Sermons

April 19, 2015 Text: Luke 24:36-49

Dear Friends in Christ,

Rene Spitz has compiled some amazing evidence pertaining to the absence of touch. In a South American orphanage, Spitz observed and recorded what happened to 97 children who were deprived of emotional and physical contact with others. Because of a lack of funds, there was not enough staff to adequately care for these children, ages three months to three years old. Nurses changed diapers and fed and bathed the children. But there was little time to hold, touch, and talk to them as a parent would. After three months many of them showed signs of abnormality. Besides a loss of appetite and being unable to sleep well, many of the children lay with a vacant expression in their eyes. After five months, serious deterioration set in. They lay whimpering, with troubled and twisted faces. Often, when a doctor or nurse would pick up an infant, it would scream in terror. Twenty-seven, almost one-third, of the children died the first year, but not from lack of food or health care. They died of a lack of touch and emotional nurture. Because of this, seven more died the second year. Only 21 of the 97 survived, most suffering from serious psychological damage.
As hard as that scenario is for us to imagine, what if we had to live without the touch and love of Jesus Christ in our lives? What if we had to live without His presence because He remained in the tomb? Today, He gives us something that we all need . . .
“THE SAVIOR’S TOUCH”
Jesus wanted to make certain that his disciples knew He was alive. “Touch me, and see,” he said. “Have you anything here to eat?” He was alive! The touching news of Jesus’ resurrection changes all of our tomorrows. It changes the way we live and the way we die, the way we worship and the way we work.
The Savior’s touch helps with our doubts and fears. The disciples had doubts and fears, just like many of the disciples in this sanctuary today. Satan must enjoy filling our lives with fear. I recently learned my fear of dogs has a name: synaphobia. What are some other names for fears? Peladophobia is the fear of baldness and bald people. Levophobia, the fear of objects on the left side of the body. Dextrophobia, the fear of objects on the right side of the body. Thalassophobia, fear of being seated. And my favorite, phobophobia, the fear of being afraid.
Oh whatever our fear, we pretend to be bold, but Jesus sees right through us. He knows our doubts and fears. Even after we hear it in church, Bible Class, Sunday School, and devotions, we still don’t fully believe and trust for a variety of reasons. Jesus says, “Touch me and see. I’ll show you. My resurrection, my living body is for real.”
We are touched by God’s Word and empowered by the living Christ. One year in the Tournament of Roses parade, a beautiful float suddenly sputtered and quit. It was out of gas. The whole parade was held up until someone could get a can of gas. The ironic thing was this float represented the Standard Oil Company. Imagine its vast oil resources and its truck was out of gas. Often, as Christians we neglect our spiritual maintenance and though we are “clothed with power from on high” we find ourselves out of gas.
This happened to the disciples after Jesus resurrection. After all that had happened they were out of gas. But through the Savior’s touch He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He did it so they could fully understand His death and resurrection, repentance, and forgiveness of sins.
We too find ourselves at times running on empty. Life has a way of doing that. Our prayer is that the Lord would open our minds to understand the Scripture. God calls us to dig into His Word so that it can take root in us. God calls us to repent of our sins and joyfully receive and share His gracious forgiveness.
Jesus touched His disciples’ lives with the gifts of His peace, His presence, His power, and a commissioning to share what they had seen and heard with the world. He touches our lives with those same gifts, and we are changed. He touches us through His Word, Holy Communion, our baptismal gifts, and through the body of believers as we go into the world together.
Today we have been personally touched by the grace and knowledge of our living Savior, Jesus Christ. The reality of Jesus’ resurrection changes lives…forever!
Amen.

March 29, 2015 – Palm Sunday

Text: Philippians 2:5-11

Dear Friends in Christ,

A first grade teacher was explaining to her class what Holy Week was and why we call it holy. She explained Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and finally Easter. When she thought she had made her point, she asked the students if they had any questions. One curious little boy raised his hand and asked, “What happens if you don’t want to be holy all week?”
Insightful. Who does want to be holy all week? Who wants to be holy on this Palm Sunday? This side of heaven most of us are aware that being holy at all is an impossibility. The only way to get there is through what Jesus is going to do for us this week. He is going to lower himself so that we might be saved. The Sunday of the Passion is upon us as we ask . . .
“HOW COULD YOU STOOP SO LOW?”
What an excellent question for us to contemplate during this last week of Lent. How could you stoop so low? How could you, disciples of Jesus and the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, stoop so low to climax Jesus’s humiliation?
The betrayal of Judas helped carry out the humiliation of Jesus. He feigned concern for the poor while being a thief. He facilitated it all because of his lust for money and perhaps as a way to remove the last voice of truth and conscience in his life. Jesus would stoop so low.
The contention and denial of Peter added to Jesus’ humiliation. He was so proud that he would stand when others were falling. Instead of a rock, he became a pile of sand by denying Jesus three times. Jesus would stoop so low.
The religious leaders would find false witnesses; condemn Jesus as a liar and blasphemer all because Jesus spoke the truth as the Son of God. This added to his humiliation. Jesus would stoop so low.
How low do we go to cause Jesus’ humiliation? We can see what is no good in others. We just did it with Judas, Peter, and Caiaphas. Didn’t that make you feel good – at least a little? But Lent – especially this day in Lent – is devoted to looking at ourselves. Our self-exaltation required His humiliation. When we create conflict in our relationships because of pride, don’t we humiliate Jesus by ignoring His words, “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” (Mt. 7:3) Jesus would stoop so low.
Our selfishness required his death. How many families are broken because one or many family members take care and affection while giving nothing back – and feel justified in doing so? We contend that we deserve the good things for which Jesus suffered. Jesus would stoop so low.
Our materialism required his death as one accursed. When we trade God as Creator for the firstfruits of His creation we lower God to the place of a servant who is rudely expected to provide constantly for our every comfort. Jesus would stoop so low.
How could you, Jesus stoop so low to allow your humiliation? His nature made such a response to our condition inescapable. He is the Lamb of God slain for the whole world. He not only created all things, but He sustains them by His power. He would stoop so low so that He could raise us up. His love knows no limits. He would go lower and lower and lower because of His love for us. That love sets us free from concern for ourselves.
Instead of exalting this Lord Jesus, we have many proponents of other world religions lowering the Christ by saying they are all the same.
The late Dr. Malcolm Muggeridge, curmudgeon of the British journalistic establishment, once gave a speech in Washington D.C., in which he made a number of comments about the current state of the world’s affairs – all of them negative. Afterward, one person asked him if he had any reason for optimism. Muggeridge responded, “My friend, I could not be more optimistic than I am, because my hope is in Jesus Christ alone.” He paused for a moment to let that sink in, then finished: “Just think if the apostolic church had pinned its hopes on the Roman Empire!” The kingdom of Jesus, a liar and fool to those who deny or lower Him, is the eternal kingdom of God whose truth we must live out in our lives.
Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Jesus as Lord. It is good to be reminded of that. Jesus stooped so low as he rode the colt into Jerusalem. He used humble means so that His redemption is accessible to us. Word and Sacrament. Bibles, water, bread and wine. In these instances are head is usually lowered. While reading, when we were baptized, and at the communion rail. We can do that because He stooped so low for us. As the head arises, we look heavenward to the glory that awaits. Stand up straight; your Savior and your redemption are on the way.
Amen.

March 22, 2015 Text: Mark 10:35-45

Dear Friends in Christ,

A David Greason tells the story about an MG Midget that pulled alongside a Rolls-Royce at a traffic light. “Do you have a computer in your car?” the MG driver asked the Rolls driver. “Of course I do,” the Rolls driver haughtily replied. “Well, do you have a double bed in the back?” the MG driver wanted to know. Red faced with anger, the Rolls driver said nothing, sped away and that afternoon had a double bed installed in the back of his auto.
A week later, the Rolls-Royce driver passed the same MG, which was now parked on the side of the road. The Rolls driver noticed that the back window of the MG was fogged up and had steaming come out. The Rolls driver got out, banged on the back window of the MG until the driver stuck his head out. “I want you to know that I had a double bed installed,” bragged the Rolls driver. The MG driver was unimpressed. “You got me out of the shower to tell me that?”
A crazy story to expose a crazy emotion: The drive within the heart of every human to have the biggest and the best – to be number 1! You know, it even gets that way in the church. With our Gospel text comes a question . . .
“WHO IS NUMBER ONE?”
Isn’t that a question we have heard a lot this week? Half the country filling out their NCAA tournament brackets, everyone who is anybody telling us who their number one is. We all long to have our team be numero uno. And if they can’t be we at least want the team we picked in our office pool.
The disciples James and John would have fit right in. Look at what is on their heart and mind in our text. “”Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’ And he said to them, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ And they said to him, ‘Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory.’” (35b-37) And make no mistake, the other disciples felt the same way. They become indignant not because of the question but because they wanted to be the biggest and the best. They wanted to win the disciple office pool.
Being a disciple of Christ in this world has nothing to do with worldly position, or power, or things. Jesus says they do not know what they are asking. So he poses a question on drinking the cup and his baptism. Look at their arrogance, “We are able.” But Jesus then gets to the real answer. “To sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” (v. 40)
Those connected to Christ in this world are going to suffer because of their connection. So Jesus forces the disciples and us to face two issues. 1. Why Jesus came into the world, and 2. The position of disciples as they live out their lives in this world.
Jesus didn’t come into this world to beat us into submission. He came into this world to love us to eternal life. Verse 45 of our text, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Why did Jesus do this? Sin. Life crippling, guilt impregnating, life disappointing, death bringing, God separating sin. This great God of ours, the One who breathed life into us came into this world to become a servant for the people gathered in this place. To grant us forgiveness and assurance of God’s love despite of the fact that this past week we have involved our thoughts and tongues and bodies in God –offending activities. For Christ’s sake we are forgiven. He served us to death. And glory be to His name, He continues to serve us through the promises of His Word and the Sacraments.
There at a place called Golgotha, with spikes in his hands and his feet, there He would hug us and love us back to life…to life everlasting. “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sin, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace…” (Eph. 1:7)
We then have a calling to serve. To be people who not only understand that they have an eternal destiny – unlike our contemporaries who wander through this world walking all over each other – but to be people who also serve.
The disciples had this as well. The amazing part of this story to me is that it involves James and John. Two of the three who had glimpsed the glory of Jesus at the mountain. They saw greatness. They saw the true number one. But they just can’t contain that longing. So Jesus intervenes and these men would go on to great service in the Lord’s Kingdom. They found meaning in serving number one.
Do you? Or do you still want the biggest and the best and service to the Lord and His church gets pushed lower and lower? I know many of you in a loving way still make fun of my flip phone. But I am content with that. I don’t need the latest and greatest. Heck, we just got a flat screen TV at Christmas. I like it but it is not changing my life or pushing me to keep up with the neighbors. I just don’t live that way. I still have that human drive to be #1 in areas like sports, trivia etc. But I don’t want that to ever take away from my faith life. Everything put before Christ is idolatry. What about you?
So, let’s try this. Led by the Holy Spirit we serve because he first served us. To be great the Lord says is to be a servant. A Christian by the name of Carolyn Schultz wrote, “In the kingdom of God there are no score sheets. Menial tasks rank as high as glamorous ones. Things are measured by the spiritual way in which they are done.” Does that help you understand how desperately you are needed here? Does that help you understand the importance of everything you do as God’s people? Don’t demean who you are or your abilities. Because of Christ’s constant love for us everything we do for Him is worth doing.
Who is number one? Christ our Savior. Serve Him.
Amen.

March 8, 2015 Text: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Dear Friends in Christ,

Patrick Morley, author of The Man in the Mirror books, writes about the God we want and the God that is. People by nature expect something else from God and create in their minds something different from what He offers them. We have expectations of what we want God to be, how He should act, when He should act, and even what He should look like. We want Him to fit neatly into our plans. We have made our little god in our minds that fits our plans and purposes. This of course goes directly against the First Commandment from our Old Testament Reading. There is the god, with a small g, we want and the God that is.
The God that “is” is the God of the Bible, the one true God, who used what seemed to be pure folly to most of the world – a cross – as the instrument of salvation. Are you willing to leave the god you want behind and trust fully in the God that is, no matter how foolish that might seem to those around you?
“THE FOLLY OF THE CROSS”
What kind of fool do you take me for? Aaron Neville sang the song, “Everybody Plays the Fool.” Remember this line, “Everybody plays the fool sometimes, there is no exception to the rule.” Have you ever played the fool or done something foolish? About five years ago during the winter we had I believe an Evangelism Board meeting scheduled on a Tuesday evening. We had snow the previous days that had built up and the temperatures had stayed below freezing. The city snowplow had left a nice trail in front of our south entrance. It wasn’t that large but I thought I could drive through it. Wrong! My car got stuck. Some folks came along with a shovel and I crawled on my belly to remove the snow and finally extricated the vehicle. I showed up late for the meeting and felt quite foolish. Have you ever done something similar?
We look at others and their actions and find it easy to label them as fools. Just this week another group of people were stranded on an interstate in a snowstorm. We think to ourselves what are they doing out in that weather. We find it easy to judge others’ actions and words as foolish.
Would anyone here today be bold enough to stand up and state that something God has said or done is foolish? It would seem blasphemous, especially in this setting, surrounded by other believers. But the truth is that we often do that by accusing God of not caring, of not working within our time frame, and by allowing His Word to become outdated for these modern times. Are we any different from the Jews and Greeks whom Paul is referring to in our text?
One man’s folly is another man’s treasure. We join the Jews of Paul’s time in demanding signs. Where are you Lord, I’ve been praying? Where is your sign? We join the Greeks of Paul’s time in looking for worldly wisdom in our God, whose kingdom is not of this world. Just listen to how we all talk. We think humans can solve of our most pertinent issues. Benjamin Franklin said something that still fits, “A learned fool writes his nonsense in better language than the unlearned, but still ‘tis nonsense.” Read any government edict and you’ll see what I mean.
We preach Christ crucified. Can we demand signs and look for earthly wisdom when we are dealing with the treasure of the cross and God’s wisdom found in Scripture? Preaching Christ crucified. Why is it a stumbling block and foolishness to so many?
The city of Corinth who Paul is addressing was destroyed in 146 B.C. A hundred years later, Julius Caesar sent a group to rebuild Corinth. Corinth was a center for shipping and trade giving it a diverse population. In Paul’s day it had a population of almost 500,000 made up of free persons and slaves, Jews and Greeks. Over time, the city became known as a wicked place. There were many divisions within the city, the church followed suit.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Paul needed to bring the focus back, in the church especially, to Christ crucified. That is where we need our focus. We get caught up in all the fluff and foolishness and miss the main message. Christ Jesus who died so that we might live. We might understand the offense of the cross within governmental decisions, but what about churches that refuse to put up a cross. Isn’t that foolish?
You see, the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. Holy Scripture is God’s Word to the wise. It tells us of the God who is, not the god we want. The God of the Bible is the only true God. Through Jesus’ death on a cross and his resurrection, he has brought us the only way to eternal life in heaven.
Because of Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection three days later and our Spirit-created faith in that seemingly foolish way of salvation, we are forgiven fools. We are fools for Christ’s sake. If proclaiming Christ crucified and living under the truth of Christ’s cross and outside the freedom of his empty tomb is foolishness, then call us fools – forever, forgiven, and fruitful fools for Christ!
Amen.

March 4, 2015 Text: Isaiah 44:1-5

Dear Friends in Christ,
Shelly Jackson is not only an author, she’s a walking piece of literature. She has a tattoo on her right wrist that reads, “S-k-i-n” yes, Skin. It is actually the title of Jackson’s latest project, which she calls “A Mortal Work of Art.” The plan is that her 2095-word story would be published exclusively in tattoos, one word at a time, on the skin of volunteers. Once a volunteer is accepted into the project, they are known only by the word they bear on their skin.
At last count, Shelly Jackson was still looking for people to bear her final three hundred words. Just think, we could contact her after church, offer our human hides, and be a part of a counter-cultural narrative.
Isaiah also wants people to be marked with one word and be part of a counter-cultural narrative. He writes in our text, “another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord’s.’” This Lenten truth tonight, we are . . .
“MARKED”
One of the ancient Near East’s most dominant narratives in the sixth century BC was the Babylonian creation epic called the Enuma Elish. The Enuma Elish narrates Marduk’s defeat over Tiamat. He cut her in two and built the universe out of her remains. Read during the annual Akitu festival the pinnacle was the acclimation – in the Akkadian language – “Marduka ma surru,” which translated means, “Marduk is King.”
Connected to the pomp and pageantry of Babylonian religion was the empire’s program of changing people’s names. Just ask Hannaniah, Mishael, and Azariah. You may know their VeggieTale names, “Shach, Rach, and Benny.” In Daniel 1:7 the chief of the eunuchs changes their names to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The goal? Mark the Judeans with a new name that will entice them into worshipping Marduk.
But Judean exiles in Babylon didn’t line up. They weren’t interested in being marked by their Maker. Because, you see, there was another text in town.
The dominant story of our day is peddled by the young and beautiful who guarantee we can be young and beautiful, just like them, if we buy things we don’t need, with money we don’t have, to impress people we don’t even like.
Their story is hammered into our heads at an alarming rate. From the moment you open the morning paper, or flip on your phone or computer until we fall asleep to another rerun of Everybody Loves Raymond, we will encounter more than 2,000 advertising images. And they portray the same thing over and over – “You can buy lasting happiness!”
In league with this American consumerism is the enemy’s program of changing our names. His goal? Mark us with a new name that will entice us into seeking fulfillment in things. Deemed beloved through water and the Word, Satan renames us cheap, dirty, and worthless. Deemed washed and cleaned in the name of Jesus, he whispers to us, “Guilty as charged.”
Put together, the dominant narrative and the dominant devil create in us a slowness to be part of the counter-text. We convince ourselves, “I can sell my soul to the American dream and claim its promises of prosperity while, at the same time, professing the name of Jesus.”
We’ve all tried the dominant narrative. We are all worn out from believing the dominant American story. Lord, we need an alternative narrative.
Enter Isaiah 40-55, where the prophet takes aim at the empire. Babylon is a drop in the bucket. Babylonian leaders are nothing. Babylonian gods are an empty wind. Marduk is a fantasy, a fake, a fraud, and a huge phony.
The alternative narrative in Isaiah 40-55 is just getting revved up. “Comfort, comfort My people, says your God” (40:1). “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, God is doing a new thing” (43:18-19). God is stirring Cyrus to get Israel out of Babylon. He is raising up the Suffering Servant to get Babylon out of Israel. The Lord promises that His story does what it says. Isaiah 55:11, “so shall My word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to Me empty.” We are the subject of God’s story, so much so that we line up, each one, and “write on our hand” not “belonging to Babylon,” but “belonging to the Lord.”
God has always told His story on people’s bodies; call it Skin! In Genesis 4:15, the Lord marks Cain. In Genesis 17, the Lord gives Abraham and his offspring the covenant mark of circumcision. Deuteronomy 6:8 describes people tying God’s words on their hands and binding them on their foreheads.
It all points to the greatest story told on human skin. Isaiah describes this body, “His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man, and his form marred beyond human likeness…Like one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not…We all, like sheep, have gone astray. And the Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all” (Is. 52:14; 53:3,6). One spear, three nails, and a crown of thorns left their marks on Jesus.
But first the Ten, and then climatically Thomas, saw Jesus alive; and what shall we call that story? Call it Skin. Our Savior showed His skin. He is forever marked with scars announcing for you, right here, right now, His loyal love and His free forgiveness and His everlasting grace. And so people began lining up to be marked.
Eyes marked with tenderness and kindness; a smile marked with delight and friendship; a mind marked by toughness and truth; hands marked with helpfulness and humility; and a mouth marked with Jesus and joy.
To be part of this counter-cultural narrative, all we need is one word: leyahweh – in English, “belonging to the Lord.” How does that happen? Recall the water, remember the Word, and forever cherish the liturgical rite when you were baptized. “Receive the sign of the holy cross, both upon your forehead and upon your heart to mark you as one redeemed by Christ the crucified.”
Just because we live in Babylon does not mean we will live like the Babylonians. My life and your life tell another story. We are consumed with another narrative. And what is that called? Jesus . . . with skin.
Amen.