Month: May 2010

Let us pray: Dear Savior, on this glorious day we have come to honor You, the Father, and the Spirit of comfort and truth. Accept our hymns of praise, our thanksgiving, and our homage. But especially do we thank You for honoring us and blessing us with every good and perfect gift that we need. May we never tire of receiving that blessing either. Amen

GRACE MERCY AND PEACE ARE YOURS FROM THE BLESSED HOLY TRINITY!

TEXT: Numbers 6: 22-27

Fellow Redeemed Sinners:

Contracts. Everyone eventually will sign a few. They may be a lease, a mortgage, a school loan, or buying a new car. Sometimes they will be business related, other times personal. If you become successful, perhaps they will be for you loaning money instead of just borrowing it! In any case, reading the fine print is vital in order to avoid heartache. And if someone asks you to sign a contract with words in it like: “may or could,” I hope you’ll do a double-take. Those are weasel words and they won’t protect you from being ripped off.

Once again this Sunday, a contract will be presented to you by none other than God. At the end of this service, God will announce to you His contract of blessing. Now, you might think it goes two-ways in that you must pledge repayment in order to receive His blessing. Not so! For in the benediction, His contract of blessing has already been signed, sealed, and delivered to you via the payment in blood by Jesus Christ. Since our lesson outlines this contract, let’s now examine the fine print by considering:

GOD’S WEEKLY CONTRACT WITH YOU

I

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:’” Then His contract of blessing follows. Note that God’s contract is between the Israelites, standing for the Church today, and God Himself. It is to be uttered and announced to them by Aaron and his sons, standing for the entire holy ministry today. And it is one of blessing, not cursing. It is one where God speaks, gives, hands out, and imparts great and holy gifts to them with a huge smile on His face.

Here’s the first line: “The Lord bless you and keep you.” The Hebrew word used for the Lord is: “Yahweh” throughout this contract. That is the most specific and holiest name of God because God Himself uses that name to identify Himself in the O.T. It is none other than the Holy Trinity. And each Person of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost is Yahweh, True God. Here God wants to announce to all within earshot that He desires and actually will bless and keep them throughout the coming week. The Hebrew word for bless literally means: “to bend the knee.” It means to give one’s all to another in a positive uplifting manner. Here God promises to do just that to and for us. Yes, when the entire Trinity seeks to give their all to us, how can we not be kept safe during the upcoming days? The Trinity has worked together to conquer all our enemies including death. The Father planned it out. The Son carried it out on the cross. And the Spirit imparts faith in us thereby making salvation, forgiveness, and heaven our certain possession. If that’s not “keeping us” what is?

II

“The Lord (Yahweh) make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.” Notice that throughout this contract it never says: “God may do this, or perhaps He will accomplish it.” God simply proclaims it as fact with no strings attached. Note as well that it isn’t in a future tense. God’s blessing is never a future event but is always our ever-present reality. It is instantaneous because His love for us exists right now, this very millisecond.

Here God is spoken of as having a face. The face and its expressions tell it all. And the “all to tell” is that our God Who is “light and in whom there is no darkness at all” desires to beam His light upon our lives. In fact, in this contract He’s doing exactly that each Sunday! And to make sure we know with certainty that His expressive light is truly loving, He uses the words: “and be gracious to you.”

The N.T. word for grace means: God’s undeserved love for us in Christ. The O.T. word used here means: “loving kindness.” I like that. Love can be passive, but kindness is always active. Put the two together and you have God’s active love being showered upon us and showing itself in our lives throughout the week. This is made possible by Christ, suffering, dying on a cross, and rising to life in order to win our salvation and by sending the Spirit with the gift of faith to inscribe God’s loving kindness into our very souls.

III

Now comes the final line of the Trinitarian blessing: “The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.” If someone won’t look at you, you know you’re in trouble. Here God says: “I’m actively turning My face directly at you and I am thereby directly giving you My peace.” Peace of soul, peace of conscience, peace with God—all are made possible by Christ reconciling us to the Almighty on the cross. Note well that God, Yahweh, the Trinity doesn’t use any weasel words of ambiguity like: might or maybe. He simply says: “I am doing it right now in your time and space. Right now my blessing is your reality!”

And then comes the last line summing up the blessed result of all this: “So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.”

When I was a little boy, sometimes other kids got to leave church early after the sermon. Apparently they had other commitments that day, but at least they came to church. I remember asking my mother: “Why can’t we do that?” Her reply was: “The service isn’t over until the benediction is said.” Well, now you know why she said that. Yes, the sermon is the high point of any worship service. Likewise the absolution and lessons, sharing and proclaiming the work of the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, is vital. But the crowning cap on God’s Sunday morning work of honoring us with His presence and forgiveness, that cap is really the benediction. It’s not merely a reminder of something God will give us in the future. No, it gives and works blessings from Him right then and there. He binds Himself with it to lifting up our hearts and invigorating our lives. Yes, with the final blessing something special occurs.—God honors us in that instant and its benefits continue thereafter.—So, who would want to miss out on that? Who would not want to hear God Almighty speaking direct comfort to them? And since such comfort is the reality of the Gospel, through the benediction we once again receive both the name and the reality of being called a Christian, a direct member of the family of the Triune God.

Well, there it is. There is God’s Weekly Contract With You. It’s not about your love for Him, no, it’s all about His love for you in Christ. It’s a contract that not only promises but actually gives His eternal love to you in every aspect imaginable. So in the future, when you hear the benediction announced, smile and rejoice! It’s the only contract you’ll ever be a part of that will never demand repayment, or give you heartache; but instead it always provides pure joy. Amen

Let us pray: Dear Lord, once long ago You had to confuse human language in order to prevent us from making monuments to our own power instead of bowing to Your power. And then on Pentecost You showed Your almighty power in bringing us back together under the truth of salvation in Christ alone. Today, teach us to humbly bow before the power of the Spirit, to hold our inner arrogance in check, and to use language to build up souls for You instead of monuments to ourselves. Amen

GRACE MERCY AND PEACE ARE YOURS FROM THE SPIRIT FROM ON HIGH!

TEXT: Genesis 11: 1-9

Fellow Redeemed Sinners United Under the Umbrella of the Spirit’s Power:

If memory serves correct, in over 26 years of preaching I’ve never sermonized on this lesson. So, I guess it’s time I do! The reason this lesson falls on Pentecost should be obvious to all. That is, one of the great wonders of Pentecost—the Spirit’s gift to the disciples to speak in foreign languages about the fabulous news of salvation in Christ—that gift was necessary all because so long ago God had confused human language and set about creating those “foreign tongues.” The disunity that people had brought upon themselves then was now changed into and under the unity with God that came through Christ.

And so by having the tower of Babel first, followed by the story of Pentecost, God’s oneness and singular purpose for His people—salvation—is fully revealed.
Moses, the great prophet, trained as an Egyptian prince, who had the best of educations in his day, is the author of these words from Genesis. Obviously he was inspired by God to write them. Obviously they contain the facts that God wants us to know. And obviously they also leave a lot of facts out which God doesn’t want us to know. So, instead of asking a lot of superfluous questions about this lesson, let’s dwell on the Godly truth therein.

I

Some commentators who closely examine the genealogies in the Old Testament set the date for this story about 100-150 years after the flood. They have even calculated, based on the dates when people died and how many children couples would naturally produce during that span of time; well, those commentators say the world’s population would have been a bit in excess of 30,000.

Some things we do not have to speculate about. 1. After the Flood, God told Noah and his family to move out from Mt. Ararat and replenish the earth by scattering themselves abroad. The Hebrew text makes it clear that this was not done—they disobeyed His command. Instead they stayed together until they finally settled in the Fertile Crescent around the area known as Babylon. 2. In ancient times, this area’s dirt was described as “200 times” the fertility of other places. To an agrarian people this was all-important to survive and flourish. 3. Here the group literally “sat down” or established roots and began to grow exponentially. They got fat and happy and complacent with life. 4. They all had one common speech, or spoke one language. From the modern day study of languages, we know that this meant they all thought in the same way and formulated ideas and goals in similar fashion. Unlike today, there was no celebration of diversity because it meant slower progression for the group. In a sense they were much like a hive of worker bees all laboring toward the same thing instead of arguing and fighting at cross-purposes.

“They said to each other, ‘Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.’ They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a same for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.’”

One intriguing issue is that reference to a city. Since the Flood had destroyed all cities, where did they get the idea for one? It must have come down to them via oral history of human life on earth before the Great Flood. Likewise the concept of a tower. Since the whole group lived together and did not need a tower for defense against enemies—they had none—it, too, must have been an idea that came from their ancient past. Contrary to artists who depict Sunday School drawings, the concept behind the tower wasn’t to build it so high that they could thereby enter God’s heavenly kingdom. No, “the heavens” literally means “the stuff way above your head,” or the sky. In short, these worker bees were all about building monuments to themselves instead of honoring God Almighty. That tower was an ego trip. It was designed to tangibly feed their pride. Does any of this sound familiar today?

In this endeavor they were very adept. They didn’t use irregular stone which was in short supply there, no, they used mud brick, baked and burned until it was rock hard. And they also used tar, an oil product—think of the oil wells there today—as their mortar. So, a city and a tower sprang up over time and humans congratulated themselves at achieving fame all on their own. Yes, the truth of mankinds dependence upon God was rapidly receding.

II

Throughout the Bible God is often spoken of as leaving men alone for a while. It’s spoken of that way to remind us that we’re not as important as we think we are and God also lets the natural order He established run its course. But finally, “The Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The Lord said, ‘If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.’”

Think of a giant grandfather clock with multiple gears interlocking, moving together and marking time. As long as each gear and each gear tooth moves toward that common purpose, together, amazing things get done. But as soon as even one gear tooth seizes up, the whole machine stops. Now think of the interconnectedness of computers, servers, routers, the electrical grid, phone lines, cable lines, etc. Together, speaking one common mathematical language, great things are accomplished. But mess up just one component and it all fails, or at best, limps along. Together humans can accomplish amazing things. Divided humans limp along. If they are together under God and under Christ, wonders are created. If they are together ruled by their pride, selfishness and arrogance, God is dethroned from their lives. For then they begin to think: I don’t need God….

So, the Trinity, note the “let us go down”, somehow confuses their common language. It could have been by impairing their hearing of each other, or by changing the formation of how they made words; it could have been instantaneous, or even gradual. But, in any case, people spoke and their neighbor couldn’t understand. It all sounded like silly babbling, hence the “tower of Babel.” And with this problem division occurred, their city life was in upheaval, and they were forced to go abroad with their clans in order to survive. I’m reminded of the Proverbs passage: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.” They had trusted in themselves instead of God. They had leaned on their own innate ability and strength instead of God’s. And God put them in their place. And so diverse peoples came to be. Diverse languages came to be. Diverse cultures came to be.

This diversity of thought was not a blessing but a bane. Humans used it to harden their hearts against God Almighty and go their own way. They dreamed up false gods and false religions. Their whole concept of religion became appeasing a “god” created in their own image. But God is still gracious and compassionate. He “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” And so, He sent His Son into this world to suffer, die, and rise to life for the sins of all people. He sought to give us eternal peace with Him because we could not create even external peace with anyone—including ourselves. He also sought to make us one with Him, not based on human pride, but based on Godly love made ours through faith in Jesus. And so, Pentecost came. The Spirit sought to convey oneness with God to us through the common language of the cross and by means of preaching it in foreign languages to those pilgrims gathered in Jerusalem to mark the harvest festival that fabulous day. And in the process, God has shown us that unity of faith, unity of salvation, unity of love and respect for Him trumps all human diversity. So, I guess you could say that Pentecost clearly teaches us that: UNITY IN THE SPIRIT CEMENTS THE BOND OF ETERNAL PEACE. Yes, God rebuilds us in His Church. We’re the living stones of His living temple with Christ being the chief cornerstone. And the mortar used to bind us together is the power of Spirit Who uses and applies Jesus’ love into our hearts. Now that’s a fitting monument to our living, loving, Lord! Amen

Let us pray: Dear Lord Christ, as Christians we are greatly blest by You in all things—especially when it comes to spiritual gifts, the forgiveness for our sins, a cleansed heart, and a positive outlook on life. As You have told us: when we seek first Your kingdom and put our faith in Your righteousness, all that we truly need for life will be provided. Today, keep that thought in our minds as we labor, work, earn a living, and try to stay away from the greedy nature of this world. For thereby, with Your strength, we will live up to the high honor of faith that You alone can bestow. Amen

GRACE MERCY AND PEACE ARE YOURS FROM CHRIST, THE GIVER OF ALL GOOD THINGS

TEXT: Exodus 20:15: “You shall not steal.”

Fellow Redeemed Sinners:

About a month ago most of us signed our names under threat of perjury to our tax statements. We swore, on oath, that we had been truthful in reporting our income and paying our tax levy. So, were you? Or perhaps you conveniently forgot about a few of those cash transactions? Maybe the tax man will never find out, but God knows the truth, and so do you.

The chief modern-day idol is: money. Our world is built around money. Our lives revolve around money. Most people from tweens to retirees are aware of the gyrations of the stock market. We keep track of bank balances, stock portfolios, and every other source of money. When we hear about some crime in the news, the old adage: “follow the money” almost always proves correct. Yes, we humans are born with an insatiable desire for money because we think it means safety, security, and power. And so, the temptation to cut corners to gain human wealth is pervasive.

God knows all this. He knows our hearts better than we do. Recall what He says from His word: “The love of money is the root of all evil.” That pretty well sums it up. Scandals in Washington, corruption on Beacon Hill, the local developer suddenly getting a building permit for land that was always deemed “unbuildable” before, even the under-ground economy fueled in part by the explosion of illegal aliens in our midst—it all goes back to money, greed, power, and a denigration of personal honor and personal responsibility. Follow the money trail. For “the love of money is the root of all evil.”

God laid out the 7th commandment bluntly and specifically: “You shall not steal.” Taking something that belongs to another by force, coercion, or cheating—is wrong. It is a sin before God. The Almighty has provided people with the backbone to work and through such work He also provides material blessings. So, stealing them goes against His good order. Stealing is really the height of selfishness, isn’t it? It is a total lack of “loving your neighbor as yourself.”

As I said, the physical “stuff” that people usually steal is to be acquired by us according to God’s good order. That means we are to work for it, or receive it through gifts or even an inheritance. In each case, God wants us to experience the self-satisfaction that comes through hard work and the love of others behind personalized gifts. Those build up our character, whereas stealing tears it to shreds. That’s the rationale behind the words of St. Paul: “If a man will not work, neither shall he eat.” In short, laziness benefits no one, least of all the person who is lazy. Every needs to learn responsibility in life. And if you get hungry enough, eventually you’ll seek work and experience the satisfaction it brings!

I find it sad that the famous WASP—White Anglo Saxon Protestant—work ethic is mocked today. Because when you really examine it, that work ethic of being responsible for your own life and honorably paying your debts is neither white, Anglo-Saxon, nor exclusively Protestant. No it is really quite Christian. It stems from the 7th commandment and the practical application of it.

It also amazes me how people, even Christian people, often don’t see the direct connection between this 7th commandment and many of the social issues plaguing our nation. For example, if ½ of Americans can legally not pay any taxes, but instead receive huge benefits on the backs of the other half that does, isn’t that really a form of legalized stealing? Or how about the Catholic bishops who actively look the other way on the illegal alien issue? Being paid under the table, stealing another’s identity to attain work, and taking out of the “system” without ever paying into it via social programs, how does any of that stack up against: “You shall not steal?” Likewise, how about the modern financial system and its use of something called “derivatives” which no less than Warren Buffet says are “legalized gambling.” Isn’t betting with another’s money, losing the bet, and expecting the average citizen to bail you out, stealing? Yes, I know, we may pass laws saying otherwise, but God’s laws are higher than man’s laws. And as Christians, we must obey God rather than go with the flow of human greed….

I bring all this up today because every one of us has been impacted by various forms of stealing, especially over the past couple of years. I’m not an economist nor a politician and I’ll let them answer for themselves before God someday. However, I am a Christian pastor. And God expects me to proclaim all His truths, apply them directly to your lives, and thereby keep you from sin while building up your Christian character. And so, I lay before you Dr. Luther’s explanation of the 7th commandment: “We should fear and love God, so that we do not take our neighbor’s money or goods, nor get them in any dishonest way, but help him to improve and protect his goods and his means of making a living.”

That little explanation says it all. On the one hand, we’re told to actively work at keeping our conscience pure and avoid the pitfalls of greed, and on the other hand we’re told to promote a work ethic in others which leads to personal honor and self esteem. So, are you doing so? Are you encouraging others to do so? And are you leading by example?

In the sermon on the Mount, Jesus addresses the issues quite well. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also….No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

The one great treasure any human possesses in their eternal soul, their heart. That’s the one treasure God desires, too. He wants your heart. He wants your soul to reside with Him forever in glory. And so, God sent His Son Jesus to win your heart, to pay your debt of sin on the cross. Jesus has purchased your heart and soul with His infinitely valuable blood. He has cleansed you from all sin—including the sin of greed. He has put faith into your heart whereby He has shown you a better way to live—with honor instead of dishonor, with appreciation instead of ungratefulness, with satisfaction for what His grace has given you instead of dissatisfaction over what you have received.
Today God lays before each of you all the ins-and-outs of the 7th commandment. He does so because GOD WANTS TO BUILD YOUR CHRISTIAN CHARACTER and everything connected with this commandment works towards that end. So, ponder, learn, and put into practice His ageless truths. After all they truly are the only way to live—forever. Amen

Let us pray: Dear Savior, on this great and glorious day of Your heavenly homecoming we rejoice with all the saints and angels in glory! We’re happy that You are home and happy that You have not left us alone, but sent us the Holy Spirit to comfort and uplift us. Keep the joyous celebration of both alive within our hearts until we, too, shall experience our own heavenly homecoming. Amen

GRACE MERCY AND PEACE ARE YOURS FROM OUR RISEN AND ASCENDED LORD CHRIST!

TEXT: Acts 1: 1-11

Fellow Redeemed Uplifted Sinners:

The Christian Church has four big events which it celebrates each year. They are: Christmas, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost. Easter and Pentecost were singled out as special to Christians almost immediately after Christ had died. Because Easter marked the truth of our faith, that we’re totally forgiven by Christ and His undying love has been given to us through faith, Christians immediately began worshipping God on Sunday instead of the traditional Saturday Sabbath. Pentecost was originally a day of joyous Jewish thanksgiving for the completed harvest. But within a few years after that first outpouring of the Spirit in the Upper Room, Christians took it over as a high holy day. We know from Acts 20:6 that St. Paul kept Pentecost with the Christians in Ephesus and in the year 58 he spent Easter with the Philippian Christians, “not departing till the feast was over; and he then hastened on his journey and even sailed to Ephesus, in order to keep Pentecost in Jerusalem.”

Christmas observances were a bit slower to arrive on the scene. It wasn’t universally celebrated until the mid 4th century, after Emperor Constantine had embraced the faith. Likewise, Ascension was considered a part of the Easter-Pentecost season until the latter half of the 4th century. But then, it was given its due and began to be commemorated as a special high holy day.

So, for 1700 years believers have celebrated this day. Early on it was called: Holy Thursday. But, of course, in modern times Maundy Thursday has assumed that title. Also, it was traditionally marked with a procession leading out of town to a hill, where much like the disciples on the 1st Ascension day, the believers honored their Lord. In some medieval churches a figure of Christ was hoisted through the roof as the lesson was read, and this was immediately followed by the blessing of the congregation. Again, this mimicked what occurred on that 1st Ascension.

The facts of the Ascension are very clear. Forty days after Easter Christ took the disciples up to a hill outside Jerusalem and physically and visibly rose into the sky before clouds hid Him from their sight. Before doing this, He promised them that in His absence from earth, He would not leave them alone. Instead, He would send them the Holy Spirit to comfort, uplift, strengthen and confirm their faith. Then He blessed them and arose. He went back to a heavenly homecoming party to end all parties! He also gave them marching orders to spread the good news of forgiveness around the world. Finally, the open-mouthed disciples were treated to the appearance of two angels, “two men dressed in white robes,” who reiterated what Jesus had said and reiterated the truth of Christ’s visible second-coming at a later, unknown, future date. Those are the facts. So, what do they are mean to us today?

The past couple of decades we’ve been introduced to a new word: closure. We’re told that funerals are important in order to have closure to our emotional grief. We’re told that formal good-byes help provide closure when those close to us move away and we’ll never see them again. Even my vet believes, correctly, in closure when it comes to the death of one dog when there are two or more in the pack. When my dog Charlie went up and sniffed his now-dead buddy, Harvey, you could immediately see that he knew Harvey was never coming back to him again. And he never waited for him again.

In a sense, Ascension provided earthly closure to Christ’s disciples. If He would have simply vanished from their sight without them seeing it or having Him explain it to them, they would have been confused, distraught, and full of worry and doubt as to their Godly future. Jesus will have none of that! He’s always concerned for His faithful. He’s always trying to provide us with comfort amid a difficult world. So, by giving them final instructions and then visibly ascending, He provides them with answers and with closure. The angelic appearance is but another reinforcement of this fact.

Here are a few passages which further outline the “why’s” of the ascension and how we now live under its blessing. John 14:2: “In my Father’s house are many mansions…I am going there to prepare a place for you.” Colossians 3: 1: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” Eph. 1: 20,22: “God seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms…And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church.” Romans 8: 34: “Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” And how about this one from John 16:33: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Another reason behind Christ’s ascension deals with the growth of faith in every believer’s heart. Recall Jesus’ ascension command to the apostles: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized, (washed clean) with the Holy Spirit.”

None of us can comprehend the Trinity. We do know that the Triune God is one Lord, but comprised of three distinct Persons. We do know that there is unity in the Trinity and also special distinctiveness. That being said, God ordained that since Christ’s work of saving us was now complete and He could add nothing to it—remember Christ’s words on the cross: “It is finished!”—the application of that truth to our hearts and lives now needed to follow. And that work, my friends, is the job of the Holy Spirit. In a sense, Jesus also ascended to clear the decks for the Spirit. Christ’s task was to win our salvation, but the Spirit’s is to apply and personalize it by engendering faith into our hearts. So, Christ ascended.

In a sense then, Ascension marks completeness, total closure by God when it comes to our salvation. In the Old Testament, God the Father promised us salvation. Then Jesus, His beloved Son, came to earth, shouldered all human sin and purchased that salvation with His blood. And now, the Spirit hands it to us and applies it to our souls via Word, baptism, and communion. The result of it all is this: the circle of salvation is now made complete! And to further ram home that point, right before ascending Jesus tells His followers that at some unspecified date He will visibly return to raise the dead and take all believers into glory! Closure, indeed!

It is for these reasons we should always remember and celebrate Christ’s ascension. THE CLOSURE OF ASCENSION solidifies and builds up our faith. It provides us with a happy heart. For what believer could not be happy over their Savior receiving the embrace of angels and the rest of the Trinity in glory? What believer could not be comforted in knowing that such an embrace awaits them, too? On ascension Jesus heard His Father announce: “Well, done, My good and faithful Servant!” And because of the closure of Ascension, you and I will someday hear those same words—and beam in delight! Amen