Sermon Texts

August 20, 2023       Text:  Matthew 15:21-28

Dear Friends in Christ,

Prayerfully we all have fond memories of the church we grew up in.  I was blessed by Pilgrim Lutheran in Decatur.  One of the features of my home congregation was the wooden kneelers below our pews.  We knelt at prayer time, we knelt after Holy Communion, and we knelt with the lights down low at the end of the service.  Our Pastors had no kneelers.  I can still picture our Senior Pastor, Pastor Beiderweden, known as Pastor B, kneeling on the stone steps that led up to our altar, bringing the microphone from the altar down to that level and leading the congregation in the Prayer of the Church.  Impressive.  Impactful.  God Blessed.

Today in our text we have a woman with a demon-possessed child who comes to the Lord.  She needs help.  She takes a position of mercy on her knees.  What can we learn by observing . . . 

“KNEELING FOR HELP”

Our text begins, “Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.  And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.’” (vs. 21-22)

Tyre, Sidon, and a Canaanite woman all signal that Jesus is in pagan lands, and these places have the connotation of everything dangerous to those of Israel.  Jesus is definitely in foreign territory.  In v. 22, the woman’s call to Jesus as Lord and from the royal line of David borders on worship.  When she names the enemy as demonic possession, she pits Jesus against Satan in a preview of the cross and resurrection.

Look at what happens next . . . “But he did not answer her a word.  And his disciples came and begged him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she is crying out after us.’  He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’  But she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’  And he answered, ‘It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” (vs. 23-26)

You are a little disturbed by this, aren’t you?  Jesus is out of character.  Dare we say mean and uncaring.  The disciples are no better.  They just want to get rid of her.  At this point how many of you would walk away?  Not this lady.  She takes a position that makes a difference, she kneels before Jesus.  Then she says words that make an impression, “Lord, help me.”  

Ever been in this position before your Lord?  Have you ever intoned the words, “Lord, help me.”  When was that?  What caused your knees to hit the ground?  A sick child, a marriage going bad, a financial downfall you saw no way out of, the stress level of your job.  

Jesus’ answer has always been puzzling to us.  Taking children’s bread and throwing it to the dogs.  What does he mean here?  The dogs are house dogs.  Near enough to the table for scraps.  Dogs were lowly and contemptible, and thus the boundary between Jew and Gentile is maintained.  If we were standing there, we would be the dogs.  It’s a begging moment.   Don’t we cry to Jesus, “Do something.  Do anything.  Just don’t leave me in this dark moment.”

The close of our text, “She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’  Then Jesus answered her, ‘O woman, great is your faith!  Be it done for you as you desire.’  And her daughter was healed instantly.” (vs. 27-28)

The Lord is testing her faith.  It brings about kneeling for help.  This test shows an unshakeable faith.  It is not “You have good faith.”  It’s “Great is your faith.”  She is an example for the disciples who had the privilege to travel with Jesus but often missed the point.  She becomes an example to us who travel with Jesus in His Word – but often miss the point.

William Thomas Kelvin, known as Lord Kelvin – the man who devised the absolute temperature scale – made this observation:  “When you are face to face with a difficulty, you are up against a discovery.”  A good point to reflect on, don’t you think?

It is true that the Lord does allow bad things to enter our lives.  He uses them to test, to chasten, to remind us of what this world is and to prepare us for eternal life.  Christ said, “My kingdom is not of this world.”  If His kingdom is not of this world, then neither is yours nor mine nor anyone else who holds on to Christ.

The Christ whose blood covers our sin – the Christ who overcame death and hell for us – does not set out to torment us in life.  In these moments His Word draws us to real life – forgiveness and heaven.  Jesus isn’t loving us less when we struggle and suffer.  He always loves us.  The struggles and sufferings are the things He uses to give shape and substance to our faith and prepare us for eternity.

Kneeling for help.  We will take the position for Holy Communion.  We humbly ask for His blessings, though we do not deserve them.  A wafer in the mouth, wine touching the tongue, Jesus’ body and blood present.  These are not leftover scraps.  It is forgiveness unto life everlasting.  What a blessing.  For the Canaanite woman and her daughter and for us . . . when kneeling for help.

Amen.   

August 13, 2023     Text:  Job 38:4-18

Dear Friends in Christ,

One of our great weaknesses is our understanding of God.  When we misunderstand Him, we also confuse His Word.  As an example, the Christmas story.  We have heard it our whole life and figure we pretty much know everything.  Do you now?  How many wise men?  Wrong.  The Bible doesn’t say.  We assume three because they brought three gifts.  Where did the wise men greet Jesus and family?  Not in a manger.  In a house.  The shepherds went to the manger.  Which gospel writers wrote of this penultimate event in the life of the world?  Nope, incorrect.  Only Matthew and Luke were scribes of the Christmas story.  Go home today and read Matthew 1 and 2 and Luke chapter 2 and see if you don’t go, “Huh?”

Today God is going to talk directly to Job, and he still is not going to comprehend.  We are in the same place before God as we lack a clear understanding.  God talks to Job and to you and I and is asking . . .

“WHO ARE YOU?”

Years ago, Woody Allen made a movie called “Sleeper.”  In the movie he wakes up in the future saying, “Where are my friends?  They’re dead.  How could they be?  They ate organic rice.”  You know how it is.  Just when you think you can avoid all of life’s negatives, you can’t.  Even if you eat organic rice.  Or, as someone once noted, “Living is like licking honey off a thorn.”  We have the goodies of life and the pain.

Job went through life’s negatives.  Talk about licking honey off a thorn.  Job did have it all:  wealth, health, family, and most important, a strong faith.  Then the evil one took it all away.  His flocks were stolen, his children died in a freak storm, his body became covered in sores.  Job’s wife’s answer was to curse God for his suffering.  His friends came by not to console him, but they wanted him to admit God was punishing him for some hidden sin.

For a while, Job kept the strong faith, but then he began to waver.  He begins to challenge God.  Right before our text God says in verse 2 about Job, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge.”  Job is speaking about things he knows nothing about.  God is basically saying to Job, “Who are you, why are you telling me about my creation?”  Job had no understanding of what God had created.  The vast dimensions.  The intimate details for the seas.  Job thought he understood good and evil, but the poor guy was in the dark.

Job’s sin was that he was confusing his relationship with God.  He was basing his relationship with God on his own knowledge about who God is and what He has done.  Job was placing his intellect over his trust and faith in God.

You say, “Sometimes I feel like Job?”  Now, when was that?  We live more on our knowledge than our faith.  We place our trust in what we know or think rather than on the One who is the source of our knowledge.  We are skewed because we think of ourselves as better than we are.  As science discovers more about creation, we miss the questions that still come up.  I still love Isaiah’s words, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.”  Knowledge is important.  The reason we go to Sunday School and Bible study and listen to the sermon.  We expand our knowledge of God and creation.  But our knowledge is far from complete and even at times faulty, like with our Christmas quiz.

God speaks to you and I:  “Who are you?”  Our Lord can be a little sarcastic, I love that, don’t you?  “You think you got it all figured out.  You think you can trust in your knowledge and be like me.  Who are you?”

Why, we are forgiven sinners, of faith no stronger than Job but forgiven no less than every other sinner.  This forgiveness does not come from our knowledge of God, but as a gift from the creator of the world.  He even commands the winds and the waves as we heard in our Gospel for today.

We cannot fully understand God’s plan to save mankind, which would lead God’s own Son to die on a cross.  We cannot comprehend how this Son of God, Jesus, would rise from the dead, conquering sin, death, and the evil one once for all time.  We cannot reason in our minds that water poured over a child “included in God’s command and combined with God’s Word” would create faith in the promises of our Savior, Jesus.

What God has done goes against all logical explanation, yet this is most certainly true!  We believe the promise that because Jesus’ death on the cross, our sins are forgiven.  We trust that because of Jesus’ resurrection, we have the promise of life forever with Him.  We simply have faith that in our Baptism, we are His.

We believe that if God asked, “Who are you?” we could honestly answer, “We are sinners, forgiven and set free by Jesus’ death on the cross.”  Trust in Him and lean not on your own understanding.

Amen.        

August 6, 2023               Text:  Romans 9:1-5

Dear Friends in Christ,

In our society we celebrate upward mobility.  Something we call the “American Way”.  You can be a success even coming from modest means.  But there are also stories of downward mobility.  The rich kid given everything who wastes it all.  In the days of the Depression, former millionaires were selling apples off the street or jumping off of buildings to end it all.  

Today’s Epistle is a downward mobility story.  St. Paul is grieving over his own people, Israel.  Look at everything they had been given.  Adoption as sons, heirs of the covenants, the glory of the Lord, worship life in the temple in Jerusalem, the heritage of the patriarchs, and then the promise given to them came in the flesh, Christ Jesus, the Lord and Savior.

How many advantages could one nation have?  But Paul as a member of this family is hurting because his kinsmen are rejecting their Messiah.  Some of you know this hurt.  Family members turning their back on their Lord and their faith.  Given many of the same advantages as the Israelites they wander off in the wrong direction.  Let’s get some encouragement here today . . . 

“DOWNWARD MOBILITY HELP”

It has been a trend for a while now to trace your ancestry.  A detailed genetic analysis of your connection to the past.  What part of your background is German, or Norwegian, or Spanish, or Indian?  Anybody ever find out a part of you is an Israelite?  The Israelites of Paul’s day took pride in being blood descendants of Abraham.  Abraham though had two sons – Ishmael and Isaac.  Only one was an Israelite.  Isaac had twin sons – Jacob and Esau – but only one was the forerunner of Jesus and the son of the promise.

In God’s eyes, a true Israelite, a true child of Abraham, is not one by natural birth but by faith in the promise of Christ.  You can’t prove that with a genetic test.  You can only trust your Baptism, which tells you who your spiritual Daddy is.

This is why Paul was grieved for his people.  They had broken God’s covenant, torn down His altars, and murdered his prophets.  Jesus wasn’t even welcome among his own relatives or in his hometown.  They had thrown away all of their advantages.

Being human we should expect more downward mobility than upward.  Sinners will throw away their blessings more than they will treasure them.  Christians can be tempted by a theology of glory.  This preaching tells you that Christ is a winner, and you can be a winner too.  Accept Jesus they say, and you can overcome all your bad habits, have a great romantic marriage, and have children who are respectful and won’t dye their hair or pierce something you don’t think should be pierced.  Winning with Jesus gets you promoted at work and your softball team never loses.  This win with Jesus religion is always a letdown.  You struggle with bills and have to work at your marriage and your kids might be a little strange or leave the faith of their youth.  How can I accept Christ and still be a loser?  

Then a well-meaning friend steps in and tells you, “You just need more faith!”  Right.  So, you dig down deep inside yourself and try to whomp up some more faith – and it just won’t whomp.

In our Gospel today, the crowds are experiencing a little downward mobility, a food shortage.  It wasn’t the faith of the people that changed the outcome, it was the Savior of all mankind.  Faith doesn’t save.  Jesus saves.  The crowd experienced upward mobility as they were fed in abundance.

Ours is the Gospel of salvation in Christ, for on the cross, He earned it for us.  Ours is the washing of Holy Baptism, where we were buried into that death of Christ, all our sins were washed away, and we were brought to faith in Him.  Ours is the Holy Communion, where Christ comes to live within us.  In Baptism we are made one with Christ.  In the Lord’s Supper Christ becomes one with us.  Ours is the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

All of this is our downward mobility help.  Paul was distressed and literally wanted to die for his people.  Noble, but not practical.  What he could do was to share God’s Word with them.  He could encourage them.  He could pray for them.  He could leave it in God’s hands.  Be reminded again – Jesus saves.  Those in a downward mobility spiral have to be lifted up by Him.  Live the faith.  Partake of the Sacraments.  Strengthen your walk with Jesus.  Where does my help come from?  It comes from the Lord.

Amen.    

July 30, 2023         Text:  Matthew 13:44-52

Dear Friends in Christ,

Ladies and Gentlemen step right up.  You have come to the right place this morning. (Not that sitting in the Lord’s sanctuary is ever the wrong place to be.)  You are going to get from Jesus three parables for the price of one.  As we get tired of looking at higher grocery prices the Lord has a three for one deal that you cannot pass up.  These parables taught the disciples.  These parables are going to teach us.  We need the guidance, don’t we?

“BASIC TRAINING WITH PARABLES”

What treasure might you find in your home?  When Toni and I first got married I told her if this ministry thing didn’t work out, I had a box full of baseball cards that would be worth something someday.  We might have enough for a week of living expenses!

The first treasure is hidden in a field.  This parable has a Christological interpretation.  The field is the world, the treasure is us (the hearer), and the man is Christ.  Christ gives up the glory of heaven to win salvation for you.  This is the first teaching moment.

The second parable is a little different.  The man goes in search of pearls.  He knows a good pearl when he sees one.  When he finds the best one, he sells all he has to buy it.  We too have a treasure.  That treasure is the gift of Jesus Christ.

Looking at my baseball cards as a treasure, what I have done with them over the years?  Mostly they sit in a box on a bookcase.  Occasionally, I will get them out to relive childhood or scratch the itch of curiosity.  Is there something better I could be doing with them?  I could put them in a nice photo album to keep them in a more pristine condition.  They would then be more valuable when sold.  Maybe I don’t understand the treasure.

This is what happens with the pearl of faith you and I have received.  God sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts so that we might receive this treasure.  Isn’t it a treasure to know that God sent his Son to take on human form and to carry our pain and sorrow – even die on a cross – so that Paradise might be restored.  This the second rung in our basic training.

Our third parable is like the parable of the weeds which was our sermon last Sunday.  Remember the commission the Lord gave to the disciples to be “fishers of men?”  Here the fishermen haul in both good and bad fish.  Because of the bad fish we know the devil is still at work.  The disciples as fishermen have no authority to execute judgment before the net is hauled in.  The nets of God gather good and bad alike for the eternal sorting that is to come.  The bad fish are not dead; they were caught alive, but are worthless for eating like the fruit from the bad tree.  The bad fish are discarded into the fiery furnace as a continuation of the illustration of the weeds.  The basic training concludes with this parable, or does it?

Now Jesus wants to know if these 12 men have understood what He is talking about.  As is their nature, they all answer, “Yes.”  How about you?  Do you understand?  You know the story of Jesus and what He has done for you.  You come to the cross weekly to thank Him for the gift of forgiveness.  

Has the treasure cost you?  Would you give up your prized possessions to keep this treasure?  Do you have the answers you need in life or are you still searching for the pearl?  Our pearls we go in search of are:  science for cures; philosophy for purpose, psychology for understanding.  They are fine pearls, but they are not the pearl.  They look nice, but they do not answer the deeper problems of life.  The Holy Spirit leads us to the pearl of great value.  We realize that only this pearl has the answers to life’s questions.

It is easy to say yes to the confession of sins when we read it from the hymnal or bulletin.  We answer yes to “do you intend to amend your sinful life?” but then we fail to keep our promise after the benediction.  We have given the right answer, but do we answer in faith?  We do if our answer of yes in wrought in faith through the conviction of God’s Holy Spirit.  Jesus knows our minds and builds our answers.  God works in us to give us new insights and a new conviction of our faith.  God can produce new commitments and a new way of life.  Jesus can bring new life to our bungled past.

Well, how has basic training gone?  Hasn’t it been a blessing to be taught by the Master?  What an enormous treasure we have in Jesus Christ.  This true pearl answers all of our questions in this life.  We joyfully receive the great treasure of forgiveness and eternal life.

Amen.      

July 23, 2023         Text:  Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Dear Friends in Christ,

During June when we got very little rain our grass did not grow.  But did you notice what else didn’t grow?  The weeds.  Very little yard work was needed.  No spraying, no pulling.  The weeds were dormant.  Once the rains came and the grass started coming, here came the weeds.  After finishing mowing, the next minutes were spent pulling weeds.  You too?

That is the point of our parable in Matthew’s gospel.  Along with the good seed of wheat there have to be weeds.  Sometimes that is hard for us to take.  Why does it have to be that way?  Let’s let Jesus explain.  

“PATIENCE . . . HIS HARVEST IS COMING”

The weeds are growing.  Love of possessions, godless ideologies, false beliefs, misguided thoughts on marriage, the church, the family.  More and more weeds keep popping up.  Are they going to overtake everything?

Even more dangerous weeds are the false theologies of the church.  Alternate ways to heaven, clergy that aren’t clergy, the prosperity gospel, keeping the law.  These all turn people away from Christ and His work.  Many of us have been to other churches, with Christian in their name and they barely mention Christ.  How can that be?  Weeds!

How do we deal with the weeds?  Some of us want to be weed-whackers.  We figure it is up to us to give these charlatans a good spray of Roundup.  It is true we do not want to aid or even passively accept what we see in society or the church.  We are encouraged to speak the truth.  We are expected to witness for Christ and His Word.  We are to take a stand on the Lutheran Confessions as we have been catechized.

Jesus though gives us a warning.  Don’t become an out of control weed-whacker.  It is not up to us.  The master of the house tells the servant to let the weeds and the wheat grow together until the harvest.  Because of the intertwining roots, if we start pulling up the weeds, we will also pull up the wheat.  Now is not the time to act, but to wait, to be patient, to suffer the difficulties with hope until the harvest arrives.  The Greek compound verb “grow together” is found only in this verse of the Bible.  It serves to underline again how intermeshed the weeds and wheat have become during their growth, as a result of the enemy’s clever strategy.  Yet, we know that the strategy will fail.

With this assurance, we who live and work and serve in the Lord’s Kingdom can continue to be confident of what we do.  In spite of the fiercest opponents, the naysayers, the lying teachers and those taking the wrong path, we know that the Lord’s harvest will come according to His will and Word.  Patience, my child.

Ok, Pastor, but “what about all the damage and loss the church is undergoing as these weeds grow?”  It is reasonable to feel anxious at times, but again look to the parable and what the Lord says.  God will do the judging.  “The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace.  In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (v. 41-42)

He knows all and sees all and He will do the weeding.  After all, He is the one who from eternity devised the plan, the only plan, that could save any of us.  We all deserved to be uprooted and thrown into the fire.  Our weed like behavior can infest others.  But God sent his Son to take our fiery torment, to suffer the pains of hell for us at the Calvary.  Because Jesus has paid for the sin of everyone, God will allow no one to be uprooted until the last stalk of wheat has been brought to saving faith. 

Our impatience can get the best of us.  You might think that Satan and the weeds are choking the harvest.  You want action, but see you aren’t God.  This is part of our spiritual test.  How patient can you be?  The day of redemption is coming.  God will not, I repeat will not tolerate evil indefinitely.  It is up to Him to bring in the harvest and separate the weeds from the wheat.  The reformers suffered evil and falsehood in the Church even more than us.  They in fact refer to this parable in the Augsburg Confession.  They knew as we need to acknowledge that there are hypocrites and wolfs in sheep clothing who mix with true believers in the Lord’s Church here on earth.  God will judge them for who they are.  It is not your job or your place.

We have to fight the urge to pull all the weeds.  When working in our yards, do we ever get all of them?  Never.  It is the same with the weeds in our world.  The devil is evil.  People buy into the lies.  Mankind has always had opposition to Christ.  Have confidence, Christian men and women.  The Lord teaches us to wait patiently . . . knowing that His harvest is coming.

Amen.     

July 16, 2023 Text:  Isaiah 55:10-13

Dear Friends in Christ,

This little gem of a news story is over 35 years old.  “Senator William Proxmire of Wisconsin reported to the Senate that the Department of Transportation had squandered $225,000 (a pittance by today’s dollars) on a study forecasting the transportation needs in 2025.  Proxmire pointed out this study took the entire federal tax payments of more than 120 of his Wisconsin constituents.  And for what?  To produce findings like these:  1). If there is a new Ice Age, a lot of people will have to move to the South or Southwest; 2). If people start having a lot of kids again, there will be increased demand for transportation services for them.  (What an Einstein to figure that out).

Human wisdom?  Things have only gotten worse since then.  When you think of human reasoning is it any wonder how mixed-up critics who twist and distort historical fact to demean the Word of God are?

Aren’t we glad for the strength and clarity of God’s Word?

“NOW A WORD FROM THE WORD”

Communication is always a problem.  Do you think there are more problems with the way we say things or the way we hear them?  Listening to me is the bigger problem.  We don’t concentrate enough to be interested.  We tune out.  I’ve talked with many politicians in my day and many of them, not all, have this way of conversing with you, but I always feel their mind is elsewhere when you talk to them.  God’s Word is clear.  His words are always right.  It is our Creator speaking to us:

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water to the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (v. 10-11)

Scripture takes us to the very Word Himself – Jesus.  “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” (Jn. 1:1 & 14). The Word bled and died for all human sin – rose from the grave – secured our Heaven.  In the Word, God communicates His love and mercy to us.

Haven’t we seen the power of rain in the last few weeks?  I was out in the country the other night and there were tassels on the corn!  Those stalks just took off with the recent rain.  That is what God’s Word does.  It causes growth.  When we are in the Word our Christian faith can take off, we sprout, we grow.  

The Word can also convict us of sin.  It keeps us in check, so we don’t become self-righteous.  Michael Green tells a story that illustrates the convicting power of the Word:

“In a frontier settlement in the west the people were engaged in the lumber business.  The town wanted a church, so they built one and called a minister.  The preacher was well received until one day he saw some of his parishioners out at the river pulling in some logs from another village upstream.  Each log was marked with the owner’s stamp on one end.  To his distress, the Pastor saw his member sawing off the end where the telltale stamp appeared.

“The next Sunday, he prepared a forceful sermon on the text, ‘Thou shalt not steal.’  At the close of the service, the people lined up and thanked him for a wonderful message.  However, that next week he continued to see his parishioners stealing the logs.  He was bothered.  So, he went home and worked on a sermon for the following Sunday.  The topic was ‘Thou shalt not cut off the end of thy neighbor’s logs.’  When he got through, the church membership ran him out of town.”

The Word either convicts to repentance or to eternal damnation.  People today still walk away when the Word is properly applied.  The Word is not just there to make us feel bad.  Its purpose is to confront us with our weaknesses and bad decisions.  It jolts us from our spiritual lethargy and points us to Jesus as the One who has paid the price for our wrongs.  We need this each and every day.

The Word is full of hope and promises.  You know the spiritually uplifting words, “it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose.”  What is God’s purpose for us?  “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions…and remembers your sins no more.”  (Is. 43:25).  Or listen to this:  “For I am the Lord your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, do not fear, I will help you.” (Is. 41:13)

“The Cynics Guide to Life” did a spoof on familiar cliches concerning life.  “I believe for every drop of rain that falls, a flower grows…and a foundation leaks and a ball game get rained out.”  “Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead.  Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow…Do not walk beside me, either, just leave me alone”

They express how we feel at times and the “just leave me alone” most of all.  But listen, the Word of God has a wonderful way of lifting the heart from the pit of upset, despair, and uncertainty.  It directs us to Christ, and He draws us to the love of God; to comfort and guide now and to give joy someday when we have eternal life.  

It is always uplifting to have A WORD FROM THE WORD.

Amen.