What will you do with the Body?

EPIPHANY 2, JANUARY 15, 2012
Sermon
What Will You Do with the Body?

“May God the Father, who created this body; may God the Son, who by his blood redeemed this body; may God the Holy Spirit, who by Holy Baptism sanctified this body to be his temple, keep these remains to the day of the resurrection of all flesh.” These words are, of course, the words spoken at the committal in the Service of Christian Burial. At that most sober and somber moment they proclaim the truth about the body of the believer; it is a body created by the Maker of heaven and earth, purchased with the blood of Christ, and hallowed by the washing of the water with the Word. It is not a leftover carcass to be tossed aside. Quite the contrary, YOUR BODY IS GIVEN BY GOD AND IS RENDERED BACK TO HIM.

The body is yours; it is uniquely you. Yet it does not belong to you. You did not create yourself. While we read of the wizardry of post-human futures with synthetic parts that replace worn-out limbs and organs, we finally cannot transcend the reality that we are flesh and blood that will perish. We may view the body as a pod that houses our creative (and free) will. We may treat the body as an instrument of our hedonism, as a plaything for our pleasure. Then we need not be surprised that once the toy of the flesh breaks down we seek ways to be relieved of the burden. Enter assisted suicide and euthanasia. If we can’t finally master the body and control the suffering of disease or old age, we will put an end to it at the time and place of our own choosing. We speak of people committing suicide as “taking their own lives” as though it were theirs to take. We think, at least, that we will be done with the burden of the body.

What do we do with the body? That’s a question faced not just at the time of death but here and now as we live in the body. When the spirit of the age is mistaken for the Holy Spirit, the body will be thought of as incidental to spirituality. Such was the case with the super spirituality of the Corinthians, who apparently thought that something as bodily as sexual intercourse could not affect life in the Spirit. Freedom in the Spirit translated into a life unhampered by restrictions, boundaries, or limitations. Homosexual practice, prostitution, and even incest were fair game. Perhaps they reasoned that the bounds of Christian liberty were wide, expansive, and permissive since “food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food—and God will
destroy both” (v 13). It could be that they mistakenly thought that the Gospel is a message of liberation from the body. (That’s what Greek philosophy taught, after all—that the spirit was good, while the body was evil. Death, then, they believed—as do those many today—meant a welcome escape from the fetters of the body.)

The glue that binds us together, we are told, is the Gospel, Baptism, and mission. Something as mundane as a sexual ethic should not get in the way of these! We need an ethic that is more relational and less “physicalist” was the argument advanced by one of the proponents of change in the debates within the ELCA leading up to that church body’s adoption two years ago of novel policies that run counter to the Sacred Scriptures. The apostle takes a position and asserts an ethic that is physicalist, indeed: “The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body” (v 13). What you do with your body does matter. Listen again to Paul: “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?” (v 14). It is a matter of ownership. You can’t take the body that belongs to Christ—bought with his blood and washed by his Spirit in Holy Baptism—and join that body to a prostitute. To do so, Paul says, is to sin against your own body. Hence, he says, “Flee from sexual immorality” (v 18), for every other sin a person commits outside of his body—but this sin is against your body—the very body that God has created, redeemed, and sanctified.

Christ Jesus will not have the body that belongs to him rendered unclean, desecrated by fornication and enslaved by a fleshly union to one who is not your spouse. Christ Jesus would not have you live in bondage to another lord, for he has made you his own. He has “purchased and won [you] from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that [you] may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness” (Luther’s explanation of the Third Article).

Your body will not simply be discarded, even at death. It is neither evil nor irrelevant, but will be raised again to live in glory with Christ for all eternity. Then as now it belongs to the Lord, so that for this life already the apostle says “glorify God in your body” (v 20). Your body is the place of his Spirit, and it is destined for the resurrection of the flesh. So now present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. This is your spiritual worship (cf Rom 12:1).


(1 Rev. John T. Pless, assistant professor, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana)

The Baptism of Our Lord

Sermon Baptism of our Lord
January 8, 2012
A New Beginning
Mark 1:4-11

Today the readings point us to a new beginning. New beginnings are on our minds. We have been enculturated to think about making a new beginning in the New Year. We wish to put the previous year 2011 behind us and make a new beginning in 2012. Some will make resolutions and set goals to do better to improve their situation. After being encouraged to buy in excess and eat in excess for the Christmas season, we are made to feel guilty about our excesses. Back to eating right, back to the discipline of going to the gym, time to measure your performance on the bathroom scale. The season of Epiphany for the world is a season of repentance, of fasting and rigorous discipline until the feast days of Superbowl, Mardi Gras and St. Patrick’s day.

This January 2012 issue of Real Simple Magazine sums up our culture’s liturgy and its priorities. The lead article is how to break your bad habits which is closely followed by reducing your debt, losing weight faster, clearing clutter, learning to say no, cook smarter, reenergizing your style and finally be happier now. I think that about covers it. Would we not all want these things for our life. There are even preachers who are the presiding gurus in these areas such as Oprah, and her galaxy of stars including Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz.
These are not in themselves bad things to strive for especially for the sake of our families, our employees, our neighbors. These things we refer to as civil righteousness. But one does not need to be a Christian to practice these things. In fact many have replaced true religion with this civil religion. If one can show discipline and self‐control, if one has control finances, if you are slim trim and healthy already, if you are able to say no, well then why do you need religion you are already being God pleasing, right?

The church itself under the guise of attracting through the meeting of felt needs, glorifying God with one’s life and boosting attendance have mis‐named this functional form of work’s righteousness, sanctification. Some of the most popular evangelicals including Rick Warren and Joel Osteen make their living off of this form pseudo-sanctification. The titles of their best selling books say it all Rick Warren’s “Purpose Driven Life” and Joel Osteen’s “Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential” and his follow up “Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Every Day.” So I have to ask, “What is the difference between these titles in purpose and content than the ones on the cover of my Real Simple magazine?”

Recently, Rick Warren has started his new diet plan that he calls the Daniel plan that is based on the healthy eating of the Old Testament prophet Daniel and his followers. Additionally Joel Osteen has preached against the eating of pork. Once again these ideas may promote some healthy eating habits but what do they have to do with the Gospel. And how is this information any different than what we hear from Oprah, Dr. Phil or Dr. Oz. What do they have to do with preaching repentance and forgiveness? Perhaps this is what you came to hear today some tidbits on how to acquire your best life now. The old Adam is us wants to be reformed. It wants to be given a to do list but without the Gospel it is an exercise in futility. And if this is our self-centered works righteousness idea of sanctification or what we want to hear in a sermon then we need to repent
and die to self. We need to turn away from this futility that leads to despair and turn to Christ remembering our
baptisms and confessing our sins.

The truth of the matter is that in order for there to be a new beginning that it does not have anything to do with us and everything to do with God. He is the one who was at the beginning of all things, the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit. They are all mentioned in the first three verses of Genesis with the pre‐incarnate Christ hidden in the Word, “Let there be Light.” When Job in the midst of his suffering cried out to God did not God say, “Were you there when the foundations of the earth was laid, when the seas were given their limits.”
It is God who does the creating and the making of new beginnings and we are the objects of His benevolence of His unmerited grace.

The baptism of Christ is a new beginning revealed. For Christmas the revelation is that in Jesus God became man. The revelation of Epiphany is that Jesus the Man is God. And the revealing of God’s new name Father, Son and Holy Spirit which will play prominently in the Christ’s institution of baptism. This is a new beginning because in the old beginning heaven was shut to Adam and Eve. But, with Jesus heaven opens for God to become man and now in His baptism, as the gospel writer Mark puts it, the heavens are ripped open. And Jesus the Man is revealed to be God the Son as the voice from heaven identifies Jesus saying, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” This He does not say about any other man but only Jesus. He does not say that about you or me or Oprah, Joel, or Rick but only about Jesus.

I heard a sermon last week at a non-Lutheran church. Basically the content was based upon the story of David and Goliath. Essentially the message was for the coming year to discern not your will but God’s will for your life in the coming year. The preacher did a very fine job of preaching the law and there was perhaps one mention of Jesus dying for their sins. The sermon culminated with the members coming forward and kneeling before the altar praying for forgiveness but not hearing it. You see righteousness is not found in ourselves but the one whom God the Father is well pleased. The Father is pleased because the Son is obeying the Father. Even though He himself is sinless, Jesus did identify with those repenting and confessing their sins. So much so that He would take upon himself the sins of world. He would take what we deserve to the cross and give to us what we do not deserve His righteousness.

In our epistle reading we see how this past reality comes to us today, “we were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” So true sanctification means that we die, we die to ourselves, to our schemes for righteousness and self‐improvement to please God. God in Christ Jesus is already pleased with you. And this beginning started with your baptism where heaven was opened to you. You were made the Son in whom the Father is well pleased not because of your doing but because of God’s. And so what good works you do you cannot take credit for Jesus does them through you as you show love and care for your neighbor as you bring family members to Jesus through teaching and baptism.Without Christ, all you are left with is civil righteousness which alone will condemn you. But it is Christ who saves.

For God water plays significantly in new beginnings. We have the Spirit who hovers over the face of the waters in the second verse of Genesis. We have God’s use of the flood to save Noah and his family from the unspeakable evil of the world. We have deliverance of the Israelites through the Red Sea from the Egyptians. We have the new beginning for the gentile Naaman when he is cured of leprosy bathing in the Jordan. And now we have Jesus sanctifying all waters for His use to bring His fallen creation into the Kingdom. In the future we look forward to the River of Life that flows through the new Jerusalem our heavenly home. As you can see our Lord has the past, present and future covered. He is the one who says, “I make all things new.” For us baptism was the new beginning for us, the source, the Genesis and it continues to be a source of renewal as our Lord presently in this place washes with His forgiveness using His very blood flows from His altar.

There is nothing wrong with setting goals for the New Year. There is nothing wrong with having optimism for the New Year for our Lord does not change. He will continue to serve you in His Divine Service cleansing you of your sins. Through the Son the Father says to you, “You are my beloved with whom I am well pleased.” Amen

Waiting for the Impossible

ADVENT 4, DECEMBER 18, 2011
Waiting for the Impossible
Text: Luke 1:26–38

Many things that are considered miracles can be explained by natural processes. Things such as the recovery from a fatal disease may be miraculous but not so much a miracle since a medical treatment based on natural processes is applied that works. With medical procedures there is a still risk, a probability for failure, that it may not work, and the patient dies so we still deem it miraculous since we cannot entirely explain why some survive and others do not. There are very few real miracles recorded where the natural order of things is actually super ceded or supernatural. Where one could never hope to explain a phenomenon based upon naturally occurring processes, an event that is not probable but rather impossible.

Where these miracles are recorded in the scriptures they happen to very few people over a very long period of time. And they all have one purpose to preserve God’s people so that the Savior of the World may be born. The flood was a miracle that preserved eight people and rescued them from an utterly wicked world. Some have tried to explain how this miracle could have occurred naturally without success while others have relegated to myth since it cannot be explained. The burning bush was a miracle. God’s presence, a fire that does not consume or destroy the bush was the means by which God’s will was communicated to Moses and sets the precedent for his presence in, with and under created things. The parting of the Red Sea also an impossible miracle that many times is relegated to myth enabled the children of Israel to escape and inhabit the land promised to them where the Savior in the future would be born.

God’s miracles do not serve our purposes but they serve God’s for us. It was impossible for barren women to give birth 2000 years ago but with today’s technology depending on the cause of the women being barren, it may be possible. And today with the possibility of surrogate pregnancies, a virgin could give birth. But for there to be conception without the seed of a man, well even today that is impossible. The pregnancies of both Elizabeth and Mary were miracles. They were supernatural . They occurred not through the natural order of things but through God’s intentional intervention. Creation has been waiting since the fall into sin and death for this miracle to occur. The promise of Genesis 3:15, that the seed of a woman would crush the head of the
serpent, that liar and betrayer, was itself a miracle and therefore pointed to an impossible event, a child being born without the help of man, a child being born to a virgin. The child as we heard in the Gospel narrative and we confess in our creed is born of the Virgin Mary. Many liberal scholars translate parthenos as young maiden but clearly the meaning is that Mary would conceive without the help of man. Rather the child would be conceived of the Holy Spirit and therefore sinless. Jesus or Joshua would save His people from their sins because he was sinless.

We are all sons of Adam and so we inherit the curse of his disobedience. We are conceived in sin and born dead in our trespasses and sins. Therefore our default setting is that we sin, we transgress God’s will in our thoughts, words and deeds. But Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The Angel confirms this saying, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.” Jesus is conceived and born without the curse. Without the virgin birth we do not have a Savior. If Mary was not a virgin and Jesus was not conceived by the Holy Spirit, then sadly we would still be in our sins waiting for our Savior, we would still be waiting for the impossible.

But thanks be to God, that He has accomplished that which is impossible for us. God caused a barren woman to conceive and He Himself conceived a child in the womb of a virgin. The conception in Mary’s womb is the answer to the psalm we prayed in the introit, “Shower. O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit.” The Holy Spirit has come down like rain to the earth, that is Mary a daughter of Adam, has been opened to receive Him, bearing the fruit which is the Savior. What a glorious event and joyous miracle. What a glorious miracle that God would
cause Mary to believe and therefore receive this great gift.

The angel came to Mary and shared with her the gospel that she would give birth to the Savior of the World, her Savior. He would be a King whose Kingdom would last forever. Jesus is God’s fulfillment of His promise of steadfast love to His servant David. Mary was a descendant of David and so would be Jesus on His mother’s side. Mary in hearing the Angel’s good news came to believe in it and through the Holy Spirit faith was born and a new life began within her. In her miraculous response to the Angel, Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

Miracles or the impossible happen today in pretty much the same way. Today we witnessed one. Christopher Swanson before our eyes was baptized. We saw him get washed with water and we heard the Word from our Lord’s messenger, “baptized into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” What we did not see by the power of God’s Word is that Christopher also received the Holy Spirit and the forgiveness of sins. A new life of faith was conceived in him. Christopher who was born dead in his trespasses and sins has now been reborn from above to new life to reign with Jesus in His kingdom without end, the same promise given to King David.
For Christopher, whose name means “Christ bearer, ” he is now true to his name. Christopher along with every Christian is a bearer of Christ to the world. As time goes on and he attends Divine Service, Christopher will continue to hear the promise of eternal life made to him. As he learns the small catechism he will be able to use this gift so that he will recognize the body and blood His Lord by faith in the consecrated bread and cup. When he hears Jesus words, “This is my body and this is my blood given for the forgiveness of your sins.” He will say, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” Not by his doing, but by the power of Holy Spirit.

Faith in Christ is nothing to be taken for granted. It is a gift that we have been given by grace just as Mary was graced. Later when the disciples would ask Jesus what must we do to be saved. Jesus said very clearly, “For man this is impossible but for God all things are possible.” You see we cannot save ourselves, we cannot even believe or come to him by our own reason or strength rather the Holy Spirit calls and gathers the whole church by the gospel and through the sacraments. The Holy Spirit works through visible means so that we may be certain of His working in us. This is why we do not need altar calls or special prayers to make Jesus our Lord. It is impossible for us to make Jesus our Lord. But it is possible for God to bring us into His Kingdom. He already has through your baptism transferred you into His Kingdom. He has completely finished the work of your salvation, showering down upon you His righteousness and you to will bear fruit. We no longer have to wait for the impossible or look for miracles because all of what you need has been accomplished in Christ Jesus according to His Word. Thanks be to God.

“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.