181225 Sermon on Exodus 40:17-21, 34-38 (Christmas Day), December 25, 2018

181225 Sermon on Exodus 40:17-21, 34-38 (Christmas Day), December 25, 2018

It might seem a little strange that we have the Old Testament reading that we do for Christmas Day.  What does the tabernacle have to do with Christ’s birth?  The link between Christmas and the tabernacle might not be as clear as it otherwise could be because of the way one of the verses of our Gospel reading is translated.  At the end of our Gospel reading it says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…”  A more literal translation of the Greek would read: “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.”  St. John is linking together the birth of Christ with the tabernacle that God instituted at Mt. Sinai.  In order that we might learn something of the significance of Christ’s birth, I’d like to look at this connection between the tabernacle and Christ and what it means for us still today.

The tabernacle was not Moses’s idea, nor was it the idea of any man.  God gave Moses the instructions for the tabernacle while he was atop Mt. Sinai.  You can read this for yourself in Exodus chapters 25-31.  The substance of what is going on with the tabernacle is that this is the way that the people of Israel were blessed with God’s own presence in their midst.  This is what made the people of Israel different from all the other nations on earth.  All the other nations worshipped idols, believing that they would be blessed by their own arts and practices.  The Israelites had the one true God living together with them with the Ark of the Covenant and the tabernacle.  Wherever God went the people followed.  Wherever God went the people conquered and prospered.  So long as the Israelites had God and God was gracious to them, there was nothing that they had to fear.

It is wonderful that God chose this ragtag nation of shepherds and lived together with them in this tent with his gracious presence.  It is even more wonderful that God chose the Virgin Mary as the mother of the man in whom the fullness of God dwells bodily, as St. Paul puts it in Colossians.  Choosing someone’s tent to live in is one thing, or as it was later with the temple: choosing someone’s house to live in is one thing.  But what does it mean that God takes up our very human nature to live in?  If you choose to live in someone’s tent or house you are wanting to be on quite intimate terms with them.  But these are things outside of us. 

With Christ God has decided to live together with us in the most intimate way possible.  We frankly are joined together.  He took on the fullness of our human nature.  He did not even just take on our body, but also our minds and our souls.  The incarnation of the Son of God was not in such a way where he just came to inhabit the body, and use the body like a puppet, and the mind and soul were the mind and soul of God that controlled the body like a puppeteer.  Jesus is true man totally and completely, even as he is true God.  Jesus was a true baby.  He needed to have his diaper changed and he suckled at Mary’s breast.  As a baby he was helpless and in need of care from his mother Mary and stepfather Joseph.  As true God he ruled over all things.

This is a great mystery that we cannot get to the bottom of.  It is similar to the mystery of how Jesus died on the cross even though he is true God as well as true Man, and so how is it that God could die?  Shouldn’t God dying be impossible?  Wouldn’t everything have fallen apart at his death?  But then again, how can a man, once he has died and been dead and turned cold and hard, be resurrected from the dead?

These are things to wonder about, not to answer.  It is one thing for a Christian to wonder about these things and say, “How can these things be?” as he or she thinks about the story of salvation—the marvelous lengths that God goes to in order to rescue us.  It is altogether a different thing when an unbeliever scoffs and mocks the idea of Jesus being true God and true Man in one person. 

It seems to me that all three of the great festivals of the Christian Church Year—Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost—are well spent when we wonder about the great things that God has done in them that surpass our understanding.  Joyous faith is happy to learn more about the ways and means of God.  And so it is not a bad thing to think about the baby Jesus and his helplessness, or the dead Christ who was lying in the tomb, or the fire of the Holy Spirit that burns in the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  These are all the ways and means that God has used in drawing near to us, claiming us as his own, and bringing about our salvation.  The tabernacle was a sure sign of God’s grace upon the people of Israel.  It showed that God claimed them as his own and worked out salvation for them while in their midst.  The tabernacle, though, was a only a shadow of the greater things to come in Christ. 

The incarnation, the way that God has become man in the baby Jesus, is something that we can look to for the assurance of God’s good will towards us.  By our sins we deserve for God to hate us.  This is not God’s problem, but our problem.  If we would do the good and beneficial things God loves and not do the evil and selfish things that God hates, then salvation would surely be according to the Law.  But God has loved us even in spite of our sins.  And he has joined in the fight for our salvation.  That is what the incarnation means.  God does not sit on the sidelines and watch to see how we are doing with our salvation—just watching and judging.  He makes his claim and risks everything, joining himself in the most intimate way he possibly could to us.  Jesus is our brother, and yet he is God.

The Israelites were able to look at the tabernacle and later the temple and know that God had chosen them for salvation and every blessing.  You can look at the Lord Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of the tabernacle and temple, and know that God has chosen you for salvation.  God did not become man for his own sake.  He did it for your sake.  At Christmas we must recognize the astounding graciousness of God.  He has not left us to our own devices.  He has joined together with us.  He fights for us.  He wins for us.  All of this so that we could live together with him through the redemption, forgiveness, and sanctification that Jesus has worked in his great sacrifice on the cross.

181224 Sermon on Titus 2:11-14 (Christmas Eve), December 24, 2018

181224 Sermon on Titus 2:11-14 (Christmas Eve), December 24, 2018

There is no shortage of explanations for what the Christmas season is all about.  The explanations are always about things that are good.  People will say that Christmas is about family and friends.  It’s about mending bridges.  It’s about helping people with gifts.  Nobody talks about the Christmas season as the time to commit crimes or be crabby.  No, the explanations of the Christmas season are always for good and beneficial things.

This is true also for the explanation of what Christmas is all about that the Bible gives.  We had a short little explanation of what the Christmas season is all about from St. Paul in our Epistle reading from Titus.  This is what I’d like to talk about tonight.  Let’s hear, again, what he says:

The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

There are a lot of words in what I just read that don’t immediately hit home most likely because we are not familiar with them.  We are used to talking about sports and shopping and work.  We don’t talk all that much about the saving grace of God that has appeared in the birth of Jesus Christ.  Since we are unfamiliar with the words and concepts that are brought up by St. Paul it can kind of sound like the teacher sounds in the Charlie Brown cartoons.  You hear the noises, but the meaning is not taken in.  It might just sound like a bunch of church words heaped up together, one after another.

I don’t plan on fixing all this with just one sermon.  God will bless you if you study this text on your own—and you go ahead and test me on that to see if I’m speaking the truth.  Prove me wrong.  There isn’t a wasted word in the whole paragraph.  But for tonight I’d like to focus on just two words that might help us understand what Christmas is all about.  The two words are pretty much opposites.  One word is the way that we are before Christ comes, the other words is for after.  “Godless” is a word that sums us up pretty well before and apart from Christ.  “Godly” is the way that Christ makes us live.  If I can simplify what St. Paul says in our reading tonight: the saving grace of God has appeared that trains us to renounce ungodliness and to live godly lives as we wait for the appearing of Jesus Christ.

So let’s think a little more about these two words: ungodliness and godliness.  What does it mean to be ungodly?  There’s a pretty bad connotation connected with that word the way that we normally use it.  If you say that someone is ungodly, then you are saying that he or she is a pretty bad person.  They have no scruples.  They have no respect for common morals.  They are wild and wooly, doing as they please.

Normal people, so it is thought, are far from being ungodly.  They go to work, pay their taxes, and don’t get in trouble with the police.  They aren’t perfect—nobody’s perfect, right?—but they aren’t that bad either.  And so the way that we use the word “ungodly” does not apply to most people.

It’s interesting that something similar happens with the word “godly” also.  This is not a word that we readily apply to normal people.  Pastors, priests, saints, goody-two-shoes, and other people who don’t live “normal” lives might be possible candidates for being “godly,” but not just any Joe Schmo.  Godly people are thought to have an air about them that sets them apart from everybody else.  It’s an exclusive club.

And so what you have with the way that these two words are understood are small groups.  There aren’t that many ungodly people.  There aren’t that many godly people.  Almost everybody is just “normal.”

But what these two words really mean—particularly when we think about them biblically—is different from the way that they are typically used.  And the real meanings aren’t too hard to understand.  Ungodliness means that you do not belong together with God.  Godliness means that you are happily together with God.  Those who are ungodly are uncomfortable and scared by the thought of being together with God.  Those who are godly are happy to be together with God and desire it.

And so there is a simple test as to whether you are ungodly or godly: Do you want to be together with God?  Do you want Jesus to come again with great glory to judge the living and the dead whereby those who have done good will be resurrected to life and those who have done evil will be resurrected to condemnation?  If the clouds of judgment were suddenly rumbling on the horizon, or if you felt your life slipping away from you in death, and you know that you are about to meet your Maker, how would you feel?  If you are filled with fear, then you are ungodly.  If you are filled with joy, then you are godly.

I don’t think I really need to tell you this, because I think you already know it quite well: the normal reaction to meeting our Maker is fear, not joy.  It’s only natural to think of the things that you have done wrong—perhaps even the things that you have done wrong in just the last night or two—and now that you are meeting your Maker you have been caught.  Ungodly people aren’t dumb.  There’s a reason why they don’t want to have anything to do with God.  We with our sins that cry out for judgment and punishment aren’t too keen on being together with the one who judges and the one who punishes.

But this is where St. Paul’s words to you tonight about the meaning of Christmas are so important.  He says that the saving grace of God has appeared in Jesus Christ.  That is quite a different thing than saying that the dreadful judgment of God has come.  The saving grace of God in Jesus Christ has appeared.  Grace means forgiveness and acceptance.  Jesus has redeemed us by his death from the way that we have lived in rebellion against God.  He has taken your place and my place and the place of all sinners.  No ordinary Man could possibly do this.  Only God in the flesh could bear the heavy load of all the sin of all the world.  With the birth of Jesus we are witnessing the appearance of this saving grace of God in Christ Jesus.

And what does this saving grace of God do?  St. Paul tells us that it trains us to renounce ungodliness and to live in a godly way.  Now try to forget the baggage that we have attached to these two words that we’ve already talked about tonight, and think about them with their true meanings.  The grace of God trains us to renounce ungodliness.  That means it is training us to renounce and have nothing to do with the fear that we feel at the thought of being together with God.  Why should we not fear?  Is it because we have nothing to fear except fear itself?  Heavens no!  Is it because sins are no big deal?  No!  Is it because God doesn’t really care?  Is it because we’ve tried to make up for the wrong that we’ve done by doing good things?  Is it because we aren’t as bad as other people?  No, none of these false ideas and false hopes has any merit. 

We can only renounce the fear that we have of meeting our Maker by the saving grace of God that has appeared in Jesus Christ.  Only because Jesus has bled and died for me, and for absolutely no other reason, can I look to the prospect of meeting my Maker with joy.  Jesus alone makes you godly, that is, Jesus alone makes it so that you can live together with God.

We can see this play out in a wonderful way with the shepherds that we heard about tonight who were keeping watch over their flocks by night.  These shepherds were ungodly.  By that I do not mean that they were dastardly villains.  They were just normal shepherds having normal shepherd thoughts.  But when the angel of the Lord appears to them they see the reflected glory of God in this angel and they are filled with fear.  They do not like this intrusion of God upon their lives.  It immediately and plainly shows them that they were not loving God with all their heart, soul, strength, and mind.  Neither were they loving their neighbor.  They were thinking about when they got to go home or eat supper or what the sheep might be doing.  But with the coming of the angel they know that God has drawn near to them and they are filled with fear.

But the angel says to them: “Fear not!  Fear not!  I have not come to kill you or judge you.  I bring you glad tidings of great joy that will be for all the people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord!”  The saving grace of God appeared to these shepherd in the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to them.  It trained them to renounce ungodliness.  It trained them to renounce the fear they have at the thought of meeting their Maker.  Why?  Because a Savior has been born to them who reconciles them to God—the Babe, the Son of Mary.

Filled now with the Holy Spirit the shepherds’ fear is turned into joy.  Their ungodliness is turned into godliness.  Their desire to stay away from God is now replaced with the desire to see him.  And so they say to one another: “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.”  That is nothing other than saying, “Let us now go to meet our Maker.”  That is nothing other than saying, “Lord, I love the habitation of your house, and the place where your glory dwells.”

The Scriptures have been written for our learning, and so you do well to apply these words also to yourself.  It’s quite likely that you came here tonight with thoughts not all that different from the shepherds.  You probably weren’t thinking about sheep, but you quite possibly were thinking about your home or your family or the gifts that might be in store for you tonight.  Meeting your Maker was probably a thought far, far from your mind.  Well you have met your Maker.  This is the message that he has for you, O Sinner, who fears being together with your God because of your sins: “Fear not, for I bring you glad tidings of great joy that is for you and all people.  Unto you is born in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord!”

It is my hope that the Holy Spirit blesses you tonight so that your fear of Christ’s second coming may be replaced with joy.  This is a miracle.  Nobody is able to do it except it be given that person by the Holy Spirit working through the Gospel.  But the Holy Spirit does create faith in Jesus when and where he wills it, and I have confidence that he has worked it in you.

But remember one last thing tonight of what St. Paul has said.  Remember that the grace of God trains us to renounce ungodliness and to live in a godly way while we await Christ’s coming.  Renouncing ungodliness, renouncing the fear we have of being together with God, is something that is ongoing.  We are trained in it.  It’s not something that can be learned once and never brought to mind again.

Thank God Christmas Eve brings people to Church who normally don’t come.  If this is you, I only desire blessing upon blessing, grace upon grace for you.  I want you filled with joy for Christ’s sake at the thought of meeting your Maker, for indeed, there is no greater joy than that.  But I also want you to be filled with wisdom—another gift of the Holy Spirit—and that you continue your training in renouncing ungodliness and embracing godliness as you have tonight.  If that should be with us in our congregation, then that is great.  If it be someplace else, then I wish you God’s blessing there too.  It does not matter exactly where this training takes place so long as you are trained and trained well.  Go where the Gospel of forgiveness for Christ’s sake is preached and be trained in renouncing the fear you feel for your sins by embracing Christ your Savior, born for you.

181223 Sermon on Deuteronomy 18:15-19 (Advent 4), December 23, 2018

181223 Sermon on Deuteronomy 18:15-19 (Advent 4), December 23, 2018

The Bible is a pretty big book, and so there are a lot of stories in it.  There are so many stories that most Sunday School curriculums operate on a three year cycle.  It takes three years to get through the stories of the Old and New Testament, and even with these three years there is quite a bit that gets left out.  Because there is so much material to absorb I think it is pretty common for people to get overwhelmed by it.  It’s like a great big box of stuff is plopped down in front of a person and all the stories are mixed up in it.  They all sound familiar, because the stories have been heard in Church and Sunday School, but the timelines are pretty shaky for who it all hangs together, and there’s little awareness of what is really significant about the different stories.  It’s a jumbled collection without rhyme or reason.

Today I’d like to speak about one of those Bible stories that is very important in the Bible with ongoing significance.  It’s the highpoint, you might say, of God’s dealing with his people in the Old Testament.  It’s when Israel was gathered together below Mt. Sinai, or Mt. Horeb as it is also called, after they have come out of Egypt.  The whole reason why Moses had gone to Pharaoh in the first place, when the Israelites were still slaves under him, was so that the Israelites could go into the wilderness to worship the Lord God.  This request was refused by Pharaoh and so God sent all those plagues upon him. 

Therefore, when the Israelites are gathered together below Mt. Sinai, this is the fulfillment of the request that Moses had made, but Pharaoh had refused.  The people were finally able to be together with their God.  But now they didn’t need to go back to Egypt, go back to slavery.  They had been made free by the blood of the Passover lambs and been baptized in the water of the Red Sea.  They were now God’s people instead of Pharaoh’s.  The peculiar thing about it, though, is that throughout the books of Moses you hear the Israelites constantly wanting to return to their slavery under Pharaoh instead of being God’s people.

There is also something new and amazing that happens with the Israelites at Sinai.  This is where God appears to them in cloud and majesty and awe, to quote our chief hymn this morning.  Prior to Sinai God holds back his glory when he appears to the patriarchs of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  He would come in the form of an angel or of a man—think, for example, of the way that Jacob wrestled with that strange man all night long until his hip was put out of joint.  That was God that he wrestled with.

But now at Sinai God reveals his glory in a majestic way.  When he speaks the Ten Commandments to the Israelites Moses says that there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain with a very loud trumpet blast that grew louder and louder.  The whole mountain was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended upon it with fire.  The smoke of it was like the smoke of a kiln and the whole mountain shook.  Prior to this God does not reveal himself in such an awesome way as he does here.  And indeed after this, too, he cloaks himself somewhat with the tabernacle and temple, in the most holy place, and the people do not see his glory in the same way.

And so the story of Mt. Sinai and the giving of the Law in cloud and majesty and awe is significant because it was a one-time-event.  God would not be together with his people in this same way again, at least, that is, while we are yet living in this old world.  As we’ve been talking for these past several weeks about the second advent of Christ at the end of this old world, I think you can hear in the prophesies something of this Mt. Sinai glory being revealed once again when Christ comes on the clouds.

But why is this a one-time-event?  It’s because the Israelites couldn’t stand it.  When God had finished speaking the Ten Commandments to them with this impressive display of his glory they begged God not to speak with them anymore.  It’s interesting that it was not just God’s overwhelming glory that was the breaking point for them, but it was when they heard him speak the Law—this was too much for them.  There was no doubt about God’s power with his display of glory, but before he spoke there was still a little bit of hope that they might be alright with this powerful God.  But then God condemned them for breaking his commandments and all their hope was taken away.  It wasn’t the cloud and majesty and awe that was too terrible to them, it was them hearing, “You are guilty,” that was killing them.  That’s why they said to God, “Stop speaking to us or we will die.  Speak to Moses and then Moses can speak to us, but please no more dealing with us directly.”  From this point forward, that is how God dealt with the Israelites.  He spoke the Ten Commandments to all the people when they were gathered below the mountain, but then the rest of the Law was given to Moses alone when he spent forty days and forty nights at the top of the mountain.  When he came down, he told the people what God had said.

This is all helpful for understanding our Old Testament reading this morning, which comes from the fifth book of Moses, Deuteronomy.  This is about forty years after Sinai and the people are ready to enter Canaan after their many years of punishment.  Moses is telling them the Law and what had happened to them so that they could remember it when they enter into the new land.  The portion of this retelling of the Law that we heard this morning is when Moses makes reference to the way that the Israelites had asked God to stop speaking with them directly when he gave the Ten Commandments and that God would speak through Moses instead.

Then Moses tells us something very significant that God said to him that is very important for us still today.  He says, “And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken.  I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brothers.  And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.  And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.”

God tells Moses that there will be someone somewhat like himself.  Just as God spoke to Moses in a more immediate and direct way—even face to face—over and above every other prophet, so he will raise up a Prophet who will speak the words of God directly.  They will come from his own mouth.  This prophesy given to Moses was fulfilled in Jesus.  He was raised up from amidst the brethren of Israel, from the tribe of Judah.  He is a mediator between God and sinners, just as Moses was, but to an even greater degree.  Just as Moses spoke the word that God gave him to speak, so also Jesus spoke God’s Word.  However, Jesus did not speak a Word of God that came from the outside and was not his own possession—as it was with Moses.  Jesus spoke the Word as his own, because he is the Word, he is God.

The first chapter of St. John’s Gospel, which is the Gospel reading for Christmas Day, is relevant for the fulfillment of the prophecy given to Moses.  It says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through him.”  Here Jesus, the Son of God, is spoken of in a way that isn’t overly familiar to us.  He is called the Word.  There has never been a time when the Word, the Son, has not existed.  This is true also of the Father and the Holy Spirit.  There has never been a time when these persons of the one true God have never existed either.  In the fullness of time the eternal Word took on the human nature that he received in the womb of the Virgin Mary. 

St. John speaks of it this way: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory—glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  The Word becoming flesh, dwelling among men, and speaking, is the same thing as what the Lord told Moses and what we heard in our Old Testament reading from Deuteronomy.  Jesus is the Prophet who is a mediator like Moses, raised up from the people of Israel, and who speaks God’s own Word.

There is a difference, though, between Moses and Jesus, and St. John speaks to this as well in this same place.  He says, “And from Jesus’s fullness we have all received grace upon grace.  For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”  The ministry of Moses, the ministry of the Law that was given from Mt. Sinai and what happened afterwards, is actually a rather sad story.  The Israelites were rebellious and disobedient even though you would think that they would be too scared to do the wicked things that they did.  You know the story of how the Israelites together with Aaron made a golden calf to worship as their god while Moses was on Mt. Sinai’s summit together with God.  This is right after God had given the Ten Commandments with such great glory in cloud and majesty and awe. 

This goes to show that the Law can never make anybody truly better.  It cannot heal.  It cannot work true love.  Only the Holy Spirit can do that through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ.  It is as St. John says, “That the Law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”  The Law threatens and punishes ever so severely.  It works death and hell.  It is so glorious that we cannot stand to really think about it or hear about it—most especially if we are being honest about ourselves and the miserable lives that we have led.  Human reason thinks that we should be scared straight by all this.  If anybody should have been scared straight, shouldn’t it have been the Israelites who just experienced the glory of God as he gave the Ten Commandments?  And yet, look what they do so soon afterwards.

True healing and true reconciliation with God cannot be worked by trying harder, by getting back up after having fallen down, even though this seems as though it might work.  But maybe it’s just that we can’t think of anything better to do.  When we have fallen into sin, there is no more natural thought for us to think than to say, “Well, I’ll try harder.  I won’t let this happen again.”  It doesn’t enter into our heads very easily to say to God, “Have mercy on me O Lord, a poor miserable sinner, for Jesus’s sake.” 

But our reconciliation with God can only happen for Jesus’s sake.  Nails, spear, must pierce him through, the cross be borne for me, for you.  Hail, Hail, the Word made flesh, the Babe, the Son of Mary.  Jesus reconciles us by being punished for your sin—the punishment that the Law cries out for as being just and right.  Jesus trembled in fear and anguish—the fear and anguish that the Israelites had before Mt. Sinai upon hearing the Ten Commandments, but much more (even to an infinite degree).  He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world by becoming sin and taking upon himself the curse that really belongs to you and to me, because we are the ones who have sinned—not Jesus.  “The Law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” 

Jesus is the Prophet spoken of in our Old Testament reading today, and we do well to heed God’s warning concerning him.  He says that whoever will not listen to the words of this prophet will have to answer to God for it.  Immediately, upon hearing those words, we think of obeying.  But perhaps the importance of this command is that we silence our reason which is always thinking about pleasing God with our good behavior.  Really listen to what Jesus says, and what does he say?

God loved the world in this way, that he sent his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Do you hear what he says?  Believe in Jesus, and you will not perish but have eternal life.  If you don’t listen to Jesus when he says this, then you are defying the Word that God has placed into the mouth of his Prophet.

Or again Jesus says,

I came not to be served, but to serve, and give my life as a ransom for many.

Jesus has given his life as your ransom that sets you free from sin and the devil and makes you God’s own.  Who are you to say otherwise?

Or again Jesus says,

Take eat, this is my body given for you.  Take, drink, this cup is my blood, that is shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.

It is necessary for us to say to ourselves, “Shut up, and listen to Jesus” particularly when we are weighed down with sins, because this is when our stupid reason tells us that the only thing that really works is to fix ourselves in order to be acceptable in God’s sight.  That is a very ingenious and persuasive lie that comes from the father of lies.  Listen instead to the gracious words of the Prophet.  He says that he is your Savior.  Believe him.

181216 Homeschool Children's Christmas Service, December 16, 2018

181216 Homeschool Children's Christmas Service

181216 Sermon on Matthew 11:2-11 (Advent 2), December 16, 2018

Sorry, no audio

In our Gospel reading today John the Baptist found himself in prison because he criticized Herod for divorcing his wife and taking his brother’s wife instead.  Herod and the rest of the royal party did not appreciate being taken to task and so they had John arrested.  Not long from the time of our reading there would be that riotous banquet where Herod promised up to half his kingdom to Salome who titillated him with her dancing.  When she asked for such a small thing as the head of John, the unpopular preacher, Herod couldn’t refuse her.  If he would have resisted this request it would have made him look like one of those serious, religious types, and that would have raised some eyebrows in his circles.  Even today, particularly among the bold and the beautiful, there is hardly anything that is more of a turn-off as having religious scruples.

And so in our reading today John is being imprisoned by frivolous, foolish people who have more power than they have brains.  John finally stepped on some toes whose owners refused to be corrected, even though it is obviously wrong to send away a faithful spouse and take a spouse who belongs to someone else.

As we heard, while John is sitting in prison, he sends word to Jesus by his disciples as to whether Jesus is the one who is supposed to come or whether they should be looking for someone else.  I’ve wondered about what is really going on here for many years.  There are two conflicting interpretations—neither of which I’ve been totally persuaded of—and that is why I’ve wondered. 

One interpretation is that now that John has been arrested and senses that his time has come, he sends his disciples to Jesus so that they can start to be Jesus’s disciples instead of his own.  With this interpretation his question, “Are you the Christ,” is kind of a soft-ball pitch to Jesus, so that he can preach the Gospel to these disciples and they can then follow him.  With this interpretation John the Baptist is full of faith, and is handing off these disciples to Jesus, because he must decrease and Jesus must increase.

The other interpretation is almost the opposite of this.  John the Baptist is being wracked by doubt.  Previously, he had no doubts as his words at Jesus’s baptism testify.  There he confessed that he was not worthy to untie the shoe laces on Jesus’s feet, and that Jesus who comes after him is greater than him because he is the eternal Son of God.  But now, according to this interpretation, he isn’t so sure.  Being put in prison, perhaps, has had an unsettling effect on him, and he is in need of being strengthened. 

This second interpretation seems to match the circumstances better than the first interpretation, but then there’s a problem with what Jesus says of John the Baptist to the crowd.  Jesus’s words sound almost like fake flattery if John is so miserable.  He says that John is tough.  He doesn’t wear soft, decadent clothing.  He doesn’t move whichever the way the wind blows.  He is the finest man who has ever been born of woman—that means that no one is greater than him except Jesus and perhaps Adam, who was born from the dust instead of from a mother’s womb.  If John is wracked by doubt in prison, these praises sound almost like lies, or else they are about a John who once was, but is no more. 

And so I’ve never been totally on board with either of these explanations of what is going on here.  But this past week as I was studying this text with a friend, he had an understanding that seems totally right to me, and I’d like to share it also with you.

The key insight that my friend pointed out to me that differed from the various ways that I had understood things in the past was thinking about John’s probable state of mind while he was sitting in prison.  With the first interpretation John is imagined to be resigned and pious, handing his disciples over to Jesus.  With the second interpretation John is imagined to be miserable—a broken man.  But neither of these characterizations of him really fit with what we know about him from elsewhere in the Gospels. 

John was no pious, gentle church lady, nor was he a withered pansy.  He’s the one who called the impeccably orthodox Pharisees a brood of vipers, and wondered aloud who had told them to flee the wrath of God that was about to be revealed.  John the Baptist, as nearly as possible for a fallen human being, loved the Lord his God with his whole heart, soul, strength, and mind, and it made him angry when his fellow creatures would not give God the glory that is due him, but went after worthless idols instead.  This is what made John the Baptist so great—he loved God totally and so he also utterly hated God’s enemies.  He was courageous and fiery.  He preached repentance and pointed to Jesus as the one who was going to make everything good and right.  Sin, death, and the devil were in the process of being crushed under foot.

And so what my friend pointed out, and it seems right to me, is that John was probably not stoically accepting his fate, and handing his disciples off to Jesus, nor was he whimpering and blubbering.  He was probably angry.  The wicked and petty royal house, decked out in their skinny jeans, had somehow brought to nothing his powerful preaching that was turning the hearts of the children to their Father and preparing the way for the blessed Messiah.  How is this possible?  And why wasn’t Jesus calling down fire upon these wicked fools who were bringing to nothing the work of the Lord?

Further support for the idea that John was righteously angry is found in John’s preaching of what Jesus, the Messiah, will be like.  They are both cut from the same cloth, Jesus is so very much greater than he.  John baptizes with water; Jesus baptizes with fire and the Holy Spirit.  Jesus preaches repentance just like John.  He has the ax in his hand and he will chop down every tree that does not bear fruit and throw it into the fire.  The winnowing fork is in his hand, the grain is being threshed out, and the chaff will be burned in the unquenchable fire.  This is what John says Jesus will be like, and he is not wrong in saying that.  Jesus is like that.  And so as John sits in prison he is wondering why Jesus isn’t summoning his angels and taking out vengeance upon the evil doers.

When you think of John being in this frame of mind, it sheds new light, I think, on Jesus’s response to him.  He says, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.  And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” 

In his answer to John’s question Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah who prophesied that the Messiah would do all these things.  John was focused on one facet of the Messiah—the way that he would bring justice and restore righteousness to the land.  But that is not all the Christ was coming to do.  Jesus is full of mercy as well as truth.  He is compassionate as well as just.  John the Baptist, that wonderful warrior, was doing the work of the Lord as he preached God’s wrath against all unrighteousness.  But that work is only brought to completion when the terrified sinner comes to rest in Jesus the Savior.

Of course, it is not as though John was ignorant of this.  John was a true prophet—the best born of women.  He is the one who points to Jesus and says, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” as we will hear next week.  But he is impatient and has a hard time seeing the way that the Lord works in his lowly, longsuffering ways, just as all saints of all times always have been—particularly those who are suffering for the name of Jesus.  The martyrs in the book of Revelation call out from below the altar and say, “O Lord, holy and true, how long before you judge the people who belong to this world and avenge our blood for what they have done to us?” Even Jesus himself expresses something of this impatience when he says, “I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish that it were already kindled.” 

And so John is not exactly wrong when he essentially says to Jesus, “Why aren’t you doing anything about this horrible injustice?”  He is saying what God’s saints have said ever since Abel’s blood was crying out from the ground.  But the other side of this is that God is patient and long suffering, desiring that all people should reach repentance.  He despises nothing that he has made and wishes for all people to come to the knowledge of the truth, be healed and saved.

A good lesson that we can learn from this is that when it comes to the Gospel we are not going to be able to pick everything apart and neatly categorize everything the way our calculating brain would like.  Our reason cannot see how mercy and judgment can come together since they are essentially opposites of one another.  We cannot perfectly conceive of a Messiah who has the winnowing fork in his hand and the ax is laid to the root of the tree on the one hand, but on the other he also gives sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and preaches forgiveness to even the very worst sinner.  Our brains are capable of entertaining only one of these thoughts at a time, but the Scriptures show that Jesus is both. 

The heart that has been enlightened by the Holy Spirit also can understand something of the truth that the calculating brain is incapable of.  The believer knows that Jesus is kind and merciful—that he is not some overbearing stickler just waiting for people to mess up so that he can fall on them like a ton of bricks.  Jesus isn’t like that.  The devil is like that.

But Jesus also knows what wickedness is, and he hates it with a white-hot passion.  He does not wink at sin like some indulgent grandma.  Again, it is not Jesus who winks at sin, saying that it is pretty much harmless, and you can carry on to your heart’s content—it’s the devil who does that.

The believing heart is able to grasp who Jesus is in a better way than our reason which is always trying to fit things into a system.  Jesus, our salvation, is not a system.  He is a person, and he is God, and the Bible is what teaches us about him and not our own thoughts.  He is at the same time merciful and just.  He is righteous and compassionate.  He is just and the justifier of whoever is ungodly but puts his or her trust in him.

John the Baptist, being flesh and blood, was not different than us.  His brain didn’t work differently.  It’s not surprising that he, like us, was in need of God’s Word and the Holy Spirit to know who the Messiah is.  The Messiah being just was quite clear and vivid to him at that moment, but he also needed to know of the Messiah who heals the sick, raises the dead, and preaches the Gospel.  This does not make John into something bad.  He was a Christian just like all of us and in need of the Holy Spirit for true understanding.

I think this is reflected in the way that Jesus speaks about him.  No one greater than John the Baptist has been born of women, and yet even the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than him.  Those who are of the Kingdom of God are the ones who hear the Word of God and believe it.  Even the baby who is blessed by the Holy Spirit with faith in Jesus is greater than John the Baptist, because that baby has the perfect gift of knowing the Messiah. 

You who have heard of and know Jesus the Messiah, and are looking for his coming with eager anticipation have something greater than John the Baptist had even with all his greatness.  You have the healing, saving gift of Jesus, and are being fully purified to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind as you continue in faith.  Continuing in faith means that you are continuing in the Word and you do not graduate from it.  Even John did not graduate from the Word, but was in need of learning yet again the true nature of the Messiah.

This preaching of the Word that he heard and which you also hear is powerful unto salvation.  Not long after he heard Jesus’s preaching John’s head was chopped off with a brutal ax and put on a platter.  Those wicked party-goers seemed to have carried the day.  But time will tell that John lost nothing by dying for preaching the Word of God and staking his life and salvation upon it. 

And so we also must take courage and not fear the loss of property, reputation, or even life and limb.  Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and he will come with power and great glory to judge the earth.  Together with John we are waiting for this and saying, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus!”

181212 Sermon on Genesis 46-47 (Advent 2 Midweek), December 12, 2018

Sorry, no audio

Somewhere in the back of our minds we all have an idea of how we’d like our life to go.  I think most people are pretty realistic about what they’d like too.  I don’t think that any of us have any ambitions of becoming Olympic athletes.  We’re not suited for that kind of thing.  Nor do any of us have ambitions of becoming brain surgeons.  Again, we’re not cut out for it.  Even when it comes to money (which none of us can ever seem to have too much of), I don’t think you have dreams of being super-duper rich.  You have your lot in life, and your expectations are set accordingly.  I suppose that we all imagine that tomorrow will not be all that different than today.  Our hope, of course, is that tomorrow will be at least as good as today is, and if it’s a little bit better, then that would be really nice.

In our culture there are two main factors that are pointed out as having a bearing on how tomorrow will go: Luck and ambition.  When a person’s life gets better—when they get a better job, or find a good spouse, or they make valuable investments—these kinds of things are attributed to good luck.  When things go badly, then the person is unlucky.  I think that for a lot of people this is not so much that they actually believe in a thing called “luck” as that they don’t really know why things happen—bad or good.  Being lucky or unlucky, for a lot of people, is just saying stuff happens, and who knows whether it will continue or not.

People have a more definite idea about the value of ambition for how things will go.  There is a deeply seated American idea that we all make our own lot in life.  If we work hard and work smart, then things will go well.  If we don’t work hard or work smart, then things will not go well.  The future is in our own hands.  Everything is up to us.

Because these two explanations for what happens in a person’s life are so powerfully believed and taught, it is only with difficulty that we can begin to think like a Christian.  But that is why we have the Bible—it is not given as a doorstop or a paperweight.  It is given so that we might learn from it. 

Something that is quite practical and applicable that we can learn from it is that God is the only acceptable, ultimate explanation for why and how our life progresses the way that it does is because of God.  This is true for everybody’s life, whether they are a believer or an unbeliever.  The Bible has examples of unbelievers’ lives.  It has many more examples of believers’ lives.  We can learn from both, because we do not want to end up as unbelievers and be condemned, and so we can take warning.  We’d like to become or remain believers so that we will be saved, and so we can see how God dealt with his saints from times past and apply it also to ourselves.

This is why it is a good thing to study somebody like Jacob, to whom God also gives the name Israel, whose twelve sons would make up the twelve tribes of Israel.  The portion of the Scripture that we considered tonight is towards the end of his life.  Much had already happened to him.  He had fought with his brother Esau.  He had been cheated by his uncle Laban.  The wife he loved more, Rachel, bore children with great difficulty, and in fact died in bearing their youngest son Benjamin.  Benjamin’s brother, Joseph, was Jacob’s favorite son, and because of this he was hated by his brothers.  By trickery Jacob was led to believe that Joseph had been killed by wild animals, but in fact he had been sold into slavery in Egypt.  Jacob had no shortage of troubles.

Now that he is a very old, feeble man, he finds that he cannot stay in his beloved homeland of Canaan.  There was a severe famine—no rain, no forage for the livestock, no food.  The only place that has food is Egypt, so that is where he is forced to go.

I feel pretty confident in saying that this is not exactly how Jacob wanted things to go.  Things became so bad at home that he essentially had to become a refugee—a stranger, a beggar.  That is not a way that people want to live out their “golden years.”

So what are we to make of these difficult conditions that Jacob was forced to endure at least somewhat against his will?  There are a lot of things that we can never know about what exactly is going on, because God doesn’t tell us.  Why couldn’t there have been better weather and more plentiful bounty from their flocks so that Jacob wouldn’t have to go to Egypt?  God doesn’t say.  Something that God does say is that all things work together for the good of those who love him.  We know that God loved Jacob and that Jacob loved God, and so we can know that these things were for his good.  How and why they were exactly for his good cannot be known with any certainty.

Just so that you can understand something of why things like this might happen, I’ll give you a possible explanation so you can understand why God decide to do things like this.  It is possible that Jacob was getting to be too comfortable in his comfortable surroundings, and that God with his promises of comfort was no longer what ruled in Jacob’s heart, soul, and mind.  The Bible says nothing about this being the reason whatsoever, and so you shouldn’t think that this is the correct answer for why God decided that Jacob should die in a strange land in his old age.  I’ve only given you this as a possible explanation so that you can see why God might do something that seems strange or unwelcome to us, but it is actually for our good.  It is not luck or Jacob’s ambitions or lack thereof that explain why things turned out for him the way that they did.  It was God, and he did it for his ultimate good.  Jacob died as a stranger in a strange land, but he was no stranger to God.  His afflictions and troubles purged out his false faith in things besides God, so that he could cling all the more to God in whom our hopes are never misplaced.

It is good for us to see examples like this in the Scriptures so that we can also think about our own lives.  We all have a general idea of what might lie ahead for us in our lives, but things can change.  We do not fear those things that will improve our quality of life.  These things are welcome, and we must be sure that we give thanks for them.  But we do fear those things that might decrease our quality of life, or even take away our life altogether.  We should not imagine that these things are a matter of luck, or even that they are a matter of getting older, or just random stuff that happens.  Realize that God is intimately involved in your life, and that ultimately there isn’t anything that happens that isn’t apart from his will.

This is a scary thought, and so it is easy for us to shy away from it.  The reason why it is a scary thought is that sometimes really bad things can happen that we really, really don’t like.  What, then, will this do to our opinion of God?  Will this mean that we will hate God, or that we will see him as a scary ogre?  Let’s not kid ourselves, some people do come away with that conclusion—and that is why I think we are so scared to looking at our lives in this way.  But the reason why that happens is because people are judging God apart from his promises.  They don’t believe the promises God has made to all people in Christ, and so they rise up against him for not doing as he or she would want.

But if you keep in mind God’s promises, and especially the promise of redemption and everlasting life that he has made in Jesus Christ, then there is no need to see God as evil or an ogre when he does things that we might find unpleasant.  Instead these unpleasant things are known for what they really are—discipline from a loving Father.  No one likes discipline at the time that it is given, but there is nothing more loving that a father can do than to discipline his children.  Lazy or incredibly stupid fathers will allow their children to harm themselves by going after whatever their desires might be.  A loving father prevents a child from doing what it wants, because the Father knows a better way.  Blessed and wise is the child who knows that this is true, and will receive discipline with patience and even thanksgiving.

That is how we should receive God’s hard knocks in our life too.  We should understand them as discipline and that God is preventing us from carrying out our will that would like to do otherwise.  Discipline also is humbling.  We have to swallow our pride and know that God’s ways are better than our ways.  That can be a bitter thing to learn, but know that God rejects the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Always keep in mind that this earth is not our home.  It is not the only story.  Behind our earthly life is the way that God forms and shapes and alters things so that we are not lost forever, but by baptism and by faith receive eternal life.  Jacob, whom we heard about tonight, had a very bumpy ride through life.  He shed a lot of tears.  He even died in a strange land.  But now God himself comforts him and wipes away every tear from his eyes.  If that is how things turn out for you too—that there are a lot of tears in this life, but God wipes them away in the next, then you have lived well despite the pain, and you will die well with faith in your Savior.

181209 Sermon on Luke 21:25-36 (Advent 2), December 9, 2018

181209 Sermon on Luke 21:25-36 (Advent 2), December 9, 2018

Ever since the fall into sin and Man’s mind was darkened so that he could no longer believe in or worship the one true God without the almighty aid of the Holy Spirit, he has been choosing other things to believe in and worship.  Chief among these things have been the heavenly bodies—the sun, the moon, the planets, and the stars.  It has not been unusual for societies to worship the sun as the greatest among the gods, and this is understandable.  The sun is hugely powerful and our life on this planet is sustained by its power.  If the sun would not shine, or even shine as powerfully as it does, then everything would fall apart.  The wind wouldn’t even blow, to say nothing of grass and trees and all the food that sustains us.

The moon, also, is quite impressive.  It reflects the glory of the sun.  Its regularity and predictability makes it well suited for marking time, and the variability of it with the different phases might have been one of the reasons why it was preferred as the basis for calendars in ancient times.  The movement of the planets, also, is wonderful as they do not rotate exactly with the rest of the stars in the night sky, but will move in strange loops as they shift in their orbits relative to the earth’s orbit.  These celestial powers are extremely regular and predictable in their movements—something quite different from the changeableness of our lives.  This has made them worthy of Man’s wonderment, and for the unbeliever’s devotion.  They are some of the high and exalted things.  Ancient Man, in particular worshipped these things.

It might seem as though we modern people are totally different from them.  We do not have extensive lists of different gods.  We do not have temples with priests and priestesses to offer sacrifice, sing, and dance before the many gods.  Those in academia believe that this is a matter of historical development and sophistication.  Primitive people were thought to be stupid and so they didn’t know any better than to think that life was full of gods wanting to be worshipped.  Monotheism, or the belief in one God, instead of polytheism, or the belief in many gods, is thought to be a matter of applying our reason to our situation and discovering that having only one God is more reasonable than having several.

For the past couple hundred years many people have believed that we have become yet more sophisticated.  By applying our reason even more, people believe that they have discovered that no god exists.  The only things that exist are matter, time, and energy.  These basic things interact with one another and are capable of explaining our existence from the Big Bang onward until now without needing to “cheat” by adding a god or many gods into the mix to explain stuff. 

But this movement towards an imagined sophistication is nothing other than the high and mighty getting lost in the imagination of their own hearts, as St. Mary says in her Magnificat.  It is an imagined sophistication, because there is nothing sophisticated about ignoring God, ignoring our responsibility towards him, ignoring the way that we are going to be judged by him for the way that we have lived our lives.  It’s childish and selfish.  It also is nothing new.  Adam and Eve tried their hardest to forget about the God who had warned them not to sin.  They got busy doing other things.  This is exactly what modern Man does as well when he busies himself with trying to fix all the effects of the fall into sin while ignoring the God who has placed this curse of death upon us.  Modern Man believes that he will be better blessed by devoting himself to all the various causes out there, rather than turning in repentance to the God who smites us and saying, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.”

Because modern people still believe that they are going to be blessed by devoting themselves to this or that, it is also clear that people still believe in various high and exalted things as gods beside the one true God.  Among us it is unusual to find people who worship the sun, the moon, or the stars like many of the ancient people did, but you can easily find that everybody believes in something.  Some people believe in silly things like the Iowa Hawkeyes or Minnesota Vikings.  You know the kind of devotion some people have in that kind of thing.  They might even get buried in the uniform to show their loyalty.  Other people are devoted to high and noble-sounding things like curing cancer, conquering outer space, eliminating poverty, or bringing about more peaceful conditions in societies and families.

Contrary to what is commonly believed, we aren’t that different from the primitive and ancient people.  Their cities were full of different gods and people would pick the ones that they were especially devoted to.  That’s how it is with us today too.  People pick the different things in their life that they love and worship and believe that they are blessed by.  They are very busy as they pursue these things, and so it helps them forget about the God to whom we all must give answer.  What good will curing cancer do for the person who must give answer before God for how he or she has lived his or her life?  As Jesus says, “What good will it do a man to gain the whole world, but to lose his soul?”  Death and God’s judgment have a way of exposing the smallness and impotence of all false gods—no matter what they might be.

Our Gospel reading today so very powerfully depicts the failure of all false gods that will be made manifest on the last day.  Feeble and near-sighted modern man believes in technology and other manmade trinkets, but what good will it do him on that day?  Even the more robust and far-sighted ancient man who believed in the sun, the moon, and the other great and constant powers will see these magnificent things go wobbly and turn unpredictable. 

Fear will seize the whole earth, including even believing Christians, because we all still have a good bit of idolatry that clings to our flesh, and there is nothing so painful as being stripped of your idols.  The loss of idols—the loss of things besides God that we put our hope in—this loss is the blackest of all black thoughts for our Old Adam.  This is the kind of thought that Adam and Eve had when they heard God making his way through the Garden towards them.  The word, “In the day that you eat of it, you will surely die,” was screaming through their heads, and all the hopes and dreams of making some clothes and a little home for themselves died away.  The only course of action that seems reasonable to our Old Adam in such a situation is to tuck tail and run—head for cover—maybe, just maybe, there’s some way to survive.

But I don’t think it is possible to emphasize enough the difference between that reaction of fear to what Jesus says in our Gospel reading.  Jesus is speaking to you who believe in him—even if that faith in him is very weak—and this is what he says: “When you start to see these things begin to take place—when you start to see the false gods failing—then straighten up, put those shoulders back, strong and tall, and look up for your redemption is drawing near.”  These words are so wonderful—I hope that they can be deeply planted within your soul so that you can remember them at the proper time. 

There is such confidence and strength to be drawn from them, for this is what Jesus is saying: “When the world is falling apart—when either it is the end of the world and the sun and the moon and the stars are doing such strange things, or else the world of your own in your own body is falling apart, that is, your heart is pitter-pattering, and your brain is foggy, and death is at your door—when you see these things of the end of the world or the end of your life beginning to take place, then don’t tuck tail and run in the imagination of your foolish heart.  Also, don’t cling to these false gods that are showing you their true colors and are failing.  Stand up straight and tall and proud, spiritually speaking, and be at peace, because your Jesus is coming for you. 

Do not fret about what might be failing with your body or what powers might be shaken in the world.  Jesus has shown his mastery and power over all these things.  There’s nothing whatsoever that can possibly go wrong that Jesus cannot set right.  That is what redemption means.  When Jesus says that your redemption is drawing near he is saying that everything is finally going to be set right, once and for all.  The work that was done on the cross, and the work that was begun with your baptism, is about to come to its completion, and you will be set free from the bonds of sin, death, and the devil, to live in happiness together with Jesus forever.

I can’t think of any more practical advice when it comes to the end of the world or to the end of our lives, than what Jesus says here.  Do not be afraid.  Remember who your God is—the Lord Jesus Christ—that he loves you and has powerfully redeemed you.  No matter what might happen, he’s coming for you and will set all things right. 

This is old Christian wisdom that can be heard in hymns like, “O Sacred Head Now Wounded,” where it says to Jesus, “Be Thou my consolation, my shield when I must die.  Remind me of your passion, when my last hour draws neigh.  Mine eyes shall then behold Thee, upon They cross shall dwell, My heart by faith enfold Thee.  Who dieth thus dies well.”

Or, perhaps a hymn that is more familiar to you, “Abide with me,” the last verse: “Hold Thou they cross before my closing eyes.  Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies.  Heaven’s morning breaks and earth’s vain shadows flee.  In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.”

I want you to take this very practical and important advice about the end of the world and the end of our lives very seriously.  You must really think through it, because it is not the standard practice when it comes to caring for the dying.  The standard practice for those who are dying is to be engaged in a kind of busyness that promotes a kind of forgetfulness, that plays directly into the desires of our Old Adam to tuck tail and run.  What I mean by busyness is the way that all the different options and possibilities are explored, and what might be done next is the only topic for discussion.  The forgetfulness is losing track of the one true God, who alone won’t fail.  It is at the same time putting out of mind sin and its wages, but also the gift of God that is in Christ Jesus—eternal life.

Thinking of the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified at the end of the world and at the end of our life forces us to take sin and death seriously.  The anguish of our Lord on the cross is no laughing matter.  But it also powerfully recollects the love of God for us sinners—that he goes to such lengths to redeem and save us.  It is only by the assurance of God’s love, mercy, and forgiveness—that the cross proclaims to us—that we can face absolutely anything with confidence—shoulders back, head tall—knowing that God will set it right, perfectly right.  The happy joy, the heart-pounding joy, of fellowship with almighty God is ours already, and the fullness of it is just around the corner.

But again, you must carefully consider this way of handling the end of the world or the end of our life or you won’t have the strength for it when the time comes.  The frank talk of Jesus the Savior from sin and death is not welcomed at many, perhaps most, deathbeds.  I can understand why, in a way, because I also have an Old Adam.  I also would just like to forget about my sins and have my mind occupied with anything else besides the one true God.  It is stressful to fight against the powers and principalities that would like the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ to never be proclaimed, and nobody likes stress or awkwardness.

But if you want to do a truly good deed for someone, then hold before their closing eyes the cross of Jesus Christ that saves.  Forget about all the philosophies or other high and exalted things.  These will all fade and fail.  Assure your loved ones of the confidence that they may have with their approaching end and judgment.  This confidence is not something that I’ve cooked up in my own head—it comes directly from our Lord Jesus Christ, as you yourself heard in our Gospel reading today.  He says, “When you begin to see these scary things take place, do not be afraid.  Don’t tuck tail and run.  Stand up straight, shoulders back, and look up.  I’m coming for you, and I’m taking you to your true home where you will be your true self and I will be your true God.”

This message meets opposition, and it always will meet opposition from those who prefer busyness and forgetfulness to the truth.  That is why you must think about these things—not just during the twenty minutes or so of this sermon, but afterwards as well.  But this message will not just be met by opposition.  It will also be met by indescribable joy by others.  If, for some reason, you should be around me and I am meeting the end of the world or the end of my life, then I want you to talk to me about Christ on the cross.  That would be an eternal gift that I could never repay.  On the other hand, if I should be around you, then I will do my best to return the favor.  Both of us must ask our God of grace to give us the strength to do so.

181205 Sermon on Genesis 11-13 (Advent 1 Midweek), December 5, 2018

181205 Sermon on Genesis 11-13 (Advent 1 Midweek), December 5, 2018

Our reading today from Genesis chapters 11-13 is important for understanding the Bible.  The Bible is quite large and so it is easy for people to get lost in it.  It is always good to know the beginning of the story.  Our reading tonight, in a way, is the beginning of the story.  To be sure there is a history that precedes Abram and Sarai—Adam and Eve, Cain, Abel, and Seth, Noah and his three sons.  These also are important people for understanding the Bible—particularly Adam and Eve and the story of their fall into sin.  But all of these things are covered in the first 11 chapters of Genesis and their stories are done.  Beginning with chapter 12 of Genesis pretty much the remainder of the Scriptures is about Abram and his descendants. 

As we heard in our reading Abram was called out of Ur in the land of the Chaldeans—the southern area of Mesopotamia close to where Babylon was.  The whole family goes north along the fertile rivers in Iraq.  But then just Abram, Sarai, and Abram’s nephew Lot, go further, turning south and coming into the land of Canaan.  This was the beginning of a story that would play out over centuries and is still being played out to this very day.  Abraham’s descendants would settle this land.  Jesus would be born of this nation and would be a blessing to all the people of the world.  Christians to this day are imitators of Abraham in their faith towards God and their living according to God’s promise, come what may.  And so in all the books of the Bible after this first book of Genesis, it is important to understand that all these characters, with a few notable and important exceptions, are about Abraham’s descendants and the relationship with they had with the one true God.  He was their God and they were his people, according to the covenant that God made with Abram as we heard in our reading.

God’s covenant, his promise, is the main thing in Abram’s life.  He says to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.  And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

There are a few things about this promise that are worth talking about a little bit more.  First of all, Abram is called away from what is familiar—literally.  The word “familiar” comes from the word “family.”  Abram is told to leave those whom he knows and loves and where he would have some natural advantages and security, and live by God’s promise that he will take care of him and bless him.  St. Paul points to Abram as the great example of faith, and that is what is extraordinary about him.  He left what he could see and he pushed forward for that which he could not see, but that had been promised him by God.

Secondly, God says to Abram that he will make him into a great nation.  There’s a problem, though. Abram and Sarai do not have any children.  Natural human reason would think that it was silly to go to a new land when there aren’t any heirs to inherit it.  It took over twenty five more years of living according to God’s promises before Abram and Sarai would be granted their long awaited son, Isaac. 

God would continue this pattern of making Abram’s descendants into a great nation, but doing so in an unexpected way that natural human reason is not all that impressed by.  Abram’s descendants were never an empire—not even close.  They were never as great as Egypt or Babylon or Persia or Greece were in their glory days.  They didn’t have a lot of land.  They didn’t have armies capable of conquering the world.  So what made them great?  It was that they were God’s own people who knew his promises—the chief of which was the promise of the Messiah who would set all people free from their sins.  The Israelites had God’s Law—God’s Word—and this was their treasure and what made them into such a great nation.  In later years, when they had fallen into decline, they no longer treasured what made them great and were hoping that they could be just like everybody else.  That is why they lose God’s favor and he gives them over to the evil desires of their own hearts and when Abram’s descendants were at their lowest point before the birth of Jesus.

The third noteworthy thing about the covenant that God makes with Abram is that through him all the families of the earth shall be blessed.  The way that all the families of the world are blessed through Abram is that Jesus would eventually be born from him.  However, there’s something more to it than that.  Abram and his descendants would also be the nursery, the school, through which all the people of the world may learn of God’s will.  Moses and all the prophets after him were the writers of the Scriptures.  A knowledge of God and his promises was cultivated among this people, and even Jesus himself was said to learn and grow in this knowledge as he matured as a boy and a man according to his human nature.

There is more that we could look at concerning God’s promise to Abram, but already with the three things that I’ve pointed out you can see what makes Abram and those descendants of his who were true, different from other people—they were people of faith, and not of sight.  They believed God and it was accredited to them as righteousness.  They followed wherever it might be that God should lead them—and the Bible is full of stories from one cover to the other of the strange things that God might lead his people into and out of according to his good and gracious will.  Often these strange situations are created not so much by God’s doings, but by the failings of his people. 

We heard about an instance of that in our reading as well, when Abram disowned his wife to save his own skin.  That was not noble or brave.  But the good and gracious side of the relationship that people have with God is always on God’s side.  God rescues Sarai before she and the messianic seed can be defiled by Pharaoh.  God’s people are always praising God for his steadfast love and mercy which endures forever.  God’s rescue of Abram and Sarai from Egypt is but one of a countless number of times that he does not dish out what is deserved, but overlooks their sin and takes them in regardless.

We can also see in our reading tonight the way that our theme for our Advent services is fulfilled.  Abram and Sarai are strangers, aliens, and pilgrims while they lived their lives on this earth.  Abram is one of the greatest people in the whole Bible, and you see that his life is not very stable.  He doesn’t stay in one place, but is forced to move by famine and need.  But the one constant in his life is the God who chose him, and spoke to him, so that he could live by faith in the promises God made.

And so we have a model in Abram that we can learn from and imitate.  Just as he was chosen, spoken to, and lived by faith, so also God has chosen you and made his promises made known to you.  These are the most important things in your life.  Other people might value all kinds of different good things as what is really important about life, but you will be imitating Abram if you make God’s promises the most important for your life. 

If you don’t live like everybody else, then you might not fit in with everybody else.  But that’s okay.  Abram and those descendants who were faithful, had the same experience.  They didn’t really fit in with the idolaters who surrounded them.  But God will be your companion instead.  And there is nothing that you forsake in this world that will not be repaid to you many times over in the life to come.

Heaven is your home.  You are but a stranger here.  God is your great reward.