Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

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“Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to [John] and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.”

I. “Confessing Their Sins”
A. Confessing the Faith
There are two kinds of confession. One kind of confession is what we call our confession of faith. When we confess our faith, we say what we believe is true about God.

You don’t have to be a Christian to ‘confess’ what you believe is true about God. And confessions of faith aren’t only made in Church either. Confessions of faith are made in lots of different places, and in lots of different ways, in the course of normal conversations, whenever and wherever they may be.

All confessions have this much in common. They all begin with the words, “I believe…” After that, they can get very different.
 “I believe that all gods are basically the same. You should follow which ever god fits you the best.”
 “I believe that God just wants us to be happy and that He accepts however we are.”
 “I believe that God, if there is one, is up there somewhere, wherever that is, and that He has nothing to do with me and what’s going on down here.”
Those are all ‘confessions of faith,’ and we hear them at various times and various places.

In case you hadn’t noticed by now, the ‘confession of faith’ that we speak together here is a good bit different than the examples I’ve just used. The Christian confession of faith is not based on what WE THINK God is like or what WE HOPE that God is like, BUT the Christian confession of faith is based solely on what the Holy Scriptures say that God is like.

We “confess our faith” in carefully chosen words, tested and scrutinized over time. The Apostles, the Nicene and the Athanasian Creeds have been hammered out with a great deal of scrutiny, so that we may be confident we are “saying the same thing” as the Scriptures say about God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

HERESY is when you say you that the Scriptures say something about God that the Scriptures really DO NOT SAY. Heresy is dangerous and deadly because they may lead people to make a FALSE CONFESSION OF FAITH.
Continue reading →

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Solomon is just a young man when he is abruptly installed as king of Israel to succeed his father, David. He is not his father’s oldest son, nor even his most favored son. Solomon never received the kind of apprenticeship that might have prepared him for the office thrust upon him.

Solomon is aware of the enormity of the challenge set before him AND how woefully unprepared he is. “I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in.” Add to this the fact that by the end of his father David’s reign, there is a great deal of political tension and unrest in the family and the kingdom, and Solomon has got his hands full.

But we are told this about Solomon that is reason enough for us to be hopeful. “Solomon loved the Lord…” That in itself is a good foundation for anyone to build on.

“Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on the altar…” That’s a lot of offerings. He is appealing to God for help and guidance to be the king he needs to be to govern Israel, “a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude.”

And “the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream… and said, ‘Ask what I shall give you.’”

Let that one sink in for a minute. That’s quite an offer. What would YOU ask for if the Lord God said that to you?

But wait a minute, He has, hasn’t He? “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you.” (Mat.7:7). I ask you, how is that offer any different than the one that Solomon received? And we didn’t offer a thousand burnt offerings on the altar. Jesus Christ, the offering to end all offerings, has already been offered on the altar for you.

So, what do YOU ask for? Or, don’t you? Continue reading →

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The gospel reading appointed for this morning comes at a bad time. We’re just four days past Christmas, with all of its “joy to the world” and “peace on earth, goodwill to men.” The Christmas spirit may not be as hot in us as it was on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, but the embers are still aglow and we are not yet ready for them to go out.

That’s why I say that the gospel reading appointed for this morning comes at a bad time. On the fourth day of Christmas we expect to receive “four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.” But instead we receive a death threat, an evacuation notice and a long road trip into exile.

The whole thing seems to be ill-timed. Lent seems like it would be a better time for this reading. But St. Paul tells us that the timing is actually just right. “The fullness of time has come…” Continue reading →

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“The Word became Flesh.”

This is what Christmas is all about. Take away the angels, the shepherds, the manger and the little town of Bethlehem and the star overhead, and you still have all that you need for a complete Christmas celebration.

“The Word became Flesh.”
This is what Christmas is all about.

We have been under a lot of pressure over the last several weeks. There’s a lot that must be done to get ready for Christmas. We all know the drill. There are those agonizing decisions about what to get family members and friends. Gifts must be sure to please, or at least, sure not to disappoint. They must communicate the fact that you have really been thinking about them, and that you really, really care. Cards must be addressed and mailed, taking care not to miss anyone who sent you a card last year but scratching those from your list who did not. A Christmas tree must be set up and decorated and the inside and outside of the house must give the clear idea that you are definitely “in the Christmas spirit.” Arrangements for traveling in order to be with family must be made. And if there are little children involved, the hassle factor increases exponentially. All of this, and we still haven’t mentioned Christmas cookies, Christmas parties and the LWML Craft Fair.

But even if you take away all of this, (anyone tempted to try it?), you’d still have all that you need for a complete Christmas celebration.

“The Word became Flesh.”
This is what Christmas is all about. Continue reading →

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A. Daniel
In the 2nd chapter of the book of Daniel, we read that the prophet Daniel, who was in captivity in Babylon along with most of the nation of Judah, was brought into a meeting with the king of Babylon. The King had had a particularly disturbing dream that he wanted someone to interpret for him, and that was something that Daniel was known for.

You can read the details of the dream which is recorded in Daniel chapter 2 if you’d like. In summary, the king’s dream was about how the kingdoms of this world would rise and fall, and ‘world-powers’ would come and go. Obviously something that the king of a world power like Babylon might have dreams about.

As Daniel comes to the end of his interpretation of the dream, he says this in verse 44, “And in the days of those kings, (those kings and kingdoms that rise and fall,) the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people.” (Dan. 2:44).

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Daniel sees a kingdom that is established by the “God of heaven, that shall never be destroyed.” Nor will it ever be overcome by another kingdom and “left to another people.”

B. John
600 years later, another prophet by the name of John, under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit, “came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” “AT HAND” means that ‘the time has fully come.’ The Kingdom that Daniel foretold was about to happen. “The God of heaven,” was about to establish a His Kingdom, the “kingdom of heaven.” Continue reading →

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I. Solomon Prefigures Jesus
In the first chapter of 1st Kings, we read that Solomon, the son of David, rode into Jerusalem on a donkey where he was anointed King of Israel. “And all the people said, ‘Long live king Solomon!” And all the people went up after him, playing on pipes and rejoicing with great joy, so that the earth was split by their noise.” (1 Kings 38-40) Solomon’s name comes from the familiar Hebrew word for “peace,” “shalom.” It means, ‘man of peace.’

Centuries later, Jesus Christ, the son of David, rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. The prophet Zechariah had called this day over 500 years before it happened. “Behold, your King is coming to you…” “And the crowds that went before Him and that followed him were shouting, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name for the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

The parallel account of the coming of these two kings into their kingdoms veer apart from each other after this.
 Solomon wastes his wisdom in selfishness.
 Jesus demonstrates His wisdom in selflessness.

 Solomon rules over an earthly kingdom that, due to his mismanagement is divided by revolution after his death.
 Jesus rules over a heavenly kingdom that, due to his suffering and death, unites what has been broken and establishes real and lasting peace.
Jesus Christ is the greater than Solomon. Continue reading →

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Every year, the Church reviews the life of Jesus Christ according to the season from His coming into the world to His birth and life and death and resurrection and ascension.

Now this morning, we come to that point in the annual cycle called the “Last Sunday of the Church Year.” Today, we are reminded that there is a day that has been appointed by God from all eternity, which will be the last day. There will be a final sunrise and sunset, when every calendar will suddenly become obsolete and all of the dates and appointments and birthdays and anniversaries and schedules that fill our calendars will vanish, because there won’t be any dates to hold them.

Today we are reminded that just as there was a ‘beginning,’ there will also be an ‘end.’ Just as there was a “first day,” there will also be a “last day.”

And we can certainly apply this to our own life. None of us will not live forever. Every one of us who have had a ‘first day,’ which was the moment that we were conceived. And each of us will have a last day, when we will ‘breathe or last breath.’

Death is inevitable because of sin. We were born in sin, and we daily sin much, and sin is deadly, much more deadly than we treat it.
 If we really believed that sin is as deadly as the Scriptures say that it is, we would treat it much differently than we do.
 We would treat sin like we treat a deadly virus and flee from it rather than playing with it as we do.

But “The Last Sunday of the Church Year” is not really directing us to think just about our mortality, as much as it is asking us to think about the fact that there really is such a thing as a ‘last day’ of the world, at least as we know it.
 There was a day when the curtain rose on THE CREATION, and the great drama of life began.
 And there will be day when the curtain will come down, and the drama will be over.

We don’t know how far along we are in this drama, or how close to the end we are, and Jesus makes it clear that we should not be spending our time trying to figure it out. But the Scriptures do tell us that when God who created the world, enters into His own creation, that will be the beginning of ‘the last days.’ This morning we responded to the Gospel reading with the opening words from the book of Hebrews, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but now in THESE LAST DAYS he has spoken to us by his Son.” (Hebrews 1:1-2) Continue reading →

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Living by faith in Jesus requires a certain tolerance for contradiction. Things that we would normally say just don’t go together are put together and we are compelled to say, ‘it doesn’t make sense, but…’

For example, take God and man. God is God and man is man, the two don’t go together. But we confess that Jesus Christ is true God and true Man; not half and half, but fully God AND fully Man. And we say that we are saved by that contradiction.

The farther down this Christian road you travel, the more you’re bound to notice that God seems to enjoy shattering our comfortable little ‘consistencies’ with His uncomfortable and sometimes messy ‘contradictions.’ In place of our “blessed is the one who is happy,” He says, “blessed are the poor in spirit.” And we say, ‘wait a minute, those two things just don’t fit together.’

Whoever says that ‘persecution for doing the right thing,’ and ‘lucky duck’ go together is operating with a weird set of rules. But that’s what Jesus says. Continue reading →

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I. There Is No Difference – All Fall Short
Ten people are trapped on the roof of a 20 story high burning building, and you’re one of them. The only way to safety is to jump across a 25’ chasm onto the roof of the adjacent building. One person jumps ten feet and falls to his death. Another jumps 12 feet and falls to his death. One jumps 15 feet and falls to his death. One jumps 20 feet and falls to his death. “There is no distinction. All fall short…”

It does no good to compare one person to another. One may have jumped twice as far as another. One may have tried a lot harder than another. One may have been much more sincere than another. One may have worked all his life getting ready for this jump while another never gave it a thought until the very last minute. “There is no distinction. All fall short…”

And do you want to know the really crazy thing about all of this. It’s not that we all fall short. The crazy thing is, we keep trying to make the jump. We are all optimists when it comes to estimating the human potential to save ourselves. We think that if we just do this or do that, if we try harder, if we really, really mean it, if we are more sincere, if we use this program, if we develop this science, then we’ll be able to make it. But “there is no distinction. All fall short…”

There are basically two ways that we try to make the jump. The first way is by a strong self-righteousness. We’re convinced that there is a God and that He will judge us on the basis of our ‘goodness,’ or at least on our sincere efforts.

The second way we try to make the jump is by denial. “We say that we have no sin.” We say that “sin” is just a social invention to keep the masses in their place. The only “REAL” sin is to call something a “sin.” Avoid that one, and you can say that “you have no sin,” and God’s got no hold on you.

More realistically however, its not ‘either / or’ with us. We hedge our bets and do both. We work hard to strengthen our ‘self-righteous’ just in case God does judge us according to His law. And with those ‘sins’ that we really don’t want to do without because we like them too much, we say that they’re not really sins, the times are changing, God will have to adjust. But “there is no distinction. All fall short…”

St. Paul shuts off every escape route we try to take to save ourselves. “All have sinned and therefore all fall short.” And so in our desperation we cry, “What must I do to be saved?” Which is the first smart thing we’ve said so far.

This was Luther’s question and Luther asked it like a man on the roof of a burning building. Not like we do, I’m afraid. We’ve pretty well dismissed the whole question of ‘Divine Judgment.’ Our modern minds have done away with the existence of hell which renders God’s judgment pretty harmless. What right has God to judge us according to His divine expectations if we ‘evolved’ on our own according to chance? We have lost the “fear of God.” Continue reading →

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Would you take out your hymnal again and turn to page 325.

This morning, we’re going to use the occasion of Olive’s baptism to talk about Holy Baptism. In his Small Catechism, Luther treats Baptism in four parts. You can only cover so much ground in one sermon, so we’re going to focus on the first two parts: First, “What is baptism?” Second, “What happens in baptism?” Third, “How does baptism work?” And fourth, “How long does baptism last?”

That’s more ground that we can cover in one sermon so we’re only going tackle the first two parts this morning. But we also want to make specific application as to how all of this applies to little children, even infants no older than Olive.

I. 1st – What is baptism?
In your hymnal, page 325, under the section in red letters: “The Sacrament of Holy Baptism,” would you answer together please, “What is Baptism?”
“Baptism is not just plain water, but it is the water included in God’s command and combined with God’s word.”
“Which is this word of God?”
“Christ our Lord says in the last chapter of Matthew: ‘Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

First of all, we need to be clear that Baptism is not something that men and women came up with on their own. We come up with lots of things on our own in the church, the liturgy we use as an ‘order of worship, the hymns that we sing, even the day of the week that we come together for worship, Sunday School, Confirmation, LWML, Men’s Breakfast Group. It’s all stuff we’ve come up with. Which doesn’t mean it’s bad. But it’s man-made. Which means that it’s not perfect and it’s never going to be perfect for everyone and its never going to be perfect forever. And we shouldn’t insist that it is. Continue reading →