Rev. Don Erickson

"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...

When I was 12, I did something cool. I played a trumpet solo for my church’s Christmas Eve service. Of all the Christmas carols, what did I choose? Well, I had already learned a carol in middle school band – We Three Kings of Orient Are. That’s the one I played. I was nervous as heck. But I got through it okay, and it sounded, well, it sounded okay. Knowing what I do now, I wonder if anyone, including my pastor, were glad I only played the tune and did not sing the words. Those three kings – many protestants, well, they protest! Those three kings of orient were not! It gets the story wrong, I can hear a Bible stickler say. They were not kings from the orient, but Magi. As for three, the biblical text does not say how many there were. We guess three because there were three gifts – gold, frankincense and myrrh. But two people, or four or five, can give three gifts, right? And the Magi visit Jesus as a two year-old. Did the author of the carol John Henry Hopkins, Jr. change the...

At just the right time, the poem was handed to me, A poem clothed in bands of soft cotton, a poem resounding between a cry and a coo upon his first sight of this world. From his mother’s arms, quietly given for me to hold, That poem came when I needed it most, a necessary word of comfort, a meaningful word to a day starved for meaning, a beautiful word to an ugly, angry age. A liberating word to the world, to me, latched to loneliness, hurt, grief. This fragile, resilient poem, I held him in my arms, read his face, his eyes, his soft sounds, marveling through tears at the holy moment. How quickly a heart revives. This child, this perfect poem, heaven swoops straight down down to these earthy eyes, this pining heart, these empty hands, this restless mind, grounding me in a love I kept forgetting, a love I kept forgetting never lets me go, resurrecting love’s truth, making it new again, hallowing this life. Awake, I give the poem Emmanuel back to Mary, return home, and like her ponder – ...