Given and Forgiven
Luke 17:11-19 // Deuteronomy 8:1-10 // Philippians 4:6-20 Grace, mercy, and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our sermon text for today is Luke 17:11-19, and our theme is Given and Forgiven. Dear friends in Christ, There is a man not too far away from here having a really bad day, the kind of day where everything is going just about as wrong as it ever could. His wife left him without a word. The job that he loves has still left him lonely. He’s getting sick and has no one to take care of him. The laundry still needs to be done. The groceries need to be gotten, the house needs to be cleaned. The Word of God doesn’t seem to be speaking to him today, and even if it did, he knows it would be hard for him to hear. So, how do you suppose that he could say “Thanks be to God?” Not too far away from him is a woman whose first inclination is to let the few bad things in her life color all of the good. She is well-paid for her work; she has a husband that loves her; she has friends and coworkers that care for her, but it always seems like she finds something wrong with the way the world is. She knows she’s blessed, but why can’t the thing that she wants just be the way that she wants it? She finds herself often upset about things that she knows do not matter much. So, how do you suppose she could say, “Thanks be to God?” Not too far away from her is a family that gets knocked down again and again. It seems that every time they get back up again, something lands another blow. Problems always seem to be coming and coming, and yet, you would never know that if you went to their home. Though everything that they are going through would be overwhelming, there is a peace about their home. You might know a family or two like this. Though every problem threatens to bowl them over, there is a stillness in the way they are. How do you suppose they are able to say, “Thanks be to God?” Today’s text before us is Luke 17, a traditional text for Thanksgiving Day. Jesus heals 10 lepers, and one comes back to return thanks. Now, before we get to the text, let me say the same thing that I said on Sunday morning: remember as we read that we get the benefit of a narrator. We get the benefit of knowing where this story is going and how it’s going to end, but to really understand what these lepers were going through, we have to imagine what it would be like to be them. They were living out their fate. They were kicked out of the city for their own good and the good of those who loved them. You see if they stayed in the city, there was the chance that they could infect all kinds of others and that a whole city could be wiped out. And so, they are sent out. Sent away from loved ones, from those that they care for and who care for them. Sent away, one can imagine with no hope of return. Have you ever been in a place like that? I think of myself, in Seminary school, coming to grips with the fact that I may never find the Laura Anna Elizabeth Smith of my heart, and coming to grips with the thought that I might be single for the rest of my days. I think of Marcia Schultz, grappling for a few days with the idea that she may never walk or talk again, even though now we know that she is walking and talking and making unbelievable strides. I think of cancer patient that knows he will always be prone to recurrence. I think of the diabetic that knows she can never go back to the way life was. I think of the widow and the widower, staring into the grave of their loved one knowing life will never be the same. These lepers have been confronted with this disease for life. That’s a bad day. Now resist the urge just to think at this point “Well, my bad days aren’t that bad so I can slog it through.” No, that’s not the message of the text. The lepers cry out to Jesus. Jesus hears their request. He gives them what they are asking. They all value what they are given. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t have set out for the temple. And then you get to the point of the text. The Samaritan, the one who had no business knowing better.... he’s the one who did know better, and returned to Jesus. He fell at Jesus’s feet and worshipped – that’s the word “to prostrate, to put your face on the ground” – he worshipped Jesus as God. He thanked Jesus for temporal gifts, for the gift he was given, but then he did something more: he thanked Jesus for doing what only God can do, for being the giver of eternal gifts, for the gift of being forgiven. You see, because those lepers would have to deal with their own mortality once again someday. They would grow sick and old and die, even though Jesus healed them of their disease. The temporal blessings, as good as they can be, are temporal. But eternal blessings are eternal. They are the blessings of forgiveness and salvation, of peace and grace come through the death and resurrection of Jesus. So, we return to our original question. How are you supposed to say, “Thanks be to God?” I don’t have a succinct little answer for you, but I do have a story. I have a pastor friend, a guy that I played basketball with and went to Seminary School with. He was born with a hole in his heart, had emergency surgery in the first days of his life. He would get winded pretty easily and take breaks. He had thyroid cancer right when he graduated and started his ministry. He posted this on FB the other day: Garen Pay: “For four years I got the joy of celebrating being cancer free. Unfortunately I can’t do that this year. It seems that it’s back. While not definitive, I’d appreciate any prayers and support while we do more tests and work to beat “just” thyroid cancer.” And in response to the prayers and comments he received: “Thanks, everyone, for all your support and prayers - it means a lot. It's never fun to hear bad news, but that doesn't mean there isn't good news - Jesus still lives, so we will be just fine. Thanks again.” Now resist the urge just to think at this point “Well, that guy’s having a really bad day. My days aren’t that bad so I can slog it through.” No, that’s not the message of the text. The message is that the good news is as good as it’s ever been. Jesus who died for you is Jesus who is raised for you. The Samaritan leper knew it; my friend knows it; you know it. And the point of our coming together is to say it and know it and rehearse it again and again and again, so that it deepens and widens with every time, with every joy, with every tear, with every ache, with every circumstance. Jesus still lives, so we will be just fine. Thanks be to God. Amen and amen.
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Heaven on Earth: Benediction Numbers 6:22-27 / Acts 8:1-8 / Mark 16:14-20 November 10 and 11, 2018 Sixth in a Series of Sermons The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron and his sons saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. So shall they put my Name upon the people of Israel and I will bless them. Dear Christian Friends, Going back 8 weeks into warm September, we have offered two stages of our Annual theme, HEROES, HEaven Reaching Out through Every Saint. In stage 1 we walked through parts of the book of Daniel to see how Heaven has been reaching out through Daniel and his friends, in their exile, in a time and a place when their faith looks very different from the culture around them. And today, we are finishing Stage 2, a six- part sermon series where we have been asking, “How does heaven reach out to us? How does heaven break in tour lives? And the answer has been that it breaks into our lives in the Divine Service, in this pattern and order of liturgy that we do week after week, year after year. The words we say and the actions we take here are important; they are to be a pattern that orders our actions on every other day. I direct your attention to the sanctuary screen as we focus on the final words of our Divine Service, the Benediction. One question today – how does the Benediction shape us to go back into the world as the “loved and sent” people of God? Two answers we glean from selected lessons for today. Our first reading is the Aaronic benediction itself, recorded by Moses in the Book of Numbers, the second is a little snapshot of the first century and much loved people of God being scattered out of Jerusalem, suffering great persecution, and the third reading is Jesus giving final instructions to his much loved first disciples who were to go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel to all creation.
If it is true that there are no atheists in foxholes, then 4 million American solders were sent away from the comforts of home into the military with God’s peace. We don’t really know how many soldiers enjoyed the peace of God that only Jesus Christ can give, but we do know that over 116,000 of our soldiers died in WWI due to all causes, mainly combat and much illness including a deadly influenza outbreak. Today we think about what it looks like when God’s people are gathered into His sanctuary to receive this peace of God which surpasses all human understanding and then are sent scattered out into the world to give away what they have again and again received. The benediction isn’t just a pray for good times, it’s not just a wish that life goes well, it is the very word of the Triune God conveying what they say. First of all, the peace that only Jesus can give is A wholeness that rejoices in the sign of the (holy cross) In today’s first lesson, God commanded Moses to speak in no uncertain terms to his brother Aaron and sons. They were to put the name of the one true God on their hearts and minds and souls. These people were to know again and again that God was watching over and keeping them safe, they were to know again and again that God’s face was shining upon them and their sins were forgiven, they were to live their lives knowing again and again that as a grandpa’s face lights up whenever a grandchild says I’m sorry, so does God’s face light up every time his children repent of their sins. The peace of God isn’t just an absence of war, it’s not just an armistice signed in ink, it’s a prophecy fulfilled signed with the very blood of Jesus Christ. The peace of God is first of all a wholeness that rejoices in the simple fact that the sign of the cross has been placed both on our forehead and on our hearts in Baptism. Second, the peace that only Jesus can give is A fulness that endures (days of trouble). In the first century early Christians saw on the one hand Jesus getting crucified and Stephen getting stoned to death, but on the other hand they believed in the resurrection of the dead, and so they could endure. On the one hand they heard reports of Saul and the other Pharisees dragging church members into prison, but on the other hand they believed the truths that set them free, and so they could endure. On the one hand, they saw fierce and increasing persecution, but on the other hand they saw Philip driving out demons and healing the paralyzed, the preachers were preaching and the Spirit of God was moving and so they were doing more than surviving, Luke records there was much joy in that city. Third, God’s peace is A calmness that keeps on going even when (frightened). After all these disciples had been through with Jesus, imagine them giving them final instructions before he ascends into heaven. Imagine Jesus looking them in the eyes and inviting, “Believe in me, dear friends and salvation is yours. Believe in me, and your sins are forgiven. Believe in me, and you’ll be able to cast out demons and speak in tongues. Believe in me, and you’ll be able to pick up serpents with your hands and drink deadly poison and not be harmed (at which point I would have been thinking “no thanks, I’m out of here!” Believe in me and as you go out and about, near and far proclaiming the Good News, be still, stay calm, and know that God is God, I am with you and will never be far away. Which brings us to our final reminder of what it means to be loved and sent, loved and sent. First, we are sent with God’s peace, a peace that surpasses human circumstances, and Second, we are sent with (God’s purposes) It seems as though there two basic approaches to life, we can live for ourselves or we can live for a cause greater than ourselves. President Obama spoke about service to country in this way, “It’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential and discover the role that yo7u’ll play in writing the next great chapter in the American story.” John McCain, who knew something about war and sacrifice as a prisoner of war, “Sacrifice for a cause greater than self interest, and you will be investing your life with the eminence of that cause. Of course John F Kennedy urged Americans to ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. Jesus would look us in the eyes today and say don’t just be contented to be receiving grace and mercy and peace into your souls, be asking yourself how you can hitch your wagon to a cause so much bigger than yourself, be asking yourself how you can be going into the world and proclaiming the Gospel to the whole creation, be asking yourself how you can get more and more of this forgiveness of sins and more of the peace only God can give and then how can this grace and mercy and peace be bubbling over into the lives of others? The kingdom of God is like a large church in a small town where more and more of God’s people have desire, they have joy, and they have confidence. And not just a little bit of desire, joy, and confidence. No, they have great desire, they have contagious joy, and they have life changing confidence. First, they have great desire to forgive as they were first (forgiven). The kingdom of God is like married couple who is gathered into God’s house Sunday after Sunday, and just before they leave, the Benediction is like music to their souls. They go home determined to let bygones be bygones, they are passionate about apologizing, they enjoy one new beginning after another. Second, they have a contagious joy that looks towards the (future). The kingdom of God is like a young mom again and again is gathered into God’s house, and just before she leaves, the Benediction is like music to her ears. Every night she tucks her kids into bed with a prayer that God’s angels would be watching over her children, even though her days are hectic and her duties are draining and her challenges are many, she always seems to have a quiet kind of happiness, has figured out what it means to live a day at a time, what it means to do what she can and then trust that God will be working things out all the way into paradise. Third, they have A life changing confidence in a cause much bigger than (ourselves). The kingdom of God is like church leaders who again and again are gathered into the sanctuary, and just before they leave, the Benediction is like music to their souls. They realize that money spent on Christian education of children is money well spent. They know that every time the waters of Baptism splash, every time God’s Word is preached and taught and listened to, every time Holy Communion is received, the Spirit of God is moving and He is active and they believe with all of their hearts that as often as the Spirit of God is moving and active, that often a cause much bigger than themselves is advancing. Heaven on Earth: Service of the Sacrament Fifth sermon in a series of six Revelation 7:9-17 // 1 John 3:1-3 Grace, mercy, and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You’ll notice that I’m not in the pulpit today, and that’s because today we meditate on the Service of the Sacrament, the second high point in the Divine Service. Our sermon pursues the first two texts read, especially these words from 1 John 3, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” Dear friends in Christ, We are five sermons into a series on the liturgy, asking why we do what we do, what it means to worship the way that we do, how the liturgy is supposed to form not just this hour but every hour, every day, every year of our lives. And to that end, we study the Service of the Sacrament. I would invite you to turn your eyes to the screen. Two questions that we would ask of our texts today: First, how does the Sacrament form us? Second, how are we formed by the way our congregation does this Sacrament?
Our first question is “How does the Sacrament form us?” and the answer is that it forms us by drawing us into the great tapestry of the biblical narrative. Let me explain. About two years ago, there was a woman Bridget McCarthy, who knocked on the door of my office, way down the hall. The reason she knocked on my door was that Pastor Griffin was out that day. She went to the multipurpose office and no one was there either. And so, she made it all the way down to me in my little cave of solitude down here, and she stood darkening the doorframe of my office to say, “Are you a pastor?” “Yes” “I’ve got one thing to say to you.” “What’s that?” “Thank you. Your church didn’t know it, but you helped me when I needed it.” You see, ten years before that, while I was either finishing up high school or starting college, Bridget’s life was falling apart. She had become addicted to meth and was keeping her life together until the lies, the chemicals all got to be too much for her family and her life. Her life blew apart. Her secret got uncovered; her kids were taken away. And that’s when our story came together with hers. She would come to the Foodshelf. We would help her with utilities, all helping her to limp along until it got to be too much for her; she moved away; we lost track of her. And for ten years, that’s all we know. And for most of our stories, that’s all we’ll ever know. It can feel like the time we spent was wasted, like the money we gave just went down the rabbit hole. Except that this time, we know the end of the story. This time, we can see the threads of the biblical narrative coming together in her life. I got to hear about how our efforts had been compounded by so much more, how the God who had helped her through our hands had been following her around with goodness and mercy for all the length of her days through churches and Christians in many places. Though our part in her story was small, God had woven her story and ours into a story much larger than we get to see. And that’s what we see in 1 John 3. Beloved, what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears, we will be like him, because we will see him as he is. Can you hear the echoes of Genesis chapter 1? God creates Adam and Eve to be like him – to be his image, to bear his likeness and protect and guard all the earth as God would protect and guard. And then we hear chapter three... do you remember the lie of the devil? “You will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Not like God in the way that God has created you to be but like God in another way. And then we get to 1 John 3, that the promise of salvation can be characterized like this: When Jesus who is God comes down as the Immanuel, to be God with us, then we become like him, when we see him as he is. This great biblical narrative is all drawn into the body and blood of the God with us, too eat and to drink so that we might be swept up into the story of God saving his people. Question number two: How are we formed by the way our congregation does this Sacrament? Our altar was built in 1923 at the same time when our church was constructed. It’s communion rails are worn smooth by tens of thousands of people kneeling hundreds of thousands of times before their God to ask forgiveness. Four, five, six generations of church-goers all pouring out the same sins, the same inadequacies, realizing that the same faults have always and inevitably kept them from a God who loves them. Now, look to your right and to your left. You will notice that the rail extends both ways until it reaches the back of the altar. This is intentional, to show that the rail extends out around the world and more than that, to remind us that we are eating and drinking with all the saints that have gone on before us, that I eat with my Grandma Utech, that I am celebrating with my Grandpa Muther, all those loved ones who died in the faith. They are feasting with you, under the Lamb. Here is the picture of Revelation 7, where all nations and tribes and languages and peoples are gathered underneath of the throne, singing praises to our God, among the angels and archangels, washed clean by the blood of the Lamb. And you can’t help but let your eyes look up from the communion rail to draw your eyes heavenward. You see next the carved statue of Jesus, with angels on the right and on the left. With his outstretched arms, he sends out his angels to guard and protect his people. His angels are with you. He sends them, for your sake, to stand at your side, so that you are never alone. If you can, take a closer look at the statue. You can see in Christ’s outstretched hands the nail-marks of the cross. Christ could have healed himself of these things. It is his glorious body that we see depicted. And yet. And yet on his hands we see the wounds by which we are healed. And yet we see that he will bear his sacrifice for us through eternity. And your eyes are drawn up even further. Above Christ’s head, among the three gothic spires, you can see a crown, reminding us that Christ who descended into hell, who rose from the grave, who ascended into heaven, is the same Christ that will one day come again, to deliver his people once and for all. It reminds us of our sure and certain hope that Christ has not abandoned his people but will come back in order to make all things right. And above that on the topmost spire, coming through the crown we find another cross. Because even in his glorified body, Christ still bears the wounds that heal us. In his crown, we find the cross glorified even more. Our altar raises our gaze until the ceiling, where you can find the marks of the Trinity. First, the sacrificial lamb, representing Jesus, who carries a slender cross that has been made into a banner of victory. The tool of his defeat has now become the symbol of victory. The weakness of death has been swallowed up by God’s strength. Let the cross be our glory. And to the left, you can see the hand that represents the Father. It is the hand that formed man from the dust of the ground, the hand that sent his son on the earth, and the hand that will one day recreate all things to heal a broken creation. And to the right, you can see the pure white dove, the symbol of the Spirit who comes down at the behest of the father and the son to call, gather, enlighten and sanctify the whole Christian Church on earth. Because God does not only send his angels to guard and keep us; God himself is by your side, leading, guarding, and keeping his people. I want to conclude with a story, about a woman from our congregation who was facing some surgery. At least from what she told me it was a major surgery, the kind where they had to make an incision from the front, scoop out all of her organs and fuse her spine before putting everything back and closing her up. She said that she only had a 50% chance of surviving the surgery and the recovery, so she called and asked if she could have communion, and I went over there as quick as I could. We celebrated the forgiveness of sins by eating and drinking the body and blood of Jesus in with and under the bread and the wine. And then there was a little pause – there’s always a little pause after you do that – until she broke the silence with something I don’t think I’ll ever forget. She said, “Pastor, don’t get me wrong, your sermons are fine.... but there is something unspeakably good about the Sacrament. It means more to me every time I take it.” There is something unspeakably good about the peace that surpasses your understanding as it surpasses your understanding. There is something unspeakably good about being drawn into the divine narrative of God restoring all creation. There is something mysterious and enormous about eating and drinking for the forgiveness of sins, for a godly strength, for an unearthly grace. There is something unspeakably good about the Sacrament, because our God is unspeakably good. Amen and amen. Heaven on Earth: Offering
October 27 and 28, 2018 Reformation Sunday Romans 12:1-8 / Mark 10: 17-27 Micah 6:6-8 – With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Dear Christian Friends, We are four sermons into a series of six on our liturgy. We’re asking why we do what we do, what it means to worship the way that we do, how the liturgy is supposed to form not just this hour but every hour, every day, every year of our lives. And to that end, we study the portion of our liturgy known as the Offertory, that time of the service where we receive the offering and say our prayers. I direct your eyes to the sanctuary screen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgX9UAaYB80&feature=youtu.be (Story of a friend of mine, I’ll call him Karl.) He finds himself in all kinds of trouble these days – financial trouble, relationship trouble, legal trouble. Much of his trouble is self- inflicted, he’s made all kinds of mistakes, fallen into all kinds of foolish habits, he would not deny it. In a recent conversation, I learned that his mother died holding him at age 7 in her arms, his dad really hasn’t been a part of his life, one of his grandmas stepped up as best she could, he was pretty much on his own at age 16. I came away from this conversation with my heart breaking for the road Micah has had to travel and my mind racing through all of the blessings and advantages I have enjoyed in days gone by and in these days. One of the most important differences between Karl and me is that my parents took me to church every Sunday morning and his parents didn’t. Divine Services page 5 and 15 out of the Lutheran Hymnal, 1941 edition formed me, not so with Karl. My parents made sure I learned how to confess my sins instead of explaining, they insisted that I sit still and listen to the appointed readings and the sermon every Sunday, I watched as they put in a church envelope week after week, I endured the long prayers of my faithful Pastor Dierks again and again, not so with Karl. You may remember that in last weekend’s study of the Service of the Word, the question was “how does the Service of the Word form us?” Answer #1 was that Christ is our down arrow. In other words, it is Christ who is pursuing us in the Service of the Word, it is His Word that is making us clean again and again, it is His Spirit who is grabbing ahold of us in a regular way and correcting and instructing us. Answer number two was that our response ought to be “thanks be to God.” Usually when preachers start talking about the Christian response to all of the grace and the mercy and the peace that God has poured into our hearts and souls, we imagine that here it comes, hold on to my checkbook, he’s going to be asking for my hard earned money. In our video, we made the point that our response to Christ suffering, dying, and rising again on our behalf is about so much more than giving money. In Divine Service, it’s first of all about confessing the nature of God in the Creeds. Second it’s about thanking Him with songs of praise and words of adoration. Third, it’s about praying for all kinds of people with all kinds of petitions. Fourth it’s about serving Him with our gifts of treasure, time, and talents. Confessing, thanking, praying, and serving. These are today’s answer’s to last week’s question – what does it look like when we spend our days saying “Thanks be to God!” Paul answers that question in our Epistle lesson for today by inviting us to present our bodies as living sacrifices to God. In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus answered by telling the rich young man to keep the commandments. When the rich young knucklehead said he had already done that, Jesus said, then go sell all that you have and give to the poor. The prophet Micah first tells us what it doesn’t mean. He says it doesn’t mean that you try to earn God’s favor by coming before him with burnt offerings, it doesn’t mean you try to deserve God’s mercy by sacrificing thousands of rams or giving ten thousand rivers of oil, it doesn’t mean, as some pagans thought, that you sacrifice your firstborn child to the gods. No, spending our days saying thanks be to God, according to Micah, means that we do justice, it means that we love kindness, it means that we walk humbly. First, it means to do (justice) To do justice means to act according to God’s standards of justice. Which is another way of saying to live according to God’s commands. If you love me, Jesus, says, keep my commands. If you love me, make sure the widows and the orphans in your midst are provided for and protected. If you love me, don’t be using my name in vain. If you love me, bring an offering and come into my sanctuary and worship my name with a sincere heart. We would keep God’s commandments not as a way of earning the love of Jesus, but because He loved us first. Christianity 101, right? The kingdom of God is like a woman who keeps on confessing her belief that Jesus loves her, even though her world is crumbling all around her. It’s like an elderly woman who is grateful for her family even though they have disappointed her in so many ways. It’s like a citizen who prays for his president even though he strongly dislikes him. It’s like a volunteer who keeps on giving and serving at the church even though he wonders if anybody appreciates him. Again we ask, well how do we spend our days saying “thanks be to God? First it means to do justice, and Second, it means to love (kindness). In this school year, our faculty is studying a book with the title “You Are What You Love.” The author’s premise is that the most important question of life is this one, “What do you love?” Keep that in mind as we think about what Micah meant when he urges us to love kindness. Another translation would be to love mercy. From beginning to end of Scripture, this is God’s great desire – to have mercy on sinners. Beginning with the first promise of the Savior to Adam and Eve to the mysterious visions of Revelation, it’s all about Jesus, every single prescribed sacrifice in the Old Testament pointed forward to Jesus, and every properly written and delivered sermon in the New Testament Church directs the hearer back to Jesus. Listen carefully dear people of God, when Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem, he was fixing his eyes on us. His mission in life was to suffer all that we should have suffered, his dream was to grow up and to be crucified until he was dead and buried on our behalf. His joy was, is, and ever shall be that our sins would be washed away, that the wrath of His Father would be satisfied once and for all, that our debt would be cancelled, that we would in face inherit eternal life. To love kindness is to spend our days being patient with each other as our Father in heaven has been patient with us, it is to go looking for people to forgive, as we have been first forgiven, it is to find good reason every day to be cheerful instead of walking around with a chip on our shoulders. Christianity 101, right? The kingdom of God is like a man who keeps on confessing God’s goodness, even though bad people in his workplace seem to be prospering. It’s like a teenager who is grateful for her home life even though school these days is a disaster, it’s like parents who keep on praying for their adult children to come back to church, it’s like a young mother who keeps on serving and cleaning up after her family, even though their attitudes leave much to be desired. What does it mean to spend our days being formed by Divine Service on Sunday morning and saying thanks be to God all week long? First, it means to do justice, second it means to love mercy, and Third, it means to walk (humbly). God pleasing humility is found only in the presence of a holy and just God. When we see ourselves as God sees us, we notice that we are sinners deserving temporal death and eternal punishment, we know that we came from dust and will return to dust, we know that apart from Christ, we are as a mist here today and gone tomorrow, we daily sin much and are delighted that God isn’t giving us what we have coming. On this Reformation Sunday, churches all over the world are focused on the simple truth that we are saved by the grace of God alone, through faith in Jesus Christ alone. The older he got, the more Luther was certain that we can do absolutely nothing to merit God’s favor. At one point he summarized the Christian life as “mere beggars telling other beggars where to find bread.” In his last moments, Luther was asked by his friend Justus Jonas, “Do you want to die standing firm on Christ and the doctrine you have taught?” He answered emphatically, “Yes!” Luther’s last words were: “We are beggars. This is true.” Christianity 101, right? The kingdom of God is like a man who wakes up in the morning, he slowly makes his way to the mirror, he makes the sign of the cross, he confesses the simple truth that he has been baptized into the Name of the Triune God, he is ever so grateful to remember that he is a precious, redeemed, forgiven son of his father in heaven, he prays that God would show him that very day how to do justice, he prays that God’s Spirit would work him in the kind of faith that loves mercy, he prays that God would help him, as his father used to say, not to get too big for his britches. Heaven on Earth: Service of the Word Third sermon in a series of six Isaiah 55:6-11 // Romans 10:14-17 // Luke 19:1-10 Grace, mercy, and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You’ll notice that I’m in the pulpit today, and that’s because today we meditate on the Service of the Word, the first high point in the Divine Service. Our sermon pursues all three texts read, especially these words from Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Dear friends in Christ, We are three sermons into a series on the liturgy, asking why we do what we do, what it means to worship the way that we do, how the liturgy is supposed to form not just this hour but every hour, every day, every year of our lives. And to that end, we study the Service of the Word. I would invite you to turn your eyes to the screen. One question for our meditation today, two answers. The question we ask of the Divine Service is this: How does the Service of the Word form us? What kind of a pattern is it supposed to make in our lives?
Answer number one for today is that Christ is our down arrow. Answer number two is that our response ought to be “Thanks be to God.” Christ is the down arrow – he’s God in pursuit of us. That’s what we find in Luke 19. Christ comes to Zaccheus. He pursues him. He invites himself into the man’s house, and then he declares, “The Son of Man came for the purpose of seeking and saving those who are losing themselves to ruin.” This distinguishes Christianity among world religions. In no other religion but Christianity does God humble himself in order to die for our sins, so that he can pursue the world’s people with his gifts of salvation. In no other religion but Christianity does God wrap us in the robe of his righteousness, for the sake of the blood he shed while we were still sinners. The kingdom of heaven is like a large church in a small town full of folks that are purused by their savior. Their salvation is wholly in his hands, and they rest in his amazing grace. It’s like a mother and a father who could be all kinds of worried about how their kids will grow up, but they know that their children are children of the heavenly father, who neither slumbers nor sleeps. It’s like a bunch of 7thand 8thgraders that are learning again how their God has spent all that only God can spend to purchase and win them from all that can truly hurt them. Christ is the down arrow; he’s God in pursuit of us. Our response is “Thanks be to God.” That is to say, in every and any circumstance, find a way to be grateful. I think about this in Isaiah 55 – those beautiful words of promise, that as the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return to it before they water the earth making bread for the eater and seed for the sower, so shall my word be – this is God talking here – that comes out of my mouth, and here’s the promise God’s make: it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. So, the question is, “What is the purpose of God’s word?” Much of the time when confronted by questions like this, I need to use the theologian’s primary answer: “I don't know.” But for this question, we know well: the purpose of God is that which has revealed as his purpose, as his essence, as his chief quality: his desire to have mercy. All his Scripture as written to that end. All of his work in the world is to that end. All that our God does to bring this age to a close is so that all would see his mercy. The trouble, of course, is that there are so many places where that mercy seems very far off, so many times when it seems impossible for us to know what God’s purpose is, let alone to say, “Thanks be to God.” And one of those places was the Siberian prison camp in communist Russia. I want to read you a story, from a priest who died last year. “Father Placid, a 100-year-old Hungarian priest, a ... happy, gentle man [that] had spent 10 years of his life beaten, starved, and forced into hard labor in an inhumane Siberian prison camp.” What did he do to survive? Four things: 1. Don't complain. It makes things worse. Philippians 2:14-16 2. Find reasons to rejoice (an extra piece of potato in your thin soup; a guard who doesn’t make you remove your hat in the icy wind). Philippians 4:4-9 3. Remember you're never alone. Jesus is with you. Hebrews 13:5 4. Show the guards you're different because of your faith. Matthew 5:16 These principles can help us think and act like Christians whatever our circumstances, freeing us from all types of "prisons." Thank-you, Father Placid!” The kingdom of heaven is like a large church in a small town full of folks that know their salvation is won by the merit of Jesus alone. They know that this truth doesn't change, and every week they come back again and again to remember it again. The kingdom of heaven is like a man having a really bad day, the kind of day where everything is going just about as wrong as it ever could, and still it has been his habit to be grateful from the good, to be seeking out when and how to say, “Thanks be to God.” It’s like a woman who’s first inclination is to let the few bad things in her life color all of the good, but then she steps back, she remembers how her savior has served her, and she can let everything be whatever it is. It’s like farmers and city folk, young and old, clean cut and shaggy, suits and blue jeans, police and felons all coming into the same sanctuary to hear the same word, to respond the same way and to know that the same savior knows them better than they know themselves, the same savior has paid more than they can imagine for them, the same savior has given them a love that surpasses their understanding. Thanks be to God. Amen and Amen. |
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October 2022
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