October 6, 2024 – LWML Sunday Text: Luke 1:38

Dear Friends in Christ, The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 was passed by Congress on September 16, 1940. It required all men between the ages of 21 and 64 to register with the Selective Service. Then on December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor happened. Congress then amended the act to require all able-bodied men ages 18 to 64 to register with their local draft board for the duration of World War II. In practice, only men from 18 to 45 were drafted. Thirty days after the Pearl Harbor attack, 134,000 Americans enlisted in the military. More than 16 million served during the War. Of the over 16 million service members, 6 million of them were volunteers. You may remember the famous recruiting poster with Uncle Sam pointing at you and saying, “I Want You for U.S. Army.” Today in our text God points his finger at Mary and says, “I want you.” God calls on Mary and in faith and trust she is . . .“READY TO SERVE” Every time we make confession in the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds, we remember the Virgin Mary. Mary would have been around 15, a virgin, living in Nazareth, and engaged to Joseph. Then she was brought a message that would change her life. Gabriel, a messenger of God delivers Mary’s job description: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.” (Luke 1:30-31). This sinner, Mary, was not worthy of God’s grace, but God had chosen her to be the mother of Jesus. God was going to fulfill his promise. His Son Jesus would be sent on a mission to save the world. God’s Son was going to pay the debt of sin for you and me and all people. After years of waiting, it was going to happen. Mary, of all people, was about to be the mother of the Messiah. Now Mary was a little perplexed and we are not surprised. Things just don’t add up. “How will this be, since I am a virgin,” (Luke 1:34) Mary asks. An answer is received. This child would have no human father. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Luke 1:35). This child was not conceived and born in sin. This is God’s Son. He is sinless and our Savior. Mary responds in faith. “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38a). Mary was ready to go. Ready to accept the angel’s message. Ready to serve. Why was she ready to serve? She trusted and believed God’s Word. It was all going to work out according to the Word of the Lord. Mary came to serve. Her son Jesus came to serve. The task of Jesus was even bigger. He explained it to the disciples: “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). He taught and healed people, then went to the cross and rose from the grave to bring us salvation. He was a true servant. Jesus made the impossible possible. He opened up eternal life to all who believe in Him. Jesus accomplished His mission on that first Easter morning. Death and sin and devil had been conquered. He provided the greatest service the world has ever seen. Mary served. Jesus served. What about us? Do we trust the Word? Can God count on you to work in his Kingdom for His mission? God has redeemed us for this very purpose. Paul wrote it this way: “(Jesus) died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (1 Cor. 5:15). We stand ready to serve with joy. Today we are celebrating Lutheran Women in Mission, the LWML. Their motto: “Serve the Lord with gladness.” Since 1942 the LWML has encouraged and equipped women to serve. They are active in mission ministries, and they support global missions. With their mite box offerings, they have a goal from 2023-2025 to receive $2.35 million dollars to fund mission projects in the U.S. and around the world. You can go to lwml.org and look at these impressive missions that they support. God called Mary and she was ready to serve as she spoke to Gabriel, “I am the servant of the Lord.” God sent His Son to serve, and He gave his life for us. May our response as baptized children of God be one of service as Martin Luther expressed it: “that I may be his own and live under him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.” Amen.

September 29, 2024 – St. Michael and All Angels Text:  Revelation 12:7-12

Dear Friends in Christ,

Satan that sneaky little devil is quite the liar.  He has way of convincing people in our world that he is not real.  If he doesn’t exist, he can work his evil schemes more effectively under the radar.  

The Scriptures reveal Satan for who he truly is.  From his fruit tree trickery in the Garden to his boastful tempting in the desert with Jesus.  It is the work of Jesus in overcoming Satan and the forces of evil that come to a climax in our text.  The joyous message is that this great accuser of mankind, Satan, is no longer in heaven to bring accusations against us.  This text unveils the truth . . . 

“CONQUERED BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB”

As a competitor one line I never like hearing is:  “It doesn’t matter if you win or lose, only how you play the game.”  Then why am I out there?  That line is much easier to swallow if you are the victor.  If we lose, we don’t like it.  We may give our best and still walk away with head down.  “It is just not fair.”  We may be right.

The struggle for many is that the battles they fight so often are battles they must fight alone.  Even the people of God feel this way at times.  The power of the enemy can be so strong, we can be so weak.  Victory often goes to those who oppose God and His truth.

Look at the world around you.  What do you see?  You see sin, death, and Satan seeming to win battle after battle.  We have unending conflicts between countries.  Hatred and violence toward others.  Political upheaval.  The Lord mocked and ridiculed by many voices.  No sense of right and wrong.  The sound of a broken world is deafening.

Let’s break through the noise.  Satan’s rebellion and removal from heaven is one of those mysteries that God tells us very little.  We do know Satan led a substantial rebellion of angels after creation and before the fall of Adam and Eve.  Our text is a place where this becomes clearer.  Revelation makes it clear that after Satan’s fall he still had access to the presence of God for some time.  His primary activity was to bring accusations before God as our text states, “The accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.” (v. 10)  Not a pretty scene.  Satan reminding God of the sins of mankind day and night.

The good news trumpeted by our text is that this kind of Satanic activity is no longer effective.  Satan has been defeated, cast out of heaven, thrown down to earth.  “Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon.  And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.  And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world – he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” (v. 7-9)  Alrighty then, let’s cheer.  Michael and the good angels defeated this wily serpent and his minions.  We win!  We win!  Yes!

Who should get the credit for this conquering victory?  The text is clear:  “They have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb.” (v. 11a)  Jesus the unblemished, perfect sacrifice whose blood makes payment for all sins of mankind.  Christ as Advocate interceded for us.  Paul writes:  “Christ Jesus is the one who died – more than that, who was raised – who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” (Rom. 8:34)  The source of this victory in heaven, then, is the blood of the Lamb.

We all know people who like to pump iron.  They lift weights to build up muscle in their bodies.  They want to be stronger than the next person.  Was this Michael’s secret?  Did the archangel pump more iron in heaven than Satan had in hell?

No.  The key battle in the war against Satan was not one angel, Michael, confronting another angel, Satan.  It was the Lord Jesus Christ confronting Satan and all the forces of evil as the sacrificial Lamb whose blood was pumped out on the cross as payment for our sin.  Michael and his angels are not an independent militia who had pumped more iron in the gym than Satan and the evil angels.  They are the army of the Lamb enforcing the victory of the Lamb by casting Satan out of heaven.

We do not fight alone.  The great evil has been overcome.  Thank God for this victory in heaven, won by Christ on the cross and carried out by Michael and the angelic hosts.  Feels good to win, doesn’t it?  Conquered by the Blood of the Lamb.

Amen.

September 22, 2024   Text:  Jeremiah 11:18-20

Dear Friends in Christ,

To what are you committed?  What commitments have you made in life?  

Dr. Paul Farmer grew up impoverished in an old bus his father, mother and four siblings lived in.  Paul was intelligent with a photographic memory.  He graduated from Duke and then Harvard with a medical degree and PhD.

His accomplishments are numerous.  He dedicated his career to find ways to combat major health problems among the poorest of the poor.  He started his work in Haiti, but it soon stretched around the globe.  He became a world-renowned expert on the subject and by his mid-forties a best-selling book was written about him.

In February of 2022, Dr. Farmer died of a heart attack while working on a health project in Rwanda.  He was 62.  The public health community said they had lost a “giant.”  Farmer spent his whole career committed to the cause of improving healthcare for the poor around the world.  He was all in for the cause.

The prophet Jeremiah is committed to the cause of which God has called him.  He is to make known the Word of God to the people of Judah.  He is to call Judah to repent of their idolatry.   Can we be like Jeremiah . . .

“COMMITTED TO THE LORD’S CAUSE”

Jeremiah is the weeping prophet.  He cries a lot because his family and hometown are plotting against him.  He will suffer hardship and persecution.  Jeremiah gets just a taste of the betrayal that would happen to Jesus.  Like the Lord God, Jeremiah was trying to bring salvation to the people, yet the more he did so, the more infuriated toward him they became.

Have you ever been betrayed by family or friends.  Are there those who pull away from you because you are trying to share the Gospel with them?  Do you have a certain challenge currently that you are up against?

God knew the scheming of the people before Jeremiah did.  He revealed it directly to Jeremiah.  God knows the troubles and challenges we face, even before we do.  We can feel like Jeremiah, lost and confused; a lamb led to the slaughter. 

Jeremiah was not married and had no direct descendants.  The people still wanted him annihilated, “his name be remembered no more.”  They hated Jeremiah, but their real hatred was toward God.   Everything about God had to be eliminated.  It looks overwhelming to Jeremiah, so he takes it to the Lord.  

Things don’t look good for this prophet.  But he does not waver in his commitment.  I understand that.  I have been called a “commitment-phobe” in my life.  I got that from my parents.  You say you are going to do something, you do it.  At times it does not make life easy.  How do you see yourselves?  Committed like Jeremiah or a little more wishy-washy about what you should be doing?  Being committed means sacrifice.  Being committed can mean suffering.  In being committed you need to see the difference it is going to make.

Jeremiah saw that.  He trusts in the righteousness of the Lord of hosts.  God cared about Jeremiah.  God cares about what is happening in our world and what is happening in our individual lives.  Jeremiah saw people becoming angrier and angrier.  We see that same tone around us.  People can lose it over the silliest things.  

The townspeople of Anathoth, the hometown of Jeremiah are losing it.  They are plotting to kill the guy, and Jeremiah still wants to work to save these people.  That is commitment.  I have been reading a book of Christian martyrs over the years and their commitment to the Gospel always stands out.  I appreciate the groundwork they have laid.  But I also tend to notice that maybe there was a better avenue not as dangerous.  A way to stay alive and continue the work.  

That is Jeremiah’s story.  The Lord brought justice.  The vengeance of the Lord was a fair retribution against those who had fallen away from God.  Jeremiah put his trust in the lasting and final justice God would provide in the coming Messiah, the Savior, who would take away the sin of the world.  We can have that same trust in the perfect life, atoning death, and victorious rising again of Jesus Christ.  Like Jeremiah, we can commit our cause to the way of the Lord.  We know that the Lord is our strength and shield.  It gives us confidence just like Jeremiah.

Jeremiah would cover the reigns of the last five kings of Judah.  He would continue to stay committed by denouncing the policies and idolatries of his nation.  Can we do the same?  Remember this:  God is faithful, God is just, God is caring.  It strengthens us to stay committed to the Lord’s cause.

Amen.