Sunday, June 24, 2018

Nativity of St. John the Baptist Sermon

Jesu Juva

“A New Page, A New Name, A New Life”
Text: Luke 1:57-80

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Sometimes our names tell people what we do. Kids know what Bob the Builder does. Adults know what to call Len the Plumber for. And John the Baptist . . . yeah, he baptizes.

He wasn’t always called John the Baptist, though. First he was just John. John, the son of Zechariah. And if his “baptist” name was surprising, his “John” name was surprising first. Why in the world would you name your child that? the people wondered. They wouldn’t listen to Elizabeth when she said that was her son’s name. They heard what she said and then went to Zechariah, for surely, the pangs of birth in an old woman had affected her mind! Surely, he would be called Zechariah after his father. Not John. Not this name that isn’t even in the family.

But this was the name given to him by God. John, from the Hebrew Jochanan, which means “the Lord has shown favor.” For yes, the Lord had shown favor to old Zechariah and Elizabeth in giving them a child, but even more He had shown favor to Israel, and really to all the world. For this child would prepare the way for the Son of God, the Saviour of the world.

John would not have the name of his father, for he was not following in the footsteps of his father. He would follow in the footsteps of another from Israel’s history - Elijah. He would not be a priest like his father, but a prophet. He would not serve in the Temple, but in the wilderness. He would not burn incense like his father, but with scorching rhetoric he would call sinners to repentance. And then this: he wouldn’t just baptize the people of Israel and of all that region who came to him at the Jordan, he would do this, too - baptize Jesus into His ministry. John would fulfill his name by baptizing the Son of God in human flesh as He began His work of salvation. Yes, the Lord has shown favor, for He has sent His Son.

So with the coming of John the Baptist, the page turns from the Old Testament to the New. From prophecy to fulfillment. From He’s coming, to He’s here! So John’s birth is a big deal. Which is why it’s the only other birth we commemorate in the church besides Jesus.

And so Zechariah, as we heard today, after his lips were opened and he could speak again, talks about this fulfillment, that the Old Testament is now being fulfilled. The words of Isaiah, the words of Malachi, the words of all the prophets, are happening, now. For John’s miraculous birth means another miraculous birth. Not in an old lady and to her old husband, but in a virgin named Mary. When John was born, she was three months into her pregnancy - perhaps just beginning to show, we might say today. Soon enough, John would point to the son of Mary and say: not just son of Mary, but the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29)!

Many parents wonder what their children will be when they grow up, but Zechariah and Elizabeth knew. But being old when he was born, they probably didn’t get to see their son in action - by that time, they had already received the fulfillment of their faith. But they would not have to wait long to see their son again; for their son to join them, as his life was cut short before he reached a ripe old age . . . by a vengeful wife using her seductive daughter to trick a lustful king into lopping his head off. Silencing the voice of the forerunner of the Messiah.

But the word was already out. John had done his job. It was time for him to go, and time for Jesus to do His work. And Jesus’ work was this, as Zechariah put it:

[B]ecause of the tender mercy of our God,
whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.

So John’s birth was the signal that the tender mercy of God has visited us and is now here. That light has arisen in the darkness of sin and death. And that there will be peace - not in the world, but between God and man.

For so had God promised! as Zechariah said, through the years, through the prophets. His promise to Abraham, David, and more. To deliver us and save us from the hand of our enemies. But not the enemy then named Rome, or nowadays the Taliban, or Isis, or Political Correctness. Much worse enemies than any of those. Enemies named sin, death, and hell. The people of this world, the things of this world, really aren’t our enemies (Ephesians 6:12). You know that. Someone who is your enemy today might be your friend tomorrow, or vice versa. But sin, death, and hell - they will always be our enemies, seeking to consume us; seeking to separate us from our heavenly Father.

And they would! They would . . . were it not for the one God would send. The one Abraham believed in. The true Son of David who would die for David’s sin. The one John the Baptist would point to. The one who would take our sin and atone for it with His own blood. The one who would lay down His life, allowing our death to slay Him, so that He could slay our death. And the one who, rising from death would storm the gates of hell so that they can no longer hold those who are in Him. In the one eternally begotten of the Father before all worlds, and then born of the virgin Mary in time. Our brother Jesus.

So we’re not just celebrating a birth or remembering history today, but a birth and a history that has changed our lives and given us hope and a future. For to continue with what Zechariah said:

[T]hat we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,
in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

That we might have a new life, in other words. Or maybe say it this way: a return to the life God always intended us to have; our original life, before sin. For holiness and righteousness were Adam and Eve before the Fall. Fear was Adam and Eve after the Fall. But Jesus has come that we might again serve God without fear, and be holy and righteous again, in the forgiveness of our sins. For when your sins are forgiven, you are holy. When your sins are forgiven, you are righteous. When your sins are forgiven, you are delivered from the hand of your enemies and can live without fear.

So John the Baptist baptized. He baptized Jesus, the Deliverer. And Jesus baptized you, the delivered.

And I think that’s a good word to use: deliver. Because we use that word - delivered, or delivery - when talking about birth. Hospitals have Delivery Rooms.

John the baptist worked in God’s Delivery Room, and that’s what the Church still is: God’s Delivery Room. For this is the place where children of God are delivered, baptized, born through water and the Word. The place where the Lamb of God is delivering us from our enemies by cleansing us with His blood.

So to be delivered from the hand of your enemies is to have received life in the divine Delivery Room; a new life, set free from our captivity to sin, which leads to death, which leads to hell. A new life of forgiveness, which raises to life, which leads to heaven. It starts here with our new birth. Continues here as we are fed with the same Body and Blood of the Lamb of God born for us and given for us. And usually it ends here, too, when we bid farewell to saints who have died in the faith.

John’s life didn’t end at a ripe old age, though, but in prison. Yours might, too. Persecutions are increasing. Christians are following in the way of John in other countries. But on the other hand, John’s life also didn’t end in prison. Because he received a life that not even death can end. The life of Christ. And that is the life into which you too have been delivered.

And so a remembrance of the nativity of John the Baptist is not only a remembrance of his nativity here in this world and life, but also a remembrance of his birth into the next life; his eternal birthday. And so, too, for you. You have a birth certificate for your life that will one day end, when you were delivered into this world. But you also have a baptism certificate for your new life, when you were delivered in Christ to a life that will never end. And one day there will be a death certificate with your name on it, that will mark not really your death, but your real birthday and delivery - your delivery from this world to the kingdom which will have no end.

For just as when a child was born to Zechariah and Elizabeth they said: His name is John, a name given by God, so too when you were born you received a name given by God. Your earthly parents gave you a name, but so did your heavenly Father. He gave you His name when He made you part of His family. He said: his name, her name, shall be Christian. That’s what happened when you were delivered here, in baptism.

And because of that - that promise, that assurance, that name, that life already given to us here and now - we really can serve God without fear, just like John. Without fear of what others may think. Without fear of persecution or death. Without fear of messing up. Without fear of anything this world and life, or the people of this world, the high or the low, the kings or governments, might dish up for you. 

For perfect love drives out fear (1 John 4:18). Not that your love is perfect - far from it! But God’s love for you is. He who created you perfectly, redeemed you perfectly, and in the end will raise you perfectly. In His perfect love and with His name we can live without fear. And walk in the footsteps of John. Walking in the way of peace. Peace with God. 

For the Lord has shown favor to you. And He won’t stop. Even when the page turns for us. The page from this life to the next - whether you reach a ripe old age or not. The page when all is fulfilled - when He’s coming becomes He’s here for us. When we join Zechariah, Elizabeth, John, and all the saints. All who bear the name of the Father, who live in the Son, and who have been given the Holy Spirit. For into this name, into this life, you have been delivered. A new life, to live now; a new life to live forever.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Monday, June 18, 2018

Pentecost 4 Sermon

Jesu Juva

“We Know Not How”
Text: Mark 4:26-34; Ezekiel 17:22-24

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

We live in the information age. We know stuff. And we know more stuff now than ever before. Some of it good, some of it bad. Some of it true, some of it false. Some we want to know, and some we wish we didn’t know. And what we don’t know? It’s probably on the internet. We jokingly say: Google knows all . . . but that’s probably not so far from the truth. And what we don’t know, we will know, right? We’ll research it, investigate it, discover it, uncover it, science it. We’ll get it. Just give us time.

But not the kingdom of God. Jesus tells us today that we do not know how it sprouts and grows. And, we could say, it often defies explanation. It often seems the very opposite of what it should be. 

In Jesus’ day, those in whom we would have expected the kingdom of God to sprout and grow, the Pharisees and Scribes and Jewish leaders, there it did not. They wanted nothing to do with Jesus and His Word and ways. Yet in those we probably would not expect, the prostitutes, the tax collectors, and those other hardened and willful sinners - those perhaps the farthest from the kingdom of God, in them it does sprout and grow! They rejoice in the kingdom of God.

We expect it to grow because of the big and spectacular - signs, proof, that God is real. But after the ten plagues in Egypt and then the dividing of the Red Sea, Israel thanked God by building a golden calf. After God defied the odds and used the prophet Elijah to single-handedly defeat the 450 prophets of Baal, the queen didn’t repent but grew even more stubborn; and Elijah ran away and hid in fear. Jesus healed ten lepers - but only one returned to give thanks and worship Him. So the big and spectacular? Meh.

But when little, old, cowardly Jonah preached for the people of the big and powerful, uber-sinful and idolatrous city of Ninveh to repent, they did! They listened and they did. And when Peter got up a preached a hard-hitting sermon about how the people of Jerusalem killed Jesus, they didn’t chase him out of the city or string him up - 3,000 of them repented and were baptized. It wasn’t the big and spectacular, but a little mustard seed of preaching that did it. Who knew?

And then, of course, there was the cross. Build a kingdom by being arrested, tried, mocked, scorned, and killed in the most public and humiliating way then known to man. That’s not the script we would write. 

But so it is. 

The kingdom of God . . . is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.

So we don’t know how the kingdom of God sprouts and grows, but we know that it will. Because these words here aren’t just a description - they are a promise. A promise that Jesus has been fulfilling from the beginning of time to the end of time. A promise Jesus has been fulfilling when the Church looked big and flourishing, and when it looked dead and gone. A promise Jesus fulfills in those who sometimes seem the least likely and the most against Him. A promise He is fulfilling even now, even here, even in you. 

If we look in the wrong place, we may not see it. If we look for the wrong thing we may be disappointed. If we expect it to happen in our time and way, we may question and doubt. But if we rely on His promise - no matter how small and silly, no matter how weak and insignificant, no matter how utterly opposite things may look now - the kingdom of God grows.

For the Church’s currency is not silver, gold, or pearls, not the big and spectacular, but mustard seeds. 

So we splash a little water on someone’s head. Big deal. Yes, big deal! For there is Jesus washing away sins, planting Himself in a sinner, and claiming her for His own. A little, watery mustard seed sown in us dried up by sin and death.

And we forgive. Big deal. Yes, big deal! For how often do we hope for forgiveness in this world but don’t get it, and yet here Jesus Himself is forgiving you and not counting your sins against you. A little mustard seed of freedom and relief in a world of hardness, grudges, and revenge.

We preach. Big deal. Yes, big deal! When Jesus is preached. When Christ crucified is preached. When the mercy and love of God is preached. A little mustard seed of rest in this self-improvement, you can do it, try harder, survival of the fittest, world.

And we give the Body and Blood of Christ. Big deal. Yes, big deal! Here you do not give a pound of flesh and your blood, sweat, and tears, but receive Jesus’, given and shed for you. A little mustard seed of life and hope in a never-satisfied, always demanding more, world.

These things, these mustard seeds, look aabout as insignificant and weak as the promise of a son made to 99 year old Abraham, the promise of a kingdom to a nation of slaves, the promise of a son to a virgin, and the promise of life to a dead man laid in a tomb. So, well, I guess those are pretty good mustard seeds after all! 

But it wasn’t easy. Abraham doubted and tried to take matters into his own hands. Israel lived as slaves for a long time before the Exodus happened. Mary’s faith was rewarded with the accusation of adultery. And a large stone rolled in front of a tomb containing the one you hoped would save you, and then sealed, and then guarded by soldiers, seemed pretty hopeless. All those examples - and many more - when it seemed like the mustard seed of the Word is a dud and isn’t going to grow or succeed at all.

And yet it did.

And what is it for you? What waiting, what frustration, what doubt, what fear, what odds, what stubbornness, what conflict, what sorrow, what difficulty, what in your life seems dead and buried and hopeless? That makes you think that mustard seed of the Word a dud?

But the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.

So we don’t rely on what we see or what we know - or how we might improve on and do better than God! - we rely on the promise of God. It’s His seed, His Word, His gifts, His kingdom, His plants, His children, His harvest, His work. And as He has shown and proved across the centuries and the millennia, He will do it. Sometimes in spite of us. Sometimes after we’ve messed it up pretty bad. Sometimes when we least expect it. Sometimes how we least expect it. And sometimes where we least expect it.

And those little mustard seeds sown in you here, you sow them, too. In your lives, as you go and take these seeds with you. As you take Jesus with you. 

Don’t underestimate . . . especially today you fathers . . . don’t underestimate when you forgive. When you ask for forgiveness. When you pray with your child at bedtime. When you have a little five minute devotion with your family at the end of a hectic day. When you pray with someone in need. When you speak the truth in love. When you love the loveless, befriend the friendless, visit the lonely, and have mercy on the down and out. When you care for those the world thinks we would be better off without. When you listen to someone who is hurting and confused and give them hope.

When you do these things that to the world  - or maybe even to you sometimes - may seem like a waste of time . . . When you do these things that may seem insignificant, irrelevant, and incapable of doing anything useful or great . . . When you do these things that you might even get resistence or opposition for . . . When you do these things . . . well, you give Jesus . . . those tiny little mustard seeds may just surprise you and grow into something you do not expect. 

And maybe you’ll see it, maybe you won’t. Maybe no one in this world will know what you’ve done. Maybe you’ll even not know it or forget it yourself. But Jesus knows, and won’t forget it. For His kingdom is growing, one sinner at a time. He is growing His kingdom, one sinner at a time. Even using weak and doubting sinners to do it. Like Abraham, Moses, Jonah, Peter, and you.

I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it. That’s what the Lord said through the prophet Ezekiel, at one of the worst and hardest-to-believe moments in Israel’s history. But He did. He brought Israel back from her captivity, He planted the tree of the cross, and He’s been working ever since.

So while we live in the information age, there are still things even Google doesn’t know. And won’t know. Ever. And, you know, sometimes it’s better to not know, but to trust. When your trust is in the Lord.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Monday, June 11, 2018

Pentecost 3 Sermon

Jesu Juva

“By the Word of God”
Text: Mark 3:20-35; Genesis 3:8-15; 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.

That’s what we confess together every week in the Nicene Creed. That there are things in this world that we can see, and things in this world that we cannot see. Things visible and invisible. 

Sometimes what is invisible becomes visible. The Hubble Space Telescope is enabling us to see things far out in the universe that we’ve never seen before. Electron microscopes make things too tiny to see big enough to be seen by our eyes. And, the Scriptures tell us, that even angels - normally invisible beings - have sometimes been seen with human eyes. 

But this much is sure: there’s a lot more going on around us all the time than meets the eye. More than we can see and know. And not just in the physical realm, but especially in the spiritual realm. There are good angels, the angels of God, protecting and fighting for us. And there are evil angels, demons, tempting us and fighting against us. That’s the reality in which we live.

So now here’s the question: How do we understand and interpret this reality? What does it mean? Is it good or bad?

Scientists, when looking at and evaluating things in the physical world, often disagree on a question like this. They take what can be seen, gather the data about it, and try to understand it and interpret what it means - and that can be very difficult to do. In fact, they often come to different conclusions even though they’re using the same data.

Well how much more, then, for the spiritual world. How do we understand and interpret what cannot be seen? Or, when something happens that cannot be explained, how do we judge what is happening? Is it good or evil? Is it godly or demonic? Or is it neither - just a grand, cosmic accident? Perhaps we think we can know, that we can judge and interpret rightly - but can we? Do we?

Adam and Eve could not. Even with their perfect minds, untainted yet by sin, they got it wrong. Or as we heard Eve say in the Old Testament reading earlier: she was deceived. They made a judgment, that eating this fruit would be good. And perhaps, based upon physical characteristics alone, it was. The fruit was good for food and a delight to the eyes, we are told (Genesis 3:6). But the invisible reality, the spiritual reality, was quite different, and they got that quite wrong. This eating was not good, and it made for a whole lot more not good, as not only were Adam and Eve plunged into sin and death with this eating, but so was every generation born after them. From now on there would not be peace, but enmity and strife. They got it wrong, and it was a disaster.

This is also what we heard in the Holy Gospel today. Things were happening that could not be explained. Jesus was saying and doing things that could not be explained. So what’s going on? How do we understand and interpret these things? the people wondered. Is this godly or is it demonic? Is it good or is it evil? Well some, perhaps many, judged wrongly. He is out of His mind, some said. And others judged that He is possessed by Beelzebul; by the prince of demons He is casting out demons. What we cannot see, what is behind these things we can see but cannot explain, is not good, they thought. It is evil. It is demonic. 

In our world today, actually, I think many tend to have the opposite problem. When there are things in our world today that cannot be explained - supernatural, spiritual things - I think the judgment most often made is that these things are good; that they are godly and of God. Messages from God. Visions of heaven. A divine helping hand. And maybe they are. But maybe they’re not. And how do we know? If Adam and Eve got it wrong, and the people in Jesus’ day got it wrong, how do we know we haven’t got it wrong? That what cannot be explained but seems good really is good? And what cannot be explained but seems bad really is bad? 

In fact, I would suggest to you that this is exactly what satan wants and what he is trying to get you to do - interpret things wrongly. To see the good things of God as demonic (like with Jesus), and to see the evil things that he is doing (like with Adam and Eve) as good. He wants to confuse you, deceive you. He has designed your fall, as we just sang (LSB #668 v. 1). Yes, satan’s got plans for you; big plans! And maybe this is how he is doing it. Or at least, one of the ways he is doing it. 

And so it was with the folks in Jesus’ hometown. They got it wrong. They were deceived, by the master deceiver. 

They were deceived, for the reality was exactly the opposite of what they thought, of how they judged. As Jesus then taught them, what was happening was not of satan; it was not satan against satan - it was, in fact, the very Son of God in human flesh showing His dominion over the forces of evil, and foreshadowing what would be His greatest victory over those forces: when He would destroy the power of death and the grave through His death and resurrection. 

Interestingly, the people at that time got that wrong too. The disciples saw the cross and Jesus on it and thought that the greatest evil and the most horrible wrong that ever could be. And yet the reality was exactly the opposite. This is how God was working His greatest good and the salvation of the world. This was God fulfilling His Word to Adam and Eve and inflicting upon the serpent a greater injury (a bruised head) than He Himself was enduring (a bruised heel). Even though it looked exactly the opposite.

And so Jesus is not possessed by, but binding the forces of evil. He is binding the one who is stronger than us but not stronger than He. And this too: creating for us a new reality, a new family. Not an unclean one with unclean spirits (like what we got from Adam and Eve), but a new family of those cleansed by water and the Word. Not a family just here below, but a new family born from above by the Spirit. A family of faith. Not to replace our earthly families, but to give us even more. Our earthly families - our blood ties - are gifts and precious and are to be cherished, but they do last last forever. Parents die, children sometimes die. Families are sometimes ripped apart. But the family of faith we are given here - our water ties - will not end, but last forever. This, too, is a family to be cherished. This family where water is thicker than blood.

Of course, what Jesus said here, too, about this new family seemed crazy; more evidence that He must be out of His mind. All these people are His brothers and sisters and mother? But He was simply expressing a reality that though it cannot be seen, is nevertheless very real. And, in fact, more real that what we can see. 

For as Paul said: it is what we cannot see, the unseen, that is greater; that is eternal. What we can see, our outer nature, is wasting away. Our bodies getting older, wearing out, dying. The world coming apart at the seams. Our culture tearing itself apart. Kingdoms and nations rise and fall, come and go. History books and cemeteries are good reality checks for anyone who thinks it not so.

But we do not fear. For there is another reality that we cannot see. And this reality, Paul says, is not wasting away or falling apart, but is being renewed day by day. And we are being prepared for a future which is both glorious and eternal.

But that brings us back to our original question: How do we know? How can we know? What is real? How do we interpret and understand what we see?And how can we judge what we cannot see? How do we get it right?

Well, only by the word of the One who knows. The One who not only sees the visible and the invisible, but is the maker of all things visible and invisible. The One who knows more than us and reveals to us what we cannot see and what we do not know. We know only by the Word of God. Only by the Word of God can we sit by a hospice bed or stand in a cemetery and know death is not the end. Only by the Word of God can we know the cross as instrument of God for good - both Jesus’ cross and the ones He lays on you. Only by the Word of God can we know the bread and wine laid upon this altar become the Body and Blood of our Lord upon His Word, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins. 

It is only by the Word of God that we can interpret - correctly - the things of this world and life. That, just maybe, what the world calls good isn’t; and what we think is bad might instead actually be, as Paul said, a slight momentary affliction [that] is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison

Some might scoff at that, at us, just like they scoffed at Jesus. That’s okay. We will continue to confess, that is, to say the same thing as God. What He has told us is true. We will speak His Word, and trust when we cannot. When there is no answer, or we have no answer, to what is happening. When sometimes, things remain a mystery to us. 

But this we know. That the Jesus who drove our demons is driving them out still. That the Jesus who defeated death is defeating it still. That the Jesus who forgave sins is forgiving them still. That the Jesus who created all things good is working good still. And that the Jesus who created all things is creating for Himself a new family still . . . which includes you. And that, as Paul tells us, when our earthly home is destroyed - whether that be our bodies or our world - we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For as we live in Christ and in His house here, not despising the Spirit, but washed and fed and absolved by Him here - so will we live forever. For the kingdom that will last is of the One who rose from the dead. Your brother, who rose for you, and will raise you, too. To life. With your family. Forever.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sunday, June 3, 2018

Pentecost 2 Sermon

No sermon to post today as we were privileged to have Seminarian Neely Owen preach the Word of God to us this morning. Here is a link to the audio of his preachment.