92nd & State

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany (January 29, 2012)

2012-01-29T11:00:00.000-08:00

"The Authority of Jesus" (Mark 1:21-28)

Wherever Jesus shows up, there Satan comes to oppose him. Luther often quoted a familiar German proverb: “Wherever God has built a church, the devil will have a chapel close by.” This does not mean that Satan worshippers live next door to every church. Seldom will you find “First Church of Satan” on reader boards planted along the boulevard. I have never seen “Satan Saves” flashing in neon-lit letters on a rooftop. The “devil’s chapel” is not so obvious. Satan’s message is not always so blatant. Rather, what that proverb means is that Satan sets up camp nearby, takes the good things of God, and twists them so that you use them in an ungodly way. The devil wants to make you think that the Gospel and Christianity is all about becoming a better person, just trying a little bit harder. And then, he’s got you. Because that type of thinking will cause you to despair when you realize that you simply cannot measure up. Or it will turn you into a self-righteous prig who prays like the Pharisee in Jesus’ story who prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men” (Luke 18:11).

You may be at odds with certain people in your life right now. Maybe you even consider them your “enemies.” But they are not your real enemy. The real fight we are engaged in is a spiritual battle. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). There are real unseen forces that are work all around us, all the fallen angels with Satan as their chief. St. Peter writes, “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Don’t go looking for someone to show up in red tights with pitchfork in hand. Don’t expect an Oscar-winning “Exorcist”-like performance. He’s much craftier than that. He “disguises himself as an angel of light,” St. Paul tells us (2 Cor. 11:14). The old evil foe is liable to mix in just enough truth with his lies in order to lead you down a path which carries you far away from the worship of the one true God.

Notice where the devil shows up in today’s Gospel lesson. On the Sabbath. The holy day. The day of rest. The day when faithful Jews went to the synagogue to hear God’s Word read. To hear a rabbi preach a sermon about a portion of God’s Word. Who would expect the devil to show up in church, for crying out loud? But wherever Jesus is, Satan is sure to come to oppose him … to wreak havoc, to undo the work of God’s good creation, to create fear and confusion. And he would love to do nothing more than that in our midst, too.

A man with an unclean spirit comes forward and confronts Jesus. The demon says, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24). He spoke the truth. This was Jesus of Nazareth. He came to destroy the work of the devil. And he is indeed the Holy One of God. The unclean spirit from within the man confessed the truth … but in fear, not faith. He thinks, perhaps, that by uttering Jesus’ name and identity that he can gain some kind of magic control over Jesus, as was thought in those days. Jesus will have no demon speak his holy name. And Jesus doesn’t need any magic incantations. His word carries authority. It carries the power to accomplish what it says. “Be silent, and come out of him!” The unclean spirit has no choice but to obey.

The people gathered in the synagogue were amazed at Jesus’ authority. Notice, too, that they were amazed even before the incident with the demon-possessed man. He taught differently than the teachers that they were used to. They were accustomed to hearing citation after citation from this rabbi and that rabbi. Jesus didn’t need to cite anyone. His sermons needed no footnotes. He is THE source. He is the Word of God become flesh. His teaching came with such authority, it was like a smack in the face to the people, they were so astonished.

You and I are gathered in church this morning. Are we amazed at the teaching of Jesus? Are you in awe of the judgment of God over your sins? Are you astonished at the overwhelming mercy of God in Christ Jesus, who became flesh for you, who suffered for you, who shed his blood at the cross for you, who paid the price for your sins and buried them with him in the tomb for you, who rose to life again so that you might experience a resurrected life in spirit now and a resurrected life in both soul and body in eternity? Are you amazed that the God of the universe loves you and forgives your sins?

If not, part of the fault might lie with the preacher. Maybe he hasn’t made it crystal clear to you how desperately in need of a Savior you are and how desperately God loves you that he sent his only Son to be your Savior.

On the other hand, part of the fault might lie with the hearer. Maybe he or she is not being attentive to the holy Word of God. Maybe he or she is looking for spectacular signs and wonders instead of being satisfied with words, water, and bread and wine. Not very spectacular, I’ll grant you that, but chock full of supernatural power when God’s promises are attached to them. Knowing this, we ought to be on the edge of our seats when we come to the Divine Service, leaning forward, waiting with great anticipation to receive the gifts that the Lord has in store for us.

Our Lord gives his authoritative word to his Church and her ministers. “The one who hears you hears me,” Jesus said to his disciples (Luke 10:16). In the upper room after his resurrection, he said to them, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them” (John 20:23). The Word of Jesus has the power to accomplish what it says … to give life, forgiveness, and salvation, and to cast the devil far away from us.

He cast him away from you when you were baptized. And you’re saying, “No, he didn’t. I was just a sweet, cute, innocent little baby.” No, you weren’t. You were a little sinner, bound for hell, unless claimed by Christ. That’s what we say in the rite of Holy Baptism: “The Word of God also teaches that we are all conceived and born sinful and under the power of the devil until Christ claims us as his own.” That’s what St. Paul says in Colossians 1: “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:13-14).

The name of Jesus was placed upon you in Holy Baptism. And Satan flees at the Holy Name of Jesus … not as if we are using a magic incantation, but because of the authority of the One who bears that Name. The right use of the Name of Jesus is confessing faith in his Name and telling others about that Name so that they, too, through water and the Word might be transferred from the devil’s domain into the Kingdom of Christ.

Wherever Jesus is, there Satan comes to oppose him. He is the real enemy. But he is a defeated enemy. He can only go as far as God allows him. “Satan, hear this proclamation, ‘I am baptized into Christ!’” Say it out loud. Pray it out loud. Let the devil hear it. Stick it to him. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). Resist him in the strength of Christ, because you and I have no power of our own. Be ever vigilant in prayer. Listen, lean forward, come often, run to receive God’s blessing, power, and strength for you in Word and Sacrament.

Amen.

Sermon for the Funeral of Esther Roberts (January 28, 2012)

2012-01-28T20:25:00.000-08:00

“Faith in the Midst of Sorrow” (Lamentations 3:57-58)

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, our only Savior and Redeemer from sin and death, who gloriously conquered death and the grave for us in his resurrection.

Cheryl handed me a little piece of paper when we visited to plan today’s service. It was a page from a daily calendar that had a Bible verse for each day. This one was from Esther’s calendar on the day which the Lord received her into glory. This was the Bible verse: “You came near when I called on you; you said, ‘Do not fear!’ You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life.” (Lamentations 3:57-58). We all agreed that this would indeed be a perfect Bible verse to consider on this occasion today.

Lamentations was written by the prophet Jeremiah. It’s a record of his sorrow over viewing the destruction of Jerusalem. This was the holy city. This was the place where the temple stood. The temple was where the glory of God was present on earth. From that place, they would receive blessing and grace, forgiveness and mercy. Now, it was all in ruins. The Babylonian armies had swept in. They were God’s instrument to punish the people of Judah. They had grown complacent in times of prosperity. They had forgotten about the Lord. God wanted to discipline them for their sinful disobedience against him and his holy commandments. The city and the temple were destroyed. The people of Judah were captured and taken to Babylon.

Jeremiah views all this and cries out to the Lord. Verse after verse, chapter after chapter, the prophet laments over Judah’s sin, Jerusalem’s destruction, and his own suffering. Yet, amazingly, while Jeremiah is recounting his painful afflictions in the middle of the book, the light of faith shines in the darkness. “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,” he declares. “His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lam. 3:22-23). A few verses later, he says, “For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men” (Lam. 3:31-33). Jeremiah remembers God’s promise of restoration. He prophesied that after 70 years in captivity, the Lord would restore the people to Judea. The city and the temple would be rebuilt.

Jeremiah also recalled his time when he was “in the pits” … literally. Before the events just described, Jeremiah told the people not to fight the armies who would soon be at the gates. This was God’s will. They were to accept their captivity as God’s punishment. But they refused to listen. To them, Jeremiah’s words were treasonous. So they threw him down into a muddy well. Jeremiah remembers this and says, “I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit; you heard my plea, ‘Do not close your ear to my cry for help!’” (Lam. 3:55-56) And then comes the Bible verses from Esther’s calendar page: “You came near when I called on you; you said, ‘Do not fear!’ You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life” (Lam. 3:57-58).

This is also God’s promise to you while you are “in the pits” of sorrow and sadness. Call on the Lord in your sadness, and he will come near. There is an emptiness in your heart right now because of your loss, but “Do not fear!” … the Lord will never abandon you, especially at a time like this. In Psalm 50, he says, “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (Ps. 50:15). The Lord has taken up your cause. He is on your side. How do I know this? I know this because of St. Paul’s inspired words in Romans 8, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39). Moreover, the Lord has redeemed your life … even as he redeemed Esther’s life. He sent his Son Jesus into the flesh to live a perfect life in our place and to suffer and die on the cross as payment for the sins of the world, the sin which brought death into this world all the way back in the beginning in the Garden. In this way, the Lord has purchased and won you, and Esther, and each of us … not with silver or gold, but with his holy, precious blood, and with his innocent suffering and death, that we may be his own and live under him in his kingdom, and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

Jeremiah had also prophesied that the Lord would restore the people of Judah. They would be brought back from exile in Babylon and would settle again in the Promised Land. This was all in God’s plan so that one day, at just the right time, the Savior of the world would be born … not in Babylon, but in Bethlehem, not far from Jerusalem. But this restoration was a foretaste of the restoration that Jesus inaugurated on Easter morning. After his crucifixion, the dead Christ was laid in a tomb … in the pit of death, if you will. But after three days, Jesus rose to life again. His life was restored. His resurrection is the foretaste of the resurrection of all who are baptized in the name of the Triune God and who trust in Christ’s finished work at the cross and the empty tomb.

In the reading from St. John’s Gospel today, Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24). Esther heard God’s Word while she was with us here. She faithfully came to the Divine Service where she heard that Jesus died and rose for her. She heard her pastors tell her that her sins were forgiven through Jesus. She came often to receive the body and blood of her Savior in the Sacrament of the Altar. She confessed faith in Jesus with the same words we used moments ago in the Apostles’ Creed. Even before she died, she already possessed eternal life, as Jesus said, “whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.” Even before she died, Esther had already “passed from death to life.”

Jesus also tells us that “an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment” (John 5:29). The “good” here to which Jesus refers means the good things that people do as the fruit of true faith in Jesus. “I am the vine. You are the branches,” Jesus said. “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). It’s not our good works that gain us eternal life. It is the good works that Jesus did in his perfect life and his sacrificial death that earned eternal life for us. That work is credited to us when we believe in Jesus as Savior. And even that faith is a gift given to us by the power of the Holy Spirit working through God’s powerful Word.

Esther had received that gift in the waters of Holy Baptism. Her faith was nurtured and nourished throughout her life as she listened to God’s Word. Her soul is with Jesus right now. On the Last Day, she and all the departed saints will hear the voice of Jesus and will rise to life again to spend a blessed eternity in the glory of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Sermon for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany (January 22, 2012)

2012-01-22T11:26:00.000-08:00

“The Epiphany Lord Calls You” (Mark 1:14-20)

The children's game “Follow the Leader” is a fun game. The person in front of the line gets to go anywhere and do anything he wants. Those behind must follow ... around in circles, around the yard, doing somersaults, skipping, climbing over playground equipment.

As fun as “Follow the Leader” is, it is a purposeless game. There's no winner. There are no losers. It's not like “Simon Says” where you are disqualified if you do something that “Simon” didn't give you permission to do. In “Follow the Leader,” you simply follow the person in front and do everything they do, and then, after a bit, everyone gets bored and it's on to something else.

Jesus calls his disciples to follow him. Unlike the game “Follow the Leader,” following Jesus is not without purpose. He is the Epiphany Lord who has manifested himself to us as the Son of God and given us the light of his life. “The Epiphany Lord Calls You” to a life of purpose. He calls you to a life of repentance and faith. He calls you to a life of total commitment. And He calls you to a life of glorious service.

The Epiphany Lord came to announce that his kingdom is near. It was near for the hearers there in Galilee. Jesus the King of Kings and Lord of Lords was right there among them. Those who would repent of their sinfulness and trust in the good news that Jesus is the Savior from sin would become members of the kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God is near for you, too. You don't have to go running to Galilee to find him. Jesus is present for you today in Word and Sacrament. That's where you find him. The Epiphany Lord comes and shines his light on your heart. The light that shines from his holiness exposes the darkness and the ugliness inside you. At the same time, the light of his Word shines in you, calls you to repentance, and God the Holy Spirit ignites faith in you which believes the good news that Jesus is your Savior. His kingdom is near, and we become members of his kingdom by faith.

As he did with Simon, Andrew, James, and John, the Epiphany Lord calls you to a life of total commitment: “Follow me.” The disciples may have previously heard the preaching of Jesus there in Galilee that the kingdom was near, to repent and believe. Now Jesus comes to them personally and picks them out and calls them to a life of total commitment. They answered the call by leaving behind their nets, their boats, their livelihood.

Jonah was also called by God. The Lord God called Jonah to go to Ninevah and call the people of that wicked city to repentance. Did Jonah respond like the disciples? Hardly. God called him to go that way. Jonah went “thatta way.” It took a big storm and a big fish to get Jonah back on dry land and to convince him that God really wanted the prophet to go preach to the people of Ninevah.

You and I are more inclined to act like Jonah did than the disciples in today's text. You and I are more inclined to hesitate – perhaps even refuse – when we hear that God calls us to a life of total commitment. There are things in our life that don't fit into a life with God. It's difficult for us to throw those things away. There are things in our life that come first before God. It's not easy to put them second. We are more committed to our jobs, our spouses, our children, our friends, ourselves rather than being committed first and foremost to God. He may have to send some big storms and some “big fish” – some big obstacles – into our lives so that He can put us back on track and convince us that we must reorder our priorities regarding those things that we put before Him and follow Jesus with all our heart.

But here's how gracious your Epiphany Lord is. He gives you the strength to do what he calls you to do. His call to “Follow me” enables you to say “Yes” to his call. It empowers you to accept his will for you. It empowers you to reorder your priorities so that God is first and all else is second.

The Epiphany Lord's call to “Follow me” is also a call to a life of glorious service. The disciples had been busy in their occupations as fishermen. Daily they would either stand on the shore or go out in boats and throw out their nets. These nets had weights on them which would sink. Then they would pull the nets back up, catching any fish that did not manage to swim away.

Now, before Jesus called these four disciples in our text, their lives certainly had purpose. They were fishermen. They fed their families. They sold the fish they caught and made a living. That is certainly honorable. But if one's work is not done in faith and to the glory of God, it is not truly a life of glorious service.

Perhaps you feel at times that your life has no purpose. Like the game of “Follow the Leader,” you feel like you are going around and around in circles, over and under obstacles, but never feeling like you are really getting anywhere, doing anything that has any meaning.

Maybe it's because you are following the wrong leader. Who or what are you following after? What goals are driving your life? If your number one goal is not to serve God in all that you do, then you are following the wrong leader.

You have been “caught” by Jesus. He is the leader that you follow … all the way to the cross, where he gave his life in exchange for yours. He gives you new life in the waters of baptism. His sacrificial life at the cross shapes your life and makes it sacrificial as you live for and serve others. His call to discipleship gives your life purpose and meaning. Through the water of baptism, your life and your work have been sanctified – set apart for God's service. Now, everything you do, you can do for the Lord.

Jesus may not call you to leave your job in order to follow him as he did the disciples. On the other hand, maybe he will call you do just that, especially for those men he calls to go to the seminary and study for the ministry. Nevertheless, Jesus calls all of us to repentance and then, he radically reshapes our lives.

Paul teaches us this in today's Epistle lesson. “[T]he appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away” (1 Cor. 7:29-31) In other words, let none of these things interfere with your worship and service of God. This world is temporary. The things of God are eternal.

Jesus called the disciples to become “fishers of men.” Did you find it ironic that our Old Testament lesson talks about a guy who was caught by a fish, and our Gospel lesson talks about guys who used to catch fish and were now caught by Jesus to go out and fish for men? They were to begin a period of intensive training in which they would now go out and catch men, not fish. Their nets would no longer be made of twine and weights, but of the words of Christ. Like their nets, they would cast out the message of repentance and forgiveness in Christ, and bring in those who were “caught.” And this catch would not be snagged and sold, but released and set free, because they received and believed the Good News which freed them from the bondage of sin and freed them for a fulfilling relationship with God.

That glorious service of being “fishers of men” continues among us today as members of Christ's Kingdom who have been caught by him. Together we confess the truth of God's Word, and among our friends, family, and neighbors we cast out the “net” of the message of repentance and forgiveness in Christ.

It's not always easy. But it's necessary, because we live in a dying world ... “the present form of this world is passing away.” That should be obvious. We see death and twisted values all around us. Abortion used to be wrong, now it's legal. Euthanasia used to be unthinkable, now it's gaining acceptance. Marriage used to be universally understood as between a man and woman, but no more. But let's not blame the eroding foundations of the family on those who have recently wished to redefine marriage. The sins of straight folks have been contributing to that for many more years prior to our present predicament.

The Ninevites had forty days to repent. No one knows how long our friends and neighbors have until their last hour on earth. “[T]he appointed time has grown very short ... the present form of this world is passing away.” Hence the importance for us to cast out the net and bring in those who are “caught” by our compassionate and merciful Lord.

Jonah was a very reluctant preacher who did not want to go with God's message on his lips. When he finally did, his message was that the Ninevites had forty days to repent. They did, and God had compassion on them.

The four disciples were not reluctant to go to with Jesus' message on their lips. With Jesus' Words in our ears, and with His body and blood on our lips, may we be strengthened to go just as the disciples did. May we be strengthened for a life of repentance and faith, a life of total commitment, and a life of glorious service in answer to the call of our Epiphany Lord.

Amen.

Sermon for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany (January 15, 2012)

2012-01-15T10:35:00.000-08:00

“What You Do With Your Body Matters" (1 Corinthians 6:12-20)

What you do with your body matters. Consider the way your “body language” gives powerful, non-verbal cues. For example, someone is pouring out their heart to you, and you do this: [look at fingernails, yawn and look away, fiddle with glasses, look at your smartphone]. No matter how much you insist that you care about what the person is telling you, what you are doing with your body gives the opposite impression. What you do with your body matters.

The same is true in our relationship to God. What are you saying to God with the things you do with or to your body? No matter how much you say that you believe it is important to “glorify God with your body,” what you do with your body gives the opposite impression. Your body is God’s creation. Your life is a gift. “For you formed my inward parts,” the Psalmist declares. “You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps. 139:13-14). The almighty God of the universe knew you long before your mother and father ever saw your face. He was busy molding you and shaping you before your little face ever saw the light of day.

In Holy Baptism, your body becomes God’s temple. Through water and Word, the Holy Spirit takes up residence within you. Ignatius of Antioch, first-century Church Father and disciple of the apostle John, understood this well. In many of his writings, he refers to himself as “Theophorus” … “God-bearer.” Ignatius confessed that God dwelt within him as a baptized believer in Christ.

Your body is a temple. God dwells within you. You are a “Theophorus” … a “God-bearer.” If the Spirit of God is within you, then he has truly touched your body. What God touches becomes holy. The forgiving presence of God makes you holy. You are sanctified. That which is holy is set apart for God’s purposes. This is the same reason why, in the book of Leviticus, the Lord told the Israelites, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (Lev. 19:2). Through contact with the Lord God in the sacrifices offered in the tabernacle, the people were made holy. Likewise, through contact with the Lord God through Word and Sacrament, you are made holy … not just your souls, but your bodies, too.

We like to think that we can do whatever we want with our bodies. The Corinthian argument was this: “All things are lawful for me.” They were exercising their freedom in Christ to the point of sinful excess. They may have been influenced by certain philosophies of the day which held that it didn’t matter what you did with your body … it was the soul that mattered.

Our arguments today are not much different. Take, for example, those who approve of abortion. “It’s my body,” they loudly persist. “I can do what I want with it.” But we already established that it is not your body. God made it. It belongs to him. And that body growing within you was, like your body, “fearfully and wonderfully made” by God no matter what the circumstances surrounding the conception.

What about matters of relations between men and women? Not many of us would argue that cheating on our spouse is okay. Nor can I imagine that any of you would be so crass as to say that visiting the red light district for a little recreation is acceptable. But many of us would argue that it doesn’t hurt to “look” … especially if it’s just a picture on a computer screen. But whether you become one flesh in reality or only in your imagination with someone who is not your spouse, that is still adultery … immorality … “porneia” as it is in the Greek. Your body is not your own. It belongs to your spouse. It belongs to God.

The Son of God gained a real body when he was incarnate and born of the Virgin Mary. He was manifested to the world at Epiphany as God in the flesh, baptized in the Jordan to carry out the mission his Father gave to him to bear the sins of the world. You are not your own. You were bought with a price. You were bought by God with the precious blood of Jesus shed at the cross. You belong to him. Your soul belongs to him. Your body belongs to him. He is the Bridegroom. The Church is his bride. Jesus is ever faithful to his Church. Jesus recognized that his body was not his to use for his own selfish purposes. He always and completely offered up his body in service to sinners, among whom were also prostitutes and adulterers.

Recall how Jesus treated the woman caught in adultery. The scribes and Pharisees brought to Jesus a woman who had been caught in adultery. Jesus did not condone her sin, but clearly acted with compassion toward her, especially in light of the deceitful intent of her accusers. “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her,” Jesus said. One by one, clenched fists relaxed. One by one, stones fell to the ground. Empty-handed, each man turned aside, his proverbial tail between his legs. Now there was only Jesus and the woman. He says to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, Lord,” she said. “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more” (John 9:3-11). “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17).

Jesus treats sinners with compassion. Jesus is always ready and willing to forgive and receive us back into his loving arms when our eyes and our hearts wander away from him, when we have made choices that we severely regret. He invites us to approach him in repentant trust and our loving Savior – the Groom of the Church – unselfishly, unconditionally offers to us his body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar.

What you do with your body matters. We are not disembodied spirits. God created Adam with a body and breathed life into him. God’s intention was for us to live body and soul together in union.

This is also why what we do with our body in worship is important. We make the sign of the cross, reminding us that our foreheads and our hearts were marked with that same sign when God claimed us as his own in Baptism. We bow before the altar where the Sacrament is prepared for us to eat and drink. We stand or kneel when we pray and when we receive the body and blood of Jesus, showing honor and reverence in the presence of God. We sit to listen and to learn when the Scriptures are read and the sermon is preached. It’s also customary to bow the head at the Gloria Patri or whenever there is a Doxology, a word of praise to the Holy Trinity. It’s customary to bow the head at the Holy Name of Jesus at certain points in the liturgy. Some pastors genuflect at the altar after the words of institution, acknowledging the real presence of Christ in the elements upon the altar. We engage all the senses in the Divine Service … sight, sound, touch, taste, even smell for those churches who use incense. All of this bodily action is, of course, church tradition that is not prescribed in the Bible. Doing it does not make you a better Christian. Not doing it is does not make you a lesser Christian. But because we are not disembodied spirits, what we do with our bodies may indeed assist our souls in our devotion and worship. To be sure, what is not optional in this Christian life is using our bodies in unselfish service to our neighbor, empowered by the Spirit who makes our bodies his temple and leads us to sing, “Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee; Take my moments and my days, let them flow in ceaseless praise.” (LSB 783.1)

Death is the separation of the soul from the body. But God’s intention is to reunite the soul with the body in the resurrection on the Last Day. So we treat these God-bearing bodies properly, honoring them, acknowledging that we will have these same bodies forever … no longer with all of the problems caused by sin, but immortal like the risen body of Jesus. “God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power … he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him … You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

Amen.

Jesus in the New Year

2011-12-31T12:00:00.000-08:00

From Messiah Lutheran Church's January 2012 Newsletter

There is much to think about at the beginning of a New Year. What’s in store for us? Prosperity? More hard times ahead? Will my family remain healthy? Will our nation remain safe or will we have to engage in another war somewhere around the world? What’s going to happen in the elections in 2012? It would be nice to have a crystal ball to have all the answers. Unfortunately, the future is a mystery.

All these questions and uncertainties swirl around at the top of the year. However, there is one certainty that we can all count on. At the beginning of another New Year, the Church focuses on Jesus and his certain grace and mercy towards us sinners. That should come as no surprise, of course. If we’re not focused on Jesus, then we’re certainly focused on the wrong thing.

On New Year’s Day, the Church celebrates the circumcision and naming of Jesus. We remember his circumcision because January 1 is eight days after Christmas. Through circumcision, each newborn boy in Israel was brought into the covenant community and obligated to keep the Law. The child was also publicly named for the first time, even though mother and father had probably already picked out a name. In the case of Jesus, his name was revealed to Joseph by the angel Gabriel, who instructed, “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). Jesus, or Yeshua as it is in Hebrew, means “Yahweh saves.”

Even this seemingly insignificant act of circumcision played an important role in the life of our Savior and the plan of salvation. Jesus took on the burden of the Law and kept it perfectly for us all throughout his life. This was also the first time the Savior shed his blood for us. The knife in those friendly hands at his circumcision foreshadowed the hammer in hostile hands when Jesus later shed his blood again for the sins of the world when nailed to the cross.

The English hymnwriter William How put it this way:

Jesus! Name of priceless worth
To the fallen of the earth
For the promise that it gave,
“Jesus shall His people save.”

Jesus! Name of mercy mild,
Given to the holy Child
When the cup of human woe
First He tasted here below.

Jesus! Only name that’s giv’n
Under all the mighty heav’n
Whereby those to sin enslaved
Burst their fetters and are saved.

Jesus! Name of wondrous love,
Human name of God above;
Pleading only this, we flee
Helpless, O our God, to Thee. (LSB 900)

May the name of Jesus grant you hope and comfort throughout the coming year. The future is a mystery. But in Jesus, it is no mystery how God feels about you. You are loved. You are forgiven. You have the promise of his help and aid in the face of whatever comes your way in the days and months ahead. And a future with Jesus is no mystery. Eternal life is yours now and always because of his finished work at the cross and the empty tomb.

At the beginning of a new year, there is indeed much to think about.

Think about Jesus and all that he is and has done for you.

In Christ’s service and yours,
Pastor Onken

Sermon for Christmas Eve 2011

2011-12-25T07:00:00.000-08:00

“Light a Candle (The True Light)” (John 1:9)

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. (John 1:9)

Light a candle. What do you notice? A bright yellow glow. A flame that flickers. A warmth that emanates. A pleasant aroma if it happens to be one of those scented candles. A fire that burns if you get too close.

Light a candle. There is something unique about candlelight. Enter a room lit only by candles, and there will be a different feeling in that room. The glowing, dancing light has a certain enchanting quality. It’s as if the light is alive.

Light a candle. One small flame has power. If you light a candle in a pitch black room, that one small flame shines brightly. You can begin to make out the shapes in the room. No more bumping into walls and pieces of furniture.

This is a dark time of year in these parts. The hours of daylight are short. Two days ago it was the Winter Solstice … the shortest day of the year. The days are now getting longer. But it will be a while before we begin to notice it.

These dark, gray days cause many people to become blue. Sad. Depressed. Psychologists call it “Seasonal Affective Disorder.” A few years ago, as a Californian transplanted to Washington via Indiana, I came to realize that I could probably stand to use a bit more sunlight this time of year. I wouldn’t call it depression. That would be insulting to people who deal with true clinical depression. But I certainly found myself becoming sluggish and just generally down in the dumps. A friend suggested I light some candles. The natural, warm glow of candlelight has a certain quality to it that can help alter your mood. I also wonder if this is one reason why people decorate their homes with festive lights this time of year … seeing houses all lit up for the holidays helps to “lighten the mood.”

The darkness around us, however, is much more than physical. Physical darkness in reality is not threatening. There is nothing there in the dark that wasn’t there in the light. At least that’s what we tell our children when they are afraid of the dark. But spiritual darkness, on the other hand, is the real enemy. The darkness of sin, evil, disobedience to God, rebellious hearts … this is the real problem we face. Disease, discouragement, dissension, dysfunction, death … these are only symptoms of the darkness of sin. This darkness is all around us. This darkness is inside each of us. And this darkness is present even on the brightest, warmest summer days.

Into this dark world, a candle was lit. An infant child was born in a stable and laid in a manger. The Son of God became flesh. This one small flame entered into this world to enlighten us, to shine the truth to us of God’s love for sinful mankind. The sinless Son of Mary came to do battle with the darkness and to overcome it for us. In his earthly ministry, he healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, made the lame to walk, the deaf to hear. He forgave sins. He brought comfort to those afflicted in mind and heart. He cast demons out of those oppressed by Satan and his evil allies. He raised the dead. In all this, he showed that he has the power over the darkness of sin and evil.

But it didn’t stop there. Jesus himself faced the darkness of death for us. At the cross, the debt we owe to God for our sin was laid upon him. The sinless Savior paid the price for our sins with his own life. The sun refused to shine that day. There was darkness in the middle of the day as Jesus hung there, breathing his last breaths and crying out, “It is finished!” It appeared as if the light of Jesus, the Light of the World, had been snuffed out. But on Easter morning, the light of Christ shone forth brightly as he rose from the dead, conquering death once and for all. Now you who are enlightened through the waters of Baptism and who trust in the light of Christ are forgiven of all your sins. Everlasting life is yours. Like Jesus, you too will rise to life again on the Last Day and live in the light of God’s love forever.

“The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world,” St. John writes in the first chapter of his Gospel (John 1:9). He goes on: “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (John 1:10-11). The Baby lying in the manger was the same One who created the universe. The Baby lying in the manger grew up to be the Savior who was rejected by his own people. People still reject him today. They seek other kinds of “light” for their problems. But these types of light are really no light at all. They only mask the symptoms of sin or dull the senses so that our real guilt before a holy God is either momentarily alleviated or denied altogether. These are artificial sources of light that really only leave us in the darkness.

Only Jesus, the true light, enlightens our darkness. Only he brings real forgiveness for our sin and guilt. The light of Jesus doesn’t just mask our symptoms or dull our senses. He truly dealt with our sin problem once and for all by his incarnation, by his sinless sacrifice, and by his resurrection. “Glory to God in the highest,” the angels sang at his birth, “and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14) In Christ Jesus, God’s favor rests upon you. In Christ Jesus, God is pleased with you. In Christ Jesus, God is at peace with you and you are at peace with God. Now, even though our earthly lives are still affected by the symptoms of sin, we can still have Christmas peace, Christmas comfort, Christmas joy because Jesus overcame the darkness of sin and death for us at the cross and the empty tomb. In eternity we will experience the total victory that Jesus won for us. No more sorrow. No more sin. No more death. Only joy and light and life in the presence of God forever.

God the Holy Spirit ignites the flame of faith in our hearts when we hear the Good News about Jesus the Savior. That fire within us is stoked when we hear God’s Word, when we remember our Baptism, when we hear that our sins are forgiven in Holy Absolution, when we receive Christ’s body and blood in Holy Communion. Still, the darkness of our old sinful nature causes the flame of faith to flicker and wane. The darkness that remains in the world tries to blow out the flame of faith and causes us to doubt, despair, and disbelieve. Is your wick smoldering tonight? Is the darkness within you and around you threatening to snuff out any remnants of faith and hope in your heart? Be assured that God’s will is to fan the flame of faith within you. The prophet Isaiah said, “A faintly burning wick he will not quench” (Is. 42:3).

God the Father lit a candle for you when his Son was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary and born in the stable of Bethlehem. That one small light was powerful enough to overcome the darkness of sin and death for the whole world. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Come and be warmed by the glow of God’s love for you. Trust in the resurrection power of Christ’s life. Come and be filled with the light of hope, peace, and joy found only in Christ Jesus.

Amen.

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Advent (December 18, 2011)

2011-12-18T11:50:00.000-08:00

“Pieces of the Puzzle” (2 Samuel 7:1-11; Romans 16:25-27; Luke 1:26-38)

Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith-- to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen. (Romans 16:25-27)

Christmas break began this weekend for our local schools. I was fortunate as a youngster to have both of my parents at home during Christmas break since they both worked in education. Sometimes we would stay at home for the holidays. Other times we would travel to my grandparents’ house in the mountains. One of my favorite memories about those days was putting together jigsaw puzzles. Whether at our house or at grandma and grandpa’s, there was always a card table set up with puzzle pieces scattered upon it. Sections of the puzzle were already carefully put together. The picture on the box was starting to be revealed. Whenever you felt like it, you could sit down and work for a while … and always with a big bowl of homemade Chex party mix that grandma had on hand.

God’s Old Testament people had a puzzle before them. Paul calls it a “mystery.” God had given pieces of the puzzle over time. But the people in those days were at a disadvantage. They didn’t have a box to look at to know what the final picture would look like.

So, when Adam and Eve, after the Fall into sin, heard the Lord say to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15), did they fully know what that meant? They had some idea that an offspring of the woman would be born and be some sort of a Savior for them. It is even possible that they somehow knew this offspring would also be divine. When Eve’s firstborn son Cain was born, she literally said, “I have gotten a man, the Lord!” But Cain turned out to be a sinner just like his parents. Disobedient. Rebellious. Wanting to take charge of his own life in spite of what God says. A chip off the old block. A sinner just like the Old Adam in each and every one of us. Cain was not the Savior. God’s original promise to them was one piece of the puzzle. But they didn’t have the whole picture. No box to look at. How God would go about fulfilling his promise to them remained a mystery. All they had to go on was faith that Yahweh would one day keep his promise to them.

Many years later, Yahweh appeared to Abraham and told him, “I will make of you a great nation … and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). Did Abraham fully understand what this was all about? His wife was well beyond the years of childbearing. How could a “great nation” come from his loins? But even when their son Isaac was finally miraculously conceived, did Abraham have any inkling that one of his descendants would be the Savior of the world? This was one piece of the puzzle. But it was not the whole picture. No box to look at. It was a mystery. Nevertheless, Abraham had faith in God’s promises. Genesis 15:6 says, “And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”

Fast forward through the accounts of Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Flip the pages quickly to get through the Exodus, the conquest of Canaan, and the period of the Judges. Now we get to David. David is the second King of Israel, anointed to succeed unfaithful Saul. An unlikely candidate. From the backwater town of Bethlehem. The youngest of his brothers. A shepherd boy. Not a nobleman. Not a warrior. No degree in Poli-Sci from Jerusalem U. Nevertheless, God chose David to be king. After all of David’s battles with his enemies, he was at peace in his palace. David now wanted to build a permanent resting place for the Ark of the Covenant. No more tent for the earthly throne of Yahweh. It’s time to build him a house. But Yahweh had other plans. Through the prophet Nathan, the Lord said, “Leave it to someone else to build a house for me, David. I’m going to build a house for you. A dynasty! A kingdom that will last forever!”

Now here is truly a mystery. Recall David’s scandalous history. He was an adulterer. A murderer. God had forgiven him, we know that. David repented after being confronted by the prophet Nathan. But still, why would God promise something so great to a sinner such as David? Why would Yahweh want to make David’s name great? Why set someone on the throne of David forever? And how exactly was all this going to happen? I’m sure David knew that dynasties don’t last forever. After all, his sole predecessor was from the tribe of Benjamin, not Judah. Not much of a dynasty. Did David have any clue that one of his own descendants would be a divine King who, after dying and rising to life again, would ascend into heaven to rule and reign forever on his heavenly throne at the right hand of God the Father? Did he have any idea that this Son of David would be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords? David didn’t have a box to look at. He probably didn’t have the whole picture. God’s promise to David was another piece of the puzzle, another clue in the mystery. There were more pieces laid out on the table now, but it was still not clear what the final image would turn out to be.

Over the next 600 years or so, God sent prophets to call the people of Israel to repentance. They were chasing after foreign gods, not the one True God, Yahweh, who had graciously chosen them, delivered them, been so very patient with them. Along the way, the prophets also doled out more pieces of the puzzle, if you will. Isaiah spoke of a “Suffering Servant” who would be “wounded for our transgressions” and “crushed for our iniquities” (Is. 53:5). Jeremiah spoke of a new covenant in which Yahweh would “forgive their iniquity” and “remember their sins no more” (Jer. 31:34). Micah revealed that the Savior would be born in Bethlehem, the city of David (Micah 4:2). These are just a few of the puzzle pieces that the prophets laid out on the table as the picture began to take shape.

Then … silence. 400 years, just like the silence during Israel’s captivity in Egypt. No message from the Lord … until finally, the angel Gabriel appeared to a priest named Zechariah in Jerusalem and to a previously insignificant daughter of David in the city of Nazareth. The final pieces of the puzzle were about ready to be put in place. One piece has a young virgin saying “Yes” to God’s plan. One piece has a manger. One piece has a cross. One piece has an empty tomb.

You and I have the advantage of looking back over time, looking at the Scriptures, and seeing “the picture on the box.” We see the completed story of God’s redemption, revealed piece by piece over time through the patriarchs and prophets, but now fulfilled in the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Savior Jesus. This is “my Gospel,” Paul calls it in our text. “MY Good News.” It’s personal. And it’s personal for you, too. Jesus was born to save the world. In Holy Baptism, Jesus gathers people into his Body, the Church. But like a jigsaw puzzle that completes a picture, he does it piece by piece, one small piece at a time. Jesus was born to save you. This is YOUR Gospel. This is YOUR Good News. And God is able to “strengthen you” according to this Good News. As you hear this “gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ” God brings about “the obedience of faith” … that is, he calls forth faith in your hearts by his powerful, creative Word and Spirit.

Mary embodies this “obedience of faith” for us. The word of God from the angel calls forth faith in her heart. He conceives a child in a womb without human cooperation through the power of the Holy Spirit. He conceives faith in hearts without human cooperation through the power of the Holy Spirit. Nothing is impossible with God. Mary is a virgin, but she is not without sin. Her Son is her Savior, too. Her virginity matches the nothingness, the no-effort, the no-righteousness with which we approach God. It is a picture for us that we come to God with nothing to add to our salvation. God speaks his Word to us. That Word received by faith joins us to Christ and delivers Christ to us (thanks to Pastor Greg Alms for the thoughts in this paragraph from his blog http://incarnatusest.blogspot.com/2011/12/about-virginity-of-mary.html).

Now, we can respond like Mary, who said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” Your pastor says, “I forgive you all your sins” and you can respond, “let it be to me according to your word.” Your pastor delivers the body and blood of Christ “given and shed for you,” and you can respond, “let it be to me according to your word.”

All the pieces are in place. Look at the picture on the box. What do you see? You see the Son of God who became the Son of David. You see the Second Person of the Holy Trinity who began his earthly existence as a tiny cluster of multiplying cells … a holy mystery kept secret in his mother’s womb until the day when he was brought forth and laid in a manger.

Amen.

Sermon for the Funeral of Phil Zuver (December 17, 2011)

2011-12-17T16:06:00.000-08:00

“Advent Comfort for Grieving Hearts” (Isaiah 40:1-11)

Wednesday night, our congregation was gathered here for one of our midweek Advent services. Advent is a special season in the Christian calendar. Advent means “coming.” And so, Advent is a time of preparation for celebrating the first coming of Jesus at Christmas. It’s also a time to prepare for the second coming of Jesus at the end of time.

After that Wednesday night service, I checked my cell phone – silenced, of course, during the service. There was a message that Phil had died. You knew that day was coming. You have been engaged in your own preparations over the last days, weeks, and months. But these were not Christmas preparations. Putting up Christmas decorations was probably the last thing on your mind. You were preparing for the day when you would no longer have your husband, your father here with you.

That Wednesday night in church, our Scripture reading was from Isaiah 40, one of the readings you heard earlier. As I began to think about what to preach on for this day, I went back to that Wednesday night reading and realized how appropriate it was.

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sin.” Those words were originally spoken to God’s Old Testament people of Israel. The prophet Isaiah foretold the day when they would be taken off into exile in Babylon because of their unfaithfulness and disobedience. But there would also come a day when they would return to their land, rebuild the city of Jerusalem, and rebuild their temple … which happened after seventy years of captivity. And so, the message God gave to Isaiah to give to the people was a message of comfort, a message of hope, a message of peace.

God wants to give you comfort today and speak tenderly to you in your sorrow. Phil had a long battle with a terrible disease, but now his “warfare” is ended. The battle is over. No more pain. No more suffering. The message of hope and peace that our Lord brings to you is the message of that holy day we will be celebrating next week. You see, the ultimate fulfillment of Isaiah’s words of comfort is found in the birth of Christ Jesus. Christmas is more than just a sweet story about a homeless couple giving birth to an innocent baby in a stable. The angel appeared to the shepherds and said, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11). Christmas is about the Son of God taking on human flesh in order to enter into this world in order to do battle for us with our enemies sin and suffering, our enemies death and the devil.

Why lies he in such mean estate Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christian, fear, for sinners here The silent Word is pleading.
Nails, spear shall pierce him through, The cross be borne for me, for you;
Hail, hail the Word made flesh, The babe, the son of Mary.

Jesus the Son of God and the Son of Mary went toe-to-toe with all of our enemies and won the battle for us. Jesus lived a perfect life in our place. Jesus suffered and died on the cross with our sins credited to his account. Jesus conquered sin, death, and hell when he rose again from the dead on Easter morning. Now, all who are baptized into his name and who trust in his saving work at the cross and the empty tomb are forgiven of all their sins and will also rise to life again at our Lord’s Second Advent.

Phil was baptized into Christ. When I visited your home a few weeks ago, he confessed faith in Jesus as his Savior. If anyone, in their dying moments, clings in faith to Christ’s saving death and resurrection, then the victory that Jesus won for them is given to them. Their sins are forgiven. They are given the gift of eternal life. And this is completely and totally a gift of grace. Our salvation is all God’s doing. There is nothing at all that we can do to earn or deserve it. St. Paul writes, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8-9).

“All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field,” Isaiah declares. Grass grows very quickly … at least it does in the spring and summer, not this time of year around here. But just as quickly, it turns brown without proper moisture and nutrients in the soil. Flowers, too, sprout and blossom and add beauty to our gardens and homes. But not long after they bloom, their petals begin to wilt and fall off. We get to enjoy their beauty only briefly.

The same can be said of our life span. Psalm 90 says “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away” (Ps. 90:10). Some of us, like Phil, don’t make it even to seventy. We live in a sinfully fallen, broken world. Now, things don’t work the way they were originally supposed to. Bodies become diseased. They break. They die. This is part of the curse upon creation because the creature man rebelled against his Creator. “The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass.”

This is another reason why Advent is so important. Advent is about making preparations. We all need to make preparations for the day when our life will end. None of us knows when that will be. Even the most vigorously healthy people have had their lives stripped away from them at a moment’s notice.

“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” Your best preparations are made by listening to the eternal Word of God. Here you hear the Good News that Jesus was born in Bethlehem to reverse the curse of the Fall into sin, to pay for our sins with his shed blood at the cross, to conquer death in his resurrection, and to make all things new when he visibly returns at his Second Advent. St. John had a vision of that day in the book of Revelation. He heard a loud voice coming from God’s throne in heaven which said, “‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’ And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new’” (Rev. 21:3-5).

At the very end of our text, Isaiah introduces some new imagery. No longer is it about preparing the way of the Lord. No longer does he speak of withering grass and fading flowers. Now he introduces the imagery of a shepherd: “He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.”

Now I know you are “horse people.” You’ve been around animals long enough to know how to love and care for them. And so I’m sure you can appreciate this picture that the Bible presents to us. In several places, the Bible teaches us that God is our shepherd who tends us, who cares for us, who protects us, who gathers his lambs in his arms, who gives the wounded special attention. That’s the way Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is reaching out to you today through these tender words of comfort. Receive them. Believe them. Be comforted by the love and mercy of your risen Savior Jesus.

Amen.

Sermon for the Third Sunday in Advent (December 11, 2011)

2011-12-11T11:26:00.000-08:00

“Joy: God’s Advent Will for You” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-24)

Advent and Lent are both known as penitential seasons. In Advent we spend time reflecting on the reason WHY the Son of God became flesh … to save us from our sin. In Lent we spend time reflecting on HOW the Son of God saved us from our sin … by giving up his life for us on the cross. In both seasons, we omit the Hymn of Praise in the liturgy. In both seasons, the hymns we sing are not always the most familiar, nor are they always the most rousing.

That being said, Lent is definitely more somber than Advent. Advent is full of anticipation for Christmas. It’s hard to be penitential with all the smells and sights and sounds of the season. Twinkling lights. Trimmed trees. Crisp, cold air. Christmas carols. Cookies and candies and all sorts of confectionary delights. The scents of cinnamon, vanilla, fires in fireplaces, and evergreen all mixing together and wafting through the house. Nevertheless, the Church still keeps Advent. We remind ourselves that our Lord’s Second Advent is on its way, too. We patiently wait. We prepare with repentant hearts.

In the midst of both of these penitential seasons, there is a sudden burst of joy. Pink or, more properly, rose is the color of the day … “lightening” the mood just for a moment until the high feast days ahead. The fourth Sunday in Lent has some joyful themes as Easter draws closer. The third Sunday in Advent also urges us on towards joy as our celebration of the incarnation draws near. “Rejoice always,” St. Paul writes in our text. “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,” Isaiah declares in the Old Testament reading. Each Sunday in Advent, we have sung “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion” in the Gradual. In Advent we sing “Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel will come to thee, O Israel,” which prepares us to sing “Joy to the world! The Lord has come!”

“Rejoice always,” St. Paul says. Isn’t that kind of forcing the issue? This is kind of like those days when you wake up on the wrong side of the bed. It’s obvious that you don’t feel the greatest. You’re tired. You ache. Your husband ticked you off yesterday. He greets you with “Lighten up!” You respond, “Don’t tell me how I’m supposed to feel!”

“Rejoice always.” Don’t tell me how I’m supposed to feel, Paul. You don’t understand. It is really hard to be joyful at this time of year. All this glitter and tinsel is just masking my pain. I’m not nearly ready for Christmas. I have more shopping to do. I have to get the house ready. I have family problems. I have health problems. I have guilt problems. I have done some things that I’m not proud of. I have said some things which I wish I could take back. I have some terrible thoughts in my head which, if they ever were known by anyone … well, I would probably just rather die than have those things exposed. Joy? Yeah. Right.

The Thessalonians could have responded this way. Things were not all that rosy for them. They had good reason to NOT be joyful. Paul describes how they were being persecuted for their faith by their “own countrymen” (1 Thess. 2:14-16). In addition, there is evidence that there was friction among the members of the Thessalonian congregation. It seems that there were some who did not respect their pastors and elders (1 Thess. 5:12-13). Paul urges them to “Be at peace among yourselves” (1 Thess. 5:13). Perhaps there were people at odds not only with the leaders but with fellow church members. Paul then also tells the congregation to “admonish the idle” (1 Thess. 5:14; see also 2 Thess. 3:6-12). In light of the expected return of Jesus, there may have been some who sat back, refused to work, and became lazy, simply waiting for the Day of the Lord.

Things were dark for the Thessalonians, from an earthly perspective. Things may be dark for you. But St. Paul explains why we can rejoice in spite of what is happening around us. Joy is not based on what or how much you have. Joy is not based on what you have achieved. Joy is not based on how you feel. Joy is not based on what your circumstances are, whether good or bad. Joy is based on Christ and Christ alone. “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Rejoice … in Christ Jesus! Pray … in Christ Jesus! Give thanks … in Christ Jesus!

“Rejoice always.” You can rejoice no matter what happens to you because you know that you are baptized into Christ. You are God’s own child … you can gladly say that! You belong to the Triune God. Your sins are forgiven. You have the privilege of eating and drinking the body and blood of your dear Savior. He is present with you always. No one can take any of this away from you no matter what earthly things are taken away from you.

“Pray without ceasing.” This doesn’t mean, of course, that you must be on your knees 24 hours of the day. What it does mean is having regular, scheduled times of prayer, such as when you get up in the morning and when you go to bed at night. It also includes spontaneous prayer when needs arise. The Holy Spirit leads the baptized believer to have an attitude of prayer, a readiness to bring our needs and the needs of others before the Lord. Moreover, even in the times when we don’t know what to say or how to pray, the Holy Spirit “intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words … according to the will of God” (Rom 8:26-27). And when we pray “in Christ Jesus” or “in the name of Jesus,” we can be fully confident that God the Father hears our prayers because of his Son who broke down the barrier between us sinners and a holy God. Our Heavenly Father receives our prayers graciously and will answer them according to his will for the sake of his Son. And when we pray, we can begin to cultivate a joyful attitude even in times of suffering. Prayer helps us to keep our “temporal and spiritual values in balance” (EBC 11.291).

“Give thanks in all circumstances.” It’s not always easy to give thanks when things are rotten. We need to remember that nothing happens to us outside of God’s loving care. We can be confident of that because of the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus. If God was willing to go to such great lengths to forgive our sins and give us eternal life, we can be sure that he will not abandon us in our moments of pain and affliction. Since this is the case, even what we see as evil happening to us is still put to use in God’s eternal plan. “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

The Thessalonians were suffering. But Paul says in chapter 1 that they “received the word with much affliction” … and then he adds this important phrase: “with the joy of the Holy Spirit.” They “received the word” … the Word of the Gospel, the Good News that Jesus suffered and died and rose again for them. Remaining in that Word, the Holy Spirit will never be quenched, but the faith that he ignited in us will always be fanned into flame (2 Tim. 1:6). We are never to despise the proclamation of that Word, but always to discern whether that proclamation is in line with the Holy Scriptures. If it is, then we hold fast to it. If not, then we are to keep it far away from us. Even the smallest amount of false teaching should not be allowed a place among us. It starts small, like a match thrown along the side of the road. But when the conditions are right, it will spread quickly and become a destructive wildfire. The fire of false teaching must be quenched by the truth of the Gospel so that salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone remains the fountain from which all other doctrines flow.

Our text concludes with these poignant words of promise: “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.” (1 Thess. 5:23-24) When you hear about making Advent preparations, it may be easy to get the wrong idea. You may be inclined to think that your Advent preparations have something to do with making you worthy to be received by your Savior when he comes again in glory. On the contrary, it is the “God of peace himself” who makes you ready by sanctifying you. That means you are made holy, set apart for God, completely, through and through, in every part. You are precious to him, loved, forgiven, declared not guilty … and in this way, you will be kept blameless on the day when Jesus returns. This is not about your preparations. This is about what God has done for you. And just in case we still didn’t get it, the final sentence of our text adds an exclamation point to all of this: “He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.”

Now that is truly a reason to be joyful. So, rejoice! This is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Amen.

Out of the Mouths of Babes #26

2011-12-06T10:54:00.000-08:00

At preschool chapel today, I was explaining to the children that "Pastor" is my "job" and "Onken" is my last name. I then asked them, "Do any of you know my first name?" One little girl yelled out, "GOD!"

As much as the serpent tempted me not to correct her, I did end up telling her the truth.

Sermon for the Second Sunday in Advent (December 4, 2011)

2011-12-04T11:04:00.000-08:00

“God’s Patient Waiting” (2 Peter 3:8-14)

Don’t get too attached to all those things on your Christmas wish list. After a while, they’re going to wear out. Break down. Get dropped. Smashed. Run over.

Not only that, you’re going to grow out of them. Your body is going to grow, so those clothes you receive this year may not fit next year. Will you grow this (↑) way or this (↔) way? Your mind is going to grow, so that toy you played with when you were five seems rather childish now that you are ten.

Moreover, in the end, everything in creation is going to pass away with a roar. Burned up. Dissolved. Melted away. So why place your affections on things that were not made to last? We do, though, don’t we? Even if we haven’t actually made a wish list, we have our eye on things that we sure would like to have. The type of Christmas we have become accustomed to breeds a lot of coveting.

Advent is a good time to change our perspective, to see things from God’s viewpoint. The Apostle Peter helps us change our perspective on the things of creation by reminding us about God’s perspective. “[D]o not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Pet. 3:8) St. Peter is not trying to give us a time frame for the days of Genesis chapter 1, as if to say that those days were long periods of time as opposed to normal, twenty-four hour days. Rather, Peter is teaching us that time is no concern for God. A thousand years is like a snap of the fingers to God. And you thought the first 18 years of your child’s life went by fast. God sees things from a completely different vantage point than you and me. You and I are rather myopic. We often concern ourselves only with recent history and the immediate future. But God sees the big picture. He lives outside of time. And that God who lives outside of time broke into time and space and intervened in human history. The Old Testament is a testimony to the ways in which God acted on behalf of his people … promising a Savior to Adam, delivering Noah through the flood, giving a child to Abraham and Sarah when they were beyond the years of childbearing, rescuing the Israelites from the slavery in Egypt, preserving a people in order to bring about the birth of that promised Savior.

The same God who lives outside of time broke into time and space in the most remarkable way when he took on flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary. But this wasn’t just so carol writers would have something miraculous to sing about … although it was the greatest miracle of all time. This wasn’t just to give us a warm, sweet story about a homeless couple and his pregnant wife, teaching us about the importance of hospitality and generosity … although God’s love certainly moves us to be hospitable and generous. God broke into time and space in the flesh of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ Child, who grew up to take our place under the Law and to suffer and die for the ways in which you and I have not kept God’s Law.

Advent is indeed a good time for us to change our perspective on things, to see things from God’s perspective. Last week’s sermon was about patiently waiting for the coming of Christmas while patiently waiting for our Lord’s Second Coming. The theme of patient waiting continues in today’s text. Here, though, it’s about how God is patiently waiting.

Verse 9 of our text says, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Pet. 3:9) The first part of chapter 3 addresses those who mock the Church’s belief that the Lord Jesus will visibly return one day. Their ridicule could also lead Christians to doubt whether the Lord will ever return. And so the Apostle reminds his hearers about God’s perspective on time, and then tells them the reason why the Lord is delaying his Second Coming. He is giving people more time to repent of their sins. He is showing his patience … and his love. I’m reminded of St. Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 13, “Love is patient” (1 Cor. 13:4). God’s desire is not to snuff you out. Isaiah declared that “a faintly burning wick he will not quench” (Is. 42:3). Our gracious Lord takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezek. 33:11). He doesn’t get his jollies off of sending people to hell. Instead, he desires that all might “reach repentance.” The Lord desires that all people would one day turn from their sins and turn toward Jesus with contrition – true sorrow over sin – and with faith in Christ’s saving death and resurrection.

Repentance was front and center in John the Baptizer’s preaching. People went out to him in the wilderness and heard him preaching a “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mk. 1:4) “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” John cried out (Mt. 3:2). The people went out to him, confessed their sins, and were baptized in the Jordan River. In this way, their hearts were prepared to receive the grace and salvation that the Messiah would give, the Messiah who was waiting in the wings, whom John would soon point to as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

Jesus’ message was no different. He proclaimed, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mk. 1:15). The time was fulfilled. All that the Old Testament had foretold was now coming to fruition. The Messiah had come. His kingdom was at hand. Repent. Turn from your sins. Believe in the Good News of the forgiveness of sins through Jesus’ atoning death.

This Advent message of repentance from John the Baptizer is for us, today, too … especially as we begin to view things from God’s perspective, knowing that this world will not last forever, knowing that he is patiently giving us more time to repent of our sins. Repentance does not end when we become a Christian. Repentance is the shape of the Christian life. Recall the first of Luther’s 95 Theses: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” In repentance, we turn away from our sin and turn toward God’s baptismal promises given to us. We turn away from our sin and turn to Jesus. We turn away from our sin and turn toward the Holy Spirit who through water and the Word stirs up our hearts and makes us ready for the coming of God’s only-begotten Son, so that by his coming we may be able to serve him with pure minds.

Peter reminds us that “the day of the Lord will come like a thief.” So be patient, but not complacent. The Second Advent of Jesus will come as a surprise, when you least expect it, like a burglar invading your house while you assume you are safe and sound in bed. And it will be a day of judgment. It will bring the destruction of all that we know and have come to love. “The earth and the works done on it will be exposed.” How does that sound to you? That does not sound very comforting. How would you like to be exposed? Found out? Everything you’ve done, thought, said, all laid out for others to see? All laid out for God to see (as if he hasn’t seen it already)?

Peter asks, “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness?” A holy way of life. Set apart. Serving God and your neighbor. A life of piety. Devoted to the Lord. But what does this look like? You would expect to hear a bunch of commandments and laws and instructions on how to live at this point. Rather, Peter simply points us to a righteousness which is not our own: “be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace.” It’s the “precious blood of Christ,” the “lamb without blemish or spot” that covers over all your sins (1 Pet. 1:19). In Holy Baptism, your sinful spots and blemishes were washed away. In Christ, you are at peace with God. That’s the comforting message for you today, the message that is spoken tenderly to you. Your iniquity is pardoned. Therefore, you do not need to fear the Day of the Lord. You can eagerly look forward to it with joy.

“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.” That Word tells you about God’s perspective. A day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day to him. He is not slow in keeping his promises. He is patiently waiting for everyone to come to repentance. Heaven and earth will pass away one day. But “we are waiting for a new heaven and new earth in which righteousness dwells” … an eternity of comfort and joy and peace in the presence of the Lord Jesus, your shepherd who will gather you, his lambs, into his loving arms.

Amen.

A Christmas Wish

2011-12-01T19:00:00.000-08:00

From Messiah Lutheran Church's December 2011 Newsletter

This Christmas I wish there was no God. Shocking? Sure. But that’s the way my sinful nature feels. If there was no God, I could do whatever I wanted. No responsibility. No guilt. No need to buy Christmas gifts for anyone. Christmas would be a farce. A sweet little story. But utter foolishness.

Here’s the rub. Creation cries out to me that there is a Creator (Ps. 19:1). Conscience convicts me of thoughts, words, and deeds that have offended my Creator (Rom. 2:15). Christmas shouts to the world that the Creator took on flesh and moved into the neighborhood. The Son of God came to earth as a helpless infant, “born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4-5). I don’t want responsibility, but in his incarnation Jesus took on the responsibility to keep the Law of God for me and did it perfectly. I am guilty, but Jesus bore my guilt and my sin and paid for it with his own innocent and blameless life.

Christmas already points us to the cross because that’s why the Savior was born. “You shall call his name Jesus,” the angel instructed Joseph, “for he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). Jesus was born to save us from our rebellious hearts that wish there was no God. He loves you and me so much that he gave himself to us, a gift wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger (Luke 2:7).

Christmas is not foolishness. It is the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:25). Christmas is not just a sweet little story. It is God breaking into history. Christmas is no farce. It is the endearing and enduring account of how the love of God the Father prompted him to send his Son to humble himself, to one day suffer and die for the sins of the world, and to give us the gifts of forgiveness, eternal life, the Body and Blood of the Savior in the Sacrament of the Altar, the Holy Spirit, and all other temporal and eternal gifts which he lays before us.

The Good News of Christmas now prompts us to respond in faith and love toward our Creator and Redeemer. And it moves us to give gifts to others as tokens of our love for them … and hopefully reminders to all of us – both givers and receivers – of the gift that the Child of Bethlehem was and is and always will be for us.

In Christ’s service and yours,

Pastor Onken

Sermon for the Day of Thanksgiving (November 27, 2011)

2011-11-24T11:00:00.000-08:00

“Remember” (Deut. 8:1-9)

Right before the big game, the coach gives his team a pep talk in the locker room. They are about to go out and face their opponent on the gridiron. This team is imposing. They are vicious. And so the coach reminds the team how they got to this big game in the first place. They started out humbly. No one ever expected them to get this far. They made it through adversity after adversity during the season. They wrestled with other opposing teams along the way and managed to win. Now they are about to exit the doors of the locker room and spill onto the field where they will meet their challenger.

The coach tells them, “Remember your journey up to this point. Let that journey be a reminder to you that you can be victorious today.”

The team rises in unison. They huddle together and give one last cheer before the kickoff. Suddenly, the assistant coach stops them and says, “Remember, too, men, that you would not have gotten this far were it not for your head coach with his wisdom and skill. This man taught you how to play the game as it should be played. Do NOT forget what you’ve learned from him.”

The book of Deuteronomy might be called Moses’ pep talk to the people of Israel right before they entered Promised Land. The Israelites are about to cross the Jordan River, go to war with the Canaanites, and take possession of the land. All throughout the book, Moses tells them to “Remember.” Their beginnings were humble. They were the fewest of all peoples (Deut. 7:7). They were stubborn and rebellious (Deut. 9:6ff.). Yet Yahweh set his love upon them and chose them to be his own. He delivered them out of slavery in Egypt. He led them and fed them in the wilderness. One adversity after another came their way, and they survived. Moses tells them, “Remember where you came from. Remember who was with you along the way. When you enter the land that Yahweh is giving you, you will be tempted to forget all this. Do NOT forget what he has done for you and how he taught you along the way. Remember the One who remembers you.”

When you and I give thanks on a day like today, we normally think about the bounty of the land in which we live. Later on today, many of us will feast from that bounty. Some of us will even root for football teams who were probably given a locker room pep talk. In order to keep our Thanksgiving celebration from being limited to turkey and touchdowns, it’s good for us to remember where we came from … remember who was with us along the way … and remember the One who has remembered us.

Remember where you came from. Take time to look back. Recall not just the immediate present and the prior year. Think farther back into the past. Moses told the Israelites to think back over the previous forty years (I have a hard time remembering what I had for dinner last night). Remember the many ways in which God blessed you and took care of you throughout your life. Look back from your perspective today. Open up that mental scrapbook of yours. Turn the pages carefully. Look at the images you see there. Ponder and give thanks for the ways God has blessed you with material goods, deliverance from evil, and spiritual life in Christ through Baptism and the faith given to you by the Holy Spirit.

Remember who was with you and the lessons he taught you along the way. He is more than just your coach. He is your God who personally travels with you and graciously gives you his loving and merciful presence. He may have led you in the way of want at times. He did it for the Israelites. He let them feel hunger. But he did it to discipline them, to teach them to rely on his provision … that everything comes from his creative hand … that “man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” After Yahweh led them in the way of want, he fed them with manna. Not only that, their wardrobe lasted for forty years. Not a single shopping spree at the Sinai Super Mall. Not one stop at the Kadesh-Barnea K-Mart. And no blisters or swollen feet. No need to buy new Birkenstocks in Beth-Peor.

“Remember,” Moses urges the Israelites … and you and me. In times of prosperity, we are tempted to forget the Lord. In times of scarcity, we are tempted to curse the Lord. The author of Proverbs 30 says, “[G]ive me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God” (Prov. 30:7-9). Moses knew this would be a problem for the Israelites. Not long after our text, the prophet sternly warns the people: “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. And if you forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish” (Dt. 8:17-19). Sadly, it wasn’t long before the Israelites did forget Yahweh and chased after the gods of the Canaanites.

You have known times of prosperity and scarcity. Right now we are experiencing leaner times. Our dollar doesn’t go as far as it used to. Some of you are unemployed. Perhaps there are days when you went to bed hungry. But the Lord is still taking care of us. When there is a need in our congregation, we can take care of one another and thereby serve “the least of these” as Jesus told us in last Sunday’s Gospel.

We complain, like the Israelites often did during their wilderness journey. But things could be worse. A friend of mine recently gave me a piece of wisdom. He said that the presence of thrift stores proves the abundance of our society. Perfectly good items are thrown away for newer and better goods. When the thrift stores disappear, that’s when we know things are really bad. But maybe that wouldn’t be so bad after all. Perhaps more people then will finally be looking for the true spiritual manna from heaven, realizing that “man does not live by bread alone.”

In both good times and bad, we are tempted to forget the Lord. But he never forgets us. God remembered his promise given to Abraham, to make a great nation out of his descendants. He saw the Israelites enslaved in Egypt. “And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob” (Ex. 2:24).

But even before God’s covenant with Abraham, he made a promise to Adam that the whole world would be rescued from their slavery to sin, the slavery that started in the Garden. Psalm 98 says “Oh sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things! … He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.” And guess when the Church sings that psalm. On Christmas Day. The Lord remembered his promises to Adam and to all people when he sent his Son into the world to be our Savior.

The Lord Jesus humbled himself and knew want and weakness. In his time in the wilderness, he was tempted for 40 days to deny his Father’s care for him. He fully relied on his Father’s provision and did not fall to Satan’s temptation to turn stones into bread when he was hungry. If we have cursed God because of our lack, Jesus became a curse for us at the cross so that he might bless us and fill us with his life and love. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, our sins are forgiven and forgotten. Through the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord says, “I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins no more” (Jer. 31:34).

Jesus forgets our sins. Then he remembers us before the Father. Even in his moment of greatest pain, while hanging on the cross, one of the criminals crucified with him said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus replied, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:42-43). Now, those wounds he still bears in his resurrected flesh are a reminder to the Father that Jesus has earned for you a place in Paradise, the Promised Land of heaven, and a place in the new heaven and new earth in the resurrection to eternal life.

So remember where you came from. Remember who was with you along the way. Remember the One who remembers you. Remember the blessings he sets before you and give thanks. And come feast on the greatest of all Thanksgiving meals, the Holy Eucharist, where Jesus says, “Do this in remembrance of me.” Receive the heavenly manna of Jesus’ body and blood, and be fed by his life and salvation until we feast at his table in eternity. Amen.

Sermon for the Last Sunday in the Church Year (November 20, 2011)

2011-11-20T11:37:00.000-08:00

“How Should We Then Live?” (Matthew 25:31-46)

A few years back, the Christian philosopher Francis Schaeffer wrote a book entitled, How Should We Then Live? The subject of the book is how Western Civilization has moved from a Christian worldview to an increasingly secular worldview, a worldview that says, “Religion has no place. Morals and Values are all relative. There are no absolutes.” Schaeffer then proceeds to answer the question, “As Christians living in this age, how should we then live?”

In a sense, this is what our Gospel text attempts to answer, but in a little different way. With the Day of Judgment approaching, Jesus answers for us the question, “How Should We Then Live?” As we hear what Jesus has to say about the coming Judgment, we find that he has a lot to say about the “what” and the "how,” but not about the “when.” In fact, earlier in chapter 25, Jesus said, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour” (Matt. 25:13). Jesus never told us to make predictions. He did tell us to “Watch” … “Be prepared.” While we watch and prepare, “How should we then live?” How should conduct ourselves as we look forward to the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus?

After hearing today’s Gospel reading, wouldn't you like to BE A SHEEP? The sheep are the ones who, in the judgment, are going to be on the right hand of King Jesus. The right hand of the king is the place of power and honor. The sheep are also the ones who will receive eternal life. Certainly, as we wait for the coming of Jesus, it would be good to BE A SHEEP.

So how do you get to BE A SHEEP? You become a sheep through Holy Baptism and by faith in Christ as your Savior from sin. Our text says, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father.” That blessing comes through the gift of faith that God gives to you by the Holy Spirit through water and the Word. To be “blessed” means to have good things spoken about you. This is what God does when you are justified by faith in Christ. He “speaks good things” about you. He does not condemn you. He declares you “not guilty.” Your sins will not be counted against you on Judgment Day.

Sheep also listen to the voice of their shepherd. They follow his voice. They are comforted by the sound of his voice and are strengthened in the knowledge that he is near. As adopted children of God, you listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd Jesus. You hear it in his Word, the Bible. You follow his voice. You are comforted when you hear his words of forgiveness. Your faith is strengthened as you keep on hearing his Word as we gather together in worship and study.

I guess the next question is “What's wrong with being a goat?” What does God have against goats? Nothing, really, since goats were also used as sacrifices for in the Old Testament. But this is not the kind of goat that Jesus is referring to here. He is using a picture of what went on in the fields of Jerusalem in that day. Sheep and goats were pastured together. At night, they were divided into separate folds.

This is a picture of what will happen on the Last Day. The king will separate the believers from the unbelievers, the sheep and the goats. They live together in the world, but on the Last Day they will be separated one from another. The sheep are the faithful, while the goats are those who have no faith in Christ.

Note also that the unfaithful ones are “cursed” and sent “into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Compare this with the inheritance of the faithful ones: “the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Life in God’s eternal kingdom is a gift. The sheep did nothing to deserve it. It was prepared for them by God. The eternal fire where the goats are sent was not prepared for them, but for the devil and his angels. It was never God's intention to send men to hell. They are sent there by their own fault, because of their own denial and rejection of Christ. They do not place their faith in him nor do they trust in his death on the cross and his rising to life again for their deliverance from sin, death, and the devil.

So, BE A SHEEP. Listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd who says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:27-28).

The King also tells us that, as we wait for his return, we are to serve him. Part of being a sheep is to SERVE JESUS. Specifically, our text is speaking of serving one another as fellow Christians, for the King says, “as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” Throughout the Bible, God urges us to take care of the poor and downtrodden. But here, Jesus says specifically “These my brothers.” We are Christ's brothers and sisters through faith. He is the Son of God. We are adopted children of God in Baptism. And we show God's love to the world as we care for each other. Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

What a terrible witness it is to the world when Christians gossip, quarrel, and hold grudges towards their fellow Christians. It is even worse when they hate their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. We daily need to ask God's forgiveness and be strengthened so we can love one another and serve Jesus by serving one another.

In the power of the Holy Spirit, we will also naturally serve our fellow members of the Body of Christ as an outgrowth of our faith. It is prompted by our love for Jesus and the love that He first showed to us. It will be so natural that oftentimes we won't even be aware that we are doing it. It is an un-self-conscious, un-selfish service. It is a service that keeps no record of what you have done. When you approach God's throne on Judgment Day, you will not say, “Look at all of these good things that we did in your name, Jesus.” Instead, listen to what those who are righteous by faith will say: “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?” The King replies, “As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” We serve Jesus in the great tasks of the kingdom. But we especially serve him in the small, insignificant tasks, too, like the ones mentioned. We will be unaware of the many ways in which we served Jesus in our lifetime. But we don't rely on what we have done to save us. That’s all God’s doing, by his grace in Christ. The good works that we do are simply the evidence of the presence of saving faith in our hearts.

The ones on the other side, however, do not serve Jesus. They deny both Christ and his brothers. By their failure to serve Christ, they show that they have no faith in their hearts. They may have done great humanitarian deeds, helping many people, but their deeds were never a confession of faith. There were other motives involved other than serving Jesus and his brothers. In fact, they may have mistreated Christians. They may have mocked Christianity and the Church. They were blinded by their sinfulness. They were not even aware that they were not serving Christ by what they were doing … or NOT doing. Jesus will say to them, “As you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”

The thought of “Judgment Day” brings fear to many a heart. Judgment Day will indeed be a day of wrath. But for the Christian covered in the blood of Jesus, there doesn’t need to be any fear. Only love and hope. Only faith and expectation. If we die, we will be with Jesus. If we are still living on this earth when he returns, we will be with Jesus.

“HOW SHOULD WE THEN LIVE?” BE A SHEEP. Keep on listening to the voice of Jesus, the Good Shepherd. He forgives, he comforts, and he strengthens us in the power of the Holy Spirit so we can serve him.

“HOW SHOULD WE THEN LIVE?” SERVE JESUS. Serve him by serving each other as a natural, faithful response to the love that he first showed to us at the cross, earning for us eternal life with him in his heavenly kingdom.

Amen.

Sermon for the 22nd Sunday after Pentecost (November 13, 2011)

2011-11-13T10:45:00.000-08:00

Text: Matthew 25:14-30

I don’t watch much television, but I did catch a few moments here and there of the most recent edition of the show “America’s Got Talent.” It had the usual parade of musicians and magicians, singers and sideshow acts, comedians and contortionists. Some of the performances were compelling. Some were sensational. Some were downright nauseating.

What about you? What are your talents? Would someone be able to look at this gathering here and say, “Messiah Lutheran’s Got Talent”? I know about the talents that many of you have. I also know that there are probably some hidden abilities out there, too, that you may be too shy to reveal.

The truth is, every Christian congregation is gifted with numerous talents … and here we’re not just referring to the type that are fit for the stage or screen. God provides his Church with exactly what she needs in order to carry out her calling in the world. Each of you has the skills, the time, and the finances in order to contribute to the good of the cause here within our congregation and beyond. Even though you may think that your abilities and resources are insignificant, God has placed each of you exactly where he wants you and calls you to use your gifts to serve those whom he has placed in your life.

When we hear the word “talent,” we normally think of creative abilities. But the word in the Bible referred to a unit of value equal to a certain weight of gold or silver. And it was a huge sum. Think of it this way: to earn a talent, you’d have to work for about twenty years.

With this in mind, we shouldn’t limit our interpretation of the “talents” in our text to creative abilities and productive skills. Included in this priceless measure is a priceless treasure … the most priceless treasure you and I have been entrusted with: the Gospel … the message of the forgiveness of sins through the shed blood of Christ on the cross of Calvary. That is the most important “talent” given to us. Like the servants in the parable, our Master Jesus calls us to invest his “talent” of the Gospel as we proclaim the saving message of the forgiveness of sins through Jesus.

So how are you using your talents? It probably depends on how you view not only your talents but also your Master’s character. It’s important to take stock of this. The Master will return one day to “settle accounts.” He will return to take stock of how you used the talents with which you have been entrusted.

Do you denigrate the gifts of God? Have you hidden them, buried them, refused to put them to use? Or do you trust that his gifts will gain a return on their investment? God’s Word will always do the work that he intends it to do. Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord said, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11)

The way you use your gifts also depends on how you view the Master. Like the servant given the one talent, do you view him as a “hard man”? Is he harsh, stingy, mean, cruelly forcing his servants to do his will? Is that your view of God? This is not faith. This is fear and loathing. And what happens to the one who buried his talent? He’s called “wicked and slothful.” He refused to trust in his Master’s generosity and in the power of his talent to gain a return after being invested. The treasure given to him is taken away from him. The person who refuses to trust in God’s generosity in Christ is “the one who has not,” that is, the one who has no faith in the Master. When the Master returns to settle accounts, that unfaithful servant will be cast into the “outer darkness” away from the light of Christ.

What is your view of the Master? Instead of viewing him as a “hard man,” do you recognize your Master’s overwhelming generosity? Remember how much a talent was. It was twenty-years’ wages. So five talents would be a hundred years’ wages. Two would be forty. These are no small amounts. And yet the Master hands them over to his servants … and he commends the servants who put the talents to work by telling them they were faithful over a LITTLE. Five and two talents certainly don’t sound like a LITTLE! Even one talent is a generous trust.

Jesus says that the talents were distributed to “each according to his ability.” One temptation we have is to compare ourselves to others and become jealous of the gifts and skills that they have. We argue with God, “Why is that person so gifted and I’m not? Why did they get all the talent and I didn’t?” But who are we to argue with God about what or how much he has given us? As I said, remember in the parable how even one talent was a generous trust. And note well that everything about this is from God … the initial talents entrusted, the return on the investment, and the ultimate rewards. These are all gifts. You didn’t earn a dime, much less a talent. It’s all about grace. So stop comparing yourself to others. Rejoice in the person you are in Christ. Know that we all have, as St. Paul teaches us, “gifts that differ according to the grace given us” (Rom. 12:6) … “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Cor. 12:7).

Those who put their talents to use are the ones who recognize the generosity of the Master and the magnitude of his gifts. They are the ones who know the importance of investing his gifts to gain a return for the glory of the Master. In the parable, the Master says, “For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance.” Faith which relies on the grace of God in Christ Jesus multiplies and overflows. God the Father gives us an abundance of love, mercy, and forgiveness through his Son. We have more than we need for ourselves. That means we can share that same love, mercy, and forgiveness that was given to us.

Here in the closing weeks of the Church Year, we remember that our Master will return one day to “settle accounts.” The prophet Zephaniah describes it as “a day of wrath … a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and destruction, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness” (Zeph. 1:15). St. Paul says it will come suddenly, “like a thief in the night” (1 Thess. 5:2). And in Romans 14, Paul says, “So then each of us will give an account of himself to God” (Rom. 14:12).

So how’s your account balance? Have you always used your talents to the best of your abilities and for the glory of God? Have you always freely shared God’s love, mercy, and forgiveness out of the abundance which he has given you? Our account balance is in the red. We are terribly overdrawn. We must repent.

The Day of the Lord will indeed be a day of wrath for those without faith in Christ. But St. Paul says in today’s Epistle, “For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him” (1 Thess. 5:9-10). Jesus has already “settled accounts” for us. Our sins were credited to him at the cross. He paid our debt with his innocent suffering and death. His resurrection is the proof that our bills have been “paid in full.” His righteous life is now credited to us, applied to us in Holy Baptism, and received by trusting in his finished work at the cross.

Now, because we are united to Jesus in Baptism, everything we do … including using our talents for God’s glory … everything we do is done in Christ and through Christ. Jesus said in John 3, “whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God” (John 3:21). And so our Master will say to us on the Last Day, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” In the parable, this is a picture of slaves who are now welcomed as free men. They are now welcome to dine with the master at his table. Jesus has set us free from our slavery to sin, death, and hell. He now welcomes us to dine with him at his table … to feast upon his body and blood, the fruits of the cross with which he earned for us a place at the eternal feast in heaven.

And that is worth more than any amount of talents here on earth.

Amen.

Sermon for the Service in Memory of Pearl Rainwater (November 1, 2011)

2011-11-01T15:15:00.000-07:00

“A Disciple Who Abided in God’s Word” (John 8:31-32)

"If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:31-32)

Today in our liturgical church calendar, it is “All Saints Day.” It’s the day on which we remember all those who have died trusting in Christ as their Savior. What an appropriate day on which to remember Pearl. She is now with the company of saints and angels in heaven. And you who believe in Christ as Savior and are baptized in his name are also saints who are united with her in the great mystical fellowship of the Body of Christ, the Holy Christian Church. The creed calls it “the communion of saints.” The Church on earth is united with the Church in heaven. “We feebly struggle, they in glory shine, yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine,” we sang a few moments ago.

The Eve of All Saints – yesterday – is also known as Halloween. Lutherans are not averse to being silly and dressing up like ghouls and goblins or Spiderman and Strawberry Shortcake. We also have no problem encouraging our children to be mercenaries and go door to door collecting sweets. But for us, Halloween is also Reformation Day. This is the day we remember when Martin Luther posted the 95 Theses on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany back on October 31, 1517. It was the event that sparked what history calls the Reformation of the Church. The Reformation stressed three important points or “solas” as they are called: Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia, and Sola Fide. That’s Latin. Here they are in English: Scripture Alone, Grace Alone, and Faith Alone. For churches who are heirs of the Reformation, we confess that the Bible alone is our source of authority when it comes to knowing who God is and what he has done for us. We also confess that our sins are forgiven and we are given the gift of eternal life by God’s grace alone – his undeserved favor towards us – apart from any good works that we do to try to earn God’s love and favor. And we receive this all personally by faith alone, by trusting in what God has done for us in sending his Son Jesus Christ to be our Savior from sin, death, and everlasting condemnation.

These three “solas” were near and dear to Pearl as a confessing Lutheran Christian. God’s Word, the Bible, was indeed an important part of her life. That’s why I chose our text today from John 8. It’s the Gospel reading assigned for Reformation Day, but it’s also appropriate on All Saints Day at the death of a saint who abided in God’s Word throughout her life. Pearl loved to read and study God’s Word. Her Bibles were well-worn and well-marked. She kept pages and pages of notes in notebooks as she read along.

Pearl loved to teach God’s Word. Over the years, as you heard earlier, she taught many Bible classes here at Messiah. She assisted with confirmation classes. Her Monday morning ladies’ Bible class was always very popular, meeting right in there in the Council Room. Up until the day she died, she was fully expecting to return to church and teach a Bible class. I imagine by now she probably has recruited quite a few departed saints and started a Bible class in heaven.

Pearl also used her writing skills to share God’s Word. She had a regular column in our church newsletter. Selected Bible verses would spark some memory she had of growing up, being raised by her Grandma, then marrying Dewey and raising her own family. Through these memories she would share the wisdom she had gained over the years, reflecting on her life and applying God’s Word to her life.

Pearl showed herself to be a disciple of Jesus by abiding in his Word. A disciple is a learner, a follower of Jesus. But the truth is, people don’t decide for themselves to be disciples. Jesus makes us into his disciples. To his first 12 disciples, he said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you” (John 15:16). That’s true for us, too. Paul says in Ephesians 1 that God “chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world … in love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ” (Eph. 1:4-5). Here’s how disciples are made. Jesus said, “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” (Matt. 28:19-20) Pearl was baptized in the name of the Triune God. There, she was marked with God’s own holy name and adopted into his family. The Holy Spirit created faith in her heart. Her sins were washed away. She was taught God’s Word throughout her life. That’s what made her a disciple of Jesus. And disciples abide in the word of Jesus.

Abiding in God’s Word, Pearl knew the truth. She knew the truth that she was a sinner who deserved nothing from God the Father. But she also knew that because she was forgiven by God’s grace in Christ, she was also a saint. She knew the truth about what Jesus said about himself: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Pearl knew the truth that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). She knew that Jesus died on the cross for her sins … and for yours and mine, too. She knew the truth that Jesus rose from the dead again on Easter morning, victorious over sin, death, and hell for us.

This is the truth that set Pearl free. It’s the truth that sets us all free. Because Jesus suffered and died in our place at the cross, we are forgiven and free from the fear of condemnation. Because Jesus gives us the gift of eternal life, we are free from the fear of death. Because Jesus promises that he is “the resurrection and the life,” we are assured that one day we will be free from the pains and sorrows and troubles and anxieties of this life … even as Pearl is enjoying eternal rest and peace right now.

In the meantime, we wait for the day when “the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:16-17). In just a few moments, we’ll sing about that day in the words of the hymn: “But then there breaks a yet more glorious day, the saints triumphant rise in bright array…from earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast, through gates of pearl streams in the countless host” (LSB 677.7, 8)

“Through gates of pearl.” Couldn’t pass that one up. In St. John’s vision of heaven in the book of Revelation, he sees heaven as having twelve gates, each made of one single pearl. Now I don’t know whether heaven will literally have gates of pearl … not to mention streets of gold (Rev. 21:21), a wall made of jasper (Rev. 21:18), with foundations made of assorted gemstones and precious jewels. I have a feeling this is visionary language helping us here on earth to understand a heavenly reality … that heaven is more glorious than we can ever imagine.

So will there be actual pearly gates in heaven? I don’t know. But this I do know: Grandma Pearl will be there … and she wants you to trust in Christ as your Savior so you will be there, too.

Amen.

Classic Luther film clip

2011-10-31T07:00:00.000-07:00

Clip from the movie Luther (2003)

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Cool digital painting of Luther for Reformation Day

2011-10-31T06:00:00.000-07:00

HT: Matt Harrison

Sermon for Reformation Day (observed) and Confirmation (October 30, 2011)

2011-10-30T10:25:00.000-07:00

“Setting Forth the Righteousness of God” (Romans 3:19-28)

The church authorities of Martin Luther’s day tried to shut him up. The Bishop of Rome began to take notice of Luther when he read a document written by this previously unknown German monk. It was a series of 95 Theses, or statements, which questioned certain practices and teachings of the Church. It was posted on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg on the Eve of All Saints’ Day, October 31, 1517. It quickly made it into the hands of those who owned recently-invented printing presses, and one copy made it into the hands of Pope Leo X.

Luther was a faithful son of the Church. He didn’t plan to cause a ruckus. He simply wanted Church teachings to match up with what the Bible said. And what he discovered was that certain practices and teachings of the Church were obscuring the glory of the Gospel. The free grace of God and the forgiveness of sins earned by Christ on the cross of Calvary had turned into something you had to earn by doing penance, paying for indulgences, performing acts of devotion before the relics of saints and martyrs.

And so, the Church wanted to silence Luther. Representatives of the pope visited Luther to convince him he was wrong. More writings came from the pen of Luther. By 1521, Luther was excommunicated. That same year, he was summoned to appear before the Diet of Worms, a gathering of leaders of the German states, and told to recant his teachings. After some time of prayer and deliberation, Luther appeared before the assembly and declared

Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. So help me God. Amen.

After that, if not for the protection of Frederick III, the prince of Luther’s home territory, Luther could have been executed as a heretic. But God had other plans, and as the cliché goes, the rest is history. The centrality of the doctrine of justification by grace through faith in Christ alone was restored to its proper place. They tried, but failed, to shut Luther up.

Today, God’s Law shuts us up when we still mistakenly suppose that there is something we have to do to earn God’s favor. St. Paul writes in today’s Epistle reading, “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” (Rom. 3:19-20)

Human beings are really good at making excuses for their actions. I’m only human. Nobody’s perfect. I was raised this way. I was born this way. The devil made me do it. I’m not as bad as that person. Everyone else is doing it.

The Law of God silences our excuses and our claims. It silences the Jew who claims to have kept the Law of Moses that was given to them … the Ten Commandments and the rules and regulations of the Old Covenant. It silences the Gentile who claims to have a clear conscience … the universal standards that are implanted on the heart of everyone, the Law of God written on the heart. It silences Christians today who still think that we have something good in ourselves to offer God and somehow earn his favor. The whole world … every single person … stands condemned before God. There is no room for boasting. God’s Law has not been kept. The Law says “shut up” … “shut your mouth” … “just be quiet.” Stop trying to justify your actions and attitudes which are an affront to God. You are guilty. There is no getting around it. The purpose of the Law is to make it absolutely clear that you are a sinner. Like a mirror in which you see all your blemishes and warts and scars and wrinkles, the Law shows your sin and guilt in all its ugly reality.

That we are sinners is set forth for us in all its serious reality. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” You and I have fallen far short of that glory. No matter how hard we try, we will never come close. We think we have some good deeds to display before the Lord and show him how glorious we are. Instead, the prophet Isaiah says, “All our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Is. 64:6 NIV).

In stark contrast to the filthiness of our sin, God manifests … shows … sets forth his righteousness. But what Luther came to discover was that “the righteousness of God” is not his holy wrath and anger over sin, as you might expect. Rather, the righteousness of God is the glory of his Son’s death and resurrection on behalf of us sinners. After years of struggling under the weight of a troubled conscience, when Luther finally figured this out, he declared, “I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates.” The righteousness of God is the way in which God acts justly and faithfully in accordance with his promises. It’s the way in which Christ was holy and perfect on our behalf. It’s the way in which our sin was credited to Christ’s account as he suffered and died on the cross. It’s the way in which Christ’s sinlessness is credited to our account. It’s the way in which God declares us righteous because of what Jesus did for us at the cross. That’s what it means to be justified … declared not guilty … forgiven. And it’s all free. A gift. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

God manifests … shows … sets forth his righteousness by telling us that it’s “apart from the law.” It’s not about keeping a certain set of rules and regulations. “The Law and the Prophets bear witness to it,” that is, it was all foretold long ago in the Old Testament. Everything there was meant to point us to Christ and how we receive “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”

God manifests … shows … sets forth his righteousness by putting his Son “forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” Now there’s a big fancy theological word … “propitiation.” Basically, it means “to cover over.” The blood of Jesus shed on the cross covers over our sins. But there’s more to it. Paul may very well be pointing us back to the Law and the Prophets which pointed us to Christ. The word for “propitiation” in the Greek is the same one used to describe the “mercy seat,” the lid on top of the ark of the covenant in the Old Testament tabernacle. There, in the Holy of Holies where the ark was placed, above the mercy seat, God promised to be graciously present for the people of Israel. On one day of the year, the Day of Atonement, the high priest would take the blood of an animal and sprinkle it on the mercy seat. The life of that animal was to serve as the substitute for the sins of the people. The thing is, you had to keep doing this year after year. But now, Christ Jesus has become our once-for-all sacrifice. He is our mercy seat. His blood was shed for us. God himself in the flesh of Jesus of Nazareth was graciously present for us at the cross, acting as our substitute. Risen from the dead, our Lord Jesus is graciously present for us today. In Christ Jesus, the righteousness of God is shown to us “at the present time.” It’s not just something that happened long ago and far away. His righteousness is shown to us today in the Holy Supper. Here, Jesus offers to us the fruits of his sacrifice to eat and to drink, his true body and true blood, and we receive the blessings of his sacrifice when we trust in the words “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.”

Justified, forgiven, righteous in God’s sight through faith in Jesus, you and I can show forth God’s righteousness as we proclaim the Good News. Our lips that were shut up by the Law are opened wide by the Gospel. We have been set free from our slavery to sin, death, and the devil. We have been set free from the fear of condemnation. In Holy Baptism, we have been made sons of the Father, brothers of Jesus who paid the price for our sins and earned for us a permanent place in the Father’s house. (John 8:34-36)

Like Luther, you too can say “Here I stand. I can do no other. So help me God.” [You can say it on the day of your confirmation, as you stand here and confess your faith before God and the congregation, the faith God gave you in your Baptism.] You can say it when you are faced with opposition against God’s Word. You can say it when you are tempted to compromise the truth for the sake of convenience, political correctness, or out of fear of being labeled a religious nut.

That’s a pretty tall order, to be like Luther. He’s a giant of a figure in history, that’s for sure. Back in 1997, Life magazine named him the third most important person of the last millennium. We Lutherans like to boast about our hero.

But boasting in Luther is also excluded along with boasting about our works. In fact, the Reformer once wrote this about himself: “What is Luther? The teaching is not mine. Nor was I crucified for anyone. God could raise up many Doctor Martins … How is it that I, a poor stinking bag of maggots, should come to the point where people call the children of Christ by my evil name?” In spite of Luther’s low opinion of himself, we give thanks to the Lord today for Martin Luther. We’ll even continue to use his name in the name of our church as shorthand for our confession of faith.

There is a proper kind of boasting, however. Paul said it in Galatians 6:14 … “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Now that’s the kind of boasting that Dr. Luther would approve of. That’s the kind of boasting that clearly sets forth the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

Amen.

Giving Thanks in Uncertain Times

2011-10-26T15:00:00.000-07:00

From Messiah Lutheran Church's November 2011 newsletter

These are uncertain economic times. The Tea Party movement decries our enormous national debt. The Occupy Wall Street movement protests corporate greed. Taxes are high. Wages are low. Jobs have been lost. Social Security seems like it is on the rocks. Will our economy continue to sputter or will it recover?

If all continues as it currently is, it appears that there may be more financial hardships ahead for many people … maybe for you. Of course, whatever is ahead of us certainly does not compare to what many people face around the globe. Just this morning I was looking at the pink tiles in our shower, thinking how much I hated the color. Then I stopped and realized how foolish that was. There are multitudes who have no running water in their homes, no potable water, and no hot water heaters to give a comforting, soothing, steaming cleansing such as I was receiving inside my pink-tiled shower.

With all the chatter about the evils of corporate greed, you and I ought to take a serious look at the greed in our own hearts. Our own insatiable desire for more, better, newer things causes us to be discontent and ungrateful for the blessings we have already received in our lives.

In his first letter to St. Timothy, St. Paul wrote,

Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. (1Timothy 6:6-10)

Moreoever, Paul equates covetousness with idolatry in Colossians 3:5 and says that it deserves the wrath of God. It is spiritually dangerous to one’s faith and eternal destiny to be greedy and covetousness. Therefore, we must all repent and turn to Jesus who forgives even these sins which to some are virtues and not vices. He is the One who became poor for us so that we might become rich … rich not with material blessings, but with the blessings of life, forgiveness, and salvation through his suffering, death, and resurrection (2 Cor. 8:9). And when he does pour material and financial blessings into our laps, then we are called to assist those who are suffering due to financial hardship. For example, Paul commends the saints of Macedonia and Achaia for helping their fellow believers who were suffering in Jerusalem and says, “For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings.” (Rom. 15:27) Likewise, you can also share material blessings with those with whom you share spiritual blessings … not to mention sharing with those who are outside our Christian fellowship, doing acts of mercy for them because Christ has been merciful to us.

None of knows for sure what’s going to happen with the economy. Other than the opportunity to vote, things often seem to be out of our hands. Whatever lies ahead – whether good times or bad times – may it lead us to turn to the Lord. May it lead us to repent of our own sins of greed and covetousness and turn to the Lord who gives us the riches of heaven. May it lead us to give thanks in all circumstances and to be content with what God has given us, even in uncertain, leaner times.

We have much for which to give thanks.

Yes, even for pink-tiled showers.

In Christ’s service and yours,
Pastor Onken

Sermon for the 18th Sunday after Pentecost (October 16, 2011)

2011-10-16T12:13:00.000-07:00

Text: Matthew 22:15-22

Whose likeness and inscription is on a dollar bill? Looking at a one dollar bill, you’ll see the likeness of George Washington, our nation's first president. What inscriptions do you see? “The United States of America” tells you which country the bill is from. “Federal Reserve Note” used to mean that the bills were backed up by gold and silver. Today, it tells you that the note is backed up by the “full faith and credit of the U.S. government” and its ability to impose taxes and pay its debts (at least we hope, right?). You also see the inscriptions of whomever the Treasurer of the United States and the Secretary of the Treasury were at the time the bill was printed. Other bills and coins have other images of past presidents. Since 1955, all our currency has also carried the words “In God we trust.” Which “god” that refers to is, of course, up for grabs nowadays. The way we act, our trust in the Almighty God is often displaced by trust in the almighty dollar.

In spite of what is printed on our currency, when Matthew wrote today’s text government and religion were more closely connected than they are today in our country. Back then, religious duty was intimately associated with one’s duty to civic leaders and obedience to the government. Rulers were viewed as divine. You owed them your worship and allegiance. Loyalty to the Roman emperor was accompanied by offering sacrifices and worshipping him. Every time you reached in your pouch and pulled out a denarius, you were reminded of that fact. The face of the emperor on the coin was surrounded with the inscription “Tiberius Caesar: Son of the Divine Augustus.” The flip side showed him seated on a throne with the surrounding words “Pontifex Maximus” … “High Priest.”

As you can well imagine, the Jews were completely opposed to this idea of offering sacrifices to the emperor. In fact, they were exempt from this but still paid their taxes. They freely used coins with Caesar’s image stamped on them, except in the temple. That’s why moneychangers were present in the temple. Their job was to exchange Roman coins for temple currency. You certainly would not want to use Roman money to pay for the sacrifices you were about to offer in the Holy Place.

Today’s Gospel reading shows the escalating conflict between Jesus and the Jewish leaders during the days leading up to his crucifixion. Here the Pharisees and Herodians join forces offering false flattery in an attempt to entrap Jesus in his words. They want him to answer their question in such a way so they can finally have a clear reason to do away with him. But Jesus calls them out. He sees right through them (and he sees through our false pretenses, too, doesn’t he?). Jesus truly is “not swayed by appearances,” but instead looks at the heart and knows everyone’s true motives.

“Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” was the question. How should he answer? If he answers, “Yes” the crowds will desert him. They want him to be the Messiah who defeats the nasty Romans and their tax collectors. This would make the Pharisees happy. They were no fans of the Roman government.

If he says, “No,” then the Romans will arrest him for sedition. This would make the Herodians happy. They were fans of the ruling Herod family which collaborated with Rome. The Romans usually paid no attention to you as long as you minded your own business and paid your taxes. If you started a tax revolt, then they would tend to get upset.

How does Jesus answer? He asks for a coin and says, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” It was Tiberius Caesar, of course, the Roman emperor. So Jesus wisely answers, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

What’s the lesson for us here today? Think back to the Collect of the Day that we prayed earlier: O God, the protector of all who trust in You, have mercy on us that with You as our ruler and guide we may so pass through things temporal that we lose not the things eternal.

God is our true ruler and guide. In “things temporal,” He places authorities over us, to maintain order, to dole out punishment to wrongdoers. Sometimes God uses authorities to discipline his Church when she endures suffering for the sake of Christ. Nevertheless, God calls us to obey the governing authorities insofar as they do not demand we do something against God’s Word.

Close to 600 years before the birth of Christ, God used Cyrus, the pagan Persian, to release the people of Judah from their captivity in Babylon and send them back to Judea to resettle and rebuild the temple. Later, God used the Roman Empire and its Caesars to keep the peace and prepare the world for the spreading of the Gospel … not to mention that our salvation was earned for us on a Roman cross.

Our political environment today is polarized with passionate debate on both the left and the right. Talk of raising taxes brings joy or woe … depending on whose taxes are being raised. But however you feel about taxes, it’s part of our Christian vocation as citizens to honor our president and other authorities and pay taxes. And in our context, it is the calling of Christians – Lutherans, too – to get involved in the political process, to vote, maybe even run for office. That’s how we render unto Caesar.

On the other hand, we are often tempted to put our hope in the “things temporal” so much so that we lose sight of the “things eternal.” When we see things economically going to hell in a handbasket, we forget that God alone is our “ruler and guide.” We are tempted to despair because of the state of “things temporal,” and in so doing, we lose the “things eternal.”

But our salvation does not lie in the “things temporal.” Our salvation is not dependent upon the state of the economy or who happens to be in charge in the government. Our salvation lies in the fact that you and I bear the likeness and inscription of Jesus in Holy Baptism.

Humanity was originally made in God’s likeness, created in “true righteousness and holiness” (Gen. 1:26; Eph. 4:24). We lost that image and likeness when Adam and Eve disobeyed God for the first time and brought sin into the world (Gen. 3; Eph 4:22). The Son of God came to earth in the likeness of sinful men, although was without sin (Rom 8:3-4; Phil. 2:7). His innocent suffering and death was the payment for sin, so that we who are guilty are forgiven and freed from condemnation (Rom. 8:1). Jesus rendered his innocent life up to the death of the cross so that you and I might be forgiven and given the promise of resurrection, even as Jesus rose from the dead on Easter morning.

In Baptism, you are made new. The likeness of God begins to be restored in you … “the new self,” Paul calls it, “which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator” (Col 3:10; see also Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor. 3:18) You are marked with the sign of the cross of Christ. The holy name of the Triune God is inscribed upon you. You are declared holy and righteous in God’s sight. And you are given a new nature with new Spirit-led inclinations.

In Baptism, you now bear the likeness and inscription of your Creator and Redeemer. You belong to him. So render to God what is God’s. What does that mean for you? In the light of the cross, it means first giving to God your sins, your death, your fears, your pain, your sorrow of every sort. It means that God truly does rule in your life, but it’s a rule which flows out of his grace and love to your every blessing. The old man should be afraid of this rule because it means his final death. But the new man – the man God caused to rise up from the waters of baptism, the man whom he feeds at this altar, the man who waits with eager expectation to see Jesus on the Last Day – this man of new life loves the rule of God. He confesses with the psalmist that he loves the law of God. Giving to God the things that are God’s starts with letting him handle all the worst things in your life.

Having taken all the garbage of your life, your whole life now can be a service rendered to God. It’s not just limited to giving your offerings, as important as that is. Paying taxes, buying groceries, mowing lawns, weeding flowerbeds … all those things also belong to God. Being a good citizen, a faithful parent, a devoted spouse, a helpful neighbor … in all these things you are serving God. The whole package belongs to him, not just our moments in prayer, not just Sunday mornings, but the whole week, the whole person, the whole of you. [Thanks to Phil Brandt for the thoughts in these last two paragraphs.]

So, render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. Give thanks that you were marked with the inscription of the cross in your baptism, and that your sins are forgiven in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Pancake luncheon to benefit ULC Minneapolis on Nov. 6

2011-10-12T14:33:00.000-07:00

University Lutheran Chapel needs our help. Their building is being sold out from under them, and soon they will have no church building.

They are a faithful Lutheran (LCMS) congregation at the University of Minnesota. They are a congregation of students and non-students gathering together to hear the Word and receive the Sacraments together. They are suffering. They need financial support from us, their brothers and sisters in Christ. We are called by our Lord to serve them, for we are all one in Christ Jesus. We can stand together in prayer for them, let them know they’re not abandoned, and help them financially at the same time.

Here’s how: On Sunday, November 6th, 2011, Messiah, Marysville and other congregations around the country will host pancake breakfasts (or a luncheon, as in our case). All proceeds (via free-will donation) will go to benefit ULC. Everyone can make pancakes, and everyone loves to eat them!

This will bring awareness of ULC’s plight to so many more people. This can help pool together many resources from throughout the Synod to aid them. Let’s pray for our Christian family at ULC, and let’s join together to make and eat pancakes for their benefit!

(The above was borrowed from https://pancakesforulc.wordpress.com/)

Wake me up when you get to the good stuff.

2011-10-07T18:44:00.000-07:00

Smorgasbord Spirituality

2011-09-26T15:00:00.000-07:00

From Messiah Lutheran Church's October 2011 Newsletter

When I was a child, I used to love going out to eat with my grandparents at a local Scandinavian restaurant that served a “smorgasbord.” If you’re not familiar with that term, it’s basically a buffet. Sort of like going to the Golden Corral or other similar eateries. You can pick and choose what you want to eat. Don’t like broccoli? Forget about it. Move on to the baked beans! Don’t like ham? Who cares? Have a slab of roast beef! Or, if you are really feeling rebellious, skip everything and head right to the desserts. There’s pie, cake, pudding, cookies, strudel … whatever suits your taste buds.

Many people act as though their spiritual lives are like bellying up to a smorgasbord. They prefer to pick and choose whatever they want to believe. They sift through all the various world religions and select that which resonates with them as good and proper or that which makes them feel good. And this is not just limited to those who do not classify themselves as Christian.

A recent article in USA Today stated

The folks who make up God as they go are side-by-side with self-proclaimed believers who claim the Christian label but shed their ties to traditional beliefs and practices. Religion statistics expert George Barna says, with a wry hint of exaggeration, America is headed for "310 million people with 310 million religions."

"We are a designer society. We want everything customized to our personal needs — our clothing, our food, our education," he says. Now it's our religion…

More people claim they have accepted Jesus as their savior and expect to go to heaven.

And more say they haven't been to church in the past six months except for special occasions such as weddings or funerals. In 1991, 24% were "unchurched." Today, it's 37% .

Barna blames pastors for those oddly contradictory findings. Everyone hears, "Jesus is the answer. Embrace him. Say this little Sinners Prayer and keep coming back. It doesn't work. People end up bored, burned out and empty," he says. "They look at church and wonder, 'Jesus died for this?'"…

Barna laments, "People say, 'I believe in God. I believe the Bible is a good book. And then I believe whatever I want.'"

(http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/story/2011-09-14/america-religious-denominations/50376288/1)

The article goes on to feature one individual who combines elements of religions that are mutually exclusive, yet still somehow calls herself a Christian. It also talks about others who have jettisoned their faith in Christ altogether after drifting in and out of assorted religious traditions.

You and I probably know someone like the folks mentioned in this article. How can we communicate to them the richness and depth of true Christianity without leaving them “bored, burned out and empty”? How can we make clear to them the exclusive nature of the claims of Christ (e.g. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” – John 14:6) without coming across as a self-righteous prig? How can we explain the difference between works-righteousness and the righteousness of Christ that is received as a gift of grace? How can we tell them that all that they truly need (whether they recognize that need or not) is truly found within the fellowship of the Holy Christian Church? How can we show love and mercy to one another so that those outside the Church do not look at us and say, “Jesus died for this?” These are questions we need to carefully ponder as we seek to proclaim Christ and his life and forgiveness to those who are “darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to the hardness of their heart” (Eph. 4:18) … those who are “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14).

All efforts to have some kind of spirituality apart from Christ alone are futile, because they are man’s own efforts to seek God and find him … or efforts to avoid his Law which condemns them. True spirituality acknowledges that we are spiritually dead and can do nothing to save ourselves, to draw closer to God, to find him somehow (Eph. 2:1). True spirituality acknowledges that God is the one who has sought us and found us, like the shepherd who goes off to find the one lost sheep (Luke 15). True spirituality is pure receptivity … receiving that which God offers to us as a gift because of the death and resurrection of his Son (Eph. 2:8-10; 1 Cor. 4:7).

In Christ’s service and yours,
Pastor Onken

Sermon for the 15th Sunday after Pentecost (September 25, 2011)

2011-09-25T10:33:00.000-07:00

“The Authority of Jesus” (Matthew 21:23-32)

We all like to think we are authorities on one subject or another. To a certain extent, this may be true. We all have our areas of expertise. Maybe it’s cooking. Maybe it’s hunting or fishing. Maybe it’s playing a musical instrument. Maybe it’s a sport. Maybe it’s an academic subject, like history, geography, or math. In your own particular realm, you can speak with some measure of authority.

On the other hand, nobody likes a know-it-all. This is a person who has something to say about everything and offers their opinion in every conversation. They’re not always the loveable know-it-all, like good ol’ Cliff Clavin, the postal worker on the TV show Cheers. Cliff would sit at the bar with his pal Norm and interject absurd trivia into conversations, such as, “It’s a little known fact that the smartest animal is a pig. Scientists say if pigs had thumbs and a language, they could be trained to do simple manual labor. They give you 20-30 years of loyal service and then at their retirement dinner you can eat them.” Those present would roll their eyes, but it was all in good fun. Cliff wasn’t annoying. He was amusing. But annoying know-it-alls are another matter altogether.

We don’t like it when people question our authority. When people doubt what we are saying is true, we get aggravated with them. If we are absolutely certain we are correct, we have a hard time moving on and just letting go and not letting it bother us.

The chief priests and the elders of Israel found themselves in this situation in today’s Gospel reading. They had a problem with Jesus. He was usurping their authority. And so they questioned his.

This all happened right after Palm Sunday, just a few days before his trial and crucifixion. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. The crowds hailed him, crying out “Hosanna!” which means “Save us, now!” They called him the “Son of David.” That was a term reserved for the Messiah. They said that he is “the Prophet Jesus.” This is the great One promised to Moses, to whom the Lord said, “I will raise up for them a prophet like you … And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him” (Deut. 18:18).

This was also right after Jesus cleansed the temple, driving out those who were buying and selling, overturning the tables of the moneychangers. Jesus said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers” (Matt. 21:13). “My house,” he quotes from the book of Isaiah. Was Jesus alluding to the fact that, as Yahweh, he was the one who should be worshiped in that house … in that temple? That he was the one who had been present there in the Holy of Holies between the cherubim on the mercy seat on the ark of atonement?

The chief priests and the elders resented all this. They were the ones who held authority over the people. They were the ones who were in charge of the temple. They were the ones who were the so-called experts, in charge of interpreting Scripture. And so they questioned him: “Who gave you this authority?”

We know where the authority of Jesus comes from. His authority comes from God the Father and his own divine authority as the Son of God. In John 8:28, during another dispute with the Jewish leaders, Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me” (John 8:28). Notice where Jesus says we will know him: “When you have lifted up the Son of Man.” When we see Jesus on the cross, that’s when we know who he is … the Crucified Savior of the world. That’s when we truly know God … in his loving act of giving up his life for the life of the world. And after his resurrection and ascension, Jesus declared to the disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt. 28:18).

We know where his authority comes from. Perhaps the chief priests and elders did, too. They saw his miracles. They saw him receive the adoration of the crowds. Jesus made no attempt to silence them. He was not trying to hide his identity as the Messiah. In fact, in this Holy Week conflict with the chief priests and elders, it almost seems as if Jesus was purposely saying things he knew would rile them up, daring them to arrest him, daring them to crucify him … for that was his divine destiny. He was no helpless pawn. He was totally in control, acting with divine authority.

Jesus responds to their question with another question about John the Baptist. This was a case similar to his own. The people held John to be a prophet. So if the chief priests and elders say that John’s authority was from heaven, they have to acknowledge the same about Jesus, because John pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. On the other hand, if they say that John’s authority was from man, then they would be in danger of being stoned by the people. So what do they do? They wimp out. In their self-righteous indignation, they refuse to answer the question and instead say, “We don’t know.” As a result, Jesus refuses to answer their question, even though they probably already knew the true answer. They challenged his authority because he was a threat to their own.

Do you and I ever challenge the authority of Jesus? Sure we do. We challenge our Lord’s authority every time we question what God is doing in our life. We think that we are being treated unfairly. We have lived a good life (so we think), so why do bad things still happen to us? We cry out with the people quoted in today’s reading from Ezekiel, “The way of the Lord is not just” (Ezek. 18:25).

We challenge our Lord’s authority whenever we question the need to repent of our sins. We can be so self-righteous. We see the speck in our brother’s eye but we miss the log in our own. We become really good at making excuses for what we have done.

We must give up all our self-righteous claims to being authoritative, all our claims to being right at the expense of hurting others, and recognize and receive the authority of Jesus to do his work in our lives and hearts … to do his healing, forgiving work in our midst.

A good place to start is by praying again the collect assigned for today: “Almighty God, You exalted Your Son to the place of all honor and authority. Enlighten our minds by Your Holy Spirit that, confessing Jesus as Lord, we may be led into all truth.” In and of ourselves, we cannot submit to Christ’s authority. Left to our own devices, we will kick and fight and squirm against it. But the Holy Spirit comes to us through God’s Holy Word and enlightens our minds with the light of Christ. He renews our faith in Jesus as the Savior who paid the price for our sins at the cross. The Holy Spirit empowers our confession of Jesus as Lord and leads us into all truth. He lights our way as we study and learn the Scriptures, growing in the “grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18) … “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13).

Now, we can repent of the ways in which we have been like the second son in our Lord’s parable. We can repent of the ways in which we have said, “I go, sir” but then acted otherwise. We can turn away from acting like the so-called religious people of the day who were acting as though they were faithful sons, but really had no intention of acting upon God’s Word in their life. Do we hear God’s Word but then leave here with no intention of making any changes in our lives? Or do we listen attentively and ask the Holy Spirit to help us amend our lives and put into practice what we have heard … forgiving, showing mercy, serving one another, working in God’s vineyard?

That’s what the first son in the parable did when the father sent him to work in the vineyard. Even though initially he said “I will not,” he finally “changed his mind and went.” That son stands for all who truly repent of their sins and trust in Jesus … and in his authority as the Messiah, the One who acted as if he had no authority at all and instead “made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant” and “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:7-8).

Jesus has the authority to receive sinners – scandalous tax collectors, salacious prostitutes – and bring them into the kingdom of God, his Holy Church. Jesus has the authority to receive all kinds of sinners – people like you and me – and to bring us into the kingdom of God in the baptismal waters of forgiveness and to feed us his body and blood in his Holy Supper. And he gives this great and awesome privilege to his Church: to call ministers to stand before you in his stead and by his command, and authoritatively announce, “I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Amen.

Let’s Help Brandon Attend Christ Academy

2011-09-21T11:21:00.000-07:00

Brandon Austin is a high school senior and member of our congregation who has expressed an interest in becoming a pastor one day. At our last church council meeting, it was approved to set up a special fund to help send Brandon to Christ Academy-High School at Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. This is a two week “retreat” of sorts that provides an opportunity for young men to experience campus life at the seminary and get a picture of what preparation for the Holy Ministry entails.

Here’s a bit more from CTS’s website:

Christ Academy students simulate the life of a seminarian as they worship, learn and have fellowship with the wider community of Concordia Theological Seminary. In so doing these young men grow to understand the process of becoming a pastor, and through meditation and prayer, they begin to contemplate whether the Holy Ministry is a vocation which they might want to pursue one day.

Christ Academy – High School Provides:

Theology – As regular seminary professors teach, these youth grow in the knowledge of their faith and begin to think critically and theologically as they go home better-equipped to engage the world around them.

Direction – Christ Academy-High School teaches what preparation for the Holy Ministry within the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod entails, and offers young men time to consider this holy and blessed vocation for themselves.

Environment – Christ Academy-High School fosters an environment of Lutheran culture and piety through study of God’s Word, active participation in the liturgy, music and song of worship, and godly fellowship.

Tuition, room, board, and activity fees for Christ Academy-High School are $500. This, of course, does not cover travel expenses, which I would hope we could raise also. Please prayerfully consider helping to encourage Brandon in his consideration of serving the Lord as a pastor one day. And remember, even if the Lord leads him into a different vocation, this experience will still be an invaluable one in his spiritual life and walk of faith with his Savior Jesus.

One more thing: CTS also offers two other programs for college-age men and young women who are considering the vocation of deaconess. Check out the CTS website for more information.

Sermon for the 14th Sunday after Pentecost (September 18, 2011)

2011-09-18T11:23:00.000-07:00

Isaiah 55:6-9

This word from Isaiah this morning is addressed to the people of Judah who would soon be taken off into exile in Babylon because they had turned their backs on God. It is also addressed to us today who in any way may have turned our backs on God. And by nature, we daily turn our backs on God when we do what we know we should not do, and when we neglect to do what we ought to do. You remember those old catechism definitions of “sins of commission” and “sins of omission.” Both make us guilty before God.

But the prophet addresses this situation. He invites us to seek the Lord, turn from our sin, and be forgiven. Our limited human minds may think that all this is impossible, yet through the prophet the Lord says it is not. His ways are higher than our ways.

“Seek the Lord while he may be found,” Isaiah says, “call upon him while he is near.” The problem is, we naturally do not seek after God. Our sinful hearts and our selfish will keep getting in the way. In fact, St. Paul says in Romans 3 that there is “no one seeks for God.” We would rather be seeking after what we want, not what God wants.

A number of years ago there was a bumper sticker that said, “I found it!” I don’t really know what the people in the cars found. I assume they were proclaiming to the world that they had found faith in God. The truth of the matter is that we have not found God. He has found us! Jesus said to his disciples, “You did not choose me, but I chose you” (John 15:16). And towards the end of the book of Isaiah, the Lord declares, “I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me” (Is. 65:1).

So how do we seek the Lord and find Him? How do know He is near so that we might call on Him? We find God in Christ Jesus. He is near to us in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:13 says, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” It is only through the shed blood of Jesus on the cross for the forgiveness of sins that we draw near to God. And He draws near to us as He gives us His blood to drink and His body to eat for the forgiveness of sins in His Holy Supper.

The author of Hebrews calls Jesus’ work at the cross a “better hope.” It is a better hope than the attempts at drawing near to Him by obeying God’s perfect, holy Law. That’s impossible for us. It’s hopeless. And so, Hebrews 7:19 says “a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.” That “better hope” is trusting in Jesus’ completed work at the cross for our forgiveness.

David knew about this “better hope.” Oh, sure, he may not have known exactly how God was going to work everything out. But He knew a Savior was coming, and He knew that by turning to God in repentance he would be forgiven. He said in Ps 32, “I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found” (Ps. 32:5).

The implication in both Isaiah’s and David’s words is that there will come a time when God will not be found. There will come a day when He will not be near. That time … that day … is Hell. Hell might possibly be described as the complete absence of God. His comfort and peace and mercy are not found there. His love is absent. The Bible describes it as a place of unimaginable agony, sorrow, and torment because it is the complete opposite of the joy and peace that God freely offers in Christ but was rejected by those who will spend eternity there.

And so Isaiah urges, “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near.” Don’t wait until it is too late. In 2 Corinthians 6, St. Paul says, “Now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2 NIV).

Our God is merciful. He is “patient toward you, not wanting that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). For Jesus’ sake He has mercy on us and freely pardons our wicked ways as well as our evil thoughts. He declares us clean from our head to our toes, from the inside to the outside. Now is the day when we may find Him. Now is the day when He is near to us. He is close to us when His Words touch our ears. He is near to us when water is poured over our heads and the Holy Spirit is given to create faith. He is present for us when bread and wine touch our lips and our tongues and deliver to us Christ’s very own body and blood.

These are truly amazing things. They are unfathomable. Our human minds have a hard time accepting them. The Lord speaks the truth through the prophet when he says in our text, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

You and I have a tendency to put “God in a box.” We try to package him in ways that we can grasp, ways that we can understand. But when we do that, we end up with false doctrine and a God that is only a shadow of the God who has revealed Himself to us in the Bible.

Besides, how many of you, if you were God, would have come up with a plan like he did to save us?

Assuming that you are a Triune God … Father, Son, and Holy Spirit … how many of you would have sent your Son whom you love to take on human flesh in First Century Palestine, to carry the weight of every single sin ever committed upon himself, and to willingly die a horrible death on a cross, and three days later rise to life again?

How many of you would have chosen a rag-tag band of 12 men to preach about you … a few fisherman, an IRS agent, a fanatical freedom fighter, and a treasurer who you knew was eventually going to hand you over to the authorities?

How many of you would tell a story like Jesus did in today’s Gospel lesson, where every worker receives the same wages, no matter what time of day he went to work … which is a picture of God’s gracious gift of salvation being the same for all no matter at what point in their life they began to trust in Him?

How many of you would have chosen to connect your saving power to simple water?

How many of you would have given your followers a meal of bread and wine, telling them that it is your body and blood, and that it is given for you to eat and drink for the forgiveness of sins?

I don’t know about you, but if I were God, I would have done things a lot differently. To begin with, I probably would have wiped out Adam and Eve and started all over again until somebody got it right!

But that’s not the kind of God we have. We have a gracious and merciful God. We have a God who doesn’t want robots but who wants people to be in a relationship with Him. We have a God who has given us His very own plan to rescue us from being separated and far from Him for eternity. We have a God who draws near to us so that we can draw near to Him, as we sing in the hymn

Chief of sinners though I be
Jesus shed his blood for me.
Died that I might live on high
Lives that I might never die.
As the branch is to the vine,
I am his and he is mine.

Oh, the height of Jesus’ love,
Higher than the heavens above,
Deeper than the depths of sea,
Lasting to eternity!
Love that found me—wondrous thought!
Found me when I sought him not.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Our God is near to us today. He is found right here in Word and Sacrament. Turn to Him, and He will have mercy on you and freely pardon all your ways and all your thoughts, because of His own thoughts and ways that are so much higher than our own.

Amen.

Sermon for the Funeral of Annette Lundgren (September 17, 2011)

2011-09-17T11:00:00.000-07:00

“The Great Metamorphosis” (1 Corinthians 15:51-57)

“Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. 15:51-57)

In the name of Jesus.

Annette loved her butterflies. You saw her collection hanging in the entryway as you walked in here this morning. What an appropriate symbol on a day like today. For although we are gathered together because a dear family member and friend has died, yet we also know that resurrection awaits her. Resurrection awaits all who have been baptized in the name of the Triune God and who trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior from sin, death, and hell. When Annette was baptized, she was united with Jesus in his death and resurrection. And like the widow Anna whom we heard about in our Gospel reading, Annette loved to be in God’s house. There was hardly a Sunday that she missed, even in her advanced years. That strong German heart just kept ticking. She came here as often as she could to hear God’s Word, to confess her sins, to hear the Absolution that said her sins were forgiven, and to eat and drink the body and blood of her Savior Jesus in the Holy Supper. She truly cherished those things.

The butterfly has long been a symbol of resurrection. Think, for a moment, about where a butterfly starts. It starts out as a lowly caterpillar. It sluggishly trudges along, satisfying its voracious appetite, easily threatened by predators. But then, after a brief time, it comes to a mundane end. It sheds its skin and appears entombed in a hard-shelled chrysalis. It appears to be asleep, even dead. But inside that chrysalis, an amazing transformation takes place … a metamorphosis … a change of form. Eventually, a beautiful butterfly emerges, gloriously patterned and colored, freed from the bonds of earth.

In many ways, the journey of a caterpillar is like the journey we have in these temporal – these time-bound – bodies. From the moment we are born, we begin to die. Most of us enjoy a period of vigor and health. But not long after that, we begin to experience the effects of aging. We sluggishly trudge along, satisfying our appetites for whatever the world has to offer … some of which is good and beneficial and gives glory to God, some of which is displeasing to God our Creator and Redeemer and of which we need to repent. In relation to eternity, this life of 60, 70, 80, or even 90 years is all too brief. We slow down. We experience a mundane ending. Death. Some of us fizzle out. Some of us flame out. But death is death no matter whether it comes suddenly or slowly. And it’s all because of mankind’s sin, as St. Paul reminds us, “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). I would be remiss, though, if I didn’t finish that verse for you: “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Death is not the end. Eternal life awaits us as a gift because of the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus.

In death, our bodies are entombed. The Bible describes it like sleep. We even talk about how our remains are “laid to rest.” But although our remains appear to sleep, like an insect changing inside a chrysalis, it is truly dead. One day, however, a metamorphosis will occur for us. Our bodies will be changed from mortal to immortal, from perishable to imperishable. It will be a glorious body, freed from the bonds of sin and death and all the sorrows and pains and anxieties and troubles that we endure in this life.

And all of this will occur because of the journey that Jesus took for us. In order to save us from our sinful condition – lost, separated from God, deserving of his just wrath because of our disobedience to his commands – the Son of God came to earth and took on human flesh. He humbled himself. Although he was True God, he became True Man, limiting himself to a human body. He trudged along with us in this life, making himself vulnerable. He got tired. He got hungry. He suffered, died, and was buried. Yet in all this, he never sinned. He lived a perfect life as our substitute. At the cross, the sinless Son of God had the sins of the world credited to his account. In fact, Psalm 22 has been understood to be the words of the Savior as he suffered and died, and he declares “I am a worm and not a man” (Ps. 22:6). He felt what is was like to be forsaken by his Father. His death paid the price for our sins, the debt we owe to God. And now, by trusting in his saving death, his perfect life – his righteousness – is credited to your account. You are forgiven. You are free.

But Christ’s journey did not end at the cross. His lifeless body was laid in the tomb. Three days later, on Easter morning, his body burst forth. A metamorphosis had taken place. The One who called himself a worm emerged from his stony chrysalis alive, glorified, immortal, imperishable, never to die again … yet still bearing the nail scars that remind us of his crucifixion which earned for us the forgiveness of all our sins. Now, his resurrection frees us from the bonds of sin and death, and guarantees our resurrection to eternal life on the Last Day.

Annette’s last day on this earth was last Saturday. She is with her Lord. On the Last Day, whenever that day will be, her soul will be reunited with her remains, and like a beautiful butterfly, a metamorphosis will take place. She will rise again just as her Savior Jesus rose to life again.

You and I are called to be ready, too. Each death we face is a reminder for us that we are to be ready for our last day on earth. Not all of us will be blessed to live as long a life as Annette did. None of us knows when we will take our last breath. And there is always the possibility that we will still be alive when Jesus returns. Either way, on that day we will be changed, “in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Cor. 15:52). Tomorrow, we will hear these words read in church: “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near” (Is. 55:6). He is near to you today through these very words that you are hearing. Seek him, because out of his great love for you he has already sought you and died for you and rose for you. Be ready for Christ’s return by repenting of your sins, trusting in him as your Savior, and clinging to the promises that God gives in Holy Baptism … the place where God first called Annette’s name 97 years ago and made her his beloved child.

May the peace of God in Christ Jesus and the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life comfort your hearts today and always.

Amen.

On living in deserts and valleys

2011-09-13T08:06:00.000-07:00

"The Scriptures say that the righteous shall flourish like the palm tree - but we need to remember that palm trees don't grow in beautiful forests, but in the desert. We are called to bear fruit - but we must recognize that the fruit tree grows in valleys, not on mountaintops." -- Tim Hansel, You Gotta Keep Dancin'.

Sermon for a Day of Supplication and Prayer on the 10th Anniversary of 9-11 (September 11, 2011)

2011-09-11T10:28:00.000-07:00

Genesis 50:15-21; Matthew 18:21-35; Psalm 103

Friday night I watched Dateline on NBC. It was a two hour special remembering the events of September 11, 2001, told from the perspective of a number of people who were there in New York, Washington D.C., and those who received the phone calls from the plane that went down in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Stories. Images. Tearfully relived moments of fear, agony, confusion, grief. Survivor guilt. Lost husbands, lost wives, lost fathers, lost mothers, lost children.

It’s been ten years. They say “time heals all wounds.” I’m not so sure. How do you heal from something so horrific? Maybe we’ve moved on as a nation … concerned more now about the economy than Al Qaeda. But the wounds are still there … and we are reminded of them on every visit to the airport, unable to accompany travelers to the gate like we used to; every time we take our shoes off going through airport security; every time we see an old picture of the Manhattan skyline and see two twin towers that aren’t there any longer.

Our nation experienced a collective trauma that day. It lasted for weeks and months. From Maine to Miami, from Seattle to San Diego, we were all in shock. Then followed fear, accompanied by anger and anxiety and uncertainty.

In the days following, the news gave us reports of the sacrifice, bravery, and heroism of both rescue workers and regular folks. We rallied around the flag. Christians rallied around the cross. September 11 brought out some of the more noble traits of humanity.

September 11 also brought out some of the more nasty things in humanity. Hatred. A desire for vengeance. The hopes that whoever was behind all this would rot in hell.

We know what the role of government should be. Protect the nation’s citizens. Do it in a moral, just fashion. If military action is necessary, so be it. We heard in last week’s Epistle lesson that the governing authority “does not bear the sword in vain. For [it] is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer” (Rom. 13:4). And oh, how we wanted to see God’s wrath poured out. We’ll leave it to history’s judgments to determine if our government’s actions were correct. We’ll leave it to God to decide if our government’s actions were and continue to be an instrument of his wrath.

But what do we do as individuals with the feelings that we have against our enemies who wish to do us harm? (And they are still out there.) Justice is one thing. Payback is another.

If anyone had the right to take vengeance upon someone, it would have been Joseph. Stripped of his fancy coat his father gave him by his jealous brothers. Hurled into a pit. Sold as a slave. Dragged down to Egypt. Assumed dead by his father. Accused of rape by his master’s wife. Thrown into prison. Lingers there for two years or more. The Pharoah, the king, has two strange dreams. He learns that a certain prisoner is good at interpreting dreams. He summons the prisoner Joseph and describes his dreams to him. Joseph explains that the two dreams foretell seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. Joseph is made second in command in Egypt and put in charge of storing up grain to alleviate the coming famine. Suffering the effects of the famine, Joseph’s brothers come to Egypt to buy grain. Joseph hasn’t seen his brothers for close 20 years. He recognizes them, but they don’t recognize him. Now’s your chance, Joseph. Stick it to ‘em. Make them pay for what they did to you 20 years ago. Lay the hammer down.

Amazingly, Joseph acts quite contrary to how his brothers deserve. After a series of tests which he gives them, he finally reveals himself to his brothers … and forgives them. His entire family immigrates to Egypt – his father Jacob, his brothers and their wives and children, the whole kit and caboodle. Joseph provides for them and saves them.

Put yourself in Joseph’s shoes. How would you have felt? You know what some of your family and friends have done to you. Are you letting it eat you up inside? We are often more inclined to act like the wicked servant in the parable that Jesus told (Matt. 18:21-35). How many times have we been unwilling to forgive someone even the smallest of debts, when we have been forgiven of all our debts to our gracious God? Yet Joseph had already forgiven his brothers. He held no grudges against them.

Seventeen years pass. Jacob dies. Joseph’s brothers think that, with dad out of the picture, Joseph will now give them what they deserve. He was only holding out until Jacob died so dad wouldn’t have to see his sons perhaps tortured and executed. They did not believe that Joseph had forgiven them. All those years of kindness and generosity? It was all an act, they figured. And so, seventeen years after Joseph received them with love and mercy, they come to him again, asking for his forgiveness. And Joseph wept. It hurt him deeply to think that his brothers were not able to receive and rest in his forgiveness all those years. So Joseph reassures his brothers. He “spoke kindly to them,” saying, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.”

Jesus is someone else who was treated contrary to how he deserved … but not like Joseph’s brothers. They deserved to die for what they did to their brother. Jesus deserved none of the treatment he received. Yet, “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter” (Is. 53:7) Jesus allowed himself to be treated as a criminal, mocked, spit upon, beaten, and crucified for us, suffering and dying with the world’s sin credited to his account. Joseph refused to act in the place of God and judge his brothers. Jesus as God had every right to act and pour out his wrath upon us and judge us for our sins. Instead, Jesus acted contrary to how we deserve so that we get what he earned for us … life, joy, peace, forgiveness, and a share in his resurrection on the Last Day.

It was an evil act, what Joseph’s brothers did to him. Yet Joseph acknowledged that God meant it for good. Many people were saved, including Joseph’s own family … including his brother Judah, through whose lineage the Savior would one day be born.

It was an evil act, the innocent Son of God being crucified. But God meant it for good. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, the price has been paid for our sins, and you and I and all who believe and are baptized into Christ are saved.

It was an evil act, what happened ten years ago today. Did God mean it for good? How do we make sense out of evil acts perpetrated against us – both by those close to us or by those half-way around the world? I don’t know how to make sense out of those things, without a clear word from the Lord. But this much is clear from the inspired pen of St. Paul: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Rom. 8:28) Nothing happens beyond God’s watchful, merciful eyes. And he promises that, ultimately, his almighty hand will work for the good of his baptized children even when the circumstances are evil. “If we live,” Paul says in today’s Epistle, “we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom. 14:8).

What about forgiving those who have done evil against us? Well, if God has forgiven us, then we are to offer forgiveness to others, no matter what the sin. Let God be the judge. That’s not our job. Joseph knew he was not “in the place of God,” and so he offered forgiveness to his brothers. You and I are not “in the place of God,” and so we offer forgiveness to those who have wronged us in any way … not “seven times, but seventy times seven” … as many times as is necessary (Matt. 18:22). It’s not the government’s job to forgive. It’s the government’s job to uphold the law and dole out justice. It is, however, the job of every Christian to forgive those who have wronged us.

Todd Beamer was on Flight 93, the one that crashed in that field in Pennsylvania. He was one of the passengers who overcame the hijackers to keep the plane from being the fourth to be used as a weapon of mass destruction that day. His words “Let’s roll” – heard from the phone he was using just before he and others stormed the cockpit – have become legendary. Just before that, Beamer tried to call his wife, but was routed to a phone company supervisor. He told her what was happening and about the plan to try to bring the plane down. He made her promise to contact his wife and kids and tell them that he loved them. Finally, he asked her to pray with him. Together they prayed the Lord’s Prayer. The rest is, as they say, history.

Todd’s wife, Lisa, later said, “You know, in the Lord's Prayer, it asks God to forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. [As he prayed that prayer, Todd] was forgiving those people for what they were doing, the most horrible thing you could ever do to someone.”

From a human standpoint, forgiveness is hard … both giving it and receiving it (we are often like Joseph’s brothers…we are just not sure that God or others have forgiven us). Forgiveness can, at times, be a process. We may still have to work through all kinds of emotions and hurts even after we’ve said the words “I forgive you” to someone. We need to ask the Lord to help us through that process, to rid our hearts of grudges and anger that our sinful nature may still cling to. I can imagine that, even ten years later, there are survivors of the 9-11 tragedy that are still working through some very deep-seated psychological and spiritual wounds. There are combat veterans of the war on terror and their families that are working through their own particular issues. In a similar way, you each have your own battles that you are dealing with, however great or small … ongoing fear and uncertainty in a world affected by sin and evil … the need to let go of grudges and to forgive … the need to receive and believe that you are forgiven, both by God and by others.

Remember this: the battle has already been fought and it is finished. The burden of sin has been lifted. You don’t need to settle any scores with anyone, because Jesus will take care of that on the Last Day. You are set free to receive God’s gifts and to distribute them to your neighbor. You can enjoy your life in Christ, filled with his joy that spills over into all that you say and do.

Amen.

Sermon for the 12th Sunday after Pentecost (September 4, 2011)

2011-09-04T11:52:00.000-07:00

“Become Like Children” (Matthew 18:1-20)

If you had the chance, would you like to become a child again? No responsibilities, except for maybe a few odd chores here and there. What about school? Sure there’s homework … but there’s recess! And then there’s all the little things that thrill you: a dollar seems like a fortune, an inexpensive toy from the toy aisle at the drug store gives hours of pleasure, a trip to the ice cream parlor is a gastronomic delight!

Children have a straightforward honesty and a refreshing naïveté. They look at the world with wide-eyed wonder. They are like “sponges,” as the saying goes. They have an openness to learn, to receive, to soak up everything that is put into their little eyes and ears.

I’ve also noticed that children are quick to forgive and forget and not hold grudges. One moment siblings will be yelling and screaming in anger at each other. Moments later, they will be laughing and screaming with delight as they chase each other around the room playfully.

That’s not to say that being a child is without its problems. That straightforward honesty can be brutal and embarrassing. Have you ever been in line at the supermarket, and your child loudly declares that the person in front of you is “fat” or “ugly”?

That refreshing naïveté can become gullibility. That’s why we teach children to not talk to strangers.

Or what about this? Your child comes home from school and you hear a naughty word come out of their mouth. “Where did you learn that?” you ask. “From my friends at school,” your child replies. Well, I did just get through saying that children are like “sponges.” They are quick to learn. It’s just that they sometimes learn things from their peers that you might not want them to learn.

Children also have an innate sense of fairness and justice. That can be a good quality, but it also can create conflict. How many times have you heard these phrases around the house? “He got more than me!” “She hit me!” “She hit me first!” Children can be tattle-tales. They hit and grab and scratch and bite.

Contrary to popular opinion, children are not innocent … they are sinners, too. Like all of us sinners, they are selfish, self-centered, disobedient, in need of training and discipline.

So when Jesus says in today’s Gospel reading to “turn and become like children” he’s certainly not telling us to become innocent. We’ve already established that they are not. That’s not the point he’s making. So, considering what we know about children, why does Jesus hold them up as an example? This would have been quite foreign to his initial hearers. Children were loved in first century Jewish society. But they were also seen as irrational, impulsive little creatures needing to be trained.

Consider the question posed to him: “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” This wasn’t the only time they discussed this question (see also Mark 9:34; Luke 9:46; 22:24). Among the disciples, there was often a concern for pride of place. Who was going to have the highest position in the kingdom? Recall the sons of Zebedee, James and John, and their request to sit at Jesus’ side in his glory, one at his right and one at his left (Mark 10:35-37). Their mother even butted her nose in and tried to butter Jesus up a bit on behalf of her sons (Matt. 20:20-21). Pride was an ongoing problem in the hearts of the disciples. It’s an ongoing problem in our hearts, too. We are constantly making judgments of others and trying to find ways to make ourselves appear better than them, even if it’s only in our own minds.

So Jesus takes a child and focuses everyone’s attention on him and says, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” What characteristic of the child does Jesus highlight? Humility. How is a child humble? Compared to adults, children are weak, helpless, dependent, vulnerable. Jesus is teaching us to repent of our pride. He redefines for us what true greatness is. True greatness admits that one is completely, totally, absolutely helpless and dependent upon God and his grace and mercy. “It is only those who realize that they have nothing that God offers everything.” (Gibbs, Matthew 11:2-20:34, p. 894) This is what Jesus meant in the Beatitudes when he said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:3).

The One who spoke those words and the words of our text today is the One who first and foremost became a poor, weak, helpless, dependent, vulnerable child so that the world might be saved through him. In the womb of Mary, he humbled himself and was completely dependent upon that safe, warm abode and the umbilical cord that sustained his growing body. As an infant, he was dependent upon Mary and Joseph to care for his earthly needs, to feed him, to nurse him, to change his diapers, to keep him warm and safe. When Herod sought his life, Jesus was dependent upon his foster father Joseph to protect him and carry him to Egypt until the king died and it was safe to return to the land of Israel (Matt. 2:13-23). Although Jesus was God in the flesh, he continued to live as the faithful Son of God, taking time to pray and acknowledge his relationship with his Father in heaven. And although as God he held all power and authority in the universe, yet Jesus willingly allowed himself to be weak, helpless, vulnerable as he hung on the cross, suffering for your sins and mine … especially our sins of pride, our sins of self-centeredness and thinking we are self-sufficient. Through Christ, these and all other sins are forgiven, and we remain connect to the life of Christ as we remain connected to the umbilical cord of the means of grace … the preaching of the Gospel, Baptism, Absolution, the Lord’s Supper.

As God’s forgiven children, we are free now to see one another as fellow forgiven children of God. As God’s forgiven children, we can view our fellow forgiven children as the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And if they are the greatest, then we are to give them the utmost care and attention … and forgiveness, too, of course.

When you receive one of God’s children, you receive the Son of God himself. “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me,” Jesus said. Receive them in the name of Jesus, the name with which we have all been marked in Holy Baptism, the Savior who dwells in every believer. So the next time you are tempted to turn your back on one of God’s children because they have offended you in some way, look at them and see Jesus in them.

And speaking of temptation, it is an eternally serious matter if you are the one who is the source of temptation to one of God’s children. Jesus says that it would be better for you to be drowned with a millstone tied to your neck. Temptation is such a serious matter that it requires radical action. However, it sure wouldn’t take long before you and I realized that we can’t keep cutting parts of our body off to avoid sin. There wouldn’t be much of us left. We can’t really get to the root of the matter, and that’s our sinful nature. Only Jesus can deal with that. We are helpless without his forgiveness.

Like children, sheep are helpless and dependent, too. So when one wanders and goes astray, we should seek them out and bring them back into the fold. Even one is valuable in God’s sight. He doesn’t want anyone to perish.

Great effort must be expended to bring someone back into the fellowship of Jesus’ followers. Sin breaks that fellowship. Go to your fellow “child” who has offended you and seek to be reconciled. When that fails, take one or two others along. When that fails, it may be necessary to involve the whole assembly … not an inquisition, but an intentional reaching out to care for one of those lost sheep and bring them back to repentance. When it gets to the point that we treat them as a Gentile or a tax collector … that is, as if they were an unbeliever … if we do it in a prideful way, then we have missed Jesus’ whole point in this section of Scripture. It’s to be done with the utmost care and humility on our part, acknowledging our own sinfulness, and calling sinners to repentance when their spiritual welfare is in danger.

And notice what Jesus says at the end of the text: “If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.” This is not about praying and agreeing with someone and getting whatever you want. This is all in the context of forgiveness and reconciliation. When two people agree that forgiveness is necessary, then forgiveness is given. The bondage of sin is loosed not only on earth but also in heaven. Jesus is present wherever two or three are gathered in his name, and his name brings forgiveness. And that is exactly what the Church is to be all about … a community of forgiveness and reconciliation … a community of children who know that they are completely, totally, wholly dependent upon the grace and mercy won for us at the cross of Christ.

Amen.

Sermon for Christian Education Sunday (August 28, 2011)

2011-08-28T11:32:00.000-07:00

“The Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom” (Prov. 9:10)

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy one is insight.” (Proverbs 9:10)

Yesterday and today the church commemorates two departed saints, Monica and Augustine. Monica was a devout Christian woman who lived in the 4th century in northern Africa. Her husband, Patritius, was a city official. However, he was not a Christian. He was also known to be short-tempered and not always faithful to his wife. Yet Monica's patience and sweet disposition ultimately served to soften her husband's heart. Monica's faithful example was instrumental in Patritius becoming a Christian not long before his death.

Monica and Patritius had three children. As a faithful Christian mother, she sought to bring her children to the waters of Holy Baptism. Patritius, however, would not consent. At one point, their oldest son Augustine became critically ill. Monica pleaded that her husband allow the boy to be baptized. Finally, he agreed. But when Augustine recovered, Patritius went back on his word. Nevertheless, it was Monica who prayed for her children and taught them the Christian faith.

Augustine grew up and studied rhetoric, the ancient art of persuasive speaking and teaching. Later on, he took up philosophy. His story sounds very contemporary in many ways: young man raised a Christian, mother more religious than his father, goes off to college, rebels against his upbringing, has a child out of wedlock, encounters challenges to the Christian faith in his studies, rejects the Christian faith. Eventually, in spite of all his studies and successes, Augustine came to recognize the emptiness of his life apart from God. In fact, one of Augustine's most famous quotes is this one: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” Augustine repented of his sinful lifestyle and returned in faith toward the Lord Jesus. He was baptized by Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, with whom he had become acquainted. He became a priest and devoted himself to defending the Christian faith. Later on he was appointed bishop of Hippo, a city in his native region of north Africa. Today, Augustine is one of the most well-known and influential theologians in all of history.

Augustine sought wisdom in learning and philosophy. But he came to recognize the truth of what we heard in our text from Proverbs: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy one is insight.” All of his worldly studies faded in comparison to the importance of studying the Bible and learning the truths about Jesus Christ revealed in God's Word.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy one is insight.” “Fear” here is not being afraid … although a person certainly should be terrified of God's wrath over sin. But simply being afraid of God is not a part of faith. Instead, the kind of “fear” meant in this verse is a reverent awe and a humble respect for God. This kind of “fear” includes faith, which doesn't cower in the corner, but comes boldly and confidently to the Father and asks for the good things that God has promised to those who trust in him. That's why Luther included these words at the beginning of each of his explanations to the commandments: “We should fear and love God, so that ...” For a Christian, fear and love go together. Children both respect and love their earthly fathers, as imperfect as they may be. In an even greater way, we both respect and love our perfect, holy, Heavenly Father. We give him thanks, with awe and reverence, for the awesome things he has done for us, especially for saving us by sending his Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins, for raising him from the dead, for calling us to faith through the power of the Holy Spirit, for washing our sins away in Holy Baptism, and for nourishing our faith with Christ's body and blood in the Lord's Supper.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” It's the “beginning” because all things are from the Lord. All wisdom and knowledge come from him, and so we acknowledge this when we begin our studies in any subject matter.

A good education is valued highly in our country. We have a public school system in our country where every child has the opportunity to learn. Some families choose to teach their children in a homeschool environment, and there are growing networks to support their efforts. Then there are private schools, such as our own Zion Lutheran School, where people can send their children if they have the financial resources. We have community colleges and technical schools and universities where students can further their education in order to seek gainful employment after they graduate. Knowledge in a variety of subjects helps a person to be well-rounded. Math and music, chemistry and computer science, art and astronomy, reading and writing, engineering and economics, physics and phys-ed, drama and design, history and health … these are all important. God uses each of these disciplines so that our various needs are met. He puts each of us into various vocations so that we serve our neighbor with the trades we learn, the skills we hone, and the talents he gives. This is a good thing. This fall under God's First Article gifts.

But the highest and most important knowledge there is is to know the Triune God as he has revealed himself to us in the Holy Scriptures. We dare not neglect the study of God's Word simply because it has nothing to do with getting good grades or a good job. It is, however, about eternal life. Jesus once prayed, “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). When you know Jesus, then you know God, and you have eternal life. As important as the First Article gifts are – God's gifts of creation … they are secondary to his Second Article gifts – his gifts of salvation in his Son Jesus Christ. St. Paul went so far as to say, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith – that I may know him and the power of his resurrection” (Phil. 3:8-10).

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” When we study the Bible and learn to know God, we gain true insight into the way things really are … not the way we imagine things are. This is what we call having a Biblical “worldview.” We learn the facts of the creation and the fall into sin, of God's promises to the patriarchs to send a Savior, of his preservation of the people of Israel to bring about the Savior. We learn about the foreshadowings of the Savior in the Old Testament … the tabernacle, the sacrifices, the Passover Lamb, and so on. We learn about the Law which condemns sin and about the Gospel which announces the forgiveness of sins because of Christ's death and resurrection. And the better we know the Scriptures, the better we know how to apply them to the struggles we face and the situations in which we find ourselves.

Today, on this Christian Education Sunday, give thanks for those who have taught God's Word to you … parents, grandparents, Sunday School teachers, pastors, youth leaders. Consider your involvement in the educational program here at Messiah … bringing your children to Sunday School, helping out with Sunday School, taking advantage of the opportunities we have to study the Bible together, recommitting yourself to reading the Bible as part of a regular devotional life. And remember Moses' words to the people of Israel, words that we can take to heart today: “These words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deut. 6:6-7). God's Word is not just for Sunday. It's for every day of the week, for every Christian home, for every Christian heart. It's God's Word that feeds our faith. It's God's Word that gives us true wisdom.

Amen.

Sermon for the Funeral of Doug Balam (August 25, 2011)

2011-08-25T11:05:00.000-07:00

“A Slight Momentary Affliction” (2 Corinthians 4:13-16)

This is one of those occasions when I can’t say much about the deceased. I did not know Doug all that well. My connection to Doug was through his brother Gerry who is a member of my congregation here in Marysville. I did visit with Doug a handful of times, but not enough to stand here and pretend that I knew what kind of person he was. I’ll leave that to you, as you share your memories later, immediately after the service, later at the reception, and as you reminisce about him in the days and years ahead.

My task in times like these is to give comfort and hope to those who are still living. My tool, if you will, is the Word of God as given to us in the Bible. The Word of God that I want to reflect on today is from the pen of the Apostle Paul, writing to the church at Corinth in the first century AD. You heard it read a few moments ago. Allow me to read it one more time: [2 Corinthians 4:13-18]

Paul calls our life “this slight momentary affliction.” Sure, we get to enjoy many things. The love of family. The joy of friendship. The beauty of creation. At the same time, life is not always “a bed of roses.” It can be quite thorny and prickly. Life is not always “peaches and cream.” Sometimes it is downright rotten and sour.

Nor do our afflictions seem slight or momentary. Doug knew this. I’m sure many of you do, too. Pain, suffering, illness, and disease can drag on for years. Disappointment, sadness, and grief can linger for days on end.

Creation is broken. Our bodies are broken. “Our outer nature is wasting away,” St. Paul says.

It was never meant to be that way in the beginning. Suffering and death are the consequence of mankind disobeying God. A perfect world became corrupted. Man became a sinner. Each of us have inherited a sinful nature from that day forward. All of us are under a death sentence because of sin.

God is a just God. He has to punish sin. But he is also gracious and merciful. And so he was determined to save us from our sinful predicament. He promised to one day send a Savior. That Savior is his Son Jesus, true God and true Man, who bore the punishment we deserved for our sins at the cross. The Innocent Son of God suffered as our substitute. He took our sins upon himself and he gives us his righteousness. All the ways in which we have offended the holy God are forgiven. By trusting in Jesus’ finished work at the cross, we are declared innocent, holy, righteous in God’s sight.

This is all a free gift. Nothing we can do will ever be good enough to earn it or deserve it. It’s all by grace, God’s undeserved favor towards us in Christ Jesus.

One of the thieves who was crucified beside Jesus recognized this. The other thief was mocking Jesus. His criminal colleague turned to him and said, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” (Luke 23:40-41)

This man had no opportunity whatsoever to do anything good to try to earn back God’s favor. He was being executed for his crimes. His hands and feet were nailed to two beams of wood. It was impossible for him to do any acts of penance, to somehow make restitution for his sin. He simply turned to Jesus and in repentant trust said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And the Savior replied, “Today, you will with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:42-43)

Paul writes that “this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” All of this world’s suffering will fade in comparison to the glory of eternity. There will be no more pain. No more sorrow. No more tears. No more death. Only joy and bliss and life in God’s presence … forever. And this present life with all its suffering and sadness and death will seem like just a blip on the radar, a passing click of the second hand on the clock, a snap of the finger.

Jesus Christ rose from the dead on Easter morning, proving his power over sin and death for us. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes that “in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man [that is, Adam] came death, by a man [that is, Jesus Christ] has come also the resurrection from the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and every power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” (1 Cor. 15:20-26) All who die trusting in what Jesus did for them at the cross will also rise to life again, just as Jesus has risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity. And in the reading we heard read earlier, Paul declares that “he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.” (2 Cor. 4:14) In death, the soul returns to God who made it. The body returns to the dust. But when Jesus returns as he promised, all who trust in Christ will bodily rise to eternal life and live in his glorious presence forever.

In the meantime, we “look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.” When people looked at Jesus on the cross, what did they see? Just a man, beaten, bloodied, suffering, dying. But what was unseen there? This was God in the flesh, humbling himself to save us from our sins and to rescue us from the brokenness of this fallen world.

And what do you see when you look at this fallen world? Suffering, disease, death. “Our outer nature is wasting away.” But what is unseen here? God is at work behind the scenes, supporting us, lifting us up, carrying us through our difficult times, teaching us, leading us, guiding us through his Word in the Bible, forgiving us, saving us, giving faith in the hearts of people even when it may not seem so apparent. “Our inner nature is being renewed day by day.”

I visited Doug on a couple of different occasions, when it seemed as if he didn’t have much time left. He actually did, but we didn’t know that at the time, did we? There’s another example of “the things are unseen,” right? None of us knows for sure how much time we have left in this life. When I visited Doug, I asked him if he believed that Jesus is his Savior. Did he believe that Jesus, the Son of God, died on the cross to forgive him of all his sins, and rose to life again to give him the gift of eternal life? Doug said he did. He confessed faith in Jesus. So I’m going to take Doug at his word. If he died believing and confessing that Jesus is his Savior, then, like that thief on the cross, Doug’s Lord said to him on August 15, 2011 “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Amen.

Sermon for the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost (August 14, 2011)

2011-08-14T12:27:00.000-07:00

“Faith Under the Table” (Matthew 15:21-28)

When I was a child growing up at home, we had a dog. His name was “Flip.” Mom and Dad named him that because he flipped his tail constantly. If you stood too close, he would beat your leg to a pulp with that tail. I think it also had something to do with the fact that the comedian Flip Wilson was popular at the time they got him.

Flip was an outdoor dog. He never came inside the house. But when we did happen to eat outside for a summer barbecue, I can remember Flip waiting patiently for any item of food that would fall from the TV trays that served as our tables. He would sit on his haunches and longingly watch every bit of food that went from plate to fork to mouth. When something did fall, he would quickly get up, bend his head down to where the food had fallen, and his tongue would go into action. And if there was something on my plate that I didn’t like, Flip was there to make it disappear as I fed it to him when mom and dad weren’t watching.

The Jews had a word for non-Jews. It was “dog.” But although the Jews considered Gentiles to be the filthiest kind of stray dogs, rummaging around for food in the garbage heap, we mustn’t think that Jesus thought this way. And so, when the Canaanite woman in our text asked Jesus to heal her daughter, and he responded, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs,” I imagine he said it with a smile and a twinkle in his eye, waiting to see how she would respond. Jesus wanted to see if this woman would persist in her request, in spite of the fact that she was a despised outcast. Even the disciples begged Jesus, “Send her away! We’re tired of hearing her whimpering!” Would she continue to request the bread that was meant for the Jews, and not Gentile dogs?

You see, the initial mission of Jesus was to bring the Gospel “only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But the salvation of the Gentiles – people like you and me – was already in view in the Old Testament. Isaiah wrote in today’s OT lesson, “The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, ‘I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.’ ” (Is. 56:8) And St. Paul, in today’s reading from Romans declares that even though the Jews have rejected Christ, God has not ultimately rejected them. Their rejection of Christ brought the message of reconciliation to the Gentiles. And then, things come full circle. Those who are Jews now may also receive mercy … not through their bloodline, not through the blood of bulls and goats, but through faith in the blood of Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

The woman replied to Jesus, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Jesus honored this woman’s faith and healed her daughter. I’m calling this woman’s faith an “Under-the-table” kind of faith. It’s “Faith Under the Table.” Just as dogs patiently wait for the crumbs that fall from their owner’s table, this Canaanite – this outcast Gentile woman – had a faith that recognized her humble status, yet still was bold to ask for help.

“Faith Under the Table” prays the prayer of faith: “Have mercy on me, O Lord.” You and I pray it in the liturgy this way: “Lord, have mercy.” That is the proper prayer of Christians as they gather together and bring their petitions before the Lord. Each time we pray “Lord, Have Mercy,” we express our humble status before the Lord. We acknowledge our weakness and our need.” (Reed, The Lutheran Liturgy, p. 267)

The Canaanite woman’s daughter was demon possessed. So you can clearly understand why she cried out for the Lord to “Have mercy.” You and I may not be demon possessed, but we are all suffering from the consequences of sin in the world. Sickness, disease, hardships, and ultimately death may not be the immediate result of anything we have done in our lives. Nevertheless, they are our common lot because of our sinful state. How many of you, in whatever condition you are in, whatever your situation may be, have felt like you have had about as much as you could handle, and wanted to cry out, “Lord, have mercy”? How many of you recognize your sin and know that you cannot overcome it by your own strength, and cry out to God, “Lord, have mercy”?

To say, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me” is a prayer of faith. This “Under-the-table kind of faith” is humble, persistent, and confident.

It is humble because it recognizes its “beggar status.” When Luther died, there was found in one of his pockets a slip of paper on which was written, “We are all beggars.” He knew that none of us had anything to offer God, especially as he lay dying, helpless to help himself.

The Canaanite woman understood that she was a Gentile, and thus had no claim to the promises given to the Jews. In essence, her prayer was, “I know I’m not a Jew, but I come to you since you are the Son of David, the Messiah of the Jews, and ask you to help!” She recognized her “beggar status.” All she could do was come before the Lord and plead with him to help her. Jesus called her faith “great.” The greatness of this woman’s faith was not in the strength of her faith, but in her humility and submission to God’s plan and Christ’s mission as the Messiah.

We also, must recognize our “beggar status.” We must realize that we have nothing to offer God, nothing of our own merit to ask God to help us, nothing of our own merit to ask God to forgive us. “Nothing in my hand I bring; simply to thy cross I cling,” we sing in the hymn (LSB 761.3) Everything that God gives us in this life is truly a GIFT … in particular, the forgiveness of our sins through the death of his Son on the cross. It is all GIFT. Luther had it right. “We are all beggars.” But we have a God who loves to give.

“Faith Under the Table” is also persistent. Jesus seemed to ignore this woman’s pleas. Still, she continued to come before him in prayer and worship, as she knelt before him and cried, “Lord, help me!”

Some see in this passage that Jesus was purposely testing this woman’s faith, and that may be so. However, he is not trying her faith in the way that one would hold a piece of food up higher and higher to see how high the dog might jump before it gets the prize. If he was meaning to test her faith here, he only did it out of his love for her, to build up her faith even more.

The same goes for us when we come to the Lord in prayer. Sometimes it seems as though he is completely silent, as Jesus was initially with this woman. Sometimes his answers are not what we expect. Sometimes the answer is “No.” We need to understand that prayer is not merely for the sake of asking God for things, but to be in communication with him, to come before him in worship, to bring to him all your needs and your hurts. We may be going through some type of trial in our life, but God allows those things in his infinite wisdom to test our faith, and to develop perseverance (James 1:2-3) And that perseverance will carry over into our prayer life, too, as we are persistent in coming before the Lord in worship and prayer.

“Faith Under the Table” is not only humble and persistent. It is also confident. The woman in the Gospel lesson was humble and persistent only because she was confident that Jesus could help her and her daughter. Although a Gentile, she humbly knew that Jesus was able to give to her even from the “scraps” that were left over from his table. She knew that even the “scraps” were powerful enough to heal her demon possessed daughter.

This confidence is described by Luther so beautifully in his explanation to the introduction to the Lord’s Prayer. “Our Father, Who Art in Heaven. What does this mean? With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that he is our true Father and that we are his true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask him as dear children ask their dear father.” You can be sure of God’s goodness. You can come before your Heavenly Father in prayer and ask him for anything, trusting that he knows what is best for you, and accepting his will for your life.

The prayer of faith for the woman was, and is for us, “Lord, Have Mercy.” And what was the answer of Jesus? First silence. Then an apparent rebuff, which was really no rebuff at all. Then finally a gift of grace in answer to a cry for mercy. The woman’s faith was praised, and her daughter was healed.

How does Jesus answer our prayer of “Lord, Have Mercy”? It may be silence. It may be something we don’t expect at all. When it comes right down to it, we also have received a gift of grace in answer to our cries for mercy. Forgiveness, the cancellation of our debt to God, the washing away of all our sins … that is the ultimate, and very real answer to out cry for mercy. We may not have expected it. But it is a gift of grace nonetheless. Through Christ’s death on the cross and his rising to life again, through our Baptism where we are joined to him in his death and in his resurrection, through our faith in Him, we receive the GIFT of forgiveness, the GIFT of eternal life.

Christ answers our cry for mercy, and “Faith Under the Table” becomes “Faith At the Table.” In his life here on earth, Jesus often ate with manifest sinners. The religious leaders criticized him for this, because sitting down to a meal with someone in those days was one of the closest types of fellowship there was. You and I are sinners, but through Baptism and by faith, Jesus changes our status from beggars to “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God.” (1 Peter 2:9) He invites us to sit, not under, but at his Table, where we get much more than scraps. He has prepared a feast for us where we enjoy close personal fellowship with him, and where we receive his true body and blood for the forgiveness of sins and the strengthening of our faith. By His gracious love, “Faith Under the Table” has become “Faith At the Table.”

Amen.

Sermon for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost (August 7, 2011)

2011-08-07T12:07:00.000-07:00

“That Sinking Feeling” (Matthew 14:22-33)

Do you remember the first time you ever said a bad word in front of your parents? I do. For me, it was even worse than just saying it in front of them. I said in front of them and a group of other people. Mom and Dad were mortified. I didn’t really know what I was saying. It was just a slang word I had heard at school. My friends and I never gave it a second thought. To my parents, though, it was as if I had killed a puppy or something. Later on they sternly reprimanded me and said, “We could have just fallen through the floor.” They had that sinking feeling that their child had just done something terribly embarrassing. And I had that sinking feeling that I was in trouble.

The disciples had “that sinking feeling.” It was early in the morning before the sun had even come up. A fierce wind blew down upon their boat on the Sea of Galilee. They may have been wondering if they were going to make it back to land. With the waves and wind against them, the boat was surely taking on water. You can just imagine that they all had “that sinking feeling,” quite literally.

Peter had “that sinking feeling” both literally and figuratively. Initially, he was in pretty good shape, however. Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. The men in the boat thought it was a ghost. Jesus tried to calm their fears, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”

Just to make sure, Peter said, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” In reply, Jesus said, “Come on in, the water’s fine!”

At first, Peter did pretty well. He trusted Jesus, and walked on the water toward him. But it didn’t take long before fear and doubt took over when he felt the wind whipping past him and the waves getting the hem of his robe wet. It was then that he had “that sinking feeling.” Literally, because he was in danger of drowning. Figuratively, because he was probably overcome with guilt that he had stopped trusting Jesus to take care of him out there on the water.

When do you and I have “that sinking feeling”? We get that sinking feeling when we go to the doctor and we receive an unfavorable diagnosis. We get that sinking feeling when we so look forward to something, it is postponed or cancelled altogether, and we are terribly disappointed. We get that sinking feeling when a loved one dies. We get that sinking feeling when we are caught in a downward spiral of addiction and addictive behavior. Above all, we ought to have that sinking feeling over our sin and the shame that accompanies our disobedience of God’s holy commandments. We should tremble over the thought that we are sunk apart from the life of God that he offers to us through faith in his Son.

Peter knew who to call upon when he was sinking. He cried out to the creator of that wind and those waves. As Peter saw Jesus walking upon the waters, perhaps he remembered the words of today’s OT lesson. No scratch that. Peter probably was treading water for dear life. But later he may have remembered the words of today’s OT lesson. There God speaks to Job from the midst of a storm, and says, “who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors, and said, 'Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed'?” (Job 38:8-11) And then, God says, “Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep?” (Job 38:16) Here, before Peter and the disciples in the boat, was the Creator himself – in the flesh – walking in “thick darkness” upon “the springs of the sea” and “the recesses of the deep.”

Who do you call upon when you are sinking? When the wind and waves of disease, disappointment, death, addiction, and doubt crash over you … you know who to call upon. You, too, can cry out to the creator of the wind and the waves … the one who walked upon the waters. Like Peter, you, too, can cry out, “Lord, save me.”

You can cry out, “Lord, save me,” because he already has. The one who walked upon the waves allowed himself to be sunk under the weight of the world’s sin.

Jesus surely felt “that sinking feeling” in the Garden of Gethsemane. He knew that the time was near. He was about to die a horrible death. Think about how you feel when you are about to go into surgery. You have thoughts about whether you are going to make it through. You wonder how much pain you will be in after you come out of your anesthesia. Now you can begin to get a tiny inkling about how Jesus must have felt facing the cross.

And Jesus certainly felt “that sinking feeling” during his trial and while upon the cross. His strength was being sapped with every lash of the whip and with every blow of the hammer. His life was draining from him with every straining breath, with every beat of his heart, as his precious, holy blood pulsed from his wounds, falling to the ground beneath him, sinking into the very earth which he himself created.

Yet in all this, he knew that he was doing this for you and for me … to save us from that sinking feeling of being abandoned forever in a place of eternal torment because of the ways in which we have sinned against our holy God. You can cry out, “Lord, save me” … and he will, because, as St. Paul writes, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13)

Now, when you remember that you are baptized, you ought to have “that sinking feeling” … but this time in a good sense. Remember Luther’s explanation in the Small Catechism:

What does such baptizing with water indicate? It indicates that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

Where is this written? St. Paul writes in Romans chapter six: “We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised through the glory of the Father, we too may have a new life.”

Your sins have been sunk beneath the waters of Holy Baptism. You and your sinful nature were buried with Christ in the tomb. And in Baptism, you were lifted up out of the waters into a new life. You are set free from the fear of condemnation because of “that sinking feeling” you get when realize you are a sinner. You are a sinner, but you are also a saint … one who is loved and forgiven by God, holy and righteous in his eyes.

As God’s holy and beloved child, whenever you feel like you are sinking beneath the wind and the waves of whatever is troubling you, you can cry out “Lord, save me.” Jesus will be right there to pick you up and bring you to safety. The wind ceased after Peter and Jesus got back in the boat. Your waves might cease. They might not. There’s no guarantee that what is troubling you will cease. Nevertheless, your Savior will carry you through it. And you are already in a ship built to handle rough seas. You are always safe inside this ship called the Holy Christian Church. And one day, this ship will dock at its final port of call, where “death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Rev. 21:4)

Never again will you have “that sinking feeling.”

Amen.

Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (July 31, 2011)

2011-08-02T15:52:00.000-07:00

“This Is Living” (Isaiah 55:1-5)

What is living? Is it sitting on a deck overlooking the ocean on a sunny day with a glass of fine wine? Is it driving on a mountain highway in a convertible sports car with the stereo system blaring your favorite music? Is it curling up by a fire with a good book and a cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter Saturday morning in a secluded Bed and Breakfast? All your cares are out of sight. All your cares are out of mind. Is that “living” to you?

What things make you say, “This is the life” or “This is living”? What would it take for you to say, “It doesn’t get much better than this”? Fine dining, fancy cars, fashionable clothes, a fantastic stereo system, festive jewelry, a well-financed retirement plan … these are things that some folks would say are necessary for “the good life.”

Well, maybe that doesn’t describe you exactly. But when we think to ourselves, “This is living,” we often limit it to what we can see, what we can taste, where we can go.

In today’s OT lesson, God’s people were in exile in Babylon. Because of their sinful disobedience to the covenant He had made with them, God sent the Babylonians into Judah and Jerusalem to destroy the temple and the city and to carry many of them off into Babylon. They were there for 70 years. At first it was hard … living in a foreign land, mourning the loss of their homes and their land and the place of worship where God had promised to meet them. Later, things got a little better. In fact, many of the exiles had put down roots. They acquired property and commercial interests. They became prosperous and secure. They began making a comfortable life for themselves there in Babylon.

But almost a hundred years before all this happened, the Lord warns the people through the prophet Isaiah, saying, “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” As they got comfortable in Babylon, they were spending their money on things that could not truly satisfy them … things that could not give them real life. They were in danger of forgetting about God. They were in danger of settling in among the Babylonians and letting the fine things they were acquiring to take their attention away from him. They were in danger of forgetting the promises God made to return them to the Promised Land, which he finally did under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Ezra and Nehemiah.

You and I are not much different than the exiles in Babylon? We strive day after day to make a comfortable life for ourselves. We work so we can have nice things. We work so we can go on vacation. We work so we can retire.

Now, of course, in and of itself, there’s nothing wrong with this picture. God is the giver of everything that we have … all the nice things we have, our leisure time, even the blessings of retirement in our “Golden Years.” But like God’s people of old, we are just as much in danger of striving for things that do not satisfy us … things that do not give us real life. We are just as much in danger of forgetting about God. We are just as much in danger of settling in here and letting the fine things we have acquired take our attention away from Him. You and I are just as much in danger of forgetting about the promises God made to bring us to the Promised Land of Heaven.

Our Lord could ask us the same things through the prophet: “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” The things of this life do not satisfy our deepest longings. The things of this life do not bring us real life.

Real life – real living – is a gift from God. Through Isaiah, the Lord invited His people in exile to receive from Him that which is spiritually satisfying. "Come,” he says. “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” At first hearing, it sounds like He is speaking of physical comforts. But we know He is speaking of spiritual comforts, because later in our text He says, “Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your SOUL may live.” This is soul-business, not stomach business. What’s more, the blessing of the Lord comes by inclining your ear, by listening carefully to what God has to say to you in his Word. You don’t have any money? No problem. It’s all free! “Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” The blessings of divine grace are obtained by God’s grace.

To emphasize this, God reminds them of His relationship with David. “I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.” The Lord had promised that they would ultimately be blessed through one of David’s descendants, who would be the Messiah.

Also, the Lord declared, “Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples.” Through the psalms and elsewhere, David testified to God’s gracious love and faithfulness. He proclaimed God’s presence and power in his life in the face of the enemies that constantly pursued him. And David was and is a witness to us through his life of repentance and faith. David wasn’t always squeaky clean. Remember the incident with Bathsheba. Lust led to adultery. Adultery led to murder. Some pretty heinous stuff. But the prophet Nathan confronted him with his sin. David acknowledged his sin and repented. The Lord forgave him, and David carried on in faith towards his gracious God.

Our Lord continues to hold out His promises of “real life, real living.” His invitation is for us today, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”

You see, real life … real living … is receiving God’s gifts of love in Christ, the Messiah promised through David, the Savior who is the fulfillment of all of God’s covenant promises.

God promised an eternal kingdom to David. David’s son Solomon was to carry on, but He was unfaithful, as were all the kings who followed him.

David’s greater Son Jesus was always faithful, and God’s faithful love remained with Him.

He has now become a witness to the peoples … a witness to us … a light to the nations. The last verse of our text is God the Father speaking to his Son, the Messiah: “You shall call a nation you did not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.” Christ’s perfect life and sacrificial death and victorious resurrection reveal to us God’s loving plan to save people from all nations from their sins and to give us real life now and real life in the life to come.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus showed his power to provide when he multiplied the fishes and loaves. 5,000 were fed. 12 baskets full were left over. There’s more than enough to go around when Jesus is involved. And there is surely more than enough forgiveness to go around. The price was paid with his own blood at the cross. Our debt to God for our sins has been taken away. Jesus paid the bill for the costly fare that we get to enjoy … not a stomach filled with fish and bread, but a soul overflowing with forgiveness and salvation.

So this is living, my friends. This is real life. Right here, gathered together around God’s Word.

“Come to the waters” … at the Font, and remember that you are God’s own beloved child, marked with the sign of the cross.

“Listen” … “Incline your ear” … “Hear” God’s Word of forgiveness to you in the absolution.

“Listen” … “Incline your ear” … “Hear” God’s Word of Law and Gospel to you from the pulpit.

“Come...and eat what is good” at the Lord’s Table, and “delight yourselves” in the “rich food” of Jesus’ true body and true blood.

All this … that “your soul may live.” It’s through these means that God saves his people. The glorified Christ gives himself to you in Word and Sacrament. Right here is the place where you find his glory, his blessings, his mercy, his love, his life.

THIS IS LIVING! IT DOESN’T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS!

Amen.

Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost (July 17, 2011)

2011-07-17T10:59:00.000-07:00

“Weeds and Wheat” (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43)

Weeds are those undesirable plants that pop up in your flowerbeds and your lawn. When you stop and think about it for a moment, though, some weeds are quite beautiful. Bright yellow dandelions. Delicate little buttercups. Pink clover sprinkled through your yard. Bold purple blossoms emerging from the prickly stem of the thistle. But no matter how pretty they are, you did not plant them. You don’t want them in your garden. They spread. They take over. Their roots intertwine with other plants. They compete for water and nutrients in the soil. They seem to grow faster than the desirable plants.

What do you do? You can spray weed killer on them. But the chemicals will land on the plants you want to keep and kill them, too.

You can do it the old fashioned way. You can pull them out by hand. That takes a bit more determination, depending on how many weeds have invaded your flowerbed. Besides, you may end up pulling out some of your other plants if the weeds are in close proximity to the plants you have cultivated.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus told a story about a man who sowed wheat in his field. At night, the man’s enemy came and sowed weeds in the very place where the man had planted his wheat. Not so evident in our English translation is the fact that these weeds are probably something called “darnel,” which looks an awful lot like wheat. But it isn’t wheat. It produces a bitter grain. It could make you ill. Like your garden with dandelions, buttercups, and thistles which you did not plant, this wheat farmer in Jesus’ parable did not plant that darnel. No matter how nice it may look, it is not wheat. It is an imposter. To avoid damaging the wheat crop, the farmer tells his workers to let the wheat and the weeds grow together until the harvest. If you prematurely try to get rid of the weeds, you may get rid of the wheat, too. At harvest time, the reapers will then separate the wheat from the weeds. The weeds will be burned in the fire. The wheat will be gathered into the barn.

Later, Jesus explains to us the meaning of the parable. He is the one who sows the good seed in the field of the world. He plows up the sinful hardness in your heart and plants the seed of faith so you can believe in him as your Savior from sin, death, and the devil. He waters you with the waters of Holy Baptism. The Holy Spirit causes your faith in Christ to grow as you continue to hear the Word of God. You are a child of the kingdom of God. You are good seed. But don’t brag about that fact. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). Remember, this goodness of which we speak does not come from yourself. You are good because of your good Savior who declares you good. He makes you grow. He makes you into a useful crop, one who gives the grain of good works in service to your neighbor. And he prepares you for a glorious harvest on the Last Day when the angels will gather you into the barn of God’s eternal dwelling place.

On the other hand, the devil is the one who sows the weeds in the field of the world. He cultivates false teachings that draw people away from salvation in Christ alone. He propagates all kinds of subtle and not-so-subtle temptations that threaten to spread and take over our lives. Like a noxious weed with a beautiful blossom, false teaching and temptation look attractive. But they are not. They are dangerous and deadly.

The devil takes people who have succumbed to his false teachings and temptations and plants them in the midst of God’s people in the Church. These “weedy” people do not believe in Christ as their Savior. They might be mistaken for those who do, like a weed that looks like wheat. They are nice. They are kind. They seem to give without expecting anything back. They volunteer to help when a need arises. They occupy a pew on Sunday morning and sing the liturgy and the hymns. They confess the creed. But deep down, they don’t believe a word of it. They are hypocrites. Mask-wearers. They pretend to be something they are not, for whatever reason … making business contacts, thinking they are earning brownie points with God, attending only because it makes their spouse happy. They do not bear the grain of true good works that are pleasing to God because they cannot. “Without faith it is impossible to please [God],” the author of Hebrews writes (Heb. 11:6). Weeds. Sons of the evil one. Destined for the eternal fire where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. An infinite agony because the infinite love of God was finally revealed to them, but they have no share in it.

Is it our place to go digging around in the field to find out who is a true believer? Jesus teaches us in the parable to let the weeds and the wheat grow together. It is often hard to distinguish the good seed from the bad. Sometimes those who appear to be bad seed deep down are faithful Christians. They struggle mightily with their sins. Their hearts are truly contrite. But outwardly, they may not appear to us to be the most pious of people. So don’t be so quick to judge someone else who has made a confession of faith in Christ. If you prematurely try to sort things out, you may end up hurting someone who is wheat while you were digging around trying to uproot a weed. Moreover, Jesus delays his harvest so that more people have the opportunity to turn from their sinful unbelief and to turn to him in repentant trust.

And let’s all admit that we have weeds that have grown up in our hearts and lives. We are not always nice and kind. We do not always give without expecting anything back. We’re not so good at loving God with all our hearts, souls, and minds and loving our neighbors as ourselves. Someone might look at the way we have acted and accuse US of being hypocrites.

But Jesus bore our “weeds” at the cross. All our thorny behaviors were placed upon the one who wore a crown of thorns for us. All our undesirable attitudes were placed upon Christ, “the desire of all nations” (Haggai 2:7).

The prophet Isaiah foretold how Jesus “grew up … like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him” (Is. 53:2). As Jesus suffered and died for us, he was treated like a weed, fit only to be plucked out of God’s garden and thrown into the fire. Having finished his work of paying the price for the sin of the world, the body of Jesus was planted like a good seed in the tomb. Three days later, the good seed blossomed, resurrected, never to die again, bearing the fruit of our salvation. And today, in the Holy Communion, Jesus places the fruit of his cross into your mouths … the wheat of his body broken for you and the wine of his blood shed for you, assuring you that you have forgiveness, life, and salvation through him.

Forgiven and given faith to trust in Jesus, you are good seed. You are a son of the kingdom. You are righteous. You have been planted by your Savior Jesus in this field called the world. Through Word and Sacrament he causes you to grow and bear fruit, serving your neighbor in love. Your works may not seem very glorious. In fact, they may seem quite mundane. They don’t get much attention from others. You may never receive any thanks for the things you do. But that’s not the real reason why you do them. You do them simply because it’s what you do as a stalk of wheat in God’s field … producing grain for the benefit of others. And one day, the angels will gather you in at the final harvest and you will shine like the sun in the kingdom of your Father.

Amen.

Sermon preached at Coram Deo - Las Vegas (Higher Things Conference)

2011-07-11T19:00:00.000-07:00

Sermon for Wednesday Matins (July 6, 2011)
“Coram Deo in God’s House” (1 Kings 8:22-30)

Where do you go to find God? Where do you go to learn about him? To find out what he really thinks about you? To find out what your status is Coram Deo … that is, “before God.”

Nature? Some people search for God in nature. The power of ocean waves. The splendor of mountain peaks. A starlit sky in the desert.

You can certainly see evidence of God in nature. After all, in Psalm 19, David sang, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Ps. 19:1). There is beauty in creation. Order. Signs of “intelligent design.” Life.

But what do you do when things become disorderly and full of death?

For those of us who live in the Pacific Northwest, what do you do when a mountain blows up in your face, like Mt. St. Helens did a number of years ago?

For those of you from California what do you do when the ground starts to shake, and buildings and overpasses begin to topple down on your head?

For those of you from the plains states and the Midwest and the South, what do you do when a tornado tears through your neighborhood and demolishes everything in sight?

And what about those people on the seacoast of Japan, whose homes and lives were swept away by a wall of water following an offshore earthquake?

Creation is not always a happy place. It’s broken. It’s fallen. If you didn’t know the whole story of Adam and Eve – how rebellion against the Creator brought death and destruction into creation – you might not like the One who created the cosmos. You might not like the God you were searching for in nature. You might find him to be capricious. Arbitrary. Unpredictable. Downright mean.

So where else might you go to find God? Where else might you go to learn about him? To find out what he really thinks of you? To know what your status is Coram Deo?

How about your heart? Some people search for God in their hearts. They base their opinions about God on their feelings, their emotions, their inclinations. They meditate in solitude, trying to listen to God’s voice speaking from within. They may feel that their heart is “strangely warmed.” They imagine that there is a “burning in their bosom.” But how do you know it’s not the burrito you ate yesterday? Or perhaps it was the Double-Double cheeseburger with grilled onions from In-N-Out.

When you look inside your heart, you might not like what you find there. Jesus knows what you’ll find there. What did he say about the heart? “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” (Matt. 15:19). Our hearts are deceptive. Your sinful nature will either cause you to deny what’s in your heart and make you think you’re okay before God. Or it will cause you to despair when you recognize the ugliness there.

Dear Christian, God does indeed dwell in your heart. “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God” (1 John 4:15). Jesus “dwell[s] in your hearts through faith” (Eph. 3:17). And Romans 8:11 says, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” Yes, the Triune God does indeed live in your heart.

But that’s not where we are directed to find him … that is, if you want to know for certain where he is, in particular where he is for you, with his grace and mercy and forgiveness.

Not nature. Not your heart. But a house! “God’s House.”

Remember when you were children in Sunday School, and you called the church building “God’s House”? Perhaps you even thought the pastor was Jesus, and that he lived there. But then you got older and you realized how silly that was. God cannot be contained in a building. Even wise King Solomon knew that. “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27).

God cannot be contained in a building. But he can certainly will to be present in a building with his grace and mercy. He willed to be present in the temple. He appeared there in a cloud. He promised to be present on the mercy seat between the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. The temple was indeed “the house of the LORD.” His Name was there. His Word was proclaimed there. He listened to the prayers of his people offered there. He forgave the sins of the people there. Wherever God’s Name is, there he is with his grace and forgiveness.

God cannot be contained in a building. But there came a day when “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). The temple in Jerusalem was replaced by the divine presence of Jesus. The temple and all its bloody sacrifices found their end in Jesus, the Lamb of God, whose bloody sacrifice on the cross is the once-for-all payment for your sins and mine.

So now where do you find God? You still find him wherever he has placed his Name.

His Name was placed upon you when water was poured over your head “in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

His Name is placed upon you each time you confess your sins, and your pastor says, “I forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

And the Crucified and Risen Jesus is truly present at every altar where he gives us his body to eat and his blood to drink.

All these things most often take place in a church building. And so, it’s not so silly after all to call it “God’s House.” Sometimes it’s elaborate and ornate. Sometimes it’s simple and plain. Sometimes it’s rather shabby and rundown. Sometimes it’s a college theatre. But if God’s Name is there, then he is truly present with his grace and mercy. Wherever God has placed his Name, that is the best place to go to know where you stand Coram Deo. You are a sinner who deserves nothing but wrath and condemnation. But Jesus suffered and died in your place. Through baptism you are united to your Savior’s death and resurrection. You bear the holy Name of the Triune God. You are a part of “God’s house of living stones, built for his own habitation.” God listens to your cries and your prayers. His eyes are open toward you night and day. And your sins are forgiven.

Amen.

Out of the Mouths of Babes #25

2011-06-29T19:00:00.000-07:00

Daughter (6) was sitting in the windowsill with the window open, watching me mow the lawn. She began to sneeze and sniffle, showing evidence of grass allergy (of which we were already aware).

Wife says, "Well, honey, if you are allergic to grass, you probably won't be able to mow the lawn when you get older and have a house of your own."

Daughter replies, "That's okay. I'll just buy a husband."

Sermon for the Second Sunday after Pentecost (June 26, 2011)

2011-06-26T11:40:00.000-07:00

"Conflict and Carrying a Cross" (Matthew 10:34-42)

Conflict is a normal part of family life. When people live in such close quarters, with their individual personalities and idiosyncrasies, their own particular wants and wishes, conflict is bound to occur. Siblings who cheerfully play with one another one moment angrily yell at each other the next. Spouses who dearly love each other also do things that irritate the dickens out of the other … leaving the toilet seat up, leaving dirty laundry all over the floor, delaying home projects, coming home late for dinner, snoring, taking too long to get ready, spending too much time on the computer. And how do we deal with these problems? We talk about them, right? Wrong! We let them go on and then expect the other person to know exactly how we feel!

But conflict does not just occur between people who live together under the same roof. It also arises with extended members of your family. In-laws, aunts, uncles, cousins, and so on. A missed birthday. A hurtful word. An unpaid loan. Time passes. Resentment builds.

Inject Christ into the mix, and this can be a real relationship killer. There are members of our families who either neglect Christ or out-and-out reject Christ. When they see that you take your connection to Christ seriously, division is bound to occur. Perhaps you are not as close with them as you used to be. Perhaps their lifestyle choices prevent them from spending as much time with you as in the past. And when you do spend time with them, there always seems to be that proverbial elephant in the room. You know you should talk to them about Jesus, but it seems so hard to start. You don’t want to make it any more difficult than it already is.

The message of Jesus brings division in our families and into all our relationships. Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.”

Now, the fact is that Jesus DID come to bring peace. When Jesus was born, the angels sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased” (Lk 2:14). “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you,” Jesus said to his disciples in his discourse at the Last Supper (John 14:27). And St. Paul, in Romans 5:1, makes clear what this “peace” is that Jesus gives: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Jesus did indeed come to bring peace …peace with God through the forgiveness of our sins, and the peace of mind and heart that comes along with knowing that our relationship with God has been restored through Jesus’ dying for our sins and his rising to life again.

At the same time, the Gospel does not always meet with success and positive results. There are those who, because of their hardened hearts, will refuse to repent and believe in Jesus. Jesus uses the imagery of a “sword.” Just as a sword causes painful, brutal, deep wounds, even killing lives, the truth of the Gospel may cause painful, brutal, deep wounds among family and friends, even killing relationships.

Nevertheless, Jesus makes it clear that there should be no question where our loyalty ought to lie. He says, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” One author has written that this “saying is either of the Messiah or of a maniac.” (Carson, quoted in Gibbs, Matthew, p539, n12) In other words, only the Incarnate God can make this kind of claim on someone. A madman might make this kind of claim. Perhaps some madmen or charlatans have over the centuries. But no madman or charlatan has ever proven their words by rising from the dead. So, when it comes to Jesus, there must be no divided loyalty. We can still love and serve our family members. But if someone should ever give us the ultimatum, “It's either me or Jesus,” then it should be clear what our answer must be.

The message of Jesus brings division. And the message of Jesus brings a cross. Jesus said, “Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Forget about what you already know about what happened to Jesus on Good Friday. Put yourself in the shoes of those who first heard these words from our Lord's mouth. This was the first time Jesus mentioned anything about a cross. It was an instrument of torture and capital punishment. This must have been shocking and confusing for the disciples. They had probably seen many processions of criminals carrying their crosses to their place of execution. Jesus implies that those who follow him could very well face a similar fate as those condemned crucified criminals. If they deny Christ, then they will “find” their life. It's given back to them. No cross for them. But at what price? A worse fate awaits those who deny Jesus. He says they are “not worthy of me.” They have lost their life … their eternal life, that is.

For successive hearers of Matthew’s Gospel, confessing faith in Jesus could mean facing a real cross. For believers in parts of the world today, a martyr's death is a daily reality for them. For us, our lives are not in danger, but we still bear the cross of strained and broken relationships.

Jesus calls us today to take up our cross and follow him. And we can only do this because Jesus first took up his cross for you and for me. He lost his life so that we might find our life in him. We lose our life now as we are baptized into his death, but in so doing, we gain our lives back, forgiven, restored, renewed, redeemed, resurrected … life as God intended it to be … and with the hope and promise of the fullness of life in the life to come.

Jesus unites himself with you as you carry the message of his cross. “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.” Jesus goes with you so that whoever receives you receives the Son of God, and whoever receives the Son receives the Father. Baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, the Triune God goes with you wherever you go, in whatever situation you find yourself in, even in the face of opposition and division.

You and I are prophets who carry the message of Jesus with us. We are righteous because we are righteous in Christ. The Church is made up of “little ones,” as Jesus calls his followers. Compared to the rest of the world, a tiny child is small, insignificant, and vulnerable. In the same way, Christ's “little ones” are small, unimportant, insignificant in the eyes of the world. We are “vulnerable” and “subject to attack” (Gibbs 545). Yet we are sent with an invaluable task … to carry with us the Good News of Jesus and to proclaim it … and sent with God himself surrounding us, supporting us, and guiding us.

Those who welcome the ones who carry the message of Jesus will not lose their reward on the Last Day … resurrection to eternal life. It’s a reward not earned, but given by grace. It’s a reward earned and guaranteed because of the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus. It’s the same reward given to all who have been baptized into Christ and who believe that Jesus died and rose for them. And when you give something as humble and simple as a cup of cold water to one of Jesus’ “little ones” … that’s a sign that you have received what was offered to you: the peace of God in Christ Jesus, peace even when faced with a sword.

Amen.

Getting Away From It All

2011-06-22T11:26:00.000-07:00

From Messiah Lutheran Church's July/August 2011 newsletter

The summer months are here. The kids are out of school. The weather is nicer (at least we hope it will be). The days are longer. It’s time to get away for a vacation. Could be a couple of weeks. Could be a couple of days. Whatever the case may be, it’s good to get away for a while. See new places. Do new things. Rest. Recharge.

Jesus knew the importance of “getting away from it all” once in a while. He often would withdraw from the press of the crowds who followed him and go into “desolate places” (e.g. Mark 1:45). At other times, a brief “cruise” on the Sea of Galilee was in order (e.g. Mark 3:7). And after the disciples returned from their first preaching mission, Jesus encouraged them to “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while” (Mark 6:31).

What did Jesus do in those “desolate places”? As True Man, he needed to rest his body. But the Scriptures also inform us that he prayed (e.g. Mark 1:35). Jesus knew that prayer was a vital part of his rest and an opportunity to express his fellowship with his Heavenly Father.

I hope you get the chance to “get away from it all” and rest a while this summer, if only for a brief time. But as you do, take time also to pray and worship. One of the joys of traveling is visiting other congregations and making connections with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in another region. Make use of the congregation locator at the LCMS website to find a church in the cities or towns where you plan to be. If you are reading this on the internet, click here to find a sister LCMS congregation. If you don’t use the internet, check in at the church office, and we can give you contact information for the churches in the areas to which you will be traveling.

Maybe it’s not possible for you to find a “desolate place” to get away. Your work responsibilities are keeping you close to home. Your finances don’t allow you to travel farther than Everett or Arlington. That’s when you need to find a “desolate place” right under your own roof … a moment or two of quiet reflection where you can read God’s Word and spend even a brief moment in prayer. If the Holy Son of God thought it necessary to “get away from it all,” how much more important it is for us weak and sinful creatures.

And don’t forget about the most important time of rest … when we gather together on Sunday mornings to rest and receive our Lord’s gifts of life and salvation in the Divine Service. Here we have a respite from all our troubles … a place to “get away from it all” (another reason why I like the word “sanctuary” for our worship space). Here all the baptized hear the precious word of forgiveness in the Gospel. Here God’s reconciled people receive the body and blood of our Savior who was sacrificed for our salvation. Here God’s redeemed receive a foretaste of the eternal rest promised us in Paradise at “the marriage feast of the Lamb in His kingdom, which has no end.”

In Christ’s service and yours,
Pastor Onken

Sermon for the Day of Pentecost (June 12, 2011)

2011-06-12T12:32:00.000-07:00

“Rivers of Living Water” (John 7:37-39)

Back when I was in college, I worked at a summer camp. One of the weeks of camp was a five-day junior high backpacking trip into the San Gorgonio Wilderness. This was in the mountains east of Los Angeles and San Bernardino. Our base camp was called “High Meadow Springs.” From there we would hike to the summit of Mt. San Gorgonio on one day, down to an ice-cold snow-pack-filled lake another day, then off to other campsites the rest of the trip.
“High Meadow Springs” was aptly named. It is definitely high, resting at an elevation a little over 10,000 feet. There is a meadow there, as green a meadow as you ever saw, steeply sloping down below the campsite. And a spring keeps the meadow verdant and lush. You can walk right up to where the water comes right out of the ground. There are some rocks, a hole, and a stream of frigid water gushing out for thirsty hikers to fill their canteens.
For four summers, we returned to that location. And each time, High Meadow Springs never let us down. Water was still flowing out. It was just as ice-cold as the last time. And the meadow was just as luxuriant. It made you wonder, “How long has this spring been flowing? And how far down below the surface is the source of this never-ending supply of fresh water?”
First-century Jerusalem had a spring that lay outside the city walls to the east. It was called the Gihon Spring. Years earlier, King Hezekiah had ordered a tunnel to be dug from the spring into the city. The tunnel is still there, in fact. For those who are adventurous and not claustrophic (that counts me out), you can walk through the tunnel which leads you on a serpentine path for a third of a mile, ending at the Pool of Siloam.
You may remember the Pool of Siloam. Jesus told a man who was born blind to wash there, and he was healed. The Pool of Siloam played a role in the feast mentioned in today’s Gospel lesson. As we learn earlier in chapter 7 of John’s Gospel, it was the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles. For seven days around September and October, pilgrims would come to Jerusalem and build makeshift shelters in city squares, on rooftops, around the temple…wherever space was found to live outside. For the duration of the festival, the participants would live in these “booths” or “Succoth” as they are called in Hebrew. This commemorated the forty years the Israelites spent in the wilderness after the Lord delivered them from their slavery in Egypt. Every day during the feast, at the time of the morning sacrifice, a priest went down to the Pool of Siloam with a golden pitcher in his hands. He would scoop up some water and take it back inside the temple courts. Then, while the bodies of the animals were laid upon the altar, the priest would mix a little wine into the container and pour the water out upon the altar. As he did so, the people would sing from Isaiah 12:3, “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”
This action was not prescribed anywhere in the Scriptures. It was one of those customs that had become attached to the liturgy of the celebrations in the temple. Its meaning is uncertain. It could have something to do with repentance, as when Samuel led the people in repentance at Mizpah, taking some water and pouring it out (1 Sam 7:6), perhaps a symbol of pouring one’s heart out to God in sorrow over sin. Or, this action could have something to do with the Holy Spirit, since the Bible frequently compares the gifts and influences of the Holy Spirit with water. Think back to Genesis 1, where it says that the “Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” Also, in Isaiah 44:3, the Lord says, “For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.”
And so you can just imagine Jesus in the temple courts watching the events of the last day of the feast. With great pomp and ceremony, the last pitcher of water was poured out upon the altar. At some point, Jesus stood up and with a loud voice said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” And then St. John explains, “Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” Jesus wanted to redirect the attention of the people … away from the sacrifices in the temple and towards himself. He had come to take the place of all those sacrifices in the temple. They were all a prelude to his once-for-all sacrifice. His glorification was about to take place. The glory for which he became incarnate – his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension – was about to be completed. The glory of his victory over sin, death, and the devil for you and for me was about to be accomplished. As soon as his work for your salvation and mine was finished, then the Holy Spirit could now be poured out in all his fullness.
It’s not as if he wasn’t present before. Look at today’s Old Testament reading. There we see the Spirit of God that was in Moses now resting on the seventy elders. So the Holy Spirit was present and active even in the saints of the Old Testament. But after the Ascension of Jesus, the Spirit was poured out in a new way.
On another festival at another time of year, called Pentecost – 50 days after Passover – Jews from all over the known world were gathered in Jerusalem. It was then that God chose to pour out the Holy Spirit upon Christ’s disciples to fulfill the words of the prophet Joel, “in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh” (Acts 2:17). Tongues of fire rested on them. They spoke in the languages of the pilgrims from other nations. And the content of their preaching was Jesus, because that is the job of the Holy Spirit … not to point to himself, but to point us to Jesus.
After his sermon, the crowd asked Peter and the disciples, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter said, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” (Acts 2:38-39)
“Repent,” Peter says, because our hearts have waters in them that are polluted. By nature, what flows from our hearts is not “living water,” water that is fresh and clean and pure. What flows from our hearts is all that comes from a source called sin, and that produces all sorts of unclean and impure thoughts and words and actions. This is not life-giving water. Like a well that is polluted or a spring that is contaminated with deadly organisms, we will never find life in our sinful hearts. If we are honest, we look into our sinful hearts and all we find is death … as St. Paul said to the Romans, “What fruit were you getting at the time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death” (Rom. 6:21). “Repent,” therefore, and come to Jesus and drink from the living water that he offers to you.
Remember how I said earlier that the Bible frequently compares the gifts and influences of the Holy Spirit with water. It’s no coincidence, then, that Peter mentions water right after he talks about repentance. “Repent and be baptized.” When water is applied to us in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we receive the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. God now graciously implants a new source flowing from within our hearts upon which we can rely. The Holy Spirit with all his graces and gifts now flows from within us. Our hearts are cleansed, and Christ’s living water flows over and through our polluted waters and flushes them out.
What about when our life seems to be waterless and dry? Sometimes it seems as if we are in a “dry spell” or a “drought.” It’s usually because we have removed ourselves from the source of our life and those channels of Word and Sacrament through which God’s living water flows into us. Returning to those means of grace, the words from Isa 58:11 apply to us, “And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.”
Year after year, we kept on returning to High Meadow Springs. It never stopped flowing and was always available to provide us hikers with refreshment. Likewise, the Holy Spirit is a never-ending source of life and refreshment for us. We can keep on returning to the precious promises God gave us in the water of our Baptism … that we are forgiven, and that we have the Holy Spirit within us who creates and nurtures our faith as we remain in God’s Word and are fed on Christ’s body and blood.
Moreover, as the water flowed from High Meadow Springs, it did more than just flow out of the ground and dry up on the soil below. It caused grass and flowers and moss and shrubs to grow. You could look down into the valley and see a long green stripe reaching all the way down into the folds of the mountainside. In the same way, like a river that produces growth along the way, the Spirit produces his fruit in us as his life flows from within us: his fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Finally, there were no limitations as to who could drink from the living water coming from High Meadow Springs. Anyone could stick their hands into the stream and drink. There was no sign or law that prohibited any ethnic group or people under a certain age. Likewise, ever since that first New Testament Pentecost, the Holy Spirit has not been limited to any one group of people, any one ethnicity, or any one office. Through water and the Word, the Holy Spirit is poured out upon Jew and Gentile, man and woman, infant and elder, prince and pauper alike.
And so we pray:
Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord,
With all Your graces now outpoured
On each believer’s mind and heart;
Your fervent love to them impart.
Lord, by the brightness of Your light
In holy faith Your Church unite;
From ev’ry land and ev’ry tongue
This to Your praise, O Lord, our God, be sung:
Alleluia, alleluia! (LSB 497.1)

Amen.

Sermon for the Seventh Sunday of Easter (June 5, 2011)

2011-06-05T12:13:00.000-07:00

“Your Lot in Life” (Acts 1:12-26)

Many years ago there was no such thing as social mobility. If your family was poor, you were always going to be poor. There was no chance of ever changing your economic status. Poverty was your lot in life.

If your father was a farmer, you were going to grow up to be a farmer. Move to the big city? Attend university? Fulfill your dreams of being a lawyer? An engineer? A writer? Not a chance. Farming was your lot in life.

And if you were a girl, there were no opportunities for you. Your place was in the home … “barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen” as the old saying goes. This was your lot in life.

Nevertheless, in our day and age, we do have more options. People can change their economic status. You can move to a place where there are better paying jobs. Young men are not limited to the occupations of their fathers. Young women are able to go to college if they wish, or stay home, as the case may be … not to simply be “barefoot and pregnant,” but to pursue the holy vocation of motherhood. Even older people are now able to go to college and pursue a different vocation if their current one does not interest them. It still takes a lot of hard work. But it can happen.

Nevertheless, in certain communities today, the idea still prevails that you can’t escape your destiny. When I was teaching at a public high school in Southern California, I had some Hispanic gang members in my class. There weren’t all that talkative. But when I could get them to talk, I learned that for most of them, their parents had been in gangs, too. It was their lot in life, they figured. Their fate. Their destiny.

Questions about eternal destiny arise when we hear about the case of Judas. What was Judas’ lot in life? Did God choose Judas specifically to be the one to betray Jesus? Was Judas just a helpless pawn in God’s plan to ultimately save the world through Jesus?

The fact is that Judas’ lot in life was as one of Jesus’ apostles. In his address to the 120 believers following the Ascension of Jesus, Peter said of Judas that “he was numbered among us and allotted his share in this ministry.” Judas was chosen by Jesus. He was given a place in the apostolic band.

But Judas rejected God’s will for himself. God’s will was for Judas to be one of the apostles. God’s will is that all men would be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4). But some reject that will, harden their hearts against that will, and God in his eternal wisdom permits them to do so. He does not force himself on anyone. At the same time, it is all God’s doing when someone comes to faith in Jesus. Being spiritually dead, it is impossible for someone to assert that they had any choice in the matter.

And so, Judas’ final lot in life became one of his own choosing. He abandoned his office. He “turned aside” from the “ministry and apostleship” of Jesus “to go to his own place” (Acts 1:25). That’s probably a nice way of saying that he went to hell. And Luke’s graphic description of our Lord’s betrayer’s messy death does not compare to the agony of that place where he went for his unrepentant heart.

Daily, we are tempted to abandon the offices which we hold … father, mother, spouse, son, daughter, employee, student, neighbor, Christian. When we neglect or run away from our God-given responsibilities in our callings, we have sinned. When we act unloving toward our spouse, when we lie to our parents, when we refuse to help those who need our compassion and care, when other activities take precedence over hearing the Word of God, then we have abandoned the offices in which we have been placed. And if we continue to do so without repenting, then our destiny will be the same as Judas.

On the other hand, not once did Jesus ever entertain the thought of abandoning his office. God the Father sent his Son into the flesh in the office of the Messiah. His lot in life was death, a death for you and for me, shedding his blood as the price for the sins of the world. The Roman soldiers did their duty, driving nails through his hands and his feet. Unwittingly, they were only helping to put the Savior at his post. And like a faithful soldier, Jesus stayed at his post until he breathed his last breath, finishing his duty of earning forgiveness and salvation for all who are baptized in his Name and who trust in him as Savior from sin, death, and hell.

Three days later, the stone of his tomb was rolled away. The guards placed there trembled in fear and abandoned their post. Angels now stood guard and announced the resurrection of Jesus to the women who came, expecting to finish the burial process. Instead, they heard the news that “He is not here, but has risen” (Luke 24:6).

Forty days later, he ascended into heaven. Now he is at his rightful place at the right hand of the Father, the position of all power and authority in the universe. He rules and reigns for the good of his Church. Nothing is out of his control. No one is out of his sight. His visible presence is removed from the world. But he is still present with us everywhere, including in bread and wine where he gives us his body to eat and his blood to drink in his Holy Supper.

Following the Ascension of our Lord, the disciples knew that they had to fill the vacant position among the apostles. There had to be twelve. They were to take the place of the twelve tribes of Israel … twelve apostles as eyewitnesses of Jesus resurrection, the fulfillment of all the promises to the people of Israel and the Savior of all people, both Jew and Gentile alike.

Two equally qualified candidates were set forth. They had to have been among the followers of Jesus from the time of John the Baptist until the Ascension, and they had to be eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus. Prayers were offered to God to seek his will. Lots were cast. We’re not sure exactly how they did this. One commentator states that one common way was to write the names of people on stones or pieces of wood, put them in a vase, and pull one out. In whatever way it was done, the lot fell to Matthias, and he was numbered among the Apostles. As far as they were concerned, this was the Lord’s choice.

As a side note, this does not necessarily endorse casting lots to determine God’s will. That just happened to be the way they were accustomed to doing it at that time. It was not seen to be a game of chance. Even so, note how the two candidates were still carefully evaluated according to their qualifications, prayers to God were offered, and the concern for this being Christ’s choice was foremost. Today, for example, when churches choose pastors, it’s done by a vote of the assembly, not by throwing dice or drawing straws. When the church elects their pastor and he accepts that call, then we say that it is truly the Holy Spirit who has done the choosing and the calling

So where has your “lot” fallen? What is your “lot in life”? No matter how you may feel about your earthly circumstances – stuck in a dead-end job, mired in poverty, beset by loneliness, wracked with pain – there is a heavenly reality beyond all of this. As God’s child, your lot in life is sharing in the life of Christ, who died and rose for you. And this is certainly not by chance. God has deliberately, lovingly, graciously chosen you. Through water and the Word, the Holy Spirit has called you to faith and gives you a share in the Body of Christ. You are marked with Christ’s name in Baptism. Your sins are forgiven. You are given a place at his table.

One last thing before I close. This account in our text today took place in the days between Ascension and Pentecost. The disciples were obeying Jesus’ command to wait for the Holy Spirit to be poured out upon them, which happened ten days after the Ascension. What were they doing while they were waiting? St. Luke describes it this way: “All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer.”

“With one accord.” Unified around their common faith in Jesus. Speaking with one voice the truth of Jesus. Living together in God’s mercy and forgiveness and forgiving one another. That’s what Jesus prayed for when he said, “Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” (John 17:11)

“With one accord” … “devoting themselves to prayer.” Setting aside time to pray with each other, to listen to God’s Word and be taught by it, and to respond to that Word in worship and praise.

Now, you and I wait in the “in-between time” between Pentecost and the Parousia (that’s just a fancy Greek word for the second coming of Jesus). The angel at Jesus’ Ascension said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).

Filled with the Spirit that has fallen upon each one of us in the Church, we wait in this “in-between” time … with one accord, devoting ourselves to prayer. This is our lot in life … our share in the life of our risen and ascended Savior Jesus.

Amen.

Sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter (May 29, 2011)

2011-05-29T11:24:00.000-07:00

“Witnessing to ‘Religious’ People” (Acts 17:16-31)

Everyone is religious about something. In a very general way, to be religious means to be wholeheartedly devoted to something. Some people are religious about sports. Some people are religious about fishing. Others are religious about certain styles of music.

More specifically, being religious usually deals with matters about God or other deities or higher powers that people suppose are out there. According to the American-Heritage dictionary, religion is defined as “Belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe.”
For some time now, it seems as though some Christians have not liked to call themselves “religious.” They think that the word carries a negative connotation. Perhaps this is a leftover attitude from the 60’s … not wanting to have anything to do with institutions, and that includes the institution of the organized church. Some of you may have heard the phrase, “I’m spiritual, but not religious.” Or perhaps you’ve heard this one: “I’m not religious … I just love the Lord!”

Well, if you love the Lord, then I suppose that means you are religious, according to our definition: “Belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe.” There’s nothing wrong with being religious. The main point is you have to be religious about the right thing.
Last week’s reading from the book of Acts introduced St. Paul to us … before he became a Christian. We heard how he was present at the stoning of Stephen. Two chapters later, the Risen Jesus appears to Paul on the road to Damascus, where Paul was heading to arrest more Christians. Paul’s heart is turned from unbelief to belief in Jesus as Savior. He sets out on his famous missionary journeys. It’s on his second missionary journey where he travels to Greece and the great city of Athens, the cradle of western civilization, the home of great thinkers and philosophers such as Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle.

In today’s reading, Paul commends the Athenians for being religious. At the same time he was distressed over their idolatry. In verse 16, Luke writes that Paul’s “spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.” After speaking to the Jews in the synagogue, some of the Greeks took Paul to the Areopagus, the city council which bore the name of the rocky outcropping where it met (in English “Mars Hill”). It was the job of the Areopagus to investigate anyone who was teaching something new.

Behind Mars Hill, a higher hill called the Acropolis rose sharply. On that hill were temples dedicated to gods and goddesses such as Athena, Zeus, Nike, and Poseidon. Paul took this opportunity to witness to these religious people before him. You can imagine Paul pointing to the Acropolis and its temples and saying, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. Then, Paul proceeded to tell them about the true God – one not “formed by the art and imagination of man.” He told them about the Judge of the Universe whom God raised from the dead. He called the Athenians to repent of their idolatry and escape God’s judgment over their unbelief.

What about us? Would Paul be distressed over our idolatry today? What images would he point to in our world today and say, “I perceive that in every way you are very religious.” Would he point to the television? Would he point to billboards and advertisements? Would he point to our wallets and purses? We have no temples dedicated to the goddess Nike, but some of us spend an awful lot of money wearing things made by Nike. Would he point to our computers and smartphones and other technological wonders that make us think we are superior to those who have gone before us? We, too, must repent of our idolatry to things “formed by the art and imagination of men” … not made of gold or silver or stone like in Athens, but made of steel, fiberglass, plastic, fabric, or green paper with pictures of dead presidents.

Yes, we are all “religious” about something. In our text, we see Paul witnessing to “religious” people. He used this characteristic of “being religious” to turn the people of Athens away from their gods of silver and gold and stone and to turn them to the True God.

Paul noted that he saw an altar dedicated to “the unknown god.” Amidst all the other altars and statues, this one was probably set up so that some god they may have forgotten about would not be offended. Paul points this out and says, “This God you know nothing about … I’m going to tell you about him right now. Here’s the true God.”

The True God is not confined to one place or region, like some of the Greek gods … or like anything to which we look for our ultimate good, which was Luther’s definition of a god. The true God is the Lord of heaven and earth, as Isaiah describes him, “the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it.” (Is. 42:5) Nor should we think of him as just living in a building. When King Solomon dedicated the temple in Jerusalem, he prayed, “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!” (1 Kg. 8:27)

God is not confined to any particular place. Yet our gracious God has promised to meet us in particular places. Under the Old Covenant, God promised that His presence would dwell in the Most Holy Place in the tabernacle, right above the Ark of the Covenant. In the New Covenant, God dwells with us in the flesh of Jesus of Nazareth. He promised, “where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” (Matt. 18:20) What’s more, Jesus meets us at the altar, where he gives us his very body to eat and his very blood to drink in the Holy Supper.

Our God doesn’t need our worship. However, in creating and ruling the world, the true God – unknown to the people of Athens (and so many others today) – the true God wants his creation to seek him and to know him, as St. Paul said, “he is actually not far from each of us.” Paul even quotes two of Greek’s own poets, “In him we live and move and have our being’ and “For we are indeed his offspring.”

This was St. Paul’s way of witnessing to “religious” people. What about us? How can we witness to “religious” people? We run into them all the time. They are in our neighborhoods. They work in the office right next to us. We eat lunch with them every day in the school cafeteria.

Start with the known. Find something in their life that they know about, some way in which you can make a connection with them. That’s what St. Paul did. He pointed out to the people of Athens that they were very religious and talked about all their objects of worship. He quoted from sources they knew. Jesus often did this, too. He asked the woman at the well for a drink of water. He told stories about farming and fishing, things that his hearers were familiar with.

Start with the known. Then move to the “unknown.” Once you have made a connection with someone, use that connection to introduce them to things they may be unfamiliar with. Again, St. Paul started with the “known” and moved to the “unknown” to make the true God known.

We can do the very same thing. We can introduce people to the living God. All other gods are dead. All other religious leaders of the past are dead. Their bones remain in the ground. But the tomb of Jesus is empty. He is alive forever. He is the True, Living God.

Our religion is much more than a religion … it’s a relationship. Religion is about man reaching out to God by their own efforts. Christianity is about God reaching out to man, so that man doesn’t have to look very far to find him. He walked and talked with Adam and Eve in the Garden. He visited Abraham and promised him a son … and that all nations would be blessed through him. He rescued the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt, leading them in a pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night. He caused His very presence to dwell in the Most Holy Place in the tabernacle and later in the temple. The Son of God became incarnate, in the flesh, in the manger of Bethlehem, and once again walked and talked among us.

We need to remember this, too. “He is actually not far from each of us.” When our spiritual life becomes dry and stale … it’s not God who moved. It’s we who have removed ourselves from the life-giving Word and Sacraments and begin to rely on our own strength. Instead, return to your Living Lord … to the Risen Lord Jesus. He is not far from each of us.

In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus anticipates his ascension, which we celebrate on Thursday of this week. Since Christ’s ascension we no longer have his visible presence with us here, but he still promises his ongoing presence and the sending of the Holy Spirit. “I will ask the Father, and he will you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth,” Jesus promised. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you … I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” (John 14:16-18, 20)

Jesus has brought you into a relationship with him in the waters of Baptism. He reaches out to you today with His forgiving love. He invites you to dine with him often, receiving His very own body and blood. He continues to offer himself to you most intimately in his Holy Supper.

As a faithful response to our Lord’s giving and forgiving love, He calls you to participate in what the Apostle James calls “true religion.” James 1:27 says, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

We can put our religion into practice only because of the loving relationship which the Living God has established with us. The love that he has poured out into our hearts we can show by abiding in His Word and showing His love to those who need our help … to those who may be religious, but who still need to know the “Unknown God” who has made himself known in the Risen Savior Jesus.

Amen.

Learning a New Setting of the Divine Service

2011-05-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

From Messiah Lutheran Church's June newsletter

During the summer months, our congregation will learn a new musical setting of the Divine Service in Lutheran Service Book. Our congregation already knows Divine Service 1 very well. We also know Divine Service 3 (especially those of us who have been Lutherans for a very long time). Setting 4 has become a favorite, too, ever since it was introduced in Hymnal Supplement ’98. Once in a while, we will also use Divine Service 5 with some modifications. But most of us may have never learned Divine Service 2.

Why learn a new musical setting? Some people may feel that it’s unnecessary, even overwhelming, since we already know four settings (not to mention Matins, Vespers, and Evening Prayer which we use at other times). But there are other congregations around our synod that use Setting 2 as their primary setting of the Divine Service. You may happen to visit them when you are on vacation. Or suppose you move to a different part of the country, and you transfer to another congregation that uses Setting 2. It would be helpful to have at least a minimal familiarity with this particular musical setting so that you can join in worship with a certain measure of comfort.

Setting 2 will already be partially familiar to us. The text of this setting is identical to Setting 1. However, the music of Setting 2 will be new to most of us (unless you learned it in a previous congregation, as I did; two churches of which I was a member in California used it as their primary setting). Both Setting 1 and Setting 2 of the Divine Service were written in the 1970’s when the LCMS and the predecessor bodies of the ELCA were jointly working on a new hymnal. The LCMS eventually withdrew from the joint project and produced its own hymnal, Lutheran Worship, in 1982 (the blue hymnal which was replaced by Lutheran Service Book in 2006). Both new musical settings were included in the publication. They retained their popularity and were therefore included in our current hymnal. Prior to that, the only musical setting that was familiar to LCMS congregations was what we know now as Setting 3 (contained in The Lutheran Hymnal of 1941 and even earlier in the Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book of 1912, the first official English language hymnal of the Missouri Synod).

As we learn Setting 2, you will find some challenging sections to be sure. For the most part, you will find it very singable. I have full confidence in our ability to learn it together. You are a very musically talented congregation. You love to sing (one of the things I love about you!). You have learned many new hymns over the years. Eventually, perhaps we will be able to say that we have learned all of the musical treasures that are a part of our hymnal.

In Christ’s Service and yours,
Pastor Onken

P.S. For further reading on the history of hymnals in the LCMS, here are few links for you…

Sing to the Lord a New Song: A Brief History of Our LCMS Hymnals

A Brief History of LCMS Hymnals

A Brief History of Hymnals in the LCMS

Or, if you are really ambitious, here are some books you may be interested in…

God’s Song in a New Land (Carl Schalk)

Gathered Guests: A Guide to Worship in the Lutheran Church (Timothy Maschke)

Lutheran Worship: History and Practice (ed. Fred Precht) (also available in our church library)

Sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Easter (May 22, 2011)

2011-05-22T11:00:00.000-07:00

Text: Acts 6:1-9; 7:2a, 51-60

During these Sundays of Easter, we have been contemplating the readings from the book of the Acts of the Apostles assigned in the lectionary. In these readings, we learn how the first Christians responded to the news of the resurrection of Jesus. The Acts of the Apostles, you may remember, is not so much about the Apostles as it is about the ongoing life of the Risen Jesus in his Church.

Having said that, in today’s reading Jesus makes only his second appearance in the book. The first appearance is when he was with the disciples on the mountain at his Ascension. The second appearance is at the stoning of Stephen, where Stephen sees Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father in glory. But even though he makes few personal, public appearances, it doesn’t mean he isn’t present and active. He is very much present and active, empowering his Church with forgiveness and grace. He sends the Holy Spirit upon the Church to empower us in our life of faith and witness. You see, the story of the book of Acts continues down to our present day and will continue until Jesus returns to take us to be with him in the place he has prepared for us … which, as you well know by now, was not yesterday as was predicted by a certain California prophet. (Why does all the weird stuff seem to come out of California?) As we read these accounts from the book of Acts, then, I’ve been asking you to see yourself in the story … to see how the events recorded for us can teach us about our life together as the Church in this place, and to know that the Risen Jesus is among us today, gathering us around his Word and Sacraments, sending the Holy Spirit upon us to empower our life of faith and witness.

Last week’s reading from Acts chapter 2 told us about the unity and intimate fellowship the early Christians shared. They were united around a common confession of faith. They devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching. They gathered around the table of the Lord and ate and drank the body and blood of Christ together. They prayed together. They sold their possessions in order to support those among them who were in need.

The sinful nature being what it is, you knew this couldn’t last very long. Disharmony soon reared its ugly head. What was the problem? Two factions within the Church were at odds. The Hellenists were Jews who were heavily influenced by Greek culture. The Hebrews were Jews who had not allowed themselves to be “tainted” – as they saw it – by the pagan Greek culture and language. When people from among these groups converted to Christianity, the old conflicts remained. And so, when the Hellenists saw that the Hebrew widows were being favored in the daily distribution of support, they felt slighted and neglected.

You can just imagine the scene. Jealousy was inflamed. Accusations of favoritism circulated. Gossip ruled the day. Even before the complaints reached the ears of the apostles, words like these may have been heard behind the scenes: “Who do they think they are? Our people are just as valuable as they are! Don’t you think it’s just awful the way our women are being treated? We ought to do something about this!” We don’t know the exact character of their complaints, so I don’t want to put words in people’s mouths. But similar situations have arisen in congregations all across the centuries. You can be certain that the pot was stirred up and feelings were hurt.

And so, a “church council” meeting was called. The apostles explained that it wouldn’t be right for them to give up preaching in order to “wait on tables,” as they put it. The gathered believers listened to and accepted the apostle’s creative solution so they could continue to devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word. The first auxiliary office to the pastoral office was established. Seven men were appointed as deacons who were to specifically care for the physical welfare of the members of the local gathering of believers. The word for deacon comes from the Greek word diakonia, which can mean “service” or “ministry.” That’s the word used in President Harrison’s emphasis for our church body, although there it is translated as “mercy,” reflecting the acts of mercy that are done in service to those who need our care. We have a deacon in our midst. His role is a little different than that of those first deacons, but it is similar in the way he serves to support the pastoral ministry God has established in this place, even as all auxiliary offices support the ministry … for example Sunday School teachers, elders, and Directors of Christian Education, just to name a few.

After the deacons were installed, the Word of God continued to increase. Living stones were being built up into a spiritual house (1 Pet. 2:5). The number of disciples in Jerusalem multiplied. Many priests who served in the temple came to believe in Jesus as the Messiah. In word and deed they witnessed to the life of Jesus in his Church. Our Lord’s words ring true where he said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). Pure doctrinal statements and confessions, as important and necessary as they are, will sound like only a clanging gong coming from our mouths if we do not also show love to each other (1 Cor. 13:1).

From disharmony within the church we move to a dispute with those outside the church. One of the deacons who was chosen, Stephen, became involved in a dispute with several groups of Jews over the identity and message of Jesus of Nazareth. Steven proceeds to speak to them and recounts the history of the people of Israel. In Acts chapter 7, Steven starts with Abraham, then moves quickly to Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, the Israelite slavery in Egypt, Moses, the Golden Calf episode at Mt. Sinai, all the way down to David and Solomon. In the end, Stephen compares his hearers to the stubborn unbelievers among the people of Israel over the centuries. “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered.” (Act 7:51-52)

“Uncircumcised in heart and ears.” What an insult to a Jew that would have been! In other words, Steven is saying, “You who cling to your bloodline and physical marks of the covenant … because of your unbelief, you are no better than an unbelieving Gentile! Moreover, you killed the Messiah for whom you were waiting!”

What was their response? Filled with rage, they ground their teeth. Then Steven, filled with the Holy Spirit, was granted a glorious vision of heaven. He said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” At this, his opponents cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and rushed at him. I imagine them doing this like a child might do when they refuse to listen (cover ears and say “la la la la la!”). They stoned Stephen to death, and we are also introduced for the first time to Saul, who was personally overseeing this gruesome sight. Saul, the great persecutor of the Church, later on in the book of Acts becomes Paul, the great missionary and defender of the Christian faith after his own encounter with the Risen Jesus.

At times, you and I can be pretty stubborn and stiff-necked, too. When does it get to the point when you and I are actively resisting the Holy Spirit? I’m not sure I can pinpoint an exact time when that happens in each of your hearts. However, we live in dangerous territory when we refuse to forgive a fellow brother or sister in Christ, when our conscience is less and less bothered by particular sins, when we have pulled ourselves away from the Word of God whereby the Holy Spirit acts upon us to convict us of our sin and to point us to Christ who takes away our sin.

But we have a Savior who bent his neck under the heavy load of the cross. In the darkness and gloom of Good Friday, he bore our sin and paid our debt to God with his shed blood. While he hung there, feeling alone, abandoned, forsaken, he continued to trust in his Heavenly Father, enough to say in his dying moments, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46). And earlier, he was able to look out upon the very ones who had nailed him to the cross and say, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

Did you notice the parallels between our Lord’s death and Stephen’s? With the heavens opened, seeing the Lord Jesus at the right hand of God, Steven commended himself into the Lord’s hands and forgave his enemies. While rocks pelted his body, bruising his flesh, shattering his bones, crushing his skull, Steven cried out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” He was able to look out upon the ones who were hurling the stones at him and say, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Filled with the Holy Spirit, the Risen Jesus was present and active in Stephen so that his dying words matched our Lord’s words from the cross.

Heaven has been opened to us, too. A place has been prepared for us. We don’t get to see a glorious vision … not yet anyway. But heaven is still opened to us in the waters of Baptism, in the word of Absolution, and when we break bread together at the Lord’s Table. The Risen Jesus stands and serves us with heavenly gifts, his body and his blood. The Holy Spirit loosens our sinfully stiff necks, turns our gaze from the allure of the world, and turns our gaze to God in repentant trust. Now, no matter what “stones” are thrown at you – hurtful words, cold shoulders, challenging circumstances – you can commend yourself to the Lord. Because Jesus took your sins with him to the cross, you can know that your sins are not held against you. And now, you are free to forgive those who have offended you. There is no need for you to hold their sins against them.

Amen.

Out of the Mouths of Babes #24

2011-05-19T10:59:00.000-07:00

During preschool chapel at church this morning, one student said to me, "Pastor, did you know everyone likes you?"

That was very sweet. But I'm sure I've made a few enemies along the way.

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Easter (May 15, 2011)

2011-05-15T10:41:00.000-07:00

“Jesus Lives … Now What? – Part 2” (Acts 2:42-47)

Last week’s sermon began with a question: JESUS LIVES … NOW WHAT? Our reading from the Acts of the Apostles helped us answer that question. Fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus, Peter preached to the crowd gathered for the festival of Pentecost that they had killed the one who was the promised Messiah, who now was risen from the dead. In response to this, the people asked, “Brothers, what shall we do?” In other words, “Jesus lives … now what?” Peter answered, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” That’s exactly what happened. Three thousand people were baptized and were added to God’s Kingdom that day.

For us who already are baptized, the question “Jesus lives … now what?” is answered a bit differently. Daily we turn from our sin and turn to the Lord who paid for our sins at the cross. Each new day, we remember who we are as God’s baptized, beloved children. Each new day, we return to the promises that God once bestowed upon us in baptism and still gives us in His word of absolution. Each new day we renounce the devil and all his works and all his ways. In the power of the Holy Spirit, each new day we return in trust to our Redeemer. Every time we hear the Good News of Jesus, every time we hear that our sins are forgiven, it’s as if we are brought right back to the font and washed clean once again by the one who first called us to himself when we were baptized.

But the answer to the question “Jesus lives … now what?” also affects the way we live together as God’s people, the Church. So today’s sermon is really a continuation of last week. This is “Jesus lives … now what? – Part 2.”

After Peter’s sermon and the response of the three thousand who repented and were baptized, the Church did not stop asking the question “Jesus lives … now what?” The Church kept on responding to the message of the death and resurrection of Jesus. The last paragraph of today’s text tells us of the church’s response. This is also our ongoing response to the Good News of Christ crucified and risen:

And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

JESUS LIVES, and we respond by devoting ourselves to the apostles’ teaching. For the first Christians in Jerusalem, they heard for themselves from the very mouths of the apostles. And what the apostles had heard was directly from Christ. Their word was the Word of God. Today, we devote ourselves to the apostle’s teaching when we devote ourselves to hearing and studying God’s Word. The creeds and confessions of the church are expositions of that apostolic teaching, and so it is good for us to study them, too. We don’t invent new doctrines. Rather, we believe, teach, and confess only what the church has taught over the centuries as being the apostolic teaching.

JESUS LIVES, and we respond by devoting ourselves to the fellowship. Note how the text does not say “they devoted themselves to fellowship” but rather “to THE fellowship.” This indicates that fellowship is more than just potlucks and pinochle. Fellowship is primarily doctrinal. When we remain faithful to the apostles’ teaching, this preserves our fellowship. We are united with one voice in what we believe, teach, and confess. This is pleasing to God, as Paul urges in 1 Corinthians 1, “I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.” (1 Cor. 1:10)

Another way of translating “the fellowship” here is “communion” or “sharing something in common.” We are united in a common faith and love toward our Lord and toward each other. We are united in prayer as we bring our common petitions before the Lord’s throne of grace. This fellowship or communion finds its fulfillment in “the breaking of bread,” which is another way of speaking about “the Holy Communion” … the Lord’s Supper. Here, we share most intimately our fellowship with Jesus and with one another. Here, at the Lord’s table, we kneel together in a common confession of faith. Here, at the table we kneel together to receive in common our Lord’s true body and true blood. That is true fellowship.

Now, I said fellowship is primarily doctrinal, but I don’t want to deny that fellowship is secondarily social. Potlucks and pinochle and coffee and cookies and retreats and birthday dinners with goofy games are important. It is good to get to know our Christian brothers and sisters in our own congregation. In so doing, we will better learn how to serve them and love them. You’d be surprised how much you can learn about someone just by sitting across the table from them at a potluck.

JESUS LIVES, and we are filled with awe. The text says of the first Christians that “awe came upon every soul.” They were filled with awe. They had a holy reverence. They acknowledged the presence of the risen Christ among them. Also, when the apostles were alive, they did many wonders and miraculous signs. These were their badges of authority, you might say. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:12 that they are the things that mark an apostle.

We don’t get to see those spectacular signs and wonders among us today. But the presence of the risen Christ is still among us. And His signs and wonders are still done, although in more subdued ways, such as in Baptism and in the Lord’s Supper. These are still miracles just as much as the healings and speaking in other languages that the apostles did. And so we, too, can come into worship with a holy reverence and be filled with awe. And we can leave in awe, knowing that we have been in the presence of the Risen Christ. His presence goes with us. He cares for us as our Good Shepherd.

JESUS LIVES, and therefore we share lovingly with each other and especially with those in need. The text says, “And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.” Now this, of course, does not mean that we are to live like communists. The early Christians still owned their own goods and property. But they certainly acknowledged the use and benefits of their possessions for the common good. For us, the point lies in our willingness to share with those who need our help, especially those who are of our own household of faith. God has given us our possessions to be a blessing to others. Jesus was willing to give up His own life for us, and this motivates us to give to others. In comparison to His sacrifice, it is a small thing to feed those who are hungry, to support those who are ill, and to clothe those who are without adequate clothing.

The early church responded this way to the Good News about Jesus, and the Lord blessed them. St. Luke writes, “And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

Our Lord does the same for us. When we hear and receive the message of the forgiveness of sins through Christ’s death on the cross, when we acknowledge that He is risen indeed and is even among us now, when we come before Him with awe and reverence, He blesses us with glad and generous hearts. We share his blessings together here in this house. We share his blessings together in our homes. We tell the Good News about Jesus, and the Lord will adds to our number those who are being saved, for He promises that His word will not return void, but will go out and achieve the purposes for which He sent it.

Amen.

Sermon for the 3rd Sunday of Easter (May 8, 2011)

2011-05-08T12:41:00.000-07:00

“Jesus Lives … Now What?” (Acts 2:36-41)

Have you ever had the post-Easter “blahs”? Have you ever felt a bit of a letdown the week or two after Easter? Lent was so meaningful. Then Holy Week was the highlight of the Lenten season. The services of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday were emotionally draining because of the deep, rich, and moving themes and accounts of our Lord’s betrayal, arrest, suffering, and death. Then came the Vigil of Easter, the Saturday night preview of Easter, followed by the celebration of the Resurrection of our Lord on Sunday morning. The refrain “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!” is heard. The word “Alleluia,” buried on Transfiguration Sunday, returns and is sung over and over again in the Easter liturgy. Joyful Easter hymns fill the church with their rousing music and meaningful texts.

But then, Monday comes. You woke up in the morning. You remembered that you are God’s baptized child. You made the sign of the cross and said those baptismal words, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” You remembered that every day is resurrection day. You are united with Christ in his death and resurrection. You have new life in Christ. All this came to mind. Still, things weren’t very different in your heart or in your life.

Two Sundays into another Easter season, the question we are all inclined to ask is: JESUS LIVES … NOW WHAT? Our reading from the Acts of the Apostles this week and next week will help us answer that question. This morning we heard the conclusion of a sermon Peter preached and the immediate response of the people. Next week, we will hear about the Church’s response to what they now knew about the Risen Jesus and the Lord’s blessing upon the Church.

First, we want to focus on the conclusion of Peter’s sermon. He preached it in Jerusalem fifty days after Jesus rose from the dead, ten days after Jesus had ascended into heaven. Jews and converts to Judaism from all over were gathered together in Jerusalem. It was the Festival of Pentecost, a celebration of the harvest and God’s blessing upon the land which was promised to Abraham and his descendants. In this message to the crowds gathered for the festival, Peter proclaimed the death and resurrection of Jesus. He explained how Jesus is truly the Messiah they were looking for, the King whom God had promised would reign on the throne of David forever. When Jesus rose from the dead, God fulfilled His promise. And then, Peter concludes with these words:

“Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. (Acts 2:36-41)

As he concludes his sermon in today’s text, note how Peter does not mince any words. He wraps things up by saying, “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

The crowd’s response is similar to the question under consideration: JESUS LIVES … NOW WHAT? St. Luke writes that they were cut to the heart. They realized their part in the crucifixion of Jesus. They had rejected and killed the promised Savior. Since he is now alive, what else must he but their judge? And so they cried out to the Apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” JESUS LIVES … NOW WHAT?

If you’ve ever had to have a major surgery, you know how helpless you are after you come out of the operating room. You are still under the effects of anesthesia. You are groggy. Lethargic. Not quite sure where you are. Depending on the severity of your procedure, you may have to be in the intensive care unit for a while, with a tube in your throat doing the breathing for you. Weak, helpless, unable to care for yourself, you are completely reliant on nurses and aides and family members for all your physical needs. And you can forget about having any privacy or dignity. That’s completely out the window. That was all taken away from you the moment you had to strip off all your clothes and put on one of those gowns that never quite close properly in the back. There’s nothing like a surgery and a stay in the hospital to leave you feeling exposed and vulnerable.

Likewise, God’s Word has a way of doing its own special kind of surgery. It’s heart surgery, to be sure … not performed on the heart that pumps blood, but performed on the heart which is the seat of our thoughts, our desires, our passions, our affections. Hebrews 4:12 says that God’s Word is “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” Have you ever been cut to the heart by God’s Word? Have you ever felt as if you were naked and ashamed because some sin in your life was uncovered? Has God’s Word ever left you feeling exposed and vulnerable?

Peter blamed the crucifixion of Jesus on the crowd gathered to hear him. That’s a bit unfair, isn’t it? Many of those folks weren’t even there that day when Jesus died. But it was still their sin that sent Jesus to the cross. And so Peter’s words are directed to us, too. We all crucified Jesus. We are exposed. Our rebellion against the holy God has been uncovered. “What shall we do?” Listen to Peter’s answer. His reply to the crowd is for us, today, as well: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Your life has been headed in the opposite direction to where God wants you to go. Turn around and face him. Turn around and face the cross. Admit that you are a sinner, for Christ died to save sinners. Renounce the devil and all his works and all his ways. Turn back to your Creator who became part of his own creation to redeem you. In Baptism, all that the Incarnate Christ accomplished for you is credited to you. Your sins were buried with him in the tomb. When the stone was rolled away, you rose to new life, too. And this is for every one of you. Young. Old. Man. Woman. Infant. The Bible places no age limits on the gifts given in Baptism. All are sinners. All need what Baptism gives. “For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And Peter frankly declares, “Baptism … now saves you” (1 Peter 3:21). It saves you because it connects you personally to Christ’s saving work at the cross where he died for the sins of the world. It saves you because the Holy Spirit comes to you through water and the Word and instills faith in your heart which trusts in Jesus as Lord and Savior, the one who died for your sins.

God’s Word from the mouth of Peter did its work. Three thousand people were baptized and added to God’s kingdom. They returned to their homes and presumably began to proclaim Jesus as risen from the dead and the Savior from sin and death. For most of us here, we have already been baptized. So is there no more need, then, to repent? “Repent and be baptized,” Peter said.

“Okay,” we reply. “Been there … done that.”

That’s a wrong view of repentance and baptism. Baptism is certainly a once in a lifetime thing. But repentance is daily. Repentance is lifelong. Repentance is a lifestyle. The answer to JESUS LIVES … NOW WHAT? is to daily turn from our sin and turn to the Lord who paid for our sins at the cross. Each new day, we remember who we are as God’s baptized, beloved children. Each new day, we return to the promises that God once bestowed upon us in baptism and still gives us in His word of absolution. Each new day we renounce the devil and all his works and all his ways. In the power of the Holy Spirit, each new day we return in trust to our Redeemer. Every time we hear the Good News of Jesus, every time we hear that our sins are forgiven, it’s as if we are brought right back to the font and washed clean once again by the one who first called us to himself when we were baptized.

There’s your answer to the question JESUS LIVES … NOW WHAT? There’s your answer to the post-Easter blahs. Remain in the promises of your Baptism. Live a lifestyle of repentance. Remember how you were once far off, but now God has called you to himself and brought you near to him in love and mercy.

Just like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, who recognized Jesus when He broke the bread with them, this is where you sit at table with Jesus and you personally encounter the Risen Lord in the breaking of the bread. Their faces were downcast at first, but they returned with joy to the other disciples, telling them that they had seen the Risen Christ.

Is your face downcast today? Do you have the post-Easter blahs, or the blahs for whatever reason? Come to the Lord’s table today. Eat and drink with joy and gladness. Know that your sins are forgiven. The Lord is risen indeed. The One who called you to himself in Baptism is with you at the Table, and walks right alongside you as you depart in peace from this place today.

Amen.

Sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter (May 1, 2011)

2011-05-01T12:40:00.000-07:00

“Counted Worthy” (Acts 5:29-42)

During these seven weeks of the Easter season, the Old Testament lesson is replaced by a reading from the book of the Acts of the Apostles. (You may already know this, considering I wrote about this in my May newsletter article.) Those who organized the lectionary did this for a reason. Easter is the time of fulfillment. All that was promised about Christ’s death and resurrection in the Old Testament was fulfilled in the Gospels. Following upon the accounts of the Gospels are St. Luke’s accounts of the life of the early Church in the book of Acts. Here, the Good News of the resurrection of Jesus was fresh in the hearts of the apostles. We learn how the resurrection of Jesus changed the disciples from a timid, fearful group of men hiding behind locked doors into bold, courageous confessors of Christ crucified and risen. It changed Paul from a zealous bounty hunter of Christians into one of the greatest missionaries and defenders of the faith, writing much of the New Testament. In the face of much opposition, they went out and proclaimed that it is in Christ alone that we receive forgiveness of sins and life everlasting.

The book of Acts is really “Luke Volume 2.” Some say that the title “Acts of the Apostles” is a misnomer. Perhaps a better title would be “The Acts of the Risen Jesus in His Church.” In fact, in the introduction to Acts, Luke says that in his gospel he “dealt with all that Jesus began [my emphasis] to do and teach, until the day he was taken up” (Acts 1:1). It’s as if to say that Jesus continued – and continues – to work and teach in the world, but now does so through his Church with the risen life that he shares with his followers in the power of the Holy Spirit. As we read and hear the accounts from the book of Acts in the weeks ahead, you and I can see ourselves included in the ongoing story of the life of the risen Jesus in his Church.

Today’s reading begins right after the apostles had been arrested, put in prison, then freed by an angel at night. You might expect the angel to say, “Run! Fly away! Your life is in danger!” Instead, the angel told them to go right back into the temple courts and keep preaching the message of Jesus and his resurrection. “Go” he told them, “and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life” (Acts 5:20). At daybreak the next morning, that’s exactly what they did. When this was discovered by the high priest and the ruling council of the Jews, they rounded the disciples up once again and said, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us” (Acts 5:28). That’s when Peter uttered his famous words, “We must obey god rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

This just served to tick the council members off even more, to the point of wanting to kill the apostles. It took level-headed Gamaliel, a famous and well-respected rabbi of the day, to calm them down. He names two other men, Theudas and Judas (not the one who betrayed Jesus), who rose up and gathered a number of followers around them. But they were killed and their movement died with them. Regarding this “Jesus movement,” Gamaliel says that “if this plan or this undertaking is of man, if will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God” (Acts 5:38-39). The rest of the council agreed. Still, they felt they had to do something to teach the apostles a lesson. So they beat them, told them to stop talking about this Jesus, and let them go.

And here’s the part that I want us to focus on this morning. After they left the council, the disciples rejoiced “that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ” (Acts 5:41-42).

“Counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.” Boy, doesn’t that just fly in the face of our modern American notions of what Christianity is all about? We think it’s a part of our birthright as Christians to be blessed both materially and spiritually. We can’t understand why people just don’t flock to our churches. We’re friendly folks. We have a great message of love and forgiveness. In our daily lives, we try to offer a Christ-like example to our family, our co-workers, our classmates. Yet there are still those who oppose us and who mock the Church. Maybe it hasn’t been right to your face. But you certainly hear about the opposition to the Church in the news media. A pastor is involved in a very public scandal, and all Christians are lumped in with him, accused of being hypocrites. The Church takes a pro-life position, and we are accused of being against a woman’s “right to choose” or a woman’s access to health care. The Church speaks out against gay marriage, and we are accused of being “homophobic.” The Church declares that Jesus is the only way to the Father, and we are called narrow-minded, self-righteous bigots.

This should not surprise us. In fact, Jesus guaranteed this will be a part of the shape of our lives as his followers. Jesus said, “A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:21). St. Paul wrote to Timothy, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12). At the end of the Beatitudes, Jesus said, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matt. 5:11-12). Perhaps those words of Jesus were echoing in the apostles’ minds as they departed from the council that day in our text. Beaten, bruised, bloodied, they were able to rejoice. This was confirmation for them that they were, indeed, following in the footsteps of the Savior and were doing his will by faithfully teaching and preaching salvation in his Holy Name. Some time later, the apostle Peter – speaking from experience – could write these encouraging words to Christians who were suffering for their confession of faith: “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:6-9). Those words can be a blessing for us when we suffer, in particular when we face opposition and ridicule for the sake of Jesus.

Our temptation is always to give in, compromise, go along to get along, make our teaching more palatable to a modern audience. Sin? Nobody likes to hear about sin anymore! The cross? That’s offensive! Let’s take it down from the wall and not talk so much about it any longer. Closed communion? Why should we prohibit someone from coming to the altar, even if they don’t believe it’s the true body and true blood of Jesus. What’s really important is that we all just love one another, right? Wrong. We need to be faithful to all that has been revealed to us in Holy Scripture and not pull any punches, even when it may be unpopular or hard to understand. You have to hear that you are a sinner in order to know you need a Savior. You have to hear about the cross because that is where Christ died for us sinners. And people who commune without knowing what they are doing or who deny the presence of the body and blood of Jesus in the sacrament can eat and drink to their spiritual harm (1 Cor. 11:29). And so, when tempted to compromise or water down any scriptural doctrine, we say right along with Peter, “We must obey God rather than men.”

The Church suffered dishonor immediately following the resurrection of Jesus. She still suffers today. But this “Jesus movement” is “of God,” as Gamaliel unwittingly declared. No matter how beaten, bruised, and bloodied the Church looks, no one will be able to overthrow her. Those who oppose the Church oppose God.

Therefore, you and I can rejoice that we are counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Jesus … worthy not of our own merit, but because of the merit of Christ, who was beaten, bruised, and bloodied for us at the cross. By grace, we have been baptized into Christ’s name, given faith to believe in Christ’s name, and forgiven of all our sins in Christ’s name. “According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading” (1 Peter. 1:3-4).

We are really not all that different from the Christians in the book of Acts, even though culturally, linguistically, and technologically we are centuries apart. The life of the Risen Jesus is still at work in his Church today. He is among us with his Word and Spirit. He gives life and grows his Church through Word and Sacrament. You and I can rejoice that we are also counted worthy to be a part of God’s “plan” and “undertaking” in the world. Like the disciples, we continue their work of “teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.” We continue their work of announcing the peace of Jesus, the forgiveness of sins, so “that by believing [those who hear] may have life in his name” (John 20:31).

Amen.

The Ongoing Life of Jesus in His Church

2011-04-26T10:58:00.000-07:00

From Messiah's May 2011 newsletter

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Lent is over. The solemnity of Holy Week is past. The joy of Easter shines brightly. For seven weeks, we bask in the glory of the empty tomb during another Easter season until Pentecost. Actually, our entire Christian life is shaped by the fact of the resurrection of Christ. “Every Sunday is a little Easter,” goes the old adage. In fact, for the Christian, every day – not just Sunday – is a “little Easter.” We don’t ever need to stop basking in the glory of the empty tomb. St. Paul wrote, “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain … And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins … But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. (1 Cor. 15:14, 17, 20)

There is a unique feature in the lectionary during the Easter season. The reading from the Old Testament is replaced by a reading from the book of the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament. This makes much sense. Easter is the time of fulfillment. All that was promised about Christ Jesus in the Old Testament was fulfilled in the Gospels. Following upon the accounts of the Gospels are St. Luke’s accounts of the life of the early Church in the book of Acts. Here, the Good News of the resurrection of Jesus was fresh in the hearts of the apostles. “All the possibilities of that event were being explored. The Spirit that breathed on the apostles was unfolding God’s intentions for his people even as they received his gifts. Challenges were met, problems were addressed, the wonder of life in Christ was being discovered. The life and growth of the apostolic church is opened up for us [in the book of Acts] so that we may immerse ourselves in the same life and growth of the church.” (from Proclaim, Series A, Part 2, p.178) The life and growth of the Church continues today. The Risen Jesus is among us with his Word and Spirit. He gives life and grows his Church through Word and Sacrament. In that sense, we are no different from the first Christians, even though culturally, technologically, and linguistically we are centuries apart.

At the end of the book of Acts, the author sort of leaves us hanging. It ends abruptly with Paul under house arrest in Rome. The last sentence of Acts says that Paul lived in Rome for two years “proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance” (Acts 28:31). Perhaps Luke meant to write “Acts Volume 2” someday (or “Volume 3” if we include Luke’s Gospel as “Volume 1” of his opus). On the other hand, the way Luke ends the book can be significant for us. Dr. Al Barry, in his book To the Ends of the Earth, explained it this way:

True, the last sentence does not tell us what happened after Paul’s two years under house arrest, but what difference does that make? Acts is not the story of Paul as much as it is the story of Jesus continuing to proclaim His Word through His Church … It is an open-ended account so the rest of His story – all the way down to us – can fit in. (A.L. Barry, To the Ends of the Earth, CPH 1997).

As you hear the readings from the Acts of the Apostles this Easter season, listen and see yourself fitting in to the story of Jesus and his ongoing work in and through his Church.

In Christ’s service and yours,
Pastor Onken

Sermon for the Funeral of Harold Goodkind (April 25, 2011)

2011-04-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

“After Easter” (Luke 24:13-36)

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, especially to you, dear Claire, Ben, Sandy, Janet, Elaina, and to all family and friends gathered here today.

There are many things I’m going to miss about Harold. I’m going to miss hearing those silly jokes and puns that I regularly heard in Bible Class. They usually didn’t relate to anything that we were talking about, but I still got a kick out of them … not to mention Claire playfully smacking him and saying “Oh, Harold, just be quiet!” I’m going to miss that impish grin and that mischievous chuckle. I’m also going to miss hearing him talk about how much he loved his family. He bragged about all of you every time I visited him … his kids and grandkids and his great-granddaughter whose birth he was hanging in there to see. And 65 years of marriage! How can that not be an inspiration to all of us?

Last week, as Harold’s earthly life was coming to a close, we were getting ready in the church to remember how our Lord’s life came to a close. The day after Harold entered into glory, we came to church and remembered how the Lord Jesus instituted his Holy Supper. Then, on Friday, we commemorated his crucifixion and death for the sins of the world. Saturday we joined together for the Easter Vigil, anticipating the great feast of victory on Sunday morning. And yesterday, we gathered together once again for our annual celebration of our Lord’s resurrection. Our solemn Lenten songs turned into boisterous Easter praise. The Alleluias we had set aside during Lent were restored to our worship and we sang them with all our might. Jesus is alive! The grave could not hold him! And that brings us joy and hope!

Here we are gathered together on the day after Easter for quite a different occasion. It feels more like Good Friday for you than Easter.

Your feelings at this time are probably not all that different from the feelings of those disciples on the road to Emmaus in the reading we heard a few moments ago. It was later in the day immediately after that first Easter. They were hurting. Their master was gone. They were confused. They had heard the rumors about the empty tomb and the angels, but they weren’t so sure about it all. Perhaps they were angry, too. They expected this mighty prophet and miracle worker to be the one who would save Israel from Roman domination. They got on his bandwagon. The placed all their bets on him. But then, he was arrested, put on trial, sentenced to death, and became just another traitor who was executed in the Romans’ favorite fashion.

Like the Emmaus disciples, you are hurting this day after Easter. The sadness you feel can be overwhelming at times. You are confused. Your mind is in a daze. You probably feel numb at times. Even some of the simplest, daily decisions you have to make are a challenge. You’ve heard the good news that Jesus is alive. “But what difference does that good news make in my life right now?” And perhaps you are angry, too. “Why did it have to come to this? Why did Harold leave me? Why did dad have to suffer the way he did?” You and those disciples on the road to Emmaus have much in common.

The most important thing you have in common with those men is this: the Risen Jesus is truly present with you. Jesus walked right along with those disciples. At first, he kept them from recognizing him. And even though you may not realize it or feel it, Jesus is with you right now, too. He is walking right beside you. He has promised, “I am with you always” (Matt. 28:20) … “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb. 13:5). And so you can say right along with the psalmist, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me” (Psalm 23:4).

Before Jesus decided to reveal himself to the disciples, he had some further teaching to do. After the men described their doubts about what their friends had told them, Jesus proceeded to explain to them that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and die and then to enter his glory. St. Luke doesn’t give us all of Jesus’ words here. He simply says, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” But you can be sure that Jesus quoted passages like Isaiah 53, for example, which says that “he was wounded for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed” (Is. 53:5) Jesus died with the sins of the world laid upon his shoulders. This was all necessary because our sins had separated us from God. Because of sin, the world is broken, and along with that brokenness comes suffering and death. And so God sent his Son into the world to experience suffering and death for us. Jesus paid the price we owe to God for our sins. Now, through Jesus, our relationship with God is restored. Through faith in his saving death and resurrection, we have the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting. Harold confessed that very same faith in his Savior Jesus. Jesus forgave him all his sins. And he is now enjoying life everlasting with his Savior.

The disciples finally recognized Jesus when he was at table with them. Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him.

You and I don’t get to see the Risen Jesus before our eyes. But we get to be at table with him when we come to the Lord’s Supper. Here, he gives us his true body to eat and his true blood to drink for the forgiveness of our sins, life, and salvation. Here, we commune with him. And more than that. Here we also join, as we sing in the liturgy, “with angels, and archangels, and with all the company of heaven.” In this life, you are never as close to heaven as you are when you eat and drink Christ’s body and blood. And if you are that close to heaven, then you are also close to your loved ones who have departed in the faith and who are communing face to face with Jesus in eternity.

The Emmaus disciples went and found the Apostles and told them what had happened. At that moment, Jesus appeared again to them all and said, “Peace be with you.” The Risen Jesus speaks peace to troubled hearts. He speaks peace to your troubled hearts today. But Jesus’ words of peace are meant to do more than just calm us down and soothe our anxieties. Jesus brings peace between God and Man because he conquered sin, death, and hell when he rose from the dead. And he shares that victory with us in the water and Word of Holy Baptism.

One of the last times I visited with Harold in the hospital, I asked him how he was doing. He looked at me, and matter-of-factly said, “Bury me.” I told him, “Well, Harold, we’re not quite ready to do that just yet. That timing’s not up to me. We’ll leave that in the Lord’s hands.”

The Lord’s “timing” for Harold was last Wednesday morning. We’ll bury his body this afternoon. But the truth is, Harold was already buried. He was buried with Christ in baptism. St. Paul wrote, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Rom. 6:4-5). In baptism, Harold was united with Jesus in his death and resurrection. Everything that Jesus did in his death – paying the price for sin and earning forgiveness for us – was given to Harold in baptism. And just as Jesus rose again on Easter morning, Harold will also rise to life again on the Last Day. 1 Thessalonians 4 describes that day: “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of god. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words” (1 Thess. 4:16-17).

My prayer for you, this day after Easter, is that all these words you have heard today have encouraged you. The Risen Jesus is present with you to comfort you, to strengthen your faith in him, to give you his peace that passes all understanding, and to assure you that Harold is with his Savior right now. I pray that you will be able to encourage one another with the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life on the Last Day. I pray that, in spite of your Good Friday sorrow, you can still have Easter joy.

Amen.

Sermon for Palm Sunday/Sunday of the Passion (April 17, 2011)

2011-04-17T12:35:00.000-07:00

“The Willing Servant” (Isaiah 50:4-9)

A Lamb goes uncomplaining forth / The guilt of sinners bearing
And, laden with the sins of earth, / None else the burden sharing;
Goes patient on, grows weak and faint, / To slaughter led without complaint,
That spotless life to offer, / He bears the stripes, the wounds, the lies,
The mockery, and yet replies, / “All this I gladly suffer.” (LSB 438.1)

Isaiah 50:4-9 – The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. But the Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord GOD helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.

I would venture to guess that most of us are pretty good at avoiding conflict. No one really likes to dive headlong into their problems, whatever they might be.

When you were a child, maybe it was the bully at the end of the block. He has been waiting for you for weeks. He would just love for you to walk by so he can yell one more epithet at you, throw one more rock at you, and see how you respond. If you yell back, this justifies (in his own mind) his coming after you and beating you to a pulp … to show you who’s boss around here. You know you ought to stand up to him and show him that you aren’t afraid. That’s what your parents told you about the way to deal with a bully. But your fear and sense of self-preservation tell you to not to go near him. And so you walk the opposite direction and find another route, even if it means you have to go far out of your way to get where you want to go.

Now that we are adults, we are good at avoiding other types of conflict. We probably don’t have any neighborhood bullies to death with. As we get older, we find ways to avoid our personal problems. We procrastinate, prevaricate, preoccupy ourselves with pet projects, or become passive-aggressive by talking about others behind their backs instead of confronting the issues – or the people – face-to-face.

That wasn’t Jesus’ style. Jesus plunged headlong into conflict. Jesus willingly walked – or rather rode – right into a dangerous place where his opponents were waiting to pounce on him. Recall his disciples’ reaction in last week’s Gospel. When Jesus was determined to return to Judea to raise his friend Lazarus from the dead, the disciples said, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” (John 11:8) When it was clear Jesus would not be deterred, Thomas declared, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” (John 11:16)

And so, when Jesus entered Jerusalem on the day which we are celebrating, he didn’t do it secretly or subversively. It was all out in the open. On the back of a humble donkey. Processing to the calls of “Hosanna!” with palm branches raised in nationalistic fervor. This was the Messiah, after all, coming as the Prince of Peace to rescue his people from Roman domination.

Forgotten in all of this was the portrait of the Suffering Servant painted by the prophet Isaiah. In four separate “Servant Songs” as they are called, Isaiah foretells a certain figure to come, chosen by God, who would be a light to the Gentiles, bringing salvation to the ends of the earth, and who would bear the sins of all people. The Messiah did not come to rescue from the Romans but to suffer for sin. Jesus is the faithful Servant of the Lord foretold in today’s passage, one of the Servant Songs from Isaiah. St. Paul also calls Jesus a “servant” in Philippians 2. In his divine nature, Jesus is equal to the Father. Yet in his incarnation, Jesus “made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant.” (Phil. 2:7)

Because of our sins, you and I are in conflict with God. And what are we inclined to do? Avoid the conflict. Just like Adam and Eve, we run away and hide. We are prone to hide our face from the Lord rather than turn our face towards him in repentant trust. We know what our Lord’s Word says about what we should and should not do. The Ten Commandments are pretty straightforward. Yet we consistently close our ears to God’s Word. Our sinful rebellion is evident in the ways we behave toward God and towards our neighbor … doubting, hating, lusting, slandering, coveting, and so on. Apart from the work of the Servant on our behalf, we are left in disgrace, shame, and guilt before God. We deserve to have him hide his face from us.

But out of his great love for us, God the Father sent his Son to face the cross for us. There, at the cross, God the Father hid his face from his one and only Son, because the Innocent Son had taken upon himself the guilt and shame of the world’s sin.

This was not something that took him by surprise. Isaiah has the Servant saying, “I have set my face like a flint.” With steely determination, Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem and his appointment with death.

As the faithful Servant, Jesus listened faithfully to his Father’s word and was strengthened by that word. Never rebellious, always obedient, he knew that bitter suffering and an excruciating death was his destiny. He knew it was his Father’s will, that there was no way around it. Adam and Eve hid from God’s will in a garden. It was in another garden where Jesus fell on his face and prayed, “Not my will, but yours be done” … or in the words of the hymn,

“Yes, Father, yes, most willingly, / I’ll bear what You command Me.
My will conforms to Your decree, / I’ll do what You have asked Me.”
O wondrous Love, what have you done! / The Father offers up his Son,
Desiring our salvation. / O Love, how strong You are to save!
You lay the One into the grave / Who laid the earth’s foundation. (LSB 438.3)

Willingly, Jesus did his Father’s will. Willingly, he gave himself into suffering and death. Our natural reaction would be fight or flight. Jesus did neither.

Jesus willingly gave his back to be struck by the Roman soldiers ... and you and I have God’s loving embrace.

Jesus willingly offered his cheeks to those who would pluck out his beard, a symbolically shameful act towards a Jewish man ... and you and I are honored with God’s grace and favor.

Jesus was spit upon in contempt ... yet you and I are sprinkled with the waters of Baptism and esteemed as beloved children of the Heavenly Father.

Through faith in Christ’s suffering and death for our forgiveness, God takes away our disgrace and showers us with his grace. Now, we will never be put to shame. We who are wearied by the changes and chances of life and the effects of sin and death are sustained by our Lord’s word of absolution and his body and blood which nourish our souls for time and eternity. Through Jesus, you and I are vindicated. Our adversaries of sin, death, and the devil are sent packing, conquered forever at the cross and the empty tomb. The righteousness of the Innocent Servant is applied to us, and we can now declare, “Who will contend with me? Who is my adversary? Who will declare me guilty?” The answer? “No one! Behold, the Lord God helps me. The Lord God HAS helped me. My Lord and my God has taken the punishment for my guilt upon himself, and I am free.”

Amen.

With all due respect to you Bach purists out there...

2011-04-11T08:58:00.000-07:00

...enjoy this picture of "Chew-Bach-A."

Then again, maybe this is more disturbing to Star Wars purists.

Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent (April 10, 2011)

2011-04-10T12:28:00.000-07:00

“The Presence of the Resurrection and the Life” (John 11:1-45)

It’s been said that fish and guests smell after three days. The same is true of dead people. I don’t meant to gross you out, but I once had the chance to see – and smell – a rotting corpse. This occurred early in my ministry at my former congregation. An elderly woman had been dead for a number of days before she was found by family members returning from vacation. Her dead body had been baking in her mobile home during a sweltering summer week. A church member who was a local EMT called me to come to the scene and offer comfort to the family. When I arrived, he called me around to the back of the home. A door was open to a laundry room, and before I even got within ten feet, the foulest stench you could imagine hit me in the face. That, combined with the gruesome sight on the floor, caused me to come “this close” to vomiting.

Death stinks. Martha knew this better than you and I. Death has become sterilized in our culture. Funeral home staff sweep a body away before it gets the chance to decompose, cleansing the body and injecting it with embalming fluids, dressing it up nicely, surrounding it with fluffy pillows and fabric, and placing it inside a decorative box. But no amount of myrrh, aloes, and spices could keep a four-day old body from smelling in first-century Judea. So Martha says to Jesus, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” I still get a kick out of how the King James Version renders Martha’s words: “Lord, by this time he stinketh.”

Death does indeed stinketh. No matter how much we try to protect ourselves from the effects of death, pain and grief and confusion and agony end up permeating our lives one way or another. And death is in the world because of sin. In today’s reading from Romans, Paul says, “To set the mind on the flesh is death” (Rom. 8:6). In other words, death is our rightful sentence when we do those things that our selfish, sinful nature loves to do. Our sinful nature is hostile to God. It does not want to submit to the 10 commandments, but would rather go its own way and do its own thing without giving God a second thought. Death stinks. Sin stinks. It’s a foul smelling aroma in God’s nostrils.

Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were apparently good friends of Jesus. Jesus often visited them when he came to Jerusalem. Bethany was only a short two miles away. It would be a sensible place to stay during the yearly festivals at the temple in Jerusalem. When their brother Lazarus became ill, Mary and Martha know who to seek out. They know Jesus has the power to heal.

How surprising it must have been, then, when Jesus delays coming to Bethany. He stays put for two whole days. He doesn’t seem to be terribly concerned. Finally, he tells his disciples, “Let’s go.” They reply by expressing concern over going back into the territory where his opponents had already tried to stone him. But Jesus, the Light of the World, knows well what dangers await him. Walking in the light of Christ, disciples of Jesus don’t need to fear anything.

By the time Jesus arrives in Bethany, Lazarus had been in the tomb four days. Martha is the first to greet him with the words, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Moments later, Mary says the same thing. And the bystanders also wondered, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”

When death, disaster, or any difficulty come our way, perhaps our first complaint is, “Lord, if you had been here, this or that would not have happened.” Where is Jesus when my teenager dies in a car accident? Where is Jesus when the doctor tells me I have cancer? Where is Jesus when tsumanis sweep whole communities away? Where is Jesus when, no matter what I do, no matter how hard I try, I am still alienated from certain people in my life? We have somehow gotten the wrong idea that Jesus will solve all our problems and protect us from bad things happening to us. When things don’t get any better, we turn our back on him or deny that he’s even real. Maybe he’s just a myth, just like that big furry fellow who brings eggs and baskets and candy on Easter morning.

Where is Jesus? Jesus is here. Ruling and reigning as God in the Flesh. Present with his grace and mercy. Bringing life in the midst of death because, as he said, “I am the resuurection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” His powerful Word gives life and triumphs over death, corruption, and hopelessness.

Jesus spoke his powerful Word at the tomb of Lazarus. “Lazarus, come out.” A heart silent for four days begins to beat. Arteries and veins expand to carry blood once again. Lungs fill with breath. And Lazarus steps forth, alive. I’ve heard it said that Jesus made sure he called Lazarus specifically, because if he had simply said, “Come forth,” every single dead person in the cemetery would have come out of their tombs. Having said that, the raising of Lazarus is certainly a preview of the day when, as Jesus promised, “all who are in the tombs will hear his voice” (John 5:28) and will rise again just like Lazarus.

In the meantime, you hear the voice of Jesus through the mouth of your pastor when he takes water in his hand and says, “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” You hear the voice of Jesus when, in his stead, your pastor says, “I forgive you all your sins.” And you hear the voice of Jesus when your pastor repeats the words spoken at the Last Supper, “This is my body, which is given for you … This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you the forgiveness of sins.” And that is exactly what you get when you come to the Lord’s Supper today. Christ’s body and blood. Forgiveness. Through these gracious means, you hear the voice of Jesus and he raises you to new life. He gives you the promise of life everlasting. Though we die, yet shall we live. And really, in Christ, we never die. Temporal death is the separation of the soul from the body. Eternal death is the separation of the soul from God. In Christ, that will never happen.

Even when Jesus seems absent, he is present. When Jesus heard Lazarus was ill, he didn’t go right away. He stayed where he was for two more days. He seemed far away from the situation. He was about 20 miles away on the other side of the Jordan. He might as well have been a million miles away. But he knew exactly what he was doing. “This illness does not lead to death,” he told his disciples. “It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Jesus knew exactly what had happened. He knew that Lazarus had died. So, in his omnipotence, he really was there, seeing the entire goings-on, the sisters in their sorrow, the mourners, and so forth. Yet he also knew that he was going there to raise Lazarus from the dead.

At times, Jesus seems absent from our lives. But he is not. He sees everything. He knows everything. He knows your sorrow, your hurt, your pain. And even though you and I can’t see the outcome of whatever situation in which find ourselves, Jesus does. He is the light among us even when things seem dark.

Even when Jesus seems not to care, he cares. His delay, at first, made it appear that he didn’t care about his friends. Once he arrived on the scene, his care is evident. He comforts Martha with his words. He seeks out Mary when she did not come initially with her sister. The divine nature and human natures of Jesus are so clearly seen here in this account. Jesus appears to be calmly in control and in command when he declares to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Yet when he encounters Mary, there is a change. His human emotions come spilling out. St. John writes that Jesus was “deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.” The Greek here for deeply moved is literally “to snort like a horse,” usually in anger. Jesus was angry over the ravages of death that had entered the world because of sin. And the word for “greatly troubled” expresses agitation, confusion, disorganization. Jesus was certainly not confused, but he was clearly agitated. He was not apathetic to the situation. Jesus had lost a beloved friend to death. It hurt him deeply. He grieved. And he burst into tears.

The same Jesus who wept at the tomb of Lazarus deeply cares for you today, too, even when he seems silent and far away. He is present even though he seems absent. Through his Word of life, Jesus is here to evoke faith and calls us to trust him. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died,” Martha said, yet she quickly added these words of trust, “but even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”

“Lord, if you had been here…” Jesus is big enough to handle our complaints. Yet he also calls us to trust in him, even when things look bleak. “Even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” The life-giving Word of Jesus creates and sustains faith that trusts that God will truly work things out for the good of those who are baptized into his family. The life-giving Word of Jesus creates and sustains faith that answers right along with Martha, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God.”

Death stinks. Sin stinks. But with Jesus around, it is different. In his death, Jesus was a sweet smelling sacrifice offered to the Father. Our sins were laid upon Jesus at the cross. He paid the price in full for them. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). Cleansed and redeemed, united with our Savior in Holy Baptism, you and I can offer sweet smelling sacrifices of thanksgiving to God and service to our neighbor in the name of Jesus.

The raising of Lazarus was the pivotal point in John’s Gospel. It was the last straw for the chief priests and the Pharisees who opposed Jesus. It was the raising of Lazarus that put in motion the plans for Jesus to be killed. We are winding our way down towards the end of Lent and Good Friday. Holy Week begins next Sunday. But the story of the raising of Lazarus also reminds us that Easter is always in view. The Son of God was glorified when Lazarus was raised from the dead, because the raising of Lazarus set things in motion for the glorification of Jesus at the cross, lifted high as our Crucified King … and his glorification at the empty tomb, shining forth as our Savior who is the Resurrection and the Life.

Amen.

Hymns and Readings for Lent 5 (April 10, 2011)

2011-04-09T13:13:00.000-07:00

Hymns (all from Lutheran Service Book)
419
430
635, 563 during Distribution
687

Readings
Ezekiel 37:11-14
Romans 8:1-11
John 11:1-45

Hymns and Readings for Lent 4 (April 3, 2011)

2011-03-31T20:31:00.001-07:00

Hymns (all from Lutheran Service Book)
545
411
635, 566 during Distribution
692

Readings
Isaiah 42:14–21
Ephesians 5:8–14
John 9:1–41

Out of the Mouths of Babes #23

2011-03-29T18:29:00.001-07:00

At dinner tonight, son (4) asks, "Daddy, can Jesus eat Cheetos?"

Sermon for the Third Sunday in Lent (March 27, 2011)

2011-03-27T12:12:00.000-07:00

“The Cleansing Effects of Living Water” (John 4:5-26)

Have you ever been somewhere all by yourself and suddenly a stranger nearby starts talking to you? It’s not that you don’t like to talk to people. There are some moments when you are simply not in the mood to talk. But you patiently listen to what the stranger has to say, or you politely answer their question. But then, you get stuck talking to this person longer than you originally had hoped. And it’s even more difficult if they seem a little on the weird side.

I wonder if that’s what that woman was thinking as she approached the well where Jesus was sitting. You can just imagine her, carrying her water jar with her head down, trying so hard not to make eye contact with this unfamiliar traveler. And then, she winces, when she hears the man’s voice, saying, “Will you give me a drink?” “Is this going to end up being a long conversation, or can I slip away from this quickly?” she wonders.

Actually, in that day and age, it was more surprising that Jesus spoke to the woman at all. She was a Samaritan. He was a Jew. And Jews and Samaritans hated each other. Not only that, it was very unusual for a Jewish rabbi to talk to a woman in public. That’s why she replied to Jesus the way she did, as if to say, “We Samaritans are the dirt under your feet until you want something from us; then we are good enough!”

Jesus asked for a drink of water, but he was more interested in offering “living water” to this woman, the refreshment of his mercy and love. The “living water” of Jesus washes away the separation that comes from prejudice and social class. It didn’t matter to Jesus that this woman was a Samaritan and he was a Jew. All that mattered was that she come to an understanding and a belief in Him as the Savior. And so He offered to her a water that no earthly well could give. He offered to her the “living water” of forgiveness and eternal life that only He could give.

Last week’s Old Testament lesson said that all peoples on earth would be blessed through Abraham. In Christ Jesus these words were fulfilled. Our Savior Jesus was a descendant of Abraham. Jesus died and rose for all people on earth. Both small and great alike are saved by trusting in Him.

A man at the supermarket realized he was in the express lane. The next line was cash only. The next one was for the disabled. In the fourth line, just to be sure, he asked the clerk, “You’re nothing special, are you?” to which she replied, “Well, my father thinks I am.”

God the Father makes no distinctions between people when it comes to offering life and salvation. Your Father thinks you are special. He loves you. He created you. And He sent His Son to die and rise for you.

When it comes to our salvation, as St. Paul says in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” These words remind us to repent of our prejudices and the barriers we place between us and others whose skin is a different shade than ours; whose language or accent is different than ours; whose clothes, cars, and homes may not be as nice as ours. Our Father thinks they are special. Jesus died for these folks, too, and He died for our prejudices that keep us from reaching out in love and with the Good News of Jesus. The living water of Jesus that flows from His cross washes away the separation that comes from prejudice and social class.

The living water of Jesus also washes away false religion. The Samaritan woman was a follower of the Samaritan religion. The Samaritans claimed to worship the true God. In contrast to the Jews who claimed that Jerusalem was the proper place of worship, the Samaritans claimed that Mt. Gerizim in Samaria was the proper place of worship. They also did not accept the whole Bible of that time (which for us is the Old Testament). They only accepted the first five books of the Bible, known as the Pentateuch.

When the woman made this an issue with Jesus, He replied by telling her that Jesus said to her, “the hour is coming when neither on this mountain [Mt. Gerizim] nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father … the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” (John 4:21-23) With these words, Jesus speaks of Himself. He is the place of true worship. We come to know and worship the Father only through Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus plainly revealed himself to the woman as the Messiah. All remains of her false religion were washed away.

What false religion do we hold to today? What things are getting in the way of our worshipping the Father in spirit and in truth? Do any of us still think that we can earn God’s favor by simply trying harder to be a better person? That is the root of all false religion. The “living water” of Jesus washes away false religion and replaces it with the true religion … the truth that we are justified by faith … the truth that the righteousness of Christ is credited to your account through faith in His finished work at the cross and apart from anything that we do. Through Christ you are at peace with God. God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The “living water” of Jesus washes away any and all sin and refreshes a dried up heart. After Jesus offered the woman His “living water,” He confronted her with her sin. She was living in adultery. She was living with a man to whom she was not married.

Now, we don’t get to hear this woman repenting of her sin, nor do we get to hear Jesus explicitly announcing forgiveness to this woman. But she apparently repented and believed in Jesus as the Savior of the world. Therefore she, too, was justified by faith. The righteousness of Christ was hers. She was forgiven.

In today’s Collect we prayed, “O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy, be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways.” The Samaritan woman had gone astray. The Samaritan people had gone astray. But God was gracious to them. His glory had come to them in Christ. He had mercy on them by giving them His “living water.”

Our gracious and glorious God comes to us today – we who constantly go astray – through His Word and in His Son’s very own body and blood. And through these means He brings us “again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of [His] Word.” His living water washes away our sin and refreshes our dried-up, parched hearts.

The “living water” of Jesus washes away the separation that comes from prejudice and social class. The “living water” of Jesus washes away false religion. The “living water” of Jesus washes away sin and refreshes dried up hearts; and, finally…

The “living water” of Jesus overflows to others through us. In the verses that follow our Gospel reading today, we can see how the woman responded to her encounter with Jesus. She believed by the power of His Word. Then, she testified about Jesus to her fellow townspeople, and St. John records, “Many Samaritans from that town believed in him.” (John 4:39) They confessed him as “the Savior of the world.” (John 4:41-42)

It’s like the soldier during the Civil War who had been wounded and was bleeding to death on the battlefield. An artery of his arm had been severely lacerated by the fragment of a shell. A passing doctor bound up the artery and saved his life. As the doctor was leaving, the man cried, “Doctor, what’s your name?”

“Oh, no matter,” said the doctor.

“But, doc,” said the soldier, “I want to tell my wife and children the name of the man who saved me.”

When our broken hearts and broken spirits have been bound up by Christ … when the living water of Jesus has refreshed our parched and weary souls … we want to tell “the name of the man who saved” us. We want to tell others the name of our wonderful Savior … Jesus.

So, my dear friends, drink deeply of the “living water” of Jesus. Drink of it as you remember the water in which you were baptized. Drink of it as you listen to the message of the cross and the empty tomb. Drink of it as you eat and drink the body and blood of your Savior in the Sacrament of the Altar. His well will never run dry. And your container is not big enough to hold it all. It will spill over and flow to all the people whom you encounter on your journey in Christ.

Amen.

Hearing Complaints from "Some People"

2011-03-25T21:25:00.000-07:00