June 23, 2019                                                                        Text:  Galatians 3:23-4:7

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Have you made your plans for the 4^th of July?  We all know what the 4^th is right?  The birthday of our country, Independence Day, July 4, 1776.  Rein in your minutemen, my Christian friend, that’s not quite right.

            July 4, 1776 was the birthday of 13 countries, which don’t exist anymore and were never formally named the United States of America.  Here is what the Declaration of Independence actually said:  “We…solemnly publish and declare that these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent States.”  Each had its own power to raise an army, conclude treaties, and elect a leader.  Not one, but 13 separate countries.  It wasn’t until 13 years later when “we the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union” wrote the Constitution, that we all became one.  This new government and Constitution went into effect in 1789.

            The holy Christian Church includes billions of souls, free and individual.  We are scattered in thousands of denominations.  We are diverse and independent and not always in harmony.  St. Paul writes in our text that we as Christians are all one in Christ Jesus.  How can that be?

“HOW CAN WE BE ONE IN CHRIST?”

            Christian churches are not all in agreement.  Thank you Pastor Obvious.  You see it among your family members and your friends.  You hear it from your co-workers and acquaintances.  We see it even among our brothers and sisters in our own Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

            Having been a Pastor in this Synod for almost 28 years I can say that we have had relative harmony the past few years.  It wasn’t this way when I was a non- gray hair Pastor.  But even now as I and our delegate Steve Parry vote for the synodical president and the church gets ready to meet in convention next month, we have some disharmony.  Not a lot, but Steve and I get mailings urging a vote one way or another.  This is because the church on earth is made up of individuals.  Sinful, I want things my way, human beings.  How can we be one in Christ?

            You Mr. and Mrs. pew sitter understand this.  Why?  Because something inside you tells you that you aren’t even one with yourself.  Are you always of one mind – in your own mind?  Don’t we all do things that we don’t want to do?  Haven’t we changed our minds about situations because we lived through them or were close to someone who went through something?  Do you really know yourself or are you just blowin’ in the wind?  What does it mean to say we’re all one in Christ Jesus when we’re not even one with ourselves?

            Inside every Christian believer there is a war between believer and unbeliever.  We are sinner and saint at the same time.  The struggle will not go away.  We are not as one with ourselves because the Christian can never be one with sin.  This is also why we are not one with other Christians because they have the same conflict going on inside themselves.  They may be glossing over a sin, not seeing a sin because of selfish motives or refusing to honor God’s Word on a certain subject.  All doctrine is not true.  Some is false.  God expects us to study His Word and declare to the world what we believe just like the reformers did. 

Isn’t this a little gloomy, Pastor?  There is hope.  Listen to the words of St. Paul in our text.  “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.  For as many of you were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither male nor female, for you are all on in Christ Jesus.” (v. 26-28)  We may look like a whole bunch of independent countries each going its own way, but beneath that, beneath it all, incredibly, the forgiveness we have by Baptism into Christ has formed a perfect union.

Wherever sin is forgiven, we are one.  Wherever sin remains – as in false doctrine – separation must remain.  But where sin is forgiven, we are one.

The beauty of that is that even with Christians from whom we must remain outwardly separate, we are one, because all true Christians – all who truly believe that Jesus’ death and resurrection has saved them – are forgiven, even those many believers who hold some teachings we find false.  We will not be visibly one with them because we cannot be one with their sin.  But we know that as we look at one another, inside we are one.  “You are all one in Christ Jesus.”

We are all on in Christ as we declare His death and resurrection.  We are all one in Christ as we stand in the Savior’s forgiveness.  We are all one in Christ when we live in His love and mercy and grace.  This how we CAN be one in Christ.

                                                                                                                        Amen. 

June 16, 2019 – Trinity Sunday                                           Text:  Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Back in August of 2000, we the members of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church placed a cornerstone (though it’s not really in a corner) in the front of our church.  We placed in there items such as a bible, a hymnal, a newspaper, a list of our congregation members and a few other things.  We sang a hymn and had prayers.  Someday, like at many churches that celebrate a 100^th Anniversary, this might be opened.  What will people see?  They will see God’s Word, the words of his people and the words of the world.

            It was our prayer that day that God would bless our congregation and the mission of God’s people.  We lifted to God our petitions that people would hear the Word of God, proclaim that Word in the world, lift up to God their songs of praise.

            In our text for today we do not have a time capsule with objects in it, but we do get a rare glimpse of what was there at the earth’s foundation.  Our goal is to open this text so that we can see the . . .

“DELIGHT OF GOD”

            This Old Testament Reading from Proverbs gives us some additional knowledge of what was happening at creation beyond what we know in the Book of Genesis.  Creation is something that is constantly argued in our world.  Let’s keep it simple as God’s people and say this.  We were not there when the world was created, but God was, and He has revealed how it happened.  God is credible.  We believe what His Word has to say.

            What Proverbs adds so beautifully is we are given a glimpse of God even before His work of creation.  Before the world began, God was rejoicing, and his delight begins the story of our salvation.

            What was God delighting in?  First God was delighting in Jesus.  Verse 30 says, “I was daily his delight.”  Christ, the Son of God, was and is an object of delight and pleasure for the Father.  Paul clarified this in Colossians 1:16:  “By him all things were created, in heaven and on earth.”  This ties the Father with the Son.  We also know from Genesis that the Spirit “hovered over the waters.”  The Trinity was present at creation.  Jesus is the master workman who is with the Father before the world was created.  Father, Son, and Spirit worked together to bring all things into being, and after it was all created, God called it good.

            After the fall into sin, Jesus had to come to restore creation.  If we go back to the foundation of the world and found this time capsule we would see that the story of our salvation begins with this delight of God.

            Many times we are guilty of approaching God for a temporary fix in our lives.  When something is wrong we turn to God.  A divorce.  A death.  A disaster.  A challenge.  A question.  We reduce God then to a temporary healer or fixer.  We make him fit our needs. 

            People are more like what W. Somerset Maugham wrote, “The nature of men and women – their essential nature – is so vile and despicable that if you were to portray a person as he really is, no one would believe you.”  Is that you?  Is that me?  Do we want all our thoughts exposed?  Our actions to be known? 

            This is why we need the delight of God.  Forgiveness for God is not a momentary fix in our lives.  It is part of a much larger story.  God found delight at creation after he formed us.  When we fell into sin, He still delighted in His Son.  Why?  Because Jesus chose to come, to die for your sin, and to rise for your salvation.  By His death and resurrection, Jesus promises to bring you from this world into the new creation of God, where you will sing an everlasting song of praise.

            I do enjoy the Book of Proverbs.  I think of most of it as God’s Instruction Book.  There are short proverbial sayings that help us in discipleship.  It helps us to walk in the ways of God.  It is easy to think we are the ones pursuing Wisdom.  In our text though we are not pursuing God.  Instead, we come across words about God pursuing us.  Wisdom goes to the crowded places, calls to all people, and sings of God’s delight.  Before we ever pursue God, God pursues us.  Before we ever delight in God, God already delights in us. 

            Thus, our salvation begins and ends with God’s delight.  As verse 31 sates, “rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.” 

            The delight of God is with us for a lifetime.  Most of us or maybe all of us will not be around when the cornerstone of our church is opened some day.  But the delight of God will continue through Jesus to make a difference in the lives of our sons and daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  That brings a smile to my face, to your face and most importantly to the face of God.  He delights in the salvation of all.

            Amen.