Jan. 22, 2017 – Sanctity of Human Life Sunday                  Text:  Ephesians 6:11-18

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

Her name is Maggie.  I know her as a casual acquaintance because I played basketball and went to the seminary with her husband.  We talked periodically in the course of our time passing each other in life.  Maggie went on to become a mercy outreach leader in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.  In the spring of 2014 she was diagnosed with a stage-four brain tumor.

Brittany Maynard is 29 and has a stage-four brain tumor.  Her fear is that this tumor is “out of her control.”  Maynard moved her family to Oregon to have legal access to physician-assisted suicide.  She doesn’t see it as suicide, even though quite literally she will take her life.

You and I are Christians living surrounded by these two life scenarios.  Our world occupies the epicenter of man and monster, kill or be killed.  Our life inhabits the edges of death and hell itself, the gauntlet of sin and survival, live and let die.  You can sit on fences about politics.  You may fall silent about controversies.  But there remains rules, and no matter how far you run, you will not escape.  You cannot slip beyond the reaches of the long arm of the Lord God Almighty.  Where are you?

“HERE WE STAND”

Many people, like Brittany, who choose assisted-suicide, are uncomfortable with the term.  In America we always have to dress things up so people will wear the terms.  We add polka dots with “aid in dying” or lace accents as we call it “death with dignity.”  No matter what we call it is bad law because we never see where it leads.  Marilyn Golden, a senior policy analyst for the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, warned that “assisted suicide is not progressive, in fact, it puts many vulnerable people at risk, and we have already seen examples of that where it is legal.”

We carry grief so heavy and guilt so haunting that we believe it freedom to end our own lives.  We haul fear so chilling and failure so choking that we tolerate terminating our sons and daughters and advocate euthanizing our fathers and mothers.  We drag underbellies so vulnerable and blind sides so exposed that we separate children from marriage.  We lug spines so stiffened and skin so hardened that we settle for human rights instead of insisting on heaven’s gifts.

Maggie knows there is no dignity in cancer or any other debilitating illness.  She has been poked, prodded, radiated, chemotherapied, and cut open so many times that she stopped worrying about being dignified.  She knows death is out of her hands.  What is intolerable to the assisted suicide advocate is not suffering or dying, but not having control over life and death.

Here we stand knowing we are not in control.  The Lord God created us male and female in His own image.  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit made us each a little lower than the heavenly beings.  We should know better, but our lives have been left broken.  We have become both victims and culprits of violence against life.  We have grown compromised, conditioned by our culture of death.  We have gotten ourselves impaired, captive to sinful selfishness, whatever our shape or stage from fertilization to final breath, heartbeat, and brainwave.  Nobody comes holier or with more worth than the rest.  No life proves more dignified than another.  We arrive, exist, and expire as neighbors by nature and brothers and sisters by birth, whether we like it or not.  We all require armor, a Savior, deliverance, redemption.  We all crave compassion, forgiveness, mercy, grace.  Here we stand.

Brittany Maynard did end her life on November 1, 2014.  She struggled with this decision even wanting to postpone it because she had been having fun with friends and family.  Here is her quote, “Today is the day I have chosen to pass away.”  There is no sense of the Lord or faith in that.  The key word is “I.”  She felt she was alone.

Maggie sent a letter to Brittany and even posted the letter on You Tube.  She wanted her to know she wasn’t alone.  Maggie writes, “Death sucks.  And while this leads many to attempt to calm their fears by grasping for personal control over the situation, as a Christian with a Savior who loves me dearly and who has redeemed me from a dying world, I have a higher calling.  God wants me to be comfortable in my dependence upon Him and others, to live with Him in peace and comfort no matter what comes my way.  As for my cancer journey, circumstances out of my control are not the worst thing that can happen to me.  The worst thing would be losing faith, refusing to trust in God’s purpose in my life and trying to grab that control myself.”

We do not stand alone.  We never stand alone.  Another One stands in your place.  He has armor.  He brings armor, and He gives armor, because He is armor.  Jesus Christ is the armor of God, the whole armor of God, for you and for us all.  He shelters, sustains, protects and defends any who cannot defend themselves.  The Lord will fight for you, and you only have to be still.  Fear not, stand firm, and behold the salvation the Lord works for you today.

The bare shoulders of Jesus dress the impaired life with God’s wrath-satisfying righteous sacrifice.  His punctured heart captures our wrongs and redeems us.  His shed blood arms all who are vulnerable with God’s life-justifying Word like medicine that cradles them away from the devil and hell.  Because Jesus stands here, here we stand, every human being precious at every stage in every state, no matter what she’s done, no matter what he can’t do.  Jesus is why we stand, and we stand with Christ, with the many blessings of abundant and everlasting life.

We stand with you because of the Church’s ministry and brotherhood and not by culture’s impulses or bandwagons.  You stand claimed and positioned in this baptismal Sacrament, crowned and preserved through this Holy Communion.

Maggie died on September 25, 2015.  Before she died she told her daughters and us, “For Christians, our death is not the end.  Because our Savior Jesus Christ, selflessly endured an ugly death on the cross and was laid in a borrowed tomb (no “death with dignity” there), He truly understands our sorrows and feelings of helplessness.”

Here we stand in joy and not out of anger, in hope and not out of fear, because we stand to forgive and not compare, to save and not compete.  Here we stand to relieve and release, not to accuse.  Here we stand to listen, assist, embrace, and befriend, not attack.  Here we stand speaking truth and sharing love because we stand overcoming sin and selfishness, death, and the devil, and not against one another.  Here we stand firm but gentle, strong but humble, even after so long and before such odds.  Here we stand, Gospel-motivated voices, Lutherans For Life, because we can do no other.  God help us.

Amen.

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January 15, 2017                                                                   Text:  John 1:29-42

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

What are you looking at?  If one asks that question emphasizing the you, it is a challenge to the other person.  But ask the question this way:  “What are you looking at?’  Now the emphasis is different.  Now you are challenged, but not to a fight.  Someone wants to know what has captured your attention.  It might be a teacher or a parent or a child.  It might be the Lord.  Oh, yes.  Was it really so different a question when he asked the disciples, “But who do you say that I am?”

“What are you looking at?”  Someone who is searching might ask that question.  It might not be put exactly in those words, but that is the question they are asking.  “What are you looking at?”  Who, me?  Oh, I . . . .

“LOOK TO THE LAMB!”

Last week we saw John baptizing Jesus.  Today he continues the shift away from himself.  “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (v. 29)  Don’t look to John, look to Jesus.

Our world is filled with all kinds of things to look at.  Magazine covers and newspapers, you tube videos and snap chats, commercials and infomercials promising life, and wealth, and happiness.  In the end, these are all shallow and help us pass the time.  They do not lead to eternity.  The voice of John cried to us today, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”

Come back today, people of God.  Come back from wherever your eyes have wandered.  Look to Jesus.  “I have seen and I have borne witness that this is the Son of God.” (v. 34)  Look to the Christ of the cross and the empty tomb.  Look to Jesus, who forgives and gives you real life.  Gaze on him.  People are watching.  Like John, our lives can say, “Look to the Lamb.”

Advertising executives will tell us we need to encounter information six or seven times before we begin to pay attention.  Think of “K-A-R-S, Car for Kids” or “The Most Interesting Man in the World.”  You know because you have seen it over and over again.  John brings the same message to the disciples, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”  John points them to the one he wants them to know about – Jesus.

Two of the disciples start to follow Jesus.  Jesus then poses a question, “What are you seeking?”  They were seekers.  It is not just some 21^st century concept.  These men were seeking spiritual meaning.  The world is hungering for the same thing, except they look in the wrong places.  They may look to themselves, they make look to life coaches, they may look to nature or politicians or religious charlatans.  We seek that which we know and have learned through the Holy Spirit.  We look to the Lamb.

The disciples have what we would call a timid response.  “Where are you staying?” ((v. 38)  Was this the real burning question that John’s twice-insistent “Behold” had created in them?  Aren’t we the same?  Are we always clear about what it is we are looking for?  Even in Christ?

Jesus likes to ask questions.  He likes to challenge us.  He likes to breathe faith into us, then draw it out of us.  We know the grace of our faith again and again but sometimes we say silly things like, “Where are you staying?”  What spiritual seekers are these!

As with us, Jesus does not reprimand these first disciples.  His grace thunders in their ears with, “Come and you will see.” (v. 39)  Christ draws them to himself with these simple words.  He did not say, “You dolts!  Couldn’t you seek something more substantial than that?”  What Jesus said then, he says again today in our hearing, “Come and you will see.”  Look to the Lamb!

Immediately the disciples’ lives took on the nature of proclamation.  Andrew did not wait for someone to say, “What are you looking at?”  He found his brother and proclaimed, “We have found the Messiah.”

The Lord brings this change about.  Jesus had really found them.  This is what happens to you and me through faith in Christ Jesus.  Look no farther.  Look to the Lamb.  God has marked you in Baptism with the indelible mark of one who is his child.  Believe it when He says He loves you.  Trust Him when He says He is with you always, to the end of the age.  Look to the Lamb today and tomorrow and every day.

This is what our world needs – the people of God living by looking to the Lamb.  This trusting gaze will show in our lives this week.  People will notice.  How many lives will be touched by those of us here today?  How many eyes will see evidence of something in us that causes them to wonder?  How many opportunities will we have in these next seven days to say, “Look to the Lamb!  Come, and you will see”?  God will use our heart’s gaze, our soul’s fixation on Jesus, to proclaim to the people in our lives, “Look to the Lamb!”

Amen.

January 8, 2017 – Baptism of our Lord                               Text:  Matthew 3:13-17

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

Imagine losing someone in a drowning…Imagine what the survivors of a tsunami faced…Imagine Bethany Hamilton, well on her way to a surfing championship, waking up in the hospital without an entire arm – after losing it to a shark attack…Imagine Noah and his family floating away in the ark while the world washed away…Imagine Moses and the Israelites passing through the Red Sea, then looking back to see the Egyptian army drowning in the raging water.

The people of the Middle East desert fear the sea, fear large bodies of water, or those river wadis that so quickly become deadly flash floods.  There is a reason for their fear.  Remember the great sea creature that Job calls Leviathan?  Remember Jonah being swallowed whole? And then Noah and his family.

So imagine the people of Israel going into the River Jordan.  “John…John, is it safe?”  Normally the Jordan is pretty shallow, shin-deep in some places.  But come the rainy season it can be a dangerous torrent of water and it is not safe.

It wasn’t raging at this time when John was baptizing, but . . .

“IS IT SAFE NOW TO GO BACK INTO THE WATER?”

Is it now safe?  Safe for whom?  Imagine Jesus going down into the water after so many people had their sins washed into it.  Is it safe?  No.  Not for Jesus.  What had been washed into those waters would cling to Jesus when he climbed that riverbank and remain on him for the rest of his ministry

He would have to suffer our consequences and our death.  That water would kill him as it once did the whole world.  Why?  Because if it did not, if He didn’t do this, then all righteousness would not be fulfilled.  God would not be pleased.  There would no longer be peace on earth and good will toward men.

Now again, imagine how many sins are, were, and will be washed into water until the end of time.  “Is it safe now, Jesus?  Will I drown?  Are you asleep?”  As the water rages and the winds toss us around, “Are you going to let us die?”  How many are asking this?  How many have?

The disciples asked this.  We may ask it.  We use this imagery with our problems.  “I’m drowning in debt.  I’m up to here with my responsibilities.  Life is coming at me like a tidal wave.”  We talk this way even as the Lord sends these promises.  “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Heb. 13:5)  “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.” (Isa. 43:2)  Psalm 23 reminds us that the Lord leads us beside still waters.

Yes, but don’t I have still have to go under?  Won’t I be covered with water…won’t I…don’t I still have to die?”  “Yes,” Jesus says to all of that.

Though we still go under, though dirt is still poured over our bodies in the ground, Jesus will reach down and take us out.  Because he has already been down into the abyss, and come up.  Our death will be sleep, because he died our death.

You do and need to drown and die in your baptismal waters.  And making the sign of the cross, we are to drown and die daily in this life.  Yet, we, too, arise, because he is risen, is risen to newness of life.

All righteousness has been fulfilled, even ours.  The sins left behind – for Him – in the water to take to the cross.  Yes, in that same water that covered the earth, that covered Egypt’s mightiest and finest, that covered Jesus, that held so much power – the power of creation from the beginning – that water has now become the new power of re-creation.  That water washed away so much filth and disease and fear and death.

It is safe now…because the water has been cleansed.  It is safe now to go back into the water – and remain there.  Yes, Jesus went in and came out again.  Even though the sins of the whole world were also washed into the water.  They were lifted out; they left with Him; they were embedded in his pure and clean flesh, in that body that died and was buried.

For when he said it was finished, it was.  And all of that, the sin of the whole world, became lost – lost at sea…buried…covered by earth…entombed in rock…never to return.

Have you ever had a drowning experience?  If you have, it can be quite scary.  About 10 years ago you may remember it happened to me.  I was swimming to the diving platform at Comlara Park when my muscles tightened up.  I thought I was going under.  I still think of that day and the fear that came over me.  I will admit even though I am a good swimmer I have been a lot more hesitant around water.

You face fears in your life.  Jesus says to you and me today, “It is now safe to go back into the water.”  With the righteousness fulfilled by God the Son, God the Father is well pleased.  And looking at us – with what Christ has down in our life – The Father is well pleased with us.  A new man emerges daily and arises to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.  It is safe now to go back into the water…and remain there.  Safe forevermore.            Amen.

 

 

December 11, 2016                                                               Text:  James 5:7-11

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

How about a little test to begin the Lord’s message this day?  How patient are you on a 1-10 scale?  Those of you who want the sermon to be over already, you are a 10.  Those of you Key West laid back on the beach and nothing bothers you people we will assign you a 1.  Now I need those 10’s to move to the pulpit side because I have to pay closer attention to you and your fidgeting.  One’s you can go the lectern side because I know you can patiently listen to a 9-minute sermon.  Those in the middle, well you’ve got the center aisle!

All kidding aside, most of us are somewhere in the middle.  Many of you are like me, patient with certain things and impatient with others.  Our impatience can lead us to a wide variety of sins.  James says in our text, “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.” (v. 7)  James will tell us this morning where we can turn to find the patience we need.

“WAIT FOR IT…WAIT FOR IT……..PATIENCE”

If patience is a virtue then our impatience is a sin.  It may take an honest self-examination for us to admit that…but eventually we must.  Do you find yourselves more impatient with situations or with others?  And you sit in the pew and answer, “yes.”  Both can be a problem.  When comes to others James reminds us, “do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.”

How about that person you had to wait behind this week because they couldn’t find their checkbook?  Or that driver being careful in the snow that you thought you had to get around?  Or the Lord not answering your prayer that you needed a yes or no to right away?

What is the bigger problem?  The annoying behavior of people and God or your grumbling about them?  Furthermore, which problem can you, ought you, do something about?  Through this Epistle of James he urges Christians to live out their faith by doing good works and caring for others.  It continues in this passage.  We are to do good works particularly by having an attitude of forgiveness, patience, and long-suffering with those who God has given us.

Patience ought to be our way of life.  God has made us great promises.  Trust them.  He has promised the resurrection of the body, “I will raise you up on the last day.” (Jn. 6:40)  He has promised heaven, face-to-face with God forever.  That is our hope.  But it is not here yet so we trust the promises while waiting patiently “until the coming of the Lord.”

You can’t dig down inside yourself and be more virtuously patient.  In fact, if you dig deeper inside yourself, you’ll likely find more troubles, more annoyances, and more reasons to be impatient.

Patience is a fruit of the Spirit.  Since your Baptism the Spirit of God dwells inside of you.  You have been brought into the kingdom of grace and forgiveness and you have been given so much that you can spread it around to others.

James encourages us this way, “As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.” (v. 10)  Didn’t some of these guys have things to be stressed and impatient about?  They were rejected, chased out, beaten, and killed.  Forty years for Moses in Sinai.  He was patient.  Noah patiently building an ark and then enjoying constant rain for 40 days.  We become impatient with two straight days of rain.  Jonah, who told the Lord he’d rather not wait around so the Lord provided an all expense paid three-day vacation in the belly of the big fish.  Oh, I’m sure he was patient after that.  And then there is Job.  Patient with God even as everything in his life fell apart.  He remained steadfast and unshaken.  James says, “You also be patient.  Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.” (v. 8)

James then add this, “You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.” (v. 11)  God is not telling us to straighten up and be more like Job.  Instead He is reminding us of his compassion and mercy.

All along He is there for his people.  In his mercy He never gives them more than they can bear.  In his compassion He provides complete salvation.  And it’s all part of the plan, laid out and carried out patiently over thousands of years, to come into our world and patiently take our place.  Christ was patient for us.  Patient with our faithless questions.  Patient with the false charges against Him.  Patiently bearing the cross and agonizing for hours before He died.  Now your impatience is forgiven – and you have something worth waiting for, however long it takes.

The Lord’s purpose in all of this, in all that he’s been doing, is to get you to know His compassion and mercy.  His purpose is that you would look to Him constantly, that you would tear your gaze away from all those annoyances, all that taxes your patience, and look to His cross, where his mercy forgives you and his compassion saves you for eternity in heaven.

You number 10’s you made it.  Wait for it. . . wait for it. . . . . .Amen!

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December 7, 2016 – Advent                                                 Text:  Luke 1:57-66

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

Maybe you’ve heard about the little six-year-old boy who announced one day, “I’m running away from home!”  His parents asked him, “What will you do when you run out of food?”  “That’s easy,” he said, “I’ll come home for more.”  “What will you do when you run out of money?”  “That’s easy,” he said, “I’ll come home for more.”  “What will you do when your clothes get dirty?”  “That’s easy,” he said, “I’ll come home for more.”  The dad turned to the mom and said, “This kid isn’t running away from home.  This kid is going away to college!”

Do you know that people of all ages are running away from home, and in record numbers?  The pain of sick families is so great people will run about anywhere for love and acceptance.  Husbands run to bars and go on achievement binges.  Women run to extramarital affairs for a listening ear and loving touch.  Children run from family pain and then can’t handle life as they get older.

We are in a series called “Family Life.”  Remember last week and the devastating circumstances of Zechariah and Elizabeth?  Longing to have children.  There must of have been times they simply wanted to run away.

Homes can sometimes be tough places, can’t they?  Someone said marriage goes through three stages.  “The Happy Honeymoon.”  “The Party’s Over.”  “Let’s Make A Deal.”  Maybe your conflict is money; there never seems to be enough.  Maybe it is raising children; one is too strict, one is too lax.  Maybe you fight about vacations and where to go; “we always go where you want to go.”  Family conflict, though, is not the issue.  Yes, I said that right.  How we handle family conflict – now that is the issue!

When conflict strikes our first option is my way.  “My needs, my wants.  Food we are having for dinner.  Sex when I am in the mood.  Spending time with my family.”

Then there is no way.  I back away.  I ignore the problem.  We use discussion killers, “Give me a break!” or, “I can’t believe you are making a big deal out of this.”   Solve this conflict, “No way.”

Another option is your way.  I give in, roll over, play dead.  There is an epidemic in America called the passive, detached husband.  At an alarming rate more and more men are becoming distant and disengaged.  They get beaten down by their wives that they finally say, “Fine.  Have it your way.”

Zechariah and Elizabeth, though, through the Holy Spirit, decided on another way.  And what is that?  That would be . . .

“OUR WAY”

“On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child.  And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, but his mother answered, ‘No; he shall be called John.’  And they said to her, ‘None of your relatives is called by this name.’  And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called.” (vs. 59-62)

Zechariah had doubted the angel Gabriel’s promise that God would give him a son, so Zechariah was told he wouldn’t be able to speak until his son’s birth.  Then during all the excitement of his son’s birth, “he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, ‘His name is John.’” (v. 63)  Amazing.  When it came to naming their son, it wasn’t my way, no way, or your way.  It was our way.  Our way means I care about solving the problem.  I care about healing our relationship.  Our way attacks the issue, not the person.  It emphasizes reconciliation, not resolution.  There is a difference.

Reconciliation means we see ourselves as bigger than our problems.  We don’t bury the problem or bury the hatchet.  We talk about the issue together.  Remember we married “for better, for worse.”

Why did both Zechariah and Elizabeth insist on naming their child John?  Because that is what the angel said in Luke 1:13.  “John” means “The Lord is gracious.”  The angel told them to name their son “John” because in the midst of their conflict the only way Zechariah and Elizabeth would get to our way would be through God’s way; and God’s way is the way of grace.

Because of grace God gives us new life, forgiven life, and eternal life.  God is full of grace, we are under grace, and saved by grace.  Grace reconciles us to each other.

On December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur wright got their flying machine off the ground.  The airplane was born.  In their excitement, they sent a telegraph to their sister.  It simply said, “Flew 120 feet.  Will be home for Christmas.”  When their sister Katherine got the news, she ran to the local paper in Dayton, Ohio and showed it to the editor.  He glanced at it and said, “How nice, the boys will be home for Christmas.”  He completely missed the point.  The Wright brothers matriculating back to Dayton for Christmas was nice, but a person had flown in an airplane for the first time.  That was the big news!

We also miss the big news of Christmas.  The big news is that God took flight and traveled from heaven to earth.  The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  And He did it to show us the full meaning of grace.  You see, when it comes to grace, Jesus nailed it perfectly.  But before the nails, he wanted to run away.  Three times in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus asked the Father to remove the cup of suffering.  But the Father didn’t.  So Jesus went.  He went willingly to Calvary to take our sins we have committed against family members.  He rose on the third day and now lives as the gracious Lord of heaven and earth.  Grace.  Jesus nailed it.  Perfectly – for you!

Forgiven by grace, forever in grace, when family conflict arises we are empowered to renounce my way, no way, and your way and say, “Yes” to a better way, God’s way.  It’s Zechariah and Elizabeth’s way.  You know it, don’t you?  It’s…our way.

Amen.