​6th Sunday after Pentecost – B (Proper 8)                                                     LSB #’s 684, 699, 809
Text – Lamentations 3:25
 
The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.
 
WAITING FOR THE LORD
 
 
“The sun rises, & the sun goes down, & hastens to the place where it rises.  The wind blows to the south & goes around to the north; around & around goes the wind,   & on its circuits the wind returns.   All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again.    All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled  with hearing.   What has been is what will be,  & what has been done is what will be done,   & there is nothing new under the sun.”  
 
Even if you don’t know where those words are written,  you may recognize them by their tenor & tone.  King Solomon wrote them in the first chapter of Ecclesiastes, verses 5-9.   His thoughts drone on with hopelessness, much like our world does. 
Human beings come up with slogans to counteract hopelessness.   America First entered the national discussion in 1915, when Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat,  used it in a speech arguing for neutrality in World War I. 
The American Dream became a national catch phrase in 1931 thanks to historian James Truslow Adams.  He tried to diagnose what went wrong in the depths of the Great Depression.  He felt that America had become too concerned with material well-being, forgetting the higher dreams of freedom & equality that the nation had been founded on. 
The 1960’s exploded with slogans – ‘Make Love, Not War’ – ‘Don’t Trust Anyone Over 30’ & ‘Black Power’ – each played a role in galvanizing the public to take action; to make the world a better place. 
The ‘golden years’ is a phrase coined in 1959 as part of an advertising campaign for America’s first large-scale retirement community.   Would people ‘55 & better’ embrace ‘an active new way of life,’ move away from their families, & buy one of the modest homes on a $2 million golf-resort in the middle of the Arizona desert?   The first weekend, 100,000 people showed up to tour the model homes of Sun City.  For many in the 1950s, retirement was a lonely time of decline.  They had the financial support of Social Security, but once they left the workforce, they had little purpose in their lives.  
Retirees saw themselves as “too old to work, too young to die.”   No wonder they grasped with both hands  the idea of retirement as essentially a 2nd childhood!   It seems to be part of human nature to take charge of our lives & do something with them. 
It began with Adam & Eve as they picked fruit from the forbidden tree.  It continues with us  whenever we are frustrated by waiting for the Lord:
“All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it;   the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.  What has been is what will be,  & what has been done is what will be done,   & there is nothing new under the sun.”  (Ecclesiastes 1:8-9 ESV)     In a sinful world,  that is common to our experience  as we wait    for    the    Lord… 
Is that how our saintly nature experiences life?   The answer is a resounding, “No!”   It is our sinful nature that complains, “You load 16 tons & what do you get,  another day older & deeper in debt…”  Quite the opposite, our saintly nature sings, “Lord, I love the habitation of Your house, the place  where Your glory dwells.”  (Psalm 26:8 ESV) 
Our saintly nature finds rest  in waiting for the Lord.  Our sinful nature chaffs against such discipline.  Waiting is a mental & emotional challenge, but ultimately,  it is a matter of faith.  When we exercise the faith the Holy Spirit created in us  we wait for the Lord.   Waiting & hoping for God to act  is  what faith does. 
How well  do you do  at waiting?   I learned about it  at Navy boot camp as our company commanders instructed us to hurry up  & wait.   I learned about waiting while living on a submarine.  We had to wait for the boat to return to port.  We had to wait until our enlistment was over.  As Jeremiah was writing the book of Lamentations, God’s people were waiting to be released from exile.  They were waiting for the Lord to relent in His discipline for their failure to follow God’s wisdom. 
As king Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes of the despair of unbelief, so Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations chapter 2, of the despair of being under God’s discipline:
In the dust of the streets  lie the young & the old; my young women & my young men have fallen by the sword; you have killed them in the day of your anger, slaughtering without pity.  You summoned as if to a festival day my terrors on every side, & on the day of the anger of the Lord no one escaped or survived; those whom I held & raised my enemy destroyed.
 
In our time, despair comes from incompetent & corrupt politicians who lead our government.  Our despair comes from our own sins & from the sins of others.  Our despair comes from battling disease & ignorance,  greed & selfishness.   In the Gospel reading we see a woman & a family, in both circumstances, dealing with despair from disease. 
The woman had been suffering for 12 years, but it wasn’t just from her disease.  Due to the Jewish laws, she was also completely ostracized from her family & friends.  Finally, Jesus crosses the Sea of Galilee & arrives in her town.  With nowhere else to turn, she puts all of her trust in Him & she is healed.  She knew what it is to wait for the Lord. 
Meanwhile, one of the rulers of the local synagogue, had come & pleaded with Jesus because his daughter was at the point of death.  Jesus went with him, but then the woman who’d been suffering for 12 years interrupts & Jairus must wait for the Lord.  While he’s waiting, word arrives, from his home,  that his daughter has died.  Jesus was so close & yet, more despair. 
You & I have experienced that despair  in the death of family members,  & by suffering from disease that is not simply cured  with a pill.  Our people are not being hauled off into exile by a godless nation,  but our nation is turning into a godless one  all around us,  right where we are.  How well are you doing  at waiting for the Lord?  Satan tempts you to be impatient.  One of the fruits of faith that the Holy Spirit offers you is patience.   As a child of God that battle rages within you, between good & evil, between patience & impatience.  For some of you that battle has been going on for decades simply because you’ve been on earth far longer than others. 
With the lessons from Lamentations & from the Gospel of Mark, the Holy Spirit is teaching us: “The Lord is good to those  who wait for Him,  to the soul who seeks Him.”  (Lamentations 3:25 ESV)   Waiting is not often  a lot of fun.  How to wait patiently is not something that our culture teaches or encourages.   Sadly, even the church seldom teaches it anymore. 
God, however, has never stopped being good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.  It took thousands of years after The Fall,  but in the fullness of time the Father did send His Son.  Through the Holy Spirit & the virgin Mary, Jesus became a creature in His own creation.  He did so  in order to break the cycle of sin that Ecclesiastes describes so well:
“All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it;   the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.  What has been is what will be,  & what has been done is what will be done,   & there is nothing new under the sun.”  (Ecclesiastes 1:8-9 ESV)   Do you know which words Jesus said that guarantees the end of that cycle of sin & hopelessness?
“It is finished!”  (John 19:30 ESV)   The eternal cycle of sin & hopelessness has been broken ever since.  There is no guarantee that you  or I  or those we love will be healed of disease in this life,  but we are guaranteed that we will be healed for all eternity on the day of the final resurrection.  And that freedom from the hopelessness of sin exists  already today – here & now. 
Believers are offered, by God Himself,  the patience to endure until the visible end of all the seemingly endless cycles of corruption, sin & hopelessness of this world.   The gifts of the Holy Spirit may appear weak & powerless, but they are far more eternal in their effect than all the slogans that human beings have ever dreamed up.  The American Dream & the Golden Years will prove to be failed slogans, but Jesus Christ is risen indeed.  Alleluia!  And means that we too shall rise one day,  & that day of glory, beauty & perfection  will never end.  Ultimately, that is what all God’s children are waiting for,  & the Lord is good to those who wait for Him. 
That is the essence of the Christian message & faith.  It is also the central theme of the book of Lamentations.   Chapter 3 holds up words of certain hope, even though surrounded on each side by two chapters of the deepest lament.  You know Christ’s lament from the cross, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”  Then He waited in trust  until His resurrection. 
In the Gospel reading, Jairus’ faith took action, kneeling before Jesus & waiting for the Lord.  Meanwhile, his daughter died.  Jesus raised her from the dead that day  as proof that He has power over death, & to foreshadow what is to come for all who trust in Him.  God is good & the suffering He sends is good for His people.  
Even though God rejects us for a time, He will not reject us forever.  Sending affliction & punishment are God’s alien work, in which He finds no delight.  It is with eternal joy that God blesses those who wait for Him – who wait for Him & put their trust in Him no matter what they feel or see. 
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is [His] faithfulness.”  (Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV)  Amen.
 
 
 
I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Come unto Me & rest;  lay down, thou weary one, lay down  thy head upon my breast.”   I came to Jesus as I was,  so weary, worn & sad;  I found in Him a resting place,  & He has made me glad.     I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Behold, I freely give  the living water;  thirsty one, stoop down & drink & live.”   I came to Jesus,  & I drank of that life-giving stream;  my thirst was quenched,  my soul revived,  & now I live in Him.  Amen.  LSB 699:1-2. 

5th Sunday after Pentecost – B (Proper 7)                                                     LSB #’s 584, 587, 715
Text – Mark 4:40
 
He said to them, “Why are you so afraid?  Have you still no faith?”
 
FEAR OR FAITH?
 
 
Fear is one of the most common motivators that causes people to act.  Psychologists talk about the fight or flight response   because it is easily observed.  When you see human beings feeling threatened, they respond most often in one of two ways.  They either feel the need to run away, or they try to fight against the threat they feel. 
In this 2024 presidential campaign, because fear is normally a good motivator, both sides are trying to drive the vote by showing how afraid we should be of the other candidate winning.  Biden will continue to lock up in jail pro-life grandmothers.  Trump will destroy democracy.  The Philistines, led by the giant Goliath, struck fear into the hearts of all the Israelite nation. 
Fear is used to drive political campaigns & it’s used to strike fear into the hearts of the enemy during war time.  The attack of Hamas on Israel back in October was all about creating fear.  The Israeli attack on Hamas is about creating fear & about rescuing the hostages.  The protesters on college campuses this spring were all about creating fear. 
In the Gospel reading, the disciples are so afraid of the storm that they wake Jesus up: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”  (Mark 4:38b ESV)   Satan’s temptation to Adam & Eve was about creating fear; the fear that God was withholding something good from them. 
Once Jesus calms the storm, He asks two questions to help His disciples put their fear into context: “Why are you so afraid?  Have you still no faith?”  (Mark 4:40 ESV)     The same questions apply to our lives today: “What are you afraid of, &   have you still no faith?” 
Those are rather confrontational questions, but Jesus is not asking them of strangers.  He is teaching His disciples; men who willingly followed Him when He called them.  They have a lot to learn & in the future, Jesus knows they will suffer greatly.  To do what God created them for, they will need to speak & teach fearlessly until they are put to death.   “Why are you so afraid?  Have you still no faith?”  (Mark 4:40 ESV)    Have you ever wondered if God has created you & called you to speak & teach fearlessly until you are put to death? 
Jesus knew what the future held for the 12 men He called to follow Him.   Jesus knows what your future holds for you.  I’m certain that each of us still has much to learn.    As Mark describes the storm on the lake, the disciples have nowhere to run.  Their initial response was to fight against the storm, but it became clear they were losing. 
What did they do next?  They began to fight Jesus: “…they woke Him & said to Him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’”  (Mark 4:38b ESV)   It bothered the disciples that Jesus lacked urgency & in fact was not responding to the storm at all.  You probably remember a time or two that you began to fight Jesus because He didn’t seem to be responding to your fears. 
Like the disciples you may have questioned if He cared about you because of some struggle you were facing.  “Why?” is a common question.  Why do I have cancer, why did my spouse die so young, why did my job get eliminated, why are my children so disrespectful?  The list goes on   & on, yet any of our questions are effectively a challenge to God’s wisdom. 
Contrary to what you may think, the heavenly Father can handle & even welcomes it when we challenge Him.   In fact, King David models how to challenge God in many of the psalms he wrote.   Our Lord & Savior wants us to share the challenges that weigh upon our hearts.  In His wisdom, He will use those to sharpen our faith & our understanding of His will. 
When the disciples wake Jesus, first He addresses their fear & calms the storm.   Then, He brings up a third & the best response to fear.  Jesus does not suggest fight, or flight, but faith instead: “Have you still no faith?”  (Mark 4:40b ESV)    Jesus knows that as long as we are alive in this earth, we are at war because Satan is attacking us.   We can run; we can fight, but we will never win.  Faith in Jesus as our Savior from sin is the only path to victory.   It’s the only path to life as our Creator intended life to be.   Jesus used the challenge of the storm to sharpen the faith of His disciples & to sharpen their understanding of who Jesus is. 
In this Gospel reading, Jesus gives us an example of faith while He sleeps soundly & peacefully even during the raging storm.  Yet, those moments of peace can be few & far between in our lives.  None of us are holy as Jesus was during His earthly life.  We need so much more than an example of how to live.  We need Jesus to live the perfect life in our place. 
As Jesus awakens, & calms the storm with mere words, He reveals Himself to be something far greater than an example.  In human flesh, the Creator of the universe is commanding to be still the very wind & sea that He created.  The disciples are struggling to comprehend that Yahweh Himself is standing before them in the boat. 
Christians of our time have always known that to be true.   It was incomprehensible to the disciples in their time.  Mark is trying to capture for us the shock & awe that Jesus created in His disciples as “the wind ceased, & there was a great calm.”   They knew that only Yahweh could command the wind & the sea, but they never imagined that God could be a human being. 
After being afraid they were going to die in the storm, they are even more afraid after Jesus stills the storm: “And they were filled with great fear & said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind & the sea obey Him?’”  (Mark 4:41 ESV) 
Whatever illusions of control human beings might have, such illusions are destroyed in the violence of typhoons, hurricanes & tornados.   No one in their right mind defiantly stands against them & says, “Peace!  Be still!”   This Jesus, on the Sea of Galilee, is Lord of creation.  This Jesus, whom the disciples challenged because He was sleeping while the storm was trying to kill them, is someone to be feared.  And yet, this Jesus is the Lord who saves.  The Creator of the universe was in their boat, but not in judgment upon their fear.   He was God with them in order to save them from their fears.  He was God with them in order to put their fears into context.    He was God with them in order to save them from their sins. 
All of our earthly fears stem from sin.   What are you afraid of?   Old age, & the poor health it often brings, is probably one of the more common fears in a congregation like ours.  What fears are driving you in your life today?   That is a confrontational question, but Jesus asks not to judge.  He asks in order to save, because Satan is at war & he seeks to destroy us. 
Have you still no faith?  Jesus asked that very confrontational question because He wanted to make clear that faith in Him as Savior means that He is at work to save.  Since He is almighty, we truly have nothing to fear, not even Satan or his attacks.   That is easy to preach; much harder to live, but it still needs to be said. 
Jesus is God & He is man.  Immanuel means God with us.  He is faithful & His love for us knows no boundaries.  Recognize though, that even as God is about the work of saving us, that too will cause fear.  The disciples were scared out of their wits by the storm on the lake & yet, they were even more afraid when Jesus woke up & calmed the storm. 
“Fear or faith?” is the question Jesus poses to us this morning.  Faith is the work of God’s Spirit in us, & we thank Him for that with the holy fear that He also grants to us.  Amen. 
 
 
I know my faith is founded on Jesus Christ, my God & Lord; & this my faith confessing, unmoved I stand on His sure Word.   Our reason cannot fathom the truth of God profound; who trusts in human wisdom relies on shifting ground.   God’s Word is all sufficient, it makes divinely sure; & trusting in its wisdom, my faith shall rest secure.     Increase my faith, dear Savior, for Satan seeks by night & day to rob me of this treasure & take my hope of bliss away.   But, Lord, with You beside me,  I shall be undismayed;  & led by Your good Spirit,  I shall be unafraid.  Abide with me, O Savior, a firmer faith bestow; then I shall bid defiance to every evil foe.  Amen.  LSB 587:1-2. 

​4th Sunday after Pentecost – B (Proper 6)                                               LSB #’s 803, 540:3-6, 802
Text – Ezekiel 17:24a
 
Then all the trees of the countryside will know that I, Yahweh, bring down the high tree & exalt the low tree, that I make the green tree wither & I make the withered tree blossom. 
 
THE ORANGE BLOSSOM SPECIAL
 
 
What comes to mind when you hear the phrase, “…make the withered tree blossom”?   Is it an image of returning life & vitality?    That’s what the Orange Blossom Special used to bring to mind from 1925 to 1953 as it ran from New York to Miami. 
It was a luxury passenger train operating only during the winter months, taking people from the cold & dreary northern coast of the Atlantic  to the warm & sunny  southern coast of Florida.   Obviously,  people took that train because during those harsh winter months they were searching for the renewed life & vitality that a warmer climate offers. 
Ben Brotemarkle, executive director of the Florida Historical Society wrote of the Orange Blossom Special: “It’s hard to imagine now, but this was a huge deal.  This train had brand new diesel electric locomotives & Pullman cars.   During an exhibition tour between Washington & Miami  it stopped in every city of any size along the way  for people to look at it.  
Now we think ‘It was just a train,’  but at the time it was like the space shuttle coming through town.  When the Orange Blossom Special stopped in Jacksonville,  schools closed so children & their families could visit.  In the two days the train was parked there, approximately 30,000 people came to see it. 
They were awestruck because of its design & technology & everything it represented.  Two men, Chubby Wise & Irvin Rouse were not immune.  They visited the train when it came through &,  as the story goes,  they were inspired to write a song – The Orange Blossom Special.”   “She’s the fastest train on the line  It’s that Orange Blossom Special  Rollin’ down the seaboard line.”    Did you know that June 27th is National Orange Blossom day?  It’s not far off.  Over 400 years before a train was named the Orange Blossom Special,  Ponce de Leon arrived in Florida, from Spain,  searching for the fountain of youth,  &  life & vitality.    In the OT reading, Yahweh Himself promises, “…I make the withered tree blossom.”  (Ezekiel 17:24a) 
I’m certain that many of us have felt withered  at numerous times in our lives.  Nothing in this world has been untouched by the corruption of sin.   You cannot live on earth  without experiencing  the effects of sin  that,  at times,  literally suck the life out of you. 
Whether it’s  a polar vortex swooping in from Canada  or experiencing betrayal by someone you trusted, people are searching for life & vitality.  Whether it’s a cancer diagnosis or a child that has rejected faith in Christ, people are searching for life & vitality.   That is exactly what Ezekiel promises in the OT reading.  It’s just not very obvious to the casual reader. 
The committee that chose this morning’s OT reading seems to have plucked three verses out of the book  with no context whatsoever.   Ezekiel is presenting a much larger picture in chapter 17 that is entirely ignored, & that picture will help you tremendously in understanding what the prophet is telling us. 
The northern ten tribes had been eradicated several hundred years earlier for their complete rejection of Yahweh as Lord & God.  Now, discipline is coming to the two southern tribes.  In V. 1, of chapter 17, the Word of Yahweh came to Ezekiel: “Son of man, pose a riddle & compose an allegory for the house of Israel.” 
To summarize, Nebuchadnezzar is sent by God to conquer Jerusalem.  However, the leader he installs,  over the people left there,  rebels against Nebuchadnezzar & seeks help from the Egyptian Pharaoh.  As Ezekiel explains it, the people are rejecting even God’s discipline, which is always for good, but like the people of Jerusalem, we also, often struggle to accept it.  As the OT reading begins, Yahweh is now describing Himself as the controlling force behind the work of Nebuchadnezzar: “…I myself will take part of the high crown of the cedar & set it out.  From the topmost of its shoots I will pluck off a tender sprig,  & I myself will plant it on a high & lofty mountain.”  (Ezekiel 17:22) 
In the historical application, the cedar tree is unfaithful Jerusalem.  Nebuchadnezzar is sent to take off the top of the tree, meaning the last of the earthly kings in the line of David.  That king, Zedekiah, would see all of his sons slaughtered, have his eyes plucked out, & then be taken to Babylon to die.  Zedekiah had refused to humble himself under God’s direction. 
In the theological application, “From the topmost of its shoots I will pluck off a tender sprig…” is a reference to Jesus.  In a similar vein, Isaiah prophecies, “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, & a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.”  (11:1 ESV) 
Jeremiah adds, “In those days & at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, & He shall execute justice & righteousness in the land.”  (33:15 ESV)   Where all the previous kings of Israel had withered & failed, Jesus would succeed in ending the effects of sin.  As you may have noticed, the final & complete fulfillment of that  is yet to come. 
Nevertheless, Ezekiel is describing a kingdom that is also among us here & now.  Yahweh is at work in our lives just as He has been  throughout human history.  When we get too big for our britches – God works to bring us down.   When we are withered & crushed by the weight of sin – God works to lift us up. 
Ezekiel closes chapter 17 by allowing the trees to witness what Israel had failed to see, “Then all the trees of the countryside will know that I, Yahweh, bring down the high tree & exalt the low tree, that I make the green tree wither & I make the withered tree blossom.”  (17:24a)  God had brought down the kingdom of Israel because it was unfaithful to Him,  but in the tender shoot of a baby born in Bethlehem, Yahweh is rebuilding His kingdom in a permanent fashion that can never again be damaged by sin.  He is making the green tree wither  in order that He might make the withered tree blossom.  Getting more personal, Jesus has the same authority & power to make you & me  wither or blossom. 
When we receive the discipline & the blossoming of the Lord, then He will work through us as Ezekiel describes in V. 23 of the OT lesson: “On the high mountain of Israel I will plant it.  It will produce branches, bear fruit & become a magnificent cedar.  Every kind of winged bird will live under it; in the shelter of its branches they will nest.” 
Today, Elliot was brought to God’s house to receive the waters of Holy Baptism.  As a little child he is nesting in the shelter  of the branches of God’s kingdom.   God has put this congregation here as a magnificent cedar to produce branches & to bear fruit.  Elliot’s mother confirmed her faith in Jesus Christ here & now he has received the Holy Spirit in the same place. 
As king David wrote in Psalm 51, all human beings are conceived in sin.  In essence, all of us are born as withered trees, void & spiritually dead.  Yahweh sent His Son Jesus to reverse our fortune & to make the withered tree blossom.  That is what God accomplishes in Baptism.  He enables a withered tree, corrupted by sin, to change course, to blossom & bear fruit. 
In the OT lesson, Ezekiel is describing the nature of God & His work throughout Israel’s history.  It is also a description of the nature of God’s work in our own personal history.  He takes down the proud & haughty  that He might raise up the humble & lowly. 
As Paul acknowledged in 2 Corinthians, “…in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling.”  (5:2 ESV)  Because of the effects of sin, many of us will eventually know the full effect of being a withered tree.  The resurrection on the final day of time will be the ultimate in lifting up, the final & complete fulfillment of God’s promise, “…I make the withered tree blossom.”  (Ezekiel 17:24a)  Until then, as Paul wrote, “We live by faith, not by sight.”  Nowhere does Holy Scripture say that will be easy, but the final & complete fulfillment will make all of this life worthwhile. 
Florida was a place that people longed to be & they could take the Orange Blossom Special to get there.  But trains made by human hands can break down & derail.  Jesus will not fail in getting His brothers & sisters into heaven, & He is constantly at work to comfort & encourage us along the way.  Amen. 
 
 
 
Christ, the shoot that springs triumphant  from the stump of Jesse’s tree;  Christ, true vine,  You nurture branches to bear fruit abundantly.  Graft us into You, O Savior;  prune our hearts so we remain  fruitful branches in Your vineyard  till eternal life we gain.     Christ, the Alpha & Omega,  Christ, the firstborn from the dead,  Christ, the life & resurrection,  Christ, the Church’s glorious head:  praise & thanks & adoration  & unending worship be  to the Father & the Spirit  & to You eternally.  Amen.  LSB 540:3, 6.
 
 

​3rd Sunday after Pentecost – B (Proper 5)                                                     LSB #’s 656, 716, 541
Text – Mark 3:27
 
But no one can enter a strong man’s house & plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man.  Then indeed he may plunder his house. 
 
PLUNDERING THE STRONG MAN
 
 
Since I have family visiting this morning, I thought I’d begin this sermon with a quiz.  That way they can show off how knowledgeable they are.  After all, they are my relatives.  It’s a true/false quiz, so everyone should be able to get at least 50% of the answers right.  We begin:
The home you live in is real & not a figment of your imagination.   True or false? 
You live a good life.   True or false? 
You know something that is actually true.    True or false? 
Where I grew up & when I grew up, all of those were easy questions to answer.  Life was very simple, practical & down to earth out in the countryside.  We were raised to work.  That was our purpose in life.  Nothing about it was complicated to understand. 
That doesn’t mean it was easy.  There were the usual hardships that sin brings into this world, but our role as children was clear.  Learn how to work & support yourself in the adult years of life.  And adulthood did not begin when you turned 35 or 40 years old.  It began at 18, or sooner if you were able.   I started hoeing out weeds in farm fields by the age of five. 
You may have noticed that things aren’t quite the same anymore.   It is definitely not legal to make a five-year-old child work in the fields today.   It’s no longer legal to allow one child to ride in the back of a pickup truck, let alone seven of them.  That’s how my parents used to take the neighborhood gang into the city for ice cream cones. 
How we look at the world, & how we understand our purpose in life, makes a huge difference in how we respond to the events of our lives.  From world changing events like the just celebrated 80th anniversary of D-Day,  to the latest gossip in the local neighborhood,  people with differing foundational views on life  will respond in vastly differing ways.   Here are two more questions that will help us get into the Gospel reading from Mark:
The world is basically a good place that is being corrupted by sin.   True or false? 
The world is an evil place from which Jesus is rescuing sinners.    True or false? 
How you answer those can reveal a lot about how you view what God is doing.   Let’s take the sermon text: “But no one can enter a strong man’s house & plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man.   Then indeed he may plunder his house.”  (Mark 3:27 ESV)   Who is the strong man?   What is his house?   What are his goods that someone is looking to plunder? 
To help you think through those questions, let’s go back to the June 6th anniversary of D-Day.   Who was the strong man in France at that time?  It was Adolph Hitler.   He had defeated & was controlling the French people.   So, they were the goods that the Allies were seeking to plunder.  What was the strong man’s house?  It was all the territory controlled by the Nazis. 
Clearly, the analogy is not exact, but it does help you to see the point Jesus is making.  Satan is the strong man, & his house is the entire world.  The goods that Jesus seeks to plunder are people enslaved to sin.  In fact, His entire creation is under the curse of sin & Jesus is striving toward bringing all of it back into perfect condition. 
Obviously, Satan is not giving up without a fight.  He has nothing to lose because he’s already been judged.  Nothing worse can happen to him no matter how many lives he destroys.  We see all too well the results of that.  It’s easy to challenge God’s thinking.  Why doesn’t He just end it all now?   I’m a believer.   You’re believers.   Call us home Lord. 
However, God knows that, at least for now,  the longer He waits to end this world,  the more people there’ll be  who come to faith & join us in heaven.  St. Paul explained in his letter to the church at Corinth: “…as grace extends to more & more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.   Therefore, we do not lose heart.   Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.”  (2 Corinthians 4:15-16)    When you’re young, if you’re not picking up on that ‘outer self wasting away,’ you will notice it as you get old. 
Yet, the children of God do not lose heart because ‘our inner self is being renewed day by day.’   That’s the reality St. Paul describes, but the reason for it is that the grace of God is being extended to more & more people as the final judgment is delayed.  God’s children see that & are thankful for it in spite of all the suffering that we see, or experience ourselves. 
In Jesus’ death & resurrection, He was binding Satan so He could plunder his house.  You & I are some of the fruits of that raid.   Jesus said, “And I tell you, you are Peter, & on this rock I will build my church, & the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”  (Matthew 16:18 ESV) 
In other words, the gates of hell cannot keep the Church from plundering the house of Satan.   Jesus works through the Church, as dilapidated & broken & helpless as it seems, to rescue people straight out of hell.   And that brings us back to the two questions meant to help us get into the Gospel reading from Mark:
The world is basically a good place that is being corrupted by sin.   True or false? 
The world is an evil place from which Jesus is rescuing sinners.     True or false? 
Certainly the world is still being corrupted by sin, but that is not something new.    As Jesus uses the term ‘a strong man’s house,’ He’s referring to this world, Satan’s world.   It is not basically a good place.   You & I know that from personal experience.   In some respect, this world is already hell, but its gates cannot prevail against the Church. 
The Holy Trinity sent the Son to earth in Bethlehem, that He might bind the strong man.  “Then indeed he may plunder his house.”  (Mark 3:27b ESV)   Satan won’t give up the fight, so the Gospel reading last Sunday revealed a heightened level of conflict between Jesus & the leaders of the Jewish people.  They began to plot His destruction.  Today’s Gospel reading focuses on the open & growing hostility to Jesus – from His enemies & from those closest to Him, including His family.  You may have experienced that as well. 
The world is an evil place.   However, Satan can no longer enslave us.   He no longer owns those in whom the Holy Spirit has created faith.  The chains have been broken & Jesus is to this day plundering the dungeons of the devil.  Isaiah prophesied of that:
“Can the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?”  For thus says the Lord: “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken,   & the prey of the tyrant be rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you, & I will save your children.  I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, & they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine.  Then all flesh shall know that I am the Lord your Savior, & your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”  (49:24-26 ESV) 
 
There’s some gory imagery in there probably representing the judgment of hell.  It is our sinful tendency to minimize the horror of sin & unbelief.   Yet, on the final day of time, it is certain that even unbelievers will know that Jesus is the Savior & the Redeemer of all who trusted in Him, the Mighty One of Jacob.  That knowledge will add to their eternal suffering. 
Satan is waging war, whether you are resisting or not.   In this strife, we experience casualties, traitors & triumphs, but the consequences are eternal.   The spiritual dimension is at the root of everything, & God is hidden behind the scenes, though He is very active. 
Because human beings love to be in control of their lives, we find it maddening & frustrating that we cannot clearly perceive or manipulate the spiritual dimension.   For that reason, it is important that we know how to look at our world, & to understand our purpose in life.   Our world is evil, but Jesus is rescuing sinners from that evil.  That news brings us rest. 
Although it is a good thing, our purpose is not simply to work, especially not in the spiritual realm.  Some people following Jesus said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”  Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”  (John 6:28-29 ESV)   Our chief purpose is to believe in Jesus, that He created us out of love, & that our love in return will bring glory to His name.    And even that work, God prepared in advance for us to do as Ephesians 2:10 tells us. 
Believing that God loves us, puts all the events of life into their proper perspective, even when we cannot understand them.  Knowing that the Almighty God loves you means that He is working all things together for your good.  Sometimes we see that as it’s happening.  At other times we see it in retrospect.   Even other times we may not know until heaven. 
Nothing about that is complicated to understand, but you can only believe that through faith, the faith that God’s Spirit Himself works in you.   That is something you can know that is actually true, but again, knowing that truth comes only by the faith God works in you.   The world cannot understand that because it has rejected its Creator, Savior & Lord. 
If we open our eyes of faith the truth is obvious.  We live in a world that is evil, but Jesus is rescuing & forgiving sinners that one day we may know the truth of a world that is entirely good.  That world will be filled with peace & joy, & it will last forever.  Amen. 
 
 
I walk in danger all the way, the thought shall never leave me that Satan, who has marked his prey, is plotting to deceive me.   This foe with hidden snares may seize me unawares if I should fail to watch & pray.  I walk in danger all the way.    And death pursues me all the way, nowhere I rest securely; he comes by night, he comes by day, he takes his prey most surely.   A failing breath, & I   in death’s strong grasp may lie to face eternity today as death pursues me all the way.     My walk is heavenward  all the way;  await, my soul, the morrow,  when God’s good healing shall allay  all suffering, sin & sorrow.   Then, worldly pomp, begone!  To heaven I now press on.   For all the world I would not stay; my walk is heavenward all the way.  LSB 716:1, 3, 6.  

​2nd Sunday after Pentecost – B (Proper 4)                                                     LSB #’s 527, 524, 848
Text – Mark 3:2
 
And they watched Jesus, to see whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. 
 
WATCHING JESUS
 
 
Many people   around my age  spent time watching Wile-E-Coyote & the Roadrunner facing off  each Saturday morning  for our entertainment.   Throughout the series of cartoons, we laughed,  as Wile-E-Coyote was constantly foiled in his attempts  to catch  the super-fast  & super sly  Roadrunner.  
Time & again, Coyote’s efforts & plotting  came back to bite him,  as he blows himself up,  plunges off of cliffs,  or gets pounded by boulders.   Every trick up his sleeve backfired,  & he never once caught the Roadrunner!  (Beep, beep).   We laughed   & we also  may have recognized in both of the characters  something of ourselves.  
Any kind of comedy,  cartoon or otherwise,  does best when  we catch a glimpse of some of the worst in ourselves as human beings.  Honestly looking at “ourselves” & laughing is one way we learn to recognize & to ‘own’  some of our less attractive human qualities.  
In the beloved cartoon, both Roadrunner & Coyote appear gleeful when the other  runs into harm’s way.  How often do we feel the same  yet hide those crude instincts under a facade of goodwill?   Hopefully,  we do learn while laughing at them,  that our attempts to take joy in the destruction or the maladies of others  will always backfire upon us  in one way or another.
Although the life of Jesus is anything but a cartoon,  we also see  some of the same forces at work in Holy Scripture.  In the Gospel reading from Mark,  we find the Pharisees setting a trap for Jesus.  They aim to blow up His campaign  to spread the Good News of God’s love.   When Jesus foils their carefully contrived plan, “The Pharisees went out & immediately held counsel with the Herodians against Him,  how to destroy Him.”  (Mark 3:6 ESV)    Like Wile-E-Coyote,  no matter how many times they fail,  they never give up in their efforts to destroy Jesus.   
One thing to notice  is that Mark did not write, “how to kill Him.”   He wrote, “how to destroy Him.”    The Pharisees did not  simply want to get rid of Jesus.   They wanted to shame Him & totally destroy  His reputation.    They wanted to completely discredit Him  because He had time & again embarrassed them by revealing the hypocrisy  of their laws. 
For example, consider their law against healing on the Sabbath.  Years before Jesus came to earth, the intentions were noble.  The Pharisees wanted to obey the OT reading  that you & I heard earlier from Deuteronomy:
“Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you.  Six days you shall labor & do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.  On it  you shall not do any work,  you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant & your female servant may rest   as well as you.”  (5:12-14 ESV) 
 
God had ordered the keeping of the Sabbath to be a blessing to His people.   He knew that greed, or merely the survival instinct, would tempt them to work every day of the week.   He also knew that enslaved peoples would be commanded to work all seven days.   Jesus summarized it by saying, “The Sabbath was made for man,  not man for the Sabbath.”  (Mark 2:27 ESV) 
The Pharisees, by forbidding healing on the Sabbath, were working exactly counter to the intentions of God.  They were enslaving people to the Sabbath instead of blessing them with it.  At its foundational level,  God intended the Sabbath to be for man’s wholistic benefit.   It wasn’t merely for physical rest & recovery,  but for spiritual rest & recovery as well. 
Sin is what lies at the root of all physical ailments & exhaustion.  That’s why Jesus says, “Come to me, all who labor & are heavy laden, & I  will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, & learn from me, for I am gentle & lowly in heart, & you will find rest for your souls.”  (Matthew 11:28-29 ESV)   The healing Jesus performed on the Sabbath can be seen as an inbreaking of the new age   that will be fully implemented at the resurrection!  For the man healed of his withered hand,  it was a piece of heaven arriving here on earth.  However, this eventful healing wasn’t all stress free for him either. 
As someone with a lame hand, he was considered unclean by the Jewish people.   He would normally  never be allowed in the synagogue,  but on this day, here he is waiting,  as bait, in the synagogue  for Jesus to appear: “And [the Pharisees] watched Jesus, to see whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him.”  (Mark 3:2 ESV) 
Did the man with the withered hand sense their evil intent?   Was he forced into the synagogue against his will?   With the end result being their plotting to destroy Jesus, the irony could not be richer.  The Pharisees were worried that Jesus’ life-restoring, healing activity would break the Sabbath,  yet they begin plans  to actually destroy someone’s life  on that very Sabbath. 
Isn’t that often  how it goes?  Our good intentions to ‘save someone’  often lead us down the path of evil  instead.   We overstep our bounds & make our hypocrisy clear to those we’re trying to save.  It’s a difficult reality to face head on.  Revealing that with comedy can make it easier to swallow;  not that Wile-E-Coyote or Roadrunner were ever trying to save the other. 
In the Gospel of Mark, the healing of the withered hand is the fifth in a series of conflict narratives  between Jesus & the Jewish leaders.  It also serves as an introduction to a new section that focuses on the open & growing hostility to Jesus – from His enemies  & from those closest to Him, including His family. 
Chapter 3 sets the tone for the rest of the Gospel.  To use current terminology, “Why do so many people suffer from Jesus derangement syndrome?”   After verse 2 stated that His enemies were watching Him, verse 6 concludes that His enemies are now plotting to destroy Jesus.  They don’t simply want to get Him out of the way.  They wanted to entirely destroy His reputation.  As King Solomon wrote, “What has been is what will be,   & what has been done is what will be done,   & there is nothing new   under the sun.”  (Ecclesiastes 1:9 ESV) 
The Pharisees had set a trap for Jesus so they could frame Him for breaking the Sabbath.  When, as expected,  Jesus disregarded their unloving focus on legalism,  they plotted to destroy Him.  By healing the man, Jesus demonstrates what God’s intention is for the Sabbath.  However, that also reveals that the evil  leaders of God’s people had rejected His intentions. 
Luke 13:14 makes that very clear: “But the ruler of the synagogue,  indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, ‘There are six days in which work ought to be done.  Come on those days & be healed,   & not  on the Sabbath day.’” 
God shows mercy to His creation by giving the Sabbath.  In turn,  Christians have mercy on others.   Our struggle against sin & Satan  can bring a hard edge  to our thoughts, words & deeds.  God gave a Sabbath rest so the Holy Spirit can remove that edge of hardness. 
As the busyness of our weeks goes by, we often miss the fact that we do not want to let go of that hardness of heart.  The Pharisees had become insensitive to the purposes of God & to the sufferings of people.  In rejecting Jesus as God,  they rejected life & redemption & their own restoration.   That rejection left them prey to the devil,  distress  & death. 
That is the bitter fruit of their hardness of heart which provoked in Jesus both anger & godly sorrow.  As Mark wrote: “He looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart…”  (3:5a ESV)  Although Jesus realized that doing so would lead the Pharisees to plot His destruction, He does the right thing nevertheless:
“…[Jesus] said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’  He stretched it out, & his hand was restored.  ”  (Mark 3:5b ESV)   With their hardness of heart being put on full display again, “The Pharisees went out & immediately held counsel with the Herodians against Him, how to destroy Him.”  (Mark 3:6 ESV)      Repentance would have been the life-giving response.    Instead,  the Pharisees chose to double down on their hardness of heart.  They had been watching Jesus in order to accuse Him.  The proper way to watch Jesus is for the purpose of receiving Him. 
We can clearly see the results by looking at the text from Mark.  Jesus said to the Pharisees, “‘Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?’  But they were silent.”  Then, Jesus said to the man with the withered hand, “‘Stretch out your hand.’   He stretched it out, & his hand was restored.” 
The Pharisees did not respond to Jesus’ instruction.  They were silent & they were not healed.  The man with the withered hand obeyed Jesus,  & in stretching out his hand  Jesus restored it.  Do you recall the opening words,  of the opening hymn?  “How sweet the name of Jesus sounds...”  Do you recall the next four words?  “In a believer’s ear!”  (LSB 524:1) 
The Pharisees were not believers,  so their hardness of heart remained.  Yet, Jesus did not allow His anger at their hardness of heart  to harden His own heart  into hatred.  He never sought to destroy the Pharisees.  Instead, “He grieved at their hardness of heart.”  (Mark 3:5a ESV) 
Many people in our culture  are watching Christians  in order to accuse us.  We need the Sabbath now,  more than ever,  so that our anger turns to grief for them  rather than hatred of them.  The edge of hardness that at times helps us to resist sin is not God’s design.  Rather, He knows that repentance & forgiveness are the tools to combat our sinful desires. 
God’s children watch Jesus  in order to receive those tools each day.  Amen. 
 
 
 
How sweet the name of Jesus sounds  in a believer’s ear!  It soothes our sorrows,  heals our wounds,  & drives away our fear.      It makes the wounded spirit whole  & calms the heart’s unrest;  ’tis manna to the hungry soul  & to the weary,  rest.  Amen.  LSB 524:1-2.