Sermon Sunday December 9, 2007

Second Sunday in Advent
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
John the Baptist comes to us today with a harsh word. He comes to us this morning with a Word that demands something of us, it accuses us, and it convicts us to our core. He comes commanding us to repent for the kingdom of God has come near. He comes demanding that we bear fruits worthy of repentance. And what’s with that whole ‘Brood of vipers’ thing?? That doesn’t seem very nice or friendly or joyful. Doesn’t he know that we’re all supposed to be happy and festive this time of year??
I mean he comes announcing that the Kingdom of God has come near, isn’t that something that we should be happy about? Well in one sense certainly the arrival of the Kingdom of God is cause for joy and celebration. But, as the tragic events that took place earlier this week in Omaha remind us, all things have not yet been made new. Our Lord at once comes to us in His Word and sacrament, but we still remain in Advent awaiting the fulfillment of His promised return in glory.
And so the Word that John has for those whom had gathered on the river and even the harsh Word that he had for the Pharisees and Sadducees, he has for us today as well. John comes to us indeed demanding our repentance and demanding that we bear fruits worthy of repentance.
So how are you doing with that?? Are you bearing fruits worthy of repentance?? For that matter are you even repenting at all?? The repentance that John comes calling us to is more than just a passing feeling of regret and sorrow over our misdeeds. The repentance that John comes calling us to is one that would drive us to a complete examination of ourselves. It is one that calls us to actually look beyond our misdeeds to the very cause of our misdeeds and sins; our heart from which Jesus tells us comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony and slander.
The very things which make us unclean come from the very place that John comes demanding that we examine; our hearts. And so what does that mean in light of John’s demanding that we bear fruit worthy of repentance?? It means that in light of John’s demand for worthy fruits we are just as guilty as the Pharisees and the Sadducees whom John refers to as a brood of vipers.
John comes to you with this demand and all you are really able to do is the same thing that the Pharisees and the Sadducees did; cling to yourselves, and your heritage and your traditions. When we are confronted with a Word and a demand this radical all we can do on our own is cling to ourselves. We don’t have the nerve to look within ourselves and recognize ourselves for what we are; dead in our transgressions.
And so, with tooth and nail, we resist the death of our sin that comes with baptism. When confronted with a Word that does what it says it does, or calls us to something that we cannot do on our own we resist and reject with all of our might. We cling to that which is comfortable, to that which we know, all because it is the way we have always done it.
Like the Pharisees and the Sadducees clinging to their hereditary connection to Abraham when Jesus comes flipping things upside down and bringing about a new reality, we have our own futile legacies that we cling to; legacies that we convince ourselves are right because they fall under the category of "The way we have always done it." Or we resist the haunting Advent call to look within ourselves and prepare the way of the Lord and make His paths straight, because we would rather jump right into Christmas.
But the Word that John has for us today does not end with merely a demand. He comes today proclaiming a new reality in the coming near of the Kingdom of Heaven. He comes to us with a Word that explodes upon the scene and reveals the futility of clinging to our legacy and our heritage. He anticipates the objection of the Pharisees and the Sadducees before they even have a chance to get it out when He says to them "Do not presume to say for yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham."
And he tells them that he baptizes them with water for repentance but that there is One who is more powerful than he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. John’s baptism was one of anticipation but the baptism of the One whom John refers to, Christ Jesus, is one that comes in and rips apart all that we used to cling to and exposes it for the futility that it is.
And so knowing full well that it is in our nature to not consider any new alternatives until there aren’t any, Christ Jesus comes to us in the waters of baptism and exposes the myth of all the self-imposed idols that we cling to when we are confronted with a Word as radical as the one John comes to us with today until there is no alternative but Christ Himself, the One whom Isaiah tells us the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon.
He is the shoot from the stump of Jesse. Where John wore a leather belt, Christ Jesus wears belts of righteousness and faithfulness. Where John comes with a baptism of repentance, Christ Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit and fire. He comes with a baptism through which He claims us as His own and makes of us a new creation. Where John comes demanding repentance, Jesus comes bringing repentance, repenting us.
And He promises a day when all will be made new; when the wolf will live with lamb, the leopard will lie down with the kid, and the calf and lion and the fatling, and the cow and the bear shall graze together. All will be made new. Isaiah tells us this is a promise that will be fulfilled because the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord.
One of my childhood heroes, Evel Knievel passed away within the last few weeks. I was a big fan of Evel Knievel. I had an Evel Knievel lunch box and of course the Evel Knievel wind up motorcycle that they used to make and I even dressed up as him one year for Halloween.
And so when I heard that he passed away, I was a little sad. And one of the first things I wondered was if he was a Christian. Well I found an article and it said that in April 2007 Evel Knievel was baptized by Dr. Robert Scheuler at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Ca. In an interview Evel recounted how for 68 years he refused to "accept Jesus Christ as his Savior because he didn’t want to surrender his lifestyle of ‘the gold and the gambling and the booze and the women.’"
He said that he resisted even though his daughter and ex-wife and both of their churches and hundreds of fans through letters were all urging him to believe. But he kept clinging to the comfort of his life of sin. Now some may hear this story of Knievel’s conversion and think "Thank goodness he had the good sense to give his life to Jesus" and really make that conversion moment about what Evel Knievel did, and not about what God was doing.
But in light of the radical Word that comes to us today in our Gospel we are able to see what was really going on. That moment of Evel Knievel’s conversion was not about something he did in the last year of his life, it was about what Christ Jesus was doing for Evel Knievel through his whole life. It was about Christ Jesus coming to Evel Knievel through the word that was being proclaimed to him by those around him and refusing to leave him dead in his transgressions. It was about the Holy Spirit entering into the stony heart of Evel Knievel and making of him a child of God.
And he has done the same for you. He has claimed you as His own and taken you in baptism through death into the new-life and freedom of His Kingdom which has come near. And so indeed you have been freed to continue the work of John the Baptist, proclaiming that the kingdom of God has come near and it will keep coming no matter how much we resist it.
Amen

Sermon Sunday November 25, 2007

Christ the King Sunday
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
It has become somewhat common among pastors and other leaders in the contemporary church to approach ministry and discipleship from a vantage point that begins by asking the question "What is God up to?" And some even like to suggest that ministry from this vantage point is actually a new idea.
In that light, allow me to read you a quote.
"I do not wish to force anyone to believe as I do; neither will I permit anyone to deny me the right to believe that the last day is near at hand. These words and signs of Christ compel me to believe that such is the case. For the history of the centuries that have passed since the birth of Christ nowhere reveals conditions like those of the present. There has never been such building and planting in the world. There has never been such gluttonous and varied eating and drinking as now. Wearing apparel has reached its limit in costliness. Who has ever heard of such commerce as now encircles the earth?"
That was written by Martin Luther in approximately 1522. And granted, in his defense, he did not try to pass his interpretation of the conditions of his day as signs of Christ’s return, as some sort of prophecy nor base his theology on those interpretations, as we see some do today with their own interpretation. But what this shows is that even Martin Luther, champion of grace and Christian freedom and respected theologian that he was, was susceptible to pondering the mystery of what God is up to. It’s far from a new idea.
And so maybe you, in light of recent events in your lives such as the upcoming Consecration Sunday and everything surrounding it, have found yourself wondering just what God is up to. Maybe you have wondered if Consecration Sunday makes sense or if it’s a good idea. Or maybe you support it in principle but you can’t help but wonder about how it has been handled and you have some questions like ‘Why are we going to be asked to fill out estimate of giving cards?’ or ‘Why are we making such a big deal out of this?’ or ‘Why are we having a catered meal?’
And for the most part there is nothing wrong with those questions. They are just more specific ways of addressing the question of what God is up to. However, in whatever form we ask it, I believe that feeling a need to ask that question; ‘What is God up to?’ is really more a reflection of a weakness in our faith than it is a reflection of strength in our faith. It’s a reflection of our desire for visible signs, as opposed to faithfully trusting in God’s promise in Christ Jesus.
In today’s lesson from Philippians, Paul tells us that Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God. In Christ Jesus you have all the visible signs that you will ever need. As Christ Jesus comes to you in His Word as He is doing right now and He will do in a few minutes when He comes to you in the Lord’s Supper as you come forward for communion, He continues to assure you that you can take Him at His Word, that He is faithful to you, that you can trust what God is doing.
But far too often, that’s not enough for us. Far too often we fail to take our Lord at His Word and so we demand proof, we demand visible signs. We become bound by our own sense of reason and logic and we call our Lord into question when something that He calls us to might not fit within our limited vision of what makes sense, of what might seem reasonable and logical.
And in doing so we reveal ourselves to be not only our own worst enemies, but actually enemies of God. We reveal ourselves to be just like the unrepentant thief in today’s Gospel lesson who says to Jesus "Are you not the Messiah?? Save yourself and us!" We reveal ourselves to be under the same sentence of condemnation that both of the thieves and for that matter those who were crucifying Jesus were under also.
With our suspicion about what God is up to and our demanding of visible signs we show our utter inability to trust that God is our Father and our refusal and even lack of desire to take God at His Word. We don't want to believe God's promise of faithfulness in Christ Jesus because to do so would mean our death. Christ Jesus is the beginning; the firstborn from the dead. And so to receive our share of the inheritance of the saints, to be rescued from the power of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the beloved Son, to receive new life in Christ means first to face death.
But today on Christ the King Sunday, as we remember Christ’s eternal victory we are reminded that in Christ Jesus, God brings about a new reality that is not bound by the limits of reason and logic. Today our Lord tells us exactly what He is up to when we read the final verse from the second lesson for today which tells us that God was pleased to reconcile all things to Himself by making peace through the blood of His cross.
As the world looked on and saw Christ Jesus laying down His life on calvary what they thought they saw was defeat, but it was anything but defeat. As the soldiers ridiculed Jesus and mockingly placed the sign over His head that read King of the Jews, it was actually in those moments as He faced death that Christ Jesus carried out His kingly rule for "the Jews" or all of the faithful.
And so He continues His kingly rule through the faithful as they live out the great commission, going forth and making disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey what Jesus has commanded. In spite of your refusal to take God at His Word. In spite of your insistence on clinging to your life and clinging to what seems reasonable and logical, Christ Jesus refuses to leave you in bondage to your own reason and logic, and your own refusal to take Him at His Word.
In the waters of baptism He drags you down, kicking and screaming, sinner that you are into death, and raises you up in new life as a new creation in Christ. He has marked you and sealed you as His and has promised to remember you, and He daily continues to remind you of the claim that He has made on you as He comes to you In His Word and the sacraments and as you fellowship with each other.
Through the Gospel, the Holy Spirit calls you to make the same plea that the repentant thief on the Cross made when he said "Lord remember me in your kingdom." He calls you to this plea but it’s a plea that is answered before you can get the words out of your mouth. He has promised to remember you and that you will be with Him in paradise.
You were an enemy of God under condemnation for your continued attacks on God through your pride and unbelief and sin, but in Christ Jesus, the very One whom you fight against has done something that defies any sense of reason and logic by placing Himself under your sentence, and thus rescuing you from the power of darkness and transferring you into the kingdom of His beloved Son.
You are no longer at war with God. Peace has been achieved through the blood of the cross. Praise be God, your war with God is over and you lost, and now you belong to Christ Jesus. You are no longer His enemy so you may as well stop acting like it. Stop worrying about what God is up to now, and rest comfortably and securely in knowledge of what He has already done for you, promising to remember you in His kingdom and securing a place for you an eternal place in paradise.
Through the grace of God, the forgiveness of sin, and the blood of Christ, you have been made strong with all the strength that comes from God’s glorious power. You have been strengthened in Christ and now you are called to continue the kingly rule of Christ, which as we see in today’s Gospel lesson, refuses to be bound by that which the world sees, which we see, which you see, which I see, as reasonable, logical and sensible.
Amen