Sermon Texts

September 26, 2021                            Text:  Mark 9:38-50

Dear Friends in Christ,

    Ten women were in a book club.  One day at lunch one of the bolder women asked, “How many of you have been faithful in your marriage?”  Only one raised her hand.

    That evening one of the ladies told her husband the story and admitted that she didn’t raise her hand.  The husband turned away from the football game in shock.  The wife was quick to reassure him, “I have been faithful to you.”  “Then why didn’t you raise your hand?” he asked.  She answered, “I was ashamed.”

    Is this what it has come to?  Ashamed of being faithful?  Ashamed of the truth?  Even Christians are accommodating themselves to the world’s attitude.  If this continues Christians lose their affect.  They are no longer salt.  Nothing is different in walking as a follower of Christ. 

    Do you want to be different from the world?  Then join me in . . .

“BEING SALT – NOT SALTY”

    Things on a Sunday morning tie together.  Look at the Old Testament lesson.  The Israelites were a little salty.  “Manna again?  Where are the melons and onions and garlic and fish?  Come on Lord, we are your people.”  God is feeding and leading and it is never enough.  Do you ever get salty like that?  Take stock of your blessings but you stand in front of your closet with hundreds of pieces of clothing and go, “I have nothing to wear!”  

    We can be minute focusers and petty complainers.  We join right in.  Instead of being salt we are salty.

    Even the disciples led by John are a little salty in our text.  “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” (v. 38)  This guy didn’t have the credentials.  He didn’t have the tribalism card.  Oh by the way, I did learn that word this week – tribalism.  This idea that we are divided into tribes in the US of A and our tribes views are always right.  The disciples were a tribe and didn’t like this interloper.  But Jesus calls out their prejudice.  “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me.” (v. 39)  Are you getting saltier?

    Now Jesus really goes after them and after us.  He wants us to cut off body parts.  Hands and feet and eyes, oh my!  What is the Savior talking about?  He isn’t really advocated this, is He?  No.  He is trying to save us from hell.  Trying to lure us back from the depths of fire and devil.  Trying to turn our saltiness into salt.  He knows these body parts sin and are motivated by the sinful self.  We need some genuine change in our lives.  We don’t want to live as salty people in an ever -increasing salty world.  We want to be different in a God-pleasing way.

    There is a reason to be God-pleasingly different.  It is God’s favor for us through Jesus Christ.  It’s Romans 5:7, 8:  “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man though for a good man someone mighty possibly dare to die.  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:  While we were still sinners Christ die for us.”  It’s 1 Peter 2:24:  “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness.”

    Absorb God’s love.  Let it flavor all that you do.  Face each day in the knowledge that you are eternally loved through Jesus Christ.  Go to bed each evening, even if frustrated in some salty behavior, knowing that your sins are forgiven for Jesus sake.  The blood stained Cross is our assurance.  With this flavor enhancer clinging to our being we can then be salt.

    “For everyone will be salted with fire.  Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again?  Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” (v. 49, 50)  

    This can be a challenge because of what we have for salt today.  Salt is sodium chloride – a stable molecule.  Buy a can today put it in your pantry, come back in 50 years and it’s still salt.  It might be a little chunky, but still salt.

    When Jesus teaches the disciples, they didn’t have pure salt.  Salt was harvested from the surface of salt marshes flowing from the Mediterranean or Dead Seas.  It had impurities from the rocks it was scraped off of, and from the algae, sand, and sea life that flowed in with the seawater.  That is how the salt lost its saltiness.

    Salt has no power in itself.  Our holiness, our forgiveness, our power come from Christ.  The salt in us only has power because it is from Christ.  The salt of his sweat in Gethsemane.  The salt-laced blood He shed for us.  These won our forgiveness.  Filled with the salt of Christ, we can battle the powers of evil.  We can control our sinful appendages.  We are purified and cleansed.  We can flavor and preserve others.  We can forgive one another.  

    The salty world can dry us up, but Christ salts us with His Word and Spirit so we can have peace with one another.  Live that out today and always.

                                        Amen.  

September 12, 2021 – Christian Education Sunday          Text:  Philippians 4:10-13

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Martin Luther wrote:  “How rich a God our God is!  He gives enough, but we don’t notice it.  He gave the whole world to Adam, but this was nothing in Adams’ eyes; he was concerned about one tree and had to ask why God had forbidden him to eat of it.”

            Do we recognize ourselves in these words?  We are given so much but we tend to focus on what we don’t have.  We can be awfully spoiled.  God our Father would probably like to sit us in a corner but He continues to bless us.  The beauty of God’s Word today on this Christian Education Sunday.

“WHY IS CONTENTMENT SO ELUSIVE?”

            Philippians is a missionary thank you-letter.  Paul writes, “I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me.” (v. 10a)  Paul was close to this congregation.  He and Silas had started this church after release from prison.  Now as he writes encouragement to them he is in prison again.  This time in Rome. 

            Again our text, “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.”  Astounding.  Paul is confined and he is lifting up the Philippians.  Have you ever been in prison?  Have you ever been in a prison?  In my years of ministry I have been in three different prisons, three types of security, two different people.  Two visits were less than an hour.  One was twenty minutes.  When I was in there I didn’t look around and think, “I could be content here.”  That’s foolish talk.  So how does Paul do it?

            We labor and sacrifice so much for this world.  Everything we gain at each stage of life goes away.  People in the closing stages of life reminisce about their childhood.  They talk about jobs, and children and vacations and where they lived.  They get nostalgic about goals met and friends gained and the high and low moments of living.  One thing is certain – in that closing stage of life – if one is given the time – without Christ all that’s left is the reminiscing.  It is all going to pass away…forever.  The Greek word for content is translated “self-sufficient.”  Therein lies the danger.  If we live as if everything is from our hand or our hard work or our inner strength then we have lost our way.  We fall into the abyss.

            Paul was content because he belonged to Jesus.  He knew his daily bread came from the gracious hand of his Savior.  His will is done in our lives regardless of this world.  “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.”  And the only way we can that is if we can say with Paul . . .

            “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”  (v. 13)  How does He strengthen us?  Here’s an answer from God’s Word:  “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 2:4-6)

            You can either look forward to your last moments on earth getting chatty about things that were and never will be again – or – you can look forward to the fact that your sin is forgiven, you have eternal life and you will be raised to Christ in unending comfort and joy.  Christ strengthens us in every way through His Word.

            It has been stated:  “Those who are chosen in Christ are the special objects of God’s providence and loving care.  They have the promise that He will never leave them nor forsake them.  He will supply their needs, not simply out His glorious riches, as a millionaire throws coins to a beggar, but richly and daily in accord with the all-surpassing riches of the One to whom the whole universe belongs.”

            Why is contentment so elusive?  Because we listen to other voices than the One who created us.  You can’t positive away your moments of conflict with others, or the tragedies of life, or take away that last breath which opens entrance into eternity.  You can listen to a lot of voices or you can listen to Jesus:  “I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (Jn. 14:3)

            Today is about the Word.  Confidence in the Word.  The Word in the flesh.  “I am content, my Jesus ever lives.”

                                                            Amen.    

September 5, 2021                                  Text:  Isaiah 35:4-7a

Dear Friends in Christ,

    Are you afraid of leaves?  Pastor, what a dumb question!  Fair enough.  Probably none of us are.  We know leaves are good for trees and plants to help them store food and water.  We like the look of especially autumn leaves.  We don’t fear a leaf falling from a tree and knocking us over.  I grew up on Elm St. with two big elm trees in the front yard.  The leaves were so thick you couldn’t see the sidewalk.  It was great fun to jump in the leaves and back then you could then burn them in your yard.  There was no reason to be afraid of leaves.  

    Things were different for Adam and Eve.  Martin Luther wrote that once they fell into sin Adam and Eve would have been terrified by something as harmless as a leaf rustling in the breeze.  But then again who wants to see their pants blowin’ in the wind all day?  Once our first parents experienced fear the world changed.  Think of all the anxious moments they must have had as perfection left them behind?  

    We are on the cusp of a beautiful time of the year so let’s frame the sermon title this way . . . 

“FEAR NOT THE AUTUMN LEAVES”

    We confess in the First Article of the Apostle’s Creed meaning:  “I believe that God has made me and all creatures.”  But we also experience creation as a threat.  Anxious hearts abound.  Life in this world is marked by anxiety, for our sin is subject to creation.  Disease can enter a healthy body.  Hearing can deteriorate.  Eyesight can become limited.  Mobility can shrink or be lost.  Old age can make the sharpest minds a struggle to distinguish day from night.

    What else gives you an anxious heart?  Sex education in schools?  Mask wearing again?  Footage from Afghanistan?  How on edge everyone is in public?  The thought police?  It causes anxiety because in most of these cases we can do very little.  Think of it this way.  What if you went home today and your house was on fire?  Would a country halfway around the world or a virus threat or teaching a child how to wear a condom be on your mind?  I doubt it.  You see the closer the anxiety the more the fear.

    This is what were happening with Isaiah and his people.  The fear was close by.  The chapter preceding chapter 35, Isaiah 34 was all about judgment.  Now that will get your attention.   It is into this world God comes to save.  “Be strong; fear not!”  

    I am not sure why but I believe some people like to live in fear.  They like to buy in to all the talk and fluff being bandied about.  I am not going to live that way.  Want to join me?  Then listen up.  In both the Old and New Testaments God calms anxious hearts with words.  His words.  To Israel:  “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have you called you by name, you are mine.” (Is. 43:1b)  To Bethlehem’s astonished shepherds:  “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” (Lk. 2:10)  To terrified disciples in a rocking boat:  “Take heart; it is I.  Do not be afraid.” (Mk. 6:50)  The risen Lord to confused women on Easter:  “Do not be afraid.” (Mt. 28:10)

    The Lord has granted me many life opportunities where calm was needed in chaos.  The road of panic doesn’t help our children, or our family, or our neighbor, or our fellow citizen.  God has authorized this to you today:  “Be strong; fear not.”

    God in the flesh is the remedy for fear.  God’s vengeance was executed through Christ.  He bore your sins to the cross.  He answered them for you through His blood.  Raised from the dead, He speaks to you:  “Your sins are forgiven.”  Isaiah’s hope is not redemption from the world but the redemption of the world.

    God created you to live in creation with all its falling leaves.  It is His goodness and mercy that saves.  There is not merit or worthiness in you and I.  Jesus has reconciled all things in heaven and on earth to himself.

    The signs of redemption in our text are bodily.  The eyes of the blind are opened.  The lame leap like a deer.  And in a beautiful tie in to our Gospel this morning the ears of the deaf hear and the mute sing for joy.

    Through the atoning work of Jesus, we receive all good things from our Father.  Both in the body and in the soul.  Do you really appreciate all that you have?  We are so blessed.  So blessed.  Our response then – “For all this it is my duty to thank, praise, serve, and obey him.”

    The last blessing is for the thirsty to have ground springs of water.  Another gift we take for granted.  Israel can see the blessing of moisture more clearly.  They average only 20 inches of heavenly dew a year.  In contrast, we average 40 inches and 20 more inches of that inconvenient white powder.   Half the world struggles with water.  We think nothing of it.  We are so blessed.  So blessed.  The Lord is the living water that quenches are anxious thirst.  

    Breathe in some heavenly air.  “Be strong; fear not!  Behold, your God…will come and save you.”  

                Amen.     

August 22, 2021                        Text:  Ephesians 5:22-33

Dear Friends in Christ,

    Toni and I were blessed with 30 years of marriage recently.  For various reasons we talked about why we need to lift up these milestones in people’s lives.  Really celebrate them.  We should never downplay what our Lord does to keep two people together in this most sacred of relationships.  I know all of you feel the same way.  If we want marriage to be the way God intended it then we need to speak positive about it, look to God’s Word for the inspiration and the backbone to say, “Thus says the Lord.”

    Our text, Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is such a “Thus says the Lord.”  We hear it every three years in church.  We hear it at many marriage worship services and it is part of the human vernacular.  But boy doesn’t God make us all nervous and wiggly when we have to explain it or understand it?  Do you know what I am talking about – those uncomfortable words we don’t want to throw around at dinner parties.  Words like “submit” and “head” and “give of self” and “one flesh” and dare we even say the word “love?”

    I pray you are here because you trust the Lord’s words and He might actually know what He is talking about.  He’s in the words.  He’s in the marriage.  He has to be, right?

“THE BLESSING OF A TRIANGLE”

    I was not good in geometry but the triangle is one shape I understand.  I could put the triangle in the proper slot as a youngster.  I get three and all sides being equal and well you know the rest . . .

    The triangle in marriage is important because the devil is moving up the food chain.  Adults have been told for years they can do what they want.  It’s your life.  If you are unhappy then leave.  You deserve better.  It is about you.  No thought to the children who suffer the consequences.  No thought to the pledge given in the sight of the Lord.  We let go of marriage and it lost all definition.  Now you can marry same sex, an animal or even yourself.  Anybody can get a license on the Internet to perform said ceremony and voila what marriage is, is no longer what marriage is.  Can we sing of Christ as groom and church as bride if we can no longer confess what marriage is?  What will it mean to call God our Father if we say a man can have a baby?  If we play along and say that he is she?  Or she is he?

    To break the bonds we have to break the sin.  Again, we have to celebrate our Christian marriages.  We have to work on our selfishness.  The Triangle is a blessing because the only known antidote to selfishness is Jesus Christ.  In Him, we are new creations.  He substituted me with Him.  He substituted you with Him.  You and me did not have to pay for our sins.  God the Son gave His life for our sin payment.  “Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her.”  

    Does this Christ give us a long list of do’s and don’ts and our marriage will last?  Actually, no.  The Spirit lays two things upon a marriage:  “Wives, submit to your husbands.”  “Husbands love your wives.”  Both equal this:  “Forget ME, seek rather THEE.”  These admonitions even come with a reason.  Surely, you heard it, didn’t you?  “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.”  See the triangle?  “Husbands love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.”  See the triangle?  

    How do we do this as sinful humans?  To the unmarried.  A committed Christian.  Don’t settle for a promise.  Pray.  This is the biggest decision of your life.  The blessing of a triangle.

    To the married.  May the Holy Spirit let the triangle flourish in our attitudes, our priorities, our strengths, our choices . . . by way of the Scriptures and Holy Communion.  Grow in devotions together.  Seize the strength of worship and Bible Class.  Be lifted in Christ’s true body and blood.  The third partner is in the marriage.  The marriage counselor is by your side.  Turn to Him.  The blessing of a triangle.

    Remember what Jesus left for you.  Left the holy, perfectly peaceful, thoroughly satisfying company of the Father and the Holy Spirit.  He left it all . . . for you.  Humbled Himself.  Became a lowly babe.  Lived out His days in poverty.  Was constantly misunderstood.  For you.  That you might be the Father’s forgiven child.  He gave up his life . . . for you.  And now He asks you serve your wife, your husband, to please Him. 

    Ever try to put a triangle together that is just off a degree?  It’s uneven.  No matter how hard you try it is not going to fit.  But when it all comes together, wow, what a beautiful thing.  Even in the mundane that is marriage.  In the ups that is marriage.  In the downs that is marriage.  Joys and sorrows co-mingle but that is marriage.  It works.  We celebrate it.  We honor it.  The blessing of a triangle.  Because of Jesus.

            Amen.    

August 15, 2021                        Text:  Proverbs 9:1-10

Dear Friends in Christ,

    On the Indonesian island of Java they like to tell the story of the young man who saw a beautiful young lady on the road and followed her for a mile.  She wheeled around and demanded, “Why do you dog my footsteps?”  

    “Because you are the loveliest thing I have ever seen.  I fell in love with you at first sight.  Be mine.”

    “But if you just look behind you,” said the girl, “to see my young sister, she is ten times more beautiful than I.”  The cavalier young man wheeled around to see a very unattractive maiden.  “What kind of mockery is this?” he demanded of the beautiful girl.  “You lied to me!”

    “So did you,” she replied.  “If you were so madly in love with me, why did you turn around?”

    Ah, the beauty of wisdom.  This young lady had it and she saw through the phoniness of the young man.  Do you consider yourself a wise person?  I imagine that most of us do.  We think we are pretty smart.  We think things through.  We see things for how they really are.  It’s wonderful when it all comes together.

“THE BEAUTY OF WISDOM”

    The world has always been populated with the wise and unwise.  That is basically our text for this morning.  Solomon giving some nuggets about the beauty of wisdom.  Wisdom is an invitation that goes out to all people.

    Because everyone thinks they are wise this is where the problems come in.  When you have people telling you to do one thing because they think they are so smart but then they don’t follow their own advice, well . . . people start to see through that and we get what we have today in society.  Listen to this insightful commentary by Neil Postman on Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World written in 1932 and George Orwell’s 1984 written in 1949:

    “Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing.  Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression.  But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history.  As he saw it, people will adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.  Orwell feared those who ban books.  Huxley feared there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.  Orwell feared we would be deprived of information.  Huxley feared they would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity.  Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us.  Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.  Huxley remarked the civil libertarians who are on alert to oppose tyranny ‘failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.’  In 1984, people are controlled by inflicting pain.  In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure.  In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us.  Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.”

    Postman then added this bit of wisdom.  “In America, we are never denied the opportunity to amuse ourselves.”  

    This is not working well.  Despair is skyrocketing.  Deaths of despair – drugs, alcohol, and suicide have doubled since 2000.  People we never thought would kill themselves are.  And the world continues to think they are so wise.

    Prayerfully we see through man’s wisdom.  We understand these words of wisdom in our text, “Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury.  Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you.”

    None of us likes to be corrected or reproved.  Come on, I’ve got it all together.  Do we?  Can we leave our simple ways and live?  Can we walk in the way of insight?  Can we see the beauty of wisdom?

    We do if we see the beauty of wisdom coming from our Lord.  “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”  It begins with our repentance.  Maybe we aren’t the smartest in the room.  Do we need to humble ourselves before our Creator?  Don’t we run after pleasure and distraction like Huxley wrote?  Then get on your knees and tell the Lord where you have failed.  “Reprove a wise man and he will love you.”  We take the Lord’s correction through Jesus because He knows what is best for our lives.  “Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.”

    The Apostle Peter wrote us something quite wise in his 2nd letter.  “The Lord’s divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted us his precious and great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.” 

    Christ has set us free.  We have His promise.  The beauty of His wisdom is our wisdom.   May the Holy Spirit help us to use it – and live.

                                    Amen. 

August 8, 2021                        Text:  Ephesians 4:17 – 5:2

Dear Friends in Christ,

    Back in 1991 Rodney King was a motorist pulled over for drunk driving.  The Los Angeles police subsequently beat him and the video made of it became part of history.  The officers were acquitted in court and that led to riots in LA and elsewhere around the country.  Rodney King went on TV and uttered these famous words:  “Can we all get along?”

    The Apostle Paul is writing to the church in Ephesus this morning with that same theme.  Still relevant.  Still important.  All of his words are much needed in our society.  All of his words are things we need to hear as well.

“CAN WE ALL GET ALONG?”

    We have all heard these words since childhood.  Can we all get along?  Easier said than done, right?

    In 416 BC, during the war between Athens and Sparta, Athens decided to attack the neutral island of Melos.  When the Melians protested they had done Athens no wrong, the Athenians replied, “The strong do what they can; the weak suffer what they must.”  The Melians were starved into surrender.  The men were killed and the women and children sold into slavery.

    This wasn’t unusual in the ancient world.  The strong would dominate the weak.  But things began to change.  What brought about the change?  The difference was Christianity.

    It is interesting that Paul would write this Epistle.  He at one time was someone strong who oppressed the weak.  He lived it.  He had a perspective few had.  Paul came to realize that all persons were made in the image of God.  This meant every human being has worth and dignity.  The Christian further emphasized the spiritual and moral equality of all people.  We all suffer the same problem – sin.  We all are in need of the same solution – salvation through Jesus.

    Look at the old self-problems Paul points out:  darkened, alienated, hardness of heart, callous, sensual, greedy, impure.  We have to be careful we don’t start thinking, “Yes, our society has problems with all of those.”  They do.  But so do we.  We too have to put off the old self and put on the new self.  The Holy Spirit helps us with this so we can live in “the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (v. 24)

    With our new self we strive to get along.  I don’t pretend to know all the ins and outs of all the theories being bandied about in our world.  This much is clear.  Christianity is the sole historical source of concepts now taken for granted:  human dignity – we are all made in God’s image.  Human equality – we are all one in Christ all can come to faith and be saved.  Universal human rights – these are endowed to us by our Creator God.  Everyone is important in God’s eyes.  

    How do we know this?  Because God sent Jesus to die for the sins of the whole world.  Jesus is the Savior of the nations.  Christ dying and rising again has given all humankind a hope and a future.  The Lord wants us to be His and to serve Him and one another willingly.  This is only possible because He removed the sin that separated us from Him.  Can we all get along?

    What does that look like?  Paul spells it out for us.  We speak the truth.  We control our anger.  We build people up with our talk.  We do not tear them down in person, on social media, behind their back.  We give grace to those who hear.  We let go of bitterness and malice and slander.  We are kind to one another.  We are tenderhearted.  We forgive one another just as Christ has forgiven us.  As we do these things we all get along better.  As we do these things we build each other up.  As we do these things are little corner of the world is a better place to live and raise our children.  

    The last part of our text is continued encouragement.  Imitators of God.  Walk in love.  A fragrant offering.  The Greek word for “imitator” gives us our English word, mimic.  We mimic our Heavenly Father like children mimic their parents.  Children who live in a loving home see how it’s done.  Christ how taught us to love by loving us first.  Christ has taught us how to forgive by forgiving us first.  Can we all get along?

    You have probably never been asked this question, but can people smell your goodness?  When people see you coming do they think this is going to be a good day, a good conversation, a time for a faith lift?  What attitude do you bring to this party we call life?  We need our Christian goodness to smell up everything around us.  Let it permeate those who want to divide because of their selfishness.  Let the waft of love and forgiveness stick to the minds of those who see no hope.  May the aroma of Christ, which we carry, give direction to men and women everywhere.

    Can we all get along?  Living in Christ we can.

                                Amen.