Tuesday, December 25, 2012

God Gets Low


Christmas Day
December 25, 2012

God Gets Low
John 1:14

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

How does God dwell among us? We have bundled up Jesus so tightly in His super cute swaddling clothes that we are tempted to see God as cuddly and treat Him like a tame house pet.

Next year we will read and discuss the Chronicles of Narnia and one of the common themes of all the books is that God is not a tame animal. He is wild. His ways are His own and beyond us. But many of the characters in the books try to treat God like a tame animal. These attempts to “pet” God don't end well.

Unbelievers invite this tamed and counterfeit God into their homes during the holidays. This tame god is a harmless and jolly old man who gives you stuff. And their celebration of Christmas is entirely consistent with a harmless and tamed God—they care only about sentiment and food and things. A small and packaged God can only give you small and packaged things that will not last.

But even believers are tempted to treat God like a tamed house pet. Moses treated God as though He was a tame God. Only God's mercy kept Moses from being destroyed. After a request from Moses to see God in all His wild beauty and fullness, God protected Moses and told him,

You cannot see My face, for no one may see Me and live… There is a place near Me where you may stand on a rock. When My glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove My hand and you will see My back; but My face must not be seen.” (Exodus 33)

God could not dwell with Moses, unless He took special precautions. A crude comparison would be a solar eclipse. Normally staring at the sun is going to destroy your eyes. But if the moon covers the sun and you are cover your eyes with special protective dark glasses, you can catch a glimpse of the sun's glory. Again, just a crude comparison, because the sun is a dim flickering Christmas light next to its Creator, who made it and every single other sun in the universe. If we can't even look at one of His trillions of stars in the sky, then how can we ever get close to Him?

The answer is that God dwells among us by getting low. By becoming one of us. By hiding His beauty and power and greatness in the lowly body of a man. Our wild God who created the universe by His Word sent that same Word into this ugly world and allowed His beauty to be wrapped up in human skin and bones, blood and flesh. The God who created all the galaxies in an instant allowed Himself to grow in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary for 40 weeks. He knit Himself together in His mother's womb and then for 30 year hid His dangerous wildness and power in lowly human flesh so that He might be near us. And in the end that flesh once held in the arms of His mother would be flogged and beaten and nailed to a cross where Christ was forsaken by all, even His holy Father, and then laid in a tomb. And then He got up.

How does God dwell among us? By getting low with His conception and at His birth, and then sinking to the lowest depths anyone can go. This is what our untamed God has done. And He did for you.

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

Bethlehem: Holy City


Christmas Eve
December 24, 2012

Bethlehem: Holy City of the Savior
Luke 2

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Rachel, the beloved wife of Jacob and ancestor of Jesus, is buried in this town. And thus ended a marriage that marked the beginning of the 12 Tribes of Israel.

And then in that same place, another marriage began. From a great distance Ruth traveled to this little village with her mother-in-law Naomi, and by Christ's mercy, she found her future husband Boaz. He was a native of this town and after he had married Ruth, they had a son named Obed. Obed grew up there and he got married and had a son named Jesse. Jesse grew up there and got married and he had a son named David.

The prophet Samuel traveled to this city and found King David living there, just as the Magi would travel to find the King there many years later.

This place had an ancient bloodline. This place whose name is literally “House of Bread” was chosen as the birthplace of the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ. This place is Bethlehem.

The Holy Gospel of St. Luke, chapter 2.

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a Child. While they were there, the time came for the Baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a Son. She wrapped Him in cloths and placed Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

The Gospel of the Lord.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

A Messenger Before The Messenger


Second Sunday in Advent
December 9, 2012

A Messenger Before The Messenger
Malachi 3:1


In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Jesus had a relative named John. They came from different backgrounds. John's family was a family with status; his dad Zechariah was a priest, who served at the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus' family was not well off; Jesus' guardian Joseph was a carpenter. Jesus grew up around the villages of rustic Galilee up north; John grew up around the capital city of Jerusalem in the south.

They had different backgrounds, but their ministries both ended in worldly failure and death. And they both were messengers with the same message. John was a messenger for Jesus; Jesus was a messenger for Himself.

Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 3)

John cleared the way before Jesus by preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Luke 3). A lot of spiritual clutter and theological debris has piled up on the way of salvation between the time of the first promise of Jesus and His arrival in Bethlehem. The biggest road block for John's congregation in the wilderness was the corruption of repentance and sacrifice.

The Lord had established a clear pattern of sacrifices and ceremonies that clearly pointed to Christ. He would be the Sacrifice that would please God forever. These sacrifices of lambs and goats and other animals all required their lifeblood be shed. This continuous blood and sacrifice in the Old Testament was a preaching of Christ's blood and singular sacrifice that was to come on the cross.

But these clear patterns were distorted by the priests and rabbis. They forced their own messages into the Message. Animal sacrifices of the Old Testament that were intended to point to Jesus, were curved back on themselves. These symbols turned into the reality—they became the means of salvation. The promise of the coming Messiah shifted from the Shepherd King who forgives sin based on His own blood to a Warrior King who would lead a rebellion against the oppressive tyrants of the land. The popular image of Jesus shifted from King David the kind shepherd to Judge Samson the incredible hulk.

So the sacrifices of lambs and goats and other animals became the Message. Repentance was being really really sorry and offering your best goat as proof that you were really really sorry. But the people and the priests couldn't even get this small sacrifice right.

It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name. But you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’ You place defiled food on my altar. But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’ By saying that the Lord’s table is contemptible. When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong?” [says the Lord Almighty.] (Malachi 1)

To the unbelievers in the Church of Malachi's day (about 430 years before Jesus and John were born) repentance was at best sacrificing a fine choice animal. At worst it was offering an old diseased goat. The people and the priests of Israel approached God in the same way pagans approach God. Give Him something to tame Him. Noble pagans offer their best. Back then throw in some perfect lambs, gold, perhaps a virgin now and again; today billions of hours and dollars given to charity. And that should be good enough for God.

Cheap pagans give Him leftovers. Noble pagans give their best. But it is all given with the same pagan view of repentance: as a business transaction, a negotiation, a trade.

A different John, John the Evangelist, wrote in the first chapter of his Gospel,

For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1)

John was sent to clear away the cluttered belief that repentance was a two-way deal with God. He preached baptism and repentance for the forgiveness of sin. True repentance is rooted in baptism. And what is baptism? The forgiving blood of Christ delivered to sinners by way of water and the Word. Repentance is trusting in the promise of the holy cross, where Christ unilaterally chose to be punished for our sin. He declares:

The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them. This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time… I will forgive their wickedness and I will remember their sins no more.” (Jeremiah 31)

This is the message of John about Jesus; this is the message Jesus Himself preached. For the sake of Christ's sacrifice on the cross and through faith created and kept alive through His promises and Sacraments, He remembers our sins no more. We all have different backgrounds from John the Baptist, but his message of his Savior is for us. Our covenant with God that He established is not about negotiation or goats or money. He clears away our clutter and says, “Grace and truth come through Me and Me alone.” All praise to You, eternal Son!

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

Monday, December 3, 2012

Delivered by Hand


First Sunday in Advent
December 2, 2012

Delivered by Hand
Genesis 19:16

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

It's a common theme in fiction: at the end of the story, the hero reaches out his hand to his friend, who is about to fall. They could be on top of a burning building or the edge of Mt. Rushmore, but the moment between the hand reaching and the hand grabbing is tense. Will the hands connect? Will they both make it out of danger safely?

What you don't see as often is the victim refusing to grab the hero's hand or the one in danger hesitating to be saved. But in the events of history, you see this all too often. We see it happen in the facts of Genesis 19. Just as Sodom and Gomorrah are about to be scorched, Lot lingers. Why?

Because he loved his home and life in Sodom. Even though he was probably considered very odd in that shameless city, Lot had a comfortable life and was a respected member of the community. I base this on the fact that he was sitting at the city gates when the angels come to town. The city gates were where prominent members of society conducted business.

Lot loved being respected. He was troubled by the depravity of his fellow citizens, but up to that point they had left him out of their sinful perversions. But then when even that changed, when they were trying to break down his door to attack his guests, Lot tried to appease these depraved men with a twisted offering. He was willing to sacrifice his own daughters, so that he could wake up in the morning in his same bed, in the same town, as though nothing had changed.

To sum up, Lot had no spine. He was a weak and foolish man who was bossed around his wife, not the woman he married, but the world. But in His mercy God sent His holy angels to deliver Lot from his unholy marriage.

Nothing's changed in 4,000 years. There are lots of Sodomites and lots of Lots and lots of Pharisees walking around. We have married our world. The world offers three basic convenient marriage packages.

(1) The first is the most obvious: you can marry your lust, hate, and greed in openly wicked ways. Augustana College just announced the logical conclusion of their marriage to the world: they will now allow gay civil unions in their chapel. The following is a quote from Augustana's head pastor, Chaplaain Richard Priggie.

"Since it follows with our values and the action of our church body [the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America], we felt it was important at this time to say yes. Yes, we do affirm [gay civil union] ceremonies and we're looking forward to having them in our chapel." (WHBF website, “Augustana College allows Same Sex Weddings on Campus,” Nov. 27, 2012)

(2) The second kind of marriage the world offers is less blunt. As we've seen, some marry the world by celebrating homosexuality. But most aren't that bold. Most are like Lot. They do not practice, but instead tolerate wickedness. They learn to live with it and keep their mouths shut because they don't want to risk losing what they have—respect from fellow humans.

Iowa has legalized gay marriage. And last month just over 640,000 Iowans voted to keep State Justice David Wiggins in his job, the man who handed down this decision (Muscatine Journal, “Iowa Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins is keeping his job,” Nov. 7, 2012). I'm not saying that voting to retain Wiggins was sinful, but I do know that many voted to keep him because they were in favor of tolerating the sin of homosexuality. So these “Lots” end up calling digusting things beautiful. They do this because they want to think of themselves as open-minded and tolerate. They care more about the opinion of their fellow humans than thus sayeth the Lord. They fulfill Jesus' prophecy,

Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will keep it. (Luke 17:33)

(3) But there is a third way in which we can marry the world—by finding our goodness in comparison. Many try to keep their lives by celebrating what they are not. Jesus told a story about a Pharisee who tried to keep his life by boasting of what he was not,

God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. (Luke 18:11)

We can hear how Lot lingered in Sodom, and think in our hearts, “Thank God I'm not like Lot.” We can hear the folly of Justice Wiggins and think, “Thank God I'm not like Wiggins and those who voted for him.” We can hear Pastor Priggie's boast that he is not like, well, us, and think, “Thank God I'm not like that liberal Lutheran ELCA pastor.”

Dear friends, be careful. Let us repent of our pride in what we aren't or haven't done. Christ doesn't care about who we aren't; He cares about who we are.

We are disgusting. We have done disgusting things. And if you think haven't, that's disgusting.

Lot was disgusting and did disgusting things. We would have let him die in the fire and brimstone. But Christ said no. He sent His holy angels to rescue Lot. When he lingered, what did they do? They grabbed him by the hand and physically dragged him out of that disgusting place.

Eternally and spiritually Christ drags us away from our disgusting selves and makes us beautiful. By hand His pastor poured water on your head and made you beautiful. By hand His pastor puts His very blood and body into your mouth and makes you beautiful.

This beauty lies in His promise to you that His beauty will cover you now and always. This is the beauty earned on His cross where all our disgusting-ness hung on Him and Him alone. And He delivers this forgiveness that makes you beautiful by hand.

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

The Bridegroom Gives Wisdom to the Wise Virgins


Last Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 27)
November 22, 2012

The Bridegroom Gives Wisdom to the Wise Virgins
Matthew 25:1-13

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Kids, what do you when Grandma's coming to your house? You wait by a window and watch and wait… at least for a little while. After a while, you get bored and go and play. Then when the doorbell rings, you scramble to the door to say hello to Grandma.

When it comes to watching and waiting for Jesus, we are just like children and just like the virgins in Jesus' story.

Matthew 25:1-5
At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

All ten virgins fell asleep. It's easy to forget that even the five wise virgins dosed off. Jesus' point? Just like all the virgins, we too fail to follow through on Jesus' words,

Matthew 26:41
Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.

In other words we all sin. We all fall short of God's expectation that—among other things—we fail to live like Jesus is coming back today. This doesn't mean spending your day staring up at the sky, saying, “Now… now… no, now!” (One of your guesses could be right, but you'd still be surprised.) Living like Jesus is coming today looks like children obeying their parents. It looks like a younger sister listening to her older sister speak about trouble in her life and encouraging her. It looks like a manager at John Deere or the Arsenal making sure that their staff allowed to do their jobs efficiently.

In addition to the excellence we strive for in our many callings in life, we live like Jesus is coming today by listening to Him. Next Sunday, you will be receiving a resource called The Congregation at Prayer. Please take it home and consider its step-by-step suggestions. The over-arching principle behind this weekly resource is simple: set aside time to listen to Jesus' promises. Listen to His forgiveness from your Baptism every morning. Live like He's coming back today by clinging to His acts of love for you.

This is what was different about the foolish virgins. They lived like Jesus wasn't coming. They knew how lamps worked. But they didn't bother with oil because they had faith that Jesus wasn't coming at all. So when He does return, they scramble for a new faith, but it's too late. He's already arrived. And the door is shut.

Matthew 25:10-13
But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. Later the others also came. ‘Sir! Sir!’ they said. ‘Open the door for us!’ But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.’ Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

The wise virgins trusted the promise of the Bridegroom: He's coming. They didn't know exactly when. They knew it'd be after dark. That's why they had the lamps. But they, too, were surprised when the cry when out at midnight: “He's here!”

We, too, have this oil, this faith in Christ, because He has given it to us through word and water. He keeps our lamps filled through His word, body, and blood. So even while we are asleep, we still watch and pray with Him perfectly, because He watches and prays perfectly for us and gives us credit for His constant vigilance.

Waking or sleeping, we trust Him. Like little children who trust that Grandma is coming to visit, we, too, trust our Father in heaven that His Son is coming back.

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