July 17, 2016 Text: Genesis 18:1-10a

Dear Friends in Christ,

“Wined and dined.” What an appealing concept. It’s quite enjoyable when it is happening to you. A company wants your services, and the job interview includes dinner at a restaurant you’d rather not pay for yourself. A five-star high school basketball player visits the University of Illinois and gets the full red-carpet treatment – seats behind the bench, name on the scoreboard, university employees showing some love and as we found out with Karson during his recruitment, a meal on a less elaborate scale. Dined but not wined.
It all feels great, but lets not be naïve. Your host isn’t doing all of this because of some goodness in their heart. They want you to take the job. They want you to except the scholarship to play for their school. It is all fair. You know what is going on and often it works.
On the other hand, if we try to play this game with God, that is not so good. It is unnecessary. We don’t serve God to get him to serve us. We don’t buy His services. We do serve the Lord in ways that He calls us to do, but in faith we remember who is actually serving whom, who is actually doing . . .
“THE GREATER SERVICE”
As these three men stand before Abraham he realizes that one of the visitors is the Lord himself, the preincarnate Christ, and he rolls out the red carpet. He falls before them; he shows old-world hospitality by offering water for their feet and rest in the shade. He offers a “morsel” but it is really a huge meal. These heavenly being eat the food. Does Abraham now have them where he wants them?
Such dining, along with the wining served with the milk, could have been just that, Abraham setting up the Lord to do something for Abraham. In the next verses – the Old Testament reading for next week – Abraham is going to ask the Lord for a huge favor: sparing Sodom and Gomorrah for the sake of his nephew Lot. In Washington and Springfield they call it lobbying.
We know how to lobby God. When shells are all around, the soldier pleads: “Get me out of this, Lord, and I will worship every Sunday.” “If I operate my business on Christian principals, you’ll help with the rest, eh, Lord?” “If I pray hard enough, my husband will get well, right, Lord?” “I don’t get to heave on my works, but they have to be worth something?”
God doesn’t need our wining and dining. Our service to Him is almost surely not as good as we think because it is corrupted by sin. Sometimes our wonderful service isn’t so wise after all.
The Lord provides the greater service. When Abraham hosted the Lord, the Lord had already done something for him. He had been given the covenant of circumcision and God had told his wife, Sarai, that they would have a son Isaac in their old age. Now the preincarnate Christ comes to tell them how imminent that message is. Sarah will have a baby this time next year! It is as laughable as a virgin conceiving and giving birth. But both will happen.
Here is the miracle of the Gospel. This Greater Servant will serve us by living the perfect life that was required of us. He will serve us by going to the cross to secure our forgiveness – including our sorry efforts to manipulate God. He will sere us by coming out of the tomb alive, securing for us a heavenly wining and dining fit for a king. The food Abraham served could only satisfy for a little while. The banquet food and wine the Lord provides satisfies for eternity.
Our serving then comes about because He continues to serve us in His Word. For Abraham the Lord served with word of a son. This made him bold to plead for Sodom.
For us the Lord serves us with His Word in Baptism, “You are my child.” Then we know we can pray to him for loved ones who are sick or in need. The Lord serves with the word of Absolution, “I forgive you all your sins.” Then we can encourage those who are afraid. The Lord serves with words from the pulpit, “Christ died so you might live.” Then we can worship in thanks and joy because of our eternal future. The Lord serves us with the word of Holy Communion, “Given and shed for you.” Then we can give without getting anything in return, because the Lord has already given us everything.
Wining and dining. I’ve been through it a few times and it feels good. As a good Lutheran I have usually felt a little guilty about the fuss being made, but I understand. Our Lord Jesus provides the greater service as we saw with Abraham and Sarah, and through Baptism, for us too. Now, it is a privilege to be His vessel, and to share His grace with those the Lord places in our lives. Through our serving, we are sharing with the world that Christ Jesus is providing the greater service.
Amen.

July 10, 2016 Text: Luke 10:25-37

Dear Friends in Christ,

If you have ever tried to learn the game of tennis you know that learning to serve is one of the hardest parts of the game to master. It can be a difficult and trying task. Not only is this true in tennis it can also be this way in life.
Life in Christ involves service. It means serving others, which can be a difficult and trying task. It is part of our everyday living – encountering our neighbors and serving them. How are you doing? We have to admit there are times that we fail. Times when servant hood is not at the top of our list. Why? I can think of a few excuses. Let’s tackle them today . . .
“TOO MESSY AND TOO BUSY!”
A man is traveling the winding road through the rocky desert. He is accosted by thugs who attack, assault, rob, and beat him. They leave him as road kill. Later two men approach him:
A priest, fresh from leading worship at the temple, saw the bloodied fellow. If he were dead, to touch him would be taboo. The priest would experience ceremonial defilement and so lose his priestly prerogatives. This was too messy!
A Sunday School teacher asks her students: “What would you do if you were that priest?” One answers: “I think I’d throw up.” Indeed, it’s messy! So the priest doesn’t get involved.
Next comes a Levite – a religious worker who has been busy with his religious activities. He cleaned the temple and the synagogue. He maintained the holy furniture and the vessels. He directed the choirs and the musicians. He organized the sacred library. But when he saw the beaten man, he passed by. He was too busy!
Christian discipleship happens in our everyday life, where opportunities arise to serve. But for us, to get involved is oftentimes:
Too messy: We hesitate to get involved with people’s problems: a coworker divorcing, a neighbor whose kids are unruly, a teen who looks odd, an old person with a house run down, a sick friend.
Too busy: To help and serve others takes time. We’ve got life scheduled to the minute. So we can’t fit the needs of others into our schedules. We have got other obligations and deadlines.
Samaritans were the hated enemy of Jews. They were considered half-breeds, traitors, and heretics. So when Jesus introduces this character, quite likely the audience expected him to be a villain since this is how Samaritans were commonly portrayed – “Boo! Hiss!” Perhaps they were expecting the Samaritan to finish off this injured fellow.
Instead, the Samaritan “had compassion” (v. 33). He rescues the Jewish victim, serves him, and sacrifices for him so that he is cared for. Having completed the story, Jesus asks the clinching question: “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor?” The lawyer responded: “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus then directs, “You go, and do likewise.” (vs. 36-37)
To us Jesus also says, “You go, and do likewise.” The problem is we often don’t. The lives of others are too messy! Ours are too busy! We fail to serve and love our neighbors as ourselves.
But there is one in this account who does, the real-life narrator. Jesus came into this messy world and connected himself to messy people – prostitutes, publicans, lepers. More than that, He connected with sinners. He served them – healed, forgave, and released them from the mess of sin and the peril of death.
He serves us sinners. He heals and forgives when we think things are too messy or we are too busy. He releases us from our sins and its deadly consequences. This was His mission: to see that we were dying in sin, so He loved us, and took on himself the mess of our sin. He was beaten and bloodied so that we might be rescued, so that we might live.
Now in response we join Christ’s mission, and serve in His name. We serve in the messiness and busyness of life. We serve because He first served us.
It was a bitterly cold day. A boy stood shivering on a sidewalk. His clothes were thin and tattered; he was a child of the street. A woman, dressed for the weather, stopped and engaged the boy in conversation. The compassionate woman took him to a nearby clothing store and outfitted him from head to toe. He was filled with gratitude and couldn’t thank her enough. As they said goodbye the boy turned back to ask, “Are you God’s mother?” The gentle woman answered, “Oh, no. I’m just a child of God.” The smiling lad remarked, “I knew you were related.”
We know the Lord loves us. We are related because of what He has done. In that relation we help our neighbor, bind the injured, give time to the downtrodden. When we extend our hands it is in fact Christ who is extending Himself.
Christ has rescued us. He gave His all that we might live. Thus we serve others in the messiness and busyness of life. Amen.