Nov. 7, 2021 – All Saints Sunday                Text:  Matthew 18:1-10

Dear Friends in Christ,

    Are you ready to be confused?  Today is All Saints Sunday but we have a text on angels, what is going on Pastor?  We are going to delineate between the two.  There is confusion within the Christian Church and even more so outside the Christian Church about angels and saints.  

    How do we use the word angel?  We say of our daughters, “She is such a little angel.”  We say of our sons, “That kid is just like an angel.”  Angels are figurines and in paintings and in TV and movies.  The caricature of the angel floating in the clouds playing the harp or the angel getting ready to shoot the arrow of love fill our heads of images that part from the reality.

    Yes, there are angels.  God uses these ministering spirits for His purposes.  We have maybe come in contact with an angel unawares.  They watch over us as we speak of travel and dangerous situations.  One thing to get straight today:  we do not become angels when we die.  Loved ones are not looking down on us or intervening for us.  Once you have attained perfection why would anyone want anything more to do with this sinful world.  We say, “take us from this vale of tears” because we are tired of the hurt and the suffering and the sin.  We don’t want to relive it.  

    Let’s go at it this way . . .

“WE’RE NO ANGELS . . . BUT WE ARE SAINTS”

    Angels, you see, surround the reality that God values man.  Consider these words from our text:  “See that you do not despise one of these little ones.  For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.”  What do we learn here?  First, the abode of angels – they live in heaven.  Second, they are in the presence of God the Father.  Third, angels are keeping watch.  This verse is the basis for the depictions of “guardian angels.”  Haven’t we all had experiences where are “guardian angel” kept us safe?  Landing in an airplane in a bad snowstorm?  Turning a steering wheel just in time?  Kept from drowning?  All done by the Lord’s angels not by grandpa who floated down here to rescue you.

    Founding Father James Madison said this, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”  Are men and women and children angels?  Of course not.  Most of the time we are so far from angelic it is laughable.  Does our compassion extend to everybody, even those we see as being on the wrong side of everything?  Are we kind, and gentle and speak well of others?  Do we love with no expectation in return?  The closest we get to being angels is when we dress in white and even that is not found in the Bible.  The bottom line is we’re no angels.  Elvis sang what we can be “the devil in disguise.”

    All right we are no angels, but Pastor isn’t there another part of the sermon?  Glad you asked.  We are saints.  Say it loud.  Say it with joy.  We are saints.  Not in the sense of having a hospital with our name it.  Not in the same way as a school with a patron saint.  No colleges have plans to put our name on the letterhead.  We are saints but not because of anything we have done.  In those rare moments you are saintly the world is not preparing for you a statue.

    You are no angel and God the Father knows that.  You fail.  You fall short.  Your harp playing is little off.  Your arrow is shot into the backside of an enemy.  You need some help and quickly.

    God knew all this so he shared in our frail humanity.  In becoming like us, God shows how much He values our existence.  Whether we live a hundred years or die tomorrow, God reached through the great chasm that separates Creator from creature to bring frail, fallen, un angel like men and women and children back to the good world to come.  This happened because of the word of the cross.  

    Immanuel, God with us, mounts up on Zion, crucified and risen, and enters our ears and our mouths so that we hear and taste bittersweet victory.  Here we know that God feeds us and strengthens our faith for the battle He shares as we wait the consummation.  

    Angelic voices rise today in preparation:  “To you all angels cry aloud, the heav’ns and all the pow’rs therein; to you cherubim and seraphim continually do cry.”  We get a foretaste of the feast to come as we hear:  “With angels, and archangels and all company of heaven we laud and magnify your glorious name.”  We worship and celebrate with the angels and saints.  Today here on earth, maybe tomorrow in heaven.  We are living saints through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We’re no angels . . . but we are saints.

    As saints we still have angelic work to do.  Jesus was speaking to the disciples in our text.  His ministers of mercy.  What is speaking to you?  Where can your voice of prayer and faith make a difference?  What wayward saint needs your presence and love?  Who is turning their back on their formerly strong Jesus relationship that wants to hear some saintly advice from you?  Intervene, before it is too late.  The Holy Spirit has your back.  The Holy Spirit has the words.  Draw strength as a living saint. 

    Has the confusion lifted?  Do you better understand?  Let’s keep it simple and say it one more time.  We’re no angels . . . but we are saints.

                                    Amen.     

October 31, 2021 – Reformation                 Text:  Jeremiah 36:23

Dear Friends in Christ,

    Do you own a paper shredder?  They come in all sizes and many of us have one that shreds bank statements, bills, and other sensitive information.  It destroys these things.

    Today we meet a paper shredder with a name – King Jehoiakim.  He was shredding God’s Word.  Cutting it with a knife and burning it.  Why would he do such a thing?  Because he was motivated by the Paper Shredder.  The Paper Shredder is a liar and deceiver and goes by names such as Satan or the devil.  He does not want us to have the power of God’s Word or life in God’s Word or forgiveness in God’s Word.

    Why do such things?  Well, yes he is evil and he wants to destroy lives.  Yours and mine.  He wants us to see the days as hopeless.  He wants us to question God’s Word.  He wants to shred our hearts and minds so that we join his team.  He wants to keep us from God’s Word.

    Thank God we come from a lineage that wants us to have God’s Word.  Martin Luther wanted people to have God’s Word.  The reformers wanted men and women and children to have access to this truth.  Today is Reformation Sunday throughout much of Christendom and we state boldly . . .

“YOU CAN’T SHRED THIS!”

    Luther knew about the Paper Shredder.  Wrote about him in our opening hymn, “The old evil foe, now means deadly woe!”  That is why the Holy Spirit had Luther embrace God’s Word.  We heard it in our Epistle lesson, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 3:23-24)  We heard it in the Gospel, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36)

    The Grand deceiver used one of his minions to work on silencing Luther.  Albert of Brandenburg was selling indulgences to pay off his debt to the pope.  People could buy these indulgences pieces of paper really, that was signed by the church and lessened their time in purgatory.  Luther put together 95 Theses that in essence said these pieces of paper were worthless, they should be shredded.  As people believed Luther and the church, Albert’s money making scheme was in jeopardy.  Luther and his thoughts on God’s Word needed to be shredded.

    A debate was set.  Rome said in short that people were saved by what they do.  Luther wouldn’t back down from his position of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, for Christ’s sake alone.  Pope Leo X put the hammer on Luther and threw him out of the church.  Banished.  Silenced.  Shredded.

    God had other plans.  Luther kept up the fight.  In April of 1521 in Worms, Germany the Roman Catholic Church said that Luther must take back his words.  He couldn’t go on speaking what they saw as heresy.  You can’t buck the system.  Except, he could.  He did.  He used these words, “My conscience is captive to the Word of God.  I cannot and will not recant!”  Rome had a response.  God’s word must be silenced, God’s Word must be censored, God’s Word must be shredded.

    Where did Luther get the backbone?  From God’s Word that says Christ is crucified for sinners.  The Gospel promises are yours.  Christ is our righteousness.  Christ gives us a hope and a future.  Christ loves us with an everlasting love.  Because of Christ crucified, God remembers our sins no more. 

    This is all ours because of a shredding that took place.  A shredding of skin when our Savior was beaten.  A shredding of life when he was nailed to a cross.  A shredding of his dignity when he was strip naked and mocked and slandered and spit upon.  After the shredding took place then life left Him and He was buried.  Finally, He was silenced.

    Jeremiah could not be silenced.  It says this later in chapter 36, “Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch who wrote on it at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah had shred and burned in the fire.  And many similar words were added to them.” (v. 32)  God has resurrected Jeremiah’s scroll and even added to it.

    This was a prelude to another resurrection.  In the silence, the echoes of life began churning on an Easter morning.  Christ, the Word made flesh, rose again.  He wasn’t a shredded mess, He was alive.  “My Lord and my God!”

    Alive with the life of Jesus and the breath of the Holy Spirit – God’s Holy Word is the living voice of the Gospel.  It speaks to you.  It showers you with grace.  It overcomes all the satanic forces that want to shred and silence it.  When it is preached and taught and read it is living and active.  It can’t be shredded.  We can’t be shredded.  We are victorious through Christ Jesus.

    Here we stand.  Luther stood on 1 Peter 1:25, “The word of the Lord endures forever.”  The Latin is Verbum Dei Manet In Aeternum.  Luther and the people sewed VDMA on their coat sleeves.  We confess Verbum Dei Manet In Aeternum – the Word of the Lord endures forever.  You can’t shred this!

                                Amen.

October 24, 2021                        Text:  Jeremiah 31:7-9

Dear Friends in Christ,

    When I say the words “you are in trouble” what do you think of?  Echoes of your childhood and words from dad or mom?  A sibling spouting the words at you with glee in their voice?  A friend telling you your tee shot just went behind a tree?  A co-worker who just caught the boss in a bad mood and the hammer is about to come down?  The word “trouble” and happy thoughts bouncing around in your brain do not go together.

    Jeremiah is speaking words this morning to a people who “are in trouble.”  The Israelites are having the life squeezed right out of them.  They have rebelled and turned against God.  Nations are ready to conquer them.  They have lived this way for so long that they cannot break free.  Their fate is sealed.  What can be done?

“WHERE TO TURN WHEN IN TROUBLE?”

    Jeremiah is known as the “iron” prophet because he is preaching a hapless message of repentance to these weak, weak people.  He pours out his strength in the task, hammering the people with prophecy after prophecy, firing them with repeated warnings of judgment.  The book is a fifty-two-chapter composition, which is calling the people to turn from their sin.  Jeremiah would make a classic preacher because he would repeat over and over, word for word, what he was trying to get across to his hearers.

    Think about us?  Could we be in a heap of trouble?  Are we in danger of missing the message because of what is happening around our little world?  Are we letting all the outside noise affect our faith?  Some are calling these times the worst to live in.  Really?  Did anyone try to stop you from coming to church this morning?  Other than a prison of your own making no one is putting us away for our faith.  We have been given the greatest privilege in the world to gather here on a Sunday morning to hear God’s Word and partake of His Sacrament.  Like Jeremiah, I cannot hammer that home any more clearly.  To think we are willing to throw that all away to follow other idols is a sign of our rebellion.  The trouble we make for ourselves comes directly from our confused heart and mind.

    This is what the people have done in our text.  They have thrown away their status as the firstborn of God.  They have allowed people and circumstances and government and their own foolishness to drive them away from their Father – God Himself.  Jeremiah is trying to encourage them back – “O Lord save your people, the remnant of Israel.”  He speaks to the whole; “I will bring them from the north country and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth.”  He speaks to individuals, “among them the blind and the lame, the pregnant woman and she who is in labor.”  He tells them how to come, “A great company, they shall return here.  With weeping they shall come, and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back, I will make them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble, for I am a father to Israel.” 

    Where do we need to come from?  What trouble have we gotten into?  Where in our life has our mind overcome our heart?  Why do we wander from the Lord Himself when we know He is so needed?  We too need the message over and over.  Even then we drift from His side.  Don’t let Satan alter your thinking.  Come home.  Come in weeping and mercy.  Walk by the brooks of water.  Live in the straight path the Lord has laid out for you.  

    No matter what trouble you have which is real or imagined your faithful God stands with you.  You can always turn to Him because the message of the Lord is that He always has your eternal salvation in view.  Jeremiah prophesied a new covenant and God fulfilled it in the life, death, and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ, who welcomes us into His Kingdom and gives to us the new testament in his blood.

    Remember the fear you felt when hearing the words, “you are in trouble?”  God tells us today that He has released us from that fear.  Both the fear of the hammer of the law and the fear we sometimes shelter ourselves in.  Christ is our comfort and hope and joy even when the fear of trouble enters our little sphere.  Come on out.  Gather us together Lord.  It’s beautiful thing to live in God’s grace. 

                                            Amen.