Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

sermon-11-5-17

On this Sunday every year, we read the names of all those who were members of this congregation when they died. Some we never knew. Some we knew quite well. Some were fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, sons and friends. All of them, our brothers and sisters in Christ. Time has passed and the anguish of the grave has faded. Death has lost the terrible sting that it once had. And we give thanks to God for that.

But the question is, why do we do this? Why do we name our dead before the Lord? Why do we place flowers at the foot of altar with the names of our loved ones on our lips and in our hearts?

We name our LIVING before the Lord in our prayers asking for the Lord’s care for them. But we certainly don’t need to do that for the dead. We do not pray FOR THE DEAD as some do, because simply put, they don’t need our prayers. Their bodies are in the grave awaiting the resurrection of all flesh. And their souls are in heaven and they are ‘with the Lord.’ THE DEAD DO NOT NEED OUR PRAYERS.

So why do we do this? What are we doing when we call out the names of those who have died in the faith and speak their names in our hearts as we do on this day?

The answer is, we are counting the spoils of our Lord’s victory over death and the devil. For Christ our Lord has gone to war with devil to set the captives free. And has won the victory – and the spoils of His victory are those whom we have named.

They were captives to the devil and prisoners of their own sin just as much as we are right now. It was the same daily battle between the good that they willed to do but didn’t and the evil that they hated but did for them as it is for us.

But now they’re FREE. Not because they managed to escape. But because Jesus Christ has set them free and brought them into His Father’s House “to live with Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true.” (Small Catechism – 2nd Article)

So we name our dead to mock the devil and to praise our mighty Lord, the ‘warrior Lord,’ the Lord, God of Sabbaoth. These whom we have named are the holy plunder of God. And this is the feast of victory for our God. Alleluia.

Jesus put it like this. “When a strong man fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils.” (Luke 11:21-22).

The devil is a strong man. As we sung last Sunday, “No strength of ours can match his might. We would be lost, rejected.” The devil held every man and woman and child captive to sin, death and his dark power over them.

“But now a champion comes to fight, whom God himself elected. You ask who this may be. The Lord of Hosts is He – Christ Jesus, mighty Lord, God’s only Son adored. He holds the field victorious.” The strong man has been overpowered by the stronger man – the God/Man – Jesus Christ. “Christ is risen!” “He is risen indeed – Alleluia.”

The Multitude
In his Revelation, St. John sees the holy plunder that Christ has taken from the devil and describes it like this, “Behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages…”

Even though this GREAT MULTITUDE of captives set free cannot be numbered, still we can single out a few who we know by name. *There is George and Jim, Brendan and Franklin, Elizabeth and Cordula, and Tom and Betty and Eva and Frank and there is Bonnie, still just getting settled into her eternal life.

*[There is Walter and Harry. And there is Carlotta, still just getting settled into her eternal life with God.]

They’re standing shoulder to shoulder with the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, praising the Lamb of God who brought them out of this ‘great tribulation’ and into that “marvelous light.”

White Robes
They are “standing before the throne and before the Lamb clothed in white robes.”

This is much more than just a ‘fashion statement.’ In the beginning, the man and the woman stood naked before God and felt no shame. Where there is no sin there is no shame, and we see God “as He is,” and He sees me ‘just as I am’. And it’s all “very good.”

But then we sinned. O how could we have sinned against our loving Creator who made us with His own hands and gave us His own breath and put us in PARADISE and said – “welcome home.”

But we did, we ALL did. And we feel so guilty and so ashamed of ourselves. “Look what He did for us and all that He gave us. How could we?” And in our guilt and shame we couldn’t bear to let Him see us bare. AND HE COULDN’T STAND THE SIGHT OF US EITHER. But neither was He content to just let bygones be bygones.

“So the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” (Genesis 3:22). Have you ever noticed that NO SOONER DOES MAN SIN THAN BLOOD IS SHED. But it’s not THE SINNER who bleeds – it’s an innocent animal.

I know that the ‘official record’ doesn’t say what kind of animal it was that God killed to make those “garments of skins” to clothe those guilty sinners, but I’m going to take a wild guess and say that it was a lamb.

Jesus Christ, is the INNOCENT Lamb of God, who took on human skin,
• so that He might be slaughtered and cloth guilty men and women with HIS SKIN,
• so we might not hide from God like Adam tried to do,
• so He might present His holy bride “to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” (Eph.5:27)

So we are not honoring these men and women whom we have named because they were perfect or good or even nice. This is no place for funeral parlor talk. “He was always such a good man.” “She was the perfect wife.” “He never did anything wrong.”

We can be honest. They were sinners just like we are. But in their baptism, God the Father ROBED them in God the Son. And God the Holy Spirit kept them ROBED in Christ until He called them into His heaven where the baptismal ROBES that could only ever be seen by faith, are now seen by John.

They are “standing before the throne and before the Lamb clothed in white robes.”

Palm Branches
“And with palm branches in their hands, they were crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!’”

In his Gospel, St. John catches the little details that the other gospels miss. The Palm Sunday account is recorded in all four gospels, but its only John who reports that as Jesus entered into Jerusalem on a donkey, the crowds “took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord…” (John 12:13).

They are welcoming Jesus as they would welcome a savior king, whom they hope has come TO DEFEND AND PROTECT THEM AND DELIVER THEM FROM THEIR ENEMY.

Now, in his revelation, the same John sees the crowds in heaven, still holding onto those palm branches. But now, praising the one who CAME IN THE NAME OF THE LORD, and who, by His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead, HAS conquered their great enemy and set them free.

All the Company of Heaven
“And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God.”

The prophet Isaiah once found himself before the throne of God and he couldn’t bear it. “Woe is me! For I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” (Is.6:4-5)

But now, John sees the angels, the elders and the four living creatures which stand for men and women from all four corners of the world, standing before the King, the Lord of hosts, singing His praise, every lip sterilized by that which comes from the altar – hot coals for Isaiah lips – bread and wine for yours.

And what wonderful speech comes from those sanctified lips. ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

In just a few moments, we will take our place in that multitude – or they will take a place with us – I’m never quite sure if we ascend to heaven or if heaven descends to us in the Sacrament of the Altar.

Whichever it is, we will join our sanctified lips with the ‘angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, to laud and magnify’ the glorious name of this God around whose throne we gather.

This is the celebration of ALL SAINTS. “ALL” means ‘all’ – the saints in heaven and the saints on earth – ALL one, holy Christian and Apostolic Church – the living and the dead separated only by the silky thin veil of time and space.

“O blest communion, fellowship divine! We feebly struggle, they in glory shine; yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine. Alleluia! Alleluia!”

And so we name those who died in this one, true faith, before the Lord, not because we believe that they were so good that they were worthy of such honor. But because this is what God has promised to all the faithful in Christ in His Word, and we believe that the Word of God is most certainly true.
Listen to the Word of God through the apostle Paul to the saints in Colossae:
“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Col. 1:13-14.)

“And you, who were dead in your trespasses… God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in [Jesus]. (Col. 2:13-15)

As we name our dead before the Lord today, we should also be reminded that this is our destiny too. We will all one day die. And if, by God’s grace, we persevere in this ‘one, true faith,’ our name will one day appear on this list.

We too will be called out of this great tribulation and into His marvelous light. We will come before the Lamb on His throne, clothed in the white robes we received in our baptism, one of that great multitude praising the Name that is above every name.

“They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them by day nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Alleluia!

sermon-10-29-17

“No more climbing ladders.” That’s been the ‘Hymn of the Day’ at my house for the past two weeks now. It gets sung to a number of tunes, all of them could easily handle trumpet and trombone parts.

The patriarch Jacob saw a ladder with its feet firmly planted on the earth and the top propped against the edge of heaven itself, and the angels of God effortlessly ascending and descending on it. But angels lack the flesh and bones as you see that I have, which significantly reduces the risks involved.

I’ve had about all the attention I want for my ladder failure and I’m more than ready to redirect the attention to someone else – take for example, the rich, young man who came to Jesus with his question, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Here’s a ‘ladder climber’ if there ever was one. He’d been climbing this ladder all his life trying to get to heaven, and yet he knew he had not climbed high enough.

Jesus patiently tells this man what he needed to do to climb higher – the end that he might once and for all renounce all ladder climbing to get to heaven. “Keep the 10 Commandments,” Jesus tells him. The man replied that he had already climbed those 10 rungs already. “What more must I do?” Jesus replied, “sell all you have and give to the poor and come, take up your cross and follow me.” And at that the man lost his footing and fell, and great was his fall.

Who is this man? Who is this man who believes that he must “climb, climb up sunshine mountain” to get to that place where “heavenly breezes blow” and “faces all aglow”?

I am. And so are you. And so was Martin Luther. Luther was possessed by the same question as the rich, young man, “What must I do to have eternal life?” And the church in Luther’s day answered by giving him a ladder to climb. It was called the ‘sacrament of penance.’ Which Luther climbed and climbed and climbed.

But no matter how high he climbed, he was never convinced that he climbed high enough. He wrote, “My conscience would not give me certainty, but I always doubted and said, “You didn’t do that right. You weren’t contrite enough. You left that out of your confession.” The more I tried to remedy an uncertain, weak and troubled conscience with human traditions, the more uncertain, weak and troubled I became.”

And the thought of NOT climbing high enough terrified him. “I was more than once driven to the very abyss of despair so that I wished I had never been created,” he wrote.

It was only when the same Lord who answered the rich, young man, answer Luther. Not a voice in his head or a feeling in his heart or a sign in the sky, but a “still, small voice” of the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul, who was also quite the ‘ladder climber,’ and who also had taken a terrible fall from the deep heights to which he had climbed.

“Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world held accountable to God. FOR BY WORKS OF THE LAW NO HUMAN BEING WILL BE JUSTIFIED IN HIS SIGHT. Since through the law comes the knowledge of sin.”

Which means that if you’re trying to climb UP to heaven on the ladder of GOD’S LAW, you’re actually NOT going UP at all – but DOWN.

“BUT NOW, the righteousness of God has been revealed APART FROM THE LAW…”

“But now…” Some of the best news you’ll ever hear is announced by those two little words. “But now…” Just when you thought you had it all figured out that the way to heaven was to climb the ladder higher and higher, God knocks the legs right out from us and says, “NO MORE CLIMBING LADDERS!” “I hate it when you try to climb the ladder to get to Me.”

WHICH IS NOT TO SAY THAT THERE IS NO MORE NEED FOR LADDERS, WITH THEIR FEET FIRMLY PLANTED ON THIS EARTH AND THE TOP LEANING AGAINST HEAVEN. It’s just that the ladder is not one that we must climb to get to God. It’s the ladder that God climbs down to get to us.

All of the PLOTS AND SCHEMES OF FALLEN MAN to get to God by climbing UP to Him are answered with a resounding NO. God has His own plot, written before the foundation of the world, wherein He comes down the ladder to get to us.

“He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried…” “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God… BUT NOW… are justified by his grace, as a gift, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 3:23-24)

NO MORE CLIMBING LADDERS.

Holy Baptism is no longer where we come to receive the grace that enables and equips us to climb the ladder up to God. It’s the ladder on which God comes down to us and gives us His Triune Name and RESURRECTS us with Christ, and takes us out this world and brings us into heaven – even now, but not yet.

Confession is no longer the place where we get our assignment of what we must do to be assured that the blessed absolution is FOR ME. It’s the place, whether publicly before the whole congregation or privately with the pastor, where we confess our sins of omission and commission. And based solely on what my Lord and my God has done for me – I hear that word spoken over me that was spoken over me in my baptism, as from God Himself, “I forgive you all of your sins.”

And Holy Communion is no longer the place where a “bloodless sacrifice” is offered UP to God to appease His anger for our sins, but the very body and blood of our crucified and risen Savior, COME DOWN from heaven to YOU for the forgiveness of all of your sins and the strength to take up your cross and follow Him.

We come to the Sacrament of the Altar, not as climbers who are required to climb this rung. We come as beggars come to their merciful and gracious Lord – with hands held out and mouths opened to receive this life-giving food “AS A GIFT, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

This is the heart and soul of the gospel. “Christ has entered, once for all, into the holy places,” that we so desperately want to enter. And “by means of His own blood, has secured an eternal redemption” FOR US. (Hebrews 9:12)
The great “BUT NOW…” of the gospel is that the “The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”

This is the great “BUT NOW…” that moved Luther to quit climbing the ladder. “Now I felt as though I had been born again, and I believed that I had entered Paradise through widely opened doors… As violently as I had formerly hated the expression, ‘the righteousness of God,’ so now I was as violently compelled to embrace the new conception of grace, and thus, for me, the expression of the Apostle really opened the Gates of Paradise.”

By faith alone, “the Son has set us free” from THE LOVELESS LADDER CLIMBING to get to God. And what a relief it is, and what peace that gives. He has set us free to live with both feet firmly planted on the ground – where we strive to walk HORIZONTALLY – to love our neighbor – NOT AS ‘GOOD WORKS’ TO PLEASE GOD – that’s ‘ladder climbing’ again and so, so selfish – but in genuine love for our neighbor – as servants of the living God, WHO LOVES OUR NEIGHBOR THROUGH US.

By faith alone, “the Son has set us free” to TAKE GREAT RISKS and walk with Abraham, who “BY FAITH… obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, NOT KNOWING WHERE HE WAS GOING.” (Heb. 11:8)

Knowing that you have already entered Paradise by grace alone, for Christ’s sake alone, we are set free from all of the angst and fear of God’s judgment against us. Listen to Luther:

“When the devil throws our sins up to us and declares that we deserve death and hell, we ought to speak thus: “I admit that I deserve death and hell. What of it? Does this mean that I shall be sentenced to eternal damnation? BY NO MEANS. For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction in my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Where he is, there I shall be also.”

Does the Lutheran Reformation still have something to say to us 500 years later? It most certainly does.

After being convicted for his role in the Watergate Conspiracy, Charles Colson was introduced to Jesus Christ while in prison and later reported that even while he was in prison, he was never so free. After his release, Colson founded an organization called “Prison Fellowship” that worked to bring the gospel to prisoners that they too might know of that freedom that transcends even life in prison.

He wrote of the time he visited a prison in Brazil that had been so corrupt that the government closed it down. It was reopened again and operation turned over to an independent group that was given free rein to employ the gospel.

Colson reported how surprised he was to find the inmates smiling and pleasant – especially the murderer who had the keys to the front door. “Where ever I walked,” he said, “I found men at peace.” “How could this be and what was the reason for this extraordinary change,” he asked.

He got his answer when his guide, one of the inmates, escorted him to the notorious punishment cell that had once been used for torturing inmates. “Today,” the guide told Colson, “this cell holds just one inmate.”

As they reached the end of the long, concrete corridor and the guide put the key into the lock, he paused and asked, “are you sure you want to go it?” “Of course,” replied Colson, “I’ve been in insolation cells all over the world.”

Slowly, the guide opened the steel door, and Colson writes, “I saw the prisoner in the cell: A crucifix, beautifully carved by the inmates – the prisoner Jesus, hanging on the cross.” The guide whispered, “He’s doing time for us all.”

“For God has presented Him to be a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood.”

“By his stripes, we are healed… Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace.”

The Reformation was not principally a negative movement away from the Roman Church and its corruption. It was a positive movement towards the Word of God and the eternal gospel it proclaims to all who have ears to hear.

In fact, none of the relevance of the Reformation has faded in the least over 500 years. And that’s because men and women are no different today than they have always been – sinners with the same questions – like:
• ‘What will happen to me when I die and how can I be sure?’
• ‘Is my standing before God based on a process of becoming holy and only completed in purgatory, or is righteousness and holiness a pure gift of God, imputed by grace alone, for Christ’s sake alone?

The Reformation was not a mere reaction to the historical situation 500 years ago. It speaks clearly and powerfully to sinners five centuries later. Even today, when many may no longer be tormented with issues of guilt before a divine Judge – because they have nearly dismissed the idea of a God who cares one way of the other – if He exists at all.

And yet they are nonetheless saddled with heavy burdens and pressures, piled on by a culture that bombards us with messages that THE MORE beautiful and productive we are, THE MORE loved we will be – which is really just another ladder to climb.

Even here, Luther points our present day to the gospel, with its refreshing good news that sets us free. In the last thesis of his HEIDELBERG DISPUTATION, Luther states: “The love of God does not find, but creates, that which is pleasing to it.” Rather than seeking that which is ‘beautiful,’ God MAKES US beautiful in His sight. SINNERS LIKE YOU AND ME ARE NOT LOVED BECAUSE WE ARE ATTRACTIVE. WE ARE BEAUTIFUL BECAUSE WE ARE LOVED by God.

NO MORE CLIMBING LADDERS.

The 500th Anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation is no time for ‘boasting’ – either in Martin Luther or the brave and courageous men and women who have stood for the pure gospel at great cost to themselves. This kind of boasting “is excluded. By what kind of law? By the law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.” So today as we celebrate this 500th Anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 1:31)

sermon-10-8-17

The text for our consideration this morning is the 27th Psalm – entitled, “The Lord is my light and my salvation.” Since we haven’t heard this text yet this morning, let’s read it together from your hymnal, turn to page 27. Let’s read it responsively – I’ll read the odd verses, you read the even.

1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh,
my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall.
3 Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear;
though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.
4 One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.
5 For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.
6 And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the LORD.
7 Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me!

8 You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, LORD, do I seek.”

9 Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger, O you who have been my help.
Cast me not off; forsake me not, O God of my salvation!

10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in.
11 Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.

12 Give me not up to the will of my adversaries;
for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence.
13 I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living!

14 Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit
As it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever. Amen.

It seemed good to me to set aside the assigned texts for today to consider how we ought to think about and respond to the recent, tragic events that have occurred. The ‘natural disasters’ from three hurricanes in September were responsible for 102 death and massive destruction and property loss and the ‘unnatural, man-made disaster’ of mass murder and bloodshed responsible for 59 deaths and 507 injured.

How are the baptized to think about these things and respond to them in ways formed and shaped by faith in the one, true God whom we confess is the creator and ruler and redeemer and the savior of this world? How do we find, not only comfort for ourselves in the “day of trouble” when it comes, but also the ‘defiant hope’ to that is able to, as Paul says, to “comfort others with the comfort that we have received from God”? (2 Cor.1:4)

The 27th Psalm is one of a great number of Psalms that gives us direction to our thoughts and even the words to use that we often have a hard time finding on our own in “the day of trouble.” It also shows us how the children of God respond ‘in faith’ “when evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh.” (vs.2)

In his, “day of trouble,” the first move that the Psalmist makes is to his Lord. “The Lord is my light and my salvation. Of whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (vs.1)

It may seem so simple that we may miss the significance of this, but in “the day of trouble” the faithful turn to God and to His Word for their help and comfort and guidance. This, in itself, is what distinguishes the one who lives by faith in the one true God and the one who does not. The faithful turn to their Lord, in whom they trust can and will keep them safe and deliver them. Continue reading →

“When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching and said, ‘By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?’”

A little background would be helpful. We are now into the 21st chapter of Matthew’s gospel which opened with Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. The first thing that Jesus did when He entered the city was go straight to the Temple.

“And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” (Matthew 21:12-13)

From there, Jesus returned to the village of Bethany where He had begun the day. The next day, He returned to the city and went back to the Temple and began to teach the people. “When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching and said, ‘By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?’”

You can’t just go into someone else’s house and start rearranging the furniture and kicking people out like that. “By what authority…” Or as we would probably have put it, ‘what gives you the right?’

It’s not the first time they have asked Him this question. Continue reading →

sermon-9-24-17

“The kingdom of heaven is like…” Finish the sentence. This is now the third Sunday in a row that we’ve been trying to finish that sentence. First it was a question of “greatness,” “who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Jesus turned every answer of ours upside down, comparing the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven to one who is childlike toward God.

Last Sunday it was the question of boundaries. “How often must I forgive my neighbor when he sins against me? As many as seven times.” And Jesus pushed the boundaries out seventy times farther than would ever have imagined.

Now, this morning, the question has to do with the relationship between ‘input’ and ‘outcome’ in this Kingdom of Heaven. What’s the PAYOFF for what I DO? ‘The more I DO and the harder I work, the more I GET and the greater the reward. That’s what it’s like in the Kingdom of this world. Is this what the “Kingdom of Heaven” is like?

Peter and the disciples had just heard Jesus tell a “rich, young man” to “sell all his possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” It’s all sounds very quid pro quo. The more EARTHLY POSSESSIONS you get rid of – the more HEAVENLY TREASURE you gain. Continue reading →

sermon-9-17-17

I bet you didn’t know that when silk fabric for the textile industry was shipped from India to Europe, it was inspected for its quality. And if any flaws were discovered, that piece was marked by tying a small string to the bottom of it. This would alert the buyer that this piece of material was defective. So when a tailor wanted to purchase a few yards of material without flaws, he would ask for cloth, “with no strings attached.”

It’d be nice if things still came with ‘strings attached’ so that we might know if it’s really as perfect as it sounds or if there aren’t some hidden flaws. It’d be nice to know if that ‘great deal’ that sounds too good to be true, really is, or if it has ‘strings attached.’

We might even wonder if the grace of God FOR ME and His forgiveness for all of my sins might not also have ‘strings attached.’ After all, doesn’t Jesus says, “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.” (Luke 12:48).

You mean to tell me that when I was born again and forgiven all of my sins in my baptism – “I baptize you into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit;” and in the holy absolution – “I forgive you all of your sins,” and in the eating of the Supper – “given for you for the forgiveness of all of your sins;” do you mean to say that since I received all of this grace upon grace that now I’m expected to BE GRACIOUS to others and FORGIVE others who sin against me? You mean there were ‘strings attached?’

Peter gets it. SINCE God has been gracious to me, I am obligated to be gracious to my neighbor. SINCE God has forgiven me all my sins, I am expected to forgive my neighbor when he sins against me.

But Peter is still searching for clarity as to how to complete the sentence, ‘the kingdom of heaven is like…” Last week it was the question about ‘greatness.’ “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” Today it’s a question about forgiveness. Not whether or not I must forgive my neighbor, but to what extent. How far must I go? Peter simply wants to know where the boundaries in this KINGDOM OF HEAVEN are. “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Continue reading →

sermon-9-10-17

“The Kingdom of heaven is like…” Finish the sentence. No, on second thought – don’t. It could be pretty embarrassing.

When Jesus finished that sentence by saying “the Son of Man must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the 3rd day be raised,” Peter took Him aside and said, “This shall never happen to you.” (Mat. 16:21-22) That’s NOT what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. How embarrassing.

Earlier, Jesus finished the sentence by saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” And “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” Which of us would have ever finished the sentence like that?

Just before our Gospel reading for this morning, Jesus, for a 2nd time, told His disciples, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” (Mat. 17:22-23). Matthew, who was one of them, writes, “They were greatly distressed.” That’s not what the Kingdom of Heaven is like.

None of this was lining up with the way that they would finish the sentence, “the Kingdom of heaven is like…” In fact, the further along this journey with Jesus they go, the more confused they get. One of them will drop out altogether because this is NOT what he thought the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN is like. The others who stick around won’t ‘get it’ until the Holy Spirit opens their minds on the Day of Pentecost, nearly two whole months after the Kingdom of Heaven has come.

In their GREAT DISTRESS, “the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” Jesus seems to be turning every one of their PREconceptions into MISconceptions and now, they’re not sure what to think or how to complete the sentence, “the kingdom of heaven is like….”

And so they ask, “who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?”

No one’s sure what their tone of voice is or how we’re supposed to hear their question.

Have they been arguing or bickering among themselves, maybe ever since Jesus singled Peter out with His “blessed are you Simon, bar Jonah…” Are they asking from a spirit of jealousy or competition?

Or, are they genuinely confused? Are they honestly trying to understand what this Kingdom of Heaven is like and how it actually works, and they need some more data to go by?

Clearly, Jesus doesn’t scold them for asking their question.

“And calling to him a little child, he put him in the midst of them and said, ‘Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’”

There’s your answer. Jesus answers their question in two ways.

First, he says, ‘let’s back up a bit here.’ ‘Before I answer your question about who the ‘greatness’ in the Kingdom of Heaven is, let’s talk about how one ‘enters the kingdom of heaven’ in the first place. Any talk about ‘greatness’ in the Kingdom before ‘entrance’ into the Kingdom is putting the cart before the horse. “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never ENTER the kingdom of heaven.”

It kinda reminds you of that time Jesus’ told poor Nicodemus, “Unless you are born again you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” Nicodemus is confused. “How can a man be born again? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb?” (John 3:3-4)

The disciples of Jesus have to be just as confused. How can big adults become little children?

But Jesus DIDN’T say that they need to BECOME LITTLE CHILDREN. He said they need to “become LIKE little CHILDREN.” To become LIKE a CHILD, means to become ‘CHILD-LIKE,’ which is not necessarily ‘CHILD-SIZED’ and its definitely not ‘CHILDISH.’

There’s a couple of strange ideas out there about what children are like that we need to take off the table so that we’re not we’re not chasing something that doesn’t actually exist.

To be ‘CHILD-LIKE’ does not mean to be ‘INNOCENT.’ Children can certainly be pretty ‘innocent’ at times. But as any ‘honest’ parent will tell you, children can also be some of the scheming, devious little creatures in the world. And according to the doctrine of ‘original sin,’ even the tiny fetus, from the moment of conception, is not ‘innocent’ and needs the gift of Baptism as soon as possible after birth. To be ‘CHILD-LIKE’ does not mean to be ‘INNOCENT’.

To be ‘CHILD-LIKE’ does not mean to be ‘TRUSTING.’ It’d be nice if children trusted their parents and other authorities, but who’s kidding whom? What child, when he or she hears mom and dad say, ‘trust me, we know what’s best for you,’ doesn’t at least think if not say, ‘no, I don’t think you do. I don’t trust you – at least not as much as I trust me.’ (Or at least that’s the way it sounds most of the time.) To be ‘CHILD-LIKE’ does not mean to be ‘TRUSTING’

The point is, we sometimes try to understand this word from our Lord here as though He grabbed this particular child he OR she, was a ‘perfect child,’ as though He were saying, ‘unless you become ‘INNOCENT’ and ‘TRUSTING’ like this particular child, ”you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

I think it would be much more honest and whole lot safer if we were to picture a REAL BRAT, demanding, strong willed, hard to please, disagreeable child. Now we’ve got a ‘REAL CHILD’ to deal with.

And now we’ve got a good picture of the ‘CHILDREN’ that God calls ‘MY CHILDREN’ throughout the Old Testament. The ‘people of Israel’ are the ‘CHLILDREN OF GOD.’ And in God’s own words, His children are stubborn, rebellious, stiff-necked, children who refuse to TRUST Him. And they’re clearly NOT INNOCENT.

The thing that this child that’s standing before the disciples had in common with ALL CHILDREN was its utter DEPENDENCE. Babies and little children are helpless and vulnerable, DEPENDANT on mom and dad to provide for all that they need. Even when something is wrong, babies and little children don’t know what the problem is. They only know they’ve got one.

The only thing that they are able to do is CRY. CRYING is their only weapon in their battle for survival. I read an article in the New York Times just this past week that summarizing a study on the effectiveness of a babies crying in getting the attention of adults. The researchers studied animals and noted that the babies in trouble got almost no response from the mother no matter what they did until they cried. Every parent knows how impossible it is to ignore their child’s crying.

The prophet Isaiah tells the people of Israel to act like LITTLE CHILDREN before God. “He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of YOUR CRY. As soon as he hears it, he answers you.” (Isaiah 30:19).

“Unless you turn, and become like a child,” you’re not going to ‘CRY OUT’ to your Father in heaven in your time of need. You’ll try to DIAGNOSE and FIX your problem YOURSELF because you’re AN ADULT – not a CHILD.

Unlike little children who grow up and outgrow their dependence on their parents, we never outgrow our helplessness and dependence on God. We never become autonomous, self-sufficient, adults before God. We’re always CRYING, as dear children cry to their dear Father in heaven, “Lord have mercy upon me.”

In fact, real ‘GROWTH’ in the Kingdom of Heaven, if you want to call it that, actually goes in the OPPOSITE DIRECTION. The older and more mature we become, the more we realize how UTTERLY DEPENDENT on God we really are, the more ‘child-like’ we become.

So, the Kingdom of Heaven is populated by nothing but ‘CHILDREN,’ those who are utterly dependent on their heavenly Father for everything – and who KNOW IT, and CONFESS IT, and REJOICE IN IT. ‘Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Now, Jesus goes on to answer His disciple’s question more directly. “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’”

“Greatness” in this ‘kingdom of heaven’ is a matter of ‘humility’ before God – which simply means that we recognize our utter dependence on God to take care of us and give us all that we need for this body and life and the life to come.

Once again, there’s a dangerous disconnect between the ‘THINGS OF MAN’ and the ‘THINGS OF GOD’ to be careful of here. In the ‘KINGDOM OF THIS WORLD,’ we fully expect our children to ‘grow up’ and act like adults – and this is right. We all want to be self-supporting, independent people who can take care of ourselves – and this is right too.

But in the ‘KINGDOM OF HEAVEN,’ the GREATEST never grow up. As we said, we just become more aware of what babies we really are and how dependent on God we really are and cry out to Him more and more.

We are not only simultaneously saint and sinner but also adult and child.

Needless to say, none of this comes NATURALLY – and what doesn’t come NATURALLY never comes EASILY. Which helps explain why the disciples are so confused and find it so hard to finish the sentence, ‘the Kingdom of God is like…’

It’s the same way for all of us. We come into this world wired to believe that “we can be like God.” We can take care of ourselves just fine and even atone for our own sins by our own good works. We’re grown-ups, independent, self-supporting. And we can’t see it any other way.

Which only means one thing – WE REALLY ARE TOTALLY DEPENDENT ON GOD – we really are like little children. Unless HE ‘turns us,’ unless HE ‘humbles us,’ we never will “turn” and “humble ourselves.” And we will never know who the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven is.

Like little children, we learn our lessons very slowly and very often, we learn them the hard way. So when we hear Jesus say, “unless you turn… unless you humble yourself…we know that He’s not just talking about a one-time event in our life but a constant and daily ‘turning’ and ‘humbling ourselves,’ a daily realization that we are totally dependent on Him to become like the child of God that He would have us be.

This daily ‘turning’ and ‘humbling ourselves’ is nothing else but a daily turning to Jesus Christ, in Whom we have the answer to the question, “who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.”

He is the One who “humbled Himself” and became a ‘LITTLE CHILD,’ even a fetus in Mary’s womb; a new born infant lying in a manger, totally helpless and dependent upon Mary and Joseph to hear his crying and figure out what He needed.
With ‘child-like’ faith in His heavenly Father, He ‘humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross,’ for you and for me and for all of the big, grown up people in this world who, in our quest for ‘greatness,’ still don’t know how to act like the ‘little children’ that we truly are before God. (Philippians 2:8).

“Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?” Stop being ‘childish.’ Fix your eyes on Jesus, and Him crucified for you. It’ll turn you and humble you until you cry out to Him like the baby that you are

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Your Leader must be rejected by all, suffer many things and be killed in the most humiliating way, and if you want to be a ‘follower,’ you must deny yourself and remain faithful to Him and follow Him even if it costs you your life – which it most certainly will.

Now there’s a religion that’s never going to amount to anything.

No wonder Peter pulls Jesus aside for a little counseling. He thinks that Jesus has lost His mind and Peter is just the man to help Him find it. “Far be it from you Lord! This shall never happen to you.”

Peter had just correctly answered Jesus’ big question, like if you don’t get this one right none of the rest matters, “Who do you say that I am?” It’s a trick question. A ‘trick’ question because Jesus already knows that NOBODY knows the answer to this question. Everyone always gets this one wrong. The only way anyone will ever answer this question CORRECTLY is if someone gives you the correct answer.

Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” “And Jesus answered him, ‘blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father who is in heaven.”

But now the Christ, the Son of the living God, needs to be corrected. The heavenly Father may be ‘inerrant,’ but evidently, the Son of the living God not so much. If the “Father who is in heaven” revealed to Peter, Jesus’ true identity, then maybe He also revealed Jesus’ faults to Peter. “He takes things a little too seriously sometimes.”

Or maybe Peter was just responding to Jesus’ announcement like any of us would – AND DO. Who actually believes that God, IF HE REALLY IS GOD, would actually call it a matter of DIVINE NECESSITY that He be rejected, suffer and die in order to carry out His purposes for coming into this world? And who in their right mind would ever say, ‘now that’s the kind of God I want to trust my whole life to?’

We’re all theologians to one degree or another and we all have certain EXPECTATIONS based on our BELIEFS about what God is like and the way God carries out His work in this world and in my life – and although we all have DIFFERENT BELIEFS and EXPECTATIONS OF GOD – on this we all agree, “the message of the cross is folly….” (1 Cor. 1:18)

God, IF HE IS REALLY GOD, works in power and glory and success – and rewards all those who follow Him with power and glory and success – and who follows Him more faithfully than “the Son of the living God”? “SON OF GOD” and “SUFFERING AND DEATH” simply do not fit together. Surely what Jesus meant to say is that He is going to Jerusalem to establish His Kingdom and claim His rightful place as the new David, even the Son of David, to bring prosperity and success and to make Israel great again. (Sorry.)

Sigmund Freud said that all religion is ‘wishful thinking, born from man’s need to make his helplessness tolerable.’ Maybe so. But if so, what are we to make of this thing called ‘CHRISTIANITY’ with its claims that God carries out His gracious and loving work in this world through rejection, suffering and death – and NOT APART FROM IT.

Who would ever have conceived of a religion as ridiculous as this one that has at its very core, the rejection and suffering and death of its Lord as the only hope this world has?

And that is at least part of the point. The central event of Christianity is too offensive and runs too sharply against the grain of human reason to ever have been conceived by man. If you want a religion that is ‘reasonable’ and runs at least somewhat parallel to you’d expect a REAL RELIGION to look like, that is, OF THE THINGS OF MAN, you should consider Islam or Buddhism or Mormonism or Jehovah’s Witnesses or Unitarianism.

The Muslims have a high place of honor for Jesus but completely reject the thought that He was crucified – how ridiculous. Buddhism and Hinduism have carefully mapped out ways for you to reach Nirvana with no ‘word of the cross’ for either leader or follower. The Buddha’s crossed legs and folded arms and wisp of a smile is far more sensible and appealing than the outstretched and tortured figure hanging from a cross to the mocking ridicule from men and the sound of silence from the Father in heaven.

Who builds their trust and hope and confidence for life and salvation on “the stone that the builders rejected”?

Peter’s response to Jesus’ perfectly natural. In the words of one theologian, ‘we all want a God without wrath who brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.” (H. Richard Niebuhr)

What Jesus is proposing both for Himself and for His followers is ‘scandalous’ to people who live in a culture that’s all about doing what ‘feels good,’ and who expect that God, IF THERE REALLY IS A GOD, is there to help them achieve ‘their best life now’ which whatever that is, certainly does not include “denying oneself and taking up my cross.”

Isn’t this the reason that we’re so confused about how to tell others about Jesus? Dare we tell them that He is the ‘rejected,’ ‘suffering,’ ‘crucified’ One who says “if anyone would come after me let him take up his cross and follow me…”? No, who would ever say, ‘that’s just what I’m looking for in a religion. How do I sign up?’

So we say that if they will follow Jesus, He’ll make them happy and fix all their problems – whether we really believe it or not, because the truth is just too absurd.

Isn’t this why people walk away from their baptism? They just didn’t get anything POSITIVE out of it. It didn’t do anything for them. When they really needed Him, He let them – He didn’t do what He should have done if He is REALLY GOD and REALLY GOOD.

We all have our minds set on THE THINGS OF MAN and NOT THE THINGS OF GOD – whose mind is set on going to Jerusalem to suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribers, and be killed, AND ON THE THIRD DAY BE RAISED.

Peter was so shocked by the first part of this announcement that he never heard the bit about “the third day be raised.” And neither did the others. But even if they had heard it, it wouldn’t have made any more sense to them than the bit about rejection, suffering and death, because these things are also “not revealed to you by flesh and blood but by my Father who is in heaven.”

And that is precisely what “my Father who is in heaven” did on the 3rd day. He raised His rejected, suffered and crucified Son from the dead and crowned Him “with all glory and honor and dominion and authority before all time and now and forever.” (Jude 25)

God has turned the tables on PETER and the ELEVEN and ON US ALL. He has done a NEW THING. An UNHEARD OF THING. A completely UNEXPECTED THING. “The stone the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.”

Of all the scandalous and offensive things, this one tops the cake. GOD HAS VINDICATED the One who WE REJECTED. GOD HAS DONE THINGS GOD’S WAY. And in so doing He has pulled the mask off of our way and revealed it for what it truly is – the things of man and not of God.

We wanted to make God in our image – our fallen and dying image. But He has exposed all of our false gods for what they truly are – the things of man and not of God. He has become the great ‘stumbling block’ and CRISIS for all of us who refuse to consider that maybe, just maybe, the things of God are actually “the way and the truth and the life” after all.

Which may at least partially explain why these disciples of Jesus were more frightened than joyful when they heard the Easter news from the women that He was alive. What will it mean for all who COUNSELED Him and REJECTED Him and SUFFERED Him and CRUCIFIED Him when “he comes with his angels in the glory of his father to repay each person according to what he has done”?

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” With that little word, “anyone,” Jesus places US squarely with Peter and the eleven who rebuked the Lord for not doing His job the way we think it should be done.

Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God and He has done the DIVINELY NECESSARY THING to rescue and deliver you from sin and death and the devil – and redeem you and make you His own – and bring you to His Father in heaven to present you to Him as His precious bride “in splendor without spot or wrinkle – holy and without blemish.” (Eph.5:28)

He entered into our ‘rejection’ and ‘suffering’ and ‘death’ that we, by our sin of worshipping the ‘things of man’ above the “things of God” deserve. He owned it all as though it were all His – because you are His.

So, “whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”

Face it. God’s ways are not our ways. Its time to stop trying to force the “things of man” onto God. Be done with it. The game is over. Give up.

There is nothing left for you to cling to but Him. Whatever the folly of the cross is, it’s now your folly and you’re the fool who delights in your foolish Lord.

As absurd as it sounds, your greatest delight is in knowing that “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I, with all of my false hopes in all of my false gods, who live, but Christ, the ‘rejected, suffering, crucified and risen Christ, who lives in me. And the life I now life I live by faith, not in the ‘things of man,’ but in the Son of God who whole loved me and gave himself from me.” (Gal.2:20)

Today, the rejected, suffered, crucified and risen Lord comes to you, not in glory but hidden under bread and wine, to “repay you,” not “according to what you have done,” but “according to what He has done for you.” “Take and eat, this is my body.” “Take and drink, this is my blood.” These are the “things of God and not of man.” So even if you were to “taste death” today, you have “seen the Son of Man come into His kingdom.”

This is the 13th Sunday after Pentecost and our gospel reading opened with these words from St. Matthew, “From that time Jesus BEGAN to show his disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things… and be killed and on the third day be raised.”

This is just the BEGINNING. We have 13 more Sunday’s to go in this journey with St. Matthew, and a lot to learn along the way.

This is a good sermon preached by Rev.Robert Fischer:

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