Jesus from the vision of powerful men with their lust for more power. We want to make sure we’re getting the real Jesus with his real vision of the kingdom, and not some syncretic version of it. Syncretic, what is that? Syncretic means to make a new worldvliew by mishmashing different worldviews together. In our case, syncretic ...

Dear Beloved Ones, The life of a church, like human life, is unpredictable. Things happen that no one was expecting and the collective body of Christ is left to deal with them. What is that quote about best laid plans? I had planned to begin a series of meditations on the Kingdom of God. It is an important one right now. We have Christian nationalists calling for an American kingdom of God. But they get the kingdom all wrong. An American kingdom of God, or Russian kingdom or Chinese kingdom, can never be the kingdom of God. God’s kingdom defies any qualification of nation or singular people. A particular nation in front of God’s kingdom is an oxymoron, a contradiction that makes the kingdom of God kaput. Anyway, that’s all I’ll say about it this morning. Why? Well, because that question of why? is so predominant these days amid so much grief, grief that this small body is enduring.  Unexpected tragedies, deaths and terminal illnesses, a long winter filled with sadness and suf...

"It was fitting that God,  for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings."  (Hebrews 2:10) What does it mean for Jesus to be the pioneer of our salvation? We who know American history have a great example of what pioneers are. The pioneers who went West, or even the Clovis People who were America's first pioneers 13,000 years ago, what did they do? They, many of of them immigrants, blazed a trail that others soon would follow. They went out ahead of their loved-ones who stayed put or couldn’t go, paving a path for them to later follow and creating a new life for them to later join. This work of a pioneer was not at all easy. Suffering was often an avoidable reality. The is what Jesus did as pioneer. Christ descended from heaven, a stranger, a kind of immigrant here. He then traversed a path no one else could. He went ahead of us, paving a path for us, a path...

The Gospel of John is famous for Jesus’s seven I am statements. "I am the bread of life," "I am the light of the world," "I am the door (or gate)," "I am the resurrection and the life," "I am the way, the truth, and the life," “I am the true vine,” and then there’s the one most pertinent to us this morning, “I am the good shepherd.” Or as we’ll be discussing, the good pastor. Pastor is the Latin word for shepherd. We’ll focus on the Latin translation this morning. Jesus’s identity as the good pastor is part of the very select “I am” statements. This alone tells us something important. Jesus as pastor is central to who Jesus is. The marks of the good pastor tell us why. What are the marks of the good pastor? The first mark of the good pastor, that is Jesus, is selflessness. Verse 11, 15, and 17: The pastor lays down his life for the sheep. Here’s a second mark – the good pastor that is Jesus, seeks out those who are left behind o...

Folks with a basic understanding of Jesus are familiar with the fact that Jesus loved to tell parables. He used the art of parable-telling to teach deep truths, truths that stories best get at. His parables incorporated not only narratives but also imagery, metaphor, simile, and emotion. These are each poetic devices. Are parables poems? Well, not exactly. But there is a subgenre of poetry, narrative poetry, that gets pretty close to the style and approach of Jesus’ parables. A narrative poem is one that focuses on a story but uses poetic devices to tell the story. That’s what Jesus does in many of his parables. In the least, we can call many of Jesus’ parables, poetic parables. Here’s maybe his most famous (from Luke 15:14-24). The son began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that far off country who sent him into his fields to feed swine. The son would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: And no man gave unto him. When the s...

Today, we look at Jesus, the prophet. Remember last month when we looked at what a prophet is? A prophet is a messenger of God that preaches God’s truth to people, especially when it’s needed most. A prophet is God’s spokesperson to a hurting world. To begin our look, let’s turn all the way back to the beginning of the Bible. Deuteronomy 15. The context here is Moses is continuing to lay down the law of God. Most of the book of Deuteronomy is that, the process of God giving the law directly to Moses who then passes it on to the people of Israel. This process began back in Exodus. In Exodus 19, God summons the people to the foot of Mount Sinai, where thunder and lightning and trumpets sounds, indicating God’s presence. This cacophony scares the bejeebus out of the people. God then calls Moses up to the peak of the mountain where God gives the 10 Commandments. The 10 Commandments begin the process of God giving the law to the people through Moses, who functions as God’s spokesperso...