Jan. 14, 2018 – Sanctity of Human Life Sunday                  Text:  1 Corinthians 6:12-20

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

What do you think of when you hear these two words – body language?  You might think of non-verbal communication where are body language speaks to if we are happy or sad, mad or compassionate, giddy or gory.  You might think of the 1980’s game show “Body Language” that was a form of charades.  You might think of that girl or guy and well, you know.  Where does your mind go when I say – body language?

The Apostle Paul is going to speak to us today about body language.  It is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday and God our Creator has given us all a body.  He has breathed life into our bodies.  He has sanctified and saved our bodies.  He wants us to use our bodies for His glory.

I am not going to stand in the pulpit today and piously point my finger.  I don’t want you to sit in the pew pompously either.  We are not going to surround Paul as he tells the world how horrible they are when it comes to use of the body.  See, Paul wasn’t writing to pagans.  He writes to Christians being influenced by a pagan world.  We need to take this personally.  The Holy Spirit will lead us to an understanding of . . .

“BODY LANGUAGE”

The Corinthians used improper body language when they thought their bodies were actually their own and therefore they could do whatever they desired.  We have modern day Corinthian thought.  “I have a right to do what I want with my own body” and “My body, my choice.”

Again, let’s not just point; let’s take it personally.  We use improper body language to justify pouring too much liquor into our bodies or eating to excess or sitting on our backsides instead of getting our hearts pumping or having sexual intercourse outside the bonds of marriage.  “Hey, it’s my body!  I can do what I want.”

What are we doing with our body language?  Society seems to think hook-ups and hang-ups and friends with benefits is the norm.  But recent studies seem to show the opposite.  Human beings are having less sex.  We can look at that two ways.  Good if it is the young and the unmarried.  Bad if it is husband and wife.  Our technological society shows that human interaction is waning.  We would rather be intimate with our devices.  Those movies of year’s past are coming true!

Paul’s body language is very clear:  “You are not your own” (v. 19).  You are not your own because you have been bought.  You are not your own because you have been bought with a price.  The price for you was high:  God’s own blood shed in the person of Jesus.  You are not your own, because that blood cleanses you from all your sin.  God dwells in you.

If you ever doubt your value or wonder about your purpose in life, remember Paul’s body language and take it personally!  In Baptism, the Lord united your body with His.  God bought you, cleansed you, and declared you holy.  Once we see how God values us and how He made our bodies holy then we can use them properly.  Our body language will speak of His glory.  “So glorify God in your body” (v. 20b).

Allow me to speak to our young people and singles here today.  Sometimes the Church sees you as just raging hormones and zits.  That is part of who you are but you are so much more.  God created you and knit you together in your mother’s womb.  God created you and then in Baptism united you with Jesus.  He purchased you with His blood and declared you His most holy place, where His Spirit is pleased to dwell.  You can make good, God-pleasing decisions.  You can glorify God with your body language.

The same goes for our husbands and wives.  Let’s take us back to our marriage worship service where the Pastor said this:  “The union of husband and wife in heart, body, and mind is intended by God for mutual companionship.  Marriage was also ordained so that man and woman may find delight in one another.  God also established marriage for the procreation of children.”  You, too, can make good, Biblical, God-pleasing choices and glorify God with your body language.  If you have children, you then pass on a God-ordained model.

Listen to God’s body language.  We are not to become monks but to use our bodies in ways that are pleasing to God.  We live in our ever-changing world but we don’t succumb to their immorality.  When they say:  “Go ahead put that drug in your body.”  Listen to God’s body language:  “I made your body for the Lord, to be united with Jesus.”  When the world’s body language says, “You have a right to do what you want with your body,” listen to God’s body language:  “Your body is not your own, for you were bought with a price.”  When the world and sometimes even the church say, “You can’t control your body, go ahead…be safe,” listen to God’s body language:  “You’ve been united with me.  I live in you.  I will help you.  You can glorify Me with your body.”

May the Lord help us all with our…BODY LANGUAGE.     Amen.

January 7, 2018 – The Baptism of our Lord                       Text:  Mark 1:4-11

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

Most of us are not crazy about the realities of life, but our society does have a fascination with reality TV.  Survivor, The Amazing Race, and America’s Got Talent fills the airwaves throughout the week.

One of the more popular programs is called The Voice.  I am no connoisseur of this type of program but the lady I sleep next to at night is, so I know a little about the show.  The Voice is looking for the next big singing star.  The unique thing about this show is that when the singer auditions for the first time, the judge cannot see them.  They have their back to the performer.  They may not like the look, the clothes or their movements, but if they like The Voice, they turn around and say, “I want you!”  Then that judge becomes their coach.  It’s all about the voice.

Our reality this morning is that we are filthy rags of sin and we need forgiveness for our misdeeds.  We may not always want to hear that, but we can’t ignore the voice that tells us.  Even if we don’t like this reality in ourselves, we should not dislike hearing the voice.  Quite the contrary, rejoice in

“THE VOICE”

There is a voice in the wilderness that is preparing us for the Mighty One.  This voice has no previous fanfare or an agent trying to promote him – John the Baptist appears in the wilderness.  Could this possibly be the next great voice?  Is he in line to be a star preacher?  From the look of things let’s not crown his head quite yet.  Look at him – rough leather, camel’s hair (didn’t that go out in the stone age), locusts, wild honey.  But has he ever got a voice.

He uses that voice to pass on a painful reality to the crowds, you are all sinners.  You besmirch your neighbor with your talk.  You kill with words just for the sport of it.  You take things that do not belong to you.  Repentance is needed.  Without it you are all going to perish.

But this was no voice of despair.  John was preparing the way of the Lord’s forgiveness.  Crowds did hear the voice.  They came out to John and did repent.  They were baptized and in that baptism they were forgiven.  Most importantly, they heard the voice that the One who would secure this forgiveness was coming.

The voice from heaven announces to us the beloved Son.  Now appears another one who appears on the scene that we would not recognize as a star.  Jesus is just another guy in the crowd.  From the podunk town of Nazareth in backward Galilee.  In fact, He comes to be baptized, like all those sinners.

But you can’t ignore this voice, The Voice:  God the Father in heaven.  Jesus may not look like much.  The Holy Spirit isn’t there to put on a show; He comes simply as a dove.  But the voice has power.  This voice needs no coaching.

This is no audition.  It is not a contest.  This voice has the final Word:  “My beloved Son is the final Word.”  God the Father is well pleased that Jesus will now begin the task of saving all his children lost in the wilderness.  The Father is pleased that His Son is heading off to the wilderness to defeat temptation for all who have given into it.  The Father is well pleased that His beloved Son will go to the cross to take the punishment for all our sinful failures.

The voice declares these same wonderful things to us today.  In His Baptism, He put himself in our place.  He came to John to be baptized so that he would be the sinner in our stead.  That is, Jesus’ Baptism sent him to the cross for our sins.

That means the opposite is also true; we who are baptized are now in Jesus’ place.  Jesus’ Baptism sanctified all water to be powerful when the voice of the Pastor speaks God’s Word.  In Baptism, we receive the holiness of Jesus’ life, the forgiveness of his death.   Our loose talk and sticky fingers and hurtful words are washed clean from our body and soul.

Therefore, the Voice of God the Father can be heard in the Pastor’s voice.  “You – fill in your name – are my beloved son, beloved daughter.  With you I am well pleased.”  “You are my holy one, my child to live with me forever.”

Unlike The Voice with their blind auditions and backs turned on the performers.  God sees us for who we are, but he does not turn his back on us.  We are chosen by Him, not because of what we look like or even how we sound, but because we are connected to him through Christ’s Baptism.  We hear the voice of God calling us to repentance, and we follow him in faith.  Now, then, with great joy, we rejoice to hear THE Voice.

Amen.

 

July 23, 2017                                                                          Text: Romans 8:19

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

A nation.  A family.  An individual.  Each punctuates its life with anniversaries.  They point to the past and define the present.  When did you last observe an anniversary?  Last year I had two milestones my 25^th year in the ministry and our 25^th wedding anniversary.  I look back and find it hard to believe that I have been a called and ordained servant of the Lord for that long.  Toni looks back at our anniversary and probably thinks, “How have I lived with this guy for 25 years!”  These are happy moment in our life.

Anniversaries can also be sad.  This past week on Monday my mom would have been 75.  You have your own dates of loved ones birthdays or dates of death that you remember when the dates come and go.

This is an anniversary year in the Lutheran Church.  The Reformation – 500 years ago.  What do such moments mean?  Are these moment’s in the church’s life no different than other anniversaries?  Are they simply the church’s equivalent of 1776 or a 25^th wedding anniversary?  St. Paul, speaking as an apostle of Christ, calls us to a very different type of observance.

“WHAT’S IN AN ANNIVERSARY?”

Our text for this morning.  “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.”  There is a different dimension to the church’s observance of the Reformation.  More than just a remembrance or an observance it is a confession.  A confession of Christ.  Christ’s resurrection has changed everything.  For those who are in Christ, there is a new calendar and a new creation.

This confession began in our baptism.  “We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we to may live a new life.” (Romans 6:4)  When the church marks its moments, it confesses that every moment is now lived out in the light of Christ’s resurrection.

We still live though with the oppression of death.  Luther knew about it.  We know about it first-hand, up close and personal.  Death touches each of us.  It arches over all the structures of this world.  The years teach us that creation is caught.  Ultimately death devours every emperor and nation and family.  Pride and self-indulgence is no match for its power.  Our culture’s technological glitz and entertainment lifestyle can disguise the reality of death.

One of the most sophisticated of planned communities in Southern California, Irvine, has bicycle paths, golf courses, and swimming pools beautifully placed amidst the homes.  But nowhere, nowhere, in this state of the art, planned city is there a cemetery.  But, you and I know, the disguise doesn’t work.  It too needs a cemetery.

The years, and months, and days envelope every project, even the planned community.  Time can be managed.  It can be spent wisely or foolishly.  But, all too soon, it is gone.

Into this trapped world, however, comes another way to measure time.  “In the year of our Lord.”  A church anniversary is an affirmation that Christ has defeated death.  And, now every year, and month, and day is a confession of His holy name and life.

United to Him in baptism, guided by His living voice in the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures, and nourished by His very body and blood in the Lord’s Supper, we confess His presence as the living Lord.  As Luther wrote in a hymn, “Sin, death, hell are now undone.”  This is why St. Paul can write, “The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.”

Nations will come and go.  Corporations and tycoons will fade.  But the church, the body of Christ, will live life and “live it to the full” (John 10:10) because “Sin, death, hell are now undone.”

Join this confession.  Join her Pastors who at the font, before the altar, from the pulpit, by the bedside, on the street, in the classroom, beside the casket make this confession with their lips by God’s grace:  “In Christ, sin, death, and hell are now undone.”

“With angels, and archangels, and all the company of heaven,” that is our confession.  With creation we wait with eager longing for the sons of God to be revealed.  We seek to bring this confession to the world.  As we work and wait for His coming, confess Him in your observance of this Reformation anniversary.  Confess Him in your prayer and your homes and your daily walk with Thee.  Such a confession will not fade.  Such an anniversary will not pass.  Rather, this confession will continue until each child of God beholds the face of Christ.

Lastly, pray for your brothers and sisters around the world who make this confession in fear and silence.  In the end as our Gospel lesson from Matthew 13 reminds us, all will be revealed, and God’s children will receive their reward.

May the Triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – grant such a life and confession of Christ our Savior.

Amen.