Month: February 2020

Let us pray: Dear Savior, on this glorious day we rejoice and revel in Your glory!  How amazing it is that You have resolved the totality of creation in Your very Being!  How amazing it is that the eternal glories of heaven are but a hairs-breath from the present reality we’re in and that it all awaits us!  Thank You for revealing all this to us today!  Amen

GRACE MERCY AND PEACE ARE YOURS FROM CHRIST OUR TRANSFIGURED SAVIOR WHO GIVES SUCH BLESSINGS TO US THROUGH FAITH!

TEXT:  Matthew 17: 1-9

Dearly Beloved By Christ: 

          The clock is running and the countdown is on!  The 40 days of Lent are almost upon us, followed by Holy Week and Easter.  Today, as a prelude, we get a little glimpse of the glory that awaits the holiest day of the Church year.  And on this Transfiguration Sunday, I want you to key in on the numbers: 3, 2, and 1.

I

          God uses numbers for a reason.  Recall: “All things have been written for our learning.”  So, what about the number 3?  Immediately we think of the Holy Trinity.  Three Persons joined together and comprising one God.  On that mountain we see the entire Trinity revealing Himself—The Son in the flesh, the Father in His booming voice, and the Holy Spirit in that bright, enveloping Light.  We also see the “big three” of the leadership of the fledgling Church in attendance in the persons of: Peter, James, and John.  They stand for us as we are their spiritual progeny.  So, the triad of faith and its ultimate reality is shown to the Church; what awaits us is revealed here to the believers—namely glory.  And it comes through another triad: faith alone stemming from grace alone which is given to us through Scripture alone.

          And what a glorious sight this all is! For in an  instant Christ sheds the cocoon of humanity and reveals His Divine glory!  He glows like the sun.  He reveals His eternal essence which He has kept hidden.  Peter is so overtaken by it all that he blurts out the obvious concerning remaining there and never leaving!  O to see God’s majesty with our very eyes!  All sin and sorrow fades into oblivion.  It must be so, for God is pure light and pure love!  In Him dwells no darkness at all!

II

          The countdown continues with the number 2.  In an instant the two greatest heroes of the OT appear alongside the Lord.  They are not Adam and Eve, or Samson and King David.  No, they are Moses and Elijah.  Obviously both reside in heaven.  But here at their Savior’s call they appear alongside Him.  They talk to Him.  Their glorious splendor is clearly visible.  Again this shows us just how close heaven is to our reality—that proverbial hair’s-breath away.  What are they discussing?  The very thing they believed, taught, preached, and confessed—His coming into the flesh to save lost sinners via His death and resurrection.  The OT is usually designated as: “The Law and the Prophets.”  The entire OT confesses how Christ came to fulfill God’s Law and the prophets applied that truth. Moses was God’s lawgiver who set God’s people apart for His holy use.  Elijah was the greatest of God’s prophets who was assumed directly into glory without tasting death.  The symmetry of God’s plan of our salvation is clearly seen in their meeting with Christ, Who is the center of it all! 

          Yes, transfiguration is all about God bringing resolution to His eternal plans for us.  What they are experiencing at that instant in time and in our instant of time is clearly confessed in God’s living Word: Jesus Christ.  So what we currently hear with our ears will also be seen with our eyes whenever God wishes. 

III

          And now the countdown reaches finality in the number 1.  Christ is #1.  As Revelation states: “He is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”  Christ occupies center stage.  It must be so!  For He is God’s love in human form.  Love that may, at times, be hidden behind frail flesh.  Love that is often hidden behind mere human language.  Love that is also embedded beneath the simple water of baptism or the humble elements of bread and wine in the Holy Supper.  But that Love always wants His people to know the glories that He provides to believers thereby.  For just as He was real on that ancient mountain, hidden and then glorious, so He provides us life-changing, miraculous uplifting today. 

          Do you think the disciples came away from that mountaintop weaker in their faith or stronger?  The answer is obvious.  So it is for you, too, as you hear His Word of truth, rejoice in your baptism, and commune on His very body and blood. 

          Now that we’ve arrived at # 1, the only thing left is for us to experience and behold is glory.  For then we will see him with our eyes, too.  When we do, all the problems we face and the hardships we struggle with will dissolve in His joyous presence.  All creation will find final resolution.  My friends, hold onto such a vision of bliss just like Peter, James and John!  And never forget it all awaits you through faith in Christ.  Right now we’re all caught up in worldly blindness as to what God’s reality actually is.  But someday soon those blinders will come off and ecstatic, insightful vision bathed in God’s Light will be ours, as well.  Amen

THE PEACE OF GOD…

Pastor Thomas H. Fox

February 16, 2020

Let us pray: Dear Lord Christ, we second-guess ourselves all the time about almost everything.  But it is more hurtful when others second-guess us.  Most of the time they don’t have all the facts, so their comments can be caustic, even when they are not meant to be.  So today, give all of us a thicker skin.  Also, move us to bite our tongues—especially when dealing with other Christians who are trying to do their best to help those in need of Your grace and truth.  Amen

GRACE MERCY AND PEACE ARE YOURS FROM CHRIST, THE LORD OF THE CHURCH!

TEXT:  I Cor. 4: 1-13

Dearly Beloved By Christ: 

          Every Pastor needs to develop a thick skin early in his ministry or he’ll soon burn out and quit the calling.  I’ve seen it happen more than once with young pastors.  I recently talked to a health care professional about stress.  They commented that Pastors and medical doctors have the most stressful jobs there are! 

          Paul fits into this category.  Here we find him stressed over all the strife within the Corinthian congregation and how to address it.  He is charged by God Almighty to speak the truth to them.  He is charged to call them to account and examine the sins in their own lives including their sins of the tongue against him.  So, Paul agonized over what to say.  Should I pull my punches and gloss over their inner nastiness, or not?  I’m entrusted with the “secret things of God”, the sacraments and the Word of truth; so would skimming over their sins be faithful to God, or not?  This inner “back and forth” troubled Paul.  But in the end, God won out!  Loyalty to the Savior demands it always does.  Hence his words: “Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.  I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself.  My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent.  It is the Lord who judges me….He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts.  At that time each will receive his praise from God.”

          Yes, instead of putting the worst construction on the words and actions of others, we need to put the best construction on them.  We need to speak the truth in love.  Sometimes hard, tough love, and sometimes a more gentler version.  To do that we have to know the facts of whatever it is that bothers us.  We also need to admit our inner prejudice, examine whether or not pride has gotten the best of us, and always recall the words of God: “A soft answer turns away wrath.”

I

          All this is easier said than done.  But by the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, Paul now says about himself: “I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us….Then you will not take pride in one man over against another.”  In other words, do not play favorites when it comes to God’s public servants.  Honor their service and let God’s truth rule in your lives no matter who is speaking it.  Because it is still God’s truth!

          I was taught in seminary that there are three groups within any church: the shirkers, the jerkers, and the workers.   It was certainly true at Corinth!  The shirkers are those that are wont to say: “Let somebody else do it.”  (But no church has somebody named “Somebody else” that I know of.)  The jerkers are those who criticize, often behind the scenes, because they think they know all the facts, even when they don’t.  And the workers are those who kindly offer themselves as “living sacrifices to God”  and willingly labor in God’s kingdom.  Which group do you fall into?  In truth, it is all three, depending on which of our buttons is pushed.  Better yet, which group do you want to belong to?  And which group honors God the most? 

II

          Paul comes down squarely in the worker category.  He freely admits: “We are fools for Christ.”  And then seeks to uplift the Corinthians with words of encouragement: “but you are wise in Christ.  We are weak, but you are strong.  You are honored, we are dishonored.”  Such is the nature of the public ministry in the eyes of the world. And then he goes on to focus how true servants of God’s Word operate in reaching out to others: “When we are cursed, we bless; when persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly.  Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.” 

          Being a Pastor is not a bed of roses. Likewise, since each of you is a private spokesman for Christ, being a Christian is hard work as well.  Being responsible for another’s soul is stressful!  Think of all those family members who might not be in heaven if they were to die today?  And yet, we do God’s bidding and endure regret and second-guessing from a variety of sources because, because Christ died to save us—and them!  We do so because there is  no greater calling in life.  We do so because our Lord bled and died and rose again to change our lives for the better, eternally!  And our reward is love, or grace, and a sense of purpose.  So as fellow Christians, treat each other kindly, be very cautious in ascribing negative motives to your fellow believers.  Honor each other for what you all are: God’s reborn children.  And continue to speak His truth in love.   Just remember: You’ve got the Holy Spirit on your side as you do so.  And unlike us humans, He never gives up or buckles under stress.  Amen

THE PEACE OF GOD….

Pastor Thomas H. Fox

Let us pray: Dear Savior, we all have people we know who need to know You.  Most of them appear normal and together on the  outside, but without Your grace and guidance they are struggling on the inside.  So today move us to reach out and speak to them about Your comfort and help.  Move us to calmly explain how You give meaning to our own lives and You want to do the same for them.  And imbue our words with the Spirit’s power to make that occur.  Amen

GRACE MERCY AND PEACE ARE YOURS FROM CHRIST, THE GIVER OF REAL STRENGTH AND LASTING PEACE!

TEXT:  1 Corinthians 2: 1-5

Dearly Beloved By Christ: 

          It was early Fall in 2018.  What were you doing?  Where were you living?  Were you happy or sad?  Were you healthy or ill?  And just how many things have changed since then in your life?  A year and a half.  That’s how long St. Paul stayed in Corinth after he first arrived to plant God’s Church in that city. 

          Obviously Paul invested his time, talents, tears, and prayers in these people.  And it paid off!  A few years later they were thriving.  They had become one of the most active churches in Christendom.  When the power of the Spirit is poured out on thirsty souls, great and blessed things occur!  And then people also begin to forget the past and forget where they were before God’s grace came into their lives.  So in our lesson Paul begins by reminding them of where he was at when he first met them a few years prior and stayed on for that memorable year and a half. 

I

          “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.  For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”  Now Paul could have stunned the crowds with his eloquence and superior wisdom.  Paul was trained by Gamaliel, the Jewish equivalent of Einstein.  He was a prize pupil, too.  Paul was as highly schooled in the classics as anyone on earth.  But instead of elevating himself, he does the opposite and elevates Christ.  On purpose he resolved to preach Christ crucified.  He told them how the Son of God came to shoulder our burden and our pain.  How the Son of God resolved to win mankind’s eternal freedom from sin and death.  How He gave His  life for theirs on a cross.  How He paid the ultimate penalty in our place—death—so that through faith in Him we would be made right with God and inherit heaven itself.  Then Paul also would have broken down the specifics of all this so that they would have practical knowledge of what such salvation means.  The Beatitudes come to mind.  Now they could grasp the meaning of: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs  is the kingdom  of heaven, for they shall be comforted, for they shall inherit the earth, for they shall be filled, for they shall see God, etc.”  Christ’s sacrifice on the cross opens human eyes to just of fulfilling life can be if we submerge our ego and look for blessings in the simple things of life by relying on Him. 

          We humans make life terribly complicated.  Stress is omnipresent in our lives.  We try to figure out true meaning behind all our worries and concerns and reap some sort of peace behind our struggles to make sense of life.  But the cross says: “You have peace with God.”  The cross says: “Don’t worry because Christ has forgiven you and given you a new  life.”  When you genuinely take that to heart, stress evaporates and human striving shifts into a lower gear.

II

          “I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive  words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom but on God’s power.” 

          I don’t think most people really grasp what they are doing and what they are handling when they talk about the Triune God and His plan for saving our souls.  If you could see the glowing force of fiery energy it contains!  If you could behold the liquid molten energy it gives off!  But, in essence, that’s what’s happening.  The power that God used when He created the universe is the same power and even more, when you and I share Christ—just as Paul did in Corinth.  It may be hidden from your eyes, but not from God, not from angels, and not from demons.  It’s real.  More real than the earth we walk upon.  No wonder Paul was humbled and did God’s work with fear and trembling!  Yet, he did all this in love—love over Christ’s work in saving him and respect over the knowledge that God Almighty was using his frail, mortal body to accomplish cosmic blessings!

          So preach he did!  Care he did!  Share he did!  And God gave the increase.  This was the demonstration of the Spirit’s power.  And by your sitting here today, that demonstration lives on.  For God has changed you.  He has re-awakened your conscience over good vs. evil.  He has shown you the futility of trying to handle life on your own.  He has given you insights into what blessings are and are not.  He has humbled you in order to remake you into someone better, remaking you in His image.  He has shown you a better way to live and a blessed way to die.  He has given you hope that never disappoints because it is grounded in the resurrection from the dead.  None of this is man’s wisdom.  It is all God’s power and God’s strength.  So, like St. Paul, don’t be afraid to share it, to handle the Spirit’s fiery plasmic energy of love and forgiveness; it’s the greatest source power in the universe, and God has entrusted it to you!  Amen

THE PEACE OF GOD….

Pastor Thomas H. Fox 

Let us pray: Dear Savior,  Your wisdom and Your Love and Your Truth are contrary to what goes by those names in this sinful world.  We know what it means when You tell us: “To live is Christ and to die is gain” in the inspired words of St. Paul.  We know what You mean when You tell us: “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me and for the Gospel will save it.”  The world doesn’t understand such apparent contradictions, but You do and by grace we do too.  So today give us such Godly wisdom no matter what Satan throws our way.  Amen

GRACE MERCY AND PEACE ARE YOURS FROM CHRIST, OUR PARADOXICAL GOD!

TEXT:  I Cor. 1: 18-25

Dearly Beloved By Christ: 

          A few years ago a man named Peter attended our church.  One Sunday he sought me out and told me that he enjoyed my sermons where I touched on the various paradoxes of Scripture.  You all know about paradoxes.  They are truths that seemingly are at odds to human reason, but aren’t.  They are truths of God beyond our ability to be rectified by the finite human brain.  For example, how can the infinite God be contained in finite human flesh?  Or, we’re saved from death by God’s death on the cross.  Or, “the meek shall inherit the earth.”  Our brain and our experience says: “This just isn’t true.”  Yet, Scripture says: “With God all things are possible.”  Or as Isaiah writes about life from God’s perspective: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, my ways, declares the Lord.”   This is why faith is so important when it comes to our salvation.  Faith bridges the gap that human reason cannot cross.  It links us with God because it is “a gift from God, not by works, so that no one can boast.”

I

          The Greek people prided themselves in their brain power and ability to figure out and understand whatever issues came their way.  If they had anything called “faith” it was grounded in their ability to reason things out and understand them.  In this they were actually their own gods.  To them there was no higher wisdom than what they inherently possessed in their own brains!  And if anything seemed contrary to their reasoning ability and experience, it must be rejected because as little gods it just didn’t make sense.  So Christianity was debated and rejected by them.

          Paul begins by saying: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”  The cross is about degradation and ignominious death.  All people are by nature “dead men walking.”  We all know life is about: when we die, not if we die.  You cannot escape death.  So to preach about a God Who died to save you from death seems foolish.  And to put your life into His hands seems stupid!  Moreover to place supreme confidence in death to bestow on you life, well, it seems contradictory.  But Christianity teaches the real life comes from death.  It’s a paradox.

          Paul goes on to quote Isaiah who quotes God this way: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”  Yes, anytime you think you know it all and can figure out the great issues of life on your own, God will frustrate you just like He did those “smart” people way back during the Tower of Babel.  He’s God Almighty and we’re poor miserable sinners—not all-knowing little gods.

II

          In the next section Paul chips away at and demolishes the pride inherent in these Greeks.  The wisdom of this world is that: might makes right.  It is that: weakness never denotes strength.  It is that to become great you ally yourself with others who have wealth, privilege, and human greatness.  But in Christianity we embrace the humble, the weak, the struggling, the needy—all because that’s whom our God came to help and save.  And in the process we take on and are given Christ’s strength.  So, as I said earlier: “Whoever wants to save his life will be willing to lose it for Me and for the Gospel.”  Yes, God turns conventional wisdom on its head because we have an unconventional God!  A God filled with love and forgiveness for the unlovable and the seemingly unforgiveable. 

          None of this seems “normal” to the human brain.  Which tells us that our God is far from normal.  He’s without any rival.  He’s beyond our ability to fathom.  “Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom but we preach Christ crucified; a stumbling block (scandal) to Jews and foolishness of Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.”

          Ask the wisest unbeliever: “Why were you born?”  Ask them: “What’s the meaning to life?”  Ask them: “Does anything you do make a cosmic difference?”  They will hem and haw and try to sound learned, if, if, they bother to answer at all.  So much for human “wisdom.”  But ask the Christian those questions and they will respond: “I was born to give glory to God.”  “The meaning to life is: growing closer to Him and praising Him for His truth, His blessings, and His forgiving love.”  And yes, “I can make a cosmic difference by sharing His wisdom of eternal forgiveness leading to eternal life in and through and because of the love He has given to me, to me, in Jesus Christ.”  The Christian knows through faith that God’s ways and thoughts are beyond the confines of sin-tainted, pride-filled, human understanding. By His gift of grace, now you do, too.  And so glory over being called a “fool for Christ.”  And be wise in the Lord.   Amen

THE PEACE OF GOD….

Pastor Thomas H. Fox, Feb. 2, 2020