Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

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Jesus went to church one day and He didn’t like what He found one bit. One of you gave me an article to read about a couple of congregations in upstate New York that bear the name of Luther that celebrated “Dr. Seuss Sunday.” The sanctuaries were decorated with Dr. Seuss books, the pastors were dressed up like cats in a hat, the liturgy was written in rhyme, they celebrated the “Seussacharist,” and of course the after service fellowship featured green eggs and ham. What would Jesus have done had He walked into that church? “Do not make my Father’s house into the house of Whoville.”

Jesus went to church one Sunday and He found that the “Father’s House” had been turned into a “house of trade,” literally, an ‘emporium.’

I remember from when I toured the Holy Lands that once a day, the tour bus would stop at a house and we would all be invited inside. The house was full of crafts and souvenirs for sale. I’m sure the guide got some kickback for bringing a busload of tourists into their ‘house of trade.’ What the heck. They’ve got to make a living too.

It’s one thing for a family to decide that they are going to turn their house into an emporium. It’s another thing altogether to decide that you’re going to turn someone else’s house into an emporium, especially if it’s “The Father’s house.

When worshipers came to the Temple, the primary purpose for their coming was to offer to God a sacrifice for their sins, a sheep, a goat, a bull, a pigeon if your were poor. The Priests in charge of the Temple had dedicated a certain portion of the Temple for the sale of these animals. It probably wasn’t like this all of the time, but during the three great feasts, Passover being the big one, men and women from all over the world would come to Jerusalem to worship at the Temple and offer a sacrifice for their sins.

The moneychangers exchanged foreign currency, for a commission. There was also the ‘temple coin’ which was the only coin accepted for an offering. Roman currency had the image of Caesar impressed upon it. In strict obedience to the 10 Commandments, graven images were forbidden. Special ‘temple coins’ were minted and sold, for a commission. What the heck. They’ve got to make a living too. Continue reading →

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Of the six men and women whose lives bring us close to Jesus, Peter brings us the closest. There’s far more data in the New Testament about Peter than we can possibly cover in one night, but that isn’t our purpose. We want Peter to lead us to Jesus. In this brief survey of Peter’s life with Jesus, I hope that we will see something of ourselves, because Peter is very much a person like us. And in working with the data on Peter from the four gospels, it strikes me that there is a remarkable circle to Peter’s life as a disciple; a circle in which the grace and the love of God is clearly at work. And our goal is to also see how that same hand is at work in our life of discipleship as well.

I. Peter Recruited
The curtain opens with Jesus calling to Peter who is fishing and inviting him to “Follow me.”

St. Matthew writes, “While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him.” (Matthew 4:18-20)

As we discussed last week, Matthew places a future event into the record here, before it actually happens. ‘Simon’ is his name, but by the time Matthew writes his gospel, everyone knows him as Peter. St. John, in his gospel, tells us that Peter and Andrew had been disciples of John the Baptist and had followed Jesus at John’s urging. John reports that right off the bat, Jesus gives Simon a new name – “So you are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Cephas.” (John 1:42) “Cephas” is an Aramaic word that means ‘rock.’ As we heard this past Sunday, when God gives men and women names in the Bible, this always means that this person is to play an important role in God’s plan of salvation. Continue reading →

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St. Mark begins his gospel with a bold proclamation – “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” (1:1). After that, “immediately” goes to work. He’s baptized and tempted by Satan. He heals the multitudes; preaches great sermons; cleanses lepers; exposes false teachers; and tells earthly stories with heavenly meanings. He calms the stormy sea; exorcises the demon possessed, multiplies bread in his hands, walks on the water, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the blind see. He even raises Jairus’ daughter from the dead. And all of that is just the first half of Mark’s gospel.

Mark’s gospel is 16 chapters long. Today we come to the exact middle, the end of the 8th chapter, and Jesus asks the big question, “Who do people say that I am?” With the kind of groundwork that Mark has carefully laid out, what would you expect people would be saying about Jesus?

Mark has carefully recorded what people have been saying about Him up to this point. They say, “what is this?”(Question mark.) “Who then is this that even wind and sea obey him?” (Question mark) “He is possessed by Beelzebul.” (No question mark, but we wish there where one.) “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?” “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead.” “He is Elijah.” No one gets it! No one sees. How blinded by our sin we are.

Ironically, the only ones in the first half of Mark’s gospel that get it are the demons. “I know who you are, the Holy one of God.” “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?”

So, when Jesus asks His disciples “who do you say that I am?” all of heaven is silent, listening intently to how they will answer. And when Peter answers, “You are the Christ,” the angels are dancing and the heavenly choir is resounding, the saints in glory are cheering and the confetti is flying. They get it! They see Him “as He is.” “You are the Christ.” Continue reading →

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What comes to your mind when you hear the name “Abraham Lincoln?” How many images and connections and associations immediately come to mind when you hear that name? And if I were to speak the name, “Adolf Hitler?” What thoughts, what emotions does that name provoke? Names are powerful. Our name is our identity, especially to those who happen to know us or our story. Our life’s story is contained in our name. The name and the story go together.

“Judas Iscariot.” Now there’s a name with a story. It is our intention this evening to enter into his story. We want to explore his story as it’s recorded in the Scriptures, not because we’re really terribly interested in Judas Iscariot per se. But he was one of those who was in direct contact with Jesus during that week we call, ‘holy week.’ And so we can use Judas to get close to Jesus.

I. Introduce Judas
The first thing we notice is that “Judas Iscariot,” is listed as one of the 12 disciples of Jesus in all three places where the list appears – Matthew, Mark and Luke’s gospel.

One of the things that we sometimes forget to consider, but should keep in mind as we read the gospels, is that all four, gospel writers write their gospels after the ascension of Jesus into heaven. The gospels are not written like ‘reporters’ write their stories for the evening news or the daily paper – “reporting live from Jerusalem,” reporting the story as it develops.

The story of Jesus Christ is reported in retrospect. The writers are looking back on the events that happened. Which means that, at times, they may interject into the record details that haven’t actually happened yet according to the strict chronology of the account itself. Maybe they want to give us an understanding of how a particular event fits into the big picture. Or maybe, it’s because they themselves can’t separate what they already know and have experienced from what they report.

It’s like that with Judas. When Matthew, Mark and Luke list the 12 disciples, Judas Iscariot is listed as “Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him.” Even as we meet Judas Iscariot for the first time, we already know that he is the one ‘who betrayed Him.’ Continue reading →

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The life of faith is really a very difficult, if not sometimes a terrible life really. Anyone who says that all of their problems went away when they became a Christian is either lying or hasn’t got a clue what it means to live by faith and follow Christ.

I think this is why some who come to church with their great problems and troubles, are often terribly discouraged and disappointed and don’t last long. They thought that Christianity was supposed to make them feel better about themselves. But then they see what it really means to live by faith, and they conclude that this is not what they thought it was and not something that they’re interested in.

Don’t ever tell someone with problems that all their troubles will go away if they come to church and hear the gospel. No. FAITH comes by hearing the gospel- not easy street or prosperity or relief from all your problems. In fact, truth be told, once the Holy Spirit works faith in your heart, your troubles have just begun.

The NEW MAN is opposed to the OLD MAN and the OLD MAN must be put to death. And the OLD MAN does die easy.

Trust in self must be replaced with trust in God ALONE. I must learn that all the big and little securities that I worship are false-securities and learn to “count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” (Philip. 3:8)

The Lutheran pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer described the Christian life about as realistically and honestly as it can be put. “When Jesus Christ calls a man, saying ‘come, follow me,’ He calls him to come forth and die.”

So, why do we do it? Why do we strive to follow Jesus and why do we desire to be called a Christian? And why would we ever think that this would be good for our friends who do not know Jesus Christ? Not because it’s easy, not because it’ll make you feel good, not because it’ll solve your problems – please. Nothing could be further from the truth. Don’t kid yourself and don’t deceive your friends.

It is because this is the way, and there is no other way. Because this is the truth and there is no other truth. It is because this is the life, real life, life, as in, everything else is death, there is not other life.

Let us consider Abraham. Continue reading →

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The prophet Isaiah preaches these familiar words, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.” Nowhere is this contrast between the mind of God and the mind of man more pronounced than in the cross of Christ crucified.

In divine love, the holy God comes into the world that He created to reconcile fallen and rebellious man to Himself. Fallen men and women are so blinded by their sin that they do not recognize their Creator who is among them. In fact, rather than embracing Him, they deeply resent the fact that He thinks that they are not worthy of heaven and that only He can save them. They become so angry with Him that they decide that He must die. They are so deranged that they actually think that they are being faithful to God by killing Jesus. The arrangements are made and the deed is done.

If that were the end of it, this would simply be a sad commentary on the depravity of man. Look how low man has fallen. We have killed our Creator who came to save us. But this of course is not the end of the story. As it turns out, it is by His death on the cross at the hands of sinful and fallen men, that God accomplishes the very purpose for which He came into this world. By His death, God reconciles Himself to His creation and His humans through the forgiveness of their sins. Now suddenly, this is not just a story of man’s GREAT depravity but it is also the story of God’s GREATER love. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

What we have just done is to sketch out the ‘big picture’ of God’s plan for our salvation and the centrality of the cross in that plan. We know the story ‘as a whole’ and how it turned out in the end, maybe something like the way that we know about the Revolutionary war and the Civil war and how they turned out in the end.

But within this ‘big picture,’ there are hundreds and hundreds of individual participants, men and woman who were actually there and personally involved in it. Some found themselves on one side, others the other side, and some were caught in the middle.

One way to enter into the ‘big picture,’ is through those who were there, for whom the ‘big picture’ was intensely personal and immediate. I was with a friend last week who’s wife has cancer and he said, ‘you know, I always knew that cancer was there, but until Tina was diagnosed and started her treatments, I never knew how many others have gone through what we’re going through and how much of your life it becomes.’

The fact the four gospels are not simply doctrinal outlines of theological truths but the telling of the individual stories of those involved in the encounter with Christ and His cross, tells us that the Holy Spirit invites us into this encounter through their individual stories.

This will be the approach that we take through these mid-week Lenten services this year. We’ve selected six men and women who were actively involved in that six day period of time that we call “holy week.” They represent those on both sides and those caught in the middle. I pray that with each mid-week service, we may be drawn into the ‘big picture’ through them, in such a way that we too are confronted by Jesus Christ and His cross. Continue reading →

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Moses called Israel to follow him. He promised to lead them out of Egypt and it’s dreadfully dreary and deadly dangerous, day to day existence, to the Promised Land, where the rivers flowed with milk and honey and the trees were always ripe with the luscious fruit and life was good. And they followed him.

Jesus called His disciples saying, “come, follow Me.” People were looking for another Moses who would lead them out of their world where they lived under ‘foreign occupation’ into a new and improved Promised Land. Jesus called His disciples, 12 altogether, one for each of the 12 tribes of Israel, to follow Him from their world into His world. And they followed Him.

The world is still a mess and it seems like it’s getting messier by the minute. Lot’s of people are looking for someone to lead them out of this world into a better world and they’re willing to follow whomever promises to deliver a “promised land” according to their own definition.

The disciples followed Jesus. To tell the truth, for the most part, His world didn’t look a whole lot different than their world. Sickness, diseases, paralysis, demon possession. It was all there, and I don’t know but it sure seemed like since He came around there was more of it than ever before. Same politics and turf wars. If anything, tensions were higher than they had been. They don’t remember this kind of questioning and suspicion from the religious leaders. Still there were the poor and hungry. Still there was the dying and the dead.

It wasn’t a world removed from this world that Jesus had called His disciples to follow Him to. It was a world in this world, this world of sickness and disease, of paralysis and demons, of arguments and accusations, of poverty and death. Continue reading →

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The season of Epiphany is bookended by the Baptism of our Lord at the beginning and the Transfiguration of our Lord. In both of these episodes, the heavens open and we hear the voice of God the Father confirm that this Jesus is His Son and that all that He does pleases Him. That’s what this season of Epiphany is all about. God has come into this world in the person of Jesus Christ and therefore He is the will of God to man, then we’ve got it.

The appointed gospel readings in between these two Epiphany bookends act as evidence presented by the Holy Spirit to convince you, the jury that “this is most certainly true.” It’s not that we, the jury need to be convinced that this testimony concerning Jesus is true so that we may rule in His favor. He is not the one on trial here.

Rather, this evidence is put forward so that we one day stand before the judge and give our testimony as to whom we say Jesus really is. “Who do you say that I am?” But why wait for that last day? Why not give your testimony today and everyday.

I know that through these ‘Green Sundays’ of Epiphany, the Sunday’s in between the two ‘White Sundays,’ we’ve been concentrating our attention the epistle readings, Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. Let me offer a quick review of what we have heard in the Gospel readings so far.

First, Jesus called Philip and Nathanael to be His disciples and they followed Him and Nathanael confesses, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God!” (John 1:49). They got it.

Second, Jesus called Peter and Andrew to be His disciples and they left everything and immediately followed Him. They got it.

Third, Jesus went into the Synagogue in Capernaum where there was a man with a demon. Jesus ordered the demon, “Be quite, come out of him,” and it did and all the people in the Synagogue were amazed, “What is this, a new teaching with authority.” They got it.

Fourth, Jesus went from the Synagogue to Peter and Andrew’s house where He healed Peter’s mother-in-law of her fever and the whole city of Capernaum gathered at the door of the house and Jesus healed all who were sick and demon possessed. They got it.

Get it? The evidence is piling up. And it all points to the same conclusion. This Jesus is none other than the Son of God. Continue reading →

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From the moment that you came into the Kingdom of God, either through Holy Baptism and the hearing of the Word, or through the hearing of the Word and Holy Baptism, you were destined for glory. Not the kind of glory that the two football teams will compete for this evening. That’s an earthly glory that they must fight hard to attain.

The glory that we are destined for, as citizens of the Kingdom of God is not based on our accomplishments. “We all fall short of the glory of God.” Rather, our destiny is based on the accomplishments of Jesus Christ our Lord and the glory that rightfully His. He is the One who has fought hard for the glory that is ours through Him. “IN HIM we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” (Rom.3:23; 5:2)

It is the blessed hope of heaven that shapes our life of faith here in this world. We cheerfully endure the loss of everything that this world has to give, possessions, spouses, children, friends, honor, fame, health, even life itself, because we know that our destiny far outweighs it all.

And just to be sure we understand this fully, because I think most of us have a pretty shallow understanding of ‘the Christian hope,’ our hope is not just for a peaceful death in faith and the eternal life of the soul in heaven. Our hope is so much more than that. Our hope goes way beyond our death and the death of loved ones who have died, and the death of future generations who will die.

We are awaiting the return of our Lord, Jesus Christ, in all His glory, on the last day, and the resurrection of our physical body, united with our soul, when we will finally be human as God made human to be and live life as God made life to be lived.

And with joy beyond knowing, and peace the likes of which this world hasn’t a clue, and love that will break your heart for the joy of it, with angels, archangels and all the company of heaven, basking in the unveiled presence of God who sits on the throne and the Lamb who was slain, where there is no death but only eternal and imperishable life, no sin, but only pure righteousness and holy innocence, no fear or sorrow or crying, only perfect security and total contentment, where God is everything and His glory is everywhere and we are so caught up in it all that its all that we know.

This is the life that Christ our Lord has won for us by His blood and cross and death and resurrection. This is the purpose for which the Father sent His Son into the world. This is the destiny that the Holy Spirit has made ours in our Baptism.

The hope of the “glory of God.” Or the “hope of the glory of man.” Which will you live for? Better yet, which will you die for? Which will you sacrifice whatever you must and commit yourself to as though it was all that really, truly matters?

I know that the answer seems pretty obvious, but don’t kid yourself. We’re all infected with a very strange disease that makes us act like crazy people and we ignore the ‘glory of God’ and strive for the ‘glory of man’ as though it was everything and all that mattered. Or as though we could have both. Continue reading →

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I. The Background

The Corinthian congregation had an ‘eating disorder.’ Some couldn’t stop eating. Others refused to eat. You wouldn’t think something like food could cause division in a congregation, but it did in Corinth. Someone from the congregation, one of the ‘eaters’ is seems, wrote to Paul and asked for his help in straightening this mess out. Actually, it seems like he wrote to Paul asking Paul to tell the ‘non-eaters’ to lighten up and quit being party-poopers.

Lest we think that this is just a silly little issue, let me point out that just about all of chapters 8,9,10, and 11 of 1 Corinthians are about ‘eating’ and ‘food.’

To be sure, this is not just about how spicy the chili for the LWML Christmas Craft Fair should be, or whether you can be a real Lutheran and not eat Lutefisk.

This is about a Christian congregation located in a very non-Christian culture. Corinth was a major, Roman city and the Christian population would have been so small as to hardly even be noticed. A comparison that I’m familiar with would be Thailand and Cambodia. Religiously, both are both Buddhist to the tune of about 95% of the population. The Christian Church exists there within a very Buddhist culture and therefore, as we would expect, the Christians in Thailand and Cambodia have very close ties to Buddhism. Many of them had been Buddhists. Many of them have family members that are still Buddhists.

The religion of the Roman culture was a ‘polytheistic’ system of many gods. Each god had his / her own temple and every major city, such as Corinth, would have had many temples of the various gods.

At these pagan temples, priests carried out sacrifices to the god of that temple. The sacrifices consisted of either grain or animals. In the case of animal sacrifices, after the sacrifice was over, the meat remained. What do you do with the meat? If this sounds like what took place in the Tabernacle and Temple of Israel in the Old Testament, that’s right. In the case of Israel, the priest kept half and the person who brought the sacrifice to the Temple kept the other half. But that doesn’t seem to be the way it worked in Roman culture. Continue reading →