March 19, 2025 – Lent Texts: Isaiah 13:9-11, 1 Corinthians 1:18-21, John 3:16-17

Dear Friends in Christ,

Last Wednesday we looked at the soap opera “The Guiding Light.” Tonight, we look at the sister show “As The World Turns.” It was on CBS for 54 years. It is set in the fictional town of Oakdale, IL. Have you noticed already how many of these soaps are set in our state? “As the World Turns” was the most watched soap from 1958-1978. A few of the actors were on there for over 50 years. Irna Phillips, the creator of the show said this, “As the world turns, we know the bleakness of winter, the promise of spring, the fullness of summer, and the harvest of autumn – the cycle of life is complete.” The show was known for moving at the pace of life itself. The world is always moving. But then, you know that.
“AS THE WORLD TURNS”
In Isaiah’s world, from our Old Testament reading, we have these chilling words from the Lord, “I will punish the world for evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.” (v. 11). God punishes the world’s prideful people, nearly resulting in human extinction. Human sin always affects the rest of creation, so creation feels the wrath of the Lord.
Isaiah’s world was turning but so was Paul’s. Paul was up against Jewish scribes and Greek Philosophers who sought wisdom through debate. Because of this, the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write these words, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God…Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” (vs. 18-20)
Paul dealt with a lot of foolishness and foolish people, but what does this look like? Here are two present day examples. Did you know that Legos are anti-LGTB? This is according to the bright minds at the Science Museum in London. According to them, Legos only fit one way, like a man and a woman sexually, so these toys must be against any other ways of fitting.
The second example I saw on an episode of “Weird Travel,” on PBS. The host visited a Cryogenics business in Arizona. There are humans and pets, suspended four to a tube, frozen, waiting for an opportunity for the world to have no more death. The leader of this business said he would be having his head removed sometime before dying and then have it reattached when it was safe to come back to life. Somebody is making a windfall of profits on the foolishness of this age. As we like to say, that is how the world turns.
God’s wisdom is timeless. Human wisdom cannot lead to God, who reveals Himself in the message of the cross. Our Large Catechism states, “The forgiveness of sins…cannot come to us in any other way than through the Word.”
That Word, that Cross, that forgiveness, that salvation all come to us in a promise you know well. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (vs. 16-17).
As the world turns. In those two verses the word “world” is mentioned four times. “Loved the world,” “Son into the world,” “condemn the world,” “that the world might be saved.” Law and Gospel neatly packaged in these two verses. When Judas betrayed Jesus, His world would be turned upside down. Like the psychological character studies of the soap opera, there would be these same psychological characters on the road to Golgotha and the cross. They would let Jesus know he was crazy and foolish and arrogant. “You think you are God?” This was the folly of the world.
As our world turns, sometimes we have a hard time keeping up. We come in uncleanness and disease. We stand before a holy God battered by the world. At times we want to get off…but it just keeps turning and turning and turning. The Lord doesn’t stop it, but He does slow it down, so that we can pay attention to Him. Tonight, in this sanctuary is an example. We sit and are fed by God’s Word. For Jesus, no person is unreachable. Jesus comes to touch us with his grace and mercy. He doesn’t get caught up in Himself, He looks to you and me. He took our uncleanness and disease and the battering we take. God gave the world Jesus, His only Son, so that the world might be saved through Him. As Our World Turns look to Christ, He is with us in the midst of all that the world brings our way.
Join us next week on this same station for . . . “Search For Tomorrow.”
Amen.

March 16, 2025 Text: Jeremiah 26:8-15

Dear Friends in Christ,

October 16-28, 1962, is probably that as well known to be people today as it should be. In those 13 days nuclear war was averted. We know it as the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Soviet Union was sending missiles to Cuba because the US had a build-up in Italy and Turkey. Cuba, 90 miles from Florida, was dangerously close. The US set up a blockade. After a US plane was shot down, a US invasion force was ready. Robert McNamara, US Defense Secretary later said, “I thought it was the last Saturday I would ever see.” President Kennedy and Soviet Premier Khrushchev had intense negotiations. The Soviets turned their ships around. No nuclear missiles launched. No World War III. Crisis averted.
In our text today, it is a pivotal moment for God’s people, will they survive as a nation? God sends his prophet Jeremiah to speak some harsh words. Will the words be heard, and the crisis averted?
How about us? Do you feel your survival is threatened? Are missiles pointed our way? Will God’s Word preached to us . . .
“AVERT THE CRISIS?”
God’s people, the kingdom of Judah, had a crisis because they were rejecting the Word of God. They were dissing the Creator – Yahweh. Jeremiah had just spoken and let’s just say . . . it was not well received. He told them they were turning to other gods and away from the God who had redeemed them from slavery in Egypt and given them a Promised Land.
Jeremiah finishes his little diatribe, and the corrupt priests and prophets do not give his speech a favorable rating. They tell him “You shall die!” Like a playground fight, everyone gathers together. It is not a standoff between two superpowers, but between good and evil. Jeremiah tells them that he is speaking for God, and he calls them to repent. If they repent, crisis averted. If they refuse, well . . . God has a little destruction plan. “Is this the last Saturday they will ever see?”
What crisis do we will live under? Eternal catastrophe in hell caused by sin. We have gods we haven’t given up. Carnal desires. Trust in plastic and glass and steel. Lying and cheating for temporal things that don’t last.
You hear it every Sunday from this pulpit, but the desire is still there to turn inward and rebel. On this journey of Lent, as we live the days of our lives, we are in crisis, we know the wages of sin is death.
There is a way out of the crisis. We need a mediator. The Living Word in the flesh intervenes. Don’t these priests of Jeremiah’s time remind you of the Pharisees and Sadducees and chief priests scurrying from the lairs to get Jesus before Pilate and condemn him to death? Jesus too spoke God’s Word. God had sent many prophets who were murdered. Now it is time for the Son. They will listen to Him, won’t they?
This is the only scenario where our crisis of damnation can be averted. God in the flesh would have to live the commandments perfectly. God in the flesh would have to take the punishment for our sins. God in the flesh would have to shed his blood to save us from hell. It is God’s love for us that averts the crisis.
The verses after our text tell us cooler heads prevailed. Jeremiah wasn’t killed. But 22 years later Judah was dragged off into captivity in Babylon. The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, just as Jeremiah had warned. The people never really took God’s Word to heart.
Let’s listen to God’s messengers of today. Let’s hear the voice of repentance and live as children of God. History bears out that over the years many crises have been averted and millions of lives have been saved. Jesus’ death and resurrection overcame our crisis of sin and death. We look forward to the final resolution when Christ will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body.
Crisis averted.
Amen.

March 12, 2025 – Lent Texts: Genesis 1:1-5, Ephesians 5:8-9, John 12:44-46

Dear Friends in Christ,
When the Holy Spirit put the idea in my head to do our Lenten sermon series on soap opera titles, I knew the names of these shows would work nicely for the messages. What I did not know is that some of these soap operas have religious underpinnings.
The prime example is tonight – The Guiding Light. This holds the record of the being the longest running soap between radio and TV – 72 years. When the show started in 1937 it centered on Rev. John Rutledge. The “Guiding Light” in the show’s title originally referred to the lamp in Rutledge’s study that people used as a sign for them to find his help when needed.
How did this come about? The creator of The Guiding Light was Irna Phillips. Irna had given birth to a stillborn baby, and she found spiritual comfort listening to the sermons
of Preston Bradley, a famous Chicago preacher.
Where do we look for help? I pray it is the Light of Christ. It shines in our dark times and is always there to lead the way. Tonight, look to . . .
‘THE GUIDING LIGHT”
This idea of light first began on the first day of creation. Our Old Testament reading tells us that “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.” (v. 2a). Darkness was there, but it doesn’t say anything about God calling it good. Have you ever noticed that before? The positive comes in verse 3, “God said, ‘let there be light,’ and there was light. And God saw that the light was good.” (vs. 3-4a)
That is the power of God’s Word, it is “performative” – it does not merely state something, but it accomplishes, or brings about, that which it declares. This was not mere natural sunlight, but light called into being by God’s Word to contrast the unbroken darkness. This anticipates the restored creation at the end of time, in which God’s presence will enlighten all things, there will be no need for sun or moon.
When The Guiding Light hit television the series revolved around the Bauer family, a German immigrant family. We have a lot of German ancestry in our sanctuary tonight. Plus, other nationalities as well. What do all have in common? Dark times, dark places, dark decisions, dark thoughts, souls that can be taken over by the Prince of Darkness. Jesus says that Satan is like a strong man. No one around can match his strength, and by his might, he keeps hold of all his possessions. We cannot escape by our might. No human being is strong enough to defeat this strong man. The devil’s house of darkness and blackened kingdom are terrifying to us.
That is, until they come up against the finger of God. The finger of God is used as a way of describing God’s work of creation. The finger of God is His Word. Jesus Himself is the Word of God. At Jesus’ Word, the demons shudder and flee. Jesus is the finger of God. It takes only the finger of God for Satan’s dark tyranny to come crashing down.
Jesus embodied the light of God’s presence, and God shines this light in us to create faith in Him. For these reasons, lights – lamps and candles – are used in Christian worship to symbolize God’s active faith-creating and faith-sustaining presence among his people.
Paul reminds us we were once darkness, but now are the light of the Lord. We are to walk as children of light. Our good words and deeds flow naturally from one planted in Christ. Flip the switch through prayer, devotional time and worship.
Christ walked the road. He was on some dusty highways and paraded through dark alleys. He saw the face of darkness when spit on and beaten and tortured. He had to enter the gates of hell to win our salvation. He lit that place up like the 4th of July. He states in John, “I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.” (v. 46). Jesus is our Guiding Light.
In the final episode of this soap opera, in the final scene in fact, in the background you can see a lighthouse. A reminder of that original light on the desk of Rev. Rutledge. As our lives play out, we have that same presence of a light in our day to day living. It might shine as a beacon at times and struggle to be a flicker at others. But it is always there guiding, leading us to the place of eternal light. Joy awaits.
Join us next week on this same station for . . . “As The World Turns.”
Amen.

March 9, 2025 Text: Romans 10:8b-13

Dear Friends in Christ,

Have you ever used your name to back the reputation of another? As a parent you have maybe had to co-sign a loan for a car or even a house for your son or daughter. You are putting your reputation on the line and backing the loan if your namesake cannot meet the obligation.
Or have you ever had this scenario? You are asked to testify on someone’s behalf in court? You have to polish and shine their name by what you say. If you are credible, people will look to what you have to say about that person.
In both of these instances you are preserving the honor of the name by your actions. This, of course, is how God works. He has promised to care for His children. He asks us to honor His name. He asks us to confess his name. When we do, the saving act of Jesus will be ours. Do you ever consider?
“GOD’S REPUTATION IS TIED TO YOUR REPUTATION”
Now at first that sentence can be a little scary. He’s God and well, we are not. God is perfect and well, we are not. God is good, right, and salutary and well, we are not. How in the world can we live up to God’s name? I don’t want that pressure, and you don’t either.
You see, if you are going to be known as a Christian, if you are going to wear that cross around your neck and share God’s Word with people, then you have a certain responsibility. If you are going to stand in the marketplace and the workplace and the family gathering as God’s child, then your actions are going to be judged.
If you are going to profane God’s name, it is profaned. You profane your own name when you do not live up to the name Christian. If your language is less than uplifting, people notice. If you are always running people down or talking negatively, people notice. If your language is always about you and less about Him as the God of your life, people notice. If you ever doubt the Word of God, people notice. Your reputation may suffer, but more importantly the Lord’s reputation may take a hit. If you don’t believe it, why should anyone else? You make Him out to be a liar or incompetent or weak or unloving.
God has put His name on the line for you. He obligated Himself to make you holy by taking your sinful shame on Himself. He fulfilled His obligation when on the cross He endured the shame you deserved. He endured the shame of the only obedient Son being forsaken by His Father. His resurrection from the dead guarantees that your name is hallowed, that means it is kept holy in spite of your shortcomings.
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (v. 9). Quite simple, isn’t it? “Jesus is Lord” is the confession of the early Church. They were making a clear testimony of Christ’s deity. Christ is God.
When Christ works in our lives so that we bear His name with Christ-like behavior, then the name of the Lord is to be praised. Our reputation is saved by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. You receive the Lord’s holiness in His Word and His Sacraments. In these Means of His Grace He delivers to you His unending forgiveness. The signs that God is faithful to His promises.
Through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, the name of the Lord can be spread far and wide. All people, Jew and Greek, can call on the name of the Lord. We uphold this name by preaching and teaching his name in truth and purity. Imagine what can be done if we live what we say? As God’s child, you make a holy confession of his name. And people do notice. That is why God’s reputation is tied to your reputation.
The Lord will not let you down. Trust Him, and you will not be put to shame. The Word of faith is in your heart and in your mouth. Call upon the name of the Lord. There is a reputation on the line!
Amen.