Sermon Texts

August 21, 2022                                          Text:  Luke 13:22-30

Dear Friends in Christ,

    How many doors did you go through this week?  Let’s make a list.  Bathroom door.  Garage door.  Car door.  House door.  Basement door.  Workplace door.  Grocery door.  Restaurant door.  Retail establishment door.  Gas station door.  Church door.  Maybe a hospital or doctor or dentist door.  Barn door.  Bar door.  And how many of you married men walked right through the door to your wife’s heart?!

    One can assume all these doors were open.  But we have all had the experience of a locked door.  It was my last year of seminary; Toni and I were engaged.  Christmas 1990 we had gone to Wisconsin for two days of Lueck family Christmas.  Toni had to be back to work on the 26th so we had to leave Reedsburg, Wisconsin and make the 6 ½ hour trip back to Ft. Wayne, Indiana.  These were the days of being young and carefree.  We didn’t really care how late we left.  With me being a late night being and Toni a morning aficionado, we lost her somewhere east of Chicago.  I was fine until about an hour out of Ft. Wayne.  Heat in the car, good music and my eyelids are drooping.  Time to stick my head out the window and let that 20-degree air keep me awake.  Finally, we make the seminary and I can get to bed.  Except the door is locked.  Middle of the night, Christmas, no one around.  This is no fun.  Toni lived with a family on a farm and accommodations were made.

    It is disappointing when doors are locked.  Let’s take that image with us as we explore our text.  We have a question poser to begin, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” (v. 23)  This was a common debate back then.  It is still debated today.  Who is going to be saved?  What is the standard for salvation?  Will those who haven’t heard the Gospel get a pass?  The person was essentially asking about themselves.  Let’s focus on that.  You are here.  You are listening.

“WILL YOU BE SAVED?”

    Jesus answers, “Strive to enter through the narrow door.  For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” (v. 24). The reality of the Savior once again comes through.  There will a lot of souls that will not pass through to eternity.  Not only is this true but Jesus answers this way to get our attention.  He doesn’t want us to have a comfortable Christianity.  He does want us to have trust in His promise.

    Striving or effort can be translated in the Greek as “agony.”  There is going to be struggle in the Christian life.  Paul uses the same word in 1 Timothy 6:12 in asking us to “fight the good fight of the faith.”  Following Jesus takes some effort.

    John Bunyan wrote the classic book Pilgrim’s Progress.  It follows a man named Christian, who is tormented by spiritual anguish.  A spiritual guide name Evangelist urges him to leave the City of Destruction and he tells him only salvation can be found in the Celestial City of Mt. Zion.  He gets tempted by distractions and shortcuts.  He perseveres.  The gatekeeper Goodwill gets him on the “straight and narrow” King’s Highway.  It is revealed later in the book that Goodwill is Jesus Himself.

    Don’t we also look for the easy way out?  Don’t we get distracted?  Don’t we despair?  Yet, Jesus helps us to persevere.  He agonizes with us so that the narrow door can be opened.  

    But beware that the door also closes.  This is the warning, “’Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’” (v. 25b)  That is frightening.

    Don’t ignore the open door.  Don’t let time and family problems and financial challenges and world events and your health get your mind off the Savior.  The narrow door is there.  Strive through the work of the Holy Spirit to recognize it.

    What is the greatest open door of all time?  The Easter tomb.  “No one is here.”  The death and resurrection of Jesus means that this narrow door is open to us.  Many of us each year go through “open enrollment” to decide on a health plan.  But this is not unlimited.  For the Concordia Plan here at church it lasts about 40 days.  Even God’s Church has limits.  You don’t get enrolled on time, and you can be in healthcare hell.

    The same is true for our salvation.  The narrow door is only open so long.  Once closed, the only other option is hell.  There are those who are going to be disappointed thinking they had more time as they wasted their life away.

    Let’s ask it again:  “Will You Be Saved?”  How can you be saved?  Salvation comes through knowing Jesus.  The rejected hear, “I never knew you.”  To know Jesus is to know him intimately and personally in His Word and Sacrament.  Jesus has opened that door to have that relationship with you through his death on the cross.  In John 10, Jesus is declared the door and that “if anyone enters by (him), he will be saved.” (v. 9).  He has laid down his life for you . . . and to be known by you.  The door stands open.  The invitation remains.  Don’t ignore the open door.

    Amen.      

July 31, 2022                                Text:  Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-26

Dear Friends in Christ,

    Years ago the Chicago Tribune did an article on the creator of the “Dilbert” comic strip.  Reporter Jane Meredith Adams writes:  “In an office just slightly bigger than a cubicle, Scott Adams transforms tales of idiotic bosses and meaningless empowerment teams into Dilbert, the chinless comic-strip hero to millions of confined workers.

    “Since Adams published his internet address . . . he has been deluged with questions from readers who wonder how he knows the exact level of ineptitude with which their company operates.  It’s because he has been there.  Adams endured 17 years of cubicle employment – most recently as an applications engineer with Pacific Bell.

    “I don’t think I’ll ever forget what it feels like to sit in a cubicle,” says the cartoonist, “and realize you’ve been there for eight hours . . . and everything you did today will become unimportant in the next reorganization.”

    While our ESV version translates the word as “vanity” the NIV translates it as “meaningless.”  “Everything is Meaningless.”  The basic thrust of the Book of Ecclesiastes is that life is futile, useless, and hollow if lived apart from God.  Only when living for God and His Word does life have meaning.  Where are you?

“WHAT ARE YOU CONVEYING TO THE WORLD?”

    These seem like strange words coming from the Bible.  Isn’t the Bible supposed to lift us out of despair?   The writer of Ecclesiastes, seems just a little despondent.  He isn’t manic-depressive.  He was inspired to write these words by the Holy Spirit.  They are designed to teach us a powerful truth about life in this sinful world.

    When the writer speaks about “under the sun” or “beneath the sun” he is equating this to life apart from God.  Therefore, he hates his toil.  He despises his labor.  He experiences sorrow.  His heart cannot rest at night.  Man, then sees life as meaningless.  One big puzzle with no final piece.  The everyday routine makes no sense.

    This is the existence so many are conveying to the world.  With nothing long-term to live for people are questioning their toil and labor.  With no faith in the end game, people are cutting their lives short.  Without hope, men and women just live for themselves and the next party.  Let’s just legally dope it up and have a good time.  It’s not gonna last and this too is meaningless.  They are walking in a desert with no water in sight.  They eventually dry up as dust in the wind.

    When mankind cannot understand creation as it is related to the Creator, nothing makes sense.  Unless God rescues man from this predicament, everything dissolves into meaninglessness.  Only God can bring reconciliation.  He reaches out to us.

    God is only understood in the context of the cross at Calvary.  Meaning is found in God alone as He chooses to reveal Himself.  Even our text says, “the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?” (v. 24b-25)

    We struggle with this and the message we convey isn’t so great at times.  We can pursue all the wrong things at the wrong times.  Most can admit they get depressed and worried about the cares of this world.  Recently, it has been magnified in our response to Christ.  When we start to show cracks in our trust level with God then the devil is ready to pounce.  

    God hasn’t given up.  He knows things have meaning.  He knows you have meaning.  He rescues that which has fallen into ruin.  God didn’t retreat from the world.  He sent His Son into it.  Jesus wasn’t just a moral teacher ready to show us a path.  The Son of God is beyond our life under the sun.  He lived under the fiery sun for us.  Remember how parched He was on the cross?  He needed a drink.  That living water he spilled on Calvary washes over you now.  It gave you life in Baptism.  It refreshes.  It quenches.  It works deep into your soul.  

    Jesus came as a ransom for many and to forgive us for chasing after the wind.  He rose from the depths of the grave to grant unto us new life in Him.  We now interpret everything in our lives in the context of God and His gift of salvation.  We know the end game.  It gives our lives meaning.

    Is that what you are conveying to the chasers of wind?  Life is not like a painting; it does not stand still.  If we live that way, then life just passes us by.  It is not to be captured.  Life is to be enjoyed. When people see less worry in our lives, at this time in history, wow what a difference it can make.  Do you see the opportunities?  God has given us the gift of life, and those who are wise will live in that gift, trusting in the greater life given to them by God the Father in Jesus Christ, his Son.

                    Amen.        

July 24, 2022                                      Text:  Genesis 18:20-33

Dear Friends in Christ,

    C.S. Lewis in his book The Screwtape Letters presented a collection of supposed letters from Screwtape, a demon in the upper echelons of hell.  The letters are addressed to Screwtape’s nephew Wormwood, a novice demon, advising him how to defeat the Christians in the battle of life.  In relation to prayer, he warns Wormwood, “Interfere at any price, in any fashion, when people start to pray.  Real prayer is lethal to our cause.”

    This morning in our text, we travel to the heart of sinful debauchery, we enter a small portal of hell, we watch Abraham plead with God in prayer to spare the guilty from death if he can find just a few that are righteous.  Abraham keeps coming at the Lord over and over and over and over and over and over.  What about all of this?  

“DOES GOD EVER GET TIRED?”

    Abraham must have some chutzpah to ask the first question.  “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?”  Abraham is appealing to the justice of God.  Will God act in a manner that takes the righteous with the wicked?  The Psalmist writes, “righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne.”  But the Psalmist also continues, “love and faithfulness go before you.” (Ps. 89:14)  While appealing to God’s justice. Abraham also appeals to the Lord knowing the kindness and love He has for His creation.  There is tension here.  Abraham knows both about God.  It is mercy and grace that move Abraham’s appeal, but the Lord’s justice is at the heart of the request.

    Does this parallel our life?  We are sinful men and women who are aware of God’s wrath for sin.  We know the Lord’s justice.  We also, prayerfully, have been given a confident faith that is not afraid to approach God in prayer because He showers us with love and mercy.  When we pray to our Heavenly Father it as Luther explains in the catechism:  “as dear children ask their dear Father.”  “Dad, when are we going to leave?”  “Dad, I’m tired, can’t we go?”  The whining and the questions continue.  As Fathers, as sinful men, we can get a little tired of the constant badgering.  God doesn’t.  He never tires and this text shows it.

    In verses 27-31 Abraham keeps lowering the number.  45, 40, 30, 20.  Do you see any indication here that God loses His patience?  I don’t either.  “Abraham leave me alone.”  “Abraham get off my back.”  “Oh no, here comes Abraham.”  It is like that car salesman that just cannot let you be.  This is a great lesson for us in God’s patience.  God does not tire of hearing our requests.  God does not look for a place to hide when we get up at 3 a.m. to go talk with Him because rest is not coming because of something on our mind.  He is ready to hear us.  He is wide awake and willing.  His very nature is on display.

    Abraham sees this even more clearly once we get to verses 32-33.  Abraham lowers the bar one last time, we are taking this request down to 10.  Yes, 10.  Probably because of the number in Lot’s family.  Things are getting personal because Lot is Abraham’s nephew.  Abraham went to great lengths in Genesis 14 to rescue his relative.  He doesn’t want to watch them perish.  God has still not gotten tired.

    Let’s see how closely you have been paying attention.  How many times has God said “yes” to the requests of Abraham?  Six.  Six times he answered in the affirmative.  At the beginning of the sermon, I used the word “over” the same number of times.  Abraham just kept going to God with His requests and His Heavenly Father never tired.

    God never got angry with Abraham.  The Lord never gets angry with us in our prayer life.  What the Lord does not like in our lives is a lack of trust.  He does not care for our shunning this direct line to His throne.  Our sermon hymn said it beautifully, “In holy conversation We speak to God in prayer.”  Can it get any simpler?  We all know how to converse.  Believe me, I have seen you all in the narthex or the basement.  In our Gospel today is the Lord’s Prayer where we say, “forgive us our sins.”  The Lord has heard that prayer.  He has answered that prayer.  He never tired of the Old Testament people praying for a Savior.  Jesus came into the world to intercede and give us direct access to the Father.  His gift of redemption takes away our lack of trust.  We go the Father through Jesus the Son.  

    This gracious God has come to your rescue.  This gracious God hears you when you confess.  This gracious God with whom we speak is a holy and just God.  This gracious God will keep you in the faith through His Holy Spirit and when the time comes you will leave this Sodom and Gomorrah existence and find a Promised Land flowing with perfection and constant grace.  

    God never did tire.  He answered Abraham’s prayer by saving Lot and his two daughters.  Like for us it was an unexpected answer but one the Lord knew had to be made.  Just like at the cross.  Look to the cross.  It reminds you of the God you are talking to.  He never gets tired of hearing from you.

            Amen.         

July 17, 2022                                          Text:  Genesis 18:1-14

Dear Friends in Christ,

    One of the shows I like to watch is The Newlywed Game.  As someone who works with married couples, counsels couples to be married and being married myself, it is a great study in marital behavior.  Bob Eubanks once asked this question, “What will your husband say is the last flavor you used too much in one of your dishes?”  The wife answered, “Burnt.”

    God wants us to laugh even if we are in church!  Today we have some of the Bible’s most faithful people laughing.  What do we laugh at?  God’s promises?  Do we, like Sarah, laugh because it is just too good to be true?  There is room at the tent door with Sarah.  Let’s listen in.

“WHO GETS THE LAST LAUGH?”

    What if Abraham and Sarah went on The Newlywed Game and Bob Eubanks asked Sarah what makes your husband Abraham laugh?  They would both have to answer:  Childbearing at age 100 and age 90.  See the first one to laugh was Abraham.  This occurred in Genesis 17.  He must have been asking himself, “Lord, do you know anything about the physiology of the body?  I am 100.”  He laughed in doubt.  But God would keep the promise to give this couple a son.  Abraham would laugh again, not in doubt but in joy over the birth of his son.  

    In our text three men appear to Abraham.  Who are they?  The Lord Himself and then two angels.  God is now going to let Sarah in on this jocularity.  God wants to see Sarah laugh for joy.

    God lays out the scenario.  When He returns next year at this time Abraham and Sarah will have a son.  Sarah is in the background, but she overhears the conversation.  It immediately causes laughter, guffawing, and “You have to be kidding, Lord?”  Except He isn’t.  She laughs in doubt, and this angers God.  “Why did Sarah laugh?”  This all seems utterly ridiculous to Sarah.

    Laughter is throughout Scripture.  When Jesus went to home of Jairus whose daughter had died he told the people “she is not dead, she is sleeping.”  Mark records that the people laughed at him.  But what did he do?  He raised that little girl from the dead.  Jesus gets the last laugh.  He did it when feeding the 5,000 or turning water into wine or walking on water.  The people just shook their head at the power He had.

    Do you ever laugh at the promise of God?  Ever snicker that He can’t possibly heal you . . . and He does?  Do you laugh in unbelief when you think of all the wrong you’ve done in this life and the Lord is still going to welcome you into heaven?  He is going to forgive that?  He is going to get me through this?  There is no way.  He does.  He will.  He has.  We just hang our head and let it sway back and forth and whisper, “I just can’t believe it.  Why did I doubt?  Why get all worked up?  What a silly person I am.”  Jesus gets the last laugh.  

    The Lord did give Sarah the last laugh.  Hebrews tells us that by faith she conceived because she believed in God’s faithful promise.  Unbelief is turned to joy.  Abraham and Sarah did rejoice when their son was born.

    Fast forward to something even more unbelievable.  It is also involved Abraham.  A promise the Lord had given him.  From Abraham’s seed would be one who would be a blessing to all the people.  Joseph and Mary, no doubt shook their head in disbelief.  “I’m a virgin, this can’t possibly happen?”  But it did.  A Son was born, a Savior was given.  This boy would grow up and be laughed at.  He would be made fun of because He wouldn’t come down from a cross.  He was laughed at because He said He was the Son of God.  They would mock and scorn and they were sure they were getting the last laugh.

    One moment you mockers of the Lord Almighty.  This Son will stay on the cross to death.  He will declare victory, in joy, over sin and death and Satan.  He traveled to hell to get the last laugh.  Then when the music seemed to have died, a new glorious tune is sung, “Christ the Lord is Risen Today, Alleluia.”  We sing it with conviction.  We sing it with joy.  We smile at what Jesus has accomplished for us.  We have a future because God has kept His promise.  Let people laugh at your dedication to your faith.  Let them sneer at your adherence to Holy Scripture.  You are confident in the joy you have in your heart.  You know the last laugh is yours.

    I read that “70% of marriage is yelling ‘what’ from a different room.”  Can’t you picture that with Sarah behind the tent door?  “What?”  Sarah and Abraham laughed at God.  But God got the last laugh.  That son you know as Isaac is translated as “he laughed.”  God got the last laugh and so do you.  He gives you the joy of laughter in His forgiveness, in His salvation, and in His promises.  Go ahead laugh . . . you’ve got the promise.

                                Amen.            

July 10, 2022                                          Text:  Luke 10:25-37

Dear Friends in Christ,

    Rabbinic scholars before and after Jesus have always debated the meaning of the word “neighbor.”  Fellow Jews, were considered “neighbors.”  Some were more “neighbor” than others, especially those that kept the law.  Shepherds, tax collectors and sinners not so much.  Gentiles were outside the realm of “neighbor.”  You didn’t have to be unkind, but you didn’t have to love them.  A Jew wouldn’t push a Gentile into the Sea of Galilee, but if they fell in, well, they didn’t need to be in a hurry to rescue them.

    Do we disqualify people as “neighbor”?  Someone of a different political slant?  A person from the wrong neighborhood?  Those who live differently than we do?  Do we ever feel justified in treating people in a not-so-neighborly way?

    Jesus is going to help us with this question this morning.  He is going to help us see who our neighbor is.  He isn’t going to debate but he will get to the truth.  In fact, He will lead the questioner to the answer.  May the Holy lead us as well to see . . .

“THE RIGHT ANSWER IS . . . JESUS?”

    Lawyers love questions.  It is part of their vocation.  It was no different in Jesus’ time.  The lawyer stood up, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (v. 1)  It’s a test.  Is this Jesus as qualified as He claims to be?  The lawyer wants to prove his case.  Jesus turns the tables and asks him a question.  Now who is being tested.  “What is written in the Law?  How do you read it?” (v. 2).  

    We heard a lot of Old Testament Law in our reading from Leviticus this morning.  And we would agree with not stealing and not profaning God’s name and not oppressing our neighbor and everything else listed there.  We don’t want to be the robbers in Jesus’ story.

    The law is on the lawyer’s mind, imagine that?  It is on our minds as well.  The law is written in our hearts.  We know right from wrong, good from bad.  We have a conscience.  We know how we should be.

    The lawyer uses the law unlawfully.  So do we.  We ask the wrong question.  The premise is wrong.  The only way to inherit something is to be born to someone who has it and wait for that person to die.  When we mix up our doing with God’s giving, we have a problem.

    The problem is the lawyer wanted to justify himself.  He asks Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”  If we use the law as a guidebook, then we can skip some of the parts.  We can justify our actions when we don’t love or we don’t help or we don’t have compassion in certain situations.  “Lord, it wasn’t my fault, that person is hard to do anything good for.”  We need some help.

    After telling the story Jesus gets to the right question.  “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” (v. 36). 

    This man is us.  We are knocked down, beat up, ripped off – by life, by sin, by our desires, by our questionable choices.  Nobody is a perfect neighbor to us except Jesus.

Jesus is the right answer to all the questions.

    It is a running joke in our circles, ever since we were a kid, that if we weren’t sure of an answer, the answer Jesus would do.  Many times it is the correct answer.  In our text it is as clear as the blue sky.

    Jesus is the Good Samaritan.  He comes to each of us who are beaten by sin, the devil, the world.  He comes to us left half dead.  He touches with words.  He heals with Baptism.  He provides shelter in His Holy Church and food in His Holy Supper.  He will come back to take us to heaven.

    Jesus is a neighbor to us all.  He does not pass by anyone.  His compassion shines through in his life of loving service and in His sacrificial death.  On the cross, he paid all the cost to nurse us back to life.  He shows His compassion to us daily.

    In a sense, Jesus is our Lawyer, He is our Advocate with the Father.  When Jesus stands to speak, it is not to test anyone, but to defend us, the guilty ones, with His blessed innocence.  He does not ask us what we have accomplished to gain eternal life.  He tells us what He has done to give us all eternal life.

    Don’t try to justify yourself, because Jesus already has welcomed you as His neighbor in the kingdom.  It’s simple.  But simple can be best.  The Right Answer Is . . . Jesus.

                                            Amen.           

July 3, 2022                                      Text:  Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

Dear Friends in Christ,

    When soldiers in Vietnam had 30 days or less to serve in that country, they were called short-timers.  It was a tradition that once a soldier reached that status he made himself a short-timer stick.  He would carve this stick with notches which would indicate how many days he had left before returning home.  This way they were showing tangible evidence that they yearned to go back to their own country, which they often referred to as God’s country.

    Today’s Epistle teaches us that all Christians are really short-timers in this earthly country.  But we are short-timers who know that . . .

“GOD’S COUNTRY IS OUR FATHERLAND”

    Hebrews is written to persecuted Christians who are spiritually weary.  They haven’t faced martyrdom, but they are in danger of losing hope in God’s promises and even falling away from the faith.  To revive their faith, the writer of Hebrews proclaims Christ as God’s final Word.  To further explain what their faith looks like we have chapter 11.  It gives definitions of faith from the Old Testament.  The focus of our text is Abraham.

    Abraham was a short-timer.  He was an alien and a stranger.  He lived in tents and very rarely had a permanent home.  His life was always changing, always on the move.  We too are short-timers.  Our life is transitory.  What is meant by that?

    It means that we can make all the plans and choices we want but we are not ultimately in control.  Haven’t you had an illness or injury that disrupted your life?  Weather events can throw changes our way.  Maybe you’ve been set to move somewhere and make a job change and what looked good at the moment isn’t quite as bright as it used to be.  Like a boxer we bob and weave to try to get out the way of the punches to the gut that life brings our way.

    Our text says Abraham, “went out, not knowing where he was going.”  One of the greatest faithful followers of the Lord, not knowing where he was going?  Who was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write this?  This Bible we believe in is not an earthly nirvana of good times for God’s people.  They struggled.  We struggle.  That had times they didn’t know where God was leading them.  We have times where we think the same thing.  Lord, where do you want me to go?

    What Abraham and these others had was a strong belief in what God was doing.  How else could Abraham go all the way to the point of plunging a knife into Isaac?  Faith.  Faith in the assurance of things hoped for.  Faith in creation and the Creator.  Faith in the Word of God.  Faith that life here is temporary.  We are a short-timer on this earth.

    God’s country is our fatherland.  God Himself has built a country for us through the life and sacrificial death of his Son.  Only there will the foundation be without defect.  The perfect Son lived the perfect life to die our death.  

    We are not natural citizens of God’s country.  By nature sin excludes us from God’s country.   We can wander aimlessly seeking the false shelters provided by the devil and the world.  But God the Father through His Son Jesus has made us His own.  Through Holy Baptism we are made citizens.  

    Interestingly enough what we find in the Greek word for fatherland in our text is different than the way we think of it.  A fatherland is usually the place where one was born, but our fatherland is where we are going.  

    We are citizens of God’s country through faith.  Right now we can’t see what we hope for, but it is real and it has substance.  We don’t base our certainty of future blessings on subjective feelings.  We base it on a demonstration of God’s faithfulness through His Word.  Haven’t you seen this in your life?  In our ups and downs, God’s presence is always level.  He knows you.  He looks forward to greeting you in your fatherland.  He rejoices when the fulfillment of our citizenship takes place but until then he tasks you with work in his Kingdom.  An American soldier in Vietnam was a full citizen of the United States.  But he wouldn’t experience that full citizenship until he returned home.  Letters and cards upped the ante and the anticipation of going home.  God Word and promises do the same for us.  

    Imagine a frigid winter’s night.  Snow and wind.  Two men are walking down the street.  One is wandering because he has no home to go to.  He is looking for whatever shelter he can find.  He’s lost.  The 2nd man is walking in the same storm, but he has pep in his step and a tune on his lips.  He sees the lights of his home – warmth and family and a good meal await.  He represents the Christian.  We are weary Christians traversing these streets of life.  Yet we see God’s country in our future.  We see our fatherland and eternity with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  That is our home.  Prepared by God for you and me through our Savior Jesus Christ.  Welcome.

        Amen.