“The Root and Fruit of Thanksgiving,” Col. 1.9–14, Thanksgiving ‘19

1.                Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  A very Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!!!  The message from God’s Word today is taken from Colossians 1:9-14, it’s entitled, “The Root and Fruit of Thanksgiving,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                I like Thanksgiving Day: the inspirational background of pilgrim history, the hymns we love to sing, the lavish spread of food shared with family or good friends, to say nothing about the opportunity to give thanks to God for his many blessings.  But there’s a danger that we may praise God with our words and appetites, but then snub him with our thoughts and actions a day later and the day after that and the rest of the year. 

3.                It’s like the story of Johnson and Jackson, who met at the airport. Johnson snubbed Jackson: “Say, Johnson, don’t you recognize me?”  “Of course,” was the cold reply.  “Well, aren’t you even going to say ‘hello’?”  “Hello,” was the unenthusiastic response.  “Aren’t you being a bit ungrateful, Johnson?” Jackson replied. “When you were ill two years ago, who paid your doctor bills?”  “You did.”  “And this summer, who saved you from drowning when you got a cramp?”  “You did,” said Johnson once more.  “And you can pass me by without even a greeting?”  “Well, sure,” said Johnson. “What have you done for me in the past three months?”

4.                I doubt if anyone here today is so blatantly ungrateful. After a moment of crisis or on a day such as today, our thanks may be quite plentiful, but we easily lapse back into a forgetful life, unaware of how ungrateful we’ve become toward both God and others.  Our God speaks to us this day about perpetual thanksgiving, the thanksgiving life or, to put it another way, “the root and fruit of Thanksgiving.”

5.                The seeds we sow in spring won’t produce healthy plants if the root is shallow or diseased. Similarly, our thanksgiving will be weak and short-lived if the root is missing, if our thanksgiving is only an annual emotional spasm.  No, the root must go deep. According to St. Paul in our text, the real root of gratitude toward God is a matter of being “filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (v 9). That’s Paul’s prayer for us.

6.                What does that mean? Well, spiritual knowledge and understanding and wisdom are all linked together. As we grow in our knowledge of God by reading and hearing his Word and by observing his hand in history, in nature, and in our personal lives, we understand him better. As we understand him better, we become wiser in our attitudes toward life and toward him. As we become wiser, we become more thankful to him. We are aware—and appreciative—of his love for the world and us. Now that’s the thanksgiving root that nourishes the thanksgiving plant, which in turn produces the thanksgiving fruit!

7.                Spiritual wisdom sees God’s providence in history. Two ships left distant shores on a pilgrimage. They left one hundred years apart. The first left the Caribbean island of Hispaniola in 1519, carrying soldiers. They were looking for wealth, fame, and fortune. They arrived on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. Their leader, Hernando Cortez, claimed all the land he saw, and he captured all the people in the name of the Queen of Spain and the Holy See of Rome. Cortez marched on to Mexico City, leaving behind him a bloody trail of conquest. With just over five hundred men, he conquered millions of Native Americans and enslaved them for centuries to follow.

8.                The other ship left England in 1620 and landed at Plymouth. This vessel held Puritans who were fleeing from religious oppression, searching for a land where they could worship in freedom. They weren’t soldiers, but families. They didn’t carry swords, but Bibles. Their motive wasn’t to gain land and wealth, but to establish a home where they could serve God as their hearts dictated.  What if God had permitted a hurricane—so common in the Gulf of Mexico—to blow Cortez and his men to the shores of what we now call our land, the United States of America? What kind of freedom and thanksgiving would we be enjoying today—if any?

9.                Spiritual knowledge knows how dependent we are. In world history, our country enjoys national, physical, medical, and psychological security. Sometimes we conclude that we are a pretty self-sufficient people and hardly need God. But when you get right down to it, we’re not nearly as independent as the Pilgrims. They cut their own wood, made their own candles, cured their own meat, raised their own food, and wove their own clothes. We do little or none of that now. Just think of what a national strike by farmers, police, fire, or transportation workers would do, or an oil embargo or a shutdown of the military. Why, we’re utterly dependent on other people and so, eventually, utterly dependent on God.

10.             We’re dependent on God not only for physical needs but also for spiritual needs. By nature we are selfish, sinful human beings with no way to escape punishment. We have no peace of conscience or assurance of a happy eternity. It’s only because God provides forgiveness through the death of his own Son, Jesus Christ, as our substitute, that we have spiritual peace and security. His Spirit calls us to believe that, and it keeps us in that faith. We’re constantly and utterly dependent on his grace and mercy. This knowledge and understanding is the deep root of thanksgiving.

11.             Another section of that root of thanksgiving is the wisdom that understands how inclined we are to forget the fact that we actually don’t own anything. We are simply God’s stewards, his caretakers. Everything we have is simply a trust given to us by God. But the deepest root of thanksgiving, which we are calling spiritual wisdom, is in these words of Paul: “[Give] thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col 1:12–14).

12.             The nutrients flowing from the deep root of our thanksgiving—our spiritual understanding, knowledge, and wisdom—nourish the growing fruit of thanksgiving.  First, we share in the inheritance of the saints in light. True, while we feebly struggle here, they shine and bask in the glory of the Father. Yet we are one in Christ. We, too, “proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pet 2:9). 

13.             Second, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Col 1:13). Christ is our King—not the devil or our sinful, unruly selves. 

14.             And third, “We have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (v 14). We are right with God. We are at peace with him. We are empowered to live with thanksgiving, leading a life “worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work. . . . May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy” (vv 10–11). Yes, the thankful life is the forgiven life, the God-pleasing life, the fruitful life, the serving life, the joyful life.  The Root of Spiritual Understanding That God Gives Us Nourishes the Spiritual Fruit of Thanksgiving, Which We Offer to God in Praise.  Amen.  Now the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting.  Amen.

“The Good Shepherd Takes Another Lamb to Heaven,” John 10.11, 14–15, 27–29 Don Brey Funeral Sermon, 12-9-19

1.                Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  The message from God’s Word today, as we mourn the death of Don Brey, a beloved Father, Grandfather, Brother, Uncle, and Friend, is taken from John 10:11, 14-15, and 27-29.  It’s entitled, “The Good Shepherd Takes Another Lamb to Heaven,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                The body of Don Brey lying here is exactly the reason a man named Jesus was sent into the world. Death needed a cure. Death needed an enemy. Death needed a victor. And death got one. It was Jesus, the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd goes to battle against death. You can’t defeat death. Only Jesus can.

3.                You see, the founder of all science, God the Father, determined, from the foundation of the world, that science couldn’t cure death. No amount of technology. No drugs. No vaccinations. The Creator of all mysteries in the universe, God the Father, determined, from the foundation of the world, that no cryptic formula, no alignment of stars could cure death. The maker of all emotions, God the Father, determined, from the foundation of the world, that neither passionate human love nor personal sincerity nor Olympic-like individual effort could cure death.

4.                Only One could cure death. Only One could make right that horrible first death in the Old Testament Book of Genesis, righteous Abel, and every death in between, right down to this one before us. The Good Shepherd, Jesus, laid down his life to defeat death.

5.                It’s written, though little believed in the world, that God the Father said to the very first human beings, Adam & Eve, “In the day that you eat of [the fruit] you shall surely die” (Gen 2:17). And it’s written, and less believed by the world, that God the Father’s cure for death came from “the Seed of the woman,” our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (Gen. 3:15).

6.                And so it was, that the cure for death was born of the Virgin Mary, as we celebrate at Christmas, and then he, Jesus, laid down his life on a cross. His death defeats death. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. That’s how death was defeated. That’s how Don gains eternal life. That’s how Don never perishes. That’s how Don can’t be snatched from the hand of Jesus, His Good Shepherd.

7.                He who has no faith in Jesus, the Good Shepherd, could look at this body, these family members with their tears and sorrows and ask, “Who is your Good Shepherd who knows you and leaves you in such a state? Who is your Good Shepherd from whom you believe that you will have eternal life? Who is your Good Shepherd in whom you believe that you shall never perish?”

8.                You answer simply, but boldly: Jesus. For, there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). Not Allah. Not Buddha. Not Medicare. Not the United States of America. Only Jesus. The Father has put all things under Jesus’ feet (Ephesians 1:22). That includes death. Death is now a footstool to Jesus. But then, why the reality of what we see here?  This lifeless body?

9.                Sin. Sin still ravages the body. Sin still has its teeth in our flesh. But, you must not put your eyes on your sin. Put them on Jesus. Hate your sin, detest your sin, curse your sin, but fix your eyes on, “Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Heb 12:2). He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, as John the Baptist proclaimed (John 1:29). How? By becoming sin for you.  St. Paul writes in 2 Cor. 5:21, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus, your Good Shepherd, took on your punishment for your sins. By dying your death. A death that didn’t have dominion over Jesus. A death that could not hold Jesus in the grave. Three days after Jesus laid down his life, the Father vindicated the Son. He was raised from the dead.

10.             St. Paul writes in Romans chapter 6: “We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God” (Rom 6:9–10).  That’s why St. Paul says here in Romans 6, “that we were buried with Christ by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:4).  This is why Don’s parents, Clarence & Gertrude, took him to Emmaus Lutheran Church in Poy Sippi on July 28^th, 1940 to be baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection.  On that day God got Don’s death over with and he was raised to newness of life in Jesus Christ His Lord.  And, years later God led Don to confess with his mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father, when he was confirmed in his Christian faith at Emmaus Poy Sippi on Palm Sunday April 11^th, 1954.

11.             I personally didn’t know Don, but I do know that Jesus His Good Shepherd knew Him, and He gave up His life on the cross for Him to give Don the promise of eternal life, to prepare a heavenly home for him (John 14:3).  You and I must still live in the flesh. Don has put his off. On Thursday December 5^th, the Lord Jesus said to Don, “Today you are with med in paradise” (cf. Lk 23:43). His soul is with all the saints, awaiting the resurrection of his body when it will be fashioned like the Lord Jesus’ glorious body (Phil 3:21). Since Don believed in the forgiveness of his sin in this life, he now has new life, eternal life, Jesus’ life.  Don Has New Life because of Jesus, His Good Shepherd.

12.             “Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen” (Heb 13:20–21).

“Be Patient” James 5.7-11, Advent 3C Dec. ‘19

1.                Please pray with me.  May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer.  Amen.  The message from God’s Word this 3^rd Sunday in Advent is taken from James 5:7-11, it’s entitled, “Be Patient,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                “Lord, grant me patience, and please hurry!”  I’m sure many of you have heard that one-liner of a prayer. It’s funny because it’s true. We are by nature impatient people. Our impatience shows up in a wide variety of situations. Our impatience will lead us into a wide variety of sin. James says to us in our text, “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.” In this Epistle, we will also see that James tells us where to turn to find that patience we need.  The Lord Himself Provides What We Need to Obey His Call for Patience as We Await His Return.

3.                Throughout Advent, John the Baptist points us to Jesus Christ, “the promised Messiah, the very Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Proper Preface). United to that Lamb by faith, we are ready and patiently waiting for him to come again in glory. Isaiah in our Old Testament Reading would have us wait for our coming Lord with great anticipation and hope: “Behold, your God will come . . . and save you” (Is 35:4). But even John, in Herod’s prison, seems to lack patience for a moment, as he waits for the promise to be fulfilled. “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” is the question he sends to Jesus (Gospel, Mt 11:3). By Jesus’ works and teaching, he does show himself to be the fulfillment of all the promises. He is God who comes to save. Waiting patiently for his return, we come with hope and joy to the liturgy of this Sunday, traditionally known as Gaudete, which is Latin for “rejoice.” In Christ, we sing, “Rejoice in the Lord always” and “hope continually” (Introit).

4.                “Patience is a virtue,” you might tell a mischievous child who’s snooping around for clues about what he’s getting for Christmas. If patience is a virtue, then we must also recognize that our impatience is a sin. It may take some critical self-examination before we’re ready to admit that. Do you get impatient with others? James says this about such minor transgressions: “Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door” (v 9). 

5.                Some may remark about how nostalgia and warmth in this joyous holiday season bring out the best in humanity. But don’t we also notice how the stress of these hectic days brings out the worst in human nature? People embarrass themselves and the rest of us by drinking to excess at holiday parties. They push and shove through the stores. And when you get behind these people in the checkout line, they take forever, don’t they? Fumbling with their wallets, talking with the cashier about things unrelated to the business at hand, completely unconcerned about the rest of us who are held up behind them.

6.                Now, at each point we must stop and examine ourselves. Which is the bigger problem? The annoying behavior of those people or your impatience with them and your grumbling about them, and which problem can you, ought you, do something about?

7.                Throughout James’s Epistle, he urges Christians to live out their faith by caring for others. Here, in this passage today, he continues that lesson. We are to do good works particularly by having an attitude of forgiveness, patience, and long-suffering with those whom God has given us.

8.                Patience ought to be our way of life. God has made us great promises. Trust them. He has promised the resurrection of the body. Jesus says, “I will raise [you] up on the last day” (Jn 6:40). He has promised you heaven—life in the face-to-face presence of God Almighty, our loving Father. That’s our great hope. Sure, and certainly coming.  But it is not yet here, so you must hear and trust in these promises, while patiently waiting “until the coming of the Lord.”

9.                Jesus has not left you on your own to come up with all the virtues he requires. You don’t have to try to dig down deep somewhere inside yourself to come up with the stoic strength and peaceful composure needed to live a life of patience. In fact, when you do dig down deep, you’ll likely find more troubles, more annoyances, more grievances, and more cause to be impatient.

10.             Patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. You who have been baptized have had the Spirit of God given to dwell within you. He gives you gifts. You who have been brought into God’s eternal kingdom of grace have been given grace and forgiveness to spare, enough to spread around to others.

11.             James encourages us this way: “As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord” (v 10). Events in the lives of the believers of old are recorded carefully in Scripture that we might learn from them. They had much that they could have been stressed out about; they had much that they could have grumbled about. They were rejected, chased out, beaten, and killed. They remained patient and steadfast. Moses, after he was driven out of Egypt, spent forty years tending sheep in Sinai before being called to his life’s work. He was patient.

12.             Hearing stories like these gives us a better perspective on the little things that try our patience, such as waiting in a slow checkout line. Job, as another example, trusted God, even when everything in his life fell apart. His riches, his livelihood, and his children were all lost to him. But, he remained patient, steadfast, and unshaken. So, listen to what James says: “You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand” (v 8).

13.             Beyond being something for us to mimic, God has a higher purpose for these examples of the Old Testament believers. In James 5:11, we read, “You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.”  By pointing us to these good examples, God is not like a school teacher scolding you, saying, “Why can’t you straighten up and be more like Job here?”  We have been given the careful record of the lives of these people of faith so that we can see the Lord. All along, he is there, with his people. In his mercy he never allows us to suffer more than we can bear. In his compassion he provides us complete salvation. And it’s all by the plan, laid out and carried out so patiently over thousands of years, to come into our world and patiently take our place.

14.             Christ Jesus was patient for us. Patient with our faithless questions. Patient with the ridiculous false accusations against him. Patiently bearing his cross to the hill, where he agonized for hours before he died. Now your impatience is forgiven—and you have something worth waiting for, however long it takes.

15.             The Lord’s purpose in all this, in all that he’s been doing, is to get you to know his compassion and mercy. His purpose is that you would look to him constantly, that you would look away from all those annoyances, all those grievances you have, all that taxes your patience, and look to his cross, where his mercy forgives you and his compassion saves you for eternity in heaven.

16.             Jesus used a parable to teach us that God is a Father who patiently waits for his child to return home. He looks down the road to the horizon and waits. In Jesus’ parable, the Prodigal Son finds himself wallowing in the mud of a pigsty, longing for a return to his father’s home and good graces. His patient father is ready for that. Your patient Father waits for you, longs for you, and desires nothing more than that you leave the wallowing of your impatience and come into his welcoming, peaceful embrace. Amen.  Now the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting.  Amen.