Keeping and Treasuring The Word

January 24 - Psalmody and New Testament

2012-01-24T10:07:00.000-06:00

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So, with a busy day of Bible Study, hospital visits (involving over 100 miles driven) and council meeting, we read Romans 13. And what comes to mind? That I need to put on Christ, and my car's cruise control, lest my foot slip as oft it does and I gratify the desire of my flesh to go faster. Funny, but sad, but true.

And now for some beauty from Psalm 131 - How is it that the soul is calmed and quieted? It is through placing one's hope in the Lord forevermore. But there are lots of hopes out there. For instance, I hope Eli and the Giants beat Brady and the Pats in the House that big brother Peyton built. But that hope is not certain, nor long lasting, nor does it calm and quiet my soul. The only sure hope that brings peace is from the Lord making the Word of His Salvation known to us. Alleluia indeed! (Antiphon 2 for Epiphanytide, TDP page O-63).

Finally, I just love Valerius Herberger's writings included in TDP! Particularly this gem today - "Since St. Paul and St. Timothy were dear friends, they were put beside each other in the calendar, and also on the day of St. Timothy, the Gospel of John 15:9-16 is read, which speaks of pure love and friendship."

January 22 - Joel 2 and a Lenten discipline

2012-01-23T09:25:00.001-06:00

This text contains the OT for Ash Wednesday. One year during the reading, I was struck by verse 17:

Between the vestibule and the altar
   let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep
and say, “Spare your people, O LORD,
   and make not your heritage a reproach,
   a byword among the nations.
Why should they say among the peoples,
   ‘Where is their God?’”

The neglect of the Church by our society has never been good, and it has increased by staggering proportions in my time as a pastor. At both congregations the Prayer of the Church includes the lost, wandering, and erring - and I have seen those prayers answered in the lives of some, and there is great joy over them. Yet still there are the other members who were gone before I got here, or have abandoned us since my arrival, and my heart weeps. Perhaps that is why this verse connected to my heart so deeply. That year I made it a discipline to pray each day this verse as my OT counterparts in the priesthood did - for certainly Christians in our day are becoming a reproach, even among fellow Christians, a byword, an afterthought. And for many reasons we deserve it.

Yet the Lord has had mercy. He has spared us many disasters. He who relented of overthrowing Ninevah in the day of Jonah has relented again and again of overthrowing His people (fascinating connecting between TDP and the 3 year lectionary yesterday, eh?). He promises that the gates of Hell will not overcome the Church. And so the Gospel is like a passing rain shower, as our Lutheran fathers said, here to nourish today and then gone. Yet it does not leave here without arriving elsewhere. Still, for the sake of the lost of our land, I pray that it is not time for it to leave America yet.

Consider this year taking up the discipline of praying Joel 2:17 daily during Lent. At the very least, by the end you will have learned by heart a verse of God's Word.

January 5 - Isaiah 65

2012-01-07T10:55:00.000-06:00

If I were writing this article about luck again, I certainly would reference Isaiah 65:11-12

December 30 and 31 - Luke 1:26-56

2011-12-31T11:36:00.000-06:00

I preached as if I were Zechariah, Elizabeth and Mary this Advent. Here's the sermon "from" Mary, based on this meditation by Rev. William Weedon:

There is just so much to treasure in your heart when the Son of God is in your life. I remember my childhood years, my father and mother taking me to the synagogue and traveling to the Temple for the Lord’s Festivals. We heard the stories of Moses and our people Israel leaving Egypt and traveling to the Promised Land – and that Moses promised a new Prophet was coming after him from among us to lead us all to the eternal Promised Land of Heaven. I heard the stories of how they built the Tent of Meeting, the Tabernacle, and how centuries later King David thought he would do God a favor by building a Temple to replace the old Tabernacle. However, God said no. David’s son would build God’s House. And more than that, God would establish a son of David on the throne forever – a promise that the eternal Messiah would come from David’s family. I learned the stories of our people’s rebellion against God, and how He sent foreign armies against us to destroy or capture everyone and everything – even Solomon’s Temple. But the angel Gabriel appeared to faithful Daniel to assure him that God was still with our people. And sure enough, our people returned to this land and built a new Temple to the Lord. I never dreamed that that same Gabriel would appear to me, to announce that a new Temple of the Lord, not made of bricks, but of human flesh, would arrive. That the Prophet Moses promised was about to arrive to lead us. That in fact, I, a virgin and a descendant of David, would give birth to the Messiah who would wage war against the enemy Devil and win the victory for us.

I remember how my heart pounded when the angel Gabriel first told me what was about to happen! When I heard about angels in the Bible, I thought I would not be afraid if I saw one. However when you stand face to face with their beauty and holiness, it makes you feel all the ugliness of your sin. Yet he assured me that I had found the Lord’s favor. God’s grace, His undeserved kindness was given to me despite the lowliness of the evil in my heart. God’s Love in the flesh, His only begotten Son, the Jesus who would save us all from our sins – I was blessed to carry Him in my womb for 9 months. My heart burst with great joy at the angel’s gracious words! I rushed off to Zechariah's house, where somehow Elizabeth knew my secret! And so did that baby John inside of her, leaping for joy. What relief to talk to someone else about what was going on inside me, someone who understood and would not treat me like I was out of my mind, someone else who knew what it was like when the Lord does great things for you - and you cannot contain your joy, but you feel like everyone else demands that you do.

I remember the first movements Jesus made inside my womb. I realized that God was quite literally alive inside of me – and my body was His temple. Soon after came the anxious time when Joseph did not know what to believe about the source of my pregnancy. But God's angel let my beloved know the truth and our wedding was back on.

I remember leaving Nazareth on that difficult journey to Bethlehem, knowing my baby could come at any time. Except that I knew it could not be the right time until we arrived there – for according to Micah's prophecy, the Messiah had to be born in Bethlehem.

I remember being told there was no room in the inn, but there was the manger. And soon after that for the first time I saw Christ's face and touched His hands. I looked into Joseph's eyes, and it suddenly became so real to us.

I remember when the shepherds appeared at the entrance. And you know, under ordinary circumstances I might have been surprised to see them. But after being visited by an angel, and greeted by Elizabeth, I began to expect the unexpected to happen around my Son. These shepherds said angels had visited them too with songs of glory to God and peace on earth. I could still hear them talking excitedly as they walked away from worshiping Christ.

I remember when we brought Him at 40 days old to the Temple for my rites of purification. And those two old saints rushed up to us with joy. Dear widow Anna let everyone know that the Redeemer was here as she gave thanks to God. Simeon took my baby in his arms, praising the Lord and saying he was ready to depart this world in peace. Then he told me that not everyone would be so excited to see my son in the future. Their responses would cause my soul pain. Being the mother of Jesus would be harder than I thought. Yet, as I had said to Gabriel, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as He has said” – for I knew God would strengthen me to do His will in those hard times.

I remember sometime later when the wise men from the East arrived at our house. They bowed before my Son with their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh while the Star they followed still shone upon us. But that glory was gone quickly, and Simeon's prophecy of pain began to come true. Joseph woke me before the morning dawn so we could escape ahead of Herod's terrible sword, which killed so many of our friends' baby boys. Yet God frustrated the proud king's attempts to keep his throne at all costs. When the Lord brought Herod down in death and it was safe for us, we took Jesus back to our little hometown of Nazareth.

I remember a later trip back to Nazareth, when 12 years old Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem's Temple. I was so afraid. Those of you who have ever lost your child know how your mind races through all the terrible possibilities of what might have happened, and how powerless you are, and how you wish you could go back and do the day differently. But there he was, safe in His Father's house. It is sad how easy it is to get confused about who Jesus really is, even for me.

I remember the wedding we were invited to – and that time I did not forget who my Son really is. I did not know what Jesus would do, but I knew when they had no more wine He would do something about it. So even after His response to me sounded rather cold, I instructed the servants to do whatever Jesus told them. And soon the water they gathered was turned to the finest wine, an unexpected little taste of Heaven.

I remember His ministry as an adult and the crowds that followed Him and were as dear to Him as His own flesh and blood – even those who accused Him, and tortured Him, and crucified my Son. The Prophet Micah (6:7) had asked, “Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” Yet I knew I did not choose to give my Son this way. He tried telling us He gave His life willingly…

And then I remembered the words of old man Simeon in the Temple echoed in my mind as it felt like a sword cut right through my soul when I saw my Son dying. Yet even in that moment, during such a horrifying time, He showed Himself to be the God of Ruth and Naomi. He who restored a family to them provided for me in my widowhood. John, the son of Zebedee, stood next to me as Jesus said, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then He said to His disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And for the rest of my days John cared for me as if I had been his own mother. When the light from the eyes of Christ disappeared, John tried comforting me the same way Jesus did when my beloved husband Joseph died. But it was different. My heart sank beyond what words could express.

I remember those three hopeless days, when I did not trust my Son's promises like I should have. However, though my faith failed, He remained faithful to His Word, and rose from the tomb. A few of my friends and relatives were the first to witness that His life conquered death. Joy flooded my heart. His followers and I became more convinced of what I had always known – that Jesus is Lord and His Word of promise is true. That He was born of me not just for me, but to save the world of sinners, to forgive even my slowness to believe all He says.

I remember how, after Jesus ascended into Heaven, our little group of believers gathered together, and a new apostle was chosen. And as we prayed, the Holy Spirit who conceived Christ in me before now landed on each Apostle in wind and flame. And this was just the first of many times that the good news of my Son was brought to the world. Repentance and forgiveness of sins is preached in Christ's name, just as the God of Abraham says, to bless the world. Some still will not receive Him and believe it. But I welcomed each one who did believe, each one who became God's child. And I treated each one as a brother of my Son. And as you believe, you are the brothers and sisters of this same King who reigns forever and ever. Amen.

November 30 - Isaiah 6 and 7

2011-11-30T09:37:00.001-06:00

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Isaiah 6:1-7 is so stunning that I rarely consider verse 8 and following. Moreover, I had never considers how 6:8-13 flowed into Isaiah 7, where King Ahaz keeps on hearing, but does not understand; keeps on seeing, but does not perceive. His heart is dull to the promise of the virgin with child called Immanuel, the holy seed and stump that remains after the the oak of Judah is felled.

Have mercy on us, O Lord, that we may not be abandoned in the darkness of our dull hearts, but may see in the Light of Your Son who takes away our guilt and atones for our sin.

November 29 - 1 Peter 2

2011-11-30T09:04:00.000-06:00

Elsewhere pastors have commented on how perfectly the Treasury's writings work for devotions before meetings. It is one of those nights in these parts as the councils of my dual parish meet to discuss their work together. Neither could afford to sacrifice what it would take to have their own pastor, and so each congregation makes sacrifices of requests of my time to work with each other and share me as a pastor. 1 Peter 2 gives a good reminder that as God builds us together as living stones to be His spiritual household, these sacrifices are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Without these sacrifices of time, talent and treasure, both congregations would cease to exist - but together we are a royal priesthood whose sacrifices are made on behalf of our local community, and even the world as both congregations well support missions in our country and around the world. (And, may I add, without their sacrifices, I would not be able to write these words you are reading right now.) In this way we "proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light" so that many more may glorify God on the day of visitation.

November 10 - Matthew 25:14-30

2011-11-10T12:24:00.000-06:00

(which also happens to be this upcoming Sunday's Gospel reading in the three-year series - thus the reference to 1 Thessalonians 5- so here's my sermon from 3 years ago)

After hearing Christ’s parable about His return, what is your reaction to Him telling you not to sit idly by waiting for Him, but to be busy with the work of our Master? Do you hear His parable and swallow hard – because you know the Day of reckoning is coming, when “God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil (Ecclesiastes 12:14)? Do you see yourself to be too much like the third wicked and lazy servant? Are you afraid that you will hear the same words, “Cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:30)?
If so, then find comfort in St. Paul’s grace-filled words: “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 Thessalonians 5:10). God does not want you in the outer darkness of eternal sorrow. Your Master wants you to live with Him and share His joy forever. Therefore, He places within you His Holy Spirit so that you no longer want to live for yourself. Because of Him, you want His kingdom to spread – and yet your wicked greed and laziness keep trying to bury His kingdom as they keep burying you. But the Lord raises you again to new life when all the debts you owe to God are forgiven in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
However, what about if these words and deeds of Christ do not move you? What if you do not hear Christ calling you to live a changed life? What if you groan when you heard today’s parable because it meant another sermon talking to you about your money? If this is true, then woe to you unless you repent. Before the end comes and it is too late.

First off, this parable is not about money. This parable speaks to everything that our Heavenly Master has entrusted to us. All that is good in your life is there only because God has donated it to you, as the Scriptures say, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). Though sin tempts us to see God as stingy, taking away more than He gives, the Small Catechism teaches us to “believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all that I have.”
What do you have that you did not receive from God? Well, besides your sin that has produced all the not-good things in your life. Yet this highlights that we cannot take credit for the good gifts in our lives. God gives these things as free gifts to you, “only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me.”
He did not give your body and soul to sin with, but to use them in thankfulness and praise to God, in our obedient service to Him. He did not give you eyes to see images and words that inspire filthy fantasies, but to consider His goodness in the beauty of His Creation. He did not give you ears to hear deadly lies and gossip, but to hear the Truth of His life-giving Word. He gave you a mouth, not that it would be filled with cursing, deceit, and threats (Psalm 10:7), but that your mouth would declare His Name – to say “O my God” in the only faithful ways of prayer, praise, witness, and thanksgiving. He gives you family and friends not to tear one another down and definitely not to murder in deed, words, or thoughts, the way the children of the darkness do. But as children of the light, God gives you the people in your life to care for, and to be cared for by, that together you may serve the Lord and others as long as you shall live. You do this especially when you “encourage one another and build one another up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11), “and all the more so as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:25).
While God gives the gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation equally to all Christians – for all receive the same Christ Jesus – God does not give out other gifts equally. But no matter whether that talent is 1, 2, or 5, small or large, Christ makes a claim on you, asking you to use it in faith. And yes, whether we like it or not, money is included – given to us by God both to support this body and life by paying for such things as food and drink, clothing and shoes, home, land, animals – even hospital bills and taxes and charity. Further, money is not just to be invested in this body and life, but also to work towards the life to come by financing the spread of Good News to you and your children and people around the world, the Good News of free forgiveness in Christ’s name and the resurrection of the body.
That gets us back to the parable, where Christ speaks – not ultimately about money, but in terms of money – about our Master’s return after a long delay, to encourage us to do works of love for God and man while we wait. When the day of reckoning comes, the Master honors the first two servants for their stewardship of doubling the 5 and 2 talents entrusted to them. In faithfulness, they had made the most of the gifts the Lord had given them to use, taking risks according to their abilities. In the end we find out that what is good for the Master is good for the servants, as they are welcomed to enter His joy – just like what benefits Christ, benefits Christ’s people, and vice-versa, because we are members of His body.

The third servant is not faithful. You might understand his actions if he really was afraid of his Master’s response, as he claims to be. But the Master sees right through that excuse, and condemns him as wicked and lazy. The servant refused to work for the welfare of His Master. He loves only his own neck, so he buries the gift in the ground as if it were a dead corpse. He even blames the Master for his evil lack of work, claiming that the Master is a hard man (v. 24). But the Master was more than generous in giving one talent, which was aomewhere in the neighborhood of ¼ million dollars. A lot could have been done for the good of the Master with that. But the wicked servant does not want the responsibility. To him it is a curse, rather than a blessing. He can’t get rid of the gift fast enough. “Here you have what is yours.” No worse (nor better) than when you gave it. His attempts to justify himself lead straight to the judgment of being stripped of his gifts, and cast out of the Master’s presence.
This parable certainly calls each of us to re-consider the gifts that God has given over to our stewardship. Have we been like the first two workers, or have we been like the third? The answer is yes. Have you been obedient, faithful and hard working? Yes. But have you been disobedient, unfaithful, or lazy? Yes, that too. There is definitely room for improvement in each one of our lives. And these questions we ask ourselves individually must also be asked of us as a church – how faithful have we been in using the gifts our Lord has bestowed upon our congregation? How have we done at laying up treasures in Heaven? Are we putting God’s Word to work among us, or are we treating His Gospel as if it has no power to save the lost world, hiding and burying God’s gift as if it were a dead thing?
Yet, we take the wrong message home from this parable if we leave here thinking, “I do not want to go to Hell, so I am going to start doing good.” For one thing, that change will only last until we numb ourselves to being scared of Hell. Besides, when punishment motivates us like it did the third servant, we are loving our own necks – not God nor our neighbor. Furthermore, this point of view sees God as a hard man. But He is a generous God, for no hard man would give His Son to save us. Jesus is the only Servant who always put His gifts to work for the good of His fellow man, and always in faith toward His God and Father. Despite His innocence and perfect obedience, Jesus will die only a few days after telling this parable, treated as if He was the wicked, lazy and worthless servant. Thanks be to God that He obeyed the Father, whose will was to send His Son to the darkness outside the gates of Jerusalem with His Cross, placed under God’s wrath against our wickedness. Amidst the weeping and gnashing of teeth, Christ cried out with a loud voice and died. This greatest gift of God was buried in the ground, only to return from the dead with blessings too numerous to count in His Resurrection. For not only did Jesus lose nothing that was entrusted to Him (John 18:9), He increases the wealth of His Kingdom with the salvation of sinners. He restores you to God, filling Heaven with the angels’ rejoicing over your repentance and faith. For even as He is raised from the dead and now sits at the right hand of God, so also you will be raised to enter His eternal joy and live with Him forever. As a guarantee of this promise, He overflows the treasures of Heaven into your life here, entrusting to us His own holy body and His blood more precious than gold or silver.
In this gift of the Son, the Father teaches us to know that He gives us all good things. He gives you His Holy Spirit, so that you would believe the sins of your past – your wickedness, laziness, neglect, greed, and your fears of risking loss – are all left behind you, buried as dead things in Christ’s tomb. So we also get this parable wrong if we refuse to let Christ’s words and deeds change us, that is, if we treat forgiveness as a free pass to return to our old wicked ways. No, the Holy Spirit teaches us to hate those sins, and in the knowledge of God’s holy will to no longer treat His gifts as dead and buried in the sand, but that we might press these gifts into service for the Lord, freely and faithfully to His glory and the good of our neighbor.
God grant that as today you hear Christ say to you, “My child, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you” (Matthew 9:2, New King James Version), so also at the end of your days you hear His words, “Well, done, good and faithful servant… Enter into the joy of your Master.” Amen.

November 6 (All Saints 2011, transf.) - Psalmody

2011-11-06T06:38:00.000-06:00

on this festal day when the light of the resurrection breaks into our darkness of death and we hear Jesus say to us, "Blessed are the...", Psalm 118:26 reminds us of the One who makes us more than just poor in spirit, but declares us blessed - "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!
We bless You from the house of the LORD."

October 31 - Keeping and Treasuring the Word - Road Edition

2011-11-02T08:25:00.000-05:00

Psalm 46 - what a good Psalm to have for Reformation. We spoke it yesterday at church, a Word that is very good for this man to live by. You see, I'm typing this while in the car with my parents and sister, while my wife is busy trying to get Halloween-hyped kids to calm down and get ready for bed. My parents health has gotten to the point where they needed to move out of the family home after over thirty years there. So needless to say, it's been an emotional weekend, saying goodbye to people and places and things, something that came far too soon for my tastes. For their's too, I know.
In the ten years since I left California, things have changed. Businesses have been built up, torn down, opened and closed and replaced one another. My best friend got married and has a wonderful son. My high school's football team has become a powerhouse, winning three statewide championships.
And my home church has grayed tremendously. It is no exaggeration to say I saw no kids at church yesterday. A few high schoolers, but that was about it. A lot of those who were there when we moved to town in 1979 are still there, though some have left town. We used to have as many there in each of the two services as were there for the only service yesterday. But the pastor is bi-lingual and also conducts a Spanish service on Saturday nights, so that is good.
My mind ran wild with memories during the service. Over there was the space which, before the remodel, was the sacristy where Pastor Rauschek asked me to consider becoming a pastor in 1986. There my dad and the president of the congregation talked to my confirmation class about their work on the Church Council. There, at that very altar, beneath that stained glass of our Christ praying in Gethsemane, was the place where I was fed the first of many times with my Savior's body and blood. In this sanctuary, between mother and father, I learned to sing such great hymns and canticles as we sang yesterday - "A Mighty Fortress" of course, and "Let the Vineyards be Fruitful Lord" and "O Lord, We Praise Thee" and "Thy Strong Word" - which also rang out as I approached that altar with the lovely and gracious Miss Laura Lee Schulz, and pledged before God and the witnesses present to love and cherish her all my days. I later stood next to her over there in the current sacristy with Pastor Moon looking on as she signed her name Laura Leistico. And then a year later I stood in that pulpit to preach my first sermon after becoming a pastor - and then less than a week later, my second as I had the privilege of officiating at my sister's wedding.
Pastor had an excellent sermon on Romans 3, with a little Matthew 11 sprinkled in. Amazing I remember much with all the talking my heart was doing. But the Word of God cut like a sword through all of it to give me the anchor of eternal things as I was grieving the loss of things temporal. And this a charitable donation from God to us (Pastor said that was the best synonymn he could find using Microsoft Word since he felt like he had said "free gift" too much.) Surely God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in my time of trouble. And though my parents' residence has changed, and I can't go home again, at least not to my boyhood home, there is that eternal city of God made glad by the river of life. That is my home, the thing I long for, where sorrow and sighing flee away, and the word "goodbye" never need be uttered again. Until then I take heed as my wife's favorite Bible verse is placed within my heart again - "Be still and know that I am God."

October 23 - Writing

2011-10-23T06:25:00.001-05:00

all I can say is, "Wow." Bonhoeffer nails it. Church, be Church. Christ builds, we confess. Take time to read it if you haven't - and you can read it here on Rev. Albert Colver's blog, as he ties it to the recent history of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Liberia!

October 17 - Deuteronomy 16

2011-10-17T13:15:00.000-05:00

I'm intending to write more, but for now - it was interesting that we read today God's warning of how bribery affects justice after I read this article online about a Congressman who stood up and named names concerning how lobbyists have corrupted justice being done in our Legislative branch.

October 15 - Psalmody

2011-10-15T21:50:00.000-05:00

Psalm 119:37 is truly appropriate as a prayer before going on the Internet, among other things.

Verse 40b causes me to think, and rejoice, as well, but that will have to remain my own thoughts until later when I can set aside time to reveal them.

2011-10-05T09:02:00.000-05:00

Rev. Weedon provides an excellent summary of the retreat we attended (officially it was a District Pastors' Conference... but SID is a special district. I am blessed)

Homily for Pentecost 16A (Proper 22) - Matthew 21:33-46

2011-10-03T06:06:00.000-05:00

Another Sunday, another parable from Jesus about how it is with the Kingdom of Heaven. And again it works in a way that no one on earth would ever do it. I mean seriously, pretend you are the landowner. You set everything up perfectly – whether it’s assembly line machinery and raw materials for your factories, or tractors, barns, anhydrous and the best seed for your farm. Nothing more could be done to give your business a greater chance at success. You hire managers at generous salaries to do your business as you need to travel overseas. Time passes and your workers are raking in your profits. So you send your advisors back home to do an on-site visit. And they beat the one, murder another and shoot another. If it was my business, I would be calling the cops at this point.

But Jesus says this business owner sends more servants, with the same deadly results. And then, then he believes they will respect his son? What in the world is going on? But he is not the only one thinking crazy thoughts. The wretched tenants actually believe if they murder the son, they will get the inheritance – as if they would go unpunished and get away with their crime! Who would be so dumb as to think that?

Of course, that is part of the point. Sin is dumb. From Adam and Eve hiding in the bushes from God through these Pharisees on to us and those sins we regret because we know better than to do them, it is a bunch of foolishness. Living as if it is better to sin than to avoid it, as if God does not care whether we obey Him in all things or not, as if there will never be a day of reckoning.

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And for as ridiculous as this parable is, you know it did happen in real life. Just a few days later, in fact. On Holy Tuesday, Jesus tells this parable to the chief priests and Pharisees who will do everything necessary to murder the Son of God. They have confronted Jesus in the Temple. “What right do you have to overturn the moneychangers’ tables? Who gave you the authority to teach in God’s House?”

And Jesus looks them square in the eye as His words teach them. He knows what they are up to. Their hearts’ deepest, darkest secrets Jesus knows. They claim to honor God, saying they will obey the Lord in every way – and then ignore the commandments. They say God’s Old Testament Prophets must be listened to, all the while these enemies fail to recognize that the Prophets speak of Christ and His forgiveness of sins. Their ancestors had done exactly what Jesus describes in the Parable. Jeremiah was mocked, arrested and thrown into a well. Elijah was wanted dead or alive by the king of Israel. The king of Judah ordered the prophet Zechariah be stoned to death right around the same place where Jesus stood that very moment in the Temple.

God had been patient with the Chief priests and Pharisees up to this point. But that time is quickly coming to an end. If they carry out their deadly plans against Jesus, God will put these wretched servants to a miserable end. And the Lord will hand His vineyard over to new tenants, to the Apostles who will give the Lord the fruits of faith and thanksgiving.

Yet even in this note of Judgment, see that Jesus is still opening the door to mercy. “That judgment does not have to fall on you. It is not too late for you who sin against me. Turn around. Get off this deadly path. Repent and find your salvation in Me,” Jesus says. Not just once, but again and again throughout their life.

So how does this text apply to you? I mean, I know you are not the chief priests or Pharisees of Christ's day. You do not have plans in mind to kill Jesus. You do not have a way to get rich off of teaching man's rules in God's Church to benefit yourself. However, if the Lord only meant these words for the people on Holy Tuesday, He never would have inspired Matthew, Mark, and Luke to write this event done.

All that being said, it certainly applies to pastors as the parable warns me that I must serve Father, Son and Holy Spirit – not me, myself, and I. The Lord makes clear here that if I keep going down this selfish path, not only will He take the Holy Ministry away from me, He will also put me to a miserable end. So what does that have to do with you? Well, what should you do any time someone faces danger? When they go into a risky surgery, you pray for them to survive. Likewise, where I face the risks of not only losing my faith, but also leading you astray for my own selfish gain, I need your prayers. Ask God to strengthen me so that I would be His faithful servant. And I thank you for saying prayers along these lines in the past.

Second, do not mistake God's patience for approval of your sin. There is a point of no return, a day of reckoning for all of us. Not one of us knows when it will be. And do not think you can get away with saying to God, “But I did not do something so bad as those Pharisees and chief priests. I love Jesus – I do not want Him dead.” Hebrews 6:6 warns that those who fall away and hold Jesus up for contempt “are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm.” Ignore these warnings at your own risk. God is serious when He lets you know about sinners heading to a miserable end.

Finally, find comfort in God's merciful actions in this parable. To those caught in sin, God does not send His servants only once. He sends His Word again and again. For our merciful Lord is patient toward you, not wanting you to perish. He will do everything necessary for you to reach repentance. He is at work to restore the joy of salvation to you, so that you once again bear the fruits of faith that He looks for.

And consider how hard God works to do it! Jesus tells this parable in an attempt to turn the chief priests around from their sin before they kill Him in Holy Week. He shows that He knows all things – and so any plot of the devil to take Jesus away from you will fail, just as this one did. For even though the chief priests and Pharisees were successful in arresting and killing God’s Son, you know that He did not stay dead! On Easter Jesus bodily rose from His grave. Christ proved that He worked Himself to death so that what the wicked tenants tried taking by force – the riches of the father in the parable – you get to have for free. For by that death of Christ, by grace He has granted you to inherit God’s Kingdom.

Because those Jewish religious leaders set themselves so against Christ, even to the point of bribing the tomb guards to say that the Disciples had stolen the dead body of Jesus, because they stubbornly remained unfaithful after many warnings and rebukes, God took His Holy Ministry away from them. God wanted you in Heaven with Him so much that He replaced them with workers who would tell you that Jesus is risen indeed. The Lord chose other servants, fishermen like Peter and tax collectors like Matthew, 12 men who had no chance on earth of being rabbis or rulers of the Jews. Christ appointed these apostles so that you would hear of and know and trust in the Jesus whom Matthew tells you about today – the Jesus who comes to confront your ongoing sin. To turn you around. To forgive you those sins and give you the inheritance of God’s Kingdom. Amen.

September 27

2011-10-03T06:03:00.000-05:00

Fascinating how the Responsory (TDP pg o-69, right column) is an actual response to the OT and NT readings!

Malachi 3:6-4:6 (especially 3:6-15) is summed up nicely by Psalm 34:9.
Matthew 4:12-25 (especially 15-17) by Psalm 43:3.
And the Responsory's antiphon of Ecclesiastes 12:13 works well with it all, and again especially with Matthew 4:17.

September 12 - Collect and "He Remembers the Barren"

2011-09-12T09:45:00.001-05:00

I had the privilege of going to a presentation on barrenness by Katie Schuermann and my friend Ben's wife, Rebecca Mayes. Katie (or was it Rebecca) commented that she has been paying attention to the Collects for the Day lately. The one assigned for September 12 specifically caught her ear when it was prayed in Church a few Sundays ago. Her heart in her barrenness may focus narrowly on the desire for her own biological child. Yet she found joy in the Collect's reminder that God has prepared good things that surpass our understanding and exceed all that we desire.

Here is Adriane Dorr's write-up of the night before at the Seminary. I heard the St Louis South County's Lutherans for Life bought copies of her book for all seminarians who attended her presentation, so kudos to them!

You might also check out their blog, Heremembersthebarren.com, as well as these posts - and the following comments - by my dear sister-in-Christ (and fellow Dodger fan), RPW:

http://rebelliouspastorswife.blogspot.com/2006/09/one-thing-missing-there-was-one-issue.html

http://rebelliouspastorswife.blogspot.com/2008/03/words-of-comfort.html

Homily for Pentecost 13A (Proper 19) - Genesis 50 and 9/11/11

2011-09-12T06:13:00.000-05:00

(adapted from Rev. William Cwirla's sermon from three years ago. Credit for the concluding sentence goes to Rev. Thomas Fast.)

I had thought I would say not much about the significance of today – that maybe you would be tired of hearing about 9/11 by now, hearing of it from TV, radio, the internet, sports events, friends and family. However, few of those will say anything about it from God’s perspective. And if the Church does not speak God’s point of view, who will? Now, if you are tired of hearing stories of 9/11, do not worry – I will not be telling those. That is the job of the media, and they are doing it well. This sermon has to do with more than just today – it is about how we see all evil that happens in life the way that God would have us see them, through the life of Joseph.

His story takes up the last quarter of the book of Genesis. Joseph’s brothers had wanted to kill him when he was 17, but brother Reuben thought better of it. Instead they threw him into a dry well, sold him to the first bunch of slave traders that came along, and convinced their dad that ferocious animals killed him. Meanwhile in Egypt, the Pharoah’s official named Potiphar bought Joseph to be a servant. After Potiphar’s wife falsely accused him of violating her, he ends up in an Egyptian prison. But Genesis notes that the Lord was with Joseph even during this dark time. He was put in charge of all the prisoners. And, it took a while, but thanks to God’s gift of interpreting Pharoah’s dreams of upcoming drought years, Joseph was both released from prison and put in charge of the whole grain supply of Egypt. It was no coincidence that when the famine hit back in Israel, Joseph was in the right place at the right time to help his father, brothers, and their families – just as God intended. Joseph has no hard feelings as he is reunited with his brothers and restored to his father Jacob.

In today’s text, dad has just died, and the brothers are terrified that Joseph has been nice only because dad was around. They beg forgiveness for all their evil. They hope that by invoking dad’s name, they can stop Joseph from taking revenge. They even go so far as to try to bargain with him. “We are your servants.”

But Joseph refused to accept their deal. “Am I in the place of God?” he asks. How could he fail to forgive them when God had forgiven Joseph so much? Peter, the disciples and the rest of us might need Jesus to tell His parable so that our minds get shaken up and we stop putting limits on our forgiveness, but Joseph does not need that. The King of the Universe has forgiven us, His servants, an absurd amount of debt – think almost 1000 years of wages, more than we could repay Him in multiple lifetimes. Jesus warns us not to be like such a wicked servant who was released from such a burden, only to go and demand the puny amounts owed by fellow servants.

The key to understanding Joseph in the OT is the key to understanding the Gospel parable. Who forgives first? The Lord. Who is forgiven first? The servant owing bazillions of dollars. We will not get life together with fellow sinners right until we get this right. God forgives us first – and we owe Him big time! What others do to us is small change compared to what we do to God. This is the problem with our failure to forgive, the reason Jesus tells His parable to shake us up. We deny how much God has forgiven us and forget He sent His Son as a descendant of Joseph’s brother Judah to forgive the sins of the world. And then we turn around and stop His forgiveness short with our desires to get even. Worse, we are taking the place of God, condemning those who do us wrong to be cut off from forgiveness.

“Am I in the place of God?” Joseph asks. And in a mysteriously wonderful sense, Joseph was. And I am. And you are. “In the stead and by the command of” – or “In the place and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ,” under His authority, I forgive your sins, a reality as true on earth as it is in Heaven. Likewise, you also stand in the place of Christ to give this same forgiveness of the Lord to your spouse and family, to your friends – and yes, to your enemies too.

Now comes the line in Scripture that should be burned into our brains, the verse that has everything to do with 9/11, and any other evil in every day. “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” (Genesis 50:20). You meant it for evil; God used it for good.

Do we really dare believe that, dear brothers and sisters in Christ? Can we really trust that when the world throws evil at us, the very evil that our friends and family do to us, that God will take it into His own hands and make it to be good?

Look to the cross of Jesus, dear friends. Men meant it for evil. They wanted to silence and destroy the Son of God, get rid of Him for good. They schemed and lied and perverted justice to get Him crucified. It was evil piled on evil. And God used it for the good of your salvation, my salvation, the salvation of Joseph and his brothers.

At times of great suffering, humans want to know why. Joseph in prison could have wanted to know why God was letting all that happen. Now in hindsight we can answer that – so that he could keep his whole family from starving. But with 9/11 God has not told us why He allowed that. However, we can focus on the “what” question. What does God promise? He promises that whatever evil happens to His people in the world, He will make to be good. And that is a matter for faith, because He does not promise the good will always be as clearly seen as rescuing famine victims.

Helmut Thielicke was a Lutheran pastor in WWII Germany. His congregation met amidst the sound of air raid sirens. They worshipped in a parish hall after their church was bombed to rubble. He writes, “We must therefore not simple say: ‘God’ sends death, ‘God’ sends cancer, ‘God’ sends multiple sclerosis. The existence of these powers is radically contrary to God’s plan of salvation. He allows it, and He undoubtedly is thinking His own higher thoughts when He does so.” And sometimes, even with sinful and small minds, we can figure out what God is up to when He does. “But then there is this other fact which is just as true – the totally new fact, which no man could ever discover by himself. Everything God permits the dark powers to do must first pass in review before Him. Everything is examined and censored by His fatherly eye to see whether it will really work ‘for good for those who love Him’” – as He promises in Romans 8. “Everything must first pass by Him, every bomb that may strike me, every shell-splinter that may take my dearest away from me, every intrigue or [deception] that men may inflict upon me. “And since it must first pass by Him before it can strike me, there happens what always happens when a thing or a person is looked upon by the eye of God: a great transformation takes place: Sufferings become trials which are meant to be endured in order that I may be purged and refined like the precious metal of gold. The great time of terror, in which the furies of man’s brutality, blindness, and [pride] are unleashed, become times of visitation. Death, the ‘last enemy’ becomes the ‘desire to depart and be with Christ’ (Phil 1:23).” The valley of the shadow of death becomes the place where I learn to rest under the Good Shepherd. The anxieties that torment me becomes the raw material God uses to build my trust and my faith...“It is as if God intercepts these originally evil and disastrous missiles of fate, catches them in His fatherly arms, and sends them in the direction He wants them to go for the benefit of His children” (Our Heavenly Father, p. 27-28).

Joseph says his brothers meant it for evil. God has used it for good. That is faith talking. God intercepts the missiles – and airplanes, and all hurtful words and deeds – all that are intended to destroy us. And He redirects it all for our good. It all goes through the crucified body of Jesus and His shed blood for you. God has made peace with the world, and with you, His baptized child, on that day 2000 years ago that was otherwise far more horrific than what happened ten years ago.

How can we not forgive? How can we not let go and leave it be? How can we not die to all evil done to us, knowing that God has first forgiven our evil, and then turned the sin done against us to be a blessing in His way in the end? Life in salvation by the forgiveness of sins – not just 7 times, but 70 X 7 beyond what you can keep track of. The death of 9/11 is overcome by the life of Jesus in 70 X 7. Amen.

September 3 - 1 Kings 19

2011-09-03T15:18:00.001-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

Old sermons stick with you, in this case one of Rev. William Cwirla's on 1 Kings 19 back during my college days (a friend of mine was a member at Holy Trinity LC).

He reminded us from Elijah's despondency that "You are not the only one." We get ourselves into great trouble when we think we are soloists in the Kingdom, rather than a part of an orchestra playing our parts so that God's great symphonic music might be produced.

September 2 - Ephesians 2 and Ephesians in general

2011-09-03T15:08:00.001-05:00

From some ruins of Ephesus, Image via Wikipedia

been busy with other stuff, good and bad... and ashamed to say haven't been keeping up on my own devotion schedule that I would like. On the other hand, I have put into practice "a little is better than nothing" and grabbed a quick read of TDP's Psalm for the day on the way out the door. Amazing how that little bit can sometimes be like hitting the reset button on your brain.

Anyway, Ephesians 2 contains so much mystery upon mystery and grace upon grace, but I want to focus in upon one in particular - that Christ "came and preached peace to you". But when did He do that? We have no record of the Ephesians having traveled to Galilee during the life of Jesus, nor of Jesus traveling anwhere near Ephesus. Ah, but in the great mystery of the One who says to His preachers, "He who hears you, hears Me" and to His hearers, "Whatever you have done to the least of these brothers of Mine, you have done to Me" Jesus did in fact go - in person and in the persons of His servants - to deliver peace personally to Ephesian Christians. And this day, when my heart is anxious and troubled by many things, that same Christ came and preached this peace to me in the words Paul wrote down. And now, in the bits and bytes displayed as words on your computer monitor, Christ is with you, saying, "Peace."

I wrote some other stuff about Ephesians 2 last year here. I'll add that this year Issues, etc 24 had Rev. William Weedon on for 2 hours about Ephesians - and listen for my question about Ephesians being a treatise on the ascension of Christ!

Homily for Pentecost 9A (Proper 15) - Matthew 15:21-28

2011-08-15T07:21:00.001-05:00

This Jesus seems so wrong – no matter how many times we hear today’s text, no matter that we know how the story ends. After all, we hear this Jesus call unfaithful Peter to walk on water to Him. We hear Jesus refuse to send the 5000 away, making miracle bread so the crowd can stay with Him. We hear Jesus scold the Disciples because they got in the way of the little children coming to Jesus. But today Jesus sounds so foreign, cold, and distant to this Canaanite mother who brings her little daughter to Jesus in prayer.

She is not asking for a nicer house, more money, or better friends. Her daughter is in the clutches of Satan. The pain of knowing your child hurts is one thing. But can you even imagine how terrified you would be if a demon possessed your little girl? So she prays, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon” (Matthew 15:22). She looks to the One stronger than demons, the Son of God who comes to destroy the Devil’s work. I ask you, was there ever a request so pure? A more noble request than this?

And all the more noble since this is a Canaanite confessing Jesus as the son of David, the Messiah. King David fought battles against the Canaanites. They were descendants of Cain, the son of Adam who murdered his brother. Israelites and Canaanites had a mutual hatred. Jewish people referred to them as filthy dogs. We do not know what the Canaanites called the Israelites.

Some might think that she is simply at her wits’ end, that she has tried everything else and figures this is her daughter’s last chance. She has heard others praise and honor this Jewish miracle worker, and works to butter Him up by repeating what they say. But no, as Jesus tests her, we see that this woman has honest-to-God faith. She is a better student than the Disciples as she recognizes the Son of God! “But He did not answer her a word.”

She prays without ceasing. She will not give up. The Disciples cannot take it anymore. They beg Jesus, “Just give her what she wants so she will leave us alone.” She is an embarrassment the way she cries out. But, by an accident of birth, she is not an Israelite. She has no standing, no claim to make on Jesus. Jesus says this in one of the most brutal declarations He ever makes, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

She refuses to go home disappointed, angry and self-righteous over what one might take as an insult. She is now more determined than ever. As surprised as we are to the way Jesus acts in this text, no less surprising is how she responds. The harsh, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” drives her to worship Him on her knees before the Lord. She will not release her grip on His Word, not matter how foolish or hard it seems. She trusts Jesus is good. On her knees she begs, “Lord, help me!”

And Jesus still does not give in. “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” What do you think would happen if you called some strange woman a dog to her face? It was no less an insult back then.

But, you know, if the all holy Lord calls us a dog, that is actually a compliment. We deserve far worse. He has every right to call us filthy no-good, dirty, double crossing cheats and swindlers and liars and murderers. Damned sinners, every one of us. We have earned that. We have no right to approach God. He owes us nothing but eternal destruction, torment in the presence of the demons. Do not think that He is impressed by you and your intentions. You have behaved disgracefully, as wickedly as I have. God says, “I gave you everything, and yet you rebel, seeking love and help and hope from worthless idols.”

What do you and I say to that? We really have only three choices, but the end result is the same for two of them. You can get depressed and give up on God, and walk away, angry at yourself. Or you can walk away angry at God, denying that He is right. In self-righteousness you can say, “Who does Jesus think he is? I’m going to find a better god that suits my tastes and says what I want to hear.” You can proudly proclaim, “I will show you God! I’ll cut myself. And in my temper tantrum, I’ll choose Hell over worshiping You.” And if you do, you will join the demons sooner than you expect.

That is the common way to respond to God’s harsh Truth of His Law. But there is a better way, the way that causes the holy angels in Heaven to rejoice. You can repent. You can agree that God’s Law is right. You can confess, “Yes, Lord, I am a dog. I wish I were not this way, but I am guilty and ashamed.” That sorrow is the first step of repentance. The second is trust in God’s mercy. Without the second half of faith, it is only sadness and despair, only self-pity and anger at yourself. Therefore our holy confession continues, “Yes, I am a dog. I have no merit or worthiness in me. I have justly deserved Your temporal and eternal punishment. But I believe that You are the Christ who has mercy upon us. That You forgive. That You are slow to anger and abound in steadfast love, therefore You will not cast me away from Your presence, nor take Your Holy Spirit from me. I believe that through the death on the Cross, You will restore to me the joy of salvation.”

That is not only how you respond to the Word of Christ, it is also how the Canaanite mother responded. She throws herself upon His Word, even when it is harsh. Like a bull-dog, she grabs on and will not let go. “Yes Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” She knows God is exactly as Isaiah and Paul describe todau – a God who has mercy on all. He brings even foreigners to His holy mountain. His House is called a House of prayer for all peoples. She knows Jesus is the Son of David who has not come for the righteous, but for sinners, to seek and save the lost. With that faith she asks Him to save her daughter.

And Jesus does. Her daughter was healed instantly. And this mother becomes a hero of the faith that the world has seldom seen. That is what the Lord was up to, why He seems so strange to us in this text. He was making an example out of the mother, a good one. Our dear Lord Jesus is not willingly afflicting her, torturing or tempting her. He was exercising her faith, strengthening her, teaching her to live by the Word of God and not by appearances. In her suffering, Jesus draws her – and us – closer to Himself. For in the end, Jesus does more than relent and give in to what she asks for. Not only is her daughter saved, but she is given a lively faith that has been recorded as an inspiration for Christians everywhere.

Demons still haunt our children and lead them away from the Lord. Why do you think the chaos London is happening? In part because the parents have swept their homes clean of God, and the demons have rushed in to make their homes. Churches are empty and being used now as art galleries, restaurants, warehouses, or worse. Better parenting and police action might help to make things better on earth, but in the end there is only one thing that will overcome the darkness we face – that is the suffering, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is stronger than the demons.

Last week at my Doxology conference, Dr. John Kleinig said that in Australia Christian parents and grandparents face the same problem as here – they feel guilty because they cannot get their kids to church. They see their family members trusting the Devil’s lies that life is better apart from God, and these Christians want to know what to say. Dr. Kleinig answers that we must not badger them. He points to today’s text and says just like this mother carries in prayer her daughter to Jesus, so can we prayerfully bring our wandering and erring loved ones to Him. As you pray for God to change their hearts, see yourself piggy-backing your loved one here to church, to the Lord’s Altar, and leave your loved one here in His presence. From now on, if you would like me to specifically name your loved one among the lost, wandering and erring during the prayers of the Church, just let me know – even if you would just like me to use only part of their name, so others do not know. But God will know.

You are not the only one who sorrows and struggles with this Cross. Let us pray to the Son of David for our children with as much determination as this Canaanite mother. Let us pray our “Lord, have mercy”s. Trust as she did that Jesus will help and save. For He does not ignore her, nor is He deaf to your prayers. He came for sinners like you and me who could not stand on our own, who can do nothing to free ourselves from our sinful condition. Jesus came to destroy the Devil’s work, to heal your wounds, bind your broken heart, and free you from Hell. You now hear His word and He takes away your guilt, shame and regrets. Receive His righteousness, holiness and innocence, especially as He invites you once again to come to His Table, to eat the Bread of His Body and the wine squeezed from His heart at the Cross. Forgiven, renewed, sanctified and blessed, Jesus gives us far more than crumbs that fall from the table. He gives us Himself.

God grant each of you a bull-dog like grip on Jesus – faith like this Canaanite mother had – so that with your whole heart you firmly believe His Word and promises. Amen.

August 8 - 1 Samuel 24

2011-08-11T11:15:00.001-05:00

(under the rubric of "better late than never")

The honor and integrity of David has impressed me in this text from the first time I heard it in Sunday School. This is not the way man apart from the Spirit works. Revenge! Yet if David had filled Saul's grave, there best be a grave dug for David too. God protects not only our possible victim, but also ourselves, by saying to us, "Vengeance is mine. I will repay." Those seeking vengeance may kill another person's body, but in doing so, they do worse damage to their own soul.

Back to the text at hand - on Monday I saw Christ in this text for the first time, the King of Kings who has us dead to rights. How often is He in our presence and acts without us being aware of it? How often have we sought after the death of the Son of David - and His Father? We have, like Saul, been jealous of Jesse's Son, felt He threatened our power and popularity. And this despite that we have nothing to fear - for He is loyal to us.

And yet He spares our life! More than just slicing off a corner of our garments, He removes from us all the fig leaves and filthy rags of our supposed righteous works. But not so that we would be unclothed, but so that we would be clothed in the flesh of Christ, great David's greater Son.

To Him be all glory and honor, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.

Homily for Pentecost 7A (Proper 13) - Matthew 14:13-21

2011-08-01T07:12:00.001-05:00

With the Lord there are no accidents. He leaves nothing to chance. Just think how doomed you would be if something could catch Him by surprise. You get to the Judgment Seat and He says, “You know, I died to save you from all your sins I knew about. But I NEVER expected you to sin the way you did on July 30, 2011! So since I did not expect it, I did not pay for it. Therefore, sadly, I am going to have to say you have to depart from Me.”
          Rest assured, that terrible conversation will never happen, not with our all-knowing Lord and Savior. Nothing surprises Him. The Lord is in control. Even during His earthly life, from the manger through the Cross to the Ascension, even when it seems as if everything is spinning out of control, Jesus is on top of it all.
          We need to learn this, especially after a week of things we cannot control – like debt ceilings and death. The news of John the Baptist’s death had sent shockwaves throughout the region. King Herod had arrested John and then ordered, “Off with his head!” because John dared to preach against his adultery. When Jesus heard this, it caused Him to withdraw from the crowds who had listened to His parables.
          I always thought it was to be by Himself. And then, poor Jesus, His plans for quiet time get disrupted by thoughtless people who cannot let the Guy have a moment to Himself. That just shows how much I need to learn that Jesus is in control at all times and never caught off guard. The crowds following Him and demanding His attention were all according to His plan. Jesus does not want them to go away because they are right where He wants them – so that He can do and speak and give the compassion His flock needed the most at the time of John’s death.
          The sheep who followed the voice of their good Shepherd are far less prepared. They gave no thought to grabbing some bread and water for their journey – not even for the children. No sippy cups or baggies of Cheerios. They just came as they were – and Jesus knew that they would.
          As prepared for stuff as we like to be, as self-reliant and in control as we think we are, as ready for anything that we try and make ourselves – what happens when we are not? When the unexpected disaster, disease or death catches us unprepared? What happens when we are out in the wilderness, that desolate place, and the sun is going down, and we have no place to go? What then?
          Then Jesus has compassion. He does not lecture the people that they were dumb for not preparing. No common sense wisdom talk about the value of planning ahead, which is probably what the Disciples had in mind. Send the crowds away! But not Jesus, the Good Shepherd. He does not lead His flock into the wilderness unprepared. He is prepared at all times to care for His sheep. And this, His Disciples need to learn.
           We need to learn this too. That when we are stuck in our wild and desolate places in our lives –feeling alone, forsaken, worried, vulnerable – that our Lord has not left us. And more importantly, that we are not in that place by accident. Our Shepherd has a plan for us precisely where we are at, in that unexpected place, to learn of Him and His care. That we would not to rely upon ourselves, but on Him. That we would trust that wherever our Shepherd leads us, it is good. It is what we need. For the Lord is still in control of it all, especially when it seems as if everything is going out of control.
          The Shepherd tells His sheep to recline and rest in the green pastures by the quiet waters, and He spreads a table before them. Out here the troubles of John the Baptist are far behind. The hustle and bustle of life becomes a distant memory. Out here, worldly politics and power struggles do not interrupt the taste of Heaven that breaks into Earth. It is just the Shepherd and His sheep. And it was just five loaves and two fish. Yet that is more than enough for the God who “opens His hands and satisfies the desires of every living thing” (Psalm 145:16) on a daily basis. It is more than enough for the God who fed His people with manna for 40 years in the wilderness. It is more than enough – 12 baskets of leftovers after everyone had their fill!
          When Matthew tells us the five thousand men, besides women and children, “were satisfied”, it means more than that they could not eat another bite. They were filled not only with earthly food, but with the Bread of Life. They were not sheep harassed and helpless. They were at peace. The flock at the feet of their Shepherd. There was nowhere else they would rather be.
          Sometimes it takes the wilderness, the desolate places in our lives, to get us to understand that there is no better place to be than under Christ’s tender care. Certainly we hear this – we hear it from this pulpit, we read it from the Word during devotions. But do we ever really believe we are helpless until we have to face it? Until we have tried and failed to get ourselves out of the mess we are in? The hard truth that we try to deny is that we are just as weak and vulnerable and helpless when life goes well, when we are cozy in our beds, with full tummies and refrigerators. How easy it is to fall back into self-confidence and self-reliance. Looking to ourselves for what we need, instead of looking to our Shepherd.
          And so out to the wilderness, the desolate times and places the Shepherd leads us – as individuals, as a congregation. Right where He wants us. Not to punish, but to have compassion. So that we can see we have nowhere else to go, and look to Him for all that we need. To turn the wilderness into green pastures, and the desolate times into His hour of blessing.
          With the Lord there are no accidents. Nothing surprises our all-knowing Savior. Even when it seems as if everything is spinning out of control, Jesus is on top of it all. The Lord is spinning everything for us and for our salvation. As we heard last week, everything, even all that tribulation, distress, persecution and death stuff, along with the nicer things in life – everything is being worked by God for our advantage, weaved by God into a beautiful tapestry of good for those who love God. When He humbles us, it is so that He may exalt us. When He takes, it is so that He may give. He kills to make alive. He uproots to plant. He tears down to build up. To do all of this, God calls us to repent. To repent of our pride, our desires for control, our feelings of self-sufficiency and self-satisfaction. To repent of all that we are, for we are nothing without Christ.
          And the Christ who leads us to this place of repentance does not send us away empty or leave us there to fill ourselves. He has compassion. He who will not leave His flock alone in the wilderness to fend for themselves, He goes alone to the desolation of the Cross. Not caught by surprise, not out of control, but in control, willingly, speaking of His free sacrifice ahead of time. For the purpose of taking our sin away from us, to give His life to pay for ours, so that we may not only avoid punishment, but also live – with sins forgiven and death defeated through the very same body and blood that feeds us in this life at this Table. That we may live knowing we are never alone with the Good Shepherd leading us through it all. That we may live not with bellies full here for a while, but live forever in Paradise, the Kingdom which has no end.
          For one day Jesus will lead us through the valley of the shadow of our own death – and He will draw others out to the desolate place of your funeral, so that once they are away from the hustle and bustle of their everyday lives, Christ would feed them with His Word as He has fed you. And even during your funeral, He will be with you, and you with Him. This is the reason He came to our world, to come to you and go through death and into life for you, to bring you, His sheep, from death to life. That you may be His own, and live under Him in His kingdom, in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. So rest in this peace, knowing that the Lord has left nothing to chance. Amen.

Homily for Pentecost 6A (Proper 12) - Romans 8:28-39

2011-08-01T07:10:00.000-05:00

(With thanks to Rev. William Cwirla for the thoughts in this sermon)

“We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). As we continue this summer’s journey through the book of Romans, we come to a text that is about everything and about nothing. It is about nothing in all this world being able to separate the baptized believer from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Nothing, not even tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, nor sword. Not even death. And this text is about everything working out for good in Jesus. Everything, even all that tribulation, distress, persecution and death stuff, along with the nicer things in life – everything is weaved by God into a beautiful tapestry of good for those who love God. And nothing can separate us from His love.
          Do we actually believe this? In the face of real troubles and distress and danger, do we as God’s baptized children trust that God will make everything wrong in our lives to be right in the end? Do we actually live as though God has given a divine purpose and meaning to our sufferings?
          If you have ever wanted to know why God allowed something to happen in life, I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that He gives the answer in Romans 8. The bad news is that you are going to have to stay with me here, because we are going way beyond the simple Sunday School Bible stories of God making it all right in the end – we are heading into the deep waters of God’s wisdom and love.
          Paul writes that those whom God foreknew, He also destined in advance to be conformed to the beautiful image of His Son, in order that Christ would be the firstborn of many brothers (8:29). What does it mean to be predestined to be conformed to the image of God’s Son? It means that the Father looks at Jesus and sees in His Son perfected and glorified humanity. In the beginning, God made man through His Son to reflect His Son’s image into the world.
          Adam epically failed as he let temptation separate him from loving God and listening to His Word. That sin drew us into all this tribulation, distress, danger and ultimately death in a Hell that was never intended for human beings, but prepared for the Devil and his demons. Adam stopped reflecting Christ into the Creation. Sin brings about God’s wrath, and He is plenty angry over it. Your sin deserved damnation, and we must not think that we can talk our way out of this mess with some excuses and good deeds.
          Especially since the Father has already embraced our sinful humanity in this way – “He did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all” (8:32). Despite the world being filled with sinners like you and me, He gives His only begotten Son to die, so that whoever believes in Him, trusting in life through death and resurrection, you will not perish in Hell one bit, but will have eternity with God. This is your destiny that God gives you in Christ, a destiny the Lord worked out before He began creating the world.
          It all happens in Christ who undid what Adam did. In Christ you were foreknown by the Father. Apart from Christ, the Lord at the gates of eternity says, “Depart from Me. I do not know you.” In Christ, even before you existed you were destined to be conformed to the image of Christ, who is the image of God. That divine plan was worked out long before you had any say in it, the Holy Trinity's plan from all eternity to save the world in the death of God's eternal Son in our flesh.
          In Christ it is all a done deal. You were called in Christ, baptized into His death and resurrection, having heard the good news of Jesus which has worked its good way with you. And that good news is that you are justified. The blood of the Son takes away your sin. Therefore the judgment from God’s throne is that you are innocent. All you can say to that not guilty verdict is “Amen.” So be it. Do not bother arguing, trying to excuse your sin. You do not have a case. Besides God has said that in Christ any need you have for justifying yourself is taken away. If God says you are innocent, that settles it. This very moment, as I speak, you stand before the all-holy Judge, who is a consuming fire. You stand before Him spotless and blameless. For you are clothed with the perfect life and death of Jesus. That is what it means to be justified.
          Apostle Paul does not stop there with that blessing, so neither can we. “Those whom [God] justified He also glorified” (8:30). Note that all these verbs are done by God, and they are in the past tense, done deals. He takes everything eternal out of your hands. He foreknew, predestined, called, justified, glorified. Even as you sit here with all your earthly distresses, you are now already seated in Christ at the right hand of the Father in glory as Ephesians 2 declares. You are glorified in the glorified risen flesh of Jesus. He embodied you in His perfect life, death and resurrection – and now He embodies you in His ascended glory. As Paul says elsewhere, your life is hidden in Christ. When Jesus appears again, then your glory will be seen by all (Colossians 3:1-4). You see that all by faith. But sight sees you in yourself, and it is not all that glorious. In your self, you suffer, you sin, you die. But in Christ you are glorified, pure, and holy.
          Because all the above is true, because you are foreknown, destined, called, justified and glorified in God’s beloved Son, what on earth can mess you up? You are safe in Christ, wearing Him like a spiritual bullet-proof vest – or bodysuit, really. If God is for us – and He is in Christ – then who can be against us? If God gave us His own Son, how will He hold back on giving us the lesser things of everything else? If we are justified by God, declared righteous with all charges laid on Jesus, who can condemn us? Jesus was literally damned on the Cross in our place. He who hung to death with our sins now lives to intercede with the Father for us. He never lets the Father forget those nail-marks which He still bears. And Jesus never lets us forget the wounds that earned our salvation either, as He gives us that gift in His Body and Blood.
          So who can condemn us? Satan is left with no true charges to bring against us. Who else can condemn us? The world? We ourselves? Yes, it certainly happens that the human mind condemns us – but only because people get it in our heads that we are greater than God. For when you say, “I cannot forgive myself” in reality you are trying to overrule God. The Bible says not one word about forgiving yourself because that is not the way it works. True and holy forgiveness always and only comes to you from others. So repent. God forgives you. See yourself as God sees you in Christ, not as you see yourself. Stop disagreeing with Him.
          “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (8:35). Do you actually think it is possible to make Christ stop loving you? Throw everything at His love – tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword. Bad childhood. Broken marriage. Failure to be wholly devoted to God. Sickness. Think of anything – even death, devil, angels, earthly governments; the past, present and future. High things, low things, any and every thing. The Apostle tells us that in all these things we more than conquer – we literally “hyper-conquer”. Not by ourselves. But in Christ who loved us enough to conquer these things for us with His painful death.
          On this side of our graves, our victory can look an awful lot like defeat. That is why Paul emphasizes the “in Christ” stuff so much. It must be trusted and believed for Christ’s sake. In this world, you must walk by faith in Him and not by sight. For the victory Jesus gives looks like a Cross and a tomb. No matter what other people say about the victorious Christian life bringing success for all the world to see, most of the time it looks nothing like that. Paul describes it as being filled with failures, tribulations, distresses, persecutions, famines, nakedness, dangers and violence. Paul makes sure we know that this is not just his idea, but that the OT people said it too. Psalm 44 describes the godly life as facing death all day long. The sheep following Good Shepherd Jesus are seen as sheep being led to the slaughter. Hardly what the world would describe as victorious.
          Thus Paul emphasizes how important it is for us to be in, with, and under Christ. For only there is your destiny, your justification, your glorification a done deal. At your baptism, God put you into the safest place there is – the death and life of Jesus. Only here is everything worked out for your good. Only here can you say to your dying day: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor 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.” Amen.

July 13 - Judges 13

2011-07-13T11:04:00.000-05:00

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O LORD, how often we mistake Your holiness for our destruction, such as when we think Your commandments will harm us and sin will help us, or as when Manoah thought he was doomed to death for seeing You. Grant us the faith of his wife, that we would always recognize the appearance of Your holiness is for our salvation.

Ineresting that the Angel of the Lord says His name is wonderful, since that name is also given in Isaiah 9, along with Counselor, Almighty, God, and so on.

So just who is this Angel of the Lord that speaks to Manoah and his wife?

The Bible reveals that the Angel of the Lord is perhaps someone different than you might at first think. He is not a created angel like Gabriel or any of the myriad others that God made in the beginning. This Angel is uncreated. That's why in many Bibles, the "A" for this Angel is capitalized. This is an eternal and divine Being. Angel literally means Messenger; we might even translate it as "Word," as in John 1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." You see, this is the Messenger of the Lord, the Word of the Father, the 2nd Person of the Holy Trinity, equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Angel of the Lord is the Son of God, Jesus, before He was born among us and became man. Here the Son of God has come down to man to announce a miraculous birth through which God the Father would deliver His people, just as centuries later the Son of God Himself would be miraculously born to bring eternal deliverance to His people.

(from an Advent midweek sermon on Samson by Rev. Aaron Koch. Scroll about halfway down.)

July 11 - Judges 7

2011-07-12T13:46:00.000-05:00

heh. I just told a brother on the phone last week that God would need to give me some of Gideon's fleece to convince me He wanted me to accept a call to Chicagoland. The assigned reading for July 11 does not count.

Homily for Pentecost 4A (Proper 10) - Romans 8:12-17

2011-07-12T13:10:00.001-05:00

(With thanks to Rev. William Cwirla for most of the thoughts expressed here.)

The Apostle Paul works at completely changing the way we think in Romans 8 – which then will affect what we do. For instance, chapter 8 starts off announcing the great news, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” Just think how people would live their daily lives differently if they learned those words by heart. For consider how often sin and death make people’s decisions for them. Or how much worry is caused by doubts about what God thinks of you.
Yet here God says not to worry – see how much He loves you as His Spirit sets you free. Christ’s umbrella of grace and forgiveness covers you, shields you from the Holy Law’s condemnation that your guilt deserves. Though you are still a sinner, and though you will one day die of something, you are no longer captive to sin and death. For God sent His Son to live as one of us, taking up your humanity so He could be the ultimate sin offering by taking your sin into His crucified flesh to free you from Hell.
This turn of events calls for us to change our way of thinking. Paul explains in Romans 8:5. “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” It is so natural for us to focus on our sinful desires. Let your minds wander, and if God does not stop you, some evil thought will certainly pop up. How embarrassed would you be if someone knew what goes through your head? Especially here in church, or perhaps while reading the Scriptures. We are not as devoted to Christ as we want others to think. We can get caught up in conversations or movies or sports and lose track of time. Yet when it comes to God’s Word, even the slightest thing distracts us. Sin persuades us that the story of Christ for us is boring.
Why on earth do we do this? We do not give the greater honor and devotion to the Lord because, as Romans 8:7 puts it bluntly, our minds naturally are hostile to God. By nature we sinners might appreciate this or that saying of God – as long as we can take it out of context, use it to our benefit and ignore the uncomfortable things God says that reveal our guilt.

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The sinful mind and heart is like that hard pavement Jesus describes in today’s Gospel parable of the seed in the soil. God’s Word just bounces off the mind hostile to Him, and the Devil snatches the Word away like a bird gobbling up seeds. Or else the mind goes along with the Word – but only until it gets a bit thorny to let the Word of Life tell me how things should go. I love the things of this world. And I do not appreciate the Bible’s call to sacrifice that love for the love of Christ. Like the seed that fell among the rocks and the thorns, my faith is choked and dries up. So whether God’s Word is received with joy for a short time or outright rejected, it does not much matter. The end result is the same – a dead mind held captive to the sinful nature. It cannot submit to God’s will because sin wants to be the Almighty director of all that happens.
No wonder that those who are captive to the sinful nature cannot please God. Jesus said the same thing in John 15, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” He is the Vine, we are the branches. Joined baptismally to Christ in faith, we are fruitful in His life. If I sever myself from Jesus, I am as fruitless as the seeds on the hard pavement or the rocky, thorn-infested ground.
“You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you” (Romans 8:9). And the Spirit does dwell in you and now in Brystol too because you are baptized. She has a new identity – child of God. That is the core of who you are. Next time someone asks you who you are, think about telling them first off, “I am a child of God.” And all those reasons that you are coming up with why you would never do that – that is the sinful mind hostile to God making itself known to you. You might be many things in life – husband, mother, worker, student, retiree, neighbor, grandchild, citizen, pastor, parishioner. And certainly you remain a sinner until your death. Nevertheless, you are now to identify with the Spirit of Christ. For you are changed, made new by God. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Now you think about things in a new way. Which is what repentance literally means in Latin – to think again; or in Greek, repent is from the word for a changed mind; or in Hebrew it is “to be turned” – not that I turn myself, but that I am turned by God. God turns your mind away from the sinful nature to our new nature in Christ; away from the old, dead you, toward the new you alive in Christ’s righteousness. Let me explain. A college friend last week showed me some photos from graduation. I had forgotten what I looked like with facial hair and it took a while to stop staring at the picture. Now, let’s say that instead of a beard, I had some ugly facial feature that was removed with surgery, resulting in some miraculous transformation. How sick would it be for me to now sit and dwell upon how ugly I used to be? I might have needed some time to get used to my new look in the mirror, but it would be wrong of me to go around as if I was still that ugly duckling.
Now let’s apply that to the Word of God in our lives. We were born worse off than spiritual ugly ducklings, for we were damned to die as fallen children of Adam. However, through no help from us, God in mercy rescues us from the junk heap and makes us His own. For all the times we have closed our ears to His Word He sent His Son, but His own people did not receive Him. The Devil snatched Him away as men grabbed Jesus to arrest Him and nail Him to the Cross. For all the times we have let the worries and love of this world choke off our faith, Jesus wore a crown of thorns. And then He was buried in the rocky ground of the stone cold tomb. Then Jesus sprang up – but not like the seed that was planted in the rocky ground that withered, for Jesus lives never to die again. He rescues us from this body of death and gives us life abundantly. So now where should we fix our minds? Should we sit and dwell on that old sinful nature that leads to death and hell? Or on that new nature, that new you in Christ and whatever is good, noble and true in thanksgiving to God? When you put it that way, it is not a tough decision. It is just that in daily life we do not ordinarily put it that way and things get more interesting.
In today’s Epistle text, Paul spends no time telling us what to do, because doing stuff does not make us children of God. He reminds us of who we are, who God has made us to be by grace. He points our attention, our minds, to Christ where we find our true identity – and everything outside of Christ becomes empty and mostly not worthy of consideration.
“Brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh” messed up with sin. That is what got us into trouble in the first place, bringing us nothing but misery and death. Now our debt is to live according to the Spirit of Christ, to put to death the dirty deeds of sin. Daily we must turn our minds away from sinfulness and again to the Christ who rescues us.
You are led by the Spirit and you are sons of God. Plant that home, deep in your mind and heart. You belong to God in Christ. You have the Holy Spirit who frees your mind and breathes life into your body. He is no spirit who enslaves you with fear, for He promises you will face no condemnation. Nothing for you to fear in the end of days from God’s judgment. Yes, we are to fear, love, and trust in God above all things. But that fear is the right honor, respect and devotion that God deserves for having yanked us out of the jaws of sin and death. There is no fear of punishment, wrath, and Hell that in the end would drive us away from loving God – for Christ has saved us from all that.
As a father gives good and necessary gifts for life to His Children, so He has given you His Spirit of adoption as sons. Brystol will learn to call Kurt, “Daddy, Dad, Father” someday, and likewise we pray like little children, “Abba, Father.” Perhaps Paul started thinking of the Lord’s Prayer while writing this. Have you ever stopped to think about how strange it is to call God “Father”? He is high and mighty, the Creator of all things, with so much to keep track of. What gives us the right to speak to Him – especially on such familiar terms? His Son Jesus gives us the right, teaches and tenderly invites us to pray this way, as a dear child would come to his or her dear Father in Heaven saying, “Pappa. Daddy. Abba.” And the Father turns His ear and says to those around, “Did you hear that? Those are my children!”

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And as His child, then you also are an heir of God and fellow heir with Christ. The Baptismal service was filled with that word. “Heirs” is an identity full of grace. To be named an heir, you do not do a thing.
You receive and benefit from the death of another. The death of Jesus has made the treasures of Heaven yours. So now forgiveness is yours. Eternal life yours.
Which helps us to see our troubles differently, giving us strength to endure them. Today’s text concludes by saying we are called to suffer in this life with Christ. But note that suffering is not on our own. We are with Christ. And this happens “in order that we may also be glorified with” Jesus on the day He appears to raise us.
So set your mind on these things as children of God, heirs of Heaven. All thanks to Jesus. Amen.

July 6 - Isaiah and Acts 13:10

2011-07-06T17:22:00.000-05:00

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It's hard to limit what I'd want to say about this Evangelist... errr... well, you know what I mean. The Responsory for the Evangelists is quite appropriate for today (and the Antiphon even quotes him - see TDP O-73). It is little wonder that Isaiah appears so often in the Lectionaries - including this Sunday's inclusion of a personal favorite, Isaiah 55. Recent Advents and Lents found me preaching on Isaiah 9 and 53, respectively.

Andrew Bartelt gave an excelent presentation on Isaiah today on Issues, etc.

Isaiah proclaims the Lord's work of making straight the ways that once were crooked. It intrigues me that St. Paul in today's NT reading condemns the magician Elymus for undoing this.

Far be it from us, O LORD, that we should forsake You to serve other Gods, for You have brought us and our fathers out of the house of slavery, and have done the great sign of restoring Your servant, our Messiah, to the land of the living (Joshua 24:16-17, with an Isaiah 53 spin).

June 27 - Commemoration of Cyril of Alexandria

2011-06-27T11:45:00.002-05:00

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I first became aware of Cyril... well, probably in Dr. Weinrich's Early Church class, but I guess I forgot him after the exam was over. While doing sermon prep in Year C about 4 years ago, I noticed that Cyril kept having these great quotes in the Ancient Christian Commentary on Luke. So I did some research and got a great bargain on his Lukan commentary. The way he pulls in the rest of Scripture when commenting on Luke's writings. WoW. Here's a few links:

Cyril's Commentary on Luke (though it doesn't have the cool icon art that my book does) and John

Commemoration of Cyril of Alexandria by Paul McCain

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by Aardvark Alley

Patristic QuoteS of the Day from William Weedon - who will be on Issues, etc this afternoon talking about this saint

And speaking of Issues, etc (which I still haven't won a Blog of the Week yet from them! Stiff competition) - here's what Rick Stuckwisch and Heath Curtis had to say.

2nd Sunday After Pentecost (Proper 8A) - Romans 7:1-13

2011-06-26T15:18:00.000-05:00

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(HT - Rev. William Cwirla)

If anyone has ever confronted you with your sin and asked you why you did it, and you honestly could not give them a reason, Romans 7 is for you.
If you think that someday you will figure out how to follow Christ the right way and not be so sinful, Romans 7 is for you.
If you think sin is no problem for you and the Christian life is easy, then Romans 7 is for you.
If you think the Christian life is too hard and you have given up on ever getting into Heaven, then Romans 7 is for you. In short, St. Paul wrote Romans 7 for every one of you and for me.
Actually, the Apostle wrote Romans 1-6 for us as well, and Romans 7 builds on the major points he made earlier. Since Paul assumes you know them, so it would be good to read through Romans at home this week. In short, Paul works like a lawyer, presenting evidence and arguments to make his case. But unlike any ordinary lawyer, he switches off from prosecuting you for your sins to being your defense attorney. In Romans 1, he begins his case presenting evidence against those who honoring false gods or no god at all – their false belief leads them to fill their lives with all manner of evil. And right as Paul has you cheering him on for shooting down those proud sinners with both barrels of God’s Law – right then in Romans 2, the Apostle turns the shotgun of the Law at you! Yes, you who look down on the evil people who are destroying our country – you practice the very same evil that you condemn (2:1) – the same greed, nastiness, strife, deceit, gossip, pride, the same disobedience and heartlessness. You have no excuse for any of this! Especially since you know that the Day of Wrath is coming, the Day God’s righteous judgment against sin is revealed.
When Paul gets you owning up to your sin and shame, he switches his tone from prosecuting to defending, as he writes, “23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3).
We get into God’s good graces not by our works, but as His gift in Christ. We get forgiveness for the sins that shame us as His gift in Christ. We get rescued from the Hell we deserve by grace, as His gift in Christ. We do not even think of boasting that we are better than unbelievers – or anyone for that matter – because our eternal life is all God’s gift in Christ.
Paul knows how Sin wants you to think that now it does not matter how bad you live, since you will be going to Heaven no matter what. But God forbid that we take God’s kindness for granted. Paul reminds you of your Baptism in chapter 6 to begin the illustration that continues into our chapter 7 today – an illustration that uses death, of all things. You died in Christ and were buried with Him in Baptism. God declared you dead to His Law. Sin no longer reigns over you. Christ does. “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11). You are as dead as dead Jesus hanging on His Cross when it comes to the Law.
Now Paul builds on that point with an illustration from marriage – a wife is bound to her husband, and husband to wife, “’Til death do us part.” There is no mention of divorce here because he is talking about how God says life should go. God tells married women they are not to go off and live with another man while the husband is alive. But if her husband dies, the Lord says she is free from the Law of marriage, free to enter another marriage if she wants.
Paul says you are like that free widow. Your baptismal death has set you free from the Law. Free from your bondage of sin. Free to belong to the God who raised Jesus from the dead. Free to live a new life. Free to bear fruit to God as branches joined to Christ the Vine.
Now there are two opposing forces in our lives – our flesh and the Holy Spirit. Our flesh is filled with sin – but here the Apostle is not so much talking about all those dirty thoughts, words and deeds – like murder, theft, lying, and rebellion. Paul is talking about our condition of sin. Like a cancer, sin has invaded your body, taking over your cells, wreaking havoc so that your body is not able to do what you were made to do. And just as the body cannot cure itself of cancer, neither can it cure itself of sin.
Some have thought education is the answer. Evil people behave the awful ways that they do because they do not know any better. Just teach them enough religion, and they will become better people. Surprisingly, Paul says that learning God’s Laws can actually make a person worse. When his teachers taught young Paul that commandment forbidding us to sinfully desire stuff that God says does not belong to you, then Paul not only knew “You shall not covet”, he also knew sin too. It was about like a commandment saying, “You shall not yawn” – and the minute a person hears that, they cannot stop themselves from yawning. Which might not be the best example for a preacher to use, but anyway, Paul could not stop himself from coveting – and this was a good young Jewish kid who did not know what coveting was 5 minutes ago.
In other words, that foreign invading cancer of Sin takes the opportunity of all those “thou shalts” and “thou shalt nots” and it deceives us to death. We think we can keep the commandments. Yet the harder we try, the worse it gets. Either we deceive ourselves more into ignoring our sin and becoming proud about how happy we imagine God is with us, or else we see our sin and despair of God’s love. So the end result is actually the opposite of what we might expect – spend time in the Bible and Sin becomes all the worse. Not that the Bible makes us do all those evil things – God’s Law is holy and righteous and good. But the sin that lives in us responds to it in very bad ways. The more we learn the Scriptures the more sinful we become. “Sinful beyond measure” is the way Paul says it. So sinful, you despair of saving yourself, which is precisely the point.
Our text stops here, but Paul goes on to his next point which is what you will hear next Sunday, writing, “We know that the Law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.” Notice that he does not say, “I *was* unspiritual before I was a Christian and got straightened out,” but he says, “I am unspiritual.” Do not be thinking St. Paul is any holier than you are, as if you just needed to figure out the secret to becoming a superChristian like him. Do not think Paul has found the answer to the righteous life inside of him by getting all spiritual. You will hear Paul say next week in the end of Romans 7 that nothing good lives naturally inside of him.
And you will hear Paul describe the war that goes on inside himself. He sets his mind on doing the good, but he cannot get it done. What he does is the evil he hates – and this is an Apostle of the Lord talking.
If you think it is easy being a Christian, guess again. Never mind what the false preachers say about all your problems being fixed if you just give your heart over to Jesus and clean up your act. Consider how Martin Luther once wrote that he was most troubled in his life when he had no troubles at all. At those times he thought he had gotten so far off the righteous way that the Devil saw no reason to mess with him. In today’s Gospel, Jesus lovingly warns us that where He brings His saving work, there will be a cross for His follower to carry. And sadly many of you know situations our Lord describes - Christians with families divided for and against Jesus. They daily have reason to ask themselves, “Am I doing this out of love for Christ, or am I loving this family member more than I love Jesus? Am I more concerned about what they might say than what the Lord does say?” The temptation to seek peace at any and all costs is a strong one, especially among people you have to live with. Jesus responds to this by saying, “Do not think I have come to bring peace to the earth,… but a sword.” That sword of His Word cuts right through the heart of each and every one of us. It literally means losing your life. Dropping dead to your self in order to find your life in Christ.
Jesus is the One who saves us from our sin-filled bodies and souls, for He is the One who gave His perfect and innocent body and spirit into death on a Cross. He cleanses and renews us by baptizing us into His death and grave.
Therefore, Paul goes on to say in Romans 8, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." That Judge Whom Paul spoke of in Romans 2, coming on the Day of wrath to reveal His judgment against sin, has already declared you to be innocent. He has no condemnation for you, for all that sin of yours that should lead you to eternal shame. "For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” as God has done by sending His Son to be the sacrificial offering for our sin.
Today we struggle. With our flesh corrupted by sin we serve the Law of sin. Yet with minds renewed by the Spirit, we serve the Law of God. That is how it is – the life of Christ in a body of death. And that helps us to learn to believe that our salvation from Hell into Heaven is not our doing, but must be by God’s grace, through faith, for Christ’s sake. Amen.

June 24 - The Nativity of John - What Luther Says

2011-06-24T04:56:00.001-05:00

HT: Rev. Matt Harrison for this quote some of you may have read yesterday -

Image via Wikipedia

no, not this Matt Harrison.

…And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God! Jn. 1:36

Other prophets have also foretold how Christ would come and how He would free the world from sins. But neither Isaiah nor Jeremiah would have been able to say: This is the one whom you must accept. John is the only one whose voice was the first to announce Christ and whose fingers pointed to the person where the forgiveness of sins is actually to be found. No human being had ever had or seen fingers like those of John, with which he pointed to the Lamb of God. Therefore, when we are oppressed by sin, or terrified by the Devil or by Death, what we need to do is to look at the mouth and fingers of the preacher, who will give us the correct teaching and show us how to come to the forgiveness of our sins and how to make our peace with God. This is the joy that the whole world, not just Elizabeth and Zechariah, should have in John.

Image by Lil' Rhody Dan via Flickr

Martin Luther in Luther’s Breviary: A Meditation for Each Day of the Year (Wartburg Verlag 2007), p. 192

June 20 - John 18 (better late than never) + Trinity Sunday Sermon

2011-06-22T11:20:00.000-05:00

The interactive workings of the mind, heart and Scripture is fascinating.
About like seed planted that suddenly appears above ground,

as Someone once said...

Image by donielle via Flickr

Image via Wikipedia

I've noticed a lot of movies and tv shows I watch explore the question, "Who are you?" - the most recent being Kung Fu Panda 2. Though I had seen such movies as Star Wars deal with the question, I was not explicitly aware of it until Babylon 5. The driving story arch across the first seasons had to do with two sets of aliens guiding and using humans and other alien races in their conflict with each other. One asked "Who are you?" The other asked, "What do you want?" The results were disastrous (genocide) when the second question was answered before the first.

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This morning these thoughts all came together for me with the John 18 reading from Monday. For Adam and Eve's forgetting they were God's creatures, for David's forgetting neglecting his duties as King when it came to Uriah and his wife,

for the way you forgot

you are the child of God

when pursuing what your sin wanted

earlier today -

turning a deaf ear to the Truth,

and for every time in between,
Jesus remembers who He is as King under God when He speaks to Pilate (John 18:33-37) so that He would be our perfect substitute in the image of God and man.

Below is the sermon I preached for Trinity Sunday, which was influenced by my viewing of Kung Fu Panda 2, based on what the Sober Peasant preached some years back.

+++
Holy Trinity Sunday (and Father's Day)
Genesis 1
Image of God Restored

America based its right to declare independence from England on the principle that all men are created equal – and yet many of the signers owned slaves. When the Constitution was adopted years later, slaves were counted as 3/5 of a person. Thanks be to God that those days have passed, yet today US laws still see some people as more valuable than others – namely, too many see those in their mothers’ wombs as less than a person. And who is considered more important – a sports star or a resident of a nursing home. Even in our personal lives we make value judgments. Is a person worth our time? Our effort? The request for money from a charity. The friend who needs help – or the neighbor you don’t like. And we decide that not all of these are equal. Some are more worthwhile.
Today we are reminded that in the beginning, God created man and woman equal but different. Both equally loved by God, but He puts them together differently with complimentary parts and roles. Adam to be husband and then father of the whole race of humanity, and Eve to be wife and mother to all the living. Created differently, but yet equally created in the image of God. Blessed differently, but equally together and not apart. “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28).
But what does it mean that “God created man in His own image”? No other creature or thing was created with this. God deemed everything else good, but not even the angels were created in God’s image. This honor was only given to humanity. This image of God business means not that we looked like God does, but that we had His perfect righteousness. We had His right knowledge of the way things were, the way we were, and the way He is. We had true fear, true love, and true trust in God and in each other. We cared for each other rightly and could receive that care. We listened to one another and heard everything right as we said everything the right way. And God shared with us His authority over the world He made. Just think about Adam giving names to all the animals – or how still to this day people name their children and their pets.
Yet as you know, that perfection is long gone. The image of God was lost at the Fall. Even when God tells us precisely who He is in the Scriptures, we get Him wrong – let alone what type of false God people imagine when they live apart from the Bible. Instead of a loving Father, God is often seen as a demanding and sometimes mean, or sometimes weak deity. How could anyone love someone like that, or put our confidence in him, her, it, they, or whatever type of supreme beings you could come up with. Often times those gods become a version of me, only much better. And so my will becomes the gods’ will and I choose what lessons I want to learn – instead of having a loving Father who teaches me according to His will how I should go. And not for His benefit, but for my good in the end.
Sin has broken Creation – just consider the storms that worked through here the past two mornings, and the far worse destruction in Joplin and Japan. Yet even more tragic than that is how sin has torn us apart. We are now different than what Adam and Eve were – and we judge and love and care for other people differently than we should. From the moment Adam and Eve sinned, they became sinful, ashamed, and corrupt. They had lost the glory and image of God and they became embarrassed by their nakedness.
Not wanting to be seen, they hid themselves from each other with fig leaves, and hid themselves from God with bushes. Fig leaves and bushes are just as flimsy as the excuses we use and the other things we hide our sin and brokenness behind. We want to keep others from knowing who we really are, so we put up masks so that people will think differently about us. We find substitute images for the image of God that we lost. So that you look holy, or brave, or kind, or at least not so damnable. The Declaration of Independence is right in this – we are all equal – equally deserving of Hell. Equally corrupt before the throne of the Almighty Judge – every person 100% sinful. We might successfully fool some people into thinking better about us, but all our lies work about as poorly as fig leave and bushes when it comes to God.
Yet as you have heard, the God who originally created us in His image does not leave us fallen and broken. For the God who creates is also the God who re-creates. He – not us – is working to restore His image through Christ in our fallen and broken bodies and souls. For we did not bring Jesus to us, but the Father sent His Son. As the true and exact image of God the Father, Jesus shows us is a true man, unbroken by sin. Jesus is the Righteous One who knows the Father, has complete confidence in His Father, and does His Father’s will at all times – not grudgingly, but willingly.
Jesus comes not primarily as an example to imitate, but to restore to us the holy image that we lost. He took from us our sinful ways of dishonoring Our Father in Heaven – and, considering that today might have you thinking of your earthly fathers, Jesus also took from us all our guilt for breaking the Fourth Commandment, and all the others too. Jesus claimed our broken image and the punishment and death we had earned for His own. In return, as we heard last week, Jesus gave us His Spirit. And through the Holy Spirit, the image of God is again given to us. The Spirit of God who was present and active at Creation, hovering over the waters, is now present and active in you, re-creating you, making you new, re-shaping and conforming you to the image of God. He flew down into you at the Baptismal waters of His Triune name. The Father who sent His Son sends His Spirit now to you. And the Holy Spirit now joins you to the Son who takes you to the Father. To forgive us and bring us back to the place God gave us in the beginning.
You see, we celebrate Holy Trinity Sunday not simply to proclaim who our God is – the Three persons, and yet one God; each fully and equally God, none less valuable or important than the other; and yet not three Gods or Lords, and not three parts of God, but one God. Although we certainly do that, Holy Trinity Sunday is first and foremost about who God is for us, what He has done and does and will do for us; and how the Triune God continues to apply Himself to His lost world for the life of the world – to restore His image in us.
And with that understanding, we might look at the Holy Gospel in a different light. Not so much about what we do as the Church that baptizes and teaches and makes disciples; but rather what the Father and Son and Holy Spirit are doing through His Church. Creating disciples, baptizing, teaching, feeding, forgiving, raising to new life – God doing His stuff in His ways through His Word, water, His body and blood. Creating something valuable out of nothing. Making us precious in His sight though we were worth less than nothing because of our sin. He who spoke to create the World now speaks through our voices to create again disciples, Children of God in His image, conformed to the likeness of Christ.
Thus we worship the Triune God not simply here, but daily in our lives by living out that image we have been given again. Working against sin to love and care and judge and value others the way that God has been and is and will be for us. Giving to those the world counts as the least. Determined to see each life as worth our own. Living as Christ in the world, the Righteous One who judged you and your eternal life to be worth His precious blood and innocent suffering and death. He suffered the shame and nakedness of His Crucifixion – and then He rose from the dust of death to life, so that all who believe in Him would be raised to live with Him forever.
As Christian Churches around the world today say, “Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the undivided Unity. Let us give glory to Him for He has shown His mercy to us!” Amen.

June 14 (not Pentecost Tuesday) - John 15

2011-06-14T06:00:00.000-05:00

I was pruning a bush in our front yard a few weeks back, and I noticed a vine precious to me was clinging to this bush. An observer might wonder why I didn't trim both bushes equally.
And so it is with our Christian life when the Father prunes us, and we wonder why He prunes here and not there, this part of my life and not that, me and not her... Perhaps it is because a third person needs that bit not cut off for support.
If I prune as I think is best,

though I am barely a novice gardener,

and really do not know what I am doing

and do what I do for my own enjoyment of how it looks to me,

how much more does Our Father prune
as He knows is best?

For He is the omniscient Creator

who always works things together not for His good, but for the good of those who love Him.

The vine that is spoken of in this post - though when pruning was done, the flowers had already gone. The bush to your left has a matching pair that you can just see to the right, which the clematis has attached itself to, and thus saved the bush from more pruning.

Pentecost - Luke 21:20-38 and Hymnody

2011-06-12T06:26:00.000-05:00

Image by micmol  via Flickr

Apparently I was not the only one to see a beautiful connection between today's Feast and the readings assigned in TDP - so did the Hymnody editor (I assume that was Rev. Henry Gerike), as we sing from the Pentecost hymn "Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord" for the Spirit to impart strength to our weakness as He prepares each heart.

O Christ, once we were a people whose hearts were weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the cares of this life. We were doomed for the Day of Judgment to spring upon us like a trap. But on this day in the Church we remember how You work to prepare us for that Day as You send forth Your Spirit - not only into the hearts of your preachers, but also into the hearts of Your hearers through Holy Baptism for the forgiveness of their sins. We praise you for repeating in our lives this great miracle of faith, and now pray for our enemies and all who do not believe in You, so that they with us would "have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man" (Luke 21:36)

Tuesday in Easter 7 - Psalmody

2011-06-08T12:39:00.000-05:00

Image by larry&flo via Flickr

Never ceases to amaze me how appropriate passages can be for the day. Just before our pre-VBS staff meeting, I realized I didn't have a devotion ready! So I quickly grabbed TDP. Wow. Psalm 111 went so well! Not just in speaking of studying and praising and remembering the Lord's deeds. But also consider the reference to the work of His hands (v 7). Ordinarily we might take this as Creation. But when I read it 2 minutes before the meeting, my mind went immediately to the hands that were nailed to the Cross, that held fish to show He was not a ghost, that were shown to remove Thomas' disbelief, and hands that were raised in blessing upon the disciples when Christ ascended. A question entered my head: "Is this stretching the meaning of the work of His hands?" And yet, consider how redemption is the theme of the next sentence.

What do you think?

Ascension Theology for 3 year olds

2011-06-02T12:39:00.000-05:00

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conversation the other night -

T: "Daddy, where is Jesus?"

Me: "He's right here. He is always with us. We just can't see Him right now."

T: "Will we see Him tomorrow?"

Me: "I don't know. Maybe. Probably not."

T: "When we see Him, can He take a picture with us?"

Homily for Easter 6a (Confirmation) - John 14:15-21

2011-05-29T11:50:00.003-05:00

[With much thanks to Rev. Erik Rottmann for many of these thoughts. The brackets are personal notes for changing my preaching from one congregation with confirmation, to the second congregation without it.]

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

He is Risen indeed! Alleluia!

Our text [for this confirmation Sunday] is the Gospel reading, especially where Christ says to you, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” And then He speaks this great promise to you, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth” (John 14:15-17). This is our text. You may be seated.

Dearly beloved of God, [and especially you, Nathan,] grace, mercy and peace be yours from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

[Quite the big week for you, eh Nathan? You graduate from 8^th Grade and finish Confirmation classes. And just as leaving the 8^th Grade does not mean you are done, but merely heading on to a harder school, likewise your confirmation means you head into the harder school of life.

The Lord for the first time today strengthens you with His Body and Blood – the same Body and Blood that Christ gave to save you from your sins, a salvation from sins that you take far more seriously now than before we discussed the Scriptures. Truly a great blessing from God. However, ] you need to understand that the enemies of your faith now will make your life harder. Not only will the Devil (1 Peter 5:8) and the world (John 15:18) continually attack the faithful, but you yourself will be your own worst enemy. Your sinful nature will tempt and torment you. Your fallen body will aggravate you, not only when your aches and pains get in the way of you having fun doing what you want, but also when your body has its love affairs with destructive sins. And you know how bad it goes when the human body falls for things like laziness, cursing, gossip, drunkenness, sexual unfaithfulness and so on.

[As you learned,] sin is not just what we do and say, but also corrupts our thoughts. So our minds attack us not only with greed and lust and selfishness, but also tempt us to be bored with God’s holy things, to doubt His promises and to care less about “the living and abiding Word of God” (1 Peter 1:23).

Nothing is left untouched by sin. Even our emotions turn against our life with Christ. Our emotions fool us into judging God based on how we feel – which is not good for people who ride emotional roller coasters during the week. So when life is good, we think God must be happy with us. But when we are sad and lonely, then we are tempted to imagine God is far from us, or angry, or forgetting us. And when we get mad at the world, we know how to blame God for failing at His job.

Your Savior Jesus understands how hard it is for you to survive these ongoing attacks. That is why He says to you today, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” And then Christ promises you, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth.”

[Now that you have been through Confirmation class,] when you hear the word “commandment”, you most likely think of the Ten, and how these not only teach you what is right, but also accuse and condemn you of sin. You probably do not think that these commandments provide you with protection or defense. Because of our guilty consciences, we know all too well that the Holy Law reveals God’s wrath and exposes our sin, as Romans says (4:15, 7:7).

The good news for you is that God’s commandments do more for you than just condemn your sin. They also help and support you. And more than just in the way I explained in class, that with the Fifth Commandment, God says, “Hey world, this is my Nathan. You shall not murder Nathan – he belongs to Me.” Or, if God should bless you with a wedding day, “Hey world, this woman is Nathan’s wife. Not one of you shall commit adultery with either one of them. You shall not tear apart what I joined together. Their marriage is precious to Me.”

More than that, these Commandments also help to keep sin from destroying you with temptations. For example, when you want to lash out physically or verbally against someone else, the Commandment provide the help you need. You can insist against your sinful bodily desire that you must not commit the wickedness that God forbids.

Or as another example, when your mind runs off to thoughts of greed, God’s command “You shall not covet” helps you to stand against being discontent. It reminds you to be satisfied with the Lord, and to count the generous blessings He has given you. We use this commandment as a weapon to take our temptations and “every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Unfortunately there is a limit to the help the Commandments can give us. They can work to make our bodies and minds behave. However, they fail miserably at taming our corrupted emotions. It is pretty easy to spot the sinful words and deeds, and somewhat easy to identify the sinful thoughts. But our sinful emotions are much more sneaky when they attack us.

When we feel good, we want to think that whatever is making us feel good has to be a good thing (1 Corinthians 15:32).

When we feel angry, we generally judge that we have a right to be mad (Matthew 5:22).

Emotions have influenced the history of warfare [and I know that if I said that in class, Nathan would give me 5 minutes of examples of how wars went bad because the leader got caught up in emotions]. Emotions have divided families, and emotions have led people astray from the one true faith in Christ.

Your Savior Jesus knows that your chaotic and shifting emotions get the better of you. The Lord knows even His Holy Law is powerless to help you re-take control from them. You might possibly get your body to submit to avoiding evil and doing good. Perhaps some can even take their thoughts captive. But who can master their inner storms of emotion? You know how it goes – you bury your hurt, sorrow, or rage deep inside and put on the mask of a happy face to pretend that nothing is wrong.

We might fool some of the people some of the time, but we never fool Jesus. He knows your struggle and failure, and He knows mine. Therefore He went to the Cross after He never let His emotions get the best of Him. He offered His perfect life to save us from all our sin – our unfaithfulness, our rage, our failures at temptation. Not just in order to forgive us, but also so that He could make His promise to all of us in today’s Gospel: “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth.” Jesus takes control back from our emotions for us by this indwelling Holy Spirit. By the miracle of faith worked by the Holy Spirit, we know that God is pleased with us. Despite what our loneliness might say, and not because of what our happiness tries telling us. Rather we know we are precious to God because

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

He is Risen indeed! Alleluia!

The Risen and Ascended Jesus uses the Holy Spirit to silence the lies your emotions tell, so that you will “hold God’s Word sacred and gladly hear and learn it.” Sometimes you will feel better afterword you hear it, and sometimes you will not. Sometimes you will feel different after you receive His Supper, sometimes not. But by the power of the Holy Spirit, no matter what you feel, you will trust His Word and forgiveness are true.

The Spirit came to you at the start of the service during the Invocation, reminding you with the sign of the Cross that you are the Baptized child of God, belonging to the household of Heaven forever.

The Spirit spoke His great peace to you in the Absolution, telling you that all your sins of body, mind and emotion are fully forgiven “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

The Spirit then uses the Scriptures and sermon to speak the demands and promises of God. He teaches you and fills you with His living Word so that you may “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).

And today, for the first time, the Spirit will serve you the Body and Blood of your Lord Jesus. In this way, you will receive into your mouth the same rich forgiveness of Christ that you have heard with your ears for years.

You know the quote, I am sure, that “We have met the enemy and he is us.” However, thanks be to God, your Jesus has asked His Father, and the Father gives to you the Holy Spirit. The Spirit “dwells with you and will be in you” so that you will not be destroyed by your enemies. Therefore not even your most powerful and sinful emotions now rule over you. For

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

He is Risen indeed! Alleluia!

Amen.

What others said...

2011-05-28T10:15:00.001-05:00

Congrats to my online friend and brother, The Sober Peasant, for being awarded Issues, etc Blog of the Week by Jeff for his excellent post! Go read it - it won't take long.

Saturday in Easter 5 - Gospel

2011-05-28T10:01:00.001-05:00

Interesting. I never noticed before that Jesus uses the same example of working on the Sabbath in both Luke 14:1-6 and Luke 13:10-17. It also intrigues me that in ch. 13, Jesus waits for the synagogue ruler to express indignation. Here in 14, Jesus addresses the non-vocalized accusations.

For something much more profound about this miracle, check out what I wrote two years ago. Combine that with what I write above, and the repetition highlights how serious Jesus is about calling them to repentance and faith.

Easter 6a Devotion - 1 Peter 3:15

2011-05-27T14:59:00.001-05:00

(You might be interested in reading/ listening to Rev. Heath Curtis' presentation to the IN District Pastor's Conference, which is the basis for this article.)

“In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).

Thinking about evangelism can scare an otherwise confident Christian. “What if I mess it up and say the wrong thing? What if someone I know is ready to hear the Gospel, but I do not talk to them? What if I pick the wrong person to witness to and they get really mean?”
St. Peter tells us a different approach that answers all these fears. 1 Peter 3:15 says not to worry about picking the right person. Let people pick you! Be ready to answer them when they ask you questions. The book of Acts is filled with examples of this – people are constantly questioning Peter, Paul, Stephen, Philip, and other Christians about Christ, the faith, the Scriptures. And the Christians give the reason for their hope – how they know they will go to Heaven and can trust God to answer their prayers. It all has to do with being baptized into Jesus, who suffered once for our sins, the righteous for the unrighteous (1 Peter 3:18).

People getting angry with St. Peter. Image via Wikipedia

        What if they get mean and angry when you talk about Jesus? Peter reminds us elsewhere that that happened to Jesus too. And as you know from the life of Christ, “even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed” (1 Peter 3:13).
        What if you mess up when you talk to someone who would have believed the Gospel if you said the right things? Remember, as much as you want the person in Heaven, God wants them there more. If you mess it up, God will use another Christian. His Word will accomplish the purposes for which He sent it (Isaiah 55:11) – namely so that faith will come to that person by hearing the Word of Christ (Romans 10:17).
        In this way, evangelism and witnessing become a lot less scary. It is a lot less like carefully choosing your path through a field filled with land mines and traps. Like my friend says, it is a lot more like an Easter egg hunt. Only instead of candy, you rejoice to find God’s lost children – a treasure more precious to Him than silver or gold.

Sermon for Easter 5A - John 14:1-14 (and 1 Peter 2:2-10)

2011-05-22T13:07:00.001-05:00

Most of the thoughts contained herein are from Pastor David Petersen.

On the night Jesus was betrayed, the disciples in the upper room were getting more disturbed the more Jesus spoke. Our text starts with Him telling them, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me” (John 14:1) because just before this He told them that He would be with them only a little longer, and they would not now be able to follow Him (John 13:33).

Philip thinks he knows what the apostles need to make it through the dark days to come. “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us” (14:8). If you show us more, show us God’s glory and power, that will be enough.

How often do God’s people make a similar request? If only the Lord does this, that will be enough. “If only I had money to pay off my credit cards and start over.” “If only God had made me smarter.” “If only it would not rain so much.” “If only I could get organized.” “If only gas prices were not so high.” “If only we had better leaders for our country and our church.” “If only God would show how good our church is by packing it full of people.” “If only a few more members would carry a bigger load for the congregation.” Then we think life would be good. And we could do what we want.

How many times a day do you find that your life is not what you want? How much temptation is there to ask God, “Just give me this much money for my bills, a few frills, and the rest for charity. That will be enough.” But will it ever be enough if these desires are met? Or will there always be something more once you get it? New desires. New demands. In this way we replace God with ourselves, asking in my name, according to my will, to satisfy me when I want it in the way that I know is best.

Repent. God is good, no matter what sin’s greedy voice claims. The Lord does not forget you. He knows better than we do what you need, and when. He knows what you do not need, and what will hurt you.

Philip is just like you. He is God’s child. His heart was purified, for our Lord, on the night when He was betrayed, had given the apostles His Body and Blood for the forgiveness of their sins. Nevertheless, the same temptations that take hold of you took hold of Philip. He is neither better nor worse than us. “Lord, show us the Father. That is what we need. That will be enough.” Philip does not know what he is asking. It is nearly blasphemous that he is not satisfied with seeing Jesus. He considers Jesus as not nearly enough for him. Philip wants something more. And that is right where the Devil wants him.

The problem is not that God has failed to give Philip what he needs. The problem is that Philip is frustrated with all of sin’s failures. He is tired of this fallen world. And he probably is more than a little afraid of Jesus going away. He wants temptation to stop. He wants the past regrets to go away. He remembers the emotional and spiritual high from the feeding of the 5000, and the crowds gathering to hear Christ’s words and see the healings. He wants those joys in life to go on without end. But instead the apostles have to go to dark Gethsemane. They must face their own shortcomings. They have to wait for Easter evening with no more proof that it will happen than the Scriptures – just as you have to wait for the return of Christ and the resurrection of your bodies with nothing more than that same proof, even as you face your shortcomings.

Philip’s frustration – and ours – is not completely wrong. The holy form of this dissatisfaction moved our Lord to heal the sick, feed the thousands, cast out demons and raise Lazarus and other dead people back to life. And Christ was certainly frustrated as He wept over Jerusalem’s unbelief and drove the moneychangers out of His Temple. But where Philip goes wrong in that upper room is in saying that he was dissatisfied because God was holding out on him. He wrongly blames Jesus for not doing enough. He even knows exactly what the Lord should do to make it right: “Show us the Father.” He was not content with Jesus.

The amazing thing is Jesus says, “Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father” (14:9). The sad thing is Philip did not believe it. What God has done and is doing is more than enough. It is enough for Philip’s sins, for his doubts, his concerns, his misunderstandings, for all his shortcomings and regrets. Philip was not willing to trust in the goodness of God. But Jesus is willing and able. Christ’s desire to die as the Lamb led to the slaughter, to turn the other cheek, to take upon Himself the guilt of guilty men who doubted Him – that is enough for Philip, for the rest of the apostles in that room. And it is enough for you. Christ’s willingness to be the sacrifice for sins to restore us to the Father – that is how the Father is shown. In the Cross is how you know God. And that is enough to redeem you, to purify you, to rescue you from death and the devil, and to open Heaven.

As painful as it was, Philip needed to go to dark Gethsemane. He needed to see Jesus die. And, in a way, he needed to go through his own failures and shame. Just as you do. We need all of that before the Resurrection and the “Peace be with you” and the gift of the Holy Spirit. For God worked all of this out for good – as all of this was enough to make Philip an apostle, serving with the other apostles as the foundation of the Church built upon Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone. All of this is enough to make you into a living stone, being built together with the rest of us as a spiritual house (1 Peter 2:5), the Temple of the Holy Spirit.

All the things we want are found in Christ – all the honor, respect, wisdom, health, fame and fortune. Not in the way we might first think, and definitely not in the way our sin desires. In faith comes perfect peace, patience, and contentment with the Lord. Whatever is asked in the name of Jesus, by way of His death and resurrection, according to God’s will, trusting His mercy and goodness – all these things Jesus has done and will do, so “that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (14:13). All these things He still does, so that where He is, you will be also. Therefore, as we will hear in the coming Sundays, He sends the Holy Spirit who glorifies Christ by blessing you, by giving you the gift of forgiveness, and showing you the Father in the crucified and risen Son.

Do not let your heart be troubled when you ask for what you need – whether they be spiritual gifts or worldly things. Believe in God. Believe in Christ. Ask for the faith to desire what He promises. Ask for the courage to act, for love to serve, for mercy to forgive. And pray for good food and even a little extra money to have some good, clean fun. Ask God to calm your heart that is troubled by the changes and crosses of this life. Pray without fear. For Christ knows how best to answer you – even when you ask for the wrong things.

The Father loves you. He invites you to come to Him with your requests as a dear child asks a dear Father. Has He not provided for you up to this day? You have worried over all sorts of things in the past, and most of them have not gone as bad as you thought they might. Your Father loves you. Don’t you realize you are more precious to Christ than the blood He shed on the Cross for you? Has He forgotten you? Has He forgotten this congregation? No way. You and this place are His blessing to the world, here to “proclaim to one and all the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

Oh, we of little faith. Let not our hearts be troubled. Believe in the God and His Christ who loves you. Your prayers please Him in Christ. And at some point down the line, all of His answers will please you too. Most likely you still have many dark Gethsemane’s to go through. But soon your own Easter will come. Gone will be all your sorrows, doubts, and regrets. You know the way for this to happen, the way for you to see the Father in Heaven. Jesus is the way, and the truth, and the life. Amen.

anniversaries of sorts

2011-05-17T10:11:00.000-05:00

Image by Lawrence OP via Flickr

Calculated one way, yesterday was my sister's birthday. But calculated liturgically, it was the birthday of this Keeping and Treasuring the Word Blog. Well, technically I wrote my first post on Thursday of that week about Monday of Easter 4's TDP Writing (after "losing" Tuesday to minor surgery.) Cyril of Alexandria spoke of the Law and the Prophets being the bodyguard of our Lord Jesus Christ - which William Weedon suggested should be understood as Christ's honor guard.

Reverends Tapani Simojoki, William Weedon, and yours truly.

by the way, I am much taller than this - but for the sake of the picture, I bent my knees!

Here is a picture of Weedon's honor guard yesterday, at the end of our time "on the mountaintop" with the Lord, feasting on fine food, theology, conversation and consolation.

As William reports on his blog, Tapani announced the glorious news that the Book of Concord's translation into Swahili (1.5 million speakers!) has been completed!

Too soon it seemed we needed to descend. But since Christ bid us leave this mount, He went with us to the plain.

Sermon for Easter 4A - John 10:1-10 and 1 Peter 2:19-25

2011-05-15T14:38:00.002-05:00

Image by Lawrence OP via Flickr

Good Shepherd Sunday brings images of peace and safety, green pastures, a strong Protector. You have life, and have it in abundance. “For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand,” as we sang from Psalm 95.

Yet Jesus Christ is not only the Shepherd, but here He says, “I am the Door of the sheep… If anyone eneters by Me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:7, 9). What great news for us sinners. The doors of heaven were shut to us, and we had no hope of everlasting life. Our lives were under God’s wrath. Our deaths would be an eternity of restless wandering in the dry wasteland of Hell.

But now the Door has opened, for the Lord “Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree” of the Cross (1 Peter 2:24). You have come through the Door, baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus. Your sins are forgiven. You have access to the Father, who delights to hear your prayers. You will dwell in the House of the Lord forever. You know the Shepherd Jesus’ voice and you follow Him.

In John 10, the voice of Jesus is rebuking other voices that are trying to lead people away from Him. The Pharisees were upset that people were claiming Jesus healed the man born blind (John 9). Because they want to rob God’s sheep away from Christ, He calls them thieves and robbers. They try to steal and kill and destroy Christ’s Church by turning turn you inward to your religiousness, to your feelings, to your works, to yourself, and away from Jesus and His blood bought gifts. [something along the lines of - Now, we don't have people called Pharisees today, but we do have plenty of people who teach false things. Listen to their preaching and see how they say you can get to Heaven. Do they mention Jesus? And if they do, do they talk about Christ's death paying for your sins, or do they talke about Jesus telling you what to do to get yourself into God's good graces?] Christ warns us to flee from those like the Pharisees and do not follow them. Their voices should sound strange to us because they refuse have anything to do with the Door, Jesus Christ, true God and true Man. They do not speak about His forgiveness to you because they refuse to believe they need Christ’s forgiveness. Instead they rob Him of His glory by trying to save their lives with their own obedience to the Holy Law. When Jesus spoke honestly to them about their sin so that He could lead them away from it, you know how they worked to steal, kill and destroy His life with the Cross.

However, the problem with thieves and robbers is they are not always so obvious. Some rob you openly, and some are good at hiding what they do. [something along the lines of - Your sin responds to your faith in the forgiveness of sins by saying, "This is great. I can do all the evil I want to do and God is just going to let me into Paradise anyway. It does not matter if I do the right thing or not.] St. Peter, in his epistle text today, rebukes this thought so that sin will not successfully rob you blind of Christ’s life before you know it. We are to die to sin and live in righteousness. Peter tells us that having life from God means to be called by God even to suffer for doing good (2:20-21). We follow the Shepherd’s voice as we resist sin, entrusting our days and burdens and even unjust sufferings to God because Christ also suffered for you to follow in His steps. “When He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but continued entrusting Himself to [God] who judges justly” (2:23). We are not to take matters into our own hands through revenge, because we know that as Hebrews 13 says, the God of peace brought our great Shepherd of the sheep back from the dead. And this same God promises to do the same for us. When He leads us through valleys of shadows of death, be certain that He will deliver you safely to the green pastures and quiet waters of Heaven. For His Scriptures promise this.

Sin, however, wants you thinking having life means doing whatever you can to avoid suffering – so that you confuse the good life with the goals of laziness and greed. To achieve these goals, excuses are given, numbers are fudged, corners are cut, and God's Law is ignored. Those in authority over you – the boss, the parent, the government - have all heard our lies so that we could get away with our evil. And you also try to fool the spouse, the neighbor, the kids so that you can get what you want from this world. As if we should be more concerned with what they think of us than with what God thinks as we pile sin upon sin.

As sheep, we stray away from God’s ways because we think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. We look for love in all the wrong places – in health and wealth and job security, in possessions and popularity. Sheep try to find life in being free from conflicts and keeping everybody happy with them. Sheep try to find life in hopping from one person's bed to another and at the bottom of a bottle. Sheep get tired of how hard it is to follow the Lord and so we go astray. We try to live in, with, and under our sin. No wonder God's voice seems so silent to us - we have wandered so far from Him. Cut off from Jesus, we become easy pickings for our enemies. Plenty of idols and false shepherds are eager to take Christ’s place. Not because they care about you - they want to consume and destroy you.

Sin blinds you so that you see life in all those things that are really your death. But your life is not in this earthly success or popularity. Rather, your life is in Christ Jesus who comes that you and I may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10). He loves sheep that have gone astray. He lays down His life for the sheep on the Cross. He serves as the open Door to Paradise even for a thief who dies with Him. Scheming people who want to rob Christ of His glory even find forgiveness in His sacrifice. Again and again men reject Him. And again and again, the Good Shepherd calls out to us, reaches down to rescue us from the pit through His grace, forgiveness, and peace.

Now you have been returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. Now you have life – and it is a life hidden under hardships and tough paths and forgiveness in this world. But it is also hidden with Christ in God above. When Christ your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory (Col. 3). He will wipe away every tear from your eyes when He removes you from every sin-filled problem. And you shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen.

Saturday in Easter 3 - Exodus 40

2011-05-14T14:43:00.001-05:00

My friend and fellow Doxolog-ist Rev. Paul Mumme and his boys had some fun building the Tabernacle out of Legos.

Saturday in Easter 3 - Gospel

2011-05-14T14:28:00.000-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

Two thoughts on Luke 8. Our five kids have to learn that mom and dad will respond to their request, but sometimes they have to take a number, so to speak, and wait for another sibling to be helped. If I was the father, I may have gotten frustrated with Jesus for letting Himself get interrupted. "Cmon, cmon - my daughter's suffering terribly. Hurry up!.... oh, now she's dead. Nevermind." Little wonder that Jesus knows the need to encourage faith here.

Once at the house, Luke almost reads as though Peter, James, John and the parents laugh about Jesus' claim that the girl is not dead. Matthew 9 indicates that it was the crowd of mourners laughing before they were kicked outside.

Thursday in Easter 3 - Gospel

2011-05-13T23:06:00.000-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

The Sower goes out to sow His seed. And He sends out workers into His fields, not just to harvest, but also to scatter hither and yon, recklessly, repeatedly, abundantly. They "Just say the word" (Luke 7 - Monday's TDP reading) - as was specifically and personally preached to me and sown in me 10 years ago this June 17 by then DP, now LCMS VP Rev. Herbert Mueller. Through the years I give thanks to God for shepherding me and planting His Word in me through such men as him, Rev. Charles Rauschek, Rev. David Wobrock, Rev. Marvin Moon, Rev. Steve Mueller, Rev. Al Espinosa, Rev. Larry Rast, Rev. Bob Gray, Rev. Steven MacDougall, Rev. Ralph Laufer, Rev. Tim Scharr, Rev. Leroy Eckert, Rev. Gregory Schultz, Rev. William Weedon, Rev. Bruce Kesemann, Rev. Todd Wilken, and Rev. James Douthwaite, to name just a FEW. I pray for the blessing of the Holy Spirit and the wisdom which comes down from above, that I may hand on to others what these men have given me as they just said the word and planted it within me.

Wednesday - Psalmody of Easter 3

2011-05-11T10:19:00.001-05:00

Image by joopvandijk via Flickr

since the birds were being especially loud this past Sunday, a relatively new member asked if I was hiding birds in the altar! I told her to check out Psalm 84. Here's what I wrote about it a year ago.

Tuesday in Easter 3 - Luke 7

2011-05-11T09:46:00.001-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

Had District Pastors' Conference yesterday, and one of the services used the TDP readings. The similarity between John's disciples and the Emmaus disciples strikes me. Expectations affect everything, as I have been told, learned personally, and try to teach pre-marital couples. When I get most disappointed, I try to stop and ask, "What expectation of mine was not meant? Was I realistic? Could I even have verbalized it beforehand?"

John's disciples, the crowds Jesus speaks to after they leave, the Emmaus disciples, and us as well, have this in common - we are naturally theologians of glory. We expect some messianic muscle to be flexed. John the Baptist in prison makes about as much sense as the Redeemer getting crucified. We get disappointed in God because we think He should have done things differently, which results in false belief, despair and other great shame and vice.

But God sends the Cross to His only-begotten Son - and all His children - so that we can be saved from sin, so that the sin in us will be killed.

The Good News is that Jesus did what was necessary

by the miracle of His death and resurrection

as foretold in the Scriptures
to forgive us our false expectations.

And to quote William Cwirla from our previous District Pastors' Conference,
stack up all our expectations and questions

about life in the world to come,

and the answer is "It will be better than that."

Thursday in Easter 2 - Psalmody

2011-05-05T17:24:00.002-05:00

O Lord, enlarge my heart indeed with Your love and joy, that I may be ever more faithful to the wisdom of Your Torah.

Good Friday - what others said

2011-04-22T00:33:00.001-05:00

a devotion for today by Ephraim Syrus, modernized and edited by Rev. David H. Petersen from the public domain text as found in Phillip Schaff's Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers

Holy Week and Hebrews

2011-04-19T13:32:00.000-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

since we are in Hebrews now, you might take the time to listen to Dr. Art Just talk about the book on Issues, etc 24 (and you can find Dr. David Adams talk about Exodus there too, a long with a lot of other good stuff!)

Palmarum 2011 Homily - Matthew 27:11-66, Philippians 2:5-11

2011-04-18T17:10:00.000-05:00

(With gratitude to Rev. Todd Peperkorn, whose sermon I expanded)

          Not during Matins, but during our other services a little piece of Scripture text called the Gradual goes between the first and second readings. The Lenten Gradual is from Hebrews 12. “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” This, along with the Gospel lesson is our text for today.

          If I asked you to describe the death of our Lord, you would probably use words like “sad” or “tragic,” “difficult” or “painful.” You might say it was the only way to save us from our sins. Most likely you would not think to use such a happy word as “joy”. Yet the theme of joy runs through many hymns of Holy Week. The book of Hebrews says this is why Jesus endured crucifixion by sinners for sinners. So what joy that kept Jesus going?
          In the midst of His way of sorrows, our Lord’s ongoing joy is you and your salvation. It is near impossible for us to understand the level of God’s love – that He would send His Son to die for people who treat Him as shamefully as you and I do. Sometimes we imagine God is like a stern old man who just barely lets us squeeze into Heaven. Nothing could be farther from the truth. His passion for your salvation is His greatest desire! From the very beginning, the world’s Creator wanted you to live in eternal bliss with Him and all the saints in Paradise. He knew already back then that you would stumble and fall – and He knew He would come to save you.
          Notice the evidence of His heart for you in the events of Good Friday. Christ’s silence before Pontius Pilate tells of His love for you loud and clear. With divine might, Jesus could have walked away freely and no Roman soldier could have stopped Him. With just a word, legions of angel armies would come to His defense. After all, what do you do when people tell lies about you – and what would you do if you had God’s unlimited power? Yet what the Lord most wants is to have you in love – and He cannot gain that by violence. Therefore, in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, Jesus did not open His mouth, like a lamb before its shearers is silent.

Image via Wikipedia

          Further evidence of the Lord’s love is heard when Pilate asks the crowd why they want Jesus crucified. “What evil has He done?” (Matthew 27:23). The answer is none. Pilate’s wife is right to say Jesus is a righteous man – the only righteous man who has lived without sin, perfect in every way. Yet there Christ goes, shouldering your sins and mine to His cross and grave. The guilty one is set free and the innocent Jesus is condemned to death – for us men and for our salvation.
          More evidence of His love is found when He hangs in unspeakable pain on the cross. He endures what you and I cannot. He suffers real separation from God. In the words of Psalm 22, He loudly asks, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” In part, this is answered a few sentences later, when the Temple curtain is torn in two at our Lord’s death. In order to remove the separation between God and man, the Son was separated from His Father – experiencing the Hellish punishments in our place, as our substitute and Redeemer. How often have we denied Him, betrayed Him, or fled from Him? Yet Jesus has not fled from serving and saving you by His steadfast, holy obedience. Why was Jesus forsaken? So that your graves will open and you and all believers would be raised to eternal life - and we get a sample of that in the mysterious earthquake, the tombs opening, and the dead saints raised back to life by Christ’s death.
          Finally, in the midst of everything else that looks wrong, a bit of relief comes as something goes right. The centurion on guard at the Cross and those with him are filled with awe. They make the great confession, “Truly this was the Son of God!” Truly indeed!
          As we enter Holy Week, let these thoughts prepare you to receive God’s gift on Maundy Thursday and next Sunday at His Supper – His guarantee first given the night He was betrayed to death, the promise that God is with you and for you, that God forgives you, the pledge that God will join you together with Him in an everlasting covenant. A covenant of life, not death. A covenant of peace, not hatred and war. A covenant of forgiveness, not shame.
          Brothers and sisters, fix your eyes on Jesus this week – and every week for that matter. When difficult days, scary, painful and trying times come upon you, endure them the same way Jesus endured His suffering – trusting that the future is in God the Father’s hands. Have this same mind of Christ among you, with faith in His Word of love. Submit to His will. Be obedient even to the point of death. For Christ has already done these things out of His love and desire for your salvation. After Jesus humbled Himself, God exalted Him – and He promises to exalt you, because God has baptismally given you the name of Jesus that is above every name. With your eyes fixed on Jesus, you know for certain no matter what happens today, tomorrow is safe. With heaven in your future, the things of this life cannot permanently hurt you in Christ.
          Amen.

Palm Sunday TDP Reading - Exodus 8

2011-04-18T17:06:00.000-05:00

This Lent, I preached on the plagues against Egypt, using the excellent midweek series written by Sober Peasant in 2010, which he based upon articles in 2002-3 by Rev. Karl Fabrizius for Gottestdienst.

Here are two thoughts:

Exodus 8:7 makes me think of Psalm 2, as the kings make their plots against the Lord, but He just laughs in Heaven. The magicians can bring more frogs to the land - but that just makes matters worse! Things don't get better until Moses and Aaron plead with the Lord to take away the frogs from the Egyptian pharaoh and people. But then the frogs' death stink - though not nearly as bad as our sins and death stink. Yet the sacrifice prescribed in the Scriptures is sweet smelling to the Lord.

Gnats - The magicians try to copy this one - and fail. Only God can create life from nothing but dust. He did it with Adam. And when our body returns to the dust, for dust we are, He will resurrect us out of our dust!

Monday in Lent 5 - Exodus 2 - What others said...

2011-04-11T10:36:00.002-05:00

William Weedon, Commemoration of Moses 2008
Baptism's grace in Moses' early life - being condemned to die, he was cast into the water, from which he was drawn out and adopted as a royal prince; even so in Baptism we are sent into the water to die, but are drawn from it and adopted as the royal kings and priests of God in Christ.

(I also posted this last year on Mark 14:50)

Exodus (Sunday in Lent 5 through ?)

2011-04-11T10:28:00.000-05:00

since TDP will be spending some time in the book, you might want to listen to some general overviews of it by David Adams, Paul Schrieber and John Saleska.

Homily for Lent 5A - John 11

2011-04-10T14:59:00.001-05:00

(HT Sober Peasant and Thinking Out Loud, for many of the thoughts contained herein)

Laura pointed out a sad headline this week that asked, “Want to Save Money? Don’t Get Married.” It was about how marriage can make couples pay higher taxes than if they were single. She and I then talked about how the good things in life do require sacrifice – but those sacrifices are worth it in the end. For instance, just think how much better off financially your parents could have been if you were never born. Yet they gave up freedom and other things for you – in fact they gave themselves to you. In a very small way, that reflected God’s own self-giving love for you. God is pleased when you show this sacrificial love for your spouse, child, parent, friend, or even a stranger, because He first loved you. And just as you hate to hear the hostility against marriage in our day, in a small way that reflects the hatred God has for the sinful aggression against His holy gifts.

Likewise, God’s hatred for death is greater than how much we hate it. For a while we might tell ourselves that death does not bother us, that is actually a good thing. However, God helps us to be honest with ourselves. He inspired St. Paul to describe death as an enemy to be defeated. Now, certainly God uses the circumstances of death to accomplish good things like the Gospel comfort of knowing them to be with the Lord in the better place. But death is still evil. It takes our loved ones away and leaves an emptiness in your loved ones’ place. I still miss my grandparents over a decade after their death. Every now and then I find myself thinking I need to visit one of your fellow church members, only to remember that their funeral was long ago.

We cannot do anything about death tearing asunder the love that God has joined together. If we had been angry at each other, we could apologize. If they were sick, we could sit with them and hold their hand. But dead – we can express our love for them, but not TO them. We can take care of their remains, but they do not know the difference if someone else does it. We start talking like Mary and Martha. “If only… if only I had been there more. If only I had done things differently. If only the doctor had known what to do. If only I had my loved one back…”

Image by Tilemahos Efthimiadis via Flickr

Just as the love we have for each other is a small reflection of the love God has for us, and just as the hatred you have for sin is a small reflection of how much God hates it, so also the sorrow you have over death is small compared to God’s sorrow over it. Consider how this story makes it clear that our Lord Jesus is deeply moved by the death of Lazarus. Even greater was His sadness was in Eden, when death spread to all humanity because of Adam and Eve’s sin. On that day, Paradise became a cemetery – where joy was replaced with grief as death consumed life and our holy relationship with God was murdered.

We heard that here four weeks in Adam and Eve’s “if only’s” – “God, if only You had not given me this woman. If only You had not created the snake and the tree. If only You had done things differently.” Both Mary and Martha take up that refrain in today’s text when talking to Jesus. “Lord, if [only] you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:21, 32). Our prayers can sound that way too when we tell Him what to do. “God if only You would make everyone cherish marriage. If only You would have made yesterday go differently. If only you had answered our prayers for healing.” As if God needs our advice or help in running the universe. As if we are all that great at managing our own lives. As if we care more about life and hate death more than God does.

Image by Martin LaBar via Flickr

“Lord, if you had been here…” Yet Jesus was there. Four days later than Mary and Martha hoped, a lot later than Adam and Eve hoped, but God our Savior was there and He was not too late. When the fullness of time had come, the Lord of life stepped into this world of death. Not just to tell us that He loves us, but to give Himself in love. Not just to give us resurrection and life, but to be our Resurrection and Life. He comes not just to raise one dead man, but to be the salvation from death for the whole world. Where Adam and Eve turned this world of Paradise into a cemetery, Christ turns this world scarred with graves into the new earth of Paradise.

Christ’s encounter with death that day in Bethany leads directly His fight with death on His cross. Raising Lazarus makes Jesus more popular than ever, so the enemies of Jesus begin making plans to kill him. However, dear brothers and sisters, you know that Christ’s victory over death with the raising of Lazarus was a preview of Christ’s own victorious Easter – when God once and for all bursts the chains of death, strips Satan of his power over us, and overcomes our sin.

Christ’s day in Bethany also gives a preview of the work He does in and among us today. In Baptism, where by water and His Word Jesus calls us out of the death of unbelief to the new life of faith. In His work of Absolution, where Jesus bursts us free from the chains of guilt that drag us down. Today, as that day in Bethany, Jesus is here and is the resurrection and the life for us – that we may have a new life now and forever.

Right now that can be tough for you and me to see. You might feel like Mary and Martha, mired in the disappointments and death, the trials and troubles that test and tempt you. You look around like Ezekiel in today’s first reading, and you see only dried out piles of bones – like you live in a cemetery of dead relationships and dreams. All you can focus on are the tombstones of the past, mocking you and claiming victory over your sorry life.

In the midst of this valley of the shadow of death, your Lord comes to prepare a table before you in the presence of your enemies. He most certainly promises to deliver you from all this evil, though our Father does not promise how soon He will do it. So that you might bear your cross and die with Jesus, He delivers to you His life-giving body and blood. Take, eat and drink to receive His forgiveness, resurrection, and life. Even though your enemies mock you, though your past haunts you, they cannot defeat you. That victory has already been won – for you are in Christ and Christ is in you. Therefore, “there is… now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” And so the same Spirit of Him who raised Christ from the dead will raise your body to the glorious freedom of His resurrection.

Image via Wikipedia

You do not have to dwell on the “if only’s” of a different past. Live in confidence and peace as you leave your regrets behind in Christ’s forgiveness. Whatever weeping you may need to do, know that Jesus weeps with you until that Day when God wipes away every tear and there is no more sorrow, sickness and death. Look forward to the different life that Christ is giving now and in the future, where your cemetery is turned to Paradise. Like Lazarus, hear the Word of Christ that makes you rise to the new life of sacrificial love – as God in Christ first sacrificed Himself in love for you. Amen.

Friday Lent 4 - Mark 13

2011-04-09T10:42:00.000-05:00

    Nature is doing its annual job of pointing to that Day when our Master will come “in clouds with great glory.” For when Jesus talks about the end, He does not mention the Fall or Winter when things are dead, but the Springtime. "From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that [the Son of Man] is near, at the very gates” (Mark 13:28-29). The buds and blossoms on the trees signal Spring has arrived and Summer is near. Likewise, the sun, moon and stars going dark, and all the other earth-shattering signs Jesus mentions elsewhere are signs that the eternal summer of God is about to come upon the world. And not one of our miserably humid scorching summer days either – but the nice summer days when you can enjoy life without breaking a sweat. Rather than dreading doomsday, God wants His people to look with eager expectation for the coming of His Kingdom and its eternal joy. For the Christian, the End does not mean everything is over and done with, but that the time of waiting is over.
    Thoughts about Judgment Day expose how weak we are as Christians. We have divided loyalties. Part of us cannot wait for the joy of Christ’s return. And part of us wants to put it off. How can we survive the Judgment? What help is there for our horridly divided hearts that both want to leave this world to be in Paradise and also are afraid of having to say good-bye to this world?
    Jesus tells us our only hope to survive is in His Words. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away” (Mark 13:31).   His Words tell us the universe will fall to pieces – and for that matter, our own little worlds will fall apart as well. Yet when such things such as death and disasters, decay and divorce happen, Christ’s people have hope – the sure and certain hope that Jesus is near, at the very gates. Because that is what His Word promises. As everything is falling apart, Jesus wants you to get a whiff of the Springtime in the air. Know that the Resurrection Summer is about to break in and change everything in God’s creation.
    It was Holy Week when Jesus told us of the sun and moon going dark and the stars falling from the sky. Later that week, on Good Friday, these heavenly lights would give a sneak preview of that Day. Darkness covered the land for three hours as the Creator struggled with hell on a cross. Lift up your eyes to see the Son of Man and Son of God lifted up on a pole, dying with your sin and your shame and your death and your hell.
    This Master who once was dead, but now lives and reigns, is the One who comes. Not just at the end of time, but even now. In His Body and Blood. Though today He is hidden in bread and wine, on that Day He will be revealed for all the world to see. Some will be ready, others not. How you prepare for the coming of the Lord in Communion is similar to how you prepare of the coming of the Lord at the End. Listen to Scripture. Repent of sin and desire to be done with it. Desire to forgive and be forgiven. Do not take Christ’s promises and blessings for granted. Trust that no matter what you do or fail to do, the Holy Spirit has made you worthy and well prepared for Christ’s coming as you believe in Christ’s words: “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”

Tuesday in Lent 3 - Genesis 35

2011-03-30T09:28:00.000-05:00

I couldn't help notice this connection while reading yesterday - Rachel dies in childbirth in Ephrath, which will later be named Bethlehem, where the son of Judah (Rachel's nephew) will be born to save Rachel and the rest of us from death.

Not TDP - Lenten Carnival

2011-03-22T08:01:00.000-05:00

the nephew of my sem buddy Joel Kuhl is working on putting together a Blog Carnival for old time's sake. (Then again, he is a pastor, it is during the busy season of Lent, and he did mention something about April 1.)
Anyway, he's looking for Lenten blog posts, so submit your own, or mine if I get back to writing something Lentish that intrigues you:

http://qaz1.kellyklages.com/wordpress/?p=344

I loved this pic of the Fight Between Carnival and Lent when I first saw it in CPH's To All Eternity

Sermon for Lent 2A - John 3

2011-03-20T13:03:00.000-05:00

How frustrated do you get when you try to have a conversation about something important to you, but the other person is determined to change the topic? As though what you want to say does not matter to them. When you read the Gospels, sometimes it seems Jesus does not care what people say to Him. Quite a few times a person asks Christ something, and His response goes in a completely unexpected and different direction. Like today, where Nicodemus comes to Jesus and says, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him” (John 3:2). And, seemingly from out of nowhere, Jesus brings up the need to be born again to enter the kingdom of God. Nicodemus responds by practically asking, “Are you trying to confuse me? Because I do not understand anything that you’ve said.”

Dear brothers and sisters, at some time or another, just about every Christian gets tired of being confused. It is no fun to be in the dark about what God is up to. So we want a sign or evidence that God is truly in our lives.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting Pr. Randy Wilken, the leader of the Acts 1:8 Mission Society. A few of you have heard him speak and know how this work got started. He explains that during his seminary days he volunteered to put a new roof on a church all by himself. After a while he got tired of it, and prayed that God would send a contractor who could take over the job for him. Time goes by and no contractor shows up. But one day a young girl appears next to him out of nowhere and asks, “What are you doing? Can I help?” And he thinks to himself, “Very funny, God. I asked for a contractor, and you send me her?” But, despite those first thoughts, he found ways for her to help. And the next thing he knew, other neighborhood kids were helping. Long story short, that eventually led to his current work, which involves teenagers and young adults in servant events. Among other things, he’s got kids learning to put up drywall in an old Lutheran Church just south of Barnes Jewish Hospital. I hope to let you know more about how he works with congregations later this year. In the meantime if you want to find out about him, he said he will be on KFUO 850 this Tuesday morning.

Many Christians do not have such a dramatic story about being in the dark – and then finding out what God is up to. But we have all gone through times of great hardship, loneliness or doubt. A signal from God that everything will be okay would be great. Or times where you have a major decision, like if you should change jobs or move to another town. If only the Lord would let you know which choice to make… Still others look at their continual failures to get rid of their sin. They doubt that God could ever remain on the side of such sinful people as themselves. Some sort of sign would be a great comfort during the dark night of the soul.

If you ever find yourself searching for a sign from God for any or all of these reasons, then John 3 is for you. Nicodemus wanted exactly the same thing. He though he found it in the miracles he saw Jesus perform. “Rabbi,… no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

Jesus was extremely popular and loved at this point. The hatred and humiliation of the Cross is approaching, but that hour has not yet come. Christ’s signs of turning water to wine, of exorcising demons and healing diseases amazed the people. These miracles make Nicodemus feel like he may be close to having the answer to all his prayers. He comes to Jesus to make certain, to ask questions about what Jesus is doing.

However, rather than going along with what Nicodemus wants to talk about, Jesus immediately changes the subject to Baptism. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Why does Jesus not want to talk about His miracles?

Because there is something greater, something more comforting, something that will stay with you forever. Jesus does not want to talk about turning water into wine or healings or casting out demons because God’s Son wants Nicodemus – and you – to know about Baptism. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (3:5).

It is about like Jesus says to Nicodemus, “You want to talk about My miracle work? Okay, let’s cut to the chase and talk about the greatest one of all, the one where you find lasting comforts and assurances from God. Do not worry about how water was turned to wine. Stop fixating on the healings and exorcisms. All those miracles are good gifts from God, but not a single one of them will last too long. Water turned to wine passes through the body quickly. That paralytic who can walk will have lifeless legs again in his grave. And the blind eyes that now see will be dark again at death.” Before it is all over, Christ will even raise Lazarus from his grave, but that only will postpone the inevitable. “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” There is only one sign that is truly significant for your eternal life; one sign that will give you continuous assurances that God is with you and will never leave you – you must be born again!

Because we are people filled with sin, lonely people wanting many signs from God that He loves us, this Gospel text is all the more important. It clearly and simply teaches us that God’s love for the world is seen as His Son is lifelessly lifted up on the Cross so that we would not perish in Hell, but have the life of Heaven forever. And we learn from this text that God’s miracle of Baptism is where we will find the sign of this love.

Consider God’s connecting you to Jesus at Baptism to be like how my Grandpa helped me graft new branches onto a well-established apple tree. In that tree, nutrients and life flowed up the trunk through the graft into the new branches. Likewise, Christ’s ongoing forgiveness for your guilt and shame flow from Him through Baptism into you – for He is the vine and we are the branches.

God our Father Baptismally gave you a second birth, a birth from above. People can take your money, your house, your family, your comfort, and even your earthly life. But nobody can take your birth away from you. That apple tree became old, diseased and died a few years ago. But gloriously risen from the dead, Jesus will not get old and diseased. He died, but death now has no power over Him – nor over you, since you are connect to Him. No matter what you will experience in this painful world, no matter what hatred and humiliation you might suffer in the future, your birth from above remains forever.

Even if God appeared right here and miraculously healed all of the brokenness in your body, that gift would not last too long, just as the new sight given to the blind man was taken away again at death. And so also some spiritual gifts can be taken away. The preaching of God’s Word and the celebration of His Supper are also signs from God. But these miracles are different from Baptism. If you doubt it, just ask our Lutheran brothers and sisters in Russia, Siberia and the Ukraine. Christianity survived Soviet tyranny there only by God’s grace. Just ask our fellow Christians in Iraq and other countries as they flee their homeland or else face death for worshipping our Savior Christ. Preaching and Communion can be taken away from you. But you cannot be robbed of God’s on-going Baptism miracle. It is His continual sign that you will never wear out His patience, and that He will never be too far from you. Your Baptism is God’s river of life welling up inside you, delivering forgiveness, life, and salvation from Hell so that you will see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus said, “Rabbi,… no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Should we be confused that Jesus answers the way He does? “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” With these words, Jesus stops Nicodemus in his tracks, spins him around, and sends him in a different direction – the eternal life-giving direction. “Do you want to talk about My truly great miracle? Here it is: You must be born again, born from above, born of water and the Spirit.” Amen.

Monday - Lent 1 Writing

2011-03-14T00:14:00.001-05:00

Pr Weedon gives some helps for understanding Today's writing from Luther here.

Friday after Ash Wednesday - OT and Writing

2011-03-11T10:44:00.000-06:00

It never ceases to amaze me how absolutely appropriate certain day's readings are. Today we wake up to news of death from an earthquake and read in Genesis 3 of the reason there are earthquakes - creation has been subjected to the curse of our sin. And then there are these words from Luther today:

The good God permits such small evils to befall us merely in order to arouse us snorers from our deep sleep and to make us recognize, on the other hand, the incomparable and innumerable benefits we still have. He wants us to consider what would happen if He were to withdraw His goodness from us completely. In that spirit Job said (2:10): “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?”

...from all calamity by fire and water; and from everlasting death: Good Lord, deliver us

Mercy Journeys with Pastor Harrison: Let's Pray the Litany Daily: Kyrie Eleison!

2011-03-06T13:24:00.000-06:00

Mercy Journeys with Pastor Harrison: Let's Pray the Litany Daily: Kyrie Eleison!: "I've long enjoyed praying the Litany. Luther did too. The prayer has an amazing longevity in the church, having found its form by the 6th c..."

Transfiguration A and March 6 - Writing

2011-03-06T13:20:00.000-06:00

I know it was an accident of the calendar that lined it up

(and only for us 3 year types),

but it was nice

(astonishing? magnificent? ponder-worthy? awesome? thought-provoking)

to have fresh in my mind from reading TDP before church Luther's explanation of "compact," "covenant," and "testament of the Lord"

("These words signified that God would one day die." From "The Babylonian Captivity of the Church")

while reading the first verse of today's Old Testament Lection for Transfiguration A, Exodus 24:8-18

And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words."

March 5 - John 12

2011-03-05T14:12:00.000-06:00

There is something nice about reading of Palm Sunday just before we enter the holy season of Lent.

Image by Wonderlane via Flickr

Christ's rebuke of Judas intrigues me. How many times did He give Judas opportunities to change course? The Lord knew he helped himself to the money, and gives him a chance to repent of it not by addressing the sin that was not known publicly, but by what was heard publicly - though not recognized as sin. It sounds great to criticize what is considered a waste of money - but Jesus says the anointing was a thing of beauty. There is quite a bit of food for thought in this short scene. How many times has the Lord tried to teach us of beauty and the poor, as well as tried indirectly rebuking us - yet we continued on our way? Hosanna.

I don't know if I'll get another post in before Lent, so I encourage you to consider finishing the book of Job, since there's only one extra day of reading. Perhaps on Tuesday evening?

Friday Fun - nothing TDP

2011-03-04T05:01:00.000-06:00

Image by Bristol Motor Speedway & Dragway via Flickr

my 7 year old loves the M&M NASCAR race car... and thus Kyle Busch. So she saw a commercial saying you could go to this site and design a car and meet the driver if you win.

Now mom and dad are not delusional enough to think that she has a chance at getting the thousands of votes she needs to win. But still, it's fun to see how excited she gets when she gets more votes.
So if you, dear reader, would do me a favor and go and vote (the page takes a while to load, BUT you don't even have to login or give any personal info, just go to the site and click the circle marked "Vote"), and then if you know others who would do this to, let them know, and then if you would remember to do it again tomorrow - or even do it again today on a different computer, well, that would be great.

Rejoicing in First Article gifts,
Jim

Sermon for Epiphany 8A - Matthew 6:24-34

2011-02-27T14:32:00.001-06:00

(with thanks to David Petersen, for most of these thoughts. And Mark Buetow, for the bird poop.)

Ongoing sicknesses. Chaos in the Middle East. Rising food prices and skyrocketing gas costs. Traditional marriage under attack. Teachers’ strikes and politicians playing games. Plots of violence. Earthquake in New Zealand and other natural disasters. And that is just this week’s headlines! Usually we can distract ourselves with sports – but these days that diversion has as many disappointments as everyday life, what with the NFL labor dispute, Albert Pujols’ contract – and the news about Adam Wainright’s elbow. This is a very good Sunday for Jesus to tell us, “Do not be anxious about your life” and “Do not be anxious about tomorrow” (Matthew 6:25, 34).
When we see chaos going on in our world, what we often forget is that the whole Universe should have been destroyed way back at Adam and Eve’s sin. The Devil was probably expecting that when he worked on the temptation. He knew Creation – and especially humanity – was God’s treasured possession, so he vandalized it. Like a bully who spits on your cookie just so you cannot have it.

Image via Wikipedia

However, our Lord did not abandon us. Even though the first humans betrayed Him, He still loved Adam and Eve. He walked up to them despite their fear and hatred. God let all involved know the Son was coming to destroy the Devil’s work. The Son would take our hits, suffer the worst bullying this world has ever seen, be publicly humiliated and killed. All so that God could give us a new cookie, so to speak; a better cookie; one that the bully cannot ruin.

When the day’s news shows us all the ways the bully ruins things, the way chaos and disasters and death look to gain the upper hand, then we again need to consider the lilies of the field. They no longer grow in the fertile soil of Eden, but in our broken world. Lilies have to survive thorns and thistles, insects, and diseases, droughts and floods, animals that trample or eat them, and children that pick them. Consider how fragile the lilies are. Yet even though it is a short-lived glory, your God clothes them with beauty. If the Devil really was in control and God was not, then there would be no lilies. And there would be no chocolate, no coffee, no cars, no music, no joy and laughter and happiness. In fact, there would be no you. For all of Creation would have been annihilated.

But chaos and death do not get to have their way. God came in mercy to where He was needed. After He was betrayed again by man on Good Friday, after they came with torches and swords to arrest Him, it looked like evil was more powerful than the Son of God at Golgotha, the place of the skull. Yet in reality, He had walked up to them knowing their fear and hatred as He gave Himself over to their wicked desires.

Image via Wikipedia

Then it was finished. He was laid to rest in the ground like a kernel of wheat, a sleeping lily in the garden tomb. However, like a seed that sprouts, He burst out from His burial ground on Easter morning. He had conquered death, undoing what our sin did.

Death is not in control. Death is dead. Jesus lives. And the lilies are again this Spring about to burst forth in all their glory. They tell you that God cares for this broken world, and even provides beauty.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life,” nor about tomorrow. Jesus lives. And He loves you. Yes, that might be hard to feel that love as you suffer many things now. The devil tempts you to waste your energy, to dwell on your sorrow, to worry about anything and everything, from the things you need, to the extra money you want. And if he cannot get you to obsess about your own difficulties or desires, then he will get you anxious about other people’s problems. Satan will frighten you about your kids’ future, or your country, or the poor who are always with us. He will get you to notice all the tragedies and crimes in the news. He will work to wear you down until you are buried under sadness, overwhelmed by the impossibility of it all.

Yet still Jesus says, “Do not be anxious about your life.” Anxiety is unnecessary, useless, wasted energy. Worse yet, it ends up hurting you and those around you. Consider the lilies that neither toil, nor spin. “Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” Every time you or I walk out to our car and see a big splat of droppings on it, we can know that our heavenly Father has fed a bird. And whether you have been trusting God and content, or worried and anxious, your Father always takes care of you.

There is no doubt that today has its troubles. When Jesus says, “Do not be anxious,” He does not mean that you should pretend the troubles do not exist. These troubles need your attention and action. Your children need help learning life’s hard lessons and bandaids for their cuts. Your friend needs a phone call. Those of you who are married, your spouse needs appreciation and respect. Your animals need food and water. Even your country needs you. America needs your prayers and your support. She needs you to throw away the litter, to vote for the best candidates, to watch out for your neighbors. But these needs are small in the grand scheme of things. Nothing to be anxious about. They are well within your gifts and abilities. These needs are small when compared with what you need that is impossible for you to provide - securing your place in Heaven. That is possible only for God. And by the death and resurrection of the Christ who says to you, “Do not be anxious,” He has restored to you the perfect world, the Paradise untouched by death. So that there is nothing for you to be anxious about eternally.

For now this same Lord has placed you precisely where you are. He has given you your set of responsibilities, your family, your co-workers and bosses and friends. And like it or not, He has even given you your President. Sufficient for today is its own trouble. You will gain nothing by adding to the trouble. If you turn to bitterness, envy, or fear, the trouble will only get worse. You are who God made you to be, where He has placed you, like a lily planted in a field to beautify the earth. Simply respond in your place, for the sake of your family and community, as you are able. Do not be anxious about tomorrow’s troubles. Turn not to bitterness and fear, but turn to the Lord who keeps you close to Himself through these troubles. Pray your prayers. Tell people the reason you have hope in Christ. Perform the good works He has prepared you to do. Do not think of all the charity you could do if only you won a million dollars, but think of all that you can do now with what God has already given you. When the time comes, vote for whichever candidate will bring a better tomorrow. Make your voice heard concerning issues and budgets that legislators consider.

But do not be anxious about it, whether the President is doing a good enough job, whether your children will meet all your expectations, whether the economy is down - or up. Do what God has given you to do. Ask His forgiveness when you fail. The Lord will provide. He has put you in this place on purpose, even though you may not feel up to the task, or cannot understand what God is up to. Focus on today;

Image by Darwin Bell via Flickr

not yesterday, which has been forgiven; nor tomorrow, which is known only by God. Rest in the certainty that Jesus lives and will always provide for you – even into eternity. The lilies do not know what they are doing either. They are just being lilies. And that is sufficient for their days.

Death is not in control. The lilies prove it. Neither war, nor famine or plagues, nor revolutions or Republicans or Democrats can stop the lilies. They are not moved by crime sprees, corrupt governments, incompetent authorities, or unfaithful family members. They belong to the Lord and He provides. And you are worth more to Him than they are. He paid nothing less than the priceless blood of His Son to save you from endless anxieties and silly worries and the greedy lust for money. By that blood, He has added more than an hour to your life. He has made your life eternal.

The God who clothes the lilies and feeds the birds will take care of you. So let go of your anxiety. The Lord has claimed you in the waters of Baptism. He sent His Son to die for you. Your Father is not now going to quit on you. He will feed you. Out of the oven comes bread for the farmer and food for the eater, by the violent harvest of reaping and threshing, after the mixing and kneading and resting, and the roasting by fire. The Lord provides. Out of the oven comes bread that we might eat His Body and be one with Him. He who was violently harvested on Good Friday, roasted in the fire of God’s wrath against our sin – this same Jesus is needed here by us, for our yesterday, and our today, and forever. Do not be anxious, for death and chaos are not in control. Jesus lives. And he is here as the Bread of life. Amen.

February 20 - John 6

2011-02-20T07:14:00.000-06:00

a snippet of what I preached on this text in 2009:

The great crowds of disciples who no longer followed Jesus could not accept that they were nearly as bad and Jesus was nearly as good as what He made things out to be. They are offended when Jesus says their “flesh is of no avail” (John 6:63), for nothing good dwells in our flesh as it does the dark deeds that damn us. Even though these words offend them, Jesus speaks these hard words nonetheless – because He is hardened in His desire to save you, and only His hard Truth can do it. If you prefer soft words of man’s wisdom to the hard words of God’s wisdom; if you prefer sin to righteousness, death to life, hell to heaven, God will let you have that.

Yet Peter sees the light of wisdom that you have seen. As people are turning away, Peter speaks for you: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). As tough as Christ’s words are on our failed lives, who else speaks the truth about them? Who else can speak the word to heal you in an instant, to calm your storms, to remove your sin, to raise your dead body on the last day? Who else can do for you what Jesus has done for you, and will do for you? Who else even wants to?

February 19 - Job 14

2011-02-19T13:56:00.000-06:00

Job 14:21-22 seems to rebuke the RC practice of praying to saints. As well as the American Christian practice of saying, "Grandma was looking down from Heaven on us at our wedding..."