Sermon-Sunday, October 22nd

Isaiah 53:4-12 , Mark 10:35-45
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
For some reason the people who put the lectionary together did not want me to read the first three verses from the Gospel passage that I read. I don’t know why. I am going to assume that the scholars who made this decision had a reason. Probably not one that I would agree with, but I am sure they had a reason.
What do these verses contain? They have Jesus pulling the disciples aside and telling them what was going to happen to Him. He is telling them that they are going to Jerusalem where He will be handed over to the priests and the scribes and He will be condemned to death. Then He will be handed over to us, the gentiles, where we will mock Him, spit upon Him, flog Him and finally kill Him. And then three days later He will rise again.
He is telling them that He is the fulfillment of the prophecy that we read in the Isaiah text for today where the prophet tells us of a Savior who bears our infirmities even though we accounted Him stricken. Isaiah tells us of a Savior who is wounded for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities and that by His bruises we are healed. The prophet refers to what Jesus is telling the disciples that He is about to go through, as a perversion of justice. Those first three verses that I read go hand in hand with this Old Testament lesson, so why the lectionary scholars didn’t want them read is beyond me.
In these first three verses that the lectionary scholars didn’t want you to hear, Jesus is telling the disciples of that which our faith is built upon; the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus, the suffering that He bore for you. The suffering that you deserve and how Jesus was about to and did bear that suffering and death for you and defeated death in the resurrection. Why wouldn’t they want you to hear that?? Again, I am going to assume that they had a reason.
Where they did have the Gospel passage for today start, we see James and John telling Jesus that they want Him to do for them what they ask of Him. How do you think that sounded to Jesus? Here he had just told the disciples that He was going to take on the punishment and the death that they deserve and James and John seemingly respond to this by telling Jesus that they want Him to do what they ask. Jesus humors them and asks what they want, and they tell Him that they want to sit at His right and left hand side in His glory.
Obviously they had a completely distorted view of God’s kingdom, but it’s really not that different a view from that which many of you ascribe to today. James and John expected Jesus to adapt to their desires. Don’t you all do that? You do. When you allow your faith life to be shaped and even dictated by worldly affairs you are essentially doing the same thing that James and John were asking Jesus to do.
When earthly, material commitments are prioritized before faith commitments you are expecting Jesus to do what you ask of Him, to adapt to your needs. Of course we all do this. We all struggle with sin and thus, let the world shape and even dictate our faith lives, but you should recognize when you do it so you will thus strive not to. Because by recognizing your own futility to sin you are reminded that you need a Savior.
And that’s part of the reason, I think, why James and John, at this point, have this distorted view of God’s kingdom. In the Gospel lesson it says that they came forward and asked Jesus this question. They had to come forward it seems from the back. It seems that they had separated themselves from the rest of the group. It seems that they did not hear Jesus tell the disciples about what He was about to endure for them. They didn’t hear Jesus proclaim how the very center of His work as Savior would unfold; through His death and resurrection.
Now of course, eventually they would, but because they hadn’t heard what lengths Jesus would go to and what He would endure on their behalf then they weren’t able to really understand what kind of Savior He is and their need for salvation. And that is why, I believe, they continued to mire in this distorted view of God’s kingdom where they believe that they can ask Jesus to adapt to their desires.
Jesus tells them that they don’t know what they are asking and then asks them if they are able to drink the cup that He drinks or be baptized with the baptism that He is baptized with. They say that they are able and Jesus tells them that they will be baptized with the baptism that He is baptized with and drink from the cup that He drinks, but that to sit at His right or left hand side is not for Him to decide, but that those places are for those for whom they have been prepared.
Did they know what they were asking for?? Jesus isn’t necessarily saying that they didn’t know what sitting at His right and left hand side entailed, but that they didn’t realize what it took to achieve that. Again they had not heard Jesus proclaim to His disciples what He was going to do, and the suffering and death that He was going to endure for them, and the resurrection through which death would be defeated. This is a further reflection of the distorted view of God’s kingdom that James and John had.
And again, you also struggle with the same confusion that James and John were struggling with. You are perfectly capable of saying things like you want to reach out to your community, but how much time do you actually spend thinking about what that means or living it out? As a church we can put together a mission statement, but do we really spend a great deal of time thinking about what that mission statement means, or do we just come up with something that sounds good?
Jesus finally shows them just how wrong they were about God’s Kingdom by telling them that whoever wishes to be first among God’s people must actually become a slave to all people. Jesus is talking about discipleship and servant hood to the world. He is not just talking about being nice or polite, He is talking about servant hood. And He says, He calls them to do this because that is what He came for. He came not to be served, but to serve and then He tells them how this service will be fulfilled, when He gives His life as a ransom for many.
A ransom, at this time, would have referred to the price that was paid to free slaves. So Jesus is telling them that the suffering that He would endure on the cross would be so that He could pay the necessary ransom to free you from your own slavery, slavery to sin.
Indeed, it’s true that you struggle with the same confusion that James and John struggled with. You come up with lofty goals and ambitions that might sound good and make you look good, but you might not really consider the servant hood that bringing such goals and ambitions to fulfillment might require. This is all a part of how you try to get Jesus to adapt to you and to meet your needs and desires.
But the good news is your Lord, in Christ Jesus has adapted to you and has met your needs. In His Son, Christ Jesus He became one of you, and on the cross and He paid the ransom that you could not pay, and in the resurrection He defeated death for you, and you have been brought into eternal life.
Now you have been freed to live that life of servant hood that our Lord calls you to live. And in the midst of that you will still struggle with that same confusion and distortion of God’s kingdom. You will still continue to struggle with that desire to have Jesus adapt to you and meet you needs.
But He continues to come to you as you live in your baptism. He comes to you in His word and in His Supper. He promises in today’s lesson that you are baptized in His baptism and you drink from the cup that He drinks from. This is all done to nurture and sustain you in your faith; the faith that saves you; the faith that is built upon the death and resurrection of your Lord Christ Jesus.
Amen

Sermon-Sunday, October 8th

Mark 10:2-16 , Genesis 2:18-24
Brothers and Sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
This week’s Gospel lesson deals with marriage. This is one of those lessons that pastors are never really happy to see come up in the lectionary. There is perhaps no other week when it is more tempting to simply decide to not preach on the Gospel and use one of the other texts, not that there is anything wrong with preaching on one of the other texts. But a preacher should do that because they can really hear the Spirit filling them with a word to preach through the epistle, or the OT or the psalm. It should not be done simply as a way of avoiding a Gospel lesson that might be a little challenging.
Pastors dread this passage because marriage is one of those aspects of life where our humanity and sinfulness is laid right before us. Whether it be in the form of pride or envy or lust or whatever, it is always there. It has been said of marriage that marriage is love and love is blind, and marriage is an institution. Therefore marriage is an institution for the blind. Obviously, that is a humorous commentary on marriage, but it is drawn from an awareness of the extremely visible presence of our own humanity in marriage.
You see this humanity right as the Gospel passage opens when the Pharisees pose a question to Jesus. The question that they pose does not actually have to do with marriage but rather divorce. The Pharisees ask Jesus if it is lawful for a man to divorce his wife. What they are really asking is what the law or scripture says about divorce. Back then, to refer to the law would have been to refer to scripture. That was the wrong question and Jesus shows to distinction.
He reminds them that Moses did in fact say that a man was allowed to divorce his wife. But then, Jesus tells them that Moses allowed this because of ‘ your hardness of heart.’ Then He reminds them of what you read in the OT lesson for today. He doesn’t use the same passage, but He reminds them that God brings some men and women together in marriage and that when this happens, the two become one. What Jesus is doing there is answering the question that the Pharisees should have been asking. That question isn’t "What does the Bible say about marriage?" but rather "What is God’s will for marriage?"
It is God’s will for all human relationships, and not just marriage, for God’s people to come together as one. But we’re human, we’re sinful. Sin comes in and often breaks apart the unity of flesh that God intends for human relationships. That is what Jesus is referring to when He spoke of Moses allowing for divorce because of ‘hardness of heart.’
When you look at how the Bible speaks of divorce, you can see that there isn’t exactly a great deal of clarity. In 1st Corinthians 7, Paul allows for divorce in certain situations, such as when an unbelieving partner requests it. As we see in today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus says that you can’t separate what has become one. In Ezra, it says that it is actually the sign of a good husband to divorce his unbelieving wife. And Paul says the exact opposite in 1st Corinthians 7, that it is the sign of a good spouse not to divorce his or her unbelieving spouse. And finally, it says in the first chapter of Matthew that Joseph actually thought it was his duty to divorce Mary because he thought that she was unfaithful to him. Again, more evidence of the incredible visibility of our humanity and sinfulness, not just in marriage but in all human relationships.
In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus is not trying to give us detailed rules about what constitutes adultery, or under what grounds divorce is permissible. However, it is clear that broken relationships between God’s people are not a part of God’s plan. But because of human sinfulness, broken relationships happen. Divorce happens, adultery happens.
And yes, in this Gospel passage, Jesus brings up the even uglier issue of adultery when He says that anyone who gets divorced and remarried commits adultery. Those are pretty harsh words. And it probably is important to acknowledge that in the context in which Jesus would have said this, the concept of committing adultery would have been thought of as a form of one man stealing another man’s property. Marriages were arranged and they were really seen more as business arrangements between two families. Adultery was not just a betrayal to a spouse, but to an entire family. Regardless, it is clear in any context, that adultery and divorce are not part of God’s will for marriage and human relationships.
But we also must remember that there is another way that Jesus defines adultery. Before you go pointing fingers at anyone, remember what Jesus says in Matthew 5 in regards to adultery. He said that anyone who looks at another lustfully has committed the sin of adultery. Going by that definition I doubt that any of us could plead not guilty to the sin of adultery. Indeed in His famous encounter with an adulterous woman who was about to be stoned to death, our Lord Jesus offered no condemnation but forgiveness. And to those who were ready to throw the stones at her, He said "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." And all of them dropped their stones.
Indeed in marriage and in all human relationships we are contstantly reminded of our own humanity and our own sinfulness. We are reminded of our own pride, our own vanity, our own selfishness, and the list can go an. In being reminded of our own humanity, we are reminded of our own helplessness to sin and our need for a Savior. And in Christ Jesus we have that Savior.
Healthy, fruitful and Christ-centered relationships in any context, be it marriage, friendship or whatever are certainly something we should all strive for and are to be encouraged and celebrated. But, by the grace of God, our salvation is not dependent upon our ability to maintain healthy relationships with each other.
Jesus tells the disciples to let the little children come to Him for it is to such as them that the kingdom of God belongs. Again, like last week we should be aware that when Jesus says that the kingdom of God is for the child-like, He is not necessarily speaking of purity and innocence.
Quite to the contrary, in Jesus’ time children were seen as more of a burden than a blessing. More than likely these children were brought to Jesus because they were sick and in need of healing. In the midst of our human relationships, where our sin is just right out there in front of us, we are reminded that we are reminded of our own need for healing.
We are reminded of our own need to be healed from the disease of sin. Indeed that is how many of us, perhaps most of us, were brought to our Lord in baptism. We were brought as children, children in need of healing and in the waters of baptism we were brought into the healing process; the healing that can only come from being marked with the cross of Christ and sealed by the Holy Spirit.
God sees all of us as sinners who have fallen short of His glory, whether we are divorced and going on our 10th marriage or preparing to celebrate the 60th anniversary of a marriage to a high school sweetheart. But by God’s amazing grace in His Son Christ Jesus, He also sees us as His children, and He faithfully and unconditionally loves us as His children even when we are too hard-hearted to realize it.
Amen

Sermon-Sunday, October 1st

Mark 9:38-50
Brothers and Sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I have to tell you this morning that I can really relate to what the disciples are going through in today’s Gospel lesson. Today’s lesson opens with John telling Jesus that he and the disciples saw someone casting out demons in Jesus’ name and then they tell Jesus that they tried to stop him because he was not "following them."
Now there are a lot of different ways that you can look at this incident, and none of them really portray the disciples in too positive a light. When you look at this and ask yourself ‘why would the disciples try to stop this this man,?’ it’s hard to really come up with a good reason.
This person is casting out a demon in Jesus’ name and these disciples try to stop him. Why do they try to stop him?? It seems on one hand, it’s because he’s not one of them, he’s not a part of their group. But I think there is more to it than that. Earlier in the chapter, the disciples were unable to cast a demon from a young boy and Jesus had to come along and save the day. But this guy was able to do it himself. I think the disciples were jealous of the fact that this guy was able to do something that they weren’t.
That’s where I can relate to what the disciples are going through. I have to confess that I am a jealous person. I can relate to that kind of jealousy. In my vast one year of ministry, there have been several occasions where a colleague of mine might share an experience with me of something that had taken place in their ministry that had very fruitful results.
And on one hand, I will be happy for them, it brings me great joy to see God doing something exciting in someone else’s ministry. But on the other hand, I can’t help but at least feel a little envious, sometimes bordering on jealousy. Don‘t get me wrong, this is not to say that I haven‘t had those moments here where I experienced joy at what God is doing here. I‘ve experienced a great deal of joy from the positive response to Bible-studies and seeing people getting involved with Sunday school and VBS, and in many other ways. But there is just something about seeing other people’s success that brings out that ugly green monster of envy.
What about you? How do you react to other people’s success or good fortune? How do react when someone you know gets a new car, or gets a bigger house? Or what about when someone you work with gets a job or promotion that you were hoping for? Or for you farmers, what about when one of your neighbors has a more bountiful yield than you? Certainly part of you is probably happy for the people in those situations, but more than likely there is at least a part of you that experiences envy and maybe even a little jealousy in those situations, and if not in those situations then certainly in other situations.
You all experience those feelings that deep-down you all know stem from looking at what will make you feel better, rather than what will help your neighbor, feelings that stem more from looking at yourself than at those around you and how you can love and serve them the way you are called to; feelings not only like jealousy, but pride, anger, lust and greed, and the list can go on and on.
Earlier this week, I caught a glimpse of a brief clip from an old Billy Graham sermon where he referred to sin as a disease. And it works when you look at how Jesus speaks of how sin relates to parts of your body. Every part of you is inherently sinful.
In today’s Gospel lesson Jesus says that if your hand, foot or eye causes you to stumble, meaning sin, then they should be removed. You could easily add other parts of the body to this list, what if your tongue causes you to stumble? Have you ever uttered a swear word, or said something that hurt someone‘s feelings? What if your mind causes you to stumble? Have you ever had a sinful thought or a lustful longing? Obviously, If you took that literally then none of us would have any arms, legs or eyes and we would be dead.
But that is what Jesus demands of us. Jesus demands our deaths. He demands that we die to ourselves, that we die to the disease of sin. And in baptism, He provides that death. Paul writes in Colossians 2
when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.
In baptism, Christ Jesus gives you the death to your sinful self that He demands of you, but then He also raises you again in new life as a new creation. Daily as you live in your baptism, Christ Jesus brings about the death of the sinful self in you and the emergence of the new creation. In the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus tells the disciples that they will desert Him, and they do.
But the resurrected Jesus does not leave them in their sin. He meets them where they are at, in Galilee, in hiding. The relationship does not end with the falling away of the disciples. The same is true for you. You desert Jesus on a daily basis in sin, but Jesus continues to meet you where you are and bring about the death to sin that He demands of you and gives you the new life that He promises you.
Jesus warns the disciples of the dangers of salt losing its saltiness. What does that mean? Can salt lose it’s saltiness? Not if it’s pure. If we’re talking about pure salt, or sodium chloride, then it cannot become unsalty. But with impure salt, the sodium chloride can be leaked out. Salt is a preservative, and in Christ Jesus, you are preserved eternally. You are "salted" with the blood of Christ and you are able to stand righteous in front of God.
But what about your neighbor? In today’s lesson, Jesus says that "Whoever is not against us is for us." Compare that to what Malcolm X said in the 1960s referring to his segment of the civil rights movement; "Whoever is not for us is against us." Obviosuly, Jesus saw things differently. Whoever is not intentionally opposed to the Body of Christ is for the Body of Christ.
Don’t be misled, this is not universalism. He does not say "part" of us or part of the Body of Christ, He says "for us." He is talking about your neighbor. They are for the Body of Christ; for the Body of Christ to love and serve and proclaim the good news of Christ Jesus to.
They are for us so that through us, the Holy Spirit can work to bring them into the eternal truth of the Gospel of Christ Jesus, where they can also be preserved eternally, where they can also be brought into the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus, and where they can also make the transition from being simply ‘for’ the Body of Christ to being part of the Body of Christ.
Amen