Family Relations - New Years Eve - December 31, 2015 - Text: (in the sermon)

This year during the season of Advent and following through to Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and finally, tonight, New Years Eve we have been addressing a topic that may not seem too tied to the season of Advent, we have been addressing the topic and/or issue of how doctrine and practice relate, that is how we do what we believe. Last week we took up the topic of evangelism. Does God prescribe how we should evangelize? And what should our evangelistic efforts look life, especially as we keep in mind what we believe, teach and confess and how that should be seen our evangelistic efforts. This evening we will address the subject of family relations. Does the Bible speak to us what our family relations should look like? If so, where and how?
 

Does the Bible speak to us about family relations? If so, where and how? Interestingly enough, if you read your Catechism, under the section of the Table of Duties we read Scripture passages which speak to the duties of the husband, the wife, the parents and the children. These are vocational duties, that is they tell us how we are to live in our vocations as husband, wife, parent and child. So, let us look at each section. And as we do look at each of these sections, please remember that the Scripture passages listed are not the only passages which address these topics. Later when you go home you might take out your Bible and look at the cross references and see the other passages which speak to this issue as well.
 

The table of duties speaks to husbands and lists these two passages, “Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered” (1 Peter 3:7). And “Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them” (Col. 3:19). To summarize the point of these two passages we might rightly say that God’s desire for husbands is that they are to be understanding of the wife and show her honor, they are to love their wife and not be harsh to them. I must admit I find it fascinating that although the Ephesians passage is listed under duties of wives, parents and children it is not listed here. The Ephesians passage reminds husbands that they are to love their wives as Christ loved the church, so much so that He gave His life for the Church. This is where I make note to young couples getting married that the husband is to be ready to die for His wife. Yet, perhaps the reason this passage is not mentioned is that for some husbands, and understand when I say what I am about to say the same difficulty applies to both parties, but for some husbands they might believe it easier to die for their wives than to live with them understanding, honoring and loving them. And again, that goes both ways.
 

Moving on, the table of duties speaks next to wives and lists these two passages, “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord” (Eph. 5:22). And, “5For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, 6as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening” (1 Peter 3:5-6). To summarize the point of these two passages we might rightly say that God’s desire for wives is that first and foremost they submit to their husbands. Now, before we have a revolt let me “unpack” that word that is translated as “submit.” I believe a better translation of the word translated as “submit” is the word “subordinate.” To be subordinate means to put yourself in order under, in other words, wives are to put their husbands first, and the passage from Ephesians goes on to say that she is to do this just as she puts God first in her life. The converse then is also true, that is that if she does not and cannot subordinate herself to her husband she is not and cannot subordinate herself to the Lord. Unfortunately we see many problems in our world today because wives fail to be subordinate and instead are insubordinate and husbands are not willing to die for, not understand, honor and love their wives.
 

Moving on, the table of duties speaks next to parents and lists this passage, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). To summarize the point of this passage we might rightly say that parents and more in particular, fathers are not to provoke their children to anger, but are indeed to discipline and instruct their children in the Lord. First and foremost the father’s duty is a spiritual and ethical duty, to raise Godly obedient, respectful children. God gives parents, especially the father the duty to impart their Christian faith into their children. Indeed, the education of all children begins in the home with the father teaching their children about Jesus. Perhaps if we were more diligent about this teaching we would not be losing so many children to the pagan culture outside the home. After all, our lives in this world are merely a moment compared to our real life of eternity in heaven.
 

Finally, the table of duties speaks to children and lists this passage, “1Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2“Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3“that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land” (Eph.6:1-3). To summarize this passage we might rightly say that children are to be obedient to their parents and they are to honor their father and mother. Certainly, this obedience and honor are something that must be taught and instilled into the children because children are conceived and born in sin and so do not naturally obey and give honor. Notice also that this passage does not specifically say that children are to love their parents and unfortunately too many parents in our world today shirk their responsibility to discipline and instruct under the false objection that they want their children to love them. As a father, I am not here to make my children love me. I cannot make anyone love me. Rather my responsibility and duty is to discipline and instruct them in the Lord and if I do discipline and instruct in the Lord I am quite confident that my children will eventually love me with a truly Godly love. And indeed, if I fail to discipline and instruct what will happen is that I will have hooligans for children who will probably hate me for their upbringing and miserable life.
 

As we look at these duties we can understand that our God is a God of order, good order. God has not given us the Ten Commandments and these words of His because He wants to take away our freedom and our creativity. God gives us the Ten Commandments and His word as boundaries because He loves us. What kind of a world would we have if there were no rules? Indeed, a world with no laws would be a chaotic world, even a world in which there would be no peace. Just as we as parents will tell our children to not play in the street, we do not tell them to not play in the street in order to stifle their creativity or take away their freedom, but we tell them to not play in the street because we do not want them to get run over, indeed it is because we love them, it is because we care about them, it is because we do not want them to be run over that we tell them to not play in the street. The same is true with us and God. God does not gives us boundaries because He wants to stifle our creativity or take away our freedom, but because He loves us, because He know what is best for us.
 

We are ending another year, another year which was a gift of a year of life from our loving God. As we look back over the year we can most certainly see where the good gift of boundaries from God have been crossed, ignored, and moved and we can see the consequences of what happened to those who have done so. So, as we begin a new year we want to look anew to our great God of love and we want to seek His help so that we may honor His boundaries and we may be blessed by Him. I often wonder what some people are thinking when we say we want to be blessed by God, but refuse to honor His commands and His word, even when they refuse His gifts by constantly absenting themselves from Divine Service and Bible Class. Perhaps as we come to understand God’s great love for us, that it is in love that He gives us boundaries for good order, then we might better be able to honor those boundaries, with His help of course, and see how we might be even more blessed by Him.
 

Above all, as we have been looking at how our faith is seen in our lives we continually remind ourselves that we get it right when we focus on Jesus. Jesus fully obeyed all of God’s commands perfectly and never sinned and He did this for us in our place because we could not and cannot. And now, by faith in Jesus, faith He gives to us, His obedience is credited to us as our being obedient, thanks be to God. So, even when we fail and we will and do fail, we know that we are forgiven and He is with us to help us as we try and try again. May the Lord be with you as you begin this next new year so that He might help you to be the person He wants you to be to the praise and glory of His Holy Name. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Evangelism - Christmas Day - December 25, 2015 - Text: Matthew 28:18-20

This year during the season of Advent and following through to Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Years Eve we have been addressing a topic that may not seem too tied to the season of Advent, we have been addressing the topic and/or issue of how doctrine and practice relate, that is how we do what we believe. Last night we took up the topic of worship. Does God prescribe how we should worship? And what should a worship service look life, especially as we keep in mind what we believe, teach and confess and how that should be seen in our worship service. This morning we will address the subject of evangelism. Does the Bible speak to us about what our evangelistic efforts should look like? If so, where and how?

So, does the Bible speak to us about evangelism? If so, where and how? Perhaps the most misused passage of God’s Word in speaking about outreach is what is often labeled the “Great Commission.” I say this passage is misused because if you actually go back and read the passage and read it grammatically correct, you will note that there is no co-missioning involved. So, this morning we are going to go back and reread what God is telling us and giving to us as we read His first instructions in evangelism. We read, from Matthew 28: “18And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20). Unfortunately the very first words of verse nineteen are translated as an imperative rather than as an indicative, the difference being that an imperative is a command word, a word that needs to have an exclamation point after it, whereas an indicative conveys a sense of the usual way of things, a word that is followed simply by a period. So, instead of this being a command to “Go!” (exclamation point), this is a description of a usual occurrence that is that as you are going about your life something usual will happen.

But, first things first. You may have noticed that we began this passage at verse eighteen with the words of Jesus explaining to His disciples, and us for that matter, that having lived a perfect life, having taking all our sins and paying the price on the cross for our sins, all our sins as well as all the sins of all people, of all places, of all times, having died and risen from the dead, now, once again as true God enjoying all the attributes of God in heaven, now once again having all authority as His, now the implication of those words is that He is now endowing, giving to His disciples and to us that same authority. In other words, when His disciples are asked, even when we are asked, by what authority do we speak what we speak, or to use our modern lingo, “Who gave you the right to say such things?” we might boldly profess that Jesus has given us the right as He has given us His authority to speak as such. So we begin by noting that God is giving us the authority to speak for Him as we evangelize or “good word” other people. That is what the word “evangelize” means, good news, good word, good message.

The next “aha” of our text is the how of our use of His authority, that is how do we exercise the authority Jesus has given us? We exercise His authority through the means He has given us to exercise, that is through the means that He uses to give the gifts He has to give, by baptism and teaching which we know as the means of grace. Indeed, God has never promised to give any of His gifts through any other means, namely and in particular through the means of anyone person, nor any other word, spoken or read, but only through the means of His Word, as well as Confession and Absolution and the sacraments, Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

So, as we are going, as we are living our lives, we have Jesus’ authority to speak His Word and to Baptize with the confidence that through these means God gives the gifts that He has to give and we would add as we read in the confession of our church, when and where He pleases. In other words, God does not act according to our time and will, but according to His good and gracious will which is always best and right. But, we do have this added benefit, that is that we have His promise that He will be with us as we have and use the opportunity to speak and baptize. We have His promise that He will give us not only the courage, but also the very words to speak so that when all is said and done we never need to question whether or not we said the right thing, but trust that God will use whatever we have said to His glory.

Thus, the sum of what is given in Matthew 28 is not a great commission but rather a great word of what we might call vocational evangelism, that is that as we live our lives in whatever our vocation we live in such a way that as we are asked we are able with God’s authority and promise to give an answer, even a defense of our faith in Jesus and then let the Holy Spirit do His work when and where He pleases.

Today we are celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus, God in flesh, the promised Messiah, the Christ, the one for whom we are named, Christians. Christmas is a great time for evangelism. At Christmas time we have the witness of the angels as they make their announcements, of course we might include the announcements to Mary and Joseph some nine months earlier, but also the announcement to the shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night. The announcement included who was born, the Savior, where He was born, in Bethlehem, and how they would find Him and know that it was Him, that He would be wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger.

We have the witness of the shepherds who listened to and believed the angels. They went into the city of David, Bethlehem and found everything just as the angel had told them. They arrived to find Jesus, most likely in the main part of the house because, as we were told, the guest room had been taken by other relatives. Jesus was lying in the manger, the animals food trough. And as they witnessed the truth of the angels they could not help themselves, but as they were going they told all who would listen to what they had seen and heard.

We also have the witness of the towns people who heard the message of the shepherds. These same people probably went and saw the baby as well and most certainly as they went on their way, as they lived in their various vocations, as they had opportunity they also speak of what they had seen and heard.

We also would include the later witness of the birth of Jesus by the star that lead the Magi. Indeed, even before they knew what they would see, even before seeing the boy Jesus they bore witness of what they believed they would see as they believed the promises of God through the prophets of old. And we have the witness of the Magi who came and saw the boy Jesus and most certainly as they went on their way spoke of the things they had seen and heard as well.

Today Christmas is an opportunity for us to bear witness as well. We bear witness of our faith in the Messiah, in Jesus the Christ as we live lives that celebrate the birth of Jesus, God in flesh. Indeed as we decorate, as we speak, with God’s authority, words of, not “happy holiday,” but boldly words of “Merry Christmas” we bear witness of our faith as we are living our lives. As we live lives of faith and celebration there are those who will notice that we are different and when they ask, why we are different we may be bold in expressing our faith through the very means God has given us to express that faith namely through His Word and then we let the Holy Spirit do His work, when and where He pleases, thus we do not witness through coercion, but simply in quiet confidence.

Most certainly when asked what we celebrate, even if we do not know what to say, even if we may falter according to our human nature we may simply follow Phillip’s example and invite them to “Come and see.” Come and see Jesus.

As always, as we have been bold to profess through this Advent and Christmas season, our focus is on Jesus. As we live lives of faith focused on Jesus and our faith in Jesus, we are evangelists and we are witnesses of what a great God we have, a gift giving God, a God of love and grace. Finally, we bear witness of our faith so that our very lives say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen

Worship - Christmas Eve - December 24, 2015 - Text: Luke 4:16-20

This year during the season of Advent and following through to Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Years Eve we have been addressing a topic that may not seem too tied to the season of Advent, but as you have heard me say, during the seasons of Advent and Lent, since we do not have any appointed Lectionary readings the Pastor gets to do some topical preaching, so during this Advent season we have been addressing the topic and/or issue of how doctrine and practice relate, that is how we do what we believe. Last week we took up the topic of the building. Does God prescribe how we should build a church building? And what should a church building look like, especially as we keep in mind what we believe, teach and confess and how that should be seen in our church building. This evening we will address the subject of the worship service. Does the Bible speak to us about what our worship service should look like? If so, where and how? And how does that tie in with Christmas?
 

Does the Bible speak to us about worship? If so, where and how? We begin by defining two words, prescriptive and descriptive. To describe something is to tell what something looks like, for example, I might describe a box as having six sides. To prescribe something it to tell what something must look like when it is completed, for example, I might prescribe that a drawing of a triangle must have a right angle, a thirty degree angle and a sixty degree angle.
 

With those two definitions then, what we have in the Bible, more often than not, is not a prescription, not a telling us of how something must be, such as worship, rather what we more often have is a description of what is worship. About worship Luke writes, “16And he (Jesus) came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 18“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him” (Luke 4:16-20). So, this description of a worship service entails a reading of Holy Scripture and a sermon. And yet, our service has a lot more to it than just those two parts.
 

In his book, “Christian Liturgy,” author Frank Senn traces our Lutheran liturgy back to the first century A.D., in other words he writes that the Divine Service we use today had its beginning at least back as far as close to Jesus’ day as he could trace it. Personally, I believe that our Divine Service can be traced back to the giving of the sacrificial system of worship in Leviticus. I must admit that I cannot prove my belief, but I believe there is enough evidence to show how this theory might be true. During our upcoming Lenten Season we will look at the parts of our liturgy and see how they may have been a part of the sacrificial system and how, now as they have been fulfilled in Christ, that we have the liturgy we have today.
 

Oh, and one thing you may have noticed or picked up on, I like to use the name “Divine Service” for our worship service rather than simply calling it “worship” because what we are doing is Divine, that is it is God service. First and foremost we come to be given to by God and then and only then are we moved to respond with songs and prayers and hymns of praise.
 

So, as we have been discussing aspects of our Christian life, we ask, “How does our worship reflect our beliefs?” You may want to follow along in your hymnal as we see how our liturgy does a wonderful job of teaching what we believe, teach and confess. Because Baptism is important we begin our Divine Service with a remembrance of our Baptism, that is we begin with the invocation. The invocation is just that, an invoking, an inviting of our God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit to come and be a part of our service, to come and give us the gifts He has to give.
 

Because we believe that forgiveness is important, indeed it is our greatest need, to be forgiven, we follow the invocation with our confession and our hearing the most wonderful words in the world, God’s absolution spoken through the mouth of the Pastor and as we learned and confessed in Luther’s Small Catechism when we hear the word of absolution through the mouth of the Pastor we can be certain that his words are the Words of God and we can be confident that our sins are forgiven. Knowing that our sins are forgiven, which is truly what motivates our confession, indeed we confess before God and each other all our sins in our general confession. Knowing that we do not keep track of our sins and that very often we do not even realizing we are sinning when we do sin, we confess together all our sins, those of thought, word and deed, sins of omission and commission. And, again, then we hear the most beautiful words in the world, the words of Gospel and sins forgiven and we know that our sins are forgiven.
 

Because the Word of God is important, actually because the Word of God gives the gifts it says it gives and does the things it says it does, gives faith, gives forgiveness, strengthens faith, gives eternal life and so on, because the Word of God is important we hear readings from the Bible, usually an Old Testament Lesson, an Epistle Lesson and a Gospel Lesson and if we are doubly blessed, they all actually relate to one another. And we hear a sermon which should expound on the Word of God which we heard, neither adding to it nor taking from it. Indeed, as we believe, teach and confess that the Lord works through means and in particular the means of His Word, His Word should and does permeate our Divine Service, as a matter of fact, you can find the references for all the responsive liturgical phrases listed beside the phrase, as we say back to God the very Word He has given us to say.
 

Because our response of faith is important we do respond. We respond by singing hymns, by offering our first fruits, tithes and offerings, and by offering our prayers. We offer prayers in faith that God will answer our prayers according to what He knows we need, according to what He knows is best for us and according to His good and gracious will.
 

Because the Lord’s Supper is important, indeed another means of grace, another way in which our Lord gives us the gifts He has to give we have the Lord’s Supper. We prepare ourselves and then we come to His table where in, with and under the bread we eat His body thus making His sacrifice a part of us. And in, with and under the wine we drink His Holy Blood, again, making His sacrifice a part of us. Thus, His perfect life becomes our perfect life. His perfect suffering and death become our perfect suffering and death. His perfect resurrection becomes our perfect resurrection and His perfect life eternal becomes our perfect eternal life.
 

Finally, we conclude with God’s Trinitarian blessing that is the Aaronic benediction, that blessing Aaron put on the children of Israel, which is a fitting blessing because by faith in Jesus we are indeed the new Israel. And so, as one of my professors so well put it, we worship best when we say back to God the very words that He has given us to say and that is exactly what we are doing in the Divine Service.
 

As we celebrate the birth of the Messiah, we celebrate that our whole Divine Service points us to Jesus whose birth we once again celebrate. From the invocation, inviting Jesus to bless and be with us; to our confession and hearing the words of forgiveness He paid for us; to hearing the Word proclaiming Him as our Savior; to our partaking of His body and blood, given and shed for us; we celebrate His birth, life, suffering, death and resurrection. And remember we are just now beginning our celebration for we do celebrate for twelve days, until Epiphany, which some have called the Gentile Christmas for that is the day we celebrate the first visit of Gentiles to see the new born King. Our whole Divine Service is permeated with that Word of God as well as with His means of grace, all of His means of grace so that through these very means of grace we are given the gifts that God has to give. And we are moved to respond with hymns pointing Jesus and to our faith in Jesus, God in flesh.
 

As always, our focus is on Jesus, His birth, His life, His suffering, death and resurrection, even His ascension and the sending of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. We can and we do get it wrong. Human beings have been know to be wrong. But God is never wrong. He never gets it wrong. Thus we get it right when we point to Jesus, when we come to Jesus to be given the gifts He has to give. This evening that means especially celebrating the gift of the birth of Jesus, God in flesh who came to save us from our sins. Our response is simply to say, to Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Building - Advent Midweek 3 - December 16, 2015 - Text: 1 Kings 6:1-6

This year during the season of Advent and following through to Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Years Eve we are addressing a topic that may not seem too tied to the season of Advent, we are addressing the topic and/or issue of how doctrine and practice relate, that is how we do what we believe. Last week we took up the topic of education and were reminded that children are God’s gifts to parents and that parents are the first teachers of their children. We also were reminded that when God is absent from education and He is replaced by what is called secular humanism, that there is truly no knowledge. Indeed, outside of God and faith in Jesus who is the way, the truth, and the life there is and can be no surety of anything in the world, thus all things are called into question. This evening we will address the subject of the building of a church. Does the Bible speak to us about what a church building should look like? If so, where and how?
 

In the Old Testament, as soon as the Children of Israel have been delivered from their bondage of slavery in Egypt God gives a detailed description of what the tabernacle, what was in essence the temple, should look like, including all the specifications to its parts. Later, after Israel was settled in the Promised Land under King Solomon, God gives instructions about how to build the temple. We read in 1 Kings, “1In the four hundred and eightieth year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the house of the Lord. 2The house that King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high. 3The vestibule in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits long, equal to the width of the house, and ten cubits deep in front of the house. 4And he made for the house windows with recessed frames. 5He also built a structure against the wall of the house, running around the walls of the house, both the nave and the inner sanctuary. And he made side chambers all around. 6The lowest story was five cubits broad, the middle one was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad. For around the outside of the house he made offsets on the wall in order that the supporting beams should not be inserted into the walls of the house” (1 Kings 6:1-6). Certainly this is just the beginning of God’s description of the temple and indeed He gives very specific details concerning all the parts of the temple and all the instruments to be used in the temple.
 

So one question we might ask is this, “Does this mean our churches should look like the temple?” Our first answer is probably not, and yet at the same time I would say, would it not be nice if all our churches did look as grand as this temple? Indeed years from now when archeologist dig up our cities what will they find, awesome temples to the great God we worship or something else? Indeed they might surmise that the great god we worship is money as we build great buildings to the god of profit.
 

The second answer to the question of should our churches look like the temple is that the local synagogues were not prescribed but some descriptions tell us a little about them. In the account of Jesus preaching in His hometown we are told that there was a place to read scripture and preach the word. But that does not give us much to go on.
 

So, our best answer would be that our churches our church buildings should reflect our theology. What does it mean that our churches should reflect our theology? But let me pause here a minute and describe some “church” buildings that we see today and try to figure out what the building says about what is going on inside, in other words, what is the theology or beliefs. If one would venture into Houston and stumble across Compaq center would the first thought be, “Oh, this is quite a church building?” Or would one wonder, what type of sporting event or entertainment might be happening inside? When we enter a building and see a stage with screens, what does that tell us about the focus of what is going on? Again, would we surmise that this would be a place where one is entertained? When we enter a building and look around and see that there is no cross or baptismal font, what is our impression of what is or is not important? Indeed, our building does say something about what we believe, teach and confess.
 

A church building that has been dedicated to be a place to worship our Lord, that is it is dedicated as being a place to come and be given the gifts of God and to respond to those gifts, should speak well of those gifts and the means through which we are given those gifts. Because Holy Baptism is important to us and is a means through which our Lord gives us faith, should not our church have a prominent place for our baptismal font? I might be so bold as to suggest that because we believe that Baptism is our entrance into the Church (capital “C” as in Holy Christian Church) would it not be most appropriate that our Baptismal font would be at the entrance of our church building, as is the case in some churches? Moving on, because confession and absolution is a means whereby our Lord gives us forgiveness, perhaps a sign of such confession would be kneelers in the pews, or at the least a railing in the front where one might go and kneel before the Lord in order to submit in humble confession? Because the Word of God is the means through which our Lord gives, strengthens and keeps us in faith, should there not be a place where that word is boldly proclaimed, perhaps a pulpit designated for such proclamation? And because the Lord’s Supper is another means through which our Lord gives us forgiveness and strengthens us in faith, should this not have a prominent place, including an altar where the elements are kept as well as a place where the elements are distributed? Because our Church, as well as all history focuses on and has its center as Jesus Christ and Him crucified, should not the cross have a prominent place in the church? Indeed, the cross, the reminder that Christ is the focus as well as the symbols of God’s means of grace should be prominent in a place that is fit for worship. Worship, or Divine Service means we come to be given to by God and to respond to His gifts, thus the place of worship should be reflective of, not of a mall or place of entertainment, or a sporting event, but a place of worship.
 

I have seen church buildings that quite well speak volumes of the theology, the doctrine of the people who worship in the building. I have seen churches in which the baptism font is at the entrance. I have seen churches where the Baptismal font, the altar and the pulpit are the main things in front and center with a cross as a focal point, all focusing on what is important. I have also seen churches where one cannot find a cross, nor a baptismal font, nor an altar or pulpit, instead they find a stage and a band, a screen and amps, bringing one to wonder what is the focus of such church? Indeed, how we practice building our church building, the style of the building says a lot about the substance, the doctrines and teachings of what goes on in that building.
 

So, to tie this in to our Advent season, how does our building speak of Christmas? Our doctrine shines through during Advent and Christmas season through various changes within our worship facility. The changes that should be most obvious are those that we should notice such as the change of paraments. The paraments for the Advent season are blue symbolizing the hope that we have in looking forward to our celebration of the birth of our Messiah. There is often a change of banners which emphasis the season of Advent and Christmas. Many, not all, but many congregations add an advent wreath. You may have noticed and certainly I take the time for instruction on Sunday morning concerning the message of the Advent wreath, but we change our Christ candle to be the Advent wreath as the middle candle of the wreath is the Christ candle. You may or may not have noticed that the Christ candle is lit from Christmas Eve through Ascension day symbolizing Christ’s living among us. After ascension day it is no longer lit, except for Baptisms,  until Christmas Eve again, symbolizing Jesus’ ascension into heaven. Also during the season of Advent to Christmas there are various local seasonal customs which might include such additions as a Christmas tree, greenery, candles, lights and so forth.
 

The purpose of these changes and additions is to make sure our focus is on our celebration of Jesus’ birth. We can either focus on us and the things of this world, on our being entertained or even our being amused, or we can focus our attention on our Lord, what He has done for us, what He does for us and what He continues to do for us. As we approach our celebration of the birth of our Messiah certainly we will want to focus our attention, not on things temporal, not on the things of this world, but on things eternal, on preparing our hearts and minds in as many was as possible to celebrate, to be given the gifts of God and to give praise and glory to His holy name, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Education - Advent Midweek 2 - December 9, 2015 - Text: Deut. 6:4-9, Prov. 22:6, Eph. 6:4

This year during the season of Advent and following through to Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Years Eve we are addressing a topic that may not seem too tied to the season of Advent, we are addressing the topic and/or issue of how doctrine and practice relate, that is how we do what we believe. Last week we were introduced to this topic by defining our terms, two terms in particular and those terms were doctrine and practice or as proclaimed elsewhere as substance and style. Doctrine and substance are the what we believe and practice or style are the what does this look like in real life? This evening we take up the topic of education. Does what we believe inform or direct us to have any particular type of education system?
 

As many of you know, our church body, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod has for years had schools attached to our churches. As a matter of fact our history bears out the fact that many churches began with a school. Even here at St. Matthew we had a school for many years. The great thing about having a church school is that this affords an opportunity for a daily teaching of God’s Word in the normal school setting, along with all the other studies being taught from a Christian perspective.
 

So the question we might as is this, “Does the Bible speak to us about education? And if so, where and how?” In Deuteronomy Moses relates these words to us, “4Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deut. 6:4-9). God’s will is that first and foremost we have an education, a daily education, a daily teaching of our children and even reteaching ourselves concerning the doctrines of God. As God tells us in Proverbs, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7). Without the fear of the Lord, that is respect and awe for our maker, we would be foolish and uninstructed. Unfortunately we see this happening in the schools of our country, our elementary schools, our high schools and our college and universities, as the fear of the Lord is replaced with humanistic teachings which continually lure the hearts of our children away from our Lord and His teachings.
 

And whose responsibility is this, that is whose responsibility is it to raise up and teach our children? God gives parents children and He gives instruction in the most important teachings. Again, going back to Proverbs we read the encouragement even the command to, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). Parents have the responsibility to train up, to teach their children who are a gift to them from God. When someone suggests that parents cannot teach their own children my response is to ask, “Who taught them to brush their teeth? to get dressed? to tie their shoes? to know that Jesus is their Savior? Yes, we live in a society wherein we may gain help in training our children via the school system, either public or parochial, but the responsibility belongs to the parents. Unfortunately too many in our society are blindly giving up their responsibility to agencies who are teaching something other than the fear of the Lord. Interestingly enough, research shows that the more involved the parent is in the child’s education, the better the child will do. God also gives a promise in teaching children, that is that even if they should rebel and fall away for a time, they know what is right and will come back to the ways in which they were taught.
 

Finally we have words from Paul as he writes, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). God’s instructions are to fathers as the head of the family to make sure their children are given a proper teaching in faith. Indeed, God will hold fathers accountable for their children and as I have expressed to many a young couple, to me it does not matter whether you believe what I am saying, or what God is saying, but it will happen, God will hold the father accountable.
 

So, how do we tie this Biblical teaching of educating our children into our preparation for celebrating Jesus’ birth? As we read through the history, the accounts of Jesus’ life we can see that He did not attend any formal education as we would call it today. He did not attend public school, nor parochial school, rather He was raised and taught by His father and mother.
 

After His birth we hear of Jesus being brought to the temple at the age of 8 days for His circumcision, the sacrament marking Him and making Him a child of the covenant. Interestingly enough we tend to fail to acknowledge that circumcision was the precursor to the sacrament of Holy Baptism and as circumcision occurred on the eighth day following birth we would certainly correlate that with having our children baptized as soon after birth as is humanly possible, thus marking them and making them children of the covenant of salvation.
 

We hear nothing of Jesus’ life again until we hear of Him at the age of 12 years in the temple, perhaps at His bar mitzpha wherein He became an adult son of the covenant. Following the ceremonies we are privy to the disturbing news that Mary and Joseph had inadvertently left Jesus in Jerusalem when they left to go home. In their defense, there was a large group and they believed He was with some of the others in the group. When the found Jesus He was in the temple discussing theology with the teachers of the law and the priest. Where did He learn such teachings? Certainly as He was God He knew these things, but most assuredly His mother and father as well as the local rabbi perhaps had been teaching Him.
 

How does this look in our own lives? We understand that the education of our children is the responsibility of the parent. As I instruct parents of our confirmands, it is their responsibility to teach their child, but I am here to help. As parents our desire will be to teach our children that “The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” And that they should, “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” We will want to diligently teach these words to our children as we “sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” We will want to “bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.” We will want to “write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates”
 

Again, some parents choose to send their children to school, which is okay, yet I would encourage those parents also to take an active role in their child’s education to make sure they are learning what is mete, right and salutary. As a church we offer opportunities for Biblical education such as Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, confirmation, Bible class and the like. Here again, even more than my encouragement to take an active role in your child’s public or parochial education is to take an even more active role in their Christian education. More important than knowing the things of this world are knowing the things of the world to come. This world is transient, fast and fleeting, the world to come is eternal.
 

Mary and Joseph took an active role in Jesus’ education. They taught Him as they brought Him into the church through the sacrament of Circumcision. They taught Him so that He might be in discussion with the priests and teachers of the law. They taught Him and yet they were taught by Him as well.
 

What is different about Christian, Lutheran Education? Just as the Word of God begins, centers on and ends with a focus on Jesus, so Christian, Lutheran Education begins, centers on, and ends with a focus on Jesus. Indeed, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and just as Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, so our lives and our education focus on Jesus. Our focus is seen through our church year calendar as we begin our church year in the season of Advent preparing ourselves to celebrate His birth. And as always stirring in us to say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Introduction, Defining Terms - Advent Midweek 1 - December 3, 2015 - Text: Luke 24:25-27

The seasons of Advent and Lent afford a pastor times to explore topical sermon subjects. Most of you know that during the year I preach through the set reading lists known as the lectionary and the readings called pericopies. I follow through the three year cycle by preaching from the Old Testament readings through one cycle, the Epistles the next cycle and the Gospel readings the third cycle. But, during Advent and Lent I get to preach off the reading list and attempt to preach topically. Over the years I have used the seasons of Advent and Lent to preach about the characters of the season as well as the symbols of the season and once from a set of poems I wrote.
 

This year during the season of Advent and following through to Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Years Eve we will be addressing a topic that may not seem too tied to the season of Advent. This year during the season of Advent we will address the topic and/or issue of how doctrine and practice relate, that is how we do what we believe. For example, if I believe the Ten Commandments are God’s commands to me, then I will live my life trying to keep the Ten Commandments, even if I mess up from time to time. This year we will look at how what we believe as Lutherans shows itself in the way we educate, the way our building looks, the way we worship, how we reach out and what our relationships look like. At the same time we will incorporate this topic, these issues into our preparation and celebration of Christmas and our New Year’s Eve celebration. My hope is that this topic will be a good preface for the Lenten season in which I will attempt to show how our liturgy is grounded in and shows the history and promises from the Old Testament sacrificial system pointing to Jesus, to the fulfillment in the New Testament, but that will be for then.
 

We being our topic with the reminder, tongue in cheek, that where two or three are gathered there are three or four opinions. We are people in conversation in our world and yet, conversations can be difficult especially if the two people talking do not share the same language. When two people who speak two different languages attempt to communicate and converse there can be some, if not a lot of difficulties.
 

Yet, even if they share the same language, but have different understandings as to the meanings of the words they use there is still difficulty in carrying on a conversation. If I were to invite my friend from Australia to come over for biscuits and gravy he might look at me as if I were a bit odd, because to an Australian, a biscuit is what we would call a cookie and I would think it a bit odd as well if someone asked me to eat cookies and gravy. Even more so this happens in the Christian church and among the various denominations and even other religions as well. Many churches talk about faith and grace and gifts of God, but often have a different understanding and even meaning of those words.
 

At the time of Jesus birth, many people, even many of Jesus ethnic background, the Jewish people, did not understand the prophecies and promises of God given since the Garden of Eden. After Jesus resurrection, in speaking with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus we hear Jesus speak. “25And he said to them, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?’ 27And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:25-27). Indeed, it was not until the sending of the Holy Spirit that this confusion was corrected and yet the confusion continues for many and in particular for those outside the Christian faith even today.
 

We still have this problem today in defining terms which is the reason we must start by defining our words. There are two words in particular that we need to define for the purposes of this series. The first word is the word “doctrine.” This word “doctrine” means that which we believe, teach and confess according to God’s Word and the Lutheran Confessions. A similar word is often used as a synonym for the word doctrine and that is the word “substance.” The word “substance” indicates the vital or main part of what is meant. And so we hear about doctrine and substance where these words usually are spoken with the intent that they mean the same thing.
 

The second word we need to define is the word “practice.” This word “practice” means how what is believed, taught and confessed is lived out in our lives. Practice is how what we believe looks in real life. Again, a similar word that is often used as a synonym for the word practice is the word “style.” The word “style” indicates a way in which something is expressed, a form to hold the main thing. And so we hear about practice and style with these words usually intended to mean the same thing.
 

So, the question is “How do we practice what we believe about God and His Word? Our church year centers around the life of Jesus, beginning with Advent and our preparation for celebrating Jesus’ birth. We celebrate Jesus’ birth, His circumcision, and the visit of the Magi which begins the Epiphany season. Our church year then moves to Lent which begins with Ash Wednesday and culminates in our celebration of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and our Easter resurrection celebration. Forty days after Easter we celebrate, unfortunately in not so big a celebration, Jesus’ Ascension. Ten days later we celebrate Pentecost and the sending of the Holy Spirit. The ensuing Sunday we celebrate our worship of a God who shows Himself to be a triune God, on Holy Trinity Sunday and the rest of the year we grow in our faith through the Sundays after Pentecost. So, one way we practice what we believe is that we follow the church year calendar which focus us on and points us to Jesus. And because we follow the church year calendar anyone who follows our practice will understand that we believe that Jesus is important.
 

You see, doctrine and practice, or what is called substance and style go hand in hand. You live or practice what you believe, or as you have heard it said, “Practice what you preach,” and you believe what you are doing, that is you believe as you practice. So, if you change one, either doctrine or practice, either substance or style, the other will automatically change. During this season of Advent we will look at how this happens, has happened and continues to happen in various aspects of the Christian Church and in our own church body specifically.
 

Now, to pull this in to the season of Advent, we practice our belief in Holy Scripture through our Advent to Christmas season. Just as the Lord prepared His people for the coming of the Messiah, for Jesus’ birth, so we prepare ourselves to celebrate anew each year this wonderful event and we do that through the three Wednesday services building up to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. As we follow along through the readings on Sunday morning we hear text after text after text of the promises of a coming Messiah, a Christ. These texts point us to an indication of the birth of the Christian church promised in the Garden of Eden when God first promised a Christ. Thus all who believe the promise of a coming Christ from that day are indeed Christians.
 

As we prepare for and celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we do so with a grand and wonderful celebration recognizing and teaching that Jesus’ birth was important, even important enough to continue to celebrate even today. The corollary is also true. Certainly some of the secular ways of celebrating have no business in our churches, because they point to a different belief, which might and actually has caused confusion to many in our world today.
 

Because we believe in God’s promises to send a Christ; because we believe that Jesus is the fulfillment of those promises, because we believe Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, so we point to Him and we celebrate His birth as a baby in Bethlehem. We make a big deal about this celebration so that our celebrating, our practice might bear witness of our faith so that others might see and hear and believe as well. And because of our celebrations, others see that our faith in Jesus as our Christ, as our Messiah, indeed what we believe is seen in our celebrating and in our celebrating others see what we believe. So our witness says, Jesus, His birth, life, death and resurrection are important to us. Thus our witness says, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

I Will Sing to the Lord - November 26, 2015 - Thanksgiving Eve - Text: Ps. 104:24, 27-28, 30, anti. 33

Although Thanksgiving Day is not really a religious holiday nor a church holiday, it would seem fitting that we as Christians would want to celebrate and give thanks to our great God who is so gracious to us and who provides for all our needs to be met. After all the talk over the past few months about how bad things are here in the United States, it might be fitting for us as we celebrate a national day of Thanksgiving to look at how blessed we truly are. For our purposes, the online government website defines the poverty level as just under $12,000 for a single person and just under $16,000 for a family. In a recent article in the Summit Journal, the following was written: “In 1971, only about 32 percent of all Americans enjoyed air conditioning in their homes. By 2001, 76 percent of poor people had air conditioning. In 1971, only 43 percent of Americans owned a color television; 97 percent of poor people owned at least one in 2001. In 1971, microwave ovens were in 1 percent of American homes; 73 percent of poor people had one in 2001. Forty-six percent of poor households own their homes. Only about 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded. The average poor American has more living space than the average nonpoor individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens and other European cities.” I find it amazing that so many people, myself included, can complain even though we have it so well, especially compared to so many people who have little or nothing around the world. So much for being content with food and clothing.
 

In our text for today, the Introit, the Psalmist proclaims the creating power of God, “24O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures” (v. 24). Contrary to what is being taught and believed by some, the world did not simply come into existence out of nothing by itself. Even looking at the facts of science, nothing like this has ever been observed as happening, something coming into existence by itself. The Psalmist solves our dilemma of how the world came into being by telling us that the Lord made the world.
 

The world did not evolve. The world did not come into existence by itself, rather God was the prime mover. God was there at creation and He tells us how it happened. God called all things into being. God said and it was so. God created all things out of nothing. And God created human beings out of the dust of the ground, breathing into his nostrils the breath of life and we became living beings.
 

We know we are special because we were planned and created. We are special because we are known by our Creator God. We are responsible and accountable because there is an ultimate Authority, our Creator. But, not only did our God create us, He still takes care of us.
 

Continuing on in our text, the Psalmist proclaims the preserving and sustaining power of God, “27These all look to you, to give them their food in due season. 28When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. 30When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground” (v. 27-28, 30). God did not create, wind up and leave. Some have suggested that God is like a clock maker who makes clocks, winds them up, sells them and has nothing more to do with them. God is not like that, rather He is a God who continues to sustain and preserve us, giving us all that we need to support our body and life.
 

Notice God gives all that we need, not necessarily all that we want, although I would suggest that for many of us in this country we do have all that we need and more, even much of what we simply may want. Think about all we have. Do we really need ten pairs of shoes? Do we really need ten pairs of pants, ten shirts, and so forth? Do we really need a telephone or for everyone in the family to have a telephone? Would we die without a car? Could we not walk or take public transportation? There are people in other parts of the world who do not have all things necessities of life as we call them and they live day to day. If we are honest with ourselves we must admit we do have it pretty good.
 

But even more than these “necessities” of life as we call them, these physical blessings is the fact that God gives us according to our greatest need. God gives us faith, forgiveness and life. We have talked about this before, the greatest need we have is forgiveness of sins because without forgiveness we would be left in our sins and we would be eternally condemned. But with forgiveness there is life and salvation.
 

Finally, in our text the antiphon focus us on our song of praise, “33I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being” (v. 33). The antiphon is the verse that comes before and after the psalm and frames the psalm, the introit if you will. The antiphon is our response of faith which is to praise the Lord for all His good gifts and blessings. Certainly this does not come natural for us, a response of thanks, because of our nature, our sinful nature, that we are conceived and born in sin and every inclination of our heart is evil all the time, our response is more often than not a desire for more. Yet, our Lord who gives all, also works in us a response of thanks and praise.
 

Truly, our response of faith is to live as priests. Remember, God’s first call is to faith. God’s second call is to vocation and according to the vocation God calls us to, we are to live our lives as living sacrifices to the Lord, that is what a priest does, offers sacrifice and that is what we do as members of the priesthood of all believers, we offer our lives as living sacrifices.
 

What does this mean? First and foremost, we get our theology right when we get our words right, when we get it right as to who is doing what, or as you have heard me say, when we know who is running the verbs. God is the prime mover. God does and God gives. To get a really good understanding of how much God does and gives, you simply need to take out your catechism and look up the Apostles’ creed and look at the explanations to each article. It is amazing how well Luther lays out all the good gifts and blessings the Lord gives for which we are to be thankful.
 

First and foremost, God is the prime mover. He gives first and we are given too. As we look at the articles of the creed you will notice that God gives life, forgiveness and faith. As Christians we know that God has given each of us life at conception and He has given us new life through the waters of Holy Baptism. Certainly we know that we are loved by God. And again, we are done to and given to.
 

Not only does God give to us, but because of our inability even to respond, that is even our sanctification has its roots in God’s doing. It is God who moves in us our response of faith, our praise. You probably learned in confirmation that when it comes to justification God does it all, but when it comes to sanctification, we are doing some of the doing. The fact is, God is the prime mover in sanctification as well. And here we get back to the fact that we know we get our theology right when we have God running the verbs, when we have God as the prime mover, when God is the one doing the doing.
 

This evening, on the eve of our national celebration of Thanksgiving how fitting it is that we, as Christians, first come to give thanks to the Lord for all His benefits to us. How fitting that we take the time to take stock, if you will, of our own lives and all the many good gifts and blessings our Lord has seen fit to give to us. Certainly we rejoice and praise the Lord for His gift of life, given to us at conception, for His gift of faith, given to us at our Baptism, for His gifts of forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. We also give thanks for all physical good gifts and blessings He gives to us, food and drink, clothing and shoes, house and home, fields and cattle, wife and children, and the list goes on and on. Yes, our Lord is a great gift giving God and He delights in giving to us. Thanks be to God and to Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Looking Forward in Faith - November 22, 2015 - Last Sunday of the Church Year (Proper 29) - Text: Jude 20-25

Today is the last Sunday of this current Church year. And again, as the last two Sundays, our readings remind us that this world is temporary, that this world is fast and fleeting, that this world will soon come to an end. Some people have even described life as being like a calendar, it is January when we are born, June and July are the mid point of our lives and as we grow older and near our own passing and death we reach the December of our lives. As I have said before and many times, we will meet our Lord. We will meet Him either when He returns as He has promised, or when we die. We will meet our Lord and that day will come, sooner than we know and sooner than we might expect, thus it is important, it is imperative that we are ready. And I do not mean being ready like the man holding the sign that said, “Look busy, the Lord is coming.” “Looking busy” is not being ready.
 

In our text for this morning the writer, Jude encourages us to be built up. We begin at verse twenty, “20But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; 21keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life” (v. 20-21). Notice first and foremost that Jude does not tell us that we are to do something to build ourselves up, except to look outside ourselves. We are to look to God to be built up. We are to be built up through our conversation with God, that is through our reading the Word, which is how our Lord speaks to us and through our prayer to our Lord which is how we speak to Him, thus through our reading the Word and prayer we are built up in this conversation with our Lord.
 

Here again we see the importance of the means of grace, especially the Word of God. It is through His Word that our Lord speaks to us and gives us the gifts He has to give. When we absent ourselves from the Word of God, we remove ourselves from the very means He has of building us up, of giving us the gifts He has to give and this is indeed gift refusal.
 

At the same time we see the importance of being diligent in prayer. And I would add, from other points of the Word of God, that in our prayer we might include a time of quiet and letting the Lord speak. Jude suggests that we “wait for the mercy of our Lord.” Certainly in our fast paced, immediate gratification society this is a most difficult task, but with God’s help it can be done. So, Jude begins by reminding us of our need to be built up.
 

After we are built up, Jude then encourages us to build others up. We pick up at verse twenty-two, “22And have mercy on those who doubt; 23save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh” (v. 22-23). How do we go about building others up? We build others up through encouraging each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. This may not sound like too difficult of a task, yet, because of our nature we constantly live in competition with each other. The devil tempts us to divide and conquer each other. We think, it’s my way and every other way is wrong. Our difficulty is that instead of encouraging those who have doubts, those who are being snatched into the fire of hell, we empathize with them and only help strengthening their doubts and being snatched into the fire of hell. We become co-dependent with them. Instead of standing up for what is right we go along with what we know is not right because of our fear. Indeed, how often we fail to “hate even the garment stained by the flesh.”
 

Jude reminds us that we are to hate sin and we are to correct those who live life in sin, especially we are to share the good news of Jesus with those who are living life in sin apart from Jesus and faith in Him. And this too is no easy task because we are people who do not want to think about the fact that living life outside of faith in Jesus will condemn us. We do not like confrontation. We like the status quo. And so as Jude reminds us, we are to live life sharing the good news of Jesus when and where He gives us opportunity so that some might hear, believe and be saved. And this is certainly encouraging each other and building others up.
 

As we are built up and as we build others up, our goal is not for some self gratification, but is to, as Jude reminds us, give God the glory. We pick up at verse twenty-four, “24Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen” (v. 24-25). We do not build ourselves up. We do not, in and of ourselves, of our own free will work to build others up. The building up of ourselves and others is completely against our nature. Thus, we are built up and we build others up only as the Lord works these good works in and through us.
 

It all starts with Jesus. Jesus gives faith. Through His means of grace He gives faith. Jesus gives forgiveness. Again, through His means of grace He gives forgiveness. And Jesus gives life. Through His means of grace He gives life. Jesus is the prime mover. Jesus is the one who paid the price for sin and forgiveness for us. He is the one who gives the gifts He has to give. And so rightly He should be given all the glory.
 

Jesus gives faith, forgiveness and life. And He helps us to fight against temptation and sin. Jesus has already suffered all that we will suffer and even more. What we justly suffer, Jesus unjustly suffered. He who was without sin became sin for us so that He might be our substitute. He is always with us to help us in our fight against temptation and sin.
 

And Jesus gives, strengthens and keeps us in faith. The gifts our Lord gives are not gifts we get or take for ourselves. If they were something we could get or take for ourselves, then they would not be gift. Our Lord gives the gifts He has to give and He gives them to us through the means He has to give them, His means of grace. Thus, He gives gifts to build us up, working in us to build each other up and all this is done to His glory.
 

So, what does this mean? Today is the last day of the church year, which, as we have been saying means that we look forward to God fulfilling His promise to return. Interestingly enough, did you know that when we prayer, “Thy Kingdom come,” in the Lord’s prayer we are indeed praying that God would hasten the coming of the last day. So, today is the last Sunday of the Church year and so we speak of the last days, the end of this world, the day of Judgement, Jesus’ second coming. Next Sunday we will begin a new Church year and we will again be hearing similar readings, but the difference will be in that next week, and all during the weeks of Advent, the focus will be on Jesus’ first coming. As we approach the end of this Church year, as we have seen Jesus fulfill His promise to come in His first coming, we know and we can be certain that He will fulfill His promise in His second coming.

As we look forward to Jesus’ second coming we concern ourselves with making sure we are ready, and that we are ready at any time and at all times. There is a comedian who jokes about the fact that he knows when he is going to die, because his birth certificate has an expiration date on it. Unfortunately, or perhaps rather fortunately, none of us knows when we are going to die. None of us has an expiration date on our birth certificate, and none of us knows when Jesus will return. Jesus says that even He does not know, but only the Father knows. As an aside, in good Lutheran fashion we explain this, the fact that the Father knows and Jesus does not know and that Jesus and the Father are one, by understanding that Jesus, as God the Son, wills Himself not to know what God the Father knows. So, if anyone ever tells you when the world will end, do not believe them, because no one knows but God the Father. However, the point is this, that we do not know and so we need to be ready at any time and at all times and we get ourselves ready by making use of the means of grace, by Jesus getting us ready and building us up.
 

As we look forward to Jesus’ second coming we concern ourselves with working to help make others ready. Now, understand that this is not something we do by ourselves. We do not give anyone faith or the other gifts God has to give, but we do work to get others ready through sharing the good news of Jesus with them. We build others up by living lives of faith as examples of Christ, by sharing God’s Word with them, by inviting them and encouraging them to be in worship and Bible class and the like. It is God who works through means even through the means we use to give the gifts He has to give and to get others ready as well.
 

As we look forward to Jesus’ second coming we look forward to heaven. The hymn writer got it right and many like the hymn, “I’m but a stranger here, heaven is my home.” And this is probably one of the most difficult things for us, even and especially as Christians. So often we invest so much of ourselves, our time and energy in this world, forgetting that we are but strangers here. Yet, this is where our Lord works so well to build us up, to give us the gifts He has to give, to get our attention away from this world and to get us ready, even to get us looking forward to heaven.
 

Finally, we give glory to the Lord. We give glory where glory is due. We do not get credit for our salvation as if our salvation is something we have gained or earned for ourselves. We give glory to God because He is the one who gives the gifts, He is the one who has given us faith. He is the one who has earned and given us forgiveness. He is the one who strengthens and keeps us in faith. He is the one who builds us up. He is the one who works through us to build up others. He is the one who deserves and gets all the glory.
 

And so, I end this church year with Jude’s words and with John’s word, “20But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; 21keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. 22And have mercy on those who doubt; 23save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. 24Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” And, “Come Lord Jesus, come quickly.” Amen.

We Are God’s Children Now - November 1, 2015 - All Saints Day - Text: 1 John 3:1-3

Today we celebrate All Saint’s Day. Now I know that All Saint’s Day is not that big a deal, not that big of a celebration for us in the Lutheran Church, but perhaps we should rethink this matter and make a bigger deal of this day, after all, our hope and future are not a hope and future for this world, but for the world to come. Our hope and confidence is that one day we will be saints in heaven and that one day may be sooner than we know and even sooner than we might expect.
 

And let me briefly remind you, in case you have forgotten, that by faith in Jesus, especially by faith given through His means of grace, either through His Word or at our own baptism, we are saints. Yes, while we are on this earth we will continue to be sinners as well, but we are saints and we will speak more on this again a little later.
 

In our first lesson appointed for reading on All Saint’s Day, we have John’s vision of our salvation. John describes what we call the number of completion, that is, all believers. John speaks of the 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes of Israel times the number of completion 1000. His lists of 12,000 from each tribe differs from the lists of the number in each tribe in the Old Testament because John’s listing is a symbolic listing of the tribes of the true Israel as described by Paul in Romans nine. The true Israel is the Israel of faith not DNA. Thus the total number of believers that will be in heaven is given in the number of 144,000, not a specific number, but a number of completion, all believers in Jesus.
 

John also tells us about the joy of all believers around the throne of the Lamb forever. There will be no more hunger or thirst, no more scorching heat. Instead, there will be springs of living water and God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. Quite a comforting picture John paints for believers in Jesus.
 

In the Gospel lesson appointed for this day of celebration we have Jesus’ words of blessing and His Words of Gospel. We are described as blessed who recognize and acknowledge that we are poor in spirit so that we do hunger and thirst after the righteousness of God, in other words, we are blessed who hunger and thirst after making regular and diligent use of the means of grace, every Sunday and every day. We are blessed because it is through these means that our Lord feeds us, comforts us, purifies us and gives us the gifts He has to give, faith, forgiveness, strengthening of faith and life. And this continues to be my concern for this congregation as well as our nation, that is that so many refuse these gifts on a weekly basis. God has so many gifts He wants to give and yet, every Sunday many people refuse those gifts by not being in worship. Let me encourage you, let me exhort you, ladies and gentlemen, come and be given the gifts and encourage and exhort your brothers and sisters who refuse the gifts to come and be given the gifts.
 

As Jesus says, again in our Gospel lesson, especially blessed are those who believe and are persecuted, because theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Although we may not suffer the persecution some of our brothers and sisters in Christ suffer in this world, I might suggest that we do suffer more subtle forms of persecution. The question is, do we stand up and confess our faith, or do we simply allow others to think as they will, even that we do not have faith?
 

In our text for this morning, John’s first letter, John helps us to understand what love is, what true love is, that is that true love begins with the Father’s Love, with God the Father’s love. True love is that God loves us first and He shows His love in the gift of His Son. We begin at verse one, “1See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we will be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (v. 1-3).
 

Notice first and foremost that God is the prime mover. He first loved us, making us His children. And how does He make us His children? Every year on Good Friday we remember and we even celebrate the giving of Jesus’ life for ours on the cross. We give thanks for His suffering the punishment for our sins. And then, every year on the following Sunday, on Easter Sunday we celebrate His resurrection, the complete defeat of sin, death and the devil. This is how He purchased us, by paying the price for our sins. He makes us His children through means, namely through His means of grace. He makes us His children through His Word, which does what it says, in other words, when the Holy Spirit, working through the Word of God, says we have faith, that is exactly what we have, faith, given to us by God through the means of His Word. Another means the Lord uses to make us His children is Holy Baptism. As water and God’s name are put on us at Baptism, the Lord gives us faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. These things come to us from outside of us and are given to us from outside of us. These are the Lord’s doing and the Lord’s giving. He makes us His children.
 

When Jesus came into the world, as we are reminded in the Gospel accounts, the world rejected Him. Jesus was not the Savior the people were looking for, at least not the Savior for which some were looking. Jesus was not a social/political savior. Jesus did not come to over throw the oppressors of the Children of Israel, at least not the oppressors they wanted overthrown. Jesus simply did not fit their definition of who the Savior was or what He should do.
 

The world rejected Jesus and as He makes us His children, we should expect nothing more or less from the world, in other words, we should expect that the world will reject us. As children of the Lord we do not speak the same language as the world, we do not have the same priorities as the world, we do not have the same outlook as the world. The world speaks of power, fame and fortune. The world speaks of the things of this world, that this is all there is. We speak of sin and forgiveness. We speak of absolutes, absolute truth and love. We speak of the transient nature of this world, that our lives in this world are fast and fleeting. And so, our hope is not in this world, but in the world to come.
 

John says we are not yet what we will be. John is speaking of our goal of sanctification, that is that, after being given faith by the Holy Spirit, through the outward means of grace, the Holy Spirit continues to work in and through us to make us more and more Christ-like. Of course, we understand that we will never be completely Christ-like, at least not on this side of heaven. But when we reach our eternal home of heaven, we will be made perfect again. So, we are no longer what we were before being given faith, that is we are no longer complete sinners, lost and condemned persons, but we are not yet all that we will be in heaven, complete and perfect saints.
 

What does this mean? First we are reminded that God is the prime mover. As John says elsewhere, we love because He first loved us. Here I like the image of the Sun and the moon. When we see the moon shining in the sky, we know we are seeing the reflection of the Sun, because the moon has no light of its own. Thus, when we love others and when we are loved by others, we know that we and they are merely reflecting the love of God to each other, because in and of ourselves, apart from God, we have no love of our own.
 

God first loves us and then God gives us faith, forgiveness and life. These are gifts from God. These are not gifts we take or get on our own, they are gifts from God. And these gifts He gives through means, namely through outward, external means of Grace, the Bible, Holy Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and confession and absolution. Just as we did not choose to be born into this world, but we were conceived by our parents and born into this world, so we do not choose to save ourselves, to get forgiveness for ourselves, these gifts are given from outside of us, namely our Lord has chosen us and gives us the gifts He has to give, forgiveness, faith and life and He delivers these gifts through the means of grace.
 

God first loves us, God gives us faith, forgiveness and life and then God works in us our sanctification. Sanctification is our becoming more and more Christlike, but here again, this is not something we do in and of ourselves, this is God’s doing as well. God the Holy Spirit, whose work it is to always point to Christ, and that is why we do not hear or see much of Him, He is the one, working through the means of grace who works in us to do the good works which God has prepared in advance for us to do and we do them because He is working them in and through us.
 

And finally, God brings us into His kingdom. Notice how in all these instances it is God who is doing the doing. God does and we are done to. God gives and we are given to. God has His way with us and we are thankful. We know we get it right and we can have confidence only in this, that God always does it right, and gets it right. I may err, but God never errs. Thanks be to God.
 

As we celebrate All Saint’s day, then we celebrate the fact that we are saints. And we are reminded as Dr. Luther so well reminded us and as John reminds us, even though we are saints, we are and while we are on this earth we will also continue to be at the same times sinners. So we are saint/sinners. Our life on this earth is a life of sanctification in that our Lord continues to work on us through His means of grace to be strengthened in our faith in Jesus alone for our salvation. Certainly, while we are here on this earth, we will have times when we will fail. We will fall for temptation and we will sin, yet we are not to be discouraged because we are given forgiveness and the Holy Spirit continues working on us to be the people God would have us to be.
 

Our ultimate hope and certainty is indeed described in the Revelation of John that upon our passing from this earth, either through our own death or through the Lord’s return, we will be united with all the saints, all those who have gone on before us and all those who will go on after us so that we will all gather at the Lord’s throne to be feed and comforted, to give glory to the Lord, to live with Him forever in heaven. To Him alone be all glory. And we might well end by saying as John does, “Come Lord Jesus, Come quickly.” Amen.

The Importance of the Word - October 18, 2015 - Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 24) - Text: Hebrews 4:1-16

This week we continue our trek through the epistle to the Hebrews. This letter was written to warn Jewish Christians against falling into the false teachings of Judaism, that is that they must follow the Old Testament Laws in order to be saved. This letter also challenges these Christians to embrace world missions and to announce, to mainly Gentile Christians, the absolute character of Christianity, that is that Jesus accomplished the salvation spoken of in the promises of the Old Testament.
 

In our Old Testament lesson for this morning the preacher reminds us of the futility of earning money in this world. He reminds us that we are born with nothing and that we will leave this world with nothing. Thus, he warns or perhaps we should say he encourages us that unless we enjoy the fruit of our labor in this world we will only pass it on to those who will enjoy it.
 

In the Gospel lesson for this morning Jesus also addresses the issue of money. He reminds us of the difficulty of the rich in entering the kingdom of God. Jesus warning is that we must never trust in our own money or wherewithal for salvation.
  

In our text, the epistle reading, we are encouraged to trust, not in the things of this world, but in our Lord who does all and gives all. In particular, the epistle writer begins by telling us that God gives rest. Because of the length of this first section, verses one through ten, I am not going to read the whole section instead I will simply summarize it as we go.
 

The epistle writer begins by giving us an indication of the rest about which he is speaking as he suggests that we have the promise of entering “His” rest, that is of entering the rest of Jesus, in other words, we have the promise of eternal life in heaven. So, he suggests that while the promise of eternal life in heaven remains, we should fear the Lord, that is believe in Him, lest any of us should seem to fail to reach heaven. A nice tie in to the Old Testament and the Gospel readings in that we are not to be confident in our own resources, finance, monies, good works and so forth to gain eternal life, rather we are to rest our confidence in Christ Jesus alone for our salvation.
 

Moving on, the epistle writer reminds us that in six days God created the world and He rested on the seven day. In resting on the seventh day God consecrating that day as the Sabbath, that is as the day of rest. In so consecrating that day as the day of rest, our Lord continues to give us a day of rest, still today. This does not necessarily mean that we stay in bed, or that we do nothing at all. Instead, that the Lord gives us a Sabbath day, a day of rest means that we are to certainly rest from our normal physical, even manual labor and instead we are to use this day for the purpose of preparing ourselves for our eternal rest. Let me say that again, in case we missed it and this is what we said the epistle writer was indicating in the very first verse of this text. We are to use the day of rest, the Sabbath day, to prepare ourselves for our eternal rest. In other words, we are to use the Sabbath day as a day of reading, hearing and responding to the Word of God. We are to use the Sabbath day as an opportunity to be in divine service and in Bible Class. We are to use the Sabbath day as an opportunity to prepare ourselves, to be strengthen our faith, to be made ready for our eternal rest in heaven.
 

As you listen to the words of the epistle writer he makes a strong connection of the Sabbath as a type of the rest to come, even eternal life in heaven. Think about it this way, when we pass on from this world, when we die, we will no longer be concerned about the cares, worries, anxieties, toils, labors and tribulations of this world. Thus, we might well see the importance of being prepared for our eternal rest.
 

Again, as we listen to the words of the epistle writer, the rest which is to come after we pass on from this world is an eternal rest and is only for believers. Those who are not believers, those who are not prepared, those who do not have faith in Jesus alone for salvation will not be given eternal rest, instead they will be given eternal condemnation. Thus, we see the need for our continuing to make use of the Sabbath rest, to prepare ourselves, to strengthen our faith so that we might enter into the eternal Sabbath rest.
 

How do we make use of this Sabbath rest? The epistle writer reminds us of the Power of the Word and the importance of making use of that Word, that is of the hearing, believing and doing, again and doing, of that word. We pick up at verse eleven, “11Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (v. 11-13).
 

The epistle writer reminds us that the Word of God is living. We know that the Word of God is living and we have seen its living even living in Jesus the Word made flesh. Not only is the Word of God alive, not only is Jesus alive, but He is also active. He is active in our lives, guiding, guarding and protecting us, watch over us, ruling over us and interceding for us.
 

Jesus it the Word of God made flesh. He is the Word that is sharper than any two-edged sword. He rightly divides right from wrong, sin from righteousness. He gives us the  law and the gospel.
 

The power of the Word of God is that it shows us our sin. It shows that sin is sin, and ultimately, on Judgement day the Word of God will expose and judge all sin. These words of the epistle writer should indeed bring fear and trembling, because these words expose our sinfulness. To read the Word of God, to view the life of Jesus, we stand condemned. Not only do we sin against one commandment, but daily we sin against two, three, even all the commandments. Remember, we sin, not simply when we do something, but we sin when we fail to do something. We sin when we hurt or harm another person. We even sin when we think bad thoughts, that is to say we sin in thought, word and deed. And this Word of God is a word with power to show us our sin and how we cannot save ourselves.
 

Thanks be to God that the epistle writer is not finished writing, but instead he continues on to tell us of the power of Jesus. We pick up at verse fourteen, “14Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (v. 14-16).
 

As we have said, Jesus is the Word made flesh who came down from heaven. Jesus was true God, in heaven, enjoying all the glory and honor that was His. He was in heaven using His divine attributes to their fullest, yet He gave that up in order to take on human flesh and blood, that is to become one of us, one like us, one with us, except without sin. Jesus had to be God in order to be perfect and holy, in order to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Jesus had to be truly human in order to be our substitute.
 

Jesus gave up the glory that was His, took on human flesh and blood, becoming one of us. As a man, Jesus lived perfectly for us, in our place, doing what we could and cannot do. He perfectly obeyed all God’s commands. He perfectly fulfilled all God’s promises. He was tempted beyond what we might think or imagine, beyond what we may ever be tempted and yet, He never sinned. He was perfect and holy. Jesus overcame all that we might suffer and more and so, as the epistle writer says, He can sympathize with us.
 

After living a perfect life, after fulfilling all God’s promises completely, Jesus then took all our sins upon Himself, our sins of thought, word, and deed, our sins of omission and commission, that as we confess, “We have sinned against [God] in thought, word and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone.” And He paid the price for our sins. The price of death, even eternal spiritual death. Jesus suffered hell for us. As the epistle writer states it, He was our high priest who is able to sympathize with us and even did sympathize by making Himself sin for us. As our high priest He allowed Himself to be sacrificed for us, in our place. And yet, He did not stay dead, as death and the grave had no power over Him. No, He rose from the dead. He ascended into heaven and He is seated at the right hand of the Father. By faith in Jesus, faith given to us through the means of grace, we can draw near the throne of grace and we are given mercy and find grace in time of need.
 

What Does This Mean? This morning we are reminded once again of the importance of the Word: the Word made flesh; that is Jesus, the living Word who lived, suffered and died for us. The Word that did not stay dead, but rose from the dead.
 

We are reminded of the importance of the Word, that is the Word of God especially the Word of God as a means of grace. The Word that is a means through which we are given, strengthened and kept in faith. The Word which is a two-edged sword, rightly dividing sin and righteousness. The Word which is more important than other matters of this world, including, as we were reminded in the Old Testament and the Gospel, any amount of monies we might think or imagine.
 

This morning we are reminded once again of the importance of the Word which has been given to us and through which we are given rest; rest in this world and even greater rest, eternal rest in heaven.
 

This morning we are reminded once more of the importance of Sunday morning divine service. Sunday is not simply an evolutionary anomaly that remains unexplained. Sunday morning is a gift given to us by our great God. Certainly it is a day of rest in that we may not have to work at our normal job, but even more it is a day of rest in which we are given spiritual rest. It is a day of rest in which we are given, strengthened and kept in faith. It is a day of rest in which we are continually prepared for our eternal day of rest. Yes, it is that important of a day and gift from our Lord. May the Lord, through His Word, continue to give to you and strengthen you in your desire to be given the gifts He has to give through His Sabbath rest. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.