Sermon May 31 2009

Pentecost
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to your from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Last week, I went to the Memorial Day parade and I, along with many others was given a little American flag. This allowed us to wave the flag and show the pride we feel as Americans. We have an inherent desire to be able to show something for ourselves,; whether it’s having something to be able to show for who we are, or where we are from or what we have accomplished or just about any other aspect in our lives, we embrace the opportunity to be able to show something for ourselves.
And I think part of this is because we just like to be able to express ourselves visually. And that’s why we wave flags at parades, or why we might pick one certain colored car over another, or why we wear t-shirts with writing on them or hats with the logo for our favorite tractor company or any other number of ways that we find to express ourselves. But I think another reason for this is that it’s just not in our nature to take people at their word. You see, this goes beyond a need to express ourselves, it’s also reflective of an inherent need we have to live by sight and not by faith. How many times have you uttered the expression “I’ll believe it when I see it.”?
We need college degrees so we can show employers that indeed we did graduate. We need receipts so we can show that we are the ones who bought some particular piece of merchandise. We need driver’s licenses so we can show that we are capable of driving. Through our inherently self-serving and sinful natures we have created an environment where our first instinct is simply not to trust each other, not to take each other at our word.
And like I said, this can all be traced down to our inherent desire to live by sight and not by faith. And this goes back to the fall when the Serpent said to Eve “For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” And then it says that when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes.. then she partook of it.
This desire to live by sight is one of the desires that the devil appealed to when presenting Eve with the very temptation that would bring about the fall of humanity. And it’s because our desire to live by sight is so vulnerable to the insidious ploys of sin and the devil that Paul writes in 2 Corinthians that we walk by faith and not by sight.
To live entirely by sight is ultimately to live without hope. For Paul writes in the lesson from Romans this morning that we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? Following Paul’s words we are assured through this same lesson that we can hope for what we do not see in patience.
To live entirely by sight is to live in such a way that you are placing your hope in the futility of this world. This world that we see around us, no matter how appealing it might appear at times, ultimately offers only inward groaning. It offers only futility. It offers only bondage to sin and the devil. And the devil is good at making all of that seem pretty enticing. The devil is good at making that which opposes the perfect and divine and just will of God, seem normal and acceptable, and tolerant, which of course is a virtue praised perhaps more than any other in this temporary world that we live in and see every day.
But as appealing as sin and the devil may appear to be able to make this world seem to be, it will all prove to be only temporary and futile when our Lord Jesus, whose Word we can take returns as He has promised to. When the old is removed and behold all things have been made new, including us, then this old world will be exposed as being what it is; temporary. Those who lived by sight will see all that they placed their hope in as they lived by sight, gone.
And those of us who walk by faith will see that the suffering and pain and hopelessness that this world offer will also disappear; and in light of the glorious eternity that awaits those of us who walk by faith in Christ Jesus, we will realize that everything that we experience in this imperfect and sinful world is but an instant, or a season as some like to say.
And so we wait with patience for the promised return of Christ. We cling to the hope that Paul speaks of. For we as baptized children of God have something much greater and much more glorious than anything that we might be able to see in this temporary, broken and sinful world. We have the pledge of an eternal future and the promised fulfillment of a great and glorious kingdom where all things will be made new.
And we know that we can trust this pledge because it comes from Christ Jesus, the eternal Son of God-Who was born of the virgin Mary, suffered the burden of our sin which He took upon Himself and laid down His life for us, paying the penalty for our sin-so that we might be reconciled to God. We know that we can trust this pledge because it comes from Christ Jesus who was sent to us by His Father who raised Christ Jesus from the grave for our salvation.
But still, as they did in the Garden with Adam and Eve sin and the devil will attack and tempt you, trying to tempt you to live by sight. Sin and the devil will try to convict and condemn you to despair. Sin and the devil will try to convince you that this world with all it’s brokenness and despair that you see is all there is. Or perhaps they will take a more insidious route, trying to convince you that you can fashion a god of your own design-trying to convince you that you can live by sight and that you can find God in nature.
You might be tempted to join the ranks of those who say that they find God when they look at the Grand canyon or a sunset or when they take nature-walks. And certainly in nature we see a reflection of God’s creative power, but in nature we also see a reflection of God’s destructive power via disease and storms, and ultimately we are left with the image of a cruel and uncaring God. And so knowing that we needed more than a glimpse and a reflection, God sent His Son not only to show God’s love for us, but to literally be that love for us by laying down His life for us-doing away with the sins of all those who would believe upon Him.
And although He did return to sit at the right-hand of the Father Who sent Him, Christ Jesus sends the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit Who comes doing nothing other than testifying of the One who sent Him-Christ Jesus. This is what the Holy Spirit has been doing since that first Pentecost when the Holy Spirit arrived and testified about God’s deeds of power.
It’s true that at Pentecost, there were people who were speaking in languages they themselves did not understand, but that was so people who spoke those languages could understand. They were not speaking some language that nobody could understand, but the languages that was spoken by all those around them so they could understand clearly the proclamation of God’s deeds of great power-so that they might call on the name of the Lord and be saved.
And that is the work He continues to do today, testifying to God’s great deeds of power by testifying of Christ; by proclaiming that through the life, death and resurrection of Christ Jesus, God has reconciled repentant sinners to Himself. And conversely, He will convict those of the world who insist on living by sight by proving them wrong about sin, because they do not believe in Him.
And without the Holy Spirit, our actions can never displease us. Without the Holy Spirit we can’t tell when we’re living by sight. Without the Holy Spirit we would remain in sin and condemnation. And since Christ has borne the penalty of all the sins of those who believe upon Him, all condemnation comes down to unbelief.
But as He is doing right now through the Words of my mouth, the Spirit of truth comes and testifies of Christ. As He will do in a few minutes, the Holy Spirit will come to you once again in the body and blood of Christ in the bread and the wine of Holy Communion, and testify to the sacrifice Christ Jesus made on the cross for you, to do away with your sin. And He does all of this to bring you to faith so that you might call on the name of the Lord and be saved, and to continually and repeatedly time after time as you endure the attacks of sin and the devil, keep you in that faith and preserve you in that faith, so that you will not live by sight but continue to walk in faith. And as you leave here, cleansed of your sin, walking in faith in Christ, remember the Holy Spirit is working through you to testify of Christ to your neighbor-that they might call upon the name of the Lord
Amen

Sermon May 24, 2009

Seventh Sunday of Easter
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
What are the apostles thinking in the lesson from Acts this morning? I mean here they are, presented with the task of having to select the successor for Judas. This is no insignificant task. They are selecting someone who would go down in history as one of the founding apostles of the historic Christian church.
And how do they go about this task?? They pray and then they cast lots. Casting lots would be similar to flipping a coin, except it would be done with stones. What is important to recognize is that, from a worldly vantage point it would have the appearance of being left totally to chance. It would be a decision that had the appearance of being totally impartial; not affected by politics or nepotism or any type of favoritism.
What were they thinking? How could the apostles possibly think that they could have made a sound decision of such magnitude simply by casting lots and praying?? What about forming a call-committee?? Didn’t they want to read their paperwork?? Certainly there should have been some synodical candidacy process that Joseph and Matthias should have been expected to go through. And when were they going to take it to a congregational vote?? Certainly they couldn’t have been expected to make any decisions as a church without voting on them-without seeking a consensus.
I am sure that most of you have figured by now that I am being extremely sarcastic. I think that the way that the apostles chose to make their decision speaks a great deal of the faith that had been created in them. I think the fact that they essentially put it all entirely in God’s hands shows that they had finally begun to understand the magnitude of what God was doing in His Son Christ Jesus. They finally began to understand that this One whom they had followed for so long, Who had laid down His life for them, was and is the eternal Son of God given to them by God the Father.
They realized that everything that they had witnessed in the life, death and resurrection of Christ Jesus testified to the fact that not only had Christ been given to God’s people by the Father but that God’s people had been given to Christ Jesus by God the Father. For as we read in the Gospel lesson this morning, as disciples of Christ we belong to God the Father and God the Father gave us to Chris Jesus. We still belong to God the Father, but we also belong to Christ Jesus. And the name of Christ Jesus, and what He has done for us taking upon Himself all of our sin and bearing the penalty of that sin and bringing us salvation through His resurrection, is how God protects us from the attacks of sin, death and the devil that come through the world.
And so the apostles relied on no worldly measures whatsoever when deciding on who should replace Judas. They laid out a simple criteria for who was qualified; that it be someone who was with them and accompanied them during all the time that Christ Jesus was with them, in other words someone who saw and heard the same from Christ Jesus that all the other apostles had. And based on that criteria, the field is narrowed down to two men. And then they put it entirely into God’s hands by going to Him in prayer and casting lots. And thus a pattern is set for us.
Now don’t get me wrong. This is not to say that there is anything wrong with utilizing the gifts and talents and resources that God has made available to us in the world around us. Quite to the contrary, I believe that God blesses people with talent and intelligence in all sorts of areas such as science and medicine and technology for the benefit of our daily lives. But that has to do with this world and the kingdom of this world.
The apostles knew that the decision that they had to make was much bigger than themselves. They knew that the decision that they had to make was much bigger than the kingdom of the world. For they knew that the decision of who should replace Judas had to do with the continued coming forth of the Kingdom of God. They knew that the decision they had to make had to do with the continued proclamation of the promise of forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ Jesus and thus the continued coming forth of the eternal Kingdom of Christ. And so even though they were able to narrow down the choices to two men who believed in the Son of God and thus had the testimony of God in their hearts, the apostles still left the choice up to God.
I think we can look at the apostles making this decision through prayer and casting lots not as irresponsible or reckless, but as acting totally and completely in faith. They were living by faith in Christ and not by sight of the world. And so a pattern and an example is set for us. For you see, even though Judas’ betrayal was propheceid, he was still acting according to his own will.
All of the disciples messed up to be sure. But Judas was never able to realize the magnitude of what he had witnessed in the life and death of Christ Jesus. He acted totally and completely by sight, totally and completely according to the wisdom of the world. He was always worried about money and appearances. Judas was never quite able to see that Christ Jesus was bringing forth an eternal Kingdom much bigger and grander than the one he lived in. And so Judas was never able to move beyond the wisdom of the world into faith in Christ.
And so it is with us. We are every bit as weak as Judas. And so we too struggle with faith. We too give in to the temptation to cling to the wisdom of the world rather than faith in the eternal Word of our Lord. In the methods they chose to select Matthias as Judas’ replacement the apostles have given us a foolproof pattern that, by the grace of God, can be followed when making decisions relating to our faith.
And the pattern is simple, go to God’s Word and go to prayer. But Jesus says something else regarding us His disciples. In the Gospel lesson He says that He has given us His Word and the world has hated us, because we don’t belong to the world. And we don’t. We belong to Christ Jesus and He belongs to us.
But we just can’t handle that the world hates us. We like that Jesus loves us and forgives us and we like that that means that we will be in His eternal kingdom. But we’re not in His eternal kingdom yet. We’re in the world. And the world hates us because of Christ Jesus. The world hates us because we proclaim Christ Jesus as the way the truth and the life and that nobody gets to the Father except through Him. And we don’t like to be hated. Do we?
So we try to convince ourselves that we can have it both ways; that we can belong to Christ and the world at the same time. And so we speak of Jesus saying to those who were about to stone the adulterous woman to death “Let He who is without sin cast the first stone.” But we conveniently forget what soon after that Jesus says to the adulterous woman herself-“Go forth and sin no more.”
Or we love the beatitudes when Jesus speaks of the meek inheriting the earth or God blessing the peacemakers, but we conveniently forget what Jesus says not long after that when He says that looking with lust upon someone is the same as adultery or that getting angry with your brother is the same as murder.
But you see this is nothing but the same living by sight foolishness that led to Judas’ downfall. This is the same foolishness that leads to our arrogantly thinking that we can control the Word of God or the law of God. This is the same foolishness that leads to our arrogantly thinking that we can gain greater insight into God’s Word, by seeking consensus on it or voting on it, rather than actually going to God’s Word.
You see the difference between Peter and Judas, who’s replacement selection Peter was overseeing was not that Judas was a sinner and Peter wasn’t. Far from it, Peter betrayed Jesus also; three times in fact. The difference was that Peter recognized that Jesus was who He said He was and that His coming marked the coming of the eternal Kingdom of God. If Judas had been aware of that He might have responded the same way to his betrayal that Peter did to his. He might have repented and believed upon the Lord Jesus. But right to the end Judas clung to the wisdom of the world, and it led to his suicide. And ultimately this is what trying to belong to the world and Christ at the same time leads to-death.
But I have good news. In the waters of baptism, you have been given to Christ and He has been given to you. He has taken your sin and paid the price for it, and you have been given His eternal righteousness and the promise of eternal life in His kingdom. It’s a done deal. You don’t have to worry about the world hating you. You have been freed to share the Word of Christ with your neighbor. And some will hate you for it, but you need not worry. For where there is a Judas who can’t let go of his love of the world, there might just be a Peter or a Matthias waiting to hear God’s glorious call to repentance and forgiveness of sin in Christ Jesus.
Amen

Sermon Sunday May 17 2009

Sixth Sunday in Easter
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
I am here this morning to tell you nothing less than that you have been invaded. That’s right, as children of God, you have been invaded. You see, not only is God not a respecter of persons, but He is not a respecter of personal boundaries or personal space, and certainly not a respecter of personal schedules and desires.
And so maybe you’re wondering when all this happened. Maybe you’re wondering how you could have missed such a momentous event as having been invaded. Were you sleeping?? Did it happen in your sleep? Well you might have been. You see what I am referring to of course is your baptism.
Your baptism, as grandiose and pious and joyous, and as focused on you as it might have seemed to be, as you were no doubt all dudded up in your little white baptism outfit; your baptism was nothing less than you having been invaded by Christ Jesus. For in our second lesson for this morning, Christ Jesus is described as coming by water and blood and that in the midst of this, the Spirit is the One that testifies.
The Spirit is the One who testifies in the Word that comes to you in baptism in conjunction with the Water. When you were invaded upon in baptism, you were invaded upon by the Spirit in the Word being proclaimed over you, and that Spirit is truth. And that Spirit came with a Word from the One who Sent Him-the same One who is no respecter of boundaries of time, space, and personal comfort. He doesn’t even wait for you to invite Him or ask Him into your heart or accept Him as your personal Savior. He comes invading you in the waters of baptism.
And the Word of your invader Christ Jesus that was proclaimed over you that you know you can believe because it was brought not simply by a Spirit of truth, but by the Spirit who is defined as truth in itself; this Word is simply that you belong to this invader-Christ Jesus. This Word is that as the Father loves you, so Christ Jesus has loved you. This Word that was proclaimed over you in your baptism means that the cleansing you received in baptism was not merely a sign or not merely an external cleansing, but a purification from the inward pollution that comes from your having been born into sin, freeing you from an evil conscience, bringing you forgiveness of sin and a good conscience.
And this forgiveness of sin that you receive in the invasion that took place at your baptism is brought forth not through anything that you brought to baptism but through the innocent suffering and death of Christ Jesus who took upon Himself all of your sin. In fact this One who had no sin, Christ Jesus, literally became sin on the cross for you. He had to invade you so that He could take upon Himself all of your sin. And the blood that He shed on the cross He shed for you and it is that blood that frees you from sin, death, and the devil.
This is why John writes in our second lesson for this morning that Christ Jesus has come by water and blood-not any blood mind you, but the holy and precious blood of Christ Jesus. You see the Word of promise that was proclaimed over you at your baptism is the very means by which Christ reigns in the world. This Word imparts to you the effective power of the blood of Christ shed on the cross for you. It literally brings you the forgiveness of your sin. In your baptism you experienced nothing short of being cleansed by the blood of Christ.
But Christ Jesus didn’t stop there because, as we read in 1st Peter 3:21, baptism saves you not as a removal of dirt from your body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Christ Jesus. What this means is that Christ Jesus did not stop at cleansing you in baptism, but now, knowing that you have been cleansed He is at the right hand of His Father appealing to Him on your behalf.
This passage is not, as some are prone to suggest, referring to a human appeal to God, which is dependent upon our sincerity- but rather Christ Jesus declaring to His Father that He has done what He was sent to do in your baptism; that He has cleansed you of your sin and that you have been joined with Christ in a death like His, having put to death the sinful old creature in you, so that you would certainly be joined with Christ in a resurrection like His-having been brought forth as a new creation in Christ-born of God.
So maybe you’re thinking, “Wait a minute. I didn’t grow up Lutheran or in one of these other traditions where baptism plays such a big part. I’ve never even been baptized. Have I somehow been spared from this invasion?” Oh no, for as I said earlier, Christ reigns on earth through the preaching of His Word. The water in baptism is dependent upon this Word, but the Word in baptism is not dependent upon the water.
What this means is that this invasion continues right now through the words of my mouth. Every time the Holy Spirit brings forth the Gospel through the words of a broken and sinful preacher in your midst for you to hear, you are subject to this same invasion. For this is what we see in the first lesson for today from Acts. Peter spoke and the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the Word. Peter realized that the Holy Spirit had come upon them when he saw them speaking in tongues.
Now the point is not that they spoke in tongues. And of course neither is that insignificant. But what the fact that these gentiles had begun speaking in tongues showed to Peter is that the Word that he had proclaimed to these gentiles had created faith in them. And so in light of this all he could say was “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”
And so I say to you if you have never been baptized, as you are confronted with the very Word of Christ which creates faith in the minds and hearts of repentant hearers “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing you?” You are being invaded right now by Christ Jesus through the Word that creates faith. Faith is being created, nurtured and sustained in you right now.
And you see none of this is your doing, for as we read in the Gospel lesson for this morning you did not choose Christ Jesus but rather He chose you. And because He chose you, He invades you through His Word. He invades you through His sacraments. He invades you through the Body of Christ. He invades you so that He can cleanse you of all your sin and claim you as His own.
And so what are you to do in the face of this invasion that is taking place? Surrender. Wave the white flag. Let go of all of your self-deluded attempts to climb to God on your own terms. Let the Word of Christ do what it does; create faith in you, cleanse you, bring you the forgiveness of sin, making of you a new creation born of God.
For as John writes “….whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith.” Your faith in this One who gave all of Himself for you conquers the world. The world is not conquered through your personal prosperity, or your piety or your good works. The world is conquered through the faith that is created in you by the invading Christ Jesus.
Now, make no mistake about it, sin, death, and the devil are not going to take this lying down. They will continue to attack the faith that attacks and destroys them. And so you will continue to struggle with sin and despair. There will be misfortune. There will be doubt. There will be uncertainty. There will be dysfunctional relationships. There will be struggles in your relationships. There will be health problems and unhealthy habits. And death, there will be death. And in the midst of all this sin, death and the devil will continue their assaults on the faith that conquers them.
And Christ Jesus knows that on your own you are defenseless to these attacks from sin, death and the devil. So for this reason He continues to invade you in Word and sacrament creating, nurturing and sustaining in you the faith that conquers sin, death and the devil. In a few minutes you will come forward and receive once again the body and blood of your Lord Jesus in the bread and the wine. You will receive the good gifts of faith and forgiveness, and once again the world, sin, death and the devil will be conquered. And you will once again be made a conqueror so that you can go forth from here and share with your neighbor the forgiveness of your sins and the faith that has been created in you through God’s Word so that the invasion will continue through you.
Amen

Sermon, Sunday May 10 2009

Fifth Sunday in Easter
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The great Lutheran theologian Francis Pieper once wrote that there are only two religions in the world; religion of the Gospel and religion of the law. And between these two groups there really is no common understanding of the word ‘religion.’
We speak of religion today as if there really isn’t that big a difference between various religions, and that ultimately it doesn’t really matter what religion we ascribe to. But when you break religions down to religion of the Gospel and religion of the law and you take a good, honest, objective look at scripture, then you would see that, when it comes to our very salvation, to being reconciled to God, when it comes to the forgiveness of our sin-God’s Word tells us otherwise. God’s Word tells us that it does matter.
For you see, what religion means to those who ascribe to religion of law is completely different from what it means to those who ascribe to religion of the Gospel. Those who ascribe to religion of law do not really know the Gospel, but do have some knowledge of the law, for the law is written on all of our hearts. So for them, religion is simply the means for humanity to appease God through their own best-efforts-be it good works, worship, social-justice causes, moralism or whatever.
But religion of the Gospel is completely different from religion of the law. For those who ascribe to religion of the Gospel-religion is simply this-faith in the Gospel. It is not a vague, nebulous non-descript faith that says, “…it doesn’t really matter what you believe as long as you believe something.” No, religion of the Gospel is simply what it says it is-faith in the Gospel-faith in the glorious promise that through the life, death and resurrection of Christ Jesus you have been reconciled to God-faith in the promise that Paul writes in Galatians-that we are not justified by works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ and that in that faith we obtain the forgiveness of sins.
And our Lord Jesus comes to us today in the Gospel lesson telling us, quite simply, what it means to be of the religion of the Gospel. For you see the religion of the Gospel has as it’s very origin-the Almighty God, Creator of the universe, and so we know the religion of the Gospel is true and bursting with new-life and God’s promises. Whereas the religion of the law originates with humans, and as such is doomed to failure and ultimately leads only to death and condemnation.
Christ Jesus comes to you in the Gospel lesson this morning telling you that He is the Vine and you are the branches-that you are cleansed by the Word spoken over you in the waters of baptism. He is the Vine who abides in you so that when you abide in Him you will bear fruit, but apart from Him you can do nothing. And so to be of the religion of the Gospel is nothing other than to abide in Christ Jesus as He abides in you so that you will bear fruit.
But the temptation of sin and the devil are still around and still try to lure you back to religion of the law. Religion of the law is what our sinful nature just naturally gravitates us toward. We actually like the religion of the law because it is inherently human-centered. We like it because it gives us the illusion that we are the ones in control. We like religion of the law because we fool ourselves into thinking that it gives us a way to live by sight rather than by faith.
But in spite of our best efforts to make the religion of the law palatable and workable for us, we inevitably end up running into the complete and utter futility of the religion of the law. For to live by this is to abide in oneself and to abide in things of this world, this broken and sinful world. And to put your hope in or abide in anything of this world only leads to despair; be it despair from financial struggles related to job lay-offs or from continued health problems related to Cancer or some other disease that you can’t seem to get a grip of, or maybe problems in your marriage or some of your other relationships or any other struggles that this world throws at you.
When you embrace religion which can be boiled down to nothing more than your efforts to appease God through your good works and receive what you perceive as your due rewards, you are going to be vastly disappointed, and you will fall into despair. And so when things don’t go quite the way you were hoping in your quest to control the law; sin, death and the devil will come in and seek to convince you that all of the struggles that this world throws at you are your fault, or that they are evidence that God has abandoned you, or that your faith must not be strong enough-otherwise you surely wouldn’t be going through these struggles. Or maybe you’ll be left thinking that perhaps God doesn’t exist.
And our Lord Jesus tells us this morning that this can have deadly results for He says that those who do not abide in Him are thrown away like a branch and withers, and that these branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and burned.
But that is not what you Father in Heaven wants, and so He sends His Son so that you would know He does exist and does love you and does care for you and He has not abandoned you, and He does not want you to be thrown away into the fire and so the Spirit comes to you and tells you again to abide in God’s only Son Christ Jesus. And Christ Jesus Himself has a role in this. He does not leave this up to you, for He promises in this passage that you have been cleansed already by His Word. It’s done.
Not even your faith is your work. For Christ Jesus calls you to abide in Him and He does the very thing that brings forth faith in people-laying down His life for you, and in doing this God shows His love for you, for John writes in the second lesson that it was in that way, through God sending His Son into the world to be the atoning sacrifice for your sins, that God’s love was revealed among us. And this was done so that we might live through Him. And the new life we receive in Him which gives us hope and promise beyond this broken and sinful world, we receive through faith. Ultimately faith is the fruit that He produces in us-and frees us to please God by loving and serving our neighbor.
Christ Jesus wants nothing less for you than for you to abide in Him that He may continue to abide in you, so that your place with Him in His eternal Kingdom will be preserved. And on your own this could not happen. On your own you would continue to wallow in the despair of religion of the law. On your own you are merely lost and condemned under the accusations of sin, death and the devil.
And for this reason, it was absolutely necessary that Christ Jesus come into the world and place Himself into the very hands of His enemies and betrayers so that in laying down His life for you, God’s love would be revealed as your sins were atoned for, and so that in His resurrection a new world, beyond this broken and sinful world that offers only despair, hopelessness and condemnation-that a new world would be opened up for you, a new world bursting forth with promises and hope beyond the despair of this world.
And so as you find yourself perhaps searching and clinging for hope, searching for answers, the One who abides in you so that you might abide in Him comes to you in a Word proclaimed to you through the Words of my mouth, calling you to abide in Him.
This is the case of the Ethiopian eunuch from the lesson from Acts who found himself reading the words of the prophet Isaiah not really knowing what to make of them. And so a preacher is sent to Him so that He would come to the knowledge of the truth of the Gospel-for it says that Phillip started with the scripture from Isaiah; and so we can assume that Phillip revealed to him that all of scripture testifies of Christ Jesus. And Phillip proclaimed to him the good news, and so this Ethiopian eunuch was freed from the shackles of religion of the law that leads only to death and despair, and called into the glorious freedom and eternal life that comes from religion of the Gospel.
And so it is for you today, as Christ Jesus comes to you declaring again that He is the Vine and that you are the branches, and that He is abiding in you that you will abide in Him-that He is the Vine Who sustains you and nourishes you, with His glorious promises and His good gifts of faith-comforting you, strengthening you, forgiving you when you are troubled and in despair, because it is His will that you would not be cast aside, but that you would live with Him in His eternal Kingdom.
Amen

Sermon-Sunday May 3, 2009

Fourth Sunday in Easter
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
Today in this morning’s Gospel lesson our Lord Jesus brings to us an image of what it means to be a baptized child of God that largely flies in the face of the independence and individualism that our culture and our society and really our country as a whole, going back even to the country’s founding fathers, see as virtuous. Indeed our country was founded upon principles rooted largely in freedom from tyranny and personal autonomy. Much of what is cherished about our country and culture is rooted in the personal freedoms that we have. In our country, individualism and independence are largely seen as virtuous.
Even the US Army has gotten in on this. In all branches of the military one of the first things that one experiences in their respective branch of service is having their hair cut nearly completely bald and giving up their civilian clothes and being issued uniforms. And one of the main reasons they do this is so you look like everyone else. The first thing you experience is the attempted curtailing of your individualism. But within the last few years, the Army began a recruiting campaign rooted in the slogan: “An Army of one.” The US Army began a recruiting campaign rooted in individualism. Certainly you can see the irony in that.
Or what about when you are young and we are nervous about doing an oral report, or meeting someone new, or even going out on your first date-what is the advice that parents will often give? “Just be yourself.” And yet in spite of our natural human tendency to embrace individualism and independence Jesus comes to us this morning in His Word telling us that we are to understand ourselves to be like sheep.
Sheep are not independent. Sheep are not individualists. In fact it’s not uncommon to hear the term “sheep” used in a derogatory manner; such as hearing someone say something like “Don’t be such a sheep think for yourself.” But in this morning’s Gospel lesson, Jesus refers to Himself as the good shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep. But you see, the type of sheep that Jesus is speaking of here, is actually quite different from the type that is often looked down upon in our culture.
You see, in our culture when someone uses the word “sheep” derogitorally referring to a person, what they are usually saying is that the person just kind of follows the crowd and bases their life-choices on what other people think. And indeed Jesus does not want us to be ruled by popular opinion, or social and political correctness.
But you see, the difference is in the alternatives. The alternative that the world offers is to follow ourselves and our own sinful desires. But the alternative that Jesus offers is Himself-the voice of the Good Shepherd who is Christ Jesus our Savior. When Jesus speaks of sheep, He is not speaking of their inability to think for themselves or their tendency to follow the crowd, He is speaking of their complete and utter dependency on their shepherd.
He is speaking of sheep heeding the voice of their shepherd and nobody else. He is speaking of sheep realizing that without the shepherd they are helpless and so they rely purely on the voice of their shepherd to lead them and guide them and to give them help when they are in trouble. He is speaking of sheep realizing that they are incapable of healing themselves and guarding themselves from the danger of the wolf, and are completely dependent upon others and upon the shepherd-and so they know to always keep close to the shepherd and to look to Him and to Him alone for help.
And so it is with us. For without the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for us we are helpless. We are weak, poor and helpless sinners who can do nothing to free ourselves from the sin that we are in bondage to. We are in bondage to sin, and the most powerful way that this bondage reveals itself to us, is not in the external acts of sin that we commit, although that is part of it, but the most crippling effect of the bondage to sin that we all experience, that we are all born into is in our inability to recognize the bondage that we are in bondage.
Oh there might be moments when we’re feeling down on ourselves and it might feel like we’re acknowledging that we are but poor, miserable sinners; but then we’ll see someone who, for whatever reason, seems to be much worse than we are-maybe they struggle with more addictions than you, they struggle with their weight more than you, or maybe they just seem to have a general disdain and distaste for everyone and everything around them. And we see people like that and we think “Well at least I am not as bad as they are.” And so the self-delusion begins anew.
And without the Good Shepherd this is the vicious cycle that we would always be trapped in. Without the Good Shepherd we would be left at the mercy of the wolves of this world of sin and doubt and despair. Without the voice of the Good Shepherd we would be left with the voice of our sinful self leading us into paths of despair that would ultimately lead only to the grave.
But Christ Jesus is the Good Shepherd in Whom alone we can trust. Christ Jesus is the Good Shepherd Who saves us from the wolves of sin, death and the devil by placing Himself into the hands of those very wolves, and lays down His life for us-taking upon Himself all of our sin, and going deep into the valley of death for us, and in exchange giving us righteousness and new-life.
And so, in spite of the world’s objections to the notion of being a sheep, we are called to be sheep. But it is not sheep who merely follow the pattern of the culture around us, tossed about by our culture’s wavering and groundless definition of righteousness and justice and faithfulness. No, the Good Shepherd who gave everything of Himself for us on the cross so that in Him we could receive the forgiveness of our sins and was raised for our salvation, now sits at the right hand of His Father who loves Him and us-and He extends His voice to us and calls us into true righteousness and true faithfulness and true justice.
And so as His sheep we heed the call He extends to us to love one another in truth and action. And it is the truth that produces and brings forth the action. The action is the fruit of our clinging to and believing in the truth. For the Good Shepherd comes to us and brings us the divine Word of the law that brings us the truth of who we are-we are sheep-poor and miserable sinners, completely dependent upon our Shepherd to release us from our bondage to sin.
And so He calls and gathers us to repentance-to see that there is only one voice in Whom we can trust-that following our inner voice which we delude ourselves into believing leads us to the path independence, actually leads us to bondage to our sinful self-and that in following the voice of popular opinion and the crowd-actually leads only to bondage to sin and the devil-and they both lead only to the grave.
And so there is only one voice to follow; the voice of the Good Shepherd Who comes to us in the preaching of His Word and partaking of Holy Communion. He comes to you, as He came to the people of Israel in the lesson from Acts-through Peter who, filled with the Holy Spirit proclaimed to the people that they crucified Christ Jesus and in so doing rejected the stone that would become the Cornerstone. But then Peter proclaimed to them that it was in the name of Christ Jesus and Him alone that there was salvation.
For this is how the sheep are fed-with the truth of who we are; poor, miserable sinners-and the truth of what Christ Jesus the Good Shepherd has done for us His Sheep and is doing for us-freeing us from sin, death and the devil-forgiving us, giving us new and eternal life-calling us, gathering us, enlightening us and sanctifying us in the truth and keeping us in His flock, always making sure we are fed with the truth, always vigilant, always protecting us from the wolves.
Amen

Sunday, April 26 2009

Third Sunday in Easter
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
When I first read the lesson from Acts for this morning which begins with verse 12 from chapter 3, my instinct was to think well we gotta read the first eleven verses of Acts 3. The passage opens with the words “When Peter saw it, he addressed the people.” But the problem is that the ‘it’ that the passage refers to takes place in the first eleven verses. What is the ‘it’ that Peter refers to?
The passage continues with Peter saying to this crowd “You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk?” There the picture becomes a little more clear. Peter appears to be talking about some sort of miracle healing, but still it’s not included in the lesson, so you’re not getting the whole context.
Plus they leave out this wonderful event of this crippled man who was miraculously made able to walk through Peter commanding him to walk in the name of Jesus.
But actually, Peter and the testimony that he bears in this lesson is the result of an even greater miracle. For it was not long before this that Peter was hiding for fear of the Jews. And it was not long before that, that Peter had denied Jesus three times in the courtyard.
Within the course of probably a few hours Peter had gone from claiming he would never deny Jesus to denying Him three times. And then even after he had been told by the women who saw the risen Jesus that Jesus had risen from the dead, he still goes and hides in his doubt and despair. And then in this morning’s Gospel lesson, there is Peter once again with the rest of the disciples hiding out once again, still not quite convinced apparently.
And so Jesus appears among Peter and the rest of the disciples and says to them “Peace be with you.” And how do they respond? They are terrified. In fact, Luke writes that they thought that they were seeing a ghost. I mean what do you think was going through Jesus’ mind at this point?? You almost expect Him to say something like; “A ghost?? Really?? Is that what you’re thinking?? I told you I was going to do this.”
But He doesn’t. He doesn’t scold them. He says “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?” And then He tells them to look at and touch His hands and His feet to see that it is Him. A ghost does not have flesh and bones. And then to really kind of drive home that He was not a ghost but their real and risen Savior He eats in front of them.
And then Jesus tells them that everything that He told them while He was with them, which would have included telling them of His death and resurrection, was the fulfillment of everything that had been written about Him in the scriptures; in the prophets, the law of Moses, in the psalms-all of it. And it wasn’t until the disciples understood this, we read that their minds had been opened.
Their minds were opened for the very purpose of understanding that all the scriptures testify of Jesus-specifically that the Messiah had to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in His name to all nations-and that they, the disciples, were witnesses of those very things. And this witness went bursting forth from the upper-room to all nations not long after this when the Holy Spirit-who binds Himself to the witness of Christ Jesus-arrived at Pentecost.
And so from this it becomes a little more clear as to why it’s not necessary to include in the reading from Acts-the miraculous healing that takes place before verse 12. For as I said, Peter’s bold testimony is the result of an ever greater miracle than the healing of a crippled man. Peter’s bold testimony that we see in the lesson from Acts is the fruit of the miracle that we see in the Gospel lesson-the miracle that our Lord Jesus did not leave Peter and the disciples in their unbelief and despair.
Christ Jesus came to them in their unbelief and gave them faith. And He opened their minds so that they would finally be able to connect the dots and see that all of scripture testifies of Jesus. Finally they were able to see that this Holy and Righteous One Whom they had denied and abandoned was the One Whom the prophets of their ancestors said would bring forth a new covenant; finally they could see that He is the suffering Servant by Whose stripes we are healed. Finally they could see that He is the One that John the Baptist himself had told them about-the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world-through the blood that He shed on the cross for you.
And so you see, today you will witness more fruit of this miracle taking place among you. Today on confirmation Sunday you will witness seven young people standing before you and affirming their baptism, professing their faith, declaring to you that they too are witnesses of all these things. Today you will see seven young people stand before you and declare unto you that they have heard the Word of Christ-the Messiah who suffered and died for your forgiveness and was raised for your salvation as the prophets foretold and they believe it-faith has come to them. Faith has come to them and will take hold of them and repentance and forgiveness of sins in Christ’s name will be proclaimed in them through the Holy Spirit.
But in spite of all the hoopla and the pomp and splendor connected to confirmation Sunday-there really is nothing unique about today. What you see today is really nothing more than the acknowledgment of what we experience daily-the miracle of Christ Jesus coming to us daily and giving us faith an nurturing and sustaining us in that faith.
And so by His grace through the Holy Spirit-Christ Jesus comes to you once again today. For you see the only real difference between how Christ Jesus finds us daily and how He found those disciples in the upper room is time. Sure were not hiding out in an upper-room like they were, but were also not being actively persecuted by authorities. But the truth is, in many ways we are locked away for fear of an inconvenient understanding of our Lord. For the truth is all of us have failed to understand who God is and what He has come to do for us, among us and is doing for us.
We reduce Jesus into a new law-giver whom we follow in our hopes of achieving a better life now, or simply to live holier lives, or to somehow overcome our shortcomings through our own best efforts and good-works. Or we have reduced Jesus to merely an example of love and compassion to emulate.
But Christ Jesus is much more than that. He is the One who took our sin upon Himself for us on the cross so that in exchange we would receive the righteousness of Christ for our salvation. And daily Christ Jesus comes to us in Word and sacrament and in fellowship with each other and brings us back to that eternal hope that we have in Christ Jesus and in Christ Jesus alone-and away from the false hope and deception of sin and the devil and the false images of Christ Jesus that we create.
Confirmation is not about some big transformative Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues moment where everything is suddenly clear and makes sense. It’s about the Holy Spirit- but it’s about the Holy Spirit doing what He does for you on a daily basis; calling, you, gathering you, enlightening you with His gifts and sanctifying you and keeping you in the true faith-in Christ alone. It’s about the Holy Spirit doing what the Holy Spirit does-testifying to Christ and Christ alone.
And this doesn’t begin and end at confirmation. It’s daily. So Kayla, Collin, Corey, Cassidy, Josh, Tyler, and Alex, if you don’t feel any different today than you did yesterday, that’s no big deal. Now, that also means today is not a graduation or an ending. Today is simply the continuation of the Holy Spirit keeping you united with the whole Christian church on earth and keeping you united with Jesus Christ in the one true faith-just as He did for you yesterday and the day before and will do for you tomorrow and the day after that on and on and on.
These gowns that you are wearing are white to symbolize the righteousness of Christ that you received in baptism. You will be taking these gowns off at the end of the service, but you cannot remove the righteousness that they symbolize. You are God’s children, and because of what Christ Jesus has done for you on the cross, and is doing for you daily uniting you with Him and His church in faith-your Heavenly Father will always see you robed in righteousness. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.
Amen

Sunday, April 19 2009

Second Sunday of Easter
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Maybe you are wondering why I used a different slightly different translation than the NRSV. Well it really only comes down to one verse-verse 27-where Jesus says to Thomas after Thomas places his hand in Jesus’ side and in the nail mark in Jesus’ hand-“Do not disbelieve, but believe.”
The NRSV has Jesus saying “Do not doubt but believe.” Now perhaps you think that I am just being a little nit-pickey. Maybe you think that I am making a big deal out of nothing. But at the end of the Gospel lesson Jesus says that it is through believing that we have life in His name.
And so by that we know that by not believing in the atoning work of Jesus we remain in death. Paul says the wages of sin is death. And so if in believing we receive new-life in Christ, then through unbelief we are in death. And from this we can see that all sin basically comes down to unbelief. And so, in that light the difference between doubt and unbelief is huge.
If Thomas is merely doubting then Jesus is just coming along and offering Thomas a word of encouragement; as if to say “Oh Thomas stop being such a fuddy-duddy. Get on board with the new thing that God is doing.” If Thomas was merely in doubt, then Jesus was merely showing up to clarify things for Thomas; to tie up some loose ends, before Jesus ascended to His Father.
But Thomas was not merely in doubt, he was in disbelief. The Greek word that the English Standard Version (ESV) rightly translates as ‘disbelieve’ and the NRSV wrongly translates as ‘doubt’ is pronounced apistis. The King James Version actually translates it as faithless. Both ‘faithless’ and ‘unbelieving’ are pretty much accurate summations of the definition of apistis, and so both would work very effectively as English translations of this word. “Disbelieve” as the ESV has it, also works very well.
But “doubt” does not work. From this we can see that to refer to this as the “doubting Thomas” lesson doesn’t quite cut it. It doesn’t have quite the same intensity as what was really going on. Thomas was not merely in doubt, he was faithless, he was unbelieving. And so Jesus was not showing up in that house where Thomas and the rest of the disciples were hiding out, merely to offer words of encouragement, or merely to clarify Thomas’ confusion.
In his unbelief Thomas had actually cut himself off from the apostolic ministry. For those eight days in between when Thomas refused to believe the testimony of the disciples and when Jesus showed Himself to Thomas, Thomas was basically not a disciple. He was unbelieving. He was faithless. And so he was subject to the wages of sin that are death; not just physical death, but eternal death-eternal separation from God.
And so, in that light we can see that when Jesus appeared in the house where Thomas and the disciples were hiding, He was actually showing up to call Thomas back to faith. He was calling Thomas back to the fold of the apostolic ministry. He was calling Thomas from death in unbelief and faithlessness to life in faith in Christ Jesus.
Dr Nestingen speaks of how being justified is to be properly aligned with God; to be put in a proper relationship with God-and that is what was going on in this passage. Jesus was justifying Thomas by bringing him back into a proper relationship with God through faith in Christ Jesus.
And don’t think that the other disciples were doing any better. They had also been told of Jesus’ resurrection. In John’s account of the resurrection, he records Mary Magdalene encountering the empty tomb and then seeing the risen Lord Jesus who tells her to go tell ‘His brothers’ or the rest of the disciples that Jesus had risen from the dead. The next time we see the disciples that Mary went to tell is when they were hiding in their house for fear of the Jews. It appears that they weren’t so quick to believe without actually seeing either.
In this account of what should probably be referred to as the unbelieving or faithless disciples we see that when Christ Jesus withdraws Himself from us we are truly helpless. Jesus told them that He would be raised after three days. They had heard from the women that Jesus had done just that-that He had been raised from the dead. They had seen Jesus confirm everything He said about Himself through great miracles of healing performed on the blind and the lame and lepers. They had seen Jesus cast out demons. They had seen Him raise the dead. But still, until they saw Him in the flesh raised from the dead, they were mired in their unbelief and despair.
So what does this mean for us? Does this mean that because we have come generations after the apostles and do not have the good fortune of having been able to see the risen Jesus in the flesh that we are then left in our unbelief and despair? Well, if faith were up to us. If it were up to us to muster our own faith through our own best and most sincere efforts, then essentially yes.
But Jesus does not leave that peace that He brings to Thomas and the rest of the disciples in that house from this morning’s Gospel lesson in that house. He does not leave it in that period of time centuries ago. He acknowledges that Thomas and the other unbelieving disciples finally did believe that Jesus had risen from the dead because they had seen Him risen from the dead. But then He says blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.
Jesus is making a promise there. He is not trying to give some extra motivation for those who would not have the good fortune of knowing Jesus in the flesh to believe. He is promising that in spite of the unbelief of the disciples, that the good news of salvation through faith in His perfect life, death and resurrection would continue to be proclaimed and would continue to be believed.
For John writes that these events that took place within the life, death and resurrection of Jesus were written down so that we would come to believe that He is the Messiah, the Son of God and that through believing in Him and what He has done for us; laying down His life for us and atoning for our sin- for our forgiveness and rising from the dead -for our salvation, that we would have eternal life in His name.
Through these simple words we can know that, just as He did not leave the disciples alone in their despair and unbelief, He does not leave us alone in our despair and unbelief. He comes to us in His Word proclaimed. He comes to us in the sacraments; He will come to us in a few minutes in His body and blood in bread and the wine of Holy Communion. And because through these means of grace, He fills us with faith and forgiveness then He comes to us through each other also. He comes to us and He brings us peace-the peace that surpasses all understanding. He re-aligns us. He justifies us.
And so we can hear the words of John from the 2nd lesson that they, these disciples declare to us what was from the beginning, what they have heard, what they have seen with their eyes, what they have looked at and touched with their hands, concerning the word of life-that we may have fellowship with them-and that along with the disciples our fellowship is with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ-whose blood cleanses us from all our sin.
And so we need not fool ourselves into thinking that we don’t have sin. We can face the reality that our unbelief is unbelief. We don’t need to reduce it to doubt. We can go to Christ Jesus and confess our sins of unbelief and despair’ knowing that He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and will give us faith by coming to us as He came to Thomas and the rest of the unbelieving and faithless disciples and bringing us peace and justifying us, through His Word and sacraments.
Amen

Sunday, April 12 2009

Easter Sunday
Brothers and sisters
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ is risen, He is risen indeed!!! This is what we celebrate today. That just three days after Christ Jesus laid down His life for you, atoning for all of your sin, and was placed in the tomb, that the tomb was empty and that the stone was rolled away. And that stone being rolled away is a result of the greatest news that we, as the church can bring to the world, to our neighbor. For the stone being rolled away, the tomb being empty means that Christ Jesus has risen from the grave-that sin, death and the devil have been defeated for you-that your salvation has been won.
So I ask you this morning, do you believe this?? It is not an easy message to believe in a 21st century post-modern culture. Ever since it happened, the devil has worked through skeptics and doubters to try to cast doubt upon this great and glorious event upon which we base our faith.
It wasn’t long at all before people were spreading rumors that somebody had merely stole Jesus’ body from the tomb. And some actually were convinced by this preposterous theory and some are probably convinced to this day. And maybe you are among the doubters. Maybe the idea of someone stealing the body does not seem preposterous to you.
I mean this with the most sincere love and compassion; if you are among the doubters and skeptics and believe someone did steal the body, then there are some questions that need to be addressed. First, if someone stole it then who?? If it was the apostles then the New Testament would be much shorter. Robbing a grave that bore Pilate’s seal would have been a crime against Caesar punishable by death. The first chapter of Acts would have been limited to a summary of the executions of the 11 remaining apostles.
Some say that Jesus’ enemies stole it. That makes no sense either. Why would Jesus’ enemies steal it? If they were trying to discredit Jesus, they wouldn’t want people to think the tomb was empty. Quite to the contrary, if there was a body in the tomb, Jesus’ opponents would have done their level-best to make sure people saw it. Theories like this have been coming up for 2000 years and time after time they are refuted. Often they have led to the reverse of their intended purpose; skeptics being convinced of the truth of the Gospel. Time after time, we are left with no body and an empty tomb.
Time after time we are left with Christ Jesus actually being who He says He is and who John the Baptist proclaimed Him to be, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the Savior of all, the firstborn of the inheritors of eternal life, in whose inheritance those who repent and believe upon Him will share.
But these arguments that have come and gone and will continue to come and go, have led to a new false spirit which has also tried to cast doubt upon this glorious event. This more recent development does not focus so much on trying to cast doubt on the truth of the event of the resurrection but rather on whether or not it matters that we believe that it happened, and in that sense argues whether or not it matters that it did happen.
The argument goes “It doesn’t really matter whether or not the resurrection took place. If believing it did gives you comfort and peace then you should believe it.” On the other hand, the argument goes “If you believe that doing good-works and being a good person saves you then you should believe that.” It doesn’t really matter what you believe as long as you are sincere.
Well lets look at this morning’s lessons in light of this theory. In the Gospel we have Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James going to the tomb so that they can anoint the body of Jesus with spices. Both of these women had placed great faith in Jesus.
If they had found Jesus’ dead body in the tomb then they would have never been amazed at the good news of the resurrection, which is how the end of this lesson describes their reaction to receiving the news of Jesus’ resurrection. They would have not been told to go tell the disciples, and Jesus would have never met the disciples in Galilee so that they could see that He had risen from the dead.
In the account of this scene from the Gospel of John, Mary Magdalene is actually weeping outside of the tomb. If she had never encountered the risen Lord Jesus, then she would have simply remained in her despair. All of the faith and hope that she had placed in this One who had meant so much to her would have been in vain.
And then we have Peter, who we see in the lesson from Acts, who in spite of all of his slip-ups; denying Jesus three times, worrying about who would be the greatest in God’s Kingdom, failing to stay awake for even one hour when Jesus asked him to stay awake; in spite of all of these slip-ups, Peter still had put his faith in Jesus. But if Jesus had not been raised from the dead, Peter’s last memory of Jesus would have been denying Jesus three times before the rooster crowed. Peter was in perhaps greater misery than even the two Marys.
Peter was hiding in the upper-room, presumably from the Jewish authorities, but perhaps he was also hiding from Jesus. Imagine Peter’s despair; the emotional let-down of wondering if this One in Whom He had put so much trust in, had let him down. But imagine also the despair and guilt of his own denial, and perhaps wondering how Jesus might react to Peter’s denial if He saw Peter again, in case He really was able to rise from the dead.. You see it wasn’t until after the resurrection that Peter really began to understand who Christ Jesus is and what His life, death and resurrection means.
And then of course there is Paul whom we encounter, as we so often do, in our second lesson. If Jesus had not been raised from the dead, Paul would never have even written this lesson, because he never would have been converted on the road to Damascus. He never would have encountered the risen Christ. In fact he probably would have been one of the most vicious persecutors of Christ’s followers till the day he died.
But Paul’s conversion shows us not only does it matter that the resurrection happened but that you believe in it and that you believe that it was for you. Paul’s conversion shows that it matters who our faith is in.
For Paul was a very faithful Jew. He believed that his good works earned him favor with God. And he would have continued to believe this had he never been converted. And so nearly half of the New Testament would have not been written.
That the resurrection happened matters. And that you believe in it and that it was for you matters. Paul knows this for certain and he wrote this in today’s lesson where he speaks of passing on to the church in Corinth that which was of first importance; that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, also known as Peter.
And indeed He did appear to Peter and He declared unto Peter the entire forgiveness of all of his sins, even the denials. And Peter, having finally begun to understand Jesus would proclaim, as we read in today’s lesson from Acts that he understands that God shows no partiality. In light of his past mistakes this sounds like a confession of repentance as much as a bold confession of faith. That Christ is risen, and that you believe that it happened for you matters. Paul later says that if Christ is not risen from the dead our faith is futile. But it happened and you can rejoice that it happened for it means that the price has been paid for your sins, the sacrifice has been made on your behalf. It means that God loved you enough to take upon Himself the burden of your sin. And the devil and the world will continue to try to tempt you to believe that it doesn’t matter, but through the continuous and repeated hearing of this good news, the receiving of the sacraments, and fellowship with each other you are armed for battle as your faith is strengthened.
On this morning we celebrate nothing short of the triumph over death itself. And it is not some story that we hold to to make us feel better, it is real. There is only one name under Heaven through Which you can receive the faith, hope and promise which sustained Peter, Paul and the two Marys. It is name of Christ Jesus-the One, praise God, who’s glorious resurrection led to the stone being rolled away and the tomb being empty.
The resurrection happened and it matters that it happened. For when you hear it’s call through Word and sacrament and believe that it happened for your salvation from sin and the devil, you are able to bask in the light of the empty tomb knowing that because death could not contain Christ it will not contain you either, and that you are no longer moving from life to death, but from death to life-the death of your sin to the glorious eternal life that awaits all of us in our Lord’s eternal Kingdom. He is risen!! He is risen indeed!!
Amen

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Palm Sunday
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Pontius Pilate asks this crowd that has been gathered in front of him “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” This is the crowd that just days before had welcomed Jesus with open arms as they shouted and proclaimed of Christ Jesus “Hosanna!! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our Father David! Hosanna in the highest!”
But now, after some prodding from the chief-priests, this same crowd, these same people are demanding that Pilate release the murdering insurrectionist Barabbas, and that Pilate would condemn Christ Jesus to death.
This crowd that upon Jesus’ arrival seemed so devoted and so enamored, now reveal themselves to be every bit as fickle as, well us. They loved Jesus when He was the latest fad, when it was cool to follow Jesus, but as soon as He fell out of favor, they wanted nothing to do with Him. And we would have been right there with them demanding the release of Barabbas, and the crucifixion of Jesus.
The crowd’s actions are evidence that Christ Jesus was a huge disappointment for them. Just days before they had been proclaiming Him to be the One who comes in the name of the Lord, bringing forth the kingdom of God. With that kind of buildup, how could they not have high expectations? How could they not have expected action? This Jesus is the One who comes bringing forth the Kingdom of God, what else would they expect but instant transformation and instant action?
And is that what they are seeing in Jesus as He stands in front of Pilate? No. Jesus is almost completely silent as He stands in front of Pilate. If you have a Bible that puts the words of Jesus in red letters, when you look in the sections and chapters that lead up to this moment where Jesus is standing in front of Pilate, you see many red-letter words; sentences and paragraphs, almost entire chapters all in red. But as the story gets to this point, the red-letter words almost completely disappear.
Jesus is not saying anything. He is not doing anything. He is not defending Himself. The only time Jesus says something in front of Pilate is when Pilate asks Him if He is the King of the Jews, to which Jesus says “You say so.”
At least Barabbas was a man of action. He was a revolutionary. This is how completely antithetical Jesus is to the hopes and desires that Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem had created in the hearts and minds of those crowds of people who had welcomed Him. He was such a disappointment, their dreams were so shattered that their demand for Jesus’ death was a bitter response to how Jesus had let them down.
Jesus was such a disappointment for this crowd that they had allowed themselves to be manipulated by the chief-priests to demand the release of a revolutionary. Jesus conforms so little to the popular expectations for a deliverer that the Jewish authorities find themselves making an alliance with the very type of person that posed a threat to those in authority-a revolutionary. When war was finally declared on Rome and the temple overthrown, the priestly class was overthrown by revolutionary leaders, like Barabbas.
But this crowd and the chief-priests looked at Barabbas, thinking that in him they saw life, but in reality the revolutionary behavior that he represented and signified merely led to death. But this is the case with us also. Jesus is just as much a stumbling block and foolishness for us today as He was for those crowds back then.
You see even though Jesus says very little in His encounter with Pontius Pilate, what He says completely exposes just how lost the crowds and chief-priests and Pilate were. The one thing that the chief-priests and the crowd and Pontius Pilate had in common was that for various reasons, they rejected Jesus’ answer to Pilate’s question. They rejected Jesus’ declaration, subtle as it was, that He is the King of the Jews and that He is the Messiah and the Son of God.
And that is what unites us with them. For on our own, we cannot recognize Jesus for who He is. On our own we would continue to reject and despise Jesus. As Luther says in the catechism, we cannot believe in Jesus or come to Him by our own power.
But as foolish at it may have appeared to those around Him, Christ Jesus was following the path that was laid out for Him and which God revealed through the prophet Isaiah centuries before Jesus had arrived; Here is our Lord giving His back to those who struck Him and His cheeks to those who pulled out His beard, setting His face like flint, knowing that in spite of what many will perceive to be a shameful appearance-His Father will not allow Him to be put to shame.
And Jesus does this by stepping out in faith. The entire life, death and resurrection of Christ Jesus was an obedient act of going forth in faith. Paul writes in the second lesson for this morning that Christ Jesus was born in human likeness. Paul here is giving no doubt that Christ Jesus experienced everything on a human level-all the pain and suffering that comes with being human. Though He was in the form of God and could have utilized that to escape pain and suffering, He didn’t because He did not regard His equality with God as anything to be exploited.
And so in faith, Christ Jesus came among us, and He became One of us. This is the faith that took Him up to this encounter with Pontius Pilate. And it is in this same faith that He was able to remain so silent and obedient in the face of Pilate’s interrogation, never once wavering in the direction of exploiting His equality with God-showing that perfect faithful obedience even unto death, even death on a cross.
You see when Pilate asked that question to the crowd “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” he had the mistaken notion that he was the one in control. In fact in John’s account of this, Jesus tells Pilate that the only authority that Pilate has, has come from God.
Pilate may have thought that he had Jesus under wraps and that by sending Jesus to His death, He was eliminating Jesus as a problem and a threat. And why not?? He was sentencing Him to death.
But what Pilate didn’t know was that by sending Jesus to His death, Pilate was in fact releasing Jesus to the people. He was releasing Him to the moment that Jesus knew was coming; the moment when He would lay down His life, taking upon Himself all of the sins of the world; Pontius Pilate’s, all those in the crowd, the chief-priests, mine and your’s, and bearing the punishment for them all-giving you the gift of righteousness before God, through the laying down of His life-and the gift of your salvation through His resurrection-making of death, the gateway to eternal life.
And the fruits of this faithful act of sacrifice and obedience could be seen immediately after Jesus breathed His last and we hear the centurion say “Truly this man was the Son of God.”
Faith was already being created, even prior to the resurrection. And indeed it would continue after the resurrection as the testimony of what Christ had done for all God’s people was brought forth and countless people were brought into the church of Christ, having repented and believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ; and now He comes to you giving you the faith that the chief-priests and Pontius Pilate and the crowd that called for Jesus’ crucifixion did not have. He has come to you through the Holy Spirit in His Word and revealed to you the glory of that moment that seemed so shameful.
He comes to you in His Word, opening your ear so that you will not be rebellious, so that you will not turn backward but rather turn to Him in repentance and receive the forgiveness of your sin in Word and sacrament, and that you will believe in Christ Jesus and see Him for who He is. The Word of Christ which you hear and is coming to you through the Words of my mouth-is filling you with the mind of Christ, keeping you among His own preserving you until that day when every knee, in heaven and earth and on earth and under the earth will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord-and you will be welcomed home to His glorious and eternal kingdom.
Amen

Sunday Mar 29, 2009

Fifth Sunday in Lent
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus reacts pretty strangely to these Greeks who wanted to meet Him. The use of the word Greek can generally be understood in the same manner as the word Gentile is used in the Bible. Greeks are always presented in contrast to Jews, so a reference to Greeks is a reference to Gentiles. What’s important to recognize by the arrival of these two Greeks is that now there are people outside of the bounds of Judaism seeking to know Jesus.
And when Andrew and Phillip tell Jesus that these Greeks would like to meet Him, Jesus reacts strangely. In fact a superficial reading of this might come to the conclusion that Jesus was kind of blowing them off. Jesus’ response almost seems to suggest that He doesn’t even hear them. Jesus says “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” He doesn’t even seem to acknowledge what He has just been told.
But the truth is, Jesus responds the way He does because of these gentiles. The extremely contemporary translation of the Bible, called “The Message” has Jesus saying, in response to the news about these Greeks, “Time’s up. The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” Now, I am not a big fan of these overly contemporary translations, but I like the inclusion of the phrase ‘Times up.’ It underscores the truth that the event of these Gentiles seeking to know Jesus is significant. The arrival of these Greeks is nothing less than a prelude of the Kingdom of God which is about to burst forth and to no longer be constrained by the boundaries of geographic Israel and Judaism.
The Gentiles are at the gates and they are desiring a share of the Kingdom, and to that Jesus says “Times up!! Time for the Son of Man to be glorified.” Jesus does not stick around and chat with these men. Instead He proclaims truth for all generations to come. Christ Jesus knows that with the arrival of these Gentiles the time has come for Him to fulfill His calling and His role as the High Priest in the order of Melchizedek. Jesus knows that with the arrival of these Greek Gentiles, the time has come for Him to be made the perfect source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him.
But Jesus’ explanation for how this is going to happen flies in the face of what the disciples, these Gentiles, and every one of us if we were there, would have been expecting. The time has come for Jesus to be glorified. So when you think of someone being glorified, what do you think of??
Maybe you think of throngs of people surrounding someone in adoration. Maybe you think of people having great regard and esteem for someone to such a degree that they leave their homes and families to follow this person and tell others about Him. And Jesus had experienced much of that prior to this. But now the time had come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Now things were going to change.
On His way to being glorified, Jesus would see the ones who were waiting with baited breath to hear His next Word, one-by-one deny Him in one way or the other. He would see the people in these very same crowds that once adored Him as the blessed One who comes in the name of the Lord, soon would be calling for His crucifixion, and the release of a murderer named Barrabbas.
This is what our Lord is talking about when He says that unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies it produces many seeds. The glorification that Christ Jesus was preparing to enter into is a glorification that would come through His suffering and death. And His suffering and death would bring forth much fruit, especially among the Gentiles. It is through suffering and death, that He fulfills His role as our High Priest, becoming the source of our salvation.
And it is through the suffering and death of Christ Jesus, on our behalf, that the new covenant is brought forth. It is through Christ’s suffering and death that He will draw people to Himself, Jew and Gentile alike. What will look to the world like a moment of despair and sadness for Jesus, as He is dying on the cross, is actually the moment of His glorification and the continuing work of God to bring forth His new Kingdom. We see a foretaste of this with the arrival of King David when he united the two separate kingdoms of Israel and Judah.
And now with the arrival of the Gentiles, Jesus knows that the hour of His glorification has come. The time has come for the bursting forth of the New Covenant. But this will be about much more than simply bringing together two Kingdoms, or even bringing the Gentiles into God’s Kingdom. For the fulfillment of the New Covenant in Christ Jesus is not just about the bringing together of two earthly kingdoms, but the coming together of God and man. It is about the restoring of the relationship between God and man that we destroyed with our sin.
And this covenant is not limited to geographic Israel or Judaism. In fact it has little to do with a place or a religion. This has to do with our Lord calling His people to Himself through His perfect life, death and resurrection. It is about a new Kingdom and a new creation, created and brought forth by the Gospel of our Lord. It is about our Lord making all things new by laying down His life on the cross, fulfilling all righteousness for you, bearing the punishment of your sin.
The glorification of our Lord Jesus is the continuation of the coming forth of His Kingdom, which is not of this World; which is not defined by geography or religion but faith; faith that began with Christ Jesus’ perfect faith that took Him to the cross, even as His heart troubled Him, because He knew that it was for that very hour of His glorification that He came; faith that led to God the Father acknowledging that the faithful obedience of Christ was in fact glorifying God’s name. And this continues with the faith that you receive in baptism.
With the new covenant comes a new Kingdom and your place in this Kingdom is not built upon your being born into the right earthly family or your ability to follow the law. It is built upon your Lord Christ Jesus coming to you in the waters of baptism and claiming you as His own. It is built upon the perfect obedience of Christ Jesus, your High Priest, going into death for you so to become your perfect source of salvation, calling you to Him and producing in you seeds of faith, and nurturing and cultivating those seeds of faith through the hearing of His holy Word and the receiving of the sacraments.
And so now that you have been called to the foot of the cross; now that the Holy Spirit has called, gathered, enlightened, and sanctified you in the faith and you have been filled with faith, now you are told that you are to hate your life in this world. But, as a new covenant has been established and a new kingdom has been brought forth, know that this is not the type of hatred that one experiences in the temporal old Kingdom of the flesh. It’s simply the comfort of knowing the promise of Christ- that you belong to Christ and that He has prepared a place for you in His Kingdom, and that nothing will snatch you out of His hands, and knowing that nothing in this world can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus your Lord.
But you still must contend with the old Kingdom and the old creation in you, and Satan. As we read in this lesson, the prince of this world, or Satan has been driven out. This is to say that ultimately Satan has no power. But he is still at work in this world. We know that he has been defeated, and when Christ returns, Satan will be permanently removed from our presence. But we must still contend with him. And nothing scares the old sinner more than dying. And death and the fear of death is one of Satan’s most fearsome weapons, and he uses it on us whenever he can-tempting us to cling not to the cross of Christ, but to the temporary things of this world, to our money, our cars, our homes etc.
And so the One who was glorified by laying down His life on the cross for you, continues to call you to Himself in Word and sacrament; clinging to you, holding onto you when you are tempted to cling to this dying old world. And this ultimately is the answer that Jesus gives to these Gentiles who want to see Him-that a New covenant was being established and it would begin with His glorification on the cross, upon which He would call them and you to Him, as He is doing right now, for He is your High Priest and your perfect source of salvation, and you are included in His new covenant and He promises to keep you in this new covenant.

Sermon Sunday, Mar 22 2009

Fourth Sunday in Lent
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our Lord Jesus comes to us today with a harsh Word. He comes to us with a judgment. In fact in verse 19 of the Gospel lesson, John writes “And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.” John says that all who do evil, hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed.
Well there is no doubting that the exposing of evil deeds can have devastating effects on the way we live our lives. Just look at the economy. In the midst of the current economic crisis we have seen the light creeping into the crevices and hidden areas of some of our largest financial institutions and it has revealed predatory lending, negligent oversight and outright embezzlement.
But this light that creeps into the darkness and exposes evil, sin, and wrong-doing does not shine only on wall-street billionaires. It shines on all of us. The judgment is that we all love the darkness, and that we hate the light and do not come to the light. But perhaps you think “Wait a minute. I don’t walk in the darkness. I am here in church.”
And granted you are here in church. You are receiving God’s Word. Your Lord is coming to you once again in the proclamation of His Good news. Your faith is being enriched, nurtured and sustained in you. But what of when you leave here? Will you keep your faith to yourself? Will church be just that thing that you do on Sunday for an hour or so? Will you bring this faith home; to your family-to your kids, to your spouse, to your neighbor?
The Light has come into the world but people loved darkness. So do we love this light that exposes us for the sinners that we are? Do we love this light that confronts us with the reality that by ourselves we are simply wandering around in the dark. Or do we love this dark world that says to us “You keep that light to yourself?” Do we fear rejection and possible embarrassment from this world of darkness more than we love the Light of God?
But those things that we fear-those things that we cling to that keep us in the darkness really just scrape the surface. The things that we fear in this world; whether it be the loss of our financial stability through an economic crisis or simply the fear of rejection and embarrassment from our friends and neighbors or whatever worldly matters we allow to have rule over our lives; it all just amounts to nothing in light of the real crisis that is at hand in our wandering around in the dark.
For the real crisis is in the fact that what is ultimately at stake is God’s judgment. Our love of the darkness leads us away from God and into unbelief and idolatry. And it’s even worse because it’s not just us doing this to ourselves. Paul writes of this state of walking in darkness in the lesson from Ephesians, and he gets right down to the real terror of what it means to walk in darkness.
Paul refers to this state of walking in darkness as a state of following the course of this world and following the ruler of the power of the air-the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. So it is not just our own inherent disobedience that leads to us wandering around in the dark, but it is the temptation that the devil and this sinful world throw our way. Our hearts are ruled by the passions of our flesh and the empty promises and threats of Satan.
And we are powerless to this. We know that we are powerless to this because in this passage from Ephesians our Lord tells us that left on our own, walking in darkness, bound to the passions of our flesh, we are dead through our trespasses and sins. The wages of sin is death, Paul tells us in Romans, and that is the state that this darkness that we love leaves us in.
And so as we cling to this darkness that we love too much we are already dead, we are destined for wrath and condemnation. Dead through our trespasses and sins, we are as good as declared guilty at the judgment to come. It seems there is no hope for us, for we are dead. Dead people cannot save themselves. It’s going to take someone to intervene on our behalf. It’s going to take someone pulling us out of our darkness of sin and despair. Radical intervention is what it takes to bring dead sinners back to life.
But we have a God who is willing to intervene on our behalf. He has shown this throughout history. He intervened on behalf of the Israelites when they were in their own darkness. But just as today, the light had to enter into the darkness of their sin and despair. The Israelites were wandering around in the darkness of their own grumbling and despair, wanting to actually return back to their bondage and slavery in Egypt. And then God sent to the Israelites a light of judgment in the form of poisonous serpents and their sin and bondage was exposed to them, as many of them were bitten by the serpents and died.
And in repentance they appeal to Moses to pray to God to take away the serpents. And God tells Moses to take a poisonous serpent and put it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at the serpent and live. And so Moses does as he is told and sure enough when someone looked upon the serpent upon the pole they were healed. The very thing that was killing them was now healing them.
And so the very Light of Christ that comes to us, revealing our sins to us and exposing us as the dead sinners that we are, now comes to you making you alive together with Christ. For when you look up at the cross and see Christ Jesus, laying down His life for you, you are seeing the wages of your sin; the very thing that was killing you, being paid for.
When you see His holy and precious blood dripping from His hands and feet you are seeing God’s great and glorious mercy being extended out to you, out of the love with which your Lord loves you. When you look to Christ Jesus on the cross you see your Lord coming to you when you were dead in your trespasses and making you alive together with Christ Jesus.
And so today He continues to come to you in Word and sacrament; through the proclamation of the Good news, through the confession and absolution, through the eating and the drinking of the body and blood of your Lord Christ Jesus in the bread and the wine of Holy Communion and in the waters of baptism-in all of this the Light of Christ continues to come in the darkness of the passions of our flesh, as we follow the desires of our flesh and senses- the Light comes exposing our sins to us-exposing that we fear the wrath of embarrassment and rejection from our neighbor and the world, more than we fear the wrath of our Creator.
And He calls you to look upon Christ Jesus in repentance and believe upon Him and what He has done for you and is doing for you. Through the Word being proclaimed to you in the words of my mouth Christ is assuring you of your forgiveness, that the blood He shed on the cross was for you and your justification and that His resurrection was for your salvation. He is daily raising you up with Him in the heavenly places.
And so, having been freed from the darkness of sin, death and the devil-the darkness of the passions of the flesh-through faith in Christ Jesus you no longer need to fear the wrath of God. You don’t even need to fear the wrath of embarrassment or rejection from your neighbor. You are no longer dead through your trespasses and sin, you are alive with Christ. You have been rescued from the darkness and placed in the light. So go forth from here walking in the Light, spilling forth with that Light to your neighbor and doing in faith and freedom the good works prepared beforehand for you-hearing in faith the call of your Lord as He keeps you in the Light of eternal life in the heavenly places with Him.
Amen

Sermon-Sunday March 15 2009

Third Sunday in Lent
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
What are we to make of this angry Jesus who confronts us in this morning’s Gospel lesson? Or perhaps more to the point; “What is Jesus making of us, with the anger that He displays in this morning’s Gospel lesson?” And this is not simply one of those “That’s a lot of anger for Jesus” moments. This is a lot of anger for anyone to display.
He comes into the temple and He sees that the temple is filled with people selling all sorts of livestock. There are money-changers which would indicate that the temple had been turned into a marketplace as Jesus would say later. In response Jesus pours out all the change, overturns the tables, makes a whip of chords, He doesn’t use it to actually whip anybody but to get their attention and to drive them out of the temple.
This flies in the face of the contemplative, sorrowful, merciful and compassionate image of Jesus that we seem to so often limit our understanding of Jesus to. Jesus is angry here. Jesus, a circumcised and faithful Jew, comes to Jerusalem on the dawn of Passover; the holiest day of the year for Jews; and He sees nothing but contempt and disregard for all holy things.
The reason people were selling livestock around Passover was because, the male members of the Jewish nation were required to come to Jerusalem three times a year; Passover being one of those times. But because of their distant travel they would not have been able to bring their own animals to sacrifice, which would have been a big part of the celebration, so local merchants began selling livestock. It was a profitable business and it had been going on for a long time. Captialism was not the sin here, as some might like to suggest.
You see the problem was the location. The market was in the lower part of the city. Then it had worked it’s way to the gates of the temple. And now it had finally come into the very courts of the sanctuary. Today, it would have been as if, parading around in this very sanctuary there were people selling cows and camels and donkeys and doves. And today, instead of money-changers, we’d probably have credit card machines and ATM’s.
And this would not have been just in the narthex or outside the church. I am talking right here in the sanctuary. And it’s not like any of the money would have been going to the church. Because the people the in temple were all raising money only for themselves. And so, you can see why Jesus would be so angry. And for Jesus this wasn’t simply a sacred place of worship, it was His Father’s house. These people had turned the place where Jesus could go and commune with His Father probably in a way that He couldn’t do anywhere else, into a marketplace and filled it with the stench of these animals. And so Jesus gets mad and makes a scene and turns over some tables, pours out some coins and drives people away with a whip.
And when He is confronted about this by the Jews who ask Him to show a sign that would validate His authority because He had made such a mess, Jesus tells them to destroy the temple and in three days He will raise it up. This is of course a reference to His death and resurrection, but the Jews of course did not understand that. And in fairness, neither really did the disciples until the resurrection.
And with this declaration of His coming death and resurrection, Christ Jesus is saying much more about His death and resurrection than that it would be a validation of His authority as the Son of God although that is part of it. But with this declaration of His death and resurrection, Jesus is declaring that He Himself is the temple.
Christ Jesus is here pronouncing Himself as the great sanctuary for all mankind over all the ages. You see, before Christ Jesus, the temple was considered the holy place because it was the temple. It was where God’s law was heard. It was sacred because it was confessed to be the very house of God, and not just in the folksy way that we say it today about church. They literally believed and confessed that the temple was the house where God lived and God was present there because that was where God’s Word was heard. And so an offense against the temple was considered an offense against the Father. And so in Jesus’ case an offense against the temple was an offense against His Father.
But now Christ Jesus comes, proclaiming Himself to be the temple. And Christ Jesus, being the Word incarnate means that an offense against God’s Word is an offense against Christ Jesus. And so an offense against the Gospel is an offense against Christ Jesus, it is an offense against God. And in this truth, that an offense against the Gospel is an offense against God, in this reality, we see that we are every bit as guilty as those merchants in the temple. We have made just as much a mockery of the holy temple of the Lord as those merchants that our Lord Jesus drove out of the temple.
For our natural inclination is not to embrace the Gospel, but to reject it as foolishness. Don’t believe me? Look all around at the state of American Christianity. All across America the largest and fastest growing churches are churches where the preachers have replaced the biblical Gospel of redemption with a revisionist gospel of pop-psychology and good advice. The Gospel has been reduced in many churches to a message of advice to save us from temporary unpleasantness, as opposed to the biblical Gospel of eternal redemption from God’s eternal damnation. The biblical Gospel of eternal salvation has been reduced to something that needs to be made relevant with trickery and deception, as opposed to the biblical Gospel which is relevant and authoritative unto itself.
But our rejection of the Gospel does not need to be so overt as these examples. For every time we sin we show our natural inclination to reject the Gospel as foolishness. The law was given to expose our sin to us. So every time you hear “You shall have no other Gods before me.” You are reminded of those things that you daily make into other gods. When you hear the 8th commandment you are reminded of your predilection to gossiping. We are commanded also not to covet. Try walking through a new car lot without coveting. Jesus Himself says that by even holding an angry thought against someone you are guilty of murder. Does this sound harsh to you? Well if it does, then once again you are showing your natural inclination to reject the Gospel as foolishness.
For as Paul says in the second lesson “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.” And Paul says in Ephesians that we are born dead in our trespasses. And so, on our own, even in our most wise and imaginative moments, we are merely among the perishing for whom the message of the cross in mere foolishness.
But our Lord Jesus, being the temple who redeems us, is true to His Word. And so when it looked like we had destroyed Him with our sin and deceit and prideful refusal to hear the Gospel as anything but foolishness, Christ Jesus showed Himself true to His Word and the temple that He is was raised for our salvation.
And the price for all the sin that we thrust upon Him in our attempts to destroy the temple that is Christ Jesus with our sinful refusal to hear the Gospel as anything but foolishness has been paid. And in the waters of baptism, He claimed you as His and then brought you, kicking and screaming into your death, and with His word raised you as a new creation. And now the Word that claimed you in baptism and called you to new life in Christ Jesus dwells richly in you, and so you are also a temple. For it is the Word of God that makes something sacred. This pulpit is just a wood structure by itself, but when the Word is preached from it, it is a sacred instrument of God’s grace. The water in that font is merely water, but with God’s Word a means of grace by which sinners are cleansed and claimed for the Body of Christ and made temples. The wine and bread are merely food by themselves, but with God’s Word they are the precious gifts of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus bringing to you His good gifts of faith, forgiveness, redemption and sanctification.
I am merely a sinner, but when the Holy Spirit comes to me in God’s Word and the Word flows through me out to you, I am a preacher and a newly-raised temple. And you, having receivied God’s good gifts in Word and sacrament, have the Word of God flowing through you and you are newly raised temples, and every time you recveive these gifts you are raised anew. And so you have been freed to go forth to your neighbor and bring the temple that you are to them, spilling forth to them, the love, faithfulness, mercy and Word of Christ that creates faith and frees you from your blind rejection of the Gospel as foolishness and opens up to you the truth that the Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.
Amen