March 26, 2025 – Lent Texts: Prov. 27:1, James 4:13-17, Matthew 6:34

Dear Friends in Christ,

“Search For Tomorrow” had a 35-year run on CBS and then NBC. Unlike other soaps it focused on one character – Joanne “Jo” Gardner. The show was performed live until 1967 when it started to be recorded. What is ironic about this soap opera is that it’s downfall is found in its title. After being on the air for 30 years, CBS moved it from its familiar time slot. This angered viewers – “don’t mess with my show!” What made the ratings plummet was the move to NBC in 1982. The show never recovered and was axed a few years later.
People like continuity. They did not want to go “searching” for “Search For Tomorrow” in a different time slot and God forbid, a different network. There would be no more “tomorrows” for loyal viewers of this soap opera.
What are you searching for? What do you want to do with your tomorrow? We too are a people who like continuity. When that gets upset . . . well that can lead to anxious moments. Scripture addresses this for us tonight. Jesus had a tomorrow in His future and that should take away our worry when we . . .
“SEARCH FOR TOMORROW”
We won’t take a lot of time with our Old Testament lesson because when you look it up in the Study Bible, the reference is to take a look at James 4, our Epistle lesson.
Proverbs says that we don’t know what the day will bring, that is true. James reminds us that the future is not in our hands. We do not control things. God controls time and history. Now planning is good stewardship, but not if our plans crowd out the things that God would have us do. James gives a great reminder that we seek what “the Lord wills.” By thinking this way, we make a confession of our faith that has confidence in the Lord’s care for us. He continues to show His fatherly, divine mercy toward us. He has given us life by His Son.
Now the Matthew passage is known not just by Christians who know their Bibles, it is known just as well by men and women outside the church. “Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” Instructions the world tries to follow and fails. Instructions we try to follow and fail. You’ve probably heard it your whole life – “take one day at a time.” Great sentiment, hard to get in line behind.
If you are like me, when it comes to things like this, we are a dichotomy. That is inconsistent in our behavior. I can relax in life with the best of them. On a massage table, I can not move for an hour. Late night, laid out on a bed, headphones on, a barely move a muscle. Worried about tomorrow, not a chance.
Take that same human being and put him down in Florida in February. Flight home at 9 a.m. Got to be up by 4:30 a.m. We have over an hour drive. Fog is predicted. What about the toll we have to pay? Rental car needs gas and then returned. Need to hop a train to main terminal. Then train to terminal flying out of. Security line. So many things have to go right. At gate, two hours before flight. Get home later that day.
Can you relate? I want to be that guy in my 20’s who didn’t get anxious about any of this. I wasn’t searching for tomorrow, I was just living. Lord, I need to let go of the reins, take them please.
He does. He laughs at our human foibles. He has secured for us an eternal future. We should have no “tomorrow” worries. Jesus came in contact with death firsthand. He died and was buried. When Christ touched death, He brought life. When He rose from the dead, the search for tomorrow was over. He defeated death once for all time. Jesus broke death’s grip on our lives. If we are thrown into the grave with Him in His death, it means only life because He lives today.
Even though we still suffer the effects of trying to control our own lives, we are forgiven and are now part of the living because we are united in Jesus. So, when Christ returns, that great tomorrow Day, even our bodies will also be raised on the Last Day. The search is over.
Join us next week on this same station for . . . “The Young and the Restless.”
Amen.

March 23, 2025 Text: Luke 13:1-9
Dear Friends in Christ,
I grew up on Elm Street in Argenta, Illinois. Our house had two massive trees in the front yard, one was an elm that leaned, the other tree was rotting from the inside out. Thank God that neither one ever fell on our house. The trees were so beautiful in the fall that my 2nd grade class took a walking field trip just see the wonderful colors of the Lueck’s trees. In the warm months you never saw the front of the house because of the trees.
When my parents moved out the trees were still there, but because of the rotting and leaning the new owners decided to have the trees cut down before something bad did happen. When we made it back to Argenta and saw the emptiness of the front yard, it was quite the change. Big trees gone; holes left in the yard.
Likes the holes in my former front yard, we can look around and see empty seats in the pews – seats that used to be occupied by someone whom God planted in his vineyard. When did the holes appear? Some it has been a couple of months, others a number of years. Have we all noticed? What happened? It is one of the great pains in ministry when people are planted in the faith and then the tree disappears. Many of us reach out, but get no answer. There is a hole . . . a hole in our heart.
When we are planted, what does the Lord want to see? What can your vineyard produce? With the Lord’s help, He can make it happen so that we bear . . .
“PASSION FRUIT”
Before we get to the parable, let’s take a look at the first section of our text. In the ESV Bible, the first five verses are entitled, “Repent or Perish.” That should get our attention. There are two tragedies mentioned, the Galileans and the tower in Siloam. Interestingly enough, there are no other historical records of these events. Jesus points out these tragedies as occasions for self-examination and reflection on our sinful frailty. Contrary to popular thought, tragedy does not always strike people because they somehow deserve it. Rather, in His wisdom God allows and uses even tragic events to warn of judgment, that He might bring us to repentance and eternal life through faith in
Jesus.
Now, let’s get to the parable. Jesus begins, “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard.” (v. 6a). Jesus expects us to understand that God is the one with the vineyard and you – the believer in Jesus – are the fig tree in the vineyard of God’s grace. God plants with an expectation of harvest, “he came seeking fruit on it and found none.” (v. 6b). The Lord is looking for the fruit of repentance. The fruit where we humbly acknowledge our sinfulness and ask God for forgiveness.
We have been planted through Baptism. In the Baptism liturgy as sponsors and as a congregation we make a promise to help and encourage the newly baptized in their faith walk. Worship, learning the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer. We pray for them. We share the promise with one another.
The day is coming when God will arrive looking for the fruit of repentance in your life. What will God find a few years from today? Looking good isn’t good enough. God wants you to flourish. Jesus intervenes to save you. The Law digs to your roots and exposes your sin. The Gospel – verbal, written, spoken, poured out, drunk and eaten – Jesus provides spiritual growth and enables you to bear the fruit of repentance.
We pray you don’t leave an empty space in the pew you sit in today. At least not until you reach the heavenly garden with its lush fauna and beautiful surroundings. Until then, may the Holy Spirit help you to bear Passion fruit. Passion for the unbeliever. Passion for the one searching for answers. Passion for your fellow believers around the world. Passion for the people who sit in the pews with you today, so that pew stays filled with a soul saved by Jesus Christ. Augustine wrote, “The gardener who intercedes, is every saint who within the Church prays for those who are without the Church.”
That Jesus lays bare your innermost soul that He may apply the divine potting soil of His Gospel. His Word alone can produce fruit. Passion fruit acceptable to God.
Amen.

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.