Reflection: The Outcome of Our Faith (April 27, 2014)

The 2nd Sunday in Easter
Acts 5:29-42; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31

More and more, people in our culture are less concerned about outcomes as they are the processes to achieve them. This is especially true of people who fail to accomplish their desired outcomes. Rather than acknowledge that failure is the outcome, people play it down and focus on the benefits of having done something that stretched or challenged them. While it’s good that people find something positive in having tried and failed, refusing to recognize failure as the outcome when it actually is the result of one’s efforts is a destructive form of denial. Focusing on the process and minimizing outcomes creates a great sense of uncertainty — one that leads to everything we do being pointless. Seeing the process as more meaningful than the outcome is like seeing a journey as more important than the destination. While process and journey can be enriching, they only serve us well if they are moving us toward something of worth and importance. Otherwise, we’re wandering aimlessly.

It’s not surprising that our culture sees outcomes in this way. People embrace and promote a worldview that is based on the premise that we came from nothing, evolved through random forces, and will one day return to nothing. If nothingness is our origin and our outcome, all we have left is the journey. Of course, that means that the journey is mostly pointless, which really leaves us with nothing. From nothing, for nothing, to nothing. How desperately depressing!

Faith stands in contrast to this worldview. The God who has called us into the Faith “has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Like the people of the world around us, we value the journey that we are experiencing. However, unlike them, we know that the journey pales in comparison to the outcome. We are also distinctly different from them because we are certain of the outcome of faith. Whatever our journeys may consist of and wherever they may lead us in this world, “the outcome of [our] faith, the salvation of [our] souls” is certain because in Holy Baptism we have been buried with Christ in His death and raised to life in His Resurrection. Our outcome is, by His grace, taking hold of “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading” which is being kept in Heaven for us while we journey through this world in faith and hope and love.

Click here to listen to the sermon "The Outcome of Our Faith" (or right-click to download the MP3 file).

Reflection: Rejoice! (April 20, 2014)

The Resurrection of Our Lord
Jeremiah 31:1-6; Colossians 3:1-4; Matthew 28:1-10

Rejoicing isn’t something that we can do on command. We may force a smile or fake happiness, but we can’t “feel or show great joy” unless something brings us great joy. When we have such a thing, rejoicing is a spontaneous reaction not a calculated response. So, when God’s Word tells us to rejoice, it isn’t commanding us to muster up joy from within ourselves, but calling us to realize that we already have the source of great joy and to respond accordingly. If we do not understand what we have in Christ, rejoicing is beyond us. Even when we do grasp it, we need to be reminded to look beyond our circumstances to the source and cause of the great joy that we have in all things in order to experience the joy, peace, and hope we have in Christ. In our troubled moments we are blessed to hear the reminding call to take stock of what we have and who we are as God’s chosen people and rejoice.

While we may see the need to be reminded to rejoice in our hardships, it seems unnecessary to be reminded to rejoice on Easter. Today is a day that overflows with the joys of the empty tomb, the angels’ announcement that Christ has risen, Jesus appearing to the women at the tomb, and His assurance that there is no reason to fear because He lives. But, as wonderful as all of these things were for those who experienced the first Easter, none of their joys belong to us if we are disconnected from His resurrection. Very sadly, many people have no connection to the risen Christ — and even we can find ourselves feeling very disconnected at times. That’s when we need the reminder to rejoice. That’s why we need that reminder today.

Of all of the ways that God has demonstrated His love for you and reminds you of His favor toward you, the Cross of Jesus looms largest. The empty tomb that we celebrate today assures you that Christ’s work for you on the Cross is complete and is fully sufficient for your salvation. Joined to His Cross in Holy Baptism, you have inherited everything that Jesus accomplished through His sinless life, His sacrificial death, and His resurrection. You are loved without condition, forgiven of every single sin of thought, word, and action, and now live and will live eternally in Christ. No weakness in you, no sinful failure on your part, no troubling circumstance in your life, and no power in heaven or on earth can rob you of the treasures of His love and grace. The Cross and the empty tomb assure you and remind you that you belong to Him forever. Rejoice!

Click here to listen to the sermon "Rejoice!" (or right-click to download the MP3 file).

Reflection: Reflect! (April 18, 2014)

Good Friday
1 Peter 4:1-2

We are not a people given to deep reflection. We more attuned to short sound bites, instant messaging, and fleeting images and, through them, to making instant assessments of and passing immediate judgment on the value of things and of people. We may acknowledge the wisdom of “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” but we don't practice it. Life moves too quickly for us to delve into everything that comes our way for a thorough, fair, and balanced assessment. We feel that thinking deeply about things, situations, events, and people is a luxury we can’t afford. Perhaps, but we are impoverished because of it. We routinely overlook precious jewels that enter into our hectic lives. Chief among the treasures that we neglect to engage on a level deep enough for it to enrich our minds and hearts as fully as it can stands the Cross of Jesus Christ.

It’s unlikely that we’d choose to put our busy lives on hold in order to reflect deeply upon the Cross. If forced into contemplation, we’d rather focus on upbeat and heartwarming thoughts such as the birth of Jesus, His astounding miracles, or His insightful teachings. We rightly sense that approaching the Cross in serious meditation is going to challenge us and that it may even affect our lives in ways that trouble us. We can deal with the penetrating teachings of Jesus by sidestepping their thrusts to let them pierce the souls of those we consider more worthy targets. We can marvel at the recorded miracles without thought to how they undergird His greater miracle of birthing us through death to life. We can even soften an incarnate God’s forceful intrusion into our broken world by focusing on the tender feelings we have for baby Jesus sleeping gently in the straw. However, when we stand before the Cross and behold the One pierced by our wretchedness and we begin to take in the immensity of the love that moved Him to bear our sins and endure the punishment that we yet deserve, there is no place for us to hide from the injustice of Him suffering for our sins, no diversion to deflect the ugly truth that Christ hangs in place of us, and no pleasant thought to cushion the cruelty and violence perpetrated against the God of love and mercy who joined us in the human flesh now hanging tattered in crucifixion. Here we must face what is before us and seek to comprehend the breath and length and height and depth of the love that fashioned this unfathomable moment of terror and peace, sorrow and joy, death and life. Here, at the Cross, we must reflect.

Click here to listen to the homily "Reflect!" (or right-click to download the MP3 file).

Reflection: Remember (April 17, 2014)

Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday)
Hebrews 9:11-22; Matthew 26:17-30

Remembering is important, especially when it comes to remembering things of significance. Forgetting where you’ve left your keys can be a nuisance, but forgetting your wedding anniversary is far worse. But remembering something important isn’t enough; we must also act on remembering the event in order to demonstrate its importance. It’s unlikely that a wife who is upset with her husband for forgetting their wedding anniversary would be any happier about it if he explained that he did remember it but didn’t act on his recollection. Remembering something that is important and significant always goes beyond simply thinking about it. This is true of earthly things; it is also true of spiritual matters.

The Lord knows His people’s tendency to forget important spiritual truths, so He establishes ways for us to actively remember what He has done to delivery us from slavery and death. For the people of the Old Covenant, Passover observances were the means of remembering. On the anniversary of their deliverance from Egypt, the people were to remember precisely how and what the Lord told them to remember. Through the rites and rituals of the Passover observances prescribed by God, they actively remembered their deliverance in a way that connected them to the very things that they were remembering. More than simply recalling their history, they were participating in the mighty acts of God through which He had liberated them.

It’s no coincidence that Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper in the context of the Passover. Not only were the rites and rituals of Passover meant to remind God’s people of what He had done in the past, they were also meant to point people to His ultimate act of deliverance. The Lord’s Supper, like the Passover, is a remembrance, a participation, and an anticipation. This feast was given for us to remember what Jesus has done to liberate us from the slavery of sin and death. More than recalling our history, the remembrance to which Jesus calls us brings us into an active participation in His death. Through this participation we receive the benefits of His victory on the Cross. The past, present, and future join together when we gather in remembrance of Jesus’ sacrificial death to eat His body and drink His blood as a foretaste of the everlasting feast of those who are and will be gathered around His throne. With angels, archangels, and the whole company of heaven, by Jesus’ gracious invitation, we take our place at His table not simply to recall what He has done for us, but to participate, to receive, and to actively remember.

Click here to listen to the sermon "Remember" (or right-click to download the MP3 file).

Reflection: Resound! (April 13, 2014)

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

Jesus had made the trip many times before. It was an annual event in His family’s spiritual life and He made the journey to Jerusalem from His earliest years. He continued the habit as an adult and the yearly observance of the Passover was the setting of some of His most contentious ministry, including cleansing the Temple by overturning tables and driving out animals. While there had been a buzz about Jesus attending the Passover in prior years, this year the crowds did not have to speculate. The word went out that Jesus was approaching the city. The significance of Him riding a donkey was not lost on them as they rushed to place palms and garments on the road before Him. Their shouts of “Hosanna!” grew louder as more and more people gathered into the crowds that went before Him and behind Him. The hopes, dreams, and desires fueled by fifteen centuries of Passover observances were given voice as Jesus entered the city for one final Passover in which everything that the Passover had pointed to would become reality. The fanfare, fervor, excitement, noise, and commotion of that moment is captured in a single word: Resound!

The primary definition of ‘resound’ is “to become filled with sound.” It describes the joyful sounds of the festive, yet chaotic, scene of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem well. But it’s the secondary definition of ‘resound’ that really captures what was taking place in this curious, yet meaningful, parade: “to make a strong impression or have a great effect on people.” Long after the joyful noise of the crowd had faded, Jesus’ procession into the holy city continued to have a great effect on people — a great effect that continues to this day. This first event of the week that culminated His earthly ministry and ushered in His victory over sin, death, and the grave resounds in us today.

“Resound!” is our calling. While we are blessed to join the loud and festive procession of Jesus to mark the beginning of this Holy Week, we would fall far short of our calling if our resounding fades away like the shouts of the crowd that welcomed Him with their palms and garments and Hosannas. We need to recognize that the resounding to which we are called is that which will have a great effect on the people in our lives. Our resounding of “Hosanna!” today is meant to be echoed in living each day as prisoners who have been freed from “the waterless pit” to joyfully serve our King, righteous and having salvation. In serving Him that which has resounded in our lives resounds in the lives of others and our Hosannas today echo as the loudest and sweetest praise.

Click here to listen to the sermon "Resound!" (or right-click to download the MP3 file).

Reflection: reLENT Series - rePENT (April 9, 2104)

Lent Midweek 6

Isaiah 1:21-28; Hebrews 6:1-9; Luke 13:1-9

The first of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses states, “When our Lord and Master Jesus
said, ‘Repent,’ He willed that the whole life of believers should be that of repentance.” Our whole lives as lives of repentance? How can this be? After all, didn't Jesus also tell us that He wanted our lives to be filled with peace, joy, abundance, etc.? These are not the things that we associate with repentance. But, interestingly, Jesus does. Since He does, we probably need to take a look at how our ideas about repentance compare to His.

We tend to see repentance as burdensome and oppressive. We rightly recognize that repentance involves a change in our lives, but we often view such changes as losses. While it’s true that genuine repentance does result in ridding our lives of some things, what we leave behind through repentance can hardly be considered a loss of anything good, valuable, or important. Instead, repentance frees us from what has weighed us down, has kept us from maturing in the Faith, and has focused us on ourselves instead of Christ. Only when these burdens are lifted from our lives can we begin to take hold of the joy, peace, and hope that the Lord desires for us. The starting point of letting go of these things is repentance.
Repentance is not only the key to letting go of the worldly things which offer us joy, peace, hope, security, etc. but invariably fail to provide them, it is the key to overcoming the temptations to go back to these things once we have let go of them — and the key to letting go of them again after we've given into those temptations.  Over and over we find ourselves back where we started our spiritual lives in Christ: trapped in the slavery of sin and unable to free ourselves from the chains of our guilt and shame. As long as we are in the flesh, we can have no hope, no peace, and no joy apart from repenting repeatedly … even continuously. This is what Luther was driving at when he said that our whole lives are lives of repentance.

This understanding of repentance gives us a new perspective on our Savior’s call, “Repent!”. We now see that repentance is the path to maturing in Christ and being “sure of better things.” It’s not an accusing and condemning call to unworthy sinners, but a gracious invitation to take hold of the joy, peace, and hope that Christ has won for us.

Click here to listen to the sermon "rePENT" (or right-click to download the MP3 file).

Devotion: Attitude Adjustment (Philippians 2:5-8)

5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,  7 but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! 

Philippians 2:5-8

It doesn't take much time when watching or reading the news to discover that many people in our country don't have good attitudes toward those who are in authority over us. It doesn't seem to matter who is in office, one side or the other (and at times both sides) is questioning the integrity, competency, and motives of our political leaders. The call of the Fourth Commandment to honor those in authority over us — whether they be parents, teachers, pastors, or government officials — is often and repeatedly ignored by us to the point of having a habitually bad attitude regarding authority.

Part of the reason for our poor attitudes toward those in leadership is our understanding of what it means to submit to others in God's order of things. When we embrace the world's view of submission we are likely to resist submitting to others according to their office and insist on submitting only to those whom we respect or with whom we agree. When we feel that we are better equipped, smarter, more capable, etc. than those who are in authority over us we are not inclined to submit to them. But those things are not the basis for submitting in God's order of things.

If we want to understand what it means to take our place in the order of things we need look no further than Jesus. There is no one who is greater than He is, yet He humbled Himself and took "the very nature of a servant." His attitude was not based on comparing His abilities, views, intellect, or motives to anyone else's, but was based on doing the work that the Father had called Him to do. In order to accomplish that work, Jesus had to humble Himself and put Himself under the authority of people who were infinitely less capable, intelligent, and moral than He. He could have "grasped" — held onto — the power, glory, and majesty that was rightfully His, but that would have kept Him from doing the work that He came to do.  He chose to humble Himself and be obedient to those in authority over Him knowing that it would lead Him to death on the Cross. Jesus calls us to have this same attitude — to submit ourselves to those who are in authority over us not because of their effectiveness or worthiness, but because God has put them in those places in His order of things.  

I should thank You, Lord, for those whom You have put in authority over me, but I don't always appreciate them as the gifts that they are. Give me the right attitude toward all who serve me by exercising the authority that You have entrusted to them, that in doing so I would honor You. Amen.

Reflection: Your Mind Set - A Matter of Life and Death (April 6, 2014)

The 5th Sunday in Lent
Ezekiel 37:1-14; Romans 8:1-11; John 11:17-27, 38-53

Stedman’s Medical Dictionary defines ‘mindset’ as “A fixed mental attitude or
disposition that predetermines a person’s responses to and interpretations of situations.” In other words, our mindset is how we think of and react to things. It’s how we view things in terms of good/bad, right/wrong, desirable/undesirable, etc. There’s a lot that goes into forging a person’s mindset: culture, language, experience, education, family influences, conscience, etc. But the most significant factor in shaping our mindsets is that on which we have our minds set.

Romans 8:5 explains the formation of our mindsets: “Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” If we set our minds on worldly things (i.e., the flesh), then worldly things will shape how we set priorities, what we consider right and wrong, how we make use of the resources in our lives, how we treat other people, etc. If we set our minds on the Spirit, then the Spirit will shape these things in our lives. Either the Spirit is going to shape our mindsets or the world is going to. It is not possible to have a mindset that is forged by both the Spirit and the world. It’s either the Spirit or the flesh. And on which one we set our minds is a matter of life and death.

“To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace” (Rom. 8:6). It’s that straightforward. A mindset shaped by the world will always lead people away from Christ and the life that He alone brings to the world. Such a mindset is trapped in sin and death. In contrast, the mindset that has been renewed by the grace of God is centered in the Spirit who brings us life and salvation. With such a clear contrast between these two, why wouldn’t a person choose to set his mind on the Spirit instead of the flesh? Because “the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot” (Rom. 8:7). We cannot choose our mindset; it is something that we inherit. By nature we all have worldly mindsets that are “hostile to God” and that lead us to death. But by grace, God has given us His Holy Spirit who brings us out of death into life. He provides us with a new inheritance which includes a new mindset, one which is crafted by His love and mercy. To set our minds on the Spirit, by the working of the Spirit, is life and peace.

Click here to listen to the sermon "Your Mind Set - A Matter of Life and Death" (or right-click to download the MP3 file).

Reflection: reLENT Series: reTURN (April 2, 2014)

Lent Mid-Week 5

1 Peter 2:16-25; Luke 15:11-32

One of the greatest benefits of observing Lent is that through our observances we are reminded of something that we too often forget: “you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” These words were first spoken by the Lord when Adam and Eve brought sin and death into the world. They were repeated by Job in the midst of his suffering (Job 34:15), the psalmist when marveling at the majesty of God (Ps. 104:29), and the preacher of Ecclesiastes as he considered the meaningless of living a worldly life (Eccl. 3:20). Being mindful of Job’s observation that “all flesh” is mortal and that each one of us will “return to dust” leads us to understand that there is another “returning” that we must experience if we are to have any hope beyond returning to dust.

By its nature, returning involves having left something in the first place. After all, you can’t return to a place that you've never been before, a status that you've never held before, or a relationship that you've never had before. As those who have been Baptized into Christ and have joined Him in His death and resurrection, we know the place from which we depart in so many ways and to which we are called to return. It’s expressed in beautiful language in 1 Peter 2:25, “For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

Like sheep, we tend to wander from the love, care, and concern of our Shepherd. Such wandering rarely turns out well for us. Like the son in the parable told by our Savior, we end up far from the love, grace, and mercy that once safely held us. Only after realizing through our own versions of feeding pigs while going hungry that we have squandered everything that was truly good and worthwhile do we understand the necessity of returning. But, also like that son, we may think that coming back broken and unworthy means something other than returning to the fullness of what we had lost — and even more so when we are once again repeating this journey of squandering and returning. What joy and surprise await us when we return to the loving embrace of our Father, the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls, who rejoices that we who were lost have returned to the place that He has secured for us by His grace, mercy, and love.

Click here to listen to the sermon "reTURN" (or right-click to download the MP3 file).