Sermon Texts

March 24, 2024 – Palm Sunday       Text:  Zechariah 9:9-12

Dear Friends in Christ,

A few weeks back I was watching a college basketball game between Creighton University and the University of Connecticut.  U Conn at the time was the #1 ranked team in college basketball.  Creighton beat them.  This brought the usual storming of the court by the students.  As I watched this unfold on our television, I focused in on one student in the middle of the melee.  He was hopping up and down with his phone in one hand well over his head, probably filming the whole thing.  He was totally oblivious to everything else, but he was getting the picture or video he wanted.  It was all about him.  Can’t anybody enjoy the moment these days without getting out their phone?  Don’t we all have less pictures in our homes these days because we no longer have cameras?  So much of history is going to be lost to cyberspace, but that is a whole other sermon. 

Today is Palm Sunday, and while we don’t get the gospels we used to get as kids that told the story of Jesus coming into Jerusalem on a donkey, we get a glimpse of it in today’s Old Testament lesson.  So come along . . .

“FOLLOWING THE DONKEY”

We begin, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!  Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!  Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

Jesus is riding into the fray of chariots, war horses, and battle-bows.  He rides and is ready to cut them off with merely a word.  Once more today we welcome heaven’s King.  He arrives in triumph but still rides that same old donkey.  His technology hasn’t changed.  His mount is as effective in cutting off a chariot or war horse as it would be in a dogfight against an F-15.  Apparently, no matter the age, this is the only way he enters the world’s battles.

He faces the hostile crowds and the empire’s governor and soldiers with nothing but his integrity, memory of His Baptism and the word of truth that declared who He is.  We have seen him arrive so many times that we know how the journey ends, with beatings and torture.  The King comes into his glory on a wooden, cross-shaped bloodied throne.

Every year we follow the donkey.  We walk beside the donkey-rider.  What are we going to witness when we get to Jerusalem?  Are we jumping around the donkey rider with our phone trying to get a picture for our Facebook or Instagram account?  Or are we paying attention to what is happening?  See, it is not about you and snapping the right photo.  Nobody cares….except the one on the donkey.  That is where our eyes and ears should be focused.  

We follow closely as he takes us into places he warned us about.  We too stand before kings, governors, the powerful rulers for his sake, armed with our integrity and grounded in our Baptism.  We hear that voice, “You are my child.  Our lives are bound up with each other.”  

The donkey rider leads us into boardrooms and classrooms and prisons and kitchens and bedrooms where people with powerful words rip and tear at each other.  He leads us to so many places, all named Golgotha, where the innocent are caught in deadly traps, where children and dreams die together in such numbers that we cannot even remember them for their sheer multitude.  Those places become our places in this world, the places where we most truly belong.

What is this donkey rider going to do?  He is going to cut off the chariot and the war horse and the battle bow.  He is going to speak peace to the nations and through his blood bought covenant he is going to set us prisoners free from our waterless pit.  He will restore us and make us prisoners of hope.  Knowing the dungeon of our sin has been expunged by the donkey rider. 

Our journey in following the donkey can be at times fearful and lonely.  But we have been following since Advent when Isaiah bid us to rise up from our far-off exile and make a glorious return to Jerusalem on the King’s grand, new highway.  The prophet promised that we would go out in joy and be led back in peace.  The hills and mountains would burst into song and the trees would clap their hands in accompaniment.

So, when we find ourselves in the wilderness, we need to remember to sing.  “Hosanna!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!  Hosanna!”  The hills echo our songs.  And the trees?  Yes, they did applaud. 

We are still singing today as we go into Jerusalem.  We must follow the donkey because we are about to witness our salvation.  Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Jerusalem!  The praise of our gentle King will carry us onward as we follow the donkey.

Amen. 

March 20, 2024 – Lent Text:  Luke 23:26-34

Dear Friends in Christ,

There are less and less Christians in the United States.  A middle schooler is shamed by his teacher in front of the class for saying he believes God created the world.  A woman loses her job for refusing to go along with immoral and unethical behavior.  People give caricatures of Christians that are unflattering.  Does any of this bother you?  Should we look for pity?  Is that what Jesus would say?  

Jesus sure makes for a sympathetic figure on his way to Golgotha.  Actually, pathetic might be a better word.  His back is shredded.  Face is mangled from the punches.  Blood is dripping from the thorns.  He has been up all night and is exhausted, he can’t even carry his own cross.  And you Christians, this is your Savior from sin?  Ha!

No wonder the women were mourning.  They were in tears at the brutality.  As He walks to the cross does Jesus need our  . . . 

“SYMPATHY”

Well, does he?  Look at the text.  “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and your children.”  Just five days earlier, Jesus had wept for the people of Jerusalem.  Because they rejected the Messiah, they would experience God’s judgment.  History records that is what happened to mothers and children when the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem a generation later. 

Jesus uses a proverb for a warning.  “For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (v. 31).   Jesus is saying that if he, the innocent one, was tortured and put to death, how much more could the sinful inhabitants of Jerusalem expect to suffer and die?  Could we turn that saying toward us?  If Jesus, the perfect Son of God, was put on trial and suffered, why would we sinners be surprised when the same happens to us?

When we watch Christianity decline, when we see portions of society leaving godly values behind, when we might experience some form of rejection because of our Jesus connection, do we see ourselves as victims in need of sympathy?  If we do, then we have lost perspective.  We still are blessed in our freedom to worship and to wear a cross and to say a prayer and witness to our faith.  Look around the world brothers and sisters at our fellow Christians in other parts of the world who are hiding for their faith, smuggling in their Bibles and going to jail for preaching Christ crucified.  If we are playing the woe-is-me mentality than we are sinfully self-centered.

God never told us to play the victim.  Self-pity is the opposite of what we see in
Jesus.  His pity is not for himself but for the women – and the children and their husbands and all their countrymen who are going to suffer.  His pity extends to the cross, “Father, forgive them.”  Forgive who?  The disciples?  Those poor women?  No, the soldiers who are driving the nails through his hands and feet.

  Jesus’ words reveal a heart focused not on self but on others.  Jesus had sympathy for us.  Relish that for a moment.  Jesus didn’t just weep for you, he took God’s punishment for you.  He died for you.  He shed his blood to cover you, to hide you from the destruction to come.  Through pain and fatigue and insult, you were on his mind.

Jesus can sympathize with us in our weakness.  His heart still goes out to us when we suffer, including and especially when we suffer for his name.  Don’t wallow in self-pity.  Look past yourself to him.  Let him help you carry your crosses and give you strength in His Word and Sacraments.  

He allows us to have sympathy for our brothers and sisters in the faith who are struggling with pain and temptation.  We have fellow Christians feeling alone because of the attacks on their faith.  Our Savior would have us pray for them, reach out to them, and remind them of his promises.

Then our Lord would direct our sympathy toward our enemies.  There is a destruction coming that is worse than what happened to Jerusalem.  The people of the world, even the ones who make our lives harder as Christians, don’t know it’s coming!  Just like those putting God on trial.  They do not realize they are fighting against the Son of God, and they have no idea how badly that fight will end for them. 

What can we do for these misguided souls?  Warn them.  Pray for them.  Tell them about God’s forgiveness.  Point them to a Savior whose compassion knows no limit.  In other words, let’s save the sympathy for others.  God can change their hearts, like he did a centurion soldier – “Surely he was the Son of God.”  May that be our prayer.

Amen.    

March 17, 2024         Text:  Hebrews 5:1-10

Dear Friends in Christ,

You need the backstory to a God-ordained moment.  I pick the hymns and sermon texts a month at a time.  This text was chosen at the end of February.  Also, on that day I may make little notes of possible themes for the sermon.  For this sermon I wrote this, “Come To Jesus Moment.”  You will see how it fits momentarily.  But what does God do on the week I am going to preach this text?  He has President Biden caught on a hot microphone saying, “Netanyahu (the Israeli Prime Minister) and I need to have a Come to Jesus meeting.”  Wow!

Ok, now let’s get to the expression – “Come to Jesus Moment.”  What is the meaning?  In simple terms it can mean a religious conversion.  In today’s usage it more often means a “hard talk, wake-up call, seeing the light, facing the facts.”  It has become a workplace cliché and in 2013 Forbes magazine listed it as one of many overused buzzwords.

Abram, later to be known as Abraham, had a come to Jesus moment with Melchizedek which sets up our Epistle reading for today.  There is a tie-in between Melchizedek and Jesus.  

“A PRIEST FOREVER”

Melchizedek only has a few verses in Genesis 14, his 15 minutes of fame were brief.  He is mentioned in Psalm 110 and here in our text.  He is a strangely significant person.

Melchizedek appears at one of the lowest points of Abram’s journey through life.  God has promised him an heir and offspring and a new land and to make his name great.  However, after several years, Abram’s situation in life has gotten worse rather than better.  He has endured a famine, sought refuge in Egypt and then was deported and he mediated a dispute with his nephew Lot.  Then he gets drawn into a war just to save Lot.  He has gone through a lot and still has not received the promised heir.  He needs a sympathetic ear.

God has something greater.  As the dust of the battle settled, this man Melchizedek, the “king of Salem” and priest of God Most High, suddenly appears to Abram – with bread and wine, no less.  He blesses Abram, vindicates him, and defends his cause.  This is Abram’s come to Jesus moment.  Abram is strengthened to continue patiently waiting for the Lord’s promise.

That is all the biblical history of Melchizedek.  But you are beginning to see why he is so significant for us today.  Christ is our priest just like Melchizedek was for Abram.  But Jesus is even more.

Like Melchizedek, Christ enters our life right when we need him, but he never disappears.  In Holy Baptism, we, like Abram, have been called by God.  It is not to a life of ease or worldly glory.  Jesus tells us in the Gospel our call is to be servants, not masters, and to be slaves, not lords.  Our worldly situation is not always pretty.  We battle the world and our sinful flesh.  We sometimes think life is getting worse instead of better.  We too need a sympathetic ear.

Our brothers and sisters in Christ are nice for these conversations, but like us they are weak and sinful.  Their perspective can be skewed by past experience.  We need more.  We need a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

This is where Christ is to us as Melchizedek was Abram – and more.  Christ intercedes for us.  In verse 7 of our text it says, “Jesus offered up prayers and supplications.”  Christ Jesus is here for us.  Christ is obedient.  His obedience took Him to the cross.  Christ suffers for us.  This Lent we again our reminded of what the Savior went through to pay for our salvation – blood and love flow mingled down.  Christ is the source of our eternal salvation.  Isn’t great to know where the path ends?  The golden streets of heaven.  Perfection forever.  No more life getting worse, it is all better, positive, uplifting.

These are not our “Come to Jesus Moments.”  They are Jesus coming to us moments.  That is how we are to see it.  He is our priest forever.  Like Melchizedek, Christ feeds us.  In, with, and under the bread and wine, he gives us his very body and blood to forgive our sin, strengthen our faith, and energize us to press on.  Like Melchizedek, Christ blesses us by His Word, and by that Word he vindicates us from our enemies:  sin, death, and Satan.

Jesus has come to you – a priest forever.  Quite a moment, wouldn’t you say?

Amen.

March 13, 2024 – Lent Text:  John 18:33-40

Dear Friends in Christ,

Have you ever tried to cover the truth?  It was Dec. 31, 1982 of my senior year of high school.  My friends and I had been to a party.  Being a non-drinker back then, I drove my parents station wagon.  On the way home, one of my friends got sick and threw up on the side of the car.  That night was about 20 degrees, so it froze.  Once I got home, I was trying to cover the truth by getting this mess off the side of my parent’s car.  I thought I was pretty smart using hot water to clean up, but in those temps it would just re-freeze.  I worked and worked but never completely got it clean.  The next morning my parents noticed, and I had to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  I don’t remember a punishment, probably a lecture on avoiding these types of parties. 

Did you ever try to cover the truth?  “Did you sneak a cookie?” your mom asks.  You answer “no” with a chocolate smudge on your face.  Truth is important in human relationships.  Truth is important in the courtroom, both for the witnesses and the jury who take an oath to “render a true verdict.”   It is no surprise then that as the Son of God stands trial before a Roman governor, this subject comes up.

“TRUTH”

For Pilate this Governor of Judea, the Passover celebration in Jerusalem must have felt like a powder keg waiting to explode.  Let’s look in on the conversation.  “Are you the King of the Jews,” Pilate asked.  It is a yes or no answer, but Jesus doesn’t see it that way.  “Do you say this…or did others say this about me?”  Pilate goes on, “Am I a Jew?  Your own people have handed you over.  What have you done?”  Jesus replies, “My Kingdom is not of this world.  If it were, my servants would have been fighting, so that I would not be delivered to the Jews.”  Pilate seems intrigued.  “So you are a King?”  Jesus answers.  “You say that I am a king.  I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world – to bear witness to the truth.  Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”  Then comes one of the world’s most famous questions, “What is truth?”

Pilate was a military guy.  Practical and political.  He knew truth could be manipulated to his advantage.  Who should he believe?  “What is the truth here?”

We know of Jesus’ physical suffering – the beating, the scourging, the crown of thorns, and the cross.  We may not consider as much his emotional pain – the sadness he felt.  Jesus was the truth but there was so much deception around him.  His ministry was truthful.  He brought more than earthly bread.  He brought living water.  He even wanted Pilate to see who he really was.  No cover-up going on here.

Ever wanted someone to see the truth because you knew it would change their lives?  Someone with an addiction?  An individual with a bad lifestyle choice?  A child who can’t see their problems are self-inflicted?  You want them to see the truth.  Jesus knew this is what Pilate, the world, and you and I need.  Jesus loves us with a true heart and wants us to know the truth.  Once in a while, he tells us to wake up.

This is what he was trying to get Pilate to do.  “What is truth?”  Jesus is saying, “I am standing in front of you.  I am truth.  Word made flesh.  God made man.  The final word from God and the source of salvation.”

Truth continues to suffer in our world.  Facts are spun to get us to buy a product, support a cause, vote for a candidate.  All the Covid theories perpetuated by an agenda, had truth suffer even more.  With everything being so uncertain, how can I be sure of Jesus?

In this life, many things we won’t know for sure.  But we can know this:  Jesus born into this world to testify to the truth – to be the truth – to reveal that the very heart of God is love.  How can we be sure?  Watch as Jesus willingly goes to the cross to pay for your sins.  Walk to the tomb on Easter morning to see Jesus declared the King of kings – to see life triumph over death.  Jesus wanted Pilate to see.  Jesus wanted Peter and all the others to see.  And he wants you to see.  He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life – for you.

Jesus longs for others to know him.  Perhaps he will give you an opportunity to have a conversation like the one he had with Pilate.  When the world puts you on trial, will you confess the truth about Jesus?  In these times, when truth seems to be whatever anyone wants it to be, Jesus may just be the thing people are looking for.  We know it is the thing that they need.  With the Holy Spirit’s help, we confess the truth of Jesus . . . because we know the answer to “What is truth?”  It is Jesus!

Amen.     

March 10, 2024       Text:  Numbers 21:4-9

Dear Friends in Christ,

Do you ever get frustrated?  Let me share what happened to me recently and see if you haven’t had something similar?  We received a mailing  with a woman’s name on our address.  It looked like a bill from a lab in the southern United States.  I saved it.  A few months later, the same thing.  It had an address if undeliverable, so I sent it there.  A month or so goes by and we get the same mailing.  This time I take it and send a letter to the company.  Basically saying, “we have lived here 25 years and nobody with that name lives here.”  Doesn’t work.  Here comes another – same name.  So, I call.  They commend me for not opening the mail and said they would send me something to clear it up.  Nothing ever came, except another lab bill.  This time I shredded it.

Have you had the same experience?  You try to do the right thing, and it is just heartache and frustration.  We see some frustrated people today.  The difference is, they are not doing the right thing.  The Lord is going to send them a bill alright, and it won’t be pleasant.  Let’s see what happens when God’s people try . . .

“GOING THE OTHER WAY”

One thing we remember about 9/11 is that the first responders went the other way when people were fleeing the twin towers.   They risked and gave their lives for others.  They purposefully were “going the other way” that fateful day into the danger.

The people of Israel complained (again!) against the Lord when he seemed to be sending them “the other way.”  “From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom.  And the people became impatient on the way.  And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?  For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” (v. 4-5).  They didn’t realize that what God was doing was part of His grand design. 

Do we ever get frustrated and miss the Lord’s grand design?  Why are things going this way?  This cannot be happening.  Where is the Promised Land?  You have got me wandering in the desert.  

At times the Lord must literally, get sick to his stomach.  When we ignore prayer before meals, regard worship as mechanical, or diminish the power of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.  We make desolate that which is holy and pure.

God addresses this with the Law.  “Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many in Israel died.” (v. 6). 

He sent the fiery serpents for three reasons.  One, he showed them his just anger for their rejection of his grace and protection these last 40 years.  Second, He wanted show (again!) that their rebellion was the direct cause of their problems.  Their previous rebellion had them wandering in the desert and not proceeding to the Promised Land.  The third reason is to show them their sin and lead them to repentance.

What a wonderful lesson we can learn from our forefathers.  We too become frustrated with God’s timing.  Instead of direction through God’s Word and prayer, we take off for the desert and end up wandering aimlessly.  When we go the other way – away and apart from God this is what happens.

All this death brought the Israelites to their senses.  “And the people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned for we have spoken against the Lord and against you.  Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.’  So Moses prayed for the people, and the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.’  So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole.  And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.” (v. 7-9)

Our Old Testament is in beautiful harmony with our Gospel on this Fourth Sunday In Lent.  “Jesus said:  ‘As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.’” (Jn. 3:14-15)

This action was necessary because serpents were the idolatrous object of veneration among the earliest peoples.  But the rescue from death that God wrought through the bronze serpent was only a type of what He intended when his incarnate Son bore our sin and was lifted on the cross.  When faith looks up to Christ crucified, God saves from eternal death all victims of the fatal venom of sin.

When we slip into going the other way, when we let frustration and rebellion dominate our thoughts, this antidote is provided by the Lord.  He has absolved us freely and fully.   We are spared hell and granted heaven.

Going the Lord’s way, He prompts us to share this antidote.  Our offerings, our prayers, our service and our worship all work as the antidote for sinners everywhere.  We need all of this daily and richly.

Let’s go the Lord’s Way – right into heaven.

Amen.   

March 6, 2024 Text:  Luke 23:1-12

Dear Friends in Christ,

By now most of you know my biggest misconception in life.  My seminary roommate.  He showed up in a rusted car, wearing overalls, a torn shirt.  Big guy with a beard.  Farmer from rural Iowa.  After meeting him my parents and I went to get some supplies.  I am sure we were all wondering, “who is this guy?”  Played golf with him last summer and we still laugh about that first day.  Talked to him on the phone just last week.  Turned out to be a loyal friend who I love dearly.  Misconceptions can happen.  What was your first impression of your spouse?  Toni and I both misconceived things the first time we met.  Her misconception was closer to the truth.  My misconception was farther from the truth.

Tonight, we are going to see groups and individuals with their misconceptions.  Are any of them close to the truth?

“MISCONCEPTIONS”

The first misconception is done by “the whole company.”  They say that Jesus is “forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar.”  But Jesus had said in Mark, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s.” (Mark 12:17)  They also say he claims to be a King.  This again was not misleading, because it was true.  He was the Messiah.  He was the King.   But not an earthly King.  The Jewish leaders did not want to understand Jesus.

Pilate didn’t understand for another reason.  You get the impression he didn’t know much about him.  He didn’t see him as a threat to Caesar.  He needed a way out.  I will send him to Herod who has jurisdiction over Galilee.

Herod is the most interesting in the text.  He had wanted to see Jesus for a long time.  Did he know about his father killing the babies three decades earlier to get rid of Jesus?  Herod was excited about what Jesus could do.  What a letdown.  Herod was disappointed, then bored.  He and the soldiers had some fun with Jesus and then he was sent back to Pilate.

The people who put God on Trial in our world today have a lot in common with the people in our text.  They are against Jesus because they feel his teachings are a threat to their way of life.  They know him, and they don’t like him.  Some like Pilate just want Jesus to go away.  Out of the marketplace, out of the school, out of the courtroom.  Others are like Herod.  Intrigued by Jesus.  They’ve heard he is a friend of sinners.  Maybe he can be ally in their choices.  Perhaps they think of him as the original rebel, an inspiration for their cause.  When they learn more, they lose interest or turn against him.

Where are we in this account?  Do we ever misconceive who Jesus is?  We treat him like a divine vending machine, expecting him to dispense blessings for us and then getting angry when we put our money in, and a blessing doesn’t drop.  Maybe we want the good without the trouble.  The forgiveness from him without the forgiving of others by us.

How does Jesus handle the misconceptions?  He keeps quiet.  Refuses to answer the false accusations.  When he does speak, he is respectful, truthful, steady and faithful.  Both Pilate and Herod confirm this.  They can detect no crime.  They became friends that day, but they also unknowingly teamed up to exonerate Jesus.  Because Jesus was innocent.

Look at your God on Trial.   If you are keeping count, these are now his second and third trials of that Friday morning.  He hadn’t slept.  At each stop he receives abuse and mockery.  He knows this path will lead to the cross.  But that is where he wants to go, because he knows who he is – your substitute, your sacrifice, your Savior.

This is the Jesus we want the world to see.  He is not a magician who waves away our troubles.  He is the Messiah who washes away our sins.  He is more than an inspiration for those who fight for freedom from oppression.  He frees us from death and hell.  He has such a love for sinners that he can’t approve of them and leave us trapped, but he forgives and empowers us to fight against them.

Some of the world will continue in their misconception.  But some like Herod, are intrigued by Jesus for one reason or another.  My misconception of my roommate was overcome as I got to know him.  This is how we help people.  Invite them to church and Bible class.  This is where they get to know him.  Through preaching and teaching the real picture comes through.  The Bible starts to make sense.

We know that Jesus.  Our eyes have been opened to see that the man on trial is our God and Savior.  It is God’s gift to us.  It is God’s gift to the world.  There is no misconception about that!

Amen.