October 6, 2019                                                                                       Text:  Luke 17:6

Dear Friends in Christ,

            We hear a lot of talk these days how difficult it is to be a Christian, but is it?  Many in our world would laugh at our idea of difficult.  Was it hard to come to worship?  To pray?  To do devotions?  It may be a little harder to share the faith, but that is always a challenge.  I still see respect for the office of Pastor in our community.  Why do people say it is harder today to be a follower of Christ?

            Much of it comes from biblical principles that are being challenged in all walks of life.  Values and practices that we hold sacred because “thus saith the Lord” are not held on to as tightly as they once were.

            This was happening with Jesus and His disciples in Luke 17.  Jesus was always teaching about everyday values and practices.  Here He is telling the disciples they need to forgive others even up to seven times a day.  If they were wronged they need to confront another with the sin and voice forgiveness.  This is the stuff of everyday relationships.

            But oh it can be hard to forgive at times, can’t it?  Bitter feelings run deep like the roots of the mulberry tree – stubborn, strong.  We can understand the disciples reaction to this challenge of Jesus – “Increase our faith.”  Jesus the great teacher doesn’t say, “Uh, ok . . . you have greater faith.”  He does say, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” (v. 6)  On this LWML Sunday let’s see what can be done about . . .

“MOVING MULBERRY TREES”

            Now Jesus doesn’t really explain what He says, but you have to admit it is quite the image.  With just a little faith – faith you have right now – Jesus is saying you can uproot a twenty-five foot mulberry tree and plant it at the bottom of the sea.  Have you ever tried that?  Well, let’s go take a stab at it, anyone ready to follow?  Maybe we need a little more teaching from the Savior.

            One thing Jesus is saying is that it is not helpful to quantify our faith.  This was what the disciples were asking.  Give us heroic faith.  We want a faith that will stand up to hard things and hard times.  But quantifying that does not help us.  Yet we still do it, don’t we?  “If I only believed enough.”  “If my faith were stronger I wouldn’t be curled up in my pity.”  The weight of these statements is upon us.  Do we believe enough?  Do we trust enough?

            So if we don’t quantify faith, then how do we understand the words of Jesus?  How can faith send mulberry trees flying into the sea?  “Faith like a grain of mustard seed” is simply trust in Him.  A faith that trusts and abides in Him.  A faith that lives every day in Him.  It is only in Christ that we move mulberry trees, even the deep ones like bitterness or a lack of forgiveness.  It is possible only as Christ lives in us.

            Latin has two words for faith.  The first is fides, a faith that says certain things are true like “I believe…that God created the world…that Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead…that the Holy Spirit keeps me in the true faith.”  Our creeds are examples of fides.  The other Latin word for faith is fiducia.  This is relational faith.  It is trust in the Lord, being rooted in the power of God.  This was Luther’s preferred word for faith.  Fiducia is at work in Paul’s words of Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through him (Christ) who strengthens me.

            So this faith says that I can forgive not so much because I have enough faith to do it but rather because I live and make decisions inside a strong relationship with Jesus Christ.  I have Christ or better, Christ has me!  The One who came and died for me.  The One who broke through death and came to life for me.  The One who called me in Baptism and made me His own.  I can move mulberry trees because of this One – Jesus my Savior.

            In Christ, then, we can confront the person who has wronged us and offer forgiveness.  When can share our faith when it is not easy or convenient.  We can drop our coins and dollars in our mite boxes because we know they make a difference.  We can hold the hand of someone in the hospital we might not be that warm with.  We can reach out to that friend who has drifted from our life.

            Our community is not the enemy, it is our mission field.  You hear mulberry trees moving – hard things, impossible things, happening because Christ lives within me, because Christ lives within us!

            Since 1942 the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League has lived mustard seed faith.  Little gifts, small coins and dollar bills put in mite boxes, combined across our synod, make things happen.  Big things.  Mulberry trees are being moved

            Don’t believe the hype that we have such a difficult road in front of us.  What appears to be hard may just be what we each need as we live with Christ day-in-day-out.  Because Christ abides in us, the difficult thing can be done with joy.  May it be said of us, “Those were the days when Christians moved mulberry trees!”

                                                                                                                                    Amen.       

September 29, 2019 – St. Michael and All Angels                  Text:  Matthew 18:1-11

Dear Friends in Christ,

            I was blessed to have a step-grandfather for 27 years after my grandma had been widowed for 16 years.  Many of you know he lived to 102.  He was a faithful Christian.  When he was around 90 he still liked to drive.  My grandparents lived in a trailer on a busy four-lane highway in Kenosha, Wisconsin.  My grandpa Dan figured he could pull out in traffic and they could stop for him.

            One afternoon grandpa Dan, two of his son-in-laws, and myself went golfing west of Kenosha.  We had to take a two-lane highway to the course.  Grandpa Dan was all over the road on the way.  Without even looking at me, one his son-in-law’s, who was sitting in the front asked, “Chad, do you believe in angels?”  I answered, “Yes.”  I asked him if he believed in angels and he replied without missing a beat, “I sure do today!”

            We think of angels when we travel and at various other times but what do we know about them?  Can you relate?  As you go about your daily routine . . .

“WHO IS YOUR GUARDIAN?”

            Before we get to our verse about angels in our text, we first have some in-your-face teaching from Jesus about personal greatness.  The disciples want to know who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  This question had caused quite a stir among these men.  It was a bad question that they had argued about long enough.  Let’s take the question to Jesus. 

            This question of greatness is today’s question of success and power and glory.  Who is successful?  Who has more power?  Who gets the glory?  Some have been pushed since childhood toward these endeavors.  Maybe you are in the midst of a power struggle right now at work or at home or with a spouse or a child.

            In his book Counterfeit Gods, Tim Keller has an entire chapter on the idols of power and glory.  He takes it back to the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve didn’t like the limits God put on their power.  Keller writes:  “We gave in to this temptation and now it is part of our nature.  Rather than accept our finitude and dependence on God, we desperately seek ways to assure ourselves that we still have power over our own lives.  But this is an illusion.”

            So the athletic hulk bullies the wimpy student at school.  Two execs enjoy a cocktail after another round of downsizing with little compassion for those who didn’t make it.  They feel the power.

            Power and success will ultimately disappoint.  I am no fan of Tom Brady, the star quarterback for the New England Patriots, who has won numerous Super Bowls and awards.  He said this on 60 Minutes in 2007:  “Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there’s something greater out there for me?  There’s gotta be more than this.”  The interviewer then asked, “What’s the answer?”  Brady replied, “I wish I knew.  I wish I knew.”

            When Jesus answers the disciples question He puts an object lesson in front of them – a child.  This is an example of true greatness.  A child is dependent upon parents for care and nurture.  A child is humble.

            It is the great reversal.  Instead of looking up a ladder to see how great we can become we look down to see how little we must become.  The power and glory belong to God.  We are dependent upon Him.  Who is your guardian?

            Jesus became like a “little one.”  He humbled himself unto death, even death on a cross.  In humility, he leaned on his Father in prayer.  As he died for the sins of the whole world, he whispered a traditional bedtime prayer from Ps. 31:5, “Into your hand I commit my spirit.”  Faith calls us to trust God for our eternal life – that in grace he has provided everything for our salvation. 

            Jesus says in verse 10, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones.  For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.”  Jesus’ is saying we shouldn’t be deceived by the littleness of little ones.  These little ones have attending them mighty angels who come from the very presence of their heavenly Father.

            On this St. Michael and All Angels Day, we remember the victory of archangel Michael and the good angels over Satan in Revelation 12, our Epistle Reading this morning.  We remember the angel Gabriel in Luke 1 carrying the news to Mary that she would give birth to the Savior of the world.  We also celebrate the work of angels who guard and protect God’s people just like that day on the way to the golf course.  The angels also ministered to Jesus in his time of temptation.

            So, who is your guardian?  It is our Lord and His Holy Angels.  Because Jesus, the servant of God, trumps our desire for power and glory by pointing us to a child and to the angels.  Do you believe?  I pray you can say, “I sure do today!”

                                                                                                                        Amen.