Sermons

November 22, 2015                                                              Text:  Jude 20-25

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

Sometimes there is confusion about “the good old days.”  In 1949 Chad Walsh wrote the following in the midst of boomers being born, the economy doing well and the Christian church was growing.  “Modern civilization which dates from the Renaissance, is now on its last legs.  This glum conviction is less startling than it would have been a few decades ago, when the doctrine of inevitable progress still had many adherents in both low and high places.  Today the funeral bell is being rung by a whole army of philosophers and social scientists.

“Perhaps we are headed toward barbarism and it will be permanent…Most of the advanced thinkers point out that the impact of Christianity has been on the decline for the past several centuries, and from this they frequently draw the conclusion that Christianity will shortly fade away completely.  An opposite conclusion can be drawn.  Perhaps the sad state of Western civilization arises largely from the watering-down and outright rejection of Christianity.  In that case, a return to Christianity may be the price a reluctant world will have to pay if it wants any civilization at all.”

Our Epistle from Jude this morning reminds of these days we live.  The church will continue to live until Christ returns.  How does one look – how does one act in these last days.  Are you depressed, saddened, or lifted up?  Through our text we are encouraged to . . .

“HANG IN THERE”

Hang in there as we live through these times of difficulty.  The world is corrupt and godless.  There is a culture of death.  There is a culture of self-indulgence.  There is a culture of immorality.  But the problem is not just the world it is more importantly the church.  Dr. Harold Senkbeil who writes wonderfully on this topic has said, “Our problem is not so much the secularization of society as it is the secularization of the church.  The marriage between the culture and the church was ill advised in the first place and it is no longer tenable.”

This was happening during the time of Jude.  The Church was infiltrated with those who would compromise the faith.  There were those who denied the lordship and authority of Christ.  There were those who saw the Gospel as permission to slip into sin.  In our time and our Church there are those who use the Church for their own purposes.  Those who keep the Church and their faith confined to Sunday.

Our personal lives are also filled with struggles.  From physical issues to finances to family battles to work woes.  We also deal with weak faith and attacks on the truth of the Gospel.

Jude says, “Hang in there and be faithful.”  Fight the good fight for the faith.  If we are to remain in the faith, the faith – the doctrine that we believe, must be preserved.  We contend for the faith that has been handed down to us by the saints and which we in turn hand down to the saints who will follow.

Persevere in your faith.  In the midst of these last days:  Build yourselves up upon your most holy faith.  Pray in the Holy Spirit.  Wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Carry out acts of mercy.  Be merciful to those who doubt – weak brothers and sisters in Christ.  Be merciful to those destined for hell fire – the unbelievers.  Be merciful, but be careful not to be stained by their corruption.

Hang in there.  The day is coming.  He is coming who has brought you into the faith:  By his sacrifice on the cross.  By his resurrection from the dead.  By the Holy Spirit working through the Word.  He is coming who strengthens and keeps you in your faith:  In order that you might be built up.  In order that you might persevere.  In order that you might carry out acts of mercy.  Christ has promised He is returning and He will.  Hang in there in these last days, because Jesus is keeping you strong and in the faith.

In our Collect for today we prayed that our Lord would enable us to hang in there:  “Lord Jesus Christ, so govern our hearts and minds by Your Holy Spirit that, ever mindful of Your glorious return, we may persevere in both faith and holiness of living; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.”

And Christ does reign, powerful and gracious to answer our prayer.

Amen

 

Nov. 15, 2015 – Stewardship Sunday Text: Colossians 3:23-24

Dear Friends in Christ,

Last year in March 2014 the Lutheran Witness focused their issue on the topic of vocation. It was filled with many wonderful articles on the subject. Today’s sermon is going to be built around some of their words and the words of our Lord from the Book of Colossians. Vocation is a topic we hear more and more about. It is perfect for Stewardship Sunday.
“GOD HIDES HIMSELF IN YOUR VOCATION”
Edie Wadsworth is a recent convert to the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. I love her quote from the article, “Leveling The Field.” She writes, “I grew up in the wilderness of American evangelicalism. I did all the things young evangelicals do. I joined Young Life and Fellowship of Christian Athletes, got saved eight times…and even trained at the Tammy Faye Baker Institute for Heavily –Applied Eye Makeup. Like every good evangelical overachiever, I wanted to be a missionary and have six kids. And not just any country would do. The real Jesus followers go to Africa. Obviously.
“Fast forward 25 years, and none of those pious dreams came true. I didn’t go to Africa. I birthed a measly four kids (wimp), and I went to medical school instead of Bible College…And I’m wild about Lutheranism – actually down right annoyingly so. I’m so Lutheran that most Lutherans don’t get me. I read the Confessions, own most of Luther’s sermons…I became Lutheran seven years ago, which for me, was the spiritual equivalent of finding a large oasis in the desert. Of all the things I love about finding the historic Church, nothing puts spring in my step like the cool, clear water of the teaching on vocation.”
Like I have always said some of the best Lutherans are those who didn’t grow up in the church. They appreciate what we have instead of taking for granted what we have been given. How do you feel about vocation? Are you as excited as Mrs. Wadsworth? Do you even think about it? And what do we mean by vocation?
Ever since the Reformation Lutherans have emphasized the sanctity of marriage and family and the life of a citizen, worker or employer as being just as important as anyone who is a church worker. In the Large Catechism Luther even said changing a dirty diaper is holier than a monk joining a monastery. We are to engage in providing loving service to our neighbor, not for our own benefit, but for the benefit of our neighbor and out of our faith in Christ.
When we talk vocation we usually think of our job. That place where we toil for our wages. But just as important are the ordinary offices of husband, wife, father, mother, child, and citizen. We all have a vocation from the youngest to the oldest.
God’s will for you is to be saved. We have been blessed with everything that we need through Jesus life, death, and resurrection. We don’t do these things to please God. He is already pleased with Jesus sacrifice on our behalf, which means he sees us as those redeemed by Christ the crucified. Our vocation is a workshop of the Holy Spirit who is calling us to repentance and faith. Instead of becoming entangled in our self-righteous selves we look to the selfless Christ. His sacrifice on the cross has loosened this entanglement and given us freedom from sin to share His love and mercy with those around us.
How might this look? God has given you certain skills, abilities, blessings which allow you to serve your fellow man. God hides Himself in your vocation, so that the service you are giving to your neighbor is sacred, because it is really God at work through you.
Your everyday work is sacred in the eyes of our Lord. That toilet you cleaned yesterday for your family. Part of your vocation for Christ. That meal you helped to prepare and serve at the mission. You were the hands and feet and face of Christ in that place. You don’t need your name on a hospital or university building to be important. That note you sent to your son or daughter at college means more to them than sitting in Abercrombie Hall. That hug you gave your child was wrapped with more love than a building.
Our text spells it out beautifully, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” Throw your soul into your vocation as if your one employer were the Lord.
May the Lord’s will for your life be to live out your various callings with love toward your neighbor. The Lord has already met all your needs through Christ your Savior. Serve the Lord brother and sister, serve the Lord!
Amen.

 

November 8, 2015 Text: Hebrews 9:24-28

Dear Friends in Christ,

Are you a confident person? When you were younger would you raise your hand because you knew you had the right answer? When confronted with problems do you face them head-on or hang your head? Do you have quiet confidence in the face of adversity?
Many people want to have more confidence. Amazon sells over 23,000 books on the topic of building confidence in oneself. There are over 143 million websites that deal with the subject of overcoming doubt and increasing confidence. Blogs, magazine articles and newspaper columns are written on the subject. Wouldn’t it be nice to have more confidence?
Our text from Hebrews is going to help us this morning as God’s Word always does.
“LIVING CONFIDENTLY…WAITING FOR CHRIST”
Do you wish you could live confidently? Don’t we often make promises to ourselves that we won’t get angry at the insults of others, or that we’ll keep our cool when our ideas are challenged or dismissed? Yet when things don’t go our way or our ideas get rejected, we have our confidence shaken. We might react with anger or self-doubt. It might have happened when we raised our hand in class and we gave the wrong answer and the teasing that then went on in the playground. Our ideas might be dismissed at work, on the ball field, in our homes, among our peers.
There are many things at work that tear at our confidence. Maybe those who build themselves up by tearing you down have shattered you. Maybe you don’t feel you are being heard in our frantic world. Maybe your idea of “perfectionism” makes it impossible for you to live up to your own standards. Maybe you have lost a job or a promotion, or you didn’t make a team or win a competition. A loved one has died that shakes your confidence. I have experienced that with my mom dying. She was my biggest supporter and I miss the conversations we used to have. That void has not been filled. Finally, we all are plagued by our inability to live up to God’s Law. Like Paul we are doing the things we don’t want to do and not doing the things we should. Our sin convicts and it hurts our self-confidence.
Yet our text talks about those who are confident, those who are eagerly waiting for Christ. There is a source of confidence in the face of any self-doubt or challenge in life. That source of ultimate confidence is rooted in the person and work of Jesus Christ. We can confidently live our lives in eager expectation in Christ.
You see Christ has dealt with the root cause of our lack of confidence. The writer to the Hebrews compares a sacrifice carried out by a human with the perfect sacrifice of our Savior Jesus Christ. He didn’t enter a temple made by humans, like the Old Testament priests, but heaven itself, where he appears before God on our behalf. Jesus is God himself, so only one sacrifice, rather than repeated sacrifices, was needed.
The forgiveness, life, and salvation Jesus accomplished were done for all people. Jesus died for all. No sin of yours or mine is too heinous that it hasn’t been covered by the sacrifice of Jesus. Jesus has “put away” our sin by sacrificing himself. It has been dealt with. It is no longer a factor as God looks at us. That should give us real confidence not the false bravado of the world, but the reality that all of our sins that rip at our heart and gut, have been put away.
What great confidence we have because Christ has dealt with it all. Christ has promised to give us all things, so we need not doubt ourselves. Please know this: it is not about us, it is about Jesus. That is how the widow in today’s Gospel could give her last pennies. That’s how the widow at Zarephath could trust the instructions of Elijah in the Old Testament. They knew the Lord and it made all the difference.
What is your source of self-confidence? There are certainly psychological and sociological explanations for why some people seem to lack confidence and others have confidence in abundance. But the message from our Epistle lesson today is that we can all live in confidence. We can confidently live our lives in eager expectation, because in Christ we can be confident of God’s love and forgiveness. Live confidently…Christ has done it all for you.
Amen.

 

November 1, 2015 – All Saints Sunday Text: 1 John 3:1-3

Dear Friends in Christ,

Think of our modern-day rockets. It is characteristic of rockets to go through multiple stages. At some point after initial lift-off, the rocket, amoeba-like, divides; one part left behind to disintegrate, another part entering a new trajectory and beginning a new phase.
Well, the Christian life, in some respects at least, resembles a multiple-phase rocket: the first phase is conception to birth; the second phase is birth to death; and the third phase is death into eternity. Like with the rocket there is a phase that needs to occur to attain our goal. Having been born, we need to be “born again” of water and the Spirit. We call this conversion. The Holy Spirit has called us to faith. If this doesn’t happen the whole process fizzles out into eternal death.
Today is All Saints Day. We are in the middle stage of the process. But there is one more process to go through.
“ANOTHER LIFE AHEAD OF US”
You and I are in the second phase of our multiple-phase existence. We have been converted. “Beloved, we are God’s children now,” our text assures us. The Holy Spirit’s application to us through the gospel of the saving work of Jesus has given us this glorious status. This is only the second phase. Another one, the final one, still lies ahead. This final phase of course is heaven. “And what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” Our goal today is to fix our sight a bit more firmly on this, the last and grandest stage in our progress.
It is common among many that they regard these years on earth as the whole meaning of life. They mistake a mere phase for the goal of the journey. Even as Christians we have our weak moments. The rhythmic lapping of water on a beach, the continuous hum of a fan on a hot summer day – and our doubts are triggered. How can a person live forever? What kind of life can it possibly be? Maybe the grave is the end and we want to face it bravely.
Perhaps we can better keep in mind the final phase of our journey, heaven, by thinking for a moment of the first phase. I refer to that nine-month existence before we were born. None of us, at this stage of our development, would regard that nine-month period, as the whole meaning of life beyond which there is nothing more. By know we know better.
But let’s say by way of illustration, that during our pre-natal life we had the capacity to think, to hope or not hope, and so on. While in our mother’s womb we get word that another life lay ahead us, that may last 70, 80, 90 years. This new world would have light and unlimited space to move around. There would be mountains and trees and skyscrapers and four-wheeled vehicles moving at shocking speeds. Someday, we were assured, we could do impossible things like walk and talk. We wouldn’t be alone in this world. There would be other creatures like us. Yet strangest of all would be the mode to enter this new world. A perilous process called birth, involving danger, pain, doctors, and hospitals, a process we would never guess could thrust us into such a beautiful life as we live at present.
If an unborn child could have reactions how would they react to this talk of another more abundant life? It would be something to look forward to and would make the nine-month existence more pleasant. Or the unborn child could be a realist and look at the dreaded process of birth and see no more after that. All of this talk about another life is just wishful thinking.
Then comes the day – the day of birth. It turns out true, after all, gloriously true! There is another life. You can live for a number of years. There is light and space and mountains and skyscrapers and fast-moving vehicles. You can walk and talk. This dreaded process called birth, in spite of appearances, turns out, after all, to be the gateway to this new and wonderful world.
I’m sure you begin to see what we’re after this morning. Our present life is not the climax to life; it is but a phase in our journey. In relation to the heavenly life, we might call it a pre-natal stage. We have it on good word – God’s Word – that there is another life, another world, ahead of us called heaven. In it we shall live forever! It is a world without space or time. Angels will share its mansions with us. We shall behold the face of God. We shall see Him as He is. In fact, we shall be like Him. All the ills and inconveniences of this present life, chief of which is sin, will have vanished because of Christ our Savior.
Strangest of all, the mode of entering this world is a dreaded and painful process called death, involving funeral homes, caskets, tombstones, and bodily decay, a process we would never guess could thrust us into such a beautiful life as the heavenly existence is. Best of all, no part is left behind to disintegrate. The capsule of the second phase, the body, is recovered and restored; there is a resurrection.
Obviously, we can’t conceive of this life, anymore than an unborn child can imagine life on earth. But we can believe in it and be confident that the hope is real. We can join the Apostle John in saying, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” (v. 2)
Amen.

 

October 25, 2015 – Reformation Text: John 8:31-36

Dear Friends in Christ,

It’s only about half a mile. The monk walked from his cell in the monastery, past the university where he was a teacher, to the church at the other end of town. He there affixed a poster on the doors of the Church of All Saints. If people had any interest they soon turned away when they saw it was written in Latin.
That’s the way it may have happened on Oct. 31, 1517, in the town of Wittenberg. The publication of the Ninety-five Theses by Martin Luther. Little did people know at the time that this would change Western Christianity and the course of history. The question: How could one man do it? The answer: he couldn’t and he didn’t. The Reformation is not about Luther or even the 95 Theses. Rather it is about the one truth in Christ not the many truths around us.
“THE REFORMATION MAY NOT BE THE TRUTH YOU THINK”
Why celebrate the Reformation at all? Is it not different from the other feast days of the church: Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost? The Reformation – Luther did this, his friends did that, the papal rules were thrown off and many a king, prince, duke, or earl was delighted. Is that something to celebrate?
When Luther issued this call to the church he was challenging Christians not just the mighty pope and bishops. He was challenging all Christians in the Western Church to come back to the source of faith and hope: The Word of God, the Bible.
To be honest the Church was doing fine from a worldly point of view at this time. In Wittenberg the seven priests were conducting 9,000 masses a year – 9,000! This made for a sizable income for the clergy. People were being reassured that their loved ones were being released from purgatory. A good deal for everyone, even economically for the city. And here comes this monk and…What did he say?
Father Martin did not say: Don’t listen to the Church. He would be horrified at today’s churches who say believe anything you want. He did say: “Let’s get back to the source.” The source of faith is the Word of God. “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.” (v. 31) How did the listeners respond: “We are offspring of Abraham.” (v. 33) We don’t need Jesus’ words we have this great prophet. In Luther’s time, the church leaders told him to keep out of this, they knew best. Today? “I’m an offspring of Walther.” “I’ve been a member of the LCMS my whole life.” Dare I ask your faith in Christ or faithfulness to God’s Word?
This is what the Reformation events were all about. Not a mythical German hero named Luther, but God’s grace that helped us recover the hidden, the falsified, the changed, and glossed-over Word of God. In the Holy Bible we have God’s mercy, packed in words, and the whole Christ, crucified and risen for you, speaking to you his full message of repentance and salvation.
Look around this day. There will be Reformation services elsewhere. There will be people who claim the name “Lutheran”, people who started with the same events of the Reformation, with the same translated Bible for daily use and preaching in the Church, and yet their proclamation differs so much from ours that you might begin to wonder what “Lutheran” means these days. There are so many different views and opinions in the Church that we begin to wonder: What does the Christian Church stand for?
Our text reminds us to “abide in my word.” If we do this we are truly Christ’s disciples. The doctor has prescribed the best medicine but it is of no use if we don’t take it. How many baptisms have we had over the years? And yet, do you see all those blessed “by water and the Word” sitting in the pew with you? How many confirmands have pledged fidelity and loyalty to Christ and the Church at this altar? Where are they now, and do you care? If they moved, that is one thing, but if they have left the faith, it is a tragedy for congregations everywhere.
How do we abide? Christian education, catechism instruction, and regular worship attendance. It is a threat to your spiritual survival to disregard the Word of God. Some churches are doing that with their modern views of Scripture. In the end, they will have to give account for every lost soul. The apostle encourages us: “Contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” (Jude 3)
Perhaps what I have said is not happy enough for you. Perhaps you wanted more praises of Luther and the other Reformers. Well this is not a course on history and this service is not about the past. Our worship service, is always a message for the here and now – and its content – Christ’s Holy Word and the blessed Sacrament of the Altar – strengthens us for the road to the Christians final goal.
“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (v. 32) That truth says: You cannot free yourself from what you are. The sinner – you and I – is a slave, bound, loaded down. But that truth says above all: Christ Jesus, God’s truth, is the truth that frees us. Jesus death on the cross for all your sins has freed you.
This day we don’t make a list needed to reach our Christian goal. This day’s worship bids us to praise and thank Christ our Redeemer for giving us all for nothing, for taking us from captivity to self into the glorious spiritual freedom of the children and heirs of God.
Without any merit on our part, we again hear Christ freeing us from sins in the words of the absolution; we listen to the Gospel of eternal liberty worked for each of us by the sacrificial death of Jesus. We witness the power of the Savior’s words, making ordinary bread and wine the bearers of nothing less than the body and blood of our holy Lord. Out of these simple earthly elements, the creative Word of God makes a “medicine of immortality” (St. Ignatius of Antioch) for our lifelong walk to the gates of paradise. Now why would anyone want to miss that?!
Amen.