"The Messiah Comes to Rescue the Helpless" (Sermon on Isaiah 6:1-6) | January 23, 2022

Text: Isaiah 6:1-6
Date: January 23, 2022
Event: The Third Sunday after Epiphany, Year C

Isaiah 61:1-6 (EHV)

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,

because the Lord has anointed me

to preach good news to the afflicted.

He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim freedom for the captives

and release for those who are bound,

2to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor

and the day of vengeance for our God,

to comfort all who mourn,

3to provide for those who mourn in Zion,

to give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,

the oil of joy instead of mourning,

a cloak of praise instead of a faint spirit,

so that they will be called oaks of righteousness,

a planting of the Lord to display his beauty.

4Then they will rebuild ancient ruins.

They will raise up what was formerly devastated,

and they will renew ruined cities,

which have been devastated for generations.

5Strangers will stand and shepherd your flock,

and foreigners will be your farmers and vinedressers.

6You will be called the Lord’s priests.

You will be named ministers of our God.

You will eat the wealth of nations,

and you will boast about their riches.

The Messiah Comes to Rescue the Helpless

Is there any more relieving feeling than that of someone helping you when all hope seemed to be lost? You had that problem at work that seemed to have no solution until a coworker off-handedly mentioned something that made something click in your brain and the answer became clear. The friend offers to proofread that essay for school and makes a couple of suggestions that help you to make the paper actually fulfill the assignment rather than just feeling like a random collection of paragraphs. Your pet is acting strange and the vet offers a simple medicine or procedure and almost immediately they’re back to their normal self. 

Those feel wonderful because without the solutions it feels awful, right? But you also need the right person to do it. The coworker that doesn’t understand your work isn’t going to be much use, the friend that doesn’t understand your assignment can’t help, and taking your pet to someone who isn’t actually vet won’t yield anything good. The solutions are good, but you have to look for them in the correct places. 

In our First Reading for this morning, God makes some promises to his Old Testament people about the coming Messiah. He would bring rescue and relief from situations that seemed dire and hopeless. And as we heard Jesus read these very words in our Gospel at the synagogue in Nazareth, these words are specifically fulfilled in him. 

The prophet Isaiah lived during a tumultuous time for God’s people. After King Solomon’s death, the nation of Israel had been broken into two pieces, the Northern Kingdom often referred to as “Israel” or “Ephraim,” and the Southern Kingdom often referred to as “Judah.” While the Southern Kingdom lasted longer than the Northern Kingdom, neither were particularly faithful to God’s direction and will. In a region that relied heavily on rain, they often focused their worship on the false gods of Baal and Asherah who supposedly controlled all things related to fertility, including the rain for the crops. God’s people had a difficult time trusting God to do the very things he had promised to do for them. (Perhaps that notion hits a little close to home for us today as well…)

Isaiah’s ministry was to the Southern Kingdom, where Jerusalem was. During his ministry, the superpower of Assyria attacked the Northern Kingdom, defeated them, and carried them into exile, never to be heard from again. This was not surprising because this is exactly what God said would happen because they were unfaithful to him.

Assyria then, logically, turned her sights on the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Assyria staged a great siege of the capital city of Jerusalem. But through Isaiah, God brought good news to King Hezekiah, one of the few good kings that Judah had. Assyria would not be successful. And in fact, in a stunning fashion, God saved Jerusalem from the siege by killing 185,000 Assyrian soldiers over night. 

So it’s in this context of seeing their brothers to the north destroyed and narrowly escaping destruction themselves that the words of our reading are given. Here, God inspired Isaiah to write from the perspective of the Messiah. So, the Messiah starts by summarizing the mission that God had given to him: The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the afflicted. He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release for those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance for our God, to comfort all who mourn, to provide for those who mourn in Zion, to give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, a cloak of praise instead of a faint spirit, so that they will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord to display his beauty. Can you see the huddled masses in Jerusalem, cowering from certain destruction at the hand of Assyria? Can you hear the unbelievable good news announced that the Assyrian army was just gone? 

But the good news that Messiah has for the people is not as simple as the angel of the Lord going through the camp of the Assyrians and destroying them. This is good news, better news, given to people in even more dire circumstances. Because Messiah would come, not to save from earthly problems, but from spiritual and eternal affliction. He is announcing the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of God’s vengeance. 

The Assyrian siege is the illustration for the much more dire siege of sin. You and I are just like the people of Isaiah’s time in that we are besieged by sin and death. We cannot escape the city; we cannot fight back; we cannot rescue ourselves or anyone else. We are trapped and doomed. Destruction in hell is the only possible outcome. 

But then Messiah comes. He comes to announce good news to those of us who only know bad news. He comes to bind up our broken hearts, not with empty platitudes but with real action and real solutions. He comes to bring release from the bonds of sin and hell and release from our slavery to Satan. And wildly unlike Isaiah who was only a messenger for what God would do, Messiah will be the one to announce the good that he himself is going to accomplish. He’s not just bringing good news to the brokenhearted; he’s the one binding those broken hearts.

Jesus would, of course, do that in his life and death in our place. We are freed from our sin and rebellion, our self-inflicted afflictions, because Jesus lived a perfect life for us and died to pay the punishment for those sins. We are no longer afflicted because he was afflicted for us. We are no longer brokenhearted, because his heart was broken for us. We are no longer bound captives, because he took our place under that sentence. 

It’s interesting to note that Messiah announces the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of God’s wrath. God wants to primarily be known not as a God of destruction and punishment, but a God of mercy and grace. Jesus embodies that for us, sent by God himself to save us who didn’t deserve that. Yet he did it anyway because of his love for us.

So this is true and done but, of course, not everyone is going to believe that. We saw the people of Nazareth approach Jesus with skepticism when he announced that he was the fulfillment of these words and then outright rejection when he said the release he came to bring was for all people, not just for them.

Like Isaiah, we are messengers of this good news, but for us the message we announce is work that has been completed rather than work that is yet to come. We get to tell people about the release from the captivity of sins. We don’t have control over whether people believe or not, whether they find comfort or meet this message with rejection. God works faith; we simply share what Jesus has done. 

But for those who do believe, you and me included, what results from this good news? Then they will rebuild ancient ruins. They will raise up what was formerly devastated, and they will renew ruined cities, which have been devastated for generations. Strangers will stand and shepherd your flock, and foreigners will be your farmers and vinedressers. You will be called the Lord’s priests. You will be named ministers of our God. You will eat the wealth of nations, and you will boast about their riches.

You can see and hear the enemies-and-exile context of Isaiah’s original words, can’t you? But you can also see the far greater things than the surface level. These blessings are also stand-ins for the comfort we have now in Jesus and the ultimate protection of eternity with our Savior. Spiritually, we lack nothing today because of all the Messiah has done for us. Eternally, we will lack nothing because we will be with our Savior, our Messiah, forever. There, there will be no sin or anything else to threaten, hurt, or corrupt. We will have safety without end with our God.

We were helpless. The Messiah came to rescue us. Now, we are eternally protected. See this Jesus not just as some confusing historical figure or a nice story, but is the Messiah who came to rescue us all. We are no longer helpless. And we can be the ones to bring this help that God provides to others. May God bless your living and sharing of this joy! Amen.

"God’s Kindness and Love Saved Us" (Sermon on Titus 3:4-7) | January 9, 2022

Text: Titus 3:4-7
Date: January 9, 2022
Event: The First Sunday after Epiphany, Year C

Titus 3:4-7 (EHV)

But when the kindness and love of God our Savior toward mankind appeared, 5he saved us—not by righteous works that we did ourselves, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and the renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs in keeping with the hope of eternal life. 

God’s Kindness and Love Saved Us

Have you heard about “love languages”? It’s the concept that people tend to like to be shown love in different ways. Perhaps it’s the physicality of a hug, or the surprise of a gift, or the prioritization of quality time with that person. It varies from person to person, but knowing the love language of a spouse or a child or a parent can help you tailor the way you show your affection for them.

Sometimes, though, love is shown in ways that maybe the receiver wouldn’t necessarily have chosen but in a way that is necessary. Maybe the child balks at the vegetables on the plate for dinner, but the parent knows that it is love for their physical well-being that makes the veggies part of the meal. Maybe one spouse does routine preventive maintenance on the house or car while the other never really thinks about it, but love is shown in making sure the vehicles run well and the house is safe from people and animals and weather. Sometimes love is shown in ways we weren’t thinking of or seeking after, but which are very, very important.

That is the case with God’s love for us. God showed us love in ways that we would not have chosen and in ways that we didn’t even know were possible, but it is love shown to us to meet the greatest needs we had. God’s kindness and love saved us—he’s forgiven our sins and will bring us to eternity with him.

The apostle Paul, when writing to Pastor Titus, begins our reading for this morning this way: When the kindness and love of God our Savior toward mankind appeared, he saved us—not by righteous works that we did ourselves, but because of his mercy. We learn a couple of things in these two short verses. First, God’s love and kindness were focused on saving us. Secondly, this was not anything we brought about. Our life of good works and good choices didn’t cause God to look at you or me and say, “Wow, that person really has it together. I should give them a little boost to get them over the hump to save them.”

No, it was purely God’s mercy that caused him to save us. Mercy, because we were completely lost on our own. Our sin had totally destroyed our relationship with God; we were adversarial with God, not kind and loving. His mercy saw our helpless state and sought to intervene because we could do nothing to save ourselves.

And so that kindness and love of God appeared. We just spent the better part of two weeks celebrating that first appearing with Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. The child there in the manger was born for a purpose, to save us, to rescue us. But this morning we celebrate another appearance of God’s kindness and love, Jesus’ baptism. His baptism served a different role for him than our baptisms do for us. Jesus’ baptism is his appearance because it is the public start of his work to save us. At Jesus’ baptism, the Father was able to proclaim his joy in his Son and what he had come to do. At Jesus’ baptism, he publicly took our place under God’s law, to live a life that would be credited to us. Jesus’ baptism is the clear, public appearance of the kindness and love of God our Savior. 

And so Jesus did what he came to do, what we needed him to do. We couldn’t save ourselves so he came to save us. Our sins had brought punishment on our heads, and not the type of punishment that a parent or the judicial system might hand down. This was not temporary and finite; the punishment for sinning against the eternal God is eternal separation from him in hell. That’s what you and I had coming, and that’s what Jesus came to change. 

So he took our place under punishment. That will come about three years after the events of our Gospel when he will suffer and die on the cross. That death was not just painful from a physical standpoint; the greater suffering on the cross was the spiritual suffering as he suffered hell in our place. Jesus took the punishment that our sins deserved on himself so that you and I would never face it. Hell is no longer a concern for us because Jesus took it on himself and removed every one of our sins. His resurrection from the dead three days after his death proves his victory and the removal of our sins. 

But he doesn’t leave us a blank slate with all the sin removed but nothing else. Jesus’ perfect life has been credited to you and me. Which means when God looks at you he doesn’t see the sins we’ve committed nor does he see someone who’s done nothing. No, when God looks at you he sees the life filled with good works that Jesus did for us. We are perfect in God’s sight because Jesus removed our sins and gave us his life of flawless obedience!

But how do we benefit from this work of Jesus? If you still have your Christmas tree up at home and there’s still a wrapped present under that tree, how useful is that present? That gift is of no use to anyone until it’s opened, right? As long as it remains wrapped and tucked under the tree it is a gift prepared and given, but no one is benefiting from it.

So too, Jesus’ work on behalf of all people doesn’t benefit us unless we trust what he’s done. But, just like we couldn’t work our way out of our sins, we also couldn’t make ourselves believe this truth. God not only had to remove our sins, but he also had to give us the faith to trust him. Paul describes it this way: He saved us through the washing of rebirth and the renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs in keeping with the hope of eternal life.

The Holy Spirit comes and gives us rebirth and renewal. The tool he uses to do that is his Word. It’s the Word we’ve heard proclaimed this morning from the Bible, and his Word specially attached to earthly elements in the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. As he writes to Pastor Titus, the apostle Paul seems to have baptism especially in mind as he describes this as a washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

We said that Jesus’ baptism was different than ours. Jesus’ baptism served a lot of purposes, but he did not need faith to trust in God for forgiveness; he was perfect! But you and I do need that. And this morning we were privileged to celebrate not one but three baptisms! For Jaidyn, Sienna, and Rocco, this baptism washed them, renewed them, gave them that rebirth by the Holy Spirit’s work. Baptism may create faith if it isn’t already there or it may strengthen faith that God has previously given, but regardless, we saw the Holy Spirit very active this morning in very subtle ways through these washings, these adoptions into God’s family. 

And for those of us who weren’t baptized today but were baptized some months or years or decades ago, our baptisms hold the same meaning and the same blessings. You are uniquely cleansed of sin by your baptism. You are assured that you are not a slave to sin any longer but a member of God’s family. You are not an outsider or an outcast in this family either. You are an heir of God. 

Being an heir means you have an inheritance to look forward to. The inheritance that we have in God’s family is far greater than any earthly inheritance. I read a post online last week written by a 19 year old asking for help because he has just inherited over $100,000 at his great grandmother’s passing. How could he make that be a blessing and last? How could he ensure he did not waste it and have it disappear? Whether an earthy inheritance is $10 or a billion dollars, that’s always a danger, isn’t it? There’s always a chance you might spend it foolishly or invest it in a way that goes belly-up, or be cheated and deceived out of it. Even if you are wise enough to turn that inheritance into something you can pass on to others, who’s to say they will actually be responsible with it? Earthly treasures, even inheritances, do not last forever.

But not so with the inheritance our heavenly Father gives. Because our inheritance is life with him in the perfection and eternity of heaven. That life with God will never end; the perfection will never end. There will never be anything to ruin it or corrupt it. That’s what God has promised to us and that is exactly what will happen.

How did we ever get so fortunate to have such blessings given to us? Well, it wasn’t about you and it certainly wasn’t about me. When the kindness and love of God our Savior toward mankind appeared, he saved us. Jesus came to rescue us from everything bad we had done and made it so we would have nothing but good to look forward to after this life. And during this life, he still provides for us, still takes care of us, still give us what we need. He loves us in ways that we didn’t know were possible. He loves us in ways that we could never have guessed were coming. But he has loved us in those ways just the same. May we all rejoice in God’s kindness and love every day, through eternity! Amen.

"Christmas Is Joy in God’s Promises Fulfilled" (Sermon on Luke 1:68-79) | January 2, 2022

Text: Luke 1:68-79
Date: January 2, 2022
Event: The Second Sunday after Christmas, Year C

Luke 1:68–79 (EHV)

Blessed is the Lord, the God of Israel, 

because he has visited us and prepared redemption for his people. 

69He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, 

70just as he said long ago through the mouth of his holy prophets. 

71He raised up salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, 

72in order to show mercy to our fathers by remembering his holy covenant, 

73the oath which he swore to Abraham our father, 

74to grant deliverance to us from the hand of our enemies, 

so that we are able to serve him without fear, 

75in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. 

76And you, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High, 

because you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, 

77to give his people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins, 

78because of God’s tender mercies, 

by which the Rising Sun from on high will visit us, 

79to shine on those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, 

to guide our feet into the way of peace. 

Christmas Is Joy in God’s Promises Fulfilled

Have you seen those videos sometimes posted online of someone getting really great news? The video captures their immediate, raw reaction. Sometimes it’s laughter, sometimes it’s tears, sometimes the person doesn’t seem to know how to react. While often times these are heartwarming moments, there are times when I’ve watched something like that where it feels like I shouldn’t be able to see this private moment and I wonder why it was filmed and why then it was put online. But then I simply hope that the person who was the subject of the video approved of it being shared with many others. 

This morning in our Gospel we have we have an intimidate moment of reaction recorded for us by the Holy Spirit, one intended for all Christians of all time to witness and benefit from. The verses that make up our Gospel were spoken by Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, at John’s birth. His Spirit-inspired words capture the joy that Zechariah had as a father, yes, but more so as a believer in what God was doing. So, despite the fact that we might have never been in the exact situation that Zechariah found himself in, this morning we might find the same joy as him for the same reasons.

This Gospel for the Second Sunday after Christmas actually takes us backwards from Christmas. The end of Luke chapter 1 took place about six months before Jesus was born. If you recall, Zechariah was a priest serving at the temple. While serving alone in that temple the angel Gabriel appeared to him to let him know that he and his wife, Elizabeth, would have a child. Despite being older than one would think they could still have children, they would have a son. It was a very similar situation to Abraham and Sarah before the birth of Isaac some 2,000 years before this.

Zechariah was caught off guard by this news. Rather than doing backflips for joy or humbly seeking an explanation to help with confusion like Mary would six months later, Zechariah approached it with doubt. And because he doubted, God took away his ability to speak; he was mute for nine months.

Gabriel had told him that the child’s name would be John. When the child was born and the family was gathered around, Elizabeth told them the child’s name would be named John. But everyone laughed at her because John was not a family name. Why name him John? That’s ridiculous! The child should be named after his father! 

Zechariah was indignant. He had learned his lesson of doubt and clearly he and Elizabeth were on the same page in trusting God’s promises and directions. So with a writing tablet in hand he joins Elizabeth in doing what they knew was right. He simply writes, “His name is John” (Luke 1:63). We’re told that at that moment Zechariah’s mouth was opened, his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God (Luke 1:64). And it seems that what he spoke in that moment, the praise he offered to God, is what we have recorded for us in our Gospel for this morning. 

What is fascinating about Zechariah’s words here, is that, much like Mary in her Magnificat spoken perhaps in Zechariah’s presence three months earlier, his primary focus is not really on thanking God for the child himself. I mean, certainly that is there. But there is something much bigger going on here. Both Mary and Zechariah recognize that these children are more than family treasures; they are the fulfillment of promises that God had made long before they were alive. Gabriel had been clear with him nine months prior that this child to be born, John, would be instrumental in preparing people’s hearts for the coming of the Savior. And so while a child is something Elizabeth and Zechariah had been hoping and praying for all the years of their life together, the greater promise was something that had been promised almost from the beginning of time. And that’s where Zechariah begins: Blessed is the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has visited us and prepared redemption for his people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, just as he said long ago through the mouth of his holy prophets. 

John was not the Savior. During his ministry, John will spend a good amount of time testifying to that fact. But his birth signified that the Savior was very close at hand. And by the time John is born, Mary had been living with Zechariah and Elizabeth for about three months. Zechariah, Elizabeth, and Mary knew the promises made to each other and how they were all closely related. Elizabeth and Zechariah’s child would be the forerunner of the Savior and Mary’s child would be that Savior. Everything God had promised was coming together.

Zechariah focuses on God’s power to save. A horn was a symbol of might and strength, so when God is raising up the horn of salvation, he’s raising up the strength of his power to save. Several times in the Old Testament, God had to ask his people if they thought he was too weak to help them, if they thought his arm was too short to save them. Of course no matter what the people thought, God has never lacked the ability to save, and it save from sin; he was simply waiting for time to be right. 

And now the time is right for God to act. And Zechariah continues to observe the purpose behind his actions: He raised up salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, in order to show mercy to our fathers by remembering his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to Abraham our father, to grant deliverance to us from the hand of our enemies. Zechariah says that the purpose of God’s action is to deliver from enemies. And he’s not talking about Goliath and the Philistines from David’s time or Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians from the time of the exile, or Caesar and the Romans from their day. No, the enemies that God is rescuing from are sin and death. 

That’s why the Christ would come, to rescue all people from their sin. Why? Because God loves us and it’s what he promised. Because while God is not too weak to save us, we are absolutely too weak to save ourselves. We can’t get rid of our sin, and because of that sin, we can’t get ourselves back into God’s good graces. God has to be the one to act; God has to be the one who saves.

It’s a refrain we hear a lot at Christmas, but it always bears repeating: Jesus is that strength of God to save his people from their sins. He would be born, live, and die to rescue us from all that we had done wrong. We heard on New Year’s Eve about the deep need we have purification from the stain of our sins. The enemies of Satan and hell are strong—so strong that we cannot overcome them. 

But God can. And God has. Zechariah continues his poetic verses and shows us what the results of God’s actions are: We are able to serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. That is not at all the state we are in naturally. We are not able to serve God on our own and certainty not without fear. In our natural state, we are at war with God because of our sin and the wrath of God is poured out on us because of what we have done against him. It’s quite the understatement to say that sin produces fear of God, terror of God, in our hearts!

But now? Because of God fulfilling his promises and actually sending the Messiah and his forerunner into the world? Now we serve God without fear because he took away that sin which divided us from him. Now we are before God in holiness and righteousness because Jesus gave us his holiness and that righteousness, a right relationship with our God. God’s saving actions have completely changed everything for us for time and for eternity. 

At the end of his song, the proud papa addresses his dear child, but still with that eternal focus granted by the Holy Spirit guiding his thoughts and words: And you, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High, because you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give his people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins, because of God’s tender mercies, by which the Rising Sun from on high will visit us, to shine on those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. 

What was John’s work? To prepare the Lord’s way, to share with people the salvation of God which meant, not rescue from earthly troubles, but the forgiveness of sins. John would the people point to God’s gentle, tender love for them. He would point to the Rising Sun, Jesus, who shines in the darkness of sins and rescues from the shadowy valley of death, to bring us to his eternal home of light and peace. 

The thing that gets me about Zechariah’s poetic words here is the confidence that he has. There is no doubt in his mind that John will do all the things that God promised he would do. And the first part of the our Gospel is all in the past tense speaking about things that had not yet happened. There is no doubt in his mind that what God had promised would happen. A striking change from the man who grilled Gabriel in a doubting way about the amazing promise that had been given to him nine months before. That time unable to speak but able to observe the promises of God take shape really allowed him to see God’s promises in a different light. 

And so my prayer for you and me is that we share a part of Zechariah’s Spirit-given faith in God’s promises. Christmas is all about God’s promises fulfilled. You and I have so much more of the story filled in for us than Zechariah did. We know the birth in Bethlehem, the flight to Egypt, the twelve year old in the temple, the water into wine, the healings, the feedings, the driving out demons, the raising the dead, the betrayal, the trial, the crucifixion, the tomb—and then that most glorious question spoken by the angel, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:5). You know what Jesus did to save you from sin and how absolutely certain this salvation is.

But for you, there are still some promises of God yet to be fulfilled, right? You are in a shell, a shadow of God’s true house here this morning. You have not been brought to his perfect courts. You still wrestle in this world being at the same time a sinner and one who is forgiven, one of God’s saints. Eternal life is still a promise yet to be fulfilled in your life. But Zechariah’s confidence in what God was going to do can be your confidence as well. So many promises of God have been fulfilled in body of our Savior, Jesus. We know that the ones still outstanding are not in doubt. 

In Bethlehem a Savior was born for you. And that Savior is the one who will bring you to himself for the perfection of life everlasting. That is our Christmas joy now and always. Merry Christmas! Amen. 

"New Year's Resolution: Love One Another Constantly" (Sermon on 1 Peter 1:22-25) | December 31, 2021

Text: 1 Peter 1:22–25
Date: December 31, 2021
Event: New Year’s Eve, Set 3

1 Peter 1:22–25 (EHV)

Since you have purified your souls by obeying the truth, resulting in sincere brotherly love, love one another constantly from a pure heart. 23For you have been born again, not from perishable seed but from imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24For: 

All flesh is like grass, 

and all its glory is like a flower of the field. 

The grass withers, 

and the flower falls, 

25but the word of the Lord endures forever. 

And this is the word that was preached to you.

New Year’s Resolution: Love One Another Constantly

What are your goals for 2022? Do you want things to be very different from the year that is drawing to a close? Would you like to continue positive momentum you started this year? Whether you want to make big changes or you want things to be relatively close to the same, this evening gives us an opportunity to look both forward and backward, to reflect on what has happened and plan for what is to come.

In his New Testament letters, the apostle Peter is similarly reflective and forward-looking. Although for him it was not brought on by something as relatively simple as the change to a new year. For Peter, he’s writing to Christians in a large region to encourage and focus them on the future by reminding them of what they’ve been taught. He knows that his life is quickly drawing to a close. Before he dies, he wants to do everything in his power to remind his audience of what is truly important so that they don’t lose sight of that when he’s gone. You and I also get to benefit from that encouragement and focus by making it a part of our focus this evening. Peter reminds us of what God has done for us in the past and what he will do for us in the future. This focus on God’s love and care allows us to make plans for what is coming in the year ahead.

Peter reminds us that we have purified our souls by obeying the the truth. While purification sounds like a good thing, it’s also a reminder that there was something wrong. You only need purification if something was corrupted and ruined.

And we know all too well that we were corrupted and ruined. We did not, have not, and will not meet God’s expectations of perfection. We have been lazy and greedy; we’ve treated those around us in shabby, thoughtless ways; we’ve let lust dance in our mind and even dictate our actions; we’ve allowed our selfish desires to override other’s needs and even God’s will. Sin has fouled us from the inside out. On our own, there is nothing pure in us. 

So God brings the purification we need. He has set before us Jesus as the solution to sin. Jesus’ life and death bring the release from sin, the complete scrubbing of the corruption that we brought on ourselves. We have not earned it or deserved it, but he gives it to us. We are pure because of Jesus for us. So when Peter says we are purified by obeying the truth, that is related to what we often call a gospel imperative, an appeal to believe the good news. But we know that faith can only come about if God gives it. We can rightly understand “obeying the truth” as Peter saying, “You’ve trusted the truth with the faith God has given.” Your purity comes not from you, but from God. Peter makes that clearer as he changes the picture describing this change: For you have been born again, not from perishable seed but from imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

We needed to be born again because our original birth didn’t work out so well. That birth resulted in the stillbirth of sin—we were born spiritually dead in our trespasses. But a new birth from God changes us from death to life. We didn’t choose or dictate our first birth. Likewise, being born again is not something we did or we made happen or that we chose to do. This rebirth is something done for us by God. We were born again when God created faith, trust in his promises in our hearts. 

To accomplish our rebirth, God used his Word, the Word of God that we have in the Scriptures, the Word of God that pairs itself with the earthly elements of water, bread, and wine in the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. This Word is a changing power from God. It takes us from clinging to ourselves and wallowing in our sin to trusting in him for everything we need for time and eternity. 

That Word never goes away, regardless of how dire the circumstance around us might look. Peter quotes the famous words from Isaiah to show us the endurance of God’s Word even in this fallen, sinful world: “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like a flower of the field. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” 

God’s Word endures in good times and in difficult times, when time seems to be dragging on or going by too quickly to comprehend. It stands as the immovable rock and center of our lives. In that Word, God assures us of his love for us, his complete forgiveness for us, and what the result of that love and forgiveness will be: eternal life with him forever. As Peter looks on to his impending death, he recognizes that this is going to be a gigantic change for a lot of people. But even losing the apostles, even changes in spiritual leadership in the church does not change the message. No family death, no pandemic, no great loss of finances, no personal health tragedy can ever remove the truth of what the Word tells us. No matter what lies ahead in the bumpy life ahead, this eternal, enduring Word is in fact the same word that was preached to you. It is what you’ve known and will continue to trust.

That love of God and confidence for eternity that it produces brings a calm even to an unstable-feeling existence. Even in a time of transition like a new year, we go forward knowing that our God and what he’s promised has not, does not, and will not change. The same Word that Peter and the others apostles preached is the very Word of God preached to us. We cling to the same promises in the same Savior with the same certainty as they did. And in all of this perhaps the famous words that the writer to the Hebrews was inspired to record for us ring in our mind, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Even if our whole life here seems like shifting quick sand, the Word does not change and our Savior does not change. 

This stability and confidence and peace that God gives to us produces a visible change and action in our lives. Peter said that as a result of the purification of our souls we will love one another constantly from a pure heart. It’s been a refrain for us in recent weeks, but it’s a thought that bears reacting especially in the brink of a new year. We want the love of God to reflect itself in how we speak to others, how we behave toward each other, and even the thoughts we carry in our hearts about others. 

Tonight let’s jointly set a new year’s resolution: let’s resolve to love one another constantly in the year ahead. All of us can look back over 2021 and see places where we have failed to do this, where we’ve served ourselves not others, where we haven’t loved as we have been loved. And we can also see in Jesus’ life and death for us that the sin has been removed. We are forgiven! And that loving forgiveness then empowers us to be more forgiving toward others, more God-like in our love for all other people.

But unlike so many new year’s resolutions that we get excited to set and then perhaps lose drive to keep in place by January 5th, this resolution doesn’t depend on our strength and willpower. This is a change that God works in us through his Word. So while a resolution of more love for one another may be the outward, observable result, the deeper resolution is that this year we want to be even more enveloped with God’s Word. In worship, Bible Class, home devotions, God wraps us in the warm blanket of his love and allows us to share that love with others. 

Let this coming year be a year where you spend even more time with the God loves you. Let this coming year be a year where you spend even more effort to put that Word into practice in all areas of your life. Let this coming year be a year where you find more comfort in the eternal love of your God who was born to take your place, who died to pay your debt, and who rose to prove your victory. Let your new year’s resolution be that you love one another constantly because your Savior has loved you eternally. Happy New Year! Amen.

"Love Came Down" (Sermon on 1 John 4:9-14) | December 24, 2021

Text: 1 John 4:9-14
Date: December 24, 2021
Event: Christmas Eve, Year C

1 John 4:9-14 (EHV)

This is how God’s love for us was revealed: God has sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we may live through him. 10This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, if God loved us so much, we also should love one another. 

12No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love has been brought to its goal in us. 13This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14We have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

Love Came Down

What is the true meaning of Christmas? This time of year, you can find an almost unending assortment of commercials, specials, and billboards that try to answer that question for us. Maybe the effort is made to show that materialism is not the goal of Christmas. It’s not about getting; it’s about giving. In our house earlier this week we watched the classic, “A Muppet Christmas Carol.” Whatever incarnation of Charles Dickens’ classic tale you read or watch, the moral is the same: Scrooge needed to learn to not be so cruel and selfish and instead learn to be giving to those around him.

And while that’s certainly the better take on Christmas (or life in general) than always chasing after more, more, more, new, new, new, shiny, shiny, shiny—it still falls far short of what Christmas is truly about. Christmas is not as vapid as to be about our being generous to other people; it’s about God’s generosity to us in Jesus. It’s about God’s love coming to earth and becoming clear for all to see.

In ancient days, when the Julian calendar was the followed in the Roman Empire, the winter solstice was on December 25. Since we don’t actually know the day that Jesus was born, December 25 was chosen for that celebration. Many will make an argument that Christians simply took what was a pagan holiday and “Christianized” it. That’s a bit of a half-truth. The solstice was absolutely a pagan festival celebrated by many different groups.

But the solstice is a turning point in the year. It’s the day in the winter that daylight begins to get longer rather than getting shorter. So December 25 was chosen, not because it was a pagan holiday that Christians wanted to lay claim to; it was chosen as a recognition that at Jesus’ birth the Light of the World, the light of God’s love came into this dark world of sin. The solstice doesn’t make the days very bright—these days in the middle of winter still seem to have more darkness than light. But it is the turning the point, the moment in the year when things start to change, the moment we can look back on in bright spring and summer evenings and say, “Late December is when this all started.”

And so that is what happened on Christmas. The problem of sin’s darkness was not solved that first Christmas. But in Jesus’ birth, the love of God came down to earth. The solution to the problem started to get put into place. The plan that God had long promised began to be put into motion. John put it this way in our reading for this evening: This is how God’s love for us was revealed: God has sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we may live through him. This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

This is what we celebrate tonight. Not simply the humble birth of a lowly child to peasant parents. No, this birth is God’s loving coming down. This birth is God’s love incarnate. And this is not empty love or frivolous love; this is love with a purpose. 

God’s love, Jesus, comes so that we may live through him; he came to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Our sins are the opposite of life. They mean death. Physical death, but ultimately eternal death in hell. This is what we’ve deserved; this is what we’ve earned. We’ve rebelled against God time and time again in thoughts and words and actions. And even if you or I think we’ve been good enough or tried our best or any other thoughts along those lines, all we are doing is deceiving ourselves. We haven’t been good enough because we haven’t been perfect, and anything short of perfection fails to meet God’s requirements for our lives.

And this is the reason Jesus came, to be what we should have been but could not be, to do what we should have done but could not do. He came to be our substitute, to go in our place both in life and in death. For a festival so focused on light and joy, it can be a bit of a downer to see the gloomy shadow of the cross looms large over our Christmas celebrations. But the reality is that the gloomy cross is what can bring light and joy to Christmas. Ultimately that’s what Jesus came to do: to give his life at the payment for our sins which then would fix the broken relationship we had with God. That’s what an atoning sacrifice does, it puts two adversarial parties back “at one” with each other by covering over what divided them. It would bring peace between God and human beings who were warring against him with our sin. This is what the angels told the shepherds, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward mankind.”

The moral of a Christmas movie might sound a bit like what John said I our reading for tonight: No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love has been brought to its goal in us. The morals of a lot of those movies are, like A Christmas Carol, that we should be kind and loving to those around us. What is most often missing is the motive behind showing that love. We don’t love one another for an empty reason like it’s simply the “right” thing to do, or because it makes us feel good, or it endears us to other people. No, we love each other because God has loved us. Jesus is our motivation for loving each other, not just at Christmas, but for the entire year. 

You have a Savior who has freed you from sin, rescued you from hell, and will bring you to eternal life with him. You have all of that because of God’s love that clearly came down for the world at Christmas. This love will be your motivation today, and tomorrow, and for the rest of your life to love one another. The love you show to other people is a reflection of that far greater love that God has shown to you. He loved you enough to come down to earth to take your place. He loved you enough to die for you. He loved you enough to forgive you. 

This is the true meaning of Christmas that lasts not just for a night, or twelve days, or a year, or even a lifetime. This true meaning of Christmas, that God’s eternal love has come for us, last through eternity. Thanks be to God for his gift of his eternal love now and forever! Amen!

"Jesus Is Coming to Do God's Will" (Sermon on Hebrews 10:5-10) | December 19, 2021

Text: Hebrews 10:5-10
Date: December 19, 2021
Event: The Fourth Sunday in Advent, Year C

Hebrews 10:5-10 (EHV)

Therefore when he entered the world, Christ said: 

Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, 

but you prepared a body for me. 

6You were not pleased 

with burnt offerings and sin offerings. 

7Then I said, “Here I am. 

I have come to do your will, God. 

In the scroll of the book it is written about me.” 

8First he said: 

Sacrifices and offerings that were offered according to the law, 

both burnt offerings and sin offerings, 

you did not desire, 

and you were not pleased with them. 

9Then he said: 

Here I am. 

I have come to do your will. 

He does away with the first in order to establish the second. 10By this will, we have been sanctified once and for all, through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ. 

Jesus Is Coming to Do God’s Will

“What do you want for Christmas?” Is that a question you’ve asked or been asked recently? Maybe there’s that person you want to show love to who just doesn’t seem to want anything, or maybe they buy everything they want when they want it, or maybe it’s just tough to know where their ever-shifting interests might fall in late December. So you ask and hopefully you get a list of ideas, or you provide some ideas and maybe something you’re interested in is under the tree on Christmas.

What does God want for Christmas? Or more, what does God want in general? This is a question that people have been wrestling with for as long as people have existed. The whole history of world religions, both current and past, centers on this. Does he want me to behave a certain way? Eat a certain way? Live in a certain place? Speak a certain language? Dress in certain clothes? The list goes on and on.

In our Second Reading for this morning, we have the writer to the Hebrews wrestling with a bit of Psalm 40, one of the psalms that David wrote. The writer to the Hebrews is speaking about Jesus because David’s original psalm is messianic—it spoke about and as the coming promised Savior. So we can glean a lot from the words God inspired David to write, and what God inspired the writer to the Hebrews to write about that psalm.

The quote from Psalm 40 begins with a perhaps-surprising revelation: Sacrifice and offering you did not desire. What is on God’s Christmas list? Well, not sacrifices and offerings. And that’s surprising not just in general, but especially in the context of when David was writing. God doesn’t want sacrifices? Really? We’re at the heart of Old Testament worship that largely centered on animal and grain sacrifices for sin, guilt, and thanksgiving offerings. The temple hadn’t even been built yet. When David is writing there’s a solid 1000 years or so before Jesus would even be born.

So, why would God command all of these sacrifices and offerings if that’s not what he really wanted? Well, the Messiah through David’s pen goes on: Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but you prepared a body for me. God was less concerned with animal sacrifices, and more concerned about preparing the body of the Messiah for his work.

We heard a bit of that preparation work in our Gospel this morning. Just prior to our Gospel, the angel Gabriel came to Mary to announce that she would be the mother of the Savior, and we got to hear Mary’s joyful response in her poetic words in Elizabeth and Zechariah’s home.

Jesus knows what God wants. And what God wanted was exactly what you and I needed: not animal sacrifices as a picture of sin being removed, but sin actually being removed. And for the Messiah, a body was necessary for that, because there were things that needed to be done to save us from our sin. Jesus looked at the mission his Father set before him and said, “I have come to do your will, God. In the scroll of the book it is written about me.” Jesus would come to do God’s will, which had been promised from the beginning in the pledges God gave to his people.

We needed a Savior who could take our place. Like, actually take our place. Not playacting, not pretending, not going through the motions. We needed a Savior who would be a physical human being and live flawlessly under the demands of God’s law. We needed a Savior who would do what we should have done but could not do because of our sin. 

So God’s will provides a body for Jesus. At his first advent, which we will celebrate in just a few days, Jesus is born as that baby in the manger. He’s born with clear purpose and direction. We will hear the angels proclaim it. We will hear the shepherds share it. The Savior will have been born. Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but you prepared a body for me.

And so this first advent, this first arrival, is not just about Christmas. It begins with Christmas, but it certainly does not end there. The will of God was never that the Savior simply be born; God’s will was that the Messiah come and accomplish what the Old Testament sacrifices could never do. Those sacrifices were pictures of what Jesus would accomplish. They reminded the people of the reality of their sin and that the without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. But those animals did not pay for sin at all; they pointed ahead to the ultimate sacrifice.

And that would be Jesus, once grown, having completed his three-year earthly ministry, and having lived a flawless life from beginning to end, Jesus would die on the cross. That death would be taking our place, suffering our hell, because that was God’s will. Sin has to be punished, but what God desired was for Jesus to endure it for us so that you and I would never face eternal separation from him.

So the writer the Hebrews notes what the effect of the Messiah’s work on our behalf is: He does away with the first (the system of sacrifices) in order to establish the second (forgiveness freely given to the world). By this will, we have been sanctified once and for all, through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ death undid the need for these continued, repeated sacrifices because we don’t need any pictures of what was coming. It has already come. Jesus has already accomplished his work for us so that we are freed from everything our sins deserved. 

By God’s will we are sanctified in Jesus. That word, sanctified, means to be set apart, made holy, reserved for a special purpose. And so you are. You have been changed from sinner and enemy of God to the dearly loved child of God. You have been brought out of your slavery to sin and into his wonderful, perfect family. This was not something you made happen, this is not because you offered such great gifts or good works or dedicated yourself in such a way. No, this happened because it was God’s will. It was God’s will for you to be rescued. It was God’s will that you be rescued by Jesus. And Jesus has come and actually rescued you.

And so he lifts you and me up. We no longer wallow in the lowliness of our sins, but rejoice in the restored, loved position we have in God’s family through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ. We can look forward to celebrating Christmas knowing that Good Friday and Easter bring joyous meaning to life here and the promises for eternity. Because Jesus will return to continue to do God’s will. God’s will is not complete until you and me and all who are his own are with him for eternity. So, while Christmas is right at hand, don’t lose sight of what is yet to come for us. Jesus will return to bring us to that perfect life he was won for and promised to us. This too, is God’s will. You are what he wants. Thanks be to God! Amen.

"Rejoice that the Lord Is Near!" (Sermon on Philippians 4:4-7) | December 12, 2021

Text: Philippians 4:4-7
Date: December 12, 2021
Event: The Third Sunday in Advent, Year C

Philippians 4:4-7 (EHV)

Rejoice in the Lord always! I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. 7And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 

Rejoice that the Lord Is Near!

Are you excited for Christmas? Maybe right now you’re trying to figure out presents with all the wrinkles that supply chain issues and shipping delays bring. Maybe there’s some stress around all the preparations that need to get done before Christmas arrives, at home, at work, with extended family, or even at church. And all of that is, for another year, made all the more complicated with COVID restrictions and best practices. 

But, in our house at least, despite some stressors, I think there’s still a sense of excitement. Every day or two an update rings through the house about how many days are left until Christmas. And while that announcement is made with excitement, almost every time I hear it, I start thinking about how much there is to get done yet, and I cringe a little bit as that announced number of days (or sometimes hours!) keeps getting smaller and smaller. But still, despite that, it is exciting for all the family fun to look forward to at Christmas and especially the joy we’ll be able to share in God’s Word together in the coming weeks. 

When you think about preparation, does “joy” always go hand in hand with that? For me it doesn’t real often. I will find joy and relief in work done, in a well-prepared event that can be enjoyed in the moment. But the grind of getting ready is rarely my favorite thing. Often it is a time of stress or uncertainty that everything is going to get done when it needs to get done.

In our Second Reading for this morning the apostle Paul would like to have us infuse joy in our Advent preparations. Not just getting ready for Christmas, but more to the point, getting ready for Jesus’ second coming. So this morning, let’s consider how these coming days and weeks can be filled with rejoicing rather than stress, and how we can be thinking eternally-focused thoughts rather than being excessively focused on the here-and-now. Rejoice, my brothers and sisters, that the Lord is near!

We heard the beginning of Paul’s letter to the Christians living in Philippi in our service last week. Paul was gushing with joy and thanksgiving for these partners in gospel ministry. And that’s really a theme that persists throughout this brief letter. Even here in chapter four, near the very end of the letter, Paul still has a joyful, positive outlook on things. 

Paul has some long-term guidance for these Christians as they faced an uncertain future in this life. Things may go well for them; things may go really badly for them. But regardless of what happens, Paul says, Rejoice in the Lord always! I will say it again: Rejoice!

That seems difficult to do at times, doesn’t it? Things go sour in our life. We are stressed. Our lives are not what we’d hope they would be. How do we keep a perspective of rejoicing in this life? 

We heard John the Baptist preach in our Gospel for today. He brought the people listening to him both reasons for concern and reasons for rejoicing. He addressed their sin, which is concerning in any context. And being reminded that the Lord is near in the context of sin is really distressing. 

But John didn’t leave the people at that. For them in their time the Lord was demonstrably near. He pointed them ahead to the coming Savior—one whose sandals he was not worthy to untie. At times we know Jesus himself was even physically near John during his preaching. John told the people that this coming Savior would bring the fire of faith through the Holy Spirit. He would rescue from sin and death. The Lord being near was not distressing; it was reason to rejoice!

Our context and our motivation is the same. Jesus came and rescued us from sin and hell! We are free from eternal death! We will be with our God forever! Rejoice!

But what does that rejoicing look like? Paul gives us a lot of detailed direction in these few short verses. He begins, “Let your gentleness be known to everyone.” That word gentleness is really key. If, as Christians, we find ourselves being combative with other people about our faith (or really anything at all), we need to take a step back and ask, “Is my gentleness known to everyone? Or is it my hotheadedness? Is it my lack of patience? Is it my inability to ever change my mind or acknowledge someone else’s opinion?”

For the Christian, life is not about fighting to get things in your favor. The Christian life is about being gentle, kind, loving, empathetic, and understanding. It is seeking the good of others before seeking your own good. My rejoicing in Jesus means I should have more, not less, patience with my children, my spouse, my parents, and the rest of my family. My rejoicing in Jesus should have an effect on the way I speak in that meeting or the way I drive down the road. My rejoicing in Jesus should effect the way I talk to the clerk at the store, or an elected representative, my fellow member at church, or a total stranger on the Internet. “Let your gentleness be known to everyone.”

What do I do when I suddenly see all the times that I’m not being gentle? Well, that’s the time of repentance, a time to come back to God and say, “Lord, forgive me, have mercy on me. I have not been your ambassador like I should have. I have let my temper or my impatience or my selfishness take hold again. I have not been gentle and kind. I have not let my rejoicing in you be clearly evident in my life.” And what is our heavenly Father’s response? “You are forgiven.” That is Jesus’ work for you! Rejoice in that forgiveness by prioritizing that gentleness with all people!

Paul continues on how this rejoicing in Jesus affects your life and my life. Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. Rejoicing looks like contentment-fueled confidence. Notice that this doesn’t mean that everything will be great all of the time. It also doesn’t mean we will have everything we want or everything we think we need. There are going to be problems, there are going to be issues the we struggle to face, there are going to be things we lack that are difficult to deal with. But the rejoicing Christian should not worry, because we have much more productive ways to deal with those problems available to us than being paralyzed by worry and fear.

We have no reason to worry because even in the most dire need, we have direct access to the Almighty in prayer. Paul’s phrase by prayer and petition goes from general to specific. The rejoicing life is filled with prayer flowing out of a thankful heart. But sometimes there’s something more troubling and more heavy on our heart. The word translated here as petition is a very specific request that we make of God. So there Paul acknowledges those special cases that are a high priority in our prayer life. There’s probably some things hanging heavily on your heart right now. But as you wrestle with those things, bring those very specific requests to God. Pray for healing, pray for guidance, pray for help, pray for strength to be gentle. Whatever your specific need is, pray—and pray specifically, to the God who loves you. 

But as you pray and bring the most difficult things that rest on your heart to him, pray with thanksgiving. Even in the most troubling times we have reason to give thanks. While this part of our life may be on fire, this other part of our life is probably doing well or at least fine. We can thank God for dear brothers and sisters in Christ who care about us and love. We can thank God for the daily bread he continues to provide, even if it’s not always completely clear where those provisions will come from. And truly, even if this life is one giant dumpster fire for us right now, we can give thanks that this is not the be-all, end-all of our life. A perfect, eternal life is waiting for us when Jesus returns or brings us home! Rejoice!

This is still all under the umbrella of Advent preparations. Are you getting the sense that this is difficult? Because I am. Living in this sin-stained world with this sinful nature that dwells deep inside of me means that more often than I would I like to admit, I am not gentle, I am not prayerful, I am not thankful. Which means that I need to come back to our Savior time and time again asking for forgiveness for my failures to my wife, my children, my congregation, my friends, my community. And there, in Jesus I find that forgiveness for those sins, as you find find forgiveness for all of your sins as well.

And that’s how Paul concludes this brief section of this letter, and in fact the way that we tend to close most sermons in our congregation: The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Because we we hear it so often, perhaps we get a little bit numb to the meaning of these words. But let’s not be numb to them. Let’s see them with fresh eyes and hear them with fresh ears:

The Peace of God  — the peace that comes from knowing God’s love, knowing that we are at peace, not war, with our Creator. That peace of God comes through faith in Jesus who has defeated sin, death, and hell for us. This peace brings calm to troubled hearts.

Which surpasses all understanding — We couldn’t explain this peace that God gave to us if we tried. It doesn’t make any sense why God would live and die to save the people who had sinned against him, to save people like you and me. But he did. We cannot explain it, but it is real, and we are grateful to have it.

Will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus — We’ve outlined just how difficult this life of rejoicing can be. Yet, we don’t do it alone. Every step of the way, through pleasant times and distressing times, that peace of God protects us wholly, heart and mind, through Jesus. 

All of these things come back to that reminder: the Lord is near. We don’t know how long our personal lives will be. We don’t know how long this world will last. But we know that Jesus is near, near to us in our life and ultimately he is near because the time of his second coming is close at hand. That can be a scary concept for all the reasons we’ve outlined. But we’ve also outlined so many reasons why it is not scary. We’ve have been saved from the punishment of our sins by our conquering Savior. We are at peace with God because of him. For that we can give thanks; for that we can and will rejoice in the Lord always! Amen.

"God Prepares You" (Sermon on 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13) | November 28, 2021

Text: 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Date: November 28, 2021
Event: The First Sunday in Advent, Year C

1 Thessalonians 3:9-13 (EHV)

Indeed, how can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have before God on account of you? 10Night and day we are praying earnestly to see you in person and to supply what is lacking in your faith. 

11May God our Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. 12And may the Lord increase your love and make it overflow for each other and for all people, just as ours does for you, 13so that he may establish your hearts as blameless in holiness before our God and Father, when our Lord Jesus comes with all his saints. 

God Prepares You

Prep work is often necessary, sometimes well in advance of the main goal you’re shooting for. Under a normal year when we’re not looking to transition to a new hymnal, I like to have a draft of the entire year’s hymn schedule done before we get to this First Sunday in Advent at the start a new church year so that something is down and ready to be used or adapted as we go through the year for every Sunday. You’ve undoubtedly heard all of the news about the current supply chain issues that are preventing everything from books to cars to cell phones to be made, usually not because of the final product, but because of something smaller along the production line; the prep work can’t be done. If you would have visited our home at the beginning of this past week, you could’ve helped us test the rolls for Thanksgiving dinner as Karen made them several days in advance so they were just ready for the meal on Thursday (they were wonderful in case you were wondering!).

When big things are coming, you want to be prepared. You want to practice that presentation, study for that test, and double check the ingredient supplies before the big meal. And the bigger the event, the more important the prep work. The quiz that counts for one percent of your overall grade probably doesn’t merit the same kind of prep as the test that counts for a full third of your grade.

This morning we begin the season of Advent, a season that is all about preparation; we will spend the next four Sundays preparing. But preparing for what? The term “advent” simply means “coming.” We are preparing for Jesus’ arrival in two ways: to celebrate his first arrival as the baby in Bethlehem’s manger at Christmas as well as looking ahead to his second arrival, when he will come to bring us to our eternal home at the last day.

And this preparation, especially for Jesus’ second coming, is what Paul is praying that the Thessalonians are prepared for in our reading for this morning. As we were reminded of a couple of weeks ago when we had another reading from 1 Thessalonians, these Christians in the city of Thessalonica didn’t have much time with Paul because when he was there, his enemies chased him out of town so he had to flee to the south. Paul’s letters to them are both an effort to teach and correct things that he didn’t have time to get to when he was with them in-person, but also to express joy in what they were doing despite not having access to him for a long time. Timothy had returned to Thessalonica to continue to work with them, and his positive report of what was going on seems to be what spurred Paul to write this first letter to that congregation. 

And that’s how our reading begins: Indeed, how can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have before God on account of you? Paul and his co-workers in gospel ministry were overjoyed at what God was doing among the Thessalonians. They were thankful that the gospel took hold among them despite its difficult beginnings, thankful that people had been brought to faith in Jesus as their Savior. And they made sure to express their joy to God directly in their prayers of thanksgiving.

But, Paul notes, there was something not quite right for the members of this congregation. Night and day we are praying earnestly to see you in person and to supply what is lacking in your faith. That may feel like a little bit of a back-handed complement. “We rejoice for the faith God has given you! But, we’re also praying that the gaps in your faith may be filled.” Now, this isn’t that back-handed. Paul isn’t saying that there’s anything wrong with the Thessalonians. He’s simply saying that they are incomplete works-in-progress. There are things they don’t understand or don’t understand in full, and Paul longs to be able to come to them, to meet again in person to be able to talk, teach, and grow together in those places where there were gaps.

We do well to think about our own faith like this. You and I are works in progress in regard to our faith. No matter how much we have studied, how confident we are in our knowledge or trust, we all are lacking some things in regard to our faith. That will be true no matter how much we learn and apply and work with God’s Word, no matter how many years or decades we are Christians and devote to studying what God has said and done. There’s always more to learn and apply.

Acknowledging that is important because it reminds us of what it means to prepare for Jesus’ return. It’s not like preparing for a big meal with family or even a big test in school. We don’t reach a point where we’re “done.” Preparing for Jesus’ return is a constant task, a task that seeks to bring God’s Word to the forefront of our thoughts and hearts day-in and day-out. Anytime that God’s Word is not a part of our lives, that faith is shrinking, while anytime that God’s Word is a part of our lives, that faith is growing and thriving. 

There are many ways we may opt to make God’s Word a prominent part of our lives. Perhaps we make it a goal to be in church more often than we have been in the past. Maybe it’s a goal to make sure our children are in Sunday School so that they can grow in their faith as well. Maybe it’s a goal to participate in a Bible Class where you hadn’t made that a priority before. Maybe it’s a goal to bring devotions to your breakfast or dinner tables for you personally or your family (a new volume of the Meditations devotional booklets begins today and it’s what our family chiefly uses for after-dinner time in God’s Word together; copies are available in your mailbox and more copies are available at the back of church). Or maybe you’re already doing all of those things and your goal is to have that Word have more of an impact on the way you live—the way you speak, act, even think, to let God’s Word and will for our lives have a more noticeable impact on your day to day life than it did before.

We can set all sorts of goals for ourselves in these ways, and they are all commendable. But, unlike pouring over your notes for class or pulling the rolls out of the oven days ahead of a meal, actually making up for what is lacking in our faith is not something that we do for ourselves. That is something that God does. God alone builds up our faith. God prepares us for what is coming. Paul encouraged the Thessalonians: May the Lord increase your love and make it overflow for each other and for all people, just as ours does for you, so that he may establish your hearts as blameless in holiness before our God and Father, when our Lord Jesus comes with all his saints. 

Look at all the things Paul says happen when God does this for you. He increases your love and makes it overflow for each other and for all people. The more you are in God’s Word, the more you are hearing of Jesus’ free forgiveness for all of your sins, the more that love will naturally show itself. It won’t be perfect. You and I will fail to love regularly. We won’t treat people around us as those who God himself loves so dearly. But in Jesus we find forgiveness for that lack of love, and in that loving forgiveness we find the strength and encouragement to love one another better. We refine that love to meet needs, to sacrifice for others, to be more patient, more caring, more empathetic, more concerned for other people’s fears, needs, and concerns. That love will break its banks and flood the lives of others in the way that God’s love has flooded and enveloped you and me.

The flooding love of God has and continues to do what Paul prays for here: establish your hearts as blameless in holiness before our God and Father. When God looks at you and me, he doesn’t see sinners; he sees saints, people set apart for his purposes. He sees people who are forgiven. Jesus died for us to take away every sin and then gives us the faith to trust him as our Savior. This faith is his gift to us, which he gives and strengthens through his Word and sacraments. We want this faith to be in our hearts when Jesus returns or he calls us out of this life.

And thanks be to God that he prepares us for the last day in this way! By his Word he reinforces and strengthens our faith, our trust in Jesus as our Savior from all sin. By that strengthening of our faith we continue to be prepared for what is to come, the day of judgment where we will triumph through our triumphing King.

As we think of all the preparation we need to get done in the coming weeks, be it for the end of a semester or the year-end reports at work, or the coming Christmas festivities, keep this other, far more important preparation in your mind. Dig into the Word. Let God prepare you to hear the good news of the arrival of your Savior and prepare you for his return to bring you home! Amen.

"God Promises Himself to Take Care of You" (Sermon on Genesis 8:18-22) | November 24, 2021

Text: Genesis 8:18-22
Date: November 24, 2021
Event: Thanksgiving Eve

Genesis 8:18–22 (EHV)

Noah went out with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives along with him. 19Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever swarms on the earth went out of the ship, species by species. 

20Noah built an altar to the Lord and took from every clean animal and every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21The Lord smelled the pleasant aroma. The Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the soil anymore because of man, for the thoughts he forms in his heart are evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike every living thing, as I have done. 22While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

God Promises Himself to Take Care of You

As we gather for Thanksgiving worship and perhaps gather with family and close friends for a meal tomorrow, there’s a refrain that you often hear around tables. “You know, this shouldn’t be the only day we are thankful. We should express gratitude year-round.” Which is true, right? The concept of contentment or appreciation for what you have should not be relegated to one holiday. But, it is also a blessing to be able to have something like a holiday specifically focused on gratitude and thankfulness.

As we’ve been through the season of End Times at the tail end of the church year, we’ve spend a lot of time looking forward. What will Judgment Day be like? Scary or secure? How can we be sure that we are triumphant over sin and hell? We looked to Jesus’ triumph for us. And what does it mean that Jesus in our eternal King? He guards and protects us from our eternal enemies, and will bring us to be with him forever in eternal life.

That’s a lot of looking ahead to things to come, either in what will happen or fully benefiting from what what has happened. But what about in the here and now? What about November 24, 2021? What about the latter part of this week, next month, the new year? What can we expect? What has God promised? And perhaps just as important, what has he not promised? 

Our lesson from Genesis that we read earlier this evening takes us back to some of the earliest events in human history. God created the world in perfection and then sin ruined it. Adam and Eve’s sins brought death and misery to God’s flawless universe. God promised a Savior, a champion who would fix what had been ruined, but the world people had to live in was filled with sin and decay, just as the world we live in is.

But in this world the life spans were long, which seems to mean that the people simply had more time to get into trouble and seek after their own desires. And as such, the more time went on, the more that promise of a Savior was in jeopardy. People stopped caring about what God had promised. People stopped sharing it with their children.

And it’s in this environment that God sent the flood to wipe out everything except the people and animals secure in the ark. Noah and his family were not likely the only believers at the time of the flood, but it’s clear they were in the vast minority. And if things kept going as they were, eventually no one would trust in the coming Savior. So the flood was both was judgment on an unbelieving world and was also saving the promises God made. That 40-day torrent of water was both law and gospel.

And it’s after this, and after more than a year waiting for the water to recede that our lesson takes place. Eventually it was safe enough for those in the ark to come out and bring the animals out as well. God directed them to come out and begin the process of starting over. Noah and his family are essentially taking on the same role that Adam and Eve had taken on many years before. They were starting over in a radically changed environment. 

As they come out of the ark, Noah prioritizes thanksgiving to God for saving him and his family as well as saving God’s promise of grace. Noah doesn’t need to be told to do so. God gave him no command to build an altar and offer sacrifices. He saw what God had done and he just had to offer that in joy and gratitude. 

That’s a good lesson for us. Now, of course, none of us have been among the sole survivors of a global catastrophe. In fact, we might be looking at a lot of problem head-on rather than in the rear-view mirror. It might be difficult to see good things and silver linings in our lives. But as we dig into God’s Word, we are reminded of all that God has done and continues to do for us.

Perhaps we do struggle with gratitude or contentment. Perhaps we are often focused on trouble rather than the good things in our lives. What a joy it is to know that even if those are our struggles, if those are our sins, we have forgiveness from those sins. In our baptisms, God washed those sins away as completely as the flood waters washed away all that threatened his promises. We know that forgiveness is real because those promises were realized: Jesus eventually came and suffered the most horrendous torment ever, enduring hell and dying on the cross to pay for our sins, all of them, even for those times when we’ve taken God’s blessings and especially his forgiveness for granted.

So we build our own altars and offer our own sacrifices. The forward-looking blessings are a tremendous comfort and bring unparalleled peace. We are safe from sin, death, and hell because of what God has done for us in Jesus. We will live a perfect life with our God forever in eternity.

But, as we asked before, what about the here and now? Well, as those who were been in the ark leave, God surveys what has happened. And we get a glimpse into the inner-dialogue within the triune God: The Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the soil anymore because of man, for the thoughts he forms in his heart are evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike every living thing, as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

God promises that a global catastrophe like this will never happen again. He will not “strike every living thing” again. While God does acknowledge that our hearts are evil from little on, still those hearts will not result in God destroying the whole world again. And, in fact, things will continue to run like God designed them to run. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

There are a couple of things to think about in all of this. Number one, what comfort! We do not need to fear that we will not have daily bread. God will continue to provide, and he’ll mostly likely provide via the natural means that he’s built into the creation around us. Nothing can supersede God in this. No natural disasters, no change in climate or environment, no mistreatment of creation at the hands of people will ever stop what he’s promised. So while we do well to treat the creation around us with respect, to take care of it, use but not abuse it, we can have the confidence that no matter what happens, the world will be here doing what it’s supposed to be doing as long as God wants it to be here.

However, this doesn’t mean that it will be an existence without trouble. Adam was promised that because of his sin, he would only raise food with great labor and effort. For Noah and his family, this “restart” to the world would also be difficult. God is not going to let things end, but it’s also not going to be easy. Sin is still a part of this world, so while there will be daily bread, it may come at great cost or with a tremendous amount of work on our part. God here promises a life-supporting creation around us, but not necessarily an easy, happy-go-lucky existence. 

But we shouldn’t skip over what prefaced this promise: “The Lord said in his heart.” This is not a promise made to Noah and his family that could be forgotten. This isn’t a promise made to nature at large. This is God promising it to himself. Like the promise he would later make to Abraham where he swore by himself, the writer to the Hebrews notes that God does this because “God ha[s] no one greater to swear by” (Hebrews 6:13). This is an everlasting promise God is making to himself by himself. Nothing we can do can change it nor do we have to do anything to make sure it is kept. This is a unilateral blessing until the Lord brings this world to an end on the last day.

Your sin and my sin may make life difficult, but they will never be able to negate the promises of God. He swore by himself to preserve life on this planet until the end, regardless of what we do or don’t do. Likewise, he swore by himself to rescue us from sin and hell, regardless of what we do or don’t do. When God makes these promises, we can be sure they will be kept because all the responsibility and ability to keep them rest on him and on him alone. You will be taken care now and for eternity; God has promised himself as much. That is reason to give thanks! Amen.

"Listen to Your True King" (Sermon on John 18:33-37) | November 21, 2021

Text: John 18:33-37
Date: November 21, 2021
Event: Christ the King Sunday

John 18:33–37 (EHV)

33Pilate went back into the Praetorium and summoned Jesus. He asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 

34Jesus answered, “Are you saying this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” 

35Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?” 

36Jesus replied, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so that I would not be handed over to the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from here.” 

37“You are a king then?” Pilate asked. 

Jesus answered, “I am, as you say, a king. For this reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” 

Listen to Your True King

We rightfully teach young children to not listen to strangers. Don’t take candy from them, don’t lead where they follow, don’t trust what they say. Why? Because a stranger may not (or likely does not) have the child’s best interests in mind. They might hurt or steal the child or give them something that is otherwise dangerous or harmful. You only listen to people you know you can trust.

That’s a principle not just for young children but for all people, right? Does that financial advisor have your best interest in mind or is he just trying to sell you a product that will get him a big commission? Is that used car salesman being honest about the history of that car, or is he trying to sell you something that will be a heap of trouble? Is that person contacting you in your email really your loved one or colleague who desperately needs many gift cards to get out of trouble, or is it a scam? 

Putting our trust in the wrong places, listening to the advice and direction of the wrong person, can lead us to a lot of troubling or harmful situations. But what about trusting or listening to someone who does have your best interests in mind? Well, then you just might get a great deal on a gently used vehicle, have your long-term finances in order, or even get yourself some delicious candy!

As Jesus stood on trial before Pontius Pilate, he probably didn’t look all that trustworthy. Sleep-deprived and beaten, he probably looked like a lunatic who would have been more likely to spout utter nonsense than a coherent thought. Pilate assumed he had authority over Jesus rather than that relationship being the other way around. He did not listen to what Jesus said. 

And Pilate’s reaction to Jesus is the same as the world’s reaction to Jesus. He doesn’t look like an eternal king. He doesn’t look like he was the one created the universe by calling it into being. He doesn’t look like the one who would rescue mankind from the eternal threat of sin and hell. But he is. He is the eternal King, the King who testifies to the truth. It’s a truth that we often don’t want to hear, but a truth we need to hear. 

We often would rather believe false truths we’ve made up rather than facing reality. After all, I can concoct supposed truths that are far more fitting to my desires or fit my own personal life narrative better than anyone else. We can create all sorts of fictions for ourselves to cling to. But when it comes to our eternal King, there seems to be two extremes at either end of the spectrum. On the one end, we might consider God to be our angry King whom we have to appease and make up with because of our sin. In this situation we make ourselves king. On the other end, we might consider ourselves, our wishes, our desires to be the most important in existence. Here, fear and desperation are our king.

Let’s start with that first one, where we make ourselves and our desires to be the highest priority in our lives, when we really make ourselves the kings. I decide what is right and wrong for me. I decide that my desires are more important than God. So I do what I want to do when I want to do it with little regard for God and what he’s said and done. Maybe it’s not broadly and across the board, but maybe it’s in smaller places. Greed takes control for one person, lust takes control for another, anger sometimes takes control for yet another. And we feel justified in this because we have exalted our tendencies and habits and desires over everything else.

If my inflated ego has any room for God, any room for Jesus at all, it’s an attempt to use him rather than serve and honor him. It actually views Jesus as my servant rather than my King. It makes the things of the here and now more important than anything else. If God is a part of this charade, it’s only because I am trying to control God. I want him to do what I want him to do, to give me what I want for right now. Note how quickly we ignore what Jesus declared, “My kingdom is not of this world.”

On the other end of the false-truth spectrum, we let fear drive our relationship with God. It’s natural to think that this omnipotent Creator and Judge is angry with us. He’s told us to be perfect and given us his law to follow. And what have we done? We have failed time and time again. We’ve actively done wrong things that we shouldn’t have done. We have failed to do good things that we should have done. 

And so our gut reaction is that we have to do something good to make up for the bad, and that will change God from being angry with us to being happy with us. We’re hardwired to think that, something we’ve come to call the opinion of the law. And we see that often it is appropriate to behave this way in our relationships with other people (doing something to make up for some failure), so why should it not be appropriate in our relationship with God? 

This might feel very different than exalting our own desires over and above God, but is it really? Stop and think of what hubris and false humility this is! Is God so easily manipulated? When he has made a demand of perfection and we have sinned, is he so easily bought? God is not a child distracted from a scrapped knee with an ice cream cone. No good work on our part can ever change that fact that we did sin, thus nothing we do can change God’s impending judgment over that sin. Nothing you or I can do can change the fact that hell is waiting for us because of our sin. Thinking otherwise is to assume we have a very weak and fickle God.

There’s a good chance that both of these extremes feel a little bit too familiar. We often find ourselves waffling between these two points of view. As the cycle of sin and guilt continues in our lives, we bounce back and forth between these two attitudes. Sometimes, the hubris that we and our desires are the most important things in the world rules our thinking and attitudes. At other times, perhaps during moments of clarity over the false gods we have created in our hearts, we are overwhelmed with guilt for what we have done and desperately try to do something to make our true King happy with us again. Why does this back-and-forth cycle continue? Because we’re not listening to our true King.

So on this Last Sunday of the Church Year, let’s listen, actually listen, to what our King says. Let’s set aside our preconceived notions and our desires, and let Jesus, our eternal King, speak. And let’s hear what he says; let’s apply what he says. Let’s cast off our false truths and delusions that we’ve created and let him speak for himself.

Jesus told Pilate, “I am, as you say, a king. For this reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world, to testify to the truth.” As Jesus stands before Pilate on trial, just hours before he would be crucified, everything is coming to a head. His entire life, from his birth in Bethlehem through his whole ministry, was leading up to this moment. Here he is testifying to the truth. What truth is that? The truth that God has been saying all along. It’s the truth that speaks of the seriousness of sin and the eternal penalty it bring. It’s the truth that assures us of God’s love, of his promises fulfilled. It’s the truth that God desired to save mankind from sin from the first moment our parents fell in the Garden of Eden. 

Jesus has spoken and taught about it. He testifies to it with words to Pilate on this Friday morning. But his ultimate testimony to God’s truth will come at the cross where he will suffer and die to pay for the sins of the world. And that testimony will continue the following Sunday morning as his resurrection from the dead proves his victory over sin and even death itself. 

Jesus’ testimony to the truth shows just how unhinged our false truths were. Can God be bought with little token good works? Absolutely not! Look at the violence, the blood, the suffering, the literal hell that Jesus endures to actually remove sin. Can my desires take precedent over God? Absolutely not! Look at how deadly serious God is about punishing sin. He wasn’t making empty threats; here we see his wrath in all of its horrid glory. 

But our King goes through it for us. He takes our place under that wrath to pay for our false truths. He testifies to the real truth: our sins are disastrous and bring eternal condemnation, but God’s love wills us to not have to suffer that. So our King does become our servant, but not in the way we wanted to warp him. He becomes our servant by his choice to do what we needed him to do, not what we self-servingly and short-sightedly wanted him to do. He bears our sins in his body. He is the King, not just of the Jews, but of all people because he takes on the punishment of sin for all people.

Jesus finished with Pilate in our lesson, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” You belong to the truth because you belong to Jesus. He is your King here and now today. His kingdom is not just that eternity of heaven that we long for. His kingdom is in your heart; he rules in you by his grace through the faith he has given you. The gift of trust that he provides is his ruling action among us. And that faith, that trust in the truth of his work for us, is what will bring us to that eternity that he has prepared for us.

Here today we listen to our eternal King our true King. It’s not always pleasant to be told that the things we think and desire are not reality, but we need him to bring the real, objective truth to us. And the reality is this: we have sinned and deserve hell, but Jesus lived and died to rescue us. Our King saved us from eternal death by his death in our place and brings us the triumph of his empty tomb. At the last day, our tombs will be empty as well, and then we will be with our eternal, true, triumphing King forever, face-to-face with him for all eternity. That’s the truth. Listen to the One who speaks it. 

May our true King be our guide through every step and stage of our life! Amen.

"Encourage One Another with These Words" (Sermon on 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) | November 14, 2021

Text: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Date: November 14, 2021
Event: Saints Triumphant Sunday, Year B

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (EHV)

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who have fallen asleep, so that you do not grieve in the same way as the others, who have no hope. 14Indeed, if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, then in the same way we also believe that God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. 

15In fact, we tell you this by the word of the Lord: We who are alive and left until the coming of the Lord will certainly not go on ahead of those who have fallen asleep. 16For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them, to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. 18Therefore, encourage one another with these words. 

Encourage One Another with These Words

We all need encouragement. Maybe it’s a word of praise from a teacher. Maybe it’s loving compassion from a spouse. Maybe it’s understanding and support from a friend. Maybe it’s a reminder of God’s truths in his Word from a fellow Christian. And that truly has been one of the hardest parts of the last year and a half, right? We have much less chance to gather with those closest to us, especially our fellow Christians. Live stream “gatherings” and worship are useful and have their place, but it almost totally eliminates our ability to encourage and be encouraged by one another.

God knows we need encouragement. He knows that this is part of our trek through this sinful life. Because of this, he directed his apostles to send words of encouragement to Christians throughout the world in letters preserved for us in the New Testament. And the apostles even directed the recipients of those letters to use them to encourage others, whether that be in directly sharing the letters themselves or, as we have in our Second Lesson for this morning, a directive to remind each other about the truths that God gave to them.

We are nearly at the end of the church year, which means that we have our eyes directed not just to the closure of a church year but to the closure of time itself. Two weeks ago, in our celebration of the Reformation, we were reminded of the importance of God’s Word now and to the end. Last week we were reminded of Judgment Day, a day that is coming at an unknown time but a day that will bring perfectly-known results for Jesus’ sake. This morning, we have the theme of Saints Triumphant, a reminder of our and all believers’ standing with God because Jesus conquered all that threatened our eternal well-being. 

In our Second Lesson for this morning, Paul is writing to the Christians living in the city of Thessalonica. This group didn’t get much time with Paul because his enemies ran him out of town when he was there. So his two relatively brief letters are aimed at correcting misconceptions (and in the case of 2 Thessalonians, some over-corrections). But in the crosshairs this morning is the encouragement of what happens after death. We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who have fallen asleep, so that you do not grieve in the same way as the others, who have no hope. 

The Thessalonians were confused. There seemed to be a sentiment that once someone dies, that’s it, they’re gone. And to a certain extent, that makes sense, doesn’t it? Those of us who have had loved ones pass away do not hear from them anymore, do not see them anymore, do not find encouragement from them anymore. At death, they are removed from us and they seem to be completely gone. This was and is the assumption of those without the encouragement of God’s promises. For an unbeliever, a funeral is pure grieving, pure loss, pure hopelessness, because death is only seen as permanent separation. And this is the approach the Thessalonians were drifting into when it came to death as well.

But Paul is writing to assure them that death for Christians is not a permanent loss, and it need not produce only grieving and hopelessness. In fact, we have a great hope when it comes to facing the death of those who fall asleep in Christ! Indeed, if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, then in the same way we also believe that God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. Jesus’ death and resurrection have an intimate connection to the believer’s life. Because Jesus paid for all of our sins and served as the first-fruits of the resurrection, we know that those who have fallen asleep in the Lord will be awakened from their death-slumber at the last day. God will bring those who have fallen asleep to himself.

Because we know that they are safe in the Lord, we do not need to grieve without hope. That does not mean we are not sad in the days, weeks, years, and even decades that follow a loved one’s passing. We are still separated from them and their encouragements, even if only temporarily. But God is trustworthy and has promised that this is how this works. We don’t have contact with our loved ones who have fallen asleep right now; we cannot see them, talk with them, or hug them at the moment. But they are not gone. They are safe with their Creator and Redeemer. They are safe with the God who has rescued from sin, death, and hell. Let us find the encouragement that God wants us to have in these words.

But what about you and me? For us, other than losing those who have fallen asleep, we go on with our lives just like every day prior. Nothing really changes. It’s all the same. Peter in his second letter described the attitude of people in the world, perhaps even some Christians, as we get closer to the last day. He wrote: “First, know this: In the last days scoffers will come with their mocking, following their own lusts. They will say, ‘Where is this promised coming of his? For from the time that our fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they have from the beginning of the creation’ ” (2 Peter 3:3-4). We understand why they think that way because we’re tempted to think that way because all of the evidence we can see points to this being true.

But all the evidence we can see is misguided. In his Word, God tells us the real story. This life will not go on the same as it always has until we die and then nothing. Our triumphant Savior will return. He will return at the last day; he will return for judgment. And as he promised, he will bring us to live with him. Because he triumphed over sin and death, you and I triumph as well.

What will this look like, especially if we are still alive when Jesus returns? Jesus gave Paul a direct explanation to share with the Thessalonians and with us: We who are alive and left until the coming of the Lord will certainly not go on ahead of those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them, to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. 

What are our takeaways? Again, those we have lost in the Lord are not lost at all. In fact, they are simply ahead of us on the journey to eternity with our Savior. And if we never face death? If our triumphant Lord returns before we die? We will hear that voice of God’s chief angel, the triumphant blast of the final trumpet, and see proof that the dead in Christ have, in fact, been safe because we will see their souls and bodies reunite; we will see them raised from the dead.  Then on that very day in that very hour, you and I who are still left will be caught up with Jesus and those who have been raised in the clouds. But what is the end result? We will always be with the Lord.

And there is the encouragement that we all need. No matter whether we are feeling the loss of a loved one, facing death ourselves, or just feeling listless in this life, here is what is coming. No matter what stage of life we’re in, whether we think things are going well or going disastrously, or somewhere in between. What is coming is infinitely better than what we’ve ever seen. Because we will be with the Lord. Our eyes will not deceive us. There will be no mystery, no hidden things, no trusting in things that we cannot observe. We will see God face-to-face continually. And we will be together with our brothers and sisters in Christ, those we’ve known and those we’ve never known.

Imagine that: an eternity to spend with our Savior and our fellow believers. An eternity to talk with Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, Peter, Paul, Augustine, Martin Luther, grandparents, parents, siblings, children, and generations of believers that we might never meet before we are taken from this world of sin and sorrow to be with him. And nothing will ever separate us from any of them, because we will be with the Lord always. It will not end. Death will not cause problems. We will not lose anyone ever again. It will be perfect; it will be flawless; it will be forever.

Therefore, encourage one another with these words. The people in the first century needed to hear these words to be strengthened and encouraged. You and I in the twenty-first century are no different. We, too, need to be reminded of what is coming because we can so easily lose track of it. We need to see, again, Jesus’ victory over sin, and death, and hell. We need the encouragement that those we have lost are actually safe, triumphant even, with our conquering Savior. We need the encouragement that we, ourselves, are also safe during our trek through this world of sin and death and ultimately will be safe with our Savior forever. Because he triumphed over our enemies, you and I are triumphant as well.

Jesus shed his blood, gave us his life, to rescue us from every horrible thing that sin brought about. We are beneficiaries of his work. All who die in faith in Jesus are beneficiaries of his victory. We are safe not by any work or might or strength we have produced, but solely because of our Savior. He did it all and he did it all perfectly. Rejoice in your triumph that your Savior freely gives, and seek out ways to encourage one another with these words. Praise and thanks and honor be to our victorious Savior, now and forever! Amen.

"We Have Complete Confidence in Christ!" (Sermon on Hebrews 9:24-28) | November 7, 2021

Text: Hebrews 9:24-28
Date: November 7, 2021
Event: Last Judgment Sunday, Year B

Hebrews 9:24-28 (EHV)

For Christ did not enter a handmade sanctuary, a representation of the true sanctuary. Instead, he entered into heaven itself, now to appear before God on our behalf. 25And he did not enter to offer himself many times, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own. 26Otherwise he would have needed to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once and for all, at the climax of the ages, in order to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27And, just as it is appointed for people to die only once and after this comes the judgment, 28so also Christ was offered only once to take away the sins of many, and he will appear a second time—without sin—to bring salvation to those who are eagerly waiting for him.

We Have Complete Confidence in Christ!

Some things in life are just inevitable. Those inevitable may be personal while others are more universal. For insistence, when growing up I always had to be reminded that when we went out for pizza with Grandma, we couldn’t get pepperoni on it because the it would make Grandma feel sick. Likewise, my Dad will go into anaphylactic shock if he eats anything that has come into contact with any shellfish, an adult-onset allergy that is tough for someone like him who grew up on the east coast eating plenty of seafood. 

But those are two examples specific to two specific people. There are more universal truths. A day at a theme park is probably going to produce some very tired parents and kids. Being too hot or too cold likely makes someone cranky. 

There’s an even more universal truth that we want to spend a few minutes on this morning. The writer to the Hebrews in this brief section from his letter notes that “it is appointed for people to die only once and after this comes the judgment.” Not a lot of wiggle room there, is there? This is a universal truth. Everyone will die and after death comes not reincarnation nor the nothingness of becoming “one with the universe.” No, after death comes judgment. And judgment is a scary concept because it carries with it the unknown. If you stand before a judge or a jury, you’re never quite sure how they’re going to rule. Whether you committed the crime or not in that moment is immaterial. What matters is the verdict handed down upon you.

So the inevitably of judgment after death paired with that unknown outcome can make the whole concept of Judgment Day very, very unnerving. But the writer to the Hebrews doesn’t want us to walk away from our focus on Judgment Day here this morning being worried or concerned. No, just the opposite. His desire is for us to see the inevitably as something very positive, a blessing to be longed for rather than something to be feared.

But what would make Judgment Day fearful? Well, let’s go back to the earthly courtroom setting. What would be the reasons someone on trial would be fearful of the results? First and foremost would likely be if they are, in fact, guilty. If you know you did something wrong and figure it’s only a matter of time before someone finds out and then brings punishment down on you, that’s an uncomfortable feeling. The second reason is if perhaps the evidence looks bad, despite the fact that are innocent. Will the judge or jury believe a fictitious accounting of events? Will you be punished for a crime you did not commit?

As we sit and wait for our day in God’s courtroom, we recognize that we have not been framed. No one is making things look worse than they are. We are guilty as guilty can be because we are sinners. God demanded perfection from us and we have been far from that. And he was clear was the punishment for sin is—eternal death in hell. And unlike a human trial, with a human judge or jury, there’s no chance that someone is going to miss something or that you’ll be excused on a mistrial or a technicality. Such errors and lack of knowledge do not happen in God’s courtroom. So concern and trepidation is an appropriate response for human beings as we consider “meeting our Maker.”

So, how then could the writer to the Hebrews want to instill confidence, even joy, at the thought of Judgment Day? Because you and I know what should happen to us but we also know what will happen to us, because those are two radically different things!

In our lesson, the writer begins with a summary of Jesus’ work. For Christ did not enter a handmade sanctuary, a representation of the true sanctuary. Instead, he entered into heaven itself, now to appear before God on our behalf. And he did not enter to offer himself many times, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise he would have needed to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once and for all, at the climax of the ages, in order to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself. There’s a lot to unpack in those three verses, so let’s begin where the writer begins:

Christ did not enter a handmade sanctuary, a representation of the true sanctuary. Instead, he entered into heaven itself, now to appear before God on our behalf. When God gave his Old Testament people their worship regulations, he had a very specific system set in place. Whether it was in the Tabernacle (the temporary tent worship space they used while in the wilderness and in the early years of the Promised Land) or in the temple built by Solomon and then rebuilt after the Babylonian exile, there was a standard setup for all of them. There was a “Most Holy Place,” a special room in the temple that was to represent God’s presence. Daily sacrifices were brought to the worship space at large, and a special once-a-year sacrifice was brought to the Most Holy Place on that one-day-per-year festival of the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). The idea was that coming to the temple and bringing these sacrifices was like bringing sacrifices to God himself.

But this was, at best, playacting. These were pictures of a solution to the problem of sin, but they were not the solutions themselves. They pointed ahead to the real sacrifice, the real payment for sin that was coming. Jesus did not come on stage and put on a show; he went and did the real work. He came to make the sacrifice, to actually accomplish what we needed him to do. He went to heaven itself, actually went before God, and offered his sacrifice for us. 

And he did not enter to offer himself many times, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise he would have needed to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once and for all, at the climax of the ages, in order to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself. There’s another distinction between Jesus’ sacrifice and that of Old Testament worship. It’s not just that the sacrifices offered were pictures pointing ahead to something different, it’s that they were officered over and over again because the people needed those reminders over and over again. They were reminders of a coming solution to sin, not the solution to sin itself.

But it’s the real deal with Jesus. He had the actual payment to get rid of sin and he actually brought it to God himself. His one-time sacrifice actually paid for sin, all sin. His one-time payment was the be-all, end-all of having sin removed. He took away sin by the sacrifice of himself. His death paid for the sins of the world.

That’s the complete landscape that we need to take in when we think about Judgment Day. It’s not just that we are sinners who have disobeyed God and deserve his wrath and punishment. That is all true, but it’s also true that Jesus took our place. He took our place living a perfect life, and then gave that life to us. He took our place by offering his life as a sacrifice to pay for our sins; he took our place in the punishment of hell. He suffered so that you and I could be assured that we won’t. So it’s in that context that the writer continues: And, just as it is appointed for people to die only once and after this comes the judgment, so also Christ was offered only once to take away the sins of many, and he will appear a second time—without sin—to bring salvation to those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Note the contrast between your death and Jesus’ death. Your death leads to judgment, something that is totally out of your control. Jesus, however, was in full control of both his death and its results, to take away the sins of many. And here “many” is not contrasted with “all,” as if there is a limit to the forgiveness Jesus provides. No, “many” is contrasted with “once.” this was a one-time action with cascading effects. Jesus’ one death provides life for all people.

And so here is the confidence you have when it comes to Judgment Day. You lift your head up high, eagerly waiting for that day, not because you are so good or have made God so happy with your life, but because Jesus did everything you needed. Your confidence doesn’t come from you, it comes from him who gave his life to save you. 

There is no doubt about the verdict in God’s courtroom. In Jesus, sin has been annulled; it’s as if it never happened. In Jesus, you are justified, declared “not guilty” for time and eternity. For you, my brothers and sisters, Judgment Day is not a day of angst, worry, and uncertainty. No, for you it is a day of joy, peace, and confidence because that will be the start of your eternal, perfect life with your God in heaven. Thanks be to him who loved us and set us free from our sins by his blood! Amen.

"We Have a Global Gospel" (Sermon on Revelation 14:6-7) | October 31, 2021

Text: Revelation 14:6-7
Date: October 31, 2021
Event: Reformation Sunday, Year B

Revelation 14:6–7 (EHV)

6Then I saw another angel flying in the middle of the sky. He had the everlasting gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth, to every nation, tribe, language, and people. 7He said with a loud voice: 

Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the sky, the earth, the sea, and the springs of water. 

We Have a Global Gospel

I learned a new term a couple of weeks ago, a term that perhaps many of you are already well aquatinted with, depending on your work or your hobbies. That term is “TAM,” an acronym for “Total Addressable Market.” This is a metric that companies will use to make decisions on production or whether a project is worth investigating further. We even use it here. I use a “TAM” of sorts when printing the bulletin by asking the question, “How many people would I guess will be here this weekend?” If I know a lot of people will be out of town on a given Sunday, maybe we don’t print as many as we would when I know few families have guests in town. And certainly the pandemic has manipulated that in a lot of ways over the last 19 months.

For certain products or markets the TAM is large, for others it is small. I imagine Honda’s TAM for its compact Civic sedan is much larger than Ferrari’s for its high end “hypercars.” More Civics will be sold in a year than Ferraris.

So before you get into something, you look at the total possible market and ask, “Is this worth it?” Maybe the questions revolve around cost and profit, maybe they revolve around benefit to others vs. work involved. We were talking on Wednesday night on our Bible Information Class about how we do not maintain a food pantry for the needy on campus because we just don’t have the volume of traffic needed to make such a project worthwhile, but we do support other groups with more traffic to help them in that work.

On this Reformation Sunday, we are partially remembering God’s work through Martin Luther. Our focus is broader than that, but it’s in-part a celebration of what God did through Luther and the other reformers to preserve the truth of the gospel. When Luther lived, the Roman Catholic Church had an iron-clad monopoly on Christianity in western Europe. If you were Christian in that area of the world, you were Roman Catholic, with only very rare exceptions.

And that was a real problem because the teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church did not sync up with what the Bible said. There was a heavy emphasis on guilt and demanding good works to pay for sin. Often, that good to get rid of sins involved money. You could donate money to church, or pay for a worship service, or buy an indulgence all to get rid of the sin and, ideally, the guilty feelings you had. 

You can see the issue right on the surface. Any teaching the puts a burden on people, that indicates that Jesus didn’t do enough to save us, is a problem. Jesus is the sole solution to sin. You and I cannot add anything additional to what Jesus did, and thanks be to God we do not need to. 

But Luther did not know this; most people did not know this. In an era where Bibles were not available because of few translations in the language the people spoke and read as well as expensive and slow duplicating processes, the general populace was not able to interact directly with God’s Word and had to trust what their leaders told them. When Luther joined the monastery as a priest and monk, he suddenly had access to the Bible. His sensitive conscience led him back to the Word over and over again. But he did not go simply to study and learn; he went to try to find a way to make sure God was happy with him. What he discovered there in the clear writing the of prophets and apostles was what you and I are already so privileged to know: that Jesus lived, died, and rose to rescue us from sin. He paid for every sin when he took our place and suffered hell on the cross. Luther, you, and I will be in heaven not because we are or were so great, but because of God’s mercy to us in Jesus. It is God’s undeserved love for people, his grace, that means we will be in heaven. This is a gift we receive solely through the faith, the trust, that God gives.

When Luther made this discovery, how his heart soared! The burden was lifted! He had the freedom in full that God wanted him to have! Now he could have just taken this as personal comfort and left it at that. But he knew that was not in keeping with the point of this message. This was not just for him, this was not even just for those living at the same time he was, or even just for those who had a sensitive conscience like he had. The audience of this message was essentially limitless, because this applied to every human being who was living or ever would live. In our lesson from Revelation, this eternal gospel is described as being proclaimed to those who live on the earth, to every nation, tribe, language, and people. This message was for everyone! A TAM with no end!

What is the result of sharing of this good news of sins forgiven in Jesus? Well, the angel flying with that gospel made that clear: Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the sky, the earth, the sea, and the springs of water. God is the ruler of all, he is worthy of all praise. “Fear” in this case is not to be afraid of, but to respect. Thus, the direction to worship is not one servitude or humiliation, but one of thanksgiving. The “hour of his judgment” is not meant to be a scary thing, but an exciting, because that will be the beginning of our time with God in heaven! The Lord has freed us from our sins and given us the free gift of eternal life! How could we not serve our God, praising him and thanking him?

And so we do. We are here today for that very thing. And while this eternal gospel is a great comfort for us eternally, temporally it can have some negative consequences. You heard the warning that Jesus gave to his disciples in our Gospel for this morning: Be on your guard! People will hand you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues. You will stand in the presence of rulers and kings for my sake as a witness to them. And the gospel must first be preached to all the nations (Mark 13:9-10). Things weren’t always going to be great for the messengers of the gospel. Being a Bible-believing and Bible-living Christian comes with consequences when we live in this sinful world.

We can see that play out, in part, during Luther’s life. Rather than rejoicing that Luther had made these fresh discoveries that could make the church’s teaching more comforting and more biblical, both church and state rejected what Luther taught. Last June was the 500th anniversary of the Pope Leo X’s proclamation that Luther was a heretic, condemned by the church (“People will hand you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues”). This past April was the 500th anniversary of Luther’s trial at the Diet of Worms, where he stood not before church leaders, but state leaders. In fact, he stood before Charles V, the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, and was forced to answer whether he would recant, or take back, the things that he had written about salvation in Jesus alone (“You will stand in the presence of rulers and kings for my sake as a witness to them”). In that moment, if Luther didn’t recant, he would not only continue to be a condemned as a heretic by the church but he would be declared an outlaw by the state. With that “outlaw” designation came the consequence that he could be killed by anyone, on sight, with no questions asked and no consequences for the killer.

Luther, through much turmoil and sleepless nights, eventually declared that he could not recant what he had written unless he could be shown from the Scriptures that he was wrong. Only God’s Word could force him to change his mind. Of course, Luther’s biblical teaching was accurate so there was no scriptural rebuke coming. But, that was of no concern to the pope or the emperor. Luther’s adherence to the truth meant danger for him physically, but this was too important for Luther and the world for him to compromise.

This is sounding a little bit like what Jesus said would happen, isn’t it? It’s also sounding a little bit like what Shadrak, Meshak, and Abednego went through with King Nebuchadnezzar in our First Lesson, isn’t it? I don’t know about you, but for me that’s a little bit scary and disconcerting. We could sacrifice a lot, even our lives, just for living and proclaiming our faith! How do you handle that?

Well, Jesus didn’t give that warning as an out to not do anything. He was honest with his disciples (and you and me along with them), but he also had a directive. Yes, you’ll suffer for this message. Yes, you’ll be asked to testify before people, perhaps even rulers and authorities, but that will be an opportunity to witness to the truth! And, like it or not, there’s a task placed into your lap: The gospel must first be preached to all the nations. And our lesson from Revelation shows a picture of that happening, that an angel who serves as a picture of the many and varied messengers of the gospel, declares that good news to those who live on the earth, to every nation, tribe, language, and people. 

Shadrak, Meshak, and Abednego bravely confessed their faith before Nebuchadnezzar, even though they did not know if they would lose their life for doing do. Luther bravely confessed the truth in front of the emperor even though, he, too, did not know what the outcome of that would be. The apostles bravely taught the truth Jesus had given them to share. All of the twelve suffered, and most died directly as a result of what they taught and lived. 

You and I walk the same path. We may not face death a possibility for our faith, but will clinging to Jesus ruin friendships and family bonds? Will our commitment to live a life of thanksgiving to God for what we have been given in Jesus result in problems? Yes. But we can’t hide this gospel. We can’t just keep it to ourselves. It is an eternal gospel for the people on earth. So let’s embrace our Lutheran heritage, our Christian heritage, here today and recommit ourselves to living and sharing this truth. It’s what literally everyone needs and we can give it without losing it ourselves. Even if we were to lose our very lives, no one can take our Savior and his work from us. 

This is our gospel; this is the global gospel. God bless the efforts to share it with all! Amen.

"God's Servant has Served You" (Sermon on Isaiah 53:10-12) } October 24, 2021

Text: Isaiah 53:10-12
Date: October 24, 2021
Event: The Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost, Year B

Isaiah 53:10-12 (EHV)

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him
and allow him to suffer.
Because you made his life a guilt offering, he will see offspring.
He will prolong his days,
and the Lord’s gracious plan will succeed in his hand.
11After his soul experiences anguish, he will see the light of life.
He will provide satisfaction.
Through their knowledge of him, my just servant will justify the many,
for he himself carried their guilt.
12Therefore I will give him an allotment among the great,
and with the strong he will share plunder,
because he poured out his life to death,
and he let himself be counted with rebellious sinners.
He himself carried the sin of many,
and he intercedes for the rebels.

God’s Servant has Served You

Service is not often viewed as an American virtue. We are a society that praises innovators and those who opt to ruthlessly pursue their goals. To serve is often seen as making your lesser, not taking full advantage of everything you could do or be. Service is sometimes viewed as beneath someone with high aspirations. Likewise, someone who claims to “serve” may often be seeking their own self-interests, not the interests of others. Perhaps you’ve heard a politician talk about service here and then clearly serve their own desires rather than the people they are elected to serve over here.

We heard in our Gospel for this morning that this is not a uniquely American idea. Jesus’ disciples wrestled with this as the trekked along the dusty roads of Galilee and Judea. Ambition is not wrong, but it can cross a line where it becomes a distraction or it forces you to behave in a way that might be considered unbecoming of a Christian or that hinders your ability to let your light shine, to reflect the love of your Savior.

And it’s that love of our Savior that we want to do a deep-dive on this morning. Jesus ended his teaching moment with his disciples this way, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” And we can read those words and might even know those words by heart, but what is Jesus actually saying? What is the serving that God’s Servant does for us? 

For our closer look at this service of the Son of Man we turn to the book of the prophet Isaiah. The end of Chapter 52 and all of Chapter 53 are probably some of the most famous words in that book if not the entire Bible. We read them in whole almost every Good Friday. Here we have a snippet of that latter chapter, but prior to our section, there are the famous and comforting words of prophecy and promise like, “It was because of our rebellion that he was pierced. He was crushed for the guilt our sins deserved. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

In this chapter, God is speaking about the Messiah, his chosen Servant, whom he would send to accomplish his work. And what is that work of God? To make everything we had broken right again. When God created the universe, he did so primarily to have a relationship with mankind. Everything on the earth and even the universe was created in service of that. We see God making his presence known in the Garden of Eden, talking freely with Adam and Eve, all loving and being loved. It was idyllic. It was perfect.

Then, you know sin reared its ugly head. Adam and Eve went along with Satan’s ideas rather than abiding by God’s directions and caused infinite problems. Sin brought death and decay into God’s perfect world. Instead of a place of unending joy, the world became a place of suffering and misery. And, more to the point, instead of a perfect relationship with God, sin left us as hostile to God, his enemies and adversaries. And for God, this would not do.

Because God is just he could not simply look the other way or pretend that sin doesn’t matter. Because of that justice, God had to punish sin. It had to be dealt with, not ignored. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a), after all. 

But then God’s plan takes a surprising turn. The triune God works together, and the Father turns to the Son to send him on a mission to redeem people from their sins. The Son would take the place of sinful mankind, suffer the punishment that all people deserved, and then his perfection would be credited to those same sinners. Our reading from Isaiah begins, “Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him [that is, the Messiah] and allow him to suffer.” It wasn’t the Lord’s will because he hated his servant, his Son, his appointed Savior. It was the Lord’s will because he loved us. 

So Jesus’ mission of redemption, his mission to buy us back from sin, death, and hell, was God’s will through and through. Jesus was not taken aback by what happened to him. He was not surprised when he suffers hell on the cross. He knew from the beginning what his mission was. He was to trade his perfect life for our sinful life. He was to die to save us. Or, to use Jesus’ own words again this morning, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

And there was no doubt about the outcome of this work either. It’s all here in the prophecy that God gave through Isaiah. Notice how there’s this back and forth, this ping-ponging of “because of this bad thing, this good thing results.” This suffering of God’s servant will not end in defeat, but eternal victory. The death on the cross doesn’t end there; it finds completion in the victorious resurrection leaving behind an empty tomb: Because you made his life a guilt offering, he will see offspring. He will prolong his days, and the Lord’s gracious plan will succeed in his hand. After his soul experiences anguish, he will see the light of life. He will provide satisfaction. Through their knowledge of him, my just servant will justify the many, for he himself carried their guilt. Therefore I will give him an allotment among the great, and with the strong he will share plunder, because he poured out his life to death, and he let himself be counted with rebellious sinners.

Pay attention to the verb tenses here. “Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him… Because you made his life a guilt offering… because he poured out his life to death… He himself carried the sin of many.” Anything stand out to you about that? Isaiah is writing by God’s inspiration in the 700s BC, or roughly 700 years before Jesus was even born. And yet God speaks of these events in the past tense. Why? Because God had promised that they would happen. And because he promised that, they were as good as done. There was no question about whether or not God would want to or be able to follow through on what he promised. When God promised it, it was as good as done. And from God’s eternal perspective, his view of everything from outside of time, it was done and complete.

All of this was done and complete for the world, for the many. But this is also done and complete for you. You, personally, are loved by your God. You, personally, are the reason that God sent Jesus to give his life. God’s Servant served you, personally, by rescuing you from sin and all of its temporary and eternal ramifications. You are so loved by your God that he would suffer and die to rescue you. He would offer his life to give you eternal perfection with him.

And so it is. Your sins are gone. “He himself carried the sin of many, and he intercedes for the rebels.” You and me, rebels that we are, have been saved from ourselves. We are forgiven. We have been restored to the position of God’s dearly loved children because God’s Servant has served us. What a privilege that we dare not take for granted!

Knowing this, let’s not fall into the same trap that the disciples did. Let’s not fall into the same trap that you and I have fallen into in the past. We are not the most important person in our lives. We should be actively serving one another not looking for ways to exalt ourselves over others, because Jesus has served us. Actively take Jesus’ service into the week ahead. Where can you serve that you have served before? Where can you serve where you have not before? Where can your service point others to the Savior who has rescued them from sin and hell as well? How can you also be God’s servant as well, sacrificing to show others the ultimate sacrifice of our God’s ultimate Servant? 

May God bless your service done in his name and to his glory! Amen.

"Help as God has Helped You!" (Sermon on Hebrews 3:1-6) | October 17, 2021

Text: Hebrews 3:1-6
Date: October 17, 2021
Event: The Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost, Year B

Hebrews 13:1–6 (EHV)

Continue to show brotherly love. 2Do not fail to show love to strangers, for by doing this some have welcomed angels without realizing it. 3Remember those in prison, as if you were fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated, as if you yourselves were also suffering bodily. 

4Marriage is to be held in honor by all, and the marriage bed is to be kept undefiled, for God will judge sexually immoral people and adulterers. 5Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have. For God has said: 

I will never leave you, 
and I will never forsake you. 

6So then we say with confidence: 

The Lord is my helper, and I will not be afraid. 
What will man do to me? 

Help as God has Helped You!

“Hey, could you help me with something?” What’s your immediate, gut reaction to that question? Perhaps it’s excitement to lend a hand and to feel needed. Perhaps it’s a bit of caution—am I going to be holding one end of a measuring tape or loading a moving truck? Or maybe it’s somewhere in-between, with a willingness to offer assistance, but also wanting more information to figure out how possible that would be.

Why do people ask for help? Rarely is it because they are too lazy to do it themselves. More often, it’s because it would either be impossible or much less efficient to do it with one set of hands compared with two or more, right? Think of how much easier it to measure something that is long and off the floor with two people on the measuring tape rather than just one. Possible but not easy to do for just one person. But then consider moving a heavy piece of furniture. Size and weight may make that task absolutely impossible for one person to do on their own, no matter how strong they are. 

But when someone needs help and you rise to the occasion to do it, what a blessing for all involved! You are helping that person in need and they are rescued from their difficult or even impossible situation! 

And this is the general area where the writer to the Hebrews wants us to be focused today. We can depend on a lot of things for safety and security, especially money as was made clear in our Gospel. But that’s not where we want our focus to be. We want our focus to be on God who is our eternal helper, who then empowers us to be helpers to others in their earthly needs and to point them to the eternal help given by God.

These are near the closing words to this letter written to Jewish Christians near the end of the apostolic era. These Christians were being pulled away from the faith by trouble and persecution for being Christians. And the author’s letter is, in part, an encouragement to not get whisked away from the faith but to bear those crosses in the here and now for the blessings that will come in heaven.

And at the tail end of our reading, he makes clear what those blessings are. What are the promises of God? He quotes from Deuteronomy, “I will never leave you, and I will never forsake you.” And again he quotes from the Psalms, “The Lord is my helper, and I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?” And there’s where our motivational focus for life and eternity is. God has promised to be our helper who will never leave nor forsake us. 

And God’s definition of helper is someone who does for us what would be impossible on our own, or more accurately impossible for us at all. When God is our helper in the primary sense, he’s not helping us lift the couch; he’s moving the couch all on his own for us. He is primarily our helper in dealing with the problem of sin. That was not something we did or even could lend a hand with. Solving sin and hell had to be God’s work alone. 

And so it was. Jesus came as that helper we needed. He took our place in all things, both living a flawless life and dying an innocent death. So, by God’s work in our place and completely without our assistance, he rescued us from sin, death, and hell. We are free from the eternal ramifications for our sin because Jesus undid them and suffered them in our place. There is no doubt or worry or concern that something might be left undone. There is no slack to pick up or contributions we have to make. We will be in heaven for eternity because our sins are gone. Thanks be to God!

So what does God being our helper then mean for us in the here and now? It means that we are freed, encouraged, even emboldened to be helpers to those around us. And the writer to the Hebrews lists off many different ways that God’s work for us will reflect in our lives. At the start of our lesson he rattles off a rapid-fire list: Continue to show brotherly love. Do not fail to show love to strangers, for by doing this some have welcomed angels without realizing it. Remember those in prison, as if you were fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated, as if you yourselves were also suffering bodily. 

All of these can probably fall under the umbrella of thinking of others as more important than yourself. The author is encouraging us to take a Christ-like view of our fellow people, no matter what your relationship to them is. Perfect stranger? How can you help them? Someone in prison? What might they need? Someone struggling with circumstances that restrict them? What would you want someone to do for you if you were in that exact same boat? 

And these don’t need to be heroic things, and sometimes maybe it seems to be more in the realm of just common sense or common decency. Not being short with that person at the grocery store. A kind word to someone you’re walking past on the sidewalk. Offering to help someone carry something. There are a million different ways that the opportunity to be a helper presents itself in our lives, even if they seem small to us. But nothing is truly small; Jesus even commended people who gave his believers a cup of cool water.

The writer to the Hebrews goes on: Marriage is to be held in honor by all, and the marriage bed is to be kept undefiled, for God will judge sexually immoral people and adulterers. This ties in well with what we considered last week. Marriage is a special bond and God is protecting it and the family. And it’s interesting that this is not just aimed at married people, that they should guard what they have, nor is it just aimed at single people, that they should respect other people’s relationships. No, marriage is to be held in honor by all.  Husbands and wives can and should be helpers for each other. Those who are no married should not only not look to undermine those that are married but also live their lives in a way that respects how God has designed this, especially in terms of the “marriage bed,” that sexual relations of any kind are reserved for only within the committed environment of marriage. 

But then the writer to the Hebrews gets at what Jesus is focused on in our Gospel for this morning: Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have. Loving money has no place in a Christian’s life. Materialism, worshiping at the altar of “stuff” is not part of a Christian’s life. Because our hope, our confidence, our helper is not found in bank or investment account balance nor in having the latest and greatest clothing, shoes, car, phone, game, whatever. Our confidence doesn’t rest on this earthly stuff. Money is not our helper; God is our helper. Money and things are tools we use to support our families and other people; they are not ends in themselves. 

So that really is our question: what do we trust to truly help? Our help should come from God, and perhaps it’s God working through others. Our confidence is in him who has done everything we need and we trust in him to provide for our needs, especially our eternal need of forgiveness and rescue from hell. Likewise, we take that trust and confidence and in joy and gratitude be helpers to others, supporting them in their needs, being a blessing to their families, and recognizing the appropriate place of material things in our lives. 

It all comes down to God, who has helped us, enabling us to help others. God, open our eyes to see the myriad of ways that you have helped us, especially by rescuing us from sin and hell through no work on our part. Open our eyes to see the opportunities you place before us to help and love others as you have helped and loved us! Amen.

"Praise God for Suffering...?" (Sermon on 1 Peter 4:12-19) | September 26, 2021

Text: 1 Peter 4:12-19
Date: September 26, 2021
Event: The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B

1 Peter 4:12-19 (EHV)

Dear friends, do not be surprised by the fiery trial that is happening among you to test you, as if something strange were happening to you. 13Instead rejoice whenever you are sharing in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 

14If you are insulted in connection with the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. 15Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, a thief, a criminal, or as a meddler. 16But if you suffer for being a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God in connection with this name. 17For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God. Now if it begins with us, what will be the end for those who disobey the gospel of God? 18And if it is hard for the righteous to be saved, where will the ungodly sinner end up? 19So let those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to their faithful Creator while doing what is good.

Praise God for Suffering…?

We are conditioned to want things to get better, and even expect things to get better. Make progress, fix bugs, proofread a document, rewrite that rough draft, collaborate to share ideas. In fact, most of human history is based on the idea that we’re doing things better than the people who came before us. 

This can produce a sort of bias that we, right now, are smarter and overall better than those who lived a generation or centuries before us. It’s a form of generationalism (although that can also be the reverse that we think we are better than anyone younger than us as well). Are we smarter than the ancient Egyptians or Greeks? Do we have a better grasp of reality than the people of the middle ages? In some ways, probably, but we could probably identify places where those who came before us had better ideas, habits, and mindsets than we generally do today.

The idea that things are progressing and getting better as time goes on is appealing, but we can recognize that it’s highly subjective. Is a modern, clean city with safe travel and many good, productive jobs better than the forrest it replaced? You could probably get a lot of strong opinions on both sides of that issue. But the idea or hope that things are getting better is not exactly borne out by the world around us. 

Take a book outside, set it on the grass, and leave it there. Is it a better book in 2 hours? 2 days? 2 months? 2 years? Unless it’s well protected somehow, that book is going to start to rot. It will eventually get to the point where it is unusable and any information that it held is lost. Or take a broken plate. Let it sit for 2000 years. What will it be after those 2 millennia? Still a broken plate, but perhaps more fragile than it was when it started.

We know the reason for this general downward trend, right? It’s sin. The world was not created with death and decay as part of its blueprint, but when our first parents sinned, it fundamentally changed everything. All of creation now suffers under this burden of wasting away, each moment taking a step farther away from God’s original design. We can take some steps to mitigate this. We can be careful stewards of the world around us, use but not abuse the places we live. But still, things are going to go from bad to worse. Fires, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, disease, and all sorts of other disastrous things infect our world.

But all of that is outside of us. When we direct our thoughts inward to our own lives, we want to see things getting better. Sure, we recognize the negative changes that getting older might bring with our health or mobility or responsibilities. But generally, we think that things are going to get better next week than they were this week. We work hard at it, to improve our situations as much as is in our control, work hard for our families who depend on us, and just generally try strengthen weak places in our lives. But we might also think that things are going to be better because of some of the promises God has made. For instance, the classic promise that our Catechism students memorize each year from Psalm 50, “Call on me in the day of distress. I will deliver you, and you will honor me” (v. 15). God is going to take the distress in our life and make it good, right? 

Well, that’s a nice thought but I don’t think that’s exactly what God has in mind with that promise. As we consider our Second Lesson this morning and its relationship to Jesus’ words in our Gospel, we begin to get a picture that God doesn’t promise us (and perhaps, doesn’t even want us to have) a life without difficulty. Consider what Peter wrote to his readers in his first letter in the New Testament, “Dear friends, do not be surprised by the fiery trial that is happening among you to test you, as if something strange were happening to you.” Not just trouble, but fiery trial, was besieging the life of these Christians. And Peter said this should not be surprising; this was not strange.

We know some of what that fiery trial was. Peter was living in the time of severe persecution from the Roman Empire. Christianity was illegal and as a result Christians were suffering and dying for their faith. It was horrible, but again, Peter is clear that they should not be surprised. Biblical Christianity is always counter-cultural, no matter what time or place it exists in. 

It may be easy for us to get a martyr complex, though. We do well to recognize that as Christians in our nation, we do not suffer in the same way that Peter and his fellow Christians did at the latter part of the apostolic era. We do not suffer in the same way that many, many Christians today suffer for their faith, even to death. We do well to realize that our physical and emotional discomforts we face for being a Christian are hardly worth comparing to the suffering that many across the world and certainly in history have suffered for Christ.

But, that doesn’t mean we don’t bear crosses. That doesn’t mean that we don’t suffer for our faith. That doesn’t mean suffering, hardship, and heartache for reasons beside our faith are absent. In fact, we do bear crosses, we do have suffering in our life. Jesus promised as much. Peter pointed out the obvious to his readers. But what do we do with that suffering? How do we think of it? How do we endure it? 

When it comes to suffering for being a Christian, if we are insulted “in connection with the name of Christ,” Peter says, “You are blessed.” But why? What good does suffering hold? Why am I blessed if I suffer for Jesus’ name? That seems so contradictory! Peter goes on: because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

Suffering because of Jesus means that you are clearly wearing his family name in your life. If people insult you or hate you because you believe that Jesus lived, died, and rose to save you from your sins, that is to your credit. It means you are living as counter-cultural. It means that your life lived in thanksgiving to God is evident to all and for some, it is not what they want to see or hear.

But Peter goes on to say that not all suffering is sanctified. Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, a thief, a criminal, or as a meddler. If I suffer because of my own sin, that is not to anyone’s glory or blessing, not mine and certainly not God’s. We should be clear that it’s not suffering if people outside of the church refuse to live like you think they should live. They do not have the gospel, they do not know Jesus, therefore at that moment it is impossible for them to live lives of thanksgiving to God for what he’s done. If people are upset with me because I’ve been obnoxious to them about how they live or don’t live, that’s not really suffering for Jesus; that’s suffering because I’ve been a fool.

But if I have made every effort to live at peace with others around me and through no fault of my own, people are adversarial against me, then what? Well, it’s not exactly inspiring to hear, but there’s not much to be done about it. Rather than trying to avoid such suffering or assuming that God has somehow made a mistake when it comes to your life because suffering has attached itself to your life like some sort of parasite, take Peter’s advice: So let those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to their faithful Creator while doing what is good. What does it mean for us to “entrust [our] souls to [our] faithful Creator while doing what is good”?

First of all it means not sinning to try to end the problem. That means not sinning in compromise to do and say what God clearly says is wrong. It also means not sinning to end the problem by seeking vengeance. If we entrust this suffering to our Creator, we know that he is able to do what is right. If what is right is some sort of chastisement or retribution for the person causing us to suffer, that for God to determine, not us. Leave it in his hands. He will do what is right with any given situation or person. And because he always has people’s eternal well-being in mind, it is likely that his desire is polar opposite to our gut reaction. While we may want to lash out to try to end the suffering, his goal may be for us to have patient endurance in that suffering, which may become part of the story of that person coming to faith in Jesus as their Savior later in life.

But there’s another way and reason that we entrust our souls to our Creator. In the midst of suffering, things seem dark. It may feel like there’s no solution to our problems, no relief from what is ailing us. It may be true that we can do nothing to end the suffering, end the bad things that happen to us. But we are not, in those moments, without hope. Because no matter how brutal our trials and sufferings are here and now, we know that our eternal life, our souls, are safe with our Creator and Savior. Even when we are suffering because of our own sinful attitudes and actions, there is forgiveness for those in Jesus’ life and death for us. No matter how bad things look or feel here, eternity is secure because Jesus has made it secure, and his work for us is perfect.

Peter wrote to these Christians in part because he did not want them giving up on their faith to seek out temporal, earthly calm. He didn’t want them exchanging eternal security for temporary peace. The same concerns are alive for us. We do not want to give up our faith to escape some momentary suffering. 

What does that suffering in your life not mean? It does not mean that God has forgotten about you. It does not mean that God is unfaithful to his promises. It does not mean that you are outside of God’s family.

What does that suffering in your life mean? It means that Jesus was telling the truth when he said that believing in him would mean taking up your cross and following him. It means that we are part of God’s family, as we are in many ways sharing in the sufferings of Christ that he endured when he paid for our sins. It means that this suffering, while difficult, is also temporary. Even if it’s something we’ll have to endure for the whole of our natural lives, at the end of our lives it will be gone. At that time, because of Jesus’ perfect life and his innocent death on the cross for us that paid for all of our sins, we will be with our God in heaven in perfection forever, just as he originally designed things to be at the beginning. 

Things will continue to get worse in this life, not better. We will endure suffering and hardship and difficulty as we and the world around us ages. But there will be a reversal to all of that at the Last Day. God will call us from this world of sin and bring us to be safe with him for eternity. Suffering in this life reminds us of these facts and points us to the far greater blessings that are coming. Should we really praise God for suffering? Yes. And God give us the strength to praise you for this. Amen.

"God's Mercy Forgives Our Selfish Ambition" (Sermon on Numbers 12:1-15) | September 19, 2021

Text: Numbers 12:1-15
Date: September 19, 2021
Event: The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B

Numbers 12:1-15 (EHV)

Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married (for he had married a Cushite woman). 2They said, “Has the Lord really spoken only through Moses? Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” The Lord heard this. 

3(Now the man Moses was very humble, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.) 

4Right then the Lord spoke suddenly to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “You three come out to the Tent of Meeting!” 

The three of them came out. 5The Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance to the tent. He called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward. 6He said, “Now listen to my words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, will make myself known to him in a vision. In a dream I will speak with him. 7Not so, however, with my servant Moses. He is faithful in my whole household. 8With him I speak face to face, clearly, and not in riddles. He sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?” 9The Lord’s anger burned against them, and he left. 

10The cloud went up from above the tent, and immediately Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. Aaron turned to Miriam and saw that she was leprous. 

11Aaron said to Moses, “My lord, please do not hold this sin against us. We have acted foolishly. We have sinned. 12Please do not let her be like a stillborn infant that comes out of its mother’s womb with its flesh half-eaten away.” 

13Moses cried out to the Lord, “God, please heal her, please!” 

14The Lord said to Moses, “If her father had merely spit in her face, would she not be disgraced for seven days? Have her confined outside of the camp for seven days, and after that she can be brought back in.” 

15Miriam was confined outside of the camp for seven days, and the people did not set out until Miriam was brought back in. 

God’s Mercy Forgives Our Selfish Ambition

About a week and a half ago I received a phone call as I was driving to go pick up the kids from school. I didn’t recognize the number, but decided to take it. The voice informed me that the company calling was Visa/Mastercard (it’s always a great sign when someone claims to work for a company that is actually two separate and competing companies). Anyway, the computer eventually transferred me to a real person. They supposedly wanted to offer me some sort of COVID-related debt relief. So the person on the phone said, “And what accounts do you have?” That seemed like an odd question. They supposedly worked for the credit card; wouldn’t they already know what accounts I had?

We went back and forth a little bit on whose responsibility it was to confirm who had what, and finally I asked, “Ok, tell me what information you need.” He responded, “Your credit card number.” I laughed right out loud. Not the last 4 digits, not a billing zip code something. The whole number. I asked, “How often does this work? How often do you get people falling for this scam?” To which he responded with some rather unkind words until I eventually hung up.

But this served as an interesting thought experiment. Why would someone do this? Well, they want to steal or at least manipulate people into giving them money. And, in this case, they were targeting people who were hurting, who were in dire financial straights, to take advantage of them.

Selfishness is a core tenant of the sinful nature. Even if we don’t appear, publicly, to be very selfish, there’s a part of each of us that wants to serve ourselves more than anyone else. Our joy, peace, and desires are often more important to us than anyone else’s, including God’s. Sin is really just an expression of that selfishness. God says don’t do something, but I want to do it, and I value what I want more than what God wants, so I do that thing.

In our First Lesson this morning, we see an example of this selfishness in Miriam and Aaron. They weren’t exactly scamming anyone, but they were not content with the arrangement God had setup to lead the people of Israel. Miriam and Aaron were Moses’ siblings, but Moses was the one that God called at the burning bush. While at times God would address the people through Aaron, the first high priest, he did the vast majority of his communication with the people through Moses. 

But jealousy and selfish ambition got the better of his siblings. After a bit of a racist tantrum thrown because of Moses’ wife, they come to the conclusion, “Has the Lord really spoken only through Moses? Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” In other words, “We deserve what Moses has because we’re just as important. And we didn’t even marry a foreigner! We should be exalted, not him!” And while they might have been having a gripe session among the two of them and not blasting Moses publicly before the people, we’re told in striking brevity that someone else was party to their conversation. The Lord heard this.

God’s address to Miriam and Aaron is very similar to Jesus’ rebuke to his disciples arguing about who of them was the greatest in our Gospel this morning. “If anyone wants to be first, he will be the last of all and the servant of all.” Miriam and Aaron’s selfish ambition was based on jealousy. It's not fair that Moses gets to have that position. We want it! Or we at least want equal billing!” But that was not what God had done.

How often and subtly does jealously and selfishness creep into our lives? How often do we look at someone else’s life and say, “I wish that were mine,” or perhaps more to the point, “That should be mine”? Maybe it’s smaller things, like the person who has a new car or a commute with less traffic or easier time with that one troublesome subject in school. Maybe it’s the bigger things, wishing you had an entire life-swap with the other person. Either way, it’s malcontent with what God has given and coveting what others have. It might even lead us to do something sinful to try to get what we haven’t been given, like the scammer on the phone.

But it is also important to realize what we do and don’t mean here. God is not saying that it is wrong to want to better yourself. God is not saying that it’s wrong to want to improve your skills, your job, your knowledge base, to otherwise better your life. That wasn’t Miriam and Aaron’s problem. Their problem was that they cut down Moses, seeking to build themselves up. Their problem was that they spoke against what God had done and made crystal-clear that he had done it. 

God has given you abilities and vocations (like parent, child, spouse, single person, friend, employee, neighbor, citizen, etc.). Maybe those abilities and vocations don’t match exactly what you want. Maybe you’re seeking out better ways to use those abilities or new ways to reflect God’s love in your vocations. That is good. But grumbling against God or letting jealousy consume you is not the way to do it.

Instead, rejoice in what God has given. For places where you’re struggling or dissatisfied, pray for guidance. Talk with someone to help find a path that serves God rather than fighting against him. 

But perhaps this has triggered feelings of guilt in our hearts for recent or long-past actions or thoughts. And that’s likely because I doubt that anyone here has never coveted anything. I doubt that anyone here has never let selfishness take hold, at least for a little while. And that can lead us into a downward spiral. That’s not how we’re supposed to live and yet we did it or are doing it anyway. Now what? 

Look at how God deals with Miriam. It’s not clear why she suffers the skin condition and Aaron didn’t, but regardless, she is sent outside the camp. But she is not banished from the community. She is not shunned. She is not sent wandering into the wilderness by herself. No, she was outside the camp for seven days and then and after that she [could] be brought back in. There is chastisement for the selfish ambition, but God does not throw her or Aaron away. He does not forget about them. He specifically sets a time when she could be reinstated. 

We should pay attention to the last verse of our reading, too. The people did not set out until Miriam was brought back in. Now at first glance this perhaps sounds like a community rallying around their sister and making sure she was ok. That is until we realize that it wasn’t the people who made the call when they were to break camp; it was God. He decided when they moved. And he made sure that the whole community stayed put until after Miriam was brought back in.  

Is God going to treat you or me any differently? He does not seek to destroy us for bouts of selfishness; he offered himself to pay for them. Those selfish actions are gone because Jesus selflessly died on the cross to pay for them. Jesus’ self-sacrificing work for you frees you from your selfishness and the sin that comes from it. Jesus frees you from the punishment of hell that would have otherwise found you! The community doesn't move on; you and I are brought back into the fold. That was God’s mercy for Miriam, and it’s God’s mercy for us. We do not face the full punishment for our sins. That was God’s mercy for Aaron, and it’s God’s mercy for us. God’s mercy forgives our selfish ambition and all of our sins. Thanks be to God for that continual mercy! Amen.

"Jesus' Work Is Personal" (Sermon on Mark 7:31-37) | September 12, 2021

Text: Mark 7:31-37
Date: September 12, 2021
Event: The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B

Mark 7:31–37 (EHV)

31Jesus left the region of Tyre again and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of the Decapolis. 

32They brought a man to him who was deaf and had a speech impediment. They pleaded with Jesus to place his hand on him. 33Jesus took him aside in private, away from the crowd. He put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. 34After he looked up to heaven, he sighed and said, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”) 35Immediately the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was set free, and he began to speak plainly. 36Jesus gave the people strict orders to tell no one, but the more he did so, the more they kept proclaiming it. 37They were amazed beyond measure and said, “He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak!” 

Jesus’ Work Is Personal

The musical adaptation of Victor Hugo’s classic novel, Les Miserables, follows the story of Jean Valjean, a man who was jailed for stealing bread to feed his starving sister and her son. As he looks back on his going to jail, Valjean observes, “If there's another way to go / I missed it twenty long years ago / My life was a war that could never be won / They gave me a number and murdered Valjean / When they chained me and left me for dead / Just for stealing a mouthful of bread.”

That notion of giving him a number and thus killing him follows throughout the story. Whenever the police inspector, Javert, interacts with Valjean, he rarely refers to Valjean by name. Instead, Javert prefers to use Valjean’s prison number, “24601.” It was purposefully dehumanizing. Valjean was not a person in Javert’s mind; he’s a criminal. He treats him like someone might treat a beast of burden or some kind of commodity. 

Does it ever feel like that’s your relationship with God? Does he seem so distant, so far away that you feel like you are, at best, a mere number to him rather than a person? In our Gospel for this morning, we see Jesus operate in a slow, deliberate, and personal way that he didn’t have to. He took time with the deaf and mostly-mute man to interact with him, show his love for him, and heal him. Jesus’ work is always personal. He cares for you and me in the same way that he met this man’s needs, with work custom-tailored to who we are and what we need.

Our Gospel takes place after our run of Gospel readings from John chapter 6 where, after the feeding of the 5,000, many of the crowds stopped following Jesus because he wouldn’t do what they wanted him to do. He wouldn’t be their bread king to provide for any and every earthly need they had because he wanted to provide something greater and more important. He wanted to provide eternal life.

So Jesus journeyed around the greater area, still teaching and preaching, but probably to much less fanfare than he had done. He is traveling through the region of the Decapolis, the ten cities. This area was primarily populated with Gentiles, not Jewish people, as they were outside of Galilee proper. But that didn’t stop Jesus from caring about and loving these people so he proclaimed the good news he had to share there as well.

At a certain place, Jesus met a group of people who brought a man suffering from deafness and speech problems. They clearly cared very much for this man and wanted him to find relief from these ailments. If there was any difficulty for the man to reach Jesus or even know about his presence in the area, we can assume these friends took care of everything for him. We might think of the friends who lowered the paralytic man through a hole they made in the roof of the house where Jesus was earlier in his ministry.

From the summary of the conversation that Mark provides and Jesus’ actions, we can assume that while these people were bringing the man to Jesus to do something to help him, they’re weren’t only interested in this physical healing. They trusted Jesus to be able to provide for his physical well-being, yes, but also much more. Note the personal way they deal with Jesus on behalf of the man. They pleaded with Jesus. This was no half-hearted request. Their faith in Jesus and their love for this man combined to seek out this healing for him.

And how does Jesus treat him? How did he need to treat him? He could have dismissed them because he had other things to do. He could’ve just healed the man without a word, or with a word, or with a hand placed on him (as they asked for). We’ve seen Jesus do healing in all of those ways before. But Jesus here does something different, something unique: Jesus took him aside in private, away from the crowd. He put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. After he looked up to heaven, he sighed and said, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”).

Why does Jesus do this? Why the show? Or actually better, why the lack of a show? Why depart from the crowds and do this healing just he and the man? Why do more than place his hands on him? Because Jesus wanted this healing, this miracle, this moment to be intensely personal. Think of the man’s difficulties. He couldn’t hear, so Jesus engages his other senses to focus the man on him. Jesus pulls him aside so that his vision is focused on Jesus and not distracted by the commotion of the crowd. He places his fingers in his ears, the part that wasn’t working, but certainly still had feeling. He made it clear to the man what he was doing even if the man couldn’t hear what he was saying. And then by spitting he visually get his own mouth in this healing work and by touching the man’s impeded tongue, set it free.

Jesus had a lot he wanted to do for this man and did in the best possible way to intimately communicate with him that Jesus, like the man’s friends, loved him. And look at the result of this healing! We’ve seen Jesus heal people who were paralyzed who left the healing not just barely able to shuffle along but actually run and jump moments after Jesus’ work. In a similar way, a man who was deaf (perhaps from birth) and who had great difficulty speaking (perhaps related to his deafness, which also might have been a life-long hardship) is left being able “to speak plainly.” Jesus took him not just to the point of an infant with newly-working ears and tongue where he would have to learn how to speak and receive audio input. No, he leaves Jesus’ healing as if there was never anything wrong. This is a complete healing that entirely undid the problem. And those around are left stunned: “He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak!”

Maybe you have some problems in your life that you wish Jesus would work this kind of miracle to solve. Jesus certainly didn’t heal every single person with an ailment during his earthly ministry, but he had reasons for that at times. God hasn’t promised to banish every bad thing from your life, but he has promised to work everything out for your eternal good.

But, Jesus’ greater good that he wants for us looms large here. Jesus doesn’t treat us like this man in every problem, but he does treat us like this man in our most dire problem. Think of what he did. First of all, for anything to happen for this deaf man, Jesus had to care about him, have compassion for him. While it’s not called out specifically in this text, we know that this is always true for Jesus’ attitude.

Jesus also looked with compassion on you in your need of sin. You and I were doomed to hell for our rebellion against God, and Jesus loved us enough to take on our human nature and live and die in our place. His compassion spurred him on to do what needed to be done.

Jesus also gives you and me the personal attention that he gave this man. Perhaps not in the exactly same way (who of us wouldn’t love to have even five minutes alone to speak with Jesus?!), but you can be assured that you, as an individual, was on his mind and heart as he journeyed to the cross and suffered and died. Because while, yes, Jesus paid for the sins of the whole world, that means that he paid for your sins and my sins. We were there with him. And even now, while he doesn’t stick his fingers in our ears and touch our tongue, he still gives himself to us in a very personal, intimate way. We will hear in just a few minutes, “Take and eat, this is my body… Take and drink, this is my blood…” In the Lord’s Supper, Jesus is essentially doing for you what he did for that man. Your need for forgiveness is personally and intimately given to you by Jesus, for there in his body and blood with the bread and wine you receive the forgiveness of sins and the assurance of eternal life.

But Jesus here, too, is going above and beyond. He doesn’t leave us just a blank slate. He doesn’t leave us like a grown man having to learn how to speak. He doesn’t leave us devoid of sin but then at neutral. Jesus not only removes our sin but actually credits his perfect life to us. When God looks at you and he looks at me, all he sees is Jesus’ perfection. Our life of rebellion was taken a way and a life of perfect obedience was given in its place. There’s nothing left for us to do or create. Jesus has done it all for us!

My sisters and brothers, go from this place today in joy knowing that you have a very personal God. He doesn’t treat us like an object or a number. He meets us individually, and treats our individual needs with his mercy and grace. Your God loves you—the singular you. He loves you as an individual, as a unique person. He created you, he redeemed you, and he is overjoyed to call you his child. Rest easy in Jesus’ personal work done for you! Amen.

"Jesus Is Difficult" (Sermon on John 6:60-69) | August 29, 2021

Text: John 6:60-69
Date: August 29, 2021
Event: The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B

John 6:60–69 (EHV)

60When they heard it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching! Who can listen to it?” 

61But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, asked them, “Does this cause you to stumble in your faith? 62What if you would see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63The Spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh does not help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. 64But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning those who would not believe and the one who would betray him. 65He said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me, unless it is given to him by my Father.” 

66After this, many of his disciples turned back and were not walking with him anymore. 67So Jesus asked the Twelve, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” 

68Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” 

Jesus Is Difficult

Is the easy path or the difficult better? That’s really impossible to make a blanket statement on, right? Those of you who know me well might know that one the past times I enjoy is video games. There’s a continual conversation around video games about whether you should be playing them on an “easy” mode or a “very difficult” mode. Easy sometimes is dismissed as avoiding a challenge, while people that use an easy mode want to relax with a game not be frustrated by it. It really depends on who you are and what you’re looking for from that past time—a challenge or a diversion.

Sometimes the difficult way for anything in life seems foolish outside of maybe seeking out a sense of accomplishment. Why walk to visit someone in Reno, NV when you could drive or take other transportation? Why make your own paper out of the dead tree in your yard when you could buy a pack at the store? Something being difficult doesn’t necessarily make it the better or wiser choice.

But sometimes, it is. Sometimes taking the easy road is just avoiding the difficult necessities. If you’ve ever devolved a conversation into small talk when you really needed to discuss something difficult with someone else, you’ve felt this. If you’ve known you needed to go to the doctor to get something checked out and you’ve avoided it because you didn’t want to know the truth of what was going on, you’ve felt this. If you’ve tried to lose weight or just clean up your diet, but the chips or the fast food were just right there, you’ve felt this.

We talked last week about how Jesus is necessary for us. We cannot remove our sin. We cannot set things right with God. We need Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection to accomplish and prove that our sins are forgiven. He has to be the one to fix the mess of our sin and solve the problem of hell. Jesus made it clear to the people that they needed him. They needed the spiritual blessings he alone provides. Jesus had said in our Gospel last week, a few verses before this week’s Gospel: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh…. Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves.” (John 6:51, 53).

Jesus wasn’t couching this in easy to understand terms, but he was making the people face a difficult problem. They wanted Jesus to be an easy Savior, one who would save them from hunger, a bread king who would keep them full and satisfied in this life. But that was not why Jesus came. He came to do something more, to do something far better. He came to give eternal life. He came to give his life for the sins of the world. He came to rescue all people from hell. 

But that’s difficult to hear, right? It’s difficult for a couple of reasons. First of all, it means that Jesus isn’t as concerned about our immediate-term desires as our eternal-term needs. And for us who so often have blinders on and can only think about the here-and-now, that is not what we want. It would be easier if Jesus was just making every bad thing in our life good, changing every trouble into joy, and making it so we didn’t have a care in the world. But that’s not what Jesus promises, is it? He promises to work good from bad, but he doesn’t promise an absence of bad. In fact, he promises just the opposite. He says life in this sinful world is going to be difficult. But, while we struggle here, we should pick up those difficulties, those crosses, and follow him.

Jesus’ insistence on something bigger and greater than tending to earthly needs is difficult for another reason: it forces us to acknowledge things about ourselves that we don’t want to acknowledge. None of us likes to admit that we have spiritual needs. I don’t want to think about the fact that I’ve sinned against God. I don’t want to think about the fact that the wrong things I’ve done and the good things I’ve left undone have earned me hell for eternity. But the necessity of Jesus’ work for me doesn’t let me avoid that. Following Jesus means facing head-on that I’ve ruined everything with my sin and am hopeless and powerless on my own. 

So, Jesus is difficult. Being around him and associated with him means this is not the easy path. So how do we treat that difficulty then? Are we avoiding it or embracing it? 

In our Gospel this morning, we have two different approaches to this difficulty. When they heard it, many of his disciples [that is, those following Jesus but not part of the twelve] said, “This is a hard teaching! Who can listen to it?” … After this, many of his disciples turned back and were not walking with him anymore. That’s one approach, right? We just leave Jesus behind and say, “I’m taking the easy road. This isn’t worth the trouble.” We can abandon Jesus altogether or leave him at the periphery of our lives without taking him seriously. We can become Christians in name only, in a family or social sense. Or, we could stop pretending and just abandon the Christian faith altogether. Either way, it probably makes things easier now, right? If we don’t have to think about sin and hell, if we don’t have to come to grips with our own failures to live up to God’s standards, if we can just focus on what we want to do and when and how we want to do it, that makes things easier, at least in the short term.

But what does it do for the long-term, the eternal-term? If we just abandon Jesus wholesale or don’t really care what he says about sin, death, and hell and our spiritual needs, we find ourselves trading eternal security for temporary ease, and that’s not a good trade at all. Jesus said clearly to those mulling over deserting him, “The Spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh does not help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” In other words, “You might not like it, but you need what I am giving you. It may not be easy, but it’s absolutely necessary for your eternal security. The things of this life pass away and end up being meaningless. What I do for you and give to you lasts forever.” 

So the crowd’s reaction en masse was not really commendable. What’s the other option? We see it in Peter, being a spokesman for the twelve. When Jesus asked them, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Peter’s response is clear and to the point, “Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

Peter and the rest of that core of disciples had made the choice to go with the more difficult path, to stick with Jesus no matter what the crowds were doing. Now, we know they were not perfect. As John makes clear in our reading here, among the twelve was Judas who would betray Jesus. We know Peter himself failed spectacularly in a time of trial and difficulty when he denied even knowing Jesus while Jesus was on trial before the Jewish leaders.

What does that tell us? Following Jesus is difficult. It’s a struggle. You and I? We will fail to do it at times. But that failure doesn’t mean it’s not worth it nor that we’ve ruined anything. Because Jesus solves even that failure in what he provides. When we’ve been tempted to and have followed and easier path rather than following Jesus, Jesus forgives that. When we’ve stumbled in our dedication to Jesus and not lived our lives the way that we should to thank him for what he’s done for us, Jesus forgives that. When we’ve let sin or anything else become more important to us than what God does for us in Jesus’ life and death in our place, Jesus forgives that. Difficult as it is to follow Jesus, his forgiveness restores us at every single misstep and failure. Following Jesus is difficult, but it is not something we do alone.

So, my brothers and sisters, knowing how difficult it is to walk this path, be rocks and encouragements for each other. Is there a church member you’ve not seen since the pandemic started either because they have stayed away or you have? Call them! Email them! Be a support to them because you know how difficult this path is and how easy it is to give up on it in the best of times. And our current circumstance perhaps make it even more likely that we will move on from Jesus and seek out something different and easier.

Continue to encourage one another as we walk this path together, because there really is no where else for us to go. Jesus alone has the words of eternal life. May those words that speak of his work in our place be our prime focus and delight now and forever. Amen.

"Jesus Is Necessary" (Sermon on John 5:51-58) | August 22, 2021

Text: John 6:51-58
Date: August 22, 2021
Event: The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B

John 6:51-58 (EHV)

“I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” 

52At that, the Jews argued among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 

53So Jesus said to them, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves. 54The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the Last Day. 55For my flesh is real food, and my blood is real drink. 56The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like your fathers ate and died. The one who eats this bread will live forever.”

Jesus Is Necessary

Do you know a person who just doesn’t seem to abide by recommended car maintenance? Maybe they run tires until they’re bald or they rarely if ever change their oil. Or maybe they neglect some personal hygiene that is very noticeable. Or they avoid eating some category of food that we would consider necessary for a healthy life. In a lot of cases, not doing these necessary things is probably not done willfully but ignorantly. “Oh, I didn’t know…” “Oh, no one ever told me…” “Oh, we never did it that way growing up…” 

Sometimes we need help learning and knowing what is necessary. Maybe you take someone under your wing to help them with car maintenance or to clean up their diet; maybe someone has done the same for you. But we all at times need to be told what is important, what is necessary.

And that is what Jesus is doing in our Gospel for this morning. We’ve had a long run of readings from John chapter 6. It began with the feeding of the 5,000. Despite weariness on the part of Jesus and the disciples, Jesus took the time to minister to the needs of this large crowd, teaching them the important things of God’s kingdom. He focused them on the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. 

Then Jesus and his disciples left and went to find quiet elsewhere. But still the crowds followed. And so Jesus began to teach them again. But this time, as we’ve heard, he had a bit of an edge to his teaching. He had rebuked the people in our previous lessons that they weren’t seeking him out for the right reasons. They weren’t coming to him because of his teaching, or even because the miracles he did pointed to his authority as God. No, they were coming to him just to have their tummies filled with the free miracle bread that he provided. 

The crowd had tried to bait him, comparing Jesus to Moses and pointing to the fact that under Moses’ leadership centuries before the Israelites had eaten the miracle bread, manna, from heaven. Jesus pointed out that the manna hadn’t come from Moses; it came from God. God had provided for their ancestors, giving them what they needed to survive. But manna in the belly was only a minor need compared to the real need they all had. God had sent Jesus to provide for that real need, the need of a Savior.

And this is Jesus’ point. He wants to lift the crowd’s eyes from the mundane to the eternal. “Why are you worrying about what will perish?” Jesus is asking. “Be focused on what endures. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Before we dig into what Jesus says here more deeply, let’s take just a moment to clarify one thing. In the Lord’s Supper we truly receive Jesus’ body and blood along with the bread and wine. Jesus was clear and direct when he gave that to his disciples the night before he was crucified. However, when Jesus speaks about eating his flesh and drinking his blood here, he is not talking about the Lord’s Supper. At the time Jesus spoke these words, we’re still about a year away from Jesus’ death. Jesus gave that supper to his disciples who trusted him; he did not give it to the largely misguided crowds. So while you and I may think of the blessings God gives through the Lord’s Supper in what Jesus says here, that is not directly what Jesus is speaking about, despite the similarity in language between what Jesus says to the crowd here and the sacrament. 

So, Jesus has declared himself the bread of life. He said he would give his flesh for the life of the world. But the crowds are not getting that Jesus isn’t talking about a meal they could have right then and there and never be hungry again. The parable, as it often did, went right over their heads because they weren’t thinking spiritual, eternal thoughts. They could only focus on the temporal, physical things. Thus their question, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” They are talking past each other, or Jesus is not really doing what they want so the crowds are getting a little irritated and obstinate. 

So Jesus gives it one last go. “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the Last Day.” See, the crowd has a problem. Their problem was not just an ignorance of or obstinance to what Jesus is talking about. The main problem they had was sin. Sin robbed them of life with God. Sin meant eternal death in hell. Without a solution, without the solution, they did not have life inside of them. 

Jesus is trying to use their earthly focus to explain their spiritual needs. Why do you eat food at all? For the most basic reasons, you eat so that you don’t die, right? Eating food solves the problem of hunger that eventually leads to death. Jesus applies that paradigm to himself. Why should you eat the Bread of Life? Because eating this food solves the problem of sin that eventually leads to eternal death. 

When Jesus speaks about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, it’s a dramatic way to talk about believing in him, trusting in him as the solution to sin and the certainty of eternal life. The crowd was chasing after another free lunch. Jesus’ response is something along the lines of, “You are chasing after things that do not last. Do you want to eat and drink something that actually matters? Eat and drink me. You need me and what I will do for you spiritually, not just the miracle food I can distribute on the hillside. Prioritize me to take away your sin rather than bread that can temporarily stave off hunger.” 

The eating parable here shows how involved Jesus should be in our lives. He is something to be loved and cherished, something made an integral part of us. Jesus is to be that favorite meal that we cannot wait to eat, cannot wait to make a part of our lives, not that one speciality spice we bought for that one recipe that we didn’t really like and will just sit in the cabinet unused. 

But, the more we think about it, the more we can see ourselves in the crowd’s treatment of Jesus, can’t we? Maybe we’re in church regularly. Maybe our devotional life seems healthy and our prayer life even more so. But then, what happens when there’s a little bit of friction? When we have troubles is our first thought, “God will work this for good. He will do what is right”? Or is it stress, anxiety, worry, hopelessness, almost totally forgetting that God exists at all let alone is by our side in hardship and heartache? And when things get busy and frantic in our lives, is our previously healthy life in God’s Word cut short or does it even go missing altogether? 

How many people throughout history have gotten busy or worried with earthly matters and because of that just punted their eternal security? How many people have given up the Bread of Life for temporal bread that in the moment seemed really important but turned out to be nothing? Jesus brings the crowd back to the manna in the wilderness. That miracle food, amazing as it was and important as it was to sustain the Israelites, did not last forever. “[I am] the bread that came down from heaven, not like your fathers ate and died.” Likewise, the lunch that Jesus provided the day before had long since run its course. But Jesus is offering something different, something better, something that lasts, something that is enterally necessary.

The result of worry and stress and misguided focus in this life is the same as anything else: physical death. We can’t change that. It won’t be any different unless Jesus returns before we die. But, what happens after death can be changed, but not by us. We need Jesus. Jesus is necessary. For our forgiveness and eternal life, it was necessary for the Father to send his Son, Jesus. For our forgiveness and eternal life, it was necessary that Jesus live the perfect life we could never live in our place, and then apply his perfect life to us so that we are seen as having done all the good things that Jesus did. For our forgiveness and eternal life, it was necessary that someone pay the debt of hell we owed in our sin, and that someone was Jesus when he died on the cross. For us to live eternally, Jesus is necessary. His work for us is our connection to the living Father. His work in our place is our certainty of eternal life. 

So we have our priorities, right? We need to be focused on Jesus to the point that he is our food and drink, even the air we breathe. In the end, nothing else matters in the same way because nothing else will solve our sin and give us a perfect life forever. But Jesus does and has. So keep your focus on him, his work, his Word, his promises, because in him you have the solution to every eternal problem. In him you have the forgiveness from every sin and rescue from hell. In him, you have the Bread of Life. In him you have what is necessary for now and for eternity. The one who eats this bread will live forever. Amen.