May 9, 2021                                                                                         Text:  Acts 10:34-38

Dear Friends in Christ,

            About 10 years ago we had the opportunity to tour the George Bush (Sr) Presidential Library on the campus of Texas A & M University.  One of the highlights was seeing a part of the Berlin Wall.  This was the wall erected in 1961 to separate free West Berlin with Communist East Berlin.  It eventually came down in 1989 during the administration of President Bush.  The surprising part of seeing the wall in person was its size – both in height and in depth.  It helped to understand the barrier it posed.

            Humanity struggles to break down walls, only to find others being built.  The resurrection of Jesus, however, has forever changed this world.  Jesus’ cross holds out the victory that pulls down one wall after another.  In place of walls, God’s love…

“BINDS US TOGETHER IN CHRIST”

            Our text begins with these comforting words, “God shows no partiality.”  What are you partial to?  I like long hot showers and soft toilet paper.  Have you struggled with partiality?  A parent who you felt loved a brother or sister more?  A coach who favored a fellow player?  A teacher who liked a friend a little more?  God is different.  As the Creator of us all He binds us together in His Word around one salvation. 

            The partiality question came up as it relates to Jew and Gentile.  The idea that God favored or had fondness for one over the other.  There was no wall of separation in the eyes of the Lord.  They had cultural differences but the Word given to Israel is God’s love for the Gentiles:  “Good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all)” (v. 36) 

            The love the Father has for all people is without exception.  He is a wall breaker.  Are we guilty of building walls?  Sure.  We may shun those with whom we disagree.  We might belittle those we think are below us.  We don’t always understand other cultures and their practices.  God’s Word of love means peace.  He binds people together because His salvation is for all who believe.

            God’s Son Jesus is the Word made flesh.  He was always “doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil.” (v. 38)  Jesus’ death was the ultimate act of love to save sinners.  His enemies “put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day.” (vs. 39-40)  Christ saw the cross to be the cure binding all to him.  Now Jesus is to be the “judge of the living and the dead” (v. 42), but for all who believe in Him, the judgment will be forgiveness of sins. (v. 43)

            Jesus is our wall breaker.  He has a fondness for all men and women because He died for all.  His love has no bounds.  He is a binding force.  His forgiveness and gift of salvation binds all people to Him for eternity.

            This binding love was then shown in action.  The Holy Spirit showed Peter the love he was to have for the Gentiles.  The Spirit made audible the love he has for all people.  It goes beyond the walls built by man, for “the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.” (v. 44) 

            Love meant Peter was not to get in the way of God’s work in the Gospel.  The miracle of his hearers’ speaking in tongues confirmed the greater miracle.  “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” (v. 47)

            We see the same love of the Holy Spirit shared around Word and Sacraments.  These are the means that create our faith.  These are the means that build our faith.  These are the means that lead us to share our faith.  These are the means that tear down walls and bind us together as One.  Our confession of Jesus arises.  Men will still build walls real and imagined, but a right belief in Jesus entrusts us to His Commandments, His forgiveness, and His faithfulness for everyone.

            God loves to bind our lives together by the Word of Christ.  The risen Christ breaks down the walls we put up and replaces them with salvation for everyone.  Lord, help us to live this now and forever.

                                                                                    Amen.        

May 2, 2021 – Confirmation                                                                        Text:  Daniel 12:12

Dear Friends in Christ,

            This year’s Confirmation class has many unique characteristics.  They are all young men.  3 of the 4 were baptized within two months of each other.  I was privileged to perform all four baptisms and they have all been lifelong members of Good Shepherd.  The other unique characteristic that is important for today is that they all have an older brother, brothers, or sister.  3 of the 4 are the youngest in their family.  Which means they have all had to wait.  They watched siblings start school.  They saw a brother or sister get into organized sports before them.  Scouting membership was something they waited on.  They set through the questioning and confirmation of their beloved brother and sister.  They’ve waited and here they are.

            The prophet Daniel says in our text that waiting is a blessing.  How do you see it?  Today is a future oriented day but not just for these young men.  It is also important for all in the Christian Church.  What does the future look like and what place do I play in it?  Hang on to your patience as we delve into . . .

“WAITING. . . WAITING . . .”

            In the United States, the holy, Christian Church is facing a fork in the road.  Since the days of Emperor Theodosius I in AD 379 Christianity has enjoyed privileged status in Western European culture.  The Church has had freedom to wield political, legal, intellectual, and cultural power, according to its mission and purpose.  But it looks more and more like the Church’s privileged status is coming to an end.  The Church has been fragmented and secularism has pushed the Church to the fringe of society.  In all the areas I mentioned earlier the voice of orthodox Christianity is diminishing. 

            The two most popular paths to follow in the past have been zealotry and despair.  Zealotry seeks to regain power at all costs.  You then turn your renewed status against your oppressor.  Despair is surrendering.  Withdraw from the conflicts that seem insurmountable, repudiate the world and start a nirvana somewhere else.  Both paths have been followed in the past and failed.

            As with the pandemic there is nothing new.  History repeats and repeats.  The first three centuries of the Christian Church faced wave after wave of hostility.  Political exclusion.  Legal persecution.  Cultural contempt.  Roman rulers identified the Christian Church as a dangerous “contagion” that needed to be quarantined for the good of society.

            The ancient Church rejected both paths in favor of a third – the path of patience, or, better, long-suffering.  Does that make you squirm in the pew a bit?  In American culture patience is met with skepticism.  We live in an impatient society.  I see more people who think stop signs are just a suggestion.  “Seize the day!”  “Just do it.”  The politics of the day feed this activism with crisis after crisis, which leads to immediate action.  To be patient is equated with doing nothing. 

            The early Church Father Cyprian who advocated waiting said this, “We do not speak great things, we live them.”  Patience is the Christian form of life and it is active.  We don’t eliminate or evade suffering, we bear it, we endure, and we outlast it.  God is the author of supreme patience.  We see it with Abraham and Isaac, Jacob, Joseph who makes peace with his brothers, Moses, David, and all the righteous.  Yet it is only in Christ that a full and perfect patience is finally consummated. 

            The true Son, Jesus, gives form to the perfect patience of the Father.  Although righteous, He bears the sins of the whole world; though immortal, He suffers death; though guiltless, He is reckoned with sinners.  Patience does not look to rule the world or reject the world.  It seeks fulfillment in the redemption of the world, in the repentance of sinners, in the resurrection and manifestation of Christ in the glory of His Father.  The resurrection and the life of the world to come gives Christians the freedom to be patient, turn the cheek, to love the enemy and bear one another’s burdens in Christ.  Patience is freedom because it has no boundaries.  Its beginning and end reside in God, and so patience and waiting is the path for Christians.

            As people of faith we await the Lord’s deliverance.  King David wrote in Psalm 130, “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope.” (v. 4)  It was a wonderful blessing to talk with these young men about their future as husbands and fathers.  They wait to be spiritual heads of their families.  They wait for the Christian spouse God has for them.  They wait to prayerfully be blessed with children.  Christian patience.  Make a God-ordained difference in your little part of the world.  Men who will lead their families are so needed.

            For all of us we wait for our eternal home.  May our patience be a sign of God’s enduring mercy and a testimony to the hope of the resurrection.  On that day, the beatitude will be fulfilled:  “Blessed is the man who waits.”

                                                                                                            Amen.