Author: TechCommittee

August 9, 2020                                                                      Text:  Matthew 14:22-33

Dear Friends in Christ,

            How do you talk about others?  Positive?  Negative?  We all make first impressions.  How do you share those?  “She was nice.”  “He was pleasant.”  “He is funny.”  “She is a great worker.”  We also can catch people in challenging moments.  “They were rude.”  “Why did she bite my head off?”  “He’s got a temper.”  Yes, how do you talk about others?

            If you have a longer-term relationship with this person you see they are more than just one characteristic.  You see this pleasant, friendly Pastor and then learn wow, is he competitive.  Someone you thought lazy might confirm your impression or they may surprise you and really give effort.  And every once in a while we may get a glimpse of a person’s dark side that we never saw coming.  It is not easy to define any one of us.

            Human beings are complicated.  We are chameleons depending on the situation.  We define people by what we observe. 

            We do the same with Jesus.  We make judgments that aren’t in Holy Scripture.  We define who He is in our speech.  What are we saying?

“HOW DO YOU TALK ABOUT JESUS?”

            Jesus is not a poorly written character with no depth, no complication.  Matthew’s Gospel these last few weeks shows that.  We have seen Jesus in many different situations.

            Thousands were following Jesus around and he regularly defied expectations.  Some walked away not satisfied by what they saw.  This one called “the Messiah” confuses some.  His hometown doesn’t give him a key to the city or even a free drink at the local watering hole.  They mock him and send him away.  He has compassion on the diseased and heals them.  He touches the untouchable and hears the voice of the voiceless.  He needs time away from all these people but still feeds a throng with very little supply.  Unexpected.

            Now in our text for today He does something we might not see coming.  He again leaves everybody.  What is going on here?  Why is this guy so standoffish?  Didn’t He come for us?  He leaves so He can pray for you and the others.  He needs time alone with the Father.  See how you have misread Him again?

            Prayer time is over.  No Coast Guard signal comes but Jesus notices the boat of the disciples is far away from land with wind and waves crashing against it.  He walks on water.  Is it a ghost?  What is this ragtag group expecting?  We know our leader is different but walking on water?  He brings words of comfort.

            Now the drama shifts from 12 to one and his name is Peter.  “Come on out Peter.”  Should I guys?  Sure, you can trust Jesus?  His faith keeps him above water, but as soon as the wind comes he needs a life jacket.  It’s Jesus.  He rescues the helpless disciple.  He saves a tragedy from occurring.  “Peter, Peter, Peter, why the doubt?”

            How are the disciples going to talk about Jesus after this?  He is no longer just the guy who attends parties or the one not accepted in his hometown or the buffet chairman at a large meal.  He commands creation.  The wind ceases.  The waves calm.  What does this mean?  What can we say about Jesus?  They are not exactly sure but they confess, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

            How do you see it?  Is Jesus hard to label and categorize?  He is unique and special but isn’t there more?  Though you can’t completely grasp Him and I can’t completely understand Him, He’s got a hold of us.  Lifting children to His lap.  Dragging disciples into boats.  How many times has He held on to you in pain, in death, in things that don’t make sense?  How often has He calmed your boat ride with His presence?  He holds you all the way to the cross.  His death and resurrection assures you that He holds you into eternity.  In your doubts and struggles He is there.  His Holy Spirit creates in you a clean heart that can confess today:  Jesus is the Son of God.  Follow His path.  The Savior reaches out to you, “Come, trust and walk toward me.  I have your hand.”

            With all of this in your life, how do you tell others about Jesus?  What words do you use?  Do you describe the peace and comfort He brings to your daily life?  Do you talk about the “blessings” he has showered upon you?  Do you share the hope and future that awaits a child of God?  Do your words have the affect that when others describe you a prime characteristic is that you are a Christian?  Do they see His presence in you?

            Yes, there are times we take our eyes away from Jesus and our faith.  Drowning is not pleasant, is it?  But remember this – He’s there.  The Lord Jesus grasps you.  His touch is gentle and strong.  In His grip you’ll know the price that He paid to have you forever.  His hands bear the scars of His love, the price of forgiveness.  He’s crucified and living.  Now that is something to talk about!

                                                                                                                                    Amen.      

August 2, 2020                                                                      Text:  Matthew 14:13-21

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Can an appetizer be a meal?  Can a meal be an appetizer?  Seinfeld played this running joke in a few episodes.  Jerry owed another comedian a meal but the guy only ordered soup.  Was it meal?  Their argument led to Jerry having to take this guy out again and this time he made sure he ordered something more substantial that counted as a meal.  What say you?

            The text is familiar.  Jesus feeding 5,000 men plus women and children.  They left more than satisfied.  Filling as it was, we need to ask the question:  was this meal still just an appetizer?  We have two choices.

“MEAL OR APPETIZER?”

            The text begins with some horrible news.  Jesus learns about the beheading of John the Baptist.  The Lord is fatigued and needs to get away.  The disciples were probably worn down too.  We pile on top of this, thousands of people who have no food.  This is not turning into a pleasant day.

            The crowds want Jesus to turn on His power.  In His state of humiliation He didn’t always use His divine power, unless it applied to his work of the salvation of sinners.  Instead of feeding these people wouldn’t it have been more impressive if He reattached John’s head from the platter and gave him back his life.  Or wouldn’t the people want to follow if He destroyed Herod in some gruesome manner?

            It may have played well in the media and with frenzied crowds but it would not have shown Jesus as Messiah.  Power for power’s sake was not this Savior’s way.

            This act of grace shadows the Lord feeding the Israelites quail and bread during their exodus.  What everyone did not understand was that the promise of a Messiah was among them.  This man who was going to feed them was also going to save them.  The feeding would be the appetizer.  The meal was still coming.

            Living in a world of sin is still the same for us.  People die tragic and senseless deaths.  We face physical and spiritual fatigue.  Just this week I talked with a college friend, an area football coach, and a church member in assisted living.  They all have said the same thing; they are worn down and have had enough.  We need some courageous people who will make a decision and then live with it.  You can be thankful you have a Board of Elders who has done just that.  We also want God to use His power to strike back at lawbreakers and evil human beings.  What we forget is that we would be the first to be struck!

            You and I also don’t quite fathom this state of Jesus’ humiliation or the theology of the cross.  Do we ever spout a theology of glory?  “Lord feed my needs.”  “Father, send a miracle and I will be on your side.”  But that’s seeing not believing.  We are then settling for a mere appetizer.  Mozzarella sticks, table 4!  The appetizer led many who were fed to fall away.  Today people stop following Jesus and His Word when they settle for the nachos and don’t wait for the steak or chicken.

            Notice the grace in our text.  Jesus shared the sorrow of the crowd.  Jesus had compassion on the crowd.  He was deeply moved and was ready to do something miraculous.  The short-term miracle was the food.  The long-term miracle would be the cross.

            Jesus would withdraw to the cross and there no one could follow.  Far from raising John and striking Herod, Jesus gave more information about how He would fulfill all that was written about the Savior.  Jesus would suffer and die and rise from the dead.  Jesus satisfied the hunger and other needs of the crowd but it was just an appetizer for what would follow.  Jesus would pay for Herod’s sin and overcome John’s death.  Jesus multiplying a meal shows the compassion to be shown in even greater measure on the cross.

            We are in the crowd with respect to our problems.  We are also in the crowd in respect to the miracle.  If we hunger for bread more than we hunger for righteousness, and if we fail to see our own sin on the cross, then we are settling for the appetizer.  Lift your head from your plate because there is good news for you. 

            You are forgiven.  Jesus gives comfort in death.  Jesus gives hope in the midst of fatigue.  He is going to bring some good out of what we are living through.  The cross of Jesus is and always will defeat evil.  This is the real meal, which led Jesus from the crowds to the cross.  Through this sustenance, the truth of God’s Word is applied to our lives through the Holy Spirit.  Mind and body are fully satisfied and God’s grace overflows to us.

            Do you have your answer?  Meal or appetizer?  Jesus looked to heaven and said a blessing.  A miracle allowed them to live for a time.  Amazing!  But an appetizer.  Now Jesus looks down from heaven, says a blessing, and brings us into an ongoing miracle of salvation for all time and eternity.  Bon appetit.  Eat up.

                                                                                                                                    Amen.      

July 26, 2020                                                                         Text:  Deuteronomy 7:6-9

Dear Friends in Christ,

            In the fall of 1983 I was a freshman at Illinois State.  I lived in the Manchester dorm.  One night looking for something to do, we decided to go to the Normal Theater, which at the time showed movies that had been out for a while.  The cost was only a buck or two.  The movie that night was one we didn’t know a lot about but took a chance on.  It was Tender Mercies starring Robert Duvall.

            In the movie, the main character Mac Sledge played by Duvall was a former country singer divorced and alone.  He is a defeated man who wakes up in a run-down motel run by a young widow named Rosa Lee.  She has pity on him and lets him work there for his room.  She didn’t see anything good in him, it is purely grace.

            What happens?  Mac begins attending church with Rosa Lee.  He hears the Gospel and is baptized.  Does he feel different after Baptism?  No.  This part Hollywood got right.  Everything didn’t suddenly fall into place.  Life was still challenging.  He makes contact with a daughter, now age 18, he barely knew.  She dies in an automobile accident.  Despite this tragedy and other questions he has, he does not lose his faith.  God surprises Mac with his love and Mac comes to see himself as the object of the tender mercies of the Lord.

            In our text for today, God chose Israel – God has chosen us – not because He saw anything good in us.  He chose us to be His simply by His grace.  We are the objects of God’s unfettered love, his . . .

“TENDER MERCIES IN CHRIST”

            The text opens this way, “You are a people holy to the Lord your God.  The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.  It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples.” (v. 6-7)

            We love numbers, don’t we?  We think if something has the numbers, they must be doing everything right.  The worthy should gain something.  We even do this in the church.  I just ran across some of our attendance numbers from 9 years ago and we had double on average of what we have in the sanctuary today.  Has the church changed the way we have done things?  Have we stopped preaching and teaching the Gospel in its truth and purity?  Has the Pastor while aging, lost his marbles?  No, no, and hopefully no! 

            Remember how Paul worded it, “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise…the weak to shame the strong…the lowly things…the despised things.”  Our lower numbers have actually allowed more worship opportunities in our current environment.  God does not measure success by human methods.  On the contrary, it works this way . . .

            “But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” (v. 8)

            “The Lord loves you.”  What wonderful words.  The Lord loved the Israelites and He loves us.  God’s love is not like human love.  It does not change with the moment.  When God makes a promise He keeps it. 

            God loved his chosen people in spite of their rebellion.  His tender mercies in Christ give us that same love.  We have spurned that love with worshipping idols in our hearts.  We forget God’s love toward us.  We go down a different path than the Lord’s.  We make an exodus from His church and Christian fellowship.

            Bring us home Lord.  We need your tender mercy.  “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.” (v. 9)

            These verses again put before us that there is only one God.  The God who reveals himself to us in the tender mercies of Christ.  The triune God.  He is also the faithful God.  That is what we must hold on to every day of our lives. 

            God’s keeps His covenant.  He forgives our spurning of His love.  He welcomes us back from our Exodus.  He is with us in our not so pleasant moments.  It took a lot of heartache but the Israelites made it to the Promised Land.

            Are you living a heartache?  A marriage challenge?  A child rebelling?  Looking for a future when society is stuck in neutral?  The tender mercy of Christ is here for you.  It helps you in the pain.  It relieves you in the stress.  It helps you focus on the Promised Land in the distance.  You can trust the Lord to keep His promise.  He will take us to be with Him that we may be where His is.  God does not lie.

            Oh, yes . . . the tender mercy of God in Christ.

                                                                                                Amen.,     

July 19, 2020                                                                                 Text:  Romans 8:18-27

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Listen, do you hear it?  Creation is groaning.  Wednesday night between 6:30 – 7 p.m. in the Central Illinois burg of Argenta, creation came with a boom.  Lightning struck somewhere near my dad’s house after we had finished dinner.  It was loud and got us all out of our chairs.  If not a lightning storm, then an earthquake or hurricane or drought or floods.  Listen.  Creation is groaning.

            The groans of humanity continue on – differing thoughts and opinions on most everything.  Add to it the taking over of cities and rioting and unemployment and despair and suicide rates jumping.  The family structure continues to break apart.  Listen.  Humanity is groaning.

            Creation and humanity are frustrated.  They are waiting for their groans to be given meaning.  Who will speak for us?

“CAN THE GROANING BE OVERCOME?”

            God’s Word, like it always does, steps into our world today.  The Spirit speaks words that help to overcome the groaning.  Paul heard the same groans we hear.  He makes an honest assessment of the health of the world and God’s people.  He compares our suffering to the future He has waiting for us.  The Lord determines that the future outweighs the groaning and the suffering.  He even says that this groaning may have a purpose.

            Paul begins the text with a promise of glory.  He gives us a picture of the groaning surrounded by the promise of God’s future glory.  Even when we don’t understand our groans, in them we discover the promise of God.

            Creation has been decaying since a fruit party took an awful turn in a garden.  Creation and man broke that day.  They would be at odds with their Creator.  The ground would be cursed.  The groaning would be loud.  But into the picture steps our Lord.  His word through St. Paul uses the word “hope” six times in our text.  God’s last word is not judgment but hope.  We will have relief from our groaning.  It can be overcome – hope is on the way.

            Paul also makes us aware there is something wrong with humanity.  The Holy Spirit lays the law on our hearts and we groan at the mess we can make of our lives.  We groan when we say something inappropriate.  We groan when we treat someone badly.  We groan when we start to lose hope.

            Where is a place you hear a lot of groaning?  During natural childbirth.  It made one father comment, “Put me under, and I’ll name the child after the anesthesiologist.”  There is pain but also extreme joy when that child is born.  There is the hope, in the child you caress in your arms. 

            Yesterday many of us endured some slight pain – a needle going into our arm – to provide hope for a cancer patient or accident victim or a mother hemorrhaging during childbirth.  The suffering provided the hope.

            Biosphere 2 was a scientific experiment to create a man-made environment on earth that might be re-created to sustain life on Mars.  The scientists created a rain forest, as well as ocean, tropic, and desert environments.  Eventually, they observed that the trees growing in the biosphere began to fall down.  The problem?  In this manufactured environment, there was no wind, and without the stress of wind, the trees did not grow strong roots.

            Our suffering and groaning, the pain we go through, can strengthen our faith and draw us closer to God who we depend on in our weakness, as we wait for the future glory that He has promised us. 

            The suffering provided the hope.  It came through on a hill, where a man was crucified between two thieves.  He suffered pain and groaning.  Even the creation suffered that day as darkness and an earthquake enveloped the world.  A curtain was torn in two and people were frightened.  Where was the hope?  How could the groaning be overcome?

            God would give man a two-day period to think this over.  What had been done to Jesus?  How they had treated Him.  By Sunday morning hearts had to be aching, bodies had to be groaning.  Then hope came out of a tomb.  Hope appeared to other human beings.  Hope walked along the road.  Hope ate with the disciples.  This hope, in the person of Jesus Christ, overcomes our groaning.  This hope is stronger than our pain.  This hope overcomes our bad behavior.  This hope gives us a purpose and a future. 

            Why do I describe our present groaning as “a blip in our lives?”  Am I just trying to be clever, imaginative?  No.  The truth is spoken.  The Word of God is firm.  Our future hope is a forever and ever experience in the land of the living.  What we hear today are only temporary groans.  We look forward to the song of the saints.  The chorus we join around the Lamb of God.  How about a smile?  Our full adoption as sons and daughters of the King awaits.  The groaning is overcome.

                                                                                                                        Amen.        

July 12, 2020                                                                                     Text:  Isaiah 5:10-13

Dear Friends in Christ,

            How would define the word home?  Has your definition changed since March 20, 2020?  You do recall what happened that day, don’t you?  The government asked us all to stay home – shelter in place – quarantine ourselves.  Before these last 16 weeks for most of us the word “home” evoked warm feelings.  “Home” for Christmas.  Coming “home” from college and better food.  A good night’s sleep, dad, mom, and family needling.  Dorothy famously said on the yellow brick road, “There’s no place like home!”

            Do you still see “home” the same way?  Are you tired of working from home?  Have you run out of projects around your home?  Have you felt trapped in your home? 

            The prophet Isaiah is writing this morning about Israelites living in Babylon.  They are exiles far from home.  They can’t leave and the Babylonians have become their new daddy.  They’ve been told to . . .

“SHELTER IN PLACE”

            Israel is stuck in place apart from what they are used to.  There is the detestable statue of the god Marduk.  There are canals and building projects they have no interest in.  The Israelites have no king, no temple, no royal city, no land, no liturgy, no sacrifice, no hope, no future, and no song.  How can they sing God’s songs while in a foreign land?

            So by the rivers of Babylon they sit and weep, reminiscing about the good ol’ days when they worshipped in Solomon’s temple, worked and shopped in the city of David, and saw the Mount of Olives from a distance.  O God, “there’s no place like home!”

            The Israelites are not just away from home; they are away from the Father.  Babylon is an oppressive empire.  They are seeing to it that Israel has no song to the Lord.  They want to stop their singing.  If they can’t do that, then they will pollute them with their ideology and managed slogans.

            Some of us are far away from home even while we shelter in place.  We are far away from the Father.  We have exiled ourselves right here and now.  We’ve left home for seductive lights and deadly lights.  We’ve forgotten our baptism and ended up with empty relationships and inflated egos.  What need have we of the Father . . . and we have no song to sing.

            As we shelter in place we also live with ideology and managed slogans.  Don’t gather in church, but depending on your politics, go ahead and gather by the thousands.  The hypocrisy is rampant.  Please discern what you see happening.

            Into this mess . . . into this exile . . . God speaks, “For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” (v. 12)

            Just when the music died and Israel’s history seemed closed by Babylonian imperial policy the Lord raised up Cyrus in Isaiah chapter 45.  In chapter 53 a Servant was wounded for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities.  And the guarantee for all this?  The power and faithfulness of God’s Word found in our text.  The promises will not return empty.  God said it.  That settles it.  Faith believes it.

            In the little town of Bethlehem this faithful Word took on flesh and blood and had a heart.  He lived in exile from the Father’s home for 33 years.  What did He say, “The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Mt. 8:20)  Eventually the Son was exiled from the Father, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mk. 15:34)  Lips are cracked, mouth is dry, He can barely swallow.  His voice is hardly audible.  This Jesus has not sheltered in place but has been on a mission to bring us all home.  He has been spit upon and bruised and kicked and whipped and talked down to.  He is a cross-bearer and a sin-bearer.  Nothing can quench his thirst.  He has no song to sing, the day the music died.

            On the third day, came forth no mere song, but a joyous symphony.  It would be a celebration.  It would provide you and I with a permanent home.  “In my Father’s house are many rooms…I go to prepare a place for you.” (Jn. 14:2)  “Our citizenship is in heaven.” (Phil. 3:20)

            Shelter in place has not been easy for some.  This is temporary.  Our permanent home, our shelter in place is forever and forever.  Think of the fanciest room you’ve ever stayed in.  Toni and I have been to a place where we had a swimming pool, hot tub, and sauna in our room.  The room is ready.  The price has been paid.  Here are your robe and sandals.  The sacrifice complete, and the Father has rehearsed his lines:  This Son of mine “was dead and is alive again.” (Lk. 15:32)

            Let’s sing with mountain and hills, and with the trees clap our hands.  We join in the hymn of all creation because Jesus’ dying love means we are going home!

                                                                                                                                    Amen.        

July 5, 2020                                                                            Text:  Romans 7:15-25a

Dear Friends in Christ,

            You may remember this story from a few years back.  A young stockbroker worked for a firm that made a lot of shady deals.  He warned them of this.  At the same time he quietly sent out resumes looking for another job.  He soon joined another company at a lower salary and with a lateral move.  When asked why, he responded, “I just got tired of polishing the brass on the Titanic.”  Sure enough, a few years later his old company sank.

            That expression, “I just got tired of polishing the brass on the Titanic,” is a metaphor for any futile effort.  After 20 years as a loyal subscriber I got tired of fighting with our local paper over subscription rates that I finally cancelled.  How about trying to get the doctor to return your calls?  Fighting the political system in Illinois?  Or even battles with family members that get us nowhere that we just give up.  It is futile and it wastes our time and emotions.

            In today’s Epistle lesson, St. Paul describes the futility of trying to achieve a good standing before God.  “I want to do what is right and good but I keep doing that which is evil and sinful.  I am a wretched person and I continue on this treadmill of behavior.  What’s the use of trying to do the right thing?”  We want to know that . . .

“I’M NOT JUST ENGAGED IN FUTILITY”

            Does Paul’s experience parallel your own?  You are counting on your good behavior to get right with God.  It is futile.  It’s like polishing the brass on the Titanic.  Two brothers were wrestling with each other and one pinned the other and panted, “Now, confess!  You’re in bondage to sin, and you cannot free yourself” – proving that the brothers must have been Lutherans. 

            We cannot free ourselves.  We are at war within ourselves.  We see good and evil raging around us in society but it also rages in our hearts and in our minds.  We have all been guilty of some horrible thoughts these last few months.  We’ve made judgments that have been wrong.  We’ve questioned authority.  We’ve whined about things that make no difference to our spiritual life.  You may even pray to stop this behavior and Satan slips right back in through the back of your shirt and your mind continues as a cesspool of bad thoughts.  What we want and what God wants don’t always agree.  This is where the conflict happens.

            What God wants usually comes in 2^nd place.   In this time of upheaval, as Christians we need to stay upon the fray.  We need to count our blessings and lean on our faith.  Instead, we start to look at people differently.  They are no longer children of God but misinformed malcontents.  We need to use the Lord’s words but instead we pop off with our great wisdom.  “What wretched people we are!  Who will rescue us from this body of death?”

            St. Paul had a quick answer.  “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”  He didn’t stop there.  He filled his letters to the church in Rome with all manner of comforting words and uplifting thoughts.  If God can raise Jesus from the dead, He is certainly powerful enough to deliver me from the sin that infects my body and soul.

            In faith, this Jesus lives in me.  In faith, this Jesus lives in you.  This power is stronger than my sin.  This Spirit of God has made us baptized children of the Most High.  He lives in us through our Baptism and every day thereafter.  His presence comes in body and blood each time I am privileged to enter His altar.   He is renewing His presence within us right now as we hear His Word and trust his promise.

            This Spiritual presence helps us overcome our judgment calls.  This Spiritual presence helps us refocus so that we stop whining of what we don’t have to the wonderful blessings He does give us.  We stop the me, me, me chant and look to “love thy neighbor as thyself.”  It isn’t easy.  Paul knew that.  He was more aware than most that our standing before God is a gift, not achievement.

            On the cross Christ gained for us our standing before God.  We enjoy God’s love and favor because of Christ.  Our faith and obedience didn’t cause that.  God’s grace and mercy and love came upon us and made us men and women in which Christ dwells.

            We are not just engaged in futility.  The cross of Christ gives us a purpose.  For some of you do it for your children and grandchildren.  For some of us we glimpse our faith in our children and future grandchildren.  For some of you your behavior now leads to that spouse the Lord has waiting for you and the children he will grant to you.  By the power of God we are forgiven and given this great gift of the Lord in our lives. 

            We can’t help but exclaim it like Paul, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

                        Amen.