As many of you know I was honored and blessed to go down to New Orleans to participate in the rededication of Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church in Harvey, LA. Christ Our Savior was damaged in last year’s hurricane. The churches of the Rocky Mt District contributed in various ways to the rebuilding and refurbishing of Christ Our Savior.

I’d like to begin this sermon by taking you on a brief trip from Pastor Simenoux’s house to his church. The street on which he lives doesn’t look too bad. For as old as the neighborhood is it seems there aren’t many trees. Pastor tells me there were nine months ago but the storm took most of them out. Yes, his neighbor has a small pile of debris piled out by the curb but compared to what was to come it is really nothing. There are some houses with blue roofs - those are roofs that are still covered with tarps to keep out the rain.

Three turns and three blocks later we are on the main road to the church. It again doesn’t look too bad at first. I did begin to notice that every, I’d say, fifth or sixth business was boarded up or closed. The ones that were open were all advertising for help, but Pastor tells me the problem is there is no place to live, no apartments for rent. A job with no place to live and high gas prices is really no benefit. A little further down the road we came across an apartment complex, oh maybe what was 60 to 80 apartments similar to where my mom lives in Tucson. They were being gutted, everything carpets, sheetrock, possessions hauled out and dumped in huge piles in what was once the parking lots. I didn’t see any workers at the site while I was there. I don’t know if the project had stopped. A little further down the road I saw walls of brick buildings where half of the end wall had fallen away from the buildings on several businesses. I saw twisted, bent, and broken signs on businesses that were open for business- signs from major chain stores and businesses that still nine months later hadn’t had the opportunity, resources, or supplier available to repair their signs. Lots of light poles are still leaning.

As we turned on to the street where the church was pastor stopped at a green light. I looked at him wondering what he was doing and he said, “This was a four way stop. We are getting used to a traffic light here. So many lights were taken out that the city just put lots of four way stop signs where lights used to be.”

We pass more huge piles of debris from houses being gutted and more stripped and broken trees. We arrived at a restored Christ Our Savior. It looks very nice. The elementary school that borders the property does not. It sits with the roof stripped off of it, the metal rafters bent and twisted and bits of insulation waving like tattered sails on a ghost ship. What was once the playground is now filled with portable classrooms. Pastor tells me they hope to open the school next fall, but as I said, Christ Our Savior looks nice and grateful people came to rededicate their church.

(Sermon)

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I bring you greetings from your brothers and sisters in Christ from the Rocky Mountain District.

You have been through a lot. There is much that you have done: debris has been cleaned up, downed trees have been cut up, and roofs have begun to be patched; a little of this and that has been here and there. There is still much to clean up, rebuild, remodel, refashion, and replant. It is about replanting that I’d like to talk to you about. Being a former teacher and school principal, I am a visual, hands-on person. To that end I brought a visual aid, something you can hang on to and something that may help you remember what we talked about here today.

When you came in you received a package, a little zip lock baggy with a ribbon on it and a few seeds in them. It is about those seeds and replanting that I’d like to talk with you about. You may look at these few seeds and be tempted to think the task is too big and the resources too small, and to the world’s way of thinking you might be right, but in the years I spent out in farm country I learned that a handful of seeds planted and harvested, replanted and re-harvested can produce bountiful crops. You see from just one seed with God’s blessings there can be a harvest of thirty, sixty, one-hundred times what was planted. When these seeds are replanted and re-harvested and planted again and again, the harvest will grow and grow …well I hope you get the idea.

Even so the task of replanting may seem overwhelming, where can we get help, Our help, as the Psalmist writes, comes in the name of the Lord the maker of heaven and earth. (121.1) This God is One who has been about rebuilding, refashioning, renewing, and replanting lives since that first category TEN disaster struck the Garden of Eden. He did it and continues to do it by and through His Words and Sacraments, words of promise that carry with them hope and comfort, words that carry power for as it says in Hebrews, His word is living and enduring. (4.12)

The first seed package I’d like to talk about is the one with a white ribbon on it. If you have that package, hold up your hands. In that package are the seeds of a flower called “Babies Breath.” These seeds and the flowers produced are to remind us of the promise of God to send us a Savior, One who could and would rescue us from the overwhelming storms of sin and death. These seeds may not look like much now, but neither did that baby born in a stable in Bethlehem some two thousand years ago. But that baby was the fulfillment of a promise to send us a Savior. Luke writes, While (Mary and Joseph were in Bethlehem) the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him is swaddling clothes and placed Him in a manger. (Luke 2.4-7) Some of you are holding the seeds that remind us of a promised fulfilled.

Who here have bags with orange ribbon on them? You have cantaloupe. These are to remind us of the sweetness of the stories, parables, and teachings of Jesus. The people who heard declared time and time again, that Jesus taught with authority, and not as their teachers of the law. (Matthew 7.28) It was listening to this Jesus that draws Mary to sit at His feet leaving Martha feeling that she has to do all the work by herself. I know there are a few people out back right now boiling up the crawdads for our potluck. One might ask, “Is there a better place they might be even if it means dinner will be delayed a few minutes?

Any way, when Martha complained about Mary’s lack of help, Jesus said to her Martha, Martha, you are worried about and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed and it will not be taken away from your sister. (Luke 10.38-42) May these seeds remind us of the sweet message we all need to take time to listen to. It is that message that will reestablish hearts and give real hope. I need those of you with the packets with a tan ribbon on it to hold up your hands. In your bags are wheat seeds. These seeds are to remind us of what Jesus said to the crowd gathered around Him: “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. In the Words of Jesus, which after all are the Words of God, were and are words of life. So much of what the world says will leave us empty and unsatisfied. Now a few of you may be saying, Pastor there isn’t enough wheat here to grind down and even make the smallest of biscuits, but if you plant these seeds, harvest them and do it time and time again you actually could feed all of Louisiana. So it is with the Word of God. It may not look like much but It has the power by the working of the Holy Spirit to create a real and satisfying faith, Peter writes, You have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring Word of God. (1st Peter 1.23) It is the Word of God that makes His supper, baptism and forgives sins. The next time you take a biscuit be reminded of Jesus and that He is the bread of life that came down from Heaven to reestablish us.

A few of you have bags with a yellow ribbon on them. These are some of my favorites. The seeds in your bags are for peppers. Some of the peppers are sweet and colorful; others are hot and spicy. These seeds are to remind us of the likes of Peter. How bold and brash Peter was: in response to Jesus’ question, “who do people say that I am, Peter decisively answers, “You are the Christ the Son of the Living God!”(Matt 16.13-16) It was an impulsive Peter at the invitation of Jesus out on that storm tossed lake that gets down out of the boat and walks on the water. Don’t you just love this kind of a “spit in eye of Satan, Peter”, “live your faith with gusto, Peter”? Well, these seeds, also, remind us of a doubtful and weak-kneed Peter, one who almost drown when instead of keeping his eyes on Jesus looked around at the waves of the storm and began to sink like a stone. How often do we take our eyes off Jesus and get overwhelmed by the storms? This is the Peter who despite all Jesus had said and done, despite all the proofs, denied Jesus. How many times have we one way or another denied Jesus or despite all He has done we’ve turned away from Him. These peppers can serve to remind us of a lot.

After that bag we need those with the bags with red ribbons to raise your hands. You have very important seeds. Your seeds are red poppy seeds. I chose these seeds to remind us of the blood shed at the cross. It is in the shedding of blood that we are forgiven all our sins.

Everyone needs to take a look at your bags. I hope you all noticed that in each bag is a stone, not a seed. It doesn’t belong there but it is there. It is an impurity. It is to remind us our sins. If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Imagine how many stones would be in your bag if just one stone was put in there for every ten sins you committed. How about just one stone for even every one hundred sins? Truly, the bags would be too heavy. This place would be full to overflowing, but it is for sin that Jesus came. He came to take from us our sins. The scriptures say that He who knew no sin became sin for us. (2 Cor 5.21) Carrying the incredible load of your sins, my sins, and sins the whole world He fought His way to the cross, leaving a trail of blood and suffering. On the cross His blood was poured out, his blood rained down from cross washing away the sins of the whole world and there He died, and they buried Him in a tomb behind a heavy stone. May these red poppies remind us of the blood shed for us. As St John proclaims, the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all our sins. (1st John 1.7)

But the story does not end there. Some of you have bags with a purple ribbon. These bags are seeds of a wonderful flower- the morning glory. These tell us, these proclaim to the world, they shout to all creation, that death could not hold Him. He is risen, (He is Risen indeed)! These flowers are there to remind us that when the women went to the tomb on that Easter morning, they were confronted by angels who asked, Why do you look for the living among the dead, he has risen just as He said He would. Luke 24.5-6) These flowers remind us of a resurrected Jesus who appeared to a doubting Thomas. With the wonderful message, Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe! And Thomas proclaims for all generations, for all of us, My Lord and My God! (John 20. 27-28) May these white morning glories remind us that death could not hold our Jesus and will not hold us and all who believe in Him and by believing we will at His declaration have life in His name!

A few of you have bags with blue ribbon, you have the seeds of a flower called “Forget-me-Nots” These seeds are to remind us that forty days after Jesus had risen from the dead He ascended back to heaven where, as we confess in the creed, He sits at the right hand of the Father. Again He has taken up the diadem as Lord of Lords, King of Kings. Let us not forget that He has promised that on the last day He will return with all the company of heaven to judge the living and the dead. Having gone ahead of us into heaven He will come back for us if our last day happens to comes before judgment day. May these “Forget-me-Nots” remind us that He is coming.

Now some of you may be saying, “But pastor you never talked about my bag, the bag with green ribbon.” That bag which honestly may not have the most exciting of seeds in it: beans, squash, onions, and even the dreaded zucchinis. These seeds although they may not be as exciting have an important message. They can serve to help us live out the command of Jesus: Just before Jesus returned to heaven, He said, Go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them, teaching everything I have commanded you. (Matt 28.19) These seeds can raise up a bumper crop of vegetables to share, produce to share with your friends, neighbors, and co-workers. In the sharing, pray that the Lord of Harvest will provide the opportunity to share all that we have talked about regarding the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. It is in that sharing that our faith is strengthened and others may, by the working of the Holy Sprit, be brought to faith.

It is important that we replant, and the seeds we use are very important. Let us replant with the Words and Promises of our risen Lord and Savior.

Amen