Reflection: That Times of Refreshing May Come (April 22, 2012)

The Third Sunday of Easter
Acts 3:11-21; 1 John 3:1-7; Luke 24:36-49

Many people have grown weary of the problems brought on by the lingering recession. Hopes for a quick recovery are long gone and hopes for an eventual recovery seem to waver daily. Good news is mixed with bad news on Wall Street and Main Street. We're weary of the conflicts in the Middle East, the gloating of China, and the defiance of North Korea and Iran. We see our superpower status slipping away from us and we can't seem to do much about it. Meanwhile, Europe is in worse shape than we are — which causes a lot of anxiety about which countries will take leadership roles in our world. Americans need something refreshing. Unfortunately, we don't know where that refreshment will come from. We look for it in political candidates, Congress, the stock market, statistical trends, and a host of other people and places, but the times of refreshing continue to elude us.

Times of refreshing often come in ways that we don't expect. When the disciples had locked themselves in a room to hide from their enemies, they were never so low in spirits and so lost in direction. Every hope and dream that they had dared to imagine while Jesus was with them had been crushed and scattered. At this worst of times, Jesus came to them with the refreshing word of God's peace. After opening their minds to the Scriptures, He told them that they would soon be His instruments to bring refreshment to others. When that time came, Peter stood before a people who had lost their superpower status centuries before, lived under occupations by a series of foreign powers, and longed without hope for their days of glory to proclaim the unexpected way to the times of refreshing: repentance.

As much as we desire the times of refreshing in our lives, we are reluctant and skeptical about finding refreshment in repentance. We prefer to think that we can continue to pursue the ways that have brought us to this point — our greed, materialism, self-centeredness, and living for pleasure — and usher in the times of refreshing too. We don't want to acknowledge these ways as sinful. We certainly don't want to turn away from them, change our lives, and abandon our lifestyles. God's grace is calling us to repent — to turn away from these failed ways and turn back to Him — not as a burden or a punishment, but "that the times of refreshing may come from the Lord."

Audio file of the sermon based on this reflection

Devotion: Washed By His Blood (Hebrews 9:11-14)

 Audio file of this devotion 

¹¹ When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation.  ¹² He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.  ¹³ The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.  ¹⁴ How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!  (Hebrews 9:11-14)

Health officials encourage us to wash our hands frequently in order to reduce the spread of disease.  Our hands tend to collect all kinds of undesirable things, like germs, viruses, and bacteria.  While hand sanitizing lotions and wipes have become common and popular, washing your hands with soap and water remains the best way to protect yourself and others.  However, no matter how well you wash your hands you are certain to have to wash them again.  There is no washing that will remove dirt, germs, viruses, and bacteria from our hands once and for all.

What's true of our outward uncleanness was certainly true of the spiritual uncleanness of God's people under the sacrificial system of the old covenant.  The blood that was taken from the animals slain on the altar effectively washed away the sins of the people bringing those sacrifices, but it was a process that had to be repeated over and over again.  Even more quickly than our hands pick up new germs, the people washed by the blood of the sacrifices were made unclean by their sinful thoughts, words, and actions.  There was no once and for all sacrifice for them.  But that changed when "Christ came as high priest."

God established all of the ceremonial things that were before Jesus (i.e., "the good things that are already here") in order to point us to Him.  The elaborate tabernacle and its far more spectacular replacement in the temple were man-made models of the heavenly tabernacle through which Jesus went.  The high priests went through the earthly models with the blood of animals to secure the forgiveness of sins for themselves and God's people.  In the "more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made" Jesus presented a blood sacrifice that was unlike any that had been offered previously.  Not only did His blood provide a washing that makes people inwardly clean, it filled all of the blood of goats and calves and bulls that had previously been offered with the power of forgiveness.  Apart from His blood, these blood sacrifices had been powerless .  But they were never pointless.

As God's people waited, watched, and longed for the promised "Crusher" they lived their lives in service to the living God.  Mindful of their sins, they knew that they could not serve Him rightly.  Desiring His fellowship and wanting to be acceptable in His sight, they faithfully made use of the sacrificial system that God had put in place for the washing away of their sins through blood.  Without these sacrifices they could not serve God.  Every time they failed to serve Him in purity of heart and mind they had to repeat the sacrifices. Each time these sacrifices were repeated they were restored — and they looked forward all the more to the day when the Messiah would deliver them from their sins fully and finally so that nothing would stand in the way of their serving the Lord.  But, like us imagining a hand wash that would make our hands clean for the rest of our lives, they could not have imagined that God would shed His own blood to make them forever  inwardly clean.

When Jesus offered up His life on the Cross of Calvary He passed through the perfect, heavenly tabernacle with the only offering that could satisfy the justice of God the Father and forever appease His wrath.  The washing of His blood makes us clean fully and forever.  Even though we may (and do) sin daily and much, we remain clean.  We have been washed by His blood and set free to serve the God who has saved us.  He has given us clean and clear consciences that enable us to come into His presence.  Nothing — no sinful thought, word, or action, no accusation, no shortcoming or failure — hinders us from serving the living God.

Reflection: What Have We Seen and Heard? (April 15, 2012)

The Second Sunday of Easter
Acts 4:32-35; 1 John 1:1-2:2; John 20:19-31

Observing young children at play will quickly reveal what they have heard and seen. Much of what they express is actually their interpretation and playing back of the things that have been said to them or the actions that they have observed in others, especially their parents and caregivers. Sometimes entertaining, sometimes saddening, the words and actions of young children are always mirrors reflecting what they have heard and seen.

Those who are the children of God have heard and seen His mercy and grace in the things experienced by faith. In the first generation of believers, some of those children had actually heard and seen Jesus in His earthly ministry. One of them, the Apostle John, was inspired to write to the Church to clearly share the Gospel and disprove the false teachings about Jesus that people had introduced. John could write about Jesus and His work as that "which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes." But he also told those to whom he had proclaimed "what we have seen and heard" that they had the same fellowship with Jesus through His Word and Spirit. John reminded them of what they had seen and heard by faith and then called them to live their lives as reflections of it. A good example of what he was talking about is found in the in Acts 4:32-34 when all the believers were "one in heart and mind" and shared their possessions so that "there were no needy persons among them." They responded to hearing and seeing the grace of God by freely making use of their material possessions to bring God's love to others. It's little wonder that when people saw their actions they held the Christians in high regard.

We are the current generation of those who have heard and seen the grace and mercy of God in Christ Jesus. Like many generations before ours, we have not touched Him with our hands or heard Him with our eyes, but we are eyewitnesses of Him and the work He has done in us. We are among those "who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20:29). What do the people of the world see in us as we live our lives in response to God's goodness? What do they conclude about what we have heard and seen by observing us? What are we playing back and why? Our actions, words, hopes, and priorities — our very lives —will certainly reflect what we have heard and seen in the grace and mercy of God in Christ Jesus.

Audio file of sermon based on this reflection 

Devotion: Be Careful Who You Listen To (Jeremiah 23:16-22)

¹⁶ This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD.  ¹⁷ They keep saying to those who despise me, 'The LORD says: You will have peace.' And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say, 'No harm will come to you.'  ¹⁸ But which of them has stood in the council of the LORD to see or to hear His word? Who has listened and heard his word?  …  ²¹ I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied.  ²² But if they had stood in My council, they would have proclaimed My words to My people and would have turned them from their evil ways and from their evil deeds."  (Jeremiah 23:16-22)

To a person unfamiliar with the Christian faith, the wide variety of teachings and practices of the faith in our culture must be very confusing.  How can a single religion have so many different — even contradictory — expressions?  What's more surprising than reaction of the outside person's look at our faith is how we don't seem to be troubled by all of this.  We've grown accustomed to the differences in teachings and we've embraced the variety of practices.  We've even come to accept them as good because they offer variety and give people choices — and choice is idolized in our culture.  Beyond the confusion that all of this creates for people outside of the Church, the broad spectrum of teachings accepted within American Christianity opens us up to being seduced by teachings that appeal to us rather than being faithful to God's Word even when it is not to our liking.  We share the problem that Jeremiah addresses when he shared the Word of the Lord.  In so many words, Jeremiah was warning the people of God to be careful who they were listening to.  Wisdom we would do well to take to heart.

There are many things that are taught by church leaders that are meant to appeal to us.  The Christian message has been cleverly and expertly packaged in order to capture our attention and appease our affections.  In a world driven by consumer demands and fueled by seductive advertising, "successful" churches have found the techniques of Madison Avenue useful for increasing their numbers, their income, and their influence.  Everything from youth programs that are little more than giant parties to worship services that are nothing more than rock concerts are marketed with professional advertising that rivals corporate America.  It's justified by its results.  It works because it gives people what they want.  Shoppers go from church to church in search of the latest and greatest.  Churches that don't keep up and offer what people want will see attendance drop off.  Churches that insist on telling and teaching the truth of God's Word will quickly discover that they can't compete in this marketplace.  The temptation to tell people what they want to hear is as ever present as the desire of people to be told what they want to hear.

 

The problem Jeremiah faced and we now face is a problem that has always challenged God's people.  As long as we are willing to listen to false teachers we will be troubled by them.  Paul wrote to Timothy that "the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear." (2 Timothy 4:3).  In our time people want to hear about how they can be prosperous in the world and still have God's favor.  They don't want to make sacrifices for the sake of the Kingdom.  They ignore Jesus' call to the Cross and look for a way to be rich in this world and have heavenly riches too.  This is called the theology of glory and there is "a great number" of church leaders who are willing to teach it and eager to live it.  The theology of glory is nothing new.  Martin Luther contended against it in 16th Century Germany.  In the theses he wrote for the Heidelberg Disputation Luther wrote, "A theologian of glory calls evil good and good evil. A theologian of the cross calls the thing what it actually is." (Thesis 21).   Luther understood that the Word of God calls us to the Cross, a call that includes hardship, suffering, self-denial, and sacrifice — all the things that glory theologians call evil.  But the call to the Cross also includes incomparably good things, especially salvation and eternal life.  The Cross is the only way to these blessings.  Those who refuse this call in order to have what they want in this world will miss out on them — even if the voices calling them away from the Cross to glory are coming from respected, popular, and successful church leaders.  This is why we must be careful who we listen to.

"Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD" (Jeremiah 26:13).  The word that is from the mouth of the Lord will always point us to the Cross, call us to repentance, and turn us away from the world.  It has been spoken so that we will have eternal life in Christ.  We should be careful to listen to it and only it — and will be blessed when we do.

Reflection: The Renewal of Resurrection (April 8, 2012)

Easter Sunday
Isaiah 25:6-9; 1 Cor. 15:1-11; Mark 16:1-8

The account of the Resurrection found in the Gospel of Mark leaves a lot to be desired. While we can appreciate the grief, fear, and confusion of the women as they made their way to the tomb very early in the morning and we can understand why they were alarmed at finding an angel sitting in the opened and otherwise empty tomb, we can't be satisfied with their leaving that tomb after hearing the good news that Jesus had risen "trembling and bewildered." How could they flee from that place in fear and hide away this marvelous news as though it had not completely changed their lives, their world, their everything? How is it that we can do the same thing in response to the Resurrection?

In the renewal of the Resurrection, people who were afraid are made brave, those who are without hope are filled with certainty, and the enemies of God are changed by His grace into His children and friends. What was dead is made alive in the Resurrection and the renewal it brings. Paul experienced this and shared it with the church in Corinth. He said that before the Resurrection came to him he was someone who had been "abnormally born." In the darkness of his ignorance and arrogance, Paul had so thoroughly opposed God's grace that he persecuted the Church. But that grace changed everything for Paul. He went from being God's enemy to becoming God's chosen instrument for sharing the Resurrection with the world.

How will we respond to the Resurrection we celebrate today? Dare we return to the trembling caused by the fears that bound us before Christ freed us from sin and death? Will we remained confused about who we are in Christ and continue our bewildered silence? Or will we seek the renewal of resurrection and let God reshape us from those "abnormally born" into objects of His grace?

The Resurrection has completely changed our lives, our world, our everything. It leaves no room in our lives for fear. It calls us to address the tremendous need in our world by breaking our silence. It empowers us to be bold and brave witnesses of how the Resurrection of Jesus has changed everything. As we read in the other Gospels, this is exactly how the women who visited the tomb responded once they embraced the renewal of the Resurrection.

Audio file of the sermon based on this reflection

Poem: Come and See that Christ Is Risen

Come and see that Christ is risen,

Death is defeated, sin forgiven,

Rejoice all you who follow Him.

At the tomb come hear the angels’ story

That Jesus Christ has risen in glory,

“Seek not the living ‘mong the dead.”

Our sin, His mortal wound,

Death and the cold, dark tomb

Now are vanquished

And those who’ve pleaded and have languished

Have seen the day of their release.

Come and touch the wounds that mark Him

Whom demons fear and angels harken,

The true and only Son of God.

For three days death fought to hold Him,

But now alive in flesh behold Him,

He lives, the first fruits of the dead.

Behold His side was pierced,

The thorns and nails and spear

Once did mar Him,

And even in His glory scar Him,

Are now but signs of our release.

Come and hear the world rejoicing,

The earth and sea and mountains voicing

The news that Jesus lives again.

At His feast come taste His glory

And hear again His wondrous story,

Jesus is risen from the dead.

He lives, we shall not die,

He reigns, we’ll live on high,

Alleluia,

We sing again Lord, Alleluia,

And pray soon for our full release.

(c) Rev. Mark A. Wood

Reflection: The Renewing Prayer of Dying (April 6, 2012)

Good Friday
Psalm 116:1-9, 12-15; Luke 23:26-45; Matthew 27:46-56

"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints" (Psalm 116:15) is a beautiful reminder that death is the "gate through which the righteous enter" into the presence of God (Psalm 118:20). To die in Christ is the goal of our Faith. We actually look forward to death as our release from the sorrows and suffering of this world. As Christians, we are not afraid of death. But dying may be another story.

Much of our fear and concern about dying is based in what is unknown to us. We don't know what it will be like to go through the process of dying. We have reservations about the pain, suffering, and helplessness that we see others experience in their dying. We don't want to burden others. We don't want to be incapable of caring for ourselves, restricted from doing the things that we want to do, or lose our faculties. If given the choice, we'd choose a quick and painless death over a prolonged process of dying. But that's not an option for us. In reality, we are dying right now and we have already died.

We are dying now because our world is fallen. All creation is in a state of dying a death that is so slow that it is easy to convince ourselves that we are not dying. When we live as though we are not dying we tend to lose our perspective on life. Eventually, when the reality of our dying becomes evident, that perspective is restored. Our prayers of dying renew our understanding of the life that we have because of the death we've already died.

The death we've died is a spiritual death. It is a real death for us that gives us hope and insight as we progress through the physical dying that we are now experiencing. Our spiritual death is also connected to physical dying because it took place when we were joined to the death of Jesus. We died a real death with Him when we were buried with Him in Baptism. Joined to Christ like this, we look to His dying on the Cross to learn from Him how to die. We learn that He did not choose a quick and painless death but entered our fallen world, became like us, and took on our sins to experience the full process of dying. His prayers of dying become most intense as He hanged on the Cross where He won the ultimate renewal for us in His precious death.

Audio file of the homily based on this reflection 

Poem: For What Sad Crime

For what sad crime does He receive

The blows across His brow and face?

The sin is mine, the penalty,

In love, Lord Jesus takes my place.

Oh glorious grace, which goes beyond what I can know,

His mercy and unfailing love in tattered flesh the cross now go.

For which kind deed does He deserve

This cruel fate upon the tree?

He only came to work and serve

And then to hang in place of me.

Lord Jesus Christ why did You choose this suffering?

Why do You go on to the cross, You Who creation hails as King?

What did He say that He should die

Before the world in sad disgrace?

He promised us, He cannot lie,

That He would suffer in our place.

Oh darkest day that sees our Lord laid in the grave,

And darker still that He should die by those He came in love to save.

What can I do to pay this debt,

To offer back what You have given?

You saved me Lord, saved me from death,

And gave me life with You in Heaven.

What mystery, for though my sins strike mortal wounds

You carry them onto the hill and bury them within Your tomb.

(c) Rev. Mark A. Wood

Reflection: The Renewing Prayer of Betrayal (April 5, 2012)

Maundy Thursday
Psalm 55:1-22; Mark 14:12-50

Michael Card's song "Why?" captures the essence of betrayal: 

Why did it have to be a friend

Who chose to betray the Lord?

Why did he use a kiss to show them?

That's not what a kiss is for.

Only a friend can betray a friend,

A stranger has nothing to gain,

And only a friend comes close enough

To ever cause so much pain.

Judas was close to Jesus. He had walked with Him, served with Him, and lived with Him for three years. Judas was a trusted member of Jesus' inner circle. He was a friend. He had to be. Only a friend can betray a person.

Betrayal cuts deep. It wounds us like no other wrong because it is always done by someone whom we have loved and trusted. When we are betrayed we are sent reeling. Having been betrayed by one friend, we are unsure of whom we can turn to for comfort, support, and encouragement. One betrayal breeds fear of further betrayals. No one is above suspicion when we've been so intimately wounded and wronged.

King David was no stranger to betrayal. His experience with having a trusted friend turn against him is captured in Psalm 55, his prayer of betrayal. "If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend …" Devastated by being betrayed by his close friend, a fellow believer who had worshipped together with him at the Temple, David cries out to the Lord. He cannot turn to anyone else because of the fear of further betrayal. He knew that God would not betray him, that God could not betray him. God is incapable of the lies and deceit that foster betrayal. He is the only friend who cannot betray us.

Recognizing that God cannot betray us heightens the injustice of Judas' betrayal. Not only did he betray a friend, he betrayed the one friend that he had who would never betray him. But then, so do we. Our laments over the betrayals we suffer must be tempered by the ways that we have betrayed our friends, especially the one Friend who would never betray us. In answer to our prayers of betrayal — those done to us and those we do — God's renews us with His faithfulness.

Audio file of the homily based on this reflection.

Poem: Servant's Song (Maundy Thursday)

Servant's Song 

(Melody:  Morning Star,  Lutheran Service Book # 400, 

Brightest and Best of the Stars of the Morning)

Come and behold Him, our Lord and our Savior,

Down on His knees with their feet in His hands,

Why has our God, our Salvation, our Creator

Humbled Himself, in the servant's place now stand?

Could His example be for our learning?

Could He be showing the way that we should live?

Are we like Judas with eyes and hearts now turning

To earthly treasures and from the life He gives?

Short is the meal that they share in celebration,

Soon swords and clubs will meet Him in the night,

Then those He loves will without hesitation

Shatter their promise and for their lives take flight.

Grant that I'd choose to stand with You Jesus,

To be a servant, to walk the way You've shown,

To live a life that You and the Father pleases,

Know Your example and make it my own.

Where I have failed to live as You have called me,

All of the ways I’ve betrayed You and Your will,

Let me find peace in the grace that You give freely,

Pardon and joy in Your precious Holy Meal.

Come and behold Him, the God of all Creation,

Present in ways that we cannot comprehend,

Eat of the body pierced for your salvation

And drink the blood that for you He has shed.

(c) Rev. Mark A. Wood

Reflection: Getting Nowhere with Jesus (April 1, 2012)

Palm Sunday
Zechariah 9:9-12; Philippians 2:5-11; John 12:12-19

When Jesus rode into the city of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, He was met by large crowds of people shouting triumphant slogans. Their words represented hundreds of years of anticipation. They were acknowledging Jesus as the promised Messiah — their King, Deliverer, and Savior all wrapped up into one. But not everyone was welcoming Him. The Pharisees, who had become Jesus' fiercest adversaries, rejected the thought that He could be the Messiah. They had tried to persuade the crowds that Jesus was a hoax. They had attempted to trap Jesus to discredit Him. They even confronted Jesus with their rules and traditions. Nothing worked. Looking over the jubilant crowd, the Pharisees realized that all of their efforts had failed to get Jesus to do things their way. "See, this is getting us nowhere," they lamented.

While we are more willing to proclaim Jesus as the Messiah than the Pharisees were, we can share their frustrations over Jesus. Like them, we have our ideas of what Jesus should do, how He should act, and what teachings He should promote. We try to persuade Him to see things our way. We work out deals with Him that would trap Him into a course of action that we prefer. We try to conform Jesus and His Word to the rules and traditions of our human experience. Nothing works. Despite our best efforts, we get nowhere with Jesus.

The Pharisees realized that they needed a change of tactics if they were going to get things back to the way that they wanted them to be. They plotted together and found a way to turn the crowds against Jesus so completely that they were shouting for His crucifixion within days of His triumphal entry. To get what they wanted, the Pharisees had Jesus put to death. When we are getting nowhere with Jesus, we need to change our tactics as well. But rather than seeking the death of Jesus, we must seek our own deaths. Dying with Christ in Baptism and rising up with Him in His resurrection enables us to abandon our old ideas about Jesus that got us nowhere with Him and embrace Him as our Savior, Deliverer, and King on His terms. When we receive Him in this way we can get somewhere with Jesus: the place and circumstances that He intends for our good.

Audio file of the sermon based on this reflection 

Reflection: The Renewing Prayer of Longing (March 28, 2012)

Mid-Week Lent 6
Psalm 63:1-8; Ecclesiastes 5:10-19
2 Corinthians 5:1-9; Matthew 6:24-33

We all know what it's like to long for something, to have a deep desire for an object, a person, a relationship, or a feeling about things. We may long for different things, but we all experience the sense of longing.  Longing in and of itself is neither good nor bad.  But what we long for can be good or bad, beneficial to us or harmful to us, pleasing to God or an affront to Him.  Still, whatever it is we are longing for there is only one thing that can fill up that longing: satisfaction.

We learn from God's Word and from our own sinful experiences that worldly cravings cannot be satisfied.  Ecclesiastes 5:10 sums it up well, "Whoever loves money, never has money enough."  Whether we long for money or the things that money can be used to acquire for us, when our hearts are set on the what the world offers to satisfy us we will always be left empty.  As much as we think that a certain amount of money, a highly desired possession, a much sought after relationship, or any other worldly thing can satisfy us, we learn -- often through very difficult lessons -- that they do not quench our desires.  They do not because they cannot.  What we are actually longing for is something far different and far more than what we think we want for ourselves.

When we turn to the Lord with our prayers of longing we find that He is pleased to answer us with satisfaction.  He works this satisfaction in us by first shifting our cravings and desires from the things of this world to the things of His Kingdom.  He shows us what it means to "seek first His righteousness and His Kingdom."  Then, when our hearts are set on things above, He adds to our lives all of the things that the "pagans run after" without ever being satisfied.  Then, on top of all that He gives to us to fill up our longings, He adds the promise of eternal riches sealed and guaranteed with the Holy Spirit.  In answering our prayers of longing, God grants us more than our hearts could ever desire.

Audio file of the sermon based on this reflection