January 31, 2021                                                           Text:  Deuteronomy 18:15-20

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Have you ever been on a sailboat?  You are on a journey but you are not quite sure where you are going.  Water all around, shore far away.  Sailboats pretty much sail themselves and the speed is not excessive.

            Would you expect to go faster with the wind behind you or in front of you?  In sailing if you have a wind at your back at 5 mph you go 5 mph.  On the other hand, if the wind is coming toward the sailboat, then – with a zigzag route – you will sail faster than the wind.  You will get from point A to point B but the journey will be longer and have more challenges.

            In the Book of Deuteronomy. Israel is on the verge of a new journey.  For forty years they had traveled from Sinai to Kadesh-barnea then on to the King’s Highway and around Edom and through the plains of Moab and now they are on the east bank of the Jordan River gazing west into the Promised Land.  They made it from point A to point B but if you have ever looked at a map of their travels it was like they were in a sailboat – no straight lines just a lot of zigzagging.

            Do you ever feel like your life takes a zigzaggy route?  In a sailboat where sometimes the wind is at your back and other times it blows right in your face?  We need a stable direction and we have it this morning . . .

“A NEW JOURNEY”

            Moses makes this promise in our text, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me.” (v. 15a)  Because Moses was under divine judgment he would not lead the Israelites into the Promised Land.  He only saw it from afar.  But the Lord would raise up other prophets – Joshua, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha – these prophets were the Lord’s voice, leading Israel in her journey of faith.  The prophetic Word endured forever.

            The final fulfillment of the Lord’s promise of a prophet like Moses is Jesus who is greater than Moses.  Jesus not only speaks the truth, He is the truth.  He not only speaks God’s Word, He is God’s Word.  Jesus not only knew the Father face-to-face, He is the face of the Father.  Moses longed to see the Lord’s glory, while Jesus is the glory of the Father.  Moses led Israel to the brink of the Promised Land; Jesus completely finishes what he began. 

            Verse 15 says we are to listen to this prophet.  Consider this passage from Hebrews that we sometimes say in our liturgy, “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by His Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.” (Heb. 1:1-2)  Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets.  To know Jesus is to know God. 

            Jesus would take a new journey.  He would see His travels take him this way and that way.  It all began at his birth when his family had to take another route home.  His roundabout journey ended on a hill called Calvary.  The One the prophets had spoken about gave his life for you and me.  He then went to hell to declare victory and rose on the third day to continue the earthly journey for forty more days.  Then His ascension took place and He rules at the right hand of the Father.  He made it from point A to point B but it was never easy.  He took a journey and completed it.  It could only be done by Jesus.

            What journey has you on edge?  When do we come out of the pandemic?  Should we journey with a new child through this world?  Does the Lord have a faithful spouse waiting for me?  Where will my child matriculate for college?  What do we do with dad and mom as they age?  Will my job and finances always be secure?  Do we leave our home for better weather and a more stable state?  Is a new journey on the horizon?

            Satan interrupts our thoughts with his whispers.  Expect the worst.  Triple lock all the doors.  Protect yourself from every danger and peril.  Worry yourselves to death with “What if?”

            Jesus took his journey to perish those thoughts from our mind.  Because of the cleansing blood, resurrection joy, and the power of Pentecost we march straight ahead.  Paul tells us why in 2 Cor. 2:14:  “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession.”

            I went sailing once, in San Francisco Bay, with my dad and uncle.  It was a new journey.  We started in the South Bay and made it up to the Candlestick Park area.  Then the clouds started to roll in and I was asking the “what if?” question.  What if this wind blows us out into the Pacific Ocean?  This Gilligan is standing here so you know I made it back to homeport.  We made the journey safely.

            The journey is life.  God is telling us to go.  But He guarantees you will never, ever, go it alone.  “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers – it is to him you shall listen.”  Listen, we must.  Follow, we will!

                                    Amen. 

January 24, 2021 – Sanctity of Human Life Sunday                      Text:  Jonah 3:1-5, 10

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Jonah wants an abortion.  Jonah wants God to do it.  He would never do it himself, but he supports the option remaining available for Nineveh, even if it means crossing state lines to Tarshish.  Clearly these Ninevites were a mistake – sinful and against the Israelites – unfortunate and unwanted.  One way or another, Jonah wants to see the Ninevites euthanized.

            Their continued existence makes him uncomfortable.  They embody his mistake.  Should he suspend his career aspirations to single parent them?  Should he be saddled with their responsibility?  Does he have any use for them?  Surprisingly he finds them quite important.  They matter.

            Their punishment matters – “Yet forty days, and Nineveh will be overthrown!” Jonah is delighted to cry out.  He camps outside the city and waits for the worst.  Their suffering matters to Jonah, to demonstrate his superiority.  Their mistakes are pawns to advance his agenda.  They are trophies to justify his self-indulgence.  They matter, but not as hearts and lives.  They matter to Jonah not for their own sake but for his.  Use them, but abort and euthanize when done.

            You matter too.  To supporters of abortion, you matter.  To advocates of assisted suicide, you matter.  To embryo experimenters and fetal tissue pharmaceuticals, you matter.  To power hungry lawmakers, you matter.  You matter to the consumer culture and sexual freedom.  You matter to crusaders for progress.  To hands that want to hold authority over life and death, you matter.  To sinful souls that long to play god, you matter.

            Your ambitions need to be exploited for their benefit.  You need their support for your political aspirations and they need yours to stay legal.  Your crisis is leveraged for their profit.  They need your insurance coverage.  Your rebellion and sexual choices validate their services.  Your unborn and elderly make great sacrifices to the god of choices; they can’t speak for themselves or are too old or frail to put up much an argument anyway.

            Your suffering warrants my freedom.  Because you sin, I should get to also.  I stand on the side of history.  Everyone wins when you let me use you.  Never mind that it looks like hell.  It only costs humanity.

            Rather than punish, God pursues and persuades.  Instead of condemning, He courts and convinces.

            “GOD’S LOVE MAKES EVERY LIFE MATTER”

            His love is big enough to make Jonah and Nineveh matter.  Where the Ninevites settle for sex scenes, God writes them into a love story.  Jonah angles for a divorce while God is already arranging a next date.  Instead of slinking into a one-night stand, God would have none of it and He serves up happily ever after.  Jonah and the Ninevites would accept spiritual prostitution, but the Almighty Maker of them all can’t stand any less than proposing marriage, and family as well.

            He wants to win their love.  He craves their heart and prizes their eternity.  “When God saw what they (the Ninevites) did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.” (v. 10)  It only takes four chapters and three days and God moves the heaven and earth for Nineveh.  His Word secures their survival and salvation.  Faced with keeping Jonah or Nineveh at the other’s expense, God sacrifices himself and His justice instead.  All suffer loss, but only the loss of self, and they gain the other two for the price of that one.

            Your life matters as much as any other life.  Your entire being matters to God so He leads with the full-force of the Law, but He follows with the sweetness of the Gospel.  God doesn’t perform sleight of hand and make your obstacles disappear.  He sends Jesus.  He enters and involves Himself.  He sets His mind, heart, body, and will next to and in front of yours, because all of you matters.  Mary’s manger, violent cross and vacant grave show how much you – yes, you – do matter.

            Time and servanthood He inhabits.  In suffering and humility, He reaches the infant and elderly and unplanned and accidental ones, because your life matters right now and ever after.  With body and blood, He touches the harlot and Pharisee, because your life matters – earth and kingdom come.  He gives life to unwanted and unworthy and selfish, because your life matters – resurrection and immortality.  For better and worse and richer and poorer and sickness and health; to have and hold and love and cherish; from this day forward and even forevermore; and not even death do us part, because your life matters. 

            Jesus ascended but present, Christ enthroned but intervening, Savior imminent – your life matters and others just like you.  Their life matters because your life matters.  Our lives matter because His life matters.  Jesus life given into death was sufficient to save us all.  The same Word, Baptism and Communion grace us all.  Faith in Jesus saves us all.  Forgiven and redeemed changes world like it changes Church.  This Father, Son, and Spirit God of ours knows nothing other than love making lives matter out of once did not.

                                                                                    Amen.