July 5, 2020                                                                            Text:  Romans 7:15-25a

Dear Friends in Christ,

            You may remember this story from a few years back.  A young stockbroker worked for a firm that made a lot of shady deals.  He warned them of this.  At the same time he quietly sent out resumes looking for another job.  He soon joined another company at a lower salary and with a lateral move.  When asked why, he responded, “I just got tired of polishing the brass on the Titanic.”  Sure enough, a few years later his old company sank.

            That expression, “I just got tired of polishing the brass on the Titanic,” is a metaphor for any futile effort.  After 20 years as a loyal subscriber I got tired of fighting with our local paper over subscription rates that I finally cancelled.  How about trying to get the doctor to return your calls?  Fighting the political system in Illinois?  Or even battles with family members that get us nowhere that we just give up.  It is futile and it wastes our time and emotions.

            In today’s Epistle lesson, St. Paul describes the futility of trying to achieve a good standing before God.  “I want to do what is right and good but I keep doing that which is evil and sinful.  I am a wretched person and I continue on this treadmill of behavior.  What’s the use of trying to do the right thing?”  We want to know that . . .

“I’M NOT JUST ENGAGED IN FUTILITY”

            Does Paul’s experience parallel your own?  You are counting on your good behavior to get right with God.  It is futile.  It’s like polishing the brass on the Titanic.  Two brothers were wrestling with each other and one pinned the other and panted, “Now, confess!  You’re in bondage to sin, and you cannot free yourself” – proving that the brothers must have been Lutherans. 

            We cannot free ourselves.  We are at war within ourselves.  We see good and evil raging around us in society but it also rages in our hearts and in our minds.  We have all been guilty of some horrible thoughts these last few months.  We’ve made judgments that have been wrong.  We’ve questioned authority.  We’ve whined about things that make no difference to our spiritual life.  You may even pray to stop this behavior and Satan slips right back in through the back of your shirt and your mind continues as a cesspool of bad thoughts.  What we want and what God wants don’t always agree.  This is where the conflict happens.

            What God wants usually comes in 2^nd place.   In this time of upheaval, as Christians we need to stay upon the fray.  We need to count our blessings and lean on our faith.  Instead, we start to look at people differently.  They are no longer children of God but misinformed malcontents.  We need to use the Lord’s words but instead we pop off with our great wisdom.  “What wretched people we are!  Who will rescue us from this body of death?”

            St. Paul had a quick answer.  “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”  He didn’t stop there.  He filled his letters to the church in Rome with all manner of comforting words and uplifting thoughts.  If God can raise Jesus from the dead, He is certainly powerful enough to deliver me from the sin that infects my body and soul.

            In faith, this Jesus lives in me.  In faith, this Jesus lives in you.  This power is stronger than my sin.  This Spirit of God has made us baptized children of the Most High.  He lives in us through our Baptism and every day thereafter.  His presence comes in body and blood each time I am privileged to enter His altar.   He is renewing His presence within us right now as we hear His Word and trust his promise.

            This Spiritual presence helps us overcome our judgment calls.  This Spiritual presence helps us refocus so that we stop whining of what we don’t have to the wonderful blessings He does give us.  We stop the me, me, me chant and look to “love thy neighbor as thyself.”  It isn’t easy.  Paul knew that.  He was more aware than most that our standing before God is a gift, not achievement.

            On the cross Christ gained for us our standing before God.  We enjoy God’s love and favor because of Christ.  Our faith and obedience didn’t cause that.  God’s grace and mercy and love came upon us and made us men and women in which Christ dwells.

            We are not just engaged in futility.  The cross of Christ gives us a purpose.  For some of you do it for your children and grandchildren.  For some of us we glimpse our faith in our children and future grandchildren.  For some of you your behavior now leads to that spouse the Lord has waiting for you and the children he will grant to you.  By the power of God we are forgiven and given this great gift of the Lord in our lives. 

            We can’t help but exclaim it like Paul, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

                        Amen.               

June 21, 2020                                                                                    Text:  Jeremiah 20:7-13

Dear Friends in Christ,

            It’s far easier to be quiet than prophetic.  The life of Jeremiah wasn’t quite working out the way he wanted.  He had been a prophet at a young age.  The Lord gave him incredible gifts and made him tough.  God made Jeremiah wise and insightful and passionate and most importantly right about the things he prophesied about.  And when this occurs what happens? – it makes a person very unpopular.

            Jeremiah’s friends and family had abandoned him.  He lived in evil times but his pain was because he knew it was all avoidable.  But no one would listen.  The people worshipped false gods and demanded that the church and prophet change God’s Word and declare them righteous.

            Let’s bring Jeremiah’s predicament into Earth 2020.  It’s quite easy to do.  It’s far easier to be quiet than prophetic.  The persecutions will come, but . . .

“THE PROPHETIC VOICE WILL BE HEARD”

            Jeremiah’s voice will be heard because it is God’s voice.  Our voices will also be heard if what we speak is the truth of God’s word.  Jeremiah felt like he was trapped.  The more truth he spoke, the less the people listened.

            What is a truth spoken throughout time that people listen less and less to?  Homosexual marriage.  In 2004, the Pew Research Center found that 60% opposed this type of marriage.  By 2019, the same research company found 61% found nothing wrong with these types of unions.  Misguided Internet ner-do-well’s, interest groups and liberal commentators go after churches and businesses that uphold marriage between one man and one woman.

            There is only one universal truth.  Two weeks ago our Old Testament lesson was God creating the world in Genesis.  He laid out His plan for marriage and family.  I will continue to preach this.  Instead of simplifying life we complicate it.  God’s plan is real easy to follow.  Man and woman marry – God Blesses.  Man and woman have children prayerfully – God Blesses.  Man and woman bring children to worship and Sunday School.  Man and woman pray for their children and love them and respect them.  These same children then carry this same behavior to the next generation and the world is a more grace-filled place.

            When we deviate from the Lord’s plan then problems and challenges occur.  When I am about ready to retire, the prayer is that the world will wake up.  They will have empirical evidence by then that the two moms or the two dads do not work.  And all the liberal thinkers will wonder what went wrong.  It’s far easier to be quiet than prophetic.

            Jeremiah experienced the same thing.  Even though he had times of feeling like a man on an island, he kept proclaiming God’s truth.  I love verse 9, “If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,’ there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, I cannot.”  This is prophetic reluctance overcome by divine compulsion.

            Have you experienced this?  You can’t continue to stay quiet as people speak God’s name in vain or trash His Word or so jumble what the Bible says that you must say something.  That is the Lord speaking through you – divine compulsion.  He even gives us the words.  It’s far easier to be quiet than prophetic.

            God speaks a Word, an eternal Word that will always prove right.  If you love your children, spouse, friends, parents, even your enemies, you should want them to hear and know the truth.  God loves His children and so He declares His Word in every generation.  He will not let it die. 

            We err if we think the purpose of life on earth is just to enjoy and be comfortable.  That is part of the promise of heaven, not earth.  It is not an option to keep heads down and eyes turned away.  Can we just have head in the clouds with abortion and assisted suicide all around us?  It’s far easier to be quiet than prophetic.

            We need help to understand what is upon us.  The way we live is our creed.  We pray that the Heavenly Father would deliver us from every evil of body and soul.  When our last hour comes we have faith he will take us from this vale of confusion and bring us to Himself in heaven.  We proclaim that the blood of the Lord overcomes the power of the devil.  We do these first among ourselves because we have been a part of evil.

            The deliverance we proclaim is not only for the world that doesn’t get it, it is for us who do.  We need a Savior from the wrath we have rightly earned.  Don’t get self-righteous at the world; understand the need you have to overcome sin.  The church is the home of rebellious sinners who long for peace and comfort.

            The church is also the home of forgiveness poured at in Word and Sacrament.  We reach out with the world’s only hope.  People hate the church for all the wrong reasons.  They hear condemnation and so it steals their earthly power and purpose.  They are so quick to defend the evil; they do not hear the salvation story.

            You and I know the prophetic word works.  The bible is full of people who hated the church and changed.  Share that story.  It’s far easier to be quiet than prophetic.  Persecutions will come…but the prophetic voice will be heard.  Amen.