Using What You Have

 Luke 16:1-9

Now He was also saying to the disciples, "There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and this steward was reported to him as squandering his possessions.  And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you?  Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.'

"And the steward said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the stewardship away from me?  I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg.  I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the stewardship, they will receive me into their homes.'

"And he summoned each one of his master's debtors, and he began saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?'  And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.' And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.'  Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?'  And he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.' He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.'

"And his master praised the unrighteous steward because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light.  And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the mammon of unrighteousness; that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings."

Sermon for Ninth Sunday After Trinity                      08/02/26

Using What You Have

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Have you ever had a bad day?  Of course you have.  But, I am willing to bet that it wasn't as bad a day as the day described by Jesus in the parable in our Gospel lesson this morning.  That man was having a really bad day.  Jesus tells the parable to make the point about using what you have to the best effect.  I want to take you through the lesson and discuss that point.  Our theme is, "Using What You have."

In order to make sense of the parable, you need to remember a couple of facts about what Jesus refers to as a "steward" in our Gospel.  In English, we might call someone in his position a manager or an administrator.  In the day and culture of Jesus' Israel, the office was called, in Aramaic, a "shaliak".  A Shaliak would be a manager with extraordinary authority, from the twenty-first century perspective.  He could make deals that his master did not approve of, and the deal was made as surely and with the same authority as though the master had done it himself.  That is why the "squandering" of the master's possessions was such a serious thing.  His employer had no recourse to recover mismanaged funds.

Everyone in Jesus' day would have known this.  This is just how things worked back then.  What was happening was something like what happened to Joe Louis, when his managers squandered all that he had earned, and the champ was left penniless, and so had to keep fighting just to make a living, day to day.  Unlike Joe Louis, the master in the parable discovered the problem in time to keep from going broke, and when he fired the steward, the steward had to leave his employment with the shirt on his back and nothing more - unlike Joe's crooked managers, who left quite well-off.

So, the man was going from relative wealth to absolute poverty overnight. He faced reality squarely.  He was not cut out for heavy labor - probably as much due to age and long inactivity as anything, and he couldn't bear the thought of begging - which was the first century's unemployment and social security plan all rolled up into one.  Back then, you worked, or you begged and depended on the generosity of the townspeople, or you starved.  It was a simple equation.  Just like today, the townspeople would grudgingly support a truly needy beggar or two, but if too many were to appear, the generosity of the people around the area would dry right up.  Unlike today, they were often less than kind even to the beggars they happened to support.  That was strange too, because their religious duty required them to be generous to the needy- so they needed beggars.  But, in truth, they had an abundance of needy people around them, widows and orphans and the disabled, and they did not need or want any more.

So, our hero was not inclined to beg.  He faced an existential dilemma.  His conduct had deprived him of his livelihood, as the ways of the foolish often do, and he was unable or unwilling to do the things that were left open to him.  When he took stock of his situation, he found himself left with only one option; lie, cheat, and steal.  He could use the remaining hours of his authority over another man's riches to build a nest egg for himself at his soon-to-be-former master's expense.  That is what he did.

He reduced the debts of his master's wealthier debtors by significant amounts, in all likelihood with the expressed understanding that they would owe him for his duplicity on their behalf.  He certainly expected a return on his graft.  That is what "so that when I am removed from the stewardship, they will receive me into their homes" meant.  And when his duplicity was discovered, "his master praised the unrighteous steward because he had acted shrewdly".  The parable doesn't tell us if he managed to keep his job, or whether his scheming worked or anything like that, because this is, after all, a parable - and not a real recounting of historical events.  The point of the story has been made, so Jesus did not need to add any more to the story.

The point is, "the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light".  People tend to exercise more intelligence and realistic thinking when they deal with the passing things of this world than Christians do dealing with the eternal realities of Christ.  People manage their portfolio's with care.  They know where their money is.  They calculate cash-flow and appreciation rates and almost always know how this or that action will serve their self-interest before they act.  This is not universally true - there are poor people and lousy managers out there, but generally, people pay attention to their things - and generally they follow easy to understand principles for self-preservation and self-advantage.  We lock our cars.  We don't loan our credit cards to strangers.  We try not to create havoc for ourselves when we are thinking clearly.

Christians are not so ‘shrewd'.  We often fail to live according to our theology.  We say we believe something, but we often act as though we do not.  We frequently value the things of this world in ways that suggest that they are the more permanent and significant, and faith, and fellowship with our fellow-believers, and doctrine, and the life of our family - the congregation - take a back seat to toys, and personal pleasures, and ideas and activities that often directly contradict our faith.  Christians often have their ‘faith' in a mental "lock-box" kept separate from how they think and how they speak and how they act in regards to life-in-general.  We see Christians placing the esteem and society of the unbelieving before the people and things of our faith.  And we behave as though life in this world is to be adhered to at any cost, as though the promises and hope of the Gospel are not real.

Jesus mean to draw your attention to that by means of this parable.  When he says, "And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the mammon of unrighteousness; that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings", He is addressing what we might call the disconnect between what we confess and what we actually do.

The ‘mammon of unrighteousness' refers to the ‘stuff' of this world.  When Jesus says to make friends for yourself with it, He doesn't mean to use it to make friends of society or people around you, but to use it in ways that are consistent with your confession.

Let's face it, if we were to look at the church with the expectation that how we used our gifts of faith, doctrine, forgiveness, and the ‘mammon of unrighteousness' , we would come away with an entirely different picture of what the Christian faith was about than what we confess that we believe.  Synods and church bodies would appear to be about the accumulation of buildings and nest-eggs filled with cash and promoting a progressive social agenda in society at large.  Teaching about that guy in the Bible would not appear to be a priority at all.  Sound doctrine and clear confession appear to have no particular place here.  Advancing Biblical morality would take a back seat to looking good in the eyes of society and garnering the esteem of the secular authorities.

Judging by their actions, congregations would appear to be having a race about size and impressive edifices, and hosting tea-parties and selling barbecued meats and baked goods.  Sharing the good news of the grace of God, helping people to hear about their salvation, and encouraging one another to stand firm in the faith once delivered to us does not appear to dominate congregational activities very often.  The most active churches in some communities give away food to anyone who wants to take it, provide clothing for those who want to wear hand-me-downs, and host concerts and other cultural events for the community.  Garage sales are big.  Dinner fund-raisers are common, although they rarely seem to be raising funds for the actual spread of the Gospel.  We are instructed to build "evangelism" by meeting the community needs for day-care centers and alcoholic anonymous meetings.  And we are told that social service is "mission work".

Finally, individual Christians often behave as though everything else in life is more urgent than the faith - - or the other faithful.  The situation reminds me of the observation that if you want to quit fishing, move to the lake.  People do that, you know.  They move to the thing they say they value, and then, because it is right there, they know they can do it any time, and so everything else steps in and takes it's place.  Before you know it, you haven't been out in a boat for years because, ‘Awwww, you can do that any time - so let's go do this or that today and fish tomorrow.'

The Church is here, and presumably will be tomorrow, and next week, and next month, so the weekend visit to someone someplace else is more urgent.  One ‘needs' the things of life, and one can theoretically give more tomorrow, so one buys things today that aren't needs, and treats the Gospel and the fellowship of the faithful like something that they might attend to when there is nothing more exciting - nothing more interesting - to do.  You really do care about fellow believers, but your garden, your projects, your relatives, your vacation get away's, and your (you can fill in the blank here) are urgent, and just as important as . . . , and consume your attention.  And think about this: if anything is just as important as God, Jesus, faith, and salvation, you are no longer really a Christian.

Let's face the truth: what is more important than God's Word?  What do we need more than the gifts of God which He delivers to us in worship?  Who is really more important than our brothers and sisters in Christ, given to us by God to love and to care for and to encourage?  What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and to lose his own soul?  Are we dealing with the things of Christ as we want to when we think about faith and the Gospel and such?  How are you using what you have?

What Jesus is teaching by means of the parable is that we ought to be more shrewd in our dealings with the things of the world in ways that reflect and undergird our confession and our hope.  We are to use the things of this world in ways that help the proclamation of the gospel, or in ways that tend toward our spiritual health - you know, like going to church and Bible Study regularly, or reading good books, or financing the preaching and teaching of the Word of God both here and in the distant parts of the mission field.

Being shrewd might suggest not throwing money at "mission programs" that do not actually do missions, or not allowing ourselves to be confused by the popularity of social ministries of compassion and thinking that they are evangelism of some sort.  Social ministries are surely good works, and we should be about helping others in such ways, but we should never confuse that with missions or evangelism.  Being "shrewd in relation to your own kind" as "sons of light" means dealing with one another as beloved brothers and sisters in the household of God.  That means we care about one another, and know who is hurting, and who is in need of something we can provide, and understanding – or at least thinking about – what we can do to encourage one another and help each other live lives of peace and contentment here and now as the children of God in Christ Jesus.

Our failures in regard to one another are legion - and when I preach like this, I suspect I stir up a bit of guilt.  Some of you probably think that I am preaching down to you, as though I think that I do this stuff all the way it should be, and you are the only ones to miss the mark.  But it is not that way.  I recognize that I am not as "shrewd" in regard to my brothers and sisters in Christ as I might be either.  My only comfort is that we are, together, "sons of light".  We are the children of God, redeemed and forgiven for the sake of the death of Christ on the cross on our behalf, and His resurrection for our justification.

So, if you fall short of this shrewd stewardship of the mammon of unrighteousness, take comfort; your sins are forgiven.  And take a lesson from Jesus about using what you have.  God has given you all that you possess, your time, your abilities, your possessions and wealth, for His purposes, not merely for your own enrichment and entertainment.  Think about the steward in the parable and ask yourself how will you want to have used what you have when you are called to give an account of your stewardship?  You are going to go to heaven because of Christ, so that is not the question.  The question is, as one of God's chosen and beloved children, how do you want to be using what you have?

He that has ears to hear, let him hear.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)

Setting Priorities

 Luke 14:16-24

But He said to him, "A certain man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.'  But they all alike began to make excuses.  The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.'  And another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.'  And another one said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.'

"And the slave came back and reported this to his master.  Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.'  And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.'

"And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.  For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.'"

Sermon for Second Sunday After Trinity                                         06/14/26

Setting Priorities

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

"First things first."  That is the saying I have heard all of my life.  It is all about setting one's priorities.  For most of my life, the temptation has always been to do everything first but what needed to be done, and then to do that only when confronted by a deadline.  I have had a great deal of success managing things by facing a deadline - and I have often found it difficult to organize myself and motivate myself to do things before they needed to be done.  When I am really under the gun, I often find myself helplessly drawn to read a good book, further increasing the pressure to get things done.  One might suspect that I have trouble setting priorities.

But I do not.  I know what is important, generally, and I always have my eye on the ball, so to speak, even if I don't seem to be paying any attention at all.  My seeming inattention is simply how my brain works and organizes things.  So far, I have never shown up for church without my sermon ready, the paper I was to deliver in hand, or my assignment incomplete.  If it sounds strange to you, how I approach things, imagine how it seems to me, since this is not a conscious avoidance thing.  It just works that way.

The people in the story Jesus tells have lost their sense of priority, or they have set their priorities poorly.  Jesus tells us this parable to focus on two aspects of the story - the ones who were invited, but did not come, and the response of the man who was giving the dinner to the casual disrespect of his invitation.  Israel was the invited guests, and the host is God, the dinner is salvation, and we are the ones along the highway and in the hedges, the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.  Our theme is Setting Priorities.

To be honest, the parable is not properly understood without the context of the entire chapter of Luke in which it appears.  Jesus is facing a test at the home of Pharisee to which He had been invited to eat.  They bring a man in to see if Jesus will heal him on the Sabbath.  Jesus asks them for their judgment in the situation, and they refuse to speak, so He heals the man.  Then Jesus explains His action by asking them about which one of them would allow an ox or a son to fall into a well on the Sabbath, and not rescue it or him?  Clearly, it is an issue of priorities: Sabbath Law or Ox or son?  Just as clearly, Jesus expects them to choose the ox or the son, but to say so might be seen as blasphemy, so they keep silent.

Then Jesus talks about humility.  He advises that they not seek the place of honor when invited to a dinner, but take the lowest seat, and allow themselves to be honored by being moved up, rather than shamed by being made to give the place of honor to someone else, and be humiliated.  Of course, there are risks with humility.  Your host might not see anything amiss in your taking the place of least significance, and then you will find out where you really belong, in his estimation.  The question is, which is more important, the place of honor with the risk of embarrassment, or the opportunity for recognition and honor with the risk of finding out that you do not merit any - but without the humiliation before others?  Again, it is a question of setting priorities.

Then Jesus tells the man who had invited Him that when he gives a luncheon, he should not invite family and friends, people he would like to impress who might also return the kindness of his invitation, but rather invite those who would have need of the invitation, and no means to repay his kindness - the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.  Jesus says that such kindness would be repaid by God at the resurrection.  This presents another setting of priorities - good times and good will here and now, or later with the Lord.

At this point in the narrative, someone spouts off with the seemingly out-of-place comment, "Blessed is everyone who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!"  I have kind of puzzled over that for a while, but I never got too intense with it because it was the verse just before our Gospel text for this Sunday in the Church Year, and I was always wanting to preach about the invitation, and our gracious inclusion in the banquet of salvation.  Still, it was an odd interjection.  At first, I thought the person was crying out some odd praise of God and of salvation, but the more I thought about it, the less it seemed to fit.  Why say that now, in this place in the story?  And why, in seeming response to the outburst, does Jesus tell the parable of the banquet spurned?

Then it struck me.  It is just like when I preach about how rich we are, and how God gives us our riches for His purposes, and I get the sort of responses that say, 

"There is nothing wrong with my going on vacation, 

or owning nice things, 

or visiting my children in another state.  

When you preach about how we use our time or our things, Pastor, you make me feel guilty.  But I have every right to do with my life and my possessions what I please.  You can't tell me I have to do this or that to go to heaven." 

Of course, I cannot - and I really do not want to.  That would contradict the Gospel.

Jesus was talking about priorities, and confronting how everyone tends to deal with life, and with one another, and with God.  He was explaining how God looked at things - the divine values and priorities, and the guy who shouted out the "Blessed is everyone who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!" was trying to excuse their priorities, and dismiss what Jesus was saying by saying "We are all going to eat bread in the kingdom, and no one is going to be unhappy to be there, so what difference does it make if do this or that, how we manage the little stuff, or how we treat the poor?"  It was a "Just get off our back!" kind of thing.  Being Jews, you know, the Chosen People, they knew they were going to go to heaven, and they really wanted to pay more attention to life on earth, right now, and worry about heaven once they got there.

Jesus' response said, in effect, that might be true for those who are going to heaven - but how do you know that you are going to make it?  Jesus took the presupposition which lay behind the man's statement, and showed him the truth about it and what it meant.  Israel - as individuals, not as the entire nation - lived more or less just as the man had asserted.  They lived like so many of us twenty-first century Christians live today; taking God and eternity for granted, and making the most of the day we live in, but according to the purposes of the flesh, not according to the purposes of God.

The moment came - and it is never at convenient time that it comes - and the call went out, the dinner is ready, everything is prepared, come to the feast.  But those invited - the Chosen People - found themselves too wrapped up in the affairs of life to heed the invitation.  The one was busy with land he had purchased.  The next was occupied with oxen - five yoke of ‘em.  The third was newly married.  Who could deny them the right to business, wealth, or family?  Surely, they had every right, and it was all God-given, so no one could say it was evil gain or something they ought not to have or ought not to be doing.  Still, when the call to the dinner came, the dinner took second place to the other things.

Was the dinner less important to them?  I don't think so.  Did they not care about the dinner?  I would guess that is not true either.  It was just a matter of priorities.  Israel had gotten so wrapped up in living in the blessings of God that they lost sight of both the Giver and of the purpose of the gifts.  The land, the oxen, and the wife were more real and more urgent to them than God and salvation.  They didn't say they didn't want God or eternal life, they just wanted them on their terms and when they were ready.  They had forgotten that love and hate in the sight of God is not the same as it is in our thoughts.  With God it is a matter of setting priorities, and anything preferred to or more urgent than God means you love that thing and despise God.

Because they found everything more urgent and real than God and faith and salvation, they were found to be unworthy - and God went out and dragged the socially unworthy in and gave them the banquet.  You and I are those blind, crippled, lame, and worthless people who just happen to have stumbled into the riches of eternal life and salvation.  We did not find it or choose it, but we were found in the hedges and the back-alleys of life and compelled to come in.  That is the grace of God.

Jesus prepared the feast of salvation by His death on the cross for our sins, and dragged us into the dinner hall without asking for our consent.  See, the banquet rests on the table before you this morning!  Here is life and salvation, forgiveness and peace, and resurrection and joy.

Of course, now that we have become the chosen ones, we also run the risk of taking it for granted, and finding other things more exciting - and more urgent - and more pleasurable, and skipping the meal anyhow.  But this parable does not tell you ‘to beware', it tells you of the wonderful grace of God in bringing you into this banquet of life and salvation, so that you may rejoice and give thanks!  Still, we can see what ‘taking it for granted' can lead to, or rather, lead away from.

It is about setting priorities.  The argument about priorities is not with me, or with Jesus.  It is an argument with your flesh.  God will not be put in second place, and salvation will not wait for you to exercise your perfect rights as an American to have and to do and to go and to enjoy.   If there are more urgent things in your life, well, then there are more urgent things in your life.  We ask nothing you cannot freely give or do.  The Lord loves a cheerful giver.

But remember, while everyone in heaven is going to be delighted to be there, not everyone who thinks they are going will be in heaven.  Those who take it so much for granted that they can count other things more precious or more urgent run the risk of finding that the call to the banquet that they were waiting for came while they were busy with something else - too busy to come to the banquet.

Look at what you've got.  Count the blessedness of being dragged in, unworthy though we are, to the banquet of Salvation.  Give thanks, and keep your wits about you.  You are chosen for something you don't deserve, but you really want and need.

 Do not marvel, brethren, if the world hates you.  We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren.  He who does not love abides in death. . . .  We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.  . . .  Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)

What Are You Hearing?

 John 8:46-47

"Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me?  He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God."

Sermon for Judica Sunday                                                  03/22/26

What Are You Hearing?

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Let me present you with a conundrum, this morning.  One truth that we have observed is that your perception determines reality for you.  A second truth is that reality shapes your perceptions.  The conundrum, or puzzle, is which truth is most persuasive in your life?

First, we observe that who you are and what your prejudices and values are can shape what you perceive.  A situation may be seen as a failure, or an opportunity.  A helping hand may be perceived as a kind thing, or condescension, a ‘leg-up' or an attempt to weaken and disable.  How often does it happen that something you think is good is described by someone else as a bad thing?  This power of perception to change reality for you is at least partially responsible for the animosity of the radical Islamicists for America.  They perceive our freedom as an evil thing, a fundamentally immoral condition that must be eradicated.  Clearly, how you look at things changes the reality of what they are for you, and how they function in your life.

The same example of the radical Muslim also demonstrates how reality shapes your perceptions.  It is his poverty and his commitment to a certain kind of Islamic thought that causes Him to think of liberty as dangerous.  Other examples might include how a woman perceives certain things differently than a man simply because she is a woman, or how the reality that something has never been accomplished before causes people to perceive it to be impossible , or beyond their reach.  I often use the example of Roger Bannister, the first man to ever run a mile in less than four minutes.  It was May 6th, 1954.  He ran the mile in just six tenths of a second less than four minutes, but he was the first man to accomplish it in well over a century of people trying.  His record was broken in less than three months, and the current record is three minutes forty-three point thirteen seconds.  Until Roger Bannister did it, everyone thought it was impossible, and once he did it, they all knew they could, and did.

Our text is another example of the conundrum.  It is also a deeper mystery which amazes us, and gives us cause to praise God, and totally disallows decision theology, and finally asks us to ask ourselves a question, the question that is our theme this morning, "What do you hear?"

"He who is of God hears the words of God."  Here is the conundrum presented.  Who you are, the reality, shapes what you can perceive - the Word of God.  Everyone who was listening to Jesus was hearing the same words, weren't they?  Yet they were not all believing what Jesus said - in other words, they were not perceiving what they heard to be the Word of God, nor "hearing" it in the sense that they believed it and understood the truth of His words.  Jesus said that they reason they could not perceive it was the reality of who they were - or, more precisely, who they were not.  They were not "of God."

Before our text, in John, chapter 8, Jesus preached that unless they came to know Him and trust in Him they would die in their sins.  He explained that He was the Savior, the Messiah who was prophesied.  Then He said, "If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."  It was that passage which caused them to rebel.  They said [they] were Abraham's children and that they had never been enslaved!  How dare He say such a thing!

Jesus explained that He was talking about sin, and being a slave to sin.  He told them that He knew the evil in their hearts, their desire to kill Him, and that they were doing the will of their father - meaning Satan.  They challenged Jesus and He responded with the truth of who He was and who they were, and finally came to the passage we have chosen as our text.  And Jesus explained that because they did not believe in God, or know Him, they could not believe what Jesus said, either.  Their reality, as unbelievers, and therefore servants of the devil, made it impossible for them to understand correctly or believe the Word of God.  Their reality informed their perception, and their perception changed the nature of the reality of what they were hearing from the precious and life-giving Word of God, to something confusing and obnoxious, and unbelievable.

First, let me show you how this answers decision theology so decisively.  Since no one who is not "of God" can hear, that is properly understand or believe the Word of God - as Jesus demonstrates in our Gospel this morning and teaches in clear words.  So, obviously, no unbeliever can hear, properly understand, nor believe the Word of God, either the law or the Gospel.  So how would anyone find the wisdom to choose to be a Christian, and decide for Christ, when they cannot understand the Gospel or believe it because they cannot "hear" the Word of God until they are "of God"?  Decision theology calls God a liar, which is kind of what Jesus was talking about when He asked them which of them convicts Him of sin, and why don't they believe His words - which obviously the Arminian (the ones who believe that being and becoming a Christian is accomplished by an exercise of their free wills) is also doing.  They deny Christ's honesty and truth by claiming to be able to decide for Christ.

Anyhow, the question the text raises for you is "what are you hearing?"  

When God's Word is preached, what do you hear?  "He that is of God hears the words of God."  As it was back then, so today, it is often difficult to listen to, and sometimes is not inviting to believe.

We are happy to hear good things, which is why every television evangelist rips the promises of God out of their context and waves them about to impress the crowd.  They tell the people what they want to hear, instead of telling them the truth.  When they hear the truth, they violently reject it.  Oddly, they don't mind the law so much as the Gospel.  The promises of God are disconnected from the context in which they are spoken, and severed from the context of faith and salvation, and made to sound like God wants everyone to be rich, or God is going to make everyone eternally blessed, without regard to their life, or their relationship to Him.

The people who preach these things do not hear the Word of God, and so they preach the doctrines of demons, designed to lead the flock before them astray.  The crowd that listens, and raises their hands in a fit of "spiritual ecstasy" at these distortions of God's Word are denied the truth, and find their satisfaction in the false teachings of their preachers, to their destruction.

You, however, know better.  You have heard the truth.  Sometimes the Law is hard to listen to - but it is the Word of God.  The Jews that Jesus spoke to could not listen to the law either.  They wanted a law they could keep.  They wanted the honor and respect of being the chosen people and the children of Abraham, and they would reject anything, including the Gospel, that denied them the respect and glory they felt that they deserved.  We sometimes find the law too demanding, and discover that it does not fit into our lives here at the lake.  It asks - no, . . . it demands too much from us.  It seems to want our time and our money and then, we are supposed to feel all guilty and ashamed - and that is just not comfortable with us.

But the truth is that you spend your money on yourselves far more freely than you spend it on the Word of God.  You take your time, and your trips and your family get-togethers and your entertainments far more seriously - and sometimes more frequently, than you take worship, or fellowship with the saints around Word and Sacrament.  Your time and your energy are focused on yourselves much more religiously than on your faith, or on the work which God has set before you as an individual member of His body, or before the body of Christ to which you belong, right here.  And when I say those sorts of things, it makes you mad - or at least really uncomfortable.  So, when that happens, what are you hearing?  Are you hearing the Word of God?  How is your reality shaping your perceptions?  How are your perceptions shaping your reality around you?

You should feel guilty, and ashamed at times.  You should be prodded by the Law into self-examination.  And you will find sin.  I know that you will because when I hear the same words that I preach to you, I am accused, and I must wrestle with my own sins and selfishness, and the coldness of my devotions and prayers.

But I also hear the Gospel.  I hear it because I preach it.  Jesus knew what a rotter I am, and how I could not turn away from my sins because I am a slave of sin in my flesh.  So He redeemed me - and redeemed you.  He traded His holiness and righteousness for your sins and mine and took the judgment of God against us on His shoulders, bore the sentence of the wrath of God against us on the cross.  "He was wounded for our transgressions.  He was bruised for our iniquities.  The whipping that wins peace for us was laid upon His back, and with His stripes, we are healed."  "He was made sin for us, He who knew no sin of His own, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him!"  His death on the cross was ours, taken for us.  And we have been given His righteousness and holiness and the love of God which He has merited, and the everlasting life which He has earned is now ours by His gift!

Are you a sinner?  Not in Him!  Should you feel guilty and ashamed?  NO!  Not if you believe that in Jesus Christ you are cleansed, redeemed, forgiven, and beloved of God.  He has declared you "Not guilty!"  "‘Come now, and let us reason together,' Says the LORD, ‘Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.'" Those words are the Gospel - God's Word.  What are you hearing?

The Gospel is forgiveness and life - but only for sinners.  People who cannot hear the Law, that Word of God, cannot hear the Gospel rightly either.  They hear the words, they just don't receive them as God's Words.  And why is that?  "He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them," – if it may be said about you that you cannot find your comfort in Christ – is "because you are not of God."

You should never feel really pleased about who you are apart from Christ, or how you handle things on your own wisdom and power.  You should find that peace only in Jesus Christ, who has reconciled you with the Father, and redeemed you from your sins, and counts you as perfectly holy, with His own righteousness.  The things of daily life, they will always be something short of right and good.  Our sinful flesh will see to that.  It doesn't mean we don't try to be good, it means we know the truth.  We try, and we fall short of perfection.  But our hope in built on Jesus Christ, and His perfect righteousness, and His atoning, propitiatory, redemptive death on our behalf.  And His resurrection, of course, where the Heavenly Father proclaims that this sacrifice for sin was sufficient and paid the price of our corruption completely by raising Jesus from the dead.

What are you hearing?  It is life, and peace, and forgiveness, and joy.  It is the Word of God, and it meant for your ears, and your hearts, and your consciences.  To doubt either the law or the gospel is to call Jesus a liar, and I know that none of you would want to do that.  Jesus said, in our Gospel this morning, "Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death."

So, what are you hearing?

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)

More than You Will Ever Need

 John 6:1-15

After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias).  And a great multitude was following Him, because they were seeing the signs which He was performing on those who were sick.  And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples.  Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.  Jesus therefore lifting up His eyes, and seeing that a great multitude was coming to Him, said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread, that these may eat?"  And this He was saying to test him; for He Himself knew what He was intending to do.  Philip answered Him, "Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little."

One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him, "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?"  Jesus said, "Have the people sit down."  Now there was much grass in the place.  So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.

Jesus therefore took the loaves; and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted.  And when they were filled, He said to His disciples, "Gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost."  And so they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves, which were left over by those who had eaten.  When therefore the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, "This is of a truth the Prophet who is to come into the world."  Jesus therefore perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force, to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.

Sermon for Laetare Sunday                                               03/15/26

More Than You Will Ever Need

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

One of the challenges of this time in history is that, as a Christian, we have trouble understanding what we can trust in God for, and how much we dare to trust in Him.  It has always been a challenge, I suppose, but, in our day and age, we are far removed from the magical and mystical and miraculous.  We have centuries of "modern" men telling us that the miraculous is not possible and cannot touch our lives.  When people talk earnestly about trusting God they usually mean for something ephemeral and distant, like salvation after death.  Most of the time, we tend to make that shift in meaning in our own minds too.

Our Gospel lesson stands as a testimony against such thinking.  It means to tell us what we can trust God for and how much we can trust God.  The answer is, of course, everything - we can trust God for everything He has promised which is everything we need.  Add to that thought that we can trust Him absolutely – as long as we are trusting Him and not trying to make Him be our concierge.   When you trust in God, our text illustrates for us that you will have more than you will ever need.  And that is our theme this morning.

The Gospel tells us that Jesus was healing - and we might presume teaching, as well.  A great crowd was following Him.  Some probably wanted to be healed, or have a relative healed.  Some probably came to see Jesus do miracles.  Others followed Him to hear Him teach, and believed that He was someone worth listening to.  

Our text tells us that it was the season of the Passover, not so much to tell us what time of year it was, but to connect the events of this account to the Passover theologically.  Passover was, of course, the great rescue by God from slavery in Egypt.  He rescued His people with signs and miracles and great power.  God brought them out of Egypt into the wilderness and provided for them - for forty years, but the time factor isn't significant here.  God fed His people with Manna - and He demonstrated Himself to the nation, Israel, as their God, the One whom they could trust.  He made a covenant with them in the wilderness, and it all began with the Passover.  And it is this connection with caring for the people, and feeding them miraculously, and showing Himself to be their God and giving evidence that they could trust Him and depend on Him, that probably warranted mentioning that "the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand." 

Anyway, Jesus feeds the crowd, much to everyone's amazement, with five loaves and two fish.  The loaves were probably about the size of a small tortilla, and about an inch or less thick.  Matthew give us no information on the size of the fish, but I am guessing that the young boy was not carrying a pair of twenty-pound carp or eighty-pound catfish with him.  Even if he had been, they would have been woefully insufficient to feed the roughly five thousand people who were fed that day.

Jesus probably began with less food than it would have taken to satisfy the Twelve disciples.  And when they were all done, the disciple gathered up the leftover pieces - the ones big enough to bother saving, and they ended up with twelve full baskets of bread pieces.  The baskets were, according to the Greek word used, somewhere between the size of a five quart ice-cream pail and a five gallon bucket, but the point is that when everyone had eaten all that they wanted, and were satisfied, they had several times more in left overs than when they started in the first place.

The people there were so impressed by what Jesus did, that they decided to seize Jesus and force Him to be their king.   They knew a good thing when they saw it, and they reacted to free food the same way we do - get it while the getting's good.  Jesus perceived that they were planning this action, and He slipped away without them noticing His departure, and went up on the mountain alone to pray.

Now we know the details, we have to ask ourselves, what does this tell us?  I imagine that depends on how much you want  to see.  Jesus was facing an insurmountable task.  He was going to feed five thousand people with little or no food.  The situation was huge and the resources for it were extremely limited, and yet Jesus did it.  He fed those five thousand people and He had more left over - many times more - than He had when He started.

What needs or troubles can we imagine that Jesus cannot handle for us?  

What tasks are we facing that we feel we lack the resources to accomplish?  

How much of our doing what Jesus gives us to do actually depends on us?

These are the sorts of questions you have to ask yourself.  It would probably be helpful if you were honest with yourselves when you answered, too.  The trouble we often have is that we don't really expect Jesus to really help.  We don't start things until we have a sense that we can succeed.  We don't really expect divine intervention at any point.  And when we finish, and have succeeded, we feel like we accomplished it, but we church-types often piously say that this is the thing that the Lord has made, while thinking that we actually did it.

The truth is that we tend not to start anything, even as a congregation, we don't think we can finish.  It isn't that we don't think we should do it, it is just that we want to be confident we have the resources to do it before we begin.  Well, with Jesus, we have the resources.  We have more than you will ever need.  If Jesus give us the task, He will see it through to completion.

Does that mean that we don't count the cost, or plan, or try to be wise about what we do and how we do it?  No.  We have to think, and Jesus calls on us to act - you know, do the things that need to be done.  We are to do what we believe we have been given to do, and approach it with confidence that Jesus will bring us through to success, if what we are doing is what He wants done.  The disciples were asked to prepare the people for food.  They did not have food, nor did they know how they would feed all those people - and yet Jesus did it.

This miracle is not the only time Jesus did the impossible.  It is surely not the most impressive time.  The most impressive example of that is when He rescued us from our own sins.  The verdict of God from the very beginning was that when one sinned, that one died.  "The soul that sins, it shall die."  That was the judgment of God.  Sin simply earned death - and that death was more than just physical.  It included eternal torment and suffering.  That was what God wanted to rescue us from.  He couldn't just ignore our sins and pretend that they did not happen, however.  That would have made God unjust and an accessory to our sins.  He had to punish them, and punish them with death, as stipulated originally.  But His goal was to preserve us alive and rescue us from our condemnation.

He did that by sending Jesus.  He sent the Second Person of the Trinity, true God and yet, not the Father.  He was incarnate - that is He took on flesh and blood, and became a man as Mary heard the Word of God with faith and bowed her head and said, "Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord, Let it happen to me just as you have said it would."  With that, Mary became pregnant, conceiving in her womb the child who would be born nine months later and be named "Savior", or literally "God is Salvation" - Jesus.

He kept the Law which man failed and refused to keep.  He lived without sin, just as He required of Adam and Eve and all of their children.  They did not obey, but Jesus did.  He obeyed God, as Scripture puts it, even to the point of death on a cross.  Having fulfilled all righteousness, He deliberately gave up what He had earned and now deserved - life without end in the favor of God the Father - and took in exchange our guilt, our shame, and our condemnation, and our death.  

Every step of the way He endured the taunting and tempting of the devil, and resisted.  When a word would have set Him free He kept silent.  When silence would have served Him, He spoke.  Everything He said was true, but it was also spoken with the full consciousness that it would ignite their anger and cause them to continue to march Him to the cross.

He died deliberately for us.  Because He is God He is of greater value than all of us combined, so His one death redeemed us all.  Because He has taken our death, He now has the right to give to us the life eternal which He has earned.  And He pours that treasure out upon all people everywhere, without consideration of their worthiness or holiness.  He has appointed faith as the means by which we receive and hang onto this treasure of grace.  He that believes and is baptized shall be saved.

Further, He knows that we are, by nature, not able to trust Him or love Him by virtue of our own corruption in sin, so He sends His Holy Spirit out through the preaching of His Word to work faith in the hearts of those that hear the good news of this Gospel.  Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.  Now, all who hear have the Holy Spirit at work in them.  Many reject that work, and deny God's goodness, grace, and mercy.  They are those represented in the parable of the Sower by soil of the hard-trodden path upon which the seed falls, and the birds of the air eat the seed up.  They had the treasure delivered to them, but they rejected it for something or someone else.  But anyone that believes, which is accomplished only by the very work of the Holy Spirit within them, has life everlasting, and resurrection from their graves to come, and God is with them even now, day by day.

The feeding of the five thousand reminds us that we can trust God in Jesus Christ in all things, and that He will provide abundantly.  That provision isn't just for in the sky, bye and bye.  He provides for us now, each according to His good plan for our service for Him.  He provides food and clothing and the needs of this life, and lots of our wants as well.  He feeds us with His holy body and precious blood in this Sacrament, to strengthen us, and to cleanse us, and to teach us to trust in Him and in His love for us individually, personally.

He also cares for us in our day to day pressures, desires, passions, and temptations.  He does not always give us what we desire, and surely not what we expect, any more than those five thousand who were fed followed Jesus expecting a meal out there in the wilderness.  He provides what we need, and then some, so that we may accomplish what He has planned for us.

So, let us look to the future and work while it is still day, as we say in that old prayer, before the night comes when no man can work.  Let us do what we believe the Lord would have us do with faith and confidence and trusting that we will have more than you will ever need.  As it is true for salvation, it is true for all that God would have us to do in Jesus Christ. He feeds us, and He will guide us and grant us everything we need to serve Him faithfully, and more than you will ever need.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  

(Let the people say Amen)

Do Not Be Anxious

 Matthew 6:24-34

"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.  For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on.  Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not worth much more than they?  And which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his life's span?

"And why are you anxious about clothing?  Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these.  But if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more do so for you, O men of little faith?  Do not be anxious then, saying, ‘What shall we eat?' or ‘What shall we drink?' or ‘With what shall we clothe ourselves?'  For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you."

"Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Sermon for Fifteenth Sunday After Trinity                                        09/08/24

Do Not Be Anxious

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

There are times when preaching this text is simple and safe.  Life is good, and everyone is happy and telling people not to be anxious or worried about life is a comfortable thing.  For some, this is not one of those times.  This has been a summer of extremes.  The campaign season has raised stress for almost everyone who pays attention to it. Almost weekly we are treated to another account of another mass shooting somewhere in America.  And some of the politicians in our nation are publicly calling for violence and turmoil in an attempt to prevent one of the candidates from becoming our president.

The effects of the ugly nature of our national politics and the renewed "protesting" and rioting over the conflict in the middle east are still waiting to be seen.  Colleges and universities are now centers for violence in favor of those we have known to be terrorists.  Aurora Colorado has been co-opted by Venezuelan gangs, and now there is an apartment complex in Chicago taken over by a Venezuelan gang.  There are now no-go areas for Americans in America!   It is in the face of such conditions as these conditions that the Word of God speaks to us today and tells us, in the words of our Lord, Do Not Be Anxious.

It is a matter of faith.  Our Lord reminds us in our Gospel of the familiar facts that God feeds the birds, and He clothes the fields in beautiful flowers.  Neither one of them labors for what they get.  The flowers of the field simply grow there.  They are, none the less, beautiful.  The birds do not sow or reap or store up grain, and yet God feeds them.  In the same way, we may depend upon God.  He knows what we need, and He will provide.  But to get there, and find comfort in these circumstances will take faith.

Let's face it, there are a lot of birds dead on the highways and roads - and people - in the horrendous shootings that seem to be increasing in our nation.  God knows situations in which we must live, and what we need to survive. It is tempting to look at the problems and the human cost left behind and say, "how does this square with the text?"  "Where is the supply of which Jesus was speaking?"

Of course, Jesus said to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these thing will be added to you.  Let's face it, we are not witnessing a lot of seeking of God or His righteousness in the midst of the widespread violence going on in out nation, and in many places dominated by Islam.  But the lack of godliness isn't the whole answer.  Part of the answer is in the fact that whether we experience every moment as richly supplied and safe or not, we experience it.  And God has preserved us.  We do not have to deal with the immediate conditions in Colorado or Chicago.  We see it, and we can respond to it - and we should respond to it somehow.  But it is not our suffering, not yet, and so God has been true to His promises and provided us with all that we need, even if it is not all that we want.

He has also preserved those who are facing those conditions.  They might have preferred to have ridden the growing storm out in comfort, and have their worldly possessions spared - but, as in the book of Job, when we start judging God based on how we respond to how He is blessing us, we are trying to suggest that we could do a better job of being God than He does.  Of course, that is silly - and blasphemous - on its face. 

Besides, we want to remember what Jesus actually said.  He did not promise that we would always have everything we desire just the way we want it.  He said that God knows where we are and who we are and what it is that we need, and that all of our fretting and worrying cannot make it better.  Jesus asked, "Which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his life's span?"  While I am not certain how much 18 inches - a cubit - of life adds to your span of life when measured in years, the point is that our worry doesn't empower us to change the immediate circumstances of our lives any more than the clear frustration and depression of the victims of the Venezuelan Gang activity makes them able to defend their homes or find somewhere safe appear out of nowhere.  Someone has to bring the answer into circumstances like theirs, and when they do, that someone was sent by God - whether they realize it or not.

And of course, some people will likely die because of the insane violence we see in the news from Colorado or in the neighborhoods of Chicago.  If people die, it is because God has appointed that moment for their death - and death would have found them in Minnesota, fishing on a clear and cool lake - if it was their time - just as certainly as it found them struggling amid the new war on our country or that found those young women walking or jogging in their neighborhood in Maryland or Georgia or Texas.  God will take care of each of us while we are here, and summon us out of this world when our time is done.  It is precisely at that moment that the kingdom of God and His righteousness will be come of paramount importance for us.

The promise of our Gospel is that when we have sought the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these things - the stuff of life - will be added unto us.  Now Jesus knows that we cannot search for God or choose to believe - so He is telling us to pay attention to the most important stuff, and trust God to handle the rest.  As the beloved children of God, can we imagine that God will short us on the necessities?  I would say no - and looking about this morning, I see that all of us have had all that we have needed for life up to today - and many of us have enjoyed a whole lot more than simply what we needed.

We are the chosen of God.  He has set His love upon us.  He has loved us with the greatest love: a greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for His friends.  Jesus laid down His life for us on the cross, to redeem us from sin and death and hell.  Because of Jesus your sins are forgiven, and when your body dies, that is not the end, nor is it the worst moment - but merely the beginning of the better and more lasting life with Christ in glory.  He has promised that you will even get your bodies back, refreshed, renewed, and repaired; better than when you laid it down.  He has taken care of you here, and has planned and executed your rescue and redemption for the hereafter.

While we live in this world, we live as God's favorite people - favored with His love and under His watchful care.  Nothing can happen without God's care for you.  All of your needs will be met, and many of your desires, right up to the time appointed for your home-going.  At that moment, it may appear to the world around you that you lack the needs of the moment.  But the truth is that your greatest need will have been fulfilled: life beyond the grave, a life that has no ending or sorrow, or sickness - only fulness of joy and glory with Jesus Christ.

Between this day and that, you can trust God.  You don't have to worry about what you shall eat or what you shall drink or what you shall put on.  Your heavenly Father knows that you have needs of these things.  Everyone is looking for them.  The ungodly who murder innocent women, The victims of the Venezuelan gangs, all people are searching for the needs of life, for food and water and shelter.  The chosen people of God who endured the violence of things we get to see on the news are searching for them.  God knows – and He will provide.  He says so – and by faith, we may trust Him and depend on Him and not worry.

So, do not be anxious.  Just look around you.  Breathe in and out.  Take note.  You are alive.  You have food enough for the moment.  You have plenty of air to breathe.  The needs of this moment are taken care of, and the reason that they are taken care of is the goodness and kindness of God.

Tomorrow may present new needs, but that is tomorrow.  Jesus says that the troubles of today are enough for today.  We take it one day at a time.  You cannot fix tomorrow until you get there.  One of the appeals in this election cycle is to find someone who can make us safe again.  The Bible tells us to trust not in princes.  You should take your privilege and duty as a citizen seriously, and pay attention, and vote for whomever you think would be able to serve our nation in a God-pleasing way, but know for certain that your hope and your safety and your security is in the hands of God. 

You cannot do tomorrow today, nor can you fix yesterday tomorrow.  You have one day, today, and a loving heavenly Father who will take care of you.  So, do not be anxious.  Live in today's blessings today, and have a little faith in God.  He loves you with a proven love - and He has promised to add all the rest that you need - now that He has clothed you in His righteousness and marked you as one of His chosen and beloved children.

Do Not Be Anxious.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)

The End Is in Sight

 Isaiah 29:17-24

Is it not yet just a little while before Lebanon will be turned into a fertile field, and the fertile field will be considered as a forest?  And on that day the deaf shall hear words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.  The afflicted also shall increase their gladness in the LORD, and the needy of mankind shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.  For the ruthless will come to an end, and the scorner will be finished, indeed all who are intent on doing evil will be cut off; who cause a person to be indicted by a word, and ensnare him who adjudicates at the gate, and defraud the one in the right with meaningless arguments.  Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, "Jacob shall not now be ashamed, nor shall his face now turn pale; but when he sees his children, the work of My hands, in his midst, they will sanctify My name; indeed, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.  And those who err in mind will know the truth, and those who criticize will accept instruction."

Sermon for Twelfth Sunday after Trinity                                              8/27/23

The End Is in Sight

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Our world today is rocked with scandals, and bad news is everywhere.  The President is publicly accused of coercing millions of dollars in bribes.  His son is now famous for his drug use and the infamous laptop.  There appears to be a two-tiered justice system where one can do almost anything with impunity if you belong to the "right" group, and, conversely, you can rot in jail for years for doing nothing more than being in the wrong party.  The myth of America – of truth, justice, and the American way – seems to be unraveling around us.

Those are sad and worrisome object lessons on the corruption of this present world, and the total depravity of man.  Isaiah didn't know our time in history, but he was speaking about just such men and public corruption when he prophesied the words of our text, this morning.  And those words are words of comfort because they tell us that the end is in sight.  And that is our theme, this morning: The End Is In Sight.

Of course, these specific people aren't the only ones Isaiah was addressing.  He was addressing all sorts of evil people.  Listen to the words he uses:  For the ruthless will come to an end, and the scorner will be finished, indeed all who are intent on doing evil will be cut off; who cause a person to be indicted by a word, and ensnare him who adjudicates at the gate, and defraud the one in the right with meaningless arguments.  The targets here are those who take advantage of the little guy, of the powerless and the innocent.  God has a word of judgment for those who abuse the righteous.  And that word is, the end is in sight.

The end of all the pains, the end of all the frustrations, is in sight.  Is it not yet just a little while?  God says it is almost here.   And on that day the deaf shall hear words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.  The afflicted also shall increase their gladness in the LORD, and the needy of mankind shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
 
Actually, that day is here!  We were the deaf - and we have heard the words of a book – the Bible!  We were blind, 1 Corinthians 2:14 says that a natural man cannot understand the things of the Spirit because you need to possess the Spirit to understand.  And what is it we say when comprehension dawns?  "Oh, I see!"  We are the blind mentioned in this text.  The gloom and darkness is the gloom of sin and the darkness of our condemnation for our sins and evil.  When the Holy Spirit comes, He enlightens us with the light of the Gospel and of faith, and we see the goodness of the Lord and of salvation, and we rejoice.

We are the afflicted.  We are afflicted by the devil, the world and our flesh.  They entice us to sin, and they punish us for holiness, and ridicule us for faith, and persecute us for Christ's sake and for His name.  We are those whose gladness is increased in the Lord.  We are gladdened by the forgiveness of our sins, and gladdened by the hope of everlasting life.

After all, what can the world do to us, really?  The world can make us hurt now, and the world can kill us.  While we suffer now, we can look forward to the hope of the resurrection where there is no more pain and sorrow.  Almost anything can be better endured when we see that the end is in sight.  Besides this truth, God also promises to strengthen us and help us to endure and bear up.  And if the world should do its worst to us, and kill us, it merely hurries us on toward heaven!  As Paul said in Philippians 1:21, For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Those days promised by Isaiah are hard to imagine and difficult to wait for.  The pains and fear are very real and are happening right now.  It will seem like a long time, but already in Isaiah's day, God was telling us that it is just a little while.  The end is in sight.

It has to be in sight, because it began already, on Good Friday.  When Jesus died, He ended the old world, and destroyed sins and death.  That was Judgment Day!  God judged your sins – and mine – and punished them.  He poured out His wrath on Jesus.  And Jesus pours out His love and forgiveness, and everlasting life on us.  We take hold of it by faith, and we look forward to it, knowing that the end is in sight!

Those evil people who take advantage of others and abuse others will be dealt with by God.  That is part of our joy!  The power of those who do evil will be gone, and God will settle with them in justice.  They will come to an end and be finished entirely, just as Isaiah says.  But even now, we know that the end is coming.  We can see it in the Word and hear it in God's good news, proclaimed to us by His will.

God guarantees it!  He speaks through Isaiah about how He will teach, "And those who err in mind will know the truth, and those who criticize will accept instruction."  You aren't here by accident, and your faith and hope in God isn't by chance.  It is by the work and plan of the Lord.  God finds a way.  He pushes you through the door. It is the work of God.

He says so in our text.  He says that His people are "the work of His hands."  Each one of us has been chosen by God, called by name in our Baptism, and kept by Him for eternal life.  When we stop and consider what God has done to call us and gather us and keep us, we will sanctify His name, as Isaiah says, and finally, all men will stand in awe of the God of Israel.  He has made the things happen that we needed to happen.  He paid for our sins, and then caused the Gospel to be preached to us.  Some of us were carried in to the church for Baptism as infants, and some of us have come to it the long way around, but God has claimed each one of us.  It is His handiwork, and it is awe inspiring and praiseworthy and we thank Him.

And we know that the end, which began the day that Jesus died, is almost come to completion.  Some of us here may yet be alive in this world when Jesus calls all things to an end and raises the bodies of all men from their graves.  It will be a wonderful and terrifying day.  For those who rise to be with Jesus, it will be wonderful beyond all telling.  For those who stand on His left, and hear Jesus speak those four most horrible words in all of human history, "I Never Knew You!" it will be a day of unmatched and unimaginable terror - a terror that will never end.

And the end is in sight.  God is going to end the power of evil men and women to hurt us.  He is going to silence the liars.  He is going to stop the ruthless evil.  He is going to end the power of the wicked to defraud and cheat us.  And He will show the true joy of the Lord to His redeemed.  That is what the Bible says.  That is what we confess.  The end is in sight!

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
(Let the people say Amen)

Softly, Tenderly, and Irresistibly

 Isaiah 42:1-7

"Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights.  I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.  He will not cry out or raise His voice, Nor make His voice heard in the street.  A bruised reed He will not break, And a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice.  He will not be disheartened or crushed, Until He has established justice in the earth; And the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law."

Thus says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the people on it, And spirit to those who walk in it, "I am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness, I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you, And I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, As a light to the nations, To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the dungeon, And those who dwell in darkness from the prison."

Sermon for The Sunday after New Years                         1/08/23

Softly, Tenderly, and Irresistibly

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, Calling for you and for me.  See, on the portals He's waiting and watching, Watching for you and for me.  I remember hearing that song on my dad's old country records.  I always thought it was beautiful and sentimental.  I also thought it was just a Country song until I found it in hymnals of other church bodies – even a Lutheran Hymn-book published for the ALC in the 1950's.  I only bring it up because our text put me in mind of it, as I considered our theme for this day.  Based on the words of Isaiah, our theme is Softly, Tenderly, and Irresistibly.

The servant passage is familiar to most Christians.  This is the one where it says that He will not break a bruised wick or extinguish a dimly burning wick.  Jesus will go forth and be utterly inoffensive, He will not measure faith - either you believe or you do not.  He will be all encouragement.  It seems odd, doesn't it?, that the One being described in this way is the source of the greatest and often most-violent confrontations in the world.  He isn't actually the Source, but His being and His work and His message serve as the focal point and inspiration for persecutions and condemnations, and actual violence.  Nevertheless, Our Lord does all the things prophesied about Him.

Jesus was not often a rabble-rouser.  He taught.  He did His work quietly, and for the most part, He did it the same way then that He does it now, by the power of the Word.  Jesus did not go out to stir up trouble or get people all churned up.  He preached and He taught - and most of the time He spoke about love.  Of course, there were those few occasions - such as when Jesus ‘cleansed' the temple.  He seemed to have gotten a little more aggressive there.  But He didn't challenge anyone's faith there or attack the weak in faith.  He simply addressed the Law of God to those who were quite comfortable with breaking it and abusing the house of God.  I would doubt anyone who actually believed in God was offended or hurt by what Jesus did that day.

This prophecy speaks about how the One sent will bring forth justice.   Isaiah says that He will faithfully bring forth justice.  I suspect that some who read this prophecy were expecting some great form of legal reform.  Like us, the ancients had to deal with the utter duplicity of those in power.  People tend to take personal advantage of whatever authority they may possess, for however long they may possess it.  Long before modern politics, there was the parable of the unjust steward, who took advantage of his position to feather his own nest - and that parable would not have made sense to anyone if that sort of behavior was unknown or uncommon.  So, some could well have imagined that what Jesus was supposed to bring was a fair judicial system.

But what Isaiah was prophesying was the Gospel.  The justice that He brought was the completed justice of the cross.  If your sins or mine were to be paid for by us, it would require an eternity of torment - hell.  We would never quite finish paying for our rebellion against our Creator, nor our stubborn sinfulness in the face of the goodness of God toward us.  God gives us a sunrise, and we complain abut having to face another day.  God feeds miraculously, and the children of Israel grumbled about that miserable manna.  We have sixty years of tremendous good health, and when we get sick we act as though we receive nothing from the hand of God but trouble - and that we cannot confidently look to God for blessings or good.

No, if our sins were to find complete justice, we would need something much more than we are capable of doing, of suffering or paying.  That is where Jesus came in.  He is the One of infinite worth, who took up our sins, although innocent Himself, and paid the penalty to the very last drop of His blood.  He paid our debt, not His own, and He paid it with the very life of the Son of God Himself.  By comparison, we are worth nothing, for without Him we would not even exist.  He is what gives substance and meaning to everything, and He gave Himself for us.  Suddenly, we are not worthless.  Because of Him we are counted in the scales of God's values as precious, like His only Son, because His only-begotten Son, who has been with Him from eternity, counted us as precious and worth dying for!

Now we are cleansed, forgiven!  We are counted righteous with His righteousness just as He was counted guilty with our sin.  He made Him to be sin, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him!  Talk about establishing justice!  He has accounted for every sin and poured out upon all mankind the verdict of ‘innocent, beloved of God, and redeemed'!  Now, only those who reject His payment, who refuse His gift, or who demand to be held to account for their own native worth and righteousness fail to receive and enjoy the salvation He has won.  Justice has been served, and now grace is poured out.  He that believes and is baptized shall be saved!

    He did not allow anything to stand in His way as He established justice – and He did it without crying out or fighting with earthly weapons.    He did it softly, tenderly and irresistibly.  He walked quietly to the cross.  They could hardly get Him to speak.  He did not struggle, but ordered those who wanted to fight for Him to stand down.  He healed the man whose ear had been cut off.  He bore their abuse and mocking, and pleaded with His heavenly Father for their forgiveness because, as He put it, they had no idea what they were really doing.  And, although the coming crucifixion made Him sorrowful to the point of death, and His sweat came as great drops of blood, nevertheless, He went forward and allowed all those horrible things to happen, just as He knew they would, so that we might be declared just!  Talk about establishing justice!  He defeated sin and evil without firing a shot, but by humbling Himself and enduring all that they had to dish out, not helplessly, but with purpose.

In the last verse of our text, Isaiah speaks about the One prophesied opening blind eyes.  Our Lord does that through the Gospel.  It is by the preaching of the Word and the declaration of forgiveness and by the announcing of the promises of God that faith is created and sustained.  We are naturally unable to believe, or even to really comprehend the treasures of the Gospel.  The Bible teaches it clearly, in verses such as 1 Corinthians 2:13-14, "which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.  But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised."  We also confess this truth in our Catechism, "I believe that I cannot, by my own wisdom or strength, believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him."

So Jesus opens the eyes of the blind.  He makes us to see the truth and trust in Him.  He doesn't do it by coercion, but softly, tenderly and irresistibly, by the power of the Holy Spirit at work through the Word.  We can't argue someone into faith, any more than we can argue someone into joining our congregation.  All we can do is tell them the truth, speak our confession of Christ, and invite them to come, and see, and know for themselves.  It isn't a popular approach.  We like to have something that gives us control over the process and makes results more predictable.  But Jesus opens the eyes of the blind, not us.  The Holy Spirit creates faith when and where He chooses, by means of the gospel preached.  So programs and presentations don't work, except to the extent that they get us speaking the Word of God.

Isaiah says that God would make His Servant a light to the nations.  Jesus is every bit of that.  He is a light in that He gives enlightenment.  He shows us the true shape of reality, that is to say, the will of God.  The Gospel exposes as a lie the idea that God is to be feared with terror.  The God of Islam provokes terror, but our God forgives.  Our God protects.  Our God feeds and guides His people, and takes care of the rest of the world as well.  And He wants to be known as the God of all mercy and goodness and love.  He want us – and everyone else – to know that we can depend on Him, and then to actually trust in Him.  His will toward the entire race of mankind is that they would know the truth, believe in Him, and trust His good and gracious will toward them, and walk before Him in love and humility and fellowship with Him and with one another.  God would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

The evil men of Islam, of Buddhism, of Hinduism – or of open atheism and unbelief in America – the men who riot and burn and kill on the evening news – are frightening only in that they portend difficult times for those who live among them.  Their violence might spread, and might hamper our peace and enjoyment of life.  But as men, I do not hate them, I feel badly for them in their ignorance, and I wish for them the same thing I wish for the unbelieving around us, that they may come to know the truth and find peace in the will and the love and the grace of God.  And what is His will?

The reason that this prophecy says that He will be a light to the nations is that this ‘light' is not restricted to the Chosen People of the Old Testament.  God has always planned on rescuing men from every nation, who will believe.  Israel was chosen, but turned its back on God.  But God had already decided long ago to bring His good will and saving grace to every man and woman who will listen and believe and trust in Him.  And He has done it!  The Church exists in every land.  There are believers of every race and every nationality and every language under the sun.  And they are all members of the one Church, the same Church, the Body of Christ, and His Bride.

When we come to faith, by the power of the Spirit, we have been brought out of the prison of sin and death, mentioned by Isaiah in this text.  The prison is the prison of death and hell, the dungeon of false doctrines and false gods, the darkness of superstition, ignorance and sin.  The fear of dying and what awaits us beyond the grave is darkness and a dungeon for the mind and for the soul.  They become a prison of reality when people die in unbelief, but even here and now they are a miserable captivity for souls lost in uncertainty, ignorance and the awful anticipation of what lies beyond.  

But now, we have been brought out from the prison-house and set free from the dungeons of sin and death.  Not only is there peace of mind now, but death itself is not the end.  We have been made the beneficiaries of justice, set free from our prisons of sin, and even from the prison of the grave.  We don't have to do it all or despair.  He will raise us to everlasting life in the day of resurrection, and we shall live in the light of the covenant which is Jesus Christ, into which we have been drawn softly, tenderly and irresistibly.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
(Let the people say Amen)

Persecuted by the Flesh

 Galatians 4:21-31

Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the law?  For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman.  But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise.  This is allegorically speaking: for these women are two covenants, one proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar.  Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.  But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother.  For it is written, "REJOICE, BARREN WOMAN WHO DOES NOT BEAR; BREAK FORTH AND SHOUT, YOU WHO ARE NOT IN LABOR; FOR MORE ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE DESOLATE THAN OF THE ONE WHO HAS A HUSBAND."

And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise.  But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also.  But what does the Scripture say? "CAST OUT THE BONDWOMAN AND HER SON, FOR THE SON OF THE BONDWOMAN SHALL NOT BE AN HEIR WITH THE SON OF THE FREE WOMAN."  So then, brethren, we are not children of a bondwoman, but of the free woman.

Sermon for Laetare Sunday                  
                                         3/27/22
Persecuted by the Flesh

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Repetition is the mother of pedagogy.   I could say that in Latin too, but I figure the English is stupefying enough.  It means that repeating is the foundation of teaching - specifically of teaching children.  But it works for adults too.  Let me illustrate:  You have all learned that our failing economy is former President Trump's fault, not the current administration's.  Whether you believe it or not is not important, you've heard it until you could say it in your sleep.  You know that the evils of capitalism stand at the heart of our nation's troubles, that Republican is bad and Democrat is good, unless you listen to Tucker Carlson or that evil Fox News.  You know that anything but open handed acceptance of the GBTQ+ Agenda is homophobia, saying anything about people of color except praise is racism, that noticing that Jews are present is anti-Semitism, and the silly idea that terrorists tend to be Moslems is both racist and Islamophobic.  And Critical Race Theory establishes that white folk are racist by race and from the womb.

Whether you agree with any of the statements I just made or not is not the issue – it is the politically correct line repeated to us until you know it without thinking about whether you agree with it or not.  This same process that has been used to tell us that our religion belongs in private - or in your church on Sunday - and that holding faithfully to the teachings of the Bible is superstitious, fundamen-talist, uneducated, old-fashioned, and bigoted, and that you have no right to impose your religion – or morals – on anyone else.  It doesn't seem to strike any one that every one of these statements is some else's religion and/or their values imposed on you repeatedly until you don't stop to think about its rightness or wrongness.  You simply live with a sensitivity to these social rules and allow the arrogance and judgmentalism of the pagans among us to silence you, and train your public and private expressions, and force you to kowtow to their sensibilities.

This constant drumbeat of proper public opinion - or politically correct expression - is a part of what the Bible describes as being persecuted by the flesh.  That is the focus of our Epistle lesson, and the theme of our sermon this morning: Persecuted by the Flesh.

Now I chose the most egregious political examples I could think of because I know that everyone has heard them, and you probably have an opinion on each one - so I can count on getting more than just your intellect focused for a moment.  It doesn't matter how you might respond to them - I reckon some of them are hot-buttons for some of you, and perhaps different ones are for others.  My point is not to address these slogans and values individually but to make you aware of the process – and the hostility of the world - and our own flesh - to the Christian faith.

The world hates Christ, Christians, and the Church.  To the world, they are indistinguishable as objects to be lied about, disabled, or destroyed.  You may have noticed that every time anyone with any sort of religion does anything that we don't like, somehow Christians get thrown into the mix.  News reports about a child abuser almost always focus on the religion of the abuser, if there is one, as though the religion actually played a part in making the pervert perverted.  When a politician speaks what our culture does not want to hear, if he is a Christian, we hear complaints about someone forcing our religion on others – or about some supposed plot to bring about a theocracy in America.  Even when the evil-doer is not Christian - such as when Moslem terrorists attack us - somehow the news report gets around to Christian extremism, or Fundamentalism, and by that term they mean faithful Christians like us.  In such reports, we are likened to the terrorists, or it is suggested, at the very least, that Conservative Christians are every bit as much of a danger to society as "they" are, whomever they may be.

Our culture is drifting - some would say speeding - toward thought control.  We hear about thoughts which are unspeakable in polite society - and there is an effort to make certain thoughts illegal to express.  They call it a hate crime.  Speaking negatively about homosexuality, or denying the holocaust, is already illegal in some countries.  Expressing the wrong opinion about climate change in America can cost you your job, in some places and in certain professions.  Christians have to stand on the politically incorrect place in such a debate, because to take the politically correct point of view is to imagine that God is not in control.

But when the Apostle wrote about being persecuted by the flesh, he wasn't just thinking of society outside of the Church, but of the opposition in the church and even within ourselves to the Gospel.  Paul was facing the Judaizers.  They were the ones who wanted the law first, who taught that you had to keep the Law before you were fit for the Gospel.  Now, the specific Law they often focused on was the law of circumcision - but it doesn't matter which Law you use.  Whenever you make even a part of the Law a requirement of salvation, you destroy the Gospel altogether.

You see, the Gospel is the gift of forgiveness, life and salvation.  It is grace.  The Law is about obedience, worthiness and ‘earning it'.  If you must first prove yourself worthy before you can receive the gift, it is not really a gift.  When you earn something it is called a wage.  But the Gospel presents us with that which we do not deserve and have not earned.

Following the law leaves one constantly unsure.  Luther called it "the monster of uncertainty".  Have I done enough?  Have I done it well enough?  Did I follow the right rules?  Have I kept the faith enough?  Was my commitment pure enough?  Did I start early enough?  As long as any part of my salvation depends upon me, I can mess it up.  I can fail.  I can fall short.  Therefore, I can never be confident.

The Gospel takes all of that uncertainty away.  My salvation does not depend on me . . . it depends on Christ.  Did He do it right?  Did He do enough?  The resurrection says, "YES!"  Jesus did what I needed to do, and died in my place for my sins and failures.  When Jesus arose, He was proclaiming first and foremost that His death was enough - - and more than enough!  If He had not fully paid the penalty, He would not have risen from the dead.  But now Christ has risen, and the promises of God are secure.  I have been redeemed.  He that believes and is baptized shall be saved.

Nevertheless, most churches teach some sort of earning, deserving or ‘first you do your part, and then God will rescue you'.  These false teachings are also part of being persecuted by the flesh.  With Rome, the doctrine is that Jesus cleanses you from your original sin, and then you must work your way through the pearly gates, with the help of the saints and Mother Mary.

With some Protestant churches, you are expected to live without sin, if you are really a Christian.  Strict Calvinism said that it didn't matter, since you were predestined for heaven or hell anyway.  Your goal was just to show forth your election by holy living.  Most modern Protestants, on the other hand, believe that all you need to do is make the decision, or pray the prayer of faith, sincerely.  Of course, those who fall away after seeming to be Christian raise the question,  "Was my decision sincere, or sincere enough?"  Or, "Do I really believe?"

The answer to those questions is found in my conduct, or so they say.  I must live purely enough, or I prove that my decision was not genuine.  The result, however, is that I am left unsure, hoping but not confident.  Some seek to assuage the lack of certainty by stirring up good feelings, religious and uplifting emotions.  This leads to entertainment worship and "praise services" which focus on stirring up the right sorts of feeling in me.  The problem is, there is no mention of ‘feelings' in the Bible as that which saves you.  Even if it were true that how you felt was a measure of your relationship with God, it still doesn't help.  People don't often die in the praise service.  They don't usually die feeling good and religious.  They die in pain.  Or, they die suddenly, without a moment to feel out how they are doing.  Or, they die in sickness and sometimes wondering why they are suffering and not others who appear to them to deserve such agony more.

In the end, the Monster of Uncertainty is still there.  That is also being persecuted by the flesh.  Only the Gospel can silence that monster.  The Catholic wonders if he – or his or her loved one – has done enough.  The Gospel tells us that Christ has done everything needed, and more!  The Protestant wonders if he or she was sincere, or if it was really enough.  The Gospel teaches that Christ took up you sins, paid the price by dying for you on the cross, and pours out freely the forgiveness of sins.

Human nature even fights against this.  This is the final form of being persecuted by the flesh, although this time it is your own flesh that does the persecuting!  There is no such thing as a free lunch, or so they say.  The Gospel tells us that it is not free — but Christ picked up the tab, so to speak.  He paid.  He won.  He is sufficient.  You are forgiven.  You are redeemed.  You have the promise and the gift of everlasting life, and resurrection from the grave on the last day, just as Christ rose - and just as certainly as Christ rose from the dead.  And that is history.

In our Epistle, Paul used the events and people of the life of Abraham and Sarah and Hagar as an allegory in order to teach.  Sarah is the Gospel, and Hagar is the Law.  The son of Sarah is the heir and free, the son of Hagar is the slave.  Just so today, the Gospel sets us free from condemnation and uncertainty and fear of what is to come.  The Law still accuses and makes one more aware of failing to measure up than confident of meeting the requirements.  The Law always accuses, that is a theological principle.  That is particularly true when you know that the standard required by the Law is perfection.  I might be perfect today – but I am certain I was not always so.  And to get to perfection, you must start with perfection.  You cannot un-ring the bell of sin.

But Jesus never did sin.  His perfection is pure and sinless and from start to finish.  It is this perfect righteousness which He gives to you as He takes away your sin.  It is what is left after forgiveness.  He got your just deserts on the cross.  You get His, all that He has earned and deserved, in the absolution, and in the Holy Supper, and in eternal life.  In the Gospel you are free.

That freedom gives you the power to be holy also in your conduct.  It gives you permission to aim for it without fear that your sin - your missing the mark of perfect holiness - will destroy you.  Your sins are forgiven.  You can aim for holiness - and each day put to death the man of sin in the waters of your baptism, and start fresh again, because your salvation does not depend on you.  It depends on Jesus Christ.  And His victory is, as they say, history.  It is also our future.  And it is our present, right now.

The creeping doubts, the feeling that we ought to be better, the desire for greater holiness and the fear of sin are all part and parcel of the law.  Some of those feelings are true.  They remind us that we are sinners, and we still need our Savior.  But as the foundation of one's hope for salvation, they are the baggage of the sons of Hagar, the heirs of the Law and of condemnation.  There is no comfort, and no salvation in them.  They are the remnants and evidence that we are still and always Persecuted by the Flesh.  But they are not part of the Gospel.

"So then, brethren, we are not children of a bondwoman, but of the free woman."

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
(Let the people say Amen)