First Sunday in Lent

First Sunday in Lent
March 13, 2011

Lead Us Not Into Temptation
Matthew 6:13

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Dear friends,

Sometimes God seems to be the enemy.

From time to time we feel that God gives us too much to handle. We sense that God is allowing too much temptation into our life. From our point of view here on the earth it even may seem as though God is the one who is tempting us, directly or indirectly. It seems like He is the enemy.

Dear children, do you remember your parents telling you about what God asked Abraham to do Isaac?

Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” (Genesis 22:2)

He asked him to kill Isaac, his only son. God seemed to be so cruel. He asked Abraham to destroy the one thing in his life that he truly cared about, his miracle son, Isaac. He asked Abraham to commit kill an innocent man. He asked Abraham to destroy the plan of salvation that God Himself had promised to Abraham, when He told him that all nations on earth would be blessed through his offspring (Genesis 18:18).

On top of all that, God makes Abraham think about all of this during the three-day walk to Mt. Moriah (the future location of Jerusalem), the intended place of Isaac's sacrifice.

Dear children, doesn't God sometimes seem to be the enemy?

And dear grown-ups, what about Job? Later today tell your children what God did to Job.

And this kind of thing doesn't stop in the Old Testament.

Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.” Jesus did not answer a word. So His disciples came to Him and urged Him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”

He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” The woman came and knelt before Him. “Lord, help me!” she said. He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.” (Matthew 15:21-26)

Where is gentle Jesus, so meek and so mild?

Even in the Lord's Prayer, is there not a hint of the possibility of God as the enemy? We cry to Him: “Lead us not into temptation!” St. James tells us, “When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone.” (James 1:13) Luther echoed this thought in his explanation to the Sixth Petition—God is never the source of temptation.

But still, given the examples mentioned, does not God at times appear or allow Himself to be perceived as the source of temptation? And isn't this what we are asking of God when we prayer His prayer? Please dear God, don't deal with me like this, don't act like You want me to fail and fall and despair and die without You! Don't appear as the One who would lead into temptation!

How are we supposed to love a God who seems to hate us? This is the question that has haunted the faithful for thousands of years. And what is the answer? Job's wife advice to her husband was to curse God and die (Job 2:9). But the answer of the faithful is the answer of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

“O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” (Daniel 3:16-18)

When faced with the temptation to doubt God's love, the answer of the faithful sounds feeble, but it is still the answer. We confess absolute trust in God's ways, just as Abraham trusted God.

By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death. (Hebrews 11:17-19)

When you pray, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner,” you are confessing total trust in God and His ways and in His way of doing things. And His ways of doing things was to ask His only begotten Son, Jesus, to sacrifice Himself on Mt. Moriah, Jerusalem. And Jesus willingly answered His Father's request.

And He spent not three days with the knowledge of His sacrifice, but thousands of years. And He still went.

He faced real temptations for 33 years on earth. And He still went.

He went for us.

Amen.
________________

This sermon was adapted from the wonderful and insightful words of Prof. Em. Daniel Deutschlander (The Theology of the Cross: Reflections on His Cross and Ours, pages 56-60). Any confusing or inaccurate portions belong to me alone. Indeed you must read this insightful work many times to mine its treasures. It is available from Northwestern Publishing House.

Transfiguration Sunday

Transfiguration Sunday
March 6, 2011

Moses and Elijah Say A Lot
Matthew 17:1-9

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Dear friends,

About a week after Peter correctly confessed that Jesus is the Son of God, Jesus went up a mountain—we're not sure which one—and allowed His glory to shine. The visible glory coming from Jesus, along with the Father's voice from heaven, combined to confirm with certainty that Peter had been right earlier in the week.

And speaking of time, Jesus showed His glory at this specific time for a specific reason. He showed His glory not at the beginning of His public ministry or shortly after calling His disciples. Instead, His transfiguration happened shortly before He travels to Jerusalem to die.

He dazzled Peter, James, and John at this specific time to finish His work of revealing Himself to them. If you will, this was the final act of His epiphany, His revealing Himself to other people.

In addition to Peter, James, and John, there were two other men there that day: Moses and Elijah. I think one of the most interesting aspects of Jesus' transfiguration is the presence of Moses and Elijah.

To understand why Moses and Elijah were there that day you have to understand who they were. In short Moses was the Law and Elijah was the Prophet. They represented a bridge between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Jesus and His apostles often use the nickname “the Law and the Prophets” for the Old Testament.

For example... [Jesus said:] “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:40)

[Jesus said:] “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.” (Luke 16:16)

After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the synagogue rulers sent word to [Paul and Barnabas], saying, “Brothers, if you have a message of encouragement for the people, please speak.” (Acts 13:15)

[Paul wrote:] But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. (Romans 3:21)

Moses symbolized the Law and Elijah symbolized the Prophets.

God used Moses as His representative to Pharaoh and under his leadership God led Israel out of Egypt (Exodus 2-14). Then God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on the mountain of Sinai (Exodus 20). To every Israelite, Moses was the Lawgiver, the ambassador that God had chosen to reveal God's perfect expectations for every human being.

Elijah was one of the greatest prophets who ever lived. He was the prophet of God who challenged hundreds of false prophets to a contest to see whose God was the true God (1 Kings 18). After God won the challenge for him, Elijah led the people to kill the false prophets. This caused the evil king of Israel, who liked the false prophets, to chase after Elijah. And Elijah ran to Mt. Sinai, where God appeared to him as a whisper (1 Kings 19).

Moses and Elijah shared this experience—they both encountered God on Mt. Sinai. Another common bond was that their lives ended in extraordinary ways.

Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo... across from Jericho. There the Lord showed him the whole land... And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab, as the Lord had said. [The Lord] buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is. Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone. (Deuteronomy 34:1,5-7)

As [Elijah and Elisha] were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw this and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And Elisha saw him no more. (2 Kings 2:11-12)

These two men knew God. And God took a personal interest in how they left the earth. And now Peter, James, and John saw these men standing next to Jesus and talking with Him. St. Luke tells us that they spoke about His departure, which He was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem (Luke 9:30).

Moses and Elijah represented the Old Testament or Promise; Jesus represented the New Testament, but even more He was the New Promise. He was going to fulfill eve perfect expectation that He, God, had for every human being.

Just by being there, Moses and Elijah say a lot about who Jesus is and what He did for us.

Amen.