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).