Brian Hiortdahl, Overland Park, KS

 Warm-up Question

What does success look like?

Success or Bust

Darko Milicic was the number two overall selection in the 2003 NBA Draft, chosen behind only LeBron James, and ahead of several other notable stars.  His professional basketball career is widely considered such a disastrous disappointment that his name has become almost synonymous with the term “bust”:  a colossal failure.  Yet in a lengthy article, Sam Borden offers ten reasons why Darko should be considered a success.  Despite his failure in the NBA, Milicic has become more emotionally mature, financially secure, and at a peace with himself and his history.  He is able to acknowledge past mistakes without being defeated by them.

Discussion Questions

• Would you consider Darko Milicic a failure or a success?  Why?
• Have you ever felt pressure to continue something you really wanted to quit?
• What expectations from others impact you?  In what ways are these expectations positive or negative; how do they help or hurt you?

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year B at Lectionary ReadingsFor lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

Peter has just correctly identified Jesus as “the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  This title comes with enormous expectations.  Jesus then “sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah” and, as this week’s reading opens, “Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering… and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”  The Messiah was expected to restore power and glory to Israel; being crucified (by Rome) is the complete and exact opposite of this.  Peter tries to talk Jesus out of this nonsense and gets harshly scolded for it.  God has other things in mind.

As Jesus elaborates, he says something very difficult that resonates with Darko’s story:  “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those lose their life for my sake will find it.  For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?”  The word “life” can also be translated “soul”—one’s truest self. Expectations and appearances can cloud our understanding of who we really are, and what God wants for us and from us.  Getting there is often a difficult climb beginning with loss that feels like death, “like Old Darko died.”

In our confirmation class, the pastor wrote on the board about twenty responses to the question:  “What do you and your parents hope for in your life?”  The list included answers like happiness, financial security, a home, family, good health and reputation—the things usually associated with success.  Then the pastor said, “Let’s evaluate Jesus on the cross.”  Every last item was eliminated; Jesus was a “failure” on every count.  A total messianic bust.

Things are not always as they appear, the pastor explained.  Maybe the antisocial nerd everyone considers a loser is a future CEO.  Maybe the beautiful and popular student everyone admires is a lonely self-injurer.  Success can be an impossible burden and failure freedom.  The cross reminds us that God has other things in mind than we do, and the truth is usually deeper than the surface suggests.

Discussion Questions

•  How does Darko’s story illustrate what Jesus is trying to teach his disciples?  Where do you detect God’s grace at work in his life?
• Who judges you, and how?  Whom do you judge?  How might you reconsider your evaluation of them?
• When have you experienced a loss that you later saw was the beginning of a blessing?
• What in you, or in your church, needs to die in order for you to live?

Activity Suggestions

• In your group, make your own list of hopes that you and your parents have for your life.  Do any of these describe Jesus on the cross?  Do these hopes enliven or threaten the soul—are they human things or divine things?
• Identify a “bust” you know—someone (or a population) considered a failure or a disappointment.  Pray for them, write them an encouraging letter, and find a way to appreciate or serve them.
• Visit a monastery and share a prayer liturgy with the community there.  Stay and talk afterward.  What new perspectives do you get?

Closing Prayer

Set our minds, Lord Jesus, on divine things.  Show us the truth about ourselves and others and you.  Empower us to shoulder our callings, and give us the courage to follow you through times of confusion and pain and loss to the joy of new life.  Amen

No, no, it’s not that bad.  Faith Lens is just on summer hiatus.  It will be back August 29.

Sylvia Alloway, Granada Hills, CA

Warm-up Question

Suppose that you were living in shelter after fleeing from a terrible war. You meet a person your own age from the enemy country. What would you say? How would you act?

Blowing Down Barriers

They come from around the world to share their sorrow and fear from a dreadful experience: a loved one has been killed in a terror attack.  They are the children and siblings of those who died on 9/11, in the Middle East conflict, in the train bombing in Madrid, from attacks in Norway, Indonesia, Northern Ireland. There are 55 of them.

Their destination is a summer camp held at Brynn Mawr College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its purpose is to foster understanding and, by sharing their common experience, keep fear and hatred from crippling the next generation. Here Jews play basketball with Palestinians; Muslims and Christians hike together; a teen from Northern Ireland learns to make a bracelet, taught by a teen from the South. Though their countries are enemies, they share the same devastating loss, a loss only they truly understand. Here is a place where they can belong.

Groups of campers participate in “Dignity Sessions.” Here individuals may talk respectfully about differences and share their fears. An Arab girl asks an American boy if he thinks all Muslims are terrorists and is surprised when he answers, “No.” Someone shares how disturbed he gets when he sees terror attacks on the news and everyone understands.

The cooperation and sympathy among these young people results in greater empathy for each and other and, most important, a determination to fight the hatred that inspires acts of terrorism.

Counselor Monica Meehan McNamara sums up the encounters this way: “Getting to know one another breaks down the cycle of hatred and violence. [These experiences] are powerful antidotes.”

Discussion Questions

• Why do you think people commit acts of terrorism?
• In what way might campers be changed by the camp experience? How might they behave differently when they get home?
• What can young people do to fight fear and hatred in the world?

Day of Pentecost

Acts 2:1-21

1 Corinthians 12:3b-13

John 20:19-23

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year B at Lectionary Readings

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

If you are selected to read the scripture for Pentecost Sunday, you should probably practice beforehand. Verses 9-11 name the countries from which many of the people in Jerusalem had come and they are hard to pronounce. Why are the names of these countries included? What do they have to do with the coming of the Holy Spirit?

The people gathered were Jews who truly loved God. They had been scattered all over the world and had now come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Weeks, a harvest celebration, also known as Pentecost. With so many nationalities and languages there were certainly rivalries and distrust among them. But here they were, drawn by the noise of the wind and the sudden burst of speech from Jesus’ followers in the middle of the city.

Each disciple spoke in a different language, even though they were all Galileans. All the people gathered there heard the mighty works of God told in their own tongues. Many call this a reversal of the Tower of Babel. There the languages were confused and the people were driven apart. Here the languages are united, as are the people who speak them. The Holy Spirit, symbolized by wind and fire, had worked a miracle! Jesus’ prayer for the unity of his chosen ones (see John 17:21) was answered. Here is the spiritual place where all those who love God belong.

Like the young people who were united by their suffering, Christians are united by their joy – our salvation through Christ and our unity in the Spirit.

So, the Holy Spirit came and everybody lived happily ever after? Well – no. There are divisions in the church, sometimes sharp ones. Christians are still flawed human beings. Perfect unity will not be ours until Christ returns.

Meanwhile, we can take a lesson from the campers in Philadelphia. We can talk to each other, share our experiences, and correct each other’s misconceptions. And when we do that, we are setting an example to the world: this is the way to fight fear and hatred.

Discussion Questions

• The places named in Acts are chosen to reflect how the Spirit transcends social, ethnic, and political boundaries.  If you were given the the task of updating that list to reflect the same truth, what countries or groups would you put on the list?
• Think about how we usually communicate the gospel message to those outside the church.  What about the message has the potential to break down barriers?  What about the way we speak of our faith has the potential to create barriers between people?

Activity Suggestions

• If students know the song “We Are One in the Spirit,” sing it as a class. If not, read the words aloud: We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord. We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord, and we pray that all unity may one day be restored, and they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, and they’ll know we are Christians by our love. How does the song say we express our unity? (by our love)
• What are some examples of loving actions that would set us apart from the world? Use real-life illustrations.
• What does the fire of the Holy Spirit mean for us? Think of the expression “on fire for the Lord.” How can we inspire each other to be “on fire for the Lord”? How can your “fire” help older people, who may have lost their passion for the Lord’s work? Encourage students to carry out what they have talked about.
• Individually, ask students to make a list of ways in which they can better show love for others. Ask them to share one item with the class. Turn the items into a prayer list and lead the students in prayer for these things.

Close by singing “We Are One in the Spirit” or a song of the students’ choice.

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord, thank you for the gift of your glorious Holy Spirit. Set our hearts on fire, so that we can do loving deeds and speak inspiring words. Make us one with your Son, in whose name we pray. Amen

Dave Dodson, Fort Walton Beach, FL

Warm-up Question

Have you ever found out something that you felt morally obligated to share with someone else, even though sharing would be awkward or perhaps a breach of trust and confidentiality.  How did you decide what was right in that circumstance?

Don’t WannaCry

I hope that the name “WannaCry” is unfamiliar to you.  That’s the name of a wicked computer virus currently ransacking computers across the globe.  WannaCry is ransomware.  That means that when it infects your computer, it locks up files that you’ve saved.  In order to get those files back, you’re forced to pay hundreds of dollars to the authors of the virus.  This money has to be paid in an untraceable digital currency called BitCoin, so catching the criminal coders of the virus is very hard.

Don’t worry too much.  If your computer is running an up to date version of Windows, then you’re safe from WannaCry.  However, it almost wasn’t that way.  The National Security Agency (NSA) discovered the flaw that made WannaCry possible earlier this year.  In April the data about that flaw was stolen from the NSA.  The hackers who created WannaCry got their hands on this data and were able to craft a virus that manipulated a problem with Windows.

There’s a discussion  about whether or not the NSA had a responsibility to tell Microsoft about the vulnerability it discovered.  It appears that when the NSA found out about the flaw, it didn’t say anything to Microsoft.  Instead, it chose to hold onto that data, hoping it could use it to write programs that would break into computers used by terrorist organizations and the like.  It’s possible that the NSA could have told Microsoft earlier about the problem, allowing it to fix the vulnerability earlier.  But did it have a moral obligation to do so? Or is the NSA’s mission to fight terrorism and American enemies more important?

Discussion Questions

• Do you believe that as a government agency, the NSA had a responsibility to share what it had learned with Microsoft?
• If the NSA’s goal is to protect people, how should it handle difficult decisions like this?

Seventh Sunday of Easter

Acts 1:6-14

1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11

John 17:1-11

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year B at Lectionary Readings

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

The Gospel of John is different from the other three Gospels, so much so that we call the other three by a unique name.  Together, Matthew, Mark, and Luke make up the Synoptic (from a Greek word meaning “see together”) Gospels.  The synoptics see Jesus in a similar way in the sense that they share many narrative elements and essentially the same chronology.  John, though, is different.  It just doesn’t fit the same mold as the other three.  There is no narrative of Jesus’ birth, for instance, and narrative parables are nowhere to be found.  The Jesus in John’s gospel  just doesn’t seem interested in telling stories.  Instead, there are extended narratives of Jesus’ encounters with others which point to who he is.  Jesus engages in deep conversations and speaks long soliloquies about divine knowledge and revelation.

To John, one of the most amazing things about Jesus’ story is that Jesus, though fully  man, possesses God’s nature and shares deep knowledge out of that divine identity.  As you probably noticed, this week’s passage is all about that sharing of knowledge.  Jesus specifically says about his disciples that “the words that you [the Father] gave to me I have given to them”.  Jesus is the divine revealer of truth and wisdom, and he has done more than teach the disciples.  He has opened their eyes to a truth they could never have reached on their own.

But this knowledge does not come alone.  It comes with a responsibility.  Jesus is explicitly clear about this in the passage following our reading this week.  By being the recipients of the same divine understanding that Jesus received from the Father, the disciples are inheriting Jesus’ mission and ministry.  They are not passive recipients of knowledge – they are recruits!

There is a price to the knowledge we gain about God, but it’s a wonderful price.  When we learn about God, we become a working part of God’s Kingdom, called to take an active role in crafting the Kingdom.  Our hands are called to do the work of God’s hands.  To John, this was obvious.  How could we know about God and not immediately feel the call to action?

Discussion Questions

• Have you ever felt the challenge of a verse or story in the Gospel? Have the words of your pastor or youth leader ever made you feel like you should act in a different or new way?
• What Gospel messages, if any, are hard for you to understand? For example, many people find some of the parables tough to work through.
• If you were confused about a Biblical text, how would you go about finding an answer to your questions?

Activity Suggestions

It’s graduation season!  Design a diploma for those who have “graduated” and gained wisdom through God’s word and teachings.  What degree would they hold? What would that diploma say?

Closing Prayer

Heavenly Father, you are the source of all true wisdom.  You guide us, console us, and teach us, and for this we are always thankful.  We praise you for the protection and peace that comes through our understanding of your Word.  Bless us to continually seek to grow and study your Word and your teachings.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Jocelyn Breeland, Sunnyvale, CA

Warm-up Question

What are you going to do this summer?

Building a Legacy

Barack and Michelle Obama have pledged $2 million to summer youth job program in Chicago. The donation comes in the form of $1 million gifts to each of two organizations – One Summer Chicago and the Chicagoland Workforce Funder Alliance. These programs offer jobs, apprenticeships, mentoring and recreation to thousands of young people in Chicago’s South Side.

One goal of these programs is to provide at risk youth something constructive to do during the summer, part of an effort to counter the violence that has plagued that city. But President Obama pointed to another important purpose of these programs.

His presidential library will be built in that community and the former president has stated one goal of the center will be to boost employment in the area, during and after construction. The former president is quoted in the Chicago Tribune as saying, “We want to make sure that some of those young people can get trained so people don’t say, ‘Why didn’t you hire anybody from the neighborhood?’ And the contractor says, ‘We didn’t have anybody who was trained.’”

The presidential center and museum are scheduled to open in 2021.

Discussion Questions

• Do you have a summer job?
• Are summer employment programs important for young people?
• How will this donation affect President Obama’s legacy?
• How does your summer plan – whether it includes work, studies, or just hanging out – prepare you for the future?

Sixth Sunday of Easter

Acts 17:22-31

1 Peter 3:13-22

John 14:15-21

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year B at Lectionary Readings

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

Today we see Jesus trying to leave a lasting impression with his disciples. He’s trying to prepare them for their lives after his crucifixion and resurrection – events that, at this point, the disciples can’t even imagine. Perhaps because he understands the confusion and emotion that will follow, he’s kept the message as simple as possible: Love me. Keep my commandments.

It sounds simple enough, but we know it isn’t. Living a life of faith is challenging.  Discerning God’s purpose for our lives – discerning that greater purpose and also navigating the many smaller moment – is hard. Resisting the temptations and distractions of the world is difficult.

In verse 8, Phillip says what many of us think, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” It would be a lot simpler to maintain the conviction of our faith if we had physical, tactile certainty of God’s presence before us. But then we wouldn’t need faith.

But Jesus wants his followers to know that, in him, they have seen the face of God on earth and that God would never make plans for us that we don’t have the ability and resources to fulfill. He will send the Holy Spirit, to walk with us. Though we do not have the physical presence of Jesus walking with us as he did with the disciples, the Holy Spirit is a comforter when we need healing or consolation, and a helper when we need guidance or the courage to live Christ’s radical message in the world.

Discussion Questions

• Jesus says, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Is he referring to the Ten Commandments, or something else?
• Does following the commandments prove your love of God?
• As Jesus prepares to leave his disciples, what legacy has he left them? How does this prepare the disciples for their lives of witness?
• How do you see the promises Jesus made to his disciples in your life?

Activity Suggestions

• Look ahead one year and list the things you need to accomplish in that time.
• Make a list of the help you will need from others to accomplish those goals.
• Share your lists with the group. (Depending on the size of the group, it may make sense to break into smaller groups.)
• Try to identify opportunities where you can provide the help that’s on someone else’s list.
• Pray together that each of the needs will be met.

Closing Prayer

Merciful Father, thank you for the gift of your son, Jesus, whose sacrifice has won our victory over death. And thank you for the many ways you bless us by providing, according to our needs, all that is necessary to fulfill your plan. Help us to listen to the voice of the Spirit of Truth and heed its divine guidance. And help us to be the voice of comfort and encouragement to one another. In Jesus’s name we pray. Amen