Sermons

April 9, 2017 – Palm Sunday                                                Text:  Matthew 21:12-17

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

The Pastor of a large family likes to tell the story of one hectic Sunday when his son couldn’t find his belt.  Everyone was looking for it, no one could find it, and the Pastor was going to be late for church.  Then the son, seven years old asked a simple question, “Dad, have you prayed about it?”  The Pastor had been teaching the boy this lesson since he was born but did he remember to apply that lesson in a moment of frustration?

During the season of Lent, in our midweek services, we’ve been considering the ironies of the passion.  Irony is an outcome that’s the opposite of what you might expect.  You wouldn’t expect a child to take a minister to school on such a basic matter of faith.  But that’s what the Scriptures say about children and their faith.  Today is Palm Sunday.  We just sang “Hosanna, Loud Hosanna.”  This morning, we want to consider the incident that inspired that stirring hymn.  We want to see the irony in the question Jesus’ enemies asked:

“DO YOU HEAR WHAT THESE CHILDREN ARE SAYING?”

Matthew writes in our text, “But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He did…”  What does wonderful mean here?  In this instance it caused the people to wonder – to be amazed.  Jesus did things on this day that caused people’s mouths to hang open in surprise.

What things were so wonderful?  Certainly the triumphal entry into Jerusalem caused people to sit up and wonder.  But the incident in our text happened after that.  It’s Monday of Holy Week.  Jesus goes to the temple and what does He find?  Moneychangers and merchants.  But these sellers of goods were over charging to make more money and the priests were getting a cut of it.  It’s like buying a hot dog at a ballgame; it costs a lot more than it does at the grocery store.  People were being cheated so Jesus drives them out.

The second thing happening is “the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.”  This then caused the third wonderful thing.  He called forth a response of faith.  Children were shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”  The children were still singing the praises that had excited them the day before.

The children understood it was Messiah, the Christ.  Hosanna means, “to save.”  This is what the children shouted.  The Holy Spirit was working and that’s not ironic because we expect God to work through His Word to change hearts and minds.  The reaction of the Jewish leaders – “they were indignant.”  These men who spent their days reading the Bible did not recognize the Messiah.  They were angry that other people were claiming He was the Savior.  We must catch the irony in this action as Matthew presents it.  The most awful disorder of the buyers and sellers, the stench of cattle, the haggling and dickering were quite acceptable to these priests – there was money in it for them, but these innocent children who were voicing the praise of Jesus and giving Him the title which His great deeds demonstrated was his due, were intolerable to these men.

Children knew their Savior while the theologians didn’t.  My friends, it’s no different today.  People who don’t believe in Jesus think we’re just stupid or misinformed.  One of the saddest realities of the Christian Church in the 21^st Century is the large number of Pastors and professors who do not believe in Jesus anymore – at least not the way these children did.  They don’t accept a Savior who died and rose to give us eternal life.  They don’t claim God in the flesh who paid for our sins.  They deny the prophecies of the Old Testament that tell of the coming Savior.  Why do they refuse to see the truth?

Because they don’t want to believe it.  People will believe in a past life you were Napoleon or Joan of Ark.  They will believe in God talking to us through feelings.  God coming down to earth to pay for our sins with his own blood so we won’t go to hell – well, not that!  Why not?  Because that would mean God is a judge and that there is an absolute standard of right and wrong that every person on earth must submit to or suffer the consequences.  People don’t buy into that.  They think right and wrong mean’s what is best for them in any situation.  Eternal standards, absolute rules – people today just won’t swallow that because it would finally mean that some people are, in fact, wrong.

Simple Christians the world over see Jesus with the faith of a child.  They recognize the only answer for the guilt we feel over our sin and for the hurt and sadness that sin causes in our lives is Jesus.  Yes, that does mean there is absolute right and wrong.  But the Christian, in childlike faith has no problem saying, “I have done wrong, I have hurt others, said things I shouldn’t.”  The forgiveness we receive rode into Jerusalem to begin a week of redemption for all mankind.  God has forgiven us and given us eternal life.  Do you understand what these children are saying?

Jesus did.  “Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise.”  God ordains praise from the children’s lips.  He does this through Baptism and the gospel message they hear at church.  Through Lutheran elementary school and Sunday School.  Through family devotions and prayer time.  God reaches into these little ones hearts and fills them with joy in their Savior and confidence in His promises.  So what is the problem with us as adults?  We poison our faith with our reason or limit it with our assumptions.  The child just believes.

Where can adults get the faith of a child?  Only in one place – the gospel.  The gospel in Word and Sacrament.  The gospel that the Savior died and rose for us that we are forgiven.  God gives us that faith and He calls forth our praise.

Do you hear what these children are saying?  Join them in their song of praise!

Amen.

April 2, 2017 Text: John 11:1-45

Dear Friends in Christ,

Do you remember the first time someone close to you died? I was 10 years old, it was the end of March and a family friend 45 years old was killed in a car accident in northern Illinois. My parents received a call about 8 pm and they loaded myself and my younger sister in the car. We drove one-hour south to the family farm where this man had lived. Usually this trip meant a great meal and riding tractors and horses and watching the cows being milked. This night was different. It was surreal. People were everywhere, yet nobody was talking except in a whisper. We made our way to the living room where the man’s widow and two daughters were. It is a night I will never forget.
There was something different about that night. Death was the cloud that hung over the whole house. Its power, its finality, its merciless advance into the life of loved ones touched every heart and left a trail of sorrow and grief in its wake.
Jesus knows. When Jesus approached the tomb of Lazarus the Greek says his body literally shook. He cried. He was one with all of humanity. Our God is a man. He sympathizes with us in our weakness. He shares our grief. Even as He is touched by death, He overcame it for us. And so in our text we are reminded . . .
“I AM Resurrection and Life”
Lazarus’s death is for the glory of God. When Jesus hears the news about Lazarus’s illness, he stays put in Bethany for two days. There’s no mistaking – Lazarus is dead. Jesus allows Lazarus to die that all might see the glory of God, that all might believe.
Lazarus’s death is an occasion to call Martha to faith. Jesus gets to Bethany. Martha approaches. Where was Martha’s mind? Martha was stuck in the trauma of the past: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (v. 21) Martha’s mind was on the hope of the future: “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” (v. 24) Where was Martha? Anywhere but the present.
If you have had someone close to you die, you can relate to Martha. When my mom died I didn’t dwell a lot on the past, but I certainly had most of my focus on the future. Plans had to be made. Relatives were flying in or driving. It was three days – visitation, funeral, and burial in Wisconsin that literally wore me out more mentally than physically. Throw in there a blizzard getting to Decatur the day of the funeral and I was wiped out. It was hard to stay in the present as things out of my control were swirling around our family and myself.
Jesus takes Martha out of the past, out of the future, to himself: “I AM the resurrection and the life.” (v. 25) To believe in the great I AM is to live forever and not die. To believe in the great I AM is to have the resurrection as your own present possession. To believe in the great I AM is, at the day of death, merely to fall asleep in the hope of waking up again. Jesus asks Martha if she believes this, which elicits a wonderful confession of faith from her. She confesses Him to be the Christ, the Son of God.
Lazarus’s death and rising point to Jesus’ own death and resurrection…and ours on the last day. This fifth Sunday in Lent is a dress rehearsal for Holy Week, preparing us for the passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why did Jesus die? To take our sin upon himself, so that, by his death, “he might destroy the one who has the power of death.” (Heb. 2:14) Jesus has the last word. Eternal life is ours through faith in Christ and his work for us. We share in the hope of the resurrection. Just as Jesus called Lazarus from the grave, we who sleep in the dust of death shall one day hear the Lord’s voice: “Come out.”
After that night at the farm we would be going to the funeral. I knew that meant seeing the dead body in the casket. Something I was quite apprehensive about. That one-hour trip to St. Paul’s Lutheran in Strasburg, Illinois never went quicker. There he was lying in the narthex. The Pastor gave a wonderful, comforting sermon to the family and a 10-year-old boy. Some years later that same 10-year-old boy would be in that same pulpit preaching the funeral sermon for the man’s widow. Doesn’t God have a beautiful way of dealing with us?
Death is still hard for those of us left behind. But our Savior who wept over the death of Lazarus has promised us a heavenly reunion because of His power that has overcome death. Life for us does not end in death. We will rise again on the Last Day and forever celebrate the joy of life we have in Jesus Christ, the great I AM who is the resurrection and the life.
Amen.

March 26, 2017 Text: John 9:1-41

Dear Friends in Christ,

U2 is an Irish rock band that was formed in 1976. Their lead singer is Paul Hewson, better known to the world as Bono. Bono is known for his humanitarian work throughout the world. Asked what drives him, what makes him tick, Bono answered, “It’s a mind-blowing concept that the God who created the universe might be looking for company, a real relationship with people, but the thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between grace and karma.”
We are with Jesus this morning as he heals a blind man. What is the reason for the healing?
“KARMA? I’LL TAKE GRACE!”
Now, it’s no small thing to take on karma. John Lennon sang about instant karma. Radiohead warned of the karma police. But what is it? It’s the idea that what goes around comes around. Did you catch the video some time ago with a man in a pickup truck who tailgates a woman, and then passes her, while triumphantly displaying his middle finger? And just after that, his trucks spins out, and he crashes into a ditch. That is karma and people love it. He got what was coming to him.
On the other side is the pay-it-forward campaign. You know where you buy someone’s Egg Mcmuffin in the car behind you or pay for someone’s parking at a sporting event, something that actually happened to Toni and I when we were dating. It is suppose to be good karma. It sets the universe in motion in your favor.
As the prophet Bono puts it, “You see, at the center of all religions is the idea of karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you; an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; in physical laws every action is met by an equal and opposite one.”
So it happened that Jesus was walking along, and came across a man born blind. And the disciples asked the karma question, “Who sinned? This man or his parents?” (v. 2) And we are comfortable with this question because it helps us make sense of the world. A man has cancer? Well, yeah, he smoked for over forty years. Kidney problems? Drank too much. Heart attack? Not enough diet or exercise. Car accident? Drove too fast or were texting. And I would never do that, we are pleased to say.
So, why was the man born blind? Was it because of his sin? Or perhaps the sin of his parents? I know what I would say to the karma question and it wouldn’t be the karma answer. I would say that one sin infects us all. Yes, certain sins have specific consequences, built into the way the world functions, but death is going to happen to each and every one of us, no matter how well we live, no matter how righteous and good we think we might be. We’ve all sinned and all creation suffers. The world is broken.
Give an answer like that and you can get an A in your dogmatics class at the seminary. But Jesus doesn’t just offer that simple answer, instead, he says, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” (v. 3)
Talk about mind-blowing. Sin, in all its negativity, has actually set in motion a chain of events that ends, not with disaster, but with mysterious blessing. Is that possible? And do we really want to gloat? To take pleasure in someone getting his comeuppance? “If karma was finally going to be my judge,” Bono said, “then I’d be in deep doodoo.”
Paul Hewson Bono then added, “I’m holding out for grace; I’m holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don’t have to depend on my own religiosity.”
It was never God’s plan that man fall into sin. It was never God’s intention that there would be illness and death, or that men would be born blind. And yet, in the mystery of his grace, in the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, our Lord took a fallen situation and not only restored it, but made it better than it ever was. By the mystery of the incarnation and the glory of the cross, we have come to see God as we never could before: face-to-face, in full and sacrificial love. A paradise better than Eden awaits us.
We have experienced a love that has been tested, a love that has been challenged, a love that goes beyond a mutually beneficial relationship. And having been forgiven much, what can we do but fall to our knees?
Yes, God loves the angels. But the angels are good. And it’s easy to love those who love you in return. Even the pagans do this. But we have received a greater love. We have been shown a more beautiful grace. He has taken us creatures and turned us into children. And no, the world still hasn’t found what it’s looking for. The world in its worldliness is blind; the world looks at the font, and they don’t think it’s worth a bucket of spit. But we, whose eyes have been opened, see a crystal fountain, a river of life flowing from the throne of God, and the Lamb who has been slain.
Bono’s right. It is a miracle that the God of the universe is seeking out the company of folks like us. But that’s what he’s done. What happened to the man born blind? We know he became an outcast and even his parents distanced themselves from him. But our Lord sought him out. Our Lord took friendship and mercy and turned it into full communion.
So, yeah, karma sounds cool. But on this one, I’m with Bono. I’d rather have grace. We’ll never be rock stars, but we can join together with him in another band and sing together the song of the Lamb, the song of love unknown.
Amen.

March 12, 2017 Text: Romans 4:1-8, 13-17

Dear Friends in Christ,

Back in the eighteenth century, the mystic Emmanuel Swedenborg sarcastically described the Lutheran as a man locked up in a dark room pacing back and forth repeating to himself: “I am justified by faith alone. I am justified by faith alone. I am justified by faith alone.” Justification by faith alone – is it really such a big deal? Or is it a merely a threadbare mantra chanted with monotony with no real purpose? After all isn’t there more than one entrée at the biblical buffet. This morning the Apostle Paul asserts that . . .
“JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH ALONE REALLY IS A BIG DEAL”
For us justification by faith alone means either being under a curse or blessing. Justification by faith alone means condemnation or acquittal. Justification by faith alone means it is a matter of life or death.
To bring this all home to his hearers, Paul showcases Abraham. Was Abraham made righteous because of his faith or his works? Here is the forefather of the Jews who had done works that were worth boasting about. But not before God.
The question of justification is quite inescapable for Abraham and for us. If you are not justified by faith, you will seek it elsewhere. Pay attention to the way people speak. Pay attention to your own language. No one wants to be wrong. We will find whatever words we can to declare ourselves and our actions and our attitudes as right. All of us are continuing to justify ourselves to each other that we talk right past one another.
Listen to eulogies at the funerals of unbelievers. Isn’t it curious that those who claimed not to believe in God are so pressed in the face of death to declare that the life now ended was right and good? They are feeble attempts to reckon the deceased as righteous with an appeal to his virtues as a husband and father, his athletic allegiance to The Illinois State University, his membership in the Kiwanis and his work on the board of the local bird sanctuary. Eulogies like this are empty and shallow at best; they do nothing to account the person as righteous before God. It works well in the obituary, but obituaries never get the dead out of the grave.
Here are just a few snippets from one day of obituaries in The Pantagraph. “He greatly enjoyed helping others, serving on the ESDA, camping, and gardening.” “He was an avid White Sox fan. He was a high school star athlete in football, basketball, and baseball. He coached Little League and was also a Boy Scout leader for many years.” “She enjoyed playing games with her grandchildren, quilting, and spending time watching wildlife at her home in Wisconsin.” “She was a hard worker who loved to make others happy with her delicious meals and helpful nature.” What would go in your obituary? Ours would read the same way. But how many of them have anything to do with saving faith?
Circumcision would not cut it for Abraham. Faith was there before circumcision. It is by faith, not the cutting of the flesh, that Abraham is reckoned righteous. Likewise to us, the righteousness that is ours is through faith in Christ Jesus and not by works of the Law.
And what is this faith that justifies? Trust, not in our works, which we sometimes use as measuring rods to make it clear we are in the right. Faith lets go of that and throws it in the garbage heap. In its place is trust in God, who justifies the ungodly. Listen to verse 5, “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.”
Please remember this is not faith in faith. Faith must have an object outside of itself. It is faith in the promise. Abraham was the model of one who believed in the coming Messiah and so his faith was credited to him as righteousness.
It does not end with Abraham. For God who accounted him righteous does the same for you. Paul says these things were written not for Abraham’s sake alone but also for us, for the promise extends through Old Testament history into your hearing right now, for faith comes by hearing and the hearing, not of any word, but the Word of Christ, the words of the cross.
Faith in the cross of Jesus counts where our work as parent and spouse does not. Faith in the cross of Jesus counts where are allegiance to a university does not. Faith in the cross of Jesus counts where are work in a service organization does not. Faith in the cross of Jesus counts where our helpful nature and meal making and athletic skills do not. Faith in the cross of Jesus counts where were always having to be right does not. Faith in the cross of Jesus counts today in our daily life and tomorrow in our life to come. The cross of Jesus points to our righteousness.
Let’s make a deal – a big deal – out of justification by faith alone!
Amen.

March 5, 2017                                                                       Text:  Genesis 3:1-21

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

The marquee of a theater showed a man dressed as the devil because the current movie was about Satan.  The man was dressed in red, had a long tail, pitchfork, and horns.  A little girl, walking by with her mother, looked at the figure and was frightened.  “What’s that?” she asked her mother.  “Oh,” mother replied, “don’t be afraid.  That’s only the devil.”

That is our world.  Make the devil a caricature and he becomes less real, less frightening, and does he really exist?  Hell and damnation are not on many people’s radar so they can easily live the life they want.

Adam and Eve know the devil is all too real.  He comes to them today in the form of a snake created by God.  Do you ever think to yourself, “How could they be so dumb?  They had perfection as husband and wife.  No arguing about finances or who takes out the garbage or where on earth will we vacation this year.”  Would you or I have given in?  10 chances out of 9, we would!  Satan’s temptations are hard to resist.  That sneaky old snake is a forceful factor in the world.  He can deceive and seduce the best the human race has to offer.  Until Christ comes again this is our predicament.  Let’s take him seriously . . .

“THAT SNEAKY OLD SNAKE”

Satan has several descriptions in Scripture:  accuser, slanderer, adversary, enemy, opponent.  Jesus calls him a murderer, a liar, and the father of lies.  The Catechism reminds us that the devil was once a holy angel but then fell away from God.  He and his cohorts were created holy, sinned and are forever rejected by God.  They are great in number.

“That sneaky old snake” still challenges and seduces. Talking snakes?  Are you serious?  Who would be dumb enough to believe that?  That’s just some writer’s way of explaining how this world ended up as it is now.  Besides, do you believe Adam and Eve were real people and the only people in the world?  That’s just a way of describing the origins of the human race.  Satan doesn’t seduce today?  Satan laughs and laughs and laughs if we think like that.

What he did in the garden was to get our first parents to doubt God’s Word.  He lies to them.  The lying continues in our day.  People brought up in the church and who know God’s Word still think living together before marriage is not a sin.  Wake up!  Satan is winning.  He lies and tells men and women that gay marriage is just about love, not unnatural relations as described in the Bible.  Wake up!  Satan is winning.  He slithers past us and mentions we can be like God, because what does He really know anyways.  Wake up!  Satan is winning.  He turned Cain against Abel and he did quite the number on David and Bathsheba.  No one is off limits.  He even tries his seduction with Jesus as we see in today’s Gospel.

Be on guard, because he attacks all Christians, including you and me.  The noose of sin strangles and suffocates.  Take the sneaky old snake seriously.  Adam and Eve didn’t and it cost them and us death.  I’m naked, where can I hide?!

When preaching on this text it always is a reminder that we want to make the message of how to overcome simplistic.  Things like, “resist Satan’s assaults. Don’t do what Adam and Eve did.  Be strong against the wily one.”  Does this ever work?

We need help.  We need powerful, perfect help.  We need the strongest of the strong.  We need someone who overcame the sneaky old snake.  What’s that, someone did triumph over the devil?  Someone did resist and watched the devil walk away with his head in shame.

Isn’t the symmetry of the Scripture lessons beautiful this day?  Christ met the foe and he slithered away.  In His human nature he resisted the taunts and the goading and the challenge.  In His human nature He took the verbal punches and the subversive tactics to a place called Golgotha.  There for all the world of sinners to see He gave His life so that the old evil foe would be defeated.  Before His glorious resurrection, He took a little trip to tell Satan that He had won.  Satan would still have power but it would be limited and it would not last forever.  Through the one man free grace and righteousness is ours.  Grace reigns eternal.  While Satan is winning small battles here, the Eternal One passes on the eternal victory to us.

To resist this sneaky old snake we daily need these reminders.  Where are those found?  In the Holy Book.  Jesus used it.  Each time Satan came to attack him he said, “It is written.”  It is not enough to know the Scriptures so well that you can quote them.  Anyone – including Satan – can do that.  We must know what the Scriptures say and mean for us.  We must believe their message.

Take the devil seriously.  He is not some goofball in a 10 cent costume straight from a Hollywood back lot.  He is a formidable foe and his crafty and cunning seem to be working the world over.  Remember Christ holds the power.  Christ lived the perfection.  Christ is the ultimate snake handler and this belly crawling despot has met his match.  Good riddance sneaky old snake – now crawl away from here – I’ve got a Savior watching over me!

Amen.