Summary.  The ancient formation of Baraboo quartzite with the deep, parallels the layered history of scripture and human faith. Just as quartzite is shaped over eons into a distinct, resilient foundation despite its impurities, believers are formed through history, carrying both saintliness and sinfulness. Our faith and hope in God as an unseen yet enduring rock, relinquishing human judgment to rest in divine grace that feeds and sustains the world.

One of the ways scholars describe scripture is as sedimentary layers,
layers of rock formed over millinia, each layer representing an eon of time.

On the surface, we can’t see it, but there are places where the story of time is exposed in sedimentary layers of rock.  

Like  Baraboo hills…

Baraboo Quartzite.

The Wisconsin Geologic and Natural History Survey says:

“Before the ice ages, before the Age of Dinosaurs, before the sandy beaches and coral reefs of the Paleozoic Era came the first few billion years of Wisconsin’s geologic history. 

These early years contain dramatic stories of volcanoes, shifting continents, and even microbial life. In this earliest eon, the Baraboo Quartzite began as sand on an ancient beach, which had eroded from volcanoes towering above what is now Sauk County. 

This sand solidified into sandstone, which was then squished and squeezed deep underground until the grains of sand fused together to create a new rock—quartzite—that preserved the sandy environment in stone.” 

The prophet Isaiah says: 

“Do not fear or be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? You are my witnesses! Is there any god besides me? There is no other rock; I know not one.”

“Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide, myself in thee.”

“Your name is Peter, and upon this Rock I will build my church.”

Timeless and enduring, and yet easily missed, we walk on land formed through eons, loam and sand resting on rock below, and yet there are times of hardship when we become aware, if only for a moment, of the rock upon which we stand.

The Apostle Paul gives it another name–hope–but this hope like the ground we walk on is both present and hidden, saying…

“Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what one already sees?”

In this hope with the Psalmist we pray

“But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”

… a prayer for rescue when we have exhausted our own capacity to save ourselves, when we are looking for rock to stand on, by faith to stand firm though our feet are but clay.

Hold all of this in mind, this complexity we all know between what we pray for and what we experience, our longing for proof that our hope is not in vain when our family fail us, suffering abounds, wars rage, and the world spins out of control

Keep in mind rock formed through the ages, scripture formed through the ages, and hear hope in these devastating words:

Jesus says:

“Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.

The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 

This is not rock, but the ground we walk on, the human desire for moral judgement, for righteousness to be rewarded and wickedness to be punished.

The Gospel of Matthew speaks to the first church getting its start, roots growing from the seeds of Jesus’ teachings…

and in the early church…as with the church in every age, we can look around and see weeds growing…

… our human longing is to root out the evil in others though we are all rooted together, growing together, in Luther’s famous phrasing

“we are saints and sinners alike,” both wheat and tares….

Weeping and gnashing of teeth and consuming fire is a grace for us as for the early church inviting us to trust ourselves judgement to God alone…

In hope to trust God to find the good growing in us and make bread of us to feed others.

Matthew speaks to believers like us who hope as the Apostle Paul encourages to hope, not in what we can see but in what is unseen….

the rock of our salvation that is the very ground we walk on, 

our belief when we hear “weeping and gnashing of teeth” that God is our rock…

… merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

We need not fear the judgment of God, and yet we rely on the judgement of God to free us from judging ourselves for the many ways we are lacking…

…to free us from those who would presume to judge us as if they themselves are not lacking..

No, we are wheat and tares alike.

…we trust ourselves to God’s mercy, in hope of what we cannot see and yet is the rock upon which we stand.  

***

Baraboo quartzite is unlike quartzite from anywhere else in the world.

Because it contains iron and other impurities,
it is distinctively dark purple to maroon.  

It is distinctive also in the way it tells the story of its formation, 

ripple marks that appear visually similar to the patterns one might see in the sand at a beach, from which it was formed. 

Baraboo quartzite was mined to build northern railroads, along the Mississippi, to transport grain and other goods to feed and sustain the world.

St. Paul’s is not the first church founded on the rock of ages,
and yet we are as distinctive as the  colorful, rippling quartzite of this region 

…because of our own impurities, 

….because we are marked together by the rippling sands of time that form us.  

We might think of the rock mined to build railroads as our faithful hope that the worship and grace and service distinctive to St. Paul’s, along with our collective impurities, 

are beautifully colorful to God, 

and trust ourselves to the judgement of God, 

though faith and in hope believe that in Christ and through us, 

God is feeding the world as God has done since before began and will do even to the end of age.

Thanks be to God.

Interim times present opportunities for transformation and renewal, but these kinds of changes are no easier for us than they were for Nicodemus. 

Change brings Nicodemus to Jesus.  

He can see God at work in Jesus in a new way, “no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with that person” (John 3:2d).

Jesus says Nicodemus must be born from above. But spiritual rebirth, transformation from one state of being to another, is beyond human control.

The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. –John 3:8

When by faith we are open to rebirth in the Spirit, we transcend our own human limitations, as Nicodemus does.  But as Jesus explains, these transformations are like being born all over again, like being born from above.  

The Spirit leads us forward in the life-long process of transformation and spiritual rebirth–change born of the Spirit neither by our own choice nor according to our own timing.   

Times of change, of Spirit-led transformation, are uncomfortable, distressing, moving us from the familiar comforts we know to the new life God brings into being through us.  

During this time of transition, I pray St. Paul’s will seek to remain open and active. An active church is an attractive church, a quality pastoral candidates are looking for, a sign the congregation is ready to join with a new Pastor as they follow the same Spirit that brings them together.

Though it may seem otherwise, this time of transition for St. Paul’s is a gift. St. Paul’s is given the opportunity to follow the Spirit, which will transform us as it transformed Nicodemus.  

He was not the same, neither will we be. What this means for St. Paul’s, I can’t say.

The wind blows where it chooses.

Summary: In this first sermon at St. Paul's in Baraboo, Pr. Craig introduces the tension between the Apostle Paul's honest confession of human weakness in Romans and Jesus' promise of rest in Matthew. Through the story of a congregation whose ministry to homeless families ended in disappointment and exhaustion, Pr. Craig shows how even our best efforts cannot guarantee the outcomes we hope for. The good news is that Christians are not responsible for perfect results but are called to trust God's grace and mercy, finding rest in Christ rather than in the impossible burden of trying to make everything right on our own.

Today is but our third day together.

Wednesday, my first day with you, council members were waiting to welcome me as I walked in the door, representing you all with a warm welcome.

Sue was also here to greet me, to go over hymns with me, wearing her Ringling Theater shirt.

And then Alice and I set to work preparing for today.

Thanks to Alice, we are ready to worship
not only in the liturgy which sustains us, but with the AC working. 

On my second day, for the first time I went home by way of the Merrimac Ferry and had my first ice-cream cone.  

The drive to the ferry was a delight, this is such beautiful country,

I am looking forward to taking hikes and learning more about Baraboo that is new to me, and learning about the life and worship and ministry of St. Paul’s, and the new things we will learn together. 

Well, my first Sunday with St. Paul’s seems a fitting day to turn to St. Paul’s famous words in the Epistle to the Romans.

“I do not understand my own actions.
For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

For I know that the good does not dwell within me, that is, in my flesh.

For the desire to do the good lies close at hand, but not the ability.

For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.”

Words which seem in conflict with those of in Gospel of Matthew:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me,
for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

“Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me,
for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

***

Several years ago I was involved in starting a Family Promise ministry….

13 churches worked together to provide shelter and food and help with finding employment for families suffering homelessness

Each of the 13 churches took a turn 4 weeks a year hosting these families.

About as good a thing as a church can do.

The church of Jesus Christ lightening the heavy burdens of generational poverty.  

The good people of the church I was serving

—let’s call it St. Matthews, since this is our Gospel today–

”St. Matthews” had an empty parsonage which they gladly prepared for these families, and the good people of that congregation signed up for shifts to fill 24 hours for the whole week.

The rare chance to do something so very good
that we had no problem at all filling slots each of our 4 weeks.

On Monday, breakfast was served, lunches were packed, and everyone was gone by 7:30, children off to school and parents either off to work or to a day center for help finding a job.  

They returned about 4.

The good people of St. Matthew’s were there to greet families and play with the children as dinner was prepared.

One particular day, two lovely souls we’ll call Helen and Ellen had signed up to help.

Helen brought her two young girls with her to play with the children as Ellen prepared beef stroganoff lovingly made in her home kitchen.

While Helen and her girls were playing with the children,
one of the guest parents yelled something profane at her child,
snatched up the child and whipped her child right in front of Helen and her frightened girls. 

When the families set down to to homemade beef stroganoff,
they looked at the dish bewildered and uncomfortable,

Pushed the food around on their plates,
left most of it uneaten. 

Then while Ellen was doing the dishes the families ate what else they could find…hot dogs and cold cereal, energy bars that were to be used for their sack lunches the next day

Helen was heartbroken; Ellen was outraged.  

After the first year, St. Matthews withdrew from the Family Promise;  it could no longer sign-up enough people to serve homeless families.

***

To whom are Christ’s words addressed when he says, “Come to me all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

Surely, homeless families, struggling under the heavy burdens of generational poverty…

Surely, too, the good people of St. Matthew, who did all they could do, yet grew weary of the weight of their work.

But then surely also Jesus speaks to us here at St. Paul’s,
and to other churches like ours,

who are weighed down by worry over the future of our churches

wearied by the questions of what it means to follow Christ in these bewildering times. 

St. Paul answers for the first churches who were as confused and bewildered as we are:

I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.

Sin he calls it, not small actions or behaviors,
but our common human condition, our flesh is the way St. Paul speaks of it, the law of the flesh, which captures us and which we cannot be free of.

We can’t help believing that when we do good and follow the rules, good should be the result, and this belief makes us vulnerable when the result does not match our own expectations

and the expectations others put on our shoulders.

***

What seems to be a conflict between what Jesus says and what St. Paul says is indeed in conflict, but in this conflict lies grace and good news.

We are not asked to solve the conflict between the promises Jesus makes and the reality of what it is like for us when we encounter our own human limitations.

We are asked instead to accept that none of us are pure,
that none of us has the capacity on our own to do good,

We we are accountable to God alone,
who judges us with steadfast mercy and grace.

We are not asked to change the world but to change our hearts,
to give up the burdensome illusion that is it all up to us
as if we were the first Christians to be weighed down by burdens too heavy to bear.

St. Paul’s words resonate with our longing and yet our inability to make everything right in the church and in the world

Our mission is to trust God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Results are are not our responsibility, and this is grace;
we are in no position to judge, and this is mercy. 

Jesus invites us to rest in him free of the ways we judge ourselves and from the judgements of others… 

For, as St. Paul says, the desire to do the good lies close at hand, but not the ability.

***

After the first year, The Family Promise ministry of St. Matthew’s ended because the longing to do good was too heavy a burden.

For a young mother to expose her children to seeing other children mistreated, for them to hear profane language, 

was too much to bear…

For someone who loves to feed people, the sound of the refrigerator and  the cupboards opening and shutting was too much to bear.

By the end of the year, it was all too much to bear,
so the good that we all wanted to do we did not do.

***

I am very glad to say that the Family Promise ministry did not end but carried on, 

other churches stepped in to ensure there were 13 congregations providing food and shelter to families suffering homelessness.

I like to think the ministry carried on because there are many good people like us who gather in worship and like us confess their sin and give to God in Christ the burden that it is up us alone, 

The conflict between the law of flesh and the gospel of Christ cannot be resolved.

It is the conflict of the cross, the source of our salvation, 

a grace and a mercy, 

setting us free the from sin and death 

of believing the good lies within us, 

when it is Christ at work through us that lightens burdens for all: thanks be to God.