Pr. Weedon, my fellow servant of Christ has tagged me for seven things I have learned in life.
Here goes:
1. Everything I needed for life was taught to me by 1st grade.
2. My Wife is always right.
3. We are a greedy society and a greedy people.
4. A Pastor must be in the Word if he wants his flock in the Word.
5. Don't be wishy washy, either YES! or NO!
6. Don't tell anything to anyone that you don't want the whole world to know.
7. Keep It Simple Stupid.
I think that these are self explanatory, so I shalt not go on any longer.
Go for it if you haven't already been tagged.
A Blog of Sermons, Devotional Thought, Religious Topics, and Just fun information and thoughts from Rev. Keith GeRue Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church Between Girard and Virden Illinois
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Sermon for Rogate @ St. Paul Lutheran Church Hamel, IL
Rogate Sunday
John 16:23-33
“Prayer in the Name of Jesus”
May 12–13, 2007
John 16:23-33
“Prayer in the Name of Jesus”
May 12–13, 2007
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Let me make one thing perfectly clear, it is by the Name, Jesus Christ, who is the Son of the living God, the Stone which was rejected but has become the Chief Cornerstone; in His Name alone is to be found salvation, and in no other, for there is no other Name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:10-12) There is no other way to heaven. There is no one else to worship, save the devil himself. There is no one else to whom one should pray.
But this is not the message of the world, indeed, it’s not even the message preached in all of Christendom. The message we and our children are bombarded with everyday, from nearly every source, be it television, radio, newspaper, magazine, internet, what have you, is that there are many paths to heaven and eternal life, and they are all equally valid. This message claims that there is a pantheon of acceptable gods to choose from. And if you make any claim to the contrary, well, you are just ignorant and uniformed at best, or at worst, you are a hateful bigot.
Spiritually, our world isn’t much different than in the days of pagan Rome. One of the ways Rome subdued and pacified a people when they conquered them was to allow them to keep their religion and their gods. This practice eventually led to various gods and religious customs being absorbed into Roman religion and practice. All religions were acceptable as long as no one religion made any exclusive claims. One could bow down to one’s god or gods, as long as one was willing to bow down to the gods of Rome as well.
So it is today. Christians can worship whom they want, how they want. Just don’t go making any claims that the Christian God is the One True God. Christians can worship whom they want, how they want. Just don’t go making such a public display of your beliefs. Christians can worship whom they want, how they want, as long as they also worship at the altar of multiculturalism, and as long as they recognize that the one true god is not the God of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things, the God who became incarnate and suffered and died for you.
No, they must also worship and recognize the one true god of the world—tolerance. This god has also crept into Christianity. No longer is it tolerable to make an exclusive claim to the truth of Holy Scripture. No longer is it permissible to point out error and heresy wherever and whenever error or heresy are found. To do so is seen as unloving and unchristian. But friends, if we hold the whole Church to that standard then we must excommunicate St. Peter, St. Paul, and all the Apostles, and even Jesus, for making exclusive claims about the Church and about the Truth of Holy Scripture. For did not St. Peter in speaking of Jesus before the Sanhedrin preach, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) Didn’t we hear St. Paul, even this very morning, preach, “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus…” (1 Timothy 2:5) And hasn’t Jesus said of Himself, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)
No, we really are no different than the Romans. So it is that, in our society today, acupuncture, herbal teas, and howling at the moon are deemed acceptable attempts to deal with incurable diseases. Science fiction is preferred to science. While overt paganism is alive and well in the world, covert paganism and latent superstitions reside in the hearts of the people in our churches where a part of us believes that dancing around a fire and peering into tea leaves somehow has power. Popular opinion among us says that anything is possible, and truth shouldn’t be allowed to get in the way. We can believe what we want about any subject, but nothing should be held dogmatically. Nothing should be held to the exclusion of other possibilities or opinions. Only fools are uncompromising in their beliefs. Along with absolute truth is gone the concept of any actual reality.
Therefore, when the pseudo-religious find themselves in any kind of a crisis, their first thought is to call together all the clerics of all the religions of the world and have them pray to their myriad gods, hoping that one of them will hear their cries for help. They behave like a patient diagnosed with a terminal disease who goes from one health food store to the next and hangs on every word of every wacko in the business of pseudohealth hoping that one of them will have a cure.
Prayer in such a context, even if Jesus’ Name is invoked, is not prayer in Jesus’ Name. For Jesus will not share the stage. He is not one among many. He is not regional or ethnic. He is not just the white man’s God, or a god forced on so many ignorant peoples subjugated by white men of European descent. Jesus is not satisfied to be the chief god, like Jupiter, Zeus, or Thor. He is the only God! There is no other! To pray to any other god, to pray in any other name, is idolatry.
Jesus is the only Name under heaven given to us by which we are saved. Jesus is the only One, the only God who has promised to hear our prayers. All other gods are idols of stone, wood, metal, or man’s feeble imagination. They cannot hear and they cannot save.
Jesus, the One True God, hears our prayers by His grace. He has made us His people. But, He is also everyone’s God. It is just that everyone does not know it yet. In the end they will. For every knee shall bow, those in heaven, and those on the earth, and those in hell, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. (Philippians 2:10-11)
When we pray to the Father, through the Spirit, in Jesus’ Name, we are confessing that Jesus is Lord; that He is the great I AM. That confession cannot stand next to Rabbis who hold that Jesus is nothing more than a bastard child of a poor Nazarene peasant woman and who was executed for the criminal he was. That Jesus was crucified until He was dead and that He remained dead. Nor can that confession stand next to a Muslim Mullah who understands Jesus to be no more than a man and a prophet of Allah who was sorely misunderstood and did not make atonement for the sins of the world and whose Father does not hear prayer in His Name. Prayer in Jesus’ Name cannot stand with those Christians who would hold Jesus did not rise from the dead, was not born of a Virgin, and was not the Son of God. Nor can prayer in Jesus’ Name stand with witch doctors and shamans in buffalo skins peering into the intestines of animals. Prayer in Jesus’ Name must, by definition, condemn such demonic lies.
For our Jesus is the real God and He will tolerate no other. He will not share your heart with the gods of this world. The One who is, who gave His life to make you His, hears and answers your prayers. For we have a God who is not like us, whose thoughts are not our thoughts and whose ways are not our ways, but who is good, and whose mercy endures forever. Prayer in Jesus’ Name is prayer heard by God through His death and resurrection, who bestowed that same Name upon you in Holy Baptism, and it is prayer conformed to the prayer in Gethsemane. For God’s will is always good, and is always done. And even when it seems bad, such as the Father not removing the Cup of wrath from His Son, even when it means suffering shame and hatred from the world, heavenly hindsight will reveal it is always perfect, that it is just what God’s children needed.
Pray then for what you will. You do not need to worry about forming the perfect request. For even before you ask your Father knows what you need. He provides what you need not because you pray, but because He loves you. You pray, “Lord, have mercy,” and He does have mercy on you. You pray, “Create in me a clean heart O God,” and He does. You pray, “Our Father,” and He is. In Christ Jesus, God is your Father and He, Himself, loves you. Here is comfort for a lost, hurting world! He is the message they so desperately need. They need the Truth boldly proclaimed. They need the promise of a real God who does not randomly hear some and ignore others, but who welcomes petitions from His children through His Son and by His Name!
You are not alone in prayer. For God speaks in His Word. With that Holy, inspired, inerrant Word, prayer is not a one-way conversation. In the Bible God reveals His will for you. He exposes His loving mercy and kindness. This God of grace who speaks in His Word answers your prayers. He provides friends, family, food, and all things. But most significantly, He who provided the ram in the thicket that Isaac would go free, has provided His Son as a perfect sacrifice in your place, and delivers that same Son to you in His Body and Blood. By His Word, He provides. He forgives. He renews. He strengthens and encourages. He hears your prayer and He answers, “I forgive you all your sins.”
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria
Sermon for Rogate @ St. Paul Lutheran Church Hamel, IL
Rogate Sunday
John 16:23-33
“Prayer in the Name of Jesus”
May 12–13, 2007
John 16:23-33
“Prayer in the Name of Jesus”
May 12–13, 2007
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Let me make one thing perfectly clear, it is by the Name, Jesus Christ, who is the Son of the living God, the Stone which was rejected but has become the Chief Cornerstone; in His Name alone is to be found salvation, and in no other, for there is no other Name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:10-12) There is no other way to heaven. There is no one else to worship, save the devil himself. There is no one else to whom one should pray.
But this is not the message of the world, indeed, it’s not even the message preached in all of Christendom. The message we and our children are bombarded with everyday, from nearly every source, be it television, radio, newspaper, magazine, internet, what have you, is that there are many paths to heaven and eternal life, and they are all equally valid. This message claims that there is a pantheon of acceptable gods to choose from. And if you make any claim to the contrary, well, you are just ignorant and uniformed at best, or at worst, you are a hateful bigot.
Spiritually, our world isn’t much different than in the days of pagan Rome. One of the ways Rome subdued and pacified a people when they conquered them was to allow them to keep their religion and their gods. This practice eventually led to various gods and religious customs being absorbed into Roman religion and practice. All religions were acceptable as long as no one religion made any exclusive claims. One could bow down to one’s god or gods, as long as one was willing to bow down to the gods of Rome as well.
So it is today. Christians can worship whom they want, how they want. Just don’t go making any claims that the Christian God is the One True God. Christians can worship whom they want, how they want. Just don’t go making such a public display of your beliefs. Christians can worship whom they want, how they want, as long as they also worship at the altar of multiculturalism, and as long as they recognize that the one true god is not the God of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things, the God who became incarnate and suffered and died for you.
No, they must also worship and recognize the one true god of the world—tolerance. This god has also crept into Christianity. No longer is it tolerable to make an exclusive claim to the truth of Holy Scripture. No longer is it permissible to point out error and heresy wherever and whenever error or heresy are found. To do so is seen as unloving and unchristian. But friends, if we hold the whole Church to that standard then we must excommunicate St. Peter, St. Paul, and all the Apostles, and even Jesus, for making exclusive claims about the Church and about the Truth of Holy Scripture. For did not St. Peter in speaking of Jesus before the Sanhedrin preach, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) Didn’t we hear St. Paul, even this very morning, preach, “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus…” (1 Timothy 2:5) And hasn’t Jesus said of Himself, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)
No, we really are no different than the Romans. So it is that, in our society today, acupuncture, herbal teas, and howling at the moon are deemed acceptable attempts to deal with incurable diseases. Science fiction is preferred to science. While overt paganism is alive and well in the world, covert paganism and latent superstitions reside in the hearts of the people in our churches where a part of us believes that dancing around a fire and peering into tea leaves somehow has power. Popular opinion among us says that anything is possible, and truth shouldn’t be allowed to get in the way. We can believe what we want about any subject, but nothing should be held dogmatically. Nothing should be held to the exclusion of other possibilities or opinions. Only fools are uncompromising in their beliefs. Along with absolute truth is gone the concept of any actual reality.
Therefore, when the pseudo-religious find themselves in any kind of a crisis, their first thought is to call together all the clerics of all the religions of the world and have them pray to their myriad gods, hoping that one of them will hear their cries for help. They behave like a patient diagnosed with a terminal disease who goes from one health food store to the next and hangs on every word of every wacko in the business of pseudohealth hoping that one of them
will have a cure.
Prayer in such a context, even if Jesus’ Name is invoked, is not prayer in Jesus’ Name. For Jesus will not share the stage. He is not one among many. He is not regional or ethnic. He is not just the white man’s God, or a god forced on so many ignorant peoples subjugated by white men of European descent. Jesus is not satisfied to be the chief god, like Jupiter, Zeus, or Thor. He is the only God! There is no other! To pray to any other god, to pray in any other name, is idolatry.
Jesus is the only Name under heaven given to us by which we are saved. Jesus is the only One, the only God who has promised to hear our prayers. All other gods are idols of stone, wood, metal, or man’s feeble imagination. They cannot hear and they cannot save.
Jesus, the One True God, hears our prayers by His grace. He has made us His people. But, He is also everyone’s God. It is just that everyone does not know it yet. In the end they will. For every knee shall bow, those in heaven, and those on the earth, and those in hell, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. (Philippians 2:10-11)
When we pray to the Father, through the Spirit, in Jesus’ Name, we are confessing that Jesus is Lord; that He is the great I AM. That confession cannot stand next to Rabbis who hold that Jesus is nothing more than a bastard child of a poor Nazarene peasant woman and who was executed for the criminal he was. That Jesus was crucified until He was dead and that He remained dead. Nor can that confession stand next to a Muslim Mullah who understands Jesus to be no more than a man and a prophet of Allah who was sorely misunderstood and did not make atonement for the sins of the world and whose Father does not hear prayer in His Name. Prayer in Jesus’ Name cannot stand with those Christians who would hold Jesus did not rise from the dead, was not born of a Virgin, and was not the Son of God. Nor can prayer in Jesus’ Name stand with witch doctors and shamans in buffalo skins peering into the intestines of animals. Prayer in Jesus’ Name must, by definition, condemn such demonic lies.
For our Jesus is the real God and He will tolerate no other. He will not share your heart with the gods of this world. The One who is, who gave His life to make you His, hears and answers your prayers. For we have a God who is not like us, whose thoughts are not our thoughts and whose ways are not our ways, but who is good, and whose mercy endures forever. Prayer in Jesus’ Name is prayer heard by God through His death and resurrection, who bestowed that same Name upon you in Holy Baptism, and it is prayer conformed to the prayer in Gethsemane.
For God’s will is always good, and is always done. And even when it seems bad, such as the Father not removing the Cup of wrath from His Son, even when it means suffering shame and hatred from the world, heavenly hindsight will reveal it is always perfect, that it is just what God’s children needed.
Pray then for what you will. You do not need to worry about forming the perfect request. For even before you ask your Father knows what you need. He provides what you need not because you pray, but because He loves you. You pray, “Lord, have mercy,” and He does have mercy on you. You pray, “Create in me a clean heart O God,” and He does. You pray, “Our Father,” and He is. In Christ Jesus, God is your Father and He, Himself, loves you. Here is comfort for a lost, hurting world! He is the message they so desperately need. They need the Truth boldly proclaimed. They need the promise of a real God who does not randomly hear some and ignore others, but who welcomes petitions from His children through His Son and by His Name!
You are not alone in prayer. For God speaks in His Word. With that Holy, inspired, inerrant Word, prayer is not a one-way conversation. In the Bible God reveals His will for you. He exposes His loving mercy and kindness. This God of grace who speaks in His Word answers your prayers. He provides friends, family, food, and all things. But most significantly, He who provided the ram in the thicket that Isaac would go free, has provided His Son as a perfect sacrifice in your place, and delivers that same Son to you in His Body and Blood. By His Word, He provides. He forgives. He renews. He strengthens and encourages. He hears your prayer and He answers, “I forgive you all your sins.”
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Let me make one thing perfectly clear, it is by the Name, Jesus Christ, who is the Son of the living God, the Stone which was rejected but has become the Chief Cornerstone; in His Name alone is to be found salvation, and in no other, for there is no other Name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:10-12) There is no other way to heaven. There is no one else to worship, save the devil himself. There is no one else to whom one should pray.
But this is not the message of the world, indeed, it’s not even the message preached in all of Christendom. The message we and our children are bombarded with everyday, from nearly every source, be it television, radio, newspaper, magazine, internet, what have you, is that there are many paths to heaven and eternal life, and they are all equally valid. This message claims that there is a pantheon of acceptable gods to choose from. And if you make any claim to the contrary, well, you are just ignorant and uniformed at best, or at worst, you are a hateful bigot.
Spiritually, our world isn’t much different than in the days of pagan Rome. One of the ways Rome subdued and pacified a people when they conquered them was to allow them to keep their religion and their gods. This practice eventually led to various gods and religious customs being absorbed into Roman religion and practice. All religions were acceptable as long as no one religion made any exclusive claims. One could bow down to one’s god or gods, as long as one was willing to bow down to the gods of Rome as well.
So it is today. Christians can worship whom they want, how they want. Just don’t go making any claims that the Christian God is the One True God. Christians can worship whom they want, how they want. Just don’t go making such a public display of your beliefs. Christians can worship whom they want, how they want, as long as they also worship at the altar of multiculturalism, and as long as they recognize that the one true god is not the God of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things, the God who became incarnate and suffered and died for you.
No, they must also worship and recognize the one true god of the world—tolerance. This god has also crept into Christianity. No longer is it tolerable to make an exclusive claim to the truth of Holy Scripture. No longer is it permissible to point out error and heresy wherever and whenever error or heresy are found. To do so is seen as unloving and unchristian. But friends, if we hold the whole Church to that standard then we must excommunicate St. Peter, St. Paul, and all the Apostles, and even Jesus, for making exclusive claims about the Church and about the Truth of Holy Scripture. For did not St. Peter in speaking of Jesus before the Sanhedrin preach, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) Didn’t we hear St. Paul, even this very morning, preach, “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus…” (1 Timothy 2:5) And hasn’t Jesus said of Himself, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)
No, we really are no different than the Romans. So it is that, in our society today, acupuncture, herbal teas, and howling at the moon are deemed acceptable attempts to deal with incurable diseases. Science fiction is preferred to science. While overt paganism is alive and well in the world, covert paganism and latent superstitions reside in the hearts of the people in our churches where a part of us believes that dancing around a fire and peering into tea leaves somehow has power. Popular opinion among us says that anything is possible, and truth shouldn’t be allowed to get in the way. We can believe what we want about any subject, but nothing should be held dogmatically. Nothing should be held to the exclusion of other possibilities or opinions. Only fools are uncompromising in their beliefs. Along with absolute truth is gone the concept of any actual reality.
Therefore, when the pseudo-religious find themselves in any kind of a crisis, their first thought is to call together all the clerics of all the religions of the world and have them pray to their myriad gods, hoping that one of them will hear their cries for help. They behave like a patient diagnosed with a terminal disease who goes from one health food store to the next and hangs on every word of every wacko in the business of pseudohealth hoping that one of them
will have a cure.
Prayer in such a context, even if Jesus’ Name is invoked, is not prayer in Jesus’ Name. For Jesus will not share the stage. He is not one among many. He is not regional or ethnic. He is not just the white man’s God, or a god forced on so many ignorant peoples subjugated by white men of European descent. Jesus is not satisfied to be the chief god, like Jupiter, Zeus, or Thor. He is the only God! There is no other! To pray to any other god, to pray in any other name, is idolatry.
Jesus is the only Name under heaven given to us by which we are saved. Jesus is the only One, the only God who has promised to hear our prayers. All other gods are idols of stone, wood, metal, or man’s feeble imagination. They cannot hear and they cannot save.
Jesus, the One True God, hears our prayers by His grace. He has made us His people. But, He is also everyone’s God. It is just that everyone does not know it yet. In the end they will. For every knee shall bow, those in heaven, and those on the earth, and those in hell, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. (Philippians 2:10-11)
When we pray to the Father, through the Spirit, in Jesus’ Name, we are confessing that Jesus is Lord; that He is the great I AM. That confession cannot stand next to Rabbis who hold that Jesus is nothing more than a bastard child of a poor Nazarene peasant woman and who was executed for the criminal he was. That Jesus was crucified until He was dead and that He remained dead. Nor can that confession stand next to a Muslim Mullah who understands Jesus to be no more than a man and a prophet of Allah who was sorely misunderstood and did not make atonement for the sins of the world and whose Father does not hear prayer in His Name. Prayer in Jesus’ Name cannot stand with those Christians who would hold Jesus did not rise from the dead, was not born of a Virgin, and was not the Son of God. Nor can prayer in Jesus’ Name stand with witch doctors and shamans in buffalo skins peering into the intestines of animals. Prayer in Jesus’ Name must, by definition, condemn such demonic lies.
For our Jesus is the real God and He will tolerate no other. He will not share your heart with the gods of this world. The One who is, who gave His life to make you His, hears and answers your prayers. For we have a God who is not like us, whose thoughts are not our thoughts and whose ways are not our ways, but who is good, and whose mercy endures forever. Prayer in Jesus’ Name is prayer heard by God through His death and resurrection, who bestowed that same Name upon you in Holy Baptism, and it is prayer conformed to the prayer in Gethsemane.
For God’s will is always good, and is always done. And even when it seems bad, such as the Father not removing the Cup of wrath from His Son, even when it means suffering shame and hatred from the world, heavenly hindsight will reveal it is always perfect, that it is just what God’s children needed.
Pray then for what you will. You do not need to worry about forming the perfect request. For even before you ask your Father knows what you need. He provides what you need not because you pray, but because He loves you. You pray, “Lord, have mercy,” and He does have mercy on you. You pray, “Create in me a clean heart O God,” and He does. You pray, “Our Father,” and He is. In Christ Jesus, God is your Father and He, Himself, loves you. Here is comfort for a lost, hurting world! He is the message they so desperately need. They need the Truth boldly proclaimed. They need the promise of a real God who does not randomly hear some and ignore others, but who welcomes petitions from His children through His Son and by His Name!
You are not alone in prayer. For God speaks in His Word. With that Holy, inspired, inerrant Word, prayer is not a one-way conversation. In the Bible God reveals His will for you. He exposes His loving mercy and kindness. This God of grace who speaks in His Word answers your prayers. He provides friends, family, food, and all things. But most significantly, He who provided the ram in the thicket that Isaac would go free, has provided His Son as a perfect sacrifice in your place, and delivers that same Son to you in His Body and Blood. By His Word, He provides. He forgives. He renews. He strengthens and encourages. He hears your prayer and He answers, “I forgive you all your sins.”
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Jubilate Sermon
Jubilate John 16:16-23 "PAINFUL"
In the Name of the Father and the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
On the night when He was betrayed, on the night in which He left to His disciple the durable legacy of unity with Himself in the Sacrament of the Altar, He prepared them for His departure with the promise of return and of joy. They were puzzled by it and so Our Lord explains further and with an illustration: "Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you."
He is speaking of the specific sorrow that the disciples will have at the crucifixion. But we do well to apply this to ourselves and to the sorrows we endure in this life while awaiting His imminent return. For the Church on this side of glory is very much like a woman in labor. For a woman in labor bears the brunt and consequence of the Law. Remember the curse pronounced upon Eve and her children: "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you."
Consider the dangerous passage, for both mother and child, of birth. The mother is in great pain, out of her mind, but clearly focused upon, and caring about nothing but, getting that baby out. So also we still bear the burden of the Law. We are forgiven, like Eve in the garden clinging to the Promise of the Messiah, but we are still waiting for completion of our joy. It is still in the future. And the Law of the present brings pain and sorrow.
For the present is full of our sinning. By our sins we have burnt bridges with family and friends, employers and neighbors. With a moment's foolishness or with a moment of selfish pleasure, whether that be giving in to our rage and frustration and lashing out or whether it be a quiet nurturing of our lust, greed, and malice, we've succumbed to temptation, and hurt the ones we love the most. Our words have been spiteful, bitter, and mean. Our service to spouse and parent, coworker, and friend, has been under pressure and with great show. We have needlessly complicated our lives, caved-in, given up, ran away. We have been weak. Sometimes it is like we are two or more people at the same time. In the back of our minds we watch helplessly, ashamed of what we are doing, but not stepping out and stopping it. Repent. Turn away from your fleshly desires. Remember that this is not your home. Let the pain, the sorrow, even your trickery, focus you upon the coming joy.
For a woman in a labor, for all her trouble, is a woman uniquely focused upon the joy to come. She is not distracted by the petty things of this life. She doesn't care if the doctors, nurses, or see her hair is messed up or her shirt a little wrinkled. She is having a baby, and for a little while, that is all that matters. For a little while, she has sorrow, but then the baby is laid upon her and her sorrow is not only complete, but forgotten. It cannot compare to the wonder and joy of the life of her living little baby.
So it is also for us. This life is temporary. It seems long, but in retrospect we will see that it was brief. Our joy will be complete and no one will take it from us. Hang on. Be as focused as the mother in the delivery room. Jesus Christ did not die and rise in vain. It will end soon. And when the going gets tough, in the waning hours of darkness, in the midst of your watch, know that you will mount up on wings like eagles and soar. Soon, you will leave all this pettiness, this hatred sin, these open sewers of false morality and half-hearted lies behind. You shall be free! No more pain, no more suffering, no more shame or regret, no more past, no more sin. You will be free of yourself. This is the horizon that rises before you. God's Grace cuts the cords, which bound you to this awful, dark place. The payment for your selfishness has been paid. There is no more, but the waiting. For God loves you in Jesus Christ and will bring you to Himself. In your labor, ponder this profound and simple truth, for His own reasons, from His own sovereignty, His own goodness, without any merit or worthiness in you, He loves you. He calls you by name. The inheritance of the righteous is rightfully yours, for you are His. In Christ, you are free. You are free from worrying about yourself. You need not defend yourself, look after your rights and honors, or be insulted by the stupid behavior around you. Patience is learned in the cross, for there we see that nothing else really matters. You are free from those who hurt you, from the devil's accusations, from death. Jesus Christ Himself is your Defender, your Advocate, your Friend. He never sleeps or grows faint. Let Him worry about you. For who would dare to stand against you, the King's own chaste Bride? These labor pains are not punishment. Rather, they are the proof of His love.
And while you wait, knowing that your time is coming, that nothing else matters, receive already the foretaste of that Joyous Feast to come. Be strengthened, encouraged, and refreshed for your labor. Eat His Body and drink His Blood for sustenance. Your sins are there forgiven and the Church Militant, that is you, joins its worship to the worship of the Church Triumphant, the Church at rest in glory, which has already been delivered. Here is your strength to carry on. Here is hope for the future, peace for the tired, troubled heart. Here is unity with Christ crucified and raised ,and therein, unity with the fellow confessing pilgrims on earth, diverse strangers no more, but now brothers and sisters in Him, for faith is thicker than blood. And there is unity with the confessing cloud that even now surrounds you and prays for you. This is not an epidermal, a narcotic to numb you and drug you out of your mind. It is a promise of joy to come delivered now, that you would endure in confident Hope and Faith. So, Relax. Fear not. In a little while you will see Him and your joy will be complete, your travails forgotten. No one will take it from you.
In +Jesus' Name. Amen.
In the Name of the Father and the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
On the night when He was betrayed, on the night in which He left to His disciple the durable legacy of unity with Himself in the Sacrament of the Altar, He prepared them for His departure with the promise of return and of joy. They were puzzled by it and so Our Lord explains further and with an illustration: "Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you."
He is speaking of the specific sorrow that the disciples will have at the crucifixion. But we do well to apply this to ourselves and to the sorrows we endure in this life while awaiting His imminent return. For the Church on this side of glory is very much like a woman in labor. For a woman in labor bears the brunt and consequence of the Law. Remember the curse pronounced upon Eve and her children: "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you."
Consider the dangerous passage, for both mother and child, of birth. The mother is in great pain, out of her mind, but clearly focused upon, and caring about nothing but, getting that baby out. So also we still bear the burden of the Law. We are forgiven, like Eve in the garden clinging to the Promise of the Messiah, but we are still waiting for completion of our joy. It is still in the future. And the Law of the present brings pain and sorrow.
For the present is full of our sinning. By our sins we have burnt bridges with family and friends, employers and neighbors. With a moment's foolishness or with a moment of selfish pleasure, whether that be giving in to our rage and frustration and lashing out or whether it be a quiet nurturing of our lust, greed, and malice, we've succumbed to temptation, and hurt the ones we love the most. Our words have been spiteful, bitter, and mean. Our service to spouse and parent, coworker, and friend, has been under pressure and with great show. We have needlessly complicated our lives, caved-in, given up, ran away. We have been weak. Sometimes it is like we are two or more people at the same time. In the back of our minds we watch helplessly, ashamed of what we are doing, but not stepping out and stopping it. Repent. Turn away from your fleshly desires. Remember that this is not your home. Let the pain, the sorrow, even your trickery, focus you upon the coming joy.
For a woman in a labor, for all her trouble, is a woman uniquely focused upon the joy to come. She is not distracted by the petty things of this life. She doesn't care if the doctors, nurses, or see her hair is messed up or her shirt a little wrinkled. She is having a baby, and for a little while, that is all that matters. For a little while, she has sorrow, but then the baby is laid upon her and her sorrow is not only complete, but forgotten. It cannot compare to the wonder and joy of the life of her living little baby.
So it is also for us. This life is temporary. It seems long, but in retrospect we will see that it was brief. Our joy will be complete and no one will take it from us. Hang on. Be as focused as the mother in the delivery room. Jesus Christ did not die and rise in vain. It will end soon. And when the going gets tough, in the waning hours of darkness, in the midst of your watch, know that you will mount up on wings like eagles and soar. Soon, you will leave all this pettiness, this hatred sin, these open sewers of false morality and half-hearted lies behind. You shall be free! No more pain, no more suffering, no more shame or regret, no more past, no more sin. You will be free of yourself. This is the horizon that rises before you. God's Grace cuts the cords, which bound you to this awful, dark place. The payment for your selfishness has been paid. There is no more, but the waiting. For God loves you in Jesus Christ and will bring you to Himself. In your labor, ponder this profound and simple truth, for His own reasons, from His own sovereignty, His own goodness, without any merit or worthiness in you, He loves you. He calls you by name. The inheritance of the righteous is rightfully yours, for you are His. In Christ, you are free. You are free from worrying about yourself. You need not defend yourself, look after your rights and honors, or be insulted by the stupid behavior around you. Patience is learned in the cross, for there we see that nothing else really matters. You are free from those who hurt you, from the devil's accusations, from death. Jesus Christ Himself is your Defender, your Advocate, your Friend. He never sleeps or grows faint. Let Him worry about you. For who would dare to stand against you, the King's own chaste Bride? These labor pains are not punishment. Rather, they are the proof of His love.
And while you wait, knowing that your time is coming, that nothing else matters, receive already the foretaste of that Joyous Feast to come. Be strengthened, encouraged, and refreshed for your labor. Eat His Body and drink His Blood for sustenance. Your sins are there forgiven and the Church Militant, that is you, joins its worship to the worship of the Church Triumphant, the Church at rest in glory, which has already been delivered. Here is your strength to carry on. Here is hope for the future, peace for the tired, troubled heart. Here is unity with Christ crucified and raised ,and therein, unity with the fellow confessing pilgrims on earth, diverse strangers no more, but now brothers and sisters in Him, for faith is thicker than blood. And there is unity with the confessing cloud that even now surrounds you and prays for you. This is not an epidermal, a narcotic to numb you and drug you out of your mind. It is a promise of joy to come delivered now, that you would endure in confident Hope and Faith. So, Relax. Fear not. In a little while you will see Him and your joy will be complete, your travails forgotten. No one will take it from you.
In +Jesus' Name. Amen.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Quasimodo Geniti
Easter 1 - Quasimodo Geniti
A Reading from the Book of Concord
April 15, 2007 - Second Sunday of Easter
From the Small Catechism, copyright © Concordia Publishing House, (St. Louis, 1986, 1991). Used by permission.
Book of Concord Reading for Easter 1 – Quasimodogeniti Sunday
JESUS GIVES THE KEYS TO THE CHURCH: Jesus’ resurrection from the dead brought life and forgiveness (absolution) to all. Jesus gave the keys of binding and loosing sins to the apostles and their successors, the pastors, so that the work of Jesus’ death and resurrection may come to each person. From the Small Catechism, Part 5 Of Confession:
Confession
How Christians should be taught to confess.
What is confession?
Confession has two parts. First, that we confess our sins, and second, that we receive absolution, that is, forgiveness, from the pastor as from God Himself, not doubting, but firmly believing that by it our sins are forgiven before God in heaven.
What sins should we confess?
Before God we should plead guilty of all sins, even those we are not aware of, as we do in the Lord's Prayer; but before the pastor we should confess only those sins which we know and feel in our hearts.
Which are these?
Consider your place in life according to the Ten Commandments: Are you a father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife, or worker? Have you been disobedient, unfaithful, or lazy? Have you been hot-tempered, rude, or quarrelsome? Have you hurt someone by your words or deeds? Have you stolen, been negligent, wasted anything, or done any harm?
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Easter Sunrise
“The Gardener” John 20:10-18 Easter Sunrise Matins
+ In the name of Jesus +
+ In the name of Jesus +Mary Magdalene is standing near the tomb in the garden weeping. A garden, a woman, a grave--that sounds a lot like Eve, doesn’t it. Was it not in the garden that Eve, with Adam, fell away from God? In so doing did she not bring a curse of pain and sorrow upon herself? Was not death the result of her and her husband’s sin? In her helplessness and hopelessness and loneliness, Mary Magdalene, the daughter of Eve, weeps.
So it is for all the children of Eve, for all you who are dust to dust. Everything is only temporary in this vale of tears. Nothing lasts. It is written, “All people are like grass and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall.” Even youthful glory is permeated by the degenerative power of death. It’s the hollowness that you still have after you’ve taken in your fill of all this passing world has to offer. It’s the so-called “fun” you rationalize that ends up taking from you more than it gives. It’s the camaraderie you seek by going along with the crowd that turns out to be a sort of crowded isolation. There’s ultimately no avoiding the brokenness of mortality. In the end you are left right where Mary is, bent over, staring through wet eyes into the mouth of the grave.
But what does Mary see? Not only does she see that Jesus’ tomb is empty, but she also beholds two angels sitting where the Lord had lain. And these messengers of the Lord ask her, “Why are you weeping?” It’s almost as if they said, “There’s no need for tears any more. For the crucified One whom you seek has risen. He who bore the curse of the world’s sin has redeemed you from the curse forever. He who was held by the jaws of the grave has shattered those jaws and has destroyed death’s power over you. He who did battle with the kingdom of darkness has crushed the devil’s head by His holy cross, setting you free from hellish bondage. Do not cry. For Jesus is alive for you as the triumphant conqueror and the Lord of all.”
Mary turns around and sees Jesus. But she doesn’t yet know that it’s Him. She mistakes Jesus for the gardener. And yet she really isn’t mistaken, is she. Jesus is the Gardener. For He is the Second Adam. And was not the first Adam the caretaker of Eden’s garden? So also Jesus is risen to restore you, His people, to Paradise. This New Adam walks in the garden in the cool of the new day and reveals Himself to the daughter of Eve. What He brings to her and to you is not judgment but justification, not sin but righteousness, not death but life. Jesus completely reverses and totally undoes the fall. It is written, “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”
Jesus is not only the Gardener, He is also the Seed which is planted in the garden. He is the promised Seed of Eve which overcomes the serpent. Jesus had said that unless a seed falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, then it is fruitful. So it was that Jesus was crucified and planted in the garden tomb. The Seed had to die and be buried in order that it might sprout and bear fruit.
Jesus, then, is the New Vine of the garden, which has arisen out of the earth. And by the watering of this garden, which is Baptism, He bears fruit, that is, He produces Christians who are made alive in Him and who are given to share in His resurrection. You are the fruit of Christ’s labor. The sweet juices of His goodness and mercy fill you. The water of life flows through Him into you. Jesus said, “Because I live, you will live also.”
Jesus makes Himself known to Mary simply with one word. The sheep know the Shepherd’s voice, and He calls them each by name. In the joy of this sudden recognition, Mary cries out “Rabboni!” “Teacher!”
Has not the Teacher also revealed Himself to you by calling your name at the blessed font? Indeed, by water and the Word He drew your name into the name of the Holy Trinity, uniting you with Himself and thereby making you a child of God. So it is that Jesus says, “My Father and your Father, my God and your God.” Do you see what that means? You are given the same status as Jesus. All that Christ is and has He has made your own: release from sorrow, abounding forgiveness, indestructible life and joy. By virtue of your baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection, you are now His kin, His own flesh and blood, restored to communion with God and with one another. Believing in Him you shall share in the eternal inheritance of His new creation.
Therefore, it is written, “‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. . . God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.’ Then He who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’”
+ In the name of Jesus +
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