September 30, 2018                                                                        Text:  Mark 9:42-50

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

I can’t tell you who said it, but the quotation is this:  “…the doctrine of hell should be preached in all its terribleness.  It is no kindness to spread a pretty covering of leafy branches over a pit into which many have fallen and broken their necks.  That may be the cunning hunter’s business, as it is the business of him who hunts the world for souls.  But it is not the business of preachers to ruin people’s souls in order to spare their feelings.”

It is not the business of preachers to ruin people’s souls in order to spare their feelings.  If you have been at Good Shepherd for any length of time I am sure I have said something from this pulpit that offended you, caused you to want to crawl under the pew and left you naked in your feelings.  Law and Gospel preaching does that.  The gospel divides, you know that.  You see it in your families; you see it among your friends.  But we don’t want to spare a soul’s eternity over hurt feelings.  The Lord could be brutally honest in His teaching and today’s text is one of those.

“SALTED WITH FIRE”

This first part of our text could be called, “Your Attention, Please.”  Causing children to sin.  Cutting off hand or foot.  Tearing out an eye because of sin.  Jesus then repeats the consequences three times:  “hell – the unquenchable fire…into hell…thrown into hell where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.”  People who think that hell is on earth need to revaluate their thoughts.

How are we going to deal with this?  We are in big trouble.  At face value we all leave here blind and limbless.  What is Jesus saying?  He is talking about those things that compel us to such sinful action.  Jesus is warning against running after evil and being unrepentant.

Martin Luther said:  “The world is like a drunken peasant.  If you lift him into the saddle on one side, he will fall off on the other side.  One can’t help him, no matter how one tries.  He wants to be the devil’s.”  How, then, could the world’s ways and thinking be of such important to us?  Where do our hands and feet and eyes take us?  How do we live out our lives as God’s Redeemed?

This stings.  This is upsetting.  Reflect on that opening quotation:  “It is no kindness to spread a pretty covering of leafy branches over a pit into which many have fallen.”

So we come to our theme:  “Salted With Fire.”  From our text:  “For everyone will be salted with fire.  Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again?” (v. vs. 49-50a)

Throughout history man has known the importance of salt.  The Lewis and Clark expedition was in danger because they were running out of salt.  It is one of the reasons Clark exclaimed, “Ocean in view!  Oh, the joy!”  In the Old Testament sacrifices were first salted before being offered.

Salt can lose its saltiness.  Humidity, sun, heat, and constant contact with the earth can dissolved sodium chloride leaving behind only impurities.  We too can lose our “salt” as the world pours it heat down on us.  We can be proud and disobedient, ungrateful and heartless.  We become flavorless, going through the motions, without faith.  We lose our saltiness if we refuse to stand against evil.  Salt must purify, it must preserve.

“Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” (v. 50)  That is still Jesus’ word to you – even though you can lose your saltiness.  Because, you see, Jesus wouldn’t talk about losing saltiness unless you have salt, unless he’d in fact given you salt.  You are the salt of the earth, Jesus says.  And it’s true.  You have been purified, salted with salt, just like those Old Testament sacrifices.  Jesus was your salted sacrifice.  He was the One who purified you.  By His death on the cross, he accomplished what all those salted sacrifices of the Old Testament promised:  Forgiveness of all sins.  Now by God’s Word and Sacraments, that forgiveness, that purity, is given to us.  We are filled with the Holy Spirit.  We have salt in ourselves.

Salted with this fire by the Holy Spirit then compels us.  When we look around our neighborhoods at those who may or may not know Jesus…when we look at those with whom we work or play…when we let our minds examine the faces of family and friends without the Savior…aren’t we compelled?  Does it really make any difference how much we’ve prayed for them, or invited them, or encouraged them?  Does it really make any difference how often they have excused themselves from hearing the Good News about Jesus Christ?  We can’t stop.  Because, after all, the hell fire that has been forever quenched for us through the blood of Jesus burns hot for those without Him!

As we heard at the beginning it does no good to spare feelings when the eternal pit is the trap.  You are salted with fire.  You can flavor the world with your witness.  As Christ preserves you He can preserve others.  Loved, blessed, and forgiven by God now and forever through Jesus Christ.

Amen.

September 23, 2018                                                              Text:  James 3:13 – 4:10

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

Are you a peacemaker?  Our immediate reaction is “of course I am Pastor because this is what the Lord wants.”  But then we let that question work a little deeper into our brains and what starts flooding out?  Arguments with a spouse, fights with a friend, yelling between parent and child, and how about that passion you displayed when you got cut off in traffic?

The words of James are not easy for us to hear.  God’s word, true to His promises, speaks to all of us here this morning.  Is there hope in a world where confrontation is a way of life from the top on down?  Can the Christian make a difference when the world is condemning every little thing on social media, taking to task the humble and exhorting the proud?  This world is an enemy of God and the challenges are numerous.  Let’s focus on one.

“PEACEMAKERS – SOW WHAT?”

The Word of God gives us a wonderful picture of what peace is.  Verse 18 of our text, “And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

Never underestimate the power of a seed.  We try hard to sow seeds of peace.  We want to find inner peace within ourselves and outer peace around us in our families, communities, churches.  We try to be like Jesus in forgiving our neighbors and lunching with sinners.  We try to make peace in our families – “can’t we sit down and discuss this?”  We try to make peace in our communities – “can’t we all just get along?”  How many summits have been convened with countries longing for peace?

Then the push and shove of the world gets in our face.  We get worked over and worn out.  In our frustration we are going to let somebody have it.  It leaves us vulnerable to temptation, selfish ambition, disorder.  We try all the tricks the world has to offer.  Yet instead of sowing seeds of peace we are left with weeds and stones.

Weeds choke our peacemaking efforts.  They are pulled out and thrown into the fire.  Stones of legalism, oppression, and finally death are stacked upon one another until they imprison us.  All of this happens because we leave out the one needed – Jesus.

Jesus is the one and only way to the harvest of righteousness.  The heavenly Father planted his Seed into the ground – the grave.  God sent His one and only Son into this quarreling, fighting world to suffer for these sins of the world.  He came to forgive you when you want to get in the last word.  He came to redeem you when you tell somebody off without cause.  He came to lift you up from the depths of the world’s criticism party.  He came to wipe clean the seeds of discord you have sown.

Jesus died and was placed into the ground, in order to be raised, just as promised, to a new life.  That which sprouted from the ground was forgiveness and peace, new life, eternal life.

We have been planted (buried) with Christ in Baptism.  We have been sown in the peace of Christ.  Raised to new life through water and the Word.  Nurtured and strengthened in Word and Sacrament.  Now we are able to produce a harvest of righteousness.

Now, like Jesus, we are peacemakers, filled with the Holy Spirit.  We don’t respond to the ridiculous tweet because we add nothing to the discourse.  We don’t take out a job frustration on a spouse or child.  We hold our tongue because many times the less we say the better.  We realize it is a tough, punishing world and if the Christian doesn’t make a change, who will?

Sow what?  Sowing seeds of consideration, kindness, submission, good fruit, impartiality and sincerity.  Isn’t this the world you want to live in?  Help us Lord in our peacemaking duties as we live out our faith in You.

Amen.