Author: TechCommittee

July 11, 2021                                                                         Text:  Ephesians 1:3-14

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Do you all know the mystery board game Clue?  Invented by an Englishman years ago and still played today.  The object of the game was to solve a murder.  You did this by deciphering clues until you think you had the killer, the weapon and the room it occurred in.  You then announce, “I’ve solved it.”  You look at the answer:  Col. Mustard with the lead pipe in the library.  If those are the three cards then you win.  If not, you are out of the game.  If you just get part of the answer you are perplexed.  “Professor Plum, I was sure it was Col. Mustard.”

            It is fun to solve a mystery.  With 6 characters, 6 weapons, and 9 rooms there are 324 possible answers in the game of Clue.  Did you ever consider the greatest selling book of all time is a mystery?  The Bible.  The Bible tells the story of the wicked twists and turns of Satan and sinful humanity.  Meanwhile, God’s twists and turns exceed those of the evil one as He plots the devil’s destruction and carries it out on a cross.  We marvel at how the love of God is revealed.

            We know ahead of time how this mystery ends.  Ordinarily, when we know the solution, we’re done with the “who done it.”  But not this one.  This mystery captivates us even when we know how it comes out.

“SOLVING THE MYSTERY”

            Today let’s relish the mystery of God’s love in Christ.  The mystery is kept hidden from unbelievers and we cannot solve it on our own for these reasons:  We are sinners divorced from God and in disharmony with our fellow human beings, and that makes it a mystery as to how God could ever love us.  We close our eyes and minds to God.  We turn away from godly deeds.  An elementary deduction, wouldn’t you say?  We cannot comprehend the mind and will of God.

            Jesus has revealed the mystery.  He is the solution.  Verse 9 says, “making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ.”  Jesus kept his eyes on the Father and did His will.  He sacrificed for those of us who deserved only punishment.  He and the Father are One.  He didn’t purchase us with gold or silver but with his holy, precious blood and innocent suffering and death.  That is how the mystery came out – Jesus on the cross giving His life – it is a happy ending, we’ve read the clues, won the game, received the crown of life.

            This is a mystery we can tell others about.  We are not spoiling the fun.  We are proclaiming the great deeds of our Savior.  We want to spread the message of this newfound harmony with God.  The mystery of God’s will is our salvation and we want to focus others on the source of this salvation.  We have been chosen by God, predestined for adoption through Jesus Christ.  We have the riches of His grace.  We desire Christ’s blessings of Word and Sacrament.  In a profound mystery, the Holy Spirit demonstrates His work in us.  We use our gifts to tell about the gift.  No need to wait for the end of the novel or the movie. 

            In my junior year of high school I was in a drama class.  We were divided into four groups of 7 people and were given the task of writing, producing, directing and acting in a one-act play that would last 15-20 minutes.  The group I was in was assigned a mystery.  Somehow, we pulled it off.  We wrote a “Columbo” type of detective story that was interesting and funny.  That morning I had broken my finger while pitching and I spent the afternoon in the emergency room.  I made it to the production just a half hour before we were to go on.  A day I won’t forget.  We had wonderful collaboration and a great story.  The mystery was solved and we brought some joy to people’s lives.

            Do you see yourselves in this great story presented to us today?  You are part of the plot.  You come to the production with your own injuries.  Maybe you get there just in time.  This mystery isn’t about someone else.  This is our story.  Christ died for you so that you might live.  Christ lives for you that you might die to sin.  Christ removes your worries and gives you peace. 

            This is the mystery:  “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us.”  This is also the solution, for “in him,” we “become the righteousness of God.”  (2 Cor. 5:21)

                                                                                                                                    Amen. 

July 4, 2021                                                                            Text:  2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Have you ever had to list or describe your strengths and weaknesses?  Job interview?  Entrance to college?  In conversation?  With your therapist?  As a Pastor we do a self-evaluation tool that we fill out that churches see if they want to call us. 

Which one is easier for you?  Strengths . . . or . . . weaknesses? 

            In our culture weak is bad and strength is good.  On this July 4^th we don’t shoot off fireworks because we are an inferior nation.  We celebrate because we have freedom and the strongest military in the world.  Because of who we are as Americans we try to cover our weaknesses.

            St. Paul says in our text that he can boast in weakness.  Huh?  Let’s see if that is true . . .

“IS THE POWER OF CHRIST IN OUR WEAKNESS?”

            We could give a sermon today where we kind of skirt the issue.  You know talk in generalities about strengths and weaknesses and not try to pontificate on Paul’s “thorn in the flesh.”  We could do that but that is not what you expect from your Pastor in a sermon.  Let’s actually see an example of the power of Christ in our weakness.

            One of my strengths is self-evaluation.  Like Paul I know my weaknesses and the “thorn in the flesh” that has caused me the most grief in life.  This comes as no surprise to our friends from Shawnee, Kansas here this morning or to many of you but the answer is my competitiveness.  What is interesting about this weakness is that at times it’s a strength.

            Paul knew this.  He needed no annual review.  He could be proud of what he accomplished.  Intelligent.  A way with words.  Preaching to thousands.  That can all go to your head.  But his background and “thorn the flesh” kept him humble.  In his weakness he could boast about Christ crucified.  This ailment was annoying.

            Ever had a splinter?  Bothersome.  They can get infected.  At our house Dr. Lueck would go to work with needle, tweezers and someone holding a flashlight.  The thorn in the flesh would be removed.

            Paul is talking about something a little more serious.  Was it opposition to his ministry?  A temptation he couldn’t overcome?  A physical problem?  It was a serious impediment because Paul prayed three times to God to remove it. 

            Paul felt it a distraction and he would be better off without it.  But God saw it differently.  God knows if nothing every goes wrong in our lives, why would we need Him?  We’d think we could make it on our own.

            I’ve been competitive as far as I know since birth.  It has at times been a distraction.  Turning over the Candyland game when losing to my sister.  Technical fouls in basketball.  Umpires and coaches and parents and loved ones giving me lectures.  I know how I got to this point.  It was ingrained in me when my uncle, now a District President in the LCMS, was studying to be a Pastor and he lived with us during my junior high years.  He and his seminary buddies were competitive.  I would play basketball with them and they would slap the walls and react to missed shots.  My thoughts:  these guys were going to be Pastors!  I had never seen this from my own Pastor.  It made an impression.

            These thorns in the flesh cannot be dug out with needle and tweezers.  They are there because we are weak, sinful people living in fallen world.  Can you relate?

            Jesus Christ, the Son of God, put on our weak human form to make the payment demanded for sin.  Jesus humbled Himself.  Born of woman, He became weak.  Weak enough to die.  Paul said in 1 Corinthians that the world saw the cross as weak and foolish.  Even in weakness, God is stronger than man’s strength.  Jesus accomplished what no weak man or woman could.  He made atonement, paid for our sins.  The thorns on his head and the spikes holding Him to the cross won our salvation.  In becoming weak, Christ conquered Satan and sin for all time.  On Easter, He defeated death for each of us, once and for all.

            Let’s get back to our sermon question.  Paul writes in verse 9, “But he (The Lord) said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’  Therefore I will boast more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”  Paul’s weakness in some ways helped his ministry.  He stayed humble.  He stayed focused.  He let the message of Christ dominate and He never took His blessings for granted.

            My weakness as I said can be a strength.  By making everything a competition, the Holy Spirit helps me stand strong in God’s Word.  It gives a voice when needed.  I’m not afraid to mix it up if that is what is called for.  Then two things have happened in the last few years.  People who have competed with me or seen me at games have remarked how this competitive nature has let them see this weakness and how they appreciate that I am a human being.  Things come full circle because these comments came from young men studying to become Pastor’s.

            So yes the power of Christ is in our weakness.  He can use it for His good.  Like Paul, we all want to do better in our weakness.  But our amazing Savior uses even this for His glory.  “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect – perfect – in weakness.”

                                                Amen.   

June 27, 2021                                                                                  Text:  Lamentations 3:22-33

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Between 1931 and 1935, the Hoover Dam was constructed.  If you walk along the dam you can see the dam’s face on one side and Lake Mead on the other.  The combination of power and productivity is seen clearly.

            What do you notice about the timing of its construction?  It was built during the Depression.  Men traveled from all over to work on this project – 47 different states in all – and we only had 48 then.  Out of national suffering came what was the tallest dam at the time and the largest hydroelectric plant in the world.  In the midst of suffering, people saw great power and wonderful work.

            Our text for this morning offers a glimpse of God’s great power and work in the midst of suffering.  Israel has been exiled to Babylon; Jerusalem has had a siege against her with her walls and temple torn down.  We then get this voice of lament.  In the middle of the book is an amazing revelation about God’s faithfulness.  Let’s meditate on this text and see that in the midst of our suffering . . .

“GREAT IS GOD’S FAITHFULNESS”

            When we suffer, our grief has many voices.  The same is true of Scripture.  The Book of Lamentations has five laments with each one being different.  Our text is part of the third lament. 

            This third lament is personal.  It is the cry of a man who has seen suffering.  He has seen people exiled.  He has seen God’s judgment on his people.  The man is grief stricken over what he has observed.

            His grief is such that he speaks about God not to God.  He can’t speak to God because physically, mentally, emotionally, this man has experienced the judgment of God and reached the point where his endurance and his hope from the Lord have perished. 

            Have you ever gotten to that point?  The suffering is so overwhelming that you figure God isn’t listening, so why bother?  The hurt so intense that the Creator can’t do anything for me?  You lament your troubles and internalize them until you are ready to burst and not in a positive way.

            The man in our text is there but what we see in Lamentations is what the man remembers.  The love of God never ceases.  His mercies never end.  The Lord is the portion he can put his hope in.  God restores this relationship and the man can speak to God rather than about Him.  The man says, “Great is yourfaithfulness.” (v. 23)  Not great is God’s faithfulness.  Great is your faithfulness.  God is not going to forsake His covenant.  He comes near to the man in faithfulness and love.

            What do people do today?  They read God according to their lives.  God’s love is measured by their life experiences.  If God has delivered them from suffering, then He is powerful.  If God has blessed business or family then He is loving.  If life begins to break down, however, so does their God.  The rabble-rousers of our world fall into this category.  They may not believe in God or the church but who gets the vile words spilled against them?  They lament against others and God because someone has to take the blame.  Why are they so angry and hateful?  Because they are not comfortable with who they are.  They need our prayers.

            There are times we may not be comfortable with ourselves.  But we don’t waver in faith because of life experiences.  We hope in God because He is love and compassion and mercy and faithfulness.  In the life, death and resurrection of Jesus God showed all of these traits.  In love, He died for you.  In compassion, he sympathizes with your weaknesses.  In mercy, He forgives your sin.  In faithfulness, He is always with you to the very end.  It is all of that that brought you here today and will go home with you.

            There is a plaque at Hoover Dam created by Oskar J.W. Hansen to commemorate the workers who died as the dam was constructed.  It pictures the dam, and in front of it is the figure of a man.  His arms are outstretched, and he rises above the water.  Above him a symbol of the electrical power provided by the dam and then, extending outward to both sides, are stalks of wheat, clusters of grapes, gourds, and the fruits of the earth.  Across the middle of the plaque are the words, “They died to make the desert bloom.”

            This plaque calls to mind the human sacrifice involved in creating this center of power and productivity for our country.  Christians have a symbol that calls to mind an even greater sacrifice that brings greater power and productivity to all creation.  That symbol is the cross.  When Jesus stretched out his arms on the cross, He bore the sins of the world and the curse that had fallen on creation.  Dying under the burden of sin, Jesus broke its power, and rising from the dead, He brings life to all who trust in Him.  Life from death.  Joy from sorrow.  A new creation from a fallen world.  Of Him, it may truly be said, “He died to make the desert bloom.”

            Great is God’s faithfulness.                 Amen.  

June 20, 2021                                                                        Text:  2 Corinthians 6:1-13

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Some of you have been around since the early stages of the church plant that became our church – Good Shepherd Lutheran.  This morning we look at another church plant that got off to a rocky start.  There were divisions among the members.  A sex scandal involving a member.  There was disorder in worship and confusion about fundamental beliefs, including the resurrection of Jesus.  A painful visit from the Pastor-missionary was followed by a tough letter from this same fella.  This church plant was hanging by a thread.  Then came another letter from the missionary except this letter brought comfort and good news that they needed.

            We know this letter as 2 Corinthians.  The Pastor/Church planter is the Apostle Paul.  The Church in Corinth had been through a lot when they received this letter.  There was even conflict between the church and Paul.

            Paul notes a problem they have.  Their hearts are restricted, confined, closed off.  Their hearts are blocked by a stubbornness that is putting them at risk.  Paul pleads with them and speaks to us . . .

“WHAT CAN HEAL OUR SPIRITUAL HEART DISEASE?”

            We all are aware of physical heart disease.  The hamburger we have piled high from the fast food restaurant or movie theater popcorn with butter is not helping the situation.  Neither is the backside on the couch when a nice walk should be the menu item for the day.  It builds up fat that clogs heart and arteries.  Not enough oxygen is getting through to our cells and we suffer.

            We don’t know if the Corinthians suffered physical heart disease but we do know they suffered spiritual heart disease.  How about you?  Ever closed your heart off to others?  Walked by a person in need?  Conveniently forgot to wash the dishes or take out the garbage and it was left for someone else?  We too suffer spiritual heart disease when we fail to love our neighbor as ourselves.

            What could damage our heart?  Maybe you’ve been hurt by someone and you find it hard to trust?  Someone close to you has died and you can’t understand why God would allow such a thing.  Or could it be a conflict with another person that causes anxiety and you suffer in silence for it? 

            Every one of us in this sanctuary has had affliction and suffering.  No one has a perfect heart.  Like the Corinthians are hearts are restricted.

            The Church in Corinth was not left to themselves to conquer their spiritual heart disease.  Healing was available to them and it is available to you.  Paul proclaimed, “Now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (v. 2)  These early Christians no longer have to carry around their burdens.  They don’t need to hang on to their shame, their guilt, or the wrong done to them.  Their damaged hearts have been made whole in Jesus.  Paul wrote in the previous chapter, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”  (2 Cor. 5:17)  A new heart has been created within them.  Salvation, help, and grace, are all theirs because of Jesus.

            We inherit this same help, grace, and salvation as these brothers and sisters.  We are new creations because of Jesus.  Jesus opened his heart and his whole body and came down to earth and became us – fully human.  This sinless Son of God opened his heart and his arms and took our sin to a cross.  Jesus took our spiritual heart disease and, in exchange, gave us righteousness, forgiveness, and clean hearts.

            We are not left to heal ourselves.  We do not become our own cardiologist.  Our healer is the Lord Jesus.  Brothers and sisters in this mission plant of a congregation, now is the favorable time.  Now is the day of salvation when Jesus brings healing for our spiritual heart disease.  There is no waiting.  Come to the altar today for forgiveness, life and salvation through the healer’s body and blood.  You have already had your sins absolved by the authority of Jesus Himself.  You received God’s favor by hearing His Word of Good News.

            Our hearts will continue to be challenged.  We may even suffer some of the things Paul mentions.  Hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger, dishonor, slander.  We may still internalize conflict and grief and broken relationships.  Our hearts are imperfect.  But the struggle does not last forever.  We do not receive the grace of God in vain.  We receive the grace of God fully.  Just as Jesus has risen from the dead, we, too, will rise from our graves on the Last Day.  When He returns our hearts will not be restricted but will be opened wide.  When Jesus comes again, our spiritual heart disease will be forever cured.

                                                                                                                                    Amen. 

June 13, 2021                                                                                                Text:  Mark 4:26-34

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Is ignorance bliss?  Sometimes, not knowing what makes a thing great enhances its beauty. 

            Have you had this experience?  You eat something that is delicious and then you find out it had some ingredients in it you don’t like?  Mom makes a cake and you discover she put sour cream in it.  Should something sour be put in with sweet?  Sour cream helps make the cake moist but you still have a hard time reckoning your taste buds.  Or you are given bread that looks like pumpkin and so you go ahead and eat it.  Did you enjoy it?  Why, yes I did.  I can now tell you it was zucchini!  What? 

            Sometimes a thing is good on its own, and to know too much about it might ruin our appreciation for the good that is in it – ignorance, as they say, is bliss.  Such is the case in the parable of the growing seed that we hear from Jesus today.

“IGNORANCE IS BLISS?”

            It is true sometimes that not knowing what makes a thing great enhances its beauty.  Certainly for the growing seed, ignorance was bliss.  The succinctness of this parable gives it such power:  “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground.” (v. 26)  The kingdom is scattered throughout the whole world.  No distinction is made of the soil like in the parable of the sower.  It is sown in every place. 

            The man then goes about his business day and night and the seed grows without his knowing how:  “The earth produces by itself.” (v. 28)  The Greek term here is “automatically” no further invention is needed or required.  First the blade and then the ear and then the full grain.  Good growth happens even if the man doesn’t know how.  In time, a plentiful harvest will come.

            As prideful, sinful people we are not content with something working without our effort to make it happen.  When churches are dying we want to come up with some program to save them.  When members of our family or friends are outside the Christian faith we ask what can I do to bring them around to the love of Jesus?  How about our own faith life?  We might even take credit there by letting everyone know that we go to worship and Bible study regularly and we pray harder.

            But the truth behind all of these scenarios is not looking at what we can do, but what is done already.  The cake was good the way the baker crafted it.  The Kingdom of God is a beautiful gift because the Creator mysteriously causes it to grow into a glorious harvest. 

            The growth of the Kingdom of God is up to Him, not us.  Jesus highlights that in the parable today.  Man scatters the seed but God causes the growth.  Christ’s death on the cross has redeemed the whole world, and the Kingdom of God is already sown everywhere that the Gospel is preached – in you and me, in the people of God in the Church, in your unbelieving loved one, in your atheist neighbor, when they have heard the Gospel.

            The only growth that is going to happen will occur by God’s design, not by your effort, pressure, stress, or badgering.  It is God who grants the growth automatically.  If it were up to us to accomplish faith and church growth, we would have figured it out in two thousand years – growth would be happening by leaps and bounds.  It happens in God’s time.  Our Lord is more interested in freeing our guilty conscience in his forgiving grace and granting to us a holy and eternal joy.

            The question still lingers – what can be done?  Dr. Fred Craddock was a Professor of New Testament and Homiletics at Emory University.  He had a father who was very critical of the church.  Every now and then the minister would come to the Craddock home to speak with Fred’s dad.  Mr. Craddock would complain they didn’t care about him only his pledge of money.  This would embarrass Mrs. Craddock.  But Mr. Craddock continued this talk for years.

            There came a time he didn’t say it.  He was in the Veteran’s Hospital.  They had taken out his throat.  He was down to 74 lbs. and radiation had badly burned him.  He couldn’t speak.  Around his room were flowers everywhere.  Cards were attached from the Men’s Club and the Women’s Fellowship and the Youth Group.  Every group in the church and many other parishioners had sent cards. 

            Fred’s dad could not speak but he wrote on the side of a Kleenex box a line from Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’:  “In this harsh world, draw your breath in pain to tell my story.”  “Dad, what is your story?”  He wrote, “I was wrong, I was wrong!”

            There are a lot of desperate people in our world who are suffering emotionally, mentally, physically, spiritually.  God doesn’t ask us to be their critics.  He directs us to sow seed.  The Word will do what God wants it to do in spite of us.  He just asks us to share the love of Jesus.  Not to be obsessed with results – just do.  Christ’s love.  We’ve got it to share

            Virginia Laren put it this way:  “There is only one answer to man’s deepest needs, only one source of life.  Therefore, if I know Christ and have studied the Gospels, that makes me either a missionary or a cop-out.”  Where do you stand with this issue?  God bless our trust in the power of the Word.  God Bless our sowing.  Amen.     

June 6, 2021                                                                                   Text:  Genesis 3:8-15

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Naked.  Do I have your attention?  I figure there are two reactions when I say naked.  Naked, all right this sermon is going to be good.  Naked.  Should Pastor be talking about that from the pulpit? 

            If you are familiar with the early chapters of Genesis, you realize nakedness existed in the Garden of Eden.  Before the fall, Adam and Eve lived naked.  Because of their innocence, lack of shame, and freedom from sin, nakedness did not affect them.  They stood naked before God in Paradise.  This topic is Biblical, so if you are little nervous, relax.  Let’s step into the Garden and talk about being . . .

“NAKED”

            Recall life in the Garden of Eden.  Adam and Eve were made to live in a loving relationship with God and reflect for them their own relationship and in their stewardship of creation.  God said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.” (Gen. 1:28)  They were defined by the love of God that brought them into being and the honor of being stewards of God’s earth.

            Then sin crept into God’s creation.  The serpent promised they could be like God.  Adam and Eve abandoned their privileged position among God’s creatures.  By coveting godhood, they separated themselves from the life-giving love of God that had made them and defined them.  They thought if they had the knowledge of good and evil, they wouldn’t owe anything to anyone.  But this knowledge didn’t make them more divine.  It only opened their eyes to how evil their abuse of God’s love had been.  It exposed their nakedness. They were now free to define themselves, create their own godhood.  But this freedom proved to be an endless struggle to cover their shame – a struggle filled with pain, doubt, and death.

            Isn’t their naked shame quite amazing?  We understand this if we have ever been naked in front of someone or many some ones.  But their shame was before God, not necessarily each other.  This is why they played hide and seek.  They weren’t hiding from each other, they were hiding from God.  “Who told you that you were naked?”  They would cover themselves with fig leaves but Adam still complained to Eve that she had put his pants in the salad again!

            Ever since the fall, we mark our lives by self-definition.  We are judged by how much we have achieved in life, how much education we have or how much we earn.  We make a statement:  “This is what I’ve made myself to be.”  We dress ourselves up in our achievements for everyone to see.

            There is nothing wrong with all of this unless they become our gods.  “This is what I made myself to be” can never be our creed.  When what we accomplish turns into a means of self-creation, we fall into the same sin as Adam and Eve.  This deceives us into thinking we are naked unless we clothe ourselves with our successes.  This blinds us to the fact that all we are and all we have comes from the hand of God, the only and true Creator. 

            God didn’t just leave Adam and Eve naked.  He cursed them yes for their disobedience but He then promised a covering for sin – a Savior who would bridge a right relationship with God.  He would bring them back.

            We also are not left naked.  We can never do enough to cover ourselves up.  Thanks be to God, by the resurrected, ascended, and glorified body of Jesus Christ, we do indeed become clothed.  All sinners who repent and are washed in the cleansing flood of Baptism receive a robe of righteousness.  The Spirit recreates us as members of Christ’s holy, glorified body in union with our Savior.  He makes us, the Bride of Christ, one with our eternal Husband.  Our Lord and Savior covers us in His holiness and righteousness.  So when the Father looks at us, He sees the clothing of His beloved Son.  Those glorious fashions are bestowed by grace as part of our dowry and inheritance.  Clothed with the robes of Christ, we can enter the divine and holy presence of God with boldness and confidence.  Because we partake of Christ, we presently stand in God’s heavenly presence in this flesh.  We abide in Him; He dwells in us.  And when He returns to bring us into His eternal home, we will receive the radiant clothing of His majesty and glory forever.

            Talking about naked wasn’t so bad now, was it?  What happened to Adam and Eve happens to us daily.  The world tries to clothe us with their constant drivel and their “look at me” mentality.   Through the Holy Spirit we know better.  The love of our Savior, Christ’s love covers us now and into eternity. 

            You can lift your head now . . . it’s time to say . . .    Amen.