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.