Sermon Texts

February 20, 2022                              Text:  Genesis 45:3-15

Dear Friends in Christ,

    Let’s have a little Pastor talk in layman’s terms.  I got excited this week about this text.  Joseph and his brothers was one of my favorite Bible truths in Sunday School.  But I have rarely preached on it if ever.  The reason?  The timing of Easter.  Today is the 7th Sunday after the Epiphany.  We don’t often get this Sunday, which means we don’t often get to hear about Joseph.  Lent is usually starting by February.  Not this year.  We could have an 8th Sunday after Epiphany but that is even rarer.  Easter can be no earlier than March 22 and no later than April 25.  You have to live to 2038 to see that latest date of Easter.  So this text is not heard often. 

    Today we walk in Joseph’s shoes.  What is he going to do?  How will this play out?  How is Joseph going to dispense his power?  Life or death?

“BREAD….OR REVENGE?”

    Joseph is the de facto ruler of Egypt but how did he get here?  He has power.  He has riches.  But the story never looked like it would turn out that way.

    Many years ago Toni and I heard this comment about someone close to us:  “All the boys want to be him.  All the girls want to be with him.”  This is what caused all the problems for Joseph.

    His brothers were jealous of him.  They all wanted to be him.  They were so angry that Joseph was their father’s favorite that they decided to kill him.  They throw him into a pit as they think about their 1st degree murder plans but then they think of a better option.  They sell him into slavery.

    Now comes his second problem.  The girls or more specifically a girl who wants to be with him.  Joseph works for Potiphar, a rich Egyptian.  Potiphar’s wife notices this handsome young man and works to seduce him.  The Bible says to “lie with her” but she wasn’t thinking footsie.  Got the picture?  He didn’t return the attention and when he fled and she had his garment, the husband put Joseph in prison.  This favorite son had lost everything.  Family, freedom and reputation.

    While sitting in prison God gives him wisdom.  Joseph never lost his faith and he starts to interpret dreams.  This puts him in front of Pharaoh, the most powerful man in the world.  His gift of dream interpretation makes him invaluable.  Pharaoh puts him over his house and all the people.

    Back in Israel, Jacob, Joseph’s father, hears there is grain in Egypt so he sends the brothers there.  They stand before their brother but because of the passing of time they don’t recognize him.  He tests them.  And then comes the great reveal and where our text picks up the story.  “I am Joseph.”  The brothers are dismayed.  Wouldn’t you be?  Is it going to be life or death?  Will it be bread…or revenge?  What would you do?

    He gives them life.  He gives them bread and grain.  He tips the scales in their favor by his mercy.  The brothers don’t need to fear Joseph.  He is going to take care of them.  “God sent me before you to preserve life.”  What you can’t miss in these last chapters of Genesis is how many times it says, “The Lord was with Joseph.”  God had a plan for Joseph and Joseph sees it. 

    Wouldn’t you like to see that in your own life?  If all the stress of what you do could be lifted.  Every night you could sleep soundly because you knew what God wanted you to be.  Don’t you want to look back on your life as a man or woman and see God’s hand?  How He guided you.  Instead the struggle, even in our prayers, is maddeningly unclear at times.  Joseph lived with a clear head because He always trusted in the Lord.  He knew God’s plan.  He lived God’s plan.  The hurts along the way made him the man you see in our text.  Confident.  Merciful.  Forgiving.  Loving.

    Walk in Joseph’s calloused feet.  He could have claimed victimhood.  Life had beaten him down.  Instead he waited patiently for the Lord’s victory to be revealed.

    As Joseph limps victoriously through life maybe you see another who was despised by his brothers, the favorite of His Father.  He entered the pit and made residence in prison.  He had his character questioned.  His morals were tempted.  When he was finally publicly crucified, He chose to give life instead of death.  He offers bread for your hunger, and mercy for your revenge.  He tips the scales in your favor by His favor.  He asks nothing of you than that through the Holy Spirit you cling to His grace.  You offer that grace and forgiveness to those who have wronged you.  You live with a merciful heart because the Merciful One accepted you into His family.  

    I am so glad I was allowed to give this sermon.  Through the agony of it all, like Joseph, in Christ, you will be living God’s plan for you.  Not climbing ladders to the top, but lying at the bottom of the pit, with trust in your heart and patience born of faith.  Knowing that God can lift you up from your pain.  

                                    Amen.        

February 13, 2022                            Text:  Jeremiah 17:5-8

Dear Friends in Christ,

    If you are married think of the spouse sitting next to you.  What attracted you to them?  Certainly what we had in common but also what is different about us.  In marriage our differences complement one another.  Toni is a morning person.  I’m a night person.  This opposite attraction worked well when the boys were young.  On our recent trip our opposites were in full bloom.  I’ve studied the atlas since I was old enough to read.  That doesn’t interest my wife.  We’ve learned we are at our best when she drives and I navigate.  Opposites attract.

    If you are not married think of your friends.  The same hypothesis is at work.  A lot in common but there are things they do differently that you admire or appreciate.  Opposites attract.

    In our text for this morning opposites attract.  Our relationship with God is severed by our sin.  We are cursed.  But we are blessed because of what the Lord has done for us.  Let’s take a look.

“OPPOSITES ATTRACT”

    We have before us in the prophet Jeremiah the opposites in which we might trust.  He is often called the prophet of doom.  And yes he is clearly proclaiming God’s judgment against misplaced trust in our text.

    “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.” (v. 5)  We have seen a world trust in the knowledge of man these last two years and it is starting to look like men and women have had enough.  People are marching in the streets and going to the courts.  What has brought this about?  Quite clearly it is because people in high places are telling us what to do and yet they do the opposite.  They are not walking the walk or living their mandates.  We have all been led down the rat hole long enough and the trust is lost.  

    But more than this is how so much of this has had people turn away from their faith or cocoon themselves away.  Believe me I have tried and you cannot insulate yourself from the world.  Man is depraved.  Man is idolatrous.  The more control we seek the more it slips through our fingers.  We trust in ourselves and this is just as bad because then we are only concerned about me, moi, mine.  That doesn’t work in marriage, that doesn’t work in friendships and it doesn’t work spiritually either.  Verse 6 shows that it just brings loneliness and blindness and doom.

    Our text invites us to direct our trust to the one who is truly in control and who graciously chose us – the Lord.  “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.” (v. 7)

    The object of proper trust is the Lord, who became opposites.  Opposites attracted in the Lord.  The Word became flesh.  “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (Jn. 1:14)  God became man.  “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.” (Col. 2:9)  The Lord became seeable and knowable in Christ.  

    The Lord is the opposite of our sinful nature.  In Adam we are defined by sin and death.  Our nature in Christ is defined by His righteousness and life.  The Lord became opposite for our sake.  “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor. 5:21)

    Opposites attract in us.  We are at the same time saint and sinner.  Kind to a stranger, raising our voice to a family member.  Praying to our Lord for rescue and then forgetting to thank Him.  We must daily make confession and then trust in the Lord’s opposite word:  absolution.  Having been forgiven we can then be more consistent in our trust.  Trust in man will always fall short.  It will always disappoint.  Think of the people you love the most.  Haven’t they at some point fallen short when you have trusted them to say something, do something, and act a certain way?  Sure we have.  It leaves us like a parched shrub in the desert.

    When has trusting in the Lord let you down?  I know you have what you think are examples swirling in your head.  Can’t you look back and see that this trust was rewarded.  This trust was warranted.  This trust brought salvation.  This trust watered the roots of your soul and took your anxiousness away.  As you exhibit this trust then you bear fruit for the Lord’s Kingdom.  “He never gets rattled.”  “She always seems at peace.”  “How do they always handle things so well.”  This is what trust in a never disappointing Savior looks like.  

    Recognize how all the opposites attracted in Christ to overcome our own opposition to God.  In so doing, we can now head in the opposite direction of our natural inclinations and trust in the Lord and abide in His blessings.

                                        Amen.    

January 30, 2022                                    Text:  Luke 4:31-44

Dear Friends in Christ,

    In the mid to late 1960’s when I was navigating my toddler years some of you were burning your bras and draft cards and taking over college campuses.  People were defying authority.  The World War II generation parents expected respect and discipline and what they got were tie-dyed shirts and Woodstock.

    That questioning of authority, which was prevalent in the 1960’s has increased and continued into our present generation.  Not only are people rejecting authority but they are rejecting the authority of God’s Word.  The devil promises freedom if there is no authority but all it really leads to is insecurity and uncertainty.  

    Today as Jesus steps into the picture through our text He is proclaiming Good News.  The Good News that He is sharing is that He does have authority and that His Word has authority.  Thank the Lord this morning that He is . . .

“SPEAKING WITH AUTHORITY”

    This idea that Jesus would speak with authority astonishes the people.  They are shocked.  They have never heard anyone speak like this.  They are used to a bunch of mumbo jumbo of conflicting sources from the rabbis.

    It is no different in our time.  People are astonished and even shocked when the church through the Word of Jesus speaks with authority.  We deal with a bunch of mumbo jumbo of competing voices and conflicting words and phrases.  We are expected to be our own gatekeeper of the truth.  Bernard Bailey wrote, “When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed to discover they are not it.”  Do we want to rely on God or man?

    In Finland a trial is going on that involves a Lutheran Pastor and a female member of their government.  In the early 2000’s they wrote a book in which they said that homosexuality was a sin.  It was a book from these two Lutherans about what the Bible states and what the church should be teaching.  After many years they have been brought up on charges.  It won’t surprise you that the first day of the trial was filled with misrepresentations from the prosecutor.  Like Pilate they think they have authority but as Jesus reminded Pilate the only authority he had came from God.  Please pray for this brother and sister.  Jesus’ absolute authority is offensive to many.

    But Jesus speaking with authority is good news.  The only reason people get shocked at Jesus’ authority is because they don’t want it.  They think it is oppressive or takes away their freedom of expression.  All Pastors have had people leave their churches because they wouldn’t marry a living together couple or people took offense to some other Word of God.  If we pick and choose where the authority is then we can begin to question salvation.  Is that part of God’s Word true?

    Do you follow authority?  Many do.  Many of us pick and choose.  God’s Word and parents – yes.  Government and talking heads – no.  You probably have your own list.  The thing is we need authority.  My mom always told me you need a chief.  As a teacher she was on the bargaining committee and she said it wouldn’t work getting the teachers together if everybody was an Indian.  Someone had to have authority.  It provides security and direction and freedom.

    We see that from Jesus in our text.  Jesus had authority over a demon and had him become silent and then released him from the man.  Jesus’ healed the mother-in-law of Peter by rebuking her fever.  Diseases are healed and spirits are rebuked because they knew he was the Christ.

    This Christ Jesus spoke with great authority on the cross.  He announced “it” – the work of saving mankind – “is finished.”  Jesus’ authority over sin, death, and hell was confirmed when he rose from the dead.  He gives us freedom from guilt and death.

    Jesus speaks with authority to us.  He proclaims from our pulpits that we have eternal life.  He has authority to forgive sins and he passes that authority onto you and me.  He speaks heaven to us in Holy Communion.  His words of authority give peace and security.  Isn’t it nice to know that Jesus has authority over evil?  We can have that confidence, because of Jesus’ authority, that what we believe is certain and true.

    If children don’t have authority they grow up with insecurity and anxiety and emotional scarring.  We have so many people in our world with nothing certain they can rely on in their lives – especially how they might face death.  We don’t reject the authority of Christ in our lives because we understand the comfort and certainty that it brings.  May the Holy Spirit allow us to share that with others.

    We are blessed to have Good News preached to us and a Savior who is speaking with authority.

                Amen.   

January 16, 2022                                      Text:  John 2:1-11

Dear Friends in Christ,

    When you plan a wedding you make decisions.  At Toni and I’s wedding we decided to just purchase one keg of beer and when it was drained…well, it was drained.  Because we were the third of three weddings at the large LCMS church in Ft. Wayne where we exchanged vows, we had to do all of our pictures after the wedding.  This meant a lot of time for people to imbibe before we even got there.  Since I had just graduated from the seminary 2 weeks before it was one of my fraternity buddies or seminary pals who came up to me and wondered if I could turn their water and soda into a another keg of beer.  We didn’t.  They understood.  My friends have always remarked what a wonderful time they had that weekend.

    Today Jesus is about to begin His public ministry.  At a wedding of all places.  A small crisis is about to ensue.   What will happen?  Where will the guests turn?  A good reminder for us who have been through a lot at our church this past month.

“COMMIT IT TO JESUS”

    Let’s set the scene, “On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.  Jesus was also invited to the wedding with his disciples.  When the wine ran out…” (vs. 1-3a)  Wedding celebrations went on for seven days and running out of wine was a major faux pas.  It was an embarrassment for the family and the bridegroom’s family was liable to a lawsuit.  Something a little more serious than today.  

    Who notices?  Mary.  “The mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’  And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what do this have to do with me?  My hour has not yet come.’  He mother said to the servants, ‘ Do whatever he tells you.’” (vs. 3b-5)

    Jesus’ response sounds a little disrespectful to our ears.  Actually it was just formal.  Jesus has a different interest and purpose than his mother.  Jesus’ “hour” is the cross, His suffering and death, but also His resurrection and glorification.  This was His future but “not yet.”

    Mary had faith in her Son.  She didn’t know what he would do, but she knew he would do the right thing.   She committed the situation to Jesus and she knew He would take care of it.  He took care of it beyond her imagination.  Jesus changed 180 gallons of water into wine.  This was excellent wine.  Jesus gave the couple a gift of extreme value.  If there was any wine left they could sell it and have a good financial cushion to begin their married life.

    Do we ever feel like Mary?  This month we have dealt with many things out of our control.  A barely hanging on furnace.  A new furnace caught up in the global slowdown of goods and services.  A 100% hike in natural gas prices and furnaces running and running as we try to dry out a building that suffered a water deluge.  We had things fail that should have helped the situation.  Lord, how much more.  Are you there?

    The first sign.  Last Sunday’s Old Testament lesson from Isaiah.  If you weren’t on the worship service from our living room these were the words you missed, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.”  Come again Lord.  “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.”  We can commit our problems to Jesus, knowing that He will take care of them.  

    How do we know that?  The cross of Jesus is His promise and guarantee that He will hear and answer our prayers.  He has borne our sin.  He has washed away our punishment.  The water and the damage and the gas prices and the furnace and our individual situations are all wrapped in his body and sacrificed in our place.  He rose again to remind us of new life and our temporary suffering that will end now and our suffering that will end permanently when we see Jesus face to face in the glory of heaven.  We are His beloved children.  

    The setbacks will come but “this too shall pass.”  Jesus told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:9)  

    We have worries and concerns.  Most beyond our control.  Mary knew that as well and committed the situation to Jesus.  He took care of it.  His grace and love and divine power showed what He could do.  

    The last line of our text says, “His disciples believed in him.”  Toward the end of John’s gospel are these words; “These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (Jn. 20:31)  Life in his name . . . when we commit to the Lord.

                                        Amen. 

January 9, 2022 – Baptism of our Lord                Text:  Luke 3:15-22

Dear Friends in Christ,

    Zeno of Elea was a 5th century BC mathematician and philosopher known for paradoxical thought experiments.  Here is one such experiment.  Imagine walking across a street.  Now imagine that after your first step, you are required to limit each further step to one half of the distance of the previous step.  You take a two-foot step and then a one-foot step and then a six-inch step and then a three-inch step.  The paradox occurs because we keep halving our distance in miniscule movements.  In other words, Zeno is observing the possibility of constant, forward motion that never arrives at a destination.  Zeno’s paradox has us always moving, seemingly making progress, but never getting anywhere.

    Ever felt that way about life?  Or equate the paradox with eternity?  Will you get where you want and need to go?  And what does this have to do with Jesus’ Baptism?  Let’s find out together . . .

“THE DESTINATION IS IN SIGHT!”

    Our eyes are directed in our Gospel lesson to people in expectation.  They are waiting for something to happen.  The Israelites could appreciate Zeno’s thought experiment.  For generations they moved a lot but never seemed to get to their desired destination.

    The people were expectant but also in a predicament.  Caesar and the Roman Empire oppressed them.  Herod and their local government abused them.  They were weary of their national heritage and their earthly descendancy from Abraham was getting them nowhere.  Heaven certainly appeared closed on this day.

    We identify with their predicament.  We have our own troubled days.  We too experience weary frustration on the banks of the Covid River.  We have seen the failure of human knowledge, human rules, and human government to bring us to the destination that we seek.  We are men and women endlessly moving, but never getting anywhere.

    Since the Fall we are powerless to do anything about it.  Stubbornly we refuse to admit we have a problem.  After all, we are moving forward, aren’t we?  If we just try a little more we will get there, won’t we?

    The people in our text think the amazing John might be their solution.  John understands his limited power and unworthiness.  He can’t even untie sandals.  Human beings can’t create things that aren’t there.  The dinner you make is limited by the ingredients that you have.  If we expect human solutions from the ingredients of human knowledge, human rules, human politics, human ability, we will always be disappointed, always moving but never getting anywhere.

    Don’t despair, oh little soul.  Everything changes in verse 21:  “When Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened.”  The heavens are opened!  The destination is in sight!  For the first time since the Garden of Eden and for all time evermore, the destination is reachable.  The Son of God, fully human, yet fully divine, in future time and timelessly crucified and risen from the dead, enters the waters of Baptism.  In this man the finite and infinite are miraculously made into one.  “And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’” (v. 22)

    Jesus Christ is revealed by the Father’s voice.  Jesus, the only perfect human worthy of perfection has opened the infinite destination.  It is opened because He is the Creator of that destination.  Heaven is open to Christ because it belongs to Him.

    How does Jesus’ baptism end our predicament?  Because Jesus, Word in the flesh, in a miraculous way; remains in the water of Baptism.  He enters the water for all of eternity so that He might meet us in our Baptism.

    In the water of our Baptism, our failures as humans are killed with Christ upon the cross.  The life-giving Spirit creates faith, which gives this life.  Paul writes, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Rom. 6:3-4)

    Rejoice!  The destination is in sight!  What you could not achieve yourself has been granted to you by the power of God’s Son.  You have the assurance of heaven.  Have confidence in the Baptism of Jesus.  Have confidence in your Baptism.  We were powerless when Water and Word were used at our place of Baptism.  We are still powerless to progress to our destination.  Christ has ended our predicament, He has solved our problem, and He provides the means to arrive at our heavenly home.  True progress has been provided.  The destination is in sight! 

                                    Amen.   

January 2, 2022 – Epiphany                            Text:  Matthew 2:1-12

Dear Friends in Christ,

    Are you a skeptic?  Are you a person that questions everything and you have to see things to believe them?  I suppose for many of us our skepticism has to do what we are being asked to believe.

    One of the three definitions of a skeptic in the dictionary is this one:  “one who doubts or disbelieves in religious tenets.”  That number is growing.  Atheists believe we have outgrown God.  Adherence to Christianity is declining and more people are answering “none” when its come to their religion.  

    But we are an odd people.  We never had more Christmas movies than this past year.  Shopping revenue was up to its highest total in years.  Radio stations and TV stations devoted a whole month to Christian hymns and songs.  Commercially speaking, Christmas’s star is rising.  How is spiritual adherence to Christianity waning when the popularity of its holiday is waxing?

    Perhaps because we desperately need hope and positivity in an increasingly cynical and negative world.  Frosty the Snowman and Buddy the Elf offer both these attributes without asking us to make spiritual commitments.  In our divided world we need things that bring us together.

    Today we celebrate Epiphany.  We are still in the Christmas season.  Let’s see where being a skeptic or being a believer takes a person.  

“ARE YOU AN EPIPHANY SKEPTIC?”

    Perhaps Christmas can be on the rise, yet Christianity on the decline, because for too long sincere questions have gone unanswered.  Is it reasonable to believe that someone could be born of a virgin?  Did God guide really guide astrologers – wise men – from the East with a star to visit a child who would be king of the universe?

    Well, in fact, God did.  The skeptic in our story is Herod.  Oh, he does a nice job of disguising his skepticism.  He goes so far as to say that he wants to worship the child.  But this was not true.  Herod was scared of the power that Jesus was bringing.  He saw His kingdom crumbling because there was a new King in town.  Herod was one of the greatest skeptics the world has ever known.  He was skeptical of everyone.  He had many of his own family murdered or imprisoned.  He had no trust, no solid rock to believe in.  He was an island and he always felt he was being invaded.

    Are you an Epiphany skeptic?  Come on, a star to guide these fellas?  A dream to switch travel plans?  We can be a little skeptical about it all.  Commercial Christmas wears off.  The salve does not heal.  We are left with nothing to face the doldrums of January and February.  For many, life has more Januarys and Februarys than it does Decembers.  Shorter and colder days and the festive mood wears off.

    The believers this day – the non-skeptics – are the Wise Men.  They don’t question, they follow.  They don’t hold back, they give gifts freely.  They don’t downplay the birth; they worship with joy at the sight of the Christ Child.  Matthew says when seeing the star “they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.”

    They could do that because they knew that this birth was tied to a Savior.  Christmas is more profound when we tie it with another Christian holiday – Easter.  The heart of the Christian message is that Jesus rose from the dead on Easter to prove that His death on the cross paid for our sins.  Through His resurrection, He shows Himself to be the Savior.  The Bible insists that if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, the Christian faith is not worth believing. (1 Cor. 15:14)

    Abdu Murray wrote this, “I was once a staunch critic who demanded evidence for Christianity.  After nine years of researching, I found the evidence so compelling that I became a Christian.  I didn’t outgrow my faith in God.  I outgrew my cynicism about Christianity.  The evidence worked strangely in reverse.  The evidence that Jesus rose from the dead implied that His being born of a virgin was mere child’s play.  Christmas makes Easter possible, while Easter makes Christmas meaningful.”

    The miraculous star that led these men to Jesus is an incredible miracle.  But these miracles are all around us.  The miracle of a baby being born.  Each day your heart and lungs do their work is a miracle.  Each day your Baptism is like a fresh shower washing away your sins, leading you to eternal life in Jesus.  On this special church day we are celebrating Epiphany you are offered a miracle in bread and wine.  The Lord Jesus Christ mysteriously gives you His body and blood in this Sacrament to wipe away your skepticism and strengthen your faith in Christ as Lord and Savior.  Thank God for His Word that allows us to see, follow, and worship Him.  We bring our gifts to Christ and His Church so that the star of Jesus is seen by all.

    Like the Wise Men may the Holy Spirit keep us free of skepticism and firmly believing in Christ who came to save the world. 

                            Amen.