We Need to Go Where God Is For Us

Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity

October 16, 2016

John 4:50

We Need to Go Where God Is For Us

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The good thoughts in this sermon come from Pastor David Petersen. Fantastic insights! Thank you! Listen to him directly here: issuesetc.org/2016/10/10/2832-looking-forward-to-sunday-morning-1-year-lectionary-jesus-heals-an-officials-son-pr-david-petersen-101016/

In the name

of the Father and of the ☩ Son

and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

It's true that God is everywhere, but that doesn't do you much good. If you stick your hand into a campfire, God is everywhere doesn't do you much good. If you jump into a pit of tarantulas, you won't die, but God is everywhere won't do you much good.

The point of today's lesson is you need to go where God has promised to be for you. That means you need to go to Jesus and you find Jesus in His Word. So that's why you came here. Jesus promised to be for you at church. If you try to get Jesus in another way, you will die.

So Jesus is visiting Cana again. Earlier He had come to a wedding in Cana and turned water into wine. A local nobleman has a very sick son, and when he heard that Jesus was in the area, about 25 miles away, he went to see Jesus. He begged Jesus to heal his son.

Jesus is blunt with this rich man.

“Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders, you will never believe.” (John 4:48)

Jesus is telling this man, in effect, “Okay, you're looking in the right place, but you've come for the wrong thing.” The nobleman wants signs and wonders, but he isn't seeking the kingdom of God because he's made an idol out of life, specifically the life of his son.

We do this all the time, too. We want the good things that God gives, but we want them by themselves apart from God.

So at home we want the pleasures of married life, but we don't want to the responsibilities of being married: we don't want to take out the trash, we don't want to listen to our spouses, we don't want to be limited to one spouse. In the church we want unity in the church, but we don't want church discipline and right doctrine and practice.

So we want the good things, but we take them out of the context of God's mercy and goodness. We want good things on our own terms. We make them idols. And your idols are not made out of stone and wood; they look like you.

So back to Cana. So the Devil is tempting this nobleman with the idol of his son's life. Idols are the things we can't live without and the nobleman couldn't live without his son. He fears, loves, and trusts in his son's life above all things, above God. So he comes to God and tells Jesus what Jesus to do. And if God doesn't do this miracle, then the nobleman has no use for God.

We can't see the nobleman's heart, but the faith we will assume was there was imperfect because of his trust in his idol. It's as if he saying, “Look, Jesus, You can lecture me about doctrine later. Right now we have an emergency! All that matters is that my child lives!” Life and fatherhood, what good things! But they don't get to trump God, who gives life and fathers.

The nobleman thinks that as long as his boy lives, there's hope. But if his son dies, then all hope will be lost. This man's idol, worshiping the life of his son, was this man. This is true for all good things. Life is no good apart from God. Marriage is no good apart from God. Family is no good apart from God.

We might think that the Devil is the one making this child sick and near death; but that would have been the last thing he wanted. The Devil was happy to keep this father trusting in his idols and spiritually sleepy.

Instead God used this sickness to expose this man's idol to save him. We call this the theology of the cross. God is shouting at the nobleman through the sickness of his son to wake up and the nobleman cannot ignore Him.

And Jesus simply says,

“You may go. Your son lives.” (John 4:50)

It's unfortunate that the NIV translates this Greek present tense verb as “Your son will live.” This makes it seem that Jesus is promising a miracle. But all Jesus says is that the nobleman's son lives at that moment. So there are two miracles: the son is healed, but the greater miracle is that

The man took Jesus at His word and departed. (John 4:50)

He believes Jesus' promise that his son is alive and will stay alive forever, even though he dies. This is the greater miracle of trusting Jesus where He wants to be found. Jesus gave this man just want he needed, not a miracle, but faith.

The miracle wine that Jesus created in Cana at the wedding is long gone, but the nobleman from Capernaum and his son still live, even though they died long ago.

You are on the same road as the nobleman. You have only Jesus' word, given to you here at church, and you go home. And you pray at home, “Jesus, don't let my friend die, don't let my wife die, don't let my children die.” And God says to you in His Word:

“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies” (John 11:25)

He is saying, “I know them and I love them more than you do. I baptized them into My name and they live, even when they die.” So we live in hope, we mourn in hope, we wait in hope, taking Jesus at His word.

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us,

so that in Him

we might become the righteousness of God.

Alleluia! Amen!

The Selective King Who Chose You

Twentieth Sunday after Trinity

October 9, 2016

Matthew 22:1-14

The Selective King Who Chose You

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

Imagine treating your wedding banquet as though you were trying to get your used car lot off the ground. Wedding guests are selected with great thought and care; used car salesmen will take anybody with money.

The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. (Matthew 22:2)

This is how Jesus' story starts: the king prepares a banquet for his son. He carefully selects the guests and when the time comes, he sends messengers to tell them. But they all declined—some just walked away and other got violent.

The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. (Matthew 22:6)

Then the king does what we'd expect any king to do.

The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. (Matthew 22:7)

So far two regular things have happened (a king throws a party and a king punishes murders) and one mildly unexpected thing (all the king's subjects refuse to go to his party).

But then Jesus' story gets very strange.

⁹[Then king said to his servants:] 'Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.' ¹⁰So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. (Matthew 22:9-10)

The king's servants are sent out and scoop up anybody they can find. So the story begins with the king being very selective in a way we understand. We understand thinking about all the people you know and selecting which of them you want to spend time with a very special day. We get that. We can relate to it.

But then the king becomes selective in a very different way. We might hear Jesus' story and assume that the king in his anger has become careless and thoughtless. We might think that guests who end up at the king's banquet for his son are there by accident. Listen to verse nine.

[Then king said to his servants:] 'Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.' (Matthew 22:9)

He very deliberately sends out his servants to select anyone they can find.

Jesus' king is the one true God—Father, Son, Holy Spirit—and God doesn't select in the same way we do. We hear the king bringing in all these corner bodies and we sinfully see a mistake. (Some of us might know that the corner bodies are us, so we end up getting ahead of ourselves and missing the point.)

The point of this story isn't that Jesus will take anybody. (He does because He died for all, but that isn't the main point here.) The point is that God carefully chose You to be with Him.

He doesn't love you just the way you are.

He doesn't select you because of the way you are.

He hates you the way you are.

But He selects you for His feast and

makes you new and lovable and desirable.

Why?

Because of His Son's death and resurrection.

Jesus makes you into a good guest by putting good clothes on you.

He has clothed [you] with garments of salvation and arrayed [you] in a robe of His righteousness. (Isaiah 61:10)

These garments of salvation and this robe of His righteousness is placed on you at your Baptism. Jesus takes His death and His rising from death on you; He writes you into His story.

This explains the end of the story here. We already know that the king can be harsh when the circumstances call for swift action. At the end the king gets harsh again.

¹¹But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ¹²He asked, 'Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' The man was speechless. ¹³Then the king told the attendants, 'Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' (Matthew 22:11-13)

In those days the rich would provide clothing to their banquet guests. Garments were provided for the days of the feast. And in the story the king sees a man who was not wearing the clothes that he had been offered. When confronted, the man has no answer. And the king has him thrown outside.

What's the unexpected thing here? It's that the man thinks he pulling this off. He's walking around like John C. Reilly wearing a tuxedo T-shirt and clown pants. He just looks ridiculous.

Or to picture it another way, following the words of the story, he was naked. “He wasn't wearing wedding clothes.” Just like the Emperor's new clothes, a man struts around shamefully thinking that he looks good. But the king calls out his arrogance.

The ridiculous-looking man at the banquet symbolizes those who think they can be a Christian based on their own goodness.

The person who thinks they are a Christian, but refuses to go church is a sham Christian.

The person who thinks they are a Christian, but doesn't receive Jesus' body and blood for forgiveness is a sham Christian.

The person who thinks they are a Christian, but hates their parents is a sham Christian.

God will expose these fakes in His time and He will cast them into hell. Praise be to Christ that you are able to look into the mirror of Luther's Catechism daily and examine what clothes we are wearing: Jesus' wedding clothes, His righteousness or our own invented goodness that rejects Jesus.

We have been trained to be very selective. Another word for this is that we are picky. God is picky, too. Carefully listen to Jesus' final thought at the end of the story:

For many are invited, but few are chosen. (Matthew 22:14)

God has called many, indeed all, to be with Him, but few are chosen. This means you. You are chosen. Not because you are worthy and righteous on your own, but because

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might [wear as wedding clothes] the righteousness of God.

Alleluia! Amen!

The Lord Comes Down to Jacob

Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity

October 2, 2016

Genesis 28:10-22

The Lord Comes Down to Jacob

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

Here's the history of the world . . . part one . . .

In the beginning the Lord God created everything, including Adam and Eve. They sinned and passed on their sinfulness to their children. Their children had children until a baby boy named Noah was born.

Noah was a sinner, but he trusted in Jesus. God saved him on the ark and then after the flood Noah's three sons had children. Shem was one of Noah's sons and Shem's children had children and eventually Abraham was born.

God promised to be with Abraham and bless him; He also promised to use Abraham to bless the whole world. He would do this by having Jesus be born from Abraham's family tree. Abraham had a son named Isaac and Isaac had twin sons: Esau and Jacob.

Jacob was an interesting person. He didn't get along with his brother. His mother Rebekah liked him, but his father Isaac liked Esau. Jacob was a home-body and Esau was a macho man. Eventually Jacob got Esau to promise to be treated like the firstborn son.

²⁷When the boys grew up, Esau became an expert hunter, an outdoorsman, but Jacob was a quiet man who stayed at home. ²⁸Isaac loved Esau because he had a taste for wild game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. ²⁹Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the field exhausted. ³⁰He said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stuff, because I’m exhausted.” That is why he was also named Edom. ³¹Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.” ³²Esau said, “Look, I’m about to die, so what good is a birthright to me?” ³³Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore to Jacob and sold his birthright to him. ³⁴Then Jacob gave bread and lentil stew to Esau; he ate, drank, got up, and went away. So Esau despised his birthright. (Genesis 25:27-34 HCSB)

Jacob ended up running away from home, but not until much later. Several other events take place in chapter 26 and only then we come to infamous incident where Jacob dresses up like Esau and lies to his father about who he is. Then Jacob skedadles just before Esau comes in. We pick up the story:

³⁰As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob and Jacob had left the presence of his father Isaac, his brother Esau arrived from the hunt. ³¹He had also made some delicious food and brought it to his father. Then he said to his father, “Let my father get up and eat some of his son’s game, so that you may bless me.” ³²But his father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” He answered, “I am Esau your firstborn son.” ³³Isaac began to tremble uncontrollably. “Who was it then,” he said, “who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it all before you came in, and I blessed him. Indeed, he will be blessed!” ³⁴When Esau heard his father’s words, he cried out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me too, my father!” ³⁵But he replied, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.” (Genesis 27:30-35 HCSB)

We might think, “Big deal. Just call a do-over. The blessing was given under false pretenses. Surely that can't count.” But it did. First of all, in our time words don't mean much. Promises don't mean much. They should, but most people treat words carelessly.

Christians shouldn't be careless with words, but often we treat them just like unbelievers do. Just like Esau did, “Sure, sure, whatever, you can have my birthright, just give me a Big Mac or perhaps a delicious lobster bisque.”

We don't have birthrights to sell, but we still would rather eat than listen to the Word of the Lord. At church in my younger days, I remember being confused when so many of the grown-ups would come to church, and make their children stay for Sunday school, but they would instead go out for coffee and Danish instead of remain for Bible study. That regular habit of skipping Bible study with your pastor always confused me and I hope it confuses you, too.

Jacob wasn't confused, at least not that his life was in danger. As long as Isaac was alive, Esau didn't make a move. But Esau was counting the days until his dad died and then when the official time of mourning was over, he was going to get revenge. Rebekah heard about Esau's desire for payback and warned her beloved son. And now Jacob is running away from home in Genesis 28.

¹⁰Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. ¹¹He reached a certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set. He took one of the stones from the place, put it there at his head, and lay down in that place. ¹²And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground with its top reaching heaven, and God’s angels were going up and down on it. ¹³The Lord was standing there beside him, saying, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your offspring the land that you are now sleeping on. ¹⁴Your offspring will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out toward the west, the east, the north, and the south. All the peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. ¹⁵Look, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” (Genesis 28:10-15 HCSB)

The Lord God had come to Jacob's grandpa Abraham in several strange ways and visions. He had also come and visited Jacob's dad Isaac. All these visits repeated the promise that the Lord would be with the children of Abraham and blessed because of Jesus. Listen for the term “your offspring,” which refers to the descendants of Abraham's family tree, but also is singular and refers to Jesus. He is the offspring, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. Mary is a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

²The Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt. Live in the land that I tell you about; ³stay in this land as a foreigner, and I will be with you and bless you. For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. ⁴I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky, I will give your offspring all these lands, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring, ⁵because Abraham listened to My voice and kept My mandate, My commands, My statutes, and My instructions.” (Genesis 26:2-5 HCSB)

God came to Jacob in this unique dream that showed the reality of the Christian life: He keeps us alive by coming down from heaven and being with us. Since God is perfect, never selfish, never greedy, never cruel, never proud, and we are the opposite, there's a problem. Opposites can't be together. So God came down and became us and our sin and by dying washes away our pride, greed, cruelty, and selfishness. He speaks us clean and perfect with His voice. He is the Offspring that blesses believers from all the nations.

And so He came down to Jacob and promised to be with him and his children. This means you. You are a child of Abraham not by blood, but by faith.

⁶Just as Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness, ⁷then understand that those who have faith are Abraham’s sons. ⁸Now the Scripture saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and told the good news ahead of time to Abraham, saying, All the nations will be blessed through you. ⁹So those who have faith are blessed with Abraham, who had faith. (Galatians 3:7-9 HCSB)

And to His people God comes down to us in certain places. We can call them little Bethels. Beth-el means house of God. Where are those? Where God's Gospel Sacraments are heard and received: our churches and our homes.

Jacob was running away from home to find a new future. We don't need to go that far, for just like Jacob, Jesus comes and find you and bring you His everlasting promise: “I will never leave you.”

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Alleluia! Amen!

The Guardians Who Protect the Father's Children

St. Michael and All Angels

Observed September 25, 2016

Matthew 18:10

The Guardians Who Protect the Father's Children

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

Angels are messengers and guardians who see the face of our heavenly Father. And they have two jobs: delivering messages from God to humans and protecting humans, particularly Christians, from harm and danger.

Cynics might ask that if angels do these two things, why do Christians die in car crashes? And why hasn't an angel ever spoke to them? We can answer these questions.

This first question wrongly assumes that the worst thing that can happen to someone is physical death. And the second question wrongly assumes that angels speaking to humans is about receiving secret knowledge that no one else has.

As to the first question, believers know that the worst thing possible isn't death; it's not trusting in Jesus' promise of forgiveness—unbelief. We are protected from unbelief in part due to the work of angels bringing messages from heaven down to Earth. And this addresses the second question: when angels from heaven deliver messages to humans on earth, the message is always Christ. Not secret knowledge just for you, but the truth of the Gospel for all people.

So angels protect us from unbelief and everlasting death by delivering messages of Christ. They were sent to deliver messages of Christ's conception, His birth, and His resurrection.

An angel brought the Word of God to the blessed Virgin Mary through his divine message.

²⁶In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, ²⁷to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” ²⁹Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. ³⁰But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. ³¹You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. ³²He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, ³³and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:26-33)

A whole bunch of angels delivered the joyous news of Christ's birth.

⁸And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹²This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” ¹³Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ¹⁴“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” (Luke 2:8-14)

And they announced the news that Jesus was no longer dead.

¹On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. ²They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. ⁵In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? ⁶He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ⁷‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” (Luke 24:1-7)

In addition angels comforted Jesus after the temptations of the Devil in the wilderness and also in the Garden of Gethsemane. God chose to use these created beings in service of His work of saving us. And He continues to send His angels for our benefit in a world that filled with evil, mostly inside of us.

Jesus addressed the evil that's around us and inside of us when He said:

"I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. . . . ¹⁰See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of My Father in heaven. (Matthew 18:3-4, 10)

We do evil when we look down on little children. We do this by thinking too much of them and by thinking too little of them.

We think too much of little children when we fail to discipline them when they do evil, because we think of them as innocent or ignorant or uneducated. We think too much of them when we fetishize their wishes as the way of the future. Our culture thinks that if a young person says something, then it must more pure and correct and profound than if an older person says that the same thing. Our churches are not immune from this obsession with youthfulness. Everybody wants to stay young.

We think too little of little children when we ignore what they really need. We spend great amounts of time and money plotting to make our kids successful grown-ups and so we easily neglect what they really need: to pray with them. Prayer before meals and bedtime is wonderful, but God's children need more. Healthy children need to listen to Jesus Himself every day and to remember the great things He does for them. Children, that's what we are doing right now: remembering that Jesus died and remembering that Jesus lives again and forever for you! Say that everyday with your parents: Jesus was born, Jesus died, and Jesus lives. These things happened and you know it and so you say it.

Jesus sends angels to little ones who speak His name, even little baptized babies who can't yet speak, yet believe in Him. These angels are sent by Jesus to protect us from harm. These guardian angels rejoice when they hear the name of their Master spoken in the homes they protect. And they rejoice to report these glad tidings to their Father in heaven. The angels who protect you see His face always; this is good news for you because this means that the good angels are watching over you. The angels cast out of heaven do not see the Father's face; only the good angels see Him and He sends them to watch over you.

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Alleluia! Amen!

Jesus Humbled Himself For Our Exaltation

17th Sunday after Trinity

September 18, 2016

Luke 14:11

Jesus Humbled Himself For Our Exaltation

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

⁸“When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. ⁹If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, 'Give this man your seat.' Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. ¹⁰But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, 'Friend, move up to a better place.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. ¹¹For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 14:8-11)

This is good advice, isn't it? Don't sit in a seat that isn't yours. In a time when everyone is encouraged to feel entitled to whatever chair they won't, a little humility might go a long way.

But this advice isn't limited to the lips of Jesus. Solomon, whose wisdom came from listening to Jesus, wrote down this advice 1,000 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem:

⁶Do not exalt yourself in the king's presence, and do not claim a place among great men; ⁷it is better for him to say to you, “Come up here,” than for him to humiliate you before a nobleman. (Proverbs 25:6-7)

This advice is timeless. It was true in 1000 BC, it was true in Jesus' day, it's still true today.

To Jesus' original audience—a group of Pharisees—this advice was meant to rebuke them. His description accurately got what they did. They craved attention; they wanted the best seats. The younger Pharisees tried for the places of honor and were sent down. But the older Pharisees had learned the wisdom of Solomon and grasped how to get good seats by taking the lowest places. It was a good trick and it probably worked.

This is why Jesus said at another time:

²“The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. . . . But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. . . . ⁵“Everything they do is done for men to see . . . ⁶they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues . . . ²⁸In the same way, on the outside [they] appear to people as righteous but on the inside [they] are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. (Matthew 23:2, 3b, 5-6, 28)

We are no better than Pharisees, young or old. We might appear righteousness to others and we might even begin to believe our own propaganda. But we must confess that on the inside we are full of wickedness.

We wickedly covet attention. And we pay attention to where others sit and we judge them. In our fairness-obsessed culture where we sit doesn't seem to matter much anymore. But we still care about who's getting attention.

For example, when we visit others Lutheran churches, we complain when none of the members of the church says hello to us. We crave attention, but we also know that we should try to appear the opposite. So we try to piously pass off our obsession with attention as evangelism. We claim, “Well, if they don't greet me and aren't overtly friendly to me, then they must not care about evangelism.” We should stop pretending and using imaginary strangers; we're coveting attention and when we notice it going to others, we become peevish and upset.

Or when our ideas at home, school, work, or church don't get the attention we think they deserve, we become dissatisfied. When our plans don't play out as we thought, we become irritated and we complain to ears that are eager to hear gossip.

Lord, have mercy on us!

Christ, have mercy on us!

Lord, have mercy on us!

And He does. Indeed His parable about picking the lowest seat at the banquet is best fulfilled by Him. Listen to Paul's description of Jesus and compare it with Jesus' story.

⁵Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

⁶Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

⁷but made Himself nothing,

taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

⁸And being found in appearance as a man,

He humbled Himself

and became obedient to death—

even death on a cross!

⁹Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place

and gave Him the name that is above every name,

¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11)

Jesus willingly took the lowest place—He became a man! He willingly got even lower—He was nailed to a tree to be punished for the sins of the world! And then His Father, as His Son committed His spirit to Him, came and said in a way: “My beloved Son, move up to a better place.” So He raised up His Son's soul to His right hand and raised Him bodily on the third day.

He who humbles Himself will be exalted.

Jesus humbled Himself and is exalted.

Jesus humbled Himself for us lowly sinners and for His sake, we are exalted with Him!

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Alleluia! Amen!

Jesus Stopped Death in Its Tracks

16th Sunday after Trinity

September 11, 2016

Luke 7:14

Jesus Stopped Death in Its Tracks

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

We live in a dying world where Death seems to win. Whether 3,000 die in a terrorist attack on 9/11 or if your most cherished friend dies of old age on 9/12, the result is the same: they are no longer here. Nothing seems to be able to stand up to Death; it appears inevitable and invincible.

If only Jesus would attend every funeral and appear bodily at the grave site of all faithful believers. If only He would gently touch the caskets of the dead, they would get up. In the history of the Old and New Testaments, this is just what happened several times. God's prophet or even His Son intervened and got in Death's way. Death was stopped in its tracks.

But God isn't content to just save the handful of souls recorded in Scripture; He desired that all should live. So God Himself ended Death's power not just in Nain, but completely on Calvary. Jesus stopped Death once and for all on the cross.

He went to the cross for the same reason He raised the widow's son in Nain—His heart went out to poor miserable lonely souls. His heart went out to a grieving lonely husband-less son-less woman; His heart goes out to you, too.

He came to this village of Nain and in His humanity is caught short by this funeral procession. And so He acted. He came up to the coffin of this dead son and touched it. He didn't bang the casket; He pressed His holy hand to this box of death and those carrying it stopped. And using His divine voice He called on Death to give up its prize. And Death had to listen. Death couldn't say no.

The young man got up and began to talk. We don't know what he said, but he was clearly alive. Jesus' word had made all the difference.

Not only did Jesus give this widow her son back, but He ended her tears of sadness with the promise of reunion with her husband as well. Now it is said at funerals: “Grandma is with Grandpa now.” Yes, and with millions of other believers, too, in the great eternal family of God. Jesus told us that everlasting life with Him will not be like life here—it's not just your family, clan, or tribe, but all nations together around Him. Heaven is wherever Jesus is; not wherever Grandpa is.

So yes, there is join in seeing your beloved spouse again. But if that's your center of gravity in the face of Death, you'll lose your balance. Jesus is Heaven, and everyone else there, including the widow's husband, is an added harvest of joy!

In the resurrection of all the dead Jesus promised her that her life would never again be empty and barren. One day this widow of Nain would die and then we know that her son died again. But though they both died, they still live.

When we face Death in the eye, we hold on to Jesus' word.

²⁵“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die; ²⁶and whoever lives by believing in Me will never die. (John 11:25-26 NIV)

Your never-dying is accomplished in Jesus' dying. His death makes Death die and His resurrection makes all other comings back to life realities. The widow's son. Your son. You.

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Alleluia! Amen!

Christ Died for You So That the Worst Has Already Happened

15th Sunday after Trinity

August 28, 2016

Matthew 6:24-25

Christ Died for You So That the Worst Has Already Happened

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

She's calm. The woman in Zarephath who had lost her husband and now was on the brink of losing her son and her own life comes across as calm.

We hear her when Elijah comes to her town. He asks her for some water; she obliges. But when he asks her for some bread, she says she can't help. She only has enough bread to have one last meal with her son and then they will die from starvation. She's calm. She doesn't break down and cry. She is speechless—she tells a stranger that her son is going to die before her eyes How do you say this to anyone?

But she told Elijah. What else could she do? What good would worrying do? Worrying is just imagining the worst that can happen. It's hard to worry when the worst is happening.

This poor widow isn't the only one who is calm in the face of the worst that can happen.

Before they were thrown into the fiery furnace Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to a furious Nebuchadnezzar:

¹⁶“King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter [they hadn't bowed down to a golden idol]. ¹⁷If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and He will deliver us from your Majesty’s hand. ¹⁸But even if He does not, we want you to know, your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” (Daniel 3:16-18 NIV)

No groveling, no anger, no curses, no backing down. Just calm steadfast trust in the true God. Just so with Daniel before he was thrown into the lions' den. There's no record of screaming or crying. They just throw him in.

For Daniel and his fellow Jews, this calmness came from their trust in God's promise to them, which we summarize in the words of Jesus:

Seek first [My] kingdom and [My] righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33 NIV)

Daniel and his fellow Jews already had Christ and His kingdom; nothing, not even Death itself, could not rob them of Him and His righteousness.

So also Death cannot rob you of God's gift of being right with Him. Many of you have faced the death of a Christian loved one. You were sad, but underneath it was your calm abiding trust in Jesus' promise: believers cannot die. This is Jesus' promise to Martha, when her brother died. It is His promise to you when your brother dies:

²⁵“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die; ²⁶and whoever lives by believing in Me will never die. (Jesus 11:25-26 NIV)

What is strange is that we trust Jesus is the big things—death and resurrection—but we so often sin by worrying about the little things. We worry about school exams and college boards. We worry about paying for unexpected medical bills. We worry about retirement.

Our brains demand that these little things get the most attention and the most anxiety. These issues are the literal bread and butter of our lives: money, good schools, good jobs, good living after work.

But Jesus tells us: Don't worry. And He specific here about what not to worry for: Money and loving Money.

²⁴“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. ²⁵Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?” (Matthew 6:24-25)

When we worry about Money, we are more foolish than birds and sadder than lilies. When you worry about Money, repent and trust in Jesus' forgiveness. If you are burdened with this Money-ache, come and see me and I will bring you Christ's forgiveness. Pray to Him for daily bread in the prayer He taught you. Daily pray for His swift return and deliverance from the burden of our imagination that is so often imagining the worst that can happen: the loss of money.

Instead daydream and imagine how the best thing has happened to you. Christ died and rose for you. He shed His blood on the cross and now gives you His blood—which is worth more than all the gold and silver in the world—for the forgiveness of your sins, especially your sins of worrying about Money.

Money can't love you, but He loves you, you know. He really does. He proved it again and again. His cross and when He had you Baptized. He love you, even when you think the worst is happening.

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Alleluia! Amen!