Category Archives: Sermons
God’s Schematics, the Hope of our New Life in Christ
God’s Schematics
Phil. 3:17-4:1
† I.H.S. †
May the grace of God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ convince you of the transformation that is making in your life.
It’s nearly 25 years since professional sports underwent a radical change in America, because of a partial quote. A professional basketball player named Charles Barkley was quoted in 1993, saying, “I’m not a role model, just because I dunk a basketball.”
Like many quotes of the man named as “Sir Charles” (and quite a few other people, it was taken apart by the media. Many thought that he was saying he wasn’t responsible for living a life that others look up to when he was saying that parents should be the role models for their kids.
It didn’t matter, people accused him of not living up to the responsibility he had as a public figure. After all, many of us grew up with sports heroes, or military heroes, or even political heroes. Since then, the short comings of many of the potential heroes of our children have felt no compulsion to be a role model.
Not just athletes, though, just about every vocation you imagine has determined that they are not to be a role model.
I understand.
It’s why I reluctantly preach on the passage today from the epistle reading.
It’s a scary thought to preach this,
17 Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine and learn from those who follow our example.
It is a heavy burden to be a role model, whether it is too a nation, a congregation, or to a child.
Even more, when what we are to model is a life that encourages them to strive to live a life God would call righteous, to live apart from sin and shame, a life where we love. A life where we even love our enemies.
How many of you are comfortable with people imitating you, when they will be judged by God for what they did, and didn’t do?
How many of you are comfortable with people imitating your faith, and the holiness of your thoughts and words? Knowing that they will be responsible for those thoughts and words before God?
NO wonder people don’t want to be role models…
The Option?
The problem is that we are, and there are two kinds of role models out there.
The first kind Paul weeps over, and that gives you a hint about what the second kind is like.
He talks of their conduct being such that they are enemies of Jesus. That they are on the course to destruction, on the road to hell. What is their crime? What is so evil about them?
Paul says their god; their idol is their appetite, not just as in what is for lunch, but their need to get what they want when they want it. Whether it is food, or power, or sex, or money. They consume, and use what they consume, rather than bless others with it.
He goes on to say that they brag; they are focused on shameful things, disgraceful things. This is a little different than just desire because you can focus on things that are bad, not to enjoy them, but to condemn those who are caught up in them. You get obsessed with evil or the conspiracies. We can actually be obsessed with what we hate, to the extent that our desire to be free from it enslaves us.
The last thing that identifies someone as heading for destruction and hell is that they can only think about life on earth, they live for the moment, to enjoy life to its fullest because they don’t know anything else. They can’t even imagine that life has eternal consequences, and that means that life is a do what feels good, or do what you think is correct. This is the ultimate form of idolatry, as we put ourselves, our feelings, our logic and emotion as the final judge of what is right, and what is wrong.
It is these people that too often become role models because the burden seems to great, and those who should abdicate the responsibility.
The Grace of Transformation
Paul doesn’t leave us in that position; there is another group of people, those who have learned to follow Paul’s example, even as he followed the example of Jesus.
They are people who realize being a good example, being able to encourage others to imitate you, is not because your that good. Rather it is because they need the hope you have found as God works in your life and through your life.
The hope of God coming to us, in our weakest, most sinful state and changing us, I love the word for the how God takes and changes us.
Meta-schematizo
God changes our schematics, our wiring our blueprints. Last week we talked about repentance being a change of mind, this week scripture talks of God changing us at a level that is so deep and so simple. He changes us at a level that changes not just how we act, but how we think, subconsciously, consciously, how we plan and how we react.
This is what we need; we need to be that transformed, and God is working on it. That is why Paul talks of us patterning our lives, living in symmetry with him, even as he lives in symmetry with Christ Jesus. This is what happens at the cross, as we died with Christ, and as we come alive in Him.
God is the potter; we are the clay. He shapes us, transforming us from brokenness to Christlikeness, from concerned only about today, to living our life in expectation of our reunion with Him in heaven. The Holy Spirit brings about these promises in our lives, as both God’s word and sacraments reveal to us His love, His promise, His faithfulness. That is what He does when He changes our schematics, when He brings us to repentance. When He makes us role models for those who will follow us, not because of any other reason than we trust Him to keep His promises.
This is why we are here; this is why we invite people, to see God give us hope, to transform us, to make us like Jesus.
Which is why we worship and praise Him. AMEN!
We Have Hope: A sermon from a broken heart.
We Have Hope!
Jeremiah 31:15-17
† In Jesus’ Name †
In this new year, may the hope of God’s rewards for you, the rewards of being His children become more and more real, as we see the hope for our future in Christ Jesus!
You have to wonder….
One of the guys I want to meet in heaven is the guys who chose and approved the readings for the three-year church cycle, and how we choose which readings to use. I mean you look at the readings for today, they don’t seem like the kind of readings you want to start the year with, they don’t seem exactly what you might call promising!
They are the readings that call us to remember some of the youngest martyrs in the church. An event that Matthew’s gospel compared to the time the young people of Israel were led off into captivity, a fate that was the result not of their unfaithfulness, but the unfaithfulness of the generation that preceded them.
That is the weeping that Jeremiah’s passage originally referred to, yet Matthew says it is equally applicable to the time of Jesus birth. For then, the male infants and toddlers were sacrificed because of a man’s paranoia…
Again, the readings don’t seem to be the kind you want to start the year with!
Not auspicious…
Well, not at first…
The sobering reality…
The sobering reality is that babies are still killed because of the sins of the generation that would have given them birth. You look to places where children are taken from their homes and conscripted into armies. Others are simply killed because they won’t convert to another religion. Estimates online say between 10,000, and 100,000 ( http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24864587) Christian martyrs in the world last year. Worldwide the estimate is another 43 million children were killed before their birth in 2015. Even as I wrote this sermon yesterday, the amount for 2016 was already over 171,000 (http://www.worldometers.info/abortions/)
It is enough to make you weep.
This is just one form of the trauma that exists, one that makes no sense, like those observed by Jeremiah and by those who watched Herod massacre young children.
But the Law isn’t that
But it is not the acts of death that I see confronting us today. We need to find ways to help those being persecuted, and those who are told that life is disposable if it threatens our lives.
But I want to look at the Rachel’s, those of us who weep for this reason or maybe others. Some of us have hit that point, and others of us have friends who are experiencing that level of grief, that level of despair or depression. This is the law that confronts us this morning when the struggle to trust in God is too great, and we refuse to be comforted.
How do you help the person whose cry is described as, “deep anguish and bitter weeping.” How do we help the person, “refusing to be comforted.”
How do we help a person when faith doesn’t seem to be enough?
For that is the mission of the church, especially this church. Remember how we are described,
Concordia is the place where broken people find healing in Christ while helping others heal.
So how do we, as the people of God, bring healing and hope to people who have none? And how is that the gospel message for this day, and for this year?
And the gospel is this…
We do it the same Jeremiah did, and with the same message:
We spend time with them, there in the struggle. Praying for them, holding their hand, feeding them, caring for them, and sharing with them this message,
Do not weep any longer, for I will reward you,” says the LORD. “Your children will come back to you from the distant land of the enemy. 17 There is hope for your future,” says the LORD. “Your children will come again to their own land.
In the passage, God addressed the very issue that was causing the struggle, the pain over the children who were. No more. He didn’t forget them, nor the pain that the people of God knew, as the innocent suffered because of the evil of that day.
In this passage in Hebrew, five times, the phrase, “says the LORD” is used, though we see it only three times. The important thing is to realize this isn’t the title of God, the Lord Almighty, but the personal name we aren’t to use in vain, but to use in communicating to Him.
He keeps saying,
First he was the one who heard the cry of His people and recognized the depth of the pain. Even the fact that the people refused to be comforted. That is what God says…
And then He says the promise. Do not weep. There is hope for your future.
In this case, the children will come again into the land, they will return from the land of the enemy.
For the Jewish person, this is a promise of reconciliation, that God will restore not the property, but the position of being the covenant people, the people He has promised to care for, the people He loves.
That is what so many fail to see when they talk about being the chosen people. They look for the land, rather than the relationship.
But the hope, the hope which will dry up the tears is found in the relationship. The very thing that was forgotten, that was trampled upon, is restored to those it should have been passed onto.
When Matthew’s gospel quotes this passage, he recalls to people’s minds the promise. Not a promise to one mother, but to the nation of Israel – that God’s people will be God’s people. He will restore them. That He will keep His promises, including the one we don’t always see occurring, that all things work for good, for those who love God, and are called according to His purpose.
You see, we aren’t waiting for God to keep this promise somewhere in the future. The very thing that would call us “home” has occurred. We have this relationship with God; we are His people that have returned. We know that the promise is complete, even though we struggle to see its completeness…. Because we don’t see Him face to face…yet.
But we shall, and we have the promise of eternity with Him.
That is the promise, the ultimate promise, of that day when there will be no more injustice when there will be no more martyrdom or those who are sacrificed for the benefit of others.
For this is why He came….Jesus even said so, in his first recorded public sermon.
18 God’s Spirit is on me; he’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, To set the burdened and battered free, 19 to announce, “This is God’s year to act!” 20 He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the place was on him, intent. 21 Then he started in, “You’ve just heard Scripture make history. It came true just now in this place.” Luke 4:18-21 (MSG)
This is the message we have for those, who at first refuse the comfort we want to want dearly to give them. It is the message of the altar; the place were we find healing, and the peace that comes from knowing God will do what He promised.
For He always has. He always speaks to His people, bringing them comfort, and hope.
God still acts, and He will in our lives, and in the lives we bring to find His love, His mercy, and His peace.
AMEN!
Christmas Eve: Relationships: Isaiah 9
Relationships
Isaiah 9:6-7
† I.H.S. †
May you realize the long awaited promise of God’s active presence in our lives, came true for all on a night like this… as Jesus the Messiah was born.
Four Letters.
Four simple letters, written by a prophet 700 years before the event he saw. The promise of God nearly two millennia before that.
Four letters, divided into two words, that matter more than we can imagine.
“to us.”
This child that we celebrate, this man who is God whom we glorify, was born to us.
To us…..
And everything changes, as the relationship that God wants to have with us, is revealed. That which they couldn’t understand in Isaiah’s day, and couldn’t understand on the night when Mary gave birth, made clear. God came to us. To have a relationship with us, to relate to us in a number of ways Isaiah tells US.
Like Kay is my wife, the church’s office manager, the mother of my son, so too does God relate TO US in a number of incredible ways….. and as we celebrate Jesus coming to us, as we ponder what this all means, it is worth looking at who Isaiah says this Jesus, this God is saves relates… to us
Wonderful Counselor, the one who comforts and directs, who consoles and guides, whose wisdom we depend upon. This is the God, who came to us. It is the first way Isaiah tells us that He will relate… to us.
He does this because we need direction, we need comfort, we need God here, to be our shepherd. Because we too often lose our way morally, We need Him when life results in despair and mourning. So a child was born to us.
That baby, who was laid in a feeding trough, this child born of parents who would soon leave their country because of persecution and move. He is one we truly need, A God, the God, not made of wood or fashioned from stone. A God, who is mighty, and uses that might, that ability, that power, for us. For that is how He would relate to us. Not just minimally from a distance but interacting with us here.
Too often we make false gods, ones who would promise to do what we want, what we think we want. We don’t want these gods to love us; rather we only want them to give us what we think we need. This God, though, who came as a child to us…is not like that. He is a mighty God, who loves and knows what we truly need. He relates to us as the God, who is always able to be Whom we need,
The next way is is my favorite of the ways in which God relates to us humans, to his people. As our eternal dad, as the loving Father, we run to when we are hurt when we’ve broken our neighbor’s window, or their hearts when we’ve done the things that leave us needing His strong embrace.
And this Father is eternal, and he will be our Father eternally. Think about that. God just isn’t a god of this day or that, a fad. He will be your God always.
There is a lot in this idea that this child relates to us as our Father, our everlasting Father. Theologians make a big deal of it. But when you need Him, His embrace is there…for you.
The last way God relates to us, through this child given to us, is so needed today. With all of the stress, all of the fears, with all the brokenness we have to witness, such is the nature of the God who comes to us. He is the Prince of Peace!
We so often picture the serenity of the manger scene, which I am not quite sure would be that peaceful. A woman gave birth, a husband tired and weary, the shepherds, still in awe of the million angels announcing the glory of Christ being born… into that scene comes the prince of peace… and we always picture that scene as serene, peaceful, because we know His character.
The child who would be, no who is, the prince of peace….our Prince of peace.
This child in the manger calms our fears, our anxieties, our lives…our world. Because of him, we have this peace… peace beyond understanding. For that is why He came… to us.
And the prince of peace….to us is given
The prince of peace who has come… to us.
AMEN!
Christmas Eve: He Will, He Has!
For He Will: For He Has….
Matthew 1:18-25
† Jesus! Son! Savior! †
May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ reveal to you the hope of Glory, His gift to you!
What does this Mean?
As people are driving by the church this evening, as they see the cars in the parking lo now, and later, and tomorrow morning, I prayer that they ask a simple question.
Why are these cars here??
I pray that they also seek out the answer. That they would realize the reason we are here is more than just tradition, It is more than the lights and music. It is worth delaying the gifts, and the family and friends that didn’t accept our invitations to join us.
It is here in this place, Christmas takes on a real meaning.
For this night, we celebrate the greatest blessing the world has ever known. The greatest blessing that we will ever have, and nothing else is close.
We will realize this through the eyes of Joseph this evening….as we see him twice, both times somewhat unable to put his thoughts into words. Both times unable to really understand what is going on…
Anxious Joseph…
The first we see of Joseph, he is struggling, confused, hurt, broken. Feeling betrayed and overwhelmed
His fiancé tells him she is pregnant, and he knows he isn’t the father. In fact, he hasn’t been alone with her, so how could…. what is a man to think? The story Joseph was told? How could she be so malicious, to think Joseph such a fool?
Our translation tonight used the phrase, “as he considered this,” yet the word picture behind the original is one who is breathing hard, who is out of control. Hurt and broken, feeling betrayed, shocked, he is beyond words. Speechless, he struggles through the night.
Some of us know this kind of anger, this kind of stress, we’ve felt that betrayal.
Most of us have experienced this kind of stress, this anger, hurt, betrayal, and pain. Maybe like Joseph, we cannot conceive of how someone else’s actions could be anything but evil. We can’t find a way to explain the situation in any positive way.
It hurts, we can’t figure a way to get out of the relationship with more pain, yet…can we even stand the pain any longer? He had every right to demand she pay for her unfaithfulness, but the pain was so deep, he knew that wouldn’t help.
Or maybe, it wasn’t someone else who betrayed us.
We are the one who betrayed us. I betrayed myself, you betrayed you. We fell into that one sin, we gave into temptation, we chose to do something we know we would risk becoming broken. We can’t believe we did it. We can’t sleep, we are so angry with ourselves, so full of guilt and shame…..
And in either case, we need an angel, a messenger from God to come, and make everything right again.
We end up beside ourselves, or we bury the guilt and shame, or the anger and resentment deep, where it causes so many other problems when we can’t bury any more
The Second Joseph
When the angel comes to Joseph, it changes everything.
He hears the news from an angel,
“Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:20-21 (NLT)
He will save, this baby that is growing in Mary’s womb. He will save Joseph, and Mary, and his family. He will save his clan and nation and all people will have the opportunity to be saved from that life of brokenness.
This message brought the news that would repair his relationship with Mary. No longer would he think her guilty of being unfaithful. No longer would he deal with the brokenness inside him.
The message of who this baby would be changed all of that. That is what He will save means.
It gave him hope it restored what was broken.
If we are to explain why we are here, in this place, if we are to ask what this ceremony means, it is the same message. For Joseph the message was He will save His people, for us it is He has saved us from our sin.
For Christ is the greatest message from God, as God comes to us, to tell us He loves us, and because of that, we are saved by Him.
Saved from our sin, our guilt, and shame, and delivered into God’s presence, saved and healed in this life, saved to see relationships restored and healed. Including our most important relationship, our relationship with God.
God coming, and making everything right, everything righteous, as Jesus goes from a wooden manger to a wooden cross. A new life which would bring life for the rest of us.
This is why this ceremony, and the one at 1115, and the one tomorrow are worth being at, this is what these ceremonies mean….for the gift is beyond all comprehension. It is a gift of everlasting peace, and joy, and the glory of God. It is knowing where we belong, and who we are, and freedom from all that is not good and holy.
Let us worship and praise Him with angels and archangels, shepherds and even wise men. AMEN!
3rd Week of Advent: He Gathers Us!
He Will Do All the Good Things He has promised!
He will gather (JOY)
Zephaniah 3:14–20
† I.H.S. †
I pray that the mercy of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ so overwhelm you, that all you can do is rejoice as you think of His coming…even as God does!
How Can I….Know this Joy
A pastor once wrote,
Day by day we encounter the world of visible things. It assaults us through billboards, broadcasts, traffic, and all the activities of daily life, to such an enormous extent that we are tempted to assume there is nothing else but this[i]
Sometimes I feel like that, like all of world that I encounter wants to assault me, attack me, trample all over me.
I so understand those words, that we assume there is nothing else but this….
struggle.
And this week, when the darkness of the dark “blue” weeks of Advent are interrupted, as if a hint of a new day were peaking through, even as the darkness still threatens, we are encouraged to rejoice. Not just look forward to the day of rejoicing… but to rejoice.
Now, today, even as we struggle with world events, with national and local problems; as we struggle with our finances, or families or maybe it is just our personal struggles, we are urged to sing and shout praises, to be glad and rejoice with everything in our hearts and minds and souls. We are called to cheer up, and not be afraid.
Thank God that He gives us a reason too…
Are We?
The people that rejoice in the presence of God are described in the following ways,
Those who need to be calmed, for they are afraid and anxious,
Those who mourn as they consider the state of appointed festivals like Christmas, and how they have become less about God and His people.
The people who will rejoice are those who are oppressed, to those who are weak and helpless.
Those who were chased away, or exiled.
This is referring to those who were run out of the camp in the days of the Exodus, who were cut off from the people of God because of their sin, yet will be welcomed back and restored.
Those who were exiled because of their sin and shame, for they too will be drawn back by God and restored.
Yeah, those who will rejoice in Jesus’s coming will include those who are burdened by shame and guilt, but who will be called by a new name, who will be given a new name, whose life will be restored. The prodigals who return, those crushed by their sin. For that is what Jesus does, as He was lifted up on the cross.
Lifted there because Jesus wasn’t just called a friend to tax collectors and sinners, He is a friend to them. And lifted up on the cross, the very image of God’s mercy and grace, He draws people to Him, as He desires.
Gather, for the Lord Will Live Among US
The pastor quoted earlier, who talked about the world assaulting us, following those words with these,
One single soul, in Pascal’s beautiful words, (your soul) is worth more (to God) than the entire visible universe. But in order to have a living awareness of this, we need conversion, we need to turn around inside, as it were, to overcome the illusion of what is visible, and to develop the feeling, the ears and the eyes, for what is invisible. This has to be more important than anything that bombards us day after day with such exaggerated urgency. Metanoeite: change your attitude, so that you may see God’s presence in the world—change your attitude, so that God may dwell in you and, through you, in the world.
There is the key to seeing where our joy comes from, in the midst of a world that will try to make life a living hell.
Realizing the worth of a single soul, your soul, to God.
And that is why we are gathered by God together. For in this Old Testament prophecy, over and over it mentions this promise – six times! – the fact that God will gather His people together, that He will make things right, and twice more just so we understand, he explains that happens as God lives in the midst of His people.
God living among His people
God gathering His people together
God living among His people
23 “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’” Matthew 1:23 (NLT)
The apostle John said it this way,
14 The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us. We saw his glory, the glory which he received as the Father’s only Son. John 1:14 (TEV)
and
The hardest thing to get theologically is a concept known as “now, and not yet.”
Jesus has been lifted up, He has drawn us into Himself in His death, and in our baptism, bringing us into life everlasting. We celebrate now the feast that is the first taste of the feast to come. We can live free of the guilt and shame, free of what separated us from God.
We don’t see it yet, but we get glimpses of it. As we gather, and as we do, our hearts should cry out His praises, for He is our Savior. And I want you to hear one more “now and not yet
For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”
Know this, like the prodigal’s father, our Father rejoices as we are gathered into His presence… that is His love and mercy… AMEN!
[i] Ratzinger, J. (1992). Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. (M. F. McCarthy & L. Krauth, Trans., I. Grassl, Ed.) (p. 391). San Francisco: Ignatius Press.
He Will Refine Us! An Advent Sermon
This sermon can be heard at https://youtu.be/Jmc2Pt_Be0M
He Will Do All the Good Things He Promised!
He Will Refine!
Malachi 3:1-7b
† I.H.S †
May the blessing of God’s grace, the mercy, love and peace you should know, become more and more real as we expect the glory of His coming!
How Can we return if we’ve never left?
In less than a month, many people will make resolutions. My gym will probably go from the four that were there yesterday morning to fifty or so. Diet companies will push their solutions to our weight problems, people will join 12 step programs, and perhaps a few more people will try church.
I was thinking about that, what if resolutions came out of our evaluation of our lives during advent. For that is one of the purposes, you know, to take a inventory of our lives, of our behaviors, thoughts and deeds of the last year.
How many times did we trust in our man-made gods rather than Jesus?
How many times did we let our covetous, our jealousy, greed and desire cause us to damage relationships with those we are called to love?
How many times were we unfaithful in our thoughts or words, or in those thoughts and words damage each other, or killing others reputation by talking about them behind their back?
Could we blindly say what the people in Malachi’s day said?
“How can we return to God, if we have never gone away from Him?”
Do we deny that we need God working in our lives, not just working to bless, but working to heal, to cleanse, to refine us into the image of His Son, prior to Jesus return?
If we say we are not sinners we are liars we confessed early. Do we mean it?
Or do we think everything is good and holy in our lives?
Do we tolerate injustice, do we practice it?
The prophet Malachi gives a few examples of things people do, while claiming they are God’s people,
5 “At that time I will put you on trial. I am eager to witness against all sorcerers and adulterers and liars. I will speak against those who cheat employees of their wages, who oppress widows and orphans, or who deprive the foreigners living among you of justice, for these people do not fear me,”
Do we do any of these things? Very few of us may admit to doing sorcery, but what about the other things on the list? Are we only counting actions? What about words or even our thoughts?
John the Baptist talked of this same attitude, when he called out the crowds for there sin,
Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones.
It doesn’t matter what we claim, whether we think we are God’s people because we are American, or because we vote the right way, or even because we go to church and have the right name on the church, and can say the right things when asked what we believe about the Trinity, or Communion, or how the end times will come to occur.
You see, everyone sins, that is a simple fact. The excuse given by the people of Malachi about not wandering off from God is either done in ignorance, or in denial.
Either way, if we say we haven’t sinned, the is nothing we should expect from God, nothing to give us hope. No wonder Malachi says,
The messenger of the covenant, (talking of the Messiah) whom you look for so eagerly, is surely coming,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 2 “But who will be able to endure it when he comes? Who will be able to stand and face him when he appears?
But if we do confess, if we do acknowledge our sin, there is hope, for we can expect that which God promises.
Our hope… His patience and promise!
Remember our theme, from last week,
14 “The day will come, says the Lord, when I will do for Israel and Judah all the good things I have promised them.
Hear again from this week,
“I am the Lord, and I do not change. That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed. 7 Ever since the days of your ancestors, you have scorned my decrees and failed to obey them. Now return to me, and I will return to you,”
God could, and some say He should destroy evil Especially this week, as our thoughts and prayers have surrounded people, friends and friends of friends, who have been effected by evil. Who have had to deal with grief in ways we say no one should. Not that any grievous situation is one we welcome.
But God is patient, Peter’s epistle tells us so that none perish, but that all come to the transformation that we call repentance.
For repentance is not just feeling sorry, or confessing the sins, it is a change, of heart, of mind.
A change that is the greatest part of the promise,
The promise today – refining!
For he will be like a blazing fire that refines metal, or like a strong soap that bleaches clothes. 3 He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away the dross. He will purify the Levites, refining them like gold and silver, so that they may once again offer acceptable sacrifices to the Lord.
God will purify us, God will make us holy, God will transform us into the image of Christ. He will burn away that dross, and make us so clean that we can offer acceptable sacrifices to God. This idea of God refining us isn’t a simple one second change, but means He has to apply the heat in such a way that what is normal to us, is burnt away, purified away. Scrubbed us like in the old days, as lye soap was applied to clothes, and then they were scrubbed against a washboard.
That is how sin comes to the surface, like dirt, like impurities in metal.
It is what happens to us, what God has promised. Not just to punish us, but purify us. It is what He does to establish a holy and perfect relationship with us. To rid us of the things which stop us from returning to Him, the sin, the desire for that which is not good and right, the resentment which stops us from knowing His peace. Paul says he nails that sin to the cross, and it cannot be resurrected. It is dead. That is why we celebrate this refining, this necessary work of God in our lives.
He rids us of everything that would stop us from expecting good from God. Everything that would stop us from knowing He has come to us. Saved us to Himself, Set us apart to Himself.
Everything that would rob from us, the peace which passes all understanding, and guards our hearts and minds as we dwell in and with Jesus. AMEN!
The First Sunday in Advent: He Will Do What is Promised
This sermon can be heard at https://youtu.be/8DWDeB6_GYY
He Will Do What is Promised (Faith)
Jeremiah 33:14-16
† Jesus, Son, Savior †
May the grace of God, that incredible mercy, and peace that resides in you because of the Holy Spirit, sustain you until His imminent return!
The Time Is Close
You wondered with every passing car, whether the guests arrived. A car door closed and you rushed to the door, disappointed that it was the neighbor’s guests that arrived.
Perhaps you were even jealous.
You had worked so hard, to make your house a welcoming place, a place where everyone felt at home. Where people were able to set aside life, and enjoy each other. It is one thing for sure, to have a clean, beautifully decorated home, with great comfort food.
It takes a bit more preparation for the façade to be matched by a sense of peace, and the blessing of being a place where everyone knows they are loved. That is God’s desire for heaven as well, and He will make it happen!
That is the preparation of Advent, the adventure that we travel until we find ourselves at home with God.
Our Advent journey is preparation for His coming, preparing for our being drawn into His presence.
For it takes a bit of work to understand that He’s waited expectantly for the day of Christ’s second coming, that He is awaiting us, His family to come home!
The Wearied Wait..
I want to go back for a moment, to that time when you are glancing out the window. When you are expecting your company, friends or family you dearly love, who you have missed,
It is in that last hour, before their arrival, time seems to slow down. That every noise, whether it be a car door, a phone ringing causes your level of anticipation to race. You wonder if the food will be enough, or be good enough. You wonder if they will be comfortable as you rearrange the pillows on the couch for the thirtieth time.
That last hour seems to take a week.
Have you ever thought about God waiting for the fulfillment of time in that manner?
He knows the timing, so He doesn’t worry like we do, but can you see Him waiting expectantly for your arrival?
You need to be able to, for we aren’t the only ones who plan for the future and then wait with expectation.
Think about it, Jesus is described as the Bridegroom, the Father as the one who throws the wedding feast for His Son.
The Father, who awaits his prodigal son, the one finding the coin or the lost sheep throw feast when they find that which was lost.
Hear Jeremiah’s words again,
14 “The day will come, says the Lord, when I will do for Israel and Judah all the good things I have promised them.
It is one of our challenges that we struggle to see God’s anticipation, a challenge caused by the guilt and shame we struggle with daily.
It is why we are uncomfortable with the silence during confession and absolution if it goes more than 15 seconds…. Yet how many of us need to take more than that time, to realize how much God frees us from?
The expectation of God blessing us in the way He promises is the nature of our Advent journey. Looking forward to His completing that which He all the good He has promised us, His refining us, gathering us, leading us home.
Back to the first promise, the one that when it came true at the cross, made the rest possible.
The Promises Coming True
Hear Jeremiah’s words once again,
I will do for Israel and Judah all the good things I have promised them.
15 “In those days and at that time I will raise up a righteous descendant from King David’s line. He will do what is just and right throughout the land. 16 In that day Judah will be saved,
Judah and Israel, the divided kingdom of God’s people, back together. Those who stayed dedicated to God and the prodigal brothers who have finally come back home.
It represents the people of God, in its entirety, those who have known God all their lives, and those who come back at the end of time.
In that day, because of One who was completely righteous, completely without sin, and His sense of what it just and good, and to use the old word from the liturgy, salutary, because of the Righteous one’s benevolent love, because of the sinless One’s actions done in love, the people of God will be saved.
Have been saved.
Are saved.
For the last sentence of Jeremiah’s promise, of this prophecy says it all.
The Lord is our Righteousness.
He became everything we would need, that we would be able to come home to God. On the cross, He took care of every sin, and then in the resurrection, He brought us back to life.
He became our Righteousness. He recreated us, made us His own people.
Why the promise?
One last thought….
Look at the passage again, Look for the phrase that keeps occurring.
The day will come…
In those days…
In that day…..
That day has come, you have been saved… and are on the way home, sure to get there, because we will be refined, gathered, and led there, for we live in Christ Jesus.
Home to a feast beyond imagination.
Not because of the cleanliness of heaven.
Not because of the magnitude of the feast.
But because of the love, that which God promised us.
Until that day, the same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead, which is at work in you, that same power will keep you in the peace of God our Father. AMEN!.
The Final Lesson: We are priestly companions of Jesus the King!
Companions of the Cross
The Final Lesson:
Priestly Companions of the King
† IHS †
May you know the grace and peace that is yours, the gift of the One who is, Who always was, and who is still to come!
The Vision/the Mission
While both the Old Testament and Epistle reading today are about the end of time, about looking toward the end of time, the gospel takes us back to thirty weeks ago, to the remembrance of what happens the morning of Jesus’ crucifixion, It covers one of the events we remember during Holy Week.
The gospel covers the trial of Jesus, the moments before he is sentenced by mankind to die. The moment that God our Father planned for, that Jesus was committed to before the foundations of the world were laid.
The trial, the cross, the critical moment in all of time, as eternity hung in the balance.
Your eternity, my eternity.
We need to look back, in order to see why Daniel and the Revelation of John can talk so positively of the of the end. Hearing that Christ has been the King, even at the cross, we understand our future, and can walk confidently in the present.
For we walk with a king, and we are His companions. The very King of King and Lord of Lords who makes us a Kingdom of priests, ready to serve God our Father. Ready to serve alongside Jesus.
Let me rephrase that, He makes us into the priests of His Kingdom.
That was His vision, His mission, and it is what He has accomplished on the cross, even as Pilate was condemning Jesus, enabling Him to shed His blood for us.
The Ordeal of Hope
When we are involved in planning something, there is a hope that everything will work out well. It doesn’t matter if the planning and preparation are for a game, or for an event like the women’s advent tea.
Hope can sometimes be an ordeal as our minds consider all the things that could destroy our hope. For instance, for a football team, we could focus on a critical injury or just an accumulation of them. For an event like the Advent Tea, it could be that the speaker cancels out at the last moment. It could even be the week between finishing a course, and getting the grades! Our minds can spin wildly out of control, conceiving of all the things that could go wrong. It is no different for our lives, and for our eternity. When we think of hope, it can be an ordeal as we wonder what will happen to mess up that which we hoped for so eagerly.
Which is why I think the readings work together so well today. They lay out a pattern that assures us that our hope is not in vain, that there is nothing that can change what we hope for, what our trust in God leads us to expect. If we didn’t have that assurance, the first verses in Daniel would be terrifying; hear them again.
I watched as thrones were put in place and the Ancient One sat down to judge.His clothing was as white as snow, his hair like purest wool. He sat on a fiery throne with wheels of blazing fire, 10 and a river of fire was pouring out, flowing from his presence. Millions of angels ministered to him; many millions stood to attend him. Then the court began its session, and the books were opened.
If we feel anxiety watching a football game, or waiting for the guests to arrive, of the report card to show, what kind of anxiety would we experience, knowing we had to stand before all of the missions of angels, and all of humanity, as God opened the story of our life and began to look at the details, examining our actions, our thoughts, our words?
We could try to dismiss the guilt and shame, but it still would haunt us. We could try to rationalize it, we could argue that it isn’t fair for God to give us desires that cannot be eased without sin.
Before the throne, before a God that not only knows our thoughts but the hearts where those thoughts originate, such attempts at self-preservation do not matter. If we are to have hope that Jesus is our salvation, that we will live in His Kingdom that has no end, we have to be serious about the fact we needed to be saved.
We sin. Thoughts, words, deeds.
As we will say in Advent, it is our fault, we need to grieve over that fault, we need to seriously grieve over that sin.
If we are to know the grace and peace of God, we have to realize how radically different it is to know God’s grace and peace, compared to the brokeness of our lives.
Realizing the love of God
For then, understanding the depth of our despair, we find ourselves blown away by this word grace, by the peace that is ours when we should be weighed down by guilt and despair. We begin to understand how incredible these words written by the Apostle John are,
All glory to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us. 6 He has made us a Kingdom of priests for God his Father. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.
It’s not just that Jesus has freed us from sin, and Satan, that He’s robbed death of the anxiety it can cause, that guilt and shame are wiped away. It is that He’s made us like Him, He’s made us priests who serve the Father, He’s made us holy enough to be the very attendants of God the Father.
All of us, from the smallest to the largest, youngest to the oldest, we have been made companions of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
No wonder all of creation will bow before Him! No wonder we will shout about the glory of God He has revealed to us.
He loves us!
He freed us from our sin, by shedding HIS BLOOD for us.
He has made us priest, …..
ALL GLORY TO HIM FOREVER AND EVER! AMEN!!!
Sermon on Daniel 12:1-3 Companions in Glory!
note – the audio with slides is at the bottom of the manuscript
Companions of the Cross: Companions of Glory
Daniel 12:1-3
† IHS †
May you know and depend upon the grace, the incredible loving-kindness, and peace that is yours because the God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ did what it took to make it yours!
Times of Anguish
Even though Micha-el stands guard?
If one wasn’t knowledgeable about scripture, one might wonder if these are the days in which the prophet Daniel spoke of when there will be a time of anguish greater than any time since nations first came into being.
The numbers climb, as people in Lebanon, the Sudan, and as we have heard all over the news, France, have been killed this week. The numbers climb as well, as lives are taken here in the US, as violence sweeps over our cities. And less we forget, our state has now mandated that centers that hope to give women an option to abortion now have to advertise those places that will provide them, without offering any option. That was driven home to me this week, as I talked to a Crisis Pregnancy Center director, whose office is surround by 9 of the largest abortion clinics in California.
There are days which are scary, and it was brought home Friday evening as a bomb was found in an Anaheim hardware store.
Certainly these are days of anguish, throughout the world.
Yet the prophets words talk of a messenger, actually “the messenger” standing guard over the people of God.
Where is He? Where is this messenger who is supposed to be standing guard over us?
And what is to come next?
Like the Book of the Revelation, should Daniel’s words today bring us anxiety and fear, or comfort and peace?
I suppose that is determined by the judgment, and what we face for our eternity.
Everlasting Life or Everlasting Disgrace?
But which do we deserve?
There are two options that Daniel tells us,
The first is the for those who will rise up, and enjoy everlasting life because their name is written in the book of life, and they will have been rescued, delivered, and saved. The word for life is incredible, it is not only life but everlasting nourishment, everlasting abundance,
The second is those who will have to experience shame and everlasting disgrace, a word that is far stronger, everlasting abhorrence and scorn. It is reminiscent of the anguish described in the gospels, as Jesus talks of Gahanna, of hades, of the destination prepared for Satan and that which is demonic, which wasn’t intended for mankind, yet in stubbornness and rebellion and self-centeredness is their choice.
It is the place we all deserve, yet in because God loves some are rescued and delivered from that path, that destination.
For that is what the one called Michael does, as this prime messenger comes from God.
So who is this Michael, who is this who stands guard over the nation.
Michael – One Who is Like God.
Well, one of the challenges is whether in Hebrew “michael” is a name or a title. What Michael means in Hebrew is “One who is like God”, or “One who is as God.”
Consider these words from Colossians,
15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, Colossians 1:15 (NLT)
Add to that the term archangel simply means, “the first of all messengers.” In this case, the primary messenger; the primary message of God.
Who then cares for, and guards the people of God, who is the prime messenger of God, who is like God in every way?
If it is, then consider this, the anguish that is greater than any since before the beginning of the nations was His, and He embraced the entire wrath of God to provide and guard our hearts and minds.
It is this anguish that provides our rescue, our deliverance from the power of sin, Satan and death into the presence of God our Father.
It is He whose death and resurrection, as the wrath of God for all of our sins is poured out on Him, that is the cause of our rescue, our deliverance.
And finally, it is united to Him that we see the promise of Daniel fulfilled. The promise that those who are wise and depend on God’s providing Christ for us shine as bright as the sky.
Here the apostle Paul again
27 For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you the assurance of sharing his glory. Colossians 1:27 (NLT)
and again
Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. 3 For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory. Colossians 3:1-4 (NLT)
This is too good not to share!
This is so incredible, this Lord, who is the image of God the Father, As we approach the end of the year, the readings all focus on the end the ages and the incredible blessing that is knowing Jesus.
It is so good, how can we not share this hope with all who need to know it!
That is why the Holy Spirit inspires Daniel not just to tell us we will share with the Christ’s glory, but repeats the promise with a slight modification.
and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever.
For it is natural, as we learn the depth of God’s love, to pour out our praises, praising God with all we are, praising Him to those around us, desiring that they would come to know the love that resonates throughout our lives.
hear it again.
Jesus, the one who is like God, stands guard over us, taking all the wrath we deserve; He has rescued us, and we will rise to everlasting life, shining as bright as the sky, and as we lead people to Him, we will shine like the stars…forever.
For until that day, Jesus stands guard over us, His companions, protecting our hearts and minds as we dwell in God’s peace until we are revealed fully in His glory! AMEN!
Pentecost 25 companions of the cross, companions of glory w audio
A Deacon-Candidate’s First Sermon: “What I need You to hear…”
What I Need You To Hear…
A sermon based on Phil. 2:1-10
By Chuck Zetzman
Dear Friends in Christ, the Lord is with You!
I am making a step of faith to speak of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to tell you of the love I have found in believing and trusting in Jesus Christ.
While I have a great desire to do this, the process of writing a sermon isn’t easy or natural for me. Matter of fact, some people wondered if I could do it.
But I so long for you to know the God who loves us all, I have struggled through it, I learned a lot, and I so want to share it with you.
Law –
I have a new heart of compassion and trust in Jesus Christ for His help and forgiveness and mercy. New because it wasn’t always that way.
It is like when I taught softball, sometimes you have to unlearn things you are doing wrong, in order to do things “naturally” And God had to teach me, like he teaches you, what not to do.
That’s why Paul wrote
Philippians 2:1-6 NLT
Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? 2 Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.
3 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
But the problem is, we didn’t, and we don’t always share God’s comfort with each other, we don’t always agree with each other, we don’t always work together well, and we are often more interested in what benefits us, than what benefits each other.
Even when we know it is wrong.
We have to break those bad behaviors, just like a pitcher has to break their bad behaviors.
The problem is, we can’t.
We need someone to coach us, to call us on our self-centeredness. We call that it, in the church, calling someone to repent.
it’s not easy, but it is necessary.
We have to be called to repentance, if we are going to get life right.
Which means we have to realize we sin. You sin, I sin, Pastor Parker sins, my fellow deacons sin. We all sin.
But God, can fix it, and He really wants to.
Gospel
That is why He came, as the Apostle Paul tells us,
5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. 6 Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. 7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, 8 he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Philippians 2:5-8 (NLT)
This attitude we are supposed to have, Jesus came to help us have.
We must remember Christ took on the position of a slave for us and gave us His divine privileges. He humbled himself in obedience to God and died on the cross for us.
That does two things…
One it takes care of the bad habits, as He died to pay for those sins. He removes them Himself, as we are made one with Him in baptism. It isn’t always easy, but it always good.
The other thing He does, is show us how to do it right, and He gives us the Holy Spirit to do it right.
I’ve seen it happen, and I remember it, so I know you all can!
It may be the only the thing I can remember, but remember it I do.
God loves us,
He sent Christ to save us
He doesn’t leave us alone, but walks with us, coaching us, loving us, forgiving us when we need it. And inspiring us to love others, sometimes in ways others think are crazy… or silly.
But those crazy things, those silly things, are what matters, as God loves us through others, as He gives us the mind of Jesus, and encourages us to live for others.
Again, I’ve seen it.
I have found love and compassion and help at Concordia from all of you here. You will find love and encouragement by belonging to Christ, by being part of His family, for they will love and encourage you as well!
And then you will know a peace you cannot find anywhere else… the peace of God, which we can’t understand, but we can find rest and hope in, a peace that Jesus keeps us in, our hearts and our minds safe… in Him.
AMEN.
