June 30, 2024 Text:  2 Corinthians 8:1-9, 13-15

Dear Friends in Christ,

Is the government too generous with your money?  Talk about a loaded question.  I can only imagine the answers floating in your heads about now.  Most of you get a little or a lot upset about the way your tax dollars are used.  So, is the government too generous?  Do we ever find it tough to be generous with the money we do control?

The Apostle Paul in our text found some poor Christians who were pleading for the privilege to be generous.  Can we be like them?  Can . . . 

“GOD’S GENEROSITY FEED OURS?”

We do need the Lord’s help.  It doesn’t come naturally.  It is a learned behavior.  But what are some roadblocks in our way of being generous?

We might give too much.  After all, we have ourselves and maybe a family to look after.  Some do have to be careful with their finances, but many of us are blessed way beyond what we envisioned when we were kids.  Do you ever feel you give too much of your time, talent or treasure?

Another roadblock is that we might think we can’t give enough to make a difference.  The needs of our world are great.  Yes, entities can use our dollars, but they also need volunteers who can share their special God-given gifts with others.  

Our generosity could be misused.  That is true.  Sin is still all around us friends.  Maybe we don’t feel our generosity is appreciated.  Do you always remember to thank a gracious giver?  I’ve told you it was drilled into me by my mom.  A simple thank-you note.  The older generation thinks the younger generation is less appreciative.  They do send less notes, but maybe you get a text or social media post.  We need to pass thankfulness on to others.  None of these should be excuses.  Don’t let the devil have you thinking that everything you have is mine, mine, mine.

Paul provides some help for growing a generous spirit.  Jesus shows God’s generosity to us.  Paul in verse 9, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich…”  Jesus did not have a lot of cash and never owned a home.  Materially wealthy he was not.  As far as we know he could only afford sandals.  Christ provided spiritual wealth.  Sin is the spiritual debt we owe to God, so then forgiveness earned for us by Jesus on the cross is the spiritual wealth by which he makes us rich.  Romans 5:8:  “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  This generous God helps us to be generous.

The Spirit is at work.  We give because we care.  That starts in our heart.  The Macedonians first gave themselves to the Lord (v. 5), then they begged to take part in the relief of the saints. (v. 4).  Generous comes from the French word meaning “noble birth.”  We are of noble birth spiritually.  Children of the King.  Brothers and Sisters of the Prince of Peace.

Generosity isn’t about amount; it is about attitude.  I like that.  Hope you do too.  Verse 3, “For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own free will.”  Free will.  We are generous because we care.  

We give to thank God.  Verse 2, “In a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.”  Maybe their property taxes were going up and grocery prices have us shaking our heads in the aisles.  We are still the most blessed people in the world.  Look at our food prices compared to other parts of the globe.  House interest rates of 6-7%, but some of you remember 15-20% rates in the 1970’s or when you bought your home.  Our gas and electricity bills are not that much higher than 20 years ago.  I still have ours and yes, I looked!  We can complain or we can look at our salary or our 401k or 403b or the things in our closet.  I could wear a different  t-shirt every day for the next 3 months and probably still make it to Thanksgiving.  It really is amazing.  We are blessed by God.  We are taken care of by God.  Now here on earth and even better in eternity.  We might drive pot-holed streets, but gold avenues of smoothness await us in heaven.  Because God gives so much to us, we can be generous with others. 

Doesn’t generosity feel good?  Not in a name a park after me good, but in knowing that God is using you for the betterment of the sliver of earth you occupy.  God always blesses us from the cross of Jesus so that we can be generous in some way, to someone.

This week look for a way to be generous . . . that doesn’t involve money . . . so that others may be blessed by your generosity . . . for Jesus’ sake.

Amen.     

July 23, 2024 Text:  Luke 1:57-80

Dear Friends in Christ,

Do you remember from the 1980’s the show The A-Team?  On the show was the character Colonel Hannibal Smith played by George Peppard.  His famous line was, “I love it when a plan comes together.”

We all like to see our plans be successful, right?  Work schedules.  Financial plans that meet or exceed our projections.  Career plans – school that leads to job that leads to promotion.  And there are some in the pews this morning waiting for a vacation plan to Germany come together that began in April 2023.  

The Bible shows that God is also a planner.  Isn’t it nice to have Him in charge of the universe and human history and human destiny?  Our text is the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, a festival day in the church celebrated tomorrow.  We get to . . . 

“SEE AND HEAR GOD’S PLAN COMING TOGETHER”

We know that plans don’t always work out.  We might lose focus or procrastinate.  Sometimes we have a plan but because of expectations it is not what we intended.  Haven’t you had a great time somewhere, when initially you dreaded it.  Or vice versa, you have great expectations for something and then the big letdown.  Then sometimes plans are foiled because we live in a messed up, sinful world. Plans blow up in our faces.  We get discouraged.  Or we put too much trust in people.  This happens in politics.  You pray and vote for leaders and then they follow their own agenda instead of the one you voted for.

We have all seen plans fail.  Hopes dashed.  In our text, Zechariah had experienced this sort of thing too.  Zechariah was sure God’s plan wouldn’t work.

You remember the big announcement.  The angel Gabriel had come to Zechariah and Elizabeth, his wife, and told them they would have a son.  His name was going to be John and he would prepare the way for the Messiah.  This plan was promised throughout the Old Testament.  

Except experience, or what I call our sociological history, was telling Zechariah that this was a long shot.  Elizabeth and I are way too old.  God must be distracted.  Surely this coming Messiah can’t overcome the pagan rulers of Rome and religious leaders of Jerusalem.  

So, Zechariah didn’t believe in the plan of God.  Not now.  Not through him.  Zechariah was struck speechless because he didn’t believe in God’s plan.  Now pay attention to this for our modern times.  The pagan Roman rulers and corrupt religious leaders carried on with no apparent ill effects or consequences.  Zechariah had a lot of quiet time to contemplate what was happening around him.

The plan is starting to come together.  John is born.  Zechariah is speaking.  Zechariah’s song, his prophecy was a fulfillment that God’s Old Testament plans were coming together.  John means “The Lord has shown favor.”  He and Elizabeth were highly favored to have this child in old age.  They had been in God’s plans all along.

Verses 67-79 is called the Benedictus.  It has been part of the church’s liturgy since the 9^th century.  How did these words pop in his head?   God caused him to remember over a dozen Old Testament passages filled with promises that were now being fulfilled.  God’s plan had come together.

Zechariah’s prophesy talked about a Lord who was on the way.  Isaiah spoke about Him.  Malachi spoke about Him four hundred years before his coming.  God hadn’t forgotten.  God’s grand plan was now coming to completion:  to send Jesus, the Messiah.  Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, came at just the right time.  Jesus lived the perfect live that mankind had failed to live.  Jesus suffered and atoned for all the sins of mankind, who had failed to keep God’s perfect Law when He died on the cross.  Jesus rose from the grave to demonstrate his victory on our behalf.  This plan is not over.  Jesus will come again at just the right time to usher in the kingdom of heaven in all its fullness.

You and I, as the Church, have been commissioned to prepare the world for Jesus’ final coming.  Do not doubt the plan.  Do not be “speechless” with those who need the Gospel in preparation for that day.  Remember God’s promises.  Praise God like Zechariah did, for the plans in your life.  Study the Bible so you know the promises and can declare the Lord’s mighty works of love and salvation.   I love it when a plan comes together. 

Amen.        

June 9, 2024 Text:  Mark 3:20-35

Dear Friends in Christ,

It was about 8 years ago at my Grandma Lueck’s funeral in Wisconsin.  The family was standing around all waiting to go into the sanctuary.  The Pastor asked if someone would like to say a prayer.  I don’t remember exactly what I said but it was a little off the beaten path for the moment, because you see everyone standing there was LCMS.  It included three Pastors, a parochial school principal, two church organists and various leaders in their churches.  We were going to have to cast lots…maybe that is what I said!  Anyway, my cousins gave me that look, what is this guy thinking.  I tend to get that a lot.  But there are no secrets, everyone knows who I am.  Church family, you get that, right?

Today Jesus is going to be with his family.  In a group setting.  As family we tend to know each other the best.  Do they know Him?  Do they understand Him?  Let’s sneak ourselves into this . . . 

“FAMILY AFFAIR”

Our text begins with Jesus going home.  Crowds are huge.  These newly appointed disciples and Jesus couldn’t get anything to eat.  The family goes to seize him and say, “he is out of his mind.”  Why did they say this?  We need a little context which Mark does not give, but Matthew does.  Jesus had just healed a demon-possessed man.  His family thought he was in league with the demons.  They do not believe he is the Messiah, he must be crazy.

Does our family ever think we are “out of our mind.”  Do they ever look at you, like my cousins looked at me?  There are times we are out of our mind.  We don’t think clearly.  We do dumb things.  We say things we shouldn’t.  Our family knows most of our foibles and our weaknesses.  If they don’t, God surely does.  It is all a family affair.  Being in a family is not all happy meals and campfire songs.  It can be dark and dirty, emotional and confusing.  Who can we thank for that?  The first family.  It’s there in your Old Testament.  They disobeyed God.  They were naked.  They hid.  They blamed.  Families have been doing the same ever since.  

The accusations don’t end there.  Here’s comes his church family from Jerusalem.  The place where the cross would play an important part in this family affair.  “He’s possessed.”  Jesus’ opponents could not deny his miracles, so they question their origin.   They aren’t from God, they are from Satan.  Well, that’s a big matzoh ball hanging out there.

Time for an answer.  Satan cannot cast out Satan.  If divided, a kingdom cannot stand.  Then the family affair analogy, a house divided cannot stand.  Do you think Jesus might be telling his family something?  Quite an absurd charge, but if you don’t believe in Jesus as Messiah, you can pretty much accuse Him of anything.  

The battle Jesus had with Satan occurred in a way no one saw coming.  Jesus would bear our sin on the cross.  God would condemn Jesus for your sins against immediate family, extended family, church family, the family of God.  He suffered your eternal judgment.  He utters, “it is finished” and your sin is gone.  The resurrection proves Christ took away your sin and sets you right with God.  

Christ can declare in our text, “all sins will be forgiven the children of man.”  Christ’s promise defeats Satan.  Satan is bound by Christ.  Satan can no longer accuse you.  His power is broken.  You walk naked no longer in the garden.  You are set free from his prison.

Because of Christ’s victory, you are no longer an outsider.  When our boys were little, I would say to them, “I love you like you are my son.”  They would say, “I am your son.”  I would respond, “that’s what the blood test says.”  God completed that family joke by giving the boys and I the same exact blood type.  

God has made us family by blood and our genes.  “Who are my mother and my brothers?”  Jesus addresses those who thought he was out of his mind and who at this point do not believe in Him as Savior.  Christ is not downplaying family ties and their importance.  Earthly relations are crucial and help form who we are.  But even more important is our relationship to God and His family of faith.  This forms our eternal communion.  All believers according to Ephesians are the household of God.  We are the household of faith as Paul writes in Galatians.   To Jesus this tie is supreme.  We have to be careful to not place the earthly tie above the heavenly.  I had the opportunity recently to be interviewed about one of our sons.  It gave a chance to witness again, “He is not really my wife and I’s son, he belongs to God.”  

That is the family affair we should all want.  You and I belong to God.  You have been set free from Satan.  You are in the family of Christ the Savior.  Nice to have you home.

Amen.