“No Looking Back” Luke 9.51-62 Pentecost 6C, June ‘13

1.             Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our Gospel lesson for this Sunday from Luke 9:51-62 points to the fact that the life for us as followers of Jesus is a life of self-denial. Our service to the Lord must come first in our lives. Whatever earthly things stand in the way of such service must be put aside.  The message is entitled, “No Looking Back,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.             There’s a story told about one-time heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali. Ali was flying to one of his engagements and during the flight the aircraft ran into bad weather. Turbulence began to toss the plane about. Of course, all nervous fliers well know that when a pilot signals “moderate turbulence,” he’s saying, “If you have any religious beliefs, it’s time to start expressing them.” The passengers were instructed to fasten their seatbelts, and all complied but Ali. So the flight attendant approached him and requested that he observe the captain’s order, only to hear Ali respond, “Superman don’t need no seatbelt.” But, the flight attendant didn’t miss a beat, she fired in reply, “Superman don’t need no airplane either!”

3.             This is a good story because I would like you to consider the larger context in which many of us find ourselves. I think that all of you would agree that we work diligently to position ourselves for success in a rapidly-changing world. And when we reach success a sense of invincibility can be felt.  But, we who are followers of Christ must remember that academic or material achievement doesn’t necessarily make a person wise. How foolish it would be for us to take what generations preceding us have valued in coping with life’s turbulence and cast it all aside because we are “modern.” G.K. Chesterton advised that before pulling any fences down, we should always pause long enough to find out why it was put there in the first place. In one of his proverbs, King Solomon writes: “Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, the one who gains understanding, for they are more profitable than silver and yield better returns than gold. Wisdom is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with it” (Proverbs 3:13-15). From this same king we are told that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. In other words, reverence for God is where wisdom starts, recognition that there is a giver of knowledge and wisdom.

4.             Mohammed Ali’s comment that he was “superman” who didn’t need a seatbelt while the plane he was on was in dire distress makes me think of the current state of our culture today in America.  Many people today are living their lives as if God doesn’t care how they live, or like practical atheists, that God doesn’t really exist so why should it matter how I live.  But, this way of thinking that we are invincible and like superman is dangerous.  Remember the words of our Lord Jesus from Luke 9:62 for today, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”  This past week I had another reminder that many people in our culture are looking back to unbelief, to godlessness, rather than toward the cross of Christ and the new way of life God has called us to live.  This past week the Supreme Court issued its ruling on same sex marriage.  It struck down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), allowing for federal benefits for legally married gay couples and potentially allowing for gay marriage in all of California with regard to Proposition 8. Though the ruling isn’t a surprise, we are saddened for our nation, even as we call all Christians to faithfulness and prayer.

5.             As Christians, we believe and confess that God Himself instituted marriage as the life-long union of one man and one woman.  Marriage wasn’t created by religion. Marriage wasn’t created by courts or countries. Marriage didn’t originate as man’s idea. Marriage originated with God. Jesus Himself spoke of this in Matt. 19:4-6, “And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” (quoting Genesis 1:27 and 2:24) Same-sex unions are contrary to God’s will, and gay marriage is, in the eyes of God, no marriage at all. As Christians, we proclaim this truth, no matter what people say. We’re called not to popularity but truth. Marriage is a building block of society, binding parents to their offspring. Every child benefits from the nurture of a mother and the leadership of a father. While having one mother is a blessing, having two mothers or two fathers is confusing for the child and detrimental to her well-being. The divorce culture has done great harm to the institution of marriage as well.  Leaving many children without the presence of a mother or a father within the home hurts their development and their own understanding of what marriage is and how to build a family of their own when they grow up.

6.             Scripture calls homosexuality sinful in Lev. 18:22; 20:13; Rom. 1:24–27, but the Bible also says plainly that those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness,” those who repent and show sorrow over their sin, are forgiven and loved by Christ.  And so as Christ’s Church, we forgive and love too, following His lead with compassion and humility. We forgive and love because we’re all sinners in need of His grace and mercy. Because no matter the sin, we’ve all rebelled against our Creator and fallen prey to unbelief.

7.             Remember Jesus’ words again from Luke 9:62, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”  In Luke 9 we hear about people who wanted to follow Jesus, but they wanted to wait awhile.  They had important things to do first.  But, when people wanted to attend to other matters first, Jesus reminds us in Matthew 6:33, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.”  This was the only way to do it.  Nothing else should come before the Kingdom of God, for Jesus and for us His followers, there’s no looking back.  We must not let the sway of the world, the devil, and our own sinful flesh lead us away from Christ. 

8.               Remember in the context of Luke 9 that for two years, Jesus has been teaching, healing, and ministering to those in His home of Galilee.  But now, He’s “set His face to go to Jerusalem” (vs. 51), the place of His Passion, His dying on the cross to take on the punishment for sin that we all deserve because of our own sinfulness.  Jesus won’t be stopped from His mission to go to the cross for you!  There’s no looking back for Him.

9.               Maybe we recall Jesus’ words about what was sown among the thistles from Matthew’s Gospel in the Parable of the Sower.  It isn’t only obvious sins that can keep a person away from God, but also honorable duties, daily obligations like work, things we think that can’t be neglected.  But, the question is this…  What comes first?  God created us to live with Him, through Him, for Him, and to Him.  We can’t do that without His Word.  It’s through His Word that God begins a relationship with us.  The Word needs time.  You can’t hear it, read it, or learn it without devoting a certain amount of time to it.  We have to take that time.  We shouldn’t let anything disturb us during that time.  There are a great many distractions that try to do that.  Jesus speaks about the concerns we have today that demand our attention and fill our day.  They’re already waiting for us at our bedside in the morning on our smartphones, tablet computers, on TV, and in the newspaper, as well as on our “to do” lists.  These things demand our interest and set the order of the day for us.  They make us wonder how we will find time for everything.  It’s tempting to shorten our morning prayer or forget it altogether.  It’s so easy for us to say:  I don’t have time today.  Now the thorns are beginning to grow over our heads.  They will keep growing until one day we may no longer see heaven.

10.   Three examples serve to illustrate Jesus’ resolve to go to the cross.  First, to one who says, “I will follow You wherever You go,” (vs. 57), Jesus responds, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” (vs. 58).  The Greek word for “nests” can describe not only a bird’s nest but also a human dwelling place (ex, 2 Samuel 7:10 LXX).  So, as Jesus heads towards Jerusalem, there will be no temporary residence along the way.  He will find no rest for Himself.  He must make it to His destination.  There’s no looking back.  To another man who, before following Jesus, says, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father,” (vs. 59), Jesus replies, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead,” (vs. 60).  At first, Jesus’ response might sound harsh.  But this is hardly the case.  In the Ancient Near East, burials involved two stages:  the initial burial where the body was placed in a tomb and them, about a year later, the removal of the deceased’s bones to a permanent place of internment.  This man could have been requesting a year’s respite before following Jesus.  But, Jesus can’t dilly dally for a year, there’s no looking back, He’s going to the cross to die in order to give you the forgiveness of your sins.  Finally another man says to Jesus, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home,” (vs. 61).  This man’s “but” reveals his true allegiance—and it’s not to His Lord.  As Jesus says elsewhere, “Whoever loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and whoever loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” (Matt. 10:37).  Family is important, but following Jesus is of first importance.

11.   Jesus has set His face for Jerusalem.  And He will not stop for any man. But even though He won’t stop for any man, He will die for every man.  He will die on the cross for you and me.  As Jesus says, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men” (Luke 9:44).  This is why Jesus won’t be sidetracked.  For Jesus is going to Jerusalem to be delivered and to die for you and me.  Praise be to God that Jesus made it to His destination.  That, He didn’t look back!  Amen.

Please pray with me:  Lord, tell me every day that I need to seek Your Kingdom first.  I need to hear it so much.  I know what is most important, and yet it is easy for me to let everything else get in the way.  I know that Your Word is the bread of life and I can’t live without it.  But, I still try to, time after time.  But, I don’t neglect my meals.  I very seldom let anything get in the way of them.  Lord, make me that concerned about my soul so that it receives the bread of life it needs so much.  Make it obvious to me that You come first and are more important than anything else in the world.  I can live without most of what I have in this world, but I can’t live without You.  Amen.

“Your Son Lives!” 1 Kings 17.17–24, Pentecost 3C, June 9, ‘13

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 today comes to us from 1 Kings 17:17-24 and is entitled, “Your Son Lives!” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2. Joseph Bayly knew what the loss of a child was like. In fact, he and his wife lost three sons—one at eighteen days, after surgery; another at five years, with leukemia; the third at eighteen years, after a sledding accident. So when Joe Bayly wrote about the death of a child, people listened. Here is part of what he had to say:  “Of all deaths, that of a child is most unnatural and hardest to bear. In Carl Jung’s words, it is “a period placed before the end of the sentence,” sometimes when the sentence has hardly begun. We expect the old to die. The separation is always difficult, but it comes as no surprise. But the child, the youth? Life lies ahead, with its beauty, its wonder, its potential. Death is a cruel thief when it strikes down the young. The suffering that usually precedes death is another reason childhood death is so hard for parents to bear. Children were made for fun and laughter, for sunshine, not for pain. And they have a child’s heightened consciousness rather than the ability to cope with suffering that comes with maturity. They also lack the “kind amnesia of senility.” In a way that is different from any other human relationship, a child is bone of his parents’ bone, flesh of their flesh. When a child dies, part of the parents is buried.… I met a man who was in his seventies. During our first ten minutes together, he brought the faded photograph of a child out of his wallet—his child, who had died almost fifty years before.” 

3. The death of a child is certainly one of the greatest agonies possible in this life—a burying of a part of oneself, a period before the end of a sentence, the death of a future. It’s a burden that all parents fear. Such pain was the emotional context of Jesus’ ministry here in Luke 7, with His raising of the Widow of Nain’s son from the dead, and Elijah raising the Widow of Zerephath’s son from the dead in 1 Kings 17.

4. How can we trust a God who lets something like the death of a child happen? Such things like this happen all the time. Something similar occurred in our text from 1 Kings 17.  With idolatry running wild in Israel under King Ahab, the Lord announced through the prophet Elijah that there would be no rain until further notice. The idolaters may have snickered when they heard these words, but they wouldn’t have the last laugh. None of their unbelieving cynicism could change the fact that the Lord remained in charge, and there was no rain.

5. Elijah was affected by the drought too. At first he lived by a brook. When it dried up, the Lord sent him to the region of Sidon. This was the homeland of King Ahab’s wife Jezebel. There God directed Elijah to the home of a widow. When the prophet first met her, he asked her for food and drink. She told him that she was down to her last provisions. After making one more meal for herself and her son, she didn’t know where the next could possibly come from. She considered herself as good as dead. Still, when Elijah spoke the Lord’s word of promise to her, she had faith. She made Elijah a loaf of bread. And for many days after there was always just enough flour and oil left for another meal, as the Lord had said.

6. This woman took Elijah in. The prophet lived through the rest of the drought in the company of this woman and her son. No doubt, he proclaimed to her the Lord God of Israel. Things seemed to be working. The jar of flour didn’t run out, nor did the jug of oil. You might say that this widow was going with the program, playing by the rules, as it were.  Then one day her son died.  Put yourself in the widow’s shoes. All of a sudden it didn’t look like such a great thing to have the Lord’s prophet so close by. This God was now costing her. In her grief, she lashed out at Elijah, saying, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” (1 Kings 17:18). Have you ever felt this way toward God?

7. New converts to Christ often find their first few months or years in the faith pretty easy and trouble-free, but in time the Lord sends them more difficult things to handle. One of the realizations that comes to all Christians as we mature in the Lord is the depth of our sin. The widow in the text was feeling her sin as very real. She knew the Lord must punish sin, and she assumed that the death of her son was his punishment upon her. How could she trust such a God? If anything, she wanted to run away from him.

8. There’s no denying that God lets terrible things happen in this world for which we don’t know why. In fact, Martin Luther points out, “God must therefore be left to himself in his own majesty, for in this regard we have nothing to do with him. . . . God hidden in his majesty neither deplores nor takes away death, but works life, death, and all in all.” Let the postmodern world mock as much as it wants. God remains in complete charge, and we remain totally answerable to him.

9. God isn’t answerable to us. In the text, Elijah made no attempt to apologize for God or explain his ways. Elijah knew that the only answer to God is God. We can have nothing to do with God in his own majesty. “But we have something to do with him insofar as he is clothed and set forth in his Word, through which he offers himself to us.”  Elijah took the dead boy into his room, laid the body on his own bed, and prayed the Lord to grant that this child live again. The prophet stretched himself upon the body three times as he prayed that life come back into it. In death, “the spirit returns to God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7), but Elijah knew that this same God can give it back.  Elijah was asking the Lord to give the widow life in a situation of death, comfort in fear, and assurance of his love and salvation amid all her doubts. No amount of explaining could have been better than the moment when the prophet went downstairs not carrying a dead corpse but rather with his arm around a live child. “See,” Elijah told the widow, “your son lives” (1 Kings 17:23).

10.                     This event forms a little Old Testament “Easter.” The son was dead, but then he lived. So far as we know, he eventually died again in this world. God did so much better with his own Son. See, Jesus lives! Yes, God had punished sin. He punished it fully when he laid it all upon the back of Christ. Yet he raised Jesus from the dead and now “death no longer has dominion over Him” (Romans 6:9). Jesus lives.

11.                     And God the Father has planted this new life in you by giving you the Word of life, the Good News of Christ. “For without God’s sure Word about His will, a person has no power to claim, especially when terrified by sin, that God ceases to be angry.”  (Apology of the Augsburg Confession V (III) 141 [IV 262] (Concordia, 121). So here’s a sure Word of God for you, as sure as the resurrection of Christ is sure: God forgives you. He’s not angry with you. He’s not stringing you along, only to spring some punishment for sin on you when you least expect it. The Lord God of the universe forgives you all your sins on account of Jesus who nailed them to his cross and left them there when he rose from the dead. With this forgiveness comes assurance, comfort, and life, all through God’s powerful Word.

12.                     The woman in the text told Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth” (1 Kings 17:24). In faith she received God’s assurance, comfort, and life through Elijah. She was alive.  You and I live too. We live by faith. When tragedy strikes, don’t dwell on how unfair it is. Don’t tell yourself that you were playing by the rules, or wrack your brain trying to figure out how you slipped up. Above all, don’t run away from God. Instead, run to the God who has clothed himself in his Word. Run to the Lord who is more than able to take care of his people through His Son Jesus Christ.

13.                     Like the widow in the text, this Lord has given you new birth in the faith through his Word. He’s sustained you every step along life’s way.  Beloved, we have no need to fear death.  The poet put it this way, "No longer must the mourners weep, nor call departed children dead.  For death is transformed into sleep, and every grave becomes a bed."...As a young man, D. L. Moody was called upon to preach a funeral sermon.  He decided that he would search through the Gospels to try to find one of Christ's funeral sermons, but he searched in vain.  He found that every time Jesus attended a funeral, He broke it up by raising the person from the dead; and so He never gave a funeral sermon.  When the dead heard His voice, they immediately sprang to life. 

14.                     Dear friends Jesus will not let you see corruption.  He will show you the path of life.  In His presence is fullness of joy, and at His right hand are treasures forevermore.  Arthur Brisbane captured it for me when I look at a funeral.  Arthur Brisbane wanted to demonstrate what a funeral was like, so he pictured a crowd of grieving caterpillars, all wearing black suits; and all these caterpillars are crawling along mourning; and they're carrying the corpse of a cocoon to its final resting place.  The poor distressed caterpillars, weeping; and above them is fluttering around this incredibly beautiful butterfly, looking down in utter disbelief...Christ gives us hope.  Amen. 

“Lord, Use Your House to Reach Others” 1 Kings 8.22-24, 27-29, 41-43, Pentecost 2C, June 2,‘13

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 Pentecost season began with a clear message that the Gospel is to go out to all the world. That day it was heard by Jews from every nation, but in our Bible lessons for this weekend we see what was implied there. Beginning with the Jews, the Gospel is for all people.  Our lesson from 1 Kings comes from Solomon’s prayer at the temple dedication. Although heaven and earth can’t contain God, he has located his name with that building in Jerusalem.  This is an anticipation of Jesus’ miraculous incarnation. Solomon prays to the Lord to hear the foreigners who come to the temple for his name’s sake so that all may know his name. In Galatians, St Paul emphasizes that there is only one Gospel for all people and those who would make the Church only a Jewish sect must be rejected. Luke 7 tells of the servant of a Gentile centurion who’s near death. In the centurion’s prayer for healing, Jesus calls attention to the centurion’s faith. Jesus grants a healing miracle to the centurion’s empty hands of faith. This event is part of Luke’s emphasis of salvation going out to all nations.  Our message today is taken from 1 Kings 8 and is entitled, “Lord, Use Your House to Reach Others,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.       The struggle of a person on a faith journey is to know in whom to believe. When a person says, “I don’t believe in God,” a good response is, “Tell me about the God in which you do not believe.” Often the God revealed in such a conversation doesn’t resemble the God in today’s reading. When Solomon begins his dedicatory prayer over the temple in Israel, he stands with open arms, a posture of receptivity and supplication. His prayer is relational. The very action of openness is shown of his relationship with the God of Israel whom Solomon has come to know.

3.       1 Kings 8.22–24, 27-28, 41-43 says, “Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven, 23and said, “O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart, 24who have kept with your servant David my father what you declared to him. You spoke with your mouth, and with your hand have fulfilled it this day.27 But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built! 28Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O LORD my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you this day, 29that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which you have said, ‘My name shall be there,’ that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place. 41 Likewise, when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a far country for your name’s sake 42(for they shall hear of your great name and your mighty hand, and of your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this house, 43hear in heaven your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name.”

4.       Solomon’s prayer acknowledges that the God to whom he is praying is not like the other gods who are conjectured in the heavens or even beneath the earth. This one God is unique and distinct. This God has made a covenant with the people of Israel. This God has made promises. This God is steadfast in love. This God is loyal. In relationship with this God, Solomon and the people of Israel are shaped as they walk with their whole heart and their whole selves in God’s presence. The whole of Scripture is the drama of how people are shaped by their continuing understanding of and their unfolding realization of who this God is who has promised to be with them. This God guides them, loves them with steadfastness, is the source of life, and is even life in death through our Lord Jesus Christ.

5.       Who are the other gods that people search after aimlessly?  It’s true that we’ve searched for alternatives.  Human beings have sought out other false gods to attach to their lives.  Human feet have traveled far and wide to discover that which fits the god of their own desires.  Mountains have been climbed, seas crossed, and dreary wildernesses crossed in the hunt for a god to guide and govern according to humanity’s ways.  It is true many false gods have been adopted, many deities have been set up for worship.  Many pieces of wood and stone have been shaped and molded to serve humanity’s purposes.  But, there is no other God!  Why the search!  We wish to create a god in our own image.  We would have a god that performs in accordance with our own desires and wants.  We would shape a god who will do as we bid and perform as we command.  But, there is no other God!  These other gods, the false gods of our own making, are only as reliable as the human beings who make them up.  They can’t provide or protect, for they must be provided for and protected.  They can’t help or rescue, for they must be helped and rescued from the attack of those who scoff at them.  What God are these false gods?  What comfort do they provide?  No other people have a god like our God!  That’s why King Solomon prays that the Lord would use the temple to reach others so that all mankind would know and believe in the one true God.

6.       To show more what this God is like, our lectionary passage takes up the issue of “foreigners.” These people aren’t of the people of Israel, yet they have heard of the name of God, have experienced God’s mighty hand, have known God’s outstretched arm, and therefore have come to worship in the temple. This was a distinctive note in Solomon’s prayer. In 400 BC, there was conflict between foreigners who were part of the worshiping community and those who were opposed to their participation. Solomon’s words indicate that the foreigner who is faithfully seeking to worship God is to be heard by God. All shall know the God who makes promises and whose love is steadfast in His Son Jesus Christ. Isaiah writes, “And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord … to love the name of the Lord … and hold fast my covenant—these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer … for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (Isa. 56:6–7).

7.       When the foreigner demonstrates his trust in God by asking him for things, Solomon asks the Lord for three things. First of all, that the Lord “hear from heaven, your dwelling place.” As Solomon had made clear earlier in his prayer, the Lord was in no way confined to the temple Solomon had built. Heaven still was, and still is, his home. Solomon asked the Lord to listen to the prayers foreigners offered at the temple. God does promise to hear those who are in a right relationship with him by faith. That was as true for people of the Old Testament (Ps 34:17) as it is for people today (Mt 7:7–11).  Second, Solomon asks the Lord to give the foreigner what he asks for. While all prayers are answered—yes, no, or wait—Solomon asks that in this case the Lord will answer yes to whatever the foreigner asks. His concern isn’t simply that the foreigner get what he wants. He has a higher motive.   Solomon’s concern is for the building of the foreigner’s faith and the Lord’s reputation. When the Lord answers prayer with a no, it’s nothing to be criticized. He knows what’s best. But “no” answers don’t demonstrate God’s power to help so clearly as when the Lord answers yes. When he does what people ask, then his power is displayed, the promises of his Word are confirmed, and people are moved to tell others about the good things the Lord has done. Then, “all the peoples of the earth may know your name.”

8.       Solomon prayed that such a coming to know God’s name would lead people to associate the Jerusalem temple with God’s name, to know that the worship there was the center for the true worship that the true God had established. Practicing the true worship God had ordained would build the foreigner’s faith even further and cement his relationship with God. It’s important to remember that even though the Old Testament temple no longer is the place where the Lord dwells among his people, he hasn’t withdrawn his presence. In Jesus, God dwells among us (Jn 1:14). Jesus said, “Destroy this temple [referring to his body], and I will raise it again in three days” (Jn 2:19). Our Savior has replaced the temple. Now through Jesus all people are drawn to the Father, all prayer that comes to the throne of grace in his name is heard and answered.

9.       The highest heaven can’t contain our God, much less any construction made with human hands, but the Lord has chosen to dwell with His people.  He has chosen to place His name upon us through our baptism and be present with us in our midst.  He has chosen to become flesh and walk among us in His Son Jesus Christ.  He’s chosen to rescue and redeem us from sin and death so that we might also dwell with Him.  The Lord dwells in our midst this day as He continues to come to us in His Word and the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.  No other god is like this!  The Lord dwells in our midst this day so that we might dwell with Him in His heavenly mansions one day for all eternity!  Amen.

“Remember-We Are the Lord’s” Proverbs 8.1–4, 22–31, Trinity C, ’13, Memorial Day observed…

“Remember-We Are the Lord’s” Proverbs 8.1–4, 22–31, Trinity C, ’13, Memorial Day observed…

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 this Trinity Sunday is taken from Proverbs 8:1-4 & 22-31 and is entitled, “Remember, We are the Lord’s.”  We belong to the Lord. He designed, engineered, constructed, and repaired us. We belong to Jesus who bears nailmarks on his hands, the eternal reminder that love held him to the cross to buy us back. We are the Lord’s twice over. Once because he made us. Twice because he bought us back!  Here in Proverbs 8 we learn that in wisdom Jesus has made us. (vv. 24–30) and by wisdom He has rescued us. (vv. 22a, 23, 30b, 31)

2.                  Proverbs 8:1-4 says, “¹Does not wisdom call? Does not understanding raise her voice?  ²On the heights beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; ³beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries aloud: ⁴“To you, O men, I call, and my cry is to the children of man.”   Here we can see that wisdom’s words are plain, spoken clearly and openly so that there can be no confusion. Of course, those who reject the Lord don’t understand what God is saying (1 Cor. 2:12–16), but this isn’t because the Word of God is confusing or unclear. It’s because sinners are spiritually blind and deaf (Matt. 13:14–15). The problem is with the hearer, not the speaker. Mark Twain is supposed to have said, “It isn’t what I don’t understand about the Bible that worries me, but what I do understand.”  There are certain things in the Bible that we are supposed to understand like the fact that we are sinners and that we need a Savior in Jesus, but in regards to the Trinity we will never be able to understand the fullness of God and who He is as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but through Holy Scripture we are led to confess who He is and what He does for us to save us from our sins.

3.                  King Solomon through the Holy Spirit explains the purpose of Proverbs: “For attaining wisdom and discipline; for understanding words of insight; for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is right and just and fair; for giving prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young” (1:2–4). Wisdom in God’s Word is much more than an encyclopedia of facts. Wisdom is Christ. The apostle Paul says it this way: “We preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Co 1:23, 24).

4.                  Proverbs 8:22–30a says, ²²“The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. ²³Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. ²⁴When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. ²⁵Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth, ²⁶before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world. ²⁷When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, ²⁸when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, ²⁹when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, ³⁰then I was beside him, like a master workman.”  The Lord here is the subject. He’s powerful and active. He remains the same yesterday, today, and forever. Not changing is beyond all human understanding and experience. Everything changes. Things wear out. They run down. They are used up. They become rusty, moldy, or scratched. People change. Hair grows gray, then white. Our vision deteriorates. Bones grow brittle. Hands once sure become shaky. Knees become weak. Sometimes human change is sudden. Sometimes human change is unnoticeable. But it remains inevitable. Because of sin we change for the worse.

5.                  As sinners we grow old & our bodies deteriorate, but the Lord never changes. His anger burns as hot against sin now as when he scorched Sodom and Gomorrah off the face of the earth for all their godless and sinful acts. His justice today can be as swift as when Ananias and Sapphira lied and fell over dead! But God’s love never changes either. His love is as powerful this instant as it was the moment Jesus died on the cross. Jesus’ triumph over death is as certain now as the moment Jesus rose from the prison of the grave.

6.                  What did this Lord do? God the Father has bought us. In the Old Testament the good news for the people of God was that the LORD had bought the Israelites and that they were his possession. The Lord had delivered them from slavery in Egypt and made them a people. They were his. He had a claim on them.

7.                  So too Jesus our greater and better Moses has saved us not from slavery in Egypt, but slavery to our own sin and to the power of the devil.  Jesus our Savior claims that he had been with the Father “before the world began” (Jn 17:5). When we read John 1:1–4, all these things come into clear focus. Jesus, the Word, was with God and “without him nothing was made that has been made” (v. 3). Hebrews 1:2 and Colossians 1:15–17 proclaim the same truth.

8.                  As we marvel at the great plan of God in creating the world. Solomon asks us to consider the ocean, the mountains, the earth, the heavens, and the clouds. He tells us that the Lord has created them all. When we look at them, even in this world of sin, we’re impressed with the majesty of God’s created world. The ungodly can see that too, as Paul states, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Ro 1:20). Yes, the Lord made the ocean. Only the Lord could make water so deep, so cold, so windblown and storm-tossed. Only the Lord could make the great lakes, the everglades, the marshes, and swamps—all of them full of wildlife. The Lord made the mighty rivers—the rushing white-water rapids, the gentle gurgling streams. He made the ponds full of frogs and lily pads. He made the puddles for stomping and splashing. He made the drops of moisture on the petals of a rose. Before there was a drop of water—the Lord was and is!

9.                  Solomon isn’t content to marvel at the created world. He forces our vision deeper. Before the oceans, mountains, earth, and sky, God in wisdom planned our eternal salvation. Out of the dust of the ground—out of soil and clay—God formed man and breathed into him the breath of life. Yet long before that, the Trinity had determined the Father would sacrifice his Son to redeem us. The Holy Spirit would work saving faith through the gospel.  I can’t help but think of the gospel of John:  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (1:1, 3, 10–12).

10.              Proverbs 8:30-31 says, “and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, ³¹rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.”  “Delighting in mankind”? Read the newspapers—there seems little to delight in. There’s bloody conflict as nations invade nations and civil war and ethnic strife drag on for hundreds of years. There are battered spouses, abused and neglected children, newborns abandoned, and babies aborted. There is obscenity and pornography, rudeness, vile and gross hurtful wickedness with a lust and hunger for worse! Our holy heavenly Father hates all that’s ungodly. But by grace alone Jesus came to cover all our sin and guilt with his innocent blood. By grace alone we are forgiven. By grace alone the Lord delights in his people washed clean through and through!

11.              The Trinity designed, engineered, and built us from the miracle of conception to the present instant. The Trinity designed, engineered, built, and maintains the universe. God’s attention to detail is such that he knows the number of hairs on our heads. We race after the things and stuff of this world. Just stop and look—a little lower than usual. Look at the lady bug. There are no less than five thousand different species of lady bugs. Imagine the creative wisdom of the Lord to make so many sizes, colors, and little dot patterns on a bug just about everybody ignores.

12.              But then look deeper still. Imagine the greatness of God’s love. He doesn’t treat us like little insects to squash because of our sins. He loves us. When sin spoiled everything, the Trinity was there to undo the work of the devil, to overcome that ultimate enemy, death.

13.              Remember each day to look with awe and wonder at all your Father made. It’s not Mother Nature that rules the powerful forces of nature, the ever-changing weather. It’s your Father, who controls everything for the ultimate good of his people. It is the very Son of God, who became one of us—true God and true man. It is the Son of God, who never sinned and then died bearing all our sin. It’s the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, who works saving faith in our hearts through the means of grace. The Lord redeemed and adopted us. Rejoice in his creative wisdom and determined love in Christ!

“Pentecost Ended the Babble at Babel” Genesis 11.1–9, Acts 2.1-11, Pentecost C, May ’13

1.       Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Happy Pentecost to all of you this day! On Pentecost we see that God’s mission is to gather his people scattered over the the earth to the Church established by Jesus.  Pentecost is God’s way of ending the babble that occurred at Babel in Genesis 11. Within the Christian Church the Holy Spirit uses God’s Word and Sacraments to open our sinful eyes to see our sins against God and our neighbor and our need for a Savior. God’s will is the salvation of all men as we see in our reading from Acts 2.  The message is taken from Genesis 11:1-9 and is entitled, “Pentecost Ended the Babble at Babel,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.      The quest to build the world’s tallest building has an ancient history. For almost 4000 years the Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt, held the title. Then there was the Lincoln Cathedral in England, finished in 1311. Much later, the Washington Monument, the Eiffel Tower, and then the Empire State Building. In recent years, the quest to be tallest has become so competitive that an organization, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, has become the referee. This organization now recognizes title holders in several categories.

3.      In many ways human beings have sought to impress with their achievements often without giving credit where credit is due, to the Architect and Builder of all things, God our Heavenly Father. But towers come down, not only in New York, but also in England, where the spire of the Lincoln Cathedral was destroyed in a storm, and even in Egypt, where the Great Pyramid has lost more than 25 feet to erosion. Human achievements are always passing.  But, the work of 12 confused men and a handful of others not only brought 3000 to faith in one day but also built a Church that will stand until the end of time, because it wasn’t the work of men but of the Holy Spirit and of the Son and of his Father.

4.      After the flood God had commanded the peoples to be fruitful and multiply and to scatter across the earth, but they decided to move to Nimrod’s city of Babylon and settle there (11:8–12). This move was a rebellion against God’s command that the people scatter and fill the earth.  The “tower” that they built at Babel was what is known as a “ziggurat.” A ziggurat was like a pyramid. At the top was a special shrine dedicated to a false god. The people weren’t trying to climb up to heaven and dethrone God.  Instead, they hoped that the god they worshiped would come down from heaven to meet them.

5.      The tower of Babel was a declaration of war against the Lord. To begin with, the people were disobeying God’s command to scatter and repopulate the earth. Motivated by fear and pride, they decided to build a city, a great ziggurat, and stay together. But, they also wanted to make a name for themselves. Their mission was the devil’s lie in Eden: “You will be like God” (Gen. 3:4).  The people had several things in their favor. They were one people group (11:6) and spoke one language. They were motivated by one spirit of pride to make a name for themselves.  “Glory to man in the highest!” That’s turning God’s plan for us on top of itself. That’s rejecting God’s goal for our lives and substituting a goal of our own. Food and shelter, security, status—these were the life goals the descendants of Noah had adopted. Satan doesn’t have to persuade us to kneel down in front of an idol if he can get us to look at life only in terms of ourselves.

6.      God in heaven is never perplexed by what people do on earth. Babel’s conceited “Let’s go up to heaven!” was answered by heaven’s calm “Let’s go down!” “He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision” (Ps. 2:4, nkjv). Of course, God doesn’t have to investigate to know what’s going on in His universe.  The language is used only to dramatize God’s intervention.

7.      It doesn’t surprise us that the Lord came down. “I am the Lord,” he has told us. “I will not give my glory to another” (Isaiah 42:8). God’s judgment here, unlike the flood, wasn’t visible. God simply made some changes in the minds of the builders. They could no longer understand one another. That meant that they could no longer work together. Worse yet, they no longer trusted one another. The spirit of friendliness and confidence was replaced by ugly suspicion, and they had to move away from their dream home. The settlement they had hoped would bring them fame became known as Babel (“confusion”). It’s our Savior who says, “Do not be deceived: I will not be mocked.” He’s absolutely unwilling to let people wipe their feet on His great, good plan for this world.

8.      Martin Luther called God’s action at Babel a greater judgment than the flood. That judgment wiped out only a single generation of humanity. Confusing the languages at Babel has caused confusion, suspicion, and hatred in every generation since then, down to our broken, disorderly world. Why is nation pitted against nation and individual against individual? We have an answer here.

9.      The story of Babel isn’t just ancient history, because Babel and Babylon present a spiritual challenge to every believer today.  Babylon became a great city and empire. In 606–586 b.c., the Babylonian armies attacked and captured the kingdom of Judah, burned the temple and the city of Jerusalem, and took thousands of Jews captive to Babylon for 70 years. God used the cruel and idolatrous Babylonians to chasten His own disobedient people.  But in Scripture, Babylon symbolizes pride, moral corruption, and rebellion against God. The biblical contrast is between the earthly city of Babylon that rebels against God, and the heavenly city of Jerusalem that brings glory to God. Babylon represents the world system that opposes God, hates Jesus, and appeals to the baser appetites of human nature. Babylon is the opposite of the heavenly Jerusalem which is the city of the saints (Heb. 12:18ff).

10.   “Every generation builds its own towers,” writes psychotherapist Naomi H. Rosenblatt, and she’s right. Whether these are actual skyscrapers or mega corporations, the idea is the same: “We will make a name for ourselves.” God’s people can’t escape being in the world, because it’s in the world that we have our ministry, but we must avoid being of the world. We’re not here to build the arrogant towers of men.  We’re here to help build the church of Jesus Christ.

11.  What humanity can’t achieve by means of its “proud towers,” Jesus Christ has achieved by dying on a humiliating cross for us. All who trust Jesus Christ are one in Him (Gal. 3:27) and will share heaven together, regardless of race, nation, language, or tribe (Rev. 7:9). While the world is trying to bring everything into one, inwardly it’s tearing things apart. But the Holy Spirit is using the church as an agent of reconciliation to bring things together in Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:10; 2 Cor. 5:14–21). Pentecost ended the babble at Babel, for the people present in Jerusalem at Pentecost heard the praises of God in their own languages (Acts 2:1–12). And the day will come when people from every tribe and nation will worship Jesus Christ (Rev. 15:4) and the judgment of Babel will be done away (Zeph. 3:9).

12.  Will we identify with Babylon or Jerusalem, the worldly prostitute or the heavenly bride?  That’s where the greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost ended the babble at Babel. Where Babel brought about disunity through the different languages, Pentecost produced a unity among people of different languages by speeding the common message and language of salvation through Jesus Christ throughout the world.  At Pentecost God says to us, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool” (Isa. 1:18). Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).

13.  What’s the result when we who hear God’s invitation to come to him? Our sins are washed away. Our burdens are lifted. Our spiritual thirst is quenched. The effects of the curse are overturned and the proper desires of the human heart are provided for. The curse at Babel was the confusion of languages, but God brings blessing from the curse. He gives understanding in spite of the language barrier and even promises at Pentecost that the nations will worship together. The Babylonians wanted a city. Their city couldn’t stand. But God provides his people with an everlasting city of heaven. Nimrod’s people wanted a name. But to those who stand with God, the LORD promises in Revelation 3: “Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev. 3:12–13).  Pentecost ended the babble at Babel, thanks be to God.  Amen.

“Our Heavenly Homecoming” John 17.20-26, Easter 7C, Mother’s Day May ‘13

1.                  Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Happy Mother’s Day to all of you!  Moms are such a blessing to us aren’t they?  How could we ever make it without mom? A yearly survey by Salary.com called the annual Mom Salary Survey attempts to put a salary on the work of American mothers. First, they broke down motherly duties into the ten categories: Day Care Center Teacher, CEO, Psychologist, Cook, Housekeeper, Laundry Machine Operator, Computer Operator, Facilities Manager, Janitor, and Van Driver. Then they studied how many hours moms work in those categories and what the family would have to pay for outsourcing that duty. According to the 2012 survey, they determined the following:  The average stay-at-home mom should make an annual salary of $112,962 (based on a 40-hour per week base pay plus 54.7 hours a week of overtime); The average working mom should make an annual salary (just for her "mom" role) of $66,969 (based on 40-hours of mothering duties and 17.9 overtime hours per week).  The article concludes, "The breadth of Mom's responsibilities is beyond what most workers could ever experience day-to-day. Imagine if you had to attract and retain a candidate to fill this role?"  (Sources: Jenna Goudreau, "Why Stay-At-Home Moms Should Earn a $115,000 Salary," Forbes (5-2-11); Salary.com, "Salary.com's 12th Annual Mom Salary Survey,"). 

2.                  I would add one more job description that was left out on this list:  that mom is a prayer warrior.  Every mom I know prays that her children would be safe, that they do well in school, that they make friends, that they continue to keep the Christian faith that they were taught from infancy, and so much more.  Ultimately, I believe that every Christian mom prays that her children would not only come home to be with them from time to time after they have grown up and left the house, but that her children would have a heavenly homecoming with her, because of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection from the dead.  For this reason, Christian moms have a lot in common with our Lord Jesus Christ who prays for us His church here in John 17.  The message is entitled, “Our Heavenly Homecoming,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

3.                  Isn’t it a wonderful thought that your mother prays for you?  On this mother’s day thank your mom for that. Thank her for bringing you to Christian worship, to Sunday School, and confirmation class.  If your mom has gone home to be with the Lord, thank your Heavenly Father for working through her to teach you the Christian faith.  But, isn’t it an even more wonderful thought that Jesus was thinking of you and me when He prayed the closing petitions of His High Priestly Prayer here in John 17.  For after Jesus had pleaded with His Heavenly Father for the continued safety of His disciples, His vision swept across the coming ages and He could see the countless people who were yet to believe in Him through the Word of His disciples.  These, too would have to be kept, these, too would have to be sanctified, these, too, would have to be preserved unto His heavenly kingdom. 

4.                  Jesus prays here in John 17:20-26, “²⁰[Jesus said:] “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,  ²¹that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²²The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, ²³I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. ²⁴Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. ²⁶I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

5.                  In the concluding words of His prayer, Jesus throws the doors of His Church open to the Gentiles, to all who would believe in Him as a result of the apostles’ preaching, as a result of their spoken and written word.  It’s just as though our Lord Jesus pointed His finger to each of us and said, “For you I am praying; I am praying for you!” 

6.                  Again and again, the Savior asks that “they may be one.”  This sounds familiar doesn’t it?  Our mothers I’m sure have prayed to God that “we would all get along,” especially when the whole family comes together for a special occasion.  Jesus says that all believers are united in Him.  In Jesus, St. Paul says in Romans 12:5, we as Christians are one Body.  So close is this fellowship of believers that Jesus compares it to the communion that exists between His Heavenly Father and Himself, “Even as We are one.”  But, are we always aware of the close ties that bind all believers into a fellowship of faith and love?  And does this awareness find expression in our lives?  The hymn says, “Blest be the tie that binds, Our hearts in Christian love; The fellowship of kindred minds, Is like to that above.” (LSB 649:1)

7.                  Every mother prays for the unity and harmony of her family and Jesus prays for the unity and harmony of His Church here in John 17.  But, as mother’s know, this doesn’t always happen in their families, nor does it seem to happen in our churches.  Centuries after Jesus’ death and resurrection, Christians remain deeply divided.  Churches act more like isolate islands rather than seeing themselves as one assembly of believers that comprise the Holy Christian Church on earth.  Congregations increasingly keep more and more of their resources to serve their own members rather than supporting missionary work around the world.  Fellow Christians view one another with distrust rather than as fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

8.                  Often when the Church seeks out unity, the approach is misguided.  Churches claim they are one even with serious theological differences.  They agree to disagree.  Unity is coerced by a powerful church hierarchy or through binding resolutions.  But, this isn’t the unity that Jesus speaks about here in John 17.  True unity is always founded on the Word of God.  It’s not agreeing to disagree.  It’s not overlooking the truth so that churches can claim to be one when they really aren’t.  Instead, true unity is found as Christians confess the truths of Scripture together.  As we do here in worship every time we gather together in the Lord’s house. 

9.                  And, what is the result of this unity?  “That the world may believe that [the Father} has sent [Jesus]” (John 17:21).  True Christian unity gives a positive witness to the world.  The Holy Spirit works faith through the Word, and Christians are united by and speak the word of truth to the unbelieving world.  The Spirit is at work working faith in the hearts of those who hear the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who died the death that we deserve because of our sins and has given us the gift of eternal life.

10.              Jesus went to the Cross of Calvary because He says here in John 17, “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, may be with Me where I am, to see My glory that You have given Me.”  Only the equal Son, Jesus, would address the equal Father this way.  It’s Jesus our Savior’s will that we be with Him and His death on the cross for our sins assures us of that.  To be with Christ, that is heaven.  It is to be assured of our heavenly homecoming with Him, which is why our Christian mothers pray that we remain in the Christian faith that we were taught from our youth.  Our mother’s want us to remain in the faith of our Lord Jesus, because that is the only way we will have a heavenly homecoming with them and Jesus for all eternity.  The Apostle Paul says, “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” (Philippians 1:23).  “Forever with the Lord!  Amen! So let it be.  Life from the dead is in that word, ‘Tis immortality. (TLH 616:1).  To behold the glory of Jesus, what bliss!  This is the bliss that our Lord Jesus has asked His Father that you and I should have.  “We know not, oh, we know not, What joys await us there:  the radiancy of glory, The bliss beyond compare! (LSB 672:1) 

11.  It was many years later that the aged St. John the Apostle, remember this prayer and promise of Jesus our Savior, wrote in 1 John 3:2, “Little children we know that when [Jesus] appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.”  Let us learn to cherish this High Priestly prayer of our Lord Jesus here in John 17.  Let us read it again and again.  Our earthly mothers pray for us, but how much more does our Lord Jesus pray for our unity and our salvation in Him.  Let us go to John 17 for comfort, for assurance, for joy, for spiritual communion with our Savior, and for its glorious promise of eternal life with Christ in heaven in that homecoming that will have no end.  Amen.