December 2, 2020                                                                            Text:  Luke 1:26-38

Dear Friends in Christ,

            It was the spring of 1996 and we found out we were with child.  This child would someday have a name that you know – Karson Calder Lueck.  How would we let family and friends know we were expecting a child?  Well, if you live with me or work with me things are never done in a normal; everyone does it that way fashion.  It has got to be different.  It makes life more fun.

            My mother and father were coming for a visit.  Toni and I at this time lived in a condo in Overland Park, Kansas.  They arrived on a Friday evening but we didn’t release a news bulletin.  When finding out we were pregnant (please remember it is a husband and wife thing, not just the wife) we were given a diaper bag that included a few diapers, formula, baby powder etc.  We would let Doug and Pat Lueck of Argenta IL figure it out by themselves by putting these items around our home.  Diaper bag behind a chair, formula on the counter, baby powder on an end table.  This condo had an upstairs landing, so I observed the grandparents-to-be until my mom figured it out and got all excited.  It was a wonderful way to share the glorious news that we were going to be parents.  Wow!  What a day that was.

            How have you told others that you were expecting?  Something more elaborate?  More low key?  Tonight we begin our Advent/Christmas Series of sermons on everything involved in having a baby.  Tonight we join the Virgin Mary as she finds out that she is . . .

“EXPECTING”

            Since we celebrate Christmas on December 25 then we can celebrate Jesus’ conception on March 25.  We call this observance the Annunciation because Gabriel announced it to Mary.  It was a special pregnancy – Mary was pregnant with God.

            What was conceived in Mary was God.  The angel promises two things to Mary in verses 31-32:  “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son.”  He “will be called Son of the Most High.”  In other words God.  In verse 35 the angel makes the promise even stronger, “the child to be born will be called holy – the Son of God.”

            Ok, then, this is a little stronger way of announcing a child is coming.  It’s not a diaper in a condo; it is an angel of the Lord telling the mother she will give birth to the Son of God.  See, our God likes to do things differently, too.

            But what is Mary going to do now?  How will she tell family and friends that her womb will be growing in the months to come?  Joseph!  What will I say to Joseph?  Why is this a problem for Mary?

            Jewish betrothal was binding in ways that modern engagements are not.  Betrothal usually preceded marriage by at least nine months to assure that the bride was not pregnant.  The young man would then present a gift to the bride’s family and the fathers of the would be bride and groom would sign a marriage document.

            There are going to be some challenges.  We get just a glimpse of these in Matthew’s Gospel.  Joseph thinks at first that Mary has been unfaithful and he will “divorce her quietly.”  The other problem is that if the community thinks Mary has committed adultery, she can be put to death by stoning.  The Lord’s plan as we now know was not stymied, but it was unexpected.

            The startling announcement for us this night is that this news of expectation included you and I.  Mary was pregnant with God.  She had to be.  Our salvation depends upon it.  Psalm 51 tells us that we were conceived and born in sin.  Isaiah tells us that are good deeds are nothing but filthy rags.  Paul reminds us the wages of sin is death.  The wrath and punishment we deserve was put upon God.

            God in the person of Jesus took our place in the womb and in birth, redeeming us from our sinful beginning.  He took our place in life to cover our filthy rags of deeds with His perfect deeds.  He took our place on the cross to save us from the punishment of hell.  He took our place in the grave and rose again so we would be spared the sting of death and it would give us a sure and certain hope.

            What else can we learn about this conception?  You are not the product of some biological assembly line.  We should all have a stamp on us saying, “Hand made by God.”  Toni and I were excited that spring of 1996.  We were equally excited about three years later when we got to announce to many of you that we were expecting another of God’s wonderful creation – Holden Shay Lueck.  What joy and awesome responsibility God gave us twice.  He allowed two sinful human beings to shepherd two of his own through life.  We are eternally grateful.

            Eternally grateful to God for the gift of Jesus almost seems to not be enough.  He gave you life.  He gave your children life.  God loves life from the moment of conception.  Little Amanda wrote God a letter in Sunday School, “Dear God, I bet it is very hard for you to love everybody in the whole world.  There are only four people in our family and I can never do it.”  God did it.  He loves everybody equally.  He saved everybody equally.  God and man from the moment of conception.  Mary was expecting and now we have a Savior from sin.  Isn’t that great?

                                                                                                            Amen. 

November 29, 2020                                                                          Text:  Isaiah 64:1-9

Dear Friends in Christ,

            I am going to assume that almost all of us played hide and seek as a child.  Count to 10 or 100 and then go find your friend or cousin or sister.  Did you ever do this?  Decide you wouldn’t look for a person who was hiding.  Make them think you forgot about them. 

            Does God ever do that?  Our text from Isaiah says, “you have hidden your face from us.”  Really, is God hiding?  Ready or not, here I come . . .

“WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?”

            The prophet Isaiah is not painting a pretty picture this morning.  It is a prayer, but why in the world is he using the language he does.  “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down.” (v. 1)  Isaiah is praying that the storm of God would come down upon the whole sorry lot of us, enemies and allies alike, the whole scene that pits nation against nation, neighbor against neighbor, family against family.

            If God hides, if God take himself out of the picture, we all almost literally go to hell in a handbasket.  “We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” (v. 6) 

            Did you notice that earlier in our service we prayed a prayer almost identical to Isaiah’s?  We prayed it a little more politely but it is just as powerful.  It was the Collect:  “Almighty God, Judge and King, the whole creation waits for your coming.  Come, Lord Jesus with your grace and fill our lives with your presence.  Use all of our time for your gracious purpose.”

            We prayed that we wanted the Lord’s presence.  We do not want Him to hide because He is angry at our sins.  We want God to deliver us.  We wait for God to deliver us.  Think of those who waited for God in the storms of their life.  Job had to be patient.  Jonah wanted some regurgitation as he waited in the belly of the fish.  Do you ever play hide and seek with God?  God where are you?  I’m a little lonely here.  I’m questioning my faith as I deal with this family problem.  God?  Hello?

            I don’t want to besmirch those who plan the Scripture readings for each Sunday but how many of you were thinking “Palm Sunday, Palm Sunday” as you heard the Gospel read?  Aren’t things a little out of order?  Except for this.  The God who is both hidden and revealed in this man named Jesus – born in a little town called Bethlehem, raised in an even littler town called Nazareth – never comes in the way we expect.

            The Gospel of Mark, which we are going to hear a whole lot over the coming year, shows how this God of Isaiah reverses our expectations of whom God is and what God should be doing in this person named Jesus.  When we think God is near, Jesus is far away.  When we think God is far away, Jesus is near.  When we think Jesus should enter to the sound of trumpets, he comes barefoot and half-naked.  When we expect Jesus to cower in a corner, he thunders with words that offend.  Jesus comes to overturn all our expectations about who God is and what God will do.

            We shout our “hosannas” one minute and then we are nailing Jesus to a beam of wood.  He is like a common criminal, yet He is hanging there for crimes He did not commit.  We can thank God for that, even when we don’t get what we want.  Because it means we won’t get what we deserve.  And when we finally get to the point when we realize that, we can see God as God truly is.  And Isaiah’s prayer becomes our prayer.

            Going back to hide and seek, did you ever play it with someone who always wanted to be found?  They had to make a noise or they might even scream out, “I’m in here.”  Maybe you were that child.  We can’t stay hidden, God has found us and He didn’t need our help either.  “But now, O Lord, you are our Father, we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.” (v. 8) 

            What a beautifully simple image.  The very hand of God molding and shaping our lives into a life we could never have on our own.  He blesses us like a clay pitcher and then the Lord uses us to pour out blessings on others.  He makes us vessels to do his work. 

            What do you expect?  He is not hidden at all.

                                                                                                Amen.  

November 22, 2020                                                              Text:  Matthew 25:31-34, 41

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Growing up I did not listen to many Frank Sinatra songs.  I knew who he was, his ties to the mafia and that Don Rickles liked to make fun of him.  As my musical listening expanded I started to enjoy some of his songs.  I especially enjoyed, “My Way.”  As God’s child who has always done his own thing, I could relate to the lyrics.  Do you remember this verse?

“And now, the end is near; And so I face the final curtain.  My friend, I’ll say it clear, I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain.  I’ve lived a life that’s full.  I’ve traveled each and every highway; And more, much more than this, I did it my way.”

            Are you ready for . . .

“THE CURTAIN CALL”

            Webster’s defines a curtain call as “an appearance by a performer (after the final curtain of a play) in response to the applause of the audience.”

            Jesus says in our text, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.  Before him will be gathered all the nations…”  That is all of us.  It is the curtain call.  When our performance on earth ends, there is an evaluation of our performance.  It is the summons of God that no man can escape.  He evaluates us.

            Shakespeare wrote this in Macbeth:  “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more.”

            The curtain call is not an “if” but a certainty.  There is a foreboding in our world that grows day by day.  Even those who question the existence of God have to wonder where it is all headed.

            It’s the “when” of Christ’s return and not the “if.”  Dr. Francis Pieper wrote, “…certain as Christ’s visible return is, the exact time and hour of its occurrence is hidden, as Christ says:  ‘but of that day and hour knoweth no man, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only” (Matt. 24:36)  In vain, therefore, do men try to compute the time of His arrival.  They should however, carefully take note of the numerous signs of Christ’s return…which Scripture reveals.”

            Jesus goes on to say:  “Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.” 

            The Albrecht’s in their commentary on Matthew write:  “The whole point of the judgment is that some are saved and others are not.  This theme has been consistently presented throughout Jesus’ teaching ministry.  Although we live in an age that prizes diversity and tolerance, the sad truth is that not all people will be saved.  Some people will go to hell.  God “wants all men to be saved” (1 Tim. 2:4), but the teaching of Jesus makes it clear that God will not get all that he wants.  God’s original purpose in creating hell was not to prepare a place for sinful people.  No, hell was “prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41).  Nevertheless, the goats who are on the King’s left will join the devil and his angels in eternal flames..”

            The end of another church year draws us to end of everything of this world.  I want to be ready.  You want to be ready.  God wants us to be ready.  And please remember this – everything that is happening to this world is being directed by the great Triune God.

            God is the One who does the saving.  He makes the separation.  We are His sheep saved by the Good Shepherd.  Christ came to die for us so that we wouldn’t join the devil and his angels.  His resurrection declared us victorious in the blood of the Lamb.  Our Lord descended into hell to make that declarative statement to Satan.  He may win parts of the game, but our Savior always wins the championship.  You know that when you think of your own eternity.  You know that when the casket of a loved one is lowered into the ground.  You know that as you live out your Christian life in this world that mocks a return of Jesus.

            In Old Testament times, God sent Azariah to encourage King Asa.  He told him that if he seeks the Lord, the Lord would be with him.  If he would forsake the Lord the Lord would forsake him.  In that time in history it was written, “In their distress they turned to the Lord…In those days it was not safe to travel, for all the people of the lands were in great turmoil.  One nation was being crushed by another and one city by another…” (2 Chron. 15:3-6a)  Then God revealed this startling insight which has been lost on America and a lot of which calls itself “Christian.”  “God was troubling them with every kind of distress.  But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.” (2 Chron. 15:6b-7)

            Isn’t that something?  He does that even today.  Troubles us.  Shakes us.  Wants our attention.  As a nation and as Christians.  But don’t miss the promise – “But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.”

            As Jesus said about God “troubling” this world:  “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Lk. 21:28)  Well, it is.  The Curtain Call.  It’s closer than we think.

                                                                                                                                    Amen.