April 2, 2023 – Palm Sunday   Text:  Mark 11:1-11

Dear Friends in Christ,

That American theologian Billy Joel once wrote in a song, “They say there’s a heaven for those who will wait, Some say its better, but I say it ain’t.  I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints, The sinners are much more fun.”  That is the philosophy of many, even Christians.  So many think that heaven will be boring.  No Xbox or ice cream cones.  We read in our Bibles heaven will be where we worship and sing and praise our Creator for the love He has for us.  Worship?  Praise?  Singing?  Next, you’ll tell me I will be floating on a cloud playing a harp with dull religious people.  No thank you.

Unfortunately these are the same ideas that keep people from praising God on earth.  Easy excuses are found for the weak soul to stay away from God’s House.  Worship is boring.  The Bible is hard to understand.  Who wants to go and sit around bland religious people?

Today is Palm Sunday.  One of the greatest days of worship and praise!  As Jesus’ makes his humble and royal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey all the attention is on Him as King.  The crowds and children are singing their praises.  Though many today would rather go to hell than to find joy in worship, this Sunday we will learn to find joy in raising to Jesus our . . .

“HANDS OF PRAISE”

Many think that praising God can only be done on a pew with soft music.  The reality is that most of the praising of God takes place outside the church building.  The Palm Sunday praise of Jesus took place outside God’s House.  

We have the obedient praise of the disciples.  Jesus gave them unusual instructions about a donkey they were supposed to get.  Certainly they had questions.  “Jesus, how do you know the donkey will be there?  How do you know we can take it without asking?”  They didn’t ask.  They didn’t question Jesus.  They praised Jesus with their obedience.

Our world does not give that praise to God.  They question why God and His Word and His Church have a right to tell us what to do at all.  They question how a loving God can allow such heartache.  They accuse the Bible of patriarchy when it names man the head of the woman and woman the helper of man.  They question why they can’t live together before marriage and why they can’t swear if everybody else does.  

As believers we praise God with our obedience.  Christians obey without questioning Jesus’ authority.  We live good, clean, decent and honest lives outside the church in the world every day.  We don’t just say, “Your will be done.”  We go out and see that Jesus will is done on earth.  This is worship of Jesus which pleases God.

Another way we show praise is to honor our Lord with the stewardship of our gifts.  Look at the Palm Sunday crowd.  One person happily gave the use of their donkey.  Others took off their cloaks and put them on the colt.  Still others spread their cloaks on the road.  Another group maybe having little to give cut down palm branches as a symbol of Jesus’ victory.  They all praised Jesus with their possessions.

Here we are Palm Sunday 2023, and the souls of men and women are dying.  People are pushing farther away from the church and people are going to their graves with no saving faith.  Is that our main concern?  Or do we worry about ourselves?  What about the economy?  Interest rates keep going up.  My share of the national debt is now $94,000.  Can I keep my standard of living?  Can we put our shirt in the dirt just a little so that Jesus and his message of forgiveness can march triumphantly into our hurting world?  Can we not cut a few palms here and there from trees of worldly hopes and spray them in His direction?  Using our hands to praise Jesus with our gifts – that would be great praise for the Savior King.

Another form of praise came from the mouths of the Palm Sunday worshippers.  “And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, ‘Hosanna!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!  Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!  Hosanna in the highest!’”  When the praise of obedience and the praise of money is there, the praise of mouth will naturally follow.  They were loud and enthusiastic.  Joyous and happy.  Th enemies of Jesus were looking on, watching closely and jealously as these people praise Jesus with their mouths when they weren’t even in church!

Jesus still needs the praise of our mouths, but not just singing in church.  He needs the spontaneous, sincere praise of our mouths out in the world where His enemies are listening.  No souls will be converted by our cursing or arguing.  No one will want to come here if we bad mouth our church or we are always pessimistic and grumpy.  We will praise our King by confessing the faith to the weak and sinful.  We will praise our King by standing up for proper language.  We will praise our King when we are friendly to the visitor at church or the friend we tell we are praying for.  Jesus needs the praise of your mouth, not just here at church, but out in the world, especially in the hearing of His enemies.

You can think heaven will be boring only if you think that praising God is boring on earth.  On Palm Sunday there were two groups.  Those who praised Him.  Those who hated Him.  Lord enter our hearts as King.  May our hands praise you with unquestioning obedience.  You gave your life for us, may we use our hands and the gifts you give to praise you.  Then with the Holy Spirit working in us, allow our mouths to praise you in the world.  Then one day soon we will praise you in heaven, where our praise will be anything but boring.               Amen.      

March 29, 2023 – Lent       Text:  Matthew 27:15-26

Dear Friends in Christ,

Simon Peter was an eyewitness to all of Holy Week.  In Acts chapter 3 he raised a lame man to a healed walker and leaper.  When the Jews saw this, they surrounded him and John.  Peter then said this, “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus.  You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go.” (Acts 3:13)

It wasn’t the main point of Peter’s sermon that day but it got their attention.  You handed Jesus over to be crucified, “though he had decided to let him go.”  Were you aware of that?  Are you surprised that Peter would say something like that?  Pilate had decided in his mind to release Jesus.  But he didn’t do what he decided to do.  Pilate will always be remembered as the man who sentenced the author of life to death.

What happened?  What made Pilate change his mind?  What can we learn so that we don’t go down the same path?  Matthew is the only Gospel writer who mentions that before he handed Jesus over to be crucified, Pilate washed his . . . 

“HANDS OF SELF-PRESERVATION”

It didn’t have to end this way.  Pilate was given a long list of reasons to release Jesus.  Pilate was amazed that when questioned, Jesus said nothing.  When Jesus and Pilate were alone Jesus said this, “My kingdom is not of this world…you would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.” (John 18:36; 19:11). No one ever spoke to the Roman governor like that.  Pilate was starting to realize this was no ordinary human being.

If that was unsettling imagine how he felt when his wife sent word, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.” (v. 19). 

Pilate was not naïve.  He could see what the Jewish leaders were doing.  He knew they were jealous of Jesus.  Pilate was convinced that Jesus was no criminal.  Pilate should have released Jesus and sent everyone home.  But he didn’t.  First, he passes the buck and sends Jesus to Herod and the Jewish court.  Next option:  a Passover custom, the releasing of a prisoner.  Barabbas gets the pick.  Surely, the leaders will want him condemned and not Jesus.  The plan backfired.  The chief priests and elders work the crowd and get Pilate to release Barabbas.  

Pilate had to be stunned that his plan was not working.  He then uttered these desperate words, “What shall I do with Jesus, who is called Christ?” (v. 22). The crowds answered, “Let him be crucified.”  So Pilate tries reason, “Why, what evil has he done?”  It was too late, they kept shouting, “Let him be crucified!”  “Crucify!  Crucify!  Crucify!”

Pilate tried to keep the peace, but started a riot.  He needed to do something.  He sentenced the world’s only truly innocent man to death but maintained his own innocence by doing this, “He took water and washed his hands before the crowd saying, ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” (v. 24)

Pilate couldn’t wash away history that night.  Two thousand years later our creeds still confess that Jesus “suffered and was crucified under Pontius Pilate.”  No amount of hand soap will ever make those guilty hands clean.

Pilate wasn’t a Christian; he was a pagan.  He protected his power and authority.  He was an unbeliever who acted like an unbeliever.  Nothing surprising about that.  What is more troubling is when people who know Jesus, who call themselves Christians, follows Pilate’s example.

In the safety of this sanctuary, surrounded by fellow saints, it is easy to sing God’s praises.  Out there it is a different story.  When I’m with co-workers or classmates, when I get together with a group of friends, not all of them are Christians.  Some can be pretty outspoken.  They know what I believe.  They aren’t afraid to question what I believe.  Maybe they even make fun of what I believe.

If we find ourselves in those situations, what do we do?  Say something or clam up?  The opportunity passes and we feel guilty because we did not speak for our Savior.  We then start the excuse machine, “It wasn’t a good time…I didn’t want to get into an argument…I don’t want to lose my friends or my job.” 

On the Last Day Pilate will have to answer for his actions.  But remember this – he didn’t believe in Jesus.  We claim to be his followers.  We have no excuse for not defending Jesus.  Jesus has us clenching when he says, “Whoever denies me before others, I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven.” (Mt. 10:33).  Ouch!

Let’s refocus our praises toward Jesus tonight.  He allowed his enemies to arrest him.  Praise God!  He allowed the soldiers to mistreat him.  Praise God!  He allowed a crooked court to convict him and a weak judge to wash his hands of him.  Praise God!  He allowed himself to be numbered among the transgressors to fulfill prophecy and to pay for the world’s sins.  Praise God!  Jesus allowed his own life to be taken from him so that we might live in his presence forever.  Praise God!  

Amen.        

March 26, 2023             Text:  John 11:1-45

Dear Friends in Christ,

Years ago, a young woman became seriously ill.  After being in the hospital for a time she returned home to wait for her eminent death.  Her husband knew the situation but their eight-year-old daughter did not know her mom was terminal.

One afternoon, the little girl overheard the doctor say to the father and mother, “The time is not too far off.  Before the last leaves have gone from the trees you will die.”  The girl went to her room and cried.

A few months later, the father came down for breakfast and the daughter was not there.  He couldn’t find her in the house.  He finally saw her out in the front yard.  His heart was broken as he watched her picking up the leaves that had fallen to the ground.  She was using string to tie the leaves back on the tree.

This dramatically shows what we go through when a loved one is about to depart this world.  We don’t want to let go of those we love.  It also exemplifies a child-like faith.  We know the leaves aren’t going to stop this mother’s death, but this daughter believes in the impossible.

Our gospel is the raising of Lazarus.  Brother of Mary and Martha.  The sisters are distressed as their brother progresses toward death.  They don’t want to let go of their brother, and they hope Jesus can prevent his departure from this world.  By the time Jesus gets there it is too late – Lazarus has died.

When Jesus arrives in Bethany Lazarus has been dead for four days.  Martha goes to meet him.  She says, “’Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.  But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.’”  Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again,’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’  Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.  Do you believe this?’” (v. 21-26)

Let’s make that our sermon title.  How do we see death?  And life?

“DO YOU BELIEVE THIS?”

Jesus is telling Martha Lazarus will not see hell.  Instead, he lives and his body will rise again to new life.  The Savior of the world holds the keys to death and life.  And so the question, “Do you believe this?”  Or to put it another way, and with great liberty, Jesus is saying to Martha, “Do you believe that I can keep the leaves from falling to the ground even when they have changed color and they want to blow away?  You do not need string.  I am the string.  I am the one who brings life even to those who are physically dead.  Do you believe that I can do what is impossible?”

This morning the Lord probes our hearts.  “Do you believe this?”  Can we confess it like Martha?  “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”  Yes, the faith of a child.  “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Now we get to an interesting part of the story.  We see Jesus’ humanity.  Like many of us what touched off his crying was seeing others cry.  The Lord felt the death.  He had compassion.  We need to remember this when our loved ones die.  Jesus didn’t cause the death.  He cares for you and I.  He is there through prayer and our fellow Christians to comfort us.  Here for Martha and Mary He also shows His divinity.

Deeply moved, he goes to the tomb.  He tells Lazarus to come out – and the dead man, now alive, comes out.  What if you were there?  The rot of death in the air?  Would your heart be pounding?  Would you believe what you are to see?  Silence . . . something in the shadows . . the dead man is coming out with his burial clothes still on!

Our loved ones who have died in the Lord are Lazarus.  You and I who believe in Christ are Lazarus.  This is what will happen to all the children of God.  For the sake of Christ even though we die, we live.  Because Christ lives, we never die.  We will be with the Lord in heaven and our bodies will one day rise from the grave.  There is one difference.  Lazarus ultimately died again.  What we have here is only a momentary picture of the last day.  This was to confirm that Jesus was the one sent from God above.

The return of Lazarus to his family was designed to be a picture of the reunion that all of us will have with those who have gone before us to heaven.  After Lazarus came back to life, they gave a dinner to honor Jesus.  

On the last day, we will see loved ones again.  Whether in heaven or on earth, God will provide a great reunion.  This reunion is described as a great banquet.  Sound familiar?  Even now we taste these things by faith in the Holy Supper of our Lord Jesus Christ.  In the Eucharist there is communion with Christ.  Where Christ is there is forgiveness and life.  

DO YOU BELIEVE THIS?

Amen.