Sermon for 11/27/24: Day of National Thanksgiving (observed)

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“Remember the Lord Your God…”
Deuteronomy 8:1-10

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

 

We don’t really need a special Thursday in November to give thanks to God, do we? Thanksgiving is our priestly duty as baptized believers. This is what priests do: they offer sacrifices. Thanksgiving is a sacrifice, an offering to God for all His blessings not only to us, but to the whole world. Faithful hearts are also grateful hearts. We are thankful for all the gifts of creation. We are thankful for our own lives. We are thankful for God’s preserving gifts of clothing and shoes, food and drink, house, home, and family. We are thankful for the good land He has given us, for our freedoms, and for the protection He provides for our bodies and lives. The Catechism reminds us that God gives us all of this “out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in [us].” And we, His children, say, “Thank you.”

We thank God for the gifts of our redemption: for the coming of His Son, Jesus Christ, into human flesh; for His perfect life and death; for His resurrection; for His atonement for the sin of the world; and for His governing of all things. We thank God for the gifts of the Spirit; for the preaching of the Gospel; for the Church and for faithful pastors; for our own rebirth in Holy Baptism; for our refreshment in the Holy Supper; our fellowship together with all the saints in Christ; the resurrection of our bodies, guaranteed by the resurrection of Jesus; and the sure hope of eternal life. The least we can do is give thanks to our gracious and generous God.

Moses spoke to Israel on the threshold of the Promised Land. “Remember the Lord,” he said. Remember that He brought Israel out of Egypt, that He fed you when you were hungry, that He trained you to live by every word that proceeds from His mouth. And now He is bringing you into a good and rich land, where all the blessings of life are easily gotten. All of this was a foretaste of the feast to come, a preview of heaven itself, where God sets the table and His people eat and drink in freedom and joy.

But Moses also knew the impediments to thanksgiving. He warned them to beware. After they had eaten and were full in their comfortable homes, after their work was paying off, they would forget the Lord. They would begin to believe that their own reason and strength had gained them everything, that they were dependent on no one, that they did all these things. They made idols of the image in the mirror.

“Remember the Lord your God,” Moses would later tell them, “for it is He who gives you the power to get wealth.” He causes the rain and the sunshine in their season. He gives grain to the sower and bread to the eater. He gives life and all that you have—and more than that, He gives us the gift of life and salvation in the ultimate Sacrifice: the body and blood of the Lamb of God, our Savior, Jesus Christ. We live every moment, in this life and in eternity, out of the goodness of His hand.

It is so easy to forget the Lord because He hides behind the means He uses. We think of the farmer, the baker, the grocer. We note our own hard-earned income, our strength, our power, our intelligence, our skill. We forget about the hidden Lord who works in creation. We pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” but bread never simply shows up out of nothing. God works through means…but these created things easily become the idols we worship.

Idolatry brings anxiety; anxiety happens when our false gods fail us. We thought the money would hold out, that our health was secure. “Be anxious for nothing,” Paul says. “That’s easy for him to say. He wasn’t facing what I face.” Maybe. But Paul was in prison when he wrote those words. Picture Paul in a jail cell, writing, “I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.”

So, what do you do? Paul says: “In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Ask Him whatever you wish. Talk about whatever causes your anxiety, and do it with thanksgiving. Are you hungry? Pray for food, and thank God for your hunger. Are you lonely? Pray for a friend, and thank God for the solitude. Are you sick? Pray for healing, and thank God for your illness. Only faith in the crucified and risen Christ can pray that way.

As James reminds us in his Epistle, faith is seen by its works. This kind of thanksgiving at the feet of Jesus is the fruit of true faith in the Lord, to whom we are indebted for our very lives. He is the Word through whom all things were made. The turkey and the cranberries, the potatoes and the pumpkins, and yes, even that good bottle of wine: all are His gifts, given in blessing to you. God cares for you more than you could ever care for yourself. Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered, as are all your days. No detail of your life is too small or unimportant. You are precious to Him—as precious as the blood of His Son that purchased you from sin and death. He pours every good gift on us, without any merit or worthiness in us. “For all this it is our duty,” Luther tells us—our privilege, our priestly responsibility—“to thank and praise, serve and obey Him. This is most certainly true.” In the name of the Father and of the Son (†) and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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

 

Sermon for 11/24/24: Last Sunday of the Church Year (B)

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Lord Jesus, Come Quickly

Mark 13:24-37

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

One of my favorite hymns is “Songs of Thankfulness and Praise,” hymn number 394 in your Lutheran Service Book. The fourth verse reads:
        
        Sun and moon shall darkened be,
        Stars shall fall, the heav’ns shall flee;
        Christ will then like lightning shine,
        All will see His glorious sign;
        All will then the trumpet hear,
        All will see the Judge appear;
        Thou by all wilt be confessed,
        God in man made manifest.

This image, which we hear in our Gospel text, tells of the powerful signs leading up to the Day of Judgment. Genesis 8:11 tells us, “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.” Yet a day is coming when these things will no longer take place.

          By the signs in our text, along with others given in Scripture, many have tried to predict the day of the Lord’s return in glory. Heck, I could even make a prediction now. Let’s see… We’ve already had eclipses, so the sun and moon have been darkened. James Earl Jones died, and he is one of the biggest stars our world has ever seen or heard, so you could say that stars have fallen. And clouds move away all the time, so the heavens have fled. Why, Jesus could be coming back any time now. We might not even get through the Divine Service!

I’m sure you can tell I’m not serious about my prediction, even though Jesus very well could return before we’re done this morning. But many make guesses based on whatever evidence they choose. One of the best-selling books on the end times is The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey. Even though the world was supposed to end in the 1980s by his reckoning, the book is still being printed today! He has made other predictions since then; I guess being wrong the first time wasn’t enough. But many such predictions have come, and none of them have come to pass.

          Jesus would rather not have us focus on when the end will be. After all, no human knows. The angels don’t know. Jesus tells us that even He doesn’t know in His state of humiliation. People who claim to be able to predict the Day of Judgment are claiming that they know more than Jesus! Only the Father knows the day and the hour, and He’s not telling. Jesus has shown us the signs, and we recognize that these signs are being fulfilled in our sight, even as they were being fulfilled in the days of the disciples. We’ve been waiting nearly two-thousand years since Jesus spoke the words of our text to the disciples, and the day has not yet come. Yet we are living in the last days, which could last another ten thousand years…or another ten seconds. It’s enough that we know that the end is coming; it’s not for us to know exactly when.

          We don’t need some crackpot standing on the corner to tell us that the end is near. We already know that. Jesus has told us of that wondrous Day, the Day when He will return in glory, when His holy angels will gather us together to be with our Lord, when all trials and sorrows and illness and death will cease, when those who believe will be restored in the image of God. He has told us that He is coming soon. What is important for us as we wait is to be prepared—to watch for Jesus, to be ready for His return. Don’t get me wrong: Jesus is not telling you to save yourself. That has already been done, and nothing you can do can add to the work that Jesus has already done on your behalf. Rather, we are well prepared when we hear the Word of God and cling to it.

          Jesus gives us the brief parable of the doorman who waits for his master to return from a journey. The master is returning; of this he is sure. He doesn’t know when that return will be. He may return in ten minutes, having forgotten his briefcase. He may return in a year, having successfully concluded his business. Either way, the master is returning. Is the doorman supposed to try to figure out when the master will come back? No. The doorman stands at his post, ready for the master to come back at any time. It’s enough for the doorman to believe the master when he says he will come back. He does the job the master has selected him to do. He does not shirk his responsibility. He doesn’t earn a special reward for doing what he’s supposed to do; but if he abandons his post, if he shirks his responsibility, he will be in trouble when the master returns and finds the door locked with the doorkeeper asleep or away from his post.

          This preparation sounds like an awful burden. And it is. Jesus died bearing it for you. He came in humility as a servant. He came as a sacrifice, bearing our sins to the cross. He has clothed you in righteousness through the Word in the waters of Holy Baptism. Through that Baptism, Christ will recognize you as His own when He returns in glory. Do not doubt that for an instant.

How you prepare to receive Christ as He comes to you in glory on the Last Day is the same way you prepare to receive Christ as He comes to you in His body and blood in the Holy Supper. Luther tells us concerning the worthy reception of the Lord’s Supper, “That person is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in these words: ‘Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.’ But anyone who does not believe these words or doubts them is unworthy and unprepared.” Jesus has done the hard part. Now all we have to do is cling to the words and promises of Jesus by faith. And even that faith is a gift of God! It’s no burden for us to praise Christ as God in the flesh, the one who shall return in glory to judge the living and the dead. We’re even given the words to pray in Scripture, words which the Church has been blessed to pray in the Divine Service, as we do this morning.

Jesus says, “Behold, I am coming soon!” The signs are all around us. The end is near! For those who do not believe, it will be a dark day. They will have been found sleeping on duty. But for us, God’s children who cling by faith to His Word and gifts, it will be the eternal Day of great joy. And so Jesus reminds us, “Behold, I am coming soon!” Do not doubt this for a moment: He is coming soon! And by the grace of God and the work of the Holy Spirit, we respond, “Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly!” 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.

 

HYMN: Blessed Are You, O Lord, God of Our Fathers

I thought I was done with the Easter Vigil project. Then one of my circuit colleagues suggested I write a hymn text for the Song of the Three Young Men, which recounts the song of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego--also known as Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah--as they are in the fiery furnace at the order of King Nebuchadnezzar. 

Here is the first draft. Feedback is love.

Oh, and I have a couple more texts to post once their intended purpose is met. One is submitted for a district convention, and the other is written in honor of a beloved mentor. One you might not see until next summer, and the other is waiting on an original tune from a colleague who suggested writing the text in our mentor's honor in the first place.

Blesséd Are You, O Lord, God of Our Fathers

1. Blesséd are you, O Lord, God of our fathers,
Worthy of honor and glory and praise.
Blest be Your name, be it holy forever:
Blest in Your Temple for uncounted days.

2. Blesséd are You, O Lord, gazing with wisdom 

Into the deep from Your cherubim throne.
Blesséd are You on the throne of Your kingdom.
Blesséd are You in the heavens alone.

3. Bless you the Lord! Bless Him, all of creation!
Bless you the Lord! Raise your voices and sing!
Bless Him, you heavens; exalt Him with anthems
Sung to the Lord, to our wonderful King.

4. Bless you the Lord, all the host of the angels!
Bless Him, you waters above and below.
Bless Him, you sun, moon, and stars in the heavens!
Bless Him, you powers, whose wonders you show.

5. Bless Him, you winds, with your powerful blowing!
Bless Him, you cold and you heat in your time,
Springtime and harvest and summer and winter,
Rain, dew, and snow: falling water sublime.

6. Earth, bless the Lord, oh you hills and you mountains.
All things that grow in the ground, bless His name!
Bless you the Lord, all you seas, springs, and rivers,
Whales, turtles, dolphins, your praises proclaim!

7. Bless Him, you airborne, you birds ever flying.
Bless Him, you cattle, you beasts of the field.
Bless Him, O Israel, you sons, priests, and prophets.
Bless Him, you righteous, whose souls He has healed.

8. Bless Him, you holy, you humble in spirit.
Bless Him, you martyrs, you saints, holy throng.
Bless Him who rescues from death and dread Hades!
Saved from the furnace, oh, praise Him with song.

9. Thanks be to God for His generous goodness!
Thank You for mercy, O God, without end.
Bless God the Lord in your sweet songs of worship.
Oh, bless the Lord! Let your praises ascend.


Alan Kornacki, Jr., b. 1974
11 10 11 10
MORNING STAR (LSB 400)
Easter Vigil; Song of the Three Young Men

Sermon for 11/10/24: Proper 27b

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Come and Die
I Kings 17:8-16

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

Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.” Though these are hard words to hear, they could not be more true. Four times in the Gospels, our Lord tells His disciples to take up their cross and follow Him. Our view of the cross is shaped by two thousand years of history. We think of what Jesus accomplished with His death on the cross, and that perhaps allows us to think of it as something less than a cruel instrument of execution. Only criminals who had been sentenced to die for the most heinous crimes carried crosses. And so, what Bonhoeffer said is absolutely correct, even as stark and abrupt as it sounds. When Jesus tells us to take up our cross, He is calling us to come and die.

Elijah’s words to the widow at Zarephath probably sounded just as harsh. He saw that the widow and her son were starving. He knew that little oil and flour remained. He knew that he was asking her to give him all that she had. Still, he said to her, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” And for her part, the widow knew that the prophet’s command was the Lord’s command. In her ears, it must have seemed like he was saying, “Obey my words even though they will kill you.” The Word of the Lord often seems that way. His holy Word of Law kills us whenever we hear it. We never live up to its perfect standard of holiness and love. If we were truly obedient to the Law of God, we would never put our own life before the lives of others; we would never doubt God’s love or worry about the future. But too often, we seek our own good first. We doubt God’s love; we look to our friends, our family, our jobs, our bank accounts for the peace and security that can really only come from God. And in these difficult economic times, our lives are often clouded by fears about the future, and we can sometimes wonder if we really will be provided with all that we need.

God’s Word of Law can only kill us. Not only are we not God; sinners that we are, we oppose God’s will at every turn, and our doubts and fears make it clear how little we actually believe what the Lord has promised in His Word. Our bodies of sin and doubt and fear must die. They must be nailed with Jesus to His cross. When Christ calls a man, He truly bids him to come and die. Our sinful flesh must die with Jesus on the cross. It must be buried with Him in His tomb.

All of this is bound up in Holy Baptism. It is in Baptism that your sinful flesh has been put to death. The word to the widow of Zarephath does not end with, “Bring me a morsel of bread.” After the widow honestly lays out her fears before the prophet, Elijah says, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.’” Nor does the Word that God speaks to you end there, either. Just as the Lord drowned your sinful flesh in the waters of your Baptism, so also He has raised you to new life in Christ.

When you are facing death, it is hard to see God as your creator who loves you, who sustains you, who provides for all your needs. Death makes the love of God seem like a lie. We are always coming before God, asking, “What have you done for me lately?” When we say this, we are forgetting that every breath we breathe is a gift from God. But even in our unbelief and ingratitude, God is still gracious to us. Elijah’s answer to the widow was the promise that the Lord would provide for her. It was more than she could expect; it was more than she deserved. But that is God’s way: He simply gives the gift because of who He is. He is loving and merciful. He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He provides for the birds. He clothes the lilies of the field in splendor. There is nothing that falls outside the protection of His gracious and generous hand.

It is absolutely certain that God will always give us what we need. What is not so certain is what that generosity will look like in the end. When we suffer, God’s provision for us is still there, though it often seems hidden. Sometimes it is not revealed until years later, and sometimes we are not allowed to see at all the good God works for us through the evil we experience. But all things that are needful for us our God has provided. God has taken all your sin, all of your suffering, and all of your fear and doubt, and He laid them on the shoulders of Jesus. And your Savior has taken all of those things to the cross and has suffered and died to dispose of them.

In place of your fear and doubt, Christ has won for you life and salvation and forgiveness. All of these things are certain because God Himself has accomplished them for you. There is nothing for you to fear. There is nothing for you to doubt. There is only Jesus, Your Savior, who has borne your sin to the cross and has given to you the anointing oil of Holy Baptism and the bread of His Holy Supper. And these gifts, with all their blessing, will not run out until you are safely with all the saints, the angels, and with God Himself, forever and ever. 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.