Semon-Sunday June 22 2008

Sixth Sunday After Pentecost
Brothers and sisters
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Have you heard about “The Secret?” Yes “the Secret.” The Secret refers to an alleged revelation that a woman named Rhonda Byrne had. Much of what she supposedly learned in the revelation was released to the public in a movie and then, I believe with more detail, in a book and has become an international phenomenon, helped in large part by Oprah Winfrey who recommended The Secret on her show. A quote from the web-site for the Secret says.
The Secret reveals the most powerful law in the universe. The knowledge of this law has run like a golden thread through the lives and the teachings of all the prophets, seers, sages and saviors in the world's history, and through the lives of all truly great men and women. All that they have ever accomplished or attained has been done in full accordance with this most powerful law. Without exception, every human being has the ability to transform any weakness or suffering into strength, power, perfect peace, health, and abundance. The alleged secret to the secret is simply that your thoughts control the universe. Through this “law of attraction” you can manifest your desires.. If you imagine and envision hard enough that something is yours, it will become yours. There you don’t need to buy the book or see the film. I just saved you $20 and most likely a lot of frustration.
Seriously the fact that this is referred to as a secret shows that behind this theory, or whatever you want to call it, is the idea that it is now up to you to attain the benefits contained within the Secret, which will give you the fulfillment we all want.
And this is one of the ways that we know that the Secret is completely and utterly bogus, and is completely and utterly incompatible with the Word that our Lord brings to us this morning. For when we read the Gospel lesson for this morning we can see that our Lord Jesus refers to something that He shared with the disciples “in the dark” or “whispered in their ear.” In other words Jesus is referring to something that He shared with the disciples in private. But then Jesus also lets them know that they will soon be called upon to speak this “secret” in the daylight and proclaim it from the roofs.
Jesus is speaking here of course of the Gospel; of the good news of the coming of the kingdom of God in Christ Jesus, the good news that in Christ Jesus we are reconciled and made right with God, the good news that in the life, death and resurrection of Christ Jesus, sin and the devil have been defeated and heaven’s gates have been flung open-wide and the good news that those who acknowledge the Lord Jesus before others, the Lord Jesus will acknowledge before His Father in heaven.
The Secret, referring now back to Rhonda Byrne’s movie and book promises the knowledge that we need to create a joyful life and the means to unlimited happiness, love, health and prosperity. And she claims that you can find it yourself if you know the secret and can envision effectively enough everything that you desire.
But what Ms Byrne and Oprah Winfrey and anyone else swept away by this mythical secret fails to realize is that our wants and desires are diametrically opposed to the good and perfect will of our Father in heaven. St Paul writes in Romans 7 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
And so left to our own desires we are left wallowing in sin and despair. There might be a part of you that desires truly good things, or that may be appalled at different varieties and aspects of sin but left to our own desires, reason and strength we just run from one sin to the next looking for the next secret to latch onto.
Whatever the Secret might be able to provide, or for that matter any of the other countless means that we come up with in our seemingly endless quests for self-fulfillment, they all fall short of the simple and eternal promise of forgiveness and eternal life that our Lord brings to us in His Word. They all fall far far short of the promise of Christ Jesus confessing your name to His Father in Heaven.
Left to our own reason and strength we are dead in our trespasses, but when we let go of the myths and lies that the devil and the world and our sinful nature tempt us with there is only One recourse left and that is to cling to the One who, in our Gospel lesson is speaking to the disciples of something that He had spoken to them of in private telling them that soon they would be called to shout it from the rooftops; and that was the good news of what He was preparing for, when He would lay down His life, taking upon Himself all of your sin, and sickness, and despair and your seeking after the latest self-centered secret to come cross the pike; taking all of that with Him to the cross for you where sin and the devil were defeated for you.
And three days later was raised from the grave for your justification as He daily justifies you by daily acknowledging you to His Father, the same as you acknowledge Him before others.
And so indeed we are called to acknowledge our Lord Jesus before others. We are called to continue the work of the disciples acknowledging and confessing our Lord Jesus before others. Indeed what was whispered to the disciples in the dark we are called to speak in the daylight, what was whispered to them we are called to shout from the rooftops.
Are you doing that? Do you confess the name of Christ Jesus as your Savior in public, to your friends, family, co-workers? Do you acknowledge Him as your Savior before others. I am not talking about standing on a corner preaching to strangers as they walk by or anything like that. But do people whom our Lord has placed in your life know that the life, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus has had an impact on your life? Or is that just something you do on Sundays?
It’s not always easy. Often it is much more convenient to just keep our faith to ourselves and limit it to being that thing we do on Sundays, but the truth is a non-confessional internalized faith is not what our Lord Jesus wants of us or calls us to. And in fact He says when we fail to acknowledge Him in public He will not acknowledge us before His Father.
We fear rejection but Jesus faced all the rejection we could muster and it led Him to the Cross, upon which He did nothing short of confessing your name to His Father in Heaven saying of the very ones who crucified Him, which included us “they belong to Me” as He bore the penalty for your sin and defeated sin and the devil for you. And so there is no reason to fear rejection or even death because as St Paul reminds us in the second lesson, in baptism we have already faced death. Indeed in baptism, we were baptized with Christ Jesus into His death. Death no longer has dominion over us, the wages of sin is death, and they were paid when our Lord Jesus laid down His life for us.
Indeed we do live in a world that is inclined to rejecting the Gospel. The assaults on the Gospel will continue through rejection, ridicule, false gospels and in some parts of the world confessing the name of Jesus could cost a person their life. But with Jeremiah we know that we don’t need to worry. We have been freed to proclaim the good news without fear of retribution. The One who claims you in baptism confesses your name before His Father, and so when you answer the call to confess His name in public, you are not performing a meritorious work, you are simply responding to the burning fire of the Holy Spirit shut-up in your bones and like Jeremiah you can’t hold it in, you are among the needy who has been delivered from the hands of the evildoers, and so as you hear this Word proclaimed to you and as you will soon come forward and receive the body and blood of the Lord Jesus, know that is nothing short of the work of the Holy Spirit nurturing, preserving and sustaining your faith and refusing to allow the Gospel that claimed you in baptism to remain a secret.
Amen

Sermon, Sunday June 15 2008

Fifth Sunday After Pentecost
Brothers and Sisters
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
What does it mean to be at peace?? What does it mean to have peace? Well the classic definition would usually be some sort of reference to an absence of conflict or disagreement or strife. And certainly in a global sense, when we are speaking in regards to international relations, that definition would apply. Truthfully, though I think that is really more the appearance of peace.
Earlier this week I heard about a joint worship service that took place in Southern California in January which involved leaders in the Episcopalean and Hindu religious communities. It was celebrated and hailed as a glorious and unprecedented event. The service involved the celebration of Communion for Episcopaleans and Hindus. It also involved an apology by an Episcopal bishop presuming to speak on behalf of the entire Christian community. Do you know what the apology was for? He was apologizing for attempts on the part of Christians to convert Hindus. Essentially he was apologizing for Christians proclaiming the Gospel among Hindus.
Now this worship service is problematic for many reasons. And I won’t even really get into the theological problems of this service, of which there are many, not the least of which is the idea of Hindus, who don’t even believe Jesus is the Son of God let alone believe He is truly and bodily present in the bread and the wine, partaking in Holy Communion. But my point in bringing this up is, that is not real peace, that is merely the appearance of peace. And what you don’t see in this picture of alleged religious harmony is an already extremely divided Episcopalean community, and all this did was add to the division and strife in the Episcopalean community. And I don’t know much about the Hindu religion, but I would imagine there were some orthodox Hindus who probably weren’t too happy about this.
I think real peace exists within conflict and disagreement and transcends disagreement and conflict. Now don’t think I am getting all eastern religiony on you. I simply believe that in a way we are all looking for that kind of peace. The problem is we look in the wrong places.
I read an article on CNN.com yesterday about a man named Samuel Israel. He was the co-founder of a company called Bayou hedge fund, and in 2005 he pleaded guilty to stealing more than $450 million from his clients. On Monday he was supposed to report to prison to begin a 20-year sentence. His car was found on a bridge in New York with the words “suicide is painless” scrawled in the dust and the pollen on the hood of his car. A body has yet to be found, and so as you might imagine, not too many people are buying this appearance of suicide.
Samuel Israel was and likely still is a man looking for peace, not just after he got caught but before he got caught. He had convinced himself that wealth and power was the way to peace, and so he became bound to the idol of wealth; so bound that he was willing to steal millions of dollars from people who had placed their trust in him. And now his life is an example of the futility and emptiness of seeking peace through our own convoluted means.
And so we go to our Gospel lesson for this morning and we see our Lord Jesus going through all the towns and villages proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness. And still we read that as He looked upon the crowds He had compassion on them because they appeared to be like ‘sheep without a shepherd.’
What does that mean? What does it mean to be like a sheep without a shepherd? Sheep are totally dependent upon their shepherd. Without their shepherd, they are lost, without their shepherd they have no peace. And so Jesus sees all these people like sheep without a shepherd. He sees people searching for peace and He has compassion for them. Walking right in their midst was the good shepherd and still they continued to seek after peace through their own means, through their own efforts.
And so it is with us. Our Lord Jesus has promised to be with us to the end of the ages and still we look to ourselves and our never ending quest for self-gratification and visible signs of peace, rather than simply clinging to the shepherd who lays down His life for us. The peace that surpasses all understanding is not enough for us. The peace that comes through hearing the Word of our Lord who laid down His life for us is nice but we want something that we can see and touch right now. And so as we search for peace on our own terms, we scatter ourselves from our shepherd.
And we become like ancient Israel who heard the promise of their Lord that they shall be His treasured possession of all the peoples, and that He would make of them a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. And upon hearing this promise they respond by declaring that they will do everything that the Lord has spoken. But history would of course reveal that it wasn’t long before they were grumbling and complaining and longing to return to slavery and bondage thus forsaking the promise of their Lord in favor of worshipping a golden calf.
And this continues today in our own personal quests for peace and personal satisfaction be it through money or personal accomplishment or keeping up with the Joneses or whatever, we all have our own golden calfs and towers of Babel by which we try to attain the peace that can only come to us from outside of us. But as we see in the story of Samuel Israel, or in the joint Episcopal/Hindu worship service, and all throughout scripture, we find that such human-driven quests are futile and pointless, and lead only to bondage and at best the appearance of peace and ultimately only to the grave.
But fortunately when we go back to our Gospel lesson we see that our Lord Jesus does not leave us running around like sheep without a shepherd. For He summoned His twelve disciples and sent them out to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He sent them out to proclaim the good news that the Kingdom of God had come near. He told them that the harvest was plentiful but the laborers are few and so He gave them complete authority.
And we see that indeed the peace that our Lord Jesus provides is one that transcends the mere appearance of peace that comes with the absence of conflict, for He sends His disciples out like sheep into the midst of wolves. He tells them that when they enter the home of someone who welcomes them that they are to bring their peace to that house. In the midst of wolves they bring peace.
And we know that not long after this, our Lord Jesus, the good Shepherd did lay down His life for you, and sin and the devil were defeated for you and you were given eternal life when He was resurrected, and the harvest would not be limited to the lost sheep of Israel but would include all nations, to whom our Lord would send His apostles out to go and make disciples by baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that He has commanded them, and Christ Jesus promised to be with them and you to the end of the ages.
And as present as He was with the apostles that day He was present with you when His word of promise was spoken over you in the waters of baptism, as He claimed you as one of His sheep and freed you from sin, death, the devil and from being like a sheep without a shepherd. In the same way Christ Jesus is present with you now through the words of my mouth nurturing you and sustaining you in your faith and He will be present with you again in a few minutes when you come forward to receive the body and blood of our Lord Jesus in Holy Communion.
You have the peace you desire. For as St Paul tells us in the lesson from Romans “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” Where there is justification in Christ Jesus there is eternal life with our Lord and thus eternal peace. And so simply believe the One who laid down His life for you. For you are no longer a sheep without a shepherd. You are a disciple and so follow the lead of the disciples from the Gospel, and go forth and share the peace of the Lord with your neighbor for the harvest is plentiful.
Amen

Sermon, Sunday June 8 2008

Fourth Sunday After Pentecost
Brothers and sisters
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
this morning I am going to do something a little different. This morning I am going to do a teaching sermon. Now don't worry teaching sermon does not mean boring sermon, in fact I think you might find this interesting. I am going to be using a word that you have probably heard me use but might not have known what it meant. That word is doctrine, and it essentially refers to nothing more than simply teachings of the church.
A few weeks ago I was having lunch at the Pizza Hut in Sidney with some fellow pastors. One of the patrons came up to our table and asked if we were pastors. One of my fellow pastors said yes. The man responded by saying that he was a Christian. But then he said that he didn’t really worry about doctrine. He said "No doctrine, just Jesus." As if Jesus is not concerned about doctrine; as if Jesus is not concerned about those who would profess His name having a right and proper understanding of biblical truth.
Now while his heart might have been in the right place I actually see this man’s comments as being reflective of the disdain that the Pharisees were showing for Jesus in this morning’s Gospel lesson. But we have to understand that the commonly accepted understanding of the Pharisees and the conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees is wrong.
Now we all know of course that Jesus was very critical of the Pharisees, and for good reason. But the basis of this criticism is often misunderstood. I read a very interesting article this week on just this subject. It was written by a Lutheran pastor named Todd Wilken. In the article Pastor Wilken talks about how often these days people will play what he calls the "Pharisee card" in the same way that some people will play the "race card" or the "gender card." He rightly points out that in American politics, both the race and gender cards are used as a way to discredit someone by implying that they are racist or sexist. I would add that these tactics are used also as a way of avoiding any real genuine discussion of an issue.
In the article Pastor Wilken points out that this same tactic happens in the twenty-first century American church, with people playing the Pharisee card in an attempt to portray fellow Christians as narrow-minded, doctrinal purists, resistant to change and therefore unconcerned for the lost. The problem with this, and Pastor Wilken very effectively makes this point, is that it is based on an inaccurate characterization of the reasons why Jesus faulted the Pharisees.
Tonight I will be getting on the train and heading to Minnesota to go to a theological retreat at Mt Carmel retreat center. This retreat is being organized by people connected with Word Alone, the reform group that I am an active member of. There are some in the ELCA who like to play the Pharisee card against Word Alone because of our concern for doctrinal purity, not that there aren’t some in Word Alone who have their own cards that they play in an attempt to cast those who disagree with them in a negative light.
The point is Jesus never faulted the Pharisees for their concern for doctrinal purity. Quite to the contrary, Jesus was very concerned about doctrinal purity Himself. In John 8 we read where Jesus says that if we abide in His Word we are truly disciples of His and we shall know the truth and the truth shall make us free. Doctrinal purity is not about trying to legalistically bind people in rules, it is about seeking to preserve the truth that our Lord promises will set sinners free.
Neither did Jesus fault the Pharisees for being resistant to change. In fact the opposite is actually true. The parable of new wine in the old wineskins from Luke 5 is often used to suggest that Jesus was critical of the Pharisees for being resistant to change, but actually that parable is critical of the Pharisees for introducing their own innovations in place of God’s Word. And again I must give Pastor Wilken credit for pointing this out in his article. Jesus concludes the parable by saying "And no one, after drinking old wishes for new; for he says, ‘the old is good.’"
Jesus did not see the Pharisees as being unconcerned for the lost. In Matthew 23 Jesus acknowledges that the Pharisees and scribes travel about on sea and land to proselyte.
The Pharisees error was not a concern for doctrinal purity or resistance to change or lack or being unconcerned for the lost; it was their false teaching. Jesus condemned the Pharisees for their apostasy. The Pharisees taught that salvation was the result of God’s mercy plus man’s obedience. This teaching is reflected much more today in a lot of the tips for daily living preaching that you might see on television than it is in biblically grounded Christ-centered law and Gospel preaching that some might mistake for being reflective of the Pharisees.
The Pharisees could not let go of the myth of their own righteousness, so much so that they went to the point of actually not making the law more rigid but actually of dulling the law’s demands in order to fool people into thinking that they can fulfill the law. And this, finally, is where I see the connection between the man at Pizza Hut and the Pharisees.
I believe that ultimately the real problem that this man at Pizza Hut had with doctrine is that doctrine goes beyond a surface-level understanding of scripture. For to have a deeper appreciation of the Word than that would mean seeing that God’s Word cuts to the heart. To truly understand God’s Word we must understand that God’s Word interprets us, not the other way around.
And so it is with the Pharisees clinging to their mythical righteousness, all the while continuing with their vain efforts to interpret God’s Word incarnate Christ Jesus. But the Word-made flesh turns things around and interprets them by telling them that He desires mercy and not sacrifice and that He comes for sinners and not for the righteous. And in that moment He interprets the Pharisees as sinners and exposes them as false teachers.
And therein lies the biggest difference between the Pharisees and the sinners and tax-collectors. When Jesus said that He came not for the righteous but for sinners, He was speaking of how they saw themselves and not how God saw them. The Pharisees believed that they could be righteous on their own, and they were teaching this, and that was what Jesus faulted them about. And so He responds to them by trying to correct their doctrine, not by telling them to be more inclusive, or to be nicer people, no He corrects their doctrine by assuring that they have a true and right understanding of the Word; the Word made flesh.
And so the struggle continues today. The truth is everyone of us daily does something that warrants us rightly being called Pharisees. Anytime we trust our obedience over our Lord’s faithfulness we are being Pharisees. Anytime we cling to anything other than the Lord, be it money, alcohol, work or whatever we warrant the label Pharisee. Anytime we ignore biblical truth in the interest of promoting political-correctness, inclusiveness, ecumenism, inter-faith dialogue and anything else, we warrant the label Pharisee. Really, anytime we sin we warrant the label Pharisee and so we show ourselves deserving of the condemnation and criticism that our Lord Jesus had for the Pharisees.
Our Lord demands perfect righteousness and hiding from that truth does not make it go away, and it certainly doesn’t mean it doesn’t apply to you. And try as we might to dull the demands, we still fall far short.
But the righteousness that our Lord demands of us, He brings to us. In the large catechism Luther summarizes the benefits of baptism in two words; "It saves." And so indeed in the waters of baptism our Lord Jesus comes to us, claims us, marks us with His cross, seals us with the Holy Spirit and gives us the righteousness that our Lord demands of us and then gives us the faith to believe this promise. Why would anyone want to cling to the myth of our own righteousness when our Lord Jesus brings us all of this.
There is no reason to run from doctrine. Quite to the contrary, doctrine should be embraced, for through doctrine our Lord gives us greater insight into the Word of our Lord and His promise. And in hearing His word, the Spirit leads into the truth that frees us preserves nurtures and sustains us in the faith; the faith that like it was with Abraham, is reckoned to us as righteousness-the righteousness that God sees.
Amen

Sermon, Sunday June 1 2008

Third Sunday after Pentecost
Brothers and sisters
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus says to us this morning in the Gospel lesson that not everyone who says to Him "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom of heaven. He says some will say to Him "…did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in you name?" And Jesus says that He will respond to them by declaring that He never knew them and commanding them to depart from Him calling them workers of lawlessness.
Well those are bold words. These certainly don’t seem very fitting with the tender-hearted, hippie image of Jesus that our culture has come to embrace. Some might even say that Jesus was being offensive here. Certainly He doesn’t seem to be being very inclusive. Let’s face it, in our Gospel lesson our Lord Jesus comes to us preaching straight-up fire and brimstone.
So what is this about? What is Jesus getting at here? What is Jesus warning us against here? Well about six verses before the Gospel lesson for this morning starts, Jesus warns against false teaching by warning against false prophets. He actually describes false prophets as coming to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are actually ravenous wolves. That is how seriously Jesus takes false teaching and false doctrine, that He refers to those who would spread false doctrine and false teaching as ravenous wolves.
Is Jesus just being arrogant here? Is He just being narrow-minded here? I mean really as long as we love each other and are nice to each other and do good things for other people then do things like doctrine and theology and teaching really matter all that much? Why is Jesus so concerned about false teaching here? Why would Jesus go to the extreme of calling false teachers ravenous wolves? Well for one thing in His eternal nature He has seen just how dangerous false prophecy and false teaching can be. He has seen how the false prophets of the Old Testament, the false prophets of Baal misled the children of Israel into godlessness and sin and were thus destroyed.
So Jesus tells us that there is a way that we can spot them. He tells us that there is in fact a way that we can see these false teachers. Jesus tells us that we will know them by their fruits. You will know the false prophets and false teachers by their fruits. Well what does that mean? Well we know that Jesus is not talking about good works or lack of good works here because included among those whom Jesus says He will declare that He never knew and whom He will cast out are some who did mighty works in His name, and yet still Jesus says He never knew them. Indeed there are plenty of people who do good works; included among them are atheists, agnostics and false teachers.
Again, Jesus is talking about doctrine here. He is talking about what they believe, teach and confess. And we also know that He is not just talking about a generic belief in God here or even a generic belief in Jesus here because all of these mighty works that were done by those whom Jesus says He never knew, they were all done in Jesus’ name. And yet still Jesus says He never knew them.
And so where is it that some who will say to Jesus "Lord, Lord.." and do mighty works in His name, fall short? Where do we fall short? Jesus gives us the answer once again through a parable. He says that those who hear the words of Him and do them will be like a wise man who built his house upon a rock, And because of the solid foundation of this house built upon a rock, the house will be able to withstand rain and floods and winds.
The house is our faith. It is the very faith that we receive in baptism. And of course the Rock is Christ Jesus, the Rock of our salvation.
Recognizing false teachers is not just about recognizing whether or not they talk about God or even recognizing whether or not they talk about Christ Jesus. It is recognizing what they believe, teach and confess about Christ Jesus. Do they teach that He is the perfect, sinless Son of God who lived the perfect life, death, and resurrection for you as we read in all four of the Gospels? Dot they teach that it is the will of the Father that those who look upon the Son and believe should have eternal life as it says in John 6?
Do they teach that He is the only Savior and the only way to salvation as we read in John 14? Do they teach that His Word of truth is the only truth and that all other truth claims should be measured in light of the Gospel, for as our Lord Jesus tells us in John 5, all scripture testifies of Him? Do they teach that without Him we are all doomed? If not they are false teachers.
And as fire and brimstoney or non-inclusive as that might be to some, we need to hear it. We need to hear it because as Paul reminds us in the lesson from Romans, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Indeed we are all sinners.
We need to hear this because what Jesus is talking about is the righteousness of God. And the lesson from Romans today tells us that the righteous will live by faith. And through faith we receive the very righteousness of God, apart from the law. We receive righteousness by grace through faith. What our Lord demands of us and what those whom Jesus referred to in the Gospel lesson who called on Him saying Lord, Lord and did those mighty acts of the Lord, and yet still Jesus said He never knew them; what they were lacking, what they fell short of, what we all fall short of without faith built upon the solid rock of Christ, is the perfect righteousness that our Lord demands of us.
Rick Warren, author of the best-selling book, The Purpose-Driven life recently predicted that the next reformation will be about "deeds not creeds." Well with all due respect to Mr Warren all I can say is "Good Lord I hope not." In fact I pray that is not true. Because if that is true then what we will have is reformation built on sand. We will have reformation built upon works. Not that works in service of the Lord are bad. Quite to the contrary they are wonderful. But they should come as a joyful response to receiving the righteousness that comes to us from outside of us, that comes to us first from our Lord Jesus.
And so with all due respect to Mr. Warren, I will take a creeds-based reformation with creeds that will reveal confession and faith built upon the Rock of our salvation Christ Jesus over a deeds-based reformation any day because even if such a reformation turned every church in the world into a mega-church it would still be built on sand and so would b swept away by the rain and floods of sin and temptation and false teaching.
For there is only one way that we can receive the righteousness that Jesus is speaking of. We certainly can’t get it from ourselves because as Paul reminds us, as sinners we all fall short of the glory of God. And so God in His grace and love for us sends us His righteousness from outside of us. It comes in God’s judgment and so it is as unmovable as God Himself. He or she whom God declares righteous is righteous. The very righteousness that our Lord demands of you came to you in the waters of baptism when you received faith, forgiveness and were claimed by Christ.
And so all you can do is believe. Believe that the One who lived the perfect life, death and resurrection for you is the same One who claims you in baptism and the One who is coming to you right now through the words of my mouth reminding you that you are His, and that this same One will come to you in a few minutes in the bread and the wine of Holy Communion bringing to you once again in bread and the wine the forgiveness of your sins all the while creating, preserving, nurturing and sustaining your faith, that has been built upon the Rock of your salvation Christ Jesus.
We need to hear this because soon you will leave here and you will go out to the world where sin and the devil will assault you and try to seduce you into building you house upon the sand of works, or pluralism, or money or whatever else it can throw at you. But the foundation of Christ Jesus will not be shaken. In the midst of the assaults of sin and the devil, through our faith built upon the Rock of Christ, we are strengthened and inspired all the more to believe in Christ Jesus and what He has done for us and is doing for us; giving us the righteousness of God in the forgiveness of sins. And so in faith you have this peace, but maybe you neighbor doesn’t. And so it is all of our calling to go out into the world and share this good news so that they all might be brought into the house of faith built upon the Rock of our salvation, our Lord Jesus. There is nothing more inclusive than that.
Amen

Sermon, Sunday May 25 2008

Second Sunday after Pentecost
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
My sister was recently laid off from her job as a mortgage banker in Southern California. This is the result of what you may have heard referred to in the news as the sub-prime mortgage loan scandal. Five years ago there was an influx of loans being given on mortgages for many people who truthfully were not qualified to receive these loans. The loans were financed in such a way that for five years the borrowers would pay interest only and at a rate that was less than the going market rate.
But then when the five years was up, the existing loans were re-set with interest that was higher than the going market rate in order to offset the below market rates from the first five years, the effect of which was that the payments were immediately doubled or in some cases tripled or worse. For example a monthly payment of $1200 could very likely have been increased to $3500. As a result people who thought that they had achieved the American dream of owning a house were all of a sudden forced to sell their houses, very likely for less than market value. Many of these people likely ended up in small apartments, moving back home, or in some cases worse.
And another effect has been that many people, like my sister, who work in this industry have lost their jobs. I don’t want to make it sound like I am trying to portray her as a total victim here. Five years ago she was doing very well and reaping the benefits of people receiving these loans. The loans which she represented were of the sub-prime type. However, not being an economist and not being among those who developed and packaged and gave final approval for who received the loans there is no way she could have foreseen the current crisis that has unfolded.
Regardless it seems that those who were seeking out these loans could be a reflection of a culture that has come to take Jesus’ words from this morning’s Gospel lesson to not worry about tomorrow to a ridiculous extreme. Indeed Jesus tells us in the Gospel lesson for this morning we are not to worry about tomorrow.
But certainly one could see that this was not a call to cavalierly cast aside all of our practical concerns as we ransom our future and perhaps even our souls to a credit industry that ends up offering nothing but empty promises.
But what about those who didn’t recklessly seek out these loans, but today find themselves struggling from day to day? How do the words of our Lord telling us not to worry about tomorrow come across to a factory worker just trying to make it from one paycheck to the next? Or a salesperson who, because of a floundering economy, has seen their income split in half? And on this Memorial day weekend, I might be remiss if I didn’t ask how the words of our Lord telling us not to worry about tomorrow would speak to a soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan who is literally just trying to survive from one day to the next.
Or what about a farmer? What about a farmer who is having trouble being optimistic about the coming harvest after a dry winter? What about a farmer who has found themself asking their pastor to pray for rain? My guess is that people in situations such as those would probably more easily identify with what Jesus says after He tells us not to worry about tomorrow. For after Jesus says "..do not worry about tomorrow.." He says "…tomorrow will bring worries of it’s own. Today’s trouble is enough for today."
But still we worry about tomorrow. Our Lord comes to us with a Word of promise to hear, telling us not to worry about tomorrow, but the truth is we relate more to what we see than what we hear. And so how can we not worry about tomorrow when what we see is dust clouds and empty fields and unpaid bills?
But what if you woke up tomorrow and lo and behold everything that you felt you were lacking and was keeping you from being free of anxiety, all of the sudden appeared? What if you woke and all of the sudden it appeared that for certain there would be a plentiful harvest, a bumper crop? What if all your bills were paid, your mortgage paid off, your cars paid for? Would you never have another worry or desire? Would you covet after nothing?
Or would it not be too long before you were thinking that you car is nice but maybe not as nice as your neighbors? Or that your house does the job and keeps you warm and gives you shelter but it is not as nice and spacious as your neighbor’s? Or that your harvest, while plentiful was not as bounteous as the field down the road or in the next town or county. The truth is, the more we have the more we want.
We live our lives professing to believe in God while at the same time seemingly trying to consume as much as we can just in case we’re wrong about God. With every covetous thought and desire we reveal the inner part of us that questions God’s promise to us that He cares for us more than the lilies of the field whom He adorns in such beauty or the birds of the air whom He always provides for. And so whatever our reason for striving after things of the world first, even when it seems justified and the only logical response, when we do this we challenge Jesus’ assertion that our Heavenly Father cares for us and so we show our innate tendency to try to serve two masters.
But we can’t serve two and so we end up serving the one that consumes us. We fail to strive first after the kingdom of God with all it’s righteousness; the kingdom that our Lord promises to us in faith through a Word that we hear. But instead we seek after the temporary and corruptible and ultimately disposable world that we see. But no matter what your lot in life this is a path that leads only to the grave. As long as you seek first the things of this world eventually the master of this world, the devil, will come to collect on the debt of your sin, which leaves you in the grave.
But there is One who has paid your debt, Christ Jesus on the cross, where He defeated death and took away the sting of death for you. And so He has freed you from the burden of seeking after this world and freed you to seek first His kingdom.
And so what does it mean to seek first after God’s kingdom? Well it’s not a chronological thing. The use of the word ‘first’ here does not suggest that there is a ‘second.’ What it means is that whatever we are doing, no matter what the circumstance, the Kingdom of God and His righteousness are always most important. And so what is God’s Kingdom? Martin Luther describes it as simply that "God sent His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, into the world to redeem and deliver us from the devil’s power. He sent Him to bring us to Himself and to govern us as a king of righteousness, life, and salvation against sin, death, and an evil conscience. For this reason He has also given His Holy Spirit, who is to bring these things home to us by His Holy Word and to illumine and strengthen us in the faith by His power."
And so whether you are a mortgage banker or a farmer or whatever, how you go about seeking first the Kingdom of God is the same; and that is simply this "Believe upon the Lord Jesus and receive His promise of forgiveness and eternal life that comes through faith in Him and His perfect life, death and resurrection for you; the faith that you receive through the Holy Spirit, who nurtures and sustains you in that faith through the hearing of God’s Word and the receiving of the sacraments.
You seek the Lord’s kingdom by seeking our Lord; in His Word and sacraments.
And in doing this you have the wonderful promise that our Lord gives to you this morning in the Gospel, that whatever earthly needs you are lacking, your Lord sees that you need these things. And so seek first His kingdom. Seek His promise. Live in the rest and comfort of knowing that your place in the Lord’s kingdom has been secured through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son, and know that the One who has provided you with the eternal blessing of forgiveness of sin, eternal salvation, and a place in His kingdom that has been prepared for you; but that, without the Word of our Lord, you could not see that you need; He who has provided you with all of these eternal blessings that you cannot yet see, will certainly provide you with the temporal needs that you can see.
Amen

Sermon, Sunday May 18 2008

Trinity Sunday
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
This morning in His Word, our precious Lord Jesus has made to us a truly extraordinary promise. Our Lord Jesus has promised us in His Word this morning that He is with us always, to the end of the age. Think about what an amazing promise that is. Our Lord Jesus promises that He is with us at all times and in all places, forever.
We can’t even really imagine how radical this promise is, let alone even coming close to trying to fulfill it ourselves. We certainly can’t do this in our own relationships. In marriage for instance there are careers that often necessitate being away from each other, there’s the driving the kids around, running errands, all sorts of things. And spouses just need to give each other their space. Even in the best of marriages that don’t end in divorce, one spouse always passes away before the other.
But of course it is not just our physical limitations or the constraints of time and space that make it impossible for us to even come close to fulfilling the kind of promise that Jesus makes to us in His Word this morning. In fact it is probably more so our sinful and selfish nature that makes this impossible for us.
As Luther said, "We are curved in upon ourselves……" As a people, as a species, we are just not inclined to look after the interest of others, of our neighbor before ourselves. Certainly we could all point to someone in our lives, be it a spouse, a child, a friend, a sibling, someone who’s needs we might have the ability and maybe even be inclined to look after more than our own. But our Lord sets the bar much higher than that.
The love that our Lord has for us is much bigger and more radical than that. In Matthew 5 our Lord tells us that our Father in Heaven makes the sun rise on the evil and the good and that He sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
And again this promise that our Lord makes to us today in His Word is one that He promises to keep to the ends of the age. What He is talking about is eternity, and so He is not simply promising His faithfulness from that point on, but rather this radical promise also serves as a reminder of the selfless faithfulness that our Lord has shown through all time.
Our Lord’s selfless faithfulness to us began way back in creation and we read of this selfless giving in creation in our first lesson for today. I have been reading quite a bit lately about God’s created order. Now this term God’s created order refers to a structural or even hierarchical understanding of creation.
And so how this relates to our lessons this morning is the dominion of humanity over the rest of God’s creation. Our Lord gives us dominion over the birds, livestock and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. In other words, our Lord gives us dominion over the rest of creation. We are higher on the hierarchical scale than all the rest of creation.
And so indeed when we speak of an order in creation; that in creation we were given dominion over the animals and plants and fish etc. is a part of that order in creation and so reveals something to us about where we stand in regards to God as well as the rest of creation. But I think we also learn something of our standing with the Lord in the chronological order in creation.
I think it’s telling that before our Lord created us, He created that which He gave us dominion over. Everything that our Lord created before us was given to serve the uses and necessities of the life that He gives us.
Every thing that He created before us was created with us in mind. And it was created with the full knowledge that we were not worthy. He prepared for us all that we would need for our daily necessities and He continues to daily provide for our daily needs and preserves that which He has prepared for us and protects us from danger, and He has given us dominion over the rest of creation. And our Lord did all this and does all of this knowing full well that we are not worthy and that we would abuse the very dominion that He gives us.
Our Lord knew that we would fall far short of the image of God in which we were created, and yet He created us anyway. He knew that we would daily fail to answer His call to fruitful and caring stewardship of creation. He knew that our carelessness and neglect would lead to famine, plagues, pollution, and a vastly disproportionate distribution of wealth and resources that would leave most of the planet living in conditions that most would consider to be poverty.
He knew that we would fail to be the prudent, stewards of God’s rich resources that we are called to be. And history has shown us to abuse those resources all in the interest of seeking money, wealth and power.
And so why would our Father in Heaven give us dominion over anything if He knew that we would just abuse it? The answer is in some peculiar wording in our Old Testament lesson. In verse 26 and 27 it says "Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness…. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him." Why does it go from referring to God in the plural "our" to the singular He and His?
What the plural reference to God shows is the Trinity; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And so our Lord selflessly gives of Himself by creating the world and everything in it and giving us dominion over the rest of His creation, knowing that we would exploit and abuse that dominion to our folly. But He also knew that He would be sending the Son. He knew that He would be sending the One through whom He would be with us until the end of the age.
He would be sending the One who, although fully human, would hold complete authority in Heaven and earth. He would be sending the One through whom we would be reconciled to our Lord. He would be sending the One who would permit Himself to lay down His life for us and pay the death-penalty that we deserve for the sinful abuse of the dominion that God the Father has given us. He would be sending the One who would bring forgiveness of our sin and abuse and the defeat of sin and the devil for us.
He brings this forgiveness to us through His Word and through the sacraments, through baptism which our Lord Jesus commands and institutes in the story from today’s Gospel lesson. And indeed in baptism we receive the gift of forgiveness of sins when we are marked with the cross of Christ and receive the gift of faith when we are sealed by the Holy Spirit.
And so in baptism we are also brought into the community of saints, or the Christian church, and it is through this community of saints that the Holy Spirit comes to us in the Word and sacraments sustaining and nurturing us in our faith. And that is what church is; it’s not a building, not a denomination, not a religion, it’s sinners gathered in the name of Christ around the Word rightly proclaimed and the sacraments rightly administered.
And it is through these Word and sacraments, and the hidden power of forgiveness that we receive in them, that we are being made new and the old Adam or Eve in each of us is being put to death. We live in light of the promise given to us by the Son, that one day we will be new creations and restored back to the image of God given to us by God the Father which we tarnished with our sin and abuse. And so in the meantime, we are called to follow the lead of the disciples in the Gospel lesson and go forth and make disciples of our neighbors by sharing with them through Word and deed the love of the One who is with us now and has promised to stay with us, and has authority over us: Christ Jesus.
Amen