The End Is Near

 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you.  For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.  While they are saying, "Peace and safety!"  then destruction will come upon them suddenly like birth pangs upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.  For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night.  But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.  For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him.  Therefore encourage one another, and build up one another, just as you also are doing.

Sermon for Last Sunday in the Church Year                                         11/20/22

The End Is Near

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Once again, we have come to the end of the Church Year.  One more time God has given us the grace to remember together that this world is not all that there is, and the end is coming.  Our theme, this morning, is; the end is near.

Paul writes to the Thessalonians - and really intended and expected that all Christians everywhere would finally hear his words, that they really did not need to be told what he was about to write.  "You have no need for anything to be written to us about the times and the epochs."  He was reminding them of the obvious - something that they could sense from the world around them and its corruption, and something that was part and parcel of the Christian hope - the end is near.  You don't need to be told this either - you know it already, and you have heard it year after year after year.  We don't know precisely how many "last days" there are, but each day that passes brings the end of time one day closer for sure.  And we know, as Paul says, that the day of the Lord, that last great day of resurrection, will come just like a thief in the night.  It will come suddenly, unexpectedly and with no warning.

That day is described as coming like a thief in the night because it is not going to be generally expected by the world around us when comes, and because it is not bringing good things to all.  In fact, for most people, the day is a day of horror and sorrow and damnation - and the public humiliation of being called out before all of mankind as one of those who stupidly refused the goodness and love of God.

That day is going to come when the world least expects it.  When the world around the church and outside of the church and posing as part of the Church finally convinces itself that nothing is ever going to happen, and that the end, long-promised in Scripture, is really not going to come, that is when it will happen.  It is going to catch them all off-guard.  They will be like the pregnant woman who set out shopping or goes to work in the morning, and is suddenly disabled by the onset of labor.  There will be no warning, no time to prepare, no last-minute accommodations or getting ready.  They will be caught flat-footed and red-handed in their sin and unbelief.

Paul writes, "But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day." He means that you, on the other hand, should never be caught off-guard.  You know it is coming.  If you haven't wrapped your mind around that thought yet, get wrapping!  The end is coming and it is coming soon.  The difference between you and the world around you is day and night – you are of the day and in the light of the Lord and His Word, and the world is of the night and in darkness.  The day of the Lord should not catch us unprepared, or surprise us in sin and unbelief.  We know that the end is near.

We also know the grace of God in Jesus Christ.  We know that He died for us.  We have heard and believe what a terrible thing sin is, and how great a price was paid for our salvation!  The price is the cross.  We look at it every week, on the altar, on our hymnals, on our paraments, and on the processional standard.  We rehearse and remember each week what Jesus did on our behalf and hear how He has cleansed us and how He forgives us.  We eat of His body and drink of His blood – the body which was given for us and the blood shed for us in death – and do so, as Jesus commanded, also in remembrance of him.  We walk in the light of God's grace and love day by day – which means that we are to keep that truth uppermost in our minds day to day, not just on Sundays.  Paul suggests, and God says clearly, that we cannot honestly believe all that He has revealed to us and still be caught off-guard, unprepared, and self-deceived.

That is what Paul calls sleeping, in our text.  Sleeping, or drunk.  "For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night." Either we must be wide awake, alert and prepared, expecting Jesus to return, or we are either unconscious or purposefully out of contact with the realities that God has pressed on our attention with so many warnings and exhortations.    "But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation."  We are the people of the day and of the light – not lost in the dark like the world around us.

That means that there must be a difference in how we handle life and the expectation of the coming of the end, and how we handle ourselves in that expectation.  We are not to be of the number of those who sleep, as though they did not know which day is coming.  Sleep, here, means to act as though unaware of the great spiritual realities confronting us.  We cannot behave as though we have all the time in the world and no urgency about what we do.  We actually do have all the time in the world, but the world is simply running out of time, and there are so many who need to know of Jesus, and we need to prepare ourselves as well.  We need to be alert and sober.  In part that means we need to be honest about our sins - and confess them, and repent of them and hear and believe the gospel of our forgiveness and salvation.  We also face terrible dangers, and not the kind that everyone around us face.  We face discrimination and persecution which God promises will only grow more severe as time passes.  We face strong temptations to doubt.   We face temptations to lusts and pleasures.  We face temptations to fear.  And we face death.

These are not pretend terrors and dangers.  They are effective and powerful.  They are the tools of the enemy – the devil who prowls about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.  All too often, Christians are deceived by what they perceive to be a long time and God delaying His return.  We have each seen friends, and sometimes members of our own families, seduced by this problem of perception and led to walk away.  But the end is coming and it is coming soon!  Those who fall asleep, as regards the faith, are distracted by the pressures of life.  There is so much else to do.  They slowly find themselves weaned of the habit of regular worship – weaned away to visiting, traveling, sporting events, and who knows what all.  They find themselves weaned away from hunger for the truth, and attracted by short services, or entertainment, or a warm and sticky sense of nostalgia - rather than the pure milk of the Word, and the wonderful treasure of the Holy Supper.  Now, occasionally missing worship may be inconsequential, but when we allow ourselves to be persuaded that it doesn't matter at all, sometimes we find ourselves slipping away.  It starts by irregular attendance, perhaps missing once a month, then attending once a month, then once every couple of months, and then it seems to be too much trouble and takes too much time to stop and worship at all.

That is the sleep into which so many are lulled.  That sense that it is not urgent is the drink which intoxicates so many and blinds even our reason and dulls even our senses until those who have become drunk cannot tell that they have stopped believing.  They cannot feel the big emptiness inside until it is too late.  Like the drunk who thinks he is sober and could fool anyone, and yet everyone else can see that he is unsteady, sometimes we become so sure that we know all that we need, and we don't need a sermon or a Bible Study, that we anoint ourselves priest and expert, and then we will just believe what we want to and make sure our religion doesn't get in our way or accuse us of sin.  There are entire church bodies that have followed that path!

But the time for such silliness and unconsciousness is at night, in the dark – that is to say, those are the thoughts and the errors of the world.  We are of the day.  We know our need, we know the danger, we know our weakness, and we know where we find our strength and comfort.    We understand that all we possess in Christ is the gift of God through His Word, through the hearing of His Word.  We need that comfort, even when we are not aware of our need.  We need that strength, even when we do not feel our weakness.  We need the Word – and it is not the Pastor's word, even though he speaks it.  It is God's Word, poured out through the mouth and lips of the faithful preacher.  And we need the heavenly food which God sets before us in this Holy Supper!  This isn't some ordinary bread and wine, this is the very body and blood of Jesus Christ, once given and shed on the cross for us, now offered to us by Christ Himself, from the hands of His called servant.  It is a heavenly mystery which delivers all that Christ won for us by giving His body and shedding His blood.

True, we cannot see all of that or taste it, but we are not so sleepy or intoxicated that we cannot believe that God can do what He promises.  Here is forgiveness, and because it is forgiveness, it is also life and salvation!  This holy food does not merely nourish the tissues of our body, it feeds and strengthens our soul and comforts us in times of distress and temptation.  And since we are of the day, and not of the night, we need to be alert and sober, and prepare ourselves for the coming day, and the dangers that await us on the way.

Paul speaks here of the breastplate of faith and love, and the helmet of the hope of salvation.  That is our armor – faith in God, love for one another, and the confident expectation that when this life is done, life isn't over, rather, death is.  Our faith is the very thing that the world around us calls superstition, and foolishness, and wishful thinking.  This is the armor against the pessimism of this age, the hopelessness that settles upon so many.  No matter what is happening around us, even in our own lives, we know that we have God's love and that His will for us is always our salvation.  We can trust God – and faith always does.  Knowing God does not decrease your pain or limit your frustrations.  It isn't intended to do so.  The pains and frustrations probably increase.  The devil wants you to doubt, wants you to despair, wants you to give in to hopelessness.

Faith gives us the answer.  Trust in God is powerful stuff.  God's strength is perfected in our weakness.  His power shines through our troubles when we give up on ourselves and trust Him instead.  Then His Word carries remarkable power!  It doesn't magically make our troubles go away, like in a Harry Potter movie.  But, through His Word, God strengthens us to be equal to the obstacles, challenges, and dangers that we confront.  He may even use them for His glorious purposes.  Eventually the troubles of life will go away, or God will take them away, or He will take us away out of all of them, but while we struggle, He is there to strengthen us, protects us, and bring us through.  So our hope is in Him.

And we have one another.  We are the ones who are to be like "God with skin on" to our brothers and sisters in Christ.  God has given us to each other to encourage and comfort one another, to hold our hands in times when we need that, and to help us bear the load.  We work for one another.  We feed one another.  We drive one another places.  We sympathize, and weep with, and rejoice with, and confess the faith with one another.  We do it out of love – not obligation.  That is why the last verse of our text says, Therefore encourage one another, and build up one another, just as you also are doing.

Then, while we stand protected by faith and encouraged by our love one another, we have the helmet of the hope of salvation:  For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him.

On this last Sunday of the church year, we face the end of the world.  It is a somber and serious topic.  But it is not a cause for fear for the Christian.  God is with us every step of the way, and we know that the end of the world is not the end.  Of the world, yes, but not for us.  God has destined us for salvation!  Whether we live, which Paul refers to here as "awake", or we have passed on, which Paul calls "sleep", we are with the Lord, and our hope is sure and we will live forever.  So, for the Christian, the end of this life and the end of this world are, like the end of the church year, part of the plan of God.  They are a cause for remembering God's faithfulness and love, and encouraging one another to hold fast and be faithful and never lose hope.

We know that it is not death to die – and while we live, we have God's help, comfort and strength.  And so we prepare.  We live as His holy people and we encourage one another, and we share the good news of Jesus and of forgiveness and of salvation.  We don't hide, and we don't run, and we don't try to blind ourselves with the intoxications of this world.    For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night.  But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.  For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him.  Therefore encourage one another, and build up one another, just as you also are doing.

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

It Just Goes to Show You

 2 Peter 3:3-14

Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation."  For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water.  But the present heavens and earth by His word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.  The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.  Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!

But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.  Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless.

Sermon for The Second-Last Sunday in the Church Year              11/13/22

It Just Goes to Show You

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

I once drove – briefly – in a "white-out".  I was driving my brother to catch a  bus at the depot the next town over, when, as I drove out of town, I drove into the white-out.  It looked like someone had painted the outside of my windows white.  I stopped the car, and then realized that someone could just drive right into me without ever seeing me, so I turned around and carefully and slowly drove a few hundred yards back into town.  As I drove into the town, past the wind-break, the windows cleared and I could see outside of my car again. As I think about it, it seems to me that my experience in the white-out is a great image for how we live life.

We cannot see much of life.  We cannot see the future – very quickly our vision fails when we try to forecast or foresee what is going to happen.  We cannot keep the past in clear view – it fades quickly and everything about it is very transient.  We often remember it as it seemed to us rather than how it actually was.  We cannot see the realities around us, except for a very few and very close to us.  Not even the immediate area around my car was visible.  Just the interior, the things closest to me.  Similarly, only the things right around us in life are really clear.

If I had decided to stop my car and get out on that road, I could see no reason not to.  I could imagine them, but I could not see anything.  I could have turned circles where I was, or walked down the road, or done all sorts of things that I wouldn't normally do on the road.  As far as I could see, there was no reason not to do so.  Of course, I couldn't see very far – and there could have been dangers coming from any direction, and any decision to stop or get out and walk could have presented tragic consequences that I could not see coming from where I was.  

Life is like that.  I cannot see very far.  If I make my decisions just on the basis of the moment, and how it feels or how it seems without taking into account what may be coming, or of realities that I cannot see right now, I could be setting myself up for real pains and problems down the line.  It just goes to show you – you never know, until its too late, sometimes.

Peter writes to the church as an old man.  He was approaching the end of his life in this world, and he was fully conscious of that fact.  He was writing to warn and awaken and prepare the Church for the future.  God showed him a little bit about the future, and Peter knew that he needed to warn us.  He could see how little we knew or understood about reality because we can each just see our own little piece of it.  Peter wanted to give us more so that we would not make long term trouble for ourselves by making short-term decisions.  He wrote about the future.  He was writing about now.

In the last days, Peter says, mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation."  For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water.

Peter was describing our days.  We are in the Last Days.  We have been in the Last Days since Jesus ascended – the very end of the world!  It is just taking longer than anyone imagined, because with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day, so even many of the last days are last only from God's perspective and plan.  We would like to know just how many "last days" there are left to us, but God has chosen not to reveal that to us.  He clearly wants us to be ready at all times.  He says so explicitly in some places in the Bible.

But we are living in a world that fits Peter's description.  Mockers are telling us that there will be no end – that the world is self-existing and self-sustaining and eternal, more or less.  We call that proclamation of the world ‘the theory of evolution'.  The so-called "experts" tell us that the world is billions of years old, and has billions of years to go.  Just as Peter prophesies, it escapes their notice that the heavens exist by the Word of God, and that the earth was formed out of water and by water – and they deny the flood of Noah, just as Peter said they would!  Their understanding of how things came into existence is hot and dry – not cool and wet, as the Bible tells us it was – and out of fire and explosions – the big bang.  They scoff at the idea of a catastrophic, world-wide flood.  That can only happen, they say, if we cause global warming and melt the polar ice-caps.  The days described in Peter's prophecy are these days, the days when people try to quench our expectation of the coming of Christ, and try to seduce us into believing that there is no end coming, no judgment to fear, no God above to call on.  It just goes to show you how clearly Peter saw that coming day – and that day is now.

The fact that these things are happening just goes to show you that you should be careful to believe all that Peter writes here.  He says, "Do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved."  The world lives in that "white-out", but you should not – you cannot, because if you do, you may do things that will have far-reaching consequences that you don't foresee or intend.  So you have to keep the truth in your mind as you walk among those blinded by the blizzard of unbelief.

The first truth you need to keep in mind is that God is not delaying or slow – He is patient.  He is patient toward you and me, that all to come to repentance.  The end of all things is at hand, but God holds it back so that you and I have time enough to discover our sinfulness and repent – and time to learn and believe the grace of God in Jesus Christ.  This world is ending because of sin.  This world is going to be destroyed by God with tremendous heat and all that is of sin and all that is evil will be burned up with this world.  Only those whose sins have been forgiven, who have been cleansed by the salvation won by Jesus on the cross will be spared.

The Lord is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.  He is patient for you to repent and for you to share this truth with others.  The day is coming, and coming soon, when God will judge all mankind, and destroy the earth, and ungodly men with it, in eternal flames.  We have this window of opportunity to spread the Word and to show forth His glory by holy conduct and godly lives.  We have this patience of God to use for rescuing our loved ones and our neighbors before the day when the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.  How do we know for sure that these thing will happen?  How can we be positive?  Because God says so, in His Word..  But the present heavens and earth by His word  are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

Peter describes our day to a "T" and then tells us that the only reason it is taking so long to come to the end is so that we have time to repent, and to call others to repentance.  The truth of the one – of the patience of God – just goes to show the truth of the other – the end is coming.  And since the coming end is so true, and the promise of salvation is so sweet, we need to respond.  Peter asks,   Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!

What sort indeed?  We need to be men and women of repentance.  That much is clear – and that means that we know what is right and wrong, and that we confess with humility our failures and our sins.  We are often guilty of living our lives like this world is not coming to an end.  But it is!  We are often guilty of living as though we are permanent and we are worthwhile, and others maybe are not.  But that isn't true!   We live as though there is time and more to spare – but, according to God through Peter, we are living on borrowed time, and we have a purpose, and it is God's purpose, to call men to repentance and hold out to them the sweet hope of resurrection and life everlasting with Jesus Christ.

What sort of people ought you to be?  Diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless.  We ought to be diligent and deliberate about being Christians.  Peter called it "holy conduct and godliness."  That isn't to be our behavior in order to win a prize, but our behavior that comes from knowing the truth – and having been promised the prize already.  Evil burns.  Ungodly men and women are reserved for fire and judgment and destruction.  We want to be spotless and blameless in Jesus Christ.

We ought to be people of peace.  That means confidence in God, trust in His promises and His love, and the daily expectation of His blessings: in other words, that means people who live by faith.  It also suggests people who create peace around us by spreading the good news of the wonderful promise and the cause for certainty that it is true.  We should each one of us, be evangelists – missionaries to Verndale and Bartlett Township, Bertha and Hewitt and wherever else we might go or live.  It also means that we must live in peace with one another.  No anger.  No grudges.  Forgiveness is how we get to be at peace with God – He forgives us – and forgiveness is how we get to be at peace with one another.  You need to ask for forgiveness where you cause offense, and give forgiveness where you are given offense.

We aren't there yet.  We are not fully the sort of people we ought to be in holy conduct and godliness.  Thank God He is as patient as He is, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.  Just goes to show you how good it is that God hasn't ended everything yet.  As we approach the end of the church year, our Epistle reminds us of the patience of God.  It is clear that Peter meant these words for us.  Some days, the Bible speaks right to us personally.  It just goes to show you.

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

Strong in the Strength of His Might

 

Ephesians 6:10-17

 

Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, and having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one. And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

 

Sermon for the 21st Sunday after Trinity 11/06/22

 

Strong in the Strength of His Might

 

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

 

There are few more profound or important passages in Scripture than the one which stands before us as our text this morning. This is not a Gospel text in the sense that it lays Christ and His sacrifice on our behalf before us. It is not a Law text in the sense that it gives us rules for living or a pattern for holiness. We can find both Law and Gospel here, but the importance of these words is that they set before us the reality of our lives, of the struggle of the Christian faith, and prescribe how we must approach these things if we are to endure. Our only hope, and our greatest defense is if we are, in the words of our theme this morning, Strong in the Strength of His Might.

 

The lessons, particularly the Epistle lessons, for Trinity season focus on living the life we called to live as Christians. Some have focused on values, and some on morality, and some on the temptations that face us. The lesson today has a broader focus, although it is still about living out our life in Christ. I hope that you have noticed that I am avoiding using the phrase "the Christian life." There is nothing wrong with the phrase, except that when I hear it used commonly, it seems to be used in a way that suggests that the life of all Christians is pretty similar – that there is this distinct thing called "the Christian life." But there isn't. Each Christian has a life, and we all face different challenges – or the same challenges and temptations confront each of us differently.

 

Of course, there is a common thread in our lives. It is faith in Jesus Christ, and the knowledge of God and His love for us. We face common temptations, and we have a common morality – we call it the Ten Commandments. But there is nothing about how we live out lives that we can take for granted, after those few things. Being Christian does not mean that you will be a Republican, or a Democrat. Being Christian does not determine your taste in music. One Christian may enjoy science fiction while another is driven to distraction by it, and the third is bored by it. So the phrase "the Christian life" can be confusing – because every Christian has a life, and whatever it is, and however it goes, as long as that individual remains a believer, it is "the Christian life" for that Christian.

 

So I prefer to speak of the life which Christ has called us to live – which for me is as a pastor, and a husband; for Cheryl is as the wife of a pastor, and a woman who works outside of the home, and for each of you is what and where you are. We have what one might call "common-places" in our lives, however. We all have the Word of God. We share in worship. We are each tempted. We each have those particular people we like and those we don't enjoy so much. We each have enemies and we each are confronted by troubles and tribulations tailored for us personally by the Adversary, the enemy of God and man, the devil. Our text gives us some fundamental perspectives and principles to work with as we live out the life we have been called to live in Jesus Christ.

 

The basic things is that we understand that we are called to live our life strong in the strength of His might. That means that just as we could not choose to be a Christian, but God had to choose us and change us and make us His own, so we are not adequate to face the challenges of the life in Christ by our own strength. Our only hope is that we live this life by His power – strong in the strength of His might.

 

That is where Paul begins this exhortation: Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. Oddly, you grow stronger in the Lord by growing weaker within yourself. Strength in the Lord is faith in Him, and loss of confidence in your own fitness and ability. That makes this strength challenging for sinful man, and particularly hard for us self-sufficient Americans. You have to humble yourself, a tough thing for us proud people, and learn what God says about the battle we are to fight and the enemy we are to confront. We must face the uncomfortable truth that we simply are not up to the battle, in and of ourselves, and the enemy is overwhelmingly powerful and our only real hope is in the strength of the might of God.

 

Once you understand that reality, you are ready to put on the armor of God – the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. Without that armor you will not stand. Period. You will fail if you try to confront the battle by your own strength. I tell young people that when they confront a temptation – and they confront so many – that they need to put physical distance between themselves and the temptation, whenever possible. You cannot eat a forbidden dessert if it is in the kitchen and you are out in the yard. You cannot succumb to the temptation to satisfy any lust of the flesh if the object of your lust is not at hand. So young boys and girls need to resist the temptation to immorality by fleeing one another in the hour of temptation – not by saying, "I am a Christian. I am strong! I can resist!" I can report on personal experimentation in my youth that proves that temptations faced, and not fled, mean victory for the Tempter. That is why the Bible says, "Flee youthful lusts."

 

Of course, youth aren't the only ones who face temptations, or the schemes of the devil, which is why we all need to be prepared. And the first thing we must understand if we are going to be prepared to live this life in Christ in a God-pleasing and holy manner is that our enemy is always the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Our enemy is never really the person before us. It isn't the one who makes us angry, or the one who does such hurtful things or says such obnoxious things. They may well be serving our true enemy, usually are – whether they know it or not. But the man or woman who may be troubling us is not the enemy. They are trapped, enslaved, in need or rescue and redemption, just like the rest of us. Our enemy is always the devil.

Since our enemy is the devil, and the war, however it may look or feel to us, is spiritual in nature, we need the armor of God. And Paul tells us to put it on. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. You put it on by Faith, which is to say, by knowing the Word of God and trusting God's promises. 

 

Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with the truth. These words echo Isaiah 11:5. "To gird" means "to equip, to prepare for action." You must equip yourself with the truth. Jesus 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." Since our enemy is the father of lies and the great deceiver, we must be girded with the truth and ready to answer the lies and deceptions of the evil one.

 

Next we need to be prepared by having put on the breastplate of righteousness. Paul is describing the preparation of the Christian in terms of the armor of the Hoplite – the Roman foot-soldier, the most efficient and effective military force known before the advent of gunpowder. The word for "full armor" in our text is "panoply", the technical military word for the armor worn by the Roman soldier. An essential part of that armor was the breastplate. It protected the heart – and therefore the life – of the soldier against the swords and arrows of the enemy. You had to strike around it, you could not cut through, not in the heat of battle.

 

The righteousness of Christ is our breastplate. It protects us from sin and death. It is the answer of God to the accusations of the devil, whose title, "devil", means "the accuser". He will accuse us of sin. He will accuse us of weakness. He will accuse us of deserving death and damnation along with him. And it is all so true, in and of ourselves, – but we Christians wear the righteousness of Christ. We stand empty-handed, offering no defense except that Jesus died in our place, and has bestowed on us His own righteousness. We ask God to judge us by His Son, just as He has judged His Son by our guilt and sin. That is our breastplate – Christ's righteousness.

 

Then we shod [our] feed with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. No army could long endure or fight effectively without shoes. Rocks and sticks and sharp, pointed things in the ground would bring any army to its knees without proper footwear. We are prepared for the battle with the footwear of the Gospel of peace. God is at peace with us, and we are at peace with one another. Our sins are forgiven, so we know that whatever we encounter in the battle, God is not against us, nor are things out of control and hopeless, but we are at peace with God and He with us. And we are to be at peace with one another! Four Roman soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder, back to back formed the most effective fighting team history has ever known. We, too, need to stand shoulder to shoulder in this battle, and know that the danger is from the enemy, not from those who should have our backs as our brothers in Christ.

 

Then we take up the shield of faith. Trust in God and in His promises can extinguish all the flaming arrows of doubt, of guilt and of fear that the devil can send against us. We can shout, in faith, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" We also wear the helmet of salvation, which keeps us in every circumstance in contact with our head, namely Christ.

 

Finally, being fully protected with the panoply of God, we pick up the sword – the Word of God. The battle in Christ is not fought with fists or bullets. Not with parliamentary procedure and by-law changes. Not with shouting and shoving. It is fought with the Word of God. The Word of God is the power of God for the fight, and the only effective weapon, for our enemy is not the bodies of flesh before us, but the demonic, spiritual powers at work behind the terrorism and persecution and hatred of the world for all that is of God.

 

The Battle is engaged, and we can fight effectively, and we are protected by the power of God. We wear the strength of His might by faith – which means we must know what He has promised, and trust Him to do all that He has said He will. To fight effectively we must be armed with the Word – which is accomplished by knowing it. We put on the Gospel armor by study and hearing the Word of God. That means regular, faithful participation in worship, and joining with the congregation in the study of the Word. I have been asked many times, can you not study on your own? The answer is, Yes – the real question is, will you?

 

God has given us the armor, and He has given us the power, and He has given us the weapon for the battle. We must also remember that He also has given us the ultimate victory as well, in Jesus Christ, so we have no need for fear. Put on the full armor of God, and finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

 

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

(Let the people say Amen)

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Simply the Gospel

Romans 3:19-28

19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it- 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

Reformation Day 10/30/22


Simply the Gospel

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Luther was a stubborn German. On October 31st of 1517, he posted an invitation to debate the sale of indulgences on the door of the Castle church in Wittenberg. He did not intend a reformation of the church. He was still a faithful priest of the Roman Catholic church. His action was a typical call for a debate on an issue by a Doctor of Theology in his day and age, and Luther's issue was the sale of indulgences. Forgiveness was not for sale, in Luther's opinion.

It seems that everybody found Luther's tract interesting, and although he never got the formal, academic debate he had been aiming for, Luther sparked a war of pamphlets with the chief salesman of indulgences for the Pope in Germany, Johann Tetzel, and an escalating controversy which caused Luther and the whole of Christianity to rethink many issues and doctrines of the faith which resulted in what we call the Reformation. So, October 31st is known as Reformation Day among most Lutherans.

As Luther debated, he found that the Gospel itself was at issue, ultimately, and being a stubborn German, he would not let go of the issue. Being a sincere Christian he could not let go of the Gospel — the simple Gospel laid out by the Apostle Paul in our epistle lesson this morning. Our theme today is Simply the Gospel.

Paul began with the law and sin. That is where we must always begin. The law teaches us that every single one of us is a sinner, and as such deserve nothing but God's wrath, death and Hell. The function of the law was never primarily to teach us how to behave, but to demonstrate before our eyes and intellects that we are sinful through and through. We need to be rescued, and we lack the character and ability to do anything about that need.

So God did what was needed. He sent His only-begotten Son into the world and into our flesh to do two things: keep the law of God perfectly, and then die innocent of any personal fault or need to die – He was to take on our need to die for us and die in our place. Having done that, the death our sins demanded before the justice of God was accomplished, used up, if you will. Then God justified us, counting Christ's perfect righteousness as our own because Christ counted our sins as His own. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Simply the Gospel. There was nothing left to buy. Our forgiveness is the gift of the Gospel. Everyone is covered by this gift. The only way out of it is to reject it and deny it and to refuse to be covered by this grace of God. Because man's nature is sin and hostile to God, being ignorant of God and His grace is the most common way of rejecting the gift of grace, but many do so deliberately as well. They simply will not believe it and will not accept it, and sometimes believe that they must do something that makes them fit for God's grace – which is to call God a liar both in the judgement of the law and in His goodness, grace and mercy in the Gospel.

The Gospel - the life and death and resurrection of Jesus – was to show [God's] righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Faith is all that is required, and God gives faith and creates faith when and where the good news of His love is proclaimed. He has to give faith because we are unable to believe accept, or truly understand the Gospel without the enlightening of the Holy Spirit, 1 Cor. 2:14, 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.

So we celebrate simply the Gospel on Reformation Day. God pushed that stubborn German into a fight he did not want, first by making such a big deal of the 95 theses, then making Luther dig into Scriptures to defend himself – where he discovered that his religion had been missing the gospel all along. And God taught Luther to believe and forced him to teach and defend what God had shown him in the Scriptures, what I have called simply the Gospel, For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

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

 

Old Man / New Man: The Change

 Ephesians 4:22-28

(T)hat, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.  Therefore, laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH, EACH ONE of you, WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another.  BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity.  Let him who steals steal no longer; but rather let him labor, performing with his own hands what is good, in order that he may have something to share with him who has need.

Sermon for the 19th SAT                                                          10/23/22

Old Man / New Man: The Change

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

I have a confession to make this morning.  I have been a Christian all of my life.  I was baptized when I was two months and five days old.  I have no time in my life of which I am aware that I was not a believer.  I was raised in the Lutheran Church and have loved going to church and singing the hymns and hearing the sermons all of my life, from my earliest memories to now.  I enjoyed doing memory work as a child.  I like talking about God - and I like talking to Him.  He listens so very well.  I have hated being alive at different times of my life.  I have wished my life circumstances were entirely different at one time or another, but I have always believed in God and trusted in Him and hoped for eternal life.

So a passage like the Epistle lesson this morning has always struck me.  I have sinned at times in my life, but I have never known a time when I did not live with a consciousness of God, and of His will, and of His love.  When I sin, sometimes I have had other things more prominent in my mind, and sometimes I have deliberately pushed God out of my mind so that I could sin more boldly at the moment, but I never had the time before I believed to point to and say, now that was my former manner of life, that was my "old self".  But I have always known what Paul was talking about when he wrote about that old self and that former manner of life.  Our theme this morning is, "Old Man / New Man: The Change".

Before we go any farther, let me say that I do know how this passage applies to me.  I know the old man and I know where he lives.  He lives in my flesh, in my sinful desires and in my inability to resist sin.  This passage often sounds like it speaks only to those who used to be pagans and are now Christians, but it doesn't.  It speaks to me, and to my weakness and sin, and it speaks to yours as well.  So let us talk about the Old Man and the New man and the change in us due to Christ.

The first thing we notice is that the old man is not a nice guy.  Paul tells us that the Old Man is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit.  There are three ideas there: corruption, lust (which is any strong desire, but usually refers to a sinful desire), and deceit.  There is nothing attractive or pleasing in that list.  Corruption takes you from good to bad, or from bad to worse.  That is the human condition.  We recognize it, in our own backwards way, when we grumble about the decay of our society, and when we yearn for "the good old days".  Sin is corrosive to human nature, and we are corrupted by it.  I often find myself looking at the news and wondering how anyone could do the things I see have been done by someone that day.  It is spooky when I have to confess that it is only by the grace of God at work in me that I am not capable of such things, or that I am not doing them.

There was a program on TV that featured the capture of internet predators who came to a house in a suburbs somewhere, seeking to molest twelve and thirteen year old girls - or boys.  Several of their "guests" have made repeat appearances, and some of them were teachers, rabbi's, and even ministers.  These were outwardly good, decent, normal people – at least by all appearances – who found themselves corrupted by sin and the lusts of deceit.   I would like to think that I am "bullet-proof" in this regard, but the Bible - and just watching the world around me - instructs me that it is not necessarily so.

That is why St. Paul urges us to lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self.  That is something you can do, by the power of God the Holy Spirit who dwells within you.  Unbelievers cannot.  They are mired in the corruption, and the lusts, and the deceit.  They need to be rescued - and not just from sin, but from themselves.  They need the help of someone sharing with them the hope of salvation and the good news of forgiveness of sins, salvation and forgiveness bought and paid for by the death of Jesus Christ on our behalf, and proclaimed by His resurrection!  They need to hear that they have been redeemed.  They have been purchased and won from that corruption in accordance with the lusts of deceit – not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent sufferings and death.

You, too, have been redeemed, You have also been made the child of God through Baptism, and fed salvation in His holy Supper.  You have God's own power within you to lay aside that old self, and put on the new man.  You don't have to create that new man.  Paul tells us that God has already created him.  Paul writes, "that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. " That renewal is God's work, as we talked about last week, but Paul exhorts us by God's own inspiration to be renewed, that is, that we live in that renewal, and not in the confusion and corruption of the deceits of this life.  We are God's holy people.  He even tells us that we have been newly created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

But, although God has done the work - redeeming us, and creating in us that new self, we still have to put it on, that is, we need to deliberately live the life of holiness and righteousness and truth that God has created for us.  You have to live out the renewed spirit and renewed mind that God has given you.  You have that power, and the ability to make that choice.  It is all God-given, poured out into you by the gift of the Holy Spirit, so, you can do it.  

Sadly, some, who call themselves "Christian" do not.  They remain in the ways of the world, they behave as though nothing has changed, and that there is no difference between a Christian and anyone else.  But, simple reason will show you, if there is no difference, then we have no different hope either.  If being a Christian makes no difference in you, it makes no difference for you either.

This is not to say that a Christian does not sin.  Paul himself wrote about the problem in Romans 7, "The good that I want to do, I don't do, but I find myself doing the very evil things I don't want to do."  That is one of the reason Paul encourages and exhorts us.  He knows we need it, and he knows that sin is still natural to our flesh.  So He encourages us to lay aside the old self – repent – and put on the new self.

"Laying aside the old self" and "putting on the new self" is the change that our sermon theme speaks of.  It means allowing the Word of God to change your mind, and shape your thinking, and end the deceit of self-justification.  That can only happen when we hear the Law and confess our sins, and then trust in Jesus Christ for forgiveness and life and salvation.  Paul doesn't describe what this change looks like in every detail, but he does give us a couple of important aspects of it.  Because it is a renewal in truth, he tells us to be people of truth - "Therefore, laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH, EACH ONE of you, WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another."  When we undergo this change, we set aside the deceit – the old self – and adopt the truth – the new self, just as He who is the Truth has chosen us and made us members of His own family.

It is important that we do this for more reasons than one.  Not only does this truthfulness reflect who we are but we need to deal with one another honestly because we are connected.  We are members - the word means "body parts" - of one another.  In the body of Christ, we are inter-connected.  It makes as little sense for division and dishonestly to appear among the people of God as it makes sense for your hand to chop off your foot, or your mouth to refuse to feed your stomach.

Another issue – a putting on of the new self – that Paul instructs us about deals with anger.  Anger is toxic, but it is also unavoidable as long as we wear this sinful flesh.  Keeping that in mind, Paul wrote, "BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity."

Anger itself is not the whole problem.  It is what we do with anger that is the problem.  As the children of God, we are to deal with everything honestly, including our anger.  We are to confront our anger, and we need to deal with the cause or source of our anger.  Sometimes that means we need to get a grip and deal with the reality of our lives like grown-ups, and sometimes it means to address the situation that stirs up our anger, and find a solution - which almost always involves confession and repentance by someone – and forgiveness from someone else.  

At all cost, we are to avoid allowing anger to stew within us and fester into a bigger problem.  Paul says, "do not let the sun go down on your anger".  In order to do this, it requires the courage to speak about what's bugging you, and the courage and willingness – and humility – to really listen when someone responds to you, and, on the other side, it requires the compassion to care when someone else has an issue to share with us.  This all demands the new man, because the old man is not up to either end of this conversation.

The issue at the bottom of it all is that we do not allow the devil an opportunity.  The Greek there is interesting; it says, literally, "do not give a place to the devil."  Our anger, particularly when we don't deal with the causes, gives the devil a place within us from which he might diminish us, or seduce us.  Dishonesty works the same way.  It opens the door to the devil to twist our perceptions, to lead us from the truth, and to give others cause for bitterness against us.

The final example in our text of the change is the example of the thief who has been converted.  He stops his life of taking and begins to work so that he may have to give to others instead.  It marks the size of the change worked by this change from the old man to the new man - putting off of the one who takes from others and putting on of the child of God, the new self who gives to others, just as Jesus gave to us.  This change is part of being the people of God, and result of it.  It is also part of how we remain the people of God and resist the corruptions of the lusts of deceit.

As I earnestly desire to stand firm in the faith and be faithful unto death that I may finally obtain that crown of life, as Revelations 2:10 promises me, I also want to walk in this truth of the old man/new man and of the change which Christ brings.  I want to put away the "old" and be renewed in my spirit and in my mind, to the new man, who is being renewed in righteousness and holiness of the truth.  I want it, but that is a change that God alone works.  I know you want the same things - and here Paul teaches us that God has created that new man in us that we may live in Him by grace and through faith.  May we deliberately and consciously walk in the newness of Christ by His power and according to His will, reflecting the Old Man / New Man: the Change.

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

God's Work All the Way

 1 Corinthians 1:4-9

I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Sermon for the 18th S A T                                                           10/16/22

God's Work All the Way

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

The thought is inescapable, if you read the Scriptures. You have to want to miss it to miss it.  Strangely, though, many people who claim to be Christians and claim to believe the Bible miss it, or ignore it.  It is one of the most comforting thoughts that the Bible teaches, and yet it is, to be quite frank, somewhat unsettling for many people.  It is the theme for our sermon this morning, "God's Work All the Way".

By that, I mean to say that our faith and our lives in Christ are the work of God and not our work.  We receive them as gifts of the grace of God.  We often feel as though we are doing something, that we make choices and we make it happen, but it is the consistent witness of Scripture that our participation in Christ – in faith, in being a member of the Church, of continuing in faith – is the gift of God.

We do make choices all by ourselves.  That is the unfortunate part.  We make choices like missing worship because we think we have something more urgent to attend to.  We choose to doubt God's good will – that it is good, or that it is right.  We choose to listen to the voices of society  – or family – around us and place emotion before doctrine, our sense of things before what God's Word tells us, and how things look to us before what the truth is from God.  We choose to justify ourselves for our lapses and sins rather than repent of them, and confess them, and allow Christ to justify us.  Yes, we do make choices, but when we do so under our own wisdom and power, we are invariably making sinful choices.  The good stuff is God at work in us, and faith is his gift.

That is why Paul begins this short piece of 1 Corinthians with thanksgiving.  I thank my God always concerning you.   He knows that its God's work all the way.  They are who they are because of God.  They believe because of God.  They not only are what they realize they are, but Paul wants them to know more, that there is so much more to it than it seems at first blush.  But His teaching begins with the thanksgiving.

He thanks God for the grace of God which has been poured out on them.  Since it is grace, it obviously cannot be anything but a gift.  That is so because grace is that undeserved favor of God.  It is seen first and foremost in the forgiveness of sins.  That is not the specific grace that Paul is focused on, here, but whenever we approach the idea of the grace of God it is good to remember that Grace starts with forgiveness.

Paul is thankful for the grace of God given to them (and to us, I would assume) in connection with Jesus Christ.  That is, of course where all grace is connected.  This brings me back to the seminary definition of grace that I use in confirmation classes: Grace is the new attitude of favor in God toward us, sinful men, for Christ's sake.  All of our dealings with God are made possible and powered (if you will) by Christ's death on the cross for us, and His resurrection.

In our text, Paul is talking about how, by the grace of God, we have been enriched in Christ.  The specific riches of which he is writing about are in speech and knowledge.  Paul is effusive in his praise - he says we are enriched in everything, then says in all speech and in all knowledge.  What the grace of God has enriched us in is everything concerning Christ and salvation - not necessarily absolutely everything.  God has taught us about Christ, and taught us how to speak about Christ.  Worship and the confession of our faith is a good example.  The best worship is when we say back to God what He has said to us first.  That is why so much of our worship is drawn directly from the Bible.  We con-fess, we speak with God, and say what He has said first.

Paul talks about how the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in the Corinthians.  That confirmation is their faith.  That they believe is confirmation of the Gospel Paul preaches.  The Corinthians also seemed to have had a number of the more remarkable gifts of the Spirit as a validation of the Gospel message they had heard.  Paul directly addresses the issue of the gifts of the Spirit in later chapters of this letter, and he appears to bringing the topic up right here at the beginning of the letter.  But he is not speaking about the Corinthians having special gifts that no one else has, or that some churches lack.  Their faith, and the church among them, is the confirmation of the testimony of the Gospel concerning Christ among them – as it is for us.

The testimony concerning Christ is that He had died on your behalf, suffered for your sins, and has risen from the dead bringing forgiveness and life and salvation to you.  The only confirmation of that good news is the Holy Spirit at work in you, creating and sustaining your faith.  The congregation gathered around you is the confirmation of the testimony of Christ.  Nothing else would actually work.  Think about it.  The children of Israel saw the great plagues that struck Egypt, they had the pillar of cloud and fire, they heard the voice of God at Mt. Sinai, and received the gift Manna six out of every seven days for forty years, and yet they wandered.  They committed idolatry.  They refused to believe the Word of God about the promised land.  Signs and wonders can only do so much.  Even being a witness to the resurrection of Christ, as the Jews of Jerusalem were, did not make the difference for them.  For confirmation of the Word of God concerning Christ, only faith, and the church He has assembled for over two thousand years, can serve.

Paul then asserts that the Corinthians were not lacking in any gift.  That didn't mean that they had everything they could imagine.  They didn't.  They had everything they needed.  Every gift that the church needed to be the people of God and to do the things God had planned for them to do was already given to them.  They were not lacking in any gift needed to await the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Likewise, we do not lack any gift needed for us to accomplish what the Lord would have us to do while we also await the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.  That revelation, of which Paul writes, is what we call ‘the return of Christ to sum up the ages', and to judge the quick and the dead, and to bring us all home to eternal glory with Him.  We await that revelation eagerly, as Paul says.  We want no more sin, or sorrow, or sickness and death.  We look forward to that final step in our salvation which brings us to the fulness of the promises of God.  The troubles of this life are wearying, and we eagerly await that day when they are ended.  We don't look for - or hope for - annihilation or unconsciousness, but the life everlasting and the joy and peace of which the Gospel speaks.

Paul also promises here, by the Word of God, that our Lord will confirm us to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  While we await His return, we have the promise of the Lord to continue to keep us in forgiveness, so that when He comes, we are found to be fit for heaven, righteous with His righteousness, and blameless in day of judgment.  We not only have every gift needed to accomplish what God would have us accomplish, but we have the gift that we need in the final day, when Jesus shall bring all mankind before Himself and shall separate the sheep from the goats - those who are His from those who have chosen to walk away from His grace and love.

Every step of our pilgrimage through life as the child of God is the work of God.   He has seen our need for rescue from sin, and worked out or salvation.  The story is older than any of us here, but the wonder of it is still the same, God conceived the plan to be both the just Judge, and the one who justified the sinner through Jesus Christ.  The soul that sins is justly condemned by divine justice, and yet, it is redeemed and forgiven and given eternal life of the righteous by the same divine justice – and the plan and the work of putting that plan into action is God's work all the way.  Now He brings that good news to us, and proclaims it to those who are powerless to respond, and so God creates the response, and gives us faith by His own power and work, forgiving us and cleansing us, and strengthening us through both Word and Sacrament, and holds us in faith, as well.  He works in us and works every good thing we do through us by His power, and rewards us as though it were our work, when, in fact, we would be utterly undone if He were not sustaining us minute by minute.  It is no wonder Paul began this passage with thanksgiving, and ends it with the confession that God is faithful.

God is faithful because He has called us into fellowship with His Son, and He sustains us in it.  It is that very faithfulness of God that we depend upon for both our physical life and blessings, and our spiritual life and well-being.  Paul writes about all of this both to give the Corinthian church a reason for thanksgiving, and to comfort them in the midst of whatever they will have to endure, for God is faithful.  They do not need to worry about the future or the challenges that it may bring.  They can and will succeed and hold fast to the faith – and we can and will hold fast to the faith and succeed in all that God has planned for us to accomplish – because it is God's work all the way.

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

A Manner Worthy of Your Calling

 Ephesians 4:1-6

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

Sermon for the 17th Sunday after Trinity 10/09/22

A Manner Worthy of Your Calling

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Who are you? Your answer to that question will determine the course of your life and the values you live by. It is said that people actually live out what they believe. And they do, although they don't always live out what they say that they believe. Such people don't, evidently, know who they are.

Now, I'm sure you think you know who you are. If you want to be sure, look at the decisions you make - decisions about your time; decisions about your behavior; decisions about your stewardship of all of that which God has entrusted you for a time. What you do and how you decide will show you just who you are. If you look at yourself honestly and have the courage to face the truth about what you see, you will discover that you are not who you think you are - or at least who you think you want to be - or want others to think you are!

That is because of the flesh, the part of you that is still under the sway of sin. For most people, that is their entire being, but since you are here, this morning, I am going to assume that you are genuinely Christian, and that what you see is a reflection of that part of you that is still awaiting the resurrection. I said ‘that part of you' that is awaiting the resurrection because when you were baptized, part of you - your spirit - died and was born again to a new and everlasting life in connection with Christ Jesus. We don't actually see the baptized die or be raised to new life, we merely witness the means by which God accomplishes this miracle, Holy Baptism. Because God says that this is what He is doing in Baptism, we know that we witness it happening, although we cannot point to a moment when the spirit dies to sin or is raised to new and everlasting life in Jesus Christ.

We don't actually see it because the flesh does not die in Baptism. It continues alive and well, and infected with sin, just as we all are! It is that sinful flesh that leads us astray. It is the flesh that leads us to say things we know we ought not to say, and to do things we know we should not do, and to fail to do those things we know we just should do, as God's people. Things like prayer, forgiving one another, gathering for worship with all God's holy people on a regular basis, and the like.

The Apostle Paul wrote that we should walk - that is to say we should live - in a manner worthy of our calling - the calling with which you have been called. That is the same as saying that you should live out what you confess - or what you believe. As we look at our text this morning, our theme is "A Manner Worthy of Your Calling."

You act on what you believe because what you believe makes you what you are. Think about it. Pagans act like pagans. They live without a consistent moral center, because their gods, if they profess to have one in today's world, are of their own making and imagination, and they are shaped according to their own desires. They do what they want to do, and they justify their actions by reference to their god - as Muslims or Satanists do - or by explaining that they have no god, and they are free to do whatever they are strong enough or clever enough to get away with.

Sensualists live for the pleasure of it - however they may define pleasure. The Connoisseur lives for the pleasure of food, or wine, or whatever he or she claims is their specialty. The practitioner of extreme sports lives for the thrill of being on the edge. Some live for the more erotic sensual pleasures. They do so because that is where they believe the meaning of their lives exists.

People who believe that this life is all there is live for the moment, and when life is no longer fun or profitable, they throw it away. The Hemlock Society, for example, lobbies for the right to exit this life at the time of one's own choosing, before it is no longer worth living, in their estimation.

Christians will live out what they believe – or, to put it as Paul does, they will live in a manner worthy of the calling with which they have been called in Christ Jesus. They have been called to faith in God and forgiveness of sins, and the hope of salvation. Please note that they are not called to live in such a manner as would make them worthy of their calling. They are called, rather, to live in a way that is appropriate for one who has such a calling.

Judging by our Epistle lesson this morning, to "walk in a manner worthy" means to live deliberately as a member of the church, as a member of the body of Christ, living out our forgiveness, and our unity with one another and with everyone who places their hope completely on the grace of God in Jesus Christ.

The question is, how do you do that? What is the worthy manner?

We turn to the text again. Paul indicates that the worthy manner includes humility. That makes sense, since we live by the grace of God, which is the undeserved choice of God to bless and save us, through Jesus Christ. We do not merit Christ's gift. The fact that we need to be saved says that much. We are just like everyone else, deserving God's wrath and destruction, if we do not consider the work of Jesus on our behalf. So we have no particular reason for ego and pride that we are Christians or that we will be going to heaven. We have reason for joy, but it is a gift, not something we have earned.

The worthy manner also includes gentleness. The manner worthy of our calling is ‘like Christ.' Jesus did not come with violence or aggressiveness. He had good cause for violence and aggressive behavior, but He came humble and gentle for our sakes. He didn't demand His rights or push people into the pattern in which He wanted them to live. He came teaching and preaching and setting and example, and enduring the sin of those around Him even when it was focused on Him. He chose to lead the flock, not drive the herd.

Paul also included patience in that worthy manner. It just goes with humility and gentleness. Patience doesn't demand its own way or its own time schedule. The manner worthy of our calling is one that recognizes that we have been called to represent Christ on earth - not as employees, but as members of the family who share the same focus, that through Jesus Christ men and women might find salvation. This humility is linked to forbearance. We bear with the weakness and folly of one another, knowing that we, too are weak and foolish, but without regard to our weakness Christ has chosen us and rescued us from sin, death and hell.

Finally, the worthy manner is to be diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Basically, that means living in the reality of the oneness we have been given in Jesus Christ — one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God (who is Father), one body and one Spirit. The body is the Church and the Spirit is the Holy Spirit who dwells in each one that believes.

Jesus said, "By this will all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." We are to love each other first. We are to "preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." This love is not about feeling a certain way or doing good deeds, although it certainly doesn't exclude them. This love is about sharing sound doctrine, about peace and harmony and patience and humility with one another. In other words, the love we are to have for one another is another way of expressing the worthy manner to live out the calling of Jesus Christ to eternal life and salvation.

Our unity is first that we are part of that "one body" that Paul writes about. He means "the body of Christ", which is the Church. We share that one Spirit. And we all partake of that one hope - the promise of resurrection from our graves, and eternal life in glory with Him and with all those who have loved the Lord and shared in this unity. This is the truth of God, revealed to us in God's Word, but not by our senses or our feelings, or our earthly experience, necessarily.

Naturally, all those that believe have the same Lord - the Lord Jesus Christ.

We confess one faith. Denominational labels do not matter in this. Everyone who goes to heaven believes what we believe, that is to say we share the same fundamental doctrines. One way I have stated this before is to say that everyone who goes to heaven is a Lutheran, whether they know it or not, because they believe the same Gospel. They hold to the same salvation. They repent. They trust in Jesus alone for their salvation by grace alone through faith alone - or they are not Christians. It isn't enough to know how to pronounce the name, Jesus. A false faith hopes in that which is not saving and trusts in those things which are not promised. So one might say that the Baptist, or the Catholic, or the Methodist that trusts in Jesus alone for salvation is a Lutheran under the skin and unawares, for they share that one faith of which Paul has written to us. That is a big part of our true unity.

Each of us shares in the one baptism. It is the Baptism of Jesus, commanded in Matthew 28:19 and Mark 16:16, in Acts 2:38 and Acts 22:16. It is a baptism that clothes us with Christ, washes away our sins, causes us to be born again to a living hope, and makes us members of Christ's body, the Church. Without that baptism, we are not a part of this thing called the Christian Church. It is the same baptism no matter where it is done or what method we may us - immersion, pouring the water, or sprinkling. It is all the same, and it is all by Christ's command and by Christ's hand - for He calls the hands of those that baptize into His service, and gives them the command - "Baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost."

We all worship the same God and have but one heavenly Father who is over all, and in us all, and He works through all of us to accomplish His gracious will here on earth. Living deliberately within this unity, and deliberately seeking to preserve it in peace and concord, is part of what we are called by in this text to live in, the manner worthy of your calling.

Each of us is in the same delicate condition, clinging to a hope which is beyond our power to choose to believe in the first place. We earnestly want nothing to shake us, and, if we are true Christians, we want nothing to shake each other. God has given us to one another to help us stand fast and firm in this evil world.

The American dream of independence is strong in our culture and strong in our flesh, but it is not a part of the Christian faith. We are united, walking together in the manner worthy of our calling, deliberate in love because the Holy Spirit in us works love in us for one another - by this will all men know that you are disciples of mine, if you have love for one another.

So, we answer the question "Who are You?" by walking in the manner worthy of your calling because it is who we are as God's holy people.

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

Comprehending the Love of Christ

 Ephesians 3:13-21

Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory.  For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God.  Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity                                     10/02/22

Comprehending the Love of Christ

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

People often struggle with the idea of a loving God.  People respond to war, to human tragedy, to illness, and to sorrow , and ask, "How can a loving God permit this to happen?"  They act as though they believe that God should be responsible for these sorts of things.

When we confront human tragedy and sorrow in general terms, we rarely consider the sort of control that God would need to exercise in order to prevent or control the things which cause such trouble and sorrow in our world - such as war, crime, and abuse of one another.  Much of the freedom of decision and action which we enjoy would need to be taken from us, if God were to prevent every difficult experience from confronting us.

Also, when we ask how a loving God can permit such things, we also have to ask how we can permit them, or what are we willing to do to prevent or ameliorate such difficulties.  Are you willing to surrender your freedoms?  Are you willing to give up your free time and work to solve these problems?  Are you willing to divest yourself of your treasures and your wealth to eliminate human sorrow and suffering from this cause or that?  Of course, the answer is that if you were willing to do so, you would already be doing it.  If we are not willing to expend our resources to eliminate our troubles, how is it that we can hold God accountable?  It is only when we can seriously ask these sorts of questions that we can begin to ask the right sorts of questions that might help us understand God and His love.  Our text addresses that issue briefly, and our theme, this morning, is "Comprehending the Love of Christ."

The love of Christ is far more complex and thorough-going than we are accustomed to think.  We tend to love far more simply and shallow.  Our love often is a love of pure emotion, and very little intellect is applied.  Many parents have trouble doing the things that are wise, in regards to their children, simply because they are difficult or painful to endure.  So we have an entire generation of parents who say, "My child is not going to have to do this - or do without that," simply because they had to do or endure it, and did not find it delightful, or understand it well.  They never stop to think of how their experiences – whether they thought them good or bad – schooled them and made them the people that they are today.  They just know that they did not like it (or them) and they resent it, and they will not allow their children to experience it.  And that is that!

The love of Christ is far wiser and deeper and more compelling.  God permits us to do the difficult and even painful things that we need to do in order to achieve the good that He has planned for us.  Take for example the opening words of our Epistle lesson by Paul, Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory.

Paul realizes, undoubtedly by God's inspiration, that the troubles he is enduring are going to work out for the better for him and for those Christians to whom he is ministering.  He doesn't necessarily know exactly how, nor does he need to.  He simply trusts God - and accepts that what God has said is so.  The tribulations he is enduring will work out for their glory.  In fact, he says that his own tribulations are their glory.  We also have the Word of God which tells us that our difficulties will work out on our behalf.  So all we really need is to take God at His Word, and trust that He will do what He has promised.  That is the nature of the Love of Christ for us.

Paul then writes this prayer, For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  Paul never met any of you, and yet this prayer is also for you.  Such is the love of Christ.  Paul is praying that you might have the Holy Spirit dwelling within you with His mighty power so that you might believe - and so that Christ would dwell in your hearts through faith.  The purpose for this is simple, that you may comprehend the love of Christ.

Paul writes, "and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God."  This isn't simply a prayer that you will realize that Christ loves you, but that you will begin to understand in some measure the nature and enormity of the love of Christ.

Don't feel bad if you have trouble capturing it all in your mind - Paul writes to us that it surpasses knowledge.  You simply cannot think that big, or in such complexity and detail.  The Gospel is a good place to start, if you want to understand the love of God, but it just isn't clear enough for us to get an accurate fix on that love.  Because I am talking about things beyond my comprehension, I may sound like I am babbling at times as I try to impress you with the love of God, but bear with me.

The Gospel tells us that God the Father loved us enough to send His Son to live for us and die in our place, innocent of any guilt, and not deserving to die at all.  Some try to draw an analogy which would make the staggering depth of the love of God for us clear, such as comparing us to ants, and one of us being willing to step down to the existence of an ant for their benefit.  It fails as an accurate analogy because we have more in common with ants than God has with us, by nature.  We are created things, with bodies and such.  Besides, ants never did anything to really offend us.  We may find them inconvenient but they have never sinned against us.  They are not even capable of doing so.

We have to grasp the nature of sin and its offense against God to understand what He chose to do for us.  We could probably compare it to a stinging slap of insult and rejection - although it is far more.  It is also destructive and evil and caustic and contrary to God in every way.  Yet His love fervently desired to rescue us from sin - even though we are willing participants.

Then try to imagine the love of Christ, who took on human nature and came to live among us offensive sinners.  He did not walk about holding His nose, mincing through the crowd as though He feared touching the pollution, as we might if we were working with foul, smelly, and contagious people - especially if they were flinging their feces on us and calling us names and spitting on us as we worked to help them.  The love of Jesus was enormous.  He came among sinners to save sinners, and endured the wickedness and the hypocrisy and the hostility of sinners toward Him while He did good and healed them and prepared to suffer and die hideously for them.

Then, He took your sin, that foul stench, on Himself and then paid the penalty for it as though it was His own - so you could have life everlasting, and joy and peace and freedom.  That was His love.  And yet the love of Christ is still more, and larger.  It is not that we can take those few words and clearly imagine how it was for Jesus or what that love must be like.  We cannot!  But that love is just part of it!

Another aspect of that love is how He blesses and protects and guides you each day.  He takes you at times where you don't want to go, and where you only go kicking and screaming and doubting His love, His presence and power.  He takes you where you need to go, and blesses you with all sorts of blessings - the soft and wonderful kind, and the rough and prickly sort that we hate to experience.  He walks with you and watches over you and strengthens you so that you can endure, and that you can accomplish what He has set before you to do, and you receive the glory - whatever it is here and now, and all that it shall be in His heaven, there and then.

He has promised to feed you - and in all the years of your life, He has kept that promise.  He has promised to clothe you, and none of you have stumbled in here naked this morning.  He has promised to guide and protect you, and here, in the fellowship of His people, He does through Word and Sacrament.  He provides everything you need, but it may not always be in a way you expect or coming to you as you would prefer.  But unlike your typical parent, Jesus takes us where we need to go even when it is painful and difficult for us to experience, because His ultimate goal is our ultimate good and salvation.  He is not so much worried about being our friend as He is being our Savior.

Comprehending the love of Christ is not easy.  Our culture and our natural tendencies work in a different direction.  And Jesus has perfect vision when it comes to what is right and good for us.  He is not limited by our sense of things.  Jesus is willing to bear our frustrations and confusion when we don't understand the paths our lives take.  He can take even our sins and turn them to our blessing, at times, although I would not suggest sinning in order to provide Him with opportunities of that sort.  But I would recommend trusting God – and that is aided by diligently applying yourself to comprehending the love of Christ, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God.

Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.  These words make a fine way to end a sermon, but you want to listen to them carefully, as well.  We confess in these words that Christ is able to do "exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think."  He can do far more than you can imagine, or ask of Him.  And He does it all by the very power which dwells in us through the Holy spirit.  It would nice, according to the way we think, if we could access that power and do what we desire to be done - but He loves us too much for that.  We would do the things which benefit the flesh, but hurt the Spirit.  We have the power in us, but He is using it for us and for our good.  But when you are facing the difficult, threatening and challenging things of life, it is a great comfort to know that power you need is not a long ways off, or hidden somewhere.  It is in you.

All you need is to remember the love which Christ has for you, and trust Him.  This moment, this problem, this illness, this situation is going to work out for blessing and good.  That is the promise of God, who loves you.  Even if it works out for death, in the end, it is a blessing, for death is but the next step to eternal life.  To see the blessing, however, you must take God at His Word and trust Him – but the blessings is there, and, when you comprehend the length and breadth and height and depth and know the love of Christ, you can look forward to the blessing of God in any and every situation.

To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

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