Sermon for 6/3/12--The Feast of the Holy Trinity

Looking for Good News
John 3:1-17

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


Not everything the world says about God is Good News. "God is great!" That's not Good News. It just means He is God and you are not. "God is Love." That's also no Good news. If God is love, does that He loves you? How do you know? "God is everywhere.” “God is almighty.” “God knows all things.” “He can do all things." Still no good news yet. Just because there is a God and He is all-powerful that doesn't mean He's going to do you any good! So then…what is the Good News? The Good News is exactly what Jesus teaches us: "For God loved the world—God loved the world like this—that He sent His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through Him." That is the Good News, dear Christians: God loves you so much that he sent His Son to rescue you from everlasting wrath and condemnation.

The world is full of people trying to get a handle on God. The religions of this world work very hard trying to figure God out and then figure out how to get on His good side. Some say God is like a heavenly Santa who is supposed to give you whatever you want. Others think of God as an impersonal Force that has to be learned and manipulated. It doesn't really matter who or what people suppose God is. The end result is the same: the religion of this world asks the question: What do I have to do to manipulate God so he or she or it will be nice to me and let me live forever? This is what Nicodemus came to Jesus at night to ask. He thought that Jesus must have some secret knowledge, some special teaching, some hidden insight, some kind of "in" with God. That’s what Nicodemus is looking for. Nicodemus, like the rest of the world, wanted to know what sort of piety he was supposed to practice in order to be acceptable to God. If that is what brought you to worship this morning—to figure out some trick to getting on God's good side—you're going to be disappointed. You’re wasting your time if you think your pastor has some clever insight into God's mind so you can make Him happy with you. Brothers and sisters in Christ, if your religion is an attempt to find some secret to obtaining the love of God, repent! Repent and hear Jesus' words that rescue Nicodemus and us from such thinking and believing that will damn us.

"Unless a man is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot go into the kingdom of God." With these words, Jesus has shut the door to all of your calculations. With these words, the Lord rescues you from worthless, man-made faith. With these words, Jesus saves Nicodemus and you by teaching you that it is God who saves you by giving you a NEW BIRTH, a birth from above which is through water and the Spirit. That's Holy Baptism! Holy Baptism is your salvation from the judgment of God which no man can escape. Consider Isaiah: He saw the Lord on His throne and in all His glory! It terrified him. The glory of God is not good news. But the Lord sends a coal from the altar to touch Isaiah's lips. Now Isaiah is clean, forgiven. Only the Lord can do that. In the same way, Jesus tells Nicodemus and us: your self-made religion ends with me. You are born of water and the Spirit in Holy Baptism—water applied to you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. By water and the Word, the Spirit gives you Jesus, and you become a child of the heavenly Father. There, in the waters of salvation, the Triune God into Whose name you are baptized saves you from sin and death.

There is no big secret that man can figure out to obtain God. God comes to you and gives His life for your sins. God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but to save it through Him. Jesus Christ is the only way in which you can talk about God's love. Apart from Christ, the world cannot know the Father. It cannot have the Spirit. It cannot be saved. It stands condemned. But in Christ, to Whom you have been joined through your Baptism, your sins cannot condemn you. The Spirit has given you Christ by water and the Word of God. Christ has made you a child of the heavenly Father. In Christ, no sin, no iniquity, no trespass can condemn you. He was lifted up on the cross to pay for your sins. He shed His blood so that you will not have to shed yours for your sins. He lays down His life for you and takes it up again so that you can now be born of water and the Spirit at the font. And you were, the day you were baptized!

That's what the Feast of the Holy Trinity is really all about. It's not about figuring out God. If you want to know what is right and wrong to say about God, then just pay attention to the Creeds that we confess or the Te Deum which we will pray shortly. That will keep you from saying something about God that isn't true. But recognize this: the faith you confess isn't just words; it expresses the very love of God which is yours in Christ Jesus. Baptized into that Triune Name, you have been given the very salvation and forgiveness accomplished by Jesus. And that is the Good News about God. 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.

BOOK RELEASE DAY!

It's been in the works for ages, it seems. The wait has been interminable. But after long months of wishing, hoping, and cursing the snail's pace of the author, finally--FINALLY!!!--book two of the Thy Strong Word series, A Great and Mighty Wonder, has been released!

Romance and Lutheran apologetics come together as Pastor Justin Corwin and his wife, Detective Bethanne Harrigan McCarthy Corwin of the Carousel Police Department, return from their honeymoon to a hefty dose of reality. Justin's predecessor at St. Michael Lutheran Church is stirring up trouble, while the teen who stabbed Beth is on trial for his crime. A tragedy in the St. Michael congregation raises a ghost from Beth's past, one which will change their family forever.

A Great and Mighty Wonder is currently available in Print and Kindle formats.

 To order a print copy, click this link: https://www.createspace.com/3895928

To order the Kindle version, click this link: Amazon Link

Thank you for your time and consideration! Feel free to share this information with your family, friends, congregation members, and the creepy guy who stares at you at the bus stop!



Book one of the series, Love Divine, is also available in Print and Kindle formats.

To order a print copy, click this link: https://www.createspace.com/3748643

To order the Kindle version, click this link: Amazon Link

The Nook version of Love Divine will be released next month. My apologies for the delay.



Oh, and just so you know, book three, All My Heart Again Rejoices, is in progress. I'm about 10,000 words in at this point, and I'm hoping for an early December release--in time for you to purchase the series as a Christmas gift!

Sermon for 5/13/12--Sixth Sunday of Easter

Once again, next Sunday I will be on vacation. When I receive the sermon from Pastor Fish and his permission to post it, I will do so.

Audio:



Text:

Ask in My Name 

John 16:23-30 

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

Some Christians teach and believe that if you ask for anything in the name of Jesus, no matter what it is, if you just pray hard enough, then you will get it no matter what. Robert Schuller taught it. So did Norman Vincent Peale in The Power of Positive Thinking. The most recent version of this whole idea is the so-called “prosperity gospel” preached by men such as Joel Osteen. You ask God for it, and He’ll make sure you get it. God will do whatever you ask, if you only ask with the right words. So how is the Christian to understand prayer? Why does God want you to pray? What is the benefit you receive from such prayer? 

Prayer is a conversation that God starts. That’s what Jesus means when He says, “Whatever you ask in My name.” When you pray in Jesus’ name, you pray as one of God’s children. Furthermore, when you pray, you are never alone in your prayers. Do you remember when Jesus gave the disciples what we call the Lord’s Prayer? The disciples went to Jesus because they see others praying, and they rightly wanted to learn how to pray. Now Jesus could have said to them: go off on to a mountain by yourself and pour your heart out. Tell God everything you want! And if you’re sincere enough, or persistent enough, then maybe God will hear you. That’s how many think of prayer. 

But Jesus didn’t do that. What he said was, “When you pray, pray like this: ‘Our Father who are in heaven.’” Jesus gave them the very words to pray, so that by praying in His name and with His words, they would learn how to pray and what to pray for; and God would shape their hearts and minds to His will. When you ask someone for something, you are saying that you need something they have. By praying, you are confessing to God that you can’t do it alone, you need Him for all things. Remember: in the Lord’s Prayer you pray for all things. By praying, you are confessing that you need God; and that is something only God Himself can teach you. 

 But the fact of the matter is, for most Christians, prayer is one of those things that becomes optional. How often do you pray? Do you pray before and after meals? Do you pray when you get up in the morning and when you go to bed? Do you pray at all during the day? For many, the answer is no. Christians are like the two year old that insists, I have to do it myself! That’s what you’re saying to God when you refuse to pray. You are telling God that you don’t need Him, that you are in this alone, be it good or bad. The devil continues to seek to drag you away from Christ and His work for you. Satan wants you to believe that prayer is a useless waste of time. Satan wants you to believe that real Christians don’t pray; they work. This is kind of like saying, “I don’t have time for God’s Word; I have more important things to do.” Martin Luther once said that he had so much to get done during the day that he had to pray for two or three hours. For Luther, prayer didn’t mean presenting God with a laundry list of things He should do for His children. Prayer meant conversation with God, where God speaks in His Word, and you in faith and trust respond to that Word of God in prayer. But Satan wants you to believe that in prayer, you’re on your own; so either you don’t pray, or you turn God into a divine Butler who is meant to respond to your every whim. But God will have no part of this false piety and prayer. 

The foundation of Christian prayer is that you are not alone. You are never alone. Perhaps you’ve noticed this thread running through the readings this Eastertide. It’s very deliberate on our Lord’s part. He died for your sins and rose again from the dead for you. This Thursday the Church commemorates His ascension into heaven, but this is not a time for mourning for the Christian. The Lord does not leave you alone. He sends the Holy Spirit to you, who preaches to you, baptizes you, forgives your sins and gives you the very body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, you are made bold to pray, “Our Father who art in heaven.” Notice that first and important word: Our. When you pray in Christ’s name, you are never alone. There is no such thing as private prayer, as if you are having a super secret conversation with God. All of the hosts of heaven pray with you. The whole Church prays with you. Your voice is added to the voices of all time and throughout the world. Struggling with temptation? You’re not alone. All of heaven watches out for you and prays for you. Do you long for forgiveness? The angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner who repents. Need the comfort of God’s Word? There is no greater rejoicing than over the sinner who recognizes His need for God’s mighty hand. 

Never doubt that our Heavenly Father hears your prayers. Think of those words you learned in Catechism class: God would by these words tenderly invite us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that we may with all boldness and confidence ask him as dear children ask their dear father. So have no fear, my brothers and sisters in Christ! The Father of Jesus your Father, and He will hear you. He put His name on your in Holy Baptism. You are His child. Ask in the name of Jesus; for He has promised to hear and answer your prayers. 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.

Guest Post: Sermon for 5/6/12--Fifth Sunday of Easter

Our guest blogger today is the Reverend Robin Fish, Jr., the pastor who filled in for me while I was on vacation this past weekend. As I was, Pastor Fish is a pastor without a congregation--in his case, very much without cause. He currently serves as the organist for Epiphany Lutheran Church in St. Louis, Missouri, and he serves as Executive Assistant to the Editor and Distribution Coordinator for "Good News", a magazine produced by the Lutheran Heritage Foundation. He has his own blog--where this sermon was first posted--called A Fort Made of Books. If any of you vacant congregations out there are looking for a faithful Lutheran pastor, don't overlook Pastor Fish! Tell all your friends (and district presidents) that this man needs to be serving a parish!

The Helper

John 16:5-15

What with stores being open seven days a week, there are ten shopping days between now and Ascension Day. Then there are nine shopping days between Ascension and Pentecost. A week later, we will celebrate the Holy Trinity. So the next handful of weeks are packed with days whose Christian meaning we would do well to pause and ponder. But more likely, we will not pause to ponder much. Life goes on at its rapid pace. Even to many who worship regularly, those squares on the calendar represent no more than any other Sunday, when perhaps we will roll our eyes and check our watch and wish the preacher wouldn’t ramble about today’s importance in the church year.

Actually, today is no more special than any other Sunday. The Divine Service for this Sunday has a name—Cantate—but that’s only because the Introit begins with the words Cantate Domino, “Sing to the Lord a new song.” This Sunday doesn’t celebrate any person or happening, other than the regular, every-Sunday celebration of Christ and His rising from the dead. Mother’s Day isn’t until next week. So what is it about today that’s worth getting up and dragging yourself to church? The answer is: The word of God.

But… When are we without the word of God, especially on Sunday morning? You can find the Word of God any week, and any day of the week, if you know where to look for it. But this Sunday’s selections from Scripture are so rich, I want you to notice what they have in store for you. If you do, you might become, like me, a fan of Easter 5. Today’s readings, especially the Gospel, give us so much. They give us Jesus’ teaching about Ascension, and Pentecost, and the Trinity, weeks before their scheduled time. Jesus tells us what the proclamation of His word is all about, what it will lead to. Together with the lessons from James and Isaiah, today is rich in testimony to the power of God’s Word.

Let’s consider first what Jesus has to say. It’s the night of Jesus’ betrayal and arrest. He has been talking to His disciples about going away for a while, then coming back again. The disciples are too disturbed by these sayings to ask any intelligent questions. So Jesus says, “But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”

So let’s ask the question Jesus’ disciples didn’t ask: “Where was He going?” A careful interpreter could stand here all day and shwaffle over whether Jesus is talking about His death and resurrection, or about His ascension and return on Judgment Day. But let’s cut through the shwaffle. When Jesus talks about the Helper coming after He goes away, He is clearly foretelling the manifestation of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, ten days after His Ascension. The Spirit proceeded from Jesus as He died on the cross. Jesus breathed the Spirit on His disciples after He rose from the dead. This same Spirit, Jesus promises in today’s Gospel, would finally be poured out in a mighty, miraculous way after His Ascension. The Spirit’s job is to help the disciples after Jesus stops being visibly present on earth. After Jesus has ascended far above the heavens to fill all things, after Jesus has sat down at the right hand of God, then the Helper comes.

And what is the Helper supposed to do? Jesus says: “He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” That sounds impressive, but how many of you understand it? Not to worry; Jesus explains: “Of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” Oh, thank you! That is so much more clear!

Actually, this isn’t as mysterious as it sounds. Impressive, yes; mysterious, no. The Holy Spirit comes to convict the world, or to bring the world to a conviction—in other words, to convince people concerning three things: sin, righteousness, and judgment. The messages of sin and righteousness are as simple as our familiar friends Law and Gospel. By the message of Law the Holy Spirit must convict you of sin. Why? Because you are indeed a sinner, by nature unable to please God. Unless you are convinced of this, at best, you will go on trying to please God by your own deeds and virtues. You will never truly know God or how to find favor with Him, unless the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin.

Likewise, by the message of the Gospel the Holy Spirit must convict you of righteousness. Why? Because the righteousness of the crucified and risen Christ covers your sins and makes you righteous in God’s sight. This is a gift that you can only receive through faith in Christ. And yet this is such a foolish message that no one would accept it without a Holy Spirit-powered miracle in the heart. So the message itself creates in you the ability to believe what the message promises: forgiveness of all your sins, for Jesus’s sake. When the Spirit does this miracle in you, He convicts you of righteousness.

The third message—judgment—is a reminder that Jesus is not going away forever; He will return to settle accounts, punish evil, and reward good. This is a warning against those who remain unconvinced by the Spirit’s teaching of sin and righteousness. But it is a message of comfort to all who believe. Why? Because in our daily struggles against the temptations of the flesh, the sorrows of the world, and the flaming darts of Satan, we have the assurance that our victory has already been won. The ruler of this world has been judged. The devil has already been defeated. And He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

So we know three things, and we know them only through the help of the Helper: Sin, because of which we can do nothing without Christ; Righteousness, our new status before God, which is a gift purchased in Jesus’ blood; and Judgment, because God expects us to live from now on as though freed from sin and growing in righteousness—and yet because of our weakness we need to be constantly assured that our Judge’s final verdict has been locked in since Jesus raised his voice on the cross and cried, “It is finished!”

Now back to our original question, the one Jesus’ disciples were afraid to ask: Where was Jesus going? Or rather, why did He have to go? The answer: Jesus has gone away so that the Holy Spirit can use the means Jesus appointed to bring many, many more people to faith. And that is what happened, not only along the Lake of Galilee or on the Mount of Olives, but throughout the world. Jesus has gone away from us, not to hurt our feelings or to put us to the test. Rather, Jesus has withdrawn His visible presence so that His word and sacrament can have free reign throughout the world. Now the living voice of Jesus can be heard wherever His message is preached—neither more here than there, nor less. Now the preaching of Law must convict us of sin, because within each of our hearts there is still an unbeliever. Now the Gospel must convict us of righteousness, because Jesus isn’t here to show us His nailwounds. Now our victory over Satan, sin, and death must be proclaimed to us in the power of the Spirit, because our experiences often raise doubt as we daily stumble, as we succumb to temptation, as we suffer in body and mind, in family and career, and in so many ways we do not understand.

The Holy Spirit works to create these convictions not only through the spoken Word, but also through the sacraments, which I may be forgiven for calling “God’s sign language.” I’m not saying the sacraments are only signs. God’s word clearly reveals that Baptism washes away sins and causes us to be born again. God’s word teaches that when we receive the Lord’s Supper, our mouths are really eating and drinking Jesus’ body and blood, and so we receive a medicine for sin and death that operates on our bodies as well as our souls. The Sacraments are not only signs; but like the message preached and taught, they are a kind of language that God uses to convict us of sin, righteousness, and judgment—and so the Sacraments are also vessels of the Holy Spirit.

There’s a peculiar slander that Pentecostal Christians like to hurl at Lutherans. It’s implied by a poster I recently saw, showing a blown-up image of an electrical plug and the words: “The Christian who neglects the Holy Spirit is like a lamp that’s not plugged in.” The implied question is: “How can you think you’ve got Christianity right when you neglect the Holy Spirit?” This type of question had led a lot of Lutherans to be seduced into Pentecostalism. Is it true, though? It is true that our focus is centered on Christ, on His cross and resurrection, on His word and sacraments, and on His promises, chiefly the forgiveness of sins. It is true that, unlike many Pentecostals, we do not dwell at length on so-called spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues, interpreting tongues, prophecy, faith-healing, and so on. But does this make us guilty of neglecting the Holy Spirit?

This is where the second half of today’s Gospel comes in. Jesus says: “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”

Here Jesus tells His disciples they are not ready to be told every detail of what the church will believe, teach, and confess. But He adds: The Helper, who is the Holy Spirit, will lead them to understand the whole truth. Mind you, this Spirit will teach them nothing new. This “whole truth” will be lifted directly from what Jesus taught, just as everything Jesus taught was grounded in Old Testament Scripture. Everything that is of God belongs to Jesus. Everything that the Holy Spirit gives will come from Jesus. All Scripture points to Jesus. And all truth comes to us by interpreting Scripture through the lens of Jesus.

So it comes to this: The Holy Spirit will work only through Word and Sacrament—that is to say, through Christ-centered teaching, preaching, and worship. The Holy Spirit is only active when this teaching is faithful to the word of Christ. The Holy Spirit breathes life into Christ’s promise-filled sacraments, and that life comes into us through them. The Holy Spirit is not to be sought elsewhere than through the means Christ has given. And the Holy Spirit gives all glory to Christ, points to Christ, leads to Christ, and derives His authority from Christ. The Holy Spirit does not sound a signal of His own. He does not fly colors of His own. Like the best preachers, who serve beside Him and under Him, the Holy Spirit’s goal is to get out of your way, or to become transparent, so you see only Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

James the elder writes: “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” In other words, don’t focus on the exceptions to the rule. When Jesus says that one cannot enter the kingdom of heaven without being born again by water and the Spirit, or without eating and drinking His body and blood, we immediately spring up, like a knee that jerks when your doctor hits it, and exclaim: “What about the thief on the cross? What about all those who came to faith before they were baptized, or who died before they could be baptized, etc.?”

James wants you to understand: God does not change. He has only told us so much about how disciples are made and how Christ’s righteousness is applied to sinners. He has not revealed any other way to create and sustain faith than through teaching, baptizing, absolving, and communing. He does not want us to reason like the serpent who hissed in Eve’s ear, “Did God really say…?” He does not want us searching for our own way to catch the Spirit or to become God’s people. He is not inviting us to bring Him the best that we can find or create for ourselves. In word and sacrament, He gives us gifts—gifts that James calls “good” and “perfect”—and it is the unchanging will of our unchanging Lord that we receive the gifts He gives.

James writes further: “Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak… Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” It could not be clearer than this. We have not come forth like volunteer herbs in your kitchen garden. We did not plant ourselves. We are spiritually alive because God planted us, or rather He planted in us His word of truth. He has grown us, and is still growing us, so that we bear fruit. And it isn’t because we prayed a sinner’s prayer or decided to accept Him. It’s because Christ gave Himself for us while we were still unrighteous, wrathful, filthy, and overflowing with wickedness. He made us righteous by His blood. He applies that righteousness to us through faith. And even that faith is His gift, planted in us through the living and imperishable seed of His Word.

And so with Isaiah we may say: “O LORD, I will praise You; though You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid… Praise the LORD, call upon His name; declare His deeds among the peoples, make mention that His name is exalted… Cry out and shout, O inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in your midst!’”

PARODY: A Hymn to Jupiter

At the risk of castigation from the enlightened...

If you read my review of the Higher Thing conference in Bloomington, Illinois, from last summer, you'll know that I'm not a huge fan of the hymn--or rather, the music of the text of the hymn--"We Praise You and Acknowledge You, O God, to Be the Lord". As I explained in that post, we tell our people not to march down the aisle to the Wedding March because it's inappropriate, yet we have no problems singing a hymn with a tune tied to the planet Jupiter. Long have I threatened to write a hymn to an instrumental tune like Metallica's "Call of Cthulhu" (which wouldn't work very well) or another instrumental with a better rhythm and meter, but I'd hate to waste it as I'd never allow it to be sung.

Well, being on vacation and all, my mind tends to wander, and this time it wandered into Roman mythology. Don't ask me how it got there, as I don't know. But while it was there, it devised this parody of the ever-popular Te Deum hymn to the tune of THAXTED:

We praise you and acknowledge you,
O Jupiter, our king.
O greatest Olympian,
Your glory do we sing,
Who defeated titans vile--
Oppressors of the earth.
Your vict'ry o'er tyrants
Gives your subjects cause for mirth!
O ruler of the pantheon,
We kneel at your feet
And sing your endless praises,
For you are really neat!

How much does someone else's opinion matter?

I'm on vacation this week, so I don't have a sermon of my own to post. Once I return from vacation and secure permission from Pastor Fish to post the sermon he preached at St. Peter in my absence, I'll post his sermon.

In the meantime, here's something I've been chewing on for about a month. 

I'm about to start writing my third novel. I won't ever be a full-time writer. I love being a parish pastor too much to set it aside for what is, for me, a hobby--no matter how much I enjoy that hobby. Anyway, I've taken to reading some writer blogs over the past few years. Sometimes I wonder if it's just a waste of time, but every so often there's a golden nugget to be mined from the midst of all the garbage, something that gives me an insight that helps me as a writer. Sometimes there's even something that helps me as a pastor. 

This time, such was not the case. Here's something I read last month that has since been knocking around my head.

I don’t understand those people who let what someone says discourage them.  I love the classic story, told in various formats:  The young man wanted to be a great violinist.  The master came to town and the young man wrangled an audition with him.  He played his heart out.  When he was done he asked the master what he thought.  The master said:  “Not enough fire.” The young man was crushed.  He quit the violin and pursued a different career.  Many years later he met the master at a function.  He told him about the audition and the result.  The master was surprised and said:  “I tell everyone that.  If my saying that was enough to stop you, then you really didn’t have enough fire.”  No one can stop you, but you. [Copied from this blog post on the Genreality writing blog; emphasis mine.]

I've never met the source of that story (that I know of), and I've never met the writer who shared that story on the blog. But more than once I've heard something similar to what this "master" said to his student. Some people call it motivation. Others call it reverse psychology. Some people buy that crap.

In reality, it is what's commonly known as bullying. We tell our children not to be bullies, and we tell our children to stand up to bullies. But what do we do when the people who are meant to protect and guide us are the very ones who are shoving us to the ground? Strangely, we give them the title of "mentor" or "teacher", and we grant them tenure, and we honor them as leaders in their fields.

It's possible I'm too sensitive to these things. After all, I've been there. I've been bullied by classmates and I've been "motivated" by teachers. I had a teacher for "Government" my Senior year of high school--a teacher who was student favorite by all accounts--who told me I had a lousy work ethic and wouldn't amount to anything. (Amusingly, my Senior year of high school, I was taking a full class load, participating in elective activities for the first time, and had a job where I worked 10 hours a week and volunteered on top of that.) Maybe he would look at how far he might think I've come since then and think that I have him to thank for my success. If that's what he wants, I won't disabuse him of his delusion. What he and others like him don't understand is that the trust people place in their teachers and mentors leaves them vulnerable to the slightest word of disapproval, and their brand of "motivation" can leave their charges battered and broken. 

Yeah, I know: Butch up, princess. Because that helps, too. 

I'm not saying that we need to coddle those who come to us for teaching, for advice, for guidance. We do them no favors when we give them everything without making them work for it. But words have power, and a writer should understand that better than most. 

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can break my psyche.

Sermon for 4/29/12--Fourth Sunday of Easter

Once again, no audio. My apologies. For some reason, our podcast host (buzzsprout) is having trouble with the mp3 recording I tried to upload.

Turning Grief into Joy
John 16:16-22

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


What does it mean to have resurrection joy?  Jesus said, “I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.”  Simply put, God wants you to have joy in His presence.  This joy from God is not simply happiness or giddiness.  It is not merely the joy you feel being here today.  Instead, it is connected to the gift of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.  Rejoicing in God means connecting your life to the life of His Son, Jesus Christ. At first glance, that sounds easy. But looks can be deceiving. Our text takes place the night Jesus was betrayed.  Just a few hours after He gave the disciples the Lord’s Supper, Jesus said to them:  “Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.”  Then He goes into this series of statements about a little while.  “A little while and you will not see me, and again in a little while and you will see me.”  Seven times we hear that phrase, a little while.

For the disciples, there will be a time when he’ll be gone, and a time when He returns.  When did Jesus leave them?  He left them when He was betrayed, suffered and died.  So when did he return to them?  He returned to them when He rose again from the dead.  This is what He means when He says that their sorrow will be turned into joy.  The world rejoiced at His death, but now the people of God rejoice at His resurrection. Jesus said, “A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me.”  Consider the good Lutheran question: “What does this mean?”  Notice that word see.  Jesus says that there will be a time in your lives when you will not be able to see Him.  You can’t experience Him first-hand—not the way the disciples did.  But you know that He is still here.  Remember again Jesus’ words at His Ascension: “Behold I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”  Jesus promises that He will always be present with you.  God’s presence doesn’t disappear when things get tough.  Indeed, it is when we are weak and helpless that He is strong.

Jesus uses the example of a woman in labor.  A woman in labor has one thing on her mind: bring the child into the world safely.  That’s all that matters.  There is sorrow, yes, and there is pain.  But in a way it doesn’t matter, because the mother knows it will be worth it in the end.  She can endure the hardship because she knows that what will come afterwards will overshadow the pain that came along the way.  This is what Jesus means when He uses the words, a little while.  The suffering and hardship of this life last but a little while.  In the scale of eternity, it just isn’t that important.  Is it real?  Yes.  Do these struggles tear you apart?  Yes, very much so.  But Jesus promises here that He will be with you through every trial.

Remember again the words of our Lord through the Apostle Paul from Romans chapter six: “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” When you were baptized, you entered into this “little while” Jesus is talking about.  You are now in the time of sorrow and trials sinners face this life.  This should not surprise you.  Your life is Christ’s life, and like your Lord, you, too, face trials and tribulations in this life.

And notice, too, where these struggles come from.  They come from your daily life.  They come from dealing with your children and your parents.  They come from work and school.  They come from friends.  In other words, the struggles of being a Christian rise out of wherever God has placed you in this life.  God is the one who has made you a father, mother, son or daughter.  He’s the one who has given you a job, or a school.  He’s the one who put you into family and has given you friends.  And so it is in these places that the trials of the baptismal life take their shape. Perhaps this is why God allows sorrow and hardship to befall the Christian.  God wants you to remember that He is God, and that you are not.  He wants to give you all the blessings of eternity; but He can’t do it if you make yourself out to be your own god, or if you pretend that you can make it on your own.

But take heart, dear Christian friends!  Remember again the words of Isaiah: “But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.”  Even though you live with sorrow for a time today, God will see you through.  You cannot see Jesus with your eyes, but He is very much here, hidden under bread and wine which is His body and blood.  He will give you joy like no other.  You are the children of God, and God always keeps His promises. The time and struggles of this life last just a little while.  There will come a time, soon, when we will no longer even remember these trials, because of the joy in Christ that will be yours—joy that no one can take away from you.  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.

PARODY: God Save the USA

God Save the U.S.A.

(parody of “God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood)

We used to call America
“the Land of the Free”.
We reveled in our liberties
from sea to shining sea.
But now it seems we’re changing
just a little every day.
They’re infringing on our freedoms,
and they’re taking them away.

And I’m scared to be an American,
'cause I'm not that sure I'm free.
And I shouldn’t even write this song
‘cause somebody’s watching me.
Brothers, let me stand up next to you
and defend her still today.
Let us rise up to preserve this land.
God save the USA.


Once the patriots were fighters,
and they stood up for their rights.
Now we have an act called “Patriot”—
keeps our citizens in sight.
They want to take our rifles,
free speech and God away.
Soon they’ll plant a chip in American heads,
lest the people rise and say
          
That I’m scared to be an American,
'cause I'm not that sure I'm free.
And I shouldn’t even write this song
‘cause somebody’s watching me.
Brothers, let me stand up next to you
and defend her still today.
Even now, I know I love this land.
God save the USA.


I am scared to be an American,
'cause I'm not that sure I'm free.
And I shouldn’t even write this song
‘cause somebody’s watching me.
Brothers, let me stand up next to you
and defend her still today.
Even now, I know I love this land.
God save the USA.


© 1984, 2012, 2015 by Lee Greenwood, Alan Kornacki

Sermon for 4/23/12--Funeral of Karen Deppe

Audio:




Text:

Grace in Affliction
John 14:1-6

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


According to human wisdom, God is cruel and uncaring. Human wisdom says that no one should ever have to struggle with a horrible disease. Human wisdom says that no one should ever have to stand by and watch a loved one die. “If God really is the loving God the Bible leads people to believe, why would He put His children through something as awful as cancer?” “If Jesus is truly all-powerful, why would He not heal the sick the way He did in the Gospels?” It’s so easy to criticize God for His seeming indifference to His children.

We think the problem is that God doesn’t work the way He should. But the real problem is that you don’t work the way God created you to work. You were created in the image of God. You were not created to sin. You were not created to die. When Adam and Eve decided in the Garden to try to become like God, they did the exact opposite: they distorted the image of God within them. The spirit that had been once been pure was now tainted by sin. The flesh that had been meant to live forever was now corrupted, diseased by sin, and became subject to death. St. Paul wrote, “The wages of sin is death.” And the ugly truth is, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” You are a sinful human being. You sin constantly in thought, word and deed, by what you do and by what you leave undone. The burden of sin builds every day, and even a horrible disease like cancer is less than you deserve from the God of righteousness. You see the wages of sin in the hundreds of little pains you experience in the flesh. You see the wages of sin in the emotional turmoil of your daily life. And you have the wages of sin all too clearly and ruthlessly demonstrated in the coffin before you this day.

If the Lord left it there, the death of your body would be the end. Your dead body would be a foretaste of the eternal torment that your sin had earned for you. Your dead body would be evidence that you would be eternally separated from the love of God. But the Lord doesn’t leave it there. Karen’s confirmation verse comes from the Gospel of St. John. You just heard these words, but listen again: Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” And even those words would be a burden which the sinner could not bear on his own. The sinner has no authority to approach the Father. Sinners don’t even have the right to approach Jesus to ask Him to intercede before the Father. But St. Paul wrote, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” He knew that the wages of sin were more than you could bear. He knew that sinners had no way to redeem themselves. He knew that Satan prowls around like a lion, waiting to devour sinners. And so Jesus gave Himself instead. He gave Satan a temporary victory in His own death, so that when He rose again on the third day, the devil’s teeth would be pulled, and Satan would have nothing left with which to devour you.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” I have no doubt this day that Karen Deppe is resting in the arms of her Lord Jesus Christ—not because of her love for Steve or her parents or the rest of her family and friends; not because of her kindness and many years of service and generosity to her neighbors; and not because of the fortitude and patience with which she accepted and endured her own suffering or that of her parents. All of those are wonderful traits, and we can thank God for placing Karen in our lives to share these things with us. But Karen rests in the arms of her Savior because her Savior died bearing her sins. She rests in the arms of her Savior because He rose again, destroying the power of death. And most of all, she rests in the arms of her Savior because, through the waters of Holy Baptism, the death and resurrection of Jesus became her death and resurrection. The Holy Spirit gave faith to Karen so that she could confess her own sins and her very nature as a sinner; and the Spirit gave Karen faith to confess that Jesus Christ was her Lord and Savior. He did this for her; and He does the same for you. Your body will die; but that will not be the end. Because Jesus died and rose again, and because He applies His death and resurrection to you in the waters of Holy Baptism, your body which dies because of sin will be raised and made perfect. You will no longer surrender to sin. You will no longer be prone to disease. Death has no power over you. You will be incorruptible in body and soul, reunited with those you love who have gone before you in the faith, free eternally to praise God for His goodness. By faith, you and Karen will be reunited.

One last thing: sometimes God allows His children to suffer terrible afflictions. It is not because God is cruel or uncaring. The sad reality is that sin has made you vulnerable to illness and suffering and death. But even in the midst of such suffering, He does not leave you alone. Whether you yourself are sick or you are sitting at the bedside of a loved one, your heavenly Father does not leave you to bear your afflictions alone. Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” But He comes to you in the midst of your suffering. He knows your torment because He experienced all the torments of sin and death Himself in His earthly life—especially in His suffering and death on the cross. He sustains you in the midst of your suffering. And then, in His great mercy, He calls you out of that suffering to rest from your labors. Karen is no longer in pain, no longer tormented by the ravages of the wages sin. Thanks be to God! And in His great mercy, your heavenly Father will bring an end to your grief and suffering, too. 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 4/22/12--Third Sunday of Easter

No audio for this one. My apologies. My podcast host is being persnickety.

           

The Shepherd Knows the Sheep
John 10:11-16

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

“The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.”  These may be the most familiar words in the whole of the Old Testament, if not all of Scripture.  But the Good Shepherd image of Jesus is one that is so familiar to us that there’s a danger we will let it pass through our minds and hearts without really processing what it means. 

King David was that shepherd boy from Bethlehem who grew up to become the greatest of Israel’s kings and the model for all the kings to follow, especially because He was also a forerunner of the Messiah, a prophecy in flesh and blood of the Savior to come.  Think about David and what he did as king; and think of how all of that came to be fulfilled in Jesus. In truth, being a king was, for David, a lot like his role as a shepherd. David protected his people from enemies without and enemies within.  The king administered justice.  It was his job as king to lead and guide his people and to provide for their needs as much as he was able.

Who is it who can really meet your needs?  There is so much to tempt you, to appeal to your insatiable appetite for things that are new and novel.  But who can really satisfy?  And who can fight off the wolves?  Who can protect you?  Who can prepare a banquet table from which you are nourished with every good thing?  Who really cares for you?
This image of the Good Shepherd also says something about pastors.  The Old Testament reading from Ezekiel brings to mind the trouble Israel had with false shepherds, men who were interested in serving only themselves.  These are words of admonition and warning to those who would serve as “under-shepherds” now.  So what does a pastor do to meet the needs of the people in his care?  He may alert them to the dangers of doctrinal errors within the church at large or to spiritual carelessness within his own flock.  He preaches and teaches the Word in a “public” setting like this, and also applies it in private as the situation requires.  He administers the Sacraments of Christ in the sanctuary and in the home.  He can be present with Christ’s people in times of joy and times of sorrow.  He can visit the sick and the hospitalized.  He can “marry and bury,” as it is said.  But he cannot make disease go away.  He cannot ward off death.  He cannot stop someone who insists on destroying Himself with an abusive life.  He is only human.  He makes mistakes and uses poor judgment at times—which means that he is just like his people in that he, too, needs a shepherd. 

Jesus says, “I am the Good Shepherd.”  What does the Good Shepherd do?  “He lays down His life for the sheep.” When Jesus spoke these words, they would have been well understood; we may not understand them quite as well today.  But for societies that depended economically on raising sheep, the welfare of those sheep was a cold reality.  Sheep were raised because their wool was used for clothing and their meat for food; they were the source of the shepherd’s livelihood.  He cared for them because he had an investment in them.  And because he knows them that well, he also knows their many needs. You can’t blame the hired hand if he runs when the wolf attacks; he has no investment in the sheep.  But the true shepherd is prepared to go the limit to keep his sheep from being harmed.  Indeed, the good shepherd will sacrifice his very life for them. 

The Good Shepherd say to you, “I know my own, and My own know Me.” Even for the most transparent of you, it’s not easy for people to know who you really are.  But there is One who knows everything about you, and so He also knows where to lead you.  “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside the still waters; He restoreth my soul.”  About this Shepherd, David also says: “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over.”  This One who calls Himself the Good Shepherd knows best how to feed you and where to lead you.  He knows what you soul needs, and He provides the marvelous feast of His body and blood to feed and sustain you.  And all of this is wonderfully true for all of His sheep.

The Shepherd Savior has been the One guiding you through your life, no matter where you may have wandered.  It doesn’t mean that you have been spared from going through the deep, dark valleys of death and desperation.  Christians are not spared from such things, even as they are not spared from bearing their crosses.  But you have nothing to fear because God has been with you all the time.  And He brings you together to celebrate, to hear His voice, and to be fed from His table.

The Church has not been wrong when it connects this banquet table in the Psalm with the grace of the Sacrament of the Altar.  For you experience in the Word of God the rod and staff that guide you through life, and in the Supper you receive the same assurance David received from his Lord.  For the Sacrament is a gift of life to sheep who live in the shadow of death; it unites you with Him who is the Life of all the living.  The Good Shepherd who laid down His life for you is alive, and He gives you His life. Thus you can say with David: “Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” 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 4/16/12--Funeral of Adele Volkman

Audio:




Text:  

The Spirit Is Willing

Matthew 26:41

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

When Adele went through the Rite of Confirmation on March 25, 1934, the Confirmation verse she received from Pastor Welp was Matthew chapter 26, verse 41, which states, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Jesus spoke these words to Peter, James, and John in the Garden of Gethsemane when He took them aside with Him to pray before His betrayal, trial, and crucifixion. The strange thing is, He knew His disciples would, in fact, give in to temptation. He knew the disciples would flee before the mob that came to arrest Him. He knew Peter would deny Him. He knew all that was about to take place; but still He spoke those words to them.

Minutes before she heard those words, Pastor Welp asked Adele, “Do you intend faithfully to conform all your life to the rule of the divine Word, to be diligent in the use of the means of grace, to walk as it becometh the Gospel of Christ, and in faith, word, and deed to remain true to the Triune God, even unto death?” He may have asked it in German; I don’t know. And Adele and her classmates, by the work of the Holy Spirit, answered by saying, “I do so intend, by the grace of God.” What a fearsome promise to extract from thirteen year-old children—or from anyone, for that matter. And as He knew with the disciples in the Garden, our Lord knows that even baptized sinners cannot perfectly keep this promise. It is as the Lord says: “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

We sadly observed the weakness of Adele’s flesh over the past few years: the day she fell in her home and hit her head; her more recent difficulties walking; her bout with pneumonia; and, finally, when we learned on Friday that she had been taken from us—that her flesh had become so weak that it could no longer house her willing spirit. And even before these ailments, Adele’s weak flesh was evident in the fact that she was a sinner, as she confessed frequently to her Lord. All of her physical ailments were evidence of the truth that “the wages of sin is death.” And yet, we also saw her willing spirit exhibited at the same time. Vivian passed along a very recent story—and I ask that you forgive my poor paraphrasing. Adele was supposed to be on oxygen after her most recent return from the hospital. She kept asking if she had to stay on the oxygen, and Vivian kept telling her, “You should at least keep it on during the night.” Then one day, Adele told her, “I was tested today, and the oxygen in my blood is fine.” Vivian asked her, “When did you last have the oxygen on?” She was thinking that maybe they had tested Adele right after she’d finished an oxygen treatment. But Adele answered, “It’s been two days!” “The spirit indeed is willing…”

Temptation stands before you this day—the temptation to grieve for Adele hopelessly. Don’t get me wrong: the woman we loved is dead, and there is no shame in honest grief. But we should not grieve as if this is the end. We should not grieve as if we have no hope; for this is not the end—not for Adele, and not for you. We confess in the Apostles’ Creed, “I believe in…the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.” These are words which Adele confessed with confidence not seven days before her death. Beloved in Christ, these are not meaningless phrases. Jesus died bearing our sins; and He rose again to destroy the power of death. Because Adele was a baptized child of God, she will not remain dead. When Christ returns in glory, He will raise up Adele—and not only Adele, but also all those who through Holy Baptism lived by faith in Jesus Christ. We will enjoy a blessed reunion with Adele and with all those we love who have lived and died confessing the risen Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The flesh that was weak because of sin shall be restored and made perfect; the willing spirit will be reunited with that perfected body; and the resurrected faithful shall give praise and glory to God for His goodness.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.” This is not the end—not for Adele, and not for you. This is your sure and certain hope: because Jesus rose from the dead, He has raised you to new life with Him in the waters of Holy Baptism; and He will raise you again through those waters to eternal life. 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 4/15/12--Second Sunday of Easter

Audio:





Text:

Wounds 
John 20:19-31 

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

The prophet Isaiah wrote, “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” In other words, the most wonderful good news about Jesus is that He's got holes in Him. The wounds of Christ are your joy and blessing because, in getting those wounds, Jesus saved you from your sins. In keeping those wounds, He showed His disciples that He was the same Jesus who was dead on the cross and now is alive. It is those wounds that Jesus shows to the Father to still His wrath against our sins. And it is those wounds that He shows to you to comfort you against all sin and death. 

Jesus shows His wounds to His disciples. He shows them His hands and His side: the hands where the nails were driven to pin Him to the cross; the side that was pierced to prove that He was indeed dead. If there were no nail and spear holes, if there were no wounds, how could the disciples know that this was really the Jesus who had died? So when Jesus appears, He makes sure to show them where the nails and the spear were. And they rejoiced. They rejoiced because this was proof that the man standing in front of them was no impostor; He was the real Jesus who had been nailed to the cross and died there. Thomas wasn't there the first time; but when he heard about it, he would not believe until he saw the wounds for himself and put his fingers there just to be sure! So the Lord shows His wounds again. 

Jesus also shows His wounds to the Father. The wounds of Jesus tell His Father that you are forgiven. The wounds of Christ are the Lord's eternal reminder to the Father that you are no longer a target for punishment; you are a child of God. As long as Jesus has those wounds, the Father can never condemn you for your sins! After all, the wounds He suffered, the death He underwent, the scars He now bears, are for your sake. Jesus has those holes in Him for you. Jesus was pierced for your sins so that your sins will never pierce you. Jesus carries wounds because He carried your sins so that you won't have to bear them. Jesus, because He is God's Son, can do this. Our sins would kill us. They killed Jesus. But He is alive. And the proof is that the risen Christ who stands among His disciples bears those marks of His suffering death as glorious trophies of His triumph. 

 Jesus shows His wounds to you. He shows them to you by faith. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” You have not seen those wounds with your eyes. But John who was an eyewitness writes that you have victory over the world because of Jesus. You need this victory! This world and your own sins weigh you down. Everyone carries wounds and scars. Sometimes you still have the hurt from what others have done to you. Sometimes you bear the scars of guilt because of what you’ve done to others. Whether they are emotional or physical, your wounds and scars are reminders of the wages of sin. But Christ gives the victory against such things! His wounds of life defeat the power of death. His wounds are your refuge, a place to hide against the world. What can the world do to you? What can the devil say against you? What can your own scars and wounds do? Nothing! But the holes in Jesus' feet and hands and side stand as eternal witness that Christ has defeated the world; and His wounds are the marks of victory for you. 

Christ shows you His wounds by His gifts. You don't see the wounds like Thomas did, but you are shown them by His Word and Sacraments. When God's people complained that they had no hope, Ezekiel was given the vision of the dry bones which were brought back to life by the Spirit of God that was breathed into them. In the same way, when Jesus breathes on His disciples, He is giving them life, and He sends them to deliver the blessings of those wounds to you—first in Baptism, when the water that flowed from His side washed you clean; then in absolution and preaching, the words that apply His victory to your mind and heart; and finally in the Holy Supper of Christ, in which the body that was wounded for you and the blood that poured from those wounds is given you to eat and drink for the forgiveness of sins. By these gifts, victory is yours! Death is overcome, and you have hope and comfort in all affliction. 

My brothers and sisters in Christ, the wounds of Jesus are a cause for rejoicing and celebration. They are the holes which prove to Thomas and the disciples that the Jesus who stands before them is the same one they saw crucified. The wounds of Jesus are your protection against the guilt and punishment of sin. Christ's holy wounds are your comfort against all sin and death. Hide there in His wounds! When death frightens you, look to the wounds of Jesus to know that death is powerless. When the devil stalks you, point him to the wounds which defeated Satan. Jesus is the Conqueror of sin and death. By His wounds, you are conquerors of sin and death. By His wounds, you will always recognize the victorious Lamb of God who was slain and reigns now for all eternity. By His wounds, you are healed. 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 4/8/12--The Resurrection of Our Lord

Sorry for the delay.

Audio:

 


Text?  

Who Will Roll Away the Stone?

Mark 16:1-8

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

It’s hard to miss the love and devotion that the women had for their Lord. Early Sunday morning, after the Sabbath, they bring expensive spices to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus. Some of these women had been with Jesus for years, and they cared deeply about this man who had healed their hurts and forgiven their sins. But he was dead. What could they do but give Him a proper burial? As they are on the way to the tomb, the thought occurred to them, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” Remember that the chief priests had insisted that the tomb be closed and sealed, so that the disciples could not come and steal the body. This was a large stone, and there was no way that three women could move this stone out of the way. In their grief they had forgotten.

It is very easy to forget that God is in control of our lives. This is especially true in the face of death and adversity. How many times had Jesus predicted that He would suffer, die for our sins, and rise again on the third day? How many times? The women knew the prophecies. They knew the story. But in their grief they could not dare to hope. I mean, it is a far-fetched prophecy, after all. And we do the same thing. Our grief, our fears, our sorrows keep us from believing what Jesus had prophesied. Jesus says that if you live and believe in Him, you will never die. Jesus says that His indestructible life is now yours in the waters of Holy Baptism. Jesus says that because He lives, you too will live. We would say with Paul, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” Who will roll the stone away from our hearts?

As the women looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away! And as they entered the tomb, they saw an angel. And they were afraid. He said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here.” Death came through one man, Adam, so many years ago. That death was a result of sin. That sin, that horrible unbelief in a giving, loving God, it was that sin which had to be paid with a price. But not just any price. The price was death. My brothers and sisters in Christ, that price his been paid. Death has been defeated! As St. Paul wrote: “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” If you look at the Christ of Good Friday, you see a man mocked, spat upon, with the sin of the whole world laid upon Him. He died for you. But what do you see this day? With the women we see the empty tomb. Christ has risen from the dead, and we rise with Him. That same Jesus who died is alive again. Who will roll the stone away from your heart to give you faith? The Holy Spirit has done so in Holy Baptism.

 So what does this mean for you today? Why does this matter? Is it simply a great story that we repeat year after year after year? No; this is more than a story. This is a reality that goes far deeper than any fairy tale. The Father placed the weight of sin upon His Son’s shoulders. When you look at your life and at yourself, you see sin and the stain of wrongdoing at every turn. But God takes those sins, and He put them upon Jesus. And so it is this morning that we with the women look into the tomb. Is Jesus still there? Are my sins still bound to me like cords of death? Does my life continue as if nothing has happened! No! For the Jesus before you today is risen from the dead! The stone is rolled away; death has no power anymore. And because He is risen from the dead, that stone is rolled away; your sins are gone! You are free! No more guilt, no more fear of death. Your sins are no longer with you; they are left in the tomb. But Christ is not there. Death has no more dominion over Him or over you. Christ is not in the tomb; He is risen! He is here, now, present with you who gather here in His name, present in His body and blood. Death is swallowed up in victory: victory for you; victory for all those who have died in the faith. There is victory and rejoicing this day, for Satan’s kingdom is overthrown and the grave no longer holds us captive. Jesus lives, and you have a hope that is stronger than death. You have a Savior who died and rose again. You have a God who wipes away tears, who knows your suffering better than you know it yourselves, and who will not leave you in the grave, dead in your sins. He is risen, and in the waters of Holy Baptism, He will raise you with Him.

Jesus’ resurrection is the certain and sure hope of your own eternal life. You are free from the power of death. You have been washed in baptismal waters, and you have risen with Him to live forever! Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! 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 3/25/12--Lent V (LSB 1-year)

Audio:





Text:

Redemption and Opposition

John 8:42-59

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

John’s Gospel is distinct from the other three. All of them, of course, present the truth. But John's Gospel is not a chronology; it does not give us a blow-by-blow account of the various events in the life of Jesus as the others do. John’s Gospel is a presentation of the person and the saving work of Jesus Christ. John shines his light on those words and works of Jesus which reveal Him to be the eternal Son of the heavenly Father, and our Savior from sin, death, and hell. And he also shows us the opposition that rises against Jesus with its evil, even demonic, roots.

Earlier in this same chapter, Jesus had spared the woman caught in adultery. Her accusers would have stoned her to death had Jesus not intervened. But, He challenged her accusers by saying to them, “He who is without sin among you cast the first stone.” Of course, no one there could lift a stone without proving himself to be a hypocrite. But there was another implication in Jesus’ words. The divine wisdom and insight that enabled Him to say what He did implied that He, in fact, was without sin, and would have had every right to cast a stone at the adulteress. The fact that He did not spoke a message that would not have been missed. Jesus then went on to say, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” The Pharisees who heard Him understood that He was staking out a claim for Himself as the Son of God. The battle lines were drawn. The positions were laid out. And that is what our reading presents to us.

There is tremendous drama in this encounter between Jesus and His opponents. Jesus began with a remarkable question. “Which of you convicts Me of sin?” You know they wanted to; but search as they may, none of them could formulate a charge against Him. When He had given them plenty of opportunity, Jesus spoke again. “I tell the truth; why do you not believe me?” Again, there was probably an uncomfortable silence. How could they answer Him? Then, Jesus answered His own question. “You do not hear, because you are not of God.” What did He mean by this? Think of it this way: a man who is tone deaf cannot experience the thrill of music; all he hears is sound that makes little or no sense to him. A man who is color-blind cannot fully appreciate a picture or painting; the colors that distinguish one thing from another are unknown to Him. Even so, without the Spirit, God’s Word means nothing to the man who hears it.

To be told that they were strangers to God stung the Jews, and they reacted as one would expect. “Are we not right in saying that You are a Samaritan, and that You have a devil?” To be called a Samaritan was to be branded as an eternal enemy of the Jews, a heretic, one whose sole purpose was to lead the people of God away from the truth. This was the state to which they had fallen. The Messiah, the Redeemer of the world, stood before them. But every redeeming word He spoke, every redeeming action He undertook, was met with hateful opposition.

The remarkable thing about this event in the life of Jesus was that He was actually prepared to accept the accusation of sin. That was what His redemptive work was about; bearing the sins of the world upon Himself. As St. Paul said, Jesus was made, literally, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Of course, He had no sin of His own. All that He did and endured, including the abuse heaped on Him on this occasion, was done for sinners; it was in their place. And this is where we enter the story. We may not think that we are opponents of Jesus. We may not be prepared to call Him an enemy of the faith, a deceiver who would lead us astray from the truth of God. And yet, every sin of thought, word, and deed hammers at His redemptive work.

And so, it is only through repentance that we can approach Jesus, our Redeemer. Repentance was the farthest thing from the mind of the Jews. Instead of falling before their Redeemer in sorrow for the way they had abused Him, their opposition grew more fervent and more demonic. They said to Him: “Are You greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? And the prophets are dead. Whom do You make Yourself out to be?” And when the whole discussion was concluded they even took up stones to throw at Him. They would treat Him as their fathers had treated prophets before them. They were not of God, nor would they hear His Word.

Repentance must be our approach to Jesus. Even as He has honored the Father in all that He has said and done, we dishonor Him with our sin and the opposition we raise against Him. We can only come to Him in repentance. And then He says to us: “Most assuredly I say to you, if anyone keeps My Word he shall never see death.” What does He mean here? What does it mean to “keep” His Word? To be sure, it means more than obedience which, I suspect, is how most would understand it. To keep His Word means to treasure it, to hold on to it for dear life, to place a value on it that sets it above everything in this life. It means to love His Word because His Word is Truth and Life. And especially here, He bids us keep those words that speak of His redemption, that He has come to give His life as the “ransom for many,” that He truly is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” And His promise to us as we keep His Word is that we will never see death.

Not too long after this encounter with the Jews, Jesus was called to the graveside of His dear friend, Lazarus. Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and Martha, were troubled by the fact that Jesus had not arrived in time to spare their brother; they were convinced He would have done that. But as it turned out, there was an even greater and more glorious purpose in allowing Lazarus to die. Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live, and whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” And then He raised Lazarus from the grave as proof that those who keep His Word will, indeed, never really die. And by raising Lazarus He was also pointing to His own resurrection. He who kept the Word of His Father would live forever. He made you His own and placed His Word in you in the waters of Holy Baptism, and in those waters He has raised you with Him to eternal life. 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 3/18/12--Lent IV

Audio:





Text:

“Hail, Jesus, King of Our Tummies”
John 6:1-15

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

Once again, the crowds had gathered. It was as if the circus had come to town. John tells us that “a great multitude followed [Jesus], because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased.” This was not the first time that the crowds had come looking for a spectacle from Jesus. Early in His earthly ministry, the people of His own hometown of Nazareth wanted to witness Jesus doing His thing. And it would not be the last time, either. Herod, too, expected Jesus to perform on demand, even while Jesus stood before him on trial for His life. Before all of them stood the greatest Teacher of all time, teaching about the most important subject ever devised by the mind of God or man. All they wanted was the circus.

It wasn’t necessarily a lack of faith. After all, no one doubted that Jesus had the power to do what they expected Him to do. Jesus had given proof numerous times. He proved it by changing water into wine. He proved it by bringing sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, mobility to the cripple. He proved it in shining splendor on the mountain, appearing in robes that shone with the light of the sun with Moses and Elijah. And He proved it once again in the Gospel for today, feeding the multitude with five loaves of bread and two small fish, with twelve baskets left over.

The sign had been given. The crowd had seen the wonder they had come to see. All it took was for Jesus to fill their stomachs. That was enough for them. They made ready to declare Jesus their king. “Hail, Jesus, King of our tummies! Blessed is He who comes in the name of our appetite!” They had missed the point. They had no idea of what it really meant for Jesus to be the Messiah, even if some of them were inclined to believe that He was the Christ. Jesus had no interest in being an earthly king. He already had a task set before Him. He left the crowd and made His way to the mountain alone.

What is it about Jesus that makes Him the subject of our adoration? For the crowd that day, it was the promise of spectacle and that promise fulfilled in the temporary end of their hunger. And we certainly like to have our bellies filled, too. We know that God gives us “all that we need to support this body and life.” For some, that is enough reason to worship God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And it’s certainly not a bad reason to praise God. But if that’s all God is good for in our eyes, then we, too, have missed the point. As I said, it’s not necessarily a lack of faith. After all, we trust that God will provide.

But what happens when our cups don’t “runneth over”? What happens when our bellies are not fat with cheese and chips and meat and gravy and cream and beer and everything else we desire? What happens when we are blinded against the goodness of God by our own greed and selfishness? When help doesn’t come according to our schedules, we feel as though God has failed us, that He doesn’t love us, that we now have to fend for ourselves somehow. Our ideas concerning Jesus are as hazy as were those of the multitude in the crowd that day on the mountain. We, too, want the Jesus who takes away our hunger. We, too, want the Jesus who heals the sick and gives sight to the blind. We, too, want the Jesus who will work great deeds and wonders.

We don’t realize what kind of Lord we have in Jesus Christ. Jesus is not interested in being just a helper in the things of the body. He is not merely a servant who caters to the desires of the flesh. He knew the hearts and minds of His audience on the mountain that day; He knows the thoughts and desires of our hearts today. He knows exactly what we think of Him. He knows that the Old Adam in us would settle for a Messiah that fulfilled our earthly needs. Sinners that we are, when He tells us why He comes to us, we drive Him away, comfortable in our sinfulness.

He also knows that our needs run deeper than the needs and desires of the flesh. If our needs consisted only in having full plates at dinner, a house, gainful employment, or whatever else it is that we consider needs in our earthly existence, we wouldn’t necessarily need miraculous, divine intervention to have those needs filled. After all, God makes the sun to shine on both the righteous and the unrighteous. We don’t have to believe in God to have a full stomach or a place to lay our heads at night or clothes to cover us.

The real miracle in our text is that the Word does exactly what Jesus says it’s supposed to do. When Jesus speaks, His Word has the power to do exactly what He says. When He tells the eyes of the blind man to open, the man is no longer blind. When He takes up five loaves and two fish to feed the throng, those five loaves and two fish are made to be enough to feed every last person, with food to spare. When He tells us our sins are forgiven, all the iniquity is wiped away. As God says to us through the prophet Isaiah: “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”

In knowing that your needs are greater than just the things of your bodies, Jesus came to bring relief and healing to your soul. He came to bring deliverance from your slavery to sin, speaking to you the Word of Holy Absolution. He came to make light the heavy burden of sin which stoops your shoulders and hunches your back, doing so by bearing those sins for you to the cross. He came to earn for you a new life, rising from the grave on the third day so that you would rise with him to newness of life in the waters of Holy Baptism. He came to nourish your soul with His own body and blood.

Jesus did not come to fulfill our earthly desires; He came to deliver us from sin, death, and the power of the devil. He fulfills the needs of our souls, feeding us with another feast in bread and wine that seems inadequate in the eyes of the world. Like the feeding of the five thousand, the miracle here is that Jesus makes perfect for its purpose something which would seem to be lacking. In and under that bread and wine of this Supper is the very body and blood of Jesus Himself, a wedding banquet feast rich and filling and more than merely adequate to do what it is supposed to do. Our souls are satisfied, groaning with the delight of being filled with Jesus. We are made righteous before God, and all because Jesus said He would—for His Word will not return void.

All that, and He graciously fills our bellies, too. God grant us faith to believe and to thank Him for all the riches He provides for our bodies and our souls! 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 3/11/12--Lent III (LSB 1-year)

No audio this week because of a recording snafu. My apologies.

With Me or Against Me?

Luke 11:14-28

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

Jesus is headed to Jerusalem for one reason: to save sinners. Where Jesus and His Word appear, the devil is driven away. The devil thinks he's got this world right where he wants it. Satan is no pushover. His army of evil demons and men will do everything it can to stop our salvation from happening. He went after Jesus in the wilderness, but Jesus didn't budge. Jesus is the stronger man in our text who comes and wrestles Satan into submission and takes what is His: and what belongs to Him is you and me!

You have had the devil thrown out of you. It was the day of your baptism. At that moment when you were born from above by water and the word, the devil was cast out of you. At the instant of your being washed with water and the name of the Triune God, the finger of God cast out Satan and the kingdom of God came upon you. Baptism is the Lord Himself at work doing what He did for this man--casting out the devil. Baptism is the Lord Himself shoving the Evil One aside and claiming you as His own. Your old evil foe is kicked out and replaced by the Lord who made you and provides for you, who saves you and who makes you holy for eternal life.

The devil could not stop the coming of God's kingdom when Christ appeared. He could not stop the Lord from snatching you away from him at your baptism. So now he will try everything he can to steal you back. As Jesus says, when an evil spirit is cast out, he wanders around and them comes back with seven more to try to take back the one he possessed. The devil is prowling like a roaring lion seeking to devour you. He has no end of tricks up his sleeve to use to drag you away from Christ. He sneaks his agents into the Church, preaching what is false. He seeks for you to believe that baptism is not a rescue from the devil but a good work you do to show your faith. He sends preachers to tell you that the Christian faith is about prosperity and happiness instead of Jesus and the forgiveness of sins. The devil works hard to keep you away from hearing God's Word, from remembering what your Catechism teaches, from growing in your knowledge of the Scriptures. But his goal is not simply false preaching. He will use anything in your life to drag you away from the Word. He'll try to ruin your marriage. He'll stir up anger and hatred and hurt feelings that will keep people away from God's house. He'll try any trick to get your attention back onto yourself and away from the Word of God. He'll use your secret sins and lusts and fears and work them all into a big mess that wears you down and wears you out and causes you to give up on the Lord.

But one thing will drive all this away. One thing can destroy these temptations and these powers. One thing can remove the accusations of the devil and the weight of your sins. That one thing is the forgiveness of sins in Christ Jesus. When your sins are forgiven, then the Devil's got nothing on you! So often, your sins cause you to avoid the Lord and His Church. But that’s precisely when you should march up to your pastor with your sins and say, “Pastor, get rid of these for me!” The words of absolution do this. The body and blood of Christ do this. The preaching of Jesus crucified for your sins does this. Whatever sins you have, whatever accuses you before God, Jesus has washed it away. The devil's got nothing on you. He has no leverage. He has no chains around you. He wants to you believe he does, but he doesn't! He's been defeated. You've had the devil cast out before. Make the sign of the cross to remind you of your baptism, and Satan will have no choice but to flee. When the devil brings your sins back to haunt you and trouble you and make you question whether you really are a child of God, then come and receive absolution. When the devil tries to wear you down in your body by throwing diseases and the prospect of death at you, then come and eat Jesus' body and drink His blood. If you have Jesus in you, then there's no way the devil can have you. If Satan wants you, he's got to go through the Christ within you. With these gifts the devil can't touch you.

As long as you are in Christ Jesus, you are safe from the devil. In Christ, your sins can't accuse you. In Christ, death itself cannot harm you. The Pharisees mocked that Jesus cast out demons by the prince of demons. Let them say what they want. He casts out demons by the finger of God. That same finger has touched you and cast out the devil. The kingdom of God has come upon you, and you are safe now in Christ Jesus. 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.