250112 Sermon against cynicism for Christ's kingdom (The Baptism of our Lord) January 12, 2025

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Donald J. Trump will begin his term as president at noon, January 20^th. Have you been planning for what will happen January 21^st? Have you been making lists, getting everything ready, rehearsing what you will do for the day after the inauguration? Probably not. I haven’t either. I don’t think a lot will change with our new president. It isn’t really about him. I’m cynical about what elected officials can do in general. The people who hold the reins of power—the people who are massively wealthy, who can write the checks—won’t let too much change, unless it is to their own benefit. Things will probably keep going on like they have for a long time. I am not expecting any massive changes.

What about Christ’s kingdom? Is our attitude the same there as well? Our festival today is somewhat like Jesus’s inauguration as the Christ. Jesus’s baptism marks the beginning of his great words and deeds that are recorded in the Gospels. Immediately after his baptism Jesus was very busy. He was tempted by the devil, swamped by sick and demon possessed people, teaching in the synagogues, doing one miracle after another. Things looked like they were changing for the better, but then Jesus was arrested, crucified and died. That was when the cynicism began in earnest. Folks had wondered whether Jesus might have been the Christ, but he couldn’t have been since he died.

That was the end of the road for the vast number of people who had once believed in Jesus. At one point there had been many thousands who were interested in Jesus being made king by force, but any hope of that was gone when everyone could see him hanging dead on the cross.

Even after Easter the picture didn’t improve very much as far as the disciples were concerned. John chapter 21 seems to indicate that the disciples went back to their old livelihood of fishing. Acts chapter 1 tells us that the number of believers in Jerusalem was only about 120. That is a far cry from many thousands. Even with the great day of Pentecost, when 3,000 repented and were baptized—that was less than the feeding of the 5,000, or the feeding of the 4,000.

Cynicism is a way to protect yourself from being disappointed. Cynicism is when you don’t get your hopes up. Having your hopes dashed is painful. The higher the hopes, the more intense the desire, the worse the pain. To prevent getting hurt you can check yourself out. Things will stay the same. Why bother? Just go gentle into that good night.

This is a way to insulate yourself from pain. Disappointments will not hit you as sharply. But there is a terrible cost. With cynicism things will, at best, stay the same, but more likely get worse. If you won’t get involved, if you won’t change your ways, if you won’t hope for change, then nothing is going to change. It is forfeiting to the powers that be.

This defeatist attitude is disastrous in all areas of life, but it is especially devastating for faith in Christ’s kingdom. If we would not have hope in Christ, then we are left with how things are. Paul calls these the elementary principles of this world, to which we are enslaved. We are enslaved to the devil. We are enslaved to our desires. We are enslaved to pursuing mere self-interest. Our chains have been put on by ourselves, which are our fears and insecurities, our dread of pain and suffering.

How differently the bible speaks about Christ’s kingdom! Paul says: “For freedom Christ has set you free!” The Gospels speak of Christ “proclaiming liberty to the prisoners!” And indeed, Jesus set people free from all kinds of disabilities and ailments in the Gospels. The people loved that! We slaves love to get a little taste of freedom. But a lot of people thought that that kind of thing was over and done with when Jesus died, and even when he rose. The risen and ascended Christ remains at work in his kingdom, but a lot of people would like it better if he would do those old sorts of things that helped people along in their pursuit of their own self-interest.

But here is what we should realize: the work of Christ in his kingdom is not less after his death and resurrection, it is more. The work of Christ with his death and his resurrection, the baptism with which he baptizes, and the body and blood that he distributes is more. It’s deeper. It gets to the root. The root is evil itself, and Jesus reverses it. The seemingly invincible powers of sin, death, profit, power, and all the rest are not invincible. Jesus promises a reckoning for the powers that be who so often oppress and steal and murder and seemingly get away with it. They will be burned with an unquenchable fire. Everything will be turned upside down. The first will be last and the last will be first. John baptized with water; Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Whatever hopes we might have about Christ’s kingdom, they are inevitably inadequate. You want to be healed of an ailment, a defect, old age, and son. You want to be the man that you should be. You want to be the woman that you should be. “For freedom Christ has set you free!” These things and more are yours. If they are not already fixed somewhat in this life by the healing work of the Holy Spirit, then they will be completely fixed by the resurrection. The goodness of the resurrection is more than we can imagine. Paul says, “No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the imagination of the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love him.” Even if you try to imagine what Jesus’s kingdom will be like, you’re going to fall short. What comes to pass will be greater.

Cynicism, therefore, is incompatible with Christianity. Cynicism is managing your hopes so that you won’t get hurt when they inevitably don’t come to pass. If you are managing your hopes for Christ’s kingdom, you are simply being an unbeliever. If you believe that Jesus can’t or won’t help you, then you are an unbeliever.

Unbelief is by no means uncommon, even among those who would like to consider themselves to be Jesus’s disciples. We see that all the time in the Bible. We see that in particular with the Gospels’ accounts of the resurrection. Even the closest of Jesus’s disciples lost their faith when Jesus died, and they were slow to believe after the resurrection. They were flesh and blood, just like us, with all our hiccups and insecurities. However, we cannot let our doubts and insecurities interfere with what is plainly testified. Jesus’s kingdom is glorious, even if we lack the faith to believe.

Jesus’s kingdom is glorious among us. Let us not doubt that either. Whenever anyone comes to believe that the seemingly invincible powers are not invincible because Jesus is greater—that is a miracle worked by the Holy Spirit. Whenever anyone remains in the faith—that is an ongoing miracle of the Holy Spirit. These believers will one day be caught up together with the Lord in the clouds for an adventure that is too great for words to describe.

It does not please me, therefore, when I hear something that is quite common among us. It is quite common for people to comment on how large or small a gathering is—and usually it is how much smaller the gathering is these days. This strikes me as largely missing the point. It would like the people in Jesus’s day who could have scoffed at the smaller number who gathered after the resurrection. I could imagine that some of them must have said: “Do you remember how many people there were at the feeding of the five thousand or the four thousand? The attendance these days is greatly reduced.”

Christ’s kingdom is not about crowds or impressing those who have the ability to count. Christ’s kingdom is about setting people free and changing hearts and minds. This is always an individual affair. Each individual either remains enslaved in their unbelief or they are set free through faith in Jesus. Whenever a sinner repents, the angels rejoice, and we should too. The kingdom of God remains at work. It is glorious, but the glory is only apparent to those who have the eyes to see and the ears to hear.

So as we consider the inauguration, so to speak, of Christ’s kingdom with Jesus’s baptism, we should cast away cynical thoughts. Cynicism is not very attractive or useful in general, but it is particularly inappropriate when it comes to Christ’s kingdom. Our problem is not that we have too low of thoughts and hopes and dreams. Our problem is that we do not think as grandly as we must if we are beginning to understand Christ’s kingdom. We are too earthly minded.

Therefore, I’d like to close with a passage that speaks to this. In Colossians chapter three Paul says: “If you have been raised with Christ, then seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

When Christ appears, you will appear with him in glory. That is more than enough for anyone who is hungry for that which is good.

241231 Sermon for New Year's Eve

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I have been a pastor for many years now, but this is the first New Year’s Eve service I have ever preached for. In Iowa neither of my congregations had services on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. If memory serves, I attended a New Year’s Eve service when I was a kid. However, my childhood congregation more often had New Year’s Day services. New Year’s Day is eight days after Christmas, which means that the focus is on the circumcision and naming of Jesus.

So tonight is the first time I’ve every preached for a New Year’s Eve service. As I considered the texts that you heard tonight, I was struck by how differently the Bible teaches compared to what is customary with the New Year. For example, New Year’s Eve is a well-known party night. A lot of people get drunk on New Year’s Eve.

Jesus says in our Gospel reading: “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks.” Imagine Jesus coming to find people soddenly drunk. How can they open the door when he knocks? Losing yourself in food, drink, drugs, and other pleasures is an agreeable way to pass the time. It’s not nonsensical. It’s a way to cope, to forget the troubles of life, and to receive some comfort. It’s understandable, but how differently our Lord Jesus speaks in our reading tonight!

Another thing we associate with the New Year are New Year’s resolutions. It’s a time to set goals, make plans, and fix what we don’t like. If we believe in ourselves and don’t give up, we can achieve our dreams.

Compare this to our Old Testament reading. God says to his people: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” We do not naturally believe that returning and resting will do anything good for us. We do not believe that quietness and trust are our strength. We believe in ourselves. All that’s needed is to be sufficiently motivated. If only we could stay sufficiently motivated, then all our New Year’s dreams would come true, and we would be outstanding.

All of our readings tonight would have us look to someone else besides what we customarily look to for betterment. How can 2025 be better than 2024? Our readings encourage us to believe more firmly in God.

This has to do with the first table of the Law, the first three of the Ten Commandments. You should have no other gods. You should fear, love, and trust in God above all other things. You should not believe in other things, no matter how useful those other things might appear to be.

The second commandment is that you should not misuse the name of the Lord your God. Instead of misusing God’s name, you should use it well. God’s name is used well by calling upon it in every trouble, praying, praising, and giving thanks. But in order for anyone to use God’s name rightly, that person must believe that it will work. The reason why we do not pray like we should is because we do not believe like we should. We do not worship God the way we should is because we do not believe in him the way we should. Unfortunately, we believe that we can be better blessed spending our time and energy pursuing other things.

So how can we believe in God more firmly? There is only one way to do that. We must hear the Word of God that tells us about him. The Word of God is inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is living and active. It produces faith. Therefore, as the catechism teaches about the third commandment, we should not despise God’s Word, or assume that we already know it sufficiently well. If that were true—if you knew it well enough already—then your prayers would be much more fervent than they are currently. We should gladly hear and learn God’s Word so that we know God better, so that we believe in him more confidently, and so that we can better speak to him with our prayers and praises.

The first three of the Ten Commandments have to do with our spiritual health. God spoke these commandments for our good, for our benefit. It is good for us to believe in God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, because he is the only God. The other things that we treat like gods will disappoint us in the end, even if, in the meantime, we manage to get some pleasure or comfort from them.

We should be prepared, not just for 2025, not just for some small, momentary, change in our fortunes, but for meeting our Maker. We’ve made it to the end of 2024. What if 2025 is the last year in which we will live? What if 2025 is the year that gets chiseled onto our gravestone? What if 2025 is the year that Jesus comes back? Jesus said in our reading: “The Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” We must be prepared to meet to God.

To meet God well there is no substitute for believing what he has said. If you managed to climb all the mountains of the world, accumulated all the wealth, all the knowledge—whatever you could possibly accomplish—none of that can ever do what taking to heart what God has said will do.

And the good news is that what God has said is good. He has revealed that he is for us, and not against us. Paul says in our epistle reading, “If God is for us, then who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

Paul is using sound logic. God is for you. How do you know that? Because you are so awesome, cool, healthy, and what not? No. You know that because he gave his Son, Jesus, to be your Savior. God’s good will towards you doesn’t depend on you. He is the one who acts. He is the one who saves. God’s Word teaches that your confidence should be completely in him. Even if you should end up with troubles, poverty, shame, or danger, Jesus remains the Savior. Even if you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, your Good Shepherd is with you. He will take you where you need to go.

In conclusion, God’s Word gives us the opportunity to reorient ourselves. Instead of looking for happiness in any number of things, look to God instead. There is nothing like God. There is no help like God’s help. Listen to what his Word says. Believe in him. Call upon his name with your prayers and praises.

Then you are dressed for action, ready for your master to come home from the wedding feast.

241225 Sermon on Jesus, the light, scattering the darkness (Christmas Day) December 25, 2024

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Jesus Christ is the light of the world, the light no darkness can overcome. In our reading John puts it this way: “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Again, Jesus is spoken of this way: “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” Here comes Jesus. Here comes the light.

One of the simple statements that the apostles use to describe a Christian is that a Christian has moved from darkness to the light. Peter encourages us to “proclaim the excellencies of God who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.” Paul says, “You formerly were of the darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.”

If the fruit of light is in everything that is good and right and true, then the deeds of darkness must be bad and wrong and false. An example of that was when Jesus was betrayed and arrested. One of the 12 did it. Judas had already been operating in the dark for some time. He kept the money for their little group, and he had been helping himself. He struck a deal with the chief priests and elders. He would lead them to Jesus so that they could arrest him, nice and quiet-like, when there was no one else around. Judas used an amazing sign. He would kiss Jesus when he greeted him. Then the soldier would know who to arrest.

Judas, with a band of soldiers and Jewish officials, came to Jesus either very late on Maundy Thursday, or, more likely, in the very early morning hours of Good Friday. He said, “Greetings teacher!” and he kissed Jesus, but Jesus said to him, “Judas, do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?” Then Jesus asked the officials and soldiers: “Why do you come out against me with clubs and swords? I have always been public with my teaching, and yet you didn’t seize me when I was out in the open.” Then Jesus said, “But this is your hour, and the power or authority of darkness.”

What happened there was bad and wrong and false. Jesus was betrayed by his friend. Jesus was rounded up in the middle of the night, when the multitudes of people who loved him were asleep. Jesus’s enemies didn’t care whether what they were doing was honorable or not. They just wanted to win.

Darkness has its advantages. If you want to impose your will without anyone getting in the way, then operating in secrecy and darkness is the way to go. Jesus was arrested when most people were still sleeping, and already by nine o’clock in the morning he was nailed to the cross. The powers that be engineered the whole thing so that it would be over before it even began. Everyone, including the disciples, thought that it was a done deal. The authorities had used darkness, yet again, and carried the day.

Paul characterizes the time that we live in as being a time of darkness. The story of history has largely been a story of darkness. One fellow gets the better of another fellow. Now he’s king. But today kings don’t hold the power anymore. The people who hold the power today are in business. By and large, the story of business is darkness too. Somebody figures out some clever way to get more from his employees or more from his customers or he sabotages his competitors. Then he uses his ill-gotten gains to buy off politicians who will pass laws that will further his empire. The rule he follows is always the same: He wants more for himself and less for others.

We are largely powerless against these powers and authorities. Never before have human beings had such ready access to information with the Internet and all, but who can know what is true and not true? There is information, disinformation, misinformation. The darkness is bad enough already, but it is only made worse when false lights and false christs come along and say, “Trust us. We’ll fix everything for you.”

Jesus Christ is the light of the world; the light no darkness can overcome. Jesus has come for judgement. Jesus says, “This is the judgement: The light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, otherwise he would be convicted of his evil deeds. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been worked in God.”

Here is the choice: The light or the darkness. Do you want God to prevail in Jesus Christ or do you want to do what you want to do under the cover of darkness? It seems like it should be an easy choice, but doing whatever we want is awfully enticing. It’s how we first learned to lie and operate in the darkness. If you good enough at that kind of thing, nobody else needs to know the truth. When the light comes, you can’t hide anymore. You’ll be convicted. You’ll lose the shiny, white façade and be revealed as a sinner.

That’s how it is, strangely enough, for those who have been converted. Those who believe in Christ, who believe in the light, are exposed by that very same light as being evil. Christians should not hide their sins. That’s the old strategy of fig leaves and bushes from the Garden of Eden that won’t get you very far with God. Instead we should plead guilty before God like we do when we confess our sins:

I am a poor, miserable sinner. I have sinned with my mind, by the words I have spoken, and by the deeds that I have done. I deserve God’s temporal and eternal punishment. That is what the light reveals about me.

But the light is not merely like a searchlight or an interrogation light. It does not solely expose what is hidden or evil and to do nothing more about it. The light of Christ exposes, but it also heals and forgives. It obliterates the darkness so that it is no more. We are transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. Jesus came to seek and save the lost.

Jesus says as much in the same section that I quoted from earlier. He says: “God loved the world in this way, that he sent his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned.”

God has sent his Son. He is the light. This light will save those who are in darkness, but we cannot remain in darkness. If we prefer the darkness to the light, then we are on the wrong side. Jesus heals. He’s also coming to judge. The powers that be in this present age of darkness believe that they are on top of the world. They believe that they can do anything they want whether their actions be honorable or dishonorable. But their time is limited. They better hope that they can live long lives, because that is all the good times they will have.

What is much more prudent is to embrace Jesus, the light and life of men, who has come into the world. As Paul encourages us, we should cast away the works of darkness. Whatever is bad, wrong, and false will not help us in the long run. Grace, mercy, and truth come from Christ. They radiate out from him like light from its source. You have something better with Jesus. Jesus will win. The light will scatter the darkness. 

241222 Sermon on why Elizabeth and Mary are happy (Advent 4) December 22, 2024

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Our Gospel reading is appropriate as we approach the celebration of the birth of Jesus. Our Gospel reading describes something that happened not long before Jesus was born. Mary, Jesus’s mother, visited her relative, Elizabeth. Both Mary and Elizabeth were pregnant with very special babies. Mary had been visited by the angel Gabriel who told her that she would conceive and bear a son. She was to name him Jesus because he would be the Savior.

Elizabeth’s pregnancy was also unusual. Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah were old and had not been given any children. Zechariah had also been visited by Gabriel who told him that he and his wife would conceive in their old age. The child was to be named John. Zechariah and Elizabeth did conceive about six months before Gabriel went to Mary.

So in our reading today Mary was pregnant with Jesus and Elizabeth was pregnant with John the Baptist. Luke says that Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She is filled with joy, and she speaks several blessings. She blesses Mary:  “Blessed are you among women.” She blesses Jesus: “Blessed is the fruit of Mary’s womb.” She blesses herself. She rhetorically asks: “Why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Her thoughts turn to her son. She comments on how her baby leaped for joy at Mary’s greeting.

Finally, Elizabeth blesses Mary for her faith. Perhaps Elizabeth’s thoughts turned to what it might have been like when Mary heard Gabriel’s message. Elizabeth said, “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” Not every woman would believe that she could conceive while remaining a virgin simply because the Lord said so. Mary did. She said to God: “Let it be done to me according to your Word.”

Elizabeth moves from one blessing to the next. Everyone is blessed. All are exceedingly happy. What I’d like to consider today is why they are so happy. I’d also like to pay attention to our own happiness. Happiness is important to us. We all would like to be happy. So, in fact, before we consider what makes these women happy, I think it would be beneficial first to consider what makes us happy. We can then be on the lookout for what might be different with these women.

There are a lot of things that can make us happy. Hunger being satisfied with food makes us happy; thirst, with drink. We have many desires and needs. We want and need affection, comfort, entertainment. We like to be right. We like to be the best. We like making progress. Getting richer is better than getting poorer. Getting stronger is better than getting weaker. There are so many ways to be happy, and we like them all. The more, the better; the more, the happier.

Now let’s consider these women’s happiness. What makes them happy doesn’t exactly fit the pattern we’ve sketched out. They aren’t getting stronger, richer, better. Elizabeth’s life didn’t get easier with her pregnancy in old age. Mary’s life was thrown into turmoil to a much greater degree. Mary became pregnant when she wasn’t married. Everyone would have assumed that the pregnancy was the result of fornication. Joseph, her fiancé, had no other choice but to assume that she had been unfaithful. An angel had to intervene to tell him otherwise. Mary would have had a hard time of it because most would not believe what sounds like a far-fetched story—that Mary was pregnant with the Son of God by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Consider, additionally, the several clues about Mary and Joseph’s poverty and powerlessness. When they came to Bethlehem they couldn’t get a room. If they had more money, they could have compelled someone to provide for them. Later, when the sacrifices were made in the Temple, the cheaper option of two pigeons was offered instead of the more expensive lamb. These clues indicate that Mary and Joseph were poor. The baby was born into poverty: “No crib for a bed” to lay down his sweet head.

If we place ourselves into Mary’s shoes, we can see how she lacked things that we regard as essential for happiness. So how can she be happy? How can Elizabeth be happy for her when trouble is on every side? She even makes the audacious claim that Mary is blessed over and above all others. The only explanation is that they were focused on things that aren’t often looked to for happiness. We might sum up all that they were feeling by saying: They were happy because the kingdom of God was coming upon the earth.

What is the kingdom of God, and why is it a good thing? We can’t hardly talk about a kingdom without talking about the king. Something you might keep an ear open for the next couple days is how often Christmas carols will sing about Jesus being the king, or the Lord: “Joy to the world, the Lord has come.” Or: “Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ, the newborn king.” The good news of great joy that is for all people is, as the angel declared on Christmas night, that unto us a Savior has been born who is Christ the Lord.

The work of Christ the King in his kingdom is made plain in the Gospels. Jesus did several things. He taught the Word of God that has always been calling people away from evil, away from the devil, towards that which is good and true—life giving and life protecting. Jesus taught people to believe in the only true God instead of the various false gods. Jesus acted with power, performing miracles. His many cleansings, healings, and restorations to life were a foreshadowing of the greater work he will do when he resurrects the dead.

Over and above all these things, but also at the very root of them, Jesus suffered and died. As our epistle reading mentions, he offered his body once for all. My favorite line of all the Christmas carols is the one where it says: “Nails, spear shall piece him through. The cross be borne for me, for you. Hail, hail the Word made flesh, the babe, the Son of Mary.” The king sacrificed himself. The result is forgiveness, righteousness, and life for everyone.

So if we return to the happiness and joy of Elizabeth and Mary, we can see that it is outside of them. The kingdom of God is coming. Happiness depends on the king, not on themselves. So long as their faith in this king doesn’t fail, nothing can take their happiness away. Whatever sadnesses might come, they cannot undo the march of progress the kingdom of God will make.

You can see this in both their lives. Both Elizabeth’s and Mary’s unborn baby boys would eventually be killed at the hands of evil men. Simeon prophesied to Mary in the temple: “A sword will pass through your heart.” Mary mourned at the death of her Son, but God will turn all mourning into gladness. Jesus died, but then he rose. Then his kingdom only entered a new phase, the song swelled to an even higher pitch. Joy will grow, even if, in the meantime, we pass through the valley of the shadow of death.

This joy is available to each and every one of you. All that is needed is to be like Elizabeth and Mary: Believe in Jesus’s kingdom. To believe is not some great challenge or a puzzle you have to figure out. It is only a matter of believing the testimony that is given about Jesus, and testimonies abound! Elizabeth gave her testimony in our reading. The angel gave his testimony on Christmas night. The apostles, evangelists, prophets, prophetesses, deacons, and deaconesses all gave their testimony, and they all say the same thing: Jesus Christ is Lord. He does all things well. He sets all things right.

This is good news, which comes to us from the outside. It does not place any demands upon us. It does not require any preparation. Think of all those people in the Gospels whom Jesus helped. Did the blind man have to start improving himself before Jesus would give him sight? No. The blind man remained as blind as a bat. The deaf man remained as deaf as a stone, until Jesus made them otherwise. The only thing that happened to them prior to their healings was that they were given hope in Jesus the king by the good news that was told them.

The same thing is true for us today. We have problems. We might have a bad reputation. We might be poor. We might be blind, deaf, lame, demon possessed. Believe in Jesus.

And let’s apply this to sin. One of the most frustrating parts about being a Christian is that we end up falling into sin, even though we really don’t want to—or at least a part of us doesn’t want to. What do we do with that? We almost can’t help thinking that we must clean ourselves up in order to become acceptable before God. That seems right. To do otherwise can make it seem as though sin doesn’t matter. We have to take our sin very seriously.

These are not altogether bad thoughts, but they can make us lose sight of the one thing that makes all the difference—the one thing that makes us happy with a happiness that no one can take away: Jesus is the king. He saves sinners. He baptizes you, you don’t baptize yourself. He forgives you, you don’t forgive yourself. The kingdom of God is on a roll with the preaching of the Word that Jesus is the Savior. What is asked of us is not a great burden: Stick with the king. Listen to his Word. Jesus will do everything he has promised. Jesus is going to win.

So you, like Elizabeth and Mary, may fully embrace the goodness of the kingdom of God that made them so happy that blessings were flying all over the place. The kingdom of God is the best, because Jesus is the best. No matter what is going on, no matter how disappointed you might be in yourself or in others, Jesus Christ is Lord.

“Come Thou long-expected Jesus, born to set Thy people free.” Amen.

241215 Sermon on our reluctance to hate sin (Advent 3) December 15, 2024

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I remember being very distressed by splinters when I was a kid. Splinters are not terribly serious. You won’t die from having a splinter. They do cause a bit of discomfort, but what’s far worse, is that the splinter has to come out. To get the splinter out, the finger must be turned over to an adult. What might the adult do? Armed with a needle or tweezers, the adult must dig around in there until the splinter comes out. I remember asking, “Can’t we just leave the splinter in there?” I didn’t like how the splinter ached, but I more disliked the much sharper pain involved with getting it out.

I think this is helpful for what can happen to us spiritually. Just as it is by no means unusual that a kid gets a splinter while playing, it is very common to fall into sin. Just as a kid regrets doing what he was doing whereby he got the splinter, so also a person can regret having sinned. The advantage or the pleasure of the sin soon passes, and we are left with a dull ache. We’ve disappointed ourselves. We thought that we were better than that. Maybe we’d promised ourselves, “Never again!” and now look at what we’ve done. What a shame.

But besides that dull ache of disappointment, the splinter of sin doesn’t hurt too badly. It’s nothing compared to the much sharper pain of being caught. That is very embarrassing. So our natural reaction is to try to manage sin on our own. We’ll cover it up. We’ll lie about it if we have to. Eventually, with the passage of enough time, we’ll forget about it—and that’s a relief. If we manage to pass though this experience without too much pain, we might draw the conclusion that our sins didn’t harm us. We got a splinter, but—like we so hoped for when we were children—it didn’t need to come out. It seemed to have gone away on its own.

With splinters we can easily see the childishness of believing that it will just go away on its own. The splinter will cause infection. The poison of infection will spread. The more time passes, the worse it will get. The splinter must come out.

We are not as good at seeing how childish it is to believe that sins won’t harm us. Just as a splinter inevitably has an effect on the health of a finger, so also sins have an effect on the soul. Think back to the sins that you committed even when you were a little kid—3, 4, 5 years old. Sins darken the mind. They create a habit of lying. Already at a young age we can easily draw the conclusion that sins will not harm us so long as we do not get caught.

But sins are nasty and ugly, full of puss and consequences. Unlike splinters, which only affect the person who has them, sins affect others. One person’s nastiness draws out the nastiness of another. The bible shows that sin affects the whole community. The entire people of Israel needed to be cleansed when only a portion had sinned. Therefore we should not be so nonchalant to think that sins cannot affect a congregation, a classroom, a workplace, a family, or a couple. Sins are no child’s play.

However, a very powerful spiritual force fights against this understanding of sin. It is far worse enemy of Christianity than evolution or wokeism or whatever other boogeymen Christians might fear. This spiritual force does everything within its power to lull people to sleep with gentle phrases about the harmlessness of sin. It says, for example, “All this fuss and bother about sin is counterproductive. If we want the church to grow we must focus on other things! What’s the use of sticking with old fashioned morals when even the old fashioned couldn’t keep them? Or Jesus’s commands: aren’t they unreasonable? Show me one person who forgives, who gives, who is without anger or lust.”

And maybe I haven’t quite caught the tune that would make you shut your eyes to the seriousness of sins, but I know that tune is out there, because we human beings all have the same basic hope. Somewhere in all of us is the hope that our sins won’t matter. Our sins aren’t deadly. We can manage them without any great change. There is no need to go through the sharp pain of repenting them. Just leave them be and hope for the best.

When people believe that sins do not matter, that they do not cause much harm, then the devil has won. This is exactly how the devil wants us to deal with our sins. He wants us to believe that sins are fine or natural or funny or unimportant. Everybody does them, so what’s the harm? He’ll blabber on and on until he finds something that sticks. And he’ll find it too, because, as I’ve said, there is a part of all of us that wants to believe the splinter does not need to be taken out.

The devil starts to lose his grip on people when they move from not caring to caring. This happens when people start to hate the splinter, start to hate sin. So long as people believe that they can peacefully coexist with sin, they remain in the devil’s grip. But sometimes people get sick of the muck and guck and puss and stench of sin. People hate the lovelessness, the chaos, the shame, the hatred, the broken relationships. They get sick of that splinter that has caused them so much grief. They want the splinter out!

This is when tax collectors, prostitutes, drug addicts, liars, porn addicts, alcoholics, scrooges—losers of all kinds—might turn to Christ. They hate their life which has been ruined by sin. They want something else. They long for healing, and they are willing to humble themselves in order to get it.

The fundamental posture of all disciples is always the same. It’s the posture we see in people in the Gospels. People came to Jesus who were blind, deaf, lame, mute, demon-possessed—absolutely wretched. They said, “Jesus, help me!” It is the same posture of those who hate their lives, hate themselves, hate their sins, hate the splinters with all their puss and filth. “Jesus, heal me!”

When such people come to believe that Jesus forgives them, that Jesus died for them, that Jesus will make them better, they then hate all the more the devil with his practically infinite lies, all of which minimize the importance of sin. On the other hand, they begin to like what God has commanded and taught—stuff that they formerly might have rejected and fought against. They’ve been converted. They renounce the devil and all his works and all his ways, and they have embraced a new Lord and God from whom they want help. They no longer want to be on the side of sin and lies and false hope. They want to be on the side that fights sin, that’s true, that embraces the light, even though it means that they have fallen into the strong and terrifying hands of God. If suffer they must, then suffer they will! Suffering is by no means the worst thing. Health, life, truth—that is to say, God’s kingdom—this is what they want.

What I’ve spoken about today—a kind of insanely long introduction—is an attempt to get at something that otherwise might be difficult to understand about our Gospel reading. Our Gospel reading talks about how John the Baptist’s preaching was successful, particularly among those whom you’d think would be the most resistant. John was successful among the unwashed masses. Why did John the Baptist come to be loved by the tax collectors and sinners? Was it because John the Baptist told them that they were fine just as they were? That their sins didn’t matter? No. Just the opposite.  

John hated sin. He wasn’t scared of it either. He didn’t believe that it was inevitable or invincible or any other garbage that the devil likes to say about sin. John himself couldn’t really do anything about sin, but he was an ambassador for Jesus, who was coming after him, whose sandal strap he was unworthy to untie. The Christ is the only one who forgives sins. He promises to wash away all the stains and puss and filth for the life to come.

So, to use the analogy we’ve been working with today, John was someone who would speak the truth. He would say, “That’s a splinter. That needs to come out. You’ll be sorry if it doesn’t.” Since we all know the pain of getting a splinter out, we can understand why some people hated John. They preferred their false belief to the truth of God’s Word that—even though painful—would have helped them.

But some people loved the possibilities that opened up by the Word of God that John spoke. They were so full of splinters, they were so sick of the consequences of their sins, that they embraced John’s baptism for the forgiveness of their sins. They didn’t want to go on with the misery of loneliness, helplessness, and hopelessness. They wanted health, life, and light. They wanted Jesus to be their king instead of the devil. Disciples of Jesus show up in the most unexpected of places.

All of us, including me, have our splinters. They are not cute. They are not harmless. Even if we manage to forget them, they don’t stop silently pumping out their poison. They have to come out. How? We can’t do it ourselves. We can’t get deep enough. We have to turn ourselves over to the adult, so to speak. We have to turn ourselves over to Jesus. That requires courage. What will he do? Is that a needle or a tweezers I see?

But don’t be too afraid. Jesus is good at what he does. He is the good physician who has come to heal those who are sick, who have need of him as a physician.

241208 Sermon on whether John the Baptist's preaching was "good news" (Advent 2) December 8, 2024

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Sermon manuscript:

Our Gospel reading today gives us a description of what John the Baptist preached. John preached repentance, which means, “Change your ways,” or “Change your mind.” John told people that God’s wrath, God’s anger and punishment of sinners, was coming. That’s why they should change their ways. If they have not been good, they will be judged accordingly. “The axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

Some who heard John were persuaded. They repented. They wanted help for how to change their ways. John taught them what is in the Bible: “If you have two tunics, then give to him who has none.” Some people, who were pretty nasty and rough, wanted to their ways. Tax collectors, who were more like the mafia than our modern day IRS, wanted to know what they should do. John said: “Don’t collect more than what you are authorized to do.” Same thing with some soldiers. “Don’t extort money by threats and false accusations. Be content with your wages.”

At the end of our reading John the Baptist talked about Jesus. Jesus would be like John, only greater. John baptized with water. Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. John warned about the coming judgment. Jesus will do the judgment. The winnowing fork is in his hand. He will thresh out the grain. The wheat will be gathered into the barn, but the chaff will be burned with unquenchable fire.

This was John’s preaching. Luke speaks of it as being “good news.” At the end of the reading Luke says, “So with many other exhortations John preached good news to the people.” Does what John preached sound like “good news” to you?

It might not. It is easy to be troubled by what John says. He says that God is wrathful and that he punishes. People will be cut down and thrown into the fire. Jesus is characterized along the same lines. The winnowing fork is in his hand. He will separate the wheat from the chaff. The chaff will burn. Is all this wrath and all this fire really necessary? Isn’t there a more civilized way?

Questions like these are unavoidable for modern day Christians. Most Christians refuse to speak as plainly as John the Baptist, because it seems like a very poor strategy. It can be scary for people to hear about God being spoken of like that. What’s more to the point is that it can sound unreasonable to talk about God like that. It doesn’t sound right that God, who is described as being loving, should punish anybody. Hell is described as a place of torment with an unquenchable fire. How can God be like that?

It is much easier to imagine a god (whom many people believe to be the true one) that doesn’t have wrath, who won’t torture or torment. Having a god like that sounds like a much better deal. A god that basically says, “Live however you want,” sounds nice. He sounds like he would be easy to get along with. And if God isn’t someone I can get along with, then why bother? I can live just as well without him.

Hearing rhetoric like this is quite common. Many people assume that it is because we have become more sophisticated in our modern times. We’ve discovered things, supposedly, that discredit the God of the Bible, making him much less believable. However, it is easy to show you that this is not modern or sophisticated. It is the way human beings have been since the beginning, which you can see in the Bible itself. We’ll briefly consider the story of Adam and Eve. You will see the very same impulses in them that we have in the twenty-first century.

This story should be familiar to you. God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If they did, they would surely die. But along came the serpent who introduced doubt. Why should they be forbidden to eat just from this tree? That’s kind of random and arbitrary. If they were God, they probably wouldn’t make a law like that. They’d let people eat from whatever tree they wanted.

Then the serpent explained that God wouldn’t punish them as he had said he would. They’d be fine. In fact, they’d be greatly improved! They’d be like God, knowing good and evil. So, having been convinced, Eve ate, and Adam ate too.

What comes after this is what I’d like you especially to think about: that time between their eating and before God came. Adam and Eve knew that something had changed. They were ashamed of their nakedness. But what had to be foremost in their minds was the hope that the serpent had been right. The serpent had said that no wrath and no punishment would come. If the serpent was right, then they could go on living like they had.

Notice what was “good news” for Adam and Eve during this time. It is the same “good news” that modern people believe in—but not just modern people, all unrepentant people of all times have this hope. They hoped that the God who had threatened to punish them for their sins didn’t exist. That God was completely intolerable to them. Maybe they could get on board with the idea of some other god that would be altogether different from this wrathful, punishing God, but they couldn’t tolerate a God who might intervene. But their hopes were dashed.

God showed up. God did care. God would punish. Adam and Eve showed the great sophistication of the human race, including modern humans, by acting the same way we all do when we have gotten caught. They acted like three-year-olds. They hid in the bushes. They stammered excuses. They tried to pass the buck. They did not care about anything except saving their own skin.

God—amazingly—did not give Adam and Eve what they deserved. He didn’t kill them that day, although he did pronounce curses against them. God’s anger was especially directed against the serpent, the devil. God spoke of the great violence that would happen between the serpent and his Son. The serpent would injure his Son’s heel, but the Christ would crush the serpent’s head.

Already with this first telling of the story of Jesus, there is wrath and punishment for sin. The serpent’s head would be crushed, ground into the dirt. God doesn’t just say, “Oh well, never mind.” The Law of God is not annulled as though it were unimportant. As Jesus says, “Not one jot, not one tittle of the Law will pass away until everything is fulfilled.” Everything was fulfilled when the wrath of God for sin was poured out on his beloved Son. The wrath was so severe that Jesus cried out: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” As Paul says about Jesus, “He who knew no sin, became sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Is this violent retribution good news? It depends on whose side you’re on. If you don’t want to change your ways or change your mind, if you don’t want to believe that God cares about what you do, if you want to just be left alone to live how you see fit, then this is not good news. “Good news” for you would be that God will ignore you and leave you to your own thoughts and actions. Then you can go on being your own god, so to speak, making up for yourself what is good and what is evil. The rules for wat is good and evil are quite simple. What is good is whatever is good for me. What is evil is whatever you don’t like. There is no reference to what is just or right. The refrain that is sung in every possible key is: “My will be done.”

The alternative is to say to God, “Thy will be done!” That is a scary prayer if you think about it! Adam and Eve couldn’t bring themselves to pray that prayer as they heard God’s footsteps in the garden. God’s will being done was the last thing they wanted. So it can be for us too! Maybe we have lots of tunics and we don’t want to give any of them away. Maybe we’ve been making our livelihood by cheating and fraud. Maybe we’ve created the life for ourselves that has no reference to God, his commandments, his promises, or the cross that Jesus gives to all of his disciples. That can be a pleasant life, and we might not want to change.

“Thy will be done!” turns our lives over to God. It is a prayer of repentance. It is a prayer for change. My life is clay. You, God, are the potter. Make of me the vessel that you see fit to make! This is the intensity of faith. We can’t foresee exactly what God will do. We can only believe that it will be good.

Believing that it will be good is the only way we can make any sense of the wrath that is to be revealed when Christ comes again in glory. None of us want to be burned as chaff. None of us want those we love to be cut down and thrown into the fire. But we are obviously dealing with righteousness, justice, and goodness that is far above us. Probably no amount of skilled argumentation will ever make us perfectly comfortable with John’s preaching, but maybe that’s in the nature of repentance and faith.

Despite whatever misgivings we might have, the preaching is actually remarkably clear. We are presented with two fundamentally different alternatives. Either we can repent and believe in Jesus, or we can hope that things will stay the same. Either you must cast in your lot with Jesus, or you must cast in your lot with the serpent who said that no wrath or punishment will come. They cannot both be true. Either Jesus is the king who will set things right or what the serpent was basically correct: “You surely will not be punished. When you die, that will be it.”

Hopefully you have heard enough about Jesus to know that you are much better off changing your ways, and casting your lot with Jesus, than remaining as you are and hoping God isn’t who has said he is.

241201 Sermon on Jesus's Advent as King on Palm Sunday (Advent 1) December 1, 2024

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“Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!”

The Gospel reading today is when Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. There are some unusual aspects to this story. Jesus told his disciples how they would find a donkey’s colt when they entered the village. They didn’t need to buy the colt. They would only say, “The Lord has need of it,” and the colt would be sent along.

The animal upon which Jesus sat is also unusual. Donkeys are already somewhat small animals to ride. A colt would have presumably been even smaller. Matthew, in his Gospel, tells us that the colt’s mother might have also been involved. I’m not sure what that would have looked like. In addition, this colt had never been ridden. That means he wasn’t broke. Nevertheless, Jesus was placed upon him and it seems to go fine as he rode into Jerusalem.

All these strange details are not just strange for the sake of being strange. They have Old Testament connections. Zechariah, a prophet who lived about 500 years before this, wrote: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; … humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” What was happening with Jesus was not accidental. Jesus is the king that Zechariah wrote about. The rejoicing of Palm Sunday was the rejoicing that Zechariah wrote about.

And these last two elements are really the key features. What is most important about Palm Sunday is that Jesus is the king, and that his disciples are recognizing him as such. That Jesus is the king is not always recognized by everyone. It is an article of faith. It is either believed or not believed. Presumably there were a lot of people in Jerusalem that day who did not believe that Jesus is the king. His disciples did. They were convinced by the signs that Jesus had done.

You are familiar with the signs Jesus did. These, also, were prophesied in the Old Testament. The prophet Isaiah lived over 700 years before Jesus, and he said that when the great king would come he would “open the eyes of the blind, the ears of the deaf would be unstopped, the lame would leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute would sing for joy.” Jesus had done these things and more. In fact, just before Palm Sunday he had raised Lazarus, who had been dead for four days. He was doing all things well. They loved it, and they were praising God with a loud voice. I would imagine that they were wondering to themselves: “What is he going to do next?”

Especially, “What is he going to do next as he enters Jerusalem?” Thus far Jesus seems to have spent most of his time in the north, in Galilee, far from Jerusalem, which was the center of power. The temple was in Jerusalem. The leaders of the Jews were in Jerusalem. Pontius Pilate, the Roman leader, was in Jerusalem. What was going to happen when Jesus, “The King of the Jews,” would come into contact with the powers that be?

I’m pretty sure that the disciples on Palm Sunday were thinking, “He’s going to keep on doing all things well! He’s going to be a good king!” Good kings set things right. They get rid of corruption. They help those who need help. They put down those who oppress. No more lying, cheating, and getting away with it.

Jeremiah, another Old Testament prophet, speaks of Jesus this way in our Old Testament reading. He says, “In those days and at that time a righteous Branch will spring up from David.” Jesus is that righteous branch. And what will he do? Jeremiah goes on: “He shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.”

This is exactly what Jesus went on to do during Holy Week. You can read about that for yourselves. The first thing that Jesus did was he went to the Temple. He pushed out all the buyers and sellers and money changers. He caused pandemonium. He flipped over tables. He let loose their animals. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have made it a den of robbers!”

On the days following this the powers that be tried to entrap and ensnare Jesus. They needed Jesus to slip up with something he might say so that they could nail him. So they sent their sneakiest and best. They tried every which way to trick him, but it didn’t work. Just as the disciples had been hoping on Palm Sunday, Jesus continued to do all things well.

I think by the time of Maundy Thursday the disciples were almost drunk with excitement. Luke tells us a stunning detail about what happened when Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper. Not long after Jesus had said, “This is my body which is given for you,” and “This is my blood which is shed for you,” Luke tells us that the disciples were arguing with one another over who was the greatest. They were in high spirits. They were already filling Jesus’s cabinet. Who would be secretary of state? Who would be attorney general?

Given the disciples’ eager expectation, you can perhaps see how the crucifixion, which would happen less than a day later, would crush them. It was cruel—even in the way it got carried out. It wasn’t a fair fight. Those in power never want a fair fight. They arrested Jesus in the middle of the night. They rigged their kangaroo courts in the middle of the night. Already by 9 o’clock that morning Jesus was nailed through his hands and his feet to the cross.

Those in power know how to get things done for their own advantage. They know how to do things in such a way where they come out on top and none’s the wiser to their evil deeds done in secret. History—but often an unwritten history—is filled with power crushing reformers. Those who speak the truth and fight for what is right are marginalized and eliminated. The winners have their perspectives written into the history books that glorify their deeds and ignore whatever evil they have done. Thereby they appear to have won, but appearances can be deceiving.

They better enjoy whatever they have gained for themselves by all their sneaking around because a time is coming when, as Jesus said, “Whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the rooftops.” This will happen because the king is coming to judge. Again, as Jesus said, “Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.” It will be as Jeremiah prophesied: “The king shall execute righteousness and justice in the land.”

The disciples were not wrong with their thoughts about Jesus being the king. The disciples also were not wrong about this king doing all things well, setting things right, rooting out lies, and establishing justice and peace. Their only mistake was that they weren’t thinking quite deeply enough. They were thinking that Jesus would be merely an earthly king. Jesus is the king to which all powers must bow—even the powers of sin, death, and the devil. Jesus continued to do well on Holy Week. By his death and resurrection he set things right in such a profound and fundamental way that it is beyond our understanding.

If we lived at the time of these disciples we would rejoice—and rightly so—at Jesus’s opening the eyes of the blind, unstopping the ears of the deaf, making the lame leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. These are very fine miracles. Often Christians wish that they could see some miracles like that to bolster their faith. But the truth is that the miracles that Jesus works now and in the future are greater.

Jesus works now by the Holy Spirit to turn the hearts of sinners so that they believe in the mercy of their Creator and Judge. The Holy Spirit produces fruit in the hearts of believers so that they have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control. Instead of joining in with the powers of evil that seem to offer so much advantage for earthly power and for the indulging of our desires, Jesus’s disciples resist the ways and means of devil, the prince of this world. They work at not lying, not manipulating, not intimidating, not coercing, and so on. They work on following Jesus’s commands that promise blessings to those who have the guts to keep them. These are not small things!

And the miracles of the future will be even greater. They are beyond my ability to communicate them. Jesus, the king, helped so many people as we hear about in the Gospels. That same king will help us. He will give us new bodies that will be like his glorious, resurrected body—better, even, than the restored body of Lazarus. He will purify and strengthen our minds and souls with love and light. He will set all things right like a good king is supposed to. Great wonders are in store for us!

Therefore, we are not all that different from the multitude of disciples who rejoiced as Jesus entered Jerusalem. We, like they, might wonder, “What is he going to do next?” We, like they, might wonder, “What is going to happen when Jesus comes into conflict with the powers and principalities?” It looks like we’re in for show! They’ll kick up a fuss, no doubt, wanting to hold on to their wicked ways, but their days are numbered. The king is coming.

“Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”