Maundy Thursday – 2019 LSB #’s 636:1-4, 618:1-4, 917
Text – Mark 14:12 And on the 1st day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, His disciples said to Him, “Where will you have us go & prepare for you to eat the Passover?” THE LAST SUPPER: A PLACE FOR A FEAST On the eve of His death, Jesus’ concern was for His disciples. While Satan was marshaling his forces, when Judas had made his contract of betrayal, when the soldiers & guards stood ready to follow the traitor wherever he led, while Caiaphas was drumming up a meeting of the Sanhedrin in anticipation of Christ’s capture, Jesus had His disciples at heart. He knew how frail & frightened they were. He wanted to give them strength & support. And that night Jesus was looking not only at those disciples. He was also looking into the future at you & me. So He showed His tender mercy in a remarkable & miraculous way. He took His disciples, & still today takes us, to the Last Supper: a feast of three communions. If you’re sitting at a table ready to eat & wondering what’s for dinner, all you have to do is look at the food. Chicken is chicken. Potatoes are potatoes. Beans are beans. If you want to know any of the ingredients that you can’t see, you can read the label. Salad dressing may contain water, corn syrup, cultured buttermilk, vinegar, onion juice, sugar, garlic juice, salt, modified corn starch, soybean oil, xanthan gum, phosphoric acid, propylene glycol alginate, monosodium glutamate, potassium sorbate & calcium disodium EDTA as preservatives, dried parsley, dried green onions, spice & yellow #5. To know what Jesus gives in this feast, we start by looking at it. “While they were eating Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it, & gave it to His disciples… Then He took the cup, gave thanks & offered it to them.” When we partake of this feast, bread is still bread & wine is still wine, but there are added ingredients we do not see. So, we look at the label. We look at the Savior’s words: “He took bread & gave it to the disciples, saying, ‘Take; this is my body.’ Then He took the cup… & gave it to them… saying, ‘This is my blood.’” In this special meal, Jesus gives His own body & blood, the same body that was nailed to the cross, the same blood that was shed there, but they are miraculously joined to the wine & the bread. How can bread & wine be the body & blood of Christ? A professor once said, “If a hundred thousand devils should rush forward & ask that question, we know that all the demons together with all the scholars of the world do not have as much wisdom as does God in His little finger.” The words of Christ stand: “This is my body… This is my blood.” At this place for a feast, & every time this feast is celebrated as Jesus began it, there are 3 communions, three “coming-togethers.” The 1st is a communion of four elements. “It is the true body & blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread & wine, instituted by Christ for us Christians to eat & to drink.” And that leads to the 2nd communion. Have you found yourself eating the wrong kind of foods? People enjoy junk food, but eating it causes us to take in too much fat & cholesterol. What we need is a well-balanced diet – a proper combination of protein, fiber & carbohydrates so all our systems function correctly. We need food with solid nutritional value so our bodies grow & maintain their strength. Well, your soul needs nourishment too, so that your faith can grow & maintain its strength. Yet, there’s a lot of spiritual junk food available in the religious marketplace. You can fill up on the “Twinkies” of social action & civil rights served up as the main course in some churches today. You can fatten up on the “cupcakes” of self-indulgence, self-reliance, or self-fulfillment neatly packaged as religious piety. But there’s only one food that has value for our soul. That is the forgiveness of our sins. When we want to be sure that food for our bodies has value, we check with the experts, the nutritionists. They can tell us not only what is in certain foods but also what benefit there is for us. If we don’t believe what they say, we end up feeding on harmful foods & eating our way to an early grave. The same is true in this special meal. When we want to be sure that this sacramental meal has real value, we check with the only expert there is, the Lord Jesus Himself. He has the expertise to tell us not only what is in this supper, but also the benefit it has for us. If we don’t believe Him, we may be feeding on Satan’s lies & eating our way to an eternal grave. So let’s examine what our Lord says: “Take; this is my body given for you… This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” The word covenant is the key. It’s an agreement, & normally there are two sides to one. If you agree not to throw a hymnal at me, I’ll agree not to throw one at you. That would be a two-sided covenant. But when Jesus made this covenant with us, He did not make a two-sided agreement. This is a one-sided promise. He says: You don’t have to do anything. Come to this table empty. Come with your sin. Come with your guilt. I will heal your waywardness & love you freely, for my anger has turned away from you. Sometimes we struggle long & hard against the desires of our sinful nature yet still lose the battle. Then we wonder if God still loves us. That’s where this special meal brings comfort. Because we are struggling, tempted & weak, we go to the Lord’s Supper to touch & taste, to eat & drink in a personal way this reassurance, “Your sins are forgiven.” At this place for a feast, & every time this meal is celebrated as Jesus began it, there are 3 communions. The 2nd is a coming together of God & sinners. Now for the 3rd. It’s difficult to grasp how a politician can attend a state dinner with his political opponent & actually smile & digest the food. A person would have to be a terrific actor to pull it off. It’s enough for us non-politicians, when invited to a business lunch, to sit across the table from the person who’s been bad-mouthing us at work all week. A meal like that would be awkward & uncomfortable. We might be so tense that our digestive system gets thrown off & the meal may prove to have little nutritional value. On the other hand, some of the most pleasant times in our lives may center around a relaxing & enjoyable dinner with friends & relatives. Relationships are solidified, & expressions of love & mutual commitment are shared. As the evening in the upper room drew to a close, Jesus hinted at that kind of oneness: “I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” (Matthew 26:29 ESV) There can be no closer link between friends than when they are joined with each other & Jesus in heaven. This meal is a foretaste of the oneness we will enjoy there. Then the writer adds, “When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” Singing at the Passover meal was commonplace, a demonstration of the unity shared by those who partook of the meal. While it’s only hinted at here, but expanded on in greater detail by the apostle Paul, we’re given a taste of the 3rd communion of this great feast. At this altar & every time this meal is celebrated as Jesus began it, the 3rd communion is a coming together of people to people. When we participate together in this feast, we’re indicating that we are one in faith, that we all believe the same teachings of Jesus. We are also saying that we have a truly repentant heart for all our sins. Another aspect is demonstrated in the story of doubting Thomas. Jesus had risen from the dead & appeared to His disciples who were hiding behind locked doors. But Thomas wasn’t there. When the others told him that they’d seen the Lord, he declared, “Unless I see the nail marks in His hands & put my finger where the nails were, & put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”[1] He wanted more than the others’ say-so. He wanted to touch & see for himself. A week later the disciples were in that house again. This time Thomas was with them. Jesus appeared suddenly, & after calming their fears, He turned to Thomas & said: “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand & put it into my side. Stop doubting & believe.” Thomas answered Him, “My Lord & my God!” (John 20:27-28) Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen & yet have believed.” (John 20:29 ESV) I’d like to think Jesus was talking about us, those who are blessed. But sometimes, like Thomas, we have our doubts – maybe not an all-out “I won’t believe this!” but certainly misgivings. “Is our religion really the right one? Is the Bible totally without error in all it says?” Then there are times when we sin & start to wonder: “Will God actually forgive me for saying that? Does He truly have the patience to put up with me every time I slip? I know He tells me I’m forgiven. I hear His words, but if I could see Him or touch Him, then I’d be certain.” The kind of reality we want; the kind of reassurance we desire comes to us from the only kind of Savior who can help, a Savior who takes us by the hand & leads us to this place for a feast, a feast of three communions. Here He joins the payment for our sins with something we can see, touch & taste. Here He joins His love to our hearts. Here He joins us to each other so at this place, whenever we partake of this feast, Peter’s words are pointed right at your heart & mine: “Though you have not seen [Jesus], you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him & rejoice with joy that is inexpressible & filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”[2] Those are the true words of God. They’re never filled with empty calories. A diet of these words brings eternal life & never-ending health. That is our Savior’s covenant promise to each one of us. Amen. I come O Savior to Thy table for weak & weary is my soul. Thou Bread of life alone art able to satisfy & make me whole. Weary am I & heavy laden; with sin my soul is sore oppressed; receive me graciously & gladden my heart, for I am now Thy guest. Lord may Thy body & Thy blood be for my soul the highest good. Amen. LSB 618:1, 4. [1] John 20:25 ESV [2] 1 Peter 1:8-9 ESV Palm Sunday – 2019 LSB #’s 444, 435, 441
Text – Luke 13:34 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets & stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, & you were not willing! GOD’S WILL WHEN WE ARE UNWILLING How often have we been here with Jesus on Palm Sunday? Some of us 10 years, some 30, some of us 50 years & even more. We join with the whole crowd of followers & proclaim, “Blessed is the King who comes in the Name of the Lord!” With that crowd we join our voices to declare, by echoing the angels at Jesus’ birth, “Peace in heaven & glory in the highest.” Matthew gives us hosannas, John gives us palm branches, & Luke takes us back to the birth of the King. How often we’ve been here with King Jesus as He comes to Jerusalem to be crowned with thorns & ascend the throne of the cross to bring us salvation & peace. Many of us have been here so often that the details of the scene blur from one gospel to another. Yet, if you pay attention to the details Luke gives, you might have noticed that something seems out of place. With the crowd of disciples following & praising, when Jesus comes near Jerusalem He stops & weeps. Our Lord shed tears for good reason. He knows what’s coming for this city, & her people, who have so often rejected the will of the heavenly Father. Judgment is coming & no stone will be left unturned when the Romans arrive. In 70 AD, they destroy Jerusalem, including the temple of God, & the people there were decimated. As the crowds of Palm Sunday rejoice, Jesus weeps, but this is not the 1st time He has grieved for God’s people & this very city. Sometime before Palm Sunday, along His journey to Jerusalem, Jesus points to His coming death & speaks this lament: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets & stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, & you were not willing! Behold, your house is forsaken.” (Luke 13:34-35a ESV) As Jesus finally comes to Jerusalem & the crowds shout praises to Him, it is striking that we remember Palm Sunday as a day of joy while Jesus weeps. Jesus’ words, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, as well as His tears, are about the will of God & His people’s lack of will to live in His salvation & peace. To help us understand His grief, Christ takes us into the world of – chickens. You heard it right – chickens. On farms around this country, especially at this time of year the sound of peeping chicks rings out across the barnyard. If you follow the sound you’ll find a hen surrounded by a brood of tiny yellow creatures. Some follow mommy while others stray this way & that. She will scratch & peck the ground; they will do the same. She will go for water & for the most part they’ll follow. But, there are always a few feathered balls of yellow that will stray too far. Momma hen will walk over to them & “gather” them back to herself. If you get too close you learn quickly not to stand between the mother hen & her chicks. When she realizes they need shelter or protection she raises her wings, to her own discomfort, & draws them beneath herself where they are covered & safe. She will patiently repeat this process of teaching, nurturing, protecting & gathering her brood an endless number of times. The chicks constantly wander off to explore & get into trouble. How does the mother hen have the will to repeat that process again & again when the will of her chicks is so often opposed to her will? What an appropriate picture of Jerusalem & the people of God. How often Jesus had experienced them as a brood of unwilling chicks! He’d ushered in the gracious reign of God, the activity of the King. He’d healed the lame, fed the hungry, driven out demons, calmed the storm & raised the dead. Jesus had brought peace from heaven to His people. The very city whose name contains the word peace – Salem – should have seen, heard & understood the things having to do with peace. God had come to gather them into His Shalom by the visitation of His Son, but they kept on challenging, kept on doubting & kept on opposing the ministry of Messiah. In doing so they were directly opposing the will of their Creator who’d sent His Son to gather them, that He might be their peace. As it was in the days of the prophets of old, so it was as Jesus approached Jerusalem. Perhaps hearing all this causes your heart to join with Jesus’ lament as you witness the unwillingness of God’s people to live in His will? To keep on rejecting Jesus runs the risk of remaining apart from Him & under judgment forever. We join Jesus in grieving that reality, yet, it is helpful if we confess that it’s always easier to see someone else’s lack of will to live in God’s will. Because sin has corrupted our sense of reality it is difficult to see how we willfully oppose & reject God’s plan in our lives. Peter was confident he would never fail Jesus, yet he flat out rejected God’s plan to send His Son to the cross. Jesus had to tell Peter, “Get behind me Satan,” before Peter saw his own unwillingness to follow. St. Paul, who often lamented the unwillingness of his fellow Jews to live in God’s will, had himself directly rejected God’s plan in Jesus. It took the blinding light of Christ knocking Paul off his horse until he surrendered to the heavenly Father’s will. Jesus also laments our unwillingness to be gathered, as a hen gathers her chicks, into His gracious will. For some, Jesus sees an unwillingness to be reconciled to a person you work with or to a church or family member. That person hurt you so badly you can’t imagine feeling safe with them again. Due to the upside down nature of sin you wander further each day from the peace & protection Jesus came to gather you into. How often He extends His healing hand only to watch you hold even tighter to the hurt you now find so familiar. Jesus weeps at your unwillingness to receive His peace in your life. He knows it doesn’t have to be this way. For others, Jesus sees the secret – the one we wish to be free of, the path of drugs, or pornography, or even an addiction to working. You try to leave that path before it destroys everything & everyone around you, but as hard as you try you just can’t get it done. The truth is you don’t even know what life would be like without it. How often Jesus has extended His transforming grace, only to watch you choose to be shackled to that burden instead. Our Savior weeps over us as we cling to our burdens. Maybe you’re the one trying to manage yet another situation as if you had the power to control the universe. How often has Christ poured His grace upon you when you find yourself helpless to make YOUR plan work! He wants nothing more than to gather you, to see you let go of the struggle & to rest in His peace. His tears fall as He watches you take the reins yet again. Each of us has some place in life where we are unwilling to be conformed to the will of Jesus. That unwillingness is wrapped into what Christ is doing as He approaches Jerusalem weeping & lamenting. How often He has been here, with us His people. You & I are powerless to change our unwillingness. We’re helpless to will ourselves onto His path & into His healing. No wonder tears flow from our Savior’s eyes as He looks upon Jerusalem & His people even while they praise Him. No wonder tears flow from our Lord’s eyes as He looks upon us while we praise Him today. Jesus’ weeping in Luke 19 leads us back to His lament in Luke 13 where He employs the image of a hen & her chicks to talk about our unwillingness. He’s tried to gather us back to Himself so often that it seems logical He should walk away & leave us to judgment. Yet, the image Jesus uses is not only of unwilling chicks. It also shows the even greater unwillingness of a hen to abandon her chicks that she loves. When she sees her babies confused, wandering away, or in peril, there’s nothing that can prevent her from spreading her wings to cover those helpless, vulnerable & frequently unwilling little chicks. She’d gladly receive in her body a death blow to save what is most precious to her. She is unwilling to leave her chicks on their own! Can you see it? He raises His wings higher than it seems possible, to His own discomfort & anguish. So high & lifted up are the arms of Jesus it took nails to hold them there. He is so unwilling that you should perish in your sin that He submits to the Father’s will. Standing in the shadow of those blood stained arms, we see the full fury of divine punishment upon sin. So strong & eager is the will of God to restore His creation & rejoice over you that He delivered the deathblow not upon you, His helpless chick, but on His only begotten Son. And that’s only the beginning. After three days in the tomb, Yahweh’s love for you caused Him to raise Jesus back to life, ushering in a new creation in the face of our unwillingness. How often does Jesus meet you here, in this sanctuary, to gather & remind you that from baptism you belong to Him? How often does He hear your confession & gather you under His wings of forgiveness & mercy? How often does our Lord gather you to Himself at this altar where He touches your lips with His resurrected body & blood making you His new creation? Upon leaving here today, when you see that pathway of unwillingness you’ve walked down too many times – bitterness, control, hiding in the darkness of sin – & you feel helpless to do anything about it, lean into what Jesus is doing today because you cannot change things on your own. As you lean into Jesus you’ll experience His unwillingness to leave you on your own. In that safety & security, as you look around, you discover that you are not alone. You are joined under His wings by all of us. Maybe you know of a story like this. Being in relationship to her father had not been easy – over the years a series of some big rejections & many little ones. Choices he made drove a wedge into their relationship & bitterness grew into a seemingly impenetrable fortress. They’d drifted apart until she received a phone call from her father’s neighbor. The neighbor had been taking him to doctor appointments & wanted the daughter to know that her father needed help. At the time no one knew he was in the 1st stages of dementia. He needed his daughter, yet in that moment she did not want to lean into a relationship with him. She wanted to hold on to the bitterness that had grown over time. How could she start caring for him after all he had done & failed to do? What could possibly break down that barrier? He had rejected her attempts at being in relationship for many years. It was impossible on her own, but, she was never actually alone. Leaning into Jesus she discovered again that His love & peace were unconditionally hers. It’s been a long process of being shaped by Jesus’ love & peace, but she took a very small step away from the bitterness into a relationship with her dad. Leaning into Jesus, covered by His wings, she discovered she wasn’t alone on the journey. As other disciples shared in her struggle, Jesus used them to bring her & her dad more & more into God’s story. She’ll tell you some days are still really hard to be in relationship to her dad. She still grieves the years she missed with him, & remembers the hurt of his rejection. She’s finding that happens less often as she lives in the peace the crucified & risen Savior gathers her into. Now she’s able to give her father the care he needs. In this life our struggles with sin never go away, but neither does Jesus. Under His wings we find that we are not alone. As we lean into His love & peace we discover that His wings have already been covering us. On this Palm Sunday, as we sing & celebrate the coming of the King, who ascended the throne of the cross, we confess our own unwillingness, while we trust that the love of God in Christ is relentless in pursuing us. That is the meaning of the cross. Amen. Come to Calvary’s holy mountain, sinners ruined by The Fall; here a pure & healing fountain flows for you, for me, for all, in a full, perpetual tide, opened when our Savior died. Come in sorrow & contrition, wounded, impotent & blind; here the guilty, free remission, here the troubled, peace may find. Health this fountain will restore; they that drink shall thirst no more. Amen. LSB 435:1, 3. Midweek 6 – 2019 LSB #’s 437, 606
Text – 1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. THE VEIL The purpose of a veil is to hide or to obscure, so that what’s behind the veil can be seen only dimly or not at all. In Scripture, the veil symbolizes that many things in life cannot & will not be fully understood. During Lent we stand before the great atoning act of Christ on the cross, but we can never fully understand what He did for us there. All we can do this side of eternity is receive His salvation with faith & gratitude. The Lenten veil symbolizes this, & has its scriptural basis in the book of Exodus. There, Moses has been on top of Mount Sinai & the Bible says his face was radiant after being in the presence of God. The people of Israel had to be shielded from that radiance, so Moses wore a veil. For the same reason, in the temple at Jerusalem a veil was placed between the sanctuary & the Holy of Holies. Only the Chief priest could enter, & only one day a year, on the Day of Atonement – Yom Kippur. The Holy of Holies was too sacred for others even to look at. In the Medieval church, a common practice during Lent was to put up a veil between the chancel & the nave. It was to symbolize the enormity of our sin separating us from the holy God, just like the veil in the temple. Today some churches place a veil or a drape over the cross during Lent to symbolize that Christ’s sacrifice is also too glorious for others to look at. We traditionally place a veil over the vessels for Holy Communion while they are on the altar. The glory of that cup of blessing is shielded from our eyes. In humility, we recognize that there are mysteries of God we can view only dimly. Thus, the veil expresses the whole spirit of the Lenten season. We humbly stand before the great mystery of our redemption, reduced to silence. The atmosphere of Lent used to be somber. Traditionally, Christians would not take part in frivolous celebrations. There’d be no weddings & no drinking. The liturgy would be more spoken than sung. The subdued, somber colors of purple or black were in the chancel. The veil symbolizes that there’s a proper sense of humility, reticence & awe in our Christian life. We are not God. We’re not in paradise, & there’s still much that is a mystery. In the sermon text St. Paul says, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” No doubt St. Paul used the illustration of a mirror, because Corinth was well known in that day for making them. Perhaps we can use the illustration of a one-way mirror. It’s the kind that used to be in the meat section of the grocery store. Someone could see you, but you only saw a reflection. That’s how some veils work. From behind the veil a woman can see everything, but from the outer side all is dark or dim. That’s what the veil expresses to us. Now we live by faith; we’re on the outside of the veil. Life is somber here, compared to heaven. We can’t imagine “the glory that’ll be revealed in us.” Now we can’t understand why things happen the way they do, but we don’t need to. God fully understands. Our Father sees where we’re going & is guiding the future, even our future. He sees the ploys of Satan to lead us astray, but Jesus has already written our names in the book of life. There’s no need to be afraid. Problems arise when we look into that one-way mirror & think we see God. In truth, we see our own reflection. We think God is like us – that He thinks & feels & reacts like we do. That’s why the Scriptures plead with us: “Let the wicked turn to the Lord, & He will have mercy on him, & to our God, for He will freely pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways & My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:7-9 NIV) We are not able to forgive & forget as God does. That’s why He’s given us the cross to look at. There, we see the Savior’s love in all its clarity. He went there for you. You can trust His love & forgiveness. Yet, some people think that because they can’t forgive themselves, God can’t either. But Jesus died for you, whether or not you feel forgiven. Your sins are gone. Forgiveness is an act of God from His goodness & mercy in Jesus Christ. That act of God is finished; it’s completed. A young mother, who’d had an abortion as a teenager, once came to her pastor. She said she knew God had promised to forgive her, but she didn’t feel forgiven. The Pastor told her that her feelings had nothing to do with the reality. For example, a married person is married whether they feel that way or not. Whether you feel God has forgiven you or not, He has. His Son has died. Your sins are erased. We see & feel only this side of the veil. We see only our own reflection. From the other side, God sees us holy, pure & spotless, washed clean in the blood of His Son. That’s how you really are. Your heavenly Father has heard your plea for mercy & has freely pardoned you because of Christ. God promised through His prophet Jeremiah: “I will forgive their wickedness & will remember their sins no more.” Jeremiah was looking ahead to a day when God would put His teaching into the minds of His people & write it upon their hearts. We are now living in that day albeit dimly, & when heaven arrives we will be living it fully. So what is the worry on your heart right now? Is it your guilt? Is it your children, your marriage, your future, your health, your work? Lent calls you to look at the cross &, in humility, trust in your Lord’s love & in His promises for your life. From this side of the veil everything may appear dim & dark, somber & uncertain. The Devil reaches down to hurt God by hurting us, as he did to Eve, to Job, & to Judas. We see the chaos of the cosmic battle going on between God & Satan, & we ask why is this happening? Where will it lead? What good can possibly come from it? But there is the other side of the veil, the one that God sees & knows. From there He sends you His certain promises. One day we’ll get to that side, & there we’ll see how it all fit together. Now we see only the underside of the weaving. So we need to be reminded, “…our struggle is not against flesh & blood, but… against the powers of this dark world & against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12 NIV) We’re like the little child who can’t understand why his father suddenly yanks him by the arm. We have no idea of the danger we’re in. We just shout in anger & hurt & ignorance while on the other side of the woven cloth, the pattern & purpose are clear. Through the cross, God is working to clothe us with His full armor so that we may be able to withstand the battle. Through the death of His only begotten Son, our heavenly Father is working to protect & guide & save us. During Lent we celebrate in faith, even on this side of the veil as St. Paul wrote to the Romans, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39) Declares the Lord, “I will be your God & you shall be My people.” (Jeremiah 31:33b) The day is coming when we will fully understand the love that our Lord & Savior has for us. May our heavenly Father speed the coming of that day. Amen. The peace of God that surpasses all human understanding will guard your hearts & your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen. 5th Sunday in Lent – C LSB #730
Text – Philippians 3:7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. COUNTED AS LOSS Some of you will be tempted to think that I am preaching heresy, false doctrine, blasphemy, & in today’s lingo fake news! There’s a big game tomorrow night. It’s called March Madness & the championship game will be broadcast around the world. Yet, no matter who wins if St. Paul were alive today he would count any victory as a loss. Can you picture coach K turning in all his championship trophies? Can you imagine the Detroit Red Wings refusing to ever again claim the Stanley Cup? How about Mark Dantonio forfeiting each of his victories over Jim Harbaugh? As radical as those thoughts are, it’s pretty much the same thing Jesus said to His disciples when He told them, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world & forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36 ESV) In today’s Epistle reading, the apostle Paul makes the same point when he writes: “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.” That is radical thinking in today’s mega billion dollar world of sports. People love winners, & a winning team can lift the spirits of an entire city along with millions of its fans. I doubt St. Paul would say that’s wrong, but he definitely would want us to keep things in their proper perspective. In a broken world, that’s not a simple balancing act. There are too many forces pulling us in different directions, & some of those are the wrong direction. In Paul’s day he was battling against two differing forms of religion. One was a very legalistic type, which isn’t all that predominant in our culture. The other was a very promiscuous version of religion that said anything goes because Jesus has forgiven everything. People from both forms of religion thought they had it made. They were all set, as good as gold. So what is it that makes you feel good about you? Does that make you feel satisfied & capable or independent? Then whatever that is it’s evil. In the process of reevaluation, as the Holy Spirit grew his faith in Jesus, Paul came to realize that the things he viewed as giving him status or security, the things which made him feel good, had in fact destroyed him. Going there to persecute Christians, when Paul thought he was on the road to Damascus, he was also on the road to hell. Still, he felt good about himself & what he was accomplishing. After the Son of God interrupted his journey with a blinding revelation, by the Holy Spirit’s guidance, Paul realized that everything he’d previously counted as gain was actually loss. Paul learned a completely new set of priorities. Can you think of a Bible verse that summarizes them? How about this one, “Seek 1st the kingdom of God & His righteousness, & all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33 ESV) Maybe you’ve heard this saying, “Keep the main thing, the main thing.” Keep your priorities in the correct order. Every day of our lives, as children of God, our separation from the world must be newly made, again & again. To turn away from the desires of the world has many similarities to repentance. And yet, the Word of God promises that if we keep our priorities in their proper order, then Yahweh Himself will bless us with the material things we need for the life He gives. Here’s another verse about priorities that’s similar to what Paul wrote to the church at Philippi: “If anyone comes to me & does not hate his own father & mother & wife & children & brothers & sisters, yes, & even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26 ESV) You can see why the Jewish leaders wanted Jesus killed. He had a radical outlook on life. The Jewish leaders wanted Paul dead as well. Communist leaders always end up banning Christianity for the same reason; people who follow Jesus are dangerous to those who take the place of God. Christians can’t be controlled with rules & regulations that have no basis in Holy Scripture. All human systems of government, no matter how successful, are counted as loss if they don’t keep the main thing, the main thing. The season of Lent was designed to remind us of the importance of keeping repentance at the forefront of our living. St. Paul highlighted what he kept at the forefront of his living in his letter to the church at Corinth: “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ & Him crucified.”[1] It’s a perfect text for the season of Lent, as we continue our journey to the solemn events of Good Friday. Earlier in Philippians, chapter 2, Paul details how Jesus did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. Instead, He set aside His godly powers that He might live a completely human life. So we are called to count as loss any of God’s blessings to us that we elevate above our Lord. That’s why one tradition of Lent is to give up something that is interfering with your relationship to the heavenly Father. In so doing we are effectively carrying out Paul’s thoughts in the sermon text, to count, not just as neutral, but as loss anything we once considered to be gain. Whatever may cause us to feel satisfied & capable or independent has the potential to turn us away from absolute reliance upon Jesus to save us from the road to hell. So what is it that makes you feel good about you? Does that make you feel satisfied & capable or independent? Then whatever that is it’s evil. Having become a murderer, in what he thought was the name of God, St. Paul learned the hard way, that he has nowhere to place his confidence other than in Christ. So rather than boast of his successes or whatever he has gained, Paul states, “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. (2 Corinthians 11:30 ESV) Based on that, the Spartan’s basketball team has some things to boast about after last night’s game. For it is our weaknesses, & not our strengths, that draw us to Jesus. Everything else can be counted as loss, however painful it may be to drown the sinful nature in us through daily contrition & repentance. That is what the life of faith is about. Faith in Jesus involves the renunciation of all things of this world in order to store up treasures in heaven. If we do that, then all these things will be added to you – father, mother, spouse, children, brothers & sisters, even your own life. When we surrender those things to God He gives them back in glorious form. This is an inward, spiritual process, worked by the Holy Spirit. It’s not an isolated deed we do on Sunday but the application of faith to the total content of life. It is in Christ that we live & move & have our very being. Apart from Him we have no life, no possessions, no treasures, no fond memories & no peace. St. Paul’s values radically changed when he came to know Jesus. Loving our neighbor as ourselves, in a sinful world, means to accept not only inconvenience, but actual suffering as well. Only a prize that is awesomely great will empower us to think & act in the way Paul is recommending. So Paul writes of eternal life in paradise at verse 12: “I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own.” In verses 13-14 he writes: “…forgetting what lies behind & straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Paul is no longer confident because he has given his best for God; he now knows that God has given his best for Paul in Christ Jesus. Our heavenly Father has given us countless blessings here on earth to be used for the benefit of others, & enjoyed by ourselves. Yet, we count all of them as loss for the sake of Christ. Instead, we “…lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys & where thieves do not break in & steal.” (Matthew 6:20 ESV) The resurrection of Jesus is not simply a slogan we recite on Easter morning, “Christ is risen. He is risen indeed.” His resurrection empowers our living therefore we press on in the present struggles. His promised return to restore all things gives us hope. While we labor in His kingdom, we look not to the results of our work to justify our efforts, but rather turn to His promise of eternal life. Amen. What is the world to me with all its vaunted pleasure when You, & You alone, Lord Jesus, are my treasure! You only, dearest Lord, my soul’s delight shall be; You are my peace, my rest. What is the world to me! Amen. LSB 730:1. [1] 1 Corinthians 2:2 ESV Midweek 5 – 2019 LSB #766:1-3, 4-6, 7-9
Text – 1 Timothy 2:4 [God our Savior] desires all people to be saved & to come to the knowledge of the truth. GOD’S WILL THAT ALL PEOPLE ARE SAVED Well . . . isn’t that a nice saying? I mean, somebody ought to put that on a bumper sticker. Really. You see, the world thinks that we hate them. For many, Christianity stands against so much that people don’t know what it’s for. It’s just offensive. A saying like that might change things for us. It might make our lives easier. That’s what a bumper sticker Christianity is all about, isn’t it, making life easier – for you & me? Do you smell the rat? Am I overplaying this Bible verse? That can be the issue with this text. It lends itself to a bumper sticker mentality, & once we reduce Christianity to something we can paste on our car, it often is no longer something that stays in our heart. There is a whole form of Christianity out there that is nothing more than a bumper sticker religion, a meme like wisdom that doesn’t make sense in the real world. God calls us not to live in our platitudes, but in His beatitudes, & one of His blessings is that He has a vision of salvation that reaches to the ends of the earth. What does this mean for us as Christians? How are we to respond to this desire of God? If we want to put this truth not on our cars but in our hearts, how will it change the way we live in the world? That is the question I’d like to consider tonight as we read & meditate on this text: What does it mean for us that God desires all people to be saved? First, it means we might need to have a good conversation with ourselves. If we let God put this saying in our heart, guess what happens? The next time you run into someone who really ticks you off, someone who has violated the ways of God, someone who has done things so horrible you wish the Last Day would come & they would burn in eternity for what they’ve done, you have to stop & ask yourself if they can be so easily written off. The Bible is filled with examples of God’s judgment & anger. Sometimes we turn to those examples when we want to write off certain people. When a person’s actions have been so disastrous, their words so despicable, we turn to stories of God’s judgment to make disposable human beings that were created by God. We pull out God’s destruction of the Canaanites, God’s fire & brimstone on Sodom & Gomorrah, God’s opening the flood gates of heaven to destroy the world except for Noah & his family. Then we take our place beside Noah & wait for the judgment to come. People become disposable to us. But is that what they are to God? A verse like the sermon text when planted in our heart will give us 2nd thoughts. Think about the apostle Paul & his experiences. He once stood there, watching as Christians were being killed & he reveled in their destruction. The wrath of Satan was being poured out in front of him & he rejoiced in that. But then Jesus met Paul on the Damascus road to speak to him. God had a word about Paul, & a word about people, that opened his eyes to see just how vast was God’s love for His Creation. In killing those people, Paul was persecuting Jesus. God desired all people, even Gentiles, to be saved. He was going to show Paul just how much he would suffer for the Lord’s name. Paul was going to be filled with this expansive love of God & was going to find that the more he sought the salvation of all, the more he would end up persecuted & imprisoned. But this word of God, this truth of the Lord, went straight to his heart & changed how Paul viewed people of the world. Likewise, for us: what people is God calling us to reconsider today? Whom have you just about written off your list? You know the ones I’m talking about - the list of those that you want to be saved & the list of those that you’ve given up caring about. There shouldn’t be that 2nd list. No matter how horrible the person, no matter how heinous the sin, in heaven God’s heart desires the salvation of all people. On earth, He made this known by the death of His Son. Because of the death of Jesus, God forgives sin &, when all sins are forgiven, all people are invited by God to the party of heaven. What does it mean for us that God desires all people to be saved? It means we need to have a good conversation with ourselves & honestly name the people we have trouble forgiving, identify the people we love to hate, & confess this sin before God who wants all people to be saved. We take this sin to Jesus & today He forgives you of your sin. But if that’s where it ends, notice how we’ve just reduced Christianity to simply a matter of our heart. The heart may be in the right place but our lives can still be out of kilter. Perhaps there’s more to this word from Paul than just having a good conversation with ourselves. Perhaps, we also need to have a good conversation with God. Sadly, when we see the evil that occurs in this world & find ourselves angry at others, we do have a conversation with God, but it may not be the right conversation. We ask God why He doesn’t do anything about this! The apostle Paul could have felt that way when writing to Timothy. Think about all that Paul endured in his missionary work for the church in Ephesus. For three months Paul was preaching & teaching in the synagogue in Ephesus but people resisted him. Paul tried hard & winsomely to reason with these people from 11am to 4pm in the court of Tyrannus, but, eventually exhausted, at the end of his rope & at the end of the day, these Ephesians would still walk away. (Acts 19:8-10) Then, there were the sons of Sceva. (19:11-20) Con artists & tricksters, they wanted to use the name of Jesus to do great deeds for themselves rather than for God. Paul could wonder, “Does God want them to be saved? They’re little better than pagans who think that Jesus’ name is a magical talisman.” Next, there was Demetrius the silversmith (19:23) who started that riot because Paul’s message was hurting his business. In the business of making idols, his business had become his idol. He was willing to tear the world apart, causing pain, destruction & violence over his commercial religion. How do you think Paul might have felt about him? But, lest there be any question about Paul’s feelings towards these people, he told Timothy: “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions & thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings & all who are in high positions…” (1 Timothy 2:1-2) Paul desires that God’s people be in a conversation with God on behalf of others. Since God desires all people to be saved, He desires us to be interceding for all people. Praying for people just may change your heart. Paul’s advice to Timothy in our reading is God’s Word for us tonight. Pray for all people. Pray for your enemies. Pray for those who disturb you, for that ‘fill-in-the-blank’ person you cannot conceive of God having mercy for. Paul urges you to pray for them because in so doing you will know the power of prayer. No, not the power of changing them or the power of a prayer that cures them of whatever they are or do, or even prayer like a transaction that covers their debt to God & to you. The power in prayer is the power to change… you. Paul says that in prayer you will meet the one Mediator between God & man. Jesus is the one person who can affect the power you need for change & the power that they need for saving. That Mediator is Jesus Christ. So Paul’s advice is not a platitude but a direction, a way forward. Go to God in prayer, he says, & the Christ who changed you will help you to see His heart for the lost & the sinful, & even for the evil. In prayer you will draw near to the heart of God. He’ll take care of you there, changing the rhythm of your heart to match His pulse for the world so you will know His desire for saving the lost. He will change the way you live & move & see in this world. He will provide in prayer a place for the whole world to meet Christ. In fact, you already know this truth as a praying person if you pray, “in the name of Jesus. Amen.” That ending is not a hash tag on your prayer. It’s not a punctuation mark on your time with God. It’s not even a platitude. It is the bold declaration that you believe & choose to accept God’s will for your prayer only through Christ. When you pray in Jesus’ name, you’re saying to God: “I have faith to understand that You’ll answer this prayer in Christ. And through Jesus, I trust in Jesus to help me know what that’ll look like for my life & for Your will.” So you see, you do believe that God desires all to be saved & come to know this simple & obvious fact: “God so loved the world (everyone) that He gave His only Son (Jesus) so that whoever (& I mean whoever) believes in Him will have eternal life.” (John 3:16 emphasis added) The same radically saving grace, which you hope for yourself, is what God gives to others as well. So we leave the saving decisions up to Him. In prayer we understand God’s desire “for all” through Christ who’s still working on us to see the world in the way He does. So, what does it mean for you & me that God desires all people to be saved? It means that we need to have a good conversation with ourselves, & it means that we need to have a good conversation with God. It also can mean something more – we may need to have a good conversation with others. When God reveals to you His heart for the world, you’re seeing just a small glimpse of the love of God. If you take one person that you love who does not know Christ, & think about how your heart breaks for them... well, imagine what God’s heart is like. His heart breaks not just for certain people, but for all. Your heartbreak for others is just a thimble tossed into the ocean of God’s heart for the lost. He desires all to be saved & come to knowledge of the truth. Not only does He desire this but God did something about it. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to accomplish this salvation. Oh yes, God felt every inch of rejection, every millimeter of pain, suffered every injustice & every abuse. Yahweh took all the suffering of the Canaanite genocide, every war & every holocaust, every violation & every beating. He felt the pain of every separation, abandonment & heartache. He felt that in the flesh & blood of Jesus. The justice of God was placed on His Son & He died for it, but my friends that is not the only word. The good news, the final word is a word not of death, separation or despair. It is a word of life. Paul says it in the letter to Timothy. Jesus’ suffering the injustice of the whole world was a “ransom” – a price paid so that life might be had – your life & that of the whole world. His death is the ransom to set you free & the proof of life was the empty tomb to guarantee that God meant this salvation sincerely & fully. This risen Christ continues to work through you now. Jesus sends you out with His Spirit to share His love with the world. He’s working to change your heart to be a person who seeks the lost. He’s acting by His Spirit in your life so you might mourn for the lost in the way that He does. Before Paul left the church in Ephesus (Acts 20:17ff) he prayed that God would continue to send out people, & today God is sending you. I still remember sitting at his bedside – his mother’s words buried in my ears. She said: “I’m praying that God gets through to him. I’ve been praying for him for so long, & I want him to go, but I want him to go with God.” So there I sat. A mother’s plea occupying the same space in my mind that God the Father’s heart for the lost resides. There I sat confused & powerless in front of Shirley’s dying son. His name is Tom Jones (can you believe it… what a name… no… not the singer). Tom is quite a character & let’s just say he had a tense relationship with the church. To his mind those potlucks & coffee were things the church is all about & did best. Tom had a real problem with money & the church & the way his family was treated. But above all this Tom’s chief problem was with God. He didn’t blame God for the cancer, though to my mind that would be enough. No, his problem with God had to do with whether or not he had the right deity in mind, & whether the church had the right deity picked out. So there I sat by his bed, not chatty, just present. After some time I asked him: “What’s on your mind Tom?” He said readily: “I’m scared.” I asked him: “Scared of what?” He said, rather honestly, “What if I pick the wrong one? I mean there are so many gods; what if I choose the wrong one?” I sat back, nodded & agreed with him: “Yup, you’re right. That is pretty scary. That is a really big choice. I mean what if you do pick the wrong one?” And now his fear added confusion to its expression (as I see in some of your faces this moment). He was surprised, as I am sure you are, that a preacher, a believer, a “man of words” would seemingly agree with this desperate conclusion. But he also looked a little relieved, too. I wasn’t going to debate with him or try & minimize his lifelong fear by telling him he was wrong as he lay there dying. Something we too often do is not really hear people in their moment of need. Tom knew by these simple words that I had truly “heard” him. I said: “Tom that would be a difficult decision; an impossible decision if it was left up to you or to me. If it were left up to us, well, I’m afraid I might screw it up like I do so many other things in my life. But the good news is this, Tom. You don’t have to worry about that… Because your God chose you… you don’t have to worry about making that choice. He made it for you. In your baptism God picked you, & He made the right choice. I know this because He’s given you Jesus. Jesus wasn’t somebody’s idea about God. He is a real person in real time, in real flesh & blood. God provided Christ to you in this moment to deliver you from death to life. God made that choice for you, because only Christ is capable of safely delivering you from death to life, from here to eternity, from hospice to heaven. Christ knows the way from death to life, Tom. He knows the way because He went that way through the death He died on the cross & the resurrection life He lives even now. He is the Way & He has chosen to take you. It’s not because you were a great guy or because you suffered enough. He chose you just because he loves you, Tom.” He looked back at me & said: “I like that.” So we prayed. God desired that Tom be saved. He desires that for you & your family & friends – for the whole world – good or bad, right or wrong, big or small. And every one of us knows somebody who is not yet saved. So have a conversation with yourself about that person, have a conversation with God – the God who in Christ has the power to change us. Then, have a conversation with others. Through such conversations, we will know God more fully & find a way of dealing with the reality of this sinful world. Through such conversations, God is changing us to be the people who never give up hope, but trust in Christ for all things, always. Through prayer, Christ moves us from a posture of speaking to God to a place where we can speak to the lost about God’s loving heart & His choice to give them Christ freely & fully forever. Amen. Your gracious will on earth be done as it is done before Your throne, that patiently we may obey throughout our lives all that You say. Curb flesh & blood & every ill that sets itself against Your will. Amen. LSB 766:4. |
AuthorPastor Dean R. Poellet Archives
April 2024
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