Sermon Texts

August 25, 2024 Text:  Mark 7:1-13

Dear Friends in Christ,

You have heard the expression “lip service,” and you probably know what it means.  You probably do not know that the expression was inspired by our text for this morning where Jesus quotes from Isaiah.  Paying lip service is saying one thing and doing another.  Remember during Covid when politicians told us we couldn’t get haircuts and then they were sneaking underground for a clip and a perm?  Made you mad, didn’t it?  

Let’s welcome the Pharisees to the party this morning.  They would like you to wash your hands.  And if you don’t, well, you can’t really be a follower of God, because you are not keeping his law.  Throughout Scripture, these men are known for . . . 

“PAYING LIP SERVICE”

Are you a regular hand washer?  Are you as anal about it, as I am?  Every Sunday, after all the handshakes.  Soap and water in the vestry.  Get to the office, wash.  Go home, wash.  Shoot baskets, wash.  In a hospital or nursing home, wash.  I am not trying to keep up with the Pharisees, but I do believe my hand washing is a reason for my many years now of not being sick.  

Ok, you are going to a private audience with Jesus.  What are you going to ask him?  Anybody here going to ask him how to wash before a meal?  Didn’t think so.  You’ll never make it as a Pharisee.  Look what they do.  “The Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands.’” (v. 5). Jesus’ opponents have completely lost sight of what matters to God.  They have put human concerns before and above what is important in God’s eyes.  

Does Jesus play nice with this question?  No, he calls them “hypocrites” and then he quotes from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, “’This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” (v. 6-7)  The Pharisees are more concerned about whether people’s hands are clean than whether their bodies have been cleansed of disease by the words of Jesus and whether their hearts have been filled with the peace that Jesus is proclaiming.  That is exactly the sort of thing that happens when we stop asking what is important to God.

For the Pharisees their lips are close, but their hearts are distant.  They are paying lip service to Jesus.  If Isaiah’s words are prophesied about us, and if Jesus’ warnings speak to us, we had better examine our own lips and hearts and heads and hands to see how we are doing.  How have we lost sight of what’s really important?  What traditions of men, what traditions of our own, have we let crowd out God’s Word from its proper place as the Word that demands our total obedience?  

If we say we are followers of the Word but call out our neighbor for dirty hands, what are we doing?  We are paying lip service to our beliefs.  Don’t miss the dirt behind your ears or the dirt in your eyes or the dirt that clogs your heart.  God doesn’t just tell us we are dirty, rather our Lord calls us from human tradition to God’s Word and His priorities.  His voice declares us clean.  He forgives our lip service.  

We pray that the Holy Spirit will help us live this way.  Even young children pick up on telling them one thing and doing another.  Jesus tells us from the cross, “Come to me and I will make you clean.”  Our hypocritical behavior was washed away at Calvary.  We can come into His presence with clean hands and clean hearts.

When I have gone to neo-natal intensive care units, I must wash my hands like a doctor.  Hot water, soap and do it for at least a minute.  Then you glove and gown up to go in.  Those hands are pretty clean, but put them under a microscope and what are we going to see?  A least a few germs.  The cleansing that Jesus gives takes the tiniest microbe away.  His cleansing lasts for an eternity.  He didn’t just pay us lip service, He was obedient to the Father and finished the plan of salvation.  You can walk away clean . . . hands and heart.

Amen.   

August 18, 2024 Text:  Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18

Dear Friends in Christ,

Thomas Jefferson should have been rich.  He was born into a prominent Virginia family.  He married a wealthy widow.  He farmed a lot of land and had a lot of business ventures.  He was President of the United States.  Yet he died deeply in debt, and all his property was sold to pay for it.  How did this happen?

He inherited a large debt from his father-in-law and farming was an uncertain source of income.  People who owed him did not always pay him back.  He spent beyond his means.  His credit was bad.  When he died, he had a debt of $107,000 – millions in today’s dollars.

Money is seductive.  We think if we have enough, we will be secure.  But that is an illusion.  If relying on wealth, sooner or later it will fail you.  After all, you can’t take it with you.

Joshua was aware of this as his death drew near.  He knew he was leaving God’s people a rich and productive land, all of its blessings and promises.   But these comforts and wealth would be worthless and soon lost if Israel forgot the Lord.  Leaving them with a final word from the Lord would, Joshua knew, be a much more precious legacy.

Which G(g)od were they going to serve? 

“HOW CAN WE KEEP OUR VOW TO SERVE THE LORD?”

Israel always struggled in their vow to serve the one true God.  The friends, family, and neighbors of Abraham had invented some 4,000 gods.  At that rate they could serve a different god every day for about 11 years.  Their commitment at times was lacking.

We want to be committed to the God we know.  God the Father who sent His Son to die and rise again to save us.  We know Jesus has freed us from sin, death, and the power of the devil.  We know the Holy Spirit came in our Baptism to make us His sons and daughters.  We love God because He first loved us.  We want to commit to Him.  “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (v. 15b)

Sounds easy enough, but is it?  How many gods can we create?  10?  100?  1,000?  If we set here long enough, we might come up with 4,000 like the Israelites.  We trust God, but aren’t there times we think He needs our help?  If your trust is not solely on Him in your sticky situations, well . . . maybe that vow is a little harder to keep.

We make poor choices.  We let wealth hold back the offering.  The Saturday night party that has us in no shape for the Sunday worship.  The child’s involvement in an activity where their faith is sacrificed on the altar.  Genetic family that comes before God’s family and fellowship.  Going after our “15 minutes of fame” instead of an eternity with Jesus.

We break our vow with things that will always let us down.  Only God can be trusted not to fail when we need Him most.  Sometimes He can be the last one we turn to in the support system.  “Lord, have mercy.”  Thank God, He does have mercy.

Even though God the Son deserves our complete devotion, he set aside His glory for our sake.  Sent to earth by God the Father, he was born of the Virgin Mary and became one of us.  He lived a perfect life of service to God and neighbor, which God credits to us.  Jesus serves us, by giving his life as a ransom for the many.  When are trust wanes, he carried that to the cross.  When we fail to put Him first in our lives, He forgives through His death and resurrection.  God has been faithful, giving us life and salvation in His name.

By the end of our text, the people have joined Joshua in a pledge to serve this Lord.  They give a confession of faith which tells of the way God had saved them.  

Because Jesus served us, we can serve the Lord.  When tempted to depend on earthly things more than God, The Holy Spirit reminds us through the Word and Sacraments where our true security lies.  When seeing all that God has done for us, we respond naturally to praise God for His love, mercies, and blessings.  When our main trust is in the Lord, and we love God above all things, we want to help others around us.  

Let’s hang it proudly in our homes.  Maybe have it on a poster in our bedroom or a bumper sticker on our car.  The people of Israel fashion their confession after the words of Joshua.  Their commitment to the Lord is the same as his.  We make that same vow today, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Amen. 

August 4, 2024               Text:  John 6:22-35

Dear Friends in Christ,

Herman Gockel in his book My Hand In His, shares the story of an elderly man on his deathbed.  His family is by his side.  One of his sons is a Pastor.  It’s a Saturday.  The man tells his son to go home and preach to his congregation the next day.  He tells his son that if he dies while the son is gone, his son will know where to find him.

“You’ll know where to find me.”  Imagine living your faith like that.  Imagine sharing your confidence and reassurance with your loved ones.  Eternal life is what really matters.  Life in this world will finally fail us.  Not the life our Lord gives.  Jesus says in today’s Gospel:  “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.  For on him God the Father has set his seal.” (v. 27)

Are you ready to die?  How often do you think about it?  It is an unavoidable appointment of stepping out of earthly sunshine and activities into  . . . into the what?  Where are you at this morning and . . . 

“WHAT DO YOU PLAN TO DO?”

We begin with verses 25-26:  “When the found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’  Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.’”

Jesus would have made a lousy politician.  He could have won everybody over by continuing to fill their stomachs or offering the ultimate health care plan or giving everyone a new car and home.  He put the brakes on them running after him just because He had fed them the bread and fish.

Some of us still remember the days when gas station attendants pumped your gas.  I’m not kidding kids!  They might even check your oil and wash your windows.  Remember what they’d ask?  “Fill’er up?”  That’s a look at our society.  Gimme that.  I want.  I deserve.  I intend to have it all my way.  They weren’t seeking Jesus because of the signs; they were crowding him because he filled their bellies.  What do we do with what we are observing?

Jesus goes on to say, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.  For on him God the Father has set his seal.” (v. 27)

What do want to get out of this world?  Do you have hopes and dreams or are you just surviving?  Do you want happiness?  Ah, yes.  Except you can’t except for some moments.  Don’t we smirk and say, “they can’t be that happy all the time.”  Can they?

Let’s check Scripture on this one.  Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation.” (Jn. 16:33b)  The Apostle John wrote, “Do not love the world or the things of the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15)

Put them together and what do you expect?  Where are your expectations taking you in your walk with the Lord.

Jesus said earlier to “work…for the food that endures to eternal life.”  This gets the people wondering so they ask the question, “what must we do, to be doing the works of God?” (v. 28)  Jesus gives a simple and beautiful answer, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (v. 29)

“Believe in him. . .”  Jesus.  Everything comes back to this for God’s people.  The issue of this life is the Life given us in Christ.  It’s the daily comfort of forgiveness.  It’s the minute-by-minute presence in our tribulations.  It’s the joy of living because we know that heaven is our home.  It’s his Word that speaks to us in our daily trials and joys.  It is not just having our fill in our bellies but the strength of a Sacrament that fills our spiritual tanks.

James S Hewett writes, “Russian author Leo Tolstoy tells the story of a rich man who was never satisfied.  He always wanted more.  He heard of a wonderful chance for more land.  For a 1,000 rubles he could have all that he could walk around in a day.  But he had to make it back to the starting point by sundown or he would lose it all.

“He got up early and starting walking.  He walked on and on thinking he could get just a little more land.  But he went so far that now he would have to run to get back by sundown.  He saw the starting line, exerted his last energies, crossed the finish line, fell to the ground, and collapsed.  Blood streamed from his mouth, and he lay dead.  His servant took a spade and dug a grave.  He made it just long enough and wide enough and buried him.

“The title of Tolstoy’s story is ‘How Much Land Does a Man Need?’  He concludes by saying, ‘Six feet from his head to his heels was all he needed.’”

What . . . do . . . we . . . plan to do?

Amen.

July 28, 2024           Text:  Genesis 9:8-17

Dear Friends in Christ,

Many of you are familiar with the Irish Rovers hit song “The Unicorn.”  Here is a verse, “Now God seen some sinning and it gave Him pain and He says, ‘Stand back, I’m going to make it rain.’  He says, ‘Hey brother Noah, I’ll tell you what to do, Build me a floating zoo.”

The theme of the song is that all the animals made it into the ark except the unicorns.  The song goes, “Then Noah looked out through the driving rain, Them unicorns were hiding, playing silly games, Kicking and splashing while the rain was pouring.”  The ark started moving and the unicorns floated away.  That is why we see no unicorns to this very day.

It is a catchy tune, but I like the message behind it.  The unicorns got distracted with their lives that they missed the ark, which would have saved them.

Does that ever happen to us?  We get caught up in our silly games and the salvation story passes us by.  You don’t think we get distracted?  Let’s focus on the rainbow today.  It is a beautiful symbol of God’s grace.  The world distracts us from that by it being a symbol for the homosexual community since 1978.  Isn’t it ironic that their symbol is one of God’s greatest promises?  With apologies to the Muppets and their 1979 hit let’s delve into . . . 

“THE RAINBOW CONNECTION”

A little science lesson to begin.  A rainbow comes in seven colors and involves refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets.  It is always opposite the sun.  It is a full measure of God’s creative power on display in a sign to remind you of His mercy and love.

What is our connection?  The promise we hear today is not just for the eight people left on earth.  It is for all of mankind forever.  This covenant is between God and His creation.  God is making a promise that all living things will never suffer and be destroyed by the devastation of a global flood again.  God is going to bring about hope and peace.

What are the terms of this covenant?   Rains will still fall.  Floods will still rage and foam in parts of the earth.  Life is still in peril due to this wrath expressed in nature.  But “never again” will waters wipe out all of life.  

In order to provide Noah and his descendants – including us – this covenant, God would provide a sign.  “My bow.”  He chooses a sign that reflects the light and glory of His creation:  the rainbow.  There is the connection.  It connects you and I to God’s promise.  It connects God to the world.  It is breathtaking.  Martin Luther states, “This sign should remind us to give thanks to God.  For as often as the rainbow appears, it preaches to the entire world with a loud voice about the wrath which once moved God to destroy the whole world.  It also gives comfort, that we may have the conviction that God is kindly inclined toward us again and will never again make use of so horrible a punishment.”

We can’t speak of all the continents, but some of us can attest to the rainbow in Europe.  We saw it after a very heavy rain that made it hard to see the road.  But that is how the rainbow works.  It always follows a storm.  Noah leaves the ark, there it is.  We have a downpour and go out on our decks, there it is.  A tornado may move through, we come up from the basement, there it is.  The Lord says, “When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh.” (vs. 14-15a)

This is the first mention of clouds in the Bible, but certainly not the last.  There would be some horribly dark times to come.  We have them, don’t we?  We get trapped in our sinful darkness.  We build our own ark for safety, but the demons keep knocking at the door.  There is only one way out – the light of Christ.  His red blood shed on the cross is a sign of hope.  His yellowing skin from the beatings that He takes on our behalf.  The blue of death when He breathes his last.  Then the bright colors of Easter morning that announce that He has risen.  No tomb can hold Him in.  He bursts forth in full majestic color for the world to see.  His rainbow connects to His cross as symbols of His love, grace, mercy. 

Let’s also not miss the water connection.  In flooding, water is a symbol of destruction.  In our baptism that same water is a sign of hope and forgiveness.  But to get to the font we had to be born in sin.  There had to be something to wash away.  We come out of the font or lake or swimming pool or wherever we were baptized as new creations.  Just like Noah and family who left the ark.  The rainbow promise connects us together.

Noah and his family were in the ark for over a year.  Tossed about by the waves.  Probably had some fear and anxiety.  What would they see when they opened that door?  How different would the world look?  They saw light.  They saw a rainbow.  Something so beautiful that the whole of creation should never forget how great is the God of creation.

It is the same today.  We can look to the clouds, and we receive the same comfort.  Our rainbow connection says that God loves us and holds us dear.  He sent His Son Jesus to fulfill the terms of this everlasting covenant. 

Amen.

July 21, 2024 Text:  Ephesians 2:13-22

Dear Friends in Christ,

President Reagan said this in a speech before the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany on June 12, 1987.  “Behind me stands a wall that encircles the free sectors of this city, part of a vast system of barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe…As long as this gate is closed, as long as this scar of a wall is permitted to stand, it is not the German question alone that remains open, but the question of freedom for all mankind…General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate.  Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate!  Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

Our text talks about a “dividing wall of hostility” that separated Jews and Gentiles.  They had their own religion, culture, and language.  But God created people to live together in peace and harmony.  

Christ came to tear down the dividing wall of hostility.  God in Christ reconciled Jew and Gentile to himself.  That is the way things are supposed to be.   United together.  One Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one Spirit. All in one communion of saints.  

“HOW CLOSE IS GOD TO US?”

Our text in verse 13, “But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”  This would be all of us.  We were once far off and away from God’s grace.  Sin does that to a person.

How close is God to us?  The very blood of Christ has brought us into God’s family.  We are blood bought possessions.  Hebrews says, “. . . without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” (Heb. 9:22b).  The words of John:  “ . . . the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from every sin.”

How close is God to us?  God owns us.  Through our faith in the blood of Christ to wash away all of our sin.  

What is the most frightening thing in the world?  World War?  A world that is morally inept?  The godlessness of nations?  The most frightening thing in the world is the thought that God wouldn’t love us anymore.  We constantly offend him with our words about Him and our actions toward Him.  What if Christ looked at us and said, “I’ve had it!  I don’t love you anymore!”  But . . . He doesn’t!  Listen to our text . . . “For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one (Jew and Gentile) and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility . . . He came and preached peace to you who we far off and peace to those who were near.  For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.” (vs. 14, 17, 18)

How close is God to us?  We have peace.  That is to say God is no longer hostile toward us because our hostile sin against Him.  Christ bore God’s wrath and punishment.  For Christ’s sake we are forgiven.

Jesus has fully paid our sin so he won’t say that he doesn’t love us anymore.  He will say, “I love you and my suffering has brought you peace.”

God is accessible.  And that accessibility is in front of us through Word and Sacraments.  In our darkest moments he is there.  He is there when we leave this world.

That makes us His family.  “You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.  In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” (vs. 19-22)

How close is God to us?  Through Christ’s sacrifice at Calvary and by virtue of the faith He has instilled in us He has made us . . . family.  

We haven’t forgotten, have we?  C.S. Lewis said, “the devil always sends errors into the world in pairs – pairs of opposites.  And he always encourages us to spend a lot of time thinking which is worse.  You see why, of course.  Her relies on your extra dislike of the one error to draw you gradually into the opposite one.”

The devil wants to divide.  Christ wants to unite.  How close is to God to us?  He is using you and I to share this message with others.  As his family members he asks us to share his love and grace and compassion.  Rupert Brooke wrote:  “Now God can be thanked, who has matched us with this hour of history.”  We are at the right time and the right place – touching the souls of others.  And you thought your life was meaningless?  Now when God is this close!

Amen.   

July 14, 2024 Text:  Mark 6:14-29

Dear Friends in Christ,

Herod the King was enjoying himself greatly.  His belly was stuffed, the drinks were flowing, the hall was hot and smoky.  Then a young woman, beautiful in his eyes danced for him.  That it was his stepdaughter and niece disturbs us, but not him.  This tells you a lot about him.  He was so pleased that he made this ridiculous offer:  “I’ll give you whatever you ask for, up to half of my kingdom.”  The room probably became still and silent.  The king was probably drunk, and they could gain a favor.  She had the power. 

She takes this promise from Herod seriously.  She goes to her mother who says, “I want the head of John the Baptist.”  But it gets even more vile, “I want it on a platter.”  This King who had broken promises his whole life, kept his worthless word this time.  He waved his hand and made it so.  They could’ve have asked for half the kingdom, but they chose something more valuable, at least to them, life without guilt.  

Herod’s wife was smart, savvy, and evil.  While all through the palace party people were losing their heads, she had kept hers, clear and cunning.  She was playing a game you might know, the one where you win or you die, and she craved more influence, and this prophet, bearded and ugly and dirty, had stood in her way.

“STANDING IN THE WAY”

John had long been in prison because of Herod.  But for whatever reason, in moments of clarity, the king occasionally brought John into his throne room to hear him speak.  And that makes sense.  Thousands upon thousands had come to the wilderness to hear John preach.  They were baptized by Him in the Jordan River, just as Jesus himself was.  John’s message had not changed.  He was always taking repentance.  Now standing before this fool king, he still talked of repentance.  He didn’t ask for his release or butter up the sloppy king, but said rather, “How you are living right now, it ain’t right.”  John’s message was standing in the way.

What had Herod done that wasn’t right?  Taken his brother’s wife to be his wife.  The problem – his brother hadn’t died.  He simply took her because he could.  That is what happens with power.  John told him clearly that this wasn’t the way to live.  And the queen didn’t like it.  She felt the words of John kept her influence over the king in check.  She felt trapped by the words of this man in prison.  He was standing in the way.  So, the moment presents itself and she gets the head of John the Baptist.  That head on a platter threw her guilt away.  Herod and his wife would not have to hear his incisive sermons again.

Is that a desire we can relate to?  Not participating in this cruel spectacle, not ending the life of another, but to live without guilt.  John brought a message to Herod about God’s Law, and how Herod’s life needed changing.  Instead of changing heart and life, it was easier to put his head on a platter.  Our lives might be filled with less obvious darkness than was evident at that party in Herod’s palace.  Do we occasionally have a similar reaction . . . easier to kill the messenger than hear the message?

No matter who you are, no matter what you are, there are times when the word of God stands in our way, interrupts our lives and says, “stop, turn, and hear righteousness and holiness from God.”  And the hard truth is we would rather turn our backs on God, than hear his words.  People leave the church because they don’t want to live with the guilt.  God’s Word is standing in the way of their lifestyle.  So, they adopt a new world view that doesn’t conflict with their behavior.

This misunderstands guilt.  When we are faced with guilt, when we bump into God’s Word that says, “this ain’t right,” we are not offered only two choices – either turning our back on it or trying to work are way out of it.

The message of today, the invitation from Jesus is rather that you bring your guilt to him.  Watch as God nails your guilt to the cross.  Watch as He turns to you and changes you, and then, in the freedom of forgiveness, turns you toward righteousness and holiness.  You see, righteousness and holiness, they don’t gain God’s favor.  They are gifts that come with God’s favor.

So, for those struggling to believe or behave or to keep the faith, or to turn your backs…to all of us…comes this encouragement from God’s Word today.  You are welcomed into the feast the King provides.  You leave with no regret or shame.  Those things were washed away when Jesus showed His mighty power of love, when on the cross he purchased your seat at the table.  He stands in the way of your guilt.  His bloodied body shows that for all to see.

We can live without guilt as we live under the power of the cross.  Listen to John preach.  It may not always be easy . . . but in the end, it will be worth it.

Amen.