Reflection: This Will Be Your Opportunity ..." (November 17, 2013)

The 26th Sunday after Pentecost
Malachi 4:1-6; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; Luke 21:5-28

Thomas Edison once said "The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls looking like hard work." Jesus would probably find a lot to agree with in Edison's comment. However, Jesus didn't describe opportunity in terms of hard work but of hard circumstances. As He explained to His disciples how terrible things would get when the world’s resistance to the Gospel grows more and more intense as the Last Day approaches, He gave them (and us) His perspective of those terrible days. “This will be your opportunity to bear witness,” Jesus said. Time has proven Jesus to be right. Whenever the Church has faced great hardship and persecution faithful disciples of Jesus have used the opportunities to share the Gospel. Many were put to death for bearing their witness. But, as the early church leader Tertullian (160-225 AD) wrote, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”

Why is it that Christians under persecution, even facing death for the Faith, can see in their hardships opportunities to bear witness to Jesus while we consistently and habitually miss those opportunities in our safe and protected circumstances? Even though our religious rights are eroding through legislation and court actions, we are free to speak of Jesus in our everyday lives with little or no risk of persecution. And when we do face some hardships for bearing witness to Jesus, our troubles are trivial compared to Christians in different eras and believers in other parts of the world today. We’re not very good at recognizing opportunity in hardship. But, given that the hardships of being believers in our culture are only going to grow more widespread and more intense, we need to get better at it.

The inevitability of the hardship, suffering, and persecution of Christians is found in God’s Word. “The day is coming” Malachi declares. “The days will come” Jesus plainly states. “You will be delivered up” He warns us. It’s only a matter of when and where these things will happen to His Church. He tells us to be ready, to “not grow weary in doing good,” and to “straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” And our redemption is drawing near and through us it is also drawing near to those who do not know the love, joy, and peace of Jesus but can and might if we take to heart that in these things will be our great opportunity to be witnesses of Jesus.

Click here to listen to the sermon "This Will Be Your Opportunity ..." (or right-click to download the MP3 file).

Reflection: Approaching Jesus (November 10, 2013)

The 25th Sunday after Pentecost
Exodus 3:1-15; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8, 13-17; Luke 20:27-40

As our culture’s celebrities try to outdo one another in exposing themselves through revealing clothing, it’s clear that we’ve let our casual attitudes go too far. While our culture once held to the axiom that “clothes make the man,” there seems to be little regard today for what was once accepted as proper dress. One example of this is how people dress for court appearances. While lawyers still dress up their clients to make a good (if misleading) impression of defendants, many others see no problem coming before the court wearing whatever’s comfortable. In some cases such people have been sent away until they can present themselves in attire suitable and with an attitude appropriate for approaching the court.

It’s the underlying attitude, rather than the outward clothing, that is the real problem we have in our culture. People see themselves as perfectly worthy of approaching whomever they care to (or have to) in whatever manner they feel like. If such an attitude is not tolerated by human judges, how much more harshly should such an attitude be dealt with by the Judge of all creation? Yet people continue to approach Jesus as though they are entitled to come into His presence and He should be happy that they’ve made any appearance at all. They approach Jesus just as smugly and confidently as the Sadducees did when they came challenging Him with their silly question about the Resurrection. What a contrast to the way that
Moses approached God when he saw the burning bush on Mt. Horeb. Once Moses understood that he was in the presence of the Almighty, he covered his face and turned his eyes away to keep from looking upon our holy God. Moses realized that he  had no business being in God’s presence and no right to approach Him. It was only by God’s Word and through His mercy that such a sinful man could come into the presence of the Lord.

How are you approaching Jesus? Do you have the attitude of the Sadducees and the people of our culture? Or do you shy away from God’s presence out of fear and shame? Actually, Jesus is inviting you to approach Him in an altogether different way: as one whom He considers worthy to attain the Resurrection, chosen by Him to be saved, and who can approach Him in the confidence that comes through His forgiveness. By His grace you can stand firm before Him now and in the day of judgment which is coming with the approaching Jesus.

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

Reflection: It's a Love/Hate Relationship (November 3, 2013)

All Saints Sunday
Revelation 7:9-17; 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12

We know about love/hate relationships. Some are between us and our possessions, especially our devices. We love our mobile phones and all of the amazing things they can do; and we hate them when they malfunction, drop a call, or make us feel inept. We also have love/hate relationships with our sports teams. We love them when they’re winning and when they make it into post-season play, but we hate them when they have losing streaks or blow an important game. The more difficult love/hate relationships that we experience are the ones we have with the people in our lives whom we love even though they do or say things that anger, hurt, or disappoint us. But the one that is most destructive to us is the love/hate relationship we have with the world.

We love the world. We embrace its ideas of success. We pursue the goals that it says are important. We seek worldly comfort and security. We expend our time, money, and energy trying to win the favor and blessings of worldly people. As much as we love the world, the world hates us. But we won’t admit that the world hates us. And even if we do realize that the world hate us, we don’t understand why it does. We've forged a dysfunctional, co-dependent relationship with the world and live in a dangerous denial. We adjust and adapt to the world’s mistreatment in order to get what we can out of the hate-filled object of our affections. When we do, we’re missing out on the greater blessings of living in active opposition to the world.

When Jesus said, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account” He was calling us to end our love affair with the world and live as the children of God. As the children of God our first and only love is Him who has shown us the extent of His love by suffering and dying for us — and for the world that still hates Him. When we reject the self-serving advances of the world and find our hope, peace, safety, and security in the arms of the God who unconditionally loves us, the world reviles us. When we seek to share His love to liberate those who are captive to the  lusts of the world, the world persecutes us. When we model the love of Jesus in our lives, the world speaks all kinds of evil against us. Why? Because we are His saints, we are His children, and even though He loves the world the world hates Him. The world hates us because it hates Him. When we see this we find in Jesus the strength to ending our love/hate relationship with the world. Jesus has given us His Kingdom and freed us to rejoice and be glad in the loving relationship we have with Him — a love no hate can overcome.

Click here to listen to the sermon "It's a Love/Hate Relationship" (or right-click to download the MP3 file).

Reflection: Compared to What? (October 27, 2013)

Reformation Sunday
Revelation 14:6-7; Romans 3:19-28; Matthew 11:12-19

When Jesus wanted to compare the generation of people who lived during His time to something, He chose  a familiar image to use for the comparison. Although it is obscure to us, His reference to “children sitting in the marketplace calling to their playmates  ‘We played the flute for you, and you id not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn’” struck a chord — and a nerve — with His audience. He was telling them that they were impossible to please and that they used double standards. He was calling them judgmental and unreasonable. In other words, Jesus was telling them that they were the ones who were forcefully resisting the Kingdom of Heaven.

Forceful resistance to the Kingdom makes up a significant part of the human story. It isn’t unique to the generation of Jesus’ time, but does characterize it. The Jewish people who lived as Jesus ushered in the New Covenant were particularly opposed to the Kingdom, because they were entrenched in a religious system that was based on good works and self-righteousness. The people who felt as though they had earned God’s favor through their efforts didn’t want to hear that “by works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight” (Rom. 3:20). And they especially wouldn’t accept Jesus’ teaching that He had come to do what they could not do under the Law.

The generations that have followed that of Jesus’ time haven’t fared much better. By the 16th Century, God’s grace was so obscured that the church had become a heartless institution. But God used that generation to restore the Gospel through the Reformation — a restoration of the Kingdom that was met with great violence. Faithfulness to Christ, even in the face of death, characterized that generation of believers. But what best describes our generation? To what shall we be compared? We’re a selfish, self-centered, and cynical people who have done great violence to the Gospel. We could be compared to a hurricane or tsunami because of our heartless, destructive ways; or to farm animals because we have become so crude as a society; or even to barbarians because of how we have trampled on the sanctity of human life. But Jesus compares us who have been washed in His blood and adopted into His family through Baptism to something altogether different — something altogether undeserved: We are His Bride, pure, spotless, and deeply loved by the God who has given us His Kingdom.

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

Reflection: WWJF-What Will Jesus Find? (October 20, 2013)

The 22nd Sunday after Pentecost
Genesis 32:22-30; 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5; Luke 18:1-8

After Jesus told a parable to encourage His disciples “always to  pray and not lose heart,” He asked, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” While we can answer that question with a confident “yes” (after all, Jesus said elsewhere that not even the gates of hell can overcome His Church), we can’t answer with the certainty that He will find faith in our society. We live in a culture that encourages people to turn their hearts to false gods, celebrates false teachings, and rejoices when the Church falters. Our time has been called “post-church” and “post-gospel” and now even “pre-churched,” but it is by any name a rebellious, faithless time. But it is far from a unique time. Jesus’ first disciples faced a similar situation, one which Jesus addressed with the parable that was meant to encourage them … and us.

Unfortunately, people have twisted this parable so that it not only fails to bring us any encouragement but it puts a burden on us. Commonly used to prop up an unbiblical view of prayer, teachers in and outside of the Church have stripped away the main point of the parable and, in the process, made God out to be something that He isn’t. Worse yet, people actually prefer this corrupted understanding of the parable over it’s actual meaning! Why? Because it promotes prayer as a power (or tool) that we possess and can use to get God do what we want Him to do. And getting God to do what we want Him to do appeals to our human nature. The twisting around of this parable is just one example of how the warning found in today’s Epistle has come to fruition in our experience: “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, having itching ears they will accumulated for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.” Is this what Jesus will find when He comes?

It all sounds so hopeless. But there is another question that Jesus asked that reminds us that God is faithful even when we are faithless: “Will not God give justice to His elect, who cry to Him day and night?” Here’s the key to finding comfort and encouragement in this parable. God is grossly unlike the judge who boasted “I neither fear God nor respect man.” Instead, God is kind, gracious, and loving to those whom He has called to eternal life, i.e., His elect. Confident of this, we “cry to Him day and night,” including the age-old, heartfelt prayer “Come, Lord Jesus,” because we know that by His grace He will find faith in us when He returns.

Click here to listen to the sermon "WWJF: What Will Jesus Find?" (or right-click to download the MP3 file).

Reflection: Point of Return of of No Return? (October 13, 2013)

The 21st Sunday after Pentecost
Ruth 1:8-19a; 2 Timothy 2:1-13; Luke 17:11-19

There are no universal rules about returning things. Returning a favor can take place long after the initial kindness, but returning a borrowed car is likely to happen very much sooner. One shop may have a liberal policy regarding returning merchandise while another may have a “no returns” policy. Turning the car around on a trip can happen at any point, but after a space vehicle is launched it quickly reaches a point of no return, that is, a point at which it’s too late to turn around. While life is filled with points of no return, our walk with Jesus is more about points of return.

Today’s Old Testament is filled with calls to return. As Naomi prepared to return to her homeland she pleaded with her two daughter-in-law to leave her and return to their own people. One did, but the other, Ruth, didn’t. Ruth knew that there was ni going back for her. She had come to believe in and worship the true God and she recognized that she could not return to her roots because they involved worshiping false gods. “Your people shall be my people, and your God my God,” she told Naomi. She had reached a point (i.e., a reason and purpose) of no return.

The flip side of having a reason and purpose for not returning is found in today’s Gospel lesson. After Jesus healed ten men of leprosy, nine did not return to Him to thank and praise Him. Their point of not returning was evident: despite having been healed by Him, they did not have faith in Jesus as their God and Messiah. For them, there was no point in going back to Jesus. Instead, they were intent on going to the priests and doing what it took to comply with the legal requirements of being ceremonially clean. They looked to the Law for their righteousness. The faithlessness of the nine is highlighted by the return of the one. Recognizing that he had been delivered from the condemnation of the Law along with his physical healing, the Samaritan leper returned to Jesus. The point of his return was to thank and praise Him as his Savior and God.

How have you responded to Christ’s call to return? Do you think that it is too late for you to turn back, that you’ve reached a point in your life from which there is no way back? Or do you hear in His call God’s very point, His reason and purpose, to turn back from the sinful ways that you are pursuing in order to return to His mercy and grace? In Jesus there is always a point to return and never a point of no return.

Click here to listen to the sermon "Point of Return or of No Return?"

Reflection: Not What We Want to Hear (October 6, 2013)

The 20th Sunday after Pentecost
Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4; 2 Timothy 1:1-14; Luke 17:1-10

If we could playback the soundtrack of our lives we’d all have segments in which we were told something that we didn’t want to hear. The phrases stick with us and even now cause our hearts to sink. “I’m afraid that the test results show cancer ...” “This just isn’t working out …” “I’m sorry for your loss ...” “Based on your credit score we can’t approve your mortgage application …” “Do you know why I stopped you …” As bad as these are, they can’t compare to the things that Jesus says to us that are not what we want to hear.

In today’s Gospel lesson Jesus says things that contradict the values of our culture and challenge the way that we’ve learned to live in this world. In contrast to our view that it isn’t our problem when a person takes offense at what we say or do, Jesus says that it’s better to be drown in the depths of the sea than to cause offense to those who are weak in faith. He then calls us to reject the “live and let live” attitude of our culture and actively intercede when a fellow believer sins — even when we think that the sin has nothing to do with us. Then He makes it personal by telling us that we must repeatedly forgive a brother or sister in Christ who sins against us and then repents. So much for the “hurt me once, shame on you; hurt me twice, shame on me” mentality of our culture. Finally, Jesus uses a story to convey what our attitude should be about shunning the world’s ways and doing what He is teaching us to do. He calls these extreme actions our duty and then says that after we’ve done what we’re told to do we should see ourselves as “unworthy servants” who “have only done what was our duty.” No praise, no thanks, no reward. Definitely not what we want to hear.

What we want to hear from Jesus is that we’re doing well and we’re fine just the way that we are. We want to hear promises of ease and prosperity, not a call to sacrifice and hardship. In other words, we want glory not the cross. But the cross is what we hear when we listen to Jesus. Certain temptation, confronting people in their sins, forgiving others without conditions, sacrifice as duty, and a call to “share in suffering for the Gospel” aren’t what we want to hear, but more than call us into these things Jesus joins us in them. He faced certain temptation, confronted sin, forgave freely, and sacrificed Himself on the Cross. Through His blood we are declared “the righteous who live by faith.” A proclamation that far exceeds everything that we once wanted to hear.

Click here to listen to the sermon "Not What We Want to Hear" (or right-click to download the MP3 file).