What follows is my devotional address for the Ohio District Church Worker's Conference. Typically the Vice Presidents serve as devotional leaders. I have been honored to serve as a vice president and this is my last year. Here is the message I gave last night.
Devotion for Pastor’s Conference
Text: Isaiah 55:10-11
Theme: Trust the Word
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
it brings forth and sprouts,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
In the name of Jesus:
I will confess to you here and now that I am a recovering Methodist. I don’t say this lightly. It is something that as a parish pastor I struggle with daily. The type of Methodist I am referring to does not bear any similarly to being a member of a particular church denomination, or a follower of John Wesley. A recovering Methodist is one who constantly seeks a method that will work in the parish. Looking around the room, maybe I am just not the only recovering Methodist in the room!
So let’s have a Lutheran moment and ask, “What does this mean?” When a new stewardship program becomes available and has met with some success, do you wonder if it would work in my parish and have the same success rate as another congregation. When new types of groups are introduced in other congregations do you think: “Will it work at my church? Is it something that I can use?” If there is a new technique in evangelism that brings in new members, will it bring in the masses in Lancaster Ohio? Or Cleveland? Or Dayton? As a parish pastor it seems that of a practical nature I am continually on the lookout for something that works. Perhaps you are a recovering Methodist like me. For when we wonder, “why is such and such a church is growing, and mine is not, something must be wrong in what I am doing! Maybe a new methodology will work! It certainly wouldn’t hurt, or so we think.
Now that is not to say that this is inherently wrong. After all, if we are not concerned about doing a good job for the Lord and giving an account of our ministry, we are slothful servants. However, the temptation for me as a recovering Methodist is this: do I place my faith in the method, or in the Lord?
As I read continually read the Scriptures daily I am struck by one theme that is played over and over again throughout the pages of the Bible, namely, trusting in the Word. The problem that we have as pastors is that we are sinners and that first sin that our first parents committed rears its ugly head in our lives and ministry. Remember in the Garden, when God gave to Adam and Eve that simply command: Don’t eat? How did Satan tempt our first parents, simply with a question: Did God really say that? And in response to that question, Adam and Eve, doubting God and His Word, fell horribly short of God’s demand of perfection.
Throughout the Old Testament God’s people are given the Word, and they come up horribly short, don’t they? Abraham and Sarah are to have a child, and Sarah laughs. Moses is told to lead God’s people and Moses stammers and looks for an excuse. Namaan is told that in order to be cured of leprosy he simply needs to follow orders, but he becomes incredulous. Even during the era of the prophets, God’s messengers called Judah and Israel to repent, to turn to the Lord and listen to Him. Isaiah called God’s people to turn from idols and other gods, to cease trusting in what sinner man could do. Trust in the Lord, turn to Him, LISTEN TO HIS WORD. But Israel and Judah thought that they knew better. As they chose to despise God and His Word, God left them to their sinful desires and they were placed into exile! Throughout history, time and again God asks sinners to trust in Him, but sinners look for another option.
Isn’t that what happens in our lives and in our parishes? We are called to trust in the Lord, but we don’t. We are called to follow Him but we look for a convenient detour. Rather than trust in the Word to work, we look for another method, a better way of doing things, placing our trust in our own efforts rather than trusting in the Lord and His Word.
So what are we do to? Repent. When Jesus began His ministry He said: Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand. We need not forget that! Jesus calls us to repent to turn from TRUSTING OUR METHODS AND WORKS AND TO TRUST IN HIM. Why? Because Jesus is God’s Word, incarnate, sent to deliver you and me from the messes we make of our ministry and lives.
Doesn’t God say in His Word: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God…14 and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1,14)” Jesus, throughout His life, lived to give glory to God through doing the will of the One who sent Him. When Satan tried to tempt Jesus asking as he did of Adam and Eve: Did God really say, Jesus used the Word to defeat Satan. God in Christ kept His Word to sinners by living the life you and I could not live and by dying on the cross for our forgiveness and eternal salvation.
New life is given by the power of Christ’s Word! The Word brings new life to sinners for the Word brings Christ! God works through His Word, for you have been “born again not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding Word.” (1 Peter 1:23). God works through His Word, for in Baptism sinners are given a new birth by the washing of the Holy Spirit. God works through His Word read and proclaimed, convicting sinners of sin and comforting the damnable with the Good News of His grace. God works through His Word leading sinners to repentance. God works through His Word forgiving sins in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God works through His Word for at His Word we eat and drink the Lord’s body and blood for forgiveness and life. God works through the Word.
In an era when we as parish pastors and professional church workers hear about a “new paradigm” or a “new model” or “a different way of doing things, perhaps it would be best to be reminded of how the Lord Jesus Christ Himself describes our work.
“A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears let him hear.”
Jesus likens our work to sowing seed. The seed is the Word. Certainly there is much work to be done in preparing the soil and fertilizing the soil, the seed still needs to be sown. God’s Word is the good seed. He blesses His Word and our work so that whenever and wherever it is sown, God brings forth fruit. Remember Luther’s analogy, where he says that when he planted a garden he prayed as if his work meant nothing, and when he worked he worked as if his prayer meant nothing. Perhaps that is what we need to remember, that God’s Word works and that God uses we lowly workers to sow the seed so that God will give the increase. Just as God promises in Isaiah: ““For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
The Word works, my friends. Christ and His Word is all we need. And maybe it is just that that a recovering Methodist needs to hear.
Amen
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Am I My Brother's Keeper?
AM I MY BROTHER’S KEEPER?
GENESIS 4:1-15 ESP. 9
Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” 2 And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. 3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” 8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?” 10 And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. 11 And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” 13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14 Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” 15 Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.
In the name of Jesus:
Have you checked the labels on your grocery items lately? You may be getting less than you thought. I noticed this trend a couple of years ago when, while eating at the local establishment, the portion size I received was much smaller than what I remembered. And if you would look closely in the supermarkets, some manufacturers are selling us the same size packages we are accustomed to, but they are putting less of the product in the box. For example, a box of well-known detergent that once held 61 ounces now contains only 55. Same size box, less soap. Companies realize that you can’t keep marking up the price on things, because then no one will buy them. So, as an alternative, the portion size gets smaller. The price will remain the same, but you are getting less and still paying more money.
How something is wrapped doesn't always show us what's on the inside. That's true with people as well. We can wrap ourselves up in the same packaging every day -- nice clothes, big smile, friendly demeanor -- yet still be less than what we appear to be. Take the case of Cain in the Old Testament lesson for today. He is the firstborn son of Adam and Eve. I have no doubt that Adam and Eve after the fall into sin were godly parents. They trusted in the Lord, specifically His Word, in spite of their eating of the forbidden fruit. How do we know that? God’s last Word to Adam and Eve was the Gospel promise of Genesis 3: 15: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise your heel.” Here God promises to sinners a Savior. All the while, in the process of living on this fallen planet, Adam and Eve would have to trust in the Lord. Certainly there would be consequences to pay for sin. Women would bear children in pain and long for their husbands, while men would toil and work hard for food. And all who have fallen into sin would ultimately return to the dust in punishment for their disobedience. These punishments were true for Adam and Eve and their children, and hold true for us today.
However Eve and Adam trusted in the Lord. They clung to the Word. Listen to Eve’s words at the birth of Cain: “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” Eve’s role as a mother was a gift from God and she credited God for the new life of Cain, even though she gave birth in pain. And I have no doubt that Adam and Eve raised Cain, and later their brother Abel, to trust the Lord. Abel was faithful to God, Cain was not. In the responsibility of offering a sacrifice to the Lord and bring to the Lord gifts, Abel did so willingly, out of love for God. Cain, well, he was another story. He gave grudgingly. God looked favorably upon Abel’s offering, but the text says: “for Cain and his offering (the Lord) had no regard.” Abel’s offering sprang from faith and love for God. Cain loved himself. He was self-righteous. Just note his response: “So Cain was very angry and his face fell.” Cain got angry, at who, God! He thought his offering was good enough! God should have been pleased with what He got. But Cain would have none of it. His whole attitude was one of being argumentative with God. For the Lord said to Cain: “ Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” Cain didn’t do right by the Lord, his offering was less than acceptable, and Cain was unjustly angry at God, thinking that God had too high of a standard. Cain thought that it was God’s fault for not accepting the offering. Rather than turning to God in repentance, Cain in anger turned on his brother Abel, killing him in cold blood.
After this first murder the Lord said to Cain: “Where is Abel your brother?” Now, God knows what happened. This question is pedantic in nature, God asks Cain so that Cain can come to his senses and realize what he did. But Cain lies to God and says: “I do not know” Well, he did know, and then Cain goes deeper and in anger says to God: “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
What hypocrisy! Yes, Cain knew, but lied to God. His offering was not acceptable to God, and so because of this Cain kills Abel, lies to God, and in indignation says: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” It needs to be noted that God punished Cain by making him a fugitive and wanderer on the earth. Cain was a marked man; so much so that Cain believed his life would now be in danger. But God in His mercy reached out to Cain and put a mark on his Cain, to protect him, for if anyone took Cain’s life God’s vengeance would be poured out on the perpetrator sevenfold.
The question that begs to be answered here is this:” Am I my brother’s keeper?” Cain asked it to absolve himself of any and all responsibility to his brother. He was cold hearted to God and to the needs of those around him. Cain thought that he could just look out for old number one and everything else would turn out okay, much like Adam who said to God after eating of the fruit: “Don’t blame me, its your fault God because the woman YOU GAVE ME made me disobey you.” No pun intended, but the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Cain acted just like his father Adam, in shifting blame and responsibility. But God in His knowledge sees through the hypocrisy and the self-justification. And God calls sin what it is: disobedience, lawlessness. And the sinner stands guilty before God.
All too often we like to use the phrase “Am I my brother’s keeper?” to absolve ourselves of any responsibility toward another. So, if we see someone in need, we try to justify our inactivity by saying, “I am not my brother’s keeper.” If we see something happen to a neighbor in need, we bask in our apathy by declaring: “ I am not my brother’s keeper.” When someone has less, whether it is food, clothing or is in need of shelter, we justify our inactivity by declaring: I am not my brother’s keeper! But is this attitude God pleasing? Was God happy with Cain’s answer? Is God pleased with you when you shift the responsibility to care or show love to your neighbor in need? God is never pleased when the sinner sets himself to be God. God is never pleased with your own self-justification and self-righteousness. Doesn’t Paul write: “You were dead in your transgressions and sins and that your are saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ and not of your own works? “ And doesn’t Jesus teach that: “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted?” God sees through your stubbornness and pride and unbelief. And He calls you to repent.
God answers the question: Am I my brother’s keeper? With a resounding YES!!!. HIS ANSWER IS FOUND IN HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, JESUS CHRIST. Unlike Cain, who fled from God in fear, God calls you to turn from your sin and turn to Him. When God is angry with you, come to Him with a humble confession of sin and ask for His forgiveness. For God has seen you in your need of a Savior. That is why He kept His promise to Adam and Eve by sending a second Adam, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was born, not just for Adam and Eve and Abel, but for Cain as well! Christ came to be a brother to sinners, for He who knew no sin became sin for US that we might know the righteousness of God in Him. Christ came to be born of our flesh but sinless, to offer Himself as the blood offering to forgive sinners of their sins. In Jesus God says: “I am your keeper.” (Psalm 121:5). In Christ the Lord blesses you and keeps you. Incredibly, the same thing happened to Christ as to Abel. Even as Abel was murdered and his blood was innocently shed, so also Christ was the innocent Lamb of God led to the cross, so that by His shed blood sins would be forgiven and guilt remitted. Jesus’ blood cries out from the cross saying: It is finished and all is accomplished! God’s anger is appeased through the blood of Christ, which cleanses you from all of your sins. It is as the hymn writer puts it in that great Lenten hymn: “Abel’s blood for vengeance pleaded to the skies but the blood of Jesus for our pardon cries.” (LSB 433 v 4). The blood of Christ offers mercy, forgiveness and peace to the sinner.
Even as God placed a mark upon Cain’s forehead, so too you have been marked. For in the waters of your Baptism God has placed the mark of the cross of Christ upon you and has made you His child. In Baptism your hypocrisy, self righteous, and sinful self was drowned and put to death so that by the power of the Spirit you might rise to newness of life. God daily calls you live out your Baptism, humbly confessing yours sins, trusting in Christ for forgiveness, and receiving the ability to live your life in service and love toward your neighbor.
God has marked you to be his own in Baptism. Today He gives you His gifts for forgiveness, love, mercy, peace, and reconciliation so that you might share these gifts with others. Jesus says: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” When you see your neighbor in need, you are called by God to share His gifts with those who are in need. Doesn’t God say in His Word: “Whoever loves his brother abides in the light and in him there is no cause for stumbling? “ And “ By this (Christ’s love) we know love, that He laid down His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But is anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and truth.” (I John 2:10 and 3: 16-18). “For if anyone says I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar for he who does not love his brother who he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must love his brother.” (I John 4: 20-21).
The world would have us think that each and every person is an island. But we do not live alone. God provides us with our daily bread so that we might, in faith, share God’s provisions with others. While some may like to hide behind excuses to give credibility to their hypocrisy, bragging of their freedom of responsibility to help those in need, we are compelled by the love of God in Christ to reach out an help others in the of Jesus. May God provide us with the love of Christ continually, that we never commit the sin of Cain by arrogantly asking the question of God, "Am I my brother's keeper?" for God's answer is, "Yes, you are."
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen
GENESIS 4:1-15 ESP. 9
Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” 2 And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. 3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” 8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?” 10 And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. 11 And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” 13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14 Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” 15 Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.
In the name of Jesus:
Have you checked the labels on your grocery items lately? You may be getting less than you thought. I noticed this trend a couple of years ago when, while eating at the local establishment, the portion size I received was much smaller than what I remembered. And if you would look closely in the supermarkets, some manufacturers are selling us the same size packages we are accustomed to, but they are putting less of the product in the box. For example, a box of well-known detergent that once held 61 ounces now contains only 55. Same size box, less soap. Companies realize that you can’t keep marking up the price on things, because then no one will buy them. So, as an alternative, the portion size gets smaller. The price will remain the same, but you are getting less and still paying more money.
How something is wrapped doesn't always show us what's on the inside. That's true with people as well. We can wrap ourselves up in the same packaging every day -- nice clothes, big smile, friendly demeanor -- yet still be less than what we appear to be. Take the case of Cain in the Old Testament lesson for today. He is the firstborn son of Adam and Eve. I have no doubt that Adam and Eve after the fall into sin were godly parents. They trusted in the Lord, specifically His Word, in spite of their eating of the forbidden fruit. How do we know that? God’s last Word to Adam and Eve was the Gospel promise of Genesis 3: 15: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise your heel.” Here God promises to sinners a Savior. All the while, in the process of living on this fallen planet, Adam and Eve would have to trust in the Lord. Certainly there would be consequences to pay for sin. Women would bear children in pain and long for their husbands, while men would toil and work hard for food. And all who have fallen into sin would ultimately return to the dust in punishment for their disobedience. These punishments were true for Adam and Eve and their children, and hold true for us today.
However Eve and Adam trusted in the Lord. They clung to the Word. Listen to Eve’s words at the birth of Cain: “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” Eve’s role as a mother was a gift from God and she credited God for the new life of Cain, even though she gave birth in pain. And I have no doubt that Adam and Eve raised Cain, and later their brother Abel, to trust the Lord. Abel was faithful to God, Cain was not. In the responsibility of offering a sacrifice to the Lord and bring to the Lord gifts, Abel did so willingly, out of love for God. Cain, well, he was another story. He gave grudgingly. God looked favorably upon Abel’s offering, but the text says: “for Cain and his offering (the Lord) had no regard.” Abel’s offering sprang from faith and love for God. Cain loved himself. He was self-righteous. Just note his response: “So Cain was very angry and his face fell.” Cain got angry, at who, God! He thought his offering was good enough! God should have been pleased with what He got. But Cain would have none of it. His whole attitude was one of being argumentative with God. For the Lord said to Cain: “ Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” Cain didn’t do right by the Lord, his offering was less than acceptable, and Cain was unjustly angry at God, thinking that God had too high of a standard. Cain thought that it was God’s fault for not accepting the offering. Rather than turning to God in repentance, Cain in anger turned on his brother Abel, killing him in cold blood.
After this first murder the Lord said to Cain: “Where is Abel your brother?” Now, God knows what happened. This question is pedantic in nature, God asks Cain so that Cain can come to his senses and realize what he did. But Cain lies to God and says: “I do not know” Well, he did know, and then Cain goes deeper and in anger says to God: “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
What hypocrisy! Yes, Cain knew, but lied to God. His offering was not acceptable to God, and so because of this Cain kills Abel, lies to God, and in indignation says: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” It needs to be noted that God punished Cain by making him a fugitive and wanderer on the earth. Cain was a marked man; so much so that Cain believed his life would now be in danger. But God in His mercy reached out to Cain and put a mark on his Cain, to protect him, for if anyone took Cain’s life God’s vengeance would be poured out on the perpetrator sevenfold.
The question that begs to be answered here is this:” Am I my brother’s keeper?” Cain asked it to absolve himself of any and all responsibility to his brother. He was cold hearted to God and to the needs of those around him. Cain thought that he could just look out for old number one and everything else would turn out okay, much like Adam who said to God after eating of the fruit: “Don’t blame me, its your fault God because the woman YOU GAVE ME made me disobey you.” No pun intended, but the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Cain acted just like his father Adam, in shifting blame and responsibility. But God in His knowledge sees through the hypocrisy and the self-justification. And God calls sin what it is: disobedience, lawlessness. And the sinner stands guilty before God.
All too often we like to use the phrase “Am I my brother’s keeper?” to absolve ourselves of any responsibility toward another. So, if we see someone in need, we try to justify our inactivity by saying, “I am not my brother’s keeper.” If we see something happen to a neighbor in need, we bask in our apathy by declaring: “ I am not my brother’s keeper.” When someone has less, whether it is food, clothing or is in need of shelter, we justify our inactivity by declaring: I am not my brother’s keeper! But is this attitude God pleasing? Was God happy with Cain’s answer? Is God pleased with you when you shift the responsibility to care or show love to your neighbor in need? God is never pleased when the sinner sets himself to be God. God is never pleased with your own self-justification and self-righteousness. Doesn’t Paul write: “You were dead in your transgressions and sins and that your are saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ and not of your own works? “ And doesn’t Jesus teach that: “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted?” God sees through your stubbornness and pride and unbelief. And He calls you to repent.
God answers the question: Am I my brother’s keeper? With a resounding YES!!!. HIS ANSWER IS FOUND IN HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, JESUS CHRIST. Unlike Cain, who fled from God in fear, God calls you to turn from your sin and turn to Him. When God is angry with you, come to Him with a humble confession of sin and ask for His forgiveness. For God has seen you in your need of a Savior. That is why He kept His promise to Adam and Eve by sending a second Adam, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was born, not just for Adam and Eve and Abel, but for Cain as well! Christ came to be a brother to sinners, for He who knew no sin became sin for US that we might know the righteousness of God in Him. Christ came to be born of our flesh but sinless, to offer Himself as the blood offering to forgive sinners of their sins. In Jesus God says: “I am your keeper.” (Psalm 121:5). In Christ the Lord blesses you and keeps you. Incredibly, the same thing happened to Christ as to Abel. Even as Abel was murdered and his blood was innocently shed, so also Christ was the innocent Lamb of God led to the cross, so that by His shed blood sins would be forgiven and guilt remitted. Jesus’ blood cries out from the cross saying: It is finished and all is accomplished! God’s anger is appeased through the blood of Christ, which cleanses you from all of your sins. It is as the hymn writer puts it in that great Lenten hymn: “Abel’s blood for vengeance pleaded to the skies but the blood of Jesus for our pardon cries.” (LSB 433 v 4). The blood of Christ offers mercy, forgiveness and peace to the sinner.
Even as God placed a mark upon Cain’s forehead, so too you have been marked. For in the waters of your Baptism God has placed the mark of the cross of Christ upon you and has made you His child. In Baptism your hypocrisy, self righteous, and sinful self was drowned and put to death so that by the power of the Spirit you might rise to newness of life. God daily calls you live out your Baptism, humbly confessing yours sins, trusting in Christ for forgiveness, and receiving the ability to live your life in service and love toward your neighbor.
God has marked you to be his own in Baptism. Today He gives you His gifts for forgiveness, love, mercy, peace, and reconciliation so that you might share these gifts with others. Jesus says: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” When you see your neighbor in need, you are called by God to share His gifts with those who are in need. Doesn’t God say in His Word: “Whoever loves his brother abides in the light and in him there is no cause for stumbling? “ And “ By this (Christ’s love) we know love, that He laid down His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But is anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and truth.” (I John 2:10 and 3: 16-18). “For if anyone says I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar for he who does not love his brother who he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must love his brother.” (I John 4: 20-21).
The world would have us think that each and every person is an island. But we do not live alone. God provides us with our daily bread so that we might, in faith, share God’s provisions with others. While some may like to hide behind excuses to give credibility to their hypocrisy, bragging of their freedom of responsibility to help those in need, we are compelled by the love of God in Christ to reach out an help others in the of Jesus. May God provide us with the love of Christ continually, that we never commit the sin of Cain by arrogantly asking the question of God, "Am I my brother's keeper?" for God's answer is, "Yes, you are."
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen
Jesus Weeps
JESUS WEEPS
LUKE 19:41-48
41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”45 And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”47 And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, 48 but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.
In the name of Jesus:
Those of you who have known me for a while know that I am, at times, prone to tears. I have cried tears of joy at my children’s baptisms and confirmations, at their graduations, and I have cried tears of sorrow at the death of my parents. The last time I had a good cry was two years ago at the death of my father. Exhausted from being up with him all night and present when he died, I collapsed in our hotel room in tears later that night, my heart overcome with emotion.
When was the last time you had a good cry? Was it when the kids left the house for the last time and you were faced with an empty nest? Was your last good cry when you tried to balance your checkbook and realized that you can’t make it to the end of the month? Have you had a good cry at the death of a family member, or at the news of an unexpected diagnosis? When did you last have a good cry?
Jesus was known for having a good cry. He was the Son of God in human flesh, exposed to our travails and He experienced the full range of human emotions. He cried at the tomb of Lazarus. That instance records probably one of the best-known verses in the Bible, at least it is best known because it is the shortest: Jesus wept. He felt the pain of death in Lazarus’ death and the Scriptures records Jesus’ emotions. In our text for today, Luke 19, we see Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. It is a most misunderstood passage today. Why would Jesus weep over Jerusalem? Why not Lancaster, or Detroit or Cleveland? Those are cities to weep over, with the high unemployment rates and drug use which has become prevalent. Why weep over Jerusalem?
Many people misinterpret Jesus’ tears. He isn’t weeping over a physical city, He isn’t weeping over Jerusalem because of the beauty of the city or because of its locale or name. A great many people misinterpret Jesus’ tears today, thinking that Jesus is crying over a physical city, and then they translate Jesus’ tears into how Americans or the Church today should support Israel and the city of Jerusalem. Certainly Jesus weeps because Jerusalem is about to be destroyed in 70 AD but there in an underlying reason, if we would only listen! For in Jesus’ tears He weeps for the people of His day and our day as well. If we would just listen to the Scriptures, and let the Scriptures explain the situation, we would have a better understanding as to why Jesus wept over Jerusalem.
The religious situation at this time was in dire straights. Yes, even though Jesus was present, the religious situation was dire. How so, if Jesus was present? Only because the people would not listen to Jesus, they would not listen to God! The city of Jerusalem was the foundation of the religious life of the Jewish people. The Temple, God’s House, was located in the city. People came to Jerusalem to worship and to offer their sacrifices to God. You could say that Jerusalem represented the Church at that time. People would look to Jerusalem in reverence because this is the city where God chose to dwell in His Temple. This is the city where the people would meet God. But the situation deteriorated to such an extent, that Jerusalem became more known for its religious corruption and its hypocrisy.
You know the saying, that the more things change the more they stay the same? That could be said of Jerusalem, for this religious hypocrisy had been going on for centuries. Just note how Jeremiah describes the situation in his day, and how he prophesies about the impending doom and demise of Jerusalem: “5 Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return. 6 I have paid attention and listened, but they have not spoken rightly; no man relents of his evil, saying, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone turns to his own course, like a horse plunging headlong into battle. 7 my people know not the rules of the Lord. But behold, the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie. 10 Therefore I will give their wives to others and their fields to conquerors, because from the least to the greatest everyone is greedy for unjust gain; from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely. No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they shall be overthrown, says the Lord.: (Jeremiah 8:5-12, selected verses).”
The people worshiped God with their lips, but their lives told different stories. The Scribes and Pharisees preached one thing and did another. They sought to establish their own man made rules instead of following the Lord. The Church was corrupt, more interested in selling merchandise and buying and selling for sacrifices for use in the Temple rather than devoting their lives to the Lord. There was no repentance, no sorrow for sin, no turning to the Lord in faith, no mercy, no peace, only man made righteousness and man made regulations to follow. The sin soaked religion of the Jewish people sickened God to the point that He promised to pour out His wrath on the sinner and destroy what Jerusalem, the Church, had become. And so Jesus, knowing all things, and knowing that the destruction of Jerusalem was imminent, wept over a people He had chosen and nurtured, who had willfully chosen to forsake God. They had rejected and forsaken God in the past, and they had rejected Jesus and His message and ministry. “. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” They did not recognize God incarnate in their very midst! When God was physically present, they rejected Him out of hand, seeking His death and demise.
It should come as no surprise then that Jesus took action after His tears. Note what Luke records: “And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”47 And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him.” Some commentators suggest that Jesus, in this act, spent the entire afternoon at the Temple, teaching leading people to a right understanding of God’s Word. If it is true that the Temple at that time stood on 35 acres of land, then it stands to reason that Jesus didn’t just overthrow one table of sacrificial merchandise. Jesus overthrew those who bought and sold throughout the Temple grounds, blocking entry and exit ways, causing even the casual observer to recognize that Jesus was none too pleased and that Temple worship at that time needed to change for the better.
How would Jesus look at your worship? Would He be pleased, or would He weep? That is an interesting question! Does your worship show a living faith in Christ, or is it based in hypocrisy? Do you trust in Christ or your own right way of doing things? Consider where you are today. Church, a sanctuary, a place that is called God’s house. You came to church today to meet God. Is that the reason why you came? Have you ever thought about not coming to church, to the place where God is? Has your church attendance been hit and miss? Why is that? Have you thought your schedule, your interests, your life more important that coming and meeting God? Has your worship been half hearted, your singing of the hymns lackluster, your presence more an attempt to be seen by others?
Yes, Jesus wept over the cold heartedness that was evident in the worship and lives of the people, but more than that, Jesus lived and died for the sins of the people. Jesus loved the sinner so much that He set His face to go to Jerusalem, to change the hearts and lives of sinners by suffering and dying for them. And Jesus has come to shed His blood for you! The Son of God who came to cleanse the Temple came also to cleanse you of your sin. He did this by offering the Temple of His Body on the cross. His very life and shed blood on the cross cleanses you and every sinner from all sin.
Today Jesus comes to visit you and give you comfort and peace in your life. This is the place where God dwells, Jesus comes in fullness to give you His gifts. In Baptism He has claimed you to be His own. In His Word He calls you to turn from your sins, your lifeless worship, and your halfhearted attempts to serve God to serve Him with the life He now gives you. You were bought with a price, not with silver or gold but with the very blood of Christ shed on the cross for you. He calls you to repent of your sins, to turn to Christ and receive His gifts of forgiveness and peace. Jesus visits you this day in Word and Sacrament to bless you. He says: “Come to Me all you are burdened by your sins and I will forgive you and give you rest.” Learn of God’s judgment for sinners: that you are judged forgiven and saved by a free gift of His grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Christ offered the Temple of His Body on the cross so that your bodies might become temples of the living God!
Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. God now lives with you in Christ. So honor God in the life that you live. Seek first God’s will in all you do. Seek to serve the Lord with joy! Do not neglect the assembly of the saints on Sunday, but come to the house of the Lord to meet Christ and receive His gifts. Use the life that God now has given to you to share His gifts with others. Jesus’ heart breaks for those who do not know Him, for He came to seek and save the lost. Pray for your family, friends, and neighbors, that they may come to faith in Christ. Ask God to use you and this congregation to proclaim the love of Christ to others. For God’s good and gracious will is this: that sinners repent, come to faith in Christ, and live their lives to the glory of God. There is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. May God enable you to spread that joy for Christ has come to save sinners.
Amen
LUKE 19:41-48
41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”45 And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”47 And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, 48 but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.
In the name of Jesus:
Those of you who have known me for a while know that I am, at times, prone to tears. I have cried tears of joy at my children’s baptisms and confirmations, at their graduations, and I have cried tears of sorrow at the death of my parents. The last time I had a good cry was two years ago at the death of my father. Exhausted from being up with him all night and present when he died, I collapsed in our hotel room in tears later that night, my heart overcome with emotion.
When was the last time you had a good cry? Was it when the kids left the house for the last time and you were faced with an empty nest? Was your last good cry when you tried to balance your checkbook and realized that you can’t make it to the end of the month? Have you had a good cry at the death of a family member, or at the news of an unexpected diagnosis? When did you last have a good cry?
Jesus was known for having a good cry. He was the Son of God in human flesh, exposed to our travails and He experienced the full range of human emotions. He cried at the tomb of Lazarus. That instance records probably one of the best-known verses in the Bible, at least it is best known because it is the shortest: Jesus wept. He felt the pain of death in Lazarus’ death and the Scriptures records Jesus’ emotions. In our text for today, Luke 19, we see Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. It is a most misunderstood passage today. Why would Jesus weep over Jerusalem? Why not Lancaster, or Detroit or Cleveland? Those are cities to weep over, with the high unemployment rates and drug use which has become prevalent. Why weep over Jerusalem?
Many people misinterpret Jesus’ tears. He isn’t weeping over a physical city, He isn’t weeping over Jerusalem because of the beauty of the city or because of its locale or name. A great many people misinterpret Jesus’ tears today, thinking that Jesus is crying over a physical city, and then they translate Jesus’ tears into how Americans or the Church today should support Israel and the city of Jerusalem. Certainly Jesus weeps because Jerusalem is about to be destroyed in 70 AD but there in an underlying reason, if we would only listen! For in Jesus’ tears He weeps for the people of His day and our day as well. If we would just listen to the Scriptures, and let the Scriptures explain the situation, we would have a better understanding as to why Jesus wept over Jerusalem.
The religious situation at this time was in dire straights. Yes, even though Jesus was present, the religious situation was dire. How so, if Jesus was present? Only because the people would not listen to Jesus, they would not listen to God! The city of Jerusalem was the foundation of the religious life of the Jewish people. The Temple, God’s House, was located in the city. People came to Jerusalem to worship and to offer their sacrifices to God. You could say that Jerusalem represented the Church at that time. People would look to Jerusalem in reverence because this is the city where God chose to dwell in His Temple. This is the city where the people would meet God. But the situation deteriorated to such an extent, that Jerusalem became more known for its religious corruption and its hypocrisy.
You know the saying, that the more things change the more they stay the same? That could be said of Jerusalem, for this religious hypocrisy had been going on for centuries. Just note how Jeremiah describes the situation in his day, and how he prophesies about the impending doom and demise of Jerusalem: “5 Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return. 6 I have paid attention and listened, but they have not spoken rightly; no man relents of his evil, saying, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone turns to his own course, like a horse plunging headlong into battle. 7 my people know not the rules of the Lord. But behold, the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie. 10 Therefore I will give their wives to others and their fields to conquerors, because from the least to the greatest everyone is greedy for unjust gain; from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely. No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they shall be overthrown, says the Lord.: (Jeremiah 8:5-12, selected verses).”
The people worshiped God with their lips, but their lives told different stories. The Scribes and Pharisees preached one thing and did another. They sought to establish their own man made rules instead of following the Lord. The Church was corrupt, more interested in selling merchandise and buying and selling for sacrifices for use in the Temple rather than devoting their lives to the Lord. There was no repentance, no sorrow for sin, no turning to the Lord in faith, no mercy, no peace, only man made righteousness and man made regulations to follow. The sin soaked religion of the Jewish people sickened God to the point that He promised to pour out His wrath on the sinner and destroy what Jerusalem, the Church, had become. And so Jesus, knowing all things, and knowing that the destruction of Jerusalem was imminent, wept over a people He had chosen and nurtured, who had willfully chosen to forsake God. They had rejected and forsaken God in the past, and they had rejected Jesus and His message and ministry. “. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” They did not recognize God incarnate in their very midst! When God was physically present, they rejected Him out of hand, seeking His death and demise.
It should come as no surprise then that Jesus took action after His tears. Note what Luke records: “And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”47 And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him.” Some commentators suggest that Jesus, in this act, spent the entire afternoon at the Temple, teaching leading people to a right understanding of God’s Word. If it is true that the Temple at that time stood on 35 acres of land, then it stands to reason that Jesus didn’t just overthrow one table of sacrificial merchandise. Jesus overthrew those who bought and sold throughout the Temple grounds, blocking entry and exit ways, causing even the casual observer to recognize that Jesus was none too pleased and that Temple worship at that time needed to change for the better.
How would Jesus look at your worship? Would He be pleased, or would He weep? That is an interesting question! Does your worship show a living faith in Christ, or is it based in hypocrisy? Do you trust in Christ or your own right way of doing things? Consider where you are today. Church, a sanctuary, a place that is called God’s house. You came to church today to meet God. Is that the reason why you came? Have you ever thought about not coming to church, to the place where God is? Has your church attendance been hit and miss? Why is that? Have you thought your schedule, your interests, your life more important that coming and meeting God? Has your worship been half hearted, your singing of the hymns lackluster, your presence more an attempt to be seen by others?
Yes, Jesus wept over the cold heartedness that was evident in the worship and lives of the people, but more than that, Jesus lived and died for the sins of the people. Jesus loved the sinner so much that He set His face to go to Jerusalem, to change the hearts and lives of sinners by suffering and dying for them. And Jesus has come to shed His blood for you! The Son of God who came to cleanse the Temple came also to cleanse you of your sin. He did this by offering the Temple of His Body on the cross. His very life and shed blood on the cross cleanses you and every sinner from all sin.
Today Jesus comes to visit you and give you comfort and peace in your life. This is the place where God dwells, Jesus comes in fullness to give you His gifts. In Baptism He has claimed you to be His own. In His Word He calls you to turn from your sins, your lifeless worship, and your halfhearted attempts to serve God to serve Him with the life He now gives you. You were bought with a price, not with silver or gold but with the very blood of Christ shed on the cross for you. He calls you to repent of your sins, to turn to Christ and receive His gifts of forgiveness and peace. Jesus visits you this day in Word and Sacrament to bless you. He says: “Come to Me all you are burdened by your sins and I will forgive you and give you rest.” Learn of God’s judgment for sinners: that you are judged forgiven and saved by a free gift of His grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Christ offered the Temple of His Body on the cross so that your bodies might become temples of the living God!
Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. God now lives with you in Christ. So honor God in the life that you live. Seek first God’s will in all you do. Seek to serve the Lord with joy! Do not neglect the assembly of the saints on Sunday, but come to the house of the Lord to meet Christ and receive His gifts. Use the life that God now has given to you to share His gifts with others. Jesus’ heart breaks for those who do not know Him, for He came to seek and save the lost. Pray for your family, friends, and neighbors, that they may come to faith in Christ. Ask God to use you and this congregation to proclaim the love of Christ to others. For God’s good and gracious will is this: that sinners repent, come to faith in Christ, and live their lives to the glory of God. There is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. May God enable you to spread that joy for Christ has come to save sinners.
Amen
History is Prologue
HISTORY IS PROLOGUE
I CORINTHIANS 10:6-13
6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. 12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
In the name of Jesus:
Someone much wiser than me (my wife, Luann) has a saying, which rings true: History is prologue. History has a way of showing us the way to the future, of repeating itself time and again. Another way of saying this is by stating the old adage, one learns from one’s mistakes. When you learn from your mistakes, it can be a painful proposition, in that you have the painful experiences to live through in order to try to do something differently. If you have ever gotten into credit card debt, you know from painful experience how difficult it is to get out from under that burden. How much easier it would be if we could learn from other people’s mistakes, for it is less painful for us but we can benefit greatly in learning from the experience of others. Sadly, we are slow to learn from the experience of others. Oh that the Lord would give us open ears and hearts to hear and learn from the experiences of the people of Israel! For in our text today, the Apostle Paul cites several examples from the Old Testament people on how God expects us to live. These serve as types, as examples of how we are to live our lives as God’s children.
God called the nation of Israel to be His own people. Why did God call the Jewish nation to be His own? Not by their might, not by their own power, not by their own gifts. God called them by His grace. God repeated said that He would be their God and they would be His people. Called by God, Israel was expected to live as God’s people. But learning from history, we see that Israel serves as a powerful example for us, as a people who forgot about God, worshipped idols, and fell into sin and was punished by God. Paul cites five illustrations for the Church at Corinth in this letter. He does so because the people of the Church of Corinth were prone to the same sins. They needed to hear this message. You and I do as well.
Paul begins by reminding the people:” 6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. “ Who desired evil? Once Israel set out from Egypt immediately after the Exodus, some craved for the meat and vegetables they ate in Egypt while still captive. Their freedom from Egypt, their deliverance by God was not enough. They grumbled and complained to God. Yes, God gave them manna and quail from heaven, but some perished, being struck with a plaque. Food became their god and God punished them accordingly.
The sin of coveting reared its ugly head again when God gave to Moses the Ten Commandments. Paul writes: “7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” When God was speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, some grew impatient in waiting for God to act, and urged Aaron to construct a gold calf along with an altar where the people would now worship. This was in direct defiance of the First Commandment where God said: “You shall have no other gods.” God’s anger was kindled against the people, so much so that God nearly wiped out the entire nation! God only relented when Moses interceded for the people.
Paul warns the Corinthian Church, as well as you and me, to guard against falling into sexual immorality. Just as Israel worshipped the golden calf and fell into sexual sin, some of the people in the church at Corinth were acting the same way. As Israel worshipped the gold calf, the people’s worship of this idol degenerated into sexual sin. They were guilty of breaking the First and Sixth Commandments! So too some in the church at Corinth indulged in idolatry and lived as if they were sexually emancipated. Paul had to warn them, and his warning is to us as well, that the sexually immoral, including adulterers and homosexuals, will not have a part of God’s kingdom:” Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality.”
Paul next cites a third illustration, another example of sexual sin: “ 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. “ Israel didn’t learn from their mistake with the golden calf. You would think that they would, but they didn’t. For later in the plains of Moab the Moabite people invited God’s people to live as they did, and so God’s people turned their back on God once again and participated in idolatry and the fertility rites of the pagan Moabite religion. Once again, God’s anger was kindled so that He sent a plague to kill thousands of those who participated in this immoral act and the leaders who encouraged the people to sin were killed as well.
God’s anger was kindled against Israel many more times, Paul here cites two instances, where God’s people complained bitterly against God and His Word. “9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Throughout their wilderness trek the Israelites continually complained and grumbled along the way. They said that there was: “no food and water and we detest this food.” They were not satisfied with what the Lord had provided them, and even when the people were about to enter the Promised Land, they balked at Joshua and Caleb’s report of how beautiful the land was. In spite of the many blessings of God, the people complained and doubted God and His Word. And God punished them with death.
Why did the Israelites travel for 40 years in the wilderness? Simply because they continued to doubt the Lord, placing their trust in their own wisdom or the idols of others instead of trusting in the God who saved them. And Paul writes: “11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written do down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. “ God would not be mocked and God will never be mocked. His judgment is swift and certain. He has punished sin and will punish sin. Paul called the people at Corinth to turn from their sinful ways and to trust in Christ for forgiveness and all things. He wanted the people at Corinth to learn the painful lessons of Israel from the past.
Paul tells us: “12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. “ Recognize the sinful times that we are living in. God has called you by His grace in the waters of Baptism. Just as God called the people of Israel out of bondage in Egypt, so He has called you out of the bondage to sin. He has healed you by the wounds of Christ. You have been freed from the power of sin, Satan, and death. So how now should you live?
Too many people have not learned from the lessons of the past. After receiving forgiveness, they go on and live their lives as if God does not matter. They repeat their sinning, retuning to their former ways of life. Even though they were baptized, they have turned their backs on Christ and hold fast to the evil deceptions of Satan and the culture we live in. As the Apostle Peter has written: “22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.” (2 Peter 2:22).
The very same thing can happen to you unless you seek to stay on the path that the Lord has placed you on. The same evil that attacks those who have fallen away from Christ attacks you too! The same sinful flesh which has lured them to sin and death lures you as well. So what shall you do? Repent of your sins. Trust in Christ for forgiveness. God is faithful and just. God says if you confess your sins He will forgive you your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. There is only ONE MAN who lived the way that God wanted Him to live, and that is Jesus, who lived to do the will of the Father. Jesus alone trusted in God with all of His heart, soul, and strength. It pleased the Father to nail His Son to the cross, so that whoever looks to Christ will be saved. Jesus is the very Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
In your Baptism God has called you from the darkness of sin into the light of Christ. If anyone is baptized in Christ that person has put on Christ. Your body has now become a temple of the Holy Spirit; so don’t live so as to satisfy your carnal flesh, live instead to give glory to God. You have been bought with a price, not with silver or gold but with Jesus’ very own body and blood on the cross. So now, live to honor God with the life He now has given to you.
Who will you live for? Who will you place your trust? Satan will throw everything he can to make you fall in your walk with God. But Christ is faithful. He is your ever-present Help. When tempted, God will give you help in time of need. Today He comes as your ever-present Help, offering to you Christ’s very body and blood for the forgiveness of sin and the strengthening of your faith. He promises in Scripture: ” No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” Rooted and made strong in Christ, you will give glory to God.
So stand in Christ. Rely on His grace. Live your life to the glory of God, living not for yourself but for Christ’s glory and the salvation of sinners. Yes, pride comes before the fall, so remain humble, daily confessing your sins and placing your trust in Christ as your Savior. You cannot serve God and the world. So learn of Christ, trust in Christ. Live for Christ. He will never fail you and He will never let the righteous fall.
Amen
I CORINTHIANS 10:6-13
6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. 12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
In the name of Jesus:
Someone much wiser than me (my wife, Luann) has a saying, which rings true: History is prologue. History has a way of showing us the way to the future, of repeating itself time and again. Another way of saying this is by stating the old adage, one learns from one’s mistakes. When you learn from your mistakes, it can be a painful proposition, in that you have the painful experiences to live through in order to try to do something differently. If you have ever gotten into credit card debt, you know from painful experience how difficult it is to get out from under that burden. How much easier it would be if we could learn from other people’s mistakes, for it is less painful for us but we can benefit greatly in learning from the experience of others. Sadly, we are slow to learn from the experience of others. Oh that the Lord would give us open ears and hearts to hear and learn from the experiences of the people of Israel! For in our text today, the Apostle Paul cites several examples from the Old Testament people on how God expects us to live. These serve as types, as examples of how we are to live our lives as God’s children.
God called the nation of Israel to be His own people. Why did God call the Jewish nation to be His own? Not by their might, not by their own power, not by their own gifts. God called them by His grace. God repeated said that He would be their God and they would be His people. Called by God, Israel was expected to live as God’s people. But learning from history, we see that Israel serves as a powerful example for us, as a people who forgot about God, worshipped idols, and fell into sin and was punished by God. Paul cites five illustrations for the Church at Corinth in this letter. He does so because the people of the Church of Corinth were prone to the same sins. They needed to hear this message. You and I do as well.
Paul begins by reminding the people:” 6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. “ Who desired evil? Once Israel set out from Egypt immediately after the Exodus, some craved for the meat and vegetables they ate in Egypt while still captive. Their freedom from Egypt, their deliverance by God was not enough. They grumbled and complained to God. Yes, God gave them manna and quail from heaven, but some perished, being struck with a plaque. Food became their god and God punished them accordingly.
The sin of coveting reared its ugly head again when God gave to Moses the Ten Commandments. Paul writes: “7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” When God was speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, some grew impatient in waiting for God to act, and urged Aaron to construct a gold calf along with an altar where the people would now worship. This was in direct defiance of the First Commandment where God said: “You shall have no other gods.” God’s anger was kindled against the people, so much so that God nearly wiped out the entire nation! God only relented when Moses interceded for the people.
Paul warns the Corinthian Church, as well as you and me, to guard against falling into sexual immorality. Just as Israel worshipped the golden calf and fell into sexual sin, some of the people in the church at Corinth were acting the same way. As Israel worshipped the gold calf, the people’s worship of this idol degenerated into sexual sin. They were guilty of breaking the First and Sixth Commandments! So too some in the church at Corinth indulged in idolatry and lived as if they were sexually emancipated. Paul had to warn them, and his warning is to us as well, that the sexually immoral, including adulterers and homosexuals, will not have a part of God’s kingdom:” Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality.”
Paul next cites a third illustration, another example of sexual sin: “ 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. “ Israel didn’t learn from their mistake with the golden calf. You would think that they would, but they didn’t. For later in the plains of Moab the Moabite people invited God’s people to live as they did, and so God’s people turned their back on God once again and participated in idolatry and the fertility rites of the pagan Moabite religion. Once again, God’s anger was kindled so that He sent a plague to kill thousands of those who participated in this immoral act and the leaders who encouraged the people to sin were killed as well.
God’s anger was kindled against Israel many more times, Paul here cites two instances, where God’s people complained bitterly against God and His Word. “9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Throughout their wilderness trek the Israelites continually complained and grumbled along the way. They said that there was: “no food and water and we detest this food.” They were not satisfied with what the Lord had provided them, and even when the people were about to enter the Promised Land, they balked at Joshua and Caleb’s report of how beautiful the land was. In spite of the many blessings of God, the people complained and doubted God and His Word. And God punished them with death.
Why did the Israelites travel for 40 years in the wilderness? Simply because they continued to doubt the Lord, placing their trust in their own wisdom or the idols of others instead of trusting in the God who saved them. And Paul writes: “11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written do down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. “ God would not be mocked and God will never be mocked. His judgment is swift and certain. He has punished sin and will punish sin. Paul called the people at Corinth to turn from their sinful ways and to trust in Christ for forgiveness and all things. He wanted the people at Corinth to learn the painful lessons of Israel from the past.
Paul tells us: “12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. “ Recognize the sinful times that we are living in. God has called you by His grace in the waters of Baptism. Just as God called the people of Israel out of bondage in Egypt, so He has called you out of the bondage to sin. He has healed you by the wounds of Christ. You have been freed from the power of sin, Satan, and death. So how now should you live?
Too many people have not learned from the lessons of the past. After receiving forgiveness, they go on and live their lives as if God does not matter. They repeat their sinning, retuning to their former ways of life. Even though they were baptized, they have turned their backs on Christ and hold fast to the evil deceptions of Satan and the culture we live in. As the Apostle Peter has written: “22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.” (2 Peter 2:22).
The very same thing can happen to you unless you seek to stay on the path that the Lord has placed you on. The same evil that attacks those who have fallen away from Christ attacks you too! The same sinful flesh which has lured them to sin and death lures you as well. So what shall you do? Repent of your sins. Trust in Christ for forgiveness. God is faithful and just. God says if you confess your sins He will forgive you your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. There is only ONE MAN who lived the way that God wanted Him to live, and that is Jesus, who lived to do the will of the Father. Jesus alone trusted in God with all of His heart, soul, and strength. It pleased the Father to nail His Son to the cross, so that whoever looks to Christ will be saved. Jesus is the very Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
In your Baptism God has called you from the darkness of sin into the light of Christ. If anyone is baptized in Christ that person has put on Christ. Your body has now become a temple of the Holy Spirit; so don’t live so as to satisfy your carnal flesh, live instead to give glory to God. You have been bought with a price, not with silver or gold but with Jesus’ very own body and blood on the cross. So now, live to honor God with the life He now has given to you.
Who will you live for? Who will you place your trust? Satan will throw everything he can to make you fall in your walk with God. But Christ is faithful. He is your ever-present Help. When tempted, God will give you help in time of need. Today He comes as your ever-present Help, offering to you Christ’s very body and blood for the forgiveness of sin and the strengthening of your faith. He promises in Scripture: ” No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” Rooted and made strong in Christ, you will give glory to God.
So stand in Christ. Rely on His grace. Live your life to the glory of God, living not for yourself but for Christ’s glory and the salvation of sinners. Yes, pride comes before the fall, so remain humble, daily confessing your sins and placing your trust in Christ as your Savior. You cannot serve God and the world. So learn of Christ, trust in Christ. Live for Christ. He will never fail you and He will never let the righteous fall.
Amen
Change
CHANGE
MARK 1:14-15
14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
In the name of Jesus:
Change is in the air, and you can feel it! After the hot summer months, you can now feel the drop in the temperatures. Nights are now met not with the whir of the air conditioning unit trying to keep the temperature down in the home, but with windows open and the feel of cool breezes cooling off our bedrooms. Change is in the air, as jackets are worn when stepping outside in the morning going to work. Plants are beginning to lose their greenness and are starting to change color. Change is in the air, as the days grow darker earlier.
People today talk a lot about change. Politicians always seem to talk about change but things hardly ever seem to change. When things do change, people gripe and complain wanting the status quo. In the church, the culture around us HAS already changed, as we find ourselves living among people who are less inclined to go to church. In the good old days parochial schools were busting at the seams with full enrollment, church membership was on the upswing, and people were going to church. Nowadays, church schools are closing, Pre School and day cares find fewer children enrolled, and fewer people are inclined to go to church. More and more people seem to be openly critical and even hostile to the Church and to its teachings, saying that the Church is out of date and those who believe in traditional values are irrelevant or hate mongers. Things need to change, people need to change. The change needs to begin with each and every one of us.
When Jesus began His ministry, Scripture records His words. Not for posterity, but for purpose. Jesus could have said anything He wanted but Scripture records that when He speaks for the first time in His ministry, these words are important, and serve to set the stage for what follows. We all remember Jesus’ first words as recorded in Scripture, when He as a boy the age of twelve. He was teaching the learned in the Temple, and when asked by His parents as to what He was doing, Jesus replied that He was simply going about doing His Father’s business. Those words capture the essence of Jesus’ ministry, that Jesus was sent to do the will of the Father, but not being served but being a Servant so that He would give His life as a ransom for many.
But Jesus’ first words as He begins His ministry are telling. These set the stage for what follows. And what does He say? Does He say God is great, God is good, and so we should thank Him for our food? Does He say that I just want to praise the Father for all that He has done? No, the Gospel writer Mark records that after John was arrested, that Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God saying: “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand, repent, and believe in the Gospel.”
The time is fulfilled, that is to say, the long awaited time as come! The Promised One in the Old Testament has arrived. The One promised to Adam and Eve in the Garden, the One pointed to by the prophets is here! King Jesus, God’s One and only Son has been sent by God the Father to do the Father’s work. Jesus has come to seek and save the lost, namely, all who have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Jesus came to fulfill all of God’s promises concerning the world’s salvation. Throughout His ministry Jesus invites sinners to live under His gracious rule and righteousness. Come to Me, says Jesus, you who are burdened by your sins and the changes of life, and I, your Savior and King, will give you rest.
We need that type of rest, that type of change in our lives, don’t we? I do and you do too. All too often we find ourselves like the rich young man in the Gospel of Mark who asks Jesus what he needs to do to inherit eternal life. He knew the Commandments, in fact he told Jesus point blank what a fine religious person he was! Jesus told him that he lacked one thing, a heart that followed Jesus. This young man needed to change but he didn’t want to. He turned and went back to life of possessions and self-righteousness. His life was full of things, and himself. How many times do we act like this one did, with lives full of things and stuff and gadgets which are supposed to make our lives easier and yet in the end we still seek the peace that surpasses all understanding?
When we talk about change, it is usually spoken about in terms of what others need to do. The person who has wronged me must change the way he treats me. The person I don’t get along with needs to change his attitude. It usually is someone else’s fault. But note Jesus’ words. He says that you need to change. You need to repent because God’s Kingdom is at hand.
When Martin Luther started the Reformation by nailing the 95 theses to the Church door in Wittenberg, his first theses set the tone not only for the Reformation but for life of the believer in Christ AND the life of the Church. Luther wrote: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said repent he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” Consider this for a moment. Let’s have a Lutheran moment here; a what does this mean moment. Jesus is calling you to repentance, for you are a sinner. You have tried to justify your own actions in your life and have fallen short of God’s commands. It is not just the people around you who need to change, you need to change. You need to see yourself in the light of God’s commands and realize that you are a poor wretched sinner. The good that God wants you to do you can’t do perfectly, and the evil He forbids you end up doing! Who will save you from this sinful state? Not your reason, not your strength, not your words and not your actions. Christ will and has. Only Christ.
So Jesus tells you and me to turn from your sin and trust in Jesus. How can that happen? It has! In your Baptism God the Holy Spirit has washed away your sin and given to you a saving faith in Jesus. Luther explains it in this way: “In Baptism the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever, for St. Paul writes: “We were therefore buried with Him through Baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. (Romans 6:4).”
What God demands He gives to you in Baptism. Do you want change in your life? God has already changed you in Baptism, and He invites you to live a changed life daily. How? By remembering your Baptism, repenting of your sins and trusting in Christ who lived, died, and rose for your salvation. Do you want others to change? Then live the changed life that Christ has given to you, letting the Light of Christ shine forth in your life so as to give glory to God. Do you want others to believe in Christ? Then begin at home, teaching your family and witnessing to them the love and power of Christ. It is not by accident that Luther, in his Small Catechism, begins each section by stating: “As the head of the family should teach them in a simple way to his household.” Change begins at home. Personally and as a family. Witnessing begins at home and as an individual. Rather than wringing our hands at the state of things in our world and the Church, perhaps it is high time to let the change begin with you, with me, with each of us assembled here.
To change our life by seeking first His kingdom and righteousness. To be glad when it is time to go to the house of the Lord. To place the Lord and His work as a priority. To become students of the Word by daily devotions and in corporate Bible study. To seek to share the blessings God has given to us with others, so that they might be blessed. The change we seek begins with us.
Change is inevitable in life. Seasons change. Today will soon change to tomorrow. The challenges we face will change. But one remains---Jesus. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Repenting of sins we rise to follow Jesus, to announce to all His Kingdom is here! The age-old problem of sin and human failure will be with us. However in Christ you are forgiven. In Baptism you have been changed! And you are sent to announce to others what Jesus offers and gives.
“Lord, help us to see you clearly and so believe that your Kingdom is still among us. Move us to a steadfast hope for the future and to daily repentance and new life. In Jesus’ name. Amen
MARK 1:14-15
14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
In the name of Jesus:
Change is in the air, and you can feel it! After the hot summer months, you can now feel the drop in the temperatures. Nights are now met not with the whir of the air conditioning unit trying to keep the temperature down in the home, but with windows open and the feel of cool breezes cooling off our bedrooms. Change is in the air, as jackets are worn when stepping outside in the morning going to work. Plants are beginning to lose their greenness and are starting to change color. Change is in the air, as the days grow darker earlier.
People today talk a lot about change. Politicians always seem to talk about change but things hardly ever seem to change. When things do change, people gripe and complain wanting the status quo. In the church, the culture around us HAS already changed, as we find ourselves living among people who are less inclined to go to church. In the good old days parochial schools were busting at the seams with full enrollment, church membership was on the upswing, and people were going to church. Nowadays, church schools are closing, Pre School and day cares find fewer children enrolled, and fewer people are inclined to go to church. More and more people seem to be openly critical and even hostile to the Church and to its teachings, saying that the Church is out of date and those who believe in traditional values are irrelevant or hate mongers. Things need to change, people need to change. The change needs to begin with each and every one of us.
When Jesus began His ministry, Scripture records His words. Not for posterity, but for purpose. Jesus could have said anything He wanted but Scripture records that when He speaks for the first time in His ministry, these words are important, and serve to set the stage for what follows. We all remember Jesus’ first words as recorded in Scripture, when He as a boy the age of twelve. He was teaching the learned in the Temple, and when asked by His parents as to what He was doing, Jesus replied that He was simply going about doing His Father’s business. Those words capture the essence of Jesus’ ministry, that Jesus was sent to do the will of the Father, but not being served but being a Servant so that He would give His life as a ransom for many.
But Jesus’ first words as He begins His ministry are telling. These set the stage for what follows. And what does He say? Does He say God is great, God is good, and so we should thank Him for our food? Does He say that I just want to praise the Father for all that He has done? No, the Gospel writer Mark records that after John was arrested, that Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God saying: “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand, repent, and believe in the Gospel.”
The time is fulfilled, that is to say, the long awaited time as come! The Promised One in the Old Testament has arrived. The One promised to Adam and Eve in the Garden, the One pointed to by the prophets is here! King Jesus, God’s One and only Son has been sent by God the Father to do the Father’s work. Jesus has come to seek and save the lost, namely, all who have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Jesus came to fulfill all of God’s promises concerning the world’s salvation. Throughout His ministry Jesus invites sinners to live under His gracious rule and righteousness. Come to Me, says Jesus, you who are burdened by your sins and the changes of life, and I, your Savior and King, will give you rest.
We need that type of rest, that type of change in our lives, don’t we? I do and you do too. All too often we find ourselves like the rich young man in the Gospel of Mark who asks Jesus what he needs to do to inherit eternal life. He knew the Commandments, in fact he told Jesus point blank what a fine religious person he was! Jesus told him that he lacked one thing, a heart that followed Jesus. This young man needed to change but he didn’t want to. He turned and went back to life of possessions and self-righteousness. His life was full of things, and himself. How many times do we act like this one did, with lives full of things and stuff and gadgets which are supposed to make our lives easier and yet in the end we still seek the peace that surpasses all understanding?
When we talk about change, it is usually spoken about in terms of what others need to do. The person who has wronged me must change the way he treats me. The person I don’t get along with needs to change his attitude. It usually is someone else’s fault. But note Jesus’ words. He says that you need to change. You need to repent because God’s Kingdom is at hand.
When Martin Luther started the Reformation by nailing the 95 theses to the Church door in Wittenberg, his first theses set the tone not only for the Reformation but for life of the believer in Christ AND the life of the Church. Luther wrote: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said repent he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” Consider this for a moment. Let’s have a Lutheran moment here; a what does this mean moment. Jesus is calling you to repentance, for you are a sinner. You have tried to justify your own actions in your life and have fallen short of God’s commands. It is not just the people around you who need to change, you need to change. You need to see yourself in the light of God’s commands and realize that you are a poor wretched sinner. The good that God wants you to do you can’t do perfectly, and the evil He forbids you end up doing! Who will save you from this sinful state? Not your reason, not your strength, not your words and not your actions. Christ will and has. Only Christ.
So Jesus tells you and me to turn from your sin and trust in Jesus. How can that happen? It has! In your Baptism God the Holy Spirit has washed away your sin and given to you a saving faith in Jesus. Luther explains it in this way: “In Baptism the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever, for St. Paul writes: “We were therefore buried with Him through Baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. (Romans 6:4).”
What God demands He gives to you in Baptism. Do you want change in your life? God has already changed you in Baptism, and He invites you to live a changed life daily. How? By remembering your Baptism, repenting of your sins and trusting in Christ who lived, died, and rose for your salvation. Do you want others to change? Then live the changed life that Christ has given to you, letting the Light of Christ shine forth in your life so as to give glory to God. Do you want others to believe in Christ? Then begin at home, teaching your family and witnessing to them the love and power of Christ. It is not by accident that Luther, in his Small Catechism, begins each section by stating: “As the head of the family should teach them in a simple way to his household.” Change begins at home. Personally and as a family. Witnessing begins at home and as an individual. Rather than wringing our hands at the state of things in our world and the Church, perhaps it is high time to let the change begin with you, with me, with each of us assembled here.
To change our life by seeking first His kingdom and righteousness. To be glad when it is time to go to the house of the Lord. To place the Lord and His work as a priority. To become students of the Word by daily devotions and in corporate Bible study. To seek to share the blessings God has given to us with others, so that they might be blessed. The change we seek begins with us.
Change is inevitable in life. Seasons change. Today will soon change to tomorrow. The challenges we face will change. But one remains---Jesus. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Repenting of sins we rise to follow Jesus, to announce to all His Kingdom is here! The age-old problem of sin and human failure will be with us. However in Christ you are forgiven. In Baptism you have been changed! And you are sent to announce to others what Jesus offers and gives.
“Lord, help us to see you clearly and so believe that your Kingdom is still among us. Move us to a steadfast hope for the future and to daily repentance and new life. In Jesus’ name. Amen
I need to start updating the Blog
Well, time has gotten away from me again. Other things have taken my time, oh that I would be able to blog like my daughter Rachel! But, seeing as I now a little time since the bulk of my duties as facilitator for the Ohio District Church Worker Conference has now concluded, I will try to update this blog. So get ready, the posts will come fast and furious! After doing this, I will head out to the Palmer Course at Ogelbay for some golf this afternoon
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Happy Birthday Luann!
Today is my wife, Luann's, birthday. She truly is a blessing to me! Enjoy the day, Luann. Happy birthday and I love you!
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Beware of False Prophets
BEWARE OF FALSE PROPHETS
MATTHEW 7:13-23
13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. 15“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
In the name of Jesus:
Jesus in our text for today warns us about false prophets, more accurately, lying prophets or prophets who appear to be speaking for Jesus when they are not. Things are many times do not appear to be what they seem. I was reminded of this recently when I read about a kindergarten teacher who was accepting gifts from her pupils at the end of the school year. The kids brought their gifts to her in big, brown paper bags. The teacher had no trouble guessing that there were flowers in the bag brought to her by the florist’s son, or a box of chocolates in the bag from the daughter of a candy storeowner. But the bag given to her by the son of a liquor storeowner presented a challenge. It was leaking yellowish liquid. She put her finger to the liquid, tasted it and asked: “Is it wine? Champagne?” “No” the little boy replied with a smile, “It is a puppy.”
Things are not always what they seem. And this holds true in the area of religion and the Church. Jesus in our text warns us to beware of, to guard against, to stay away from and steer from false prophets. It isn’t “politically correct” to bash others who teach and preach in the name of Jesus. After all, we should just be “nice nice” and not say anything that would be in any way cause anyone trouble. But this is not what Jesus says! Note what Jesus says at the end of the Sermon on the Mount: “13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” Jesus is here talking about going to heaven. The road to heaven is narrow, so one enters through the narrow gate. While it is true that God wants all to be saved, salvation only comes to those who have been saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. There is no other road other than Jesus. The Scriptures are clear, “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved,” “Jesus says I am the Way, Truth and Life, no one comes to the Father but by Me,” “a person is saved by grace through faith in Christ, not of works, so that no one may boast.” THE ONLY WAY TO HEAVEN IS BY TRUSTING IN CHRIST!!!
So Jesus warns you and me to beware of false prophets. He is clear, they exist and they are present today. The way that the false teachers proclaim leads to destruction. How then can we know who they are so that we can avoid them? Jesus gives clear instructions as to who these people are and what they will teach.
Listen to Jesus: “. “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
A mark of a false prophet is that the lies that they proclaim will be dressed as the truth. Deceit always masquerades as the truth. A magician will ply his trade so that you think his performance is real, when in actuality he is tricking you, for there is always a trick up the magician’s sleeve. The same holds true for those who are false prophets. They have always existed, seeking to proclaim their wisdom instead of the Lord’s Word. Just listen to what Jeremiah the prophet says about them: “16 Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. 17 They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’” And “26 How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, 27 who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name?” These false prophets speak their own wisdom; they speak visions of their own heart, and CLAIM THAT THEY ARE SPEAKING FOR THE LORD! They do not speak of sin, or repentance, or judgment. They speak of peace, they preach prosperity, and they preach what man can do to become a child of God. Noticeably absent from any of their teaching is the proclamation of sin and grace, repentance and forgiveness. And what does Jesus say of them? “You will recognize them by their fruits.”
You know what it means by knowing something by its fruit! When you go to the market to pick summer fruit, you take the time to look for good fruit, separating the good from the bad. The fruit of a true prophet doesn’t preach outward righteousness, success, or prosperity. The true prophet isn’t interested in preaching or pushing an agenda or cause. The true prophet only is concerned about one thing, preaching Christ and Him crucified and rose from the dead. The true prophet isn’t interested in his or her own ministry, isn’t concerned about the glory and praise of men, the true prophet IS only interested and concerned about the glory of God in Jesus Christ.
Note what Jesus says about these false prophets. He calls them wolves in sheep clothing. They look innocent but their teaching is deadly. They appear harmless but their teaching leads to Hell. But how can this be, because they look so nice, they appear to be clean cut and likeable. Yet Jesus says they are known by their fruits, these people are rotten to the core.
Listen to the Apostle Paul’s warning to the Church in Acts 20: “29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears.” Paul continued to warn believers about false teachers in his day and age. Note again what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:13 for such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.” For not everyone who says to Jesus: “‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”
So what is the Christian to do? Certainly Christ warns us NOT to listen to these false prophets. So who are you to listen to? Jesus, only Jesus! Jesus speaks to you through His Word. Jesus says told the Pharisees: “You search the Scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life, but THE SCRIPTURES TESTIFY OF ME.” Jesus also says:” Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.” The fruit of a true preacher of Christ points people to Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of sins that He alone offers by His shed blood on the cross. You belong to Jesus ONLY BECAUSE OF HIS SHED BLOOD FROM HIS CROSS. Luther reminds us in his Small Catechism: You were purchased, not with silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ.”
When the Apostle Peter confessed his faith in Christ, he confessed that he believed that Jesus was the promised Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus, previous to Peter’s confession, asked the disciples: Who do people say that the Son of Man is? Each and every response was lacking. Some said that Jesus was a good teacher, that type of faith wasn’t good enough. Some said that Jesus was a good preacher, that response wasn’t good enough. Some said that Jesus did many wonders, that He could work miracles in your life. That response wasn’t good enough. Only one response was good enough, Peter’s response, that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Peter confessed his faith in the person of Jesus and HIS MISSION to seek and save the lost. The false responses and false prophets of Jesus’ day and age described a different Jesus. Jesus warns you to beware of those today who offer to you a different Jesus than the ONE that is testified of by the Bible, namely, that salvation is offered only by Christ’s cross, His shed blood, and His resurrection from the grave.
How do you guard yourself from the deceptions of these false teachers? By clinging to Christ. In Baptism Jesus was washed away your sins. You belong to Christ. So listen to His voice. His voice is heard when you hear the Word of God. The Word of God is the weapon that God has given to His Church, and to you, to ward off the assaults of the devil and the lies of false teachers. God has saved you in Christ. He wants you to listen to Christ. John the Baptist, in his ministry, took great pains not to point sinners to himself, rather, he pointed people to Jesus. John said of Jesus: “He must increase, and I must decrease.” God calls us to “seek the Lord where He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.” Where is Jesus to be found today? Only in His Word and the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. For in Baptism we have been place in Christ, and in His Supper He feeds us with His true body and blood for forgiveness and eternal life.
Dear brother and sister in Christ, things are not always what they appear or seem. Note well the words of Scripture: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1 John 4: 1). Dear friend, we live in a dangerous world. Satan is alive and well and seeks your destruction. So cling to Jesus. Trust in Him alone. Be faithful to Christ unto death, and He will give you the crown of everlasting life.
Amen
MATTHEW 7:13-23
13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. 15“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
In the name of Jesus:
Jesus in our text for today warns us about false prophets, more accurately, lying prophets or prophets who appear to be speaking for Jesus when they are not. Things are many times do not appear to be what they seem. I was reminded of this recently when I read about a kindergarten teacher who was accepting gifts from her pupils at the end of the school year. The kids brought their gifts to her in big, brown paper bags. The teacher had no trouble guessing that there were flowers in the bag brought to her by the florist’s son, or a box of chocolates in the bag from the daughter of a candy storeowner. But the bag given to her by the son of a liquor storeowner presented a challenge. It was leaking yellowish liquid. She put her finger to the liquid, tasted it and asked: “Is it wine? Champagne?” “No” the little boy replied with a smile, “It is a puppy.”
Things are not always what they seem. And this holds true in the area of religion and the Church. Jesus in our text warns us to beware of, to guard against, to stay away from and steer from false prophets. It isn’t “politically correct” to bash others who teach and preach in the name of Jesus. After all, we should just be “nice nice” and not say anything that would be in any way cause anyone trouble. But this is not what Jesus says! Note what Jesus says at the end of the Sermon on the Mount: “13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” Jesus is here talking about going to heaven. The road to heaven is narrow, so one enters through the narrow gate. While it is true that God wants all to be saved, salvation only comes to those who have been saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. There is no other road other than Jesus. The Scriptures are clear, “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved,” “Jesus says I am the Way, Truth and Life, no one comes to the Father but by Me,” “a person is saved by grace through faith in Christ, not of works, so that no one may boast.” THE ONLY WAY TO HEAVEN IS BY TRUSTING IN CHRIST!!!
So Jesus warns you and me to beware of false prophets. He is clear, they exist and they are present today. The way that the false teachers proclaim leads to destruction. How then can we know who they are so that we can avoid them? Jesus gives clear instructions as to who these people are and what they will teach.
Listen to Jesus: “. “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
A mark of a false prophet is that the lies that they proclaim will be dressed as the truth. Deceit always masquerades as the truth. A magician will ply his trade so that you think his performance is real, when in actuality he is tricking you, for there is always a trick up the magician’s sleeve. The same holds true for those who are false prophets. They have always existed, seeking to proclaim their wisdom instead of the Lord’s Word. Just listen to what Jeremiah the prophet says about them: “16 Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. 17 They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’” And “26 How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, 27 who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name?” These false prophets speak their own wisdom; they speak visions of their own heart, and CLAIM THAT THEY ARE SPEAKING FOR THE LORD! They do not speak of sin, or repentance, or judgment. They speak of peace, they preach prosperity, and they preach what man can do to become a child of God. Noticeably absent from any of their teaching is the proclamation of sin and grace, repentance and forgiveness. And what does Jesus say of them? “You will recognize them by their fruits.”
You know what it means by knowing something by its fruit! When you go to the market to pick summer fruit, you take the time to look for good fruit, separating the good from the bad. The fruit of a true prophet doesn’t preach outward righteousness, success, or prosperity. The true prophet isn’t interested in preaching or pushing an agenda or cause. The true prophet only is concerned about one thing, preaching Christ and Him crucified and rose from the dead. The true prophet isn’t interested in his or her own ministry, isn’t concerned about the glory and praise of men, the true prophet IS only interested and concerned about the glory of God in Jesus Christ.
Note what Jesus says about these false prophets. He calls them wolves in sheep clothing. They look innocent but their teaching is deadly. They appear harmless but their teaching leads to Hell. But how can this be, because they look so nice, they appear to be clean cut and likeable. Yet Jesus says they are known by their fruits, these people are rotten to the core.
Listen to the Apostle Paul’s warning to the Church in Acts 20: “29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears.” Paul continued to warn believers about false teachers in his day and age. Note again what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:13 for such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.” For not everyone who says to Jesus: “‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”
So what is the Christian to do? Certainly Christ warns us NOT to listen to these false prophets. So who are you to listen to? Jesus, only Jesus! Jesus speaks to you through His Word. Jesus says told the Pharisees: “You search the Scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life, but THE SCRIPTURES TESTIFY OF ME.” Jesus also says:” Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.” The fruit of a true preacher of Christ points people to Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of sins that He alone offers by His shed blood on the cross. You belong to Jesus ONLY BECAUSE OF HIS SHED BLOOD FROM HIS CROSS. Luther reminds us in his Small Catechism: You were purchased, not with silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ.”
When the Apostle Peter confessed his faith in Christ, he confessed that he believed that Jesus was the promised Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus, previous to Peter’s confession, asked the disciples: Who do people say that the Son of Man is? Each and every response was lacking. Some said that Jesus was a good teacher, that type of faith wasn’t good enough. Some said that Jesus was a good preacher, that response wasn’t good enough. Some said that Jesus did many wonders, that He could work miracles in your life. That response wasn’t good enough. Only one response was good enough, Peter’s response, that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Peter confessed his faith in the person of Jesus and HIS MISSION to seek and save the lost. The false responses and false prophets of Jesus’ day and age described a different Jesus. Jesus warns you to beware of those today who offer to you a different Jesus than the ONE that is testified of by the Bible, namely, that salvation is offered only by Christ’s cross, His shed blood, and His resurrection from the grave.
How do you guard yourself from the deceptions of these false teachers? By clinging to Christ. In Baptism Jesus was washed away your sins. You belong to Christ. So listen to His voice. His voice is heard when you hear the Word of God. The Word of God is the weapon that God has given to His Church, and to you, to ward off the assaults of the devil and the lies of false teachers. God has saved you in Christ. He wants you to listen to Christ. John the Baptist, in his ministry, took great pains not to point sinners to himself, rather, he pointed people to Jesus. John said of Jesus: “He must increase, and I must decrease.” God calls us to “seek the Lord where He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.” Where is Jesus to be found today? Only in His Word and the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. For in Baptism we have been place in Christ, and in His Supper He feeds us with His true body and blood for forgiveness and eternal life.
Dear brother and sister in Christ, things are not always what they appear or seem. Note well the words of Scripture: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1 John 4: 1). Dear friend, we live in a dangerous world. Satan is alive and well and seeks your destruction. So cling to Jesus. Trust in Him alone. Be faithful to Christ unto death, and He will give you the crown of everlasting life.
Amen
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Lest We Forget
LEST WE FORGET
MARK 8:1-9
In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, 2 “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. 3 And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” 4 And his disciples answered him, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?” 5 And he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” 6 And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. 7 And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. 8 And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. 9 And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away.
In the name of Jesus:
Lest we Forget is a phrase, first made popular in a poem by Rudyard Kipling. The phrase is found in the refrain of Kipling’s poem called “Recessional”. In the poem, Kipling warns about self-confidence, where a nation would become so full of pride or self-confidence that they would forget where they came from and thus suffer a decline as a nation.
More recently, “Lest we forget” has become a popular slogan for the Prisoner of War/ Missing in Action campaign. The phrase reminds us to remember not just the sacrifices of the military as a whole but the ultimate sacrifice made by those who have been lost in battle or captured by the enemy. “Lest we Forget” has become a rallying cry of sorts after the Korean and Vietnam wars, so that we as a nation never forget those who are MIA or POW’s and that we continue to strive to bring them home to our country.
Lest we forget should serve as the rallying cry for the Christian Church, because in spite of the many blessings that God bestows on His children, we who are followers of Christ soon forget those blessings. And even today, as we gather around God’s Word and Sacrament, we come as a people who have, at times, forgotten God’s mercy and compassion to us in Christ. But God still has compassion on us in Christ, He forgives, renews, and strengthens, so that we might not forget His mercies but continue to trust in Christ, and show that faith in our daily lives.
Note our text: In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, 2 “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat.” Did you catch that? Again a great crowd gathered. This has happened before! In fact, it happened four pages ago, in Mark 7 where we see that a great crowd gathered at that time, and Jesus at that time had compassion on the people and fed 5000 with five loaves of bread and two fish.
Here we are, some time later, and the same thing happens, a great crowd gathers and they had nothing to eat. Mark records that Jesus, seeing the crowd, and knowing their needs (because He is the Son of God in human flesh) has compassion on them. Compassion, Jesus felt compassion, a feeling in your gut where you are moved to action out of love and concern for another. And so Jesus, in compassion, acts.
In the feeding of the 5000, Jesus tells His disciples to give them something to eat. The disciples ask the first time where are we going to get something to eat for all these people? Knowing the situation Jesus at this time in the feeding of the 4000, Jesus simply states the problem: “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. 3 And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” What a set up! Surely the disciples will remember what happened last time. Won’t they? Certainly they will remember who is with them! Or will they? How we forget! For the disciples say to Jesus: “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?” They say to Jesus: “What can WE do? How easily they forgot who Jesus is and what Jesus had done for them in the past!
So note what Jesus does: He takes what is available and blesses it. And the people were fed! Listen: “And he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” 6 And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. 7 And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. 8 And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. 9 And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away.”
The people were fed. They were satisfied. Their needs were met, the hunger pangs were quelled and they had no more need to be fed. Having been fed once again there were leftovers! Over seven baskets of leftovers were collected. And the Scriptures state that they went on their way. Did they remember what happened? What would be their response when trouble would arise again?
Dear friends, how easily we forget the mercies of the Lord! The Bible says: Oh give thanks to the Lord for He is good and His mercy endures forever!” God is always merciful and gracious, even to us, and yet, sadly, we forget God’s mercies and grace. When push comes to shove, and when you have needs or are faced with troubling issues in your lives, how do you respond? God has promised to take care of you. Do you remember that, or do you easily forget?
How many times have you worried about your physical needs: will you have enough to live on; can you make ends meet; who will take care of you when you are in need of care; will your children be provided for; what about your health; your friends; what is it that you have fretted about, worried about, what has caused you a sleepless night or two? What is it that your have worried about?
Hasn’t the Lord promised to take care of you? Hasn’t He helped you in the past? Your help has come in the name of the Lord? He has given to you what you need. He has richly and daily provided for all that you have needed to support your body and life. How easily you have forgotten how much the Lord loves you and how much He cares for you. He has never failed you, but you have failed to remember that the Lord your God is good and gracious and that He has been faithful to His promises to you. Your sinful heart has accepted God’s gifts, but has failed to thank Him. You have accepted help from the Lord but sadly, when faced with new challenges and difficulties; you easily forget God and His grace.
Freely you have received mercy from God. But how often as sinners do we fail to show it to others! God has forgiven in Christ and yet we find it within our power to hold a grudge, to withhold forgiveness to someone who has wronged us, and we even seek to pay back evil for evil. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord, but we would rather take maters into our own hands instead of trusting in the Lord to work all things out for us.
You see, time and again the Lord continues to provide for you and His children. But how easily we forget His mercies! Rather than thanking God we run from Him to the pleasures of this world. All too often we despise the Lord, His Word, and His gifts.
But Christ has compassion. On you and for you! Even as He had fed the 5000, and then again the 4000, so also He feeds you today with His Body and Blood. Come and taste and see once again that the Lord is good! His mercy lasts forever! His forgiveness is for sinners! For Jesus became sin for you, enduring the cross, paying the price for your life by giving His life unto death on the cross. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ! (Romans 6:23). Jesus is the Good Shepherd of the sheep. He as the Good Shepherd laid down His life for you! He has called you by name in the waters of your Baptism. You do not belong to yourself, or the sinful world. You belong to God!
See what God continues to do for you today! He feeds and cares for you. Jesus says that He is the bread of life, and this bread, which nourishes to eternal life, is given freely this day in His Word and Sacrament. His Word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path. Jesus comes in, with, and under the bread and wine to give you Himself, so that your sins are forgiven and that your soul is fed. Jesus sees your sins and in compassion forgives you your sins in this Sacrament. He feeds you with Himself so that you can once again taste and see that the Lord is good and that His mercy endures forever. Jesus bids you to come to this altar, to take and eat and take and drink His true body and blood in remembrance of Him. He is really present and in your partaking of this Meal Jesus calls to your remembrance the price He paid for your salvation: nothing else but His body and blood which is given to you in this Sacrament. Come to the Lord this day you who labor and are heavy laden with sin, for in Christ there is forgiveness of your sins. Here God meets your greatest need, for where there is forgiveness of sin, and then there is life and salvation.
Luther said to God’s people in his day on preaching on this text (and his words are poignant for you and me today): “The lesson is that we get our priorities straight and make the searching of God’s Word our first priority. We have a generous Lord, who is concerned about all of our need and in whom we should therefore trust to provide everything that is essential. Even though at times it may seem to us that we are lacking in necessities, he will always take care of us so long as we diligently hear His Word, believe it, and live a life that is pleasing to God. For when Christ is our provider, there will always be an abundance of everything, even when there is nothing, as we clearly see from this Gospel lesson…. We should burn this lesson into our memories so that we may learn to believe that, regardless how poor we may be, if we faithfully and diligently cling to God’s promises, our Lord Christ will still provide us with food and nourishment” (Complete Works of Martin Luther Vol 6: 333ff).
Jesus frequently said: He who has ears to hear, let him hear! And how we need to hear this lesson, remember it, and believe it today! The news is filled with reports of another down turn in the economy, as if there was ever an upturn in the economy! Yes, the economy today is not doing well. People still don’t have jobs; many are struggling to make ends meet. But God reminds you and me today in this passage that He loves us with an everlasting love. Rather than worry and be anxious over things that we need, He reminds us in the feeding of the 4000 and 5000 of His compassion for sinners. Christ will provide. So turn from your worry, repent of your sins, and do not forget that Christ loves you and will continue to take care of you. Make the Lord and His Word your first love and priority! Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and then all these things will be added to you.
Amen
MARK 8:1-9
In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, 2 “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. 3 And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” 4 And his disciples answered him, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?” 5 And he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” 6 And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. 7 And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. 8 And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. 9 And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away.
In the name of Jesus:
Lest we Forget is a phrase, first made popular in a poem by Rudyard Kipling. The phrase is found in the refrain of Kipling’s poem called “Recessional”. In the poem, Kipling warns about self-confidence, where a nation would become so full of pride or self-confidence that they would forget where they came from and thus suffer a decline as a nation.
More recently, “Lest we forget” has become a popular slogan for the Prisoner of War/ Missing in Action campaign. The phrase reminds us to remember not just the sacrifices of the military as a whole but the ultimate sacrifice made by those who have been lost in battle or captured by the enemy. “Lest we Forget” has become a rallying cry of sorts after the Korean and Vietnam wars, so that we as a nation never forget those who are MIA or POW’s and that we continue to strive to bring them home to our country.
Lest we forget should serve as the rallying cry for the Christian Church, because in spite of the many blessings that God bestows on His children, we who are followers of Christ soon forget those blessings. And even today, as we gather around God’s Word and Sacrament, we come as a people who have, at times, forgotten God’s mercy and compassion to us in Christ. But God still has compassion on us in Christ, He forgives, renews, and strengthens, so that we might not forget His mercies but continue to trust in Christ, and show that faith in our daily lives.
Note our text: In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, 2 “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat.” Did you catch that? Again a great crowd gathered. This has happened before! In fact, it happened four pages ago, in Mark 7 where we see that a great crowd gathered at that time, and Jesus at that time had compassion on the people and fed 5000 with five loaves of bread and two fish.
Here we are, some time later, and the same thing happens, a great crowd gathers and they had nothing to eat. Mark records that Jesus, seeing the crowd, and knowing their needs (because He is the Son of God in human flesh) has compassion on them. Compassion, Jesus felt compassion, a feeling in your gut where you are moved to action out of love and concern for another. And so Jesus, in compassion, acts.
In the feeding of the 5000, Jesus tells His disciples to give them something to eat. The disciples ask the first time where are we going to get something to eat for all these people? Knowing the situation Jesus at this time in the feeding of the 4000, Jesus simply states the problem: “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. 3 And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” What a set up! Surely the disciples will remember what happened last time. Won’t they? Certainly they will remember who is with them! Or will they? How we forget! For the disciples say to Jesus: “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?” They say to Jesus: “What can WE do? How easily they forgot who Jesus is and what Jesus had done for them in the past!
So note what Jesus does: He takes what is available and blesses it. And the people were fed! Listen: “And he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” 6 And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. 7 And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. 8 And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. 9 And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away.”
The people were fed. They were satisfied. Their needs were met, the hunger pangs were quelled and they had no more need to be fed. Having been fed once again there were leftovers! Over seven baskets of leftovers were collected. And the Scriptures state that they went on their way. Did they remember what happened? What would be their response when trouble would arise again?
Dear friends, how easily we forget the mercies of the Lord! The Bible says: Oh give thanks to the Lord for He is good and His mercy endures forever!” God is always merciful and gracious, even to us, and yet, sadly, we forget God’s mercies and grace. When push comes to shove, and when you have needs or are faced with troubling issues in your lives, how do you respond? God has promised to take care of you. Do you remember that, or do you easily forget?
How many times have you worried about your physical needs: will you have enough to live on; can you make ends meet; who will take care of you when you are in need of care; will your children be provided for; what about your health; your friends; what is it that you have fretted about, worried about, what has caused you a sleepless night or two? What is it that your have worried about?
Hasn’t the Lord promised to take care of you? Hasn’t He helped you in the past? Your help has come in the name of the Lord? He has given to you what you need. He has richly and daily provided for all that you have needed to support your body and life. How easily you have forgotten how much the Lord loves you and how much He cares for you. He has never failed you, but you have failed to remember that the Lord your God is good and gracious and that He has been faithful to His promises to you. Your sinful heart has accepted God’s gifts, but has failed to thank Him. You have accepted help from the Lord but sadly, when faced with new challenges and difficulties; you easily forget God and His grace.
Freely you have received mercy from God. But how often as sinners do we fail to show it to others! God has forgiven in Christ and yet we find it within our power to hold a grudge, to withhold forgiveness to someone who has wronged us, and we even seek to pay back evil for evil. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord, but we would rather take maters into our own hands instead of trusting in the Lord to work all things out for us.
You see, time and again the Lord continues to provide for you and His children. But how easily we forget His mercies! Rather than thanking God we run from Him to the pleasures of this world. All too often we despise the Lord, His Word, and His gifts.
But Christ has compassion. On you and for you! Even as He had fed the 5000, and then again the 4000, so also He feeds you today with His Body and Blood. Come and taste and see once again that the Lord is good! His mercy lasts forever! His forgiveness is for sinners! For Jesus became sin for you, enduring the cross, paying the price for your life by giving His life unto death on the cross. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ! (Romans 6:23). Jesus is the Good Shepherd of the sheep. He as the Good Shepherd laid down His life for you! He has called you by name in the waters of your Baptism. You do not belong to yourself, or the sinful world. You belong to God!
See what God continues to do for you today! He feeds and cares for you. Jesus says that He is the bread of life, and this bread, which nourishes to eternal life, is given freely this day in His Word and Sacrament. His Word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path. Jesus comes in, with, and under the bread and wine to give you Himself, so that your sins are forgiven and that your soul is fed. Jesus sees your sins and in compassion forgives you your sins in this Sacrament. He feeds you with Himself so that you can once again taste and see that the Lord is good and that His mercy endures forever. Jesus bids you to come to this altar, to take and eat and take and drink His true body and blood in remembrance of Him. He is really present and in your partaking of this Meal Jesus calls to your remembrance the price He paid for your salvation: nothing else but His body and blood which is given to you in this Sacrament. Come to the Lord this day you who labor and are heavy laden with sin, for in Christ there is forgiveness of your sins. Here God meets your greatest need, for where there is forgiveness of sin, and then there is life and salvation.
Luther said to God’s people in his day on preaching on this text (and his words are poignant for you and me today): “The lesson is that we get our priorities straight and make the searching of God’s Word our first priority. We have a generous Lord, who is concerned about all of our need and in whom we should therefore trust to provide everything that is essential. Even though at times it may seem to us that we are lacking in necessities, he will always take care of us so long as we diligently hear His Word, believe it, and live a life that is pleasing to God. For when Christ is our provider, there will always be an abundance of everything, even when there is nothing, as we clearly see from this Gospel lesson…. We should burn this lesson into our memories so that we may learn to believe that, regardless how poor we may be, if we faithfully and diligently cling to God’s promises, our Lord Christ will still provide us with food and nourishment” (Complete Works of Martin Luther Vol 6: 333ff).
Jesus frequently said: He who has ears to hear, let him hear! And how we need to hear this lesson, remember it, and believe it today! The news is filled with reports of another down turn in the economy, as if there was ever an upturn in the economy! Yes, the economy today is not doing well. People still don’t have jobs; many are struggling to make ends meet. But God reminds you and me today in this passage that He loves us with an everlasting love. Rather than worry and be anxious over things that we need, He reminds us in the feeding of the 4000 and 5000 of His compassion for sinners. Christ will provide. So turn from your worry, repent of your sins, and do not forget that Christ loves you and will continue to take care of you. Make the Lord and His Word your first love and priority! Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and then all these things will be added to you.
Amen
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Your Only Hope
YOUR ONLY HOPE
MATTHEW 5:17-26
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
In the name of Jesus:
I read about an instant cake mix that was a big flop. The instructions said all you had to do was add water and bake. The company couldn't understand why it didn't sell -- until their research discovered that the buying public felt uneasy about a mix that required only water. Apparently people thought it was too easy. So the company altered the formula and changed the directions to call for adding an egg to the mix in addition to the water. The idea worked and sales jumped dramatically.
This story simply illustrates the reaction that many have to salvation by grace through faith in Christ. For some who balk at God’s grace, it sounds too easy and simple to be true, even though the Bible says, "By grace you have been saved through faith... it is the gift of God, not of works" (Eph. 2:8-9). They think that there has to be more to it, that there is something more they must do, something they must add to God's "recipe" for salvation. They think they must perform good works to gain God's favor and earn eternal life. But the Bible is clear -- we are saved, "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy" (Titus 3:5). God has not changed the Gospel. The Good News is that He saves by a free gift of His love through faith in Jesus Christ. Our good works are merely thank yous, flowing from grateful hearts to God.
When Jesus ushered in the Kingdom by calling sinners to repentance, He proclaimed the Law of God in its sternest terms. This is what He does today. It is the meaning of His words: “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven.” True righteousness, a right standing with God exists only because a right relationship with Jesus. Salvation is given by God’s grace through faith in Christ. The Scribes and Pharisees didn’t grasp this concept because of their hatred of Jesus.
In the Old Testament lesson for today, we read of God’s Ten Commandments. The Law of God was given by God to curb lawlessness, show sinners their sinfulness, and as a third use is to be used by Christians as a guide or rule for thankful living to God. For the Pharisees and Scribes, whose hatred of Jesus blinded them, the Law of God was not enough to be right with God. More was needed, much more.
Jesus summed up the Ten Commandments in two verses: Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. In addition to this, love your neighbor as yourself. These words sum up the Ten Commandments perfectly. But for the Pharisees, this wasn’t enough. The Pharisees had developed a system of 613 laws, 365 negative commands and 248 positive laws. They continued to invent new laws for new situations. Even though God was the judge, they believed that they could judge others and so they held people accountable to their own standard of righteousness. People had to live to please the Pharisees, not God. The Pharisee and his version of righteousness was cold and heartless, it was not produced by love for God, it was more interested in the praise of men, instead of God’s will and lives lived to His glory.
Make no mistake, the scribes and Pharisees were religious people. They were more interested in the externals; a life rooted in works, thinking that by their works God would be pleased. They rejected Jesus and His message of love and grace. But Jesus rejected their teachings and their works. I like what author Frederick Buechner wrote: “The trouble with religious people is that they try to be more spiritual than God.” How true. The trouble with the scribes and Pharisees is that they tried to be more spiritual than God. They thought that they could live lives, which would give them a right relationship with God.
Who can do this? Not the Scribes, not the Pharisees, and certainly not you or me! NO one can keep God’s Law perfectly, this is what He commands when He says Be holy as I the Lord your God am holy. God requires perfection in thought, word, and deed. His standard is the perfect keeping of HIS commandments, not man made ones. And in this you and I and every human being falls far short!
God demands perfection! God demands holiness! Nothing more and nothing less! And so Jesus says: Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you won’t enter the Kingdom of heaven. Examine your life in light of God’s law: Have you loved God above all things? Or have money, power, prestige taken the place of God? Have you played God in your life, or has God had His way with you? Have you acted in anger, spite, or envy of another? Have you honored those who serve God in the government as His agents and prayed for those over you, or have you complained or have been indifferent?
If you are honest with God, and yourself, you will note that you have fallen far short of God’s standard of perfection. You have not been perfect as God is perfect, your life has not been holy at all times, you have not allowed God to use you, rather you have tried to use God and play the part of God in your life. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. Even if you were to deny your sinfulness, you can’t deny the inevitability of your death. Death is the payoff for a sinful life. You HAVE sinned, you HAVE fallen short of God’s standard of perfection, and you WILL die.
So where can you go for help? Your help, the sinners’ help is in the name of the Lord. Turn to Christ; trust in what He has done for you. Trust in Jesus, for He is your HOPE, your righteousness, and your ever-present help in times of trouble.
Jesus came to be YOUR righteousness because you can never be right in and of yourself before God. This is why Jesus says: “17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” Jesus came to keep the Law on your behalf. He came to keep the Ten Commandments perfectly for you in your place. Jesus fulfilled all that was written of Him in the Law and the Prophets. The writer to the Hebrews states: “15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:15-16).
Your only hope for salvation is Jesus! For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus is your righteousness before the Father for He gave His perfect life in death as your Substitute and Savior. Jesus is the very Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus has accomplished all that is needed for your salvation. His righteousness, and His alone EXCEED the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees. And Jesus gives you this righteousness as a free gift.
This gift was given to you in your Baptism. Note what Paul says of Baptism: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:1-4). You have died to sin in Baptism. In your Baptism the Holy Spirit has washed your filthy rags of righteousness. Just as Christ died so too in Baptism you were baptized into His death, so that you might die to sin and rise to newness of life in Christ. This new life in Christ has been given as a GIFT to you in your Baptism. So that, just as Jesus rose from the grave, so daily you are called to rise daily by the power of the Spirit to live for God.
The life you now live, you live to the glory of God. It is done in keeping the Ten Commandments, joyfully, in thanks to Jesus to the glory of God. Jesus explains what this life looks like when He says: “13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:13-16). You are now raised with Christ to walk in newness of life and to share in His resurrection on the Last Day. And so you are to live as if you are dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ, living out your life as a shining light to others revealing the grace of God in Jesus Christ.
Today Christians just shake their heads at the state of things in our world today. It seems as if everything is falling apart at the seams. Those Christian values, which we grew up with and held so dear, are now marginalized and trivialized. I ran across an interesting comment by retired Anglican pastor John Stott. Stott, who was a pastor in London England, once remarked concerning what he saw as the declining values in America by saying:
‘You know what your own country is like. I'm a visitor, and I wouldn't presume to speak about America. But I know what Great Britain is like. I know something about the growing dishonesty, corruption, immorality, violence, pornography, the diminishing respect for human life, and the increase in abortion. Whose fault is it? Let me put it like this: if the house is dark at night, there is no sense in blaming the house. That's what happens when the sun goes down. The question to ask is, "Where is the light?” if meat goes bad, there is no sense in blaming the meat. That is what happens when the bacteria are allowed to breed unchecked. The question to ask is, "Where is the salt?” if society becomes corrupt like a dark night or stinking fish, there's no sense in blaming society. That's what happens when fallen human society is left to itself and human evil is unrestrained and unchecked. The question to ask is "Where is the church?"
Where is the Church? Dear friend, YOU ARE THE CHURCH! You have been called in Baptism to follow Christ, showing by your words and action the God given faith you have in Jesus. The light of Christ has been given to you to shine in this dark world. Your only hope for your salvation is Jesus Christ. The only hope for this lost and fallen world is Jesus Christ! God seeks to use you to bring Light to the darkness and hope to the hopeless. Your hope is built on nothing less than Jesus. The only hope our neighborhoods and communities have is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which has changed your life so that others might be saved!
The power of the Gospel, the power of Christ is most vividly seen in the story told when George Bush was Vice President. As Vice President, George Bush (41 not 43) represented the U.S. at the funeral of former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. Bush was deeply moved by a silent protest carried out by Brezhnev's widow. She stood motionless by the coffin until seconds before it was closed. Then, just as the soldiers touched the lid, Brezhnev's wife performed an act of great courage and hope, a gesture that must surely rank as one of the most profound acts of civil disobedience ever committed: She reached down and made the sign of the cross on her husband's chest.
There in the citadel of secular, atheistic power, the wife of the man who had run it all hoped that her husband was wrong. She hoped that there was another life, and that that life was best represented by Jesus who died on the cross, and that the same Jesus might yet have mercy on her husband.
Jesus has had mercy on you. He died and rose for you and gives you His light and life. He has called you by name to give hope to the hopeless by living out your faith in Jesus. So let your light shine, giving glory to God, and hope to many. In Jesus’ name.
Amen
MATTHEW 5:17-26
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
In the name of Jesus:
I read about an instant cake mix that was a big flop. The instructions said all you had to do was add water and bake. The company couldn't understand why it didn't sell -- until their research discovered that the buying public felt uneasy about a mix that required only water. Apparently people thought it was too easy. So the company altered the formula and changed the directions to call for adding an egg to the mix in addition to the water. The idea worked and sales jumped dramatically.
This story simply illustrates the reaction that many have to salvation by grace through faith in Christ. For some who balk at God’s grace, it sounds too easy and simple to be true, even though the Bible says, "By grace you have been saved through faith... it is the gift of God, not of works" (Eph. 2:8-9). They think that there has to be more to it, that there is something more they must do, something they must add to God's "recipe" for salvation. They think they must perform good works to gain God's favor and earn eternal life. But the Bible is clear -- we are saved, "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy" (Titus 3:5). God has not changed the Gospel. The Good News is that He saves by a free gift of His love through faith in Jesus Christ. Our good works are merely thank yous, flowing from grateful hearts to God.
When Jesus ushered in the Kingdom by calling sinners to repentance, He proclaimed the Law of God in its sternest terms. This is what He does today. It is the meaning of His words: “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven.” True righteousness, a right standing with God exists only because a right relationship with Jesus. Salvation is given by God’s grace through faith in Christ. The Scribes and Pharisees didn’t grasp this concept because of their hatred of Jesus.
In the Old Testament lesson for today, we read of God’s Ten Commandments. The Law of God was given by God to curb lawlessness, show sinners their sinfulness, and as a third use is to be used by Christians as a guide or rule for thankful living to God. For the Pharisees and Scribes, whose hatred of Jesus blinded them, the Law of God was not enough to be right with God. More was needed, much more.
Jesus summed up the Ten Commandments in two verses: Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. In addition to this, love your neighbor as yourself. These words sum up the Ten Commandments perfectly. But for the Pharisees, this wasn’t enough. The Pharisees had developed a system of 613 laws, 365 negative commands and 248 positive laws. They continued to invent new laws for new situations. Even though God was the judge, they believed that they could judge others and so they held people accountable to their own standard of righteousness. People had to live to please the Pharisees, not God. The Pharisee and his version of righteousness was cold and heartless, it was not produced by love for God, it was more interested in the praise of men, instead of God’s will and lives lived to His glory.
Make no mistake, the scribes and Pharisees were religious people. They were more interested in the externals; a life rooted in works, thinking that by their works God would be pleased. They rejected Jesus and His message of love and grace. But Jesus rejected their teachings and their works. I like what author Frederick Buechner wrote: “The trouble with religious people is that they try to be more spiritual than God.” How true. The trouble with the scribes and Pharisees is that they tried to be more spiritual than God. They thought that they could live lives, which would give them a right relationship with God.
Who can do this? Not the Scribes, not the Pharisees, and certainly not you or me! NO one can keep God’s Law perfectly, this is what He commands when He says Be holy as I the Lord your God am holy. God requires perfection in thought, word, and deed. His standard is the perfect keeping of HIS commandments, not man made ones. And in this you and I and every human being falls far short!
God demands perfection! God demands holiness! Nothing more and nothing less! And so Jesus says: Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you won’t enter the Kingdom of heaven. Examine your life in light of God’s law: Have you loved God above all things? Or have money, power, prestige taken the place of God? Have you played God in your life, or has God had His way with you? Have you acted in anger, spite, or envy of another? Have you honored those who serve God in the government as His agents and prayed for those over you, or have you complained or have been indifferent?
If you are honest with God, and yourself, you will note that you have fallen far short of God’s standard of perfection. You have not been perfect as God is perfect, your life has not been holy at all times, you have not allowed God to use you, rather you have tried to use God and play the part of God in your life. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. Even if you were to deny your sinfulness, you can’t deny the inevitability of your death. Death is the payoff for a sinful life. You HAVE sinned, you HAVE fallen short of God’s standard of perfection, and you WILL die.
So where can you go for help? Your help, the sinners’ help is in the name of the Lord. Turn to Christ; trust in what He has done for you. Trust in Jesus, for He is your HOPE, your righteousness, and your ever-present help in times of trouble.
Jesus came to be YOUR righteousness because you can never be right in and of yourself before God. This is why Jesus says: “17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” Jesus came to keep the Law on your behalf. He came to keep the Ten Commandments perfectly for you in your place. Jesus fulfilled all that was written of Him in the Law and the Prophets. The writer to the Hebrews states: “15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:15-16).
Your only hope for salvation is Jesus! For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus is your righteousness before the Father for He gave His perfect life in death as your Substitute and Savior. Jesus is the very Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus has accomplished all that is needed for your salvation. His righteousness, and His alone EXCEED the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees. And Jesus gives you this righteousness as a free gift.
This gift was given to you in your Baptism. Note what Paul says of Baptism: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:1-4). You have died to sin in Baptism. In your Baptism the Holy Spirit has washed your filthy rags of righteousness. Just as Christ died so too in Baptism you were baptized into His death, so that you might die to sin and rise to newness of life in Christ. This new life in Christ has been given as a GIFT to you in your Baptism. So that, just as Jesus rose from the grave, so daily you are called to rise daily by the power of the Spirit to live for God.
The life you now live, you live to the glory of God. It is done in keeping the Ten Commandments, joyfully, in thanks to Jesus to the glory of God. Jesus explains what this life looks like when He says: “13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:13-16). You are now raised with Christ to walk in newness of life and to share in His resurrection on the Last Day. And so you are to live as if you are dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ, living out your life as a shining light to others revealing the grace of God in Jesus Christ.
Today Christians just shake their heads at the state of things in our world today. It seems as if everything is falling apart at the seams. Those Christian values, which we grew up with and held so dear, are now marginalized and trivialized. I ran across an interesting comment by retired Anglican pastor John Stott. Stott, who was a pastor in London England, once remarked concerning what he saw as the declining values in America by saying:
‘You know what your own country is like. I'm a visitor, and I wouldn't presume to speak about America. But I know what Great Britain is like. I know something about the growing dishonesty, corruption, immorality, violence, pornography, the diminishing respect for human life, and the increase in abortion. Whose fault is it? Let me put it like this: if the house is dark at night, there is no sense in blaming the house. That's what happens when the sun goes down. The question to ask is, "Where is the light?” if meat goes bad, there is no sense in blaming the meat. That is what happens when the bacteria are allowed to breed unchecked. The question to ask is, "Where is the salt?” if society becomes corrupt like a dark night or stinking fish, there's no sense in blaming society. That's what happens when fallen human society is left to itself and human evil is unrestrained and unchecked. The question to ask is "Where is the church?"
Where is the Church? Dear friend, YOU ARE THE CHURCH! You have been called in Baptism to follow Christ, showing by your words and action the God given faith you have in Jesus. The light of Christ has been given to you to shine in this dark world. Your only hope for your salvation is Jesus Christ. The only hope for this lost and fallen world is Jesus Christ! God seeks to use you to bring Light to the darkness and hope to the hopeless. Your hope is built on nothing less than Jesus. The only hope our neighborhoods and communities have is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which has changed your life so that others might be saved!
The power of the Gospel, the power of Christ is most vividly seen in the story told when George Bush was Vice President. As Vice President, George Bush (41 not 43) represented the U.S. at the funeral of former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. Bush was deeply moved by a silent protest carried out by Brezhnev's widow. She stood motionless by the coffin until seconds before it was closed. Then, just as the soldiers touched the lid, Brezhnev's wife performed an act of great courage and hope, a gesture that must surely rank as one of the most profound acts of civil disobedience ever committed: She reached down and made the sign of the cross on her husband's chest.
There in the citadel of secular, atheistic power, the wife of the man who had run it all hoped that her husband was wrong. She hoped that there was another life, and that that life was best represented by Jesus who died on the cross, and that the same Jesus might yet have mercy on her husband.
Jesus has had mercy on you. He died and rose for you and gives you His light and life. He has called you by name to give hope to the hopeless by living out your faith in Jesus. So let your light shine, giving glory to God, and hope to many. In Jesus’ name.
Amen
Monday, July 25, 2011
Fishers of Men
FISHERS OF MEN
LUKE 5:1-11
5:1 On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
In the name of Jesus:
Have you been fishing lately? The last time I went fishing was over ten years ago. I had never been fishing before, being a city boy from Cleveland. Drew and Mark wanted to go fishing, some of their school friends had been fishing with their dads and both boys thought it would be a good idea to go with their dad. I had no idea what to do, the only fishing I saw were people fishing on the rocks jutting out to Lake Erie when I was growing up, and I distinctly remember Andy of Mayberry taking Opie fishing at the local pond. But me, fishing? I had no idea what to do.
Luann suggested that I go to Lancaster Sales to pick up a license and some inexpensive rods and reels. I asked around and purchased what we needed but had to go to a store to pick up bait, something to lure the fish to bite the hook on the line. I went to a store that sold bait and found out more than I wanted to know about bait. There are different baits for different fish, some like worms; others prefer something else like chicken. Different lures will entice different fish, as each fish has their own likes and dislikes.
The day of our blessed fishing event was comical. The boys took to it well, but I kept getting the line hooked in a tree or a bush. When we were lucky enough to catch a fish, the boys took holding the fish’s mouth and taking out the hook. Me? I rather watch!
Fishing is great fun, and I enjoyed my brief career as a fisherman. My experience taught me that you don’t have to know a lot about it to enjoy it. Fishing was a major industry in the days of Christ. If you live by Buckeye Lake, or one of the Great Lakes or the oceans, you know that fishing is big business today. People dedicate their lives to the sport. Fishing is a way of life for many.
Fishing is a way of life for the Christian as well. Jesus says as much when He tells Peter that He will make them catchers of men. Instead of fishing for men they will catch men. But what does Jesus mean?
Peter knew about fishing. He was one, as James and John, who dedicated their lives to the fishing industry. They knew of the lures, the bait, the right times to fish, they could tell you how to fish and make a living out of it. In our text for today, Peter, James and John, the fishermen of the bunch, were out all night fishing. The text says, “We have toiled all night and took nothing.” These men worked at their trade, they did everything within the realm of possibility to catch fish, using all of the resources of their intellect, will, and body to catch fish. But in the end, they came up with nothing. Nada. Their efforts were fruitless.
Jesus, knowing this, told Peter to “put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch”. Peter probably thought: “Lord, I have been there and have done that.” But Peter responded to the Lord by saying: “But at your word I will let down the nets.” Peter had nothing; he could only trust Christ and His Word. And so he did, and Luke records that the fish were of such number that they were caught but that the nets enclosed around the fish, so much so that the boats were filled with fish and began to sink. Peter in faith recognized the power of Christ and His Word, confessed His sinfulness and begged the Lord to leave him alone, for a sinner is not worthy to stand before the Holy God. But what does Jesus do, but forgive Peter. He forgives and empowers him to do something other than hunting and killing fish; Peter would be empowered to seek to gather mortal men to everlasting life. But how would this be done?
Not by power or earthly might. Not by human wisdom or insight. To gather people to everlasting life can only occur by the power of God. So where is that power? Listen to the Apostle Paul: 18 for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,” I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” (1 Cor. 1:18-25).
The only fishing lure that God uses to bring people to eternal life is His Word, the Law which shows us our sins and our need, and the Gospel which provides the gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ. Note what Paul is saying here. The Church is called to fish for sinners. Sinners will be gathered to God in Jesus Christ. The power of salvation is found only in Jesus Christ, in His innocent life, suffering, death, and resurrection. Only by the shed blood of Christ does God forgive sins. Only by the sacrifice that Christ paid on the cross are sinners saved. Not by human wisdom. Not by human effort. Not by hooks or tricks or modern philosophy. Only by Christ.
Christ grants salvation only through His Word. At the Lord’s Word did Peter cast the nets out, and at Christ’s Word did the fish gather to be collected. Not only Peter but also the fish obeyed the Lord! Humanly speaking, it didn’t make sense to Peter. After all, he did all he COULD do. There was nothing else FOR HIM to do but trust in Jesus and His Word. Peter’s faith merely accepted what Jesus was giving him, a whole haul of fish!
So too Jesus gives you salvation only through His Word. In Baptism the Spirit gives faith in Jesus. Modern man scoffs at such talk! It is just water, what can water do??? But Baptism is not just simple water, but it is water comprehended in and connected with God’s Word. Without the Word Baptism is no Baptism but is only water, but with the water and the Word Baptism gives faith in Christ and eternal life.
Jesus today comes to you in, with, and under the forms of bread and wine. Modern man once again scoffs at such “silliness”. It is just bread and wine, the “wise people” say. What good can that do? But Jesus says that He is really present, He invites you to take and eat, take and drink His body and blood. Why? For the forgiveness of your sins, for the strengthening of your faith, so that you might go in peace and serve the Lord. Without the Word the elements are simple bread and wine, but with the Lord’s Word God gives His gifts of salvation won by His cross.
Peter trusted the Lord’s Word. He was blessed, called by God to cast out the net of salvation to sinners and see many believe in Jesus BY THE POWER OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST. For man is saved by grace through faith in Jesus, not of his own doing but solely by the grace of God through faith in Jesus. God has so blessed you this day with faith in Jesus, and has so strengthened your faith in Jesus through this Meal that you are now sent by Him to fish for men, that through the Word of Christ working in and through your life sinners will be gathered to the Savior, Jesus.
Peter in one sense hit the fishing jackpot. He caught a boatload of fish which, when taken to market, would have been a huge financial windfall for him and James and John. But Peter wasn’t interested in the cash. Recognizing his sinfulness, he confessed his sin and trusted in Christ. And note: “when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.” Peter and the others had a change in their life and priorities. What mattered most was not financial gain, or the growth of the fishing company. What mattered the most was Jesus. Receiving Christ’s forgiveness they were empowered to reach out and gather sinners to Christ, by simply proclaiming Christ crucified and risen again.
God has given to you a calling. Whether you are a husband or wife, parent or child, worker or retired, God has called you to be His disciple in this time and place. As God’s disciple God calls you to live out your faith. As Martin Luther wrote: “It is a great gift of God to live in the light of the Word and the divine calling. For the Word directs the course of life day and night…we should do nothing contrary to the obedience and reverence we owe to God.” (LW 8:83).
Dear friend, in Baptism God has called you by name, you now belong to Him. As a disciple of Jesus, Jesus now calls you to a life of discipleship. Daily you are to follow Him, listen to His Word, trust in Christ for forgiveness and life, and live out that faith in Christ for all to see. Even as Jesus sent Peter to share the Gospel of Christ, so too this day Jesus challenges you to become a fisher of men. that through your words, actions, and attitude you will proclaim Christ as Savior, to the glory of God.
Amen
LUKE 5:1-11
5:1 On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
In the name of Jesus:
Have you been fishing lately? The last time I went fishing was over ten years ago. I had never been fishing before, being a city boy from Cleveland. Drew and Mark wanted to go fishing, some of their school friends had been fishing with their dads and both boys thought it would be a good idea to go with their dad. I had no idea what to do, the only fishing I saw were people fishing on the rocks jutting out to Lake Erie when I was growing up, and I distinctly remember Andy of Mayberry taking Opie fishing at the local pond. But me, fishing? I had no idea what to do.
Luann suggested that I go to Lancaster Sales to pick up a license and some inexpensive rods and reels. I asked around and purchased what we needed but had to go to a store to pick up bait, something to lure the fish to bite the hook on the line. I went to a store that sold bait and found out more than I wanted to know about bait. There are different baits for different fish, some like worms; others prefer something else like chicken. Different lures will entice different fish, as each fish has their own likes and dislikes.
The day of our blessed fishing event was comical. The boys took to it well, but I kept getting the line hooked in a tree or a bush. When we were lucky enough to catch a fish, the boys took holding the fish’s mouth and taking out the hook. Me? I rather watch!
Fishing is great fun, and I enjoyed my brief career as a fisherman. My experience taught me that you don’t have to know a lot about it to enjoy it. Fishing was a major industry in the days of Christ. If you live by Buckeye Lake, or one of the Great Lakes or the oceans, you know that fishing is big business today. People dedicate their lives to the sport. Fishing is a way of life for many.
Fishing is a way of life for the Christian as well. Jesus says as much when He tells Peter that He will make them catchers of men. Instead of fishing for men they will catch men. But what does Jesus mean?
Peter knew about fishing. He was one, as James and John, who dedicated their lives to the fishing industry. They knew of the lures, the bait, the right times to fish, they could tell you how to fish and make a living out of it. In our text for today, Peter, James and John, the fishermen of the bunch, were out all night fishing. The text says, “We have toiled all night and took nothing.” These men worked at their trade, they did everything within the realm of possibility to catch fish, using all of the resources of their intellect, will, and body to catch fish. But in the end, they came up with nothing. Nada. Their efforts were fruitless.
Jesus, knowing this, told Peter to “put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch”. Peter probably thought: “Lord, I have been there and have done that.” But Peter responded to the Lord by saying: “But at your word I will let down the nets.” Peter had nothing; he could only trust Christ and His Word. And so he did, and Luke records that the fish were of such number that they were caught but that the nets enclosed around the fish, so much so that the boats were filled with fish and began to sink. Peter in faith recognized the power of Christ and His Word, confessed His sinfulness and begged the Lord to leave him alone, for a sinner is not worthy to stand before the Holy God. But what does Jesus do, but forgive Peter. He forgives and empowers him to do something other than hunting and killing fish; Peter would be empowered to seek to gather mortal men to everlasting life. But how would this be done?
Not by power or earthly might. Not by human wisdom or insight. To gather people to everlasting life can only occur by the power of God. So where is that power? Listen to the Apostle Paul: 18 for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,” I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” (1 Cor. 1:18-25).
The only fishing lure that God uses to bring people to eternal life is His Word, the Law which shows us our sins and our need, and the Gospel which provides the gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ. Note what Paul is saying here. The Church is called to fish for sinners. Sinners will be gathered to God in Jesus Christ. The power of salvation is found only in Jesus Christ, in His innocent life, suffering, death, and resurrection. Only by the shed blood of Christ does God forgive sins. Only by the sacrifice that Christ paid on the cross are sinners saved. Not by human wisdom. Not by human effort. Not by hooks or tricks or modern philosophy. Only by Christ.
Christ grants salvation only through His Word. At the Lord’s Word did Peter cast the nets out, and at Christ’s Word did the fish gather to be collected. Not only Peter but also the fish obeyed the Lord! Humanly speaking, it didn’t make sense to Peter. After all, he did all he COULD do. There was nothing else FOR HIM to do but trust in Jesus and His Word. Peter’s faith merely accepted what Jesus was giving him, a whole haul of fish!
So too Jesus gives you salvation only through His Word. In Baptism the Spirit gives faith in Jesus. Modern man scoffs at such talk! It is just water, what can water do??? But Baptism is not just simple water, but it is water comprehended in and connected with God’s Word. Without the Word Baptism is no Baptism but is only water, but with the water and the Word Baptism gives faith in Christ and eternal life.
Jesus today comes to you in, with, and under the forms of bread and wine. Modern man once again scoffs at such “silliness”. It is just bread and wine, the “wise people” say. What good can that do? But Jesus says that He is really present, He invites you to take and eat, take and drink His body and blood. Why? For the forgiveness of your sins, for the strengthening of your faith, so that you might go in peace and serve the Lord. Without the Word the elements are simple bread and wine, but with the Lord’s Word God gives His gifts of salvation won by His cross.
Peter trusted the Lord’s Word. He was blessed, called by God to cast out the net of salvation to sinners and see many believe in Jesus BY THE POWER OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST. For man is saved by grace through faith in Jesus, not of his own doing but solely by the grace of God through faith in Jesus. God has so blessed you this day with faith in Jesus, and has so strengthened your faith in Jesus through this Meal that you are now sent by Him to fish for men, that through the Word of Christ working in and through your life sinners will be gathered to the Savior, Jesus.
Peter in one sense hit the fishing jackpot. He caught a boatload of fish which, when taken to market, would have been a huge financial windfall for him and James and John. But Peter wasn’t interested in the cash. Recognizing his sinfulness, he confessed his sin and trusted in Christ. And note: “when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.” Peter and the others had a change in their life and priorities. What mattered most was not financial gain, or the growth of the fishing company. What mattered the most was Jesus. Receiving Christ’s forgiveness they were empowered to reach out and gather sinners to Christ, by simply proclaiming Christ crucified and risen again.
God has given to you a calling. Whether you are a husband or wife, parent or child, worker or retired, God has called you to be His disciple in this time and place. As God’s disciple God calls you to live out your faith. As Martin Luther wrote: “It is a great gift of God to live in the light of the Word and the divine calling. For the Word directs the course of life day and night…we should do nothing contrary to the obedience and reverence we owe to God.” (LW 8:83).
Dear friend, in Baptism God has called you by name, you now belong to Him. As a disciple of Jesus, Jesus now calls you to a life of discipleship. Daily you are to follow Him, listen to His Word, trust in Christ for forgiveness and life, and live out that faith in Christ for all to see. Even as Jesus sent Peter to share the Gospel of Christ, so too this day Jesus challenges you to become a fisher of men. that through your words, actions, and attitude you will proclaim Christ as Savior, to the glory of God.
Amen
Friday, July 22, 2011
Standing in the place of God
STANDING IN THE PLACE OF GOD
GENESIS 50:15-19
15 When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” 16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died, 17 ‘Say to Joseph, Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. 21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit:
This past week at VBS I had the opportunity to teach the pre school children. One of the techniques that were suggested in teaching 3, 4, and 5 year olds was play-acting. When one play-acts in teaching children, the teacher lead the children in acting out the story being told. For example, in the case of Moses parting the Red Sea, the students will act out with their arms the separation of the waters, and make believe that they are walking through the Red Sea as on dry ground. These types of techniques can be helpful in learning.
In the area of the fine arts and drama, actors will attempt to learn all they can about a character in the part that they play in the drama. Actors will seek to get inside the character to actually and accurately portray the part. They will, in a sense, stand in the place of the person they are trying to portray.
All of this is in good fun and is entertaining for the actors and those engrossed in the story. There are times we need to be engrossed in such types of entertainment, to divert us from the problems and trials we all face. We need to be engrossed because life itself is all too engrossing. It is easy to get all wrapped up in our own problems that we fail to not only see the big picture, but that we also lose perspective. The Old Testament lesson for today serves as a reality check for us today.
The story in the familiar story of Joseph, he of whom Andrew Lloyd Webber popularized in his play: “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream coat”. Joseph, one of the 12 sons of Jacob, was an interpreter of dreams. His God given ability to interpret dreams got him into trouble with his jealous brothers, who sold him to traders when he was young, then lied to their father Jacob over Joseph’s whereabouts, saying the Joseph was dead!
God however had amazing plans for Joseph, even though those plans led him to an unjust imprisonment over the false accusation of Potiphar’s wife. While in prison, Joseph was able to interpret a butler and baker’s dream, and once Pharaoh got wind of Joseph, the Egyptian leader summoned Joseph to interpret his own troubling dream. Pharaoh, upon hearing of an impending famine through Joseph’s interpretation, appointed Joseph to be one in charge of preparing for the famine. Joseph, because of God’s blessing and God’s gift of interpretation of dreams, became second in power only to Pharaoh in all of Egypt.
The famine was severe, and Jacob, along with his family, was suffering back home. Jacob sent his sons to see if they could buy any food in Egypt to bring home with them. They came to Joseph, who told them that they could have food only on one condition that they would leave Benjamin behind. The sons reluctantly agreed to this and brought food home with them to Jacob and the family but Jacob was none too pleased. Thinking Joseph was dead, he wondered if Benjamin would meet the same fate. Soon the food bought from Egypt would run out and Jacob once again sent his sons to buy some in Egypt. Once again the brothers approached Joseph, who gave them food along with returning the money they used to purchase the food. Upon returning to Egypt, Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, and they in turn went to get Jacob, to take him and the rest of the family to Egypt, there reunited with Joseph, and Jacob with all of his children, lived until he died.
After Jacob’s death, the sons of Jacob were fearful. Would Joseph now seek retribution? Would he now act in vengeance toward those who had wronged him? This was the question, the big elephant in the room so to speak, that everyone wondered about. And this is where we pick up our text for today. And we read: “15 When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” 16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died, 17 ‘Say to Joseph, Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. 21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.”
Note Joseph’s powerful words: Am I in the place of God? Can I stand in God’s place and judge you? Heaven forbid, says Joseph, for God is only the one true Judge. He alone brings about good from evil, and because God has shown mercy to me and has used this to His glory many people are alive today! Joseph thus spoke kindly to them and comforted them, for Joseph rightly understood that he could not stand in the place of God and judge his brothers.
You see, God was merciful to Joseph, so he in turn, in thanks to God, was merciful to those others, even though they wronged him. Joseph trusted in God’s mercy throughout his life and having been a recipient of His mercy, he could do no less than share that mercy with others.
Do you stand in the place of God? In one respect, yes , you stand in the place of God when you seek to take matters into your own hands. When you are wronged and then stand in judgment against the one who has wronged you, you stand in the place of God. When you seek retribution and harm over and against those who have wronged you, you stand in the place of God. And this is not pleasing to God. Who are you to judge or to stand in God’s place to work your will when He alone is God and is able to do anything, which pleases Him? God doesn’t call you to take out your anger on another! Listen to what God says: “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” (Romans 12:14-21). When you condemn another or seek to avenge yourself, you put yourself in the place of God, seeking to stand in God’s place. Does not God say that you shall have no other gods besides Me? To seek vengeance fails to trust in God that He is just and that He will do what is right by you.
This is what God has exactly done! He has sought vengeance and accomplished justice on your behalf. It is not as a result of anything that you have done or what you could accomplish. God has done this solely by His almighty power and His justice flows from His everlasting love.
For God’s good News is that Jesus has stood in your place! He accomplished all that you could not do by keeping God’s Law perfectly. When wronged, Jesus did not seek retribution but turned the other cheek, again, and again, and again. Jesus is the Lamb of God and when led to the cross He was like a lamb led to the slaughter, not opening His mouth but He willing lived, suffered, and died on the cross to pay the price for all sin and injustice. God’s justice in found in the cross of Christ, His only Son who gave His life for your sins and the sins of the world.
Only Jesus is merciful, as His Father is merciful. Just as Jesus forgave those who condemned Him to death so He also forgives you. His blood washes even the vilest sin away. He doesn’t condemn you today, rather He gives newness of life! Jesus places you in Him so that by God’s grace you can stand as His child. In Baptism God has placed you in Jesus so that now you are in good standing with God. Today He feeds you with His true body and blood. Nourished by Jesus you now by His grace stand in His place to share His mercy and love with others.
In Jesus you are now a son of the Father. In Jesus you are called to be merciful to those who have wronged you, forgiving those who have hurt you, doing good even to your enemies. For this is God’s good and gracious will; that you would “be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” For as you stand by grace through faith in the mercies of God in Christ, you are now sent to stand in His mercy to share His mercy with others.
To God be the glory.
Amen
GENESIS 50:15-19
15 When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” 16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died, 17 ‘Say to Joseph, Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. 21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit:
This past week at VBS I had the opportunity to teach the pre school children. One of the techniques that were suggested in teaching 3, 4, and 5 year olds was play-acting. When one play-acts in teaching children, the teacher lead the children in acting out the story being told. For example, in the case of Moses parting the Red Sea, the students will act out with their arms the separation of the waters, and make believe that they are walking through the Red Sea as on dry ground. These types of techniques can be helpful in learning.
In the area of the fine arts and drama, actors will attempt to learn all they can about a character in the part that they play in the drama. Actors will seek to get inside the character to actually and accurately portray the part. They will, in a sense, stand in the place of the person they are trying to portray.
All of this is in good fun and is entertaining for the actors and those engrossed in the story. There are times we need to be engrossed in such types of entertainment, to divert us from the problems and trials we all face. We need to be engrossed because life itself is all too engrossing. It is easy to get all wrapped up in our own problems that we fail to not only see the big picture, but that we also lose perspective. The Old Testament lesson for today serves as a reality check for us today.
The story in the familiar story of Joseph, he of whom Andrew Lloyd Webber popularized in his play: “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream coat”. Joseph, one of the 12 sons of Jacob, was an interpreter of dreams. His God given ability to interpret dreams got him into trouble with his jealous brothers, who sold him to traders when he was young, then lied to their father Jacob over Joseph’s whereabouts, saying the Joseph was dead!
God however had amazing plans for Joseph, even though those plans led him to an unjust imprisonment over the false accusation of Potiphar’s wife. While in prison, Joseph was able to interpret a butler and baker’s dream, and once Pharaoh got wind of Joseph, the Egyptian leader summoned Joseph to interpret his own troubling dream. Pharaoh, upon hearing of an impending famine through Joseph’s interpretation, appointed Joseph to be one in charge of preparing for the famine. Joseph, because of God’s blessing and God’s gift of interpretation of dreams, became second in power only to Pharaoh in all of Egypt.
The famine was severe, and Jacob, along with his family, was suffering back home. Jacob sent his sons to see if they could buy any food in Egypt to bring home with them. They came to Joseph, who told them that they could have food only on one condition that they would leave Benjamin behind. The sons reluctantly agreed to this and brought food home with them to Jacob and the family but Jacob was none too pleased. Thinking Joseph was dead, he wondered if Benjamin would meet the same fate. Soon the food bought from Egypt would run out and Jacob once again sent his sons to buy some in Egypt. Once again the brothers approached Joseph, who gave them food along with returning the money they used to purchase the food. Upon returning to Egypt, Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, and they in turn went to get Jacob, to take him and the rest of the family to Egypt, there reunited with Joseph, and Jacob with all of his children, lived until he died.
After Jacob’s death, the sons of Jacob were fearful. Would Joseph now seek retribution? Would he now act in vengeance toward those who had wronged him? This was the question, the big elephant in the room so to speak, that everyone wondered about. And this is where we pick up our text for today. And we read: “15 When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” 16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died, 17 ‘Say to Joseph, Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. 21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.”
Note Joseph’s powerful words: Am I in the place of God? Can I stand in God’s place and judge you? Heaven forbid, says Joseph, for God is only the one true Judge. He alone brings about good from evil, and because God has shown mercy to me and has used this to His glory many people are alive today! Joseph thus spoke kindly to them and comforted them, for Joseph rightly understood that he could not stand in the place of God and judge his brothers.
You see, God was merciful to Joseph, so he in turn, in thanks to God, was merciful to those others, even though they wronged him. Joseph trusted in God’s mercy throughout his life and having been a recipient of His mercy, he could do no less than share that mercy with others.
Do you stand in the place of God? In one respect, yes , you stand in the place of God when you seek to take matters into your own hands. When you are wronged and then stand in judgment against the one who has wronged you, you stand in the place of God. When you seek retribution and harm over and against those who have wronged you, you stand in the place of God. And this is not pleasing to God. Who are you to judge or to stand in God’s place to work your will when He alone is God and is able to do anything, which pleases Him? God doesn’t call you to take out your anger on another! Listen to what God says: “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” (Romans 12:14-21). When you condemn another or seek to avenge yourself, you put yourself in the place of God, seeking to stand in God’s place. Does not God say that you shall have no other gods besides Me? To seek vengeance fails to trust in God that He is just and that He will do what is right by you.
This is what God has exactly done! He has sought vengeance and accomplished justice on your behalf. It is not as a result of anything that you have done or what you could accomplish. God has done this solely by His almighty power and His justice flows from His everlasting love.
For God’s good News is that Jesus has stood in your place! He accomplished all that you could not do by keeping God’s Law perfectly. When wronged, Jesus did not seek retribution but turned the other cheek, again, and again, and again. Jesus is the Lamb of God and when led to the cross He was like a lamb led to the slaughter, not opening His mouth but He willing lived, suffered, and died on the cross to pay the price for all sin and injustice. God’s justice in found in the cross of Christ, His only Son who gave His life for your sins and the sins of the world.
Only Jesus is merciful, as His Father is merciful. Just as Jesus forgave those who condemned Him to death so He also forgives you. His blood washes even the vilest sin away. He doesn’t condemn you today, rather He gives newness of life! Jesus places you in Him so that by God’s grace you can stand as His child. In Baptism God has placed you in Jesus so that now you are in good standing with God. Today He feeds you with His true body and blood. Nourished by Jesus you now by His grace stand in His place to share His mercy and love with others.
In Jesus you are now a son of the Father. In Jesus you are called to be merciful to those who have wronged you, forgiving those who have hurt you, doing good even to your enemies. For this is God’s good and gracious will; that you would “be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” For as you stand by grace through faith in the mercies of God in Christ, you are now sent to stand in His mercy to share His mercy with others.
To God be the glory.
Amen
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