James 5:7-11 - Good Things Come to Those Who Wait - December 11, 2016

Is there anything harder for sinful humans to do well than wait? Especially this time of year, and especially for children, waiting is a challenge. And, when you look around, it’s hard to blame them. Christmas trees, lights, and yard decorations have been up for weeks already. The dull regularity of a mail box filled with bills and junk mail has been replaced with exciting Christmas cards and mysterious packages. Christmas carols fill the air and Christmas movies fill the TV. It’s no wonder kids get so impatient – they are surrounded by the signs of what is to come and they want it to be here now. But it’s not just kids, is it? Maybe as adults we’re not waiting for Christmas presents, but we’re waiting nonetheless. We’re always waiting for something. We wait for test results. We wait for the end of the work week. We hate waiting for car repairs and oil changes, and fast food is never fast enough. We’re waiting for the treatment to work, waiting for a raise, waiting for our children to grow up and mature. Waiting is difficult in a whole host of situations – but this morning James helps us find patience in the most important waiting game: waiting for our Savior’s coming. James teaches us Good Things Come to Those Who Wait with the rare combination of perspective, patience, and perseverance. 

Why, do you think, it seems to get easier to wait for Christmas the older you get? Is it because instead of fun toys we get to open up socks? Is it because we’re too busy to think about it? Is it because after a few years you realize Christmas can never live up to the hype surrounding it? Or, is it because when you have some years under your belt you have a better perspective on what Christmas means in the larger scope of life? Having the proper perspective and expectations makes a big difference in how we wait.

That’s James’ point: be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. Take the long view, James is saying. We’re anticipating the day we meet our Lord…so let’s fast forward and see what that day will look like. When you look to the end of life – yours or anyone else’s – and you see a dead, lifeless corpse. Previously that corpse had a soul living in it – either the soul of a child of God saved through faith in Christ or the soul of a filthy, unrepentant unbeliever which will be tossed into the darkness to suffer forever in hell. In that moment, the list of what really matters grows very short. In that moment, when a soul stands before its Judge only one thing matters: the presence or absence of saving faith in Jesus Christ. All the things that consume our time and attention now: wealth, possessions, prestige, power, pleasure, presents are put in their proper place – they either aided our faith or detracted from it. That is the end we all are looking forward to, a conclusion to life that no one will be able to avoid. Viewing all of life in light of that serious and significant moment will help us keep the present in its proper perspective.

James uses an everyday scenario to illustrate his point: see how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. There are no shortcuts in farming. A farmer can’t do much to speed the growth of his crops. In ancient Palestine, the farmer counted on rain around the end of October to soften up the land so he could begin his plowing and planting. Then in March or April, when the crops were blooming, the farmer watched for the spring rains to come, to provide the moisture that would fill the heads with fruit. If either rain failed to fall, both crop and farmer were doomed. Therefore, the farmer learned patience. He learned to recognize that the timing was out of his control. He worked hard, but when he was done working he put it in the Lord’s hands. He knew that worry and questioning God’s care and control wouldn’t squeeze even one drop out of the sky – so, in view of the valuable crop that was coming, he was patient and waited for the Lord.

Likewise, James writes you, too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. We know that the Lord is coming. We know it because he has promised it. We know he will keep this promise because he has kept all of his other promises. We know he’s coming and we anticipate it more than any Christmas party or present. But worrying about it or questioning God’s wisdom and love will not make it come any faster. We need to have the proper perspective. We need to take a page out of this farmer’s almanac and leave the timing up to God. We need to see life now from the perspective of our Lord’s coming – because we know, like the farmer, that good things come to those who wait.

Waiting often leads to other problems, doesn’t it? When people are stuck waiting in line at customer service, their tempers get short and they get annoyed at little things. When children are idly waiting for Christmas Day they start to pick on each other and whine and complain. Is it any different as we Christians wait for the second coming of Jesus? Not in James’ experience, and, if we’re honest, not in our experience either. We know the Lord is coming. We don’t know when. We know we should be busy carrying out his work. We don’t always agree on how that should be done. We each face our own unique pressure that comes from anticipating something that most of the world regards as a ridiculous myth. And what happens? We grow impatient and frustrated. All day long at work we restrain ourselves only let loose on our families when we get home. We expect and demand patience and understanding when we sin but we hold our fellow believers to an impossible standard. Instead of building one another up and encouraging one another when they face trouble in life, we tear each other down or (like Job’s friends) wonder what dark sin they must have committed to deserve punishment.

Knowing human nature, James writes: don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! James warns us against even the grumbling and complaining that we might consider minor. (How could they do that, not do that; how could they say that to me, how could they not talk to me?) Grumbling and groaning is the opposite of joyful and eager waiting. In fact, when we grumble against other believers, we are effectively pushing Jesus out of his place as Judge – which is what we are supposed to be waiting for together. When we are casting a critical eye towards others, do you know what we’re not focused on? Christ. To put James’ warning in a positive light, he’s saying: “Hey guys, Jesus is coming back very soon and he’s bringing amazing gifts. When he does, do you think he wants to see his children fighting with each other when they’re supposed to be building one another up as members of his body, His Church? He’s almost here. Be patient – especially with one another.”

But patience – especially with other sinners – is hard, isn’t it? We like to imagine that we’re patient people, and maybe to those who don’t know us well, we can put on a patient mask. But just ask those who know us best – our parents, spouses and children – they may paint a very different picture. If patience is such a rare virtue, what’s the secret to getting it? 1) First, think back to our proper perspective: we will all stand before the Judge, he will right all wrongs; he will pay back evil for evil and will reward the righteous with justice. Patience begins with unwavering trust and healthy fear of the Judge. 2) It continues with recognizing that patience is product of God’s grace, not a talent we are born with. Paul puts it in his list of the fruits only the Spirit can create. (Galatians 5:22-23) In other words, if you desire the gift of patience, you must be filled with the Gospel. You must be in regular contact with the Word where you discover just how patient God has been – not only with this world of sinners, but with you, a sinner. In the Word you are reminded that the LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love…he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities…as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:8-12) If our holy God, faced with the enormity of our sin, is patient with us, putting up with our failures and graciously waiting to forgive us when we repent (2 Peter 3:9), then who are we to grow impatient with the weaknesses of others? Jesus has not come yet, not because he’s testing our patience, but because he is exercising extreme patience with us. As we wait for him, let us be patient with one another, building one another up, not tearing one another down – for good things come to those who wait…patiently.

Finally, waiting in a sinful world demands perseverance. James has help for us here, too: brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. When you think about the OT prophet’s, it’s pretty hard to think of one who didn’t face suffering or persecution and yet, with God’s strength, persevered through it. Elijah, even after the Lord had defeated the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel, was hunted by Jezebel and Ahab. (1 Kings 19) Jeremiah was thrown into a cistern for warning the people of Jerusalem to surrender to the Babylonians or die under siege. (Jeremiah 38) Daniel was thrown to the lions for daring to worship the Lord instead of the King. (Daniel 6) But the example James focuses on is Job. Job, the most righteous man on earth at his time, persevered in faith even as Satan unleashed all his fury. Satan robbed Job of his property, his health, and his family. His suffering was made worse as his friends and his wife advised him to curse God and die. (Job 2:9) And yet, even in the midst of almost unimaginable suffering, Job trusted God’s wisdom and love and handed his troubles over to God: the LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised. (Job 1:21)

The difficulty for us is defining the suffering we as Christians living in 21st century America actually face. We can freely worship our Lord and Savior without fear. We can talk about Jesus with our family and friends and they probably won’t chase us out of town. Being open about our faith won’t lead to a prison sentence. We can’t really imagine life in the early church where Christians had to be careful about who they worshipped with for fear that they might be a government spy who would hand them over to be tortured and murdered. We aren’t black-listed from employment or refused service because we believe that Jesus is coming again to take us home.

But Job’s confession still serves as a pretty good summary of the struggles we face today: the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Sometimes the Lord gives us challenges to face. He gives us an immoral boss or back-stabbing coworkers, a rebellious child or financial struggle. Other times he allows comforts to be taken away. He takes away our dreams, our jobs, our loved ones. He takes away our hearing or sight or wealth. And, we face a trial that believers in the OT and early NT didn’t: it’s been 2000 years since Jesus promised that he was coming back soon! Soon? 2000 years? This world of instant gratification teaches us to think that patient, perseverant waiting is for suckers. To silently suffer pain and persecution, trusting that Jesus is coming soon to take us out of this world, sounds to most like utter foolishness. Satan pelts us with doubt; leading us to wonder if Jesus is ever going to return. In the face of it all, by God’s grace, we persevere. Not because we have super-human faith. Not because we completely understand God’s hidden hand in our world or our lives. We wait and we persevere because we know the good things Lord has brought about in the lives of the saints in the past – and we believe he has only good things in store for us too. We wait and we anticipate the Lord’s coming and until that happens we rest in his grace, because we know the Lord is full of compassion and mercy. We persevere because of who God is. He gives us perspective. He sows patience in our hearts and gives us the strength to persevere.

Whether you’re 7 or 70, waiting isn’t easy. James reminds us that good things come to those who wait. It starts with perspective. View everything in life in light of the end – for then you will be able to see what is truly important. It continues with patience. Be patient with each other because God, our merciful Father, has been patient with you. And, right to the end, persevere. Trust that God has never left his children hanging and he won’t start now. May Jesus give us this rare combination of perspective, patience, and perseverance so that he finds us eagerly anticipating the good things he will bring when he returns. Amen.

Matthew 3:1-12 - John's Advent Warning: Ignore at Your Own Risk - December 4, 2016

Just about everything we buy today comes with a warning. Some of them are necessary – like the warning to never mix bleach and vinegar, or you will end up with poisonous chlorine gas. Some would seem to a reasonable person to be unnecessary and ridiculous. Clothes irons warn us not to use while we are wearing the shirt or pants – even though it would save time. My grandfather’s chainsaw carried the warning: do not attempt to stop chain with hand – a mistake I suppose you only make once. And, maybe the most common warning label we see is the one on coffee cups: caution, contents are hot – I hope so, that’s what I paid for. Why do so many products carry these seemingly unnecessary warning labels? Because someone, somewhere has actually harmed themselves by using the product in a manner it was not designed for – and paid the price for it. When we’re using irons and chainsaws and drinking coffee, we are free to ignore the warnings – but the only person we’re hurting is ourselves. This morning John the Baptist has an Advent Warning for us, and it too is one that we ignore at our own risk.

For the people living in Israel in those days (the days when Jesus was growing up in Nazareth) John’s arrival and appearance were unusual and shocking. Not so much for what he did, but for what he didn’t do. He didn’t set up shop in Jerusalem, eat top-shelf food, or wear fancy clothes that set him apart as one of the religious elite in Israel. He worked in the desert, wore camel’s hair and ate locusts and honey. Why? What message was he sending? Well, part of it was intended to remind the people that Isaiah wrote about this man coming 700 years earlier. But the other part was intended to convey nothing. His humble appearance was meant to point people’s attention away from himself and focus it on the more important thing: his message.

John’s message, that’s the really shocking part: repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. Repent! What does that mean? What is repentance? Repentance is a change of mind. It is a 180 degree change of direction. It means to look at things differently: rather than seeing things from our sinful, broken human point of view, we are to see things (especially ourselves) from God’s point of view. A synonym for repentance is conversion: from unbelief to faith, from a mind that hates God to a mind that loves God, from one dead in sin to one alive in Christ. The penitent person sees the error of his ways compared to God’s will, confesses that he deserves eternal death for his sins, and throws himself on God’s mercy and Christ’s sacrificial death. Repentance differs from worldly regret and guilt because repentance is God’s work. This is not something we can do to ourselves. Repentance is the process God began when he drowned us in the water of Baptism and continues to work in us through his message of Law and Gospel. For Christians, this process continues every day of life until God finally kills the sinful flesh once and for all by returning it to the dust it came from.  

Theoretically, it doesn’t sound so bad, does it? It almost sounds like one of those unnecessary warnings because who wouldn’t want to get back on good terms with God? We all have an inborn awareness of our sin. That desire to be right with God is why so many people went out to [John] from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

But not all of those in attendance were sincere: when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. What’s the difference? Why did John baptize the rag-tag multitudes and then react so fiercely when the Jewish leaders showed up? John could see from their teaching and living that their hearts were not right. They were not ready to confess their sins, acknowledge their guilt, and receive John’s baptism for forgiveness. Don’t get the wrong idea, these were very devout men. Humanly speaking, they were the very best church members. They were willing to do anything it took to be right with God – fasting and washing and sacrificing – just as long as they didn’t have to admit their need, confess their sins, open their hearts to the piercing blade of the law and their ears to the saving message of the Gospel. Theirs was a totally superficial, self-centered religion. They imagined that God was pleased because of who they were and what they did. John’s question to them, then, is best understood as ironic: who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? No one. Because they didn’t think they were in any danger. They were Abraham’s descendants, and, therefore, immune from God’s wrath over sin. When they looked at themselves, they didn’t see their utter depravity and their deep need for a Savior. They looked at themselves as people who were doing everything they needed to stay on God’s good side. To these men, who placed their faith in themselves, John was blunt: the ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

The question for us is: do we need this kind direct, pointed preaching today? Note: the question is not do we want it but do we need it? Our gut reaction might be: no, we’re here after all, aren’t we? Just moments ago we confessed our sins and received forgiveness. We are fine with a calm, measured, non-accusatory sermon that doesn’t ruffle too many feathers. We’re ok with fire and brimstone as long as it’s directed ills of the world, the sickness and depravity of our society, the dark and ugly sins of politicians and celebrities. We feel pretty good inside when we are led to think: well, compared to most people, I look pretty good, I don’t lead an outwardly, obviously sinful life, I’m Lutheran – which means that our doctrine and practice are faithful to Scripture, I’m baptized and confirmed and active in the church – if anyone is safe from God’s wrath, it’s me.

Do you see how easy it is to become a Pharisee? To underestimate our sin and overestimate our goodness. To make our worship more a matter of going through the motions and good behavior than the kind of worship God really desires: the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:17) We know enough not to say it out loud, but don’t we sometimes begin to think that we deserve God’s grace now and will get a ticket into paradise when we die because of who we are and what we do? Whether we want to admit it or not, we too need John’s warning, and it needs to go deeper than our ears, it needs to pierce our hearts, because there is a Pharisee in each one of us. The warning for us today is this: God still does not accept man-made religion. There is no back door to heaven for people who want to find their own way in. If we imagine that we can have saving faith in Jesus and yet disagree with his teachings: about marriage, about creation, about the use of the Sacraments or the roles of men and women – then the only thing we have to look forward to is hearing: sorry, I don’t know you. (Matthew 7:22) If we think that God should be flattered that we’re here to listen to his Word, we need to understand that God doesn’t need us, he can make disciples out of stones if he so desires. If we think we can have a right relationship with God without ever being offended, without making the conscious effort to, with God’s help, amend our sinful lives, we need to hear that the God’s ax is still ready to chop down dead, fruitless trees.

Not much has changed in 2000 years. We are still sinners who have a Pharisaical tendency to want to justify ourselves, to save ourselves from God’s wrath. So yes, we too need to hear the clear, harsh, pointed preaching of the Law aimed at our hearts. Mine is the heart that needs to be crushed. I need be shown the depth of my sin. I need have my case for self-justification in God’s courtroom blown up and admit that I don’t meet his requirements. I need to hear John preaching the Law in all of its severity to my heart. And so do you. This is not one of those warnings we can ignore as unnecessary. If we do, the only people we’re hurting is ourselves.

But then the procrastinator in us comes out. One commentator named him professor Ja-But. Yeah, but God wants to keep forgiving me and I want to keep sinning – so it’s a perfect arrangement. Yeah, but there will always be time to turn my life around when I’m older. Yeah, but God knows that I mean good even when I do evil. Yeah, but God wouldn’t really send anyone to hell, would he, after all God is love. (1 John 4:8) If professor Ja-But ever guides your thinking or influences your faith, then these words are for you: I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

This is the urgency we face. This is why there is no time to waste, no excuses to be made. This is why it’s dangerous to think that we can always repent later or use God’s grace as a license to sin. Jesus, whose way John was preparing, has come. He has accomplished his mission of salvation. He took our place under God’s law and lived a life of perfect obedience. He demonstrated perfect love for everyone, friends and foes alike, by not telling them what they wanted to hear, but what they needed to hear. He endured rejection from the very people he came to save. He did not complain when the rulers of Israel unjustly convicted and condemned him to death. He willingly took our place on a cursed cross and endured the hell our sins deserved. He demonstrated his power by crushing Satan’s skull under his foot and ripped the heart out of death by stepping out of the tomb. Everything that Jesus came to do – he did. All that’s left now is to clear the threshing floor of this world; to separate penitent believers from stubborn, impenitent unbelievers. Wherever God’s Word – his Law and Gospel – are proclaimed, that separation is taking place. Right here, right now, Jesus is busy gathering his wheat and burning up the chaff.

The only question left is: how will we react? Will we confess our sins, will our repentance go deeper than our lips, will we openly and honestly admit that on our own we deserve nothing but God’s wrath? Will we drop all our good works and acknowledge them as filthy rags tainted by sin? (Isaiah 64:6) If so, then John has good news for you: the kingdom of heaven is near. Pointing out sin was only the first half of John’s message, he did it so that he could follow up by pointing to Jesus: Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. (John 1:29) Jesus is as close to you as the words of absolution you heard earlier. He is as close to you as the body and blood he shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins which you will receive in the Lord’s Supper. For when you admit that you are helpless to get to heaven on your own, your Savior says: relax, I’ve done it for you. On the other hand, if you’re not yet ready to let the Law penetrate all the way to your heart. If you want to cling to the idea that you’re really not that bad. If you can’t bring yourself to repent and change your life to produce fruit in keeping with repentance, if you ignore John the Baptist’s warning, well, you’re only hurting yourself.

There are some warnings that we can afford to ignore, some we can even laugh at. This is not one of them. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near, John warns. Let us allow the Law to do its important, preparatory work on our hearts. Let it crush us by showing us who we truly are in God’s sight. Let it lead us to despair of our own works and drive us to trust Jesus’ perfect, substitutionary work. Then we will be well prepared to receive God’s Christmas Savior and the real peace he brings. There’s no time to waste. Repent and believe: you and I are sinners, admit it. Jesus came to save sinners, believe it. Amen. 

Various Scripture Lessons - Let Us Ever Walk with Jesus - November 27, 2016

Advent – Christ’s Coming                                                                                                                                                                         Micah 5:2

The first season of the Christian church year is Advent. The word means: “coming.” During the season of Advent we wait and watch for three “comings” of Christ. 1) Jesus came in the flesh at Christmas. These four weeks remind us of the approximately 4000 years Old Testament believers waited for God to keep his promise to send a Messiah. Today, while most people are simply waiting for gifts, we are waiting for a Savior from sin, death, and the devil. 2) Jesus comes to us today in Word and Sacrament. The Savior who once came in lowliness as a helpless baby still comes to us in the lowly and ordinary means of grace: the Word, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. As we review the church year we are reminded to repent for the times that we have failed to appreciate Christ’s coming to us in these means of grace; for despising and neglecting them. And, while the Law leads us to sorrow and repentance, the Gospel leads us to take refuge and find forgiveness in the cross of Christ. 3) Finally, we look for Jesus to come again in glory at the end of time. In Micah chapter 5, we are shown how God chooses to reveal his mercy and his power most often in humble, simple ways: most importantly, by becoming one of us in the small, insignificant town of Bethlehem.

Hymn 1                                                                                                                                                                                  The Advent of Our King

Christmas – Christ’s Incarnation                                                                                                                                                       John 1:1, 14

In the Northern Hemisphere, Christmas comes at the time of deepest darkness – just 4 days after the longest night of the year. This reflects the truth that God sent his Son into a world of darkness, a world of sin, despair, loneliness and hopelessness. Into this world, Jesus came to bring light. For this was no normal child born to Mary in Bethlehem, he was the Son of God, who was God and was with God from the beginning. Christmas is what makes the Christian faith truly unique and the only true faith because on Christmas God became one of us, flesh and blood. Why? Only as true man could Jesus take our place under God’s law and die; only as true God could he live a perfect life and take our burden of sin to the cross to pay for it. Christmas means Jesus is true man. Christmas means Jesus is true God. He comes in time, and yet he is eternal. He is rejected and despised by men, yet he the purest and fullest expression of God’s love for us. A mystery? Yes. A miracle? Yes. Our salvation? Thanks be to God, yes!

Hymn 36                                                                                                                                                    A Great and Mighty Wonder (st. 1-2, 4)

Epiphany – Christ’s Appearing                                                                                                                                                               John 2:11

You probably know the familiar song The Twelve Days of Christmas (partridges and pear trees and so forth). But do you know where that song came from? It resulted from the fact that the better part of 2000 years the Christian church celebrated Christmas for 12 days, from December 25 to January 6. January 6, then, marked Jesus’ epiphany, literally his “appearing” or unveiling. The church celebrates two “appearances” of our Lord. First, He appears as the Savior of all people, not just the Jews. This is declared most clearly in the Gospel reading for Epiphany: the coming of the Magi – Gentiles from the east who came to worship Jesus as their Savior too. The second appearing is the revelation of Jesus as the Son of God. On Christmas, Jesus appears in deep humility: born in a manger, wrapped in strips of cloth, praised only by farm animals and shepherds. But during Epiphany, Jesus’ nature as the Son of God is revealed by his baptism, his authoritative preaching and his powerful miracles. Epiphany will have served its purpose in our lives when what we read in John 2 is true of us also.

Hymn 93                                                                                                                                                          Hail to the Lord’s Anointed (st. 1-2)

Lent/Holy Week – Christ’s Suffering and Death                                                                                                                          Isaiah 53:5-6

Lent, the season that stretches from Epiphany to Easter, is 40 days long, beginning with Ash Wednesday and concluding with Holy Week: Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. The word lent comes from the Old English word for spring (“lengten,” the time of year when the days grow longer). For Christians the Lenten season is a time to meditate deeply on Christ’s suffering and death for our salvation as well as a time in which to concentrate on the continuing importance of confessing our sins and finding comfort in our Savior’s cross. The season of Lent reminds us of the reason for Christmas – the eternal Son of God took on our human flesh and blood so that he could bleed and die for our sins. Here we see God’s eternal plan of salvation worked out in history as the Lamb of God suffers as our substitute. In Lent we stand with St. Paul at the foot of the cross and confess: the Son of God loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Hymn 105                                                                                                                                           O Sacred Head, Now Wounded (st. 1,3,5,7)

Easter – Christ’s Resurrection                                                                                                                                       1 Corinthians 15:17, 20

Easter is the high point of our journey with Jesus. On Good Friday our Savior’s lifeless body was laid in a grave. Good Friday left us with questions: Is he the Son of God or a delusional imposter? Are our sins forgiven or are we still guilty before God? What happens to us when we die? Will we rise again or will our bodies turn to dust and stay that way? Easter answers those questions. When Jesus’ disciples returned to the tomb early on Easter Sunday morning they found it empty. Later, the risen Savior appeared to them to dispel their confusion, doubts, and fears – to tell them and show them that he had risen. Easter removes the awful “if” about our faith, our forgiveness and our future. Easter proves that Jesus is God’s Son, he is our Savior, our sins are forgiven and our future is in heaven. As St. Paul says so beautifully in 1 Corinthians 15: And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins…but Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

Hymn 158                                                                                                                                        I Am Content! My Jesus Lives Again (st. 1, 4)

Ascension – Christ’s Coronation                                                                                                                                             Ephesians 1:22-23

For 40 days after his resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples to convince them that he had indeed conquered our final, greatest enemy: death. They needed to be certain because he had appointed them to serve as his witnesses to the world once he was gone. At the end of those forty days he took them to the Mt. of Olives where he ascended out of sight into heaven. But though he was gone from their sight, he did not leave them alone, he left them with a promise: surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:20) Our ascended Savior is still with us today, but he reigns in heaven, at God’s right hand, where all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. (Matthew 28:18) Today, as we live and witness for our Savior, the Ascension reminds us that we go with the assurance of his presence and his power that he controls all things and uses everything to work for the good of those who love him. (Romans 8:28)

Hymn 169                                                                                                                                                                                Alleluia! Sing to Jesus

Pentecost – Christ Sends the Holy Spirit                                                                                                                                           Acts 2:32-33

Pentecost is a Greek word meaning 50 (5 times 10). 50 days after his resurrection Jesus sent the promised Holy Spirit to his disciples accompanied with amazing signs and wonders. The disciples desperately needed the Spirit’s power and guidance because they were to be witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection throughout the world – but they were often slow to believe and hesitant to speak. St. Paul explains the Spirit’s power and purpose in 1 Corinthians 2: we have not received the spirit of the world but the spirit that comes from God so that we may understand what God has freely given us. (1 Corinthians 2:12) To put it simply, Jesus sends the Holy Spirit so that we would know and believe the Gospel – and have the courage to share it. In Acts chapter 2, we hear from Simon Peter, the man who was previously so timid, so slow to believe and at times rash and foolish, now filled with the power of the Spirit which enabled him to see God’s ways clearly and proclaim the Gospel boldly.

Hymn 177                                                                                                                                        Come, Holy Ghost, Creator Blest (st. 1,3,5-6)

Sundays After Pentecost – Christ in the Lives of His People                                                                                                     Romans 12:1

“Therefore.” That word appears with regularity in the letters of St. Paul. He uses it to form a bridge between the so-called doctrinal and practical parts of his letters. “Therefore” invites us to look back at all God has done for us in his mercy; it reminds us that God chose us to be his own, washed us in the blood of his Son and keeps us in faith by his Holy Spirit. “Therefore” also asks us to look at our own lives and ask that uniquely Lutheran question: what does this mean? What does all that God has done for me mean to me and for my life? Paul gives us the answer. While in the OT believers offered a whole lamb to the Lord as a sacrifice at the beginning and ending of each day, we offer ourselves, our bodies and souls, our time, talents, and treasures to the Savior who died for us so that we should no longer live for ourselves, but for him who died for us and was raised again.

Hymn 467                                                                                                                                                          May the Mind of Christ My Savior

End Time – The Christian Waits for Christ’s Return                                                                                                          Revelation 22:20

The last four Sundays of the church year make up the season of End Time. Beginning with Reformation Sunday and including the Sunday’s of Last Judgment, Saints Triumphant, and Christ the King – this season reminds us that this life and this world is not all that there is, that we are eagerly waiting for Jesus to return to make all things right, to punish unbelief with everlasting fire and to deliver believers, once and for all, to the paradise of heaven. Since perhaps no part of Christian doctrine is more misunderstood and falsely taught than the doctrine of the end times, we also take special care during this season to see exactly what we are watching and waiting for. When we understand what God wants us to know about the end, whether we are anticipating the end of the world or the end of our own lives, we will look forward to being reunited with Jesus with the solemn yet confident prayer: Come, Lord Jesus. (Revelation 22:20)

Hymn 214                                                                                                                                                                  Jerusalem the Golden (st. 1, 4) 

Isaiah 65:17-25 - The Lifestyle of the Saints of God - November 20, 2016

Do you ever find yourself fascinated by books, magazines and TV shows that depict the way the other half lives – the rich and famous of our world. If so, you’re not alone. The Queen of Sheba traveled hundreds of miles to visit King Solomon, to test his wisdom and observe his luxurious lifestyle. Many of Jesus’ parables feature a rich man, a wealthy business owner or a king – a common technique to gain and keep an audience’s interest. In the 1980’s and 90’s there was a TV show called Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous in which the host, Robin Leach, offered the audience “champagne wishes and caviar dreams” at the end of each episode. This fascination continues today. Dozens of series on TV show you fabulous houses, incredible vacation homes, and the unbelievable properties, pools, and garages that go along with them. All of these shows are designed to show you how the other half lives and I suppose make you think: “wouldn’t it be great to be that guy, to have that house and that stuff, to live that lifestyle.” Today, through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord reveals to us a lifestyle that we could never imagine, one never depicted on television or magazines. It is the lifestyle of the saints of God: in heaven, triumphant; on earth, militant.

Before we take this description in, we need to understand the nature of Old Testament prophecy. When the Lord gave OT prophets visions of the future, they often did not sharply distinguish between the glory God would give the NT church and the glory God had in store for believers in heaven. To put it another way, the prophets didn’t always clearly distinguish between Jesus’ 1st and 2nd comings. Many misunderstandings and false teachings have spread because this distinction has been overlooked. For example, the belief that we should expect and hope for a literal utopia, or heaven on earth is based on passages like this – but they fail to recognize that Isaiah isn’t describing heaven on earth, but heaven in heaven. It’s almost like the OT prophets were looking to the future with a telescope. They could see a brilliant, beautiful picture of what was to come, but with something so far away, the specific details were not clearly defined for them. In Isaiah’s vision, he first addresses the lifestyle of the saints triumphant in heaven and then the lifestyle of members of the church militant.

Behold, is one of those words in the OT that make you wake up and pay attention. Behold, the Lord says, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. This is life in heaven. Who is responsible for creating this new heaven and earth, for bringing about joy and perfection? There is a heresy floating around the Christian church that we are. If we want things to get better, we better roll up our sleeves and get to work. We need to get our faith and families into shape, we need to purify our church, we need to get the 10 commandments back into our schools and courtrooms. And if we can do that, then we will have what Isaiah promises: heaven on earth. Except that’s not what Isaiah says or sees. It’s not our job to create heaven on earth. God says I will create (using the Hebrew word for create and only and always refers to God’s work).

What will this new heaven and new earth look like? Since it will be so unlike anything we have experienced, the Bible, almost as a rule, describes it by what will not be there. In Luke, Jesus revealed that our relationships will be different. Marriage, as an earthly institution, won’t be present in heaven. Won’t we miss it? No, Jesus says, because unlike even the best marriages, our relationship with each other will be perfect in heaven – we will all be God’s children. (Luke 20:36) And, unlike earthly marriage, these perfect relationships will never end in death or divorce. In Revelation, John shows us that in heaven no longer will there be any curse. (Revelation 22:3) In heaven there won’t be any sin or any of sin’s consequences – the curse that Adam and Eve brought into the world will be rolled back by God. Women, no pain in childbirth, no longing for a different role in the home or church. Men, no futility in work, no weeds to pull, no endless “to-do” lists. For all: no tears, pain, sorrow, grief, death, anger, hatred, division, etc. In other words, the things that we simply accept as the reality of the human condition – not only will they not be present, but you won’t even remember them. You won’t remember the grief you felt at the death of a loved one. You won’t remember the sins that haunt you to this day. You won’t feel any guilt or have any regrets.

How is that possible? Because not only will heaven be perfect, but even its people [will be] a joy. Have you ever thought, “you know, life would be great if it weren’t for people.” In heaven, there will be no people there to ruin it, no stubbornness, no pride, no hidden agendas, no secret grudges, no lingering bitterness, no hurt feelings. Now, it’s tempting to think of all the people that we imagine won’t be there to ruin heaven (lawyers, politicians, etc); but a more important question to ponder is: knowing my heart, my thoughts, my tongue, my actions – will I be there? Knowing what I know about myself – how can I possibly be considered a saint of God, worthy of heaven’s lifestyle?

Because, unlike the homes and lifestyles of the rich and famous, heaven doesn’t depend on how hard we work, the lucky breaks we get, how wise we are with our investments, or how many influential people we know. Heaven is a reward – but a reward that was earned for us by someone else – by God’s own Son, Jesus Christ. Paul spells out exactly how worthless sinners like us become saints worthy of a life in paradise: From the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14) You and I are saved from the miserable eternity in hell we deserved by the redeeming life and death of Jesus, which we were brought to believe by the power of the Holy Spirit working through Word and Sacrament. Because Jesus rose victorious, you are victorious. Because Jesus’ holy blood has washed your sins away, you are a saint. No one can buy or work their way into the new heaven and new earth God will create. But our gracious God gives it away for free. Treasure this glimpse of heaven, because this is the lifestyle you will enjoy forever, as Triumphant Saints.

Great! When do we leave? Ah, and here’s the rub. Here is where faith meets reality. Here is the tension between right now and not yet. In heaven we will be Saints Triumphant, there is no doubt about that, it was sealed for sinners by Jesus’ blood on the cross and sealed for each of us through the water of Baptism. But here and now, as long as God keeps this earth going and keeps us on it – God’s saints, the church, are not triumphant, but militant. What does that mean? It means that even though we are already safe and sound in our Father’s care, we must continue to put on the full armor of God as we go out to live in a hostile world. It means that we must have the sword of the Spirit (the Word of God) at our side, polished and ready, to defeat the attacks of Satan. It means – and I know I don’t have to remind you of this – that we still struggle with sin. We still struggle with doubts and worries. We are still plagued by sickness and mourning and death. We don’t have perfect marriages or families or a perfect church and nation. The curse of sin that Adam and Eve introduced into the world still casts its shadow over everything we think, say and do. But that doesn’t mean that the victory Jesus won for us on the cross doesn’t change our lifestyle even now. It does! While we wait for the new creation, we are a new creation.

Beginning in verse 20, Isaiah shifts his sights to the lifestyle we have right now as saints in the church militant. To summarize, the Lord declares that in the New Testament, there won’t be untimely deaths, there won’t be a feeling of futility as we work and build only to leave them to someone else, we won’t have to worry that our children will be born only to suffer some tragedy or catastrophe, and even nature, which also came under God’s curse, will be restored to a state of peace.

Hmm…are we sure Isaiah got this prophecy right? Are we sure we’re getting this interpretation right? This doesn’t seem to describe the lifestyle we are experiencing right now, does it? When we let Scripture interpret Scripture, it becomes clear that this cannot be referring to heaven. First, in verses 20-25, death has not been completely defeated, but is only limited which cannot apply to heaven. Second, babies are born, something that Jesus ruled out in our Gospel lesson with his declaration that marriage will be a thing of the past. And, third, we need to remember the context in which Isaiah and his first readers lived. The Old Testament was not a pleasant time. God regularly punished people harshly and immediately when they sinned against his holy will. When Sodom and Gomorrah condoned and accepted the sin of homosexuality, God burned them to the ground. When the Israelites built and worshipped the golden calf, 3000 of them died the following day. When David committed adultery with Bathsheba and killed Uriah to cover it up, his son died seven days later. So what God is promising in this new age, the age of the NT church, is that he will act differently, more patiently. Certainly we face immediate natural consequences for our sinful actions, but the fact that we are still here, in spite of our sin and rebellion is proof that God is making good on his word. Why? [God] is patient with us and with this world, Peter says, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

The lifestyle we live as saints now is one under the grace and patient care of God. This does not mean that we take advantage of his patience to sin as freely and as often as we want – as many in our world believe. It means that we live as God’s dearly loved children, wanting to obey him in everything, but knowing that when we fail we can come to him in repentance and prayer, trusting his promise: before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. In moments we will take God up on that offer. We will pray forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us (and we won’t do it with an arm over our head to shield us from the lightning bolt we deserve). That is what the Lord wants us to realize with these vivid descriptions of life in the NT church. God sent his Son to earth to bring peace, and that’s what we have even in a hostile world. Peace of sins forgiven. Peace that even if untimely death takes us or a believer we love – their suffering is over, they are with Jesus. Peace that even if the building and working we do now seems futile, we aren’t working for ourselves but for God. And peace in knowing that whatever comes, whether good or bad, we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28) That is the lifestyle we have right now, as new creations in Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:17) One day we will see and experience all the glory of life in heaven, but for now, we are militant, we live not by sight, but by faith in our Father’s loving care.

People have always been fascinated with the lifestyles of the rich and famous. TV shows and magazines tempt us to long for champagne wishes and caviar dreams. God doesn’t make promises regarding those things, but what he gives us is infinitely better. He has made us saints, in spite of our sin and against our will, through the blood of Christ. Saints who long for heaven where we will be triumphant and there will be no more death or crying or pain. Saints who live in the church militant here and now. Prepared to do battle with the devil and our own sinful flesh, and ready to do so through the peace with God that is ours right now through faith in Jesus. Until God takes us to his new creation we live as his new creations. This gives us reason to rejoice now and forever. Amen. 

Psalm 146 - A Leader We Can Trust - November 13, 2016

Praise the Lord. Were those the words on your lips and in your heart early Wednesday morning and the days since? If not, why not? Was it because your candidate won or lost or because a referendum passed or failed? What took the place of those words? “Finally, we’re going to get our country back” or “those Trump voters are going to regret their decision” or “what is this world coming to”? This pulpit is not the place for political commentary and that’s not what we will be doing this morning. This pulpit is the place for people of all political views to receive peace, consolation and confidence in view of and (sometimes) in spite of the day to day and year to year happenings in our world. That’s what we are going to do this morning. We’re going to step back, take a deep breath of God’s Word and receive the comfort God wants us to have more than anything. This morning our thoughts will center on Psalm 146, where the psalmist encourages us to praise the Lord as A Leader We Can Trust, for his faithful character and for his gracious agenda.

The writers of the first translation of the OT (the Septuagint – a Greek translation) concluded that this psalm was written during the time of Zechariah and Haggai. If correct, it provides an interesting background for this psalm. Around 538 BC Cyrus, the king of Persia, decreed that the exiled Jews could leave Babylon and return to Israel to rebuild their homes and temple. Led by Zerubbabel, the rebuilding of the temple was begun and the foundation finished with great excitement. But the nations surrounding Israel grew suspicious and fearful of a restored Jewish state and by actively opposing the rebuilding were able to delay its completion for about 15 years. It was only when Persia crowned a new king, Darius, who actively supported Israel’s rebuilding process, that they were able to finish the temple. The temptation for many Israelites was to place their trust in this new king – who actually got things done – instead of the Lord, who, by outward appearances had failed.

As God’s spokesman, where does the psalmist begin in addressing this trust issue? Praise the Lord, O my soul. I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. He begins with me. He begins with you. My heart, my attitude. Your heart, your attitude. Whether your temptation is to gloat over victory or despair over defeat, it all begins with you and your heart. It doesn’t really matter what the media commentators, the antagonists on Facebook, or even your own family has to say about it. You and you alone control your attitude. And he gives a very good reason to be positive and hopeful. The psalmist uses God’s personal name: LORD (Hebrew: Jahweh). This name reminds us that God is gracious. He is the giver of every good and perfect gift. He gave you life. He puts food on your table. He gives you a job. He made you a citizen of a nation where we are free to worship him without fear. Most importantly, he gave his Son to suffer hell in your place, die for your sins, and rise again for your justification. Election results do not change the fact that God is good to us – far better than we deserve. The decision to reject the mood swings, the gloating and despair we’ve seen in our nation this week begins by praise the Lord all [our] lives and sing praise to [our] God as long as [we] live.

It’s not that simple though, is it? This is where we live and work and raise our children and pay our taxes. God commands us to obey the laws of the land and to respect both the current president and president-elect. True. But there’s good reason that even the ever-changing political landscape shouldn’t change your attitude: Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. Do you trust President-elect Trump? Were you hoping to trust Hillary Clinton or any of the other candidates? If so, you’re sinning, breaking the very first commandment, and need to repent. The people we elect to office, president or otherwise, don’t deserve our complete trust. Why not? Because they’re human. Not only do they put their pants and pantsuits on one leg at a time – just like us, but they are sinners and because they are sinners, one day they will die. One day their home won’t be an Oval Office but an oblong hole in the ground. God says that even if they had great plans to improve our nation on that very day their plans come to nothing. Presidents, governors and congressmen cannot save us. So, as Isaiah says stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he? (Isaiah 2:22)

What alternative do we have? Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them – the Lord, who remains faithful forever. Human rulers may appear to have great power, but that power is greatly limited. Their plans are frustrated, their policies often fail. Others come along who limit, repeal, and ignore their laws. But the LORD is eternal and almighty. His will cannot be filibustered and his laws will never be repealed. His legacy doesn’t consist of a historian’s assessment but the universe around you and his fingerprint on your body, heart and soul. When you sleep, your heart continues to beat and your lungs continue to breath. Why? God. Those cursed leaves you have to rake grow and change color and fall to the ground without you lifting a hand. Why? God. Ducks and geese fly south in nearly perfect “V” formations without anyone telling them to do so. Why? God. Fall, winter, spring, and summer have come and gone for thousands of years without the least concern over man’s bickering over climate change. Why? God.

But even the orderliness of nature is intended for one purpose: to point us to the promises God has made in his Word. Unlike human leaders, God has never broken one of his promises. Since the Flood, the planet has never again been buried under water – because God promised Noah that it would never again happen. God told Abraham that he would be the Father of many nations, and not even old age and infertility could stop him. God told Joseph in a dream that his mean older brothers would bow down to him and 20 years later, in spite of slavery and false accusations and imprisonment, that came to pass. God told Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego that they would never regret fearing him more than earthly rulers – and they passed through flaming furnaces and dungeons of lions unharmed.

Most importantly, he kept the first promise he ever made, to Adam and Eve. He sent his perfect, beloved Son to earth to take our place under his unforgiving law to live the perfect life we never could and die the death our sins deserved. He made a promise to save the world – and he, unlike his elected creatures – kept it. And because he kept that promise, we can trust every other promise he has made as well. He promises to work saving faith through a handful of water and a mouthful of His Word and to work through bread and wine to keep you in that faith – and you are living proof that he’s kept that promise. He has said though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed (Isaiah 54:10) and no matter how hard you and I have tried to make him regret that promise, God has stood by it. Jesus said heaven and earth may pass away, but my words will never pass away (Matthew 24:35) and even though they killed him and his apostles, even though emperors and empires and ideologies and all the powers of hell have tried to cast this book out of existence: here it is, the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. (Romans 1:17) God has kept order in this world through, and sometimes in spite of, the rulers charged with doing it. He’s disciplined and guided you – as only a perfect Father could. He’s comforted you in troubling times. And he’s going to keep the promises he’s made about the future, too. The world will continue until Jesus returns. None of those God elected to be saved will be lost. Heaven is ready and waiting for you and all believers. Those who rebelled against God and persecuted his people will burn forever in hell. God’s judgment is final. God is faithful. That’s his character. It’s not up for debate and it’s not on any ballot. Believe it and trust it – and praise him for it.

In an election where two of the most unpopular candidates in history were at the top of the ballot, some have concluded “it’s not about the character of the person we elect, but what they will do when elected” – in other words, their agenda. According to the Pew Research Center, the top issues for voters in this election were: 1) the economy, 2) terrorism, 3) foreign policy, 4) health care, and 5) guns. [1] Those are the issues that we, or at least most of our neighbors, care about. To overly simplify it: Americans are concerned about having enough food, money, clothes and shelter to survive. They want to be safe from domestic and foreign enemies. And they want to know that when they get sick or contract a disease or get in an accident, that there will be doctors and nurses available and affordable to help.

Do you know what all those issues have in common? Sin. If it weren’t for the scourge of sin that entered the world and our hearts through the rebellion of Adam and Eve, we would never have to worry about finances, safety or health. As it is, every issue that plagues our bodies, homes, families and nation can be traced back to the common source of sin and Satan. The result, that God wants everyone to realize, is that our fight as a human race isn’t against those of a different political party, a different economic status or different skin color. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12)

Satan wants our souls, and just like today’s political candidates, he will do whatever it takes to win. He will use oppression, racism, starvation, imprisonment, disability and tragedy, depression, corruption and political polarization to accomplish his goals. His single goal is to keep unbelievers from ever trusting God and to lead believers away from trust in God. And when we place our trust in princes or presidents – mortal men – then Satan has succeeded. We need to repent and then remember that we don’t need to trust in princes or presidents because the same God who worked salvation for our souls has laid out his agenda to get us there. God is faithful and this is his agenda: he upholds the cause of the oppressed – the Lord is where those who feel their rights are being trampled should look for help. [He] gives food to the hungry – a promise he can keep because the earth and everything in it belong to him. The Lord sets prisoners free – the Lord has the power to set people free from physical, financial, emotional and spiritual bondage. The Lord gives sight to the blind – that’s healthcare reform no doctor or politician can provide. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down – the Lord is the best mental health counselor for the brokenhearted – including the veterans who have sacrificed for our freedom. The Lord loves the righteous – and he doesn’t just say it, he sent his Son to die for us to prove it. The Lord watches over the alien – God treats every immigrant fairly and with dignity. [He] sustains the fatherless and the widow – the Lord’s social security program is fair and sustainable. But he frustrates the ways of the wicked – no terrorist or criminal will escape God’s justice. That’s the agenda God promises to carry out – and while he normally carries it out through earthly leaders, he is fully capable of carrying it out in spite of them. The faithfulness of God and his gracious agenda is the only thing that can make sinners like us better together and it’s the only thing that opens the door to heaven where we and all believers will be great (holy and perfect), not again, but for the very first time.

Sinners tend to trust other sinners way too much. We’re told that the president elect will either bring a new golden age or absolute misery. He’s human, so either is a real possibility. There’s nothing to be gained by worrying about it. But you have everything to gain when you trust this: nothing will happen that the Lord doesn’t control and bless – both good and evil. You have the unbreakable promise of a leader who has been faithful to every promise he’s made in an eternity in office. He has laid out his agenda that doesn’t favor the big guy or the little guy, Republican or Democrat, but offers grace to the sinful – you and me included. He wants, expects, and deserves your trust and praise. The Triune God is the only leader we can really trust. And unlike a candidate who will reign for 4 or 8 years, the LORD reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. So that whether your candidate won or lost – or you are just glad it’s over, today and every day praise our King, praise Christ as King, praise the Lord. Amen.

[1] http://www.people-press.org/2016/07/07/4-top-voting-issues-in-2016-election/

2 Thessalonians 1:5-10 - God's Judgment Is Always Just - November 6, 2016

Do you recognize the figure on the cover of your bulletin this morning? She represents what is supposed to be the decisive principle in a court of law: impartial, unbiased, firm but fair justice. Fittingly, her name is Lady Justice. Lady Justice has been around since ancient Roman times, if not earlier, and she is usually pictured as you see her here: blindfolded, holding a set of scales and carrying a sword. The scales mean that she will carefully weigh all the evidence for and against – so that she will arrive at the right verdict. The sword means that she hands out punishment to those who deserve it. The blindfold means that she is not influenced by a person’s face or race, by how much money or power or influence they have. Lady Justice can be found all over the world; from Ottawa, Canada to Frankfurt Germany, from Memphis Tennessee to Tehran, Iran. Since ancient times people around the world have seen the need for fair and impartial justice.

The ideal that Lady Justice represents is a great one, isn’t it? There are only two problems. One, the justice system is operated by imperfect humans who don’t always get it right. Sometimes the guilty go free; sometimes the innocent are punished. Sometimes justice isn’t blind and it does take a person’s power or wealth or influence (or how many lawyers they have) into account. Secondly, most people assume that justice means getting the outcome they want not the outcome they deserve. That’s why you see and hear so many people marching, tweeting and shouting about injustice, claiming that a whole variety of issues are not fair. Admittedly, our justice system is imperfect, and so those cries may occassionally be justified. But there’s a danger here for us as believers – that we allow our knowledge of the imperfections and failures of the human justice system to shade our view of God’s justice. Sometimes we want to accuse God of being unfair. Paul reminds us that God’s Judgment is always just: today and on the Last Day.

Now, we can’t definitively say that the Christians in Thessalonica were harboring feelings of injustice and unfairness against God – but knowing what they were going through, we can hardly blame them if they did. When Paul first arrived in Thessalonica with the message of Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection for sinners, the gospel was warmly received, by Jews and Greeks, men and women. But there were other Jews who were jealous of the gospel’s success. They rounded up a mob of bad characters and started a riot. They rushed to the house where Paul was staying, hoping to let the crowd have its way with him. Paul had secretly escaped earlier, but the Jews didn’t give up. They dragged Paul’s host, Jason, and some of the other believers before the city officials, accused them of inciting riotous and rebellious behavior – and made them post bond to guarantee that there would be no more disturbances – even though they were the victims in the first place. (Acts 17:1-9) We could understand if these believers were beginning to question God’s justice; to wonder if God was being unfair in allowing them to suffer simply for following Christ. And yet, in spite of the persecutions, the church in Thessalonica grew and flourished, to the point that Paul had received a glowing report about their perseverance and faith. (2 Thessalonians 1:4)

In the words before us, Paul reveals the reality behind the suffering that Christians endure: all this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. What? Suffering, persecution, and affliction are evidence that God’s judgement is just? What planet is Paul living on? Two biblical truths are at work here. Principle #1: suffering and glory, persecution and the kingdom go hand in hand – following Christ means following him through suffering. Jesus had both taught and demonstrated that the only path to glory leads through suffering. (Luke 24:25-26) He told his disciples that if they wanted to follow him to heaven, they needed to prepare to pick up their crosses and follow him. (Matthew 16:24) Paul concurred, writing that we must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God. (Acts 14:22) Therefore, when God allows believers to suffer now, it is evidence that he is preparing them for glory.

Principle #2: The fact that believers have the strength and faith to endure persecution reveals God’s justice. Peter wrote: do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. (1 Peter 4:12, 14) In other words, standing firm in the face of persecution shows that God has your back. If you are persecuted for believing and confessing that God, not a big bang, created the universe; that God, not the Supreme Court, has the right to define marriage; that God, not the court of public opinion, decides which behaviors and lifestyles are right and wrong – you have proof that God is getting it right. Jesus told his disciples: blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:10)

But how can we be so sure? With all the deceit and confusion Satan has sown in our world, how can we dare to be so confident that God’s judgment is just and that we are not making a terrible mistake? Because God – the Judge – has declared that you are right with Him. God slammed his gavel down in judgment on Calvary long ago and just moments ago he credited that verdict to your account: God our heavenly Father has been merciful to us and has given his only Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins…therefore, your sins are forgiven. We stand acquitted in God’s courtroom right now. Even though every one of us lacks the worthiness God demands, he has declared us worthy. Worthy, because of the life Jesus lived in our place. Worthy, because Jesus carried our guilt to the cross. Worthy, because he died to pay for our sins. Worthy, because God raised him from death and made you alive in baptism.

You stand on the right side of God’s judgment now – and your current suffering, perseverance, faith and love are proof of that; they are evidence that God’s judgment is just. That’s a hard truth to accept, though, isn’t it? It certainly doesn’t feel like God is getting it right when our children hate us for our loving discipline. It doesn’t seem like God is just when Christians are mocked and ridiculed for their beliefs. It doesn’t seem fair that saints should suffer while sinners prosper. If you ever feel that way, Paul says, look to the future, see the bigger picture. God is just: he will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well.

One Day, all will be made right, publicly and eternally. That Day will see the greatest role reversal in history: Jesus will pay back trouble to the trouble-makers and will give relief to those who have been afflicted. As we look forward to the day when Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels we can rest assured that those who ignored God, rejected Christ, and tormented Christians will get what they deserve. While it may seem like the deck is stacked against Christians now, while it often feels like the world is sitting in judgement of God, his Word and his people today, Paul says that the tables will be turned when Jesus returns. It won’t be God and his Word on trial, but those who rejected his Word and his Son.

And unlike human courtrooms, where people can get out of punishment through plea bargains, where evidence is tampered with, jurors are coerced and justice is anything but blind: Jesus’ judgment will be swift and right in every case. There will be no mistakes, no mistrials, no appeals and no last-minute backroom deals. Jesus will get it right and his judgment will be undeniably just because he will look deeply into every human heart to see the only evidence that will matter on Judgment Day: faith or unbelief. Paul says: He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. Two categories of people will face condemnation: 1) those who ignored all the evidence that pointed them to the one, eternal God, to whom they were accountable for every thought, word and action – atheists, agnostics and the apathetic – they will be punished justly for their sins. 2) And those who heard the Gospel of salvation but refused to believe it – those who were baptized and fell away, those whose door Jesus knocked on and they refused to open, those who imagined that Jesus could be the Savior of their soul but not the Lord of their life – they, too, will be punished, justly, for their sins.

And in contrast to those who deny the existence of hell or imagine that a loving God would never send anyone there, Paul spells out the reality: they will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power. Destruction doesn’t mean that they will cease to exist. Rather, they will experience what no living human, apart from Jesus, ever has: the cold shoulder from God. Heaven is being with God, seeing him face to face and living in the full light of his glory. Hell is being exiled from his presence, away from God’s face, away from his love and every good thing. It is living forever in the place Jesus described as a fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 13:42) Is this punishment terrible? Yes. So awful that we don’t want to think about it? Yes. Something we would wish on our worst enemies? No. Unfair, unjust, wrong? No. It is exactly what unbelievers deserve for rejecting God’s Son as Savior.

The day is surely drawing near when Jesus, the Judge, will come from heaven in blazing fire with his holy angels. He will take his place on the judge’s stand; everyone will appear before him and in every case his judgment will be perfectly just. That’s the day when evildoers and unbelievers – those who persecuted the Christians in Thessalonica and those who persecute you – will be punished. They will not, in the end, get away with it. And that’s the day when believers will realize full, lasting relief. On that Day Jesus will come to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. On that Day, faith and hope will turn into reality – and believers will know and experience God’s full love and glory and they will know that his judgment was just all along.

And yes, just as Paul assured the people in Thessalonica – this includes you, because you believed our testimony to you. By faith in Jesus, you are and will be found to be on the right side of God’s judgment. By faith, you know that because God declared Jesus guilty of your sins, you are worthy to enter heaven. Right now, you may wonder. Right now you may be puzzled by God’s justice and frustrated by his judgment. You may think, when you are suffering hardship or persecution, that it isn’t right and it isn’t fair. Satan will tempt you to accuse God of getting it all wrong.

Stand firm! Stand firm on this one unshakeable, undeniable truth: God’s judgment is always just. Yes, we know that Lady Justice doesn’t always get it right, but Jesus always does. His judgment is just for you right now, in that suffering proves you are on the side of your Savior; and his judgment will be just on the Last Day, when he will give you true, eternal relief from all suffering and sorrow. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen.

John 8:31-36 - Jesus Christ has Set Us Free! - October 30, 2016

We live in a nation that prides itself on freedom. In 9 days, we will exercise our freedom to vote. We can vote for a Republican, a Democrat, an Independent, a member of the Green Party – or no one at all. We enjoy freedom of speech – the Constitution gives you the right to say almost anything at any time; although as Christians we will always use that right to edify others and glorify God. When we turn on the TV or flip open our tablets, we enjoy freedom of the press – MSNBC or FOX, the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. We are free to watch and read all of them or none of them. Most important, we enjoy freedom of religion in our nation. Unlike thousands of Christians around the world, we don’t have to worry that the government or our employer will persecute us because we worship Jesus Christ as Savior. As Americans, we are free in any number of ways – and let us never take our freedoms for granted. But today, let us cherish the most important freedom we have – the freedom only Jesus can give: freedom from slavery and freedom for sonship.

To truly appreciate freedom, we must understand the opposite: slavery. John 8 provides a prime example of what slavery looks like. The woman the Pharisees brought to Jesus as he was teaching in the temple courts one morning was a slave – a slave to sin. She had been caught – red handed – in the sin of adultery. The Pharisees brought this woman to Jesus to see if he would support the Law of Moses which said that she should be stoned for her crime. (Leviticus 20:10) This woman knew what it meant to be enslaved to sin. Lust had controlled her. Evil, vengeful men surrounded her, and on the other side of her only apparent escape – death – stood Satan, delighting in the fact that he had wrecked another home, ruined another life, and trapped another soul for eternity.

The Galatians in our second lesson also knew what it meant to be slaves. Some of them were literal slaves – a grim reality for many in the Roman Empire. All of them had, at one time, been slaves to idols – false gods with eyes that couldn’t see, ears that couldn’t hear, and hands that couldn’t help. Behind every one of these false gods stood Satan – who had succeeded yet again in convincing humans created in God’s image to worship blocks of wood and statues of silver. With half the tree they heated their house. With the other half they made a god. It was pure insanity. Pure satanic slavery!

Before you pity that woman and the Galatians too much, listen to what Jesus has to say: I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Sometimes this slavery is easy to spot. The heroin addict who lies and steals to maintain his habit, his slavery is obvious. The husband who spends his time, money, and creativity deceiving his family and friends to maintain a secret affair – his slavery is evident. When pastors walk to the door of a member who hasn’t worshiped in months or years, they often hear the rattle of sin’s chains in the reasons, rationales and excuses put forward: busy schedule, gotta work, it’s the kids and their sports or academics, it’s my only morning to sleep in, I’m young, I’ll have time for Jesus later, etc. Wrecked bodies, destroyed homes and lives, greedy hearts and starving souls – all of it is slavery, slavery to sin and slavery to Satan.

Other times it’s harder to spot – especially in myself. There’s one important thing to remember: slavery to sin isn’t only what we do, it’s who we are. We just admitted that, didn’t we? Holy and merciful Father, I confess that I am by nature sinful… Pick a commandment, any commandment. When we hold God’s Law up to our hearts like a mirror, our own slavery becomes undeniable. The 4th – sure we respect those in elected office, those called by the church, our employers and supervisors – to their faces; how many of us would have to blush with shame if our private thoughts and conversations about them were made public. The 5th – it’s easy to refrain from shooting someone. It’s not so easy to refrain from murdering with hatred in our heart. The 6th – it’s fairly easy to stay out of our neighbor’s bedroom. It’s not so easy to keep our eyes to ourselves. The 7th – I doubt that any of us have held up a Kwik Trip, but to “forget” to claim some income when tax time comes, to make the decision that all God deserves this week is my spare change – that commandment makes thieves of us all. Jesus doesn’t say “Every time you sin you are a slave,” he doesn’t say, “If you sin you are a slave,” He says, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. If you are breathing, you are a slave to sin.

We know this. We don’t like it. So we try to escape. Usually, in one of two ways: 1) We try to work our way out of it, or 2) we deny it. Try to work your way out of it – that’s the route the Galatians had taken. They had confused Law and Gospel. A group of false Christians had wormed their way into the Galatian congregation. They were essentially Pharisees in Christian clothing. They said that it was fine to believe that the Gospel made you a Christian, but that if you wanted to stay a Christian and be certain of heaven, then you still had to obey the Old Testament laws: circumcision, rest on Saturday, and no bacon for breakfast or pork-chops for supper. Paul could hardly believe it: I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel – which is really no gospel at all. (Galatians 1:6-7) In other words, Paul is saying that if you return to trying to do something to earn salvation, you wind up forfeiting the completed work of Christ on your behalf.

Martin Luther tried a similar route 1500 years later. He gave up a promising career in law to become a monk. He gave away all his earthly possessions. He slept on a stone floor in an unheated cell, became a priest, attended confession seven days a week and worshipped seven times a day. He did all this in an attempt to free his conscience from guilt and his soul from slavery to sin. His path of freedom through works quickly became another form of slavery. Luther wrote this when he looked back on his life as a slave…er, monk: I saw many who tried with great effort and the best of intentions to do everything possible to appease their conscience. They wore hair shirts; they fasted; they prayed; they tormented and wore out their bodies so severely that if they had been made of iron they would have been crushed. And yet the more they labored, the greater their terrors became. Especially when the hour of death was imminent, they became so fearful that I have seen many murderers facing execution die more confidently than these men who had lived such saintly lives. (LW 27:13) Attempting to work your way out of slavery – whether that means fasting, giving, working, cleaning, preaching, or just trying harder tomorrow – is simply trading slavery to sin for slavery to law. Slavery never leads to freedom.

Option 2: deny, deny, deny. The Jews’ history was one of slavery beginning, middle and end. Egypt. Babylon. Rome. It was undeniable. And yet they claim: We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free? They were in denial. “We can’t be slaves. We’re children of Abraham. We’ve got the right blood flowing in our veins – so God has to give us a pass.” Sadly these Jews forgot that the fact that their forefathers wandered and died in the desert shows how serious God is about all sin – no matter who your ancestor is.

That’s why we will never let our celebration of the Reformation turn into Lutheran pep rally. “We’re sons of Luther – and WELS (that’s the good kind of Lutheran) on top of it! God must be happy with us.” The truth is that being Lutheran doesn’t earn us a thing in God’s eyes. If we imagine that we are free because of our Lutheran pedigree – because we were born, raised, and confirmed Lutheran – we are in denial, and we end up losing the one person with the pedigree that really matters: Jesus. And so we don’t celebrate the Reformation to worship Martin Luther, or to place our trust in our Lutheran heritage as if that somehow earns our spot in heaven; no, we use the Reformation to thank God for using Martin Luther to bring back to the forefront the one true solution to our problem of slavery: Jesus Christ – in Christ alone!

Doing good works cannot set us free from sin. Being Lutheran does not set us free from sin. Only one thing sets us free from sin: If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Who is this who claims to be the Son, to be the only one with the power to set slaves free? There is no more important question and no answer that Satan tries harder to confuse and cover up. The world at large is too distracted to consider this question. Some in the visible church say that Jesus can be whoever you want him to be. But salvation doesn’t depend on who you want Jesus to be, it depends on who Jesus proved himself to be by word and action. John testified at the beginning of his Gospel that Jesus is the Word [who] became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14) Either Jesus is God’s Son and he can free us from our slavery to sin or he is an imposter who will spend eternity in hell with us – there is no middle ground.

Jesus has proved beyond all doubt, first to eyewitnesses and second to us through his Word, that he is God’s Son and our Savior. He is the only person who can set us free. But our freedom wasn’t free. Our freedom cost him everything: He left his throne in heaven to become a slave on earth. He came bearing truth, but no truth has been more frequently and completely rejected than His saving gospel. Jesus came to bring light to people living in darkness, but most preferred to stay in the darkness of sin and unbelief. Jesus had all power, but in weakness he allowed himself to be arrested, mocked and beaten. Jesus, the King of Justice, suffered the ultimate perversion of justice – the guilty Barabbas walked free while he was nailed to a cross. The Author of Life died. The one who fills the universe was wrapped in grave cloths. But that’s not the end of the story: the One who died rose and now lives forever!

Because God’s Son broke the bars on death’s prison, not only is he free – he has set us free. Slaves can only make other slaves. If we trust our own obedience to set us free – we will be slaves forever. If we look to Luther to set us free – we will find that heaven isn’t the only corner of eternity with a section for Lutherans. But when the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. Through the conquering work of the Son, you are free from slavery to sin. Through the Lord of Life, you are free from the terror of death. Freed from slavery to Satan, you are free to be sons and daughters of our Father in heaven.

That’s freedom you can enjoy right now. How? Lutherans love the answer to that question. If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. We hold to the Reformation creed of Scripture alone because Jesus tells us that it is only through his Word that we are truly set free. Jesus ties the gift of freedom, not to our genetic heritage, not to our church membership, not to a feeling in our hearts, not to our good works – but to His Word. Jesus connects true freedom, not to an army representing the red, white, and blue but to the blood-stained Gospel. If you want to be free – hold onto Jesus’ teaching, treasure doctrine, take every opportunity to hear and dig into God’s Word – because through that Word Jesus sets you free to be children of God.

As Americans, may we never take our freedom for granted. Don’t forget that our freedom of press, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion were bought and paid for by American lives. Vote next Tuesday. Be interested and involved in the administration of our city, state, and country. Thank God for our liberties. But more importantly on this Reformation Day, rejoice in the freedom you have as a child of God. It was purchased and won for you, not by American soldiers, but by the blood of God’s one and only Son. That freedom comes to you through the Word. That freedom can’t be taken from you. That freedom will ring loud and clear forever. Amen.

1 John 2:15-17 - What is the World to Me? - October 23, 2016

Few temptations have troubled believers more through the centuries than worldliness. There are all sorts of reasons for this. One, we are surrounded by the world. It’s what we see and sense. We can touch it and hold it. Apart from divine revelation and the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, it’s the only reality we can grasp. Second, the world offers what our sinful nature longs for: instant gratification; while the promises of God are heavily weighted toward the future and eternity. Third, the church, in an effort to be “relevant”, in misguided attempts to become all things to all men (1 Corinthians 9:22) has regularly become like the world rather than the light of the world. Finally, the love of the world is a dangerous temptation for Christians because Satan would like us to believe that that we can have it both ways; that we can love the world and love God. The apostle John makes it clear that the Christian’s love is exclusive; you either love God or you love the world, but you can’t love both. Today we ask: what is the world to me?

Recall from last week that John wrote this letter to Christians who were being misled and confused by heretics. These heretics claimed to have enlightenment, but John says that they were still in darkness. They tried entice people with the promise of a secret knowledge of God, but their doctrine and life revealed that they did not truly know God. To refute their claims that true faith is purely subjective, that doctrine and behavior don’t really matter, John gave his readers three tests by which they could evaluate these false teachers (and their own faith) to see if it was authentic. Briefly, there was the moral test – obedience; the relational test – love for others; and the doctrinal test – teaching and believing the historical gospel of Jesus Christ. The section before us is an application of the moral test – authentic faith is marked by obedience and love for God above all things.

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. The first word to understand and define is love. The Greek word is agape. This type of love is a commitment, an act of the will, NOT a feeling. It is a one-way love. It is the love that caused God to send his precious Son to die for a hostile world. It is the kind of love husband and wife promise to one another in marriage. Just as you cannot commit to lifelong love for more than one person, you cannot love God and the world. You can be committed to God or the world, but not both. It’s impossible. You must make a choice.

The second word to define is the world. The Greek word is cosmos. It originally referred to the well-ordered nature of the universe as God created it. But here, John uses it to describe the organized system operated by Satan in opposition to Christ and the gospel. Later in his letter John would say: we know that…the whole world is under the control of the evil one. (1 John 5:19) The world consists of unbelievers under Satan’s control – those who operate on the basis of ungodly thoughts, attitudes, motives, values and goals. It is everything that stands opposed to Christ, his gospel and his glory.

So what does it mean to not love this world? John does not mean that you must hate your house or your car (although when they break down it’s hard not to hate them). He doesn’t mean that Christians ought to empty their bank accounts and sell their possessions and live in seclusion and poverty – although some have done so. No, in the words that follow, John demonstrates that this love is primarily a question of attitude and motivation. For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does – comes not from the Father but from the world.

Worldliness is an attitude and lifestyle that is motivated by sinful desires. To be worldly means to operate on Satan’s principles. It is to move through life motivated by selfishness, greed, pride, and personal ambition. It is to have sinful desires for things you do not have and sinful pride in what you do have. Rather than living to please God who judges the heart, the worldly person tries to impress other people, who can only look at outward things. So there should be a list of things to do and not to do, right? In the past, some Christians came up with the “filthy five” – drinking, smoking, attending movies, playing cards and dancing – and if you avoid those then you have successfully avoided the world. The thing is, John is not primarily concerned about about what you do or where you go. He’s concerned with why you do what you do. Do you do what you do because you love and want to be loved by the world or because you love and want to be loved by God. It’s either or. We must choose our love.

There’s one thing about this choice: on our own, we would and could never choose to love God. From birth we were Satan’s children. We were dead to God, blind to his blessings, and hated his will. We were capable only of loving the world. Until God stepped in to change things. Later in this letter John writes, we love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19) God demonstrated this committed love to the sinful world over and over. God knew exactly what would happen shortly after he created a perfect universe, he knew that the crown of his creation would ruin it with sin – but he created it anyway. Later when God looked at the world and saw…that every inclination of the thoughts of [man’s] heart was only evil all the time (Genesis 6:5) he could have scrapped everything and started over – as he proved in the Flood – but in love he preserved Noah and his family so that you and I would have the chance to be born and believe and be saved. God knew exactly the type of world he was sending his Son into by placing him in Mary’s arms – a world that would hate him, reject him, unjustly condemn him and crucify him – but God loved the world enough to sacrifice his Son to save it. God knew your heart, your desires, your sins before you were born, he knew that you would disobey his commands and live as his enemy – but in the waters of Baptism he reached into your heart and cleansed it, created faith in it, and wrote your name in his book of life in heaven. You cannot love God and the world, but neither can you choose to love God instead of the world. So God chose you. With his Word and Sacrament he created life where there was only death, love where there was only hate, children where there were enemies. That’s grace. That’s God’s love for you. Because God chose to love us, in faith, we can choose to love him above all things.

And like any other relationship, this one must be maintained. In Baptism, God broke Satan’s stranglehold on your heart, but he never stops trying to lure you back to his side. The way we maintain our relationship with God depends on how we handle everything in the world that Satan uses as bait. Here is one of the many places where our hymnal is such a treasure, because the hymn we just sang points out both the temptation of worldly love and gives us guidance to love God. You may forget every detail of this sermon – but hopefully you take this hymn with you.

What is the world to me, with all its vaunted pleasure, when you, and you alone, Lord Jesus, are my treasure! You only, dearest Lord, my soul’s delight shall be; you are my peace, my rest. What is the world to me! (477:1) What is the world to me when it comes to the cravings of [my sinful nature]? I hate to admit it, but often it means way too much. My cravings, my appetites too often take control of my heart and become the focus of my life. As humans, God created us with these appetites, but Satan twists and perverts these cravings so that we try to find peace and rest through comfort food, pills and alcohol, laziness or sinful sexual outlets. I seek the escapes it offers to forget about my problems. But the peace and rest the world gives are short-lived. The contentment of a full belly only lasts a few hours. The momentary haze of painkillers and alcohol doesn’t actually solve any problems. And, while ignoring God’s will for sex and marriage may seem like freedom, presidential candidates aren’t the only ones who realize it only leads to guilt and shame. The only way to overcome these cravings is to be filled with desire for Christ and his promises. Christ offers lasting peace – peace with God purchased with his blood. Christ offers true rest – because he said it is finished. (John 19:30) Christ wed himself to me in Baptism so that I can honor God’s will concerning sex and marriage. Christ can overcome my cravings.

The world seeks after wealth and all that money offers, yet never is content though gold should fill its coffers. I have a higher good; content with it I’ll be; my Jesus is my wealth – what is the world to me! (477:3) Our commercial culture works overtime to tease the lust of [my] eyes. Attractive people tell us we won’t be happy unless we own the product they’re selling or the lifestyle they’re pushing. We flip through magazines and websites that tempt us with beautiful homes, shiny cars, luxury products and glamorous vacations. Capital One and MasterCard will buy you everything you want, and they’ll dig you deep into debt for free. The lottery promises financial freedom – and you only have to get lucky once. Christ gives me life and breath and a new sunrise every day. His mercies are new every morning. The peace, forgiveness, and love he offers never go out of style. And best of all – he gives them away for free. Longing for the true wealth Christ offers smothers the lust the world seeks to enflame.

The world seeks to be praised and honored by the mighty, yet never once reflects that they are frail and flighty. But what I truly prize above all things is he, my Jesus, he alone. What is the world to me! (477:2) Yeah football players and politicians want to be praised and honored. But so do I! I like it when people notice what I’ve done and give me a pat on the back – and soon enough getting noticed becomes my motivation. If I need to put someone else down to get the recognition I deserve – so be it. And social media provides the perfect platform for me to toot my own horn while simultaneously tearing others down. The problem is that no matter how much praise I get from the world, God knows the ugly truth, He knows how rotten I really am. But because of Christ God looks at me and smiles. Clothed in Christ’s righteousness God will raise me up after a far-from-perfect life and say well done, good and faithful servant, come and share your master’s happiness! (Matthew 25:23) If worldly praise and honor are what we seek, we may get it – and that’s all we will get. But if we love God, we know it doesn’t matter if anyone notices us now, because God, in Christ, sees us as his children, children he wants to spend all of eternity with.

But John saved the best for last: The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. If the world and the things it offers are the focus of your heart and love, you will lose them all at death. Nothing worldly will mean anything in eternity. But if you do God’s will, and remember, the primary work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent (John 6:29) – you will live forever.

What is the world to me? Until we die, we will live in this world. But Jesus prayed for us the night before he died, prayed that though we are in the world, that we may not become part of it. (John 17:15-19) That while we walk this dust just like everyone else, we may be different. Because God chose us, we are different. We are citizens of another place. We are strangers here. Our minds are set on heaven and its riches, not this world and its desires. Our hearts are not filled with worldly cravings, lust and boasting – because they are filled to overflowing with God’s love for us and our only boast is in what Jesus has done for us. He took our place in hell. He washed us clean and gave us life. He fills us with hope not just for this life but for all eternity. Jesus is our treasure, our peace, our rest, our crown, our life, our all – and he means way more than the world to me. Amen.

1 John 5:13-15 - Know This with Certainty - October 16, 2016

Follow your heart or listen to your head? When we make decisions in life, we have options – will I go with my gut or with the option that is logically and rationally sound? We regularly face this question when we’re shopping – which is one of the reasons it’s never a good idea to go to the grocery store when you’re hungry. We face it in our professional lives – do you take a risk on pursuing a new opportunity or do you stick with the job you have? We face it in the golden years of life: do you retire early while you can still travel and enjoy an active lifestyle, or do you put it off? In our subjective, relativistic culture, it seems that most of the advice you hear is to make decisions by following your heart, doing what feels right – and logic, not to mention morality, are hardly considered. Oprah Winfrey, talk show host and author of a book called What I Know for Sure reveals how she makes decisions. “Learning to trust your instincts, using your intuitive sense of what’s best for you, is paramount for any lasting success. I’ve trusted the still, small voice of intuition my entire life. And the only time I’ve made mistakes is when I didn’t listen.” [1] I’m sure every one of us has followed that or similar advice in the past – how did it turn out?

We can get ourselves into trouble when we trust our hearts more than our heads in making life decisions, but it’s far more dangerous to base things like our relationship with God, eternity and prayer on our hearts rather than our heads. And John says that when it comes to these questions, you don’t have to follow your heart, you don’t have to trust your intuition. You can and ought to know with absolute certainty that you have eternal life, that God hears your prayers, and that God answers your prayers.

How do you know that you have a real, living relationship with God? That’s a question believers have asked since the beginning of time. For the same length of time, false teachers have taught that a living relationship with God is something you feel. Religion, they allege, takes place in your heart. Faith isn’t as much about doctrines and confessions as it is feeling close to God and experiencing the presence of God. In this letter, John was combatting those ideas as they arose in the heresy of Gnosticism. The Gnostics taught that if you wanted a real relationship with God, it wasn’t good enough to know and trust in Jesus Christ – you had to have a personal, inner, mystical connection to God. In other words, they encouraged people to follow their hearts instead of trusting God’s Word.

Part of the reason that the gnostic, mystic heresy is so seductive is because as fallen humans we have a tendency to believe that we know what we need better than God does. In our shortsightedness, we tend to think that our greatest need is more money, a new job, more respect, a better home life or better health. We expect that if God really deserves our fear, love and trust, he better agree with us. Are those really our biggest problems? What is our greatest need? Biblical and Lutheran theology are clear. We were born spiritually dead in need of spiritual life. Sin and guilt are our biggest problems and redemption and salvation our biggest needs. God makes that need known and clear to us in his Law. He holds up his holy will and says “do this” and “don’t do that” or else. And yet, we haven’t done what God has commanded and we have done what God has forbidden and so we deserve nothing but the “or else”; eternal damnation in hell.

But God has provided the solution, he has answered our greatest need. John writes: I write these things to you…so that you may know that you have eternal life. God doesn’t want you to wonder if you have eternal life. He doesn’t want you to follow something as fickle as your feelings. He wants you to know it – with certainty. How can we be so sure, so certain? John is very specific: I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. People, and only people, who believe in the NAME of the Son of God can be positive they have eternal life. What does that mean? Why doesn’t John just say “If you believe in the Son of God you have eternal life”?  What does it mean to believe in the NAME of the Son of God?

Remember that John is combatting the heresy that tells you that faith and truth are things “you just feel.” By identifying believers as those who trust in the NAME of the Son of God, he’s saying that being a Christian means knowing and believing certain things about God’s Son. Jesus’ name is more than his different titles – more than Messiah, Christ and Savior. Jesus is NOT a lump of clay to be molded into whatever you want him to be. Saving faith is not vague trust in God. A living relationship with Him must be based on more than our own best efforts and gut feelings. To believe in Jesus’ name means to believe in all that he is and all he revealed himself to be. Those all-important details are what we confess each Sunday in the Apostles’ and Nicene creeds. It means to believe that he is true man, born of a virgin. It means to believe that he is God’s Son, conceived by the Holy Spirit. It means to trust that everything Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote about him was true. He really lived a perfect life in Israel, he really restored sight to the blind and caused the lame to walk. He really was persecuted, arrested, tried, beaten, hung on a cross, died and rose again. And to believe in Jesus’ name means to trust that everything Jesus did, he did for you, to give you life and salvation. Eternal life is not based on intuition. Heaven doesn’t become yours when you follow your heart. Eternal life is yours, and you can be absolutely, 100% positive of this because Jesus, God’s Son, lived, died and rose to buy it for you. Trust this. Believe this. Know this with certainty.

Ok, so the future’s taken care of; but what about the present? What certainty can we have that we are living in and with God right now? The way the apostle John sees it, our confidence for the present stems from our confidence for the future. The reason we can be confident of our right standing with God today is because we know he has already taken care of our future. We can pray with confidence because He has told us in his Word that Jesus has paid for our sins and earned our place in heaven.

Now, this is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. Why does John need to encourage us to have confidence in approaching God? Because it’s not a civil or spiritual right. We were born dead in sin and unbelief, God’s enemies, not his friends – and God does not hear the prayers of his enemies. Another false aspect of Gnostic, mystic teaching is that God will hear you if you are just sincere enough, if you have enough good feelings in your heart. Try that approach with the President. Try going to the White House and demand to be heard because of how sincere you are. Do we really believe it’s any different with the King of kings? In fact, God makes it clear that while he is certainly capable of hearing every prayer, he simply refuses to hear the prayers of unbelievers: surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wicked things. (Isaiah 59:1-3)

Does God listen to every prayer lofted his way? Hardly. But the surprising thing is not that God ignores some prayers – it’s that he hears any at all. Yet he does, and we can have confidence in that fact. Why? Because of what we talked about before. The redeeming work of God’s Son, Jesus, not only gives us eternal life, but it changes our status before God. Instead of being classified as natural born enemies, God sees us as his redeemed children. As children, God now grants us the privilege to come to him in prayer. He even gives us the assurance that he will hear us. That is why when we pray in Jesus’ name we can know with certainty that God hears us.

That is also why, while John encourages us to ask [for] anything, he places one condition on our prayers: if we ask anything according to his will. That’s a struggle for us, isn’t it? That’s why many prefer to have a mystical relationship with God rather than one based on his Word – because I want God to do my will and not the other way around. But that’s not how it works. And it’s not as if God’s will is entirely a mystery, God has told us plenty about his will for us. Worship and serve me alone, use my Word and my name properly. Honor those in authority. Honor human life and respect other’s property. Do not slander and do not covet. God has even revealed his broad will for all mankind: he wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:4) And if we really focused on praying for those things, we probably wouldn’t have time to worry about anything else.

But there are many things God hasn’t revealed to us. He doesn’t tell us which hymns to sing or which portion of the Bible the sermon should be based on. He doesn’t tell us which purchase to make, which job to take, and when to retire. He doesn’t tell us who we should marry or how many kids we ought to have or what our destiny in this life is. So what does it mean to pray according to God’s will when we know some things about it and don’t know others? It means to pray in line with what God has revealed in his Word. (So guess what, if you don’t know what God’s will is, what should you do? Yep, go back and study his Word) Therefore, we will never, ever pray for anything sinful. We will not ask him to bring evil on anyone or ask that he give us something we should not want to have. We will pray for the things he has promised to give, things like peace and joy, forgiveness and contentment. And for all the rest? We ask and then we leave it up to him. We pray as Jesus did, not my will, but yours be done. (Luke 22:42)

And when we pray according to [God’s] will, we can know one more thing with certainty: if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of him. That seems to contradict our own experience, doesn’t it? What about our prayers that seem to soar to heaven and fall back to the ground unanswered? What about my prayer for guidance in my personal life, my career, my retirement? What about my prayer for healing, my prayer for a job, my prayer for a God-fearing spouse, my prayers for a child? What about those prayers? How can John say that we have what we asked of him? Well, remember Christian prayer means asking God to give us what He thinks is best, not what we think we should have. Sometimes God’s answer will be yes. But it might be no. It could be not right now. Those are answers, aren’t they? Just because God doesn’t give you an immediate positive answer doesn’t mean he doesn’t hear and hasn’t answered. It simply means that God has different plans. We may not like it, but we do need to accept it and trust it because we know that God would never do anything to harm us. And, more than that, we know from the parable of the persistent widow (Luke 18:1-8) that it is God’s will that we continue to pray, that we make heaven ring with our prayers, that we try to wear him out. You can trust that he will hear them and answer them longer than you can pray them. Don’t give up. Persist in prayer and know for certain that if God hears us, then we have what we asked of him.

All due respect to Oprah, but following your heart is not usually the best advice when it comes to making decisions. More importantly, it’s spiritual malpractice to trust your heart when it comes to matters of faith and eternity. Fortunately, we don’t have to. Because God has given us certainty. He has given us his Son whose life, death, and resurrection mean that we can know for certain that we have eternal life, God hears our prayers and God answers our prayers. Biblical certainty trumps intuition every time. Amen.

[1] http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Oprah-on-Trusting-Her-Intuition-Oprahs-Advice-on-Trusting-Your-Gut

1 Samuel 12:20-24 - Consider What Great Things God Has Done For You - October 9, 2016

“We’re tired of this government. It’s not getting anything done, it’s getting in the way of our happiness, the economy is stalled and we don’t feel safe at home. Our friends in the world don’t trust us and our enemies don’t fear us. We need a change; out with the old and in with the new!” Even though this sounds like a rant you might hear if you tune in to certain TV and radio talk shows, it’s not. No, this was the complaint of the Israelites around 3000 years ago. The government they wanted to replace? God himself.

From the time he had brought his people out of slavery in Egypt, the Lord had been Israel’s king. He had led them, fought for them, guided, protected and fed them. But when the Israelites looked at their neighbors they saw flesh and blood rulers, kings who wore crowns and carried swords and led their nations into battle. That’s what the Israelites wanted. They weren’t content to have God lead them, they wanted a man. They rejected the King of kings in favor of a fallible, sinful, human king.

But it’s not like this was anything new. Countless times over the previous 400 years, the Israelites had turned away from God to follow their own path. Almost from the moment God gave his chosen people their own home in the Promised Land, Israel was stuck in a sad, cyclical rut: they would rebel and turn away from the Lord, he would allow one of the neighboring nations to oppress them, they would repent and cry out for help, and God would raise up a Judge, a Gideon or a Samson, to rescue them. Rebel, repent, rescue, repeat.

The last of the judges the Lord raised up to lead Israel was named Samuel. He had served the Lord faithfully his entire career, but the Israelites wanted more, they wanted a king. Samuel tried warning them. He tried to tell them that having a king would mean sending your sons off to die in war, sending your daughters to serve in the palace, and being burdened with the taxes necessary to run a government – but the Israelites insisted. The Lord gave in, gave them what they wanted and crowned Saul as Israel’s first king. Before Samuel stepped aside for good, he did something most people would consider unthinkable today: he reminded them of the past, of their sin and guilt, of their faithlessness and God’s faithfulness. He closed by reminding them that on top of all their other sins they had now added one more: rejecting the Lord as King by asking for a human king.

How would you feel if someone stood up in front of your friends and family, everyone you know, and confronted you with a list of all the worst sins you committed over the course of your entire life? Remember the way you treated your parents and those things you did in high school? How about those “mistakes” you made in college, the ones you try to forget? And what about those more recent “indiscretions” that, if they became public knowledge, would ruin your career, marriage and family? Can you imagine having someone go through your life with a fine tooth comb, pulling up and exposing all of your shameful sins and failures? Just the thought of it is horrifying. How would you respond?

Hopefully, like the Israelites did. They feared God’s well-deserved wrath. They confessed their sin. They begged for mercy. The Word of God before us is Samuel’s response to Israel’s repentance. Given how regularly Israel had rebelled against God, Samuel’s first words come as a surprise: Do not be afraid he told them. Samuel began with forgiveness. He assured them that although they had rejected God, God had not rejected them. He still loved them. He had chosen them as His people and he would not abandon them.

It’s 3000 years later in a different time and place, but isn’t that exactly what happened right here just a few minutes ago? We stood here and confessed that we have sinned against God and deserve nothing but his wrath and anger. We threw ourselves on his mercy and asked for his forgiveness. And the Lord, just as he did through Samuel all those years ago, assured us that He has forgiven every one of our sins. He does not count them against you. He has chosen you as his child and he will not abandon you. Everything that you’ve done in the past, even the things you would like to forget but can’t, God has forgotten them all, buried them at the foot of his Son’s cross. The past doesn’t concern God any longer. What God is concerned about is tomorrow.

Samuel continued: You have done all this evil; yet do not turn away from the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart. Do not turn away after useless idols. They can do you no good, nor can they rescue you, because they are useless. For the sake of his great name the LORD will not reject his people, because the LORD was pleased to make you his own. Samuel reminded Israel of her true identity – she belonged to the LORD. This was a wonderful comfort but also a stern warning. Just because you have a king now doesn’t mean you don’t have to answer to THE King. And beware of where your chosen path leads: first you want a king like your neighbors, next you will be tempted to follow idols like your neighbors. Don’t forget what the Lord has done for you. He won’t reject you! Don’t reject him!

In the same way, we stand here as God’s chosen and forgiven people. There’s no question; whoever has been baptized and cleansed in Jesus’ blood are God’s children. The question is, how will we respond? Will we remember all the great things he has done for us and follow him faithfully? Will we serve him with all our heart? Or will we turn away after useless idols?

Now, we aren’t tempted to bow down to the same idols the Israelites were; idols named Baal and Asherah, idols made of wood and stone. But there are no shortage of things that demand our attention, our time, our devotion, our energy, our money, our hearts. What is it that demands devotion in your life? Is it work? Does your career demand sacrifices; sacrifices of time spent with your family or time spent in God’s Word? Maybe a certain lifestyle, behavior, or activity demands your full attention. Will you let those things, that lifestyle, that stuff become the goal, the idol to which you devote your time and energy? Today, Satan doesn’t need to tempt us to bow down to idols made of wood and stone if he can convince us to follow our own feelings and desires rather than God’s Word.  

They may look different, but these idols are really no different than those Samuel warned the Israelites about. They’re things that can divert our attention away from our God-given responsibilities in life, they are things that can draw our attention away from God and his Word. And, like those idols, in the end, they’re useless. (The Hebrew word for useless is the same one used in Genesis 1:2 the earth was formless and empty, or as one translator puts it: good for absolutely nothing whatsoever.) Sure, these idols promise to help us or entertain us or bring us pleasure. And sometimes, they do give us a moment of happiness. But none of those things will be there to help in a time of need. None of them can save you from your sins or take away your guilt. None of them can get you to heaven.

So why do we put our souls in danger by turning to these worthless idols instead of God? Our problem is the same as the Israelites: a short attention span. A poor memory. God had rescued his people from Egypt, guided them through the wilderness and given them a home in the Promised Land – but they had forgotten his goodness to them. It doesn’t take long to forget what God has done, just ask nine of the lepers. How quick are we to forget what God has done for us? Already today, he has forgiven us, promised us new life and salvation – does that make any impression on our hearts or have we already moved on to planning the menu for tonight’s Packer game? With tears and trembling we praised and thank God for making our children his children in Baptism – and yet too often we forget that Baptism is not the end but the beginning of a lifetime of learning at Jesus’ feet. How many sicknesses, disasters, and tragedies has God rescued us from, only to watch us go back to following our own way? It’s very easy to turn away from God when you forget or fail to appreciate what he’s done for you. Many have gone down that path. Will we follow them?

That answer would be scary if it weren’t for one important promise: For the sake of his great name the Lord will not reject his people. Again, the proof is in the past. No matter how many times the people of Israel turned away from him, the Lord always remained faithful, ready to forgive them, save them, and take them back. The entire OT paints a portrait of God’s faithfulness to unfaithful people. Why was the Lord so patient? Why did he remain faithful to his unfaithful people? Because he had made a promise to them and to the world that he would not, could not break: he was going to send a Savior into the world and he was going to use the nation of Israel to do it.

And God kept his promise. The spiritual situation in Israel wasn’t much better during Jesus days than it was during the days of Samuel. Many Israelites had turned away from God and turned to their own idols. But that didn’t stop God from being faithful to his Word. He sent his Son to become one of us, to take on our human nature so that he could obey God’s Law in our place. Jesus broke the mold by remembering his Father and by obeying God with all his heart. He remained perfectly faithful in spite of countless temptations to go his own way. Even though he proved he was the promised Messiah through his authoritative preaching, signs and miracles, many if not most of the people rejected him. But even that didn’t stop Jesus from doing what he had come to do: to give his life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28). Consider what great things our faithful God has done for an unfaithful world!

And then consider your own life. You were born in sin and unbelief and deserved to be left there. But the Lord came to you through his gospel, through Baptism, to claim you as his child. When you wanted nothing to do with him, He claimed you to be his own. He credited Jesus’ faithfulness to your account. And in spite of all the times you have been unfaithful over the years, God has remained faithful, he has always been there to forgive you when you beg for mercy and repent. And who can begin count all the times and ways God has fed us, healed us, guarded and protected us from evils seen and unseen. Consider what great things your faithful God has done for you!

He’s better than any other king. He’s the kind of leader you want to serve with all your heart. And he promises to help you do just that. Listen again to Samuel’s parting promise to his people: As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you. And I will teach you the way that is good and right. God still does the same for us today. On our own, we would forget the great things God has done. But God has given pastors and parents to remind us. He gives Christian friends and family to pray for us and encourage us. And best of all, he gives us his Holy Spirit, who does both – teaches us God’s will through the Word and intercedes for us with the Father. God never rejected Israel and he has promised that he will never reject us either.

So don’t reject him! Serve the Lord with all your heart. You can and you will when you remember what he has done for you. When you sin, don’t be afraid; repent and trust in Jesus’ forgiveness. When the idols of the world tempt you, don’t turn away; and be sure that God won’t turn away from you. Be sure to fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you. Amen. 

Luke 7:1-10 - Lord, Increase Our Faith - October 2, 2016

How do you feel about sugar-coated realities, deceptive ad campaigns, and bait-and-switch marketing techniques? Do you appreciate them or hate them? When your doctor gives you the results of the test, would you rather have him sugarcoat the truth or tell it to you bluntly? When you sign up for phone, cable and internet, do you appreciate knowing ahead of time that the low price is only a one-year promotion or are you content to let that little fact hide in the small print? How about when it comes to the Christian church – and being a member of the church. How do you describe our church to non-members? Is it a family? Is it close-knit, loving, caring, and supportive? Do you invite people to come here because of how nice everyone is? We know enough not to claim that the people here are perfect, but would you call them good, kind, compassionate? Would you? Really? All the time? Could you make those claims with a clear conscience, or would you be guilty of sugar-coating reality? Whether we like to admit it or not, we know the truth. We know that the church, her pastor and members are far from perfect. We know that we have hurt others and others have hurt us. Does that mean that “the one, holy, Christian church” is just one big fabricated lie? No. But we do need to come to grips with the reality that the church on earth is made up of sinners who are bound to sin against each other. This morning, Jesus tells us the truth. He doesn’t sugar coat it, he tells it the way it is and what God expects of us. And when we realize what it is that God demands of his children, we will be led pray, Lord, increase our faith.

Jesus begins with a concise assessment of life in this world: Things that cause people to sin are bound to come. Don’t be deceived by the lie that when a person becomes a Christian he will stop sinning. Temptations are bound to come – and sometimes you and people you know will fall right into it. Our reality is very much like a Tom & Jerry cartoon: where the mouse, Jerry, is on one side of the room – his hole-in-a-wall home, is on the other side; and Tom, his arch-enemy has scattered mousetraps across every inch of floor in between. From where we stand, heaven seems to be far off – and Satan has littered the world with temptations designed to lure us away from God, trap us in sin, and strangle our faith. Jesus doesn’t sugarcoat it, he doesn’t misrepresent what life in this world will be like for his disciples. It won’t be a cakewalk. Things that lead us to sin are bound to come.

But woe to that person through whom they come. ‘Woe’ as Jesus uses it is more than just a throwaway word. ‘Woe’ is a judgment, a verdict – God’s judgment and verdict – on anyone who leads another into sin – eternal ‘woe’ in hell is the sentence for that person. And in case ‘woe’ doesn’t clearly represent what Jesus means, he continues to make it crystal clear: it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. Only the cruelest criminal minds have ever decided that cement shoes were an appropriate means of dealing with one’s enemies. But here Jesus says that something equivalent to cement shoes would be better than to cause one of these little ones to sin. When we hear little ones, we naturally think of children – and how true it is that children are like sponges, soaking up and imitating the words and actions of the adults around them – especially, it seems, our sinful words and actions. But here Jesus is referring to all of his little ones – each and every person who is God’s child through faith.  

Remember, Jesus is not speaking to the unbelieving world here – Satan already has them on the broad road that leads to hell. No, Jesus is speaking to believers like you and me: sin will come, but woe to us if we are the cause of it. How do we lead others into sin? It happens when we intentionally or unintentionally give the impression that sometimes it’s ok to disregard what God says; sometimes it’s ok to sin. When we come here and use our tongues to thank and praise God, only to use them later to slander and gossip about others, we can be tempting others to join in breaking the 8th commandment. When we pray for God’s help in overcoming temptation and then go and indulge the greedy and lustful desires of our flesh – we can lead others into believing that’s ok. When we nod our heads as God encourages and urges us to worship regularly – only to show that worship is more of an option in our own lives – what message are we sending? What impression are we giving if we loudly condemn homosexuality as a sin against the 6th commandment – but we ignore the equally damning sin of heterosexual family and friends living together outside of marriage?  Woe to me, woe to you. We would be better off dead at the bottom of the sea.

Temptation will come, so watch yourselves, Jesus says. Not only should we take care not to lead others into sin, but we are also responsible for dealing with sin when it happens. If we are going to walk the walk of Christianity, then this is our responsibility to each other: If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. And this isn’t only when someone happens to sin against you personally. We are to rebuke fellow believers whenever they fall into sin – even if the world would say it’s none of our business. It’s tempting to think that only the elders and the pastor are responsible for pointing out and rebuking sin – but Jesus teaches here that every disciple is responsible for pointing out, rebuking, and forgiving sin. To refuse or fail to do so is a sin itself – a sin of omission. Why? Why is it my responsibility to warn others about sin? Well, why would you warn a child not to play in the street? Out of love and concern for them. That’s what God does for us in his Law and that’s what we owe each other. Paul writes let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. (Romans 13:8) Christian love recognizes that unrepented sin puts the souls of our family and friends in eternal danger. In love Christians gently but firmly rebuke sin.

Watch yourselves, Jesus says. Watch out for each other. Point out sin – and when the sinner repents forgive them. But that’s not always easy either, is it? It’s not easy to forgive a friend who betrays us or tells lies about us; it’s not easy to forgive someone who repeatedly and intentionally hurts us; there are few things harder than forgiving the spouse who has broken the bond of marriage. But we have received God’s free and full forgiveness – God has never refused to forgive us – who are we to refuse forgiveness to a brother or sister who repents? Even, Jesus says, if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him. And it’s not that seven is somehow a magic number. God’s forgiveness is limitless, and we are to imitate that kind of forgiveness with each other.

So what do you think? Do we have what it takes to resist sin, rebuke it and forgive it? Can we live up to our Savior’s high calling? The apostles were a little tentative, they knew this was no easy thing Jesus was asking them to do, so they asked Him Lord, increase our faith. They understood the difficulty of what Jesus was asking them to do, they recognized that there is nothing harder for a group of natural born sinners than to avoid offending one another and to properly deal with sin when it comes.

But with this question, the disciples also demonstrated that they still didn’t really understand faith. They thought that only someone with a superhuman, miracle-working faith could do the things Jesus demanded. It’s also seems that they were using weak faith as an excuse to avoid the more difficult duties of discipleship. Have we ever done the same? I know that this isn’t right and goes against God’s will, but hey, no one’s perfect; It’s not my job to go and tell so-and-so that what they’re doing is sinful – leave that to someone else; I don’t have a strong enough faith to forgive those who have sinned against me. Yes, you do, Jesus says if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you. By comparing faith to the smallest of seeds, Jesus is telling us that the power of faith doesn’t lie in how much you believe, it lies in what you believe. So, where do we find the strength to watch ourselves, to resist the temptation to sin and avoid leading others to sin? Not inside us, but in the Word. Paul wrote to Titus: the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passion, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age. (Titus 2:12-13) Where do we look for the courage to rebuke and forgive sin? It’s not found in courageous faith, but in the Lord’s unfailing promise: If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. (John 20:23) Do we have what it takes to do our duty as Jesus’ disciples? Yes. Because faith doesn’t depend on us, it depends on God.

Finally, Jesus addresses the attitude with which we live and work in God’s kingdom. Because when we diligently and faithfully do our duty, it’s tempting pat ourselves on the back and believe that God is pretty lucky to have disciples like us. So Jesus tells a story to illustrate the proper attitude his disciples ought to have: suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat?’ Would he not rather say, ‘prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’” Whether you write the paychecks or receive them, you know that employers don’t generally thank their employees for doing their job. When we do what God demands, we don’t earn anything, we don’t deserve a pat on the back – because we are simply doing what God created us to do.

Jesus doesn’t sugarcoat what a life of discipleship will look like. He asks us to do some hard things: to watch ourselves, to rebuke and forgive sin. In humility we are to recognize that no matter how much we do for God and his church – it’s never more than the duty God has given us. Do we have what it takes? Honestly? No. And that’s why we look to Jesus. Because we will never be perfect servants, he was. Peter says this about him: he committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. (1 Peter 2:22-23) He was tempted in every way we are, but he didn’t sin. Even though it made people angry enough to kill him, he never failed to rebuke sin. And even as he was hanging on the cross, enduring the bitter insults of the people he came to save, he didn’t lash out, rather he prayed: Father, forgive them. (Luke 23:34) And, in his amazing grace, God has made a deal with us, a trade: God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21) Trusting that when God looks at us, he doesn’t see our failures and sins, but Jesus’ perfectly dutiful life and sacrificial death – that’s what great faith is all about. We can confess without hesitation: we are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty because we know that for Christ’s sake God will pick us up and say: well done, good and faithful servant…come and share your master’s happiness! (Matthew 25:21) Don’t be deceived, neither this church nor any church is perfect and discipleship will never be easy – but what a privilege it is to serve a master who loved us enough to give up his life for us! May God increase our faith in his Word and promises so that we live in his grace and according to his will. Amen

Ecclesiastes 5:10-20 - True Contentment - September 25, 2016

Contentment – however you define it, that’s the shiny pot of gold at the end of the American dream, isn’t it? For 240 years immigrants from around the world have come to America in search of the freedom to pursue whatever life might make them happy and content. So universal is this desire for contentment that throughout the years many presidential candidates have formed campaigns around the concept. Way back in 1856, John Fremont’s slogan was “Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Speech, Free Men, Fremont.” Four years later, Abraham Lincoln told citizens to “Vote Yourself a Farm.” In 1900 William McKinley guaranteed “A full dinner pail,” and in 1928, Herbert Hoover promised “A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage.” [1] And this year we know what the candidates are promising.  Every four years the American people are promised jobs, full bellies and bank accounts – because it’s human nature to think that those things lead to happiness and contentment. Does it seem like our nation is content? Are you content?

Or, would a more accurate assessment of the state of the union be the one found in Ecclesiastes 1: Meaningless! Meaningless! Everything is meaningless. (Ecclesiastes 1:2) 240 years of candidates, campaigns, policies and promises have not delivered the happiness and contentment that people are longing for. The fault doesn’t lie as much with presidents and their failed promises as it is with a fundamental misunderstanding of what contentment is and how we can get it. Today, King Solomon teaches us how to find true contentment.

Already in Ecclesiastes, Solomon has pointed out the meaningless of pleasure, wisdom, toil and advancement. But in chapter 5 he turns his theme of meaninglessness to work and wealth. What? What about a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage? Doesn’t God say if a man will not work, he shall not eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10)? Before we look at Solomon’s words, think about your own life. No doubt we want to believe that our lives are a positive influence on the world; but how much impact have your long hours at work really had? Or maybe you’ve made it, you’ve worked hard and have finally retired – are you content? Or, would you agree with Solomon that along with pleasure and wisdom, work and wealth all too often seem pointless, meaningless?

If you feel that way, you will take great comfort from these words, because near the end of his life even Solomon, the man who had experienced all the pleasure, wisdom, work and wealth this life can offer, came to the same realization. And to help us make sense of the meaninglessness of life under the sun, Solomon identifies four reasons why trying to find meaning, purpose and contentment in work and wealth is bound to fail. Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless. America’s first billionaire, John D. Rockefeller was once asked how much is enough? His response: just a little bit more. That attitude is more common than we care to admit, isn’t it? No matter how big our last raise was, we wish it were a little bit more. No matter how new our car is and how big our house is, someone else always has a newer, bigger model. Thinking that just a little bit more will lead to contentment is like chasing a mirage; we will never catch it. And so, says Solomon, it’s meaningless.

As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast his eyes on them? The second myth about wealth is that having more will solve my problems. Solomon pokes holes in this myth. First, he observes that the more you have, the more people want a piece of what you have. An example of this is almost any superstar athlete or actor. When they were putting in the endless hours of practice, the hard work necessary to achieve greatness, they were alone. But when the big paychecks start coming in, all of a sudden they have more “friends” than they know what to do with. The other problem, which is so obvious that we are often blind to it, is that the more you have the less you can actually use. When I was 9 or 10 years old, I thought that a box set of Topp’s baseball cards would make me happy. Guess how many times I’ve looked at those cards? Not once, those baseball cards are holding down a shelf somewhere. How much stuff do we have in our homes that does little more than gather dust? And here’s the humbling part: how much better off are we than the poor person who can only go to the store and look at all that stuff? Meaningless, it’s all meaningless.  

The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep. The third myth most people believe about money is that having more will bring peace. Solomon observed in his own time that the laborer who only has the basic necessities sleeps well no matter how much he has to eat. On the other hand, the rich man, the man who has time for leisure and all the best food, can’t sleep because he has eaten too much, has too much going on in his life and can’t unwind. Having more money doesn’t bring peace – it actually does the opposite, it brings more anxiety.

I have seen a grievous evil under the sun: wealth hoarded to the harm of its owner, or wealth lost through some misfortune, so that when he has a son there is nothing left for him. Naked a man comes from his mother’s womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand. Maybe the most popular and seemingly virtuous reason we place so much value and purpose on our work and wealth is because we want to secure the future for ourselves and our families. But Solomon pours cold water on that dream, doesn’t he? The situation he describes is anything but rare: a person works hard for decades in order to retire comfortably and be able to provide for his family’s future. But then calamity strikes: a catastrophic illness, a stock market crash, a failed pension fund or years spent in an expensive nursing home – and the nest egg is wiped out. Solomon closes with the cold, hard truth: as a man comes, so he departs, and what does he gain, since he toils for the wind? All his days he eats in darkness with great frustration, affliction and anger. As the rich man in Jesus’ parable discovered, death renders a lifetime of working, saving and investing worthless. Money, no matter how much we have, can’t provide security and so, in the end, hoping to find peace and contentment in work and wealth is as futile as trying to catch and contain the wind.

By now you might be wishing you hadn’t come to church this morning. This doesn’t really make us feel good about going to work tomorrow morning, does it? But you can’t really argue with Solomon’s logic, can you? We know from experience that work and wealth don’t lead to contentment, they lead to sleepless nights, anxiety about the future, and uncertainty regarding our purpose in life – because the very things that seem so meaningful turn out to be meaningless. And it’s true. If our goal is to make money for the sake of getting rich, wealth is meaningless. If we work hard hoping that hard work will make us feel content, our work is meaningless. If the entire focus of life is providing certainty and security for our children, it’s all meaningless because we can’t guarantee either of those things. Naked you came from your mother’s womb and naked you will depart and everything in which you found meaning will turn out to be meaningless.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him – for this is his lot. Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work – this is a gift of God. He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart. Did Solomon just contradict everything he said earlier? What has changed?

For the first time, God enters the picture. God changes everything. When God is in the equation then work and careers and money and saving for the future are not meaningless. They are gifts from a gracious Giver. They are the means God uses to sustain our short lives on this earth as we look forward to spending eternity with him – because in the end, he knows and he wants us to know that heaven is the only place where we will be truly, finally, perfectly content. We believe that, why does life still feel so meaningless? It began just after the Fall when God cursed the ground and told Adam that only through painful toil would he eat all the days of his life. (Genesis 3:17) Would you believe that God did that because he loves us? Would you believe that there is a greater purpose behind the meaninglessness of life? There is. God uses the pain, toil and endless meaninglessness of this world to remind us that we are not made for this world. Broken dreams and ruined plans serve God’s purpose by showing us that even now, God’s primary objective for us is not to get comfortable in this world but to live in and with him. And the only way for that to happen is through faith in Jesus.

To live with God through faith means to confess that in one sense, everything – our jobs and careers, our hard work and our savings, even our lives – are utterly meaningless, because none of them have met the standard of perfection God demands. Hoping to find value and meaning in our work and wealth is meaningless because even the best we have to offer is nothing more than filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6) in God’s sight. And so, for this life to mean anything, we must look away from our work and wealth to Christ, whose life was the only one that meant anything in God’s sight. His work was meaningful because it was perfect. His life had purpose because he lived to please God and his life was precious because he took it and sacrificed it for us on the cross. Even his death had meaning because it paid for every last one of our sins. And then, God raised Jesus from the dead to prove beyond all doubt that everything he did has meaning for us now and forever. Paul explains just what Jesus’ life, death and resurrection mean for us: he was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. (Romans 4:25) Jesus’ life and death overflow with meaning because they mean that this life – with its years of toil and unfulfilled dreams – is not all there is. His life fills your life with meaning because heavenly riches, true peace, security and contentment aren’t something we have to work for, they are God’s gift to us in Christ.  

And through faith in Jesus, even the most meaningless aspects of life have meaning. When the alarm rings tomorrow morning, remember these wise words of Solomon. You can find satisfaction in your work, because that is the work God has given you. And, if God has blessed you with a job you love or wealth and possessions and the time to enjoy them – give thanks, for that is a truly rare and wonderful blessing. But don’t waste time griping or grumbling that you don’t make enough or have enough – because God has promised to give you what you need. Don’t let life become all about working and accumulating stuff – because that’s as pointless as chasing after the wind. And don’t waste your time thinking about what might have been or dreaming about what could be – because the past is history and the future lies with God. Instead, occupy your thoughts with the rich blessings God has given and promised you in Jesus; enjoy today for today and let God worry about tomorrow. And instead of praying for more, pray for the rare ability to be content with what God has already given and promised you.

And when you live like that, with a light grasp on the things of this life but both arms wrapped around the heavenly treasure God gives through faith – that’s when life really has meaning. That kind of life is free from worry and anxiety because it knows that work and money are not the goal of this life, heaven is. That’s the secret to true contentment. Money can’t buy it. But when you seek first God and his kingdom and his righteousness, he promises – he promises – that all these things will be given you as well. (Matthew 6:33) Amen.  

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._presidential_campaign_slogans

Luke 16:1-13 - Christian Wealth Management - September 18, 2016

In three decades, from 1985 to the present, seatbelt usage in our country has increased from 14% to 79%. The increase was estimated to have saved 85,000 lives and $3.2 billion in costs to society. [1] What caused the (positive) shift? Vince and Larry. Vince and Larry were featured in a series of commercials run by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration which vividly depicted what happens when a person is involved in an accident and is not wearing a seatbelt. Oh, did I mention that Vince and Larry were crash test dummies? Knowing that, you maybe remember the campaign tagline: You could learn a lot from a dummy. It was a catchy line and an effective campaign because normally you don’t expect to learn much of anything from a dummy.

In the Word of God before us, Jesus uses a similar approach. He uses the example of a worldly, wicked person – a wasteful but shrewd manager to teach his disciples how to manage earthly wealth. It’s effective because no one would expect Jesus, the one who warns his disciples over and over again not to love the world or anything in the world, to use a despicable example of waste and dishonesty to teach a spiritual lesson. And yet, that’s just what Jesus does this morning as he teaches us Christian wealth management.

The parable before us has generated considerable discussion and confusion because in it Jesus seems to praise wastefulness and deceit. But if you read the parable carefully, you’ll see that the manager was not commended for his dishonesty, but for his shrewdness, his wisdom. Where is this wisdom? See if you notice it: There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, “What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.” The manager said to himself, “What shall I do now?”

Did you notice the wisdom in that simple question? A foolish manager might have ignored the warning or shrugged off the master’s threat with a flippant, “he’s not serious.” A fool might have thought, “Hey, I’ve got a job today, why worry about tomorrow?” A fool might have tried to argue with his master, accusing him of being unfair in his expectations or being too demanding. But not this manager – he was wise. He was concerned about the future. He knew he had put himself in a bad position and believed that the day would come when he would have to give a full accounting.

That’s the first step in Christian wealth management, too. Jesus wants us to ask, what shall I do because we too are managers of someone else’s possessions. As Paul reminded us in the epistle lesson: we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. (1 Timothy 6:7) All that we have, we confess in the first article of the Apostle’s Creed, belongs to God. This is true of our clothing, shoes, food and drink, our homes and cars, our bodies and souls, our reason and understanding – and it’s true of our money. In his Word, God has outlined four ways that he wants us to manage the wealth he has given us: 1) He wants us to use the best we have, our first fruits, to support the work of his kingdom on earth (1 Cor 16:2); 2) he wants us to take care of our families (1 Timothy 5:8); 3) he wants us to help those in need (1 John 3:17); and 4) he wants us to pay our taxes (Romans 13:6-7). And just like the master in the parable, God has promised that the day will come on which he will demand an accounting of our management.

The question is: do we really believe this? We confessed in the creed that Jesus…will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. And yet, how often, instead of living in view of that day of accounting don’t we think “I’m the master of what I have,” or “I’ve worked hard for what I have and it’s none of God’s business what I do with it?” How many live their lives and spend their money as if there were no day of Judgment, no God who knows our hidden thoughts, no master who will demand an accounting of how we have managed his possessions? How often do we sit down and consider our time, money and everything else God has given us and ask ourselves if we have been faithful in our use of those precious gifts?

And if we do sit down and consider that question, what do we find? Maybe a better question is: how do I know if I’ve been a faithful manager or not? There’s at least one way I can think of. We each (I hope) planned ahead and know what we will be putting in the offering plate this morning. Take that number and multiply by 4. What does that amount tell us? How does it compare to the amount we will spend this month on cable, internet and smart phones? How does it compare to the amount we spend eating out, golfing, fishing, hunting, camping or traveling? As we stand before God with our offering statement in one hand and the bill for our leisure and luxuries in the other, what do they tell God, what do they tell us? What does our monthly budget suggest is nearest and dearest to our hearts? Remember that Jesus also said: where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:21) What holds first place in our hearts? Is it God or Money? That’s the most important question, isn’t it? If this manager’s heart was filled with fear and uncertainty at the thought of losing his job, how should we feel knowing that one day we will have to give account to the One who has the power to destroy both body and soul in hell?

So: what shall [we] do? Let’s start with repentance. Let start by confessing that we have not been faithful managers of God’s possessions because not one of us can say that we have loved God with our whole hearts and demonstrated that in our wealth management. Instead of growing stubborn and angry, with the attitude that it’s none of God’s business what we do with our money, let us fall on our knees in sorrow that we could be so cold toward the God who gives us everything. Let us plead for his forgiveness. And then let us rejoice in his answer, for His answer is “for my Son’s sake, I forgive you.” Jesus has wiped away all evidence of my unfaithful management and yours with his life, death and resurrection. His is the only heart that never followed the god of money. Tempted with all the wealth of the world, Jesus said: away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only. (Matthew 4:10) Paul summed up what it took for Jesus to wash our unfaithful management from God’s accounting books: for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that through his poverty we might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9) Through faith we can face God’s day of reckoning without fear, because Christ has wiped our records clean with his precious blood.

But not only has Jesus freed us from our sinful mismanagement of the past, he has also freed us to be wise managers of his wealth right now. The dishonest manager had been told that he had to give an account for his management. He knew what that audit would reveal and that he would be out of a job. He contemplated digging or begging for a living, but decided that he wasn’t cut out for either. Then he hit on a plan: I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses. And it’s pretty slick what he did, isn’t it? He adjusted the bills of his master’s debtors so that, instead of owing the master, they owed him. Jesus tells us that there’s a lesson here for us too: I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. Let’s repeat: the manager was not commended for his dishonesty, but for his shrewdness, his wisdom. It wasn’t his fancy working of the books that made him wise, but the fact that with his limited time and his master’s money, he made friends for the future.

Similarly, Jesus encourages us to use our master’s money to make friends for the future. Jesus’ words are a powerful antidote for the tendency we have to think of the work of the church strictly in terms of dollars and cents. Jesus talks about making friends with our money – friends who will greet us in heaven. Sometimes these friends have names we know; just as often, they do not. They are the students who sit at Jesus’ feet in Sunday school, VBS, and area Lutheran day schools because our offerings have given them that opportunity. These friends are the future pastors and teachers who are now studying at MLC and WLS by virtue of the gifts we send to our Synod. These friends are people in Africa, China and dozens of other countries who are able to hear the saving gospel of Jesus Christ through our mission offerings. These friends are people in our own neighborhood, who, if they see a full parking lot or perhaps in the future a building project might wonder: what is so important to these people that they are so generous with their time and money? With these words Jesus invites us to look at the wealth we spend on furthering his kingdom not as money that’s thrown away and lost, but as an investment in immortal souls and heavenly friends.

At the same time, we can’t push this parable too far. There is a point where the similarity of Christians and the manager ends. The manager needed friends so he would have a place to go when he’d lost his job. We could never make enough friends with our worldly wealth to earn a place in heaven when our time here is up. But we do have a place to go when this life is over, a place prepared for us by Jesus by his perfect life, innocent death, and glorious resurrection. There is no room for doubt – we have a place to spend eternity, reserved for us before we were even born by the God who chose us from eternity. We don’t manage our money to make friends to get there. We don’t need them to have eternal life.

And yet, we do need these friends. We need them for the opportunity to give evidence of the saving faith that lives in our hearts. We need them to be able to demonstrate that our love for God is not just lip-service, but genuine love that shows itself in action. We need them to show that as managers of God’s money we believe that he gave us wealth not just to make our own lives comfortable but to carry out his great commission – which we have studied over the past 4 weeks: Go and make disciples of all nations. (Matthew 28:20)

But let’s get to the heart of the issue for a moment. As we contemplate God’s plan for wealth management on one hand and our own desires on the other, we’re going to realize that if we want to manage wealth God’s way, it might mean having to cut back in some places or give other things up completely. The thought of sacrificing our own luxury and leisure for God and his church will fill our stingy, selfish sinful nature with resentment. We will once again want to say: “how I use my money is none of God’s business,” or “I’ve given my part, it’s time for someone else to chip in.” There’s only one cure for that sinful attitude. Remember the friend who didn’t just cut back and didn’t just give up some of what he had to make us friends. He gave up everything. He is the one who said greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13) and then proceeded to Calvary to do just that. That was how much Jesus valued our friendship and our salvation. May his love for us move us to manage our wealth so that more and more people may come to know and believe in Jesus as their dearest friend.

You could learn a lot from a dummy. That was a catchy line from an effective ad campaign. Today, Jesus says: you could learn a lot from the worldly as he teaches us Christian wealth management. May we learn to live as managers who must give an account and let us learn to use our wealth to make friends for heaven. Amen.

[1] http://www.adcouncil.org/Our-Campaigns/The-Classics/Safety-Belt-Education

Ephesians 1:18-23, Isaiah 55:8-11, John 14:23-27 - Go and Make Disciples Part 3: Christ Builds His Church - September 4, 2016

It’s Labor Day weekend. Labor Day holds different significance for different people. For children who have suffered through two whole days of school, it’s a well-deserved break. For others, it marks the unofficial end of summer, the last weekend to tackle that household project, or a sure sign that football season is here. But how many Americans know the history of Labor Day? Labor Day started as a movement among labor unions in the 1880’s in New York City as a way of protesting long work days and poor working conditions and celebrating “the dignity of the American worker.” For several years, Labor Day festivities were limited to big labor unions in major cities. Then, in 1894, Congress passed the act marking the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday. So, if you have or had a job and want to be faithful to the spirit of the day, tomorrow you should kick back, take it easy and give yourself a pat on the back – because you’ve earned it.

Over the past several weeks, we’ve been talking about labor of a different kind: making disciples. One question we haven’t asked is: What is a disciple? In recent years, and in keeping with our ‘me’-focused culture, the discussion of discipleship has been centered on what a disciple does; he gives, he volunteers, he obeys, he imitates Christ. Unfortunately, that contradicts Jesus’ own definition of a disciple: if you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8:31) According to Jesus, a disciple is not a doer, a disciple is first and foremost a learner, a pupil, one who is taught. In other words, the essence of discipleship is not serving Jesus, but being served by Jesus. Being a disciple is about what you receive and the effect it has on you, not what you do and the effect it has on others. Tomorrow, you’re free to celebrate the dignity of labor however you see fit. But today, we’re going to wrap up our series on the great commission by focusing on the one at the center of all disciple-making; not the disciple, but the teacher; Jesus Christ.  

I.                    His Authority (Ephesians 1:18-23)

Whenever we think about the mission of the church, it’s important that we don’t pass too quickly over Jesus’ claim: all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Not just anyone has the right to make disciples. In fact, there’s always something weird and creepy about those who gather a group of followers around themselves without proper authority to do so. There’s even a term for it: a cult. Maybe the most famous cult in our country is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints – the Mormons. There’s something odd about that group because, despite the name, they are not disciples of Christ, but disciples of a man named Joseph Smith. Another famous American cult called Heaven’s Gate was led by Marshall Applewhite. You may remember that this cult following came to an abrupt end in 1997 when 39 members, certain that an alien spaceship hiding in the shadow of the Hale-Bopp Comet would rescue them, committed mass suicide in their trademark white Nikes by drinking poison. Creepy. Strange.

What makes the Christian church any different? Paul tells us that unlike illegitimate cult leaders, Christ did not claim the authority to make disciples for himself, rather, it was given to him. Perhaps it’s easy for us to forget, but Christ did not spend the majority of his time on earth making disciples, because [he] did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Matthew 20:28) Having accomplished his mission, [God] raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Christ has the authority to make disciples because he paid the ultimate price to redeem the world. No cult leader can make that claim. And this is a great comfort for us. As a church we are constantly confronted with threats and difficulties. It often seems like we are fighting a losing battle against an immoral and godless world. People we were sure were rock-solid believers suddenly fall from the faith. Whenever we look in the mirror we are confronted with our own sin. If the existence of the church depends on us, it’s doomed. That’s when we need to remember that Jesus is the head of the church – and he loves it like his own body. And not only that, but God has given him authority over the entire universe and the power to rule it all for the good of the church. He has promised the gates of [hell] shall not overcome it. (Matthew 16:18) As members of His church, we may be certain that nothing that happens in our lives is out of our Savior’s control. In this church, under the authority of the one who lived, died, rose and rules everything we may rest secure.

II.                  His Tools (Isaiah 55:8-11)

If Christ said “Go and make disciples” and stopped there, how would you propose carrying out his command? In our world, there are two ways to influence others. These two ways are so dominant that we even have sayings about them: 1) there’s the carrot and stick approach, which uses a combination of threats and rewards to change behavior; and, along the same lines 2) you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar – meaning that it’s more effective to be polite and flattering than hostile or demanding. Flattery and rewards or threats and hostility – that’s how things get done in our world. If it were up to us to decide how to make disciples, I suppose that we would either raise an army and demand conversion or death or we would flatter people by telling them they are really good and give them promises of earthly rewards. (Which, incidentally, are the very methods most religions use to gain followers.)

However, just as the authority to make disciples is Christ’s alone, so are the choice of tools to do so. Christ said make disciples, baptizing them, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. (Matthew 28:19-20) Reason believes this to be utter foolishness. Reason questions the effectiveness of the Word, spoken, and combined with water, bread and wine. To all appearances they seem so weak and ineffective – just rituals, just sounds that travel through the air to our ears or a series of letters on a page seen by our eyes. How could something as drastic as conversion from unbelief to faith, from death to life be accomplished by something as simple as the Gospel? Our reason questions it, doubts it, denies it.

That’s why it’s so important for us to take the words of Isaiah 55 to heart: my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. To be clear, it’s not just the tools that seem weak and irrational but the message itself. The Gospel invites us to live by faith, not by sight. (2 Cor 5:7) The Gospel doesn’t tell us what we must do but what Christ has done for us. Through the Gospel God settles accounts in a way that seems irrational: he punishes his perfect Son for the sins of a wicked world and offers the same wicked world his Son’s perfect righteousness through faith. If it were up to us to find a way to heaven, we would want to work for it. God offers it as a free gift – and ensures that it remains free by offering it only through channels that demonstrate that He alone coverts, creates faith and keeps us strong in faith.

Irrational? Unreasonable? Maybe, but God promises that these means are effective – just as effective as the rain and the snow that fall from heaven to water the earth. God could feed and sustain our bodies in any number of ways – but he has chosen to provide for us by causing water to fall from the sky which yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater. God could have decided to send an army of angels to force sinners to repent, he could have printed his Word in the clouds or the stars, he could speak directly to our hearts – but he hasn’t promised to. Instead, he has promised to reveal his will to the world, to convict the proud and to comfort the despairing through His Word – spoken, printed, pondered, and attached to water, bread and wine. This Word is the most powerful force on earth. The writer to the Hebrews states that the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12) And as Christ builds his church with His tools, he gives his guarantee: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. That purpose? Making and saving disciples.

III.               His Promise (John 14:23-27)

In the Great Commission, Christ authorized the church to make disciples for someone we’ve never seen using tools that seem weak and powerless. For many, the Great Commission raises more questions than answers. We want more. We want to see and feel the power of God at work. We want to understand the mind of God and see behind the curtain of his hidden will. We’re not the first ones to want that, either. Shortly before his crucifixion, some of the apostle’s came to Jesus with similar questions and concerns. Thomas said Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way? (John 14:5) Philip said Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us. (14:8) They wanted more. Jesus’ response?

If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. It may not seem like Jesus answered their questions and concerns, but he did – in a way we would never have imagined. As long as Jesus was on this earth, he was confined to one place at one time. But now that he reigns in heaven and rules the universe, he can be with us wherever we go. By his promise and through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is here at the font, calling sinners by name and cleansing their hearts with his forgiveness. He is here at the altar, offering his own body and blood for us to eat and drink for our personal forgiveness. He is in those classrooms welcoming little children into his arms. He is there when temptations come, arming you with the sword of the Spirit. He is there when you sin, urging you to repent and comforting you with his forgiveness. He is with you as you are being wheeled into surgery and he will be standing there waiting to welcome you home with open arms when you close your eyes for the last time.

So no, we don’t need anything more or anything better, because when we have the Word, we have Jesus, and Jesus gives us the one thing we need most: peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. Peace in a violent world. Peace for our sinful, fearful hearts. Peace in good times and bad, in life and in death. Peace with God is what Jesus gives us through his word and his invitation to come to him for true, lasting peace is what makes disciples. Make disciples – bring people to my feet to learn from me – he tells us. Do it with my authority and my Word. And do it with my promise: surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Amen. 

2 Timothy 3, Deuteronomy 11, Ephesians 4 - Go and Make Disciples Part 2: Christian Education - August 28, 2016

According to a 2015 Pew Research Center poll, the millennial generation (roughly, those between 18 and 35 years old) is the most educated generation in history. That statement is based on the fact that well over 20% of millennial men and women will have at least a bachelor’s degree by the age of 33. For comparison’s sake, in the Baby Boomer generation, only 17% of men and 14% of women had attained a bachelor’s degree by the same age. At the same time another 2015 survey revealed that while 41% of millennials claimed that religion was very important to them, only 27% of them said that they attended services on a weekly basis. Again, that compares to 38% of Baby Boomers who attended worship weekly. What does this data mean? The millennial generation, the generation that has recently graduated from college and is entering the work force, getting married, and having children is smart – too smart for religion and too smart for God.

I.                    The Word is the Basis for Christian Education (2 Timothy 3:14-17)

Why is that? Why is the smartest generation also the least religious? At least one part of the answer involves how they were educated and the results of that education. The vast majority of millennials were educated in secular, progressive classrooms from pre-K through college. (Secular in the sense that there was no religious influence in the classroom and progressive meaning that they were indoctrinated to believe that every change is for the better.) That secular, progressive education reveals its influence in changing priorities and attitudes that are decidedly not for the better. Priorities and attitudes that don’t seem much different from those Paul warned Timothy about in the 1st century: mark this: there will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power.

In contrast to the secular world raised to love and worship self, this was Paul’s advice to Timothy: as for you, continue in what you have learned and become convinced of. Christians are conservatives, not in the political sense, but in the highest sense possible. In a world where values and morals are always changing, usually not for the better – Christians stand firm in God’s unchanging truth. Paul gives two reasons for this. First, because we know who taught us. Timothy’s teachers were his mother and grandmother and Paul himself, sources who were loving and trustworthy. (2 Timothy 1:5) Sadly, we haven’t all had the same experience. Some of us have had teachers who did not teach us God’s Word but rather their own ideas. That’s why Paul offers the best reason to stand firm: because from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

We stand firm in God’s Word because three things are true about it that aren’t true of any other book. 1) Its power to create faith begins at infancy. It’s impossible to teach an infant algebra or Newton’s Laws of Physics, but the Bible can create faith in even the youngest child’s heart, as Jesus himself confesses. (Matthew 18:6) 2) It is holy. There are no errors or mistakes. Every history, mathematics, and science textbook must be regularly revised and updated – because new theories are always coming along. The Bible is perfect. It will never need to be updated. God will never issue a revision because His truth is unchanging and unmistaken. 3) Science textbooks can inform you about our world, history textbooks tell you about the past – but only this book can make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. It’s good to be informed and educated about many things in this life. It’s better to be wise for eternal life – to know and believe that Christ crucified for sinners is the only door to heaven. If we want to have the certainty of eternal life and the ability to share it, then the basis must be holy, unchanging and always applicable. The only basis for that kind of education is God’s Word.

II.                  The Word Must Be Taught to the Next Generation (Deuteronomy 11:1-7, 16-21)

In recent years there have been hundreds of studies, articles and books published identifying the peculiarities of the millennial generation. Millennials been called narcissistic, coddled, entitled, weak-willed and lacking in basic morality. While generalizations are dangerous because there are always exceptions, if social scientists feel comfortable describing millennials that way, who or what is to blame for it? The answer that some have arrived at is humbling. Their parents, teachers, and leaders – those who should have taught them the value of selflessness, morality, humility and hard work – didn’t. Whether that’s true or not doesn’t concern us here. What we do need to recognize is that the Word must be taught to the next generation.

The book of Deuteronomy (second law) tells us about the last years of Moses’ life. These were the years after the wandering, right before Israel entered the Promised Land. Before he left them, Moses reminded the Israelites of God’s love and his will for their lives. Did you notice where he placed the responsibility for living according to God’s will? On each individual Israelite: [you (sg)] love the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always. Each individual man, woman and child is responsible to love God by obeying his commandments – then and now. I can’t obey for you and you can’t obey for your children. Personal responsibility and accountability to God, characteristics that are woefully lacking in our world today, are essential to living as Christians who recognize God’s power and authority over this world and our lives.

But as Moses goes on he focusses more narrowly on who is responsible for teaching this to the next generation and why. He starts with why. Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the Lord your God in Egypt and at the Red Sea. It was not your children who saw what he did for you in the desert and how he punished Dathan and Abiram for their rebellion against God’s appointed leaders. (Numbers 16) But it was your own eyes that saw all these things the Lord has done. Moses’ point? Children cannot know what they have not been taught. Infants, children, and teenagers do not receive saving faith through genetics, you can’t sprinkle it on their cereal, they will not believe in Jesus simply because they come from a long family of Christians. They must be taught to know what Christ has done for them and what his will is for their lives. And for that to happen, we, who know the unchanging truth of God’s Law and Gospel, who have personally experienced the Lord’s discipline and mercy, who confess our sinfulness and rejoice that Jesus came to save sinners – we must teach them. We are all responsible for teaching the next generation – none of us is exempt.

But that doesn’t mean that we are equally responsible. In fact, Moses assumed that most Christian education wouldn’t take place in church or a classroom. Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Who is Moses speaking to here? Who is with a child from the moment he wakes up to the moment he goes to bed? The primary responsibility for teaching children the truth of the Word rests with parents. Some social scientists argue that the main reason the millennial generation is so different is because theirs was the first generation to be sent to day care and preschool at a very young age. More than previous generations they didn’t learn how to play sports or read their abc’s, how to interact with others and their sense of morals and values from their parents but from others. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, you can judge for yourself. But the Lord has made it clear: the responsibility for teaching children the way of the Lord rests primarily with parents – it can’t be shifted to others. And the reason ought to be obvious: who spends the most time with children? Who guides their choices of television, friends, and activities? Who continues to influence their decisions even as adults? Parents. That doesn’t mean that the church and pastors and teachers aren’t responsible for teaching children God’s Word – they are. But their role is to assist and support parents – not replace them. If the next generation is to know and believe in Christ as their Savior, they must be taught. It is the responsibility of every Christian, but the special responsibility of parents.

III.               Christian Education Is A Lifelong Pursuit (Ephesians 4:11-16)

One issue that has troubled Christian pastors and parents since the beginning of time is: why do those who have been baptized, raised, and confirmed in the Christian faith suddenly become apathetic toward God and neglectful of the means of grace? I’m not going to claim to have solved the problem, but one aspect that is no secret is that once a teenager has been confirmed – they think they know it all. I know that’s not unique to the things of God, but nowhere is that attitude more dangerous than when it comes to the things of God. Paul warned the Corinthians: if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! (1 Corinthians 10:12) The way of complacency leads only one place, and it’s not heaven.

In Ephesians 4, Paul outlines God’s plan for the continuing education of Christians of all ages. God has given the church apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Why? To babysit? To do the things no one else wants to do? To prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up. The reason we offer regular Bible studies, the reason we urge and encourage parents to send their children to Christian grade schools and bring them to Sunday school, the reason God has given his church pastors and teachers is so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the full measure of the fullness of Christ. When are we done learning and studying God’s Word? When we know it as well as Jesus himself. Clearly, we have work to do. Clearly, it’s dangerous to think that confirmation is the conclusion to Christian education. Clearly, learning God’s Word needs to be a lifelong pursuit.

The result of lifelong learning is the one thing that can change the current trend of our world, the church and our families. Paul spells out the results: We will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Infants are gullible. They think they disappear when playing peek-a-boo. Spiritual infants are gullible. They are easily mislead by false teachers and the godless doctrines of the world. We see that today in those who are tossed back and forth by society’s ever changing views on marriage and morality and sexuality, in those who are convinced that doing a few good deeds will get you into heaven, in people who are misled and deceived by false teachers who promise them prosperity and purpose in life. Young people, and really people of any age, fall away from Christ because when they stop building on the foundation of God’s Word they are easily swept away by waves of culture and the winds of false teaching. We know this. Sadly we see this happen with our own families and friends. What can we do about it? We can keep learning ourselves so that we are prepared to give an answer to every generation’s questions. We can encourage. We can pray. We can set an example by making God’s Word a priority in our own lives. We can warn and discipline with the Law and comfort and encourage with the Gospel and trust that God will work through those means to cause the seed he planted in Baptism to grow and produce a harvest.  

The good news is that even Christian education isn’t primarily about what we do, but about what Christ has done for us. God’s Son became flesh to live the perfect life we never could – and that included a perfect record of studying and teaching the Word. Our sins of apathy toward worship and the Word, our failure to raise our children in the fear and knowledge of the Lord, our reluctance to take responsibility for our own spiritual growth – Jesus has wiped those sins from our record with his precious blood. Because of Christ, God doesn’t see us as failures – he sees us as his perfect, obedient children. Cleansed and forgiven, let us commit to making Christian education a high priority because we know the promises God gives to those who plant themselves in his Word: forgiveness of sins, new life now and the assurance of eternal life when we die. Those are the precious gifts God gives us in his Word, they are the most precious gifts we can pass on to the next generation, and, in the end, receiving and sharing the gifts of God is what Christian education is all about. Amen. 

Romans 10, 1 Peter 3, 1 Corinthians 11 - Go and Make Disciples Part 1: The Means of Grace - August 21, 2016

Go and make disciples Jesus told his disciples before he ascended into heaven. Go and make disciples Jesus tells the church of all time, including our own little corner of the kingdom here in McFarland, WI. Making disciples of Christ is the mission of the church. The question is: how? Some say disciples are made when people are pressed into stepping up to the altar to make their decision for Christ. Some say that disciples are made by doing what the church tells them to do – give money, volunteer their time, go on mission trips, etc. Others kind of throw up their hands and say that we have no idea how or when God comes into a person’s heart, but there’s a good chance the Holy Spirit is present if someone is speaking in tongues, having a vision, or playing soft, soothing music. If you look at the Christian church today, you would think that Jesus told the church to make disciples – and then left it to decide for itself how to do that. The truth is, Jesus told the church precisely how to make disciples: baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. (Matthew 28:19-20) Over the next few weeks we will focus on our Savior’s commission to make disciples and specifically, how he intends the church to do so. This morning we look at the most precious (and perhaps most underappreciated) gift Christ has given the Church: the Means of Grace.

The first thing we must do is define the term means of grace. Grace is God’s attitude of undeserved love for us, rebellious sinners and the means are the pipeline by which he conveys this love to us. Just as the water contained in the tower on the hill doesn’t do the residents of McFarland any good without water mains, so the gifts Christ earned by his life, death and resurrection don’t do any good unless there are sure and certain, God-ordained means to deliver these gifts to sinners. The Bible states and we confess that no one will be saved apart from these means of grace – and that’s something we need to emphasize. Why? Because there are many who claim that we are unfairly limiting God when we say that salvation comes only through the means of grace. How could we place limits on an all-powerful God, they ask. Well, we don’t; God in his Word does. Moses asked to see God in all of his glory. God said I will proclaim my name in your presence…but you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live. (Exodus 33:15-23) In Jesus’ NT parable, the rich man wanted Lazarus to appear to his brothers on earth to create faith in their hearts, Abraham replied…If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead. (Luke 16:31) God could create faith in human hearts without external means – we don’t deny that – but he never has and he never promises to do so. What he does promise is to create faith in human hearts through the Gospel. In the Smalcald Articles, Martin Luther makes our confession for us: Therefore we should and must insist that God does not want to deal with us human beings, except by means of his external Word and sacrament. Everything that boasts of being from the Spirit apart from such a Word and sacrament is of the devil. (SA III, VIII, 10) God offers forgiveness, faith, and salvation to sinful humans only through his chosen means: the Gospel in Word and sacrament.

I.                    The Word

In Romans 10, Paul establishes the necessity of preaching the Word. He first quotes the prophet Joel to summarize the essence of salvation: Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. “Calling on the name of the Lord” is the OT way of saying repent and believe. Everyone who repents of their sins and trusts the Lord for salvation will be saved from the eternal death they deserve. He then draws a very rational connection between faith and the Word. How can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? Paul highlights several very important elements: 1) Salvation comes by faith, not by works; 2) No one can believe until they have heard the gospel of Christ crucified; 3) No one can hear unless someone tells them; 4) No one can preach unless they are sent. So why do we gather here every week to hear the Gospel preached and taught? Because God sends men to preach His Word so that sinners can hear about what Christ has done for them, believe it, and be saved. Or, as Paul puts it: faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. We read and preach the Gospel every Sunday; we insist that our liturgy and hymns are faithful to that Word; we refuse to allow anyone to add to, subtract or distract from the Word because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. (Romans 1:16)

II.                  Holy Baptism

The Gospel preached and proclaimed to sinners saves. But in his wisdom, God gives his grace to us in two other forms – the sacraments. The word sacrament simply means “a sacred act.” While the word does not appear in the Bible, the church uses the word “sacrament” to identify two special sacred acts in which God gives his grace to undeserving sinners. Different churches define the word sacrament in different ways – which is why some churches have seven sacraments and some have none – the definition we draw from Scripture has three parts. A sacrament is a sacred act which 1) was instituted by Christ himself; 2) which offers the forgiveness of sins; and 3) which uses an earthly element. Two sacred acts fall under this definition: Holy Baptism and Holy Communion.

In his first letter, the Apostle Peter writes about the importance and the results of Baptism. He begins with the source of Baptism’s power: Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. On Calvary, Jesus accomplished salvation for the world. He, the sinless Son of God, died in the place of rebellious sinners – and his resurrection is the proof that God accepted his sacrifice. The question is, how does the salvation Christ earned for the world become our personal possession? Peter answers: through water. When water covered the earth in Noah’s day, it swept the face of the earth clean of wickedness and unbelief and saved Noah’s family at the same time. When water was splashed on your head at your baptism, God swept the sin from your heart and saved you. Remarkably, in comparing the two, Peter is saying that the miracle that takes place at the baptismal font is greater than the destruction of the Flood. How can that be? It is not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. The NIV translation makes it sound like Baptism is something we do, that by being baptized we pledge ourselves to God. That is very misleading. A better translation would be “a legal claim.” In Baptism, God credits Christ’s perfect life and atoning death to sinners one by one. Baptized believers can be sure that they stand innocent before God, not because they have committed themselves to God, but because God has committed himself to forgiving them for Jesus’ sake. Your baptism is God’s binding contract to save you. So, why do we baptize infants and adults, why do we recall our baptism regularly and why do we insist that God alone is active in the Word and water of baptism? Because baptism makes disciples and baptism saves.

III.               Holy Communion

Why spend an entire service talking about what we do here and why? Because when we forget the church’s mission or the tools God has given to accomplish that mission, Satan will quickly swoop in to convince us that the church would be better off doing other things – things that are more appealing to our sinful nature and the unbelieving world. Today, those “other things the church should be doing” include offering entertainment instead of instruction, preaching how-to guides for marriage and money rather than Law and Gospel, promoting political agendas, feeding the world, and in general placing the focus on us rather than the cross. While those are things that Christians may freely do out of love for others – they are not the primary mission of the Church. Bad things happen when we forget that.

In fact, Paul was writing to Christians who had forgotten why it was that they gathered every week around the Word, bread and wine. In Corinth, coming to church became little more than an opportunity to feast and socialize with friends. They had forgotten that the church does not exist simply to fill people’s bellies but to fill souls with forgiveness and life. The situation was so bad that Paul warned: I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. (1 Corinthians 11:17) What was the solution? Remember who called you out of darkness to gather as fellow believers in the first place – and remember what he commanded you to do. I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” Jesus commanded the church to gather regularly not just to eat, but to receive his body and blood for the forgiveness of sins.

Many regard it as foolishness that we believe in the real presence of Jesus’ body and blood in, with and under the bread and wine. But what did Jesus say? This is my body…this is my blood. Jesus didn’t leave room for interpretation. In this sacrament we receive the very body and blood that Jesus gave up and shed for us on the cross for the forgiveness of sins. So that, just like the Word and Baptism, the Lord’s Supper serves as the pipeline through which God gives us everything Christ won for us on the cross: forgiveness, new life and salvation. But there’s more: whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Maybe you can’t preach or play the organ or sing in the choir. Maybe you don’t have much in terms of money, time or energy to support the church’s mission. But when you come here to receive the body and blood of Christ you are preaching a sermon to the world (and maybe more importantly, to your friends and family): Jesus Christ died for sinners, and soon enough he will be back to take me and all believers home. That’s a message that entertainment, how-to lessons, and political speeches do not preach – and it’s the one thing we and our world need most.

Go and make disciples Jesus said. How? Preach the Word, baptize with water, eat and drink my body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. Why do we do what we do on Sunday mornings and refuse to let anything get in the way of the means of grace? Because these are the only means through which God has promised to save sinners and keep believers in the faith until they die. Is there anything more important than that? Is there anything better we could be doing? No. So let us thank God for giving us His means of grace, let us never neglect them, and let us be faithful in our use of them. Amen.  

Matthew 6:13 - The Church's Abiding Doxology - August 7, 2016

Over the past 8 weeks, we have sat at Jesus’ feet and listened as he said: this is how you should pray. (Matthew 6:9) As children talking to their dear Father, that is how you should talk to God. And these are the things which you should ask of God: that His Name, his Word be honored on your lips and in your life before a world that is watching; that his kingdom may reign in your heart and in the hearts of others; that his will – his Law and Gospel – may rule your life just as it rules everything in heaven. Ask your Father for daily bread, the stuff you need to sustain this life on your way to eternal life. Ask God every day to forgive your sins for Jesus’ sake and ask him to help you pass that forgiveness on to others. Hold out your helpless hand and beg God to lead you through a world riddled with temptation and trust him alone for deliverance from every evil. And today, we conclude this prayer the way we began it: with our Father. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. This doxology is the Church’s bold confession and her resounding Amen.

You probably noticed that we read the Gospel lesson this morning from the 1900 edition of the King James Version. Because some original manuscripts include these words and some do not, the editors of the NIV made the decision to put the doxology in a footnote. So what should we think? Are these Jesus’ words? Should we be praying them? Well, to make a long story short – and you will rarely hear a confessional Lutheran pastor say this – it’s not a big concern for us. Why not? Two reasons. First, whether Jesus spoke these words or not, they had become a part of the Lord’s Prayer in the Christian church as early as 70 AD – around 40 years after Jesus’ crucifixion, while some of the Apostles were still alive – recorded in one of the earliest non-Biblical Christian documents we have, the Didache.

Second, even if these words aren’t part of Matthew’s original text, they are without question Biblical. We heard proof of that twice this morning. In 1 Chronicles 29, David was preparing for death and preparing his son, Solomon, to take the throne of Israel and to undertake the building of the Lord’s Temple. As David looked back over his life and ahead to his heavenly home, he summed it all up with this grand doxology: Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. (1 Chronicles 29:11) These words have stood the test of 3000 years and they also pass the test of eternity – as Jesus revealed to John in his Revelation of heaven where he witnessed saints and angels fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: “Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever. Amen!” (Revelation 7:12) Whether she is praising God in this world or the next, these words are the church’s abiding doxology; her unchanging hymn of praise to the Father who created her, defends her, and will carry her safely home.

When we began this series 8 weeks ago with the address, we noted that the only ones who can properly pray the words of the Lord’s Prayer and expect to be heard are those who have been washed in Jesus’ blood and approach God’s throne through faith in him. In that way, the Doxology not only rises as a hymn of praise to heaven, it is a public confession of what we believe about God. In a world that celebrates religious pluralism, that bends over backwards to treat every religion – from Islam, Judaism and Christianity to various cults, to the local Atheist church, and those who bow down to Mother Nature – as equally valid and true; it is all the more important that we give a bold and clear confession of the one, true God. So what do we believe about God?

Yours is the kingdom. All other kingdoms collapse. The mighty empires of old are piles of rubble underfoot. Mad tyrants whose thirst for power led to their own undoing – men like Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Adolf Hitler, and Saddam Hussein – theirs is not the kingdom. ISIS and the EU and the UN, who extend their borders through treaties and military might – theirs is not the kingdom. The countless millions who spend their lifetimes carving out their little kingdoms filled with boats and cars, vacation homes and bigger and bigger barns to store all their stuff – theirs is not the kingdom. And we who long for the heavenly Jerusalem know that ours is not the kingdom either. Christ has set us free to admit: “My kingdom, my every achievement, my every ambition, my wealth, my name, my legacy – [we] consider them rubbish, that [we] may gain Christ and be found in him.” (Philippians 3:8) We confess with saints and angels – “Yours, heavenly Father, is the kingdom, now and forever.”

Yours is the power. The military commanders, politicians and the lobbyists – theirs is not the power. The playground bullies and the office manipulators and the Islamic terrorists – theirs is not the power. The presidents and prime ministers and the global elite – theirs is not the power. Yes, their power is real, but God has set limits on the power of human rulers, as even Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 2:37) and Cyrus (Ezra 1:2) had to confess. Those with the most money, the best lawyers, the biggest mouths – theirs is not the power. And we confess that the power is not ours, either. In humility we recognize that it only takes one accident, one illness, one failure, one bad decision, one embarrassing sin to reveal how little power we have, how weak and helpless we truly are. And so our trust is not in any man, woman or movement, but in God: “The power – ultimate power over wind and wave, sickness and health, body and soul and time and eternity – that power is yours and yours alone, dear Father.”

Yours is the glory. The entrepreneurs and innovators whose vision and forward thinking ends abruptly at the grave – theirs is not the glory. The Oscar winning actors, musicians, and Olympic athletes who work their whole lives to achieve 15 minutes of fame – theirs is not the glory. The self-righteous who imagine that God will be impressed with their tales of good works – theirs is not and will never be the glory. Nor can we boast of our faith or our good deeds, for even they are a gift of God. (Ephesians 2:8) Jesus has taught us that the only way to heaven is to despair of our own glory (which before God is really more like filthy rags) – and to confess with Paul: May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Galatians 6:14) “Yours, not mine, heavenly Father, is the glory.”

Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. This is the church’s bold confession. But some days it’s hard to believe those things, isn’t it? Some days we mutter these words half-heartedly because we know that when we open our eyes and unfold our hands and walk out those doors the world will still contradict every word of this prayer. God’s Word is trashed and his people are slandered. His kingdom and rule are resisted. His will is ignored – and many seem happiest when they are intentionally living contrary to his will. It seems as though the powers of darkness are winning. We read the papers, watch the news, feel the winds of economic and political turmoil. We worry about our jobs, our children, the future. We track our health and our nest eggs as they both sputter and fail. We watch evil roll over the face of the earth and it doesn’t seem like the kingdom and the power and the glory belong to anyone in particular – especially not a good and holy God who only wants what is best for us.

If you ever feel that way; if it ever seems like everything we do here, say here and pray here contradicts what you see with your eyes and experience in your life…good, because that means you’re getting the hang of this thing called faith. The book of Hebrews defines faith as being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1) Having faith means having a perspective on life that is based not on what we see but on what God has promised. Faith means trusting that He holds the world and our fragile lives in his powerful hands. Faith testifies to the reality of God’s kingdom, the power, and the glory – even though we cannot see it. Like the towering cathedrals of the medieval church, this doxology lifts us out of the ordinary meaninglessness of daily life, it points us away from our troubled hearts and lives to eternal, invisible, indestructible things – the things of God.

That’s why the church doesn’t close the Lord’s Prayer with a question mark but with an exclamation mark, not with an “I hope” but with “I know”, not with “Amen.” but with “Amen!” You may think that pastors get to have all the fun learning and then reading the original Greek and Hebrew of Scripture – but you would be wrong, because every time you say “amen” you are speaking Hebrew. That word links you to the father of believers: Abraham believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6) “Believed” is the Hebrew word “Amen.” (וְהֶאֱמִ֖ן) We end our creeds and sermons and prayers and hymns with this word. It means to be firm, sure, certain, unchanging. Abraham believed the Lord. He was absolutely certain that God would keep his promise to send a Savior, and the Lord credited that faith in the promise as saving righteousness.

When we say “amen”, we join Abraham in declaring our faith in God’s promises. Essentially we are saying: “Lord, I have heard your Word and promises and I live this life and stake my eternity on the certainty of you keeping them.” With “amen,” you confess your belief that God has credited everything Christ did to your account. His life is your life. His death is your death. His payment for sin is the payment for your sin. His resurrection is a foreshadow of your resurrection. We can’t prove any of this, we can’t hack into God’s accounting books to calculate the arithmetic of forgiveness, we can’t feel the cloak of Christ’s righteousness that covers us, we can’t peer through death to the other side of the grave. But, by faith, we know these things to be true. We pray “amen” by faith, not by sight.

Those without faith cannot pray. They cannot approach God or expect to be heard because no one comes to the Father except through [Jesus]. (John 14:6) Those without faith can only appreciate kingdoms established with borders and armies, not one established by Word and water, bread and wine. They cannot understand why we fall on our knees and confess “not my will, but yours be done.” They cannot help but grow anxious for the future, because they do not trust that God will provide bread for each new day. They are not motivated to forgive others because they have not experienced the sweet taste of sins forgiven themselves. They do not regard temptation as a danger to be struggled against but rather a “lifestyle choice” they are free to make. They cannot see that the real battle in this world is not between warring ideologies over political power but between the forces of heaven and hell over human souls. Those without faith do not believe and those without faith cannot say “amen.”

In his grace, God has opened our hearts to believe that the kingdom, the power and the glory are his. By faith we know that God’s kingdom is wherever Jesus is and that Jesus is wherever his Word and Sacraments are. By faith we lay these bold petitions before God’s throne and expect him to answer, because we know God’s promise and we trust that what the Apostle Paul wrote is true: no matter how many promises God has made, they are “yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. (2 Corinthians 1:20)

And so, whether Jesus spoke these words or not, it is perfectly fitting for us to close His prayer with the church’s abiding doxology. We pray with confidence because Jesus has taught us to pray in this way. We say “amen” because we believe his promise to hear us. As blood bought believers it is our duty to make the clear confession that the kingdom, the power, and the glory belong to God alone now and forever. And it is our privilege to respond to God’s promises with the saints of old and the angels in heaven: “Yes, God, as you have promised – so shall it be.” Amen. 

Matthew 6:13 - Deliver Us From Evil - July 31, 2016

In his Large Catechism, Martin Luther referred to this petition as the summary petition, reasoning that if God answers this petition, he will have answered all of them. When you think through what Jesus has taught us to pray for, that explanation makes a lot of sense. What is it that keeps God’s name from being hallowed, his kingdom from coming, and his will from being done on earth as it is in heaven? What causes poverty and famine and creates our daily necessity for things as basic as bread, water and shelter? What hardens hearts so that we stubbornly refuse to ask for the forgiveness God freely offers through Jesus’ perfect sacrifice? What makes us so ungrateful for God’s forgiveness that we refuse to forgive those who sin against us? What is it that tempts us to sin against God and one another? The answer is of course: evil. So according to Luther’s way of thinking, if God answers this petition, he will have answered them all. And that’s really the point of everything we could ever pray for, isn’t it – that God would deliver us from evil. Praying this petition means asking God to teach us to correctly identify the source of evil and then to trust Jesus as the only one who can deliver us from evil.

After two long weeks, the conventions have wrapped up, the candidates have been chosen and have spoken. If you listen to political commentators, the one thing the conventions proved beyond question is that our country is deeply divided. Do Republicans and Democrats have anything in common? Can they agree on anything? I suggest that yes, Republicans and Democrats do have something in common, they can agree on something, and I think it came out pretty clearly in the acceptance speeches. Both candidates agree that our nation and our world are facing a crisis of evil. What that evil is and how to deal with it – that’s another story.

And perhaps that disparity points to a larger problem in our society and our world. Whether it comes from the podiums at political conventions or in our discussions around the kitchen table, what is the focus of most of the talk about evil? Isn’t it on the weapons and ideologies behind violent attacks and all the symptoms and side-effects of evil in our world? The presidential candidates laid out their visions to defeat terrorism, racism, poverty, income inequality and war. We talk about the evil of pollution and pornography and political corruption and pedophilia and potholes. But we no longer seem to be willing to say that these are only the symptoms of something much deeper. We accuse hate speech and inanimate objects of being evil, we blame bad leadership or hard circumstances for evil actions. And through it all we have forgotten how to call evil, evil.

And so instead of focusing on the source, we attack the symptoms – and nothing gets solved. The examples are countless. The problem is terrorism. One side demands that we take the war to the terrorist’s homes and hit them where it hurts. The other suggests that we stop attacking our enemies and try to convince them that we really want to be their friends. What have both sides failed to do? Stop terrorism. The problem is violence on our streets. One side claims that taking away guns and spending money on education will stop it. The other claims that a well-armed citizenry and the physical education of prison will prevent it. What have both sides failed to solve? Violence in the streets. At home, we worry about finances and the future, children misbehave and spouses betray each other. Among the solutions offered are better budgeting, firmer discipline and stronger communication. Has anything actually been solved? Finally, we all deal with the fact that our bodies are breaking down or already broken and that eventually disease or an accident or one of a thousand other causes will end our time on this earth. Everyone agrees that death is evil, right? But what’s the solution? A healthier diet, more exercise, better medicine, the fountain of youth? None of the solutions humanity has ever proposed has solved the problem of evil, because human solutions attack the symptoms while failing to address the source.

Now, for the unbelieving world, that’s understandable. Paul wrote to the Corinthians: the man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14) The world writes off things the Bible identifies as evil: original sin, rejection of God’s Word and rebellion against God’s will, evil human desires and the devil, as either ‘superstition’ or relics from an ancient, unenlightened, ignorant period in history. It shouldn’t surprise us that the worlds’ attempts to stamp out evil focus only on the symptoms, for they have neither the understanding nor the tools to do anything about the root cause of it all.

But Jesus does. And so he doesn’t teach us to pray for deliverance from the symptoms of evil, but from evil itself. While the NIV reads deliver us from the evil one, the Greek is better translated simply evil. Satan is certainly one source of evil. Paul revealed that to 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) But Satan is not the sole source of evil. Jesus told his disciples out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. (Matthew 15:19) All of the evil we see in our world, evil of body and soul, property and reputation can be traced to two sources: Satan himself and the place he rules in this world: the human heart.

Ok, so now that we’ve recognized the root of evil, we can fix it, right? One man tried to do this the world’s way: through policies and laws. This man learned from the best Bible teachers of his time. He knew his Old Testament forwards and backwards. He even subscribed to and obeyed 613 additional rules God hadn’t given. If anyone could fix the problem of evil, it was this man. And yet, do you know what Paul confessed after God had opened his eyes to the truth? I know that nothing good lives in me…for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing…So I find this law at work: when I want to do good, evil is right there with me…What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? (Romans 7:18-24) So no, not even Christians can solve the problem of evil in our world – even though once again this election cycle many churches will use our political system to try – because we are captive to evil just as much as terrorists and cop killers. Not only can we not save the world, we can’t even save ourselves.  

That’s why Jesus doesn’t teach us to pray help us fix the symptoms of evil or give us laws that will prevent evil but [Father] deliver us from evil. That little word ‘deliver’ is a very big theme in the pages of Scripture, and the Bible is filled with stories of the deliverance of men, women, and children from the clutches of evil. Satan robbed Job of his family, wealth and health. God delivered him from his loss and pain and blessed him with twice as much as he had before. (Job 42:12) Around 1500 BC the Israelites cried out for deliverance from Egypt, where they were enslaved, persecuted for their faith, and forced to execute their baby boys. The Lord heard their prayer and sent Moses to deliver them. The book of Judges tells of how time after time God’s people rebelliously assimilated to the evil culture in which they lived until they realized that they had fallen for a lie and cry out for deliverance. In fact, you could summarize the entire book in just two phrases: [Israel] cried out to the Lord and the Lord raised up for them a deliverer. (Judges 3:9) Three men in the fiery furnace. Daniel in the lion’s den. The disciples on the stormy Sea of Galilee. We could go on.

The important thing to understand is that all of these mini-rescue stories are just chapters in God’s blockbuster tale of deliverance for all mankind. The proper way to read the Bible, especially the OT, is to see each small rescue story as a shadow of the final deliverance that Jesus Christ began on Christmas Day and will complete on the Last Day. This was what Jesus meant when he told the Pharisees: you diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me. (John 5:39) And Jesus did exactly what God sent him to do. As he was hanging on the cross that word ‘deliver’ came up again as people passed by him and mocked him, saying: he trusts in God. Let God deliver him now, if he desires him. (Matthew 27:43 ESV) This was the one time in history that God didn’t deliver. God didn’t deliver his Son from evil. Or, more accurately, God did deliver his Son - right into the hands of evil. God loved us so much that he delivered His Son, not just into an evil world, an evil culture or an evil set of circumstances. He delivered Jesus to the soul and source of evil.

That’s the heart of the gospel: God delivered his Son into evil to deliver us from evil. Satan is skilled at confusing this message, so we need to be very clear on this: God did not send Jesus to rid the world of poverty or to solve street violence, he didn’t come to protect us from terrorists or to help children behave and spouses to communicate. Those are only symptoms. Jesus came into the world to get to the root of evil and tear it out. He came to seize the neck of the evil one and break it. On the cross, the Holy One of God (Mark 1:24) entered into the inner sanctum of all that is unholy, the source of all suffering and pain and even death itself – and he destroyed Satan’s grip on this world and our hearts by swallowing up the source of his power: sin. And having defeated the Prince of Evil, he continues to plunder Satan’s kingdom – not with guns or laws or elections – but by shining the light of his mercy and forgiveness into the dark depths of human hearts like ours. Politicians may give compelling arguments for why you should trust them to fix the symptoms of evil in our nation and world, but there’s only one person to trust for deliverance from evil – the One who entered the heart of darkness and lived to tell about it.

Then why do we still face the symptoms of evil wherever we turn? Satan, though defeated, continues to reign in this world and rule human hearts. (Revelation 20) But as Jesus frees human souls from Satan’s kingdom he also delivers us from the symptoms of evil. The Bible tells us that He does this in one of three ways. 1) He may keep evil away from us. If you have never been a victim of poverty or terrorism or disease – God has delivered you from evil. 2) He may allow evil to come and use it for our good. Think of Joseph and Job. Think of the crisis God used to strengthen your faith by bringing you back to his Word. In those ways – he delivers you from evil. 3) And finally, because this world will never be free from evil, look forward to closing your eyes for the last time, when God will deliver you from this world to himself in heaven – that is God’s final answer to this petition, the answer every Christian longs for. Until that day, don’t despair because evil seems to be prevailing and don’t become distracted by the world’s promises of deliverance. Instead, pray: Our Father in heaven…deliver us from evil. Believe that Jesus has delivered you from the Evil One through the water of Baptism and trust his promise to deliver you through all evil in this world to his side in heaven.

Most people – even Republicans and Democrats – agree that we are facing a crisis of evil in our nation and our world. But because the unbelieving world is spiritually blind and cannot identify the true source of evil, the best it can ever do is try to fix some of the symptoms. (Which, when it comes to government is fine, because that’s exactly what God created government to do.) In this summary petition, we not only learn how to correctly identify where evil comes from, but also to trust the only one who can truly deliver us from evil. Who is this? we will sing in moments, Jesus Christ it is, the almighty Lord. And there’s no other God; he holds the field forever. (CW 200:2) Amen.

Matthew 6:13 - Lord, Lead Us to Be Aware of Temptation and Through Temptation - July 24, 2016

By now I suspect most of us have heard of the latest craze in smart-phone apps – and if you haven’t, well you may be one of the lucky ones. Pokémon Go, it’s called. Not having joined the craze myself, what I understand is that you are able to see images of Pokémon characters on your smartphone screen overlaid on your real surroundings. For example, churches are popular hiding places for these creatures, so if you have this game, you might actually find a character here at Risen Savior. This game has been wildly popular all around the world. Many are praising the game, saying that it promotes socializing and physical activity. But, like almost anything in life, there is a dark side. In the past few weeks, two men in California fell off a cliff chasing a Pokémon, two Canadian teenagers wandered across the border chasing Pokémon and were detained by the border patrol, and a military veteran crashed his car into a tree while playing the game. The message to those who play Pokémon is: be aware of your surroundings and whether you’re walking or driving, and don’t give into the temptation to play when you should be keeping your eyes on the road. That’s good advice for any kind of smartphone use, and it’s good advice for navigating your way through life, too. And in a way, that’s what we’re asking for when we pray lead us not into temptation. We’re asking the Lord to lead us to be aware of temptation, and to lead us through temptation.

A cursory reading of this petition has caused endless confusion for many Christians. Why, they ask, would we need to ask God NOT to lead us into temptation? Is that something he does? Would God normally put stumbling blocks in the path of his children? No. James made that clear: when tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. (James 1:13) So this petition is not a prayer that God would stop tempting us, because his very nature doesn’t allow it. Nor is this a prayer that God would remove all temptation from our lives, because there’s only one way to do that: death. So this petition, is first of all a request that God would make us aware of our surroundings – that is, the things around us that tempt us to sin.

James reveals that: each one tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. (James 1:14) So the first source of temptation in my life is…me. The Bible teaches it and when we look in the mirror we can see it – but are we always aware of it? Are we aware that the source of lust is not the smut on TV or the way people dress or the flirtatious glance – but the desire for forbidden fruit that resides in our hearts? Are we aware that greed is not created by the wealth of others or endless marketing campaigns but either our lack of contentment or sinful pride over what God has graciously given us? Do we realize that laziness and gluttony aren’t merely symptoms of living in an affluent society but symptoms of a sin-sick heart? Whenever we pray these words, let us realize that the first tempter we need to be aware of with is not out there, but in here.

Jesus warned his disciples about the second source of temptation, telling them: woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come! (Matthew 18:7) Being aware of our surroundings means recognizing that no matter how innocent and attractive the unbelieving world seems – it is not there to help us on our path to heaven. You’re not supposed to say this in a politically correct society, but unbelievers are incapable of pleasing God or helping us to live as disciples of God. Paul wrote: the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. (Romans 8:7-8) No matter how good, how nice, how helpful and compassionate the unbelieving world might appear, the truth is that nothing has changed since God gave his assessment of humanity before the Flood: every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. (Genesis 6:5) So if it seems like everyone is only living for themselves, that’s because they are! If it seems like the world is going to hell, it is! The highest power an unbeliever can ever serve is himself. Don’t be deceived and don’t be unprepared – the unbelieving world only seeks to lead you away from Jesus and entangle you in the worries and concerns, the glitz and glamour, the terrors and torments of this life.

Finally, the general behind the dark forces of the world and the one who tries to rouse the passions of our sinful flesh is the devil. And his specialty is attacking Christian faith and his target is your soul. Knowing that he is doomed, he works tirelessly to lead as many people as possible down the broad road that leads to hell. He is the one responsible for tempting and leading baptized and confirmed Christians away from God’s Word and sacrament – the only means of preserving and strengthening saving faith. He is the sinister force behind every teaching and teacher who would suppress or deny the Gospel truth of salvation by grace alone in Christ alone through faith alone. He tempts Christians to become complacent and to believe they know all they need to go to heaven and begin to place their trust in the shaky sand of their own faith rather than the bedrock of the written Word. Satan is the fiend who leads us to sin with the promise that it’ll be fun and exciting – and when we have fallen shows his true colors – accusing us, condemning us, and leaving us to despair. Satan wants us to think that it’s no big deal to play around with temptation – that a little greed, a little lust, some hatred and some covetousness is nothing to worry about. But don’t fall for it. Remember Judas. Satan clawed his way into Judas’ heart through the ‘small’ sin of greed, greed that quietly turned into betrayal, betrayal that turned into despair, despair that turned into suicide and eternal death in hell. That’s what Satan wants for everyone. He wants us to think he’s playing around. He’s not. He’s playing for keeps. He wants as many people as possible to spend eternity with him burning in hell.

Temptation is all around us, we can’t escape ourselves, this world or Satan no matter how hard we try. What can we do? If this was the DOT trying to teach people to keep their eyes on the road, we could simply post signs saying clever things like: a steering wheel is not a hands free device, drive now, catch Pokémon later, or list the number of deaths to scare you away from those temptations. But it’s impossible to write list of things or places to avoid because literally anything can tempt us to sin. Nor should we despair if we struggle with temptation – as if only weak Christians are tempted to sin. Remember Adam and Eve, who were perfect in every way and were tempted to sin by a piece of fruit. Remember David, a man hand-picked by God to lead his people, who had all the money, power and women in the world – and yet broke the 5th and 6th commandment to get the one woman he should not have had. Or remember Peter, who listened to Jesus preach, who walked on water, who promised to die for Jesus, and yet at the probing of a servant girl denied even knowing Jesus. No one is immune to temptation. This petition is not for people who think they have conquered all sin and temptation and are deserving of heaven.

This petition is for penitent sinners. This petition is for those who are aware of the danger all around them and are aware of how weak and helpless they are to conquer temptation alone. This petition begins humbly: lead us. It’s as if we are deaf and blind, unable to walk a straight line much less march the path to heaven through a life filled with temptation. We need God not to just offer us rules and suggestions, we don’t need him to be sitting in the stands cheering us on, we need him to grab our hand and lead us through a life filled with temptation on every side.

And that’s precisely what he sent Jesus into this world to do. Do you remember the first thing Jesus did after he began his public ministry? Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. (Matthew 4:1) Not only is that proof that temptation comes to the strongest believers, it is proof that Jesus was our substitute. He came to do what we could never do. To see every temptation clearly – and to pass through temptation without falling. Don’t worry that Jesus is shocked or sickened every time we fall into temptation and sin. We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin. (Hebrews 4:15) And so even as we pray this petition, and even as we face temptation on all sides, Jesus reassures us that he has lead the way. He has passed through every temptation Satan and the world could throw at him – and he never fell for it. Before God, he picks you up, puts his robe of righteousness around your shoulders, and assures you, “That dangerous road you could never walk, I walked it for you. I give my perfect life to you. My blood covers you. Yes, the temptations are and will always be there, but they cannot hurt you, for you are mine.”

Armed with the confidence that Jesus’ perfect life covers us and his innocent death washes away our sins, this petition is a prayer not that God would keep temptation out of our lives, but that when it comes, he may lead us to keep our eyes on the road to heaven. Following that road means first keeping our eyes on Christ for forgiveness and salvation, but also knowing God’s unchanging will – both what he commands and what he forbids. It means knowing yourself, your strengths and vulnerabilities. It means not only praying that God would not lead you into tempting circumstances, but also consciously avoiding or at least preparing for them.

While we can use this petition in the midst of temptation, Jesus intends it to help us prepare to face temptation. “Lord, today, lead me not into temptation. But when temptation comes, lead me to know your Word so that Satan cannot lead me into false belief. Lead me to know my weaknesses and vulnerabilities and lead me out of trying situations. Lead me away from the bar, the TV show, the argument, the Facebook page, the website – or anything else that rouses my sinful wants and desires. And Lord, when I fall, lead me back to your grace. Lead me to the forgiveness you graciously offer in Word and Sacrament that I might be stronger next time. Let me see temptation for what it is and use it to lead me ever closer to you.”

I don’t understand the temptation of chasing cartoon characters on a phone. But the best advice for those who do is to be aware of your surroundings and keep your eyes on the road when you’re walking or driving. Thankfully Jesus has something better for all of us as we navigate our way through this sinful world. Prayer. Lead us not into temptation he teaches. Lead us to be aware of the sinful desires living within us, lead us to see that nothing this world offers has any eternal value, lead us to see that Satan isn’t playing around – but wants us to spend forever with him in hell. Lead us not only to see temptation, but give us the strength to avoid it when possible and give us a way out. (1 Corinthians 10:13) And Lord, when we fall, lead us to the safety of your forgiveness, confident that your perfect life covers us completely. Amen.

Matthew 6:9-12 - Lord, Teach Us to be Forgiven and Forgiving - July 17, 2016

Debt. For all the ads you hear and see on TV and radio about getting out of debt and all the promises from presidential candidates to help Americans get out of debt – debt is still a big problem for individuals and our nation alike. Struggling with debt is nothing new. King Solomon revealed the truth about debt: the rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. (Proverbs 22:7) And this was his advice to anyone who found themselves weighed down by debt: go and humble yourself; press your plea with your neighbor! Allow no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids. Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler. (Proverbs 6:3-5) For Solomon, debt was something to be avoided at all costs. Is that still the case today? In 2015 the average American household carried $15,000 in credit card debt, $168,000 in mortgage debt, $27,000 in auto loans, and $48,000 in student loans. The numbers speak for themselves. For the average American, it appears that getting what they want outweighs their ability to pay for it. And the result is debt. Debt that leads to sleepless nights, anxiety and family problems; debt that not too long ago led to a nationwide recession and housing crisis. As bad as financial debt is, there’s a far greater debt problem in our world. Exponentially greater than any financial debt is the debt of sin we each owe to God. This very real, very dangerous debt problem is why Jesus teaches us to pray: forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Jesus takes care of our debt problem by teaching us to be forgiven and forgiving.

By calling sin “debt” Jesus brings home a harsh reality: sin is more than poor judgment or an error or mistake that can be easily erased. Sin creates a debt that must be paid, and as Paul says: the wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23) Unfortunately, many people treat sin like they treat their finances: they want to live however they want and to hell with the consequences. And like a dishonest loan shark, Satan is happy to help people along that path. He has convinced some that a sinful lifestyle is something you are born with, and therefore is no more serious than having green eyes or brown hair. He has convinced others that God judges sin like credit bureaus judge debt – some sins are really bad, but others are not. He has led people to believe that if they try to do a little good each day they can slowly pay off their debt of sin – the idea of karma. He has even convinced many that if they stop listening to God’s Word, ignore the warnings of parents and pastors, and find some way to tune out the voice of conscience that sin will somehow go away, kind of like silencing the phone to avoid creditors. But that’s not how reality works. The longer you ignore your financial debt, the worse it gets. It’s no different with the debt of sin. God does not ignore or lose track of debts. In his courtroom, every sin must be paid for.

God taught this truth to his Old Testament people in an unforgettable way. Whenever any Israelite man, woman or child sinned – intentionally or unintentionally – God commanded them to bring an animal to the tabernacle where a priest would slaughter that animal as payment for their sin. (Leviticus 4-5) And to make it clear that God would not overlook even one sin, each year on the Day of Atonement, the high priest was to slaughter a bull and a goat for the sins of all the people – even the ones they were unaware of. (Leviticus 16) Day after day, week after week, year after year, the Lord taught his people the undeniable truth about the debt of sin: without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. (Hebrews 9:22)

Just like dealing with financial debt, owning up to the reality and consequences of our debt of sin is the first step in removing it. This need is why every time we come here to worship God the first thing we do is publicly confess our sins to him. This is why John the Baptist stood in the desert of Judea preaching repentance (Mark 1:4) and why the first message Jesus proclaimed when he began his public ministry was repent! (Mark 1:15) This is why Martin Luther wrote in his first of 95 Theses: When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ``Repent'' (Mt 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance. And, it’s not a coincidence that in the words Jesus intended his disciples to use as a model for daily prayer he teaches forgive us our debts.

But this is where God is unlike any other creditor. While he demands payment for each and every sin, out of his infinite grace and mercy he decided to make that payment himself. I failed to mention earlier that on the Day of Atonement not one but two goats were chosen. One was slaughtered, but the priest took the other one, put his hands on its head, symbolically laid the sin of the entire nation on it and sent it out into the desert. (Leviticus 16:20-22) This goat represented God’s solution to the debt of sin. This goat represented Jesus, the Lamb of God, who was slaughtered on the altar of the cross as the payment price for the sins of the world. In God’s eyes, Jesus carried the debt of every sinner in the world to the cross and paid the price for it with his holy blood. This payment was sufficient to pay for every sin you have ever committed, to the extent that Jesus shouted from the cross: tetelestai – it is finished. (John 19:30) This is the word a Greek banker would write on a bill when it had been paid in full. Every sin from the past, all the debt that you could never hope to pay down and every ounce of the punishment you deserved for it has been removed, paid for by Jesus and forgiven by God.

The Gospel of sins forgiven might not be news to most of us, but it’s a lesson we are never done learning. Why? Because even though God has forgotten our sins, we haven’t. Because even though God no longer accuses and condemns us, Satan still does. Because even though the Judge has pronounced us innocent, we still feel guilty. The unfortunate reality is that as unnatural as it is for us to own up to our debt before God, it’s even more unnatural for us to believe that Jesus has paid the price for all of it. And the only cure for that is pure, unfiltered Gospel. And so, whenever you pray these words, recall the countless assurances God has given in his Word that for Jesus’ sake he has removed every cent of your debt of sin. Jeremiah 31:34: I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. Psalm 103:12: As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Micah 7:19: You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. Debt is inevitable, guilt is natural; forgiveness is not – we need to learn it. That’s why we need to pray and treasure these words forgive us our sins; Lord, teach us to be forgiven.

Only when we have learned that lesson can we continue: as we also have forgiven our debtors. This too, is completely unnatural for us. As good as creditors are at keeping track of debt, we are probably even better at keeping track of the debts others owe us. Isn’t it funny: I can ignore the fact that I owe hundreds of thousands of dollars to a bank, but there is no way I’m forgetting that $100 I loaned to a friend. We can forget that God has patiently forgiven us for committing the same stupid sins day after day for decades, but we can hold grudges against co-workers, ex-boyfriends, classmates, siblings and spouses for years. Actually, it’s not funny at all. It’s deadly serious. So serious that Jesus gives an expanded commentary on this petition: if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:14-15) God’s forgiveness is free, we cannot earn it or deserve it. But if we refuse to forgive others, we will lose it.

Forgiven people are forgiving people, Jesus says. But let’s be honest: forgiving is not easy. As long as we live in this sinful world, making the conscious, willful decision to not hold a grudge, to not retaliate, to not return evil for evil but instead return good for evil, will never come naturally or quickly. And the bigger the debt, the harder it is for us to forgive.

But there are a couple of things to keep in mind when it comes to forgiving others. First, don’t confuse the emotions of forgiveness with the fact of forgiveness. Especially when it comes to sins like betrayal and unfaithfulness and physical abuse, or pain inflicted by those closest to you – you may never be totally free from the pain of that sin, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t forgive the one who did it to you. God is able to forgive and forget perfectly, we cannot. And so, forgiveness for us means that no matter how we feel, we are making a conscious decision NOT to seek revenge, NOT to hold a grudge, NOT to wish evil on that person, and to tell them, repeatedly if necessary: I forgive you. What if they continue to sin against me? Well, there are limits to forgiveness. Divine limits. We are to forgive others as often as God forgives us.

Second, there is a real difference between not be able to forgive and being unwilling to do so. If a person says: “I know what God requires of me and I will not do it,” this person needs to listen very carefully to the concluding words of Jesus’ parable about the unmerciful servant: Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you? In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from the heart. (Matthew 18:33-35) Jesus is clear: unforgiving people are not welcome – either to receive forgiveness through his body and blood here and now (Matthew 5:24) or to be received into heaven when they die.

On the other hand, when the pain is deep and the effects are long lasting, sometimes all a Christian can utter is: “I know, Lord, what you require of me. I know that you expect me to forgive just as you have forgiven me. I want to, but I can’t, help me.” If that is your struggle, there’s only one thing to do, come back to the well of God’s forgiveness day after day after day. Seek out his word of absolution publicly and privately. Taste the body and blood of Christ given and poured out for the forgiveness of your sins and the sins of the person indebted to you. And then leave, forgiven of all your debts, ready to forgive the debts of others.

Solomon’s words concerning debt are still relevant 3500 years later: debt is bad. Financial debt often leads to serious consequences. The consequences of our debt of sin is far worse: death and eternal imprisonment in hell. But Jesus came to bring forgiveness. He has paid your debt once and for all on the cross. But until he takes us home to heaven, we can never stop praying: Lord, teach us to be forgiven. Assure us that no matter the amount of debt we have accumulated, Jesus’ blood has washed every penny of it from God’s record books. And Lord, teach us to be forgiving. Especially when it hurts, especially when it’s hard – give us the strength to be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave [us]. (Ephesians 4:32) Amen.