Sermon - Pentecost 19 - Mark 10:2-16

Pentecost 19

Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Baltimore

St. James Lutheran Church, Baltimore

October 7^th, 2012

Mark 10:2-16

Grace, mercy and peace.... Introductions, etc...

The Pharisees can't trip up Jesus. He is the one who puts men to the test, not the other way around. So here, as always, their attempts to trap and trick him fail.

But there's more to this than Jesus besting them in a theological debate. There's instruction on marriage and family. There's teaching on sin and blessing. And there's hints of a deeper reality that comes in the kingdom of God through Christ – where the marriage is forever, and the children are eternally blessed.

Their question about divorce reminds me of my 7^th grade confirmation students asking, “Is this a sin? Is that a sin?” It is the little legalist in all of us that wants to know what can we get away with? How far can I push the limits of the law, and still be good to go? Behind that is the assumption that if we simply avoid this or that, we can avoid sin and justify ourselves. If divorce is a sin, then just get divorced, and you haven't sinned. But if divorce is permitted, and all you need is a certificate, then get the paperwork and you're free and clear, right?

Wrong, according to Jesus. He takes them, and us, back to the source, the foundation of marriage – he takes them back to Eden. There, God created male and female. There, God instituted the one flesh union of marriage, and blessed it. There, and then, he established for us something that holds great blessing and something that should not be put asunder. So the question begins not with do's and don'ts, but with the free blessing of God for us. Sadly, we don't always receive God's gifts as the blessings he intends.

Jesus pulls no punches, so let's not either.  Yes, divorce is sinful. It is a painful reality in a sinful world. And it is a sin which Christians too often give a pass. “Oh they were just too different”. “They grew apart.”. “They couldn't make it work”. We treat divorce as something that just happens by chance. We say it's nobody's fault. But sinners do sinful things that lead to divorce. Jesus says it is because of hardened hearts.

And other sinners gloss it over, so as not to make anyone feel bad. But providing cover for a sin by acting like it's not a sin, is just as sinful. There's plenty of guilt to go around, and ample reason for all of us to repent.

Even for those of us “happily married”, do we honor God's gift of marriage as we should? Do wives submit to their husbands as to the Lord? Do husbands love their wives as their own bodies, nurturing and caring as we should? Do we lay down our lives for our wives? Paul's instructions for marriage in Ephesians could accuse us all. And if our marriage was compared to the scrutiny of our marriage vows, how many of us love, honor, and cherish as we should?

We all stand condemned. We all dishonor the gifts God gives. We all seek to put God's blessings asunder.

Jesus is not in the business of seeing people divided, separated, torn apart. He is about making whole, making one, reuniting and reconciling. Not only sinner to sinner, but sinner to God.

In Christ, God and man are made one – even in the person of Jesus. True God and true man – being of the substance of the Father, but conceived in the flesh of man in the womb of Mary. God and man are “joined together” in the incarnation, a not so subtle indication of his overall mission to bring God and man, once separated by sin, back together forever.

In Christ, God reconciles the world to himself. At the cross, even as his body is broken, Jesus repairs, restores, revives and renews. Even when we were enemies, outsiders, and wanted nothing to do with him, he sought us and made us his own.

We are united to him, buried with him and raised with him in Baptism. We are united with him and each other in the Holy Communion. There, we are together with angels, archangels and all the company of heaven. There, we are united in a physical but mysterious way with our Lord, with his Body and Blood.

What God has joined together, in Christ, let man not put asunder. Let man not separate. You see, for a Christian, marriage is much more than just two people who vow to be together until death. Christian marriage is a picture of the very union between Christ and his bride, the church. We are, all together, the bride of Christ. He is the ever-faithful bridegroom. We were the damsel in distress – the distress of sin and death. He is the knight in shining armor, our champion, who rescues from the dragon us and wins us a happily ever after.

And is it an accident that our text about marriage is followed by Jesus' regard for the little children? For one of the great blessings of marriage is that through the one flesh union, God brings forth new life. In the bearing of children, the two, quite literally, become one. Even as much as we are part of his bride, the church, so also are we, through Christ, children of God. And Jesus regards even little children.

I remember as a child of about 8 or 10, being given the great responsibility of ordering some lunch-meat while mom shopped for some other groceries. And so I stood at the deli counter, waiting for my turn. But the people behind the counter didn't seem to notice me, and only waited on the adults. Maybe they didn't think that I was old enough to do my own shopping. Or maybe I was just too short to see.

But Jesus regards the little ones. He has a special place in his heart for them. He touches them and blesses them, blesses even us. He gives us all blessings at the font. He brings us to himself, even when some would say the blessing isn't for children. He calls us his own, calls us by name, and commends us to the Father.

Receiving his kingdom like a little child means to receive him, Jesus, with childlike faith and trust in him to make it all right.

He brings forgiveness, for all who sin - for the divorcee and those who dishonor marriage in any way, for all those who are separated from God by our sins. He brings life to those whose lives are torn apart and in tatters. He brings salvation, renewal and reconciliation to all who receive him and look to the blessings of his cross rather than to our own devices. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one put asunder.... in Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Sermon - St. Michael and All Angels

St. Michael and All Angels (Observed)

Our Redeemer, Newark, DE

September 30^th, 2012

Grace, mercy and peace.... Introductions, etc...

Today we observe an unusual day in the church calendar, St. Michael and All Angels day. We are in some ways, perhaps well acquainted with angels. At least culturally speaking:

We have “Touched by an Angel” and “It's a wonderful life”, books and movies, and a song by Aerosmith. We have angelic precious moments figures, and a guardian angel motorist club. Angels are all around us, but just how biblical are these cultural images and uses?

Scripturally speaking, an angel is a heavenly being which speaks and acts as an agent of God. The good angels are numerous and powerful, and they are ministering servants sent to help God's people in various ways. They are not to be worshiped, nor do we become angels when we die.

But perhaps the most important thing to know about angels, is simply what the word angel means – literally, “messenger”. It's the same word which makes up the ev-angel of evangelism – the good-message or good news. Angels are messengers. And as such, it's not so important who and what they are as it is what they do and especially what they say.

Especially in the New Testament, when God's plan of salvation in Christ takes a major step forward, angels make an appearance, as if by their very presence to highlight the importance of the message: “Glory to God in the highest, for born this day to you in the city of David is the savior, Christ the Lord.” Angels minister to Jesus in the toughest moments of his work for us, in wilderness and garden. Angels bookend the empty tomb and proclaim the Easter message, “He is not here. He is risen, as he said!” And the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God will announce Christ's second coming, when all his angels accompany him, and the final victory celebration is announced.

To be sure, there are false angels, with false messages. Satan himself, a fallen angel, is the father of lies. He wants nothing more than to distort and pervert the true word of God, and turn the good news into bad news. He would tell you that your salvation isn't sure. That it depends on your own good works. And that your sins are too terrible even for God to forgive. He would pollute the Christian message with all sorts of mixed messages to unfix our eyes from Jesus. And his goal is ultimately to drive you to despair and unbelief. Preserve us from the evil foe, oh Lord! Send your angels to strengthen us, and keep us steadfast in your word.

If an angel is a messenger, and what's important is not so much the messenger, but the message, then there's another way to think of angels.

Pastors, are God's angels – his messengers, to you, his people. In fact there is some good reason to think that when John writes, in the book of Revelation, to the angels of the seven churches – he is really addressing their pastors. Now, I've known Pastor Loesch long enough to tell you that he is certainly no angel, but I also know the message he preaches is Christ crucified for sinners like you and me. I know you hear that message week in and week out, a message of Law and Gospel, sin and Grace. A message which keeps Christ always before you, and which points you to Christ's means of grace: word, baptism, supper. He is your minister, your servant, in this place, to bring you a crystal clear, life-saving, life-changing message of salvation in Christ alone.

But others need to hear this message, too. Some who live in far away places, other continents, even in Singapore. There God also sends messengers so that Christ's message can be proclaimed. The same message to people who have the same problem of sin and death. The same savior crucified and risen for all.

And you people of Our Redeemer, like all of God's people, also bear the message. You do it in a different way than a pastor or missionary or heavenly angel – but you witness and give answer for the hope that is within you. You speak a message when you confess your faith with other Christians, kneel to receive Christ's body and blood (you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes). And your actions of Christian love and service speak sometimes louder than words about the love that you have first known in Jesus. God has called you to various stations and roles in life – parent, friend, worker, citizen, spouse. In all these callings you are God's agents and messengers to bring his message and his gifts to your neighbor. In this sense, you are angelic. Thanks be to God.

But there would be no angels were it not for Christ, the chief messenger of God. The agent of creation, the living word of God, the original (though uncreated) angel. He appears in the Old Testament as the “Angel of the Lord”, and accomplishes God's purposes. In Jesus Christ, the word, the message, is made flesh and dwells among us. Thus he is both the messenger and the message, the author and fulfiller of our faith, the content and the conveyer of our salvation. It's all about Jesus. And Jesus is all about procuring and proclaiming our salvation.

What a joy to share this message with you today. What a blessing to know we believe and proclaim the same message. That together with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven... with pastors and missionaries and all the people of God on earth.... and through the blood of the one who is both messenger and message, even Jesus Christ himself, we have heard, and we believe, and we will live and praise him forever. In Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.

Sermon - Trinity 16 - Luke 7:11-17

Trinity 16

Trinity Lutheran Church, Cumberland, MD

September 23^rd, 2012

Luke 7:11-17

Grace, mercy and peace.... Introductions, etc...

At Nain, life crashes into death, and life wins.

Jesus was traveling with a crowd, who had surely seen his miracles and perhaps were impressed with his teaching. There was something special about this man from Nazareth. He was more than the usual itinerant preacher. There must have been quite the buzz, as the messianic expectations charged the air around him. Could he be the one we've been waiting for?

Then, there is, coming from the other direction, a rather different crowd. A group of mourners. A funeral procession. And while no funeral is a joyous occasion, here the sadness was especially bitter. For the man who died left his mother, a widow, behind. On top of the grief and shock of losing her son, now she had no one to take care of her. No husband, and now, no son.

And not only do these two groups meet outside the city, but the Lord of Life here meets the dead man, and calls him to life. Jesus actually touches the funeral bier, which would have made a good Jew ritually unclean. But Jesus makes the unclean clean, and Jesus makes the dead alive. Miraculously, he raises the young man from death, who sits up and begins talking (I wonder what he was saying). And Jesus gives him back to his mother. He restores what was lost. He sets all things right.

This is more than just a miracle, however. The miracles of Jesus are always teaching moments. They are calling cards that point to who he is. In this case, the people who saw the miracle began to interpret its meaning – that Jesus is a prophet, and that God has visited his people. But did they know and hear and believe the prophetic message he spoke? And did they know just how God had visited them, that this Jesus was and is God of God in the flesh of man? And did they know what his visitation would mean?

We must also read and interpret the miracles of Jesus with the rest of the New Testament in mind. We know where this story is going, and how it ends. The same Jesus who raised the little girl, the young man, and his friend Lazarus would also himself rise from the dead. We must read this miracle through the cross and empty tomb of Christ, which were soon to come.

There, Jesus, another widow's son, would be condemned to death. Then he would go with a different crowd to the outskirts of a different city – Jerusalem, accompanied by others who would weep and mourn. But even then, Jesus redirects the weeping and mourning for those who would not receive him, would not believe in him, and would ultimately be destroyed. The real power of death, the sting of death is sin... and he had come to take that sting away.

But nevertheless, Jesus meets death, in his own body, in the most personal way. At the cross, he not only touches death, but he swallows it up forever, swallows it up in victory.

One day, perhaps sooner than you think, you may be the one on the funeral bier, taking up space in the casket. Your body will rest quiet, lifeless, and mourners will gather. Death comes for all of us who sin, and we all sin. It's a reality we often put out of our minds, but sometimes it crashes into our reality with a shock and awe that leaves us speechless.

But Jesus speaks to that. He first met you, and spoke to you, when you were dead in your sins. He met you, not outside the city, but a the font of baptism. When the pastor spoke those words, and baptized you into the name of God, it's as if Jesus said to you, “arise”. There your living death of sin became the new life, the eternal life, of a child of God.

St. Paul says, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4).

And each day as we return to those waters of repentance and faith, life and death crash into each other again, and life wins. Jesus renews and forgives you, restores and revives you to live for him.

And just as Jesus touched death on the outskirts of Nain, so does he come, bodily, to touch you this day. He comes in bread and wine, with his body and blood, to touch your lips and bring you forgiveness and life.

One day, at the resurrection of the dead, Jesus will raise all those who rest in him. At the trumpet call of God, the dead in Christ will rise, in our bodies, glorified, in a resurrection like his. Then will be the ultimate fulfillment of the new life he brings. Then death will be forever cast away, along with all tears of mourning, sadness, and pain.

This is the only hope for all who walk in death. Jesus is the only one who can bring life from death. When I go to Singapore, well, I am not Jesus. But I will bring the words of Christ, the message of Christ, his Gospel. And that word is life. When I preach that word here, just as your pastor preaches it here, Jesus is again meeting sin and death with forgiveness and life, and in him, life wins. For in Christ, a prophet is truly among us. In Christ, God has visited you. In Christ, life touches death, and death is no more.

Sermon - Pentecost 16 - Mark 7:14-29

Pentecost 16

St. John's Lutheran Church, Edgerton

September 16th 2012

Mark 7:14-29

Grace and peace to you in Christ, friends in Christ...

“If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us”

“If you can! All things are possible for those who believe.”

“I believe. Help my unbelief.”

The heart of the exchange between the man whose son was beset by a demon, and the one who has authority to command unclean spirits, Jesus Christ, the Lord.

There are many ways to approach this text. We could focus on the power and authority of Jesus – which extends not only over the forces of nature, but also to things and beings supernatural. But demons are a small thing for our powerful Christ. He holds sway over death itself, because he has authority to forgive sins.

Or we could focus on the utter helplessness of the family, and how Jesus has compassion on those in trouble, and is the one, the only one, who can really help us. Other miracles echo this idea, “if you are willing, you can make me clean.” “I am willing, be clean”.

But as a pastor for 13 years, I've also come to appreciate the words of the man in this text. I've used this simple prayer of the frazzled father to comfort many Christians in doubt. For no one's faith is perfect. All are tinged with doubts and fears and, quite frankly, unbelief.

Take Peter. Witness to miracles and wonders, even to the transfiguration. He's willing to walk on the water, but wind and wave make him waver. He's ready to draw his sword and fight for Jesus, even chops off a man's ear.

But the accusation of the servant girl and the crow of the rooster cut through all his bravado, and he denies Jesus and calls down curses.

Or go back to Abraham, the paragon of faith – ready to sacrifice his son on the altar. Ready to pick up and move to a foreign land. He takes the worse land and gives the better land to his nephew, Lot. Abraham believed in God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. But even he had his moments. Oh, no, Pharaoh, don't kill me to marry my wife – she's just my sister, yeah, that's the ticket!

And then, there's you. You, the person in the pew at St. John's, here today. Now I've never met you before, but I'm fairly certain you can relate. You believe, and you need help with your unbelief.

Sure, you gather here, in faith, to hear the word of God. You listen to and regard your pastor, your God-given shepherd. He tells you about Jesus Christ, crucified for your sins, and you keep coming back to hear more. You gather at the rail here, and receive a blessed sacrament. It's the body and blood of Christ, pastor says, just like Jesus promises. And you receive it, for the forgiveness of your sins, just like Jesus promises. And this is all very good.

Someone looking at you on a Sunday morning might say, “Wow, what a wonderful Christian. What a paragon of faith! Others are sleeping in, but here you are. Others are out golfing or going to rummage sales or just catching up after a busy week, but you are a person of faith! You devote time to God! You must truly believe!”

If they only knew what sinners we Christians truly are. Show me a “good person” who doesn't sin much, and I will show you someone who's just good at hiding it. Show me a doer of good works, and I can poke holes in their motivations for doing them, and point to sinful pride when they're done. And if you tell me that a Christian is a believer, I can guarantee you that Christian, that person of faith, struggles to believe.

We all have our doubts and fears. We all have our moments. Like Peter, like Abraham, like your own pastor and this new missionary.

Often it's when your life is a mess, when the going gets tough. You may not have a demon possessed son, but you may be in the grips of some other demons. You made your bed of sin and now you have to lie in it. Or maybe it's the sinful world that has brought you trouble. Your world shatters at a sudden loss. It's hard to find God in the midst of the pain. Or you struggle to pay the bills, and wonder why God isn't helping. Isn't he listening? Doesn't he care?

Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. I believe that Jesus Christ, true God and true man, is my Lord, and has redeemed me. Help, now, my unbelief. I believe that my Lord Jesus Christ lived and died and rose for me, and that he still lives and reigns, for me, but help my unbelief. I believe that now matter how dark the day in life's daily stomp through the sewer, there is light at the end of the tunnel, and a resurrection glory awaiting, but help my unbelief.

I believe that the cross of Christ is the help that I need, the help for my suffering, the help for my sin, and the help for my unbelief. For when I look at myself, and measure my own faith and works, I will always come up short, and so will you. But faith doesn't look to ourselves. We believe in someone else – the one who has the power, the compassion, and the will to do something for us. Jesus, the one who helps us.

“If you can!” he marvels. Of course he can. All things are possible for one who believes... in Christ.

So he commands the demon to go. He simply speaks, and it is so. His authoritative word does the job. His word does what it says. His promise delivers what if offers.

So does his word help you. That word, the means of his gifts. That word, attached to water, bread, wine. That word, in which we believe, by which we receive him who comes to help and rescue and save us all. Sins forgiven. Life renewed. Freed from death and the forces of evil.

If you are like Peter, and Abraham, and all the other people of God, you can pray this prayer, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.” If your faith wavers, and it surely will, the answer isn't to look within. The solution isn't to try harder to believe. The answer is to look again to the object of your faith. To hear his word, and believe in him who can... and does help. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. In Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.

Sermon - Pentecost 14 - Mark 7:14-23

Pentecost 14

St. Paul Lutheran Church, Union Grove, WI

September 2nd, 2012

Mark 7:14–23

Grace, mercy and peace.... greetings to the people of St. Paul, etc.

Our liturgical calendar tells us it is the 14^th Sunday after Pentecost. But our unofficial secular American calendar of seemingly endless days of honor named yesterday “international bacon day”. I, myself, observed it and partook.  Fittingly ironic, perhaps, since our Gospel reading today touches on foods that weren't always permitted in the diet of God's people.

Some people, back then, were very concerned with what goes into the body – that by eating certain foods they were made unclean. And while there were the Old Testament dietary laws, these were part of a liturgical system which meant to proclaim the coming Savior. The clean and unclean laws were shadows of the deeper realities of our own uncleanness, and of the one who comes to make us all clean.

But sinners twist stuff like this, and what was meant to be a blessing to them, because another point of confusion. Now, some thought that they were just fine and dandy with God as long as they followed the cleanliness rituals. Avoid certain foods, and you're fine. The unclean food will make you unclean, so just don't eat that food.

Our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us a great deal this morning about sin. We sinners have some funny ideas about sin. You'd think we know it well, but we don't. We have a twisted view of how twisted we are. Jesus sets us straight.

Some today would simply use a different cookbook for their own self-righteousness. As long as I do A, B, and C, I am good with God. And if I avoid X, Y and Z, then I am clean and pure. It's the self-deception of a sinner who thinks that what he does or doesn't do, or avoid doing, can make himself right with God.

Jesus knocks down this flimsy house of self-justifying cards, and cuts to the heart of uncleanness. It is the heart of man that is the cradle of filth and wickedness. What comes out of you defiles you, not what goes in. The food isn't what makes you hateful and lustful and immoral. It's your heart, corrupted by sin.

And who can avoid his own heart? Who can tame his own sinful thoughts? Here, as he often does, Jesus demonstrates how hard, even impossible it is for us to behave ourselves or save ourselves. Because in our very thoughts we are defiled, unclean. And these thoughts lead to unclean words, and unclean actions. We are, quite frankly, a mess. The problem is on the inside, and it runs through and through.

So from where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord. It comes from the outside of us, from Jesus.

We need a Savior. We need someone outside of ourselves. We need external assistance. We need someone who isn't corrupted like we are. We need somewhere to look besides our own fallen flesh. We need Jesus.

Jesus comes from outside of us – from heaven's high throne – and he comes down to be one of us, incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary. He is made man. He breaks into our broken world and brings with him all the righteousness and holiness of God, for that's who he is.

And he does what we cannot do, in and of ourselves. First, he lives a holy, perfect, sinless, obedient life – following the law of God down to the last little letter. He loves God perfectly. He loves his neighbor as himself. He never has a sinful thought, word or deed. He doesn't do anything forbidden, and he leaves no good work undone. He actively fulfills the law – not for his own sake, but for ours. So that we can have a righteousness that comes from outside of us, as a pure and free gift.

And he receives what we should receive – the punishment of God. In his passive obedience, Christ humbles himself to be arrested, tried, tortured and condemned for crimes he never committed. He bears the beam of the cross, loaded with the burden of the world's sins. He marches it outside of the Holy City, so that those in his Holy Jerusalem are spared. He is made an outsider to the Father, so that we are always welcomed before God's face. And he suffers the ultimate humiliation of death, the great leveler of all men, to turn death itself inside out.

It's not what comes from within a man that saves him, but it is he, Jesus, who comes from without. Who comes from the throne of heaven. Who lives perfectly and dies perfectly, and lives eternally.

You have heard his word, and believed it. That word, which came from without. You couldn't have done it yourself. Don't we confess, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength, believe in my Lord Jesus Christ or come to him, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel..”?

It is his word of promise, that goes into your ears, and into your heart, renewing and restoring you, by the Spirit working in that word.

It is, now, what goes into a man, a Christian, that makes him clean. It is the body and blood of Christ, given and shed for you, that goes into your mouth, that forgives the mess of sin within. It is his promise, attached to external things, that goes into you, and cleanses and restores. It is Jesus, always Jesus, only Jesus from outside of you, for you, forever. In his holy name, Amen.

Sermon - Trinity 12 - Mark 7:31-37

Trinity 12

Messiah Lutheran Church, Kenosha, WI

August 26, 2012

Mark 7:31-37

Grace, mercy and peace.... greetings to the people of Messiah, etc.

Today's Gospel reading from Mark 7 relates one of the miracles of Jesus, the healing of a deaf-mute man. It happens before the “secret is out” so to speak, and so Jesus does it privately, and tells him to keep quiet about it (at least for now). The time wasn't right yet, though soon Jesus would be telling his disciples to “go and tell”.

It is, like Jesus other miracles, a “calling card”. His miracles are not why he came – but they point to him like a big flashing sign that says, “here's the Messiah”. They fulfill some of the prophecies about the Holy One of God in the midst of them, and also show Jesus' great compassion for people.

But they also teach us about the true character and nature of this Jesus. He is always giving out blessings, in word and deed, healing, forgiving, making whole.

And how precious few are the times the New Testament quotes the actual words, the vocables, of Jesus. There aren't many. “Talitha Cum” Little girl, arise. “Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani”, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And today we hear what Jesus said to the deaf man, “Ephatha”, that is, “be opened.”

The powerful word spoken by the Living Word of God, the word that does what it says, gives what it commands. The same word that spoke creation into existence – let there be light, there there be this, and that – is the word and the speaker that recreates this man's broken sense of hearing.

But the problem and the solution are deeper. Illness, disease, deafness, and death are all fruits of the same tree – wages of the same work, and that is sin. The root cause of all our suffering and trouble in life. Sin. If you are struggling with something, stressing about something, feel bad about something, if there's anything wrong in your life – you don't have to look far to see the connection to sin.

Often, it's our own sin. I cause many, maybe most of my own problems in life. And as I look in the mirror, well, St. Paul says it best – the letter kills. The letter of the law. The truth hurts. I am conceived and born in and struggle with my sin, and will until I die.

But sometimes it's the sin of the world around us, the brokenness of creation. Sometimes people are born broken, and sometimes disease takes away our health later in life, and sometimes cancer strikes even the young, bringing suffering and trouble and even death.

But sin always meets its match in Jesus Christ. Sin and its wages of death, disease, trouble, hardship, curse, brokenness, blindness, deafness – all are made right again in Jesus Christ.

For God turned a deaf ear to his own Son, suffering on the cross, “why have you forsaken me?” We know why. Your sins, mine. Jesus Christ, the savior, came not just to heal and have compassion, but to give his life as a ransom for many. He came to suffer and die to take away suffering and death. He came to defeat death once and for all.

And when Jesus was buried, God showed that his sacrifice was acceptable, and he said, “Ephatha” to the tomb, rolled away the stone, and raised Jesus to life in a glorified body. So, too, as the firstborn of the dead, will Christ speak, “Ephatha” to our graves, raise us from the dead to a glorified body, to live with him forever in righteousness and holiness.

This is the light at the end of all tunnels for the Christian. This is the promise that no matter how bad life gets here, there is a better day ahead. No matter how deaf God appears to the sounds of our cry, in Jesus Christ, he hears, and he will answer, will restore, and give us eternal blessing.

By his word, even now, he has opened your ears and your heart, his Spirit speaking that “ephatha” to bring you to faith. For spiritually we are all blind, deaf, utterly helpless, unable to see or hear or know of God on our own. But his grace and mercy come to us in a powerful word and perform a miracle – bringing faith and life where there was only sin and death.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear – and by faith you do. By faith, God gives you the ears to hear his word, the heart to believe it, the eyes to see what is unseen, and the hope to grasp his promises. He gives it in word, and in bread and wine, and in water. He gives and gives, always giving, always blessing.

He opens what is closed. This is our Jesus, opening the ears of the deaf. Opening the graves of the dead. And giving health and wholeness and life, freely and forever. In his holy name, Amen.

Sermon - Trinity 11 - Luke 18:9-14

Trinity 11

Lamb of God, Pleasant Prarie

August 19, 2012

Luke 18:9-14

Grace, mercy and peace....

Dear Christian friends from Lamb of God, what a joy to be with you this morning. Many of you know me, as our lives have touched somehow along the way. I've served as a pastor in Racine for the last 13 years, and my children have attended your school. As I look around I see many familiar and friendly faces here, and I thank you for having me here this morning. If you'd like to hear more about my new work as an LCMS missionary to Singapore, please stop by for the presentation following the service. I look forward to telling you more at that time.

You know, looking at the texts for this morning, a common thread jumps right out (as if often does in the lectionary). And that theme is this: There are two kinds of people in the world.

In the Old Testament reading, you have the contrast between Cain and Abel. Some are more like Cain. Some are more like Abel. And in our Gospel reading, we see the contrast of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. Some are more like the one than the other.

It's pretty obvious that we want to be the one kind and not the other. The contrast is instructive as we explore the different aspects of these two kinds of people.

The Pharisee – the good, upstanding, holy man. The guy who follows all the rules. A pillar of the community. A role model of decency and godliness. A man respected for his stature in all of Israel.

And then there's the Tax Collector – the symbol of all that is wrong in the Roman empire. A turncoat to his own people, notoriously corrupt, growing fat on the backs of others like a parasite on a dog's behind. You want to really insult someone, call them a tax collector. Ouch.

And when the Pharisee prays, he says what everyone thinks about the tax collector, “Lord, I thank you that I'm not like that guy over there. What a sinner he is. Blech. But me, I tithe on my income, and I fast twice a week.” Or today he might say, “I go to church every Sunday. I keep up with my offering envelopes. I pray before meals and read my bible once in a while. I don't do anything too terribly bad, and I try to be nice to people...” and the self-righteous self-deception goes on and on.

But the tax collector, he knows his hands are dirty. He prays, far away – looking down – beating his breast. The sense of sorrow and shame is palpable. Here is a man in touch with his sinfulness. And he prays, admitting and confessing it to God, even as he asks for mercy. No flowery words. No high-phalutin' mumbo jumbo. Just, “God be merciful to me, a sinner”.

And God is. Because of Jesus Christ who shed his blood for sinners and tax collectors of every kind and flavor of sin – yes, even for pharisees, yes, even for you. No matter what your sin, how small or big, how deep or dark. There is no stain so foul that the blood of Christ cannot wash it away. Christ Jesus died for sinners. Christ Jesus forgives sinners.

“God be merciful to me, a sinner”. That's the prayer of a Christian. The prayer of one who is justified. As Jesus says, only the tax collector went home justified. The pharisee, not so much. Not before God, but only in his own mind, in his own little world he had created. He didn't see any sin in himself, so what is there to forgive, anyway? He didn't need a savior.

So then there is you – and if there are two kinds of people in the world, the secret is this – you are both of these. And so am I. The Old Adam in us is a pharisee. Self-righteous and self-deluded. Every time we rationalize away our sinful actions and thoughts and words – every time we pridefully consider our own works to be worth something before God – every time we look with disdain on some other sinner, and forget about the sinner in the mirror. The pharisee in us rears his ugly head.

But what is more important about you is that you are the tax collector – every time the law of God rubs your nose in your sin. Every time you are broken down and humbled by it. And each and every you look to the cross, and the Christ, and sigh, “God have mercy on me, a sinner”.

It happens when you confess your sins corporately or individually, and the pastor announces the mercy of God on you, the sinner. It happens when you gather and kneel and confess at the rail that this bread and wine is not simply bread and wine, but it is the body and blood of the God who has mercy on sinners.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. By Christ, the righteous judge who will have none of that self righteousness. The self-righteous man will finally be found un-righteous, unjust, and judged of the sins he never confessed nor believed were forgiven.

And everyone who humbles himself will be exalted, in Christ. Christ who regarded the lowly offering of Abel, made in faith. Christ whose mother Mary was also regarded, though a lowly handmaiden. Christ, who regards you, his lost and condemned creature, now purchased and won with his holy precious blood, and innocent suffering and death.

Christ, in his state of exaltation, will have mercy, exalt all his people at the resurrection on the last day. Even lowly tax collectors and sinners. Only lowly sinners like you and me.

Sermon - Farewell - Revelation 7:9-14

Pentecost 11

Farewell Sermon

Revelation 7:9-14

Dear Christian friends, since today is my final sermon as pastor here at Grace, I wanted to share some concluding thoughts as my ministry here comes to a close, and I begin a new phase of service to the Lord.

We've been through a lot together. I began here as a young pastor 13 years ago. When I came, as you recall, my wife Brenda was very ill, and Grace was extremely supportive as she was hospitalized, and as she returned to health. You rejoiced with us as we welcomed our three daughters into the world, and into God's kingdom through Holy Baptism.

I've baptized your children, presided at your weddings and the funerals of your loved ones. I've visited you in the hospital, and kept you in countless prayers, both in the struggles and joys of your lives.

As I've been a part of your lives, you have been a part of mine. You've seen me through some of my best and worst moments, in the hard times and the good. You've suffered through my worst sermons, and there have surely been some clunkers. You've supported me and my ministry in your midst faithfully, and I thank you.

Special thanks to Pastor Poppe, a faithful servant of Christ, in whose capable care you will continue to receive healthy doses of Jesus Christ. It's been a pleasure to serve alongside you, pastor, and I wish you the best as well.

But now it is time for me to depart from you, officially. As I serve God in a very different context, I will draw on the experiences I've gained here, and I am sure I will continue to grow. I hope above all that you consider my new calling less a matter of losing a pastor, but more like you are sending a missionary. As a new congregation is established in a new country, Grace Lutheran, Racine, will have played a huge part in it, as I will carry you all in my heart even there.

I thought of using some scriptural farewell sermon as our text today – Moses' farewell address, St. Paul's concluding remarks, or even words of Jesus saying his goodbyes. But I am not Moses or St. Paul, and I am certainly not Jesus Christ.

Instead I thought I would call your attention to one of my favorite passages of Scripture, one that has been a comfort to me as I have served here, and along with you these 13 years. It's a text I've often preached at funerals, but it also seems fitting for today. From Revelation 7:

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
(Revelation 7:9-14 ESV)

As I think back on the great multitude of people I've met and shared life with here at Grace Lutheran Church, Racine, I will remember you. And there are certain things I can say about you all.

One, you are sinners. Like me, you struggle through life with your own self-inflicted guilt and shame, bearing the burdens of suffering and sorrow that life in this broken world brings. You're not perfect people, as there is no such thing this side of heaven. And I don't expect to find perfect people where I am going.

You are sinners, but you are my kind of sinners. You are people who live repentant in your baptism, gathering here each week to receive God's Word of forgiveness, and the life-giving body and blood of Christ. You are redeemed sinners, people of the multitude pictured here in Revelation. You are among those who have washed your robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.

We live in the great tribulation, trying times for God's people. We've been through many struggles together – personal, and as a congregation. Life in this world is hard. Tears flow. Even Jesus wept. We grieve over our sins, and over the effects of sin – diseases, troubles, even death. In so many ways we are all the same... stumbling through from one crisis to another, looking for help wherever we can find it. We bear each others burdens, but that isn't enough.

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, that he gives you all good things. God sends his Son to your rescue. The Father and the Son send the Spirit to help you, comfort you, and keep you, even through the valley of the shadow of death. So fear no evil.

You are baptized. You are washed in the holy waters of his promise. You live by a daily drowning of the Old Adam, and a daily arising of the New Man. You are sealed in those waters for eternity with a promise that keeps you ever fresh and clean. A multitude of white-robed palm-branch waving, victorious people, pure and righteous and holy in Christ along.

You are beggars, as am I, who live only by the generous hand of God. He who fed the 5000 with bread and fish feeds the multitude clad in white with his own body and blood. As you gather each week at this rail and receive what is far more precious than gold or silver, know that we remain in that one holy communion of all the saints. We are one body, one holy Christian church, united in Christ alone.

And as I go forth to preach in a new land, pray with me that many more will hear of Christ crucified for sinners, and join that great multitude washed in the blood of the Lamb. For the message will be the same – Law and Gospel, Sin and Grace. Jesus Christ, who died for you and me. Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns, for you. Jesus Christ, our righteousness, our sure defense, our only hope.

And may they, too, hear and believe and join us at the marriage feast of the Lamb in his kingdom that has no end. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

Transitioning...

Dear friends and long time blog readers,

Grace and peace to you in Christ.  These are exciting times for our family, as I have accepted a call to serve as "Strategic Mission Developer" for the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.  I will be serving as missionary to Singapore, and planting a brand new congregation there.

These six months or so, from the end of my service at my congregation until our family's deployment overseas, will be spent gathering a network of supporters - both congregations and individuals.

I will be maintaining this blog, with perhaps more frequent updates, and also changing the format to reflect my new role.

Here is the link to my first newsletter:  http://www.pdfhost.net/index.php?Action=Download&File=8db8243765ed9e8b3f5f6348b0b536cc

Sermon - Pentecost 9 - Genesis 9:8-17

Pentecost 9

Genesis 9:8-17

You've probably never heard a sermon about the rainbow. You probably learned the colors in order as a child, “ROY G. BIV”. And maybe you've seen it throughout your life decorating everything from hot air balloons to scratch-n-sniff stickers. Dorothy traveled “somewhere over the rainbow”. And folk legends say that leprechauns and their pots of gold await at the rainbow's end.

Sadly, today the rainbow has been assumed as a symbol of something that is at odds with God. It has become the symbol of pride in a lifestyle that turns God's created order on its head. But we should not let this beautiful and precious symbol of God's promise go unused by us for that reason. It's is, first of all, God's symbol.

Genesis 9 takes us to the day just after the flood of Noah, when God made a covenant with the ark-builder and his sons. A one-way deal, really, more like a promise. “Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth”.

The world had become wicked. Genesis tells us the thoughts of man's heart were “only evil all the time”. One can only imagine what that means. I suspect it was a time of lawlessness and rebellion, a chaos that we can't entirely imagine. Perhaps an entire world of false worship, violence, and smut of the worst kind. Imagine Sodom and Gamorrah on steroids, everywhere. God is patient. He is slow to anger. What great evil must it have taken to actually grieve God that he had created man in the first place?

So he cleansed this wickedness, quite literally, by washing it all away. He sent a massive world-wide flood to set the clock back, and start afresh. And he wiped out all of mankind, and he did so justly. None survived the devastation but Noah and his family, that is, his three sons and all four wives. Eight souls in all.

God made war on mankind, you could say. He unleashed the fury of his creation against them. He opened the windows of the sky and the fountains of the deep. His destruction spanned the entire earth, so broad was the scope.

But now, the flood is receding. The rain stopped, the ground is drying. The slate is clean and Noah and his family are safe, ready to begin anew populating the world. The warfare of the flood is over. God sets down his bow – his weapon of war. And it's peaceful colors span the entire sky, just as his promise to never bring a world-wide flood again span all time. The face of God's anger has now turned, and he shows mercy.

The same God of both justice and mercy is our God. The same God who hated the wickedness of the world, and destroyed it, showed mercy to faithful Noah and his family, and brought them through the worst of it. The same God who brought both bad news for sinners, also brings good news for believers in his promise, through Christ.

Jesus Christ, who calms storms and walks on water. Jesus Christ, the living word, agent of God's creation, who divided sky from water on day 2, and land from water on day 3. Jesus Christ, who was baptized in the Jordan for us, turned water into wine, washed his disciples feet. As he thirsted for our salvation, he faced death on the cross, and from his pierced side came blood and water. From him springs forth the water of life, which quenches our thirst forever. Jesus Christ, in whom we are baptized, buried into death and raised to new life.

The flood of Noah, which drowned sinful humanity, pointed to the blessed flood of Holy Baptism, which drowns our sinful nature, our Old Adam. Perhaps you are familiar with this connection because of the “flood prayer” of Martin Luther, which is now included in our baptismal rite.

It's true, we need cleansing. Your sin – my sin, is just as damnable as the sin of the wicked world before the great flood. We are conceived and born in sin. We sin by our actions and inactions. We trample the commandments. We despise God and hate our neighbor. We fail to do what we ought, and we do what we ought not do. We are, of ourselves, only evil all the time. The Old Adam in us is brought forth in his father's image, a shattered image smeared with the muck of sin. Our need for cleansing, body and soul, the same. Only let us, in faith, find refuge in the blood of Christ and in our baptism, and in the mercy of the one who has set down his bow.

God will never destroy the world again with a flood. But this world will end, as Jesus warns, and it will happen soon. The ancient church fathers used the rainbow as a reminder of this warning, as the colors move from blue to red, so too the destruction of water is behind us, but the coming destruction by fire is ahead. This world will melt away. Fire will consume the wicked, when God's righteous judgment is unleashed once more on that day.

But as Noah and his family were preserved, so too will Christ preserve us on that day. For those who belong to him, whose hope is in him, there is nothing to fear from any disaster, calamity, or even the end of the world. Christ is always with us, always over us, always for us.

His cross stands as the symbol of his promise for us, that the warfare is over. This instrument of death has become our source of life. A symbol even more beautiful than the rainbow. A promise more expansive and long-standing. Never again will our sins stand against us. Never again will God hold us accountable, for Christ has paid the account in full. Never again need we fear the wrath of God, for Jesus has spoken. It is finished.

Luther writes,

Our merciful God always placed some outward and visible sign of His grace alongside the Word, so that men, reminded by the outward sign and work or Sacrament, would believe with greater assurance that God is kind and merciful. Thus after the Flood the rainbow appeared in order to serve as a convincing proof that in the future God would not give vent to His wrath against the world by a similar punishment…To us in the New Testament, Baptism and the Eucharist have been given as visible signs of grace, so that we might firmly believe that our sins have been forgiven through Christ’s suffering and that we have been redeemed by His death

Whatever clouds gather on your horizon, whatever rain and storm mark your life in these days, whatever flood waters threaten to overwhelm you.... remember the rainbow, and the promise of God's mercy. Remember your baptism, which cleanses you and connects you to Christ. And remember his cross, where eternal promises are rooted, and where divine blood was shed to seal you in them forever. And remember him as you receive his true body and blood this day, for your forgiveness and salvation.

Sermon - Pentecost 7 - July 15th, 2012

Sermon - Mark 6:1-10 - Pentecost 6

Mark 6:1-10

Pentecost 6

“The Wow Factor”

You know, I like to keep up on the lingo. Not because I'm cool at all, but I think language is fun, and I like using new expressions. One newer expression you might have heard or used is when something is said to have a “wow factor”. It's a very descriptive way of saying it – that something is astonishing or amazing, even unbelievable.

The Grand Canyon has a wow-factor. A gourmet meal might have a wow-factor. An amazing basketball shot from half-court – there's a wow-factor. But the wow-factors in the Bible are way more wow-ish.

Today's reading from Mark has a couple of wow-factor moments. Jesus goes back to his home town, Nazareth. And with Jesus, there comes a wow-factor. He was doing amazing things. Healing, casting out demons. Astonishing, so far out of the box... and even moreso, he was teaching like no one else, with a wisdom and authority that brought astonishment to his hearerhs – another wow-factor. But that's when things turn....

They did not react the way you'd expect. They did not greet him joyfully, and turn to him in faith. They didn't even show him respect. Those people from the Nazareth synagogue were astonished by Jesus, but in a very different way. Their reaction: to take offense.

“Who does this guy think he is? Come in here, doing all these miracles, teaching all these things.... where does he get all this? He's no better than we are – we know his family, he grew up right here. We know what they whisper about how Mary was already pregnant before Jospeh married her. Sure, he's always been a little different, but he's one of us, and no one special. Who does he think he is, anyway?”

They are indignant. No doubt because Jesus was clearly calling sinners to repentance, like he so often did. No doubt these old “friends and neighbors” of his didn't take kindly to him calling them out for their sin. No one likes it, really, to have our sins pointed out. People often take offense at that.

But the law offends. In fact, it kills. And it kills us, too.

But that's not the only astonishment in our reading. The next wow-factor is even more astonishing – because it is Jesus who is amazed. He “marveled because of their unbelief”. I, for one, find it pretty amazing that even Jesus is amazed.

But it is amazing that people would reject what Jesus brings. Yes, he must have showed them their sin. But surely he also held out the promise, the invitation to come to him for mercy. Like he offered living water to the woman at the well. Like he offered new birth by water and spirit to Nicodemus. Like he called his own disciples, and prostitutes and tax collectors to trust in him and follow him. Like he had compassion on so many other sinners in their weaknesses and frailties and sins.

And yet, amazingly, some would reject such a gift. Some would, and some do, even today, turn a blind eye to his salvation, and a deaf ear to his word. I'm sure Jesus is still amazed at the lack of belief in our world. At the growing godlessness of a nation too wrapped up in everything but Christ. At the number of Christians who fall away and neglect the Sabbath day. At the bibles dusty from lack of use. At the churches that sit empty, while the bars and sports stadiums expand and multiply. This world is a mess. Sin, death, and the devil are having a field day. It's really rather amazing.

But here's some more wow-factor for ya. Look at the lengths Jesus will go to bring his salvation. Not just being rejected by his hometown synagogue, but much more. He will go to the cross. He willingly, of his own accord, lays down his life. He drinks the cup of God's wrath – for sinners – for all sins of all times – wow – even your sins. And God turns his back on Jesus. Wow. How does that even happen? And then, wonder of all, God, in the person of Jesus Christ, dies. The creator dies for the creature. He dies for you. What should wow you about that is his great love, that would go so far to save you, to forgive you.

Pile on some more wow-factor with the resurrection. And the Ascension. And the promise of our own resurrection, and our own joyful life with God forever. Wow. Think of what's in store for us, and be truly amazed.

Yes, with Jesus, there's constant amazement. And while some of it is unbelief, some of it is faith. While many will reject him, thanks be to God that by the power of the Spirit, we believers receive his amazing gifts with wonder.

There are many amazing things about this faith we have received. How can God be three and one? How can Jesus be God and Man? How can we be sinners, and yet saints? How can water do such great things in Baptism? How can Jesus' body and blood be truly here in the meal for each of us? And how can he forgive even sinners like me? Who is this guy?

We know, from the word, by the Spirit, that this wisdom comes from his Father in heaven. For he is the only-begotten son. And through him, all our offenses before God are nullified. By his cross, he does amazing things. And in his gifts, we are constantly wowed.

And it's also worth nothing the last section of our reading, where Jesus sends out the 12. Who are they, of all people, but a rag tag band of fishermen and ne'er do-wells? Amazing, astonishing that he should give them authority to preach and do miracles in his name. But he does much the same today, as he sends pastors to preach and administer the sacraments in his name, and as he sends all of us in our vocations to bear his name as witnesses to the world – witnesses of the amazing, wonderful, astonishing, marvelous things we have seen and heard and received, from Jesus Christ our Lord. Wow. He calls us, but he also sends us. Just, wow.

When it comes to Jesus, our words fail. But the Gospel never does. Even if some reject it, the wow-factor of his love and mercy remain. Thanks be to God for all of this, in Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Announcement of Divine Call

I read the following letter to my congregation this morning.  I post it here for the information of all, likewise asking for your prayers during my deliberation.

My Dear Friends in Christ at Grace Lutheran, Racine,

 

I have received a divine call through the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod's Board for International Mission to serve as a Strategic Mission Developer in the South Asia region.

 

Some of the details are unclear at this point, but I would either be serving as a theological educator in Indonesia or a church-planter in Singapore . In any case, there's plenty of work to do in this region of the world, where Lutheranism faces great challenges and opportunities.

 

Over the next few weeks I will be prayerfully deliberating the call. Please keep me and my family in your prayers as we seek to discern how (and where) to best serve God in His kingdom.

 

We'll also be attending a “New Missionary Orientation” in St. Louis for the next 2 weeks. This will give us lots of information should I accept the call to serve as missionary, but is not a guarantee or commitment that I will do so.

 

I plan to announce my final decision to either accept or decline this call on Sunday, July 29^th.

 

We welcome any questions you have about the process, the possibilities, and the details of the opportunity which is before us. But most of all we ask your prayers for us – that God would grant us wisdom toward our decision, and peace with whatever the outcome may be.

Sermon - John 3:1-17 - Holy Trinity

John 3:1-17

Holy Trinity Sunday

I don't know about you but I have really been enjoying these readings from the Gospel of John this past month or so. John has a way of getting at the mysteries of God in a simple but profound way. Here, on Trinity Sunday, we again hear from John – relating a conversation with Nicodemus, who comes to Jesus one night.

Nicodemus was a pharisee, a teacher of Israel, a religious authority of his day. We don't know exactly why he came to Jesus at night, but it was likely out of some sort of embarrassment, so as not to be seen by his peers. At this point, it doesn't appear Nicodemus has come to faith in Christ. Later in John 7, he appears, defending Jesus from the other Pharisees, who wished to arrest Jesus without a fair hearing. And finally we see Nicodemus at the death of Jesus, with Joseph of Arimathea, bringing spices to honor our Lord in burial. Joseeph is said to be a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, and it seems by that point Nicodemus was in the same vein.

Perhaps it was this nighttime conversation with Jesus in John 3 that sets Nicodemus down that road. And so today we can sit with the teacher of Israel at the feet of the greatest Teacher. Today we too, ponder the mysteries of a God who so loved the world that he sends his only Son. And on this Trinity Sunday, we can also see in Jesus' teaching the importance of our Triune God's work in and among his people.

The Father creates us, gives us our flesh. From the world we inhabit to the air we breathe to the lungs that inhale it, we owe our existence to the Father, the creator of all things visible and invisible. But here is where we have a problem, too, for the flesh he created, we corrupted. We are born, but born into sin. Flesh gives birth to flesh. Sinful Adam brings for a son in his own sinful image, and so on and son on, right down to Nicodemus, and to you and me. We are outside the kingdom of God, outsiders from our very Father in heaven. Sin separates, perverts, and kills. Creation is broken, and death reigns in each of us. The world is a mess. The world is perishing. But the Father loves the world, and so sends his Son.

You know this, because you live in the world. You know this because you, too, participate in the sins you've inherited from Adam. You know well the Father of lies, who reigns in this world, and gleefully cheers you on to sin. You know well the burden and confusion sin brings. You confess it each week as we gather in this place. A poor, miserable sinner, sinning in thought, word and deed. You are just as much a part of the world as the next sinner. Just as much in need of a savior. Don't be fooled by thinking that “sinner” always means some other sinner, or even the rest of the world. When the word speaks of sin, it always speaks of me, of you.

“For God so loved the world” isn't “for God loved the world SO much”, but “This is how God loved the world.... In this way God loved the world.... that he sent his Son”. Jesus is not just the expression of how much God loves us, but he is the very way that God loves us. He is the expression of God's love for a fallen world. And there is no other way to the Father's love.

To receive it, Jesus says, to enter this kingdom of the Father, we must be born again. Nicodemus takes this literally. But others miss the point, too, making such born-again-ness into a work you can do. How many times have other Christians asked, “brother, are you born again?” And a Lutheran doesn't know what to say. Or a survey asks us to check a box, “born-again Christian” and we bite our lip, wondering. What they often mean is a conversion experience, a watershed moment in which we make a decision or commitment to turn to God. Pray a certain prayer, feel a certain feeling... and make the appropriate testimony of such. Oh and then be baptized to show it.

But this gets it wrong. We must listen closely to what Jesus says. “Be born”. It's passive language. And isn't birth always passive? What child decided to be born from his mother's womb, anyway? So too with Baptism. A gift received from God. A washing of sins that God does to you and for you. A rebirth of renewal in the Holy Spirit, that God provides and enacts and initiates. This is the “born again-ness” that we Lutherans confess, and receive. Are you born again? Yes, in baptism. The free gift of God in Christ.

How can a man do this? How can a man enter into his mother's womb and be born again? Of course he can't. Even more impossible is that he can be freed from sin and made wholly clean and perfect before God. Of course he can't, on his own. But with God all things are possible. And in baptism, that's just what he does.

And we are baptized in the name of the Trinue God. The only God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is a great mystery. But like all the other mysteries of our faith, it is not to be fully understood but simply received and confessed, believed and cherished. I can't explain it to you. I can only say what Scripture says. God is three in one, and one in three. But his three-ness and his one-ness is for you. And you bear his triune name upon you – sealed by water, word, and Spirit. And in this name you have eternal life.

The Catechism explains that our Baptism is also a daily rebirth –

“It signifies that the old Adam in us should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die with all sins and evil lusts, and, again, a new man daily come forth and arise; who shall live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

Where is this written?--Answer.

St. Paul says in Romans, chapter 6: We are buried with Christ by Baptism into death, that, like as He was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

By the work of the Holy Spirit, who creates faith and works in Baptism, we receive the “goods” of Christ's death and resurrection. For the Son of Man, Jesus, was lifted up. He was sent so that the whoever believes would not perish but have eternal life. He is the one who comes from Heaven, the only one with the credentials to know all about salvation and to actually accomplish it for all. Yes, for all. No matter your origin or your sins along the way. No matter whether you are a teacher of Israel or a prostitute, a tax collector or pharisee. Young or old, wise or fool. There's plenty of room at the feet of the rabbai and at the font of rebirth. So live in your baptism, you sinners, reborn. And live in Christ and his Spirit, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.

Sermon - Pentecost Sunday - Ezekiel 37:1-14

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Sunday of Pentecost

A blessed Pentecost Sunday to you. Today is an important day in the church calendar, perhaps the third most important. After Easter (including Holy Week), and Christmas, the Sunday of Pentecost is one of the chief festivals we observe each year.

Some have said that Good Friday and Easter, as a unit, especially correspond to the work of the Son, Jesus Christ. And that Christmas corresponds to the work of the Father, who sent his Son into the flesh. But Pentecost is certainly the day in which we highlight the work of the Holy Spirit.

It was on the first Christian Pentecost that the Spirit was poured out on the believers, empowering them to speak the Gospel in languages they never learned. And so it is also considered the birthday of the Christian Church, a major turning point in the New Testament, and in God's plan for his people.

We learn from God's Word that the Holy Spirit is a person, like the Father and Son, of the Godhead. He is associated with the forgiveness of sins, the creation of faith, and the calling and gathering of the church. He is sent by the Father and the Son as a helper, comforter, and to bring light or understanding. He is, in a way, mysterious, like the wind – you can't see him but you can see his working. But the Spirit's work is not apart from the Word and Sacraments. He doesn't simply work in us, out of the blue, apart from these promised means of grace.

And as we get toward our text from Ezekiel, we can see one more aspect of the Spirit's work: He is the Lord and Giver of Life, as we confess in the Nicene Creed. Yes, the word, “Spirit” means wind, or breath – and the same Spirit who breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life, the same Spirit who will breathe into our flesh the breath of eternal life on the last day, is the same Spirit here pictured in Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones.

Take a look at that valley with Ezekiel. A vast army of dead, very dead people. Not freshly slain soldiers, among whom you might find some living but injured survivors. No they are quite dead. Not merely dead, but really most sincerely dead. Dead and decayed, just bones left, and dry ones at that. They are not even close to alive.

Kind of like you, in your sins. In fact, just like you, in your sins. Sometimes visions like this paint an even truer picture of reality than our eyes do. Just like the Israelites of Ezekiel's day were a hopeless and defeated nation with no life left in them, exiled to Babylon, powerless, hopeless, as good as dead. So are you, and so is every sinner, who may look alive but is very much dead in sin.

That valley of dry bones is the human condition apart from God. Just as dead and hopeless. Just as far from life and breath as anything. Might as well be a rock or some dirt. Your everyday experience tells you you're alive and just fine. But God's word shows the true reality. Sin brings death. It clings to us. It infects every part of us. We are dead men and women walking. Because we are sinners who sin daily and sin much. And no matter how hard the skeleton tries, it can't come to life. No matter how hard, you, the sinner, try, you can't come to life. What we need is a miracle. A divine intervention.

And God is in the business of doing just that. From death he brings life. From the cross, first and foremost. There in the hopeless, helpless, death of Jesus on the cross, he brings help and hope and life to all people. There in the valley of the shadow of death, Jesus dies to bring the light that chases away death forever. And as his dead flesh would rise to life again, so does he bring life to dead sinners who die in him.

Ezekiel's vision wasn't without hope, because he had God's word. The prophet spoke, by God's command and promise, to the wind, that is, the Spirit. Who came and brought life to those lifeless bones. Just as the pastor speaks the word of God to lifeless sinners, and the Spirit works through that word to bring life to you again. The valley of dry bones is a vision of how God works in all times and places, bringing life to the dead, through word and spirit, because of the life from the dead won by his Son at the cross.

As a pastor, I could look out on you, the people in my care, and see a pile of bones – sinners who are hopeless and struggling with all their own faults and failings, grieved by the sorrows of living in a world where death reigns. You tell me your troubles, and I listen, but I usually can't do anything much about it. It's like Ezekiel looking at a femur and a skull. The troubles can be so much. And I am just a man.

But I have one thing for you, and it is enough. Not my word, but his. Now hear this, you dried up and dried out dead people: Jesus Christ has died and Jesus Christ lives and Jesus Christ promises you new life. So hear the Gospel, now, and live! Hear the life-giving word of the Spirit, who creates life where there was only death. Hear the life-renewing hope and the sin-forgiving declaration. You are not dead. You are not lost. You are forgiven. You are in Christ, and Christ is alive. So, too, do you live through him!

You are baptized. There you first rose from the death of sin to new life in Christ. And one day your flesh will die, only to rise again because of the promise of Christ. The fanciful picture of dry bones coming back together, and breathing the breath of life again – is not so fanciful compared to the promise of the last day. That at the trumpet call of God the dead in Christ will rise and meet him face to face, in a glorified body, and see him as he is, being like him. This is our hope. This is our destiny.

Son of man, can these bones live? Yes. Can Christ conquer death and live? Yes. Can he, does he, promise the same for you? Yes. So believe it, and live in him always. Amen.