Dear friends in Christ, grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and living Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Before I begin this morning’s sermon, I want to express my appreciation for your kindness and concern and your interest in my well-being. Some of you asked last Sunday, “Are you tired? Are you alright?” and you know you don’t want a supply preacher to come in his first Sunday with you whining, but in my neighborhood last Saturday, someone had leftover fireworks, and they started going off around 11:30 and they stopped around 4:30, and at 4:30 I just decided to stay awake make some coffee and go over my sermon one more time, but apparently my insomnia showed at least to some of you. So, thanks for caring. I appreciate that and I want you to know that last night I got eight straight hours of sleep, thanks be to God. It was a busy Sabbath for Jesus in Capernaum, was it not? Earlier that day, he called his first four disciples, James, John, Andrew, and Simon Peter. He went with them to their synagogue and didn’t just sit and observe, but he served as a guest teacher, and as we heard last Sunday, there he taught with authority that none of the synagogue scribes had ever demonstrated, for they were mere mortals. And on top of all that, while in the synagogue he healed the man possessed with an unclean spirit. It was a busy day. And then our Lord goes with Andrew and Peter to their house after being at the synagogue. That shouldn’t surprise us. Many Christians like to go to their favorite restaurant for breakfast or lunch after morning worship to spend more time with their Christian brothers and sisters. Now you may even have servers at your favorite restaurants that call you by name when they see you walk in, Wecks, Gardunios, Flying Star or The Range, and perhaps some of you still have that, I think, very sweet older tradition of simply inviting fellow members over to your house for a meal after the Divine Service for extended fellowship and conversation on the Lord’s Day. So, it’s not a surprise that Jesus went to the home of Andrew and Peter. They were showing hospitality. And in their home another healing occurs, not as dramatic as the healing of the man with an unclean spirit who cried out, but a healing nonetheless. This time it’s Peter’s mother-in-law. She’s in bed with a fever. Jesus took her by the hand and helped her up. The fever left her, and she began serving them. Jesus heals with a word, with the touch. As we heard last week our Lord is the author of life who has all authority. His words have authority, his touch has authority, his mere presence has authority and power. So, let’s consider what Mark tells us in this portion of his gospel. Peter’s mother-in-law was there. Now in order for Peter to have a mother-in-law, he had to have a wife, right, and in order to have a wife, he needed to be married. Now some of you know the Roman Catholic Church considers Peter as the first Pope, the Bishop of Rome, and it’s no secret that many early bishops and priests had wives and children. It was not until 1123, during the first Lateran council that the Roman Catholic Church issued what they consider to be a universal requirement of celibacy, imposed on all clergy. All married clergy were ordered to renounce their wives and dependents and those marriages were declared illegal and invalid. Thanks be to God, the Lutheran reformers rejected this cruel, non-biblical requirement, and as most of you know Martin Luther, who had been an Augustinian monk, married Katharina von Bora, who’d been educated by the Benedictines, and then took her vows as a Cistercian nun. They were united in marriage. He was 41, she was 26, and Luther said of his marriage to von Bora that it would please his father, rile the Pope, cause angels to laugh, and devils to weep. Brothers and sisters, while it’s true that Peter was married, it’s certainly not the central theme of Mark’s gospel, this I know. But it does remind us that our Lutheran Confession is not based on the opinions or the changing ideas of man, but on the inspired, inerrant Word of God. This is clearly stated in Article 23 of the Augsburg Confession, on the marriage of priests. This Article affirms that there are men who are certainly given the gift of chastity, but the view that the church can and should forbid all men who are called to be priests from being married is rejected. So we confess that both lay people and clergy should honor the gift of marriage as an order of God’s creation. And Jesus healed this mother of peter’s wife, and she began to serve the people in the house , immediately as the fever left her. Now some of these days, some, have said that this action, the healing and her jumping up immediately to serve, illustrates the evil, patriarchal, misogynistic oppressive society of Jesus’ day ,and that in some perfect, egalitarian culture, without male oppression over women, Andrew and Peter would have done the serving, while Peter’s mother-in-law would have rested, and been waited upon herself, during her convalescence from the fever, but she didn’t need time to recuperate did she? Our Lord healed her completely, and she did what she wanted to do. No one ordered her out of bed, snap, snap, snell, snell, wait on these people. It was in her heart to serve the guests. We must not, as is the habit of so many these days, even those who call themselves Christian, read things into the Bible text that simply are not there. Peter’s mother-in-law showed kindness and hospitality in her service to the Servant, and that’s who Jesus is. In fact, the suffering servant of God, foretold in Isaiah 53 “He was despised, and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds we are healed.” Peter’s mother-in-law was healed that Sabbath day by the mere touch of our Lord. You and I are healed of sin. You and I are saved from death, by his wounds. Those who would protest this woman’s service to the guest in her house forget the service of the Servant. Look how Jesus was serving others that day. The whole city gathered at the door of this house. Historians estimate that the population of Capernaum when our Lord was there doing his earthly ministry, was somewhere between 1200 and 700 people. We don’t know for certain, but we do know that it wasn’t a small group that showed up. And even if it was only 500 people, even if it was only 500, imagine a crowd like that at your front door. What would you do? I think it would seem a bit overwhelming, but Jesus continued to bring healing. He made many sick people well, and cast out the demons. The suffering servant continued serving, and this is all on his first day in Capernaum. These days there are many who speak of rights, not RITES as in liturgical rites, but rights, RIGHTS. There are many who speak of animal rights, human rights, civil rights, and Lord have mercy, I’ve lived long enough to find out that there’s even universities with professors and students now crying out for plant rights, and that’s not the right of a business factory or a manufacturing plant. These people seriously get very emotionally involved talking about the rights of tomatoes, corn, dandelions, and cacti. But who these days, dares to speak of Gods rights, Gods authority, Gods sovereignty. The author of life has authority and does not need our permission or empowerment or advocacy to do anything. We do not grant the Lord his power, his authority for his right to do as he pleases with his creation. When I served as an army chaplain, there were many soldiers, and many other chaplains, as well, who took issue with the sacrament of Holy Communion. They insisted that there’s just no way Jesus can give us his own body and blood in the sacrament of Holy Communion, and I said “Well why?” “Well, they said, because that would be impossible.” And so I would ask them “Is it possible for Jesus to born of the virgin Mary?” “Well yes, that’s not impossible. No God can do that. God did that.” “Did our Lord have the power to raised Lazarus from the dead when he was already beginning to stink in his tomb?” “Well of course, he’s the Lord of creation, he can raise anyone from the dead he so chooses.” “Does Christ have the power to walk on water,” I’d ask them. “Well yes?” “Even though it violates our understanding of gravity and viscosity?” “Well yes, he can do that because he has power and authority. He can heal the blind man by the pool of Siloam, by taking some dirt, spitting in, it putting it on his eyes telling, him to wash his eyes in the water and his sight is restored. Amen, he can do that Chaplain Wilder.” “But the same Lord Jesus who can do all that cannot give us his body and blood in the sacrament of Holy Communion?” “Well no.” “So well why?” “That would be impossible.” Go figure. So, with authority, Jesus served. With authority and grace. Today he gives you his true body and true blood. The same Jesus who told demons to be silent and they were. And he chose to leave Capernaum the next day even though the crowd was still looking for him. Because he does, with authority, what he chooses to do, and what he came to do, and that’s why he came out, as Mark puts it, he came out of Nazareth, after being a carpenter there, until he was about 30 years of age. He left his home in order to fulfill his mission. It was all about obedience. Obedience to death on a cross. Mark tells in verses 38 and 39, “And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns that I might preach there also, for that is why I came out.” And he went throughout all Galilee preaching in their synagogues, and casting out demons.” Yes, the servant came to serve. He told those first four disciples it’s time to move on move out. We’ve got to go to other towns in fulfillment of God’s plan, according to the Father’s will. God has chosen in Christ to serve for your sake. Jesus the suffering servant, went the way of the cross, for your sins and to save you from death, the man healed in the synagogue, Peter’s mother-in-law, the people that were healed standing outside the house, they all eventually died. We all die, and the Gospel tells us that we have died with Christ, in baptism, and that we have been raised with Christ in the same, and that we will live with Christ forever. And as for those who would dare to criticize Jesus for perpetuating some so-called patriarchal structure in which women were subservient to men, well we know better, because we know what the suffering servant Jesus did. He knelt before his disciples and washed their feet, something only a slave would do, the lowest ranking slave. In Mark’s Gospel, chapter 6, the servant Jesus saw that the crowd of 5000 was hungry. He made sure they were served a miraculous meal of fish and loaves. First Christ said of himself in Mark chapter 10 “The son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Suffering servant served perfectly according to the Father’s will. We serve him by grace, by God’s mercy, by God’s calling, and all the ordinariness of our daily lives, what Martin Luther referred to as our vocation, our ministry, our witness, our service, right where God has planted us. I’m going to conclude this sermon with a quote from a Lutheran theologian that many of you may know, the Reverend Doctor Robert Kolb, a Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology at our seminary in Saint Louis. Please listen to what he says and how it describes you in Christ. “Luther’s teaching on vocation is valuable today as an aide for concrete instruction. It is important to reflect the Biblical truth, that God’s commands are not arbitrary, but rather the plan designed by the Creator who determined the reality of life as he shaped his creatures. God provides and cares for his world in significant ways through calling people to their places in society, recognizing that God call gives us a place, several places in fact. Comfort to those who feel adrift in our society, for those who wrestle with tarnished images of their own worth and dignity in the world. A sense of calling provides strengthening for our new identity that God gives us when he brings us to faith in Christ. There is no greater worth than dignity than that accorded those who God has chosen as his own and brought to new birth through Christ blood and his reclamation of life to the resurrection. But a secondary level of worth and dignity arises out of service according to God’s plan at the behest of this calling creator as the Holy Spirit bestows the ability to respond to others needs, and live with them in the conversations and in the communities for which God made us in the first place. So, God bless you servants of Grace Lutheran Church. God bless you servants of the servant. God bless you and your service to the Lord, for the sake of one another, and for the sake of the world that is still in darkness, that does not know the light who is Christ. God bless you servants of the Lord. God keep you in faith, hope, and love. And may the peace which far surpasses all human understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus our Lord this day and until we see the Savior face to face. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Authority of the Author
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus the living Christ, Amen. Our gospel reading from Mark begins with these words “They went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching.” Who are they who went into Capernaum, and why might they be there? Mark tells us that Jesus has left his hometown of Nazareth, he’s been baptized in the Jordan river, he’s been tempted in the wilderness by Satan, he then traveled to the Sea of Galilee, and we know from our gospel reading last Sunday that Jesus then called James, John, Andrew, and Simon, also known to us as Peter, to drop their nets and follow him, and that’s exactly what they did. These four fishermen worked the Sea of Galilee and made their homes on the north shore in Capernaum. They’ve been in the synagogue before. This time they entered with a fifth person, a guest, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is the first place they followed him, a place they had been before, but now brothers and sisters, listen to these words of truth and life recorded in the third chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. Peter and John have indeed followed Jesus for over three years. They have learned and witnessed so much during their time with the son of God. They have witnessed his death and resurrection, and now we find them in Jerusalem. I begin at verse 3. “Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. 2 And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. 3 Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. 4 And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” 5 And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” 7 And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. 8 And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.11 While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s. 12 And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? 13 The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. 14 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. 16 And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.” It was Jesus, the Author of Life, who did this beautiful thing at the beautiful gate, making a lame man strong, giving him perfect health. It is the same Author of Life who speaks to us with authority in the healing and restoration of the man afflicted with an unclean spirit in Capernaum. Yes, the Author of Life has authority, the authority to rebuke and heal. This Authority utterly astounded people at the portico of Solomon, on the eastern side of the temple’s outer court in Jerusalem. The same Authority amazed the people gathered at the synagogue in Capernaum. To most it was just another day by the sea of Galilee, just another Sabbath day in Capernaum located about 40 miles or so to the north and east of our Lord’s hometown in Nazareth. Some of you know, this is where our Lord spent most of his time during his earthly ministry, a second home if you will. James, John, Peter, and Andrew show up at the synagogue, but this time they have a guest, and that guest is Christ, and something unusual took place. That day worship was interrupted by a man with an unclean spirit crying out. He interrupted the guest teacher, Jesus, in the middle of his message. In my 40 years of ministry, there have been more than a few interruptions, disruptions during worship. A fire alarm going off in the middle of a sermon due to bad sensors, and usually a baby crying, a toddler making a fuss, but once a brother in Christ with a hearing problem said in a loud voice to his wife while I was preaching “How long is this sermon going to last?” I could see the people bouncing up and down around him trying to control the urge to laugh as you just did so I said “About another 5 minutes Bob” and kept right on preaching, but these interruptions are nothing like, nothing like what took place in Capernaum that Sabbath day. The people were understandably amazed by what they witnessed in this exchange between Jesus and the man with an unclean spirit, because the people in Capernaum had never witnessed anyone like Christ before. How could they? There’s no one else like him. Jesus spoke with an authority none of their scribes had ever demonstrated, for how could they? Those scribes were mere mortals at first busying themselves with a laborious task of making copies of the Hebrew scriptures on scrolls, and then over time not just making copies of God’s word the Law, but then becoming interpreters and teachers of the Law and that’s why sometimes you see the scribes being referred to as scribes in the word of our Lord. The people at Capernaum we’re rightfully amazed and astounded by Jesus. What is this? What have we just witnessed? What is this authority that we’ve never seen before? And it is the unclean spirit who provides the answer. “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? I know who you are–the Holy One of God.” The Author of Life had power over the unclean spirit, who knew he was not just a gifted rabbi, or some extraordinary scribe had come to visit that day. The unclean spirit spoke the truth about Jesus, the one with authority, “you are the Holy One of God” and the unclean spirit asked “Have you come to destroy us?” The answer to that question is a wondrous and mighty yes. The Holy One of God comes to destroy the power of every unclean spirit, and the power of the evil one, for it is written Genesis 3, the Author of Life will bruise your head. Romans 16, the Holy One of God will crush Satan under your feet. Yes, the unclean spirit rightly identified Jesus as the Holy One of God, while the people, gathered in the synagogue, wondered who he might be or where he got such authority and power, and yet even though the unclean spirit rightly identified Jesus, it did not confess him as Lord and Savior. For it’s one thing to know about Jesus. It’s another thing to know him as Lord and Savior, and worship him in spirit and truth. And the ability to worship the Lord rightly is not something we can do on our own. Even as in a moment we confess our faith through the words of the Nicene creed, we cannot take credit for coming to such knowledge and faith in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, for we know well what the Catechism teaches I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel, enlighten me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. Brothers and sisters God has called you, the Lord of life has enlightened you, the Holy Spirit has sanctified you in making the faithful confession, and God keeps you in the true faith, he forgives you all your sins, he gives you eternal life, and none of this is by your own doing, and none of this is by a so-called personal decision to invite Jesus into your heart. Why would Christ want to take up residence in my sinful heart or your own? Who are we to think that we have the authority to tell the Author of Life where he should be, or the power to tell him where he cannot go, without our invitation? The Author of Life fulfills the promise we hear from the prophet Ezekiel, chapter 36, “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” Thanks be to God it is Christ who has given you a new heart. It is Jesus who has made a decision for you, and that decision is to die the death that you deserve, to take your sins unto himself, to make the unrighteous righteous, to cleanse you through the power of his innocent and holy blood. The Author of Life declares to us his power in those familiar words to the eleven disciples gathered Galilee, in Matthew 28, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.” The Author of Life has authority, all authority, authority over you, authority for you, authority for your blessing and benefit. This is grace upon grace. The unclean spirit, yes, rightly identified Jesus, but had no faith in him, no trust in him, no love for him. You do and this is not your own doing, for God has brought you to faith, God has delivered you from darkness to light, God has changed you from being enemies of Christ to those he now calls his friends. The same Jesus who did a beautiful thing at the beautiful gate in Jerusalem, who did an amazing thing in the healing of a man with an unclean spirit, meets you today, right here, right now, in his Word, in the sacrament of Holy Communion, that declares you forgiven of your sins, all of them, even those you may have been trying to keep secret from others for years. For the one with authority knows you and knows everything about you. The one with authority did not come to negotiate for your release from this imprisonment, from your bondage to sin and death. The Holy One of God did not take on human form to sit down and make a deal with the devil. The word did not become flesh, become one of us in order to seek out some political peace treaty with the one who wants you dead. He did not come to bargain with the prince of darkness, no, he came to win your freedom from sin and death completely, to defeat the evil one, to crush him under foot, not to bargain with, but to banish this liar, this father of lies. In his presence, the demons can only cry out and shriek in fear, but by his grace and mercy we sing his praise in faith, hope, and love. One of the many beautiful, precious things about our Lutheran tradition, is our Lutheran hymnody. Our Lutheran hymns have such solid theological words, the text. The words of our hymns, do they not teach the faith, do they not draw us closer to Christ, do they not proclaim the truth of God’s holy word, and sometimes our hymns are not just hymnic but prayerful. So, I’m going to ask you to do something now. Please turn in your worship books again to hymn 541. Would you be so kind? And 541, I know we just sang it together, but I’d like for us this morning to pray it together, and we will pray this antiphonally so boys and men we will read verses one and three and then girls, sisters in Christ, you will read verses two and four, and then we’ll all pray verse 5 together in unison. So, men let us begin. (Please listen to the copyrighted words in the sermon recording).
May the peace which far surpasses all human understanding keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus our Lord this day and until we see the Savior face to face. Amen.
Dove, Chicken, or Vulture
Grace, mercy, and peace are yours from God our Father through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen. Let us pray. O Lord, send forth your Word into our ears, that it may bear fruit in our lives, in Jesus’ name, Amen. A Christian author, Chad Bird, once pointed out that while the name Jonah comes from the Hebrew word for dove, the story itself presents the prophet more like a chicken. You know the story, the story of Jonah and the whale. The Lord came to Jonah the prophet and said to him “Arise. Go to Nineveh that great city. Call out against it, for their evil has come up to me.” What did Jonah do? Jonah arose, but he went the opposite direction. He went to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. Chicken. He went down to Joppa and found a ship. He paid for passage in the exact opposite direction from where the Lord had sent him. Chicken. Or was he? Was Jonah running away in fear, like a chicken? Well maybe, although by his own admission, later in the book, we learn that the thing Jonah was afraid of, might actually make him more of a vulture. We know the story. We know how the Lord caused a great storm to beat against the ship carrying Jonah, and how the sailors cast lots trying to figure out who was to blame, and the lot fell on Jonah. They cast him over the side into the sea, where Jonah was swallowed up by great fish. We know that Jonah remained in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, and we know that Jonah saw the error of his ways, and was brought to repentance. We know the fish vomited him back up on the shore, which is where today’s reading picks up. The Word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, this time saying the same thing it did the first time, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out to it the message that I tell you,” and this time Jonah goes. He enters that great city, and delivered to it the message from the Lord. Yet 40 days, and that city will be overthrown. Five simple words in Hebrew, an amazing thing happened. They listened. The people of Nineveh believed a God who was not their own. They called for a fast. They put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them, to the least of them, even all the way to the king himself. The king removed his robe, covered himself with a sackcloth, and sat in ashes, and the king issued a decree that no one, not man nor beast, should taste food or water. He called upon the people of Nineveh to turn from their evil ways. “Who knows,” he said, maybe God will turn from this disaster, relent from his fierce anger, so that we will not perish.” When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God did relent of the disaster that he said he would do to them. He did not do it. See Jonah, what are you afraid of? Chicken. The Lord not only protected you on your journey he gave you success in your message. Noah preached for 150 years, and no one listened. You were in Ninevah for all of the day, preaching a sermon of five simple words, and an entire city was brought to its knees. Why are you afraid Jonah? Why are you a chicken? What are you afraid of? That’s the problem, actually, is that is what Jonah was afraid of. This is the thing Jonah feared. Jonah wasn’t afraid of failing as a prophet, Jonah feared success. It displeased Jonah greatly. He was angry with the Lord, so he cried out against the Lord. “See this is what I said when I was back in my own country. This is why I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God, but you are merciful, that you are slow to anger, that you are abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore, O Lord, since you have spared Ninevah, take my life from me. I would rather be dead than see my enemies forgiven.” Jonah’s name means dove, and when we see him run away from the Lord’s call, we might be tempted to think of him as a chicken, but by the words of his own mouth, we see him for something else, maybe more of a vulture. Had the Lord asked him to circle the skies above Ninevah so that when the city fell under judgment, he might be able to pick the meat off the bones of his enemies, well then John would have happily obliged, but the thought of being brought to repentance, actually forgiven. The thought that they might get the mercy of God, that they might be spared from the wrath to come, well that was just too much for Jonah. That sent him running in the opposite direction. No Jonah was no chicken. The only thing he was afraid of was that his enemies might receive the mercy that he himself enjoyed. I wonder how we might have fared in the same circumstance. That’s the question the book of Jonah leaves us with. The book ends with God giving and taking away a vine to Jonah, something that provided shade for him, and when Jonah voices his displeasure with God over the fate of the vine the Lord responds. “Do you pity a plant that you didn’t plant or tend to? Should I not also pity the city of Ninevah, filled with life that I created, people who don’t even know up from down, right from left, should I also not have mercy on them?” The end. The book doesn’t give us Jonah’s answer. The book leaves us with no easy resolution, but the question really isn’t really just for Jonah. It’s our Lord’s a question to us as well. God looks to us and says “Should I not be merciful, even to those that you consider the worst, even to those that you consider your enemies.” How do we answer that question? It’s a fairly easy question to answer here in this room, or in a Bible class, or anywhere else that we can tell ourselves, and feel fairly confident that it’s just a hypothetical question, but I wonder how we would fare if our Lord to came to us and send us into the Ninevahs of our own time. What would we say? What would we do? Now on the one hand, it’s a really important question to consider based on Jonah’s story. It’s one of the questions the book leaves us with. It warns us against writing people off. It warns us against assuming that there are some people who are so wicked that they’re beyond any hope of repentance or forgiveness, some people who don’t even deserve to hear the word of the Lord. The book of Jonah comes in and silences that kind of thinking, and it comes in and it comforts us with the assurance that our Lord can soften even the hardest of hearts. Whether we’re talking about the cruelest dictator we can think of somewhere else in the world or whether we’re thinking of the family or friend closer to home, who steadfastly refuses to believe the promises of Jesus. Our Lord can soften even the hardest of hearts. And so, on the one hand, there’s definite value in reflecting on how we think about the Ninevahs of our time, but truth be told, I don’t think that’s even the main point we’re supposed to take away from the story of Jonah. Rather, I think that what the Lord’s question at the conclusion of the book puts before our eyes, isn’t primarily a challenge about our behaviors or our attitudes, but the depths of our Lord’s own mercy. The book of Jonah shows us what our Lord thinks about this creation. It shows us what our God thinks about the Gentiles, the unbelievers of the Old Testament, show us what our God thinks about the Gentiles the unbelievers of our day, show us what our Lord thinks about us. We have a God who is gracious and merciful, he is slow to anger, he is abounding in steadfast love toward us. He showed his love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Our Lord sees us through the death and the resurrection of his Son. You’re reminded of that every time you walk into this room, and see this Trinity sculpture behind the altar. You see the eye of God in the center of it looking out at you, his people only through his Son. The Father looks out of this creation, through the death and the resurrection of his Son. When God looks at you, he doesn’t see the stain of your sin, he sees the purity of his Son. When God looks at your life, he doesn’t see the successes or the failures you have in the face of temptation, he sees the righteousness of his Son. When God looks at you, he doesn’t see you as Ninevah or as Assyria, he sees the new Jerusalem, adorned as a bride for her husband. So, take comfort, for the Lord whose mercy extended even to the people of Nineveh, that Lord has had mercy on you. As the proclamation of his word changed even the most hardened Assyrian, hearts so it has changed yours. As the Lord relented of the disaster set to befall Ninevah, so also you have been spared from his wrath, for you are united to the death and the resurrection of his Son. You were washed at his fount, you are fed his altar, you are forgiven in his church and you are his people. So yes, the world around us still remains wicked as was the city of Ninevah, and yes we still struggle with the wickedness of our own hearts, as did the prophet Jonah. But the Lord, the Lord remains merciful, he was merciful to Jonah, even after the prophet ran away. He was merciful to Ninevah, even though they were the Gentiles, and the pagans, and the political enemies of God’s people. The Lord remains merciful, because that’s who he is. Merciful to Ninevah. Merciful to Jonah and merciful to us. So, give thanks unto the Lord for he is good, his steadfast love endures forever. In Jesus name, Amen.
Lawful or Helpful
Grace, mercy, and peace are yours from God our Father, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. By all accounts, Corinth was quite the city. Actually, according to historical accounts, Corinth was the kind of place that might make Las Vegas blush. Located on an isthmus, in between two bodies of water, it was a place of strategic military importance, so as you can imagine there were soldiers in and out of the city at all times. Because it was on an isthmus, located between the two bodies of water, it had two sets of docks, one on either end of the city, and so they were merchants, they were tradesmen, they were sailors, in and out of the city at all times, and as you can imagine with such a high concentration of temporary citizens Corinth, also boasted one of the largest red-light districts in the entire empire. Now we have the saying what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, well there was a saying about Corinth too. Actually, it was a verb, korinthiazomai, to behave like a Corinthian, which was apparently commonly used to refer to someone who frequented the red-light district in their hometown and engaged in all kinds of behavior of the sort. The fact that the city was also known for its dedication to the Greek goddess Aphrodite, and as the goddess of love and sensuality, and physical pleasure, you can guess what types of things were common in the temples to Aphrodite, three of which were found in Corinth along with, according to one historian, over 1000 priestesses in the city to Aphrodite, although they were more commonly known as temple prostitutes. The city was a hotbed of multiculturalism, the hotbed of religious pluralism. Along with the temple to Aphrodite, there were also temples to Apollo, Athena, and Zeus, and Poseidon, Persephone, Dionysus, some Egyptian gods, the cult of emperor worship, fill in the blank, there’s many more that I didn’t bother to list. And there were, of course, the philosophers, the educated, the wise people of the day. There were the Epicureans. The Epicureans who encouraged the pursuit of pleasure and tranquility, eat drink and be merry for tomorrow you may die. And there were the Stoics, the Stoics whose life goal was to achieve autonomy by living in a rational manner, consistent with the universe. They prize self-sufficiency, they prized control over your emotions, not letting the highs get you too high or the lows gets you too low. Yes, Corinth was a hotbed of multiculturalism and into the spaghetti bowl of beliefs and practices, the word of the Lord came. The gospel came to Corinth. The apostles preached the word of God’s law, condemning sexual sin, condemning the sins of any indulgence like gluttony or drunkenness or even pious indifference. And so came the word of the gospel, the good news that the Son of God had taken human flesh to live, to die, and to rise as the substitute for all humanity. And people in Corinth have heard this proclamation and people in Corinth believed, and the church was planted and then the Christians of Corinth returned to their daily lives. Back to work with followers of Aphrodite and Apollo, back to their homes built next door to their neighbors who were Epicureans and Stoics, back to family dinners with their supposedly enlightened pagan parents, and aunts and uncles, and cousins. See life for a Christian in Corinth wasn’t that different from what most Christians tend to endure today, and like Christians today the people of God in Corinth were tempted to absorb and to soak up and to imbibe the philosophy of their day, and try to assimilate it into the church to try to find a way to make it fit. Take for example the philosophy of the Stoics, they had a catch phrase. All things are lawful for me. The stoics believed that the enlightened person had achieved true freedom, had achieved autonomy, was the master of their own fate, and therefore could do as he pleases. Certain Christians sympathetic to that mindset adopted it, trying to find a way to bring it into the church, to apply it to their life as the children of God. And after all, Jesus had fulfilled the law, right. Jesus had come to set his people free, right. So, Paul responds to this notion in today’s reading. Notice the quotation marks in the text, they’re there in the scripture too. Paul is quoting the slogans used by some, but then refuting them, rebutting them. You say all things are lawful for me, but I say not all things are helpful. You say all things are permissible for me, but I say not to be enslaved to anything. You say food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food, but I say God’s going to destroy them both in the end. Don’t be dominated by either one. Recognize what Paul is saying here. I mean first he’s pushing back on the idea that Christian freedom is the same thing as complete autonomy, the ability to do whatever I want simply because I’m free in Christ. And his argument is simply that no man is an island, we’re all part of something bigger than ourselves, we’re all connected to other people through our vocations, we have family members, we have coworkers, we have neighbors, people who sit and silently watch us from a distance, measuring our steps to see if there’s a place for them maybe in the House of the Lord. So Paul’s encouragement to the people of Corinth, and his encouragement to us is, don’t be like the ten year old who justifies his rudeness by saying, “It’s a free country.” Surrounded by the cacophony of voices and influence like those in Corinth, we might be tempted to justify our actions through oversimplification. It’s my life, you can’t tell me what to do, you’re not the boss of me, you do you. But the truth is different. Yes, we have been set free from our sin, but we have not been set free from our vocations. Our lives are still lived in relationship. The choices that I make with my time affects the people around me. The choices I make with my body, affect the people around me. Through Paul our Lord gives us a different way to look at things, a different question to ask. Instead of asking, “Is this lawful, can I?” we ask, “Is this helpful, should I?” We take the focus off of ourselves and our desires and our wants, and instead, we look to the people around us. Will this behavior build up the people in my life, or will it make their lives more difficult? Will this attitude pave the way for the gospel to be heard and believed, or am I simply placing a stumbling block before someone else? Is this thing I want to do, this social media post I want to make, this comment I want to say, this thing that I want to do, is it helpful? But Paul doesn’t stop there. He also gives the Corinthians a warning, a warning that he gives to us too. You say all things are lawful, but I warn you not to be enslaved by anything. Yes, we are free in the gospel, but actions still have consequences. I was recently reading something about this on the same topic and I’d love to give credit to the author, but I honestly can’t remember where I read it, but the point was that the alcoholic, the drug addict, the addict of any kind, they don’t set out to be enslaved to something, they set out looking for freedom. And the tragic irony is, the thing that they think will set them free, ends up becoming their taskmaster. They end up enslaved to it. The same is true in many aspects of life. The one looking for financial freedom can quickly become enslaved to their job, become a workaholic. The one looking to do social good can quickly become hooked on political fury and rage and self-righteousness. The one looking for sexual freedom can become enslaved to passion and shame and regret. There’s any number of things in this world that can enslave us. Paul exhorts us to remember that our bank account, our political standings, these things are not the core of our identity. No Paul says you belong to Christ, that’s what matters above all else. And that’s the last slogan that Paul engages. You say the food is made for the stomach and the stomach is made for food, and the argument here is simply that what you eat or drink doesn’t really matter, you’re just fulfilling your biological urges. This is just nature running its course. Your body was made to do these things, so doing them certainly won’t harm you. There’s a bigger argument than just food. It was a bigger argument in Corinth. It’s a bigger argument today. As in our day, this idea was used to defend any biological urge. If I have the desire, well that desire can’t be wrong, can it? Who are you to tell me not to feel the way that I feel, or not to want the things that I want? My body desires certain things by nature. Food, drink, companionship, and rest. Why should I not give my body what it wants? What was Paul’s answer? Because God’s going to destroy both the stomach and the food and the end, this fallen body and the things of this fallen world, they’re all temporary. That which has been sown corruptible must be raised incorruptible. The body is not meant for food or for drink or for anything else in this world. The body is meant for the Lord. Paul’s got a lot of law for us this morning, a lot of law in this section of Corinthians. He’s fighting back against false teaching that has crept into the church. He’s taking a stand in the name of the truth. He fights back against the temptation to let the slogans and the perspectives of our culture seep into our vocabulary unchallenged. But his words are not all thread, because words are not all law. No, he’s adamant that our bodies are members of Christ. Think about what that means. He’s adamant that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, that your body is the place where God dwells on earth today, to bless this creation in the same way he dwelt in the Tabernacle, and in the temple in days of old. He reminds us that we were bought with a price, not with gold or silver, but with the holy precious blood and the innocent suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. We belong to the Lord. And so, Paul reminds us that because we belong to the Lord, we glorify God with our bodies. We are set free. We don’t need to live in bondage to self-indulgence. We belong to Jesus. We don’t need to live in bondage to the opinions of the world around us. We belong to Jesus. The great gift of the gospel is the new life and the freedom that Jesus alone can give. So in a way, yes, all things are lawful for the people of God, but we don’t use our freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. We’ve been given the gift of true freedom, a freedom that looks past the question of “Can I?” and instead asks the question “Should I?” or, to use Paul’s language, instead of asking “Is this lawful?” we ask “Is this helpful?” And the gift of the freedom of the gospel, is that we can rest in the assurance that even when we get the answer to that question wrong, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. It’s not our success or our failure in this life that matters the most. What matters is the gift of new life. New life that is already yours through Christ Jesus our Lord. In him we are forgiven. In him we already are right with God. And so, in him we are free to try our best, to be helpful to the people around us, not worried about the results, trusting that no matter what happens, he has already paid the price for us. We belong to him. So, with Paul this message today is simple. Don’t be taken captive to the hollow philosophies of a dying world, no matter how catchy the slogans are. Instead find your confidence in the word of the Lord, the word of his forgiveness that he speaks to you, the gift of life that he gives to you. That is who you truly are. You belong to him. In Jesus name, Amen.
Expectations
Grace, mercy, and peace are yours from God our Father through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. What are your expectations for this coming year? Did you make New Year’s resolutions? Are you planning to eat healthier, maybe exercise more, maybe go to bed a little earlier? There’s a couple of projects around your house that you’ve been meaning to get to and haven’t quite crossed off the list yet, but this is the year that you’re going to do it. What are your expectations for the next 12 months? Expectations can be a funny thing. On the one hand, you need them, they’re absolutely necessary part of a healthy life. If you don’t learn from your past experience you, don’t grow as a person. If your experience has taught you that getting five hours of sleep just isn’t enough, you could expect to have a bad day at work if you don’t get to bed early enough. If expectation or experience has taught you that it takes 20 minutes for you to get to work, and you leave 10 minutes before your shift starts, you know you’re not going to make it on time. If experience has taught you that a certain person is not really trustworthy well then your expectations ought to shape your behavior toward that person. Expectations are part of our everyday life. Sometimes they’re flexible, especially if we don’t have enough experience with something to form a conclusion about it yet, other times our expectations are immovable, especially if we’re convinced, if we feel like we’ve been through a situation so many times, that we know exactly what is going to happen next. So, on the one hand, expectations are good and necessary, but there are other times when our expectations blind us to different possible outcomes. There’s time where our expectations are flat out wrong, and in fact could prevent us from something good. Just think of the child who’s never tasted a specific food and their expectation is that they won’t like, but there’s a chance that child will end up loving that food. They’ll never know, but they let expectation determine their diet. Expectations. Sometimes they’re an asset, sometimes they’re a crutch, and today I wonder what exactly those wise men were expecting when they set out to follow that star. We sometimes think of them as the three kings of Orient are, but scripture never calls them kings. Matthew calls them magi, the same root word that we get the English word magic or magician. They’re likely astronomers of some kind, scholastics of some kind, not kings. I mean if they were kings Herod would certainly have greeted them with a more kingly reception, probably would have even gone to Bethlehem with them because Harod was nothing, if not politically savvy. He would never have insulted visiting royalty by sending them off on an errand for himself. Neither does the Bible actually say there were three of them, only that they brought three gifts. It could have been two, could have been ten, there could have been dozens, we don’t know, but what we do know is that, according to Matthew, magi from the east set out to follow the star. I wonder what they expected to find at the end of their trail. It seems likely they expected to find something noteworthy, otherwise they wouldn’t have made such a journey. It seems likely they expected to find something more impressive than the tiny village of Bethlehem, after all, when they left to follow the star, they went first to Jerusalem, they went to the city of the palace, to the city of the king, they went to Jerusalem the city of the temple, and the high priest, the capital city, the place where all foreign dignitary would have gone, the place that was the economic center of the whole region, the place that had been the center of the Jewish universe for 1000 years. Seems reasonable to expect the Messiah to be in such a place. Jerusalem is the city of God, the place of Mount Zion, and yet, the Messiah was not there. In fact the scripture seemed to indicate that no one in Jerusalem was even aware of the star, of the possibility that the Messiah had been born. The city of God was completely oblivious to what God was actually doing. And when the wise men asked about the one born king of the Jews they were sent to Bethlehem. That would be like someone from a distant land coming to the United States and going to New York or Los Angeles or Washington DC to find the promised child, and instead being told, no you need to go to Espanola, or you need to go to Socorro. That’s where you’ll find him. It defies expectation. Why would one so important as the Christ not be found in a place as significant as Jerusalem? Why would the Messiah be in Bethlehem? But unlike the stubborn child who refuses to try a new food, the magi were not slaves to their expectations. They heard the word of God and they believed it. The prophet Micah spoke of Bethlehem in the land of Judah, so they went to Bethlehem, even though it seems to all appearances, to be least among the rulers of Judah. But you see that’s what faith does. Faith hears the word of God, and it trusts the word of God, and it follows the word of God, even if it leads it into places it never expected to be. That’s what the faith of the magi did. That’s what our faith does too. It clings to God’s word and is thereby lead to the place where Christ is for you. This world has many expectations about how God should act, what God should be like, where God should be found. So often we unwittingly follow these expectations, and allow these expectations to shape our own. The world expects God to be fair and just and so its cries follow, whenever it sees something unfair happening. This world’s understanding of justice is not the same as our Lords, except in the world’s idea of justice we’re tempted to cry foul, to claim to be victims every time something bad happens to us, every time something hard enters our lives, never allowing for the possibility that there is no such thing as an innocent person before God for there is no one who is righteous, not even one. As we said a few moments ago, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We have sinned in our thought, word, and deed, by what we have done by what we have left undone, and that we actually deserve God’s punishment both right here and now, as well as into eternity. This world expects God to be loving, according to their definition of love, which basically amounts to nothing more than expecting God to affirm our every choice, to allow us to follow our hearts desires, even as they lead us away from him. So we find it difficult to speak out against sin, opting instead for silence and calling it tolerance, pretending that loving action is to simply coexist, as we silently watch loved ones follow paths that will lead them off a cliff, too afraid to say something for fear that we might hurt someone’s feelings, or worse they might point out our sin. How quickly and how easily the world’s expectations of God become our expectations of God. But the faith of the wise men trusted God word above the expectation of men, and then they found themselves in the presence of the Christ. Our Lord’s word speaks to our faith today, breaking down our worldly expectations, and giving us Jesus instead. So as we celebrate epiphany today, and in the weeks to come, take a moment to remember what we’re celebrating. That word epiphany has to do with perception, has to do with insight, the moment when the proverbial light bulb goes on above your head, and you finally get it. The season of epiphany in the Christian Church deals with God helping us understand who he truly is, showing us who Christ really is, not simply the Jesus of our expectations, because I just told the kids if Christmas is the season where God gave the greatest gift ever to the world, epiphany is the season where he unwraps it for us, so we can see what it is, and our expectations fall away like the bows and ribbons and wrapping paper under your Christmas tree, and you see the real Jesus. We see the child visited by men from the east, and worshipped as king of the Jews. We see the Lamb of God step into the waters of the Jordan river to fulfill all righteousness, he baptized into our sin, that we might be baptized into his righteousness, he into our death, that we might join him in life. We see the king of creation turn water into wine, the first of his signs that point people to the truth about his identity, that he is the son of God. We see him transfigured at the top of the mountain, shining with the glory that dims the sun, before finally seeing the fullest revelation of the Father’s love as he comes down from that mountain, climbs up on a cross to die the death that we deserve, in order that we might live the life that we don’t. That’s Jesus as God reveals him to us. That’s the Jesus revealed to us throughout epiphany, and that’s the real Jesus. The Jesus who comes to us today in ways that defy our expectations, the Jesus that comes to us today through his word, and not just sitting down and reading the Bible, but coming through all of his word, other devotional materials that show you God’s law and gospel, sitting here in this room, hearing the proclamation of God’s word for you, singing it to each other. When your children tell you stories about Jesus that they heard in Sunday school, this is all God coming to you through his word, proclaiming to you who Jesus is, to give you faith, and to strengthen your faith. Coming to you in his body and blood of the sacrament, of this altar, to strengthen you in faith toward him and love toward others. Small piece of bread, the sip of wine might not make the world’s expectations of greatness, but this is who our Lord has promised to be for us, come to us here as we worship together, gather together as the body of Christ in this place, kneeling together to confess our sin. Together, we hear the voice of other sinners, confessing their sin reminded that we’re not alone. We received the gift of forgiveness, reminder that the sinners around us are forgiven too, just as we are forgiven, and we set out to live in that forgiveness. Gathered here in the name of Jesus, he is among us as his people. When the world looks in from the outside, it just sees a gathering of like-minded individuals, but the reality exceeds the expectation. This is the dwelling place of our Lord. He is here through the words we sing as we praise him, as we encourage each other, as we teach each other. This is where and this is how our Lord comes to us. So Satan would have you doubt, he would have us worship our expectations instead of worshipping our Lord. He would have us stubbornly dig in our heels on the steps of the palaces of the world and demand that the king of the universe come to us there, in ways the world would respect and admire, but that’s not the God we have. Satan would have us act like a mule, and refused to be brought to Bethlehem, instead defiantly remaining in the temple courts of Jerusalem, demanding that our Lord show himself in the biggest and most recognizable religious buildings and institutions of our time, things the world would acknowledge, things the world would be proud of. But that’s not the Lord we have. We have the one found in the manger of Bethlehem, and so we follow the example of the magi. Don’t let the deceiver fool you into believing God only comes to you through grand displays of health and wealth and prosperity. Then rejoice in the one who is here for you now in his word, and his supper, in his church, the real Jesus. That’s the one who defies the world’s expectations, in order that he might give us more than the world can, more than we’ve ever dreamed. This is the real Jesus who saves us. This is Jesus for you. In God’s name, Amen.
All Dressed and Adorned
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Dear friends, in Christ, on this is the 7th day of Christmas, Merry Christmas. The Lord be with you. The text for this morning are basically all the texts this morning because they all have a similar ring, a similar tone, but especially to begin with Psalm 98 as part of our Introit, which we actually sang, you sang, you chanted. “The Lord has made known his salvation. He has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.” These are the words of the song, David of all people, talking about how the Lord has made known his salvation, and we thought it was just this Christmas that we got made known salvation, but not really. So as we begin things today I want to ask something because I’m very conscious of no children’s message today, but I want to ask kids as well as adults, because kids, I want to tell you something. You’re going to ask this question to someone for the rest of your life. I was just thinking the other day. I have asked this question to someone every year. “What did you get for Christmas?” and I remember especially as a kid, having a whole list. Some of my friends had a list a lot longer than me so I was careful who I asked, but anyway, “What did you get for Christmas?” and we can think of all kinds of things, and all of us have all kinds of things we can speak about and talk about that you finally got, or that you have no need of, or why does he keep giving me this when I don’t need it. I remember as a kid that when I was very young being quite disappointed in my grandparents on my dad’s side, who were quite proper, they were a little more in the English side of the family, and they would always buy an outfit and what I remember about it, there’s so much I would forget about the outfit, except that my mother always made a point because she knew that that was the last thing I was looking for on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day under the tree was a bunch of clothes, and she would always make a point, oh that is so wonderful Douglas, you don’t realize how wonderful a gift that is. She would talk me into that it was a really good gift so I would agree because I figured she knew what she was talking about. It’s not until a lot later in life that growing up, I realized you know really those were pretty nice gifts so little Dougie could look pretty good in the community and his parents could make him look good without too much effort. So what did you get for Christmas? There are all kinds of things but Isaiah, the Psalms, David all of these talk about garments, clothing, yeah, garments of salvation. Listen again to now Isaiah the Old Testament “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord.” Isaiah writes some 700 years or so before Jesus was born. “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness.” “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch. The nation shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.” Splendor and all the rest. So, see, Isaiah also likes garments as the gift from God, but garments that are different from the garments we are used to talking about at Christmas, but garments that have been put on to us by God himself as he has incorporated us into his name, incorporating us into his name, into his kingdom, into his life, into his salvation, and he has clothed us, he has not left us naked, like 2 sinners in a Garden long ago. He’s given us much more than simply a fig leaf, but he’s given us clothing, and how important it is to have these kinds of clothes., Isaiah writes. Isaiah reminds us these are real garments for you. So we think about garments a lot in our life, you and I know that garments and clothing is very important. It means that we can go out without shame covering up all these things that we don’t want others to know about or to see in our lives. Well we would know that as sins and some other blemishes that are in our little personalities some things that we’re ashamed about, that happened to us that if others would know this happened or if this is my family or if this is my whatever it is would be quite, quite embarrassing. So, they prevent a lot of that and it’s important for our identity: how are we looking right now? I remember when I was younger and starting out in in the ministry I remember a very popular book, and I read it because it was important book, and it was it was a best seller, you probably know about it, Dressing for Success. So, when you’re in the business community, when you’re in the working community, when you’re in the academic community, whatever community you’re in, when you’re going to school when you’re going to class, it’s important how you look and what you wear. For women, particularly, I remember one thing that sticks with me, is that for a woman, it is a good thing to wear dark rimmed glasses, because it exerts authority. I remember one of the members of our congregation showing up a few weeks later with a new pair of glasses because I knew she had heard that sermon when I talked about all this kind of stuff. Amazing, but clothing, garments, it’s all so important. They cover, they shield. Don’t go out without a coat, they protect. Uniforms, they project authority. All of these things are important and we take it for granted because it’s all about our garments. So here I am as a little boy getting garments for Christmas going “No I don’t need that, I need a pair of six guns, instead, bigger than me.” I got them the next Christmas. My life changed, but garments here and garments there. Now the other day I was in the gymnasium, just can’t even believe I say such a thing, I’m in the gym. It’s the place where all the machines are. They call it a gym. But I saw a shirt. This is the other thing about garments now, and today, oh you can put whatever you want on your garment, you know, your company, your slogan, what you believe in, what you don’t believe in, what you’re tired of hearing from other people, what do they want you to believe in, and all the rest. So you got all kinds of slogans, and I saw this young woman, and I realized oh she was quite with child, and she was exercising there, had a shirt on, and on the back of the shirt it simply said “Devour weakness.” Yeah, now that’s a good slogan in the gym because in the gym you’re trying to, well the best way you, can devour weakness, you can’t devour age, but maybe we can try the weakness bit, but I was going whoa, she something, really projecting herself out there and I thought she’s going to have a little baby, oh, you wait until weakness comes now you know. Your strength, where is it when you need it? But I thought what an interesting phrase, devour weakness, because it really does describe a lot in our society. You want to get ahead, you want to do anything, you’ve got to get rid of the weakness you got to be confident, you got to be strong. That’s an image that we live with day after day and we each put ourselves out there with it. Yeah he knows what he’s talking about I do that as a pastor. Yeah, he knows what he’s talking about. Just don’t ask any more questions. I’ve answered all I can answer. But today on this first Sunday after Christmas, when we come to the gospel of Luke, it is amazing, it is amazing what flies in the face of this phrase, devour weakness. Rather it is telling us about our newborn Savior, you know the one named Jesus, born to Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem, no room in the inn, and all the rest, well it continues now, when he’s 40 days old. Luke finds it very important to let us know that this Jesus, now early in life as soon as it’s possible according to custom and practice is in the temple. The temple has been the place of God’s people, the temple has been the place where forgiveness is proclaimed from the sacrifices that Yahweh has offered for the people of Israel. The temple is where life with God is to be found, and where do we find our newborn little 40-day year old baby. He’s just a baby, but in the temple with his parents, his mother for purification, but then he was there, which means that he was at least 40 days old. And there in the temple, you listen to how Luke describes it because who does he find in the temple? People of strength, people of character, people of repute? No, he finds a man whose name was Simeon. Now we don’t know how old Simeon was but we can tell it’s very consistent that he was toward the end of his upper years. I don’t know if he was going to the gym or not probably not, but Simeon was there, and Simeon who followed the scriptures, and followed the words of the Lord, and blurry, may be getting a little more clearer, Simeon clearly states something that we still sing in the church today, what we know “ Now let us depart…” the Nunc Dimittis, “Lord now let us depart in your peace according to your word.” He came up, Simeon, righteous and devout waiting for consolation and he said because it had been revealed to him, Luke says, by the Holy Spirit, that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ, Messiah and he took advantage, and so he came in the spirit into the temple, Simeon, and when the parents brought in the child, Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up “Lord now you are letting your servant depart in peace” literally that would say you are letting your servants be released in peace, sins released, this life released for the sake of the beautiful life in Christ. He saw this little one “For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for the revelation to the gentiles and for the glory of your people Israel.” That’s the church. Israel, those living in the covenant of this Lord’s promises of forgiveness and gracious love by his name. And his father and mother marveled, we would too. He likes our kid, but more than that they marveled at what was said about him, and Simeon blessed them and then he said to Mary his mother, now you figure how is this going to go in your circles when someone greets you if you have a newborn baby in your family and says what was written about him, Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, to the mother, he says this: “Behold this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel and for a sign that is opposed and a sword will pierce through your own soul also so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” Ooh a sword which pierces, which cuts through evil and good, a sword which reveals it all and exposes it all, this child. Yeah, and they marveled at what was said about him, but that’s what he said to the mother. Do you think that’s strength? This child what do you think this child has been born into weakness because he’s going to be an obstacle, and he’s going to be reviled, and he’s going to set people against people. That’s not my sign of how we begin a movement, begin a gracious big, big thing going for the Lord. So they marveled and then there was the prophetess Anna, who the same way that hour, recognized this child, this 40 day year old child, as someone to be adored and exalted and even worshipped. So there you have it. This child, what did they know about this child? because we know nothing of Jesus now, they knew nothing of Jesus except they brought this baby in and this is the one that’s it by God’s revelation to us. This child, well how’s that all going to turn out Simeon? How’s it going to look Anna? Well they would have no more idea than how your last day on earth would look to you today. You don’t know what that day is going to look like to you. I don’t know. We don’t know, but they knew that about this child. You see this is how the prophets of the Lord have worked through the ages. It’s kind of like when you go to the optometrist’ office, you know how they start, especially at my age, it starts out real blurry from the last prescription but then she puts that thing up, you know or he, and starts flipping, you know. Is this better, this better? Can you read those letters and you’re going “No.” Flip is this better? Yeah that’s better, but how about this? This better, this better, this better. It gets clearer and clearer so by the time you are out of that office in an hour you are like a new person seeing clearly what it is that you’re supposed to be seeing in everyday life including what you’re reading with your eyes that can’t seem to focus on their own but those corrective lenses, you see a clear picture of what it is written on the page for you. The prophets of the Lord are the same way. There are always these little views through the lenses that are more blurred but it’s the same letters, it’s the same words, it’s the same person, it’s the same Lord, and through the ages it becomes a little more clear, a little more clear, and here we are when Jesus is born and something has gotten very clear to Simeon and to Anna and that is that this child is the one Messiah. How that’s going to look?Well give Anna enough credit or Simeon enough credit for being a theologian. He knew that the Lord’s anointed one would be in a lot of opposition and a lot of conflict. He knew the weakness would be how Yahweh would redeem and put garments of salvation and righteousness onto his people. Amazing how this develops, and so Luke begins his gospel of Jesus Christ and as you follow Luke’s gospel and all the gospels, it would become very clear what is going to happen to Jesus, for not only them, for not only the nation Israel, the people of the Old Testament, I should say, in this case, but for you and for me. It will become very clear that this one will be given in weakness to the cross and by his weakness, not by his strength, but by his weakness, he will be given into death where his death will swallow all death. In other words, he will be given into the ultimate weakness of life that you and I wonder and worry about, death itself. This is how he is given for you and this is how he is going to clothe you, and has clothed you, and you continually are clothed in this righteousness and this salvation which is brighter than a diadem. And guess who’s going to notice. The people that know you and me the most, there’s a reason you put a robe on me, to be up in front of you, as the Lords appointed, or Lords ordained pastor, because people in my family know me too well. You don’t want that person up in front of you, and pastor Richert same way. Our kids know us too well. But you’re going to be known. It’s not about you. The world is going to know you because you have a Lord who loves and accepts even you, and a Lord who is the one who bears forth the light of this righteousness, his righteousness, given to you by the death of his Son, and the resurrection and the union into his name. You’ve been baptized into his death, just in the same way into his resurrection. The world knows you not because, “Look at him he’s a great Christian, isn’t he.” The world will know you because what kind of a Lord is this who is merciful to even someone like him, or her, even to a child, even to someone that’s got severe mental disabilities. What kind of Lord brings people like this into the light, into the shining dia,dem of his garments and his salvation? You know you think once in a while we’ve sung these little songs; I remember really misunderstanding this song, I’m going to give it to that, my misunderstanding but I think there are some who understand it differently, “This little gospel light of mine, I’m going to let it shine” and you know we’re supposed to get ready and leave and we’re going to let our light shine, which to many people means I’m going to be a better person. We don’t get three steps out the door from Sunday school or church, or whatever, and we’re still the same old person. People who know us, know that that. This Lord has given you something else, not because of you, not because of me, but because of his righteousness. This child who as Simeon says, is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel for a sign that is opposed. Pastor Paul says for whoever eats his body and blood, given for you, and shed for you on his cross, and resurrected again for you as a living body, and living blood, but given in the sacrifice, is now your body and your blood, and part of you, and you are alive and you are well, and you are well clothed, and you are well endowed with whatever it is you need, because he’s put everything of his onto you, for the forgiveness of sins, for life and salvation. So is it any wonder then that if the serving and the giving of the body and blood of the Lord in the ancient liturgies and the long-time energy of liturgies that the church often sings with communion we’ve done it here, sings the song of Simeon: Lord now let us thou thy servant depart in peace according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation. See it’s your light your reflection even on someone like me. And here’s this other little note in Luke: and when they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord with this little 40 day year old baby in all of his weakness and all of that, they returned into Galilee to their own town Nazareth. And we just read that go, Yep, I know the story, I know the answers to the questions. Where did Jesus grow up, children, boys, and girls, what is the answer? Where did Jesus grow up? In Nazareth, not Bethlehem. He’s born in Bethlehem but he’s raised in Nazareth where did he begin his ministry in Galilee, and all the rest. Well anyway they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth and the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom and the favor of God was upon him. So, I was asking Karen today like it’s Nathaniel that asks oh his fellow disciple, can any good come out of Nazareth? I mean if you’re going to start something, if you want to make it big, if you’re going to present a vision out there, with how this thing’s going to go with the church, what’s going to get the most pizzazz, and the most bang for the buck, and the most whoa, attention and wowisms, you’re not going to go to Nazareth because it’s out of the temple city, it’s away from those who are in the know and those who are in the authority and power of those days. You’re not going to go to Nazareth to begin a movement. You’re not going to go to Nazareth to start forming a coalition of all these groups of people that we’re going to bring together. We hear that so often in our society, our culture, all across the world, don’t we. Well, I’m going to tell you if you want to be a successful whatever, you’re not going to go to Nazareth. You got to get to the place where you can network and connect with people who are in in the know and in the authority and in the power of whatever it is we live in in our society. But this Lord doesn’t do it that way, and who does he find in Nazareth? People like you and people like me, people who just aren’t ready to be out there in every way. I don’t know about my confidence, I don’t know about any of that, but who does the Lord come to? You and me. His church now because of these garments placed on them. It’s the place of his salvation. His church come to his name and his alter to receive that which clothes them like a royal priesthood of garments and diadems and all the rest, the forgiveness of sins for you, this body this blood. And the rest of your family is looking at your parents, going even from my parents. Some of the best lessons of life are when your parents are here too. Yes, given and shed for you. This is the Lord. This is his splendor. This is his Christmas gift to you. What did you get for Christmas? We know what we got for Christmas and it’s not under the tree. It’s right here. The Lord’s name for you. Amen. The peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.
Deliverance
David’s Promised House
Grace, mercy and peace are yours from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Let us pray. O Lord send forth your word into our ears that it may bear fruit in our lives, in Jesus’ name, Amen. The Pentateuch is the first five books of the Old Testament and even though there’s five books, there’s really only one story, the story of how and why God dwelled among His people in the Tabernacle, in the Promised Land. In fact, if you know the Hebrew names for each of the books you know exactly what part of the story you’re in. Genesis basically means origin, and it tells us not only the origin of creation and of sin, but also the origin of God’s promised first Savior, and the origin of Israel, God’s people, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Exodus basically means exit, and it tells the part of the story where God’s people are led by the Angel of the Lord out of slavery in Egypt, brought to Mount Sinai, where God gives them the Law and over sees the construction of the Tabernacle. Leviticus has to do with the Levitical codes and laws that would govern Israel’s worship life. Numbers is actually a pretty poor English translation, based on the first word of the book. The Hebrew title has to do with the wilderness wandering. It’s called In the Wilderness It’s that part of the story where Israel fails to enter their inheritance and instead is sentenced to 40 years of wandering for their lack of faith. And then it ends with Deuteronomy, which basically means Second Law. It’s not a giving of a second law, it’s the second giving of the same law, the part of the story where Moses gives God’s law to the Israelites the second time. This time to a new generation of people. People who had been raised wandering in the wilderness. And on the doorstep of the Promised Land, more or less on the eve of his own death, Moses delivers God’s word to the people one last time. And part of Moses’s words in Deuteronomy include a promise, a very specific promise, a promise that the day would come in Israel when they would be given rest from all of their enemies, rest in the land that they were about to inherit. And when that day arrived, the people were to build a place in the Lord’s land where the name of the Lord would dwell. They were to build a temple for Yahweh. Fast forward 500 years to the life of David, to the story that we heard just a few moments ago. King David sat comfortably in his house. The Lord had given him a rest from all His enemies. He looked around at his circumstances and said to the prophet Nathan who am I that I should live in a House of cedar while God lives in a tent. I will make a house for the Lord. You see David thought he was living in the fulfillment of Moses prophecy. He thought it was time to build the Lord a temple. He wasn’t entirely wrong. There was general peace in Israel. The temple would be built one generation later by David’s yet to be born son Solomon. So, he wasn’t entirely wrong. It wasn’t really right either, so the word of the Lord came to Nathan, the prophet, and said, “I have lived in a tent since the days I brought Israel out of Egypt, and I didn’t tell any of the judges or priests or prophets to build me a palace did I, so go tell David, I don’t need you to build me a house, I don’t want you to build me a house. No David, I will build you into a great house, into a place where my people can dwell in safety. From you, will come the one who is the place where my people will live in peace. When your days are ended David, I will raise up your offspring who will come after you. I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to Him as a father and he will be my son. I will discipline him with the rod of men when he commits iniquity, but my steadfast love will never depart from him.” On the one hand that prophecy was partially fulfilled in the life of Solomon, and the line of kings that came from David, and ruled in Jerusalem for generations. Solomon did build a house for the Lord and the Lord did establish the line of David for nearly 20 kings in Jerusalem, but none of that was eternal. The line of David was cut off by the Babylonian captivity. Solomon’s temple was destroyed, and the people of God did not ultimately have rest from their enemies. So fast forward 500 more years to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man from the line of David, a man whose name was Joseph. The Angel Gabriel came to her and said, “Do not be afraid Mary. You have found favor with God. Look you will conceive in your womb and you will bear a son and you will call His name Jesus, and He will be called the son of the most high and the Lord will give to him the throne of His father David and He will reign over the House of Jacob forever and of His Kingdom there will be no end. An eternal throne, the son of David. This was the fulfillment of the prophecy that God first made for the people of the 1st century as well as for us today. The story of the Pentateuch is actually our story. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses, they are all our spiritual ancestors in the faith. We are the spiritual descendants of the Kingdom of David, and the son of David is our King, and He gives us rest from our enemies. He is the House of the Lord where we dwell in safety. Just think about the way the New Testament talks about baptism. It emphasizes the change of location. The phrase that we translate baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, almost always includes the Greek preposition eis, which means into just like you walk into a room and because you have walked into the room now you are in the room so also the New Testament says we are baptized into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and are now therefore in Christ. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ Jesus have now put on Christ, covered yourselves with Christ, like crawling into a tent and being covered from the rain by the canvas. All who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death and there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, and Jesus himself says whoever abides in me bears much fruit. In the New Testament one of the gifts of baptism is the gift of location, of being brought into the name of God so that now we live our lives free in Christ. I could promise you when the hurricane is raging outside, inside is where you want to be, in a strong and stable structure, one with hurricane windows, one with hurricane straps fastening your house down to the slab. Inside is where you want to be. But inside is exactly where you are. Jesus is your protection. Jesus is your fortress. Jesus is David’s promised house, the place where the people of God will rest securely from their enemies. And He’s also the one who was disciplined with the rod of men for His iniquity. That sounds strange. I mean Jesus didn’t commit any sin, but yet again, one of the gifts of baptism is that Jesus in His baptism stepped into the water made dirty by our sin and soak it all up into himself. Jesus did not commit sin, but like the scapegoat on the day of atonement the Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all. Your sin has been judged in the stripes of Jesus. My sin has been judged in the stripes of Jesus, but the steadfast love of the Lord did not depart from Him, and therefore will not depart from you. You are in Christ, so you are at peace. Today we lit the 4th candle on our advent wreath candle, the candle we call the peace candle. And like last week’s joy candle, peace is listed as fruit of the spirit and like joy, peace is not something God demands from you, something God gives to you. But it’s not simple serenity, it’s not just the absence of nuisance, it’s not just a quiet evening by the fire while the snow slowly falls outside and muffles the din of the outside world. No, the peace that God gives you is rest from your truest enemies. It’s a rest from sin. Rest from death. Rest from the devil. None of these can harm you for you dwell securely in Jesus. Sin can still tempt you, and we’ll certainly still fail, but our sins do not condemn us any longer. Our sin has been forgiven on the cross. It’s already been judged in baptism; we are in Christ. We have peace and death will still come knocking at our door, and it will still bring grief, but we do not grieve as if we have no hope. Our sin has been judged in baptism, by being united with Jesus, but so also, we have the hope of resurrection, of knowing that our Lord’s taken away the sting of death, and given us peace. And the devil will continue to rage, and froth, and foam, and hiss all He wants. We remain safe in Jesus. Yes, our lives will still have struggles and difficulties, and yes we will still sin, and yes death will still show up uninvited. The peace of the Lord is not an absence from all strife in this fallen world. It is the peace of knowing the big battles have already been won. When David’s Israel had rest from her enemies, they still had courts and judges to settle property disputes. Every nation that’s at peace still has police and people who still have long days at work, but the true peace that our Lord gives us is the peace of knowing that the great enemies, the great battles are not ours to fight. Those belong to Jesus and He has already won victory over them. We are safe in Him who is our house, the one who sits on the eternal throne, to lead and to protect His church. So, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation” and also hope, and faith, and joy, and peace for you. For you belong to him. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
First Things, Second Things
Grace, mercy, and peace are yours from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Amen. Let us pray. O Lord send forth your word into our ears that it may bear fruit in our lives, in Jesus’ name, Amen. As you no doubt just heard, today is Gaudete Sunday, the Sunday of joy, third Sunday in Advent, which is why we have our pink candle lit. The third Sunday gets its name, rejoice, because historically that’s the first word of the Introit for the third Sunday in Advent, in the one-year lectionary, but for us it’s been the theme and the first word of our gradual throughout the whole season of Advent. “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Your king comes to you.” And so also joy, the idea of joy, is present in our readings today. Isaiah speaks of rejoicing greatly in the Lord and exalting in God, “For He has clothed us with the garments of salvation and covered us with the robe of righteousness.” Paul tells us to rejoice always, and to give thanks in all circumstances. But to lay all my cards on the table, to be completely honest with you, I struggle with this one, I struggle with joy, and I think a lot of us do, because it seems so elusive. It’s always just out of reach. It’s here for a moment and then swept away by the cares and the concerns of daily life. We don’t always feel particularly joyful so it’s hard to know what to do with Paul’s exhortation to “Rejoice always.” When you think about the time of year that we’re in, people have big wooden cutouts in their front yard spelling out the word joy. We hear Christmas music that has joy as the main theme. But far too often we get a picture in our heads, or at least I get a picture in my head of Buddy the elf, bouncing up and down when He hears that Santa is coming to Gimbals. “I know Him” and we think that’s joy, that’s what I ought to be feeling, and sure at times, especially during the Christmas season, there are moments of excitement, and moments of Christmas joy. But doesn’t the thought of rejoicing, always, seem a little farfetched. Sometimes in response to this we’re encouraged to just choose joy, but it’s not that easy to change our feelings. A sense of sadness or frustration or helplessness won’t go away just because I want it to. How are we supposed to choose joy? How are we supposed to rejoice always? Like I said, this has been a struggle for me through most of my adult life. I don’t like fake cheerfulness. I don’t like having to pretend I’m not sad at a funeral. I don’t think I should have to hide feelings of grief and frustration behind the mask of a smile. It’s been an ongoing struggle for me, but recently, it seems like God has been drawing my attention to something significant about Christian joy, something different that’s come up several times in the last few weeks for me, and so I’d like to draw your attention to the same thing. In his book, The Little Book on Joy, our synodical president Harrison uses the example of a mountain to illustrate our experience of joy. He talks about three different experiences that he had with Mount Kilimanjaro. One time he was on an airplane, just flying overhead 20,000 feet above the peak, when all of a sudden, the pilot came on the intercom and said “You all will probably want to look out your window.” And when he did he saw the snow-covered crater at the top of the mountain, bursting through the clouds, glistening majestically above the layer of cloud that blocked any hope of seeing the ground. And then he talks about a second experience, on the return trip to Africa, where he once again saw the mountain, this time all the way in the distance, it wasn’t part of the itinerary. He just happened to be in the region and he was overwhelmed by the breadth of it even from 50 miles away. Seeing the mountain in its entirety, left Him speechless. Then he talks about a third encounter. The end of that same trip, when he decided he and the rest of his group that they ought to go to the mountain, to see it up close, to hike in its foothills as much as they could. But when they got there, the clouds were once again circling the peak, but this time he wasn’t in an airplane, looking down at it. This time, this time, the clouds obscured the top, and instead of seeing the grandeur of the mountain, he was left to trek through the muddy foothills unable to see the top. One mountain, three experiences, and the point that he makes at the end of it is that the first two glimpses of the mountain were unexpected. He just happened to be flying overhead. He happen to see it on the horizon and it was only in his intentional effort to see the mountains up close that his view became obscured. And he goes on to illustrate these experiences as a way to think about joy in the Christian life. We experience it most fully when we’re not looking for it. When we set out to find it, it’ll be obscured by the clouds and rain of life’s hardships, leaving us struggling in the mud, wishing we could see the peak. It’s what CS Lewis calls first things and second things. He says that second things in life are meant to be enjoyed, but not sought after. Second things, like joy, contentment, for peace. If we set out looking for contentment, we’ll never find it. Instead, when we focus on the gifts the Lord has given us, or when we focus on the gifts of our life and trust in our Lord to continue to provide for us, well we find ourselves content. Or if we set out looking for peace, peace will always elude us, and so instead, when we remember that the Lord of all creation has redeemed us and called us by name, then nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, that since God is for us, nothing can be against us. When we remember these things, well then of sense of peace settles in eve in the midst of life’s most difficult times. So also, joy. If we set out looking for joy, we will return empty handed, but if we seek the first things, the second things will be added to us. It’s the concept that served as the basis for the title of Lewis’s autobiography Surprised by Joy. If you set out looking for it, you’ll never find it. It only comes as a surprise. And Pastor Wolfmueller recently described it as the boomerang effect. A boomerang does not fly straight. If you aim the boomerang at the thing you’re trying to hit, you will inevitably miss. So also, if we aim our life at joy or at contentment, we’ll miss. For none of those things are meant to be an end unto themselves. Over the last several weeks, these things have just been popping up before me and so I’m forced to wonder if maybe my struggle with joy is that I have been treating it as if it was the first thing, as if it was a destination, and unto itself instead, of a byproduct of the journey. Perhaps I have been treating joy like it was an expectation God has placed upon me, rather than a gift that God has given to me, something I must achieve, something I must measure, so that I can make sure I’m doing this whole Christian life thing the right way. I heard another pastor describe it like this: he says joy and happiness, they’re not the same thing. Happiness depends on happenings. I’m happy when my team wins. I’m happy when my family’s on vacation together. I’m happy when it’s sunny on a Friday afternoon and I can take a half day and head over to tin can alley for a long lunch. The happiness goes away when the happening is changed, when it’s raining or cloudy on a Friday afternoon, when I’m feeling under the weather, when my car needs a costly repair. Happiness depends on happenings, but not so joy. Joy is different. Joy is a fruit of the spirit, along with love and peace, patience, kindness, and the rest. Or Psalm 16, the Psalm that we studied or thought about last Wednesday in our morning prayer says this: “In your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” And as we just talked about with the children, the news of joy that the angels brought that first Christmas was that Jesus had come, that Christ was born. The joy in the scriptures is not something that’s commanded from us, it’s promised to us. And we don’t get it by looking for it or choosing it, we get it as the byproduct of being in the presence of our Lord, by being in the presence of our Savior, by being made alive by His Spirit. No one gets joy by chasing joy, but because you have Jesus, joy is already yours, even when you don’t feel it, even when you feel sad or anxious, frustrated by life, disappointed and worried, joy is yours. Maybe think about those optical illusions, those old 3D pictures that were so popular in the 90s. I’m going to be honest. It’s not just the 90s. I saw one the other day and texted it to my kids. It looked like a bunch of squares at first glance, but if you unfocus your eyes just a little bit, if you sort of look through and past the picture, then all of a sudden, a dozen circles came into focus. You saw the thing by not looking for the thing, by not looking at the thing. Maybe that’s how we should think about joy. Maybe the answer is just stop trying to feel joyful, to stop looking for joy. Instead to look for something else. That was Paul’s encouragement to the Galatians. “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” Joy is already yours, because joy comes with the spirit and you have the spirit, the spirit of God lives in you, so instead of chasing after joy, chase first the Kingdom of God and all these other things will be added to you. And to put it a bit more practically, instead of looking for joy, look for Jesus. Go where He has promised to be. Find Him in his Word. Come to His church to have your sin forgiven. Come to His altar to be fed the food of immortality, to be strengthen in faith toward Him and love toward others, and then leave this place to live what Paul calls the life of faith working through love. Live, love in the vocations that God has given you. If I try to count, I wonder how many of the times that I’ve consciously remembered experiencing joy were found in my God-given vocations. An experience as a husband, or a dad, or a son, or a brother, or a coach, or a teacher, or a pastor. My guess is that it’s all of them. All the experiences of joy that I’ve had in my life were found in my vocations. God gives us the gift of joy, and then we experience that joy in loving and serving the people that God has placed into our lives. It is just as simple as that. So rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, because this is God’s will for you in Jesus Christ, not God’s will, in the sense that He demands it from you, but God’s will in that He wants to give it to you. This is His desire for you, that your life would be a life of joy, and prayer, and thankfulness. And so, it is. He’s already giving you His Spirit so He has already given you these things. So as Paul says, don’t quench the spirit, let Him do his work in delivering God’s gifts to you. Don’t seek joy, seek the Lord where He may be found in his Word, here at his altar. Live your life of faith toward God and love toward others, love and serve in your vocations, not to make yourself right with God, but because you already are. Seek first the Kingdom of God and then joy, and peace, and patience and all the rest will be added to you. That is God’s promise for you. So may the peace of God sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, and soul, and body be kept blameless until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful. He will give you joy. He will surely do it. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
The Lord Comforts His People
Grace, mercy, and peace are yours from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Let us pray. O Lord send forth your word into our ears that it may bear fruit in our lives in Jesus’ name, Amen. What’s at the top of your Christmas list this year, the very top, the one thing you want more than anything else. Is it electronic, some kind of gadget, maybe. Maybe it’s clothing, a specific article of clothing that you want, or maybe it’s an experience, not a thing at all, a vacation, trip to Disney, or cruise, maybe a week on the beach and an all-inclusive resort. Maybe it’s not a thing at all. Maybe it’s a person maybe it’s people, maybe it’s having your whole family gather together under one roof to celebrate together. Maybe it’s that child or grandchild or niece or nephew who was deployed, hoping to get returned home safely. What’s the top of your Christmas list this year? But maybe we should think a little bit bigger than Christmas. Maybe it’s not just what’s at the top of your Christmas list, maybe it’s what’s the one thing that you’re lacking if you had it would make all the difference in the world to you. The one thing. Everyone could use a little extra income, pay down some debts, save a little more for retirement. But I’m guessing it’s more fundamental than that. I’m guessing it’s some sort of relationship, maybe you’re missing a parent that’s gone to be with Jesus, maybe you’re longing for a godly husband or wife, maybe you miss your adult kids, maybe you wish you had kids of your own, or maybe you have kids of your own and you just want a break. Maybe you need to know that you’re not alone in this life, maybe you just want to know that there’s someone there to help, someone to walk with you, someone to be with you to share life experiences, someone to give you hope for the future. Maybe hope is at the top of your list this year. That’s what Israel wanted Israel wanted, hope, especially in the days of captivity. That’s what they needed, even if they didn’t know they needed it, even if they couldn’t put it into words. They needed hope, they needed to know they weren’t alone, to put it another way they needed comfort. You see Israel had seen itself as God’s chosen people for generations. God had chosen Abraham, God had blessed his descendants, God had delivered them from Egypt and established them in the promised land. He had protected them from the Philistines and other enemies in the days of the judges, He’d established them as a kingdom in the days of Saul, and they flourished under David and Solomon. More than that, Israel had the temple of the Lord. They had the priests who regularly performed sacrifices on their behalf, and they traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, to celebrate Pentecost. They had no reason to doubt that they were God’s people, and that He was their God. In fact, they were so confident of this, that they began to take it for granted. The kingdom split in civil war. They built a new temple in the north to mimic what was happening at the temple in Jerusalem. They set up a new capital city, a second palace for the second king, but they still saw themselves Abraham’s descendants. They still saw themselves as the people of God. They welcomed in the idolatry of the neighboring nations, setting up altars to Baal, setting up the Asherah poles, worshipping Dagon, or Molech, or whatever other idols were popular at the time, but they still saw themselves as Abraham’s descendants. They still saw themselves as the people of God. They adopted the economic practices of the neighboring nations; they stopped treating each other as the chosen people of God. Instead, the rich oppressed the poor, their judges took bribes, their kings and their queens were corrupt, their priests were corrupt, the official prophets that worked in the palace were corrupt. Through it all they still saw themselves Abraham’s descendants. They still saw themselves as the people of God, until the captivity, until the Assyrians, until the Babylonians, until their temple was destroyed, until their homes were destroyed, until they were taken off in chains, forced to live in a home that was not the Promised Land, forced to live in a land that did not belong to their God. They were lost. They lost their confidence that they were God’s people. After all, how could they be God’s people if they didn’t have their temple anymore? How could they be God’s people if they didn’t live in the land God promised? How could they be God’s people if God did not deliver them from their enemies as he had once delivered His people from Egypt? They lost their identity. They lost their hope. The prophet Jeremiah wrote about the plight of Israel in the book of Lamentations. This is what he says, “How lonely sits the city that was once full of people! She has become like a widow, she who was great among the nations. She who was a Princess among the provinces has now become a slave. She weeps bitterly in the night with tears on her cheek. Among all her lovers, she has none to comfort her and her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies.” Did you hear it? Jeremiah says Jerusalem has no one to comfort her. In fact, five times in the opening chapter to Lamentations, Jeremiah laments the fact that Jerusalem has no one to comfort her. She has been conquered because of her sin. Her inhabitants have been carried away into slavery. The people of God are people in need of comfort, but they have no one to comfort them. So they begin to ask themselves “Has God abandoned us? Have we gone too far in our sin. Are we still the people of God?” Questions which the Lord heard. Questions which he had already answered to the prophet Isaiah a century earlier. “Comfort, comfort my people,” says the Lord, and the word comfort there is not spoken directly to the people to soothe their worries. No, it’s an imperative, this is a direction. “Go comfort my people,” says the Lord. It’s a direction given to another. One who was to speak God’s word, and that word is comfort. And don’t miss the fact that God tells the speaker to comfort my people, even though they’re still in Babylon, even though they’re taken away into captivity, even though they don’t have their temple, even though they don’t have their homes, they are still the people of God, at least from His point of view. And so He sends a messenger to speak a word of comfort, a comfort not based on the righteousness of Israel, no comfort based on the faithfulness of God. In the midst of captivity, God speaks comfort. “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. She has received double. Double what? Double judgment. No double comfort. “Comfort, comfort my people.” What a beautiful message of our Lord. What a beautiful picture of our Lord’s faithfulness. In the midst of Israel’s sin, in the midst of her idolatry, her injustice, her indifference to the Word of the Lord, in the midst of all of it, God remains faithful. He is their God. They are His people, and when they think they have no hope, when they think they have no comfort God sent His prophet to speak comfort. To tell her that her warfare is ended, even though they’re still in Babylon, even though they can’t see it yet. So, we have a picture here of how our Lord deals with us His church today. For like Israel of old, our lives and our behavior do not well reflect our calling as the people of God. We are quick to absorb the idolatry of our neighbors, we’re not as charitable as we could be with those who are in need, we’re prone to taking bribes, maybe not of money maybe it’s just the bribery of a boost in reputation, of being liked and accepted by the world around us. Like Israel of old, we live in captivity of sorts. We soldier through our days in this fallen creation, knowing that this is not the way things are meant to be, captive to broken relationships, captive to broken lives, captive to disease, captive to death, captive to people who hurt each other. And like Israel of old, maybe we wonder at times if God has forgotten us. Has He abandoned us here, just left us to our own devices. To use the words of Lamentations once more are we just like Zion, stretching out our hand for comfort, but finding no one there, finding no one to comfort. No, we’re not. In a word, no we are not, we do have someone to comfort us. We have the Word of our Lord’s comfort and the Word of the Lord stands forever. The glory of the Lord has been revealed. It’s been revealed in His Son. Jesus has come. Jesus has reconciled us to the Father. Jesus has made all things new. Jesus now tends His flock like a shepherd. He gathers His lambs into His arms, He carries them in His bosom, and He gently leads those who are with young. Jesus speaks words of comfort to you, His church to you, His people. He is here to forgive your sin, to the voice of one He has given for your comfort. He is here to feed you heavenly food, to comfort you, to strengthen you, to nourish you for life’s journey. He surrounds you here with your brothers and sisters in Christ to pray for you, to encourage you, to cry with you, to laugh with you, to remind you that you are never alone. He is here to comfort you, to remind you of the hope that is yours through Christ Jesus, our Lord. Here with comfort. So, I don’t know what’s the top of your Christmas list, and truth be told, I don’t really even know what’s at the top of mine. One thing I do know. The Lord is here for your comfort. You are still His people. He has not forgotten you. He has not abandoned you, and He never will. You have hope, for you have Jesus. So may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. In Jesus’ name, Amen.