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Ephesians 2:4-9 But because of His great love for us, God made us alive in Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved… that in the coming ages God might show the incomparable richness of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved though faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works so that no one can boast. See if you can tell the companies who have claimed the following titles: have it your way [Burger King]; the choice of a new generation [Pepsi]; built like a rock [Chevy]. Each of those is what the sponsors want you to identify with. It is their reputation, their signature, their trademark. Did you know that the Lutheran church has a trademark too? It is found in three Latin expressions: Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Sola Scriptura. Can you guess what those mean? Sola means alone (solo). Scriptura is easy, Scripture. Fide is familiar with the marine slogan, semper (always) fi (faithful). Faith. Gratia is pretty easy too; Grace. Those are the three hallmarks of the Lutheran church. The most precious gift God gives, which St. Paul tries to emphasize, is undeserved love shown in Jesus. Jesus died on the cross to pay for your sins. He died to pay for everyone’s sins. He gave his life that we might live. The master died for the servants. Let me give you an example of that: In the movie, The last Emperor, we get a little taste of grace. The young emperor had a thousand servants to care for his every need. Once, his brother asked him, “What happens when you do wrong?” The reply was, “ Someone else is punished for me.” To demonstrate, the young emperor deliberately broke a large jar. One of his servants was beaten for it. In Christian theology, Jesus reversed that pattern. When the servants sinned, Jesus was punished. Grace is free, only because the giver himself has borne the cost. God rejoices when a sinner repents. Not because the world’s problems have been solved, not because pain has ended, not because there will be no more sin in the future. God rejoices because one of his children who was lost has been found. That’s why Jesus told so many stories about things being lost: the lost son, the lost coin, the lost sheep. Each of them demonstrates grace. God seeks the straying, the wayward. He does it because of his great love! He told of lost people, like Saul (Paul), Matthew, Zaccheus and more who were on the road to Hell. They were saved not because they deserved it, but because of God’s grace. In the Gospels, St. John frequently refers to himself as “the one whom Jesus loved.” If John were asked what his primary identity in life would be, he would not reply ‘I am a disciple, or son of Zebedee or author of a couple books of the Bible.' He would reply, “I am the one Jesus loved”. What would it mean in your life if that was your primary identity? How different we would view our days if we thought of ourselves as ‘the one whom Jesus graced (loved)’. Take the example of a peasant was praying in church. The priest noticed his piety and commented how close the man must be to God. He looked up and replied, “Yes, he’s very fond of me”. Oh, to have that spirit. Grace is not a work we do but a gift we receive. We cannot merit God’s love. We are blessed by God’s love. Even when we were spiritual corpses, unable to help ourselves in the least, God made us alive again in Baptism in Jesus. He made us born again. He washed away the grime of sin and gave us new holy clothing. We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus. He made grace come to us. He lifted us up when we needed it. He loved the unlovable. Now, let me give you an example of that. Let me tell you about a pro-lifer who acted in grace. This lady manned a midwestern pregnancy-counseling center. Abortion activists often picketed the center. One cold Saturday when they were picketing, she went out, bought four dozen donuts and coffee—and offered it to the protesters. She said that though they disagreed strongly about abortion, she still respected them as people. Some mumbled thanks, though most refused (perhaps thinking she had poisoned the snack). That’s grace! |
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JOSEPH: Am
I in the Place of God? Genesis 34 & 50
Joseph had to trust God to help him deal with all the issues that challenged him. Remember how we talked about his spoiled childhood, his brothers’ hatred and murderous plot, his imprisonment after a false rape allegation?! God had always worked it out for his good as the Psalmist would later write. Joseph was now in prison. Two fellow prisoners had unusual re-occurring dreams. God gave Joseph the ability to interpret the dreams. The Butler was restored to the Pharaoh’s service, the baker was executed, (there was no candlestick maker). It happened just as Joseph had said. The butler remembered Joseph three years later cuz Pharaoh had dreams which ‘disturbed the whole kingdom’. Pharaoh dreamed that seven fat cows came out of the Nile river; shortly after, seven skinny, scrawny cows came out and ate the fat cows. After he went back to sleep, Pharaoh dreamed that seven luscious, full ears of corn grew on a stalk. Then, seven scraggly, ugly ears appeared and ate the good ears. None of the Egyptians could interpret. But Joseph could—and he did. The seven good cows and ears of corn were seven good years of plenty. However, they would be followed by seven horrible years of drought (we know what that is, don’t we?). The drought would be so bad that many people would die. Joseph advised Pharaoh to appoint a wise man to manage the good crops so that enough would be set aside for the bad years. Guess who Pharaoh appointed? Joseph remained humble and faithful, despite his meteoric rise to fame and power. He gave credit where the credit was due—to God. “Do not interpretations belong to God?” Only God could foretell the future; not magicians, not fortune tellers. (I hope none of you is foolish enough waste your money on palm-readers etc. They are only charlatans at best and Satan’s tools at worst.) Joseph was content no matter what the circumstances. When he was dirt poor in prison or top of the heap as Grand Vizier. He knew God was with him, would take care of him and meet all his needs. Can we make the same claim? Certainly! God loves us no less than Joseph. He will meet all our needs too. He asks us to be content. And where we live, that certainly is a warning well worth heeding. How easy it is to be tempted by materialsim. Look at all the BMWs running around (Julie & I have a matching set at home). Look at all the multi-million dollar houses on the hills overlooking 680. God may indeed give you blessings like those; but no matter what you have—BMWs or beat-up Chevys—God urges us to be content. St. Paul wrote, “ I have learned the secret of being content in every and any circumstance; whether well-fed or hungry, whether slave or free.” That secret was trust in God. There was a story of an island ruler who wanted his people to be content. He was getting old and soon someone else would be ruler. So, he chose three men and gave them one final test. They were to swim over to a nearby island on which lay a beached treasure ship. (The natives had been forbidden to go there.) They were to bring back as much gold as would make the ruler happy. Off they went. One only stayed long enough to fill his pockets with a few gold coins. The next filled his pockets to the brim. The last not only filled his pockets, but brought sacks along to tie around his waist. The first man brought his few coins before the ruler, who was well pleased. The man with the sacks sank 100 yards off shore and drowned. The second man was about to drown when the first man ran back into the water, threw most of the coins into the water and pulled the exhausted man back to safety. Who do you think got the job? I was visiting a lady in a nursing home when she told me two bits of advice I will never forget (and I hope you won’t either). We were talking about temptation. She told me, “The best way to avoid temptation is this: ‘When Satan knocks at the door of your heart, simply say to Jesus, Would you get that for me please?’” Words to remember! Joseph would not forget the Lord, nor being content, nor forgiving. As our narrative picks up, Joseph’s brothers came to buy food in the 2nd year of the drought. They did not recognize Joseph, since he was only 17 when they sold him. He was now 37, dressed, talked and acted like an Egyptian. They were pretty certain their brother was either dead or in chains somewhere. But Joseph sure recognized them! Can you imagine the first thought that probably came into his mind? He may have begun to rub his hands together and begun to think the words ‘what goes around comes around’. But Joseph would not act on those sinful thoughts. Quickly, he remembered that God had a plan in all that had happened. He would later say, “You intended it to harm me, but God planned it for good, the saving of many people.” That same lady I referred to a moment ago had another wise saying when we are tempted to become angry. When you are tempted to become angry, simply ask Jesus to put His arm around your shoulder and His hand over your mouth. Isn’t that so true? Joseph got rid of his anger and devised a plan to see if his brothers had changed. He interrogated them about their family. He sold them the grain but put their money back in their sacks. When the grain ran out, they had to go back again. Joseph accused them of being thieves. To prove their veracity, he asked them to bring back with them Benjamin, the other son of Jacob & Rachel. This was difficult. They had to promise their father that if they didn’t bring Ben back, Jacob could execute their sons. Joseph again pulled his trick of hiding his silver goblet in Ben’s sack. When the brothers were pursued by the Egyptians, they couldn’t believe the cup was found in Ben’s sack. They offered themselves as slaves or whatever to Joseph instead. He now knew they had really changed. Then, at a special banquet where they were arranged in birth order, he made himself and his forgiveness known to them. Even though they were terrified, Joseph spoke kindly to them and assured them that he had forgiven them. Joseph could do this cuz he believed in God who is the very essence of forgiveness. Every Sunday we ask the same thing in the Lord’s Prayer. “And Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Are those only words? I pray not. Jesus forgave all of our sins, the biggest garbage dump ever. He died on the cross to pay for our sins, not His. He rose again to assure us of that all our wrongs were eradicated. He has a place in Heaven for those who repent and believe in Him. Can we forgive like Jesus and Joseph did? We sure can! Now, some people might not like to hear this, but there is no sin that cannot be forgiven. Remember at the start of the sermon how we talked about forgiving being an act of faith which gives up its right to revenge and lets God deal with it? Isn’t that true? I was watching one of the court TV shows. A man had brutally murdered the wife of a pastor. He, on TV, said that he could never forgive the man. Now I know that my first reaction too would be, ‘give me five minutes alone with him, just five minutes’. But God’s love and grace in us has to overcome our hurt and anger. It has too. If we want to be like Jesus, God has to help us overcome those feelings. If there is someone you haven’t forgiven, pray about it to God. He will help you to do it. In WW II, after the attack on Pearl Harbor led by Suzu Fujita (sp?), the American people needed a moral boost. So, Jimmy DoLittle led 18 B-17 bombers off the Hornet (which we saw last Saturday) in a raid on Tokyo. Although it inflicted little physical damage, it boosted the Americans and disillusioned the Japanese. Two planes were shot down over Tokyo. Three of the eight prisoners were executed immediately. Two of the remaining five died from beatings/starvation. Of the three that survived, one was a man named Joe McEnright (sp?). He went home, became a pastor and was led to believe that God wanted him to evangelize the Japanese—the very people who mercilessly abused him. He went. It was very slow going at first. Then one day, McEnright met Fujita. McEnright’s forgiveness so impressed Fujita that he became a Christian. So did thousands more who had a great respect for Fujita. So, what do we learn from Joseph? Contentment, Patience and Forgiveness. Let’s live like he did. |
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That reminded me of Joseph’s coat of many colors. Except this time, the coat’s colors do not stand for jobs, but for characteristics. For example, a person is said to be green with ______. Envy. When someone is called yellow, he is a _____. Coward. When you are red in the face, you are ______. Angry/mad. When a person is said to be true blue, he is ________. Faithful/loyal. Well see all these colors in our story today. Do you remember from last week how I told you how Joseph’s father, Jacob, was the world’s worst parent? He had married four ladies, had kids with each, but clearly loved Joseph more cuz he was the son of his favorite wife, Rachel. Joseph’s coat could be compared to this modern analogy: Joseph got a pair of Nike Air-Jordan’s at about what $150 a pair, while his brothers all got Pro-wings at $19.95 a pair. Needless to say, Joseph’s coat made his brothers quite envious of him. As if that weren’t enough, Joseph didn’t have to do the chores like they did. He got to be almost like their foreman. But the straw which broke the camel’s back, was when Joseph told them about a dream that he had. In this dream, Joseph’s sheaf of wheat stood up and the brothers’ sheaves all bowed down to Joseph’s. You can almost hear them muttering, “Why that little punk. I wanna break his neck. Bow down to him, Never!” Joseph lacked tack. God certainly gave him this dream, but Joseph could have been much more discreet in announcing it. Aren’t we guilty of lacking tact sometimes?! We say things we shouldn’t, even if they may be true, and end up hurting someone’s feelings. Just the other day I was over at Jenni’s old school talking with her old coach. The 7th grade coach walked in with his 7th grade son. We talked a little about the season and the father then said, “Yeh, Scott (the son) will never be a great player. He’s too slow and not smart enough.” I was appalled! I said, “You’ll show ‘em won’t you Scott.” I tried to give the Dad a way to undo the harm he was doing. But the Dad replied, “He can’t change. It’s from his mother’s side.” Wasn’t that terrible? He had no idea how much harm he was doing. Each of us needs to constantly be aware of what we are saying so we don’t hurt someone else, even unintentionally. I’ve heard people criticize others’ clothes or hair style or features. I’ve heard good Christians gossiping about others. As St. Paul said, “My brothers, this should not be!” Please be careful what you say about someone else and think how that could make them feel. They may not sell you into slavery over it, but you will be sinning against your brother. Envy
and anger led Joseph’s brothers to sell him into slavery after they had
torn up his precious jacket and stained it with goat’s blood. The twin green & red monsters had terrible
effect, leading brothers to sell their own flesh & blood as a slave. Envy though has a price. At
first it felt good to get even with Joseph. But
later they were seized with guilt and remorse. They
were like the snail who was proud of his biggest-of-all shell. He strutted his stuff—until he saw a lobster. He would give anything to have a shell like
that. One day the lobster left it behind,
so the snail moved in. He could not move
the shell, but that didn’t stop him from perching boldly in it. The next day he was dead.
The shell was so big, it could not keep him warm. Envy kills. Even though the brothers intended harm to Joseph, God used their yellow cowardice and treachery to accomplish his purpose of getting Joseph to Egypt where he would later become grand vizier. But before his coronation occurred, Joseph first experienced another incident we need to talk about. Joseph was sold to Potiphar, what we would call the general in the army. Now, remember, that God was always with Joseph. No matter what it seemed like on the outside, God had a plan and it was for the good of Joseph and all people. Joseph knew this and that’s why he never left God. His own brothers sold him, his father spoiled him and in a moment we’re going to see how the lady of the house falsely accused Joseph of rape. No one would blame Joseph if he got angry at God; if he shook his fist in the air and said, “Is this what I get for being faithful? Is this what You let happen to your child?” But Joseph knew such thinking was not only futile, but false and even blasphemous. Joseph was true blue. He was faithful and he was patient. He was like the airline pilot who had to trust his instruments going through a storm. If he depended on his own senses, the plane would have crashed. But because he depended on his instruments, everyone was safe. The same is true when we rely on God, the perfect instrument. His Word and commands will never lead us into danger but always out of danger. We simply have to trust him and rely on him. Ps. 34:19 reminds us all, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” God was with Joseph. We read that the Lord prospered Joseph in everything he did. In record time, Joseph became the overseer of everything the general had. He was the plant manager. The plant was running like the well-oiled machine. UNTIL. Until the general’s wife noticed how handsome Joseph was. She wanted Joseph to have an affair with her. All the servants were sent to the back 40. No one was home except those two. No one would know—except God. Knowing the 6th Commandment [You shall not commit adultery], Joseph refused the advances of this would-be mistress. I love his response. He said “How can I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?!” God came first for Joseph. Not his sinful desires, not the will of a beautiful woman, not cheap thrill of an immoral fling. God came first. The lesson for us is more than obvious. God gave sex as a wonderful gift when used as He intends it—inside the boundary of marriage. Outside that sphere, it is sinful and wrong. TV is a good example of how sexually obsessed we have become. This week, there’s even going to be a Victoria Secret show on! That doesn’t even count the many dirty magazines and x-rated movies around. Can believers be tempted to sexual sins? Certainly they can and are. I’ve actually had a Christian man in a private counseling session tell me that “God and I have an understanding” and therefore his affair with his secretary was OK since God understood his needs. In NO WAY was that true. A Christian pastor was asked by an atheist how he could say that his morality was better than the playboy lifestyle the atheist advocated. His reply was a classic. “When my ‘repressive' values were in vogue, we didn’t have 1.3 million teenage pregnancies annually; or 2/3rds black children born out of wedlock who never or barely know their fathers. We didn’t have half of all girls between 12 and 17 sexually active or one third of children under 16 growing up in single parent homes. We didn’t have multi-generation families on welfare or half of all marriages ending in divorce. We didn’t see the explosion of AIDS and other sexual diseases. Ask any prison, VD clinic or Morgue—moral choices have consequences.” Pastor Don Feder. Or,
let me give an example of how Satan tempts Christians too. Of the last
eight marriages I have performed, six have lived
together first. Five of those six grew up
in Christian homes! [In case you were
wondering, when I counsel them I have them promise God that they will
abstain from then until the ceremony.] Please dear friends, take my (and God’s) advice. If you are single, save yourself for marriage. I guarantee you will not regret it. If you have already fallen into this sin, repent and look to Jesus for forgiveness of all your sins. He died for sexual sins too. Ask God to keep you pure from this time on. If you are married, cherish love and respect your spouse the way God intended. Let your spouse know how much you love him/her. Never let the thought of an affair (or divorce) linger even for a moment in your mind. Remember Joseph’s words, “How could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” Joseph in many ways was like Jesus. Both were ‘well-loved’ by their father. Both were hated by their brothers. Both were sold out by ones close to them. Both their enemies thought they had won. Both seemed to be deserted by God (but neither ever was). And most of all, both saved the world and became rulers. Joseph saved the world from starvation and death. Jesus saved the world from sin and eternal death. Joseph ruled on an earthly throne; Jesus rules eternally in Heaven with all the colors of the rainbow. <>So what do we learn from Joseph? Avoiding Envy & Anger; Embracing Trust, Purity and Patience. |
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Jeremiah 31:1–4 "At that time" declares the Lord, " I will be the God of all the clans of Israel and they will be my people. The people who survive the sward will find favor in the desert; I will come to give rest to Israel." The Lord appeared to us in the past saying, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you loving kindness. I will build you up again O virgin Israel. You will go out to dance with the joyful." It was Christmas Day. But this Christmas was different. Madeline, Maddy, and her pappa, Joe were celebrating their first Christmas without Joe's wife who had died a few months earlier of a rare blood disease. Pappa was determined to make Christmas as normal as possible. The three of them had loved to dance together. Every Christmas day before all the relatives arrived they put on a special song and danced together. Maddy loved that dance even more than her presents. So Joe, pressed the play button and said, "Come dance with Pappa!" Pappa was there for Maddy. She was loved. Things would be OK. What a comfort and assurance that was for this 6 year old. Pappa would keep her safe. Isn't that the same thing that God was saying to the Israelites in the reading above? They were in captivity. Things were rough for them. But the prophet Jeremiah reminded the people of God's love. How comforting those words must have been, "The Lord appeared to us in the past saying I have loved you with an everlasting love!: What joy there is in knowing God's love does not change and is never withdrawn. His everlasting love supercedes all things. In our world, friends get mad at each other and don't speak, or spouses "fall out of love" with each other. But God doesn't change. Israel was reminded of that fact. They will be OK. Just like the parent who is there to assure his child that there are no monsters under the bed, Jesus tells us that He has defeated Satan. Heaven is ours by faith in Him! As Maddy grew up, things began to change. Try as he would, Joe had a hard time knowing what to do with a female. He could relate to boys, but make-up, hair-styling, skirt-lenths, and body-piercing were uncharted territory for him. Soon Maddy began to think she knew more than her loving Pappa. They started drifting apart, and she began to resent his attempts to reign her in. And when she entered high school, well, that really set the 'terrible teens' into action. Soon the only time they really related to each other was when they had their Christmas dance together. And when 17 year old Maddy started hanging out with the 21 year old down the street, things really deteriorated. He made her feel grown-up and important, an adult. And she started doing adult things with this young man, who was known to the police on a first name basis––and not in the good way! When Maddy didn't come home one night, Joe stormed over to the young man's house and demanded that they never see each other again. Maddy screamed back at him that Joe was ruining her life, to leave her alone, and with all the venom she could muster, "I hate you!!!" That same day Maddy and the Boyfriend went down to the bus-stop and bought a one way ticket east. When Joe found out he went searching for Maddy. He found out that the bus they took went east toward Texas, but that's all he could gather. He took the next bus and begged strangers at every stok to look at Maddy's picture and tell him if they had seen her. One person thought that they probably got off in Albuquerque. Joe spent nerly a week searching for them, but had to return home empty. What a long, sad trip home it was! How did the Israelites drift apart from God? They were His chosen people! They were the carriers of the promise of the Messiah, the one who would come to take away the sins of the world! How did they; how could they drift apart from God? Notice how God says in our reading that He 'will be' the God of the Israelites. The verb form used denotes that this was true in the past, is now and would be in the future. The verb used with the Israelites only states a future action. They had left God, like Maddy left her loving father Joe. They had found the temptations of the world more desirable than the ways of God, just like Eve did in the Garden of Eden. They had, as the Bible describes, "prostituted themselves after foreign gods." They didn't know what they were missing, or maybe didn't care! How do people togay drift apart from God? I don't think anyone wakes up in the morning and says, "I think I'll drift from God today." Separation happens when things/people/ideas/stresses/temptations/pride (pick any or all of the above) gets between God and us. I have long lamented the fact that nearly half the kids who are confirmed as youth will fall away by the time they reach 21. How does it happen? When people think that they know more than God, that His commandments are out of touch and not realistic, when their own desires conflict with God's, people often follow their sinful hearts. It seems so good. As some have said, "How can it be so wrong if it feels so right?" It is wrong because God said it is and He is always proven correct. Have you drifted? Come back again. Know someone else who has? Encourage them to return to the Shepherd of their souls. God, like Joe, still seeks his straying ones. He "leaves the 99 sheep in the pen and goes to seek that which was lost." He still loves sinners. It matters not how often we sin or how bad the sin. God still loves us and will forgive us. His everlasting love has no bounds. Maddy and her boyfriend, Jason, moved in with his cousin, sharing a one bedroom apartment. That was OK for a while, but soon the cousin got tired of the arrangement and told them to move out. Neither had found a job yet. What were they to do? Well, Jason had gotten re-acquainted with a girl he had dated in high school there. Suddenly, Maddy was the recipient of a 'dear johnine letter'. The one who had told her how special she was, how she was the love of his life, how he would take care of her and cheriosh her, was not gone. Just after she turned 18, Maddy was all alone. Fortunately, Maddy was able to find refuge in the women's shelter. It wasn't much but it had a bed and meals. She tried to get a job, but had no experience, so that was tough and would not be enough to get her out of the shelter. One day another run-away told Maddy that she was getting her own place. "How can you afford it?" Maddy asked. "I got a job dancing" was the reply. "It's easy and you make lot of money." Maddy knew the place her friend was talking about. Maddy loved dancing but not that kind––the kind of dancing in a bar where all the patrons are men, a place where almost no father would ever want to see his daughter. It wasn't prostitution, but it wasn't far off either. With little alternatives, Maddy got a job there. She wondered how she ever got herself in such a predicament––and how she was going to get out! I'm sure we've all been in situations we wish we hadn't gotten into. We wonder how we got ourselves in so far. The Israelites did too. How could they have sunk this low? What happened to the great nation of David and Saul? Had God abandoned them? Does God abandon us in our difficult times? Our reading has the answer. "Those who survived the sword will find rest in the desert. I will come to give rest." Those who rely on God will be saved. Difficult times have the effect of helping us realize and repent of our sin and to look for help from the Lord. It is in tiems of disaster that people most easily look to God. Those who are too stubborn will perish. But those who survive the sword––who get through the tough times with God's help––will find rest from God. Jesus came to give us relief from a burden we could never unload, the crushing weight of sin and guilt. Jesus took all sins on his shoulders and carried them to the cross where He made full satisfaction in our behalf. Remember Psalm 23:4? "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me." That never changes! Are you in a tough spot? Turn it over to the Lord in prayer. After a couple of weeks at the dance club, Maddy received a hand-delivered letter. It was from her father who had hired a private detective to find his daughter. But Maddy was too ashamed to open it, so she just left it on her dressing-room table. Every day she received a letter, and every day she put it in a box unopened. It was now near Christmas. The letter that arrived on Christmas Eve was different from the rest. Not only was it heavier than before, but it had a picture of 6 year old Maddy with her pappa on the front, standing in fromt of their Christmas tree. She and Pappa were smiling and holding each other. Maddy thought back to those days. They were fun and full of love. But, she thought, Pappa could never love me now, not after he knows what I'm doing, not after I ran away from him, not after I said, I hate you. Her anger was enought to peel the paint off nearby houses, and in front of all Pappa's neighbors to boot. Then Maddy remembered the prodigal son story from the Bible. Where the young man too had run away and lived an immoral lifestyle; and when he was desperate enough to return home, his father welcomed him back. Pappa always read his Bible; maybe he would at least let her have Christmas with him. So she opened the envelop. In it was a simple three sentence letter. "I know what you're doing and I don't care. I love you! Please come home." In the letter was a one-way ticket home. Maddy got on the next bus home and rode it all night. As she rode, she opened the other letters. Each one said the same thing, "I don't care what you've done. Please come home!" The trip seemed to take forever. She didn't get there till it was almost dark. She could see the relatives inside as she knocked on the door and asked for Joe. Joe's nephew yelled for Joe to come out of the kitchen. There was someone at the door asking for him. He didn't know his own cousin who had 'aged' so much in such a short time. Joe looked through the open door and stopped. Then he turned away––to push the play button on the cassette. It began to play their favorite sone, the one they always danced to at Christmas. "Come Dane with Pappa," he whispered out, cocked with tears. Maddy rant to her Pappa. They hugged and danced like they never had before. "Welcome home my child, I always love you!" Can you see the Prodigal Son's father doing the same thing? Can you see our Heavenly Father doing the same when we come to our senses and return to Him? He too will never turn us away. He too will always love us. He too will forgive all our sing and all the hurts we've ever caused Him and others. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life! Please join us every Sunday as we dance with Pappa. Listen to the last words of our reading and take them home with you! "I will build you up again and you will go out to dance with the Joyful!" |
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[Selected verses] To keep me from becoming conceited, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. Be he said to me, “My Grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power my rest on me. For when I am weak, then I am strong. We have an expression, ‘When someone bursts your bubble.’ What does that mean? Something you thought was true, wasn’t. When some sort of thorn interrupts people’s lives, the ‘bubble’ that they had about them being the center of the universe is quickly burst. My pursuit of my happiness, of my desires, of my agenda is shattered. When any or all of the following ‘D’s occur—disruption, defeat, diagnosis, divorce, or even death-- we face the stark fact that we are neither Lord of the universe nor Lord even our own lives. It is a rude awakening. And when that happens, we wonder where to turn or maybe who to blame! It is then that God has our attention. Then we can look to what He has in mind for us. That is where our gaze should have been in the first place. We often pay lip service to listening to God. The Israelites were masters of that art. They no sooner proclaimed their undying love for God before Moses, when they made for themselves a golden bull as their ‘god’. God wants us to not only hear, but listen to and heed what he has to say. Let me give you an example of not really listening. President FDR complained to aids that in the reception lines that he frequently stood in, no one really paid attention to what he said. One day he tried an experiment. When someone greeted him, he replied, “I had my grandmother deported this morning.” People would still reply, ‘very good, Mr. President’ or ‘keep up the good work Mr. President’. Finally one man really heard what he said and replied, “well, I’m sure she had it coming.” He really listened and tried to be supportive. St. Paul, in our reading, had been given a great many gifts. He was a very successful preacher and church planter. Thousands came to faith thru his preaching. The temptation to think of himself as the one who did the converting or in whom the power lay, was great. So, God gave Paul what he described as “a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan” to keep him from becoming conceited. The idea that we are always right lies in each of our hearts, including Paul’s. He, and we, must always be on guard against the thought that we always have the best/correct idea. That each of our judgments, on people or situations, is necessarily the only right one. Adam and Eve thought they were right too, didn’t they? But it was that sin Adam & Eve committed that brought all the problems we have into the world. When God made the world was there any sickness? Sorrow? Suffering? Sadness? Selfishness? NO!! What ushered that in was our idea that we knew and know better than God. If we obeyed God’s 10 Com., how do you think your life would go? Pretty smooth and sweet, right? But when we do our own thing, that’s when we run into problems. God doesn’t say no to punish us, but to rescue us. The 10 Com. are really a series of ‘no’ answers aren’t they? You shall have NO other Gods. You shall NOT misuse the name of the Lord. Remember the Sabbath and Honor your parents. Then back to the NOTs. You shall NOT kill, NOT steal, NOT give false testimony, NOT covet. All NOs for our good. Even Jesus himself heard NO from the Father. In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus asked for what? That this cup of suffering be taken from me. How many times did He pray that? Three, just like Paul. And what was the answer He received? NO, just like Paul. God would get Him thru that too, that valley of the Shadow of Death. Isn’t that why Christ came into the world? To rescue us from ourselves, from our sin, from our eternal suffering? Jesus paid for all our sins and defeated death by His resurrection so we could enter Heaven one day by faith in Jesus. I had a salesman as a member of one of my previous churches. I asked him how he could take hearing ‘no’ all the time. He said he loved it! I was very surprised and asked him why. He replied, “I know that for every ten ‘no’ answers I get, the eleventh will be yes and I make a sale. So I figure the sooner I get the no s out of the way, the sooner I’ll make a sale.” What a good attitude to ‘no’. So when St. Paul heard ‘no’ from God, he took the same attitude. “My grace is sufficient for your.” If that was what God wanted, Paul reasoned, that’s good enough for me. We might paraphrase those words, ‘My grace is all you need’. God certainly is all we need. In fact, Paul also reminds us (by God’s direction) in Romans 5:3-5 that “We rejoice in our sufferings because suffering produces perseverance; perseverance character, and character hope. And Hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the spirit He has given us.” God in His wisdom decided he had something better in mind. We talk about that in Bible Class. God gives 3 answers to prayer: Yes, No and I’ve got something better in mind. My daughters are into country music. One of the songs I remember hearing had as its refrain, “thank God for unanswered prayers”. The singer described how in high school he wanted the homecoming queen, the most attractive girl to fall in love with him. He prayed to God about it, but she never even knew his name. He went on to marry someone else and attended his 10 year H.S. reunion. The homecoming queen was a nasty, greedy and mean lady who already had had 3 husbands. He looked at his wife and said, ‘thank God for unanswered prayers.’ God uses the avenues he sends us down to strengthen our faith and to feel for others in difficult times. Did you ever notice how comparably few wealthy people are in church on Sunday? They have all they need—at least they think so. Why should we go to church; we have a nice home, beautiful cars, all the toys and are good people to boot. What they need to realize is that they may have everything they want here, but nothing in the hereafter. When Christ comes again, they will see what a tragic mistake it was to be prepared only for this life. Jesus had the same experience with the man who had such a bountiful harvest that he had no place to put the new crops. His solution was to build bigger ones. Jesus comments that ‘this very night your soul will be required of him’ and then where would his riches be? Difficult times can make us stronger in our faith. That is the result they had for Paul. He “boasted all the more in my weakness”. He relied even more closely on the Lord’s power. He simply preached Christ crucified, as we still do today. And each of us needs to rely on God to help us thru whatever may occur in our lives, both good and bad. Remember, as St. Paul reminds us, ‘when I am weak, then I am strong. Perhaps I can demonstrate that more clearly by telling you about Roy Campanella. If you remember back to the 1950s, Roy was an all-star catcher in the major leagues. He had it all—until he had a car accident that left him paralyzed in both his legs and arms. At first, he was bitter and angry. Then a Christian friend reminded him of the verses of our reading today. He noticed other things too, as if God was calling to him directly. As we went for therapy one day he noticed a plaque he hadn’t read before. It helped him tremendously. He used it in a speech that went like this: “We quads are a rugged breed. If we weren’t, we wouldn’t be around today. In many ways we’ve been blessed by a savvy and spirit that most don’t have. It is summarized in a “creed for those who have suffered” that goes like this: I asked God for strength that I might achieve… I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey. I asked for health that I might do great things… I was given infirmity that I might do better things. I asked for riches that I might be happy… I was given poverty that I might be wise. I asked for power that I might have the praise of men… I was given weakness that I might feel the need for God. I asked for all things that I might enjoy life… I was given life that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing I asked for be everything I had hoped for. I am among men most richly blessed! In weakness we see God better; “when I am weak, then I am strong.” When God says ‘no’, we receive a different ‘yes’, His ‘yes’. |
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Job 38:1-11
Job 38:1-11 (selected verses) Then the Lord answered Job, "Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?... Where were you when I laid the earth's foundations? Tell me if you understand! Who marked off its dimensions and stretched a measuring line across? Who laid its cornerstone? Who shut up the sea behind its doors and fixed limits for it and said, 'this far you may come and no farther'?" Do you remember who Atlas was? He was the character in Greek mythology that was made to hold up the world for eternity for his arrogance and disrespect for the other Greek 'gods'. After he received his punishment and grew tired of it, do you think he said to himself, "Boy, was I wrong! I need help with this. I thought I knew better but I sure made the wrong choice. If I could do it again, I sure would do it differently"? I sure think so. So often people think they know better than everyone else. They did it their way until that didn't work. Then, they come to God. If there is a trait that is difficult to eliminate in ourselves it is the idea that we ALWAYS know what is right or best. That we have the answer, they we KNOW what we're doing and that everyone else should just go along with it or face our anger and the inevitable poor result of that obviously wrong choice or action. That's human nature isn't it? This is also why confession of sin and repentance are difficult to come by. Sometimes, in the height of arrogance, we even think we know more than God. And then we quickly are put in our place. Such is the story of our Bible lesson for today on Job. Now let me tell you a little about Job. He (and the four friends we meet in the book) is all strong believers in God. They worship regularly, they try to live as God wants them, they teach their children about the true God. They are dedicated followers. As the book begins, Satan comes to God and says that the only reason Job continues to follow you is because you have blessed him so much, that you've given him so much stuff. Job certainly was one of the wealthiest men in the region. Satan continued, "if you take all the earthly blessings away from him, Job will not only cease following you, he will curse you." God disagrees. Not to win some kind of celestial bet, but to strengthen Job's already strong faith, God allows Satan to get rid of all Job's earthly treasures--everything except to take his life. So, while all Job's kids are eating a meal together, the roof collapses and they're all killed. Enemies attack his servants and wipe them out. They then plunder all of Job's crops and animals. If that weren't enough, Job develops extremely painful boils all over his body so that he cannot eat, he cannot sleep, he cannot even sit in any sort of comfort. He is in constant pain. And the final kicker, his wife, the one who promised to love him, to cherish him, to encourage him, instead of supporting him, is so discouraged she that she tells Job to curse God and get it over with. God might as well kill us we've suffered so much! Magnify your worst day by about a thousand, and that's what Job was faced with! And how did Job deal with it? Pretty well at first. He recognized that he was in difficult straights and that God was in control. But his "friends" are what wore him out I think. They kept saying, "You've committed some horrible sin that no one except God knows about and once you confess it, this will all be over." They were under that mistaken impression that is still around today that if things go bad for you, God must be mad at you. Certainly there are "cause & effect" situations. If you abuse alcohol you will not only hurt your liver, you will hurt family relationships and, if you drive while under the influence, will probably cause an accident. We saw that in the paper Friday when the Prince & Princess from Tonga and their driver were killed in an accident where the 18 year old driver of the other vehicle was drunk. Or if you don't watch where youí'e going, you will stumble and fall. When bad things happen to good people, we want answers--ones that suit us. But what we forget is that God only allows things to happen in our lives that are for our good. He has a plan for us. The 1 Cor. passage in your bulletins says it best: "And no temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful and will not let you be tempted beyond what you're able to bear; but when you are tempted will make a way out so that you can stand up under it." God allowed Job to be tested in this way to increase Job's faith. Frequently, our sin gets us into direct trouble, but that was not the case here. I think Job's friends wore him out and led him to say what he did in questioning God's fairness. It's like your kids. When your kids do something wrong or mean, do you snap at them? rarely. But when they do it again, and again and again and again in a short period of time, you can easily lose your cool. And that's what Job did. Job's response was true. "I haven't done anything to disgrace God or myself. I have not committed any grievous sin. You are accusing me unjustly." But they kept at it and that's when Job ran into problems. We have an expression, "Oh to have the patience of Job". Well, that's not quite accurate. He did hold out for a long time, but finally Job says "If God were here right now, I could plead my case and be proved innocent. If he were here now I'd ask him to prove it. God is being unjust to me. Oh how I wish I could confront Him." That's where our reading picks up. God does answer Job. Can you imagine how Job must have felt? God thunders down from a storm and challenges him to "tell me if you understand". To speak even though he has "words without understanding." You see, in his desire to silence the friends he had fallen into the trap of putting himself over God. In effect God is saying, "If you think you know so much then tell me this." Job did not get the response he wanted. In fact, God never addresses his questions Instead of talking about God's fairness and goodness, God talks about His justice and wisdom. . Basically he says, Job, let's examine your qualification for criticizing me. Did Job think he knew more or better than God? Was Job there when God created the world? Did Job plan out this magnificent planet and all its wonderful life? God uses the terms of a building. Did Job lay the foundation of the world? Did he put up the walls? Did he level the foundation? Did he measure its length? Did he put things in just such an order that are neither too close to or too far from the sun? Did Job create the plants that give back oxygen in exchange for our carbon dioxide? Was Job an angel to watch the proceedings? The answer obviously is no. Here too we see a by-product of the main thought of Godís preservation of mankind and divine justice. We see another Biblical report of God creating the world. Did God say here or anywhere else that he just started the world and let it evolve itself? Did God say that he used a huge explosion and millions of years to create our planet? NO! He created it all, just the way it is. He did it in six days out of nothing. He put everything exactly where he wanted it to be. Everything was done to God's precise measurements and directions. Is God reliable? Can He and His word be trusted? If so, He made the world and preserves it. Those who foolishly seek other ways not only will never find the answers they want, they argue with God. Do people, created beings, have the knowledge and right to tell God He's wrong?! Note too how God talks about controlling the mighty waters. Water covers 75% of our planet. If you think water doesn't have power, ask the people in New Orleans, or ask the people in Napa where the Russian River overflowed its banks last spring, or ask the people in Noah's day when the waters covered the entire earth during the days of the great flood. And who put and puts limits on the water? God. He penned it in. He set its limits. He said, "this far and no farther." He controls our world. And if God is love--and he certainly is--can we be confident that even the "bad things" in life will work out for out good? Yes we can. Let me give you an example. If Dakota's teacher told her the capitol of Venezuela is Caracas, would you believe her? Certainly (or at least till you get to Google to find out for sure). I love the first graders in my wife's class at school. She hears regularly from parents how, when they try to help their kids with their homework, that "Mrs. Mueller doesn't do it that way." There is the definite implication that their parents are wrong. Mrs. Mueller is almost next to god with them, they trust her so much. Wouldn't we do well to imitate that trust in the only God? Wouldn't we do well to recognize that He does have a plan for us, that he will be with us "even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death" like Job was in our reading? Can't we rely on him forever? Again, you can guess the answer. Hasn't Jesus said over and over in the Bible that he will never leave us, that he has redeemed us, that he always loves us, and that He will guide us? Can we be confident then? We certainly can! Even in tough times, when things aren't going the way we want them. God had a plan for Job and He has one for us. Let me give you an illustration. If my car is falling apart (and I can't fix it), who am I going to take it to? My mechanic of course. And if my life is falling apart, who should I go to in prayer? "God, the Maker of Heaven and Earth", as we say in the creeds. He can fix things. He can point us to the proper attitude and actions. He is the Lord. Can we trust in God above all things as the explanation to the 1st commandment says? Yes we can. God told Job not what Job wanted to hear but what he needed to hear. I hope I can do the same for you. I hope that when people look for a church, they will look for one that tells them God's word, not one that just makes them feel good or warm or has the latest bells and whistles. I hope you never tire of hearing about law and Gospel. Each Sunday we need to hear about our sins and God's grace in Jesus to eliminate those sins. We need repentance and forgiveness shown and proclaimed. Like Job, let's open our ears and hearts to Him even when the message is one that is not pleasant. I guess I can relate to Job more now than I could a year ago. When my grandson Elliott died last September, I know what a horrible experience that was. I can only imagine losing all my family could feel like. The question for me and for Job is and was, Is God trustworthy? Can we depend on Him to know whatís best for us? Is He the God of love and mercy and compassion he proclaims? I believe that with all my heart. And I hope you do too. We have a God of love and mercy. God sent His Son to rescue us from all our troubles in this life and the one to come. He asks us to trust him in return, in good times and in bad times. Our founder, Martin Luther, really said it well when he was asked about God's love after two of his children perished in childhood. This is how he responded: "I donít have all the answers, but I have God and that is enough." I hope you feel the same! |
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John 6:25-35 (Excerpts) Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs (Jesus had just fed the 5000) but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give you. On Him the Father has placed His seal of approval.” They asked, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” He answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”… It is My Father who gives you the true Bread from heaven… and gives Life to the World…I am the Bread of Life. He who …believes in me will never be thirsty.”
Let’s take a
little quiz. How many different kinds of bread can
you name? (French, Italian, Rye, Frye, banana, pita, sour-dough,
etc.). Those are all breads with a small ‘b’. Jesus,
as he reminds
us today, is Bread with a big ‘B’. He gives food that lasts, not
just
for a few hours, but for a lifetime. He is the Bread of Life, or
as I
themed it today, the REAL WONDER BREAD. Jesus tells us to hunger
and
thirst after righteousness. He gives us of Himself so we can be
righteous.
If you’re the average person, how many meals do you eat in a day? Three, right? Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner; or if you’re a teenager, four or five. Why do we need to eat so often? That’s the way God designed us. Do you expect to eat three meals tomorrow? Why is that? God made us to need food, shelter and companionship. Our bodies won’t survive without food, and so, Jesus seeks to remind us that without Him, we won’t survive eternally, but rather will experience what is called the 2nd death. The people who came to find Jesus came to him, not because they were seeking eternal bread, but because they were hungry again. Jesus had just fed these 5000 and now they hoped it was time for a little Jesus’ McMuffin, and maybe a little juice in the morning. They weren’t interested in what was important but what was immediate. They wanted the spectacular not the spiritual. They came cuz they were hungry, not cuz they sought the Bread of Life. Don’t we have an expression ‘Penny wise and dollar foolish?’ That’s what they were. We need Jesus in our lives every day. That’s one of the points Jesus was trying to make. Like the Lord’s Prayer says, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Without Him would are lost and condemned creatures. Without Him we would shrivel and perish in hell. Jesus asked they people to think long term, not just the short term. God asked them and us to think about His reason for coming, to suffer, die and rise again for all people. That his ever-lasting benefits. Let me give you a parallel example. Let’s say you put in those energy-efficient windows. Will it cost a lot? Will it save you money in the short term? No! You’re gonna have to wait seven or more years before you get your investment back. Jesus, when he multiplied the little boys’ bread and fish, performed a miracle. The purpose was to get their attention, to take care of an immediate need and most of all, to tell them about what God wanted. It was to tell them of sin and grace, to lead them to believe that He is THE bread of Life and that by faith in Him, they would go to Heaven. But they couldn’t even get past the condiments. They saw only an earthly king who would feed them for free. They only saw a chicken in every pot. If Jesus was only a good man, then we are lost for eternity. We may be more moral, but we’re not going to enter heaven.
They wanted
to know what they had to DO to Do the WORKS God requires. Jesus
answer? To Believe in the one God has sent! Does God say
Believe and DO something to get to heaven? NO! Believe and
pay so much money? NO! They didn’t accept that God had done
it all for them. They and so many today have the mistaken idea
that something has to be added to God’s grace. Nothing more is
needed that to have faith in Jesus.
And what is faith? To have a simple trust that God did everything for us. It is an absolute confidence that God is in control. Faith is saying I know that Your Lord know what’s best! I know you’re going to carry out your plan for me which is for my good. And that plan has my eternity at stake. Faith is saying, I’m laying my very eternity at your feet. We have a hard time trusting, don’t we? We like to be in control, especially guys. (All you guys, nod your heads now.) Let me give you an example. I have a friend who won’t go anywhere unless he drives. He won’t even let me, a Pastor and good friend, drive. He has to be in control. It’s just a phobia I have he says. Faith means letting God be God. He controls all things. You saw in the paper that the space shuttle took off again, didn’t you. That’s another example of faith. Those astronauts have to trust the guys on the ground that they’ve fixed the problem from the last space shuttle which blew up. They have to trust hundreds of guys that each of them has or is doing his job absolutely right. Now if fallible human beings can be trusted, do you think we can trust absolutely a totally perfect God? Certainly we can!! Would you let God steer your spaceship to heaven? it doesn’t depend on you at all—your works, your money, comparing yourself to others. It depends on Jesus’ sacrifice for us. That is the work God wants us to do that Jesus talks about here. Note how our reading mentions that Jesus has God’s seal of approval. God the Father is pleased with Him, He accepts His sacrifice in our behalf—the perfect life, the innocent death, the miraculous resurrection from the dead—and credits that to us, giving us the seal of approval. This illustration would hit home with the Jews who were used to seeing the governor or Emperor’s seal ring on documents or tombs. It was solid gold truth. We have something similar. Remember the old Good Housekeeping seal of approval? That meant something lived up to their high standards. It was a selling point. Do you think God’s seal is even better!? Jesus invites us also to focus on the hereafter, not just on the here and now. He is there for us. He prepares a place in Heaven for all who trust in Him. He is the True Bread from Heaven. Whoever partakes of him will have eternal life. In the sacrament we are reminded of the bread of life. Jesus told His followers to hunger and thirst after righteousness. Do you see how often God reminds us of bread and the need to trust in Him? God’s Word is not just an academic exercize. It is necessary in our daily lives. Pastor Hochmuth uses this as his masthead in his letters: Sunday’s Word for Monday’s World. I love that, don’t you? Sunday’s Word for Monday’s World. God’s word should and does have a place in our everyday lives. Tomorrow is the anniversary of 9-11. That was a time where many had their faith in God shaken. How could He let that happen? Well, it wasn’t the true God who wanted that. It was the followers of a false God named Allah who attacked the ‘great Satan’ they call the united States, who seek to convert people by the sword. You can’t convert anyone by force, can you? Only the Word, the Bible has that power. Their religion is fear based and fear driven. Ours is love based and love driven. God never threatens us. He invites us. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved. He that does not believe will be condemned. To how many people, in how many ways, with how many methods did Jesus try to reach out to people! We must remain true to Jesus. Is 9-11 a time to be scared? To remember? To prepare? It’s all of those things in a way. As horrific as that scene was, imagine the horrors of hell. Do you think any of the people who were in that building had any idea that this would be their last day on earth? Do you think they were ready to meet their maker? I read about a 22 year old who died in 9-11. Her computer somehow survived. It took her mom two years to open the files in it. One file had a list the girl had made of the top 100 things she wanted to do in her lifetime. Number one was to be healthy/healthful. Two was to treat her family and friends with respect. All the things—and I think she only had written down 68 or so—were admirable. But what I didn’t see in there was any mention of God or faith. How sad. I pray she had that and just didn’t mention it. She would need it that day. Hell should scare us. We should be prepared for eternity by remembering our Savior. Are we likewise ready if God should call us? I hope so. When we have faith in Jesus, we have all we need. That’s why knowledge of God and His Word—church and Bible Class—is so important. There are many false teachings and teachers in our world. How can we get to heaven? By being good? No. By being better than most others? No. By earning God’s love? No. By luck? No. By the Grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ? Absolutely YES! How will we know what is right? Well, by knowing and feeding from the Bread of Life. That reminds me of a story my Grandpa told me. He used to have pigs on the farm. He had them trained that when he banged a stick 3 times on the side of the pen, they knew it was feeding time and they would come a-running. But about a month before they were to be butchered, he noticed they were loosing weight. He couldn’t figure out why. Then one day as he was going in the house he heard a tap-tap-tap. It was a woodpecker. The pigs heard the sound and ran to be fed. Now he knew why they were loosing weight. They were listening to a false sound. In the same manner, we NEED to be fed regularly in God’s Word and the Sacraments. I pray that you will be able to distinguish the sound of Jesus’ voice above the others. Most of all, I pray that you will remain strong in your faith in THE Wonder Bread from heaven, Jesus Christ. Amen. |
James 1:
19-21
James 1:19-27 (excerpts) He (God) chose to gives us birth through the Word of truth… Take note of this: Everyone should be quick to Listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, for a man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the Word planted in you. Do not merely listen to the Word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says… [in] doing it the man will be blessed in what he does. If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless…keep yourself from being polluted by the world. Kenny was typical of kids his age. He liked sports but hated school. His father had left his mother when he was young. His grandpa tried to fill the gap that was there. He and Ken’s mom went to church every week with him and his younger sister. They went to Sunday School, but when confirmation time came for Kenny, it was a real struggle. He only went cuz grandpa wanted him to go so badly. He barely made it through. Grandpa gave Kenny a new Bible for his confirmation. Kenny would rather have had cash. When grandpa gave Kenny the Bible, he said very dramatically to make an impression “Kenny, don’t ever forget this. Your Future is in the Bible!’ Kenny barely even opened the Bible. He feigned thanks and just put it in his closet. And, Kenny started to attend church less and less and get into trouble more and more. Pretty soon he only came a few times a year and began to smoke and drink and looked a little to comfortable with his girlfriend, despite the best efforts of his Mom and Grandpa. They tried to encourage him, but he wouldn’t listen to them. They were just too worried about him and should leave him alone. He knew what he was doing. He became angry when anyone would even insinuate that he was headed form serious problems. Alcohol wouldn’t affect him. Sex was a matter between him and his girlfriend, and none of their business! He knew the way God intended for sexual relationships, but that wasn’t the real world. He was in control; or at least he thought he was. Aren’t many people, especially teens, even those who have gone to church, a lot like Kenny? Teens and adults constantly have to battle the idea that they’re always right. Or that ‘it can’t happen to me’. Or that everyone else is wrong and only I know what’s best for me. At times, we know an action we’re considering is wrong but ‘everyone else is doing it’ or ‘I really need this so it’s OK’. Those are frequent attitudes. a common phrase used by believers who don’t want to struggle against sin is “I know Jesus and I know he will forgive me”. Yet that attitude shows but little faith, don’t you think?! How easy it is to minimize our faith or to drift away from faith. Satan, the world and our sinful flesh are right there urging on to sinful actions. Have you succumbed to those traps and temptations? I’m certain the answer is yes. So it’s good to hear God remind us of the need to—as our reading says—“get rid of all filth and the evil that is so prevalent…keep yourself from being polluted by the world.” We need that every day of our lives. We all can and do fail to heed God’s Word— to the peril of our souls and earthly struggles. Somehow Kenny made it thru college. He was constantly arguing with the professors, thinking he knew better than they. His drinking went into overdrive on the campus scene. There was always a party to go to. Often Kenny would wake up and not know how he had gotten there. Drug use soon began to creep into the lifestyle Kenny had chosen. His arguments with his girlfriend became more frequent. They would break up just to get back together with nothing really resolved. And church was only for times he went to see Grandpa and Mom. At graduation Grampa again reminded Kenny that ‘your future is in the Bible’. But his words fell on deaf ears. Kenny got a job in a large corporation. Having money—as much and as soon as possible—now became Kenny’s obsession. The fastest way to get more money and climb the corporate ladder was to get rid of those ahead of you. Kenny became a master at lying and back-stabbing. He knew how to take credit for others ideas and to lay his blame on someone else. He even learned how to cut deals behind the scenes, illegal deals. Kenny was showing everyone that he did know what he was doing. His ego was soaring as pride slowly overtook his life. He had few friends, but he was on top. He was the best. And he let everyone know about it. Do you know people like Kenny had become? I see you nodding your heads in agreement. Yet. lest we become smug, we too must confess to being prideful at times. We have told lies to get ourselves out of jams. We have been proud of ourselves. I remember my pastor, my father, telling the catechism class about the proud frog. I won’t forget it and I hope you won’t either. The frog’s pond was drying up and he needed to get to the large lake several miles away. It was too far away to hop there, so the frog came up with the idea to have two geese that came there frequently help him out. He talked them into letting him tie a string around one of their legs. Then he would hold on to the string as they flew off to the new pond. It worked like a charm. As they flew another flock of geese flew by and commented on how smart those two geese were. That made the frog angry. A flock of ducks came by and said the same thing. When the third flock of birds came by, the frog could no longer contain himself. He yelled out, “It was MY idea…” as he dropped to the ground like a rock. If we think we cannot be touched by temptation, we are sadly wrong. if we think we deserve God’s love cuz we’re not as bad as everyone else, we are gravely mistaken. We may not be as bad as Kenny, but one sin makes us ineligible for heaven. Thanks to God that we have a Savior who covers all our sins. It is cuz of what Jesus did that we have any hope of getting to Heaven. Note what our reading says, GOD chose to give us birth…through the Word of Truth, and later humbly accept the Word planted in you. It was not our choice to be born again. it was God’s gift to us in Jesus. We receive his blessings by “humbly accepting the Word.’ Yet note that the Word was planted in us by the Holy Spirit. If we are saved, who gets the credit? God. If we are lost for eternity in Hell, whose fault is it? Ours. That makes no human sense but that’s the way it is. God plans, invites, enables, and completes the sacrifice for our redemption. If we think we know better, we will be lost. Kenny and his girlfriend had moved in together into a nice house in the suburbs, but their relationship grew stormier by the day. Soon the local cops were being regularly called to break up ‘domestic disturbances’, times when Kenny was screaming at his lover and she occasionally throwing things at him. To make matters worse, the Securities and Exchanges Commission began to investigate Kenny for fraudulent transactions and insider trading. He was arrested and thrown into jail. Kenny was to pay a price for his foolishness. Is there some of this Kenny inside us too? Do you have a temper? You should be nodding your heads. We have become angry at our families. We have used words that God would be ashamed of. We too are guilty of sin and often pay a high price for it. Julie and I were reading in yesterday’s paper of a 13 year old girl who was writing in to an advice communist. She wanted to know how to get her sister to forgive her. This girl said she rarely loses her temper but was so mad at her sister that she decided to get even. She took her sister’s camera phone, snapped a picture of her sister while she was undressed and sent it to all the boys in the sister’s directory. They sent it on to others. She wanted forgiveness for this momentary lapse of anger. Like the picture, can you take hurtful words back? Can you hit the undo button on words to re-do them? No, life doesn’t work like that. Only forgiveness— voluntarily giving up the right to get even—can erase the wrong, like Jesus did on the cross. Is it any wonder then why James tells these believers to be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry?! Human beings are all alike. We sin. We need someone to restore us. Kenny needed someone to restore him. In his jail cell, Kenny finally had to admit that he didn’t have all the answers. he had to curb his anger and pride. He had to re-discover the Lord Jesus. Well, that jail cell is what it took to give Kenny a better perspective. He confessed his sins to God when his Pastor visited him. He was genuine in his determination to get back to God and a Christian lifestyle. Kenny managed to avoid jail time, but had to sell everything he had to pay restitution. So, he moved back in with Mom. He remembered his Grampa’s words YOUR FUTURE IS IN THE BIBLE. He got out that Bible the Grampa gave him and started reading it, beginning with the Gospels. When he got to John, he received a surprise. There was an envelop inside. And in it were 1000 shares of stock Grampa had purchases those 12 long years ago. He bought it from a company with a spiritual-sounding name, Starbucks. That stock had split, re-split and split again. It had multiplied a hundred-fold. Kenny could start over again. I hope none of us need a jail cell to get us to confess our sins. When we gather each week and in prayer, we have the opportunity to let God know how sorry we are for our wrongs. Take special comfort each week in the forgiveness of sins I share with you: Go in Peace, your sins are forgiven you. And I also hope you will strive with all your heart to hear God’s Word and obey it. Your Future too lies in the Bible! |
Mark 10:17 – 27 (excerpts) A rich young man asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?... Jesus answered, You know the commandments… He declared, All these I have kept since I was a boy. Jesus loved him and said, one thing you lack. Go and sell everything you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasures in Heaven. Then come Follow Me! At this the man’s face fell. he went away sad because he had great wealth… Jesus said, How hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go thru the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God… The disciples said, Who then can be saved?!... Jesus said, With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” I’d like to start off today by asking you a question. Is Heaven free? That is, is salvation free? You could answer that with both a yes and a no, couldn’t you? Yes it is free. We can’t and never will earn Heaven. Jesus gave it to us by leading a perfect life on earth, offering himself on the cross as payment for our sins, then rising again on the third day to show that “it is finished” was true. Whoever believes in Jesus HAS eternal life as the Bible teaches over and over again. Salvation was 100% a work of Jesus. You could answer ‘No, it’s not free’ cuz it cost Jesus his innocent life. He had to bear the very pains of Hell for us so that we never would. The weight of the world was on Jesus. He bore it for us out of love. It is also a ‘no’ when we consider that God wants us to act like His followers. Rom. 12: 1 reminds us “I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” We don’t earn Heaven by our deeds, but our deeds do reflect our faith—or lack of faith—for our God. With that in mind, let’s get back to our reading. A rich young man came up to Jesus in a very smug and self-satisfied way and asked how he might inherit eternal life. He was an up-and-comer. He was a whiz kid. He was doing well and wanted everyone to praise him for it. He reminds me of the Christmas story Scrooge. You remember Scrooge, don’t you? Scrooge was the guy who was so miserly that he was visited by 3 spirits-- past, present and future-- to show him the error of his ways. One part that has always stuck with me was when he went back to the past when he was young. He recalled the young lady who caught his fancy and how they broke up. She said to him, “I fear I have been replaced in your heart with an idol, an idol of Gold.” Maybe the man thought that Heaven was like anything else—you have to earn it. What must I DO to inherit eternal life. So many people today think they’ll get to heaven cuz they have been better, humanly speaking, than the majority of others. In that way of thinking, God must judge on some sort of curve. Perhaps they think it’s like the grades kids receive in school, anything above a 70% is passing. The rest go to hell. If their deeds in their own minds are better than 70% of the rest of people, they should make it to heaven. The rich young man certainly believed something like that. When Jesus told him to obey the 10 Commandments to merit eternal life—thinking the man would take the hint and realize the had not been perfect—the man instead declared with certainty that he had kept them all since he was a young boy! He deserved to go to Heaven by his outstanding lifestyle. Even some churches tragically encourage and teach that sort of falsehood. When you have to make up for your sins by lighting candles, saying ‘hail Mary’ or whatever, aren’t works becoming the basis of your eternal future?! What does the bible teach? “He that believes and is baptized will be saved.” Even the very question the man asked gives him the answer he should have seen. “What must I do to inherit eternal life. Do you do anything to get an inheritance? NO! You are born into a certain family and usually when your parents die, they leave you an inheritance. You didn’t earn that, you were born into it; you received it as a gift! Jesus stated very clearly at the last verse that man, on his own, cannot make it to heaven, but WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE. Look at the last human Jesus saved while on earth. Who would have thought that the dying thief would have come to faith and thus hear Jesus say to him, “Today YOU will be with ME in Paradise”? But with God certainly all things ARE possible. The dying thief tried to become rich by stealing during his lifetime. The young man was rich through legitimate business. But his riches got the best of him. He became obsessed with things. Perhaps he—and many today—was afflicted by a disease called AF-Flu-enza. Not influenza, but affluenza. Affluenza is the desire to have more and more, never being satisfied while the power and influence of God shrinks in the heart. God becomes something you only think about in your ‘down’ times, or when you feel the need to put in some ‘pew time’ to make God happy. To show you how materialism has influenced people in the U.S., a survey was conducted. They asked how many people visited a shopping mall in the last week. 71% of Americans said they had. Do you know how many people said they had visited a church in the last week? 42%. Is that shocking? Do you remember how many times Jesus told stories about people being too busy for God? The wedding banquet is a prime example. I’ll follow you Jesus, BUT First, let me… One was distracted by relatives, one by his possessions, one by being too busy. And the wedding banquet door was shut. Kinda chilling isn’t it? What the young man lacked was a strong love for God. We had a sign up a couple of weeks ago. Do you remember the one that said, ‘Jesus has many followers, but few cross bearers.’ Jesus wanted the young man to be a cross bearer. He wanted him to give up his wealth which so distracted him and put finances in the proper place. That’s why Jesus said it was so hard for the rich to enter Heaven. They are too attached to earth and to things. I was told a ‘horror story’ at the seminary about people loving money more than God. The church was growing and needed to expand. Church councilmen visited the members to ask for commitments for the new building. One wealthy man was approached and said this: “Let me check with my accountant. If he says ‘yes’, then I’ll get a new accountant!” Can we be caught in the same web of wealth? Certainly! If we buy a nicer and bigger house but can’t give an offering to God, we are the rich young man. If we give God only what’s left each week and not what’s right, we are the young man. If we are not committed completely to Christ, we are the young man. Our offerings DO tell a tale of whether we are too attached to things. Our love for God is why we put money in the offering plates. I hope none of you feel pressured or ‘guilted’ into placing your gift to God in the plate. That would be sad. The Bible says, “God loves a cheerful giver”. 1 Cor. 8:9 When we recognize that God gave us everything in the first place, that we are just stewards of these gifts, then we have a proper perspective. Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan. The Samaritan not only risked his life for the injured Israelite, he took him to the ‘hospital and paid the man’s medical expenses. That was for someone he didn’t even know, who probably would have rejected, had he the opportunity! He used his money to help the needy, like we did with our Thanksgiving offerings. The Bible mentions three other things we are to use our money for. Do you know what they are? The needy, our family, the government and our God. In the Old Testament, the poorest Jew had to give a tithe, that is 10%. Have you ever stopped to figure out what your offerings are to God through our church? The average for Christian churches in the U.S. is only 3%. Giving less out of love than out of law. That doesn’t make any sense to me. Give because you are thankful for Jesus’ sacrifice in your behalf. Give because you want to thank God for all the many blessings you have received through-out your lifetime. Give because you want more people to enter the gates to Heaven. Maybe I can summarize the sermon by telling one more story. It tells of priorities, of how we think of ourselves, of real wealth. There was a rich man who was a tight-wad. He knew he was dying. So he told his servant to build a ledge on his roof. Then to take all the gold he had, put it in a chest and put it there. That way, the man figured, he could pick up his gold on his way up to Heaven (even though he was told he wouldn’t need it there). Well, the man died. The next day the servant looked on the roof to see if he had taken the gold with him. It was still there. The servant said, “I knew the master was wrong. He should have put the gold in the basement!” Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul and all your mind. And your money too. Amen. |
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JESUS IS ALIVE! We know this from what was not seen and what was seen. What’s been the most popular show on TV for the last five years or so? Anyone know? That’s right, CSI. In fact it’s been so popular that it has spun off two other CSIs. Now, why is it so popular? I think there are a couple of reasons: we like the good guys to win over the bad guys and we have a fascination with information or proof of new things. DNA, luminal and fiber trace evidence have all become common terms to those familiar with the show. It is with those same ideals of right over wrong and evidence that we read from our Bibles of the resurrection of our Lord, good over evil, proof of His resurrection which assures us of our own. John 20 “Early on that first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved (John) and said, ‘they have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don’t know where they have put Him.” So Peter and John…reached the tomb. John bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Peter went in the tomb and saw the strips of linen lying as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally John went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) There are 15 people in Britain today celebrating an especially meaningful Easter. If you’ve read the papers you heard about the 15 marines and sailors who were taken captive by Iran. The parallels between them and Jesus are very striking. The sailors were where they were supposed to be, they were arrested unjustly and called guilty before they even reached shore. They were threatened and abuse. Many thought they were as good as dead. Yet Iran, an Islamic state, makes a supposed ‘Easter goodwill gesture’ and set them free. Can you imagine if you were a parent, or sibling or friend of the sailors. How would you feel? Pretty great and relieved. No such gesture was given to Jesus. He was unjustly arrested even though He was where He was supposed to be. He was already judged guilty. He was abused. And He was executed—but that turned out for the good of the whole world. He set Himself free from the grave so that we could live in peace forever. One of the things I like to do in my sermons is to have people visualize what it would have been like to be in the place of those involved in the story. So, let’s try to put ourselves in the sandals of one of Jesus’ disciples, like John who recorded these events for us that I just read. Let’s look at just how this Day that Changed the World came to be. This had been the greatest of weeks. It started out last Sunday as Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem as people cut down palm branches, put them in front of Jesus and shouted “Hosanna, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” The praises echoed off the hills. Jesus was welcomed as a rescuer. Then all week long Jesus taught and told parables to make spiritual points. He led many people to trust in Him as their long-awaited Messiah. And even better, this was Passover week, the holiest and happiest of all Jewish celebrations. It remembered the enslavement in Egypt and how God rescued Israel with the 10 plagues. The last plague was when the angel of death passed over the houses of those who had slain the perfect lamb and painted his blood over the doorposts. Then you remember how many times Jesus was called or called Himself the Lamb of God. If that weren’t enough, just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, Jesus began a new promise. This promise would come to be called Holy Communion in which Jesus gave His true Body and Blood along with the bread and wine to guarantee each sorrowful sinner the personal assurance of forgiveness. It was great!! It was almost perfect! High and Heady days they were. But then came those ominous overtones. When we argued over who was the least in stature among us disciples and would thus be the one to wash everyone else’s feet, Jesus took the water and towel and washed our feet. Then, just before He began Communion that Thursday, Jesus told us that one of us, one of us, would betray Him. And as we argued, Judas fled the scene. But, we weren’t going to let that spoil the scene. Besides, Jesus now wanted us to go to His favorite spot to pray, the garden of Gethsemane. I was one of the best friends of Jesus whom He asked to come and give Him moral support. Maybe, because we were still so very happy, we had a hard time staying awake. We all fell asleep three times. We were jolted out of our drowsiness, by Jesus’ call that a mob from the Pharisees was coming to arrest Him. ‘What,’ we thought, ‘who was coming to arrest you and most importantly, WHY’!? Then we saw Judas come up to Jesus and greet Him with a kiss (like a handshake today). We heard Jesus ask Judas why he would betray Him with a kiss. Then it went crazy. Everything seemed to come apart at once. The soldiers moved in to arrest Jesus, were driven back by his words, and drew their swords. At that, we panicked. We all ran away as Jesus was hauled off to face a mock court among the Jewish leaders. They already knew the verdict: Jesus was guilty of death! How could this all happen? How could it fall apart so quickly? I watched with disbelief and horror as Peter cursed and swore he didn’t even know Jesus. Then Jesus was hauled off to Pilate. Surely the Roman governor would put a stop to this madness. But he was a politician and caved in to threats. He sought to escape by offering a choice between Jesus and a terrible criminal named Barabbas. Incredibly, the crowd chose this scum instead of Jesus! Would there be no end to this insanity!? Then we saw Jesus. He had now been mercilessly beaten, whipped (and if you saw the movie ‘the Passion’, you know how gruesome that was), spit upon, had a crown of thorns placed on his head and was forced to carry His cross until He collapsed from exhaustion. Our whole world just crumbled. Jesus told me to take care of His mother Mary, which I was glad to do. He forgave those who nailed him to the tree, told the dying thief he would go to Heaven, cried out ‘it is finished’, and committed his spirit to God and died. And now, Mary Magdalene comes running hysterically crying that Jesus body was gone! She didn’t believe that Jesus had risen, and neither did I. And we should have. How many times didn’t Jesus predict that he would “be handed over to the Pharisees, beaten mocked and crucified and rise again on the third day. It was too incredible. But Jesus was and is alive! We should have believed from what was not there. The guards were gone. These were the special forces of the Roman army. Those who had been bravest in battle were usually rewarded with the easiest duty while not in battle. What could be easier than keeping watch over a tomb? Do you know what the penalty for a soldier who deserted his post was? Death! So, something more terrifying than death must have scared them away. An angel would fit that description, wouldn’t it? What else was not there? The huge bolder sealing the tomb with the governor’s insignia on it. The huge rock was moved into place by four of those soldiers. They were not going to move it one inch farther than they had to. If they didn’t move it, who did? The same angel as above did. What most of all was not there? Jesus Himself! There was no body. And, the sheet he was buried in was now carefully folded. Not folded like guys do, but like Moms do, nice and neat. If you are going to steal a body, why would you do that? You wouldn’t! Jesus is Alive. He has Risen the Angel told them. Still, we humans have a hard time believing the incredible. To show you how skeptical we can be, let me give you an example. Did you know that there is a Frenchman (you just can’t trust the French it seems) who wrote a book saying that the third plan on 9-11 never hit the pentagon? He says it was all a big fake. This despite the plane wreckage, the eyewitnesses, the radar reports, forensics. But it did happen and Jesus did rise from the dead. But Jesus set up the rules of nature and broke one here by rising from the dead. We rejoice in the fact that he did. What was there that evidenced the resurrection? The angels who were there evidenced it. The risen Lord who would soon appear to the believing ones proves it. The Bible proves it. Our forgiveness clinches it. As the Bible reminds us in 1 Cor. 15, “If Christ be not raised, you are yet in your sins. Yet Christ has indeed been raised, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” We don’t have to worry about being punished for our sins. Jesus took them away be offering Himself in our place. He suffered the very pains of Hell as he cried out “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (For the only place where God is not, is in Hell.) We are saved by grace through faith. That’s a fact too. Don’t make the mistakes so many people have made and continue to make. So many think they have be to good enough to get to Heaven—this is not possible since one sin condemns us. Others think God will let them into Heaven just because He doesn’t want anyone to be in Hell—despite the Bible’s proclamation that “he who believes and is baptized will be saved, he that does not believe will be damned.” No fortune, no fame, nothing but faith will give us Heaven. Faith in Jesus Christ who died and rose again does save us. So often people have been wrong when it seemed right. Let me just share a couple of the colossal mistakes people have made. Daniel Webster, do you remember him? In the mid 1800s he was a well-respected congressman whom everyone thought would be the next president. But this mistake, among others, kept him from that office. This is what he said: “I have never heard of anything more absurd than the claim that the nation will profit by the acquisition of California! I contend it is not worth one dollar.” I think we’d argue with him. Or this one from the CEO of IBM in 1952: “Realistically, there is a market for about five computers in the entire world. There is no reason to risk our current success on such a limited venture.” Or the statement by the Pharisees: He is worthy of death.’ I hope you have come to the same conclusion that John did at the end of our reading today: He saw and believed! God is never wrong. I hope your continued presence in worship evidences the faith that you have and will continue to grow in. You don’t need CSI to find that truth. Amen |
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In
Repentance, In Faith, In Forgiveness
(To
Top)
Bible reading: Luke 7:36-50 A
woman who had lived a sinful life brought an alabaster of perfume to
Jesus… She wet Jesus’ feet with her tears, wiped them with her hair and
poured perfume on them. The Pharisee said, ‘she is a
sinner!’ Jesus answered, “Two men owed money, one owed 50
denari (about $50,000) while the other owed 500 denari (about
$500,000). Neither could pay him back so the man canceled the
debts of both. Now, which of them will love him more?”
Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt
canceled.” “You have judged correctly”, Jesus said. “Do you
see this woman? I came to your house. She wet my feet with
her tears, wiped them with her hair and poured perfume on them… You did
not… Her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he
who has been forgiven little loves little.” Jesus said to her,
“Your sins are forgiven…Your faith has saved you, go in peace!”
We just got
done with another great week at Bible camp, and that reminded me of a
situation we had a few years ago. One of the junior boys was a
real big kid, at least 6 inches taller and forty pounds heavier than
anyone else in his group. He had a real rough upbringing and so
tended to bully other kids. Quickly the other kids isolated him
which made him sad, angry and even more ready to bully them. We
were trying to figure out how to handle the situation when one of the
kids solved it for us. The instructor that morning had talked
about how Jesus had loved everyone, even those who were crucifying
Him. He forgave them. Well, the bully got his lunch and sat
down. One kid, instead of ignoring the bully, sat down right next
to him and gave the bully his brownie. Now, if you know camp and
food, brownies are more valuable than gold there. As he gave it
to the bully, the boy said, “I’m not giving this to you cuz I’m afraid
of you. I want to give it to you and I want to be friends.”
The other boy was so shocked that he started to cry. The rest of
camp, you should have seen how well they all got along and what a huge
change that came over the bully. It was wonderful. All
because one boy listed to what Jesus had to say and practiced
forgiveness and unconditional love.
Does that sound similar to what happened in our story? In our reading, there was a woman who was very changed. The Archie Bunker-like Pharisee still remembered her as ‘the sinful woman’. But she was very different now, worshiping our Lord and serving Him in every way she could. Who was she? Quite likely she was the woman who was due to be stoned to death for adultery/prostitution a couple of chapters earlier. It was Jesus who said, ‘Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” And no one could do that. Jesus then told her to “go and sin no more.” It seems logical too that the woman came back to Jesus to thank and praise Him for what he had done—not just saving her from death by stoning but saving her from eternal death by sinning. I would venture to say that the money she used to buy the expensive perfume was from her former ‘occupation’. She probably felt guilty about how she obtained the money and decided to use it for something good. What greater good could there be than honoring the Messiah come to save the world from sin! She was doing what we do every time we bring an offering to the Lord at church. We’re thanking God for what He has done and continues to do for us. Our offerings should be given out of thanks—not duty, or obligation or to meet a budget. Whenever you place your gift to God in the offering plate it should be a reflection of our love for Him, shouldn’t it? Do we love God only a little? Only what is left over? Our do we come to church asking God how much we can give to Him? Like Jesus said, “he who has been forgiven little loves little. So let’s be sure our hearts are tuned to God’s frequency and give to Him gladly and generously, shall we? Back to the
story. I think the verses we have before us today are some of the
most comforting and also some of the most misused words in all the
Bible. The comfort is found in Jesus. He forgives all
sins!! Is there any sin too great for Jesus’ sacrifice? Is
God too angry to forgive any sin? NO-O! God wants us to
know, and then to share the fact that “God
so loved the World that whoever believes in Him will not perish but
have eternal life.” “God wants all men to be saved and to
come to a knowledge of the truth.” He has told us further. Does
God love YOU? Most certainly he does, warts and all. We are
like giant sequoia trees. If you cut one open you would find
rings representing years. Some years are great with plenty of
water. Others have survived drought and hardship. Sometimes
we can be pretty moral; sometimes not. Yet God still is with
us. He does not give up on us.
Now let’s get to even more practical application. Since God loves the world, should we too? Of course. I wonder what would happen in someone who had lived a scandalous life and was now repentant, came to church. Would we welcome a prostitute like Jesus did? What is someone who was infected with AIDS (and we knew about it) came seeking forgiveness, would he be welcome here? Or how about a murderer? Would he be welcome here too? I hope so! Now for the misused part. Many people say that we shouldn’t judge anyone, just like Jesus did here. But note what Jesus does expect. He requires repentance. Go and sin no more. He wants us to realize sins is wrong and stop it. So Jesus does ‘judge’. He hates sin and came to wipe it away. He wants us to confess our sins. Included in confession are four very important things: 1) that we acknowledge that what we did was wrong, 2) that we regret doing it and wish we could do thing differently, 3) that we trust solely in Jesus to take away that sin, and 4) that in the future we try our human best not to do the sin again. Jesus requires that; otherwise we will certainly not share in or benefit from His forgiveness. I like to use the illustration of a person swimming in the ocean several miles from land. If that person thinks he is good enough to make it on his own, will he look for the life-preserver of Jesus? No! He can make it on his own, he thinks. But we can’t. The soul that sins, it shall die the Bible teaches. And we all sin. That’s why we have a confession of sins in our worship services, to seek God’s forgiveness. We must always take great care that our confession on sin is not just words, but that it is a heartfelt apology to God for our wrongdoings. Isn’t that why we have in the Lord’s Prayer “And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”? And in the Apostles’ Creed “I believe in… the holy Christian Church, the Communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins.” I
think that many people are not in church today because they don’t want
to confess their failures. I’m pretty good is the attitude
instead. I don’t do the ‘big’ sins you get put into jail
for. I am not obnoxious. I pay my taxes, treat pets well
and only cuss when I’m really angry. There’s where you and I can
show them Jesus. Heaven’s report card mandates straight ‘A’ s to
get in. We may not be black, but we certainly are grey when
absolute white is required. Remember the words of the Bible I
mentioned earlier? “the soul
that sins, it shall die.” When we get people to admit that
they aren’t perfect, that is the first step to introducing them to
Jesus. I hope you will look for opportunities to share the Lord
with others!
You see, so many look to their own deeds to save them. It’s a lot like what happened in the air force. When they first developed jets, they had to find a way to let the pilots ejects safely when necessary. They developed a system which would blow the canopy off the aircraft, then shoot the pilot in his seat clear of the aircraft and then deploy a parachute to bring him safely to land. The problem was that the pilots wanted to hold on to their ejection seats. And since they wouldn’t let go, the parachute could not open. They had to let go of their own ‘safety net’ and depend on something else to save them. Can you see a parallel with God? We want to hang on to our own goodness, but when we do that, Jesus can’t save us and we will perish. Only by letting go of our deeds and depending on Jesus completely will we be saved! So what would Jesus have us learn today? That we are sinners who must acknowledge our wrongs and trust in Jesus alone to receive forgiveness. Then, like Jesus said, we can go in peace. You see, Forgiveness and Peace go together like Peanut Butter and Jelly, like fish and chips. They just fit and blend so nicely. No matter who you are or what you have done, Jesus wants you, loves you, has died for you and prepared a place for you in Heaven. He has sent the Holy Spirit to work faith in your heart. He has promised to never leave us or forsake us. How do we approach God? In Repentance, in Faith and in Forgiveness through Jesus. Amen. |
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“The word of
the Lord came to Jonah, ‘God to the great city of Nineveh and preach
against it because its wickedness has come before me.’ But Jonah
ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish… to flee form the
Lord. The Lord caused a great wind to come up... that the ship
threatened to break apart… So the sailors threw him overboard and the
raging sea grew calm. At this the men greatly feared the Lord and
offered sacrifices to the Lord. But the Lord provided a great
fish to swallow Jonah. From Inside the fish Jonah prayed to the
Lord, ‘In my distress I called to the Lord and he answered me…
Salvation comes from the Lord.’ And the Lord commanded the
fish to spit Jonah on dry land… Jonah obeyed the Word of the Lord… and
preached ‘Forty more days and Nineveh will be destroyed.’ The
Ninevites believed God and declared a fast and sackcloth and ashes from
the greatest to the least… When God saw what they did and how they
turned from their evil ways, he had compassion on them… But Jonah was
greatly displeased and became angry… (after God provides a plant for
shade for Jonah, then causes it to wither, God said to Jonah)You have
been concerned about this vine… Should I not be concerned about that
great city?’” If you ask people what they remember most about the story of Jonah, 95% of them will answer–the whale. Everyone remembers the whale, but in point of fact, the whale is the least important part of this story. I counted and there are forty-eight verses in the Book of Jonah. Only three of them mention the whale. You see, here is one of the best-known yet least understood episodes in all the Bible. If this sermon does nothing else, I want to convey to you what the story of Jonah is really about. Just to give you a preview, Jonah is about God’s love for all people (he went to the resident sin-city Nineveh); it is about our responsibility as missionaries, wherever we are (who would have thought that Nineveh would repent, but they did. We don’t lead people to faith, the Holy Spirit does. We simply tell people what Jesus has done for all people.); it is about doing things God’s way (Jonah thought Babylon didn’t deserve to be saved, or that he had a better idea.); it is about repentance and forgiveness (Look how ‘bad’ Nineveh was. They repented and God forgave them. No one is beyond God’s love); finally, it is about proper perspectives (Jonah valued a plant more than 10,000 people. He only saw his own personal situation and little else). Every time I read about Jonah I am reminded about the old “Blues Brothers” movie with Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi. Do you remember it? These two genial simpletons set out on an ill-fated fund-raising mission for their old parochial school. As they blunder through a series of larcenous schemes and make general movie mayhem, Jake and Elwood establish their credibility by quietly proclaiming to all their detractors, "We're on a mission from God." In the face of ludicrous and often illegal fund-raising attempts, Jake and Elwood's explanation for all their activities is hilariously absurd. A "mission from God?" No. They are simply two losers trying to run a series of scams, and we laugh at them. Jonah on the other hand could really say he was on a mission from God. His mission, not to pleasing to him, was to preach God’s Word of repentance and forgiveness to the people of the wicked city of Nineveh, capitol of Babylon. The background of this story is that it was written after the Jews had suffered their exile in Babylon. Fifty years earlier, the Jews had been crushed in war and carried off as slaves. We can easily understand their sorrow and desperate longing for home which appear in the 137th Psalm, a psalm written about this same exile: By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion ...How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem ... let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, If I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.(Psalm 137:1–6) The experience of exile had left the Jews bitter and hateful towards all foreigners, especially Babylon. All they wanted was for God to destroy their enemies. They had suffered unjust taxation, periodic raids, and pillage of their treasury and temple and slavery. They hated the Babylonians with a passion. And now God wants Jonah to go and preach there to lead them to repentance. No, they would rather see them all rot you-know-where. It would be like a Vietnam war veteran who had experienced the cruelties of that war, including the horrifying imprisonment, being asked to go back there and build hospitals and churches for the communists. It would take a lot of courage to do that—and a lot of forgiveness. As for Jonah, he definitely didn't want to go to Nineveh! It wasn't that he was afraid to go; we see later in the story just how courageous Jonah was. Instead, Jonah didn't want to go because he didn't want Nineveh to escape destruction by repenting. Jonah knew that God "is a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love" (Jonah 4:2). He knew God was looking for a way to spare the Assyrians and all Jonah wanted was for Nineveh to go up in flames. So, Jonah does what many of us do when God's call to us is inconvenient--he runs the other way! God calls us to forgive someone who has wronged us and we run the other way by wanting to continue the grudge. God calls us to stand in the minority for a righteous cause and we run away from God's call because it's easier to go along with the crowd. God calls us to get involved in a situation and make a real sacrifice for the good of someone else and we run the other way because we want to live for ourselves instead. We call those times Jonah moments. Those are the times we don’t want to do things God’s way. We have to stand up and go against the grain. We have to get out of our comfort zones. Witnessing to others really is not that difficult. We just need to remember that God is with us and will help us. WE have to overcome our own fears and laziness and do the work. Jonah buys passage on a ship heading away from Nineveh, towards southern Spain. But of course, God doesn't take "no" for an answer--not from Jonah and not from us, either. We can’t hide from God. We can run like Adam & Eve tried, but you cannot hide. So, God goes after Jonah; He sends a terrible storm that threatens to sink the ship. The ship is owned and operated by foreigners and the crew is frantically trying to figure out which one of their gods is displeased. But Jonah knows that there is but one true God, and that he, Jonah, is the man God is angry at. So, Jonah offers his life in order to save the lives of these foreigners. "Throw me into the sea," he says, "because I am the cause of this storm." But the ship's crew doesn't accept his offer; instead, they row harder, trying to escape the storm. But after exhausting themselves trying to save Jonah, they finally do throw him into the sea. That's where the "whale" comes in and from the belly of the great fish, Jonah says one of the Bible's most moving prayers. If you have ever walked through the valley of the shadow yourself, if you have ever suffered the deepest anguish of feeling alone and helpless and cut off from God, you can shed your tears with Jonah as he prays: “I called to the Lord, out of my distress, and He answered me; out of the belly of hell I cried, and You heard my voice. Salvation comes from the Lord.”(Jonah 2:2, 4) After three days in the belly of hell, Jonah is given up to dry land, and God says to him, "Hey, Jonah! I told you once before to go to Nineveh. Why don't we take it from the top and try again? Go to Nineveh and tell them what I told you to say." Well, by now, Jonah is sufficiently impressed with God's persistence and Jonah goes to Nineveh to perform this service for the foreigners. He tells them that their great and powerful city will be destroyed in forty days because of their wickedness. The mighty king of Nineveh listened to Jonah and this foreign, pagan enemy king repented. He ordered all the people to repent as well, from the richest noble to the poorest slave. They were not to eat or drink; they were to pray to God and change their evil ways. Because of their change of heart, God spared Nineveh (which is what He wanted to do anyway), but Jonah got upset. After all, a prophet's job is to foretell God's actions and when the prophecy doesn't come true, it makes the prophet look bad. Besides, these were foreigners who pleased God with their repentance! That was a bitter pill for Jonah--for Israel--to swallow. But we all know God’s love. John 3:16 “God so loved the world… The story is about God being the God of all people. God loves Nineveh as much as Jerusalem, as much as Middle America. It is about saying "yes" to God's call. Where is the Nineveh God has called you to enter - the situation God calls you to which you would rather stay away from? Have we not run away from our own great cities and where do we think we can hide from the persistent call of the Lord God Almighty? The story is about spiritual humility. Jonah learned it, Jesus called it blessed and we would please God with more spiritual humility today. Can we, like Jonah, submit to God and say, "Thy will, not my will, be done"? The story says something important about the nature of God. After making us see how we fail to answer God's call and in fact run away, the story says that God is a merciful God. He gave Jonah a second chance and all He wanted to do was spare the great city of Nineveh from the consequences of its evil ways. As it was in the beginning, so is it now with God's own children today. God will let us flee and fail. God will let us be like Jonah - once, twice, even seven times seventy times - and then God will call us back again. God knows how hard it is for us to put ourselves aside and do His will. Jesus has taken away all those sins too. He died for you, me and all people. He rose for the same so we could one day live in Heaven with Him through faith. Jonah grew to do it and so can we. By God's patient love, we can enter our Ninevehs today, not with fear and loathing, but with faith and steadfast courage. By God's patient love, we can go to our Ninevehs and emerge as more than conquerors through Him who loved us, even in the Lord, Jesus Christ. We just need to remember that we are on a Mission from God. Amen |
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(To
Top)
Advent
sermon 12-12-07
Isaiah 11:1-10 selected verses A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him, the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding; the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD, and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. With righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice and peace he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious. You know how I like to keep current on things, right? Well, I don't know if you saw it or not, but the new Webster's dictionary just came out. They too like to stay current so that add about 10–20 new words per year that have come into common usage. Did you read the article on the new "Word of the Year 2007"? It seems every year Webster chooses one word that symbolizes the previous year. The word this year? (And I am disappointed with Webster) w00t. That's right. w00t. w, two zeros and a t. It supposedly brings together text-messaging and words. The word originally came from the movie "Pretty Woman" with Julia Roberts. But only once. It means cool, I -support-it, I-like-it or something like that. Let's take that word-of-the-year several steps further. What might be the Word-of-the-Millennium? I have a suggestion. How about Peace? The Peace the world, in all its words, cannot give. The Peace that comes only in the Savior Jesus Christ. w00t. Double w00t. The reason I used the word w00t as an introduction was to get us to focus on something relatively 'old', the promise of the Messiah. I want you to take a moment and take in a spiritual deep breath and focus on God and His promises to give us Peace. With all the commotion, business, and festivity, it is all too easy to loose focus on what Christmas is all about. (do I hear a w00t?) Because isn't that one of the things that happened to the Israelites? That they got too busy and blessed for God? God had chosen Israel to be His unique nation out of all others. He had blessed them specially and gave them regulation to keep from becoming polluted with the world and its lustful desires. But they had drifted away none-the-less. They had chosen a path of sin and wickedness. It was a bullet-train to self-centered destruction. So Isaiah was sent to try to preach repentance. Like John the Baptist who was the forerunner of the Lord Jesus, Isaiah tried to make hearts ready for the coming Lord, but Israel would have nothing to do with that. So, just like Isaiah prophesied, the Assyrian army would come in just a couple of years and take away the northern tribe of Israel. And they would never return. They would cease to exist. Only the promises of God saved the southern tribe of Judah from a similar fate. Israel was dead. Yet out of this dead tree God would still fulfill his promise to send the Savior. The shoot would come from the stump of Jesse. Jesse was the Father of King David, under whom Israel achieved its greatness, both militarily and spiritually. David and his son Solomon both had their glaring faults with women and power, but they did try to remain faithful, as did the people. Yet as soon as those two were gone--Solomon was barely cold--and the kings and people left God for sinful worldly pursuits, with no repentance or respect for God. But the shoot was still coming. How many of you have gone up to see the redwoods in Muir Woods? One of the things that strikes you most is how when a tree dies it falls over--and three, four, even eight trees sprout out of that one. The tree that died is a source of nourishment for the new trees. Its roots have softened the ground so the new tree can easily dive into the soil to get water and strength. But the new shoot, the Savior Jesus would not be like those corrupt kings. Notice how the prophet describes the coming of the great new messianic king, the ruler who will redeem Israel and reclaim her favored place among all nations. He doesn't describe a giant, or a sudden storm of divinely-charged power. Instead the prophet's image starts small. The long awaited Messiah arrives as a shoot, a tiny, tender, green sprout. Even though Isaiah's message to Israel in the first ten chapters has declared the nation's decay and the people's spiritual bankruptcy, the history of Israel's relationship with God isn't dismissed or discarded. The past generations, all those who had lived and died, made up a rich, fertile layer of spiritual soil - a deep, complex medium capable of sustaining the new generations yet to come. Even in her most broken, battered incarnation, even as a seemingly dead stump - that is, as the scattered Diaspora of a landless nation - there is a vital essence that can nurture a new divine presence in their midst. The Messiah springs both from Jesse and from the divine presence that existed before Jesse, before Israel. The Messiah's roots are in God, in the divine mystery itself. It's these roots of divinity which enable the spirit of the Lord to flow through this tender shoot, a spirit which brings wisdom and understanding counsel and might, the knowledge and the fear of the Lord. It is God which is so different from our selfish natures. Christ was sinless. "He was tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin" so the Bible tells us. Does it seem that our country has also left God and done the same wicked pursuits? I see a lot of heads nodding yes. And that may be true. So what do you and I do? Remain faithful to God. Continue to nurture your own faith with the Word and Sacraments. Use the blessings of prayer and Christian fellowship to foster a deeper trust in God. And then reach out to others. Share what God the Holy Spirit gave you. Listen to the last verse of our reading again, "the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious". How will they know about Jesus? You and I must have contact with them. Mailings, Christmas cards and banners are all good, but the most effective (in human terms) way of reaching out to people is to tell them about your faith in Jesus, to invite them to come with you, because the world and Satan will surely try to keep people away from the new-born King Jesus. The word of the year of Webster's Dictionary two years ago (another disappointment to me) was bling-bling. Bling-bling, for those of you who don't have teenagers or aren't pop-music stars, refers to big, gaudy, bright baubles with which one decorates oneself and one's life; huge chunky gold jewelry, over-sized (and usually obviously fake) gems, sequins, rhinestone-encrusted, over-the-top glitz. Bling-bling exists for one reason and one reason only: to be noticed. That's what the world deems important, to look good. But what is of eternal importance in spiritual pureness. And that can only happen in you-know-who, Jesus with His innocent life, perfect death and glorious resurrection from the dead. Current Christian society has another shoot we're proud of: the Christmas tree. Luther first began that custom because it was the only tree in cold Germany that still looked alive, even in the coldest winter. So he placed a candle in the tree like the star of Bethlehem to remind his kids that God is always alive and with them. I hope you take a couple of minutes to look at our tree. Not only is it beautiful, it is full of symbolic figures of our faith: crosses, Alpha & Omega, a Crown, the star and many more. Each is designed to point you to the root of Jesse, the new shoot, Jesus Christ. Never forget Him no matter how busy Christmas becomes. Do I hear a w00t? I'd rather have an "Amen"! |
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Luke 2:1–58 Those of you 45 and older or who watch reruns will remember Edith and Archie Bunker on All in the Family. Archie is the loud-mouth bigot and Edith the dingbat. I didn't watch that show very often, but I remember one particular episode where Edith is going back to her 25th high school reunion and she all excited about seeing her old friend Buck. When they get there, Buck had probably more than doubled his high school weight. Nonetheless, he and Edith spend most of the time talking to each other while Archie fumes. On the way home Edith comments on what a beautiful person Buck was. Archie comments, "Edith, you're the only person I know who can see a beautiful person while all I see is a blimp." Edith replies, "yeah, ain't that too bad." I think the same is true for Christmas. People who only see Christmas as a celebration of food, family and festivities miss the real Christmas. While it's wonderful to get together with your loved ones and sample the family traditions, especially those once-a-year foods, Christmas by definition and by God's design is to remember Jesus' birth. It is a time to thank God that He came into our world as a tiny baby. This child would grow up to save us all from our sins by giving Himself on the cross. He then rose from the dead on the third day and waits in heaven for the last day to take His believing followers to be with Him forever. As Edith would say, "That's beautiful, ain't it?" I hope you have come here tonight to celebrate the Lord Jesus' coming into our world to rescue us from "the hopes and fears of all the years". I hope you have come to do like Mary did and ponder WHO it is in the manger, WHAT He has done and will do for you, WHERE you will be one day by faith in Him and WHY He did it for you. The Who is the Savior of all mankind. The What is to die on the cross to pay for all our sins. The Where weíll be one day by faith alone is Heaven. And the WHY is out of God's great love for us, called grace. It never ceases to amaze me at how God does things in His own time in His own way. Notice how what God does is opposite to human ideals and desires. In a world impressed by power, he comes in weakness. In a society enamored by wealth, he comes in poverty. In a community desirous of fame, he comes in ignominy as the kid next door. In a people that cherish intelligence, he comes as foolishness. A virgin birth, angel choirs, resurrection from the dead! Foolishness! Faith by hearing the Word of God? Foolishness. Yet that is the plan of God. And maybe that's why the angels came to shepherds. They were near the lowest on the food chain of society. It doesn't take much education or skill to watch sheep. You have to be gone several months of the year. Sheep are dirty, smelly, senseless animals. You have to sleep under the stars many nights. In short, it was not a high profile or desirable job. It was for the simple outdoorsmen. And when the angels appeared to them that night, they listened. They heard the "good news of great joy that shall be for all the people." And, they believed and rejoiced and ran as fast as they could ìto see this thing that the angel told us about." They went and saw and worshipped. Their trip to Bethlehem that night changed them. These humble men were privileged to be the first to see the newborn king. It takes humble hearts to do that. In fact, if you go to Bethlehem today, you will find a site which is purported to be the actual birthplace of Jesus. This is unlikely, but not the point I'm trying to make. Those who erected this worship place have done so in a very unusual way. They put a large wall on the only entrance to the "cave". What's most unusual is the door. It is so small even a child has to bend over to enter in. They made the door so small so that everyone who enters is bound to kneel in humility before the Lord. They can only enter on bended knee. Fitting in many ways, isn't it. That is what faith is all about too. Humbling ourselves before God. Faith is not logical. It is not scientific. It is Godly. Faith means humbling ourselves before God. Faith means trusting someone we cannot see, touch or hear directly. It requires acknowledging that God is superior to ourselves and we are His subjects. Thatís the only way to celebrate Christmas. Christmas is about God bringing peace between Himself and His rebellious subjects. He brings not an earthly peace, but a spiritual one. There will always be wars and rumors of wars as the Bible teaches. That is so because people fail to follow God's directions and commandments. If that were so, there would be no strife in our world. Jesus told us that the whole will of God hangs on two commandments: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind." Then he said, "Love your neighbor as yourself." If that were to happen, there surely would be peace. But the peace God referred to is peace through forgiveness of sins. When our sins are washed away, we have a restored relationship with God. We are no longer strangers, foreigners, or enemies. We are welcomed back like the prodigal son was. Peace is ours through the newborn king Jesus. That's why the angel had to tell the shepherds not to fear. I think all of you know what mistletoe is. That sprig has a history. The ancient druids thought that the plant had mystical healing qualities, especially when it came to relationships. Others soon accepted this belief. So, estranged family members, neighbors and even enemies when they came under the plant, would forgive and embrace each other. Christian missionaries liked the idea, so they spread it abroad. Time has made that more romantic so that now we kiss when under that mistletoe. Real peace comes not from a branch, but from the branch of Jesse, Christ our Lord. That is the message the shepherds heard and which I hope you will take home with you again this evening. Humble yourself before the Lord God, the King of kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus. Let nothing interfere with that trust. Let nothing get in the way of your relationship with Jesus. Not presents, not business, not stress. Nothing. Let me share one final picture of that thought with you. Do you remember who King Charlemagne was? Any history buffs here? He was a very good ruler who was also a believer. When Charlemagne died, he made a very unusual request of his followers. He wanted to be buried sitting on his throne, with he crown and robe on, and with one other special feature I'll mention in a moment. His servants did as he requested. About 200 years later another emperor who had heard this legend wondered if it was true. So he exhumed the gravesite of Charlemagne. Sure enough, there was Charlemagne sitting on a decaying throne, his crown askew on his skeletal heard his robe barely visible with decay. But what was most striking was the other thing that Charlemagne had requested. His now boney finger was on a book, the Bible. As he requested, the Bible was opened to Matt. 16:26. That passage reads this way: "What good is it if a man inherits the whole world, yet forfeits his soul." That was a personal and public reminder of the importance of faith in Jesus. That's the message found in the Bethlehem stable: Your Savior is here. He's come for you! Believe in Him and you will be saved! Don't miss that message. |
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“Fix there Words of Mine in your hearts and minds; Bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children… at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up… I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse—the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God;… the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord… by following other gods.”
I think it fair to say that nearly every one of your homes has at least one antique in it. Do you agree? Now, antiques can have a good and a bad reputation to them. It’s mostly good cuz antiques are rare and valuable. They have stood the test of time and are desirable. Some would say an antique is bad cuz it’s old, out-of-date and not as useful as a more modern one. Take an original computer, built about 30 years ago, compared with a laptop. I had a lady recently show me an antique heirloom she was very proud of. It was made by her 5x great grandfather at the time of the American Revolution. It was a cameo that she wore around her neck that he made to remember his daughter’s 21st birthday—July 4, 1776. I asked her how much it was worth and she said a few hundred dollars, but that it was priceless to her family cuz the tradition was that the first daughter in the family to turn 21 received the necklace. She could wear it until the next generation turned 21. He daughter was almost 20 now. She treasured that heirloom of her family. In our reading today, Moses gave the Israelites another heirloom—an heirloom of faith! These were not meant to be worn, but to be put into memory and put into practice every day of their lives. As Moses said, teach them to your children, talking about them at home, while walking, while lying down and when getting up. In other words, it was to be a constant part of their everyday lives! These words were close to Moses farewell. He would not be entering Canaan since he too had not heeded God the way he needed to. The entire generation of those who left Egypt was never to enter the promised land. This new generation would. And to avoid the problems of their parents, they would need to heed the directions he set out (from God) at this time. They would need to have them at their fingertips. This is way before our world with its PDAs, day-planners, calendars and computers. They would have to learn God’s Word, to know God’s Word and most of all, to live by God’s Word. Dylan & Breanna, you have spent over two years studying God’s Word with me in Catechism class. You have memorized the 5 key passages [John 3:16; Matt 28:19-20, Eph. 2:8-9, 1 Cor. 10:12-13, and Rom. 8:28]. Right?! We’ve learned commandments, the Apostles Creed, the Sacraments. All that head knowledge is great; but it means nothing unless you practice it when you walk, lie down, get up and live at home. It’s important that you thank your parents for bringing you here and that you will one day do the same for your kids if God should bless you with them. The Israelites knew this. They spent hours studying God’s Word. They did pass it on to the next generations. They tried to encourage the next group of God’s chosen people to follow the Lord with all their heart, soul and mind. It’s something they tried to pass on. That reminds me of track. I ran track and so did my kids. The meets always end with the 4 x 400. Four teammates each race around the entire track. Let’s say you have four good runners, but the last one drops the baton. What happens? They lose! Faith is very similar. Each generation has to carry the baton their entire life, then pass it on to the next. In track, you can pick up the baton if you drop it and that is true in faith also. I have a gal who is reading the Bible for the first time. She grew up, was confirmed, but dropped the baton, dropped out of her church. Now she’s come back (thank the Lord!) and has completed Matthew and Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers. Gotta give her credit! But what if she hadn’t? Not a pleasant thought, is it? Do you know what the Eskimos doe so that they never loose their way? As they travel along the frozen tundra, they collect rocks or ice chunks and build them into a 6 foot high pillar. They keep on traveling until they can just see the top of the pillar. Then they build another. And so on. Then they never loose their way. Remember how the Israelites did the same in the Jordan River? They piled 12 stones representing the 12 tribes to remind them how God had delivered the land for them. They “fixed those words (of God) on their hearts and minds.” What did God want them to remember? That they were sinners who could not save themselves. That they needed Him wherever they went. That only by the grace of God could they be saved. Any of that change for us? I don’t think so. We may not have committed what they world calls the ‘big’ sins, but we sure have bungled all the rest, badly. We need the savior Jesus too. We need God commandments. We need to obey them for our own good (we’re gonna talk about that in just a minute). What did Jesus tell his disciples to do? Jn. 14:5 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” And also in John (17) “then they will know if you are my disciples if you love one another.” Apparently the disciples weren’t doing either one. Jesus specifically had to tell them to love and to obey. Kinda sad, huh? That’s how serious sin is. It separates us from God. It condemns us to hell. It makes us suffer on earth. That’s why God promises a blessing for obedience and a curse for disobedience. If you think sin is not serious, ask Adam & Eve after they bit the forbidden fruit; ask the people banging on the ark as the floodwaters rose; ask Korah and his men who were swallowed up by the earth for going against God; ask the alcoholic who has lost his job, his family, and his health; ask the children who suffered from their parents divorce because Dad or Mom wouldn’t put them before their own selfish interests or wouldn’t forgive each other, or both; ask a man like King David when his affair was exposed. Sin is deadly serious. It is a curse. That’s why God gave them a choice. Sin and suffer or obey and blessing. Which one do you think we should choose? Don’t we do something similar with our kids? Either you eat your spinach or you go to bed after supper. Either you are in at curfew or you are grounded for two weeks. Either you do your homework or you flunk. Choices. Sin or Obedience. Follow God or do what we want. Blessing or a curse. The sins we fall into need to be discussed here briefly. There’s what I call the unholy trinity. Money, Self and Business. When anything is more important than God, it is your God. When the love of money and what it can buy holds more sway than God, we have a problem. When we think we are right all the time and seek only what makes us happy (and everyone else better get out of the way), we have a problem. When we are too busy for church and Bible Study, we are busier than God ever intended us to be. We have a problem. We must fix God’s Word on our hearts and minds. We cannot drop the baton. The heirloom of faith is priceless. How will you make sure you hang on to it? Be in church. Study God’s Word. Know his will. Follow Him in your deeds as the response of faith. Most of all, cling to Jesus your Savior with all YOUR heart with all YOUR soul and with all YOUR mind. Today and Forever. Amen. |
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August
3, 2008 Pastor Paul Mueller Good Shepherd
Lutheran Church
1 Kings 19: 14-21[Key Portions of the reading] “Elijah said, I have been very zealous for the Lord! The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altar, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too! The Lord said to him, Go back and anoint Hazel king over Aram, Jehu king over Israel and Elisha to succeed you as prophet. Yet I reserve 7000 in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal. So Elijah went from there, found Elisha (who) left his oxen and ran after Elijah. And he became Elijah’s attendant.”
Do you remember the Serenity prayer? It summarizes what the sermon was all about. Here it is: God, give me the strength to change the things I can, The patience to bear the things I can’t change And the wisdom to know the difference! Do you think Elijah needed this prayer? Absolutely. He faced all kinds of pressures and forgot that God was with him. He was so depressed cuz he couldn’t change some things that he even asked God to take his life! He forgot that when problems occur God is there to help us thru them and give us what we need to deal with any situation that might come up. Let me give you a quick background for Elijah. He had been called by God to be a prophet. He was given special gifts and abilities by God to carry out his mission. When God told Elijah to predict a 3 year drought, it happened. Ravens fed him and a brook gave him drink. When the brook dried up, God sent him to a non-Israelite woman who was asked to give her last meal (literally) to Elijah first; in faith she did & the flour & oil didn’t run out until the famine was over. When the woman’s son died, Elijah was able to heal him. Later, in a showdown with the false prophets of the false god Baal, God sent down fire from Heaven which consumed even the stones of the altar. Elijah commanded the people to seize the false prophets and had 450 of them killed. You would have thought he should have been happy but he wasn’t. There was a mental battering ram knocking him silly. Let’s look at how God helped Elijah and will help us also with stress. After all that happened, you’d think Elijah would be ‘walking tall’, secure in what God had done. Instead we find him in the verses just before our reading asking God to take his life cuz he just couldn’t take it any longer. You see Elijah so sad—I would say depressed—that he wanted to die! He wanted to die for several reasons. He was frustrated with the pace that his preaching was having on others. There was no great cry for God to be praised. That made him feel isolated and alone. Wicked Queen Jezebel put out a contract to kill him. He was scared. In addition, Elijah compounded his problems by not getting enough rest. He literally ran 40 miles non-stop, didn’t get nutrition and only a little sleep. He did all that in a futile effort at trying to remain in control. The ups and downs of life as a prophet were getting to him. And, he had no other person on earth to confide in and to share his struggles with. He was alone. Is being alone a good thing? Usually not. Sometimes it can be a positive thing. In our gospel reading today, after Jesus fed the 5000, he went alone up the mountain to pray. That time with God is invaluable. Just like out time in prayer and in worship here is invaluable. When we gather each week with out family of bElijahevers, we are taking time out of the busy world with all its demands and pressures to spend time with God and with our fellow believers. Work, school, family, computers, even sports and activities can lead us to feel too busy and not relaxed. Sunday morning should be a time to relax with God, to clear your heart of all sin, to receive God’s forgiveness and grace. It should be a time to celebrate baptism and Holy Communion. It is a time to lay our sin at the feet of Jesus who died and rose again. He will share with us the words I am so privileged to repeat to you in God’s place: GO IN PEACE, YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN! We need to take the time to listen to God. In our reading, God sent a tornado-like wind which destroyed rocks. Was god in the wind? No. God sent an earthquake. Was God in the earthquake? No. He sent a huge fire. Was God in the fire? No. How did God ‘appear’? In a still quiet whisper. In a small voice. We have to be ready to hear the voice of God in His Word, the Bible. Too many want God to make some huge show or fantastic display. But God chooses to come to us in His quiet Word. I heard a story from my grandfather that relates to this. Among his many jobs, he worked in an icehouse. Do you remember the time before refrigerators? (Well, look it up if you don’t.) They had rooms which were insulated as well as they possibly could. People would buy ice from the icehouses to keep their food from spoiling in the summer. One of the guys grandpa worked with lost his watch while he was working in the icehouse. It was a keepsake from his grandfather. They searched the huge room was no success. At lunch, the guy offered $10 (like offering $500 today) to whoever could find his watch. The 10 year old son on one of the guys was listening and you could see his eyes light up. He went into the storage room and 15 minutes later came out with the watch. They asked him how he found it when they couldn’t. He simply said, ‘I just got real quiet and listened for the ticking. I kept following the sound until I found the watch. He listened to the still quiet voice. I also told you how Elijah didn’t take care of himself. Instead of letting God deal with Jezebel, he took off running. He let his fears control him and run his body down. We should never run from our fears. Do you remember the words from Galatians where the Bible talks about the armor of God? The breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit, the shield of faith? Did you notice that in that description, the only part of the body that is not covered is your back? If we turn to run, we expose the only unprotected part of ourselves. When we face troubles with God’s weapons and armor, we will be victorious. When we run we leave ourselves exposed and run-down. So, God gave Elijah sleep and something to eat when he awoke to supply his body with the energy he needed. We too must be careful we don’t let ourselves get run-down. We need to get the proper rest and nourishment to be strong in body as well as in spirit. Finally, we need to be reminded we are never alone. First and foremost, God is with us. God said in Hebrews 13, “Never Will I Leave You, Never Will I forsake you.” Back to our Gospel lesson today; the disciples felt alone on the boat in the storm. Jesus came walking on the water to remind them that they weren’t. He even let Peter come out to join Him. When Peter focused his faith on Jesus, all was well. As soon as he focused on earthly waves and troubles, down he went. Can you see the lesson in that for us? (In the ‘by-the-way category here: Did you ever stop to ask why the other 11 disciples didn’t ask to come too? Did they lack faith? Sure they did. I encourage you to “get out of the boat!” Walk by faith. Let God lead you and don’t be afraid to follow Him. Get out of the boat!) God tells us He knew us before the world began. He preserves our life, He loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for us so our future is safe and assured. God planned our salvation before Adam & Eve ever took a bite of that fruit. Jesus was already committed to coming to earth to suffer and die in our place so that we wouldn’t have to spend eternity in Hell. He wants us so much that the Holy Spirit comes to each of us to work faith in our hearts. Our forgiveness is assured in Jesus’ blood. Our future is in God’s hands. If all that is true, is there ever need to fear, to be stressed out? Certainly not! God is greater than any problem I have. Satan would like nothing better than for us to think that God has left us so that we would suffer with them eternally in Hell. That’s why he tries to create doubt in our hearts. When bad things happen, he is only too happy to chirp, ‘God doesn’t really care about you. Those were only words. No one else believes like you do, you’re all alone. It’s just not worth the effort. Come over to my side. There’s plenty of others here.’ God created us to need each other, to encourage each other, so we would know that we are not alone in the negative connotation of that word. God told Elijah to do all the anointing and protegé picking to remind him of that. Elisha was to be his successor AND his friend. Elisha was someone to confide in, to share problems with, the mutually strengthen each other. Isn’t that also why we come to church every Sunday? We want to gather with other believers and rejoice in God’s plan for us? People tell me what a friendly church we have. I agree with them and I’m thankful for that. Isn’t that how we support one another like St. Paul urges us in our reading from Galatians to “Bear Each Other’s Burdens”? We do a lot of things together cuz we are united in our faith and share knowledge that God has a plan for us, just like God wanted Elijah to know. Elisha would give him moral support and friendship. Fellow members do that here. I remember my grandpa telling me about friendship and support. He lived in Michigan, a part-time farmer. One spring was especially wet and the farmers couldn’t plant their crops, which meant no money coming in. The neighbor tried to plant but his tractor got stuck up to the axels. He asked grandpa to pull him out. Grandpa got the tractor out, drove over and saw his predicament. Grandpa looked at his friend and said, well, I’ll try but I don’t think it’ll work. If it doesn’t, we’ll both just sit in the mud and throw mud-balls at each other till we feel better. They both started laughing. That was what the neighbor needed, someone to be there for him, someone to share his problems with, someone to laugh with. What kind of stresses do you face in your life? Tensions on the job; pressures at home with the family; not enough time to do everything we want or need to; health problems; perhaps money difficulties; maybe even some questions about your faith. Sound about right? I thought so. Wouldn’t it be great to have a magic potion that would make them all go away?! God is no magic wand. He is the still quite voice of Scripture. He had His Son pay for all our sins to make us right with Him. He gives us faith to receive that blessing. He promises to “be with us to the very end of the age”. When stress comes a-callin’ ask yourself (out loud if necessary), Is God in control of all things and my life? Answer heartily “YES!” Rest in God’s hands. Then keep an eye out for someone you can encourage and support with your prayers, advice or simply being there. And don’t forget to thank God for these people. Finally, be aware that there is no magic wand I can wave to give you this assurance instantly. It comes with continued contact with God and His Word. Stay in the Word! Here’s the serenity prayer again, when you need it: Lord, give me the strength to change the things I can, The patience to bear the things I can’t, And the wisdom to know the difference! Remember these things too, that Elijah had to learn: spend time alone with the Lord in prayer and devotions and worship. Get your rest and don’t let outside forces weigh you down. Get together with fellow believers to share your sorrows and celebrate your joys. Most of all, put all your hope and confidence in the God of Elijah and of us all! . |
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One
of Pastor Mueller's Sermons
(Deut, 5:12-15 excerpts) Observe the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day to the Lord your God. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord has commanded you to observe the Sabbath Day.
I was looking thru a book that listed weird laws that are still on the official books of American cities. I found that in Rumford Maine, it is illegal to bite your landlord. (Is it legal in the next town over?) In Nigel New York you cannot roller skate in a public restroom. In Wixley Montana it is illegal to walk backwards after sunset. Ridiculous? Archaic? Not Valid anymore? Yes! I think that many people feel God’s 10 commandments fit in that same category, not valid anymore, archaic and ridiculous. But nothing could be further from the truth. God gave us the 10 C for our good. It was a blessing for us to have guidelines so there should be no doubt about what should or shouldn’t be done. IF we follow the 10C, how will our lives turn out? Pretty good, don’t you think!? No, I’ll state that even stronger, our lives would be perfect. Let me use Dylan for an example if he doesn’t mind me picking on him. If Dylan got to chose all his classes for high school next year all by himself, what do you think he would take? P.E. all the way thru with a shop class for variety probably. Would that curriculum get him a decent education? I don’t think so. If we were to choose our own way, or commandments if you will, would any be even close to what God has set up? I strongly doubt it. They would all begin with the thought of ‘I want this’ or ‘I need that’. Each would begin and end with me, if given the choice. Did you ever stop to think why God gave us the commandments not once, but twice in writing? My opinion is that when God gave them in Exodus it was cuz they were not being followed very well at all. Even tho people’s consciences told them that a certain activity was wrong, they would excuse it by saying, ‘where does it say that?’ So God gave the 10 C to Moses on stone tables so the 10C couldn’t be changed. Now, in our reading for today, several years later God again feels the need to re-state them again. Why? the obvious answer is that they were still not being followed. The words God used this time in Deuteronomy (2nd law) differ slightly from the one in Exodus. ‘Observe’ is used in this one and ‘as the Lord your God commanded you’ is added. Which is a stronger word, observe or Remember? Observe, right? God is re-emphasizing the need to listen to Him. In fact, in the Hebrew the word means ‘to exercise great care over’. It’s the same word God used for the angel who was to guard the entrance to Eden after Adam & Eve were banished; he was to take great care of, to guard the entrance with his flaming sword. Let’s say you had a garden at home and watered it every week. You have remembered your garden but it certainly will not thrive. In fact it will likely die. If you observe it every other day and water it then, it will grow like crazy. God says to observe great care with the Sabbath day, that is with worshiping Him so our faith will grow. Why should believers need that kind of guidance? Because we are sinners and have an ungrateful, sinful, self-centered nature. We want what we want. If God had not commanded us to worship Him, do you think we would? Probably not. God is trying to slam our self-centeredness. He is emphasizing that the most important thing in life is to have a close relationship with Him. That will lead to Heaven. Lack of this relationship leads to life eternal in Hell with Satan. Our relationship with Jesus is crucial to our eternity. We MUST have faith in Jesus to enter eternal life in Paradise. it’s that simple. Now here is the part of the sermon I always struggle with. As believers we want to be Gospel motivated, not law motivated. That is why God specifically notes why we should worship Him: you were slaves in Egypt—in two ways—and I brought you out. I rescued you from earthly and spiritual bondage. I am your God, your redeemer and rescuer. Should that motivate thanks? You tell me! In addition, God rested on the 7th day to give us rest and an example of rest. “There remains then a Sabbath rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did his” the Bible says in Heb. 5:10. The very word Sabbath means rest. The Sabbath day is rest day. We can’t let our relationship with Jesus become stale or casual or just something we do. It has to stay fresh alive and well. God wants to give us rest and peace. Jesus wanted to give peace with God, which we could not accomplish on our own. Now what day are we celebrating today? Father’s Day. What do we do on Father’s Day? No, not rest. We honor our fathers. Now WHY, do we need a special day to do that? Why did the United States government feel the need to pass a declaration that the 3rd Sunday in June is fathers day (or that the 2nd Sunday in May is Mothers day for that matter? Shouldn’t we be honoring, loving and respecting our parents everyday? Of Course! Yet, our govt recognized that we often take our parents for granted; that we do become neglectful and forgetful of all the blessings we receive from our parents that it declared those 2 days special. Woe to the son or daughter who doesn’t get a card or wish their father well today (right Jenni?)! The same is true of the commandment. Dare we forget our God by half-hearted worship and recognition of him in our lives? NO. Observe the Sabbath Day. Don’t let it become stale. Come here for peace from God in the forgiveness of sins. Come here to thank God for all His blessings. Come with Joy and excitement and submission and awe before the God who had sent His Son to die in your behalf. Thank him for giving us a place in Heaven. Remember what He has done for us. That’s the gracious God we have. Now why is it that half the people who belong to a church are not there on a Sunday? Surveys have been taken of church attendance. Did you know that on an average Sunday only 40% of those who call themselves believers are in church? Now let’s just say that 10% are home-bound and another 10% are away or not able to attend church. That makes it to half the believers. But where are the rest? The Roman Catholic has just over 1/3rd of their members in church on a worship day. In our new statistical report that just came out, we averaged 44.7% in church. Good, but still so many missing in action! Why is it that there are so many missing in church? When people aren’t here they are missing rest and something more in their lives. I think that there are three basic reasons why believers aren’t in church (and there certainly could be more). Either they have forgotten that all we have comes from God, or they have lost their focus and become so concerned about earthly things and making money that God has been moved down the priority list, or they are plain and simple ungrateful. They have forgotten about God. They have forgotten God! There’s a parallel illustration here. If you ever talked to someone who served in WWI, they’ll tell you it was “the Big One”, “the War to End All Wars”. So after WWI, our military was not kept up to readiness. We forgot that wars will continue as long as the world endures, as Iraq today indicates. After WWI, our troops became ill-equiped, poorly trained and our technology became woefully inadequate. I’m convinced that WWII could have ended a year or even two years earlier if we had been prepared as we are now. The same is true of us. Satan IS going to attack us. As the Bible says “he prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour”. Will we be prepared for his attacks? Or will we be MIA, Missing in Action,or even DTH, Doomed to Hell?. We get the strength to resist Satan thru regular worship and Bible Class and prayer. If we're not there, something important is missing. We are endangering our very eternity for our souls. Can’t we give God His due? Will we observe the Sabbath, to exercise great care over it? I’m reminded of this story. A man was able to walk to work. On his way home he stopped at a fruit stand and bought 7 apples for lunch etc. As he walked on he was approached by a homeless man. The man begged him for some food, so the man gave him six apples. No sooner had he walked away than the homeless man ran up behind him, pushed him to the ground and took that last apple. Makes you mad doesn’t it!? It should. Well, aren’t we like that when God gives us six days to work and get all the other things done we want and then asks us to set aside one day a week to worship him; and then we take that one too! Makes sense doesn’t it? What we need to do is show straying believers what they are missing. Remind them of the joy of belonging to Jesus and His group of believers gathered here. We need to impress on them the importance of a continued relationship with Jesus. It was Jesus who died on the cross for us to take away our sins. It was Jesus who rose on the third day to defeat death and Satan. It was Jesus who has prepared a place in heaven for all who believe in Him. It is Jesus who wants to take us to Heaven forever. We are lost and condemned creatures without Him. Sin has a death grip on us. And only Jesus can unlock that deadly hold. Are God’s 10C outdated and best buried in the heap of history? Or are they vitally necessary and a blessing to all who heed them out of love for God? You decide. You should have observed what my vote is. |
Did you notice that I left the banana on the pulpit? Anyone here want it? I didn’t think so. But let me tell you a true story of a boy who did want it and how it helped save his life. For him it was a great gift, one worth having. It was back in the days of WW II. It was not a good time for our world. On one of the Philippine Islands, the Japanese had invaded and were in control of the big cities and the important land areas. The men were in prison camps or scattered in the hills organizing into guerilla fighters. They prominent women and children were herded into another camp. It was bad but not terrible—until the Japanese started losing battles and getting pushed back. Food became scarce and the tempers of the soldiers grew shorter. Soon people were starving and in danger of dying. It was in that camp that my story begins. Among the prisoners in that camp was a 13 year old boy who was there with his mom. Before the war his Dad ran the biggest plantation on the island. They had everything they wanted. Cars, the best house on the island, servants, the best food. You name it, they had it. Then the war came. The boy and his mother not only had to share a cramped hut with many other people, but food was scarce. His stomach ached for anything! One day the boy was walking around the edge of the camp next to the barbed wire near the jungle. Suddenly, a Pilipino boy about a year younger than him ran up to the fence and thrust his dirty hand through the barbed wire. In it was a banana that looked just like this one. The boy quickly snatched the battered fruit, which had probably been thrown away by a guard as undesirable. He not only ate the mushy fruit, he ate the peel as well. It was the best gift he had ever been given! This began a nearly three year ritual that was repeated 2 or 3 times a week. The little boy was risking his very life to feed the other lad. If he was ever caught, he would certainly be shot. But the lad persisted, despite the danger to himself. A piece of coconut, a guava, an apple core; even a bird’s egg or a bug was passed through the fence. The boy was so hungry, he gladly ate whatever came in those dirty hands. In fact, there was enough sometimes to share with his mother. This little native saved them. What a wonderful gift. When you think about it, isn’t Christmas the same principle? God gave us the most wonderful gift of all! He gave us Himself. He came down from Heaven to feed us every day with His Word and his blessings. He gives us what we need to survive. For without him, we would surely be in Satan’s prison camp forever. We would walk around with his curse and terror and hopelessness for eternity. Jesus didn’t look like much either. The shepherds were out in the fields relaxing as much as they could, still keeping a wary eye out for predators which would attack their defenseless sheep. Suddenly a choir of angels came to serenade them with news of a Messiah coming into the world that night. They announced Good News of Great Joy that would be for all people. God was coming to men. He had come to save everyone from the devil’s clutches. The shepherds knew the Old Testament promises. Every Israelite looked forward to His coming. That promised sustained Israel through many tough years. The angels announced, He’s here, he’s here! Remember when you were a kid waiting for grandma & grandpa to get to your house to celebrate a special occasion like Christmas or your birthday? My two brothers & my sister and I would stand on the couch just waiting for them to arrive. We looked hard for that brown Buick Cutlass to turn onto our street. And when it did, we started jumping up and down in excitement while my parents told us to calm down. (I think my Dad’s exact words were, “knock it off boys, NOW”) You did the same didn’t you?! Come on, admit it. But when the shepherds went to see what the angels had told them about, they found nothing special. Just a baby. And poor one at that. He didn’t have any attendants; no doctor; he didn’t even have a room! Just a few smelly animals somewhat peeved that their food trough was now a crib. Just like the food passed to the hungry boy didn’t look like much, Jesus didn’t either—but both were life-giving! What makes the story of the boys even more compelling is the fact that while they were free, the spoiled imprisoned boy had abused the other kid. He had been downright mean to him. Name calling, derogatory looks, even stone throwing were projectiles used by the spoiled one. He had even once told the little boy that his father could buy and sell him! The Pilipino boy had no reason to show kindness to the boy. But he did anyway. He loved the unlovable. Sound familiar? Our sins are like stones thrown at Jesus. He has no logical reason to love us. Yet he did anyway. He gave himself up for us on the cross despite our ingratitude and life of sin. He gives us his body and blood in Holy Communion to strengthen our steps, to remind us that we are his. We are free!! When the camp was finally liberated, what joy there was! The first thing the imprisoned boy did was to find his friend and give him a huge hug and thank you. They would be inseparable from that time on. Again, can you see a parallel between us and Jesus? I hope so! I pray that you will be inseparable from Jesus every day of your life. Tonight is a great day. But it can’t be just one night. Walk with Jesus the rest of your life too! Every time you see a smushed banana, it might remind you of the two little boys near a prison camp. When you see the trees, the lights, the decorations, let them remind you of Jesus, your Savior, the best gift of all! |
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