To Know the Surpassing Knowledge of Christ Love - July 28, 2024 - Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 12) - Text: Ephesians 3:14-21

Perhaps you have heard someone pose the question, “Can God create a rock so big that He cannot pick it up?” Questions such as this only serve to detract from what a great and powerful God we have. And, although we may confess with our lips that we believe that God is all powerful, too often in our every day lives we tend to put limits on God, or at least we tend to put limits on what we will believe about God. Sure, Jesus died for the sins of all people, but how can I be sure He died for me? Sure, God created the world, but how do I know that He did not create the world through the process of molecules to man evolution? It is amazing how easy it is for us to believe human thinking and wisdom, and here I will remind you as I usually do, fallible human thinking and wisdom, and yet doubt God and His Word, that is God and His infallible Word, because the bottom line is, either God’s Word is true, or it is not. Either all God’s Word is true or we can trust none of it.
 

In our three lessons for this morning we are given a glimpse of God’s power. In the Old Testament Lesson we see God’s power over nature in His sending of the flood which destroyed the world which He had created. Yet, we also see how, even in the midst of His righteous judgement of the world, His surpassing love for His creation in the promise He gives to never destroy the world in such a way again.
 

In the Gospel Lesson we see of the power of Jesus over nature. Not only does Jesus walk on water, He also calms the storm. In this lesson we see Jesus showing Himself to be God. As Jesus is God, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, at the creation of the world, so here is Jesus, God in human flesh, showing Himself to be God with power even over nature, the world itself.
 

Finally, in our Epistle Lesson, our text for this morning, we hear Paul’s recognition of Jesus as God and His power and love beyond all understanding. And we give thanks because our God is such a great God, a God beyond all other gods.
 

Our text begins with Paul’s words of praise. We begin at verse fourteen, “14For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (v. 14-19).
 

Paul is not speaking of an evangelistic moment. He is not speaking about the giving of faith. Rather, he is speaking to those who have already been given faith. Here we might be reminded that our divine service, is not necessarily meant to be evangelistic, but is intended for the people of God, for Christians, for us, in order for us to be strengthened in our faith. Evangelism is what takes place in your daily life, in your vocation as you live your life always being ready to give an answer, a defense for the hope that you have in Jesus. Evangelism takes place in what we call our vocations, that is in our lives as we serve God by serving others as husband or wife, son or daughter, worker or employer, and so on. As we live our lives as priests, offering our lives as living sacrifices to the Lord, and as we are asked, “What is it about you?” so, as you share the Word of God with others, the Holy Spirit works through that Word to give faith, when and where He pleases.
 

And so, Paul is praying for strengthening of faith. He is praying that through the means of grace, especially through the Word of God, we might be strengthened in our faith. It is the Word of God that is efficacious, that is it does what it says. It is the Word of God that gives, strengthens and keeps us in faith. The Word is so important. It all begins with the Word. Without the Word there is no creation, remember, God said, He spoke a word and the world came into being. Without the Word there is no baptism, there is no absolution, there is no Lord’s Supper, there is no Jesus, there is nothing.
 

Paul is praying for us, that we might have a deeper understanding of the love of God, a love that is beyond all understanding. How do we understand God’s love, or how do we get a glimpse of God’s love? God’s love can only be seen in contrast to our sin. It is only as we understand how completely sinful, how completely lost and condemned we are that we can understand how great God’s love really is.
 

And we are sinful. We sin greatly, and as we hear almost every Sunday, we sin in thought, word and deed. We sin sins of omission and commission. And we try to justify our sins. Have you ever thought about it? Whenever we try to justify our sins, what we are really saying is that we do not need too much of God’s forgiveness, perhaps only a little. It is a lot like coming to church. It is at the divine service that our Lord comes to us to give us the gifts He has to give. It is at divine service that the Lord gives us forgiveness of sins. It is as we read and hear His Word, as we remember our Baptism, as we confess our sins and hear the words of absolution, as we attend the Lord’s Supper, through these means the Lord gives us forgiveness of sins. Yet, how often do we fail to make use of these means? How often do we fail to remember our baptism? How often do we skip church? Every time we fail, we are simply telling God, “I am okay, I’m good, I do not need anymore forgiveness today, I do not need anymore of your gifts, thanks anyway.”  Do we turn down a good meal, or any food for that matter? Do we turn down Christmas presents? Yet, we seem to have no problem refusing the gifts God has to give, again, showing how sinful we really are.
 

Thanks be to God that His love in Christ covers all sins. His love covers our sins of thought, word and deed. His love covers our sins of omission and commission. His love even covers our sins of gift refusal.
 

The type of love Paul is speaking about in our text is agape love, that is a godlike love and I would add this morning an intelligent love. Agape love is a love that informs. It informs us about God, about His ability, about His nature and character, about His attributes, about His love. It informs us about God’s love that is so great that it is beyond our imagination. God’s love is so great and yet it is seen in the person and work of Jesus. God’s loves is seen in this, that Jesus lived His life, a perfect life, the life demanded of us, for us and then He gave His life so that we might have forgiveness and eternal life.
 

The last part of our text is Paul’s doxology. We continue at verse twenty, “20Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (v. 20-21). Paul’s words speak of his recognition of Christ’s ability to do beyond what we ask, think or imagine. Perhaps that is why we struggle in life. Perhaps that is why we have not, because we fail to think and imagine great things from the Lord and because we fail to ask. Personally, my prayer continues to be that every Sunday the Lord will fill this sanctuary with people to hear the Good News. My prayer continues to be for the members of this congregation, for each one of you, that the Lord would continue to give, strengthen and keep you in faith. My prayer continues to be that every member of this congregation will be here in Divine Service every Sunday and that every member will bring a friend.
 

Notice how Paul recognizes God’s power. Paul recognizes God’s power to work in us, to give, strengthen and keep us in faith. That is where we get our gifts, from God. The source of every good gift and blessing is God and especially His Word. Very much like anything electric must be plugged into a power source, so, we must be plugged into Jesus, through His Word in order to be given the gifts He has to give. And He has some great gifts to give.
 

And so, in these words of doxology, in these words of praise, Paul glorifies God in Christ Jesus. As we recognize what a great God we have and as we ask great things from Him, so as He delivers the gifts to us, we might well give glory to our great God.
 

What does this mean? I believe all three of our texts for this morning give evidence so that we recognize Jesus is God. And as we know, Jesus had to be God. He had to be God in order to be perfect. He had to be God in order to raise Himself from the dead.
 

Not only do we recognize that Jesus is God, we also recognize God’s plan and His plan in Himself, to give Himself. We recognize that Jesus is God in human flesh, being born of the human woman, Mary. Jesus had to be human in order to be our substitute. Jesus shows Himself to be God through the signs, wonders and miracles He performed and He shows Himself to be human through the fact that He was hungry, thirsty, tired, walked from place to place and the like. Jesus is God who gave up all the glory that was rightfully His in heaven in order to save us from our sin.
 

We recognize Jesus is truly God and truly man and we recognize God’s love for us His creatures and how He works everything out for us because of His great love for us. Unfortunately, our eyes do not always see things the way God sees them. We may not always see God’s hand working out the best for us. Yet, we can know for certain, because our God is a God of love, of agape love, that He always has our best interest in mind. One such example of how we look at things in this world and how God looks at things differently is usually seen in the hospital. When our loved one is sick, and especially sick to the point of death, we may wonder why this is happening. We may pray for healing. What we often fail to realize is that death, dying and going to heaven is perfect healing. That may not be what we want, but at times, in His love, God shows His love by giving our loved one that perfect healing.
 

This morning Paul again helps us to recognize, as always, the best focus is the focus on Jesus. And we focus on Jesus by making regular and diligent us of the means of grace.
 

As we have been working our way through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians over the past few weeks and as we will continue for the next few weeks, I pray that we have been seeing and hearing Paul’s beautiful message of God’s grace and mercy. Our hope is only in Christ who has predestine all to be saved, God has called us all, even before the foundations of the earth were laid, that is He knew us even before He began creation. God calls us through the waters of Holy Baptism, strengthens and keeps us in faith through His Word. And God’s love, which is truly beyond our imagination, is seen in Jesus who gave His life for ours. What a great God we do have! To Him be the glory. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Hope In Christ - July 14, 2024 - Eighth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 10) - Text: Ephesians 1:3-14

This morning our text addresses the topic of predestination. The difficult part of the topic of predestination is that the Bible leaves us in a tension, a paradox and it does not resolve that tension. Unfortunately, there are too many who attempt to resolve the paradox of predestination, but in so doing, in using human logic, they fall off into one false understanding or another. God is not necessarily logical, as we might think in terms of human logic. Yet, God has given us His Word and even when He leaves us with His Word in tension, sometimes we simply have to leave it in tension as well.
 

Paul begins by telling us that we are blessed by God. We begin at verse three, “3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” (v. 3-10).
 

What great and wonderful words of Gospel Paul lays out for us this morning. Paul tells us that it is God who has chosen us and He has chosen us before the creation of the world. In other words, before God even began creating the world, He chose us. He chose us to create us, to love us, and to save us. Notice how this takes away any thought we might have that we are the one’s doing the choosing. As a matter of fact, our Lord constantly reminds us that if we had the choice, we would not choose Him, rather we would reject Him and we see how true this is each and every day as we absent ourselves from reading God’s Word, having personal and family devotions and as we see on many Sundays when we absent ourselves being in Divine Service and Bible class. God never asks us to choose Him, instead He comforts us with the Word that He has chosen us, and He has chosen us even before He began creating the very world in which we live.
 

God’s will is not that anyone is condemned, even though that is a reality, that is that not all people are saved. Notice here is where, if we use our own human logic, we can fall off into the pit of false teaching. We are not told and Bible never says that anyone has been chosen to eternal spiritual death. Our logic would be to deduce that if God chose us to be saved and we know some are condemned, then, logically to us, He must also have chosen some to be condemned, but this is not what He tells us. He simply tells us that He has chosen us to be saved. In other words, His will is to adopt us as His children and He does this through Jesus Christ, through faith in Jesus, faith which He gives to us.
 

And so we have this mystery. Interestingly enough, this word “mystery” is a word which has a connection with the word proclamation. And although Paul uses this word, which is a word the Gnostics also used, instead of using it in terms of a secret, “I’ve got a secret that you don’t know,” which is how the Gnostics used it, Paul connects this mystery with the cross of Christ. And the cross of Christ is a mystery, especially to those who do not believe. It is a mystery why God would do what He did and does. It is a mystery why Jesus would allow Himself to be crucified for us. It is a mystery why God would save His creation as bad as His creation had become.
 

As Paul continues to tell us, God’s plan was accomplished in Christ, at His death and resurrection. And keep in mind, this was all known by God, even before He began the very first day of creation. We call this God’s foreknowledge. That is, because God lives in the eternal present, He knew that Adam and Eve would disobey and bring sin and a curse. God knew we would be a rebellious people. God knew what was going to need to be done for His creation even before He began creating and because of His great love for us, He created the world and us anyway. This is quite a mystery indeed.
 

God’s plan will be further accomplished on the day of Judgement. On the day of Judgement all things will come to a just and righteous end. No matter how sinful the world seems to be getting and is getting, no matter how difficult it may be to be a Christian, no matter how unfair and unfairly treated we are as Christians, in the end we know for sure that God’s just judgement will be meted out. And fortunately for us, we will not get what we justly deserve, eternal spiritual death, but, because of our faith in Jesus, faith which He has given to us, we will get what He has earned, eternal life in heaven.
 

But Paul is not through. We continue in our text with even more blessings from God. We pick up at verse eleven, “11In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory” (v. 11-14).
 

Getting back to this mystery, why would a perfect God do what He did, give His life and the life of His Son for His imperfect creation? Paul tells us, He saved us to His glory, not in order that we might praise Him as such, but that the world would praise Him as they recognize His work in saving us. In other words, God does not do what He does in order for us to praise Him, as if He needs our praise, but He does what He does in order that the world, His creation, might recognize that He is God and that He is the Savior of the world.
 

How does God communicate His message with His world, with His creation, with His creatures today? It is the Holy Spirit working through the hearing and reading of the Word which work and give faith. Here again, as always, we see the importance of the means of grace; the importance of hearing and reading the Word of God; the importance of remembering our baptism; the importance of confession and absolution; the importance of partaking of the Lord’s Supper. God works through these means, the means of grace. When we absent ourselves from these means, then we absent ourselves from the gifts God has to give through these means. When we make regular and diligent use of the means then we open ourselves to the Lord having His way with us, giving us the gifts He has to give.
 

Of course, the greatest gift is the gift of Jesus’ giving Himself on the cross and this is the guarantee of our inheritance. Remember, a person is saved by being perfect which is God’s demand that we are perfect as He is perfect. We know that we cannot be perfect so we must find another way to be saved. We are not perfect and this is seen in the fact that not only do we break every commandment, we tend to break them several times each day. We sin in thought, word and deed. We sin sins of omission and commission. We sin what we perceive to be little sins as well as big sins. Indeed the point is that we sin. We cannot be perfect. The only other way to get to heaven, then, is through forgiveness which removes our sin and guilt. Thus, we see that forgiveness is so important and is our greatest need. To not be forgiven is to remain in our sin and if we remain in our sin, that would mean eternal spiritual death. And so we see how important our confession and absolution is every Sunday and every day.
 

What does this mean? God is indeed praised and will be praised, especially in heaven. Notice that this praise is not an earthly thing as if He needs our praise. And also, it is interesting that the word for “bless” here in this text is the Greek word “eulogy” which literally means “good word.” God has literally “good worded” us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Remembering that God’s Word is efficacious, that is that God’s Word does what it says, how wonderful it is to know that we are “good worded” by God. We are good worded so that His Word does for us what it says. We are good worded with faith, forgiveness and eternal life.
 

Paul speaks words of predestination that is that God had all things planned, even knowing we would be His before the creation of the world. How wonderful to know that this is all in God’s hands. We spoke earlier about the fact that human logic is that if God had determined that we would be saved and that if we know some are not saved then certainly God must have determined that some would not be saved and although that might be logical to the human mind that is not what God tell us. Here we would add to the tension that no where does God ask us to choose Him, instead, as we heard, it is God who has chosen us. There are passages of the Word which tell us we can refuse and reject God. And here we have our second tension, that is that in logical human thinking, if we can reject God, then certainly we can accept or choose Him, yet that is not what God tells us, in other words, God tells us we cannot accept or choose Him, but we can reject Him, and so we are, again, left in this tension. I believe this is a good tension, a Godly tension and a tension which we should not attempt to resolve, lest we fall off into the ditch of false teaching. Thus, the tension is that God has predestined us to be saved and our only option is that we can reject Him. To state anything else is to go beyond what God tells us.
 

And so, the story goes. God created the world. He created it perfect and holy. He created a perfect man and a perfect woman and placed them in a perfect garden and even gave them perfect work to do in the garden. Then, the man and the woman God created fell into sin. God immediately stepped in and promised to send a Savior.
 

Because the price for the sin of Adam and Eve was death, eternal spiritual death, they could not pay that price themselves. Thus, God’s perfect plan and solution was to send His only Son, even Himself in human flesh. God, in the person of Jesus is the ransom for our sins and for the sins of all. What mystery, that God could, would and did love His creation so much that He would offer such a great sacrifice for us.
 

And now, the Holy Spirit works to point to Jesus. The Holy Spirit works through the means of grace, the Word and the Sacraments to give, strengthen and keep us in faith. The Holy Spirit works through the Word to continue daily to “good word” us with the Word which does and gives what it says.
 

And what is our part? Since we do not choose Jesus. Since we do not need to praise the Lord. Since we do not have to do anything, what is our part? Our part is simply to respond. We respond, first and foremost by begin given to, by remembering our Baptism, by reading His Word, having personal and family devotions, by being in Divine Service and Bible Class as often as offered, confessing our sins and being given forgiveness, and partaking of the Lord’s body and blood in His Holy Meal for forgiveness of sins. We respond by not refusing and rejecting the gifts God has to give. And we may indeed, by the power of the Holy Spirit working through the means of grace, working through us, acknowledge and give praise to the Lord by saying, to God be the glory.
 

What a great God we have. A God who is above all other gods. A God who has created all things and who has created us. He has created us for a purpose, in order to love us and He loves us and shows His love for us especially in the giving of His Son and the life of His Son for us. He loves us and He has redeemed us. He has redeemed us for a purpose, in order that, with the help of the Holy Spirit working in and through us, we may do the good works which He has prepared in advance for us to do. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

My Grace Is Sufficient - July 7, 2024 - Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 09) - Text: 2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Have you ever thought to yourself, when things were going really well in your life, or so it seemed to you, “I wonder when the next bad thing is going to happen?” “My life seems to be going too well right now, I know something bad has got to happen.” I think we all have those thoughts now and then. I remember back in 1983 when my mother was in the hospital having brain surgery to remove a tumor, she had been having a number of medical problems and at times she seemed to be getting rather discouraged. One day she made the comment, and I know some of you have heard me say this before in Bible class, she was alluding to a verse in Hebrews, “I know the Lord chastens those He loves, I just wish He would love someone else a little more.” Perhaps we all feel that way at times. In our text for today I believe Paul addresses this issue and helps us to understand the grace that our Lord has for us, so much that, to paraphrase another verse from Paul, ‘our momentary hardships will seem like nothing compared to the glory that will be ours in heaven.’
 

Our text begins with verse one Paul says, “1I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. 3And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—4and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. 5On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. 6Though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me” (v. 1-6). And then, especially in verse seven Paul says, “7So to keep me from being too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated.” (v.7).  Paul explains the reason for his thorn in the flesh and this reason is that the Lord had been giving him what he called, “surpassing greatness of revelations.” I have no idea what these revelations were, but you may remember that the Lord originally met Paul in a bright light on the road to Damascus. Rather than the Lord using His usual way of coming to people, through means, at that time He came directly to Paul. I am sure that it must have been a wonderful experience for Paul that the Lord would come to Him directly and reveal His will for Him. Although right off it might have been frightening since he had been tormenting God’s people. How often do we think that it would be great if God would come and speak directly to us to tell us what He has in mind for us? Most of us think it would be great if God actually spoke directly to us, but I am afraid that really is not the case. As skeptical human beings, even if God spoke directly to us, we would question whether it was really God or not, especially if He told us something we did not want to hear. For Paul, the struggle with these great revelations is that evidently they could have caused him to get, what we today call a “big head,” or as Paul says, to become conceited.
 

In order to keep him from becoming conceited the Lord allowed for Paul to have a “thorn in the flesh.” What this thorn in the flesh was exactly we do not know. Many, many people have speculated on what it might be. Depending on what social, economic or political agenda the person was trying to put forward, Paul’s thorn in the flesh has been analyzed as anything from his having eye problems to his being gay. These struggles with what was Paul’s thorn in the flesh are merely attempts to distract from the Word Paul was trying to get across by changing the subject and getting away from the point of the text. The point of the text is not what was Paul’s thorn in the flesh. The point of the text is that in order to keep Paul from becoming conceited because of the exceedingly great revelations the Lord had been giving him, the Lord also gave him something to keep him humble.
 

The words of verse eight are a beautiful example to us when we have struggles in our own lives. In verse eight we read that Paul prayed to the Lord.  Paul say, “8Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me” (v.8). And we should add that it is implied that the three times he prayed Paul always prayed, “Thy will be done.” Notice that Paul’s example of prayer was patterned after Jesus’ example in the garden. Three times Jesus went to His Father in heaven to pray that the cup of suffering He was about to suffer would be removed from Him, but each time He prayed, “Thy will be done.” Here in our text Paul tells us that three times he prayed to the Lord.
 

The first part of verse nine is God’s answer and Paul’s response to God’s answer. We read, “9But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (v.9). Like last Sunday’s Epistle reading, so this Sunday we again hear of God’s grace. Each and every Sunday we should hear of God’s grace. God’s grace is the main thing we are given in our divine service of the Lord.  God’s grace is His undeserved love for us. God’s grace is the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for our sins. God’s grace is what we need to be reminded of each and every day lest we fall into despair because of our many sins. Paul tells us that God said to Him that His grace is sufficient for him. In other words, quit complaining and worrying about what you perceive to be struggles and remember that I Am the one who is in charge.
 

Paul prayed that God’s will be done and God is letting Paul know that His will is being done. It is a difficult thing to pray that God’s will be done and mean it. More often than not we may pray for God’s will to be done but we sure would like it if God’s will would be our will. The difficult part in praying for God’s will to be done is to let go and trust that God always knows what is best for us and always does what is best for us, even if we do not see it at the time.
 

Paul also talks about God’s power and about His power being made perfect in weakness. The best example of that is in the cross of Christ. The cross of Christ is a stumbling block for so many people. How can a Savior or anyone who professes to be a Savior, subject themselves to being executed on a cross? It just does not make sense to the logical human thinking that death is a way to life. But that is the beauty of the Gospel. We were subject to death. Not only have we been born in sin, but each and every day we add to our list of sins, and often we add to that list rather uncontrollably. Without thinking we curse God’s name, we call others names, we talk about others in very negative ways behind their backs, we lust and covet, we refuse God’s gifts by absenting ourselves from being in divine service and Bible Class, we fail to explain everything in the best possible way. Thanks be to God’s power that Jesus suffered the eternal punishment which should have been ours, in our place. That is God’s power made perfect in Christ’s weakness!
 

To all of this, in verse ten we read Paul’s response, “10For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (v.10). Paul’s weakness is very much the same as our weakness. Paul’s weakness and our weakness is that we think we know what we need. We think we know what is best for us and that is what we want God to do for us. The problem is that if we get our own way then, more than likely, things would be even worse than in the first place.
 

Paul’s weakness and our weakness is also the fact that we suffer temptation. Each and every day we are tempted by the unholy three of, the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh. When I say the unholy three of the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh I do not mean these three as vague concepts. I mean these three as very real entities that work through anything and everything in our life to try to lead us away from Jesus Christ. Every day we are tempted to give up our faith and give in to the ways of the world.
 

During these times of weakness and temptation, Paul’s needs are the same as our needs. During these times of weakness and temptation our need is to be weak so God can be strong. By ourselves we cannot overcome sin and temptation. By ourselves we will always fall victim to the temptations of this world, the devil and our own sinful flesh. God alone can overcome sin, death, and the devil. In Jesus Christ, God has already overcome and by faith in Jesus His triumph is our triumph.
 

Let us take a step back and get back to this text as a whole. What does this text mean for our everyday life? First, this text begins to explain why there are times that our life seems to be flying high and other times it seems we hit the bottom. Our Father in heaven knows that if we get too elated we might get conceited and forget from where our grace comes. So, in order to keep us humble He may allow for us to have struggles. When the Lord allows for us to have struggles there are two agendas at work. On the one hand the Lord is allowing us to go through struggles in order to try us, to strengthen our faith. On the other hand Satan is working just as hard through our struggles in order to destroy us.
 

When we rely on our own strength, we fail. When we rely on the strength of our Father in heaven we win. God’s strength, God’s power, is Jesus Christ and His work on the cross. When struggles and temptations occur in life, if we rely on ourselves we can never stand because we are sinful from the start. But when we rely on the power of God then He succeeds through us. When we rely on the power of God working through us then it is not we who receive praise but it is we who say, to God be the glory.
 

Thursday we celebrated 248 years of freedom in this country, especially freedom of religion, that is freedom to worship God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Certainly we have had many years of joy and an easiness of being a Christian. Over the past number of years judicial rulings are making living the Christian faith a struggle and this will more than likely only get worse as the devil continues to work in our world to torment Christians. How do we respond? We respond as Paul tells us in our text, that is we respond by knowing that God’s grace is sufficient for us, that His power is made perfect in our weakness so that we will go on boasting all the more gladly of our weaknesses, knowing that the power of Christ does rest upon us. Christ has already won the victory no matter what happens during our short life on this earth. Our response to the struggles of this world are to continue to live our faith, remaining faithful to Jesus, and always being ready to give an answer, a defense of our faith in gentleness and kindness.
 

The Lord does allow for difficulties and struggles to happen in the lives of His children, not because He does not love us, but because He does love us and because He wants to continually strengthen us in our faith and draw us closer to Himself. The words of our text for today are beautiful words of life reminding us that it is our struggles in life that cause us to pray. When we pray we pray, “Thy will be done,” knowing that especially in our weakness the grace of the Lord will more than be enough for us and that in His helping us God’s power will indeed shine through.  Once again we see that God is doing it all and we do rejoice and give Him thanks and praise. To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

God’s Gift of Faith and Family for 150 Years - June 30, 2024 - Sixth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 08) - St. Mark, Steeleville 150 Anniversary - Text: Lamentations 3:22-33

Let me begin by saying “Thank you” for inviting me to be here as you celebrate 150 years of God’s gifts and blessings, His gifting you to be His Church, His congregation, His people here in this place. I was told that your theme for this year was Faith and Family 150, thus the title, “God’s Gift of Faith and Family for 150 Years.” Over the years I have rotated my preaching by preaching through the three year cycle of our churches lectionary, that is the first three years I preach from the Gospels, the second three years I preach from the Epistles and the last three years I preach from the Old Testament texts. I do that for two reasons, first, I have nine years of material and after nine years no one will remember if I preached the same sermon from nine years ago. Second, I preach from the appointed text so that I am not tempted to preach from my own favorite texts. Although this year is my year to be preaching on the Epistles, as I looked at the appointed text for today I noticed that it is the Old Testament reading that is best suited for today. I am always amazed at how God can always give us the right text for the right occasion, so this is our text.
 

Over the past few years I have had the opportunity to serve as a chaplain, a shepherd to the character development organization to which my children are involved and so I have developed a habit of beginning my messages by laying a firm foundation on which to build my statements. First, I always ask the question, are humans ever wrong? Of course the answer is yes, many times. Humans have been known to get many things wrong and still today there are constant changes in theories, especially in the field of science. Second, I ask the question, is God ever wrong and of course the answer is no. So, when human opinion is contradictory to what God says in His Word, I will always side with God and His Word and figure that humans have made a mistake and perhaps they will eventually figure out their mistake. You may have heard the adage, let the evidence speak, but I will tell you that evidence does not speak it has to be interpreted. One may interpret evidence from a fallible human perspective or from the inerrant Word of God.
 

Second, I always ask, to what does the designation B.C. point and to what designation of A.D. point and at the same time I ask to what does the Old Testament point and to what does the New Testament point. And we find out that all of time, all of history, all of Scripture points to one place, and one person, Jesus. So, I begin by laying this foundation that we always get it right, no matter what, when we point to Jesus. Thus, our title is “God’s Gift,” pointing to Jesus.
 

Our text, the Old Testament reading is a reminder to the sinful nation of Israel of God’s steadfast love and mercy. If you study the history of the children of Israel you will notice that theirs was a rather roller coaster ride of God’s calling, their apostasy, God’s discipline, their repentance, God’s forgiveness and deliverance, and back again to their apostasy. They really are no different than we are today. Our world today is a world that is constantly at odds with God. We try to compromise God’s Word, make excuses for our sinful ways, even to the point of actually creating our own gods in our own image. Thanks be to God for His grace and mercy on us.
 

One more bit of foundation I would like to lay and that is that there are basically only two religions in the world. Man’s religion and God’s religion. Man’s religion is based on one’s character that is that a person is supposed to do something to be saved. Unfortunately, this thought is somewhat espoused or insinuate even in many Christian denominations, but I will get back to that in a minute. Then there is God’s religion, which is the Christian faith that is that we are saved by God’s grace, which is His gift to us, through faith, which is also His gift to us, with nothing necessary on our part. Now, as for some of our Christian denomination, and please do not misquote me, I do believe that many of our brothers and sisters in other denominations are saved. Yet, time and again I come across people who all they hear is what they need to do to be saved. Remember what I said about pointing to Jesus. Yet we hear it preached time and again, “look inside yourself,” “all you gotta do is choose Jesus,” “God’s wants you to be obedient.” All theses point to oneself. Too many people confuse and mingle Law and Gospel and come out with some type of moralism, do and live. Or they will hear the good news of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and then go back to thinking there is something necessary for them to do for salvation. Which is why I love being a Lutheran. We get it right. We are pointed to and we point to Jesus, just Jesus.
 

Unfortunately, as an aside, there is yet a bit of a disconnect in many of our own sister LCMS congregations in their failure to connect doctrine, what we believe, with practice, how we do what we believe and, again unfortunately their practice often times becomes implied if not outright demanding some action on our part.
 

As you celebrate 150 years of being a Lutheran Church, I want to talk about the fact that you are a Lutheran congregation. I love being Lutheran. Really, I do. For the past number of years I have had the opportunity and privilege to present a sectional at our confessional Lutheran Higher Things Youth Gatherings on Why I am Lutheran and I get to extol the virtues of being Lutheran. It is great to be Lutheran because we get it right because we point to Jesus and we never let anything get in our way of pointing to Jesus. Lutheran doctrine, that is what we believe, teach and confess is always clear in Lutheran practice, that is in the way we live as Lutherans. So, our lives begin in the Divine Service which teaches our faith and our faith informs our Divine Service. Even our church building is built according to our Lutheran faith. And it too points to Jesus.
 

Let me pause here a moment and explain that what we do here in this church building is not worship, but is Divine Service. Worship is usually defined as our coming to do something for God. We are the actors and God is the audience. As Paul asked the Athenians on Mars Hill, “What does God need from us?” No, we have Divine Service, that is God service. We come here to be given to, to be acted on by God. God is the one acting and doing and we are the ones being done to and given to. And as He does to us and gives to us, so He stirs in us our response of offering hymns, prayers and first fruits.
 

So, when we walk into this facility, this church building the first thing we see is the cross. The building points us to Jesus. And this building is even built in the shape of a cross. When we begin our Divine Service we do so with the invocation, a reminder of our Baptism and entrance into the Church, Jesus putting His name on us with the voice of the called Pastor and water with his hands. We look and we see the Baptismal font, Jesus comes to us through Holy Baptism. Our church building and our Divine Service are Lutheran, they point us to Jesus.
 

Next, in our Divine Service, we confess our sins and we hear the most beautiful words we can hear. Yes, through the mouth of the sinful pastor God speaks and does what He speaks, He forgives our sins. And because it is God’s Word we know that His words does what it says and gives the gifts He speaks, we know our sins are forgiven. We are pointed to Jesus.
 

As the service continues we hear the very word of God read by our called and Ordained Pastor, as if God Himself were speaking His Word to us. And then, from the pulpit we hear him preach and expound in Law and Gospel those very words. Jesus comes to us through the Word of God. And notice it is the Divinely Called Pastor who has been called to read and speak to us the Word of God and point us to Jesus. As disciples of Jesus we are called to come to the Divine Service and be given to so that we might hear, learn and take to heart these very words of Jesus read and spoken to us by the Pastor. We are pointed to Jesus.
 

And the Jesus we are pointed to is the Jesus who is glorified in His death and resurrection. The price for sin was set in the Garden of Eden, death, hell. God’s command to be perfect was never rescinded. The only way to heaven is perfection and we cannot be perfect. So, God took care of that for us as well. The fullness of the Gospel is not simply Jesus’ death and resurrection but the fact that He lived the perfect life demanded of us for us in our place because we cannot. Jesus perfectly obeyed all God’s commands and promises, then of His own free will He took our sins upon Himself and allowed Himself to be crucified. No one took His life, He gave it freely for us because of His great love for us. Jesus paid the price for our sins, all of our sins and He gives that forgiveness to us. We are pointed to Jesus.
 

Following our hearing the Word of God, after we have had an opportunity to respond to the gifts of God through our prayers, our offerings, and our hymns and then our attention is drawn to the altar wherein Jesus comes to us to give us His body and blood in His Holy Supper for the forgiveness of our sins. As the pastor speaks the words of God so the gifts God gives are given to us. God gives and we are given to. We are pointed once again to Jesus.
 

Finally, our Divine Service concludes with a benediction, the Aaronic threefold putting of God’s name on us benediction. God using the mouth of the pastor speaks His word of blessing on us. We are pointed to Jesus through the objective Word of God. And notice, nothing is in the way of the cross, the pulpit, the altar, the font. And yes I will say it, no drum set or “praise band” gets in front. Nothing draws our attention away to the side or in front of the cross. And yes I will say it, no screens draw our attention away, nor make us think we are going to be entertained with some show. Nothing points us to ourselves, to our emotions, to our experience, to us. We are pointed to Jesus. Our Lutheran doctrine and practice put our focus where we desire it to be, as the Greeks said to Philip, “We wish to see Jesus.” Because it is only as we see Jesus that we are prepared to go out into the world and live as priests in the priesthood of all believers, living our lives as living sacrifices always being ready to give an answer for the hope that we have. I tell you, it is awesome being a Lutheran.
 

“20Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. 21So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus’” (John 12:20, 21). What a blessing, to be God’s Church and God’s people in this place bringing others to “see Jesus.” This year we rejoice in the wonderful gifts God gives to us His people, His sinful people, and to you here in Steeleville over the past 150 years. We rejoice in the wonderful doctrine of the Lutheran Church which is on display in the Divine Service and in the lives of God’s people. We rejoice in the answer we have for the hope in Jesus we have, an answer given to us, spoken through us, and used by God to give, strengthen and keep us in faith.
 

How fitting are the words of our text, “22The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” 25The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. 26It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” So, as much as we humans may want to celebrate our successes in life, 150 years, perhaps we would do well to recall that our lives very much reflect the lives of the children of Israel. We are sinners. We sin. Sinning is easy, it is natural, it takes no practice and we are good at it. We even make great excuses for our sinning. God seeks to discipline us. We repent. God forgives and we sin some more. Thanks be to God that He is faithful. Thanks be to God for His steadfast love. Thanks be to God and give Him the credit and the glory for a 150 of His faithfulness and steadfast love and may He give us another 150 years, or better, may He soon gather us and all the faithful and take us to be with Himself in heaven. Come Lord, Jesus, come quickly. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.