One of the things that I have noticed is that folks who toss around the Law and legalism often seem highly confused when people say that their rules are binding their conscience or are burdensome. I was giving thought to this fact this morning. Here is my initial two pronged thesis.
Legalists and pietists never think they are binding some one to the Law because they don't think the Law is a terrible, crushing thing. They do not think they are binding someone's conscience because they have found "the way" to live that keeps their conscience "clean".
Now, while that may sound condescending and cruel... it's not. Most of the time folks who whack people with the Law upside the head don't think they are doing any whacking. The Law of God is good... therefore if something crushes you, that just needed to be crushed. Of course, this completely ignores whether this is a matter of Divine Law being used to bring forth repentance so that one might see Christ all the more, or this is a matter of someone dropping their own paths and plans for the truly pious life smashing another person with yet another holy hoop to jump through.
The Law is not good in a vaccuum. It is good because it shows our sin - that is why it is good and wise. The Law is good because there is Gospel... if there is no Gospel, nor if there is a movement towards the Gospel, the Law just kills... and that isn't good.
Too often the Law is used to drive not to the Gospel but to a level of self-satisfaction, where one has obtained the appropriate level or course of actions and piety - where one can then say, "All these I have done from my youth" - or at least, "I used to not understand, but now I'm a good Christian and I _____________" where that blank is filled with some self made bit of piety.
And this shows up across all theological lines. Whether it's living the purpose driven life or finding the exact right way to comport one's self, it all becomes reflexive saying, "see, I have done what I need to."
That is not the Christian faith. The Christian faith is "Christ be merciful to me, for You have done it all for me." There is life only in Christ. There is peace only in Christ.
If you look at the law and get a feeling of peace... you're actually ignoring the law. When you throw Law at folks and wonder why they squirm, you've forgotten the Law. And when you toss your own proclamations and people and can't understand why they reject them as inappropriate, you have learned nothing but why the Papacy in the middle ages was so glad to be the way it was.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Thursday, March 15, 2012
A Question Not to Ask
Don't ask someone if they have a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Seriously - it's not a good question.
If a person is alive, they have a "relationship" with Jesus. He's God. They are a creature. Without God sustaining the universe, they wouldn't exist. That's a relationship right there.
A slightly better question would be if they are aware of that relationship, if they know and think about all that God does for them. In fact, I think this is something that is worthy for all Christians to ponder -- growth as a Christian isn't necessarily a matter of some outward or external "improvements"... but it is the continued growth and awareness of all that God has done for you in providing you what you need for this life and in providing salvation.
But even then... that whole relationship language is just a bit off. It makes things sound... optional. Like a human relationship, where you can ask someone out on a date or break up with them.
You don't get to end your relationship with God. You might choose to rebel, you might choose to be wicked... but He's still God and He still provides you your daily bread. Christ Jesus has still died for your sins even if you hate Him for it. God is God, and there's nothing you can do to change that fact.
We aren't the actors in our faith - we don't create, we don't go forge a relationship with God. Rather this - by the power of His Word, God opens our eyes over and over and over again so that we see more and more the continued care and love that Christ shows us in all things. We realize more and more His goodness, even as the world, Satan, and our sinful flesh try to blind us.
He is our God - faith is simply seeing and believing this to be true.
Seriously - it's not a good question.
If a person is alive, they have a "relationship" with Jesus. He's God. They are a creature. Without God sustaining the universe, they wouldn't exist. That's a relationship right there.
A slightly better question would be if they are aware of that relationship, if they know and think about all that God does for them. In fact, I think this is something that is worthy for all Christians to ponder -- growth as a Christian isn't necessarily a matter of some outward or external "improvements"... but it is the continued growth and awareness of all that God has done for you in providing you what you need for this life and in providing salvation.
But even then... that whole relationship language is just a bit off. It makes things sound... optional. Like a human relationship, where you can ask someone out on a date or break up with them.
You don't get to end your relationship with God. You might choose to rebel, you might choose to be wicked... but He's still God and He still provides you your daily bread. Christ Jesus has still died for your sins even if you hate Him for it. God is God, and there's nothing you can do to change that fact.
We aren't the actors in our faith - we don't create, we don't go forge a relationship with God. Rather this - by the power of His Word, God opens our eyes over and over and over again so that we see more and more the continued care and love that Christ shows us in all things. We realize more and more His goodness, even as the world, Satan, and our sinful flesh try to blind us.
He is our God - faith is simply seeing and believing this to be true.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Lent 4 Midweek Sermon
In the Name of Christ the Crucified +
And so now we get to the familiar one, now we get to the I Am statement that actually may be the most familiar of them all. “I Am the Good Shepherd.” This is an incredibly familiar statement – think how often in pictures or art Jesus is shown as a shepherd. One of our windows is of Jesus, the Good Shepherd. There are Good Shepherd Lutheran churches, I know several. I don’t know many “The Door Lutheran Churches” – but Good Shepherd, that’s a good name. And this text comes up every year a few weeks after Easter – it’s one we hear often. And the fact that the 23rd Psalm is probably the only one most of you have memorized doesn’t hurt either. So instead of going through the whole text, let’s just focus on verse 11 tonight and consider it: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
The simple and first idea is this – Jesus is a Shepherd. Jesus is One who gently and faithfully guides His flock in order to care for them and to protect them. And really, if you look at the entirety of the Old Testament, you can see this idea come up often. You have the Lord protecting Abraham and leading him where he needed to go. You have the Lord leading Jacob as well, and Joseph. And of course when you get the Exodus, you have Moses leading the people of Israel. And all of those men, guess what they were – Shepherds. It’s not just David who was a shepherd. When I was in Egypt a few years ago, our tour guide pointed out that statues of sheep only happened after Abraham arrived… he argued that Egypt didn’t have sheep before Abraham showed up. And Jacob was a shepherd, and his Rachel tended the sheep – and of course, Rachel means “Lamb of God.” Joseph is visiting his brothers at the flocks when he gets sold into slavery in Egypt, and when Moses flees Egypt, he becomes a shepherd as well. There may not be a more consistent image of guidance and care in the Old Testament than that of a shepherd – the one who cares for and guides and protects the sheep from wild beasts.
Thus it is no surprise that God would be compared to a Shepherd. Again, this is Psalm 23 stuff – the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Well, of course I won’t want, God will care for me. Of course God is going to keep me safe and lay me down in good pastures. It was a powerful image, and a common one in the holy lands – there’s a lot of rocky hill country that’s not good for crops but fine for grazing sheep – people get this idea, and the idea of God being a Shepherd, One who can tend for and care for people even in a dangerous and harsh environment is a common one.
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” But what we hear tonight in our Gospel, that’s a bit different. Okay, so Jesus calls Himself the good shepherd – He ratchets the rhetoric up – it makes sense to say that Jesus is Good, that He is superior to all those Old Testament Shepherds we came across. But then there is one change that is just astonishing. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep. In all of the Old Testament, with all of those Shepherds, when do you ever see them die for the sheep. David didn’t die for the sheep – he saw the lion coming and took it down with his slingshot! They had thought that the wild beasts had gotten Joseph, but it was all a trick, and he was alive in Egypt. It’s like the line from the old movie Patton – a soldier’s job isn’t to die for his country, it’s to make the other guy die for his country. A shepherd’s job isn’t to die for his sheep, it’s to make the wolf, the lion, the thief die for coming after his sheep! At least that’s how we are used to thinking. Love, protect, defend your livestock… but die for, no, not quite.
But Jesus is no ordinary Shepherd, for we are no ordinary sheep. We were sheep who had wandered and gone astray, and so our Shepherd goes after us to reclaim us, gather us again. Consider this. If your sheep wanders into a swamp, the only way you are going to get that sheep back is if you go into the swamp yourself, and if that means you get much and stench on you, so be it. A hired hand might not do that, he might tell you to take this job and shove it, but the Shepherd, you do what you have to do. But it wasn’t merely to some other hill or into a ditch that we had wandered, or even into a swamp or bog – no, we had wandered into death. Adam and Eve had put themselves into a world of hurt when they ate of the tree in the Garden, when they ignored the Good Shepherd’s proper pasture and went after Satan’s snack instead. And it caught them. It caught us. We were trapped by death, we were brought into the kingdom of death. The hired hands, they would run from this, but the Good Shepherd knows what He must do. He must rescue the Lost Sheep, and if means entering the kingdom of death, so be it. If the sheep have abandoned the paths of righteousness for the path of death, then the Shepherd will go through death in order to get them. If the sheep had consigned themselves to the grave, then to the grave the Good Shepherd will go.
The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. The Good Shepherd goes to the Cross, to the tomb for the Sheep. But He doesn’t stay there. The Good Shepherd, having invaded Satan’s domain to rescue and reclaim His wayward sheep then leads them out again back to where they should be. That is what Easter is – when Christ strides forth from the tomb, that is our Good Shepherd who had laid His life down for us leading us out of death. When the Shepherd calls o ur name – for He even calls me by name, as He has done in the waters of Baptism, this is where He leads us, He leads us to everlasting life. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for us, but He takes it up again, He takes it up again so that we might have life. He leads us out of slavery to sin and death unto release in the true Promised land, the life of the world to come. We wandered out of Eden, and He has said, “Follow Me My sheep, for I will bring you to the New Heavens and the New Earth, the new Eden I have made for you.” He is our Good Shepherd. In the Name of Christ the Crucified +
And so now we get to the familiar one, now we get to the I Am statement that actually may be the most familiar of them all. “I Am the Good Shepherd.” This is an incredibly familiar statement – think how often in pictures or art Jesus is shown as a shepherd. One of our windows is of Jesus, the Good Shepherd. There are Good Shepherd Lutheran churches, I know several. I don’t know many “The Door Lutheran Churches” – but Good Shepherd, that’s a good name. And this text comes up every year a few weeks after Easter – it’s one we hear often. And the fact that the 23rd Psalm is probably the only one most of you have memorized doesn’t hurt either. So instead of going through the whole text, let’s just focus on verse 11 tonight and consider it: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
The simple and first idea is this – Jesus is a Shepherd. Jesus is One who gently and faithfully guides His flock in order to care for them and to protect them. And really, if you look at the entirety of the Old Testament, you can see this idea come up often. You have the Lord protecting Abraham and leading him where he needed to go. You have the Lord leading Jacob as well, and Joseph. And of course when you get the Exodus, you have Moses leading the people of Israel. And all of those men, guess what they were – Shepherds. It’s not just David who was a shepherd. When I was in Egypt a few years ago, our tour guide pointed out that statues of sheep only happened after Abraham arrived… he argued that Egypt didn’t have sheep before Abraham showed up. And Jacob was a shepherd, and his Rachel tended the sheep – and of course, Rachel means “Lamb of God.” Joseph is visiting his brothers at the flocks when he gets sold into slavery in Egypt, and when Moses flees Egypt, he becomes a shepherd as well. There may not be a more consistent image of guidance and care in the Old Testament than that of a shepherd – the one who cares for and guides and protects the sheep from wild beasts.
Thus it is no surprise that God would be compared to a Shepherd. Again, this is Psalm 23 stuff – the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Well, of course I won’t want, God will care for me. Of course God is going to keep me safe and lay me down in good pastures. It was a powerful image, and a common one in the holy lands – there’s a lot of rocky hill country that’s not good for crops but fine for grazing sheep – people get this idea, and the idea of God being a Shepherd, One who can tend for and care for people even in a dangerous and harsh environment is a common one.
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” But what we hear tonight in our Gospel, that’s a bit different. Okay, so Jesus calls Himself the good shepherd – He ratchets the rhetoric up – it makes sense to say that Jesus is Good, that He is superior to all those Old Testament Shepherds we came across. But then there is one change that is just astonishing. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep. In all of the Old Testament, with all of those Shepherds, when do you ever see them die for the sheep. David didn’t die for the sheep – he saw the lion coming and took it down with his slingshot! They had thought that the wild beasts had gotten Joseph, but it was all a trick, and he was alive in Egypt. It’s like the line from the old movie Patton – a soldier’s job isn’t to die for his country, it’s to make the other guy die for his country. A shepherd’s job isn’t to die for his sheep, it’s to make the wolf, the lion, the thief die for coming after his sheep! At least that’s how we are used to thinking. Love, protect, defend your livestock… but die for, no, not quite.
But Jesus is no ordinary Shepherd, for we are no ordinary sheep. We were sheep who had wandered and gone astray, and so our Shepherd goes after us to reclaim us, gather us again. Consider this. If your sheep wanders into a swamp, the only way you are going to get that sheep back is if you go into the swamp yourself, and if that means you get much and stench on you, so be it. A hired hand might not do that, he might tell you to take this job and shove it, but the Shepherd, you do what you have to do. But it wasn’t merely to some other hill or into a ditch that we had wandered, or even into a swamp or bog – no, we had wandered into death. Adam and Eve had put themselves into a world of hurt when they ate of the tree in the Garden, when they ignored the Good Shepherd’s proper pasture and went after Satan’s snack instead. And it caught them. It caught us. We were trapped by death, we were brought into the kingdom of death. The hired hands, they would run from this, but the Good Shepherd knows what He must do. He must rescue the Lost Sheep, and if means entering the kingdom of death, so be it. If the sheep have abandoned the paths of righteousness for the path of death, then the Shepherd will go through death in order to get them. If the sheep had consigned themselves to the grave, then to the grave the Good Shepherd will go.
The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. The Good Shepherd goes to the Cross, to the tomb for the Sheep. But He doesn’t stay there. The Good Shepherd, having invaded Satan’s domain to rescue and reclaim His wayward sheep then leads them out again back to where they should be. That is what Easter is – when Christ strides forth from the tomb, that is our Good Shepherd who had laid His life down for us leading us out of death. When the Shepherd calls o ur name – for He even calls me by name, as He has done in the waters of Baptism, this is where He leads us, He leads us to everlasting life. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for us, but He takes it up again, He takes it up again so that we might have life. He leads us out of slavery to sin and death unto release in the true Promised land, the life of the world to come. We wandered out of Eden, and He has said, “Follow Me My sheep, for I will bring you to the New Heavens and the New Earth, the new Eden I have made for you.” He is our Good Shepherd. In the Name of Christ the Crucified +
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Lent 3 Sermon
Lent 3 – March 11th, 2012 – Luke 11:14-28
In the Name of Christ the Crucified +
Once again, Christ Jesus our Lord strides forth to battle. Once again we will see Jesus tangle with Satan and his minions – but the battle will not be done when the demon is gone. No, today we will see another battle, another fight. This fight is against man’s desire to not view himself as helpless, man’s desire to save himself. Let’s work our way through this text and see what we get this morning.
Now He was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled. It almost sees as though by now, Jesus casting out demons is just old hat. Another day, another demon cast out. There is no long story of the mechanics of what happens here, there is no pleading mother that we see, or friends bringing the man. . . simply the man has a demon cast out of him to the crowd’s astonishment. What does this mean? The fact that Jesus casts out demons, the fact that Jesus takes on Satan and His minions, the fact that Jesus performs miracles shouldn’t be surprising to us. Oh, we still marvel at this, but it’s not surprising. This is what we know Jesus to be doing. But not everyone is happy.
But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons,” while others, to test Him, kept seeking from Him a sign from heaven. The human mind, sinful and depraved, has no limits to what it will say, think, or do. We are the undisputed masters of denial, we will go to any lengths to avoid any truth we don’t like. And here we see people look for reasons not follow Christ, not to acknowledge that they need Him. Oh no, this Jesus, He’s in league with the Devil. Oh no, um, we need a real sign from heaven. . . as though casting out demons isn’t a clear enough sign. And note, this doesn’t have to do with the facts of what happened. . . this isn’t what we get from a lot of people today who even deny that any of this happened. No, these are people who see that Jesus casts out a demon. . . and then try to work their way around it. Why is that? They don’t like what Jesus says, what Jesus is about. If Jesus claims to be our savior from sin, then that means I’m a sinner and I need a savior. And that’s what these people don’t want to hear.
It’s the same thing we oftentimes don’t want to hear. Don’t think that these people in the text are the only ones who see what God says, what God does, and then stick their heads in the sand. We do this, this is the normal operating procedure of what our sinful nature does. We all have our pet sins, the weaknesses we are more susceptible to. . . and man if we don’t try to white wash them, if we don’t try to work around them, to excuse them. We will dodge the truth. We will dodge the commandments. Don’t covet! And then we see something shiny and new that our neighbor has. Don’t lie, and quickly the neighbor is badmouthed. Don’t steal, and then we can be quickly underhanded when it helps us out. No adultery, and then our lust runs wild, even if only in our thoughts. Don’t kill, and then we hate. Just run through the commandments, run through the catechism and what Luther says about them. . . and sit and take a hard look at yourself, and you’ll see that we will duck and dodge God’s Law often at our own convenience.
But Jesus doesn’t simply let us live in our delusions . . . He speaks His Word over and over again. And do you see what He does here in the text? It is a tour de force of destroying delusions. First, Jesus tears apart what the people are saying. But He, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid to waste, and a divided household falls. And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? Now, Jesus here isn’t expounding on the profound mysteries of salvation, this isn’t a deep and thought provoking observation. He’s just making a simple and obvious point. Guys, Satan ain’t dumb, and what you are saying isn’t making any sense. He is more than smart enough not to wreck himself, so what I did isn’t Satan fighting Satan. I’m fighting Satan for you. Jesus is just very calm and rational here, and He picks apart the people’s complaints. This is what God’s Word always does, this is what the Truth always does. . . we throw up barriers, we hide behind delusions, and God’s Word very simply pokes holes in our protestations. Most of the time our excuses don’t make any sense, and one of the things that God will do is simply show us how our excuses don’t make any sense.
But He continues. Rather than just showing these people that they are in denial, He shows them why they should know better. For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebub. And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. Look guys, we can see that God is at work here, many people are casting out demons in My name, your own sons, even! Your sons see the truth, they live in it, and if they understand why don’t you? This is just a great twist that Jesus gives here. We tend not to be consistent in our delusions. We will pretend that something that we do is alright, but terrible and wrong for our neighbor. Jesus just points this out right here. These people, because they are angry and upset with what Jesus preaches, are willing to condemn Him, to lie about Him. . . but what are they going to say about their kids? And this also brings out another interesting point. They will be your judges. There is nothing wrong with, out of love, calling a spade a spade. That doesn’t mean we should be high handed, that doesn’t mean we ignore our own sin, but what do you think these sons are going to say to their dads when they find out about this? They ought, if they are good sons, tell their fathers that they are wrong. They ought to see to improving their father’s honor, so that their dad doesn’t stumble around and act the fool. God will speak His truth to us through many ways, including through our loved ones who will properly admonish us when we need it.
But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you. And here we see the twist, the change of emphasis that Jesus makes here, and here their delusions are directly attacked. He’s made His point about these people, Jesus has laid down the law pretty bluntly, so now He’s going to change His focus. Oh, He’s going to now focus not on destroying our personal lies, but speaking the Truth about Himself. What is going on with My healings, My preaching? The Kingdom of God has come upon you. Do know what that means, do you see what Jesus is saying? He is saying I am the Messiah. I am the promised one. What you have been waiting for since the days of Adam has come, God’s chosen champion is here.
And then Jesus explains exactly what He is doing. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe, but when One stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, He takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. Satan is a strong man, and Satan has been dwelling in the world, has been claiming it as his own since the fall. The prince of this world has been having his way, trusting to his own power, but behold, now Christ Jesus, the Stronger One, has come in, and what does Jesus do? He attacks Satan. Jesus goes on the offensive, Jesus bashes down Satan’s armor, Satan’s servants, He casts out demons, and Jesus reclaims us. Had you thought about it that way? That we were Satan’s property, his horde, his prizes of the war which he had waged on God. And then Jesus comes on a raid, and smacks Satan around, and takes us away from Satan and into His own household?
This is the part of the text, the truth that we, that our sinful flesh, can find so displeasing, so dissatisfying. We like to pretend that we, by ourselves are okay. That we are alright. That’s we are decent people – and yet the Messiah comes, and He says that He is here to rescue us. That means that we need rescuing. That means that our lives aren’t up to snuff, that means that we need to repent of our sins and be rescued by Christ. And just as the people in the text complained about Christ and wanted to live in denial, so too that is the temptation for us today. To live in denial, to simply pretend that everything we do is wonderful and nothing we do ever stinks. But Christ does not let our delusions stand. He doesn’t here our protestations that we are fine and just walk away, leaving us to our own devices. He knows that we are lost without Him, and even as we in our sin protest, He comes to beat down sin and death and the world to win us salvation. This is what we see here this today. There’s a demon that makes a man mute – even before the fellow can ask, Christ casts out the demon. And this is stated so matter of factly because this is what Jesus does. He takes it to Satan, He takes it to Satan’s kingdom, and even our delusions won’t prevent Him.
And this battle against Satan is seen most fully, most dramatically, upon the Cross. It is there, as He hang dying, that Jesus enters most fully into Satan’s house. Death, that’s Satan’s thing, that’s what comes from the sin that Satan loves to stir up, that’s where we are stuck without Christ. Without Jesus all our delusions and dreams about how wonderful we are simply end in a grave covered with flies and maggots. But Christ will not stand for it, He will not let us remain bound to Satan, and so upon the Cross Jesus goes crashing fully into Satan’s Kingdom. The Lord of Life confronts the lord of the grave, confronts Beelzebub, the lord of the flies, on Satan’s own turf, and thoroughly destroys him. Satan is vanquished, crushed, beaten and broken. And what then does Jesus do? He pulls us out of Satan’s clutches, He frees us from the fear of the Grave, and gives us life in Himself. Christ our Lord is raised from the dead, and by our Baptism, God has tied Himself to us, He gives us His own resurrection, and we are raised to new Christ’s new life.
This is what Jesus is doing, this is what His goal and task is, the defeat of Satan and our liberation. This is what we see Him doing all this Lent, marching His way to the Cross, swatting Satan’s servants out of the way, and more than that, wresting our eyes off of ourselves and on to Him. And what we see? All His foes defeated, all opposition crushed, as He gathers you, His beloved people to Himself. All praise to Christ Jesus our Lord, who gathers us back to Him by His Word when we err, and who crushes Satan for our freedom. In the Name of Christ the Crucified + Amen.
In the Name of Christ the Crucified +
Once again, Christ Jesus our Lord strides forth to battle. Once again we will see Jesus tangle with Satan and his minions – but the battle will not be done when the demon is gone. No, today we will see another battle, another fight. This fight is against man’s desire to not view himself as helpless, man’s desire to save himself. Let’s work our way through this text and see what we get this morning.
Now He was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled. It almost sees as though by now, Jesus casting out demons is just old hat. Another day, another demon cast out. There is no long story of the mechanics of what happens here, there is no pleading mother that we see, or friends bringing the man. . . simply the man has a demon cast out of him to the crowd’s astonishment. What does this mean? The fact that Jesus casts out demons, the fact that Jesus takes on Satan and His minions, the fact that Jesus performs miracles shouldn’t be surprising to us. Oh, we still marvel at this, but it’s not surprising. This is what we know Jesus to be doing. But not everyone is happy.
But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons,” while others, to test Him, kept seeking from Him a sign from heaven. The human mind, sinful and depraved, has no limits to what it will say, think, or do. We are the undisputed masters of denial, we will go to any lengths to avoid any truth we don’t like. And here we see people look for reasons not follow Christ, not to acknowledge that they need Him. Oh no, this Jesus, He’s in league with the Devil. Oh no, um, we need a real sign from heaven. . . as though casting out demons isn’t a clear enough sign. And note, this doesn’t have to do with the facts of what happened. . . this isn’t what we get from a lot of people today who even deny that any of this happened. No, these are people who see that Jesus casts out a demon. . . and then try to work their way around it. Why is that? They don’t like what Jesus says, what Jesus is about. If Jesus claims to be our savior from sin, then that means I’m a sinner and I need a savior. And that’s what these people don’t want to hear.
It’s the same thing we oftentimes don’t want to hear. Don’t think that these people in the text are the only ones who see what God says, what God does, and then stick their heads in the sand. We do this, this is the normal operating procedure of what our sinful nature does. We all have our pet sins, the weaknesses we are more susceptible to. . . and man if we don’t try to white wash them, if we don’t try to work around them, to excuse them. We will dodge the truth. We will dodge the commandments. Don’t covet! And then we see something shiny and new that our neighbor has. Don’t lie, and quickly the neighbor is badmouthed. Don’t steal, and then we can be quickly underhanded when it helps us out. No adultery, and then our lust runs wild, even if only in our thoughts. Don’t kill, and then we hate. Just run through the commandments, run through the catechism and what Luther says about them. . . and sit and take a hard look at yourself, and you’ll see that we will duck and dodge God’s Law often at our own convenience.
But Jesus doesn’t simply let us live in our delusions . . . He speaks His Word over and over again. And do you see what He does here in the text? It is a tour de force of destroying delusions. First, Jesus tears apart what the people are saying. But He, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid to waste, and a divided household falls. And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? Now, Jesus here isn’t expounding on the profound mysteries of salvation, this isn’t a deep and thought provoking observation. He’s just making a simple and obvious point. Guys, Satan ain’t dumb, and what you are saying isn’t making any sense. He is more than smart enough not to wreck himself, so what I did isn’t Satan fighting Satan. I’m fighting Satan for you. Jesus is just very calm and rational here, and He picks apart the people’s complaints. This is what God’s Word always does, this is what the Truth always does. . . we throw up barriers, we hide behind delusions, and God’s Word very simply pokes holes in our protestations. Most of the time our excuses don’t make any sense, and one of the things that God will do is simply show us how our excuses don’t make any sense.
But He continues. Rather than just showing these people that they are in denial, He shows them why they should know better. For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebub. And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. Look guys, we can see that God is at work here, many people are casting out demons in My name, your own sons, even! Your sons see the truth, they live in it, and if they understand why don’t you? This is just a great twist that Jesus gives here. We tend not to be consistent in our delusions. We will pretend that something that we do is alright, but terrible and wrong for our neighbor. Jesus just points this out right here. These people, because they are angry and upset with what Jesus preaches, are willing to condemn Him, to lie about Him. . . but what are they going to say about their kids? And this also brings out another interesting point. They will be your judges. There is nothing wrong with, out of love, calling a spade a spade. That doesn’t mean we should be high handed, that doesn’t mean we ignore our own sin, but what do you think these sons are going to say to their dads when they find out about this? They ought, if they are good sons, tell their fathers that they are wrong. They ought to see to improving their father’s honor, so that their dad doesn’t stumble around and act the fool. God will speak His truth to us through many ways, including through our loved ones who will properly admonish us when we need it.
But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you. And here we see the twist, the change of emphasis that Jesus makes here, and here their delusions are directly attacked. He’s made His point about these people, Jesus has laid down the law pretty bluntly, so now He’s going to change His focus. Oh, He’s going to now focus not on destroying our personal lies, but speaking the Truth about Himself. What is going on with My healings, My preaching? The Kingdom of God has come upon you. Do know what that means, do you see what Jesus is saying? He is saying I am the Messiah. I am the promised one. What you have been waiting for since the days of Adam has come, God’s chosen champion is here.
And then Jesus explains exactly what He is doing. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe, but when One stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, He takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. Satan is a strong man, and Satan has been dwelling in the world, has been claiming it as his own since the fall. The prince of this world has been having his way, trusting to his own power, but behold, now Christ Jesus, the Stronger One, has come in, and what does Jesus do? He attacks Satan. Jesus goes on the offensive, Jesus bashes down Satan’s armor, Satan’s servants, He casts out demons, and Jesus reclaims us. Had you thought about it that way? That we were Satan’s property, his horde, his prizes of the war which he had waged on God. And then Jesus comes on a raid, and smacks Satan around, and takes us away from Satan and into His own household?
This is the part of the text, the truth that we, that our sinful flesh, can find so displeasing, so dissatisfying. We like to pretend that we, by ourselves are okay. That we are alright. That’s we are decent people – and yet the Messiah comes, and He says that He is here to rescue us. That means that we need rescuing. That means that our lives aren’t up to snuff, that means that we need to repent of our sins and be rescued by Christ. And just as the people in the text complained about Christ and wanted to live in denial, so too that is the temptation for us today. To live in denial, to simply pretend that everything we do is wonderful and nothing we do ever stinks. But Christ does not let our delusions stand. He doesn’t here our protestations that we are fine and just walk away, leaving us to our own devices. He knows that we are lost without Him, and even as we in our sin protest, He comes to beat down sin and death and the world to win us salvation. This is what we see here this today. There’s a demon that makes a man mute – even before the fellow can ask, Christ casts out the demon. And this is stated so matter of factly because this is what Jesus does. He takes it to Satan, He takes it to Satan’s kingdom, and even our delusions won’t prevent Him.
And this battle against Satan is seen most fully, most dramatically, upon the Cross. It is there, as He hang dying, that Jesus enters most fully into Satan’s house. Death, that’s Satan’s thing, that’s what comes from the sin that Satan loves to stir up, that’s where we are stuck without Christ. Without Jesus all our delusions and dreams about how wonderful we are simply end in a grave covered with flies and maggots. But Christ will not stand for it, He will not let us remain bound to Satan, and so upon the Cross Jesus goes crashing fully into Satan’s Kingdom. The Lord of Life confronts the lord of the grave, confronts Beelzebub, the lord of the flies, on Satan’s own turf, and thoroughly destroys him. Satan is vanquished, crushed, beaten and broken. And what then does Jesus do? He pulls us out of Satan’s clutches, He frees us from the fear of the Grave, and gives us life in Himself. Christ our Lord is raised from the dead, and by our Baptism, God has tied Himself to us, He gives us His own resurrection, and we are raised to new Christ’s new life.
This is what Jesus is doing, this is what His goal and task is, the defeat of Satan and our liberation. This is what we see Him doing all this Lent, marching His way to the Cross, swatting Satan’s servants out of the way, and more than that, wresting our eyes off of ourselves and on to Him. And what we see? All His foes defeated, all opposition crushed, as He gathers you, His beloved people to Himself. All praise to Christ Jesus our Lord, who gathers us back to Him by His Word when we err, and who crushes Satan for our freedom. In the Name of Christ the Crucified + Amen.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Confidence and Knowing why others think the way they do
Just a brief and simple thought. It is good to know your own beliefs and why you hold them. That's one of the things shown from the Catechism... how often does Luther quote the Scriptures in his explanations -- see, this is why we believe this.
However, there is another aspect to this. Knowing why others think the way they do can give you confidence. If someone introduces an idea (let's say Macroevolution), that can be highly intimidating. But if you know the arguments, the rationale behind it, the assumptions that are made... then you can have confidence in the face of it.
Knowing accurately what other people think doesn't simply let you convince them better... it keeps you from being knocked off balance by them.
However, there is another aspect to this. Knowing why others think the way they do can give you confidence. If someone introduces an idea (let's say Macroevolution), that can be highly intimidating. But if you know the arguments, the rationale behind it, the assumptions that are made... then you can have confidence in the face of it.
Knowing accurately what other people think doesn't simply let you convince them better... it keeps you from being knocked off balance by them.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
The amping of rhetoric and willful ignorance
Social Media has put me in an interesting position, one that leads often to my frustration. Many of my friends from college are very liberal... I was in some ways the token conservative. Many of my friends from Seminary are very conservative... I was in many way the token libertarian (although not quite as token anymore).
This means whenever anything happens... I get the rhetoric spew from both sides. And it disgusts me.
Do you know how many "wars" I've seen people talk about this week? I've learned that some of my friends hate and control women, and I've learned that some of my friends hate babies. I've learned that some hate the poor because they do X and that others hate the poor because they do Y.
Yesterday I wrote this: "Not everything in Politics is a "war". If the headline or tagline involves the phrase "the war on ______" the piece isn't primarily focused on teaching or convincing you - it will be focused on scaring and manipulating you."
Tonight I wrote this: "If your overblown rhetoric annoys and galvanizes the other side while offending those in the middle or the fence... you probably should refrain from using it. Don't call people names, especially in frustration. It tends to backfire."
And, of course, for thinking this I was shown to be an evil conservative or a gutless liberal... depending on which side I upset.
What frustrates me the most is this... I often know folks on both sides of an argument... and I know each side's argumentation... not their posturing, not their political rhetoric... but why they hold the positions they do. There are legitimate differences of opinions, there are different priorities... and these lead to differences.
But instead of knowing this, learning this, and letting the battle be over what values should take center stage, instead of battling over how best to accomplish goals... we fall to rhetoric and name calling. We engage in a willful ignorance of our political opponents and simply are reduced to vilification to try and sway people to an emotional tie to our position.
And it's disgusting.
And you know what -- it happens in almost every fight in this country. It happens not just in politics, but in our homes, in our congregations.
We do not love our neighbors who disagree with us. We do not love our political enemies and explain things in the kindest way. We do not take time to instruct, to plead. Instead, we worry about conquering and dominating.
God have mercy upon us all, but we are a mess.
This means whenever anything happens... I get the rhetoric spew from both sides. And it disgusts me.
Do you know how many "wars" I've seen people talk about this week? I've learned that some of my friends hate and control women, and I've learned that some of my friends hate babies. I've learned that some hate the poor because they do X and that others hate the poor because they do Y.
Yesterday I wrote this: "Not everything in Politics is a "war". If the headline or tagline involves the phrase "the war on ______" the piece isn't primarily focused on teaching or convincing you - it will be focused on scaring and manipulating you."
Tonight I wrote this: "If your overblown rhetoric annoys and galvanizes the other side while offending those in the middle or the fence... you probably should refrain from using it. Don't call people names, especially in frustration. It tends to backfire."
And, of course, for thinking this I was shown to be an evil conservative or a gutless liberal... depending on which side I upset.
What frustrates me the most is this... I often know folks on both sides of an argument... and I know each side's argumentation... not their posturing, not their political rhetoric... but why they hold the positions they do. There are legitimate differences of opinions, there are different priorities... and these lead to differences.
But instead of knowing this, learning this, and letting the battle be over what values should take center stage, instead of battling over how best to accomplish goals... we fall to rhetoric and name calling. We engage in a willful ignorance of our political opponents and simply are reduced to vilification to try and sway people to an emotional tie to our position.
And it's disgusting.
And you know what -- it happens in almost every fight in this country. It happens not just in politics, but in our homes, in our congregations.
We do not love our neighbors who disagree with us. We do not love our political enemies and explain things in the kindest way. We do not take time to instruct, to plead. Instead, we worry about conquering and dominating.
God have mercy upon us all, but we are a mess.
The Tyrany of "What is Needed" for the Church
What is needed for the Church? What does the Church need now? What must we do now to avert the terrible tide of ________?
I hear these sorts of questions all the time. And to be honest, I have learned to pretty much lose interest. It's a horrible question. Why do I say that?
First of all, what the Church needs doesn't change. The Church needs Christ the Crucified for the forgiveness of sins. Simple as that. If Christ is overshadowed, whatever overshadows Him needs to be fixed. There isn't ever anything new the Church needs -- she only needs to return to who she is - the Bride of Christ. The Church is always in need of repentance, of reform, of returning her focus to the Bridegroom and Him alone.
Second, the answer to the question of what is needed doesn't lead to "reform" but rather the creation of new pet projects. And more over, if you don't jump up and down and celebrate this new pet project, you are bad and evil. It's all tyranny, it's all about control, it's all about trying to make people do what you want them to do, your plans, your solutions. And it runs on fear.
Do not fear. Look to Christ. His perfect love casts out fear. He gives growth through forgiveness. He does. Really.
If only we trusted Christ and His Word more than we trust our plans.
I hear these sorts of questions all the time. And to be honest, I have learned to pretty much lose interest. It's a horrible question. Why do I say that?
First of all, what the Church needs doesn't change. The Church needs Christ the Crucified for the forgiveness of sins. Simple as that. If Christ is overshadowed, whatever overshadows Him needs to be fixed. There isn't ever anything new the Church needs -- she only needs to return to who she is - the Bride of Christ. The Church is always in need of repentance, of reform, of returning her focus to the Bridegroom and Him alone.
Second, the answer to the question of what is needed doesn't lead to "reform" but rather the creation of new pet projects. And more over, if you don't jump up and down and celebrate this new pet project, you are bad and evil. It's all tyranny, it's all about control, it's all about trying to make people do what you want them to do, your plans, your solutions. And it runs on fear.
Do not fear. Look to Christ. His perfect love casts out fear. He gives growth through forgiveness. He does. Really.
If only we trusted Christ and His Word more than we trust our plans.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Lent Midweek Sermon 3
Lent Midweek 3 – March 7th, 2012 – I Am the Door
In the Name of Christ the Crucified +
Our verse for tonight, our Lord saying “I am the door of the sheep” is one of shame for me. In the spring of 2000, down in Norman, I was a college student taking his Greek test to pass out of Greek at the Seminary, and when finished the test, I walked into Pastor Nehrenz’s office and said, “What in the world is a probata – I know it’s ‘I Am the door to something, but what in the world is that?’” I read Homer, you had swords and armies, you didn’t talk about sheep. So this verse has stuck with me for rather embarrassing reasons for quite some time. It’s interesting though, when we think about the things that Christ is, all the I AM statements, “door” ranks pretty low. In fact, of all of these midweek sermons, this is probably the least familiar – if I had been familiar with it, I wouldn’t have blown the answer on the test. So let’s consider our text and see what our Lord teaches.
First, let’s consider the first verse: “Truly, truly, I say unto you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way; that man is a thief and a robber.” This is our context. You’ve got a sheep-pen, where the sheep are gathered nice and safely. If you are supposed to be dealing with the sheep, you enter through the door of the pen. Makes sense. But if you aren’t supposed to be dealing with the sheep, if you are there to mess with them, there to steal, there to rob, you slink in, you creep in some other way, and you snatch them away, maybe entice a few with some grass, some feed, get them to come to you and then abscond with them. And we can think about modern ways of saying this – if I drive by a house at night and see a guy walking through the front door, I don’t think much of it. If I see him crawling in a side window… I call the police. If you aren’t coming in through the door, you are probably up to no good.
Now, realize that our passage is describing the Church – the Church is the sheep pen, and you guys are the sheep. Now, how does someone rightly approach you? “But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.” Keep in mind that the Latin Word for “shepherd” is “Pastor”. And yes, next week we are going to talk about Jesus being the Good Shepherd, so don’t jump there yet – He’s the door tonight. If someone is going to be a right and properly called pastor, how does he come to the Church? Through the door. Through Christ. And openly so – the gatekeeper knows who he is. This is part of the reason why the Lutheran Church has always kept the practice of having our pastors be both called and ordained. A pastor is to be called by the local church – where they acknowledge and say, “Yes, you are our pastor” and they are to have been ordained, acknowledged by the other pastors who say, “Yes, you are indeed a pastor.” That’s why the absolution reads, “I as a called and ordained servant of the Word announce the grace of God unto all of you, and in the stead and by the command of My Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins.” Stead and Command. There’s no sneaking around, there’s no mystery as to why I’m here – it’s all open and straight forward – I have been called here to preach Christ and Him crucified for the forgiveness of sins – that’s the voice, the words that you need to hear.
And then we get to the crux of the issue at hand – “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.” When I come to you to do my pastor stuff, how am I to approach you? How am I to come? Sneaking through a window? No, I come through the door, through Christ Jesus, and everything I say or teach is to be focused on Christ the Crucified who has died for the forgiveness of your sins and risen so that you will have eternal life. He is the door – He is the way in which the sheep are to be accessed… and if I’m dealing with you without Christ, without proclaiming His salvation, then I have fallen into false doctrine and error.
This passage shows us how to spot false doctrine. “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” If it’s not focused on Christ, if it’s not about the forgiveness of sins, it’s false doctrine, meant to kill and destroy your faith in Christ. As Christians, as God’s own precious lambs, you know how to recognize false doctrine. And the simplest way to check is to listen for the voice of the Good Shepherd – is the preaching, is the teaching giving you Christ and Him Crucified for you so that you may have life and have it abundantly. And not “wealth”, not the trappings of this world, not stuff – but that you may have life – that you might rise out of your grave because your Lord has come to call you out of it. If the preaching is just about having stuff now – this is the place where rust and moth destroy. Satan wants you focused here, and he stirs up pious sounding scoundrels who preach wealth and health and anything but Christ and Him crucified for the forgiveness of sins. Christ came that you may have life.
This is to be the focus of preaching. If there comes a time when the sermons I preach no longer give you Christ and His forgiveness, get rid of me. I say this not only for your sake, but for mine – because if I fall that far your kicking me to the curb may very well be the thing that brings me back to my senses, returns my focus to Christ. But if you will for a moment, consider that life and life abundantly is also the point of the sacraments. What’s the point of baptism, what does it give? “It works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare.” Or what does such baptizing with water signify? “It signifies that the old Adam in us should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die with all sins and evil lusts, and, again, a new man daily come forth and arise; who shall live before God in righteousness and purity forever.” Life, and life abundantly.
Or consider the Lord’s Supper. What is the benefit of such eating and drinking? “That is shown us in these words: Given, and shed for you, for the remission of sins; namely, that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.” Again, life, and abundant, everlasting life. And if you didn’t notice, all I was doing there was quoting from the Small Catechism. The reason some stodgy old pastor, or perhaps some stodgy young pastor tried to get to you memorize it was so that when thieves and robbers preach junk at you, you’d know to reject it.
Christ Jesus is the door. He is the right and proper way for you to be approached, the right and proper way for you to receive life. And if some so called teacher wants to tell you about “God” – about how things are, and he’s not preaching Christ and Him Crucified, if he’s telling you some other “Gospel” that isn’t focused on the death and resurrection of Christ for you – stop up your ears. You are God’s sheep, don’t listen to false voices. And you will know these false preachers by their works – for they do not show the works of Christ for you, they show some other works. Flee them. But when you hear your pastor enter by the door, enter bringing Christ and Him crucified, rejoice, because in receiving Christ, you receive life everlasting. In the Name of Christ the Crucified +
In the Name of Christ the Crucified +
Our verse for tonight, our Lord saying “I am the door of the sheep” is one of shame for me. In the spring of 2000, down in Norman, I was a college student taking his Greek test to pass out of Greek at the Seminary, and when finished the test, I walked into Pastor Nehrenz’s office and said, “What in the world is a probata – I know it’s ‘I Am the door to something, but what in the world is that?’” I read Homer, you had swords and armies, you didn’t talk about sheep. So this verse has stuck with me for rather embarrassing reasons for quite some time. It’s interesting though, when we think about the things that Christ is, all the I AM statements, “door” ranks pretty low. In fact, of all of these midweek sermons, this is probably the least familiar – if I had been familiar with it, I wouldn’t have blown the answer on the test. So let’s consider our text and see what our Lord teaches.
First, let’s consider the first verse: “Truly, truly, I say unto you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way; that man is a thief and a robber.” This is our context. You’ve got a sheep-pen, where the sheep are gathered nice and safely. If you are supposed to be dealing with the sheep, you enter through the door of the pen. Makes sense. But if you aren’t supposed to be dealing with the sheep, if you are there to mess with them, there to steal, there to rob, you slink in, you creep in some other way, and you snatch them away, maybe entice a few with some grass, some feed, get them to come to you and then abscond with them. And we can think about modern ways of saying this – if I drive by a house at night and see a guy walking through the front door, I don’t think much of it. If I see him crawling in a side window… I call the police. If you aren’t coming in through the door, you are probably up to no good.
Now, realize that our passage is describing the Church – the Church is the sheep pen, and you guys are the sheep. Now, how does someone rightly approach you? “But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.” Keep in mind that the Latin Word for “shepherd” is “Pastor”. And yes, next week we are going to talk about Jesus being the Good Shepherd, so don’t jump there yet – He’s the door tonight. If someone is going to be a right and properly called pastor, how does he come to the Church? Through the door. Through Christ. And openly so – the gatekeeper knows who he is. This is part of the reason why the Lutheran Church has always kept the practice of having our pastors be both called and ordained. A pastor is to be called by the local church – where they acknowledge and say, “Yes, you are our pastor” and they are to have been ordained, acknowledged by the other pastors who say, “Yes, you are indeed a pastor.” That’s why the absolution reads, “I as a called and ordained servant of the Word announce the grace of God unto all of you, and in the stead and by the command of My Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins.” Stead and Command. There’s no sneaking around, there’s no mystery as to why I’m here – it’s all open and straight forward – I have been called here to preach Christ and Him crucified for the forgiveness of sins – that’s the voice, the words that you need to hear.
And then we get to the crux of the issue at hand – “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.” When I come to you to do my pastor stuff, how am I to approach you? How am I to come? Sneaking through a window? No, I come through the door, through Christ Jesus, and everything I say or teach is to be focused on Christ the Crucified who has died for the forgiveness of your sins and risen so that you will have eternal life. He is the door – He is the way in which the sheep are to be accessed… and if I’m dealing with you without Christ, without proclaiming His salvation, then I have fallen into false doctrine and error.
This passage shows us how to spot false doctrine. “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” If it’s not focused on Christ, if it’s not about the forgiveness of sins, it’s false doctrine, meant to kill and destroy your faith in Christ. As Christians, as God’s own precious lambs, you know how to recognize false doctrine. And the simplest way to check is to listen for the voice of the Good Shepherd – is the preaching, is the teaching giving you Christ and Him Crucified for you so that you may have life and have it abundantly. And not “wealth”, not the trappings of this world, not stuff – but that you may have life – that you might rise out of your grave because your Lord has come to call you out of it. If the preaching is just about having stuff now – this is the place where rust and moth destroy. Satan wants you focused here, and he stirs up pious sounding scoundrels who preach wealth and health and anything but Christ and Him crucified for the forgiveness of sins. Christ came that you may have life.
This is to be the focus of preaching. If there comes a time when the sermons I preach no longer give you Christ and His forgiveness, get rid of me. I say this not only for your sake, but for mine – because if I fall that far your kicking me to the curb may very well be the thing that brings me back to my senses, returns my focus to Christ. But if you will for a moment, consider that life and life abundantly is also the point of the sacraments. What’s the point of baptism, what does it give? “It works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare.” Or what does such baptizing with water signify? “It signifies that the old Adam in us should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die with all sins and evil lusts, and, again, a new man daily come forth and arise; who shall live before God in righteousness and purity forever.” Life, and life abundantly.
Or consider the Lord’s Supper. What is the benefit of such eating and drinking? “That is shown us in these words: Given, and shed for you, for the remission of sins; namely, that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.” Again, life, and abundant, everlasting life. And if you didn’t notice, all I was doing there was quoting from the Small Catechism. The reason some stodgy old pastor, or perhaps some stodgy young pastor tried to get to you memorize it was so that when thieves and robbers preach junk at you, you’d know to reject it.
Christ Jesus is the door. He is the right and proper way for you to be approached, the right and proper way for you to receive life. And if some so called teacher wants to tell you about “God” – about how things are, and he’s not preaching Christ and Him Crucified, if he’s telling you some other “Gospel” that isn’t focused on the death and resurrection of Christ for you – stop up your ears. You are God’s sheep, don’t listen to false voices. And you will know these false preachers by their works – for they do not show the works of Christ for you, they show some other works. Flee them. But when you hear your pastor enter by the door, enter bringing Christ and Him crucified, rejoice, because in receiving Christ, you receive life everlasting. In the Name of Christ the Crucified +
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
The Fredom of the Call (or "See, I'm Not the Only One")
Pastor Chris Hall writes a wonderful piece on the freedom one has upon receiving a call.
The money quote: "So I have freedom. Freedom to decide where I want to be, and what is good for my family. I don’t have to fret and moan and vision-quest for God’s will. I don’t have to wring my hands and sweat and fear to make a wrong decision. He’s already revealed it. God said “yes” to both."
Sometimes we get this idea that God has every minute detail of our life mapped out, and that He's up in heaven watching us smacking His head saying, "No, NO! I had wanted you to have the French Toast for breakfast this morning, not the Swedish Pancakes... why, why must you deviate from My plan!?!?"
As we hear in Galatians 5:1 - "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." We do not live in constant fear of thwarting God's hidden will - we do not have to pry behind the curtains of heaven to figure out what God really wants us to do.
He has revealed His will to us in His Word - and when that Word leaves options open, we are free. For my friend Pastor Hall, God has revealed two options, two calls - one in Enid, one in Tulsa. And in six months, whichever places Pastor Hall is serving will have a fine, faithful pastor. And I am most glad to see that he views this as freedom.
We ought not submit again to a yoke of slavery -- and the burden of trying to figure out what God wants us to do apart from His revealed Word is slavery of the most terrible kind. It is slavery to the fears of a sinful heart and the imaginations of a fallen mind. Christ has set you free - the Word of God has set you free - cling to Him.
The money quote: "So I have freedom. Freedom to decide where I want to be, and what is good for my family. I don’t have to fret and moan and vision-quest for God’s will. I don’t have to wring my hands and sweat and fear to make a wrong decision. He’s already revealed it. God said “yes” to both."
Sometimes we get this idea that God has every minute detail of our life mapped out, and that He's up in heaven watching us smacking His head saying, "No, NO! I had wanted you to have the French Toast for breakfast this morning, not the Swedish Pancakes... why, why must you deviate from My plan!?!?"
As we hear in Galatians 5:1 - "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." We do not live in constant fear of thwarting God's hidden will - we do not have to pry behind the curtains of heaven to figure out what God really wants us to do.
He has revealed His will to us in His Word - and when that Word leaves options open, we are free. For my friend Pastor Hall, God has revealed two options, two calls - one in Enid, one in Tulsa. And in six months, whichever places Pastor Hall is serving will have a fine, faithful pastor. And I am most glad to see that he views this as freedom.
We ought not submit again to a yoke of slavery -- and the burden of trying to figure out what God wants us to do apart from His revealed Word is slavery of the most terrible kind. It is slavery to the fears of a sinful heart and the imaginations of a fallen mind. Christ has set you free - the Word of God has set you free - cling to Him.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Luther on John 15:5
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
Note that this is what He means when He says: “He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.” He wishes to point out that Christianity is not attached to the outside of a man or put on as a garment, that it is not the adoption of a new method and manner of life and action, like monasticism and self-chosen sanctity, but that it is a new birth through God’s Word and Spirit and the creating of a man who is entirely new from the bottom of his heart. But thereafter, once the heart is born anew in Christ, fruits also flow: the confession of the Gospel, works of love, obedience, patience, chastity, etc.
So Christ would herewith forewarn His disciples to be sure to stay with His Word, which makes real Christians, people with a new life and nature, who bring forth may fruits from the Vine, and to beware of all kinds of other teaching, which inverts the order and wants to make the tree out of the fruit and grapes out of thorns and thistles. For nothing will ever come of this attempt. - Luther
This idea, the idea of outward works still threaten us today, even though we don't have monasteries and the like. What we have is the outward appearance of being "good" -- the monks were the "good" Christians of their day, and we today have our own self-created ideas of what a "good" Christian looks like. And we are tempted to put that image of the "good" Christian on us, to keep up appearances, to have people applaud us because of our actions.
That's not the way it works. That is doing nothing. Repent. Hear the Gospel. And Christ will give you His life, and you will show forth love, not ape your pious appearing neighbor.
Note that this is what He means when He says: “He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.” He wishes to point out that Christianity is not attached to the outside of a man or put on as a garment, that it is not the adoption of a new method and manner of life and action, like monasticism and self-chosen sanctity, but that it is a new birth through God’s Word and Spirit and the creating of a man who is entirely new from the bottom of his heart. But thereafter, once the heart is born anew in Christ, fruits also flow: the confession of the Gospel, works of love, obedience, patience, chastity, etc.
So Christ would herewith forewarn His disciples to be sure to stay with His Word, which makes real Christians, people with a new life and nature, who bring forth may fruits from the Vine, and to beware of all kinds of other teaching, which inverts the order and wants to make the tree out of the fruit and grapes out of thorns and thistles. For nothing will ever come of this attempt. - Luther
This idea, the idea of outward works still threaten us today, even though we don't have monasteries and the like. What we have is the outward appearance of being "good" -- the monks were the "good" Christians of their day, and we today have our own self-created ideas of what a "good" Christian looks like. And we are tempted to put that image of the "good" Christian on us, to keep up appearances, to have people applaud us because of our actions.
That's not the way it works. That is doing nothing. Repent. Hear the Gospel. And Christ will give you His life, and you will show forth love, not ape your pious appearing neighbor.
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