August 9, 2020                                                                      Text:  Matthew 14:22-33

Dear Friends in Christ,

            How do you talk about others?  Positive?  Negative?  We all make first impressions.  How do you share those?  “She was nice.”  “He was pleasant.”  “He is funny.”  “She is a great worker.”  We also can catch people in challenging moments.  “They were rude.”  “Why did she bite my head off?”  “He’s got a temper.”  Yes, how do you talk about others?

            If you have a longer-term relationship with this person you see they are more than just one characteristic.  You see this pleasant, friendly Pastor and then learn wow, is he competitive.  Someone you thought lazy might confirm your impression or they may surprise you and really give effort.  And every once in a while we may get a glimpse of a person’s dark side that we never saw coming.  It is not easy to define any one of us.

            Human beings are complicated.  We are chameleons depending on the situation.  We define people by what we observe. 

            We do the same with Jesus.  We make judgments that aren’t in Holy Scripture.  We define who He is in our speech.  What are we saying?

“HOW DO YOU TALK ABOUT JESUS?”

            Jesus is not a poorly written character with no depth, no complication.  Matthew’s Gospel these last few weeks shows that.  We have seen Jesus in many different situations.

            Thousands were following Jesus around and he regularly defied expectations.  Some walked away not satisfied by what they saw.  This one called “the Messiah” confuses some.  His hometown doesn’t give him a key to the city or even a free drink at the local watering hole.  They mock him and send him away.  He has compassion on the diseased and heals them.  He touches the untouchable and hears the voice of the voiceless.  He needs time away from all these people but still feeds a throng with very little supply.  Unexpected.

            Now in our text for today He does something we might not see coming.  He again leaves everybody.  What is going on here?  Why is this guy so standoffish?  Didn’t He come for us?  He leaves so He can pray for you and the others.  He needs time alone with the Father.  See how you have misread Him again?

            Prayer time is over.  No Coast Guard signal comes but Jesus notices the boat of the disciples is far away from land with wind and waves crashing against it.  He walks on water.  Is it a ghost?  What is this ragtag group expecting?  We know our leader is different but walking on water?  He brings words of comfort.

            Now the drama shifts from 12 to one and his name is Peter.  “Come on out Peter.”  Should I guys?  Sure, you can trust Jesus?  His faith keeps him above water, but as soon as the wind comes he needs a life jacket.  It’s Jesus.  He rescues the helpless disciple.  He saves a tragedy from occurring.  “Peter, Peter, Peter, why the doubt?”

            How are the disciples going to talk about Jesus after this?  He is no longer just the guy who attends parties or the one not accepted in his hometown or the buffet chairman at a large meal.  He commands creation.  The wind ceases.  The waves calm.  What does this mean?  What can we say about Jesus?  They are not exactly sure but they confess, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

            How do you see it?  Is Jesus hard to label and categorize?  He is unique and special but isn’t there more?  Though you can’t completely grasp Him and I can’t completely understand Him, He’s got a hold of us.  Lifting children to His lap.  Dragging disciples into boats.  How many times has He held on to you in pain, in death, in things that don’t make sense?  How often has He calmed your boat ride with His presence?  He holds you all the way to the cross.  His death and resurrection assures you that He holds you into eternity.  In your doubts and struggles He is there.  His Holy Spirit creates in you a clean heart that can confess today:  Jesus is the Son of God.  Follow His path.  The Savior reaches out to you, “Come, trust and walk toward me.  I have your hand.”

            With all of this in your life, how do you tell others about Jesus?  What words do you use?  Do you describe the peace and comfort He brings to your daily life?  Do you talk about the “blessings” he has showered upon you?  Do you share the hope and future that awaits a child of God?  Do your words have the affect that when others describe you a prime characteristic is that you are a Christian?  Do they see His presence in you?

            Yes, there are times we take our eyes away from Jesus and our faith.  Drowning is not pleasant, is it?  But remember this – He’s there.  The Lord Jesus grasps you.  His touch is gentle and strong.  In His grip you’ll know the price that He paid to have you forever.  His hands bear the scars of His love, the price of forgiveness.  He’s crucified and living.  Now that is something to talk about!

                                                                                                                                    Amen.      

August 2, 2020                                                                      Text:  Matthew 14:13-21

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Can an appetizer be a meal?  Can a meal be an appetizer?  Seinfeld played this running joke in a few episodes.  Jerry owed another comedian a meal but the guy only ordered soup.  Was it meal?  Their argument led to Jerry having to take this guy out again and this time he made sure he ordered something more substantial that counted as a meal.  What say you?

            The text is familiar.  Jesus feeding 5,000 men plus women and children.  They left more than satisfied.  Filling as it was, we need to ask the question:  was this meal still just an appetizer?  We have two choices.

“MEAL OR APPETIZER?”

            The text begins with some horrible news.  Jesus learns about the beheading of John the Baptist.  The Lord is fatigued and needs to get away.  The disciples were probably worn down too.  We pile on top of this, thousands of people who have no food.  This is not turning into a pleasant day.

            The crowds want Jesus to turn on His power.  In His state of humiliation He didn’t always use His divine power, unless it applied to his work of the salvation of sinners.  Instead of feeding these people wouldn’t it have been more impressive if He reattached John’s head from the platter and gave him back his life.  Or wouldn’t the people want to follow if He destroyed Herod in some gruesome manner?

            It may have played well in the media and with frenzied crowds but it would not have shown Jesus as Messiah.  Power for power’s sake was not this Savior’s way.

            This act of grace shadows the Lord feeding the Israelites quail and bread during their exodus.  What everyone did not understand was that the promise of a Messiah was among them.  This man who was going to feed them was also going to save them.  The feeding would be the appetizer.  The meal was still coming.

            Living in a world of sin is still the same for us.  People die tragic and senseless deaths.  We face physical and spiritual fatigue.  Just this week I talked with a college friend, an area football coach, and a church member in assisted living.  They all have said the same thing; they are worn down and have had enough.  We need some courageous people who will make a decision and then live with it.  You can be thankful you have a Board of Elders who has done just that.  We also want God to use His power to strike back at lawbreakers and evil human beings.  What we forget is that we would be the first to be struck!

            You and I also don’t quite fathom this state of Jesus’ humiliation or the theology of the cross.  Do we ever spout a theology of glory?  “Lord feed my needs.”  “Father, send a miracle and I will be on your side.”  But that’s seeing not believing.  We are then settling for a mere appetizer.  Mozzarella sticks, table 4!  The appetizer led many who were fed to fall away.  Today people stop following Jesus and His Word when they settle for the nachos and don’t wait for the steak or chicken.

            Notice the grace in our text.  Jesus shared the sorrow of the crowd.  Jesus had compassion on the crowd.  He was deeply moved and was ready to do something miraculous.  The short-term miracle was the food.  The long-term miracle would be the cross.

            Jesus would withdraw to the cross and there no one could follow.  Far from raising John and striking Herod, Jesus gave more information about how He would fulfill all that was written about the Savior.  Jesus would suffer and die and rise from the dead.  Jesus satisfied the hunger and other needs of the crowd but it was just an appetizer for what would follow.  Jesus would pay for Herod’s sin and overcome John’s death.  Jesus multiplying a meal shows the compassion to be shown in even greater measure on the cross.

            We are in the crowd with respect to our problems.  We are also in the crowd in respect to the miracle.  If we hunger for bread more than we hunger for righteousness, and if we fail to see our own sin on the cross, then we are settling for the appetizer.  Lift your head from your plate because there is good news for you. 

            You are forgiven.  Jesus gives comfort in death.  Jesus gives hope in the midst of fatigue.  He is going to bring some good out of what we are living through.  The cross of Jesus is and always will defeat evil.  This is the real meal, which led Jesus from the crowds to the cross.  Through this sustenance, the truth of God’s Word is applied to our lives through the Holy Spirit.  Mind and body are fully satisfied and God’s grace overflows to us.

            Do you have your answer?  Meal or appetizer?  Jesus looked to heaven and said a blessing.  A miracle allowed them to live for a time.  Amazing!  But an appetizer.  Now Jesus looks down from heaven, says a blessing, and brings us into an ongoing miracle of salvation for all time and eternity.  Bon appetit.  Eat up.

                                                                                                                                    Amen.      

July 26, 2020                                                                         Text:  Deuteronomy 7:6-9

Dear Friends in Christ,

            In the fall of 1983 I was a freshman at Illinois State.  I lived in the Manchester dorm.  One night looking for something to do, we decided to go to the Normal Theater, which at the time showed movies that had been out for a while.  The cost was only a buck or two.  The movie that night was one we didn’t know a lot about but took a chance on.  It was Tender Mercies starring Robert Duvall.

            In the movie, the main character Mac Sledge played by Duvall was a former country singer divorced and alone.  He is a defeated man who wakes up in a run-down motel run by a young widow named Rosa Lee.  She has pity on him and lets him work there for his room.  She didn’t see anything good in him, it is purely grace.

            What happens?  Mac begins attending church with Rosa Lee.  He hears the Gospel and is baptized.  Does he feel different after Baptism?  No.  This part Hollywood got right.  Everything didn’t suddenly fall into place.  Life was still challenging.  He makes contact with a daughter, now age 18, he barely knew.  She dies in an automobile accident.  Despite this tragedy and other questions he has, he does not lose his faith.  God surprises Mac with his love and Mac comes to see himself as the object of the tender mercies of the Lord.

            In our text for today, God chose Israel – God has chosen us – not because He saw anything good in us.  He chose us to be His simply by His grace.  We are the objects of God’s unfettered love, his . . .

“TENDER MERCIES IN CHRIST”

            The text opens this way, “You are a people holy to the Lord your God.  The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.  It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples.” (v. 6-7)

            We love numbers, don’t we?  We think if something has the numbers, they must be doing everything right.  The worthy should gain something.  We even do this in the church.  I just ran across some of our attendance numbers from 9 years ago and we had double on average of what we have in the sanctuary today.  Has the church changed the way we have done things?  Have we stopped preaching and teaching the Gospel in its truth and purity?  Has the Pastor while aging, lost his marbles?  No, no, and hopefully no! 

            Remember how Paul worded it, “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise…the weak to shame the strong…the lowly things…the despised things.”  Our lower numbers have actually allowed more worship opportunities in our current environment.  God does not measure success by human methods.  On the contrary, it works this way . . .

            “But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” (v. 8)

            “The Lord loves you.”  What wonderful words.  The Lord loved the Israelites and He loves us.  God’s love is not like human love.  It does not change with the moment.  When God makes a promise He keeps it. 

            God loved his chosen people in spite of their rebellion.  His tender mercies in Christ give us that same love.  We have spurned that love with worshipping idols in our hearts.  We forget God’s love toward us.  We go down a different path than the Lord’s.  We make an exodus from His church and Christian fellowship.

            Bring us home Lord.  We need your tender mercy.  “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.” (v. 9)

            These verses again put before us that there is only one God.  The God who reveals himself to us in the tender mercies of Christ.  The triune God.  He is also the faithful God.  That is what we must hold on to every day of our lives. 

            God’s keeps His covenant.  He forgives our spurning of His love.  He welcomes us back from our Exodus.  He is with us in our not so pleasant moments.  It took a lot of heartache but the Israelites made it to the Promised Land.

            Are you living a heartache?  A marriage challenge?  A child rebelling?  Looking for a future when society is stuck in neutral?  The tender mercy of Christ is here for you.  It helps you in the pain.  It relieves you in the stress.  It helps you focus on the Promised Land in the distance.  You can trust the Lord to keep His promise.  He will take us to be with Him that we may be where His is.  God does not lie.

            Oh, yes . . . the tender mercy of God in Christ.

                                                                                                Amen.,