"How to Read the Bible"

Last week, you heard why the Bible is so important. It is the container that holds the story of Jesus Christ: his birth, death and resurrection. The Bible’s message is inspired by God so that you might know both God’s will for your life and learn the story of your salvation. But just knowing that the Bible is important doesn’t make it any easier to read, does it? If you just open your Bible and read whatever is written there, it MAY be exactly what you needed to hear, but it may also really be confusing. That’s why you not only need a good reason WHY to read your Bible, but you need to know HOW to read it.

I learned a song in Elementary school that went like this: “Johnny could only sing one note and the note he sang was this: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!” That’s how many of us read the Bible: like Johnny one note. Do you use the Bible as a guide when you need to make important decisions? Wonderful! Does the Bible help you to grow in your relationship to God? I hope so. Does the Bible encourage you to live your life with integrity? Those are all good reasons to read the Bible. . . but they are still just variations on a theme: Ahhhhhhhhhh! The Bible calls this note: the Law.

The Law says, “Do this!” and it is never done. The Law demands that you do this and then act that way and stop doing something else or else you are not following God’s will. When you heard the Ten Commandments read this morning, what did you do? Well, you probably started making a checklist, marking off those commandments you have done well in keeping and those you have failed miserably at. Reading the Ten Commandments will often lead you to the sin of pride (because you think you are doing so well!) and then to despair (Because you can never be perfect). Following all of God’s laws is absolutely a requirement for a Christian, but if you only read that one note in the Bible, “Do this!” “Don’t do this!” “Do this!” then you will only hear one word from God. “You have not done enough.” “You will never do enough.” “And you have done much that ought not to be done.”

In the Bible, words of law are conditional. If you do this, then you get this, “If you are willing and obedient, then you shall eat the good of the land.” The law demands, “You shall not murder.” The law tells you what to do, “Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” When you hear the law, you look at yourself.

The Bible has many words of law in it; however, the law is not the only word. When you read the Bible, or hear the words spoken, it is absolutely essential that you recognize not only the demands of God, but also his promises. This is the message of Galatians chapter 2, “For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” The Gospel says, “Believe this” and everything is done already. The gospel makes you look at Jesus Christ alone who died to save you. When you hear the message each week or when you read the Bible, be careful to distinguish between when you are hearing the one note of the law and second note of the gospel. What are you being called to do by God and what is God doing for you.

In Elementary school, for gym class, I had to learn to square dance. I didn’t want to do it. I liked the girls well enough, but I did not want to “do-see-do” with them. And yet, if I did not do it, then I would receive a bad report card. Those were the conditions: dance or else! In Junior High where I attended over in Griswold, we also had dances. We all got to listen to our favorite top-40 songs with our backs glued to the cafeteria walls. As a guy, if you got up the nerve to ask a girl to dance, then you would be teased by the guys and giggled at by the girls. Those were the conditions. And, if you did get up the nerve, like I did, you would either get rejected or feel her palms wedged against your shoulder blades as she made it clear that you would not be getting any closer than arms length that night. Those were the conditions: “do it this way or else”. That’s the law. And you can’t escape the truth of this reality even if you don’t like it.

On the other hand, when I was in college, I met someone who changed the rules on me. My wife, Kristy. We fell in love. And so, dancing was no longer in the realm of the law, but now held a promise. Because I love you, therefore I want to dance with you. I didn’t even need to ask . . . we’d just start dancing sometimes for no reason at all. No conditions. That’s the gospel.

Two lovers don’t ask, “Do I have to dance with you? Do I have to kiss you?” Because of course the answer would be, well, no, you don’t HAVE to. But when you are in love, don’t you want to? When you fall in love, no one asks about whether they have to or not—they get to! There are no conditions anymore, just faith and trust in the object of one’s affection. The gospel says believe this and everything is done already. Because I love you, therefore I want to dance.

In the baptismal service this morning, you heard both laws and promises. For example, Kristy and I were told to teach Micah the Lord’s Prayer and bring him faithfully to church. If we follow these demands, Micah will grow in obedience to the will of God. However, is his eternal life based on our ability to carry out these orders? No. For that, we must trust not in the law, but in God’s promise that Micah has been named and claimed by Jesus Christ today.

The Bible is a book of life, but the two notes, the demands and the promises, speak about two different lives. Your life here on earth and your eternal life. You life here on Earth is under the power of that first note, the law. You may not like it, but you must “Do things” and “Not do things.” If you do not do your homework, then you will fail. If you try to dance with the prettiest girl in the class, then you will be giggled at. If you do not do your job, you will be fired. If you do not trust in God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength God will be angry. When you follow the law, you become a good husband, a good mother, a good friend or a good citizen.

However, Paul says in Galatians chapter 2, “We know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.” Following God’s demands cannot give you eternal life by themselves. Thankfully, you now know that there are two words in the Bible. Not just demands, but promises. “The life you now live in the flesh you live by faith in the Son of God who loves you and gave himself for you.” It’s not about what you have done, but about what Jesus Christ has done for you. Not because he had to, but because he loves you.

When you read the Bible and you hear that you must do something, do it for the sake of your family, your friends, your world and your respect for God’s authority. The Law says, “Do this!”, but you aren’t doing these things for yourself, but for others. However, when you hear a promise, stop what you are doing and just listen and believe the words of eternal life from God. God promises, “Because I love you, you have been chosen for eternal life. When you come to believe that, for you, everything is done already. Amen.

Sermon for April 18th "Why is the Bible Important?"

Why do Christians, especially Lutheran Christians, make such a big deal out of the Bible? It’s only a book, right? There is nothing that special about any book. Some are big, some are little, some are shiny and some are old and falling apart. A book is only a book. During my college years, an intern pastor at my campus ministry church was teaching a class about Christian/Muslim relations and invited the Muslim student association at our state college to come one week so we could all discuss the similarities and differences between our faiths. That night, I remember that one of these students came out of the bathroom of our church with a horrified look on his face and started whispering to the rest of the group with him. A bit later, one of the group asked us how we could allow a holy book, such as the Bible, to sit in the bathroom. (I guess someone must have taken it in once cause they thought they’d be in there in awhile and left it in case someone else also might have some extra time on their hands to read.)

Why was this such a big deal? Well, for a Muslim, the Koran, their holiest of books, must be treated with the utmost respect. You wouldn’t risk degrading the cover, the pages or the binding by placing it next to a potty. But the Bible is not like the Koran. The Bible is as welcome in a bathroom stall as it is in the most expensive of hotels where the Gideons leave theirs. I know that in court, we are called to swear on the Bible, but putting your hand on the cover of a book, even on the cover of a Bible, really has nothing to do with the issue. In court, you are promising to tell the truth and, as a Christian, whether the book is there or not, telling a lie about your neighbor breaks the eighth commandment—THAT’S the problem. It’s what’s IN the Bible that matters, not just the book. The message is what matters.

For the next several weeks, I would like to focus on one part of the Bible, the book of Galatians and its message. It’s a small letter written by the apostle Paul, but it talks about some of the most important tenants of our faith in a very short amount of space. In today’s first reading from Galatians, after just a few opening lines, Paul explains the reason that he wrote this letter at all, “I am astonished,” he says, “that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.”

What is this “gospel” that Paul is talking about in his letter to the Galatians? What is the gospel and what does it have to do with the Bible? The word “gospel” just means “good news”. It’s a message, or a story, hot off the presses. The news of the day, so to speak. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the story of Jesus, the news about him. To make it real simple, here is the gospel in a nutshell. There are five parts: Jesus, the Son of God, was born as a human being, he died, he rose from the dead to become Lord of all. That’s the gospel. It’s the story of Jesus Christ.

The reason that Christians make such a big deal out of the Bible is that it holds the story of Jesus Christ in it. It’s got the gospel in its pages. It’s not the book that’s important; it’s the message in the book. Martin Luther called the Bible, “the cradle that holds the Christ child”. When people come to check out new babies, they don’t spend a lot of time oohing and ahhing over the crib or the cradle: it just the baby holder and we want to check out the baby. As Christians, Jesus Christ is the main thing and the container he comes in is of secondary importance. (picture of cradle with Jesus Christ)

A professor of mine was asked by his mother once which Bible was the best. He told her: for you, large print. It didn’t matter what translation it was because if she couldn’t read it, it wouldn’t matter. The best kind of Bible is the kind that you will actually want to read. This leads to all kinds of other questions: What kind of preacher is the best? Or what kind of sermon is the best? Or what kind of service, contemporary or traditional or blended is the best? Well, the kind that you will come to. The one that helps you hear the message the best. The answer might be different for somebody else. The message is more important than the container it comes in. While containers can change, the apostle Paul says that we must be careful not to change the message.

In the book of Galatians, Paul argued that the gospel, the story of Jesus Christ, was being changed by some people. And he says that people who change that message should be eternally condemned! Now THAT is a strong statement don’t you think? Why would he say something like that? I mean, what’s the problem with tweaking it a little bit to make it easier for us to swallow? What if you just have too hard of a time believing that Jesus could be really both God and a human being? What if you just want to respect Jesus as a man, but don’t want to worship him as God? Do you really HAVE to believe that he died and then rose from the dead? Well, if we change the message, it doesn’t matter what container we put it in—all is lost and so are we.

Why is the Bible important? Why does it have the final authority? Because the message in the Bible is different from any other book. The apostle Paul says why, “I want you to know, brother and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin—it’s not made up. I did not receive it from anyone, nor was I taught it, rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.” The Bible may be made of pen and ink and the words written by human hands, but the message is inspired by God himself, the author of life. Paul knew that if the revelation of Jesus Christ could be changed, then what about all the rest of scripture? What about when you are told to honor a dishonorable father or honor? What if you are really, really thirsty and need to steal a water bottle from the local grocery store? What if you just have to tell that latest bit of juicy gossip or you’ll just BURST!!! If we can’t trust the revelation of the gospel, the story of Jesus Christ, then ALL God’s laws become questionable as well. But because the message is from God himself we can trust it just like we can trust God. The message is our authority because God is our authority.

But the Bible isn’t our authority just because it is inspired by God. The message in the Bible is so important for a reason that is referred to at the very end of the chapter, ‘The man who formerly persecuted Christians is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” The message of Jesus Christ, the message in the Bible, is our authority because it creates faith in our hearts—even creating faith in a man like Paul who once had killed Christians. It’s our authority because it authors our faith. It’s writes the story of our faith on our hearts. God uses this message to create faith in you.

Through the words of this message, God the Holy Spirit gives you faith. Those who heard the words first wrote it down for you and put it in a container: the Bible. The Bible finds its goal when you start believing. When you have heard and you are given faith. When you start looking to it as your authority. When you look to it for peace when times are difficult. When it causes you to repent when you do something wrong. When it provides guidance when you need direction. It’s the power of the message that gives the Bible its authority.

When you read the Bible at home or hear the message here at church, or discuss it with your friends Get Ready! Because when the message is heard, you might just find that God has written a new future for you, becoming the author of your eternal life, healing and forgiveness. Writing a new story on your heart. Sure, the Bible is only a book, but it contains a message of life for you. Jesus the Son of God was born a human being, died, was raised from the dead and has become Lord of all. That’s the message. But the power of the message is that he did all this for you. He is not just the Lord of all. He is your Lord. He is your God. He is your Authority. He is your Savior. Why is the Bible so important? Because it was written for you. Amen.

Sermon for November 15th

If I were to ask you what was going to happen in December of the year 2012, you might think that I was asking a lot. How are you supposed to know? But some of you might actually respond with what you believe is a reasonable answer: On Dec. 21st, 2012 the Mayan calendar is going to run out and the apocalypse might begin.

The ancient Mayan civilization made many calendars, and one of them, called the “Long Count” calendar, has been marking time for 5,126 years . . . and it runs out on Dec. 21st, 2012. And some believe that this is a sign that the world will end. You don’t know what I’m talking about? Well, lucky you, because a lot of people not only know what I’m talking about but they are studying it, talking about it and getting quite worried.

There have been lots of books talking about the possibilities, lots of bloggers expressing their opinions about it, lots of opportunities to spend your money and stock your fallout shelter just in case you need extra supplies on December 22nd 2012. Ann Martin, from Cornell University, manages a website called, "Curious? Ask an Astronomer”. She says that people are scared, "It's too bad that we're getting e-mails from fourth-graders who are saying that they're too young to die," Martin said. "We had a mother of two young children who was afraid she wouldn't live to see them grow up.” Of course, some people aren’t afraid, they are excited! In fact, enough people are interested in all of this that there was a major motion picture that came out this weekend starring John Cusack. The title: 2012. Will you be going? Just in case you’ll get a glimpse into the future?

A reading from the gospel of Mark, chapter 13. “As Jesus came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings! Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.” When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” Then Jesus began to say to them . . . “Go, look to the ancient Mayan calendar and, behold, in the year 2012, the end of the world will come! Lucky that you’ll all be dead by then.”? No, that’s not what Jesus said.

The first thing he says is probably the most important part, so pay attention. Don’t miss this or you might regret it. Are you ready? Here goes, “Beware that no one leads you astray.” Beware that no one leads you astray. When I went off to college, my dad told me this good piece of advice: He said, “If anyone tells you that they have all the answers . . . run!” Run. Beware that no one leads you astray. There have been many people led astray as they “prepared” for the end of the world. The followers of David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, in Waco Texas who believed that they had found the Messiah and ended up dying tragically. Or how about the group, Heaven’s gate, who committed suicide in 1997 because they believed that the earth was about to be destroyed by the comet Hale-Bopp. Beware that no one leads you astray.

But you don’t have to belong to a cult to be led astray. It’s easier than you might think. You and I are led astray whenever we are led away from God’s Word into the dreams, speculations and imaginations of others. Or when we leave God’s clear words behind and choose to follow our own self-chosen opinions. We are called to test our own viewpoints, and the views of others, even when they are Christians, and compare these views to what has actually been revealed to us in Scripture. So many wish and hope and pray for God’s guidance to overcome their fears, not just about the end of the world but in lots of situations, but they never look to His Word where he has revealed himself for us. People sometimes say that the Bible is “irrelevant”, but isn’t it is that the Bible is TOO relevant and TOO clear for us. Perhaps this is really why we ignore it: so that we can choose our own path through life’s uncertainty without having to face a truth that might be contrary to what we want to hear.

Jesus says, “Many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and they will lead many astray.” There are many churches, even many Christians, who talk about the end times, who say the name of Jesus or mention God for good measure, but when you start hearing about what they mean about the second coming, or by God and Jesus, you find a picture that is alien from what you would find in the Bible. The greatest heresies are usually hidden beneath good intentions and half truths. And while persecution from outside forces have always been a threat to the Christian church, it has been this internal strife, caused by the rejection and unbelief in God’s Word by Christian’s themselves, that has done the most harm. Beware that no one leads you astray. Jesus does not teach you to fear the apocalypse, but to fear and love God. Jesus does not teach you to trust in your own speculations, but to hold fast to the words God has given to you.

As Christians, we do not trust in the Mayan calendar, as interesting as it may be. There is no reason we cannot study it, learn from it and appreciate the culture that made it, but if it causes you to fear the end of the world, you are free to throw the Mayan calendar in the trash and trust completely in God’s Word, where Jesus does not warn about the end of the world, but warns about life apart from God. If Jesus Christ came today, not in 2012 or in some distant year, but right now, the question will not be how much fresh water you have stored for yourself in some underground shelter, but “Do you believe in the Son of Man, in Jesus Christ your Savior.” If you do not believe this, you have a bigger problem than losing your life in the world, you will have lost your life in Christ.

The future can create a lot of fear for us. We do not know what will happen. The important issue is not that you are ever afraid, fear is a normal part of life, but WHAT are you afraid of and what fears take priority over others. We are called to fear the right things. According to the author Jerry Sittser, “We should fear the loss of a child more than failure in a job, sickness more than pain, hell more than death. And we should fear God most of all, because only he has ultimate and final authority over life and death. Jesus explained, “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!’ As we fear God more, we will fear everything else less.” When you worry about death, are you worried more about losing the joys of this life, your family or your career, or about losing the joys of heaven—how you will be seen in the eyes of God? The danger of worrying about the apocalypse and such things is that we are tempted to put our fear in the wrong place-in this earthly world rather than in God himself.

Jesus said, “When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.” Consider the future with all its possibilities. You could spend your life worrying and being afraid of what might happen in 2012 or even next week at your job. Or, you may trust that God has that future, whatever will happen, good and bad, in the palm of his hand. You are free. Free to trust him to deal with that. Leave it in His hands.

You are free to spend YOUR time and YOUR thoughts in this present day, living each moment that you are given by following God’s will for your life. What is God’s will? It’s not so much about WHAT you are going to do, but HOW you do it. God wills that you follow his commands and trust in his promises in whatever you are doing, in your everyday actions, thoughts and relationships. God’s will is not hidden from you to make you afraid. He has revealed His will in his Word, in the person of Jesus and in Scripture. Because no matter what has happened in your past, no matter what will happen in the future and no matter what is happening right at this very moment, Jesus Christ promises that he will be here with you, claiming you as his own, forgiving you for your sins, and calling you to a new life with Him—giving you peace to cast out all fear. And that’s as true today as it will be in 2012. Amen.

Sermon for September 6th

I have been running scared lately. Racing against forces beyond my control that seek to grab me and swallow me whole. One day it is the fact that I need to practice more for the contemporary service. Other days, I am fearful about the future of Saint Peters and the struggles we face as a community. Some days I get overwhelmed about how to get all the dishes done now that my wife is unable to step foot into the kitchen due to pregnancy nausea. Other days I worry about someone who is struggling with sickness or loneliness in our community. Sometimes I’m scared that my beliefs as a Christian will cause me a great deal of persecution in the very near future. Sometimes I am scared that my sins are going to overcome me. And then I read this week’s reading from Isaiah, spoken to all those with a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.”

I was watching the Daily Show with John Stewart on the internet, using Hulu, and it was showing a bunch of town halls talking about Health Care. Wow! I guess I haven’t been watching the news lately. No matter which side of the debate you are on, I think that you have to admit that there are a few people out there who are downright scared. When I tried to get a handle on what was happening, I kept hearing newscasters refer to how “angry” people were, but anger wasn’t what I saw and heard. It was fear. Fear of losing something precious, like their liberty, or their money or their loved ones. And whatever was being said by the other side wasn’t speaking to this fear and wasn’t making anything any better.

Of course, those against health care reform aren’t any less afraid than those who are for it. There are how many people with no health insurance right now in America? I’ve known a few. You can bet that a lot of THOSE people are scared and acting like it too. What’s going to happen not if, but WHEN they get sick? And the only thing that probably scares most of them more than the idea of getting sick is how in the world are they going to pay for it? Paying for it, paying for billions of dollars in health care reform, that also worries those against these refroms. And the fear of losing everything, or not having enough to take care of yourself or your spouse or your children, is the kind of fear that keeps you awake at night for days.

I’m not the only one running scared lately. Health care reform. The mind-boggling national debt. Does God care about these things? What about those things that you and I are dealing with today? I know that there are some of you fighting off cancer. That’s scary. Cancer is a very scary word and an even scarier disease. Between job loses or family struggles or sicknesses that won’t go away, there are some of you who are hanging onto a strand of faith by only the weakest of threads. Some of you are nervous about our meeting Wednesday night, about the recent ELCA churchwide convention, probably so nervous you won’t even come or won’t say anything for fear of upsetting people. All fear is bondage, someone once said. And children aren’t immune from it either. Whatever you are going through, so are your children, if not consciously than at least peripherally through the stress they see in you.

The Lord speaks through the prophet Isaiah saying, “Say to those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.’ So I will say it today to you. To you who are struggling, fearful, nervous, frustrated and running scared, “Be strong, do not fear. Here is your God. He will come and save you.”

I won’t pretend to know exactly how God would vote about any particular form of health care legislation, but God does care about you and about what you are afraid of. God does hear. God will save. We will all make our choices and do our best to run, protect ourselves or stand up against our fears, but the final end of your fear will come only from God.

That means that your fear will not be driven away by any bill made by congress about health care. It also means that you fear will not be stopped by defeating any health care bill by congress. If you are trusting your life only into the hands senators, insurance companies and skilled doctors you will only get so far, maybe very far, but your eternal life is in the hands of God. So cry out to him for safety and healing first, and trust that he has sent these other people as his servants to take care of you in this life, but not in the next. Your eternal life is in the hands of a creator, compassionate and mighty to save.

How do you deal with your fear? When I was getting my Bachelors and Masters in double bass performance I had to perform all that time . . . and that made me very scared and nervous. So what did I do when I was afraid I wasn’t playing well enough? I practiced. I called my wife and told her, “I need to practice a couple more hours.” And then two hours later I called her and told her I still needed a couple MORE hours. I had to trust in myself and in my ability to work hard enough to beat away my fear. I was a workaholic.

How do you deal with your fear? Some people go the opposite direction and choose to just not deal with conflicts that arise in their lives or pretend they don’t exist. But trusting in God to save you doesn’t mean digging out a hole and jumping in to avoid the storm. One time, the prophet Elijah had just fought a battle with 450 prophets of another god, Baal. God rained down fire for Elijah and won the battle. But then Elijah realized that he might get in trouble with some people for what had happened so he found a cave and hid in it. He felt like he was alone, the only one left who trusted in God, and that he would soon be found and killed. God told Elijah to trust in the Word of the Lord, not in Elijah’s own fear. If Elijah was going to find freedom from his fear, he was going to have to come out of that cave and stand up in the strength of God’s promises.

“Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.” But you may ask, “Here is our God? Where is our God? I don’t see him? I don’t know what he is doing? How can I trust in a God like that?” Well, you have to hear from him and, today, you are hearing from him, “Be strong, do not fear!” He says to you! God must come out of hiding for you to trust him. God must be preached for you to hear him. God must reveal himself for you to know that he is here.

If you’ve ever wondered why it is that the Lutheran church has always argued for the authority of scripture above everything else it is because of this and this alone: it is God’s revelation to us. It is the place where God comes out of hiding. God shows himself in three ways through is word. In the living Word, Jesus Christ. In the written word, the Bible. And in the spoken word, through preachers like you and me. The Bible is the historical proclamation inspired by God, so that, today, here, in this place, I might give you that proclamation once again so that you might believe and have faith in the living Word, Jesus Christ. Hear this and trust in this word, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come and save you.”

As God’s people, you and I have only one choice, finally, in the face of our fears, whether they are fears about our health, fears about our family or fears about our church—we must run! Run to God as he has chosen to reveal himself: in Jesus Christ, in the Bible, and in the preached word. What are you most afraid of right now in your life? Take a moment and think about it. What keeps you up at night? What takes over the car conversations with your spouse? God is calling you to stand firm and faithful to his Word even while you are afraid of these things. That’s why we have a church service, so that you might remember that, even while you are afraid, God loves you and forgives you. That’s why you are encouraged to read your Bible, so that when you aren’t hearing about God’s love you are reading his love letters and hearing about what he has done for his loved ones in the past. These are the places God reveals himself for you.

You are called to run to God’s Word and stand firm and faithful, trusting in his laws and trusting in his promises above everything else. Because finally, only in God, will you find freedom, hope, strength and final victory over your fear. “Be strong. Do not fear! Here is your God. He will come and save you.”

Sermon for June 7th

Let me read for you a few statements, “The nice part about being a Lutheran is that we read the Bible ourselves and don’t have anyone else telling us what to think.” “Martin Luther fought against the authority of the Roman Catholic church so that Christians could decide for themselves what they wanted to believe.” “What you decide the Bible means for you is just as true as what someone else decides the Bible means for them.” “There are no facts, only interpretations.”

That last quote was by Fredrich Nietzsche, but all the others are anonymous quotes I have heard said from time to time. Many times Lutherans, as well as Protestant denominations, as well as non-denominations, think of the Bible in this way, “There are no facts, only interpretations.” Luther is considered to be the hero of the Bible, proclaiming the emancipation of God’s Word so that every man, woman and child could read it themselves and interpret it themselves without the authority of the church telling everyone what to think and do. But while Martin Luther and the Reformation definitely did promote the reading of scripture by the masses, rather than by the educated elite, we are misled if we think he was reacting against all authority. On the contrary, Luther promoted an authority that, for most of us, is more difficult and hard-nosed to deal with than any other. Luther argued that Scripture is the final authority over all church authorities and, most importantly, the final authority over every single particular reader and interpreter. The Bible is your final authority.

“Scripture interprets itself,” Luther argued. But based on the few statements I read at the very beginning of this sermon, we tend to disagree. We like being in charge. We like being the subject. The Bible, the Scriptures, are simply another book, an object for our use. And, as an object we read it, study it, challenge it, discuss it, critique it and, finally, judge it based on our own interpretations and experiences.

If you’ve ever been in a pottery clinic, or molded clay with your fingers, you understand the difference between a subject and an object. A subject is something that does things, makes decisions, makes choices, manipulates things and creates things. An object just sits there, passively, is done to, is manipulated and is created. When a subject meets an object, the object has a chance to be changed, but the subject stays the same.

“Scripture interprets itself,” Luther argued. Why? Because Scripture is the cradle of Jesus Christ. It carries the message of salvation to all the world. And, as the book of Hebrews puts it, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Jesus does not change, no matter how we interpret him. No matter how we argue about what he did or what he said. Reading the Bible, then, is a much more dangerous activity than you might suppose. It is true that there is no one else who can authoritatively demand that you think of a passage in a particular way—no one gets to decide what is true in scripture and what is not. However, when the Reformation took the final authority away from the pope, the bishops and the church, it was also taken away from you. The final authority over all of us is Jesus Christ and when you read or hear God’s Word in scripture, both in the commandments and in the promises, you are at risk of being changed. You are no longer the subject reading along in a story, deciding the truth as you go—you are the object of the story. You can expect to be changed.

There is no better time to remind you of this than on Trinity Sunday, which, by the way, is today. If I were to ask you to raise your hands, how many of you would say that you believe in the Trinity, that God is truly only one God and yet known in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit? Some of you would, no doubt, not raise your hands because you didn’t think it is important to believe in. You would be testing your abilities at being your own subject against any other authority that would have you believe otherwise. To believe in the Trinity would undermine your own authority to believe whatever you wanted to believe in.

Some of you, when posed with this question about the authenticity of the Holy Trinity would say that yes, you believe it. Why? Well, because that is what you were taught in Sunday School, or in confirmation or by a pastor along the way. The church has believed in the Trinity for centuries and, since you are a Christian, you believe it as well. The problem is that you probably don’t believe that the church is a reliable authority anymore, you certainly wouldn’t want to give up your freedom to believe whatever you wanted just in order to believe in the Trinity would you? To believe in the authority of the church would undermine your own authority as well.

Some of you would say that you believed in the Trinity because the Bible told you so, but you probably couldn’t tell me where. You probably couldn’t tell me exactly why I should believe you. And, even if you could, I could just argue back with my own Bible verses that said why God is NOT a Trinity and, since you would want to keep your own authority to read the Bible as you choose, who would you be to disagree with me? To argue with my interpretation would undermine your own authority to interpret.

As long as you think of yourself as a neverending subject in a world full of objects to be manipulated, interpreted and judged by you, you will never believe in the Trinity, nor will you ever have faith in Jesus Christ. Why? Because your authority will always interfere with the authority Jesus Christ has over you. You will not want a God, you will want to be a god. You will not want a Savior, you will want to save yourself. You will not want to receive the Holy Spirit, you will want to be holy in yourself.

But do not fear, for you are not a neverending subject in a world full of objects. You are simply a creature—an object with a definite and distinct subject. You were created. You are loved. You were died for. You were set apart. You are under judgment. You have been saved. You are blessed. You are forgiven. God is the subject of all the verbs and you are the object of the story of Scripture from the beginning to the end. It might be difficult to see yourself in it, but you are there. In every commandment God made for your wellbeing and in every act of forgiveness that someone didn’t deserve. You are the world God so loved that he gave his only Son. You are the one who was created so long ago. You are the one born again by water and the Spirit.

There are certainly lots of ways that we can read and interpret scripture. Just look at all the denominations out there and you will see what happens when we all decide we’ve got the truth and that we are the subject interpreting the truth of scripture. However, just because we can and often do interpret scripture for our own means and for our own uses does not mean that we are finally the ones who get to decide what is right and what is wrong, who is saved and who is not. When Jesus says that he died so that you might have eternal life, he doesn’t ask you how you interpret what he is saying. He just does it for you. If that makes you feel objectified or like a piece of meat, that is because you can longer pretend that you are the one in charge. God is.

I do not demand that you believe in the Trinity. The church does not demand that you believe it either. But as you read scripture, you will find that God has molded you. God has saved you. God has given you faith. The Trinity has happened to you. God is your subject and you are his object or, to put it more biblically, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

Sermon for December 14th

If you haven’t noticed, I have printed out next week’s gospel lesson and placed it in your bulletin this week. Next week is our Christmas Pageant and, so, I won’t be giving a sermon. But, next week’s reading is a very important one as we get ready for Christmas day and I wanted a chance to reflect on it with you. So, turn to your insert and read along with me, from the Gospel of Luke the first chapter (Read Luke 1:26-38)

Most of us have heard this passage once or twice before, but I wonder if we realize how radical it really is. I mean, at Easter time, the drama is pretty obvious isn’t it? Jesus is dead and then, after three days, his is alive again! Raised from the dead! An amazing miracle that really gets people talking! In comparison to Easter day, this Advent text seems boring and quaint. But, in fact, this text is just as full of miracles as the text for Easter day.

The angel Gabriel says to Mary, “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” That’s right! Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, was a virgin mother. How can that be? How is that possible? Well, as the angel later says, “Nothing will be impossible with God.”

Unfortunately, many people have a problem with believing that Mary was a virgin mother. They say that it’s not that important to believe; as long as you believe Jesus was born and died and was resurrected, you’ve got the gospel.” They say, “There ain’t no way you can have a baby and still be a virgin.” In fact, if you’d read much ancient history, you might notice that a lot of important and famous people were SAID to have mothers who were virgins. Egyptian Pharaohs, Roman emperors and even Alexander the Great were said to be “virgin births” to make them seem semi-divine in nature. Some would argue that that’s probably what happened in the story of Jesus’ birth as well.

Do you believe in the virgin birth of Jesus? And if not, why not? You’ve heard that Jesus walked on water, healed lepers and was raised from the dead? Why is the virgin birth such a pickle to believe?

We argue that Mary couldn’t have been a virgin. It’s impossible! We know how babies start out and that’s not how. But our real problem isn’t with Mary, it’s with Jesus. We have trouble believing that Jesus is truly God. You see, if Mary isn’t truly a virgin, then how can you believe that Jesus is truly God? If Mary is anything but a virgin when Jesus born, you just can’t be sure who his father is, can you? And if Jesus isn’t truly God, then Christmas isn’t much of a holiday at all for you and me.

Mary is an easy scapegoat for our doubts. It’s a lot easier to try and figure out how the story might be wrong about Mary than to have to believe that the story is correct. We imagine that maybe Mary was just embarrassed by a little mistake that was made with another man while she was engaged to Joseph and made up this whole angel story. Or worse, maybe she was raped, as some people have speculated, but couldn’t bring herself to tell anyone! It’s been argued over and over that believing in the virgin birth of Jesus isn’t necessary to believe in Jesus, but I would like to know what Jesus you are referring to.

There are many people and, perhaps, many of you, who think a lot of Jesus, what he stood for and what he did, and would like to emulate him as a person. Jesus is a wonderful, powerful example of what one person can do to change the world. But, a radical social revolutionary Jesus doesn’t need to be God, does he? A Jesus who stands up to the religious and political leaders of his time and gets killed for it doesn’t need to have a mother who gave birth to him as a virgin, right? All those miracles of his are interesting stories but, when push comes to shove, you wouldn’t have to believe any of them as long as Jesus is a good example to follow in your life. You wouldn’t need a virgin birth to worship a Jesus like that.

But while Jesus was very radical and political and revolutionary in his time, and in our time, the Bible argues that he was even more than that. The Bible says that he was, in fact, God. Or, as the Lutheran Reformers put it, “Apart from this man, Jesus Christ, there is no God.” And if you miss that little detail, you’ve missed the most radical, the most political and the most revolutionary detail of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. God, the creator of your universe, became a human being and all that comes with it—even to the point that Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, was cursed on the cross and became sin itself. So that you might trust that God, the creator of your universe, isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty and has the power and the love to stick with you from your conception, to your birth, throughout your life and even in your death. God was born, died and was raised from the dead not so that you could follow him by example but so that you might worship him as your God alone.

But there is also another problem we often have with this story about Mary being the virgin mother of Jesus. This problem isn’t so much scientific or physical but theological. Even if we can accept that God can supernaturally impregnate a human being somehow, someway, isn’t it kinda disgusting and degrading for your God, the creator of the Universe, to float around in a uterus for ten months, even if it is Mary, who we assume was a nice upstanding lady. Even the best theologians throughout history have had a hard time with that one. One famous church leader named, Nestorious, even argued that while you could say that Mary was the mother of Jesus, you shouldn’t say she was the mother of God—no birth canal for my Lord, no sirreee! That would be too gross, too dirty and, to be more precise, too close for God to get to a sinner.

But God got so close to you that he experienced amniotic fluid, hiccups and active labor. God didn’t choose to create himself out of nothing as a newborn baby or even as a thirty-one year old man. He became an zygote, then an embryo and then a fetus and waited ten months to be born and breathe fresh air. How? I haven’t a clue. But, as the angel Gabriel says, with God anything is possible.

You see, Christmas day is a wonderful day full of joy and happiness, but the real miracle isn’t Jesus’ birth. It is a wonderful event, just as every birth is, but the fact that Jesus was born, after ten months gestation, isn’t the most amazing thing of all. The most amazing thing is that God chose to have the chance to be born after waiting and growing for months just like all the rest of us. In Phillipians, we hear one of the oldest Christian hymns talk about this wonderful miracle, “though Jesus was in the form of God,” the book of Phillipians says, “He did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.”

If God DIDN’T intend on becoming a human being, then the virgin birth would not have had to truly have happened. If God WASN’T willing to suffer life as a human being, then the virgin birth wouldn’t have had to be true. But if Mary was NOT the virgin mother of Jesus Christ, then not only do we have a problem with the words of Scripture, but we have a problem with God himself. For if God himself was not in Mary’s womb, then God himself was not truly born. And if God himself was not truly born, then God himself did not truly die. And if God himself did not truly die, then we should have all slept in this morning and enjoyed some more pillow time. For if God DID NOT truly die for your in the form of Jesus Christ, then you have no hope for eternal life.

Despite the craziness and unlikeliness of it all, I encourage you to hold onto God’s Word with joy, awe and wonder—even when you hear that Jesus was born to a virgin. Remember that Jesus was not born to the virgin Mary to make the story harder for you to believe, but so that you might more easily believe—so that you might be given faith that Jesus was born both truly human and truly God. So that you might have faith that he has truly saved you from your sins. But, in fact, the most remarkable thing is not that Jesus was born to a virgin, or that he healed thousands, or that he died, or that he was raised from the dead. The most amazing and wonderful thing of all is that he did all of this for you. For only now that you have heard that God truly became a human being to a virgin mother, can you wait expectantly not just for the story of little baby Jesus, but to hear the story that God himself was born on Christmas day. And that is worth waiting for. Amen.

Sermon for September 28th

“When Jesus entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” It is an important question I think. “By what authority?” The chief priests and the elders want to be sure that they are listening to someone worthwhile? Jesus was teaching from the Torah, but why should he be believed over and against a someone else? Over and against a religious authority? What gave Jesus the right to forgive sins when sins could be forgiven by God alone? By what authority was he doing all this?

It is an important question, “By what authority? By what authority do you do these things?” but it becomes very clear in the story that those asking this question have already made their decision. The chief priests and elders believe that they are the religious authorities and have already passed judgment on Jesus.
Jesus responds to his inquisitors by referring to John the Baptist. Earlier in Matthew’s gospel, if you remember when we read about this a few months ago, the chief priests and Elders didn’t listen to John, they didn’t like him or what he had to say. In contrast to this, Jesus proclaimed that John was a messenger sent from God, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”

Jesus asks, “Did the baptism of John come from heaven or was it of human origin?” If the chief priests and the Elders said that John the Baptist had divine authority then their own human religious authority would be undermined. But if they said that John was speaking only on his own they might get in trouble with their constituents—the common religious folk so to speak. So what did they do? They found a third answer. “I don’t know.” “We don’t know.”

Granted, there are many times when you or I don’t know things. We really, honestly, just don’t know. Perhaps, we haven’t had the time or done enough research to make an informed and responsible decision about an issue. However, there are other times when “I don’t know” is an answer in itself. In today’s lesson, we are witnessing an example of one of these “other times.” When saying “I don’t know” means “I know only too well.” When there are only two roads to go on, right or left, we sometimes believe that walking in between will keep us out of trouble, leave our options open, be a good compromise. But the truth is that saying “I don’t know”, often leads you down a path all its own.

Jesus says this, “Those who are ashamed of me and my words, of them the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” On the last day, when you stand before Jesus, you must make a confession. You must make a confession of faith or of unbelief. Every time you hear God’s Word in life you end up making a confession. You agree with it, disagree or say “I don’t know if it’s true.” Saying “I don’t know” might be an honest answer, but it is still an answer all the same.

Jesus sees that the Elders and the chief priests don’t need more education and they don’t need to see more signs and wonders—they simply need faith. This is not a matter of ignorance but of unbelief. Some people are ashamed of Jesus because they don’t want anything to do with him, others are ashamed of him because they just aren’t sure what to do with him, but, either way, there is a trust problem at the heart of the issue.

“By what authority” do you live your life? The Lutheran church has always said that the authority for your life and faith is scripture alone; the words of law and the words of gospel from the Bible. Unfortunately, no matter what church or denomination you belong to, if any, you and I have the same problem with scriptural authority . . . we don’t like it. We don’t want it. We are all, finally, anti-authoritarian when it comes to God and his words.

It is the original sin for goodness sake. God says, “Do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” Seems pretty straightforward, right? Pretty authoritative? And yet, it only takes one little question, “Did God say? Did God really say that you would die?” Once there was a choice between God’s words and other words, humanity has had a problem figuring out who we should listen to. We like to trust other words.

The chief priests and the Elders weren’t sure what to do with Jesus and the things that he did and said. Now that those things that Jesus did and said are written in the Bible, we still aren’t sure what to think. Is it simply a historical document? Should you accept everything you read from the Bible literally? Should you take everything you read in it with a grain of salt? Is the Bible a book of morals? Is it a book of salvation? Many people and churches have tried to discover the answer to these questions, but when pressed, most everybody just says, “I don’t know” and moves on. Yet, in the midst of all this, we are still living and making choices according to some authority aren’t we. Just saying, “I don’t know” doesn’t get any of us off the hook. Saying “I don’t know” means that we have a trust problem. We need to be given faith.

We are not so very different from the chief priests and the Elders. They were unsure what authority Jesus had and we are also unsure of what authority Jesus has today. So, what are you to do when you can’t be sure of the authority in your life? What if you just don’t know? You might read books about the Bible and determine whether it is authoritative yourself? You could read Lee Strobel’s book, “The Case For Christ” and make your final verdict. You could study other religions and see if you feel more at home following some other way. But even doing this, we find ourselves acting just like the chief priests and the Elders; we set ourselves up as the authorities. We think that we get to decide whether Jesus has any authority and if his words are up to snuff.

At the last national convention, the ELCA commissioned a study on the authority of scripture. It is called the “Book of Faith” initiative. The question on many people’s minds and at the heart of the church is, “By what authority should we do what we do?” “By what authority do we say what we say?” But I think that it is important to consider one perhaps overlooked facet of this discussion.

The chief priests and the Elders don’t believe that Jesus has authority. That is pretty obvious I think. They certainly don’t believe that he is working and speaking by God’s authority. In the Jewish tradition, you needed to be ordained by a rabbi in order to authoritatively interpret the Torah and Jesus was not. When the chief priests and Elders ask Jesus, “By what authority are you doing these things?” they are pointing out that they do not authorize what he is doing. They are the religious authorities and they do not authorize what he is saying. The question is this: does God’s Word, does Jesus Christ, does the Bible need to be authorized by another authority? Does it need to be authorized by us in order to be authoritative? Does it need to be authorized by religious leaders or is scripture its own authority?

An old professor of mine at Luther Seminary wrote this, “Church studies . . . on the authority of Scripture . . . are as close to an admission of emptiness as one can get. It is like the emperor who had no clothes commissioning a special royal panel to investigate whether clothes in fact exist at all. If one could successfully doubt the existence of clothes, then perhaps being a naked emperor would not be such an embarrassment—it would simply be a sign of the times. Being naked, then, might make me cold in inclement weather, but at least I would be ‘relevant’ and fit with my time and context, would I not? When Scripture’s authority needs to be authorized by the church, then all is lost, since church is the child of the Word, not its mother.” The church is wherever believers are gathered around Word and Sacrament. God’s Word does not need our stamp of approval. We are the ones who need and yearn and wait for the good news, for God’s approval, “I love you. You are mine.”

God creates faith through the Holy Spirit where and when he pleases. That is what makes God an authority, not our opinions or decisions or verdicts or votes. When the words of scripture create faith in your heart, when it is the author of your love for God, that is when scripture becomes your authority, your author. God’s Word is powerful. It is living and active. It makes itself an authority over you and doesn’t need you to slap a label on it for it to be effective.

In scripture, Jesus promises to listen to your prayers, to carry your diseases, to cast out your demons, to forgive your sins, to give you faith and to raise you from the dead. By what authority does he do these things? By the authority of one who does what he says and keeps his promises. For those of you who believe you are strong, healthy and in charge, this will sound scary, like something is being taken from you or forced upon you. But for those of you who are weak, sick, sinners—the lepers, the tax collectors, the prostitutes that Jesus talks about today—having God as your authority is a very blessed thing for he chooses to give you the kingdom of God.

Sermon for April 27th

Not too long ago there were many questions about what direction this church, Saint Peters, should go in the future. Should there be a part-time pastor or a shared ministry with another church or denomination? What kind of leader did you all want or need? Was there enough people coming to church here to make this a viable ministry? Should you follow the advice and suggestions of your synod leadership or follow a different path? Many of you wrestled with these options and decisions a lot during those long twenty months.

God had some amazing plans for both Saint Peters Lutheran Church and you, the people who worship here. Instead of losing your identity, God gave you a new sense of your hope even as you dealt with various kinds of suffering, fear and anxiety. It appears that God gave you all some strong convictions, the council, the call committee, and the congregation. A very specific sense of hope. But what was this hope and how did you get it?

We often think that hope comes through positive thinking or something like this. Or maybe by coming up with fancy new vision statements that talk about how glorious we would like our church, our community or ourselves to look. We hope in ourselves and our abilities to make things happen. But, despite many popular beliefs, hope isn’t kindled by getting excited enough to start a fire in your soul. Hope comes out of suffering, out of despair and even out of death. As Samuel points out, “The Lord kills and then he makes alive. He brings down to the grave and then he raises up.”

What was your hope and how did you get it? Hope, for Saint Peters, came out of twenty months with no full-time pastor, lots of soul searching and many hard decisions. What was your hope? I’m not sure how you would put it in words, but this is what I have been hearing. God’s Word was needed here. There was ministry to be done here. Here at Saint Peters Evangelical Lutheran, a little church out in the country, in Cornwall Village.

What was your hope? There was hope that God’s Word was needed not only for the people of Saint Peters, the adults, the children, the high school youth, the families, but also for the community. There was hope that God’s Word could be shared with people who lived in and around Cornwall who had never heard or believed in Jesus Christ. There was hope that God’s Word could be shared with the surrounding communities: Kent, Sharon, Falls Village, Canaan, Lakeville, Salisbury, Torrington, Warren, New Preston, Bantam, Litchfield and Goshen.

You called out as a congregation to God and lived through a difficult twenty month journey full of both hope and suffering. During that time, from what I have heard, you often had to do what your namesake, the original Saint Peter, talks about in the second reading today, you had to “make your defense before others to account for the hope that was in you.” It would probably have been easy to just let someone else make decisions for you, but God gave you a different kind of hope. Sometimes you had to defend your hope in front of others who disagreed with you. And if this hope had been created in some committee meeting, as a way to make yourselves look better, you wouldn’t have had much to stand on, but this hope was forged in the fires of suffering. This was more than a hope for survival but a hope to serve.

God gave you hope once in the midst of suffering. A hope that there was ministry here to do in Cornwall and all of Northwest Connecticut. What are God’s hopes now for Saint Peters?

How can we know, you might say? Maybe this all sounds very wishy washy to you and you want something more concrete. How can you know? Well, I’m glad you asked. God doesn’t want you to speculate about what he thinks, or make something up that sounds good—God has revealed his promises for you, his hopes and dreams. But in order for you to listen, you need to know how God speaks. Where can you find God’s Word? How can you know what he has revealed?

First of all, God’s Word is present in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus points out your sin, since he was crucified for your sake, and he points out your final hope, the resurrection of you when you die one day. Our hopes and dreams usually look quite wonderful and flashy—something glorious. God’s hopes and dreams often look different. They are hidden in suffering. God sent Jesus to die for you to give you faith. Jesus was glorified in crucifixion. Faith. Crucifixion. Not fancy for hopes and dreams. Jesus makes it clear that it’s not up to you, or Saint Peters church, or any church to save anyone. We are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. God does the faith making. God gets the glory, not us. You don’t have to hope in yourselves or your own ideas and abilities. You may hope in God.

God also speaks to you in another way. Through the Bible. You can listen to God by reading the Bible or having it read to you. You can hear God’s hopes and dreams, his promises revealed, throughout the pages of the Bible. For instance, he said to Abraham, “You shall be the Father of many nations.” He said to Adam and Eve, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Reading the Bible, God’s Word, helps you to be able to understand how God speaks. Knowing the stories of the Bible makes it easier to discern God’s hopes and dreams and differentiate them from your own. God may or may not do what we dream, but he has bound himself to keep the promises he has made and revealed. However, not every promise and demand is for you, so you must learn to distinguish when you are being spoken to.

This is why God also speaks through the spoken word. As Paul says in the book of Romans, “Faith comes through hearing.” God has called me to be your pastor and speaks to you using me, even with all my faults and sins. It is my call to study God’s Word proclaimed in the past, and speak it again for you today. Reading that Jesus forgave sinners in Galilee is one thing, but I am now applying that promise to you. Today, you can be assured that you have been made right with God on account of Jesus. God’s promises aren’t stuck in the past, they are present tense. And when you hear me speak those words of promise, you can trust that those words are God’s words and not my own.

Listening to the sermon, and the children’s sermon, are ways to hear God’s hopes and dreams for you. Listening to the hymns sung and the liturgy is another way to hear God’s promises. I pray that you will come to worship as often as you can to hear God speak to you. So that you can hear God’s hopes for you and this church’s ministry.

Another way God speaks is through people other than preachers and pastors. Martin Luther called this, the care and consolation of the saints. “For wherever two or three are gathered in my name, “Jesus says, “I am there with them.” When you are gathered together in your homes or at the park or at a council meeting, take a moment to pray for Saint Peters and to discuss where God may be leading your church’s ministry. What are God’s hopes and dreams for Saint Peters? What has he revealed in his Word?

This does not mean that just because you have a very religious dream one night that everyone needs to jump on board your one particular idea. We are listening for God’s hopes and dreams, not our own. We are listening for God’s promises. Then we will hold him to those promises! God may indeed be pulling you in a particular direction, but if that is the case. Pray continually about it. Ask others to pray about it. It might take some time. Test your ideas with the Bible in front of you during a daily devotion. Test your ideas when you listen to a sermon or a sing a hymn.

Here at Saint Peters, there are opportunities for you to get comfortable hearing God’s Word. Tuesday nights, starting in May, you can come and learn God’s Word in the Bible. Sunday mornings you can come and hear God’s Word sung and preached. After church you can come and have fellowship with others. Between services, at Lutheran 101, you can come and learn to hear the difference between what God does for you and what he demands from you. Thursday afternoons you can come and pray to God for hope during a group prayer time. These programs are available to strengthen your faith and knowledge of what God’s hopes and dreams are for you and your ministry here at Saint Peters. God does not expect you to have hope, he gives you hope.

God has blessed this congregation with hope before and he will do it again. But we aren’t hoping for our own glory. We aren’t hoping for our church’s glory. You don’t need to hope in yourselves, you may hope in God. And since he was glorified by dying on a cross, we shouldn’t expect to get too far into the future without a great deal of suffering as well.

Martin Luther said that suffering was one of the marks of the church. But, as Paul says in Romans. “We even boast in our sufferings knowing the suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope and hope does not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” This is how God works. Always finds a way to create life out of death.

The Israelites constantly reminded each other about how God had brought them out of Egypt and carried them through the forty years in the Wilderness. I want to constantly remind you that God has indeed seen you through these last twenty months and is still working. God says in the book of Jeremiah, “I know the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” God does not expect you to have hope already or to know exactly where this ministry should go from here, he has revealed his promises to give you hope. You don’t need to hope in yourselves, you may hope in God.

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth says the Lord; it shall not return empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”