Palm Sunday, 2015
Philippians 2:3-11 
3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,[a] 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[b] being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Dear Friends in Christ,

Growing Up By Staying Low -  45 years ago, I played football for the Wyndmere Warriors.  My coach was Ken Bakkegard, who was even shorter than I am, but fiery.   If you didn’t do it right, he had a habit of grabbing the front of your helmet and looking you right in the eyes and chewing you out.  For whatever reason, he decided that I should play center on offense.  Which isn’t a very glamorous position, by the way.  The only time people note who you are is when you miss your block or snap the ball over the punter’s head.   And one of the worst mistakes you can make is to not stay low. If the opposing nose guard got lower than you and stood you up, that play wasn’t going to go very well.  To this very day coaches are training players to succeed by staying low.

Here is one coach’s quote, “Football is a dangerous sport, but playing smart and safe is the key to making sure you're not being hauled of the football field on a stretcher or in a neck brace. It's not one-hundred percent preventable, but how do you minimize the risk of potential deadly injuries to young football players? This video will show coaches a few drills to teach their young athletes to minimize catastrophic neck injuries. And the key is staying low at the line.

The shared vision here at Trinity Lutheran Church and School is that we mature as disciples for Jesus Christ.   That all 1700 plus of our members would not only be following Christ but be actively engaged in His mission to seek and save the lost.  That our newly confirmed members wouldn’t just be surviving confirmation class and public examination, but in fact would be signing up for a life-long journey of taking on the form of servants and spending your days and nights  having the mind of Christ.   Getting down on your knees, growing up by staying low,  growing up by washing feet, cleaning toilets, and you fill in the blank.  Two parts to our sermon today, “Joining Jesus On His Mission.” The first is getting into position every week to have the mind of Christ, and the second is practicing what we preach with clear purpose each week.

Part I: Getting Into Position Every Week.  Seven habits of maturing disciples we have identified here at Trinity. Three habits focus on receiving what God is wanting to give us and four habits focus on giving away to others what we have received.     

Our first stated goal of Confirmation Class this year has been to engage young people in the rhythm and significance of God’s mission.    The rhythm of creation was that God created light, land, sea, fish, birds, land animals, and humanity in 6 days and rested on the seventh day.  The rhythm of Old Testament life was that they would work on the first six days and then rest on the seventh.   The rhythm of New Testament life is that we hear God’s Word on the first day of the week and treasure it and keep it and live it out for the glory of God and the benefit of others Monday through Saturday.   (Compare to rhythm of dancing – a few have it and many of us do not). The first habit of  disciples who are growing up by staying low / getting into correct position is that we receive gratefully God’s good gifts in Divine Service.

Question #1 - What truths did I learn in this week’s sermon, and how are they (setting me free)? The bad news is that if you will not listen to a sermon, the truths of God’s Word presented in that sermon will have no way of setting you free.  The good news is that every time you remember the truths you learned from your parents or grandparents or confirmation class pastors, they will bless and keep you.  Nationwide research suggests that in all of the churches, about 70% of young people who have grown up in the church will fall away by age 25 or so.  And yet Zechariah reminds us today that as often as you return to your stronghold, the blood of the covenant sets you free.  As often as you eat and drink at the Holy Supper, that often your sins are forgiven.  That often your faith is strengthened.  That often you are reconnected to a God whose passion is to have mercy on you.

The second habit of disciples who are growing up by staying low / getting into the correct position is to search eagerly Holy Scriptures.  Question #2 - What is my passion, and where is it (leading me)?  (My mom would have been 90 this past week.  Her passion each day was to read her Bible and say her prayers).  Our Lord’s passion, His great desire, of course, was to get to the cross and die for the sins of the people.  It was for the joy set before Him that He did not count equality with God something to be snatched and held onto.  So that He would welcome your sorry souls into paradise, He emptied himself.  He took on the form of a slave and lowered himself and was obedient as far as death would take him, even death on a cross.

What is your passion these days, and where is it leading you?  Perhaps your greatest desire in life is to eat, drink, and have fun.  How’s that working out for you?  Perhaps it is to make a boatload of money and buy all the happiness that money can buy.  How’s that working out for you? Perhaps your passion is just to survive life and mind your own business.  How’s that working out for you?  Today we learn of Jesus in the temple at age 12 was getting Himself in a position to be about His Father’s business.   He did that by spending quality time with the Bible scholars of His day.  By doing so with a mind that was curious, a heart that was on fire, and ears that were tilted.

The third habit of disciples who are growing up by staying low/ getting into the correct position is to humbly confess sin to God and others.  Our third question is What is heaviest on my heart today, and where am I (taking my brokenness).  Every day and every day, your Savior invites you to follow Him.  To follow Him closely.  Come unto me, He invites, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  A broken and a contrite heart, I will not despise, our God promises.  Is there a more beautiful promise than that?   Which of your bad habits are hurting and harming you the most?  Take them on bended knee to your God and cry out for mercy. Which of your weaknesses are getting the best of you?  Take them to your King who is humble and mounted on a donkey and cry out hosanna.  Which corners of your life are broken and which of your dreams are shattered?  Take them to your Christian friends and to your Lord’s Supper and ask for a second chance.

Part II: Practicing What We Preach With (Clear Purpose) Each Week

Could it be that one good question is worth a thousand answers?   Four questions to help us think about practicing what we preach with purpose.  The first is What’s my next step in terms of (laying down my life) for my neighbors? (Story told by Army Veteran Mr. Johanson at Friday’s Veteran’s Roundtable – Chaplain Rooney praying for and sending out 15 members of their battalion through enemy fire, each sent with a portion of Psalm 23, The Lord is my shepherd – GO..  I shall not want – GO.  He makes me lie down in green pastures – GO.  He leadeth me by the still waters –GO., etc)  Here were soldiers laying down their lives for millions of people they would never know, many of them who never be grateful, much less say thank you. Husbands, ask yourselves, “which train should I jump in front of on behalf of my bride today?” Wives, ask yourselves, “which horrible habit of my husband should I cover up today?”  Teachers, ask “which student really needs me to listen to their story today?”  Students, ask “which classmate of mine needs me to hang out with him or her today?”  Imagine on the last day, Jesus looking you in the eyes and saying, “When I needed someone to be available to me, you were!

The second of four habits of disciples who are practicing what their church is preaching with clear purpose is to prayerfully endure life’s crosses. Could it be true that one good question is worth a thousand answers?  Which five people will I (pray for) and suffer with this week?  Our younger generation is uniquely positioned to know who needs a prayer partner.  Just go on Facebook, and within seconds you will know which of your friends is having a bad day, which one is stuck in traffic, which one is angry about snow falling on the first day of spring, which friend has a father who is dying, which one has a child that is sick or naughty, which family member needs you to walk alongside.  Imagine on the last day our Lord looking you in the eyes and saying, “When I needed a friend to pray for and suffer with me, you did!”

Could it be that one good question is worth a thousand answers?  Is my joy in the Lord a (contagious) joy?  Medical experts tell us that smallpox and Bubonic Plage and influenza and rabies and ebola and HIV and a host of other diseases are contagious.   Human experience tells us that crabbiness and unthankfulness and orneriness and stubbornness and hopelessness and sadness and even stupidity can be contagious.  But the Spirit of God would remind us today that every fruit of the Holy Spirit, including joy, can be contagious. (Story of Ed Cutler / Florence Kyle who taught me how to knock on doors and tell people about Jesus). Their joy in the Lord was both with purpose and almost impossible to resist!  Imagine on the last day our Lord looking you in the eyes and saying, “When I drifting toward the darkness and needed a ray of sunshine, you gave it to me!  

Could it be that one good question could be worth a thousand answers? How will I season my conversations with (Good News) this week? There is a time to ask questions, of course, and there is a time to listen, and then there is in fact a time to give a reason for the hope that is within you.  Paul writes to the Colossians, Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.  

In his book, “Joining Jesus on His Mission”, author Pastor Greg Finke has this to say about talking to people, “Survey after survey shows that Americans are among the most lonely and isolated people on earth…The truth is that God has wired some of us to be introverts and some of us to be extroverts….God intends that we interact with people at the relational pace with which he has wired us….The truth is extroverts and introverts bring both strengths and weakness to the practice (of talking to people).  Extroverts are good at initiating and talking, but they are not as good at listening and asking the next question.  On the other hand, introverts are good at noticing and watching people, but struggle to initiate conversation…”  Imagine that on the last day, Jesus looks you directly in the eyes, and says, “When I needed you to initiate and carry the conversation, you did…..And when I needed you to watch my face and ask good questions and listen at length, you did.”

Following Well – The kingdom of God is like a young man who confirmed his faith at this altar in April of 2000, about the time this year’s confirmands were growing in their mother’s wombs.  Our Confirmation Class picture display shows that his hair was long, he wore tennis shoes, and he stood to the left of a short fat face preacher.   Since then, he has drifted away from the Church but praise be to God not his Lord.   He’s messed up his life in such a way that he has landed in Blue Earth County Jail and that the St. Cloud Prison and now Moose Lake Prison.  And from his prison cell, this young man who’s about the age of Pastor Muther and probably wore one of the robes one of you is wearing writes us a letter and thanks us for sending him Bible Studys and sermons and indicates that they truly help him to get through hard times, “I truly believe God has put me in here to help me change not only my life but the lives of others around me.  I know I’ve made mistakes and will never be perfect but our God is a loving and forgiving God and not a day goes by that I don’t call on Him to give me the strength to make it through the day….inhere I help people learn every day and there are days that I teach about the Lord and Savior and there is a true sense of joy….Not a day goes by that I’m not in my Bible the Word comforts my soul.”

Charles would no doubt agree with Chris Tomlin, who sings, it this way “The one who reigns forever / He is a Friend of Mine / The God of angel armies / Is always by my side.

Dear Friends in Christ,

Dad’s Complaint Department
My dad was a man of few words, but he had a habit of making every word count.  I don’t remember ever getting spanked, but I do remember him reaching for his belt and beginning to remove it and thinking to myself that I didn’t want to travel down that road.  When we kids would start to complain about how cold it was or how we really didn’t want to do our chores, he had an eleven word little saying that rings in my ears to this day, “Quit your complaining, or I’ll give you something to complain about.”

My father took no pleasure in punishing his sons and daughters.   What he took pleasure in is the same as what our Father in heaven has always took pleasure in, takes pleasure in today, and always will take pleasure in – when we say in sincere fashion that we are sorry for our sins and cry out for mercy. In our text for today, the people of Israel were complaining. Again.  They complained against God and they complained against Moses.  They complained about no food and they complained about no water and they complained about the food they did have and how they hated it so.  In a variety of ways and on multiple occasions, God had told them to quit their complaining or He would give them something to complain about.   He kept on drawing a line in the sand and telling them not to cross that line or else!   One day they collectively crossed that line one too many times.  And God gave them something to complain about. He sent fiery snakes among the complainers and they bit the people, and many of them died. And when enough people had died, they cried out for mercy. And in the moment they cried out for mercy, the angels and the archangels of heaven rejoiced.  As they do to this very day when one or more sinners quit their complaining long enough to say in sincere fashion they are sorry for their sins and ask for forgiveness.

This wasn’t the first time God would move His people from a “moaning and groaning” mode to a “Lord have mercy mode” and it wouldn’t be the last.  The entire book of Judges takes place even after the people of Israel have taken possession of the Promised Land, and they keep on forgetting how far they have come and how faithful God has been.   In their forgetfulness, they fulfill what Solomon wrote later on, “As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly. In today’s sermon, the Holy Spirit would hold a mirror in front of us to show us the ways we are repeating our foolishness.  The ways we have fallen again and again into the cycle the Israelites kept falling into - The Sin / Suffering / Supplication / Salvation Cycle.

Three truths I invite you to learn again today about what snakes God might be sending into your life as an individual and our life together as a congregation and as one nation under God.  The first lesson is that  First of all the poison still is fatal. Martin Luther writes that where the Israelites were, there is a snake that is called an asp.  When that particular snake bites a person, they swell up, and they get a fever.  The fever will get so high that their skin actually turned fiery red.  Unless the part of the body that was bitten was amputated, the fever would penetrate the whole body, and death was inevitable.

Israel was So close and yet so (far). They were so close to the Promised Land, and the poisonous attitudes which kept on getting handed down from one generation to the next kept them from entering.  They would remember how God had provided water in miraculous fashion, but as often as the water seemed far away, the poison of bitterness would rise up and rule.   They could remember how God had literally dropped manna from the sky and quail would fly low and be caught, but as often as the food seemed scarce or untasty, the poison of hatred would stand up and shout.    Their noses were close enough not once but twice to smell the land flowing with milk and honey, but out of their hearts kept on coming a spirit poisoned with pessimism and pride.  So close to the precious promises of the one true God and yet so far away from holding on tight and staying the course.

Once again God found it necessary to increase their suffering to the point where they would feel the sting of their sin.  To this very day, we need to (feel) the poison.  The kingdom of God is like a man with a drinking problem whose wife has given him second chance after second chance, but he really doesn’t feel the poison until that day where she looks at him with a righteous anger in her eyes and says, “I can’t do this anymore.  I’m done.”

It’s like a woman with an anger management problem whose husband has hung in there and stayed engaged, but she really doesn’t feel the poison until that day when he won’t look her in the eyes and he finally says, “I don’t care.  I’m done.”   

Thank God that hasn’t yet gotten to the point of not caring about us.  Thank God that He has loved us with an everlasting love, and to this very day He is rich and never stingy with His mercy.  Thank God that The antidote still is (effective).  That day in the desert, the people of Israel finally realized their sin.  All around them their friends and relatives were dying, and so they came to their senses.  Like the prodigal son who wasted his inheritance and eating with the pigs and who finally remembered how good and safe and beautiful it was in his father’s care, so also did Israelites flee for refuge to Moses and confess that they had sinned when they had complained. Two lessons we learn again about life together in God’s family.

First, Humble yourself, or be (humbled). No doubt God would prefer to teach us in the good and smooth times that He is Lord, but if we have to learn the hard way, the hard way it will be.  No doubt our Father in heaven would prefer to say, “quit your complaining, or I’ll give you something to complain about” and have us snap back to attention.   But if it’s going to take a two by four or a snake or a loved one dying to get our attention, then a two by four or a snake or a loved one dying it will be.  Whatever it takes to humble us, so that God may exalt us, so shall it be.

Secondly, and most importantly, we learn again that God’s ultimate desire is to show (mercy).  The desire of God isn’t just that we quit our complaining, it is that our sins of complaining be paid for, forgiven, sent away.  The desire of God isn’t just that we learn our lesson, it is that our diseases be healed once and for all.  Up on a pole in the middle of their camp went that snake made out of bronze.  That bronze snake itself was not the magical cure.  It was a sign of God’s promise to heal them.  Without God’s promise, that snake was ridiculous, just an inanimate object.  But because of God’s Word, it was a beautiful sign, a sign that He would hear and heal.  For about 8 centuries, Israel would carry that bronze snake around, wherever they went, polishing it, preserving it, even worshiping it until God had to command King Hezekiah to destroy it. But the day of our text, it was a sign and symbol of God’s promise to help and heal.

Our Gospel lesson for today fast forwards us 1500 years.  Where Nicodemus is wondering about the teachings of Jesus and how it might be possible to be born again.  And Jesus answers by saying that just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.  Which is to  say 1)the poison is still fatal.  2)The antidote still is effective. And 3) The look still is (required). This very day, the Spirit of God would invite you to fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of faith.  This very day, fix your eyes on the One Who can’t and won’t take His eyes off you.  Fix your eyes on the One Who refused to complain and went as a lamb to the slaughter on your behalf. 

The author Chad Bird says it this way, “With full premeditation, knowing exactly what was about to happen, he slid off his shoe, shoved his foot in the face of an uncaged snake, and let that serpent strike his heel.  Not only that he held it there and let the snake strike again and again and yet again, until every drop of venom passed from that serpent into his heel, into his body.  It worked its way upward, through his calf to his thigh to his abdomen to his chest and finally to his head. His whole body pulsed with poison.  Indeed he became so fat with venom it seemed he would burst.  And just at the last moment, before death finally came, he raised his foot as high as the heavens, and slammed down his heel upon the head of the snake.  He crushed that serpentine skull beneath his stricken heel.  And his mission accomplished, he collapsed in death.  The snake slayer died, and the snake and all it poison died with him.”

The kingdom of God is like a woman whose husband with the drinking problem has driven to the brink.   She has announced her decision to be done with him.  And then she hears him that night sobbing uncontrollably. In his mind, his life is over.   He whispers to God in heaven above for forgiveness.  On the inside of his heart, a desire to change rises up and begins to rule. A new day is dawning, and somehow, in some way, by God’s grace, a marriage survives.

The kingdom of God is like a husband who doesn’t care anymore, and yet as his wife with the anger management problem fixes her eyes on Jesus, she starts to see clearly one more time. One more time she looks him in the eyes and says she is sorry.  One more time she asks for forgiveness.  One more time they get down on their knees and pray, forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Two thoughts, in closing today, by way of practical application.  What does it mean to (fix) your eyes on Jesus?  Our Shared Vision Statement answers in three ways.  It means to receive gratefully God’s good gifts in Divine Service. (repeat). It means to search eagerly Holy Scripture.  (repeat).  It means to confess humbly sin to God and to others.

Secondly, I have it on my mind to ask you to think about Finishing strong!  Eventually of course, the people of Israel did enter the Promised Land.  They did conquer their enemies by the grace of God, and there were periods of time where they lived humbly and walked by faith.  On a personal note, I’ve been talking with my financial advisor in recent weeks about the next ten or 20 or maybe even 30 years of my life and what they might look like.  He asked me to fill in an inventory about what my preferences might be and what those years might look like.  When I was 30 or 40 years old, I gave little thought to finishing strong, but at age 60 it’s different.  Our text for today invites all of us to do inventory on a regular basis.   To ask good questions like, “What kinds of snakes have been biting me lately?   Have I been feeling the poison? Have I been fixing my eyes on Jesus Christ and Him Crucified?   Am I just sort of wandering through the wilderness with no particular purpose, or am I focused on the good works God has ordained for me to do?  Am I finishing each day strong, or do most of them just sort of end with a fizzle?    Praise God with me today that He is in fact a God of new beginnings and second chances.    In Jesus’ Name.  Amen.