The Son of Man Came to Serve

Sermon Lent 5

The Son of Man came to serve

Mark 10:32-45

Our text this morning once again finds Jesus on the journey to Jerusalem with his twelve apostles. In fact at this point in Mark’s gospel, Jerusalem may be in sight for they were on the road going up to Jerusalem. Next week Jesus will enter Jerusalem mounted on a donkey and the events of Christ’s passion shall begin.

But before that there is more teaching from Jesus. In particular this text is the summary of teaching that begins in the eighth chapter where Peter identifies Jesus as the Christ and then Jesus teaches what it means to be the Christ. That he would suffer many things from the hands of the scribes and chief priests and that he would be put to death on the cross and then he would rise again in three days.  In, with and under this teaching of the purpose of the Christ Jesus teaches that real power is found in weakness and that genuine authority does not govern for its own sake but for the sake of others. This is what Jesus is teaching and impressing upon his disciples who are so slow to believe.

Shortly before a glimpse of glory is revealed in the transfiguration in chapter 9, Jesus tells his disciples that they too will face persecution and death. They too will endure the cross before they see Jesus in His power. Coming down from the transfiguration, Jesus reminds the disciples what he said previously that they were not to say anything about this vision until after He had risen from the dead.  But sadly after the Father’s word to listen to Jesus, the three disciples were still questioning what Jesus meant when he said he was going to die.  This idea, that Jesus would suffer and die let alone rise again, was so far from their minds that they were in utter denial of Jesus words.

The rest of the disciples were no better. When Jesus returned with Peter, James and John, down from the mountain He found the other disciples arguing with the scribes over a mute boy they were unable to excise a demon from.  The disciples had forgotten where their authority had come. They did not have authority in and of themselves. They only had authority in so far as the Father and Son would grant it to them.  Perhaps they were trying to show those scribes how wrong they were about Jesus but it back fired because they were looking to serve themselves rather than the boy in need. 

The father was just looking for a solution for his son. He said to Jesus, “But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” The Father desperately prays to Jesus, “I believe help my unbelief.” In answer to this prayer Jesus frees the boy from the demon.  Jesus later would tell the disciples that only prayer would drive the demon out. In this case it was a prayer to Jesus on the part of the father. The disciples began to think they possessed power simply because they chosen by Jesus.

Jesus once again tells his disciples that the Son of Man must suffer and die and in three days rise again and yet the disciples are still confused and continue with their agenda of talking about who among them is the greatest.  Jesus once again explains, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”

Serving a child, receiving a child, unheard of, children were considered property. Parents held the power of life and death over the child, much like those today of the prochoice and women’s rights movements who treat their unborn children as property, as slaves, whose very fate of life or death are in their hands and not God’s. It is an obscene and perverse culture that sees human pregnancy as a women’s health issue and the unborn child a disease that is to be treated.

It is these lowly ones the culture and our disciples would cast off and reject that Jesus came to serve. Jesus later in chapter nine teaches,  “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.”  These little ones these infants cannot do anything to save themselves. They are completely powerless.  In fact they lack the ability to serve others yet Jesus the one with all authority comes to serve them. This warning by the way comes just prior to Jesus teaching regarding divorce, a sin whose causes are self serving and is a source of stumbling and barrier to the gospel for the children.

This delusion in American evangelicalism still exists that in order to be saved one must take a step toward God, one must consider the evidence and make a rational decision to follow God. Infants are incapable of such power of such reasoning so they are written off.  But this proves that Jesus serves those who are incapable of serving him. He is the Savior. He baptizes these infants into his cross just like the unbelieving disciples and ushers them into his kingdom.

Jesus serves the little ones by laying his hands upon them and blessing them and saying that the kingdom of heaven are such as these. Even a drink of water given to these little ones will not be forgotten in heaven. The one however who thinks he is rich, young and powerful. The one who believes he is able to earn his way to heaven by keeping God’s law. This is what the rich young ruler thought. Sadly, this one has rejected the Savior Jesus. This is the reason the majority of our culture is not attending Divine Service.

And those that are, many for the wrong reason. They come to worship the law with all their talents. They are doing their duty instead of coming to church as a beggar with an empty sack ready to receive, desiring to be served by Christ.

So this brings us to the summary of this teaching in our text this morning. The wonderful gospel message Jesus says, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  How does he serve? By giving his life! He does this by allowing himself to be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes who will condemn him to death for blaspheming they will in turn deliver him over to the gentiles the Romans to be mocked, spit upon, flogged and crucified and the third day rise again. In this notice Jesus gives his disciples even more details about his passion then he did previously.

Still what are James and John talking about? They have an agenda. They seek places of honor when Jesus establishes his Kingdom.  They totally misunderstand the nature of this kingdom which they take to be a Jewish utopia on earth. Instead it will be a kingdom of grace and mercy for the enemies of God.

Jesus uses sacramental language to describe again what he will do for them that they are unable to do for themselves. He brings in the language of baptism to describe his Passion and also the wrath of God represented by the cup. Certainly St. Paul reflects this understanding and connection in Roman 6 where he speaks of being crucified, buried and raised with Christ in baptism and in 1 Corinthians 10 the cup of blessing that we bless a participation in the blood of Christ.No, James and John, the rich young ruler and the rest of do-gooders cannot do what He would do and has done to save us from our sins as the atoning sacrifice. But as the body of Christ we will suffer persecution. We will because we will be confessing Christ’s death and resurrection and doing the faithful works that God has prepared for us. “So James and John, you will not do what Jesus has done but you will be baptized into him, the perpetually slain Lamb of God.”  

Jesus set his disciples straight about how authority works in the Kingdom of God. It is not something that is taken like in a power grab. No one can take authority from God. No one can bargain with or give anything to God for it. I cannot say I have talent. I have ability. I have training. It cannot be earned or deserved in any way.  God grants it. God is the one who grants who will be on Jesus left and right. On the cross it was two thieves, one who believed and was granted paradise that day and one who did not. Jesus says, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.  But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.”  

Jesus shows to us a whole different way of thinking about authority. Authority is not about serving oneself but serving others. It is not something that is taken or assumed but it is granted. Jesus makes no exceptions you who I place in authority will be servants of all, servants to the rich and servants to the poor, servants to the eldest and servants even to the youngest infants who will baptized in his name.  

So the Apostle Paul will write to the Philippian church, “Paul and Timothy servants of Christ Jesus” and to Titus, “Paul, servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ.”   And James the first bishop of Jerusalem in his letter will begin with “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” And in Peter’s second letter he writes, “Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ.”

Jesus is first among them all so He is slave of all, “Giving his life as a ransom for many.” Yes Jesus this day is serving you by washing you clean by his words for forgiveness. And you can be assured by receiving the sacrament of the altar that he did in fact die to pay the ransom for your sin.

Your Lord has given his life so that you may be free to serve others. How could anyone withhold service when Christ has served you in this way. All of us in our various vocations such as Pastor, Church Worker, Father, Mother, Teacher, Elder, Deacon, Church Council member are not to use our authority to serve ourselves for our own advantage but for the advantage and service to those we are responsible for.  We are also to be diligent and not neglect our responsibilities for all the body feels it when one member fails to serve.

Our Lord by washing away your sins takes away your fears. He is working through you in your various vocations in serving your neighbor as a living sacrifice showing mercy and compassion to those in your midst. The son of man came to serve and that is what the He continues to do. Amen

Look and Live

Sermon Lent 4

“Look and Live”

John 3:14-21

This morning’s gospel text is from Jesus night time encounter with the Pharisee Nicodemus.  Jesus at this point will give to Nicodemus the summary of the Father’s will for the Son. John 3:16 is probably still the best known verses among Christians. It is still seen occasionally written on signs at televised football games. It is one of the first bible verses that I can remember memorizing encouraged by my Aunt. It is the gospel in a nutshell. “For God do loved the World that he gave His only begotten Son that whosoever would believe in Him would not perish but receive eternal life.”

What a comforting message. It is a message that creates faith in the heart of the believer. But what is the context of this message? Why did God have to send His only begotten Son? And once he was sent why did his own nation reject him? Without answering these questions the Gospel message is meaningless.

Jesus begins by taking us and Nicodemus back to the time of Moses. Back to the Exodus from Egypt back to one of the most significant deliverance events in the history of the people of Israel. God had brought them out of slavery and was now leading them to land He had promised to them, a land flowing with milk and honey.  The problem was that they needed to go through the wilderness to get there.  And there is very little food and drink in the wilderness. The people needed to depend on God.

God is faithful and so he did provide for their needs. He provided them a rock in which water flowed and he fed them with manna and birds from heaven. However the people became dissatisfied with God’s gifts. They became ungrateful. It is written, And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.”

The peoples lack of faith, there denial of God’s gifts, was met with swift justice. The people received what they deserved. God sent fiery serpents, fiery meaning that their venomous bites were painful.  Many Israelites suffered painful deaths. 

The result of this justice, this catastrophe is that the people began to repent. They cried out to Moses and to God. They confessed, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.”

Moses did pray for the people, he brought their confession to the Lord. They had sinned against God and the one whom God had sent and now they turned to God and the one he sent to grant them salvation.  So the Lord did relent and justice was turned into mercy.

The Lord told Moses to fashion a bronze poll and on the top of the pole fashion a bronze serpent. Moses was then to take the bronze pole with the serpent, lifting it up, he was to take it out upon the suffering people so that they could look upon it.  “Look and live!” was the cry.  The very thing, the serpent, that was the instrument of God’s justice was now the instrument of God’s mercy. 

So now Jesus says in our gospel text to Nicodemus, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

This may be a bit uncomfortable for us to consider but Jesus, the Son of God, lifted up on the cross is both the instrument of God’s justice and the source of mercy.  We confess that in the future Jesus will come again to judge both the living and the dead. It is Jesus who will send Satan and His followers to eternal death in the Lake of Fire.

Who are the followers of Satan? Those who have been conceived in sin, which includes us all prior to faith. Paul gives to us a further description writing, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

Notice how passion and desire from the scriptural point of view are descriptions of the fallen nature. I know that passion and desire in the culture is lauded.  It’s lauded even in the church.  I have seen advertisements for Passionate worship.  The rampant consumerism that seeks self-gratification, carrying out the desires of the body and mind, has also become a dominate driver in church practice and worship. But this sort of thinking denies that we are snake bitten. We are fooled into thinking that our desires are God’s desires even in our individualized worship of God. This sort of thinking will lead us back to becoming children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

We are all snake bitten with the venom of sin.  God’s law shines the light, makes this fact known to us. We deserve God’s justice for failing to appreciate the gifts sent to us. From the cross Jesus was judged for all your sin. He also judged those who were unbelieving and this he does still today from the altar.  

But it is also from this place that mercy flows.  The Father says, “Look to my Son lifted high on the cross. Look and live for He is the curse and he is your salvation.” Both our sin, the cause of Jesus being judged, and of the Father’s mercy is before us. Just as the people we reminded by the snake of their sin so the cross also reminds us of our sin and that Christ crucified is justice served and mercy given. Distributed from cross to this altar, the sacrificial lamb is now consumed for the forgiveness of sins.

Just as God’s justice is for all so now is his mercy. The only begotten Son dies for the whole world for you and I and all people. 

We wish to retreat into the darkness. The light being shown on our sin makes us uncomfortable. We don’t want to see it and we don’t want others to see our wicked works. However, those works which God has prepared for us before hand these works are done in the light because they are true and being carried out in God as Jesus promises.

Jesus raises you from the deadly snake bite of sin, Look and live at the only begotten Son of God lifted High on the cross for your salvation.          

     

We Preach Christ Crucified

Sermon Lent 3

“We preach Christ crucified”

1 Corinthian 1:18-25

Last Sunday we took up the cross with Jesus.  The Word of God demonstrates to us plainly that we are all sinners in need of a Savior whether we perceive it or not.  The ten commandments are the Law we are required to keep and it is the Law the Word we are unable to keep.

Therefore It is necessary for Jesus to go to Jerusalem, suffer many things and die a shameful death on the cross at the hands of the church and political leadership. This is the wrath of God that comes from not keeping the commandments. It was not an action on Jesus part that condemned him. Jesus kept the commandments. It was our disobedience and sin that were imposed upon him, which he took willingly, to please his Heavenly Father. However, Jesus being innocent would rise after three days after the debt was paid for our sin on the cross.

For Christians this story should not be unfamiliar.  It is called the doctrine of vicarious atonement. The cross is the instrument of our justification. Justification that is imposed upon us sinners. Yet there are churches that bear the Christian name that are embarrassed by this doctrine.  They say this doctrine is paternalistic and that it makes the Father in Heaven out to be a child abuser. This should not surprise us in a culture where we remove all consequences for sin whether it be the repeal of the death penalty or government funded abortion. We live in a sinful, lawless and adulterous generation. God have mercy on us for doing so little to curb this great evil.

Other churches simply ignore this doctrine or they briefly mention it while they move on to build up there church’s earthly kingdom. The cross is not want people want to hear. It does not sell well.  People don’t want to hear it, they don’t want to see it.  Neither do those outside the church. What they want to hear is that God loves them without the cross, without Christ. This sort of love would be irresponsible and unjust, not forgiveness but amnesty.

What was Paul going to say to a congregation in Corinth who had it all.  The Corinthian congregation was wealthy and they were extremely gifted. They appeared to manifest the power of the spirit as they spoke in heavenly tongues. They had the best speakers, orators and preachers of their time, each appeared to have their own following.  This unfortunately resulted in little cults of personality and divisiveness in the congregation. Instead of confessing the one true faith, they began confessing multiple and contradicting faiths.

Corinth’s perceived giftedness and success was at the expense of love and unity.  Different clichés within the congregation formed so that when they celebrated the Lord’s Supper they segregated themselves. The elite would meet in one room while the not so elite would receive communion in a more common place. Despite having heavenly tongues they even lost Jesus words of institution.

What would be Paul’s message to this congregation?  Simple, “we preach Christ crucified.”  It was a message I am sure they had heard once before. It was this preaching that made these people into Christians in the first place and it would be the same message that would reconvert them.

The Corinthians were impressed with rhetoric, with well reasoned arguments. They were surrounded by schools of philosophers who speculated on the existence of god and its implications for society.  Not unlike today the people of Corinth were looking for an advantage in dealing with circumstances that were outside of their control. Self denial, the cross, would seem like foolishness.

To gentiles, enmeshed in a culture enamored with power and success, it made no sense for a crucified criminal was held up as the Savior of the world. (1 Cor. 1:18)  Not only the Greeks but especially the Romans with their thirst for power would find the notion of a crucified Messiah ridiculous.

The first-century B.C. Roman statesman, Cicero, expressed the Romans’ abhorrence of the cross. “May the name of the cross be absent not only from the body of Roman citizens but also from their thinking, their eyes and ears.” The Roman historian Tacitus and the statesman Pliny the Younger both condemned Christianity as a perverse superstition.  The second-century philosopher Celsus spoke of Christians as, “actually worshiping a dead man,” a practice he considered absurd. [1]

The speaking of the cross in today’s terms would be politically incorrect, considered profane. Preaching the cross as Paul suggests runs counter to any evangelical opportunities. The culture does not get it. It is not interested in giving up power and success.

Does this mean we should give the culture what they want in order to attract them to the Gospel.  It is difficult to offer something to someone that they do not think they need. If I were to announce to you this morning that I have a kidney to donate to you.  Would that excite you motivate you? Would it cause you to break out in praise and thanksgiving? No it would not.  You don’t need a kidney. Your kidney’s right now are working just fine. Plus my kidneys don’t work they are essential dead.  

But if someone were to announce to me I have a kidney for you. Then I would break out in praise and thanksgiving for to me a kidney donation means life.

If you unaware of your sins, than the message Christ crucified for you is meaningless.  Paul writes, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing,” This is explains the resistance to the message.  The old Adam in side of us is perishing because it is hostile to God.  It is born that way naturally.  Without the intervention of God’s word are predetermined path is destruction and wrath.

However Paul also writes, “but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”  Notice who the actor is in our Salvation. It is God.  We are passive participants it is God who is actively saving us by the foolishness of preaching.

God lives outside of time. His saving work occurs in the past, the present and the future.  Christ was crucified 2000 years ago and so accomplished with that act in time the propitiation of your sins. He is saving you today in the present through preaching and the sacraments.  And as you are not free from sin, He in the future will raise you sinless from the dead.

It is quite possible and some scholars suggest that Paul was not a strong orator. Perhaps he lacked physical presence and stature. Perhaps his voice was not very strong. Perhaps his spoken message was not as clever or weighty as his epistles, his letters to the churches. Despite these attributes of weakness, Paul assures his listeners that the power of Paul’s message does not come from Paul but from Christ and it is a message of a weak Christ who humbled himself by submitting to the shameful abomination of the cross.

I wonder at all the tricks and techniques preachers are taught to communicate the message. It seems that the assumption is that if we vary are style our technique our rhetoric then we may be able to reach more people save more souls.  But we must remember it is God who does the saving and he gives us the word to use.

Those come before Jesus at the final judgment complaining that they did not understand the message or that the Pastor who God sent to them and chose for them was difficult to hear or lacked talent or charisma will not be met favorably.

So Paul writes, “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

Again it is not by your own reason or strength that you come to Jesus. But is the preached word entering your ears the content being the crucified Christ, that kills the old Adam and makes you alive in Christ a new creation. It is the hearing that your sins are forgiven that is both a confession of your weakness and guilt and the reality that you now have salvation and life.

Paul further writes, “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

We have nothing to boast about when it comes to our salvation, sanctification or redemption for Christ does all these things for you through His means of grace which is the preaching and the sacraments that declare you righteous for Christ sake.  Christ crucified means you have new life in him as he has crucified your sins.    

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[1] Lessing, The Concordia Commentary: 1 Corinthians  CPH pp. 70-71

Taking Up the Cross

Sermon 2nd Sunday in Lent

Taking up the Cross

Mark 8:27–38

Rev. Jeff Springer

As our lectionary goes we have spent much of our time at the beginning of the gospel of Mark.  We heard much about how Jesus ministry began with his baptism and his temptation in the Wilderness. Later we heard Jesus healing the sick, excising and silencing demons and forgiving sins.  Today’s text lands us just prior to Christ’s transfiguration which we covered a couple weeks ago with Rev. Armstrong.

All throughout the Gospel of Mark there is this common theme of concealing Jesus true identity. The identity that he is the Messiah, the Christ, sent from God the Father.  Rather than state who he is and make claims, Jesus would rather His works speak for him.

In the beginning it is the voice from heaven and later the voices of fearful demons that name Him to be the Holy One of God. Now after eight chapters we finally come round to who men say that he is.  The people know and believe that he is one of the figures that represent the ushering in of the messianic age but which is he.  Is he John the Baptist? Elijah? or one of the other prophets whose spirit has joined his.

When Jesus asked the disciples who have been traveling with him and learning from him, who he is, Peter steps forward with the right answer. You are the Christ! Almost soon as the words come out of his mouth, Jesus in a strict and rebuking tone charges them not to tell anyone about him. 

The disciples were witnessing the Christ in their midst but it was not time for Jesus to be revealed as the Christ. This honor would be reserved for the Heavenly Father for the appropriate time. This seems counterintuitive. But it in God’s perfect timing it was not yet to be revealed.

Jesus next begins to teach his disciples the eleven he would later send out into the world plainly what it means to be the Christ.  Jesus was not using parables or metaphors he was teaching them plainly, literally what the Heavenly Father had sent him to do.  Jesus taught them that the Son of Man would suffer many things, that he would be delivered over to the Pharisees, the Chief Priests, and the Scribes and he would be found wanting. He in their judgment would not measure up. Then they would murder him and in three days he would rise again!

This was the great secret. This was the mission the Father had sent Jesus to accomplish. He would be rejected by the church leadership, the political leadership, he would suffer, be put to death on cross and like Jonah out of the belly of the fish he would rise again after three days!

This testimony we find here in the gospel. This is the witness we confess in the creeds. This is what we proclaim every Sunday at the sacrament of the altar.  Jesus was going to take up the cross.

But was Peter’s reaction?  It is audacious but not unlike ours.  “No God let this not be so!” Peter rebukes Jesus with the same intensity that Jesus used to charge them to keep this secret silent.

Jesus turns to his disciples so that they are all clear where this idea comes from, he rebukes Peter in turn saying, “Get behind me Satan!” The tempter was still at it. He had not let up and he would never let up until he saw Jesus silenced and dead. Little did he know that God would use the hatred of Satan to defeat him to silence his ability to accuse the faithful.

Satan was either going to get Jesus to worship him by renouncing the Word of the Father as Adam had done or he would put an end to him by killing him and then accusing all creation before God of this great sin and injustice. The latter would have worked if Jesus had stayed dead but he would not, The sinless Holy One judged innocent by the Father would rise.

Today we are quick to run past the suffering in this life and to the life to come.  We are not unlike the old Adam Peter who wished to skirt the cross. There are some so-called Christians who are offended at the site of the crucifix.  They say “Jesus is risen, he is no longer on the cross.” But in this life in our sinful state this is where we need him, to be a sacrifice for our sins. 

I know some churches feel we need to move on from the cross. We know all that. Let’s not fixate on that. Let us be about building up the kingdom. But nothing gets built unless God builds it and he builds his Church through the forgiveness of sins made a reality by the suffering and death of Jesus.

Other churches wish to avoid all forms of suffering. They pander to the Old Adam.  The church becomes a place where people tap into the power of God so that they may live healthy, wealthy, successful and victorious lives. In these churches little about Jesus is preached except for an occasionally example.  You are told you possess the divine spark within you, that like God, you can speak by faith, your own reality into existence. No kidding. It is this kind of mysticism that you will get from Oprah and Joel Osteen, but this is not the cross. It is not Jesus coming to you offering you his flesh and blood but you trying to attain to God or be like God through your positive thinking. It is the devil’s old trick of convincing you that you are your own god.

Do not be deceived. Your desire for health, wealth, success and victory can ensnare you as it has millions of others. Repent and find the Christ revealed for you where the Father deigns him to be revealed from the cross.

And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Taking up the cross means, crucifying those unholy desires within us. It means given them to Jesus who takes those sins into his flesh and nails them to the cross.  Yes, you will lose your life but God will save it.  Taking up the cross means enduring the humiliation of an adulterous and sinful generation that calls God’s ways and orders backward, bigoted, misogynous, and judgmental. Taking up the cross means bearing with each other as we sin against one another and forgiving one another as Christ did from the cross.  Following Christ means listening to his words and not a made up conception of our own minds or opinions.

The cross is not health and wealth by the world’s standards because it is self denying. And this is something we refuse in our flesh to do.  The cross is that surgical instrument that seems to do damage but is meant by God for our good. St. Paul writes from our epistle this morning, “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

I know that it is natural for us to be ashamed of our afflictions. We try to hide from people that we may have trouble hearing. We may rather not come to church then come in a wheel chair or with a walker. Why? because we do not want to show our weakness, our dependence.  Perhaps we are trying to cover up some sort of foolishness that caused your injury. But our Lord loves the weak and the foolish.  If you are broken, then you are in the right place. 

Together we come around this altar and we join together as one body. We join Jesus as he takes up our crosses and we join our one crucified Lord as he takes up His cross.   One body nourished by our Lord bearing the needs of one another in our life together, this is taking up the cross.

This is nothing to be ashamed of but rather we glory in this. We glory in Christ crucified where our Savior in the breaking of bread is fully revealed to us as Savior and deliverer from sin.  This is the meal where the angel of eternal death passes over us and our Lord prepares us for the life to come.

       

The Office of the Keys: Jesus' Breath and Words

Sermon Midweek Lenten Pulpit Exchange

The Office of the Keys:  Jesus' Breath and Words (John 20:22-23)

This year our Lenten journey takes again to the cross of Jesus. And in following Him, we listen to Him as the Father commanded from the Mount of Transfiguration.  Our teaching for this evening concerns itself with the fifth part of the catechism, the office of the keys.  In fact it is this fifth part that will be the focus of this year’s catechism convocation being held here at Trinity Lutheran Church on Saturday, April 21^st.

To be more precise the fifth part of the catechism has two foci. The first is confession and absolution and the second is the office of the keys.  Other preachers will be proclaiming confession and absolution whereas our task tonight is to focus on our Lord’s established office of the keys.  So what is the Office of the Keys? 

The small catechism defines it as that special authority which Christ has given to His church on earth to forgive the sins of repentant sinners, but to withhold forgiveness from the unrepentant as long as they do not repent.

And where is this written?  This is what St. John the Evangelist writes in Chapter 20: And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” (Jn 20:22–23)

 

Finally, what do you believe according to these words? I believe that when the called ministers of Christ deal with us by His divine command, in particular when they exclude openly unrepentant sinners from the Christian congregation and absolve those who repent of their sins and want to do better this is just as certain, even in heaven as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself.

The office of the keys is the same as the office of the Holy Ministry.  Like any office this office includes with it both authority and responsibility.  The responsibility or the job description in this case is that of the confessor who hears confessions of sin and then pronounces Christ’s forgiveness or absolution while keeping confidential all that is confessed to him. The Holy Ministry is also responsible for the preaching, teaching, interpreting of the Word and administration of the sacraments .

The authority of the office comes from the Heavenly Father who grants it to the Son who calls His Apostles giving them the Holy Spirit. The Apostles in turn ordained Bishops and Elders, who we would later be called Ministers and Pastors, to serve the means of Grace of Justification to the priesthood of believers.

So we say can rightly that the Office of the Keys is a divine institution which is in turn given to the church. We can be certain that holder of the Office speaks in the stead of Christ as long as he speaks God’s Word and administers the sacraments according to Christ’s institution.  The Office of the Holy ministry is a necessary office for you, the priesthood of believers, to hear the declarations of being justified for Christ sake in order that you may be certain of God’s gracious will toward you. This creates trust or saving faith in your heart. 

The Augsburg Confession says as much in Article V, “ To obtain such faith (that is Justification through Christ Jesus, His death and resurrection) God instituted the office of the ministry,  that is, provided the Gospel and the sacraments. Through these, as through means, he gives the Holy Spirit, who works faith, when and where he pleases, in those who hear the Gospel.  And the Gospel teaches that we have a gracious God, not by our own merits but by the merit of Christ, when we believe this. Condemned are the Anabaptists and others who teach that the Holy Spirit comes to us through our own preparations, thoughts, and works without the external word of the Gospel.”

Notice that we cannot by own reason or strength believe Jesus Christ or come to him by our own merits, it is the work of the Holy Spirit through the instituted Holy Ministry. And for the sake of good order He uses the church to call and ordain a man into the Ministerial Office who is given this responsibility and authority.  Article XIV states, “It is taught among us that nobody should publicly teach or preach or administer the sacraments in the church without a regular call.” This is to help identify who God has sent and called to serve the congregation with the word and sacrament.

Christ endowed the office not the office holder with the spirit so it is not the man but the spirit of the office that speaks. He did this with the eleven when he breathed on them and said receive the Holy Spirit.  Luther in his Table Talk writes regarding this text.

"From the passage, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive,’ etc. [John 20:22-23], some conclude that therefore only those who personally have the Holy Spirit are able to forgive sins. But this isn’t the meaning, for Christ gives the Spirit to the public office and not to a private person, as he had just said, ‘As the Father has sent me, even so I send you’ [John 20:21]. Consequently he was speaking about those who had been called and who had the authority to preach, administer the sacraments, etc. When somebody has the authority to preach he also has the authority to administer the sacraments, for we hold that the sacrament is less important than preaching. On this account, under the papacy none was admitted to the degree of bachelor of theology except priests, and they already had the right to administer sacraments.”[1](No. 512: Authority of Minister Resides in Office, Not Person  Spring, 1533)

It is interesting to note the prominence Luther gives to preaching over the administration of sacrament. That if one has the authority to preach then he also has the authority to administer the sacrament. It was true that in the early church only the bishops were authorized to preach and administer the sacrament while the ordained priests administered the sacrament only.

Today many in our beloved synod violate this order by placing into congregations those who do not have a call and ordination, therefore lacking the proper authority, to preach and administer the sacrament in divine service. This sort of arrangement should and does create uncertainty in the congregation because it does not have Christ’s institution or the promise of the Holy Spirit with it.  It would be like a baptism without the Word or a Sacrament of the Altar with animal crackers and grape juice.  We are just not sure.

The office of the keys or the office Holy Ministry does have the promise of the Holy Spirit with it. The church understood this in the liturgy with the salutation and response, The “Lord be with you,” “and with thy Spirit.”  We have this in our Divine Service III Liturgy in the LSB and from page 15 of the TLH. Some of you may have wanted to respond with the more folksy, “and also with you” which we find in our other divine service settings. The Lutheran’s adopted this response from the Roman Catholic liturgical reforms of Vatican II in the 1960’s.

Ironically, under the current Pope Benedict the Roman Church have reformed the liturgy once more and are returning to the  response “And with thy spirit”  along with returning to the original Nicene Creed language that begins with the words “We believe…” expressing the corporate nature of confession. But the phrase and “with thy spirit” or “with your spirit” recognizes the office and not the man who is before you.

The same goes for what the bearer of the office wears. The stole or yoke of the ministry and white alb cover the man so people are focused on the office of the ministry and the service of Christ and not so much the man.  The garments a pastor wears designates the office just like the robe a judge in a court room wears or a uniform an officer of the military wears. Salutes do not go to the man but to the office he represents which carries with it responsibility and authority.

This idea of the Holy Ministry is foreign to the American Evangelical church culture where the ministry is more about the man first and his particular gifts and the office is second.  Notice that Saddleback Community Church is more commonly known as Rick Warren’s church.

I looked up the website of Lakewood Community Church where it says by Joel and Victoria Osteen.  The picture of Joel and Victoria is very casual. It looks like an engagement picture. They are wearing nice clothes that you and I would wear.  There really is nothing in their clothing that distinguishes them from the rest of us.  We can look up to them and say I can and want to be like them.  They are just like you and I but as you get to know them you find them to be more and more extraordinary.

They like themselves and they want you to like them too. And so you want to learn more from them as to how to be successful. You see them as your life coaches to emulate.  Rev. Jeremy Rhode of Faith Lutheran Capistrano beach made this observation on Issues Etc. that these Pastors are like the actor Tom Hanks. Tom Hanks is everyone’s man. He seems very accessible. He makes you comfortable to watch. He is just like you and yet he is so much more. These are good qualities for an entertainer.

If the focus is on the man than it is not on Christ, if we have the office then we have Christ and we can avoid the pastor being a cult of personality that the church must depend on. When the Pastor falls in this scenario, so do the congregations.  These churches are constantly reinventing themselves. They split. They dissolve, and they pop up almost overnight.  We in the LCMS as battered as our congregations are, have very long tenures and we enjoy a stability that many would find enviable.  Why?  Because our cornerstone is Christ Jesus,  our foundation is the teaching of the prophets and the apostles.  From their successors in the office of the ministry repentance and forgiveness are preached.  The absolution is declared both corporately and privately and the sheep are being fed with Christ’s body and blood.  And we have the assurance that the Holy Spirit is using these means to create faith when and where He pleases. Being served by Christ, the priesthood of believers serve or minister to each other through their various vocations. There sacrifice of praise is found in the loving service of a parent to their child or of an employee to their employer or by showing honor and respect to those who our Lord has put in authority over you.

It is found in parents teaching their children the faith and telling your neighbors and co-workers about Jesus forgiveness. Yes even though you may not hold the office of the ministry you are still a member of the priesthood and when you share God’s word and forgiveness with your children and with your neighbor the Holy Spirit is functioning  in that Word.

In our vocations we do sin, sins of omission where we neglect to act and sins of commission where we trespass upon one another. We do act selfishly and we break commandments. So return to the Lord and confess your sins and God who is faithful and just will forgive your sins through His various means of grace.

News flash, even the men who serve in the office of the ministry need to be served by the office. They need to hear the words of forgiveness proclaimed to them, by their colleagues in the office, and by the members of their congregations. I personally avail myself of a confessor for individual confession and absolution. During my illness a Pastor ministered to me bedside. Hearing the words of absolution arrested my fears.

Jesus after he had been denied, betrayed, abandoned, beaten, forsaken, mocked, humiliated, crucified to death and rose victorious went to his fearful and unbelieving disciples and he declared “Peace be with you!” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.  Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”   I declare in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, Your sins are forgiven!”

Now may the peace passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

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[1] Luther, M. (1999). Vol. 54: Luther's works, vol. 54 : Table Talk (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (90). Philadelphia: Fortress Press.

Tempted for You

SERMON LENT 1

Tempted for you

 James 1:12-18

Introduction: Every day we’re under temptation. From the lure of dark sites on the Internet, from the gossip we long to share, to the grudge we desire to nurse—our minds are not at peace. We’re at war with ourselves, with a sinful world, and with a deceiving devil.

As Luther taught us to sing, “With might of ours can naught be done, Soon were our loss effected” (LSB 656:2). On our own we fail, “But for us fights the valiant One, Whom God Himself elected” (LSB 656:2).

You are not alone in your battle. Fresh from his Baptism at the Jordan, where the heavens were torn open, Jesus was driven out by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. Christ Jesus, your brother and your God, knows temptation. Even better, he endured it without a single sin. Without being ensnared. He was tempted for you!

Jesus is the “man” who remained steadfast under trial and therefore in his resurrection received the crown of life! Best of all, Jesus gives you His victory, as St. James explains in today’s Epistle.

IN CHRIST, THE CROWN OF LIFE IS YOURS.

Our battle against temptation is underway—and every day (vv 13–16). Why are we in this daily battle? Is God tempting us?

Did you know that there were Rabbis in James’s day, and some religions in our day, that teach God is the author of temptation and evil. Absolutely not! God cannot be tempted. He tempts no one (v 13). James says unequivocally, “Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God.”

God does, however, allow us to live in the world that Adam and Eve and we, too, have polluted with sin, a world where trials come.

So who if not God, who is tempting us?

We are tempting us (v 14). Like Adam after his fall, we like to blame others for our sin. We make ourselves out to be the victim.

Today, we try to shift the blame to others for our temptation and sin: It’s the fault of my parents, my poverty, my wealth, my youth, or my ill health. They’re to blame, not me.

 No, rather James writes, “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire” (v 14). Jesus teaches that the desire to sin begins in our own hearts and minds driven by our own passions.

Some televangelists today want you to listen to the still small voice in your heart for direction and God’s will. They teach that you have the divine seeds within you and you just need to be still and listen.  But this is not God speaking but rather the religious old Adam who still claims and seeks to be like God. We look in upon ourselves for divine guidance we will find only death.

Jesus says,  “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.”  (Mt 15:19) 

So the enemy is from within. If you want to know God’s will look to His Word in the scriptures.  Perhaps you find yourself in St. Paul’s predicament, “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my member another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom 7:21–24).

Is temptation really that big a deal? Yes, because death is the result. James tells the awful consequences of letting our sinful desires and passions lure us: “Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (v 15). “Do not be deceived” (v 16).

Instead, find freedom by repenting and turning away from your excuses, your blame, your sin, and your sinful desires and turn instead to something outside of you, Christ for you.

Christ overcomes temptation, sin, and death to give us the Father’s good gifts. The Father of lights never changes (v 17). The sun, the moon, and the stars, which the Father created, are reliable, but he is even more reliable.

The Father constantly delivers good and perfect gifts, especially his Son, who came down from the Father of lights. In Jesus’ wilderness journey, we see the perfect gift of his sinless life.

In the command to sacrifice Isaac and the ram’s death in his place, the Father foreshowed his Son as our sacrifice—the good and perfect death, enduring the death we owe for our sin (Gen 22:1–18).

The Father gives you new birth into Christ (v 18). By the Word of truth, the Gospel, you are born into a new life. The perfect life of Christ has now been given to you! You are now first fruits of God’s creatures. That is, out of all the world, you who are born from above by Baptism and the Word of God are his harvest forever. He continues to feed and sustain your life in Christ by giving you every perfect gift: His Word, His Baptism, His absolution, Christ’s body and blood, and finally, deliverance from this broken world.

The ultimate gift of the Father through Christ, then, is the crown of life (v 12).

Conclusion: The daily battle against temptation and our many losses are deeply discouraging and frustrating, but do not lose heart. Jesus has defeated the evil one for you. He paid your debt. He lived without sin. He put Satan in his place. Jesus won, and he gives to his people the spoils of His victory, the crown of life.