October 4, 2020 – LWML Sunday                                                Text:  Matthew 21:43

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Many states are known for the fruit that they produce.  If I say peach – you think of Georgia.  You would put Washington with apples.  A mention of Florida would bring to mind oranges.  Cranberries would conjure up the bogs of Massachusetts.  A little closer to home we can even make it a city not a state, especially at this time of year.  I say pumpkin and almost all of us know that a majority of them in the United States are processed in Morton.  By the way I did my research and pumpkin is a fruit not a vegetable, even though it is related to the squash.  See you are going to leave here even smarter than when you came in.

The point is that each state is known for the fruit that its people produce.

            Just as states are known by the fruit each produces; the kingdom of God is recognized by the fruit its people produce.  This fruit is not found on a branch or a vine.  It is found in our actions through our faith.  It is Lutheran Women’s Missionary League Sunday and a good time to see how . . .

“KINGDOM PEOPLE PRODUCE KINGDOM FRUIT”

            We are the kingdom people.  This is a task given to us by Almighty God.  In our text for today we see that the task has been taken away from those who failed at its production.

            The parable Jesus tells is the story of Israel.  They were the chosen people.  They were the kingdom people.  They are the tenants in the parable.  When the servants come they stone them and beat them and kill them. 

            God had sent His prophets to restore Israel unto Himself.  Israel refused to hear the message, and they abused those messengers.

            The master of the house then sends His Son who He thinks they will respect.  But the tenants see an heir who they can kill and gain the inheritance and so that is what they do.  They took him, threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.  In just this way, Israel would take Jesus outside the city wall of Jerusalem and crucify him.

            The builders rejected the stone that would become the cornerstone.  The cornerstone is Jesus and this is what the church is built upon.  Salvation has come through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

            We needed this because we too are enemies of the Son and the cornerstone.  We want to produce our own fruit apart from the work of our Lord.  We figure a good-looking vineyard procured by our good works will merit a compliment from our Heavenly Father – the master of the house.

            We are only kingdom people who can produce kingdom fruit through Word and Sacrament, by God’s grace in Christ Jesus, because the Lord has made us new people of the kingdom.  This is a gift.  The words of Jesus are clear.  The kingdom of God is “given.” 

            The expectation then is that kingdom people produce kingdom fruit.  In our new state of righteousness our sanctified lives produce kingdom fruit such as repentance, faith, works of faith, and in the making of disciples.  This task is only done with the Lord’s help.  Luther’s Small Catechism states that the Holy Spirit calls us by the Gospel and enlightens us with His gifts.  We are connected to Jesus, who is our lifeline for bearing fruit.

            For those of us in the kingdom of God it is always fruit production season.  This is what kingdom people do.  By God’s grace this is what the LWML does.  It is well known for its emphasis on fruit production. 

            In its pledge we say today you can see the words – “we dedicate ourselves to Him…pledge Him our willing service…consecrate to our Savior our hands to work for Him, our feet to go on His errands, our voice to sing His praises, our lips to proclaim His redeeming love, our silver and gold to extend His kingdom.”  These Lutheran Women in Mission are known for their work of sewing quilts and producing school kits and gathering mites for mission grants in their home districts and in countries around the world.  The LWML is a blessing as they produce kingdom fruit.

            In His Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, “Every healthy tree bears good fruit.” (Mt. 7:17)  As followers of Jesus, God makes us healthy.  We are in His kingdom.  We are His people.  Forgiven and loved and motivated by the Gospel message may the kingdom of God be recognized by our fruit.

                                                                                    Amen.     

September 27, 2020                                                                                  Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32

Dear Friends in Christ,

            If we pay attention we know what brings our loved ones pleasure.  Maybe they like a certain treat or type of food.  We know they enjoy a good massage or having their hair brushed.  We can bring them pleasure in telling them their team won and a team they don’t like lost.  We see their face light up at receiving a certain gift.  We know what pleases them.

            What gives God pleasure?  What makes God happy?  People worshipping Him consistently.  Trust in his Word.  Prayer.  Faith.  Love. 

            Today we are going to delve into something we probably don’t think a lot about.  The mind of God.  He lets us in through the words of Ezekiel.  What is our Lord thinking?

“WHAT IS GOD’S GOOD PLEASURE?”

            God delights in life.  He has since the beginning.  He took man from dust and put air in his lungs and made him a living creature.  In the Gospel of John He says that whoever believes in Jesus should not perish but have eternal life.  He tells us to have life and have it abundantly, also in the Gospel of John.

            Life was poured out on you at the baptismal font.  You feed on the living self of Christ at the Communion rail.  From this pulpit, the Father speaks into your heart new life.  What is God’s good pleasure?  That you live.

            Why do people die?  Does death give God pleasure?  Never!   People die, we die, because we chase our own pleasures.  “Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin.” (v. 30b) 

            God designed us for life, life like His own.  When we live to make ourselves happy that is the real killer.  “Behold all souls are mine…the soul who sins shall die…” (v. 4)  Turn down God’s gift of life and you’re a goner, gone forever.  “You’re dying because you’re guilty, not because somebody else sinned.”  That makes it very personal.  The fact you will die begins and ends with you.

            We can’t pass that off.  Ezekiel was hearing the blame game.  God heard it in the Garden of Eden.  Do you ever whine, “Life’s not fair.”?  “There wasn’t anything I could have done about it.”  The Lord could just let us wallow in this quagmire of excuse making.  He is heart-struck by the accusation.  God defends Himself even to us:  “Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’  Hear now, O house of Israel:  Is my way not just?  Is it not your ways that are not just?” (v. 25)  Ezekiel then quotes the Lord in the next verse, “When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness, and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die.” (v. 26)  There are no excuses.

            Still, God says, “When a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life.” (v. 27)  God wants to forgive.  God wants to give life.  He declares, “Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die.” (v. 28)

            We need to turn away and repent and cast away our selfish desires.  Only the Lord can create a new heart within us.  We turn away from our sin to Christ’s forgiveness.  We cast away the death we deserve and turn to the Lord’s gift of life.  The resurrected Christ has given the good news that changes everyone.  God gives life.

            On April 26, 2006, Newell and Colleen Cerak received a phone call that their daughter Whitney, who was traveling in a Taylor University van, was involved in a crash with a semi.  The van had nine passengers, five were dead.  The Cerak’s daughter Whitney was one of the five.

            That same evening another phone rang in the home of Don and Susie van Ryn.  They were told their daughter Laura had been in the van; she was in intensive care, barely clinging to life.

            More than 1,000 people came to Whitney Cerak’s funeral.  Meanwhile, the van Ryn family stayed at Laura’s bedside.  She came out of the coma.  Five weeks after the crash her sister asked, “What’s your name?”  To the shock of the family, the girl they thought was Laura said, “Whitney.”  The coroner and the hospital had confused the two horribly battered young women.

            The van Ryn family for weeks had believed their daughter Laura was alive.  Devout Christians, the van Ryns now rejoiced to see the Cerak family receive Whitney back from the dead.  The Cerak family were also devout Christians, and four years later, they invited the van Ryns to Whitney’s wedding.  Whitney was married in the same church where her funeral was held.

            God makes no mistakes.  “The soul who sins shall die.” (v. 4)  Because He takes up the whole horrible load of my sin, Jesus dies.  No mistake.  The Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world.  Why?  The Lord, your God, declares that He has “no pleasure in the death of anyone.”  “So turn.”  Turn to Jesus “and live.” (v. 32)

                                                                                                                                    Amen.