Reflection: Beautiful Feet for an Ugly World (March 5, 2015)

1 Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean. 2 Shake yourself from the dust and arise; be seated, O Jerusalem; loose the bonds from your neck, O captive daughter of Zion. 3 For thus says the LORD: “You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money.” 4 For thus says the Lord GOD: “My people went down at the first into Egypt to sojourn there, and the Assyrian oppressed them for nothing. 5 Now therefore what have I here,” declares the LORD, “seeing that my people are taken away for nothing? Their rulers wail,” declares the LORD, “and continually all the day my name is despised. 6 Therefore my people shall know my name. Therefore in that day they shall know that it is I who speak; here I am.” 7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” 

Isaiah 52:1-7 

If the Lord were to ask you what part of your body you’d like for Him to make beautiful, you’d probably have a ready answer. Our world presses its own standards of beauty onto us and we are quick to embrace them. We want beautiful faces for all to see our beauty, beautiful hair to appear youthful, beautiful breasts to be alluring, and beautiful abs to convey our fitness and strength. But God chooses something better for us; He gives us beautiful feet.

Our feet are beautiful because Christ has fitted them with His Gospel of peace. But what makes having beautiful feet so important? In the first place He has given us beautiful feet to stand. As the people of God in the world, we must endure many difficulties, hardships, and even persecutions. The Lord gives us the feet to stand in the face of these things. But we are called to do more than stand; we are called to go. With our beautiful feet we carry the Gospel of Peace to our broken and dying world. As we go, our feet are reflections of the most beautiful of feet, the feet of Jesus.

The beautiful feet of Jesus are feet of flesh that brought God’s love into our world. They are dusty feet that walked the paths that we walk and experienced all of the hardships, troubles, and temptations that we experience. They are feet washed by the tears of one who had used her beautiful body in ugly ways welcoming those tears and washing them away. His beautiful feet are feet that served, even serving in the lowly way of washing others’ feet. Above all, His feet carried the Cross to Calvary and were pierced for our transgressions. The blood that flowed from the beautiful feet of Jesus has taken away the ugliness of all of your sins.

Your feet have been made beautiful to carry the Good News of Jesus to those who are perishing because they either do not know the Name of the Lord or they despise it. They may take you near or far. You may be shod with snow boots, flip-flops, or go barefoot in the places God has chosen for you. Wherever your beautiful feet go and whatever you may experience in those places, you can be certain that you will stand because your God reigns. Rejoice, be glad, be confident; God has given you beautiful feet.

Click here to play the audio recording of "Beautiful Feet for an Ugly World" (or right-click to download the MP3 file).

Devotion: Not What We'd Expect (Isaiah 11:1-10)

1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. 2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. 3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, 4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. 5 Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins. 6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. 9 They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. 10 In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.
Isaiah 11:1-10

Things often turn out differently than we'd expect them to end up. This is especially true when a great disaster or disappointment takes place in our lives. We have a hard time trusting that God is actually at work in such situations to bring about a good result for us. We expect that things will end up being bad for us.

Though we shouldn't be, we're often surprised when God doesn't do what we'd expect.

God has a long history of telling His people that He was going to do unexpected things. And God's people have a long history of being surprised when God does what He said He would do. Isaiah 11:1-10 is a great reminder of this.

Six hundred years before the birth of Jesus, God spoke through His prophet to tell His people what to expect. He told them that the greatness of the kingdom under King David would not be restored in their time. Instead their nation would become like a stump: cut-off and lifeless. But God would bring forth a greater Kingdom and a greater King from that stump.

This message was not what they expected — or wanted.

They wanted power, glory, security, peace, and riches in their lifetimes. They did not see how suffering and hardship could be of any value to them, let alone that it could work good for them.

They had expectations of worldly glory. God had a different idea about what makes for real glory.

We struggle with the same issues as God's people of old. We want things that make our lives more pleasant and much easier. We seek things that bring us worldly glory, power, security, and riches.

We surprisingly discover that God is willing to keep or take those things from us in order to give us a better future.

He wants us to experience His glory, power, security, and riches. But these things often come to us in the ways that we don't expect. It's when we are broken, hurting, desperate, and hopeless — like trees that have been cut down to stumps — that we are most likely to receive what God is offering us.

And it's in these things that we gain insight and understanding of what Jesus meant when He called us to live under the Cross with Him. When we join Him there we discover that what His Cross brings to us is much different and far greater than whatever it is that we would — or could — expect.

Reflection: Answering Our Shamelessness (November 30, 2014)

9 And Jesus began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while. 10 When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11 And he sent another servant. But they also beat and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. 12 And he sent yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out. 13 Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ 14 But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.’ 15 And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When they heard this, they said, “Surely not!” 17 But he looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written: “ ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’? 18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” Luke 20:9-18

We are not people who are offended by shameful behavior. Instead, we tend to take the news of people doing shameful, reprehensible, and shocking things in stride. We've become numb to the shame of others and, as a result, unaware of our own shamefulness. The shocking behavior of the tenants in the parable Jesus told doesn't shock us in the way that it did the people who first heard this story. If if did -- or if we'd let it -- we'd be moved to action. Fortunately, our Savior answered our shamelessness for us. Freed from the shame that we tend to deny, we can live radical new lives in Christ that may even shock or shame the world around us.

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

Reflection: A Question Worth Considering (November 18, 2014)

6 “With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?  Micah 6:6-8

Click here to listen to the homily "A Question Worth Considering" (or right-click to download the MP3 file).

Reflection: Salt Made Salty Again (November 08, 2014)

Matthew 5:13–16

[Jesus said:] “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Click here to listen to the homily "Salt Made Salty Again" given at the closing service of the 2014 Rural and Small Town Mission Conference hosted by the LCMS Office of National Mission. (Right-click to download the MP3 file)

Devotion: Shattering the Myths of Heaven (Revelation 7:9-17)

9 After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." 11 All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying: "Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!" 13 Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes-- who are they, and where did they come from?" 14 I answered, "Sir, you know." And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore, "they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. 16 Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. 17 For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." 

Revelation 7:9-17

When people talk about heaven it becomes very apparent that we live in confusing times.

On one hand, many people in our culture talk about their dogs and cats having souls and living on in another life after they die.

On the other hand, just as many (or more) people embrace the idea that the human race is the result of millions of years of evolutionary mutations and that we are physical, not spiritual, beings with no existence after death.

It's even more mind-boggling that there are a good number of people who embrace both of these ideas!

The growing secularism of our culture has forced people to find new ways to deal with the deaths of friends and loved ones (and even pets). A casual reading of the obituaries in the newspaper or on-line reveals a number of these coping methods and the myths of heaven that have been formed around them.

Those who see humans as physical beings without souls have crafted a myth that there is no heaven, only nothingness. When a loved one dies, they seek comfort in the hope that the person will live on in the memories of those still alive.

Those who are "spiritual" apart from an "organized religion" promote the myth that heaven is an experience for every person of the human race. Thinking of their deceased loved ones as having entered into a cosmic oneness to which we are all somehow connected is supposed to help them cope with their loss.

The myth embraced by the millions of people in our nation who are culturally Christians, but not committed followers of Jesus, is that heaven is an upgraded and much improved continuation of this present life. Imagining their departed loved ones as newly minted angels who are watching over them is supposed to ease their grief.

As popular as these myths of heaven have become in our culture and in the American church, God's Word about heaven shatters them. The reality of heaven, though only given to us in small glimpses, eclipses all of our myths and brings us genuine comfort in the face of death.

The reality of heaven presented in the image of the saints of God dressed in white robes and gathered in His presence stands in vivid contrast to the myths of heaven crafted by our culture.

The reality of heaven is the fullness of life, not nothingness. It is being in the unlimited presence of the One who created all things, not an ambiguous connectedness to the cosmos. It is being free from the pain, sorrow, and suffering of this world, not condemned to observe it from afar.

Furthermore, it is centered not in us and our limited imaginings, but in the Lamb who is the author and essence of all that is real.

Best of all, the reality of Heaven awaits us and now belongs to those who have gone before us by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ whose blood has washed away our sins and whose righteousness clothes us so that we too may stand in the assembly from every nation, tribe, people, and language in His glorious presence forever.

Devotion: A Fort Made Of ... (Psalm 61:1-4)

1 Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer; 2 from the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, 3 for you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. 4 Let me dwell in your tent forever! Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings! Psalm 61:1-4

Forts made up a big part of my childhood experience. My brothers and I, along with our playmates, were always building some kind of fort. In the wintertime, we made forts of snow. In the summertime, we hobbled together salvaged wood, cardboard, and plastic sheeting to build forts. When the weather was nasty and we were stuck indoors, we made forts out of blankets, cushions, and books. But the fort that stands out most in my memories was the fort I made out of bales of straw in the hayloft of my grandparents' barn. Secure in my fort, I successfully fended off the valiant assault of my two brothers in in the great corncob war. It was the stuff of legends.

The purpose of forts is to provide safety and security — or at least a sense of them. While they may have given us a feeling of being safe and secure, none of the forts of our childhoods could protect us from any real threat. A fort made of snow, salvaged building materials, or bales of straw, let alone blankets and pillows, cannot afford any protection against the people or things that would harm a child. Thankfully, most of us grew up without the need of stronger forts than those of our playtime. But now that we have grown up, we need a fort in our adult lives that can defend us against those things, forces, and people that are actively seeking to harm and destroy us. Unfortunately, many adults go through life constructing forts of proverbial snow or straw or blankets to fend off the pain and suffering of broken relationships, abuse, betrayal, crime, shattered dreams, and seemingly hopeless circumstances.

As we celebrate the 497th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation, we are reminded that we have a fort that is stronger than everything that assails us in this life. More than a fort of our own construction, this fort is a fortress that God has built for all who look to Him for their safety and security. It is not a flimsy fort made out of the materials at hand, but a fortress crafted according to God's eternal plan and hewn from the Rock of our salvation. When we take refuge in this fort we are assured that in it is "our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble." This is a fort made of love, of grace, of power, and of promise. "The God of Jacob is our fortress."

Reflection: The Immeasurable Love of Our Immeasurable God (October 9, 2014)

Homily from chapel service at the LCMS International Center on October 9, 2014.

Ephesians 3:13-21
13 So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory. 14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

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

Devotion: Costly Dissatisfaction (Isaiah 55:1-5)

Click here to listen to an audio version of this devotion (or right-click to download the MP3 file).

1 "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.  2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.  3 Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.  4 See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander of the peoples.  5 Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations that do not know you will hasten to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor." 
Isaiah 55:1-5

Dissatisfaction is a two-edged sword. On one hand, dissatisfaction fuels creativity and progress. On the other hand, the drive to overcome dissatisfaction can consume a person and still leave him dissatisfied. It is as Douglas Horton put it, "Change occurs in direct proportion to dissatisfaction, but dissatisfaction never changes." However, the degree of dissatisfaction does change. It seems that the people of our culture have grown to new depths of dissatisfaction. Everything we've come up with to overcome it has failed. We've used entertainment, technology, materialism, consumption, sex, drugs, politics, and more to try to quench our dissatisfaction, but we're still dissatisfied. To make matters worse, we have spent ourselves, our money, and the limits of our borrowing power to our greater dissatisfaction.

The question put to God's people through the prophet Isaiah is just as relevant today as it was 2,600 years ago: "Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?" (Is. 55:2). We've spent our time, our money, our talents, our relationships, our very selves in efforts to find satisfaction. Yet the result has been a deepening rather than a lessening of our dissatisfaction. Far from being a healthy dissatisfaction that leads to creativity and innovation, our dissatisfaction has carried us into all sorts of destructive choices and behaviors. It's been a costly dissatisfaction.

Despite its destructive results in our culture, dissatisfaction is still a helpful experience for us. Our problem isn't being dissatisfied, but in how we've responded to our dissatisfaction. We've turned to all of the wrong things to find satisfaction.  The result of turning to these things has been a downward spiral of dissatisfaction. The question, "Why spend yourself on what does not satisfy?" challenges us to turn away from the things that have failed to ease our dissatisfaction let alone bring us any satisfaction. Along with that challenge comes God's gracious invitation: "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to waters; and you who have no money, buy and eat!" (Is. 55:1). Only when we reject our efforts to find satisfaction in the things of this world can we find satisfaction in the things of God. He has paid the price for the satisfaction of our souls. Ours was a costly dissatisfaction, but He freely satisfies all those who come to Him.

Devotion: "It's Like ... You Know" (Matthew 13:44-52)

Click here to listen to an audio version of this devotion (or right-click to download the MP3 file).

[Jesus said, ] 44 "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. 45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it. 47 Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. 48 When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. 49 This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50 and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 51 Have you understood all these things?" Jesus asked. "Yes," they replied. 52 He said to them, "Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old." (Matthew 13:44-52)

When we ask someone to describe or explain something for us, especially something that is foreign to us, we expect them to use a comparison of some kind. So, if someone eats some exotic dish and we ask how it tasted, we're likely to get a response that starts out with "It tasted like …" ("chicken" seems to finish this sentence for a lot of things for some reason). In a similar way, when we ask someone how a change in life such as being married or having a child is going for them, they may respond "It's like …" If the person knows that we have shared in that experience, the answer may simply conclude with "you know."

"It's like … you know" is a phrase that describes the Kingdom of God for us. In Matthew 13, Jesus used three different images to describe the Kingdom for us. He said "It's like …" to help us understand something that is difficult to explain. By using comparisons -- even comparisons that don't fit our culture as well as they did the culture of His original audience -- Jesus gives us glimpses into the beauty and majesty of God's Kingdom. Each of the images that He used shows us something else (and something more) about the Kingdom.

"It's like" a man who discovers a hidden treasure in a field. With great joy he sells everything he owns to purchase the field so the treasure could be his (which was both legal and moral in his culture). You know that the Kingdom is like this because the joy that it brings to you is worth everything that you have had to give up in order to possess it.

"It's like" a merchant who prizes fine pearls. When he comes across the finest pearl he's ever seen, he sells off all of his other pearls, including those he previously prized, in order to have this one. You know that the Kingdom is like this because when it came to you and you saw it for what it is, you gladly got rid of all the other kingdoms in your life in order to prize His Kingdom.

"It's like" fishermen who sort out their catch, keeping the fish that are good for eating and throwing away the ones that are no good. You know that the Kingdom is like this because you share in the experience of God's Kingdom. By the working of the Holy Spirit, you have been gathered, sorted, and found to be "good" in God's sight and been given a place in His Kingdom. In His Kingdom you have true joy, immeasurable treasure, and the peace secured for you by Christ. All of the good things that make the Kingdom of God like … you know. 

Reflection: Chosen to Glorify God (June 1, 2014)

The 7th Sunday in Easter
Acts 1:12-26; 1 Peter 4:12-19, 6:6-11; John 17:1-11

The biblical teaching that God has chosen the people who will be saved rather than people choose to believe in God and be saved by that choice is not very popular in American Christianity. Part of the reason for this is that our culture has made choice into an idol. From abortion to homosexual marriage, we insist on our right to make choices on matters that God’s Word has firmly and clearly decided for us. Given our perspective that we should be able to choose in these matters, why would we embrace the idea that we have no choice in the most important matter of our lives?  Even more than that, why would we subject ourselves to the choice of a God who insists that along with choosing us for salvation He has chosen for us the ways in which we will suffer in order to glorify His name? Clearly, this line of thinking makes everything about God and His choices rather than about us and our choices. How un-American!

The problem we have with God’s choices isn’t unique to Americans. All people naturally resist God and His will. In our sinfulness, we desire to glorify ourselves rather than glorify God. We recognize (and even expect) this in those people who don’t know Christ. But it’s just as great a problem for Christians as it is for unbelievers. Even though we belong to Christ and confess our trust in Him, in our weakness we hesitate to follow Him into the glory that He has chosen for us. Instead, we seek out the glory that suites us — glory that looks strikingly like the glory that the world desires and exalts. We prefer and pursue a glory that comes without suffering rather than the glory that is found in suffering. But the glory we seek is neither what God has chosen for us nor is it His glory. It’s simply our glory dressed up as His.

Jesus knew that He would have to suffer in order to glorify the Father. He also knew that all of His followers — from the first disciples to us and those who will come after us — would have to suffer in this world to glorify Him. His desire as He resolutely embraced the Cross suffering through which He would glorify the Father and that we would glorify Him. He knew that such glory necessarily involves the Cross — for Him and for us. This is why He prayed for us and not for the world (John 17:9). We’ve been chosen to glorify God which invariably leads us into suffering for the sake of His name — and just as invariably leads us, after we have suffered for a little while, to His eternal glory.

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

Reflection: Being Very Religious (May 25, 2014)

The 6th Sunday in Easter
Acts 17:16-31; 1 Peter 3:13-22; John 14:15-21

The word ‘religion’ isn’t very popular these days. Many people dismiss it by claiming to be spiritual rather than religious. Even Christians malign it by insisting that Christianity is not about being religious but about having a relationship with Jesus. Both views not only show a misunderstanding of the word, but contradict the Bible’s use of it.  For example, in Acts 17:22, Paul commended the Athenians for being “very religious.” He realized the importance of religion, so much so that he wanted them to know and experience the one religion that would be of value to them. Their problem, Paul pointed out, wasn’t that they were religious, but that they had the wrong religion.

The word ‘religion’ comes from Latin words that mean ‘to join something together again.’ It conveys the idea that we once had a harmonious relationship with God, but it was broken and in need of restoration. More than recognizing the problem, true religion actually restores harmony. This proper understanding of the word religion shows us that being religious is essential to being in a right relationship with Christ and being spiritually alive — thus exposing the foolishness of the contemporary rejections of the word religion. However, like the Athenians, we are always at risk of centering our religion in the wrong things and rendering it of no value — or worse.

When we boil it down, there are only two religions in the world. The first, the one that the Athenians had embraced, puts the burden on us to restore our broken relationship with God. It assures us that, in one way or another, we can do what God requires to be in His favor once again. This religion is really about me and depends upon my efforts, my spirituality, my commitment to my relationship with God, and my faithfulness. It is the religion of the Law. The other religion is the religion of the Gospel. In this religion our spirituality, relationship, goodness, etc. is based in the Father’s grace, the merits of Jesus, and the work of the Holy Spirit. In it, everything wholly depends on God’s faithfulness. It is the only religion — the only way — that restores a harmonious relationship with God and brings us eternal life. It is the religion into which you have been Baptized and through which you have come to know “the God who made the world and everything in it” and have been restored in His favor “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

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

Reflection: From Now On (May 18, 2014)

The 5th Sunday in Easter
Acts 6:1-9, 7:2, 51-60; 1 Peter 2:2-10; John 14:1-14

There are points at which we become fully aware that from that moment on our lives are going to be different. These life-changing events can be wonderfully joyous or painfully troubling. Either way, something so significant has taken place that life will never be the same. We recognize the significance and the impact of events like graduating from school, the birth of a child, the death of a loved one, the end of a career, getting married, getting div
orced, and being permanently injured by even saying, “From now on, life is going to be different.” But we often end up struggling with the life that comes after our “from now on” events because we try to hold onto the life that we had before them. Denying that life has forever changed and trying to live our old lives only leads to frustration, disappointment, and failure.

Even if you can’t point to one in your earthly life, you can certainly point to a “from now on” event in your life in Christ. That moment came when you went from being estranged from God to becoming His child and being gathered into His Church through Holy Baptism. 1 Peter 2:10 explains that transformation this way: “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” From that moment on, your life has been caught up in Christ and you have lived in His grace. You were delivered out of the darkness of sin and death and were grafted into “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession.”

You’ve had that “from now on” experience, but has it affected your life as it was intended to?  The new life that you have in Christ is meant to be a life of joy and purpose, one in which you delight in proclaiming “the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” But if you set this aside and try to live as you once did before Christ came into your life frustration, disappointment, and failure is certain to follow. Everything about you and your life has been changed. There is no going back to the old life — and thank God for that! From now on you are in His grace. From now on you are growing up into salvation. From now on you are a “living stone” in His spiritual house with the extraordinary privilege of offering the days of your life as “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God.” All this, and more, from now on … into eternity.

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

Reflection: Not What We Had Hoped (May 4, 2014)

3rd Sunday of Easter
Acts 2:14a, 36-41; 1 Peter 1:17-25; Luke 24:13-35

The two disciples walking on their way to Emmaus said more than they realized when they told their unfamiliar fellow traveler about Jesus. “We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel,” they said in resignation.  Both the words that they used and the tense of their verbs showed that they didn’t understand Jesus’ mission and purpose. In the first place, they saw Jesus as the hope for Israel rather than the hope for the whole world. Secondly, they used the past perfect tense when they talked about their hope, a tense that indicates that an action was completed at some point in the past before something else happened. In their case, and by their admission, they stopped hoping that Jesus would redeem them when they saw Him die on the Cross. At that point Jesus went from “is” to “was” in their minds and He continued to be “was” even after they had received the reports that He had risen from the dead. The possibility of His resurrection did not restore their hope because it was not what they had hoped for in the first place.

Like those two disciples, we can find ourselves in circumstances in which what we had hoped for has faded from the realms of possibilities. And, like them, we may continue to hold onto our ideas of how things should have been or could have been rather than recognize that what we had hoped for in the first place wasn’t what was best for us, maybe even not what was good for us. When we hope for healing but God allows us to continue suffering through a disease or injury, we may question God’s compassion because we aren’t receiving the healing for which we had hoped. When our personal lives are spinning out of control and we are looking for a way to keep from being overwhelmed by our circumstances, we may doubt that God cares about us as the peace and prosperity we had hoped for fades away. In many other ways we find ourselves disappointed or frustrated or depressed because we have hoped for the wrong things. We hope for comfort, ease, and happiness, but we rarely hope for the Cross. Even when we do, we hope that the crosses in our lives pass quickly and won’t affect us too much. Fortunately, the Lord does not give us what we had hoped for. Instead, He moves us to hope only in Him. When we do, He richly and abundantly fills our lives with joy that exceeds our desired pleasures, peace that defies our circumstance, and hope that will never fade into the past tense.

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

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).