Sermon Texts

May 28, 2023 – Pentecost Text:  John 16:5-11

Dear Friends in Christ,

We all know what it is like to speak with a counselor.  Oh, maybe you’ve never gone to see your Pastor or a counselor in an office, but you have been counseled by a parent, a teacher, a coach, a trusted friend.  I have the privilege to do a lot of counseling.  One of the keys is to be a good listener but then to speak words of guidance and wisdom.  Now, sometimes the counselee doesn’t want to hear what they need to do.  That shouldn’t stop the counselor.  The truth needs to be spoken.

This is what the Holy Spirit does.  He speaks the truth that needs to be spoken – both to the believer and to the unbeliever.  This is what Jesus is describing in our text, how the Holy Spirit will speak.

“COUNSELING WITH CONVICTION”

The text says, “When he (the Holy Spirit) comes he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgement.” (v. 8). He will counsel the world with conviction.  If a person is “convicted” of wrongdoing, do they believe they have done wrong or not?  That depends on the sense of the word.  To be “convicted” of something may mean exactly that they do believe, and powerfully.  Many people, we say, have “strong convictions.”  But many criminals are also “convicted,” found guilty of crimes they never admit, crimes they refuse to take responsibility for.  Their “conviction” is not their own solid belief, but rather the solid belief of the jury.  The Holy Spirit will convict the world.  He may give us strong convictions, but He certainly declares us guilty of sin.

Jesus had to go away for the Counselor, the Holy Spirit to come.  We just celebrated that a week ago Thursday on Ascension Day.  Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father where he rules.  Counselor can also be translated here as “Helper.”  In the time of Jesus, it was a legal term that referred to any person who helped someone in trouble with the law.  The Holy Spirit will always stand by Christ’s people. 

The Counselor convicts us in regard to  sin and judgment.  That is the Law.  He wants us to see that we can be pretty awful people at times.  You know the feeling down in the pit of your stomach when you have messed up.  We are the prisoner that stands there hearing the guilty verdict.  Are we off to prison?  Will we be locked up forever?

No.  Because our Counselor stands with us.  He convicts us in regard to righteousness.  What is righteousness?  It is what we enjoy because of Christ’s sacrificial death.  We are saved from prison.  We are not locked up forever.  We have freedom because of the cross.  We have free will because of the empty tomb.  We have a forever home in heaven where Christ has ascended to.  The prince of the world now stands condemned – we are free! 

No one but the Holy Spirit can reveal to a person that a righteous status before God does not depend on good works but on Christ’s death on the cross.  Our Counselor speaks words of guidance, and truth, and wisdom.  He is a helper and a comforter. 

Counselors use words.  The Counselor uses the Word.  On Pentecost Sunday, the Church is empowered to use the Word.  We are to go into all the world.  Through water and the Word we all have been made “counselors” for the Lord Jesus.  Every time that we speak faithfully God’s Word we are counseling.  Every time we share God’s Word with a hurting person we are counseling.  Even if are words are done in a halting manner, the Holy Spirit can still use for His purpose.  We can counsel with comfort and with conviction.  People need to hear the truth not only of their sin but of the saving work of Christ in their lives.  

This Helper, this Holy Spirit, this Counselor is such a blessing to us.  He is counseling through us.  The Counselor comes to you. 

Amen.  

May 14, 2023               Text:  Acts 17:16-31

Dear Friends in Christ,

With the advent of online banking, bill paying, and credit card payments a problem arises people get their identity stolen.  And to think in college we got our grades by our social security number.  It was hanging in Schroeder and Stevenson Hall for all to see.  A few years back I knew someone who did have their identity stolen.  It was a mess.  Bank accounts opened, purchases made, and phone call after phone call trying to get things back to normal.  It took them well over a year to finally have their identity back.

What is your identity?  Is who you are a self-construction, or are you instead a creation of someone else, namely God?  The people in Athens have a problem with who they are.  They are not the product of the one, true God, but the product of many gods.  Paul, not shy about confrontation, addresses them in our text.  We are reminded that we have . . .

“OUR IDENTITY IN JESUS CHRIST”

Athens was a city of many idol statues and temples.  The most prominent was Athena, patron goddess of the city.  Whose temple was the Parthenon.  Because of Paul’s location in the Areopagus, when he spoke to the Athenians, he could see the Parthenon.  He spoke to two philosophies – Epicureanism and Stoicism.

The Epicureans were seeking a pleasurable life, but not in a sensual way.  The Stoics stressed the natural order of nature, and they urged people to accept their fate within it.  We don’t talk much today about being Epicurean, but we still call people stoic – without emotion.

These people were so confused about who they worshipped that Paul found “an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown God.” (v. 23).  Because they had so many gods, they didn’t want to miss one.  They built “temples made by man” so that their gods had a place to live.  Isn’t that nice?  Their identity was all confused.

I chuckle at people who say the Bible is outdated or doesn’t address the problems of today.  They miss what is right in front of them.  Man and woman have no idea who they are today.  They become a symbol or a letter in a jumble of letters.  Why are people killing themselves or others at an alarming rate?  Because they have no idea who they are.  They don’t fit in.  Isn’t it amazing that the people who don’t believe in God, are the ones telling everyone else what to do?  These were the people in Athens. 

Paul had a gift.  When he addressed the men of Athens, he called them “religious.”  He uses the term in a neutral manner, neither insulting nor condoning.  By doing it this way, these men were more likely to listen to what he had to say.  Here is what he says, “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.  And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him.  Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being.’” (vs. 24-28a)

There is our identity.  We are God’s creation.  He gave us life and breath.  He determined we will live on earth at this time in her history.  We live and move and have our being in God.  We know God because he became human, flesh and blood.  Jesus was precious but his sacrifice was needed on the cross so that we didn’t just identify with our sin.  We have our identity in Baptism, “God’s own child, I gladly say it.”  We have our identity in being living saints awaiting our glorious transport to heaven.  Christ says these words in our Gospel, “Because I live, you also will live.” (Jn. 14:19)

Paul ends with these words so appropriate for the world’s folly, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (vs. 30-31)

How do you take those words?  Scared?  Happy? Content?  For the identity of the believer, they are the assurance of what we have in Christ.  As repentant believers, we need not fear judgment.  We know who we are.  This is another reminder to you hanging on the ledge of your house, that God knows what He is doing.  Trust him.  Believe his words.  We live in “times of ignorance” that you might feel God is overlooking.  But he has patience.  He has a plan.  He wants every man and man come to a knowledge of the truth in Christ Jesus.  That is where our identity comes in.  This is the purpose we have.  We share the message like Paul.  Maybe we can’t get an audience like the leaders of Athens, but don’t we know someone worshipping “an unknown god” who is misguided?  

If you read the verses just past the text, you will see some mocked Paul, but some believed.  Your witness can make a difference.  When you know who you are in Christ, people see that.  Christian believer.  That is an identity that cannot be stolen from you.

Amen.      

May 7, 2023               Text:  John 14:1-14

Dear Friends in Christ,

While I still like my Rand McNally Atlas when traveling I have gotten used to the directions that are pulled up on Toni’s phone.  But the system is not foolproof.  Last year when we were searching for our house in Savannah, Georgia, the directions took us over the large bridge there and into an area with just a hotel, golf course, and Department of Transportation.  No house.  We recalibrated and found our destination.  When we, or mostly I, want to go a different route than the one prescribed you get that annoying, “make a U-turn in 100 feet.”

Like the directions on the phone can send us the wrong way, so many people in our world are headed the wrong way in seeking God.  There is only one right way and Jesus clearly spells it out in our text, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.” (v. 6)

In today’s Gospel Jesus makes statements like that that are very bold.  For starters, He thinks He is the Son of his Father, the Son of God.  Jesus backs up this claim throughout the book of John.  All that the Father is and does is equally embodied and personified in the Son.

“LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON”

Too often we take for granted the way Jesus lets the words “my Father” slip so naturally from his lips as in “my Father’s house” (v. 2) and “known my Father.” (v. 7). These words were shocking and brazen.  As Leon Morris comments:  “The expression ‘My Father’ is noteworthy.  It was not the way Jews usually referred to God.  Usually they spoke of ‘our Father,’ and while they might use ‘My Father’ in prayer they would qualify it with ‘in heaven’ or some other expression to remove the suggestion of familiarity.  Jesus did no such thing, here or elsewhere.  He habitually thought of God as in the closest relationship to Himself.  The expression implies a claim which the Jews did not miss.”  Like Father, Like Son.

Jesus speaks the very words of God.  They are the “words of eternal life.” (John 6:63). They are spoken by the one who is “the truth.” (v. 6). 

Jesus does the very works of God.  Jesus has the power to bestow life as we see in His miracles of raising the dead.  Jesus is Creator.  “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:1-3). Jesus is the world’s Judge.  John 5:22 says, “The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son.”  Jesus is Savior.  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son. That whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:16-17)  Like Father, Like Son.

Jesus reveals the very character of God.  Jesus is truth and faithfulness together.  True to his word, Jesus faithfully carried out the mission he was sent to do by his Father.  His mission was to save you and I from our damning sin.  His mission was to save us from hell.  His mission was to save us from the devil.  His mission took Him to a cross and to a tomb that was found empty.  And true to his word, this same Jesus will “come again and take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (v. 3). We will be with Him in His Father’s house.  Like Father, Like Son.

Jesus works and words confront every human with the question “Who is this man?”  When we have grasped the “who”, the “what he came to do” falls in place.  The Gospel today shows that Jesus is God incarnate.  To know Jesus is to know God.  To see Jesus is to see God.  No one short of God could do the things he said and do the things he did.  When Jesus made statements like “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), he was identifying himself not just with the Father’s works and ways but with his very being.  Like Father, Like Son.

C.S. Lewis the former agnostic from Cambridge turned Christian wrote:  “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about (Jesus):  ‘I’m ready to (believe) Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.’  That is the one thing we must not say.  A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.  He would either be a lunatic – on level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell.  You must make your choice.  Either this man was, and is, the Son of God:  or else a madman or something worse.”

Because he is who he is and did what he did, he will also make good on his promise to do what he said.  It is a promise we hold dear:  “In my Father’s house are many rooms.  If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (John 14:2-3)

Like Father, Like Son . . . for us.

Amen.  

April 30, 2023         Text:  Psalm 23

Dear Friends in Christ,

One of the most famous one-hit wonder songs of the 1970’s was “Seasons In The Sun.”  Sung by Terry Jacks its words were about a man who was dying.  Here is one verse, “Goodbye, papa, please pray for me, I was the black sheep of the family, You tried to teach me right from wrong, Too much wine and too much song, Wonder how I got along.”

The black sheep of the family?  What does that mean?  We define it as someone different from the rest, a family member who doesn’t fit in.  In the song the young man has some “prodigal son” in him and that makes him the “black sheep of the family.”

A black sheep has a recessive gene that makes their wool black.  Their wool is less valuable because the wool cannot be dyed.  Many languages of our world have some form of “black sheep” in their vernacular.

Do we have any amongst us today who were the “black sheep of the family?”  Or were all of you the nice, white sheep that always followed the voice of your dad and mom?  I am going this way in the sermon today – we are all black sheep.  Before throwing your hymnal my way, listen up and let’s see if this is not true.  We are going to find out together why . . .

 “BLACK SHEEP NEED A GOOD SHEPHERD”

Let’s start with a series of questions to get to the answer.  Do you ever wander from the flock?  Do you ever listen to voices that are not the best for you?  Ever push your way past someone else to get to the front of the pen or the buffet line?  Are you ever told what to do in God’s Word and you do the opposite?  If you still consider yourself a white sheep, one more question?  Does your pristine exterior ever get dirty because your interior is so rotten – in thoughts, in actions, in gestures?  Hello, black sheep!

OK, now that we are all in the pen together this morning, we are going to need an intervention.  We need a helper, a leader . . . a Good Shepherd.  King David has just what we need in the beginning of Psalm 23.  “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  He makes me lie down in green pastures.  He leads me beside still waters.  He restores my soul.  He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” (v. 1-3). 

Notice in this psalm that all the important actions happen by the Shepherd’s work, not yours.  He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads; He restores; He leads.  

As we heard in our Gospel for today, He leads us by His voice.  The Good Shepherd rose from the dead to lead you.  One positive of sheep is they have impeccable hearing.  You can merge them together quite easily.  We are to listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd.  

He first taught you to recognize His voice at your Baptism; through the Word and the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, He continues to teach you and lead you through this sinful world with His voice.  We are sent the Holy Spirit to help distinguish His voice and the black sheep voices we sometimes follow in this world.  He calls you and I – the black sheep of His family to repentance, to the anointing of your head with the oil of Holy Baptism, to feed on the lush pastures of His Word and at the Table of His life-giving flesh and blood spread before you.

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (v. 4-6)

There are times you might feel abandoned.  Why would a caring shepherd lead me through the valley of the shadow of death?  Why does the death of loved ones cast a shadow over us?  Does your own death loom like a dark cloud?  Has the Good Shepherd left us black sheep because of our sin and failure?  No, He is not punishing us.  No, He has not failed to care for you.  He comforts us.  Jesus is with us in death.  He went through it first for you to open the way to life.  He is with you when you mourn.  He wept at Lazarus’ tomb.  Jesus is your Good Shepherd who gives you goodness and mercy.  He leads you to His house today and He will keep you in that house until you make the crossover to eternal dwellings.

As the Good Shepherd does His work in our lives, a transformation takes place.  That black wool gets whiter and whiter.  Washed in the blood of our Savior we enter His eternal House as white and as bright as we can be.  Feeling good, shining.  What a glorious day that will be to stand before the Good Shepherd.  

Can you see now why the black sheep need the Good Shepherd?

Amen.      

April 23, 2023             Text:  Luke 24:13-35

Dear Friends in Christ,

In 1799 the armies of Napoleon appeared on the heights above the town of Feldkirch, Austria.  It was Easter, and the rays of the rising sun glittered on the weapons of the French, as they appeared drawn up on the hills to the west of the town.  The Town Council was hastily called together to consult what was to be done.

After much discussion, the dean of the Church rose and said, “My brothers it is Easter Day!  We have been reckoning our own strength, and that fails.  Let us turn to God.  Ring the bells and have service as usual, and leave the matter in God’s hands.”

They agreed to do as he said.  Then from the church towers in Feldkirch there rang out joyous peals in honor of the Resurrection and the streets filled with worshippers hastening to worship.  The French heard the sudden ringing of the joy bells with surprise and alarm.  They concluded that the Austrian army had arrived to relieve the place.  So they hastily fled, and before the bells had ceased ringing not a Frenchman was to be seen.

Today the bells of Easter still ring with joy.  They rang for the two men on the way to Emmaus.  The living Lord rekindled their faith so that their hearts burned within them.  Do you still have the ringing of the Easter joy in your soul?  Let’s take a walk and find out . . .

“ARE YOUR HEARTS STILL BURNING?”

We join the two men on the road.  They are experiencing life without Christ and wondering what has happened.  There is no burning fire of faith or hope left in their hearts.

Without the living Christ the heart is cold.  We see this every day in our world.  The cold heart expresses itself in the coarsest language, the crudest behavior, the cruelest actions.  The cold heart seeks a warmth by embracing more and more things that are contrary to God’s Word.

We can have a cold heart as well.  If we don’t suffer that way, then we may experience a sad heart – a heart weighed down with sorrow or suffering or sin.  Do you have a troubled heart?  You are perplexed by the problems of this life and let it affect your mind and attitude.  How about a weak heart?  Struggling with the trials and temptations thrown your way.  Is your heart doubting?  Wondering if God is really walking with you and working for your good.  Or maybe you suffer a lukewarm heart.  You question the Bible.  Societal change creeps into your brain.  You need a good fire of faith to lift you up.

The living Christ comes to open our minds, warm our hearts, and give us a living hope.  Jesus joins the walkers and explains the Scriptures.  He meets these sad, troubled, weak, doubting and lukewarm hearts with hope.  “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” (v. 27)

The words of Jesus rekindle faith.  The hearts of these men are set of fire, they are burning with joy.  Is the same joy you have?  As Christ walks with you do you feel His presence?  He is the promised Messiah and the Risen Savior.  Faith, and hope and joy abound for these men and for us.  “Please stay Lord, we want to hear more.”  They run to tell the disciples.  There in Jerusalem Jesus appears again to the believers.  Their hearts are warming up.

We have that same warmth for our hearts.  Life can no longer bog us down with guilt or the fear of death.  Life is not hopeless.  We have been born anew “into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (1 Pet. 1:3). We do not walk alone in this life.  We do not walk alone to the grave.  The risen Christ promises, “Because I live, you also will live.” (John 14:19)

There is a little more giddy up in our steps.  These two disciples were just shuffling along but now they have good news to share which means they hurry to tell it.  The living Lord changes everything.  We have a living Savior in the midst of sorrows and joy, in the midst of life and death.  We live by faith in him and the power of the resurrection.

Easter Island is one of the remote islands of the world.  Found 2,000 miles west of Chile, it is so named because the Dutch discovered it on Easter 1722.  Fewer than 8,000 people live here, but many tourists visit occasionally.  For us, Easter is no island.  This Sunday is no holiday excursion.  We don’t celebrate Easter and then forget it.  It is an ongoing reality because Jesus lives!

When life is grinding you down, remember “Christ is risen!”  When facing a seemingly insurmountable problem we have hope because “Christ is risen!”  When standing at the grave of a loved one, all is not sad because “Christ is risen!”  

When your steps are heavy and spirits sagging, Christ walks with you.  He speaks to us in His Word.  He opens our eyes to His grace and love.  Hearts are warmed.  They burn with joy and peace.  Weak hearts are filled with strength.  Doubtful hearts are given confidence.  Lukewarm hearts have conviction.  Cold hearts are given heat from the “lifeblood poured from his sacred veins.”  

Wasn’t that a great walk?  Doesn’t your heart feel better?

Amen.      

April 9, 2023 – Easter Text:  John 20:19-23

Dear Friends in Christ,

Have you ever encountered this situation?  You are at the grocery store and run into an old acquaintance.  You make the proverbial small talk and then ask the question, “So how’s life?”  You expect the cliched answer, “Fine.”  Or they might say, “living the dream.”  You don’t expect to hear this.  “Well, I’m separated from Harry.  The kids seem to blame me.  I’ve hated my job for years and I’m just trying to make it day by day.”  She’s scared.  She’s angry.  Her life has been less than fulfilling.  She’d like to leave it all behind, start over, and start really living life.

Sometimes, it’s our youth.  Sometimes a midlife redirection.  Sometimes its burnout from a 30-year job.  Sometimes it’s the energy we put into the kids.  We can all go through cycles where we think it’s really time to start living.  The ideal is different for all of us, but usually includes a faraway vacation, spending lavishly or putting our time into something we really love.  Then we will really live.  But people can return from the feel-good trip and still feel empty.

The Bible has something to say about really living, and it’s not found in the Swiss Alps or the gearshift of the BMW.  We don’t need middle age or burnout to trigger a life worth living.  For us as Christians what we need is Easter.  We need the empty tomb and shouts of “He Is Risen!”  We need the appearance of Jesus to his disciples, showing them His . . .

“LIFE-GIVING HANDS”

The disciples were acting like the friend who felt her life was a mess.  John writes, “the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews.” (v. 19).  If the Jews were so corrupt as to orchestrate the crucifixion of an innocent man, what would stop them from coming after his disciples next?  Many of these men had abandoned Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Even though Jesus had been preparing them for his death, they still seemed shocked that it happened.  They were acting like Jesus was dead.  They were afraid and they felt guilty.  They were trapped in their own mid-life crisis.

Jesus wanted to calm their nerves.  He didn’t start with, “So how’s life?”  What he said was, “Peace be with you.” (v. 19).  They had heard the reports but hadn’t seen Jesus with their own eyes.  “Guys, it’s me!  I’m not a ghost.  I’m not dead.  I am very much alive.  “He showed them his hands and his side.”  They saw the life-giving hands and knew they were looking at their resurrected Lord.  He is risen indeed.

It took them a moment, but they finally grabbed hold of Easter that evening – it’s joy.  “Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.” (v. 20). No more fear, but Easter joy that makes life really worth living.  Have you grabbed hold of that Easter joy?

Jesus was alive but it was not a static thing.  His life-giving hands had a life-fulfilling mission.  “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” (v. 21). Jesus was sent by God to forgive sins.  He knows asks us to be His ambassadors.  That is real living.

What a big job.  The disciples had to be overwhelmed.  They go from terror to being commissioned by Christ.  He knows what they need, “He breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.” (v. 22). The Holy Spirit worked so powerfully through these men that 50 days later these uneducated Galilean fishermen were apostolic fishers of souls.  When people heard Peter’s sermon, 3,000 souls were added to the Christian Church that day.

Christ even gave them the message.  “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” (v. 23).  It is a big day when a child is given the keys to the house, and even bigger milestone when they hand over the keys to the car.  With these words, Jesus confidently hands every believer the keys to heaven.  We are opening or closing the doors to heaven by forgiving or not forgiving.  The keys are the special power and privilege Christ gives only to Christians.  Forgiving sins and announcing peace is what Jesus did on Easter when he showed His life-giving hands.  What better way to live Easter daily than to use our hands for God’s life-giving purpose – to forgive our brothers and sisters.

What can be more meaningful than forgiving an estranged spouse?  Reconciling with a co-worker?  Resolving differences with an old friend?  Keys are only useful if you use them.  God gave them to you to use.  Living at peace with God and your neighbor makes life really worth living.  Those disciples took that message from the life-giving hands and made it their life-giving mission.  Empowered by the Holy Spirit that night, they went.  Today more than two billion Christians scattered around the world owe a debt of gratitude to the church’s humble beginnings that Easter evening.

So, how’s life?  Are you stuck?  Thinking you don’t really have anything to live for?  Stop acting like Jesus is dead.  He is not.  Look at the life-giving hands. Jesus is alive!  Let’s act like it.  Let’s pray like it.  Let’s believe like it.  Let’s embrace his call, “I am sending you,” and bring the gospel to the other six billion people in our world one soul at a time.  Let’s receive his Holy Spirit and use the keys to proclaim peace.  Live life like there is no death, because Easter means there is no death.  Easter makes life really worth living.

Amen.