201227 Sermon for St. John Apostle and Evangelist

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

December 27^th is the day that has been set aside to commemorate St. John, the apostle and evangelist. Setting aside a day to commemorate a saint can sound rather Roman Catholic, and therefore not quite kosher for us protestants. However, I will not be recommending St. John to you as someone who can give you grace. Nor will I be encouraging you to pray to him so that he can pray for you. The reason why I won’t be doing these things is because God has never commanded us to do this, nor has he promised to bless us if we do.

Instead, we will make use of this day to consider God’s working in this man and through this man. Knowing more about St. John helps us understand the Bible better, and we can apply the things we learn about him also to ourselves and our own circumstances. For God still exists. He still works in the lives of his saints, just like he did in the lives of the saints that are recorded in the Bible.

Let’s begin today be understanding who John is. Sometimes people get a little confused about John, because there are two important men named John in the New Testament. There is John the Baptist and John the apostle. During the season of advent that just came to a close with Christmas we have heard quite a bit about John the Baptist. He was the forerunner of the Christ, prophesied by the Old Testament prophets like Isaiah and Malachi. He is the preacher and baptizer of repentance. The apostle John, on the other hand, is one of the twelve disciples whom Jesus called to follow him in an especially close way.

There’s actually quite a lot that we know about the apostle John. Before Jesus called him to be one of the twelve he was a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee. He worked together with his brother James, as well as Simon Peter and Andrew—all of whom were also called to be disciples by Jesus. According to Church tradition he was Jesus’s cousin. Mary, Jesus’s mother, was his aunt. Also according to Church tradition, John was the youngest of the twelve.

I appears that John was a very zealous man. One time he came across somebody casting out demons using Jesus’s name. Since this fellow was not formally part of the group, John told him to stop. But Jesus told John, “Whoever is not against us is for us.” On another occasion he asked Jesus whether fire should be called down from heaven against a Samaritan town who did not warmly welcome Jesus. We are told of a nickname for John and his brother James. They were called “sons of thunder.” That leads me to believe that John was fiery and bold.

This is a little surprising when you consider the books that he wrote that are included in our New Testament. John has a style that is all his own. It is free and almost whimsical. It is quite simple. Every New Testament Greek student cuts their teeth by reading his Gospel. His Greek is the simplest and easiest to master. In his epistle, 1 John, he is always encouraging love. “Beloved, let us love one another,” he says many times. So it can be hard to picture him as fiery and bold.

On the other hand, John by no means shied away from recording in his Gospel the intense and acrimonious exchanges that took place between Jesus and the Jewish officials who hated Jesus. This is one of the unique contributions of John’s Gospel. The other Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, do not describe these exchanges with nearly the same depth. So although John writes with a very gentle style, he obviously is not some hand-wringing clergyperson who just wanted everyone to like him. He wasn’t afraid of a fight.

Among the twelve apostles John was special. Although the twelve were all equal and loved by the Lord Jesus, there appears to have been a circle within the circle of twelve. Peter, James, and John are mentioned several times as being in places that the rest of the twelve were not. Peter, James, and John were with Jesus when he raised Jairus’s daughter from the dead. They were with him on the mount of transfiguration. They were closer to Jesus than the others when he was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane.

John also seems to have stuck it out at the end of Jesus’s life when the other disciples fled for safety. When Jesus was arrested and brought to the chief priests’ house in the middle of the night for their kangaroo court, Peter and John followed at a distance. John went into the courtyard, but Peter stood outside. This is when Peter denied that he knew Jesus three times, and presumably took to the hills like the rest of Jesus’s disciples. John, though, did not. It appears that he was the only one of the twelve who was at the cross. While Jesus hung dying he indicated John and said to his mother, “Woman, behold your son.” To John he said, “Behold, your mother.”

On Easter morning John was the first of the twelve to make it to the empty tomb, because he outran Peter. Perhaps this was because he was younger. John was in the upper room, on the evening of Easter, when the disciples were gathered together. Jesus appeared to them, though the doors were locked, and said, “Peace be with you! Just as the Father has sent me, I am also sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whenever you forgive people’s sins, they are forgiven. Whenever you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

The Gospel reading that was chosen for today are the very last words of John’s Gospel. The whole last chapter of John’s Gospel is a little mysterious. It is almost like an appendix to the book. There is a fine summary statement at the end of chapter 20. Then chapter 21 speaks about something that happened after Easter, but before Jesus ascended. Peter, James, John, Thomas, Nathanael, and two others were back in Galilee. Peter said, “I’m going fishing,” which, if you remember, was his old profession before he was called to be an apostle. The others all agreed to go with him.

While they were in the boat Jesus appeared on the shore, but they did not recognize him. He yelled out to them, “Don’t you have any fish?” They said, “No.” Jesus said, “Cast your net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” When they did, the nets became so full that they couldn’t haul them all in.

This was very reminiscent of the way that Peter was originally called to be an apostle years before. Jesus had said to him then, “You will no longer catch fish, but will be a fisher of men.” So John and Peter and the rest understood that this was Jesus on the sea shore. Peter didn’t wait for the boat to reach land, but jumped in and swam to shore.

There Jesus had prepared a breakfast with fish cooked over a charcoal fire and some bread. After they had eaten Jesus asked Peter three times, “Do you love me?” Peter said, “Yes.” And Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”

Then Jesus said something that is important for better understanding our Gospel reading today. Jesus said to Peter, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: When you were young, you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will tie you and carry you where you do not want to go.” With these words Jesus was indicating the death by which Peter would glorify God. At the end of Peter’s life he would be imprisoned and crucified. According to Church tradition he requested that he be crucified upside down, because he did not believe that he was worthy to be crucified in the same way that Jesus was. After Jesus had said this he said to Peter, “Follow me.”

This is where our reading started today. Peter looked over and saw John. He asked Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” It is as though he was asking, “Is he also going to be dressed by someone else and carried someplace that he does not want to go? Is he also going to die a violent death?” Jesus responded, “If I want him to remain until I come, then what is that to you? You follow me.”

Then, in our reading, John explains how some people were interpreting these words from Jesus concerning himself. They thought that those words meant that John would not die before Jesus returned to judge the living and the dead. John wants it understood that these words do not necessarily mean that. Jesus is basically saying to Peter, “What happens to John is none of your business. The important thing is that you follow me.”

Here is an indication that John’s Gospel was the last Gospel that was written when John was an old man. Unlike so many of the other disciples, John had not yet died a violent death when he was writing this Gospel. Since he was getting so much older, perhaps people were starting to wonder whether he wouldn’t die. After all, there was that word that Jesus had spoken to Peter. John wanted people to know that that wasn’t necessarily the case.

There are also other things about John’s Gospel that support this idea that it was the last of the four to be written. John does not spend much time at all speaking about what the other three Gospels say. Instead he records at length things that the others don’t—especially many long dialogues that Jesus had with his opponents and with his disciples. It is almost as if the apostle wrote his Gospel to fill in some of the gaps that were left by the other three. But this can only be done up to a point, because, as he says in our reading, “Jesus also did many other things. If every one of them were written down, I suppose the world itself would not have room for the books that would be written.”

Now let’s finish up by speaking about things we know about John later in his life. Soon after Pentecost, John, together with Peter, was arrested by the Jewish authorities—the first of Jesus’s disciple to have this happen to them. They demanded that they stop speaking about Jesus. John and Peter refused, telling them that they had to obey God rather than men. Soon they and the rest of the apostles were arrested and beaten, but they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus.

It appears that John stayed in the area of Jerusalem and Judea for many years after Pentecost, during the early years of the Christian Church. Church tradition says that eventually he moved together with Mary, Jesus’s mother, to the town of Ephesus, which is in the modern day country of Turkey. There were a lot of Christians in that area during that time. He lived and taught there until he was an old man.

No doubt John encountered many troubles, even though his life was spared, for as Paul says, “It is only through many afflictions that we may enter the Kingdom of God.” Among those afflictions, he was once exiled to the island of Patmos, off the coast of Turkey, where he received the vision that is known as the Apocalypse, or Revelation, the last book of the Bible.

Finally, let’s apply these things to ourselves. As you can see, the apostle and evangelist, John, lived a life in close communion with Jesus both before and after Jesus ascended. The circumstances of your life are different. You have not experienced the same outward things that John did. But you do share the same Lord, the same communion, and hopefully to the same extent that John did. There are no part-time Christians. Those who only want to be Christians when it is convenient for them will find that they were only deluding themselves with their own invention of a Christianity instead of the real thing.

If God wants you to live out your days so that you are old, then well and good. Always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you about the hope you have as a Christian. If there is a challenge that comes along, be sure that you follow Jesus—that you confess him and do not deny him. If you are punished by the loss of a friend, or family member, or your reputation, then so be it. Rejoice that you are counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus.

Or if your life or your livelihood is cut short, then so be it. Jesus is your shepherd. You might think that other things give you your peace and security, but you’d be mistaken. We must all count the cost and be willing to suffer the loss of all, including death, rather than fall away from Jesus. Anything we lose for Jesus or for the Gospel will be paid back 100 fold, and, at the end, eternal life.

St. John is not someone that we should pray to. He is someone we should learn from for how we can live as faithful Christians.

201225 Sermon on John 1_1-18 (Christmas Day) December 25, 2020

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

The Christmas Day Gospel that we have just heard from John is different. Luke, in his Gospel, speaks about Jesus’s birth in the way that we are accustomed. You heard that Gospel read last night. Matthew also, in his Gospel, gives us history—perhaps more from Joseph’s perspective than from Mary’s. John is also speaking about real events—just as much as Luke or Matthew. He is speaking about the eternal Word of God, the second person of the Trinity, becoming flesh and being born. John the Baptist is the herald who goes before him, announcing his coming. God tabernacles among us in Jesus, just as God tabernacled among the Israelites in the tabernacle and, later, the temple. These are real events, but perhaps you could say that he is dealing with them using a very wide angle lens.

In fact, his angle is so wide that he even is taking in the creation of the world. The opening words of his Gospel are so familiar. They are taken from the beginning of Genesis: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The beginning of John’s Gospel reads, “In the beginning.”

Furthermore, the very first things that happened in Genesis are also fleshed out in the Gospel’s opening statement. Genesis says in the beginning the world was without form and void. Then God spoke. He used words. He said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. In John’s Gospel it says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him everything was made, and without him not one thing was made that has been made. In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. The light was shining in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

With John speaking about Jesus being the light, his wide angle view takes in the whole sweep and span of created time. The wideness of his angle extends to this present time as he speaks about the light. Jesus says later in John, “I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” In our present time we are to follow the light.

The light is only on this earth for a set period of time, however. At the end, during Holy Week, Jesus says to the Jews of Jerusalem: “The light will be with you just a little while longer. Keep on walking while you have the light, so that darkness does not overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become sons of light.” Soon the time of grace would be over for them. In another place Jesus says, “I must do the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work.” Night is coming. An end is coming. Thus you can see that the scope of this Christmas Gospel is very, very wide. In fact, it couldn’t be wider. It takes in all of created time. In the beginning was the light. Now is the light. Eventually the light will go away from this earth, but in the new heavens and the new earth the light will never go away.

And so here we have a bold claim. When people are trying to figure out what the meaning of life is, they necessarily try to encapsulate all of life. They try to take in the widest possible angle so that all the meaning is captured and nothing is left out. What, then, is the meaning of life? Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of the Father. He is life. He is grace. He is truth. He is light. No one has ever seen God. The only-begotten Son, who is close to the Father’s side, has made God known. Those who believe in Jesus are given the right to become children of God. They are born, not of blood, or of the desire of the flesh, or of a husband’s will, but born of God.

This gives us tons of things that we could talk about. After all, we’re talking about the meaning of life here. But let’s focus on one of the things that is especially relevant to what we are commemorating at Christmas. Christmas is about the birth of God’s Son, begotten of the Father from eternity, born of the Virgin Mary in time. When a person thinks about the birth of a God, it is only natural to think of splendor and majesty. God is extremely glorious. Think only of the signs and wonders that took place at Mt. Sinai, the mountain where God revealed a little bit of himself to the Israelites gathered down below. The sights and sounds were so overpowering that the Israelites thought they were going to die.

But God’s glory is not limited to one mountain. He is the God of the winds that lash Mt. Everest. He is the God of the depths of the Mariana trench. He is the God of the blazing sun. He is the God of the crushing black holes. Whatever you might want to pile together of the power and glory of created things, God is always going to be greater and then some. I think there might be some astrophysicists who try to grasp the meaning of life by taking in the furthest stretches of created glory. Their angle never gets wide enough, though, for God is always more.

Although God is tremendously glorious, unimaginably glorious, what we see at Christmas is that he comes in such a gentle, lowly way. As I mentioned last night, his birth is so lowly that it’s hard to believe. Why didn’t these people in Bethlehem have some compassion on this pregnant woman? But God wanted his Son to be born where ox and ass are feeding. The highest and the most glorious would become the lowest and humblest.

We see this so clearly in so many aspects of Christmas. Luther reflected on this great mystery with the chief hymn we sang today where he says, “The virgin Mary’s lullaby Calms the infant Lord Most High, Upon her lap content is He Who keeps the earth and sky and sea. Alleluia!” A poor little baby, unable to hold his own head up, totally dependent upon his mother, nourished from her breasts, is Lord God Almighty.

What does this mean? It is not just a spectacle, an interesting conjunction of opposites. It is the humility of the Lord God to serve, to encourage, to uplift the descendants of Adam and Eve. The Lord Jesus comes so meekly and mildly that absolutely no one should be afraid of him. Even those who have done horrible, horrible things should not be afraid of Jesus. There is literally no one too dirty, no one too disgusting, whom Jesus will refuse to help on that principle.

Only those who do not want to have anything do with him are left on their own. Jesus says that there are those who love the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds are evil. “Everyone who practices wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, or else his deeds would be exposed.” Jesus will drag no one into heaven by their hair. We wicked creatures have the terrifying ability to say “no thanks” to the Son of God. Not only do we have this ability, but this is the very thing that comes naturally to us. This is why it is so necessary that Jesus speak to us through his word and his sacraments, and that by the power of the Holy Spirit we might believe it.

The Holy Spirit is necessary because we naturally disbelieve rather than believe. We naturally take the meaning of life to be all kinds of things besides the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus we will believe in some other god that is more to our liking. We love the darkness. But now the light has come. The light exposes our evil deeds, but not so that we may be swallowed up in despair, but so that we may be forgiven and healed. The knowledge of God that the Son brings to light is that he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. In our reading this morning John said, “The Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. … Out of his fullness we have received grace upon grace.” Jesus is grace upon grace. This is God’s will—God’s good will toward mankind. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

201224 Sermon on Luke 2:1-14 (Christmas Eve) December 24, 2020

 Audio Recording

Sermon manuscript:

There’s no two ways about it: The little Lord Jesus entered this world in an unusual way. It can be a little hard to visualize. Why was Mary taking this journey so late in her pregnancy? Why didn’t the people of Bethlehem have some compassion on a pregnant woman? How could anybody tolerate a baby being born in a barn?

St. Luke the evangelist does not tell us these things that we might wonder about. So often the Scriptures simply say something, when we might want an explanation. There is a lot left untold. Suffice it to say that somehow the circumstances were such that Mary and Joseph were infallibly led to that stable on that night.

God does this a lot—and not just to the famous people that we read about in the Bible. One avenue after another, one possibility after another, is eliminated until you find yourself in a particular situation. It makes me think of back home on the farm. When you wanted the sow to jump up into the farrowing crate you had to shut off every possible alternative. If there were an opening left anywhere, no matter how small, you could count on that sow going that way instead of where you wanted her to go.

I doubt very much that Mary and Joseph left Nazareth with the intention of having a baby while in Bethlehem. Furthermore, I doubt even more that they intended to have that happen in a stable. But evidently the circumstances were such that this is where they ended up. Luke doesn’t tell us all the details of how that came about.

And, in fact, the way that Luke goes about telling the story, he makes it seem as though where they happened to be was something of an afterthought. He says, “And so it was that while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” The main thing is the birth of the baby. It was her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling cloths. Oh, and by the way, she laid him in a manger, a trough, because there wasn’t room for them in the inn.

I suspect that this is just the way Mary talked about this too. Mary and Joseph were pious people. She took what came to her with equanimity. Some women would have harangued every passerby with how they had to be in a barn for the birth of the baby. Mary and Joseph weren’t looking for sympathy. The main thing was that God had chosen her to be the mother of God. And so she was.

This is also what is important for us as Christians. If Jesus is not God, then this is just a quaint story. But if he is God, then it is the beginning of God’s rescue mission. This is the true significance of this festival. At Christmas we see the beginning of God’s salvation of mankind. The way that he does it is by joining together with us, by making it so that we and God hold all things in common, including even our flesh and blood.

Having something in common with somebody else is always a good thing. Our dearest friends are the ones with whom we hold things in common. Friends usually share the same outlook, the same economic class, the same goals and ambitions. Holding things in common with somebody means that you have a lot to talk about. This is perhaps the first thing we think of when we speak of having something in common with someone.

But there are other ways that you can have something in common with someone else. You can, for example, have things in common with someone so that they do not feel the need to ask in order to make use of what belongs to you. Mi casa, su casa. This also is a very pleasurable thing. If you feel comfortable at a friend’s house, so that you could raid their fridge or stretch out on their couch, then that’s a special relationship. Such friends are like family, where things are held in common. This is something that is very nice about being at home. Uou hold all things in common with your family. You don’t need permission to do whatever it is that you might want. It all belongs to you together.

So what does it mean to hold all things in common together with Jesus? It means that Jesus shares everything that is his with us, and we share whatever is ours with him. Mary becomes our mother. Jesus becomes our brother. God becomes our Father. This is the end result of being born again by being baptized. You are joined together with Christ, baptized into Christ. He shares what belongs to him.

We share what belongs to us. What’s surprising is that in spite of what we share, it does not undo the relationship. It does not harm it. We share our broken relationships with Jesus. We share our sin with Jesus. We share our shame with Jesus. We share even the darkest, evilest things we have ever done.

When we share things like this in common with our fellow human beings, this sharing of evil is usually spells the end of the relationship. We won’t put up with what the other person is doing to us, and so we quit having things in common with them. They go their way; we go our way. This is because our love is very weak.

God, on the other hand, is love. Although we bring so much evil and dirt into this relationship with Jesus, it does not destroy the relationship. It does not even harm the relationship. This is the very reason why God sent his only-begotten Son in the first place. God did not sent his Son to condemn the world, but that the world would be saved through him. All the sin that we bring to this relationship with Jesus is swallowed up and done away with. All the sin of all mankind is like a spark in comparison to God’s forgiveness that is like an ocean. Just as an ocean is not undone by a mere spark, so also our sin does not undo God’s power to save.

This is not to say, though, that this was simple or easy. Some people have wondered why God couldn’t just wave a wand and make all sin and evil just go away. I don’t know why he didn’t do that, and I don’t really care. What God would have us look to is his Son, Jesus, whom he loves. Jesus did not live an easy life. He was tempted in every way that we are tempted, and yet without sin. His love was such that he was always giving, and therefore he was often exhausted. Then there is that sublime mystery of his atonement for sin. Having shared all things in common with us, he received our sin. Paul even calls Jesus “sin” itself—that is how deeply Jesus is enmeshed with all that we have brought into the relationship.

The punishment that should be meted out against us, was meted out instead upon Jesus. The suffering that is visible and detectable with Jesus’s passion and death is but the tip of the iceberg. There is much more going on spiritually, and behind the scenes as it were, as this ocean swallows up the spark. The price to redeem us sinners was so high that it killed not only the sinless man of Jesus—which is already impossible—but it even killed God—which doesn’t seem conceivable, much less possible.

But God wants fellowship with you. That is why he did what he did. That is why he still does what he does, up to and including this present moment. He would have you believe that unto you is born a child who is Christ the Lord. He would have you believe that all things that belong to Christ now belong to you as you believe in him. Just like a good friend is happy to see you, so also Jesus begrudges you nothing as he holds all things in common with you. Our sins, which should be in the way, which should destroy this relationship utterly, are nowhere to be found except in the scars of his hands and his feet that his dazzling resurrection body still bears. To progress, to become more advanced in your wisdom and sanctification, you must regard yourself more and more as having all things together with Christ. He is your brother—your good, kind, and loving brother. Mary is your mother. God is your Father.

And now, just as you are received so graciously by our brother and friend, Jesus, so also you might forgive and receive others. On the night when Jesus was betrayed he said, “A new commandment I give you. As I have loved you, so also you must love one another.” In this way we can be little christs to one another—which is what the word “Christian” means. “Christian” means “little Christ.”

Another way of saying this is that you should pluck up the courage to hold things in common with others. Do not shut yourself up behind fences and gates, grudges, worries, the things that have been done in the past. The same ocean of grace that swallowed up your sin belongs also to you since you are now holding everything in common with Jesus. The lower you go, the more humble you are, the more you reach out and love, the more you are following Jesus your teacher.

If Jesus wanted to insist on rights, then he most certainly could have. He, more than anyone, had rights. The Caesars at that time wanted people to believe that they were gods. Jesus really was and is God. He is king of kings and lord of lords. Thus he could have been born in kings’ houses. But where do you find him? He is lower than the lowest, kindly inviting anybody and everybody to share in his goodness. He was born in that stable because God wanted him born in that stable. It is a fitting picture and sends a clear message about what is really good, what is love, and therefore who God really is.

201220 Sermon on Philippians 4:4-7 (Advent 4) December 20, 2020

 Audio Recording

Sermon Manuscript:

From time to time I get a certain type of dream that prevents me from sleeping peacefully. These dreams are not what you’d call scary. The best word for them would be “annoying,” because there’s always something that is wrong that I can’t get right. It is always something very minor, unimportant. I get obsessed with it in my dream, and I can’t get it to come out right. It feels like all night long I wrestle with this stupid problem. Then I wake up with a headache. If my brain were operating normally, I wouldn’t be concerned at all and would move on with my life. This would be the sensible thing to do, because there are some things that we just shouldn’t worry about.

This rule applies not just to dreams, but also to real life. Sensible people know how to sweat the small stuff. Don’t worry about the small stuff so that you can devote your energy to the big problems. Maybe, then, you can solve some of those big problems. But Christian wisdom goes one step further—a step that is too far for reason. “Do not worry about anything,” Paul says in our epistle reading.

Well I don’t know about that! Don’t worry while you are waiting for the results of the biopsy of the tumor? Don’t worry while your child is lying sick in bed? Don’t worry while your child is lying dead in a coffin? And are not these just a few of the many examples of things that we might reasonably worry about? Haven’t we had enough things to worry about just this year alone? How can you say don’t worry about anything?

There is a reason behind what Paul says, and it is this: “If God is for us, who can be against us? Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also graciously give us all things along with him? … What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … Neither death nor life, neither angles nor rulers, neither things present nor things to come, nor powerful forces, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This is what Paul says in Romans chapter 8.

The key thought to all of it is this: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Everything else must give way. All other things are merely created things—things that God has made and has control over. So if it seems that these created things are winning against us, that simply can’t be case. Their victory must only be a temporary victory, assuming, of course, that God is for us. But we need not be in doubt about that either, for we know that the heavenly Father did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all. This is how we know that God is for us. The deed is done. God has declared his solidarity with sinners and promised their salvation. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. God most certainly is for you and for all people. You and all people are invited to believe this!

If God is for you (and he is), then everything is going to turn out fine. Although this kind of sounds like little orphan Annie singing, “The sun will come out tomorrow,” it is quite different. Because little orphan Annie, together with all natural flesh, do not have true hope. The best that they can hope for is a return to normalcy. If you get sick, the sun should come out tomorrow, and you will get better. If you lose your job, the sun should come out tomorrow, and you’ll get a different one.

But there is an iron clad limit to these hopes. All these hopes must bow to reason. If the hope is unreasonable, then you can kiss your little orphan Annie goodbye. At the deathbed nobody sings, “The sun will come out tomorrow,” for the very good reason that the sun won’t come out tomorrow for that person who is lying there. Tomorrow that person will be dead, and apparently won’t be able to see the sun. The hopes are limited by what it appears that this creation is able to provide.

It is quite different to sing something like this at the deathbed: “Abide with me, fast falls the eventide. The darkness deepens, Lord with me abide! When other helpers fail and comforts flee, Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me. … Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes. Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies! Heav’n’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee. In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.” Hallelujah, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia. Let us go forth in peace, in the name of the Lord. Amen.

The endpoint of our life has been fixed, has been set, by God. He has fixed this permanent point according to his promise of redemption and eternal life for Jesus’s sake. Whoever believes this has exactly what the promise says, for we are justified by faith in God’s promise. With this sure and certain inheritance in place—that nothing in creation can take away—we may sweat the small stuff. We may sweat the small stuff that the world would have us believe is the big stuff.

Has the biopsy report come back? Has the CAT scan found new growth? Do you have a surgery coming up? Allow me to put too fine a point on this: Perhaps this is the way that God would have enter into eternal life. I’m tempted to immediately follow this up with a word that our flesh finds much more comforting—that it will almost certainly turn out just fine. That is very often true too. But you, as a Christian, have no business making your home in such hopes. You’re but a stranger here. Heaven is your home. “To live is Christ, to die is gain.”

There are no limits or conditions that are attached to what Paul says in our epistle reading today when he says, “Rejoice in the Lord always! I will say it again: Rejoice!” He does not say, “Rejoice only when things are going splendidly for you—in exactly the way that you would want them to go.” Paul himself, as he writes this, is sitting in chains. He’s on his way to Rome, where eventually he will be beheaded. Paul knew this was likely the course his life was going to take, but he still says, “Rejoice in the Lord always,” and he means it. He knew that whatever the circumstances God would put him in, that it would be for his own good, and that others might very well benefit through those circumstances as well. And so it was, that as Paul was imprisoned God converted many to eternal life through the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins for Jesus’s sake that Paul preached. Paul did not lose anything by being in chains. Paul did not lose anything when he lost his head. Jesus says that whatsoever we might lose for Jesus and for the Gospel we will receive a hundredfold, and in the age to come, eternal life.

Therefore, as Paul says, we can be forbearing or gentle. Easy come, easy go. We do not need to fight for every last scrap. The Lord is at hand. Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

Here we have added comfort on top of all that has been said already. Already you know that the endpoint of your life is eternal life together with Christ. Already you know that to live is Christ, to die is gain. But you are not required to sit in silence, gritting your teeth, clinging to the arms of your chair as you ride this wild rollercoaster. “Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”

Jesus himself, when the fierceness of his fight was on, let his requests be made known to God in the Garden of Gethsemane. “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. But not my will, but your will be done.” Our Father who art in heaven is happy to hear the prayers of his children. It is a lot better to make your requests known to God than it is to worry. As Jesus says, “Who, by worrying, is able to add one cubit to his stature? Who is able to extend his life by even one minute? Do not worry. Consider the birds of the air and the flowers of the field. They do not worry and fret, but your heavenly Father takes care of them. You are much more valuable than they.” Worrying is a poor substitute for praying. We should worry about nothing, but instead pray.

I’d like you to notice one little word that is tucked in there, though, that is easy to overlook. Paul says, “with thanksgiving.” “By prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. With that little word, thanksgiving, you see that Paul is talking about a believing prayer rather than an unbelieving prayer. He is talking about a prayer that is prayed with confidence of it being heard, instead of a prayer that is offered in despair.

What I am talking about here are prayers like the so-called foxhole prayers. The trapped soldier, with death pressing down on him, might cry out in terror, but that is not a prayer. He is just as content to call upon his momma as he is upon this God that he has no confidence in. So also a mother might scream to God when her child is sick and dying. She pours out her entire spirit into such prayers. She cries out from the depths of her soul.

We naturally (but falsely) believe that such prayers have to be heard. They seem to be so genuine, so heart-felt. But this is where our reason tricks us into believing the opposite of what is the case. God does not want us to pray in unbelief. God does not want us to pray as though we were playing the lottery. When you buy a lottery ticket, do you really think that you are going to win? Of course there’s a chance. If there weren’t a chance you wouldn’t go to the trouble. But it’s kind of like a “Who knows? It would be nice, but let’s not get our hopes up” kind of thing. So it is with these prayers of desperation. They are basically calling God cruel and unreliable and hardly likely to hear them, but who knows? Maybe it will work. Unfortunately, with our fall into sin, nothing has been so severely damaged as our spiritual knowledge, and that includes our stupid natural thoughts with prayer. People know not what they do when they pray that way.

Instead, as Paul says, let us pray with thanksgiving. Note the contrast. The guy in the foxhole might wonder what there is to be thankful for. The believer can never be in doubt about what there is to be thankful for. The believer knows that the endpoint of his life has been fixed by God. The believer knows that whatever situation he might be in, that it is for his own good and for the good of others. The believer knows that even if his flesh should thus be destroyed, yet in his own flesh he will see God. The believer knows that his Redeemer lives. What comfort this sweet sentence gives.

So imagine yourself to be in a situation that the world finds hopeless. Imagine that you are dying with no hope of recovery. Think about what Paul says here. “Rejoice in the Lord always! I will say it again: Rejoice! … Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” This is a wonderful, gentle, comforting teaching. When you are dying, thank God. That is a clear confession of faith. You are saying that God knows what he is doing, and you know that whatever he is doing is for your own good and for the good of others. Even though it might not be clear to you how it is good for you or others, you can thank God that it is so. At the same time you may speak to him about what you are afraid of. Let him know what you want. Speak to him like a dear child speaks to his dear Father. Loving fathers listen to their children, and there has never been a loving father like our heavenly Father.

Finally we will conclude with words that are so familiar to us: “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” The peace of God is that there is always hope. There is never, ever a situation that is hopeless for the one who believes in Christ. And this hope is not dependent upon the sun coming out tomorrow or upon any earthly thing. It is dependent upon Almighty God. He is someone that is good to have in your corner, let me tell you. If God is for you, who can be against you? What shall separate you from the love of Christ? Everything is going to turn out just fine in the end. Thus you can sweat the small stuff—like death, like sin, like hell, like the devil. The world cannot even think of anything worse than death. You know that your God has overcome not just death for you, but anything and everything that could be worse than that.

Therefore, may the peace of God, that surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

201216 Midweek Sermon on Judges 4 (Advent 3 Midweek) December 16, 2020

 Audio Recording

Sermon manuscript:

Just like last week I’d like to begin tonight by talking a little bit about geography, specifically topography, or the lay of the land. Canaan is very diverse in its topography. Generally speaking, there are a lot of low mountains. In the south the mountains are so close together that they form somewhat of a rocky plateau. There isn’t much for low and broad plains or valleys in the south. Toward the north there is a large valley, called the Jezreel valley, but there are a still a lot of hill and valleys around it. Toward the west is the Mediterranean Sea. There you have some flatter land along the sea coast. Toward the east was the Jordan river, but that valley is not very broad except in a couple places. So, to sum up, Canaan was a very hilly, mountainous place—very different from the plains of Iowa, but maybe somewhat like the river bluffs to our east along the Mississippi river, but larger.

Geography plays a larger role than we might realize in what happens or doesn’t happen in certain locations. Hilly land makes several things more difficult to do than doing the same things on flat land. For example, if you were pulling wagon loads full of merchandise, would you rather pull those wagons up and over mountains, or would you rather pull them on a flat and level road? More wagon loads of merchandise means more business. More business means more opportunities for advancing one’s self. More opportunities means a larger population. A larger population means more resources for building things like walls or having armies.

When the Israelites invaded and took over Canaan, they more quickly and easily took over the mountainous areas because they were weaker. They had a harder time with the flatter, leveler areas. Those places had more people and more resources, and the land was more coveted. The large open spaces were the areas that were hardest to conquer and the hardest to defend if you did manage to conquer them.

In our reading tonight we heard about a conflict that took place in the Jezreel valley, which I mentioned at the start. This was that broad, flat area towards the north of Canaan. The king of Canaan was strong in this area and made no end of trouble for the Israelites. He had chariots, perhaps an especially strong type of chariot, for the writer of Judges calls them iron chariots. As you can imagine, chariots don’t work that well up in the mountains. However, on broad, flat land they were practically unbeatable at that time. Perhaps you can get an idea of the power difference by thinking of a fight between tanks and an infantry. People running around on foot have basically no chance in a fight against tanks. So also the Israelites had a devil of a time against the Canaanites with their 900 iron chariots.

But when the Lord is on your side, that becomes a different matter altogether. This is one of the themes of the book of Judges. When the Lord is on your side, then you can prevail with an 18 inch dagger, strapped to your right thigh. With the Lord on your side you can defeat a huge enemy force with just 300 men like Gideon does in chapter 8.

So also with Deborah, and her right hand man, Barak. Although the Israelites did not have chariots, they were able to rout the Canaanites and cut them down utterly. The rout is so bad that the Canaanites’ here-to-fore mighty commander, Sisera, is forced to flee on foot and hide like a hunted rabbit. His death is embarrassing. Instead of dying in battle at the hands of a worthy opponent, he has his temple smashed in by a woman with a tent peg.

There is simply no defense against the Lord. You might escape the battlefield, but you have to sleep sometime. Then someone you thought was nice—someone who gave him milk instead of water he had asked for—becomes the arm of the Lord.

So chapter 4 fits in with the rest of the book, indeed, with the rest of the Scriptures, in demonstrating that the Lord is God. When he is on your side, you are in a good spot. If not, sooner or later, you will get what is coming to you.

So that is very usual. On the other hand, there is also something unusual about the history this chapter records. God decided to do his will and reign in his kingdom through the leadership of a woman instead of a man. This is unusual, for God requires that we Christians be led by men. Paul is unmistakably clear about this. The Scriptures also give us countless examples of God choosing men to lead his people. Deborah is a glaring exception. So what is going on here? What does this mean?

This topic is difficult to talk about in our times because of the strength and overwhelming success of the feminist movement. Strict rules are now in place by all the people who wield power in our society so that talking about men and women can only be done in one way—their way. If someone doesn’t follow these rules he or she can lose a lot. Such people can lose their jobs. Having lost their jobs, they will likely not be able to find another one. Folks who do not follow these rules are unquestionably banned from academia, politics, journalism, and any other role that might make an impact on what our society thinks. Viewpoints outside of our society’s rigid orthodoxy are treated with contempt and disgust.

The orthodox line that is taken is that men and women are interchangeable. Whatever a man can do a woman can do. Whatever a woman can do a man can do. Anything less than this interchangeability is oppressive and demeaning. This is why our movies and TV shows now have quotas that have to be filled. Traditionally male roles, such as being a soldier, must now be filled with women. The interchangeability of the sexes also has something to do with the LGBTQ movement. The sex of the person to which someone might be attracted is without significance or consequence. The only thing that matters is that there is mutual consent for whatever two or more people might want to do with each other. Anything less than this or more than this is utterly bigoted, hateful, and deserves to be thrown into the trashcan of history together with the Nazis and the KKK.

The truth is, though, that the sexes are not interchangeable. Male is different than female. There are implications that go along with this difference. Men’s bodies are different than women’s bodies. The mind and the spirit of a man is different than the mind and spirit of a woman. They were created to be complimentary to one another—although, according to the curse that is spoken after the fall into sin, this is no longer always easy.

Fathers are meant to be fathers, and mothers are meant to be mothers, so that children may be raised in a stable and orderly home. The Bible does not fight against this natural ordering of male and female, men and women, but works within it. As it is with all other facets of life, Christians are called to love one another according to the station in life that God has given. Those who lead are not supposed to be tyrannical and cruel. Those who follow are to submit and seek to please whomever has been placed over them.

These are the general outlines of what the Bible says about men and women. And it is not as though there are just one or two passages. The Bible is clear: when the natural order is no longer recognized, that society has become hopelessly degenerate and corrupt. It is necessary to emphasize this because of the overwhelming power the opponents have with their views. If we do not stand up against it, we will just be carried along with the current.

On the other hand, Deborah is most certainly a positive example that the Scriptures give to us. Her lengthy song in the chapter following our reading has been laid down in Scripture by the Holy Spirit. She is among the saints in heaven. There is no shame for what she has done, instead there is acclaim. But don’t mistake what Deborah was all about either. She was no amazon. She was not fighting for the interchangeability of the sexes. What dominated her life was the Word of God. She was a prophetess, a judge, that made decisions according to the Law that God had given to Moses. She did not make her decisions based on what was popular or what was politically correct at the time.

Hence, two easy resolutions to this issue are immediately ruled out for us. On the one hand, we can’t simply take over wholesale the unnatural and highly destructive teachings of our society and say that Deborah was nothing other than an early feminist. That would be to form the Bible in our society’s own image.

On the other hand, we can’t just stupidly say the opposite of whatever those say who are so violently opposed to the Bible. We can’t say that men are better than women, or that women are in any way second-class citizens. We can’t say that only men can speak about God’s Word, and women dare not say anything about God’s Word. We can’t say that only men have the Holy Spirit, and women do not. All these things and more would be as unbiblical to say as our society’s claim that men and women are interchangeable.

There is a lot that we need to unlearn, learn, and relearn when it comes to what the Bible says about man and woman, husband and wife, head of the household and the helpmeet that God gave to Adam to love. We will not be able to do much more tonight. But it is important that we do it and not shy away from it. In every time and in every age of God’s people there have been teachings that conflict with what is popularly believed by the world around them. Those are the teachings that need to be mastered. When they are not mastered, they work like a cancer within the Christian Church. Eventually the whole body will be taken over.

There has always been a battle for our souls. The world would have us believe that we can be blessed in one way. The Bible declares that we will be blessed through faith in God. This is what was going on at the time of the Judges. It is what is going on also among us now. It is important that we realize this, so that we do not just go quietly into that dark night.

201209 Midweek Sermon on Judges 3 (Advent 2 Midweek) December 9, 2020

 Audio Recording

Sermon manuscript:

The promised land, the land of Canaan, was not a very large area geographically. The length of it, north to south, was a little less than the length of Iowa, north to south. Its width was much less than the state of Iowa. It was only perhaps a fifth of Iowa’s width, east to west. So if you take one fifth of Iowa, you’d be able to fit the land of Canaan inside those borders.

So when the Bible talks about different places and regions, it is talking in pretty intimate terms geographically speaking. Some of the places mentioned would be like talking about Lamont or Hawkeye or Quasqi to us. Further away places, foreign places that neighbored the promised land, would be like us talking about people from Albert Lea or Madison. The people who originally had the Scriptures, the Jews, who lived in the promised land, would have known these places and peoples just like we know our own geography near us. The reason why so many names and places are used is because this would have been of great interest to them. It was their own history. It was their own place and time.

We are at a disadvantage compared to them. These names and places are not familiar to us. We don’t know how they relate or the regional differences that existed. For example, in our own times we know that the people of Clayton county are quite different than the people of Johnson county. So also there would have been definite differences between the Moabites and the Philistines. The Moabites lived in a desolate remote area. The Philistines lived along the Mediterranean Sea coast. They were where all the trade routes went. These kinds of things affect the character and habits of people. When we are able to learn a little bit more about the people we read about, it helps us form a bit more interesting of a mental picture of who we are dealing with.

In our reading tonight, the main antagonist that we hear about is a king named Eglon. He was king of the Moabites, whom we’ve already mentioned. The Moabites lived to the east of the Jordan River and along the Dead Sea. The Bible tells us that they were the descendants of Lot, Abraham’s nephew, who at one time lived in Sodom by the Dead Sea. Perhaps you will remember that when Lot and his family left Sodom, his wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. So Lot was left with his two daughters. Moab was born to the elder of those daughters who became pregnant in an incestuous tryst with her father. The younger daughter, who did the same thing, became pregnant and bore a son named Amon. So the Moabites and the Amonites were very distant relatives of the Israelites. The Israelites were descended from Abraham. The Moabites and Amonites were descendants of Abraham’s nephew Lot.

At the time of our reading, Eglon, the king of the Moabites, appears to have strung together a coalition against the Israelites. The Moabites, Amonites, and Amalakites all lived to the east of the promised land. By joining their forces they were able to subdue the Israelites so that the Israelites had to pay tribute to Eglon for 18 years.

But why did the Moabites, Amonites, and Amalakites feel the need to attack Israel in the first place? Realize that when the Israelites conquered the land of Canaan, they threw everything into turmoil in that whole region. Four hundred years had passed between when Jacob lived in Canaan and when his descendants finally came back again. Many generations of people had made their livings and raised their children in the meantime. When the Israelites came back, all these relationships were threatened. Whenever there is a newcomer to power, the old powers are resentful and will often rise against them. Israel was the new power in that neighborhood, and their neighbors to the east resented them for it.

If the Israelites had remained faithful to what God had given them to do, then their eastern neighbors would not have been a problem for them. With God on their side they would have prevailed against them. But God punished the Israelites for breaking the covenant. God had told them to remove the unbelieving idolatrous people from their communities, but they disobeyed him. As a result, with intermarriage and other social interactions, the Israelites lost their nerve. How, after all, can you denounce the religion of your son-in-law or daughter-in-law or your grandchildren? It is much easier just to not discuss religion.

But God had told his people to speak about his Word when they got up and when they laid down. They should speak about it as they are walking along the road. God’s might deeds of deliverance are what they should speak about—that he had taken this people out of slavery and led them into the land of milk and honey. Wherever this Word dies, faith also inevitably dies too. Something else gets believed in instead of what the Word of God tells us that we should believe in.

And so it happened that the Israelites served the Baals and the Ashtoreths of the Canaanites. Baal was the main male god of that area. Ashtoreth was the main female goddess of that area. The way that the Israelite’s neighbors lived inevitably came to be part of their view of the world also. While they were in truth disloyal, they certainly didn’t see themselves this way. They did not think they were giving up on their faith in the Lord God. I’m sure they saw themselves as good and loyal Israelites. But they also made use of what the Baals and Ashtoreths had to offer. God, though, is a jealous God. Like a husband is jealous of his wife, he won’t tolerate anyone else to have his bride. Accordingly the Israelites are punished by God. He never allows them to prevail against their enemies and sweep out all the leaven. He brings them into times of great distress.

But God did not totally abandon his people. If that had been his objective, then he simply would have let them melt into the population entirely like he has on so many other occasions. If he had done that, then not only would they not know God’s Word, they also wouldn’t have thought there was anything wrong with not knowing the Lord and his Word. The Word was not removed entirely, and during hard times the Israelites were brought to their senses. They called upon the name of the Lord, and he heard them. This is a pattern that holds true for the whole book of Judges. Indeed, it is a pattern that holds true for God’s people even up to the present day.

So after the people had been oppressed and humbled and brought to their senses, they prayed to God for relief, and God sent them Ehud. Ehud was a left handed man, which is relevant for the story that is told. Most people are right handed, and, being right handed, draw their sword in a certain way. Ehud used his left hand for the sword, so that he was able to hide a long dagger in a place people were not accustomed to look.

Evidently Ehud was chosen as the representative of the Israelites to bring the tribute or tax that the Moabites were levying against the Israelites. He presented the payment to Eglon, the king of Moab, and was on his way home. However, something happened that changed his mind. When he was at the Jordan river, at Gilgal, he saw the carved images that had been put up in a Moabite fashion.

Gilgal was an important place in the early history of Israel. Gilgal was where the people first crossed over the Jordan after it was stopped up so that they pass through on dry ground. It was the place where the Israelite men were circumcised. While the Israelites had been in the wilderness they evidently had not observed this sign God had given them. It was also at Gilgal, according to God’s own instructions, that the Israelites put up 12 stones as a memorial for the twelve tribes of Israel passing into the land that the Lord had promised to give them.

So Gilgal was a place that was near and dear to those who loved the Lord and his promises. To have such a place polluted with idols enraged Ehud. So he went back and told the king he had a secret. When they were all alone Ehud surprised him with his hidden dagger, plunging it into this belly. Since Eglon was so fat the whole thing went in until his belly covered over even the hilt of the sword. Then, as you heard, he slipped away. The king was not discovered for some time, because his attendants thought that he was using the bathroom—perhaps something that he did quite often. Finally, Ehud gathered troops from the people of Ephraim, perhaps the strongest of all the tribes, and they defeated the Moabites.

A colorful story like this one reminds me of stories of our own like the Boston tea party. That was where a bunch of American gentlemen dressed up like Indians and threw the tea that the British wanted to tax into the Boston harbor. There is something playful in that story, even as there was something quite serious also going on. Eventually the Revolutionary War would be fought because of that event and others like it.

Colorful tales continue to happen among God’s people also in our own time. For example, within our own church body, there are many colorful tales that are told about the conflict at the St. Louis seminary in the 1970s. Wherever you have people who care, people who are stirred to fight for the preaching of God’s Word, you are going to have some war stories. So it goes. Unless, of course, a church has melted in with everybody around them. Then there are either no stories to be told, or very boring stories.

Therefore it is my hope that colorful, interesting stories may be told also among us, for that is an indication of life.

201213 Sermon on Isaiah 40:1-11 (Advent 3) December 13, 2020

 Audio Recording

Sermon manuscript:

All four of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, make reference to our Old Testament reading, Isaiah chapter 40. All four Gospels refer to Isaiah chapter 40 when John the Baptist is brought up. He is “the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord!’” This is the way that others saw John the Baptist, and it is the way that he saw himself. He was the forerunner of the Christ. With his preaching of repentance, and with his baptism, God set people’s heart and minds straight.

This is a very needed thing, for our hearts and minds are not naturally straight, but rather crooked. Psalm 14 describes us quite well when it says, “They are corrupt. They do disgusting things. There is no one who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on all the children of Adam to see if there is anyone who understands, anyone who seeks God. Every one of them has turned away. Altogether they have become rotten. There is no one who does good. There is not even one.”

And if you should want to disagree with the Psalmist’s characterization of you and of every single person, I’ll just ask you one question: Have you sought after God? That is, have you panted and thirsted after him like a deer for water? Have you loved him with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind? Have you even genuinely prayed the Lord’s Prayer—that God’s name would be holy to you, that his kingdom should come to you, that his will and not your will would be done?

If Psalm 14 doesn’t describe you, if you are good, then you have no need for John the Baptist to set you straight. You have no need for Jesus Christ. You can stand on your own two feet.

But then you might consider the preaching of John the Baptist that was prophesied hundreds of years beforehand by Isaiah: “All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like a wildflower in the countryside. Grass withers, flowers fade, when the breath of the Lord blows on them. Yes, the people are grass. Grass withers, flowers fade, but the Word of our God endures forever.”

You believe that you are good enough. Then why does death hunt you down? Why does God hunt you down? God is not in the habit of punishing those who do his will. That would be like a father punishing a child right after the child had done exactly what the father had asked him to do. Wouldn’t that be supremely evil—to spank a child for doing good? That seems to be how the devil would parent. So if you are good, then why should God punish you? Why should you die? Either you are not good or God is some kind of devil.

But, in our times especially, we have to talk about one more possibility, because it is so popular of an opinion. Folks say that people die because that’s just natural. The leaves burst forth with life in the spring, thrive in the summer, wither in the fall, and die and decay come winter. All around us we have this pattern of birth, growth, decline, and death. “The fact is,” they say, “there is no God. Nature just takes its course.” This is seen as being very sophisticated wisdom. Because science and stuff. The only reason those ancient people talked about God so much is that they were such idiots that they couldn’t conceive of anything so sophisticated as there not being a God.

But that is not true. With the psalm that I have already quoted from, Psalm 14, I left off the very first verse: “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” This psalm was composed by King David around 1000 B. C. He, obviously, was able to conceptualize such a thing as believing that there is no God. In fact, it is the opening theme to his whole song on the wickedness of mankind.

And, indeed, we can go back even further. What were Adam and Eve hoping in after they fell into sin? Where not they hoping with all their heart that there was no God? For if there was a God, then they would surely die. So please, please, please let there be no God. They almost died with fright and disappointment when they perceived that God existed because they could hear him walking through the garden in the cool of the day.

Indeed, this belief, or rather, this hope, that there is no god, is known by every child who has done wrong. They do not want to be found out. They do not want to be held responsible. This is not sophisticated or profound. It did not take hundreds of years of scientific study to discover. Every sinner has known it. Every sinner has believed in it. The sinner’s hope is that when death comes a callin’ God has nothing to do with it. Maybe, just maybe, then, I have gotten away with what I’ve done. We won’t be held accountable for our sins, and we will just melt away into nothingness. But this is the false hope that Jesus alludes to when he talks about people wanting the mountains to fall on them, to cover them up, on Judgement Day. They wish that they could just decay and melt away, but find that they are unable.

So let this truth be established and proclaimed: “All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like a wildflower in the countryside. When the breath of the Lord breathes upon this flesh it withers and dies.” This is the preaching of repentance that John did in his day. This is the preaching that still needs to be done today.

And it’s hard, because, unfortunately, we so prefer the comfort of lies to the truth. That makes us slippery as eels. We’d like to take refuge in one false hope after another, and so a preacher of repentance must leave no hiding place unexposed. Every valley must be raised up; every mountain and hill made low. The rugged ground must become level and the rough places smooth. The whole earth must become guilty before God—for that is what they truly are.

But all this is for an unexpected reason. When Adam and Eve were drawn out of the bushes, was it for the purpose of crushing them and killing them? To be sure, God did inform them of the harsh consequences of their sin, but his whole purpose in coming to them was to restore fellowship with them. He brought them glad tidings of great joy that would be for all people. The seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head.

So it is also with the preaching of John the Baptist, foretold by Isaiah. He prepared the way for the Lord. All the hiding places were taken away. But to what end? So that the glory of the Lord would be revealed and all flesh together would see it. John the Baptist preached God’s grace for you and for all. He pointed at Christ and said, “Look! He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” He is the one upon whom the curse of the Law has fallen. He drank the bitter cup of death. He experienced God’s full wrath for sin. He became guilty, so that we should be declared righteous because of him.

Because Jesus took our place, our death has been stripped of its most awful characteristic. Our death is no longer God’s wrathful punishment for sin. Our death is no longer God hunting us down. God is not wrathful towards us. God loved the world in this way that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not sent his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. The one who believes in him is not condemned.

The preaching of repentance requires wills to be broken. The comfort of lies must be mercilessly stripped away. The end of the Law is death, and there is so much awesomeness to this preaching that we are always wanting to put a veil over it to cover it up. But once we have been stripped of our idols, once we have been stripped of our false beliefs, the rough treatment is at an end. God turns to us a Father’s heart. In fact, we must be careful that we embrace this Father’s heart toward us and leave the terror of the Law behind.

For, as Paul says, there is another covenant besides the Law whose glory is so great that the awesomeness of the Law ends up having no glory at all. It’s like how the sun comes out with all its glory so that you cannot see the moon or the stars. The glory of the sun is such that the others go away. This more glorious covenant that Paul is speaking about is the Gospel of God’s forgiveness and acceptance.

The Gospel is God’s eternal will toward mankind. Even before time began, God had already chosen you for salvation in his crucified Son. It is not as though the Gospel was an afterthought, a patch-up job after the covenant of the Law had failed. No, it has been God’s intention that you should see the glory of the Lord in the crucified Lord Jesus Christ. It is his will that all people and every individual should reach repentance and enjoy the forgiveness of sins that Jesus has worked for all people. The greatest of all things is love. God is love. And, quite simply, God would have you enjoy the glory of his love. That is what he wants for you.

We hear of God’s will toward us, we hear of God’s Gospel, in a special and emphatic way in our reading from Isaiah. It says: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call out to her. Her warfare really is over. Her guilt is fully paid for. Yes, she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” God saying “comfort” once just isn’t good enough. “Comfort, comfort my people,” he says. Speak to the heart of the people, right at the core, so they know that it is really for them. Warfare and death are over. Guilt is gone. It’s almost a little over the top—a little too gracious—for he says: “Yes, she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” It sounds almost as if the Lord is rewarding us—giving us double—for our sins. The more we sin the more gracious he is.

But the point that is being so forcibly made here is an important one, and that is that our sins or lack of sins do not enter into the covenant of grace that God makes with us in Jesus. Our sins have absolutely nothing to do with our relationship with God when we believe in Jesus, because Jesus has fulfilled the Law. The covenant of the Law is done. We have been given a new covenant in Jesus’s blood for the forgiveness of our sins. This is the thing that Jesus himself says less than 24 hours before he would be lying dead in the grave. “Drink of it all of you. This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.”

Because God’s favor and blessing is not on the basis of whether you have sinned or not sinned, but based rather on the holy, innocent, bitter, sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, you may be certain that this message and gift is for you. It doesn’t matter if you are a big sinner, a little sinner, or any kind of sinner in between. It isn’t based on you and your sins. The covenant is based solely on God’s actions in Christ. And now God sends this Word out into all the world: “You are my people, Comfort, Comfort.” Whoever hears it may believe it and be benefited by it, for it is not dependent upon anyone besides God. God has redeemed us. Now he sends out his Gospel so that sinners may believe it and be saved by that faith.

There is encouragement for us to do our part in our reading. It says: “Get you up on a high mountain, O Zion (Zion is you, the people of God)!  Lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem (that’s you), you herald of the Gospel. Lift it up! Do not be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah, ‘Here is your God!’ (that is, ‘Here is Jesus for you’).”

We are fast approaching one of our great festivals where we can go tell it on the mountain. Our beloved Christmas hymns, perhaps even more than our Easter hymns, are songs where God’s people announce to one another and to the whole world God’s good will toward mankind. The world is invited to behold our God.

And so we sing, “Joy to the world, the Lord is come!” “Oh come, all ye faithful. … Come and behold him, born the King of angels. Oh, come, let us adore him. Oh come, let us adore him. O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord!” “Hark the herald angels sing, Glory to the new born King. Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled.” These hymns preach the Gospel. So lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem (that’s you). Lift it up! Do not be afraid! Declare to all who will listen, “Unto you is born a Savior who is Christ the Lord.”

201206 Sermon on Malachi 4:1-6 (Advent 2) December 6, 2020

 Audio Recording

Sermon manuscript:

Generally speaking, old people receive comfort from things being predictable. They like to know what to expect. They are not bothered by one day plodding into the next where everything happens just the same. Perhaps this is related to something else that I’ve noticed for myself as I’ve gotten older—the days go by so quickly. One after another the days fly by. Soon a whole year has passed. Where did all the days go?

This is not how it is for young people. Young people do not like it when one day is just like the day before it. They want new experiences, new challenges, new surroundings. If they do not have this, then the days drag on forever. One hour can seem like an eternity. And why? Because they are looking for the next new thing that is different from what they have been doing. They are hopeful. Perhaps this explains old people’s contentment with everything staying the same. They have lost their hopefulness. From long and bitter experience they have learned that life isn’t as thrilling as young people believe it to be. They become tamed and domesticated. They are easier to handle.

There’s no sense in trying to fight against this. It’s just how life is. We see this not only with human beings but with all kinds of other forms of life. The puppy is different from the old dog. The young tree is flexible, full of sap. The old tree is hard and brittle. Those old people who pretend that they are still teenagers look terribly foolish. Just as we can’t escape the wrinkles and the gray hair, we can’t escape the aging of our minds and souls.

But this serves its purpose too. There’s a good reason why older people are chosen to be leaders. They aren’t as impetuous. They don’t love or hate as much as young people. They are more even keel. Unpredictability is not a good trait in plumbers or electricians or bakers or nurses. Maturity and stability can be very helpful. How would a lot of our work get done if everybody were bored out of their minds all the time, like young people are prone to be?

With all this being said, though, I think you might agree that something is lost when youth goes away. It is the progressive onset of death. The energy, the health, the strength gets less and less.

Speaking of aging as the progressive onset of death is not very common, and there’s a good reason for that. It is believed that there is nothing that can be done about it. There’s no way to roll back the clock. There’s no way to be young again. It’s strange how much faith people put into innovations that might make their bodies last a little longer or work a little better, but nobody talks about the aging of the mind and soul. But isn’t it precisely this youthfulness of spirit that we miss the most from our childhood? Who cares if our body lives on for decades, but we have no get up and go? There is nothing that can be done about this humanly speaking.

But the Scriptures give us a different possibility. In fact it is not a matter of possibilities but a matter of two eventualities. The Scriptures speak of a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells. That’s one eventuality. The other eventuality is an immense increase in the progression of death—a further increase in embitterment, sluggishness, anxiety, and pain. What we are speaking of here is heaven and hell—the vast change that must happen to every individual. There are no other possibilities.

So we must do away with what is undoubtedly the most common view of the afterlife, which is that things are going to go on pretty much the same but only a little better: Donna, the card shark, is going to be playing bridge endlessly. Sally, the jokester, will be making people laugh eternally. Bob, the farmer, is going to be farming eternally. Barf. These are old people’s dreams about heaven. Old people want everything to stay the same. Old people want everything to be predictable—including what happens to them after death. It is very comforting to them, therefore, to think that the afterlife is a gentle slipping off into another existence where everything is familiar and safe.

The truth is, though, that with our death we have the beginning of a great adventure. It will be the greatest adventure that we have ever had, for everyone will be nearer the One from whom come all triumphs and defeats, comedies and tragedies, loves and hates. The good will be better and the bad will be worse. It is the opposite of an even keel.

I could show you many proofs of this from the Scriptures, but let’s just consider our Old Testament reading from the prophet Malachi. He has been given a vision of the great and terrible day of the Lord. He says:

Look! The day is coming, burning like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble. The day that is coming will set them on fire, says the Lord of Armies, a day which will not leave behind a root or branch for them. But for you who fear my name a sun of righteousness will rise, and there will be healing in its wings. You will go out and jump around like calves from the stall. You will crush the wicked. They will surely be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I make happen, says the Lord of Armies.

The whole population is here divided into two. There is one day that is coming, burning like an oven, but it is experienced so terribly differently depending on whether you are with the one group or the other. The one group is like stubble. The heat kindles them and they burn. They are not left with root or branch. All that they hoped for and worked for will be as nothing, for they were working for idols. Among this group will be the vast majority of the world’s so-called great people—the ones who worked their tail off to make a name for themselves. Such people better enjoy their fame now, because it ain’t gonna last.

The other group of people experience the same day, the same heat, the same Lord, but in such a different way! “But for you who fear my name,” Malachi says, “a sun of righteousness will rise, and there will be healing in its wings. You will go out and jump around like calves from the stall. You will crush the wicked. They will surely be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I make happen, says the Lord of Armies.”

The same heat that set the wicked ablaze is healing and invigorating to those who fear the Lord. It’s like coming in from the cold and standing in front of a warm, radiating stove. The heat warms the bones. Or it is like those fine days in spring, when the power of the sun has returned after the bleak winter, and you can feel it sinking into your skin. The calves jump and frolic when they are released into the fresh green pasture.

But let us not forget what it says immediately after that: “You will crush the wicked. They will surely be ashes under the soles of your feet.” Old people might be able to get on board with the whole warm, spring sun thing. But they surely will stumble and fall over this—that the righteous will crush the wicked. That the wicked will be ashes on the soles of their feet. Old people’s blood gets cold. They do not hate like young people do, and they do not love like young people do. Here with God’s saints you have a love that is greater than any we have ever known—a love for righteousness. There is also a hatred, a burning hatred, of what is wicked. This is a great adventure where there are winners and losers. Our emotions are not taken away in heaven. We do not become stoics. The opposite happens. Our emotions are renewed and strengthened—just like we see in the young.

This applies also to the Christian Church in this age. When the church gets old she doesn’t love very much or hate very much. She takes everything on an even keel. If ever some controversy should arise she always begins here response like this. She says, “Well…” And what follows after that is some theological rationale for why she doesn’t have to be too concerned about this or that. What is most important to the Church when she gets old is comfort and predictability. Nothing should be done so vigorously that the Church should lose its monetary support or be looked down upon by anybody in the community.

Compare that attitude to the great heroes—those who now inhabit heaven. Moses stood firm against the most powerful man on earth while plagues rained down upon thousands and thousands of people, bringing untold suffering. When his own people sinned with the golden calf the rebels were killed. He loved his people, and prayed to God for their salvation, but he would not spare them when they were intent on committing wickedness.

Or think of King David, that great man, the apple of God’s eye. We are all familiar with how he killed the giant Goliath with his sling shot and cut off his head when he was but a boy. But do you know why he did this? It is because Goliath was mocking the Lord God together with his powerful Philistine friends. All the Israelite men were scared. David was angry. He was so angry at these words against his God that he immediately went out to challenge him. It was the love of the Lord that made him hate Goliath.

Or think of Paul and the rest of the apostles. They were not afraid to turn life upside down in the ancient Greek cities where everyone worshipped other gods—the very same gods that get worshipped today among us but with different names. When people began to be converted the powers that be could not stand the change that these Christians were bringing about with their shunning of evil. They lashed out against the apostles and tried to make them miserable. They mocked, gossiped, threatened, whipped, exiled, imprisoned, and if all of that wouldn’t work they finally killed them. All it would have taken for the apostles to have a pleasant, comfortable life was for them to quit preaching like they were. All they had to do was tone it down. But the fire of their love for the Lord Christ was such that they even boasted and rejoiced in their shameful treatment.  They thanked God that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus.

So tell me: How on earth could heaven be this sleepy place where life goes on in some quiet predictable way? It would be a contradiction of the lives of the greatest saints. It would be a contradiction of Christ’s life. For Christ did not come to be served, but to serve, and give his life as a ransom for many. He himself says, “Do not think that I came to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” The culmination of his earthly life was a mortal battle with Satan. He fought to the death. He died. But he prevailed, redeeming all people so that we could be set free from the devil and live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

And so we must reject and denounce this “all dogs go to heaven” kind of Gospel. It cuts a poor figure. It’s a rocking chair kind of heaven. Wouldn’t we all get sick to death of doing our hobbies? The only thing it has going for it is a sense of comfort and safety. But ask any young person and they will tell you that risk is the spice of life. It is why it is so thrilling.

Heaven is thrilling. God is the God of the living, not of the dead. If you are looking for safety above all else, then you will turn out like that man in Jesus’s parable who buried his talent in the field because he hated his master. His talent was taken away and given to the man who had ten talents. Jesus sums up that parable by saying, “He who has will be given more. He who has not, even what he has will be taken away from him.”

And so we might as well get busy being bold. Do not be ashamed of Jesus’s name and his words. Confess him before men, and he will confess you before the Father. You have been given the knowledge of eternal life. Fight against all lies, and help your neighbor learn of the truth. Jesus is the way, the truth, and life.

201202 Advent Midweek Sermon on Judges 2, December 2, 2020

 Audio Recording

Sermon manuscript:

One of my goals as a pastor is to help you read the books of the Bible for yourself with more enjoyment and with greater understanding. We Lutherans do not read the Bible on our own like we should. Part of the reason for this is the spiritual problem that afflicts all who are born of Adam and Eve. We naturally are inclined to be bored by God’s Word and are eager to do other things instead. It is similar to that other great spiritual problem of ours with the second commandment. It is mysterious why we have such a hard time calling upon God’s name in every trouble, praying, praising, and giving thanks. Even Luther complains about that. He said that praying was the hardest work for him to do properly.

But besides these great spiritual evils that cling to our flesh, we also have some difficulties when we are unfamiliar with what some portion of the Bible might be talking about. It’s kind of like jumping into the middle of a movie. When you don’t know what comes before or after, it is difficult to orient yourself to what is going on. It requires real effort. No doubt this is why we don’t often watch movies starting at the middle of them. We watch them from the beginning and thereby can understand it better. I can understand how it is frustrating for people to pick up the Bible, not knowing much about it, and not getting a lot out of it. Going in cold requires a lot of effort.

So your homework assignment, if you should choose to accept it, would be to read the book of Judges during this advent season. Over the course of these three midweek services we will be looking at chapters 2-4. What we heard about tonight serves well as an introduction to the book as a whole. In the two weeks that follow we will begin to look at more specific people and events.

Let’s begin our series tonight by talking about the time period we are dealing. Genesis tells us about the three great patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob is given the name “Israel” by God, and his twelve sons become patriarchs for the twelve tribes of Israel. When Jacob was an old man a severe drought and famine gripped the land of Canaan, which God had given to Abraham and his descendants, so they were forced to move to Egypt where Joseph was able to help the whole family.

Now over the course of time the descendants of Jacob somehow eventually become enslaved by the Egyptians. The Bible doesn’t go into any detail about that beside saying that it happened over the course of 400 years. So the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were not living in their promised homeland in Canaan for 400 years, because they become slaves.

God heard their prayers while they were being oppressed and sent them the mighty deliverer, Moses. This story is told in the second book of the Bible, Exodus. As you know, God did many signs and wonders through Moses so that Pharaoh was forced to let God’s people go. They end up at Mt. Sinai where God gives them the 10 Commandments and the rest of the Law.

The way that the story was supposed to go after that was that the Israelites were supposed to immediately enter into the land of Canaan, take it over from the inhabitants, and settle it for themselves and their descendants. But this did not happen. When Moses sent 12 spies into the land, 10 of the 12 came back and frightened all the people concerning the power of the Canaanites. These spies told the people that there was no way that they could ever win against the people who lived there. Only two of the 12, Caleb and Joshua, believed that the Israelites could win by the grace of God.

Because the people believed the 10 spies who were frightened, God punished the Israelites with 40 years of homelessness in the desert wilderness between Canaan and Egypt.

After those forty long years were over, God finally brought the people into their inheritance. They did under the leadership of Joshua, one of the two faithful spies, because Moses died before they crossed over the Jordan. Then, beginning at Jericho, the Israelites took over one territory in Canaan after another, until each of the twelve tribes received its own territory.

This brings us up to what we heard about in our reading tonight. While the Israelites were successful in driving out the inhabitants of Canaan, they did not fully carry out God’s will in getting rid of the people who lived there. God did not want the Israelites to move in together with the Canaanites. He wanted the Canaanites killed or driven out of the land. The reason why God was bringing such a disaster upon the Canaanites was because of their disgusting and abominable practices. The Israelites exterminating the Canaanites was God’s just punishment for their sins. However, the Israelites did not do as God wanted them. They allowed the Canaanites to live among them, perhaps enslaving them, but not devoting them to destruction.

Here we have one of those things from the Bible that sounds harsh or even evil to our modern ears. There’s not much that I can do for you to make it better. One of our flesh’s deepest desires is that God will just forget about our sins. This was Adam and Eve’s deepest wish after they sinned. This is every child’s deepest wish when they are afraid of being found out after doing something wrong. This is the criminal’s deepest wish. The last person the criminal wants to see at his doorstep is the police.

So the notion that God should execute such harsh judgment against the Canaanites where they are entirely wiped out, is an intolerable thought to us sinners. Those who have no fear of the Lord will even rise up against God and pass sentence on him. They will declare God guilty of genocide, and, therefore, obviously evil. There is no way to convince people who are like that. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. There are no arguments that can change their mind. They don’t want to be accountable to God, and there is no way to make them accountable to God. We will just have to wait and see what happens when God acts and judges. When the end comes, then all things will be sorted out. Until that time, people can believe all kinds of things about God that aren’t true.

Since we are really dealing with a spiritual problem here, it seems likely to me that the softness of our modern times was probably also there with the Israelites. That was at least part of why they spared the Canaanites the way that they did. Perhaps the Israelites’ leniency was because they themselves were hopeful that they could define for themselves what is right and wrong. We all want to believe that we all aren’t that bad, and so live and let live. It takes work, courage, and conviction to do what God told the Israelites to do, but they weren’t willing to do it.

Because they wouldn’t do what God wanted them to do, they were going to suffer accordingly. That’s how it is so often with God’s justice. Through the very sin that we commit we find that it boomerangs back upon us. With the continuing existence of the Canaanites among the Israelites, they worked like a cancer to the Israelite’s faith. They worshipped false gods and the Israelites were tempted into it too. The Canaanite boys fell in love with the Israelite girls, and vice versa. Soon you had mixed households where the father believes one thing and the mother believes another. How, then, should the children be raised? That is a perennial problem as we all know.

In sum, God was faithful to his covenant with the Israelites, but they proved to be unfaithful to him. They became like the Canaanites who had stirred up God’s wrath because of their sins. Therefore God punished his people. In our reading he said, “Because this nation has violated my covenant, which I commanded to their fathers, and because they did not obey my voice, I will no longer drive out from among them a single one of the nations that Joshua left unconquered when he died.” God punished his people by giving them the very thing that they wanted. Forever after this the Israelites would constantly be dragged into idolatry by the unbelievers in their midst. They were in constant danger of simply melting into the general population.

This is the blight also among us. When we lose our saltiness, when we are no longer willing to declare that something our loved ones are doing is evil, then we lose our distinctiveness. We and our children get thrown into the melting pot. We lose our grasp of God’s Word. We quit calling on the name of the Lord. Because we lose our faith in God. It takes work, courage, and conviction to judge. The default position is that we do nothing, and let the trouble pass from us. Live and let live.

So the book of Judges is very applicable to us. The Israelites were struggling with a lazy multiculturalism where everybody could do as he or she pleased. They grew colder and colder towards God as the generations passed. But God was merciful in that he did not just turn them over to their desires entirely. He did not harden their hearts where they had no other choice but to do what came naturally and easily to them.

The way that God had mercy on them was that he sent trouble to them. This trouble took different forms, but one of the troubles was that they were harassed in life and limb by the people around them. They were left in poverty when the neighboring Philistines, for example, would sweep through their territory and take all their money and property. Having been humbled, they called out to the Lord, and he would save them. The book of Judges is about these people whom God raised up to help his people. They are known as “judges.” Hence the name of the book.

The Bible is always the most applicable of books, because our human condition never really changes. We are cut from the same cloth as all those who have come before us, including the Israelites. And so we, like these people we will hear about, are in need of examining ourselves, repenting of our sins, and calling on our God for salvation.