Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

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Not to put too fine a point on things, but the job of the pastor is essentially this, he is 'to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.' We pastors need to be reminded of that from time to time because we are prone to lose sight of what we're supposed to be doing. It's much more snazzy and rewarding to be 'Motivator in chief,' 'program coordinator,' 'business manager,' and 'visionary leader' than preacher of law and gospel.

Of the two essential tasks of the pastoral office, I prefer "comforting the afflicted." I like to preach sermons that are predominately gospel, if not entirely. It makes people feel good about themselves. Whenever anyone asks if they may meet to talk about a problem afflicting them, I'm always ready to be of service. Granted, sometimes the comfort that I have to offer isn't the kind of comfort someone is looking for. But usually, folks know what to expect from a pastor, unless of course the pastor is confused about what it means to be a pastor and thinks he's a psychiatrist or social worker or fix-it man. (more…)

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I. Scene 2: Onboard the ship. – vss. 4-5b

A. "But…"

1. The curtain opened on this incredible story of God and His prophet last Wednesday. Scene 1 was entitled: "God Calls Jonah," and it read as follows: Read 1:1-3.

2. God called His prophet to go to Nineveh which was to the north and east. Jonah headed for Tarshish which was to the south and west.

3. Jonah's purpose was to flee from the presence of the Lord – 2x.

4. Scene 2 takes place onboard the ship that Jonah chartered to take him as far from the presence of the Lord as possible. We're not told how far the ship sails westward across the Mediterranean Sea. All we're told is that the voyage is suddenly interrupted with a big, loud "But…"

5. That's the sound of God saying, 'My thoughts are not your thoughts and my ways are not your ways.' And 'My will be done,' even if it is contrary to your will. (more…)

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The most important thing to understand about the temptation of Jesus is contained in just five little words that we tend to skip right over without even hearing them. "Jesus returned from the Jordan." It's even easier to miss this if you read from Matthew and Mark's account of the temptation. They just say, "then."

It's what happened at the Jordan that's makes what happened in the wilderness so significant. Jesus was baptized by John at the Jordan River. Three things happened at the baptism of Jesus at the Jordan that we need to understand if we're going to understand the significance of what takes place in the wilderness. And all three are very closely connected to each other. (more…)

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On three, separate occasions, the Pharisees, Scribes and the crowds asked Jesus to give them a sign to convince them of who He is and what He's up to. On all three occasions, Jesus answers the same way. "No sign will be given to you except the sign of Jonah." In other words, knowing the story of Jonah is important to knowing the story of Jesus Christ. So our mission this Lenten season is to get to know the story of Jonah. The story unfolds in six different scenes and we're going to look at each scene in succession over the six Wednesdays and Thursdays during Lent.

Tonight, the curtain opens with scene 1, recorded in chapter 1, verses 1-3. "God calls Jonah." It reads as follows, "Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 'Arise and go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.' But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord." (more…)

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How many of you have ever attended one of your high school class reunions of 20 years or more? Was it hard to recognize your old classmates? I've never attended one of my high school reunions, but I can imagine that it might be hard to recognize the old gang just because they've probably changed quite a bit.

One of you drew my attention to an old photo album of members of the congregation the other day and as I looked through it, I was struck by how much some of us have changed over the years. (Not me of course.)

Life happens. And life has its effect on our body. We may do our best to slow the process with makeup and some skin tucks here and there, but you can only do so much. Sooner of later, we start to show our age. If life has been hard and stress runs high, then the lines really start to show up and run deep. Take the face of an American President for example. In just four or eight years all of them look like they've aged 20 or 30 years. (more…)

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We get a sense of the kind of attention that Jesus was getting, from St. Luke's report of "one occasion" when He was standing by the "lake of Gennesaret." Luke reports, the "crowds were pressing in upon Him to hear the Word of God."

They had it right. If you want to hear the Word of God, you've got to get close to Jesus. Not the stars or the psychics or the god of your choice. You hear the Word of God from Jesus. He is, after all, "the Word of God made flesh." (John 1:1). "This is my Son, My chosen One. Listen to Him!" (Luke 9:36). The writer to the Hebrews puts it like this, "In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and various ways. But now in these last days, God has spoken to us by His Son…" (Hebrews 1:1).

So, "the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God." That's a pretty good picture of the Church right there.

It would have been nice to hear the sermon he preached on this "one occasion" but Luke doesn't tell us. If what follows however is connected at all to what He had just said, then maybe He had spoken to the crowd about the way God rules over His creation, from all the birds in the air to all the fish in the sea. In the beginning, God gave Adam 'dominion' over the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. But after he sinned, Adam had a hard time convincing the fish to swim into the net. But now, Jesus is about to present the 2nd Adam, Himself, who has dominion over creation, even the fish in the sea. God is making everything right again through Jesus Christ. (more…)

The children have given us a marvelous lesson within a lesson this morning by presenting the Christmas story during the season of Epiphany.

The season of Christmas tells us that Jesus Christ is fully man, like us in every way, flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones, born of a woman. And He is dwelling among us.

The season of Epiphany tells us that Jesus Christ is fully divine, unlike us in every way, omniscient, omnipresent, eternal, unchangeable, almighty, just, good, merciful, gracious. He is God and God is love. And He is dwelling among us men and women.

The seasons of Christmas and Epiphany come as a package deal. One without the one the other will do you no good. We've got to have both to get the complete picture of Jesus. And only then are you ready to enter the season of Lent, which tells us that the fully human, fully divine God / Man, is crucified on the cross. You see, without Christmas or without Epiphany, His death on the cross is either not "for us men" or not "for our salvation." (more…)