Weekly Sermon: You are Loved Beyond Measure - 08-03-2025

The Holy Gospel according to Luke.

Someone in the crowd said to

Jesus, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.

But he said to him, Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbiter over you?

And he said to them, Take care, be on your guard against all kinds of greed,

for one's life does not consist of the abundance of possessions.

Then he told them a parable the land

of a rich man produced abundantly and he thought

to himself what should i do for i have no

place to store my crops then he said i

will do this i will pull down my barns and build larger ones and there i will

store my grain and my goods and i will say to my soul soul you have ample goods

laid up for many years relax eat drink and be merry But God said to him,

you fool, this very night your life is being demanded of you,

and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?

So it is with those who store up treasure for themselves, but are not rich toward God.

This is the gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Christ. You may be seated.

So i'm so excited to be back

good morning good morning so thank

you for the welcome banners that were in the gathering area and my office that

was very sweet today i want to share my experiences and my learnings during

this amazing time so that you understand the value of sabbatical and just what went on for me.

But first, I want to share that I've gotten great feedback about Ashley and

her leadership, and I'm so grateful to her.

And I'm also grateful to you for receiving her ministry.

And we've had wonderful benefit and blessing from our retired pastors,

and that's been wonderful.

And it's also our calling as a congregation to nurture and to train and to give

opportunities to seminary students and new seminary graduates like Ashley to have experience.

And this was a wonderful opportunity for Ashley to serve and to learn.

And it blessed St. Luke's as well as Ashley for her as she pursues ordination,

which I'm excited will now be in the ELCA.

So I'm just so grateful for all of that and to hear how she grew over the three

months and just how awesome God is.

So, sabbatical. What did I do? What did I learn?

Why do pastors have this? So on. So, the very first weekend of my sabbatical,

beginning the very first day, May 1, I gathered with the God Squad.

And who is the God Squad? Well, there's four of us clergywomen who have been

getting together and supporting each other since shortly after I came here in 2018.

And we met through the Richardson Interfaith Alliance.

And it's sort of like a joke. What happens when a rabbi, a Presbyterian minister,

a Lutheran minister, and an evangelical woman who was ordained in her congregation

walk, you know, into a bar? We didn't do that, but anyway.

So we're all different and we're all the same, but we've been supporting each

other since before the pandemic.

And during the pandemic, we met outside for coffee almost every week to get through.

And the first weekend of May for the past four or five years,

we always have a retreat together.

And I'm the only person who is still in the original call serving the same congregation,

as when we all first met. So we share our experiences, our fears,

our struggles, our triumphs.

We laugh, we cry, we play games, we shop at thrift stores.

And we all need support, whether it's a small group, a family group, a poker night.

And through this support, we experience that love is patient and kind.

We can be transparent and still trust that we are loved beyond measure.

Our big trip on the sabbatical was 16 days in Greece, and that came in early

May, and it was just my husband Dan and I together.

And we went in the footsteps of Paul and saw some additional historical sites.

But the focus was the footsteps of the Apostle Paul, who was an expert at growing

the early church in new places. And his letters make up a majority of the New Testament.

And for me, this was a dream come true.

I have been wanting to do this literally for decades.

And it was very timely as we seek to grow the church in a world that is also very new in a lot of ways,

and that our environment is very much like the early church than in previous decades.

So Dan and I realized again on this trip how much zeal, how much love Paul had

for Jesus, for the gospel,

for making sure that people could hear the love of God and salvation.

You know, Paul was imprisoned, beaten, stoned, shipwrecked.

He spent time being hungry, half naked, thirsty,

run out of town, harassed not just by government officials, but by religious

leaders, even by some members of his own congregation who would get mad at him,

he really did bear, believe.

Hope, and endure all things to grow the church and to share the love and the grace of the risen Lord.

Why? Why did he go through all of that suffering and take three missionary journeys

through the Mediterranean world?

Because in Christ, he experienced that everyone is loved beyond measure.

And he didn't want a single person to miss out that God's grace is sufficient.

It was sufficient for Paul in his suffering, that thorn in the flesh that he

asked over and over for God to remove.

And God said, my grace is sufficient for you.

And that became enough for Paul. And he persevered through tremendous suffering

to spread the gospel as much and as far as he could.

And we receive today, 2,000 years later, grace upon grace.

Because Paul modeled his life after the Lord Jesus, who in his suffering loved

and forgave his executioners from the cross.

And to be in the places where Paul was and to realize the impact of his mission,

was more profound than I can even describe.

And if it's possible for me to get through it, I'm going to share more about

this in the next four weeks, and I'm going to do it with pictures from Greece.

And so we're going to have a monitor in here so I can share pictures of where

we were and what we learn about Paul in order to grow and spread the gospel.

And it was just incredible to be able to have the privilege of going on this trip.

Now, before and after I went to Greece, I took trips to St.

Louis to visit Jacob and Leah, two of our kids, and then to Orlando to visit

our son Daniel and his wife Kasia,

who is expecting our very first grandchild, a girl, on November 9th.

And so spending extra time with family was an important part of my sabbatical.

I went to worship with my dad, who lives in Bedford and goes to Calvary Lutheran

Church, ELCA, in Richland Hills.

I drove out and had lunch with him. I spent more time with my sister Julie, which was wonderful.

And it's a good reminder that I can get caught up in over-busyness and doing

one more thing and one more thing.

But I can have all knowledge and all faith and I would say some maybe church ability.

Paul says prophetic powers. I wouldn't claim that but if I do not have love,

if I do not take time with people I love, I am nothing.

So it's good for us to tell our family that we love them with time spent,

that we love them beyond measure, with quantity as well as quality.

And I learned again on sabbatical that quantity matters.

Quality is wonderful, and also quantity matters.

When I was in St. Louis, I was actually in a show because of some friends that

I know from living there.

And it's called Mama Said, Mama Said.

And this is the publicity poster

for it. And it was featuring original stories from moms of all ages.

And it was recorded by PBS. And at some point, it will be broadcast nationally.

I'm not sure when yet, or if it'll be a visual show or a podcast or what,

but when it comes out, I'll tell you.

But my essay was about what happens to a woman's body after giving birth three

times. It wasn't a religious piece. I'm just letting you know.

So I hope by now that you know me well enough not to be embarrassed or surprised

hearing your pastor talk about farting on national television.

So all I can say is, don't say I didn't warn you.

So the women in this show were truly remarkable.

And as we heard stories of forgiveness and grief and hope, we affirmed that

love does not rejoice in wrongdoing,

but it rejoices and even laughs at the truth, freeing us for self-acceptance and moving forward.

And we discovered we are all loved beyond measure, even when life is messy and hard.

And after all this travel, it will not surprise you to learn that I got sick

with a virus, nondescript.

Oh, you know, it just needs to run its course.

Well, that took 10 days in June.

And I think it was my body's way of saying, didn't she say we were going to

rest for, you know, part of this time?

And so I did nothing for the rest of June, except for rest, rest, rest.

And I would pray. I would sit in my bed and I'd pray and I would ask God,

how about working on that discipleship course that I planned for my sabbatical?

And I would get a very firm, no, you have not achieved deep rest yet.

And I was like, there's such a thing as deep rest?

Dan had a great line when we were talking about this yesterday.

He said, God designed us to wear out.

I thought that should be on a pillow or something. Does somebody want to needlepoint that?

You know, God designed us to wear out. So we're always reminded that we can't

do everything. We have to stop and rest.

We have to ask for help. We have to let others do things.

Of course, I prayed and asked God the next day about, how about let's work on

this discipleship class today? And the answer was no.

And I was kind of like a little kid. Well, how about today? How about now?

Can I do it today? Can I do it? How about today? Can I do it today?

How about today? Guess what answer I got?

No, no, no. I was like a kid who couldn't stay in time out.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child.

I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child. But when I became an adult, I gave up childish ways.

Well, who knew that growing up for me at this age meant learning how to rest

and not work on projects for three weeks.

How wonderful to know that we are loved beyond measure when we behave like childish adults.

And what's even more amazing is to know that we are loved beyond measure when

we do absolutely nothing.

Turns out I kind of like doing absolutely nothing, but I never would have found

that out. I like doing nothing for a while.

The weekend of July 12th, we hosted a wonderful 90th birthday party for my dad.

And we had all the kids and grandkids there, and even most of the great grandkids,

except for the two that came to Daniel's wedding.

And even four of my dad's nieces came, whom we haven't seen in 13 years.

And the best part and the reason I wanted to do it was for my dad to hear the

tributes and the words of love that people got up and the stories that they shared,

and one cousin who couldn't make it sent a video, and my dad was doubled over

laughing when he saw this, and just that moment, you know,

was worth it, and my dad wasn't sure that he had the energy for all of this event,

but once we had everyone together and my cousins were singing a Swedish drinking

song and he heard all of these stories of love and the impact he had,

he felt amazed and gratified.

And it was a reminder to all of us that love needs to be shared.

It's carried in stories. It's carried in the memories that we share in telling

others the difference they have made in our lives. and that is what's missing

from the parable that Jesus tells in our reading from Luke.

The man wants to eat, drink, and be merry, but where is the love?

Where are the people, the relationships, the community with whom he is sharing his great abundance?

What good are possessions without love.

At this 90th birthday party, we experienced love beyond measure,

love from and for my dad, love from and for each other.

And this was all rooted and founded in the love of God, because where did we have the party?

In the church fellowship hall, of course, at my dad's church,

because wasn't it the church that first taught my parents and their parents

and their parents before them and their parents and their parents all the way

back to Sweden and Norway and Canada and France and Holland and so on,

that the God who created them and Jesus who died for them, loves us all beyond measure.

That's where they got it, all the way generations back.

And that brings me to my last hurrah of this most awesome sabbatical.

Is that an acronym, most awesome sabbatical? MAS, very, right in Spanish.

The most awesome sabbatical, the very awesome, the Muy Mas sabbatical.

And that was that it's all about the church, of course.

I visited a couple of local evangelical congregations in the area that are growing,

Watermark and Mosaic here in Richardson, which rents space from us sometimes.

And I also visited ELCA churches that are growing to see what they're doing.

And then I also talked with a third congregation that our co-president Brad

suggested. So I had a Zoom conference with Pastor Michael Schulte in Atlanta

of a young adult congregation called The Collective.

They have no building. They're made of small groups, and they rent another church

for worship two Sunday evenings a month.

So it didn't work for me to visit on the Sundays they were worshiping,

but I learned a lot about how they do small groups in our Zoom conversation.

The third week of July, I drove to Bentonville, Arkansas, to worship with a neighborhood church.

A 14-year-old new mission congregation, and they're going like gangbusters.

They have over 700 members.

They opened their own preschool.

They hired a chef that cooks for the preschool and for all the organizations

that come and rent for them.

They bought a food truck that they can use for their events,

but they can also take it to community events. and they're doing all kinds of creative things.

And Pastor Joe's energy makes me look like a sloth and he's the one that taught the good morning song.

I worshiped in both their worship services and that's where I saw the good morning song.

He does it better than me, but you know, I'm going to keep practicing. So just beware.

So the last weekend of July, I flew to Madison, Wisconsin.

Both of Dan's sisters lived there, so I stayed with one of them.

And then I drove 35 miles northwest to Mazomanie, Wisconsin, population 1,768.

And 14 years ago, they merged with the congregation in Black Earth,

about the same population.

And 14 years ago, I think they merged.

The pastor's been there also 14 years. And when they merged,

they had a total of four kids and Sunday school between the two churches.

And the weekend, last weekend, I was there last weekend, I witnessed 30 high

school youth in training to staff their vacation Bible school, which was coming up,

and they had to cap attendance at

130 or 140 kids for their Monday through Thursday vacation Bible school.

And the high school kids were taking a week off their high school job,

their jobs so that they could teach Bible school.

So their youth group now pulls from eight high schools around the whole rural

area, and now people are coming from Middleton and Madison up to these small towns to go to church.

So Pastor Rob was very generous with his time. So council, you're going to hear

some more about the ideas I learned from both of all three of these pastors.

But what is so exciting is that these pastors and congregations are similar to us, right?

They are so excited and on fire for Jesus.

They're passionate about changing lives with the power of Jesus'

love, and they're willing to try new things and to experiment like we have been

doing through COVID and the things that have helped us to grow to reach a new generation.

And sometimes it feels like we're the only ones who are trying to do this,

and we're not. We're not, right?

We can Zoom with them. We can learn from them. We could go visit them.

We're not the only ones who are doing this. And it was just thrilling to have

these conversations and to know

that there are Lutheran churches who are doing what we're trying to do.

And so it has me so excited that we are right on the edge of taking the next

big leap forward because we are already filled with the love of Christ.

We are already loved beyond measure. Amen. I mean, we have already been growing.

We're already doing this, right? Isn't that exciting? I mean,

do you realize we've taken in 85 new members in the last three or since COVID?

10% or fewer of Lutheran churches are growing, and we are one of them, right?

Okay, we haven't been working at this stuff as long as these two churches,

but we're on the cusp, people, so get excited.

Why do you think I'm out here and not trapped inside a pulpit so we gotta you

know do more than good morning right we got to get excited so faith hope love abide these three.

Love is the greatest. The greatest

of these is love. Why? Because without love, there's no motivation.

There's no energy. There's no passion to move out of our church walls,

out of our comfort zone, to share the faith and the hope that we hold in our

heart and the abundance with which God has blessed us.

Oh, and my discipleship class, as soon as July started, then God opened the

floodgates of my mind. And he said, okay.

So somehow, I don't even know how right now, between the party and all the preparations

and all the family and traveling out of town, I don't know, I wrote a four-week class.

Or God wrote a four-week, I don't know. Anyway, I have a four-week class on

discipleship for new members or anyone who wants to renew your faith and have

a little bit of a catechism refresher.

So I'm ready to go I hope you are too not to do everything not to do everything

without rest or balance but to grow faith to grow disciples to grow this exciting

mission that God has given us at St.

Luke's following Jesus to change lives as we love serve and welcome all let the church say amen amen.

Go now with hearts open wide, trusting that Christ goes before you.

Open doors with compassion, cross boundaries, seek out the stranger and make them a friend.

Share the love of Jesus in words and action.

Let your life be an invitation as you go in peace to love, serve, and welcome all.