Beautiful Footed

Sermon for October 2nd (God's Vineyard)

2011-10-19T13:22:00.000-07:00

I will sing for the family I love a song about theirgarden;

My family had a garden in our backyard.

Our council president, Corey, dugit up and my children cleared it of glass found all within it,

We went to Fareway and Pamida tofind the best seeds to plant in our garden,

Wandawith all her gardening talents, worked all morning with us and showed us how tohoe out the rows and how to plant seeds,

Wepulled weeds, watered our garden and watched.

Butwhen we looked out our kitchen window only half of our garden grew! The East side was lush and the West side wasdesolate!

We looked for a wonderful cropof watermelon and butternut squash, but, instead, our entire backyard is fullof acorn squash! 30 or 40 acornsquash! Covering our entire backyard!

So this is what I’m going to do. Right before it frosts, I’m going to pull allthose acorn squash and I’m never going to plant them again! We should have enough for a couple of years.

Now,what more could I have done with my garden? Why, when I planted on the West side did only the East side grow? Why didn’t my butternut squash come up? Why do I have a backyard full of acornsquash? Judge between me and mygarden. What more could I have done?

The family I amreferring to is my own family and, if you look in our backyard, you’ll see abazillion acorn squash growing from one plant on our west side. Besides one zucchini plant, not one of ourother five squash plants grew at all. Someof you who are gardeners, or farmers, can probably relate. There are years when you plant, youfertilize, you tend the fields, you do everything you can to get a good cropand for some reason when harvest time comes you don’t get the production youexpect. If you understand my issues withmy garden, then you should be able to understand today’s reading about God’svineyard.

The poem in Isaiahchapter 5 explains how a vineyard is planted. The farmer spends a great deal of time and care doing everything he canto make a beautiful, well tended vineyard. He chooses the best vines. He evenbuilds a watchtower so that his vineyard would be protected from any enemies. And still, after all the work put in whathappened? Wild grapes. Bad grapes. Bad production. What more couldhe have done? The obvious answer is:nothing. It’s not the farmer’sfault. The plants themselves are toblame. This section of the poem endswith these questions: “What more couldhave been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did ityield only bad?”

In the nextsection of this biblical poem, the farmer explains what he is going to do: He is going to destroy his vineyard. I mean, you can’t blame the guy for notwanting to waste his time anymore on these bad plants. He spent an inordinate amount of time, itappears, already. He’s cutting hislosses.

But, at the end ofthe poem we hear the surprise, or maybe it’s not a surprise at this point foryou. We aren’t talking aboutgrapes! We are talking aboutpeople. We are not talking about avineyard. We are talking about anation. “The vineyard of the LordAlmighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines hedelighted in. And he looked for justice,but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.”

Out of all thepeople in the world, God called a certain group and chose them as his own: theIsraelites. They were to be a light toall the rest of the nations, an example for others, a blessing to others. God gave them many kids, or descendents, andhelped them to grow rich and famous around the world. He delivered them from trouble when they wereslaves in Egypt. He promised them a landthat would be fruitful and then gave it to them. He brought them victory in their times of warand kept them at peace even though other nations wanted to destroy them, hischosen people. But God hadexpectations. He expected his chosenpeople to follow his commandments—to produce things like love, justice, righteousnessand obedience. Because they were chosenfor a purpose: so that the rest of the world might know the Lord.

Thereare 17 books of prophets in the Old Testament. They tell us what happened in the Lord’s vineyard. God planted his people, he cultivated theirfaith, he blessed them with good things and protected them from harm. But what was produced from all thislabor? Here’s a quick summary:

Isaiahchapter 1:23, “Your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves; they all lovebribes and chase after gifts. They donot defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come beforethem.”

Jeremiahchapter 5:7, “I supplied all their needs, yet they committed adultery andthronged to the houses of prostitutes. They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing for another man’swife.”

Amos chapter2:7, “They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground anddeny justice to the oppressed.”

Finally,Malachi chapter 3:7, “’Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turnedaway from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty.”

God planted a vineyard with choice vines, but all he gotfrom the deal was bad fruit.

Andthen comes Jesus. The Messiah. The chosen one of God sent to God’s chosenpeople, the Israelites. And he tells thestory of God’s vineyard again. The maincharacter, the vineyard, is the same, but the story is a little different. The vineyard is leased to tenants who aresupposed to take care of it. However,when the harvest time approaches, the tenants don’t give the owner of the landhis proper share and, instead, beat and, eventually, kill the owner’s son. Jesus asks, “Therefore, when the owner of thevineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” The answer? That owner will kill the tenants and rent out his land to someoneelse. By the end of the passage, the leadersof God’s people realize that Jesus is talking to them—they are the tenants whodeserve death. They were supposed tohelp God’s people bear good fruit and, instead, they were in the process ofkilling his only Son Jesus.

So,why does God’s vineyard matter to you? Youare now part of that vineyard. Accordingto Saint Paul in Romans chapter 11, “Because of the Jews’ transgression [theirrejection of the gospel of Jesus], salvation has come to the Gentiles to makeIsrael envious.” You are a Gentile. That’s good news for you. Saint Paul says that you have been graftedinto the vine. You are a part of God’svineyard. But there is another reasonyou need to know about the history of God’s vineyard as saint Paul alsoexplains a little later in Romans, “You will say then, ‘Branches were brokenoff so that I could be grafted in.’ Granted. But they were broken offbecause of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare youeither.” Jesus gives this same warningin the gospel of John, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he willbear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” God’s vineyard may look different today, buthe has the same expectations. He’slooking for good fruit.

“You did not choose me,” Jesus says, “but Ichose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.” Pastor Tim Ross explains what this means: to beargood fruit. He’s not trying to bejudgmental or anything— he’s just a fruit inspector. And he says this, if yousay that you’re an apple, but you look like an orange and you smell and actlike an orange—you’re an orange! I don’tcare what you SAY that you are, a fruit inspector would put you in the box withthe oranges. If you say that you are aChristian, one of God’s chosen people, grafted in God’s vineyard, but you arefull of pride, looking at porn on your computer, cheating on your taxes,gossiping evil about one another, ignoring God’s commandments and holdingbitterness in your hearts . . . well, if you have the smell and taste andtexture of a non-Christian, what do you think God would say that you are?

Jesussays, “I am the vine you are the branches.” If you think that you can be a Christian and hardly ever attend worshipand never read your Bible and never pray and never share your faith well, whatwould the fruit inspector say? What wouldyou do if you were looking out into your garden? What does God see when he inspects hisvineyard? You can have all the goodintentions in the world, but if you separate yourself from the vine, youdie.

Now,understand me, please. I’m not tellingyou that God chose you or will continue loving you because you do good thingslike feed the poor, visit the sick and go to church. No, we stand by faith in Jesus Christ, not bygood works. We were grafted into thevine by faith. But faith is defined bybeing alive and active. It’s like atnight when my kids are in bed goofing around after the lights have been turnedoff. If I walk back there and they havetheir eyes closed and heads under the covers, but they are giggling andlaughing, they might SAY that they are sleeping, but I know they’re not. When you are truly asleep you are, for themost part, quiet and calm—you can’t help but act that way. When God grafts you in the vine and gives youthe gift of faith you should expect your life to change, not because you wantit to, but because you can’t help it.

Thismorning, I want you to be a fruit inspector. I want you to be a farmer or a gardener and, instead of studying thefields or the produce, I want you to take a look at yourself and your life. What do you see? Do you look good on the outside, but arerotten through the middle? Sour to thetaste? Not mature enough? Have you fallen off the vine? Confess that to God above and expect God tochange your life. To give you faith. To respond when you ask for his help. To heal your brokenness and despair. You can’t attach yourself to the vine anymore than a fallen branch can reattach itself to it’s grapevine, but God thegardener is merciful and compassionate. Godpromises to graft the broken branches into his Son Jesus Christ. Call out to Him and wait for his mercy. Trust in him alone to save you. Amen.

Sermon for September 25th (Raising a godly child)

2011-09-28T13:56:00.001-07:00

I don’t know if you have noticed,but around here at Emmanuel some really great things have been happening. And many of them revolve around the youth andfamilies of our church. So, while Ioriginally had a plan about what to talk about this week for the message, Idecided to change it and focus on this most important part of our church andour lives: our families. Especially, Iwill focus this morning on what God says is important about raising childrenand what he encourages us to do about passing our faith along to them. There are three ways he does this inparticular: first, he calls us to faith in him alone, second, we are called tostay involved with our kids and, finally, we are called to never give up.

Thepassage that always come to my mind when talking about families and childrenand faith is from Deuteronomy 6. Itbegins with what is called, in Hebrew, the ShemaYisrael, or translated into English, “Hear O Israel”. It is the clearest, most poignant affirmationof Judaism and its understanding of monotheism, or the belief that there isonly one God (a belief that is shared by Christians): “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heartand with all your soul and with all your strength.”

Thismeans that, as a person of faith, you are to have one love because you have oneGod, and everything that is a part of your life, whether it regards your mind,your body, your passions or even your spirit ought to be directed toward lovingthis one Lord. It’s like tunnel-visionyou see. Or, maybe a better illustrationwhich be that this singular love of God is like looking through a particularlens onto the world. Just like you putin your contacts, or put on your glasses, you put on your love of God. And everything you look at from that pointforward, whether it is your job, or your church or even your kids, has to beseen through that lens.

Afterthe Shema, we hear these words,“These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and whenyou walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bindthem on your foreheads. Write them onthe doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

Doesthis seem like a lot to you? Think aboutthe things that excite you or think about the things in your life that areimportant to you. If you could doanything with your time, what would you choose to do? What do you believe is really important inyour life? Now, think about this, do youtalk about these things with your children? Do you teach them about these things? I am going to guess that, yes, if something is important to you in yourlife then most of you probably want it to be important to your children aswell.

Forexample, in my house, my children learn early on about Nebraska Football. Now, they don’t really understand the game,or know the players or know the history, but I don’t want to come home one dayand have them cheering for the wrong team just because I didn’t encourage themproperly when they were young. Now,Nebraska Football isn’t that important to me, when all is said and done, butstill, I’ve spent a great deal of time brainwashing my children into liking it. There are some things that I also feel verystrongly that they should not do. So,when my children are little, I teach them not to eat yellow snow, or brown snowfor that matter. I care about theirhealth and I don’t want them chowing down on a dog urine snow cone one day justbecause I never said anything. You couldno doubt name me many of your other values, or opinions, or ways of acting thatyou think are important. A hard workethic. Honesty. Respect of elders. Being well rounded. I bet that you train your children toappreciate these things as much as you do.

InDeuteronomy, God says that he expects that you treat Him with at least the samerespect as you would treat the Hawkeyes or the Cyclones, or theCornhuskers. If you care about yourchild’s education and make sure they get on the bus to school every day, Godsays he expects you treat their Christian education with at least as muchrespect. If you care about their dentalhygiene enough to demand that they brush their teeth daily, do you also demandthat they pray with you daily and ask forgiveness from God to clean theirhearts and minds from any gunk they may have picked up? If you seek to have your children love yourparents, their grandparents, as much as you love them, God expects you to treattheir relationship with Him with at least as much respect. Because, as a person of faith, you are to love the Lord your God above all theseother things. With all your heart, withall your soul and with all your strength. If you love God that much, how could you NOT talk about Him with yourkids, teach them about His love and bring them to His house? The problem some parents have with teachingtheir children faith is that their own personal faith isn’t where it ought tobe. If that’s you, don’t be embarrassed,find a way to make God number one in your life and that focus will affect yourchildren’s relationship with God as well.

Inthe book of Proverbs, there are many sayings focused on raising children, butthe one that is most often referred to comes in chapter 22, “Start children offthe way they should go, even when they are old they will not turn fromit.” And many families try to do this, Ithink—though I believe we’ve got it a little confused. Maybe you bring your children to church onSundays for Sunday school and like little hatchlings in a nest, kick them outinto the church to fend for themselves saying, “I’m starting them off in theway they should go . . . hope they learn whatever they’re supposed to afterthey find their room.” Do you think thatthis is what God intends? Cause let metell you, parenting a godly child is a lot more involved than that.

Startingoff a child in the right direction is important, but God also encouragesparents to walk alongside their child and guide them along the path when theystart veering off course. Proverbs also says,“Discipline your children, for in that there is hope; do not be a willing partyto their death.” I believe that thechurch and really most Christians try to start their children in the right way,but they forget that God calls them to stay involved through discipline.

Whatdo I mean by discipline? Simply this, ifyour one year old, in all his newfound freedom, picks up some of that steamingbrown snow are you going to watch him sit there and eat it or run over and stophim? What if your child was a teenager,you know, a smart kid, and yet they still hadn’t seemed to figure this wholesnow thing out yet? Would you say, well,he’s old enough to make his own decisions now about what kind of snow he wantsto eat! Wouldn’t you be even morefocused on getting her to learn the lesson? Would you be a willing party to your child eating dog poop?

I would like toargue that your child’s faith is even more important. In fact, according to scripture, faith is amatter of life or death. Eternal life ordeath at the very least. But let’s behonest, how many here watching their children choose a path away from God? And while we use excuses like, “They’ve gotto decide for themselves” or “I don’t want to pressure them.” My question is the one Proverbs put forward,“are you going to be a willing party to their death?” You may not be able to change their mind,but, as a parent, isn’t it your calling to try and make a difference in theirlife for the sake of their eternal life with God?

Ibelieve that most of us listen to the news, or magazine articles more than toGod when it comes to raising our children. We want to be their friends, when God calls us to be their parents . .sometimes unpopular parents. If a coachtells your child that they have a soccer game at 10:00 on Sunday morning, youmake sure that your child is there—that’s discipline. You are teaching a lesson aboutresponsibility, teamwork and the value of athletics. If you tell your kids that you’ll go tochurch if you wake up early enough after a late Saturday night you have alsotaught your children a lesson about faith, community and the value you’veplaced on God. Discipline is necessaryfor parents to raise godly children.

InConfirmation, Sunday School and GROW, the curriculum we use focuses on givingparents the tools to not just start their kids off right, but to walk alongsidetheir child as they grow in faith. Why? Because God tells us that if we don’t, lateron, we’ll be embarrassed, “an undisciplined child disgraces their mother.” It’s our responsibility as parents to careenough about our children that we don’t willingly become a party to their death. There may come a time when your child becomesan adult, when they will choose a path your never wanted for them. Do you just say, “Oh well, that’s theirchoice.”? Do you say, “Never step footin my house again!”? What do we learnfrom how God parents us? We always keepour hearts open to forgive just like the father of the prodigal son and weshare our faith without fear or shame knowing that faith comes through hearingthe word of Christ and we are called to guide our children no matter how oldthey get.

Howdo you raise godly children? Believe me,I have 3 of my own and I want to know as much as you do. First, love the Lord with everything that’sin you. Building your own faith isextremely important if for no other reason than that you’ll look for guidancefrom God rather than Oprah reruns or CNN headlines. Second, do not abandon them as they arelearning their way. Discipline they toknow the different between right and wrong, faith and unbelief. Finally, never give up. The calling of a parent doesn’t depend on theage of the child. Your kids need you asmuch now as when they were two according to God’s Word.

Asa community, we are all called to these things as well. According to the book, “The Family Friendlychurch” The church needs to be less concerned about building good churches andmore interested in empowering parents to build good families. We are all called to support the faith offamilies, to stay involved with the children we knew growing up and to nevergive up even when a child might choose a destructive path. Great things are happening here and I believeGod promises that they can be even better. Following His guidance, as families and as a community, we can raisegodly children. Amen.

Sermon for September 18th (God is Not Fair!)

2011-09-28T13:55:00.001-07:00

Many of you have little children athome and many more of you used to have them at home so I expect that the vastmajority of you will understand what I mean when I say that little children,especially around age 4 or 5 are very perceptive about what is fair and whatisn’t. When cookies are being handed outafter dinner, EVERY child must get one or else it’s not fair. If you discipline one child for hitting hisor her sibling, you had better discipline the second when they hit back or elsethat’s not fair either. If one childgoes to the movies while another child goes to get some ice cream, both willbelieve their lives are unfair because each one is missing something the othergot. To a young child, life, in general,doesn’t seem fair.

Christiansoften feel the same way. We think that “Godisn’t fair.” What’s funny is, for oncewe are right on! God is NOT FAIR. God is NOT fair. Have you ever noticed? When we expect people to be punished, theyare forgiven. No matter how good we act,we don’t get any special treatment. Andthat’s not fair. It isn’t.

Think aboutJonah. The story of Jonah goes somethinglike this: God tells Jonah to say to the Ninevites that they must turn fromtheir evil ways or else they are going to be destroyed. The city of Ninevah is the capital ofAssyria, one of israel’s most hated adversaries. To a Jew at this time, Ninevah would havestood for all that was wrong with Gentile people—that is, non-Jews. While the book of Jonah really doesn’t listany of Ninevah’s particular sins, the book of Nahum states that within Ninevahthere was much evil done against God, cruelty and plundering in war,prostitution, witchcraft and exploitation. God saw Ninevah’s wickedness and Jonah was told to tell them tostop.

But, instead offollowing God’s command, Jonah runs away and gets on board a boat sailing offinto the ocean. When God sent a stormupon Jonah’s little ship, Jonah jumped out of the boat and God sent a fish toswallow him up. Inside the fish, Jonahrepents, finally obeys God, and goes to Ninevah to announce, “Forty more daysand Ninevah will be overturned.” He saysthis for one day, just one day, and BEHOLD!—The Ninevites heard andbelieved. They declared a fast andeveryone—everyone it says—repented. Andwhat happens next? God forgivesthem.

That’spretty unfair when you think about it. Imean, do you remember the list of sins happening in Ninevah? Cruelty and plundering in war—probably theraping and pillaging of innocent people is what we are talking about there. Prostitution, withcraft andexploitation. Ninevah was a bad place—awicked place. And then, they say theyare sorry, and all is forgiven. What! What’s fair aboutthat? Nothing.

Thisis the same problem that comes up in the gospel of Matthew in this parable ofthe vineyard, except now, it’s backwards. In the story of Jonah, the bad people don’t get punished the way theyshould. But in Jesus’ parable, the goodpeople don’t get the special treatment they deserve either. They just get the same pay as everyone elsedoes even though they did like eight times the work! Not fair! Not fair! God is NOT fair.

Haveyou ever looked around your church and seen someone who really didn’t deserve to be here? Because of their past actions. Because of their background. Do you know anyone like that? Is it fair that we allow that person intothis church?

Sincewe’ve started GROW on Wednesday nights for kids, some of you have had thepleasure of filling out one of these forms: a background check. And some of you may have had a difficult timedeciding whether to fill it out or not. What’s going to come up? What’sPastor Broers going to find out about me? Some of you, may have just decided not to be a volunteer because youdon’t want to risk being exposed. MaybeI should just sit in my pew like a good little boy or girl and pretend that Iam a good little boy and girl and like I always have been a good little boy orgirl. What have YOU done that would showup on a background check or are you in the clear. . . did you just not getcaught?

Thischurch is full of people with backgrounds. People with histories. When youcome before Jesus Christ you each must fill out a background check and I don’tmean the ones we’ve been handing out. No, this one goes much deeper. When I was an intern in Harvey, North Dakota, a pastor up there told me howmany women from upstanding Christian homes were being beaten by theirhusbands—or had been abused in the past—but since these women would never presscharges, their husbands never had to admit what they had done. In other words, if that were you, you’d passmy background check—congratulations—but you wouldn’t pass God’s, wouldyou? No, you wouldn’t. And yet how many men smugly believe they arepulling over the wool on everyone’s eyes. When the eyes of God see exactly what is happening.

And all you niceladies out there . . . on your background check, how many of you would havebeen indicted for slander and libel in God’s court of law when you talk orgossip about your enemies or friends? And if your husband, or for that matter fellas, if your wives knew thethoughts going through your head—or the pictures flashing across your internetscreen, or the magazines hidden away somewhere—would you be labeled a prostituteaccording to God’s background check? Youand I cannot pass a background check with God. We are killers, adulterers, thieves, liars, prostitutes, andabusers. It is not fair that we areallowed into this sanctuary!

Butthat’s why I kinda like these background checks. Because there is no hiding it anymore. You see, the Devil loves to make us hide inthe dark. To shame us into beingsecretive about our sins. To make usfeel unworthy and like if anyone found out, we’d be destroyed. The Devil makes you think that even yourpastor, as nice of a guy as he is, might look at you differently if he knew thetruth about you. The Devil makes youbelieve that if you step into the light, even God might not forgive youcompletely.

Butdon’t believe the Devil’s lies! God isnot fair! As long as you hide in thedark and lie about who you are and lie about what you’ve done and keep it all asecret from everyone around you God will not have mercy on you. He will not forgive someone who has nosin. He will not forgive someone whodoes not repent. There are some of youhere, today, who still haven’t completed a full background check beforeGod. You have justified your sins for solong that you don’t even really believe you did anything wrong anymore. You are so ashamed of what you have done, youwon’t tell a soul believing that the only thing that is keeping you safe is yoursecret when that—THAT secret is actually what is KILLING you! Walk into the light. Tell someone. Be exposed for what you are and who you are and what you have done. Only then will you find freedom inChrist.

BecauseGod is not fair! Jonah knew it. When the Ninevites repented and God relentedJonah got mad! He said, “Isn’t that whatI said when happen! I knew that you area gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love.” I knew you’d forgive them and that’s notfair! Jesus’ disciples knew it too. He told the Pharisees that the sinners andprostitutes were first in line to go to heaven. Don’t be so self-righteous that you miss out on God’s grace! Jesus makes it clear: it’s better to be asinner and a prostitute than a self-righteous Pharisee. Because until you fill out that backgroundcheck. Until you admit that you are whoyou are before God, you will not find a gracious God. Until you admit the truth before others, youwill not find an accepting community. Butwhen you come into the light, and expose what you have done, God is never fair.Thank God! He forgives you. He washes you clean. He shreds that background check once and forall. He gives you the strength to turnaway from the evil you’ve done and he opens the door wide and says, “I haveseen what you have done. And I’ve heardyou admit it with your own mouth. I waslooking for someone just like you. Someone with a background. Someone who needed a Savior. Someone who didn’t deserve it. Iforgive you. I love you.” God is not fair. Thank God, God is not fair. Amen.

Sermon for September 11th (Remember)

2011-09-28T13:54:00.002-07:00

Today is the 10^thanniversary of the September 11^th attacks . . . what do youremember? Where were you? I remember. I had just finished taking some entrance exams for my Masters degree inCincinnati when I saw a couple of people watching a TV. There were crowds on the screen and it lookedlike they were in New York.

Iremember coming home and turning on the news. The next thing I remember was two weeks later when I turned it off. I remember crying. I remember being scared to death. I remember being angry. I remember just sitting with Kristy andhugging and talking in shocked voices about how the world just seemed so weirdnow. I remember going to church andtalking to people from New York who had friends who had died. I remember seeing the pictures again andagain. The smoke, the planes, the bodycounts, the president addressing the nation. I remember the feelings.

Westill remember. 10 years later we arestill remembering. It’s so awful that wecan’t forget. When you witness atragedy, the moment is imprinted on your brain just from the shock. But there is something worse about witnessingevil. It would have been one thing if aplane had lost control and hit a tower. It would have been a tragedy that we would have remembered distantly inthe past. Like the bridge on 1-35 inMinnesota collapsing or the Tsunami in Japan or where a child dies in anaccident. But the memory of September 11^this different, isn’t it? Because it wasmore than a tragedy—it was a tragedy caused by sin, by evil, by the wickeddesires of a few to deliberately kill many. I remember thinking that the worst part of it all was that, on this daythat I was sobbing and glued to my television, somewhere in the world a crowdof terrorists was cheering and glad. Iremember feeling sick to think about that.

Ifyou remember how you felt on September 11^th, 10 years ago, then youhave a glimpse of how God has felt every day since Adam and Eve fell intotemptation and allowed sin to enter the world. God sees murders, adultery, disobedience, gossip, drunkenness, lying andidolatry every moment of every day. Andhow often are these sins accomplished in us and we are cheering. At a party, in a secret bedroom, over thephone or, at the very least, in our hearts. How often does God remember seeing you or I sinning against each anotherand laughing about it. Feeling like wehave gotten away with something and feeling smug. Making excuses for why we were justified inour favorite sin. You know what, I don’tthink that it is a surprise that God remembers. How could he forget seeing people hurt oneanother with a smile on their face? Iremember September 11^th and I know that I can’t forget it.

Sothat is why I admit that I do not understand God. He is a mystery to me. I can’t fathom his actions or his mind. His ways are so much different than myown. God surprises me. Do you know why? Listen to what he says in today’s readingfrom Jeremiah 31:31-34 . . . For I will forgive their wickedness and willremember their sins no more.” “For Iwill forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” How can that be true? Is he just saying that to good people? To goody-goody Christians? No. Hesays it again in Isaiah 43, “You have burdened me with your sins and wearied mewith your offenses. I, even I, am he whoblots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins nomore.” The book of Romans says that “While we were still sinners, Jesus diedfor us.”

Canyou imagine a day when you didn’t remember September 11^th? If you didn’t remember, you couldn’t be angryanymore. You would forgive those whomurdered husbands and mothers and children and sisters because you couldn’tremember what they had done. Can youimagine what it would mean to never remember those sins again?

Butnow, here, we come to a dilemma. Because, today, on the 10^th anniversary of September 11^th,we remember those who died and can relate to them. We felt victimized on that day too. But, when God enters the picture, we realizethat we cannot relate to just the victims anymore. In God’s world, we are the terrorists. As I said before, we are the ones who hurtothers with smiles on our faces. And, no,people haven’t just gotten worse. In thesixth chapter of Genesis, we’re talking 4000 years ago, we read, “The Lord sawhow great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclinationof the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man onthe earth, and his heart was filled with pain.” The problem is that people haven’t changed. Even when God sent his only Son Jesus to giveus life abundantly, to heal our diseases, to forgive our sins, we nailed him toa cross—the blameless, innocent lamb of God.

Toother men, both criminals, were also led out with Jesus to be executed thegospel of Luke explains. One of thecriminals who hung there hurled insults at him: 'Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourselfand us!” Do you remember ever doingthat? Getting angry at God who allowingthe September 11^th attacks to happen in the first place? But the other criminal rebuked him, “Don’tyou fear God, “ he said, “Since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are gettingwhat our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when youcome into your kingdom.” And here wethought it was the fact that God DIDN’T remember that was his greatest gift tous.

Thebook of Galatians says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law bybecoming a curse for us.” The firstletter of Peter says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, sothat we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you havebeen healed.” He nailed our condemnationto the cross. The fact is, while itseems, at first glance, that God’s mercy lies in his forgetfulness—or in hisnot remembering our sins; I believe that we will only find God’s mercy when heremembers every single one of them so he can die for them all. I don’t want him to forget a single one of mysins. The hidden ones, the obvious ones,the wicked ones, the little mistakes and faults—because if he forgets to diefor a single one I am lost forever. Hemust remember every single one of your sins, so that he can die in your placeand then, only then, will God be able to forget them completely.

Thisis why, in the book of Colossians, we read this great news in chapter 3 verse3, “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” The penalty for sin is death. There is no hiding from this truth. You terrorize this world and those around youwith your sins and God must painfully watch you do it again and again with asmile on your faith, with self-justification, with blissful ignorance. He must remember each one so that heremembers why his Son, Jesus had to die. But then, as he stares at the cross, he remembers his promise, “I willforgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” God remembers so that he might stopremembering.

“Since,then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, whereChrist is, seated at the right hand of God.” It’s hard, on a day like today, to not remember . . . so stoptrying. Remember. Remember the pain, the anger, the fear andthe sadness. Because the September 11^thattacks can never be forgotten. Instead,we pray for God’s spirit to enter our hearts and minds and do something in usthat we cannot do on our own. We praythat God gives us the ability to remember and then to forgive. To have the heart of God who says, “I willforgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” We must remember in order to stopremembering. To put our minds on thingsabove: love, forgiveness and joy rather than on the anger, sadness and revengeso uplifted in this world.

Whenyou come to Jesus Christ and acknowledge him as your Lord and your Savior yourealize that we are all alike on this earth. The same wickedness is in all of us. And when you realize that your sins have been remembered and forgotten,there is a chance, that you might find that same freedom here on earth in yourrelationships with others. I rememberwondering that day 10 years ago, were the people who died ready? The attacks of September 11^th weresuch a surprise. Did they have faith inJesus? They had plans just like we dotoday. They had important things to dojust like us. At the end, no matter whenthat end comes, we will all be in the same predicament. Crying out just like that thief on the cross:“Jesus, though I do not deserve you, please, remember me when you come intoyour kingdom. Remember my faults,remember my inadequacies and remember my sins. Remember me. ” And when a sinner cries out in faith, Godremembers all that he created you to be and he remembers to forget everythingthat pulled you apart from him. Remember. When you cry out toJesus, you can count on Him answering. “Truly I tell you, today you will be with mein paradise.” Amen.

Sermon for September 4th (Blessings in Disguise)

2011-09-28T13:54:00.000-07:00

We pray forblessings. We pray for peace. Comfort for family, protection while we sleep. We pray for healing, for prosperity. We pray for Your mighty hand to ease oursuffering. All the while, You hear eachspoken need. Yet love us way too much togive us lesser things.

Cause what if Yourblessings come through raindrops. Whatif Your healing comes through tears. Whatif a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near. What if trials of this life are Your merciesin disguise.

In Pakistan lastyear when a radical Muslim mob of about 3000 came to burn the Christian villageof Korian, the Christian families ran for their lives. But 86-year-old Baba Qadar could not run. He could not even walk. The mob found him lying on his bed outsidehis house. He told us, “My family wantedto take me but I could not run. I forcedthem to run for safety. I told them,‘Go! I will remain here.’ About 20 or 30 of the attackers surrounded mybed. One of them shouted at me, ‘You areold, so it is better that you accept the true religion. We will not beat you if you say the Kalma(the Muslim confession of faith).’ Isaid, ‘No, no, I will not say this. Burnme or kill me or do whatever you like. Ihave said my Kalma and that is Jesus Christ.’ Then they beat me with their weapons—pistols, Kalashnikovs and bigsticks. They kicked me.

The prophetJeremiah was a predecessor to Baba Qadar. God called on Jeremiah to speak out to those who persecuted him aswell. In today’s first reading, we hearthe prophet crying out to God, “Why is my pain unending and my wound grievousand incurable? You are to me likedeceptive brook, like a spring that fails. Therefore, this is what the Lord says: “You will be my spokesman. I will make you a wall to this people, afortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you but will not overcomeyou, for I am with you to rescue and save, “ declares the Lord. “I will save you from the hands of the wickedand deliver you from the grasp of the cruel.” Jeremiah went through many trials, but God delivered him from every oneof them. Imagine the relationship thisprophet must have had with God. Do youhave a relationship like that with your Savior? The trials of this prophet led him to rely on God, but we so often believethat our trials and tribulations are actually what pull us away from God.

Don’t you thinkthat Baba’s family, running away to safety, were praying for their belovedgrandfather to be protected? For hissuffering to end? And how would theyhave felt if they saw God allowing their grandfather to be beaten andkicked? Would they have doubted God’sgoodness? His love? Would they have been angry? Wouldn’t you have been? Aren’t you when God allows cancer to enterour bodies? Or disasters to strike ourfarms? Or hearts to be broken? Or dreams to be shattered?

Baba’s storycontinues, “Lying on the ground I looked up at them and said, ‘How can you killme? The Master of Life is only one andthis is Jesus Christ. Only he can giveor take life, so do whatever you like because I knkow that it is God alone whocan take my life.’” A group of menpicked Baba up off his bed and hurled him into a thorn bush about 20 feetaway. One of them promised him, “If yousay the Kalma and accept the Muslim faith, we will take you off this bush.” As some of them turned to walk away, theyheard a voice from the thorn bush: ‘Killme. Burn me. I will not say the oath.” Imagine if God had saved him from beingthrown into that thorn bush? Would Babahave still had the strength to speak out to his oppressors?

A reading from 2Corinthians 12, “To keep me from becoming conceited because of thesesurpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, amessenger from Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficientfor you, for my power is made perfect in wekness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladlyabout my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight inweaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Baba, the mostlyblind, 86 year old lame man found his strength lying in a thorn bush. I doubt if he ever felt more strong than atthat very moment in his life. I don’tknow what Baba’s life was like before this day. According to the article, he could not read. We know that he could no longer walk. What his life amounted to up to this time, Ican’t say with any certainty. Heprobably doubted his faith at times like you and I do. He probably questioned biblical passages andwondered how anyone could be expected to live up to the high expectations thatJesus presents to his disciples. He nodoubt fell into temptation and was ashamed of himself at times throughout hislife. This may have been the single mostfaithful act he ever witnessed in himself and it came on the worst night of hislife. What if trials of this life areGod’s mercies in disguise.

As your pastor, Iknow that some of you are going through the worst times of your life rightnow. And many of those trials may SEEMto come because you are trying to stand firmly to your faith. Several of you, may be in marriages that areonly hanging on a thread and it would be easier for all of you to just leaveand be done with it, except that God considers you and your spouse to be oneflesh. And so you suffer every day withno end in sight. But, what if thehealing of your heart, your faith and your marriage comes through this time oftrial?

You may bestruggling with money moreso now than ever before. And it would be easier to steal from yourworkplace or steal your church tithe back into your bank account to give you alittle breathing room. Maybe you cannever do the things you want because you never have enough money! And you hate it! And your family hates it! But, what if, the achings of this life—thedesire for a better car, a bigger house, a larger retirement fund—is therevealing of a greater thirst this world and all the money in it cannotsatisfy? Maybe God desires you to caremore about your relationship to Him than your security on this earth?

You may be dying,literally dying, of cancer or you may know someone who is . . . don’t we all? And it would be nice if God would just takethat tumor away in a miraculous healing so that you could praise his name andfinally get some reward for being a devoted Christian your entire life! It’s embarrassing isn’t it, to be a Christianwho believes in the power of prayer and the power of healing and to not have ithappen EVERY SINGLE TIME! Why would Godallow this to happen to you or your loved one when there is so much more onthis earth to be done?

Well, as the songputs it. “When friends betray us. When darkness seems to win. We know the pain reminds this heart that thisis not, this is not our home.” Or, asPaul said in Philippians chapter 3, “Whatever was to my profit I now considerloss for the sake of Christ.” Thisworld, the very breaths we take are not the goal. Sometimes the trials of this life reminds usthat this life, as wonderful as it is, is not the best thing there is. Because of Jesus Christ, there is more thanthis life for you. When you place yourtrust in Jesus Christ, in his life, death and resurrection for you, thesetrials, those achings, the darkness of this world will come to an end foryou. God promises you eternal life awayfrom suffering and pain—to be spent in his presence for all the rest oftime.

God loves you andwants to spend eternity with you. Hecares more about your faith than your bank account or how much sleep you get orwhether you feel hunky dory all the time. And if the trials and storms of this life lead you to seek refuge andsafety in him—if that is what it must take—then how could he not allow them tooccur! How could he not love you enoughto risk your pain, your doubt or even your anger if it meant eternal life withyou in the end.

In the book ofActs, after jail time, shipwrecks and almost being killed multiple times bymobs, Saint Paul says, “I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim isto finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the taskof testifying to the good news of God’s grace.” Baba, the man from the article, tells that his favorite Bible passage isMatthew:28-31. He does not fear thosewho can kill the body, because they cannot kill the soul. He knows that whatever happens he is secure.

What say you? What will you say? When you are called to confess your facebefore an angry mob or just in front of a friend at work? When you must decide to either give intotemptation and enjoy the experience of the moment or struggle against the Deviland follow what you know is right—what will you do? Where will you go when the storms of thislife smash you against the rocks? Willyou lose faith in the face of these trials or will you see them in a new waystarting today? Not as God’spunishments. Not as God’s carelessness. Not even as God’s mysteries. Instead, maybe the trials of this life areGod’s mercies. They were for Jeremiah,they caused him to put his trust in God. They were for Saint Paul, he saw in them the promise of God’s power andstrength. They even were for Baba Qadar,who boldly spoke of his faith in the face of persecution. What if the trials in your life are God’smercies in disguise? Amen.

Sermon for August 28th (Demetrius the Silversmith)

2011-09-28T13:53:00.001-07:00

I once heard a story about acouncil member at a Lutheran church who was caught embezzling money from hiscompany. When he was asked how he couldon the one hand be a strong leader of his church while at the same time doingsomething so very obviously unchristian at his job, his response was, “I guessI just never connected Sunday to Monday.” That line has gone on to be the title of books, ministry programs andmany a video series.

Wouldyou ever do something like that? I mean,as a Christian, could you imagine compromising your faith to such an extentthat you would steal from the company you worked for? To stand up here in church and confess thatyou believe in things like the ten commandments and then go right out and breakone at work for weeks on end? I mean, weall know that some of those commandments written in the Bible are kindaconfusing or ambiguous maybe, but stealing isn’t one of them, right? Well, I believe that many Christians don’tconnect Sunday to Monday. You might beone of them. It’s easier than youthink.

Thereare many people in the world today who talk about the benefits of being aChristian. Even in our church, we spenda lot of time talking about how much better off you’ll be as a Christian. You’ll have peace in times of trouble, wepray for healing of your sicknesses and diseases, God promises that when youseek God’s kingdom first all your needs will be met as well. But sometimes being a Christian doesn’t makeyour life better; in fact, at least as the world looks at things, sometimes itcan even make your life worse to those around you.

Onthe ABC evening news on August 16^th, there was a story entitled,“Why nice guys finish last.” In a studyof people in the workplace, men who said that they were agreeable or “nice” atwork earned about $10,000 less than men who said that they weren’tagreeable. Women who said they wereagreeable earned about $2000 less than women who said they weren’tagreeable. Now this was a self-reportedstudy and, obviously, how we view ourselves might be different than how othersview us, but the point being made is that if you act nicely, you may be earningless because of it. The study’s authorswere worried that, with this bad economy, people might change their attitudesbecause of this study and be, you know, not as “nice” to earn more money. Jesus Christ calls us to, “Love our neighborsas ourselves.” To, “turn the othercheek” and to “clothe yourselves with compassion”. But if it means you earn $10,000 less a year. . . is it really worth it?

Orwhat about this example, maybe hitting a little closer to home. God commands us, in the third commandment, to“Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.” Martin Luther, in his Small Catechism, argued that this wasn’t so muchabout the particular day, but about how we respect God’s Word, “We are to fearand love God so that we do not neglect God’s Word or the preaching of itbut regard it as holy and gladly hearand learn it.” In other words, you arenot supposed to come to church because it’s Sunday—you come to church becauseyou respect God’s Word and don’t want to neglect your opportunity to hear that Word spoken and preached about. If that happens on Mondays, you should go on Mondays. If it happens on Sundays, which is the case at Emmanuel (as well asSaturday nights by the way), then you should go on the weekend. It’s not about the day, but what is happeningthat you don’t want to miss.

However,what happens when the corn is ready to be harvested around here? Or, what if it’s a nice day and the fieldsare ready to be plowed? What if we haveto make hay while the sun shines? Orwhat if it’s a rainy day and you want to make sure that the combine is readyjust in case you have a nice day on Monday so you can get out in the fieldsearly? What if coming in on Sunday meansthat you’ll miss out on getting your crops in on time or getting the wholeharvest in sooner than your neighbor down the road? How much money might that equate to? You’d know better than I. My point is that following God’s commandmentsdoesn’t necessarily mean you’ll earn more money; in fact, it might make youearn less. I’ve heard farmers say that,when they were younger, nobody worked in the fields on Sunday; but now, if youdon’t go out, you are seen as a slacker. Did God’s word change? No, butsomething did. Would your financessuffer if you didn’t make it out into the fields on Sunday mornings? And, here’s the kicker, even if they did,would God continue to provide enough for you?

Intwo of the stories today, the one from Daniel and the one from Acts, Christiansare being persecuted because their faith is affecting the world, politicalleadership or the economy. In the storyfrom Acts, Demetrius, the silversmith, wouldn’t have been angry with Paul’sgospel message except that it was hurting business. No need for all those silver shrines forArtemis if Artemis is just a figment of your imagination! I was just reading an article in the OmahaWorld Herald this last week about how people have paid off more of their debtin the past few years and that, while that was good for them, it was hurtingthe economy since they weren’t spending their money on consumer goods. God said in Proverbs, “The borrower is slaveto the lender.” God wants us to pay offof debts and stay out of it altogether. But, since the economy is suffering, the government wants us to keepspending. So, what are you going todo? I remember, when we lived out inCincinnati Ohio, there was a big fight over pornography in stores. Some people felt that it was wrong to sellpornographic magazines and paraphernalia in gas stations, but the gas stationsargued that it would hurt their business to get rid of them. These issues are still alive and well folks.

In the story fromDaniel, Daniel was going to be set in charge of the entire kingdom, but theother administrations around him lied to the King in order to get him throwninto a lion’s den! Now, we can say thatthose other administrators were just jealous of Daniel and wanted more power andthat’s why they wanted him out but, maybe, if it’s anything like today, maybethey also knew that Daniel, because he was a faithful follower of God, wouldbring a particular philosophy of management to the job that they didn’t agreewith. Would Daniel have been aDemocrat? Libertarian? Tea Party Member? Republican? I don’t know. But isn’t itpossible that these administrators thought their way of handling things wouldhave been better than his? Maybe that’swhy they didn’t want him to be the new leader. The text says that he wasn’t corrupt, that he was trustworthy and thathe wasn’t negligent; the only problems they would be able to find were with hisfollowing of God’s law.

Ifyou followed God’s laws in your workplace, would you find people upset withyou? Would it also affect how you madedecisions or prioritized activities? Kristyand I just watched a movie, “Dinner with the Schmucks”. In that movie, a businessman is seeking toget a promotion to make more money and impress his girlfriend. Through his assertiveness, he gets thepromotion except that he needs to find someone—someone really goofy and eccentric—tocome to a dinner to be made fun of by everyone else. . . not exactly theChristian thing to do nor even a nice thing to do as his girlfriend explains tohim. This man maintains to hisgirlfriend that while he is a good person at home, at work, he has to make alot of decisions that she wouldn’t like. He can’t always be a nice person. But, like it or not, he HAD to act this way to keep their livelihoodintact. Would you make the samedecision?

“I’msorry. I can’t work on Sunday morningbecause I need to go to church.” “No, Ican’t perform that abortion, even if that means you must fire me.” “I know that it would be cheaper if we livedtogether, but we aren’t married yet.” “Ihave confirmation Wednesday nights, so I’ll have to leave practice early.” “I won’t lie on my resume even to get abetter job.” “Money may be tight athome, but I’m still going to tithe to the church.” “I messed up big time at work, but I’m notgoing to lie—I’ll admit my mistake.” “Idon’t want to listen to you gossip about people, even if we are friends.” “I’ll skip the trip to the strip club withthe new client because it’s degrading to both me and the women.”

Does your faith inJesus affect your life at work? If yourfaith DOESN’T affect your work, what does that mean? Jesus said, “What good is it for a man togain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, theSon of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the gloryof the Father and of the holy angels.” (Luke 9:25-26)

Inthe gospel text today, Jesus said that he had given God’s word to his followersand the world has hated them for it. Hesaid that his word was truth and that this truth would sanctify them. Do you know what the word “sanctify”means? It means, “set apart”. Following God’s Word, being obedient to thecommandments, being faithful to Jesus, will set you apart from those who do notbelieve in this world. If being aChristian hasn’t ever made you feel different or set you apart from others whatmight that mean?

Beinga Christian means more than simply coming to church on Sundays and making anappearance. It means more than gettingconfirmed and being a member. Jesus saidin Matthew chapter 7, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter thekingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is inheaven. Many will say to me on that day,‘Lord, Lord did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demonsand perform many miracles?’ Then I willtell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers.’ There is an old saying I heard that goes something like this, “Would youhave to tell people you are a Christian, or would they know it by yourlife?”

Why do we believethat we are only Christians on Sundays at church? Do you think that you work where you work onaccident? Or maybe, just maybe, do youhave your job, your house and your circle of friends for a reason? God created you with particular skills,dreams, personality types and gave you particular opportunities . . . do youreally think he didn’t place you where you are for a reason? Some of you might say, “Well, we can’t all belike you pastor . . . we don’t work at church.” Exactly! One of my biggestfrustrations is that no matter how hard I try, most of my friends are alreadyChristian! I have to spend a lot of mytime in the place non-Christians hardly ever hang out—a church! You. You all are the ones with the missionary opportunities! Every day people watch you and listen to youtrying to get a sense for what a Christian is . . . what are they seeing andhearing and believing?

Being a Christianisn’t a cake walk folks. That’s whyJesus said it involved taking up your cross and following him. It’s going to be Monday morning againtomorrow. Today, I pray that you takethe time to prepare yourself. You’veheard God’s Word. We’ll sing a few moresongs and then you’ll go home. If you’reafraid for what living as a Christian will mean for your life, your family andyour job, how it might make you feel different around other people or be madefun of well good! You’re sensing what itmeans to be sanctified—set apart for God’s purposes. Tomorrow might be the beginning of a newchapter in your life, in this community, in the world—even in thiseconomy. If you are a follower of JesusChrist today, what are you going to be tomorrow? Starting this week, I pray that you connectSunday to Monday. Amen.

Sermon for August 21st (Aereopagus)

2011-09-28T13:52:00.001-07:00

We pick up todayin the book of Acts chapter 17 where Paul is waiting in Athens for a couple offriends of his, Timothy and Silas. Evenin Paul’s time, five centuries past it’s heyday, Athens was still the center ofGreek philosophy. It was a city full ofhistory, with buildings like the Parthenon that still draw tons and tons oftourists in our day and age. Athens wasthe city that so famously fought (and lost) to the city of Sparta in thePelloponnesian war—a war made so famous through such figures as Helen of Troyand Archilles.

In the text today,Paul is said to have “reasoned” or discussed what he was seeing in Athens withboth Jews and the God-fearing Greeks in the synagogue. The text says that he was greatly distressedby the idols he saw throughout Athens. Whywas that such a big deal? Well, idolshave always been a problem for God’s people. Instead of worshipping God they would worship these idols such as theinfamous “Golden Calf” or Asherah poles or the Baals. Whenever names like that come up, God isnever happy about them.

In the version ofthe ten commandments written in Exodus 20, the first two commandments areclosely connected. First, “I am the Lordyour God. You shall have no other godsbefore me.” And to make this even moreclear we read the second commandment, “You shall not make for yourself an imagein the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in thewaters below. You shall not bow down tothem or worship them.” In other words,God forbids worshipping idols and, yet, throughout Athens there are idolseverywhere. Paul understood that this wasa dangerous situation for any follower of God, whether they be Jewish orChristian. He starts discussing thisdanger in the synagogue.

What is an idol? According to the second commandment fromExodus, it seems to be something material that is worshipped as a god. And what is a “god”? According to Martin Luther in his LargeCatechism, “a god is the term for that to which we are to look for all good andin which we are to find refuge in all need. To have a god is nothing else than to trust and believe in that one withyour whole heart.” So, an idol is amaterial something that is trusted in; something that serves as a refuge intimes of crisis. It is something that welook to for strength or for happiness when times are difficult. The city of Athens was full of idols, thetext says—made of gold, silver and stone. What would Paul say about our city? Or, for that matter, what would Paul say about our homes? Do we still have idols?

I took a sociologyclass in college, one of those classes that I had to take because I went to aliberal arts college. In that class, Iremember the teacher explaining that one of the ways archeologists determinewhat was important to people from long ago was to look at their homes and seewhat things were featured prominently. For instance, if all the chairs are turned in a particular direction,often there will be a shrine or altar in the corner that they are facing. In a group of pictures on the wall, the mostimportant will often be on the top. I’dlike you to think about your living room. What is the most prominent feature? In many living rooms, it’s the TV—all the couches and chairs are turnedto look at it. It’s like a littleshrine. When we are sad, we trust thatthere will be something on the TV to cheer us up. When we are scared during a huge storm, weturn on the weather channel to be warned or comforted. We are guided in many of our decisions due tothe programming we watch, whether it’s the kind of cereal we ought to buy orfor whom we ought to vote.

We live in a world full of idolswhether they be as small as i-pods or as big as tractors—in fact, I can’timagine that Athens had any more idols than we do today. As followers of God, we must constantly beaware of how the material things in our world seek to pull away our allegiancefrom the one true God. Some worshipmoney, others worship blogs, some worship their cornfields, others worshipshoes or their cars, or facebook, or cookies or even basketball. The first point Paul makes in Athens is to challenge God’s people to put theircomplete trust in God rather than in all the things that seek to draw theirattention away.

But Paul doesn’tjust speak in the synagogue, to the so called “religious” people in town, soonafter, he begins to debate with two groups of unbelievers: philosophers knownas the Epicureans and the Stoics. Theepicureans believed that one found happiness by having a good time—throughsensual pleasures. “Eat, drink and bemerry!” might be their motto. On theother hand, the Stoics, would have argued that happiness is found, not isseeking pleasure, but in curbing one’s appetite for pleasure. According to this philosophy, happiness isfound only through self-sufficiency or, as Ralph Waldo Emerson would say,“Rugged Individualism”.

In the synagogue,Paul had to deal with believers who struggled with idols surrounding them. Here, Paul is dealing with unbelievers, butthe idols are just as real, it’s just that, rather than being material, theyare philosophies which, in some ways, are harder to contain. What do I mean? Well, these two philosophies are stillprevalent in today’s society and they steal a person’s faith just as easily asany material idol ever could. In thebook, “The Prodigal God”, Tim Keller talks about the story of the Prodigal Sonas really being about two sons, both of whom have a broken relationship withtheir father.

The first son, themost famous of the two, is rather epicurean in his actions. He offends his father by asking for hisinheritance, pretty much saying, “I’d rather you were dead” and then goes offand spends it on food and sex. Thesecond son, is much more stoic. Heoffends his father by refusing to join in the party when his brother returns,arguing that he’s worked hard and never received any reward—not even a young goatto serve up at a party with his friends.

In society today,both within and outside of the church, these two ways of thinking separate usfrom God. They may not be materialidols—but we idolize these philosophies. Some people believe that Christianity is too strict, too many rules, toomany expectations, and so they believe they will find happiness in a life ofboundaryless pleasure and experimentation. Other’s believe that Christianity is actually not strict enough, tootolerant, too forgiving, too focused on faith and not on action. The one group has a broken relationship withGod because they refuse to obey him. Theother group has a broken relationship with God because they try to earn theirsalvation through hard work and keeping the law. Both lawlessness as well as pride can becomeidols. Some of you here struggle withfinding any good reason to follow God’s laws in your life because youfigure—“God wants me to be happy right?” Others here struggle to find any good reason to be merciful or forgivingto those who aren’t just like them.

Acts 17:31. In America, we act just like theAthenians. We say that we are tolerantof everything. We have freedom ofreligion after all. We are willing tolisten to anyone. We’re all worried thatwe’re missing something. We are alwaysready to read the latest new age book telling us about the “unknown god” thatwe never knew before, or to get on the “unknown diet” that will fix our health,or how to meet that “unknown man or woman” that will change our livesforever. But tolerance of many ideasdoesn’t necessarily mean freedom—sometimes it just means that the truth isharder to hear over all the noise. Truefreedom is only found in Jesus Christ.

Just like theAthenians, we are all very religious. Weworship many things, whether they are material possessions or even our ownideas. We worship our favorite teams orour favorite political opinions, we worship our bodies or even our sense ofpride. And the really sad thing is thatwe think we can do this AND continue worshipping God. God says, “No!” “I am a jealous God. You either love me completely or you areloving something else. You either trustme completely or you are giving your trust to someone else.” God isn’t demanding that you get rid of yourTV’s or stop eating cookies or listen to Christian radio all day or any ofthat—he simply desires to be first in your heart and first in your life—is he?

We all haveidols. The next question is, what shouldwe do about that? Admitting that youhave a problem is that first step and sometimes that’s all it takes to make achange. Who’s in charge? You or that TV? Sometimes just noticing the silliness ofidolatry is enough to break yourself of a bad habit. If your heart is a little more set on yourpersonal idol, the next step is to focus your time in a new direction. If you just HAVE to check facebook firstthing in the morning, decide to, instead, read a chapter of your Bible firstthing in the morning instead. Just thatlittle change might be enough to break you of obsessive overuse and help youreprioritize your life. Finally, in somecases, I don’t think we need to be ashamed to get rid of something completelywhen we can’t control ourselves any longer. Idols can be very dangerous things, and if you can’t help but obsessover your fancy new car day in and day out, if it is affecting your work, yourfamily and your life, trade that baby in for a beater and you might notice anew sense of freedom that you’ve never known before. The truth is, God knows that when we placeour trust in idols, whether material or philosophical, we will end up feelingtrapped.

You may have built many idols inyour home. You may have exchanged God’struth for being “open” to all ideas. Today, you are being called to give your allegieance to one God-God theFather of Jesus Christ. Repent, turnaway from the things that have stolen your faith, and ask for forgiveness fromthe only true God who can give it. If hewas unknown to you before now, hear and believe that Jesus Christ loves you andhas loved you forever. He forgives youfor sins and promises you eternal life. Don’tlet an idol or an idea steal your faith. Repent and believe in the good news. Amen.

Sermon for July 31st (Conversion of Saul)

2011-09-28T13:48:00.002-07:00

God likes surprises. Or, maybe the truth is, that God is just so very different from us that he always surprises us. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes through the Father except through me.” But the way God leads us is often in a completely different direction than we expect. God’s truth always seems to catch us off guard, no matter which side we are on. Even in as simple as a matter of life and death, Jesus Christ surprised us by dying in the first place (he was God after all in the flesh) and then surprised us all once again when he arose from the dead (he was a dead human being after all). God is a surprising God. And God continues to surprise us in the story today from Acts about the man named Saul.

Now, the beginning of the story isn’t too surprising; in fact, it actually makes a lot of sense. Saul is a Jewish man who is out to defeat what he sees is a competing religious sect muscling in on his faith and life: he wants to destroy Christians and their attempts to evangelize other Jews. He is doing this by any means necessary. He tries to bully them for instance by making “murderous threats” as the text puts it against disciples of Jesus. He attempts to detain and convict any Jews following this religion as well by asking for reference letters from the high priest in order to enter synagogues and smoke out any Jews with Christian interests. And he finds no shame in watching these Christians receive the death penalty for their blasphemous actions. He was even present at the stoning of the deacon, Stephen, and the text says that Saul approved of what happened.

While we might look back today and find Paul’s actions despicable, nothing he was doing was surprising. To a committed Jewish man in the first century, the Christian disciples must have seemed very invasive and threatening. They were preaching publicly and trying to persuade other Jews to believe something new about their faith. Not only that, they were doing it with miraculous healing and that sort of thing which was hard to fight against. Maintaining that Jesus was one with God, God’s chosen Messiah who was raised from the dead, was blasphemy and the punishment for blasphemy was death. So, in other words, when a Jewish Christian died, it was a simple matter of justice. Once again, while it might look mean to us today, there was nothing surprising about it back in Saul’s time.

In fact, it’s not even much of a surprise when God intervenes against Saul. In fact, that seems just about right from the Christian perspective then and now. For that matter, you and I probably wish that type of thing happened more often today. In many countries around the world today, Christians are put in jail and even killed for no other reason than that they are publicly confessing their faith in Jesus Christ. If a man who had once sought the death of Christian missionaries was struck down with blindness on the way to arrest Christians we might look at that as divine retribution. Perhaps it would surprise us that it actually happened, but it would seem right and justifiable.

So then what’s the big surprise? The first surprise comes when God calls on a Christian disciple named Ananias and tells him to find this man Saul and restore his sight. Right there we suddenly see that God’s ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not his thoughts.

How do I know that this was a surprise? Because we, as human beings, whether Christian or not, always seem to believe revenge makes more sense than mercy. For example, several months ago, Osama Bin Laden was killed in a raid on his hideout in Pakistan, remember that? And the next day, when I read the headline “Justice served” on CNN.com, I felt good, you know? I felt like, yeah, that’s right, finally! He got what he deserved! But, then the next day, on 107.1, the Christian station out of Des Moines, I heard a guy talk briefly about this issue in between songs. He said, was Osama Bin Laden’s death the best case scenario? I mean, we know it cut down on court costs and probably hours upon hours of political wrangling, but was it the best case scenario . . . in God’s eyes? This radio DJ said, NO, he didn’t think it was. Because in Ezekiel chapter 33 God said this, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.” God isn’t simply after justice, the best case scenario is always repentance. And that’s always a surprise to us. And it would’ve no doubt been a big surprise to Ananias that day as well.

Ananias said, I’ve heard about this guy Saul. He’s a bad guy. He’s out to hurt Christians! Not only was Ananias probably afraid to see Saul, he probably thought Saul didn’t deserve his help. But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

There are some of you here today that are a lot like Ananias. You are surprised at the type of people God brings in people to this church. They scare you. And, to be honest, you don’t think they deserve to be here. Again and again people tell me who they think should be here and who shouldn’t. Who should sing and who shouldn’t. Who wrong and who isn’t. Let me tell you. God would surprise you if you saw people from his perspective. That person you hate, the one you despise . . . God loves them with a passion you can only dream of. And every time you confess your hatred and gossip about them, imagine God’s wrath boiling over at how you are speaking about his beloved child. God may have chosen your worst enemy to be his chosen instrument. Perhaps that’s why you are at today’s healing service . . . to be freed of your grudges, your bitterness, your anger, your hatred and to instead lay them at your Savior’s feet and obey his call to love your neighbor as yourself. His desire isn’t for justice, but for repentance.

But there is one more surprise in today’s reading. The surprise Saul must have felt. Remember, this man was persecuting Christians and then he encounters the Risen Jesus Christ. Imagine the fear, the dread, the embarrassment, the vulnerability of finding out you were wrong—dead wrong, he must have imagined. A Jew believed that to be in the presence of God, you were going to die. Saul met Jesus and he was still alive. He had persecuted Jesus and yet Saul’s life was spared. And more than that; Jesus seemed to want to do something with him. He met a man, named Ananias. What would this man do? Kill him? Stone him? That would have only made sense. It would have been what Saul would have done. Instead, Ananias prayed for him and Saul’s sight came back—scales fell from his eyes.

Now, while I do believe that scales actually did fall from Saul’s eyes, I believe that when Saul opened his eyes his saw much more than he bargained for: he saw the surprises of God. He saw God’s great mercy. He saw forgiveness for what he had done. He no doubt now saw clearly how horrible of a man, how horrible of a Jew even, that he had been before. God’s love and forgiveness will do that to you. None of us deserve it. Saul’s surprise was that no matter how horrible of a person you have been in this life—you are never outside of God’s mercy.

There are some of you a lot like Saul. You believe that you are too sinful to survive God’s wrath. You can’t even see your own sins you are so blind by your self-righteous pride. I pray that God lifts the scales from your eyes. That you see yourself, in all your shame and guilt—I hope that it surprises you—the sin that lurks beneath that heart of yours. Then, I hope that you are in for a much bigger surprise. God wants you for his very own. He wants to use you for good, not for evil. He has plans much bigger for your life than you could ever imagine. It’s time to come forward and see the truly surprising grace of God. Today’s healing service is for you, whether you have trouble forgiving others or trouble forgiving yourself. God’s grace is for you and it’s always a surprise.

Sermon for July 17th (Philip and the Ethiopian)

2011-09-28T13:48:00.000-07:00

Today, I’d like to guide you through a story, it’s a story that some of you may know or have heard of, some of you may not know it at all, from the book of Acts. In most Bibles, the editors have titled the story, “Philip and the Ethiopian”. Like many stories in the Bible, it’s an easy story to read through without being too shocked. But after today, my prayer is that you never read this story again without getting goosebumps at how God’s works in this world—using ordinary people to do extraordinary things and pouring mercy over those who deserve it the least. A lot of people say refers to events in their life as “lucky” or “fate” or as “accidents”. Is the story about Philip and the Ethiopian about accidents or something more?

“Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” An angel of the Lord said to Philip . . . now who is Philip? Do you know who he is? To be honest, I never really knew until this last week. I mean, I knew the name, but I didn’t understand who he really was. I thought that he was one of the apostles, I guess, even though I never really gave it much thought. I just figured that it was a story about someome doing something important so it MUST have been one of the apostles . . . but I was wrong.

Do you know who Philip was? He was not one of the twelve apostles. The first time Philip is mentioned is in Acts chapter 6, “In those days when the number of disciples were increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve (that’s the twelve disciples) gathered all the disciples together and said, ‘It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word. This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip . . . .” That’s him. Also Philip.

Philip wasn’t an apostle. He was one of these seven men asked to do the detail work, the “daily distribution of food” and taking care of the Greek widows so that the twelve apostles could do their prayers and preaching. How interesting then that the book of Acts seems to take a little tangent at this point from constantly following the likes of Peter and Paul and chooses to focus first on Stephen and now, in chapter eight, on this Philip.

This group of seven, including most famously Stephen and Philip, are usually referred to as deacons. The word deacon comes from the Greek word diakonos meaning servant or assistant. They weren’t the stars of the show, in other words, or at least not like “The Twelve”. They were called in specifically to do the work that the apostles were too busy to do. Isn’t it interesting though how God used these seven who were called in for supporting roles to further the kingdom of God? “Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” Of all the people God could have sent, why did God choose Philip?

And of all times to leave, why now? Because if you didn’t realize it, this wasn’t the first time God used Philip to do his work. At the beginning of chapter 8, we hear that Philip went to Samaria and proclaimed Christ there, bringing to him large crowds in a type of revivalisic healing service complete with miracles of healing and deliverance. This town of Samaria had so fully become overrun by the Holy Spirit that the apostles in Jerusalem had sent Peter and John to check out what was happening.

And so what does God have Philip do? Leave town of course. Of course. And of the two roads to take to Gaza, the one well-traveled with multiple people or the desert road with few inhabitants, God sent Philip, the evangelistic powerhouse, away from the crowds, away from the revival and into the wilderness for God only knows what reason. It’s easy to miss these details, isn’t it? But once you start noticing who Philip is and where he is going and what he’s coming from, it’s like God is setting us up for a big punch line.

So, on this desert road with nobody else on it, Philip runs across someone. “On his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home, was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, ‘Go to that chariot and stay near it.” There are two interesting aspects of this stranger Philip runs across. He is an Ethiopian and he is a eunuch.

When Jesus had ascended into heaven, he gave the twelve apostles this promise, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem. In all Judea and Samaria and to all the ends of the Earth.” So far in Acts, the apostles have witnessed in Jerusalem and throughout all Judea. As I mentioned earlier, Philip had led a revival in Samaria and now God sends him out into the desert to the edge of the wilderness and he finds himself face to face with none other than a representative from “all the ends of the earth.” Now, Ethiopia isn’t really that far from Jerusalem, at least by today’s standards, but it is over 1000 miles. Back in the days of horses and chariots, that’s gonna take some time. My point is that while Ethiopia isn’t “the ends of the earth” literally, you have to start somewhere and it appears that this is exactly the opportunity God sends to begin a much larger mission for the church.

But even more interestingly, this Ethiopian is a eunuch. A eunuch, in biblical times, would have been a man who had been castrated. Usually, men were made eunuchs because they were servants of powerful women or servants of powerful families. This particular eunuch was an important servant of the Queen of Ethiopia. Castration was just a precaution to keep illegitimate children from popping up. But, in Judaism, being a eunuch meant something much more than simply birth control. According to Deuteronomy 23:1, “No one who has been emasculated (another word for castrated) by crusing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord.” In other words, you could be a Jewish eunuch, but you would not be allowed to worship in the temple. You were cut off from the community and considered unclean.

The kingdom of God is like Philip, the deacon, being pulled out of the Samaritan revival and being sent by God onto a deserted desert road where he runs into a man from the ends of the earth who is cut off from the Jewish community because he is a eunuch, begin asked, as a complete stranger, to come and help this man interpret the Word of God. And what is this Ethiopian eunuch reading? Well, that’s interesting as well.

Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. “How can I,” the eunuch said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture, “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendents? For his life was taken from the earth.”

Now, you may say, what’s the big deal, but let me point out to you that of all the scrolls that this Ethiopian could have been reading, I find it very interesting that this is what he was reading at this particular time. This reading from Isaiah isn’t about some complex commandment in Leviticus or a confusing symbolic dream such as we see in the book of Daniel. This was a Messianic prophesy, one of four sections in Isaiah that deal with what scholars call “the suffering servant”. At the time, this would have been a passage looked at with hope by the Jews as they awaited the coming Messiah.

“The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip, began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.” Why this text? Why that day? Just a happy accident? You can imagine how Philip must have started by showing how this sheep to be slaughtered, according to Isaiah, was Jesus Christ, the lamb of God who promised to take away the sins of the world. He was the sacrificial lamb. He did not open his mouth the text says. He was deprived of justice it says. Philip must have pointed to Jesus’ trial before Herod and Pilate where again and again it was said that they could find no case against him and yet, when the passage talked about this innocent man’s life being taken from the earth, Philip could speak of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial. How Jesus, the lamb of God, died before his accusers and then was raised to give the forgiveness of sins to all those who believed in him.

And then, as they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” Of course! In the middle of the desert, they just happened to come across some water! Just another lucky break I guess! Or should we say, the kingdom of God is like a man riding a chariot through the desert being preached to about the good news of Jesus Christ by a complete stranger and then coming across water so that he could be baptized?

What about all of you this morning? How many of you feel like you don’t belong? Maybe you’re not from Ethiopia, but you’ve moved here from far away and you have never felt like you “fit in” with all the old names and old families. You’re not Lutheran. You’re family isn’t even Christian. You don’t know why you’ve come but you are here. How many of you feel “unclean” and “unworthy”? Maybe you’re not a eunuch, but according to God’s laws, you shouldn’t be welcome in this church or anywhere else for that matter—not after what you’ve done or thought or felt. Do you realize that you aren’t here by mistake? It was no accident? This morning, this reading, this church, this feeling, this sermon? It’s not lucky you are here—that’s what the kingdom of God is like! And yes, here’s water! What’s to keep you from being baptized if you haven’t been? Right here, this morning, just raise your hand and come up! What is going to happen today? Where will God take you this afternoon? What does God have planned? What will the kingdom of God be like for you?

Sermon for July 10th (Trust in God with all your Heart)

2011-09-21T15:08:00.001-07:00

Each day, you make hundreds of decisions. You make decisions to do certain things and you decide not to do other things. You may not realize how many decisions you make in a day because many decisions are made more out of habit than from anything else. In fact, if we had to think through every decision we made we’d probably feel overwhelmed by all the variables to consider. But sometimes I don’t think we realize how important these little decisions we make are in the scheme of things.

The topic of this message today is taken from the book of Proverbs which reads, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” In today’s story, Saint Peter paraphrased this verse with these words, “We must obey God rather than men!” You’d probably say that you feel similarly, but how do you put that belief into practice? It seems obvious to us that, yeah, we’d want to trust God with our decisions but what happens in reality is that we often do just the opposite.

Take today’s story from Acts for example. First, the apostles were put in jail, but an angel of the Lord brought them out. So, what were they to do next? What would you have told them? Imagine that this isn’t saint Peter the apostle but your son. He’d just gotten put in jail for talking about Jesus in some foreign country. Maybe he has a job there and a family, maybe he’s working in the military or is just on a vacation. But one day he was in jail and the next day, by some miracle, he was set free. What would you tell him to do? “That was a close call . . . don’t do that again!” “Be more careful next time?” Just keep quiet until you get home and then you can talk all you want about what you believe! Well, here is what God told Saint Peter to do: “Go stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people the full message of this new life.” What if your son told you that God wanted him to go right back to preaching, but this time, in an even more public manner? How would you feel then? Because when it’s in a story in the Bible it seems so easy to obey, but in this world of ours, we often feel like we have better ideas.

Think about the story of Noah. We look at Noah and say, “I couldn’t have done that!” Built that huge boat just because I thought I heard God talking to me. Noah couldn’t have done it either if God hadn’t really been with him. The story that is written in the Bible about Noah and his ark—that story wasn’t about what Noah did, but what God did. Do you know why we talk about Noah so much today? Because he made one little decision—he obeyed God. He didn’t follow the advice he was no doubt getting from his own head, or from his wife and family or from his neighbors. He obeyed God and the rest, you might say, is history.

And it’s not just a story, this type of thing still happens today. Here’s the write up for one of the keynote speakers at one of the LCMC conventions I went to a few years ago. “Assigned to a tiny Lutheran congregation in Glendale, Arizona in 1978, Walt Kallestad quickly learned humility and value of strong communications: Within the first few months, the congregation he was assigned to had dropped by 50 percent, and the young idealist was faced with the challenge of rebuilding constituency or finding a new profession. The challenge has obviously been met. Today, under Walt's direction, Community Church of Joy supports 8,000 participants.”

When pastor Kallestad came to that church in Arizona I’d like to bet that everyone had the same dream: that church was going to grow, more kids in church, more ministries, more excitement! And then, all their dreams were shattered when they lost members and lost ministries. I bet that they lost excitement too. You ask any pastor at that point and they’d tell you that it was time to move on. I could give you many reasons why that was the right thing to do. But it appears that Pastor Kallestad was told something different. He wasn’t told to: build a big boat. Instead, he was called by God to do something that no doubt seemed even more impossible and unlikely for him at that time in that place: build a big church! I’d also bet that no one in that tiny Lutheran church could imagine that God was going to use them to reach 8,000 people in their community. But that’s what God did. I’m sure that there were many decisions made between a church losing members and a church with 8,000 people, but it all began with one decision Walt made—to obey. He had to trust in God and not lean on his own understanding.

In the story from Acts, when the authorities found Peter and the apostles out preaching again, notice that they weren’t questioned about how they escaped even though the jail was securely locked with the guards standing at the doors. Instead, they were asked why they were still preaching in the temple after being given strict orders not to! You’ll find that when you are following God’s agenda for your life, when you are being led by God’s plans, the miracles that you see won’t always be seen by others and will be unnoticed by the naysayers around you. According to reason, Peter should have stopped and obeyed the authorities, right? But instead they replied, “We must obey God rather than men!”

Most of you have probably never been in jail and never had the opportunity to take such a bold step. Or maybe that is completely wrong. Maybe we’ve just convinced ourselves that God doesn’t work that way anymore. What I mean by that is that we have lied to ourselves, deluded ourselves into thinking that our little decisions each day don’t really matter like they did in those storis—that in order to obey God we would have to make big decisions with big results. The truth is that most of us make many little decisions with big consequences. It’s just that it’s easier to imagine that what we do doesn’t make a difference. The truth is that one little decision to obey God can create some God-sized results.

In the story of Esther, a young Jewish woman was chosen to be the Queen of Persia based on her beauty. But during her reign, her uncle Mordecai uncovered a conspiracy taking place: One of the king’s chief advisors, a man named Haman, hated the Jews and wanted them all destroyed so he tricked the king to sign an edict to kill them all. Haman went to Esther and told her what was about to take place—she needed to warn the King that he had been tricked. The only problem was that if she spoke to the king without being summoned the king had but one law—to put her to death. It seemed like a hopeless situation. And really, what difference was one little decision by Esther going to make in the scheme of things? Her only options were death (from the king’s edict) or death (by going against the king’s rules). But Mordecai toldd her, “Who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this!”

Esther’s choice according to God’s ways was obvious: she had to try and save her people even though, according to the world’s viewpoint, her choice was questionable. But the king listened to her and the Jewish people were saved. What difference did Esther’s choice to obey God’s will make?

And it’s not just a story, we must make these kinds of decisions every day and they have very real consequences even though we may not know how they end. Kristy and I are experiencing this kind of decision right now in our lives and, even though we haven’t told either of our families about this, it just seemed appropriate to talk about it today to help you see that these decisions, first of all, aren’t easy and aren’t just stories from long ago. (I do have Kristy’s permission to talk about this by the way.)

Several months ago, Kristy started talking about adopting a child. But not just any child, it would be an international adoption. Of course, that seemed nice. Something we might do sometime in the future. It certainly didn’t make sense to do it right now. I mean, the cost for international adoptions are about as much as I make in a year salary-wise. We already have three beautiful children who keep us quite busy already. How would we do the traveling? How would our families deal with it? What would the church think? I explained to myself over and over again that it would never work . . . at least right now.

But then God got to work on me. First, during the mission trip, hearing about all these kids in Mexico living in a trash dump as orphans, I told Kristy that I would be open to the idea. But, once again, I thought this would be sometime in the future—right now just didn’t make sense. But as I was working through my Experiencing God Bible study a couple months later, I was reading about watching where God is working and joining him there. The book asked the question: where do you see God working in your life? And my mind went right to Kristy’s desire for international adoption. I mean, what stay-at-home mom with three kids whose husband is a pastor in small town Iowa just comes up with the idea to adopt a child from a foreign country? At that moment, I had a decision to make. It was a little decision really, but the consequences I could foretell would be huge. God didn’t want me to decide where to adopt from, or how to raise the money, or which adoption agency to choose, or how to tell our parents. He was telling me to follow my wife, because God was leading her in her desire to adopt. My choice wasn’t to figure out how, but I needed to either obey him or not. He’d take care of the details.

I went and told Kristy that I believed that God was calling us to adopt and it was our job to obey Him. A few nights later, as we were talking, I told her that I believed we were being called to adopt from Ethiopia. She told me that this was also where God has led her to. Coincidence? I think not! Why am I telling you this now before we’ve even told our families? Because I want you to see that what happens over the next several months and years as we obey God in this will not be because Kristy and I did anything amazing. We won’t somehow make the money magically appear. We will be scared and doubtful and worried throughout this process at times. We’ve come up with a hundred reasons why this isn’t the greatest idea and not the right time. God will have to do his work to make this happen—we only need to obey. A little decision perhaps, but I believe that for some child in Ethiopia, God has some big plans.

What is God calling you to do and will you obey him? In the book of Hosea, God’s prophet was called to marry a prostitute. Then, even though he had children with her, she’d keep leaving him to have affairs with other men. Every time God told Hosea to take her back even though divorce, or even the death penalty, would have been the world’s way of dealing with her. That’s not just an old story. How many spouses have the make these same decisions today? I heard a story about missionary who had worked in the mission field for twenty years. When he was asked if he felt successful in his work he said, “Oh yes, definitely.” When he was asked how many people had become Christians since he arrived he thought for a moment and then answered, “One person.” No doubt, this had not been his plan upon arrival. No doubt, most of us would consider him and his ministry to be a failure. But if the story that Jesus told about the shepherd who left ninety-nine sheep to find one that was lost is any indication, it appears that this missionary was following trusting God’s plans and not his own understanding. Maybe God’s calling you to just one person as well. Will you obey that call?

Back one last time to the story from Acts. According to the law, Peter and the apostles should have been killed for going against the religious authorities. However, one of these leaders named, Gamaliel argued differently. “Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” Wow, looks like everything turned out great for the apostles right? Were they vindicated by God for doing the right thing? Were they kept safe from all harm for obeying God and not man? No. They were called in and flogged, whipped, and then ordered not to speak in the name of Jesus again before they were let go. And what did they do? “The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.”

Trusting in God won’t always get you the best results as far as your friends and family see it, but God works by a different standard. You have a hundred different decisions every day to make. You can read your Bible or leave it on the shelf, you can go on a mission trip or stay home, you could cheat on your spouse or fight the temptation, you could follow God’s leading or talk yourself out of it, you can invite your friends to church or stay silent. That little decision to obey God, might make a big difference in the kingdom of God. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” When you obey God what story will God write with your life?

Sermon for July 3rd (Giving)

2011-09-21T15:07:00.000-07:00

Last week I talked about how we might cultivate generosity in our lives by following God’s plans for His money. It’s a lot easier to be generous giving someone else’s money and all we have is God’s. In one of our readings from the book of Proverbs last week, we heard, “A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.” But while generosity is one way that God talks about giving, it’s not the only way. God also talks about another very important aspect of giving our money called tithing.

A tithe is just a fancy word for a tenth. In the book of Leviticus, God told his people to bring, “A tithe (a tenth) of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord.” God’s people were supposed to keep 9/10ths of their blessings to support their families and that type of thing while the other tenth was used for God’s purposes. In the time of the temple, these tithes were used to feed the Levites (otherwise known as the priests) and to keep up the temple for use by God’s people. While there are some people who question whether Christians ought to follow this law or not, it seems pretty clear that Jesus considered tithing a continuing expectation still in his day. He said, “Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.” Jesus wants both justice AND tithing to be done.

Tithing is different than generosity. Generosity is a state of the heart created by God’s great gift of love, mercy and abundant blessings. Tithing, on the other hand, is simply a command that we are expected to obey. Generosity blooms from the seeds of faith. Tithing is just about obedience. Nothing more. Nothing less. But, without being obedient to God’s command for tithing, the concept of generosity just kinda doesn’t make much sense.

As some of you may know, I was preparing to be a professional musician for many years before I went to seminary to become a pastor. I played the double bass, the stringed instrument bigger than a cello, and wanted to play in a symphony one day. This involved a lot of practicing. Now, I bet that many of you had to learn an instrument like piano. Do you remember those first lessons? First, you had to practice your hand position and play each note one at a time. (pentatonic scale) Then, one or two lessons later, you learned to play with both hands. (two handed pentatonic scale) But do you ever remember turning the pages of your book and looking at the really hard songs at the back? Did you ever try to play them and get totally baffled by how hard it was?

When I went to college, I was a pretty awful double bass player. My teacher, however, was a good teacher and saw that I had the determination, musicianship and talent to become a lot better pretty quickly. But I’ll never forget my first lesson in college. Do you know what I played? Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. How embarrassing. What was more embarrassing was that he kept showing me how badly I played it. My notes were always a little out of tune. My rhythm was just right on. My bow grip was off. My dynamics were poor. My tone wasn’t solid. He explained that in order to play harder songs I’d need to be able to play this easy song well.

But I still tried every once in awhile. You see, I heard all these great orchestral excerpts and I wanted to play them, even though I could barely play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star well. So, I’d try to play the beginning of the third movement of Beethoven’s 5th symphony (excerpt). And I would crash and burn. Or, I’d try to play this lick from Richard Struass’s Ein Heldeinleben (excerpt) This was really hard stuff. I wanted to have fun—be this extraordinary bass virtuoso—but before I could do that I just had to do what my teacher said and play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

Some of you are trying your hand at this generosity stuff, and that’s really good, but you haven’t ever learned the basic principle of tithing which must look kinda silly from God’s perspective. Last week, I used an example of an average income of $40,000 and said if you’re only putting in a twenty on a regular basis then that’s not a tithe. Maybe you got really excited about that and thought, man am I gonna show that Pastor Broers this week! I’m really gonna get on a roll! I’m bringing $40 dollars! Twice as much! Hah! Now isn’t THAT generous! Well, is it? 10% of 40,000 is 4,000 a year. Divided by 52 Sundays equals just under $77 a week. And, here’s the point. Is $77 a week generous? No. From God’s perspective that’s NOT generosity . . . That’s TITHING! It’s obeying God’s command. Tithing is about obedience. Tithing is a minimum expectation.

That’s where today’s story comes in. You see, how we act with our money shows that we are so confused as God’s people about the difference between faith and obedience. They are different. Jesus starts by talking about forgiveness. He says, “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent forgiven them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying, ‘I repent’ you must forgive them.” The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”

Do you hear what Jesus is saying here? He’s kinda being sarcastic honestly. He says, you want me to give you more faith to forgive your brother or sister? Well, honestly, if you had just a teensy weensy tiny little bit of faith you could move an entire mountain ok . . . but I’m not asking you for faith here just obedience! I’m not asking you to make a major leap of faith here. It doesn’t demand a whole lot of trust to be forgiven. You don’t need to understand it, or agree with it, or anything like that—just do it. Forgive them. Every time you are asked for forgiveness you MUST forgive. This isn’t about faith. It’s about obedience. Tithing isn’t about faith—it’s about obedience.

Jesus then tells this story about a servant who does his usual work and then comes into the house to fix supper for his master. I mean, he did was he was asked to do, that’s all. My job at home is to take out the trash. And I do my job, most of the time. Sometimes, when I don’t think Kristy has noticed, I tell her, “Hey, did you notice I took out the trash?” She says, “Do you want a parade?” And, you know what, I WOULD like a parade. But should I get one? No! It’s my stinkin job! Jesus says, “So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say. ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.” If you forgive someone seven times, do you want a parade or something to show what a great Christian you are? Well, it ain’t gonna happen. You are just obeying what God has asked you to do. If you are making $40,000 a year and are giving $77 dollars a week, you are tithing. You are obeying God’s command.

Like many Christians around the world, we spend a lot of time talking about faith. Why? Because we are saved by faith alone. But God doesn’t just call us to believe in Him but to obey him. In Deuteronomy 32 God said this, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to posess.” We often act like the word “obey” is a naughty word. But without obedience to the will of God there can never truly be a faith in God. Faith without works is dead, James says. Jesus says, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, He is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father and I too will love him and show myself to him. (John 14:21) If you want to strengthen your relationship with Jesus Christ, you may want to focus on obeying his word instead of simply asking him to increase your faith.

I think about football practice back in high school as a good example of this. I remember my first two years being frustrated that I wasn’t playing varsity (not that I was actually that great, but I was smart and I did my job well and I’ve always had a kind of high self image of myself). Anyway, I always had to play on the practice squad against the varsity and I thought, you know, if only the coaches would put a little faith in me I knew, I just knew, that they wouldn’t be disappointed. But later on, I remember one of my coaches saying something that made a lot of sense: there were some younger kids that they thought would be really good players, maybe even better than the ones out on the field, but the ones on the field were the ones that the coaches knew they could count on. The ones who had showed up for practice day in and day out. The ones who followed the coaches directions and would do the right thing and not embarrass the team. Our coaches weren’t blind. They were watching us every moment of every day of every year, whether we were on varsity or not, to see if we would obey them when the time came that they needed us. If you and this church are going to make a difference in this world, God’s not just after faith, he wants your obedience as well.

Some people think that money has very little to do with their relationship to God. The truth is, if you want a deeper relationship to God, money is a tool He will use to get you there. Through obedience and faith. Through tithing and generosity. Tithing isn’t going to earn you salvation. Your $77 dollars check isn’t going to get you any closer to heaven. It’s simply obeying God’s commands. But when you learn obedience to God you’ll begin to understand where your work ends and where faith begins. For it took Jesus’ great act of obedience on the cross, for us to comprehend God’s greatest act of generosity—the salvation of your souls. Amen.

Sermon for July 26th (Stewardship of Money)

2011-09-21T15:05:00.000-07:00

Do you remember the movie, “Indiana Jones and the temple of Doom”? Indiana Jones is an archeology professor who goes on adventures to find ancient artifacts. In this movie, he secretly enters inside an underground temple to the ominous beating of tribal drums to witness a very scary looking witchdoctor type man in the process of pulling out a still beating heart from a young man’s chest . . . the young man is scared out of his mind, of course, and is screaming and crying and beside himself trying to figure out how he can still be alive while his heart is now beating outside of his body and knowing that he is about to be lowered into this fiery pit as a sacrifice. Sometimes when people talk about money, I feel the same kind of fear and helplessness as that young man must have felt.

Ahhh! How can God expect me to give!! How can God expect me to live without my money!! You all got a little insert today from a Demotivational poster. The picture is of a temple, not unlike that temple Indiana Jones was in, and the caption is “Sacrifice: All we ask here is that you give us your heart.” It’s supposed to be funny, but I’ve always thought it was pretty profound as well. When money is brought up at church, it can feel as if God is trying to pull our still-beating hearts out of our chests!

And I don’t think that this analogy is that far off really. Except that Jesus said it in another way, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destory, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)

Where your treasure is in this life? Have you been using the money you have according to your plan or according to God’s plan? I’d say most Christians think they are giving all they can. You plan on giving more when you make more money, or when things settle down, or when you’ve bought that “one more thing”, or when the economy gets better. But these things never happen . . . and so you do the next best thing . . . trying to look good enough to others. Lying not only to others (and yourself) but to God. The truth is you will start giving generously when you start working on your relationship with God pure and simple.

How does it feel for you when I talk about your money and your faith? If you feel like I’m going after your heart . . . you just might be right. God is going after your heart. In fact, that’s why God is into this giving thing in the first place: he wants your heart to be focused on him, his purposes and his ways instead of being focused on yourself and your plans.

How do you become free with money? Through a deeper relationship with God. Understanding what is God’s and what is yours. This isn’t really about your money . . . it’s about your heart. If you are making over $50,000 dollars a year and only putting $20 in the offering plate each week you don’t have a money problem—you have a trust problem—a faith problem. This isn’t about giving more or giving enough, it’s about placing your treasure in God’s hands and following His plans instead of your own with the money in your life. God says, “A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.” What kind of person are you going to be? Either God is telling the truth or He is lying. The choices you make with your money reflects the state of your heart and your faith in God’s Word.

Proverbs 11: 24 says this, “One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly (excessively), but comes to poverty.” This does not make any sense mathematically. You don’t have to have a real grasp of math to get this. If I have ten dollar bills and give them to ten different people freely, not being forced to do this, but freely, how much money do I have? None. That’s right. Except, that the book of proverbs says that giving freely means I will gain more. But if I had kept it, I wouldn’t be broke right now, right? Right. Mathematically, this is correct. But God knows something that accountants can’t put into their variables: the heart.

First of all, God isn’t against saving or investing. Proverbs 21:20 says, “In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has.” Only a fool spends all the money he works for. Jesus said, “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower (or perhaps retire, I might add). Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicult him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’” If you plan on eating, traveling or paying for things when you are retired you ought to save for it. Charles Wesley, the great theologian and founder of the Methodist church once said, “Work all you can, save all you can and give all you can.”

But, according to proverbs, money has two dynamics. One is numerical and the other is cardiological-the logic of the heart. We all know that saving is important, but we can usually recognize when the mathematics make sense but the heart is out of whack. The most famous example of this is Ebenezer Scrooge in the Christmas Carol whose miserly love of money leaves him struggling through a nightmare of epic proportions when he realizes that his piles of cash aren’t going to mean a hill of beans at his death. He doesn’t have a money problem, he has a heart problem. And just as the proverb said, “when you withold unduly (excessively), you come to poverty.” Where is your heart? Is it tied up in your retirement fund? Your car payments? Mortgage? Or is it free to follow God’s purposes?

God calls us to keep our hearts free and our hands open. And you need to start now, not sometime in the future. The author Jon Acuff writes, “Sometimes it’s easy to make the mistake of thinking that giving is something that will come later. And when we talk about later, it’s fun to imagine how generous future me is going to be. ‘Right now, giving doesn’t really fit into the plan. But in the future? Down the road? I’m going to be like Bill Gates! I’ll probably just rent a hot-air balloon and drop stacks of cash out of it. I’ll play Natasha Bedingfield music as I do, just to get people dancing and really enjoying the full depth of my amazing generosity. Gonna change the world, man, really change the world.’ But you know the truth about ‘future me’? He or she is incredibly slippery. Just when you think the future has finally arrived, something else comes up. Something more important or critical or . . . well, I can start giving later. Later is a make-believe land that never comes. Future me is a make-believe person who never really gives. The truth is, future me won’t know how to be generous with a lot unless present me learns how to be generous with a little.”

In the Acts story, Ananias and Saphira proabbly figured that, in the future, they’d be able to be more generous. But they NEEDED that extra money more now than they had originally thought. If we follow our plans, we’ll always find something we need more. But God says that if we follow His plans for His money, we’ll have all that we need to get through each day.

We read in Acts about what a community of people with free hearts looks like, “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.” The way you interpret this phrase makes a big difference. For example, any good socialist would think that that phrase sounded pretty good, “No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.” Except, in place of ME owning my possessions, they’d place the state. The state would now own everything I had and distribute the wealth as it saw fit. Or, perhaps, in place of the state, they would place someone else such as, my neighbor, saying that everything I own is in fact my neighbors to choose what to do with it. Both such cases have nothing to do with what God is saying here.

On the other hand, our beloved American capitalism isn’t actually the alternative God is suggesting either. Being a capitalist doesn’t make you somehow “Christian”. “No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own.” Private ownership is not somehow the Godly alternative. So then, what is this referring to? The only way you can be free with your money is if God owns it. As long as we are focused on you owning your money, you will not be free with it. As long as the state owns it or you are forced to give it to the needy, you will be bitter. Only when you realize that your money is not your own are you free to give freely. As Acts goes on to say, “God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them.” It’s much easier, even freeing, to spend someone else’s money. (Story of the 50 golden coins)

This week, take a moment of your time after this service, this afternoon or tomorrow, and ask God what he’d like you to do with His money. What are His plans? Keep asking and wait until you hear clearly what you are being called to do. Don’t focus on the money, focus on your relationship to God—on your heart. Stop worrying about how to spend your money and start paying attention to God’s plan for His money. “For where your treasure is there will your heart be also.” Amen.

Sermon for June 19th (Father's Day-A message for men)

2011-06-21T17:27:00.000-07:00

(Ladder 49 clip)

Men, are you ready to serve your God? I’d like to challenge the men of this congregation to “step-up” in their calling as Father’s and Husbands, sons and grandsons—to take up the challenge to be Christian men. We’ve shirked our responsibility to our society, our families, our wives and our church for too long and it’s time we became what God made us to be. It’s not sexist or patriarchial for men to follow Jesus Christ and he is calling us all to action just as much as that bell called those firemen to action in the movie. Consider this your wake-up call. This calling is just as important—except that sharing God’s love has the chance of saving a person not just from fire in their house, but from seeing their very lives going up in flames.

Every day, soldiers, policemen and firefighters are called upon and sent out to risk their lives for the sake of serving and saving people . . . are we, as Christians, so different? Women will say they love a man in uniform, but it’s what that uniform represents that truly inspires them. Is your walk with Christ inspiring to your wife? To the women in your life? Or is it embarrassing. If you want to live a life with purpose, follow Jesus to the sick and dying, to the homeless and hopeless. There is an old 1981 Marine Core commercial that focuses on honor, courage and commitment—that’s exactly what Jesus is calling us to as Christian men today. Jesus wants you, as a man, to be all that you can be for the sake of God’s glory.

I pray that God will speak to the ladies through these words as well, but I believe that God intends this message specifically to mobilize, inspire and challenge men to become more than what we have become. I do not mean any disrespect, but this church, and Christian churches as a whole in this world, have become kinda like women’s clubs where the vast majority of guys sit on the sidelines and help move tables every once in awhile. That’s NOT the picture we see in the Bible of how God uses men to spread His kingdom on this earth. And this isn’t just a result of women’s liberation or something like that—yes, women have stepped up to the plate (Hallelujah!) but that doesn’t mean men must step away. God created us to be partners, men and women together, in the home, in society and in the church.

Unfortunately, what is happening does not reflect God’s design for us. Here are some statistics taken from the website churchformen.com:

•The typical U.S. Congregation draws an adult crowd that’s 61% female, 39% male.
•On any given Sunday there are 13 million more adult women than men in America’s churches.
•This Sunday almost 25 percent of married, churchgoing women will worship without their husbands.
•Midweek activities often draw 70 to 80 percent female participants.
•Over 70 percent of the boys who are being raised in church will abandon it during their teens and twenties. Many of these boys will never return.

And yet, church involvement is the most important predictor of marital stability and happiness. It’s also correlated with less depression, more self-esteem and greater family and marital happiness. Religious participation leads men to become more engaged husbands and fathers and teens with religious fathers are more likely to say they enjoy spending time with dad and that they admire him. More than 90 percent of American men believe in God, and five out of six call themselves Christians. But only one out of six attend church on a given Sunday. The average man accepts the reality of Jesus Christ, but fails to see any value in going to church. We’ve lost the sense of honor, courage and commitment demanded from us as Christian men.

In the book and movie, the Lord of the Rings, Aragorn is the son of the king who is destined for the throne of Gondor but he has given up his destiny to travel the world as a ranger without a home. He is afraid to take up his calling and lead his people against the forces of darkness because he knows that within his heart there is sin and within his bloodlines there is a history of failure. His ancestor is the one who had fallen into temptation and allowed the forces of darkness to continue unchecked in the world. Finally, at the end of the trilogy, Aragorn fulfills his destiny. He takes the risk and accepts his rightful call to fight against evil once and for all.

Men, you are also the sons of a King—you are children of God—the king above all kings. You are also in the direct lineage of one who failed miserably, the first human being—Adam—who disobeyed God and allowed sin to creep into this world. You too have the seeds of sin lurking within your bloodlines. But you are also called, by God, to take the risk and step up to the challenge of a life as His son—to fulfill your destiny.

You are called today to repent—to admit that you have not lived up to your calling as a child of God. You have been sitting on the sidelines of life, letting others do the work you were called to do. You were called to be a partner with your wives and grandmothers and children. You were called to be a part of this body of Christ but you have let your fears get in the way. We are all called to lay our sins at the feet of Jesus, men and women . . . now hear this, 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. Now, stand up, forgiven, and ready to take hold of your gear and follow your Lord into battle in this world with the honor, courage and commitment expected of you. Amen!

Part 2

Men, where is your focus? You work hard, right? You wake up early and work all day. If you are retired, you may finally be enjoying some of the fruits of your labor, but I’d still bet most of you still work as hard as your body allows. Why? Is it just because guys like to work? Well, that’s not exactly the reason I think. According to the book Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, we find out that while women gain a sense of value from the quality of their relationships with others, men gain value from the their work and accomplishments. That means that we feel good about ourselves after a job is well done.

But if that is the case, how can we feel like we are growing in our faith as Christians? We are told that we CAN’T be saved by our works—that we are made right in God’s eyes by faith alone. But then how does a man grow in his walk with God? If it’s about a relationship and not work? Does God expect us, as men, to have long conversations with him in prayer each night before bed? Well, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind, but do most of the men you know have long conversations with anybody on a regular basis? Does God expect men to read long theological books about growing spiritually even though a lot of men don’t even like reading?!

Look at what the apostle Peter does in today’s story about him in the book of Acts. Peter and John were going up to the temple to pray when they saw a man who was crippled from birth being carried. The man asked them for money. This is what Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up and the man became strong.” Did Peter do this? Was this Peter’s great work of faith? No. Peter says, “By faith in the name of Jesus, this man who m you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him.” Through faith in Jesus Christ, Peter had the privilege of doing work with God. God doesn’t call us away from work, but encourages us to work with him—trusting him as our leader. “For it is God at work in you to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Saint Paul would say later.

Simon Peter was a fisherman. The disciple Matthew was a tax collector. Over and over again in scripture, we hear that the people who followed Jesus were normal, ordinary people. God didn’t ask these men to stop working, grab a cup of chamomile tea, sit by the fire with a chicken soup for the Christian soul book and pour out their hearts to him in order to build a relationship. God challenged these men to follow him, become a part of his team and stay close to him so that He might work through them. The rulers and elders of the people saw this change in these men according to Acts, “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.” If you’ve ever wanted to be a real hero to your world, to yourself and to your family—become a part of God’s team. Don’t trust in your own ability to work hard, trust in God’s ability to do his work through you. To lead you into work that means something on an eternal scale.

Part 3

Guys, God is not just leading you into a church with cushy plush seats, fresh flowers on the altar and cute banners hanging from the rafters to sit for an hour a week. If that’s all you think the Christian life is about no wonder you’re bored. He’s calling you to fight—to fight battles with demons, disease and death in the name of Jesus Christ. And he’s not calling you to do this on your own, he knows that you CAN’T fight this battle by yourself.

I love football. I love playing it and I love following it. I used to play a lot of football video games when I was younger too, especially the Madden football series. One of the things I remember vividly is that, no matter how hard I tried to get an amazing running back and a great quarterback, if I shriked my responsibility to put a reasonable offensive line in front of them, some average defensive player on the other side would destroy my best play in an instant. Every part of a team is important or else it can’t achieve its goal.

You, as a Christian man, are a very important player in this church. If you’re just
sitting on the sidelines or tuned out throughout most of the week, the Devil will keep blitzing and stuffing every play we make to move God’s kingdom forward to the goal. You may not feel comfortable or knowledgable enough to do the work of the church. You may not understand how to talk about your faith in front of other people or that kind of thing. But God takes ordinary men like you and I and can do extraordinary things with us as long as we put our trust in him and follow his leadership. I was never a quarterback . . . I was just a lineman. But every time we scored a touchdown, I felt like I had accomplished something. I had done my job to the best of my ability. I had stepped up to the challenge.

God is calling all of you as Christian men to step up to a new challenge. And to accomplish God’s goals, you need to stop trusting in your own abilities, your own dreams and your own plans and start believing in God’s power to work through you. You ask being asked, today, to follow God out onto the battlefield of life, with your faith in Jesus for your shield and God’s Word as your sword. Your faith might be a little flabby, your biblical literacy might be a little rusty, but God promises to do his work through you if you are ready to follow him as your king. This week, take up the challenge. With your wife, with your children, with your co-workers and here at church. When you hear God calling you to fight on his behalf—follow the call. He is faithful and he will do it. Amen.

Sermon for June 12th (Pentecost)

2011-06-21T17:25:00.000-07:00

What happened on Pentecost? The Holy Spirit that Jesus promised would come, came and filled the disciples with power to do God’s ministry. What happened on Pentecost that’s not happening today? What changed? God hasn’t changed. He is the same today, yesterday and tomorrow the Bible says. But something has changed, hasn’t it. You can see it in the church—in how the church works today compared to how it seemed to work back when the book of Acts was written.

The book of Acts talks about a church that was led by the Holy Spirit. The spirit is falling all over the place and the new Christians are just running around to catch up with it. The spirit is falling on believers, filling them with power and creating all kinds of new believers moment by moment. Pentecost is the day we celebrate the birth of the church, but something has changed, hasn’t it. And this church isn’t the church we read about in the book of Acts.

This summer, we are going to go through many stories written about in the book of Acts. It’s a great book to read through to find out how God works in this world. The Holy Spirit is still working and is here among us as God promised. So then, why do we celebrate Pentecost like it was some long-ago holiday that is over. Pentecost wasn’t a one time event—it was the start of something new. So what changed? What happened to that church that God started?

Jesus promised his disciples, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. (That’s Pentecost—the event. But then Jesus goes on to say.) You will be my witnesses. Those tongues of fire weren’t mean to just be blown out at the end of the night. They were meant to start a fire that would spread across the world and be burning to a blaze still today. When Jesus ascended into heaven, he promised the disciples that the Holy Spirit would come at just the right time for their ministry. They were waiting. They were expecting God to do something amazing. Has God changed? Is that what’s different today from back then? Or, have we changed? Have we just stopped expecting the supernatural? Have we stopped waiting on God and just tried to do it ourselves? Or, worse of all, have you stopped doing anything at all?

Pentecost was the birth of the Christian church and we’ve made it into a memorial service. All about an event long ago instead of celebrating a radical explosion of God’s power that is still working today. At Pentecost God showed us that the Christian life was going to be a way of life. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth—not just for one day—but for the rest of history.

When I was little, I was a very friendly little boy. When I would enter the grocery store my mom said she would lose me as I went running off, but she was never worried. She’d just stop and listen and pretty soon she’d hear this loud high-pitched voice saying, “Will you be my friend.” A few moments later I’d come running back, “I have a new friend named whatever.” Well, I don’t remember most of those friends I made even though I called them my friend. But I have three best friends, Tom, Andy and Don who have acted like my friends since High School. They listened to me complain about tough teachers and always asked me how my dates went. They didn’t lose track of me even when I stopped calling when I went off to college and they’ve stuck by me through some really weird phases when I tried to “walk through walls” and ate a “green pea only diet”. Being a friend is about a way of life, not a title. Being a Christian is the same.

But when most people talk about being a Christian, they refer to their baptism, or their confirmation, or their day of being born again or whatever when it’s really much more about trusting in God’s mercy on a daily basis and living according to his commands. Being a Christian isn’t about receiving a title at a one-time event, but having a constant relationship with God. Pentecost isn’t about a one-time even that happened long ago either; It’s about how God started working in this world once Jesus ascended into heaven. And even though we’ve stopped acting like that Acts church, God has not changed. He is still working, but we seem to have changed our expectations.

After Jesus’ ascensionhe disciples were afraid. They were Jesus’ followers, but they didn’t want anyone to know. They were told to wait for God to give them “power” scripture says. And then, all of a sudden, they couldn’t hide who they were anymore. They were speaking in tongues, in all these different languages, and there were these tongues of fire all over the place. They couldn’t hide it anymore and so they found the freedom to start speaking about all that Jesus had done. Now that the Holy Spirit was in them, they knew that being a Christian meant an entirely new and different life from any they had experienced before. Is that how you think about your faith? Is your life different because you are a Christian? If not, why not?

Examples: Vibram 5-fingers. Jesus T-shirt. We think that the disciples had it easy or something. Like speaking about Jesus would be harder today than it was for them. Are you kidding? They risked death from their government for speaking about their faith, there were no churches like we have today, the number of other Christians they might know were few and far between and, yet, because the Holy Spirit had come on Pentecost they knew that they were never alone. Something changed for them forever. They were empowered by God to speak and they trusted him to speak through them. They knew that they now had the power and freedom to do things they had never dreamed of before. They had waited and now God had fulfilled his promise.

God hasn’t changed. The Holy Spirit is here and has been filling believers ever since Pentecost. It wasn’t just a one time event. The apostle Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit three separate times in the book of Acts alone to strengthen him for various works God had led him to do. What if you expected the Holy Spirit to speak through you and to work through you? What if you couldn’t hide your faith? If you have a relationship with Jesus Christ, then you’ve received the gift of the Holy spirit. If God has changed your life it’s time to live like it.

On the mission trip to Texas, as I was walking through Wal-Mart one afternoon, I realized a couple of things. First, I thought to myself. “Nobody knows me here. I could just bring up my faith at any random moment and maybe make a difference in somebody’s life. I was just so ready and willing and open to share that I felt God’s power just bursting at the seams saying, “Go for it! Try it! Let it fly!” And then I realized something: Nothing had changed. I was still the same person. Same God. No new knowledge or anything. But I had this sense of purpose and freedom, “I was on a mission trip!”—you know—that this was why I was here. Then I thought, “I don’t have to be in Texas! I’m just as free to do this in Fontanelle!” Guys! You don’t have to go to Texas either! You have been empowered by the Holy Spirit right here! In Greenfield, Bridgewater and Fontanelle! Pentecost happened so that you might believe the Holy Spirit is active still today.

I just watched the Wizard of Oz with my kids the other day. In that movie, the scarecrow is a looking for a brain, the tin man wants a heart and the cowardly lion wants some courage. Dorothy wants a way home. They are seeking the wizard of Oz to get these things. But, in the end, they realize that they’ve had them all the time. I wonder how many times we pray that God would do something miraculous, to give us the power of the Holy Spirit to change the world, to change our lives or to change our communities. God must be amazed at our blindness. He can just point to Pentecost and say, “you’ve had it all along.” If you believe in me, my Holy Spirit is in you. Take it out for a spin. You are free! Use it. Follow me!

To receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit, you simply need a relationship with God. Not just the title of Christian, but an ongoing relationship. Do you daily place your trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Do you repent of your sins and trust in his salvation to save you? Then your wait is over. The Holy Spirit has already come. You may not have realized it before, but you are plugged into the most massive power source in the universe. You are free to let God lead you this next week and show you how his spirit works. God has not changed. He is living and active. See what might happen.

But what if you don’t have a relationship with God? Maybe you call yourself a Christian, maybe you don’t. Maybe you’ve gone through the motions of being born again in college, or been confirmed in Junior High, but never, honestly, had a real and personal relationship with God that you can remember. Maybe today is the day when something will change for you. Maybe you’ve come to church before, but don’t really believe that salvation truly occurs only through faith in Jesus Christ. Maybe today God is changing your heart. For you, today maybe be the day of Pentecost. Confess your sins before God. Lay them at his feet and trust in his promise of forgiveness alone. And then start expecting God’s Holy Spirit to make his home with you. Filling you with the strength to speak and the power to serve in ways only God can imagine. And if God has truly changed your life, don’t leave your faith at home or in the closet like a pair of crazy looking red shoes. Expect God to make your life look different. Amen.

Sermon for June 5th (Jesus and the Ascension)

2011-06-21T17:23:00.000-07:00

Where is Jesus? My kids ask me this question a lot, but don’t you ever wonder as well? Is he in heaven? Is he on Earth? Is it both? If he’s here, why can’t we see him? If Jesus is up in heaven, why do we still say that Jesus is “with us”? If God is everywhere, and we believe that Jesus is also God, is Jesus everywhere too? Why was Jesus taken up into heaven? What was the purpose of that? If you’ve ever wanted the answers to those questions, then today’s your lucky day because today we are talking about Jesus’ ascension.

What does ascension mean? The ascension of Jesus refers to the time when Jesus Christ, in his body, was taken up into heaven after his resurrection. Let’s read what scripture has to say about this great event. First Acts chapter 1, “Jesus said, ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. After Jesus said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.” Luke 24 says it this way, “When Jesus had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.”

I am often asked the question, “Where is Jesus?” It’s not just a question that the kids ask, it’s on everybody’s mind when struggles come into our lives. Where is God? When I was younger, I often thought that life would be easier if I could see God, if I could touch Jesus or point to him and say, “There he is! Now you can believe, right?” But God knew much better than we do about how hearts and minds work.

Imagine the shock the disciples felt when their Lord and Savior, the one who had died and rose from the dead ascended up into heaven. I mean, death is such an enemy because it takes our loved ones from us. Can you imagine if you had lost a loved one and then had them raised from the dead only to have them taken from you again! Jesus wasn’t just taken from the disciples once, but twice. The second time was at the ascension. When Jesus was taken up into heaven, the disciples probably felt a lot of confusion and loss. Why did this happen? What now? They were expecting Jesus to lead the one into the end of the world, but he leaves them to simply be his witnesses. Why?

In order to answer this question, we need to think of this not simply from our own human perspective, but from God’s perspective. We, as humans, tend to hold on really tightly to the belief that “seeing is believing”. If I only SAW Jesus, met the man in real life, saw a couple of miracles, THEN I could believe without a shadow of a doubt. I mean, admit it, haven’t you thought that very thought before. We believe that the whole world would be Christians if they just met Jesus. But the truth actually turned out differently.

What happened when people met Jesus? They hardened their hearts. They asked him to leave. They persecuted him. They had him crucified. They came to see the miracles he did, but no number of miracles ever seemed to convince them. Why? Because seeing, actually, isn’t believing. According to Hebrews chapter 11, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” And Jesus never said that people were saved because they met him; he said they were saved because they believed in him. This really is an important distinction to make.

When Kristy, my wife, was pregnant with our first child, Sophia, I read to her every night while she was still in the womb. Now, that might not seem like that big of a deal, but I started long before Sophia ever had ears and, actually, I started pretty much right as soon as we saw the plus sign on the First Response pregnancy test. Why? Because while I had never seen that little baby, while I knew that she couldn’t even really hear me, I loved her. I didn’t need to see her. In fact, if I had never seen her, I would have still loved her. Faith is a lot like love.

Seeing isn’t believing. God sent His son Jesus to earth in the flesh to shower the world with love and healing and acceptance and the truth, but he was met with hate and unbelief. This is part of the reason why the ascension happened: because the work of salvation was finished. Jesus had died and was raised in order to make us right in God’s eyes. Romans 5:19 says, “For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man [Jesus] the many will be made righteous.” But, now, now was the time to share the good news of faith and faith comes through hearing, Paul says in Romans. Seeing isn’t believing, but faith comes through hearing. Jesus sends out his disciples to be witnesses to the truth of what had happened.

Do you understand this? Meeting Jesus does not save you. Coming to church does not save you either as far as that goes. Trusting in Jesus saves you, however ,without ever seeing his face. Believing that Jesus Christ died on a cross for your sins and forgives you saves you without ever stepping into a church. Jesus Christ came as a human being for a purpose: to die and be raised from the dead. He was raised—get this—he was raised so that we might have something to witness to today. Salvation isn’t a matter of science, it is a matter of faith. You have an opportunity to witness to what Jesus did so that others might fall in love with their Savior.

But there is more to the ascension that simply this. The second reason it happened was so that we might believe something else. When Jesus was walking around with Peter, James and John there was no doubt about where he was. If you wanted to see him, you had to find the disciples and there he was. But, because Jesus was truly God, we also know something else: because God is everywhere Jesus must have been everywhere too; however, as long as Jesus was walking with his disciples, there is no way anyone could have believed that.

How can you say that “Jesus is with you” when you are talking to your daughter over the phone? Because of the ascension. How can you believe that Jesus is here in Fontanelle just as much as in Greenfield? The ascension. We think that it would be easier to believe in Jesus if we could see him . . . but we are wrong. The only way to trust in Jesus as a Savior. The only way to believe he is truly God is if he ascended into heaven.

Where is Jesus? Where is Jesus now? That’s our final misunderstanding, but it is very important. We often say that “Jesus is with you.” But we really believe that’s he somewhere up in heaven. A man named Zwingli argued that there couldn’t be any way Jesus could be in heaven and down on Earth at the same time. And he would be right, or at least, we couldn’t believe any differently if Jesus had not ascended.
But when Jesus ascended into heaven, he gave you the opportunity to have faith. Not faith in a person, but faith in God. Who can be in heaven and on earth at the same time. Who can be in every town at the same time. Who could die 2000 years ago and still walk at your side today. Where is Jesus? On the right hand of God. Where is Jesus? Right here. Right now. With you. Amen.

Sermon for May 29th (Church Unity)

2011-06-21T17:22:00.000-07:00

A ship cruising far off the shipping lanes in the South Pacific notices a signal fire on an uncharted island. The captain puts a boat over the side and the crew goes to investigate.
They find a shipwreck survivor alone on the tropic island. He is shaggy, unshaven, and nearly naked except for a scrap of cloth around his waist. The survivor is overjoyed at seeing his rescuers. “I’ve prayed and prayed that someone would come but no one ever saw my signal fire before. I’ve been stranded alone on this island for seven years”.
The captain asked, “How have you survived”?
The shipwrecked man told about eating berries and bananas and coconuts, about catching crabs in the lagoon, about rubbing sticks together to make fire.
As the man showed the ship crew around his primitive camp, the Captain noticed three huts made of sticks woven together and thatched with palm fronds. “What are these,” he asked.
The shipwrecked man pointed to the larger grass hut and said, “I build this one to live in so I could be warm and dry during the tropical rains every afternoon”.
“What about that one,” the captain asked.
“O, I wanted a special place to worship and pray; that’s my church”.
“What’s the third hut for”?
“Well, a couple of years ago there was a squabble and the church split”.

Today I’m going to speak about church unity. But in order to understand this topic, I’d like to focus first on another similar type of relationship: marriage.

At wedding ceremonies, I often refer to a scripture passage from Genesis which talks about a man and a woman becoming “one flesh”, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.” It’s what marriage is all about. We promise to be partners with one another even when everything else falls by the wayside including friends, money and even health. And it doesn’t get any more “one flesh” than a baby who has his mother’s eyes and his daddy’s chin. But, the funny this is, that even though we become “one flesh” at marriage we aren’t really “one” just like that! You don’t blink your eyes and suddenly feel in tune with one another’s interests and habits. So, unfortunately, even though God promises that we will be “one flesh” so often we find that we are very different.

In today’s reading, Jesus makes a different promise. This time it isn’t about two people, but about many—an entire community of believers. Jesus prays to God his Father, “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one.” This promise is meant as much for the disciples as for Christians today who accept Jesus’ teaching, and believe that Jesus is truly one with God. However, we’ve got the same problem, don’t we? God says that “the two shall become one flesh” , but we often see just the opposite: estrangement, abuse, separation and divorce. And even though Jesus prays that God would protect his disciples “so that they may be one as we are one”, today we see hundreds of denominations and factions within churches.

So what is it that we are misunderstanding? I’ve found some interesting quotes that I think get to the point of our misunderstandings on both marriage and church unity.

Here’s the first one:“Marriage is when a man and woman become as one; the trouble starts when they try to decide which one.” That’s how discussions go about church unity as well sometimes. Sure we can do ministry together, as long as you do it MY way. Another big issue between couples and between churches is that we forget that these relationships need constant attention. Mignon McLoughlin explains this in another funny quote, “A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.” This is true for our church family as well. We are required to love each other again and again always in new and different ways and to not take each other for granted.

I often explain to couples that in many ways they are already married before they ever say the vows. They are already committed to one another or else they wouldn’t agree to promise it in the first place. They are in love or else they wouldn’t be wanting to get married. But, at a wedding, we pray that God blesses them to continue to be committed and love one another. When Jesus prayed that the Christian community might” be one” as Jesus and His Father are one he wasn’t asking that they achieve some type of unity, but that they continue in the unity they already have. I don’t worry about people getting divorced at the wedding, it’s after that when things start going downhill. When the disciples were walking around with the bridegroom, Jesus, their priorities were all the right place, they were unified around Jesus and His Word. It wasn’t until after Jesus ascended that problems began. Jesus prays that they would “continue to be one” after he left the world. Just like we pray that a couple might “continue to be one” after they get hitched at a wedding.

If we expect every Christian in the world, or even in this church, to always like each other we will be disappointed. It is our shared commitment to Jesus that binds us together. That’s true as well for the the unity-the one flesh-of marriage. It isn’t simply based on love or else every marriage would be doomed at some incredibly important points in their lifetime. The philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once said, “Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing; a confusion of the real with the ideal never goes unpunished.” And couples are often punished with unhappiness, frustration and hopelessness when the love they believe makes them “one” with their spouse suddenly feels distant. Joseph Campbell said, “When you make a sacrifice in marriage, you're sacrificing not to each other but to unity in a relationship.” And even that unity comes, finally, from our commitment to forgive as Jesus forgives us.

This is where I have a great deal of trouble with how most Christians talk about “church unity”. As long as you accept Jesus’ teaching, believe that Jesus is truly God and believe in Him it doesn’t matter what your denominational affiliation is: we are one. We might do things differently, just as a married couple might, but we are committed to the same relationship. The unity of the church is based on our commitment to a relationship with Jesus, not on what we see with our eyes. Just like the unity in a marriage is based on a commitment to a relationship to our spouse, not on what we might see or feel on a particular day.

How can we become “one” church in this world or even “one” in our little church in Fontanelle? We commit ourselves to a relationship with Jesus. Not to a feeling or a set of circumstances, but to a promise. Why is Jesus so important? Because we are all, finally, unified by one thing. All of our churches. All of our marriages. What is the one thing? Our brokenness. Our sinfulness. This is why we get together in the first place—to share our joys and sorrows. To forgive and be forgiven by another human being. And this is what we share as Christians: our need for a Savior, for forgiveness, for Jesus. If you have come today for forgiveness. If you have come broken and in need for a Savior. Then we have found unity as a church. And by God’s authority, I declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sermon for May 22nd (To be Sent Out)

2011-06-21T17:21:00.000-07:00

“And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” What would that mean if you heard it. Could you believe it? That all peoples—all peoples—would be blessed through you. You! How could that happen? Through you of all people. Well, to find that out, you need to know first how it happened once to a man named Abraham.

“The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Can you imagine God saying that to you? How do you think most people would respond, No thanks! NO thanks God! I have a home already, here. I WANT to live here. Just 299 more mortgage payments and this place is mine . . . ALL mine! No seriously, I can’t even leave for the weekend without my husband practically killing our children through neglect. And HE wouldn’t want to go even if I did. And where exactly would you take us? I mean, if you are going to fly us to Hawaii for a couple of weeks we might be able to work things out, but I’m not going to Kentucky. Nu-uh. Not down to hickville! I don’t have a gun and I’ve got all my teeth, I can’t move to Kentucky.” What would your excuse be? And what would the effect be? What about all those peoples on earth? God called Abram to leave his country in order to be a blessing to people he had never met. If he hadn’t of left, would you be here today? If God calls you and I and if we don’t go, what does that mean for the world?

(Trader video)

Let’s be honest: If God is calling us, we are going to have to trade something. That’s the definition of sacrifice and, as Christians, we are called to sacrifice. What do you think Jesus meant when he said, “If you want to be my followers, deny yourselves, take up your cross and follow me.” ? That’s not what his disciples were planning on. That wasn’t the future that they had in mind. They were being asked to trade in their lives, their future, their goals and their security for something else. In Philippians we read, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross.” Jesus traded divine immortality for a human life of suffering, crucifixion and death. And when Jesus died on the cross, God the Father traded his wrath for forgiveness and unconditional love. What would you trade for a life of eternity with Jesus? What would you trade to give that hope of eternity to someone else?

I see a day when our community at Emmanuel is full of traders as that video put it. People who are trading in what this world sees as important for part of the vision of what God sees as important. People who are focused on “Coming in to be sent out”. Last week, I talked with you about what coming in means. It means that we aren’t just stepping into a church, we are stepping into a new kind of culture—where we expect to be confronted and inspired by God’s Word, where we care about each other in a radical new way and where we look forward to being empowered to go back out and serve our families, our communities and the entire world. But these three points are only the building blocks for our true purpose. We don’t just “come in”. We come in to be sent out. That’s what today is about.

The moment we walk into this place, we need to know—we need to know and not be confused about this important fact: this church is not our final destination. Our goal is NOT to build a bigger and better church organization here in Fontanelle. You might question me on that statement, but I hope that you’ll keep listening and catch a glimpse of what I’m talking about. When we walk into this room, we are standing in a type of Grand Central Station where God daily calls us to get on board and follow him somewhere for someone. That’s because as much as he loves you, he also loves the world and is calling on you to tell them, to show them, to experience God’s power with them, “How are they to hear, without a preacher?” Well, the answer to that rhetorical question is: they won’t hear without a preacher. They won’t be fed without a meal. They won’t believe in Jesus if they’ve never met him. You were blessed by God to be a blessing for others. We are called in to be sent out. But we always make excuses.

(Expert Video)

How many excuses do we make about not using the gifts God has given us saying, “I don’t know what to say.” Or “I’m not an expert.” Yeah, you’re not an expert. That’s why God is calling you. Saint paul says in 2nd Corinthians, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that his all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” Do you understand what that verse is saying? If you were an expert, it wouldn’t work as well! God wants to use you the way you are.

In a book printed in 1987 entitled The Inviting Church, they studied new visitors to churches and why they came. Here are the results: 2% came due to advertising. 6% because of pastoral invitation. 6% because of some type of evangelistic campaign. And 86% came because a friend or relative invited them. Wow! Do you know what that means!? It means that you are the best evangelists this church has, not me, because—and get this—because you are NOT experts! How’s THAT for shaking up our way of thinking. So then, what’s my job? When it comes to evangelism, I am called to empower you to do what God is calling you to do—not to make you experts, but to teach you the basics, give you the freedom to make mistakes and motivate you to go out and do it, to try it and to trust in God every step of the way.

You have been called into this church to be sent out. We are made Christians so that we can make Christians. Some of you might talk someone into it, but most of you will LOVE someone into it. I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again: The fruit of an apple tree is not an apple—the fruit of an apple tree is another apple tree. The fruit of a Christian is another Christian. The fruit of a church is another church. Grandparents, you understand this. What is more fulfilling? Being a parent or watching your child become a parent? That’s when you know whether you’ve done a good job or not. You’ll only find so much meaning by coming and listening and singing each week at church. But your life will be changed when you realize that you’ve been listening and singing this whole time for the sake of making a difference in someone else’s life.

What will that look like? Well,sharing your faith doesn’t simply mean telling others about Jesus like he was some answer on an catechism exam. I believe that Jesus Christ was the promised Messiah and became the atoning sacrifice so that I might be justified by faith alone. Trasnlation please? Think about it. That’s what gets people so freaked out. People don’t want to hear what you think you know about God. I think God is real because the Bible says so. Or my mommy told me to believe it. Most people around here know all about the Bible, but they don’t care! They want to hear about how you know God is real. Why do you have faith? What have you experienced in your life that makes him believable for you? And then invite them to come to the place where they can experience the power of the Holy Spirit as well. Through the songs, through a healing service, through the sermon, through community, through a bible study, through a service project. Let’s look at one more video:

Video (The church and the racetrack)

Emmanuel can be a life-changing community if we just catch this: God didn’t bless you with the gift of salvation so that you could sit at church and feel better about yourselves. God’s heart yearns to save the lost and, if you believe in Jesus Christ already, you are no longer the lost! Instead, God wants to give you a new heart and a new spirit—a heart like His own. So that you will yearn to love and save the lost just like him! In Fontanelle? Yes. In Greenfield, Bridgewater, Maseena? Yeah. In Japan? Yeah. In Texas? Yeah. And to all the ends of the earth.

I believe that we, as Emmanuel Lutheran Church, have been called here for a purpose. I believe that you are all here today for a reason. You were called in here to be sent out. If you feel that this vision is not just mine, but God’s vision for this church, then I’m excited to start seeing what God does with this community. I know that a vision statement or a couple of sermons won’t really make the difference, but if you see this vision with your own eyes and feel it with your own heart, then we’ll start seeing it happen. You’ll start thinking differently, acting differently, giving differently—living out your faith with passion! I pray that through today’s service, God blesses you with the knowledge of God’s forgiveness, with inspiration and with healing. But, just like Abram, He blesses you so that you might become a blessing to others. You have been called here to be sent out. So get ready. When he calls, what will your answer be?

Sermon for May 15th (Coming in)

2011-06-21T17:20:00.000-07:00

About ten months ago, I presented for you a vision for what the ministries at Emmanuel might look like one day. I’ve spoken about it in various ministry team meetings and talked about it a lot back at the end of last summer, but it’s time to revisit this vision and find out if what I see God doing one day in this community is what you see God doing one day in this community. I see a day when Emmanuel is a place where people are coming in to be sent out. Now what does that mean?

I encourage you, as you are listening, to ask yourselves, “Does the Bible truly support this vision? Does God really want his people to do what this vision calls them to do?” I believe that this vision is grounded in the Bible (or else I would have never brought it up in the first place); however, in order for it to not simply be “my vision” but “our vision” or the “church’s vision” or “Emmanuel’s vision” you as the congregation need to be able to see it as much as I do. This week I’ll be focusing on what it means to be a congregation that “comes in” and why it should matter to you.

Coming in. A year ago, I felt that there were three separate reasons why we need to “come in” as a church community. First, we come in to be inspired and reconnected to God’s Word. Second, we come in to get inspired and reconnected to God’s people. Finally, we come in to be empowered to serve.

I recently read an article in the Fremont tribune that was really interesting. It read, "When the United States Secret Service in Washington trains bank tellers to deal with counterfeit money, they don't teach them to identify all the thousands of different ways to fake a $20, $50 or $100 bill. They teach you how to know for absolute certain that you're dealing with the real thing. You just become immersed in real United States currency." “That way, when tellers are flipping through lots of bills, they know when they touch a bill that doesn't feel quite right. They may not be able to immediately identify some new, crafty way of counterfeiting money. They just know something's wrong. And nine times out of 10, when a counterfeit bill is detected, it's because the teller felt it first.”

The article quoted a pastor who had used this example to make a point about our need to be reconnected to God’s Word, "You need to understand this word [the Bible], verse by verse, chapter by chapter, precept by precept ... and one of the ways to know it is to study it as an individual, as a couple, as a family, as a small group and as a church.” The point is that we need to come together as a community around Jesus, around God’s Word, in order that we can tell the “real thing” from counterfeit in this world. If you are not “coming in” and hearing God’s Word often, you’ll be much more likely to fall for a fake without realizing it. Coming in through Jesus—the gate—is necessary for our church.

Jesus said, “I am the gate.” You come into this place for Jesus and through Jesus. The church should be a place where God’s Word is front and center. Where you can be assured, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that even if everything else changed, you would be confronted with the Bible every time you came. In the book of 1st Timothy, Paul says that Timothy, as a church leader, should devote himself to the public reading of scripture, to preaching and to teaching. In the first letter to the Corinthians Paul says, “When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.” Martin Luther said that the church should be a “mouth house” where the gospel is preached in its truth and purity. I see a day when everything that happens in this place, whether it be a worship service or a ministry team meeting, is filled with the reading and hearing of scripture whether through a devotion, a time of learning or simply singing. We’d never just be “doing business”. We’d be here to reconnect with God. Do you want that for your church? Do you believe God wants that for this church?

We need to be reconnected to God’s word in this community, but we also need to be inspired and reconnected to other people as well. Many argue that they are “spiritual” and not “religious”. But if what you mean by that is that you only find your inspiration and connection to God by yourself in your garden, you are missing something that God wants you to find.

In the tenth chapter of Hebrews we read this, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” We are called the body of Christ because there are many members. If we believe we can live our lives on our own, separate from the rest of the community, the body of Christ doesn’t work well. There are times when members are cut off for some reason and that affects everyone as much as a person would be affected if their leg was amputated. But a person has trouble even just walking if their foot is all there but just asleep. There are hundreds of baptized members in our faith community that are missing every week. Think about how difficult it is to function as a church body when so many of our members are “asleep”, literally, in their beds on Sundays rather than worshipping God with us. We need to focus not just on having a community but being a community.

What brings you to church every week? The sermons? That’s probably not it. Are you just pumped up to pray in these comfortable pews of ours? No. I’d bet that you look forward to seeing someone, or maybe many people. I spoke to a man once who explained that he came to church because he liked to see other fathers, just like him, Christian men, who struggled with work, with their kids, with their faith, but still found a way to keep doing it. Knowing that there were other men like that each week gave him the strength to keep doing what he had to do until next Sunday.

Hearing biblical stories about how God works is inspirational, but hearing stories about how God worked in someone’s life last week can be life changing. Knowing that God is a God of compassion is nice, but having a person actual come and comfort you in your sickness or grief is what really makes a difference. I see a day when this church is a place where all people feel welcome of course, but even more importantly, where you feel cared for and loved. Where people come because they want to be a part of community that does that. Wouldn’t you want to be part of a church like that? Would you be willing to find ways to make that happen here?

Finally, we are called in to be empowered to serve. Saint Paul says in 1st Corinthians that, “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” We come into this place to learn how to serve others. To be equipped to deal with stress and sadness in our lives. To be blessed so that we may be a blessing. But we can’t just send you all out into the battle without equipping you with the proper protection and gear. We have to “come in” before we can be “sent out. If you haven’t learned the story of Jesus and what His story means to you, you can be told all day to “Go tell it on the mountain” but you won’t know what to say.

The problem is that we’ve often forgotten this empowerment part. We understand that we need to come in and hear God’s Word. We even might enjoy reconnecting with family and friends, but we so often take the knowledge we’ve learned here, or the comfort we’ve received here, and think that we just need to put that stuff in our back pocket for a rainy day. But you are not receiving this gifts for yourselves. These gifts are for someone else.

I used to do a lot of weightlifting in junior high and high school, but at some point I realized there was a problem. I’d go up and lift weights and check myself out in the mirror and say, “Wow! Lookin good!” But then, when it was time to play football or something, I never felt like I was that strong. I didn’t find out until later that while I was preparing myself to be a bodybuilder, I wasn’t empowering myself to be a football player. That would have involved different exercises and using different muscles in different ways. That’s probably why they call some people “musclebound”. They look good, but when it comes to actually “using” those muscles, they are sometimes very weak. How many of you have come here to church your whole lives but feel “weak” when it comes to sharing your faith? How could we make this church a place where people felt strong when they left; like they had learned something that they could share and wanted to share with someone else.

I see a day when Emmanuel is a place where people are coming in to be sent out. Coming in is the first step, but without this first step we won’t be going anywhere. Do you see a day when you come to church not just to sit and listen, but to come and be changed by God’s Word? Do you see a day when you are here not just to see friends, but to make friends with people you’ve never met? My prayer, is that “coming in” to Emmanuel becomes the highlight of your week. Where you come to be motivated, comforted, strengthened, encouraged and empowered to live out your faith. Where you came not just because you were a Christian, but because you wanted to find out how to be a Christian.

If you see this day coming, as I do, if you believe God wants this for our
community, as I believe he does, perhaps this is no longer just a vision I see, perhaps it is our shared vision for Emmanuel. Coming in is just the beginning. This next week, imagine what God would start doing here if we were focused on His Word, intentional about caring for our community and empowered to serve. I believe that He wouldn’t want us to just keep to ourselves. He would send us out. Where would God take us? How would he use your gifts? What would be the impact this church might have within God’s kingdom? Why have you “come in” today?

Sermon for May 8th (Free Will?)

2011-05-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

“Free will since humanity’s fall into sin exists in name only.” What do you think about that statement? Agree or disagree? Do you like that statement or dislike it? It is one of Martin Luther’s most famous quotes. In fact, of all the things that caused the Roman Catholic church to excommunicate him, this is the point they made most clearly, “If you don’t believe in free will, then you do not belong in the RomanCatholic church!” And, you know what, Martin Luther agreed with them. His stance on this issue really was the nail in his coffin so to speak—both politically speaking and, even more interestingly, theologically speaking. If you were to ask him, Martin Luther would probably say that his stance on free will was what truly set him free! Let me restate what Luther was saying in a different way: Ever since Adam and Eve began rebelling against God, their creator, the human race has been freely choosing to continue the rebellion (even though we continue to insist that we are free not to!).

The doctrine of free will insists on this: we are free to choose God or to reject God. If we choose God, we are saved. If we reject God, we are not. Simple, right? Those who support the doctrine of free will would argue that God gives us commands and expects us to follow them. How could he ask us to do things that we aren’t free to do? For example, in the 10th chapter of the gospel of Mark Jesus commands a man to, “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” These are not impossible things to do. The man is free to do them, even though he chooses not to. In fact, Peter explains that while that man didn’t follow Jesus the disciples have left everything to follow Jesus! Isn’t that a home run for how free will works? Well, it’s part of the story. When Peter and his fellow disciples deny their Savior at his crucifixion and abandon him we see a fuller picture of what free will looks like.

I know that everyone in this room believes in free will. It is spoken about ad naseum in the movies, on the radio and written about constantly in books. But the term “free will” is only used once in the Bible, did you know that? And that was only in reference to “free will offerings” meaning that God’s people are expected to tithe ten percent of their income, but if they want to give more, they are free to choose to do so or not. Of course, the term “Trinity” is never used in the Bible either, but we believe in that because of what scripture shows us about how God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one. Is that the case for “free will” as well? What does scripture say? Does scripture support the understanding of our freedom to choose Jesus or not? If you are willing to take the risk to find out, I’d like to put your understanding of free will on trial. Scripture will be the judge.

The doctrine of free will is based on the assumption that God cannot hold us responsible for sin unless he gives us freedom to choose. If he chooses for us, he wouldn’t seem very justified to punish us as if we did something wrong. So what do we do with the story of the Exodus? “The Lord said to Moses, ‘When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.” God promised to harden Pharaoh’s heart. And a few chapters later, scripture says that he did it, “the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart.” I’ve heard all the explanations, the revisions, the excuses for getting God off the hook for this one. But the words are simple and clear. “God hardened Pharaoh’s heart.” The Lutheran Reformers wrote that it only takes one passage of scripture to create terror in the hearts of those who believe in free will, no matter how numerous the army of passages supporting freedom that you can find. Because if, even once, God doesn’t seem to leave us free to act on our own, we can never quite be sure that he ever does.

Just so you understand the gravity of the situation, let me give you a few more verses that cause all of us to squirm. In John 17 Jesus prays, “While I was with them, I protected them and kept them save by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.” This passage refers to Judas. What does it mean that he was “doomed to destruction”? Does that get Judas off the hook? What does it mean in the 24th chapter of Luke that we read this morning when Jesus says, “Did not the Messiah HAVE to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” The word that is used in Greek to create this sentence means “it was necessary”. If Jesus’ suffering and crucifixion was “necessary” what happens to our free will? Can we still be held responsible for what happened? Or what about Philippians chapter 2, “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” These verses don’t leave a lot of room for us to be free do they. Are we in charge of our salvation or is God?

Does this mean that we are destined to do whatever we do whether we like it or not? A kind of determinism? Like puppets on a string? An old professor of mine would answer this question by simply saying, “Look ma, no strings!” The fact is, whether we would argue that philosophically everything is determined or not, at some point we just stop thinking about it and still make our choices and feel very free to do so. We are very free to choose to eat oatmeal or donuts for breakfast. We can choose to love this person or that person. We have the freedom to will this or that in our decisions on this earth. But God makes it very clear over and over again in Scripture that when it comes to salvation, we don’t appear to be free at all to choose to be saved. No matter how many times he asks. No matter what he has commanded.

Listen, this is very important. I want all of your attention on this because this point is where everything stands or falls. For you mother’s out there, you might be able to understand this better than anyone else. You know that your children want to love you, that they care for you, that they want to please you but, the fact is, so often they seem to do just the opposite. They scream at you, they refuse to listen and they make choices directly against what you have asked them to do. Are they FREE to love you? Well, yes, I guess theoretically they have the ability to do the right thing. They could listen. They could be quiet. They could, but they don’t. I mean, you know that they want to be loving, but they seem bound and determined to do everything in their power to upset you some days. Are they free to do what they want? Yes, and they freely choose again and again to do the wrong thing. They don’t seem free not to.

This is true for all sinners. Are we free to do whatever we want? Yes, and we freely choose to betray God, to deny Jesus and to disobey God’s commandments. The problem with using the term “free will” is that it gives us the impression that we could, if all things went right, choose to do the right thing, follow God’s laws and believe in Jesus Christ. But scripture tells us that, while we were created free to do it, we are bound and determined to do whatever we want instead. Jesus said, “You did not choose me. I chose you.” “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

We are not free, we are slaves. Jesus said this very clearly in the gospel of John, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” Saint Paul says again in Romans, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Ever since sin entered the world, free will exists in name only. We are not free. We are slaves. All of us.

But saint Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church starts of like this, “In Jesus we are also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.” For you, those words will either be words of comfort or terror. On what does the distinction depend? Do you believe that you are free or a slave? If you believe that you have free will, you will hate this passage when it says God has “chosen” you without your choice or that you are “predestined according to the plan of him” not the plan of you. You will shudder at the possibility that he is working out “everything” yes EVERYTHING in conformity with the purposes of HIS will and not asking you for your permission according to the purposes of YOUR will. Jesus’ love with feel restrictive and controlling, like he’s not giving you responsibility and the chance to prove your good intentions.

On the other hand, if you believe that you are a slave to sin and chained to your bad habits, not free, constantly tempted into your old sins like a dog returning to its own vomit, then these words in Ephesians are like sweet music to your ears. Because no matter how many times you have freely chosen to deny your Savior, you have been freely chosen by him. While there are times you feel destined for destruction according to your hideous desires, God says you are predestined according to his plan and that his choice was made long before your choices were made. That no matter what happens in this life whether good or bad, creating prosperity or suffering for you, everything is in conformity with God’s purpose and will. And God’s purpose and will is to love you no matter what.

People who believe in free will are always arguing for our freedom as creatures. But you will notice that we seldom talk about being free to believe in God, or free to love God or free to choose God. Because if you believe that the human race is free, then you will spend your life trying to keep people in line, in case they use their freedom too freely. When free will is spoken of, you often hear that we are free to reject God, or free to say “no” or some such action. I agree, we are not only free to do these things, these are in fact the only things we do! We don’t seem free NOT to do them!

On the other hand, if you believe that the human race is a slave to their sin, you will spend your life trying to free them. Where do you believe Jesus stood on this issue? “Jesus replied, ‘I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” If I assume that you are all free to choose God, I will seek to become a better motivational speaker to help you better your chances of getting saved. If I assume you are all slaves to sin, I will seek to free you in the only way I know how—by giving you Jesus so that you might trust in his salvation. Jesus is the key to set you free.

In his explanation to the third article of the apostle’s creed Martin Luther wrote this, “I believe that I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him.” In other words, while I have the free will to choose to have a beer or have wine, to go to bed or stay up, to run for office or not, I do not have the freedom to trust in Jesus Christ and thus be saved. I am a slave to my sin. I have no hope. But Luther continues, “But, the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts and sanctified and preserved me in the one true faith.” You only find freedom when you confess your lack of free will and trust in God’s mercy alone to save a hopeless sinner like yourself.

We are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. It’s not that we have to sin, we WANT to sin and can’t make ourselves stop! We must take full responsibility for this because there is no one else to blame. Apart from Jesus, like Judas, we are destined for destruction. If we seek our own justification apart from God, even his love and mercy will harden our hearts like Pharaoh. Thankfully, once we realize, as Luther did, that our coffins are nailed shut and we have no freedom to escape this mess we are in, Jesus Christ comes to us and says, “Now you will receive me totally and completely. Now you will have me be your all in all. Now you will trust me by faith alone. I have chosen you. I have saved you. I have predestined you according to my plan, according to my will, to live again with me. Yes, you are dead, enslaved, bound in your sins. But your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When you can’t place your trust in your free will any longer, all you can do is surrender: because it is God’s will to love you. Amen.

Sermon for May 1st (The Resurrection of the Body)

2011-05-11T08:58:00.000-07:00

I was asked once in a church interview whether or not I believed in the Resurrection. Yes, I replied. I believe in the Resurrection. I mean, as a Christian (and especially as a pastor!) how could I give any other answer? Yet, I was told that in previous call committee interviews there had been hesitation or even waffling by not just one but two pastoral candidates on this very subject.
Which brings me to the question: Do YOU believe in the resurrection? Do you believe that Jesus rose from the dead? Do you believe that through faith in Jesus YOU will rise from the dead? While I’d like to believe that this is a simple answer for all of you to respond to as Christians, I have found that, in fact, many of you would have a difficult time answering it and being sure of your answer.

At the end of this last year in confirmation, I asked the kids what happens after someone dies. Here is a sampling of their responses: we lay in the ground, we go to heaven or hell, our spirit goes up to heaven while our body rots, we become ghosts, we walk up a stairway to heaven and, my favorite, there is a train that comes and picks us up to take us to heaven! I’d like to believe that it’s only the confirmation students that are confused, but what answer would you have given if I asked you what happens after you die? Would you say that your soul goes to a better place, but your body stays down here to disintegrate? That you become an angel? Or maybe you’d honestly say that you just don’t know? Well, as a Christian, it’s time that you start knowing. I want you to be able and ready to give an accounting of the hope that you have in Christ Jesus. Is there really a resurrection from the dead and does it really matter?

Where do we start? With Jesus’ resurrection or the promise of our own resurrection from the dead? Well, the two are intrinsically related. Saint Paul explains in his first letter to the Corinthians in chapter 15, “But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?” And again a few verses later, “If the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.” It’s not either-or. It’s both or none! If Jesus really did rise from the dead, then you have hope that one day you will be resurrected as well. But you are not going anywhere if he stayed dead. The same holds true going the other way. If you don’t believe that there will be life after death for yourself, then you won’t be able to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead either. It’s not either-or. It’s all or nothing.

But do people just believe in one resurrection and not the other? Yes, I think so. For instance, there are many religious people who believe that they will “live on” in some transcendental way apart from their bodies. They believe in some kind of personal resurrection, but certainly don’t believe in Jesus Christ. But Jesus says you will NOT “live on” in any spiritual, bodily or transcendental way apart from faith in him. Jesus makes this point very clearly, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” And again, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for
God’s wrath remains on him.” (John 3:36)

But there have always been skeptics about Jesus’ resurrection. In fact, it’s written right into the Bible in the gospel of Matthew, “When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, ‘You are to say His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.” And yet, even though we were not there, we trust in the disciples’ witness as Christians that Jesus actually did die and was met again, but this time, alive! The Resurrection cannot be explained. It is meant to be miraculous! And, despite what that call committee experienced, I think that most Christians, and pastors, do believe in Jesus’ resurrection. The hard part, however, is understanding what Jesus’ resurrection means for us.

“If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” Yes, that’s right. If we didn’t believe that there was more to this life than what we see and experience here on earth, we shouldn’t even bother being Christians. Being a Christian is NOT about teaching your children to have good morals. It’s teaching your children to know that when they die they will be raised from the dead. Now, yes, that will create much more difficult discussions maybe, but it’s still the truth. We can’t be ashamed about this! Our faith relies on the resurrection. Without Jesus being raised from the dead, we are all here for no good reason at all! We should just be out enjoying ourselves until the bell tolls for us and we sleep the eternal sleep.

“But someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” Now, that’s the question that everybody asks. Did you know that the answer is in the Bible? I mean, so many people come up with all these weird ideas about ghosts, and spirits floating up out of the body and so on and so on as if we have to come up with the answer to this great mystery of life on our own. But It is answered right here! Chapter 15 of 1st Corinthians. Mark it! Underline it in your Bibles and when you wonder again you’ll be able to read it again. How ARE the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?”

Here’s Paul’s answer, “How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.” That’s the beginning of his answer at least.

It’s not that it’s a foolish question, but simply a very weird and foolish idea that we get in our heads when we start thinking of dead bodies getting up and walking around. We ask questions like, “What about Uncle Fred who died from gangrene? How’s he gonna walk around on that leg in the resurrection?” What about people who died in an explosion? What about when someone is cremated? How can there be a body?” We all get so crazy in our minds with questions like this. Paul says that of course those pictures are foolish because just like farmers don’t plant cornstalks in their fields in the spring, our new spiritual bodies are not planted on this earth before death. Something changes.

God decided to make our bodies on this earth glorious but also able change, to decay and to perish. Some of you ladies out there may not like to believe it, but those wrinkles in your smile make you beautiful in a way that an 18 year old beauty queen cannot hope to emulate. Age can also bring bodily decay as well as much sadness and suffering but, the point is, after death, that kind of “au natural” look will not be possible. That’s old, but God says he will make all things new. So, yes, if you go out to the graveyard and dig up ol Great Grandma Helga right now after service, she’ll just be a pile of bones by now; however, in the resurrection of the dead, she will have a new spiritual body. Those old bones will be brought back to life in a way blessed Helga could never imagine. Remember , the tomb was empty when Jesus was raised. Do we really expect our own resurrection to be different than his?

We have hope to rise again because Jesus rose again. And how did Jesus rise? As a spirit? As a wisp of pure sparkling energy? As a ghost? No! Jesus came to see his disciples in the upper room and said this, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” Jesus had hands and feet and a stomach it appears because he ate fish. Every week we confess in the Apostles Creed that we believe in the resurrection of the body and yet most Christians believe that they’ll look more like Caspar the friendly ghost than Jesus.

Make no mistake: if He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.

It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled
eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His flesh: ours.

The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that–pierced–died, withered, paused, and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.

Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping, transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the
faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back, not papier-mâché,
not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow
grinding of time will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.

And if we will have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair,
opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.

Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are
embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.

This concept of a spiritual resurrection, rather than a bodily one, comes from the misunderstanding that somehow our bodies and our spirits are opposed to one another. By the 4th century, a heresy called Gnosticism had taken over Christianity. The gnostics believed that this world with all its disease, earthquakes and slugs was gross, sinful and evil and that a Christian was supposed to escape this world and these yucky bodies of ours to become glorious, angelic and spiritual beings. Bodies were bad. Spirits were good! So, in the resurrection of the dead, of course, they just conveniently forgot that Jesus came back WITH HIS OWN BODY! With wounds still on his hands and feet! That he didn’t drop off his skin like a bodybag as he ascended into heaven but that he was raised into heaven IN HIS BODY! And, do you know what that means, God created you (spirit AND body) for a purpose. He made you good. Inside and out. And when you are raised, you will have a body. You will still be you. Different? Yes. Imperishable? Yes. Spiritual? Yes. But a spiritual body that is still a recognizable you.

Do you believe in the resurrection of the dead? Do you believe in the resurrection of the body? There are many things that we can’t know until the other side of eternity. But God tells us that we can know some things. As a believer in Jesus Christ, he promises you that because he died and now lives and reigns for all eternity, you shall also live again even though you die. “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead.” And praise be to God that, one day, you will be raised too. Amen.

Sermon for April 24th (Easter Sunday)

2011-05-11T08:56:00.000-07:00

You already know. You already know about Jesus. You’ve heard about Jesus before today whether it was in Sunday school a long time ago or on the radio when you were flipping past and heard some funny preacher talk about him. You’ve heard about Jesus on some news show or read about the latest religious fads in Time magazine. You’ve heard. You know about him. But in book of Acts this morning, Saint Peter speaks to people who even though know a lot about Jesus are still missing something important in their lives. Is that you?

He starts of by saying, “We are witnesses”. Not you or me today, but the disciples, back 2000 years ago, they were actual witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection. I know that you know it all, but do you believe that it is true? You know that Jesus was supposed to have died on the cross, you know he was supposed to be raised from the dead, but do you believe that it’s true? There is no reason to believe it except that we believe the eyewitness accounts. There were witnesses to it. They told about their experience. They wrote it down. Our faith rests on their witness. If they were lying, then we are all to be pitied for our faith would then be in some made up story. But what if they are true witnesses? What if they saw what they saw and heard what they heard? What if they really experienced what they experienced. What if Jesus really did rise from the dead?

Why should you believe them? In the book, “The Case for Christ” by Lee Strobel he explains why. He writes, “People will die for their religious beliefs if they sincerely believe they’re true, but people won’t die for their religious beliefs if they know their beliefs are false. While most people can only believe that their beliefs are true, the disciples were in a position to know without a doubt, whether or not Jesus had risen from the dead. They claimed that they saw him, talked with him and ate with him. If they weren’t absolutely certain, they wouldn’t have allowed themselves to be tortured to death for proclaiming that the Ressurection had happened. Nobody knowingly and willingly dies for a lie.”

You and I could presumably die for a lie, but the disciples could not have. We were not eyewitnesses to Jesus’ resurrection. They were. If even one of them would have given in and said, “No! Don’t kill me! I was just making it up! You know, trying to start a new religious movement he-he!” don’t you think that someone would have picked up on that! They didn’t have anything to gain as this world sees it and everything to lose. And yet, we know that they all died still maintaining that Jesus had risen from the dead.

Jesus commanded these witnesses, his disciples, to tell people who already knew all about him two things that would make all the difference in their lives. Tell them about judgment he said and tell them about forgiveness.
There will be a judgment day. A day when Jesus judges the living and the dead. We will all stand before God and hear our verdict. We will have to answer for every word, thought or deed in this life. There is no escaping this judgment. Christians and non-Christians will be judged.

Do you think you’ll pass the test based on your actions in this life? I’m sure that you act pretty nice in public, pretty spiritual most of the time, but if people knew how your mind works, how badly you act at home with your family, or maybe on the internet, the kind of thoughts and desires you have swirling around in that head of yours all the time, well, you’d never let anyone find out! You don’t even like to think about it if you don’t have to. And yet God knows. The Bible tells us the truth we all knew: we all fall short of the kind of person God wants us to be. We are not even the people WE want to be.

But Jesus commands his witnesses to tell even more. Saint Peters says, “All the prophets testified about Jesus and everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” Do you understand what this means? The prophets were saying, “The kingdom is coming, the kingdom is coming, the kingdom is coming!” And then when Jesus Christ was born God says, “It’s here! The kingdom of God is here!” That “thing” you ‘ve been waiting for? That meaning in your life your been looking for: it’s here! It’s Jesus! Your reason for living! Your reason for dying! His name is Jesus and, get this, he adores you. He cherishes a relationship with you so much that he died on a cross for you. There will be a judgment, but Jesus is basing your verdict NOT on your good deeds or bad choices, but on your faith in his power to forgive. You may already know about Jesus, but you don’t know anything if you don’t know that your sins are forgiven. That’s what Jesus is all about.

What does it mean to have your sins forgiven? It means that you can stop pretending . To have your sins forgiven means that you are a sinner with no hope of recovery. You need to hear that truth every chance that you get. You are stuck making the same hurtful decisions against those you love day after day and not only CAN’T you stop, but you WON’T stop. You don’t even WANT to! That’s what being a sinner is. To be forgiven is to be told that even sin won’t stop Jesus from loving you.

What if you don’t believe it? Well, then, you’ll be forced to trust in something else. When you hurt your wife, you’ll feel like all you can do is send flowers and hope for her pity. When you feel your life spinning out of control, you’ll self-medicate with ice cream, or alcohol or drugs. You’ll hide your bad behaviors behind a mountain of good deeds hoping to convince others, and maybe even yourself, that you’re lovable. Maybe people will like you for how hard you work even if they wouldn’t like the kind of person you are on the inside. But will God be so easily duped?

I’m sure that the vast majority, the vast majority of you, know about Jesus. What I’m saying is, “Who cares if you know about Jesus if his death and life doesn’t affect your life?” Why call yourself a Christian if that name doesn’t actually say anything about what’s happened to the way you live? Why bother with the whole rigamarole of coming to church once or twice a year, or even every week, if you don’t believe the simple message that “your sins are forgiven”? It’d be like having to show up to your own birthday party and not eating any cake. Or being gifted a brand new sports car without ever feeling the engine rev up beneath your body. If you think you know Jesus, but don’t trust his forgiveness, you’ve missed out on the biggest gift of all.

You see, if your sins are forgiven you are free. Free from having to look good in the eyes of the world. Free from having to do enough “good works” to please God. “Everyone who believes in Jesus receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. It’s not about what you know. It’s about who you know. The question today is: do you know Jesus? Because he knows you, he loves you and he has forgiven your sins once and for all.

You’ve probably heard it before a dozen times. But what if it’s true? Believing in Jesus doesn’t mean you have to “do” more or “understand” more, but that you’ll stop “doing” anything and become a pure receiver of his grace. You can stop trying so hard and believe that when he said, “It is finished” on the cross that his death really did finish everything for you. You don’t have to “do” anything to please God, Jesus has already done it all for you. Everything? Yes, everything. Is there just a little bit left for you to do? No, not even a little bit?

Today you have the opportunity for freedom. Not because you know enough, but because forgiveness is a free gift for you. There’s nothing left to do. Only believe. Just fall back on God’s mercy and trust Him. You might already know a lot ABOUT Jesus—but it’s time that you come to know Jesus. There is a reason that you came here today. You’ve been missing something. God has brought you here to find it. God has brought you here to find him. Amen.

Sermon for April 22nd (Good Friday)

2011-05-11T08:55:00.000-07:00

Why did Jesus have to die? For our sins. That’s the answer you learned in confirmation at least. He died because, as part of our fallen humanity, we make bad choices. We do evil things. We lie, we cheat, we steal. We commit adultery in our minds if not with our very bodies. We treat others like dirt and speak of them in trashy ways. We become angry quickly and sometimes find it very hard, if not impossible, to forgive. That’s why Jesus had to die, right? Of course.

But that’s not the whole story, not according to what we just read in John. It wasn’t just our bad temperments that put Jesus on the cross. Our godliest virtues put him up there as well. Think about this for a moment. Who wanted Jesus dead? Was it the unbelievers, you know, the one’s who didn’t know about God? Nope. The text says that Pilate, the Roman Gentile, became afraid when he heard that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” proverbs says and yet the chief priests and the religious officials were yelling, “Crucify! Crucify Him!” The text says that Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting at him to kill Jesus. Set anyone else free, but not THAT man. Not Jesus. Crucify Him!

That doesn’t seem like a very virtuous attitude, but wasn’t it? If you saw some guy walking around Fontanelle calling himself both one with God and the President of the United States, wouldn’t you feel like an upstanding citizen for calling the police? You want some guy that like hanging around the park with YOUR kids! You’d probably sleep better at night if you knew he was somewhere locked up. Well, Jesus was calling himself God! AND the King of the Jews! I mean, he was right, but that’s not my point. The people yelling “Crucify Him!” thought they were acting very religiously. They thought they were following the law! They believed that Jesus should be punished for blasphemy and that punishment was death. They were just trying to be faithful, stubbornly committed and lawful Jews.

There are two ways that we fight God. The first is obvious to us; it’s lawlessness. We break God’s laws and the laws of the land. We are not forced to make bad choices, we do it willfully. But the other way we fight God is easy to miss because it’s sounds so right; it’s lawfulness. By following the God’s laws and the laws of the land, we can very easily use our sense of righteousness to protect ourselves from having to trust in God’s mercy. We’d rather try to follow God’s laws than trust in God’s love. We become so good in our own minds that we feel we have no need of a Savior. Sure, we know, we aren’t perfect, but we’re trying! We’re doing the best we can! That’s all God could ask for, right? This pious attitude, moreso than lawlessness, is what threatens to destroy your relationship to God. If Jesus were walking around today, he would be hanging out in the bars and the jails while the good Christians like us and pastors, like me, would be screaming at the top of their lungs, “Crucify! Crucify Him!”

But doesn’t that bother you? We all like to hear that Jesus came not for the righteous, but for sinners. But when push comes to shove, we don’t want to be called a sinner ourselves. We don’t want people to think badly of us. We don’t want to think badly of ourselves. But Jesus doesn’t seem to be leaving us any room for good works! He always attacking us with his words—the religious people—and calling us hypocrites . . . and he’s right, of course, but shouldn’t he at least TRY to keep us motivated? Affirm our attempts at righteousness? No.

Martin Luther once said, “The remedy for curing desire does not lie in satisfying it, but in extinguishing it.” Think about it. Have you ever wanted a potato chip and thought, I’ll just have a couple. Then, half an hour later, the whole bag is gone. You think, I’ll just watch a little of this movie and then you stay up the whole two hours and get to bed late. We are addicted to things worse than movies and potato chips and we can’t expect our desire for sin to be quenched by doing them just every once in awhile—doing the best we can. We need to admit that we are powerless to stop. Jesus’ death on the cross kills all our hopes to make it all better. We either have to trust in his death and admit that we are sinners without any hope of recovery or we’ll have to keep trying to make ourselves right with God on our own and continue to yell, “Crucify Him!”

Just like the Pharisees, the chief priests and the scribes, we don’t WANT a Savior, we want to do it on our own. We don’t want cheap grace! We wouldn’t want to take advantage of God after all. We want a little more time to fix things up ourselves. People don’t call a therapist when they feel depressed for a few months, they called suicide hotlines when they are just about to pull the trigger a year later. Why? Because they thought they could handle it on their own. People don’t come for marriage counseling until their marriages are only holding on by a thread 10 years after the problems have started. Why? Because they don’t want to be embarrassed and have people think that their marriage is struggling. We don’t want to admit our failures to God, we’d rather read a self-help book and feel better about ourselves. At least we’re trying to get better. The cross is God’s judgment on this way of thinking. He’s not giving you any more time to fix this relationship.

Jesus’ death on the cross tells us that God knew we’d never make it up to heaven on our own. He destroyed our last hopes that we could somehow make our failures right. No matter how many times you’ve read or heard that you are saved by grace alone and not by works, everybody still believes that as long as you live a good life and try your best you’re going to heaven! That’s why Jesus had to die! You couldn’t believe in God’s forgiveness, by grace alone, any other way! He had to give up his life to show you that there WAS no other way, no other truth, and no other way you could live your life to satisfy God’s demands. It was by grace or not at all. I don’t care how much of a saint you are, you are still a sinner and sinners cannot stand in the congregation of the righteous. If you hope to stand before God based on your life as a Christian, you will find no need for having a Savior. You’ll bury Jesus’ gruesome death under your aspirations for a “good looking life”.

When you have nothing to fall back on—that’s where the hope begins. When you feel threatened by a God who doesn’t want your sins or your virtues to separate him from you then you’ve come close to understanding what His mercy means. Jesus’ death more your entire salvation project is in danger. What will you fall back on if God doesn’t want your good works, your good deeds or your positive Christian attitude? Where will you look for hope if even being a good person has no eternal possibilities? He’s not looking for the righteous, but for sinners. When your good life, good looks and good works only lead to condemnation where will you put your trust? Look to the cross, where Jesus hangs suffering and ashamed—where the one who knew no sin became sin for you. Look to the cross, wide-eyed and shocked at your Savior dead on a tree—where he became a curse for you. What will God do with his dead, cursed and broken son? Only the broken, the cursed and the sinners, dead in their sins, will care about that answer. Only a sinner, with no other hope for salvation, will find hope in Jesus’ death on a cross.

Why did Jesus have to die? To answer that question, you’ll have to answer this for yourself: why did Jesus have to die for you?

Sermon for April 21st (Maundy Thursday)

2011-05-11T08:52:00.000-07:00

“The Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

What happened that night so long ago when Jesus had his last supper with his disciples? Many scholarly ink has been spilled about that very question. Jesus and his disciples were celebrating the Passover, the Jewish traditional meal eaten on the Sabbath. Some scholars believe that Jesus was instituting a new type of Passover saying, in effect, when you were Jews you ate this meal and remembered when you were slaves in Egypt and how you were saved by the blood of a sacrificed lamb on your doorpost—but now you will remember something different— the Lamb of God himself, Jesus Christ, and how his blood frees you, not from slavery to Pharaoh, but delivers you from sin. The Lord’s Supper then is about something we do: remembering.

I’d like to challenge you tonight to consider if that’s really what the Lord’s Supper is all about. Is that what the words say? Is it really about US doing something or about what God is doing? By the end of the service, I pray that you will believe that the Lord’s Supper is not simply a memorial meal, but that, rather than doing anything of consequence, you are actually receiving something very wonderful.

Where does this idea of a “new Passover” come from? Well, it’s simple really. People argue that there is a history to religious thought, an “evolution of ideas” one might say, moving from uncivilized or incomplete to civilized and more perfect. For instance, you’ve probably heard of the pantheon of gods in Greek and Roman history with Zeus, Athena and Hades. That’s called polytheism, the belief in many gods. Very uncivilized, right? But then, the first historical belief in one God rather than many gods (monotheism), seems to have found expression in Egypt around the 13th century BC with the worship of the so-called sun god “Aten”. One God seems more civilized than many gods so the thinking goes.

From there, there seems to have been a progression to such things as Judaism and then Christianity. You see, we are getting more and more civilized now with no more sacrificial system. Even within Christianity, it appears that there is some type of progression. First, there was the Roman Catholic church, then the Lutherans, and from there we have the Reformed church, Methodists, Baptists and, more recently, the charismatics such as the Assembly of God church and Pentecostals. The idea is always: the newer the better. Or as Strawberry Shortcake always puts it in her movies, “Growing Better Every Day!” The assumption, of course, is that the longer the human race survives, the more likely Christianity will eventually seem like a very uncivilized religion as well.

That’s the same type of argument many Christians use when talking about the Lord’s Supper as a better, more perfect or more complete Passover. The Jews had that, but now we’ve got this and it’s better! The Jews had the Levites, but we have pastors. They had synagogues, but we have churches. The Jews had dead lambs, but we’ve only got one dead Jesus! Thankfully, however, the Lord’s Supper is much more than simply a bigger, better religious meal. It is the place where God breaks into this old world, with its old patterns of history and evolution of ideas, and makes a completely new declaration: your sins are forgiven. Jesus says, “That was old. I have come to make all things new!” Not just the Passover meal, but you. Jesus comes to make YOU a new person. The Lord’s Supper is not a “new” Passover but the fulfillment and ending of the old Passover meal ritual altogether!

If you come here to Emmanuel with any regularity, you might have noticed me saying something that seems, at first hearing, well, a little weird! You’ll notice that when I read the text from the NIV Bible translation this evening, it said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” However, whenever I say the words of institution at a service, I don’t say the word “covenant” do I . . I say “ this is the new testament in my blood”. What gives me the right, you might ask? And that’s a very good question.

The Greek word, “deeathakay” can be translated either as “testament” or “covenant” so every person and translation has to make a decision. I believe that unless the word “testament” is used and understood, we will miss the entire meaning of the Lord’s Supper. We will start to believe that it has something to do with what we are doing, when it is all about what we are getting. In the Lord’s Supper, we don’t “give” or “do” anything. We are the beneficiaries of a very great gift from God.

When you hear the word, covenant, what do you think of? Well, if you know the word, you will know that it means an agreement or contract between two parties, two people. We talk about things such as the marriage covenant between an husband or a wife, for example. Unfortunately, while this is what the word means today, in biblical times there were more than one type of covenant. Most notably, when an agreement was made by someone of higher class or power than someone else (such as between a king and a serf, for example) the conditions were set by the person of higher class and they were the only one held responsible.

Let me explain this a little further, when you take out a loan from the bank to buy a house, you write up a contact or covenant with them. They agree to pay you $200,000 dollars and you agree to pay them back for the rest of your life. That’s where the word “mortgage” comes from: mori is the Latin word for death and gage is the latin word for pledge. Mortgage means death pledge. If you signed this covenant and never received the money and yet were paying it every month, the bank would get in a lot of trouble with you, correct? However, if you received the money and never paid, YOU would be foreclosed on.

However, not all contracts work this way especially when love is involved. Parents can make as many agreements with their children as they want, but, in the end, the parent is still responsible for holding up their part even if the child fails. I remember when I was driving as a high schooler and I would agree with my father that I would drive safely as long as I could have the car keys. However, my dad would often say that if I got in any trouble, HE would really be the one responsible. That’s the way it is with parents and children. It may still be a covenant, but only one party is responsible.

This is the type of covenant that the Bible refers to when God makes a covenant with his people. He made a covenant with Noah and his family after the flood where he promised to never flood the world and kill everyone again. And he set his bow in the clouds as a sign. But when you look at the bow, which way is it pointing? Up to heaven, right? No matter how unfaithful we are. No matter how bad we act. If God floods the earth again, he’s the one getting shot by that bow—he’s the one with the reputation on the line. In the covenant with Abraham, God has Abraham cut up some animals to make a covenant, the premise being that the agreeing parties would walk through the cut up animals and agree that if they broke their promise, they would suffer the same fate –being cut in two! However, do you remember that in the story, God put Abraham into a deep sleep while God walked through alone? God is the only one at risk to fail in that covenant as well, no matter how many times Abraham and his people would mess up.

Using the word “covenant” today, especially with regards to the Lord’s Supper, doesn’t make it clear what is really happening. It makes us think that we have to “do” or “think” or “act” a particular way in order to get the goodies! It tempts us to believe that, if we don’t hold up our part of the bargin, we’ll miss out on something. However, once again, Jesus is the only one with a part to play. Martin Luther made this claim about the Lord’s Supper being a testament, “A testament is nothing but the last will of one who is dying, telling how his heirs are to live with and dispose of his properties after his death.” In the Lord’s Supper, Jesus tells us what his estate is: the forgiveness of sins. He also explains who his heirs are for he speaks to his disciples, “in the night in which he was betrayed” by his disciples. If you want to be a heir to the benefits of Jesus’ death, you must be his betrayer. Thankfully, you are all welcome tonight!

For those of you who have experienced the death of a loved you, you may have had to go through the process of hearing the last will and testament. At the reading, the lawyer does not ask you if you were nice to grandma, or if you helped your dad often enough in the yard; they don’t ask if you always talked nicely about your friend or if you really, truly loved your mother with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. If you are willed the farm, you get the farm. Period. If you are given the piano, you get the piano. Because it’s not about what you did, it’s about the wishes of the one who died. It is their testament, not a covenant as we think of the word. All that is left to do is say, “Thank you!” I didn’t deserve it, but thanks!

Tonight, we are not just going through the motions of another Passover meal in order to “remember” some event long ago. This is much more than that! At the Lord’s Supper, you are not “doing something” you are “receiving something”. You get something to believe in. Namely, you, God’s enemy, receive all that he has: forgiveness of sin, salvation and everlasting life. Take the bread, it is my body which is for you” Jesus says. And when you eat it remember that you are getting the very same thing those disciples received so long ago: the forgiveness of sins. Drink the cup, it is the new testament in my blood. Do this in remembrance of me.

We proclaim the Lord’s death every time we receive the Lord’s Supper because that’s the only way we can remember that his last will and testament is fulfilled. He had to die to put it into effect. And so we celebrate his death on the cross because, since Jesus die, we get the benefits! The Lord’s Supper is not about history, it is about what is happening right here tonight for you! Not because you held up your part of the bargain, or covenant, but because you never have kept your end, but Jesus’ last will and testament says your sins are forgiven. Eat it. Drink it. And remember: Jesus died for you. Amen.

Sermon for April 10th (Stewardship of Gifts)

2011-05-11T08:50:00.000-07:00

Ephesians 4:14, “We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ. Perhaps the title of this sermon on stewardship should be simply: Grow up!

Is your faith still in kindergarten? Now, for some you, your faith is still in kindergarten because, well, you are a kindergartner. Very understandable. For some of you, you’re not even that ar. Your faith is still in infancy. You’ve just recently come to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and maybe you are crawling through life just learning to walk upright like my youngest son. Just like with him, we, as a faith community, are going to clap and sing your praises every single time you take another step of faith on your own. It’s as joyful of an experience for us as it is for you. Having a young faith is a blessing from God.

However, having an immature faith is a very different story. For some of you, your faith is in kindergarten not because of your age and not because you just became a Christian but because you are scared to grow up. You are like Peter Pan who wants to stay a little boy forever! Or, maybe, you just have never cared to take on the responsibilities of adulthood. God has given you gifts and talents and you’ve buried them underneath fear, doubt and ambivalence. And, in doing this, you have not only affected your own relationship with God, but you’ve affected this church and you’ve affected your family. Until you start using your gifts as God intends, you, this community and your family will suffer the consequences.

“The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.” What could this community become if we used our talents and gifts according to God’s will and not our own? But, unfortunately, we are still stuck with our minds in this old world. Conformed to what we believe the world wants us to be.

Romans chapter 12, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” When it comes to our talents and gifts, what is the pattern of this world for sharing them? Well, think about it. What are the things that you are really good at? What do you use them to do?

To get paid, right? To enhance your career. To get ahead. Or maybe you write them down on your college resume so that you can get into the best schools. Perhaps you use your skills to become popular in school or calm yourself down at the end of the day. We are driven and encouraged in our society to use our skills to better our lives and gain respect from others, whether that means we are known as the best knitter in Southwestern Iowa or the most organized secretary in the company. It would appear to most people that God has given us gifts and talents so that we might live a happy and fulfilling life. They are called “gifts” after all. Gifts from God for us!

But, believe it or not, that’s not what God gave you gifts for. Even in the church, we have misused the concept of spiritual gifts to enhance our own reputations and make ourselves feel more “spiritual”. It’s so easy to be deceived into following this world’s way of thinking. But the gifts that God has given you aren’t for you, they are for the sake of someone else. Perhaps that’s why God created us to be in relationship to other people, in communities with others, so that he’d always be able to use us as his hands and feet for someone else and get us fed and supported through the hands and feet of others. Saint Paul says, “For no one lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone.”

How are your gifts used at home? How might you be a good steward of your gifts at home? Remember the reading from Romans, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Like it or not (and, by the way, I DON’T like it) do you want to know what the most “spiritual” gifts are that I can use at home? Cleaning the toilets, taking out the trash, changing diapers, fixing supper, brushing teeth and doing our monthly budget. For some reason, God has blessed me with these jobs because I can do them pretty well. And, no, they are NOT gifts for me—they are gifts for my wife and family. God gives us gifts so that we have something to GIVE to someone else. Or, as it is put in 1st Peter chapter 4, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others.” I am a “gift” to my family as far as I am willing to use my skills for their sake.

Let me explain this another way. I remember one time visiting my mom who was sick in the hospital when my parents were still married. Before we went up to the room, we stopped by the gift shop and my dad had me pick out something to give to her. I don’t remember what it was, but I do remember giving it to my mom. She smiled and said she loved it. In other words my father gave me a gift that I used for someone else. But who REALLY received the gift? My mom probably got a stuffed animal or a plant. I received the joy of giving, but my dad received the greatest gift. Seeing my mother loved and me able to show her my love.

I heard a story about what one pastor in North Dakota did to explain the story of the talents that we read today. He asked several people in his congregation to donate large sums of money for a “project” he would do at the next week’s service. He handed out five envelopes. Each envelope had $500 dollars in it. The envelopes were handed out to random people and the only rules, as far as I remember them, were this: you can use this money for any purpose you want, but you’ll have to promise to come back here next week and share with the congregation what you did with it. It was FREE money. A gift.

By the next week, the stories were astounding. People used the money for tons of different benevolences sometimes multiplying the amount ten times through matching funds and from their own pocketbooks. And while none of them used these generous gifts for themselves, they all felt like they had received quite a substantial gift in being able to give it away. Here’s the point: As long as you think that your spiritual gifts are for you, you will always feel like someone else is using you, or you HAVE to do things, or life is unfair. This is called immaturity. When couples come into my office and talk about wanting “my stuff” “my way” and that type of thing, they are normally not the 80 year olds, but the newly married. The “immature” you might say. But if you see your gifts as gifts for others, then you will start to understand what Paul is saying in Romans about your spiritual act of worship being to “offer your body as a living sacrifice.”

That’s NOT the way the world thinks is it. According to the world, you should use your gifts to make your life better. But according to God, your gifts are yours for making the lives of others better. As Jesus put it, the Son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. God has given you talents and gifts and skills because he loves you and he trusts you to use them for the sake of this world. The best gifts I’ve ever received are the ones I’ve given.

If you do not use your gifts for your calling at home, your whole family suffers. If I do not clean the bathrooms, take out the trash, change diapers and cook food, my family suffers in many diverse ways. And I will not be living out the very spiritual calling God has given me to be a good husband and father. In addition, God has called each and every one of you into this household here at Emmanuel and, beyond that, into the household of Christians on this Earth. If you, as a member of this congregation, do not start using your gifts to serve others the whole body suffers and you suffer as well. Not only that, but the world suffers and so does the name of Christ. So often, when we talk about spiritual gifts, it all about you. But God calls us to realize that he gave us these gifts, as presents to give to others.

According to the gospel of Matthew, Jesus said, “For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.” One of the best gifts I have ever been given by God is the opportunity to serve this congregation as its pastor. I love it. It’s strenuous at times, overwhelming even, but serving you and your families blesses me with love, meaning and joy. But, as many pastors in many different churches have found out, if I start becoming focused on my own abilities, on my own ego and pride thinking that God has somehow blessed me with spiritual gifts for fortune and fame, I have no doubt that God will take away this great congregation from me in an instant. It’s happened to many much more skilled pastors in much larger congregations before me. Pride comes just before the fall, they say. When your gifts become all about you, you lose their blessings.

My prayer for you and for me, is that we stop looking at our gifts, our talents and our skills like the world would have us see them: as ways to get ahead and serve ourselves. Instead, maybe we might see them as opportunities to be of some earthly good others. Because, when that becomes the truth for you, when your mind is transformed in this way, you will have received the greatest gift that God could ever give you. Amen.

Sermon for April 3rd (Stewardship of Time)

2011-05-11T08:48:00.000-07:00

(Pause 15 ten seconds) That’s the power of time. That was fifteen seconds of silence (at least from my end). Fifteen seconds. What did you imagine was going on? That I had forgotten my sermon? That I was in some kind of religious trance? That I was having some type of a mild seizure? What a powerful thing time can be.
Do you ever feel that your life is out of control? Much of the pressure, stress and fear we experience in our lives is affected by how we manage our time. We don’t know how much time we are each given in this life, but God wants us to make the most of it. However, sometimes, I think we are confused by what “making the most of time” actually means.

There are two words that are translated as “time” from Greek into English. The first is the Greek word kronos meaning chronological time. This refers to time moving ever and ever onward. It’s quantitative in nature. No matter how much I want to say today, I realize that if I don’t pay attention to the kronos, how much time is passing, someone will eventually notice and try to stop me. On the other hand, there is the Greek word kairos referring to what you might call the “right” time or the “perfect” time. When is corn ready to be harvested? Is it after a particular number of days? Well, we might count on that to an extent. But, depending on how much sun and moisture there has been, corn is ready when IT’S ready, not when we are necessarily ready. When is a baby due? We know that humans have a forty week gestational period—that’s kronos time. But when does a baby actually come? Well, at the right time for the baby—that’s kairos time.

One of the struggles we have as human beings with managing our time is differentiating between kairos time and kronos time. Most Americans understand kronos time. We work by the clock. We meet our expectations. We show up on time and stay until the final bell rings. We compartmentalize our lives so that we have exactly one hour for lunch and six and a half hours of sleep. We are efficient. If we can’t work more hours, we can at least multi-task! But we don’t always know when the “right” time is to do things or why, despite our long hours of work, we are never able to do the things we want to do.

Why is this? For a lot of reasons. We value people who “do” things in society. Just ask one of the stay-at-home moms in the room how much fun it is to answer the question, “What do you do?” We also value doing things ourselves. I can imagine that the only thing harder than having to answer that question as a mother is to answer it for themselves. After a day of fighting with kids, doing dishes, doing laundry, changing diapers, answering the phone and cooking, you look at your messy house, dirty laundry, and pile of dishes next to the huge to-do list and ask, “Did I accomplish ANYTHING today?” Sometimes, the hardest work is the work that is never finished.

Furthermore, we understand that in order to HAVE things, we need to BUY things and, in today’s society, you can’t buy as much with one income as you can with two. And you can’t buy as much with two incomes as you can with two overtime incomes. Finally, we start to believe that, as Christians, our church and even God most likely wants us to work harder, work longer and do it all with a smile. In fact, this attitude is defined as the “Protestant Work Ethic”.

But what does God say? In the book of Ecclesiastes we read, “There is a time for everything.” Do you believe that? Is there time for everything in YOUR life? Why not? The book of Ecclesiastes says “there is a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal.” This isn’t a to-do list. This is saying there is a “right” time, a kairos time, to do everything in life. By definition then, there is also a “not quite right” time to do these things as well. When managing your time, it’s important to notice what you are doing and whether it’s the right time to do it.

How about an example. When is suppertime in your house? What do you do during suppertime? Eat, right. Is that all? Probably not. What else are you doing while you are eating? Families used to sit around the dinner table and take that time to talk, to laugh, to communicate and even, believe it or not, would sometimes begin or end with a prayer or devotions. But now? Well, IF we eat together, we are watching TV at the same time, or searching for something on the internet, or working on the finishing touches of a project or driving. God says, “There is a time—a perfect time—for everything. “ Perhaps part of the problem is that there is never enough time to eat, because you are working, and there is never enough time to work, because you are eating.

One of the first steps in managing your time as God intends is to distinguish between spending time doing things and taking time to do things when the time is right to do them. You’ve heard stay-at-home parents say this very thing, “I want to be home while my children are still little.” What they are saying, in essense, is that this is the kairos time, the perfect time, to stay at home instead of working outside of the house. Other parents discover that, for them, when their children are little it is the perfect time to be able to go to work.

If you feel like your life is overwhelmed and that there is no time for anything, I challenge you for a week, a day or even a morning, to give each activity you do not just a certain amount of time, but the “right” amount of time to do it. If you are talking with your child, listen to them until they are done talking. Finish the conversation. That way you won’t have to take other time later to try and remember what it was they talked about. Pray for peace in the morning before your day becomes so hectic and unpeaceful that you don’t have time to pray. When you come home at night, give your spouse a hug until they are ready to let go. Then, maybe, you won’t be staying up later arguing about never paying attention to one another.

A second step to good stewardship of time deals with prioritizing. Are you spending your time doing the things that you want to spend time doing? In the book of Acts, the twelve disciples noticed that the widows in their church “were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food” it says. In other words, widows were not being fed because they disciples had too much to do and not enough time to do it all! So, what did they do? Work a few more hours, work a little bit more efficiently, and try harder? No. “The Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” They didn’t work more. They shared the work with someone else. What was the effect of doing this? “So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.” How we use our time can affect God’s kingdom either positively or negatively, but doing more isn’t always the most Godly thing to do.

In the book, Time For All That’s Important by Tamyra Horst, she encourages people to try this exercise: 1. Write down what the most important things are in your life—your top priorities. 2. Write out your schedule for the week listing everything you do and plan to do even things like cleaning the house, fixing meals, playing and quiet time. 3. Write your priorities on a piece of paper in columns and list your activities in their respective category. 4. Reflect on how you are spending your time now and how you would like that to change.

Finally, Jesus has taught us a lot about how to manage our time. Remember, his ministry only lasted three years. He didn’t start until the “right” time, the kairos time, when he was around 30 years old. But his short ministry changed the whole course of history. We might assume that he spent every waking moment serving, healing, preaching and doing something knowing that time was so short, but our gospel lesson today gives us a different view of what was important to Jesus, “The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, Jesus said to them . . . “Great job fellas! That’s the spirit! We’ve got a lot of work to do again today, lots of needs to address, I’m sure you can eat later but, for now, the church NEEDS you.” No! That’s not what Jesus said. The apostles were impressed by how much they got done. And yes, there were a ton of people whose needs were still important, but Jesus actually said this, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest. So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.”

In Jesus’ mind, there was a time to work, a time to minister, and a time to rest and be quiet. Your life may be so impossible and out of control NOT because you don’t prioritize or give activities their needed attention, but because all you do is work-work-work. Even in your rest time, you work silently in your head. You are talking while you drive and texting while you eat. God does not want you to do this! Of all the things to write down about what Jesus did on this earth, isn’t it interesting that this episode is one of them? Why? Because it is important to rest, to recuperate, to be quiet and to sleep. Saying “Yes” to everything doesn’t make you more holy and Christian. Sometimes saying, “No” is the most Christian thing you can do. Sometimes saying “NO” and taking time to rest is what God intends for you to do even if it looks selfish to those on the outside.

God intends on you to have time to rest in your life. Have you ever wondered why the Bible tells us there were seven days of creation even though God only worked for six? I mean, it would have been more impressive to make the world is six days than seven, right? And yet, God knew that we needed to see how important rest was in our lives. The third commandment calls us to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. We are to take time out of our week to rest, to be quiet and to worship God. To stop speaking and to listen instead. To stop doing and just be still and know that God is God and we are not.

At the end of the story in the gospel of Mark, Jesus showed us what happens when we rest. The text says that even though Jesus and his disciples left to be alone, the crowd ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. Sometimes saying, “No” to people doesn’t mean they won’t still try and make you help them and use up your time!. The needs are still there. But it is only by trusting in the miraculous power of God that the disciples actually do what God is calling them to do. They have to just sit there, wait, be quiet and listen while God feeds these five thousand people miraculously. What can we learn from this? We don’t accomplish everything through our work. In fact, we don’t need to accomplish everything. Part of the Christian life is to wait for God to do HIS work on HIS schedule in his perfect kairos time and then worship Him for what He has done.

Time is powerful. How you use your time not only affects you, it affects others, it affects your relationship with God and it even affects God’s kingdom. So, perhaps today is the right time, the perfect time, the kairos time to start managing your time as God intended. Don’t just spend time doing things, do things at the right time, do things according to the priorities and values you hold dear and then, finally, take time to rest and trust God to work powerfully in your life in His time. Amen.

Sermon for March 27th (Stewardship of Money)

2011-03-29T16:36:00.001-07:00

Let’s look at the gospel story from the gospel of Luke that was read earlier this morning. It is the story of the rich young ruler, “A certain ruler asked Jesus, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’” “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

In the gospel of Luke, this is the second time that someone has asked Jesus this question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” The first time was back in the 10th chapter when an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. In that story, Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan.

How are these two passages similar and how are they different? The same question is asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life, but there is a difference between these two passages as well, namely, where Jesus ends up sending each person. With the teacher of the law, Jesus calls on him to be merciful. Why? Perhaps it is because, as a teacher of the law, this man would have been focused on justice and righteousness and easily would have lost track of love and mercy.

So when a lawyer comes to Jesus asking how to inherit eternal life, Jesus knows where this man’s treasure lies: in keeping the law, in fairness, in justice! So, of course, he calls on him to seek not simply justice but mercy, not only fairness, but love. Have you ever been angry after hearing the story of the Good Samaritan and said, “How unreasonable! To have to help out my neighbor even though they might not deserve it! That’s impossible!” I’ve never heard a reaction like that. We all understand that necessity of mercy, the importance of taking care of those less fortunate even if it’s difficult. So then, why is today’s story met with a different reaction?

In today’s story, the person asking the questions is not a lawyer, but a rich young ruler it says. He’s got youth, he’s got money and he’s got power. This time, Jesus does not call on him to be merciful. Is it because mercy is no longer important to Jesus? Well, no, that’s not why. For the rich young ruler, Jesus understands that his treasure lies in those very things that even our society today still looks at as beneficial: youth, money and power. If Jesus had sent this man to take care of his neighbors, like he did with the lawyer, I bet that it would have been simple to do. He would have had the energy, since he was young. He would have had the time to do it, since he had the power and he would have had the funds to give a lot away and still have some left over since he had so much money. So Jesus asked him to do that which would have been the hardest for him: “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

Just a quick question before we move on: How would you feel about being asked to do that? To sell everything you have and give it to the poor in order to inherit eternal life? Doesn’t that seem utterly unreasonable?! Impossible? Doesn’t it seem inherently wrong to ask so hard a thing? I want you to ask yourself this question, “Who are you more like? The lawyer? Or the rich young ruler?

Back to the story. Isn’t interesting how Jesus starts his statement about selling everything to the poor by saying, “You still lack one thing.” LACK one thing. What could this guy lack? He’s got youth. He’s got power. He’s got money! What else could this guy need? Well, look in the mirror. What do YOU need? You’ve GOT everything. I know, I know. Not EVERYTHING. Not EVERYTHING you want. You have to work hard for your money. You need a new car. The kids need braces. You barely make ends meet. I understand that. But let’s be honest.

I looked up some statistics. Our average income in Adair county is a little under 43,000 a year (pretty low compared to the rest of Iowa which is around 48,000). Some of you are no doubt higher and some lower. The poverty level in America at this time, for a family of four, is a little over 22,000. That means that, making less than 22,000 a year, you would have trouble meeting your basic needs according to the federal government. What about compared to the rest of the world? Comparing the whole of humanity and trying to keep a similar basis of the dollar, it would be as if 80% of the world’s humanity was living on less than 10 dollars a day. That would be $3650 a year. I know, I know, we all could use a new car and gas prices are really tough right now but who are we like in the eyes of 80% of the world’s population? The rich young ruler. So, what do YOU lack in your life?

Still not sure? In another reading from today in proverbs 23 we hear this, “When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what is before you and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony”. What does that mean? Gluttony means to just eat without noticing the food or the consequences of eating that food. Think about a buffet, where you get to eat as much as you can eat just because it says you can (even though you weren’t that hungry in the first place). Gluttony doesn’t simply mean eating a lot, it’s a matter of not paying attention to the blessings God is feeding you with.

And this can happen with money too, “Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness.” Sometimes, we believe that just because we CAN get money that we should do so and, in so doing, we find ourselves turning into people we do not like. For example, a good husband and father finds that he has a knack for working longer and harder than the rest of the people in his business and, thus, can make more money than all of them. By making more money, he can buy his wife the clothes she wants and his children the toys they want. On the down side, he is never home to enjoy his family which isn’t really want he wanted either. But, he never noticed what the consequences were, he just thought about it like an “all you can eat buffet”. If I can make more money, therefore, I should. He thought that he valued money more than time with his family. Possessions over experiences. Money over meaning. And despite everything he has, he still misses a lot.

God says, “Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.” What is this talking about? How about our most recent economic downturn? How quickly did your retirement accounts “fly off to the sky like an eagle?” or shall we say drop into the bottom of the sea like a 100 pounds of deadweight. Was it because you didn’t work as hard? Probably not. Was it because you invested poorly? Well, I guess if you did, so did everyone else in America, right? If the stock market crashed or you lost your job. If you lost your wealth and your money, would your good mood fly away too? Will your peace leave as soon as your money does? Like the rich young ruler in today’s story, maybe you have misplaced your treasure. What do you still lack?

Among all the treasures of this life, the rich young ruler lacks one singularly precious treasure—the treasure of heaven. Jesus tells the young ruler to get rid of those things that he thought were so important, his possessions and his money and, instead, become rich in meaning, become rich in experiences, become rich in faith. Do you notice that Jesus doesn’t just send the kid away and tell him to sell all he has and live like a hermit in a shack on the outskirts of town? No, he says, “Sell all you have and then come, follow me.” This is an opportunity like none other! We might have been talking about the 13th disciple here had the rich young ruler done what was asked of him. Instead, he became very sad because his possessions, his money, his youth and his power were more important to him than anything else. Even more than a once of a lifetime experience with Jesus. What would you have chosen?

We have choices in our lives. We can use money to buy safety and possession or we can use money to create meaning and purpose for our lives and for the lives of others. I had a choice today. I could have tried to convince all of you that you should just give a little more than what you have been giving. I could have explained to all of you that God has blessed you with abundance and you had extra to give. And if I had made that choice, it might have worked. You would have given more. You would have tried harder. You would have felt better.

But that isn’t what Jesus asked the rich young ruler in this story and it’s not what he would ask you or I were he standing here face to face with us. We are the rich young rulers in this world and, while that is a great blessing, we’ve taken and taken from the all you can eat buffet and haven’t realized how hungry we are for meaning, purpose, joy and faith in our lives. That’s why my friends from Ethiopia and Tanzania would say that Americans are rich in material things but poor spiritually. That’s why they felt they needed to send missionaries here to America to help us even though we thought we had everything we needed because they know, like Jesus, that we still lack one thing. Jesus doesn’t want your money, he wants your heart. He wants a full relationship with you.

Giving is a privilege. It’s not something that we are forced to do, it’s something that we have an opportunity to do. In 2nd Corinthians, chapter 8, the Macedonians are said to have urgently pleaded to have the privilege of giving. Nobody wants to be known as being bad at making money in America and yet so many of us accept mediocrity in giving. Giving is not a command, it is an opportunity. Don’t miss the opportunity to become rich in meaning, in purpose and in faith by giving. If you’ve ever given a gift that cannot be repaid, you know how rich it makes you feel.

When you look at money, what do you see? I pray that you see opportunities. Opportunities to use all of it—all of it!—for God’s sake in order to create a life full of meaning and purpose. You’ll still buy food for your family and go to baseball games with your kids (God still wants you to love and cherish your family) but you’ll also be aware that, instead of buying a bigger car, or a newer technological gadget, you’d probably be more happy by using that extra money to sponsor an impoverished child, buy groceries for another family in need, or maybe save up and buy a car for someone who doesn’t even have one. God doesn’t want you to be chained to wealth by your love of money—he wants you to be free to use it as creatively as your love can imagine.

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” Jesus never asked for somebody else to die instead of him so that he could keep the riches of divinity. Jesus never asked if he could just give you 10% of eternal life—if that would be enough to make his Father happy. He gave all he had to make you rich. Maybe you’ve put your treasure in the wrong place up until now. Hear this: every dollar you have right now is a new opportunity to create a life full of meaning, faith and purpose. So that your life on this earth isn’t just blessed with the abundance of God’s blessings, but so that heaven is full of your treasure as well. Amen.

Sermon for March 20th (Church Discipline : How?)

2011-03-20T10:01:00.000-07:00

“Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.” Last week, I talked to you about the importance of having boundaries even in a faith community—especially in a faith community. I showed you how, in the Bible, God’s discipline is considered a necessary part of life to reflect his love and concern for His children. We were encouraged, through readings by the apostle Paul, to follow God’s call to hold people in our faith community accountable for actions that go against the clear commands of God. Why? Because our actions as a Christians can either lead others TO Christ or lead them AWAY from Christ and our community is called to love both God’s holy name and the well-being of our friends and neighbors.

Today, the question is not “Why?” is there church discipline but instead “How?” How does a church effectively discipline a member? How might you, as an individual, privately confront a Christian friend, family member or acquaintance while at the same time not being tempted to sin yourself. Finally, we need to understand how we might respond ourselves if we are ever disciplined by someone else or even by the church itself.

Jesus explains the first step in how to do church discipline in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 18, “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.” Let’s just stop there. Do you hear the hope in these words? That hope is the point of all this talk about church discipline. It is the good news in all of this. In Ezekiel, God maintains that forgiveness and reconciliation are always His main goal in the life of every person, “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? Declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and life?” We should all be pleased, thrilled and overjoyed when a sin is pointed out and then stopped. Jesus said, “If they listen to you, you have won them over” but I’d say that whenever a person stops sinning and repents we ALL win.

Jesus explains what to do when you see or experience another Christian in your community acting sinfully in a public way (especially if it has happened more than one): Confront the person privately and gently. Understand this: if you are more interested in talking ABOUT a person’s sins with others and have no intention of going to them face to face, you are under the same judgment as they are. Church Discipline is always—ALWAYS—about creating peace and harmony again within a community rather than belittling someone, making someone feel guilty, putting them down before others or making oneself look better. Paul points out in Galatians chapter 6, “you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you may also be tempted.” Church discipline is done for the good of the person being confronted, so that they might find themselves back in a good relationship with God. It is not done in order to pit the church against someone or one group against another.

It is a temptation to become prideful, arrogant and judgmental of a person when you are confronting them about a sin so WATCH OUT. If you are out for revenge or to “make an example of them” you’d be better off to leave the discipline to someone else rather than be a divisive influence on your community. In the book of Titus, we read, “Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that have nothing to do with him. You may be sure such a man is warped and sinful; he is self condemned.” My internship supervisor always said that when you point the finger at someone else, there are three fingers pointing back at you. With that in mind, if you care enough about someone else that you feel the need to confront them about a sin, do it gently and with great humility as one broken down sinner speaking to another. Remember this: the only hope either of you have lies in the blood of Jesus on the cross.

It is also important that we are graceful with people and do not start calling everything a sin. Let’s take gossip for instance. This sin can be very destructive in a community and we want to be careful about it. However, I want you all to understand that it is important to be able to confide in other people. We have a need, as human beings, to tell our problems to other caring individuals as well as to seek advice and counsel from other Christians. That’s what friends and family are for. Maybe you’ve been upset with someone for something that they have done to you. Telling you spouse, or pastor, or friend is not gossip as long as you are not trying to tell everyone you see. We must be careful to discern what is a sin and what is not. However, if you are the hearer you have a responsibility and a warning.

You are responsible to hold these feelings, this hurt, this anger, this frustration and this helplessness confidentially. “Carry each other’s burdens,” Saint Paul says, “and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” If someone comes to you hurt and angry with another person, don’t immediately judge them. Listen to them, pray with them, counsel with them if you desire, but explain that, while you will share their burden, you will not give it away to others. Gossip only occurs when people are not willing to carry burdens, but want to spread it around. In that case, gossip becomes a very infectious disease. It’s difficult not to want to take a shared burden and turn it intojuicy gossip that others are interested in. It’s hard not to find yourself burning in anger after hearing one side of a story that seems unjust. But if you are not willing to carry someone’s burden confidentially, tell them so, so that you do not risk falling into sin. Sometimes church discipline means self-discipline.

After confronting a person about a sin one on one, Jesus says to “take one or two others along, so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.” What is the purpose of this step? To present the opportunity for reconciliation again! We must always hold out hope for repentance and forgiveness even when all things seem out of control. Having another person in the room holds all accountable for their words and having another person there to mediate can sometimes make all the difference. Once again, don’t do this to gang up on someone. In fact, don’t do it at all if your goal is not reconciliation and restoration.

Jesus says, “If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.” First of all, can you see that any public church discipline wouldn’t happen until more private actions have failed? Remember Saint Paul’s words, “If someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.”

This is an especially important point to make clear: a faith community is not a police state. Do you understand this? We are sinners, not perfect people. Mistakes will be made, morals compromised and sins committed over and over again both in private and in public by all of us. We aren’t looking for a community of tattle-tales or whistle-blowers who care more about their own self-righteous pride than good relationships with others. Jesus talks about this kind of church in the second chapter of Revelation, the church in Ephesus, “I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.” In our efforts to hold one another accountable, it will be easy to forget to love one another. In our efforts to judge one another, we might forget to forgive and, thus, miss the entire point.

Saint Paul says this another way in the book of 2nd Thessalonians, “If anyone does not obey our instructions in this letter, take special not of him. Do not associate with him, in order that he may feel ashamed. Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.” Do not regard each other as enemies, but as brothers and sisters in Christ even if you believe that your brother or sister is sinning against you! Church Discipline must be done out of love, respect and compassion and never out of anger, self-righteousness or revenge. “Watch yourselves or you will be tempted to sin.”

Finally, I must briefly talk about how to deal with church discipline if you are the one disciplined. We all come under God’s judgment for our sins, both known and unknown to others. (Examples of Adam, Cain and Judas)

On the other hand, King David was famously confronted by the prophet Nathan after having an affair with a woman and then killing her husband. After Nathan called him out on his sin, what did the most powerful man in the nation do? You see, David didn’t have to listen. He could’ve gotten angry and killed or imprisoned the prophet for his judgmental words. I mean, David was king! He could do whatever he wanted! But, instead, what did David do? First, he confessed his sin before his friend and admitted his wrongdoing, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.”

King David repented of his sins. He was punished for them by God, just as you and I sometimes bear the consequences of our sins years after we have stopped doing them, but his relationship with God was right again. If you feel God’s conviction on your heart right now for something you have done, or not done, for someone you have hurt or abused, the time has come to repent. Don’t wait for someone to call you to be accountable for it, confess your sins to God right now. He is slow to anger and abounding is steadfast love. And don’t just do it silently saying, “Well, God’s forgiven me!” Confess your sin before the ones you have hurt and do all you can to restore the relationships. Ask for their forgiveness. Turn away from this sin and turn back to life. Jesus came not for the righteous but sinners. Today, you are free to leave the darkness behind you and come into the light of Jesus Christ. We don’t come into church as perfect people, we come in broken and crippled with sin. Listen to the words of the son we are about to hear: (This is where the Healing Begins verse 1) As the song points out, you don’t come into a church already healed, but this place can be where your healing begins. Amen.

Sermon for March 13th (Church Discipline: Why?)

2011-03-17T16:07:00.000-07:00

Who were the lights in your life that lit your way to follow Jesus? What do you remember about them? Was it your Father who came to church every single week? Your grandpa who always treated his family with love and respect? When did you learn what being a Christian meant? Was it from a friend or a pastor? No one comes to faith by themselves without someone planting the seed, lighting the path, setting the example or leading the way. That’s why so many of the Bible’s laws are relational—referring to the necessity of good relationships with one another. We are all a part of the same community of faith. Jesus says, “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works and praise your Father in heaven.” Your example glorifies God! Your example leads people to Christ.

Unfortunately, since we are always in relationship to one another, we can also have a very negative effect on those we come in contact with. If good deeds shine like a light before others resulting in the praise of God, imagine what dark deeds done out of evil desires create . . . blasphemy of God? The cursing of God? Unbelief?

Most new parents understand quite quickly how much of an impact they have on their children. After 2 or 3 years of hearing Daddy swear at traffic, the same words are used quite freely from the backseat. Why? “Well, Daddy says it!” In the church, the same predicament occurs but more insidiously, because while Daddy can punish his child for her profane outburst, it’s hard to tell who is watching us in the community. How can we know who our actions affect?

Today’s message is about Church Discipline. What is church discipline and what is it’s purpose? Should we ever risk judging another person’s actions as “wrong”? It’s a free country, right? “Judge not, lest ye be judged” so the Bible says. But is that ALL the Bible says? Paul points out in 1st Corinthians chapter 5, “What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?” Christians are commanded to judge other Christians, or as it’s usually put, we are supposed to hold one another accountable.

Church discipline is a church’s response to some perceived wrong in terms of action or doctrine by one of its members. It is the process by which a church agrees to hold someone, or a group of people, accountable in some way to speak and act according to the set of values they have previously professed to believe in. Church discipline might mean being lovingly confronted by a friend about a sin. Other times, it might mean being asked to step out of leadership, for a time, because of bad behavior. This happens most often when pastors are asked to step down from their positions because of unchristian indiscretions. Church discipline could even mean breaking fellowship with another member because of their continued and persistent sinful behavior despite numerous warnings.

In our church Constitution here at Emmanuel, there is a section describing when discipline is needed, “Denial of the Christian faith as described in this constitution, conduct grossly unbecoming a member of the Church of Christ, or persistent trouble-making in the congregation are sufficient cause for discipline of a member.” Well, great. But why would we ever risk doing it!? Risk hurting someone’s feelings or being called judgmental? Why does it matter? Why is it so important? Shouldn’t we be open and welcoming and forgiving and tolerant of all behaviors? Isn’t this a place for sinners? Yes, it is. A place for sinners. But if we cannot openly hold each other accountable for our sins, then who will want forgiveness for those sins? This is NOT just another sinner’s hangout. This is the forgiveness place.

“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.” The writer of Hebrews says, “Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:5-11) “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.” We know we are truly God’s child when He opens our eyes to see when we have done something wrong.

That’s why discipline is important. It can produce righteousness and peace in our lives. When we are given boundaries, they help us feel safe in our surroundings and help us live in harmony with the rest of humanity. Who would want to come to a church if they perceived the great likelihood that they might be publically slandered if they got on the wrong side of the wrong person or family? But if they knew they would be protected from such actions, that there was a moral code, that there were consequences for such unchristian behavior, maybe they’d take the risk.

The Bible says that one day God will judge all of us for what we have done in our lives. But, in the book of Ezekiel, we also read that we all have a very personal responsibility as people of faith to hold one another accountable for acting according to what we believe, “When I say to a wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself.” Yes, God will judge everyone some day, whether we say anything or not, but he promises that he will judge us negatively if we do not say anything to protect others from their harmful choices.

In the book Boundaries by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend, they write, “In reality setting limites on others is a misnomer. We can’t do that. What we can do is set limits on our own exposure to people who are behaving poorly; we can’t change them or make them behave right. Our model is God. God sets standards, but he lets people be who they are and then separates himself from them when they misbehave, saying in effect, ‘You can be that way if you choose, but you cannot come into my house.’ Heaven is a place for the repentant, and all are welcome. But God limits his exposure to evil, unrepentant people, as should we. Scripture is full of admonitions to separate ourselves from people who act in destructive ways. We are not being unloving. Separating ourselves protects love, because we are taking a stand against things that destroy love.”

Why do we have to set boundaries in the church? To protect love. Have any of you ever lived through abuse or known someone who has? You think, you believe, at first, that you are being loving, tolerant, forgiving by allowing the abuse to continue when, in fact, you begin hating—HATING!—the abuser. Not setting up a boundary doesn’t nourish love, it creates hatred. Without boundaries, limits and discipline put in place, love cannot grow out of such evil soil.

In the fifth chapter of 1st Corinthians there is this odd little phrase that really captures the predicament we are in in our modern churches. Paul explains, “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: a man has his father’s wife. And you are so proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this?” And you are so proud! Doesn’t that seem like an odd statement?

And yet, aren’t we proud that we are welcoming, tolerant and loving congregation? I am. I want to be a pastor who is seen as loving. It hurts me, I grieve, when I have to point out someone’s sin to them because I feel judgmental, like they won’t like me, like I might hurt their feelings. It seems a lot easier to just accept the wrongdoing and go on with life. But Paul says here that we have got it all backwards. We should be loving enough as a congregation to call people accountable for what they say they believe in.

Now if they don’t confess to be Christians it’s not our job. Maybe you are just here visiting Emmanuel and checking out what this Christian thing is all about. You are not under any obligations to follow some code you know nothing about. The apostle Paul says that God is your judge, but we can’t be. But we are to hold people accountable when they say that they believe in something but then don’t live in accordance with that believe. And if we don’t do this, we shouldn’t be proud, we should be grieving because people might think that we don’t really believe what we say we believe in.

In the notes of my NIV study Bible, there is an excellent explanation of why church discipline is so important. This is what it says, “Calling oneself a Christian while continuing to live an immoral life is reprehensible and degrading, and gives a false testimony to Christ. If the true Christian has intimate association with someone who does this, the non-Christian world may assume that the church approves such immoral, ungodly living and thus the name of Christ would be dishonored.”

This world has many people who do not know the truth of Jesus Christ. They do not believe that he is the way, the truth and the life. They cannot believe that they could be loved by another human being let alone by the Lord of Heaven and Earth. We can’t expect someone to walk through our doors and live according to God’s laws? They may not even believe God exists! But, if you are going to say that you believe in Jesus Christ, you should expect to be held accountable to that confession. If you publically worship at a pagan shrine, you should expect to be questioned about that. If you confess that you believe in the commandments within the Bible, and yet, in public, you are sexually immoral or greedy, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard or a swindler, you should expect to be lovingly called away from your sins. Now none of us are perfect people. And a person can only see those sins that are public. Only God knows all the awful desires swimming around in all of our hearts. But if you display these sins for all the world to see, you should expect to be confronted by people who love you and love the God whose name you carry.

During this season of Lent, it is time for all of us, from the youngest to the oldest, to accept responsibility and discipline for our sins. There are no perfect people here, just sinners like you and me, struggling to follow God’s will in an imperfect way. The goal of God’s discipline is ALWAYS repentance, not separation. God wants us all to admit our sins, try to stop doing them and ask forgiveness for what has been done. When we refuse to do this on our own, God might call on the church to intervene until we are ready to repent, but the goal is still ALWAYS repentance and forgiveness. Maybe today, you feel the weight of your sins. Maybe you fear that the church has a good cause to discipline you. Have no fear. When you confess your sins, God is faithful and just and forgives your sins, cleansing you from all unrighteousness. Because Jesus died on the cross for you, your sins are forgiven no matter how many times you have failed before and may fail again. Church discipline is only a tool that God uses to hold us accountable to live as lights for the faith of others. Repentant, forgiven sinners, like you and me, make the best lights, you see, so that others might see how gracious and merciful God can be and give glory to our Father in heaven.

Sermon for March 6th (Praying in the Spirit)

2011-03-17T16:05:00.000-07:00

What does it mean to speak in tongues? I’d bet you that most people don’t have a clue. But what is distressing is that a great number of Christians don’t know either. Why is that a problem? Because it is written about, in several places, in the Bible! That’s right! Our Bible. Not some OTHER church’s Bible, it’s written about in every single Bible out there. And yet, speaking in tongues has gotten a really bad rap in many mainline Christian denominations. When I hear people talk about speaking in tongues, it’s often done in hushed tones as if they don’t want anybody to know that they are involved in any such thing or even thinking about it. Lutherans often give off the impression that they are too “cultivated and realistic” in their Christianity than to give speaking in tongues too much thought. We leave it to those wild and crazy Pentacostals (who, by the way, own the fastest growing Christian denomination in the world).

My goal today is to do two things: First, to help you see that speaking in tongues is NOT some abnormal spiritual gift. It is no worse than any other gift of God spoken about in the Bible such as hospitality, evangelism, prayer or artistic ability. Second, I want to impress upon you all that speaking in tongues in no better than any other spiritual gift. You are NOT saved by speaking in tongues and it does not PROVE that you are a Christian any more than a Christian is proved by their ability to evangelize, but, just as true, speaking in tongues is not a “weird” gift . . . it should be considered normal for the Christian life. In fact, this spiritual gift is part of our armor, the protection that God provides for us to fight the Devil’s schemes. So, we should not only know about it, we should desire to do it.

Paul says as much in the 14th chapter of his first letter to the Corinthian church. He points out, “I would like every one of you to speak in tongues.” Now, were you all aware of that!? That Saint Paul wants you speak in tongues? Does that surprise you?

Speaking in tongues can mean one of two things based on what we read in the Bible. First, it means speaking in a language that someone else understands but you do not, another earthly language you might say. This happened most famously at Pentecost according to the book of Acts (2), “When the day of Pentecost came they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.” In other words, the Holy Spirit might give the ability to communicate the gospel message to someone in a language you cannot speak. This would be a sign for an unbeliever, according to Saint Paul, that God was truly real and active in this world. You can’t fake speaking another language that you don’t know.

A second understanding of speaking in tongues is to speak in a language that perhaps only God understands. Paul says it this way in Romans, “We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express”. In 1st Corinthians 14, Paul writes that “anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit.”

I was not always comfortable with the concept of speaking in tongues. In fact, it’s only been in the last several years as I became more and more focused on prayer and healing prayer that I really encountered people who would talk about this with me. I knew that speaking in tongues was somewhere in the Bible but, honestly, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you where. It was like this mysterious activity that I didn’t think good little Lutheran boys like me messed around with. But someone asked me once if I had what they called a “personal prayer language”. What was that? I asked. Well, they explained, do you sometimes pray to God in a way that no one else would understand if they were sitting right there in the room. When you are praying about something very difficult or heart-wrenching, do you sometimes feel like you don’t have the words to say and wish you could keep going and just keep praying anyway knowing that God understands? I thought about it and, yes, there were times where I prayed and just couldn’t express myself with words, but I still wanted to pray and (sometimes) I did. But was that speaking in tongues? That wasn’t THAT big of a deal was it?

They encouraged me to try it out some time. The next time I got to a difficult prayer where I was just so sad, or so happy or so confused that I didn’t know what to say, they encouraged me to stop worrying about saying the right words and keep praying anyway. So, when I got back to my office, and the door was closed, and I knew that nobody was listening except for God. I started praying. I asked God to help me to trust him enough to feel silly. I asked God to keep me faithful to His Word and not rest on my own understanding. And then I took the risk and just started making what I would call sounds. Just sorta babbling. I wondered if I was just making them up at first and, who knows, maybe I was, I don’t know, but, as I continued, it was just so freeing to express the feelings I was feeling to God without worrying about saying just the right thing.

I don’t always know what to say to God. Sometimes I’m so grateful that a simple thank-you just doesn’t seem to cut it. Sometimes I get the feeling that I need some extra strength but I don’t know for what. So, I trust what the scripture says, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. Nowadays, when I don’t know what to pray, I let the Spirit pray for me.

“Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Prayer is a necessary part of this armor. There is too much that our humanity just cannot bear in this world. We are welcoming today a group from Lutheran church of Hope in Des Moines who we joined for a mission trip to El Paso Texas two weeks ago. While El Paso is the safest city in the country, just across the border is the most dangerous city in the world in Juarez, Mexico where they average 8 murders a day. 8 murders a day! Where can you start in praying for something like that? What do you say? How can you express the feelings of fear, anger, frustration and even hope in a situation like that?

What about when you are in love with someone who is dying, whether it is from cancer or some other dreaded disease, you see them suffering and you wish that they could just go to be with God, but you cannot imagine a moment of your life without them. What words can you say to pray about that? When we come up against some great evil, against hopeless situations, against a God who is hidden in the suffering of this world, it is a great comfort when you can trust the Holy Spirit to pray for you, to ask God for those things that only God knows you need. Sometimes, it is the only armor, the only defense, the only weapon that you have against despair. Speaking in tongues is a wonderful spiritual comfort at times like this

God equips us all to pray in his Spirit, to speak in tongues, as part of our armor, but that doesn’t mean that we all have the GIFT of speaking in tongues though. Do you understand the difference? We all have Christian responsibilities, but we may not have gifts in those areas. For instance, there is a gift of evangelism. Some people love to share Christ’s love with others and are successfully leading people to faith while others aren’t doing that much; but everyone is called to defend their faith before others even if they don’t feel they have a “gift” for it. We are all called to pray as well, whether or not we feel like we are “gifted” pray-ers; however, some will pray much more often and find that their prayers often bear much fruit—that is the gift of prayer. If you try to speak in tongues this week and find yourself wanting to speak in tongues all the time, you may have a gift for it. Let me know.

This is the last week of the Armor of God series. Next week, we will send Jeffrey, our little mannequin here, back home. But please don’t forget what you have learned. This armor is something that we have all been given to defend ourselves and our church against the Devil and His schemes. But there are two roads that we can take when we use these things. A glory road and the road to the cross.

Speaking in tongues is a wonderful and normal part of the Christian life, but it is no better than any other gift; in fact, Paul says, “I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy.” What does he mean by that? He explains, “Anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him, he utters mysteries with his spirit. But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement, and comfort.” Prophesy means to speak God’s truth to people. In one book I read, it said that someone with the gift of prophecy can “serve as the vehicle for a divine message regarding a concrete situation.” Remember that spiritual gifts are meant to strengthen the community above all else and not just to simply comfort ourselves. So, in other words, while speaking in tongues often doesn’t make sense to people (unless they can interpret), prophesy is a gift that make God’s will very clear to people and that is what’s most desired. Because speaking in tongues is such a different experience for most of us, those who have this gift can become prideful towards those who don’t have it. But the apostle Paul says that God’s glory is much more important than our glory.

We must follow the cross road and not the glory road. For instance, the breastplate of righteousness is meant to protect us from ourselves. We live a righteous life to keep us from sin, but we put on Christ’s righteousness to keep us from being self-righteous before God. We aren’t doing the right thing to make us look good, but to be a good witness to God’s glory. The sword of the spirit, the Word of God, the Bible, is a weapon to use against the Devil as he attacks us to accuse and condemn . . . it is not meant to use as a weapon against those whom you disagree with in the church or community. When we put on God’s armor and when we speak in tongues, we must remember that these are gifts from God for the upbuilding of the church, not for our own glory. They do not bring us glory, they are meant to bring God glory. God’s armor protects us on our road to the cross.

There is a story in the Bible, about a time when Jesus walked up a mountainside with three of his disciples and his clothes turned shining white, whiter than lighting, and God’s glory shone all around them. The disciples wanted to stay up there on that mountain, where they saw God’s glory, forever. But Jesus said that they had to leave, to go the path of suffering to Jerusalem where he would be crucified. By the time I see most of you again, we will have begun Lent, a time of repentance. We will focus on Jesus’ road to the cross and on how we are called to suffer with him in our lives by carrying our own crosses. If you can remember nothing else about the armor of God, about speaking in tongues, rember this: Putting on the full armor of God, praying in the spirit, these things do not keep you from suffering in your life or from experiencing persecution, they give you the protection and strength to follow God’s call through suffering so that you might carry the cross in your life. God is calling you into a world full of temptations and suffering, but when you put your trust in Him, in His protection and in His gifts—in your daily life and even in your prayer life—you are not walking alone. You are living under the power of God himself. The Armor of God is yours. It is a gift of God.

Sermon for February 12th (Shield of Faith)

2011-03-04T14:12:00.000-08:00

This Sunday, the topic is the shield of faith. But what is that? You see, I come up with these sermon topics like two months ahead of time and I know that God is calling me to preach on the armor of God, but then I get to this week and I’m like—what was I thinking! I didn’t know what a shield of faith was exactly and I’m supposed to tell you. You trust me to do that. To read the Bible and to give that message to you. That’s my job. So let me take you where I went this week and I pray that God’s Holy Spirit works in your heart like it did through mine from what I found.

Ephesians 6, “Take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” What is Paul trying to tell us by calling faith a shield? A Roman soldier didn’t just carry around a shield on his back to look pretty, he had to be able to use it. Soldiers were not simply trained on how to use their swords, but they were trained on how to use their shields as well.
Think of all the things you can use a shield to do: You could push an enemy back with it, block swords with it or deflect arrows. The outside of the shield was made of leather which a soldier could douse with water so that not only would it protect from arrows, it would put them out if they were burning. You see, an arrow lodged in your chest, well, that would hurt. But enemies would sometimes wrap an arrow with a rag dipped in oil and light that rag on fire so that you were not only cut if you were shot at but then your clothes might catch on fire! These battles weren’t jokes and neither is the battle with the devil. He’s not just out to hurt you, but to destroy you.

I’ve explained what shields can do, but what can a shield of faith do? For that answer, we need to look at scripture. Faith gives life according to Romans, “The righteous will live by faith.” Faith frees us according to Galatians, “Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.” Faith actively heals according to the gospel of Matthew, “Take heart daughter,” Jesus said, ‘your faith has healed you.’ Faith can also be used to heal others: “Then Jesus answered, ‘Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.’ And her daughter was healed from that very hour.”

In Matthew chapter 17, the disciples were given authority to drive out demons, but they found one that they couldn’t drive out. Jesus says that they couldn’t do it, “Because you have so little faith” he says. Because according to scripture, “If you believe (if you have faith), you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” “And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up.” The Devil attacks us with guilt, doubt, demonic oppression, sickness, disease, and the accusation of hell. But the shield of faith promises us protection from these deadly attacks.

But here’s the thing. Do we do all that stuff? Do we use our faith to do these things? I have to ask myself: do I ever USE my faith or just thank God I have it and leave it at that. What about you? Have you been carrying around a faith that might be “dead” as James calls it. A shield of faith that just hangs around your neck and never gets used. A faith that you hold onto like a binky, a pacifier, for comfort, but you never even think to take it out for a spin? We go off to work and say yeah, I’ve got faith, my shield of faith is lying on the floor at home by my bed. I got that when I was confirmed or baptized—I’m sure I’ll be protected. But is that what the Bible says about faith? James says, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has not deeds? Can such faith save him?” Faith MUST be living and active—it’s the definition of faith. To be used for protection, it needs to be practiced with and developed and used.

In 1st Corinthians, Paul says that there are some who say that they have faith, but that there is no resurrection of the dead. What!? He says, “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” You’ve heard this before. Yeah, I’m a Christian. I go to church. But I don’t believe EVERYTHING in the Bible. Jesus might not be the ONLY way to eternal life. I don’t HAVE to pray. I don’t HAVE to read my Bible to be a Christian. Really? Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me you evildoers!” Is your faith in your own faith or in your relationship with God?

Do you reflect your faith in your actions? Do you have faith in a God who hates sexual immorality, but continue looking at pornography or living with your girlfriend or boyfriend? Do you have faith in Jesus who DIED to forgive you, but still can’t forgive your friend, your spouse, or your enemy? Do you have faith in a God who gave you all that you have, but you throw in a five dollar bill every single week for the offering? Is your faith in Jesus Christ, or is your faith in what you’d prefer Jesus to look like?

It’s really easy to think of faith as a way of thinking, a way of thinking about things, a set of rules and doctrines, a common set of beliefs, but it’s not. It’s not really about thinking or about “feeling” something is right or not. It’s about a relationship. Faith isn’t a substance, it’s about trust. If you asked me why I love my children, I could tell you logically why: Sophia is so loving, smart and creative. Malachi has a terrific laugh and he is so kind and compassionate. Micah is a lovable little boy who is just the best behaved little baby ever. But, when Micah screams and cannot be consoled. When Malachi is thoughtless and whiny. When Sophia is selfish and rude, there is no logical reason to love them . . . but I still do because I’m their dad. This is a relationship that I cannot fully comprehend.

Faith means to put your trust in Jesus Christ and to have an ongoing relationship with him. There are some days when this may very logical: Well, if God really did create heaven, earth and me, then I should love him . . . he deserves it. Or, Jesus died for me, that was pretty nice, I will love him back. Or, I would have never survived that car wreck had it not been for the grace of God. Those kind of statements involve our thoughts, our mind and our reason. That’s great! But there are other times when faith doesn’t always make sense. When despite all the suffering you’re going through, you just know that God still loves you or when you don’t have time to go to church, but if you don’t, you know the rest of your week just won’t be right. Ephesians says that faith is a gift from God. Just like my kids are a gift from God. If I don’t continue developing my relationship with them, I’d still be their dad, but I’d be useless to them. You may have also been given faith, as a gift, but are you a Christian in name only?

Psalm 33 says, “We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.” This shield of faith is about a relationship, putting your trust in God. Scripture says that faith can grow just like any relationship. In fact, if it’s not growing—it’s dying. From what I have read, there are two specific ways that you can better develop your shield of faith: through serving and through suffering.

1st Timothy 3:13, “Those who have served well gain an excellent standing and great assurance in their faith in Christ Jesus.” This statement is referring to someone called a “deacon” which simply means “one who serves”. A translation of this for our church might mean someone who serves on the council, or on a ministry team, or the altar guild, or our secretary, or the ministry coordinator or ushers or readers. I believe that the pastor of a church should not do everything that needs to be done for many reasons. It’d be way to much work for one person first of all and I don’t have all the gifts that are needed, but most interestingly, because it would be greedy.

When you serve, you are given greater assurance of your faith in Christ Jesus! When you step out of your box and make a difference in the lives of others, you find that God gives you the strength that you need to do it. It not only gives your life meaning, but it brings you into a deeper relationship with God. And the more you serve, the stronger your faith can become. There’s an old saying that says that adults don’t create children, children create adults. Well, faithful people don’t become servants of the Lord, when you begin serving on behalf of God, you often find yourself becoming more and more faithful to Him. On your card this week, maybe you’ll want to commit to serve.

Finally, suffering and persecution also encourages faith. We read this in 2nd Thessalonians, “your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing. Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.” At a Natural Church Development Summit in South Africa, a man named Eddie Leo, shared about a spiritual revival in Indonesia. One church had added 1,600 believers in the last six months! Other churches wanted to know what they could do to experience a similar revival. Eddie said, “You want revival? Then pray for persecution.”

In the book of James we read, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” When you face suffering, you are forced to put your hope and your trust in something, and when you place it in Jesus Christ, you find your shield of faith strengthening. You start praying more, longer and more passionately because God is the only one who can understand what you’re going through. You find yourself reading your Bible because, as the disciples once said, “Lord, where else can we go? You alone have the words of eternal life!” Suffering will come, you don’t have to seek it. But if you are suffering right now, instead of trusting money, or drugs or even another person for hope, imagine how your faith might grow by turning to God right now when the times are the toughest.

Pastor Francis Chan tells a story of a group of Korean missionaries to Afghanistan who were arrested and detained in prison by the Taliban for their gospel ministry. Chan had dinner with one of the missionaries who told him about the conditions of the prison. As the story goes, one woman managed to sneak a Bible into the cell and they tore it into as many sections as there were people, so that they could have the Scriptures to read whenever they had the opportunity. It became apparent that some of them were going to be put to death and the senior pastor of the group announced that he would die first. Another man told him that he could not die first, because he was their shepherd, and that the second man must die first as he was an elder. They argued back and forth, with the senior pastor eventually winning. It was however the elder who died first and it was the senior pastor with whom Francis Chan spoke.

The senior pastor told Chan something that I will never forget. He said that since the incident members of that group kept coming to him privately and saying, “Don’t’ you wish you were back there! In prison!” They wished they could go back to the prison cell, with the looming threat of death and torture ever upon them, because the fellowship with Jesus brought them so much joy. Faith felt real! It was alive! The group unanimously agreed that they had never been so close to Christ as they were in that cell, completely dependent on Him as to whether or not they carried on in the flesh or went immediately Home to Heaven.

I believe that most all of you have faith in Jesus Christ or else you wouldn’t be here. But if your faith isn’t growing it’s dying. It’s a relationship that needs constant care. Maybe you are new to this whole Christian thing or don’t think you’ve ever had faith and never had a relationship with Jesus. Maybe you just feel guilty for your lack of faith, for your lack of interest and your lack of passion. . . but hear this: “God’s love for you does not depend on your effort or desire, but on God’s mercy.” He has imprisoned us all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all. God is in the business of bringing the dead to life, dead bones, dead people or even a dead faith. So hear this: in the name of Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven. God continues to desire to have a relationship with you. Put on the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness and the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. And in addition to all this, take hold of the shield of faith—it’s yours again today because it is a gift of God. Amen.

Sermon for February 6th (Sandals of Readiness)

2011-03-04T14:10:00.000-08:00

Get ready. Get set. Go! What do those words make you think of? It makes me think of racing. Lacing up my shoes to run the mile for track or preparing for football practice. It seemed like, during high school, I was always having to get ready for something. My freshman year of high school, I came back from the summer vacation at my Grandma and Grandpa’s in Kansas a couple of weeks early in order to participate in two-a-days for football. Since my dad was still working at the Rennaisance Faire in Chicago until school started, I stayed for those last two weeks of summer at my Aunt Deb’s house downstairs in her basement. I’d wake up for the first practice of the day, come home and walk beans in the early afternoon and then go back for the second football practice in the late afternoon. You know how some little events in life make a big impact even though they are really not that big of a deal in the scheme of things? Well, that summer I experienced one of those.

On morning, my cousin Jeremy was at home (he must have been back from college) and I knew that he had been up late the night before. It was really early, about 4 o’clock, when I was awakened by my Uncle Gary calling down the stairs, “I’m going!” Jeremy got up out of bed, put on his clothes and shoes and left in a matter of about 2 minutes. I asked my Aunt later about it and she explained that Jeremy just knew that, no matter what time he came in the night before, if my uncle needed help in the fields he’d call down once and Jeremy had better be ready to leave or else he’d be left behind. He wouldn’t be told about it the night before. He just had to be ready.

The apostle Peter writes this in a letter, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” When I read that statement, I think about my cousin Jeremy who got up at a moment’s notice to go and do his work on the farm. When Jesus Christ comes again and calls you to eternity, will you be ready to go? What if he just asks you to confess your faith in Him before another person. Are you ready to do that? What if another person calls and asks you what you believe? Are you ready today to give an answer for the hope that you have? And if you are not prepared, does it really matter?

I went in to talk with a professor at seminary because I was really bothered by something. I was so excited about telling people about Jesus, but I felt like everyone I knew was already a Christian. All my circle of friends were seminarians. I worked grounds crew with them. I ate with them. I went to the park and played with them (well, their kids played and I talked with them). I had class with them. But I never had the opportunity to share my faith with someone who wasn’t a Christian and that bothered me. I wondered if I should just go to the local mall and start preaching. I knew that it would get some people upset, but who knew if it might make a difference, you know? So, at this meeting, I brought up my dilemma. As usual, he told me a story.

He liked to walk to seminary from his house a mile or two away. He did this, he said, because he always seemed to run into people and have conversations he never expected. One day, he was walking along and passed by a woman. Suddenly, just as she was walking by him, she started falling over and fell into him. He grabbed hold of her, held her up, and started realizing she was having a heart attack. And as she died, right there in his arms, he preached to her the gospel of Jesus Christ. He gave her the good news of salvation. He told her how much Jesus loved her, how faith in his forgiveness was all she needed to think about right then, right there with her breathing her last breath. His point? Be ready. You don’t always need to go out and find someone to preach to. When God is ready, he’ll often give you the opportunity.

Please sit back and listen to the words of this song, (Play the CD through the first chorus) “So maybe this time, I’ll speak the words of life, with your fire in my eyes. But that old familiar fear, is tearing at my words, what am I so afraid of. Cause here I go again. Talking about the rain. And mulling over things that won’t live past today. And as I dance around the truth, time is not his friend, this may be the last chance to tell him that you LOVE him, but here I go again.” What are YOU so afraid of?

I’m afraid that I’m going to be seen as one of those freaky Christians I see on TV, who don’t seem to be able to talk about anything but when they were saved and whether you are or not. I’m afraid that I’ve already known a person almost my whole life and never said anything before, what are they going to think of me? What if something in our relationship changes because of what I say? What’s worse, what if I start and really don’t know what to say? What if I don’t have answers for their questions? So, here I go again, talking about the rain, and mulling over things that won’t live past today . . . like who will win the Super Bowl. Or how about the weather? Cold, isn’t it. And so I dance around ever having to talk about Jesus or what he means to me . . . or what he might mean to them.

Remember, we are studying the armor of God again this week. Ephesians chapter 6, “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. Stand firm, then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.” Some translations say sandals, or battle shoes, but, really, it just says that your need to be ready to go. For me, that means putting on my shoes before I head out the door.

When you are lying in bed on a Sunday morning and the alarm goes off, but you stay in bed . . . well, the Devil only needs to work for about one hour on that morning to destroy the rest of your week and keep you from hearing God’s Word. The Devil blinds us to the opportunities in our lives to tell others about Jesus. We know that we are not saved by our works and yet if we know someone that “acts” nicely we assume that they must go to church and so we never bring it up . . . what a clever scheme! We can never find time to read our Bibles and so we leave it on the bookshelf, but every free moment we’ve got, we read a little bit on ESPN about how our favorite team is doing. The Devil is a sneaky guy isn’t he?

If you are tried Sunday mornings, fit your feet with readiness . . . go to sleep earlier on Saturday and be prepared Sunday morning. If you believe that EVERYONE you know is already a Christian, prove it and invite them to come on Sunday morning. Come prepared with the worship times, a visitor’s brochure and maybe even a time to pick them up on Sunday morning. Don’t have time to read God’s Word? Take the Bible off the bookshelf and put it by the computer . . . see what might happen with all your free time. Prepare for the opportunity and make the best use of the time you are blessed with.

Put on your armor. Being unprepared doesn’t seem like a big deal does it, but the devil is counting on you not speaking up, not showing up and not preparing yourself. In the movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life” George Bailey experiences all kind of hardships in his life. He helps other people, but it always turns out badly for him. When life finally gets the best of him, he attempts to commit suicide because he believes he would be worth more dead than alive. Clarence, the angel, stops George and shows him what the world would be like without him.

A boy would have died because George hadn’t been there to catch a mistake by a pharmacist. George’s brother, Harry, would have died without George to save him when he was just a kid and, therefore, Harry would have never become a fighter pilot and save the lives of hundreds of other soldiers. George’s wife would have never been married and would have lived a long and lonely life. What would this world look like if Christians always stayed silent, stayed in bed and hoped someone else would read the Bible for them? Where has the devil gained a foothold in this world and in your life because you have lived unprepared to speak the gospel of peace.
Be ready, Jesus said. But what should we say? Jesus told his disciples, “Make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.”

When I was in North Dakota at a synod convention, the director of Evangelism for the ELCA told us a story. He was leaving his house one day when he saw his neighbor topple over a trash can full of pop cans. He wanted to just get going, but he decided to help her instead . . . she had seen him anyway and he didn’t want her to think badly of him. After they’d picked everything up, she thanked him and he was about to leave. But, he’d been teaching a class about how to connect faith to actions and, though he was embarrassed to say it, he quickly responded in a mumble, “Your welcome. I’m a Christian and that’s what God calls me to do.” Then he left.

A few weeks later, this speaker’s wife, a nurse, came in and told him an amazing story. While she was treating a patient, they got to talking and the patient asked her where she went to church. The patient explained that his family was having some trouble at home. His wife had come home a few weeks back after having a conversation with a man who had helped her pick up some cans. The woman had returned to her house and talked for about an hour with her husband about what being a Christian was. They were interested in seeing if having faith in their lives might help their struggles. Can you say wow! You don’t need all the answers. Just put your shoes on and get ready to follow the Holy Spirit.

Every single week here at church, we could just get together and talk about the rain and mull over things that won’t last past today. But, I pray that each week, I am prepared to deliver the words of life to you with God’s fire in my eyes, despite my fear that you won’t like what I must say, despite my fear that this message will fall on deaf ears. Why? Because it’s the best defense I know against the devil in your life and in mine. Get ready. Get set. And through the power of the Holy Spirit maybe this time, maybe this week, you will GO and speak the words of life. Amen.

January 30th (Breastplate of Righteousness)

2011-03-04T14:06:00.000-08:00

“Put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place . . . .” A breastplate was a shirt of metal bands held together by leather to protect the vital organs, most notably, the heart. Without the breastplate, any attack not batted away by a shield or parried by a sword would mean a deadly blow in most cases. You can have your belt on, your helmet on, your shield, your sword and your shoes, but that breastplate often means the difference between survival and death.

John 3, starting at verse 7, “Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as He [that is Jesus Christ] is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” What does it mean to put on the breastplate of righteousness? It means to do what is right. To walk as Jesus walked. To commit to living your life in accordance with His truth—a life of upright behavior— a life of righteousness.

Does that mean following the commandments? Yes. All of them? Yes. All of them. To love your neighbor as yourself? Yes. Even if it hurts? Yes. Even if they hurt me? Yes, especially then. Living a life in accordance with the will of God is to live a righteous life. Paul calls a righteous life a breastplate of righteousness to show how living your life with integrity and purity guards your heart from the devil’s deadly attacks.

The Devil loves to take down a good Christian witness and this cannot be done easily unless that Christian has taken off their breastplate of righteousness by hiding naked in the darkness of sin. There have been many wonderful Christian pastors and leaders who have lost their jobs, their credibility and their pride not because they weren’t great at what they did, but because they stopped living a righteous life and thought they could battle temptation unprotected. Money laundering schemes done out of greed and jealousy. Affairs brought on by poor boundaries and temptation. Arrogant leaders who drive others away so they can feel important and keep control. These Christians often live very righteous lives in many ways, but the devil steals the show when they let their guard down.

You must protect yourself from the Devils’ schemes. When you follow God’s commands, when you walk according to God’s laws, the Devil cannot find a chink in your armor. That’s what putting on the breastplate of righteousness means for your life. This means that you will have to turn off the TV, pick up your Bible and start following the guidelines set forth in that book. This means that you will need to learn to pray and ask for God’s guidance when you feel tempted. This means that you’ll need to recommit yourself to hearing God’s Word at church and integrating the messages into your daily life. While the breastplate of righteousness is an amazing defense against the devil, it involves much hard work and dedication to Jesus Christ. The alternative is to walk across the battlefield exposed to danger at every turn.

But there is more to the breastplate of righteousness than simply a life lived according to God’s commands. Isaiah 64:6 points out our dilemma, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” All our righteous acts? Yes. All of them. Ezekiel 33 puts it even more clearly, “If I tell the righteous man that he will surely live, but then he trusts in his righteousness and does evil, none of the righteous things he has done will be remembered; he will die for the evil he has done.” Paul writes in Galatians, “If righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

There is no doubt that the breastplate of righteousness is put on by living uprightly and standing as a child in the light of God. But when you are standing in the light of God you see the truth: you cannot live a perfect life. By yourself, you cannot defeat the Devil. You should do everything in your power to live a life worthy of Jesus Christ, but the truth is that your righteousness, your best works, your highest virtues look like filthy rags in the eyes of God. All have and all will fall short of the glory of God except for Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In fact, some of our greatest sins are caused by what we think are our greatest assets. And so the hardworking Christian CEO refuses to tithe because he thinks his church doesn’t “deserve” his hard earned money. The big shot pastor doesn’t have time to visit the sick because he’s working on his new book deal. I heard of a terrific farmer once who skipped church so he could be the first one in town who got the harvest in. We begin trusting ourselves, our work and our righteousness and lose sight of God.

And so when we Christians stand up here in church singing away, listening to the Bible readings, quiet and very holy looking, the devil enters our hearts and says, “I know what you did last summer. You aren’t really as good looking on the inside as you pretend to be on the outside. If only they knew, you’d be ashamed.” And when a leader stands up here the devil attacks, “Who are you to act so high and mighty? You are no better than anyone else! If only people knew you like I do.” While a righteous life can protect you and I from temptation and much harm in this world, it cannot protect us from the horrible truth—we are still sinners who deserve nothing but punishment.

Hear now how the apostle Paul deals with this dilemma: (Philippians 3:7) “But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.”

The breastplate of righteousness is more than an upright life, it is knowing the difference between an upright life and a life lived by faith alone. “The righteous will live by faith.” Paul writes in Romans. “Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness.” We must put on more than our good works, we must put Jesus Christ in order to protect ourselves from the devil’s schemes. (Romans 13) “Let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” Clothing yourself with Jesus and his righteousness, trusting in His work on the cross rather than your own work in this world, doesn’t take away the need to live a righteous life, it gives you the strength to do just that. “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” (Philippians 2:13)

You are called to live your life according to all the commandments of God and walking in the light of Jesus Christ in order to protect yourself from the devil’s schemes. You are also called to trust not in what you can do, but in Christ who works all in all. Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17) He offers you his love and protection not as something that you earned, but as a free gift. When you have done everything that you are called to do, humbly clothe yourself with Jesus Christ and trust in His protection alone. Every morning. Every day.

None of us can stand against the devil’s schemes and temptations on our own. Our most righteous acts are filthy rags. But you may fight the battle against the devil’s schemes wrapped in the righteousness of God, with the full armor of God. This next week, don’t walk into your day unprotected. Stand firm, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist and the breastplate of righteousness in place. . . .” Amen.

Sermon for January 23rd (The Belt of Truth)

2011-01-27T14:59:00.000-08:00

The Roman Empire at its height of power amassed a very large area of influence. It was made up of most of what we call Europe today as well as the country known today as Turkey. It also covered areas at the northernmost tip of Africa. But in order to protect these lands, and in order to conquer them in the first place, the Roman Empire needed a very large and very well trained army. A soldier in the Roman army was called a legionary and was expected not only to defend Rome but to go to battle on Rome’s behalf, to conquer more and more people and land in order to expand the Empire. Roman legionaries came from all kinds of backgrounds, but once they had enrolled in the army, they would be a part of it for the next twenty-five years.

When the apostle Paul wrote his letters, such as the letter to the Ephesians we are currently studying, he was writing to people who lived in the Roman Empire. In fact, Paul himself was a Roman citizen which gave him a great deal of influence and respect. As we read and learn about the Armor of God, it’s important to understand why Paul used this analogy. People would have had dealings with Roman legionaries on a regular basis and understood what they wore and why they used the armor the way they did. You might know THAT a soldier wears armor, but, unlike people back in Paul’s time, you might not know WHY or HOW they used their armor. In order to understand why putting on a “belt of truth” is important for a Christian, which is the topic today, you need to understand why putting on a “belt” was important to Roman solider.

The belt that a legionary wore was made of leather and it would have had bronze plates of various sizes dangling from it. The more expensive the belt, the more ornate the leather decoration and the larger the plates. The larger the plates, the louder the soldier would be as they approached. A belt was called a “balteus” or sword belt because its primary purpose was to hold equipment, most importantly weapons, in place.

When getting dressed for battle, a legionary would first put on his tunic, a large piece of linen fabric with short sleeves, followed by his belt. The belt held the flowing tunic in place so that it was not hanging out loosely from the sides. Belts had lots of loops to hold weapons or other gear. It kept things where they needed to be, held everything together and made it easier to reach the necessary equipment for a battle. Ephesians 6 says that we need to put on the full armor of God so that we can take our stand, fight our battle, against the devil and his schemes. Just like a Roman legionary, the first step to prepare for this battle is to put on your belt—Paul calls it the belt of truth.

I want you to imagine a worker for a business who is supposed to work from 8 to 5 Monday through Friday-40 hours a week. Let’s say that he is getting tired of his job and decides to not go in for the entire week and stays home to catch up on his daytime soaps. His boss calls him up at the end of the week and asks him a simple question, “Were you at work this last week? How many hours did you work?” I want you to decide which of the following answers are true and which ones are lies? I’ll make this multiple choice:

A. Yes, I was at work all week. 40 hours sir. B. Yes, I was at work all week. But I only worked half of the day each day. 20 hours. C. Yes, I did come to work on Monday, but I only worked 1 only and left for the rest of the week. Or D. No, I didn’t come to work at all last week. I worked 0 hours. Which of those answers were true? Well, only the last one, letter D—he didn’t work at all. He worked 0 hours. Does it make a difference if he lied completely and said he worked 40 hours or whether he lies just a little and said he worked one hour? No. A 99.999 percent truth is still a lie.

When I was in high school, I was really good at math. I was two years ahead of my class. One thing that my dad pointed out that has always stuck with me is that in math, unlike English or Social Studies, or Music, there is only one right answer. 2 plus 2 equals 4. Every time. Most other subjects are subjective. You can get partial credit. But in math, if you say that 2 plus 2 equals 3, you don’t get half credit, you either get it right or wrong.

One of the basic tenants of the Christian faith is that there is such a thing as truth. It’s the foundation upon which everything else stands. Jesus is the Son of God—that’s either true or false. You either trust in him completely for your salvation or you don’t . . . there is not any partial credit for good behavior. In the gospel of John today, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” The truth is that no matter what you’ve done in the past, you are made right with God by faith alone. But just as true, no matter how good you’ve been all your life, you can’t be saved apart from Jesus Christ alone.

Paul takes the stand that a Christian must begin with truth and that everything else must be based on that. Why? Because if we take our stand on anything else we are susceptible to the devil’s schemes. The devil is the Father of lies. He can smell em a mile away and he will use them to hurt you. You can be fully protected in every other way, but if you go out without your belt of truth on, the devil can still find a way underneath your armor. Kristy and I joke that when one of our children drop a little choking hazard on the ground and can’t find it, Micah will be sure to find it. The devil looks for little lies, or half-truths, or hidden skeletons in your life with as much excitement as my nine-month old does for tiny beads and miniature animals. Every single time that you lie, whether it is out of fear, or cruelty, or even laziness, the devil has an opportunity to gain a foothold into your life.

Remember how I told you that before the belt was put on, a Roman legionary would put on a tunic. A tunic is this long piece of linen cloth that would have been a little more flowing than our t-shirts today. Well, the belt wasn’t just put on to hold weapons, it was also put on to kinda pull the loose tunic in—to keep it in place even when a battle demanded lots of movement. I remember my football coaches always demanding that we cut our hair for the season because he didn’t want people to grab onto our hair in order to tackle us. You might notice that football players keep their jerseys very tight to their pads in order to keep people from being able to grab that. Some equipment has warnings to keep you from wearing loose clothing around it so that you don’t get a sleeve or a tie caught and risk your life trying to get back out! The same was true for the Roman legionaries in battle. The belt held everything in and close.

In the Christian life, we might call this loose clothing, loose morals. You know, those little behaviors that we know aren’t good, but might not seem like a big deal. When the Devil gets ahold of them, these little loose ends can create huge issues. For instance, have you ever wondered why the Bible calls drunkenness a sin? I mean, drinking alcohol isn’t a sin. Jesus made a whole truckload of wine at the wedding at Cana. So, who should care about getting drunk? I don’t know about you, but how many GOOD things happen to people who are drunk? They lose their inhibitions, right? They get loose with their words, their anger, their boundaries and their bodies. They open up the door and let the devil come in and destroy their lives, just because they took off their belts and let it all hang out for a little while. When you are drunk, you do things that you would not have done sober.

Our loose lips also let the devil into our lives in ways we’d never suspect. The more and more I hear stories from peoples’ lives, the more and more I see how subtly the devil uses gossip to kill and destroy. I mean, it’s so easy to talk to someone else about the troubles someone else is having and you think, “I’m doing this because I care about that other person. I want others to know what’s happening in their life.” But even then, before you know it, everyone in town has heard, everyone has an opinion and some of them aren’t so nice. James 3 says, “Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” Wow! What a statement! What if we were committed to only speaking the truth instead of guessing at it?

Without truth, things fall apart. Once again this week, you should each have received a card. You’ve been given this card to remind you of the importance of committing to truth each day of your life as a Christian. You are encouraged once again to write a commitment for the following week on the back. Here are two suggestions.

First, if you have decided to pray for protection each morning against the devil and his schemes. Make sure that you mentally put on the belt of truth each morning. Make a commitment to tell the truth in every situation. I’m not encouraging you to be cruel to others by saying, “Well, to tell you the truth, yes those pants DO make your thighs look big.” That’s not God’s truth, that may simply be your opinion. Commit to following Jesus Christ and the truth that is written in the word of God. Pray for the strength to be faithful to your faith convictions even in the face of fear and the risk of persecution. Sometimes in the Bible, the belt of truth is called the belt of faithfulness. I believe that married couples might be helped a lot by putting on that belt of faithfulness each day. That belt is conveniently placed to remind you of the importance in being ready and resisting temptation on a daily basis.

Finally, the belt of truth may be an opportunity for you to recommit to your faith. There are many religions out there and many ideas to learn about and discover, but Jesus says that truth, real truth, can only be found in him. “I am the way, the truth and the life” he says, “No one comes to the Father except through me. Perhaps, you have accepted 99 percent Christianity and 1 percent something else or you have accepted most of what the Bible teaches, but have thrown out the parts that are too difficult or not socially acceptable. Perhaps today is the day that you wrap around your waist the belt of truth and lay the foundation of your life on Jesus alone.

Jesus Christ came to this earth to shine his light on each of us, to expose the lies we tell and hear, and to expose our darkness. But His light also shines to lead us in the truth so that we can follow him and never fear the darkness of the devil again. The devil may prowl for you like a hungry lion, but with your belt of truth fastened around your waist, he won’t have anything to grab onto. Thanks be to Jesus for setting us free! Amen!

Sermon for January 16th (The Armor of God)

2011-01-27T14:57:00.000-08:00

Today is an important day. Today is the day when we give notice to the Devil. We will tell him this: “No more!” We will listen to NO MORE of your lies. We will follow you NO MORE. We will fear you NO MORE! Because you have already been defeated by none other than our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” Amen? Amen! Today, I will begin teaching all of you both the necessity and joy of putting on the full armor of God so that each of you can take your stand against the devil and his schemes.

Over the next several weeks I will seek to prepare you for a great battle. It is a battle that we must fight every single day of our lives and, yet, most of us don’t even realize it’s happening. You don’t recognize who your enemy is and you walk onto the front lines unaware of your protection or your weapons. We wage this battle against the Devil. Ephesians 6, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

Have you ever heard the following quote, “The greatest lie the Devil ever told was that he doesn’t exist.” Before we go any further, I realize that I must deal with this great lie because very few of you probably even believe that there is such a thing as the Devil. So why would you prepare to fight something that’s not there? In fact, many of my seminary professors seemed intent on diminishing the Devil’s existence as well.

I remember taking a pastoral care class and reading about an evil spirit causing King Saul to be sad. The bible story tells us that the king would only find relief when David, later king David, would play music. Our professor explained that it probably wasn’t an evil spirit, even though that was what the Bible said it was. My professor explained that it was probably just clinical depression. In another story, there is a girl who is thrown to the ground with a demon and was foaming at the mouth. But in my class, well, we were told that it must have been epilepsy.

We asked, “Well, why then did the Bible writers call these things demons or evil spirits?” Good question. The answers you’ll often hear are that these writers were “uncivilized” and “unscientific” people. They didn’t understand what we do now. But here’s the thing. If you believe that Jesus was the Son of God, unequaled in wisdom, knowledge and power, one with the Father and all, then how do you explain this? “Jesus appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.” Why would Jesus give his disciples authority to cast out demons if he knew that there was really nothing there? Wouldn’t he have known the “truth”, being God and all, even if these “poor uncivilized people” didn’t? Why did Jesus cast out demons himself? Why did he talk to them?

You are going to have to make up your mind on this because this issue comes up over and over again, especially in the gospels and the book of Acts. If Jesus didn’t know the truth and was acting just like a “man of the times” then how can we believe that he was really God in the flesh? How is it that he knows everything else, but was still under the impression that demons were there when they weren’t? Or was Jesus acting according to the “prime directive” ala Star Trek and so was unable to tell the truth about what was really happening? Kinda just going along with what everyone else thought? Otherwise known as lying to keep up appearances? “Sure I’ll cast out this demon for you (wink, wink).”

If we believe that Jesus was truly the Son of God and that he told the truth about things like eternal life, sin and forgiveness, then the only reason he would have cast out demons and given other people the authority to do the same was because there were actually demons to cast out! Makes sense doesn’t it? But if that is the case, and as a Christian I believe that there is no other possibility, then that means that we have neglected to protect and prepare ourselves for dealings with the demonic and evil in our lives. We have pretended that this kind of thing just doesn’t exist when, in fact, that would be a lie. Jesus called the Devil, “The Father of lies” and our society has fallen for this one hook, line and sinker.

But why would the Devil want us to believe he doesn’t exist? For what purpose? If he is so strong and powerful why not just come out and scare the pants off of us and make us all cringe or run away? Why the secrecy? For what purpose? If you don’t think that there’s anything to worry about, then you won’t be prepared. And for the most part, I think all of us worry much more about the weather—keeping our ears and hands and noses warm and protected from the cold winds— than we do about keeping our children firm in their faith or protecting our hearts from temptation or preserving our church from hurtful gossip and division.

We don’t bother to take our swords of our their sheaths nor do we bother to learn how to use our protective armor, our helmets and our shields. We walk onto the battlefield dressed to the nines in battle regalia without shoes on. We walk nose to nose with our oppressor and then just say, “Excuse me. I don’t believe you exist”. But, here’s the thing, while there is real danger that the Devil will somehow attack us because we are not ready to defend ourselves, the scariest thing is that we do not take a stand and fight against the forces of evil in our world and in our lives. The truth is that the Devil does not want to fight a fully equipped Christian because he knows that he will lose EVERY SINGLE TIME! James 4:7, “Submit yourselves then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

When you resist the Devil he will flee. He won’t just walk away, he will run! Why? Because a fully equipped Christian scares him. This past weekend, the confirmation kids, their adult chaperones and I went to a Youthquake (a big Christian youth event held in different cities across the country). At that conference, the speaker explained how silly it is for us to believe the lies of the Devil by using this example. Have you ever seen a grown man or woman do something like this, “Oh! Oh! A spider! Get it! Kill it! Get it away from me!” as they run away as fast as they can? Have you ever considered how big you are compared to a spider? You are like, a bizzilion times bigger (approximating)! And yet people like me, I admit it, act like there’s a hungry polar bear running after us when we see a spider.

Today is the day I want you to understand this: because of Jesus Christ, you have the power and authority to stomp on the devil, squash him into the ground, wipe him off with toilet paper and flush him down the toilet. Romans 16:20, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” Today is the day when we tell the Devil that we will listen to NO MORE of his lies. We will follow him NO MORE. We will fear him NO MORE! We might know that the Devil exists but we do not believe IN the Devil, we believe in Jesus Christ who defeated the Devil once and for all on the cross!

For the next several weeks we are going to go step by step through this passage in Ephesians. I intend on leading you through ways that you can protect yourself and be prepared for this daily battle that we each face against temptation, the Devil, Satan and sin. Each of you should have picked up a card before the service, if you don’t have one please raise your hand and you will be given one. On the back of this card you have the opportunity to write down one way that you will commit yourself to fight against the devil this week. I’d like you to write one of the following.

First, you might commit yourself to ask for God’s protection each morning. Perhaps you could read Ephesians chapter 6, starting at verse 10 and prepare yourself for the day’s battle under God’s armor. You could write: morning prayer of protection, for example. Second, you could commit yourself to praying for protection and strength when dealing with a particular temptation or situation that is ongoing in your life. Perhaps you feel especially attacked when around another person or at a particular time of day. Ask the Lord for the armor and weapons to fight this evil attack. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you. You could write: Pray before (blank) and put in whatever situation you need to put down.

Third, you might commit yourself to pray for someone who is struggling with sin. Remember what Ephesians 6 said, “Our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces of evil.” All of us know of people who struggle with sin, or who try and hurt us, or who try and hurt others. The next you get angry with their actions consider this: pray against the devil. Take the fight right to him! Sure, the devil isn’t making them do it (they are happy to do the wrong thing) but pray for them to fight against the temptation to follow the devil’s lies. Your prayers might not only help them be free of their bondage to sin, but it might give you compassion for one of God’s children being oppressed by the devil. You could write: “Pray against the Devil”.

Remember, a fully equipped Christian scares the pants off the Devil. The truth is that you have protection you may have never used and weapons you may have never thought of. I intend on teaching you more about them over the next weeks, but I’m not going to give you anything you don’t already have. Psalm 91 says, “If you make the Most High your dwelling—even the Lord, who is my refuge—then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.” Today is the day for you to tell the Devil. No more! No more lies! NO more fear! In the name of Jesus Christ, get behind me Satan! Run away! I follow Jesus Christ alone. God is my protector. Amen.