WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.425 --> 00:00:03.625 Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, our Father and our Lord, and 2 00:00:03.625 --> 00:00:04.025 Savior 3 00:00:04.025 --> 00:00:05.225 Jesus Christ. 4 00:00:05.825 --> 00:00:06.225 Amen. 5 00:00:06.725 --> 00:00:08.925 Hear these words again from Philippians 4 6 00:00:08.925 --> 00:00:11.625 the theme verses for our conference. 7 00:00:11.925 --> 00:00:12.725 Finally Brothers, 8 00:00:12.725 --> 00:00:15.825 whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is 9 00:00:15.825 --> 00:00:19.025 pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable. 10 00:00:19.425 --> 00:00:22.925 If there's any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, think about 11 00:00:22.925 --> 00:00:26.425 these things, what you've learned and received and heard and seen in 12 00:00:26.425 --> 00:00:28.025 me practice those things. 13 00:00:28.325 --> 00:00:29.425 And the God of Peace will 14 00:00:30.125 --> 00:00:30.625 be with you. 15 00:00:30.625 --> 00:00:31.325 This is our text. 16 00:00:31.325 --> 00:00:32.225 You may be seated. 17 00:00:35.725 --> 00:00:36.225 What's interesting 18 00:00:36.225 --> 00:00:40.725 when you put these two verses together that it's talking about thought 19 00:00:40.725 --> 00:00:45.225 and practice and there's no question that in Paul's inspired words and 20 00:00:45.225 --> 00:00:45.925 mind 21 00:00:46.025 --> 00:00:49.625 it's thoughts that matter first and then he gets to the practice. 22 00:00:49.925 --> 00:00:53.725 He lists a long group of beautiful thoughts and then gets to if you 23 00:00:53.725 --> 00:00:57.525 want to practice good things, then remember what I taught you and 24 00:00:57.725 --> 00:00:58.725 imitate me. 25 00:00:59.325 --> 00:01:03.925 So it's thoughts that matter first, and I think a lot of us know that. 26 00:01:05.325 --> 00:01:10.425 A quote from the patron saint in resident theologian of Missouri, 27 00:01:11.025 --> 00:01:11.825 Mark Twain. 28 00:01:14.525 --> 00:01:21.325 What a wee little part in a person's, life is his word and his acts. 29 00:01:22.525 --> 00:01:23.725 His real life 30 00:01:24.625 --> 00:01:29.525 is led in his head and none, but himself knows it. 31 00:01:31.125 --> 00:01:34.025 All day long, the mill of his brain is grinding. 32 00:01:35.125 --> 00:01:36.125 And his thoughts, 33 00:01:36.125 --> 00:01:39.925 not those other things, his thoughts are his history. 34 00:01:42.625 --> 00:01:44.025 So what do you think about that? 35 00:01:44.925 --> 00:01:47.625 Are you your thoughts? Do your thoughts 36 00:01:47.625 --> 00:01:52.425 make you who you are? Neuroscientist and Canada last year, came out 37 00:01:52.425 --> 00:01:53.025 with a study 38 00:01:53.025 --> 00:01:54.625 that said, the average person, 39 00:01:54.625 --> 00:01:59.325 that would be us, have 6200 thoughts a day. 40 00:02:00.625 --> 00:02:01.525 Beginning of a thought 41 00:02:01.525 --> 00:02:03.525 and the end of a thought is called a thought worm. 42 00:02:03.525 --> 00:02:05.625 That's an interesting thing that wormy 43 00:02:05.625 --> 00:02:07.225 mind of yours is very busy. 44 00:02:07.925 --> 00:02:10.825 Lots of thoughts. Minds can be messy. 45 00:02:12.025 --> 00:02:14.425 Mine's can be dirty. Minds 46 00:02:14.425 --> 00:02:17.725 can be like my garage, which I need to clean when I get home. 47 00:02:19.425 --> 00:02:23.525 When somebody says something that borders on risque or even raunchy, 48 00:02:23.525 --> 00:02:25.325 we say, get your mind out of the gutter. 49 00:02:26.025 --> 00:02:30.525 Our thoughts can go to the gutter quite quickly. Old and dark 50 00:02:30.525 --> 00:02:34.725 thoughts, linger in our minds from childhood, and somehow stall us 51 00:02:34.725 --> 00:02:36.325 from becoming what God might have us 52 00:02:36.325 --> 00:02:43.225 be. Our thoughts, really are our history in many ways, and they can 53 00:02:43.225 --> 00:02:47.125 haunt us for months for years for decades. 54 00:02:48.125 --> 00:02:53.025 We become thought, hoarders. New thoughts enter and darken the corners 55 00:02:53.725 --> 00:02:54.625 of our minds. 56 00:02:55.325 --> 00:02:59.725 And so our words and actions are impacted. 57 00:03:00.025 --> 00:03:04.025 Our real life as Mark Twain wrote is led in our heads. 58 00:03:05.825 --> 00:03:07.825 So, what are you thinking? 59 00:03:09.125 --> 00:03:11.525 I mean that what are you thinking? 60 00:03:11.725 --> 00:03:14.925 Maybe even right now, what thoughts are in your head? 61 00:03:16.525 --> 00:03:21.825 Our thoughts enter even in a place like this and can distract us for 62 00:03:21.825 --> 00:03:22.325 sure. 63 00:03:23.225 --> 00:03:25.425 The Apostle Paul understood that the mind 64 00:03:25.425 --> 00:03:30.225 our thoughts is actually a battlefield place where Satan tries to get 65 00:03:30.225 --> 00:03:33.525 us to sin. In Philippians 2 verse 5 66 00:03:33.525 --> 00:03:38.325 Paul calls us to have this mind among yourselves have this mind among 67 00:03:38.325 --> 00:03:41.125 yourselves, which is in Christ Jesus. 68 00:03:42.225 --> 00:03:46.725 Romans 12:2 do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by 69 00:03:46.725 --> 00:03:50.525 what, by the renewal of your mind. 70 00:03:52.125 --> 00:03:56.925 This text is another one of those second person, plural imperatives 71 00:03:57.625 --> 00:03:58.625 calling us. 72 00:03:58.625 --> 00:04:03.325 You all all of us in our abundance of thoughts, to be sure, to 73 00:04:03.325 --> 00:04:07.425 concentrate to contemplate, not any thought 74 00:04:07.425 --> 00:04:08.625 but what's excellent. 75 00:04:09.625 --> 00:04:12.425 What's worthy of praise. The true 76 00:04:12.425 --> 00:04:14.425 thought, the honorable thought, the just and pure 77 00:04:14.425 --> 00:04:17.525 thought. The lovely, the commendable thought. 78 00:04:19.025 --> 00:04:22.325 This is much more than an encouragement to be Christian Scientist. 79 00:04:23.425 --> 00:04:28.025 You know, get mind over matter to somehow, get your thoughts in order. 80 00:04:28.425 --> 00:04:31.525 Get your thoughts where they need to be, think happy thoughts. 81 00:04:31.525 --> 00:04:34.825 It's more than that to, it's more than the power of positive thinking. 82 00:04:35.325 --> 00:04:37.125 This is renewing of our mind. 83 00:04:37.325 --> 00:04:40.825 This is a new creation that Paul is after that, he knows Christ can 84 00:04:40.825 --> 00:04:41.625 bring to us. 85 00:04:42.025 --> 00:04:43.325 It is a cleaning of the gutter. 86 00:04:43.325 --> 00:04:48.325 It is a sweeping out of our cerebral closet, but it's more than that 87 00:04:48.325 --> 00:04:49.625 much more than that. 88 00:04:50.525 --> 00:04:53.425 Our inclination, when we hear a text like this is to get out the 89 00:04:53.425 --> 00:04:58.625 vacuum cleaner. As fall hits in Minnesota we'll be cleaning our gutters 90 00:04:58.625 --> 00:05:01.725 and we could use some gutter cleaning in our minds for sure. 91 00:05:02.525 --> 00:05:05.025 So we get busy when we hear this text. 92 00:05:05.025 --> 00:05:06.825 We start thinking good thoughts. 93 00:05:07.025 --> 00:05:10.125 We fumigate the filthy mind think good thoughts. 94 00:05:10.125 --> 00:05:10.725 I've got to think. 95 00:05:10.725 --> 00:05:11.325 Good thoughts. 96 00:05:11.325 --> 00:05:13.125 Got to think good thoughts. 97 00:05:13.225 --> 00:05:14.025 Make it happen 98 00:05:14.025 --> 00:05:18.125 Dean make it happen, get positive, clean it up. 99 00:05:19.925 --> 00:05:21.425 This is much more than that. 100 00:05:22.025 --> 00:05:23.725 It's more than you getting busy. 101 00:05:24.925 --> 00:05:27.825 It's more than just cleaning up your thoughts. 102 00:05:29.925 --> 00:05:31.025 It's Jesus Christ 103 00:05:31.025 --> 00:05:36.325 coming into our thoughts because Christ is all of those good things. 104 00:05:36.425 --> 00:05:37.925 All those beautiful things. 105 00:05:39.625 --> 00:05:42.425 One of my favorite paintings is by Edward Hopper and I'll show it to 106 00:05:42.425 --> 00:05:44.425 you later today in the Symposium. 107 00:05:45.225 --> 00:05:49.825 But Edward Hopper has a painting called coal, Pennsylvania coal town 108 00:05:49.825 --> 00:05:51.025 1947. 109 00:05:51.925 --> 00:05:54.425 And in that he shows a man raking 110 00:05:54.425 --> 00:05:58.925 his lawn between two houses his own and probably his neighbors. And 111 00:05:59.825 --> 00:06:02.925 clearly he's probably a coal miner, but he's home and he's doing his 112 00:06:02.925 --> 00:06:07.425 chores and he's raking his lawn, but suddenly at the moment that the 113 00:06:07.425 --> 00:06:08.425 painting is done. 114 00:06:08.725 --> 00:06:09.325 We see this 115 00:06:09.525 --> 00:06:12.525 blaze of light in front of him and he's transfixed by it. 116 00:06:12.525 --> 00:06:14.225 He can't take his eyes off it. 117 00:06:14.325 --> 00:06:17.125 He's staring at that light. And 118 00:06:17.125 --> 00:06:21.225 that's how it often comes to us this presence of Christ in our 119 00:06:21.225 --> 00:06:21.925 thoughts. 120 00:06:22.125 --> 00:06:22.925 Suddenly 121 00:06:23.225 --> 00:06:28.025 he's there. At other times we invite him but he's suddenly he's they're 122 00:06:28.925 --> 00:06:30.525 not even invited often. 123 00:06:31.125 --> 00:06:33.825 He shows up that happens often in our lives. 124 00:06:33.925 --> 00:06:36.525 I remember showing that paying to a class and I asked the students. 125 00:06:36.525 --> 00:06:38.425 What do you think that miner did next? 126 00:06:39.025 --> 00:06:43.625 I mean, after, after the blaze of light somehow settled settled down, 127 00:06:44.025 --> 00:06:47.625 and one of the students said, I think he dropped his rake. 128 00:06:48.625 --> 00:06:52.025 And his knees, and I think that student was right. 129 00:06:53.225 --> 00:06:54.325 That's how it comes to us 130 00:06:54.325 --> 00:06:56.925 so often the presence of Christ to fill our minds. 131 00:06:58.025 --> 00:07:02.625 And it works that way because that's how Christ comes by grace, to 132 00:07:02.625 --> 00:07:06.325 capture our minds to claim our minds to claim our thoughts. 133 00:07:07.825 --> 00:07:13.525 Remember ministering to a man named John who had been actually 134 00:07:13.525 --> 00:07:16.825 attended this Seminary, but never became a pastor who became an 135 00:07:16.825 --> 00:07:19.425 amazing lay leader in the church 136 00:07:19.425 --> 00:07:23.325 I served out in Eugene, Oregon. And John, in his later years was 137 00:07:23.325 --> 00:07:24.725 struggling with ALS. 138 00:07:25.125 --> 00:07:27.025 I remember visiting him in his home. 139 00:07:27.625 --> 00:07:29.125 The first time I visited him. 140 00:07:30.825 --> 00:07:34.125 He had two chairs set next to his bed and he was still able to 141 00:07:34.125 --> 00:07:34.525 whisper. 142 00:07:34.525 --> 00:07:36.725 He couldn't talk very well, but he was still able to whisper. 143 00:07:37.725 --> 00:07:42.525 And the two chairs were there, and I said in one of them, and it turns 144 00:07:42.525 --> 00:07:46.625 out, one chair was for his visitor, and one chair was for Christ. 145 00:07:47.125 --> 00:07:50.125 He actually practiced the presence of Christ in that second chair. 146 00:07:50.825 --> 00:07:53.425 Well, I found out that that's what that all meant, because I sat in 147 00:07:53.425 --> 00:07:54.225 the wrong chair. 148 00:07:56.525 --> 00:07:59.425 He asked me to get up and move over because you're sitting on Jesus 149 00:07:59.425 --> 00:08:00.025 lap. 150 00:08:02.125 --> 00:08:06.125 And people wondered at the way John handled ALS because our 151 00:08:06.125 --> 00:08:10.325 thoughts could go bad real quickly and over a long period of time we're 152 00:08:10.325 --> 00:08:13.625 struggling with the disease, but somehow, when you visited him, you 153 00:08:13.625 --> 00:08:14.925 were the one lifted up. 154 00:08:15.325 --> 00:08:17.325 And if you ask John, how do you do this? 155 00:08:17.625 --> 00:08:22.825 How do you navigate ALS and he smiled and said, with Jesus, with 156 00:08:22.825 --> 00:08:24.925 Jesus, pointing to the chair. 157 00:08:26.125 --> 00:08:28.625 That's how thoughts get cleaned up. 158 00:08:29.025 --> 00:08:33.025 That's how thoughts get beautiful with the beautiful presence of Jesus 159 00:08:33.025 --> 00:08:33.725 Christ. 160 00:08:34.925 --> 00:08:38.325 And I feel like that coal miner a little bit in, in Chapel today 161 00:08:38.325 --> 00:08:40.525 because of this, this window, all these windows, aren't they 162 00:08:40.525 --> 00:08:41.125 marvelous? 163 00:08:41.925 --> 00:08:42.725 It's just amazing. 164 00:08:42.725 --> 00:08:45.325 But this window in particular up front here. 165 00:08:46.025 --> 00:08:49.625 This is beautiful and all the ways that Thomas Aquinas said beauty is 166 00:08:49.625 --> 00:08:52.825 supposed to be, it's there the beauty of it all. 167 00:08:53.125 --> 00:08:57.425 There's a beauty here to the wholeness of it because the whole story 168 00:08:57.425 --> 00:08:59.425 is in this Resurrection window. 169 00:09:00.025 --> 00:09:04.525 You got the Father, Father's hand near the top, they're reaching out 170 00:09:04.725 --> 00:09:07.125 the Son the Father who raises the Son. 171 00:09:07.325 --> 00:09:10.125 You got the Holy Spirit in the middle descending. 172 00:09:10.325 --> 00:09:12.925 You got two wonderful symbols of the Resurrection. 173 00:09:12.925 --> 00:09:18.025 The pomegranate with its blood, red seeds and the rising of the 174 00:09:18.025 --> 00:09:19.325 Phoenix from the ashes. 175 00:09:19.525 --> 00:09:20.325 It's all there 176 00:09:20.325 --> 00:09:24.125 really, you've got the word of God with the sword of the spirit, And 177 00:09:24.125 --> 00:09:28.325 you've got the that sword becomes like a cross with the Five Wounds of 178 00:09:28.325 --> 00:09:29.425 Christ on it. 179 00:09:29.825 --> 00:09:34.025 And you've got the sacraments as well over here with the Eucharistic 180 00:09:34.025 --> 00:09:34.525 wheat on your 181 00:09:34.625 --> 00:09:38.725 Left and over on the right, the cup and the vine and the grapes. 182 00:09:39.125 --> 00:09:42.125 There's so in the baptismal river that flows through all these 183 00:09:42.125 --> 00:09:42.725 windows. 184 00:09:43.125 --> 00:09:46.325 When you when you see something like this, something beautiful. 185 00:09:46.525 --> 00:09:51.625 It's just it's just amazing and it's the same for, for the proportion 186 00:09:51.625 --> 00:09:52.725 that's to this window. 187 00:09:52.925 --> 00:09:56.525 The dominating figure on the window is Jesus Christ 188 00:09:56.625 --> 00:10:03.325 rising swirling, moving lifting us up as he rises. 189 00:10:04.825 --> 00:10:07.625 He should be the main character in the window and he is, he's what you 190 00:10:07.625 --> 00:10:09.825 see first as you enter this Chapel. 191 00:10:10.725 --> 00:10:15.625 And then there's the clarity, the light from darkness, to the bottom, 192 00:10:15.625 --> 00:10:19.225 to the light, at the top, and the fresh day, light that comes in to 193 00:10:19.225 --> 00:10:19.825 remind us 194 00:10:19.825 --> 00:10:23.125 there's a world out there. And all the colors 195 00:10:23.125 --> 00:10:25.325 as we mark time in the church, the seasons of the year. 196 00:10:25.325 --> 00:10:26.825 They're all there, in that window. 197 00:10:26.825 --> 00:10:31.725 The whole story is told in that window, the complete story of our 198 00:10:31.725 --> 00:10:37.725 salvation, but most of all that window gives us Christ. For us to live 199 00:10:37.725 --> 00:10:39.625 is Christ. For us to think is 200 00:10:40.825 --> 00:10:45.925 Christ. Christ, in our minds Christ, in our thoughts, Christ 201 00:10:46.025 --> 00:10:52.725 always. More often than not, beauty comes to us by Grace. 202 00:10:53.625 --> 00:10:57.025 It may be from a work of art or work of love. 203 00:10:57.725 --> 00:11:01.925 Or as Paul says, in observing, another person who embodies the beauty 204 00:11:01.925 --> 00:11:03.125 of Christ for us. 205 00:11:04.525 --> 00:11:12.825 Ultimately Christ is true and honorable, just and pure lovely and 206 00:11:12.825 --> 00:11:13.525 commendable. 207 00:11:13.625 --> 00:11:17.325 Excellent, and worthy of our praise. 208 00:11:18.825 --> 00:11:24.525 And he still shows up in places like this. Peter Marshall who is once 209 00:11:25.625 --> 00:11:27.525 chaplain of the United States Senate. 210 00:11:27.725 --> 00:11:31.425 When he preached used to like to say, if you just listen, just listen, 211 00:11:32.525 --> 00:11:35.625 you can hear the rustle of his robe in this place. 212 00:11:36.825 --> 00:11:37.525 You can. 213 00:11:39.125 --> 00:11:39.825 He's here. 214 00:11:41.025 --> 00:11:45.125 Actually here, but also here in your thoughts. 215 00:11:46.125 --> 00:11:49.225 In a few moments, he'll be there 216 00:11:50.425 --> 00:11:55.825 a localized presence of Jesus Christ to fill your thoughts 217 00:11:56.925 --> 00:11:57.925 with forgiveness, 218 00:11:59.225 --> 00:12:00.225 in gratitude. 219 00:12:01.525 --> 00:12:03.225 Yeah, it's time to set the rake down. 220 00:12:04.825 --> 00:12:07.125 It's time to receive the beauty of Christ 221 00:12:08.225 --> 00:12:12.425 in the body and blood that he shed on the cross in this Bread and 222 00:12:12.425 --> 00:12:12.825 Wine. 223 00:12:14.225 --> 00:12:17.825 Amen. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding 224 00:12:17.825 --> 00:12:20.225 keep you strong in your faith to everlasting life. 225 00:12:20.925 --> 00:12:21.325 Amen.