Lent 2c Homily - Luke 13:31-35

(a revision of Rev. Richard Stuckwisch's 2010 sermon)

         “You shall die” (Jeremiah 26).  Those are stark words on the bulletin cover.  “You shall die, Jeremiah, unless you stop talking against us,” said the leaders of Jerusalem 600 some odd years before Jesus was born, because they did not like what Jeremiah said.  His sermons got in the way of their good and comfortable life.
“Herod wants you dead, Jesus” said the religious leaders, because they did not like how Jesus spoke against their religion.  So they camouflaged it a bit, hiding their hatred under a fake concern for Christ’s life.  “If you stick around here, you shall die, Jesus.  So why don’t you leave our town and get away from Herod.”  Self-preservation makes sense.  It’s perfectly acceptable.
But that is not the way of Christ the Crucified.  Of course, it is not that He is suicidal or enjoys pain.  It hurts Him.  He even prays there might be another way.  Yet the Son of God goes willingly and knowingly to His death.  He voluntarily puts Himself in harm’s way, taking the bullet of our punishment to be a human shield for sinful you and sinful me.
Where others might fight, or flee, or change their stories to stop people from being outraged at them – Jesus, when He is insulted, does not insult in return.  He continues to entrust Himself to God the Father.  He turns the other cheek to those who strike Him, to the point where He hands Himself over to the Cross.  And even then Jesus forgives all those who shamefully attack Him.
That is why God’s Son comes here in the first place – to pour out His innocent blood; for Herod and Jerusalem; for Jeremiah and his enemies; and for you.  To pay for the sins of the world and to reconcile you to God.
However, this is more than a history lesson about what happened in the past.  This is also God’s map for your life.  You shall die.  Not just die before we have your funeral, but die daily to sin by the power of your Baptism.  For you are marked as one belonging to Christ the Crucified.  Disciples of Jesus are to take up their crosses and follow Him.  And crosses are used for just one thing – to kill.  In this case, to put to death the evil in you and me that seeks self-preservation at all costs – even sacrificing godly love for our neighbor in order to save our own skin.  But taking up our Crosses is the way of self-sacrifice, of self-giving and service instead of selfishness.  You are to love others – whether they are family or enemy – because God first loved you, even while you behaved as His enemy.  When your life makes them uncomfortable because you are doing and saying the godly things, and they tell you, “You shall die” – that is, when they threaten to end your friendship, or to make life miserable for you – well then so be it.  In the same way they persecuted our Lord Jesus before us.
And do not for a moment think to yourself, “That is easy for you to say, Pastor.”  It is not easy for me to say.  I do not want to hear it either.  I want to get along with everybody and avoid making people mad – even if though that often means keeping silent about God’s Truth.  Way down inside the sinner in me cares more about what people say and think about me than what God says and thinks.
However, their thoughts and words are temporary.  God’s thoughts and Words endure forever.  Furthermore, yes God says, “You shall die as you take up your cross.”  But His last word on the subject is that “Though you die, yet shall you live.”  For as Christ has died and is risen, so you shall rise too.  You live because the sacrificial and bloody death of Jesus forgives you all your sin.  And your neighbor that God calls you to serve, whether they are a friend or an enemy – Christ’s bloody death also forgives their sins.
Therefore you and I, as Christ’s disciples, shall die to holding their sins against them.  We must forgive those who trespass against us.  Bear their burdens patiently.  Even turn the other cheek when they insult without striking back, for our Lord Jesus did not insult in return.  He loved those who hurt Him, prayed for them and laid down His life for them.
Ultimately we have to ask ourselves, “What will I really lose if I die as I seek to love others with God’s love?”  What can you lose since your “citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself” (Philippians 3:21).  You travel here through this earth today and tomorrow (or maybe not, as only the Lord knows how much longer you have here.)  But whether you live or die, you belong to the Christ who rises from the tomb on the Third Day.
In today’s Epistle, St. Paul is torn up with sorrow as he tells us about those who “walk as enemies of the Cross of Christ” (3:18).  Obviously he is describing those who attack the Christian church, promote immoral lifestyles, laugh at the Bible, and say all sorts of evil things about Jesus and His people.  However, St. Paul talks about those whose gods are their bellies – the people who seek out their own greatest comfort and self-preservation in this life – especially at the expense of others.  They will tell lies, withhold forgiveness, or whatever… if they believe it will somehow make their lives better.  And you should be aware that this is your natural instinct also – to fight or flee, whatever it takes to preserve yourself.
That is the very opposite of faith in Christ and His love for others, the opposite of the eternal life He gives to others.  For when we set our minds on earthly things and obsess over our appetites, our selfishness is self-destructive.  As our Savior Jesus says elsewhere, “Whoever would save his life will lose it.”  Refuse to walk with Jesus, put your cross down and go your own way in order to protect your own skin and you shall not only die here in time, but you shall die forever in Hell.  Paul speaks with tears in his eyes about those whose god is their bellies because they have a sad life, always having their rumbling tummies force them to go all over the place to try and fulfill desires that constantly change.  And that ends in shame and destruction as they perish like the very food you eat.
Remember how it went for Jerusalem, the city where the Lord caused His great Temple to be built!  Yet the people hid horrific lives under very religious actions.  They practically dare God to stop them from killing the prophets – and then when God sends His own Son, they kill Him too.
Certainly a few people in Jerusalem were different and were happy to see Christ arrive.  Yet most of the citizens failed to recognize Jesus as their Savior.  Whatever they thought of Him, bad or good, they did not welcome Him as their God.  While some plotted to trap Him, discredit and destroy Him, even those who loved Him did not understand His Cross.  Not even His disciples, until afterward.  Not even you nor I, except by God's grace, as you are being taught by His Word and the Holy Spirit.
All sorts of people and things try to get in His way, and there is a lot of confusing things that might get in the way of you understanding what today’s text is all about.  However, this much is absolutely clear – Jesus is determined to do what He came to do.  No one can stop Jesus – not the Pharisees, not Herod, not even the Devil in the wilderness as we heard last week.  God's Son comes for just one reason, with only one holy desire – to love you, to save you, to gather you to Himself.  As a hen gathers her chicks, Jesus would bring you under His wings of mercy, and nestle you close to His heart as His children.  He comes to use His Cross to shelter you, protect you, feed and comfort you.  Jerusalem would not have it.  Will you?
He goes to Jerusalem anyway, despite the signs of danger, and does what He does no matter what anybody else says or thinks about it because He loves His Father and His Father loves you and Jesus loves you.  Jesus endures your pain – not only how others make you suffer, but also the pain you inflict.  He endures your insults in peace.  He bears your sin and death to remove them from you forever.
See God's strong arms stretched wide open on the Cross in love, to gather you to Himself and protect you in peace.  Listen to God's Son here in the Gospel as no one will stop Him from saving you from all your sins.  Truly, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.  And in Christ, blessed are you.  Amen.

February 11 - Gospel

O Christ, as You invited the Samaritan woman to bring her husband, so You would have me bring to You those to whom I have witnessed or about whom I have prayed.  Like that woman, I must shamefully admit that I have not been faithful in witness of words and godly life.  And my prayers for others have even faltered.  As there are those who would have let her status as a Samaritan or her sinful life get in the way of their love for her, so also I have let such things as status and sin get in the way of my love for my neighbors.  Forgive me.  I want to do better.  May this upcoming season of Lent be a time of renewal, of death to my old self and new life in You as I take up the cross your Father gives so I may follow You more closely through Good Friday to the Day of Your Resurrection.  Yet remember that my frame is dust.  I am weak and even scared of how hard following You will be.  Let me never forget that You are the One who sought out the sinful Samaritan woman at the well and dealt with her compassionately.  And likewise You are the Savior who seeks me out to save me.

January 9 - Writing

In case you were wondering what words were replaced by the ellipsis for number one in today's TDP writing:

"A person who wants to live like a heathen or a dog and does not publicly repent should not expect us to administer the sacrament to him or have us count him a Christian. Let him die as he has lived because we shall not throw pearls before swine nor give to dogs what is holy [Matt. 7:6]. Sad to say, there are many churlish, hardened ruffians who do not care for their souls when they live or when they die. They simply lie down and die like unthinking hulks."

Martin Luther, telling it like it is.  Thank you to Rev. David Juhl for doing the research.

January 6 Gospel - Luke 3

When Jesus was baptized, the heavens were opened, the Holy Spirit descends upon Him like a dove, and the voice of God the Father announces, “You are My beloved Son; with You I am well pleased.”  It sounds like all that stuff is good for Jesus, but actually it all is good for us too.  Because if Jesus had not stepped into the Jordan River, then our Baptism would be meaningless, nothing but an empty ritual, and we would never be with Christ, but would burn in Hell.  But since Christ submitted Himself to baptism, Christ was there with you in yours.  As St. Paul says, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His” (Romans 6:3-5). 

Baptism joins you to Christ, and He to us, so that all that is ours becomes His, and all that is His becomes ours.  He takes our shame, and trades it for His glory.  He takes our death and gives us His life.  He takes our slavery and gives us His Sonship.  When the water splashed on you, Christ baptized “you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Luke 3:16) – not to burn and destroy you, but to cleanse and purify you to make your body His temple.  And on that day, Heaven was opened as Christ’s Father became your Father, who said to you, “You are my beloved Child; with you I am well pleased.”

January 5 Gospel - Luke 3 (and Isaiah 65)

     The One John proclaimed as coming, He still comes to us and works in us today – to give us gifts of joy, to provide our lives with meaning and purpose, to fill in and raise our dark valleys of despair, to tear down the mountains of our pride, to straighten our crooked ways.
     What exactly will that look like in your life? It means different things for different individuals. John lets us hear that with his instructions for specific groups. The tax collectors were to stop cheating people out of money. The soldiers were to be content and not bully people until the soldier got what he wanted. And for everyone it means generosity, compassionate charity – giving food and clothing to the less fortunate for Christ’s sake. So what does it mean for you – as you live out such God-given roles as friend or father? Mother, neighbor, boss, brother, daughter, worker or retiree?  
     Whatever it may mean specifically, in general living out these God-given roles will be difficult. There will be unexpected twists and turns you never saw coming – over rough roads and rocky terrain and other places you would rather not be. The road of faith may even lead you out to some desert wilderness where it seems like you have to walk alone. You will work, and will not see any success for all your effort. Others who did not work might even get more benefit out of it. However, the Day is coming, declares the Lord, when

"They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of My people be, and My chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD, and their descendants with them" (Isaiah 65:21-23). 

     As you journey to that new heavens and new earth where you will rejoice forever, you will never be by yourself. Psalm 139 says that even if I cross the farthest seas, even there God’s hand shall lead me and hold me. For this God has given us our faith, the God who baptized you with the Holy Spirit and fire. He has given you His Word so that you can be certain that He is with you always to the end of time, our Immanuel. He who gives His body for food and His blood for drink – He promises to do for you what you cannot do; not only there on the Cross when He earned Heaven for you, but also goes to work in your heart – to change you, renew you, and even straighten you out. And already now He promises that even though you may never see the results of your work in the Lord, your labor will never be in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58).

January 3 Gospel - Luke 2

(A revision of a sermon by Rev. Rick Stuckwisch)

            Simeon was at the Temple of the Lord that day looking to see Christ.  And after Anna sees the little Lord Jesus, she talks to all who are looking for redemption.  What are you looking for?

            Behind all your plans and pursuits, resolutions and wish lists; in all the movies you watch, games you play, books you read, music you listen to, and dreams you dream, what are you looking for?

            When you come here, to our smaller version of the Temple of the Lord, what are you looking for?

            Behind all of our short and long term goals, our choices, and voting, and the way we spend our cash and our time – behind it all is our desire for peace.  Not just an un-easy cease fire, or the absence of arguments – because then you worry about when the next outburst of conflict will come.  But real, honest to God peace, contentment, satisfaction in who you are and why you are here, true friendship with God and your neighbors.  The peace your restless heart looks for – because God created you to live that way with Him and each other. 

            In Colossians 3, today St. Paul tells us to “let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.”  The almighty Judge who could destroy you for your disobedience, instead chooses in Christ to redeem you with such a great forgiveness of our sin.  The only right way to respond is to praise Him and to drop our grudges, replacing our hatreds with trying to live at peace with others – as far as it depends on us.

            If you do not have Christ’s peace ruling your hearts, nothing will satisfy you for very long.  You cannot control your inner turmoil – or even truly understand it.  And you soon find that it is controlling you like a puppet on strings.  Not a real boy or girl.  Not a real man or woman.

            Look for inner peace… and you will find it the same place that Simeon and Anna did – in the Temple of the Lord; in the Christ child, the Babe, the Son of Mary, who found no peace as He carried His cross for you.  You find it by the Spirit of God in the Word of God.  This is where you find what you are ultimately looking for, as your eyes see God’s salvation – the Peace of God that goes beyond anything you can understand, which guards your heart and mind from the Devil. 

            So how do you live this peace?  Well, for starters Romans 6 says that I have died with Christ in Baptism that I may now live with Him as an instrument of God’s righteousness.  And even though I will die, yet shall I live beyond the grave. 

            While we know the peace will be far better in Heaven with Christ, God still has His reasons for your life to go on here on earth.  He does not tell you all the details, but the Lord still gives a purpose to your life in this time and place, even as He gives you Christ’s peace.  For, as Philippians 1 says, whether you live or die, you are the Lord’s.

            That is the first key to our Gospel text today, and to the peace that we share with Simeon, Anna, Mary, and Joseph – You are the Lord’s, because He has created you and yet more wonderfully redeemed you by Christ’s sacrifice of His body and by shedding His own blood at the Cross.

            It is why Mary and Joseph were there at the Temple in the first place, why all Jewish parents of those days went there with the firstborn son – to confess that their whole family belongs to the Lord us as they present their children in the Temple for life in the world to the glory of God.

            You and your children also belong to our Creator and Redeemer, as all the good things you have ever received are yours only by His grace.  And God sanctifies you for a life of service to your church and your world.  In whatever place God puts you, He calls you to live life not for your own sake, but for the sake of our Christ who died and rose again for us.

            Simeon tells Mary, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed ³⁵ (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 2:34-35).  The conflict and lack of peace in man’s heart that we try to keep hidden – it will violently show itself against Mary’s son for all to see.  Good Friday reveals the evil secret thoughts of how much man hates God.  And the Cross reveals the secret thoughts of the sin in your heart too.  It shines the light of Christ’s selfless sacrifice upon your selfishness and mine.  The Cross says that we need a better righteousness than our own because our goodness is not good enough – and our pride does not like that one bit.  As His cross puts our sin to death, you may be surprised by the monstrous ways you behave.

            However, it is Christ’s Cross.  And He has given Himself over to death ahead of you, to pay for our monstrous behavior, and to rescue you – or, actually better to rescue us from it forever.  For St. Paul tells us to “let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts” so that you can live in the one body of Christ that is the universal Christian Church. 

            The peace that you look for is not only for your own comfort and calmness.  Anna speaks to all about the redemption of Jerusalem, and Simeon says Jesus is for all people – the consolation of Israel and salvation’s Light for the Gentiles.  You find the peace you look for in your neighbors, in your brothers and sisters in Christ, babies and old people.  As you love Jesus, you love them.  When you love them, you are loving Him – for whatever you do for the least of them, Jesus says He counts it as though you did it for Him (Matthew 25:31ff).

But what does it look like to love this way?  God’s Word is what guides us as Christians, so – for starters – we can see some examples in today’s Gospel reading.  God’s Word is what brought Simeon and Anna, Mary and Joseph with their baby to the Temple – and likewise the Word has brought parents with their children to this House of the Lord.  Parents, you are to raise your children to know the Scriptures, for they teach us Christ and His salvation.  Bring them to this House and present your children to the Lord in Baptism.  Let the Word of Christ dwell in them richly – not just here, but in your homes with family devotions, starting out with children’s Bible story books, morning and mealtime and bedtime prayers.  Teach them psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, prayers and thanksgivings to Our Father, and to Jesus who was once a little child like they are.  Prepare them to receive Christ in His Body and Blood.

If you are a husband or wife like Joseph and Mary, then live with your spouse in peace, until death parts you.  If you are widowed like Anna, then worship the Lord with prayer night and day, and you will strengthen God’s people as He answers your requests.  If you are a young man, or old like Simeon, see in today’s text how masculine it is to be in church, to pray and praise and wait for the Lord to answer in His time.  It is a manly thing to care for your family if you have one – and to care about what happens to the children of others, and even bless them as gifts of life from God like Simeon does here, happily taking the little Lord Jesus into his arms.

These are only a few ways that love acts as seen in today’s Gospel text.  There are so many other ways our Christian love should go toward God’s people – being patient with them, helping them through their troubled times, sharing their burdens, compassionately forgiving whatever good she failed to do or whatever evil he did do. 

There is peace and life and love in this forgiveness because it is the forgiveness that lives in Christ’s heart and flows out from Him to all members of His Body.  It flows to us even though you and I have not been righteous and devoted in our worship nor prayers.  Even though we have not faithfully sung His praises, spread His Word, nor shared His peace.  Even though you and I have failed in every relationship – from honoring our parents to cherishing spouses to caring for children to loving our neighbor as ourselves.  We have made a mess of it all. 

Yet nonetheless here is this little One, the Babe, the Son of Mary is your Peace.  He has performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, fulfilling the command to love perfectly, as we ought to love.  And in order to save you, Christ gives you the credit as if you lived in total obedience to God.  You will be received into Heaven – for, according to His Word, Christ has redeemed you from death as He bears all your guilt.  So now bless God, depart in peace, and live.  Amen.

January 2 - Gospel Luke 2

It's been a while, so here's something to get going again - the sermon I preached for Christmas, using a lot of thoughts from a Rev. William Weedon sermon.  Christ's blessings this Christmas season -

            Throughout Advent, we did not sing the “Glory to God in the Highest” at the start of the Church service.  But today we join with the angels we have heard on high in sweetly singing Heaven’s joy.

            The congregation that night was pretty pitiful – just a  few rough and smelly shepherds.  If they had been struggling to stay awake, that was soon not a problem.  Dangers to the sheep lurked in the darkness around them.  But in an instant, Heaven’s light brightly shone down on them and they no longer worried about their sheep.  They were terrified of losing their own necks.

            That is repeatedly the response of fallen man when confronted by Divine holiness.  The angel who confronted them came from the presence of the Holy God, and so he shared in that holiness.  The shepherds wanted to get away – but there was no escape.  And you should remember that they had no reason to escape as the angel speaks to them.

            “Fear not!  For behold, I bring you tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people.  For to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.  And this will be a sign for you.  You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

            The angel had not come to frighten them, no matter how scared poor sinners get around that which is holy and godly.  The angel had not come to destroy them, but to bring them joy, to announce that God was giving them the One who would rescue them from destruction.

            Fear not!  For the Lord comes now to you as a little child, a weak and helpless baby.  Who could be afraid of such a little one?  God comes down to earth to reveal to the lost children the deepest truth of all – that God has never been against us, that He has always loved us, that He has desired nothing but salvation and eternal life.  And so God dares to come in poverty and helplessness, behind enemy lines, to lead His enemies from fear to friendship, from terror to peace.

            As the poor shepherds are trying to get over their shock and wrap their heads around it all, God cranks it up a notch.  Suddenly that angel is no longer by himself – but there are myriads, hundreds of thousands, shining and singing the “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

            The glory of God here is not so much about His power but in His strong love.  Love so great that He risks rejection as He becomes man to raise us to be children of God.  The glory of God that Adam lost in Eden, and so mankind began our foolish and senseless running away from the Giver of all good, our only Hope and Life – that glory is restored and shown in Bethlehem.  For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given.

            And then the angel adds his prayer for peace on earth.  And that peace has something to say about the weapons nations use to blow up and shoot down each other, inspiring fear and terror.  But also the horrifying weapons you and I know how to use on each other – the cutting word, the biting look, the poisonous anger.  The angels pray that all of it is laid aside and peace would really be upon the earth.  That we would come to love each other with the same sort of love that lives and reigns in Heaven, where the Father, Son and Holy Spirit live in love for each other – and for the whole creation!  A peace the holy angels live in, a peace the evil angels rejected to their own destruction.

            And there is more to it, because this very Christ Child does not simply bring peace.  He is our peace between God and man, for in Him the Divine and Human is one, united for all eternity.  A Christian poet (Paul Gerhardt) wrote it well –

“Shall we still dread God’s displeasure

Who to save                             Freely gave

His most precious treasure:

To redeem us He has given

His own Son                 From the throne

Of His might in Heaven.”

            This Christ Child does not change how God feels toward you, rather He shows how God feels towards you.  He lets you know that God has loved you with a love that never stops.  Certainly if you insist on meeting God apart from the gift of the Christ of Bethlehem and the Cross – well then you will face total destruction.  But that is not what God really wants for a single soul, for He gives this Child for all.  The angel sang that this is “Good news of great joy for ALL people,” and he meant ALL people!

            Good will toward men is what God shows us in this Babe of Bethlehem – to us bunch of rebels who go on in our disobedient sins as if there was no judgment against our guilt, as if no answer had to be given to God for every one of our evil words, deeds, or thoughts.  To us comes this Gift from the Father’s love – Jesus the Savior!  Sent to forgive our sins, sent to free us from our hell-bent wanderings, sent to bring us home to the Father.

            And that is what causes the angels’ great joy that Christmas night.  They are absolutely giddy because God’s lost children are beginning to be rescued and restored to the family home.  And they honestly are thrilled that they get the privilege of serving God’s children – of protecting and shepherding us through this life until we share with them eternally in glorifying God as we live forever with them in Heavenly peace, enjoying the good will and love of God.  Amen.

Psalmody - September 6, 2012

This showed up in my Inbox today as part of an email from a Roman Catholic group that somehow got a hold of my address in response to what has been going on politically in regards to abortion.  Amazing how often the Treasury of Daily Prayer readings touch what is going on in life.

+++

Lord Jesus,
You who faithfully visit and fulfill with your Presence
the Church and the history of men;
You who in the miraculous Sacrament of your Body and Blood
render us participants in divine Life
and allow us a foretaste of the joy of eternal Life;
We adore and bless you.

Prostrated before You, source and lover of Life,
truly present and alive among us, we beg you.

Reawaken in us respect for every unborn life,
make us capable of seeing in the fruit of the maternal womb
the miraculous work of the Creator,
open our hearts to generously welcoming every child
that comes into life.

Bless all families,
sanctify the union of spouses,
render fruitful their love.

Accompany the choices of legislative assemblies
with the light of your Spirit,
so that peoples and nations may recognize and respect
the sacred nature of life, of every human life.

Guide the work of scientists and doctors,
so that all progress contributes to the integral well-being of the person,
and no one endures suppression or injustice.

Give creative charity to administrators and economists,
so they may realize and promote sufficient conditions
so that young families can serenely embrace
the birth of new children.

Console the married couples who suffer
because they are unable to have children
and in Your goodness provide for them.

Teach us all to care for orphaned or abandoned children,
so they may experience the warmth of your Charity,
the consolation of your divine Heart.

Together with Mary, Your Mother, the great believer,
in whose womb you took on our human nature,
we wait to receive from You, our Only True Good and Savior,
the strength to love and serve life,
in anticipation of living forever in You,
in communion with the Blessed Trinity.

Pope Benedict XVI, at the conclusion of the Prayer Vigil for the Unborn, November 27, 2010.

Homily for Mark 6:45-56

            After He feeds the 5,000, the same Jesus who was in no rush to send away the crowds immediately makes His disciples get in the boat and go away.  With so many fishermen in the group, they never would have done this on their own.  They knew strong storms could whip up the Sea of Galilee at night.  This was the Lord’s doing.  He ordered them to go on ahead to Bethsaida while He prayed on the mountain. 

He wanted them out on the choppy water in the darkness, just as much as this same God wanted Noah bobbing on the waves of the flood in the ark with his family, 8 souls in all.  It was a regular zoo in there, with no dry land in sight.  You can imagine they got uncomfortable and anxious on board, with the rain thundering down for 40 days, and the wind and waves rocking the creaking boat another year or so past that.
            Go out to sea for a while, and you will remember you are a creature of the earth.  God did not create us until after He pulled the dry land out of the water.  The sea is a nice place to visit, but living there long-term?  No thank you.  We belong on solid ground.

Yet strangely, there is something about water that is not foreign to us.  Our kids love to play in the pool.  Perhaps because we all were born out of water, suspended in our mother’s wombs for 9 months until her water breaks at our birth.  And more than just at our individual beginnings, water is there at the beginning of it all – when God created the heavens and the earth, the whole world was covered with water as His Spirit hovered over them, and God’s creative Word echoed above them to begin the dance of life.

All of that is here in this miracle too – the water, the darkness, the wind, the LORD.  Jesus walks on water as if it were solid ground.  “The sea is His, for He made it.”  To their credit, the wind and wave obey the Lord better than we do.  Furthermore, the ancient people saw the deep water as representing Death and the grave.  Many also thought that Leviathan, a great sea dragon, lurked down there.  When Jesus walks on the water like He’s strolling through a park, it is as if Christ is treading the devil underfoot.  The old evil foe is judged, the deed is done.

Mark gives the detail that when Jesus gets near the boat, He just keeps on going, as if He intends “to pass by them” (Mark 6:48).  To be honest, I have no idea what that is all about.  The Lord is mysterious – maybe He is going on ahead of them to Bethsaida without the help of the boat.  Maybe Christ was trying to teach them to follow Him, even as we are to follow Him through death and resurrection.  We are powerless against the chaotic forces that threaten us, but Jesus is the Lord over all creation.

They thought He was a ghost.  When you are exhausted in the dark of night, the mind play tricks on you.  We all get scared when our safety is threatened.  They thought they needed to be saved from the Savior – even as we at times might be scared when we see God get to work on our life.  Have you seen His hand of help and mistakenly thought it would destroy you?  I have.  We might not believe in superstitions, but our fears are just as real when we wait for test results, or we have that close brush with Death. 

Seeing Jesus does not comfort them.  Only the voice of Jesus calms them down.  “Take heart; it is I.  Do not be afraid.”  It is the Lord, our God, come to save them. 

            He gets into the boat and the wind stops immediately.  They would have been safe if the Lord stayed out of the boat, but the disciples did not trust that.  Not yet.  “They did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened,” as slow to believe as we are.  Quick to panic, still not certain it is safe to trust God.

            For all the wonderful things going on in this miracle, as it reveals that Jesus is the God of Creation, the conqueror of chaos, the Lord who tramples the beast underfoot – for all of that display of divine power, the Disciples find no confidence, no comfort, no hope, no faith in it.  Many of the first readers of Mark’s Gospel had thought that if only they had seen Jesus do His miracles, then they would believe more strongly – just like you and I can start thinking that we would have a stronger faith if God would just give us some great sign.  Today, Mark lets us know life does not work that way. 

            It takes a lot less than a boat on a stormy lake at 3 am to push us into panic, doubt, disbelief.  The slightest thing disturbs our peace, and we begin to act like we have no God on our side, none of His promises to be with us and save us.  That is our old sinful nature at work, our inner sinner that refuses to take God at His Word or trust that the Lord knows what He is doing. 

            The disciples are confused.  They cannot connect the dots of the loaves and fish, the calmed wind and seas.  In the darkness, they cannot see that this Jesus is the eternal God in the flesh come to save the world.  We should not be surprised, not if we remember the Catechism – “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him.”  No matter how many miracles I see or how much of God’s goodness I experience, I could not trust in Jesus – except that the Holy Spirit works on me through God’s Word. 

            The Jesus who came as the Disciples’ Savior on the water, came in the Baptismal water to be your Savior.  That is where the chaos of sin and death come to an end, where your fear is calmed, your life restored.  That is where the new creation by water and the Spirit happens.  Baptism is our little lifeboat, our ark on the water with Jesus right there with us, holding us in His death, raising us in His life, keeping our lives safe and secure in ways we cannot.

            Take heart, dear brothers and sisters, in the midst of whatever chaos you face.  Remember how Jesus is for His disciples.  They were not in danger of dying, even though they thought they were facing a ghost in a storm.  Jesus could have kept on going on the water and the disciples would have survived it all.  But Christ goes the extra mile in what He needs to do.  He climbs in the boat with them.  His Word lets them know they are safe with Him in the midst of life’s discomforts.  And that lets us know we are safe with Him too – not just safe from the discomforts, but safe also from the sin and death that threaten to destroy us.  For this same Savior goes the extra miles to His Cross, to die for all our doubts, our fears, our disbelief, our sin, so that we would be safe with God forever.

            Our lives as baptized believers in Christ are to be ones of continual growing in what Jesus has done for us.  Just as the disciples were works in progress, so we too are maturing into who we are in Jesus and who Jesus is for us.  Jesus will send you off at times in your little boat so to speak.  He will let you row with all your might against the wind, and you will feel like you are all on your own in the dark.  God does it for no other reason than to exercise that faith the Holy Spirit has created in you, to work into you that trust in His promises, so that you would grow in faith, in knowledge, in love, in hope, in patient endurance and character.
            Paul's prayer in today’s Epistle for the Ephesian Christians shows this nicely.  Hear them as a prayer for you as I read it again:
 "I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, ¹⁶ that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
²⁰ Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."
  

July 5 - Acts 12

Apostles James, John and Peter

Recently I had noticed that in the Gospels, whenever the Apostle James is mentioned, it is noted that he is John's brother (haven't checked yet to see if it is every time or just most of the times).  This struck me since I figured that the readers of the Gospels should have been aware of James, and not needed the extra words.  However, when I read Acts 12, I understood.  James was martyred.  The first readers of the Gospels still could go talk to all the other Apostles, except James.  They could only go speak with his brother to verify the account.  Which is about the only way I see this insight as applying to our lives today, other than it shows some maturation in my reading of the Scriptures as I did not just ask "Where does Acts 12 touch my life?" but clearly saw where it touched the lives of the first hearers.

The Collect references James the Just, but quite appropriate too is stanza 21 from "By All Your Saints in Warfare":

O Lord, for James, we praise You, 

Who fell to Herod's sword;

He drank the cup of suff'ring

And thus fulfilled Your word.

Lord, curb our vain impatience 

For glory and for fame,

Equip us for such suff'rings

As glorify Your name.

Nativity of John the Baptist Homily

Throughout this life we are always on trial.  Always judging and being judged, by ourselves and others.  Our sense of fairness is satisfied when evildoers get what we judge is coming to them.  They victimize the weak and violate the vulnerable to fulfill their twisted desires.  For far too long they felt safe.  Justice would never catch up with them.  Or so they thought until condemnation fell upon them.

            However, even when that happens to one enemy of humanity, there are so many more out there hurting and abusing children and adults.  The cops and criminal courts do what they can, but they cannot stop it all.  So if only God would come down.  If only He would visit, then He would see how horrid they are – and how great we are.  And He would be happy with us and bless us, His people.

            But when God looked down at His people in Noah’s day, He saw all sorts of violence and perversion and lack of faith.  Years later, when God visited Abraham and promised Sarah would have a son, she laughed in His face.   Centuries later, when God visited Moses and the people of Israel at Mt. Sinai, He found them worshiping the golden calf.  And when God was almost ready to make His greatest visitation of all, becoming flesh like us, telling Zechariah he and Elizabeth would have a son who would prepare the way of the Lord – what did He find?  He found one of His own priests who refused to believe an old man and woman could become parents, despite knowing the story of Abraham.  He found people with lives more like crooked highways than the straight and narrow path that leads to Heaven.  Nevertheless they thought their place in Paradise was secure simply because they were born in the right religious family.  He found hearts that were cold and dead to faith, and yet they were lifted up in pride.  He found eyes blind to the fact that they were sitting in darkness, the very shadow of death.

            Open your own eyes and repent.  God sent John to preach to a people who are not nearly as different from us as they ought to be.  We go to bed wanting to think we are good.  Though not innocent, we tell stories that we think that will somehow explain we have a good reason for how we have behaved.  I’m good, except those few times when I’m not.

Will the Lord’s visitation to you reveal that you are better than they are?  Better than the people of Noah’s times?  Or have you never doubted and ignored God’s Word?  Have you never laughed in God’s face?  Have you never victimized God’s children to fulfill your twisted pride or anger, lust or envy?  Have you thought you will get away with it all, that justice will never catch up with you?  The Truth hurts. 

            St. Paul warns us never to think more highly of yourself than you “ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned” (Romans 12:3).  For the judgment of God is a sobering thing.  Not the judgments we think He should pronounce, but what He actually says.  There is no one righteous.  No, not even one.  Not even you.  All of us need to hear John’s sermon this day, “Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”  Return to God from your deadly ways.

            And what a blessed God we have.  Praise the Lord, for He has not only visited His people, He has also redeemed them.  Without redemption, God coming to you gets deadly.  If God visits the world with our iniquity, our guilt, then all is lost.  You cannot live without God – that is Hell.  But you also cannot live with the Holy Lord Most High in your sin either – that would result in your destruction. 

However, when the Lord visits His people in Jesus Christ, there is redemption.  Here God comes, with mercy and Divine compassion, using preachers like John the Baptist “to give knowledge of salvation to His people in the forgiveness of our sins.”  And so John does not only preach “Repent.”  He also points to Jesus, telling God’s people, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

            In the blood of Jesus, the world is redeemed.  The great visitation of God against sin falls upon Jesus, and He bears the terrible weight of all your guilt and mine.  Like a sponge, Christ soaks up all our evil at His baptism in the Jordan, He carries it with Him to the Cross, takes it down with Him into His grave.  And then He leaves your pride, your anger, your bitterness, and every other sin that victimizes you and other children of God.  All of it is left  there when He rises from the dead.   By this forgiveness, you are saved.

            Zechariah says that God's people will serve Him without fear - but how is that possible, when there are so many worries about doing the wrong thing when working for God, so many opportunities for sin?  And then what condition will I be in when God visits?  Will He find you and judge you to be outside His kingdom?  Well, listen again to how Zechariah ends his praise of God at the birth of John:  It is all “because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. “  This is the way it is with God, in the Old Testament, and today, and even around the time of the birth of His Son Jesus Christ.  He finds us sitting in sin’s deadly darkness, weighed down by our guilt, blinded by ignorance of His ways, overcome by Satan’s lies.  The Savior, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life comes to people who can never make themselves ready for Him.  He brings to us the Light as Christ teaches us to know His gift of forgiveness.  And with that we live in peace with God.

            Throughout this life we are always on trial.  Always judging and being judged, by ourselves and others.  But in the end, God is our Judge.  And Christ, who has taken the blame for your guilt, is our only hope.  Amen.

on a day when the Treasury of Daily Prayer brings Christ to us opening up the minds of the disciples to understand the Old Testament proclaims His death, resurrection, repentance and forgiveness (Luke 24), it is rather appropriate that Numbers 35:25 should jump out at me.  I knew about the cities of refuge, but that the death of the High Priest should result in freedom for those who have fled there, even as we flee for refuge to the name of God (Proverbs 18).  Wow.
And yet the Gospel is better than the Law, for the Cities of Refuge were only for those who became unintentional manslayers - while the Name of God brings forgiveness for us even after our intentional sins.
Wow.  Oh for a thousand tongues to sing indeed, for my one tongue finds itself speechless, lost in wonder and praise.  There just are not words to adequately thank the Lord enough for all His many blessings.  And so we share in the mega-joy of the Apostles after the ascension of our Lord (Luke 24).

Ascension - What Bo Giertz said

"Several times He disappeared from their sight, but this time at Bethany He disappeared in such a way that they knew they had seen Him for the last time...This doesn't necessarily mean that God's kingdom is somewhere above us in space, but that when God created the heavens above us in space, but that when God created the heavens above us, He gave us a reminder of His kingdom's immenseness and majesty, of the light and clarity there... The Lord's ascension is a milestone in world history. Christ sits at the Father's side and resumes full divine qualities. He is now the omnipresent Savior, who can intervene anywhere with His saving presence." - Bo Giertz' Devotion for Ascension Day from To Live with Christ

Psalm 23

a slight departure from TDP-inspired posts...

While prepping for tomorrow's sermons, I could not get past the first verse.  "I shall not be in want."  There I was, sitting at my daughter's softball practice in my nice car - not the nicest car, mind you.  It is over 10 years old, makes some funny sounds, and one speed of the ac fan doesn't work.  But it is still nicer than the car my dad drove when I was growing up, and nicer than ANY car his dad ever had.  And I was reading from The Lutheran Study Bible, which again is nicer than any Bible they ever had.  And I was just overwhelmed by it all, that God would be so kind to me that I could afford the time and money for my daughter to spend this morning playing softball.  And all I could do was thank Him for His many benefits, providing more than all that I need for this body and soul, without any merit or worthiness in me.

Join in Prayer at 2:40 pm for Lutheran Malaria Day

http://www.lutheranmalaria.org/site/c.emJXKgOYJhI6G/b.7716885/k.BF10/Home.htm#intro_resources

Thursday in Easter 2 - Psalmody

O Lord, You know better than I that I do not love as I ought.  Enlarge my heart that I may evermore be faithful to You and serve my neighbor in love.

from yesteryear - The 13th (nothing connected to TDP)

  

Keeping and Treasuring The Word: The 13th (nothing connected to TDP)

Easter 2012 Homily

(Borrowed from Rev. Todd Pepperkorn)

“Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?”  That was quite a problem the women faced on that first Easter morning.  Even bigger than the stone was the problem of the Lord’s death.  They thought Jesus was gone forever.  All that talk about Jesus being the Messiah was cold and dead in their hearts, a distant memory.  Now they went to do what they could to honor Him in death, bringing spices to anoint His body.  If Jesus could not live, at least He should be buried with respect as a great teacher.

            We all fight this battle – against despair, hopelessness and death.  Sometimes the battle goes well, and we even get time off from the front.  Times of happiness when life is going well, we have our health, our kids and grandkids are doing fine, tax season is almost over, and even the Cardinals are going strong.  God is gracious, all is right with our world, and there is much to smile about.  Until those times return when things are going awful everywhere.  It seems that Death and Devil are winning.  A sickness will not go away.  A loved one dies.  The economy and election, conflict in the home and shootings at schools.  Sometimes the fight gets long and the battle strains us hard.  The sufferings feel like they will never end – or if they do get resolved, then bigger problems will come along to take their place.  It can look like there is no reason to hope for the future, for things to ever get better.

            Find courage and strength in that other Christians have also faced this battle with Satan and sin and Death, and they survived because Christ pulled them through it to life on the other side.  St. Paul writes this morning’s words to the Corinthians to remind them of the Gospel he had already preached to them.  They needed to hear again that Christ died for our sins, just as the Old Testament had said, and that He was buried and raised on the third day.  They could be certain this is how it happened because there were over 500 witnesses who had seen Jesus alive after Good Friday.  They could go to Peter or the other apostles, or James, or any of them and asked them about the facts of Christ’s life – and the testimonies would all agree. 

            After our Epistle ends, St. Paul lets us know why he needed to remind them of this basic fact of Christian faith.  Some people in the Corinthian congregation were not certain if the dead would be resurrected.  They thought that you lived and died, and that was the end of it.  So Paul answers that concern, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (1 Corinthians 15:19).

            How often have you been miserable because you forget the most basic heart and core of Christianity?  How often have you lived as if the dead body of Jesus was still decaying in a tomb somewhere – or as if He never had a body, or as if He never existed?  When we allow the dark trials of life to shut us down and make us blind to the Light of the living God, it is as if we are with those women asking their question on the way to the tomb.  “Who will roll away the stone for us?”

            Do not get me wrong – I am not saying we should be happy all the time, just have a positive outlook on life and things will get better.  Our Lord Jesus knows personally how hard this life gets.  We do suffer things – real pain that can feel like it will not end.

            However, Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!

He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

And for poor, weak, dying sinners like you and me, that is the greatest news ever.  Momentarily we will hear Arlen sing those faithful words of Job, “I know that my Redeemer lives.”  If anyone had reason to complain and let the darkness defeat him, it was Job.  His livelihood was destroyed, his health and wealth all gone, his children were dead, and his family wanted nothing to do with him in case his curse might affect them.  His very life was barely hanging on.  Yet despite all of that, Job was able to confess, “For I know that my Redeemer lives and at the last he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another” (Job 19:25-27).

            Job points us to this great, beautiful reality.  No matter what happens, no matter what evil, sin, Satan, death and the world throw at you, Jesus is risen from His grave.  Even though everything else may be taken away from you, even life itself, you can never be separated from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

            Death has lost its sting because Jesus is risen.

            Your sins cannot drag you down to Hell, because Jesus is risen.

            You have a future that is bright and clear because Jesus is risen.

            All that is messed up and broken today will be fixed and restored because Jesus is risen.

            You are not doomed to Hell’s prison.  You will be free in Heaven because Jesus is risen.

            Christ’s blood now marks you as belonging to Him, because Jesus is risen.

            Rejoice this morning and be glad.  The things of life that weigh you down will pass.  God is at peace with you, so you do not need to be afraid of anything forever.  Jesus, our Savior and Redeemer, lives, and that is all that really matters in life.  Believe it for Christ’s sake.  Amen.

The Rebellious Pastor's Wife: Jesus at the Gate

and another good point about Jesus in the Abraham-sacrificing-Isaac reading from the Easter Vigil by Lora Horn:
The Rebellious Pastor's Wife: Jesus at the Gate

The Sober Peasant: Easter Monday Morning Thoughts

I've been very busy with funerals and extra services in the past few weeks.  As my brain takes a sabbath from thinking and writing theologically, my friend, Rev. James Douthwaite, has an excellent final paragraph to his post today:

Now, back to the grind. But leave Easter behind? No. How could we? That will be my sermon for Wednesday Evening Prayer. The apostles went back to fishing, but they did not leave Easter behind. Everything was changed. Peter's reaction is the witness to that. Come listen if you're in town! But so too for me. Back to school work, reading, writing, papers, languages, questions, struggles. But not the same. Never the same. One never leaves Holy Week the same way you enter. The Word of the Lord does its work. Thanks be to God.


You can read the rest of his post here - The Sober Peasant: Easter Monday Morning Thoughts: