“Waiting for our Savior”

Sermon Advent 1B

Mark 11:1-10

Rev. Jeff Springer

What are you waiting for?  Are you waiting for your fortunes to change?  Are you waiting for your health to improve?  Are you waiting for employment?  Are you waiting for a time when you can own your own home?  Are you waiting for Christmas to get here?  Are you waiting for a $199 flat screen TV?

Whatever you are waiting for we as a sinful people have difficulty waiting, especially where the ability to self gratify is almost instantaneous.  It appears at least what we see from the news that we lack the capacity for self control.  Black Friday is now being renamed black and blue Friday as shoppers this week broke out in fights after spending most of the week with little sleep in front of their favorite big box store.  One shopper appears to have used pepper spray to ward off other shoppers as she went for the coveted Xbox 360. To her credit, I heard she turned herself in.  However, I very much doubt whether the money she saved on her purchase will cover the attorney fees and damages she will have to pay out. 

It is funny in a pathetic way how are flesh is so ravenous in coveting those things that are temporal.  We expend so much effort and time on the pursuit of happiness, our happiness and we neglect the things that bring joy.

I am not sure I have ever seen people camped out overnight waiting for the church to open on Sunday. Yes, there have been those camped out in front but they leave before most members arrive. They are not interested in what is being offered inside instead they are only interested in what is in my pocket. 

It is amazing to me how many people are willing to put up with squalor and poor living conditions to occupy a park in from of city hall. The Occupy Wall Street movement is also about coveting.  These are people who wish through activism to acquire the American Dream.  They want it at the expense of others.  Since they are unable to control themselves the law which originally gave them a long leash is now shortening it in a dramatic way.

Personally, I would like to start a movement called “Occupy Church” where we pray for our leaders, our country, our enemies and hear from God’s wisdom and receive from him His eternal gifts. We call it Divine Service.

What is it that you are waiting for?  Are you waiting in anticipation of receiving Christ in Divine Service?  For those that are you will not be disappointed.  For our Lord is the bringer of healing, forgiveness and joy.  He is the healer of both are physical and emotional wounds.  He is the forgiver of our covetousness, our malice toward one another.  He replaces our happiness with joy.

God could have returned as a conquering king, destroying all that sin.  This would have been catastrophic because we are all sinners. We are no better than the women who pepper sprayed twenty two people for a toy. Perhaps some of us are worse.  Sin is the great equalizer and the consequence before God is the same, death.

Rather, the Savior we wait for condescends to humanity and He redeems humanity by humbling himself to humanities curse that is death.

St. Augustine writes, “The master of humility is Christ who humbled himself and became obedient even to death, even the death of the cross. Thus he does not lose his divinity when he teaches us humility…. What great thing was it to the King of the Ages to become the king of humanity? For Christ was not the king of Israel so that he might exact a tax or equip an army with weaponry and visibly vanquish an enemy, He was the king of Israel in that he rules minds, in that he gives counsel for eternity, in that he leads into the kingdom of heaven for those who believe, hope, and love. It is a condescension, not an advancement for one who is the Son of God, equal to the Father, the Word through whom all things were made, to become the king of Israel. It is an indication of pity, not an increase in power. [1]”

Our God transcendent of all time breaks into time and clothes himself with our flesh.  He is the perfect human yet He is also perfectly God. Nothing of His divinity is lost in taking on flesh. This condescension is for the Father’s joy and it is for our joy. 

It is so easy to take for granted this marvelous gift in Jesus Christ.  But you must imagine the time of the Old Testament.  They were still waiting on a savior.  Christ had not been raised from the dead. Yes there were resurrections such as those performed by Elijah and Elisha but these two prophets as great as they were did not raise themselves from the dead.  It is only righteous Jesus who obeyed death on the cross to pay the ransom for our sin that raised Himself to die no more.

This was the salvation the Old Testament patriarchs and matriarchs were looking for freedom from sin, sin that could not be taken away by mere substitutionary animal sacrifice.  We hear this in the songs of Mary, Zechariah, Simeon and Anna. They were waiting on a Savior from their sin.

When Jesus came down from the east from the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem riding on a foal of a donkey, I am quite sure the people were surprised.  Hosanna is not so much a statement as it is an emotional response, like an interjection.  Such as Hey! Wow! Awesome! In this case it is more of a pleading.  Lord save us!

These people who were cutting down branches and putting their coats down to level out and straighten the path were waiting for a Savior and in Jesus they found one.  He had the right pedigree “Son of David” and He was fulfilling all the messianic prophesies down to the Old Testament Zechariah’s prophecy of His riding into Jerusalem.

He was a surprise because he came so humbly and meekly. Jesus did not come in glory as our Emmanuel but he came as a fragile human being able to suffer and die.  He came as a sacrifice for us. He is the lamb caught in the thicket who would be sacrificed in our place.  That is who the people were waiting for and that is who the church waits for today.

During this time Advent we will reflect on the different ways the church waits. The mid-week evening prayer service will meditate on the Old Testament readings and with the church of old we will learn to wait with prayer, with comfort, with joy and with worship. 

The Savior you wait for comes to you in this humble building. He comes to you under the humble and common forms of bread and wine.  It does not look like much but Christ is their present on the altar the slain lamb we eat for our Passover.  Not to deliver us from an Egyptian King, a Roman Caesar, or the .1 percent but from our own covetous sin.

This is the Savior we wait for, God with us, Emmanuel.  And we join in the chorus of those placing boughs and branches in His path, greeting our King singing “Hosanna, in the Highest. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the Highest.”     Amen

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[1] Augustine, Tractate on John 51:3-4

“The End and the Beginning”

Sermon Proper 29: The Last Sunday of the Church Year

Matthew 25:31-46

Rev. Jeff Springer

Jesus telling of the final judgment scene when the Son of Man returns in glory immediately follows last week’s parable of the talents.  The parable and the event that marks the end of time are related.  They are related in that after a period of time there is an accounting done. 

If you have ever played the game monopoly some of you know that it could take hours before a winner emerges.  So many times when the hour is late the players count their colored currency and receive from the bank the value of their homes and properties to determine the result.  This is not unlike real life. When a loved one dies an accounting takes place.  Cash and property are counted and then divided among the beneficiaries. 

What is happening at the end of time is an accounting taking place.  This accounting does not assess wealth but instead trust. Trust in our Lord.  The servants in last week’s parable were granted large sums of wealth to manage. It was not earned it was given to them by a generous master. The smallest sum one talent valued as much as twenty years of wages. 

In a way we can look at these monetary sums as being equal to life.  We need our daily bread or wages to live in this life if it means putting food on the table or affording health care.  

Our generous God through His Son Jesus has given to us eternal life. This is a gift you received at your baptism when you received the priceless name of the triune God and were connected to Christ’s atoning death and resurrection.  This is the equivalent of receiving thousands of talents.  In trusting in this promise of God you have security in this life.  Not because faith in itself makes you healthy, wealthy and wise but because you have all things in Christ. This is the freedom now that we have to keep the Lord’s word and to love our neighbor.

On the last day, or the end of the time of these heavens and earth, the Son of Man, Jesus, will be on His throne and as a shepherd separates His sheep so will the Son of Man call His sheep out of world.   In this life we cannot see who is truly in the church and who is not, but what has been invisible to us and known only through faith will be made visible for all to see. 

The self justifying, the independent, and the strong will be separated from those who see themselves as undeserving sinners, who are dependent on God’s grace and who are weak. 

Those who are forgiven much, love much, and their faith does result in care for others. Actually it is Christ working through them to serve the neighbor.  As Dr. Luther says, “Our Lord does not need our good works but our neighbor does.”  In serving our neighbor we serve the Lord, but in order for us to serve we need to be served by God.

This is the secret the unwashed masses do not know.  Still they seek knowledge to save themselves without Christ but this is impossible.  In the end they blame God for not informing them even though the scriptures were preached and the free gifts of God were distributed in their midst.

For Christ people the last day is not an end to be feared but a beginning to rejoice.  In the resurrection of the dead that precedes this judgment scene, the faithful are raised to new life to be like Christ. No longer will you sin and no longer will you feel the effects of sin.  In the book of Revelation, Death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire.   The lake of fire is the final and eternal hell for all the enemies of God it is the outer darkness the place of gnashing of teeth, the eternal punishment. 

Sin and its consequences will be forever destroyed.  The enemies of Christ’s church, Satan, the hypocrites, the oppressors and those powers and authorities that oppose God will also be thrown into the lake of fire.  All those not found in the book of life will be thrown into the lake of fire.  God’s people will be delivered from this oppression. You by your baptism have been recorded in the book of life. 

The resurrection of the dead will result in a new heavens and a new earth.  The heavens and the earth we have now have been cursed and ruined by Adam’s sin, by our sin. Our resurrected bodies free from sin require a new home, new heavens and a new earth. St. Paul writes to the Romans that all creation groans with birth pains for the revealing of the Sons of God.   The creation itself waits for its redemption it re-creation free from sin.

In Revelation 21, John has a vision of the new beginning that is inaugurated by the judgment scene.  He sees the New Jerusalem coming down from Heaven. Not made with human hands but created by the Divine. This will be the place and the means by which God will dwell with His people. 

In this vision the Lord speaks from His throne,   “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” (Revelation 21:5–8)

Clearly Christ is making all things new. From the cross Jesus proclaimed, “It is finished.”  This means that his work of redeeming His creation is complete.  However, we have not experienced the full consummation of this work.  That will be accomplished when we hear raised from the dead. “It is done.” When one work, one time, one era is finished a new one begins.

Our Jesus the Son of God shares these titles with His Father. He is the Alpha and the Omega in other words He was with the Father before creation transcending time. Next He is the beginning and the end.  He was with the Father at the beginning of creation. He was creating with God and here He is at the end subjecting all enemies under His feet.  The other title that He is also given and this one alone is the First and the Last, this refers to Christ’s incarnation, his death and resurrection. Jesus made himself Last and the Father exulted Him to be first born of the dead.

Christ on the throne is our King. He is our champion against all the evil of this world.  He is our redeemer from the dept and guilt our sin.  The Last day will be the beginning of a new day for us to live with our Lord in the Heavenly Jerusalem where we will eat from the tree of life.

Today our tree of life is the cross. And our Lord bids you to come and eat of it, his first and last body, for the forgiveness of your sins and a pledge of your resurrection. The end is just the beginning!

Faithfulness

Sermon Proper 28

November 13,2011

Matthew 25:14-31

Americans have long struggled with the parable of the talents. Early in our history, this parable was used against America. Preachers in England saw the Puritans as unprofitable servants, declaring that their emigration to America was God casting them into a land of darkness, where there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Later, however, this parable was used for America. Revivalist preachers declared America to be a place of opportunity, where profitable servants would be blessed. Faithful stewardship would result in financial prosperity. In fact, in the 1920s, Sinclair Lewis wrote a social satire of such preachers (Elmer Gantry) and the way they used this parable to proclaim the cash value of Christianity.

We continue to struggle with this parable today, but our struggle is a bit different. America challenges us with the way it imagines God and the way it tempts us to devalue God’s gifts to his people. In this parable, Jesus is not talking about America. He’s preaching the kingdom of heaven. His preaching does, however, challenge our American misconceptions. Jesus does not invite us into a world of earthly wealth, where faith is driven by profit motives, but into a world of divine love, where faith responds in joyful service. When the master returns to settle accounts, Jesus wants you to hear, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master.”

That this might be so, we consider today,

What Does It Mean to Live in Our Master’s Joy?

                Living in our Master’s joy means being faithful  or trusting in the God Jesus reveals rather than in the god we may imagine.  Our readings today turn our eyes toward the end of all things, and the vision we see is horrifying. In our Old Testament reading, the one who is complacent, who says “the Lord will not do good nor will he do ill” will have his house plundered and laid to waste.  The epistle reads, While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

               

                Such horror, however, can cause us to overlook one of the most horrifying details of all. In the parable of the talents, the cause of the unprofitable servant’s damnation is his own imagination. He chooses to live with a master he has imagined rather the master who has revealed his generous love.

In the parable, Jesus reveals a generous master, one who gives all that he has into the hands of his servants. The amount that the master entrusts to his servants is astounding. By conservative estimates, just one talent is worth twenty years of daily labor. And later, the master says that this was only a little as he sets his faithful servants over much.

The unprofitable servant, however, lives with a different master, the master he has imagined. For him, the master is “a hard man, reaping where [he] did not sow, and gathering where [he] scattered no seed” (v 24). This belief causes him great fear. It paralyzes him so that he buries his master’s talent in the ground. When the master returns to settle accounts, he judges the servant according to what he has believed. As the servant believes, so it is done to him. Because he did not trust in the loving generosity of his master, the servant is cast out into darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Jesus has come revealing to us the generosity of God. His Father’s love is not to be measured in amounts of money but in the life, death, and resurrection of his Son. Jesus brought into this world a love that was priceless, a love that would not balk at the cost of sin, a love that would suffer death and eternal damnation so that the debt of all humanity would be paid and every sin would be forgiven before God.

Unfortunately, there are many in our world who turn away from this revelation of God. Such love seems brutal, violent, uncivilized, and they would rather live with the god they imagine than the God Jesus reveals.

The god they imagine, however, is not hard and demanding and someone to be feared (like the servant’s imaginary master). No, the American god is all-loving. He is like a kindhearted grandfather, too weak to do any harm but strong enough still to love us. Instead of repentance, this god calls for tolerance. Instead of forgiveness, this god offers acceptance. So, turning from sin and being forgiven seem like strange activities to those who believe in the American god. Why all of this talk about sin? After all, nobody’s perfect, and God is love. People in our world imagine they can stand before God with all of their sins and be accepted for who they are and tolerated for what they have done.

Unfortunately, this god is a figment of the American imagination, and, in the end, he will not save. God saves us not by our imagination but by his action. In Jesus Christ, God has entered into our world and acted to save. His love goes beyond our wildest imagination. He saves not by becoming what we want him to be but by being the one we need him to be, our Savior. Our Savior knows the very real danger of sin and therefore calls us to repent. Our Savior knows the eternal cost of sin and therefore dies under our eternal punishment. But our Savior also knows the eternal joy of salvation and therefore rises again, not to tolerate sin and accept sinners but to forgive the repentant and invite them to live in eternal joy. Living in the joy of our Master means turning away from America’s god and trusting the God revealed in Jesus Christ, the Son of God who gave his life for us that we might live in eternal joy.

                Living in our Master’s joy means serving faithfully as people differently gifted but equally loved. While one servant fears the master he has imagined, the other servants trust the master they know. Their master is a gracious and generous man. Instead of harshly ruling over them, he graciously rules through them, giving them his great wealth for service in the world. He divides his possessions between them according to their ability (v 15) and sends them forth as servants differently gifted but equally loved. Each servant is loved. He is part of the household of a generous master. Yet, each servant is differently gifted: one receives five talents, one two, and one one. Living in the joy of their master means rejoicing in faithful service,  differently gifted but equally loved.

The fact that the master gives to each servant differently can trouble us. It looks like God does not love everyone equally. In our consumerist culture, we associate having more with being better. So obviously the servant who has five talents is better than the servant who has two. In our profit-driven culture, we associate making more with doing better. So obviously the servant who makes five talents does better than the servant who makes two. Such attitudes cause us to divide ourselves into those whom God loves more and those whom God loves less based on our abilities. Some churches do this. For example, they emphasize service to the congregation as more important than service in one’s vocation. A member who teaches Sunday School and sings in the choir is honored as faithful, whereas another member who works as a single mother and raises her children in the faith is seen as somehow less committed.

The master, however, receives both servants with joy, saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant. . . . Enter into the joy of your master” (vv 21, 23). God’s love for us delights in our differences and rejoices in the various ways he has created us for service. As Paul writes to the Corinthians, “If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?” (1 Cor 12:17). Our service to God does not earn us a place in his kingdom. God has freely given us that in Christ. Yet this God who freely offers his love equally to all individuals also delights in our differences. He values each of our varied abilities, letting us know our service, no matter how small or how large, brings him great joy. Living in his joy means rejoicing in the various places he has called us and the various gifts he has given us for service. In service to God, we manifest the infinite variety of his goodness to the world.

Living in our Master’s joy, then, does not mean comparing ourselves with others to see how well we’re doing or dividing ourselves from others as though God loves some of us more than others. Instead, it means trusting in what God has revealed to us in Jesus Christ—that he loves all of us equally—and faithfully serving in the various places where God has called us, differently gifted but equally loved.[1] Jesus demonstrates this love for you as he equally died for you all and equally atoned for all your sins on the cross and so for those who baptized and receive the faith as taught you equally receive His body and blood for the forgiveness of your sin.

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[1] This sermon was written by Rev. David R. Schmitt, PhD, associate professor, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri and edited by Pastor Jeff Springer

Blessed Saints in Christ

Sermon All Saints Day Observed

Sunday, November 6^th 2011

Matthew 5:1-12

There are times when I have asked someone how they are doing they say, “They are blessed.”  I sometimes wonder if it is an invitation to additional conversation.  When they say they are blessed what do they mean?  I know that when asked to count our blessings we are invited to look at the glass half full. We count the good things in our lives, such as our family and our homes, perhaps our jobs and health.

Very rarely if any times have I heard someone say they are blessed and then talk about how out of control their life is or how they are mourning over a loss or how they are plagued by their sinful nature or how they are being persecuted for confessing Christ.  Are any of you out there this morning blessed in this way? If you are then you know what it is to be a blessed saint in Christ.

It seems almost counter intuitive.  If someone told you that they were blessed and then the recounted their loss of control, sinfulness, mourning and persecution you would not consider them blessed but rather cursed. However this is the sinful world in which we live in, where the saints of God and His church face tribulation not only from the devil and the world but from our very flesh, so everything is back words and topsy turvy.

We tend to frustrate ourselves when we think we can control our lives and others. There may be ways to be successful at this through self-centered manipulation but in the end we will come across something that we cannot control such as sickness and death. 

There is also the idea prominent in American Evangelicalism that free from sin means free from sinning. In an interview with Rev. Todd Wilken of Issues Etc.org former American Evangelical president Ted Haggard stated that he has gone days without sinning and that it is possible to completely conquer sins in his life. As an example he asked Rev. Wilken if he had ever murdered anyone to which Rev. Wilken said no but he stated  he has hated someone to which Haggard said well you need to work on that and that he no longer hates.  I kept thinking or the Holy Spirit brought to my attention , “If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us…”  (1 John 1:8)

The trouble is that Pastor Haggard, who is the pastor of an 11,000 member mega-church, has lowered the bar on sin.  He has lowered the bar so far that sinlessness is achievable.  Pastor Haggard’s idea of sanctification means that one will conquer sin in this life, through the help of the Holy Spirit.  But true biblical sanctification is not simply changing the behavior of the old Adam but killing it entirely so that it is Christ working in our lives.  We will never be free from sinning until we are raised from the dead, but we are free from sin because Jesus the Son of God declares us to be. Jesus said, if the Son declares you to be free you are free indeed. (John 8:36)

I can see how Pastor Haggard’s unscriptural view of sanctification in a culture that is all about behavior modification and self-improvement can attract a crowd. We are all looking for an answer to stop our suffering, to improve our lot.

I have learned from my sickness that there are times when there is nothing one can do to improve one’s situation.  So I am driven to prayer and dependence on the Lord. The Holy Spirit is not a power source to help us achieve our goals but it instead convicts us of our sin and points us to our Savior, that is true biblical sanctification. He sanctifies us by forgiving us. This is what our creed confesses. If we are no longer sinning then we no longer need forgiveness. The American Evangelical view, which is not evangelical at all, of sanctification leads to either despair or phariseeism, a false confidence from keeping the law.

So what is Jesus saying in these beatitudes?  First of all they are blessings received. They are not attitudes to be activated.  The idea of them being called be-attitudes comes from a reformed unscriptural view of sanctification. They are not goals to be attained but blessings to be received. We know this intuitively when we receive a blessing from a parent or from a pastor or someone in authority over us.

Perhaps as parents you bless your food more than you bless your own children but that is part of your role as parent. And this is what our Lord is doing for us.

When Jesus says blessed be the poor in spirit, he is not talking about socio-economic status but a condition of the soul.  When the disciples of John the Baptist ask Jesus if He is the Christ, one of Jesus’ responses is that good news is being preached to the poor. These poor souls are ones that are emptied of any self-justification, of any claims of control.  So it is good news to them that Jesus is keeping the Law that Jesus is forgiving their sins and reversing its consequences.

Blessed are they who come this morning as poor beggars bringing nothing righteous before God confessing their sins and sinfulness and hearing our Lord’s declaration of grace, of forgiveness.  Blessed are they, for they are a saints in Christ in God’s kingdom.

Blessed are those who mourn over their condition, their sinfulness, for the preaching of the good news will comfort them. Blessed to those who are humbled by this world, the world is not their friend, but one day they will be an inheritor with Christ of a new heavens and a new earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.  One does not hunger of thirst for righteousness if one already has their own.  Christ himself laden with your sin on the cross cried out, “I thirst.”  Jesus satisfied the requirements for righteousness through His life and sacrificial death which He has given to you.

These first four blessings are received by those who have nothing of their own to bring.  The second set of four blessings are themselves gifts that are from Christ filling the saints and working through them to serve others.

Our merciful Lord works mercy through the saints and then rewards them with mercy.  Our Lord cleanses their dirty hearts through the waters of baptism and the cleansing blood from His side received in the sacrament. Through this blessing they receive the promise of seeing God with all the saints in the Holy Jerusalem.

Our Lord, the prince of Peace, reconciles the saints to the Father the saints are sons, their son ship and inheritance will be realized on the Last day as it is revealed to all the waiting creation.  Saints in Christ will be persecuted just as their Lord was persecuted but the blessing is they are counted among the saints who are in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Finally in this final ninth blessing there is no doubt as He switches to second person he means you. The blessed, that is you, cannot escape it. In one form or another you will be persecuted, misrepresented, reviled and lies will be said about just as your Lord on Good Friday.  But our Lord says this is not the time to be frustrated or angry but rather rejoice that you have been counted to suffer with your Lord. He promises that in the future when He returns your reward will be great even unimaginable.  You will find yourself in the company of the saints as you behold your Lord on the Last Day.

Where these beatitudes, the blessings passively describe the saints they actively describe Jesus. He is poor in spirit as he emptied himself to become man. Jesus mourned for the plight of mankind. He mourned for Jerusalem. He mourned for his dead friend Lazarus and He mourned His own impending crucifixion but the Father comforted Him and raised Him from the dead. 

Jesus did not come in all His glory has God but humbly and meekly riding into Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey. He humbled himself before the authorities even unto to death.  Jesus without righteousness on the cross hungered and thirsted for it and He satisfied God’s righteous wrath. 

Jesus today is merciful as he welcomes sinners into His church and He cleanses their hearts through the sacraments. He makes peace between us and the Father so that we may be reconciled and forgive one another.  Jesus was persecuted for our sake. He is the propitiation for our sins and He sits now at the right hand of God with all power and authority. He is in control.

Our Lord in the flesh, who has redeemed all flesh, is enjoying His inheritance and you too will one day, being saints in Christ, will join the church triumphant, the Holy Jerusalem, the bride of Christ will share in that inheritance.