Author: TechCommittee

September 5, 2021                                  Text:  Isaiah 35:4-7a

Dear Friends in Christ,

    Are you afraid of leaves?  Pastor, what a dumb question!  Fair enough.  Probably none of us are.  We know leaves are good for trees and plants to help them store food and water.  We like the look of especially autumn leaves.  We don’t fear a leaf falling from a tree and knocking us over.  I grew up on Elm St. with two big elm trees in the front yard.  The leaves were so thick you couldn’t see the sidewalk.  It was great fun to jump in the leaves and back then you could then burn them in your yard.  There was no reason to be afraid of leaves.  

    Things were different for Adam and Eve.  Martin Luther wrote that once they fell into sin Adam and Eve would have been terrified by something as harmless as a leaf rustling in the breeze.  But then again who wants to see their pants blowin’ in the wind all day?  Once our first parents experienced fear the world changed.  Think of all the anxious moments they must have had as perfection left them behind?  

    We are on the cusp of a beautiful time of the year so let’s frame the sermon title this way . . . 

“FEAR NOT THE AUTUMN LEAVES”

    We confess in the First Article of the Apostle’s Creed meaning:  “I believe that God has made me and all creatures.”  But we also experience creation as a threat.  Anxious hearts abound.  Life in this world is marked by anxiety, for our sin is subject to creation.  Disease can enter a healthy body.  Hearing can deteriorate.  Eyesight can become limited.  Mobility can shrink or be lost.  Old age can make the sharpest minds a struggle to distinguish day from night.

    What else gives you an anxious heart?  Sex education in schools?  Mask wearing again?  Footage from Afghanistan?  How on edge everyone is in public?  The thought police?  It causes anxiety because in most of these cases we can do very little.  Think of it this way.  What if you went home today and your house was on fire?  Would a country halfway around the world or a virus threat or teaching a child how to wear a condom be on your mind?  I doubt it.  You see the closer the anxiety the more the fear.

    This is what were happening with Isaiah and his people.  The fear was close by.  The chapter preceding chapter 35, Isaiah 34 was all about judgment.  Now that will get your attention.   It is into this world God comes to save.  “Be strong; fear not!”  

    I am not sure why but I believe some people like to live in fear.  They like to buy in to all the talk and fluff being bandied about.  I am not going to live that way.  Want to join me?  Then listen up.  In both the Old and New Testaments God calms anxious hearts with words.  His words.  To Israel:  “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have you called you by name, you are mine.” (Is. 43:1b)  To Bethlehem’s astonished shepherds:  “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” (Lk. 2:10)  To terrified disciples in a rocking boat:  “Take heart; it is I.  Do not be afraid.” (Mk. 6:50)  The risen Lord to confused women on Easter:  “Do not be afraid.” (Mt. 28:10)

    The Lord has granted me many life opportunities where calm was needed in chaos.  The road of panic doesn’t help our children, or our family, or our neighbor, or our fellow citizen.  God has authorized this to you today:  “Be strong; fear not.”

    God in the flesh is the remedy for fear.  God’s vengeance was executed through Christ.  He bore your sins to the cross.  He answered them for you through His blood.  Raised from the dead, He speaks to you:  “Your sins are forgiven.”  Isaiah’s hope is not redemption from the world but the redemption of the world.

    God created you to live in creation with all its falling leaves.  It is His goodness and mercy that saves.  There is not merit or worthiness in you and I.  Jesus has reconciled all things in heaven and on earth to himself.

    The signs of redemption in our text are bodily.  The eyes of the blind are opened.  The lame leap like a deer.  And in a beautiful tie in to our Gospel this morning the ears of the deaf hear and the mute sing for joy.

    Through the atoning work of Jesus, we receive all good things from our Father.  Both in the body and in the soul.  Do you really appreciate all that you have?  We are so blessed.  So blessed.  Our response then – “For all this it is my duty to thank, praise, serve, and obey him.”

    The last blessing is for the thirsty to have ground springs of water.  Another gift we take for granted.  Israel can see the blessing of moisture more clearly.  They average only 20 inches of heavenly dew a year.  In contrast, we average 40 inches and 20 more inches of that inconvenient white powder.   Half the world struggles with water.  We think nothing of it.  We are so blessed.  So blessed.  The Lord is the living water that quenches are anxious thirst.  

    Breathe in some heavenly air.  “Be strong; fear not!  Behold, your God…will come and save you.”  

                Amen.     

August 22, 2021                        Text:  Ephesians 5:22-33

Dear Friends in Christ,

    Toni and I were blessed with 30 years of marriage recently.  For various reasons we talked about why we need to lift up these milestones in people’s lives.  Really celebrate them.  We should never downplay what our Lord does to keep two people together in this most sacred of relationships.  I know all of you feel the same way.  If we want marriage to be the way God intended it then we need to speak positive about it, look to God’s Word for the inspiration and the backbone to say, “Thus says the Lord.”

    Our text, Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is such a “Thus says the Lord.”  We hear it every three years in church.  We hear it at many marriage worship services and it is part of the human vernacular.  But boy doesn’t God make us all nervous and wiggly when we have to explain it or understand it?  Do you know what I am talking about – those uncomfortable words we don’t want to throw around at dinner parties.  Words like “submit” and “head” and “give of self” and “one flesh” and dare we even say the word “love?”

    I pray you are here because you trust the Lord’s words and He might actually know what He is talking about.  He’s in the words.  He’s in the marriage.  He has to be, right?

“THE BLESSING OF A TRIANGLE”

    I was not good in geometry but the triangle is one shape I understand.  I could put the triangle in the proper slot as a youngster.  I get three and all sides being equal and well you know the rest . . .

    The triangle in marriage is important because the devil is moving up the food chain.  Adults have been told for years they can do what they want.  It’s your life.  If you are unhappy then leave.  You deserve better.  It is about you.  No thought to the children who suffer the consequences.  No thought to the pledge given in the sight of the Lord.  We let go of marriage and it lost all definition.  Now you can marry same sex, an animal or even yourself.  Anybody can get a license on the Internet to perform said ceremony and voila what marriage is, is no longer what marriage is.  Can we sing of Christ as groom and church as bride if we can no longer confess what marriage is?  What will it mean to call God our Father if we say a man can have a baby?  If we play along and say that he is she?  Or she is he?

    To break the bonds we have to break the sin.  Again, we have to celebrate our Christian marriages.  We have to work on our selfishness.  The Triangle is a blessing because the only known antidote to selfishness is Jesus Christ.  In Him, we are new creations.  He substituted me with Him.  He substituted you with Him.  You and me did not have to pay for our sins.  God the Son gave His life for our sin payment.  “Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her.”  

    Does this Christ give us a long list of do’s and don’ts and our marriage will last?  Actually, no.  The Spirit lays two things upon a marriage:  “Wives, submit to your husbands.”  “Husbands love your wives.”  Both equal this:  “Forget ME, seek rather THEE.”  These admonitions even come with a reason.  Surely, you heard it, didn’t you?  “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.”  See the triangle?  “Husbands love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.”  See the triangle?  

    How do we do this as sinful humans?  To the unmarried.  A committed Christian.  Don’t settle for a promise.  Pray.  This is the biggest decision of your life.  The blessing of a triangle.

    To the married.  May the Holy Spirit let the triangle flourish in our attitudes, our priorities, our strengths, our choices . . . by way of the Scriptures and Holy Communion.  Grow in devotions together.  Seize the strength of worship and Bible Class.  Be lifted in Christ’s true body and blood.  The third partner is in the marriage.  The marriage counselor is by your side.  Turn to Him.  The blessing of a triangle.

    Remember what Jesus left for you.  Left the holy, perfectly peaceful, thoroughly satisfying company of the Father and the Holy Spirit.  He left it all . . . for you.  Humbled Himself.  Became a lowly babe.  Lived out His days in poverty.  Was constantly misunderstood.  For you.  That you might be the Father’s forgiven child.  He gave up his life . . . for you.  And now He asks you serve your wife, your husband, to please Him. 

    Ever try to put a triangle together that is just off a degree?  It’s uneven.  No matter how hard you try it is not going to fit.  But when it all comes together, wow, what a beautiful thing.  Even in the mundane that is marriage.  In the ups that is marriage.  In the downs that is marriage.  Joys and sorrows co-mingle but that is marriage.  It works.  We celebrate it.  We honor it.  The blessing of a triangle.  Because of Jesus.

            Amen.    

August 15, 2021                        Text:  Proverbs 9:1-10

Dear Friends in Christ,

    On the Indonesian island of Java they like to tell the story of the young man who saw a beautiful young lady on the road and followed her for a mile.  She wheeled around and demanded, “Why do you dog my footsteps?”  

    “Because you are the loveliest thing I have ever seen.  I fell in love with you at first sight.  Be mine.”

    “But if you just look behind you,” said the girl, “to see my young sister, she is ten times more beautiful than I.”  The cavalier young man wheeled around to see a very unattractive maiden.  “What kind of mockery is this?” he demanded of the beautiful girl.  “You lied to me!”

    “So did you,” she replied.  “If you were so madly in love with me, why did you turn around?”

    Ah, the beauty of wisdom.  This young lady had it and she saw through the phoniness of the young man.  Do you consider yourself a wise person?  I imagine that most of us do.  We think we are pretty smart.  We think things through.  We see things for how they really are.  It’s wonderful when it all comes together.

“THE BEAUTY OF WISDOM”

    The world has always been populated with the wise and unwise.  That is basically our text for this morning.  Solomon giving some nuggets about the beauty of wisdom.  Wisdom is an invitation that goes out to all people.

    Because everyone thinks they are wise this is where the problems come in.  When you have people telling you to do one thing because they think they are so smart but then they don’t follow their own advice, well . . . people start to see through that and we get what we have today in society.  Listen to this insightful commentary by Neil Postman on Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World written in 1932 and George Orwell’s 1984 written in 1949:

    “Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing.  Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression.  But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history.  As he saw it, people will adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.  Orwell feared those who ban books.  Huxley feared there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.  Orwell feared we would be deprived of information.  Huxley feared they would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity.  Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us.  Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.  Huxley remarked the civil libertarians who are on alert to oppose tyranny ‘failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.’  In 1984, people are controlled by inflicting pain.  In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure.  In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us.  Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.”

    Postman then added this bit of wisdom.  “In America, we are never denied the opportunity to amuse ourselves.”  

    This is not working well.  Despair is skyrocketing.  Deaths of despair – drugs, alcohol, and suicide have doubled since 2000.  People we never thought would kill themselves are.  And the world continues to think they are so wise.

    Prayerfully we see through man’s wisdom.  We understand these words of wisdom in our text, “Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury.  Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you.”

    None of us likes to be corrected or reproved.  Come on, I’ve got it all together.  Do we?  Can we leave our simple ways and live?  Can we walk in the way of insight?  Can we see the beauty of wisdom?

    We do if we see the beauty of wisdom coming from our Lord.  “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”  It begins with our repentance.  Maybe we aren’t the smartest in the room.  Do we need to humble ourselves before our Creator?  Don’t we run after pleasure and distraction like Huxley wrote?  Then get on your knees and tell the Lord where you have failed.  “Reprove a wise man and he will love you.”  We take the Lord’s correction through Jesus because He knows what is best for our lives.  “Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.”

    The Apostle Peter wrote us something quite wise in his 2nd letter.  “The Lord’s divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted us his precious and great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.” 

    Christ has set us free.  We have His promise.  The beauty of His wisdom is our wisdom.   May the Holy Spirit help us to use it – and live.

                                    Amen.