KNOWING CHRIST
PHILIPPAINS 3: 8-11
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ [9] and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— [10] that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
In the name of Jesus:
A few years ago there was a true story about a man in New York City who was kidnapped. His kidnappers called his wife and asked for $100,000 ransom. She talked them down to $30,000.
The story had a happy ending: the man returned home unharmed, the money was recovered, and the kidnappers were caught and sent to jail. But, don't you wonder what happened when the man got home and found that his wife got him back for a discount? The writer of this story imagined out loud what the negotiations must have been like: "$100,000 for that old guy? You have got to be crazy. Just look at him! Look at that gut! You want $100,000 for that? You've got to be kidding. Give me a break here. $30,000 is my top offer."
Now I imagine that there are some of you who can relate to this story. I can, in that I would hope that my wife would pay top dollar to get me back, but perhaps she might seek to use a coupon! Seriously, though, I think that each of us would hope and think that if we were in a similar situation, that the ones we love would spare no expense to get us back. They wouldn't haggle over the price. They wouldn't say, 'Well, let me think about it.' I like to think that they would say, 'We'll do anything for you.'"
Well, this is exactly what Paul says that God has said and done for you! You see, the Bible says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Each of us, from birth, has been disconnected to God and from God. Martin Luther put it this way: we are in bondage to sin and we can’t free ourselves. And it is true, look around and that is why you see sin rearing its head in many forms: in hatred, prejudice, gossip, sickness, and death, just to name a few symptoms of this sickness that we all have. And this sin sickness ends in death, ultimately. We all die. That is our end. We can deny it, but we can’t escape it. We can think that it won’t happen to us, but it will. God says that the soul that sins will most certainly die. We die because we are sinful, we are sinners. We are alienated from God, and we need God’s help!
And help is what we have! Listen to the Word of God through the pen of Paul: “, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” that is to say, we have been made right with God and this is not of our own doing. This right standing with God is given as a free gift of His love. The human race is fallen race. We have fallen and we cannot right ourselves, we cannot pick ourselves up. But God can. And He has. He came down from heaven in the person of His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus, God’s only begotten Son, has become our Substitute in life and death. In life, Jesus lived the perfect life and kept God’s Ten Commandments because we can’t. It then pleased God to offer up His only Son in death so that by the shed blood of Jesus Christ sinners would be forgiven. Mankind has been bought with a price, not with money, but with the blood of Jesus. We were not God’s people at birth because of our sinfulness, but He has made us His people by the blood of Jesus. We deserve God’s wrath and punishment, but we have received God’s mercy and love in Christ. You have been saved, as a free gift of God in Jesus Christ.
Salvation, what a wonderful gift, to know for certain, that you will be with the Lord, and with all who are the Lord’s, on that Last Day. On that Last Day, the Bible says that there will be a resurrection, that is, the dead will come to life again. To those who have believed in Christ in this life, theirs will be eternal life with Christ. To those who have rejected God’s offer of grace, they will die eternally.
Now I would like you consider, for a moment, the possibility of living forever, of being in heavenly bliss forever. It is difficult to imagine that in this lie, after all, we are confined by space and time. Our lives are limited, our knowledge, even time here on earth is limited. The old saying that all good things must come to an end is true. Our lives will end; the question is where will you spend eternity? If you could spend an eternity without pain, without stress, no fears, no worries, no sickness and death, hey that sounds like a pretty good deal, doesn’t it? That is the offer God has for you and the world we live in. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. This life is yours in Christ. To know Christ, which is to believe in Him, accepts God’s offer of forgiveness, life and salvation. This is what Paul means in our text: “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” It is possible to live forever, and God makes this possibility a reality for all who believe in Jesus.
Let me be frank and a little bit personal here, if I may. The Davidson family knows the realities of life. Being a pastor and minister’s family doesn’t make us immune. We have our share of burdens. Last summer I flew to Florida to be with my dad as he died. I don’t share this with you for pity. I don’t want your pity; I just want you to understand that we live in a fallen world. Sin affects us all. Family and friends get sick, and will eventually die. Our comfort and hope is in knowing and believing in Christ. You see, I know that I will see my sainted mom and dad again, because they knew Christ and believed in Him. And we know as a family that when our loved ones die in the Lord that we will see them again, only in glory, perfected by Christ in the resurrection, because they in this life knew Jesus and believed in Him as their Lord and Savior.
Speaking for myself and for the members of Redeemer, I want, we want, you to have that assurance as well. This is why we have a pre school program, to tell little children about Jesus so that they will know and believe in Him. That is why we support and are active in mission work, simply to tell others about Jesus so that by God’s grace, through faith in Jesus, many more will be saved. That is why we are here today, to tell you about Jesus, so that you will know Jesus and His love, His help for you in time of need, His peace, His forgiveness, His assurance of eternal life.
And so this is why we invite you to believe in Christ. We can’t force you to believe, only offer and ask you to believe. We don’t try to coerce you only invite you to believe in Jesus. Jesus never once forced people to follow Him, but He always invited. That is why He says: I stand at the door and knock. Jesus knocks and asks you to believe and follow Him, so that by knowing and believing in Him, you will have eternal life. My greatest desire today is that you believe in Jesus, your children and other members of your family believe in Jesus, so that by believing in Jesus you will have life in His name.
I want to be clear; today we are not asking you to become a member of Redeemer Lutheran Church. Most certainly, we would love to have you as a member, but membership isn’t what this is about. I WANT TO SAY CLEARLY THAT IF YOU HAVE A CHURCH HOME, BE A FAITHUL MEMBER OF THAT CHURCH. ATTEND SERVICES THERE, BE ACTIVE. WE AREN’T LOOKING TO STEAL MEMBERS. BUT WE DO WANT TO OFFER TO YOU THE INVITATION TO, IF YOU HAVE NO CHURCH HOME, TO MAKE REDEEMER YOUR CHURCH HOME. Here you will hear the grace of God in Jesus. Here you will learn more about Jesus and His love for you. Our purpose, my purpose and mission as a pastor, is that I help you know Jesus so well in this life, so that you will recognize Him on the other side.
And so, I conclude with the words of the Apostle Paul: Come and be God’s friend, for he, Jesus, who knew no sin became sin for you, that by believing, you will have life in His name.
In Jesus’ name.
Amen
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
A V 8 Moment
A V8 MOMENT
LUKE 15:1-3, 15-31
17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ 20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
In the name of Jesus:
There were a series of commercials for V 8 Juice which contained what are now known as V 8 moments. These moments were captured in the commercials when an individual, after eating a salad or some other vegetable, that he has an enlightened moment. Like a bolt of lightening from above it dawns on the person in the commercial that, instead of eating his fruits and vegetables, he could have had a V 8. This state of enlightenment comes to be known as a V 8 moment.
In our text for today, there are a series of V 8 moments. Truths which become evident after reflection, truths which change lives, truths which we need to consider, so may the Spirit through the Word this day give us such a moment!
The parable of the Prodigal Son is a well known parable. In this story, Jesus tells of a young boy who yearns to leave home. He is plain sick and tired of living under the same roof of his father, and so he requests his inheritance so that he can leave. He takes “what is coming him” and leaves home, free from being burdened and shackled by living at home. He wants his freedom and the bonds which tie him to his family cut and severed. And so he sets out, free to do what he pleases, free, answering to no one but himself, doing his own thing, in his own way, when he wants to do it. At first he thinks, “Now this is living!” But he soon grows unhappy. The son squanders all that he possessed. He becomes penniless and destitute; his only comfort comes from living like a pig. How ironic, in that in his freedom he probably lived like a pig and in the end he truly was living with the pigs!
And then comes the V 8 moment, kind of: ““But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father,” like a bolt out of the blue, he comes to the realization of all that he gave up. His father’s hired servants have more than what he does now! But it is a kind of V 8 moment, because this young lad still doesn’t get it. It doesn’t truly understand how his father feels about him. He doesn’t understand nor comprehend his father’s love. This is why he goes on to say: “18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ Note his request, he asks to be treated as one of the hired servants! In essence, he asks for his dad to employ him on his staff. Kind of like filling out an application for employment and willing to go through a job interview! Certainly, this young man thinks, that his father will see the prodigal son’s value as a servant. But in saying this, the son shows that he still doesn’t really get it. He has no clue how his father feels about him. He is still in need of a V 8 moment!
For the father sees his son in the distance, and even before the son can approach his father his loving father approaches him! The father shows compassion on his son, he shows him UNDESERVED LOVE AND MERCY. Nothing the son has done or could do would make his father treat him this way. And so: “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.”
Oh how we and how the citizens of planet earth need such a V 8 moment! For you see, we are like this prodigal son, in that we have squandered our relationship with God! Each of us has forsaken God and has lived as if God did not mean anything to us! We have failed to love God above all things, we have trusted in our own righteous works and have not feared God and His wrath as we should! All of us have sinned and have fallen from God’s grace.
But in our sinfulness we think, oh, I am different. We think, I am not as bad of a sinner, at least not when compared to my neighbor. I am not like so and so, who cheats on the spouse, or who tells lies and gossips. Surely God sees what a good person that I am, and He understands when I can’t live the way He wants me to. He understands when I speak ill of the person who wronged me, because he really had it coming to him. Or we say that God will excuse just this one time (that happens to turn into a habitual sin). Or we think that God is truly a God of love, so He will excuse me and forgive me because that is who He is. And in doing so we sin against God, we cheapen His love, and we reject His grace. What we need is a V 8 moment.
We need to see ourselves as God sees us. We need to understand and comprehend that we are truly unworthy of God’s love. We HAVE sinned; we HAVE fallen from grace, there is NO ONE right with God, not even one of us. Such is our sinful state that we are spiritually DEPRAVED. We have nothing to which would make us pleasing to God. We can offer nothing which would turn God’s heart towards us. We are truly a desperate people, a people desperately in need of God’s mercy and love. Repentance is a type of V 8 moment, not a one time lightening bolt event, but a continual recognition that we are spiritual beggars, in need of God’s grace. We need God to pity us, to not look at us because of our sins. The prodigal son comes to this recognition when he finally says: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” The son says that there is nothing he can do; he falls on the mercy of his father. Here is truly his V 8 moment, here the son places his faith in his father’s love, and here he is forgiven and restored.
And the Good News is that God IS merciful. He HAS HAD mercy upon us and the sinful world. The prodigal son’s father is not moved by his son’s remorse, but is moved by his own love for His Son. In the same way, God is not moved to love us because of our sin, but IN SPITE of our sins. For the Bible says that while we were yet sinners, God loved us in Christ. And God was moved, in love FOR US, in that in His mercy and grace the Father sent His Son into this sinful world to BE sin for us. Hence, God placed all of our sin upon Jesus, regarding Him and treating Him as the greatest sinner that ever lived. Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us so that we would know God’s love for us in Jesus.
We, who were conceived in sin and darkness, have had God’s light and love burst into our lives in the waters of our Baptism. Here in Baptism God creates in us new hearts and gives us a new life in Christ. In Baptism God drowns our old sinful self, so that by daily sorrow for sin and repentance, our sinful self dies with all of its sin and sinful desires, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit we arise anew to live before God as His children.
This is what Paul means when he writes in the book of Romans: “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. [5] For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6:3-5).
And so God teaches us in the story of the prodigal son not only of our spiritual unworthiness and depravity, but of His great love for us in Jesus. Our life with God is not about how we seek God, but how God seeks us in Christ. God so loved us and the sinful world that He sent His one and only Son, to come down to our level, yet without sin. And while living for us, Jesus showed His love by climbing the cross, opening up His arms, and dying for us. In love He has defeated sin, Satan, and death for us. Our conversion in Baptism is our v 8 moment, when God places us in fellowship with Him. God calls us to live out this moment, each and everyday, so that living as His children, we might share the news of how all have become His children in Christ.
When the prodigal son and father’s relationship is restored, the Scriptures tells us that great joy breaks out in the household. The fattened calf is killed, and the celebration begins. And even now God calls us to share this News of His love and forgiveness in Christ with all. For when one sinner repents and believes in Christ, all heaven breaks loose in song! For Jesus says: “Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
May you share the News of Christ, so that angels will celebrate.
Amen
LUKE 15:1-3, 15-31
17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ 20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
In the name of Jesus:
There were a series of commercials for V 8 Juice which contained what are now known as V 8 moments. These moments were captured in the commercials when an individual, after eating a salad or some other vegetable, that he has an enlightened moment. Like a bolt of lightening from above it dawns on the person in the commercial that, instead of eating his fruits and vegetables, he could have had a V 8. This state of enlightenment comes to be known as a V 8 moment.
In our text for today, there are a series of V 8 moments. Truths which become evident after reflection, truths which change lives, truths which we need to consider, so may the Spirit through the Word this day give us such a moment!
The parable of the Prodigal Son is a well known parable. In this story, Jesus tells of a young boy who yearns to leave home. He is plain sick and tired of living under the same roof of his father, and so he requests his inheritance so that he can leave. He takes “what is coming him” and leaves home, free from being burdened and shackled by living at home. He wants his freedom and the bonds which tie him to his family cut and severed. And so he sets out, free to do what he pleases, free, answering to no one but himself, doing his own thing, in his own way, when he wants to do it. At first he thinks, “Now this is living!” But he soon grows unhappy. The son squanders all that he possessed. He becomes penniless and destitute; his only comfort comes from living like a pig. How ironic, in that in his freedom he probably lived like a pig and in the end he truly was living with the pigs!
And then comes the V 8 moment, kind of: ““But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father,” like a bolt out of the blue, he comes to the realization of all that he gave up. His father’s hired servants have more than what he does now! But it is a kind of V 8 moment, because this young lad still doesn’t get it. It doesn’t truly understand how his father feels about him. He doesn’t understand nor comprehend his father’s love. This is why he goes on to say: “18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ Note his request, he asks to be treated as one of the hired servants! In essence, he asks for his dad to employ him on his staff. Kind of like filling out an application for employment and willing to go through a job interview! Certainly, this young man thinks, that his father will see the prodigal son’s value as a servant. But in saying this, the son shows that he still doesn’t really get it. He has no clue how his father feels about him. He is still in need of a V 8 moment!
For the father sees his son in the distance, and even before the son can approach his father his loving father approaches him! The father shows compassion on his son, he shows him UNDESERVED LOVE AND MERCY. Nothing the son has done or could do would make his father treat him this way. And so: “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.”
Oh how we and how the citizens of planet earth need such a V 8 moment! For you see, we are like this prodigal son, in that we have squandered our relationship with God! Each of us has forsaken God and has lived as if God did not mean anything to us! We have failed to love God above all things, we have trusted in our own righteous works and have not feared God and His wrath as we should! All of us have sinned and have fallen from God’s grace.
But in our sinfulness we think, oh, I am different. We think, I am not as bad of a sinner, at least not when compared to my neighbor. I am not like so and so, who cheats on the spouse, or who tells lies and gossips. Surely God sees what a good person that I am, and He understands when I can’t live the way He wants me to. He understands when I speak ill of the person who wronged me, because he really had it coming to him. Or we say that God will excuse just this one time (that happens to turn into a habitual sin). Or we think that God is truly a God of love, so He will excuse me and forgive me because that is who He is. And in doing so we sin against God, we cheapen His love, and we reject His grace. What we need is a V 8 moment.
We need to see ourselves as God sees us. We need to understand and comprehend that we are truly unworthy of God’s love. We HAVE sinned; we HAVE fallen from grace, there is NO ONE right with God, not even one of us. Such is our sinful state that we are spiritually DEPRAVED. We have nothing to which would make us pleasing to God. We can offer nothing which would turn God’s heart towards us. We are truly a desperate people, a people desperately in need of God’s mercy and love. Repentance is a type of V 8 moment, not a one time lightening bolt event, but a continual recognition that we are spiritual beggars, in need of God’s grace. We need God to pity us, to not look at us because of our sins. The prodigal son comes to this recognition when he finally says: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” The son says that there is nothing he can do; he falls on the mercy of his father. Here is truly his V 8 moment, here the son places his faith in his father’s love, and here he is forgiven and restored.
And the Good News is that God IS merciful. He HAS HAD mercy upon us and the sinful world. The prodigal son’s father is not moved by his son’s remorse, but is moved by his own love for His Son. In the same way, God is not moved to love us because of our sin, but IN SPITE of our sins. For the Bible says that while we were yet sinners, God loved us in Christ. And God was moved, in love FOR US, in that in His mercy and grace the Father sent His Son into this sinful world to BE sin for us. Hence, God placed all of our sin upon Jesus, regarding Him and treating Him as the greatest sinner that ever lived. Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us so that we would know God’s love for us in Jesus.
We, who were conceived in sin and darkness, have had God’s light and love burst into our lives in the waters of our Baptism. Here in Baptism God creates in us new hearts and gives us a new life in Christ. In Baptism God drowns our old sinful self, so that by daily sorrow for sin and repentance, our sinful self dies with all of its sin and sinful desires, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit we arise anew to live before God as His children.
This is what Paul means when he writes in the book of Romans: “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. [5] For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6:3-5).
And so God teaches us in the story of the prodigal son not only of our spiritual unworthiness and depravity, but of His great love for us in Jesus. Our life with God is not about how we seek God, but how God seeks us in Christ. God so loved us and the sinful world that He sent His one and only Son, to come down to our level, yet without sin. And while living for us, Jesus showed His love by climbing the cross, opening up His arms, and dying for us. In love He has defeated sin, Satan, and death for us. Our conversion in Baptism is our v 8 moment, when God places us in fellowship with Him. God calls us to live out this moment, each and everyday, so that living as His children, we might share the news of how all have become His children in Christ.
When the prodigal son and father’s relationship is restored, the Scriptures tells us that great joy breaks out in the household. The fattened calf is killed, and the celebration begins. And even now God calls us to share this News of His love and forgiveness in Christ with all. For when one sinner repents and believes in Christ, all heaven breaks loose in song! For Jesus says: “Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
May you share the News of Christ, so that angels will celebrate.
Amen
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Free Scotland
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/2010/02/25/alex-salmond-and-the-snp-reveal-the-questions-they-would-ask-in-independence-referendum-86908-22069164/
Here is hoping this comes to pass, but I speak from a bias as Grandpa and Grandma Davidson were Scottish
Here is hoping this comes to pass, but I speak from a bias as Grandpa and Grandma Davidson were Scottish
You Can Be Forgiven!
YOU CAN BE PRE-FORGIVEN
ROMANS 10:8b-14
The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? [1] And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
In the name of Jesus:
When the mail arrived at our house this past Tuesday, Luann got this letter, which states on the envelope:” You’ve been pre-forgiven, open to find out how.” My first thought was, how nice, my wife is pre forgiven, which means that she is forgiven of a wrong even before she does something wrong. I was so happy for her, that I immediately ran the envelope to her so that she could open it. And then I looked for mine. After all, if she is pre forgiven, shouldn’t I be? After all, I am a minister, I am in the forgiving business, so if Luann would be pre forgiven, I would be as well. But I looked and looked, but couldn’t find an envelope with my name on it. Perhaps it was an oversight. So I looked at the mail the next day, no pre forgiveness for me. And none on Thursday as well. Here it is Sunday and I have not received a pre forgiveness notification!
Luann is such a gracious person, she allowed me to open her mail so that I could find more out about this pre forgiveness. Upon further inspection, the pre forgiveness comes with buying the insurance of the company that sent the letter. A phone number is listed so that Luann (not me) could call for a quote. So the bottom line is that you have to buy pre forgiveness. You have to do something to get it. It isn’t free, and no one is just going to give it to you.
The question which has plagued humanity is: “How can I get right with God?” It is a question asked by those who are in the prime of life and those who are facing death. People talk about getting right with their Maker when one lays on the death bed. All throughout life people are attempting to become justified before God.
It goes back to the Garden of Eden. There Adam and Eve tried to justify their actions before God. It wasn’t my fault, said both of them, it was someone else’s fault that caused me to disobey You, God. It was the serpent You made, Lord, it was the woman You gave me, God, that caused me to do what was evil in Your sight. What Adam and Eve said was essentially “I am blameless, justified in my actions, so go find fault with someone else.”
Mankind seeks justification for one’s own thoughts, words, and deeds. God speaks in Leviticus and states: “Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live.” And so, mankind in its wisdom seeks to keep God’s laws and even tries to fool itself into believing that it has keep God’s Law when it hasn’t. The Bible is consistent and teaches that one may get eternal life if he or she can keep the Law. This is the way of becoming right with God, by one’s own behavior. This is what Paul calls in our text the righteousness of the Law, a righteousness that comes from one’s own efforts and endeavors. This is the becoming right with God that Jesus speaks about in Luke 10:28, when He speaks to the rich young man and says: “You have answered correctly, do this and you will live.”
But this won’t work. It can’t and won’t work. Why? Because it is the wrong righteousness. Paul says that he wants the Jews to be saved, that is his desire. But they have the wrong righteousness because their relationship with God is based on what they do or can do. The Bible says that there is a way which seems right to man and that way ends in death. To seek our own relationship with God on our own terms ends in our own death, and ultimately, eternal separation from God which is eternal death and damnation. To seek God on our own terms, our own efforts or self justifications denies the justification that God gives in Jesus, for God’s righteousness only comes in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has brought an end to the delusion that the righteousness of the Law can save man.
Why has Jesus ended the delusion? Because God gives to all access to Him in Jesus. This right standing with God comes not from man, but from heaven. God the Father brought this all about by sending His Son from heaven, to live rightly before God and man, and to die rightly in God’s sight on the cross. To prove that God has made all things right in Jesus, God raised His Son Jesus from the dead on Easter morn.
Jesus gives you this right relationship with the Father in His Word. God doesn’t say in His Word: Do this and live with Me, because that is impossible, it can’t be done. So what God says in His Word is that all is done. Jesus spoke from the cross: It is finished. Nothing else needs to be done for everything has been accomplished. Man can not nor does he need to discover it, man can not nor does he need to devise it, it has been done. Jesus, God’s only Son has done it and He alone gives it in His Word. This divine work is proclaimed to you in and through the Word of God. It is proclaimed in the Word and given in the Word.
In Baptism God has given this to you. In His Word He tells it to you. In the Supper He shares it with you. You are God’s child. You are forgiven. You have been made right with God in Christ. You have been saved by grace through faith in Christ, and this is not of your own doing. This is a divine work, a Godly gift to you all on account of Jesus.
By faith you receive this gift. Faith takes God at His Word. Faith receives the gift the God gives. Faith trusts that Word of God saying: Yes, this is mine, because God has made it so and because God says so. God says that in Christ you are cleared of your guilt. It is so. God says that in Christ you are forgiven, it is so. God says that in Christ you are saved, it is so. God says that you are His child and will live with Him now and forever, it is so because God says it and makes it a reality in Jesus.
This faith is a living an active faith. It proves itself as sincere as you confess with your mouth your faith in Jesus. It shows itself in its life as you seek to live your life to God’s glory because of what God gives in Jesus. NO ONE WHO IS A DISICPLE OF JESUS IS A SILENT DISCIPLE. NO ONE WHO HAS THE LORD JESUS HAS HIS LORD REMAINS A SILENT SERVANT OF HIS LORD, BUT SERVES HIS MASTER IN WHAT HE SAYS AND WHAT HE DOES. God has forgiven us in Christ, and this fact permeates all that we say and do.
In a Danish village there was a Lutheran Church where each Sunday the people would walk into the church by way of the center aisle. At the front of the church, there was a break between the pews and a blank white wall. Every Sunday, the people of that church would walk down the center aisle to the front of the church and genuflect at the blank wall. A man visiting the church did not understand what the people were doing; when he asked them they said that they had always done this. Upon further investigation, he learned that hundreds of years before there had been a painting of the Virgin Mary on that wall. At the time of the Protestant Reformation when the church became Lutheran they had painted over the display of the Virgin Mary. Since the people had always bowed before the Virgin Mary, they just kept on bowing even though there was nothing there. There are many people in church who simply go through the routine Sunday after Sunday. They know all the prayers by heart and could go through the entire service without ever opening the hymnal. For some that is all it has ever been. They do it because they have always done it that way before. But God wants to move beyond the routine. He wants the gospel to become so real that we confess with our own lips that Jesus is our Lord and Savior. God wants his love to be routine no longer but to be very real in our lives.
ROMANS 10:8b-14
The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? [1] And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
In the name of Jesus:
When the mail arrived at our house this past Tuesday, Luann got this letter, which states on the envelope:” You’ve been pre-forgiven, open to find out how.” My first thought was, how nice, my wife is pre forgiven, which means that she is forgiven of a wrong even before she does something wrong. I was so happy for her, that I immediately ran the envelope to her so that she could open it. And then I looked for mine. After all, if she is pre forgiven, shouldn’t I be? After all, I am a minister, I am in the forgiving business, so if Luann would be pre forgiven, I would be as well. But I looked and looked, but couldn’t find an envelope with my name on it. Perhaps it was an oversight. So I looked at the mail the next day, no pre forgiveness for me. And none on Thursday as well. Here it is Sunday and I have not received a pre forgiveness notification!
Luann is such a gracious person, she allowed me to open her mail so that I could find more out about this pre forgiveness. Upon further inspection, the pre forgiveness comes with buying the insurance of the company that sent the letter. A phone number is listed so that Luann (not me) could call for a quote. So the bottom line is that you have to buy pre forgiveness. You have to do something to get it. It isn’t free, and no one is just going to give it to you.
The question which has plagued humanity is: “How can I get right with God?” It is a question asked by those who are in the prime of life and those who are facing death. People talk about getting right with their Maker when one lays on the death bed. All throughout life people are attempting to become justified before God.
It goes back to the Garden of Eden. There Adam and Eve tried to justify their actions before God. It wasn’t my fault, said both of them, it was someone else’s fault that caused me to disobey You, God. It was the serpent You made, Lord, it was the woman You gave me, God, that caused me to do what was evil in Your sight. What Adam and Eve said was essentially “I am blameless, justified in my actions, so go find fault with someone else.”
Mankind seeks justification for one’s own thoughts, words, and deeds. God speaks in Leviticus and states: “Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live.” And so, mankind in its wisdom seeks to keep God’s laws and even tries to fool itself into believing that it has keep God’s Law when it hasn’t. The Bible is consistent and teaches that one may get eternal life if he or she can keep the Law. This is the way of becoming right with God, by one’s own behavior. This is what Paul calls in our text the righteousness of the Law, a righteousness that comes from one’s own efforts and endeavors. This is the becoming right with God that Jesus speaks about in Luke 10:28, when He speaks to the rich young man and says: “You have answered correctly, do this and you will live.”
But this won’t work. It can’t and won’t work. Why? Because it is the wrong righteousness. Paul says that he wants the Jews to be saved, that is his desire. But they have the wrong righteousness because their relationship with God is based on what they do or can do. The Bible says that there is a way which seems right to man and that way ends in death. To seek our own relationship with God on our own terms ends in our own death, and ultimately, eternal separation from God which is eternal death and damnation. To seek God on our own terms, our own efforts or self justifications denies the justification that God gives in Jesus, for God’s righteousness only comes in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has brought an end to the delusion that the righteousness of the Law can save man.
Why has Jesus ended the delusion? Because God gives to all access to Him in Jesus. This right standing with God comes not from man, but from heaven. God the Father brought this all about by sending His Son from heaven, to live rightly before God and man, and to die rightly in God’s sight on the cross. To prove that God has made all things right in Jesus, God raised His Son Jesus from the dead on Easter morn.
Jesus gives you this right relationship with the Father in His Word. God doesn’t say in His Word: Do this and live with Me, because that is impossible, it can’t be done. So what God says in His Word is that all is done. Jesus spoke from the cross: It is finished. Nothing else needs to be done for everything has been accomplished. Man can not nor does he need to discover it, man can not nor does he need to devise it, it has been done. Jesus, God’s only Son has done it and He alone gives it in His Word. This divine work is proclaimed to you in and through the Word of God. It is proclaimed in the Word and given in the Word.
In Baptism God has given this to you. In His Word He tells it to you. In the Supper He shares it with you. You are God’s child. You are forgiven. You have been made right with God in Christ. You have been saved by grace through faith in Christ, and this is not of your own doing. This is a divine work, a Godly gift to you all on account of Jesus.
By faith you receive this gift. Faith takes God at His Word. Faith receives the gift the God gives. Faith trusts that Word of God saying: Yes, this is mine, because God has made it so and because God says so. God says that in Christ you are cleared of your guilt. It is so. God says that in Christ you are forgiven, it is so. God says that in Christ you are saved, it is so. God says that you are His child and will live with Him now and forever, it is so because God says it and makes it a reality in Jesus.
This faith is a living an active faith. It proves itself as sincere as you confess with your mouth your faith in Jesus. It shows itself in its life as you seek to live your life to God’s glory because of what God gives in Jesus. NO ONE WHO IS A DISICPLE OF JESUS IS A SILENT DISCIPLE. NO ONE WHO HAS THE LORD JESUS HAS HIS LORD REMAINS A SILENT SERVANT OF HIS LORD, BUT SERVES HIS MASTER IN WHAT HE SAYS AND WHAT HE DOES. God has forgiven us in Christ, and this fact permeates all that we say and do.
In a Danish village there was a Lutheran Church where each Sunday the people would walk into the church by way of the center aisle. At the front of the church, there was a break between the pews and a blank white wall. Every Sunday, the people of that church would walk down the center aisle to the front of the church and genuflect at the blank wall. A man visiting the church did not understand what the people were doing; when he asked them they said that they had always done this. Upon further investigation, he learned that hundreds of years before there had been a painting of the Virgin Mary on that wall. At the time of the Protestant Reformation when the church became Lutheran they had painted over the display of the Virgin Mary. Since the people had always bowed before the Virgin Mary, they just kept on bowing even though there was nothing there. There are many people in church who simply go through the routine Sunday after Sunday. They know all the prayers by heart and could go through the entire service without ever opening the hymnal. For some that is all it has ever been. They do it because they have always done it that way before. But God wants to move beyond the routine. He wants the gospel to become so real that we confess with our own lips that Jesus is our Lord and Savior. God wants his love to be routine no longer but to be very real in our lives.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Simplicity
I subscribe to John Stott's daily thoughts. Here is another gem:
Materialism is an obsession with material things.
Asceticism is the denial of the good gifts of the Creator.
Pharisaism is binding ourselves and other people with
rules. Instead, we should stick to principles. The
principle of simplicity is clear. Simplicity is the first
cousin of contentment. Its motto is, 'We brought nothing
into this world, and we can certainly carry nothing out.'
It recognizes that we are pilgrims.
It concentrates on what we *need*, and measures this by
what we *use*. It rejoices in the good things of creation,
but hates waste and greed and clutter. It knows how easily
the seed of the Word is smothered by the 'cares and riches
of this life'. It wants to be free of distractions, in
order to love and serve God and others.
--From "The Christian and the Poor" (All Souls Paper:
London: All Souls Church, 16 February 1981).
----------------------------------------------------
--Excerpted from "Authentic Christianity", p. 363, by
permission of InterVarsity Press.
Materialism is an obsession with material things.
Asceticism is the denial of the good gifts of the Creator.
Pharisaism is binding ourselves and other people with
rules. Instead, we should stick to principles. The
principle of simplicity is clear. Simplicity is the first
cousin of contentment. Its motto is, 'We brought nothing
into this world, and we can certainly carry nothing out.'
It recognizes that we are pilgrims.
It concentrates on what we *need*, and measures this by
what we *use*. It rejoices in the good things of creation,
but hates waste and greed and clutter. It knows how easily
the seed of the Word is smothered by the 'cares and riches
of this life'. It wants to be free of distractions, in
order to love and serve God and others.
--From "The Christian and the Poor" (All Souls Paper:
London: All Souls Church, 16 February 1981).
----------------------------------------------------
--Excerpted from "Authentic Christianity", p. 363, by
permission of InterVarsity Press.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Christmas Presents
CHRISTMAS PRESENTS
LUKE 2:7
They wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger.
In the name of Jesus:
The Time is almost here! After weeks of Christmas lists, Christmas sales, shopping, weaving through masses of people, waiting in lines, purchasing and wrapping presents, the time is almost here! Its Christmas Eve and soon the presents will be under the tree, and the boxes with brightly colored wrapping will be ripped off of the gifts, to reveal what is inside. And if your family is like mine, the gift recipient will take the time to show the gift for all to see, thanking the giver, and at the same time making plans on how to best use the gift.
Christmas is all about the gifts. What you give and what you receive. On this special night, we pause and reflect upon God’s great gift to us, the gift of His Son, the Christ child.
Anticipation was building that first Christmas Eve. Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve into sin, God had promised The Gift. And oh, how the children of Adam and Eve would need this Gift. For Adam and Eve were created had fallen from grace. Theirs was a perfect world, the world WAS their oyster, they were placed in a perfect world, a Garden in which they were to tend and keep. Their only instruction was to trust, to trust in God and obey His command. To take each moment and live in each moment in faith: loving God by gratefully receiving what they had received from Him as a gift: the gift of fellowship with the Maker and Creator of all things. Their call was to live out their lives in the Garden in simple childlike trust, for God had said not to eat of a certain fruit of a tree, Adam and Eve were to simply trust, and obey.
Yet, in their disobedience, they were banned from the Garden and their relationship with God was severed. Perfection was replaced with sin, trust replaced with doubt, worry, anxiety and fear. Life as they knew it was now ending in death as a punishment for sin. Sin always pays off with death. Always. Yes, Adam and Eve still had life here on earth, and they could still enjoy the physical gifts which God had blessed them with, but they had now fallen from God’s grace. They possessed no spiritual gifts. Their souls were now sinful; their entire beings were in bondage to sin. Relationship with God---gone, communion with God---severed, life with God----non existent. The parents of the human race had separated themselves and the entire human race from God. The world, in which God had created, to be in harmony with Him, was not. It was broken. No human being could repair it. Truly it would take a miracle, a gift from God, if you will, to reconcile God with man.
But God had a plan, His plan. Before He created the world, God knew what would happen. He knew that Adam and Eve would forsake Him and live for themselves. But out of love, God STILL created Adam and Eve because He wanted a relationship with the beings He created. God would spare no expense to make this happen. God had no plan B, rather, it was His eternal will and a part of His eternal plan that He would send One who would do battle for Adam and Eve and their descendants. Before God created the world God had determined that he would save the world through the blood of His Son, Jesus. For as John writes in his Gospel: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. God’s plan was set into motion even before the world began. And God revealed this plan to Adam and Eve after the fall, as He promised One who would crush the head of the serpent.
God had promised this miracle, this Gift, this Savior. And so, throughout the pages of the Old Testament, Jesus is proclaimed. God made the promise not only to Adam and Eve, but to each generation of prophets and people. To Abraham God said that He would bless the nations. To David God promised a King to take his place on a throne which would last forever. It was through His prophets that God promised that at the right time He would present Himself in Christ to save His people. A virgin would conceive and bear a Son; His name would be Emanuel which means God is with us. Through the prophet Isaiah a Child would be born, a Son given, His name would be Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, and Prince of Peace. Elsewhere, this One who was to come would bear the sins of the world; by His stripes sinners would be healed. God promised, the anticipation continued to grow, and God’s people waited for the unveiling of God’s gift. And God’s people heard God’s promises, and looked forward to that time, all the while the anticipation was building, and God’s people were waiting in joyful expectation. Even as children look forward to Christmas morning to see what presents are under the tree with their name on them, so too God’s people of old looked forward to that time when God would unveil the Gift of His Son.
And so, at that right time, when Quinerius was governor of Syria, Caesar decreed that the whole world would be taxed. And in that time God spoke, not through prophets, but through angels which spoke to shepherds, watching their flocks at night: To you is born in the city of David a Savior, He is Christ the Lord. The shepherds went to see this One who was promised of long ago, God’s present, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. The angels sang praises to God at what God was doing that first Christmas. God sent Jesus, His only begotten Son, on Christmas. Christmas is the day when God became man in Christ. Cynics will suggest that Christmas is really a pagan holiday that no one really knows when Jesus was born, that the leaders of the Church celebrated Christmas on a pagan holiday, so as to detract from our celebration of Jesus’ birth. Satan likes to take half truths and turn them into lies.
You see, the early Christian Church chose December 25 not because it was a pagan holiday; in fact the early church took great strides in attempting to veer away from paganism because of persecution. The date was chosen because in rabbincal thinking, Jesus was conceived and died on the same date. Historians of that time figured that Jesus died on March 25; hence it would make sense that He would be born nine months later on December 25. This is why we celebrate Christmas on this eve. As we celebrate Christmas in the darkness of winter, God’s Word brings to mind that Jesus is truly the Light of the world, the Light of God sent into the darkness of our sinful world to show us the love of God for all. And this is the true meaning of Christmas! For God sent His only Son, as His gift to sinners born and conceived in sin. God’s greatest gift, His greatest present was His presence in His Son Jesus Christ. God was in human flesh reconciling the world to Himself. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us for a time, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth….The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. [10] He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. [11] He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. [12] But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, [13] who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of 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).
The Light of the world became human flesh to enlighten our sinful lives to the grace of God. From the fullness of Christ each of us has received the grace of God, His love, His gifts, His truth, His life. God’s long awaited Gift to you is His Son, Jesus. And He comes, not wrapped in colorful paper, with a bow around it, but He comes in humility. Wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger, laid in a feeding box made from a tree, to be later raised up on a tree called the cross, so that He would be the life and salvation of all. Jesus, God’s Son, was nailed to the tree to be cursed by God, so that you might know and possess God’s love, His forgiveness, His life, in Christ.
And these gifts are given to you this Christmas, and every Sunday when you attend worship. We can very really say that Christ is present with us in worship, for where two or three are gathered together in His name, Jesus promises to be there, right in our very midst. And Jesus offers Himself tangibly in His Word and Sacraments. In a world that struggles to know if God exists, if God is present, if God speaks today and if God cares, God tells us that He does, and He is present with us in His Word and Sacraments.
The Holy Scriptures is God’s very voice and very word to us today. Some people believe that the Bible just contains the Word of God, and so, they then pick and choose in the Bible what they want to believe, to fit their own lifestyle. But God Himself says in His Word that His Word is truth. The Holy Scriptures are the inspired Word of God and God breathed, God’s very voice to us, revealing to sinners where they have fallen short of God’s will, and God’s grace in Jesus Christ. For while the Law was given to Moses, God sent His Son into the world to reveal the love, grace, and truth of God, that God wills that all be saved in Christ.
In Baptism God speaks His voice, calling you by name so that you would have a new identity. The old things that you have done, including all of your sins and transgressions, have been washed away in Baptism. The Old sinful self has been drowned and died, so that a new person, by the power of God’s spirit, will rise in you. You are a new creature in Christ! God is present in Baptism and gives you new life. God speaks to you in your Baptism and says: YOU ARE MINE, MY FOREVER CHILD, and that absolutely nothing will ever separate you from His Love for you in Christ.
And in the Holy Supper which we call Holy Communion, Jesus is present again, in, with, and under the bread and wine for the forgiveness of your sins. Jesus gives His gifts to you in forms of bread and wine, to give you Himself, for the assurance of your salvation. The Lord’s Supper is Jesus’ gift to you, His comfort food for your soul that you might know for certain that He still loves you and will always love you and be with you, even until the end of the age.
God’s gifts, His presents to you this Christmas is found in His Son Jesus. Today God’s Good News is that to you is born the Savior, He is Christ the Lord. You will find Him lying in a manger. And God’s gift to you each Sunday is His Son, Jesus. And you will find Him speaking to you in His Word, and giving you Himself in Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Soon we will open presents. But the greatest present, the greatest Gift if Jesus. God’s Gift is that He gives us Jesus in Word and Sacrament. And this is the best present we can receive.
Amen
LUKE 2:7
They wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger.
In the name of Jesus:
The Time is almost here! After weeks of Christmas lists, Christmas sales, shopping, weaving through masses of people, waiting in lines, purchasing and wrapping presents, the time is almost here! Its Christmas Eve and soon the presents will be under the tree, and the boxes with brightly colored wrapping will be ripped off of the gifts, to reveal what is inside. And if your family is like mine, the gift recipient will take the time to show the gift for all to see, thanking the giver, and at the same time making plans on how to best use the gift.
Christmas is all about the gifts. What you give and what you receive. On this special night, we pause and reflect upon God’s great gift to us, the gift of His Son, the Christ child.
Anticipation was building that first Christmas Eve. Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve into sin, God had promised The Gift. And oh, how the children of Adam and Eve would need this Gift. For Adam and Eve were created had fallen from grace. Theirs was a perfect world, the world WAS their oyster, they were placed in a perfect world, a Garden in which they were to tend and keep. Their only instruction was to trust, to trust in God and obey His command. To take each moment and live in each moment in faith: loving God by gratefully receiving what they had received from Him as a gift: the gift of fellowship with the Maker and Creator of all things. Their call was to live out their lives in the Garden in simple childlike trust, for God had said not to eat of a certain fruit of a tree, Adam and Eve were to simply trust, and obey.
Yet, in their disobedience, they were banned from the Garden and their relationship with God was severed. Perfection was replaced with sin, trust replaced with doubt, worry, anxiety and fear. Life as they knew it was now ending in death as a punishment for sin. Sin always pays off with death. Always. Yes, Adam and Eve still had life here on earth, and they could still enjoy the physical gifts which God had blessed them with, but they had now fallen from God’s grace. They possessed no spiritual gifts. Their souls were now sinful; their entire beings were in bondage to sin. Relationship with God---gone, communion with God---severed, life with God----non existent. The parents of the human race had separated themselves and the entire human race from God. The world, in which God had created, to be in harmony with Him, was not. It was broken. No human being could repair it. Truly it would take a miracle, a gift from God, if you will, to reconcile God with man.
But God had a plan, His plan. Before He created the world, God knew what would happen. He knew that Adam and Eve would forsake Him and live for themselves. But out of love, God STILL created Adam and Eve because He wanted a relationship with the beings He created. God would spare no expense to make this happen. God had no plan B, rather, it was His eternal will and a part of His eternal plan that He would send One who would do battle for Adam and Eve and their descendants. Before God created the world God had determined that he would save the world through the blood of His Son, Jesus. For as John writes in his Gospel: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. God’s plan was set into motion even before the world began. And God revealed this plan to Adam and Eve after the fall, as He promised One who would crush the head of the serpent.
God had promised this miracle, this Gift, this Savior. And so, throughout the pages of the Old Testament, Jesus is proclaimed. God made the promise not only to Adam and Eve, but to each generation of prophets and people. To Abraham God said that He would bless the nations. To David God promised a King to take his place on a throne which would last forever. It was through His prophets that God promised that at the right time He would present Himself in Christ to save His people. A virgin would conceive and bear a Son; His name would be Emanuel which means God is with us. Through the prophet Isaiah a Child would be born, a Son given, His name would be Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, and Prince of Peace. Elsewhere, this One who was to come would bear the sins of the world; by His stripes sinners would be healed. God promised, the anticipation continued to grow, and God’s people waited for the unveiling of God’s gift. And God’s people heard God’s promises, and looked forward to that time, all the while the anticipation was building, and God’s people were waiting in joyful expectation. Even as children look forward to Christmas morning to see what presents are under the tree with their name on them, so too God’s people of old looked forward to that time when God would unveil the Gift of His Son.
And so, at that right time, when Quinerius was governor of Syria, Caesar decreed that the whole world would be taxed. And in that time God spoke, not through prophets, but through angels which spoke to shepherds, watching their flocks at night: To you is born in the city of David a Savior, He is Christ the Lord. The shepherds went to see this One who was promised of long ago, God’s present, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. The angels sang praises to God at what God was doing that first Christmas. God sent Jesus, His only begotten Son, on Christmas. Christmas is the day when God became man in Christ. Cynics will suggest that Christmas is really a pagan holiday that no one really knows when Jesus was born, that the leaders of the Church celebrated Christmas on a pagan holiday, so as to detract from our celebration of Jesus’ birth. Satan likes to take half truths and turn them into lies.
You see, the early Christian Church chose December 25 not because it was a pagan holiday; in fact the early church took great strides in attempting to veer away from paganism because of persecution. The date was chosen because in rabbincal thinking, Jesus was conceived and died on the same date. Historians of that time figured that Jesus died on March 25; hence it would make sense that He would be born nine months later on December 25. This is why we celebrate Christmas on this eve. As we celebrate Christmas in the darkness of winter, God’s Word brings to mind that Jesus is truly the Light of the world, the Light of God sent into the darkness of our sinful world to show us the love of God for all. And this is the true meaning of Christmas! For God sent His only Son, as His gift to sinners born and conceived in sin. God’s greatest gift, His greatest present was His presence in His Son Jesus Christ. God was in human flesh reconciling the world to Himself. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us for a time, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth….The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. [10] He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. [11] He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. [12] But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, [13] who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of 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).
The Light of the world became human flesh to enlighten our sinful lives to the grace of God. From the fullness of Christ each of us has received the grace of God, His love, His gifts, His truth, His life. God’s long awaited Gift to you is His Son, Jesus. And He comes, not wrapped in colorful paper, with a bow around it, but He comes in humility. Wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger, laid in a feeding box made from a tree, to be later raised up on a tree called the cross, so that He would be the life and salvation of all. Jesus, God’s Son, was nailed to the tree to be cursed by God, so that you might know and possess God’s love, His forgiveness, His life, in Christ.
And these gifts are given to you this Christmas, and every Sunday when you attend worship. We can very really say that Christ is present with us in worship, for where two or three are gathered together in His name, Jesus promises to be there, right in our very midst. And Jesus offers Himself tangibly in His Word and Sacraments. In a world that struggles to know if God exists, if God is present, if God speaks today and if God cares, God tells us that He does, and He is present with us in His Word and Sacraments.
The Holy Scriptures is God’s very voice and very word to us today. Some people believe that the Bible just contains the Word of God, and so, they then pick and choose in the Bible what they want to believe, to fit their own lifestyle. But God Himself says in His Word that His Word is truth. The Holy Scriptures are the inspired Word of God and God breathed, God’s very voice to us, revealing to sinners where they have fallen short of God’s will, and God’s grace in Jesus Christ. For while the Law was given to Moses, God sent His Son into the world to reveal the love, grace, and truth of God, that God wills that all be saved in Christ.
In Baptism God speaks His voice, calling you by name so that you would have a new identity. The old things that you have done, including all of your sins and transgressions, have been washed away in Baptism. The Old sinful self has been drowned and died, so that a new person, by the power of God’s spirit, will rise in you. You are a new creature in Christ! God is present in Baptism and gives you new life. God speaks to you in your Baptism and says: YOU ARE MINE, MY FOREVER CHILD, and that absolutely nothing will ever separate you from His Love for you in Christ.
And in the Holy Supper which we call Holy Communion, Jesus is present again, in, with, and under the bread and wine for the forgiveness of your sins. Jesus gives His gifts to you in forms of bread and wine, to give you Himself, for the assurance of your salvation. The Lord’s Supper is Jesus’ gift to you, His comfort food for your soul that you might know for certain that He still loves you and will always love you and be with you, even until the end of the age.
God’s gifts, His presents to you this Christmas is found in His Son Jesus. Today God’s Good News is that to you is born the Savior, He is Christ the Lord. You will find Him lying in a manger. And God’s gift to you each Sunday is His Son, Jesus. And you will find Him speaking to you in His Word, and giving you Himself in Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Soon we will open presents. But the greatest present, the greatest Gift if Jesus. God’s Gift is that He gives us Jesus in Word and Sacrament. And this is the best present we can receive.
Amen
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Holy Works
In my devotions today I read a portion of Luther's explanation of the Fourth Commandment. It deals with holy works, and I thought that it was food for thought for you who read this blog.
"143] Now, what a child owes to father and mother, the same owe all who are embraced in the household.
Therefore man-servants and maid-servants should be careful not only to be obedient to their masters and
mistresses, but also to honor them as their own fathers and mothers, and to do everything which they know is
expected of them, not from compulsion and with reluctance, but with pleasure and joy for the cause just
mentioned, namely, that it is God's command and is pleasing to Him above all other works. 144] Therefore they ought rather to pay wages in addition and be glad that they may obtain masters and mistresses to have such joyful consciences and to know how they may do truly golden works; a matter which has hitherto been
neglected and despised, when, instead, everybody ran, in the devil's name, into convents or to pilgrimages and indulgences, with loss [of time and money] and with an evil conscience.145] If this truth, then, could be impressed upon the poor people, a servant-girl would leap and praise and thank God; and with her tidy work for which she receives support and wages she would acquire such a treasure such as all that are esteemed the greatest saints have not obtained. Is it not an excellent boast to know and say that, if you perform your daily domestic task, this is better than all the sanctity and ascetic life of monks? 146] And you have the promise, in addition, that you shall prosper in all good and fare well. How can you lead a more blessed or holier life as far as your works are concerned? 147] For in the sight of God faith is what really renders a person holy, and alone serves Him, but the works are for the service of man." (Tappert, pg 385).
Indeed, how can we lead a more blessed life than to love Christ and seek to serve Him in all we do?
"143] Now, what a child owes to father and mother, the same owe all who are embraced in the household.
Therefore man-servants and maid-servants should be careful not only to be obedient to their masters and
mistresses, but also to honor them as their own fathers and mothers, and to do everything which they know is
expected of them, not from compulsion and with reluctance, but with pleasure and joy for the cause just
mentioned, namely, that it is God's command and is pleasing to Him above all other works. 144] Therefore they ought rather to pay wages in addition and be glad that they may obtain masters and mistresses to have such joyful consciences and to know how they may do truly golden works; a matter which has hitherto been
neglected and despised, when, instead, everybody ran, in the devil's name, into convents or to pilgrimages and indulgences, with loss [of time and money] and with an evil conscience.145] If this truth, then, could be impressed upon the poor people, a servant-girl would leap and praise and thank God; and with her tidy work for which she receives support and wages she would acquire such a treasure such as all that are esteemed the greatest saints have not obtained. Is it not an excellent boast to know and say that, if you perform your daily domestic task, this is better than all the sanctity and ascetic life of monks? 146] And you have the promise, in addition, that you shall prosper in all good and fare well. How can you lead a more blessed or holier life as far as your works are concerned? 147] For in the sight of God faith is what really renders a person holy, and alone serves Him, but the works are for the service of man." (Tappert, pg 385).
Indeed, how can we lead a more blessed life than to love Christ and seek to serve Him in all we do?
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