1 John 3:1-3 - Unrecognized Royalty … For Now

1 John 3:1-3

In love, God adopted us as His children, making us heirs of future glory.

1 See the kind of love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are! The world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Dear friends, we are children of God now, but what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He is revealed, we will be like Him, and we will see Him as He really is. 3 Everyone who has this hope purifies himself just as Jesus is pure. – EHV

Prayer of the Day:

Almighty God, You have knit Your people together into one holy Church, the body of Christ our Lord. Grant us grace to follow the example of Your blessed saints in lives of faith and willing service, and with them at last inherit the inexpressible joys that You have prepared for those who love You; through Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Verse of the Day:

Alleluia. They are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple. Alleluia. (Revelation 7:15)

Sermon Text:

I know it’s probably too early to think Christmas thoughts.  But today's lesson got me thinking about one of those old traditional Christmas shows that will likely start popping up on our TVs pretty soon.  Maybe even the fact that I know Hermey, Yukon Cornelius, and the Bumble make me older than I want to admit, but Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is one of those Christmas classics that, well, just maybe, we still all know.  If you do, perhaps you recall the little ditty that Hermey and Rudolph sing, “We’re a couple of misfits?” At least one verse goes, “We're a couple of misfits. We're a couple of misfits. What's the matter with misfits?  That's where we fit in! We're not daffy and dilly. Don't go 'round willy nilly. Seems to us kinda silly That we don't fit in. We may be different from the rest. Who decides the test Of what is really best? We're a couple of misfits. We're a couple of misfits. What's the matter with misfits?
That's where we fit in!”

Now John is way older than I am, so he predates the commercialization of Christmas and the television classics that it would produce. In many ways, Christianity came into the mainstream in ways the Twelve Apostles would have never imagined.  Yet even with Christmas and Easter on the calendar, I wonder if we don’t all feel a bit like Hermey and Rudolph from time to time.  We just don’t seem to really fit in with the world around us, which has even led to tension within the visible church at times because, well, the sinful flesh wants nothing more than to be accepted. It turns out, the more things change, the more they stay the same.  And in our lesson today, as our eyes move beyond the confines of time into eternity, and we celebrate All Saints and the glories so many of our Christian compatriots and our loved ones now enjoy, John addresses the fact that we are misfits in the world around us but find belonging where it matters most.  As children of God, we are Unrecognized Royalty … for now.

Before we talk about what we are in Christ, it is important for us to acknowledge that this wasn’t always the case. The Apostle Paul wrote, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. (Ephesians 2:1-3)”

Born sinners, we were not always misfits in the world around us.  In fact, we fit in just fine.  Sin reigned in our mortal bodies, and in truth we still struggle against that old man living within us.  But then there was a huge problem with that.  Not only was sin corrosive and poisonous to us as people, resulting in death both physically and spiritually.  While we fit in with the world around us, we didn’t fit in with our God. An eternity of wrath was what each and every sin earned and deserved from a righteous God who still demands perfection as the key that unlocks the doors to heaven. We could answer Rudolph and Hermey pretty definitively as they ask their question: Who decides the test Of what is really best? God does, and we don’t make the cut.

Ah, but then that’s only the beginning.  As I said, before we acknowledge what we are in Christ, we need to recall what we were, because when we do well, we see it.  John announces, See the kind of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are! The Greek word there for “the kind of” can also be translated as “what glorious or splendid”. The NIV translates the phrase as “the love that God has lavished on us”. Even those translations don’t go far enough.

What kind of love indeed.  When we deserved only wrath and punishment as enemies of our Father, He willingly sacrificed His only Son to pay our debt and free us from the bonds of sin, satan, and hell.  He supplied the perfection that a righteous God demanded to unlock those heavenly gates.  And in so doing, he claimed us as His own.  Now I have two sons, four children, and I’m not so sure I could sacrifice any of them for a friend, let alone for an enemy. Yet God does that for you.  Does that not speak to your importance to Him?  This is unfathomable love, splendid, glorious, lavish love.  Words just don’t do it justice as God goes to work for us to make us His children. 

And note those words too. You are a child of God.  He is your Father. This simply heightens that love and the relationship we have with our God.  What parent wouldn’t do anything in their power for their child?  What parent wants anything other than the very best for them?  And our Father is God Himself, dear brothers and sisters.  That means we are royalty.

Ah, but… it doesn’t always feel that way. So John repeats it even as he gives us the explanation for why that is the case. The world does not know us, because it did not know Him.  The truth is we will always be misfits to one of the two.  We can fit in with the world around us and sever our ties to our God, or we, as Children of God, will be despised by the unbelieving and sin-filled world that swirls around us.  We can’t have both any more than Jesus could.  Of course, to fit in with the one is an eternity of destruction, and the other well …

Dear friends, we are children of God now, but what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He is revealed, we will be like Him, and we will see Him as He really is. The time will come.  The time will come when the royalty that has been gifted to us will be evident to all.  However, that in no way lessens the reality of it now.  We are children of God, yes, right now!  Even though it may feel like we don’t fit in and the hardships and trials outweigh that royal status.  You are God’s child. 

Oh, but my dear family members in Christ Jesus, the time will come.  The time will come when the sin-filled realities of this world give way to the realities of eternity.  Those realities are to great and to glorious for sinful human minds to even fully understand or contemplate: Perfection, free of the consequences of sin, glorious.  We will need to see it to fully grasp it.  For we will be like Christ.  Not divine, that will always be something reserved for our God, but those qualities that we so long for that make heaven so glorious, no longer misfits in a fallen world but royalty realized in the realms of heaven itself. To be able to see God as He really is. It’s all so much more than I deserve, than anyone deserves.  But that’s the point.  Such love again … such love that it defies definition … God’s love for us that saves us and gives us a lasting, eternal home where we will always fit in.

So John says, this truth changes us.  Everyone who has this hope purifies himself just as Jesus is pure.  We cannot purify ourselves in the eyes of God. That is something we just talked at great length about.  But knowing what God’s love has done for us, well, it is bound to change the way we live right now.  It’s bound to change priorities and what matters to us.  It’s bound to lift our eyes up from this fallen world and the fallen realities in which we live to those of our God and His lasting promises that You and I would live as His children even now just as we are is children even now.  Living in His righteousness even as we long to see with our very own eyes.

All Saints is a time when we lift our eyes to that glorious home God has prepared for us.  It’s a time when we rejoice with those who enjoy those realities at least partially, now as their souls are with Him there.  It’s a time we remember who we are by grace and through faith and what the Scriptures tell us that ultimately means.  Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, that is what we are. You are not misfits.  No, Because of God’s love for you, you are unrecognized royalty, but that’s only for now. Amen. 

Matthew 4:18-22 - The Mission Is Fishin'

Matthew 4:18-22   Pastor Joe Fricke    Mission Festival McFarland

Alleluia! The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. Alleluia!

As Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the sea, since they were fishermen. 19 He said to them, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 They immediately left their nets and followed him. 21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. Jesus called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

In our text today Jesus calls some of his disciples to follow him and become fishers of men.  I like to go fishing. The more I learn about fishing, I am convinced that this is not just a clever way of inviting the disciples who were fishermen to follow Jesus. The parallels between fishing for people and fishing for fish are plenty.

Like the disciples we too have been called to follow Jesus and “Fish for people”.  

Today we are going to tie the two together and we will remember that…The Mission is Fishin’

I am going to tell you a TRUE fish story today to help us understand how to share the Gospel with others. This takes place on the Snake River in Nebraska. A guy from my church managed the property of a Sportsman’s club – he ran the restaurant, maintained the cabins and took reservations.  As a benefit the Club allowed him to invite guests to fish their section of the river.  I had an open invitation.

Mr. Blatt announced that he was going to retire so I had about 2 months to fish.  I made arrangements to go, but Mr. Blatt forgot to leave me a permission card.  We went caught a couple of fish and on the way out and gentleman stopped us and asked to see our membership cards. I explained that I was an invited guest of Mr. Blatt to which he replied, “Then I’ll need to see your driver’s license.” It was odd but I quickly forgot about it.

The next day four guys from church were working on the garage and the game warden shows up and asked for Joe Fricke – I was nervous. After telling him the situation – Mr. Blatt forgot to leave a “guest card” – Frank Miller – the game warden told me he had to issue a ticket. I wasn’t worried about the ticket but - I was sweating – the headlines – Blacky needed to pay right then or go to jail.  We  were having a special service the next day, and I breful thourhg about inviting him but didn’t.

I didn’t know it at the time, but the fish had come to me. The fish were where I was!

Fishing Lesson #1. You have to be where the fish are.  We don’t put the worm on the beach and expect the fish to jump out of the water.  We can’t expect those who are by nature spiritually dead and hostile to God to want to come to church.  We must go fishing for them outside of the church walls.

Where do we go? We tend to go “up north” for the great fishing. Sometimes we think – there are no fish here McFarland is only 10,000 people.  We need to go to the exotic places - where the people are – big cities, Texas, California, the coasts where the WELS is not.

But there are fish all around us. Did you know that there is world class fishing for sauger and walleye are the Rock River and Koshkonong. The same is true fishing for people.  Some of the est fishing for people is right here in our back yard.  We don’t think of it that way – no trip needs to be made – we are where we need to be.

In Dane county/McFarland on average are 65% unchurched – typical for Wisconsin. That’s 6,500 people, fish who are doomed to death and fry in hell – a place of eternal torment and fire.

They are all around us. Who do you know? FRAN’s - They need us to go fishing for them - for their own good – they need Jesus. Sometimes they come to us – like Frank did….but keep this in mind.  Frank did not come to our special service the next day.  In fact he didn’t come for quite a while. 

I also leaned Fishing Lesson #2 that day – what do we tell the kids when we are fishing? Always be ready. You don’t know when you are going to get the chance. Even when you have more pressing things on your mind – like a ticket and a headline. 

I was not expecting to have a chance to share the Gospel that day – and I didn’t.  I was not ready for it. All I did was get out a lame invitation to our Special service that by nature he didn’t care about and did want.

Even as a pastor, I have found it’s really easy to NOT share the Gospel. “Not the time of place – Pastor.” “Akward” “Rude?” Frank thinking…is he trying to manipulate me? The power dynamic?

There are others…Don’t know what to say, what if I mess up and say the wrong thing. What if I lose my friend and it turns into a fight? What’s your reason?

We fear the law part of the conversation. People don’t like to hear it – often we don’t.  We don’t like to hear we are evil awful people.  But it’s true.  And you know – or you wouldn’t be here – we NEED to hear it. Because if they don’t think they need Jesus, there is no reason to listen. The Holy Spirit works through law. . 

But then we get to follow up with GRACE! God’s undeserved love for sinners.  For ALL sinners. You, me and all those outside the Church destined for the deep fryer of hell. 

We have the “no strings attached” unconditional Gospel to share. Our Savior did all the work.  We need righteousness to get into heaven – moral righteousness – perfect righteousness. Not political righteousness. Not the righteousness of love that ignores sin and its consequences. Not righteousness in “I work hard, love my family, and do the best I can with what I got.” – that’s good enough. That we can invent on our own.

We need a righteousness that is outside of us. Romans 3:21-22, “But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in[h] Jesus Christ to all who believe.” We need a righteousness we cannot produce. Righteousness from God to me. A righteousness we can’t figure out – it has to be revealed to us. A righteousness that is ours through faith. 

The righteousness won for us and given to us by Jesus.  Romans 3:24-25, “…and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,[i] through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.” By his death he suffered in our place. His death paid the price for our sins. His death was hell suffered in our place. His blood has washed all our sins away.  It is finished! Completed! Done for us.

Through faith in Jesus we have complete forgiveness and eternal life.  Not earned. Not a reward for goodness. Not won by a sincere heart. Given freely by his grace.  That also means eternal life is ours right now!

With that in mind, do you see what our job is?  We don’t have to convince or convert the fish. We don’t have to entice them.  We have the bait that has the power of dynamite – the Gospel.  Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.”  All this was done by Jesus for us. It was accomplished and finished years ago.  Our wok is to simply tell people what Jesus has already done.  It works!

This is the mission – to go fishin’.

Fast forward to Easter Sunday. I have blown 2 chances to share the Gospel. I put out the invitation, but no talk of Jesus yet.  People are filing in. I go up front to put on my robe, step out to start the service and I notice Frank and his fiancé Dana sitting in the last row behind my wife and kids.  I didn’t see that coming.

On the way out, I thanked them for coming and asked if I could stop over to visit them. They agreed. Wednesday night at 6pm.  Their place.

Here is who I met.  Two people who were good people. Both game wardens – jobs to serve and protect us - serving society for good.  Appeared to be the kind of people you would expect to go to heaven – who believed they were going to heaven – had no idea how they were going to heaven. “Why should God let you into heaven?” We were just raised to believe that when you die you go to heaven.” They had no idea. 

We discuss sin – they know it – they both work in law enforcement  - but they also recognize they are guilty of it. The fish pull back a bit. They hesitate.  They have lived their life thinking they were “good people”/. That their “goodness” qualifies them for eternal life.  But they also admit and understand they are nowhere near the perfection God requires for eternal life. 

We don’t stop there.  After the law has gently landed, we twitch with the gospel. There is good news! There is one who can provide the perfection they need – the holiness – the righteousness they need for heaven. And…. It comes at no cost to them, but great cost to Jesus.

Perfect Jesus – who never sinned put himself in our place.  He took all our sins on himself and stepped into our place to be punished for our sins.  He suffered hell for us so we don’ have to. He went to his death in our place, so we don’t have to.  His dead body was placed in a tomb for 3 days and then….he took back his life – he rose from the dead.  Sin did not stick to him and thus does not stick to us. Death cannot hold him and will not hold us forever. The result for us is eternal life not frying in the unbearable heat of hell.   

I got to offer this free gift of eternal life to them – just come and learn more.

Invite them to Adult catechism class – BIC and they agreed to come. The Sunday after Christmas they were both confirmed. The Lord blessed Blacky and me with more than a nice catch of fish – we also caught two souls that day on the Snake River. 

But when fishing for people we want them all from the finest tasting fish to the ugliest scavengers.  Our Lord says so in 1 Timothy 1:3-4, “This is good and pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” We get to go find them. 

Fishing for people lesson #1. We also go fishing for he sake of the fish, not for me.  A fisherman gets enjoyment out of fishing and catching fish but the sport is primarily centered on the fisherman.  In this case we go fishing for people for their sake.  We don’t want them to have to spend eternity in hell. 

The Lord uses our fishing trips to bless us and others too. You see, if I recall correctly, Frank and Dana ha ve4 boys. All of them went to our Lutheran School. Frank served on the School Board. They still live there and still attend church. They still love there Savior and we will see them in heaven.   

The Mission is Fishin’ You have permission to go fishing.  The fish are all around us. 65% of the people you pass by every day don’t call Jesus their Savior. Always be ready to tell people about Jesus.  It can happen at the most unlikely time – all we have to do is get the Gospel in the water and let God do his work.

People around us are looking for righteousness – but finding it in themselves – what they have done and what they think – even which football team they cheer for. They want eternal life – but they are trying hard to earn it – and believe they qualify when they don’t.  People want their sinful past removed – and are busy trying to clear their record.  It can’t be done.

Only Jesus can do that – and he has! He has declared us not guilty of sin. He has given us his righteousness – as a gift – with no strings attached. Toss out the Gospel message and let’s see what we can catch! Amen.

Luke 1:1–4; 24:44-53 - That You Might Know the Certainty of Forgiveness

Luke 1:1–4; 24:44-53

The evangelist Luke summarizes the message of the Christian faith.

1Many have undertaken to compile an account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, 2an account like those handed down to us by those who were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word from the beginning. 3For this reason, it seemed good to me also, since I followed everything closely from the beginning, to write an orderly account to you, most excellent Theophilus, 4so that you may know the certainty of the things you were taught.

44He said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.”

45Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. 46He said to them, “This is what is written and so it must be: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49Look, I am sending you what my Father promised. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

50He led them out as far as the vicinity of Bethany. He lifted up his hands and blessed them. 51And while he was blessing them, he parted from them and was taken up into heaven. 52So they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. 53They were continually in the temple courts, praising and blessing God. Amen. – EHV

Prayer of the Day:

Almighty God, you called Luke the physician to reveal in his gospel the love and healing power of your Son. Grant that, by hearing and believing your Word, we may be healed of all sin and serve you with willing hearts; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Verse of the Day:

Alleluia. These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His Name. Alleluia. (John 20:31)

Sermon Text:

Truth, many in our day and age sound a little like Pontius Pilate as he goes back and forth with Jesus only to conclude that Truth is ultimately an elusive thing, ultimately unknown and unattainable.  Such a conclusion is truly depressing.  Unmoored from reality, one is left to roam listlessly in this world of our flitting from one theory to another on what can be believed, only to be disappointed again and again.  If YouTube can conceive of it, if it pops up on my feed, it must be real, especially if some celebrity puts their stamp of approval on it.

But Truth, real truth, is more than opinion.  It is rooted in reality.  Interestingly enough, Webster Dictionary in 1828 gave the following as the primary meaning of Truth: “Conformity to fact or reality; exact accordance with that which is, or has been, or shall be.” Two example sentences showing its use are: “The truth of history constitutes its whole value. We rely on the truth of the scriptural prophecies.” It then quotes two Bible passages: “My mouth shall speak truth (Proverbs 8:7)” and “Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth (John 17:17).” My, how a century can change things.

Today in worship, we remember St. Luke, the writer of the Gospel that bears his name.  We are about a week early in the church calendar; next week is Mission Festival, and we will use this week’s lessons for it, so we are switching things up a little.  That’s the truth.  But as we consider Luke, truth seems to be on his mind.

 1Many have undertaken to compile an account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, 2an account like those handed down to us by those who were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word from the beginning. 3For this reason, it seemed good to me also, since I followed everything closely from the beginning, to write an orderly account to you, most excellent Theophilus, 4so that you may know the certainty of the things you were taught. (Luke 1:1-4)

Certainty, like Pilate, the modern world might scoff at such a word. But then so might the modern man, you and me included. Doubt is the opposite of certainty, and let’s face it, our world is full of it.  So much so that it is difficult not to be infected with the pervasive plague of it. Does the burger ever really look like the advertisement we see on television?  Does that product really live up to all the hype that it is given?  Is the person really as trustworthy as they said they were? Will they really accomplish what they said they would?  Is it possible that we start thinking of our God in a similar way?  What is truth?  How can we know?

Hopefully our history classes weighed in on this at some point.  If you want to verify the validity of a thing in the past (that’s truth), you need to visit firsthand witnesses of the event. Compile the notes, cross-check and compare, because, well, people can be people after all, and they lie. Firsthand sources are always best.  Sound at all like what Luke is doing here?  He even uses a word in Greek, the word translated “closely”, that was uncommon in society.  Where was it commonplace?  In the medical field of his day, Luke was a doctor, after all.  It meant “to strictly adhere to a norm or standard”.  Luke is doing the checking for Theophilus.  In a very modern sense, even while ancient, he wants the verified real truth to be presented.

That’s the apologetic embedded within the lesson today.  But there is more than a cold fact check to be considered, dear friends. This we find as Jesus opens His divine mouth at the end of the book.  After reminding them again that He had come as the fulfillment of Scripture, another truth point as the probability of one coming and fulfilling all of the prophecies of the Old Testament is slim to none, yet He does it (Check out the book of Matthew if you want to see all of that in detail), Jesus does something amazing again. 

45Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. 46He said to them, “This is what is written and so it must be: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. (Luke 24:45-47)

The divine truth checker, Jesus opens their minds so that they can see it. He connects the dots for them and allows them to see not only with history but with faith, not only the realities but their significance as well. Luke is often pictured by an Ox. There are a number of reasons for that, but perhaps the most significant is that the doctor had a keen eye for the sacrificial nature of the Messiah, or Jesus Christ.  This is where the truth takes on flesh and blood, quite literally, for us.

So Jesus had to suffer, and rise from the dead on the third day … had to.  He needed to, as the fulfillment of Scripture; more importantly, he needed to for you and for me.  He needed that repentance and the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all.  Repentance, for all the times I have doubted the truth of God’s holy Word.  Repentance, for all the times I have treated as an uncertain thing the certainty of my God.  Repentance, for the lip service I have paid while my heart writhed in doubts and burdens God would have relieved, but fear, love, and trust were flung far from Him and placed on something else entirely.  Repentance, that in the depths of my despair over my sin and its consequences there would be forgiveness.

Forgiveness wrought historically on a wooden cross outside Jerusalem. Forgiveness as Roman hands drew holy blood with thorns, whips, nails, and a spear. Forgiveness as Truth breathed its last breath and bowed its head in death, all so that I might know that word was not an empty historical fact, but that it bore meaning for me, sinful me.  That in the resurrection I might have the rock-solid certainty that God had not barred me from heaven but had flung open the gates and called me His own in the work of Jesus, my Savior.

Dear friends, I desperately want to talk more about the rest of the lesson.  Jesus said, “You are my witnesses.”  And so you have become.  Eyewitnesses of the realities of this Gospel message alive and well within you because the Holy Spirit has done His work, wringing truth into your hearts.  Eyewitnesses talk and share.  They announce the truth to the world around them that others may know.   But that’s all next week in worship.

So until then, may we live in the blessing of the Lord Himself and worship Him with great joy just as those first eyewitnesses did, continually praising and blessing God for all He has done for us. In other words, run to the source. Run to Jesus, His Word, His Sacraments, that we might be eyewitnesses of His grace, His mercy, His forgiveness!

Truth.  It may seem like an elusive thing in our day and age.  Satan is an expert in twisting our minds until we seemingly wouldn’t know up or down most days.  Truth be told, it’s all he’s got.  He has to hide and conceal because if he didn’t, well, the Truth would be so clearly seen … a truth that means his defeat … a truth that proclaims your forgiveness. So brothers and sisters, as we remember Luke, may we remember one who set himself on the task of letting that Truth shine forth in the world around him.  All so that You May Know the Certainty of Forgiveness! Amen.

Philippians 3:12–21 - Mind the Gap!

Philippians 3:12–21

God prompts us to respond to His grace by living differently from the enemies of the cross of Christ

12Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus also took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it yet, but there is one thing I do: Forgetting the things that are behind and straining toward the things that are ahead, 14I press on toward the goal, for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15Therefore, let all of us who are mature continue to think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this to you too. 16Only let us think the same thing and walk in line with what we already have attained.

17Brothers, join together in imitating me and in paying attention to those who are walking according to the pattern we gave you. 18To be sure, many walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. I told you about them often, and now I am saying it while weeping. 19Their end is destruction, their god is their appetite, and their glory is in their shame. They are thinking only about earthly things. 20But our citizenship is in heaven. We are eagerly waiting for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21By the power that enables him to subject all things to himself, he will transform our humble bodies to be like his glorious body. – EHV

Prayer of the Day:

Almighty God, in Your bountiful goodness, keep us safe from every evil of body and soul. Make us ready, with cheerful hearts, to do whatever pleases You; through Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Verse of the Day:

Alleluia. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works. Alleluia. (Ephesians 2:10)

Sermon Text:

This Sunday our theme switches up again.  As the end of the season of Pentecost draws ever nearer, our thoughts also turn to the End of Days, Judgment Day.  In fact, ever since Jesus’ Ascension into heaven Christianity has been living in state of expectation for this end when Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead, taking His people to be with Him forever in heaven and condemning the unbeliever to the eternal fire of hell.  That’s ultimately why Jesus speaks so powerfully to powers that be in our Gospel Lesson in that parable of the vineyard.  They were not ready at all.  In fact, they stood opposed to God, even as the religious elite of His day.  But it’s our Epistle Lesson that ultimately reminds us how we are to walk in the End Times, the time between Jesus saving work and His return again in glory.

Paul begins by telling us, 12Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus also took hold of me. Press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of you.  I suppose that would have been a fitting theme as well this morning.  I know we don’t usually talk this way as Lutherans focused on the grace of our God, but Paul is telling us that the way we live is important this morning.  Oh, not to win our salvation, Paul is clear.  Christ Jesus has already taken hold of us.  We are saved at the cross when Jesus provides our righteousness even as He washes away our sin in the flood of His precious blood therein.  But in so doing, He has freed us from sin so that we might live for Him first and foremost and then for our neighbor. Again, this is not what saves us but it is what we have been saved, freed to do.  As a result we live with our eyes on the prize.

So Paul continues, 13Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it yet, but there is one thing I do: Forgetting the things that are behind and straining toward the things that are ahead, 14I press on toward the goal, for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Now Paul begins to show us what that looks like.  The verbs are descriptive.  “Pressing on”, “straining” or “stretching”.  Sin is a pervasive force in our lives.  It’s everywhere and difficult to avoid.  No, the Christian life is no walk in the park, even though it is so often painted as such.  Instead, it is a struggle as we toss of the sin and the worldly attachments and stretch for the glories of heaven we so eagerly yearn for.  Heaven is the goal and our lives as God’s people will reflect that.

Of course, there are examples for us to follow and examples meant to serve as a warning along the way as well. 17Brothers, join together in imitating me and in paying attention to those who are walking according to the pattern we gave you. 18To be sure, many walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. I told you about them often, and now I am saying it while weeping. 19Their end is destruction, their god is their appetite, and their glory is in their shame. They are thinking only about earthly things.  We can think of the great hall of faith in Hebrews chapter 11 which takes us from Adam and Eve, through the patriarchs, judges, prophets, kings, martyrs.  There are the apostles, Paul and others.  There are contemporaries, Christians who have finished their race in our lifetimes and others still running with us, that all serve as examples for us in the way we are to press on toward our goal, stretch out toward the heaven Jesus has won for us. But there is the negative side as well.  

Isn’t it interesting that as Paul weeps for them, the thing that seems to have tripped them up is ultimately the very First Commandment of God.  “You shall have no other gods” we are told and Luther explains, “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” Simple enough, until our sinful natures start doing what they do best.  They turn inward.  Professor Deutschlander always called it, “navel gazing.”  They get us to think about ourselves, what we want, what we like, what we love and put all of our focus there.  Sin even gets us to celebrate our poor priorities as set God aside for any number of other things in the world around us.  I’m sure you could supply a long list of earthly things that slowly or forcefully push God or time spent with Him from the throne in this life of ours. They may not even be all that bad but when they are number one and not God then our worship is in the wrong place.

“Their end is destruction” says Paul.  You are never lost because you took a step away from the well worn path out in the woods.  But when we think we know better and sting any number of steps away from it the end result, well, it’s far better not to wander away from God and the blessings He has provided, the heaven He has won for us.

How are you doing with that by the way?  Earthly things have a way of distracting me.  Money, Rest, I try to provide the very best for my family, for my friends and none of it is necessarily evil but when any of it even attempts to be lacking, well, fear, love, and trust betray that I have plenty of god’s I shouldn’t and one wonders if I can really provide the best aside from a keen focus on my God for my family and my friends. Turns out I’m a sinner all over again.  Paul was too.  It’s why he says, “Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal” and again, “I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it yet.”  It’s why we press and stretch.  It’s why we struggle here.

Ah, but brothers and sisters, don’t forget that as we walk in this world, pressing and striving to live with the goal in view that Christ has already taken hold of you. That’s so important.  In fact, it is everything. It’s why Paul burst forth at the end with the needed reminder, our citizenship is in heaven. We are eagerly waiting for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21By the power that enables him to subject all things to himself, he will transform our humble bodies to be like his glorious body.

Ah, yes, our citizenship, it drives us even as it reminds us of the Savior we await in these later days.  He is the one kept that perfect focus as His feet hit the dusty roads of our world for us.  Never straying from the fear, love, and trust He deserved and which He gave to God.  Even when it meant His very life, He did not withhold it, but willingly gave it for you and for me that He might take hold of us and make us citizens of something far better than the fleeting glories of this world.  In resurrection and Ascension are not only reminders of what waits but of the power He wields for His people that faith may become sight transformed forever as we stand with Him for all eternity.  That’s what is ours by grace and through faith and it’s why our lives have meaning and purpose.  It’s why the way we live matters.  It would be pretty fool hardy to throw all of that away so we press and we strain wrapped in the means of grace which set us at the foot of the cross where forgiveness was made ours, show us the empty tomb for the strength to live as people purchased and won by our loving God, even as we yearn for the eternal joys, the glory of heaven.

If you have ever been to London, then you know that one of the quickest ways around the city is by riding “the tube”, the subway. It’ll take you within walking distance of any of the amazing sites of the city.  However, when using “the London Underground” you’ll see a common sign posted regularly.  “Mind the Gap” reminds users of the area between the train car and the station platform.  When boarding and exiting this gap posses a tripping hazard or worse. We might say, “watch your step.”  Brothers and sisters, as we walk the walk of God’s dear children, dearly loved, God urges us to avoid the pitfalls of the pleasure and treasure of earthly life and to step out confidently with Him at our sides.  Yes, Mind the Gap until we see the glories of heaven.  Amen.

Ezekiel 18:1–4, 25–32 - Repent

Ezekiel 18:1–4, 25–32

    1The word of the Lord came to me:

    2What do you mean, you who keep repeating this proverb concerning the soil of Israel, “Fathers eat sour grapes, and their sons' teeth are set on edge”? 3As surely as I live, declares the Lord God, you will never again use this proverb in Israel. 4Indeed, all souls are mine. The soul of the father is mine just like the soul of the son. The soul who sins is the one who will die.

    25But you say, “The Lord's way is not fair.” Listen now, house of Israel. Is it my way that is not fair? Is it not your ways that are not fair? 26If a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and practices unrighteousness, he will die because of it. Because of the unrighteousness that he has practiced, he will die.

    27But if a wicked man turns from his wickedness that he has done and practices justice and righteousness, he will preserve his life. 28Because he has seen and turned away from all the rebellious acts that he had committed, he will surely live, and he will not die. 29But the house of Israel says, “The Lord's way is not fair.” Is it really my ways that are not fair, O house of Israel? Is it not your ways that are not fair?

   30Therefore, I will judge each one of you according to his ways, O house of Israel, declares the Lord God. Repent and turn away from all your rebellious acts, so that you will not set out a stumbling block that makes you guilty. 31Throw off from yourselves all your rebellious actions by which you have rebelled, and obtain a new heart and a new spirit for yourselves. Why should you die, O house of Israel? 32For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies, declares the Lord God. So repent and live!

Prayer of the Day:

Mercifully grant, O God, that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts, for without your help we are unable to please you; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Verse of the Day:

Alleluia. Your sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit.  A broken and contrite heart You will not despise. Alleluia. (Psalm 51:17)

Sermon Text:

“God just doesn’t seem very nice.”  That’s what she said to him as they were discussing religion.  “I just don’t know that I can get on board with a God Who sends people to hell so willingly. It just seems mean.”  She’s not alone.  Many look at the justice of God with a bit of an unapproving glare as they contemplate Him. In fact, it is a regular dart thrown by an unbelieving world at the goodness of God.  “How can a God who is love send people to hell?”  It’s an easy misstep to take. But it’s also one that is driven by our own sinful natures. “Accountability” isn’t exactly a popular word in our world today.  It requires one to grapple with justice, and justice gets a little scary for sinful human beings.

Ezekiel preaches to God’s people in exile.  In 597 b.c., Nebuchadnezzar had put down a rebellion in Judah. The northern Kingdom of Israel was already gone. To ensure such a rebellion would not happen again, he took Jehoiachin, Judah’s king and the majority of the upper class back to Babylon.  Ezekiel was in that number.  Preaching among the exiles, it’s easy to see how Ezekiel would be dealing with all of this as he addressed the people of Israel with the Spirit inspired Words of God Himself.

Justice, that’s what’s on the mind of the people as God gives His Word to Ezekiel.  The people, at least in their estimation, were undeserving of the punishments of God.  Thus, the proverb they quote at him basically means, “We are being punished for the sins of others (our fathers) and not our own.”  

It’s a classic game we humans like to play.  I’m really not bad enough to be treated in this way.  Perhaps they looked back at the wicked kings of Israel who were detestable in the sight of the Lord and thought “We are not as evil as they were.  We are being punished for them.”  The result is a cry of “unfair” in the face of God who has allowed this calamity to come to them, removed from Jerusalem exiled in the pagan nation of Babylon.

It may seem a bit silly for us, looking back over the history, who see the rejection of God’s people lived out in the pages of Scripture. But the truth is we do it too.  We like to judge ourselves against the wicked of the world around us. “Hey, I’m not like that murderer, the pedophile, that thief, so I’m okay.”  When hardship, or trouble comes our way, we are quick then to raise the accusing finger at God and cry out, “unfair” at our treatment because we have tricked ourselves into believing that we are on the A team of God’s people and He should really have to reward us for our faithfulness.  Reality so often very different.

God answers His people, “4Indeed, all souls are mine. The soul of the father is mine just like the soul of the son. The soul who sins is the one who will die. … 25But you say, “The Lord's way is not fair.” Listen now, house of Israel. Is it my way that is not fair? Is it not your ways that are not fair? 26If a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and practices unrighteousness, he will die because of it. Because of the unrighteousness that he has practiced, he will die.”

Ah, there it is.  Accountability and God’s perfect justice once again. I don’t get to compare myself with others, but with God Himself, pure perfection.  That’s who we belong to, each generation of humanity, whether it is acknowledged or not.  That’s the one who sets the standard, and the standard is simple, anything that misses the mark (that’s what sin means), anything that misses the mark of perfection brings death, both physically in this world and eternally in the fires of hell.  Doesn’t matter if it’s 1 or 1,000, unrighteousness brings death. 

That kinda changes the perspective a bit, doesn’t it?  While I so often try to find favorable comparisons in the world around me to justify my actions and downplay my sin, the only comparable is God Himself.  Have I lived up to what He expects?  Have I been righteous, holy, perfect? Of course, we know the answer.  It’s ultimately why we play the game that we do.  Paul tells the Romans that when it comes to God’s righteousness, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)” So God is blunt with Israel and really all of us, “Is it really my ways that are not fair, O house of Israel? Is it not your ways that are not fair?”

Yes, dear friends, when we peer into the mirror of God’s Law, consider things in the lens of true justice, it reminds us that we have earned nothing, deserved nothing from God.  He isn’t mean. He’s not unloving.  He simply sets the standard and requires accountability, which is a rare thing in our world today.  But it is also as we peer into the mirror of our imperfection that God’s love begins to clearly be seen.

30Therefore, I will judge each one of you according to his ways, O house of Israel, declares the Lord God. Repent and turn away from all your rebellious acts, so that you will not set out a stumbling block that makes you guilty. 31Throw off from yourselves all your rebellious actions by which you have rebelled, and obtain a new heart and a new spirit for yourselves. Why should you die, O house of Israel? 32For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies, declares the Lord God. So repent and live!

It is true that God takes no pleasure in punishment.  Can you hear the anguish in the question, “Why should you die, O house of Israel?”  It really amounts to pure obstinance.  Why?  Because God promises, “Turn from this wicked way of living and pursue righteousness and you live.” It’s like a child who reaches out and touches a hot stove, cries out in pain, and immediately after being soothed from the agony reaches out and does it again.  That’s not normal!  One would expect that the child would learn even after one instance and avoid the hot stove thereafter. 

But how do we do that with sin?  Verse 31 tells us to 31Throw off from yourselves all your rebellious actions by which you have rebelled, and obtain a new heart and a new spirit for yourselves. The final verse of our lesson makes it simpler still, So repent and live!

In the Augsburg Confession, written to solidify the Lutheran position over against Rome, Philip Melancthon wrote, “strictly speaking, repentance consists of two parts. One part is contrition, that is, terrors striking the conscience through the knowledge of sin. The other part is faith, which is born of the Gospel (Romans 10:17) or the Absolution and believes that for Christ’s sake, sins are forgiven. (Augsburg Confession XII:3–5.)” In the Apology, Melanchthon adds that if someone wants to add as a third part “fruit worthy of repentance, that is, a change of the entire life and character for the better,” he will not oppose that three-part definition (Apology XII (V):28). But in the Augsburg Confession and the Apology works are a fruit of repentance. They follow contrition and faith, the two proper parts of repentance.

Contrition, ah, another word the world doesn’t seem to find much use for.  Terror striking the conscience through the knowledge of sin, our sin and what that sin rightly deserves. But that is not the stopping point, can never be the stopping point, lest we despair of all.  The second part is key.  The new heart and the new spirit, which is the heart and core of the Gospel itself as God gives us that new heart and new spirit he required.  In fact, in Ezekiel 36(v26) He says exactly that, “I will give them a new heart!”

How does God do that?  Well, as He reconciles his justice and His love the person of Jesus Christ of course.  Recall that verse we quoted from Romans 3 earlier in the sermon?  Well listen to it’s context,

“21But now, completely apart from the law, a righteousness from God has been made known. The Law and the Prophets testify to it. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all and over all who believe.

In fact, there is no difference, 23because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25whom God publicly displayed as the atonement seat through faith in his blood. God did this to demonstrate his justice, since, in his divine restraint, he had left the sins that were committed earlier unpunished. 26He did this to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so that he would be both just and the one who justifies the person who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:21-26)”

Yes, dear friends, in the cross of Jesus Christ, His blood is the atoning sacrifice for sin, the punishment God demands for your sin and mine.  His righteousness fulfills the requirement of perfection which God has set for us all.  You are saved.  It is in that forgiveness that we then begin to breathe the air of repentance each day of our lives.  In fact, it is into this existence that we are born in Baptism.  Luther will pen the following in his fourth part of Baptism, What does baptizing with water mean? Baptism means that the old Adam in us should be drowned by daily contrition and repentance, and that all its evil deeds and desires be put to death. It also means that a new person should daily arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever. Where is this written? St. Paul says in Romans, chapter 6, "We were buried with Christ through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."

I suppose Jesus could cry “unfair”, but He doesn’t.  He willingly endures it all for you.  I suppose the Father could cry “unfair”, but He doesn’t, so filled with love is He for you that He sends His only begotten Son for you.  I suppose the Spirit could cry “unfair”, but He doesn’t as He provides the new heart and new spirit we so desperately need, and as He grants us the gift of faith and connects us to forgiveness we so desperately need. Ah, thank God, for His words through the prophet Ezekiel, who prevents us from crying “unfair”.  How could we ever?  For we have a God who takes no pleasure in the death of anyone but urges us even as He supplies the very means to repent and live! Amen!

Jonah 3:10-4:11 - Grace By Definition Is Unfair (undeserved), Which Is Exactly What We Need!

Sermon Lesson: Jonah 3:10 – 4:11

Jonah is perplexed by the amazing grace of God.

10When God saw their actions, that they had turned from their evil way, God relented from the disaster which he said he would bring on them, and he did not carry it out.

1But to Jonah all this seemed very bad, and he became very angry. 2He prayed to the Lord, “Lord, wasn't this exactly what I said when I was still in my own country? That is why I previously fled to Tarshish, because I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and you relent from sending disaster. 3So now, Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

4But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

5Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city. He made a shelter for himself there and sat in the shade under it, waiting to see what would happen in the city.

6Then the Lord God provided a plant and made it grow up over Jonah to provide shade over his head, to relieve him from his discomfort. So Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, and it attacked the plant so that it withered. 8When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind. The sun beat down on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, so he said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

9But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

Jonah said, “I do have a right to be angry—angry enough to die!”

10So the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant. You did not work for it or make it grow. It grew up in one night and perished after one night. 11So should I not be concerned for Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than one hundred twenty thousand people who do not know the difference between their right hand and their left—and also many animals?”

Prayer of the Day

Let us pray.

Lord God, you call us to work in your kingdom and promise to reward us according to your grace. Help us to rid our minds of worldly expectations and rejoice that you freely pour out the blessings of salvation to all people; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Verse of the Day: Ephesians 2:8

Alleluia. For it is by grace you have be saved, through faith – and this not of yourselves, it is a gift of God. Alleluia.

Sermon Text:

“It’s not fair!” Have you heard those words? Have you said those words? Our fairness meter develops fairly early on in our lives here on this earth and we can be pretty quick to point out when we think equity has been destroyed, at least when it doesn’t favor us.  I’ve always said, in the face of that accusation, that we better be really careful when we demand “fairness,” however.  Last Sunday we looked at the fact that God has forgiven us and that forgiveness is to flow to others through us as well.  Today, Jonah is called on to do exactly that in our Old Testament lesson, but with an unexpected, dare we say, undeserving group of people (at least in Jonah’s eyes). As the prophet wrestles with it, we learn an important lesson about God’s grace.

Perhaps it’s best to back up a bit before we launch into our lesson today.  Ninevah, the capital of the nation of Assyria, has a reputation in Israel.  The Assyrian King Shalmaneser III had fought the bloody battle of Qarqar in 853 b.c. in Syria to put down a revolt against a number of Syrian kings.  Ahab, the king of Israel, had joined the fray in support of the Syrians and Assyria.  In his famous Black Obelisk, Shalmaneser is said to have claimed the lives of over 14,000 men from the allies and made blood flow in the wadis. Historians call it more of a draw that left both sides depleted and reeling from the fight.  Either way, Assyria was known for its brutality, at least in early history. They slaughtered their victims, piling corpses high to demonstrate their might, and were well known for the torture they often subjected conquered peoples to in an effort to subjugate by fear.

No wonder Jonah wanted nothing to do with the assignment God had given. When He had asked His prophet to call Nineveh to repentance, Jonah famously fled in the opposite direction, requiring God to redirect him through a fish which had swallowed him whole, saving him from death at sea and vomited him up on the coast to allow him to do the work God had given.  I will never forget the words spoken to the Sunday School classes when then MLC president, Pastor Zarling, had made a visit early in ministry.  There are two ways out of a fish!  God is gracious!! 

Jonah eventually obeyed God and went throughout Nineveh with his message of repentance.  God’s Word was of great success, and the entire city, we are told, repented, putting on sackcloth and sitting in ashes.  A miracle in and of itself.  It should be noted that this corner of the globe also became one of the first to convert to Christianity when the news of Jesus Christ reached them.   

That’s where the words of our lesson today begin. We might have expected Jonah to be over the moon that his preaching had produced such results.  I mean just imagine if tomorrow we walked around Madison calling for repentance and at the end of the day the governor would call for unilateral repentance in the hope of gaining the favor of God!  Man, we would make the WELS connection for sure!  But something else happens entirely.

God’s Word records, “1But to Jonah all this seemed very bad, and he became very angry. 2He prayed to the Lord, ‘Lord, wasn't this exactly what I said when I was still in my own country? That is why I previously fled to Tarshish, because I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and you relent from sending disaster. 3So now, Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.’ (Jonah 4:1-3)”

Ah, but before we pile the hate on Jonah, pause for just a moment.  Last week, we discussed the fact that the forgiven, forgive.  God even gave us the ministry plan in Matthew chapter 18, but we so often think of the little stuff there, right?  Okay, okay, God, I’ll try to be a bit more forgiving if someone cuts me off in traffic and maybe even if they get my order wrong at the drive-through, but the big baddies out there, well, they are lost causes.  So I’ll hate Russia, despise Iran, and throw up my hands when I consider the Middle East because they are all just lost, right. Truth be told, it is often smaller than all of that.  The person who was mean to me or who stood in my way when I was trying to accomplish something (good, bad, or indifferent), well, they can never be trusted again.  Their family, their kids, and those who like them are all suspect forever after.  Someone who wronged me in some way should really have to come crawling back in some humiliating show of humility, just to have me look at them with anything other than suspicion.  We make our enemies in life, and while we might not always be as dramatic as Jonah in our lesson today, let’s just say it's once again a blessing to see God react in love.

4But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

5Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city. He made a shelter for himself there and sat in the shade under it, waiting to see what would happen in the city.

6Then the Lord God provided a plant and made it grow up over Jonah to provide shade over his head, to relieve him from his discomfort. So Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, and it attacked the plant so that it withered. 8When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind. The sun beat down on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, so he said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

9But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

Jonah said, “I do have a right to be angry—angry enough to die!”

10So the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant. You did not work for it or make it grow. It grew up in one night and perished after one night. 11So should I not be concerned for Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than one hundred twenty thousand people who do not know the difference between their right hand and their left—and also many animals?”

Our God is always the perfect teacher. Of course, it helps when you have divine power to illustrate Your points.  Jonah stomps off and pouts, like a little baby … or a grown man. Drama queen! Right? We’ll forgo a discussion of teenage angst and the cries of “you never let me have any fun!” or “You just hate me!” that fly so easily from the mouth because it’s not just teenage angst but grown-up tantrums that erupt in such displays. Jonah’s makeshift shelter kinda reminds me of fig leaves in the Garden of Eden, but God does him one better and provides a plant to shelter him from the sun, even though Jonah’s waiting for destruction he knows full well will never come.

Then it’s time for the lesson. The next day a worm attacks the plant, and it withers away, leaving Jonah susceptible to the hot desert sun, and out come the dramatic words again. It’s then that God strikes.  Jonah, you care about this plant and are angry at its passing, but you want me to obliterate a city with 120 thousand (the words here seem to point to children within it, not simply people).  You want me to annihilate 120 kids and so many animals who have played no part in the grudge you hold against them. The stunning silence as the book ends has led more than one commentator to conclude that Jonah is also unable to answer this pointed lesson.  The reluctant prophet then repents … at least we hope.

Do you see the amazing truth here?  God cares!  He cares about the things He has created and placed on this earth of ours.  He is deeply concerned about the people who inhabit it.  Even more amazing is that He yearns to be with them, each one of them, for all eternity. Paul tells Timothy, “(God) wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:4)”  That’s the good of the world and the bad. Yes, even the downright evil! God wants them all. And perhaps, just perhaps, if we wonder about whether Fido will be in heaven or not, if we are concerned about what we are going to do in heaven, we should think about who is going to be there too.  I dare say if I get mad because my car got dinged on the beltway then maybe the eternal welfare of humanity should get me just a little worked up.

Ah, but before we don the sackcloth and go searching for an ash pile to sit in. Remember, dear Christian, that this means you too.  Amazing grace! No? That God would come for a sinner like me.  That He would send His Son for a sinner like you … well, the truth is He came for an entire world of sinners, good, bad, and all the in-betweens.  No, it may not seem real fair, at least not for God but then that’s exactly why we call it “grace”.  For a world of undeserving sinners, Jesus died and rose again, providing forgiveness, new life, and salvation.  You and I, we have the privilege of telling them … even the worst of them.  Because, well, grace by definition may seem unfair (really undeserved), but that’s exactly what we needed … them too. Amen.

Matthew 18:21-35 - The Forgiven, Forgive!

Matthew 18:21-35

The ability to forgive others comes from the Spirit enabling us to understand how much God has forgiven us.  

21Then Peter came up and asked Jesus, “Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother when he sins against me? As many as seven times?”

    22Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but I tell you as many as seventy-seven times. 23For this reason the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24When he began to settle them, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. 25Because the man was not able to pay the debt, his master ordered that he be sold, along with his wife, children, and all that he owned to repay the debt.

    26“Then the servant fell down on his knees in front of him, saying, ‘Master, be patient with me, and I will pay you everything!’ 27The master of that servant had pity on him, released him, and forgave him the debt.

    28“But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him one hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began choking him, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’

    29“So his fellow servant fell down and begged him, saying, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back!’ 30But he refused. Instead he went off and threw the man into prison until he could pay back what he owed.

    31“When his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were very distressed. They went and reported to their master everything that had taken place.

    32“Then his master called him in and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt when you begged me to. 33Should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had mercy on you?’ 34His master was angry and handed him over to the jailers until he could pay back everything he owed.

35“This is what my heavenly Father will also do to you unless each one of you forgives his brother from his heart.”

Prayer of the Day

Let us pray.

Lord God, heavenly Father, you graciously forgive us all our sins and abundantly provide for all our needs of body and soul. Give us confidence in your mercy, and teach us also to be merciful to our neighbor, that we willingly forgive all people, and judging only ourselves, lead blessed lives to your glory; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Verse of the Day: Colossians 3:13

Alleluia. Bear with each other and forgive one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Alleluia.

Sermon Text:

I feel like our lesson today needs to start with a disclaimer.  21 years of ministry has taught me that people get forgiveness of sin and the consequences of sin confused at times.  We think forgiveness means we have to act like nothing ever happened.  That’s not entirely true.  What I mean is if someone is convicted of robbery or theft and God changes their heart through faith and grace, that individual is absolutely forgiven, but in love, we will also seek to remove the temptation from their lives of faith and will very likely tell them that counting the offerings each week is likely not a job for them.  While forgiveness is real, earthly consequences sometimes follow our sins.  Consider the thief on the cross.  He was absolutely forgiven and I’ll see him someday in the heaven God has prepared for all the saints.  But notice that in forgiveness Jesus doesn’t tell him to get down from the cross.  He remains there as an earthly consequence, I’ll be it brief in his case, of the sin he committed.  A whole sermon could and eventually will be preached here, but it’s not the lesson that sits before us today.  Instead, today Jesus allows us to contemplate only the first half of that discussion.  Forgiveness freely given by our God and by His people.

All that said, dear friends, buckle up because today Jesus swings a two-by-four of law into our lives of faith.  In fact, Matthew 18 is packed with lessons that make you hold your breath and do some real internal review as they are read.  Jesus begins with that section on the faith of a little child and the importance of that simple, humble faith which follows after God no matter what.  He concludes the section by telling us that if we cause a little one to sin, it is better to have a huge stone tied around our neck and tossed into the sea (v6). Just in case that wasn’t strong enough, He speaks of gouging out our eyes and cutting off our hands if they cause us to sin, because it’s better to be disabled than destined for the fires of hell (vs 7-9). The importance of seeking the lost sheep comes next, paired with Jesus’ call to use the keys with our fellow Christians.  Not an easy task by any means to confront our fellow brothers and sisters when they sin against us or others, but it’s made even harder if those loving advances are met with impenitence. The goal is always forgiveness, however.  The desire must always be to win our brother over (v15).  Our intent matters, or else, well, millstones and maiming.

Then, just in case that didn’t war with everything we consider comfortable, well, in come the words of our lesson today.  Peter asks an obvious question, “Hey, so how many times are we supposed to do all this?  Seven times seems more than generous, right?” Jesus’ answer is a bit unexpected.  “Not seven times, but I tell you as many as seventy-seven times” (v22). Translators will argue over whether the best rendition of the Greek is 77 times, or 70 times seven times (490 times). The point is not the number, but that forgiveness is never denied. Penitence is always met with forgiveness, and before we can muster an argument about becoming a doormat for sinners around us, He launches into that parable.

It’s worth a re-reading with a little commentary as we go.

23For this reason the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24When he began to settle them, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. 25Because the man was not able to pay the debt, his master ordered that he be sold, along with his wife, children, and all that he owned to repay the debt.  This likely seems a bit harsh to us.  However, a talent is equivalent to about 6,000 days of work. 10,000 talents is then 60,000,000 days of labor! Working continuously 7 days a week (no vacations or sick days, mind you), we are talking 164,383 and one-half years to pay it back. All of recorded history is about 5,500 years in length.  The point isn’t the amount.  This is simply an impossible debt!  It cannot be repaid … how could it even be forgiven?  

    26“Then the servant fell down on his knees in front of him, saying, ‘Master, be patient with me, and I will pay you everything!’ What a joke! But he’s desperate! His life, his family's lives are at stake. 27The master of that servant had pity on him, released him, and forgave him the debt. Talk about unexpected!  We might even call it reckless to let the guy walk like this after accruing such a debt.

Let’s hit the pause button there for a second in the parable. This is the kind of forgiveness you and I need. Unexpected, unfathomable, even maybe a little reckless as it is given. Why? Our sins are uncountable, at least if we believe even a little bit about the depths of our sin. You see, we have a tendency to think we are better than most or that our sins aren’t really as bad as others'. We insulate ourselves from the reality of it.  Isaiah tells us that “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags. (Isaiah 46:6)” There is the evil we are aware of and the evil we are not.  More than one theologian has posited that humanity - you or I – likely have a hard time going the length of a breath without sinning in some way against our God.  Paul cries out, I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not keep doing what I want. Instead, I do what I hate. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17But now it is no longer I who am doing it, but it is sin living in me. 18Indeed, I know that good does not live in me, that is, in my sinful flesh. The desire to do good is present with me, but I am not able to carry it out. 19So I fail to do the good I want to do. Instead, the evil I do not want to do, that is what I keep doing. …24What a miserable wretch I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? (Romans 7:15-19, 24).  Death, that’s what sin earns for us all.  Hell, sold off to an eternity of torment to pay for all of our offenses. That’s what one sin earned in Eden’s garden, let alone the impossible debt I, you have tallied up for ourselves with our God. 

Yet, forgiveness is what God gives.  Unearned, undeserved, wild, reckless, free forgiveness at least for us.  For Him, it cost everything.  Christ Jesus must set aside the full use of His power and glory.  God must live in this cesspool of a planet that we have turned it into and be everything we could not be to fulfill righteousness, to make payment for our sinful debts.  He dies, endures the rejection of hell, all so that we can be let go.  Eternity will not be enough time to gush forth our thanks, our praise.

    28“But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him one hundred denarii. One day's wages, that’s the worth of a denarius. This is payable if not all at once, then with a reasonable payment plan that may not even hurt all that much in the doing of it. Less than a third of a year.  Most of us hold more debt on a car, certainly in a mortgage.  Ah, but it’s not the number but the fact that this is easily paid. Others’ debts to us in this world are so small in comparison to our debt owed to God. He grabbed him and began choking him, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’

    29“So his fellow servant fell down and begged him, saying, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back!’ 30But he refused. Instead he went off and threw the man into prison until he could pay back what he owed. Does it make your blood boil? Shouldn’t he be so much more sympathetic, empathetic, so much less pathetic?  It betrays a heart which fails to really grasp what has just happened to him, a heart which shows zero thanks for the grace which has literally just been poured out on him and his family.  

    31“When his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were very distressed. They went and reported to their master everything that had taken place.  Others see it … they see you too. What is the impression we give: a grateful servant forgiven so much by the master of all, or something far less, far worse?  Unfortunately, our world doesn’t run to Jesus when they see evil in us; they run from Him, thinking He will act the same or that it’s all a sham.

    32“Then his master called him in and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt when you begged me to. 33Should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had mercy on you?’ 34His master was angry and handed him over to the jailers until he could pay back everything he owed. You earn nothing in jail. Certainly not enough to pay back a debt that is longer than human history.  The impossible debt is reinstated with even less hope.  Hell is eternal for the servant who overlooks the grace that is given, lacks the faith to comprehend what God has done. 

35“This is what my heavenly Father will also do to you unless each one of you forgives his brother from his heart.”

I warned you, God was gunna swing a two-by-four into our lives of faith today.  This lesson is a gut check. The reality is that there are hurts that struggle to go away.  Each of us likely has had trouble with the concept of forgiveness, at least as it applies to the people around us, who interact with us, who have hurt us. So are we destined for hell’s horrific prison cell, unable to pay the debt that God would have so freely forgiven us?

This is where we have to pause and back up in our lesson.  Remember Peter? He came with that question that so often has plagued us. How many times, Lord?  How many times must I forgive someone when they sin against me? Just like the debt, it wasn’t the exact number that mattered; full and free forgiveness is given to all who stand contrite, brokenhearted, because of their inability to follow the will of God.  Nothing changes that, dear friends.

In fact, if I struggle to forgive, then it’s time to run back to the source for the forgiveness that fuels my own.  It’s time to run back to Christ, who willingly gave everything that the impossible debt I owe might be paid in full and freely forgiven- yes, even the times I have lacked forgiveness.  It’s time to hear that beautiful promise repeated again at the beginning of worship, “As a called servant of Christ and by His authority, I forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”  Because when we see the impossible debt that God has forgiven us, that’s where we find the strength to forgive the minor debts that are owed to us.  Not because we are doormats, but because we are filled up with grace, with God’s undeserved love for us that overflows to those who are around us.

Look, I know that life in a sin-filled world gives us more than enough reason to be filled with hatred, vengeance, and a real desire to hold on to the hurts others have caused. Like Peter, I have had more than one question for God about how much is too much, even in the realm of forgiveness.  But thanks be to God that He has never asked the same as I stand before His altar, sin-stained, and strangled each week.  In love He simply forgives, always forgives. And that alone makes it possible to do what the world would call impossible – the forgiven, forgive! Amen.

Ezekiel 33:7-11 - Appointed to Listen, Watch, and Warn that They Might Turn and Live

Text: Ezekiel 33:7–11

7But I have appointed you, son of man, to be a watchman for the house of Israel. So whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you are to warn them from me. 8When I say to a wicked man, “Wicked man, you shall surely die,” if you do not speak to warn the wicked man against his way, that wicked man will die because of his guilt, but I will also hold you responsible for his blood. 9But if you do warn the wicked man to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he will die because of his guilt, but you will have saved your life.

10 So you, son of man, say the following to the house of Israel.

This is what you people are saying: “Certainly our rebellion and our sins weigh us down, and because of them we are rotting away. How then can we live?” 11Say to them, “As I live, declares the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from their way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why should you die, O house of Israel?”

Prayer of the Day: 

O Lord Jesus Christ, preserve the congregation of believers with your never-failing mercy. Help us avoid whatever is wicked and harmful, and guide us in the way that leads to our salvation; for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Verse of the Day: 1 Timothy 2:4

Alleluia! God wants all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. Alleluia!

Sermon Text:

In Genesis chapter 4, we are introduced to the first naturally born human beings.  Cain was the first offspring of Adam and Eve and Abel the second. But the results of sin abound. No longer born in the image of God but the image of sinful humankind (5:3), it doesn’t take long for unbelief to rear its ugly head.  Cain and his offerings are rejected by God, not only because of his sin but because of the anger and resentment he harbored against God in his heart, withholding the best of the first fruits of his crops only deepened the rift. God reaches out with the first sermon on sanctification (4:6-7), a call to repentance appealing to any faith no matter how small and faltering it may have been. 

Years in Sunday School teach us what happens next.  Instead of repentance, Cain lures Abel out into the field and murders him in anger.  Still God gives Cain a chance to repent. It sounds reminiscent of the call in the Garden to Adam and Eve, “Where are you?” only now, “Where is your brother Abel?” Cain’s answer is so cold blooded it gives us chills in the hearing of it.  “I don’t know”, he replied, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

The answer is, of course, easy and obvious.  “Yes, Cain, there are literally four of you! You are supposed to be watching out for one another.” Ah, but then as humanity flourished and sin along with it humanity hasn’t really stopped bucking that obvious truth. We form divisions, choose sides, and solve disagreements with about as much tact as old Cain did.  Sin, it turns out, is the worse disease ever unleashed.  Fast Forward through the pages of history to the times of Ezekiel the prophet, in our first lesson this morning and God says there is a way to battle back however.  He tells his prophet that he has been Appointed to Listen, Watch, and Warn that They Might Turn and Live.

I know, I know.  Nobody really wants to do this work.  It feels intrusive, judgmental, uncomfortable.  Our world today has even come up with all kinds of phrases to say that it’s not our problem and we don’t have to deal with it. "That is someone else's headache." "Sounds like a you issue." "That is above my pay grade." "Not my circus, not my monkeys." And frankly, as we seek to deal with things the way our Lord has asked us too, there may even be some truth to those statements, at least in the very beginning of the conversations if they don’t involve us.  But ultimately, they will always involve us if not directly then indirectly, so God says to Ezekiel,

I have appointed you, son of man, to be a watchman for the house of Israel. So whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you are to warn them from me. 8When I say to a wicked man, “Wicked man, you shall surely die,” if you do not speak to warn the wicked man against his way, that wicked man will die because of his guilt, but I will also hold you responsible for his blood. 9But if you do warn the wicked man to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he will die because of his guilt, but you will have saved your life. (Ezekiel 33:7-9)

Well, pastor, God appointed Ezekiel to do that work. His public servant to speak to the nation of Israel to call out the sins of the nation and shepherd them. I don’t have that call!  Fair enough.  But then what did Jesus say in our Gospel Lesson today,

15“If your brother sins against you, go and show him his sin just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have regained your brother. 16But if he will not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ 17If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And, if he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as an unbeliever or a tax collector. 18Amen I tell you: Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19Amen I tell you again: If two of you on earth agree to ask for anything, it will be done for them by my Father who is in heaven. 20In fact where two or three have gathered together in my name, there I am among them. (Matthew 18:15-20)”

There isn’t a whole lot of wiggle room there.  Looks like we have all been appointed to be watchmen.  Yes, scope of call will vary and that is not without significance, but those words God speaks to Ezekiel shouldn’t be side stepped by the rest of us.  Oh, and the judgmental, intrusive, uncomfortableness of it all.  Well, I’ll grant you some of that never really goes away but it is important to note why we are doing it, and I would go so far as to say, if we loose sight of that we better stop and regain it before we take another step.  What is it?  It’s love. 

Consider again the words of our Gospel Acclamation.  Paul told young pastor Timothy, “God wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy2:4)”  It’s why as you read through the pages of God’s Word time and time again you see Him reaching out before disaster strikes.  He calls to repentance again and again in the hope that nations, people, individuals will listen.  This is not to be vindicative, in anger, or with malice but always in the hope of salvation. With the understanding that if it were me trapped in sin, I would want someone to come to me and help and so I need to help them. 

Ah, but then because we needed exactly that.  Because Ezekiel needed exactly that as he ministered to Israel, to combat the “not my circus not my monkeys” moments of mental frustration, God warned Ezekiel if you don’t warn them … I’ll hold you responsible. Hey Cain, you are your brother’s keeper.  Don’t kill them … don’t let them die without lifting a finger to help.

So God gives His Word of warning in our first lesson.

10So you, son of man, say the following to the house of Israel.

     This is what you people are saying: “Certainly our rebellion and our sins weigh us down, and because of them we are rotting away. How then can we live?” 11Say to them, “As I live, declares the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from their way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why should you die, O house of Israel?”

Do you hear it in there?  God’s love even in the warning. “As I live, declares the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from their way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why should you die, O house of Israel?”  Again, the words of our Gospel Acclamation leap off the page even as God chastises Israel. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, rather He wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, to turn from the sin that rots away not only society, not only communities, but each individual trapped within it.

So much does our heavenly Father desire life, that He is willing even to sacrifice His own Son to achieve it. God is willing to endure far more than the accusations of being judgmental and intrusive, to suffer more than uncomfortableness for fallen mankind, for you and for me.

In His righteousness He comes, calling sin sin whenever it would rear its ugly head before Him always in the hope that sinful human hearts would turn from the error of their ways and back to the reality of the love that stands before.  In His grace, He endures the torment of the cross, the vindicative and hateful attitudes of his enemies, the very hell that you and I deserve for sidestepping our callings to be light and salt in the world around us proclaiming that it’s all above our paygrade.  He suffers and dies the punishment we rightfully deserve all so that we might have something to be called back to, something to call others back to.

When I Was a child, I loathed a phrase my parents would use when I was being disciplined.  When in the depths of my own sinfulness I raged with anger thinking it so unfair that I couldn’t do as I wished or was being punished even for what I perceived as defending myself against others. “I’m only doing this because I love you.”  In my adult life, with children of my own, that very phrase has come out of me.  I’ve learned to understand the depths of love that would do the difficult thing for those I love.  God, it turns out, has the corner on the market, however.  He truly gave up His own life that we might be forgiven.  He warns us to flee from the rotten inducing wickedness of sin. And because He loves you, because He loves the world around you, He appoints you to be a watchmen.  He appoints you to sound the warnings of His Word that people may turn back to the cross, to the forgiveness He has won, to life itself with Him forever in heaven.

Cain fell for temptations set before Him … truth be told, so have we.  In love, He calls us back to Himself and bids you to be His watchmen, to Listen, Watch, and Warn that Others Might Turn and Live.  Brothers and sisters, You are your brother’s keeper! Amen.

Romans 8:18-25 - Temporal Crosses ... Eternal Crowns

Romans 8:18-25

No cross can compare with the crown of glory that is waiting.

     18 For I conclude that our sufferings at the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. 19 In fact, creation is waiting with eager longing for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in the hope 21 that even creation itself will be set free from slavery to corruption, in order to share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.

           22 For we know that all of creation is groaning with birth pains right up to the present time. 23 And not only creation, but also we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we eagerly await our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. 24 Indeed, it was for this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he already sees? 25 But if we hope for something we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patient endurance.

Sermon Text:

Peter is a New Testament example to keep one’s eyes upon.  Last week, he beautifully confessed the foundation of the Christian faith, noting that Jesus, true man (rarely denied), was also the Christ, the Son of the Living God (Matthew 16:16).  The God-Man Jesus would be the perfect formula to take away sin and deliver from death and the devil on the cross.  But then Matthew masterfully buts our Gospel today right up against that beautiful confession.  Peter is now ardently standing in the way of the very cross he had confessed only verses before.

Isn’t that the way of it with frail human flesh?  We rejoice in the promise of salvation and then abhor how it must be brought.  What is more, we take such delight in being among the stones of the living and breathing church of God only to revolt when we learn that this means we will be accosted by the flaming darts and arrows of the devil, the world, and yes, even our own sinful flesh.  We do not wish to have to stand up and be counted (see Jeremiah’s complaint in our First Lesson).  Far easier in our minds is to blend into the world around us. We desperately want to have our cake and eat it too.

Perhaps that’s why the words of our second lesson are at first startling to hear. Paul tells us our sufferings aren’t worth comparing (literally “are of no weigh” or “not worthy of comparing”) to the promise of the glory Christ has won.  Or to put it another way, your crosses are temporal, but your crowns are eternal.

Okay, as we start to move into this portion of God’s Word, perhaps a simple and obvious truth should be stated.  Crosses aren’t fun.  When we must shoulder hardship or endure abuse for the sake of the Gospel, even our lesson acknowledges this is “suffering”.  As Paul points to creation as an example, he uses words like “futility”, “slavery to corruption”, “groaning”, and “pain”.  So, unless you are a masochist, you will not like it. So, I feel for Peter and Jeremiah in their respective lessons today just as I feel for all of you, even as I join you and them in my dislike of it.  Again, this is not, “I stubbed my toe. Oh, woe is me!” but “I believe in Jesus and the world hates me for it” kind of stuff.  Though at times our spiritual foes can use my stubbed toes to assault Christianity as well, I suppose.

This reality means that everyone of us faces our cross with some amount of trepidation or fear.  Yet that truth doesn’t mean we don’t have to do it.  I’m reminded of the times I didn’t like something in my young life and therefore wanted nothing more than to avoid it, but mom and dad rightfully insisted that I get to it.  While I might not like it, it doesn’t make it any less sinful to avoid it.  Consider those words of Jesus to Peter. He says it’s downright satanic to avoid the cross, yes, Jesus’ cross especially, as it is more than a hardship born for the sake of the Gospel, but rather THE Cross which saved the world from sin.  Nevertheless, Jesus tells us, “If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. (Matthew 16:24)”  There is no room for selfishness in the heart and mind of the Christian.  It is, after all, a breaking of the very first of God’s commands.

The theology of the cross is then one of those teachings in God’s Word that always gives me pause.  I have been satanic at times in my refusal and even some rebukes of God for the struggles that have entered life.  I don’t like being considered narrow-minded, outdated, or even ignorant by those around me.  I don’t like the scorn that can come my way because I must speak up when sin rears its head, and I certainly don’t like losing people, friends, even family members when I make my stand for the truth.  Truth be told, I have even at times chosen silence over suffering in this world of ours, and I promise it doesn’t go better as a result.  So, I have to wonder just how demonic Jesus would consider me and my shabby cross-bearing.

 Ah, but another truth of the theology of the cross is now in order.  Christ’s cross and my own crosses in this world will always be linked. They must be. For you see, He bore His precisely because I would shun mine. It was for me that Jesus was betrayed and handed over to the sham courts of the Sanhedrin and the rage of Roman soldiers.  It was for me that brutalized, torn and beaten, He picked up His cross and traveled outside of Jerusalem to die.  It was for me and my sin that He hung lifeless and was laid in that tomb. But it was also for me, early in that first day of the week, that He rose.  Yes, dear friends, our Risen Savior is the promise of glory, of eternity, of salvation, and life forever with God.  And His cross forever changes our own.

Paul bursts forth in our second lesson this morning, “For I conclude that our sufferings at the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.”  Our sufferings at the present time, though hard, perhaps even awful, certainly not fun, are present-time sufferings.  They are bound by the realities of this world, even if they should remain with me till death, even if they should cause my death, they must stop there and go no further.  However, the glory that is going to be revealed is eternal.  Eternity, by its very definition, is untimed, unbound, unending.

Now, this certainly doesn’t make the hardship go away in the present, nor is this some weird attempt to say, so buck up, buttercup. No, consider the rest of the lesson, “

19 In fact, creation is waiting with eager longing for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in the hope 21 that even creation itself will be set free from slavery to corruption, in order to share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.

22 For we know that all of creation is groaning with birth pains right up to the present time. 23 And not only creation, but also we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we eagerly await our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. 24 Indeed, it was for this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he already sees? 25 But if we hope for something we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patient endurance.”

Paul acknowledges the groaning, the suffering, the pain but also acknowledges the One who will get us through it, who has already saved us from it on a cross of His own and has provided a hope that will outlast it.  This side of heaven, there will be crosses, in fact there must be for a world that hated Christ will not endure His people.  Satan, to thrashed violently when Jesus’s feet trod the dusty roads of this earth, will fight when His followers open their mouths that the Spirit may impart the gift of faith to still others through His powerful Word.  Our sinful flesh will revolt at the thought and certainly at the reality.  There will be groaning.  But by God’s grace, as we eagerly await our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body that very groaning will give way to patient endurance.  In fact, just three chapters back Paul had already written,

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2Through him we also have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice confidently on the basis of our hope for the glory of God.

3Not only this, but we also rejoice confidently in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces patient endurance, 4and patient endurance produces tested character, and tested character produces hope. 5And hope will not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who was given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, crosses will need to be carried in this sin-sick world of ours, but there is a reason for that as well.  Even if not for us, the truth must be held out that others may hear it.  It will take a denial of self and a clinging to Christ to accomplish any of it.  Ah, but then in that very same Jesus, we find the job once again everything we need from salvation to the strength to stand as we wait for that hope.

Yep, Peter is worth keeping your eyes on in the Bible.  Because as it turns out, he is often exactly as we are at the same time sinner and saint, selfish and saved.  Deeply connected to Christ. And because we are, well, there is hope! For our crosses are temporal and temporary, but the crowns God has in store for His people well, they are eternal.  Amen!

Matthew 16:13-20 - Perception Isn’t Everything! The Son of God Grants You All!

Matthew 16:13-20

13When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

    14They said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

    15He said to them, “But you, who do you say that I am?”

    16Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

    17Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not overpower it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20Then he commanded the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.

“Perception is everything!” Or sometimes it is expressed, “Perception is reality!” Have you heard these statements?  They are massive in advertising and PR.  Whether business, politics, or entertainment, consider the dollars that are spent carefully crafting how a product, a person, or a persona will be perceived, all in an attempt to capture an audience. Think about all the commercials that desperately want you to think that a car, a phone, a drink will change your life for the better.  The reality … we fall for it.  We chase after the latest and greatest and think smart cars and phones will destress our lives, and sipping a certain beverage will make life’s troubles wash away with the waves.  Of course, we’re bright enough to know that the promises fall flat and the products fail to live up to expectations.

Today, Jesus confronts perception, perception of the world about Him as He asks, “Who am I?”  Jesus asked the disciples to really think about that question.  In fact, He asked them to think about it in two different ways.  He asked them, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”  And, “Who do you say I am?”

Unfortunately, the people had missed the point.  They thought Jesus was a reincarnation or a forerunner to the coming of the Messiah.  We are told the people thought he was possibly John the Baptist, Elijah, or maybe even Jeremiah.  They failed to realize who Jesus really was.  The disciples, on the other hand, knew their Savior.  Peter says it for the group, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 

Peter calls Jesus the “Christ”.  That was the name that emphasized Jesus’ work.  The name told everyone that this was the chosen one, the Savior of the world that had come in the flesh. The promise of Old Testament Scriptures.  Our Lutheran Confessions say that all of Scripture is Christocentric, centered on Jesus.  They point to Him and ultimately find their fullness in Him.

Peter also calls Jesus the “Son of the living God.”  This is the real God of all creation.  This God is not a dead statute.  He is living, active, and powerful.  As God, He is everything we need for salvation: only divinity can pay for the sins of all mankind, only divinity is truly perfect for all our imperfections, only One who is both God and Man could go to Calvary’s cross and conquer sin, satan, death, and hell for each of us, all of us, with His holy precious blood.

Peter’s confession is the foundation for the Church.  Jesus says.  “On this rock, I will build my church.”  Peter’s confession becomes the key in building any church.  Itis foundational! As we construct buildings that consist of people, not just bricks and mortar, the foundation must be this truth, “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Some have misunderstood these words.  They fail to see who Jesus really is and instead find in these words the thought that Peter is the foundation of the church.  “Peter” means “rock” or “stone” and so some have thought this to be the proclamation of Peter as the first Pope.  “Peter” does, in fact, mean rock.  However, we’ve already seen that the rock that Jesus calls the foundation of the church is a different kind of rock.  “Peter” is a singular stone while the rock of which Jesus speaks is a formation of rocks, a grouping of Peter’s.  Peter’s confession is the confession of the church eternal.  It is the voice of all of us of all time.  Thus it is the foundation for the church.  It is the rock of which Jesus speaks.

But so what, what does all this mean for us?    Turn on you T.V. and turn to the religious channel.  You will find a dozen different groups claiming to have their finger on who Jesus is and what He wants.  Yet in the same breath you hear that they don’t prize confession or the specifics of God’s Word when it comes to faith.  That doesn’t sound like the Jesus who told his disciples a confession was the foundation of the church. 

Go to the religious section of the local bookstore.  There you will find more religions than you care to think about: Muslims, Buddhists, Taoists, Ancestor worshippers, Catholics, Baptists, Pentecostals, Reformed, and even Lutherans in more varieties than would seem possible.  Whatever we can perceive it would seem has been turned into a religion. However, there is only One Christ, who is the Son of the living God.  Anyone that teaches or preaches anything otherwise follows an idol, the creation of the human mind, and a dead god.

Finally, look into your life. An honest look will find that the confession which is our foundation is often discarded for false foundations. As Americans, money and possessions can often become our foundation instead of Christ.  As Humans, our pride and personnel desires can easily become phase one of our building plans and not Christ.  We live in a world that doesn’t know how to answer Jesus’ question.

Brothers and sisters, perception isn’t everything.  Just because someone can conceive of it doesn’t make it true.  What is true?  God’s Word is truth and that Word points us to Jesus Christ, true God and True Man for the salvation of sinful human beings.  Yes, the Son of God grants us everything.

Jesus said, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”  Think of heaven as a being surrounded by a huge fence and there at the entrance is a huge gate.  Jesus tells his disciples that the key to that gate is in their possession.

The first key we have is often referred to as the binding key.  This is an alien work of the Gospel.  God would much rather all people believe in Christ and come to him. The sad reality is that some people would rather chase the dead gods of the world rather than the only true and living God.  Jesus tells us the Gospel is, for them, a key that binds them from entering heaven.  Such people do not belong to his church.

The second key, however, we have often called the loosening key.  This is the immediate work of the Gospel.  For all who confess their sins, who acknowledge that they have built on alien soil and shunned the firm foundation of Christ, God announces that sins are forgiven.  For them the gates of heaven spring open because of the work of their firm foundation.

And Jesus then makes a wonderful promise.  He says, “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”   Nothing that the godless trinity of Satan, the world or our sinful flesh can bring against it will ever win.  What a comfort the keys become for us.  We fail every day.  Sin creeps up our walls and we begin to buckle under the pressure and weight of satan.  Guilt weakens our knees and despair begins to overtake us.

God quickly intervenes.  In Christ, the Son of God, you have been saved and made part of the church.   So Jesus says god be that church.  In your homes, may the truth of forgiveness be heard in devotions and your interactions with one another.  Here in worship every Sunday, may the confession and absolution ring with the authority of Jesus Christ the Son of the living God, “as servant of Christ and by His authority, I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”.  As we console, comfort, and support one another, friends or family, may we extend that Law to shatter false perception and the Gospel to replace it with reality that more and more may believe and be saved.  Oh, and remember, the results are not your own any more than the work is.  Jesus said, “This was not revealed to you by man but by my Father in heaven.”  

Oh, fellow followers of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, perception isn’t everything, but we do live in a world that thinks it is.  So perhaps it's time for the church to stand on her rock-solid foundation. Yes, just as in every age of humanity, it’s time to point to truth, time to point to Jesus because in Him we have everything we need, everything they need.  The Son of God grants us all. Amen!

Ephesians 2:13-22 - Peace and Belonging

Ephesians 2:13-22

13 But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace. He made the two groups one by destroying the wall of hostility that divided them 15 when he abolished the law of commandments and regulations in his flesh. He did this to create in himself one new person out of the two, in this way making peace. 16 And he did this to reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by putting the hostility to death on it. 17 He also came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

19 So then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household. 20 You have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the Cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you too are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. – EHV

This morning I have asked that a picture (not an actual one, because we don’t have them – Solomon was too busy ruling to invent a Polaroid camera for us) of the temple structure in Jerusalem be placed in front of you on our screens. Notice that it says Herod’s Temple above.  That’s significant in the mind of the Jewish individual.  Solomon’s temple was the one we hear of in the Old Testament accounts constructed by him at God’s decree and with God’s design.  It was destroyed in 586/587 b.c. by the Neo-Babylonian Empire under King Nebuchadnezzar II.  The second was of course rebuilt by the Jewish exiles returning from Babylon under Persian rule (completed around 515 b.c.).  Ezra records at it’s construction, “However, when many of the older priests, Levites, and heads of families, who had seen the first house, saw this house being founded, they wept loudly, although many also raised their voices in a shout of joy. (Ezra 3:12)”  The second just couldn’t compare to the grandeur of the first.  So beginning around 19 b.c., King Herod the Great started his massive expansion and redesign of the temple, keeping the temple itself largely the same there would be a place for Roman garrisons (the Antonia Fortress) and a large area for commerce and business (the Royal Portico). These additions were met with mixed emotion from the Israelites. The Zealots for example, despised these Romanish additions. Note too that much of this would have been under construction as Jesus’ feet hit the pavements of this massive structure.

Enough of the history, I suppose, and time to get to the real reason this is in front of us this morning. Note in our illustration the various names of the courtyards.  There is the courtyard of the Gentiles, the courtyard of women, the courtyard of the Israelites (males only), the courtyard of the priests, and then even in the temple itself, the division of the holy place where priests like Zechariah (John’s dad) did their work and the holy of holies where even the high priest was aloud to enter but once a year. Of course, each courtyard was so named because those were the people who gathered there and no farther. In fact, archeologists have found slabs, signs, embedded in the dividing wall for Gentiles and Israelites (yes, the one mentioned in our lesson) which read: “No foreigner is allowed to enter within the balustrade surrounding the sanctuary and the court. Whoever is caught will be personally responsible for his ensuing death.” Imagine for just a moment showing up to church this morning and finding out that you were not allowed inside because you came from the wrong family and that even if you could enter, you may not be able to make it past the narthex on pain of death.

I suppose that allows the words of our lesson to then bloom a bit for us.  13 But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace. He made the two groups one by destroying the wall of hostility that divided them 15 when he abolished the law of commandments and regulations in his flesh. He did this to create in himself one new person out of the two, in this way making peace. 16 And he did this to reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by putting the hostility to death on it. 17 He also came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. 

Notice that word “peace” is mentioned four separate times. It’s actually set at odds with the separation brought about by hostility.  Peace for the Israelites (Shalom [שָׁלוֹם] in the Hebrew) is the idea of everything being set right. This is the brick wall expertly laid/built so that every brick and every mortar joint is absolutely perfect.  Everything is in its place.  Everything as it should be.

Of course, it’s not all peace!  Hasn’t been since the early days of Adam and Eve in the garden.  Since then we have known separation. Separation is the natural consequence of sin.  Isaiah once proclaimed the blunt and awful truth to Israel, “Listen to me! The Lord’s arm is not too short to save, and his ear is not too deaf to hear. No, it is your guilt that has separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden God’s face from you, so that he does not hear. (Isaiah 59:1-2)” So Adam and Eve run from God as they hear Him walking in the garden after eating forbidden fruit.  The young child denies the clear truth when caught.  We haven’t needed separating walls because we have fled far from God to afraid to stand in the presence of His perfection.  This is life under the Law.  It constantly reminds us that things are not as they should be, constantly reminds us that peace with God has been destroyed in its breaking. The result is the ultimate separation of death, which separates body and soul, and in our sinfulness should mean the lasting separation of us from God in hell. This was the constant visual presented to Israel as layers of holiness all ultimately said the same thing, “You can’t stand before God.  You are not worthy to be in His presence.”

Ah, but then our lesson starts “But now”. But now everything is going to change. And it all changes “in Christ Jesus”.  Paul says, “He Himself is our peace!” Just as God is love, perfectly embodying, demonstrating, and living love, so also He perfectly embodies, demonstrates, and lives peace.  The ugly wall that separated Jew and Gentile will be demolished in His flesh.  This is the righteousness of Christ, which perfectly fulfills the Laws of God, and because it does, while the moral Law remains intact as a law for all people of all time, it is forever changed.  No longer a separating wall between God and humanity, it is now an opportunity to live in thanks and praise, not to earn or deserve salvation but our “Thank You” letter to Him for His grace and mercy. The Civil and Ceremonial Laws, however, are abolished; their pictures and reminders no longer necessary in the reality of Christ.  So Paul will later write, “16Therefore, do not let anyone judge you in regard to food or drink, or in regard to a festival or a New Moon or a Sabbath day. 17These are a shadow of the things that were coming, but the body belongs to Christ. (Colossians 2:16-17)”

Law fulfilled and abolished, Jew and Gentile are now brought together as Isaiah had foretold in our Old Testament Lesson.  But what of us and our God, sinners that we are? Paul announces, “Christ did this to reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by putting the hostility to death on it. 17 He also came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.” The forgiveness purchased upon the cross does the rest. Throwing open the doors of heaven even as it eradicates the dividing lines of the sin that separates us from our God, and the result is peace, lasting peace between God and His people no longer marked by the color of skin, the place of one's birth, or the language they may speak; all have been made one body.  The Church is for all people marked only by faith given by the Spirit, which connects us to the life, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus.  Walk in the doors, walk right up to the front of the building, behold the majesty and mystery of God in Word and in Sacraments through that common faith, the unity of teaching, all is as it should be … peace!

I’m sorry friends, I know this is already a lengthier sermon, but there is still more.  There remains yet another amazing truth in the words of our lesson today.  As if real and lasting peace with God were not enough Paul continues, “19 So then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household. 20 You have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the Cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you too are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

Peace restored, we no longer need to think in terms of Jew or Gentile.  Faith given, we are now members of an entirely new, yet incredibly ancient family. This is why we define ourselves as Christians and can speak of each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.  You are a member of the family of God. This family isn’t built on bloodlines or birthrights but on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets … the Word of God Himself, with Christ Jesus Himself as the guiding and directing stone of the entire building.  Yes, in Him something crazy has happened. 

The building in Jerusalem, built in grandeur, destroyed in our sin, rebuilt in mourning and joy, eventually leveled not long after the ascension of Jesus Christ Himself, it no longer matters.  Why?  God no longer dwells there! Now He dwells in you! Now there is an unexpected truth, right!  By the gift of faith, founded upon the Word of God, we are now God’s temple.  This is how intensely God has joined Himself to you.  You cannot be left out in the courtyards because you do not belong to the family of Christ.  You cannot be threatened with death because of your sin.  You are not separated from God in the slightest but have become like the holy of holies itself, the very home and dwelling of the Most High.  You belong to Him!  You belong!  Not because, like Stewart Smally, if you remember him, because we are good enough or smart enough or because people like us, but by God’s gift of faith, given by pure grace, and founded, derived, growing in God’s Word.

What a God … What a message … what grace.  Nothing separates us from God! The Church is for everyone! In Him, we have peace and belonging.  Through the Spirit we believe it and through His strength may we tell the world. Amen!

Matthew 14:22-33 - All You Need Is Faith and Trust ...

Matthew 14:22-33

13When Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place to be alone. When the crowds heard this, they followed him on foot from the towns.

14When Jesus got out of the boat, he saw a large crowd. He had compassion on them and healed their sick. 15When evening came, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place and the hour is already late. Send the crowds away, so that they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”

16But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

17They told him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.”

18“Bring them here to me,” he replied. 19Then he instructed the people to sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves and the two fish. After looking up to heaven, he blessed them. He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples. The disciples gave the food to the people. 20They all ate and were filled. They picked up twelve basketfuls of what was left over from the broken pieces. 21Those who ate were about five thousand men, not even counting women and children. – EHV

Sermon Text:

“All you need is faith and trust … and a little bit of pixie dust.”  So Walt Disney told all of us in the animated telling of Peter Pan as Peter told Wendy, John, and Michael how to fly.  There is just a little problem with that.  Peter grows up!  Wendy, John, and Michael too, and as they do, they forget.  The realities of the real world overtake them, and we all learn that while faith, trust, and pixie dust might be nice for fairy tales, well, it’s not so good for anything of real substance.

I wonder if we don’t treat God in somewhat of the same fashion, especially when it comes to His providence in Scripture.  Take the events of our lesson today for example.  Jesus feeds 5,000 with a little boy’s lunch (5 loaves (maybe more like buns) of bread and 2 small fish) and 12 baskets are filled with leftovers thereafter.  We all announce God can provide, but we know better than to think the same will happen in our refrigerators and freezers at home.  Good for dare we say it, I can’t, but still not so good for the real world, right?

Well, hold the phone there just a bit. Let’s back up and dive in this morning, and even if we don’t end up finding the magic pixie dust, God just may restore that faith and trust once more.

Our lesson this morning is interesting on a number of levels.  John the Baptist has just died.  News has come to Jesus, Who just wants to get away for a moment, perhaps to pray and reflect on the senseless murder of His forerunner.  We might go ahead and say reality has set in.

So, they hop in the boat and look for a desolate place to be alone.  Ah, but it doesn’t work, and the crowd follows on foot until they find Him.  Jesus is better than a doctor after all, and that’s kinda the point.  The crowds know Who Jesus is or at least what He can do. Go ahead and call that proof.  So many have said so much more of so much less after all. 

And how would you respond in such a situation? I might be tempted to lash out at the crowd that follows after and say, “Hey, now just back off for a minute, can’t you see I’m trying to grieve and breathe?” But not Jesus.  Nope, He sees the crowd and those who are ailing, and compassion overcomes Him. So instead of rest, a moment to lick the wounds, and catch His breath, He spends the day at work, healing and teaching. 

And there was much of it to be done.  So much that evening approaches and with it the disciples too.  Tummies were starting to growl and therein the realization that they were where they were, a desolate location (no McDonald’s to quick pull through for a bite).  So, they tell Jesus to dismiss the crowd so they can find some grub.  Interesting, now, here is a Guy that has spent the day doing miracles, but the disciples feel the need to come in with the reality check. 

Jesus sees an opportunity for them and for us and takes it. “They don’t need to go away.  You give them something to eat.” The disciples take stock; parallel accounts tell us “at Jesus direction”, and come back with the report that there are five loaves and two fish.  One little boy, John tells us, had come prepared for the day's events, or at least hadn’t eaten the lunch mom and dad had packed for him. Again, parallel accounts tell us they wondered out loud about just how far that would go among so many.

Again, one wonders a bit.  Did they not know their Old Testaments: The Widow of Zarephath and the flour and oil that knew no limits, Elijah and the Ravens (our first lesson), or what about the granddaddy of them all – the manna in the desert?  Ah, yes, but they had grown up fishing for the markets, taxing the profits, putting in the sweat equity needed to build family businesses and put food on the table for their families. Life has a way of making us think we are the providers.

So Jesus reminds them.  The people are seated on the grass. The food is set before Jesus.  The heavenward posture that let them visually, if not audibly, know Jesus was giving thanks for the bounty brought before Him. Then He portions it out and sends it forth in the hands of the disciples. 

The next part is significant too.  “They ate” we are told and they “were filled”.  This isn’t a “Wisconsin nice” moment where everyone smiles and doesn’t want to admit there isn’t enough, so they take a crumb and a sliver of fish and talk about how gorged they were.  No, twelve full baskets are gathered afterward, waste not want not after all, and 5,000 men, some go as high as 15,000 or more with women and children who may have gathered there that day, all ate and were satisfied. Someone should have cried out, “It’s a miracle!” because that’s the only explanation for the event.

It’s a nice story, right … but then, well, the alarm goes off, the bills get paid, or they don’t because things are tight this month and the trips to the grocery store, or at least the ordering for the delivery of the groceries, get done, and life well, like those disciples, has a way of making us think we are the providers.

Now don’t get me wrong.  The Bible does say that “If a man shall not work He shall not eat (2 Thessalonians 2:10).”  But then maybe it would do us well to recall our Old Testament a bit too.  Moses spoke to the people of Israel, “17You might say in your heart, “My ability and the power of my hand have earned this wealth for me.” 18But then you are to remember that the Lord your God is the one who gives you the ability to produce wealth, to confirm his covenant that he promised to your fathers with an oath, as he does to this day. (Deuteronomy 12:4)”

Dear friends, I could regale you with real-life lessons of my own where I had looked at my wife and simply said, “I don’t know how, but it’ll happen.  The Lord always finds a way.” And sure enough He did.  I bet you could tell them too.  But then that’s not really the point of these words is it?  If it is, I would dare say we quickly end up sounding like “name-it-a-claim Christians”, who though they may not always come right out and say would blame poverty and strife on weakness of faith and move on.

No, I think the real problem here is rather that elevated thinking that we’ve talked about a few times, which would rob God of His providence and place it instead in our hands.  Of course, whenever we wrestle something from the hands of our God and seek to make it our responsibility, well, a whole heaping helping of anxiety and worry usually follows. All because we refuse to look different at times from the world around us and put that faith and trust in the hands of an Almighty God who has given not stories but histories of proof telling us “He’s got this.”  So it often goes when we put the emphasis on the wrong thing in the pages of Scripture.  Focusing more on the miracle we want repeated than what the miracle was supposed to show, demonstrate, and teach. 

So what is that?  Well, I know I sound like a broken record at times here, but every miracle of Jesus teaches the same thing.  Jesus is God!  Go try to feed 15,000 with two fish and five buns and see how well you do.  No, that’s a miracle … that’s divine.   And that’s significant.  Not because it makes my mouth water and my aching joints rejoice at the prospect of free food but because it means God provides what we really need in this world of ours as well.

Yes, “when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son to be born of a woman, so that he would be born under the law, in order to redeem those under the law, so that we would be adopted as sons. (Galatians 4:4-5)” You see, God looked at a bunch of people that let the world strangle out their faith and trust in Him, and instead of condemning us, saved us.  He had compassion on us.  Just like He did with the crowd that refused to give Him a moment alone to grieve and breathe.  And that compassion, or we might say that love, then led to something more amazing than the feeding of a multitude off the beaten paths of Israel.  It led to God giving His life for us.  Perfection pegged to a cross for my sins, for all the times I treat God’s truth like a Disney movie with nice lessons but light on reality … for all the times I cast Him from His throne and announce myself the provider instead of Him.  Jesus, Divine, God Himself lays down His life for me, for you, for more than 15,000, but for a whole world of people from the first sin in the garden until the last one on the day of Judgment.

And that truth dear friends, well it’s like watching five loaves and two fish multiply through a crowd.  For the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, fuel our faith and trust and begin to enlighten us to the other amazing truths of Scripture which lighten our loads and put things back where they truly belong so that God shoulders the load for providence, or as Paul so wonderfully put it in the Gospel Acclamation, He Who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all – how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things. It’s not just dust, or pixie dust, dear friends.  It turns out our Lord Provides, yes, every need.  So forgiven and set free, our faith and our trust can be found in Him.  Amen!

1 Kings 3:5-12 - The Wisdom of God ... Our Wildest Dreams

1 Kings 3:5-12

5 The Lord appeared to Solomon in Gibeon in a dream at night. God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”

6 Solomon said, “You have shown great mercy and faithfulness to your servant, my father David, just as he walked before you in truth, righteousness, and uprightness of heart toward you. You have shown this great mercy and faithfulness to him and have given him a son who is seated on his throne to this very day. 7O Lord my God, now you have made your servant king in the place of my father David, but I am a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. 8And I, your servant, am among your people whom you have chosen, a great people, who cannot be counted or numbered because they are so many. 9Now give to your servant a perceptive heart to judge your people, to distinguish between good and evil, for who is able to judge this great people of yours?”

10 In the eyes of the Lord, Solomon's request was good. 11So God said to him, “Because you have asked for this, and you have not asked for a long life, nor have you asked for riches, nor have you asked for the lives of your enemies, but you have asked for discernment to reach just verdicts, 12therefore I will act according to your words. Yes, I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you before you, nor will anyone like you rise up after you.

 Sermon Text:

Imagine for just a moment that it finally happens. That genie moment everyone secretly desires but knows will never happen. What do you want? I’m not looking for the canned answer or the beauty queen’s eye-batting “world peace”. Oh, and we are not going to make it easier to choose between self and others, no.  You don’t get three wishes or even two.  You only get one shot at this. I want you to ask yourself the question, “What is it that I really want?”  If someone came up to you with a blank check in hand and said “Go, get it!”, what would you take home?

That’s a tough one, right? Personally, I love me some old Detroit muscle. An old school Shelby Mustang bored out, dropped down, growling down the road sure would be tempting in a moment like that. I could even justify it by pretending that it put another car in the fleet with six drivers in the family. Of course, I love my family. I could take care of the stresses of tuition in high school and college.  I could be sensible too, I suppose.  Pay off the mortgage, fill up the retirement account, be a blessing to others, bling out the church, the possibilities are limitless.  Ah, but then that car would just cost more money (gas, repairs, insurance), I wouldn’t want to end up spoiling my kids; I want them to have a good work ethic and understanding of money too.  Even the sensible choices could ultimately hide hidden snares of which I’m unaware at the moment.  Analysis paralysis starts to set in too.  Oh, what a joyous thing to be able to find the curse hidden in every blessing.

Solomon had just taken the throne of his father, David, not by force but as Israel’s first Father-to-Son transfer of power.  In a dream, God actually poses our question to Solomon, “Ask for whatever you want Me to give you.”  Solomon’s answer would focus us on something other than the earthly stuff, which all will ultimately disappear, as he presents us another option entirely, The Wisdom of God or Your Wildest Dreams.

Solomon’s job, just like the decision set in front of him, is massive.  Solomon is supposed to lead a nation.  But this is not just any nation; it is the people of God, His chosen nation.  It’s also a prosperous nation, numerous and expansive; it has greatly increased under the leadership of David, a leadership that is now over. The people of Israel are also notoriously stiff-necked and stubborn, prone to rebellion and sin. David had seen plenty of that (self-inflicted or otherwise).  Ruling them was not easy task … they had only two generations earlier told God Himself that they didn’t want Him doing it anymore but would instead prefer an earthly King just like everybody else (cf. 1 Samuel 8).

This is the job that has fallen squarely into the lap of Solomon.  A young boy by his own estimation.  He figures he doesn’t have the ability to lead this people.  He confesses that he is too young, and when it comes to leading this people, this nation, he doesn’t even know where to start.

You know this feeling, right? God has placed a job squarely in your lap.  You are guardians and guides of the truths of Scripture. Paul told Timothy, 16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers (1 Timothy 4:16).  Ah, but that’s advice to a pastor, not for the average Joe.  Well, not so quick, remember Peter’s words to God’s people, “9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light (1 Peter 2:9).”  Guarding and proclaiming God’s truth is a job that belongs to each of us!  Those Words tell us we are supposed to be different!

But this job is massive.  How are we who struggle daily with sin and often are confused as we misapply God’s Word supposed to be guardians and guides for this truth? How are we supposed to succeed in holding God’s Word out to people when so many others have twisted it, corrupted it, completely mishandled and lost it?  How are we supposed to speak God’s truth to a world more stiff-necked and stubborn than Israel was, no longer rejecting God for the desire to look like the world but having completely forgotten about Him and refusing to acknowledge that He even exists at all?   

It becomes clear quickly, we need God’s help.  Solomon wasn’t afraid to admit that.  He knew he was no better that those with whom he stood.  He was aware that he like all others, lacked the perfection God had created in Adam and Eve.  Solomon was conscious of his sins and all of his shortcomings.

Solomon humbly stood before His Lord, hand out for help.  And as he stands humbly before his God, there is no pride as he talks about God’s blessings.  There is only the plea that God would help with the task set before him, a task he could never perform on his own.

Christians always stand before God with penitent hearts.  We know that we have failed to keep God’s Word in all Its truth and purity.  We are aware that like all others, we were born into this world with sin wrapped tightly around our necks.  We are conscious of our sins and the punishment they deserve.

Acknowledging our sinfulness and ineptitude, may we stand before our Lord, hands out for help.  May we too set aside pride for God-given humility.  All haughty attitudes vanish in the face of complete failure.  There is only the plea that God will help not only with the task at hand but with our deep need for forgiveness.

To stand before God and admit that we can’t do something, to have to ask for that which we need most in our lives requires a humble confession.   Repentance is not a moment of pride in the heart of a Christian.  Still it is a moment most pleasing to our God.  Prepared by the harsh realities of God’s Law, confronted with our failure, the Holy Spirit presents us with His Gospel.

Note the Lord’s response.  God praises Solomon.  He is happy that this child of His has, in faith, chosen wisely.  There were other options for Solomon.  He could have asked for his enemies to be leveled before him, for untold wealth, for riches beyond our wildest dreams.

Solomon requests none of those things and instead focuses on the needs of others.  He chooses His people, his calling, and his Lord over worldly vices.  He asks for wisdom and not just any old wisdom but rather the knowledge to discern between good and evil.  Solomon asks for the wisdom that can only come from his God.

In our failure and in our sin, God comes to our aid as well.  With our hands out in despair, God supplies our need too.  God supplies our answer.  He sends us His Son, Jesus Christ.  He reveals Him to us as a baby in a manger, a boy growing in wisdom and stature, and as a man, holy and all-knowing, who lives, dies, and is risen just as Scripture said He would.  His life, death, and resurrection are for us the wisdom we needed to overcome sin, death, and hell.  This wisdom is for us the very key to heaven, the wildest of dreams for sinful human beings.

How is this wisdom granted?  Through the power of God’s Gracious Means.  The Holy Spirit works wisdom or faith in the hearts of men through the Gospel in Word and Sacraments.  Solomon himself explains this in his book of wisdom.  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding (Proverbs 9:10).

Do you want the wisdom that only God can give?  He has provided it for all in His Word.  Where else would you go to learn about God than to God himself?  He stands before us eager to teach every time we read our Bibles (Yes, here in corporate worship and Bible study, but in our homes, as well, in devotion and prayer), every Holy Supper received in faith, every Baptism remembered by believing hearts.

Each time those Means touch us, the Spirit uses them to connect us to the saving message of Jesus Christ.  Faith is strengthened, forgiveness is granted, and new life is revived.  Faith becomes for us the very conduit through which forgiveness is supplied.  As we grow stronger in faith and remain connected to the Means of Grace, God will grant wisdom that surpasses all others in this world.

That wisdom in hand, heart, and mind, you’ll have the ability to guard and guide the Truth. You will be able to talk about Christ with others. You will be able to hold to the truths of Scripture. In short, God will supply all you need for the tasks He places upon your shoulders.  He’ll even do the impossible, taking inept and often unruly sinners, and change them, forgive them, use them, as He guards and guides us all into glory.

As we behold our Old Testament lesson, we are left asking the question, “If God came to you in a dream, offered you whatever you wanted, how would you respond?” Ah, but it offers more than a question. It supplies us with the good and Godly answer.  Dear friends Paul once told the Ephesians that they couldn’t even contemplate the full extent of what God can do for His people or all that He holds out to them (Ephesians 3:20). Sounds like He comes to us just as He did to Solomon. In faith, may our answer shock the world, not focused on self or wealth but humbly confessing our weaknesses and clinging to our God. “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection (Phil 3:10)”. Yes, Lord, focus us all on your Means of Grace! Or to put it a different way, “Lord, grant us, The Wisdom of God because it is Our Wildest Dream.” Amen!

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 - Intertwined Until We Are Not

Gospel Lesson: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

The Lord has a plan to separate wheat and weeds in the final harvest. 

       24He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25But while people were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26When the plants sprouted and produced heads of grain, the weeds also appeared. 27The servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where did the weeds come from?’ 28He said to them, ‘An enemy did this.’ The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather up the weeds?’ 29‘No,’ he answered, ‘because when you gather up the weeds, you might pull up the wheat along with them. 30Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First, gather up the weeds, bind them in bundles, and burn them. Then, gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

    36Then Jesus sent the people away and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”

    37He answered them, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38The field is the world. The good seeds are the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the Evil One. 39The enemy who sowed them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the world. The reapers are angels. 40Therefore, just as the weeds are gathered up and burned with fire, so it will be at the end of the world. 41The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will pull out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and those who continue to break the law. 42The angels will throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.

“Why?”  Does that question make you nervous when the world fires it out at the Church?  The fact that we are different, means that we will be asked to make a defense of what we believe to those in the world around us.  “Why?”  Sometimes the answer is easy for us.  “Why is Christmas or Easter so important to you?” At least I hope that presents an easier opportunity for an answer.  The birth of Jesus Christ marks the fulfillment of the long-awaited promise of the Messiah who would, who does, save His people from their sins.  The Resurrection provides the proof, so to speak.  That the sacrifice of that same Messiah upon the cross was sufficient, more than sufficient, to save us from sin, conquer the cruel mastery of satan, and defeat the bonds of death.  Yes, because He lives, we live.  But there are other questions that perhaps seem harder for us to answer.  The hardest among them has often been the topic that sits in front of us today.  “The problem of evil” or “the problem with suffering” has long been a favorite arrow of the unbelieving world to fire at the Christian faith.  Classically, it sounds like this, “If God is so good, then why does He permit evil and suffering in the world? If God is everything the Scriptures claim to be, then why not simply do away with it once and for all? Its presence would seem to say one of two things: either God is not good because He allows these things or God is not able to stop them because they happen in spite of His wishes.”  Perhaps it’s a difficult question because we wrestle with it.  In our everyday lives, it sounds a little different.  “Why has this happened to me?  Why has this happened to my relative?  Why hasn’t God protected me from x, y, or z?”

The problem with these questions is there is not a simple and easily spouted answer for each situation.  For example, it might be that the person brought it on themselves. I really have no place complaining to God that I got a fine for speeding when my lead foot doubled the speed limit whether in a residential area, commercial space, or on a freeway.  I did that to myself.  There are earthly consequences for our actions after all, even if I complain when those consequences are applied to me.  But what about when I have done nothing wrong, at least in my failing estimation of righteousness?  Here the world loves to scream gottcha.  But does it really?  Our lesson today, provides us with a framework to help work through the realities of our world and to better understand why, in this world at least, good and evil are Intertwined Until We Are Not.

This parable is one of many in this chapter of Scripture in which Jesus speaks of the realities of the Kingdom of Heaven.  Doctrinally, we speak of three Kingdoms when we speak of the Kingdom of God.  There is the Kingdom of Power where God uses His power to bend all things to His perfect will (note His will and not my will or our will). There is the Kingdom of Grace wherein God utilizes the Means of Grace to guard and guide His Invisible Church through this fallen world into the perfection Christ has won for us in heaven. Lastly, there is the Kingdom of Glory where we behold everything finally as it should be in the perfection of heaven.  I’ve always struggled to put these parables or at least this parable in any one of them but rather believe God weaves through them all within the context of the telling.  It would seem that Jesus does this as He explains the meaning to the disciples and moves from life in this fallen world to the realities of heaven at the end.  Regardless, it is good for us to have all three in mind as we navigate this parable as Jesus tells us, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.”

Of course, just as last week, we have the benefit of Jesus’ own explanation to guide our understanding today.  Let’s dive in. (Read verses 24-30) There is a ton here.  Let’s have Jesus start unpacking and stop as we work our through.

The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. That’s Jesus, so often His designation for Himself as He speaks to the people gathered round.  38The field is the world. This would immediately tell us to think Kingdom of Power or Grace. The good seeds are the sons of the kingdom. You and me, at least I hope that’s where we would place ourselves in these words.  Of course, this is Kingdom of grace talk as God works in us, plants us, grows us through Word and Sacraments, last weeks parable of the Sower and Seed applies here. The weeds are the sons of the Evil One. Back to the Kingdom of power. 39The enemy who sowed them is the Devil. Ah, note that sin and evil are not sowed by God.  This is an important acknowledgement.  They are sowed by satan and grown in the hearts and minds of unregenerate humanity. The harvest is the end of the world. Here comes the Kingdom of Glory The reapers are angels. 40Therefore, just as the weeds are gathered up and burned with fire, so it will be at the end of the world. 41The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will pull out of His kingdom everything that causes sin and those who continue to break the law. 42The angels will throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. End-time realities and the Kingdom of Glory on full display.

So the problem of Evil once again.  First, let’s acknowledge that God recognizes the issue.  That is important.  Just the fact that He knows helps us to start the conversation about it.  The field of the world contains both unbeliever and believer, good and evil.  Jesus speaks of both the root cause, sin, and those who bow to its control.  What He immediately refutes is the thought that either is somehow His fault.  They are not.  Sin is sown by satan and the love of the unbelieving world for all that is sin, and therefore the consequences of it reside not with God but with fallen mankind.

The workers basically use our fallen logic in the parable.  Let’s get rid of it then.  If it’s foreign to God and causes harm to His people, then let’s eradicate it.  But the answer that comes back is of interest.  The owner of the field, God Himself, says, “No” and even tells us why. “Because when you gather up the weeds, you might pull up the wheat along with them. It’s interesting to note that most linguists think the word for weed here refers to darnel or cheat, an especially troubling weed for those who plant wheat, because the two look the same in early growth.  It’s not until the head forms on the grain that the two can be distinguished.  The result is that in pulling the weeds, they may pull the wheat unintentionally.

The perfect parable teller hits it on the head.  What did God once tell Samuel as he stood before David’s brothers trying to pick the next King of Israel, “Do not look at his appearance or at how tall he is, because I have rejected him. For the Lord does not look at things the way man does. For man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7)”  While I want sin eradicated, God knows the truth.  “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)” To eradicate evil is to eradicate the cause, a stain believer and unbeliever alike are covered in.  Not only so, but if our job is to reach out to the lost, then they kinda have to be present.  A loving God tells us that since we can’t distinguish between good grain and bad we better just work among all of them, yes, struggling with the consequences of sin for a while here in this world, trusting in His power as He works through His Means of Grace in our hearts and those of the people around us so that, as we heard last week we see the harvest. What would Peter later write? “The Lord is not slow to do what he promised, as some consider slowness. Instead, he is patient for your sakes, not wanting anyone to perish, but all to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)” 

Ah, but then that harvest is worth holding ever in view.  You see, there will come a day of reckoning when what we have so yearned for becomes reality, when sin and the consequences of it are eradicated by the only One who can do so.  On that last and final day,41The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will pull out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and those who continue to break the law. 42The angels will throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. And lest that cause us fear and trepidation because of our lack of righteousness, Paul will announce to the Romans, “16For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes—to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed by faith, for faith, just as it is written, “The righteous will live by faith.” (Romans 1:16-17)” Ah yes, as we said last week, it is God who tills the soil of sinful hearts and removes each rock, fertilizes, and plants all in the life, death, and resurrection of our Savior, those easier answers from before, so that His grain (you and me – by grace and through faith) will produce heads of grain in the world around us regardless of the weeds around us, yes, so that even what once was indistinguishable from the weeds around it might become wheat to the glory of God.

Brothers and sisters, I know living in a world of sin, with satan lurking around every corner, combating the evil which rages around us and far too often even within, is a troublesome thing.  I too yearn for the day when we can be done with it completely.  That day will come.  Until then however, may I find more than enough reason to trust in God who promises He is aware if it, has planned for it, and will one day reckon with it. Yes, until then in this world at least, good and evil are Intertwined Until We Are Not. Amen.

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 - Listen Up! God's Sow'n Here

Last week, we began a new worship series that asks the question, What Makes Christians Different?  Last week’s answer, fittingly so as we celebrated 250 years as a country, was that we lived within two different kingdoms.  This week’s answer gets down into the thing that is foundational to Christianity.  We Are Planted by the Word.  And it just so happens, that Jesus then presents a well-known parable in our Gospel Lesson for today that of the Sower and the Seed. 

However, those words are more than mere coincidence.  They remind us that there by the lake, people gathered around, Jesus has opportunity to touch hearts and minds with the Word of truth.  With so many listening, that He finds reason to use the water like some giant megaphone, what will He say?  What will He teach?  It shouldn’t be overly surprising that He focuses on the importance of the Word. And so, brothers and sisters, with a longer lesson to contemplate, may we heed Jesus’ advice and Listen Up! Because God’s Sow’n Here.

That’s usually the part of this parable that gets dismissed while reading.  It’s almost like it’s a throwaway phrase, but listening or hearing is mentioned nine times in verses 1-23.  That alone should tell us it’s one of the major differences between God’s people and others.  But what we listen to is of great importance and satan knows it.  “Listen, a sower went out to sow. 4As he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it. … 18“So listen carefully to the parable of the sower. 19When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the Evil One comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the seed that was sown along the path.  You’ve seen it a hundred times under the bird feeder.  Any seed that does not sink into the earth doesn’t stand a chance. Exposed to the elements and its enemies, it is devoured quickly and completely.

The meaning is far more frightening.    When the Word is rejected, when it is not contemplated or understood well, when it is not listened to, it sits out in the open air and satan will not miss the opportunity.  With talons more fierce than the mightiest of eagles, the Word is snatched, leaving nothing where such promise once laid.  Perhaps, you’ve run into such soil.  Agnostic or worse a true Atheist provides soil hardened by demons more frightening than anything a Christian could contemplate, and there the Word stands little chance as satan plucks it like a bird watching for the farmer to toss seed onto the path.  Like seed on the sidewalk, there is nothing into which it grows.

5Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil. Immediately, the seed sprang up because the soil was not deep. 6But when the sun rose, the seed was scorched. Because it had no root, it withered away. … 20The seed that was sown on rocky ground is the person who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, 21yet he is not deeply rooted and does not endure. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away.

Shallow soil is warm in the sun.  The rock underneath gives a false since of perfect growing conditions for the seed which has landed upon.  As a result, it springs to life growing quickly, impressively but something is not right.  The root is not as quick and even if it wants to keep up it meets the rock hard surface beneath it robbing it of the depth it needs to face the hot summer sun. It was doomed before it ever began to grow.

You’ve met them, a Christian so on fire for the Word it seemed as if they would blaze a trail to heaven itself.  But it was amazing how quickly they were halted, extinguished.  The world is good at putting obstacles in the way of the Christian.  Just open your eyes and ears and pay attention for just a moment to the assault that is going on against the Word on a daily basis.   A show supposedly lets us into the height of science as it explains the foundations of the universe, foundations suspiciously devoid of any mention of God or his power.  Anyone who believes it’s not true is dismissed as a idiot neanderthal from the (note the name now) dark ages (unenlightened by the glorious guesses of modernity).  Or consider for just a moment the way you begin to squirm as the conversation moves to church fellowship, closed communion, the roles of men and women, living together or sex before marriage, homosexuality.  Without roots, the heat of persecution is all it takes to destroy the shallow faith, which once looked so promising.

7Other seed fell among thorns. The thorns grew up and choked it. … 22The seed that was sown among the thorns is the one who hears the word, but the worry of this world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it produces no fruit. Still other seed, falls on what a first looks like amazing soil.  The plow however, did not cut deep enough and now just beneath the surface a terrible danger lurks.  The thorns grow up and choke the plant, stealing its nutrients, and eventually its very life.

Having survived the Devil and the world, an enemy of equal strength lies beneath the surface.  The sinful flesh has cravings of its own.  I want a life free of complication and I believe that Christianity should give that to me regardless of the fact that every Christian is scripture has some problems they have to deal with.  I want a life free from disease and God certainly has shown power to rid his people of everything from cancer to colds, in spite of Paul’s thorn in the flesh which plagued him throughout his life.  I want to be rich and since everything is God’s all should be mine, forget that part about sharing and caring and those portions of the Word where Christians are clearly dealing with conditions of poverty.  And when we don’t get our way, well the thorns prove painful and faith begins to choke. What good is Christianity anyway?

Oh dear, Christian, there are plenty of distractions to steal our focus from the Word of our God.   There are plenty of tricks, temptations, and snares which seek to trap us and starve us of the life giving grace of God.  And while we all like to quickly move past these words of the parable and claim the fertile soil as our own.  We all know we would be lying to say that at various times, and in different places within our lives, this soil doesn’t look to foreign to our eyes. The complaints even may resonate currently in our souls. But there is a solution to this problem.  It is not one brought about by our effort or our strength however.  No, only the word brings forth fruit. So brothers and sisters, Listen up!

8But some seed fell on good ground and produced grain: some one hundred times, some sixty, and some thirty times more than was sown. 9Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.” … 23But the seed that was sown on the good ground is the one who continues to hear and understand the word. Indeed, he continues to produce fruit: some a hundred, some sixty, and some thirty times more than was sown.”

Good soil, we have it all over Wisconsin.  Go for a drive this afternoon and look at the fields.  Many are green, although farmers would always like them greener and more robust.  One seed produces a plant which produces many more, and each according to the gifts given it, some 100-fold, some 60, some 30, all blessings from our God.

Oh, I suppose it would be tempting to look at this soil and puff up our chests as Christians.   “Look, I’m saved because I’m so great, so smart, so whatever …”  Of course we’ve already covered the fact that we often look more like rock-hard paths, stony soil and weed-infested ground, not to mention that the rest of Scripture clearly tells us differently.  

I’ve always loved the words of Ephesians 2:8-10, “8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  Paul carefully constructs the sentences to remind us that faith is in the sphere of grace as well, a gift, given by God not by works and aside from any boasting of our own. So the fruit, it’s not my doing, but God’s doing.  

He took useless sinful soil, and fertilized it with His Word.  He decided to walk among the sinful and live a perfect life in our place.  He journeyed not just throughout Israel, but all the way to the cross, where He endured more than nails and mockery, suffering the hell that we deserved.  He allowed Himself, perfect and sinless as He was to bow his head in death and be placed in a tomb, only to destroy death as he burst forth in victory.

Yes, this is the message that softens the hardened heart, which picks out the stones and roots out the weeds of sin, demolishing all our enemies and leaving soil made perfect, watered by His holy precious blood.  In these conditions, even with the heat of satan, the world, and our own sinful flesh beating down upon us, the plants grow and flourish.  Oh, I know it doesn’t always seem that way, but step back every now and again to take a look.  This all used to be farmland, where Jesus’ picture played out so regularly,  but now a church.  It used to be a mission funded by the generosity of others as a few gathered to worship their God, but now, I know we would always like the numbers to be greater but now a self-supporting congregation which in turn sends dollars back to help the spread of the Gospel in places we cannot go which even funds the spread of that Word in areas around us in the Madison area.  And still, as we talk, as we work, there are those who by God’s grace listen and gather in with us to hear the voice of their God as He plants and grows and harvests.    

What Makes Christians Different?  Jesus pushes out to sea as He sits in a boat to amplify the earthly vocal cords as He sets aside the full use of His divinity for a time and He describes you and me. In love, he bids us listen to Him.  Which soil are you today, were you yesterday, will you be tomorrow?  Do you know where the good soil comes from?  The answers are all found in our God Who works in His Word.  By God’s Grace, may we always Listen Up! Because God’s Sow’n Here.  Amen.

Matthew 22:15-22 - Two Kingdoms ... One God

Matthew 22:15-22

15 Then the Pharisees went out and plotted together how to trap him in his words. 16They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are truthful and teach the way of God in accord with the truth. You are not concerned about gaining anyone's approval because you are not swayed by appearances. 17So tell us, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” 18But Jesus knew their evil purpose and said, “Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? 19Show me the coin used for the tax.” They brought him a denarius.  20 He asked them, “Whose image and inscription is this?”  21“Caesar's,” they replied to him.  Then he said to them, “Therefore give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.”  22 When they heard this, they were amazed. Then they left him and went away. – EHV

Burgers or brats? Steak or Brisket?  Do you prefer to purchase fireworks and fire them off yourself, or let someone else do it and watch the display, or maybe you wish they didn’t exist at all cause they freak out the dog and ruin a quiet evening with a million explosions?  Do you prefer to drive or do you like being chauffeured?  These are the easier questions, which tell others a bit about us. But there are bigger ones. 

Palestine or Israel? Russia or Ukraine? Do you bleed red, white, and blue, or is there a big bucket of caution connected to anything governmental?  Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Green, Constitutionalist?  Globalist, Imperialist, Nationalist? Capitalist, Socialist, Conservative, Liberal, or do you go another route entirely?  What if I asked God, Government, or Family?  Now I’m not trying to stir up division or see if I can get the collective blood boiling this morning, but questions like these do elicit a response in the world around us.  They also help us illustrate a bit more the powder keg that the Pharisees were setting in front of Jesus in our Gospel lesson this morning.

Pharisees liked to think of themselves as the ultra-conservative wing of Judaism.  They didn’t like Roman occupation, but their pragmatism led them to realize there wasn't a whole lot they could do to dislodge the superpower of their day from within their borders. The result was a reluctant cooperation to preserve their power and prestige. Think of the individual sculking around behind the scenes of power waiting for the right opportunity to pounce, and you aren’t far off, at least in their relationship with Rome.  It was also a pretty popular ideology with the people of Israel, who didn’t like these foreigners telling them what to do. Jesus not only seemed to make them look foolish at every turn (bad enough to mark Him already as enemy number one), but as they misunderstood what He had come to do, they feared He would throw the careful balance of power off, leading to harsher Roman occupation if not total annihilation.

Pairing up with the Herodians required a fair amount of “the holding of the nose.”  Herod the Great was an Edomite (not even a Jew) and he and his family were purely politics as they sought to stay out of the fray between the Pharisees (the ultra-conservative religious faction of Israel) and the Sadducees (the ultra- liberal side).  They also had very few issues with Rome, as the occupation led to their position in power. At various times, they even pushed Hellenization, a desire for Israel to be more like Rome and Greece. As a result, they were pretty unpopular with the people but didn’t seem to care as they held power and the throne of Judea.  But this Jesus and John the Baptist before Him were too religious and fearing that all the Messiah talk would lead to a push for their throne or a military response from Rome, they too wanted Jesus silenced.  Strange bedfellows, but then politics, right?

The trap would be set.  Let’s get Jesus talking about taxes, after all, He has a zealot (those guys were crazier than the Pharisees) and a tax collector (talk about Roman-friendly) in His very circle of followers. And let's not talk taxes in general, no, let's ask about “the Kensos” (that is the Greek word here).  It was the census tax on all occupied territories of the Roman Empire.  The occupied hated it because it was essentially a tax to exist in your own territory, placed on every adult in the household regardless of income or ability to pay. If Jesus sides with the people, the Herodians will report Him, and He’ll be dead by morning. If He sides with the Romans, that following of His will disintegrate faster than parchment in fire.  Oh, and let’s butter Him up first too. Remind Him that He’s “mister truthful” and doesn’t care what people think. 16They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are truthful and teach the way of God in accord with the truth. You are not concerned about gaining anyone's approval because you are not swayed by appearances. 17So tell us, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”  Talk about trying to “Stump the Pastor”.

Of course, Jesus knocks it out of the park.  In a very brief exchange, He exposes their intent and reminds them and all of us of a simple yet important truth. We are inhabitants of two kingdoms.  Yes, the earthly kingdoms which we occupy but also God’s Kingdom … Kingdoms (power, grace, and glory). 18But Jesus knew their evil purpose and said, “Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? 19Show me the coin used for the tax.” They brought him a denarius. 20He asked them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” 21“Caesar's,” they replied to him. Then he said to them, “Therefore give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.”

In effect, “You bunch of fakers running around like you are authorities and demanding respect. You don’t even fathom these simple realities.  Get me the coin you pay that hated tax with.  Whose picture is on it? You live and do commerce, enjoy the political powers, and the protection which this coin and the image of the one upon it provide, and yet you don’t want to honor the very one who provides it to you? Can you hear the words of our second lesson from Paul’s Letter to the Romans in there? What’s more, have we forgotten where earthly power originates and whose hand ultimately guides the events of this world and its lowly little empires into the glories of the real power and glory of the Kingdom of our God?  If you feared, loved, and trusted in God more than anyone or anything else, this wouldn’t even be a question for you. Consider Daniel or the three who go to the furnace.  Did they get worked up about the respect due them, the power they could grasp, or the expectations of Nebuchadnezzar, or did they seek to serve their fellow man wherever they found themselves with their hearts and trust squarely placed upon their God?”

Ah, once again I crumble to the dust in repentance and ashes.  Far to often, I have overlooked the blessings God was providing through country and government more concerned about from whose earthly hand it came.  Oh for sure, we live in far different circumstances than Daniel, Paul, or Jesus, but then neither Daniel nor Paul could have ever fathomed the freedoms we enjoy in our world today.  The right to freely engage with our government and to freely practice our religion are an amazing blessing, that I respond with in vitriol and hatred, like Pharisees and Herodians more concerned about the power of politics or the money I do or don’t have and less focused on the God who gives all and controls all.  A hypocrite, a faker, a fraud, a sinner.

Oh, for sure there is room for discourse and to engage in the political sphere of our day as God’s people.  My feet, just as yours, are planted in the two kingdoms in which we live, but have our actions or our words always shown that, or have I lifted my foot from the Kingdom of God to engage in the muck of the kingdoms of this world.  What was that Fourth Commandment again, “Honor Your Father and Mother that it may go well with you and you may enjoy a long life on the earth.”  Luther’s words expose my sin, we should fear and love God that we do not dishonor or anger our parents or others in authority, but honor, serve, and obey them and give them love and respect.

Again, I find myself at the feet of Him Whom the Pharisees and Herodians are trying to trap.  At the feet of the One Who answered them perfectly on the spot.  Even though He is God Himself and Lord of all, my Savior is the One Who once told Peter to check the mouth of the fish to find the very coin to pay this tax of the subjugated and encourages us all to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s, reminding me that I owe my love and respect, my obedience within two Kingdoms.  And all this He does not to show me the way I should live or to provide a new leash of subjugation I must wear.  He does this for me, fulfilling all righteousness on my behalf, even when the hands of the government He has just upheld would later drive nails through His own, so that my sins would be paid for in full and even there it is not the vitriol and hatred of politics so common in our day that come from His holy mouth but forgiveness!  Forgiveness for them, forgiveness for me, all that I might lift my eyes to the Kingdom that surpasses any of this world made mine through Him. 

Perhaps if I could just remember that, perhaps if we all could, there would be a little less anxiety and angst in our world, regardless of who holds the power in the governments that sit over us. Perhaps we could be a little less concerned about ourselves and a little more concerned about those around us.  Perhaps we would even see all of the blessings that are there as we live in Two Kingdoms with one God ruling over both.  Amen.

1 Timothy 6:11-16 - Fight the Good Fight of Faith

God’s Word: 1 Timothy 6:11-16

11 But you, O man of God, flee from these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of eternal life, to which you were called and about which you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who made a good confession as a witness before Pontius Pilate, 14 that you keep this command without spot and without fault, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which he will make known at the proper time—the blessed and only ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or is able to see. To him be honor and power forever! Amen. – EHV

Fight the good fight!  That’s what Paul says in our lesson today.  Now I have to admit, I’ve never been much of a fighter, and I struggle to understand how a fight can be good.  It usually means all efforts to resolve a conflict have failed and all that’s left is physicality.  So I’ve tried to avoid fighting, replacing it with communication in almost every aspect of life.  But in Highschool, just a few pounds and a lot of years ago, I was a wrestler.  I did most of the years of highschool in the 160 to 180 pound weight classes, which if you know anything about wrestling, is where the crazy strong guys usually go to work.

I was inexperienced as a freshman, Dad had wrestled, but I hadn’t done all the camps that were just starting to come into vogue when I was young. But I figured I had played a season of football, and if I was slamming into guys in the line and toppling running backs and the like, it couldn’t be much more difficult than that, and after all, it was only 3 two-minute rounds.  Football was like an hour. This should be easy.  I’ve never sweat so much in my life, but I figured with all that hard work we should be able to annihilate the competition. 

I’ll never forget my first match. I would later learn my opponent, a senior, had been injured the year before, and his coach brought him down to JV for the first few matches of the year to ease him back into competition form.  We walked out, the whistle blew, and he immediately stuck out his leg, leaving it wide open.  I shot confident that I had been given a gift.  As I reached out, he somersaulted over me, cradling me up tight.  Within seconds, I was on my back, looking at the lights. I fought, but it was over. I heard the slap of the mat.  I had lasted 20 whole seconds. I was humiliated. How could that happen?  What had I done?  I was not good … that match was not good, at least for me.

Why are we talking about this?  Well, because for one I believe Paul might have been thinking about wrestling.  It was an Olympic sport after all, and they are occurring at this time in history.  Not to mention that wrestling is a Biblical sport, Jacob wrestled God.  But I do believe it shows us what a good fight ultimately takes.  I guarantee you that I worked hard and tried hard in practice, but I failed that first match.  Overconfidence, lack of understanding of my opponent, inexperience, they all left me looking at lights, regardless of how hard I had tried. 

Paul tells the Ephesians, our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12).  It’s not freshman verses senior, but sinner verses sinful self, against satan and the demons at his disposal, against the world overrun by them, and against death and hell.  How are we supposed to go out and fight the good fight against them?  I’m guessing you have tried.  Our feeble power and strength against temptation.  How are we supposed to outmaneuver the one who brought Adam and Eve, perfect as they were, down? A world of strength against me? Death and hell, the fact that I claim the name of “sinner” means they already have all that they need.  On my own, I’m not going to last 20 seconds … I don’t even think I’ll make it to the mat.  Unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5 and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain (1 Timothy 6:4-5), the love of money (1 Timothy 6:10).  That’s the list Paul has just written down before penning flee from these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. How’s that going? Which list honestly better describes you?  Lights … I’m on my back again … embarrassed.  Not good.  How am I supposed to fight a good fight?

Fast forward a few years.  I continued to work hard.  I won some … I lost some.  Felt a little bit like a roll of the dice every time I hit the mat.  My hard work earned me the nickname of fish among my opponents.  You can get him down, but it’s hard to keep him there.  I wasn’t going to lose in 20 seconds anymore, I’d promised myself that.  Then there was the match that made me rethink my approach.  It was a tournament. Coach walked over and told me he’d seen the guy I was up against a few times.  He always went for a throw.  We drilled a counter for about 3 minutes before the match.  I went out, the whistle blew, the guy went for it, I countered.  10 seconds that’s all it took to pin a guy who had until that point been waltzing through the tournament.  Know your opponent! It turned out that produced even bigger dividends than buckets of sweat and bulging muscles.

That’s what Paul is saying in those verses: God’s Law!  It’s not just a long list of do’s and don’t’s.  It tells us how the enemies attack us.  It spells out their strategy and gives us the counters.  Stay away from the temptations and the vices, chase after the good.  That’s how you fight a good fight in this life. But it still only gets you so far.  One slip, one mistake, and we find ourselves in the grasp of a superior opponent who embarrasses us, defeats us.  We need more.  Thankfully, God provides that too. Listen to the words of our lesson again.  This time, looking for the sure and solid win.  (reread lesson)

Did you hear it?  Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of eternal life, to which you were called and about which you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. Faith points us to the sure thing.  Faith lays hold of eternal life.  It points to the one who gives life, Who gives victory.  It points to Christ Jesus, who made a good confession as a witness before Pontius Pilate, who will appear again at the proper time — the blessed and only ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16who alone has immortality, who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or is able to see. To him be honor and power forever! Amen.

It turns out, you have a champion.  One who fights for you against the foes that frighten us.  He is the King of kings and Lord of Lords, immortal, unapproachable, unseen, so indefensible for Him there is no counterattack!  All honor all power belong to Him.  And in the fullness of time, He took on flesh for you, joined the fight, walked out on the mat.  He was perfect, no slips, no mistakes.  He sent satan packing, defeated even death and hell.  That’s what the cross is all about.  His holy, precious blood was the perfect price for all the times the foes pinned me to the ground when sin had me beat before the whistle even blew.  And His resurrection, as our Risen Savior, He hands the victory to us.  So that, as Luther put it, one little Word, God’s Word, which tells of His Victory, Your Victory, and exposes the darkness of sin for all that it is, it fells the foes.  This battle isn’t about my power or my strength.  It’s not about my strategy or wisdom.  It’s a battle of faith, given and provided by God Himself, strengthened and maintained in His means of Grace.  Focus on Him, brothers and sisters, Count on Him for victory.  Or as the first of the commandments says it, You shall have no other Gods and Luther trumpeted, We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.  Fellow soldiers of the cross, our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12).  So, in faith, by God’s grace, Lay hold of eternal life, the victory God alone provides and with the confidence that He has already done all that is needed.  Fight! Fight the good fight of faith! Amen.

2 Timothy 4:1-8 - Prepared

Are you ready?  It’s summer, so have you scheduled in some time off to rest and relax in the beauty of the sunshine as kids are home and schedules are a bit more relaxed?  Are you ready?  Ready for work and the presentation, the changes of duties, the various unknowns that can spring up out of nowhere and make demands with little windows to achieve the results, ask questions that require answers, fair or unfair as they come?  How about those finances?  Got everything in order? Costs ever climbing savings dwindling, are you living within your means or accumulating debt faster than the dollars to pay it down?  What about family life, or just life in general?  Are you checking the boxes and putting in the time with relationships, connections, and contacts or has all the other stuff on the plate crowded it out so that more people wonder where you are than how you’re doing? Life is a lot most days and we probably feel way less than prepared so we likely look for short cuts right?  Can AI buy me hours at work? Can I look for less but more impactful ways to spend time with others?  What’s the cheat code for life to build big wealth and have less stress in all of the demands placed upon us? So then it’s probably less than welcome when Paul talks the way He does in our lesson today telling us there is a whole other realm that demands faithfulness, watchfulness, and preparation.  Are you ready?  Are you prepared … for the biggest question of them all.  Are you prepared to answer when others have questions that affect the everlasting relationship they have with God?  Are you prepared in your own relationship with Him?  

Rogers and Hammerstein penned the lyrics, “let’s start is at the very beginning. It’s a very good place to start” and our lesson pumps up the intensity there.  Paul isn’t messing around as he lays out his demands to young Timothy and forever after to the Church. His inspired pen (well maybe his quill) wrote, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom: 2Preach the word.

This is no mere suggestion.  It is a solemn charge and not just one that exists between us and our boss at work or a court of law.  It is a solemn charge given to us by God Himself, by Jesus Christ who is God Himself vested with the duties of judgement when He comes again and the Kingdom of heaven hangs in the balance.  And perhaps it’s the next words which give the most pause.  For if you stopped me out of the blue and said what are the next words should be, I would quickly tell you that it’s all about Jesus, faith which focuses on Him.  Heaven and our place in it has everything to do with God’s gifts and nothing to do with our action but then Come those words, an imperative, a command, a do.  Preach the Word!

That’s the charge God has given to us as people who are saved, those who are blessed in the blood of the Lamb and gifted with the working of the Holy Spirit who connects us to Christ in that gift of faith.  Go and hand it out to others.  He tells us what that will look like. 2Preach the word. Be ready whether it is convenient or not. Correct, rebuke, and encourage, with all patience and teaching. 3For there will come a time when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, because they have itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in line with their own desires. 4They will also turn their ears away from the truth and will turn aside to myths.  5As for you, keep a clear head in every situation. Bear hardship. Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry.

The Greek words speak volumes.  Convenient or not … literally in the good times and the not (good) times … one is easy the other well not so much! Correct (speak up), rebuke (honor up), encourage (call to your side (your understanding and faith)!  Those are all “not” times because well the world doesn’t want to hear that its not right.  It would much rather here the “I’m okay, your okay, we are all okay, even when nothing is okay” mantra of the world today.  The itching ears love it.  So buffet Christianity is all the rage pick and choose what you like and what you don’t.  If the Bible says it but you don’t like it well call it sexist, call it outdated, call it phobic, strip it of its honor and pull it into the political realm with words like radical … right wing … leftist as if God could be voted down like some out of control power hungry politician, which is to say tell God He was ultimately too dumb to understand what the world would be like today and so His Word no longer applies and should be silenced rather and preached to the very corners of the earth.  Yes, this will mean we bear hardship as we do the work before us.  It will require a clear head and a clean conscience.

“Gulp!” right.  I don’t like any of that!  I don’t know that I really want to sign up for any of that! Please don’t make me do that, I will look different, I’ll stand out! Ah but then that’s kind of the point is it not?  We are supposed to shine like stars in the darkness of the world around us as Jesus said unafraid of those who can only affect our earthly existence more concerned about the one who commands our everlasting home in heaven.

I warned you preparation can raise the anxiety level.  Wondering if we are prepared is demanding upon us … at least if we place the load of that burden upon ourselves.  Jeremiah in our first lesson is a great example of this.  He actually complains to God that He dupped him into service.  You seduced me Lord but he also admits that he can’t stop.  The message is just too powerful.   It’s like a fire shut up in his bones if he tries not to proclaim it. 

That, dead friends, is the answer to the hardship.  Don’t forget dear Christian, what God demands, He also gives. What God would have us do, He always equips us for as well.  It’s no secret that I’m a pastor.  It’s why I’m wearing the funny robe this morning.  And let me tell you that I’m just like most other people.  The “not times” aren’t something I treasure and there have been any number of them in ministry.  I’ve even had days when like Jeremiah I have thought I’ll just keep quiet and not proclaim this but the Word is just to powerful, to beautiful of a thing to try and shut up and silence.  The more I study it the more I just can’t help myself but to preach it, to proclaim it in the world around me.  It is too great a treasure not to hold out to others, not to apply to others even as I apply it to myself.

So wrap yourself in the Means of Grace.  Recall your baptism and everything that it means for you as call calls you his very own child as the Father is made your Father through the faith given ans instilled by the Spirit therein.  Run to the supper where Jesus Himself is truly present in, with, and under that bread and wine to forgive all the sin, the anxiety, and doubt and strengthen you for the tasks of life as you cling to the hope of salvation.  Ready, study, hear, the Word of God which equips you to speak and to run life’s race in the way and by the strength that God will provide.  This is the glory of worship as God comes to us therein and does what no one else can do for us and why we as Christians will rush to do as God urges us in our lesson whether the times be good or not.

The Apostle Paul knew these truths as well.  On the road to Damascus, he had no intention to serving his Savior, yet Jesus came none the less, empowered and equipped even as He saved and forgave.  And now as Paul sees the end of his time on this earth drawing to a close He can burst out in confidence and joy,  6You see, I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. 8From now on, there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness. The Lord, the righteous Judge, will give it to me on that day, and not only to me but also to everyone who loved his appearing.

Paul stood prepared not by his action and ability but by the God who moved him to serve.  By God’s grace, so do you.  Prepared through the Means God gives we can speak up, honor up, and call others to the side of Christ. Amen.

Numbers 27:15-23 - Christ Be My Leader!

This week, I had the privilege, at least at the beginning of the week, to attend our Western Wisconsin District Convention in Watertown.  There, it was announced that out of our 12 Synodical Districts, 5 District Presidents would not be seeking reelection.  That’s over 1/3 of our Conference of Presidents swapping out this month. At the very same time, it was announced that President Schroeder (our synodical president) would be retiring at the end of this term in 2027.  That volume of turnover in our COP is relatively unheard of.  Of course, we are all too aware of the shortages of workers afflicting almost every industry in America, and while I would not say that the Church is a business, it is not untouched by these shortages. While seminary had 46 men stand for assignment this year (the largest since my class of almost 60 … that was 21 years ago), we still have 128 pastoral vacancies synod-wide. After assigning 79 teachers from Martin Luther College, over 110 vacancies remain in our schools, which constitutes the 4th largest parochial system in the US.  Yes, Jesus’ words in our Gospel Lesson ring true, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. (Matthew 9:37)”

I suppose there are different ways we could go with that information.  We could panic … our leadership is changing … our churches and schools sit vacant … yep, the sky is falling, Henny Penny, so let's freak out.  Or, and I believe this to be the far better option here, we could take a deep breath, acknowledge that there is still work to do, and that, believe it or not, we actually do live in a sin-filled world where things are bound to change, but that even all of this still squarely resides in the hands of our God.  I believe that encouragement is in the words of our lessons today.

Place yourselves in the shoes of the fledgling Israelite nation. While slaves in Egypt, they had grown to number likely over 2,000,000 (cf. Numbers 1:46 and Exodus 38:26 fighting men [20 and older] = 603,550 multiply X4 for women, children, and Levites not numbered).  Moses would not be able to lead them into the promised land. The great lawgiver had sinned at Meribah, and instead of speaking to the rock as God had commanded in frustration and exhaustion from dealing with an unruly nation, he had struck the rock twice with his staff instead.   As a result, Moses, that great leader of men, who had performed all of those signs and wonders for the people as they left the land of Egypt, would not lead the people past their desert wandering.  Interesting, no? Anger, frustration, the law, they don’t get to enter the promised land (hold on to that thought).

I suppose there were several options both for Moses and the people at this juncture.  They could panic.  The miracle man is going to disappear.  Not just anyone can lead a nation of 2-3 million.  Even Moses struggled with this!  Yep, the sky is falling, Henny Penny, so let's freak out. Or … well, Moses was a good leader, and our lesson tells us, 15 Moses spoke to the Lord, 16 “May the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the community, 17 who will go out before them and come in before them, who will lead them out and bring them in, so that the community of the Lord will not be like sheep without a shepherd.”

And what did God do? 18 The Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and place your hand on him. 19 Have him stand in front of Eleazar the priest and the entire community. You will commission him in their sight. 20 You will give some of your authority to him so that the entire Israelite community will listen to him. 21 He will stand before Eleazar the priest, who will inquire for him before the Lord with the decision of the Urim. He and all the Israelites with him, the entire community, will go out at his command and come in at his command.”  The Lord provided a leader.  Who will lead Israel into the promised land?  Again, not anger, frustration, the law, but Joshua.  Oh, and this is interesting!  In Greek, the name of God’s one and only Son, Your Savior and mine, is “Jesus”. But in Hebrew it’s “Joshua”. Both names mean the same thing, “The Lord Saves!” Who/what will lead the people into the promised land? Not anger, frustration, the law, but the Lord Saves, the Gospel will lead them!

Now I’m guessing that in the grand scheme, a few synodical leaders swapping seats isn’t such a large deal for most of us.  That’s actually a good thing; it speaks of trust in those who will take their place.  But I am willing to guess that in this world filled with trouble, filled with sin, there are any number of things that cause us no small amount of anxiety.  Sin and satan with it have a whole bag of tricks to leave us feeling frustrated and tired, anger-filled as God’s laws are ignored or downright despised.  Yes, as we look around, there are a plethora of things that may make us feel like the sky is falling, and it’s time to panic.  Look, I get it; I live in it too.  So, what shall we do?

Moses didn’t go to himself or trust in the wisdom of men.  He went to the only one who could help.  He turned to the Lord, and He prayed.  That’s the far better option.  Remember, Anger, frustration, law, they don’t enter the promised land, but the Lord, the Lord saves His people.  In Christ Jesus, the victory over all- sin, death, the devil’s power has already been secured.  His perfect life fulfilled the law for us, not ignoring it but keeping it completely fully for us and in our place.  His innocent death on the cross was the perfect payment for sin, yours, mine, and the millions and billions of others who have called this big blue ball home. His blood cleanses us from every single sin.  His resurrection is the proof of the pudding that the doors of the promised land of heaven stand forever open to all who by grace, through faith, believe in Him. Yes, the Gospel puts the promise in our hands and writes it on our hearts. This, dear friends, this is enough for anxious hearts and panic-ridden souls. And if that were all our dear Lord gave us, it would be enough.

But it’s not all He gives us.  He promises to send us voices, men, leaders who will, like Moses and Joshua and countless others, point the way to Christ.  No, they will not always be plentiful; there will be droughts like in the days of Elijah, but God will provide.  He will send them out like the twelve in our Gospel Lesson.  His Church, invisible, will endure to the very end of the ages.  It will be held in fragile human hands as water, and the Word welcomes new members into its fold.  Received by people on the verge of panic and struggling with sin as bread and wine, miraculously, the very body and blood of Christ give forgiveness, new life, and salvation.  It will be heard and read by the leaders and the people God gives them to.  Jesus promised it and sends the Holy Spirit to secure it even in frustrated and angry hearts that they might have the hope of eternal life with Him. 

Fast forward through the book of Joshua as the people stand in the promised land and Joshua prepares to leave the leadership position God had placed him in.  As he stands before the people, God gives him words to speak.  And what are they? 14 “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:14-15)” Ah, yes, he points back to God.  Faithful servants always do.  Yes, brothers and sisters, as leadership changes, as shortages continue, as sin, satan, and death rage in the world around us, God will provide leaders, workers, servants for His people.  But may our prayer always be to the One who sends them, that they would point to Him and His leadership.  Yes, Christ be my, our Leader. Amen.

Ephesians 1:15-23 - An Ascension Prayer - May 21, 2023

I’m sure that all of you – especially you, Bree – have been wondering the same thing I’ve been wondering about for several weeks. “What in the world is the sermon going to be about today?” Have you been wondering that, Bree? There’s so much going on. Not only are we celebrating and affirming Bree’s confirmation; not only are we recognizing the end of the Sunday school year and thanking all of the students, parents and teachers for their time and effort; but we’re also celebrating the Ascension of Jesus to his Father’s right hand in heaven. (I vaguely remember there being something else, but I can’t recall it at the moment.) The question I was asking myself this week was: what would be most God-pleasing and more edifying for you, Bree, and for all of you – to focus on confirmation, the end of Sunday school, or Jesus’ Ascension? Fortunately, I didn’t have to decide, because the text before us addresses all of those topics at the same time. Today we consider Paul’s Ascension prayer addressed to God for his fellow believers in Ephesus.

Given that Paul calls himself a prisoner twice in this letter (Ephesians 3:1; 4:1), it’s safe for us to assume that he wrote it while he was imprisoned in Rome for preaching the Gospel of Christ crucified (Acts 28:16-31). He was writing to dearly beloved Christians from whom he had been separated. These days, if someone experienced the sort of injustice that Paul endured, they would advertise their grievance on social media, they would ask for protests and probably set up a “Go-Fund-Me” account to get them bailed out or pay their legal fees. But Paul didn’t do any of those things. What did Paul do? He did the most powerful thing he could: he prayed.

What did he pray for? This is why, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I never stop giving thanks for you. Wisconsinites are known as a very polite people – we will say “hi” to perfect strangers and say “thank you” when we receive even the smallest gift or service. But Paul doesn’t give thanks for anything he’s received; he gives thanks for their faith in the Lord Jesus. Even though Paul was in prison and deprived of many of the things he may have desired – he still took the long view. Specifically, Paul knew that even though he may never see the Ephesian Christians again in this life (Acts 20:38), by virtue of their faith in the Lord Jesus, he was certain he would spend eternity with them in heaven. Bree, this faith, this faith in the Lord Jesus as your Savior, is what you will be confessing this morning. You have many gifts, many talents, a very bright future – but nothing, nothing is more important to me, to your parents and church family than your faith – which takes the long view of life, one that extends all the way into eternity. We give thanks to God for baptizing you into his family, teaching you the truths of the Christian faith, and, now, for leading you to confess this faith as your own!

But, as James says, faith is never alone (James 2:17). Again, notice how Paul never made a point of thanking the Ephesians for what they had done for him personally – although, given that he had spent roughly three years with them (Acts 19-20), they had no doubt welcomed him and supported him and encouraged him in many ways. But instead, Paul thanks God for [their] love for all the saints. This may refer to the Ephesians’ participation in the offering to the poor Jewish Christians in Jerusalem (2 Corinthians 8). But more likely is that Paul was simply thanking God for the Ephesians’ love for one another. That kind of love – whether it’s displayed through providing food for potlucks and soup suppers (or chili cook-offs – which while I will miss them, I’m happy to leave undefeated!) or cleaning or counting offerings or cutting the grass or administrative leadership – took a huge weight off of Paul’s heart and mind. And he thanks God for it!

While Paul does spend time thanking God for his work in and through the Ephesian Christians; he spends most of his time praying for God to continue to work to and for them. He prays that God will give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. While that might sound abstract, it is actually a very concrete request. Paul is praying that God would keep the Ephesians – even as he’s separated from them – firmly rooted in the means of grace. The Spirit of wisdom is given to Christians of all times and places through the revelation of the Gospel in Word and Sacrament. In other words, Paul is praying that God would keep the Ephesians firm in the certainty of their Baptisms, in the freedom of the Absolution, in the comfort of the Gospel preached and taught, and the forgiveness and fellowship offered to them in the Lord’s Supper.

Why? What will happen if God keeps those Christians rooted firmly in the means of grace? The eyes of your heart [will] be enlightened, so that you may know the hope to which he has called you, just how rich his glorious inheritance among the saints is, and just how surpassingly great his power is for us who believe. By remaining firmly rooted in these means of grace, Paul says, the Ephesian Christians will be enlightened; their eyes will be opened. To see what? To see that the Holy Spirit didn’t just call them to faith so that they would join a group of like-minded people in a social club here on earth – but to the hope of spending eternity with all Christians of all time in heaven. To see that the glorious inheritance God has prepared for them isn’t just a future hope – but a present reality. He wanted them to see that the freedom from sin, the ability to see the world clearly through the lens of Scripture, the fellowship they have with other believers, and the certainty they have in the face of an uncertain future – are all down-payments that they have received and can and should enjoy right now. That freedom, that peace, that joy, that hope are all evidence that God has and will continue to exert his surpassingly great…power in those Ephesian Christians – just as he will continue to do here, among you Risen Savior Christians!

Now, we’ve all heard politicians and celebrities – and maybe even our own family and friends – promise to pray for us for something that is completely out of their control. After every natural disaster or mass shooting or personal disaster – people will always say “our thoughts and prayers are with you.” And, anyone who has been on the receiving end of those “thoughts and prayers” will often think: “That’s great, but what good are your thoughts and prayers when you have no power to do anything about my trouble or problem or issue or fear?”

Don’t underestimate the power of prayer – is the Law for today. God commands us to pray in the 2nd Commandment (Exodus 20:7) and throughout Scripture – he also promises to hear and answer our prayers (Psalm 50:15; Matthew 7:7-11). And yet, how often do we regard prayer as an empty ritual or a polite token offered by a friend or only as the last resort, after all other solutions have failed? How often are we double-minded in our prayers – not trusting God to answer in the way that is best for us (James 1:8)? Given the situation, we can easily imagine that the Ephesians were praying for Paul to be released from prison, that he could return to them, that the persecution they were experiencing from the unbelieving world would be relieved, or perhaps, that Jesus would return to take them home – and yet, God apparently didn’t answer those specific prayers. If God, apparently, wasn’t answering their prayers – what difference did it make if Paul was praying for them? Where’s the proof that prayer is powerful?

This is why we celebrate Jesus’ Ascension into heaven. Christmas, Lent, Good Friday – while we rightly celebrate them – are celebrations of Jesus’ humility to come to this earth to die for our sins. (And even Easter celebrates a resurrection that no one witnessed in person. There was more fear and uncertainty that came out of that first Easter than joy and hope!) But Jesus made sure that the apostles were there to witness his glorious Ascension into heaven – so that they could see for themselves and witness to us that the same Jesus who humbly submitted to suffering and death was now exalted to the throne of glory in heaven.

This means that Paul’s prayers for the Ephesians were not merely wishful thinking, they were not empty words – Paul’s prayers were firmly rooted in the objective truth that the same Jesus who suffered, died, and rose from the dead has now ascended and is ruling all things at God’s right hand. He puts it this way: It is as great as the working of his mighty strength, which God worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, authority, power, and dominion, and above every name that is given, not only in this age but also in the one to come. God also placed all things under his feet and made him head over everything for the church. The church is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

In other words, Paul was leading the Ephesians Christians to not place their hopes in the outcome of the religious and political process that had separated him from them, in Paul’s personality or work, or their own sincerity and dedication – but in the rock-solid fact that God raised Jesus from the dead and that he now has authority over everything in this world.

Sadness and worry would probably have been the default option for both Paul and the Ephesian Christians he was separated from – but Paul redirects their worry and sadness and fear to certainty, confidence and comfort in what Jesus has done, is doing, and will do into the future. Bree, as you head off to Lakeside next year – and to unknown places beyond there – this is my prayer for you: that in spite of the uncertainty and questions and stress you experience, you will always know that you can return here, to Risen Savior, where you will be loved and assured that your Ascended Savior is ruling all things for your good. (And the same goes for all of you Sunday school students – and for the rest of you!) This church will always be your home!

Did we cover everything? Jesus’ Ascension. Bree’s confirmation. The end of Sunday school. (I still can’t remember the other thing, we’ll get to that some other time.) Separated from his beloved Christian brothers and sisters, Paul prayed for them. He gave thanks for their faith and their Christian love. He asked God to continue to enlighten the eyes of their hearts through Word and Sacrament. He grounded those prayers in the established facts of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension. If I were as smart as Paul, that would be my prayer for you, too. Amen.