Sermons

Oct. 1, 2017 – LWML Sunday                                               Text:  2 Timothy 4:1-4

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

Man, do my ears itch?  How about you?  Just saying the word “itch” gets us to thinking.  You want to scratch somewhere, right now, don’t you?  It is like two weekends ago both at Holden’s high school football game and Karson’s college football game where they made an announcement that someone had lost their keys.  What did everyone do?  Start patting their pockets, checking their purse.  I resisted, at least, until a few minutes later.

On this LWML Sunday, to say we have “itching ear” disease is a little like saying President Trump likes to Twitter.  Unless you are in a coma, I have just stated the obvious.  Let’s hit the disease head on this morning and  . . .

“BE READY TO CONFESS”

Brother Timothy and Brother Paul worked as Pastors in a time when this disease was spreading.  People were finding church leaders who spoke their language, didn’t call them to account for their sins and changed the truth of the gospel.  They needed each other and the early church leaders so that they would be ready to confess.

It is within the framework of the sermon text of today where I could go off on those removing Christ from the public square, those denying God as Creator and the worldly decimators who think they know what a Christian is all about.

But to me that is not the root of the disease.  People who say they are Christian cause this cancerous growth.  Sure the charlatans of media, academia and Hollywood have their spin, but are they the most dangerous?

As a Pastor of some experience now, people get led away from worship and the church because they start to believe in a different gospel.  A gospel that says believe in a higher being and all your problems will be solved – scratch.  A teacher that says let me entertain you into believing – scratch.  A fellow Christian who stands idly by as you live together before marriage – scratch, scratch.  So-called Biblical colleges who teach that yea you were a monkey before becoming a human being – scratch.  Worldwide white smoke pontificators who care more about global warming than what Christ did on the cross – scratch, scratch, scratch.  Man, do I itch.

Doctrine, the teachings of Scripture, is the only tool for reproving, rebuking, and exhorting.  Yet, doctrine must be taught with long-suffering, knowing that people will not always accept what is taught or that acceptance might take a long time.

That last part – it might take along time – is hard for us impatient people.  But I encourage.  Confess Jesus.  Confess the Gospel.  Confess the truth.  Confess Word and Sacraments.  Confess faithfulness in worship.  Confess marriage.  Confess God as Creator.  Sometimes in our pity, we wonder does it make a difference?  Recently you know that Toni, Holden, and I went back to the first church I served in Texas.  What God allowed me to see in that 30-hour period is that confessing Christ makes a difference even though we may not see it until years later.  Confirmands you thought weren’t paying attention, now confessing Jesus in their lives.  Little shavers when you left now being leaders in their churches.  A young woman with two out of wedlock births now married, husband as elder and involved in their LCMS Church.  It does matter what you confess.  Stop the itching.  God’s Word puts the disease, the devil and the world in remission.  It’s His timing, not ours.

The Lutheran Women’s Missionary League knows a little about timing.  They decided to form at an odd time in history – 1942.  Men were fighting overseas, women were joining the workforce, the challenges were daunting.  Yet on July 7 & 8 of that year over 100 women met in Chicago and established the LWML.  They probably had the “itching ear” crowd wondering why establish a mission society during a war.  They pressed on with their confession of Jesus and the mission of the church.  The League has blessed the mission efforts of congregations, districts, and synod in powerful ways.  They listened to the truth and have encouraged each other.

Our Lutheran confession has always struggled against the intrusion of false teaching.  You can’t have the Law hammer people into the free gift of salvation.  From a purely theological insight we have seen that this week.  The more you tell someone what to do, the less likely they are to it.  You remember childhood, don’t you?  We preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ crucified for our sins and raised for our justification.  Induced by this Gospel, the Spirit of the Lord leads men and women and children to this healing balm that takes away the itch of the world.  I don’t feel the need to scratch, how about you?

In simple words, our faithful God keeps His promises and we pray this Sunday and always that He will enable us to BE READY TO CONFESS.

Amen.

September 17, 2017                                                              Text:  Genesis 50:15-21

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

As human beings we enjoy stories of sweet revenge.  My dad tells the story of being on the JV basketball team in a small south central Illinois town in the late 1950’s.  The team he was on was pretty good.  They would win some games by quite a lot.  My dad, his friend and a few other teammates were the bench players.  Unfortunately, even in their blowout wins, they would not get a lot of playing time.  The coach liked to keep his starters in the game.

During their last game at home that season, they had another game where they were way ahead.  With very little time on the clock, the coach started to empty his bench and send the bench players into the game.  My dad’s friend took his warm-up off, checked into the scorer’s table, and then proceeded to run not into the game, but straight into the locker room.  The coach stood there dumbfounded.  He had no idea what was going on.  This was the player’s chance to get back at the coach for never getting him into a game.  I laugh every time my dad tells this story.

If someone had the right to sweet revenge it would be the main character in our text – Joseph.  We will get into his story and see how . . .

“THE LORD CAN TRANSFORM EVIL INTO GOOD”

Our text today is actually the end of a long story about Joseph and his brothers.  Joseph was the eleventh of twelve brothers and the most beloved by his father Jacob.  Joseph did some things to his brothers they didn’t like so they conspired to kill him and throw him down a pit.  The brothers made it look like Joseph had been killed and Jacob grieved for his dead son.

Except, Joseph wasn’t dead.  He was sold and served Potiphar.  He ended up in prison but interpreted some dreams for Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker, and then for Pharaoh.  Pharaoh put Joseph in a place of leadership and he controlled the flow of grain during the famine and the years of plenty.  This is what brought Joseph’s brothers to him.

With that background then, our text, “When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, ‘It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.’” (v. 15)

Do you ever have those thoughts?  You want to get back at someone who has wronged you?  A co-worker takes credit for your work and it puts you in a bad light with the boss.  Later, that same co-worker struggles hopelessly with a project due tomorrow.  What do you do?

A fellow student bullies you mercilessly.  Later, she’s accused of cheating on a test, but you know she’s innocent.  What do you do?

Your sister talks your aging mother into giving her a precious heirloom that she promised you many years ago, and then she sells it.  Now your sister needs help with groceries for her family.  What do you do?

The music director asks you to sing a solo for Christmas Eve.  After practicing for several weeks, he asks his grandson to do it.  Months later, with only a week’s notice, the music director wants you to sing several solos for Easter because his grandson backed out.  What do you do?

Joseph brothers threw him in a pit, let his father think he was dead, and now they come to him for much needed grain.  What will he do?  These brothers had lived with guilt and had never had a good talk with Joseph about what they had done to him.

Sometimes instead of talking with our families or friends, we have the idea that past hurts and sins will just go away if we don’t bring them up again.  They are not confessed and forgiven, just forgotten…for a while.  But if the topic comes up again, the scab is picked and the bleeding starts all over.  Even if we cover it up with “That’s okay,” or “don’t worry about it.”  The healing never happens.

The brothers make up a story about Jacob to Joseph and how the father wanted Joseph to forgive them.  Their contrition is not genuine but a desperate attempt to save themselves.

Do we play this game with a cake or flowers or a trip away?  That’s bribery, not repentance and forgiveness.  We need to articulate the wrong and be forgiven.  Hearing the words of absolution from the Pastor in church, as well as remembering our Baptism and receiving Christ’s body and blood “for the forgiveness of sins,” is hearing the voice of God loud and clear that God has forgiven us through the sacrifice, the cross, of our Savior Jesus.

This is the truth that Joseph knew.  He wasn’t in the place of God, but God could bring good out of evil.  From a blood-stained cloak and the bottom of a slimy pit to a leader in Egypt with his brother’s future in his hands.  He could have gone to the scorer’s table, checked into the game and then kept on running away, leaving his brothers standing there dumbfounded.  But He didn’t.  Joseph explained that the Lord had a purpose in the brother’s evil.  God meant it for good so that this family could be reconciled and many people would be kept alive.

Those who hated and killed Jesus meant it for evil, but God meant it for good, the saving of many souls.  The persecution and unjust treatment and the killing and the burial and the emerging from the tomb were all part of God’s greater plan of ultimate good for you and me.  Our sins are no more!

Jesus speaks to us today through Joseph.  Can we see the good that can come from the evil in our lives?  Do you have relationships still hanging in the balance?  Through the power of the Holy Spirit make that phone call, write that letter, let go of your anger and be reminded of the precious love the Savior has for you.  You have been reconciled to Him and He wants you to be reconciled to others.  The Lord can transform evil to good and we were blessed to see it today.

Amen.

 

August 27, 2017                                                                    Text:  Matthew 16:13-20

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

Dorothy Leigh Sayers has been described as “a renowned English crime writer, poet, playwright, essayist, translator and Christian humanist.”  She died in 1957.  Concerning our Lord Jesus Christ she wrote the following which I have always found interesting:

“The people who hanged Christ never accused Him of being a bore; on the contrary, they thought Him too dynamic to be safe.  It has been left for later generations to muffle up that shattering personality and surround Him with the atmosphere of tedium.  We have very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah, certified Him ‘meek and mild,’ and recommended Him as a fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies.  To those who knew Him, however, He in no way suggested a milk and water person; they objected to Him as a dangerous firebrand…But He had a ‘daily beauty in his life that made us ugly,’ and officialdom felt that the established order of things would be more secure without Him.  So they did away with God in the name of peace and quietness.”

But have things remained quiet and peaceful when it comes to Jesus?  Hollywood, part of the scientific community, the humanists and liberal “theologians” can’t do enough to do away with Jesus!  And us?

“WHAT ARE WE DOING WITH HIM?”

Jesus is traveling again this morning and He comes to Caesarea Philippi.  He gets into a discussion with the disciples about who He is.  You know the answers they gave of what people thought – John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah.  Maybe the soul of one of these entered Jesus.  Ridiculous, you think?  No more so than the ridiculous thoughts of our day.  Jesus the example.  Jesus the “son” of God in the sense that we are all sons and daughters of God, goes the liberal drivel.  Maybe a womanizer.  Maybe a lowlife.  A liar.  A scam artist.

There now.  The genius of human wisdom can reduce Jesus to a zero – with little or no scholarship – and thus safely, or so it thinks, ignore His Words:  “You are of this world; I am not of this world.  I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins.” (John 8:23-24)

The world is evil and sin has made it so.  Why doesn’t someone step up and say those words when we have all these killings and disasters and people hating one another?  Because that is too simple, and anyway, everyone has their own thoughts and are not afraid to express them.  God help us!

The world is going to be in the world in their unbelief.  What is before us is:  What are we going to do with Him?  Who is this Jesus?  On this day, Peter seems to know.  “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

God the Son Who is God in the flesh.  He comes to pay for every sin and secure eternal life for those who believe.  Human wisdom will never, ever make this reasonable to sinful thinking.  Listen carefully:  It’s a matter of faith.  Hebrews reminds us:  “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Heb. 11:1)  That is what brings us here:  faith.  Saved by grace through faith, say Paul.  The greatest miracle you could ever receive in this world and you possess it.

Jesus accepts Peter’s confession of faith at face value.  Not a word is disputed.  God put these words into Peter’s mouth.  The Lord then says, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

Please hear this:  Jesus is not building the church on this smart theologian Peter.  If he was, he would have said, “Upon you I will build my church.”  The church of Jesus Christ is not to be built either on a man or on the confession of a man, but on the saving revelation of God’s grace in the truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.  This is not Peter’s church; it is the Lord’s church.  Christ is the builder.  He builds His church so solidly on the Gospel revelation of his grace that all the forces of hell, huffing and puffing combined, will never destroy it!

What are we doing with Him?  This prayer request came across the desk of one of the Pastors at my home church in Decatur.  It stated:  “She thought she had allergies and sinus problems and whamo!  She has cancer in her sinus, colon, gall bladder, numerous other places.  She had gone to Barnes, St. Louis, but they are sending her home tomorrow and she will be on hospice.”

Life can do a U-turn just that quick.  No plans for next year’s vacation or birthdays or…whatever.  Just the reality of what this world is and our need of God’s love through Christ.  The Holy Spirit guides and lifts us through the sacred Word and Sacraments.  Allows our faith in Him to grow and prosper in spite of the mud and crud that people want to throw in our face.  Peter had his challenges after this wonderful confession.  We too will have ours.  We will prevail through “Christ, the Son of the living God.”               Amen.