Maundy Thursday LSB #’s 623:1-3, 623:4-5, 656
Text – Job 41:33 On earth there is not his equal, a creature without fear. ON EARTH IS NOT HIS EQUAL This evening we thank our Father in heaven for the gift of His Son’s true body & blood in Holy Communion. The Savior’s real presence here delivers victory over guilt & the grave, over the ancient serpent who is the devil & Satan. Job 41 is also all about victory – God’s victory over that same evil foe who still means deadly woe. We continue, tonight, with the series of sermons on Job, “Blessed Be the Name of the Lord.” He was a professional thief. His name stirred fear as the desert wind stirs tumbleweeds. He terrorized the Wells Fargo stage line, roaring like a tornado in & out of the Sierra Nevadas, spooking the most rugged frontiersmen. During his reign of terror, from 1875 to 1883, he stole money from 29 stagecoaches. A hood covered his face. No victim ever saw him. No artist ever sketched him. No sheriff could track his trail. His name? Black Bart. The book of Job introduces us to another thief – one who’s still around. You know him, even though you’ve never seen his face. If you have felt shame & disgrace, it was his whisper that crushed your heart. If you’ve felt alone & abandoned, it was all according to his plan. If you’ve felt useless & no good, it was his accusing finger pointed at you. He’s the Black Bart of the soul. He doesn’t want our money. He wants something far more precious. He wants to steal & kill & destroy our very lives. In Job chapters 1 & 2 he’s called the Accuser. That’s what the name “Satan” means. He is enamored with his own self-importance, his taunting of God, & his denigration of Job’s faith. But after chapters 1 & 2 Satan disappears from view. He drops out of sight. He evaporates into thin air. Then, in chapter 41, Satan returns full throttle. Only in this chapter he’s a monster called Leviathan. Leviathan? Who is Leviathan? From Job 3 we learn, “May those who curse days curse that day, those who are ready to rouse Leviathan... Why did I not perish at birth, & die as I came from the womb?” (3:8 & 11) Leviathan is linked with death. But there is more. Two times in Isaiah 27:1 Leviathan is called a nachash, which is the Hebrew word for “serpent.” The same word nachash appears in Genesis 3:1 which describes Satan who took the form of a wily serpent. Leviathan is a deceiving serpent. But there is still more. Take a look at the features of Leviathan in chapter 41:18-21, “His snorting throws out flashes of light; his eyes are like the rays of dawn. Firebrands stream from his mouth; sparks of fire shoot out. Smoke pours from his nostrils as from a boiling pot over a fire of reeds. His breath sets coals ablaze, & flames dart from his mouth.” Leviathan is a deadly, brutal & vicious dragon. In Revelation 12:9 all these images come together & the full identity of this supernatural creature is revealed: “The great dragon was hurled down, that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray.” Job 41:33 describes Leviathan with the words, “On earth is not his equal.” That inspired Martin Luther to write his battle hymn of the Reformation, Ein Feste Burg ist unser Gott. The reformer wrote: “The old evil Foe, now means deadly woe... Though devils all the world should fill, all eager to devour us... This world’s prince may still, scowl fierce as he will... Deep guile & great might are his dread arms in fight.” Then Luther quotes Job 41:33, “On earth is not his equal!” Leviathan comes to steal & kill & destroy. We see him in the rearview mirror. We feel his hot breath behind us. As tempter he’s chasing after us screaming, “Whatever it is you want to do, just do it. Have some anger? Act it out. Have sexual fantasies? Go ahead, full throttle. Have some gossip? Let it fly.” As deceiver he continues with these words, “There are no limits, no consequences, no responsibilities. Ready, set, go!” As we give in to these temptations & deceptions, then as accuser he plants his foot upon our necks, saying, “Now that you’ve thought this, said this, done this, God is finished with you!” But remember, Job 41 is all about victory, God’s victory over the monster. It’s about God’s victory over Satan. So listen! “Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook or tie down his tongue with a rope? Can you put a cord through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook?... Can you make a pet of him like a bird or put him on a leash for your girls? ...Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?” (Job 41:1–2, 5, 7) Leviathan is under God’s thumb. Yahweh exhibits complete mastery over the ferocious creature. In Job 1 Satan was given limits & boundaries: “The Lord said to Satan, ‘Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.’” (Job 1:12) The truth is Lucifer is the Colonel Klink of the Bible. Do you remember the colonel? He was the fall guy for Hogan on the TV series, Hogan’s Heroes. Klink supposedly ran a German POW camp during WW II. Those inside the camp, however, knew better. They knew who really ran the camp: the prisoners did. They listened to Klink’s calls & read his mail. They even gave Klink ideas, all the while using him for their own cause. Klink may strut & prance, but Hogan calls the shots. Just so, Satan may strut & prance & preen, but the Almighty Creator calls the shots. Yes there is a devil, but as Martin Luther would remark: “He is God’s devil” – that is, he does not have total reign. In chapter 1, Satan was given permission to test Job, & limits were set by God. But there is more. In the OT, Satan had free access to God’s presence. “One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, & Satan also came with them.” (Job 1:6) He could come & go when he wanted to accuse God’s people. But in our Lord’s ministry Satan was cast out of heaven. He no longer has access to God’s throne to accuse us, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven,” are the words written in Luke 10:18. But there is still more. “And the devil was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur,” per Revelation 20:10. Christ’s victory, celebrated on Palm Sunday, will be completed when He returns & throws the enemy into that lake of fire. 1 John 3:8 assures us, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” When Satan reminds you of your past, remind him of his future! Black Bart finally wasn’t anything to be afraid of. When the authorities eventually tracked him down, they didn’t find a bloodthirsty bandit from Death Valley; they found a mild-tempered business man from Decatur, Illinois. The monster the papers pictured storming through the mountains on horseback was, in reality, so afraid of horses he rode to & from the robberies in a buggy. He was Charles Boles – the bandit who never once fired a shot, because he never once loaded his gun. In Job 41 we see Satan for who he really is. A deadly monster? You bet. A supernatural creature who can do great harm? No doubt. The tormentor of our souls? Indeed. Does Satan hate God & hate us? Count on it. But because of Jesus Lucifer is a defeated enemy who’s got no bullets left in his gun. And our response? We live in joy! We live in confidence! This is the feast of victory for our God! And we celebrate our great victory with these words for the ages: “This world’s prince may still, scowl fierce as he will. He can harm us none. He’s judged, the deed is done. One little word can fell him!” And what is that little word which brings us victory today & forever? It has two syllables & five letters. Any guesses? The word that fells Satan every time is – Jesus. It is this Jesus who comes to us now, with real body & real blood, for real victory. Whatever the temptations are that you’ve given in to, the robe of righteousness that your Lord gave you at Baptism covers them. The blood of Jesus covers them completely. The gift of Holy Communion is God’s mighty fortress. It was given for our protection & healing. Let’s go there! Amen. A mighty fortress is our God, a trusty shield & weapon; He helps us free from every need that hath us now o’ertaken. The old evil foe now means deadly woe; deep guile & great might are his dread arms in fight; on earth is not his equal. Though devils all the world should fill, all eager to devour us, we tremble not, we fear no ill; they shall not overpower us. This world’s prince may still scowl fierce as he will, he can harm us none. He’s judged; the deed is done; one little word can fell him. Amen. LSB 656:1, 3. Palm Sunday – A LSB #’s 905, 348, 422
Text – Matthew 27:37 And over His head they put the charge against Him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” THE CHARGE AGAINST HIM Palm Sunday is a day when we like to think of the glorious parade Jesus was in as He entered Jerusalem. He arrived to the shouts of the people as King of Israel, “...Hosanna to the Son of David!...” (Matthew 21:9 ESV) Very few of the life events of Jesus are covered in Matthew, Mark, Luke & John, but His triumphant entry into Jerusalem is one of those few. For that reason, we might guess it has a lot more significance than the fact that it made for a nice parade. As we think about Jesus of Nazareth a large amount of our discussion centers on Him as Prophet. We consider what Jesus taught, the words He spoke, the miracles He performed, as He revealed the truth of God’s mercy to a world of fallen & hopeless sinners. Especially at this time of year, approaching Good Friday, we also focus a lot of attention on Jesus’ role as Priest. The main job of the OT priest was to perform the sacrifices on behalf of the people. Jesus came to earth to be the sacrifice. As John the Baptist so aptly put it, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29 ESV) This morning we’ll spend time meditating on the 3rd vocation of our Lord. The charge against Him read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” It was customary for the Romans to post the charges for which a criminal was being executed. Pontius Pilate chose those words even though he found Jesus to be innocent of the charge. The Son of God did not fit any definition of king that the Roman governor could think of. Does Jesus fit any of your definitions of king? Do you also find Jesus to be innocent of the charge against Him? After this sermon, one of the young men of this congregation will be asked to answer the questions himself that were answered on his behalf at his baptism: “Do you intend to live according to the Word of God, & in faith, word, & deed to remain true to God, Father, Son, & Holy Spirit, even to death? Do you intend to continue steadfast in this confession & Church & to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it?” Those questions are very direct & to the point. Could you answer yes to them? If so, what sort of daily decisions would you make differently after having taken those vows? Would your language change? Would you rearrange your priorities every day of the week? The reason we ask such blunt & uncompromising questions is that they are vows taken before a King. Remember what I asked just a few minutes ago, “Does Jesus fit any of your definitions of king?” Or, do you find Jesus to be innocent of the charge against Him? In this case, finding Jesus innocent is not a good thing. In other words, you don’t treat Him like He is your King even if you say you believe it. You see, there’s a reason we confess this in the Apostles’ Creed: “…He ascended into heaven & sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living & the dead.” In His role as King, Jesus has ascended to the right hand of the Father & come the Last Day, He will separate the believers from the unbelievers. King Herod may have been nut job, but he knew enough to take this King seriously. Early in the Gospel of Matthew there’s one reference to Jesus as King of the Jews. It begins chapter 2: “Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose & have come to worship him.’” (2:1-2 ESV) When king Herod realizes that the wise men had skipped town, without reporting back to him, he, “…became furious, & he sent & killed all the male children in Bethlehem & in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.” (Matthew 2:16 ESV) King Herod hadn’t even met Jesus, yet did not consider Jesus to be innocent of the charge against Him. Would that the followers of Jesus be so zealous in their dedication to their Lord & King: “Do you intend to live according to the Word of God, & in faith, word & deed to remain true to God, Father, Son, & Holy Spirit, even to death?” After the wise men search for the King of the Jews, that title isn’t mentioned again until Pontius Pilate brings it up at the trial: “Now Jesus stood before the governor, & the governor asked Him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’” (Matthew 27:11a ESV) I think that’s where many people in our country today have gotten off the track. Like Pontius Pilate, we don’t really believe in Jesus as our King. Prophet? Yeah, that’s okay. Jesus was a good teacher. You & I have learned a lot from Him. Priest? Sure! That was a noble thing to do. What child of God could begin to think of rejecting Jesus’ crucifixion for our sins? King? That’s more difficult. It’s uncomfortable, because if I consider Jesus as my King, then obedience becomes part of the equation. It’s okay to learn stuff from a prophet. It’s okay to grant that He gave His life for sinners. Being willing to take up my cross & follow Him, that’s another matter altogether. Vowing to be faithful to death is flat out unnerving. What if I don’t agree with everything Jesus teaches? What happens when I want to make up my own mind about something? Can I really trust Him to know what’s best for me in absolutely all circumstances? If you put some effort into thinking about them, those questions are challenging enough & they are very generic. So let’s make them more specific, or even personal. Jesus teaches that killing is wrong. What if the politician I’d like to vote for is in favor of abortion under all circumstances? A lot of people like to excuse that by saying, “Who am I to tell a woman what to do?” Yet, by not defending the child’s life you are telling the child what to do. It must die if the woman chooses. Another way of looking at it is this, “Who am I to tell a woman what to do?” In a sense you’re right. It’s not your business, but it is the business of our heavenly Father who created that child, & His word is clear: “You shall not kill.” If someone else is sinning & you refuse to warn them, God says that their blood is on your hands. His 3rd commandment is also quite clear: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” That means, set the whole day aside for the Lord, not just one hour. Are you not satisfied with that decision on His part? Are you struggling to trust His judgment in light of all the things you have going on during the rest of the week? Is Jesus the kind of king you are looking for? Prophet, Priest & King, it’s pretty clear which is most difficult to accept in our culture & in your very own heart. “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” You & I both would like to find Jesus innocent of the charge so that we are not accountable to Him for our thoughts, words or deeds. Though he had the sign posted, Pilate found Jesus innocent & washed his hands of it. The Jewish leaders & the crowd also found Jesus innocent of the charge against Him. He was not the kind of king they were looking for either. They wanted a Messiah who would conquer the Romans &, unlike the Romans, rule their earthly kingdom as they saw fit. They wanted a king who would lead them to happiness rather than to holiness. The high priests of the Jewish people denied Jesus as their king. Yet, on the cross, the ultimate High Priest was offering Himself as the sacrifice for the sins of those very priests & all the people of the world. God sent His only Son to die for sins like murder & for refusing to warn someone who is considering an abortion. He died for those times you have better things to do on Sunday morning, or Wednesday evening, or whenever during the week it is that God’s house is open for you to receive His blessings of life & peace. For all the times you’ve found it uncomfortable to accept Jesus Christ as your King the ultimate High Priest laid down His life for yours. He did so willingly in order to redeem you from death. So His message as Prophet, Priest & King is: “The time is fulfilled, & the reign of God is at hand; repent & believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15 ESV) Over time, your King will enable your trust in Him to grow, if you only give Him the chance. Your Creator is powerful & wise enough to change your definition of king so that it perfectly fits with who Jesus is. Hopefully then you will find Him guilty of the charge against Him & accept Jesus as your King. Amen. The King shall come when morning dawns & light triumphant breaks, when beauty gilds the eastern hills & life to joy awakes. Not as of old a little child, to bear & fight & die, but crowned with glory like the sun that lights the morning sky. The King shall come when mornings dawns & light & beauty brings. Hail, Christ the Lord! Your people pray: Come quickly, King of kings! Amen. LSB 348:1-2, 5. Midweek – 6 LSB #’s 423:1-2, 423:3, 589
Text – Job 38:1 Then the Lord [Yahweh] answered Job out of the storm. GOD SPEAKS IN THE STORM For thirty-five chapters God is silent. For thirty-five chapters God doesn’t say a word. For thirty-five chapters Job cries out. And for thirty-five chapters Bildad, Zophar, Eliphaz & Elihu consternate, deliberate, replicate & pontificate. But God? He says nothing. Brace yourself. Beginning with Job 38:1 the hidden God becomes the revealed God & what He reveals is absolutely amazing! What power! What wisdom! What awesome greatness! The Truth of the Day: Instead of an explanation from God we receive a revelation of God. The Lord finally speaks. Out of the thunder, Yahweh speaks. In the middle of the storm, God speaks. To the father who holds a rose taken from his son’s casket, God speaks. To the wife who holds the flag taken from her husband’s casket, God speaks. To the couple with the barren womb & the fervent prayers, God speaks. To any person who has tried to see God through shattered glass, he speaks. Our God speaks in the storm & His voice thunders with majesty, power & authority. Job 38:1: “Then the Lord [Yahweh] answered Job out of the storm.” This storm has huge thunder clouds, replete with flashes of lightning going back & forth. It’s a massive show of force, a Category 5 kind of storm for a Category 5 kind of God! And for the 1st time since chapters 1 & 2, the name “Yahweh” appears. From chapter 3 through chapter 37 people have called him “God” & “the Almighty,” but not Yahweh. Why is this important? Note Exodus 3:14 where God says, “I am who I am.” Jesus picks this up with his “I am” statements in John’s Gospel. For instance, “I am the Bread of Life.” “I am the Good Shepherd.” “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” For 35 chapters Job is consumed with all kinds of questions. Where is God? Why is this happening? When will this end? How could God do this to me? But the most important question is not when, why, what or how. It is who. Who is the God behind all of this? And who is the question that is answered in Job 38–41. Instead of an explanation from God we receive a revelation of God. “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?” (Job 38:2) Job doesn’t respond. “Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, & you shall answer me.” (Job 38:3) Job keeps silent. “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much.” (Job 38:4) Job is mute. “Do you know how its dimensions were determined & who did the surveying? What supports its foundations, & who laid its cornerstone, as the morning stars sang together & all the angels shouted for joy?” (Job 38:5–7) The tables are turned. Instead of Job questioning God, now God interrogates Job. Divine questions pour down like sheets of rain. They splatter in the chambers of Job’s heart with a wildness & a beauty & a terror that leaves every Job who has ever lived drenched & amazed & absolutely speechless. What starts here, & continues to the end of chapter 41, is a list of 70 questions that God asks Job. And the point of it all is this: Job needs to let God be God. There is a Lord & we are not him! To underscore this point, God repeatedly points out that the universe is vast & infinitely complex! For instance, the diameter of the sun is 109 times larger than the earth. Its volume could contain 1,000,000 earths. This God created the Milky Way, which is just one galaxy & it alone measures 104,000 light-years across. It contains over 100 billion stars. And according to information from the Hubble Space Telescope there are hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe! “Can you see it, Job?” God asks. “Can you rejoice in it all as I do? The morning stars sing for joy because of who I am & what I do – can you rejoice in it too? Can you see how carefully I’ve put it all together? Can you grasp the immensity of what I’ve created? Can you be my equal? Can you match my power, my ability to watch over & care for all this? What do you say, Job?” “Then Job answered the Lord: ‘I am unworthy – how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer – twice, but I will say no more.’” (Job 40:3–5) “Then Job replied to the Lord: ‘I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.’” (Job 42:1–2) Job gets it. He’s been the water boy telling LeBron James how to dribble a basketball. Job has been the bat boy telling Babe Ruth how to hit a home run. Job has been the caddie telling Arnold Palmer how to use a nine iron. Job has been the clay, telling the Potter what to do. Job surrenders. He stops pressing for an explanation from God & instead receives a revelation of God. This God not only wraps Himself in a storm, but in the fullness of time he wrapped himself in a human body. Jesus took on flesh to take us into His arms, heal our hurts, & destroy our darkness. He became a human being, not to demonstrate the innocence of being an infant, but to live the life we could not, & to experience the Father’s judgment so we need not. We don’t have a God who is distant, far off, or disconnected. We have a God who is with us, a God who speaks in the storm & becomes like us in Christ Jesus. Are you broken? He was broken. Are you hurting? He hurt. Do you cry? Jesus wept. God is fully present for us & is with us. One day, in the light of glory, we’ll look back on the story Jesus has written in our lives, & the lives of all His people. Then, we shall declare, “He has done all things well.” Job’s attitude began with a mixture of self-pity & self-assertion. As his life was devastated by one calamity after another, Job sank into grief. Then, in spite of his wife’s advice to curse God & die, he insisted on defending his own innocence. By contrast the attitude recommended by Job’s three friends was self-accusation: “Come on, Job,” they said, “admit that you’re suffering because of your sin. This is God’s judgment upon you; repent & it’ll soon turn out alright.” But Job refused to be bullied into signing a false confession. He was innocent. Then the 4th friend, Elihu, appears on the scene & he urges upon Job yet another attitude to adopt, that of self-discipline. He pleads with Job to see that there is purpose in pain, not retribution but instruction, to recognize that in some measure this is God’s way of correcting us. Finally it is God who speaks & the only attitude left open to Job is self-surrender, falling before God in reverence, awe & humility. How about us? In our storm? I can give up on God. I can say He’s a fake & a phony &a fraud. Or I can receive the revelation & stop insisting on an explanation. Then I surrender, like Job. I declare my declaration of dependence. What does that look like? Jesus gives us the words: “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” I dare to pray these words because a revelation of this God beats any explanation, any & every time. Amen. Speak, O Lord, You servant listens, let Your Word to me come near; newborn life & spirit give me, let each promise still my fear. Death’s dread power, its inward strife, wars against Your Word of life; fill me, Lord, with love’s strong fervor that I cling to You forever. Amen. LSB 589:1 4th Sunday in Lent – A LSB #’s 613, 610, 924
Text – Romans 8:6-8 NIV The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life & peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. THE MIND OF DEATH Years ago I read an article, “Charting the Un-churched in America.” I’ll be using numerous quotations from that article & here’s the 1st, “Experts see people looking upward, inward, online & out-of-doors for the comfort, connection & inspiration they once sought in formal sanctuaries. Their ‘spirituality’ is un-hemmed by ritual, by Scripture or theology.” Later, the reporter concludes, “People want help connecting, creating community & seeing God in other people. But religious institutions have been discredited, so they are trying to do it outside the churches.” Speaking in general, for the people of my generation & following, the concept of do it yourself religion is rather appealing. For the people of my parent’s generation & older, do it yourself religion would never have entered their minds. Those generations were raised with the idea that religion was something you got in church, & you got it from the pastor or the priest. Your spiritual life was not something that you messed around with yourself. Today’s generations enjoy messing around with their spiritual lives themselves, & in fact, often trust no one else to do it for them, pastor or otherwise. Between my parent’s generation & mine, there’s been a wholesale shift in the way our society does religion. People are still looking for a spiritual life. Anymore, they just don’t search in the same places. Whereas in the past, ritual, Scripture & theology were the very structure of religion, today those same concepts are seen as a hindrance to active spiritual life. Whereas in the past religious institutions were seen as the purveyors of spirituality, today those same institutions have been discredited in the minds of many baby boomers. In fact, it’s already cliché to suggest that institutional religion is ‘oppressive, patriarchal, out of date & out of touch.’ Most millennials see them as completely irrelevant. That willingness to search & do religion on one’s own has brought opportunity for people in the church to show them the love of Christ. Yet that willingness to explore also brings danger to those conducting the search, & the sermon text highlights the chief of those, “The mind of sinful man is death.” That thought comes from the Bible, & since it’s seen as something that hems in our search many people will reject that thought out of hand. Nevertheless, for those of us still in organized religion, it should be a sobering reminder of the danger that the seekers are facing. The very mind they’re using to conduct this search, can be referred to as death. Not too many people would knowingly entrust their spiritual lives to something that is death, but the deceptions of Satan are extremely powerful, so the unthinkable happens. Many people who’ve been born into the Christian religion have left it behind, because death has been leading them astray without their knowing it. Fortunately, the sermon text also speaks of another kind of mind, one controlled by the Holy Spirit, which is referred to as life & peace. When talking of His followers, Jesus said, “My sheep listen to my voice, I know them, & they follow Me.”[1] Now those sheep may search out their Savior in order to follow Him, but that’s a different kind of spiritual searching. They already have eternal life & are merely seeking to live the kind of life that most pleases their Savior. For the one who is not a child of God, but feels something is missing in his life, he doesn’t have the Holy Spirit living within & guiding his mind. One of the ways in which our Lutheran Catechism approaches teaching on these matters is to look at our nature as God’s children in two ways. We refer to the one as our Old Man, the sinful nature, & we refer to the other as our New Man, the saintly nature. When Paul states that the mind of sinful man is death, he’s talking of the Old Man. When he writes of the mind controlled by the Spirit, he’s speaking of the New Man, the one created by God’s means of grace. The Old Man, the mind of death, is hostile to God, & though it may be searching, the only reason it searches for God is for the purpose of dethroning Him in order to install the Old Man itself as king. The Bible clearly teaches that without Christ, everyone is totally depraved. But that’s not a word we use today, so here’s a definition. Each of us is born with a deep, wicked, bottomless, inscrutable & inexpressible corruption of our entire nature in all its powers, especially of the highest & foremost powers of the soul in mind, heart & will. By nature, every one of us inherits from Adam a mind-set that, even in its highest powers & the light of reason, is by nature diametrically opposed to God & His wisdom especially in spiritual matters. Scripture even teaches that of infant children, thus the Lutheran emphasis on infant Baptism, because through it God counteracts the mind of death. That mind of death places ahead of everything else in life, its own cravings, desires & feelings. Those are the idols of modern America. A woman who was interviewed for the USA TODAY article said this of her & her family: “We haven’t gone to church since we were children. Our children go to private school, where they learn the philosophy of all religions, & I think that’s enough. They are happiest when we are out looking for adventure every weekend.” That sounds a lot like, “If it feels good, it must be right, so go ahead & do it.” The person who’s governed by his Old Man is generally unconscious of the death he’s working out for himself. The woman quoted above makes a good illustration of that as she says, “The children are happiest when we’re out looking for adventure every weekend.” She believes in the god called feelings, & as long as her children feel happy, she assumes she’s a good parent. The truth is she’s merely unconscious of the death she’s working out, not only for herself, but possibly her children as well. A father quoted in the article had this to say, “On Easter, my son & I go camping. You can’t help but be spiritual out there.” He believes he’s teaching his son a catechism of nature. However, what both parents are not realizing is that by themselves, without Jesus, they are powerless against death & against the Old Man within that is rushing them into it. Without the true Son of God, headlong, full speed ahead, they are aiming straight for death. But Americans don’t like to think of themselves as being under anyone’s control. We want to say, as Frank Sinatra sang it, “I did it my way.” This notion of individual self-determination is one of the strongest American cultural traits, & it’s one that runs deeply counter to God’s way. In reality, we are slaves to one thing or another: to money or poverty, fame or privacy, love or hate, fear or hope. The difficult truth is that we never had control in the 1st place. We’re born, by nature, with a mind of death. We don’t like to hear that, because to us, freedom means self-determination, but that far too easily becomes our god. In fact the only being that exhibits total self-determination is Yahweh. For us, self-determination is a mirage; the truth is that we are always under control, the devil’s or God’s. There’s no middle ground of our own, as Adam & Eve sadly discovered. What the Old Man brings forth in the way of thought & action is, in the final outcome, Death. That’s where we as Christians have opportunities, because we bear the message of Jesus Christ & Life. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, & in that certainty lies a freedom far greater than self-determination provides. Since we were born totally depraved, totally hostile to the source of life, the only choice that self-determination allows is one of death. Sadly, some people are so opposed to God that they willingly choose eternal death in their misguided, arrogant attempts to assert themselves before Him. Jesus came to set us free, to rescue us, from that mind of death. God Himself died in order that He might destroy the hold that the mind of death had upon us. The ultimate search for spirituality will always end successfully at the empty tomb of Christ. There we see that the mind of death no longer owns or controls those who believe in the Son of God as Savior from sin. That good news is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes[2]: a power even greater than death. In that message a person finds true comfort, connection & inspiration. People searching for true happiness don’t find it for long by looking for adventure every weekend. Spirituality cannot be found without the work of God’s Holy Spirit. Remember, though the mind of sinful man is death, the mind controlled by the Spirit is life & peace. Amen. Lord Jesus, think on me & purge away my sin; from worldly passions set me free & make me pure within. Lord Jesus, think on me, by anxious thoughts oppressed; let me Your loving servant be & taste Your promised rest. Amen. LSB 610:1-2 [1] John 10:27 NIV [2] Romans 1:16 |
AuthorPastor Dean R. Poellet Archives
March 2024
Categories |