Sermon for March 1st

As the blue fairy said in Pinocchio, you should all be good boys and girls and always let your conscience be your guide. Your conscience, you know, that part of you that tells you what you should do and what you shouldn’t do. The part that knows right from wrong. Your conscience is that instinct in you that makes you feel bad if you are going to do something wrong, but gives you the go ahead sign if you’re about to do something right.

The Greek word that is translated as conscience in English is suneidasis and it shows up thirty times in the Bible, mostly in the letters of Paul, but several times in other books of the Bible as well. But the term “conscience” is most well-known, at least in Lutheran circles, not because of its use in the Bible but because it was famously used by none other than Martin Luther himself at the Diet of Worms where he was being tried as a heretic early in his career as a reformer.

On April 15th, 1521, Luther was put on trial and told to recant for what he had written against the Roman Catholic church, its theology and practices. Luther argued that while there were some things he had written which might be in error he could not recant all of his works. John Eck, in charge of the prosecution made his case against Luther, “Martin, how can you assume that you are the only one to understand the sense of Scripture? Would you put your judgment above that of so many famous men and claim that you know more than they all? You have no right to call into question the most holy orthodox faith, instituted by Christ the perfect lawgiver, proclaimed throughout the world by the apostles, sealed by the red blood of the martyrs, confirmed by the sacred councils, defined by the Church in which all our fathers believed until death and gave to us as an inheritance, and which now we are forbidden by the pope and the emperor to discuss lest there be no end of debate. I ask you Martin . . .do you or do you not repudiate your books and the errors which they contain?” (Bainton, 144)

Luther responded with this famous statement, “I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other—my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.” (Bainton, 144)

Is the blue fairy from Pinocchio talking about conscience in the same way that the Bible talks about it? The same way Martin Luther spoke of it? What do you understand conscience to mean?

I believe that when we hear the word “conscience” used in the Bible or by Martin Luther, we think of the blue fairy, Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket. We think of that little voice inside of us that is trying to tell us right from wrong. The little angel or the little devil on our shoulder fighting for control over our actions.

After 9/11, when terrorists attacked the twin towers, America eventually went to war first with Afghanistan and then with Iraq. Some people made the argument back then, that to not retaliate, after having Americans killed in cold blood, would be unconscionable. It would go against their belief in freedom and justice. It would not be patriotic to just sit back and do nothing. On the other hand, some people argued that it went against their conscience to have their country be at war. No matter how many people died in the towers, they argued that we didn’t have the right to kill other people. Here we have two different responses, both of them based on conscience.

That’s the problem with making choices based on your conscience. It is very subjective. What is right for one person might not be right for another. Some people do not eat meat because they feel bad for eating a poor defenseless cow. Others see no problem with it and like to chow down on Bessie. Who is to say what is right and wrong? We all have different experiences and therefore different feelings on different issues. When we “let our conscience be our guide” as Pinocchio was told to do, we all come up with different opinions about what should be done.

Martin Luther had a different view of what conscience meant in the context of his confession at the Diet of Worms. He wasn’t just trying to be a good boy. He was confessing his faith in Jesus Christ. His preferences, his feelings, his knowledge and his experiences were captive to “the Word of God” as he put it. It was not good for him to go against his conscience because his conscience was informed by Scripture and to go against Scripture was neither good nor safe.

In the second reading today, Peter talks about conscience in relationship to baptism. He refers to baptism as “an appeal to God for a good conscience.” What is baptism? It is water, but not water only. Water with a promise from God to wash you clean of every spot or blemish in God’s sight. In baptism, you receive salvation and the forgiveness of your sins. A good conscience, in this passage, isn’t talking about “feeling good” about what you are doing. A good conscience might be another way to say that you are in a “good relationship” with God. Instead of being located outside of God’s favor, you are in harmony with God and his Word. To have a good or a pure conscience in the Bible, doesn’t just mean that you “feel good” about what you are doing. It means that God feels good about what you are doing.

A good conscience is bound to nothing less than God’s Word. Sometimes having a good conscience, according to God’s Word, might not feel so great, we might not like what we are being called to do. In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul says this, “I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.” Just because your conscience tells you that you are right, doesn’t mean you necessarily are. God gets the final say. That’s why we look to the Bible, and not to ourselves, to determine what is right and wrong. That’s why we cannot just trust what feels right or looks right in our eyes.

Later in Corinthians, Paul talks about those with “weak consciences”. A person with a weak conscience might assume something is wrong when it is neither commanded nor forbidden in the Bible. They might think they have sinned when, in fact, they are free to make a personal choice. Paul refers to people who believe that they are not free to eat meat sacrificed to idols. He says that a Christian is free to eat this meat or not. But, he explains, if someone hasn’t been taught about this freedom, he understands that they might feel guilty. Eventually, once they know the freedom of Christ, they might not worry about it, but since this might take some time, in order to protect their consciences, he encourages Christians around these people to also refrain from eating this kind of meat. Since eating meat sacrificed to idols is neither commanded nor forbidden in the Bible, they were free to do whatever needed to be done for the sake of their neighbor.

But there is an important difference between having a “weak” conscience and a bad or guilty conscience. Someone with a weak conscience might assume something is wrong when it is simply a matter of preference, something neither forbidden nor commanded in the Bible. On the other hand, a bad or guilty conscience is out of line with God’s Word. When God forbids us or commands us to do something, to claim that it goes against our conscience is simply another way of saying that we don’t feel like following the rules. Just because a murderer no longer feels bad or feels remorse for killing doesn’t mean he is acting with a pure conscience in God’s eyes. Conscience is based on God’s Word and NOT on personal preferences. It is finally God who will judge.

God wants you to have a good conscience. He wants you to be a good relationship with him and to live in harmony with his Word. That’s why we take the time to learn, read and discuss God’s laws and expectations for us.

God gives you his promise of eternal salvation, but he doesn’t just stop there. He gives you his words in scripture to study, preaching to hear and the sacraments to receive, so that you will learn to live in harmony with God and His words. So that you and others will learn right from wrong, not in your own eyes, but in God’s eyes. This is what it means to have a good conscience despite what Jiminy Cricket and the blue fairy say. When struggling with temptation, don’t just hope that you’ll know instinctively what is right and wrong; instead look to God for help and guidance. Read your Bible, see what it says on the topic, and pray for wisdom from God when you are making difficult decisions.

Finally, however, your salvation is not based on the strength of your conscience or your ability to follow it and be a good boy or girl. You are GIVEN a good conscience through faith in Jesus Christ. You are put in a right relationship with God every time you hear your sins forgiven not through your efforts but through God’s proclamation. And God will continue working in your life to strengthen you and help you work in harmony with his Word. Jesus died on the cross for you, so that you might be free. Free enough to follow God’s laws not because you feel like it’s the right thing to do, but because you mind, your heart, your feelings and even your conscience are bound to God’s Word. Amen.

Sermon for Ash Wednesday

Lent is a time for repentance, saying you are sorry for your sins. But one of the temptations during Lent is to say you’re sorry long enough just so you can get started doing the same things again. Giving something up for Lent or adding something on during Lent is called a Lenten discipline and it is a sucker for this temptation. It is good that we all seek to make amends for what we do wrong, to better ourselves for the sake of our family, our neighbors and our God. But, if this discipline is genuine, why do we ever give it up at Easter? Lent is a time to remember what Jesus went through, his sufferings, his temptations and, finally, his death, but it is our freedom in Christ that we are remembering as well. You don’t have to wait for Easter. You are free already.

Lent is not about giving something up for forty days in order to help you suffer enough. Jesus suffered for you and he doesn’t need you to pay him back. You are free. EVEN during Lent. ESPECIALLY during Lent. Why not try that freedom on for size and see how it suits you. As the readings remind us, the season of Lent is not to show off your piety, to tell others how grand and difficult you are going to be on yourself to make God happy. God is pleased with you because of Jesus. You are free already. What better time to remember this than Lent.

In college, I got into doing Lenten disciplines because that was the thing to do. I gave up pop, or soda as you all call it here, one year and only cheated three times! The next year, Kristy and I gave up eating out (saved us a lot of money). One year I decided to give Kristy a back rub for twenty minutes every night (dear Lord was I head over heels or what!) But, I’m going to be honest with you. By the third or fourth week, it was awful! Easter was like the day of freedom! I was so glad Lent was over! But, despite what the church calendar says, when Jesus Christ died for you he made it Easter every day! You are free already! Even during Lent. Every single day of it. You don’t have to suffer through it.

Perhaps you might consider enjoying the freedom you have in Jesus Christ this Lent rather then acting miserable. Try on this freedom and see if it suits you. You will no doubt punish yourself off and on like we all do from time to time, I don’t expect any of you to stop sinning this Lenten season, you’ll have multiple opportunities I’m sure to repent. But why not start something you don’t want to stop? Something worth continuing? Something that will build your faith in a positive way rather than making you want to vomit?

The Devil works hard enough in our lives to make us despair without us trying to pull on his tail and really tick him off. Instead of giving up ice cream to lose weight and show off how tough you are for Jesus, eat a bowl full of chocolate chip cookie day every single night and give thanks to God for the joy of being able to do it! Give yourself a reason to thank God that you won’t soon forget come Easter! Instead of volunteering for a job you hate, you might try doing something you love! The people you serve will probably be a lot happier when you show up the week AFTER Easter with a smile on your face instead of going missing in action suddenly in the middle of April. If you’d like to learn your Scripture better this Lenten season don’t force yourself to read Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy because you feel that you ought to. You may read your favorite Bible passages again and again and again until you’ve got them all memorized for your grandkids. You are free to do any of it.

Jesus didn’t suffer so that for forty days every year your life would stink! I don’t think he would appreciate it actually. Why not enjoy this freedom that he died for and take it out for a spin. Someone might actually ask you why you’re smiling so much this Lent for a change instead of being that thankful that they DON’T go to church.

When Easter comes, you probably won’t feel as relieved as you would have if you had given up watching TV or tried to stop swearing. You won’t stuff your face with chocolate or smoke like a chimney on that fine festival day. But, you might realize that Easter is a time to celebrate the freedom that you have EVERY day of your life. Not freedom in contrast with Jesus’ suffering but because of he suffered and died for you. YOU don’t have to suffer for your salvation; Jesus already did that for you. This Lent you are free already. And if you’d like to, instead of giving something up or adding something on for the next several weeks, you may try your freedom on for size and thank God he’s given you the ability to do so.

It’s traditional to simply repent on Ash Wednesday without ever hearing God’s absolution. But tonight, I’m just going to let the Holy Spirit fly and see what happens. Therefore, by God’s authority, I declare unto you the entire forgiveness of all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This Lent, you don’t have to wait until Easter, you are free already. Amen.

Sermon for Transfiguration Sunday (February 22nd)

When a couple is first dating or going out, there is often a level of spontaneity involved. There is the excitement and the experience of the unknown that goes along with every date, every kiss and every conversation. There is a lot of give and take, pushing the boundaries and then pulling back in all parts of the relationship. A couple needs time to understand when to tell a joke, for instance, where to draw the line for intimacy and how to talk about hot-topic issues with one another. There are a lot of unspoken rules affecting a beginning relationship, places where you can take a wrong step and destroy a budding romance in one fell swoop.

And the difficult thing is that everyone has a different set of “ten commandments” that you have to figure out and live by in order to continue being in a relationship with them. Sometimes “thou shalt not kiss on the first date” or else you are a shallow pig. Sometimes, however, if you don’t at least try to steal a smooch, it shows that you are either a prude or else not interested. If you invite your new boyfriend to go see “Spamalot”, based on Monty Phython, you will either be seen as fun and eclectic or dumb and immature. Finally, in a new relationship, even going to church might be a “you shall” or “you shall not” depending on how interested a person is in religious activity.

Rules and unspoken customs help us understand one another, find common interests and, eventually, they might even help you find someone you’d like to spend the rest of your life with. But once a couple has become married, the unspoken laws that helped define the relationship as valuable can begin to steal joy from that relationship. Spouses can no longer see their mutual love behind the wall of expectations and demands. Kissing is no longer a fun activity but becomes a necessary expectation of marriage. Kids are no longer dreams but demanding little nightmares. And the little things that you loved so much about your boyfriend or girlfriend years ago might annoy you now . . . a lot!

The joy, the freedom and the happiness of a marriage gets hidden beneath a bunch of other junk. Important junk. Interesting junk. Maybe even necessary junk. But its stuff that keeps you from enjoying the love you were meant to enjoy.

The Christian life can get to be the same way after awhile. You can’t see the freedom that comes with Jesus Christ behind all the rules of Christendom. You forget about the happiness you used to find at a worship service and instead only notice all the hypocrisy of those around you or the failings of the church. And the joy that used to fill your heart when you prayed to God gets overshadowed by the despair of dreams not fulfilled, prayers not answered and pain built up. Jesus is still there but you can’t see him. What is it in your life that gets in the way of your seeing God’s glory?

In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthian church, he tries to get at this problem by relating it to a story these people would have known. The story of Moses and the ten commandments.

Do you know the story? After Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and out of slavery to Pharaoh, they traveled to a mountain where God led Moses up and blessed him with a special gift: the Law. Two stone tablets that held what we call the ten commandments today. But when Moses came down something was different. The story says that, “the skin of his face was shining so that everyone was afraid to come near him.” This wasn’t simply a problem with oily skin, God’s glory was reflecting off Moses’ face. So, Moses would put a veil over his face when he talked to the Israelites. It kept them from being scared, but it also hid God’s glorious reflection from their eyes. Only when Moses went in before the Lord would he take off the veil.

The apostle Paul compares this predicament in the life of Moses and the Israelites to what happens in our life and our relationship to God. When we hear the Law, God’s rules and expectations, what we are supposed to do and not supposed to do, “the veil is still there” Paul says. We can’t see past it. We get so wrapped up in following the law that we forget everything else, most notably Jesus. We can’t see God’s glory. We can’t see the end of the law.

Why is this? There are two temptations when hearing the Law. The first is pride and the second is despair. When you hear that you are supposed to love your neighbor as yourself you may give yourself a little pat on the back and say, “Hey! I already do that! Yea me!” That’s called pride. When you have decided that you are living a holy life, beyond the reach of sin and temptation, you can’t see Jesus any longer because there is an obstacle in the way—YOU! The veil covering your face is your own ego and pride and there just isn’t enough room for Jesus. It gets too crowded in your mind and your heart. When pride takes over there just isn’t a need for Jesus and his promise of salvation because you figure you’ve got the talent and strength to please God all on your own. Unfortunately, pride is usually just the first step on your way to the second temptation, despair.

Pride and despair are bosom buddies. It’s usually just a matter of time. As soon as you decide that you’ve got everything figured out life throws you a curveball and you find yourself on God’s bad side. You’ve gotta know that those who’ve made a killing in the stock market over the last several years are the most likeliest to be in a deep depression right at this moment. Not because they are worse off than anyone else in America, but because they have fallen the farthest. The same is true when we think our faith is running on all cylinders—often, rough roads appear that lead us on a collision course with suffering. One moment you are standing tall and the next you are lying flat on your backside.

Despair puts a veil over your face as well and hides Jesus from your sight just as deftly as pride does. In this case, the veil looks like money problems or marriage problems. Add to this the self-loathing for being so full of pride before and the veil over your eyes can look more like a steel curtain. Unmoveable and unbreakable. What is it in your life that hides God’s glory from your eyes?

When you hear the law, what you are supposed to do and what you are not supposed to do, you tend to forget all about Jesus and focus on what you’ve done or what you haven’t done. Only by looking at Jesus is this veil set aside, Paul says. Only when one turns to the Lord is the veil removed. Moses took the veil off of his face when he spoke to the Lord and saw his glory. In the same way, Jesus helps you see beyond the law and realize it has an end.

Here is one of my favorite Martin Luther quotes, “The Law says ‘do this’ and it is never done. The Gospel says ‘believe this’ and everything is done already.” The Law says ‘do this’ and it is never done. How many married couples can relate to THAT statement. Just insert your beloved’s name at the beginning, “Blank says ‘do this’ and then they say ‘do this’ and then they say ‘do this’ and on and on and on with no end in sight. It’s no different with God. There is always something else to do, someone else to help, some way better to feel, some time more to pray, some way to be a better person. The Law says ‘do this’ and it is never done! Never!

The Gospel, on the other hand, says ‘believe this’ and everything is done already. When you believe in Jesus Christ, you can believe that he has accomplished everything for you. When you look at Jesus Christ just remember those famous words of his, “It is finished.” That goes for every rule, every law, every expectation and every demand in the book. Even in the book called the Bible. Christ has finished it for you. The law can keep pitching the balls over and over again, non-stop, but Jesus is going to hit them out of the park for you every time—fastballs, sliders and even those pesky curveballs. It’s only when you start thinking it’s YOU who’s up to bat that you’ll find yourself striking out.

This doesn’t mean that you can pretend that the law doesn’t exist. But knowing about this veil gives you an important piece of information. One day, the law will be put out of its misery. One day, you’ll open your eyes and instead of seeing a veil you will see God face to face. Then the unaffordable house payments, the bad economy and your high blood pressure will be history and very unimportant. And every time you hear about Jesus, pray for his presence or trust in his name, you can take off that veil for a moment and realize that the glory of that day is in your future. You see, when you realize that the law has an end, you can finally start following it freely. You can allow the law to work fully, one-hundred percent, as frustrating and demanding as it can be because you know that it’s lifespan is limited to this world. It is temporal, not eternal. It is temporary, but Jesus Christ is forever.

For now, the law says, “Do this and it is never done.” But while you are running this race with all the demands and expectations God and people put on your life, keep your eyes on the prize. Not too far off in the distance is your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and he has made a promise for you. He’s finished the race already. He’s done it for you. And if you haven’t noticed, he’s also right here at your side, strengthening you to keep doing all that you are called to do. Strengthening you to keep running the race of life and faith. While you are sprinting ahead with all that God calls you to do today and this week, don’t forget that you are free to look away, at any time, take off the veil and look to Jesus in order to remember, that truly, all the work has already been done for you. In fact, it is finished. For now, enjoy the run until the day when you stand face to face before your God and there is nothing left to hide his glory from your eyes. Amen.

Sermon for February 15th

The leper in the story today comes to Jesus and says, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” Now, that is faith if I’ve ever seen it. He is trusting that Jesus has the power to heal a disease that, at the time, was incurable. This leper has faith that Jesus can do the impossible, heal not only this disease but, in the process, heal this man’s relationship to his community. For to be a leper meant to be an outcast, a sinner, and unable to be around anyone besides other lepers.

Can you think of some other examples of faithful people in the Bible, how about just in the New Testament to trim down our options? There’s the story about the woman who had been hemorrhaging, bleeding, for twelve years. She had gone to many doctors but they could not heal her, they only made it all worse. She found Jesus and said to herself, “If only I could touch just the hem of his robe, I would be made well. She touched him and she was healed.” That is faith. She trusted in Jesus’ power and believed that, despite the well-intentioned efforts and skills of the medical profession at her time, this man, a carpenter’s son, would be able to fix her malady.

Can you think of another example? I know you aren’t used to speaking up in a sermon, but if you speak out, I’ll do my best to go with it. I know that you know some more, but you are all being very polite so I’ll give you another example. How about the four men who lowered down their friend from the rooftop by cutting a hole in the roof and letting him down on a mat so that Jesus might see him. That is faith, isn’t it? They believed that if they could get their friend close to Jesus that just might do the trick and Jesus might feel compassion. They had faith that Jesus had the power to heal a paralyzed man.

In Romans 3, Paul says that God justifies the one who has faith in Jesus. A person is made right in the sight of God through faith, by trusting in God’s Word alone and not because of what one does or does not do. But it is very easy to think of our faith as some kind of magic trick, as something we do, on our own, to get God to do his thing. Without our faith, our choice, our decision, we figure God is either impotent or uncaring. But viewing faith in this manner can easily turn a healthy relationship with Christ into an unhealthy trust in one’s self or one’s own abilities.

The first commandment says that we are to fear, love and trust God above anything else. Anything else. To fear, love and trust God is to have faith in his name. But here’s the thing. When our ability to believe or to have faith becomes the all and end all, then we are in the driver’s seat instead of God. When salvation comes down to our decision to “choose” Jesus, then we are the one calling the shots and Jesus seems to just be sitting on the sidelines waiting for US to give HIM permission to work in our lives.

This understanding of faith is what many people call “decision theology”. The idea that faith is a choice that you must make or else all God’s work is for nothing. I used to work for the Gallup polls in college, calling people to survey their opinions on everything from what they thought of the President to how good of health care they received at their last hospital visit. But every once in awhile, I’d get a question back and it would go something like this, ““When were you saved?” When was I saved? Umm, I guess when I was baptized? “No, no, no.” They’d say, “I mean when did you ACCEPT Christ into your life? I was saved on April 11th 1988.” Oh, really? April 11th? Hmm. Well, I guess I accepted Jesus into my life when he accepted me into his, at my baptism. Wanna answers a few questions about the election? “Maybe some other time.” (Click) dial tone.

Now, I believe that there are a lot of different ways we can talk about faith, salvation and our relationship to Jesus. I trust that the people asking me about “when EXACTLY” I was saved were wonderful Christians and had a terrific relationship with Jesus. But, just like me, they’ve got a hard time following the first commandment. You see, sinners, like to put their faith and trust into anything OTHER than Jesus Christ alone. Whether that idol is money, or Buddha, or the NFL or the handsome guy looking back at us in the mirror or maybe our own ability to believe.

But faith is not about when or how, it is about who, but it’s not about you. The leper said, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” “If YOU choose, Jesus, YOU can make me clean.” I do not doubt the sincerity of this leper’s faith. Perhaps he went around afterward telling everyone about the day he accepted Jesus into his life and his leprosy was cleansed, “April 11th? Or June 25th?” But I wonder if the aftermath of this event looked a little different. I wonder if this leper might have skipped over how he begged and kneeled down. I wonder if this leper didn’t focus on HIS decision to go to Jesus at all. I wonder if this leper might have forgotten how much faith he felt he had at the moment and just told people, “You gotta meet this guy Jesus! That guy healed me! What? Do I trust him? What do you mean do I trust him? When did I feel this way about him? I don’t know? He healed me! Come and see this guy Jesus!”

Faith is not about when or how, it is about who and it’s not about you. Faith is not about when you “accepted” Jesus. Faith is not about how heartfelt you cried when you prayed the “sinner’s prayer”. Faith is not about how quickly after birth you were baptized. Faith is about Jesus. Jesus’ death on the cross to accept YOU as his chosen and beloved child. Faith is about Jesus’ heartfelt cry, “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me!” when he was cursed upon the cross only to be raised from the dead three days later. Faith is about the forgiveness of your sins by being washed “In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

I know that there are a lot of different ways to talk about faith and your relationship to Jesus. But I believe that it’s important to be absolutely clear about who’s doing the real work and who gets the glory. It’s easy to make ourselves into the main actor of our faith rather than the ones being acted upon. But we undermine faith in Jesus when our salvation becomes about how WE decided to have faith or when WE accepted. Because the questions always come up, “Did we really DO anything? Did we REALLY accept Jesus? Do we have ENOUGH faith? Have we fallen away so far that we need to be baptized AGAIN? What if we don’t FEEL as faithful as we once did?” When you place the emphasis for faith upon your shoulders there will never be enough answers for your questions.

But when the author and the focus of your faith is Jesus Christ you can rest in the assurance that when he makes you a promise you can trust him to keep it. No matter how you feel today, or when you accepted him or how long ago you were baptized. Faith in Jesus is much more interesting and important than how you got there and when it happened.

The leper in today’s story said, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” And I’ll tell you what, that is certainly a lot of faith. But you know what? The leper’s faith isn’t the miracle. This story is about Jesus, not the leper. This story is about what Jesus does and what Jesus says, “I do choose. Be made clean.”
“If you choose, you can make me clean.” That could have been the end and no one would have cared. No one would have cared when the leper had faith. But Jesus said, “I do choose. Be made clean.” That’s the miracle. Faith itself, your efforts alone to believe, is only a sidebar in the story. The most important part is who you have faith in and what that means for your life. You are justified by faith alone, yes, but not just by faith alone but by faith in Jesus Christ alone. You don’t do the choosing, Jesus chooses you. It’s not about what you’ve done or how you did it. Faith is about Jesus and what he has done for you. Faith is about who, not about you.

You see, if Jesus chose, you would also be made clean and your sins would be forgiven, right? If Jesus chose. I’m hear to give you this promise: to every sinner within hearing distance, Jesus does choose and he chooses you. Your sins are forgiven and you are clean. Amen.

Sermon for February 8th

Today’s reading from 1st Corinthians is a widely used and widely misunderstood passage. I’m going to be honest with you, I don’t know exactly what it means. If you come up to me and said, “Pastor, what is Paul telling us to do?” I would tell you that I don’t know and that THAT is the beauty of it. THAT is what the freedom of a Christian is all about. Paul isn’t telling you what you have to do. He’s reminding you that you are free to do whatever needs to be done for the sake of the gospel.

But while I do not know exactly what the passage from 1st Corinthians looks like specifically, I am aware of some pretty awful ditches we can fall into trying to follow his words. We can end up slaves in our search to be free. So, I’m going to do my best not to give you any so called “answers” to what Paul is talking about but, instead, trust that the Holy Spirit can handle that on its own. Perhaps this passage has already begun working on you, breathing life into your imagination about how you might share the news about Jesus in a new way. I’m going to do my best to get out of the way and let God do his thing with you. Today, my intention is point out the traps, so that you don’t find yourself a slave, or enslave others, to a new kind of law now that you have heard that you are free.

In order to make this passage a little more contextual, we are going to talk about its relationship to ecumenism, since there are few topics that are more hallowed or admired today in the religious community than ecumenical partnerships. Ecumenism, at its foundation, means getting churches of different denominations or denominational affiliations to work together for the sake of gospel. Why should we argue about little doctrinal differences among different church bodies when we are all after the same thing: sharing the love of Jesus those who do not know him both in word and in deed? Ecumenism takes many different forms of course, but it often either facilitates opportunities for different churches to compromise and work as one or to assimilate and become one just as Jesus prayed in John chapter 17, “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.” But while that verse from John gives many a reason, a purpose, for ecumenical discussion, the passage today from 1 Corinthians gives the tools and the path to put ecumenical talks into practice.

Paul writes, “For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them.” Martin Luther referred to this passage in his treatise called, “On the Freedom of a Christian” where he writes down two propositions for describing the Christian life, “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.”

You see, when you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are free from sin, death and the devil. You’ve only got one foot left in the grave. The no longer has the final word for you—it cannot touch you. You do not have to be focused on what you are supposed to do or what you are not supposed to do. That’s not going to save you; only faith in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ can save you. You are free.

Equally true, however, is that you are still living on this earth surrounded by your family, friends and neighbors who still need food, water, shelter, friendship, protection, education and, above all, love. You salvation is not dependent on following the rule, “Do not murder,” but your Aunt Mildred would certainly appreciate it if you refrained from strangling your Uncle Bert the next time he hits you up for money. You are not following the ten commandments for God, you see, you are following them for the sake of your Aunt Mildred.

You feed your children good food not because you are striving to “be like Jesus” but because you’d like to see them grow up free from scurvy, osteoperosis and obesity. While you, as a Christian, are free, ultimately, to do whatever you want, as long as someone else lives on this earth, you are a slave for their welfare, for their protection and for their happiness. So, when conversations turn to discussions about ecumenism, relationships with other denominations or churches how might we respond? Well, the free Christian asks, “How can I serve, how can I help, how can I love, what can I do to make this relationship work?”

It is the FREEDOM that you have in Jesus Christ that makes this whole system work. Without believing that your salvation was signed and sealed by Jesus’ death on the cross, you wouldn’t have the time left in your day to serve anyone. You’d become self-obsessed. Either you would spend all your time working out your own salvation by yourself or, worse, you’d serve other people because you had to,
because you thought it was “the right thing to do” in order to “get right with God.”

There are many things that churches and denominations do, whether you call them choices, preferences, rules or traditions. Many, if not most, of these things are not written down or commanded in the Bible. They are done with for good reasons, perhaps for reasons of culture, or to maintain discipline or, as we know, because it’s always been done that way, but they are not necessary for salvation and we all know it! The Lutheran Reformers called these things adiophora-indifferent things. Not unimportant things, but indifferent to your salvation. Things neither commanded by God nor forbidden. These are things that can be changed or compromised or gotten rid of all together. It is not necessary to have hardwood floors in a church right? Even though we like it. It’s not necessary to kneel for communion, even though we have begun to again. It is not necessary to actually meet in a church at all, “For wherever two or three people are gathered in my name I will be with them,” Jesus promises.

What then is necessary for the church to be the church? Not a location. Not particular traditions. According to our Lutheran Confessions, we believe, teach and confess that the church “is the assembly of all believers among whom the gospel is purely preached and the holy sacraments are administered according to the gospel.” Word and sacrament. That is what is necessary. Anything else can change. But not God’s word. Not his laws and promises. And not your need to hear it. The freedom you have as a Christian is kept intact by reminding you, through God’s Word that you are free—free enough to become a slave for another.

Many of you know something about my personal experience with this issue of Christian freedom. I became rostered with the Lutheran association called LCMC, Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ, instead of the ELCA, when my freedom as a Christian was put in jeopardy at the end of seminary. A few years ago, the ELCA and the Episcopal church, made an agreement to be “in common mission” with one another so that, for example, a Lutheran pastor could serve at an Episcopal church if the need arose. The only stipulation was that the ELCA would need to accept, or at least tolerate, the Episcopal church’s understanding of ministry according to something called the historic episcopate.

According to Carl Braaten, a Lutheran theologian, “The historic episcopate entails the orderly transmission of the office of bishop . . . to ensure faithfulness to the gospel and to safeguard the unity of the church. A bishop is ordained through prayer and the laying on of hands by bishops already in office.” By tracking these ordinations back through history, the Episcopal church says that they can ensure steadfastness to Jesus’ message.

From this point forward, every new bishop and pastor in the ELCA was expected to be ordained by a bishop through the laying on of hands—all those previously ordained would be “grandfathered” in. As I mentioned before, Lutherans believe that in order to have the church, one must have the word and sacrament and ordinations can be done by anyone, though normally by pastors or bishops. Now, unless you argued for an exception to the rule, an ordination MUST be by a bishop. I asked for an exception but my request was denied. Therefore, in fact, I had no freedom, in order to be a pastor, it was concluded that I MUST be ordained by a bishop.

When something neither commanded nor forbidden by God, when something indifferent is made necessary, your very freedom as a Christian is at stake. And if your freedom is taken from you, this passage from 1st Corinthians no longer applies, for you can longer say that you, “are free with respect to all” for only by being a slave to God’s Word, are you truly free to serve someone else. Ironically, when my freedom as a Christian was in jeopardy, when I was told, “You must! No exceptions”, I HAD to say, “Then I must not, for the sake of my freedom in Christ.” I do not believe that my authority to preach or to forgive sins comes from a bishop or a tradition.. It is only by God’s authority and according to his Word that I can do anything as a pastor.

When you are in the midst of loving your neighbor, no matter what church they belong to or do not belong to, you are free to do whatever you want to love them, to help them and to let them know Christ’s love. You can wear a tie or jeans to church, you can sing to an organ or to a praise band, you can meet in a chapel or out in a park. As Paul says, you can become all things to all people in order that they might hear of Jesus Christ and know their salvation. But as soon as you demand that all people wear jeans to church, you are no longer free to welcome those in suits. Even more distressingly, you undermine their faith in Christ by adding a law that is not commanded by God, making it seem that outward appearances are more important to God than the faith of the heart. If a member of the church says, “You MUST do something to be a true church” the free Christian says, “Then I MUST NOT! The only thing I must do is hear God’s demands and his promises and trust his Word alone.”

There is one thing that is necessary for our freedom in Christ and that is Jesus Christ himself as we hear him preached and grasp his promise in our baptism and the Lord’s Supper. If we change or lose his words we are lost and become slaves again. If we add to his words we bury Jesus from our eyes. True freedom, the freedom of a Christian, is to be enslaved to the Word of God, bound hand and foot to Jesus Christ himself, who has broken the chains of sin, death and the devil for you and given you the freedom to love with a radical kind of love. Adapting to the world around you, giving voice to the oppressed and welcoming strangers in your midst while never budging from the hope that you have in Christ Jesus. Never watering down God’s word, but giving Jesus as living water to parched souls.

My prayer for you is that you would take home this passage and read it on your own again. Pray that God would lead you to serve others in whatever way that looks like, to become a real and true part of their life, to understand their pain and love. And when you bring Jesus Christ to them, don’t forget the commission you have been entrusted with. You are to bring them Jesus in all his fullness, nothing more and nothing less than what has been revealed in the Bible. Only then can all people know what true freedom is and be able to become a slave for someone else for the sake of the gospel. For the sake of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Sermon for February 1st

When you heard the gospel reading just a moment ago, did you realize that it was a story about an exorcism? If you weren’t paying much attention, Jesus casts out an “unclean” spirit from a man. And this is not the only time Jesus does this, that is for sure. He cast out evil spirits, unclean spirits and even demons from people throughout the gospel stories. But we don’t talk much about it. We don’t talk much about “unclean” spirits or “evil” spirits or demons much do we? The topic certainly doesn’t come up much in casual conversation. But here it is, plain to see, in a story about Jesus in the Bible. So, the time has come to talk about it.

First off, should you believe that evil spirits exist? It’s a good question and an important one because a lot of really weird people believe in a lot of REALLY weird things. And, furthermore, you’ve probably lived your life pretty nicely up to this point without giving much thought to the subject—so why should you now?

When Jesus was ministering throughout Galilee and Jerusalem, he healed many people. In the gospel of John, Jesus healed a blind man. That man told the authorities the story, “I once was blind, but now I see.” In the gospel of Matthew, a leper came to Jesus and said, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” Jesus said, “I do choose. Be made clean.” And immediately that man’s skin disease was cured. In the gospel of Luke, Jesus met a woman mourning the death of her son. Jesus said, “Young man, I say to you, rise!” The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. In the gospel of Mark, Jesus healed a man whose hand was writhered, “The man stretched it out to Jesus and his hand was restored.”

These are four stories told in the four gospels about Jesus’ ability to heal though there are many more. Have any of you known a person who was blind? I have. Anybody been in the presence of a dead person? I have. Anybody ever heard of the skin disease called “leprosy”? You might not know anyone who has it, but in 2006, Africa had 41, 239 new cases and in South East Asia, there were 201, 635 new cases of the disease, so it certainly still exists. Finally, does anyone here know someone whose hands are withered, broken or deformed in some way?

Now, let me make this clear. I’m not asking any of you whether or not you believe that Jesus HEALED anybody. I’m not asking you if he has the power to heal these diseases. I’m only asking you if these diseases and these problems existed at the time of the Bible and still exist today. I believe that we can all answer this question with a resounding YES!

In the gospel of Mark, just after Jesus called his disciples to service from their fishing boats, the story moves on to today’s gospel reading, “Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit.” Jesus casts this spirit out of the man. In the gospel of Matthew, two demoniacs, people infested by demons, were coming out of the tombs and met Jesus. Jesus cast out the demons from these two men. In Luke’s gospel we are told of a woman with a spirit who had crippled her for eighteen years. Jesus sets her free.

Have any of you heard of someone being infested by a demon or an evil spirit? If someone told you they were, would you believe them or would you walk slowly backward and try not to make eye contact. Again, I’m not asking you right now to believe that Jesus could or did cast out any evil spirits, I’m only asking you if you think these evil spirits existed. And if they existed at Jesus’ time do they still exist today?

Many of you probably don’t think they do and I can understand why. In our society, if someone is suffering from something that doesn’t make sense, we give them psychological or psychiatric treatment. Maybe it’s just in their heads. Only “primitive” cultures still believe in demons, we say, but not us, not civilized Americans. In fact, at seminary, one distinguishing characteristic of foreign students is that they are willing to talk about evil spirits in class while no one else really gives it a second thought. It just sounds too weird.

But here’s my question for you: Why is every other problem, sin, disease and pain spoken about in the Bible still in existence and uncontested, but the existence of evil spirits is doubted? If we truly want to argue that only “primitive” minds or cultures accept these things, then why does Jesus, who we confess is God in the flesh, appear to not only accept their presence but actually casts out demons and frees people from evil spirits? Is he just “playing along” with their delusions? Why not tell them the truth if there really was a different truth? He didn’t seem to usually have trouble breaking with traditions. Was Jesus simply “a man of his times”? Or did it go against the Star Trek prime directive to tell the truth? Or, perhaps, Jesus cast out demons because there were demons to cast out.

In every gospel, there is a reference to a least one, if not many, exorcisms, and yet, so many Christians don’t even think the possibility of the demonic even exists. Even today’s prayers of intercession, which we read each week in our celebrate insert, fail to acknowledge the need to pray against evil spirits. Instead, we are “crying out to God to care for all those who live with mental illness and those who are sick and hospitalized.” This truly brings the issue to a head doesn’t it? The fact is, most people would say that if you believe that you are infested by an evil spirit you probably need to be institutionalized or you have a hormonal inbalance. To put it quite succinctly—you’re crazy.

I’ve presented an argument for the existence of evil spirits, but now we come to the REASON these stories of exocism were ever included in the Bible in the first place. You see, those reading the gospel stories at first didn’t seem to have an issue accepting the possibility of the demonic in their lives; instead, they had a problem DEALING with demonic influences. They were looking for hope and hoping for someone with the authority and the power to deliver them from bondage. Jesus did not just come to heal and forgive. As he prepares for his crucifixion in the gospel of John, Jesus points out, “Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the ruler of this world be cast out.” John’s gospel doesn’t have a scene where Jesus casts out evil spirits from a person, the one exorcism in John’s Gospel is the crucifixion itself where Jesus casts the Devil out of power for good.

Jesus doesn’t always cast out a demon when there is something wrong with a person. Sometimes there is a need for physical healing, like the man with the withered hand. Sometimes a person needs spiritual healing and needs to hear that their sins are forgiven. Sometimes people need emotional healing when they’ve struggled with abusive parents or siblings. Healing can take place through prayer, both intercessory prayer or the in-person laying on of hands kind of prayer. Healing can also take place within a hospital setting or in a psychologist’s office. AND the Bible also tells us, there are times when deliverance is needed; when God expects us to trust him not only to deal with problems we understand, but problems we don’t understand, such as those caused not by bacteria, or guilt or hormonal imbalances, but, yes you guessed it, problems caused by evil spirits as crazy as that may sound.

Believing in the existence of evil spirits and demons doesn’t mean that everything that goes wrong in your life, in your mind or in your body is the work of the Devil, like some little fairy Queen Mab, ala Shakespeare, “who Drums in a soldier’s ear, at which he starts and wakes, And being thus frightened swears a prayer or two And sleeps again.” Sometimes you can’t sleep because you ate pizza at midnight and you have heartburn, or maybe you just broke up with a girl and you’re having second thoughts. Sometimes drug therapy is needed and necessary for manic-depressive disorders. Sometimes being institutionalized is the only way to keep a person safe from hurting others or themselves. However, the Bible stories about Jesus casting out demons give us another possible technique with which to deal with the problems in our life: prayer. And more specifically, praying for deliverance.

You shouldn’t assume that every problem you are having or health issue is caused by evil spirits because, honestly, they aren’t. But, if you sense that you might need deliverance, for whatever reason, don’t feel ashamed or scared. Remember today’s gospel lesson: Your God is a God who has the power to defeat sin, death and the devil, along with any demons or evil spirits that come along for the ride as well. He answers prayers, that’s his promise for you, and this includes prayers for health, wellbeing as well as prayers for freedom from the bondage of depression or compulsion or lust. Jesus has power over every part of life, even those parts you cannot and don’t really want to understand. The natural and the supernatural. And he promises that no matter how much evil has entered into your life, he has the power and authority to cast it out. You don’t have to fight it alone.

God has placed you in a community that loves you. Jesus promises, “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 hand.” If you have been dealing with an evil that you cannot control and cannot understand or find help for, you are not alone and the church is definitely a place to find help and support. God loves you and will fight for your freedom. If you still think that all this talk is pretty silly, don’t worry; I pray that these stories of exorcism throughout the Bible might help you trust that indeed, there is nothing, natural or spiritual, that can ever harm you. You are under the protection of the shed blood of Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior. There are a lot of things we cannot understand in this world, even evil spirits, but God has not given you a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind. Nothing can overcome this promise for Jesus has overcome the world. Amen.