Reflection: Help with Guilt, Truth and Glory (May 27, 2012)

The Day of Pentecost
Ezekiel 37:1-14; Acts 2:1-21; John 15:26-16:15

On the day of Pentecost our attention is drawn to the Holy Spirit. Of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity, we seem to understand the Holy Spirit the least and take Him for granted the most. Part of our reaction to the Holy Spirit comes from His name. The Father and the Son have titles that we can relate to based on our human relationships. But the name Holy Spirit doesn't provide that same kind of connection. However, like the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit has several names and titles in the Bible. Looking at these names gives us better insight into the role of the Holy Spirit and a point of connection for us that helps us relate to Him. This is especially true of the name that Jesus uses for the Holy Spirit in today's Gospel lesson: Paraclete (the Greek word paraclatos).

Paraclatos is difficult to translate into English. Our translations include Helper (ESV), Counselor (NIV), and Comforter (KJV). No one of these words captures the sense of the word, which means "one who comes alongside of another to provide help, strength, comfort, and encouragement," but together they show us that the Holy Spirit is a caring, intimate companion ready and able to strengthen, comfort and encourage us. To do this, the Holy Spirit helps with guilt, truth, and glory.

By convicting the world of guilt, the Spirit seeks to turn people away from death and destruction to life and salvation. It is a work that He has already done for us, so it is His help for the world not for us. The glory that the Holy Spirit works to produce is not glory for us, but glory for Jesus. The Spirit does not seek glory for Himself, just as we are not to live for our own glory but for the glory of Christ. So what is the work that the Paraclete does to help believers? Guiding us into all truth. That truth assures us that we are no longer bound by guilt and it reveals the glory of Jesus Christ to us. The Spirit guides us into truth so that we will find strength in God's Word as we live in a fallen world, discover comfort in knowing the grace that God has shown us, and be encouraged by His promises no matter what our circumstances may be. Freed from guilt, guided by truth, and assured of glory, we rejoice in the help that the Paraclete brings to us this Pentecost Day and always.

Audio file of the sermon "Help with Guilt, Truth, and Glory"

Devotion: No Ordinary Man (Matthew 13:54-57)

Audio file of this devotion

⁵⁴ Coming to His hometown, [Jesus] began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. "Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?" they asked.  ⁵⁵ "Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't His mother's name Mary, and aren't His brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?  ⁵⁶ Aren't all His sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?"  ⁵⁷ And they took offense at Him. But Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor."  -- Matthew 13:54-67

"Familiarity breeds contempt."  This saying captures an unpleasant reality of life that we live out in nearly all of our relationships.  It's a lot easier to find a new acquaintance interesting and exciting than it is to maintain our interest in and be excited about a person whom we know well.  While familiarity with a person allows us to become comfortable with him, the better we get to know someone the more fault we find in him.  The people of Nazareth experienced this in their relationship with Jesus.  While they were impressed with their favorite son, they couldn't accept Him as the Son of God.  Even though He had taught them with unprecedented authority and performed miracles that had amazed them, they knew Him too well — or thought they knew Him too well — to believe that He was anything more than the carpenter's son who grew up playing with them in the dusty streets of their village.  Being familiar with Jesus worked against the people of His hometown.  Rather than embrace Him as the promised Messiah, God coming to His people in human flesh, they took offense at Him.

 

Like the people of Nazareth, we can get too comfortable with the Jesus we've come to know well.  Reading and studying the examples and teachings of His earthly ministry, we can lose sight of His divinity as we grow increasingly fascinated with His humanity.  We're rightly impressed with Him as a man who suffered the things that we suffer without letting His circumstances overpower Him.  We find comfort in His compassion and care for those who struggle against hate, poverty, injustice, and weakness.  We rejoice that He came to be the friend of sinners and outcasts, embracing the people whom the world passes by as unimportant and insignificant.  But when we focus too much on His humanity we run the risk of getting too comfortable with Jesus.  Forgetting that He is God in human flesh, we make Him into a casual buddy rather than the dear friend that He truly is.  We start to develop our own expectations of Him and treat what He has to say as friendly advice rather than pay close attention to His teachings as revelations of the will of God.  We take His presence for granted and give little thought to how incredibly amazing it is that God is with us.  We carve out some space in our lives for the man Jesus whom we think we know so well, but do not honor Him as the Lord who created, redeemed, and owns us.  We acknowledge that He is a man, but often forget that He is not simply a man.  When we do, we join the people of Nazareth in taking offense at Him and the bold claims that He makes on our lives.

There is no question that Jesus is a man, but He is no ordinary man.  He is fully human, but He is so much more.  Jesus is the God-man, the one human being in all of history who possesses the fullness of God "for in

Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form" (Colossians 2:9).  God in flesh.  God hidden in flesh.  Here's the problem that the people of Jesus' hometown had.  Here's our problem, too.  God chose to hide His divinity in Jesus.  If He would have come in an open display of His power, glory, and might all humanity would have taken notice and acknowledged that God was among us.  But He chose to come to us humbly, being so much like us that we could not see with our eyes or reason with our minds that God had joined His creatures in the weakness of human flesh.  If we could take it in, we would fall at His feet.  Instead, we're constantly prone to taking offense at Him because we rely so much on our minds and senses that we leave no room for the faith that it takes to embrace this astonishing mystery.  But it is just such a faith that our friend Jesus brings to us.

By faith, and only by faith, we have come to know Jesus well.  Not only the man Jesus who has garnered the respect and admiration of people throughout the ages who are as amazed as the Nazarenes at His profound teachings, but also the God Jesus who has made us alive in Him by grace through faith.  By faith we know why it is that He came to us in human flesh and what He has accomplished for us by becoming like us.  We know Him as our friend and know that He has made us His friends — and so much more.  We have come to know Him well, well enough to know that He is no ordinary man.  And well enough to know that He, like His love, is wider, deeper, longer, and higher than what we can ever know.  Always discovering more about Jesus as both God and man, we will never grow familiar with Him to the point of contempt and never consider Him an ordinary man.

Reflection: Truth, or Dare to Call God a Liar? (May 20, 2012)

The 7th Sunday of Easter
Acts 1:12-26; 1 John 5:9-15; John 17:11-19

In the book "Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics" author Ross Douthat traces the changes in American Christianity from orthodoxy (i.e., sound in doctrine) to the mess we currently have on our hands in which the teachings of Jesus have been obscured, twisted, and dismissed. Not surprisingly, the turning point that put us on this slide into heresy was our change in attitude toward the Bible. Once the Bible was open to personal interpretation, subject to "scientific" scrutiny, and filled with problems that we need to root out, our culture entered into a spiritual death spiral. Sadly, treating God's Word in this way is not new.

For example, Thomas Jefferson physically cut and pasted the Bible to suit himself. We have to go back much further than that to find the earliest instance of people despising God's Word. When we do, we discover that treating God's Word with contempt is not unique to Americans, but is a problem that we share with every human being. Misusing and abusing God's Word is part of our human heritage following the first time a person thought that it could be untrue: Adam breaking God's command in the Garden of Eden. This means that all of us have a natural tendency to reject God's Word as truth. When we do, we call God a liar.

1 John 5:10 spells it out rather clearly, "Anyone who does not believe God has made Him out to be a liar." Rejecting this simple proposition, people protest that the Bible can't be used to validate itself, seek to discredit the authenticity of 1 John, and even try to interpret away the meaning of this verse. However people try to get around it, in the end it boils down to either a person believes that the Bible is truth or he dares to call God a liar. It's important to realize that this is not an intellectual exercise, but that believing the Bible is the truth of God is something a person is only able to do by faith. Without faith, a person can only call God a liar and will perish because of it. By faith, we receive His truth and with it forgiveness, salvation, and life in His Son. It's also by faith that we understand that the reason that God wrote the Bible in the first place is that people would know the truth and not perish, but have eternal life. Like His Word, He was willing to be despised, abused, and rejected to keep us from perishing. And that's the truth.

Audio file of the sermon "Truth, or Dare to Call God a Liar?"

Reflection: Rising Above It All (May 17, 2012)

Ascension
Luke 24:44-53

There's an old saying that goes, "Never wrestle with a pig. You'll both get covered in mud — and that's what a pig enjoys." This saying is probably based on 2 Peter 2:22 which describes how a fool returns to his folly: "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud." Both of these sayings are telling us that we shouldn't try to argue with or correct people who are stuck in their foolish ways, especially when those ways are messy and destructive. They are calls to rise above the situation. It makes sense. But it's so hard to do.

We tend to get caught up in messy situations rather than rise above them. This is especially true when we are slighted or maligned by other people. We want to set the record straight, defend our good names, and make sure that people know that we are in the right. In other words, we "wrestle with the pig." Even when we manage to convince people that we have been wronged, we're still covered in mud. The price we end up paying is rarely worth it. Most of the time, we would have been better off if we had chosen to rise above it all.

Whatever hardships and injustices we may endure in this life, we can be sure that Jesus suffered greater ones. In the first place, He had to set aside His power, glory, and majesty to come to us who were hopelessly mired in sin and death. When He did, He had to experience the pain, sorrow, and suffering of living in a fallen world with sinful people. Even though He came in love and did nothing to harm anyone, He was falsely accused, called horrible names, beaten and mocked for speaking the truth, and then crucified for crimes He did not commit. Although it was the greatest injustice in all of human history, Jesus did not complain or defend Himself. Instead, He rose above it all and committed Himself to the Father's will. Pleased with His Son's sacrifice, the Father raised Him from the dead in the Resurrection and then returned Him to His rightful place in the Ascension. Now, because He has risen above all things, we are assured that we have an Advocate who hears our pleas, understands the injustices we endure, and empowers us to rise above it all.

Audio file of the sermon "Rising Above It All"

Reflection: "Friending" Jesus (May 13, 2012)

The Sixth Sunday of Easter
Acts 10:34-38; 1 John 5:1-8; John 15:9-17

It seems like more and more nouns are being used as verbs these days. Linguists call this functional shift. Using nouns as verbs can be annoying, but it's hard to find too much fault with it since it is a technique that William Shakespeare used in his writings. So, get used to "googling" and "friending" being part of our language, but realize that just as Facebook friends aren't the same thing as real friends, "friending" people isn't the same thing as having a real friendship. This is especially true when we try "friending" Jesus.

"Friending" is an interesting expression of how American culture has been redefining the terms of relationships over the past fifty years. We've witnessed the decline in commitment through the decrease in marriage, the increase in divorce, and the common acceptance of living together. We've experienced the loss of community as people set up indoor living in spacious homes with fenced yards in gated subdivisions. The face-to-face interaction of organizations, social clubs, and local congregations has given way to lonely and isolated living shored up by the faux relationships of social media. This experience has undermined our abilities to relate with one another and infected our perspective of what it means to have a relationship with Jesus. As much as ever, people speak well of Jesus and consider Him a friend, but, even though they're "friending" Jesus, they aren't His friends.

In today's Gospel lesson, Jesus tells us very clearly how to be His friends. The way to friendship with Him is very different than "friending" Him from isolated individualism. It calls for us to venture outside of our self-imposed separation from others. It is based in turning away from our self-centered concerns and expressing care and compassion for the people around us. It is demonstrated in sacrificial living and shown most perfectly in sacrificial dying. In a word, the essence being a friend of Jesus is

love — both as a noun and as a verb. As a noun, it is the love that God has for us that moved Him to send His Son into our world to be our truest friend. As a verb, it is Jesus choosing us when we were not His friends, did not want to be His friends, had nothing to offer Him, could only offend Him, and then giving up His life for us. In His love we have love, are His friends, and are moved to love beyond "friending" to being friends.

Audio file of the sermon "Friending Jesus"

Journal: The Sins of Homosexuality

"With his life, David had sinned grievously against God’s commandment. Since, however, he confessed his sin and in so doing confirmed God’s commandment instead of changing it, much preferring to punish himself than punish God’s commandment, thus the sin was forgiven and did not harm him. On the other hand, Saul sinned and then justified and defended his sin, thus defaming and canceling God’s commandment, as if he were in the right and God were a liar and in the wrong. That could not be forgiven him." (Martin Luther, Luther's Works, vol. 34, p. 78)

 

 There's so much confusion about homosexuality in our culture.  Unfortunately, the church has added to that confusion rather than helped to clear it up.  The question that most people seem to ask about this issue is whether or not homosexuality is a sin that condemns people to hell.  It's really two questions in one.  The first question asks whether homosexuality is a sin.  The second wants to know if it is a damning sin. The questions are both valid and flawed.  They speak to the issue and they obscure a greater issue.  Still, the answers to these questions is clear, providing we're willing to listen to God's Word without the filters of our own agendas.

There's little doubt to a serious reader of the Bible that homosexuality is a sin.  God's commandment is clear.  Any sexual activity outside of marriage as it was designed and intended by God is sinful.  So is sexual activity within a marriage that is selfish, or self-serving, or laced with lustful thoughts of other people, or used for manipulation, or ...  This underscores the problem with this question.  There is much that is sin in our world.  Fixating on one sin while turning a blind eye to others is horribly dangerous.  Condemning one sin while endorsing and promoting others is spiritually disastrous. Homosexuality is a sin, but it is not the sin.  It is not a worse sin because it is personally offensive.  It is not a lesser sin because its practitioners truly love and are committed to one another.  It is a sin.  Nothing more, nothing less.

The fact that the Bible makes it clear that homosexuality is a sin should settle the matter for the church.  Unfortunately, there are many in the church who disregard the authority of God's Word.  They have clever and convincing (albeit self-convincing) explanations for rejecting the Bible.  This is nothing new.  Since the Fall man has resisted God's Word.  The current fashion of "changing ... defaming, and canceling God's commandment" (see Luther's comment above) is an age-old disease of man's sinful heart.  It should not surprise us when people within and outside of the church fall under its spell.  Instead, we should redouble our efforts to guard against our own tendencies to do the same thing under a different heading of sin.  How we deal with God's Word on the issue of homosexuality, or any other sin, speaks very clearly to the second question under consideration.

The question of whether or not the sin of homosexuality condemns a person to hell is terrible question in several ways.  It belies the self-righteousness of those who are opposed to homosexuality.  If offends the weak Christian who struggles with the sin of homosexuality to the point of stumbling.  But most troubling of all, it makes nothing of the righteousness that comes to us by the blood of Jesus, the blood that was shed for the forgiveness of all of our sins.  Anyone and everyone who trusts in Christ for this righteousness is assured that his sins have been forgiven -- whether they are heterosexual, homosexual, or asexual sins.  Sin does not and cannot condemn a person to hell if that person confesses that sin and looks to Christ for forgiveness.  Call God a liar, concerning either this incredible grace or His commandment to be pure, and there is no forgiveness.  Hell awaits such a person, whatever his sexual orientation.

Reflection: Love Is ... Bearing Fruit (May 6, 2012)

5th Sunday of Easter
Acts 8:26-40; 1 John 4:1-11; John 15:1-8

The single panel comic strip "Love is …" was first published in 1970. Since then there have been thousands of descriptions of love presented through its iconic characters. One would think that the comic strip writers would have exhausted the descriptions of love by now, but they continue to produce new daily editions. These various expressions of human love remind us that love is many faceted and that it evolves, like the characters in "Love is …", through various stages of life and relationships. While "Love is …" is a celebration of human love, with all of its faults and failures, it serves to remind us of the perfect love that God has shown to us in Jesus. It also raises the question, how would we describe what Christian love is?

Christian love is also many faceted and based in relationships. The driving relationship of Christian love is God's love for us. Answering what love in this context is simple because the Bible spells it out for us very clearly, "This is love," He explains, "not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." God's love for us is sacrificial, other-serving, fully committed, and costly. Hardly the stuff of which cute comic strips are made of and certainly not the kind of love that stirs the hearts of people in our culture. In contrast to the sinful human love that is driven by "what's in it for me?", God's love for us is rooted in giving, not receiving; serving, not being served; and, benefiting others, not benefiting oneself.

The second relationship of Christian love is found in our love for God. This love is a love of response. Love never starts with us, but always begins with God. "We love," His Word says, "because He first loved us." But what does this love look like? How do we love God? How can we depict a "Love is …" kind of illustration of our love for God? Only by expressing love for God by loving one another. It is in this third relationship of Christian love, the love of our neighbor, that our love of God shows itself. A "Love of God is …" comic strip series would include all kinds of works that we do to give to others, serve those in need, and use what God has entrusted to us for the benefit of people in our community, nation, and beyond. The depictions of true love for God are inexhaustible, but they can be summed up in a single phrase: "Love is … bearing fruit." By God's grace and through His love, the fruit we bear is love.

Audio file of the sermon for the 5th Sunday of Easter

Reflection: There Is No Other (April 29, 2012)

The Fourth Sunday of Easter
Acts 4:1-2; 1 John 3:16-24; John 10:11-18

Imagine going into a restaurant and finding that there is only one item on the menu or shopping for new shoes at a store that only had one style of shoe. It's hard for us to conceive of such a business existing in America, at least for long. We expect variety and choice in our food, clothing, entertainment, health care, furnishings, automobiles, and just about everything else in our lives. It's little wonder that we expect choices in our religion as well.

The word 'religion' has fallen into disfavor. It's more popular to speak of being spiritual rather than religious. People have the mistaken idea that religion has to do with institutions. They want to be able to define their own beliefs and practices. They don't want to be restricted by anything or anyone else. 'Spiritual' sounds appealing — and freeing. Influenced by this, some Christians insist that Christianity is a relationship not a religion. This also sounds appealing and freeing — and is misleading. While it's true that Christianity involves a relationship with Jesus, it is not simply a relationship. It's a religion.

The Latin root of 'religion' means "to be bound together again." 'Religion' conveys that our relationship with God has been broken and needs to be repaired; that we've been separated from God and long to be bound to Him again. The word itself is neutral. There can be good religion and bad religion, effective religion and useless religion, true religion and false religion. A religion that fails to bind us back together with God (i.e., repair our broken relationship with Him) is bad, useless, and false. Only a good, effective, and true religion brings us back into fellowship with God. So, the issue facing us isn't whether we are spiritual or religious, but what religion we embrace.

The religion that Jesus calls us to is centered in the relationship that we have with Him through His mystical body, the Church. Apart from His Church, no one can have a relationship with Him. This is not only deeply spiritual, it's the religion that Jesus Himself has established. In a world of products, services, and religions designed to win our choice as we ponder our options, the Church continues to offer the same religion that it has for thousands of years because it is the only way to having a relationship with Jesus. "Salvation is found in no one else." Only Jesus. Only His religion. There is no other.

Audio file of sermon based on this reflection