Sermon Texts

June 24, 2018 – Nativity of St. John the Baptist                                        Luke 1:57-80

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

Do you ever find it hard to hear good news?  Some of you may be saying, “Never, I always enjoy hearing good news.”  As your Pastor, I beg to differ.  In ministry I see this all the time.  We all live in our little cocoons.  What I mean is that we are most concerned with what is immediate to us.  I may have a day where I talk with let’s say three individuals or families and the focus is almost always on their problems.  The spouse has cancer.  Divorce proceedings are going forward.  Your child has gotten in trouble again.  The job you need is not coming.  How are you going to pay for two kids in college?  The care of the elderly parents is not going away.  I may share some good news about the church or your life or my life but you don’t hear it.  The anxieties of life crowd so closely and speak so loudly that any messenger of joy is easily drowned out in the mind.

For this reason, it is good to give God thanks when he sends someone, anyone to prepare us for hearing good news.  God knows that we are not always ready to listen, and so He comes to prepare our hearts and minds even before He speaks.

This morning in celebrating the Nativity of St. John the Baptist we give thanks for . . .

“GOD’S GRACIOUS VISITATION”

Most of us know a little bit about John because two of the four Sundays in Advent speak of him.  Wilderness dweller.  Animal skin wearer.  Sitting down to locusts and wild honey.  Baptized by Jesus.  Imprisoned by Herod.  His head ended up a party favor on a platter.  John can be remembered for all these things but today the Church calls attention to his birth.  Why?

At John’s birth, we see how God would like him to be remembered.  “You, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways.” (v. 76)  John was sent ahead of Jesus to prepare the people for God’s gracious visitation.

His birth caused quite a stir.  His father Zechariah gives a grand overview of God’s work of salvation and then he speaks of John’s birth.  He tied the two events together into a much larger story.  Do you think he was passing out cigars as he told the people about his son just born?

We could remember John the Baptist for his travelogue in the wilderness or his many ways to fix bugs and bee nectar but then we miss who God sent him to be.  He came to announce to the people that the Savior of the world was coming.  John awakens people to their sin.  Those who listen end up entering the River Jordan and come out standing on the other side.  Wet with the waters of repentance, they wait.  Then, and only then, are they ready to see Jesus.

When you come to Jesus as a lost and forsaken sinner, only then will you see who he truly is:  your Savior.  Jesus is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” (Jn. 1:29)  He dies on the cross to forgive your sin and rises from the dead to bring eternal life to you.

The world is so blind to the working of God.  John had to be sent.  God is so gracious to people that He gives them chance after chance to repent of their wrongdoing and come to a knowledge of the truth so that all mankind might experience His work of salvation.  We give thanks this day that John was the instrument the Lord used for this purpose before the coming of the Son of God.

God’s ministry through John is not over.  Someone is still standing on the edge of where Jesus is present, letting you know of God’s gracious invitation.

The child brought to the saving waters of baptism at two weeks old.  The parents are messengers, preparing him or her for God’s gracious visitation.  The parents have chosen sponsors who will be messengers throughout this child’s life.  Around the font we see the circle of God’s people sent to prepare one child for God’s gracious visitation.

Consider our congregation this day hearing God’s Word, singing his praises, praying for one another, strengthened by the sacrament.  We are awakened to God’s gracious visitation as we leave here in the cocoon of our situations knowing that they will not overwhelm us.  We have forgiveness.  We have mercy.  We have God-given strength to face the days ahead.  Isn’t it nice to know you have the support and prayers of this body of Christ?  Thanks be to God!

In many ways God has prepared us for his gracious visitation.  Zechariah’s song becomes our own, a faithful way for us still today to offer praise.  “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for has visited and redeemed his people.” (v. 68)

Amen.

June 17, 2018                                                                        Text:  2 Corinthians 5:1-10

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

I am a tent dweller.  Yes, it’s true.  This young man in front of you, you still see me that way, don’t you? Dwelt in a tent on family vacations from ages 5-15.  I’ve slept in a tent from Kitty Hawk, North Carolina to Los Angeles, California.  From the north woods of Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico.  The son of Doug and Pat Lueck laid his head somewhere different every night as we traversed the continental United States.

Have you been a tent dweller?  Do you have stories like mine?  Coleman lantern for light, walk to your shower, pancakes on the Coleman stove in the morning.  Tent put up, tent put down and on to the next town.  Even if you have not had these experiences you are still a tent dweller.  You are dwelling in one right now.  This place is not your permanent home.  This is a temporary dwelling.  You may be laying your head in the same place every night but at some point that will end.  So how do you see yourself?

“TENT DWELLER OR MANSION RESIDENT?”

Someday you are going to be a resident of that eternal mansion through faith in Christ as Savior and Lord but until then, well…”For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling.” (v. 2) Yes, we want to move out of the tent and into the permanent mansion that waits.  But there’s a catch.  Not everyone gets a glorious, eternal, permanent dwelling.  Paul says, “If indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.” (v. 3)  You see, in eternity we will all receive what is due:  either a permanent heavenly dwelling, our bodies glorified, or our bodies stripped bare of any heavenly glory.  Some will be found naked.

Paul continues:  “For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened – not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.” (v. 4)  In the temporary dwelling of our body we groan from the weight and burden of sin.  It weighs us down, ages our bodies, slows our step, creaks our bones, wrinkles our skin, sags our dwelling.

When we move into our permanent heavenly dwelling, the temporary tent in which we groan is not stripped away.  Rather, it is further clothed; it is upgraded and perfected.  It is swallowed up by life – eternal life, immortal life.

So why, in eternity, will some be found naked and others will be further clothed?  Because we all must appear before the judgment seat.  We will either receive a key to the glorious mansion or we will be left naked.

Does that mean that in order to inherit the heavenly mansion we must do good in the body?  Are we really judged and awarded by what we do?  How do we know, on our personal scale of justice, the good things we’ve done outweigh the sinful things?

What about unintentional sins?  Remember saying something without thinking and hurting someone?  They don’t count, do they?  It wasn’t intentional.

What about neglecting someone who needed help?  You ignored it.  Does that count as something bad in the body?  Hey, we’re fooling ourselves.  The answer is we can never do enough good in the body to receive the glorious heavenly dwelling.  We all fall short of the glory of God.  So then how can we receive it?

Paul gives the answer.  “He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.” (v. 5)  Left to our own, we cannot do good things.  Christ has done it by taking our sin, our evil deeds, into his body.  He conquered our sin on the cross within his body.  All that is left for us is our good deeds, which are done through the Spirit as a guarantee.

“So we are always of good courage.  We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight.” (v. 6-7)  In faith we see that Christ takes all our sins of hurtful words and neglect away through His death and resurrection.  In faith we see that heavenly dwelling waiting for us.

By about age 15 I was getting a little tired of camping.  I wanted a hotel room.  Cable TV, indoor pool, no critter noises at night.  Then the Lord intervened.  We were camping somewhere in the southeast and had a large rain one night.  The roof of the tent must have had a leak because my sister woke up all red.  She was in a red sleeping bag and the rain had dripped on her.  Some of our clothes and camping gear also got wet.  The next night we were going to be in Atlanta, Georgia.  My parents came to their senses and we found a hotel room – it was the heavenly mansion I had been waiting for.  Tenting since then has been less than ten times.

I look at the heavenly mansion waiting for me the same way.  Rain is going to fall, things are going to wet and uncomfortable, but the dwelling is only temporary.  We dwell in our tent, but that is all we do.  Our heavenly home is where we make our eternal residence.  For me it is a hotel room in Atlanta, Georgia.  What is it for you?

Live in the assurance – of good courage, Paul says – that this temporary dwelling, in which we groan, will be replaced by an eternal heavenly dwelling.  It will be!  See you there.

Amen.

May 27, 2018                                                                                                 Isaiah 6:1-8

Dear Friends in Christ,

Many of you know I enjoy the study of people, especially groups of people.  One such group is the mafia.  I watch all the shows on cable about Luciano, Gotti, Arcado, Gianncana, and Anastasia.  If you testify against these types of men you need to be protected and starting in 1970 the government came up with a program – The Federal Witness Protection Program.  They change your address, your occupation, your name and anything else that might identify you.  You hide from who you used to be.  You testify in court and then you clam up – to stay alive.

The Lord in our text was looking for someone just as bold.  But this job description did not include hiding from your witness.  It would include calling out a whole nation.  It would take a prophet.

How about you?  How bold are you?  Are you prepared to confront the idolaters of our nation?  Do you recognize your sinful shortcomings?  Do you want to go in hiding?

“ARE YOU IN THE WITNESS PROTECTION PROGRAM?”

The text begins, “In the year that King Uzziah died.”  2 Chronicles 26 gives us a glimpse of this king.  He ruled for 52 years.  During his reign the economy blossomed.  Unemployment and taxes were low.  Military victories happened.  Judah was experiencing good times.  “Ain’t we lucky we got ‘em – good times!”  All this though led to a lowering of moral standards.  After Uzziah died, the Assyrian threat made the future look bleak.

Any of this sound familiar?  Our economy is on the upswing.  Unemployment is low and certain taxes are declining.  But what about our moral standards?  Drugs being legalized.  Values being questioned.  Marriage being flushed down the sewer of post-modern relativism.  Safe zones being created while young people get shot in the school library.

Isaiah knew that in spite of the problems God was still in charge.  He saw the Lord sitting on His throne.  God is still on his throne.  He is directing the course of the world in His own wise way.

Isaiah’s vision was part of the Lord’s plan.  God was going to need a witness but He didn’t need a self-righteous one.  Seeing God’s majesty and hearing the worship offered by the angels Isaiah was overwhelmed by his own sinfulness.  He responded by confessing his sins and the sins of his nation.

In our culture most of us see ourselves as individuals but Isaiah’s confession reflects the more scriptural view of society.  We belong to one another.  Each of us contributes to the whole.  We retain individual responsibility for the direction of our own lives, but we also share jointly in the responsibility for the direction our society takes.

God provided the cleansing for Isaiah.  His unclean lips were atoned for and his guilt taken away.  He was ready to enter the Lord’s witness protection program.

Before our commission we too stand before the Lord with unclean lips and hearts and actions.  Isaiah felt he would die from his encounter with the Lord.  Do your sins ever do that to you?  We come face to face with our guilt and know there is no way to pay the penalty?  And we don’t have to.  Through Jesus God provides our forgiveness.  He baptizes us through the Holy Spirit.  Through the Word of the Gospel, which tells us everything Christ has done, we are cleansed from our unclean lips.  Through faith created by the Spirit working through Word and Sacrament, we trust that forgiveness and salvation.  Now – can I get a witness?!

The Lord got one.  He became the most quoted Old Testament writer in the New Testament.  He declared God’s judgment and the promise of his salvation – the coming Savior.  To hear and respond to this message is what Isaiah’s world needed.  His assignment would not be easy.  He would name names.  He would confront.  After a while, people would cross the street when they saw him coming.  Eventually, if tradition tells the truth, his own people would saw him in half.

Can our world – get your witness?  Hiding behind a new identity is not an option.  You are a Christian – a follower of the Savior, clothed in His righteousness.  Will you love and chastise?  Confront and forgive?  The idolatry is so immense and the task difficult but remember the Lord is in charge of your protection.  He may not be asking you to preach like Peter in our Acts reading this morning, but He is encouraging your witness.  He asks you to scatter seed in your speaking of the Good News.  The Word will create the faith.  Jesus is on stage even as the Holy Spirit is behind the scenes making it happen.  He’s in the rafters, putting the spotlight on Jesus.

May we too – in our lives and conversations – remain focused on Christ, proclaiming the simple, beautiful news of His birth, death, and resurrection.

Here am I, send me, send me!

Amen.

 

May 6, 2018 – Confirmation                                     Texts:  Romans 3:19, 1 John 5:4

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

It was January of 1996 and 4,000 baseball coaches descended upon the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee.  It would be three days of seminars and clinics and exhibits.  But this one would be a little different from all the rest.  There was a buzz in the hallways about one of the main speakers – John Scolinos.

John Scolinos was 78 and retired as a coach of Cal Poly Pomona where he won 3 national championships at the Division II School.  He also had been the pitching coach for the 1984 Olympic Baseball team.  Why all the excitement?

If you have ever been to a convention you know it is a lot of chitchat in various locations with people solving the world’s problems.  Attentions spans can be limited, seats normally readily available.  Not for John Scolinos.  The convention hall was full 30 minutes before his talk.  Why all the excitement?

Finally, it was time.  Coach John Scolinos shuffled to the stage to an impressive standing ovation.  He was dressed normally, except he had a full-sized stark-white home plate hung around his neck.  He talked for 25 minutes with no mention of the home plate.  Had he forgotten?  Was it a new form of jewelry he was promoting for baseball players?

Then…”You are all wondering why I am wearing home plate around my neck.  I’m old but not crazy.  I want to share with you what I’ve learned about home plate in my 78 years.  How many Little League coaches here?  How wide is home plate?”  Someone answered hesitantly, “17 inches.”  “That’s right,” he said.  “How about in Pony baseball?”  Another reluctant coach, “17 inches.”  “How wide is home plate in high school baseball?”  More hands and voices chimed in, “17 inches.”  “How about in the minor leagues?”  Same answer – 17 inches.  “The major leagues?”  Everyone in unison said it, “17 inches.”  “Seventeen inches,” he confirmed.  “What do they do with a Big League pitcher who can’t throw the ball over seventeen inches?  They send him to Pocatello!”

“What they don’t do is this:  they don’t say, ‘It’s ok Jimmy.  You can’t hit a 17-inch target, we’ll make it 18 or 19.  We’ll make it 20 so you have a better chance of hitting it.  If you can’t hit that, let us know so we can make it wider still, say 25 inches.”

“Coaches…(and he paused) what do we do when our best player shows up late to practice?  What if he gets caught drinking?  Do we hold him accountable?  Or do we change the rules to fit him, do we widen home plate?”

Today is Confirmation Sunday.  Another step on the road of faith.  Another milestone of accountability.  A good day to take a few moments for . . .

“ACCOUNTABILITY BY FAITH”

We are the ones that Paul talks about in our Romans verse as being “under the law.”  Scriptures proves our guilt over and over.  Where have we been less than accountable to God?  In our relationship with Him?  In our prayer life?  In our relationships with others?  Where do we widen home plate?  What’s one Sunday away from His House?  Why can’t two people live together without a piece of paper from the county clerk?  We need to help her die because she is suffering so.

John Scolinos drew a house on home plate.  “This is the problem in our homes today.  We don’t teach accountability to our kids, and there is no consequence for failing to meet standards.  We widen the plate!”

To the top of the house he added an American flag.  “This is the problem in our schools today.  Teachers have been stripped of the tools needed to educate and discipline our young people.  We are allowing others to widen home plate!  Where is that getting us?”

He replaced the flag with a cross.  “This is the problem in the church.  Our church leaders are widening home plate with their misleading teachings of Scripture.  If our homes and schools and churches and government fail to hold themselves accountable to those they serve, there is but one thing to look forward to…”  With that he held home plate in front of his chest, turned it around, and revealed its dark backside “…dark days ahead.”

These young people and all of us are living in those days.  Accountability is going out the window.  “You can’t tell me what to do!”  Social media is all about unaccountability.  Home plate is being obliterated.  Oh Lord, we need your help.

“Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.  And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith.”  Do you feel like a conquering world hero?  Of course not.  Thankfully overcoming the world has nothing to do with our feelings and experiences but on our faith.

Martin Luther wrote, “This must happen through faith in Christ, which is the victory.  For what could this fragile vessel accomplish against Satan, the god of the world?  But God is greater.  To be born of God is to believe in Jesus Christ.  He who believes in Christ is now a warrior…For we are still engaged in the battle itself and are about to be victorious…The Word of God is required – the Word which promises and extends grace to the believers, so that when they have been hurled into so many great trials and weighed down under such crafty spirits, they nevertheless triumph.”

Accountability by faith.  Law and Gospel.  Sin and grace.  Confession and forgiveness.  Born again in Baptism.  Strengthened in Word and Sacrament.  Trial and cross.  A Savior being accountable to the Father.  A world saved.  Your faith life important now and into eternity.  Through the Holy Spirit we can stand up and be counted.  Accountable to the Lord and to each other.  A society staying within the bounds of 17 inches.  May the Lord grant it for Jesus’ sake.

Amen.

April 22, 2018                                                                        Text:  John 10:11-18

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

Let’s delve into a subject I know nothing about.  Do you know in our world there is voice recognition technology?  It’s true.  You can talk to your phone or tablet or speaker.  You can communicate with someone named Siri or Alexa and they talk back.  They even answer your questions.  Do you realize this is going on around us?

Ok.  I’m not as foolish as I let on.  I just don’t use the technology.  By the end of 2019 it is to be a $600 million industry.  By 2022, $40 billion.  40% of adults use voice search everyday and smart speakers are showing up in many homes.

There are a lot of voices competing for our attention.  Not just the wife and the kids and the boss.  Machines want to be your friend and give you advice and help you find the nearest Subway.  But how many voices care about your soul?  How many are concerned with your faith?  What is the one voice we should be listening to?   With ears opened let’s ask . . .

“ARE YOU LISTENING TO THE SHEPHERD’S VOICE?”

Sometimes lost in our competing voices world we forget or fail to listen to the Good Shepherd.  And who is He?  Jesus.  He says so in our text.  “I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (v. 11)  No other “shepherd” in any religion does such a thing.  We are the sheep.  Those that listen to the wrong voices.  Those that follow the path of destruction.  Those that lie down with wolves and get comfortable with the hired hands.

The cry of the wolf, the devil, can lead to destruction.  Many listen to his howls and cannot turn away.  He twists and alters God’s word until it is unrecognizable by the sheep.  The hired hand is no better.  He is the Pastor who is “pastoring” simply for his own advantage and will never confront or oppose error.  The sheep then scatter.  We see this today as people skip from church to church looking for a church standing on the truth of God’s Word or they leave such a church to satisfy their itching ears and their own personal agendas.  In the end they will be devoured and the wolf smiles with blood on his face.

The wolf and the hired hand can be overcome by the Good Shepherd – Jesus the Christ.  Christ is not a chameleon savior.  He is the One who stands before all human history with it’s rising and fallings – its here today and gone tomorrow cycles – and declares:  “I the Lord do not change.” (Mal. 3:6)  What a blessing for the sheep, befuddled and slammed around by the storms of life.  This is the Jesus I know.

One of the things that voice technology proponents are working on is to make it more natural.  They even accept the notion that listening is important.  How are you as a listener?  Your spouse?  Your kids?  Your boss?  Your phone company or internet provider?  It can get frustrating, can’t it?  Who always listens?  Our Lord.  Through prayer there is never a time that He doesn’t listen.  He hears your confession and forgives.  He sympathizes with your heartaches and challenges.  He went to great lengths for your salvation.  He heard our cry for mercy and sacrificed His Son on a cross.  The world didn’t need voice recognition to hear that.  It is the loudest announcement ever made.

We as the sheep do not come to the Good Shepherd.  He comes to us.  We become part of the fold by hearing His voice.  We remain safe and secure in the care of the Shepherd by hearing His Word.

As we rely more and more on technology, human interaction is becoming less and less.  But understand this.  On average you can only type 40 words a minute.  When you speak you average 150 words a minute.  As sheep of the Good Shepherd who listen to His voice, we have plenty to say.  Who can the Holy Spirit help you reach?  Who needs to hear your Christian voice?  Who needs the comfort of the Good Shepherd?  Who recognizes your voice as a helper from the Lord?

Aah, I hear the Good Shepherd.  Do you?  What a great voice to recognize!

Amen.

 

April 1, 2018 – Easter                                                           Text:  Romans 6:1-9

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

“The Gospel in Seven Words.”  That has been our theme this Lenten season.  If you have been with us on Wednesday evenings, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday you know that each week we try to get the Gospel down to seven words.  Brevity is something needed in our attention span starved world.  People who don’t know the Gospel, or who have walked away from the church, especially friends and family of yours, need to hear the Good News about what this day is all about.

We have talked these last seven weeks about confessing, captivity and freedom, death and life, isolation and community.  In Holy Week we have focused on Jesus feeding our hungry soul and how His death has overcome our death.  Today, our goal is once again to witness to the Gospel in seven words.

When this journey began on Ash Wednesday, one of our congregation members came out of church and mentioned to me that I was already proclaiming the gospel in brief.  I do it each time I step in this pulpit.  I have been doing it for 26 ½ years, the length of my ministry.  You heard it again today.  Do you know what it is?  . . . “Jesus died, so we might live.”  I know that’s six words; so to keep with our target of seven words, let’s make it this on Easter morning . . .

“JESUS DIED AND ROSE, SO WE LIVE”

The first part states that Jesus died.  He did.  I was there.  You were there.  Not physically mind you, but a part of us was there.  Our bad language was there.  Our worrying was there.  Our questionable choices were there.  Our idols of success and money and “look what I have done world” before our relationship with God were there.  Our Sunday morning decisions about being in God’s House were there.  Our horrible thoughts about others were there.  Our lack of trust in our Savior was there.  It was all piled on Him.  He was crushed for our iniquities.  He went through hell to save us from hell.  “Surely He was the Son of God.”

The second part of our seven word gospel we celebrate today.  Jesus rose.  What a glorious declaration.  Jesus’ resurrection was the fulfillment of God’s Word throughout the ages.  It was the core of God’s meticulously crafted plan of salvation.  Jesus had promised he would rise from the dead, and when he did, he proved his divinity.  He vindicated everything he had ever said or done.  Because Jesus rose we can trust everything he said throughout his life and ministry.

Because Jesus died and because Jesus rose, we can declare with confidence that “we live.”  None of us can outwit or outsmart or outlast death.  The slow and steady march of life is always leading us another step closer to the grave.

And yet, the resurrection of Jesus shows that death is no longer in charge.  Because of Jesus, death is no longer our master.  We will still die, unless Jesus returns, but death is no longer the end of our story.  Through faith in Christ, and through the promise God makes to us in our baptism, we will live even after death.

Do you get it?  Because of Easter, we need not live in shame.  Because of Easter we need not work so hard to serve ourselves.  Because of Easter we can forgive those who have sinned against us, for Christ has forgiven our sin against him.  It’s called new life, and it’s what God gives you and me here again this day.

Her father was an atheist who concluded God did not exist.  In college weighed down with her parent’s divorce and an absentee father she tried to cope with one-night stands, binge drinking, and recreational drugs.  But at night, when the lights were out, she asked the question that every human being asks at one time, “Is there something more to life?”

During her sophomore year, her father read the Bible to see if Jesus professed positive things and through this he came to faith.  His newfound faith threatened her.  Outwardly, she mocked him.  Inwardly, it launched her on a quest to discover the meaning of life.

She took a class on non-Western religions and then interviewed classmates about their belief systems around a keg smoking joints.  One day she passed a bookstore and saw a book by Billy Graham.  She tucked it into her beach bag, grabbed a six-pack and went to the dunes of Lake Michigan to party with friends.  As she read on the beach and looked around at God’s creation she thought, “maybe God does exist and created me for a purpose.”

She then read the Bible and she couldn’t get enough.  It introduced her to God’s love through Christ and His ability to provide each of us an abundant life full of significance.  She was transformed from tending bar on the weekends to marrying a Pastor who tells people every Sunday about the living water, the life we have because of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Who do you know who is lying in bed thinking, “Is there something more to life?”  Maybe you found yourself in this true story.  Whatever brought you to worship this day, I want you to find the peace and joy that God offers in light of Jesus’ resurrection.  I want you to believe, and to confess, this incredibly good news of the gospel.  This morning, we again make it simple.  Just seven words that change our lives forever.

Jesus died and rose, so we live.                Amen.