Change in Doctrine

Over thirty years ago the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and the Texas District bought into the “Church Growth Mythologies” (Methodologies) and now we are beginning to see the results and the change of doctrine that these so called innocuous changes have made. The mythologies, called methodologies of the “Church Growth” movement were concocted from various social trends studies with the idea that growing a church was much like growing a business, that is if you apply certain social changes you can make a difference in bringing people into the church (which might be true to an extent, but that is not the same as bringing them into the Word so that God can work faith in their hearts). The following is the beginning of a list of the doctrinal changes that have occurred and these are really only the obvious changes.

You know there is a change in doctrine when your district convention votes in affirmation of declaring the inefficacy of the Word of God by suggesting that there are other ways of reaching certain “target” audiences. Matthew 28:18-20 tells us that as we are living our lives (in our vocations) we are to make disciples of all nations, by (the means of grace of) baptizing and teaching.

You know there is a change in doctrine when your brother pastors express their lack of trust in the means of grace as being effective when they tell you they want to find ways to not get in the way of the Word of God or they want to help the Word of God, as if we can get in God’s way and as if His Word does not have the power to do what it says it will do.

You know there is a change in doctrine when you hear members of so called Lutheran Churches talk about “receiving” or “accepting” Jesus. And when you hear their pastor speak the same language. And especially when this is presented on a video put out by your church extension fund. Since when do Lutherans believe in decision theology?

You know there is a change in doctrine when there is a false juxtaposition put forth between confessing doctrine and practicing mission as if one can only do one or the other. Matthew 28:18-20 reminds us that as we are living our lives (in our vocations) we simply cannot help ourselves but make disciples of all nations by (the means of grace) baptizing and teaching as we are given God’s authority as well as His promise that He is with us and will give us the very words to speak His Word.

You know there is a change in doctrine when you know and understand that we practice a particular style as that style is informed by what we believe, our doctrine (doctrine and practice; style and substance go hand in hand) and yet we see different styles being practice under the guise of diversity (divide is in this word) showing, not diversity, but a divide of doctrine.

You know there is a change in doctrine when a member of your Lutheran congregation moves and rather than joining another Lutheran church joins a church of another denomination, because that other denomination’s theology is more in line with what they have been taught at your church.

You know there is a change in doctrine when the theologically trained pastors do not and cannot agree on “What does this mean?” or they profess that these are the tenets in which we agree and yet, these are rather the tenets in which we no longer agree because we each have a different “understanding” of what each tenet means, understanding that the agreement has not changed for those who have agreed since the first writings.

You know there is a change in doctrine when the theologically and pastorally trained pastor attempts to assume a position for which he is not trained, that is the position of Chef Executive Officer and also attempts to push his parishioners, who have been trained as CEOs and not as theologians or pastors, to be ministers (pastors) to each other. Thus, the office of Holy Ministry is no longer an office to which one is called by God, but simply another vocation to which anyone may espouse.

Riches in Poverty - June 28, 2015 - Fifth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 08) - Text: 2 Corinthians 8:1-9, 13-15

If you could have anything in the world that you wanted what would you desire? Let me take that one step further, if you could have anything in heaven or on earth or for that matter in the whole universe, what would you want? Well, in this morning’s text Paul tells us about someone who had everything He wanted in the universe and what He did. Let us look and see.
 

Paul actually begins by describing the response of faith of the churches of Macedonia. He describes their response of faith as an eager desire to give back. We begin at verse one, “1We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, 2for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own free will, 4begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints—5and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. 6Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. 7But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you— see that you excel in this act of grace also” (v. 1-7)
 

Notice, first and foremost, that the giving of the churches of Macedonia was a response of faith. It was not that they gave first and then expected something in return from God. No, God gave first. They acknowledged that God gave first. God gave to them first and their response of being given the gifts of God is that they “overflowed in a wealth of generosity.”
 

And notice, not only did they give what they could give, but Paul tell us that they gave even more. Perhaps you have heard the encouragement to “give until it hurts.” Well, it always hurts to give. I would encourage you, do not give until it hurts, but give until it feels good.
 

Paul says of the Macedonians that they begged to give even more. Paul must have known the financial status of the churches of Macedonia. He must have known that they had limited resources. And yet, this did not stop them from wanting to give more. The faith and love of the church of Macedonia overflowed and is seen in their desire to contribute to and to help other saints who were in need.
 

Reading on in our text, we get to verse nine of our text which is one of those verses that a person could easily read and go on, not giving it a second thought. But upon closer examination we will see that verse nine happens to be a verse, a sentence, packed with a tremendous amount of gospel. Let us unpack verse nine and see what is there. The verse begins by telling us that, “you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and we do know His grace. His grace is His undeserved love for us. We do not deserve God’s love. We are by nature sinful human beings. David reminds us that “(We were) brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did (our) mother conceive (us)” (Ps. 51:5). In Genesis God reminds us, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). We are selfish, stingy, greedy, lustful people. We sin in thought, word and deed. We sin sins of omission, not doing what we should be doing and sins of commission, doing the things we should not be doing. We deserve death, not love. Remember the verse, “while we were sinners Christ died for us.” This is what grace is all about, God’s undeserved love for us. If we are not such bad people, if we deserved God’s love and if we deserved heaven because of something we did then there would be no grace or need for grace. But we do know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, because His grace comes to us undeserving as we are.
 

Verse nine continues, “that though he was rich.” Yes, this is talking about Jesus being rich.  Jesus was rich, richer than we could ever imagine. While He was in heaven with the Father He was rich in glory. Think about it, Jesus was in heaven before coming to earth. He had everything He wanted or needed. Everything in the whole universe was at His disposal. He shared in His Father’s splendor in heaven. He was rich beyond all human imagination.
 

“Yet,” verse nine continues, “for your sakes he became poor.” When we put this into the context of what we just said we can begin to understand what this grace really means. Jesus was in heaven, with the Father, in all His glory. But He gave all that up for us. He became poor, not poor as in lack of money, He became poor in that He gave up His glory and He took on our form, He became a human being. “So that you by his poverty might become rich.” In other words, so that we through His perfect life, suffering, death, and resurrection might share in His riches, in His glory in heaven. All of this Gospel Paul packs into this one sentence.
 

With that said, let us take a step back and look at our text as a whole. At first reading, this text sounds like a stewardship text and it would be a good one, however this is not necessarily the emphasis I want to make this morning. But before you breath a sigh of relief I would like to point out the motivation this text gives behind our own giving. It would seem that when we talk about stewardship that our first response is, “Oh, no, another talk on giving.” Which is a very law oriented statement. Of course, by now you realize that for the most part I do not preach stewardship sermons, unless the text is a stewardship text. And for the most part my stewardship sermons, and the stewardship sermons you would hear in other churches, I would hope, are Gospel oriented. I think as humans we tend to hear the law and miss the Gospel motivation. Well, listen real close because I want you to hear the Gospel this morning, because as our text says, the message I want you to hear is that they give themselves first.
 

Most often our first response to a stewardship drive or a stewardship talk is, “They want my money.” Well, this morning let me say that I do not want your money. And I will say it again, because I do not want anyone to leave here and say that pastor said he wants our money. I do not want your money. Now listen real close, God does not want your money.  No, you did not hear me wrong. God does not want your money. He does not need your money. Think about it like this, God made the world, He created the earth and all the planets, He separated the waters and dry land, He created plants and animals and formed man out of the dust of the earth. What does He need with a human invention called money? God does not need your money, God does not want your money, He wants you!  Did you hear me? I said, God does not want your money, He wants you! In our text Paul is speaking about the people in the Macedonian churches and he says that “they gave themselves first to the Lord.” God wants you to give yourself to Him. And I would ask the same, that you would give yourself to the Lord. And I must go on to add, so we do not confuse justification and sanctification, that the only way we can give ourselves to Him is that He has first given Himself to us, loved us, and given us faith so that we might respond by giving ourselves to Him. Remember, we love because He first loved us.
 

As far as the giving part goes, God stirs in us through the Gospel the desire to give. God gives the desire to give of our time, helping out with some church project. God gives gifts, talents, and abilities perhaps for making something for the church. God gives not only the means, but also the desire to give financially. That is what verse seven is all about. This is what Paul means by excelling in the grace of giving. The grace of giving is a gift from God because God gives the desire to give. The desire to give, even to give ourselves to the Lord, does not come from inside of us. The desire to give comes through the Holy Spirit working through the means of grace. The desire to give comes as a response to all that our Lord has first given and done for us.
 

I am glad that verses 13-14 have been included as a part of this text. These verses help us to understand that God does not and is not trying to burden anyone. To help us to understand this equality talk we need to simply look at what has been happening in our world. At different times and in different places in our world we have concern for the hurricane victims, for tsunami victims, for earthquake victims, tornado victims, fire victims and the like. Today there may be help needed for the victims of a volcano. Tomorrow there may need to be help for victims of any other disaster. What Paul told the Corinthians in their day holds true today.  “13I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness 14your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness” (v. 13-14). In other words, we help others that are in need now, because we are in the position to help. There may come a day when we will be in need. When that day comes then they will be in the position to help us.
 

Here at St. Matthew we have the ladies of Prism who are working to give to mission projects that are in need. Many of our members give to NAM and other agencies that work to help others in need. Our congregation gives money for the mission work of Pastor Brillinger, as well as the work of the Lutheran Heritage Foundation so they might translate and print good Lutheran material for people in other countries. We also give mission monies to our district and synod. There are many ways St. Matthew gives to help others.
 

When our needs have passed we look forward to the opportunity that we might be able to share with others who might be in need. As the people you have helped have their needs fulfilled then they will look forward to helping still others in need. In this way there is equality. 
 

Maybe you can understand this equality stuff a little better if I explain it using a sort of humorous story about the difference between heaven and hell. In hell it is said that everyone is seated around a huge table full of all kinds of delicious gourmet food. However, all the people have to eat with are forks that are five feet long. The only way to eat is by using these five foot forks and so everyone in hell is starving, because they cannot get the food to their mouths. In heaven there is the same set up, everyone is seated around a huge table filled with gourmet foods and everyone must eat with forks that are five feet long, but in heaven everyone is feeding someone else with their fork so everyone is filled. And this is what equality is all about.
 

What does this mean? I cannot say it enough, God gives first. God gives everything. I do not believe that you have ever, nor will you ever see a U-haul trailer behind a hearse. What we bring into this world and what we take with us is what is truly ours. In other words, nothing is really ours. Everything belongs to God and He simply gives it to us or loans it to us to use while we are here on this earth, which means we need to be responsible for how we use what He gives.
 

God gives the best and greatest. He has given His Son and the life of His Son for us. Without this gift, without God giving first, we would be left with nothing and we would have nothing with which to respond. God gives the greatest and the best. Through Jesus we are given forgiveness, faith, strengthening of faith, life and salvation. And these are the greatest gifts.
 

Finally, our faith is shown in our desire to respond, which He helps us to do. As always, we know that God is having His way with us when He is running the verbs.
 

Because the Lord knows all our needs and provides for those needs we respond by living the sanctified life. Remember we are all declared righteous by God’s grace, by faith in Jesus we all have the gift and promise of eternal life in heaven, now we live our lives according to His good and gracious will. We do this by our daily family and private devotions, by our daily prayers and reading of God’s Word, by our every Sunday worship and Bible Class attendance, by our attending the Lord’s Supper as often as we can and so on. We respond to all the Lord has done for us by giving ourselves first to the Lord. As we do this we are strengthened in our faith and the Lord works in us the desire to give of our time, our talents, and our treasures. And in this way there is equality. To Him be the glory. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Do Not Receive the Grace of God in Vain - June 21, 2015 - Fourth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 07) - Text: 2 Corinthians 6:1-13

A few weeks ago we celebrated Mother’s day. Today, in order not to show favoritism, we celebrate Father’s day. One of my favorite sayings about fathers is this: “anyone can be a father, but it takes a special person to be a daddy.” It is true, “anyone can be a father,” especially in our world today, “but it takes a special person to be a daddy.” We hear a lot of talk about fathers, and even mothers, spending quality time with their children. I think we should encourage, not just the spending of quality time but, the spending of quantity time with children. I have never heard a child or an adult say, I wish my father would not have spent so much time with me. Or, I wish my father would have been gone away at work more often and for longer hours. As it is, as we have heard over the past two weeks, our time on this earth is fast and fleeting. Our time on this earth is a mere handbreadth as the Psalmist reminds us. Now is the time to be a good daddy because as Paul reminds us in our text for today, we will not live forever on this earth.
 

Most of us remember the second commandment, that we are not to take the name of the Lord our God in vain. We understand this commandment to mean that we are not to misuse God’s name because His name is holy. We are not to curse or falsely swear by His name. We are not to lie or deceive others by the way we use His name. We are not to seek palm readers, fortune tellers, nor refer to horoscopes and the like. Instead, we are to rightly use God’s name, calling on Him, especially using His name in times of trouble, we are to praise Him, pray to Him and give thanks to Him. In these ways, we do not take the name of the Lord our God in vain. In our text for this morning Paul urges us not to receive God’s grace in vain. May the Holy Spirit guide us as we understand what Paul means so that we do not receive the grace of God in vain, but for our eternal well being.
 

Our text begins with Paul reminding us of the gifts of God. Paul says, “1Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 3We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry,” (v. 1-3). Paul begins by reminding us that the Holy Spirit works in our hearts to give us faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. The way he says this is that “working together with him,” that is with the Holy Spirit working through the Word of God, Paul appeals to us to not receive these gifts of the grace of God in vain.
 

How does one receive the grace of God in vain? One receives God’s grace in vain when a person makes a practice of referring to the Redeemer, but himself trusts in his own merits. And, unfortunately, this happens to us, even to us Christians, many times in our lives. We have a tendency to talk a good talk. We talk about how we believe in Jesus. We talk about how we believe the Lord will take care of us. And then we practice something different. We fret and worry. We get overly concerned about our own situations in life. We worry about monies. We worry about problems. We worry about temptation and sin. We worry and worry and worry. What we are doing is trusting in ourselves instead of trusting in God. We are receiving God’s grace in vain.
 

Paul reminds us that Jesus has taken care of everything. Notice that this is past tense. This is a completed action. We are given to. This is all past, completed action and passive action on our part. We do nothing to earn our salvation. We do nothing to merit our salvation. If anything, we get in the way. We make things worse. We put our faith in ourselves instead of in our Lord.
 

And so, Paul encourages us, in our struggles. He says, “4but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; 6by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, 7by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; 10as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.” (v. 4-10). Paul previously reminded us that in good times, in favorable times we do not have a problem being a Christian. But now he asks, how do we react during times of struggles? How do we handle adversity? Do we handle adversity and struggles with joy or with bitterness? Paul outlines our struggles at times of affliction, hardship, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger and so forth. And lest we think we may be immune to these struggles and afflictions, perhaps we better think again. As Christianity is outlawed in many countries in our world, there may come a day, real soon, when it is outlawed here in our country. Paul suggests, that as Christians, our reaction will be patience, kindness, living lives full of the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, with truthful speech and in the power of God. In other words, Paul suggests that as Christians we will handle struggles with joy and not bitterness.
 

How we handle adversity is important because the world will see how we react and how we handle adversity. Our handling of adversity may be either a great influence on the world, or it may be a stumbling block. Of course, this simply mirrors our Savior’s affect on the world. For some, Jesus is a stumbling block. For others He is the very cornerstone and foundation of faith. For some, to believe that Jesus is the only way to eternal life is a stumbling block because they like to believe in tolerance, in a tolerant god and in many ways to some type of eternal enlightenment. Too many in our world do not want an intolerant god, because an intolerant god will not allow for them to do their own thing. And so, what happens is, instead of believing in the One True God, too many people believe in themselves and they become their own idols. Thus, Jesus becomes a stumbling block. For others, especially for those who see that they cannot save themselves, for those that see that there is only one true God, only one true religion of grace, only one way to heaven, Jesus is the cornerstone of faith.
 

And finally, Paul speaks words of encouragement. He says, “11We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide open. 12You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. 13In return (I speak as to children) widen your hearts also.” (v. 11-13).  Paul is speaking words of love and concern as he describes himself as his heart is wide open. Paul encourages us to speak to others in the same way. And yes, this does mean we may be putting ourselves into situations where we may be vulnerable. We may get hurt, emotionally, psychologically, mentally. I guess the only words of encouragement I can give is to think about what our Lord has done for us. Our Lord created us. He redeemed us. He continues to love us. And what happens. Time and again we fail. We mess up. We sin and we sin boldly. We hurt Him. Ultimately we hurt Him by nailing Him to a cross. And yet, He still opens Himself wide open for us, He still loves us.
 

When we are hurt, how does that affect our affections? When we get hurt, do we still love others. Here, the only comparison I can make is the comparison of parents or grandparents, and children. We love our children and when our children hurt us, do we get angry and desire to get even, or do we forgive and continue to love?
 

How do we live “wide open” heart lives? We live “wide open” heart lives by inviting others to be a part of our lives, by making our lives inviting lives, by making our church an inviting church. We love “wide open” heart lives by not receiving the grace of God in vain. We bless those who curse us. We love those who hate us. We pray for our enemies. All the things we do not do naturally, but with the help and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we do imperfectly.
 

What does this mean? Because of our nature, our inborn human nature, we do tend to receive God’s grace in vain. Especially when life is going smoothly, when we are not having too difficult of a time in our life, during these times we have a tendency to talk about Jesus, but more often than not, we still put more trust in ourselves. At times we have a difficulty in that we compartmentalize our lives. When we are at church we talk about Jesus and our faith in Him. When we are sick or having a difficult time with life, when we are having struggles, we may pray more during that time of our lives. But when push comes to shove, instead of trusting in God to do the right thing, we rather trust in our own human knowledge and abilities. We trust the doctor and his opinion. We trust our savings and our own financial standing. We trust our own opinions. Yes, we naturally trust more in our own selves rather than trusting in our Lord.
 

And we tend, again, because of our nature, to be stumbling blocks. We tend to refuse the gifts God has to give and instead to rely on ourselves and our own resources. We tend to want to rely on our own good works, thinking that we are not so bad a person, after all we have never actually stolen anything, at least not on purpose. We have never actually killed anyone. We do not think bad thoughts, well at least not too bad of thoughts about others. We do not do the awful things other people do. And what we fail to realize is that until we recognize how sinful we really are, then we cannot begin to fathom how great God’s love and grace really is.
 

We tend, once more, because of our nature, to not live “wide open” heart lives. When we get hurt, we keep to ourselves. We do not want to be open to being hurt again. We tend to be protective of ourselves. We do not reach out to others, again, because we do not want to get hurt.
 

The good news is that Jesus has already done everything for us. He has been tempted for us. He has suffered all the temptations and even greater temptations than we suffer. He has been hurt, humiliated, emotionally, mentally, psychologically, physically hurt more than we might ever imagine. He has taken care of all our sins. He has done everything for us. And more, He continues, through the sending of the Holy Spirit, to do everything for us. He continues to work and move in us to do those things we have not done and those things we cannot, because of our nature, do ourselves. He continues to keep His heart “wide open” for us knowing that we will hurt Him more, time and again.
 

Both the Old Testament reading and the Gospel lesson speak well of our nature as human beings. How often we tend to be like Job and question God, when we have no right to question Him. And how often we tend to be like the disciples, unbelieving and of little faith. And in both instances, God shows Himself to be almighty, all powerful, all everything. And God does not get angry because of our lack of faith. Instead, He continues to open Himself up to us, pouring His grace out on us and giving us all His good gifts and blessings. What a great God we have. What a gift giving God we have. What a grace giving God we have. And as Paul urges us, so I urge you, do not receive the grace of God in vain.
 

God the Holy Spirit works in us to give us faith, to strengthen and keep us in faith, so that we may face the struggles that lie ahead in life, so that we do not harden our hearts, so that we do not become stumbling blocks to others because of our bitter attitude, but that our hearts might be wide open, freely expressing our love for others. And our response is just that, a response, a response of faith which says, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Some Father's Day Thoughts

On this Father’s Day I am reminded of the fact that fathers are given, by God, the task of being the leader, role model, teacher, spiritual leader, and the one God holds responsible for his family. Thus, it amazes me when parents, fathers in particular seem lax in their worship attendance, perhaps once or twice a month rather than every Sunday, and when they fail to bring their children to Bible Class and then in later years wonder why their children have been lured away by others to a different doctrine in a different denomination, and even giving up the faith all together. Father, you are you child’s greatest example especially concerning your priorities, which are seen and not spoken. One more reminder, life on this earth, in this world is short, 70, 80, 100 years, but eternity is forever, thus truly more important than fishing, golfing, camping, sleeping in, baseball, softball, or hunting is our relationship with Jesus and as we know, relationships are built on spending time together and our Lord love spending time with us, quantity and quality time. If you ever wonder where your children have learned certain things, language, habits, idiosyncracies, go look in the mirror. So, where will you be on Sunday morning, Father’s Day. Our great loving God has so many gifts and blessings He desires to give, to you and your children. What better idea can there be than to be where He gives His gifts, in worship (divine service) where His means of grace (those means through which He gives His gifts) are most prevalent. As one of my favorite professors would say, “Gentlemen, receive the gifts!”