The Good Morning

The Resurrection

April 20, 2014

Matthew 28:9

The Good Morning!

In the name of Jesus.

I.

Good morning! He says it like it's any other morning. But it isn't. It's the good morning. It's the good morning just as last Friday was the good Friday. It's the morning that makes all other mornings possible. Without that good morning every other morning would be pointless and doomed.

But He greets the ladies coming from His vacant tomb with such an ordinary greeting, “Good morning!” The response to this ordinary hello is extraordinary and entirely proper. They came to Him, bowed down and touched His feet, and worshiped Him.

They worshiped their God and Savior. Since He was standing there and saying, “Good morning,” to them, they knew that the Man standing before them is their promised Savior from death. He had been dead, but He had returned from the dead and was breathing and talking and standing before them. They reached out to Him and their fingers touched His warm living toes. He was no ghost or spirit. He was their Man who had conquered the cold of Death with His own death.

II.

For us “Good morning!” doesn't seem quite adequate. This is the Morning that began the proclamation to the World that past Friday had changed the World, just as Jesus said it would.

But Jesus' ordinary greeting reminds us, perhaps, that that is how He mostly works. Ordinary words to ordinary people that cause extraordinary changes that are usually hidden under (once again) ordinary appearances.

So these ordinary women departed from the presence of Jesus and spoke extraordinary words—He is not in the tomb—to ordinary men.

III.

And we do the same. We are here in the presence of Jesus. We gather around Him in Preaching and Food. And we depart from His presence as old Simeon sings,

Lord, now You let Your servant

depart in peace according to Your word.

For my eyes have seen Your salvation,

which You have prepared

before the face of all people,

a light to lighten the Gentiles

and the glory of Your people Israel.

How extraordinary and proper to sing as you depart from the real presence of Christ. Let us depart with peace and joy. Let us go and speak extraordinary words to ordinary brothers and sisters and father and mothers and sons and daughters.

Christ sent these beloved daughters of His not to strangers, but to their fellow Christians and relatives. Let us bring the reality and comfort of His rising from death to ordinary ears of our ordinary loved ones.

This afternoon at 4 o'clock I suggest that you along with anyone else in your household turn to the Word of God and read of the events along the road to Emmaus in Luke 24. Meditate on these events and ask along with Jesus what things happened on these most holy days.

Jesus will return today or perhaps this night to take us home. But if He delays and you find yourself awake in the Monday morning light, it will still truly be—for the sake of our Savior's death and the resurrection that proclaims Death's defeat—a Good Morning!

In the name of the Father

and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

The Bread That Unites Us

Holy Thursday

April 17, 2014

John 6:57

The Bread That Unites Us

In the name of Jesus.

I.

Communion is a proper way to speak of this Holy Food that becomes more and more special the more we eat and drink. It doesn't leave us uncomfortable like earthly food or wanting more or wishing that we'd chosen something else to eat. Communion is just the right food for hungry souls that are always fighting off death, both physical and spiritual death.

It's just the right food against death because it is alive. We eat and drink our living Savior's body and blood and through all of His gifts of Baptism, Preaching, and Supper, we are united with Him. And since we are joined to Him, we are also joined to His Father, who is now our Father, who art in heaven.

Jesus would famously say to His followers,

John 14:6-11

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you know Me, you will also know My Father. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.”

“Lord,” said Philip, “show us the Father, and that’s enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been among you all this time without your knowing Me, Philip? The one who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words I speak to you I do not speak on My own. The Father who lives in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.

When you know the Son, you know the Father. Through this vertical connection from heaven down to earth, from Jesus' holy body into our mouths, we are united to the Father, whose name is hallowed. And through Jesus' body, the Word that became flesh, His kingdom comes to you.

II.

We are fighting a common enemy, Death itself. And we have a common Savior, who crushed Death itself. So this Bread of Life also connects us to each other.

As sons and daughters of the same Son and Father in heaven, we are called to live holy lives for each other. We take and eat and then return home and enjoy our prayers together. We wake up and go about the business of life as we busy ourselves with play or go to school or stay to work at home or go out to work. There we find many chances to lose our temper or to become frustrated with the people around us. And we take many of them. But more than those actual flare-ups, we discover our real selves, demanding, bitter, and greedy for ourselves. We see the ugly rebels that we are, who only want other gods. Above all we fear, love, and trust in ourselves.

And so in Communion we seek the forgiveness that only Jesus can give. Communion isn't a mechanical cleansing of one or two weeks of our dirty laundry. It pushes our Selves out of the way, and Jesus gives us His own self.

And so in Communion we together run to Him. Hungry sinners—proud in ourselves and proud in our humility, yet this pride never satisfies us—receive the heavenly Bread of Life. And in Him, we will live together with each other, all for the sake of a heavenly Father and a beloved Son.

John 6:57

Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on Me will live because of Me.

In the name of the Father

and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Jesus' Leaky Bucket

Confirmation

April 13, 2014

Psalm 25

Jesus' Leaky Bucket

In the name of Jesus.

I.

There once was a wise old man who loved collecting leaky buckets. In the morning he get up and look through his neighbors' trash and he pick up a couple of broken pails. Around lunchtime he'd make the rounds again and find a few more. Then in the evening he'd do a last check for the day and usually would rescue at least one more cracked pot out on the curb.

Most people thought he was a harmless old man who liked to collect useless junk. They didn't mind when he took their trash . . . until they found out what he did with all those cracked pots and leaky buckets and broken pails. One day a couple of kids followed him on his rounds and watched as he gathered up the hole-y buckets and took them home. He unloaded them and carefully brought them out to a huge pond and placed each one underwater.

The boys went home and told their parents and soon everyone knew that the harmless old man was dangerous. He was up to some strange plot, since he was going to all this trouble for old broken trash.

Finally someone asked him what he was doing out at his pond, and he smiled and asked in return, “Where's the one place a leaky bucket can stay full?”

II.

Gabby, you're one of those leaky buckets. And Jesus looked for you and found you and brought you to the one place a leaky bucket like you can always be full.

He submerges you in His Baptism.

He dunks you in His Absolution and Preaching.

He plunges you into His Supper.

A patched-up leaky bucket still leaks and can't carry its own water. So Jesus calls you to stay under His water until you stop breathing and He takes you home for good.

Gabby, you're one leaky bucket. But Jesus will keep you wet.

Gabby's Confirmation Verse

Psalm 25:4-5

Show me Your ways, O LORD,

teach me Your paths.

Guide me in Your truth and teach me,

for You are God my Savior,

and my hope is in You all day long.

In the name of the Father

and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

P.S. Thanks to Pastor W. Weedon for the image of us as leaky buckets. Listen to his full comments here: http://issuesetc.org/2013/09/19/1-the-liturgy-of-confirmation-part-two-pr-will-weedon-91913/.

The Cup He Drank; The Cup We Drink

Fourth Sunday in Lent

March 30, 2014

Matthew 20

The Cup He Drank; The Cup We Drink

In the name of Jesus.

I.

Why so mad?

Why were the other disciples so angry with James and John? We could try and take their indignation in the best way and think that they were upset that James and John would be thinking about seating charts when Jesus was talking about His own death.

However, the truth is much more likely that they were angry because James and John and their mom had cut ahead of them in line. Jesus had just told them that they would be seated around Him.

Matthew 19:28

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

So they were not angry at the question itself; they were mad that they hadn't asked Jesus the exact same question first!

Strangely the only person who wasn't upset was the one person who should have been: Jesus. They had missed the point completely (again), yet Jesus is mercifully still teaching them why He had come. He had come and the time was near at hand to drink His cup.

II.

The Cup He Drank

Jesus' cup was a bitter one. The all-powerful ever-active Ruler of the universe, the One who keeps all galaxies and quarks and atoms spinning, is going to be passive. His enemies will act against Him and He will remain quiet.

Matthew 20:18-19

The Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death. Then they will hand Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked, flogged, and crucified, and He will be resurrected on the third day.

All the verbs reveal how Jesus took His cup: He will be handed over, He will be condemned, He will be handed over again, He will be mocked, He will be flogged, and He will be crucified. This is how He drank His cup, passively, quietly, obediently.

III.

The Ingredients of His Cup

Where did His cup come from? What was in it? The pride of the disciples was in it, wickedly fighting over who was the best of the bunch.

Our pride is in His cup also. Like the disciples, it is always easy to point out pride in others. But isn't it pride that assumes that we aren't proud? When your wife accuses you of being too proud, do you become defensive? Do you go on the offensive and point out her sins, so that your contribution to Jesus' cup is forgotten? Children, when your dad points out your pride when you refuse to obey him, do you scream and shout? Do you run and pout? That's pride because you know better than he does. Pride is a bitter cup. And Jesus drank our sinful pride for us.

IV.

The Cup We Drink

Jesus' cup is the cross. And He drank it to the last dregs, to the last drop. And now He calls you to drink your cup. Dead men tell no tales and drink no drink. But the Spirit has called you by the Gospel and now you are alive. For the living, drinking is one of the most important things that you do.

For the living Christian, Jesus calls you to drink your cup, which is like His. He calls you to carry your cross.

Mark 8:34

If anyone wants to be My follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.

Drink your cup. Take your lumps. When your wife accuses you of pride, you'd better assume that she's right. Take it like a man and ask for forgiveness. Don't rationalize. Don't make excuses. Don't bring up her contributions to Jesus' cup. So what if she's bringing up your sins to avoid her own. She's still right. And when you aren't defensive about your own pride, you may give her breathing room to be honest about her own. Bear your cross to help her bear hers.

Drink your cup, kids. When your dad punishes you for not listening, don't shout or pout. Say that you're sorry and then listen to him and do what he says. Dads don't always know what they're doing, and they do make bad calls (your brother probably was the one who started it) but your dad is trying to help you. And when your dad asks you for your forgiveness for losing his temper, don't despise him. Thank God that you have a dad who knows what it is to forgive and to be forgiven. He is drinking his cup by bearing the cross of a father. Drink yours by bearing the cross of a child.

V.

A Family Cup

Jesus and His followers are a family. And families fight. We fight about who's the best. He drank your cup of pride. He forgives us for the sake of the cup He drank. By drinking He has brought you into His family and made His Father in heaven, your Father. And You now give us food and drink, Your Body and Blood, as we gather as Your family at Your supper table to be fed. You put the food and drink in our mouths like a dear father feeding his dear little children. And that is what we will always be, seated around You now and in eternity.

In the name of the Father

and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

By Faith I Now See My Blindness

Third Sunday in Lent

March 23, 2014

John 9:39

By Faith I Now See My Blindness

In the name of Jesus.

I.

Worse than Blindness

Blindness is the one of the worst things ever. At least this is what people who can see think. Jesus' disciples seemed to think so. They considered being born blind such a curse that it must be an actual curse. From God.

John 9:1-2

As [Jesus] was passing by, He saw a man blind from birth. His disciples questioned Him: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Jesus answered that no one sinned; God is not cursing anyone.

John 9:3

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus answered. “This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him.

And then Jesus takes up a better question: what is worse than physical blindness? His answer is this: thinking that you can see when you cannot. For example, who would be more dangerous behind the wheel: a blind man who knows he's blind or a blind man who is convinced he can see?

But go deeper. What's more dangerous than a blind man who thinks he can see? Jesus said that the answer is not a sinner who knows he's a sinner, but rather a sinner who is convinced that he isn't.

John 9:39-41

Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, in order that those who do not see will see and those who do see will become blind.” Some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and asked Him, “We aren’t blind too, are we?”

“If you were blind,” Jesus told them, “you wouldn’t have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see’—your sin remains.

II.

Where are the Hypocrites?

There is a certain received “wisdom” among the blind who think they can see: the Christian Church full of hypocrites. They say that Christians claim to be better than non-Christians people, yet we do evil also. And in standing in judgment over us, unbelievers smugly gloat, “Practice what you preach, O hypocrite!”

A common, and often satisfying, retort is that there's always room in the Church for one more hypocrite. However, perhaps it's better to know that the Church is where hypocrisy stops.

The Church is the only gathering of non-hypocrites on the planet. A hypocrite is a someone who says that they can see, but are really blind. When Christians come together, we wisely confess that we are blind by birth. We say and mean that we are filled with sin from birth, from conception, when our life begins. We confess our blindness. We confess our stumbles, which are often horrible crashes. We hurt ourselves and those we're supposed to care for.

When the Holy Spirit baptizes a spiritually blind man with the hands and mouth of His pastor, a change takes place. Instead of a blind man who thinks he can see, a new creature is created in that holy water: one who now sees that he is blind.

III.

Seeing Blindness

I am blind, but now I see my blindness. By faith I now see my sinful Self as I truly am. By faith I see also Jesus, my Savior from my sinful Self. By hearing I trust more and more in Jesus' words, and less and less in what I think I can see.

John 20:29

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

When we trust our eyes for our hope of things unseen, we falter. Like the followers of Jesus and the followers of Moses, we compare ourselves to others to prop ourselves up. This is not surprising—other people and their sin and their problems are things we can see. We use our sight to make ourselves look better.

Buried in the disciples' question, “Who sinned, Jesus?” is the implication that they didn't. They could see. Thus, they were cleared of sin.

The miracle mud for this trust in sight is listening. Listen to Jesus. Make His Words your words in your daily prayer. Judge yourself the worst of sinners, according to the words of Scripture, and you will find it difficult to trust your sight. We live on every Word that comes from the mouth of Jesus and so living, we see Jesus.

Ephesians 5:14

“Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you.”

In the name of the Father

and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Worship the Father in Spirit and Truth

Second Sunday in Lent

March 16, 2014

John 4

Worship the Father in Spirit and Truth

In the name of Jesus.

I.

Are Jesus' final words to the Devil “Worship the Lord and serve Him only” still ringing in our ears? Have they been on your mind as you've driven to work or tucked your children into bed or washed your hands?

They seemed in some way to be on the mind of the woman at the Samaritan well. This woman was outcast because of her decision to treat God's gift of marriage carelessly. But this “sinner” seemed to be keen to talk about religion. After Jesus revealed His divine knowledge of her life, she recognized a man of God before her and said,

John 4:19-20

“Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”

Jesus' reply to this curious woman echoed His final response—worship the Lord!—to the Devil's temptations.

John 4:21-24

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

II.

The Samaritans worshiped the Lord with rituals on Mount Gerizim in Samaria, the middle section of the Holy Land. And their religious teachings were muddled and mixed up, as Jesus indicated, when He said that they worshiped what they did not know.

Jesus told her and later He would tell her neighbors that what's more important than a place to worship, is how you worship. Worship the Father in spirit and in truth. But how?

The answer to this follow-up question is already there. Paul told us in Romans where you are born doesn't matter; Jesus has told us that where you worship isn't the most important thing. What's most important is where your drinking water comes from.

John 4:13-14

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this [well] water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

III.

Think of Gethsemane like an old-fashioned well. Think of your pastor as the creaky man at the pump. Think of yourself as a leaky bucket or cracked vase.

You come every Sunday to be filled up. The water is free; there's no charge because the water has already been paid for. Jesus already paid for the water and He is the Water. And He fills you up through Scripture spoken and chanted and sung in the liturgy and in preaching. Perhaps you're able to stay for Sunday School and your parents for Bible study. Perhaps you give some money to shine up the pump, but what comes out of it is always free and refreshing.

And though through the days of the week we spill much of that precious water to the ground, through faith we are little pumps. In the morning, Jesus comes out of your mouths like water. Through the day as you work, Jesus bubbles up and is always there in your mind. Before you close your eyes for sleep, Jesus comes out of you, O little Pump, as you pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.“

Water in, water out. Like breathing, Jesus is our Water. We drink and live, now and forever.

In the name of the Father

and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Jesus at War with the Devil

First Sunday in Lent

March 9, 2014

Matthew 4:1-11

Jesus at War with the Devil

In the name of Jesus.

I.

What is it about the Devil and food? In the Garden of Eden, he used fruit to get the attention of Eve and then Adam. In the wilderness, he tempted Jesus with bread.

Even though he himself doesn't eat—he's a spirit with no body, after all—he knows how badly our stomachs can lead us astray. And so the Devil tried his food tricks with Jesus.

II.

In the wilderness for 40 days, He did not eat any food. I believe the rule of thumb is that you can survive for three minutes without air, three days with water, and three weeks without food. Jesus could have died—He was well over 21 days without food.

So the Devil came to Him with a request we would have made. If you had seen Jesus, ragged and hungry, what would you say? You would say, “Jesus, You have to eat something!” The Devil said to Jesus, “Jesus, You need to eat something! Jesus, if You want to save these people, You need to live, so You need to eat.”

But He refused because He saw through the Devil's very reasonable advice for what it was: another lie from the Liar.

John 8:44

“. . . there is no truth in [the Devil]. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

In contrast to the mouth of Christ, whatever comes from the Devil's mouth is a lie and a trick. And Jesus warred against the Devil's lies, which always have one idea in common: do it your own way. God has a plan for me, we think, and I am going to help Him do it my way.

We worry about our children being hungry, so we work hard to provide them good food and even more toys. But we make ourselves so busy earning bread, that we are too tired at the end of the day be with our children and wife and take a few moments to listen to Jesus and pray together. A Has a Sunday at church becomes a luxury because our busy bread-winning ways? Are we are working so hard and only filling our children's stomachs? What are we doing?

Luke 12:16-21

Jesus told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

III.

Jesus richly praises His Father in His combat with the old Evil Foe, even though through His time on earth, it must have seemed like His Father was the enemy! That is the way it always is, the Son talks as though the Father is the most important Person of the Trinity. (Last Sunday on the celebration of the Transfiguration, the Father talks as through the Son is the most important Person of the Trinity: “This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him!”)

Jesus rebuked the Devil's lie, “Humans do not live on food only, but only the revealed Word of God.” And He speaks of Himself, for He is the living Word of God in the flesh, “I AM Who I AM, Devil—I am all the Bread anyone will ever need.”

IV.

The Devil strangely doesn't give up. He tells Jesus to dazzle the crowds at the Temple by jumping and landing without a parachute. That would have would very helpful in gaining converts for His cause. We even might have come up with the glorious spectacle in short order, “Jesus, we really need to get Your name out there among the people. How about a little air show for Your enemies? That'll shut them up!”

Jesus said no: “Don't test My Father.”

Finally the Devil makes Jesus a real offer: “I'll stop terrorizing the people of the world if You bow down to me. That's the point of Your being here, right? To help people? Help them, Jesus. I'll leave them alone, You won't have to be forsaken by Your Father. It's a win-win. Bow down, and mission accomplished.”

Shortcuts to help our Father's will. Always appealing. Always attractive. Always deadly.

And Jesus said no: “Worship the Lord and serve Him only!”

We worship by listening to the Word of God. We bow to His will and receive His forgiveness. And that's what we are: receptacles of God's mercy. We are cracked empty jars, and the Word comes to us and fills us up. He is the Water that never stops pouring and good thing, too, for we spill much. But He just keeps pouring. And so we just keep coming back to Him on the Sabbath day, His day for our rest and refreshment. And we bring our children Sunday after Sunday to be filled up by Him.

V.

The Devil is always trying to get Jesus to be busy, “Jesus, do something. Don't just still there!” But Jesus says no, and at the of the fasting and temptation, He always His angels to serve Him. Everything is beautifully backwards. He came not to be served by us, but to serve us. But His angels delight to serve Him. And so Jesus rests and is passive.

His Church would do well to learn from her Bridegroom Jesus. Above all His Church is to be served, to receive, to be passive, above all to listen to every word that comes from the mouth of God.

In the name of the Father

and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.