Thankful for Our Enemies

Thanksgiving

November 22, 2012

Thankful for Our Enemies

1 Timothy 2:1-4

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Today Paul gives us some good advice: don't think about yourself all day long. Take time to consider the needs of other people and even pray for them. Paul tells us that

1 Timothy 2:2

requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for everyone.

And the apostle singles out for our consideration kings and all those in authority. As Americans we are proud that we have no king, but this doesn't prevent many Americans from viewing many in our government as enemies.

As Americans we are generally proud of the freedom we give to our children, but this doesn't stop lots of kids from resenting their parents and grandparents.

As Americans we celebrate our individual choice in matters of religion, and this often leads many to see their pastor as an enemy.

You may have a lot of enemies. Not just a neighbor who likes to argue over the fence about politics, but genuine bona fide enemies, people with power who seem to be out to get you.

How are you supposed to give thanks for enemies like that?

First, consider why Christ allows you to suffer under enemies who have authority over you. He doesn't smote our enemies with laser bolts because He wants you to run back to Him for strength and comfort.

Psalm 102:8

All day long my enemies taunt me;

those who rail against me use my name as a curse.

Psalm 46:1

[But] God is our refuge and strength,

an ever-present help in trouble.

Suppose Jesus did eliminate your most stubborn foes: the IRS agent who collects what you render unto Caesar, the pastor who won't condone your private sins, the parents who won't cave into your sulking. You'd be filled to the brim with arrogance, “Watch out, everybody, God does whatever I tell Him!” Wouldn't you become the most insufferable donkey on the planet? You'd no longer have any real friends because who'd want to risk making you mad. In short, enemies prevent us from falling in love with ourselves.

Second, Jesus allows enemies into our lives so that we don't fall in love with this world. This world is filled with genuine friends, genuine enemies, and a lot of people in the middle. Keep in mind that to most people, you are one of these middle people. Interacting with friends, foes, and middles can be exhausting!

Heaven is so very different. It is a place of peace. It is a place where friendship that can always be seen, because we will see Jesus with our own eyes. Christians long for the next world over this world because of the reality of our enemies here and now and because of the reality of Jesus' friendship now and forever. Jesus' enemies had it right when they called Him a "friend of sinners "(Luke 7:34).

John 15:13-15

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

As you give thanks today, take time to thank Christ for your parents and grandparents, for your bosses and managers, for your pastors and teachers, for those in the government, and yes, even for your enemies. The friends in our lives pull us back to their Source, our Forgiver and Provider of all good things, Jesus Christ.

And the enemies in our lives drive us back to our Refuge and Strength, our ever-present help when the whole world seems out to get us. Where else can we go, but to our Savior, Jesus Christ?

Dear friends, pray for everyone, even your enemies. Pray that they may be rescued from harm now and forever. Pray that you may be friends here and now. But also give thanks to the Lord for your enemies, because they keep you close to Him.

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

Our Funerals Proclaim Christ Not Doing What We Suppose Him to Do

Trinity 24

November 18, 2012

Death: Asleep in Jesus

Our Funerals Proclaim Christ Not Doing 

What We Suppose Him to Do

Matthew 9:24

ἔλεγεν· Ἀναχωρεῖτε, οὐ γὰρ ἀπέθανεν τὸ κοράσιον ἀλλὰ καθεύδει· καὶ κατεγέλων αὐτοῦ.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Twelve year old girls aren't supposed to die. They are supposed outlive their fathers. But sometimes what's supposed to happen, doesn't. Today we see the unthinkable happen—a little girl dies. But then we see the unthinkable happen again—Jesus brings that little girl back to life.

Mark and Luke tell us that Jairus' daughter was very sick and on the verge of death. But Matthew gets right to the point in his narrative. He doesn't even tell us the father's name; he just tells us that the little girl had died.

Jesus had compassion on this man and his family and He went to that home of heart-breaking sorrow. He did this at great personal expense. When He declared that the little girl was not dead, but asleep, the crowd laughed at Him. Some may even have thought Him cruel to toy with the emotions of the grieving parents by giving them false hope. They knew she was dead. And she was.

But they failed to see Jesus for who He truly is—the divine Author of Life who could heal with a touch up close or with a word miles away. The Creator could have saved Himself much mockery by simply ignoring the father or by healing the girl right then and there. He had just done this for the sake of the centurion's servant in the previous chapter.

Matthew 8:13

Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.” And [the centurion's] servant was healed at that very hour.

But for His own reasons Jesus went in person to the death bed of this poor girl. He ignored the hoots and jeers of the crowd, even though He could have easily stunned them into silence. He could have ordered the poor girl's body brought out into the street so that the crowd could have seen the miracle. Then Jesus would have had the final word. He could have had His moment to bask in laughing last and thus loudest. But He chose another way.

He went into the sad house and according to Mark and Luke only the mother and father and three disciples were allowed to witness this private moment of resurrection.

Mark 5:41-43

He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). Immediately the girl stood up and walked around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.

Jesus only allowed six people to be astonished: the five witnesses and the little girl. The crowd was not invited. They were no doubt still outside cackling away. We would have sent the girl out. We would have had the girl immediately get up on her daddy's shoulders, and go out into the crowd, so that every one of those scoffers could see how foolish they were.

But instead of doing it our way, Jesus told the parents that the little girl needed to eat. (Nobody eats a lot when sick.) Jesus' compassion in the big things—resurrection!—and the little things—food for a little girl—silences know-it-alls.

Know-it-alls say, “Death is not sleep. It's absolute. It's the end.” Know-it-alls mock Christians who trust in Christ's promise, “She's asleep. This separation won't last forever.” Both promises wage war in our hearts and minds.

Know-it-alls win when funerals are reduced to simply a tour of the life that has ended. You see this at funeral homes and churches where family, friends, and even pastors spend most or all of the service praising the dead person, listing their good deeds, reciting a litany of their charity, ticking off a list of organizations that defined their goodness. They're many times and places to do these things, but it's not at a Christian funeral.

If a eulogy—a narrative of the dead person's good life—takes center stage at a funeral, then it is an unspoken admission either that death is permanent, so enjoy the memories, because that's all there is, or that life after death depends on the life that has just ended. These supposed celebrations of life are actually submissions to a culture of death.

But Jesus doesn't do it the way we suppose. Life after death depends on Him and the life and death He lived and died. He raised Himself off of His death bed in that new tomb cut into the side of the hill.

Therefore our funerals proclaim Christ, the One who paid for our sin of knowing-it-all, pride, arrogance, of claiming to celebrate life when we're really embracing slow death.

Little girls aren't supposed to die. We aren't supposed to go to heaven. But our Jesus rescues us from what's supposed to happen. He sent Death away from us and onto Himself and now sends us Life. Let our lives and our funerals proclaim our Savior's death and resurrection until the end.

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

The Church Listens Like Mary

Church Anniversary

November 11, 2012

The Church Listens Like Mary

John 17:17-21

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Mary and Martha were sisters. When Jesus came to visit, Martha was very active with the necessary preparations. On the other hand, Mary passively listened to Jesus. This upset Martha and she said,

Luke 10:40-42

“Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

In the same way, the Church is Mary, and not Martha. This means that the Church gathers around Jesus and listens to His Word of Truth through His called preacher in the sermon and in the Sacraments. Thus Jesus prays,

John 17:17-21

Sanctify them [believers] by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Look at the subjects and the verbs of Jesus' prayer. Who is doing what? God sanctifies believers. He is active; we are blessedly passive.

For example, we see this blessed passiveness in the baptism of infants. When they are baptized, they can be smiling and wide-awake or fast asleep or gassy and fussy. But that cute baby doesn't speak the promise of Christ or apply the warm water to their brows. They are passive—they receive what Jesus gives through His Church.

See this blessed passiveness again at the sick bed or deathbed of God's people. They cannot help themselves. They must be cared for by the blessed Marthas around them. The pastor comes and preaches the Gospel and administers the Sacrament and they receive the sustaining promise—Christ still loves them, He still has died for them, His body and blood in His Supper are still the antidote for the disease of sin.

Over the past 46 years here at Gethsemane, many babies (and children and adults) have passively received the promise of Baptism. Thousands have been forgiven by the pastor as by Christ Himself. Thousands have received the true body and blood of Christ for the forgiveness of their sin. And the sick and the dying have heard the sure promise that, even after their bodies have abandoned them, Christ still stands with them to the very end.

God sanctifies believers—He makes them holy and set them apart in the Church. Church is a gathering of baptized souls who like Mary passively receive gifts from Jesus. But don't confuse passivity with deadness or apathy or sleep. Passive means that Christ saves us through His activity. And by His activity He makes us alive and alert and awake.

In the Church, we are like Mary.

We listen and receive. It makes us alive.

In the world, we are like Martha.

We give and serve. It helps others.

Romans 12:1

Therefore, I urge you… in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.

God's mercy is what we hear and receive like Mary. And His mercy still flows through us as we like Martha serve others. Until Christ calls us home to heaven or until this world ends, in this meantime, God is keeping His Church and her members in this old world for a reason: as a sacrifice of the body for your neighbor.

Gethsemane's past is filled with the activity of the triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—in the lives of God's gathered guests on Sunday morning. This divine activity is the only reason we are alive and have hope. But our past is also filled with the activity of God's people in the world, offering their bodies as living sacrifices.

So, for five decades, the members of Gethsemane served others. Parents have cooked meals, changed bed sheets at 3 am, watched soccer games in bone-chilling weather, and patiently refused to give in to temper tantrums. Kids have taken out the trash, gone to bed without complaining, and stuck up for school friends. Others have labored with diligence in the workforce and have been God's salt in this tasteless old world.

Many have prayed together, praying for themselves and others. Next month you will begin to receive a document each Sunday called “The Congregation at Prayer”. It's a resource with readings from Scripture, prayers, and words from the Small Catechism. It's designed to assist you as you pray at home, so that you can pray along with your fellow members of our Gethsemane family, on any and every given day of the week.

Church is not primarily a place where we go to be empowered and become a busy Martha. Church and our homes where the Gospel is heard is primarily a refuge from the world and from ourselves.

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus, even while we live in the world, we pray that for another year You will make us holy and set us apart from the world in Your holy Church, including Your congregation of saints here, where Your Word is the Truth that is heard from the pulpit and poured out from the font and distributed from the altar.

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

After Forgiveness, Forgiveness

Trinity 22

November 4, 2012

After Forgiveness, Forgiveness

Matthew 18:35

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

When are you most likely to be generous towards other people?

After you hear that your first grandchild is born. After a good first date, that ends with plans for a second one. After you've opened all your birthday presents. After a delicious meal.

It's always after something, isn't it? After something good.

So it is with forgiveness, which is why the man in the middle of our story this morning catches us by surprise.

This miserable old man—by the way, he's us—has a huge debt owed to his king. He owed 10,000 talents. He'd have to work for 150,000 years to pay it off. But the king had compassion on this miserable man and canceled the debt.

Then this man is free. He no longer lives under a crushing debt. So he enjoys his new freedom by taking a walk. And he runs into a man who owes him about $5,000.

What do you expect him to do after something good has happened to him?

    Say nothing and wish him a nice day?

    Gently remind him that his debt is overdue?

    Tell him what the king just did for him?

He chose option number four: shake him down and throw him in prison.

Now here's the thing. That miserable man had every legal right to have his debtor thrown into prison. We might even expect this on the day before the king canceled his debt. Indeed this sort of thing happens every day. We might not like it, but it's predictable.

But his decision to throw someone into debtor's prison after the king's generosity toward him is unexpected. And it was noticed and reported to the king. His reaction is predictable.

Matthew 18:32-34

“You wicked servant,” he said, “I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

And then Jesus makes His point.

Matthew 18:35

This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.

Jesus' point is that He is serious and that you should take it to heart. He's serious about sin and He's serious about forgiving sin. He tells you to cling to what He has done for you, pictured by the king canceling the man's debt. And He warns us that being stingy with His forgiveness can lead to grave consequences. Believers who are stingy with forgiveness will finally begin to wonder if God will be stingy with them.

There have been groups of Lutherans who have been stingy with forgiveness. They tried to measure how heartily sorry—that is, from the heart—other Lutherans were before they would declare them truly forgiven. They insisted that certain inner feelings of sorrow should be shared and expressed to small groups of “real” believers. Soon the certainty of forgiveness based on Christ's generosity was replaced by the predictable human view of forgiveness: before you can have it, you have to earn it.

Christ destroys our before attitude toward forgiveness that insists on doing something before forgiveness is received. He replaces our stingy forgiveness toward each other with His blood dripping from the cross. His forgiveness comes from the heart, His heart that generously pumped blood out of His back that had been flogged to pieces and out of His hands and feet where the nails had been driven and out of His side where the spear pierced Him. His forgiveness is the true body and blood that He gives to His Church Sunday after Sunday in the Holy Sacrament. His forgiveness is the word of forgiveness that I speak, in my office as your called pastor, sent by Christ to you.

After all that goodness, how strange it is when we are so stingy with forgiveness. We love throwing others into jail. We love sulking and punishing parents for their inconsistent parenting. It can be so satisfying, yet so far away from Jesus.

Matthew 6:9,12

Our Father, who art in heaven… forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Christ has forgiven our debts, our trespasses of hate, lust, greed, and stingy forgiveness. Instead of being tied down by our debts, He has sent them far away.

Let us forgive from the heart. How? Look at your heart? Try to summon superhuman feelings of pity and kindness and warmth toward your debtors? No! Never that.

Run away from your heart and run to your generous Master and His cross. See how seriously He takes your debts and how He takes them away from you and upon Himself. This is how we forgive from the heart again and again and again because we forgive after He has forgiven us again and again and again.

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