Sermons

Dec. 24 – Christmas Eve Text: 1 Thessalonians 5:16

Dear Friends in Christ,
Charles Dickens’s novel A Christmas Carol is about Ebenezer Scrooge and how his heart was changed one Christmas. It’s a feel good story because they all lived happily ever after. But lines from another Dickens novel more accurately describes the way Christmas feels for most. He begins A Tale Of Two Cities with these words:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom; it was the age of foolishness. It was the epoch of belief; it was the epoch of incredulity. It was the season of Light; it was the season of Darkness. It was the spring of hope; it was the winter of despair. We had everything before us, we had nothing before us.”
Christmas is a time of contrasts. Prosperity and poverty. Good will and ugly greed. Family togetherness and excruciating loneliness. Light and darkness. Spring of hope and winter of acute despair.
We all want Christmas to be the best of times. It is the reason we do all the things we do – decorate, send cards, shop, bake, attend parties. Sometimes though it can be the worst of times because of the expectation of a holly, jolly Christmas.
Some of you may have spent too much again this year. Maybe it is your health or the health of loved one on your mind tonight. Do you have old hurts that won’t heal? New wounds that won’t go away?
That is why our text from 1 Thessalonians seems so strange, so out of place, so artificial.
“REJOICE ALWAYS”
Really now Paul, what is there to rejoice about? Isn’t Christmas just a fantasy season of sugar plum fairies and old St. Nick?
And if Christmas is real, it is real for other people. I’ve got problems no one can relate to. My parents passed all there hang-ups to me. My siblings? We don’t get along. My job is a hassle. The marriage has lost its excitement. It’s too late to do anything with this mess I call my life. How dare Paul say, “Rejoice always.” How could he write this candy cane coated concoction?
I’ll tell you why. Paul knew the angelic announcement, “I bring you good news of great joy.” (Luke 2:10) Not for some people. Not for good people. Not for religious people. This is good news for everyone. Joy is the gift Christ gives to everyone. He gives it especially to you.
Please hear this. There is a difference between happiness and joy. External gifts like health and wealth and children are great blessings from God. They make us happy. But they are not essential for joy. Why? Because happiness is determined by what is going on around me. I can’t control that. Joy is determined by what is going on inside of me. And God has taken control of that. He sent Jesus.
Jesus didn’t have a lot of reasons for earthly happiness. Born in a trough to a blue-collar father and teenage mother. As an adult he had no home. Jesus was an itinerant preacher and washed feet. Not the path to making it big.
And then this, “Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross!” (Phil. 2:8) Death on a cross was reserved for the lowest of the low. They ripped his skin, burst his arteries and severed his nerves. It brought unimaginable pain.
In spite of it all, though, Jesus, exuded joy. Poverty and disappointment and rejection couldn’t take it away. Even death on a cross couldn’t take away the joy. Hebrews 12:2 says as much, “…who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame.”
What does it all mean? No matter where your life is right now, this truth makes it worthwhile: Jesus Christ was born to die for you. From his cross He gives unlimited joy. It is for you. “I bring good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”
Jesus once said, “No one will take your joy from you.” (John 16:22) Why is that? Remember? Happiness is determined by what is going on around me. I can’t control that. Joy is determined by what is going on inside of me. And God has taken control of that by sending Jesus who is the doorway to deliverance, the pathway to peace, and the gateway to glory. His goodness is limitless. His loves never changes. His grace is sufficient. His Word is enough. No one will take this joy from you.
Joy stems the tide of gloom and despair. It brings confidence in the midst of confusion. Hope when there is uncertainty. Calm in the midst of life’s storms.
Please don’t confuse happiness and joy. They are not the same thing. There are happy Christmases and there are sad Christmases. It all depends on what is happening around us.
Joy, on the other hand, is dependent upon what is happening in us. And the birth of Jesus is God’s commitment to send the Holy Spirit who comes inside to heal our hurts, forgive our filth and redeem our wretchedness.
Whether tonight is for you the best of times or the worst of times, the birth of Jesus – announced by the angels, witnessed by the shepherds and marveled at by the magi – leaves us finally with only one response. And what would that be? Paul wrote it. They are the words of our text. 1 Thessalonians 5:16. “Rejoice always!”
Amen.

Dec. 14, 2014 Text: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Dear Friends in Christ,

Have you ever been on the standby list for a flight? You wait to see if someone doesn’t show up or gets bumped because of an overbooking. You are not sure if you will make it home.
Once you are on the standby list there is no peace and no way to relax. Every airport announcement and every conversation the ticket agent has brings on another Maalox moment. Ticketed passengers, by contrast, read magazines, thumb through books, or play games on their phone. They have the peace that passes all understanding. Oh to be numbered with the confirmed. Oh to have your own seat number and departure time. Oh to know on the next flight that you’re going home.
I can’t guarantee that the next time you are on the standby list that you will get a ticket. I can guarantee that you have a seat for the final flight home. Reservations have been made. The fare has been paid. In the immortal words of John, Paul, George and Ringo . . . .
“YOU’VE GOT A TICKET TO RIDE!”
We believe as much from our text. Paul writes, “We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God.” (vs. 14-16a)
The Thessalonians were not only worried about their own departure; they also were concerned about loved ones who had died in the Lord. Paul assures them, and us, that Christians who die are in fact only asleep. This is what Jesus teaches (Matt. 9:24). That’s how Luke describes Stephen’s death (Acts 7:60). Paul repeats the word “sleep” three times in our text.
When you die, if you die (if Jesus doesn’t come again) are you immediately resurrected? No. Our body, the shell, stays here on earth. But our spirit goes to be with the Lord. Jesus said it to the thief; “Today you will be with me in paradise.” Paul talked about it when he wrote, “To depart from this body is to be present with the Lord.” When believers die their spirits go to be with the Lord in heaven. And they sleep. But not forever.
Christ will return with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God. It’s going to be quite a day. Those who are asleep will wake up. They will be raised with transformed bodies. Meaning what? If you die in the Lord, you’ve got a ticket to ride!
“And the dead in Christ will rise first.” (v. 16b) Aristotle called death, “The end of everything.” Jean-Paul Sartre, the French philosopher wrote, “Death removes all meaning from life.” Another Frenchman Francois Rabelais, made this his last sentence, “I am going to the great Perhaps.” Not Jesus. He exclaimed, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though he dies.” (John 11:25) Because he lives, we too shall live.
“After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” (v. 17a) If still alive we will be caught up with Jesus. The term “caught up” in the Latin version is rapiemur. From this we get the English word “rapture.” So “rapture” is a biblical idea. The problem is that some Christians distinguish the rapture of Christ’s church from the second coming of Christ in judgment for the world. This is incorrect. The rapture and the second coming occur simultaneously. They are the same event. If you believe and have been baptized then you are rapture ready. You’ve got a ticket to ride!
“And so we will be with the Lord forever.” (v. 17b) If you have ever been to a reunion you know how good it can be to see friends and family you know and love. But the heavenly reunion is even so much more. People’s bodies reunited with their spirits for eternity. Family members seeing each other for the first time in years as they rise to meet Jesus Christ. It’s part an incredible reunion.
This experience tops everything. I can look out to all of you and say with confidence that the most exciting experience of your life has not even happened yet. No matter what you have done. You may have skied the Swiss Alps. You may have landed the dream job. You may have gotten to sit in A section at the Assembly Hall/State Farm Center in Champaign. You may have made the winning free throws in a basketball game. You may have lounged on the beach in Hawaii. You may have gone skydiving. This is not skydiving – it is the opposite. We will be caught up to join this joyful and wonderful reunion.
Even as some of you live dark days here on earth, as a believer in Jesus you have something to look forward to. Nothing can take that away. By God’s grace in Christ Jesus you most certainly have a ticket to ride! How shall we respond? “Therefore encourage each other with these words.” (v. 18).
Amen.

December 7, 2014 Text: Isaiah 40:1-11

Dear Friends in Christ,

Jeremy Cowart is a professional photographer in Los Angeles. His portfolio includes Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley, and the Kardashians. One of his most beautiful and intriguing photographs, however, involves people you don’t know. It was taken when Cowart was in Kiev, Ukraine. He photographed two people standing outside St. Michael’s Church and Monastery. When you look at the photo, you can’t help but be surprised.
At the bottom of the photo, there are two people, young, preoccupied. One carries a bag over her shoulder and looks straight in your direction. The other is wearing a suit and a tie. His head is slightly tilted as he looks off into the distance. Both have the appearance of anyone you could meet on the street.
Behind them, however, is the wall of a monastery. It rises above them and is covered with angels. There are so many angels that you can’t see all of their faces. Behind these two ordinary people is a world of gold, filled with angels and wings.
If they would just turn around they would be amazed at the world that surrounds them. Their ordinary life is filled with the presence of angels. God is inviting them into an overwhelming experience of his personal love.
Unfortunately, what we see in this photograph often happens in our lives. We are so preoccupied with life that we never truly see the wonder of God’s ways. For this reason our text from Isaiah is a blessing this morning. He calls us today to stop and listen. Isaiah offers you . . .
“A VISION OF GOD’S LOVE”
Right away you have probably noticed there are no angels explicitly mentioned in our text. No picture of God seated with thousands of angels around him. In fact, Isaiah only gives us a voice, the voice of God that he hears.
Earlier though when Isaiah first received his call, he saw a glimpse of the heavenly council. He saw God “sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up.” (Isa. 6:1) This God called Isaiah to speak, and he gave him the words to say.
This is what he is doing in our text. Instead of speaking judgment on the people, God is bringing comfort to his people. Hear this mercy: “Comfort, comfort my people,” says God. Not once but twice. God is emphatic. He is sending an army of angels to provide this comfort. They are to speak to his people, proclaim that their exile is over, their sin is pardoned, and they have peace with their God.
This mission, once given to angels, continues in our midst today. Advent reminds us of God’s mission. John the Baptizer was out in the wilderness calling all people to repent and prepare for the Lord. They were to receive baptism for the forgiveness of sins. The one coming was greater than John. The one sent from the Father would die for our sins. He rose and ascended to his Father to be seated on the heavenly throne. Jesus rules, and as long as this world endures, his mission continues. He now sends his Spirit to equip us to join in this mission of mercy to the ends of the earth.
This is a mission of love. The angels are to speak tenderly to God’s people. The language of God, who is in love with his people. Though they have strayed, God continues to seek them out.
This text is a foretaste of a more personal love. Advent prepares us for Christmas and God’s gift of personal love. Remember the angels who filled the heavens to announce this event? God in the flesh came in the person of Jesus to suffer God’s wrath and bring us back into a right relationship with our heavenly Father. When we stray he seeks us out and brings us back. Personal love, spoken in his Word, and also spoken personally by a preacher he has sent, today, to you.
Have you noticed how talk of religion can become divisive? The ways of God are different from the ways of the world, and religious speech is often heard as an attack on others rather than as an invitation to participate in a new way of life.
God invites you into his personal mission of love. Knowing the forgiveness of sins in your life and being equipped by the Holy Spirit you join the chorus of witnesses who speak of His love. Angels surround you as you serve God in the world, and they look forward to singing a song of joy over one sinner who repents.
When you look at Jeremy Cowart’s photograph, it is interesting to see how near the angels are to our world. One angel stands there behind the man in the suit and tie. In one hand, the angel carries a lily. In the other hand, a staff and his forefinger are extended. It reaches out from the mural to point the young man in front of him, standing there, staring off in the distance.
In Renaissance art, one angel often carries a lily. Gabriel. The angel God sent to Mary to announce that she would bear God’s Son. How beautiful that this angel, so close to the incarnation, is also so close to this young man.
God sent his Son into the world for individual people, like this young man. Though they may not be attending to God in the world, God is attending to them. Sending His Son to forgive their sins and then sending his angels, sending his prophets, sending his Pastors, sending his people to join in this mission of love.
God’s overwhelming mission, so personal in Jesus, remains personal today as God sends you to be a messenger, bearing his word of good news to others.
Amen.

Nov. 30, 2014 Text: 1 Corinthians 1:3-9

Dear Friends in Christ,

Can you think of times in our world when people were not prepared? How about these: The German invasion of Poland in 1939. The Japanese attacking Pearl Harbor in 1941. The Islamic terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001. The tsunami that roared across the Indian Ocean in December 2004. Hurricane Katrina that devastated the Gulf Coast back in 2005. Tornadoes that come without warning. The recent snowstorm in New York State.
Waiting is one thing when we’re prepared. Waiting is quite another when we’re unprepared. And how can we possibly be prepared when we don’t know what’s going to happen and when it’s going to happen?
Today begins the new church year and the season of Advent. This liturgical season is all about preparation and . . . waiting. I’ve titled the sermon after a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers song from the 1980’s. Even though it was probably not meant to be theological this is the line in the song right before the title. “You take it on faith, you take it to the heart . . .
“THE WAITING IS THE HARDEST PART”
Paul as he writes to the Corinthians acknowledges that they lack nothing. They were enriched in speech and knowledge. They have been given grace through Jesus Christ. The testimony of Christ was confirmed among them.
We also lack nothing. We have been enriched through God’s good gifts. Christ revealed, salvation completed, surrounded by the grace and mercy of the Savior.
Yet we are waiting. We are waiting for “the day.” (v. 8) When I say that, what do many of you immediately think of? You think of the day that is still twenty-five days away. You think of the preparations that still have to be made. You will not be caught unprepared. You know it’s coming so why worry.
It is true that many of us are waiting for Christmas and the blessing of celebrating and worshipping Jesus Christ, the revealed Son of God the Father, born in Bethlehem. But Paul is not writing about Christmas. He is writing about the Greater Day. The return of Jesus Christ. And so we wait. Strangers in a strange land.
While many may agree that “waiting is the hardest part” when it comes to Christmas, do you feel the same way about the return of Christ? Is waiting the hardest part? Or is it not knowing when this will occur the hardest part? Do you take it on faith? Do you take it to the heart? Is the waiting the hardest part?
With Christmas we have a fixed date. Even though we may flitter around wondering how we will accomplish all that needs to get done, we can look back on a record number of years where we accomplished what we wanted. The worry melts away like the spring snows because we have been through it before. The rhythm of life helps us to be prepared.
The opposite can happen with the return of Jesus. Since we do not know the date, we can worry about whether our faith life is in the right place. Do I fully trust Christ as Savior? Has my heart been prepared for His salvation? We may even begin to join the scoffers of the day who insist that Jesus isn’t ever going to return, because after all, where has He been as the world falls apart?
And still, we are ready. We are prepared. This is not we scurrying to the mall to get eternal clothes for Jesus’ arrival. We are not the ones hanging the stockings by the chimney in hopes that Christ would soon be here. Paul writes, “as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (vs. 7b-9)
We are not sustaining ourselves to the end. God is. He is preparing our hearts and our minds for the expected arrival back to earth of our Savior. We are not always faithful. God is always faithful. We are no longer guilty of our offenses but through the death and resurrection of Christ we are guiltless. “Jesus has cleansed His church by removing the sins of believers through His own blood on the cross. This cleansing has been applied to Christians through Holy Baptism.” (Eph. 5:26) When Jesus returns the church will be blameless because God who is faithful keeps it in the cleansing flow of His grace. It all God’s doing through the Word and the Sacraments. He has prepared us. Yes, the waiting is the hardest part because we cannot wait to experience the joy of being with the Lord forever.
Take it on faith. Take it to the heart. The return of Christ our Savior is the blessed part.
Amen.

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Nov. 23, 2014 – Stewardship Sunday Texts: Deut. 7:7-8, Rom 5:6-8, John 2:1-10

Dear Friends in Christ,

Two men crashed their private plane on a South Pacific Island. One of the men brushed himself off and proceeded to run all over the island to see if they had any chance of survival. When he returned, he rushed up to the other man and screamed, “This Island is uninhabited and there is no food or water. We’re going to die!”
The other man leaned back against the fuselage of the wrecked plane, folded his arms and responded, “No we’re not, I make over $100,000 a week.” The first man grabbed his friend and shook him. “Listen, we’re on a deserted island. We’re doomed!” Still unfazed, the man looked the other guy in the eye and said, “It’s OK. I make over $100,000 per week and give 10% to the church. My Pastor will find us!”
It’s Stewardship Sunday. Time to take inventory of how we use God’s precious gifts to us. It’s all about Him – the Savior, Jesus. He makes what we do for Him and His kingdom worth it.
“WHY YOUR LIFE IS WORTH HIS LIFE”
Our first text from Deuteronomy, “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set His love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”
That same truth applies to us. We are a chosen people that belong to God. And please know that we are not chosen and made His because we are all great and wonderful. Scripture says we are sinful people like filthy rags. We are his enemies because of our sin.
Christ through His grace has saved us. We are saved from the terrors and torment of hell. We are saved from having to prove ourselves to God. We are saved from the culture we want to adapt to. We are saved through a beaten, bloodied, spiked to a cross, facing the depths of hell Savior who loved us enough to bear the punishment for our filthy rags. Your life was worth His life.
Our Epistle lesson spells it out even more clearly. Paul writes, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die – but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
We are weak, aren’t we? Struggling with our sin. Giving into temptation and the devil. Sometimes making a real royal mess of our lives. Going after the self-helps of the world only to find that makes it worse. We need Jesus. We need His love, forgiveness and guidance through His Word every day. That changes how I live and how I treat others. It is worth everything. Your life was worth His life.
Our last text is the first miracle Jesus every performed. Commonly known as “changing water into wine.” Our focus today is on verse 10, “(The master of the feast) said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.’”
The master of the feast recognized the wine’s high quality, giving witness to the miracle’s greatness. The Lord always gives the best.
Think of the good wine you have been granted in this life. Financial blessings showered up on you. A country where you can come to worship without fear of retribution or imprisonment. The amazing abilities that the Creator God has given unto you. The time granted on this earth to serve God and your fellow man. The children on loan to you to shepherd in the faith. Do you recognize the good wine that comes from the hands of your Redeemer?
Sometimes though we drink from the poor wine and wallow in our self-pity. “I don’t have what my neighbor has.” “Why can’t I do ________ as well as so and so?” “Where is the time Lord to get done what needs to get done.” All this does is make us whiners filled with the poor wine of our own making.
We forget we are the ones chosen to attend the wedding feast and given the good wine. The miracle worker Jesus makes this all possible. The guests at the wedding didn’t do anything to deserve this gift. They were the blessed recipients.
What we tend to do in the church is turning away from the eternal truths of God’s Word and focus on human fulfillment. This guts the central tenet of the faith once delivered to the saints, namely God’s one-way love in his Son Jesus Christ.
Last year Tullian Tchvidjian, Pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church and grandson of evangelist Billy Graham, wrote an op-ed piece in the Washington Post deploring this capitulation of churches toward expressive individualism. He wrote:
“The hub of Christianity is not ‘do something for Jesus.’ The hub of Christianity is ‘Jesus has done everything for you.’ And my fear is that too many people, both inside and outside the church, have heard our ‘do more, try harder’ sermons and pleas for intensified devotion and concluded that the focus of the Christian faith is the work that we do instead of the work God has done for us in the person of Jesus.”
He cares for you. He loves you. He died for you. Your life is worth His life.
Amen.