St John's, Victor

Sermon: Lent 2 (Reminiscere).2012

2012-03-09T17:36:00.001-06:00

Matthew 15.21-28

3 March 2012

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The present course of things / is deterioration. Just leave an orange out on your table (well, perhaps your picnic table outside would be a better option), just leave it there for a few days, maybe a week and you begin to see what I mean.

This is not natural. I didn't say, the natural course of things is deterioration, but rather the present course of things is deterioration. Deterioration, destruction, even death, these things aren't natural. Life was created immortal, eternal, after the image of its Creator. Man was not created to die, neither was the orange created to deteriorate.

Sin did this. You know the story of Adam and Eve, how evil entered the world through the great and terrible Fall into sin as the first human beings were tempted by the serpent to ignore God's law and disobey Him.

But do not be fooled. Adam and Eve were guilty for their own sin, they aren't guilty for your sin. Yes, it is true that you were born with a disposition, a tendency to disobey God and His law, but you don't have to. Your sins are your own fault. You sin because you are weak, / because you don't want to do the hard work of obedience. And for this reason, the law has become a burden to you.

But listen to the radical way that the Psalmist describes God's Law. This is from Psalm 119 (the really long one; by the way, in every verse of Psalm 119 the Word of God is mentioned: check it out sometime), / so the Psalmist writes:

97 Oh how I love your law!
It is my meditation all the day.

129 Your testimonies are wonderful;
therefore my soul keeps them.
131 I open my mouth and pant,
because I long for your commandments.

And there are many more verses like this, suggesting that the Law is actually good and desirable and so we yearn for it, we want more law. You see this in children. When they are obeying you, and they know it, and you praise them for obeying you, they LOVE your every word, they are eager for you to tell them more things to do. Why? Because they are not burdened by guilt in those moments. Your sinning causes you guilt. Your guilt clouds your every thought, your every action, it even affects your mood and emotions. In other words, guilt deteriorates the joy and peace and comfort of the Lord.

How do you know you are infected with guilt? Ask yourself this: when is the last time you experienced the true freedom of the Gospel? The absolute relief and joy that comes along with the forgiveness of all of your sins? The hope and liberation of knowing that God is very pleased with you because Jesus lived perfectly and died for you?

Whatever gets in your way of fully knowing and experiencing these Divine gifts, / that is guilt, and if guilt is left unattended, it deteriorates your spirit and your soul / and will eventually lead you to a cold and lifeless faith. That is the current state of things in this world: deterioration. That / is not / the Christian life.

That is why the Gospel lesson, the story of the Canaanite woman (Syro-Phoneacian woman), / is so essential to the Christian life. Because most of you are out there today and are out there {point outside} each week, each hour being deteriorated by the current state of this world. Because most of you can say, “yes, pastor, that's me, I'm deteriorating and full of guilt and I see that I am mostly grumpy and hardly ever truly joyful over the forgiveness of my sins.”

To you, I say: hear this Gospel today as a life-line; something to get you back on track; back to a joyful knowledge of your salvation in Jesus Christ. Embrace the example of this woman by actually living it, putting it into practice. With St Paul (in today's Epistle lesson) I say to you, “Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God [Law], just as you are doing [the Christian life], that you do so more and more.”

The Canaanite woman was in great need; she knew Jesus was the only One who could meet that need; but she had no right to ask him for anything. Hear the story again:

And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” And he answered, “It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.” Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

Prayer. // But not just prayer. Consistent, / Insistent, / tenacious, never-giving up, pushing and pushing and pleading over and over and over and over; that kind of prayer. Prayer that looks like a dear child asking his dear Father. Prayer that demands God to be faithful to His own promises. That is faithful prayer, that is righteous prayer, that is prayer that moves mountains, not physical mountains, but spiritual mountains, those impossible, impassible obstacles in life that prevent you from reaching the joy and peace and comfort of your salvation. Those obstacles of guilt and spiritual, emotional torment that the devil and the world and your own sinful nature love to through in your way. Those obstacles // which Jesus has already overcome.

“Woman, great is your faith.” Why? Because her faith was in Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, the promised offspring of Eve, the mother of ALL living. Why was her faith great, because her faith was Jesus' faith. Faith comes by hearing; St Mark also recounts this story for us, and he tells us that unnamed woman heard reports of Jesus, in other words, she heard the Gospel, / and hearing the Gospel of Jesus, she also received the faith of Jesus. Jesus was a bit modest in his description. This woman didn't have great faith, she had perfect faith. Jesus faith is always perfect faith. If Jesus would have rejected her again, even if He would have picked up her Himself and thrown her outside the house where they were, still, she would have come humbly back. Persistent, insisting that Jesus be her God, too. And so He was. Her daughter was healed, the deterioration of her body stopped.

This woman represents us, the Gentiles. We have no right to God's mercy and grace. Yet, we follow her example. We cry out time and time again, Lord, have mercy, Lord have mercy, Lord help me. We are persistent, not because we have the strength in ourselves, but because we know something that Satan hates to admit, that the world has long forgotten, and that our sinful nature ignores: we know that Jesus has already won, and we are beloved children of the Father. Our sins are already forgiven, and our spiritual life is growing day by day as it is watered and fed by the Blessed Word and Sacraments.

There is every reason for you to cower away and retreat into your glum state of guilt and hopelessness. You are, after all, a sinner. But there is something that reason can't comprehend, that only faith can grasp: Jesus came for sinners. And your forgiveness of sins means eternal life and salvation for you. And what's more, those same joyful and peaceful and comforting gifts are given you this day in the form of bread and wine.

So come, ENJOY this meal today, and enjoy your life. Life doesn't have to be gloom and guilt. Pray, / eat, / and enjoy. Persistently, insistently, over and over and over and over. God hears you, you are His.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermon: Lent 1 (Invocabit).2012

2012-02-26T18:41:00.000-06:00

Today's sermon was preached without a manuscript. Please see pastor or elder for a copy of the service.

Sermon: Ash Wednesday.2012

2012-02-23T11:57:00.000-06:00

The Ash Wednesday sermon did not have a manuscript. Please email pastor or talk with one of the elders for an audio copy of the service.

Sermon: Quinquagesima.2012

2012-02-23T11:55:00.000-06:00

Quinquagesima (Pre-Lent)
Luke 18.31-43
2.19.2012

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit

Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!

The cry of the blind man is the cry of the Christian Church on the eve of Lent and throughout out life. And it is a constant cry: as we see in the Gospel, not even the polite rebukes of other people are able to silence it. The blind man, and the Church continue: “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

This prayer is sung every week, by the Church. The “Kyrie” is the first prayer of the Divine Service. It is the oldest prayer of the faithful. Kyrie, eleison, Lord, have mercy. It is the most basic, simple, and clear form of prayer. Not even the polite rebukes of government and unbelievers are able to silence our cry. Jesus promises to hear this prayer, and not only that, but He intercedes on our behalf before our heavenly Father with the same words; Have mercy.

Even if you have come to doubt the effectiveness of your own prayer, you can nontheless remain confident that Jesus' prayer is heard and answered; in fact, from ancient times, this simple Kyrie, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”, this has been called the “Jesus prayer.” Not only because it is prayed to Jesus, but it is also Jesus' own prayer for us.

And it works. / And we have proof: Jesus' promise is fulfilled every time His Word is read and His Body and Blood are administered for the forgiveness of sins. In other words, as the Catechism says, “God's will is done...[and] God's kingdom comes even without our prayer.” Of course it is without our prayer, for what do we have to do with Divine mercy and the eternal gifts of life and salvation. Our prayer does not earn them, it is only Jesus' prayer that really counts. So, thanks be to God, we are united to Christ in Baptism, and so when we pray, we join with Jesus as He prays.

So, with that introduction to the Gospel reading for Quinquagesima, / here we are. / You heard last week about how we are preparing for the 40 day journey that is called Lent, and today is our last day of preparation. As I mentioned last week, today is really not a working day, after all, we have all we need: two weeks ago on Septuagesima we got our map, and we reviewed our destiny: we are heading to the cross of Jesus, and then on to His resurrection on Easter. Last week on Sexagesima, we were given instruction about what would sustain us through this journey, what nourishment we would need: turns out the life-giving Word of God and the Bread of Life, that gracious eternal food and drink, will be sufficient for thee.

So, today / we sit back and look over what has been gathered for our journey, and we pray. We trust our Lord's providence and grace, and especially His mercy, and we pray. But even as we pray, “Lord have mercy,” still we must also hear the warning; / and today the warning comes in the form of a question. Just as Jesus said to the blind man when he called out to Him, so Jesus says to us: “What do you want me to do for you?”

The blind man answered simply, “Lord, let me recover my sight.” And this was enough for Him. He simply wanted to see Jesus.

Now, ask yourself: is seeing Jesus not good enough for you? In other words: even though you know of the abundant mercy and blessing and eternal riches that you have in the forgiveness of sins that Jesus won on the cross, / do you still secretly want more, or something different, something that you think is better or more valuable to you?

Repent. And even if you don't know of any of those thoughts, confess your unknown sins. Lust and greed and envy and jealousy have no place in the Christian heart. These will drag you down to hell in the twinkling of an eye. Repent, / and cry out all the more, cry out so that the devil, the world, and your old sinful nature are deafened by your cry for mercy. These great enemies of your faith hate it when you join Jesus' prayer like this, they go fleeing away at the Kyrie.

“Lord, let me recover my sight.” / Let this be enough. Let God's Kingdom come and His will be done as He does His work on you in Word and Sacrament, in prayer and Psalm, in the liturgy of Life.

And when you open your eyes, see again / Jesus Christ's passion. See again Jesus Christ stricken, smitten, and afflicted, lying on the throne of the cross as King of the Jews and the hope of the Gentiles. See again the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, the love that Saint Paul writes about in today's Epistle, which is, in fact, the same love that we show in our daily lives, / a love that is more than love between a man and a woman that is often portrayed as the theme of 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Paul speaks about a love that transcends marriage, prophecies, speaking in tongues, and other spiritual gifts, for Jesus' love is everything: He would not have mercy if He did not love.

Jesus heals the blind man because He loves him. Jesus heals us from sin in His blood and righteousness because He loves His Father's creation. And that / is our goal. That is the end of our journey through Lent: Good Friday. His harsh, but lovely death on our behalf / brings us again into communion with our Creator. Not only do we see again, we also taste again. The Lord's Supper is eating and drinking the forgiveness of sins won by Christ at Calvary. As the Psalmist writes: Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! God's amazing grace in His means (Word, water, bread, and wine), these are our sustenance as we walk the road glorifying God for our sight, our taste, and our redemption.

So saddle up. Come Wednesday. And as St Thomas once said, “let us also go [to Jerusalem with Jesus], that we may die with Him.”

In +Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermon: Sexagesima.2012

2012-02-23T11:53:00.000-06:00

Sexagesima (Pre-Lent)
Luke 8.4-15
2.12.2012

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Seed / is the Word of God.

Brethren, Lent is fast approaching. The Church has given us these three “Gesima” Sundays to ready our hearts, or at least our minds. And what a gift it is! / This is our tendency as humans / to overlook things. Lent should not be overlooked. The Church is waking us up, so that when the time comes (Ash Wednesday is just a week and a half away), when that day comes, / we will be ready for it. The Church offers that blessing, and you, this morning are hearing the wake-up call.

But the Church is only the Church; we are only human. Our Fathers in Lutheranism and our Fathers in the Early Church, they too / were merely human. Warning and preparation / is all that we are capable of; we cannot go beyond that. But in the end, we must go beyond that. We must make it to Lent (and then, of course, all the way beyond Lent to Easter—but I'm getting a bit ahead of us.) The point is: without the Word of God, / and the spiritual, divine power that the Word of God has, the Church would useless. We would be no better than a noisy gong or clanging cymbal. Our own power, our own words, no matter how convincing or eloquent they may be, our words are just words, just language.

Lent, is a 40 day spiritual journey. Just like the Israelites journeyed 40 years through the wilderness, / and more importantly, just like Jesus journeyed to the cross, so we are going on a journey soon (and, in fact, we are already on that journey). Be ready, and remind others also to be ready for the Lenten journey.

The first step in planning a successful journey / is to do the obvious thing and / review the map, to actually know where you are going and how to get there. That happened for us, last week. On Septuagesima Sunday (which means “about 70 days” till Easter). In the Gospel reading, our Leader, our Lord Jesus showed us that the way to Easter, that is, the way, the road, the path, to the Resurrection (both Jesus' resurrection and our resurrection), that path is not by our merits or rewards, but only by grace. We got an idea that there would be suffering involved with this journey, though not necessarily our suffering: Someone else was going to bear the heat of the day, and we were going to reap the rewards of Another's labor. Turns out, as we know, Jesus Himself will be working on our behalf and the suffering that is coming will be His to bear; / but we'll get back to that on Good Friday.

Another step in proper preparation for a journey / is to take an inventory of your resources; / to know how you will be sustained along the way. And that / is what we are doing here this morning, on Sexagesima (or “about 60 days” from Easter). But I'll get back to that in moment.

The final step in readying yourself for a journey is simply to look back over all your preparation and all your gathering and planning, / and just pray, and trust that God's will is done when you are out there, out of your comfort zone and away from anything familiar. That final step is for next week, called Quinquagesima (or about 50 days till Easter). We will be given a prayer, actually, sometimes called the Jesus Prayer, which we can pray not only at the outset of our journey, but every single step along the way, and it never gets old.

But for today, we gather our resources. What is it, Lord, that will sustain us through our fasting and praying in the wilderness of Lent? Certainly we will all return here, to the oasis at St John's, every Sunday in Lent, / but things will be different. Most of the chanting and a lot of the organ music, which adorn our regular services will be absent. No Gloria in Excelsis, no Alleluias, no flower arrangements beautifying the altar and chancel. Purple and plain. Simple.

But all this is not without a purpose. Again, the Church is training us. On Ash Wednesday, Jesus will remind us of something we ought never to forget, / that man does not live on bread alone, but on every Word that proceeds from the Mouth of God.

Our resources, the things which sustain us here in this world, until we reach our heavenly home, those resources are simple, yet very powerful. It's not the singing. It's not the ceremonies. It's not anything that we bring or do here, in fact. It's the Word of God, and the Bread of Life.

What are our resources? Word and Sacrament. The Church is teaching us this important lesson this morning by offering us the Words of Jesus in Luke, chapter 8. Hear them again:

And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to [Jesus], he said in a parable, “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear...the good soil, / they are those who, hearing the Word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.”

What will sustain you through Lent (and throughout your whole journey here in this life) / is only the Word of God. The Church exists to encourage and support you (and that's great), but the Church is not the end, Jesus is the end, His Word is more than encouragement. His Word is Life and Peace. Listen to Him. Repent of your prejudices and your preferences, and just listen to Jesus. If you understand this, this most important part of the Christian life (hearing the Word of God), / then you are well prepared, and this day in the Church Year has been a great benefit to you, even if it is just a reminder.

The Seed, which takes root in you in Baptism, which grows with the nutrients of the Blood of the Lamb who was slain on the cross, that Seed is the Word of God, and the Word of the Lord endures forever. If you have this Seed, you likewise will endure forever. Hold fast, therefore, to that Seed. The devil and the world will come tempting you, trying to choke the Seed out of you. Resist them. Even your own sinful nature will try to convince you, that if you don't understand something or you don't particularly like something, it will try to convince you that the Seed must be discarded for something else more suitable.

On behalf of the Church throughout the centuries, I say to you: be warned, be ready. This is the journey: who will remain faithful, who will be holding fast the Seed in the end?

God grant it to us, also.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermon: Transfiguration.2012

2012-02-23T11:49:00.000-06:00

Transfiguration
Matthew 17.1-9
1.29.2012

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Father speaks His booming voice from heaven: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” This really goes without saying, though, right? After all, who is Jesus but the Word made flesh. And what do we do with words? We listen to them.

Of course, Jesus isn't just any old word, / He is Divine Word, God's Word. Lutherans have always emphasized this point in our spiritual lives: the primacy of the Word of God. Just take the catechism for example. Baptism, we rightly define as not just plain water, but what? “water included in God's command and combined with God's / Word.” Same thing with the Sacrament of the Altar: “How can bodily eating and drinking do such great things?” we ask. And the answer: “Certainly not just eating and drinking do these things [ie, give forgiveness of sins, life and salvation], but the words written here...These words, along with the bodily eating and drinking, are the main thing in the Sacrament.”

So we lift up the Word to His rightful place. And yes, I used the pronoun “he” instead of “it”, because the Word of God is a “He”. When we give primacy to God's Word we are not speaking of ink on paper. The ink on paper is only that, ink on paper. No, God's Word is really / a man. He is Jesus. We lift up Jesus to His rightful place.

The whole worship here (in the Lutheran church), including the hymns, prayers, ceremonies, even the building itself, / this place and what goes on here is all about Jesus, Jesus only Jesus.

We often (and perhaps too often) dumb down Lutheran worship into that one catch-phrase: “Word and Sacrament”. I wanted to be sure to point out to you now that these are not two different things: Word and Sacrament. They are one reality. Jesus is the Word, and He is also the substance of the Sacraments.

So when you ascend the hill up to St John's each week, / and as you are transfigured by the Word and Sacraments that are delivered here, you eventually come to realize the same thing that Peter, James and John did. As the text says: “And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.”

You: see Jesus only. Hear Him only. One of our biggest problems / is that we talk too much, or if we don't talk too much then there are certainly other voices who love to fill our ears and our hearts and our minds. So, one of the most precious spiritual talents/skills (which you can pray for daily) is that you would be able to shut your mouth and shut your ears to other voices and just hear Jesus.

This is how it will eventually be, you know. Not only will our eyes and ears be tuned in to Jesus perfectly, but all our senses. We've already begun this in Baptism, and we continue to be sanctified by the Word of God (as Scripture says) throughout our whole earthly journey. Unless, of course, you decide to tune Jesus out.

You look around here this morning and you see many of the faithful sitting with you, listening to Jesus together. But many more are not here. Sure, a couple of them genuinely couldn't be here, that's fine, we are not concerned about them, they would be here if they could. But think of the hundreds more. Or if that is too overwhelming, just think of one or two more, that could be here, but are not. These people are your neighbors, your friends, your family, your coworkers.

Pray for them. Because whatever is keeping them away, whatever spiritual sickness they have, the medicine is given out / here, freely, abundantly. It is the same medicine you have come for this morning.

If a person is weak? // There's a healing Scripture for that: “The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped.” (Ps 28.7)

If one is lonely, God's Word helps: “Behold,” says Jesus, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Mt 28)

Is one confused about finding purpose in his/her life? Listen again to the Introit for today: “For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.” (Ps 84)

And how about fear? // Scripture does what it says, and Scripture says: “Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!” (Ps 27.14)

Yes, do wait for the Lord. And as you wait, just listen. Obey the call of the Father, and listen to Jesus.

That is the right mindset to have each week, each day. So, your friends ask you: “what good is church anyhow?” You may respond: only God is good, / but at church we listen to the good God, Jesus.

And as you listen to Jesus, and hear the stories about Him in Scripture, you can all be assured of this: where Jesus is, there you are also. What happens to Jesus happens also / to you. That's baptism: being united with Christ.

Yes, of course, it was Jesus who was transfigured that day. His face shone like the sun; His clothes appeared white as light, and that really doesn't describe any of you, / yet.

But you are not complete in yourself, / yet. You haven't fully become what God is forming you into, or rather forming you back into. Humanity used to be complete and perfect, we used to be in God's image. / Sin distracts you in the most terrible way, away from the most essential thing: the Word of God. On the mount of Transfiguration, there you see God in His glorious image. He is pure light, after all, Jesus Christ is the light of the world, He has come to shine in our darkness, even into your darkness, to enlighten your life as His Word (Jesus) is a lamp unto your feet and light unto your path.

So later this morning, you will go back out on your path. But as you go take these holy Words with you: “And after six days Jesus went up on the mount and was transfigured.” // And after six days, you too come up the mount and be transfigured again, like Jesus, because Jesus changes you with by His holy Word.

In +Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermon: Epiphany 2.2012

2012-02-23T11:46:00.000-06:00

Epiphany 2
John 2.1-11
1.15.2012

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In Cana of Galilee, Jesus began to manifest Himself in signs, / and His disciples began to believe in Him.

Before this incident at the wedding in Cana, Jesus' true divine identity was revealed by others. // At His birth, the angels announced to the Shepherds. / When He and Mary were presented in the Temple 40 days after His birth, it was Simeon who calls Him “Salvation,” and Anna “spoke of Him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.” When He was only a bit older, while still in Bethlehem, the star in the east revealed Him to the Magi; and then the Magi themselves reveal Him as they brought gifts and worshiped Him. Later, when He was a young teenager, the teachers in the temple reveal Him to His parents as all were astonished of His wisdom. And on and on, throughout His childhood, probably many other instances that were not recorded in Sacred Scripture, Jesus was revealed / by others.

But here, at the wedding in Cana, Jesus starts something new: He begins to reveal Himself. And He does this, first, in signs and wonders. With the confidence that only God could possess, He orders the deacons (servants) to fill the six Jewish purification jars with water. After all, what would they need those for anymore? There is a new kind of purification that has come into this place now, and those old washing rituals will be useless. Jesus Himself will purify the Jews. It won't be long, only about 3 years later, and He will shed His blood on the cross so that Israel, both the old Israel and the new Israel, the Church, so that we may wash ourselves in His blood and be cleansed forever.

So the deacons bear the jars up to the master of ceremonies. Then that man makes a proclamation about what has happened. He took the water jars after supper and proclaimed “this IS wine”.

Here, on Sundays, we have a curiously similar thing going on, don't we? The deacons (elders) prepare the elements before the Divine Service. They put the wine in the sacred vessels and bear them up to the altar (Wouldn't it be great if they had to lug six 20 gallon jars out each Sunday; / just imagine). / Anyhow, at the proper time, then, the “master of ceremonies”, the pastor, makes a proclamation about what has happened: “In the same way also He took the cup after supper...saying 'This cup is [Christ's] Blood'”.

Children, the highest point in our worship of Jesus, / the main way He continues to manifest Himself to us, who are the new Israel, / is in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar; it is a miraculous sign and wonder of regular wine being Jesus' own blood.

But, of course, this is a bit different from the wedding at Cana. There, the miracle was water into wine, / here and now it is the miracle of wine into Jesus' Blood. And so herein lies the connection: what happened at back then in Cana / was not the Lord's Supper, / but it was necessary for the Lord's Supper. It's like this: when Jesus was manifested in His baptism at the Jordan River, He sanctified all waters to be used for holy Baptism. In the same way, when Jesus manifested Himself in this first sign at the Wedding in Cana, He sanctified all wine to be used for the holy Supper.

“But what about the bread?”, you might be ask. And I would say, “Great question, I'm glad you asked. We're going to get to that, / later / on the 4^th Sunday in Lent, to be precise. The Gospel lesson for that Sunday is Jesus Feeding the 5000. So, just like here in Cana, where He miraculously creates wine, / in the same way, at the Feeding of the 5000, He will miraculously create bread. Bread and Wine, Jesus miraculously creates the elements of the Supper. Coincidence, / I think not!

And what's more, not only does He miraculously create bread and wine, but He creates too much, an abundant supply that the people back then couldn't possibly consume it all. And what was done with the left-overs? Well, if they would have followed proper Jewish procedure, the left-overs would have been given to the poor. Symbolically, the left-overs are right up there, given to the poor in spirit: us. We have the crumbs that fell from the Master's table, and it is enough for us. But, really, they are hardly crumbs, for even with the left-overs, / our cup still overflows.

After all, the river of Life is constantly flowing. When Jesus' blood flowed out of His side, when He was pierced for our iniquities on the cross, we are never told that the flow of blood ever stopped. Perhaps we assume it did, but Scripture is silent about it. Why? Because, theologically, it hasn't stopped. Jesus' Blood continues to fill chalices all over the world, for 2000 years.

So when you partake of this miraculous Sign today, you are united with all Christians everywhere, in every time, even those in heaven right now, for you are drinking from the Source, from one great common cup. And this why Satan, our common enemy, hates this. Because at the altar, we are one, holy Church. We are one Body, the Bride of Christ. The Wedding Feast / it is for us, together, and we are all here, together, and we are ready. Baptism is our invitation, / Absolution is our wedding garments. We are here to celebrate our one-Flesh union in the Flesh and Blood of our Bridegroom and Savior and Lord, Jesus. // Just look at us: we are immaculate!

So come, eat and drink and be satisfied, / for Jesus is manifesting His glory to you, today. And even though you cannot fully understand it yet, this is all the more reason to come / and be His disciple / and believe in Him.

In +Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermon: Baptism of Our Lord.2012

2012-02-23T11:43:00.000-06:00

Baptism of Our Lord
Matthew 3.13-17
1.8.2012

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

When God is favorably disposed toward us, all is good.

And behold a voice from heaven saying, “This One is my beloved Son, in Him I am well pleased.”

Jesus was baptized so that our baptisms would work.

Baptism wasn't a new ritual for the Jews, in fact baptism was a regular part of their lives. Every day, actually, the Jews had ritual “washings” that they did.

In our Catechism, Luther gives us the following directive for Morning Prayer: “In the morning when you get up, make the sign of the holy cross and say:” and then suggests a rule/order of prayer for us. If the Jews / would have had a catechism perhaps their Morning Prayer section would begin: “In the morning when you get up, baptize yourself and say:” then would follow perhaps the Ten Commandments and the Shammah “Hear o Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one,” or some similar passages.

In the Old Testament, not only did they re-baptize, but they baptized themselves, / and that every day. Of course, their sacrament of initiation was not this baptizing, just like making the sign of the cross is not a sacrament. Rather, they had circumcision, we have now Christian Baptism.

The point is that baptism itself wasn't a new thing. After all, when the Herodians (the ones sent by the Pharisees) confronted John about who he was, they also asked this question: “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” The issue was not that baptism was a new concept to them. But never before had anyone been baptized by anyone else. The Jewish rituals call for each to baptize themselves. There, / in the Jordan, people were being baptized by John. That was strange, that was new.

Then, one day, Jesus approaches John, and right away in the Reading, the climax of the story is given away, for it says that Jesus approached John for a particular reason: and that reason was, “to be baptized by him.”

So, next there was this dialogue between Jesus and John; / Jesus having to convince John that baptizing Him was OK and necessary. Then John submitted to Jesus' wishes and the story turned out just as we were told it would: Jesus gets baptized.

Then, the interesting stuff starts to happen. The final two verses of the Reading tell us this:

But when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and the Spirit of God came, descending like a dove and coming upon Him. And behold, a voice from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son, in Him I am well pleased.”

At Christmas we see how God became man, how God intimately united Himself to us, humans. Here, at the Festival of the Baptism of Our Lord, we see how we are united to God.

Jesus is one of us: completely, fully human like us. So when He is baptized, we are baptized.

What we have today in Christian Baptism is nothing new. When you were baptized, that action was nothing new, it was as if it already happened before. It did. This is what it means to be Christian: you are united with Christ, completely, fully.

When Jesus approached John at the river Jordan, it was as if you were also approaching; that was your moment, too. These stories in the Gospels, like here in Matthew, these aren't just stories, they are heavenly, eternal images.

This is why Sunday School is so important for the kids (and for the adults, too). Children, you need to see yourself in the life of Jesus. The Life of Jesus is your life, too.

So when the Holy Spirit came, descending like a dove out of heaven, and landing on Jesus at His baptism, you can be assured that the Spirit, the Lord and giver of Life, who proceedeth from God, that same Spirit has descended upon you also. The Spirit of God, in you, upon you.

Likewise, when the voice out of the heaven spoke, the heavenly Father wasn't only speaking about His only-begotten Son, but about all his children whom He loves very much.

He said, “This One is my beloved Son, in Him I am well pleased.” Yes, the Father is well pleased with you, because He is well pleased with Jesus, whom you are united to in the most intimate way.

The teachings that Christ gave to His Church are simple. So often we confuse them, but that's not God's problem, that's ours. Repent. Believe like a child. God loves you like a child, like His child, as if you were His only child. He spoils you, He gives you more than enough.

Parents, you know this is how it goes. When you are well pleased with your children, you give them more. You can't help yourself, they are so lovable. Yes, even you, with limited resources in this world, you find a way to provide more for your children. How much more your heavenly Father, who has unlimited resources, how abundantly does He provide you.

Today, you who are baptized and are loved by the heavenly Father, He will provide for you a Meal that satisfies eternal hunger. He who eats this Bread and drinks of this Cup will never hunger again. And that's enough. After you eat and drink the holy Supper today, you truly may depart this life in peace. You will be well prepared.

But if this week proves to be like last week, most of you will return here. And guess what? Your heavenly Father will provide that same eternal meal again, preparing you for eternity again, week after week, because it is true: / some week, you won't come back here, you will fall asleep and go home. Until that day, our Lord will not deny you one more taste of heavenly Food. Whenever you request It, the Father provides.

Just like dear children asking their dear Father: Daddy, please. Over and over again. And He can't help Himself, the Father gives in, over and over again. You see, the problem is never a lack of supply. Just think about this: has there ever been a time in your life, that you desired the sacrament, and the Father said no to you? Now, perhaps you have been denied the Sacrament. But that has never been God's doing. The Sacrament was made for those who desire it. No, if you really think about it, the resistance has always been the other way around.

Either for a lack of desire or for a misunderstanding, we are the ones who have not asked enough. As Scripture says, “you have not, because you ask not.”

Dear Christian: the Father is well pleased with you; you are baptized, like Jesus. You are free, you are at liberty to take from your Father's pantry as often as you desire. So just ask. And if you yourself have a problem; if you are lacking in desire, / then take Luther's advice in the Catechism, in the Christian Questions and Their Answers.

The question he asks is this: “But what should you do if you are not aware of this need and have no hunger and thirst for the Sacrament?”

And the answer: “To such a person no better advice can be given than this: first, he should touch his body to see if he still has flesh and blood. Then he should believe what the Scriptures say of it in Galatians 5 and Romans 7. Second, he should look around to see whether he is still in the world, and remember that there will be no lack of sin and trouble, as the Scriptures say in John 15–16 and in 1 John 2 and 5. Third, he will certainly have the devil also around him, who with his lying and murdering day and night will let him have no peace, within or without, as the Scriptures picture him in John 8 and 16; 1 Peter 5; Ephesians 6; and 2 Timothy 2.”

One with God. That is the benefit of baptism. Communion, the common union in Christ Jesus. Baptism opens up the heavens and the heavenly storeroom to you. And this, because you are baptized into Christ Jesus. You are the Father's child, whom He loves abundantly, in you He is well pleased.

In +Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermon: Eve of Circumcision and Name of Jesus.2011

2012-02-23T11:38:00.000-06:00

Eve of Name and Circumcision of Jesus (New Year's Eve)
Luke 2.21
12.31.2011

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In Nomine Jesu. This is the Latin you find at the beginning of your worship bulletins. It means “In the Name of Jesus.” I'm sure you've heard this before, but if we're going to review anything, I suppose the last day of the calendar year would be about as good of time as any. Nothing like the last minute details, right?

Of course, for us liturgical-type Lutherans (not that there are any other type of Lutherans), but for us, our New Year began back on the first Sunday in Advent (November 27^th this year). And as much as we would hope that Christians would be more excited about the Church's calendar than about the secular (Gregorian) calendar, well, for the most part that's just not the case.

So, the Church has “adapted”. Not “conformed,” though. We wouldn't say that (as if there's really much distinction there), but the way the world marks time is different than the way the Church marks time.

We celebrate the life of Christ, as we're taken from His birth (Christmas), to His baptism, to the Transfiguration, through His suffering in Lent and His resurrection at Easter, then finally His Ascension forty days after Easter and His Work among us today in the long, green season that takes us all the way back to His birth again. Gracious Year after Gracious Year, we are reminded of the story of our Lord Jesus (which is also our story, of course).

But who among us really operates their life based upon that? In some ways, pastors do, right, because, well because they have to, that's their calling, to operate within this church year. Next in line would probably be musicians and organists, because there are various nuances and details that are appropriate to certain times of the year. But beyond that, who really cares?

I mean, really! Who among us orders his life along with the Church calendar? For example, Advent and Lent are penitential seasons. The Church has always spent more time in fasting and prayer during these seasons, but what Lutheran household really plans there meals around the Lenten fasting? If you do, that's great! Most of us don't.

Another example: cleaning your house. Did you know that early in the life the church, Advent was a time where families were invited to make a thorough cleaning of the entire house, and to make an intentional effort to get rid of anything that was just clutter, / and then to give that clutter to the poor? I mean, really, how practical is that? We're too busy for that kind of liturgical daily living. We have Christmas cookies to bake and houses to decorate, and parties to attend, and sermons to write and family schedules to coordinate. The daily 'living out' of the liturgical year is just not practical for us anymore.

As a result, the Church (or at least our current church practice) has “adapted” to the secular calendar in which the people live. A de-emphasis on fasting and prayer during the cookie-eating season, but also an inclusion of certain Feast Days which coordinate with the secular calendar, along with the Church Year calendar. And this isn't a bad thing: we don't ignore the importance of the beginning of the year 2012, rather the Church has sanctified the Day. Every year on January 1^st the Church celebrates the Feast of the Circumcision and Name of Jesus.

Luther highly regarded this festival, I think mainly because he highly disapproved of observing January 1^st as New Year's Day in Church.

But why this Feast, and why on January 1^st? Well, there's a long history of this day, which started out in France in 6^th century. But the point is this: since we celebrate Jesus' birth on December 25^th, and he was brought to be circumcised on the eighth day after his birth (like all Israelite boys), then do the math: the eighth day would be January 1^st. And it's the Circumcision and Name of Jesus because Jewish boys weren't given their name until they were circumcised, and such was the case with Jesus.

And so here we are, the Eve of the Circumcision and Name of Jesus and New Year's Eve.

But there is a big difference between how the world and how the Church brings in the calendar New Year. The world, with parties and spirits, as they say. And the Church, with a Feast Day and the Holy Spirit. OK, maybe the terminology isn't all that different, but certainly the meaning is different.

The Church brings in the New Year in the same way we begin every week: being blessed by the name of God. I'm told of a pastor who used to serve here quite a while ago who used to say: “if you come on Sunday morning (or at other times, I think he would add), and the only thing you got out of the service was the final Blessing (the Benediction) at the end, well then it was well worth it.” And sometimes this is the case. How many sermons do parents miss because they are tending to their children; this is just the reality of things, right, and it's a great point of comfort. But allow me to be so bold as to add something else to that pastor's wise words: / If you come on Sunday morning (or any other time we are here) and the only difference that you can see that it made in your life / is that your life was put on hold and you were gathered together for an hour or two with these other Christians, (if that's the only result that you can sense), well then, it was well worth it.

You are here to rest. Your life has been put on hold. You aren't doing homework right now, you aren't vacuuming or shopping or hunting or watching tv. You are resting “In Nomine Jesu,” In Jesus' name. It's good for your life to get put on hold for a while, you're too busy and stressed out and worn out, or you're not busy enough and your cranky or under-appreciated. Forget about all that. You are here now in Jesus, with Jesus. It's His time to work on you.

And your not alone. You are gathered together. The word for “church” in the New Testament is (ekklesia), literally this means “gathering” or congregation. So to be gathered together / is to be Church. The Holy Spirit has called you by the Gospel. That's what those words at the top of your bulletin always mean. You have been gathered here “in nomine Jesu”, in Jesus' name, just like at your Baptism.

So here you are, Church of God, elect and holy, gathered by the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus, baptized and washed in the Blood of the Lamb, awaiting the Feasting tomorrow morning when you will receive His true Body and Blood in the Blessed Sacrament.

And for tonight, keep watch and watch yourselves. The world is going to be doing something different tonight. New Year's for the world is quite unsanctified, actually. But you are not of the world. You / are in Jesus. As you wait, you fast and you pray, because that's what Jesus did when He was waiting. Beware this evening, and be aware of who you are. As your spiritual father, take this as a spiritual lecture. That's fine, that's partly what I've been called here to do.

Even when you walk out those doors tonight, you are still “In Nomine Jesu.” Not only when you come together on Sundays for the feasting, but also every moment, you are Church, the gathered ones “in nomine Jesu.” Every moment of your life this phrase is declaring something, not only to you, but also to the world: that there's more to come.

Your waiting and being attentive to yourself and your actions, these things will not last forever. If nothing else, let the secular calendar teach you / that there are new beginnings. 2011 is almost over. What a year, right? As you look back: repent. And as you look forward to 2012, you are wiser now, so you know that you must continue to pray all the more earnestly, “Lord, have mercy.”

And He does. He has mercy on His own, whom He has blessed with forgiveness, life and salvation in the name / and for the sake of His Son, Jesus.

In this New Year, Lord have mercy upon us, have mercy upon those whom we will meet, have mercy upon our congregation and our synod, have mercy on our families and our homes, have mercy upon our daily work and our places of employment, have mercy on our government and our economy, Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy us, sinners, and save us.

And so, as we begin, so we end:

In +Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermon: Christmass Day.2011

2012-02-23T11:34:00.000-06:00

Festival of Christmass
John 1.1-14
12.25.2011

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Joy. Pure joy. Joy to the world—we've made it! The Holy Spirit has called and gathered us to the Great Feast of Christmas. Let all preparing cease. The hour is now. The children have led the way with Scripture and song. No more waiting. Open your eyes and your ears and your mouths. Behold, your redemption is near, He is at hand. Gaudete: rejoice! “Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises!” “Oh sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things!”

He has done marvelous things / in you. You are here. / Some / didn't make it; but you did. What a privilege it is that the Lord has provided for you to be here, to make it all the way through Advent, and not to stumble at the last, but to finish this short course in your Christian journey: just 4 weeks.

4 weeks of promises. 4 weeks of John the Baptist and his preaching of repentance. 4 weeks of anticipation. You made it. You've hoped for this day, these moments, / and you've made it.

To the world, it's really not all that big of a deal. Besides, the Lord's Supper can be offered any old day, what's so special about Christmas Day Divine Service, anyhow? Or maybe you / are wondering this. Maybe not, maybe you actually don't really care and you'd rather be at home right now playing with your new toys, kids? Or wearing your new slippers, laddies? Or figuring out your new tool, gentlemen? “So just make it quick preacher-man, so we can get back to our real lives, and the fun stuff.”

Days in the Church Year—like today, Christmas morning—teach us that the Christian life is not emotionless or empty ritual. There is true and good and holy joy today. It is joy that has substance to it, joy that flows out from something deep within our Christian DNA.

Christmas morning teaches us that we are a part of something, we are in a relationship. If you think about it, you don't get emotional or excited about something you don't care about, that you don't have some sort of connection to.

But, you, Christian, are connected. The Christian life is more about who we are and whose we are, then it is about anything else. In other words, Christianity is more about relationships than it is about doctrine or beliefs.

Surprised to hear that? It's not that doctrine is unimportant. Doctrine is very important. But doctrine does not stand alone. Cold, hard, historic facts (no matter how elaborate or logical they are) are useless without relationship.

Here's an example from today's Gospel lesson:

John writes: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

Good. True. The Word is the Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity. That divine Son took on “flesh” (in other words, became human) and lived and breathed and ate and played and yes, even died among us. Good. True.

So what? What's the big deal? Without a relationship, without a connection to those Words, to those truths, in the end, it really wouldn't matter all that much to you.

Now let's consider this saying as people who do have a connection here:

Again, hear what St John writes: And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.

You are human, you have flesh. You were born; and then you grew up a little and learned to walk and talk. Some of you then grew up a little more and you started doing things on your own; sometimes you made choices that were not good, choices that hurt others and you. Some of you grew up even a little more and you started to ask advice from others, those who may be a bit wiser than you, and you began to make real, substantial choices for the rest of your life: what you would do as an occupation, who you would marry, where you would live, what hobbies to get involved with. And some of you have grown up even more; you're looking at yourself at a ripe old age and knowing that life in this world for you won't last too much longer.

That's being human. The Son of God became human, like that, like you. He was born, then he grew up a little and learned to walk and talk, just like you. Then he grew up a little more, and started making choices: perfect choices, always honoring his parents, especially His heavenly Father; always serving others before himself. Then Jesus grew up a little more and began to make real substantial choices about the rest of his life. He decided to go to the river Jordan, to be baptized, to do the will of the Father and begin His 3 year earthly ministry, again, always serving. And finally, Jesus too was looking death right in the face, a little afraid/nervous/anxious about what the next day was going to be like, especially in that last week, especially the last few days before the crucifixion. How long would He go on suffering? Jesus was afflicted with these thoughts, too, just like you.

All the way, just like you. In every way, God has connected Himself to us in the Incarnation and birth and suffering and death and resurrection of the man, Jesus of Nazareth some 2000 years ago. Likewise, in Baptism, He has connected you to Him, your birth and suffering and death and eventual resurrection. The Words of St John aren't just some saying, just something to be believed, but they tell you of your story also. So now, you see, Christianity is more about relationship that it is about doctrine. You can find yourself in those very Words: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” because Jesus connected His life with your life.

Put another way: God became like us (human), so that we might become like Him (divine). And that's the way it was meant to be in the first place: we humans were created in God's image. We lost that. / We must regain that. God has provided a way, He has provided the Way, Jesus, who came to earth to connect up with you, to relate to you, becoming your relation, your human brother.

And so: Christmas. Just another-old-day on which the Lord's Supper may be celebrated? No, this is Christmas, the Christ-mass, the divine service of Christ (as we call it in now). Not some cute baby in a manger, (What does that matter?) but God / in flesh / in your flesh / historically at Bethlehem, and Galilee and Calvary; / Sacramentally right here, right now. The Body of the incarnate Christ, your brother, given for you. The Blood of the incarnate Christ, your brother, shed for you.

Enough talking, enough listening. Our eyes and ears have been prepared. Now, O Lord, open thou our lips, / and our mouths will proclaim your death until you come again. Even we Lutherans will make a joyful noise to you, celebrate You on this holiest of Church Year days. We will rejoice in your marvelous works. You, God, / are human. And you come now to us in the most intimate of ways.

In +Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermon: Advent 4.2011

2012-02-23T11:31:00.000-06:00

Advent 4 (Rorate Coeli)
John 1.19-28
12.18.2011

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

There is an urgency to this last week of Advent. And I'm not necessarily talking about the anxiety of trying to pull together all the last-minute details of the Christmas Eve Children's service; although that certainly gives a tangibility to the urgency.

No, the urgency we experience this time of year has to do with something more important than the Children's service on Christmas Eve. Now don't get me wrong, that service is important, very important, in fact, especially in the life of this congregation. But that service has it's place. Christmas Eve is like John the Baptist, the Forerunner, the one who came before the most important One, Jesus. In fact, all of our Advent discipline and preparation comes to a climax as we listen to the children tell and sing of a certain Birth in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve.

But Advent preparation is not fulfilled on Christmas Eve. The children, with their recitations and singing and movement up and down, in and out of the chancel here, the children lead us down the home stretch of our Advent preparation.

On Christmas morning, then, finally, here, / the Incarnate Jesus will come to us in Flesh and Blood, in the manger of this altar. And you will be like the shepherds, / for the angels, the messengers, like John the Baptist, like all your pastors here, we declare to you where you may see Him in such lowly, humble estate.

And you will be like the shepherds, / won't you? I mean, you will be here, when Jesus comes on Christmas, won't you? Of course you will, this is what you've been preparing for all Advent. Certainly you wouldn't go through the preparation, and then miss out on the goal, the end, the prize!

But I'm getting ahead of myself, we're still here, 4^th Sunday of Advent (Rorate Coeli). And on this day, every year, whether Christmas would be 7 days away (like it is this year) or perhaps just two days away, on Tuesday (like it will be next year), whatever our final week wait will be, John the Baptist still has one more thing to say to us.

“Among you stands one you do not know,” said St John. It's a curious thing to meditate upon this saying. Is this only meant to be spoken to those unbelieving Pharisees, way back when? Or does it / still apply to us now. Is Jesus still the One who is among you that you do not know?

Well, I'll save you the suspense: NO. You do know Jesus, because you were given knowledge of Him in your baptism. This is what St Paul says in his first letter to the Corinthians in chapter1. He writes, “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus [baptismal formula], that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge.” In other words, in baptism you came to a full and complete knowledge of this One, Jesus Christ, who St John says, “is among you”.

And the Baptizer did not lie. Jesus is the One among us. He is the One who bears the title Immanuel. So we have these two descriptions of Jesus. First, He is the Coming One. Yet, according to St John, and St Paul, Jesus is the One who is already among us.

So which is it? So much for having a knowledge of Him, right? Wrong. To the world, to your human intellect, Jesus is foolishness. Even His name gives Him away. The name Jesus means “The Lord saves.”

[point to the crucifix] So much for that, He's hanging dead on the cross. Is that the way we remember heroes and saviors? Where's the glory? Where's the parade and the streamers and party? Not much glory in death. Not much celebration by a tomb. Jesus' way is foolish: dying to save (?) / the coming one and the One who is among us? Yes.

Not by human wisdom, but by divine revelation. Not in power, but in true strength. Not among princes and bureaucrats and aristocrats, but among us, / by faith / in the lowliest of ways. That's Jesus' way: lowly. Not intellectual, but knowable. Not by our reason or senses, but by faith, simple faith, faith like a simple child.

Because He simply loves you. That's it. No parade, no streamers. Although there is a party. And there is alcohol...or is there? It's His own Blood, He said, for you, the faithful, to drink and be forgiven. And the Food is especially Good. I mean, actually Good. Not necessarily good tasting, but Good for you. It keeps you alive here, while you wait for Him to come, because the Food is Him.

And there it is: the Coming One and Immanuel, Body and Blood with us: both, at the same time. Hidden now (mysterious) yet soon to be fully, undeniably revealed.

So come, you shepherds. Feast with Him, on His Word and Sacrament today as you prepare for Him. Don't stop short. Christmas Eve is just the beginning of the High and holy Feasting. Let the little children lead you to their Savior and yours. Let their voices on Saturday evening encourage you to come on Sunday morning to hear the Voice of Him whom they proclaim.

We're almost there. The first great Day in the Church Year is almost fulfilled. We're sprinting to the finish, to the goal of Advent, the Christmas prize is just barely out of our reach. All our urgency, our anxiety, our frustration will soon be swallowed up in the Peace and Comfort of our Lord. Soon. Our Lord comes soon. And while we wait: hey, look, here He is, even among us.

In +Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermon: Advent 3.2011

2012-02-23T11:27:00.000-06:00

Advent 3 (Gaudete)
Matthew 11.2-15
12.11.2011

In the name of the Father of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

What did you come out into the wilderness to see? I mean, think about, how inconvenient! / For Goodness sake, it's the wilderness. It's desolate, there's nothing out there but sand, a nasty river they call Jordan, and a grungy, un-socialized young preacher-man. How disappointing! But what did you expect way out there in the boonies? A man dressed in kingly apparel? You have no idea! But really, what did you inconvenience yourself to see?

This John the Baptizer: did you think his preaching would be like a reed that is blown around by the wind? What sort of message did you come out to receive from him? Did you think him to be a preacher who proclaimed man's wisdom (?), trying to win your favor by saying the right things in the right way to you, the right people? Did you think he was one who would be swayed back and forth by your opinion, of anything?

You would prefer a preacher like that, wouldn't you? A preacher who would give you good news of an earthly kingdom rather than the kingdom of heaven. Something you could really get your greedy hands on and increase your own glory. A flimsy reed-like preacher like that, who will accommodate his message to fit what you want to hear. But John is not this sort of preacher. Those sort of preachers aren't worth anything, they preach only about prosperity but are silent about the troubling things, the things that really matter, about sin and your unworthiness. But not John. He persists, speaks out, and does not keep silent to win people's favor. He dares to tell it like it is. He dares to speak God's Word of Divine Wisdom, which is contrary to human wisdom, even foolish to human wisdom, even offensive to those who are wise in the sight of men.

What did you go out to see? What did you expect? Did you not see that this man was a man of God, more than that a prophet of God, more than that greater than a prophet. A prophet was called by God to speak of the future coming of the Messiah. They were great men, carrying a great message. But John is greater. John did not carry a message of prophecy, but rather a message of the fulfillment of all prophecies. Combine the greatest of all the prophets of old (Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Malachi, and of course, Elijah, just to name a few), combine all their greatness, and there you have John, the Forerunner. “When you see the Forerunner,” the prophets of old would say, “then you know, the Kingdom of heaven is brought near. The waiting is over. Salvation has come. The day of the Good News message is upon you.”

Yes, more than a prophet. It's the last prophetic cry, it's the last leveling of the mountains and raising of the valleys, the time has come. Either you listen to this prophet (nevermind how horribly you have treated the prophets who have come to you in the past, God gives you now another chance), either you receive John's preaching now / or it will be too late for you.

What did you come out to see? Well, never-mind that, it's an impossible question for you, for you can't see, you are the blind. And what's more, you are deaf, the leprous and the lame. / You are the dead. And knowing that, you will be well prepared. By preaching that, the preparing one, John, will have done what he was called to do. He will have saved you from yourself, and from the destruction of the self-righteous, He will have opened for you the way / of repentance.

This is what it is to be John's disciple: to know your sin and your sinfulness; to be confronted by God's Law; to fear the holy God by the knowledge of God's wrath on your sin. To be John's disciple is to know spiritual suffering, spiritual heartache, and to hate the cause of that suffering, your sin. / But that's only one part. That's only / the preparation. To truly be John's disciple is to finally realize that John is not the end, and neither is his message. John is the Forerunner of the End, the finger that physically points to Him whose message will fulfill all things. Finally to be John's disciple is to know that this One is coming, to bring comfort and relief, to make alive, and to save you.

You, poor ones, this is the good news. And it is preached to you. You are Gospelized/Evangelized. You are handed over to Another; just like in the Gospel reading, when John sends his disciples to Jesus, to ask Him the right question, “You, / are you the Coming One, or should we watch for another?” You have come through John's preaching, you have been exposed by the Law, you know your sin and sinfulness, your unworthiness: on the one hand, you have the knowledge that you are the spiritually deaf, on the other hand, you don't confess this or even try to listen to the Word of Christ, the Bible, unless it is convenient to you. You know that, on the one hand you are spiritually blind, and on the other hand you don't confess this or even try to understand more about this Christ. In the same way you have the understanding that you are spiritually leprous, yet you don't confess your sickness and you aren't all that urgent to seek out the true Healer in His medicine in the Sacrament. In other words, you possess a knowledge of your condition, of your failures, how you are unfit even for the simple tasks of life.

And that's fine and good, that's what the Law does. This is how far John has taken you. You are good disciples of John. But this is not enough, there must be something more. Now it is time for John to decrease, and for him to turn over his disciples to the One who has come. John has prepared you to seek out the One who turns your blindness into sight, who strengthens your legs not only to walk, but to run the race set before you. And as you confess your uncleanness and your unwillingness to hear God's Word, this One has come does not condemn you or make any judgments on you whatsoever. Rather, Jesus takes your judgment / and is condemned for you to death. He takes your place, in order that, as surely as He will be raised again in three days, so you also, being united to Him in the death of repentance, you will be raised with Him in absolution to forgiveness and eternal life. That / is really what is needed, that / is what is more, that / is where John was leading you.

The liturgical name for this Sunday is Gaudete. It's a Latin word that means rejoice. For us sinners, repentance and forgiveness is the only road to lasting joy. And that's really hard to find in this world, isn't it(?): one who is truly joyful. You, Christian, can be one like this. We sell ourselves short when we ignore sin. A sinful spirit and guilty conscience produces bitterness and hatred; it makes one mean.

I've heard a phrase before which causes me to be a little concerned (perhaps you've heard it too, or at least a form of this phrase): Lutheran guilt. The concept behind this is that the main reason to come out to church on Sunday is to get your healthy, Lutheran dose of guilt so that you don't get too out of control with joy or rejoicing. How terrible! I hope your mind hasn't been infected with this rubbish. “Lutheran guilt”--as if we've got the market cornered on bad feelings or something.

Really, above any other denomination, we Lutherans in fact have the most to be joyful about. There is more Gospel among us than any other church body. As a bit of proof of this: you know what the opponents of the Reformation called the first Lutherans: Evangelicals; those who had the Gospel! They used it as a derogatory name, and we said, “Thank you, how blessed we are to have the Gospel.” The Gospel is not about guilt, it is all about freedom from guilt. Comfort, comfort, ye my people. That's the message for today, and always.

Pr Matthew Harrison, our Synod's President, wrote a book that's called, “A Little Book on Joy.” He goes through the whole Scriptures and meditates on this word, Joy. One very interesting thing that he finds, that applies especially to this day in the Church Year, he found that, even in repentance, there is joy/rejoicing.

Even when you consider your sin. When you hear God's harsh and damning Law, and you consider that you are a sinner, / what stays always in the back of your mind, is that Jesus came / for sinners. Every sin you confess, every evil you repent of, is just one more burden that has been taken off of you.

Being led by a theologian like President Harrison, perhaps this one perception can be changed: not “Lutheran guilt,” but rather “Lutheran freedom,” and “Lutheran rejoicing.”

Especially on this day: Gaudete. Your sin is forgiven you, your warfare is over, you have the Gospel preached to you. Rejoice. You have come out here, through the wilderness, to this oasis, to rejoice, and to feast, and to celebrate. Rejoice in the Lord always. Gaudete.

In +Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermon: Advent 1.2011

2012-02-23T11:22:00.000-06:00

Advent 1 (Ad Te Levavi)
Matthew 21.1-9
11.27.2011

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

So, we've spent the last few Sundays learning to wait / and to watch; well, at the very least our Lord has tried to teach us this spiritual discipline. But whether or not we've acquired faithful patience or not, Time moves on. The Time of the Church Year, that is.

So here we are. We've made it. Another Church Year under our belts, and the prospects of a new and full Year of Grace before us. We look out over the divine horizon of Time and we see what's coming:

4 weeks of Advent, then Christmas and the short Christmas Season. After that, we get out our green paraments again for about month of Epiphany season, then on into Pre-lent, Lent, and the Great Pascha and the Resurrection of our Lord and the joyous 50 days that follow. And after that, which always comes sooner than we think, we get back into the long Trinity Season, eventually ending up back where we are today: the beginning of yet another / Church Year.

At least that's how we think it will go, as far as we can tell. But if the end of the Church Year teaches us anything good and salutary, it teaches us that we just don't know. You or I might not make it through another full Church Year: our Lord might call us home to heaven, or He might return to us, / and that would be it: no more Advent, no more Lent, no more trying to work out the impossible mathematics of exactly what date Easter is. It'll just all end, like a thief in the night.

But not last night, not the Church's New Year's Eve; our Lord did not choose last night to come and get us. So here we are today / and we aren't doing all that much different stuff this Lord's Day as we did last Lord's Day. We are are still here, hearing preaching, praying, singing hymns and canticles. When you get right down to it, the message isn't all that different, / is it? Jesus hasn't come yet, so...just keep waiting.

And as each new season of the church year comes and goes, / we'll still be waiting, just with a new flavor. The flavor of Advent-waiting is John the Baptist repentance / with a touch of Mary's pondering and Isaiah's hope and expectation. With Christmas, comes a bit of a different flavor: the season is filled with the blood of the martyrs along side of the few stories we have from Jesus' youth.

Now the point of all this isn't to diminish the sacred Time we call Church Year, or to detract from anything that our Lord fills into this Time for us. These are all great, holy, necessary things. But as we begin this new Year, let's start with a clear perspective. Because the reality / is that we aren't heading anywhere in this new year, that we haven't been in the past. We know what's coming for us here in time. The Church and Her liturgical life is orderly and predictable. And there is some great comfort in that.

It's a lot better sailing when you know the terrain and you have the coordinates memorized because you've seen it all before. How many years have you gone through the Church Year? You know what's coming, and that's good, because when disorientation and unforeseen events in your life do occur, it's a whole lot easier to get back on track when you know exactly when and where the Church train is going to make it's stops: first at Jesus' birth, then at His Baptism and Temptation, then at His Transfiguration, then at His suffering, death and resurrection, and finally at His Ascension and reign from the Father's right hand. Throughout this next year, just like every other year, we will be led on a journey through the earthly life of the Savior.

But the point here / is that we aren't simply on some sort of Biblical “guided tour”; I'm not your tour-guide / and this nave isn't meant to symbolize a ferry boat over to the land of Scriptural fantasy. If all we did throughout the Church Year was recount some historic events of a great man, albeit The great Son of Man and Son of God, but if all we did was retell the old, old stories of Jesus and His love, then we, of all men, are to be pitied the most.

By telling the story of Jesus, the Church Year also tells the story of the Church, and her life, death and resurrection. We retell the biblical narratives, not because they're cool or have a great moral lesson or any other silly thing like that. We hear them over and over again throughout our earthly journey, because Jesus' life IS our life, Jesus' death IS our death, and Jesus' resurrection IS our resurrection.

You, the Church, are an essential part of the drama of salvation. The main character, of course, is Jesus, but who does Jesus have in His mind and heart on as He teaches the Teachers in Jerusalem? As He denies Himself food and yet does not fall into the devil's temptations? As He remains silent before Pilate, even when His own people are telling lies about Him?

He is humiliating Himself / in order to exalt you. And so this is what Advent is all about. Let us take a few Sundays to prepare for this. To prepare our self-absorbed, world-loving minds and hearts and souls / for our Lord's self-less, sacrificial Year of gifts to us.

Repent, O children of God, your King is coming to you, and you are not worthy to be in His presence. He is coming, just as He has come in year's past, just as He will continue to come in the days, months, perhaps even years, ahead. Repent, scatter your pride to the winds; turn from that worldly junk that you fill your mind and soul with each week, each day. Prepare yourself, as a Bride adorns Herself for her Groom. So you, as well, purify your hearts and minds with prayer and with the Holy Word of God. Examine yourself, leave no rock unturned, leave no foothold for Satan and his minions. Be watchful, be waiting.

But, for what? Be waiting for what?

So, we're here in Advent. Advent is before Christmas, when we celebrate the birth of our King, Jesus. Fine, it's a good thing to celebrate and to continue to remember, but what's the point, really? If Advent is simply a waiting for Jesus to somehow be born again as a fake doll and be placed into a fake manger on Christmas Eve, well, then, there really isn't any point, is there.

But fortunately, / that's NOT what it is all about. Yes, / we are anticipating something, eagerly awaiting something. But what we are hoping for is far from fake and pointless, / in fact, it is the most real thing we have in this life. More real than our bad habits, more purposeful than any of our self-imposed disciplines or traditions.

Advent is all about preparing for Jesus to come in the Flesh, / in His true Body and Blood. On Christmas morning this year, if you aren't called home before then and if Christ has returned by then, / on Christmas morning, you will see Jesus in His flesh, really; / just like Joseph and Mary and the shepherds saw God as a newborn that first Christmas day.

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, Behold, your King is coming to you, humble, in the unsuspecting elements of bread and wine, very humble, / yet very real. He really comes to forgive you; and where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation. These three great divine gifts, this is what we are preparing for in Advent.

And this is what the whole Church Year is all about: we are traveling / from one Great Feast to another. Advent / prepares for the Lord's Supper / on Christmas Day. Lent / prepares for the Lord's Supper / on Easter morning. This is the big picture of what begins today. This is what it means to be caught up in the life of the Church, which is really Jesus' own life. And this is how you remain faithful until your end, however soon or distant that might be.

So keep this perspective, fix your eyes and ears and all your senses / upon Jesus. Let the stories of the life of your Savior carry you along, and bring you from one Sabbath rest to another, through the whole season, through the whole year, through the many years of your life.

Behold, your King is coming.

In +Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermon: Pentecost 10.2011

2011-08-21T11:24:00.000-05:00

Text: Matthew 16.13-21
Date: 2011.8.21

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

The will of God is certainly done without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may be done among us also.

The will of God done without our prayer, it is done whether we ask for it or not, whether we want it or not. In fact, God's will is not only done without us, but it is done despite us.

For, “when is God's will done?” Well, “God's will is done when He breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature.” In other words, there are those who would refuse and fight against God's will, God's love, God's giving. There are three who would resist Jesus: the devil, the world, and you.

Now, with this in mind, we hear from the Mouth of God (from the Gospel lesson for this week), that Peter and the office of pastor will be given the keys of the kingdom, and those keys will be used to loose on earth what is already loosed in heaven, AND to bind on earth whatever is already bound in heaven.

In other words, the office of the holy ministry, Christ's office, which uses His means of Grace, so 'the means of grace office' (genatenmiddelamt, as our Lutheran forefathers used to call it), this office is to make the earth consistent with heavenly realities, to bring the earthly things together with the heavenly things.

But if something must be brought together, that means that it is already apart. There is a disconnection, a problem. Communication and consistency has been broken between heaven and earth, and our Lord has called some to reconnect them.

You know, they weren't always like this, creation wasn't always broken, there wasn't always this void between the two places: heaven and earth. That void, the problem, is sin. Adam and Eve's sin, King David's sin, your neighbor's sin, and your own sin. You are the problem because you are sinful. And because you are sinful you are fighting against God, you are resisting His love and care for you.

Be alert, dear flock, be constant in your watching. We are the church militant because we are engaged in a war, a spiritual war against the spiritual powers of this present darkness. But the problem isn't only “out there”. The battle must begin at home, among us. You must fight against your own sinfulness before you reach out for others.

Your sinful nature yearns for the evil. Rather than receiving God's will, in your sin, you resist God's will among us. If God's will is to love us and have mercy on us all: men, women, children, widows and widowers, poor, rich, organized, disorganized, patient, angry, etc, on all of us, if God's will is to give you what you truly need, and sin is resisting God's will, living contrary to God's will, / then how are you, specifically, fighting against God?

It is important for you to consider this, for we are called to resist the enemies, including the devil and His lies, the world and it's temptations, and our own sinful lusts and desires to control and rebel. Beware: we are not called / to resist Christ and His gifts.

Just the opposite, actually—we are called to submission. We are His Bride, the Church. We are to trust our Lord and receive Him as He gives Himself completely. It doesn't matter what we prefer or don't prefer. He has established His eternal Church in the heavens, and who we are, whether we are loosed or bound (whatever that might mean), it is already decided in heaven. The story is already written for us, the victory over the great enemies has already been won.

So, you: Repent. Whatever resistance you have, repent. Whatever preference you are imposing, repent. Listen to Jesus. Repent of yourself, completely (which is the hardest thing in the world to do, impossible, actually, without a miraculous working of the Holy Spirit in you), repent completely, give up on yourself so that you and us as a congregation may be defined not by ourselves or our will, but by our Lord's love and His will.

And stop fooling yourself. You are nothing but rebel by nature. Sin has not just infected you a little. Sin doesn't just make the Christian life a little more difficult. Sin, false belief, false teaching, anything against God's will, these things make the possibility of living the Christian life, and not only now, but forever, sin closes the gates of heaven / because sin makes you unacceptable in God's eyes.

This is God's Law. This is Truth. Repent. Give it up. Want nothing to do with your sin and rebellion. There is something better than resistance, there is something better than temporary comfort or being acceptable in the eyes of your friends or coworkers or employees or even family members.

God's love is better. For God's love cleanses you from all sin. / What is better than your disobedience? Jesus' perfect obedience.

It is true that you are perfectly sinful, / BUT, it is more true that God has become sinful for you, in your place, taking your sin upon Himself and giving you His perfect holiness. This is the meaning and purpose of the crucifixion, this is the great and glorious will of God, not only in general, but God's will in your life: to make you pure and holy and keep you pure and holy and blameless.

Just imagine: as sinful as you know you are: you are blameless. In other words, although others may see your sin and unChristian behavior, nonetheless: God has nothing against you. That is what is true in heaven. That is what the office of pastor, Christ's office, is to do on earth, to proclaim to you on earth what God has declared already in heaven.

You are forgiven. The pastor is given to lay hands on you and pronounce you forgiven in Holy Absolution. You are one with Christ. So the pastor is given to distribute Christ to you that His Body and Blood may be part of your body and blood. You are righteous and at peace with God and you have a clear conscience before Him, so the pastor is given to you to preach Christ and Him crucified, who is your Prince of Peace and Comforter and Righteous One.

Just / don't resist Him, don't rebel. Act like who you were made to be in your baptism, act as the perfect Bride of Christ, and submit to Him, be loved by Him, be obedient now, by simply receiving His love for you.

This is what trust is, what faith is. You have a strong faith when you submit and simply allow our Lord to love you the way He has decided to love you. Faith = trusting Jesus, in all things, including trusting Him to give you what you need through His own pastoral office.

I'm sorry / that different pastors have come here and seem to have emphasized different things: one pastor one thing, another pastor another. This is confusing. It shouldn't happen, but it does. Theoretically, all pastors, everywhere should be emphasizing the same thing, leading in the same way: Christ's way. But pastors are human, and human pastors, the men given the office of the keys, are also sinners, and we need your forgiveness, even as we need our Lord's. By creating the pastoral office, the Lord was doing something risky (at least as far as we can see), He was giving His own divine authority into the hands of sinful men. There are those church bodies today who have given up on the pastoral office because of this, and even myself being a pastor, I can certainly see their reasoning. Nonetheless, we confess our Lord. And if He has made His Church to operate this way, so be it, we'll let Him be God and trust Him.

So trust Him, / for He continues to fill the office of pastor among you in order to bless you. Our Lord certainly has continued to use sinners to distribute His gifts here, to you. But despite the men, the Means of Grace Office of pastor is upheld, / you, the precious children of our Lord, are fed by Him, / and the Church continues on until the end of the age, even the gates of hell will not prevail against Jesus' Bride, the Church, against you. You have your Lord's Word on that.

More than anything, the pastoral office is the feeding office. Receive the feeding from the hand of the pastor as from the Lord, for the pastor brings the truths and realities of heaven to earth.

This should be the first and most important emphasis of any pastorate: simply bringing heaven to earth, that is, bringing Jesus to you. Receive Jesus. Receive Him in the Means of Grace from the Means of Grace Office. Every Sunday, be loosed, be released from the slavery of sin and death, and be bound to Christ and His Life. This is what the Divine Service truly is: It begins with entering into the sacred place with the Introit, then humbly asking for mercy from the Merciful One. We know who we are, and would we dare to enter into His gates, to come to His holy hill and His dwelling place? God must have mercy upon us. We hear about this mercy in the Readings and the Sermon as we are enlightened and sanctified in the true faith by His Holy Word. We respond, then, with our gifts and petition Him for ourselves and for others, for our daily needs and our eternal life.

But that's not all. “Is it enough?” Sure, it's enough. Heaven's forgiveness has been brought to earth, to us and we have properly responded in praise. But God's mercy doesn't just give us 'enough', He goes on to fill and overflow our cups, to lead us into the abundant life of forgiveness as our hearts are raised to the Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Sabbaoth. And then we confess it: “heaven and earth are full of your glory,” for “blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord.”

And there He is. He does come, just as He said He would, just as His Word promised. This is the Divine Service, and there is the Divine, physically present, the crucified and risen one, here present among us, for us to receive. And so we receive Him, in the most intimate way, we, His Bride, His Church, receive our Lord and Savior, and we are fed, we are forgiven, we are nurtured, loved, protected; exactly what a Bridegroom is supposed to do for His Bride.

It's not that the other services in our hymnal, like Matins and Vespers are incomplete or not valuable. They are valuable, and they are good for us to use on occasion. But they are not this, they aren't the Divine Service. The Divine Service, the Lord's Service to us on the Lord's Day. There's nothing like it, we need it, you need it, your pastor needs it, we need protection and love, and there He is, right here, with us, among us, giving Himself to us each week. His will being done, not occasionally, but graciously and abundantly.

And this is the privilege of the men who are placed into the Means of Grace Office, the feeding office. We get to feed you. Receive our Lord. What a privilege it is to be Christian, that our Lord put no restrictions on grace. The more we receive Him, the more He forgives us, never too much, always needed.

Enough said. Come, receive Him again. He is coming soon. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

In +Jesus precious name. Amen.

Sermon: Pentecost 8.2011

2011-08-07T20:51:00.000-05:00

Text: Matthew 14.22-33
Date: 2011.8.7

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

But after seeing [Jesus] walking upon the sea, the disciples were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost.” But immediately Jesus spoke to them saying, “MAN UP!”

OK, maybe not exactly in those terms, but that's the point. Jesus' command here (He uses one word Θαρσεῖτε), it's often rendered “be courageous” or “have courage”. And courage, at least in the way the people then understood it, was an essential trait of a man. Be courageous. Man up, guys!

And how does the 'man' Peter respond?

And Peter answered Him, “Lord, if You are You (if it is really you, Lord), then command me...”

Well, the Lord did just command you, Peter, / twice actually. But Peter is like a child here. And this is nothing against children, it's just the way it is, that kids need specific commands. In other words, Peter wasn't satisfied with Jesus' previous commands. / Right or wrong? Did Peter do the appropriate thing by asking for another command?

On the one, hand, yes. What confidence Peter had in Jesus' words! For one thing, with a name like Peter (Greek Petros, which means: / rock), / I don't know about you, but that right there would make me think twice about doing anything risky near water, let alone getting out and walking on it; a bit of divine humor here, I suppose. Nonetheless, the simple fact that Peter trusted the Lord's Word so much that He believed Jesus could give a simple command and that would allow him to do the otherwise impossible, to walk on water, / that's an incredible amount of trust.

So was Peter right in asking for another command, a specific command like this? In this sense, based upon faith, then yes, it was fine.

But see what happened.

Jesus said to [Peter], “Come.” And after going down from the boat, Peter walked upon the water and went toward Jesus. [(and that's probably about the same direction I'd be walking if I were him)]. But seeing the violent wind, [Peter] was frightened, and beginning to sink he cried out saying, “Lord, save me.” And immediately, after reaching out [His] hand, Jesus took him up and said to him, “Little-faithed one, into what did you doubt (in other words, what did you think was going to be the result of your doubting)?” And after they went up into the boat, the wind ceased.

Lord, command me. It's a faithful plea, a recognition and trust that our Lord's Words have power. Not only that, but it shows that we need commanding. You need commanding, just like Peter needed it.

Unfortunately, and this is where Peter had it wrong: / he asked for the Lord's command on His own terms. Peter wanted to define the boundaries of Jesus' Word, for He not only said, “Command me,” but “Command me to come toward you upon the water.” In other words, command me to come out of the boat, where you told us to be in the first place. Recall, that before this whole incident took place, when Jesus sent the disciples out onto the sea, Matthew tells us that Jesus “compelled the disciples to enter into the boat.”

So where did Peter go wrong? What would cause our Lord to call him a “little-faithed one”? It was not that He asked that Jesus' Word would have Its way with him, but the problem is that Peter wanted Jesus to command Him outside the boat. And what's so wrong about this? Jesus is teaching us here, and the way Matthew recounts the story for us (and Matthew was there, remember), we are given a deeper understanding not only of faith, this story is not only about a generic faith or trust or confidence, this story is about a specific faith, Christian faith, baptismal faith, faith in the promises and commands of a specific One, the One into whom we are baptized, this story describes faith in Jesus. And that Faith, true faith, has a proper place, a proper setting.

I'll read for you now part of what is called Luther's Flood Prayer. This has been a traditional part of each baptismal rite in the Lutheran Church since the Reformation. It reads:

We pray through the same Christ, Thy boundless mercy, that You would graciously behold little Johnny and bless HIM/HER with true faith in the Spirit so that by means of this saving flood all that has been born in HIM/HER from Adam and which HE/SHE HIMSELF/HERSELF has added thereto may be drowned in HIM/HER and engulfed, and that HE/SHE may be separated from the number of the unbelieving, saved dry and secure in the holy ark of Christendom, serve Your Name at all times fervent in spirit and joyful in hope, so that with all believers HE/SHE may be worthy to attain eternal life, according to Your promise, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

“Dry and secure in the holy ark of Christendom.” Scripture (and Luther recognized this when he wrote this prayer), that Scripture uses the imagery of a boat to describe the one, holy Church of Jesus.

And Peter wanted to get out of the boat. His intentions were good, no doubt about that, / but there are a lot of people in hell who had many “good intentions”. Good intentions won't save you. Trying to survive outside of the boat when the world is the way it is, so evil, governed by the evil one, full of temptations. Out there, you aren't going to last, you don't have the strength, you will fail at spiritually making it on your own in this world. And even at the very least you put yourself in grave danger of losing your faith altogether and being dragged under by fear in something other than God. You begin to fear the creation (the figurative winds and waves of life), and you begin to sink.

“But what's that have to do with me, pastor, I'm here every Sunday, or at least most Sundays. I participate, I receive the gifts, I'm forgiven, I'm safe, I'm in the boat.”

Yes, that's right. You are the faithful, you are aboard, you are safe and secure in the ark. You are, / but there are those that are seeking salvation outside of the Church, outside of the preaching and Sacramental fellowship. And you know them. They are your friends, even your family.

Pray for them. Encourage them by continuing to come, and keeping them informed about what your church is up to. One of the dangers of living in a culture like ours, where so many are not Christians (sure, they may profess to be Christians, but do they do Christian things, even the most fundamental Christian thing, like gather together with other Christians to receive Christ.), anyhow, one of the biggest dangers we face is becoming numb to the fact that if your friend or family member, even your enemy, if they continue to live outside of the boat, when our Lord comes again, they will be swept away with all the other unbelievers who are “out there”.

That is the harsh reality of sin, eternal death. We sinners need protection, security, and Christ has established a place for that: the one, holy, apostolic Church.

So, yes, be thankful that you are here, that you are safe. Jesus put you here, His word did this to you. In baptism, Jesus compelled you to enter the boat, more than that He Himself took you up and is even now holding you here. Here in this place, where His own Word, the Scripture, is taught in Its truth and purity and where the Sacraments are administered according to His own commands.

This is good news for you. You are in just this sort of Church. Not because we are faithful, but because our Lord has remained faithful to us, here.

This is the good news, the thanksgiving, that you have the opportunity to speak to your friend. Be a true friend and care for his/her soul.

It doesn't take a whole lot of words, just a simple invitation, a simple prayer. But, as you know, it does take a whole lot of courage. It takes real man to do this, to man up. (Of course, you ladies are included here too, it just fit Jesus' word at the beginning of the sermon to say it like that.) So, let's all be men. Have courage. Receive courage. Receive the courage of THE MAN, Jesus, the faithful one. Have no fear. Peter feared, he had weak faith. Repent, and get over yourself and man up. Go and talk to your friend or family member. Sometimes that all it takes.

You've come this morning into this building that resembles an ark, you've come that the Word of Christ would dwell in you richly / so that your cup might overflow the rest of the week as you proclaim, with courage, that Jesus is Lord, and that you know where to find Him.

Christ is making your soul alive today through preaching and Sacrament so that you may be believe more confidently in Him. What else was St Paul talking about when He wrote, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

You are saved. Go ahead, man up and confess it. What's there to lose? Nothing—you are already saved, you are safe and secure. Dare to bring others also into the boat with you, with us, with our Lord Jesus, where we, like the disciples, bow down at His feet, worshiping Him, saying “Truly you are the Son of God.”

You need strengthened again for these things. So do I. Let's eat.

In +Jesus' name. Amen.

Announcement: Private Absolution for Friday, 8/5

2011-07-31T15:42:00.001-05:00

PLEASE BE AWARE:
Private Absolution is scheduled only for 1-3pm on Friday this week. There is a wedding rehearsal scheduled for 6pm at the Church, so Pastor Huelsman will NOT be available during the regular hours of 6-8pm.
If you would like, it is always an option to contact Pastor and schedule another time to meet during the week.

Peace be with you.

Sermon: Pentecost 7.2011

2011-07-31T01:21:00.000-05:00

Text: Matthew 14.13-21
Date: 2011.7.31

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“And they all ate and were satisfied.”

Why did they go out there? It was a deserted place, a wilderness. There were no modern amenities, no comforts, no shelter, not even any food, apparently. Why would they seek this One man?

So they heard that He healed a few people already. Ok, so He healed a lot of people already, anyone that was brought to Him, this Jesus of Nazareth. But certainly not all of them were sick or injured. Why follow this man?

They all must have heard the news. They must have known why Jesus departed to go into that wilderness. He was grieving. His good friend, His cousin, the forerunner John the Baptist was just beheaded, He was dead now. Jesus was mourning. Is that what happens to those who associate with this Son of a carpenter?

It is surprising why so many followed Him to so unwelcoming of a place. Perhaps they knew something that we have trouble seeing, that we have trouble believing.

Who is this Jesus that men would follow Him to deserted places?

“And when [Jesus] went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them.”

σπλαγχνίζομαι - Jesus had compassion on them. This is one of these words in Greek that the sound it makes really does quite a bit to explain it's meaning. σπλαγχνίζομαι – it's not only a feeling, but it is a stirring of the inner parts, there's a physical reaction with it. Jesus' grief over the loss of His friend couldn't even suppress the love and compassion He had for those who really needed Him now. He couldn't help what He was experiencing, it was a driving force. Which brings up the other dimension of this word σπλαγχνίζομαι. (It's fun just to say!)

The other part of this word is what happens because of the emotion. Jesus was driven / to action. He didn't just think, “Oh, Wow, these people really need help, best of luck to them.” His love for them drove Him to action. Action which the disciples couldn't even imagine.

“Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, 'This is a desolate place, and the time is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.' But Jesus said, 'They need not go away; you give them something to eat.'”

You can imagine the disciples response, “Hah! Good one, Jesus.” Then perhaps the awkward silence like when you thought someone was joking, but they were really being serious. / Jesus was being serious. He really would have the disciples give them food, all of them, till they were all satisfied.

At this point in the story of the Feeding of 5000, you may recall the OT story of the Israelites in the deserted place, the wilderness. So much complaining, saying things such as, “you brought us out into the wilderness to starve.” At least that what it looked like. The wilderness was a harsh place, hard for any individual to survive, let alone a whole nation, including their livestock and luggage.

But then, God provides, / miraculously. He gives the Israelites manna and quail, not just once, but continually, daily. The daily bread from heaven, St Paul calls this their “spiritual food”.

Now back to Jesus and the disciples. What did the disciples think was going to happen? There was a wilderness, a large crowd of people, hunger, no food, and God. / Looking back it's easier for us to make this connection, having heard this story over and over again. We know the outcome, so we jump to the proper conclusions, and we again cast our judgment upon the disciples. How foolish, right? How could they not see? O them of little faith!

But think about it, it was a wilderness. There literally was nothing out there. The word that is used to describe the place where they were also means solitary, alone, deserted, uninhabited. When John the Baptist was out in these neck of the woods (although there probably wasn't much timber around), John ate locusts and wild honey. How appetizing!

What were they to think. They were simply expressing their own care and compassion for the people. “No food, nowhere to get food, we should just send them all back home.” It's a logical and reasonable idea.

But then, God provides, / miraculously, again, just like with the Israelites. “[The disciples] said to [Jesus], "We have only five loaves here and two fish." And [Jesus] said, "Bring them here to me." Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed them. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.”

Even in that desolate, empty wilderness, God provides in abundance.

The wilderness of this life can be harsh. There is much to bear, many burdens and set-backs, many things to grumble about, too much suffering. Often, we feel the sting of loneliness, we know this world's solitude all too well. Our daily lives can seem like we are walking aimlessly while the toughness of life beats down upon us like a scorching sun, wringing out our energy, threatening our destruction at every turn. At work, family life, at school, the craziness of friends, even taking a trip to the store can be stressful. Is there any hope? Is there any relief? Who will be our companion upon the way? Who will provide for us, nourish, encourage, and protect us? These and so many other thoughts cloud our mind each moment, even right now, right?

But then, God provides, / miraculously. He will be our companion. He will relieve us, provide, nourish, encourage and protect us. And not just once, not just occasionally, but always, in every moment, abundantly. In the midst of this wilderness of your life, hear His promise. Why did Jesus come? “that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Jesus came that you might have abundant life in the midst of the barrenness of this world. He came because this world is so empty. He came because of His σπλαγχνίζομαι . He is compassionate towards you. He sees you, where you are in life, what you are dealing with, your suffering and loss and hard and confusing life, He sees you and knows you. And He loves you too much not to take action. He acts on your behalf. He gives you what you need, the one thing needful, He gives you everything that He has, He gives you Himself.

What is the greater miracle? That Jesus would provide food for the crowds, (those people would be hungry again) or that His true Body would be given to you in the appearance of bread? What is the greater miracle: that your stomach is full for a few moments, or that your spirit is fed the eternal, heavenly food?

Israel had a foretaste of the spiritual food, you have the real deal, you have the real One. When God acts and provides this food, you are truly satisfied. Israel ate daily of 'their' spiritual food. Come, eat daily of your Food. Munch upon the Words of Scripture throughout the week, then come and Feast on the Lord's Day.

Why did you come out here? To this place, this solitary place, this old building to sit in the heat; whey did you come? You probably have air-conditioning at home, right? Some people would call you crazy for doing this. But they don't know, do they? You know. You have followed Jesus out here. You knew He was going to be here. You are sick and need healing—you knew Jesus would heal you. You are hungry and need the right kind of food—you knew Jesus would give you only the best, Himself.

You came for Jesus. He's here! Let's be satisfied again. Let's eat.

In +Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermon: Pentecost 6.2011

2011-07-23T20:55:00.001-05:00

Text: Matthew 13.44-52; Deuteronomy 7:6-9

Date: 2011.7.24

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Tradition and change. Things old and things new.

It can be confusing to congregations that they have different pastors come in and they are each emphasizing different things, each have their own ideas about what is good for the congregation and the Church at large.

Not only can this be confusing, but frankly, it can be quite / frustrating. “Who are these guys and what gives them the right to make such assertions about us, about our way of doing things, about the old and new things here?”

In fact, the longer the congregation is in existence, the more she will experience this. And so it is here, at St John's. A congregation with as long of a history as just about any in the LCMS. Many different pastors (18 to be exact). Much tradition, and much change—many old things, / and many new. “How in the world is one to know what is right and good and healthy?” Confusing, and frustrating.

Thinking back to all the pastors you have had here (or in other places): Have you understood all the things that they were teaching you? The 12 apostles had but one teacher, and their one teacher asked them this same question: Have you understood all these things? And they said to [Jesus], "Yes." And [Jesus] said to them, "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old."

{as if Jesus were saying:} “So you say you understand what I've told you up to this point. Fine, try this one on for size. Every scribe brings out of his treasure, what is new and what is old.” What in the world does that mean?

Christ our Lord was not only speaking for the first disciples, in their time, He was speaking for you, to you, St John's. Every scribe, every pastor who has been duly trained in the seminaries of our beloved synod, for service in the congregations of our synod, that is, our little corner of Christendom, the kingdom of heaven, those pastors will bring out of their treasure, their teaching, things old and things new. They will teach you traditions, most important the tradition of Scripture, also that of our Lutheran Confessions. They will nurture those old things as they serve you here, for those old things are good, / useful, / healthy. Those old things define who you are, they are essential to your existence as a Lutheran Church in the wider Christian Church.

And, these Lutheran scribes will also bring new things: / new ways of looking at the faith, new ways of describing our life together, new ideas for how in the world we're going to keep these young people in church.

But NEVER knew doctrine. Perhaps new ways of explaining the doctrine, creative graphs or poetic language that has helped them to grasp the richness of Scripture and the Confessions, but never any new doctrine. They will not add to or take away from the Gospel that has been given to you here for over 140 years. If so, let them be accursed, as Scripture says. Let their teaching, their ministry, which is not the ministry of Christ and His office of pastor, let a man's ministry here be accursed if He does not speak the pure, life-giving, eternal Gospel.

Above anything else, the doctrine, the teachings, the truths are the sacred things. And they are kept the way they are because the doctrine is never improved upon, for it is Christ's doctrine, His teaching. // You may have had 18 different men in the pastoral office here, but, in fact you have had but one Teacher, He is the one, true pastor, your Shepherd, Jesus.

Have you understood the teaching of Jesus?

No. and that's the point. You cannot understand these things. The Faith is not an intellectual exercise.

“I am going to die on a cross and then three days later rise again. Then you all are going to meet me in Galilee, then I am going to send you my Spirit and you, who probably have never been outside Galilee and Judea, you are going to go throughout the whole world and speak My Words into the hearts and minds of nasty, immoral, horrible idol-worships, and they are going to believe and be baptized and be saved.”

How in the world are the disciples supposed to understand that? They can't. // They are only to believe it. As the scribes of the kingdom of heaven, the apostles are going to take the old and new teachings of God (what would be the old and new testaments) and teach the world, not only the world then, but the whole world, for the rest of time. And the Lord would send more scribes, more teachers, the Church would always be preserved by the teaching.

Do you understand this? Have you understood what your pastors have taught you? No, not if they have taught you Christ and Him crucified. That message is foolishness, it is utterly contrary to what anyone could think up on his own. You cannot understand, / but you have believed.

Your pastors have taught you not only for temporary understanding, but they have taught you for eternal wisdom. You were brought to faith. For most of you, the hand of one of these 18 men that have served here in the pastoral office, they have brought faith into your heart and mind and soul by Baptizing you: making what was old, part of the old, sinful, Satanic world, and turning it into the new. You are a new creation. This congregation is a new creation.

And just as you are made new in Baptism, you are re-newed as your enter through the gates of heaven each Sunday. Look at the decoration outside the front doors. Have you ever wondered why they look like they do? // This place, shaped like a boat inside, this sanctuary, with an altar and ornate decorations, this / is heaven on earth. Here, the Lord of heaven and earth comes to you in teaching, preaching, / in His Word of absolution, and most especially, most tangibly, most renewing and enriching and enlivening: Christ your Lord comes in the unexpected, foolish way of bread and wine, His holy Body and precious Blood that was crucified some 2000 years ago is right there on that altar. And where He is, there is heaven. And He is here to be worshiped. And you worship Him, not in the way you think is best, whatever ideas you have about worship or prayer or praise, no you worship Him in the way He has told you to worship. He says to you, “Take and eat...drink of it, all of you.”

And as you drink, as you eat, you are restored and renewed. Confusion is gone. Frustration is extinguished. It is perfect. You are with your Savior again, it is all good. Every sin that has affected you the past week—every heartache, bad decision, indecision, moment of anger or lust—all these things are gone. For in this moment, this eternal moment, when heaven, the Prince of heaven, touches your lips and enters into your Body, in that moment, you can be sure of what Moses prophecies also about you (OT Lesson):

For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery...

Redemption is yours. You are chosen, you are loved, you were brought out of death, snatched from the road to hell, and you are saved. Have you understood this? / Understood what? What is to be understood? It is a declaration of peace; a proclamation of freedom. We meagerly respond, you respond simply, with the amen. What is left to comprehend?

These are undeserved gifts (that's what that word 'grace' means, “undeserved gift”). Do you sit and contemplate gifts before you receive them at Christmas or birthday or other special occasions? No, you just receive them in thanksgiving. What is there to contemplate? What is there to understand? It's a gift! Receive it! You are forgiven, you are loved, you are perfect and no one will snatch you out of God's hand, ever. Your baptism is God's oath to you; Holy Absolution is His reassuring Word to you; and the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar is His lasting testament.

I will never leave you or forsake you. He, Jesus, is your Teacher, He is the Savior. What else matters?

How many men will serve the pastoral office here? 18 or 1800, who knows? Only God. Does it really matter? All that matters is that Jesus is teaching you, loving you, feeding you, fighting for you and giving you the strength to be His people in a world that outnumbers us. All that matters, is that your sin does not stand in your way, that heaven stands wide open. Jesus has done it. You are forgiven. You are blessed. You believe. It is all good. God is good.

“How in the world is one to know what is right and good and healthy?” Listen to Jesus. He will teach you, He has taught you, and He preaches to you and teaches and feeds you still. Jesus is right / and good / and healthy. He is old and new. He forms tradition and produces change. First, in you, / then, in us.

To the same +Jesus Christ with the Father and Holy Spirit be all glory and honor and worship, now and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Sermon: Easter 5.A

2011-05-21T18:59:00.000-05:00

Text: John 14:1-14
Date: 5.22.2011

Do not let your hearts be troubled

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The apostles could have responded, “But isn't that what You did, Jesus?”

In the upper room, on the night when He was betrayed, Jesus also commanded His disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Yet, just moments earlier, John tells us that, “Jesus was troubled in His spirit, and testified, 'One of you will betray me.'”ⁱ Likewise, after Jesus' Palm Sunday, triumphal entry; He was praying, and He Himself says, “Now is my soul / troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.”ⁱⁱ Twice, Jesus Himself was troubled concerning His death; twice He commands His disciples, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”ⁱⁱⁱ But isn't that what You did, Jesus?

Yes, Jesus is troubled / so that His disciples might not be troubled. The greek word ταράσσω means to agitate or to stir something up. Think of it kind of like a washing machine. When you open the lid, the machine pauses and the water is still and peaceful, calm and innocent; but when the lid is closed again, the water thrashes around like a rough sea in a tempest.

Jesus' spirit / was agitated, stirred up, troubled. He knew what He had to do and His time had come. He was taking on the sin of the world and He would soon have to bear the worst of His Father's wrath because of this. He would soon experience hell, being forsaken by God. He really did have reason to be troubled.

So what's your problem, / Peter, James and John and Thomas and Phillip and the rest of you. I have come to bear the real pain, the real shame. There is all the reason in the world for me to be troubled; what's with you? I am bearing your unbelief, Thomas; I am bearing your cowardliness, Peter; your selfishness and hot-temper James and John; and your ignorance, Phillip. I will be punished for you; you will be rewarded for me. What are you so troubled about?

Are you scared of being identified with me, or with those other Christians? Are you afraid of death? O, you mean that sweet passage into the presence of God the Father; eternal rest with all the beloved saints of God. Really? Your afraid of these things? Stop being troubled. Repent. Believe in God, believe in Me, your Savior, your Lord and God.

So, what's your problem, / St John's? What is so challenging for you that your soul is agitated? You get depressed or angry or both. You hide or fight or drink or hold a grudge. What is it? Family problems? Work problems? Friend problems? Health problems? Is death near; yours or someone else's? O, you mean these blessings our Lord sends to you to strengthen your eternal connection to Him, to strengthen your faith.

Yes, suffering and sorrow are challenging; and stuff happens at the most inconvenient times. Repent. Turn back to your God, who loves you, who does send painful experiences at times. Even experiences that pain and grieve your heart: / friends betray you, even your closest friend; children walk away from the faith. And what do you think: that it's your fault? That your actions or words are so powerful that they are the cause of this? You think you have done some great sin that God didn't have the power to stop the consequences, the results? Repent. And recognize the power and wisdom of God.

So, what, pastor, you are saying God allows these evils to happen to me? Yes. I am. And I suppose you got angry with God, too, didn't you? That shows how foolish you are. God died for you; He suffered damnation for you, and you are angry with Him because He allowed your life to be a bit uncomfortable for a while? That's love. God isn't afraid to offend you, even if that means you will curse Him for it, because He knows what is best, He has your eternal life in perspective.

Paul Gerhardt, a brilliant hymn-writer and perhaps the most compassionate pastor since Jesus, / he was afflicted with so much suffering, both in his family and in his work, that it would take hours to go through it all. Here's a summary from one historian: “He suffered many blows during his seventy years. Both his parents died before he was out of his teenage years. His schooling was stricter than any modern American would tolerate. He [witnessed the death of] four of his five children and his wife. He lost his prestigious post as deacon of the Nikolaikirche in Berlin. He had to care for his sickly son and sister-in-law without his wife’s help. His last parish mistreated him. All this on top of the regular strains and stress of being a student, tutor or pastor. What makes his trials all the more daunting is the fact that he lived during the Thirty Years’ War. Violence, greed, rape, looting and plague were the norm not the exception. Towns and churches lost more than half their population, families were destroyed and death was everywhere. Throughout his life, Paul Gerhardt did not live in a town or serve a parish that was not grossly effected by these disasters. He certainly was sifted in Satan’s sieve.”

And yet, in the midst of this torment allowed by His merciful Lord, he wrote so many hymns of comfort / not only for the Good Shepherd's sheep under his own care, but for us as well. Please turn in your hymnal to hymn 754 and follow along as I read these precious words of hope and comfort from this man who was refined in the fire of affliction:

See LSB 754

Please understand. All this is not to discount your sufferings, but rather to lift them up as the blessings that they are. It's strange, it seems like a contradiction, but it is true. And how you react to the crosses which our merciful Lord allows you to bear, those reactions do matter, they are important.

Sometimes things happen to you that are completely out of your control. They are accidents, yet they affect you profoundly.

And sometimes your own, actual sins cause you to suffer. Things that you had quite a bit of control over, yet you made the decision in weakness to engage in sin and then you were afflicted by the consequences of those actions or words. This sort of thing actually happens all the time, it's just that we are so used to the milder consequences that we really give it no thought. Examples of this abound.

But what about the big things. The sins that have the long-term consequences. Things which you have to live with perhaps for the rest of your life; we all have these. Shouldn't these things trouble your heart? Isn't it right to feel guilty about them? (Perhaps you know my style of preaching by now and you can anticipate a small, yet powerful word that usually comes at this point in the sermon: Repent.)

But why do we repent? Is it to show God that we really are truly sorry for what we did? Is it because God requires a bit of penance before He forgives us? Does repentance actually earn anything for us?

No, no, and no. In fact, you / are not capable of repenting. Repentance / is an work of God. Repentance is preached to you. Jesus preached repentance, in fact it was the very first preached word that came from His mouth. No, you don't do repentance, repentance is done to you. God repents you, He turns you, He shows you your sin and by His Holy Spirit, changes your heart. Sin and the Holy Spirit don't mix; the Holy Spirit in you from your baptism is strengthened by / preaching and the Sacraments. Repentance and forgiveness go together; These are God's works, and He does them in you.

Sure, it looks like you are doing them, that they are your works. But that's not what God's Word says. Jesus said, “Amen, Amen I say to you, the one believing in me, the works which I do he also will do, and he will do greater than these...”

Greater works than Jesus' works? No, not really. But certainly it will appear like greater works. Why? Because you have no real connection to the man born blind, or the wedding at Cana, or the Emmaus disciples. But when Jesus does His works in you, how great they are!

Again, repentance and forgiveness go together. // Imagine your worst sin, / go ahead, I'll give you a moment to do it; your worst sin.

What if that sin were completely gone, if it would have not effect on you. Imagine if you would never feel troubled over it ever again. Imagine if you had peace. Well, guess what? It's possible. And guess what else? That's my job, to forgive those sins.

If your heart is troubled over a sin, whether that is a sin you have committed or someone has committed against you; if the devil won't leave you alone and continues to torment you about anything: come for your freedom, your release, your Absolution. And if the guilty feelings remain: come again, and then again. Keep coming: I'll keep forgiving you, 70 times 7, pronouncing Jesus' words and God's work upon you, in you, the greatest work of all: forgiveness of sins.

“But, pastor, that sin is mine, others know I've committed it, it won't just go away so easy as you say.” // And I respond: What sin? / Really!! Believe in God, and believe in Jesus, His Son, your Savior who has completely forgotten that sin. Sure, there may be things in your life that result from that sin, but those consequences will no longer be burdens for you; they will be blessings, and opportunities. You name the sin, it can be forgiven.

Private Absolution. You come in and kneel in the chancel here with your sin, or at least the guilty feeling of your sin, you leave with freedom and confidence, you leave with strength of faith in Christ Jesus. Absolution gives you the confidence and comfort to live / free. Sound silly and uncomfortable? How long do you want to live with that guilt? That sounds silly and uncomfortable to me. It's not easy. I know.

Stop tormenting yourself. Let God repent you and forgive you; let not your heart be troubled any longer; let God have His merciful way with you. Just ask Him: He will do it. / He has done it. He continues His greater works.

In +Jesus' name. Amen.

iJohn 13.21

iiJohn 12.27

iiiHere in John 14:1, and also in 14:27

[image by Ed Riojas]

Sermon: Lent 4.A

2011-04-05T16:28:00.000-05:00

Text: Ephesians 5:14
Date: 4.3.2011
Occasion: Membership of Barb McCulley

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Thus writes St Paul in the Epistle lesson for this, the 4^th Sunday in Lent.

An oasis. That's what the 4^th Sunday in Lent has traditionally been. Some churches are adorned with rose-colored paraments today, signifying and anticipating what lies just weeks away now: Easter.

The theme for today is light. Jesus Himself says what we already know, but it's good to hear Him say it: that He is the light of the world!

And don't be confused, he is not saying He is the light from the world. For what light is there here? As St Paul explains, we, who are from the world, we are sleepers. The world is sleeping, it is dead. Christ, who is the Life of all the Living, He comes to awaken us. He speaks: “Arise, O sleeper,” and so you arise. His Word does this! When He speaks, He awakens us completely, and He lifts us out of the slumber of spiritual, eternal death. That's Baptism. When our senses are awakened and we see, hear, taste, touch, and even smell the holy, divine things.

There is a big difference between the modern evangelicals (like the Pentecostals, Baptists, and Methodists); there's a big difference between them and us, Lutherans. It's an important difference and it matters. They believe falsely, and to believe falsely is to be in the dark. But Christ, the Savior is in the light, He is the light, He is the truth, so we who are in the light are arisen from the dark sleep of spiritual death and our eyes are opened to the Truth.

In one word, the difference is that we are Sacramental. We believe in the Sacramental presence of Jesus. Our eyes have been opened so we see that in Baptism, for example, it is not just a name, not just a cross, and not just a symbolic washing. The robe is symbolic, the candle is symbolic. The baptizing is not, it is real, and it really gives eternal life and salvation. Likewise, the Body and Blood of Christ in the blessed Sacrament are not symbolic. The coming forward to the altar is symbolic, the chalice (common cup) is symbolic, the receiving the Body directly into your mouth, is symbolic. But the forgiveness is real.

Now, please hear me rightly. It's not as if symbolism doesn't have a purpose. In fact symbolism has great purpose. Hear what our Lutheran Confessions teach about symbolism:

AC XXIV Concerning the Mass

“Our people [the first Lutherans] have been unjustly accused of having abolished the Mass. But it is obvious, without boasting, that the Mass is celebrated among us with greater devotion and earnestness than among our opponents [Roman Catholics, Calvinists, and the fanatics, as Luther often called them]. The people are instructed more regularly and with the greatest diligence concerning the holy sacrament, to what purpose it was instituted, and how it is to be used, namely, as a comfort to terrified consciences. In this way, the people are drawn to Communion and to the Mass...Moreover, no noticeable changes have been made in the public celebration of the Mass, except that in certain places German hymns are sung alongside the Latin responses for the instruction and exercise of the people. For after all, all ceremonies [symbolism] should serve the purpose of teaching the people what they need to know about Christ.”

So, for example, I elevate the chalice with Jesus' Blood in it and the host, which is Jesus' Body. I don't elevate them before the consecration, but after. This is not a new practice of mine (perhaps new in this congregation), but Luther did it and so did our Lutheran fathers. In this simple way, this simple ceremony, the Church has passed down to us a practice that teaches us “what we need to know about Christ,” as the Confessions say, namely, that in that chalice is the Blood of Jesus and He alone is lifted up to be worshiped. And so we worship Him; not in the way that we decide to worship Him, but rather how He has told us to worship Him in the Sacrament. And that is: take and eat, take and drink.

And the rest of our ceremony is like this, too; there is great meaning and purpose behind all of it. So if you can't figure out why we do this thing or that, please ask, because it is pointless for us to have a practice/ceremony if you don't know what it means. This is why it is important for children to brought up in the church, to see the ceremony and be taught by it.

And, as a matter of fact, a new ceremony/symbolism that I am going to be introducing in the next few weeks will be the use of Communion vestments that pastor's wear. There is a rich meaning behind these robes, or as the Catechesis class likes to call them “man dresses.” Well, there are more “man dresses” on the way, and each has it's own teaching about Christ and His Office of pastor, so stay tuned for that.

So there is a point in all of the ceremony and symbolism, especially surrounding the Sacraments. After all, the making of disciples includes both the baptizing and the teaching. And the symbolism teaches.

The point in making the distinction, then, between the symbolic things and non-symbolic things, is that we must also come to understand the main thing. The main thing in Baptism is the Words of Jesus combined with the water which, as St Peter says so clearly, “now saves you.” The white robe and the candle and the shell all serve to give us a deeper, richer understanding of that salvation. Likewise, the main thing in the Sacrament of the Altar is the eating and drinking of the true Body and Blood of Jesus which, as Jesus Himself states, is for the “forgiveness of sins.” The elevating, the use of the common chalice, the coming up to the altar, these serve to give us a deeper, richer understanding of that main thing, the forgiveness of sins.

So we are Sacramental, that is, the Sacraments are our main thing as Lutherans; and it is a shame, no, more than that, it is heresy, to reject the Sacraments, in both teaching and practice (as the fanatics do, perhaps today more than ever). On the other hand, today in the Missouri Synod, and in Lutheran Churches throughout the world, more and more congregations are focusing in on the Sacramental things, just like our Lutheran forefathers, and especially in the celebration of the Lord's Supper.

In Luther's day, the Reformers often commented how inconceivable it was for Christians to meet together and not receive the Lord's Supper. It was just unheard of. They understood the main things. They were truly Sacramental, through and through. God grant this among us, in our day, also!

May God continue to awaken us, the sleepers, awaken our minds from the death of our sinful pride and arrogance. May Christ use His Word to come and shine in us, among us; to be a light to lighten us, the Gentiles. May the Spirit never cease to guide us in this light while it is still day.

And these aren't just wishes, these are blessings. As your pastor, in the stead of Christ, I am called here to bless you. I am the water boy, the messenger, your servant. My tools are the Words of Christ, the Bible. If I ever speak to you words other than the Words of the Good Shepherd; please, call me to repentance. But if I am speaking and administering Christ's Words, please, receive them with thanksgiving and eagerness; receive the blessing, for you are Christ's Bride, the Church, and the Church lives and is guided and guarded and cared for by Her Bridegroom, Jesus, when she receives Him in the ways He has given Himself to Her: The Word and the Sacraments. Let's not sell ourselves short on this. Jesus has spoken to you and opened your eyes, and He will continue to do so.

You know the benefits of the Lord's Supper and that it is your life-source. The more you commune on Jesus' Body and Blood, the more your sins will be forgiven, the stronger your connection to Jesus, the more comfort you will have, the more and more confident you will be in your eternal life. It's worth it, isn't it!? It is.

So on this oasis Sunday, let us be reminded of the main thing: the Sacramental Jesus. Even now, during the Lenten preparation, we know that He has already risen from the dead. He is seated at the right hand of the Father already, so we are free and forgiven in Him, already. We are blessed by Him, in His Word, in His Sacraments.

So, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

And know, that Christ, who is the light of the Gospel is shining now on us; we are awakened from the sleep of death, living in the radiance in His eternal life, even now. Come, receive Him again, as He gives Himself to you in His own testament, His sacrifice to you and for you. Come, He loves you.

In +Jesus' precious name. Amen.

[Artwork by Ed Riojas]

Sermon: The Sacred Union of Kyle Nicolas Gray & Erica Renee Hansen

2011-04-03T16:06:00.001-05:00

Ceremony: 4.2.2011

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

God was not kidding: It really was and is “not good that man should be alone.” This was the very first “not good” of His perfect creation. Not that the male, Adam, was created evil, he was not, He was perfect and without sin. But he was not complete; something was missing.

“So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.”

God made woman from man and for man. A man without a woman is not good. And man with his woman is good; in fact, it was not just “good” (like the rest of creation); it was all very good.

[Reflecting upon the creation of the woman, the man said,] "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."

At last! Finally! I am complete! Humanity now bears the image of God: the man can now love someone like himself. He can give himself, care and protect and nurture another, guide, instruct and inspire another. And that's Perfect! It is very good!

Until he failed. He failed to protect and guide and instruct, and he let the woman fall. He failed to love, he failed to take responsibility, he failed at being man. And sin entered the world. The woman ate first, and the man followed, the Order of Creation, fell into disorder, Satan won the day.

And so it is today. The tempter still tempts and tricks and causes all kinds of perversity to the “very good” Order of Creation. The most basic of human relationships, the marriage relationship, is infected with all kinds of evil in our day: homosexuality, polygamy, fights and frustrations leading to divorce. These things are “not good”, for they cause man to be alone again, and the woman, the helper, to be without a man to protect and guide her, for a man to help. These things are not natural, they are evil, they are the calculated works of Satan.

For this reason, the preaching of repentance and forgiveness belongs in a wedding homily perhaps more than any other occasion, for the life of the man and his wife is a life of living in the forgiveness of sins / continually. First to God, and then also to one another.

How often we have all despised and rejected the “very good” order and blessing of marriage. Repent. Consider your place in life and how you have lived as if God and His will did not matter. Consider how you have lived only for yourself and neglected the riches and protection of God's created order. Repent. And live in that repentance, in the forgiveness of sins. With God, there are fresh starts; His forgiveness makes you a new creation, gives you a fresh start in your marriage, or in whatever your current place in life is. Just as He promised to Adam and Eve after they sinned, so He promises to you: Jesus, the Savior, has taken your sins upon Himself on the cross, even your sins against your spouse. You are forgiven in Him.

And so, creation being restored in Christ, God has given us a renewed picture of the marriage relationship. The picture is of Christ and His Church, as we heard from St Paul's letter to the Ephesians. It's radical, but so is Christ and His cross. It's not popular and it causes offense, but so does Christ and His cross.

St Paul writes, “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior...Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her...This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”

God was not kidding. The picture of a man and his wife is the picture of Christ and His Bride, the Church. And it looks like this:

The marriage relationship (and every single thing about that relationship) is under the headship, the responsibility, the authority and leadership of the man. It is the man's responsibility, therefore, that the dishes are done, that the taxes get filed, that the children are taught the Catechism, that the members of the household are safe and have clothes and enough food; it is his responsibility that his daughter's find suitable husbands and his sons resist the adulterer / and also become men themselves. It is an unChristian idea that one thing is a man's responsibility, and another thing is a woman's. God was not kidding, a marriage of one man and one woman is like the eternal marriage of Christ Jesus, the Savior, and His bride, the Church, the saved, and what of salvation is left for the Bride, the Church, to accomplish? What is the Bride's responsibility in the forgiveness of sins? Nothing; except to receive the blessings. Christ is the Head of the Church, therefore every single thing about that relationship is under His headship, His responsibility, His authority and leadership. So it is with the man and his wife.

But this is not conventional, this is completely unacceptable in our time, in our culture. So be it. God and His people are not concerned about being acceptable to the ever-changing morality of the enemy-world. We, the Bride of Christ, follow the leadership of our Head, our Lord Christ, whose example we take when He prayed to the Father, “Thy will be done.” Not the world's, not even His own, but the Father's will be done. That's submission! Not inferiority, Jesus is not inferior to the Father; Jesus was submissive: He allowed Himself to be guided, guarded, cared for, loved by the Father.

This loving-submitting relationship is, in fact, simple, it is straight-forward, / but it is also hard. Love is tough, because love is a sacrifice. Love is not an emotion. Your emotions for each other, Kyle and Erica, will rise and fall, but your love will be steady, for it is a love fashioned in heaven before God this day. God is about to do something that human beings are completely unable to do. He is making you “one flesh.” You are entering into this same loving-submitting relationship.

Kyle, you are leaving your mother and father and being given the responsibility of the life and well-being of others. God is giving you authority over His beloved children, Erica and Cody, to love them: guide, protect, instruct, and inspire them even as Christ loves you. The power to do this comes from your relationship with Christ Jesus, who is the Headship over the man, as St Paul says, He is your authority, your Lord. So, you do not have to worry about your own needs, because Christ will always provide. You pray, “Thy will be done,” and leave your concerns up to God. You move forward today (and for the rest of your life) as a servant of your bride and son, even as Christ continues to serve you. And do not neglect your relationship with Christ: be loved by Him, submit to Him, receive His care and protection, nourishment, guidance and instruction as often as you can. Begin your day listening to Him by receiving Him in the blessed Sacrament or reading His Word in Sacred Scripture. This I urge you to do because times will get tough. Sacrificing yourself is not easy, it is contrary to the old sinful nature, but sacrificing is what makes a man, a man. Have courage, therefore, living in the forgiveness of sins.

Erica, you too must have courage, the right kind of courage, courage that flows from the freedom and confidence you have in the the forgiveness of your sins in Christ Jesus, your Savior. You are submitting to your man, your Head, your authority, as the Church submits to Christ, Her Savior. This is full submission, everything you have, everything you are is transferred into the care of this man; what was under the authority and guidance and care and protection of your father, he is turning over to another, this man, Kyle, whom you love and will continue to love with all your heart, mind and soul. And he needs your help. His task is more than he can bear on his own. That is why our Lord is blessing him with you, a very good and godly wife.

He needs your trust and respect. He needs you to understand that his main goal in life is to bless you. Be always eager to receive His blessing. Pray for him, help him, be his bride, as the Church is the Bride of Jesus. And keep in mind that, more than anything else, he wants to see you in heaven in eternity. Until then, he will be sacrificing for you and your child (or children, if that is the Lord's will). His sacrificing, his protecting and guarding is for the purpose of freeing you from worry about these things so that you may fulfill your vocations as first wife, then mother, then whatever else our Lord may call you to do. Today, our Lord is increasing your freedom in Him, under his servant and yours, Kyle.

And finally, to the both of you: our Lord is so very pleased with you. You are forgiven and free in Him, in the Blood of His Son, Jesus. He is bringing you together for the high and holy purpose of being family, and it is very good. The Holy Trinity is at work today and will remain at work in your marriage. The Father provides all you need to support this body and life, your physical needs will be taken care of according to His good and gracious will. The Son provides all you need for your spiritual lives; you receive the benefits of His death on the cross in the Sacrament. And the Holy Spirit gives you the motivation and power to love and to submit, even as God is love and Jesus fully submitted to the Father for your sake.

God is pleased, be at peace, receive this work of the Lord today with joy and thanksgiving.

In +Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermon: Lent 3.A

2011-03-28T01:56:00.000-05:00

Text: John 4:5-30, 39-42
Date: 2011.3.27

Listen to the sermon here.

The true worshipers will worship the Father

in Spirit and in Truth.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Jesus said, “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth”

True worship is worshiping the Father in Spirit and Truth. True worship therefore is Trinitarian, worshiping God, the Father, the Son (who's called Truth here, for He is the Way, the Truth and the Life); the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; the Holy Trinity.

Worshiping the Holy Trinity makes you holy. The Spirit is the Holy Spirit, and if you worship in Him, then you will be holy as He is holy. You will be flowing with holy water, (as Jesus pictures it) Spirit water, living water. Not just containing the living water but it will be bubbling over, springing over into the eternal life.

So: / worshiping in God, water is involved, the Trinity is involved, eternal life is bestowed: what does this sound like? / Baptism. In other words, true worship is baptism worship. It is connecting you to Christ and His death on the cross. It is connecting you to what was earned on the cross: forgiveness.

So true worship, baptism worship is receiving what baptism gives: forgiveness.

This, the woman at the well did not know, did not have. Neither did her people, for they were worshiping something that they did not know (whatever that was), they were NOT worshiping God, the Triune God in Spirit and Truth. If they had been worshiping the Triune God in Spirit and Truth, then the Spirit would have told them what they were worshiping. / God does not hide. He does play games with us. God reveals Himself, and He is revealed to the true worshipers, the baptized.

What compassion our Lord has on us! The woman was clueless, she was blind, she couldn't even recognize God, who was sitting right there in front of her.

And God seemed kind of rude, didn't he? Three Greek words Δός μοι πεῖν, “Give to me to drink,” and then calling her simply: “woman.” Yet she didn't seem offended, although it doesn't appear that she ever did gave Him anything to drink. But that's alright, Jesus returns the favor. When she finally commands Him, “Lord, give to me this [living] water,” He replies not by giving her the water immediately, but by showing her her sin, saying, “Go, call your husband and come here.” Then she answered and said to Him, “I do not have a husband.” Jesus said to her, “You said well 'I do not have a husband,' for you had five husbands and the one you have now is not your husband. This you have said truthfully.”

Who knows, maybe she did get Him some water during the conversation. Either way Jesus wasn't there to be served, He didn't come to earth to be served, but to serve. And so He did. He baptized her, leading her in the true worship. This He did simply / by His Word, just like you were baptized by water and the Word.

First, she had to die to her old life, for the new, living water is not for those who will remain in their old life of opposition and hostility toward God by sinning. / Kind of like in the Garden of Eden when, after being infected with evil by sinning by disobeying God, God had to shut corrupted mankind out of the Garden because if we would eat of the Tree of Life, we would live forever corrupted. So man must go through death, like a purifying fire, in order to be fully rid of the old sinful nature. / The Man, Jesus, did go through death, and your baptism makes His death, your death. / What compassion our Lord has toward us!

It's no wonder then that Jesus had to kill that old life in that 'woman at the well'. And she didn't like it too much; she tried to change the subject, actually. It's just like us humans, isn't it? We're all the same, we don't like speaking of our sin, at least not at first. “Sin must be kept private,” we think. Repent, because if sin is kept private, it will privately usher you into the hell-fire. You must learn to hate your sins and learn the proper way of disposing of them: by making them known to God. When you learn, and I mean really learn, really know and experience what it is like to get rid of sin, any particular sin or all your sins, whatever the case, when you experience forgiveness, / confessing your sin will be a delight; an absolute joy; and you will savor every opportunity to do so, whether that be in your daily prayers, or here at the Divine Service, or even to those whom you realize you have sinned against throughout your day. / Receiving forgiveness nurtures the love of forgiveness, and God loves to forgive.

He forgave that woman, and she became a Christian. God spoke, / saying to her: “believe in Me, woman.” And so she did. God's Word created the reality. She was converted, and her life after conversion bore the fruit of faith: / she became a witness to Christ Jesus. We are told that she immediately went into the village and began to point her own people to Jesus, and they too believed.

That's what baptism does; and that's what baptismal worship continues to do to and for us: it makes us a witness of the mysteries, opening our eyes and hearts and souls to Jesus so we too may point our own people, our family and friends, point them to Jesus, that they too may believe and worship with us in Spirit and Truth.

In Spirit and Truth. That is how we worship here at St John's. We, the baptized, gather together and receive Jesus. The Holy Spirit is here among us powerfully; the Pentecostals and other fanatics of today or times past have nothing on us in terms of the presence of the Holy Spirit. How do we know? What is the proof of the Holy Spirit's work here?

Well, what is the main duty of the Holy Spirit? To come rushing in like a wind and cause us to speak incoherently, like the fanatics believe and practice? No, for Jesus Himself, the One who sent the Spirit, declares, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify Me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” The Spirit will reveal Jesus to us. And what is our worship all about, but Jesus! Jesus, Jesus, only Jesus! By this we know that we worship in Spirit and in Truth: because our worship is receiving Jesus.

And let us continue to do so; let us continue to receive Jesus richer and richer, thicker and thicker, more today than yesterday, more tomorrow than today; as St Paul declares, “let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.” And how is this done, enriching our Jesus worship? Well, as St Paul says in another place “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” Proclaim the Lord's death: kind of like the woman did. “Proclaim the Lord's death until He comes”: and He is coming quickly, so let us act now, let us resolve among ourselves now to receive Jesus more. Let us commune together more often, even daily, as the early church did in Acts. Let us read Jesus' Word more often, here and in our homes.

Let us submit to Christ, our Head, as He declared to St John at the end of Revelation, these incredibly powerful Words, “The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come." And let the one who hears say, "Come." And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.”

How gracious is our God! Let us take more graciously, for His fountain of forgiveness is without price and without end, for it springs up, even among us, and on into the ages of ages, Amen.

Blessed be God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. O come, let us worship Him.

In +Jesus' name. Amen.

[Artwork by Ed Riojas]

Sermon: In Memoriam +Agnes Elsa Morrison (Timm)+ 1916-2011

2011-03-27T06:52:00.000-05:00

Died: March 21, 2011

Service: March 25, 2011

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Chilling. Somber. Confusing. Peaceful.

I'm describing for you the experience of watching a human being fall asleep in Jesus, at least this was the case on Monday afternoon when the soul of our beloved sister in the faith, +Agnes, when her soul left her body and went to be with +Jesus, in peace and joy forevermore.

We prayed for healing, and that's what happened. We prayed for mercy, and so our Lord has had mercy. +Agnes is with +Jesus. Her baptism held strong, or rather, the Lord +Jesus, the One into whom blessed +Agnes was baptized, our Lord held strong, held on to +Agnes, and never let go. He is faithful, the Good Shepherd has carried his lamb, Agnes, into the promised land where she enjoys peace and rest and complete protection, never ever again having to bear the burden of sin.

Chilling. Somber. Confusing. Peaceful.

I'm describing for you the experience of watching The Human Being breath His last and give up His spirit. I'm speaking of our Lord, +Jesus. His body had been hanging there for three hours, arms stretched across the wood planks, nails holding Him in place. His body finally failed Him. God died. His mother sobbed, His beloved disciple John confused, and scared. Even the enemies of our Lord noted the somber atmosphere as they spoke out, “Surely this One was the Son of God.” What would it have been like to see God breath His last?

Throughout +Agnes' life, she received the benefits of our Lord's death on the cross: the forgiveness of her sins. First, Jesus' death became her death on January 28, 1917 when she was washed by the water and the Spirit in Holy Baptism. She continued in this forgiveness as she received our Lord's crucified and risen Body and Blood in the Holy Sacrament.

Forgiveness of sins: this is what our blessed Lord +Jesus died for; this is what our blessed friend, +Agnes lived for.

She knew who she was, the truth was in her as she confessed often of her sinfulness: and she wanted no part of it. She hated that her sin could possibly separate her from her all-loving, all-merciful God. “Oh, pastor, how could you be speaking of a person's sinfulness at a time like this?” Because our Lord comes for such as these; our great Physician, healing the soul of all who come in repentance. +Agnes knew her need.

How she loved the forgiveness of sins! How she loved our Lord's compassion toward her! It was a quiet love, her's was a quiet, private faith. It was a no-nonsense, no-question about it kind of faith, the kind of faith described by +Jesus when he said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” +Agnes led a child-like life of turning, a life of repentance, of humble, quiet, certain, solid confidence and faith in her Lord.

What an example for us! What a blessing she was, what a blessing she still is! A Christian dare not speak of his own faith, for faith does not look to itself, faith has a goal, it has an object and a promise. +Agnes' baptismal faith looked to Jesus. This is the blessed example this saint has left for us, a quiet and confident reliance upon Jesus; trusting in the benefits of His death on the cross, living in and for His forgiveness.

And it doesn't stop with her death. In fact, she is not now dead.

As +Agnes was taking her last, peaceful breaths on Monday afternoon, one last Word of God was read into her ear and heart and soul, it ushered her into her eternal homeland, her place of rest. I read that Word to you now.

Psalm 118: [17, 19-20] – and please get this picture now of what is going on in that hospital room on Monday: her soul is leaving her body and she hears these departing Words:

¹⁷ I shall not die, but I shall live,
and recount the deeds of the LORD.

¹⁹ Open to me the gates of righteousness,
   that I may enter through them
   and give thanks to the LORD.
²⁰This is the gate of the LORD;
    the righteous shall enter through it.

Death, dear loved ones of Agnes, death is the gate to heaven, a passing from time into eternity. She has made it! The forgiveness of Christ unlocked the gates of heaven and she was ushered in. The angels that were with her even in her last hours, her last days, those very angels escorted her soul through the gate of death, on into the eternal presence of her Creator and Savior, +Jesus.

What great and incomprehensible joy she experiences right now! A joy that she had while yet here on earth, but that her sinful body and mind was keeping her from fully experiencing. Sin is no longer in the way. She is truly free, free to truly live, for she is with the Lord of the living; she is with the other saints who have also entered through this gate of righteousness. She joins them now in recounting the deeds of the LORD, in giving thanks to our gracious God.

What hope! What comfort our Lord gives us, His righteous ones by faith! We know for certain, that because our Lord +Jesus lives, so does +Agnes. And we will see her again! In the resurrection on the Last Day, when our Lord comes again, we will see her and she will see us, and what a reunion that will be.

What hope we do have!

Yet, for a little while we must endure without her. And that's going to be the hard part. We are so comforted for her sake, but we are still here. We continue journeying through this valley in the shadow of death. And it will be harder without her, there's no doubt about that, especially at first. Our Lord blessed her with over 94 years of life. Good years: some harder than others, but that's the way of the cross. Over 94 years, so that means there aren't too many who have ever known life here in this congregation at St John's without blessed +Agnes. What will life be like without her? Especially without a mother and grandmother and even great-grandmother?

What the next days and years bring we don't know. But as we remember +Agnes, as we remember any of our loved ones, let us never forget how they continued on in their journey. +Agnes too, lost a mother, and grandmother. She lost many friends and family to death throughout her life, especially difficult for her was the passing of her dear son, Paul, just over 28 years ago. From what I'm told it had a profound effect on her; as if she softened, quieted down, and became more focused. No doubt, for many years now, she has been looking forward to being reunited with Paul and with Bud, and all the rest. And so she is.

And so let us look forward to the same thing; let us live as she continued to live after losing her loved ones: let us live in and for the forgiveness of sins, which has opened the gates of heaven for her, let us be reunited to her even now. You see, +Agnes is with +Jesus, in His presence continually, along with the angels and archangels and all the rest of the company of heaven.

Dear beloved of our sister +Agnes, come to the Lord's Table and there be reunited with +Agnes in the purity and unity of the true presence of our Lord, +Jesus. Even as our Lord does not leave us, but promises to be with us always, to the very end of the age, so He does not separate us completely from those saints who have finished their race before we have. It is “communion” after all, and who do we Christians have communion with but one another and the whole host of heaven, including Agnes, and Bud, and Paul, but most especially are we united and reunited with our Lord and Savior +Jesus Christ, whose death on the cross is forgiveness for you. Repent, Believe, you are forgiven in Him, the gates of heaven are also open to you.

To the same Lord +Jesus be all thanks and glory with the Father and Spirit, now and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

[Artwork by Ed Riojas]

Sermon: Lent 2.2011

2011-03-21T11:11:00.001-05:00

Text: John 3.1-17
Calendar Date: 3.20.2011

Listen to the sermon here.

He who has been born from the Spirit,

is Spirit.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Ephphatha,” that is, be opened. And so the senses are opened up to God.

Jesus spoke, and the man born deaf was healed, he could now physically hear; something was changed in the man, he could now do something that wasn't possible before. It was real, it was powerful. Jesus' Word did this.

So in the Baptismal rite, the pastor speaks Jesus' Word, Ephphatha, that is, be opened, and the senses are opened: not only to the hearing of God's Word, but the seeing and perceiving, the tasting and touching and smelling. We Christians experience God in real things: what used to be ordinary bread and wine, we hear the Words, “this is my Body, this is my Blood”, and so they are, we see how God has taught us to see / by hearing Him. Baptism opens the senses.

This, Nicodemus did not have. His Christianity was a knowledge of facts: an intellectual specimen which he could evaluate and judge. So Nicodemus looked at Jesus, saw the facts, that He was doing signs and miracles, and then came to the reasonable conclusion that Jesus must be from God. Well, that's great Nicodemus; actually, that's really great. But Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, they all see Jesus as “from God,” too. Nicodemus, you haven't gone far enough. You have gotten the point of the signs, of the miracles of Jesus, to show you who He is. But understanding who Jesus is only by seeing the miracles, is like going outside and recognizing that there must be a Creator because there is a creation. The facts tell you of this general truth, but that's not enough. There's something that is missing, yet. We don't know God fully from creation; in the same way, Jesus doesn't only reveal Himself in the things He does; He also speaks, / He teaches us.

God the Father so loved the world that He sent His only-begotten Son, Jesus, the Word made flesh. Jesus is the Mouth of God, sent to speak to us. And that speaking does not go out or return to God void, empty, or without doing it's purpose. It's purpose is to create and sustain life. This is what a Creator does, He brings about and sustains life. On a smaller scale, you parents know this. After bringing forth the life of your child, you continue the care of your child, and in a very real sense, you continue this care even when your children are older because those skills and words of wisdom, remain with him, they sustain him even as your child 'creates' and sustains his own children.

This example is, of course, limited, because we know and believe that God is really the One creating and sustaining all life and that we are His instruments, His servants. But how do we know that? How do we come to believe that? Is it all so evident: / that God continues His Creating activity today? Is it common sense that nothing has existence, even now, that God does not hold and care for by His right hand of power? / Yes, actually, it is. Just ask any scientist who does not keep allowing lies and deception to stand as the norm in areas such as Evolution, Order of Creation, and the general study of biology and physics (with all the billions of little details), and that scientist can show you how, not only did there have to be a Creator, but that Creator must also still be active in keeping this world from deteriorating to nothing.

Yes, it is plain, it can be understood by reason. But that still isn't enough. And this is what Nicodemus did not get. He had the head knowledge, but he was missing one essential thing. One main thing that causes great divisions even within the Christian Church today. / And you'll be pleased to hear that we Lutherans / have it right. That's not arrogance; that's certainty, that's submission and reliance. / Jesus has come, He has spoken, His apostles received those teachings, those Words, and we Lutherans believe what they have written, what they have taught. So St Paul writes: “[salvation] depends on / faith”. We Lutherans express this by the three solas: sola fidei (faith alone), sola gratia (grace alone), sola Scriptura (Scripture alone), and these are all summed up in solus Christus (Christ alone).

Nicodemus, you are missing faith. You can see all the miracles and signs you want, but if your senses are not opened to God, and you do not have faith, then you are not able to see the kingdom of God, therefore you are not able to enter it, therefore you do not have salvation.

The Father sent Jesus to speak, from whom the Spirit proceeds, to give us faith, so that the hearing, seeing, knowing, even tasting, / culminates in the believing. “Nicodemus, you know about Me,” Jesus was saying, “now believe in Me, for the Father has sent Me to teach you.”

So Jesus taught, and His disciples learned, then His disciples taught, and the Apostolic Church learned, and so the Church now teaches, not using our own words, but the very words of the Apostles, which are the very Words of Jesus, words which not only give facts, but they create and sustain faith. Ephphatha, that is, be opened. It's not just words or ceremony: it's Jesus' words and His ceremony. That Word actually does what it says. It opens, it heals: even children, even infants. It is God's work and who are we to say any different?

But who is saying any different, pastor? Of course those are Jesus' words, of course / this is what the baptized child needs, this is what we all needed when we were baptized, it is what we still need (Jesus' words of healing), it is what Nicodemus needed, but did not yet have. Who is saying any different? // Is there any way that we are saying differently, perhaps by our actions that we don't fully believe in the power of the Word to create faith?

Since the 6^th century (and perhaps before that even), Lent has been set aside as the time for teaching, for catechesis. Sermons take on more of this teaching style, especially the midweek sermons. The particular Gospel readings throughout Lent have been chosen to match this general idea. More specifically, it is a teaching toward something, and that something is Easter. We prepare for the Feast of the Resurrection, the most important Day in the Church Year: we hear Jesus' Words, we let Jesus teach us. Fasting and other bodily preparation during this time serves this very thing, so that we get out of Jesus' way. Fasting teaches us that man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from Jesus, the Mouth of God, by His Holy Spirit, in the Bible, God's Word. Fasting disciplines our body and gets us out of the way so we are free to hear more from Jesus. We are humbled to hear Him speak to us and teach us the truth, even if it goes against what we, personally, think is good, right, and salutary. We would rather believe Jesus and be in true light, then hold on to our own ideas and be in darkness, like Nicodemus (who came to Jesus at “night”, that is, in the darkness).

Who is saying anything different? // When a baptized person's senses are opened to God, that means he may receive God's Word through his ears / and so believe; he may see God's love and creative power through his eyes/ and so believe, he may also taste God's Body and Blood on his tongue and believe. What makes one truly worthy to receive Christ's Body and Blood? Luther got it right: faith. Does the Word create faith in children in Baptism? Is a child's senses sanctified to hear, see, touch and even taste Jesus, His only Savior? Is a child worthy to receive Christ's Body and Blood? Yes, because of God's action, because God has spoken and created and wants so very much to sustain the innocent faith of our children with His means of doing so: Word and Sacrament.

In the Sacrament, Jesus speaks and teaches without a sound: even the deaf can hear and believe, even the children can know and understand. And they do so better than we adults. Luther said in the Large Catechism: “Since the children are baptized and received into the Christian Church, they should also enjoy this communion of the Sacrament, in order that they may serve us and be useful to us. They must certainly help us to believe, love, pray, and fight against the devil.”

Perhaps this doesn't sit well with you; perhaps it does. Whatever the case, I encourage you to think about this, and ONLY this: what does Jesus say? Listen to His words; of which I am bound to speak: His and no one else's.

And this is not only true for children communing. Whatever we think, say, do, believe, it all must come from our Source of Truth, Jesus. Especially throughout this season of Lent, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, dwell in us richly; just as the Father commanded us to do on Transfiguration: we must “Listen to Him”.

Nicodemus / eventually did listen to Jesus. Before the whole counsel on the day of the crucifixion, Nicodemus spoke out and defended Jesus, and Nicodemus was cursed for it, just like Jesus, he was called a Galilean. May we so boldly confess our Lord, / because that's what Christians do. We listen, we see, we taste, we experience our Lord and His gifts, and then we say and do and live out who He has made: courageous confessors. Witnessing what we have witnessed, speaking what has been spoken to us, loving the way we have been loved, encouraging one another.

God grant it for His Name's sake. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

[Artwork by Ed Riojas]

Sermon: Ash Wednesday.2011

2011-03-10T20:02:00.000-06:00

Text: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21; Joel 2:12-19; 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
Date: 3.9.2011

Listen to the sermon here.

For where your treasure is,

there your heart will be also.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“When you fast,” Jesus says. He's making an assumption, here. And, He's giving Himself as an example. Jesus did fast. For forty days and forty nights, out in the wilderness/desert; but that's the Gospel reading for Sunday, so I won't speak much about it now, just enough to point out to you that when Jesus assumes anything about His followers, first the disciples, then also we who are Baptized into His name, when He makes an assumption about us, He fulfills it all first. So Jesus fasted. And He assumes that His followers will do the same.

“When you fast,” Jesus says. But this really is nothing new. Jesus, the Son of God, spoke these Words back in OT times as well, through the prophet Joel, the second chapter. “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”

Jesus speaks about what He knows. He does not call us to fast and then leave us there. There is a point, there is a greater good that comes from fasting. Allow me to put into perspective, specifically in the perspective of our Church Year and what the Church is doing with this season called Lent.

Lent is a penitential season (just like Advent); a time for self-reflection and repentance. Lent is a preparation; it prepares us for the main event in the Church Year: / Easter. In fact, the whole Year is centered around the Resurrection of Our Savior, because in that Resurrection event, we are assured of our salvation and what's more we see what we will look like in our resurrection on that Last Great Day. This is the message of Easter; a grand and glorious occasion; mysteries beyond our comprehension are made known to us again, and then again and again throughout the Easter Season as we continue to greet one another, “Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!” More than any other time, Easter is the most anticipated season of the Church. And we do so anticipate it. But how do we anticipate it? How do you anticipate Easter? Have you ever really considered this before? Is there actually a proper way to prepare for the Resurrection of our Lord? Well, what does our Lord say? “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”

Return: that is what repentance is, a turning away from sin, toward our Lord. And it is only to Him that we are to return; and when we do return, we are to be empty. Nothing else can be in our way, nothing else is to fill our thoughts or hearts or minds, we are to weep over ourselves and all our achievements and success. We are to mourn our unworthiness. But that's not all, for our Lord also invites us to return to Him “with fasting”. We prepare ourselves for the Feast of Easter, with the fasting of Lent.

We discipline our physical bodies during Lent to reflect our spiritual reality, that we are whole and forgiven and pure in Christ, and likewise in Him, we treasure nothing but Him. We decrease our bodies intake of physical, earthly food, while at the same time increasing our body and soul's intake of the spiritual, heavenly food. Our fasting gives way to our Feasting.

This is the proper preparation for Easter, for the favorable time, for the day of our salvation. In a very real sense, Easter is tonight, Easter is every time our Lord's Body and Blood appear on our Altar; glorified for our glorification, abundant for our satisfaction.

For the LORD God is jealous for his people, He is jealous for you. Our Lord wants to satisfy you and provide for all that you need to support this body and life, as well as the Life to come; and only He can do it. So, your God says to you, “Behold, I am sending you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied.” You will be satisfied because He sees you and He knows what your need is; so He takes that grain and wine and makes them His Body and Blood to meet that need, to forgive you.

“Behold, [do you now see, that] now is the favorable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.” Come, let us begin our Lenten preparation with the main thing, the Feast.

In +Jesus' name. Amen.

[Artwork by Ed Riojas]

Sermon: The Transfiguration of Our Lord.2011

2011-03-06T13:55:00.002-06:00

Text: Matthew 17.1-9
Date: 3.6.2011

Listen to this sermon here.

This is my beloved Son...

Listen to Him.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Festival of the Transfiguration of Our Lord marks the end of the Epiphany Season and so also the end of the Time of Christmas, as called in the Church Year. The reason it is placed at the end: the Transfiguration is the most dramatic Epiphany, or revealing, of our Lord Jesus. The point of the Transfiguration, and the whole point of Epiphany, actually the whole point of the Time of Christmas (beginning way back in Advent), is that Jesus is God. Our life together here is founded upon and centered in this very truth. It is no wonder than that every single one of the 101 days of Christmas Time this year, they are focused upon this One truth, teaching us who Jesus is, that He is God, / so that, (as we move on in the Church Year) every single one of the 102 days of Easter Time can teach us what our God Jesus has done for us and for our salvation.

In Advent we waited in certain and hopeful expectation of the coming Messiah, the “God with us” (as Isaiah puts it). At Christmas we see who this Immanuel is: the baby Jesus of Nazareth, born of the lowly, but Blessed Virgin Mary. And now, and throughout the Epiphany season, we've caught glimpses of this Man's divinity: The Magi (Gentiles) came from the far East to worship Him. As a boy, He taught the teachers (and us) in the temple in Jerusalem. He was Baptized / and the Spirit of God anointed Him / as the Father ordained Him the Savior. And then His great, divine teaching in His Great Sermon on the Mount: showing us what it means to have a heavenly Father, which is nothing other than being a brother to Jesus, receiving His forgiveness as He sacrifices His heart, mind, soul, His whole being for us. But the point of the Sermon on the Mount isn't just to give us information about the life of a disciple. By His teaching Jesus makes us His disciples, and He is preparing us for something. That something is most plainly seen in the Transfiguration, especially in these words of the Father: “This One is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased: Listen to Him.”

We are being prepared to do what we are destined to do as Baptized children of the heavenly Father: to listen to Jesus. Jesus is True. Jesus is life for you. He is caring, He loves you with a love incomprehensible, unknowable. The depth of His concern for your body and soul is beyond verbal expression, so He shows you instead: He takes on your flesh, He suffers many things on account of this, then He is raised up on the Altar of the cross and dies for you, all the while speaking no words of anger, no words of complaint or contempt, but only, “Father, forgive them.” And your Father has forgiven you, and continues to do so. Jesus, your Brother, has loved you in this way, and with this intensity.

So as Jesus and His closest disciples ascend up the Mountain upon which He is transfigured, this mission of Jesus is on their minds. Jesus has just told the disciples, again, that He must suffer many things and be killed, but He will then be raised up on the 3^rd day. / So was this it? Was Jesus leading Peter, James, and John up into this mountain that these things might be accomplished, now? It's possible. Would Jesus be showing His great love for them and all humanity here, already? Most definitely. But not in the way those disciples would have ever imagined. Jesus warned them about many things, but not this. It was too glorious, and perhaps it might have given another opportunity for their flesh to disbelieve. Again, Jesus is caring for them. This is for their good, and Peter recognizes this right away, saying, “Lord, it is good for us to be here.” They had to see this; not only for themselves, but for us also, because the Church is built upon their confession, especially that of Peter, so Peter especially must see this, and James and John are to be witnesses. What are they to witness? / A most dramatic display of who Jesus is: that Jesus is God, yet He is in skin like theirs.

St Matthew tells us, “Jesus' face shone as the sun, and His clothes came to be white as light.” And not just a reflection of light, Jesus' clothes were the source of the light. Jesus is the Light of the world. And His face: it didn't simply shine like the sun, as if He was the copy. Jesus is the One spoken of in Revelation 22, where St John records, “Then the angel showed me...the city [the new heavens and new earth]...No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.” This is the very Lord God, Jesus, who appeared to those three disciples.

What Peter and the others saw that day / was the normal Jesus; that is who Jesus really is, that is who He was from eternity, and who He is now, and who He will always be. When the Son of God, the 2^nd person of the Holy Trinity, took on human flesh, He did something that was not normal for Him. As a baby, He had to learn to speak. The One who created the whole universe by His Word, having to learn how to speak. When He was being beaten and nailed to the cross, one thought from Jesus could have wiped the whole Roman army off the face of His earth. // Jesus refrained from using His divine powers, and even after this Transfiguration event, Jesus told these three men, “you may tell no one this vision until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.” Jesus was not Himself for most of His earthly life, but here, at the Transfiguration, He was Himself. Nothing was held back.

What would it be like to see God as He really is? To see something that has no hint of darkness in it at all? And what would it be like to see a miraculous cloud encircle them, and the Fatherly voice come from the cloud saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased: Listen to Him.” What would it be like? What would this do to sinful man? / Peter and the others fell upon their face and were intensely struck with fear. In other words, they worshiped Jesus, as He truly is, God, holy, righteous, pure light. And this Divine Majesty must suffer at the hands of His own creation? This is absurd. Peter and the others were afraid because they saw again how different the thoughts and ways of God are from their own thoughts and ways. / “There must be a better way, a way less painful and bloody, a way more inclusive and gentle and winsome.” That is blasphemy. Peter, James, and John knew it and were afraid. They had thought to give Jesus advice about how to redeem the world. They had tried to reject His grace and substitute a more reasonable way. Pure justice demanded that they die for this blasphemy and they knew it, and so they fell on their faces, afraid.

But God is not pure justice, He is mercy. Jesus came and touched them, and said, "Arise, do not be afraid." When they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Him, Jesus only. They had eyes only for Jesus, their Mediator and Savior. Having been struck down in fear, they were raised up by Him who would soon rise from the dead; they were cleansed / and focused.

Now, as we prepare to receive the Holy Supper of Our Lord. Let us consider how we are like these men in our weakness. / What is in your heart? If you have been casually laying plans for sin, how you will meet a lover, or manipulate your tax return, or lie about why a homework assignment was left undone, or if you were saving some bit of news to gossip about with your friends; Stop. Repent. Turn from your evil plans lest the Body of Christ become a judgment against you. If you have been pretending that your sins were necessary, or that you are simply a victim of your circumstances, or that somehow your sin would enable more good later, repent of these as well. Stop playing games with sin; stop trying to out-think God. Repent. Confess your sins to God right now. Express your sorrow over them, by actually making plans to stop them and to put discipline into effect that will make it more difficult to engage in them in the future. And ask for the help of the Holy Spirit: Plan to spend more time in prayer and in the Scriptures. Set your will to suffer the consequences of a moral life, to make the sacrifices necessary to resist temptation: the spirit is willing, but the flesh is so weak! And ask God for mercy, for restoration, for forgiveness for the sake of Jesus Christ.

Then / let that be enough, / lift your eyes and behold your Savior, be touched by Jesus. Eat His Body, drink His Blood, and hear Him say, "Arise, do not be afraid." For He comes not to judge but to cleanse, to join you to His death and resurrection. It is good, sinner, for you to be here. For here is where you are forgiven, you are restored to God, you are made to be the beloved sons of the Father, in whom He is well-pleased. And don't stop this. Be involved in the worship life of the Church where we continue to listen to Jesus and live in His grace, here, week after week, and / in our homes, day after day.

Today is the Festival of Jesus' Transfiguration; for the next two day (until you return here for Ash Wednesday service), let your mind meditate upon that holy vision of our Lord, because guess what? On that Last Great Day, that is what you will look like, too: pure, holy, sinless, radiant, robed in clothes that give you entrance into the Wedding Feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom, which has no end.

To Him who sits on the throne and the Lamb, Jesus, be glory now and unto ages of ages.

In +Jesus' Name. Amen.

[Artwork by Ed Riojas]

Sermon: Epiphany 8.2011

2011-02-27T18:44:00.000-06:00

Text: Matthew 6.24-34
Date: 2011.2.27

Continue seeking first

the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

There is an evil that constantly befalls God's children. To use the imagery Jesus uses as He continues His great Sermon on the Mount, this evil is: double-mindedness (confident in Jesus, while at the same time distracted by worldly concerns); this concept is often translated “do not be anxious”. Whatever the specific wording, the point Jesus is making is that we ought to be of one mind; unified by the Holy Spirit in what we say, do, believe; in the things we love, grounded in the same faith, confessing together as the Church, but also unified in our own mind and heart. Embracing the things of God (His kingdom and righteousness), while also renouncing and repenting completely of the things of Satan, of the evil world, and most especially of your own fallen sinful flesh.

An example of your double-mindedness is how, on the one hand, you can come here on Sundays, and with the help of the Helper the Holy Spirit, you confess your trust and confidence in the merits of Jesus, you relish in His goodness and mercy as you hear Him speak to you in Scripture and Sermon; as you find His peace and joy and strength in His Holy Meal; as you speak back to Him this confidence in hymns, canticles, psalms, and prayers, these holy words of faith, // and yet, on the other hand, Monday comes around / and the Sabbaoth rest is quickly forgotten. The concerns and “anxieties” of your real life, at least that's how you perceive it, right(?), they take over, your flesh is now in control. This double-minded allegiance is evil, and we are burdened with it here while we still possess this body, while we are still members of the Church Militant.

You see, before you were baptized, before our Lord bestowed the mind of Christ upon you by way of the gift of faith, you weren't in danger of this double-mindedness. In fact, it was impossible for you. Back then, you did have a one-track mind, but you were completely “of the flesh”, a worldly being, with your mind fixed completely on the things of the world. You cared not for God nor His righteousness nor His kingdom. You sought only that which was to your own benefit and you never cared about pleasing our Lord with your talents and gifts. Baptism changed this in you.

Your spirit was made alive in Baptism by the gift of the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit that proceeds from the Father and the Son, the same Son, Jesus Christ, whom you were united to in this Washing of rebirth and renewal. In that holy Act you were given a new mind, one that could and would consider the things of God, seek after the righteous things of God. This was impossible for you before receiving faith. But receiving faith, and thus also receiving the mind of Christ, the difficulty began.

You are, right now, at the same time, a saint and a sinner, and you have the mind of both. A sinner mind, just like before; a saintly, holy mind just like the holy One, Christ Jesus.

You see, Jesus is not like you were before, neither is He like you are now. The Lord was and is the only man with a one track mind / toward righteousness. His mind and heart and soul, His whole being, both His divine and human natures, are disposed only toward the will of His heavenly Father. “My kingdom is not of this world,” Jesus said. “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay His Head.” And for 40 days Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness “and He ate nothing during those days,” Scripture says. “And when they crucified Him, they divided His garments among them by casting lots.” Worldly concerns, like clothing and food, what are these things to the very One through whom the whole universe was created? Jesus says, “Do not be anxious (double-minded), saying, “what will we eat, or what will we drink, or what will we wear?” And He wasn't. These things were dispensable to Him. He knew His Father in heaven would provide them all.

But at the same time, from the same Scripture, it's also true that, “On the night in which He was betrayed, [Jesus] took bread, broke it and gave it to His disciples and said, 'TAKE EAT THIS IS MY BODY'...and He took the cup...saying, 'DRINK YE ALL OF IT, THIS IS THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MY BLOOD'...Do this is remembrance of me.” And at Jesus' Transfiguration (which we will be celebrating next week), “as He was praying, the appearance of His face was altered, and His clothing became dazzling white.”

See, the thing is, God your heavenly Father would have you seek after food, drink and clothing. For there is a food, drink and clothing that do merit/obtain righteousness, even the right kind of righteousness, God's righteousness, which is obtained only by receiving it from God's gracious hand. What is this food, drink and clothing? Where can you obtain these righteous things from God's hand?

You heard it again today: “Receive the white, holy, and spotless robe which you shall bring before the judgment seat of Christ so as to receive eternal life. Peace be with you.” An eternal clothing, one that is righteousness / and worn by all who are members of the Kingdom of God's Son: white, holy, spotless, just like He whom you are Baptized into, even Christ Jesus, the spotless, holy Lamb of God. Spotless / because it is without sin. Holy, because it is also worn by Jesus. White, because it is perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Carrie has sought out this clothing, and our Lord has answered her prayer. She is covered, her sinfulness is covered, she is united to Jesus, and her heavenly Father sees only the holiness and spotlessness of Jesus when He looks at her; and He will continue to do so as she and all of you who are also Baptized come to have your clothing washed again and again each Lord's Day and anytime you come to hear the precious Word of Absolution. Again, this not because of your coming; as if God's love and mercy is dependent upon your actions, but rather because this is how He has decided to cleanse you: by Word and Sacraments.

Confession and Absolution is an extension, a continuation of the past action of your Baptism into the present. It is doing your spiritual laundry: using the detergent of Christ's Blood in the washing machine of the Holy Liturgy. And it's not just for Sundays or for times that are set aside for private Confession and Absolution with your pastor. You have one garment, and you're hard at work each week; it gets soiled by your own sins and the sins of others. Dr Luther therefore encourages us in the Catechism that we should rise each morning with a washing, confessing our sinfulness to God our Father and resting on His promise, that whenever we ask for forgiveness, He will give it to us. And this is also what the 5^th Chief Part is all about. Confession (as we read last week after the Old Testament reading): “receiving absolution from the pastor as from God Himself.” This is my duty, my joyous vocation here among you; to forgive you. So if there is a sin, a stain, that you just can't seem to get rid of, that keeps coming back. Tell me about it, allow me to care for your soul as I've been called to do and forgive that sin, releasing it from your conscience by name and speaking the ever comforting and life-changing Word to you, “Depart in Peace,” while you give the faithful “Amen.”

So there you have it, the Clothing of righteousness. Not that you would be anxious, or double-minded about it, but that your heavenly Father, in His mercy, has wrapped you in His grace. You are baptized, you are clothed, and so shall you be on that Last Day with all the saints, standing before the throne and before the Lamb; standing with a multitude that no one can number. O do come soon, Lord Jesus.

But now, what of the Food and Drink of righteousness? Again, not that you would be double-minded (anxious) about it, but that our heavenly Father knows what you need and He gives you His Son's Body and Blood freely and abundantly. “The birds of the air; they neither sow nor harvest nor gather together in storehouses, and your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren't you valued more than they?” Yes, you are valued more than they. But you are like the birds in a way, for neither do you sow nor harvest nor gather together the righteous Food. It is God's work. Trust Him to give to you what you need. He will not underfeed you / and neither will He overfeed you. Repent and believe. If your Father would give you abundantly, what's that to you? If your heavenly Father would give you only scarcely; what's that to you? Repent and believe. And so there you have it, Christ's Body and Blood in the Sacrament, the Food and Drink of Righteousness.

You are clothed and you are fed already. After all, your heavenly Father knows that you need the other things, the meat and milk and juice, the hat and gloves and boots (especially this winter) so, “Continue seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness,” and stop being double-minded; stop being anxious. Be calm, be at Peace. The evil of this present age, that befalls you, His children, now, will soon be removed for good, for eternal good. He will come again soon. At that time you can show Him your sparkling white garment and your full belly, and say, with all the saints and angels, all the company of heaven: “Amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”

In +Jesus' name. Amen.

[Artwork by Ed Riojas]

Sermon: Epiphany 7.2011

2011-02-19T22:39:00.000-06:00

Text: Matthew 5:38-48
Date: 2011.2.20
Occasion: Baptism of Nolan George Bayer

You will be perfect,

as your heavenly Father is perfect.

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

A Christian has no enemies.

Jesus is infinitely profound here as He continues to preach to His disciples. As He speaks, He weeds out the immature disciples from the mature ones. It's as if He says, Do you really know what it is to be Christian. I've already told you the key to understanding who you are in Me, now I'm getting a bit deeper into the mystery. If you fail to understand even these things, then you prove that you really don't get it, that you really haven't been paying attention.

Have you been paying attention. Do you get it? Let me sum it all up for you again in case you missed it the past few weeks: Jesus began with what we call the Beatitudes. There He described all the variety of His followers as: Blesséd. But this not on their own account, for being poor in spirit, sorrowful, even merciful and peacemakers are really nothing too great, in fact they are pitiful in themselves; in themselves yes. But yet Jesus still calls them Blesséd, and on account of these pitiful things, but that's because they are connected with Him, the Blesséd One of the Father: Jesus was the sorrowful One, He was poor in spirit, He the merciful and the Prince of peace. In summary, they are blessed / because He is blessed.

Next, our Lord made the Old Testament reference to his disciples as being the salt of the earth. They are salt because they have saltiness, that is, they are Christian because they have Christ. In the same way they are the light of the world, not that they give off their own light, but that Jesus Christ, who is the Light of the world, shines in and through them.

I hope you are starting to see the point now; what it is to be a Christian.

Moving on. / In last week's portion of Jesus' Sermon, Jesus switched tactics. Instead of telling them who they are, Jesus tells them who they are not. He took a few of the supposedly easiest of the Laws: murder and adultery to name a few, and He explained how they are impossible to keep. / In other words, what it is to be a Christian, is not found in the keeping of the law. And He continues that very thought into this weeks portion of the Sermon. But instead of explaining the impossibility of the Law, Jesus goes a bit deeper and explains it in terms of the impossibility of the Gospel. And then gives us this summary statement: “Therefore you will be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (More on that in a bit. But first I want to go back a moment.)

I started the sermon with this phrase: A Christian has no enemies. This is essentially what Jesus says in today's Gospel reading: turn the other cheek, give more to the thief than what he planned on taking from you, outdo the harsh demands of your tyrant boss, and do not turn away the needy. This describes the life of the disciple. It is a life of service, of sacrifice, of love. It is being Christ to others, and this because Christ has been all things to you.

But if all we get out of this weeks Sermon from Jesus is another layer of guilt for our already insufficient lives, well, then we've missed the point, again. And so I'm wondering. Do you really get it? If you were to be asked, What does it mean to be a Christian? / What would you say?

I know that there are some of you who really do get it. Perhaps you can't explain it in sufficient words, but who really can, anyhow. I've seen evidence of it: your actions, your comments here and there: showing me that you just can't get enough of the things which make you a Christian. Your heart aches for them. You want your Savior, Jesus, more and more. Far beyond being legalistic or pietistic, you would have the Sacrament every day if it were offered, (you've said this to me.) You get a bit envious when you read that the Early Church in Acts used to gather together to hear preaching and break bread daily in their sanctuaries. You have voiced your appeal, to me and others. You wish that Christ would, as St Paul writes in Colossians 3, that Christ would dwell among us richly.

And that is really the point. You are in-the-flesh examples of those who truly understand what Jesus is saying here in His Sermon, you know what it truly is to be Christian. It's not an acquired thing, it doesn't come from keeping the law or being a nice person or having a good family name or anything of the sort. Being a Christian comes from being in Christ. And that's perfect, that's complete, that's what peace is all about. And that's what Jesus is telling His disciples. In other words Jesus says, “You cannot fulfill the Gospel, the Good News, it is fulfilled in me.”

In this portion of His Great Sermon, Jesus is speaking the very words that He was going to fulfill. He would turn the other cheek as He was not only slapped, but whipped across the face and shoulders and back. Not only would He give up His tunic, which the soldiers cast lots for, but he would give up everything, even His soul for those men, and for you. And He did it, so that, when you, the needy ones, go and ask Him for anything, He gives you far more than you could ever imagine. Not only does He walk one lifetime with you, but He walks two, now and in eternity, carrying you all the way.

Do you get it? God be praised if you do, it is the work of the Holy Spirit. This kind of perfection, the heavenly Father's perfection, has been bestowed upon you already, in your Baptism, just like precious Nolan, who is now perfected in Christ, fully a part of the kingdom of God, a son with Jesus of the heavenly Father. But then that's not all. Nolan will continue to be perfected. Because there is yet something unfulfilled for us, for all of us, even for Christ Jesus. His work is not done. It is perfect, but it is not done. He will come again, and when He does, Nolan and you and me and our departed loved ones will be perfected one last time in our resurrection, just like our Savior and brother Jesus' resurrection. Until then, Nolan and you and I need to continue to be perfected, or rather, preserved in our perfection, by the very gift of perfection and peace, our Lord's Body and Blood. And so we are this day, thanks be to God!

And by the way, a Christian has no enemies because in Christ, there is now no opposition, no condemnation, no resistance. God has made peace. His kingdom doesn't operate like the worlds. In the world there is opposition and the worldly ones do see you and others as enemies; but its all one way. For Christ has reconciled us: first to the Father and also to each other. You are truly made free in Him. So go ahead, take Jesus at His Word; use your freedom, your perfection, your peace and ask the heavenly Father; all of you, for there is no partiality with God, see if He will give you far more than what you could ever imagine. Dare to ask Him that you would truly learn what it means to be Christian, and would be perfected in His righteousness, weekly, daily, among your brothers here and your family at home. See if He will dwell among us richer and richer.

In +Jesus name. Amen.

[Artwork by Ed Riojas]

Sermon: Epiphany 5.2011

2011-02-05T21:53:00.001-06:00

Text: Matthew 5:13-20
Date: 2.6.2011

I have not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets,

but to fulfill them.

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

And Jesus continues preaching to his disciples: “you all are the salt of the earth...You all are the light of the world.” You are these things because I am these things in and through you. A saying not unlike what preceded it in this sermon, Jesus just uses some illustrations now.

“You all are the salt of the earth, but if the salt might be made dull [or lose it's saltiness], with what will it be made salty? It is good for nothing more except being cast outside and trampled down under men.”

Salt, a preservative and a preventative, also adding flavor to common nourishment. A hard analogy, for salt is salty, that's just the way it is; it can't be anything else and if it is to remain salt, then it can't ever lose it's saltiness. On the other hand, if salt does somehow cease to be salty then surely it is no longer salt. It's completely improbable then, that there would be salt-less salt. And that's Jesus' point. I'll say it another way, to explain the illustration: A Christian has Christ, nothing else makes Him a Christian except Christ, and if he is to remain a Christian, he can't ever lose Christ. If a Christian does lose Christ, then surely he is no longer a Christian. It's completely improbable, no what's more it's completely impossible then, that there would be a Christ-less Christian.

But what is this “salt”? What does our Lord mean by calling us salt? / Jesus does not illustrate the presence of His chosen ones, first His holy Apostles and also the rest of us who believe, He doesn't speak about us without meaning. The images He uses is like a loving parent talking about his precious children, or a kind Son speaking about his beloved brothers. No, Jesus is intentional in His language.

And so we turn to the Old Testament, to the Scripture that Jesus used, which He studied and knew well. Salt is used in the Old Testament as the incense which was poured upon the sacrifices on the altar in the temple.ⁱ The sacrifices weren't simply thrown up on the altar and burned at once. The goats and sheep and bulls and doves and grains that were used for the sin offerings were carefully and attentively prepared before being placed upon the altar. Then, once it was up there, the incense was drizzled over it and all together it was burned as sacrifice; all this in obedience to God's commands. And as it burned, the sacrifice with the incense was a sweet smell to God; in other words, the sacrifice was acceptable.ⁱⁱ

So it is with our Lord and our connection to Him in His sacrifice. He was carefully and quite attentively prepared by the Roman army for THE Sacrifice: stripped of all human dignity, massaged with coarse whips, moistened with spit, and crowned for good measure: properly prepared for The Sin Offering. He was then carefully raised up on the altar of the cross and there was joined with the incense, you, the salt and your sin. He took all your sin upon Himself. The Sacrifice was ready now, the hell-fires burned as Jesus' spirit, along with your sins, were offered to God in sacrificial obedience. The offering was acceptable, pleasing to God, thus making you acceptable, pleasing to God.

You, Jesus said, are now the salt of the earth. Improbable, no impossible; God seasons the world with you, the purified salt. But it is not you who made His sacrifice acceptable then and it is not you who make His sacrifices of love and mercy acceptable now. Christ is in you, Christian: you are salty. You were made salty in Baptism and you are flavored continually now as He runs through your veins and in your spirit as you eat and drink His Body and Blood. The Sacrifice-Jesus has become the Sacrament-Jesus, and He makes you who He is, acceptable before God (pure and holy) and a sacrifice in the world to those who need His acts of mercy from you.

But perhaps you have not been pure salt to the world. Perhaps you have been less than Christ would have you be. Repent. You are a sinner, and sin mixes with you and makes you a different substance. Going back to the illustration: even though salt cannot lose it's saltiness, otherwise it would cease to be salt, it can be mixed with other chemicals or other elements and be changed into something else. That something else is foreign to the salt and opposed to that which makes salt salty. Your sin changes you into the something else, something that is opposed to God, every one of your sins does this, especially the sins you continue to allow in your life. Repent and be who God has made you to be, pure and holyⁱⁱⁱ; receiving His gifts. Do you want to be cleansed? For unless you are cleansed and purified, unless Christ is in, then you are not part of His kingdom. Repent. Come. Be cleansed and purified from the toxins and foreign chemicals of sin and once again be like He is, pure salt, pure Divine substance. And when you sin again, come be purified again by His Word: hear His preaching and receive His Sacrament.

And what's more, “You all are the light of the world. A city situated upon a hill is not able to be hidden; neither do people burn a lamp and place it under the bushel basket, but [they place it] upon the lamp-stand and it shines to all in the house. In this way, shine your light in front of men, so that they might see your good works and glorify your Father who is in the heavens.”

Jesus is the glory, Jesus is the light. You don't add up? You don't think you have good works like Jesus to show the world, which glorify your heavenly Father? Repent, and believe. You are forgiven, and Jesus makes you a light. Sure, some Christians God places higher up on the hill, easier for the world to see, and so He gives them gifts accordingly, but you, dear Christian are no less beaming with the Divine Light. He is in you, He is working through you, even now, even in ways you have no idea. Sure, you have your bad works, your dark spots, there's no getting around it and they are not excusable, but that is not who God has made you to be in Him, in Jesus, the Light of the World.

In fact, you want to see the greatest of your good works that God so radiantly works in you, on your account. Look to the cross of Jesus. On that cross was perfect man in perfect sacrifice, performing the perfect and most glorious work of all time, an eternal work, and it is counted to you as your righteousness, a righteousness that far exceeds even that of the Pharisees and scribes. On account of that Divine Work, you do not have to fear the lack of your own righteousness, you do not have to fear saltlessness, you don't have to fear the darkness. Because on account of that Divine Work, which is connected now to all of your works (good and bad), on account of the crucifixion, you have the crucified One. You may, then, with great confidence stand in the place of Christ and His righteousness. Then, you will enter into the Kingdom of the heavens, pure and holy, and in Christ, just as things should be.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

[Artwork by Ed Riojas]

iLeviticus 2.3; Ezekiel 43.24; Ezra 6.9; Numbers 18.19; 2 Chronicles 13.5; Exodus 30.35

iiPhilippians 4.18

iiiExodus 30.35

Sermon: Epiphany 4.2011

2011-01-30T05:24:00.001-06:00

Text: Matthew 5.1-12
Date: 2011.1.30

Blessed are you...

rejoice and be glad.

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Law or Gospel? Your work or God's? Condemnation or Forgiveness? Repentance or Absolution? If Scripture is understood properly (as we believe) only when rightly distinguishing Law and Gospel, and what's more, if preaching must have this distinction (if it is to be true preaching), then what do we have here in Jesus' sermon? Law or Gospel? Hopefully both, but where is the line?

Sometimes it's not so easy to discern. Well, it should be, we should get it, Scripture should be easy to understand and at all it's major points, it is easy to understand, even children get it: “Jesus loves me. Even though I'm a sinner, Jesus died on the cross to forgive my sins, taking my punishment for me.” That's simple enough, plain and clear, that's the Good News. But perhaps one of the most difficult passages to distinguish Law and Gospel is the one we hear today, The Beatitudes, the beginning of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, the first public proclamation Jesus makes according to the Gospel of Matthew, and it isn't what we would expect.

It seems to be full of contradictory statements. Blessed are the poor? What's so blessed about being poor? Blessings are supposed to be good gifts, things that are for our benefit. And that's exactly what they are, including the blessings that Jesus here describes.

And how blessed you are. Law or Gospel? To be blessed is good and wonderful, it's a gift, right? So it is Gospel. But look what being blessed involves. In Jesus' own words: Verse 3: Spiritually poor. Verse 4: sorrowful. Verse 5: meek/lowly. Verse 6: hungering/thirsting for righteousness. Kind of like, Jesus. No, exactly like Jesus. “I am meek and lowly in heart,” Jesus said.ⁱ

Do not let yourself be fooled, Jesus is the Blessed One of the Father and you cannot be blessed apart from Him. If you are blessed in your poverty of spirit, as Jesus claims you are, then Jesus Himself must first be in poverty, and of a greater degree. Paul writes, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich.”ⁱⁱ This is from the second Epistle to the Corinthians, but also in the Epistle of James, in the Gospel of St John, here in St Matthew and in various other places throughout the New Testament Scripture, Jesus is proclaimed as the poor man, and those who suffered for Christ shared in that poverty and so were called “the poor”.ⁱⁱⁱ

Being poor in spirit means that you have no spiritual wealth. Just like the materially poor among us today are still alive, though just barely so, you who are imitators of Christ, you who are the poor in spirit, you too are spiritually alive, but just barely so. You have enough spiritual possessions, enough to keep you alive, and that's all that God has give to you. Be content with what you have: His Word, His Body and Blood, prayer, these meager things, not too impressive. Be content, for you are blessed, just as Jesus is the Blessed One. You have your life in Him, and if He only gives you a small portion, what's that to you, He's got it all under control, it's His promises and His eternal life, after all. Enjoy what He does give you.

And you who are sorrowful: your connection to Christ is no less than the poor. “Jesus wept,” John wrote, not out of fear but out of compassion and grief. He loved Lazarus; Lazarus was a dear friend, and now he was dead, he had suffered, and Jesus was moved by this. Jesus knew sorrow so that He might be the One who can comfort you in your sorrows.

And likewise for you who are meek, mild, lowly in stature. Jesus has become meek for you, with you, He is where you are. Do not think yourself any less valuable to Him. It is perhaps easier for you to confess the truth about your unworthiness in the presence of God. This, too, is a gift. For, though you are unworthy, Christ is worthy, and you are Christ's own.

And for you who are hungering and thirsting for righteousness, or rather, the righteous things. God hears your pleas, your petitions, your fervent prayers for His grace to fill you more abundantly. You are those who are never satisfied with the bare minimum of God's gifts, and rightly so. After all, He has said that your cup overflows, yet you do not seem to experience the fulfillment of this quite yet. To you God makes this promise: you will be satisfied. Your desire for more will be fulfilled, if not now, then soon, and if not soon enough, then you can still have hope in the everlasting banquet where you will be filled, satisfied without ever hungering or thirsting again.

Blessed are you! Is it Law or Gospel to be blessed? Your work or God's? It's kind of hard to tell what Jesus is getting at. Our lives are messy and so it's hard to see where exactly we fit in to all of this. Are we to seek out poverty? Or on the other hand, is it wrong of us to try and avoid it if we see it coming? Should we make ourselves meek and lowly so that we gain the blessings described for those who experience such things? God's work or yours? Jesus doesn't really say. But He's not done. Jesus goes on. Blessed are you who are: Verse 7: merciful, also like Jesus. Verse 8: pure in heart, again, like Jesus. Verse 9: peacemakers, like Jesus. Verses 10-12: those who suffer, especially like Jesus.

So some of us are not defined by sorrow and poverty and meekness. Some of you are not burdened so much by these things. Why? So that you may be the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers. Not that you would be merciful or peaceful or pure in and to yourselves, but that you might be Christ to those who need mercy and peace and purity of heart. You are no greater than any other, you are just given to serve in these ways, even as those who suffer poverty and hunger and sorrow serve to teach you what humility really is.

You see, what is stunning about this portion of Jesus' sermon, and what helps us to understand what He is really getting at, what is stunning is how He addresses the wide variety of His people. He has allowed some to be poor in spirit, some to be sorrowful, some to hunger and thirst. Likewise He has made some to be merciful, some pure in heart, some to be peacemakers, and some to be persecuted for His name's sake; that's all Law, that's, in and of itself, destruction and temporal condemnation, the fruit of sin, your work. But God does not let sin rule and therefore you do not rule; that's quite a burden off your back, and as for sin, well sin never has the last word with Jesus. He came into our sin-infested, insufficient mess, in order to make us His Church, His Body, and to bring us out of our poverty and meekness so we exhibit, even in our lowly bodies, His own characteristics. Not that we are perfect in our poverty (as Jesus was) or always peaceful like Jesus; that's not the point. He was made to be one of us, that we might be made to be like Him.

Be content therefore with who God has made you to be in Christ, not the sinner, but the saint, and the specific saint, with specific characteristics, placed in a specific time and place to live in Him and for Him among those who are also called by His Gospel to the riches and purity and safety of His House; His House here within these walls every Sunday, and also within the walls of His eternal kingdom in heaven.

So you who are made to be poor, come, here is the kingdom of heaven in Flesh and Blood. You who are given to mourning and sorrow, come be united with your departed loved ones, be comforted. You who are the meek and the lowly, come and receive your inheritance even now. You who still hunger and thirst, come be satisfied. You who are called to give mercy, come receive God's mercy. You who are the pure in heart, come and see God. You who are to make peace among the sons of men, come receive your call as sons of God. And you who are persecuted, come, rejoice and be glad, for He who was persecuted for you comes to guard and protect your soul. Come, eat and drink. Your Jesus comes to you: poor, lowly, merciful, pure, bringing you peace and offering you what He suffered, the sacrifice of His holy Body and His precious Blood on the cross, given and shed for you.

God knows us here at St John's. Jesus applies this Sermon on the Mount also to us. Collectively, we are all these things, a burden to some extent, but blessed to all eternity. We are these things because Jesus is these things and we are made into His likeness; like Him in His temporary poverty that we might live with Him in His eternal riches.

And yet, this is not the end, it's actually just the beginning, Jesus continues His sermon, and we have the privilege of hearing it read and preached here at St John's for the next five Sundays. Come and be blessed.

In +Jesus' name. Amen.

[Artwork by Ed Riojas]

iMt 11.29

ii2 Cor 8.9

iiiScaer, David, The Sermon on the Mount, page 79

Sermon: Epiphany 2.2011

2011-01-15T18:16:00.000-06:00

Text: John 1.29-42
Date: 2011.1.16

Behold, the Lamb of God,

who takes away the sin of the world!

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today we revisit John's preaching. Or rather, it revisits us. And from it we learn that John's preaching of “repentance of sin” was not a complete message. It couldn't be. Something was missing. As when someone begins to tell you something of great importance, of great interest to you, and then stops abruptly in the middle of the conversation and you're left waiting for more.

John's preaching of repentance is like this. It was a start. A good start, a true start, but only a start. It was a preparation, a leading. And where there is preparation and leading, where there is the start of a journey, there must also be the destination, something at the end, some reward that is hoped for but not quite realized yet, something we can't yet see (that's just beyond the horizon), but we believe we will eventually behold.

Today, we reach that destination, the end and reward of our journey through John's preaching. Or rather, the journey John's preaching takes through us. Today, we behold what we had hoped for. “Behold,” John concludes, pointing to Jesus, “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

[I called you to repentance, and baptized you into a baptism of repentance, an incomplete and unfulfilled baptism and preaching. But now it is complete, here is the One who completes it!]”

With these words, John's conversation with us is over. His preaching is now full and complete. Whatever was left in the balance, is now satisfied. The Forerunner has finished His leg of the race. The preaching baton has been passed on. A new day of preaching and teaching has begun; because the task is now taken up by the very One whom the preaching and teaching is about, even Jesus the Christ. But neither does it stop at Jesus. Jesus passes preaching task along to the Apostles, and the Apostles to the pastors of the Early Church, and the Early Church down through the ages to the Church today. Not a disjointed preaching, but united, held together by a single golden thread, which is Christ our Lord and His Word. The journey of God's Word throughout the centuries, now given to us, organized liturgically in what we call the Church Year.

You see, this is the purpose and benefit of the Church Year: to bring us into this Spiritual journeying, to teach us and preach to us along the way. Notice how the progression of the Church Year works: We start out in Advent with the Preparation of Repentance. Right away (the second Sunday of Advent as a matter of fact) we are shocked into repentance by John and His fire and brimstone preaching. And His message echoes throughout the rest of the season, “Repent, repent,” leading us to sorrow over our sin, while, at the same time, whetting our appetite for more teaching, more preaching. After all, if John is calling for us to release our sins, there must be One who will take them up. But then it sort of stops, we're left without more teaching from John, we're left waiting. Right in the middle of the conversation, when we were just getting interested, realizing the importance of John's message, it all comes to an abrupt pause. That's when Christmas comes and our attention is re-focused on something else, something greater, as it should be, and we just sort of forget about John for a while, that is.

I mean, consider the progression of the Church Year historically for a moment; it's actually quite awkward. We begin the 1^st Sunday in Advent in about A+D 30 with Palm Sunday, then we rewind three years to John's preaching of repentance in the wilderness, then at Christmas we rewind 30 more years to the birth of Jesus, then throughout the Christmas season we run quickly through Jesus' childhood until we arrive at Jesus in the Temple at the age of 12. Then 6 days later at the service of the Epiphany of Our Lord, we rewind again about 10 years to the Magi worshiping the toddler Jesus, then three days later (which was last Sunday) we jump forward about 28 years to Jesus' Baptism. Back and forth, and forth and back, what's the deal, anyway?

The “deal” is to teach us to be Christian. To be Christian is to be, at one and the same time, waiting and no longer waiting; waiting for our blessed future with great anticipation and hope and also living in the confidence of the fulfillment of that hope in the present. Salvation, dear Christian, is: NOW and NOT YET. You are baptized, you are saved, it is finished, and yet there is more. Eternity is yours now, yet you are still waiting to fully realize and experience eternity when Christ comes again in glory.

This is faith, a living out of our hope, and it is most dramatically experienced in the celebration of Holy Communion. The Lord's Supper is both a waiting and a fulfillment, all at the same time. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world; right here, among us, really, truly present in flesh and blood, as He promises in His Word, His last and new testament. It truly is Jesus, fully, and yet there is more awaiting us, more to come. This is a foretaste of the feast to come. The eternal wedding banquet is being experienced today at this altar, and yet will be even more fully experienced in the New heavens and the new earth. Now and not yet. A blessed paradox, understood only by faith, taught to us by Christ in His Word, encased in the beautiful wrapping of the historic Church Year.

Let the Church Year, then, teach you. Let the ebbs and flows of Sacred Time lead you to be who you are made to be in Baptism, namely, a Christian, a disciple of Christ. Come along each and every step of the way, seeing where Jesus, by His Spirit in His Word, will bring us. “Rabbi [Teacher], where are you staying?” the disciples asked Jesus. He said to them, “Come and you will see.”

As a whole unit, from the beginning of Advent to the end of Epiphany and on into the rest of the Year, we are taught that we aren't left waiting forever. Yes, something is left in the balance (for a while), but it is soon fulfilled: called to repentance by John's preaching in Advent, forgiven by John's preaching in Epiphany. Just as Jesus' purpose is fulfilled outside of Jerusalem on the barren wood of the cross, so John's purpose is fulfilled outside of Jerusalem in the barren wilderness of the desert.

Your repentance of sin has found it's fulfillment in this One, the Lamb of God, the One taking your sin away. Behold, Forgiveness come in the flesh. Come, and see!

In +Jesus name. Amen.

Sermon: The Baptism of Our Lord.2011

2011-01-08T23:00:00.000-06:00

Text: Matthew 3.13-17
Date: 2011.1.9

This One is My Beloved Son,

in whom I am well pleased

In the name of the Father of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“And answering Jesus said unto [John], 'Permit it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.' Then he permitted him.”

For thus it is fitting. It is suitable. It is becoming of Jesus and John that this fulfillment of righteousness be done in a certain way. Jesus has come, has been born, and in Jesus, the Christ has come, has been born. This is fulfillment in itself; but that is not all. There is more to be fulfilled, more to be revealed, more to do.

Jesus / has a destiny, and that destiny is your righteousness: / to be your righteousness. He comes, lives, suffers, dies, rises, ascends and continues to come to accomplish your right standing before God. But it is be done in a certain way, a way that is pre-destined by God. And this is precisely what the Epiphany season is all about: Jesus, and Him revealed. He comes to us as we saw in the Scripture lessons of Christmas, he is revealed to us, as we see and will see, in the Scripture lessons of Epiphany.

But it just doesn't make any sense. John said, “I have need to be baptized of You, and You, You come to me?” You are the Christ, Jesus, you are the Anointed One, appointed for the fall and rising of manyⁱ, and you would come to me that I would do what? Baptize you / into the forgiveness of sins? What sins? You are already righteous in Yourself, you are God, what more is to be fulfilled in You?

But He doesn't say “to fulfill my righteousness,” rather He says, “to fulfill all righteousness.” It isn't fitting that God would come to be baptized for His own righteousness; for He is righteous already. But some are not, many are not, we are not righteous already. Jesus is baptized to bestow His righteousness on the unrighteous.

This is what you are to permit, John. Not that it would make any sense. God's actions often don't. What He allows and what He lets us go through sometimes. Why, Lord? / But on the other, how He loves us so and what He gives us all the time. We don't even begin to be worthy of His blessings.

“Permit it now, John.” Let it go, whatever might be standing in the way of you baptizing me for the righteousness of all, get rid of it. Don't let anything hinder what is divinely fitting, what God would have be done.

And thus John submits to Jesus, as Jesus submits to John.

What a mystery! Foolishness! God does not submit, does He? God is all-powerful and He has to protect and care for the whole universe. How can He submit? Because He is love, that's how. Jesus, the fulness of the Godhead, submitted Himself and was found to be a tiny baby in a womb; Jesus, the Word of God, submitted Himself to be taught how to speak, / to be cursed by the evil words of men. Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, submitted Himself to death. God submits Himself, because God is love. He does not force Himself. He did not bully John or speak any unfriendly words against Him. He is all friendly, He is all Gospel. Permit this, John, I am about to take on the sin of the whole world. I am about to sanctify all waters to be used for the Divine, eternal washing of Holy Baptism. You submit also John.

You submit also, St John / Ev Lutheran Church. Take the example of our Lord, take the example our Lord's baptizer. Jesus' destiny is that He comes and is revealed and comes again and again to be your righteousness.

What does that mean: righteousness? To be righteous is to be who you were meant to be, and nothing less. You, man, were created to be holy, created in the image of God who is holy and who is love, you were created to love.

But that image was corrupted, it was soiled. You were no longer righteous, you had hate in your heart, doing evil and submitting to the passions of your evil flesh.

Then Christ Jesus came. He, This One, the Beloved Son of the Father, full of grace and truth, has come and comes in truth to be gracious to you, giving you what is rightly His, that is, His image. He comes to restore you to be like Him, as you ought to be. Not that it was necessary. “For thus it is fitting,” He says. It is fitting that Jesus be baptized. He doesn't say, “for thus it is necessary.” God wasn't obliged to do anything for us sinners. But He did. This is just who He is: God is love and purely out of His love He pre-destined Himself to act out in these tangible ways (Incarnation, Circumcision, Baptism, Crucifixion) He acts to show us how great His love really is for us, all of us, especially you. He loves you. He is righteous for you, He is baptized for you, that you, in your baptism, would be righteous in Him.

And just as the Sacrament of the Font is your initiation back into righteousness, so the Sacrament of the Altar is that which keeps you right. You are preserved in rightness, you are who you were meant to be, as often as you eat and drink the food He gives. Submit to Him, then, dearly baptized. Permit Him to do that which is fitting now. Let it go, whatever might be standing in the way of you receiving Him who is the righteousness of all, get rid of it. Don't let anything hinder what is divinely fitting, what God would have be done, often.

Now, I'm usually not one for analogies in sermons, other than what Scripture gives us, but I read an analogy that is so fitting here I couldn't help but include it. This is written by a brother pastor in Illinois. He writes:

“At the risk of perhaps being silly, [I am] remind[ed] of the time our dog, Jake, caught a rabbit. I was not about to let him in the house with it. He would not come into the house if he couldn't bring it. And when I tried to take it from him, he snapped at me. Jake is like the sinner who refuses to let go [of] his sin and yet claims that he wants "in" to the life that is in our Lord. The Lord wants everyone of us “Jakes” [to be] in[side] the house - but the whole point of being in the house with Him is that He gives us infinitely more and better than the silly sins we foolishly believe we can't live without and have to drag along with us or we [simply] stay outside and sulk.”ⁱⁱ

Let us not sell ourselves short. God would have us receive Him to the fullest. If we would just permit Him. He is so generous with His grace, let us soften our hearts to receive Him.

Ask yourselves: do I want my Lord to come under my roof more often? If He does come into the house of your body, what will He find? Sin? Yes, in all of us. Unrepentant sin; sin that you just won't let go of? Hopefully not. But unless God comes in and cleans out the sin, and takes up residence and organizes the Good things as they should be. Unless our Lord shatters your prideful thoughts and ideas, you will never be ready or willing for Him to enter into your house more often.

Consider it. For yourself, for your family, for your congregation. What is holding us back that Christ is not more eagerly sought after and more richly distributed in our midst? What are our rabbits? /

Repent. Turn from those things. Lay it down at the door or in the yard or wherever you are. You think you have found something that you can hide from God / or something that will fulfill you more than what God can? Repent. Nothing is so fulfilling as the righteousness of Christ being fulfilled in you by eating His Body and drinking His Blood with others who also need this fulfillment.

Permit it. Demand it. It is fitting; it is Good, for all.

In +Jesus' name. Amen.

iLuke 2.34-35

iiPr William Weedon

[Artwork by Ed Riojas]

Sermon: Christmas 2.2011

2011-01-01T23:02:00.001-06:00

Text: Luke 2.40-52
Date: 2011.1.2

And after three days they found Him in the temple

sitting in the midst of the teachers.

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

"Where is Jesus?" This is the first question you should ask when looking at any Scripture. Jesus is there. What is He doing? What is He saying? Where is He?

Now, on most occasions in Scripture when we hear about St Mary and St Joseph, we can take them as examples. When Mary is pondering and treasuring things up in her heart, we would do well to imitate her. When Joseph is being a righteous man before God by faith, rather than a righteous man before man by deed, we would do well to imitate him. The Holy Family, as they are called, are good examples for us. But not in our Gospel reading for today, at least not at the beginning of the story; St Mary and St Joseph lost sight of Jesus, they didn't bother to ask: “where is Jesus?”.

For us, the meaning of this goes beyond parenting. As important as it is for us parents to take seriously our God-given responsibility as protectors and providers, there is One thing of greater importance for us, and for our children, and for every man, especially for every single individual in our congregation: We must never lose sight of Jesus.

44. Know what that is? That's the number in attendance on Friday night; on the church calendar it was the Eve of the Circumcision and Name of Jesus, a major feast in the life of the one, holy, apostolic Church. Only 44, perhaps because on the secular calendar it was New Year's Eve. Are you a congregation, a gathering of God's people or not? The church doors were open, some in the congregation were gathering, most of you were not.

Granted there could have been very good reasons not to come. Someone may have been sick and so you had to attend to them (in that case please let us know so that we can pray for them also). Or you or whoever brings you may have had to work that night. Or you may have been out of town visiting family. And I'm sure there are other legitimate reasons as well.

But only 44? And it wasn't just Friday evening. Advent services averaged about 65, even less on Christmas day. There are about 230 members on the roster here at St John. What could have been more important than receiving Jesus' Body and Blood on Christmas morning? What can be so pressing as to keep you away from singing with the angles and archangels and the whole host of heaven? Don't you have sins that need forgiven?

“But it's just not our tradition.” Since when does your personal or family tradition trump the tradition of Christ and His Church? “It's late and the kids need to get in bed.” The kids need Jesus, especially in their tender years. If the time is a stumbling block, then perhaps we'll need to have a congregational discussion about that.

Be honest, search your conscience and take this opportunity to ask yourself: what is more important to me than hearing my Savior speak to me in the Divine Liturgy of Word and Sacrament? What do I consider more pressing than the forgiveness of my sins, eternal life, and salvation? Have I lost sight of Jesus?

Repent. Just as Jesus calls His parents to repentance, so He calls you to repentance. “And He said to them, 'Why were you looking for me? Do you not know that it is necessary for me to be about the things of my Father?' And they did not understand the word that He spoke to them.” Do you not understand either; what is the one thing needful? Repent.

Now the goal of repentance isn't to create some spark of guilt in you. That's useless, or at the most guilt only serves as temporary motivation, we all know this by experience. No, repentance preaching is for the purpose of driving you back to your Savior. Helping you to 1)recognize your need and 2) show you where that need can be met, can be answered; and that only in Jesus your Savior, who is full of mercy and eager to lavish grace upon grace upon you.

Just as Jesus was found answering the questions of the teachers in the temple, so also Jesus is your answer. He is always faithful to forgive you completely and ask no questions. So neither will I, your pastor, Christ's under-shepherd. Repent and let me lead you to the green pastures where forgiveness is lush and abundant. Take and eat, take and drink. You have sinned, individually and as a congregation. Not just once or twice in the last few months, but continually throughout your 142 years of existence as a gathering of God's people. And this is not simply because you made a few mistakes; it gets deeper than that. You are sinful. You have a condition that you have inherited from your parents, and your parents inherited from their parents and so on all the way back to Father Adam and Mother Eve. It is a condition of sin. And God hates sin. So He sent sent the Cure, the Answer, Jesus. Let Him forgive you now. And be changed, each of you and you as a congregation. Do not lose sight of Jesus, that is, receive Him in preaching and Sacrament often. That's why I'm here, that's why He sends pastors to you, to give you Jesus often. And I'm eager to do it often.

But I will not force it upon you. St Luke writes, “and Jesus went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And His mother treasured up all these things in her heart.”

Jesus was submissive. What He was doing in the temple was for their good. But He did not force goodness on them. So it is with you. Jesus' Divine Liturgy of Himself in Word and Sacrament today is not to be forced upon anyone. If you do not recognize it or you do not want it, He will be submissive. But know this: that He is always eager to heal you, to comfort you, to give you peace, to give you strength, to love you, to give you the answer, to give you Himself. You are His bride, after all, His people, His brothers and sisters by faith. He loves you more than you can ever imagine. Want proof? He died for you, and He continues to bless you with His death every time you hear His Word and eat and drink His holy Body and precious Blood. He is so good that He has preserved in this old congregation and building, the preaching of the old Truths of Scripture and the correct use of His Sacraments.

Come, take Mary as example (at the end of the story that is) and treasure up all these things in your heart. Repent, believe, receive your Savior; be cleaned, forgiven and renewed often.

“Where is Jesus?”, we should ask. Where He promises to be. Jesus is the Sacrament, the holy things. Where He is, let us be also, every single one of us, every single day. God Grant it.

In +Jesus' name. Amen.

[Artwork by Ed Riojas]

Sermon: Eve of The Circumcision and Name of Jesus.2010

2011-01-01T15:33:00.002-06:00

Text: Luke 2.21; Galatians 3.23-29

Date: 2010.12.31

And when He was circumcised,

His name was called Jesus.

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Tomorrow is a big day; A principle feast in the life of Christ's Church: The Circumcision and Name of Jesus. So this evening we cotinue in the Christmas season as we meditate upon what Christ does: He is circumcised and He is named. And it is all for you, you offspring of Abraham, you are Christ's own.

Being of the house and lineage of David, this One is brought into the covenant of Abraham, His covenant that He made with Abraham. He submits to His own law!

Genesis 17:

And God said to Abraham...This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations...

The “Offspring”, the “Male after Abraham” has come. It is this One born of that lowly descendant Mary, that blessed virgin. Her Child, the Seed of Abraham by Grace, He was to be circumcised. When He gave that law / He knew that He would have to submit also one day. And that day has come: the eighth day of God's earthly life. It didn't take long, did it. His first bloodshed for the sins of the world, of you, already in His infancy. This is His purpose, after all. This is what He has come to do, and He gets right to it.

Being born wasn't enough. He wasn't fully part of His people, yet; now He is. He was cut into His own covenant; relating to His people in a new way now. And He will bear those scars as proof, into all eternity, for you, that your scars will perish with the rest of this scared-up creation.

For He is the beginning of a new creation, a new generation. Bearing the death marks of the old that the new might live in Him. A new generation of Gentiles, of outcasts, of those who were not God's people, not flesh and blood offspring of Abraham. But God, the Christ-Child, breaks forth from heaven into a specific time and place in His creation, in actual history, and makes you His people, spiritual offspring of Abraham, heirs with Abraham, sons of God through faith in this Christ-Child, Jesus.

Yes, He is born an Israelite, of Jewish descent, a son of Abraham. / But that is not all. He is, more importantly, the Son of God, of eternal descent, conceived of the Holy Spirit and faith. He is the God of every man, first to the Jew, (but they reject Him, they spit on Him and shoved a crown of thorns on His head and crucified Him), so He is now also, the God of the Gentiles, the outcasts, He is your God. He makes His covenant with you. Do not doubt it, you are a people of the covenant, of God's covenant, His promise to you in Himself.

You are circumcised, but not of the flesh, rather of the heart and mind, no longer to be made temporarily unclean by the shedding of your blood, but made eternally / clean by the washing of water and the Word.

And what a great a mighty Word He is. He is Jesus, which means, the Lord saves. He is the Lord, YHWH come to save His people from their sins, all of His people, of all of their sins. His name isn't just a label so He can be distinguished from the other boys of the day. His name tells us of His Office, who He is and why He has come. So special is His name, His mother and adopted father didn't even get their usual privilege of giving it to Him. For while Adam is given the distinct mandate to name all of earth's creatures, including his sons after him, this Child is no creature. He is the Creator. He is the Alpha and the Omega, without beginning or end. / He names Himself.

And He gives you His name in Holy Baptism, He puts His name on you. The name He chose for Himself is the name He chooses to give to you. Do not doubt it, you are a named people. There is shame in being a no-name, shame for those who have no heritage. That's who you were. You were a non-people with no name, but now you are the blessed ones of God. Not on account of your name: your heritage or your good successes, but rather, on account of this, your adopted name; as sons of God and heirs of heaven with Christ Jesus.

God bless you, The Lord save you, you are His, each of you. There is not one here or anyone anywhere that has not been given this new status by God. Some may reject that, sure, but the Good News, the cold, hard, historical fact, is that God has made you His in Christ; Jesus has fulfilled His Office, His purpose. All are equal in Him, one individual is no better than any other, for you are all one, holy, saintly in Christ Jesus.

There is neither Jew nor Greek nor American nor German nor Irish. There is neither slave nor free nor bureaucrat nor farmer nor pastor nor housewife nor Hawkeyes fan nor Cyclones fan nor Buckeyes fan. In Christ Jesus, that is, being baptized into His name, all are one, together, the same status; there isn't even male or female. You are Church, His Body, His Bride. As a bride receives the name of her bridegroom, so we who are yoked to God through Baptism into Christ, we have received His name, made to be part of His family in the most intimate way, given a heritage and success and prestige. We share in His eternal home and inheritance. Whatever is His is ours. We are truly heirs of heaven.

See what He has done. He is circumcised and He is named. All for you. Do not continue doubting. Repent. Believe.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

[Artwork by Ed Riojas]

Sermon: St Stephen.2010

2010-12-25T13:29:00.003-06:00

Text: Acts 6.8-7.60; Matthew 23.34-39

Date: 2010.12.26

Let us pray and meditate upon the Word of God just read, upon this season of Christmas, upon the holy martyrdom of the first martyr St Stephen, upon our own sinful condition, but most especially let us pray and meditate upon God's promises and benefits to us.

His family.

His mother, a lowly maiden, a servant.

His guardian father, a carpenter.

Royal blood and Priestly blood,

yet a blood-line full of bad blood: prostitutes, violent men, adulterers, and other sinners of countless sins.ⁱ

His birth.

Among the animals in an inconsiderate inn-keepers stable,

announced to a bunch of shepherds out in the country side.

Rejoiced over in heaven,

yet ignored on earth.

His first bed,

a feeding trough,

in the smallest of Judean towns.

His early days,

as a refugee, fleeing for fear of the same fate as the holy innocent boys.

Not too kingly of a start. If this is how it begins, how will it progress, how will it end? The heathen cringe to see it come to fruition, like they're watching a bad movie. We know; it's familiar so we just glaze over it. We should take the heathen for an example.

His despised birth,

his rejected ministry,

and persecuted death;

these must be signs,

for us,

to us,

about us.

If this is what happened to Him, how His life was, the King of kings and eternal Son of the Father, full of grace and love and peace and compassion. If this is His life, what might we expect?

His blessed martyr St Stephen knows, he fell asleep in Jesus with stones as his pillow and blanket.ⁱⁱ The heathen have tucked him in for one last sleep before the Great Awakening when St Stephen and St Mary and all the saints will awaken to the eternal Light breaking forth and commencing the New Day in paradise!

We know, too. We get cancer. We get hurt feelings. We are despised, rejected, and persecuted, too. We make this our plea: that God would keep us faithful also. What do we expect? That He would be our God and Lord and King. That He would love us also, give us His peace, have compassion on us sinful men who also have a blood-line full of bad blood. We are the adulterers and violent men, we get angry and tell lies and persecute each other. We are sorry: filled with sorrow, eager for forgiveness.

We expect Him to keep His promises to us. When He speaks, we believe Him.

We believe

He has come for us,

and He now come to us,

and He will come again.

His good Blood poured out,

He gives us now to drink.

His Blood in our blood,

He gives us His life.

His faithful Word proclaimed,

penetrates into our hearts and minds and souls and gives us faith.

He allows men to revile us on account of our faithful confession of Him,

so we beg Him to confess us also before His Father.

The prophets and wise men and scribes of old were not spared,

they were rejected and persecuted and killed.ⁱⁱⁱ

The Apostles and Fathers and Pastors of the one holy church are not spared,

they are killed and crucified, some flogged in synagogues and others persecuted from one town to the next.^iv

And their blood cries out from the ground from all over the world this saying of St Stephen: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

Let us pray.

Finally, Lord Jesus, receive our spirits.

Help us

to remember your promises now

and believe.

Give us your benefits then

and relieve us.

You are the Rock of Salvation.^v

What can a few stones do to us?

You are the eternal Word of God.^vi

What can a few curses do to us?

You are Life.^vii

What can death do to us?

You are ours and we are yours.

You are despised for us,

we are embraced in you.

You are rejected for us,

we are comforted in you.

You are persecuted for us,

we are freed in you.

Come, come again, and continue to come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.^viii

Amen.

iMatthew 1

iiActs 7.54f

iiiMatthew 23.34

ivMatthew 23.34

v1 Corinthians 10.4

viJohn 1.1-2

viiJohn 11.25

viiiRevelation 22.20

iMatthew 1

iiActs 7.54f

iiiMatthew 23.34

ivMatthew 23.34

v1 Corinthians 10.4

viJohn 1.1-2

viiJohn 11.25

viiiRevelation 22.20

[Artwork by Ed Riojas]

Sermon: Nativity of Our Lord - Christmas Day

2010-12-25T13:17:00.001-06:00

Text: John 1.14, 16
Date: 2010.12.25

Grace and truth be to you from our Savior, the Christ-Child. Amen.

Sermon text: John 1:14,16 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw for ourselves His glory, glory as of the Only-begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. For from His fullness we all received, grace upon grace.”

Perhaps the best name for the Church Year is “The Year of Grace”. For we walk through the Year with the God of all grace and truth. And this, not only on Sundays, but every day.

Beginning with last night, now is the time we celebrate the birth of Jesus; the mystery of how the God of creation became part of creation Himself.

The story is well known. How the angel appeared to the Virgin Mary; how the Holy Spirit came upon her and she conceived and gave birth to her firstborn, the Son of God; and how the angels announced this in great splendor to the lowly shepherds. Now the sermon text is from John and John doesn’t have all this information. Luke and Matthew do. Some would say that Luke 2 and the end Matthew chapter 1 are the only accounts of Jesus’ birth in the Bible. Well, as far as a narrative, a listing of the events in story book form goes, yes, that’s true. But there are actually 2 other places in Scripture (4 total) that give us an account of Jesus' birth.

John chapter 1 is one of those other places. (The other is found in Revelations 12.5). As opposed to Matthew and Luke’s narrative, John’s account is sort of a ‘behind the scenes’ look. John begins his gospel by writing, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

As well as anyone can do in human language, John has given us a glimpse of that which is unknowable, the inner-workings of the Trinity. He was inspired by the Holy Spirit to describe this mystery in terms of language itself, describing Jesus as the eternal Word, now made flesh.

In a sermon on this same text from John 1.14, Luther has something quite ‘interesting’ to say about the phrase, “And the Word became flesh.” In his usual, straight-forward and honest style of preaching he describes us humans as (quote) “a poor bag of worms.” Not a sturdy box, but a flimsy bag; not full of precious jewels, but full of stinking, disgusting worms.

In this analogy, the worms are our sin and the bag is our flesh (our body and soul), which has been polluted by our sin.

And this nasty, filthy bag is what the eternal Word clothed Himself in when He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. This is the form in which He “dwelt among us.” His bag looked and smelled like ours in every aspect; all except for one: He had no worms of His own. That is to say, He was sinless. The worms (sin) that He carried around were ours.

The perfect and Holy Son of God humiliating Himself by coming down to the slums. But not without a purpose: God became a bag of worms to change us, who are the ‘poor, stinking bags of worms’ into ‘sparkling chests of gold’.

By the time Jesus made it to the cross, His bag was filled with the stench and dirt from every human, for all time. What an awful sight! But, at the same time, what a glorious sight.

“And the Word (Jesus) became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw for ourselves His glory [and not just any “glory”, or “status”], [but] glory as of the only-begotten Son from the Father, [and not just part of that glory], but full of grace and truth.”

Glory? He was carrying around all our stinking sins, even our worst ones. He was a spiritual garbage dump, yet through all that, John, the other Apostles, the other disciples and all the followers of Jesus, still saw in Him, the glory of God. They saw the glory because they were seeing with their own eyes the prophecies of the Old Testament being fulfilled day by day in this God-man Jesus. And by what they saw with their physical eyes, they believed with their eyes of faith. They believed that this One was taking upon Himself the sins of all men. And more than anything else that is the glory of God. That is the grace of God. That is how God cares for us most, in the sacrifice of Himself, taking the punishment for us. He took our punishment that we might have His glory.

This ‘exchange’ is the only reason we have anything to celebrate this time of year. Presents are nice and receiving them brings much excitement, but that excitement and those toys won’t last. The only gift that really lasts is the very gift of eternity itself, which we receive by the grace of God. And that grace is embodied in the babe born in Bethlehem, whom the shepherds found lying in a wooden manger, whom we find lying on our wooden altar. The shepherds would have missed something great if they had ignored the promise told to them, if perhaps they would have tried to go and find Jesus in the inn rather than the stable. Likewise, we would miss something great if we ignore the promise told to us, if perhaps we go and try to find Jesus other than in the Word and Sacrament. This Jesus is the Reason for the Season, take and eat, take and drink, receive Him now as He comes swaddled in bread and wine.

How often do we hear the Christian slogan this time of year: Always keep Christ in Christmas. And that's important, without Christ there would be no Christ-mas. But we Lutherans don't stop there. Christ didn't come just to be adored and served. He came to serve and to be received. So we also say, Always keep mass in Christ-mass. It's no coincidence that we invite our Lord to come to us in His holy Supper today. God is not far off, He is here, and He continues to come. He is not only the supreme ruler of the cosmos, He is also Immanuel, God with us, now, God for us.

That's the very message the angels came proclaiming to the shepherds that night. And the angel's sermon wasn't only for the shepherds. He also says to you this morning, “I have good news for you, a message that will fill everyone with joy. Today your Savior, Christ the Lord, was born in David’s city.” The angel doesn’t say, “a Savior was born,” but rather “your Savior, Christ the Lord, was born.” In the same way, he doesn’t say, “I have good news,” but rather “I have good news for you.”^¹ Christ is born for you, to bring grace and truth and life to you! He is grace and truth and life in the flesh. Jesus is, as our text says, “full of grace and truth.” And He fills you with His fullness (most powerful) in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar where He strengthens and preserves you in the thing most needful for this life and the next.

And as if that weren't enough, He doesn't stop there.

“For from His fullness we all received, grace upon grace; [one gracious gift after another gracious gift].” Where we are empty, Christ is full and He fills us. Where we are incompetent, full of sin, in constant grief and suffering, and altogether dead; Christ comes with wisdom from on high to exterminate our worms of sin, and to bring good news of great joy that, in Him, we are made alive, we are saved; from ourselves, from the devil, from hell itself. This is the Christmas promise; this is grace. And it comes freely and abundantly in the form of Grace Incarnate, Christ our Lord.

His love and peace and comfort flow to us like a stream. But it doesn’t just stop at us. The river doesn’t dam up at the gates of our hearts. The gifts we have in Christ flow through us. We are first receivers of Grace and then, also instruments of Grace.

You are being used as an instrument of grace. First, Grace came to you on your baptism day, when the seed of faith was planted in your soul by the Holy Spirit when the pastor spoke the Words, “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” From then on, you have been a child of Grace, continuing in your baptismal grace; a recipient of God’s gracious gifts, one after another, after another as you come to receive Grace where Grace is promised, in the Divine Liturgy of the Church. And from the overflow of this life-giving stream of spiritual nourishment, God blesses others through you. He uses you as His ‘secret agent’ of Grace. When you use your talents in love toward others: when you encourage them, or when you anticipate a need and work to meet that need, when you forgive a person for sinning against you. But especially you are an instrument of grace when you speak to others about the gifts that you have received, and continue to receive, because of Christ.

Dear Christians, Grace has come. We see Him in the arms of His Blessed Virgin mother. He is a treasure which nothing else in the whole world can be compared. He is the satisfaction for every accusation of sin against us; He is the star of hope that shines its brilliant rays into this sin-darkened world; He alone is the immovable pillar to which our weak bodies and souls must cling; and He is the guide who brings us safely through sorrow and death into the open gates of eternal peace and joy.^² Having seen His salvation, we continue to sing with Mary: “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”

To Christ be all glory and praise forevermore. Amen.

1 Luther, By Faith Alone, December 22

2 Lenski, The Interpretation of John’s Gospel, pp90-91

[Artwork by Ed Riojas]

Sermon: Christmas Eve - Quempas Children's Service

2010-12-25T13:10:00.001-06:00

Text: Luke 2 and Quempas Carol
Date: 2010.12.24

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Movement. Lots of movement takes place in the story of the Nativity of our Lord:

People moving to their towns of origin to be registered, including Joseph with his betrothed Mary and the unborn Savior yet in Mary's womb. Angels moving out of the realms of glory into time and space to awe the nomadic shepherds before they would move from their fields to a stable in the humble city of David. The Gentile Magi begin their movement, their journey from the east that will take nearly 2 years.

But all these movements aren't isolated instances. They all have an aim, one common purpose. And that purpose is finally The Movement of the night, Jesus, from the relative safety of the womb into His mothers embrace, then eventually laid into the manger in Peaceful sleep.

This movement is what the Quempas communicates so well. The Carol, or rather the Gospel Message of the Carol, is the mover and the children illustrate that for us. Sung from each of the four corners of the nave, they show that the Gospel is not bound in one place or time, but is for “all the people”, as the angel said. And it is the children who sing it, a beautifully poetic pronouncement from the innocent mouths of those of humble estate, even as the beauty of our salvation was wrapped in so innocent a being in this baby, Jesus.

You see, this is, after all, God's movement: from heavenly glory, to worldly humiliation; from boundless spirit, to limited body. He restrained His divine movement and allowed Himself to be subject to move merely as a human, for the most part. Jesus moved through life as we must move through life: from infancy in Bethlehem to teenager in Nazareth, to adult throughout the region of Galilee as He preached the Kingdom of heaven into the hearts of the people. His greatest move, though, would come during a three day period in the spring of His 30^th year among us. The Christ would make His final step in sacrificing Himself for the sins of the whole world. On Friday he would die, but on Sunday, he would rise, / moving from death to life, defeating death, all death, even your death and the power death has over you, defeating death finally with His life.

By His life He redefined what it meant to be human. It is no longer like the pessimistic saying goes: “You're born, you live, then you die.” We don't move through life toward death; our death took place about 2000 years ago, that's where the consequences of our sin were realized, on the cross. No, we move through life toward more life, eternal life, with the Lord of life. This was the goal of God's movement among us.

Even so, God is not done moving. When Jesus ascended it was as if He ascended into the Sacramental life of the Church, which is His holy Body. He moves in hidden ways now. By His Word He moves through the mouths of your pastors; He moves under simple bread and wine on each altar that will receive Him; He moves in and through water in each font that confesses His name. These are the hidden movements of God among us. And they are all directed to you. He is continually seeking you in Word and Sacrament; bringing you right along with Him. Your life is true life because it is connected to and inseparable from His life. Your life is likewise a dying and rising, daily, as He moves into you by way of your ears and mouth; You listen to Him in His Word, you receive His life in the Sacrament, over and over and over, dying and rising until finally, your earthly journey is over.

But though your movement in this world will some day end, it is not as though you are done moving. For the goal of His Word and Sacrament movement in your life now, is that you would finally be moved to be with Him whenever it is that He calls you home, transferring you from the Church Militant to the Church Triumphant.

This is our hope, and this hope is the source of our joy, at Christmas and every day. So, in joy we sing with the children,

To our king, God ever reigning,

Yet of Mary manhood gaining,

Heav’nly gifts for us obtaining,

Raise your hymns of homage high!

In the name of our King, +Jesus. Amen.

[Artwork by Ed Riojas]

Sermon: Advent 4 Midweek (Quempas)

2010-12-22T13:14:00.001-06:00

Text: Genesis 3.1-15; 2 Corinthians 5.17-21
Date: 2010.12.22

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Be reconciled,” writes St Paul in our second reading. But reconciliation means that someone has caused a particular offense; committed an act that broke trust or betrayed an agreement, an act that somehow hurt or killed a relationship. / And St Paul's statement is absolute, it applies to everyone: “All must be reconciled to God,” because all have broken the trust and thus hurt and killed the relationship.

And, unfortunately this is also such a common thing among us, in our relationships. Anger, immorality, gossip, these are the tools that lead to divorce, estranged family members, and the worst of all, separation from God.

“I want another chance. I wish things could have been some other way,” we say. We wish we could take lots of things back. We wish we could press some magic do-over or restart button like on a video game. Yes, we all have things that we wish could be otherwise than what they are. But there is no do-over button, at least not within our reach. We are left with the aftermath, the consequences of our's or someone else's actions. God is the only One who can make things otherwise.

And so He showed His great love to us in that, at Christmas, God makes things otherwise. He takes the evil things that are / and re-creates them, makes them good. He makes us good. This is the work of God’s 'making otherwise'. He does not merely wish that things were otherwise, as we do. He changes things. He sees the brokenness and tragedy of the world caused by man’s fall into sin and makes things otherwise. He does this through the Incarnation of His Son, born of the Blessed Virgin. We will sing of this in the exultant refrain to the Quempas Carol on Christmas Eve: “God’s own Son is born a child, is born a child; God the Father is reconciled, is reconciled!”

Everything is made different through the Incarnation. Our Father has been reconciled to us and we to Him. This is the ultimate and most important 'making otherwise'. The re-connection of friends, or of husband and wife, or of parent and child, / these are of no value without the re-connection of the heavenly Father to us, His children.

We are in danger, we are born in danger, fatal danger, of an eternal fatality. The children suffer the same consequence as their parents. Father Adam and Mother Eve have sinned. The trespass? Disobedience. A simple act, one that took only a few seconds, but that has eternal consequences. By that act, that disregard for the Word of God, man must die. But God is mercy. As it is written: “The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring [singular]; he [masculine singular] shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his [masculine singular] heel."”

God is mercy, He will be that “masculine singular.” Jesus is the Offspring that will bruise the head of Satan, that is, defeat Him. But first, a Baby. Christmas before Good Friday, but Christmas always with a mind on Good Friday. /

There's a painting by an unknown artist that depicts a baby, umbilical cord still attached, with a crown of thorns piercing His skull. “How disgusting, how offensive.” The cross is offensive / and disgusting, just like sin, even more than sin. Sin is death for the sinner, so the cross must also be death to The Sinner, or rather, to the One who took all sin / and died, this baby Immanuel, Jesus. God's own Son, made to be sin for us, that we sinners might be made to be God's own sons, reconciled to our eternal Parent, through our eternal Brother, forgiven and free.

No need for a do-over or a restart, it wouldn't help anyhow. On the one hand, a do-over wouldn't help because the offense has already been caused; it's history. You have hurt and killed relationships, worst of all your relationship with your heavenly Father, and you're destined to do it again. That's sin for you, and the crushing weight of Law exposes that sin. Every sin, that is, every time you disregard God's Word, like your first parents did, you dis-connect yourself from your heavenly Father. Repent.

On the other hand, a do-over is no good because Jesus has already done everything necessary, for you. You are re-connected in Jesus, by His death and resurrection some 2000 years ago.

This is the easy yoke and light burden of the Gospel; that you are simply called to receive what Jesus has done for you. In other words, you only must repent and be forgiven. Then repent and be forgiven again, then again and on and on goes our life as God's children / until finally, like all those who have died in the faith, we too / are released of our bondage to sin and death and offense as we fall asleep in Jesus.

But what of those worldly things, of our other broken relationships? God has come to reconcile our eternal, heavenly relationship, but has He come to reconcile our earthly relationships as well? Does He even care?

Like our continued reconciliation with the Father, it all begins with repentance, or rather, God repenting you. With honest eyes, you must look into yourself. “What have I done, what must I repent of?” Thus God gives you / His Law. Have you been unfaithful, have you been angry, have you betrayed confidences or selfishly acted in a way that only served yourself? Repent. The fruit of these seeds of Satan is broken relationships. And you sow them, often. Repent; allow yourself to be led to repentance. The Law works to show you your sin, where you have trespassed over into un-protected land. The Law accuses you, it accuses us all. We are all guilty! We cry out to God, have mercy on me, the sinner. But not to some distant, abstract, agnostic God. We cry out for mercy to the God of mercy. God is mercy. God is love. He reconciles you in love to Himself that you might be given the “ministry of reconciliation,” as St Paul calls it.

Forgiven, you live in a state of peace and harmony. This is who you are. As you come to Altar, as you hear preaching, as you confess those particular sins to me, your pastor, you are preserved in that peace. God renews His promises to you, reinstating you in the high office of His child, heir of His kingdom of reconciliation. So what does this have to do with divorce and estranged children and broken friendships?

Be who you are. Be at peace. Do not be angry. Do not gossip. Keep your eyes and hands away from everything that might rob you or your loved ones from such peace. For, by getting angry, by gossiping, by living in immorality, you are lying to yourself and about yourself. That is not who God has made you to be. Take pride in who God has made you to be in the waters of Holy Baptism. You have become the righteousness of God, so live in that righteousness.

Take the example of your brother, Christ. Study the Scriptures, what do you see Him doing? Imitate Him who is your righteousness. Most especially, He forgives you (that's the whole purpose of His birth, and the consequence of His cross); He forgives, so you also, forgive one another.

Has someone been angry toward you. Go, fulfill your office as child of God and minister of reconciliation. First, you repent of what you have done to insight such anger, then go and forgive, even without an apology, go and forgive, just like the Father forgives you even without your apology. / Has someone committed some immorality against you: first, you repent, then once forgiven, you go and forgive.

This is who you are now, I'm not telling you anything different than what you already know. You just need some reminders every once in a while.

You are forgiven to forgive others, loved to love others, reconciled to reconcile others. In these ways you are simply being who you were made to be as you are at peace in Him who is born a child, born The Child, even Jesus Christ, our Lord! /

No take backs, / but He takes you back. Go, and do likewise.

In +Jesus' name. Amen.

[Artwork by Ed Riojas]