Sermon for 3/26/23: Fifth Sunday in Lent

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“The Lord Will Provide”
Genesis 22:1-14

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

There are times when life doesn’t seem to make much sense, when there seems to be no order in things, no apparent purpose to what’s happening. It’s tempting to think there’s no point to anything. And if there is no point to it all, what does that say about God? Does He really know what He’s doing? Does He really care?

Abraham’s life could easily have seemed to be a cruel joke. Years before, God told Abraham to leave his homeland and travel far away to the land of Canaan. God had promised Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation—in fact, all nations would be blessed through the Messiah who would be one of his descendants. The elderly, childless Abraham obeyed God and left home with his elderly wife Sarah and his servants for this strange land, trusting that the Lord was able to keep His promises to him.

Twenty five years later, miraculously, Sarah did have her first and only child, a son named Isaac. After much waiting, God kept His promise to Abraham, even though it seemed impossible. How overjoyed Abraham must have been! How this must have bolstered his faith in the Lord! This son was the fulfillment of God’s promise. This son was just the beginning of a great nation of Abraham’s descendants to come. Through this son of the promise, God had shown Himself to be trustworthy and true.

But a few more years later, God came to Abraham another time and said this: “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering…” Really? God makes Abraham wait 25 years for this promised son, and now He tells Abraham to kill him? That makes no sense! What kind of God is this?

Isaac himself is trying to make sense out of this confusing situation. Isaac had certainly worshiped and made sacrifices with his father before. But one thing was different this time. Isaac asked,  “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Maybe he thought his dad had just forgotten. Perhaps he sensed something terribly different about his father’s mood. We just don’t know. As it turns out, quite surprisingly, this passage doesn’t say anything in all its length about either Isaac or his father’s feelings through this whole situation.

And that very fact shows us that we shouldn’t be directing our attention to the incredible turmoil which Abraham must have experienced, especially as Isaac was laid on the altar. Rather more important is the great example of trust in the Lord which Abraham displayed. When God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, it is written that Abraham got up the next morning to prepare. There was no hesitation, just trust. When Isaac asked, “Where is the lamb?” Abraham did not know what the future held. But whatever was about to happen, he was sure God knew what He was doing. Abraham spoke reassuringly to Isaac, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” Trust. Abraham bound his son and laid him on the altar on the wood. Trust. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. Trust.

This is what it means to have faith in God. It’s not just that you believe in Him when everything is going well. It’s not that you trust your feelings. It’s trusting in God despite your feelings. It’s having confidence in Him, even when it seems to you that He cares nothing for you. It’s looking to Him for all good things, even when only bad things seem to be coming. It’s relying on Him even when everything in life seems to be turned against you. That’s what Abraham did: he clung to God’s promises regarding his son. And that is also what we are to do: cling to God’s promises regarding Christ, our Father’s Son, and never letting go.

This whole account points us to Christ and what He would do for us on what many claim is the very same mountain. Abraham was stopped from carrying out the sacrifice of Isaac; the time to sacrifice the Son would not come until Good Friday. Consider what is being foreshadowed here. Isaac was the beloved only son of Abraham, conceived in a miraculous way. So also God the Father gave His only begotten and beloved Son, miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit in the Blessed Virgin, to deliver us from the power of sin and Satan and the grave. After God stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son, he looked up and saw a male sheep, a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. Abraham offered it in place of his son. Even so, Jesus was offered up Himself in your place so that you would be set free from the judgment of death. He purposely caught Himself in the thorny thicket of your sin so that you might have everlasting life. In Christ the words of Abraham are fulfilled for you: “God Himself will provide the Lamb.” Abraham named that place, “The Lord will Provide.” For on that holy mountain, God provided for your salvation in His only Son.

Even as Isaac cried out, “Where is the lamb?” there will be troubling or sorrowful times when you also may cry out, “Where is God?” And God answers in His own gracious way and in His good time. He is present with you in mysterious and wonderful ways. He will never forsake you, even when everything has been turned upside down in your life. To you who believe and are baptized, the Lord says, “Fear not; for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”

When little in your life seems to make much sense, look to Christ, the crucified. Look to His words and promises, for He gives meaning and purpose and even joy to living in an otherwise senseless world. The Lord will provide. Trust in Him. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

          The peace which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.

Sermon for 3/19/23: Fourth Sunday in Lent

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Faith in Times of Need

Exodus 16:2-21

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

While we Lutherans talk a lot about faith, we often do not define it very well. There is this idea that faith is a private thing that goes on inside you. We act and sometimes speak as though faith is a personal opinion. We pretend that someone can be a Christian when their lives give no evidence of faith. We like to act as though we can be faithful without our unbelieving friends discovering that we believe. All of these silly notions are false, dangerous, and unworthy of a Christian.

To teach us this lesson of faith, we see in the Old Testament reading the children of Israel confronted by the reality of God and His good will toward them. They had certain promises. All they really needed to do was believe. Having been through a remarkable time in human history, they found themselves free on the other side of the Red Sea, obviously blessed by God. They witnessed the love of God for them and His mighty power to do anything that they might need. How did they respond? They grumbled.

God is good. He didn’t destroy them in anger; instead He blessed them miraculously and richly. He brought birds in abundance in the evening that they might have meat, and in the morning He delivered manna, bread from heaven. Manna came with a set of directions. “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My Law or not.” Sadly, they failed. They were commanded to gather only for the day and to keep nothing overnight, but some of them did. God caused it to rot and breed worms. Keeping it overnight was not just a failure to obey; it was failure of trust in God to feed them adequately day by day. Four verses after our reading ends, some of the people ignored the directive to keep the Sabbath day’s manna. They went out to find food on the Sabbath, but they found none. Hunger was then their reward for unbelief.

The lesson in faith is highlighted by their lack of faith. They saw God’s goodness. They witnessed His abundance, but they did not trust Him to continue. He promised, but they did not trust Him to keep His promises tomorrow, even in the face of the miracle of today’s faithfulness. But don’t feel superior. We are not all that different. We enjoy the blessings of God daily, but we still find reasons to complain about our lot, personally and as a congregation. We don’t know what God has planned for our immediate future here, and so we worry and complain. No matter how long God takes care of us, we imagine that He won’t, that He doesn’t want to, that life is going to slip out of control. We fail to expect God to be good. We fail to trust God to provide. We imagine dangers that are not real. We show this lack of faith both as individuals and as a congregation when we expect to fail, when we fear the future. We stop being faithful. We stop doing what is right and good in favor of what seems practical or pragmatic. We worry where there is no cause and no benefit from worrying.

But being less than faithful is not a winning strategy. You cannot lose by doing what is right and good and faithful, and you cannot accomplish by unfaithfulness what God wants to give you through your faithfulness. You can not earn anything faster than God can take it away. You cannot grow by unfaithfulness nearly as well or as strongly as what God can grow. You are His. This congregation is His. We are called to be faithful. Faithfulness means doing what is right, even when it isn’t popular.

God has a plan, and that plan is so deep and so wonderful that it included the birth of God as a man, and Jesus dying for your sins and the sins of the whole world. The cross is the emblem and sign of the love of God for you! Look there and see how much God loves you. He has claimed you as His own and called you by name in Baptism. He has guarded you and guided you and kept you to this very moment. He has blessed you with long life and riches. God loves you deeply—outwardly, inwardly, physically and spiritually. He has claimed you for eternity with Him.

So how can we grumble and worry as if we have never seen the goodness of the Lord? Troubles are not fun, but God can and does handle them. Sickness is no joy, but God creates health and wellness. You cannot run so far that God cannot find you or bless you. Trust God and pray, and do what is right and faithful. Don’t be afraid to witness to Him. Don’t be reluctant to trust Him. Act and speak as those who have God’s blessing. He will meet your every need.

We have the Word of God. Like ancient Israel, all we need to do is take God at His Word and be patient. Israel’s unbelief and unfaithfulness was met by God’s faithfulness and blessing. He didn’t do it because He likes unbelief. He did it because it is His nature to be good. Look and see; hear and believe. Trust God! He is endlessly good, and He promises to be with you for the needs of your body and for the needs of your soul. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.

Sermon for 3/5/23: Second Sunday in Lent

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Abounding in Holiness

I Thessalonians 4:1-7

 

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

 There is a false teaching very much alive and well among Christians: the idea that, having been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, it becomes our responsibility to make our lives pleasing to God. “Salvation is God’s gift to us; a holy life is our gift to Him.” The first half of that statement is quite correct; the second most definitely is not. St. Paul made this clear in his first Epistle to the Corinthians: “Christ Jesus…became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption— ³¹ that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.’” Not only is our salvation a gift from God in Jesus Christ; our entire life of faith, with its holiness and obedience, is also a gift that comes to us through Jesus Christ. It is only when we believe and understand this that we can talk about playing a role in abounding in holiness.

When grace and faith turn our hearts to Jesus Christ, there is a profound change that occurs. When we are convinced that God loves us so much that He gave His own Son as the great Substitute for the whole world, our hearts are overcome by that divine love and a desire to please God in all things. And that is what the word “sanctification” means: the God who gives His Son in the greatest act of sacrificial love overwhelms our hearts with that same love, that we cannot help but abound in holiness. That is not only God’s desire, but ours, as well. But the truth remains that we are both flesh and spirit. Though we are to abound more and more in holiness, and our spirit genuinely desires that, the sinful flesh that clings to us will keep us from achieving it this side of the grave. As Jesus said regarding His disciples, “The spirit, indeed, is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

It doesn’t matter how long one has been a Christian. The time will never come when we can say we have done all the abounding in holiness that God desires of us. On the surface, this text might seem to address those who are faced with the kinds of temptations that are most typical to the young. But each age and generation has temptations to immorality unique to it. As long as you live and breathe in this world, what Paul says here cuts across every age and every source of temptation: “We urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God.” But we still find ourselves repeatedly in that same condition as Paul: “The good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.” Were we to live to be as old as Methuselah himself, we would still need to pray daily, “Forgive us our trespasses.”

But now, with the encouragement to abound in holiness, Paul also tells us how this is to be accomplished under God’s grace. He singles out for attention two of God’s Commandments which are especially important in one’s personal holiness: the sixth and seventh commandments. “This is the will of God, your sanctification; that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and defraud his brother in this matter...” Being constantly bombarded by such things, that already delicate sense of right and wrong can be easily lost and, before you know it, even Christians are apt to go along. It sounds something like our day, doesn’t it? Isn’t it often true that what you and I consider right and moral, because it is pleasing to God, the society around us generally considers abnormal? Isaiah saw it clearly: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil...”

If we are to stand successfully against these temptations, we cannot forget the weaponry God has given us: His Word and prayer. If your heart and mind are saturated with the Word of God, if you continue to think on it and pray over it, there will simply be less and less room for sinful thoughts and desires. Satan loves a vacuum. If your heart and mind are empty of divine things, you can be sure he will find ways to fill them up with his things. Last Sunday we heard how Jesus met every temptation with the Word of God. If it was necessary for Jesus to do this, how much more so must it be for us? If we are to abound more and more in holiness, who will be doing the motivating? Will we motivate ourselves? Is that our part of the bargain? Or will our motivation come from our Lord Jesus, through His Holy Spirit, “...our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption?”

One of the great blessings of the Lenten season is that it intensely focuses our attention squarely on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, that is where our attention should always be directed. But in this holy season, we are brought face to face with the suffering and death of Him who came for the singular purpose of saving us from sin, death, and the devil. Only in His saving labors do we find forgiveness of sins, life now, and life forever in the security of God’s eternal Kingdom. Only in His saving labors may we abound more and more in holiness. May God in His rich and abundant mercy grant this to us for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.