Sermon Texts

July 30, 2023         Text:  Matthew 13:44-52

Dear Friends in Christ,

Ladies and Gentlemen step right up.  You have come to the right place this morning. (Not that sitting in the Lord’s sanctuary is ever the wrong place to be.)  You are going to get from Jesus three parables for the price of one.  As we get tired of looking at higher grocery prices the Lord has a three for one deal that you cannot pass up.  These parables taught the disciples.  These parables are going to teach us.  We need the guidance, don’t we?

“BASIC TRAINING WITH PARABLES”

What treasure might you find in your home?  When Toni and I first got married I told her if this ministry thing didn’t work out, I had a box full of baseball cards that would be worth something someday.  We might have enough for a week of living expenses!

The first treasure is hidden in a field.  This parable has a Christological interpretation.  The field is the world, the treasure is us (the hearer), and the man is Christ.  Christ gives up the glory of heaven to win salvation for you.  This is the first teaching moment.

The second parable is a little different.  The man goes in search of pearls.  He knows a good pearl when he sees one.  When he finds the best one, he sells all he has to buy it.  We too have a treasure.  That treasure is the gift of Jesus Christ.

Looking at my baseball cards as a treasure, what I have done with them over the years?  Mostly they sit in a box on a bookcase.  Occasionally, I will get them out to relive childhood or scratch the itch of curiosity.  Is there something better I could be doing with them?  I could put them in a nice photo album to keep them in a more pristine condition.  They would then be more valuable when sold.  Maybe I don’t understand the treasure.

This is what happens with the pearl of faith you and I have received.  God sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts so that we might receive this treasure.  Isn’t it a treasure to know that God sent his Son to take on human form and to carry our pain and sorrow – even die on a cross – so that Paradise might be restored.  This the second rung in our basic training.

Our third parable is like the parable of the weeds which was our sermon last Sunday.  Remember the commission the Lord gave to the disciples to be “fishers of men?”  Here the fishermen haul in both good and bad fish.  Because of the bad fish we know the devil is still at work.  The disciples as fishermen have no authority to execute judgment before the net is hauled in.  The nets of God gather good and bad alike for the eternal sorting that is to come.  The bad fish are not dead; they were caught alive, but are worthless for eating like the fruit from the bad tree.  The bad fish are discarded into the fiery furnace as a continuation of the illustration of the weeds.  The basic training concludes with this parable, or does it?

Now Jesus wants to know if these 12 men have understood what He is talking about.  As is their nature, they all answer, “Yes.”  How about you?  Do you understand?  You know the story of Jesus and what He has done for you.  You come to the cross weekly to thank Him for the gift of forgiveness.  

Has the treasure cost you?  Would you give up your prized possessions to keep this treasure?  Do you have the answers you need in life or are you still searching for the pearl?  Our pearls we go in search of are:  science for cures; philosophy for purpose, psychology for understanding.  They are fine pearls, but they are not the pearl.  They look nice, but they do not answer the deeper problems of life.  The Holy Spirit leads us to the pearl of great value.  We realize that only this pearl has the answers to life’s questions.

It is easy to say yes to the confession of sins when we read it from the hymnal or bulletin.  We answer yes to “do you intend to amend your sinful life?” but then we fail to keep our promise after the benediction.  We have given the right answer, but do we answer in faith?  We do if our answer of yes in wrought in faith through the conviction of God’s Holy Spirit.  Jesus knows our minds and builds our answers.  God works in us to give us new insights and a new conviction of our faith.  God can produce new commitments and a new way of life.  Jesus can bring new life to our bungled past.

Well, how has basic training gone?  Hasn’t it been a blessing to be taught by the Master?  What an enormous treasure we have in Jesus Christ.  This true pearl answers all of our questions in this life.  We joyfully receive the great treasure of forgiveness and eternal life.

Amen.      

July 23, 2023         Text:  Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Dear Friends in Christ,

During June when we got very little rain our grass did not grow.  But did you notice what else didn’t grow?  The weeds.  Very little yard work was needed.  No spraying, no pulling.  The weeds were dormant.  Once the rains came and the grass started coming, here came the weeds.  After finishing mowing, the next minutes were spent pulling weeds.  You too?

That is the point of our parable in Matthew’s gospel.  Along with the good seed of wheat there have to be weeds.  Sometimes that is hard for us to take.  Why does it have to be that way?  Let’s let Jesus explain.  

“PATIENCE . . . HIS HARVEST IS COMING”

The weeds are growing.  Love of possessions, godless ideologies, false beliefs, misguided thoughts on marriage, the church, the family.  More and more weeds keep popping up.  Are they going to overtake everything?

Even more dangerous weeds are the false theologies of the church.  Alternate ways to heaven, clergy that aren’t clergy, the prosperity gospel, keeping the law.  These all turn people away from Christ and His work.  Many of us have been to other churches, with Christian in their name and they barely mention Christ.  How can that be?  Weeds!

How do we deal with the weeds?  Some of us want to be weed-whackers.  We figure it is up to us to give these charlatans a good spray of Roundup.  It is true we do not want to aid or even passively accept what we see in society or the church.  We are encouraged to speak the truth.  We are expected to witness for Christ and His Word.  We are to take a stand on the Lutheran Confessions as we have been catechized.

Jesus though gives us a warning.  Don’t become an out of control weed-whacker.  It is not up to us.  The master of the house tells the servant to let the weeds and the wheat grow together until the harvest.  Because of the intertwining roots, if we start pulling up the weeds, we will also pull up the wheat.  Now is not the time to act, but to wait, to be patient, to suffer the difficulties with hope until the harvest arrives.  The Greek compound verb “grow together” is found only in this verse of the Bible.  It serves to underline again how intermeshed the weeds and wheat have become during their growth, as a result of the enemy’s clever strategy.  Yet, we know that the strategy will fail.

With this assurance, we who live and work and serve in the Lord’s Kingdom can continue to be confident of what we do.  In spite of the fiercest opponents, the naysayers, the lying teachers and those taking the wrong path, we know that the Lord’s harvest will come according to His will and Word.  Patience, my child.

Ok, Pastor, but “what about all the damage and loss the church is undergoing as these weeds grow?”  It is reasonable to feel anxious at times, but again look to the parable and what the Lord says.  God will do the judging.  “The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace.  In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (v. 41-42)

He knows all and sees all and He will do the weeding.  After all, He is the one who from eternity devised the plan, the only plan, that could save any of us.  We all deserved to be uprooted and thrown into the fire.  Our weed like behavior can infest others.  But God sent his Son to take our fiery torment, to suffer the pains of hell for us at the Calvary.  Because Jesus has paid for the sin of everyone, God will allow no one to be uprooted until the last stalk of wheat has been brought to saving faith. 

Our impatience can get the best of us.  You might think that Satan and the weeds are choking the harvest.  You want action, but see you aren’t God.  This is part of our spiritual test.  How patient can you be?  The day of redemption is coming.  God will not, I repeat will not tolerate evil indefinitely.  It is up to Him to bring in the harvest and separate the weeds from the wheat.  The reformers suffered evil and falsehood in the Church even more than us.  They in fact refer to this parable in the Augsburg Confession.  They knew as we need to acknowledge that there are hypocrites and wolfs in sheep clothing who mix with true believers in the Lord’s Church here on earth.  God will judge them for who they are.  It is not your job or your place.

We have to fight the urge to pull all the weeds.  When working in our yards, do we ever get all of them?  Never.  It is the same with the weeds in our world.  The devil is evil.  People buy into the lies.  Mankind has always had opposition to Christ.  Have confidence, Christian men and women.  The Lord teaches us to wait patiently . . . knowing that His harvest is coming.

Amen.     

July 16, 2023 Text:  Isaiah 55:10-13

Dear Friends in Christ,

This little gem of a news story is over 35 years old.  “Senator William Proxmire of Wisconsin reported to the Senate that the Department of Transportation had squandered $225,000 (a pittance by today’s dollars) on a study forecasting the transportation needs in 2025.  Proxmire pointed out this study took the entire federal tax payments of more than 120 of his Wisconsin constituents.  And for what?  To produce findings like these:  1). If there is a new Ice Age, a lot of people will have to move to the South or Southwest; 2). If people start having a lot of kids again, there will be increased demand for transportation services for them.  (What an Einstein to figure that out).

Human wisdom?  Things have only gotten worse since then.  When you think of human reasoning is it any wonder how mixed-up critics who twist and distort historical fact to demean the Word of God are?

Aren’t we glad for the strength and clarity of God’s Word?

“NOW A WORD FROM THE WORD”

Communication is always a problem.  Do you think there are more problems with the way we say things or the way we hear them?  Listening to me is the bigger problem.  We don’t concentrate enough to be interested.  We tune out.  I’ve talked with many politicians in my day and many of them, not all, have this way of conversing with you, but I always feel their mind is elsewhere when you talk to them.  God’s Word is clear.  His words are always right.  It is our Creator speaking to us:

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water to the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (v. 10-11)

Scripture takes us to the very Word Himself – Jesus.  “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” (Jn. 1:1 & 14). The Word bled and died for all human sin – rose from the grave – secured our Heaven.  In the Word, God communicates His love and mercy to us.

Haven’t we seen the power of rain in the last few weeks?  I was out in the country the other night and there were tassels on the corn!  Those stalks just took off with the recent rain.  That is what God’s Word does.  It causes growth.  When we are in the Word our Christian faith can take off, we sprout, we grow.  

The Word can also convict us of sin.  It keeps us in check, so we don’t become self-righteous.  Michael Green tells a story that illustrates the convicting power of the Word:

“In a frontier settlement in the west the people were engaged in the lumber business.  The town wanted a church, so they built one and called a minister.  The preacher was well received until one day he saw some of his parishioners out at the river pulling in some logs from another village upstream.  Each log was marked with the owner’s stamp on one end.  To his distress, the Pastor saw his member sawing off the end where the telltale stamp appeared.

“The next Sunday, he prepared a forceful sermon on the text, ‘Thou shalt not steal.’  At the close of the service, the people lined up and thanked him for a wonderful message.  However, that next week he continued to see his parishioners stealing the logs.  He was bothered.  So, he went home and worked on a sermon for the following Sunday.  The topic was ‘Thou shalt not cut off the end of thy neighbor’s logs.’  When he got through, the church membership ran him out of town.”

The Word either convicts to repentance or to eternal damnation.  People today still walk away when the Word is properly applied.  The Word is not just there to make us feel bad.  Its purpose is to confront us with our weaknesses and bad decisions.  It jolts us from our spiritual lethargy and points us to Jesus as the One who has paid the price for our wrongs.  We need this each and every day.

The Word is full of hope and promises.  You know the spiritually uplifting words, “it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose.”  What is God’s purpose for us?  “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions…and remembers your sins no more.”  (Is. 43:25).  Or listen to this:  “For I am the Lord your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, do not fear, I will help you.” (Is. 41:13)

“The Cynics Guide to Life” did a spoof on familiar cliches concerning life.  “I believe for every drop of rain that falls, a flower grows…and a foundation leaks and a ball game get rained out.”  “Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead.  Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow…Do not walk beside me, either, just leave me alone”

They express how we feel at times and the “just leave me alone” most of all.  But listen, the Word of God has a wonderful way of lifting the heart from the pit of upset, despair, and uncertainty.  It directs us to Christ, and He draws us to the love of God; to comfort and guide now and to give joy someday when we have eternal life.  

It is always uplifting to have A WORD FROM THE WORD.

Amen.        

July 9, 2023     Text:  Matthew 11:25-30

Dear Friends in Christ,

Remember back to when you were in preschool or kindergarten?  You got to enjoy nap time.  You got to rest from filmstrips and finger painting.  Did we really need to rest from that?  Still, it was nice to close your eyes and just relax.  

It is still a joy to just close the eyes and relax.  To rest.  But what are we resting from?  Physical exertion?  Mental gymnastics?  Stress?  Do you ever rest from your sin?  Do you ever just lay down and think, “Lord, what am I doing?”  

We are going to take a few minute respite to hear the Lord’s Word.  

“DO YOU NEED A REST?”

Both inside and outside the church we view the Christian faith as primarily about doing the right thing or acting the right way.  The truth is Christianity does have a lot of rules.  The Bible has whole books just on how to live or not live.  Because we know these rules, we live with the knowledge that we need to live up to them.  But we know the truth about ourselves – we don’t live up to them.  The Apostle Paul struggled with the same thing in our Epistle for this morning.

We come here Sunday after Sunday concealing our worst.  We would be outcasts, if people really knew the truth about us.  If we start to believe this way, then our Christian life becomes little more than an exercise in hiding our sin so we can keep up the good appearance.  Then we perpetuate the lie that being a good Christian is primarily about being “a good person.”

So, we try harder.  This time we are serious.  We will live the way we should.  Maybe it works for a few seconds, a few minutes but then we fall, and we are right back there needing some rest.  The people of Israel did this over and over again in the Bible. 

In the 1970’s lab rats were used for psychological tests.  In one experiment, the floor of their cage was electrified in different spots.  They would jump to spots with no electric shock.  But then the entire floor was electrified, and they soon learned there was nowhere to go to evade the shock.  So, they settled down to be being shocked.  They learned they were helpless.  Later on escape routes were offered, but the rats had already learned there was no point in trying and failing.  They refused to move.

Like the rat, we find ourselves helpless.  We do things we know we shouldn’t.  We can’t stop the cycle, so we just accept the shock.  Oh, we need rest from our sin.  We are broken.

Into this reality, Jesus speaks, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest…For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (vs. 28 & 30).  The Christian life is not about being a better person, and it never has been.  The Latin phrase simul justus et peccator, means “at the same time just and a sinner.”  We are both.  There is great freedom in recognizing and owning that reality.  We don’t have to pretend anymore.

We are real, honest sinners with a real, true Savior.  The rest we need is given by Jesus Christ.  Pull out your mat, lie down, relax and listen to this.  Christ carries the burden of our shortfall.  Christ is obedient when we are in the vicious cycle of disobedience.  Christ took the sin of everyone and died for it on the cross.  Christ has carried the load.  Wow, this burden is so much lighter.  I can rest easy tonight knowing that Christ is in control.

We come to this sanctuary on a regular basis because the world makes us forget who we are.  We will leave today with Christ words, and we will know His love, but some of us will continue to live as if it all depends on how we act or how hard we try.  That is why the Lord is continually in our ear.  In case you have forgotten…this is who you are; you are beloved.

Stop the pretending.  We have all faked sleep, right?  To our teacher, to our spouse, to our parent who had a job for us to do.  The rest of Jesus is real.  You can’t fake sleep Him.  He is the provider of the rest.  You are beloved because you are a creation of the God of the heavens who has marked you with water and Word in your baptism, and who invites you to come rest from sin by partaking of His body and blood at His Holy Altar.  You are beloved, not because you try harder and might get it right every so often.  You are loved because of what Christ has already done for you.  He has died your death.  You have eternal rest because of His rest in the tomb and then His rising again.

Put your mats away.  It’s time to play “duck, duck, goose.”

Amen.              

July 2, 2023         Text:  Matthew 10:34-42

Dear Friends in Christ,

You and I are walking dichotomies.  There is division within our souls.  Most of us do not like conflict, but we can’t avoid it, especially in today’s culture.  Or the opposite is true, we like a little game of conflict, maybe we want to see how someone is going to act.

By now, most of you know, I do not like conflict because I had enough of it in my growing up years.  At the same time, I am a truth teller, and well…that causes conflict.  Recently, I tried to avoid a conflict situation by walking away.  The person wouldn’t let me go and I told them it was a bad time to talk with me.  In the heat of those moments, we are bound to say something we will regret.  I finally extricated myself before the situation got worse.

Where do you come down?  Are you a peace giver or a sword carrier?  Can you be both?  The Lord tells us in the text that in the right context both can be true at the same time.  But sometimes it involves . . .

“RATTLING THE CAGE”

We celebrated the birth of the Prince of Peace a little over six months ago.  We like peace even false peace, because it is comfortable.  No one likes to go to a house where there is constant tension or a workplace where everyone is walking on eggshells.  So, we ignore the obvious.  Peace is safety.  Change unsettles us.  Why do people stay in abusive relationships?  Because they are familiar and safe in their own way.  If they don’t rattle the cage, then what exists may kill them.

Ever been at a family meal where everyone knows the problem, but no one will talk about it?  It’s brutal, isn’t it?  If you pretend it’s not there, you live in fear.  Things covered are eventually uncovered, but while waiting, they own us.  Fake peace always comes with a cost.  Fake peace even brings death.  If we live just pursuing the appearance of peace, we live a lie.  If friendships are just getting along and not a mature discussion of mutual respect, they are mere shadows of what they could be.  As long as our relationship with God is primarily about concealing our sin from Him, from others, from ourselves, we can’t find peace.

Jesus came not to bring peace, but a sword.  He rattled some cages.  He rattled every cage.  He got people angry and upset.  Jesus also brought shalom.  Shalon is about restored relationships – in our mind, in our relationships with others, and in our relationship with God.  The Lord knows shalom begins by dealing with the broken relationships that divide us from Him and isolate us from one another.  He brings a sword to cut through the false peace and the lies.

Speaking the truth will bring you into conflict with the lies our world embraces.  Try this and see if you don’t rattle some cages:  Say that life is precious and sacred from conception to natural death…Say that human sexuality is a gift from God to be enjoyed in marriage between a man and woman…Proclaim that there are absolute right and wrong ways to go about things…get ready for the blowback.  The world is comfortable in their lies.  For peace to happen, the lies must be challenged and revealed for what they are.

That sword, that type of conflict, brings shalom – true peace.  When we confront ourselves, rattle our own cage, we can confess the things we shouldn’t have done, the things we shouldn’t have said, acting when we shouldn’t have, keeping quiet when we should have spoken up.  How can God love someone as broken as I?  Therein is the greatest lie.  That we have pushed so far away from God’s standards that there is no way there can be peace.  There is truth in that.  We can’t make peace with God.  We fall short if we settle for a false peace.

God loves you and I too much to leave us with a false peace.  Instead, God makes real peace with us.  He sent his Son into this world of conflict and broken relationships not just to bring a sword and cut through the false peace, but to establish real shalom with us.  Jesus rattled the cages of the status quo.  He did what no one expected Him to do.

Christ Jesus fell on the sword.  He took the nails, the spear, the death of the cross.  He took it upon Himself so that we might have real shalom…everlasting peace with our Creator… God the Father.  

This shalom provider now calls us by name in Baptism, week after week he feeds us with his body and blood broken and poured out for us.  We do not have to be good enough or worthy enough or able to make peace with God, because God has already made peace with us.

With the Holy Spirit’s help, you can be both peace giver and sword carrier.  It is ok to rattle some cages and confront the lies.  When we lovingly deal with the things we are brushing aside and hiding from, everyone involved is set free.  We exchange a false peace for the true shalom that Christ gives.

Amen.        

June 25, 2023         Text:  Jeremiah 20:7-13

Dear Friends in Christ,

Come on, Jeremiah, it can’t be this bad.  Do you hear what he says about the Lord?  The Lord has “deceived me.”  Wow.  Really?

OK, Jeremiah, maybe you are having a tough time in the ministry.  It happens to all of us.  People who misunderstand.  Criticize without knowing all the facts.  It comes with being a Pastor to saints who are still sinners.  

Maybe you need some time off, brother Jeremiah.  Get away from all this.  Concordia Health Plans has some great resources.  If you need some inspiration before throwing in the towel, try expastors.com for some encouraging articles.  They take seriously the burdens of pastoral ministry in our world and culture today.  

Yes, it’s true Jeremiah, we didn’t prepare you for all of this at the seminary.  You have to experience it.  It can be rough out there.  We get it.  We hear you.  It can be lonely.  But . . .

“IS IT REALLY THAT BAD?”

You have a calling.  You did the only thing you can do.  You turn to the Lord and not to some power within yourself.  It is His ministry, not yours, not ours, not mine.  He sends you out with His Word and it will not come back empty.  You will be vindicated in the end.  

But Jeremiah, my brother, you should have held off with the words that follow where the lectionary stopped.  You are cursing the day you were born.  You wonder why you had to come out of the womb to see toil and sorrow and spend your days in shame.  (Jer. 20:14, 18)  How can you talk to God that way?  Is it really that bad?  You have stood up to the opposition.  You have proclaimed God’s judgment.  You have proclaimed God’s restoration with conviction.  Do you really feel like you should not have been born?  How can you talk to God that way?

Well, because you have free will and can talk to God that way.  So can we.  It is OK.  At times the ministry can be rough.  Share it with God, let it out.  He called us into this . . . and He will hear the pleas.  He is always there for us, even when we think it is that bad.

When preaching and teaching a countercultural message, the arrows can come our way.  For Jeremiah, he was preaching during the last days of the monarchy of King David.  His people had escaped the Assyrian bullet, but there would be no escaping the Babylonians.  This is going to finish off Judah and the Davidic kingship.  The final judgment is upon them.  No changes are coming.  In biblical terms.  It is a matter of death and life.

In the message we preach we know that we have already died.  We have died to sin.  We are participants in a new creation, after death, after judgment.  

The burdens of the ministry can be difficult.  But Christ shares them.  More than that, He has borne them.  He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.  When we think the non-believer is winning, the God haters are triumphing, the progressives are moving their ball toward the goal line, the Lord reminds us we have already died.  They can’t kill us now.  We live a life that cannot be taken away.  They can kill the body, but not baptismal life.  

This is the Word of God active in our lives.  We proclaim not our good efforts or even our failures.  The Word of God is always burning and cannot be put out by the opposition.  This Word must be let out, sent out, proclaimed to all the world.  In the end, it is only about the Word of God in Christ and His promises.

Jeremiah does find occasion for this, the last verse of our text:  “Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord!  For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers.” (v. 13)

Dear friends in Christ, we are not alone.  Things are not that bad.  As someone in Jeremiah’s shoes I can tell you that the blessings far outweigh the curses.  In Christ’s death and resurrection, he has shared our burdens.  We are not alone, you and I.  We go forth surrounded by the apostles and prophets.  We find inspiration and encouragement from those in our day, who take a stand and don’t wilt under the politically correct pressure.  We forever look to those who have suffered death for the name of Jesus.  Who saw the bad, but triumphed in the good.  Those who, like us, actually did seek first the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God and His righteousness, which is ours now and forever in Jesus, the Christ.

Amen.