Life is full of little interruptions. You have your life all planned out, or at least your day planned out, or at least your evening planned out and suddenly everything changes. You’re walking out the door right on time for a meeting and the phone rings—Pardon the interruption—but someone would like you to buy another credit card with a very low balance transfer rate for the first fifteen minutes you own it. After politely saying no three times you hang up only to discover that you are now late—Pardon the Interruption. You get out to the car and realize that, yes indeed, it is December in Connecticut and there is ice covering your windshield. You forgot it had snowed--Pardon the Interruption—but you’ve got to scrape it off before you start going anywhere and now you are going to be even later. Of course, by driving a little dangerously, a little faster than usual, you make it to your meeting pretty much on time only to read a note on the door—“Cancelled due to bad weather.” Pardon the interruption.
Life is full of little interruptions. Some people handle them well, some people don’t, but everyone has to deal with them. They can be little interruptions, like tests of the emergency broadcast system, or they can be big interruptions, like notices of foreclosure. They can be wonderful interruptions that have been hoped for and planned on, “Honey! I’m pregnant!” And they can be scary interruptions that have not been planned on, “Honey. I’m pregnant.” Interruptions can change your life drastically, like losing a child, husband or mother in a sudden car accident. Or they can simply change your view on life, like watching a good movie for the first time. Interruptions happen every day of the year, 24/7 and they even happen on holidays and weekends. And, in case you haven’t noticed, if you haven’t had a big one yet this year, interruptions love to happen around Christmas time. The first Christmas was, in fact, one great big interruption.
“In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered to Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child.” I’d reckon that any decree from Emperor Augustus would have been at least a little interruption in a person’s daily life, but demanding that every man, woman and child be registered must have been a huge interruption, especially when you consider that people sometimes had to leave their town to get it done. So here are Joseph and Mary, a very pregnant Mary it seems, riding to Nazareth instead of preparing for the birth of their first child—Pardon the Interruption.
“While they were there [in Nazareth] the time came for Mary to deliver her child.” Pardon the interruption! Yeah! Anyone here have a baby while they were away on a trip? I can’t imagine that woudn’t be a surprise. You’d think that when the Angel told Mary she was pregnant, it could have given her a little head’s up as to the timing, but God likes interruptions as you will see for yourself. “And Mary gave birth to her firstborn son, and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”
The world had been moving along swimmingly for a long time. Sunrise, sunset. Seasons would come and seasons would go. But Pardon the Interruption, God becomes flesh. Jesus Christ is born. Up to this point in the life of the world, God created human beings, he breathed life into human beings, but he had never become a human being. One night in Nazareth he did. And from that moment on, even though it was two thousand years ago, your life was forever changed. Pardon the Interruption.
“In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” Pardon the interruption shepherds, sheep and Cornwall, Connecticut. God was born as a human being. After this kind of an interruption, your life will never be the same.
“This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven and, and on earth peace among those he favors!” Martin Luther once said that if you want to see God in his most glorious state, don’t look up into the clouds for any heavenly throne—you need not look any farther than Jesus Christ, a babe in swaddling clothes, nursing at his mother’s breast. THAT is God himself—pardon the interruption.
This interruption of God upon your life doesn’t come to you in a series of grand ideas that you can mull over and consider for the rest of your life as a great philosopher. Jesus Christ is much more than a nice idea. God’s interruption into your life isn’t always some grand experience that you will be forced to try to recreate over and over again in your life like some kind of religious drug addict in search of another good trip. Knowing Jesus Christ is more than an awesome experience. Jesus Christ wasn’t given to you as an idea and he wasn’t given to you just to make you feel good. Jesus Christ was given to you as a baby human being: touchable, seeable, kissable and, we will later find out, killable, just like you.
Many people talk about “peace on earth” at Christmas time, as if it were some kind of wonderfully abstract idea. Give a little more to the Salvation Army bell ringers and maybe it will happen. Give another present, maybe you’ll be a part of it. But peace on earth crawled before he walked and he is as present today as he was in that manger, though we trust he is here in faith and not by sight. Peace on earth came as an interruption, wearing the same diaper as Jesus Christ. And faith in this Jesus gives you peace not just on earth but in the eyes of God himself.
Many people talk about the “spirit of Christmas” as a warm, fuzzy spirit that brings happiness and joy, but the “spirit of Christmas” is God himself and he is a lot more than just some superficial sort of love. He is all about a heartsplitting kind of love that ends up dying for the very people who murder him. Christmas is about God becoming flesh and bone not just to love people in a general way, but to love you, a sinner, who has no future, no hope and no life apart from God’s forgiveness. Pardon the Interruption, but, for you, Christmas is much more than cookies, holiday cheer and presents. Christmas is God’s gift to you, that no matter how naughty or nice you are, Jesus was born and died so that you would live with him forever. Through the life and death of Jesus Christ, you are put at peace in God’s eyes, for he has favored you through the birth of his son.
Pardon the Interruption, but when your life has been interrupted by Jesus Christ, nothing else is ever the same. Life is full of little interruptions, but Jesus Christ changes everything. He’s the biggest interruption this world has ever seen. He even interrupts the holiday created in his name by doing more than just talking about love and peace and goodwill towards all people. He gives you love by forgiving your sins. He gives you peace by promising you eternal life. Pardon the interruption, but Jesus Christ was born for you. Your life and your death will never be the same. You have a Savior now. Amen.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Sermon for December 21st
Last week we talked about how important it was to realize that Jesus’ virgin birth has a lot to do with Jesus being truly divine. While the “virgin birth” has often been criticized for being just a silly doctrine or outdated, it is, in fact, extremely important to understanding who Jesus was and is for you. As I said though, many people do not like the idea that Mary was truly a virgin and so they figure that they can just not believe it while still believing in some kind of social revolutionary Jesus.
But while some people want to criticize Mary’s virgin status at the conception of Jesus, there are also others that place Mary on a high, high pedestal in the church and the reasons and the consequences for this are just as bad. The reason for their devotion to Mary is, in fact, found in this same text that we studied last week, but you’d almost miss it if you weren’t paying enough attention. Remember the story, the angel Gabriel had come to Mary and told her that she would become pregnant with a child by the Holy Spirit and that she was to name him Jesus. Then, at the end of all the explanations, at the end of all the amazing and miraculous prophesying about Jesus, Mary says this, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your word.” And THAT, my friends, is what all the fuss is about.
“Here am I, the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your word.” There are many who see this statement of Mary’s to be a crucial aspect in the birth of Jesus Christ. They argue that Mary was a very special person to allow such a thing as the virgin birth to occur. She was going to become pregnant before marriage for goodness sake! She was going to be dealing with a lot of stigma and suffering on account of this peculiar situation and yet, instead of arguing with Gabriel, instead of asking a bunch of questions, she says, “ok. Sounds good to me.” This response, on Mary’s part, is one of the biggest reasons for how much respect and devotion she gets.
Now, believe me, I think Mary was probably a wonderful woman, but I have a couple of questions to ask before I spend too much time in awe of her statement. My first question is this: what other choices did she really have? I mean, God had sent an angel to tell her she was going to be pregnant. If she had said she didn’t want to be pregnant, do you think that would have made much of a difference? Remember Moses? Moses made up several excuses when God called him into ministry and yet he ended up becoming the most celebrated leader of the Israelites. Moses didn’t want to lead, he said he couldn’t speak, he said he wasn’t the right one for the job, but God had other plans.
Do you remember Jonah? God called on him to preach about repentance to the Ninevites, but Jonah didn’t agree. Jonah bolted. God had to send a whale to spit him back on shore in order to get this guy to say even a little peep. Jonah didn’t want to do what God said, but God found a way to convince him. Then there is the famous Saul, who was persecuting and killing Christians before God knocked him off his horse and caused him to go blind briefly in order to change his life and make him one of the most celebrated apostles in the history of the church. Saul became the apostle Paul even though he, if you’d of asked him at the time, probably wasn’t too thrilled with the possibility.
So, back to Mary, should we really give HER all the credit when it comes to being the mother of Jesus? Was it because she was so humble and obedient to God’s will that she became Jesus’ mother? No. I’m happy that God blessed her with a strong faith willing to endure the hardship of a surprise pregnancy and then of motherhood, but whether she “willingly accepted” at the time, or argued till she was blue in the face, I don’t believe it would have made any difference at all. What was the angel supposed to say? Oh, you don’t want this to happen. Ok, I’ll tell God to pick someone else. No. God was the one in charge. He had the plan to carry out. Gabriel told Mary she was blessed, and so she was, but we don’t need to make Mary out to be any more amazing than any person when they are blessed by God. When God chooses you, you are chosen—like it or not.
This is important for you and I to remember at Christmas time. This time of the year is really a special time in the world where the sacred becomes intensely intertwined with the secular all over the place. It might be easy to feel a little bit of pride, or feel a little arrogant when we see thousands of people lining up in WalMart and Target to get presents when “they don’t even seem to understand what Christmas is about!” Christmas is about Christ, right! Christmas is about baby Jesus being born. Not about presents! Not about overeating! Those are great and fun to do, but it’s sometimes so easy to feel like Christians are so special because we believe when, really, Christians are special because they have been blessed, given an amazing gift, and that is it.
The celebration of Jesus’ birth on Christmas morning is truly amazing. The fact that you believe in his name, if you do, is also truly amazing, but it doesn’t say that much for you does it . . though it does say a lot about God. In John’s gospel, Jesus puts it quite bluntly, “You did not choose me. I chose you.” In other words, as Jesus puts it later, “My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and no one will snatch them out of my hands.” God, that is Jesus himself, is the actor and subject of all of those verbs. You are his object. That’s definitely something to celebrate, but it’s not something to be arrogant about. We are celebrating what God has done and not what we have done.
As you have the opportunity to share with others this Christmas season, keep this in mind. Christmas is about God giving himself to people who don’t deserve him. We are simply receiving his gifts. So, when it comes to telling others the story of Jesus Christ just give it to them. Don’t expect a pious response. Don’t expect a faith upbuilding conversation. You can’t expect everyone to come to church even if you nicely invite them. But even if they refuse, argue about it or reject God’s call on their life over and over again it isn’t something God hasn’t dealt with before. He is used to his sheep getting lost. He is used to his people disobeying. He is used to his prophets complaining.
This is also important when you stop thinking about others and realize that you are not much different. I bet if you asked Mary, she wouldn’t think much of what she said; I mean, what else could she do? I may have told you all this before, but I’m going to tell it to you again, a little conversation I had once will a wonderful woman named Edna. She was taking care of her husband who was dying of cancer and I asked her once how she dealt with a life full of the responsibilities of caretaking. She said, “I love him. What else can I do?” You see, she did have a choice, didn’t she. Just like Mary, I guess, she had a choice. She could have said no. She could have divorced her husband when he became such a pain to have around. But when it comes to love, you don’t really have a choice, do you.
When Gabriel told Mary that God had blessed her with the Messiah, Mary was given something that is very much like falling in love. She was given faith; faith that God had indeed kept his promise to send a Savior for his people. And so, she didn’t really have a choice, did she? She was given faith She gave her Amen to God’s word.
That’s why, as I was preparing this sermon, I realized that what I am doing up here is NOT trying to motivate you to be like Mary. To be a humble and obedient servant. I’m not trying to convince you to be devoted to God and willing to sacrifice and suffer for your faith. Why not? Because God doesn’t show up without giving you his gifts. He doesn’t expect you to make the first move, he does it for you. He sends you a preacher to tell you his promises, “jesus Christ was born and died to forgive your sins once and for all.” He tells you the story and gives you faith that, indeed, on Christmas day, the Messiah, the Savior of the world, your Savior, was born. And not just born to a mother and father, but born to a world, to a nation and, to you, though you didn’t deserve him. It is my job as your pastor to give you Jesus Christ, the promise of his life, death and resurrection, so that the Holy Spirit can create faith. Some people call faith a choice, but how can you really call falling in love a choice at all? For know this, God says to you, “I love you forever and ever.” And my prayer this Advent season is that, within your heart, just as in Mary’s womb, faith is born from God above. Faith in Jesus Christ. Whether you wanted him or not, he’s yours. Amen.
But while some people want to criticize Mary’s virgin status at the conception of Jesus, there are also others that place Mary on a high, high pedestal in the church and the reasons and the consequences for this are just as bad. The reason for their devotion to Mary is, in fact, found in this same text that we studied last week, but you’d almost miss it if you weren’t paying enough attention. Remember the story, the angel Gabriel had come to Mary and told her that she would become pregnant with a child by the Holy Spirit and that she was to name him Jesus. Then, at the end of all the explanations, at the end of all the amazing and miraculous prophesying about Jesus, Mary says this, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your word.” And THAT, my friends, is what all the fuss is about.
“Here am I, the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your word.” There are many who see this statement of Mary’s to be a crucial aspect in the birth of Jesus Christ. They argue that Mary was a very special person to allow such a thing as the virgin birth to occur. She was going to become pregnant before marriage for goodness sake! She was going to be dealing with a lot of stigma and suffering on account of this peculiar situation and yet, instead of arguing with Gabriel, instead of asking a bunch of questions, she says, “ok. Sounds good to me.” This response, on Mary’s part, is one of the biggest reasons for how much respect and devotion she gets.
Now, believe me, I think Mary was probably a wonderful woman, but I have a couple of questions to ask before I spend too much time in awe of her statement. My first question is this: what other choices did she really have? I mean, God had sent an angel to tell her she was going to be pregnant. If she had said she didn’t want to be pregnant, do you think that would have made much of a difference? Remember Moses? Moses made up several excuses when God called him into ministry and yet he ended up becoming the most celebrated leader of the Israelites. Moses didn’t want to lead, he said he couldn’t speak, he said he wasn’t the right one for the job, but God had other plans.
Do you remember Jonah? God called on him to preach about repentance to the Ninevites, but Jonah didn’t agree. Jonah bolted. God had to send a whale to spit him back on shore in order to get this guy to say even a little peep. Jonah didn’t want to do what God said, but God found a way to convince him. Then there is the famous Saul, who was persecuting and killing Christians before God knocked him off his horse and caused him to go blind briefly in order to change his life and make him one of the most celebrated apostles in the history of the church. Saul became the apostle Paul even though he, if you’d of asked him at the time, probably wasn’t too thrilled with the possibility.
So, back to Mary, should we really give HER all the credit when it comes to being the mother of Jesus? Was it because she was so humble and obedient to God’s will that she became Jesus’ mother? No. I’m happy that God blessed her with a strong faith willing to endure the hardship of a surprise pregnancy and then of motherhood, but whether she “willingly accepted” at the time, or argued till she was blue in the face, I don’t believe it would have made any difference at all. What was the angel supposed to say? Oh, you don’t want this to happen. Ok, I’ll tell God to pick someone else. No. God was the one in charge. He had the plan to carry out. Gabriel told Mary she was blessed, and so she was, but we don’t need to make Mary out to be any more amazing than any person when they are blessed by God. When God chooses you, you are chosen—like it or not.
This is important for you and I to remember at Christmas time. This time of the year is really a special time in the world where the sacred becomes intensely intertwined with the secular all over the place. It might be easy to feel a little bit of pride, or feel a little arrogant when we see thousands of people lining up in WalMart and Target to get presents when “they don’t even seem to understand what Christmas is about!” Christmas is about Christ, right! Christmas is about baby Jesus being born. Not about presents! Not about overeating! Those are great and fun to do, but it’s sometimes so easy to feel like Christians are so special because we believe when, really, Christians are special because they have been blessed, given an amazing gift, and that is it.
The celebration of Jesus’ birth on Christmas morning is truly amazing. The fact that you believe in his name, if you do, is also truly amazing, but it doesn’t say that much for you does it . . though it does say a lot about God. In John’s gospel, Jesus puts it quite bluntly, “You did not choose me. I chose you.” In other words, as Jesus puts it later, “My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and no one will snatch them out of my hands.” God, that is Jesus himself, is the actor and subject of all of those verbs. You are his object. That’s definitely something to celebrate, but it’s not something to be arrogant about. We are celebrating what God has done and not what we have done.
As you have the opportunity to share with others this Christmas season, keep this in mind. Christmas is about God giving himself to people who don’t deserve him. We are simply receiving his gifts. So, when it comes to telling others the story of Jesus Christ just give it to them. Don’t expect a pious response. Don’t expect a faith upbuilding conversation. You can’t expect everyone to come to church even if you nicely invite them. But even if they refuse, argue about it or reject God’s call on their life over and over again it isn’t something God hasn’t dealt with before. He is used to his sheep getting lost. He is used to his people disobeying. He is used to his prophets complaining.
This is also important when you stop thinking about others and realize that you are not much different. I bet if you asked Mary, she wouldn’t think much of what she said; I mean, what else could she do? I may have told you all this before, but I’m going to tell it to you again, a little conversation I had once will a wonderful woman named Edna. She was taking care of her husband who was dying of cancer and I asked her once how she dealt with a life full of the responsibilities of caretaking. She said, “I love him. What else can I do?” You see, she did have a choice, didn’t she. Just like Mary, I guess, she had a choice. She could have said no. She could have divorced her husband when he became such a pain to have around. But when it comes to love, you don’t really have a choice, do you.
When Gabriel told Mary that God had blessed her with the Messiah, Mary was given something that is very much like falling in love. She was given faith; faith that God had indeed kept his promise to send a Savior for his people. And so, she didn’t really have a choice, did she? She was given faith She gave her Amen to God’s word.
That’s why, as I was preparing this sermon, I realized that what I am doing up here is NOT trying to motivate you to be like Mary. To be a humble and obedient servant. I’m not trying to convince you to be devoted to God and willing to sacrifice and suffer for your faith. Why not? Because God doesn’t show up without giving you his gifts. He doesn’t expect you to make the first move, he does it for you. He sends you a preacher to tell you his promises, “jesus Christ was born and died to forgive your sins once and for all.” He tells you the story and gives you faith that, indeed, on Christmas day, the Messiah, the Savior of the world, your Savior, was born. And not just born to a mother and father, but born to a world, to a nation and, to you, though you didn’t deserve him. It is my job as your pastor to give you Jesus Christ, the promise of his life, death and resurrection, so that the Holy Spirit can create faith. Some people call faith a choice, but how can you really call falling in love a choice at all? For know this, God says to you, “I love you forever and ever.” And my prayer this Advent season is that, within your heart, just as in Mary’s womb, faith is born from God above. Faith in Jesus Christ. Whether you wanted him or not, he’s yours. Amen.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Sermon for December 14th
If you haven’t noticed, I have printed out next week’s gospel lesson and placed it in your bulletin this week. Next week is our Christmas Pageant and, so, I won’t be giving a sermon. But, next week’s reading is a very important one as we get ready for Christmas day and I wanted a chance to reflect on it with you. So, turn to your insert and read along with me, from the Gospel of Luke the first chapter (Read Luke 1:26-38)
Most of us have heard this passage once or twice before, but I wonder if we realize how radical it really is. I mean, at Easter time, the drama is pretty obvious isn’t it? Jesus is dead and then, after three days, his is alive again! Raised from the dead! An amazing miracle that really gets people talking! In comparison to Easter day, this Advent text seems boring and quaint. But, in fact, this text is just as full of miracles as the text for Easter day.
The angel Gabriel says to Mary, “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” That’s right! Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, was a virgin mother. How can that be? How is that possible? Well, as the angel later says, “Nothing will be impossible with God.”
Unfortunately, many people have a problem with believing that Mary was a virgin mother. They say that it’s not that important to believe; as long as you believe Jesus was born and died and was resurrected, you’ve got the gospel.” They say, “There ain’t no way you can have a baby and still be a virgin.” In fact, if you’d read much ancient history, you might notice that a lot of important and famous people were SAID to have mothers who were virgins. Egyptian Pharaohs, Roman emperors and even Alexander the Great were said to be “virgin births” to make them seem semi-divine in nature. Some would argue that that’s probably what happened in the story of Jesus’ birth as well.
Do you believe in the virgin birth of Jesus? And if not, why not? You’ve heard that Jesus walked on water, healed lepers and was raised from the dead? Why is the virgin birth such a pickle to believe?
We argue that Mary couldn’t have been a virgin. It’s impossible! We know how babies start out and that’s not how. But our real problem isn’t with Mary, it’s with Jesus. We have trouble believing that Jesus is truly God. You see, if Mary isn’t truly a virgin, then how can you believe that Jesus is truly God? If Mary is anything but a virgin when Jesus born, you just can’t be sure who his father is, can you? And if Jesus isn’t truly God, then Christmas isn’t much of a holiday at all for you and me.
Mary is an easy scapegoat for our doubts. It’s a lot easier to try and figure out how the story might be wrong about Mary than to have to believe that the story is correct. We imagine that maybe Mary was just embarrassed by a little mistake that was made with another man while she was engaged to Joseph and made up this whole angel story. Or worse, maybe she was raped, as some people have speculated, but couldn’t bring herself to tell anyone! It’s been argued over and over that believing in the virgin birth of Jesus isn’t necessary to believe in Jesus, but I would like to know what Jesus you are referring to.
There are many people and, perhaps, many of you, who think a lot of Jesus, what he stood for and what he did, and would like to emulate him as a person. Jesus is a wonderful, powerful example of what one person can do to change the world. But, a radical social revolutionary Jesus doesn’t need to be God, does he? A Jesus who stands up to the religious and political leaders of his time and gets killed for it doesn’t need to have a mother who gave birth to him as a virgin, right? All those miracles of his are interesting stories but, when push comes to shove, you wouldn’t have to believe any of them as long as Jesus is a good example to follow in your life. You wouldn’t need a virgin birth to worship a Jesus like that.
But while Jesus was very radical and political and revolutionary in his time, and in our time, the Bible argues that he was even more than that. The Bible says that he was, in fact, God. Or, as the Lutheran Reformers put it, “Apart from this man, Jesus Christ, there is no God.” And if you miss that little detail, you’ve missed the most radical, the most political and the most revolutionary detail of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. God, the creator of your universe, became a human being and all that comes with it—even to the point that Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, was cursed on the cross and became sin itself. So that you might trust that God, the creator of your universe, isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty and has the power and the love to stick with you from your conception, to your birth, throughout your life and even in your death. God was born, died and was raised from the dead not so that you could follow him by example but so that you might worship him as your God alone.
But there is also another problem we often have with this story about Mary being the virgin mother of Jesus. This problem isn’t so much scientific or physical but theological. Even if we can accept that God can supernaturally impregnate a human being somehow, someway, isn’t it kinda disgusting and degrading for your God, the creator of the Universe, to float around in a uterus for ten months, even if it is Mary, who we assume was a nice upstanding lady. Even the best theologians throughout history have had a hard time with that one. One famous church leader named, Nestorious, even argued that while you could say that Mary was the mother of Jesus, you shouldn’t say she was the mother of God—no birth canal for my Lord, no sirreee! That would be too gross, too dirty and, to be more precise, too close for God to get to a sinner.
But God got so close to you that he experienced amniotic fluid, hiccups and active labor. God didn’t choose to create himself out of nothing as a newborn baby or even as a thirty-one year old man. He became an zygote, then an embryo and then a fetus and waited ten months to be born and breathe fresh air. How? I haven’t a clue. But, as the angel Gabriel says, with God anything is possible.
You see, Christmas day is a wonderful day full of joy and happiness, but the real miracle isn’t Jesus’ birth. It is a wonderful event, just as every birth is, but the fact that Jesus was born, after ten months gestation, isn’t the most amazing thing of all. The most amazing thing is that God chose to have the chance to be born after waiting and growing for months just like all the rest of us. In Phillipians, we hear one of the oldest Christian hymns talk about this wonderful miracle, “though Jesus was in the form of God,” the book of Phillipians says, “He did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.”
If God DIDN’T intend on becoming a human being, then the virgin birth would not have had to truly have happened. If God WASN’T willing to suffer life as a human being, then the virgin birth wouldn’t have had to be true. But if Mary was NOT the virgin mother of Jesus Christ, then not only do we have a problem with the words of Scripture, but we have a problem with God himself. For if God himself was not in Mary’s womb, then God himself was not truly born. And if God himself was not truly born, then God himself did not truly die. And if God himself did not truly die, then we should have all slept in this morning and enjoyed some more pillow time. For if God DID NOT truly die for your in the form of Jesus Christ, then you have no hope for eternal life.
Despite the craziness and unlikeliness of it all, I encourage you to hold onto God’s Word with joy, awe and wonder—even when you hear that Jesus was born to a virgin. Remember that Jesus was not born to the virgin Mary to make the story harder for you to believe, but so that you might more easily believe—so that you might be given faith that Jesus was born both truly human and truly God. So that you might have faith that he has truly saved you from your sins. But, in fact, the most remarkable thing is not that Jesus was born to a virgin, or that he healed thousands, or that he died, or that he was raised from the dead. The most amazing and wonderful thing of all is that he did all of this for you. For only now that you have heard that God truly became a human being to a virgin mother, can you wait expectantly not just for the story of little baby Jesus, but to hear the story that God himself was born on Christmas day. And that is worth waiting for. Amen.
Most of us have heard this passage once or twice before, but I wonder if we realize how radical it really is. I mean, at Easter time, the drama is pretty obvious isn’t it? Jesus is dead and then, after three days, his is alive again! Raised from the dead! An amazing miracle that really gets people talking! In comparison to Easter day, this Advent text seems boring and quaint. But, in fact, this text is just as full of miracles as the text for Easter day.
The angel Gabriel says to Mary, “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” That’s right! Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, was a virgin mother. How can that be? How is that possible? Well, as the angel later says, “Nothing will be impossible with God.”
Unfortunately, many people have a problem with believing that Mary was a virgin mother. They say that it’s not that important to believe; as long as you believe Jesus was born and died and was resurrected, you’ve got the gospel.” They say, “There ain’t no way you can have a baby and still be a virgin.” In fact, if you’d read much ancient history, you might notice that a lot of important and famous people were SAID to have mothers who were virgins. Egyptian Pharaohs, Roman emperors and even Alexander the Great were said to be “virgin births” to make them seem semi-divine in nature. Some would argue that that’s probably what happened in the story of Jesus’ birth as well.
Do you believe in the virgin birth of Jesus? And if not, why not? You’ve heard that Jesus walked on water, healed lepers and was raised from the dead? Why is the virgin birth such a pickle to believe?
We argue that Mary couldn’t have been a virgin. It’s impossible! We know how babies start out and that’s not how. But our real problem isn’t with Mary, it’s with Jesus. We have trouble believing that Jesus is truly God. You see, if Mary isn’t truly a virgin, then how can you believe that Jesus is truly God? If Mary is anything but a virgin when Jesus born, you just can’t be sure who his father is, can you? And if Jesus isn’t truly God, then Christmas isn’t much of a holiday at all for you and me.
Mary is an easy scapegoat for our doubts. It’s a lot easier to try and figure out how the story might be wrong about Mary than to have to believe that the story is correct. We imagine that maybe Mary was just embarrassed by a little mistake that was made with another man while she was engaged to Joseph and made up this whole angel story. Or worse, maybe she was raped, as some people have speculated, but couldn’t bring herself to tell anyone! It’s been argued over and over that believing in the virgin birth of Jesus isn’t necessary to believe in Jesus, but I would like to know what Jesus you are referring to.
There are many people and, perhaps, many of you, who think a lot of Jesus, what he stood for and what he did, and would like to emulate him as a person. Jesus is a wonderful, powerful example of what one person can do to change the world. But, a radical social revolutionary Jesus doesn’t need to be God, does he? A Jesus who stands up to the religious and political leaders of his time and gets killed for it doesn’t need to have a mother who gave birth to him as a virgin, right? All those miracles of his are interesting stories but, when push comes to shove, you wouldn’t have to believe any of them as long as Jesus is a good example to follow in your life. You wouldn’t need a virgin birth to worship a Jesus like that.
But while Jesus was very radical and political and revolutionary in his time, and in our time, the Bible argues that he was even more than that. The Bible says that he was, in fact, God. Or, as the Lutheran Reformers put it, “Apart from this man, Jesus Christ, there is no God.” And if you miss that little detail, you’ve missed the most radical, the most political and the most revolutionary detail of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. God, the creator of your universe, became a human being and all that comes with it—even to the point that Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, was cursed on the cross and became sin itself. So that you might trust that God, the creator of your universe, isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty and has the power and the love to stick with you from your conception, to your birth, throughout your life and even in your death. God was born, died and was raised from the dead not so that you could follow him by example but so that you might worship him as your God alone.
But there is also another problem we often have with this story about Mary being the virgin mother of Jesus. This problem isn’t so much scientific or physical but theological. Even if we can accept that God can supernaturally impregnate a human being somehow, someway, isn’t it kinda disgusting and degrading for your God, the creator of the Universe, to float around in a uterus for ten months, even if it is Mary, who we assume was a nice upstanding lady. Even the best theologians throughout history have had a hard time with that one. One famous church leader named, Nestorious, even argued that while you could say that Mary was the mother of Jesus, you shouldn’t say she was the mother of God—no birth canal for my Lord, no sirreee! That would be too gross, too dirty and, to be more precise, too close for God to get to a sinner.
But God got so close to you that he experienced amniotic fluid, hiccups and active labor. God didn’t choose to create himself out of nothing as a newborn baby or even as a thirty-one year old man. He became an zygote, then an embryo and then a fetus and waited ten months to be born and breathe fresh air. How? I haven’t a clue. But, as the angel Gabriel says, with God anything is possible.
You see, Christmas day is a wonderful day full of joy and happiness, but the real miracle isn’t Jesus’ birth. It is a wonderful event, just as every birth is, but the fact that Jesus was born, after ten months gestation, isn’t the most amazing thing of all. The most amazing thing is that God chose to have the chance to be born after waiting and growing for months just like all the rest of us. In Phillipians, we hear one of the oldest Christian hymns talk about this wonderful miracle, “though Jesus was in the form of God,” the book of Phillipians says, “He did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.”
If God DIDN’T intend on becoming a human being, then the virgin birth would not have had to truly have happened. If God WASN’T willing to suffer life as a human being, then the virgin birth wouldn’t have had to be true. But if Mary was NOT the virgin mother of Jesus Christ, then not only do we have a problem with the words of Scripture, but we have a problem with God himself. For if God himself was not in Mary’s womb, then God himself was not truly born. And if God himself was not truly born, then God himself did not truly die. And if God himself did not truly die, then we should have all slept in this morning and enjoyed some more pillow time. For if God DID NOT truly die for your in the form of Jesus Christ, then you have no hope for eternal life.
Despite the craziness and unlikeliness of it all, I encourage you to hold onto God’s Word with joy, awe and wonder—even when you hear that Jesus was born to a virgin. Remember that Jesus was not born to the virgin Mary to make the story harder for you to believe, but so that you might more easily believe—so that you might be given faith that Jesus was born both truly human and truly God. So that you might have faith that he has truly saved you from your sins. But, in fact, the most remarkable thing is not that Jesus was born to a virgin, or that he healed thousands, or that he died, or that he was raised from the dead. The most amazing and wonderful thing of all is that he did all of this for you. For only now that you have heard that God truly became a human being to a virgin mother, can you wait expectantly not just for the story of little baby Jesus, but to hear the story that God himself was born on Christmas day. And that is worth waiting for. Amen.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Sermon for December 7th
In last week’s gospel, there was a little passage that I did not address, but which many of you may have heard and wondered about. If you remember, Jesus described the signs that the last days were approaching, “the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.” Then he says, “Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” What do you think about that? Does it bother you? Doesn’t it bother you that Jesus says that these things, these awfully weird and scary things, are going to happen before a generation passes away . . . and that was 2000 years ago! As far as I know, everyone Jesus was talking to is long dead and buried. So was Jesus kidding, or wrong, or just misunderstood?
Well, I’d like you to imagine, for a moment, what it must have felt like to be a person in that generation Jesus spoke to. What must it have felt like when Jesus still hadn’t returned and they were about to die? What about the next generation? How do you think they felt? Betrayed? Confused? And how did they deal with the fact that they were still waiting? Fast forward many, many, many generations after that to the generation you are living in. Doesn’t it bother you that Jesus has not returned yet? Why take so long? Is it something you did? Something you didn’t do? Why isn’t Jesus back yet? What can you do about it?
The fact that Jesus didn’t return within a generation, defined as the time between a group of people’s births and their deaths, is tough to deal with. However, there is a good argument that when Jesus said “this generation would not pass away” he was likely referring to the Jewish people as a whole and not just to the specific lifespans of his listeners. BUT, the problem still isn’t solved EVEN IF we accept that Jesus wasn’t talking about lifespans but a longer span of time. Jesus still hasn’t come again, we proclaim each week that he will, but he hasn’t yet. We are still waiting and THAT is tough to deal with. The problem still exists.
And we certainly aren’t the first people to have this issue, our passage from the book of second Peter is dealing with the same problem. Today’s passage is Peter’s answer to those who were troubled by Christ’s delayed return. They think Peter and his merry band of Christians are wrong about Christ coming back. They say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!” Where is the promise of Jesus’ return? Where indeed?
In our day and age, lots of people are upset by the fact that Jesus has not had his “second coming” yet. How do you know? Well, just look at how hard they are working to get him to come back! I went online and typed into Google: “getting Jesus to come back sooner”. Here are some examples of what people are doing as they wait for Christ to come.
On BringJesusBack.org they have one interesting idea. Here’s a quote from their website, “We can help speed the return of Jesus by making a cassette tape in every language spoken on earth. Since the Bible is inspired directly by God, we can trust that there is great truth in this quote from the book of Matthew chapter 24 verse 14. Here we will quote it from the New International Version: "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." 97% of people have heard according to BringJesusBack.org (how they might prove that is completely beyond me). But, they figure that if 100% of people have heard then the end will come. Jesus won’t have any more excuses I guess.
The Second Coming Project is trying to use technology to get Jesus to come back. They had hoped to find an original relic and get Jesus’ DNA from a hair left on a thorn from the crown of thorns or some skin from the shroud of torah or something, to make a clone of Jesus. Not quite having Jesus return, but a Jesus clone would be the next best thing I guess!
Then, of course, there is the “Rapture Index”. Just as a quick note if you haven’t heard about this before. The rapture is believed to be a time when some Christians, (the really good ones it is assumed) are taken by God out of this world (leaving their clothes and dental fillings behind) while the rest of the world is left to suffer awhile on earth before Jesus comes again—finally! This understanding has been created and taken from several disjointed Bible passages and commercialized into books like the Left Behind series so popular years ago. Of course, while Jesus often says THAT he will return again, he doesn’t say HOW. Surprisingly, however, people who expect the rapture will argue that they do know how and will be more than glad to tell you.
Anyway, Bill Moyers, an American journalist and public commentator, had this to say about the group making up the online Rapture index, “They are sincere, serious, and polite as they tell you they feel called to help bring the rapture on as fulfillment of biblical prophecy. That's why they have declared solidarity with Israel and the Jewish settlements and backed up their support with money and volunteers. It's why the invasion of Iraq for them was a warm-up act, predicted in the Book of Revelation where four angels 'which are bound in the great river Euphrates will be released to slay the third part of man.' A war with Islam in the Middle East is not something to be feared but welcomed - an essential conflagration on the road to redemption. The last time I Googled it, the rapture index stood at 144-just one point below the critical threshold when the whole thing will blow, the son of God will return, the righteous will enter heaven, and sinners will be condemned to eternal hellfire.” Just as a note, as of December 1st, the Rapture index was, in fact, even higher 158! And you can imagine why: unemployment and financial unrest are up, even though floods are down, and a gentleman in Florida has made news recently claiming to be Christ. These are just some examples of how this index decides when Christ is on his way and, as the site recommends, you’d better fasten your seatbelts.
It’s hard to be patient, isn’t it? It’s especially hard to be patient when waiting for Jesus to come back when we have to watch so many people hurting, homeless, going hungry and dying. It’s hard to be patient when people are referring to the rapture index. Why is Jesus taking so long?
Well, first off, Peter makes a distinction in today’s passage. You AREN’T called to be patient. You’re just supposed to wait. GOD is the one being patient. “The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness,” Peter says, “but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.” In other words, while you and I think we are being sooooo patient waiting for Jesus, God says, “You’re not being patient with me, I’m being patient with you!”
When I’m impatient, I look at the clock. I want to know what time it is over and over again. That’s the same question asked by those of us waiting for Jesus to come again: what time is it? What time is it? Between when Jesus ascended into heaven from our sight and when he will come again in the clouds? What time is it? Are we close or not so close?
Peter says that now is the time to wait and to hasten the coming day of the Lord. He first says to wait. While God is actively being patient, he asks you to wait . . . just wait, and that’s a very passive thing to do, isn’t it? If you were the one having to be patient with God, it would be up to you to forgive God for taking so long, but, instead, God says, “I am being patient with you. I am the one doing the forgiving and I want all to come to repentance. I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that they would turn to me and live.” We are passive. We can’t make Jesus come back any later or earlier than God has planned. When it comes to Jesus’ second coming, you and I have absolutely no power to force his hand.
But Peter also says we should “hasten” the day of the Lord and that sounds like a pretty active thing to do. Yet, it’s important to remember that while we are passive in our relationship to God, we are very free to be active in our relationship to others. While it can be very frustrating to focus on when or how Jesus will come again; instead, you may focus on your neighbors, the ones God has planted on this earth for you. God is actively seeking the lost and the forsaken and through his Holy Spirit uses you.
Now is a time to actively listen and to proclaim the promise of God’s salvation. We wait on God and hasten his coming by calling people to both repent and believe that Jesus Christ has forgiven their sins once and for all. Not so that Jesus will come sooner, but so that people might find their Savior. We are not called to “Bring Jesus Back” as the website I referred to earlier says; instead, we are called to bring PEOPLE back to Jesus by proclaiming God’s law and his gospel so that the Holy Spirit can create faith.
What time is it? It is time to hear the good news! It is a time of salvation. God’s perceived slowness shows his love for all humankind. Not just for others, but also for you. Jesus ascended into heaven but his words have not passed away, just like he promised. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” The time has come and the kingdom of heaven has come near to you; repent and believe in the good news. Jesus Christ has come again, as he does every time that you hear his promise; He has come again, in his words, for you. And one day, as he has promised, he will come again in the clouds and you will see him face to face. Until then, he’ll be patient and we’ll wait. Amen.
Well, I’d like you to imagine, for a moment, what it must have felt like to be a person in that generation Jesus spoke to. What must it have felt like when Jesus still hadn’t returned and they were about to die? What about the next generation? How do you think they felt? Betrayed? Confused? And how did they deal with the fact that they were still waiting? Fast forward many, many, many generations after that to the generation you are living in. Doesn’t it bother you that Jesus has not returned yet? Why take so long? Is it something you did? Something you didn’t do? Why isn’t Jesus back yet? What can you do about it?
The fact that Jesus didn’t return within a generation, defined as the time between a group of people’s births and their deaths, is tough to deal with. However, there is a good argument that when Jesus said “this generation would not pass away” he was likely referring to the Jewish people as a whole and not just to the specific lifespans of his listeners. BUT, the problem still isn’t solved EVEN IF we accept that Jesus wasn’t talking about lifespans but a longer span of time. Jesus still hasn’t come again, we proclaim each week that he will, but he hasn’t yet. We are still waiting and THAT is tough to deal with. The problem still exists.
And we certainly aren’t the first people to have this issue, our passage from the book of second Peter is dealing with the same problem. Today’s passage is Peter’s answer to those who were troubled by Christ’s delayed return. They think Peter and his merry band of Christians are wrong about Christ coming back. They say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!” Where is the promise of Jesus’ return? Where indeed?
In our day and age, lots of people are upset by the fact that Jesus has not had his “second coming” yet. How do you know? Well, just look at how hard they are working to get him to come back! I went online and typed into Google: “getting Jesus to come back sooner”. Here are some examples of what people are doing as they wait for Christ to come.
On BringJesusBack.org they have one interesting idea. Here’s a quote from their website, “We can help speed the return of Jesus by making a cassette tape in every language spoken on earth. Since the Bible is inspired directly by God, we can trust that there is great truth in this quote from the book of Matthew chapter 24 verse 14. Here we will quote it from the New International Version: "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." 97% of people have heard according to BringJesusBack.org (how they might prove that is completely beyond me). But, they figure that if 100% of people have heard then the end will come. Jesus won’t have any more excuses I guess.
The Second Coming Project is trying to use technology to get Jesus to come back. They had hoped to find an original relic and get Jesus’ DNA from a hair left on a thorn from the crown of thorns or some skin from the shroud of torah or something, to make a clone of Jesus. Not quite having Jesus return, but a Jesus clone would be the next best thing I guess!
Then, of course, there is the “Rapture Index”. Just as a quick note if you haven’t heard about this before. The rapture is believed to be a time when some Christians, (the really good ones it is assumed) are taken by God out of this world (leaving their clothes and dental fillings behind) while the rest of the world is left to suffer awhile on earth before Jesus comes again—finally! This understanding has been created and taken from several disjointed Bible passages and commercialized into books like the Left Behind series so popular years ago. Of course, while Jesus often says THAT he will return again, he doesn’t say HOW. Surprisingly, however, people who expect the rapture will argue that they do know how and will be more than glad to tell you.
Anyway, Bill Moyers, an American journalist and public commentator, had this to say about the group making up the online Rapture index, “They are sincere, serious, and polite as they tell you they feel called to help bring the rapture on as fulfillment of biblical prophecy. That's why they have declared solidarity with Israel and the Jewish settlements and backed up their support with money and volunteers. It's why the invasion of Iraq for them was a warm-up act, predicted in the Book of Revelation where four angels 'which are bound in the great river Euphrates will be released to slay the third part of man.' A war with Islam in the Middle East is not something to be feared but welcomed - an essential conflagration on the road to redemption. The last time I Googled it, the rapture index stood at 144-just one point below the critical threshold when the whole thing will blow, the son of God will return, the righteous will enter heaven, and sinners will be condemned to eternal hellfire.” Just as a note, as of December 1st, the Rapture index was, in fact, even higher 158! And you can imagine why: unemployment and financial unrest are up, even though floods are down, and a gentleman in Florida has made news recently claiming to be Christ. These are just some examples of how this index decides when Christ is on his way and, as the site recommends, you’d better fasten your seatbelts.
It’s hard to be patient, isn’t it? It’s especially hard to be patient when waiting for Jesus to come back when we have to watch so many people hurting, homeless, going hungry and dying. It’s hard to be patient when people are referring to the rapture index. Why is Jesus taking so long?
Well, first off, Peter makes a distinction in today’s passage. You AREN’T called to be patient. You’re just supposed to wait. GOD is the one being patient. “The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness,” Peter says, “but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.” In other words, while you and I think we are being sooooo patient waiting for Jesus, God says, “You’re not being patient with me, I’m being patient with you!”
When I’m impatient, I look at the clock. I want to know what time it is over and over again. That’s the same question asked by those of us waiting for Jesus to come again: what time is it? What time is it? Between when Jesus ascended into heaven from our sight and when he will come again in the clouds? What time is it? Are we close or not so close?
Peter says that now is the time to wait and to hasten the coming day of the Lord. He first says to wait. While God is actively being patient, he asks you to wait . . . just wait, and that’s a very passive thing to do, isn’t it? If you were the one having to be patient with God, it would be up to you to forgive God for taking so long, but, instead, God says, “I am being patient with you. I am the one doing the forgiving and I want all to come to repentance. I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that they would turn to me and live.” We are passive. We can’t make Jesus come back any later or earlier than God has planned. When it comes to Jesus’ second coming, you and I have absolutely no power to force his hand.
But Peter also says we should “hasten” the day of the Lord and that sounds like a pretty active thing to do. Yet, it’s important to remember that while we are passive in our relationship to God, we are very free to be active in our relationship to others. While it can be very frustrating to focus on when or how Jesus will come again; instead, you may focus on your neighbors, the ones God has planted on this earth for you. God is actively seeking the lost and the forsaken and through his Holy Spirit uses you.
Now is a time to actively listen and to proclaim the promise of God’s salvation. We wait on God and hasten his coming by calling people to both repent and believe that Jesus Christ has forgiven their sins once and for all. Not so that Jesus will come sooner, but so that people might find their Savior. We are not called to “Bring Jesus Back” as the website I referred to earlier says; instead, we are called to bring PEOPLE back to Jesus by proclaiming God’s law and his gospel so that the Holy Spirit can create faith.
What time is it? It is time to hear the good news! It is a time of salvation. God’s perceived slowness shows his love for all humankind. Not just for others, but also for you. Jesus ascended into heaven but his words have not passed away, just like he promised. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” The time has come and the kingdom of heaven has come near to you; repent and believe in the good news. Jesus Christ has come again, as he does every time that you hear his promise; He has come again, in his words, for you. And one day, as he has promised, he will come again in the clouds and you will see him face to face. Until then, he’ll be patient and we’ll wait. Amen.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Sermon for November 30th
One of the most important religious movements in America was the Great Awakening. The movement started in eighteenth-century New England and became associated with well known preachers such as Gilbert Tennant, George Whitefield and, most importantly, Jonathan Edwards. At its foundation, the Great Awakening was about a way of preaching, not necessarily a new way of preaching, people had made the same arguments many times before in the church, but this time the arguments seemed to resonate with the people of the new world. In our text today, Jesus says that we must “Stay Awake!” That’s where the term “Great Awakening” comes from. These preachers set to wake people up to their sin and, in turn, wake them up to the truth of the gospel.
The preachers of the Great Awakening were very gifted orators. They led revivals at a time when society seemed to have lost its moral grounding. Here you have a whole new world and a bunch of men trying to survive in it. Things got ugly pretty quickly. What did these pastors preach about? Hellfire and damnation—to scare people into changing their life. My church history professor explained that this technique really could only work before the civil war because, after the war, people couldn’t be scared by hell anymore since they felt they had already seen it and experienced it.
Experience: this was the key. The Great Awakening was about people EXPERIENCING God. The fear, the pain, the awe, the joy, the ecstasy and peace of a relationship with God. One of the mottos at this time denigrated the practice of infant baptism saying, “Christening does not make a Christian.” You needed to EXPERIENCE a CONVERSION according to these new preachers. Nothing less than a true religious experience could prove that you were a true believer.
The Great Awakening placed a lot of focus on something theologians call “Sanctification”. Just in case you’ve never heard of this word before, let me quickly explain what sanctification means. You’ve heard about creation: God created you and all that exists. You are also, probably, somewhat familiar with the word “justification”: being made right with God. When you hear that your sins are forgiven, you are justified in God’s sight, not for what you have done, but because of what God has done for you.
Finally, you get sanctification: being made holy. Sanctification is often talked about as what happens after your sins are forgiven. First creation, then justification and, finally, sanctification. The preachers of the Great Awakening looked for tears during a sermon for instance. They looked to see if people were laughing uncontrollably at the joy of knowing God for the first time. Or, perhaps they simply watched and waited to see if the newest church member had really changed their life around or was already backsliding. That’s the way sanctification is often talked about in churchy circles: what signs can you point to in order to prove someone is actually a Christian. That they are walking the walk and not just talking the talk. And after you’ve figured out who is really a Christian, the fun part becomes deciding who really isn’t.
Those who take this approach toward sanctification hear Jesus’ words in a very particular way. When Jesus says “Jump!” You say, “How high?” When Jesus says, “Keep awake!” You say, “What must I do to keep awake?” How might you keep awake? Many Christians have come up with ways to help you “stay awake” and be ready for Jesus’ return. Sometimes they are simple. Weekly Bible studies. Weekly church services. Having an extra service Sunday nights. Saying prayers at bedtime and in the morning. Sometimes they are a little more complex. Going to confession once a week. Flogging yourself for your sins. Or maybe going on a peace march against the war? Every church has different ways to encourage people to “stay awake” for Jesus but, when that is THE goal, there is a problem with all of them: You just can’t be sure these spiritual disciplines are working can you?
What spiritual contortions have you put yourself through recently in order to prove to yourself, or to someone else, that you are indeed awake for Jesus? Converted? A Christian? A good Lutheran? And yet, the problem is, no matter how hard you try, you can never be sure what you are doing is enough. You know what the most difficult part of staying awake is? The need for sleep everyday. I don’t mean this allegorically or poetically, I mean this completely literally. How in the world am I supposed to do anything spiritual when I am asleep? I can’t stay awake all night long, and I can’t imagine God wants you or me to do that, but how can I be sure I am not dreaming up some horrible sin right when I am the least able to do anything about it and down comes Jesus Christ like a thief in the night! I know that Jesus isn’t demanding that I become sleep deprived, but this scenario does bring the issue to a head: We cannot always feel spiritually awake. And furthermore, most of the time, we don’t even want to. And still Jesus drones on: Stay awake!
If Sanctification means proving to God or to anyone else that you are truly awakened and converted you will fail. No matter how much Bible study, prayer or flogging you participate in. But I believe there is a much more helpful definition of sanctification, penned by the Lutheran theologian Gerhard Forde. He said Sanctification is getting used to being forgiven. Getting used to justification. Getting used to how it feels to be awake. Getting used to being a Christian in a world of sin with other sinners like yourself. Getting used to trusting in God’s Word.
In Elementary school I lived in Saint Paul, Minnesota. My parents had divorced when I was ten and so I was living with my dad at the time. One night, after much pleading and pouting I convinced my dad to let me go on a quick bike ride before he had to go out to work for the night. He made me promise to be home early so he would not be late. But about ten minutes into my ride I must have slid on some gravel because I woke up a ways away from my bike on my face (I can’t remember what happened because I received a concussion). I knocked out my front tooth, chipped another and skinned up my face a great deal. I spent several days out of school due to my injuries and, I assume, made my dad miss whatever it was he was going to.
But the most traumatic experience of the bike accident was much later, after the sun had set and I was fast asleep. You see, my dad had been given instructions to wake me up to make sure I was ok after having my concussion. And so every hour on the hour my dad woke me up, which was a feat in itself considering I was a heavy, heavy sleeper. Then once he woke me up from dreamland, he shined a big bright flashlight into my eyes! Hour after hour he would come back in, shake me awake, force my eyes open, shine that stupid flashlight into my eyes and I would scream and yell at him until he left. Again he would return like a sadistic human alarm clock risking bodily harm while he shined that dumb light in my eyes. Finally, by 3:00, he and I were beyond what we could handle at that point, and he just left me alone to sleep. I still don’t remember what caused the accident, but I remember him waking me up again and again to shine that insanely bright light at me.
Well, that, my friends, is the best example I can give you of what the Christian life is like. Having someone who is supposed to love you wake you up from a perfectly wonderful night’s sleep again and again and again in order to shine a huge, extremely bright flashlight directly into your eyeballs at close range in order to see if your pupils are dilating. Then coming back in what seems like two minutes, once you are comfortably back to sleep, to do it all over again. Jesus Christ, the light of world, comes into your darkness, into your sleep, where you are only too happy to stay sinfully ignorant and unaware, to shine the light of his truth into your eyeballs. You are in bondage to sin and cannot free yourself. He has come to bring life so that you might have it abundantly! What must you do? Nothing. Get used to it.
The first thesis of Luther’s 95 said this, “When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said "Repent", He called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” I think that the same holds true for many other things as well. For instance, “When your Lord and Master Jesus Christ says “Keep awake”, He is calling for your entire life to be one of waking up.” Not one Great Awakening. Not one conversion. Not a onetime amazing experience. Waking up again and again until you finally get used to doing what you do while being awake. While living in the light of Christ. When Jesus says, “Keep awake!” You no longer need ask what you must do. Christ has already awakened you. Now it’s just a matter of getting used to it. As Forde said, “Now that you know that you don’t have to do anything, what are you going to do?”
Jesus wakes you up over and over again in your life. Ironically, you are only fully awakened to faith once you fall asleep for good, once you’re dead and Christ’s awakens you once and for all. During this Advent season, when Jesus says, “Stay awake!” don’t focus on how to make yourself more holy, but get used to opening your eyes to how Jesus has made you holy. God gets the glory. Jesus holds the flashlight. And when you fall asleep, even at your death, you will have gotten used to being awakened by your annoying and irritating heavenly Father standing in your grave and shining his light into your eyes and whispering into your ears: Wake up! Amen.
The preachers of the Great Awakening were very gifted orators. They led revivals at a time when society seemed to have lost its moral grounding. Here you have a whole new world and a bunch of men trying to survive in it. Things got ugly pretty quickly. What did these pastors preach about? Hellfire and damnation—to scare people into changing their life. My church history professor explained that this technique really could only work before the civil war because, after the war, people couldn’t be scared by hell anymore since they felt they had already seen it and experienced it.
Experience: this was the key. The Great Awakening was about people EXPERIENCING God. The fear, the pain, the awe, the joy, the ecstasy and peace of a relationship with God. One of the mottos at this time denigrated the practice of infant baptism saying, “Christening does not make a Christian.” You needed to EXPERIENCE a CONVERSION according to these new preachers. Nothing less than a true religious experience could prove that you were a true believer.
The Great Awakening placed a lot of focus on something theologians call “Sanctification”. Just in case you’ve never heard of this word before, let me quickly explain what sanctification means. You’ve heard about creation: God created you and all that exists. You are also, probably, somewhat familiar with the word “justification”: being made right with God. When you hear that your sins are forgiven, you are justified in God’s sight, not for what you have done, but because of what God has done for you.
Finally, you get sanctification: being made holy. Sanctification is often talked about as what happens after your sins are forgiven. First creation, then justification and, finally, sanctification. The preachers of the Great Awakening looked for tears during a sermon for instance. They looked to see if people were laughing uncontrollably at the joy of knowing God for the first time. Or, perhaps they simply watched and waited to see if the newest church member had really changed their life around or was already backsliding. That’s the way sanctification is often talked about in churchy circles: what signs can you point to in order to prove someone is actually a Christian. That they are walking the walk and not just talking the talk. And after you’ve figured out who is really a Christian, the fun part becomes deciding who really isn’t.
Those who take this approach toward sanctification hear Jesus’ words in a very particular way. When Jesus says “Jump!” You say, “How high?” When Jesus says, “Keep awake!” You say, “What must I do to keep awake?” How might you keep awake? Many Christians have come up with ways to help you “stay awake” and be ready for Jesus’ return. Sometimes they are simple. Weekly Bible studies. Weekly church services. Having an extra service Sunday nights. Saying prayers at bedtime and in the morning. Sometimes they are a little more complex. Going to confession once a week. Flogging yourself for your sins. Or maybe going on a peace march against the war? Every church has different ways to encourage people to “stay awake” for Jesus but, when that is THE goal, there is a problem with all of them: You just can’t be sure these spiritual disciplines are working can you?
What spiritual contortions have you put yourself through recently in order to prove to yourself, or to someone else, that you are indeed awake for Jesus? Converted? A Christian? A good Lutheran? And yet, the problem is, no matter how hard you try, you can never be sure what you are doing is enough. You know what the most difficult part of staying awake is? The need for sleep everyday. I don’t mean this allegorically or poetically, I mean this completely literally. How in the world am I supposed to do anything spiritual when I am asleep? I can’t stay awake all night long, and I can’t imagine God wants you or me to do that, but how can I be sure I am not dreaming up some horrible sin right when I am the least able to do anything about it and down comes Jesus Christ like a thief in the night! I know that Jesus isn’t demanding that I become sleep deprived, but this scenario does bring the issue to a head: We cannot always feel spiritually awake. And furthermore, most of the time, we don’t even want to. And still Jesus drones on: Stay awake!
If Sanctification means proving to God or to anyone else that you are truly awakened and converted you will fail. No matter how much Bible study, prayer or flogging you participate in. But I believe there is a much more helpful definition of sanctification, penned by the Lutheran theologian Gerhard Forde. He said Sanctification is getting used to being forgiven. Getting used to justification. Getting used to how it feels to be awake. Getting used to being a Christian in a world of sin with other sinners like yourself. Getting used to trusting in God’s Word.
In Elementary school I lived in Saint Paul, Minnesota. My parents had divorced when I was ten and so I was living with my dad at the time. One night, after much pleading and pouting I convinced my dad to let me go on a quick bike ride before he had to go out to work for the night. He made me promise to be home early so he would not be late. But about ten minutes into my ride I must have slid on some gravel because I woke up a ways away from my bike on my face (I can’t remember what happened because I received a concussion). I knocked out my front tooth, chipped another and skinned up my face a great deal. I spent several days out of school due to my injuries and, I assume, made my dad miss whatever it was he was going to.
But the most traumatic experience of the bike accident was much later, after the sun had set and I was fast asleep. You see, my dad had been given instructions to wake me up to make sure I was ok after having my concussion. And so every hour on the hour my dad woke me up, which was a feat in itself considering I was a heavy, heavy sleeper. Then once he woke me up from dreamland, he shined a big bright flashlight into my eyes! Hour after hour he would come back in, shake me awake, force my eyes open, shine that stupid flashlight into my eyes and I would scream and yell at him until he left. Again he would return like a sadistic human alarm clock risking bodily harm while he shined that dumb light in my eyes. Finally, by 3:00, he and I were beyond what we could handle at that point, and he just left me alone to sleep. I still don’t remember what caused the accident, but I remember him waking me up again and again to shine that insanely bright light at me.
Well, that, my friends, is the best example I can give you of what the Christian life is like. Having someone who is supposed to love you wake you up from a perfectly wonderful night’s sleep again and again and again in order to shine a huge, extremely bright flashlight directly into your eyeballs at close range in order to see if your pupils are dilating. Then coming back in what seems like two minutes, once you are comfortably back to sleep, to do it all over again. Jesus Christ, the light of world, comes into your darkness, into your sleep, where you are only too happy to stay sinfully ignorant and unaware, to shine the light of his truth into your eyeballs. You are in bondage to sin and cannot free yourself. He has come to bring life so that you might have it abundantly! What must you do? Nothing. Get used to it.
The first thesis of Luther’s 95 said this, “When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said "Repent", He called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” I think that the same holds true for many other things as well. For instance, “When your Lord and Master Jesus Christ says “Keep awake”, He is calling for your entire life to be one of waking up.” Not one Great Awakening. Not one conversion. Not a onetime amazing experience. Waking up again and again until you finally get used to doing what you do while being awake. While living in the light of Christ. When Jesus says, “Keep awake!” You no longer need ask what you must do. Christ has already awakened you. Now it’s just a matter of getting used to it. As Forde said, “Now that you know that you don’t have to do anything, what are you going to do?”
Jesus wakes you up over and over again in your life. Ironically, you are only fully awakened to faith once you fall asleep for good, once you’re dead and Christ’s awakens you once and for all. During this Advent season, when Jesus says, “Stay awake!” don’t focus on how to make yourself more holy, but get used to opening your eyes to how Jesus has made you holy. God gets the glory. Jesus holds the flashlight. And when you fall asleep, even at your death, you will have gotten used to being awakened by your annoying and irritating heavenly Father standing in your grave and shining his light into your eyes and whispering into your ears: Wake up! Amen.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Thanksgiving Sermon
Of the many things that I am bad at, writing thank you cards might just be number one. I don’t know why. Well, I guess that’s not entirely true. The reason why is because I am both disorganized and thoughtless. But, throughout the years, in my selfish effort to justify myself for not being better at writing thank you cards, I have realized that most people probably don’t really need to be thanked or even want to receive thanks for what they’ve given. They probably don’t really even care once they’ve opened up the thank you card I sent them. They just want to know I sent it. I bet that many people don’t really care about being thanked—they just want the recognition.
What do I mean by recognition? Well, since I usually get chewed out by my grandparents for not writing thank you cards, I’ll have to base my observations primarily on their responses. Why do they want a thank you card? So that they know that the package arrived safely. It makes me wonder how many packages they have lost in the mail that they are so worried about all of mine! Or, they want a thank you card so that they know that I know that a certain gift was from them. I guess that they just don’t trust my ability to read the card or the To/From label. And so year after year, birthday after birthday, Christmas after Christmas, I am forced to remember, as if I could ever forget, and be reminded that I am a horrible and ungrateful child/friend/grandson and nephew. Why? Because I am bad at writing thank you letters.
But, contrary to popular belief, I am actually very, very thankful for all of my gifts. It’s true. I may seem like an ungrateful and selfish man when it comes to writing thank you notes, but when I open up my money cards, my sweaters and the various knick-knacks that come my way, I often have warm fuzzy feelings creep into my chest! I smile. If truth be told, I am thankful . . . but still no one gets their cards on time. Why? How is this possible?
I find it rather funny to be preaching on Thanksgiving on this text from Luke about the healing of ten lepers because nobody really seems to focus on the leper who said thanks. His thanks you’s are drowned out by the deafening silence of the other nine who just leave their leprosy behind them and go on with life. And yet, on Thanksgiving, we celebrate the fact that 10% of these healed lepers take the time to give Jesus a thank you note. I’m sorry, but that just isn’t very inspiring to me. I can relate better to the 90%.
But, let me tell you a little secret about the 9 horrible and ungrateful lepers since they and I are kindred spirits. The text says that they were made clean. That’s right, they were all healed. And so, believe it or not, I think we can all be assured that they were, in fact, very thankful. They were outcasts from their society and now they would be reconciled. They were sick and now they were healthy. They were itchy and now they weren’t. They were bad at saying thank you. Just like me! But, they were indeed all thankful, they were just really bad at recognizing the giver of their gift.
I believe that this is why we hear Jesus make such a strange comment at the end of the passage. The one leper returns praising God and prostrating himself at Jesus’ feet (by the way, I think my Grandma would REALLY like that!) but Jesus doesn’t even tell the leper you’re welcome! Jesus says, “Get up. Go, on your way! Your faith has made you well.” And here I thought today was just about giving thanks! Jesus makes it about faith!
Martin Luther once made the argument that because God created everything and is everywhere at all times, everyone is worshipping God, the Father of Jesus Christ, whether they are Christian or not! If they are worshipping trees, God is there. If they are worshipping a rock, God is there. But, Luther said, they still have no excuse because they are blaspheming God’s name and calling him by a name he has not given them. Perhaps this fear is why I get those phone calls asking if I’ve received a gift. They are worried I’ve just sent the thank you note to the wrong person.
When God sent Jesus Christ to Earth, God gave us his name so that we might know and recognize the Savior of our lives, the forgiver of our sins, the creator of our Universe, the giver of our gifts, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. God knows that you may be thankful, but he wants to be recognized as the giver of your gifts. The other nine lepers were obviously thankful. They were healed! But while they may have thanked their good luck, or even the priest they were sent to, they did not recognize who the true giver of their healing was. They had no faith in Jesus and this is a problem.
According to Hebrews, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Why is faith in Jesus Christ important? Because when you put faith in someone or something, you look to them and trust them to provide you with gifts. A child has faith in his or her mother to provide him or her with food and shelter. An employer has faith in her workers to provide a certain number of productive hours and her employees have faith that she will provide them will a paycheck at the end of each pay period. A Christian has faith in Jesus Christ to provide them with every good gift this earth and eternal life have to give. Without faith in Jesus, we all might be thankful, but we don’t know where to look for hope, for health and for salvation.
God doesn’t just want you to be thankful tomorrow on the Thanksgiving holiday. He doesn’t just want you to live with an attitude of thankfulness throughout the upcoming year. He doesn’t just want me to get better at sending thank you notes to my grandma. God wants you to thank him. To recognize his authority over you. To recognize him as the author of your life and faith. To recognize Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the way, the truth and the life. Thanksgiving is a great holiday, but God wants your faith. For, as Paul says, we are justified by faith apart from works—apart from any great thanksgiving on our part.
As you can imagine, this revelation puts me in a very scary predicament. If I can’t even remember to write my thank you notes to my Grandma several times a year, what are the chances I will succeed in remembering to thank God, the Father of Jesus Christ, for all the good gifts I am provided with on a daily basis? What are the chances you will recognize the giver of your gifts like you are supposed to? The Bible gives us our clear answer—not even ten percent of us will remember. None of us will recognize God as the giver of everything we have. “For no one will be justified in the sight of the law.”
But here is my favorite part of the story. Before Jesus tells the thankful leper to go away Jesus asks him a very wonderful question, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine? Where are they?” You can almost hear him salivating! Like Jesus is just finishing the appetizer before his thanksgiving feast! Where are they? Go away. You’ve been made clean. I’ve got bigger fish to fry. I’ve got to go find the others now! For you can be sure that when there is even one lost sheep, one lost leper or one lost human being on this Earth, Jesus is after them so that they might recognize who the author of their life and their faith truly is. If you are lost, he is after you. So that you might know the name with which to address your thank you notes. And so, we give thanks tonight not just for all that we have, but to Jesus Christ who has given us all that we have. Let us pray . . . Amen.
What do I mean by recognition? Well, since I usually get chewed out by my grandparents for not writing thank you cards, I’ll have to base my observations primarily on their responses. Why do they want a thank you card? So that they know that the package arrived safely. It makes me wonder how many packages they have lost in the mail that they are so worried about all of mine! Or, they want a thank you card so that they know that I know that a certain gift was from them. I guess that they just don’t trust my ability to read the card or the To/From label. And so year after year, birthday after birthday, Christmas after Christmas, I am forced to remember, as if I could ever forget, and be reminded that I am a horrible and ungrateful child/friend/grandson and nephew. Why? Because I am bad at writing thank you letters.
But, contrary to popular belief, I am actually very, very thankful for all of my gifts. It’s true. I may seem like an ungrateful and selfish man when it comes to writing thank you notes, but when I open up my money cards, my sweaters and the various knick-knacks that come my way, I often have warm fuzzy feelings creep into my chest! I smile. If truth be told, I am thankful . . . but still no one gets their cards on time. Why? How is this possible?
I find it rather funny to be preaching on Thanksgiving on this text from Luke about the healing of ten lepers because nobody really seems to focus on the leper who said thanks. His thanks you’s are drowned out by the deafening silence of the other nine who just leave their leprosy behind them and go on with life. And yet, on Thanksgiving, we celebrate the fact that 10% of these healed lepers take the time to give Jesus a thank you note. I’m sorry, but that just isn’t very inspiring to me. I can relate better to the 90%.
But, let me tell you a little secret about the 9 horrible and ungrateful lepers since they and I are kindred spirits. The text says that they were made clean. That’s right, they were all healed. And so, believe it or not, I think we can all be assured that they were, in fact, very thankful. They were outcasts from their society and now they would be reconciled. They were sick and now they were healthy. They were itchy and now they weren’t. They were bad at saying thank you. Just like me! But, they were indeed all thankful, they were just really bad at recognizing the giver of their gift.
I believe that this is why we hear Jesus make such a strange comment at the end of the passage. The one leper returns praising God and prostrating himself at Jesus’ feet (by the way, I think my Grandma would REALLY like that!) but Jesus doesn’t even tell the leper you’re welcome! Jesus says, “Get up. Go, on your way! Your faith has made you well.” And here I thought today was just about giving thanks! Jesus makes it about faith!
Martin Luther once made the argument that because God created everything and is everywhere at all times, everyone is worshipping God, the Father of Jesus Christ, whether they are Christian or not! If they are worshipping trees, God is there. If they are worshipping a rock, God is there. But, Luther said, they still have no excuse because they are blaspheming God’s name and calling him by a name he has not given them. Perhaps this fear is why I get those phone calls asking if I’ve received a gift. They are worried I’ve just sent the thank you note to the wrong person.
When God sent Jesus Christ to Earth, God gave us his name so that we might know and recognize the Savior of our lives, the forgiver of our sins, the creator of our Universe, the giver of our gifts, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. God knows that you may be thankful, but he wants to be recognized as the giver of your gifts. The other nine lepers were obviously thankful. They were healed! But while they may have thanked their good luck, or even the priest they were sent to, they did not recognize who the true giver of their healing was. They had no faith in Jesus and this is a problem.
According to Hebrews, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Why is faith in Jesus Christ important? Because when you put faith in someone or something, you look to them and trust them to provide you with gifts. A child has faith in his or her mother to provide him or her with food and shelter. An employer has faith in her workers to provide a certain number of productive hours and her employees have faith that she will provide them will a paycheck at the end of each pay period. A Christian has faith in Jesus Christ to provide them with every good gift this earth and eternal life have to give. Without faith in Jesus, we all might be thankful, but we don’t know where to look for hope, for health and for salvation.
God doesn’t just want you to be thankful tomorrow on the Thanksgiving holiday. He doesn’t just want you to live with an attitude of thankfulness throughout the upcoming year. He doesn’t just want me to get better at sending thank you notes to my grandma. God wants you to thank him. To recognize his authority over you. To recognize him as the author of your life and faith. To recognize Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the way, the truth and the life. Thanksgiving is a great holiday, but God wants your faith. For, as Paul says, we are justified by faith apart from works—apart from any great thanksgiving on our part.
As you can imagine, this revelation puts me in a very scary predicament. If I can’t even remember to write my thank you notes to my Grandma several times a year, what are the chances I will succeed in remembering to thank God, the Father of Jesus Christ, for all the good gifts I am provided with on a daily basis? What are the chances you will recognize the giver of your gifts like you are supposed to? The Bible gives us our clear answer—not even ten percent of us will remember. None of us will recognize God as the giver of everything we have. “For no one will be justified in the sight of the law.”
But here is my favorite part of the story. Before Jesus tells the thankful leper to go away Jesus asks him a very wonderful question, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine? Where are they?” You can almost hear him salivating! Like Jesus is just finishing the appetizer before his thanksgiving feast! Where are they? Go away. You’ve been made clean. I’ve got bigger fish to fry. I’ve got to go find the others now! For you can be sure that when there is even one lost sheep, one lost leper or one lost human being on this Earth, Jesus is after them so that they might recognize who the author of their life and their faith truly is. If you are lost, he is after you. So that you might know the name with which to address your thank you notes. And so, we give thanks tonight not just for all that we have, but to Jesus Christ who has given us all that we have. Let us pray . . . Amen.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Sermon for November 23rd
Last week I told you about the abundance of God’s gifts. The Christian life is not about giving, it’s about receiving. Receiving God’s gifts. God is giving you everything. Your money, your time, your life. Even your daily bread doesn’t just show up in your pantry at the beginning of the week, it comes in the hands of your neighbor who runs the grocery store who received it from the hands of the bread maker who received it from the hands of the farmer who received it through the efforts of the sun, rain and seeds received from God.
But, still this is hard for us to imagine, especially in America where we have the mindset not of receivers but more like, well, takers. There are many reasons for this, but just think for a moment about a grocery store. When I go grocery shopping I can take anything with the right amount of money. In fact, when I go and they are out of the brand of chicken-apple sausage I get, I get frustrated. I can’t get what I want and that’s not right! Last week, they were out of our kind of bread. What did Kristy say when she opened up the new kind? “This bread smells funny!” We’ve got an attitude of takers—I can’t get what I want and that’s not right!
Now, think about something just a little bit different—like a farmer’s market. You want to buy butternut squash in June? Tough luck. Gotta wait. Strawberries in October? Sorry, but probably not. At the farmer’s market, you have to accept what is there and receive what is given. At the farmer’s market, it’s just easier to see that food is a gift and not just something else to buy.
Now, I’m not implying that farmer’s markets are more moral than supermarkets. That’s not the point. It’s an illustration of what life looks like when you realize God is giving you everything. A pastor friend of mine described a grocery trip he went on with a man who had just arrived from Ethiopia. My friend had gone into the grocery store to pick up a few things and thought this Ethiopian man might like to see what grocery stores looked like in the United States. But after the pastor had walked through the aisles picking things up he realized that his friend hadn’t said a word since they came into the store—he realized his companion had been crying, silently, the entire time. “What’s wrong?” the pastor asked? “I’ve never seen so much food in my life.” His friend said. “Just a small portion of this would feed my entire village. And here it all is. Just sitting here on the shelves for the taking. While people in my country are starving.” That’s a grocery store through the eyes of a receiver—seeing all that food as a gift and imagining the possibilities of how to use it.
What would you do if all your money, your time and your life were gifts? The Bible says that they are. “All look to you to give them their food in due season; when you give to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground.” God is giving you everything. But how might you live your life with God’s gifts? That’s the focus of today’s sermon—the second part of the parable of the talents.
What is the difference between the three servants in the parable? The first two doubled their money, the third gave back exactly what he was given. Could it be that the first two were both financial wizards while the third guy was simply average? Is Jesus making a statement about how we should get better at growing our money and investing in order to make a profit? Does Jesus prefer rich people? Is stewardship simply about getting rich?
The Bible talks about money a lot. But it doesn’t seem to care so much what people buy or how they invest. In other words, you’ve got a lot of freedom in how you use your money. I don’t even see anything that would create the impression that God thinks you to should rich rather than poor. However, God seems to care a lot about whether you are using your money or being used by your money. This is the most important question you need to answer today: Are you using your money or are you being used by your money?
Money, in the Bible, is often talked about surrounding two themes: giving and borrowing. God likes giving but he never talks very nicely about borrowing. But can’t you see why? When you are giving money, you are its master. Just like the kids this week, they were free to choose anything to do with their gift as long as it made a difference in the world, in their community or in the life of someone. It didn’t matter how much they had to give; the point was they gave.
On the other extreme is borrowing money. I’m not saying that you are a sinner because you borrow money (you are a sinner for a lot of other reasons besides that!); what I am saying is that God doesn’t like it when you make money your master. And that is exactly what happens when you have to borrow money all the time and get deeply into debt. It’s hard to think of anything else when everything you earn is already earmarked for a loan or credit card. Instead of seeing money as a gift to be used, money becomes something you’d rather not think about.
But hear this good news: God is giving you everything. Money isn’t scary. It isn’t evil. It is simply a means to an end. Money is only a gift, to be used and nothing more. Money is not to be worshipped. Money is not to be hoarded and never used. It’s only a gift. A MEANS to an END. It’s not that important! And money is also not to be spent frivolously—it is a GIFT FROM GOD! It is a means to an end. It can be USED! It has importance. This is the joy of budgeting down to every last cent. You see both the importance of money and realize that you are its master—not the other way around.
“To all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.” You might have nothing. You might be out there in the outer darkness weeping and gnashing your teeth crying out to God for help. You might feel like everything you have is being taken away from you. Through foreclosure. Through bankruptcy. Through credit card debt. Through car accidents. But even in these difficult times, God keeps giving you everything. No matter where you are financially, nothing will separate you from God’s love and God’s gifts.
Jesus suffered for you. Jesus died for you. Jesus went to hell for you. Jesus loves you completely and will find you even if you are in the deepest darkness of financial poverty. The prophet Samuel says, “The Lord kills and makes alive, he brings down to the grave and he raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he also exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor.” It is true that God makes the rich richer. He likes to give and keep on giving until you have an abundance. But Jesus was born to give you all the riches of salvation that surpass any monetary amount. And no matter how far you have fallen into debt, he has already paid the ransom for you. He will not abandon you nor will he give you up. Whether you are rich or poor you may trust in Jesus Christ to give you everything he has.
How might you live your life with God’s gifts? Use them and remember who gave them to you. God is giving you everything. Money is a gift, but it is only a gift. The Bible does has money advice: it encourages you to give and it discourages you from borrowing, but all these rules are simply to help you live a happier life and to love your neighbor more fully. Following these rules won’t save you. Following this advice might not even make you rich! A huge pile of money is not finally God’s goal for your life—though God promises to give you what you need. God wants your love and he wants you to love your neighbor. So he gives you his love. He gives you his gifts. And then he gives you the greatest gift of all—Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior. He gives you your money, your time, your life and your salvation. God is giving you everything.
But, still this is hard for us to imagine, especially in America where we have the mindset not of receivers but more like, well, takers. There are many reasons for this, but just think for a moment about a grocery store. When I go grocery shopping I can take anything with the right amount of money. In fact, when I go and they are out of the brand of chicken-apple sausage I get, I get frustrated. I can’t get what I want and that’s not right! Last week, they were out of our kind of bread. What did Kristy say when she opened up the new kind? “This bread smells funny!” We’ve got an attitude of takers—I can’t get what I want and that’s not right!
Now, think about something just a little bit different—like a farmer’s market. You want to buy butternut squash in June? Tough luck. Gotta wait. Strawberries in October? Sorry, but probably not. At the farmer’s market, you have to accept what is there and receive what is given. At the farmer’s market, it’s just easier to see that food is a gift and not just something else to buy.
Now, I’m not implying that farmer’s markets are more moral than supermarkets. That’s not the point. It’s an illustration of what life looks like when you realize God is giving you everything. A pastor friend of mine described a grocery trip he went on with a man who had just arrived from Ethiopia. My friend had gone into the grocery store to pick up a few things and thought this Ethiopian man might like to see what grocery stores looked like in the United States. But after the pastor had walked through the aisles picking things up he realized that his friend hadn’t said a word since they came into the store—he realized his companion had been crying, silently, the entire time. “What’s wrong?” the pastor asked? “I’ve never seen so much food in my life.” His friend said. “Just a small portion of this would feed my entire village. And here it all is. Just sitting here on the shelves for the taking. While people in my country are starving.” That’s a grocery store through the eyes of a receiver—seeing all that food as a gift and imagining the possibilities of how to use it.
What would you do if all your money, your time and your life were gifts? The Bible says that they are. “All look to you to give them their food in due season; when you give to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground.” God is giving you everything. But how might you live your life with God’s gifts? That’s the focus of today’s sermon—the second part of the parable of the talents.
What is the difference between the three servants in the parable? The first two doubled their money, the third gave back exactly what he was given. Could it be that the first two were both financial wizards while the third guy was simply average? Is Jesus making a statement about how we should get better at growing our money and investing in order to make a profit? Does Jesus prefer rich people? Is stewardship simply about getting rich?
The Bible talks about money a lot. But it doesn’t seem to care so much what people buy or how they invest. In other words, you’ve got a lot of freedom in how you use your money. I don’t even see anything that would create the impression that God thinks you to should rich rather than poor. However, God seems to care a lot about whether you are using your money or being used by your money. This is the most important question you need to answer today: Are you using your money or are you being used by your money?
Money, in the Bible, is often talked about surrounding two themes: giving and borrowing. God likes giving but he never talks very nicely about borrowing. But can’t you see why? When you are giving money, you are its master. Just like the kids this week, they were free to choose anything to do with their gift as long as it made a difference in the world, in their community or in the life of someone. It didn’t matter how much they had to give; the point was they gave.
On the other extreme is borrowing money. I’m not saying that you are a sinner because you borrow money (you are a sinner for a lot of other reasons besides that!); what I am saying is that God doesn’t like it when you make money your master. And that is exactly what happens when you have to borrow money all the time and get deeply into debt. It’s hard to think of anything else when everything you earn is already earmarked for a loan or credit card. Instead of seeing money as a gift to be used, money becomes something you’d rather not think about.
But hear this good news: God is giving you everything. Money isn’t scary. It isn’t evil. It is simply a means to an end. Money is only a gift, to be used and nothing more. Money is not to be worshipped. Money is not to be hoarded and never used. It’s only a gift. A MEANS to an END. It’s not that important! And money is also not to be spent frivolously—it is a GIFT FROM GOD! It is a means to an end. It can be USED! It has importance. This is the joy of budgeting down to every last cent. You see both the importance of money and realize that you are its master—not the other way around.
“To all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.” You might have nothing. You might be out there in the outer darkness weeping and gnashing your teeth crying out to God for help. You might feel like everything you have is being taken away from you. Through foreclosure. Through bankruptcy. Through credit card debt. Through car accidents. But even in these difficult times, God keeps giving you everything. No matter where you are financially, nothing will separate you from God’s love and God’s gifts.
Jesus suffered for you. Jesus died for you. Jesus went to hell for you. Jesus loves you completely and will find you even if you are in the deepest darkness of financial poverty. The prophet Samuel says, “The Lord kills and makes alive, he brings down to the grave and he raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he also exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor.” It is true that God makes the rich richer. He likes to give and keep on giving until you have an abundance. But Jesus was born to give you all the riches of salvation that surpass any monetary amount. And no matter how far you have fallen into debt, he has already paid the ransom for you. He will not abandon you nor will he give you up. Whether you are rich or poor you may trust in Jesus Christ to give you everything he has.
How might you live your life with God’s gifts? Use them and remember who gave them to you. God is giving you everything. Money is a gift, but it is only a gift. The Bible does has money advice: it encourages you to give and it discourages you from borrowing, but all these rules are simply to help you live a happier life and to love your neighbor more fully. Following these rules won’t save you. Following this advice might not even make you rich! A huge pile of money is not finally God’s goal for your life—though God promises to give you what you need. God wants your love and he wants you to love your neighbor. So he gives you his love. He gives you his gifts. And then he gives you the greatest gift of all—Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior. He gives you your money, your time, your life and your salvation. God is giving you everything.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Sermon for November 16th
What would you do with one hundred dollars? What would you do if you were given one hundred dollars and you were asked to make a difference in the world, in your community or just in the life of one individual? Wouldn’t that be awesome? Just to know that you could do whatever you wanted to do to help someone, to make their day or to give them peace during this difficult time of financial crisis in the world. What would you do with that kind of a gift?
I don’t expect any of you to go look at your checkbook, but think about the balance that is in it right now. And, if that balance is very low, which is quite possible, think about the bills that you recently paid. Where’d that money come from? Where’d your job come from? Where’d your talents and abilities come from? What would you do if your money, your abilities and your job were just given to you as gifts?
What would you do with your life? The heartbeat, breath, functioning kidneys and lungs, the consciousness, the whole nine yards! What would you do with your life if it were just given to you as a gift? What would you do with your life if it were just given to you and you were asked to make a difference in the world, in your community or in the world one solitary person. Wouldn’t that be awesome? To know that you could do whatever you wanted with your life to help someone, to make their day or give them peace during a difficult time of financial crisis in the world.
Today and next Sunday, we are going to look at and talk about your life and your money. These sermons will cover the same passage from today’s gospel reading: the parable of the talents. I figured that you might be interested in what the Bible has to say about money and your life since everybody else in the country has something to say about it. Every time I turn on NPR there is somebody new talking about Credit Default Swaps or sub-prime mortgages, or why, how and if the government should give car companies 50 billion dollars to bail them out. They say that you don’t have enough money to pay your bills, that your life is getting more stressful and that the government wants to help you out and give you hope. Well, the government is not the only one. God has some specific help and some specific hope to give you during this financial crisis.
This week we are going to focus primarily on what God is giving you. Next week we are going to focus on how you might live your life with God’s gifts. Today, at the children’s sermon, we handed out God’s gifts. Next week we are going to hear what those gifts have done in real life.
In the book of Acts, Jesus says that, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” You’ll be hearing that a lot in the upcoming month and a half with Christmas just around the corner. But that still doesn’t change one important fact for you and me that is as true at Christmas time as it is every single day of the year: The Christian life is not about giving, it is about receiving.
That’s right! Clap your hands quickly over your kids’ ears now before it is too late and I ruin all those hard fought lessons you have tried to teach them. The Christian life is not about giving, it is about receiving! You started this life dirt poor and you’ll end it poor and in the dirt. And in between, the part between life and death, I’d like you to realize that everything you have is simply a gift. A gift from God. God is giving you everything.
You don’t have to share these gifts. They are all yours. There are no poison pills or contractual obligations for these gifts. You don’t have to feel bad about how much they cost. In fact, there are not strings attached—you don’t have to give anything back to God in return. These gifts are for you and these gifts are free.
But what are they? What are these gifts? Well, take a deep breath . . . there it is. Breath. Gift number one. But God doesn’t just stop there does he? No. God is giving you everything. He doesn’t hold back. He gives you food and clothing. House and home. Fields and flocks. Money and property. A devoted family. An orderly community, good government, favorable weather, peace and health, a good name, and true friends and neighbors. When you open up the envelope of your life and see some of those good gifts in it, you can trust that God is the giver. And this might be a very big disappointment for you. Because all these gifts from God are things you’ve already got! Exactly!
What would you do with one hundred dollars? If it was just given to you? Well, it has been given to you and, probably a lot more than that. I know that I have a lot more than $100 dollars! A lot more! And so do you. No matter how poor you think you are. But, what if you were given all that money and you were asked to make a difference in the world, in your community or in the life of an individual? Wouldn’t that be awesome? Just to know that you could do whatever you wanted do to help someone, to make their day or give them peace during this difficult time of financial crisis in the world. Well, that’s just it. You were. You were asked. We all were. God has given us everything and he has entrusted his gifts into our hands.
The gospel for today tells this story about a master giving money to his slaves and it sounds almost like a fairy tale to us. Like something that could happen to us one day if we were lucky. But it has already happened. It’s already happening. God has given you his gifts and he is still giving them abundantly. And when Jesus returns to Earth what will he think? What are we doing with everything he has given? If we say that we have not sinned we deceive ourselves.
But still, that doesn’t change the fact that the Christian life is primarily about receiving. Not giving—receiving! We have to receive everything from God’s hands. When it comes to our relationship to God, we receive his blessings and have absolutely nothing worthwhile to give back in return. But, what happens when the money is in our hands? Or in our bank accounts. You and I do not only have a relationship with God; we also have relationships with other people and with the world around us. You can only become a giver in your relationship with others once you realize that you are simply receiving when it comes to your relationship to God. You’re only giving what’s already been given to you.
This is why, finally, God, being the generous giver that he is, must give one final gift to each and every one of you. This is why, finally, even Christmas is NOT about giving, it is about receiving. God Almighty has come down for you because your only hope of eternal life lies not in your 401k, Roth IRA or in a government bailout. Your only hope lies in God alone—a burping, bouncing, bubble-breathing, baby boy named Jesus. He’s got the whole world—and your only possibility for eternal life—in his itty bitty hands, “For in Jesus all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, (that would include you) by making peace through the blood of his cross.” The Christian life is finally about receiving and God is always the giver. God gives and you receive forgiveness of your sins and a new life.
During this financial crisis, our society and the media tempt us to focus on what we do not have. We are constantly reminded that the Dow Jones is falling lower and lower. Our banks don’t have faith to lend out their money anymore. We don’t have faith in our financial institutions or in our government anymore. We all start feeling and acting like that unfortunate slave in today’s story who was given his money and is scared to death of using it or losing it or getting it taken away!
But what would you do if all your money, your time and your life were given to you as a gift? What would you do if you were asked to make a difference in the world, in your community or in the world of one person? To know that you could do whatever you wanted with your life to help someone, to make their day or to give them peace during a difficult time of financial crisis in the world.
God says, “You may not be able to trust the stock market at the moment, but you can always trust me to pay out abundantly.” God says, “If you have lost faith in your financial institutions, you may put your faith in me, the creator and giver of all things.” God says, “If you have finally realized that you are bankrupt, heart, mind and soul with sin, come to me, for I give beyond measure and with no strings attached.” God says, “I give you a new life, a new heat and a new spirit for your portfolio. Here is my only Son, Jesus; he is yours forever. I give you all I have, withholding nothing. Everything I have I give to you. Take my gifts: you are free to use them; What might you do? I entrust all this to you.”
Amen.
I don’t expect any of you to go look at your checkbook, but think about the balance that is in it right now. And, if that balance is very low, which is quite possible, think about the bills that you recently paid. Where’d that money come from? Where’d your job come from? Where’d your talents and abilities come from? What would you do if your money, your abilities and your job were just given to you as gifts?
What would you do with your life? The heartbeat, breath, functioning kidneys and lungs, the consciousness, the whole nine yards! What would you do with your life if it were just given to you as a gift? What would you do with your life if it were just given to you and you were asked to make a difference in the world, in your community or in the world one solitary person. Wouldn’t that be awesome? To know that you could do whatever you wanted with your life to help someone, to make their day or give them peace during a difficult time of financial crisis in the world.
Today and next Sunday, we are going to look at and talk about your life and your money. These sermons will cover the same passage from today’s gospel reading: the parable of the talents. I figured that you might be interested in what the Bible has to say about money and your life since everybody else in the country has something to say about it. Every time I turn on NPR there is somebody new talking about Credit Default Swaps or sub-prime mortgages, or why, how and if the government should give car companies 50 billion dollars to bail them out. They say that you don’t have enough money to pay your bills, that your life is getting more stressful and that the government wants to help you out and give you hope. Well, the government is not the only one. God has some specific help and some specific hope to give you during this financial crisis.
This week we are going to focus primarily on what God is giving you. Next week we are going to focus on how you might live your life with God’s gifts. Today, at the children’s sermon, we handed out God’s gifts. Next week we are going to hear what those gifts have done in real life.
In the book of Acts, Jesus says that, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” You’ll be hearing that a lot in the upcoming month and a half with Christmas just around the corner. But that still doesn’t change one important fact for you and me that is as true at Christmas time as it is every single day of the year: The Christian life is not about giving, it is about receiving.
That’s right! Clap your hands quickly over your kids’ ears now before it is too late and I ruin all those hard fought lessons you have tried to teach them. The Christian life is not about giving, it is about receiving! You started this life dirt poor and you’ll end it poor and in the dirt. And in between, the part between life and death, I’d like you to realize that everything you have is simply a gift. A gift from God. God is giving you everything.
You don’t have to share these gifts. They are all yours. There are no poison pills or contractual obligations for these gifts. You don’t have to feel bad about how much they cost. In fact, there are not strings attached—you don’t have to give anything back to God in return. These gifts are for you and these gifts are free.
But what are they? What are these gifts? Well, take a deep breath . . . there it is. Breath. Gift number one. But God doesn’t just stop there does he? No. God is giving you everything. He doesn’t hold back. He gives you food and clothing. House and home. Fields and flocks. Money and property. A devoted family. An orderly community, good government, favorable weather, peace and health, a good name, and true friends and neighbors. When you open up the envelope of your life and see some of those good gifts in it, you can trust that God is the giver. And this might be a very big disappointment for you. Because all these gifts from God are things you’ve already got! Exactly!
What would you do with one hundred dollars? If it was just given to you? Well, it has been given to you and, probably a lot more than that. I know that I have a lot more than $100 dollars! A lot more! And so do you. No matter how poor you think you are. But, what if you were given all that money and you were asked to make a difference in the world, in your community or in the life of an individual? Wouldn’t that be awesome? Just to know that you could do whatever you wanted do to help someone, to make their day or give them peace during this difficult time of financial crisis in the world. Well, that’s just it. You were. You were asked. We all were. God has given us everything and he has entrusted his gifts into our hands.
The gospel for today tells this story about a master giving money to his slaves and it sounds almost like a fairy tale to us. Like something that could happen to us one day if we were lucky. But it has already happened. It’s already happening. God has given you his gifts and he is still giving them abundantly. And when Jesus returns to Earth what will he think? What are we doing with everything he has given? If we say that we have not sinned we deceive ourselves.
But still, that doesn’t change the fact that the Christian life is primarily about receiving. Not giving—receiving! We have to receive everything from God’s hands. When it comes to our relationship to God, we receive his blessings and have absolutely nothing worthwhile to give back in return. But, what happens when the money is in our hands? Or in our bank accounts. You and I do not only have a relationship with God; we also have relationships with other people and with the world around us. You can only become a giver in your relationship with others once you realize that you are simply receiving when it comes to your relationship to God. You’re only giving what’s already been given to you.
This is why, finally, God, being the generous giver that he is, must give one final gift to each and every one of you. This is why, finally, even Christmas is NOT about giving, it is about receiving. God Almighty has come down for you because your only hope of eternal life lies not in your 401k, Roth IRA or in a government bailout. Your only hope lies in God alone—a burping, bouncing, bubble-breathing, baby boy named Jesus. He’s got the whole world—and your only possibility for eternal life—in his itty bitty hands, “For in Jesus all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, (that would include you) by making peace through the blood of his cross.” The Christian life is finally about receiving and God is always the giver. God gives and you receive forgiveness of your sins and a new life.
During this financial crisis, our society and the media tempt us to focus on what we do not have. We are constantly reminded that the Dow Jones is falling lower and lower. Our banks don’t have faith to lend out their money anymore. We don’t have faith in our financial institutions or in our government anymore. We all start feeling and acting like that unfortunate slave in today’s story who was given his money and is scared to death of using it or losing it or getting it taken away!
But what would you do if all your money, your time and your life were given to you as a gift? What would you do if you were asked to make a difference in the world, in your community or in the world of one person? To know that you could do whatever you wanted with your life to help someone, to make their day or to give them peace during a difficult time of financial crisis in the world.
God says, “You may not be able to trust the stock market at the moment, but you can always trust me to pay out abundantly.” God says, “If you have lost faith in your financial institutions, you may put your faith in me, the creator and giver of all things.” God says, “If you have finally realized that you are bankrupt, heart, mind and soul with sin, come to me, for I give beyond measure and with no strings attached.” God says, “I give you a new life, a new heat and a new spirit for your portfolio. Here is my only Son, Jesus; he is yours forever. I give you all I have, withholding nothing. Everything I have I give to you. Take my gifts: you are free to use them; What might you do? I entrust all this to you.”
Amen.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
November 9th Sermon
“Alas for you who desire the day of the Lord! Why do you want the day of the Lord? It is darkness, not light; as if someone fled from a lion, and was met by a bear; or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall, and was bitten by a snake. Is not the day of the Lord darkness, not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?”
What is the “Day of the Lord”? I guess the best way to translate this into our way of speaking would be to call it “Judgment Day.” The “Day of the Lord” is the last day of the world. When God sits on his throne and puts all the nations under his feet as a footstool. When God makes his final decision about you once and for all.
And according to the prophet Amos, the Israelites loved to talk about the Day of the Lord. Judgment Day what something they were looking forward to. It was the day that they would finally be embraced as God’s chosen people and all the troubles in the world would be over. There would be a new heaven and a new earth—a new Jerusalem! They were the descendents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They were confident of God’s decision and his choice. They looked forward to the day when everyone else could see that they—THEY—the Israelites, were right after all! What a glorious moment that would be! The Day of the Lord. Judgment Day. When believing in God all those years would finally pay off!
Sometimes we are so focused on the law and following it that we miss the mark completely! Instead of loving our neighbors, the thing the law wants us to do in the first place!—we end up becoming self-righteous like the Israelites Amos was preaching to. We try to follow the law so completely that we end up breaking the law. By demanding that our neighbors follow the law we forget to love our neighbors. Pointing out sins is fine as long as you remember that sin is a universal condition. We cannot simply point out sin, we must pray, love and forgive sinners just as we have been prayed for, loved and forgiven.
However, in our day, it’s tough to be quite as self-righteous as the Israelites seemed to be when Amos was talking to them because God doesn’t seem to have the stomach for judgment at all anymore. He seems too progressive, too loving and too tolerant for all that stuff the Old Testament talks about. At seminaries, in casual conversations, in the news, in the movies, the Day of the Lord, Judgment Day, is often talked about with joyful anticipation. We get around the darkness of the Day of the Lord in a new way now. It’s called “Universal Salvation” or “Universalism” and it sounds pretty darn nice if you ask me.
Christian Universalism says that since God loves all people everyone will be saved no matter what. If there were such a thing as hell, which there probably isn’t Universalists would argue, that would mean that God is not a loving God at all but a vindictive God. A mean God. And that doesn’t sound right. What about all the Buddhists or Muslims or Hindus who never were told about Jesus Christ or who never had a chance to believe in him? If God were not going to save everybody then why would he let them be born into a different religion? An all knowing and all powerful God wouldn’t act like that. That wouldn’t be fair!
So, the Universalist argument looks at scripture. The gospel of John points out that, “God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him may not perish but have eternal life. But Jesus also says, “No one can come to Jesus unless drawn by the Father who sent him”. Therefore, as scripture also clearly says, God will draw all people to himself so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” According to Christian Universalists, everyone is saved by God. Everyone is loved by God no matter what they do. No matter what they believe. Everything will come out alright in the end. That’s the Day of the Lord and it doesn’t sound so darn bad if you ask me.
If everyone will be saved in the end then we shouldn’t be worried about the Day of the Lord should we, no matter what Amos says. We certainly don’t need to worry about what we do in this life. Morals, ethics, forgiveness and loving your neighbor don’t really matter. Who needs it? You’ll be fine no matter what you do. That’s the love of God, Universalists would say. But that’s not quite the same as a Savior who forgives sinners and creates a new creation. Universalism says that we are all saved without becoming new or changed. We are all forgiven without repentance and without a changed life. Finally, Universalism undermines the very proclamation we are called to give to people about Jesus Christ. For if everyone is saved in the end, why bother them with Jesus? At best Christianity will confuse people and at worst it might break up families, cultures and start a war.
Jesus was never tolerant, but he was always forgiving. He was understanding, compassionate, loving, peaceful, giving and fought against injustice wherever and whenever he saw it. But no one left his presence unchanged. No one left feeling that they were tolerated, as if that would be a loving thing to do. I mean, if someone tells you that they are tolerating you, does that make you feel very loved? Tolerance is not the same thing as love. With Jesus, you are either convicted of or forgiven for your sins. Jesus is never tolerant, but Jesus is always forgiving.
Alas for you who desire the day of the Lord! Why do you want the day of the Lord? It is darkness, not light; as if someone fled from a lion, and was met by a bear.” You and I worry about being called intolerant or legalistic and we run from those labels like they were going to eat us alive! But, in doing so, we find ourselves in a society where faith, belief and morality don’t mean very much. Perhaps this is why, in America at least, it is considered extremely bad form to criticize non-Christian religions in public, but it is more than acceptable to criticize Christians and Christianity in public. We flee from the lions of intolerance and, ironically are eaten by the intolerant bears of society.
Or course, tolerance is important, but it is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. Tolerance doesn’t free anyone from anything. It leaves the old creation old and nothing new happens. One of the biggest problems with making tolerance a doctrine of the church is that, often, the most tolerant people just don’t tolerate intolerant people! How ironic! But here is the truth of the gospel. God expects both the tolerant and the intolerant to repent of their sins—one is not better than the other. God offers forgiveness both to recovering addicts and to addicts who have no intention of recovering—everyone needs forgiveness.
“Alas for you who desire the day of the Lord! Why do you want the day of the Lord? It is darkness, not light; as if someone fled from a lion, and was met by a bear; or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall, and was bitten by a snake. I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” God waited for his chosen people, the Israelites, to follow his laws. He waited for them to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with Him as their God. He waits for you to do the same thing, but it never happens. So God has now fulfilled Amos’ prophecy in Jesus Christ for you. “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.”
He rolls Jesus Christ all the way down from heaven to you like a flood of waters upon your head, drenching you in the promise of baptism and saturates you with His righteousness from head to toe. He forgives your sins over and over again and he makes living waters of faith gush forth from your heart in an ever-flowing stream. The Day of the Lord will still be a day of darkness for you, but you will not be alone on that day. The light of the world, Jesus Christ himself, will be standing there shining his salvation upon you even in the deepest darkness. And nothing, not even the Day of the Lord with all it’s lions, snakes and bears will be able to snatch you from the hands of Jesus. Amen.
What is the “Day of the Lord”? I guess the best way to translate this into our way of speaking would be to call it “Judgment Day.” The “Day of the Lord” is the last day of the world. When God sits on his throne and puts all the nations under his feet as a footstool. When God makes his final decision about you once and for all.
And according to the prophet Amos, the Israelites loved to talk about the Day of the Lord. Judgment Day what something they were looking forward to. It was the day that they would finally be embraced as God’s chosen people and all the troubles in the world would be over. There would be a new heaven and a new earth—a new Jerusalem! They were the descendents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They were confident of God’s decision and his choice. They looked forward to the day when everyone else could see that they—THEY—the Israelites, were right after all! What a glorious moment that would be! The Day of the Lord. Judgment Day. When believing in God all those years would finally pay off!
Sometimes we are so focused on the law and following it that we miss the mark completely! Instead of loving our neighbors, the thing the law wants us to do in the first place!—we end up becoming self-righteous like the Israelites Amos was preaching to. We try to follow the law so completely that we end up breaking the law. By demanding that our neighbors follow the law we forget to love our neighbors. Pointing out sins is fine as long as you remember that sin is a universal condition. We cannot simply point out sin, we must pray, love and forgive sinners just as we have been prayed for, loved and forgiven.
However, in our day, it’s tough to be quite as self-righteous as the Israelites seemed to be when Amos was talking to them because God doesn’t seem to have the stomach for judgment at all anymore. He seems too progressive, too loving and too tolerant for all that stuff the Old Testament talks about. At seminaries, in casual conversations, in the news, in the movies, the Day of the Lord, Judgment Day, is often talked about with joyful anticipation. We get around the darkness of the Day of the Lord in a new way now. It’s called “Universal Salvation” or “Universalism” and it sounds pretty darn nice if you ask me.
Christian Universalism says that since God loves all people everyone will be saved no matter what. If there were such a thing as hell, which there probably isn’t Universalists would argue, that would mean that God is not a loving God at all but a vindictive God. A mean God. And that doesn’t sound right. What about all the Buddhists or Muslims or Hindus who never were told about Jesus Christ or who never had a chance to believe in him? If God were not going to save everybody then why would he let them be born into a different religion? An all knowing and all powerful God wouldn’t act like that. That wouldn’t be fair!
So, the Universalist argument looks at scripture. The gospel of John points out that, “God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him may not perish but have eternal life. But Jesus also says, “No one can come to Jesus unless drawn by the Father who sent him”. Therefore, as scripture also clearly says, God will draw all people to himself so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” According to Christian Universalists, everyone is saved by God. Everyone is loved by God no matter what they do. No matter what they believe. Everything will come out alright in the end. That’s the Day of the Lord and it doesn’t sound so darn bad if you ask me.
If everyone will be saved in the end then we shouldn’t be worried about the Day of the Lord should we, no matter what Amos says. We certainly don’t need to worry about what we do in this life. Morals, ethics, forgiveness and loving your neighbor don’t really matter. Who needs it? You’ll be fine no matter what you do. That’s the love of God, Universalists would say. But that’s not quite the same as a Savior who forgives sinners and creates a new creation. Universalism says that we are all saved without becoming new or changed. We are all forgiven without repentance and without a changed life. Finally, Universalism undermines the very proclamation we are called to give to people about Jesus Christ. For if everyone is saved in the end, why bother them with Jesus? At best Christianity will confuse people and at worst it might break up families, cultures and start a war.
Jesus was never tolerant, but he was always forgiving. He was understanding, compassionate, loving, peaceful, giving and fought against injustice wherever and whenever he saw it. But no one left his presence unchanged. No one left feeling that they were tolerated, as if that would be a loving thing to do. I mean, if someone tells you that they are tolerating you, does that make you feel very loved? Tolerance is not the same thing as love. With Jesus, you are either convicted of or forgiven for your sins. Jesus is never tolerant, but Jesus is always forgiving.
Alas for you who desire the day of the Lord! Why do you want the day of the Lord? It is darkness, not light; as if someone fled from a lion, and was met by a bear.” You and I worry about being called intolerant or legalistic and we run from those labels like they were going to eat us alive! But, in doing so, we find ourselves in a society where faith, belief and morality don’t mean very much. Perhaps this is why, in America at least, it is considered extremely bad form to criticize non-Christian religions in public, but it is more than acceptable to criticize Christians and Christianity in public. We flee from the lions of intolerance and, ironically are eaten by the intolerant bears of society.
Or course, tolerance is important, but it is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. Tolerance doesn’t free anyone from anything. It leaves the old creation old and nothing new happens. One of the biggest problems with making tolerance a doctrine of the church is that, often, the most tolerant people just don’t tolerate intolerant people! How ironic! But here is the truth of the gospel. God expects both the tolerant and the intolerant to repent of their sins—one is not better than the other. God offers forgiveness both to recovering addicts and to addicts who have no intention of recovering—everyone needs forgiveness.
“Alas for you who desire the day of the Lord! Why do you want the day of the Lord? It is darkness, not light; as if someone fled from a lion, and was met by a bear; or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall, and was bitten by a snake. I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” God waited for his chosen people, the Israelites, to follow his laws. He waited for them to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with Him as their God. He waits for you to do the same thing, but it never happens. So God has now fulfilled Amos’ prophecy in Jesus Christ for you. “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.”
He rolls Jesus Christ all the way down from heaven to you like a flood of waters upon your head, drenching you in the promise of baptism and saturates you with His righteousness from head to toe. He forgives your sins over and over again and he makes living waters of faith gush forth from your heart in an ever-flowing stream. The Day of the Lord will still be a day of darkness for you, but you will not be alone on that day. The light of the world, Jesus Christ himself, will be standing there shining his salvation upon you even in the deepest darkness. And nothing, not even the Day of the Lord with all it’s lions, snakes and bears will be able to snatch you from the hands of Jesus. Amen.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Sermon for November 2nd
My favorite TV show is Heroes, on NBC. I love the fantasy, the drama, the science fiction. I like to see lightning bolts fly out of people’s fingers, people going invisible and then going superhumanly fast and those things are all a part of this show. There’s no doubt some psychological reason for my interest with this type of genre, maybe I am an obsessive overachiever or am constantly losing my grip on reality. Maybe I just like special effects? Who knows? But, whatever the reason, I like to imagine what it would be like to have super powers. To be the strongest, the smartest and the fastest person in the world. The best of the best. To be special, both in my own eyes and in the eyes of others.
I carry this attitude with me into everyday life as well, like it or not. I like to be the best I can be and, if truth be told, I wouldn’t mind being the best in the eyes of others as well. I like to be told I am really good at what I do. It strokes my ego and makes me smile. I want to be a hero just like on the TV show even if I can’t create fire in the palm of my hand or fly around town. My parents called this attitude “self-confidence”. Others along the way have called this attitude “cocky”. Most psychology books would call this attitude “unrealistic”.
But I’d like to know what God thinks about my attitude? Is he happy that I am so focused on being the best that I can be? Being a hard worker must count for something. A hero, by definition, would help others out and, well, that is certainly biblical: “love your neighbor as yourself”. Does God praise these wonderfully traits of mine or does he notice them at all? What would it take to be a hero in God’s eyes?
I remember daydreaming when I was younger about the possibility of Jesus coming back to earth and finding disciples to walk across the countryside spreading the gospel message. I thought, “What if Jesus came to my door when my dad was gone and said follow me? I’d follow him right away!” I thought! “How cool would that be, right! And so I told my dad that if I was ever just gone one day he shouldn’t worry. Jesus probably just came back and asked me to be his disciple. I’d probably show up on the news that night.”
I wonder if that’s how the twelve disciples felt when they were asked by Jesus to come and follow him. I mean, they believed he was their Messiah! The awaited Savior of the Universe! The king of the Jews and he was asking them—them of all people!—to walk around with him and spread the news and do good deeds. They could be heroes! How wonderful!
Our gospel reading today sets the scene at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry where the disciples follow Jesus up a mountain after the crowds have gone home. They had just been called out of their ordinary lives, lives full of catching fish or counting silver coins, to a life of extraordinary faith and adventure! And now, Jesus sat them down for a pep talk. No doubt, Jesus was about to tell them what a great job they had done already and what great expectations he had for them!
Jesus begins by saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” You can imagine their surprise. “Pssst. Hey Matthew! Did Jesus just say the poor in spirit? Who’s he talking about? Jesus continued, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” “Uh, hey Jesus. I’m actually really happy to be here . . . not sad at all!” Blessed are the meek,” Jesus said, “for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness; sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
You’d have to imagine that the disciples felt a little gypped at this point. Heroes aren’t meek! They aren’t meek at all! They eat meek for breakfast! Heroes aren’t peacemakers! They have swords and shields and defend damsels in distress! I guess heroes are pure in heart, but they shouldn’t be persecuted. No, no, no, no! Jesus has this all wrong. Blessed are the heroes! The best of the best! The hard working, faith confessing, evil whupping, Messiah following disciples! The twelve special ones, you know. Who were these poor in spirit people? “We’ve got spirit, yes we do, we’ve got spirit, how bout you?”
For many of you, when you first heard the list detailing the kinds of people who were blessed by God, you might not have found yourself on the list. And for good reason, right? No one wants to be known as mournful, meek, poor in spirit person! That doesn’t sound good at all. A few of these things sound like positive traits, in a churchy, religious kind of way, but none of them seem THAT exciting. Who wants to be merciful? I want to be Mr. wonderful! I want to be a hero.
It is a strange thing really. When Jesus hands out his blessings, nobody really wants them. It’s not that we don’t want to be blessed, it’s just that we want to be blessed for our achievements and our hard work. Noble things. Heroic things. We want to be rewarded for our faith, not blessed because we have none. We want to be honored for our efforts, not blessed because we have to hunger and thirst for righteousness. We want Jesus to bless us on our terms. We want Jesus to praise us for our extraordinary abilities. Jesus wants us to utterly despair of our own abilities and to praise God’s name alone for our salvation.
Later on in the gospel of Matthew Jesus says, “I have come not for the healthy but for the sick. Not for the righteous but for the unrighteous.” At first, that can sound very upsetting if you feel good and think you’re doing alright in God’s eyes. But if Jesus has come to bless the poor in spirit, and he’s talking to you, perhaps you are more poor in spirit than you thought. Maybe it’s not something to be ashamed of. Perhaps, that righteousness you thought you had wasn’t much to look at after all.
God’s blessings are for you in fact, even if you don’t want them at first. You and I want to be heroes, not merciful meek peacemakers. But when you try to make yourself look so hot in God’s eyes you tend to move farther and farther away from his blessings. The more you trust in your own abilities, your own faith, your own understanding, the more you turn your back on God and his promises. You forget that everything is God’s and God’s alone. You forget that God wants you to fear, love and trust him above anything else. Above ANYTHING else, even above yourself and your heroic ambitions.
This passage describes what God values over and against what we think is important. It shows us that there are many in this world that are blessed in God’s eyes even though they are seen as second-class citizens to the rest of us. However, what I find most amazing is that these blessings are for you and for me, even though we never wanted them to be. We want to be heroes, but in God’s eyes we all come in second to Jesus Christ and his glory. The more you find yourself trusting God’s will for your life and trusting his values instead of your own, the more you will realize the hero Jesus was for forgiving your sins and blessing you with eternal life. Like it or not, these blessings are yours. You’re not the hero. Jesus is your hero.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness; sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Rejoice and be glad! Yours is the kingdom of God.” Amen.
I carry this attitude with me into everyday life as well, like it or not. I like to be the best I can be and, if truth be told, I wouldn’t mind being the best in the eyes of others as well. I like to be told I am really good at what I do. It strokes my ego and makes me smile. I want to be a hero just like on the TV show even if I can’t create fire in the palm of my hand or fly around town. My parents called this attitude “self-confidence”. Others along the way have called this attitude “cocky”. Most psychology books would call this attitude “unrealistic”.
But I’d like to know what God thinks about my attitude? Is he happy that I am so focused on being the best that I can be? Being a hard worker must count for something. A hero, by definition, would help others out and, well, that is certainly biblical: “love your neighbor as yourself”. Does God praise these wonderfully traits of mine or does he notice them at all? What would it take to be a hero in God’s eyes?
I remember daydreaming when I was younger about the possibility of Jesus coming back to earth and finding disciples to walk across the countryside spreading the gospel message. I thought, “What if Jesus came to my door when my dad was gone and said follow me? I’d follow him right away!” I thought! “How cool would that be, right! And so I told my dad that if I was ever just gone one day he shouldn’t worry. Jesus probably just came back and asked me to be his disciple. I’d probably show up on the news that night.”
I wonder if that’s how the twelve disciples felt when they were asked by Jesus to come and follow him. I mean, they believed he was their Messiah! The awaited Savior of the Universe! The king of the Jews and he was asking them—them of all people!—to walk around with him and spread the news and do good deeds. They could be heroes! How wonderful!
Our gospel reading today sets the scene at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry where the disciples follow Jesus up a mountain after the crowds have gone home. They had just been called out of their ordinary lives, lives full of catching fish or counting silver coins, to a life of extraordinary faith and adventure! And now, Jesus sat them down for a pep talk. No doubt, Jesus was about to tell them what a great job they had done already and what great expectations he had for them!
Jesus begins by saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” You can imagine their surprise. “Pssst. Hey Matthew! Did Jesus just say the poor in spirit? Who’s he talking about? Jesus continued, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” “Uh, hey Jesus. I’m actually really happy to be here . . . not sad at all!” Blessed are the meek,” Jesus said, “for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness; sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
You’d have to imagine that the disciples felt a little gypped at this point. Heroes aren’t meek! They aren’t meek at all! They eat meek for breakfast! Heroes aren’t peacemakers! They have swords and shields and defend damsels in distress! I guess heroes are pure in heart, but they shouldn’t be persecuted. No, no, no, no! Jesus has this all wrong. Blessed are the heroes! The best of the best! The hard working, faith confessing, evil whupping, Messiah following disciples! The twelve special ones, you know. Who were these poor in spirit people? “We’ve got spirit, yes we do, we’ve got spirit, how bout you?”
For many of you, when you first heard the list detailing the kinds of people who were blessed by God, you might not have found yourself on the list. And for good reason, right? No one wants to be known as mournful, meek, poor in spirit person! That doesn’t sound good at all. A few of these things sound like positive traits, in a churchy, religious kind of way, but none of them seem THAT exciting. Who wants to be merciful? I want to be Mr. wonderful! I want to be a hero.
It is a strange thing really. When Jesus hands out his blessings, nobody really wants them. It’s not that we don’t want to be blessed, it’s just that we want to be blessed for our achievements and our hard work. Noble things. Heroic things. We want to be rewarded for our faith, not blessed because we have none. We want to be honored for our efforts, not blessed because we have to hunger and thirst for righteousness. We want Jesus to bless us on our terms. We want Jesus to praise us for our extraordinary abilities. Jesus wants us to utterly despair of our own abilities and to praise God’s name alone for our salvation.
Later on in the gospel of Matthew Jesus says, “I have come not for the healthy but for the sick. Not for the righteous but for the unrighteous.” At first, that can sound very upsetting if you feel good and think you’re doing alright in God’s eyes. But if Jesus has come to bless the poor in spirit, and he’s talking to you, perhaps you are more poor in spirit than you thought. Maybe it’s not something to be ashamed of. Perhaps, that righteousness you thought you had wasn’t much to look at after all.
God’s blessings are for you in fact, even if you don’t want them at first. You and I want to be heroes, not merciful meek peacemakers. But when you try to make yourself look so hot in God’s eyes you tend to move farther and farther away from his blessings. The more you trust in your own abilities, your own faith, your own understanding, the more you turn your back on God and his promises. You forget that everything is God’s and God’s alone. You forget that God wants you to fear, love and trust him above anything else. Above ANYTHING else, even above yourself and your heroic ambitions.
This passage describes what God values over and against what we think is important. It shows us that there are many in this world that are blessed in God’s eyes even though they are seen as second-class citizens to the rest of us. However, what I find most amazing is that these blessings are for you and for me, even though we never wanted them to be. We want to be heroes, but in God’s eyes we all come in second to Jesus Christ and his glory. The more you find yourself trusting God’s will for your life and trusting his values instead of your own, the more you will realize the hero Jesus was for forgiving your sins and blessing you with eternal life. Like it or not, these blessings are yours. You’re not the hero. Jesus is your hero.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness; sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Rejoice and be glad! Yours is the kingdom of God.” Amen.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Sermon for Reformation Sunday
“Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For ‘no human being will be justified in his sight’ by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.” (Romans 3:19-20)
You shouldn’t look at pornography on the internet. You should desire your wife above any other woman. You shouldn’t talk hurtfully about anyone behind their back. You should speak well about everyone and explain their actions in the kindest way. You shouldn’t talk rudely to your parents. You should respect, obey, love and serve them. Why does God demand that you do these things? So that your wife, your parents and even your enemies receive your love and are protected from your harm. But what happens . . . what HAPPENS when you hear these demands from God? Well, you realize how many of God’s laws your break. You realize how often you sin.
God isn’t satisfied when you do a pretty good job of loving your wife, when you mostly speak kindly about others or that you usually respect your parents. He’s not grading on a scale. With God, it’s all or nothing. Maybe you aren’t subscribing to some pornography channel, but you also probably don’t mind a little harmless nudity in your favorite feature film. You don’t start gossipy conversations about others, but if you are standing in a group and everyone starts venting their frustrations about your nemesis, you don’t just stop them. And you never talk back to your parents . . . unless they do something really stupid or unfair.
“No human being will be justified in God’s sight.” Every single one of you is guilty in God’s eyes. Guilty of sinning against God and your neighbor. Every single human being on this earth, no matter how righteous they may look in our eyes, is a sinner in God’s eyes. More particularly, you and I have no excuse. We know we aren’t supposed to do bad things, but we do them anyway—sometimes a little and sometimes a lot. But hearing God’s laws reminds us that we cannot escape our own captivation with sinning. We like to sin and can’t stop completely even if we wanted to.
“But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith.”
(Romans 3:21-25a)
Something is just not right between you and God. God wants you to act in a certain way and you don’t. He keeps trying to tell you, but that hasn’t worked yet. It didn’t work for his chosen people the Israelites and it hasn’t worked with you. According to the law, he has every right to punish you to the fullest extent. In the prophet Nahum’s words, “A jealous and avenging God is the Lord, the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and rages against his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger but great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.” You, me and every human being on this earth is guilty and is God’s enemy because of sin. That’s the situation. What can you do about it? Absolutely nothing.
But God has decided to do something about it. Not just theoretically, but for you particularly. He has decided to do something new. He has every right to hate you, but instead, he just up and forgives you. When God looks at the law and measures you up against his demands you always come out lacking. But now, God has decided to look at Jesus. He looks at your relationship to Jesus instead of your relationship to the law in order to decide his final verdict. Forgiven. You are forgiven on account of Jesus. Not because you deserve it. Not because you wanted to be. But because he loves you and wants you to be able to trust him. God’s Law condemns you. Jesus Christ forgives you. You may trust in him alone. Forgiveness is God’s final word.
“He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3: 25b-26)
Did Jesus forgive you so that you could peruse the latest playboy magazine guilt free? No. Did Jesus forgive you so that you could be a jerk to your parents? No. God’s laws are still in effect. You still don’t measure up. Standing alone, all by yourself, you will never be anything more than a condemned sinner. Jesus forgives you so that you never have to stand alone before God again. When God looks at you he hears his Son Jesus saying, “This one is mine dear Father.” Jesus forgives you so that God can be justified through his Law and you can be justified by faith in Jesus Christ alone. Your salvation comes down to one thing: faith in Jesus Christ.
“Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. By what law? By that of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.” (Romans 3: 27-28)
You are a sinner through and through. Jesus forgives you completely. All you need is the faith to believe it. If you don’t think you have that faith let me tell you again. Of course you don’t, you are a sinner through and through. Jesus forgives you completely. All you need is to believe it. If you don’t think you believe it, let me tell you again. You are a sinner, through and through. Jesus forgives you completely. He forgives you for your lack of faith and writes it on your heart as a gift.
Your faith in Jesus Christ isn’t something you have to do. “For we hold that a person is justified by faith APART FROM WORKS prescribed by the law.” Your faith in Jesus is not some great spiritual achievement, “For we hold that a person is justified by faith APART FROM WORKS prescribed by the law.” Your faith in Jesus is not your “good deed”, it is simply a gift. A gift given to you from the Holy Spirit. It comes to you on the wings of the gospel and off the tongue of a preacher. This gift of faith is yours. End of story. It is not up to you to believe in Jesus Christ all by yourself. Your faith is a gift from God and it is yours today, right this very moment, in your hearing. And because of that faith you are made right in God’s sight. Amen.
You shouldn’t look at pornography on the internet. You should desire your wife above any other woman. You shouldn’t talk hurtfully about anyone behind their back. You should speak well about everyone and explain their actions in the kindest way. You shouldn’t talk rudely to your parents. You should respect, obey, love and serve them. Why does God demand that you do these things? So that your wife, your parents and even your enemies receive your love and are protected from your harm. But what happens . . . what HAPPENS when you hear these demands from God? Well, you realize how many of God’s laws your break. You realize how often you sin.
God isn’t satisfied when you do a pretty good job of loving your wife, when you mostly speak kindly about others or that you usually respect your parents. He’s not grading on a scale. With God, it’s all or nothing. Maybe you aren’t subscribing to some pornography channel, but you also probably don’t mind a little harmless nudity in your favorite feature film. You don’t start gossipy conversations about others, but if you are standing in a group and everyone starts venting their frustrations about your nemesis, you don’t just stop them. And you never talk back to your parents . . . unless they do something really stupid or unfair.
“No human being will be justified in God’s sight.” Every single one of you is guilty in God’s eyes. Guilty of sinning against God and your neighbor. Every single human being on this earth, no matter how righteous they may look in our eyes, is a sinner in God’s eyes. More particularly, you and I have no excuse. We know we aren’t supposed to do bad things, but we do them anyway—sometimes a little and sometimes a lot. But hearing God’s laws reminds us that we cannot escape our own captivation with sinning. We like to sin and can’t stop completely even if we wanted to.
“But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith.”
(Romans 3:21-25a)
Something is just not right between you and God. God wants you to act in a certain way and you don’t. He keeps trying to tell you, but that hasn’t worked yet. It didn’t work for his chosen people the Israelites and it hasn’t worked with you. According to the law, he has every right to punish you to the fullest extent. In the prophet Nahum’s words, “A jealous and avenging God is the Lord, the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and rages against his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger but great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.” You, me and every human being on this earth is guilty and is God’s enemy because of sin. That’s the situation. What can you do about it? Absolutely nothing.
But God has decided to do something about it. Not just theoretically, but for you particularly. He has decided to do something new. He has every right to hate you, but instead, he just up and forgives you. When God looks at the law and measures you up against his demands you always come out lacking. But now, God has decided to look at Jesus. He looks at your relationship to Jesus instead of your relationship to the law in order to decide his final verdict. Forgiven. You are forgiven on account of Jesus. Not because you deserve it. Not because you wanted to be. But because he loves you and wants you to be able to trust him. God’s Law condemns you. Jesus Christ forgives you. You may trust in him alone. Forgiveness is God’s final word.
“He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3: 25b-26)
Did Jesus forgive you so that you could peruse the latest playboy magazine guilt free? No. Did Jesus forgive you so that you could be a jerk to your parents? No. God’s laws are still in effect. You still don’t measure up. Standing alone, all by yourself, you will never be anything more than a condemned sinner. Jesus forgives you so that you never have to stand alone before God again. When God looks at you he hears his Son Jesus saying, “This one is mine dear Father.” Jesus forgives you so that God can be justified through his Law and you can be justified by faith in Jesus Christ alone. Your salvation comes down to one thing: faith in Jesus Christ.
“Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. By what law? By that of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.” (Romans 3: 27-28)
You are a sinner through and through. Jesus forgives you completely. All you need is the faith to believe it. If you don’t think you have that faith let me tell you again. Of course you don’t, you are a sinner through and through. Jesus forgives you completely. All you need is to believe it. If you don’t think you believe it, let me tell you again. You are a sinner, through and through. Jesus forgives you completely. He forgives you for your lack of faith and writes it on your heart as a gift.
Your faith in Jesus Christ isn’t something you have to do. “For we hold that a person is justified by faith APART FROM WORKS prescribed by the law.” Your faith in Jesus is not some great spiritual achievement, “For we hold that a person is justified by faith APART FROM WORKS prescribed by the law.” Your faith in Jesus is not your “good deed”, it is simply a gift. A gift given to you from the Holy Spirit. It comes to you on the wings of the gospel and off the tongue of a preacher. This gift of faith is yours. End of story. It is not up to you to believe in Jesus Christ all by yourself. Your faith is a gift from God and it is yours today, right this very moment, in your hearing. And because of that faith you are made right in God’s sight. Amen.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Sermon for October 19th
Today, in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus is asked, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the Emperor or not? Is it lawful? To pay taxes? According to the law of the land everyone had to pay taxes just like everyone has to pay taxes now. But the question being asked isn’t about the law of the land, the laws of people in power. Jesus is being asked if he thinks God thinks it is right to pay taxes. I mean, for a good Jew, what not give money to the temple, or, for us today, why not give money to support our churches rather than pay taxes. That sounds very nice and religious doesn’t it.
For instance, if I didn’t have to pay 15% of my income to Social Security, then that 10% tithing wouldn’t be so difficult . . . theoretically. “Then I’d have more to give to God!” so the thinking goes. When you look at your checkbook doesn’t it seem like money is getting more and more scarce? There never seems to be enough to go around. Tithing, giving ten percent of your income as an offering, feels like a pretty darn big favor to God! I mean that’s a lot of your money . . . money that keeps getting more and more difficult to find.
But Jesus’ response doesn’t speak about scarcity. Jesus talks about abundance. “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s.” Pay your taxes—that money is already God’s anyway. He’s got enough to go around.
When I’m at home figuring out how to pay for everything, I try to remember that I need to be a good steward of MY money. MY time and talents. The stuff God gave ME. I don’t often look at my checkbook or at the cash I have and ask myself, “What am I going to do with God’s money?” But, if I did, maybe it wouldn’t feel so bad when there’s none leftover each month. I wouldn’t have lost anything because it wasn’t mine in the first place.
What are you doing with God’s money? I’m not talking about giving more or giving percentages or giving the right things. This is an issue of faith and trust. You see, if the money in your bank account is only YOUR money, then you need to work harder, you need to save more; you need to cut corners. If it’s not your money, but God’s money—well, you work hard, use what he gives, pray for more when you need it and say thanks when you get it. Those are two very different kinds of faith—one puts trust in yourself and your abilities as a rugged individualist. The other is faith in God as a God who promises to provide for you.
As church-goers, you have to deal with these questions all the time. Every time the offering plate comes around. What do you do? What do you think about? If that skit you saw this morning says anything, I think it points out that we all fail some way or another. We all sin and fall short of God’s glory . . . even with our finances. I’ve heard too many sermons talking about how we are giving our hard-earned money to God as a great big spiritual sacrifice! But just because you make it SOUND spiritual doesn’t mean it suddenly is for you. In fact, have you ever given so that you’ll feel more spiritual afterwards, “It makes me feel good to give.” Even giving becomes all about us. But here is the truth. God doesn’t need your money. God has all the money in the world
God doesn’t need your money; God wants you—all of you—God wants everything. God wants your love. God wants your faith. Psalm 51 says, “The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” God doesn’t need your money—God wants your trust. Out of a heart full of faith and trust, whatever money comes out, no matter how much, is perfect and acceptable to God.
I need to make one thing absolutely clear: I am not encouraging you to change you “mindset”. I’m not trying to motivate you to “give more”. I’m not telling you to “think” differently. Thinking differently will only work as long as you don’t look at your budget and logically figure out that you have more loans to pay. That’s probably why self-help books don’t usually work very long—we tend to have pretty well ingrained thought patterns and behaviors that don’t change quickly.
This is not a question of “thinking” about money differently. This is about all of us confessing that we have put our trust in the wrong place. Being rich is not a sin, it is a blessing. But placing your trust in money instead of God is a sin whether you’re rich, poor or middle class. We have trusted in only ourselves and we think our money is ours and ours alone. We must confess this and ask God to forgive us, renew us and ead us. So that we all might trust God alone, above anything else. We need a new heart and a new spirit that only God can give.
What are you going to do with God’s money? God doesn’t just want 10% of your income, he wants everything. Your respect. Your love. Your trust. But if there was one thing I’d want you all to hear it is this: you aren’t going to start tithing because you’ve learned to use your money more wisely. You’re not going to start tithing by working harder to make more. You’re not going to start tithing by not paying taxes. You need faith, to trust God above anything else. And faith only comes through the Holy Spirit.
In the name of Jesus Christ, I forgive you for trusting in your own powers and abilities to produce money. God forgives you for claiming his money as your own. God loves you—no strings attached. It won’t cost you a thing. He promises to provide you with food, shelter, clothing, relationships and everything you need. He promises to listen when you pray to him about anything, including anything about money. And he promises to continue to provide you with his money even when you aren’t sure how or why or what to do with it. God is a God of abundance and he is sharing it all with you. Amen.
For instance, if I didn’t have to pay 15% of my income to Social Security, then that 10% tithing wouldn’t be so difficult . . . theoretically. “Then I’d have more to give to God!” so the thinking goes. When you look at your checkbook doesn’t it seem like money is getting more and more scarce? There never seems to be enough to go around. Tithing, giving ten percent of your income as an offering, feels like a pretty darn big favor to God! I mean that’s a lot of your money . . . money that keeps getting more and more difficult to find.
But Jesus’ response doesn’t speak about scarcity. Jesus talks about abundance. “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s.” Pay your taxes—that money is already God’s anyway. He’s got enough to go around.
When I’m at home figuring out how to pay for everything, I try to remember that I need to be a good steward of MY money. MY time and talents. The stuff God gave ME. I don’t often look at my checkbook or at the cash I have and ask myself, “What am I going to do with God’s money?” But, if I did, maybe it wouldn’t feel so bad when there’s none leftover each month. I wouldn’t have lost anything because it wasn’t mine in the first place.
What are you doing with God’s money? I’m not talking about giving more or giving percentages or giving the right things. This is an issue of faith and trust. You see, if the money in your bank account is only YOUR money, then you need to work harder, you need to save more; you need to cut corners. If it’s not your money, but God’s money—well, you work hard, use what he gives, pray for more when you need it and say thanks when you get it. Those are two very different kinds of faith—one puts trust in yourself and your abilities as a rugged individualist. The other is faith in God as a God who promises to provide for you.
As church-goers, you have to deal with these questions all the time. Every time the offering plate comes around. What do you do? What do you think about? If that skit you saw this morning says anything, I think it points out that we all fail some way or another. We all sin and fall short of God’s glory . . . even with our finances. I’ve heard too many sermons talking about how we are giving our hard-earned money to God as a great big spiritual sacrifice! But just because you make it SOUND spiritual doesn’t mean it suddenly is for you. In fact, have you ever given so that you’ll feel more spiritual afterwards, “It makes me feel good to give.” Even giving becomes all about us. But here is the truth. God doesn’t need your money. God has all the money in the world
God doesn’t need your money; God wants you—all of you—God wants everything. God wants your love. God wants your faith. Psalm 51 says, “The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” God doesn’t need your money—God wants your trust. Out of a heart full of faith and trust, whatever money comes out, no matter how much, is perfect and acceptable to God.
I need to make one thing absolutely clear: I am not encouraging you to change you “mindset”. I’m not trying to motivate you to “give more”. I’m not telling you to “think” differently. Thinking differently will only work as long as you don’t look at your budget and logically figure out that you have more loans to pay. That’s probably why self-help books don’t usually work very long—we tend to have pretty well ingrained thought patterns and behaviors that don’t change quickly.
This is not a question of “thinking” about money differently. This is about all of us confessing that we have put our trust in the wrong place. Being rich is not a sin, it is a blessing. But placing your trust in money instead of God is a sin whether you’re rich, poor or middle class. We have trusted in only ourselves and we think our money is ours and ours alone. We must confess this and ask God to forgive us, renew us and ead us. So that we all might trust God alone, above anything else. We need a new heart and a new spirit that only God can give.
What are you going to do with God’s money? God doesn’t just want 10% of your income, he wants everything. Your respect. Your love. Your trust. But if there was one thing I’d want you all to hear it is this: you aren’t going to start tithing because you’ve learned to use your money more wisely. You’re not going to start tithing by working harder to make more. You’re not going to start tithing by not paying taxes. You need faith, to trust God above anything else. And faith only comes through the Holy Spirit.
In the name of Jesus Christ, I forgive you for trusting in your own powers and abilities to produce money. God forgives you for claiming his money as your own. God loves you—no strings attached. It won’t cost you a thing. He promises to provide you with food, shelter, clothing, relationships and everything you need. He promises to listen when you pray to him about anything, including anything about money. And he promises to continue to provide you with his money even when you aren’t sure how or why or what to do with it. God is a God of abundance and he is sharing it all with you. Amen.
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