Saved this link a while ago and hadn't gotten around to posting it. Here it is. It's an article from a British newspaper questioning the conventional wisdom that abortion had no emotional effect on women.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article3559486.ece
Friday, May 30, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Issues Resurrected (soon!)
Looks like Issues, Etc. is on its way back! I just received an email with a link to "Pirate Christian Radio" with an audio soundbite of Todd Wilken announcing the "resurrection" of Issues, Etc. Our congregation will continue to support this radio/internet outreach. If you wish to support it financially, go to this link and send your donation to "Lutheran Public Radio" at the address indicated.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Sermon for the Second Sunday after Pentecost
Second Sunday after Pentecost (May 25, 2008)
“Much More” (Matthew 6:24-34)
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Recently I have been reading about the work that our synod and seminaries are doing in Africa. The living conditions of many of our brothers and sisters in Christ over there are quite different from our way of life over here.
Seminarian Jacob Corzine describes his trip to Madagascar, where he saw “the home of a seminary family of four, about the size of my dorm room ... The kitchen and bathroom are both outside.” (For the Life of the World, April 2008, p. 9)
The Rev. Dennis Meeker is pastor of Springs of Life Lutheran Church in Kibera, Kenya. His wife Lorna is a native Kenyan and a trained deaconess, serving the needs of women, orphans, widows, and people suffering with HIV/AIDS. Pastor Meeker tells what happened to his church during riots following elections in that country last December: “One of the elders called me ... and asked us to make phone calls to get people to the church because a large crowd was gathering on the street by the church. They pleaded with the mob not to burn the church. Sadly, they were overpowered and had to run for safety. Caleb, one of our elders, called and told us that the church was on fire. Lorna and I wept bitterly ... The gangs destroyed the pastor’s house, first looting it and then burning it.” (For the Life of the World, April 2008, p. 21)
The Rev. James May, former missionary in Burkina Faso and Togo, writes on his website about the poor water sanitation where he served: “...human waste is just drained into streets where pigs and children play together. Flies are attracted to these smells and carry bacteria into living and cooking areas, not to mention the children and pigs who are also playing in it. Inside the courtyard of a typical family, there is no running water. It is stored in whatever containers can be created. These containers are not connected to a water source. Typically this means that mom or the kids need to run out to the well each morning and wait their turn to get a few gallons of water with which to cook and clean each day.” (http://www.mayfamilyintogo.com/)
And you and I complain about gas prices. And rising food prices. And the housing market. If we have mutual funds, we worry about the condition of the stock market. And even if we don’t, news about the economy makes us uneasy. We worry about all kinds of things ... from safety in our city, to our status among our schoolmates, and the state of social security.
You of Little Faith
“O you of little faith.” That’s what Jesus calls us in today’s Gospel reading. We are so overly concerned and anxious about our life, that is, the needs of our body. Jesus said, “Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” When we worry, we directly disobey Jesus, who tells us not to worry.
“Oh, but Pastor,” I hear some of you saying. “I really don’t worry about those things.” But you do. You do fret about those things, asking “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” Sometimes we think we need filet mignon instead of tuna fish. Sometimes we think we need French champagne rather than Yakima chardonnay. Sometimes we think we need to buy all our clothes at the brand name stores at the mall rather than WalMart.
Jesus points us to the lessons we can learn from birds and flowers. Take a close look at how they live. Observe their habits closely. Birds don’t farm the land and store away their crops in barns. Yet they always have exactly what they need. Our heavenly Father feeds them.
The lilies of the field don’t make their own clothing. But all the robes and gold with which King Solomon was dressed don’t even begin to compare to the way in which God “clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven.”
Jesus also said, “And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” As a matter of fact, worry is more likely to shorten your life than lengthen it. Anxiety causes stress, which many physicians say weakens our immune system and may contribute to an increased risk of strokes and heart attacks.
The problem is that we are enslaved to the wrong lord. Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” ... or mammon, as the original Greek puts it, which is an Aramaic word for “wealth” or “property.” We are enslaved to mammon, and it is a harsh taskmaster. It beats us senseless as we strive harder and harder to get more of it. But when more comes our way, even that never seems to be enough. And of course, we live in a consumer-driven society. We are bombarded with advertisements on TV and radio and the internet, on billboards and in magazines, all trying to get us to buy something. Even the government is giving us money this year so we can go out and spend it on things we don’t have.
But we dare not blame “society.” This whole business is our own creation, simply providing what the public says it wants. And what it wants is “more.”
What we get is “less.” Including the title “you of little faith” ... people who really don’t trust God to take care of them. And that’s a sin for which we must repent.
The God of Much More
But for us who have little faith, our God is “the God of much more.” After Jesus has us learn from the birds and the flowers, he says, “Are you not of more value than they? ... Will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” God made the birds and provides for them. God made the lilies of the field and richly clothes them. But you are of much more value than anything else in God’s creation.
He cares for our physical needs, all the daily bread for which we pray in the Fourth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer: “food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods,” and so forth. But he gives us much more. He also provides for all our spiritual needs, our eternal needs, all the things we for which we pray in the first three petitions. The blessing of God’s holy name is placed upon us in Holy Baptism. We have entrance into God’s kingdom “when our heavenly Father gives us his Holy Spirit, so that by his grace we believe his holy Word.” And God’s will is done in our lives as he “breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, which do not want us to hallow God’s name or let his kingdom come; and when he strengthens and keeps us firm in his Word and faith until we die.”
Everyone in the world seeks to be fulfilled by earthly things. But Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Seek them. Be intent upon them. Eagerly desire them. And what God calls us to seek, he gives. In Luke 12, Jesus says, “it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32) In Romans 5, Paul uses some “much more” language about “righteousness.” After describing how death reigns in all of us through Adam’s sin, he goes on to say, “much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 5:17) Living in God’s kingdom, we can keep on seeking and receiving that which he gives ... forgiveness, eternal life, and salvation, the price of which was Christ’s own blood, shed at the cross, for you. Now, when we ask “What shall we eat?” ... we are fed with the Bread of Life (John 6:35), Christ himself ... not to mention his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. When we ask, “What shall we drink?” ... rivers of living water flow from within us (John 7:37), the refreshing gifts of faith and life that the Holy Spirit produces in us. When we ask, “What shall we wear?” ... the Lord clothes us with the garments of salvation and with the robe of Christ’s righteousness (Is. 61:10; Gal. 3:27; Phil. 3:9; Rev. 7:14).
Through baptism we are connected to Christ, and “having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.” (Rom. 6:18) We are enslaved to God alone. But instead of being a cruel taskmaster, he is a loving caretaker. We completely and totally belong to him, yet he gives us freedom in Christ ... freedom from our slavery to mammon ... freedom from our bondage to sin, death, and hell. He holds the rights of death and life over us, yet he mercifully provides for our life, both temporal and eternal. That’s why Jesus can say that “all these things will be added to you.” When we seek God’s Kingdom first, we can trust that God will provide for our physical needs ... and we don’t need to worry or be anxious about anything ... because he is “the God of Much More.” He gives much more than we ever expect or even ask for.
The Christians in Kibera, Kenya know this. Springs of Life Lutheran Church is still full on Sunday mornings. They worship at a charred altar. The children attend Sunday School in a burned out building. But in spite of all this, Pastor Meeker, who saw both his church and home burned before his own eyes, says: ‘The altar of God still brings us mercy and strength in order to march on in our daily vocations to love and bring mercy to the world.’” (For the Life of the World, April 2008, p. 21)
Pastor May and the Christians in Burkina Faso know this. After Pastor May was inexplicably pulled off the mission field earlier this month, he writes, “I was not sure how the church was going to react to the words of our departure. We have not been there long, only two years. We have just started to become one of the family. As it turns out, they refused to let this news dissuade them. We had three more baptisms and the number of worshippers doubled since the previous week.” (http://www.mayfamilyintogo.com/)
He continues: “It is not me who convinced anyone to believe in Christ, it was the Holy Spirit who called, gathered, and enlightened others to come to the knowledge of the truth. He is the one who will take care of what has been started. Part of the continued care will come from the leaders that He raised up here in Burkina Faso. Three men, Leopold, Joseph, and Espoir, have been training with me to continue the teachings of Christ. Joseph and Espoir will depart for the Lutheran Seminary in Togo starting in August. The studies last three years after which they will return to shepherd these new congregations. Leopold, the elder, will lead the congregations in their absence. It is very important that you keep these infant congregations and young leaders in your prayers. ‘So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.’ 1 Corinthians 3:7.” (http://www.mayfamilyintogo.com/files/052008.doc)
And finally, listen to Seminarian Corzine who follows up the description of that African seminarian’s apartment with these words: “I do not mention this apartment to suggest that we try to be more frugal or because of a newfound appreciation for American luxuries; rather, because I met people, the source of whose hope, comfort, and joy is the Gospel. Less than two weeks before we were in his home, that student’s mother died suddenly. Of course, he was mourning, but his joy in the resurrection is the same as our own, grounded in the knowledge that since Jesus rose from the dead, we will also do the same. So I was reminded that hardships in this life are nothing compared with the joy set before us.” (For the Life of the World, April 2008, p. 9)
“The God of Much More” ... makes us “more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Rom. 8:37) Amen.
“Much More” (Matthew 6:24-34)
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Recently I have been reading about the work that our synod and seminaries are doing in Africa. The living conditions of many of our brothers and sisters in Christ over there are quite different from our way of life over here.
Seminarian Jacob Corzine describes his trip to Madagascar, where he saw “the home of a seminary family of four, about the size of my dorm room ... The kitchen and bathroom are both outside.” (For the Life of the World, April 2008, p. 9)
The Rev. Dennis Meeker is pastor of Springs of Life Lutheran Church in Kibera, Kenya. His wife Lorna is a native Kenyan and a trained deaconess, serving the needs of women, orphans, widows, and people suffering with HIV/AIDS. Pastor Meeker tells what happened to his church during riots following elections in that country last December: “One of the elders called me ... and asked us to make phone calls to get people to the church because a large crowd was gathering on the street by the church. They pleaded with the mob not to burn the church. Sadly, they were overpowered and had to run for safety. Caleb, one of our elders, called and told us that the church was on fire. Lorna and I wept bitterly ... The gangs destroyed the pastor’s house, first looting it and then burning it.” (For the Life of the World, April 2008, p. 21)
The Rev. James May, former missionary in Burkina Faso and Togo, writes on his website about the poor water sanitation where he served: “...human waste is just drained into streets where pigs and children play together. Flies are attracted to these smells and carry bacteria into living and cooking areas, not to mention the children and pigs who are also playing in it. Inside the courtyard of a typical family, there is no running water. It is stored in whatever containers can be created. These containers are not connected to a water source. Typically this means that mom or the kids need to run out to the well each morning and wait their turn to get a few gallons of water with which to cook and clean each day.” (http://www.mayfamilyintogo.com/)
And you and I complain about gas prices. And rising food prices. And the housing market. If we have mutual funds, we worry about the condition of the stock market. And even if we don’t, news about the economy makes us uneasy. We worry about all kinds of things ... from safety in our city, to our status among our schoolmates, and the state of social security.
You of Little Faith
“O you of little faith.” That’s what Jesus calls us in today’s Gospel reading. We are so overly concerned and anxious about our life, that is, the needs of our body. Jesus said, “Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” When we worry, we directly disobey Jesus, who tells us not to worry.
“Oh, but Pastor,” I hear some of you saying. “I really don’t worry about those things.” But you do. You do fret about those things, asking “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” Sometimes we think we need filet mignon instead of tuna fish. Sometimes we think we need French champagne rather than Yakima chardonnay. Sometimes we think we need to buy all our clothes at the brand name stores at the mall rather than WalMart.
Jesus points us to the lessons we can learn from birds and flowers. Take a close look at how they live. Observe their habits closely. Birds don’t farm the land and store away their crops in barns. Yet they always have exactly what they need. Our heavenly Father feeds them.
The lilies of the field don’t make their own clothing. But all the robes and gold with which King Solomon was dressed don’t even begin to compare to the way in which God “clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven.”
Jesus also said, “And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” As a matter of fact, worry is more likely to shorten your life than lengthen it. Anxiety causes stress, which many physicians say weakens our immune system and may contribute to an increased risk of strokes and heart attacks.
The problem is that we are enslaved to the wrong lord. Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” ... or mammon, as the original Greek puts it, which is an Aramaic word for “wealth” or “property.” We are enslaved to mammon, and it is a harsh taskmaster. It beats us senseless as we strive harder and harder to get more of it. But when more comes our way, even that never seems to be enough. And of course, we live in a consumer-driven society. We are bombarded with advertisements on TV and radio and the internet, on billboards and in magazines, all trying to get us to buy something. Even the government is giving us money this year so we can go out and spend it on things we don’t have.
But we dare not blame “society.” This whole business is our own creation, simply providing what the public says it wants. And what it wants is “more.”
What we get is “less.” Including the title “you of little faith” ... people who really don’t trust God to take care of them. And that’s a sin for which we must repent.
The God of Much More
But for us who have little faith, our God is “the God of much more.” After Jesus has us learn from the birds and the flowers, he says, “Are you not of more value than they? ... Will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” God made the birds and provides for them. God made the lilies of the field and richly clothes them. But you are of much more value than anything else in God’s creation.
He cares for our physical needs, all the daily bread for which we pray in the Fourth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer: “food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods,” and so forth. But he gives us much more. He also provides for all our spiritual needs, our eternal needs, all the things we for which we pray in the first three petitions. The blessing of God’s holy name is placed upon us in Holy Baptism. We have entrance into God’s kingdom “when our heavenly Father gives us his Holy Spirit, so that by his grace we believe his holy Word.” And God’s will is done in our lives as he “breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, which do not want us to hallow God’s name or let his kingdom come; and when he strengthens and keeps us firm in his Word and faith until we die.”
Everyone in the world seeks to be fulfilled by earthly things. But Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Seek them. Be intent upon them. Eagerly desire them. And what God calls us to seek, he gives. In Luke 12, Jesus says, “it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32) In Romans 5, Paul uses some “much more” language about “righteousness.” After describing how death reigns in all of us through Adam’s sin, he goes on to say, “much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 5:17) Living in God’s kingdom, we can keep on seeking and receiving that which he gives ... forgiveness, eternal life, and salvation, the price of which was Christ’s own blood, shed at the cross, for you. Now, when we ask “What shall we eat?” ... we are fed with the Bread of Life (John 6:35), Christ himself ... not to mention his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. When we ask, “What shall we drink?” ... rivers of living water flow from within us (John 7:37), the refreshing gifts of faith and life that the Holy Spirit produces in us. When we ask, “What shall we wear?” ... the Lord clothes us with the garments of salvation and with the robe of Christ’s righteousness (Is. 61:10; Gal. 3:27; Phil. 3:9; Rev. 7:14).
Through baptism we are connected to Christ, and “having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.” (Rom. 6:18) We are enslaved to God alone. But instead of being a cruel taskmaster, he is a loving caretaker. We completely and totally belong to him, yet he gives us freedom in Christ ... freedom from our slavery to mammon ... freedom from our bondage to sin, death, and hell. He holds the rights of death and life over us, yet he mercifully provides for our life, both temporal and eternal. That’s why Jesus can say that “all these things will be added to you.” When we seek God’s Kingdom first, we can trust that God will provide for our physical needs ... and we don’t need to worry or be anxious about anything ... because he is “the God of Much More.” He gives much more than we ever expect or even ask for.
The Christians in Kibera, Kenya know this. Springs of Life Lutheran Church is still full on Sunday mornings. They worship at a charred altar. The children attend Sunday School in a burned out building. But in spite of all this, Pastor Meeker, who saw both his church and home burned before his own eyes, says: ‘The altar of God still brings us mercy and strength in order to march on in our daily vocations to love and bring mercy to the world.’” (For the Life of the World, April 2008, p. 21)
Pastor May and the Christians in Burkina Faso know this. After Pastor May was inexplicably pulled off the mission field earlier this month, he writes, “I was not sure how the church was going to react to the words of our departure. We have not been there long, only two years. We have just started to become one of the family. As it turns out, they refused to let this news dissuade them. We had three more baptisms and the number of worshippers doubled since the previous week.” (http://www.mayfamilyintogo.com/)
He continues: “It is not me who convinced anyone to believe in Christ, it was the Holy Spirit who called, gathered, and enlightened others to come to the knowledge of the truth. He is the one who will take care of what has been started. Part of the continued care will come from the leaders that He raised up here in Burkina Faso. Three men, Leopold, Joseph, and Espoir, have been training with me to continue the teachings of Christ. Joseph and Espoir will depart for the Lutheran Seminary in Togo starting in August. The studies last three years after which they will return to shepherd these new congregations. Leopold, the elder, will lead the congregations in their absence. It is very important that you keep these infant congregations and young leaders in your prayers. ‘So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.’ 1 Corinthians 3:7.” (http://www.mayfamilyintogo.com/files/052008.doc)
And finally, listen to Seminarian Corzine who follows up the description of that African seminarian’s apartment with these words: “I do not mention this apartment to suggest that we try to be more frugal or because of a newfound appreciation for American luxuries; rather, because I met people, the source of whose hope, comfort, and joy is the Gospel. Less than two weeks before we were in his home, that student’s mother died suddenly. Of course, he was mourning, but his joy in the resurrection is the same as our own, grounded in the knowledge that since Jesus rose from the dead, we will also do the same. So I was reminded that hardships in this life are nothing compared with the joy set before us.” (For the Life of the World, April 2008, p. 9)
“The God of Much More” ... makes us “more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Rom. 8:37) Amen.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
New Study Bible on the Way
Looks like a new study Bible from Concordia Publishing House is being produced. Read this from Paul McCain's Cyberbrethren:
The Concordia Self-Study Bible, which uses the NIV, has been a worthwhile and popular study Bible among us LCMS'ers for many years. However, it was actually a revision of the NIV Study Bible. The original notes of the NIV Study Bible were produced by evangelical scholars and were edited by two LCMS seminary profs for the Concordia Self-Study Bible.
I'm eagerly anticipating this new study Bible that McCain "teases" us with. Do I see a new book-of-the-month coming in the future at Messiah?
Word to the wise: stay tuned for a press release from Concordia Publishing House on The Lutheran Study Bible, the first study Bible, in English, to be prepared using exclusively Lutheran scholars, theologians, pastors, researchers and authors, who are all committed to the confession of historic, genuine Lutheranism, designed from stem-to-stern by Lutherans. It uses the English Standard Version of the Bible ... Every cross reference put in the 1534 Luther Bible will be included in The Lutheran Study Bible. Cool, huh? This is most definitely not simply a new edition of the Concordia Self-Study Bible. This is entirely new. You are going to love it. It has a rich variety of notes, annotations, study helps, articles, introductions, including quotes from Luther, the Confessions, Early Church Fathers, and the like. But I'll say no more for now.Well, maybe a bit more. It combines sturdy scholarly notes and helps, with richly devotional and practical Law/Gospel application notes. That's all I'll say though. OK, one more thing. This Bible puts "legs" on this statement from the Lutheran Confessions: "The chief topic of Christian doctrine [justification] is especially useful for the clear, correct understanding of the entire Holy Scriptures, and alone shows the way to the unspeakable treasure and right knowledge of Christ, and alone opens the door to the entire Bible." Really, that's all I'll say for now. More is coming. I can't wait to share more news with you about it, soon, very soon.
The Concordia Self-Study Bible, which uses the NIV, has been a worthwhile and popular study Bible among us LCMS'ers for many years. However, it was actually a revision of the NIV Study Bible. The original notes of the NIV Study Bible were produced by evangelical scholars and were edited by two LCMS seminary profs for the Concordia Self-Study Bible.
I'm eagerly anticipating this new study Bible that McCain "teases" us with. Do I see a new book-of-the-month coming in the future at Messiah?
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Radical Grace
Radical Grace is a radio broadcast that comes out of Florida, but is available over the internet for those of us out here on the opposite corner of the country. I first learned about this broadcast on the Wittenberg Trail, but only listened to a couple of shows online. Since then, I have bought myself my first ever mp3 player (welcome to the 21st century, Pastor Onken) and have downloaded about a dozen shows. I highly recommend this show as a way for laypeople to learn how to speak the pure Gospel as we Lutherans confess it -- which is all about God's "radical grace" -- to your friends and neighbors.
Here's how the show describes itself (from their website):
The Lutheran Difference was an effort by the congregation of Risen Savior Lutheran Church and School in Palm Bay Florida and it's pastor Gary Held to better minister to it's members and the community around them. Founded on the idea of "the Lutheran Church makes a Christian Difference", the podcast "the Lutheran Difference" became the centerpiece where the participants could get together to talk about issues that are most important to Lutherans as whole today. In October of 2007, the Podcast became a radio show on AM920 WMEL, and was renamed "Radical Grace". The show still continues to this day ... Knowing that Mainstream Evangelicalism has moved from the core teachings of the Christian Faith, our program strives to expose the world again to the reformation and begin a new reformation in and around the area as well as the world by proclaiming the Gospel of Christ and him crucified for sinners.
To learn more, go to their website by clicking here or in the sidebar to the right under "Lutheran Links." Also, check out the new "widget" in the sidebar where you can listen to the show directly from this blog.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Sermon for Holy Trinity
The Holy Trinity (May 18, 2008)
Matthew 28:16-20
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today’s text is the Gospel reading, the very last verses of the Gospel of St. Matthew: Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Trinity Sunday follows on the heels of Pentecost. Last Sunday we heard about the sending of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, upon the Church. The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples, accompanied by wind and fire and the ability to speak in other languages, and enabled them to be powerful preachers of Christ and his cross. All the Sundays from here to the end of the Church Year are now called Sundays after Pentecost, and the first one – today – focuses us back on not just one Person of the Trinity but the entire Holy Trinity. All the Scripture readings for the Sundays after Pentecost reveal to us the ways in which the Holy Trinity works in the life of the Church, to forgive, renew, empower, and enable us to be disciples, learners, followers of Christ. It’s fitting that today’s Gospel reading recounts for us the way in which disciples are made: by baptizing in the name of the Triune God and by teaching them God’s Word.
Now, the Holy Trinity is a big topic. It’s not something that you can easily explain. In fact, it’s best simply to worship the Trinity, not try to explain the Trinity. The Trinity is one of those mysteries that the Church believes and confesses based on what the Bible says. With the Lord’s words from St. Matthew’s Gospel this morning, however, I want us to consider for a time the unity of the Holy Trinity, and how the Holy Trinity shares that unity with us.
Next month, a remake of the 1976 movie “Sybil” is going to air on television. The original starred Sally Field in the title role, a true story based on the life of a young woman whose real name was Shirley Mason. Shirley Mason suffered from what is known as “dissociative identity disorder.” Most of us know this as “multiple personalities.” Because of some awful abuse that Shirley Mason faced in her childhood, she developed thirteen distinct personalities.
Many people confuse multiple personality disorder with schizophrenia. But the two are not the same. The confusion happens because of the meaning of the word schizophrenia. It comes from the Greek words “schizo” meaning “split” and “phrenos” meaning “mind,” “thinking,” or “understanding.” So people with schizophrenia have a “split mind.” In other words, what they think and feel have no connection to reality. And so they often hear voices. Or they might think that someone is out to get them. They have irrational fears of things that you and I come into contact with on a daily basis.
Both of these psychological problems are very serious and sad for the people who have them. They require years of therapy and medication. Those who suffer from them are often misunderstood and ostracized from their communities and families. The most severe cases require that the patients be institutionalized.
Hopefully none of us will ever be personally afflicted with either of these conditions. However, each of us has symptoms that are similar to these much greater problems. You and I are often conflicted within ourselves. We have a “split mind.” We act one way with one group of people and another with a different crowd. In public we are very nice and polite, but at home we are rude and impatient with our family. We tell ourselves “I’m not as bad as that person,” yet another voice inside of us accuses us nonetheless. We are one person, yet we often feel as if there are two who are battling it out within us.
Of course, we are indeed one person, but the battle we feel inside us is that conflict between the two natures that every Christian has. The Christian still carries his old sinful nature inherited from Adam. But through Baptism and the hearing of the Gospel, God has given us a new nature. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation.” God has made us into a new creation which wants to love God and do his will. And until we die, the new nature is always going to be fighting against the old nature. Pauls says in Romans 7, “For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind.”
Each of us is one person, but we are conflicted within ourselves. We have a “split mind.” We are spiritually schizophrenic. God, on the other hand, is Three Persons. Not multiple personalities, but three “persons” ... three “individual and rational beings existing” (Mueller, p. 154) by themselves, yet not three Gods but only One God. The ancient Athanasian Creed tries to get a handle on this idea and confess it according to what the Bible teaches. We sing about it in our hymns: “Holy, Holy, Holy ... God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity” ... “O blessed, holy Trinity, Divine, eternal Unity.”
Yet those Three Persons are not conflicted within themselves. The Triune God is One God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are One in mind and purpose and love. In our text today, right before his Ascension, Jesus said, “All authority has been given to me.” Hours before his crucifixion, Jesus told his disciples, “I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” (John 14:10-11) And of the Spirit, Jesus said, “he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speaks, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (John 16:13-15) Also, in John 3, Jesus said, “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.” (John 3:35) And in John 6, we hear Jesus saying, “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will bu the will of him who sent me ... For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” So the Father loves and sends the Son. The Son loves and obeys the Father. The Spirit loves the Father and the Son and proceeds from the Father and the Son in order to renew us and direct us and draw us to Christ, giving us eternal life and the promise of resurrection on the last day.
I’ve heard it said that God made man because he was lonely. As a matter of fact, I think in my younger years I may have said that, too, in answer to the question, “Why did God make people?” But when you really stop to think about it, that’s quite silly. God did not have to make the world to feel somehow complete. He did not have to make Adam. He did not have to make you or me. God is sufficient in himself. Even before time began, the Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father, and the love which they share is poured out by Holy Spirit. (Romans 5:5) The circle is complete. Nothing more is needed.
Here’s where the Holy Trinity differs from other conceptions of God. St. John writes that “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) Love is God’s chief attribute. And love needs an object. In other words, love needs something or someone to love. How can an eternal being know or “be” love without having something eternal to love? The Muslim god Allah is one, but he has nothing or no one eternal to share his love with before anything was ever created. Hinduism and Buddhism both have an impersonal view of god and spirituality, not to mention multiple gods and goddesses. Therefore, the chief aim of a Hindu or Buddhist is not to love god or be loved by god but to enter into the great “nothingness” of the universe. And impersonal gods cannot possibly convey love, which is very personal.
But the Holy Trinity is love and can love and does love. It’s true, God did not need to create the world and humanity to be complete or because he was lonely. But the fact is, he did create the world and Adam and Eve and you and me and shares his oneness and his love with us. The members of the Holy Trinity are in relationship with each other. God created Adam and Eve and entered into a relationship with them and gave them to each other to be in relationship to each other and to their children ... ultimately calling all of us to be in relationship with each other.
Well, you know what happened to all of that. Adam and Eve disobeyed God. Their relationship with him and with each other was broken. Eve’s mind was “split” because although she knew what God had said about eating the fruit, yet it sure looked good and that serpent sure made the deal sound sweet: “You will be like God.” How can that be a bad thing? But it was, because it was outside of God’s loving will for his creation.
But even in the face of such disobedience, God acted on our behalf to save us from that disastrous day in the Garden ... to save all of us from our disastrous disobedience of his Laws and Commandments. The Father sent his Son to bear the sins of the world at the cross, and the Father and the Son send forth the Holy Spirit to work faith in our hearts through the message of the forgiveness of sins because of Christ’s finished work at the cross. Here’s how Peter said it in his Pentecost sermon, on that great day of rushing wind and tongues of fire: This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it ... This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing ... Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ.
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to the Lord Jesus, the authority he shares with the Father. He sends his Church to Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. In Baptism, the name of the Triune God is placed on you. You are born again of water and the Spirit. You enter into the Kingdom of God. The love of God is planted in you, and Jesus said, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:23)
Just think ... the Triune God himself comes to live within you. The very oneness which the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit share with one another touches you. The very body and blood of Jesus is placed in your mouths. You are forgiven. You are renewed. The Holy Spirit begins to work in you to make you whole again. He is at work to heal that “split mind” that you have, silencing the accusing voices because you know you are forgiven in Christ. He is at work to heal the broken relationships that you have in your families and in your church ... so we can all express the God-given unity that we have as we remain united in all the teachings that Jesus has given us.
Amen.
Matthew 28:16-20
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today’s text is the Gospel reading, the very last verses of the Gospel of St. Matthew: Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Trinity Sunday follows on the heels of Pentecost. Last Sunday we heard about the sending of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, upon the Church. The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples, accompanied by wind and fire and the ability to speak in other languages, and enabled them to be powerful preachers of Christ and his cross. All the Sundays from here to the end of the Church Year are now called Sundays after Pentecost, and the first one – today – focuses us back on not just one Person of the Trinity but the entire Holy Trinity. All the Scripture readings for the Sundays after Pentecost reveal to us the ways in which the Holy Trinity works in the life of the Church, to forgive, renew, empower, and enable us to be disciples, learners, followers of Christ. It’s fitting that today’s Gospel reading recounts for us the way in which disciples are made: by baptizing in the name of the Triune God and by teaching them God’s Word.
Now, the Holy Trinity is a big topic. It’s not something that you can easily explain. In fact, it’s best simply to worship the Trinity, not try to explain the Trinity. The Trinity is one of those mysteries that the Church believes and confesses based on what the Bible says. With the Lord’s words from St. Matthew’s Gospel this morning, however, I want us to consider for a time the unity of the Holy Trinity, and how the Holy Trinity shares that unity with us.
Next month, a remake of the 1976 movie “Sybil” is going to air on television. The original starred Sally Field in the title role, a true story based on the life of a young woman whose real name was Shirley Mason. Shirley Mason suffered from what is known as “dissociative identity disorder.” Most of us know this as “multiple personalities.” Because of some awful abuse that Shirley Mason faced in her childhood, she developed thirteen distinct personalities.
Many people confuse multiple personality disorder with schizophrenia. But the two are not the same. The confusion happens because of the meaning of the word schizophrenia. It comes from the Greek words “schizo” meaning “split” and “phrenos” meaning “mind,” “thinking,” or “understanding.” So people with schizophrenia have a “split mind.” In other words, what they think and feel have no connection to reality. And so they often hear voices. Or they might think that someone is out to get them. They have irrational fears of things that you and I come into contact with on a daily basis.
Both of these psychological problems are very serious and sad for the people who have them. They require years of therapy and medication. Those who suffer from them are often misunderstood and ostracized from their communities and families. The most severe cases require that the patients be institutionalized.
Hopefully none of us will ever be personally afflicted with either of these conditions. However, each of us has symptoms that are similar to these much greater problems. You and I are often conflicted within ourselves. We have a “split mind.” We act one way with one group of people and another with a different crowd. In public we are very nice and polite, but at home we are rude and impatient with our family. We tell ourselves “I’m not as bad as that person,” yet another voice inside of us accuses us nonetheless. We are one person, yet we often feel as if there are two who are battling it out within us.
Of course, we are indeed one person, but the battle we feel inside us is that conflict between the two natures that every Christian has. The Christian still carries his old sinful nature inherited from Adam. But through Baptism and the hearing of the Gospel, God has given us a new nature. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation.” God has made us into a new creation which wants to love God and do his will. And until we die, the new nature is always going to be fighting against the old nature. Pauls says in Romans 7, “For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind.”
Each of us is one person, but we are conflicted within ourselves. We have a “split mind.” We are spiritually schizophrenic. God, on the other hand, is Three Persons. Not multiple personalities, but three “persons” ... three “individual and rational beings existing” (Mueller, p. 154) by themselves, yet not three Gods but only One God. The ancient Athanasian Creed tries to get a handle on this idea and confess it according to what the Bible teaches. We sing about it in our hymns: “Holy, Holy, Holy ... God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity” ... “O blessed, holy Trinity, Divine, eternal Unity.”
Yet those Three Persons are not conflicted within themselves. The Triune God is One God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are One in mind and purpose and love. In our text today, right before his Ascension, Jesus said, “All authority has been given to me.” Hours before his crucifixion, Jesus told his disciples, “I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” (John 14:10-11) And of the Spirit, Jesus said, “he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speaks, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (John 16:13-15) Also, in John 3, Jesus said, “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.” (John 3:35) And in John 6, we hear Jesus saying, “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will bu the will of him who sent me ... For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” So the Father loves and sends the Son. The Son loves and obeys the Father. The Spirit loves the Father and the Son and proceeds from the Father and the Son in order to renew us and direct us and draw us to Christ, giving us eternal life and the promise of resurrection on the last day.
I’ve heard it said that God made man because he was lonely. As a matter of fact, I think in my younger years I may have said that, too, in answer to the question, “Why did God make people?” But when you really stop to think about it, that’s quite silly. God did not have to make the world to feel somehow complete. He did not have to make Adam. He did not have to make you or me. God is sufficient in himself. Even before time began, the Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father, and the love which they share is poured out by Holy Spirit. (Romans 5:5) The circle is complete. Nothing more is needed.
Here’s where the Holy Trinity differs from other conceptions of God. St. John writes that “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) Love is God’s chief attribute. And love needs an object. In other words, love needs something or someone to love. How can an eternal being know or “be” love without having something eternal to love? The Muslim god Allah is one, but he has nothing or no one eternal to share his love with before anything was ever created. Hinduism and Buddhism both have an impersonal view of god and spirituality, not to mention multiple gods and goddesses. Therefore, the chief aim of a Hindu or Buddhist is not to love god or be loved by god but to enter into the great “nothingness” of the universe. And impersonal gods cannot possibly convey love, which is very personal.
But the Holy Trinity is love and can love and does love. It’s true, God did not need to create the world and humanity to be complete or because he was lonely. But the fact is, he did create the world and Adam and Eve and you and me and shares his oneness and his love with us. The members of the Holy Trinity are in relationship with each other. God created Adam and Eve and entered into a relationship with them and gave them to each other to be in relationship to each other and to their children ... ultimately calling all of us to be in relationship with each other.
Well, you know what happened to all of that. Adam and Eve disobeyed God. Their relationship with him and with each other was broken. Eve’s mind was “split” because although she knew what God had said about eating the fruit, yet it sure looked good and that serpent sure made the deal sound sweet: “You will be like God.” How can that be a bad thing? But it was, because it was outside of God’s loving will for his creation.
But even in the face of such disobedience, God acted on our behalf to save us from that disastrous day in the Garden ... to save all of us from our disastrous disobedience of his Laws and Commandments. The Father sent his Son to bear the sins of the world at the cross, and the Father and the Son send forth the Holy Spirit to work faith in our hearts through the message of the forgiveness of sins because of Christ’s finished work at the cross. Here’s how Peter said it in his Pentecost sermon, on that great day of rushing wind and tongues of fire: This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it ... This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing ... Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ.
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to the Lord Jesus, the authority he shares with the Father. He sends his Church to Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. In Baptism, the name of the Triune God is placed on you. You are born again of water and the Spirit. You enter into the Kingdom of God. The love of God is planted in you, and Jesus said, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:23)
Just think ... the Triune God himself comes to live within you. The very oneness which the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit share with one another touches you. The very body and blood of Jesus is placed in your mouths. You are forgiven. You are renewed. The Holy Spirit begins to work in you to make you whole again. He is at work to heal that “split mind” that you have, silencing the accusing voices because you know you are forgiven in Christ. He is at work to heal the broken relationships that you have in your families and in your church ... so we can all express the God-given unity that we have as we remain united in all the teachings that Jesus has given us.
Amen.
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