Sermon Texts

Sept. 15, 2024 Text:  James 3:1-12

Dear Friends in Christ,

Hello.  You have heard a lot about them.  Here they are.  My headphones.  These help me survive in public places.  Ball games – I wore them to the Illinois football game last weekend.  Grocery store.  Airports and airplanes – needed going to and from Germany.  Will be on my head this Tuesday and Friday, flying to and from my trip to see my friend.

Why are they needed?  Because the world cannot control the tongue.  I see more and more people doing what I have been doing for five years.  Verbally we have reached what one commentator calls a sad state of “hyperinflation” in our verbal tools of outrage.  One can no longer say anything shocking enough to grab anyone’s attention.  We might rightly ask, “How did we ever arrive here?”

The tongue as a means of destruction is as old as the Bible.  James under timeless truth given from the Holy Spirit says the tongue “is a fire.”  

“CAN YOU SMELL THE SMOKE?”

Our speech is burning our decorum and kindness down to a mere ember.  Like the western wildfires that gave us a haze in the Midwest, the smoke of our language makes its way throughout our country.  

Our tongues set “fires.”  A small bit can direct a horse, a tiny rudder can direct a massive ship.  A tiny fire can engulf a forest.  The language we use matters.  We have been in the gutter for quite some time.  

The path or course of human existence is engulfed; the source of the devastating flames is hell itself.  Hurtful words do damage not only to the one who speaks them; the hearts and mouths of those who hear such sin-soaked speech are set ablaze as well.  Sin multiplies sin.  James observes that for one and all the tongue influences the course of life – and seemingly not vice versa.

We are told in verse 7 that every living creature can be tamed by man.  To control the tongue is the faithful Christian’s constant quest, never finished, always under God’s grace.  The goal is so near and yet so far.  The best way to control one’s sinful tongue is simply to keep thy mouth shut before damaging words and hurtful thoughts emerge.  No human being since the fall has completely succeeded in this straightforward task.  This is why we must turn to Christ and His Gospel constantly for the healing balm of the forgiveness of our sins.

The last warning James gives is the pitiful irony of our sin.  This same mouth can curse and bless.  James says that a tongue on fire, creating a lot of smoke is like freshwater and salt water.  You mix the two and the saltwater is going to overtake the freshwater.  Our society is the pro facia case of the salted tongue making all of us a bit salty.  We are trying to be freshwater in our words, but it’s tough.  Even Christians use forms of the word “God” in their speech.  I learned in confirmation that this breaks the 2^nd commandment.  Knock it off with God’s help.

I don’t buy the argument that the tongue cannot be tamed.  I know from my own history it can.  I also recently saw it played out in a very public place.  A football team.  Name – Chicago Bears.  They were on a TV series called “Hard Knocks.”  A behind the scenes look at their day-to-day operation.  There was no profanity.  Do you know why?  Out of respect for the McCaskey family who owns the Bears.  Amazing.  If ballplayers and coaches can do it there is hope.

We need restoration.  We need someone to clear the smoke.  Control the fire, the bit, the rudder.  Jesus has restored our tongues to his great good by enduring the fire of God’s wrath against all our sins – including the sins of the tongue – in our place.  He undoes the chaotic damage that has been done.  He suffered scorn and abuse, physical and verbal, on the cross.  His death there has effectively extinguished the fiery danger of God’s judgment into hell for all who use their tongues to confess his name.

He has undone the damage by preaching the healing, life-giving, divine Word that sets all things right where all has gone terribly wrong.  Such preaching continues today – for our forgiveness, for our life, and for our salvation.

Let us continue, through the strength of the Holy Spirit to train and use our tongues as instruments that able to accomplish good.  May our blessings be stronger than our curses.  May our compliments be more numerous than our complaints.  May our tongues show the non-Christian and struggling Christian that words make a difference.  The cleansing, pure fountain of the Gospel can spring forth so that it changes hearts, puts out fires and diminishes all the smoke around us.

Amen.

Sept. 8, 2024 – Christian Education Texts:  Ge. 22:1-14, Hebrews 1:1-3a, John 1:1-5

Dear Friends in Christ,

Are things ‘ok’ in your life?  In our speech we tend to ask people, “How are you doing?”  We get answers from “living the dream” to “better than I deserve.”  Many times, we get the “not bad,” “pretty good,” and then the proverbial “I’m doing ok.”  You have to listen to the tone of their voice, but it has been my experience that many of the people who answer this way are not ‘ok.’  They tend to have something that is troubling them.

How long do you think ‘ok’ has been around?  On March 24, 1839, the Boston Morning Post first published the initials “O.K.” – the abbreviation for “oll korrect,” a popular slang misspelling for “all correct.”  Eventually, OK would become part of everyday speech in the United States.  At the time, misspelling words intentionally was a favorite pastime for the younger, educated crowd.  They would often take words, misspell them as slang when conversing with one another.

Today is Christian Education Sunday.  The three readings serve as the texts.  We look at our world and wonder, “what’s next?”  We question if we are ok.  Thank God for His Holy, Life-Giving Word!  We can walk confidently when asked . . . 

“ARE THINGS ‘OK’ IN YOUR LIFE?”

How might Abraham and Isaac answer that question?  In our Old Testament lesson, Isaac asks his father, “Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”  You’re the parent how are you going to answer?  In some form, we are going to let our child know things are ok.  Abraham answers, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering.”  Simple, concise, even while his heart must be aching.

We have always admired the faith of Abraham in this scenario.  But what about Isaac?  He could have overpowered his father, but he didn’t.  When things didn’t look ok, both father and son trusted.  God will provide.  And He did.  A Son who became our sin offering.  Wood that was cut into a Roman Cross where God offered His Son.  God literally took the fire and knife, so to speak, when He had His Son beaten, whipped, mocked, and crucified at Calvary.  For you.  For me.  It is what God did: provided.

God spoke to Father Abraham.  In our day He speaks to us through His Son.  That is in our Hebrew reading.  God speaks through Law and Gospel.  The Law shows us a need for a Savior.  We are not always ok.  We have problems, challenges, sins we can’t shake.  The Gospel shows us a Savior.  Christ is the Word (we’ll get to that in a minute from John).  God promises that His Word will accomplish His will in your life.  God sends this Word to you in the person of Jesus.  His does it in various ways – sermons, worship, bible studies, prayer, sacraments, the support of a friend.  Where one path is blocked, He opens another.  God’s Word can forgive and heal.  God spoke to our ancestors in days past, He still speaks that same Word to us today.

John writes, “The Word was God.”  Did you catch this part?  “In the beginning was the Word.”  Christ has always been.  Christ is eternal.  God was thinking about us long before the creation of the world.  He was already making plans for our salvation.  He knew life wasn’t always going to be ok.  We never tire of sin, or if we do, we can’t stop it.  Confession and absolution are not just a Sunday “to do”, they need to be a part of our daily lives.  The Lord hears our pleas.  He sends the light into the darkness.  It’s not, “I’m OK, You’re OK.”  It is forgiven for the sake of Jesus Christ.

I am going to share with you one of my favorite sermon illustrations.  Maybe you have heard it in another church.  In over 25 years I have never shared it with you.  Maybe you’ll see why.

John Griffith was a man who lost all in the stock market of 1929.  He took a job in Mississippi tending a drawbridge over a railroad trestle.  This happened in 1937.  He took his 8-year-old son Greg with him to work.  They joked around in the office, but then John got back to work.  He heard a train approaching with around 400 passengers.  He couldn’t find Greg.  When he saw him, he was climbing on the gears of the drawbridge.  He yelled, but the train noise made it impossible.  John Griffith faced a horrible dilemma.  He could try to rescue his son, but 400 people would probably die in the crash.  If he closes the bridge, his son gets crushed.  He pulled the lever and closed the bridge.  The train went by, and nobody realized he had sacrificed his son their behalf.

God knows we are not always ok.  We struggle in mind and body.  The devil plays on our impatience.  Sometimes, we can’t see an end.  But you see things are OK.  They are “all correct,” because God pulled the lever.  He gave His Son for the life of the world.  Our journey has a happy ending.  So, how ya doin?  God’s Word tells us, “OK, I am doing OK.”

Amen.     

August 25, 2024 Text:  Mark 7:1-13

Dear Friends in Christ,

You have heard the expression “lip service,” and you probably know what it means.  You probably do not know that the expression was inspired by our text for this morning where Jesus quotes from Isaiah.  Paying lip service is saying one thing and doing another.  Remember during Covid when politicians told us we couldn’t get haircuts and then they were sneaking underground for a clip and a perm?  Made you mad, didn’t it?  

Let’s welcome the Pharisees to the party this morning.  They would like you to wash your hands.  And if you don’t, well, you can’t really be a follower of God, because you are not keeping his law.  Throughout Scripture, these men are known for . . . 

“PAYING LIP SERVICE”

Are you a regular hand washer?  Are you as anal about it, as I am?  Every Sunday, after all the handshakes.  Soap and water in the vestry.  Get to the office, wash.  Go home, wash.  Shoot baskets, wash.  In a hospital or nursing home, wash.  I am not trying to keep up with the Pharisees, but I do believe my hand washing is a reason for my many years now of not being sick.  

Ok, you are going to a private audience with Jesus.  What are you going to ask him?  Anybody here going to ask him how to wash before a meal?  Didn’t think so.  You’ll never make it as a Pharisee.  Look what they do.  “The Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands.’” (v. 5). Jesus’ opponents have completely lost sight of what matters to God.  They have put human concerns before and above what is important in God’s eyes.  

Does Jesus play nice with this question?  No, he calls them “hypocrites” and then he quotes from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, “’This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” (v. 6-7)  The Pharisees are more concerned about whether people’s hands are clean than whether their bodies have been cleansed of disease by the words of Jesus and whether their hearts have been filled with the peace that Jesus is proclaiming.  That is exactly the sort of thing that happens when we stop asking what is important to God.

For the Pharisees their lips are close, but their hearts are distant.  They are paying lip service to Jesus.  If Isaiah’s words are prophesied about us, and if Jesus’ warnings speak to us, we had better examine our own lips and hearts and heads and hands to see how we are doing.  How have we lost sight of what’s really important?  What traditions of men, what traditions of our own, have we let crowd out God’s Word from its proper place as the Word that demands our total obedience?  

If we say we are followers of the Word but call out our neighbor for dirty hands, what are we doing?  We are paying lip service to our beliefs.  Don’t miss the dirt behind your ears or the dirt in your eyes or the dirt that clogs your heart.  God doesn’t just tell us we are dirty, rather our Lord calls us from human tradition to God’s Word and His priorities.  His voice declares us clean.  He forgives our lip service.  

We pray that the Holy Spirit will help us live this way.  Even young children pick up on telling them one thing and doing another.  Jesus tells us from the cross, “Come to me and I will make you clean.”  Our hypocritical behavior was washed away at Calvary.  We can come into His presence with clean hands and clean hearts.

When I have gone to neo-natal intensive care units, I must wash my hands like a doctor.  Hot water, soap and do it for at least a minute.  Then you glove and gown up to go in.  Those hands are pretty clean, but put them under a microscope and what are we going to see?  A least a few germs.  The cleansing that Jesus gives takes the tiniest microbe away.  His cleansing lasts for an eternity.  He didn’t just pay us lip service, He was obedient to the Father and finished the plan of salvation.  You can walk away clean . . . hands and heart.

Amen.   

August 18, 2024 Text:  Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18

Dear Friends in Christ,

Thomas Jefferson should have been rich.  He was born into a prominent Virginia family.  He married a wealthy widow.  He farmed a lot of land and had a lot of business ventures.  He was President of the United States.  Yet he died deeply in debt, and all his property was sold to pay for it.  How did this happen?

He inherited a large debt from his father-in-law and farming was an uncertain source of income.  People who owed him did not always pay him back.  He spent beyond his means.  His credit was bad.  When he died, he had a debt of $107,000 – millions in today’s dollars.

Money is seductive.  We think if we have enough, we will be secure.  But that is an illusion.  If relying on wealth, sooner or later it will fail you.  After all, you can’t take it with you.

Joshua was aware of this as his death drew near.  He knew he was leaving God’s people a rich and productive land, all of its blessings and promises.   But these comforts and wealth would be worthless and soon lost if Israel forgot the Lord.  Leaving them with a final word from the Lord would, Joshua knew, be a much more precious legacy.

Which G(g)od were they going to serve? 

“HOW CAN WE KEEP OUR VOW TO SERVE THE LORD?”

Israel always struggled in their vow to serve the one true God.  The friends, family, and neighbors of Abraham had invented some 4,000 gods.  At that rate they could serve a different god every day for about 11 years.  Their commitment at times was lacking.

We want to be committed to the God we know.  God the Father who sent His Son to die and rise again to save us.  We know Jesus has freed us from sin, death, and the power of the devil.  We know the Holy Spirit came in our Baptism to make us His sons and daughters.  We love God because He first loved us.  We want to commit to Him.  “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (v. 15b)

Sounds easy enough, but is it?  How many gods can we create?  10?  100?  1,000?  If we set here long enough, we might come up with 4,000 like the Israelites.  We trust God, but aren’t there times we think He needs our help?  If your trust is not solely on Him in your sticky situations, well . . . maybe that vow is a little harder to keep.

We make poor choices.  We let wealth hold back the offering.  The Saturday night party that has us in no shape for the Sunday worship.  The child’s involvement in an activity where their faith is sacrificed on the altar.  Genetic family that comes before God’s family and fellowship.  Going after our “15 minutes of fame” instead of an eternity with Jesus.

We break our vow with things that will always let us down.  Only God can be trusted not to fail when we need Him most.  Sometimes He can be the last one we turn to in the support system.  “Lord, have mercy.”  Thank God, He does have mercy.

Even though God the Son deserves our complete devotion, he set aside His glory for our sake.  Sent to earth by God the Father, he was born of the Virgin Mary and became one of us.  He lived a perfect life of service to God and neighbor, which God credits to us.  Jesus serves us, by giving his life as a ransom for the many.  When are trust wanes, he carried that to the cross.  When we fail to put Him first in our lives, He forgives through His death and resurrection.  God has been faithful, giving us life and salvation in His name.

By the end of our text, the people have joined Joshua in a pledge to serve this Lord.  They give a confession of faith which tells of the way God had saved them.  

Because Jesus served us, we can serve the Lord.  When tempted to depend on earthly things more than God, The Holy Spirit reminds us through the Word and Sacraments where our true security lies.  When seeing all that God has done for us, we respond naturally to praise God for His love, mercies, and blessings.  When our main trust is in the Lord, and we love God above all things, we want to help others around us.  

Let’s hang it proudly in our homes.  Maybe have it on a poster in our bedroom or a bumper sticker on our car.  The people of Israel fashion their confession after the words of Joshua.  Their commitment to the Lord is the same as his.  We make that same vow today, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Amen. 

August 4, 2024               Text:  John 6:22-35

Dear Friends in Christ,

Herman Gockel in his book My Hand In His, shares the story of an elderly man on his deathbed.  His family is by his side.  One of his sons is a Pastor.  It’s a Saturday.  The man tells his son to go home and preach to his congregation the next day.  He tells his son that if he dies while the son is gone, his son will know where to find him.

“You’ll know where to find me.”  Imagine living your faith like that.  Imagine sharing your confidence and reassurance with your loved ones.  Eternal life is what really matters.  Life in this world will finally fail us.  Not the life our Lord gives.  Jesus says in today’s Gospel:  “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.  For on him God the Father has set his seal.” (v. 27)

Are you ready to die?  How often do you think about it?  It is an unavoidable appointment of stepping out of earthly sunshine and activities into  . . . into the what?  Where are you at this morning and . . . 

“WHAT DO YOU PLAN TO DO?”

We begin with verses 25-26:  “When the found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’  Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.’”

Jesus would have made a lousy politician.  He could have won everybody over by continuing to fill their stomachs or offering the ultimate health care plan or giving everyone a new car and home.  He put the brakes on them running after him just because He had fed them the bread and fish.

Some of us still remember the days when gas station attendants pumped your gas.  I’m not kidding kids!  They might even check your oil and wash your windows.  Remember what they’d ask?  “Fill’er up?”  That’s a look at our society.  Gimme that.  I want.  I deserve.  I intend to have it all my way.  They weren’t seeking Jesus because of the signs; they were crowding him because he filled their bellies.  What do we do with what we are observing?

Jesus goes on to say, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.  For on him God the Father has set his seal.” (v. 27)

What do want to get out of this world?  Do you have hopes and dreams or are you just surviving?  Do you want happiness?  Ah, yes.  Except you can’t except for some moments.  Don’t we smirk and say, “they can’t be that happy all the time.”  Can they?

Let’s check Scripture on this one.  Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation.” (Jn. 16:33b)  The Apostle John wrote, “Do not love the world or the things of the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15)

Put them together and what do you expect?  Where are your expectations taking you in your walk with the Lord.

Jesus said earlier to “work…for the food that endures to eternal life.”  This gets the people wondering so they ask the question, “what must we do, to be doing the works of God?” (v. 28)  Jesus gives a simple and beautiful answer, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (v. 29)

“Believe in him. . .”  Jesus.  Everything comes back to this for God’s people.  The issue of this life is the Life given us in Christ.  It’s the daily comfort of forgiveness.  It’s the minute-by-minute presence in our tribulations.  It’s the joy of living because we know that heaven is our home.  It’s his Word that speaks to us in our daily trials and joys.  It is not just having our fill in our bellies but the strength of a Sacrament that fills our spiritual tanks.

James S Hewett writes, “Russian author Leo Tolstoy tells the story of a rich man who was never satisfied.  He always wanted more.  He heard of a wonderful chance for more land.  For a 1,000 rubles he could have all that he could walk around in a day.  But he had to make it back to the starting point by sundown or he would lose it all.

“He got up early and starting walking.  He walked on and on thinking he could get just a little more land.  But he went so far that now he would have to run to get back by sundown.  He saw the starting line, exerted his last energies, crossed the finish line, fell to the ground, and collapsed.  Blood streamed from his mouth, and he lay dead.  His servant took a spade and dug a grave.  He made it just long enough and wide enough and buried him.

“The title of Tolstoy’s story is ‘How Much Land Does a Man Need?’  He concludes by saying, ‘Six feet from his head to his heels was all he needed.’”

What . . . do . . . we . . . plan to do?

Amen.

July 28, 2024           Text:  Genesis 9:8-17

Dear Friends in Christ,

Many of you are familiar with the Irish Rovers hit song “The Unicorn.”  Here is a verse, “Now God seen some sinning and it gave Him pain and He says, ‘Stand back, I’m going to make it rain.’  He says, ‘Hey brother Noah, I’ll tell you what to do, Build me a floating zoo.”

The theme of the song is that all the animals made it into the ark except the unicorns.  The song goes, “Then Noah looked out through the driving rain, Them unicorns were hiding, playing silly games, Kicking and splashing while the rain was pouring.”  The ark started moving and the unicorns floated away.  That is why we see no unicorns to this very day.

It is a catchy tune, but I like the message behind it.  The unicorns got distracted with their lives that they missed the ark, which would have saved them.

Does that ever happen to us?  We get caught up in our silly games and the salvation story passes us by.  You don’t think we get distracted?  Let’s focus on the rainbow today.  It is a beautiful symbol of God’s grace.  The world distracts us from that by it being a symbol for the homosexual community since 1978.  Isn’t it ironic that their symbol is one of God’s greatest promises?  With apologies to the Muppets and their 1979 hit let’s delve into . . . 

“THE RAINBOW CONNECTION”

A little science lesson to begin.  A rainbow comes in seven colors and involves refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets.  It is always opposite the sun.  It is a full measure of God’s creative power on display in a sign to remind you of His mercy and love.

What is our connection?  The promise we hear today is not just for the eight people left on earth.  It is for all of mankind forever.  This covenant is between God and His creation.  God is making a promise that all living things will never suffer and be destroyed by the devastation of a global flood again.  God is going to bring about hope and peace.

What are the terms of this covenant?   Rains will still fall.  Floods will still rage and foam in parts of the earth.  Life is still in peril due to this wrath expressed in nature.  But “never again” will waters wipe out all of life.  

In order to provide Noah and his descendants – including us – this covenant, God would provide a sign.  “My bow.”  He chooses a sign that reflects the light and glory of His creation:  the rainbow.  There is the connection.  It connects you and I to God’s promise.  It connects God to the world.  It is breathtaking.  Martin Luther states, “This sign should remind us to give thanks to God.  For as often as the rainbow appears, it preaches to the entire world with a loud voice about the wrath which once moved God to destroy the whole world.  It also gives comfort, that we may have the conviction that God is kindly inclined toward us again and will never again make use of so horrible a punishment.”

We can’t speak of all the continents, but some of us can attest to the rainbow in Europe.  We saw it after a very heavy rain that made it hard to see the road.  But that is how the rainbow works.  It always follows a storm.  Noah leaves the ark, there it is.  We have a downpour and go out on our decks, there it is.  A tornado may move through, we come up from the basement, there it is.  The Lord says, “When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh.” (vs. 14-15a)

This is the first mention of clouds in the Bible, but certainly not the last.  There would be some horribly dark times to come.  We have them, don’t we?  We get trapped in our sinful darkness.  We build our own ark for safety, but the demons keep knocking at the door.  There is only one way out – the light of Christ.  His red blood shed on the cross is a sign of hope.  His yellowing skin from the beatings that He takes on our behalf.  The blue of death when He breathes his last.  Then the bright colors of Easter morning that announce that He has risen.  No tomb can hold Him in.  He bursts forth in full majestic color for the world to see.  His rainbow connects to His cross as symbols of His love, grace, mercy. 

Let’s also not miss the water connection.  In flooding, water is a symbol of destruction.  In our baptism that same water is a sign of hope and forgiveness.  But to get to the font we had to be born in sin.  There had to be something to wash away.  We come out of the font or lake or swimming pool or wherever we were baptized as new creations.  Just like Noah and family who left the ark.  The rainbow promise connects us together.

Noah and his family were in the ark for over a year.  Tossed about by the waves.  Probably had some fear and anxiety.  What would they see when they opened that door?  How different would the world look?  They saw light.  They saw a rainbow.  Something so beautiful that the whole of creation should never forget how great is the God of creation.

It is the same today.  We can look to the clouds, and we receive the same comfort.  Our rainbow connection says that God loves us and holds us dear.  He sent His Son Jesus to fulfill the terms of this everlasting covenant. 

Amen.