Exodus 19:2-8, Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, June 15, 2008

They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain, while Moses went up to God. The Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.” So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. All the people answered together and said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord. (Exodus 19:2-8 ESV)

Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Today I thought of trying to find a way if printing some identity cards for you all. It just wasn’t practical. Each of you would get one with your name on it, a picture, and little bio information. You know what an ID card is, it tells people who you are. It tells people your identity. That’s what all our readings are about today. Your identity. Who you are. Your identity is important. You understand that.

Well, identity is what this text from Exodus is all about. God is telling his people, though Moses exactly who they are. It’s right there about a third of the way down the text…

You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.

God bases their identity on what He has done for them and what He is going to do for them. When God defeated Pharaoh and his armies, and freed his people from slavery, “On Eagle’s Wings” He is giving His people an identity. They are more than just any old people who worshipped any old God. He is the God who rescued them. He is the God who redeemed them. and His the God that relieved them from the burden of slavery. He is the God they can depend on. By the Spirit, they are called to remember His outstretched mighty arms and outstretched hands. This way they reflect and remember what He has already done, and they know who they are in His eyes.

This is how God acts for you also. He wants you to know your identify in Him. You can see that in the Font right here. It’s why we keep it out in front, where it can always be seen. I want you to be reminded of your identity. You are a baptized child of God. Your identity begins with what God does for you. The Baptismal service in our hymnal is packed full of these identity images. But my favorite is the new/old prayer there. It’s called the Flood Prayer. It ties so closely to what we are talking about. (p. 268). Just look at p. 268 (LSB). It’s all about God’s actions to save people. It’s all about God’s actions to save you. God calling you and me by name and placing His name on us.

But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. (Isaiah 43:1-3a ESV)

What did it mean for God’s people in Exodus? Well, that’s what the passage goes on to say:

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

Now we’ve got to make a correction to the translation here. This version of the bible says “if you will indeed obey my voice.” This word would much better be translated listen. If you will listen to me. If you will remember what I’ve told you about what I’ve done for you. It’s kind of like that old commercial “When E. F. Hutton speaks... people listen.” When God speaks his people listen. And what does God say? He tells us again what He’s done for us. He gives us an identity, we are His people because of what He’s done.

If you have any doubts about your identity being all God’s action St. Paul makes it very clear.

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Romans 5:10 ESV)

We were enemies, not friends of God. Enemies don’t obey their enemy. But God changes all that. Through the death of Jesus, God’s enemies become reconciled to God. God’s enemies become God’s children. God’s enemies become God’s treasured possession.

Back to the identity card… remember I said I’d put a little bio on it. The funny thing is the bio for all of us would be the same. It’s the same bio God gave to the children of Israel in the desert.

…and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

St. Peter talked about the same thing, it’s a verse that we remember because it’s part of our Baptism service:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10 ESV)

You and me, all those people gathered around Moses at Mt. Sinai. A kingdom of priests… a holy nation… God’s people… Our identity with God is because of Jesus. His perfect life and death on the cross is what allows us to receive mercy from God. The punishment for our sin is canceled. Jesus takes it on himself. So instead of being God’s enemies and not receiving mercy, we receive mercy, forgiveness and life forever. That’s our new identity in Jesus Christ. You know what, our identity, in Christ, isn’t a status thing. “I’m better than you are because I’m a child of God!” We give this impression to people all the time. We can’t help but think that God chose us because we are somehow better than people He didn’t choose. We can’t help but think that we are better than other folks because we haven’t missed a Sunday of church in 20 years. We can’t help but think that we are better than people, who spend their time sitting in jail cells, drinking away their welfare, abusing their children, and living off of tax payer money. We want the reason we are God’s children to have something, anything to do with us. God did not save you because you are a holy nation, you are a holy nation because God saved you. We don’t do good stuff so God will love us, God loves us so we do good stuff. That’s our identity. It isn’t status, it is service. Do you know what God does right after this passage in Exodus? He gives the people the Ten Commandments! The heart of the commandments isn’t pleasing God, you can’t do that anyway. The heart of the commandments is serving your neighbors. That’s where your identity takes you. When you hear what God has done for you, when you remember who you are, you will love and serve your neighbor.

Look again at that insert from the Large Catechism, the very last sentence:

By the Word He works and promotes sanctification, causing this congregation daily to grow and to become strong in the faith and its fruit, which He produces.

It says this very same thing. We listen to God’s Word and He causes our faith to grow and He produces good fruit in us. That’s your identity. You are a member of the Holy Christian Church, the Communion of Saints, by virtue of your Baptism into the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Technorati Tags: Romans,Vocation,Sermon

Joel.2.28-29, May 11, 2006, Festival of Pentecost

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“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. (Joel 2:28-29 ESV)

Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Are you parched and dry this morning? I’m not really talking about the weather; we certainly aren’t experiencing a drought this spring. This year, for right now, the ground is plenty wet. And yet I’ve heard it said “never curse the rain.” But, you do know what I mean when I talk about being parched and dry. You’ve seen drought, with the dust floating in the air, where moisture should be; great dry cracks in the ground made by the evaporating of surface moisture; brownish-green plants with shriveled leaves, clenching the dry dusty earth, steadily shrinking into nothing as they vainly suck the ground for water.

Human beings can be dry, too. Working in the sun can quickly dehydrate you. It beats down on you. Its heat makes you to sweat until your clothes are soaked. Your tongue swells to fill you whole mouth with dryness, instead of saliva. Your joints get weak, and even movement emphasizes the need for some moisture. Your mind aches for a small drop of water, on the tip of your tongue. The land can be parched and dry; people can be parched and dry, you’ve all been there, and you know what it means.

Our text today comes from the book of the prophet Joel. We don’t hear much from him in our regular Sunday morning readings, but he pops up every year at Pentecost time. He does because the Holy Spirit inspired him to write the text that St. Peter used to preach the first Sermon in the Christian Church. He did that on the first Pentecost. We heard a part of if in our reading of Acts this morning. It might seem kind of strange, but Joel, that important Pentecost book, mostly speaks about being parched and dry. In fact, almost two thirds of the book talks about an invasion of locusts, and the ensuing drought. Listen to the prophet Joel describe what’s going on:

The seed shrivels under the clods; the storehouses are desolate; the granaries are torn down because the grain has dried up. How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed because there is no pasture for them; even the flocks of sheep suffer. To you, O Lord, I call. For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flame has burned all the trees of the field. Even the beasts of the field pant for you because the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness. (Joel 1:17-20 ESV)

It is quite a vivid picture of a drought that the prophet paints. It almost makes you want to get up and go get a drink doesn’t it? We really don’t know exactly when Joel penned those words, or when that drought took place. It really doesn’t make that much difference; the dryness of the land that Joel talks about was something that happened in that part of the world occasionally. The people living there suffered because of it. But, Joel wasn’t only talking about dry ground; he was talking about dry people, too. Over and over again in their history, the people of God, the children of Israel, became spiritually dry. They forgot about what God had done for them. They forgot that He had given them the land they lived on. They forgot that God had supported them in the dry desert when they left Egypt. They forgot what God had done by delivering them from slavery to Pharaoh in the first place. The parched land was only a sign of their parched lives; lives without the God who was their God; lives spiritually dry and empty. Their tongues no longer sang the praises of their God; they lacked the spiritual moisture that was needed. They no longer made the thank offerings and the drink offerings that God had command them to do; they lacked the moisture that was needed. They had turned instead to false gods, made of dry stone, or cut wood. These gods sucked the life from them, instead of refreshing them, and giving them what they needed. Through the prophet Joel, God calls them to repentance. “Return to me!” He called out them. I will end the drought; I am the one who provides what you need to live. I will give you the moisture your soil and your soul need. “Return to the LORD your God,” say the well known words of the book of Joel, “for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.”

For you confirmads this is exactly what we have talked about on many occasions. Faith will only grow or die. Faith that isn’t constantly watered by God’s Word dries up and blows away. It is very important that you find yourself in worship, at a church that constantly tells you about Jesus life, death and resurrection for you; a church that reminds you of your sin and your need for Jesus every time you are there. Without Jesus, you faith will dry up.

But God always responds to repentance: “in those days I will pour out my Spirit on all people.” Like the water poured out on a thirsty land, that runs into the cracks in the ground and refreshes dry withered plants; my Spirit, says God, will be poured out on my people. They will drink up the moisture of my care and compassion; I will take care of their physical and spiritual needs. I will give them abundant water, more than a drop to cool the tongue, but overflowing to fill up their whole lives, to refresh and replenish them… “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!” That was God wanted, for the people to be saved, not only from the drought of the land, but from their spiritual dryness, too.

It isn’t difficult to see that people today are also parched and dry. There is clamoring for spirituality, those sections in the bookstore are busier than ever. “10 ways to use God to make your life better.” “Basic life principals-Use the bible to fix whatever is wrong in your life.” “God wants you to be healthy and happy, use this prayer to make it so.” I recently viewed on the internet videos where Oprah denies that Jesus is the only way. She preaches a different gospel that disagrees with scripture profoundly. It is a dry message that seems right to people who don’t know the truth of Jesus. People today are dry as the ground in a drought, sucking at the dust for spiritual direction, panting for moisture in the dryness of misleading (if not well intentioned) texts. Laying their offerings at the feet of false gods who promise and end to the drought but can’t deliver, because the moisture that people need in their lives can only come from the God who created them. It is only found in His Word and Sacraments. The moisture they need can only come from being in a relationship with the Only True God.

Do you sometimes feel dry, too? Even though you are in a relationship with One True God. Do the pressures of life, the busyness of life, the demands of life, seem to suck the life out of you? Life can be that way. It’s nice to be able to work, but when the demands of your job overwhelm you, when the workload increases, it can dry up your opportunities to do anything else. And your family relationships are affected, too. You struggle to keep them alive but the pressure leads to arguments and misunderstanding that just drain the life away from them. In your eagerness to work, you have hurt those closest to you. You have ignored people who needed your help, because you were just too busy, just like the men who passed by the man on the side of the road, you know the one the Samaritan helped. And you can’t forget those painful, hurtful memories about your past. They suck the good from current relationships and leave you gasping for moisture.

Even your relationship with your Savior is, at times, affected. There are Sundays when you may wonder why you are sitting here, because God feels so far away… so far that it seems as if He doesn’t care what happens in your dry and dusty life, so far away that you feel parched and dry.

“In those days,” says the Lord to you, “I will pour out my Spirit on all people.” God provides the moisture you need in your life. Just as he sends rain on dry parched ground, just as he give due every morning to thirsty plants; he gives you the moisture you need to live on this dry planet. It isn’t a coincidence that he speaks of the ‘pouring out’ of the Spirit. It’s the language of liquid refreshment, water is poured out, wine is poured out, and thirsty lives have what they need.

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” (John 7:37-38 ESV)

Those words of Jesus show us that He knows how dry and parched life can be. He knows that people need spiritual moisture, but more that that He knows why life can be that way. It isn’t a coincidence that the dryness of life shows up first in our relationships with other people. That’s because it’s caused by dryness in another relationship, our relationship with God himself. It’s sin that comes between Your Heavenly Father and you, straining the relationship, just like an argument keeps your friends or even your parents away. Sin causes the moisture of life to trickle away. But Jesus says, “come to me and drink.” “I have overpowered the dryness of sin. When it drains your life of meaning by drying up your relationships, remember what I have done for you. I lay in the dry dusty tomb that should have been yours. I died the death and suffered the punishment that your sin should have brought to you. I made permanent the relationship between Our Father and you. It will never dry up again!”

And that brings us to Pentecost. Pentecost is above all things about the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. St. Paul wrote to a Pastor under his instruction

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:3-7 ESV)

You see, Pentecost is exactly about the pouring out of spiritual moisture, on dry lifeless people. It is about the giving of the gifts of spiritual moisture to Christ’s church. It is the Holy Spirit at work here in this place as we hear the Good News of what Jesus Christ has done. He renews and restores, he works to pour living water into dry and parched people. He is at work, reviving the dry dusty soul at the baptismal font. Where he creates living faith through water connected to the words of God. There is moisture there for you. When we say, “remember your baptism,” we mean remember what God did there for you there. Pouring the water life into your life, washing away the sin that made you parched and dry. Whenever you remember it the spiritual moisture flows again and revives you. The Holy Spirit is also at work whenever we approach this rail to drink the spiritual moisture, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sin, the very blood of Christ.

God knows about your dryness, about the drought that sometimes affects your life. He does more than offer you a drop to cool you tongue. He offers abundant overflowing “…living waters that flow from within.” as Jesus said. He gives spiritual moisture to quench your thirst, moisture to end the drought, moisture to mend the dryness in your family relationships, and bring meaning to the work you do every day. That spiritual moisture, that living water, flows from within you to everyone around you. Just as you are forgiven so you also forgive. The moisture you have been given, you give to others, and just as the ending of a drought begins with a single drop of rain, dry and parched people, the dry and parched land, are revived. Amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 28), November 18, 2007

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Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Here we are very close to the busiest shopping day of the year. Thanksgiving turkey is a quick promise away. Football is a Sunday afternoon event again. The Christmas decorations are going up everywhere. Soon the church will be decked out in green boughs and candles. I guess it is official the Christmas season has started. There’s going to be parties. The “eating too much” season begins with Thanksgiving. There’s going to be wish lists made up, Christmas cookies made and maybe even a little snow. I’ve heard lots of opinions on the weather, will it be a good year or a bad one? Soon everywhere you look people are going to be smiling, saying “Merry Christmas!” They’ll be Busy doing their necessary Holiday errands. For the dark of winter, Christmas seems to perk just about everyone up. Christmas day is one of those things that just about everybody looks forward to, and prepares for. After all, it’s Christmas.

Of course in the Church the season we are about to start isn’t the Christmas season at all rather it is Advent. That’s why the soon after Thanksgiving we’ll put the blue paraments on the altar and not the white ones. For Christmas we use white. Advent is just a little different from Christmas. The Church celebrates Christmas after December 25th, after the birth of Jesus. We spend the weeks before Christmas preparing for Christ’s coming. The radio is playing Christmas carols already, we generally hold off until January. It’s not because we are scroogy… after all the Christians have been celebrating Christmas longer than anyone. You know, it’s our holiday. It’s the birth of Jesus Christ. Shouldn’t we be the ones to say how it’s done?

The word Advent means coming. And that’s exactly what we’ll be doing, waiting for Jesus coming. Over the years the Church has come to realize that it’s better not to jump right to the manger at Bethlehem, but rather to take some time in anticipation. Advent is all about anticipation.

But exactly why do we want to spend the time waiting that everyone else is spending at the party? Why do we want to think about other things when everyone else is having fun? Well, that’s exactly what Jesus is talking about in this text.

34“But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. 35For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” Luke 21:25-36 (ESV)

You know my my favorite comic strip is “Agnus Day.” You know the one with the two sheep. It’s an unusual strip that matches the readings we do every Sunday in church. It always features two sheep, Rick and Ted. Rick is a sheep after my own heart because he’s always holding a cup of coffee. But unlike me he always knows what to say. This week Ted asks Rick about the word dissipation in the text. And Ted gets it right.

Dissipation: That’s what the season isn’t about: seeking fulfillment in the joy of the season. And as Rick the sheep says “when you wear yourself out chasing things that never really satisfy.”

Just think about it. Isn’t that what the season that lies before us has really become? Isn’t that what most people are really starting up on right now? Isn’t that what you and I are starting right now? You know the feeling that I’m talking about. You’ll go through it all again and it’s going to start this Friday, the “big shopping day.” You think you should be happy. You think the Christmas carols should “get you in the Christmas spirit.” But they don’t seem to work. You concentrate on buying the perfect gift. How many of you have some of your “Christmas shopping” done? After all the ‘real’ joy of the season is in giving, right? But you wonder what people are going to give you. You know the empty feeling you have when you open your own presents. And how often have you seen the same disappointed look on others faces as they opened gifts from you. So you sit down to watch one the myriad of “Christmas specials” and feel good Christmas themed programs on television. But it doesn’t really seem to make any difference. Your family is coming together for the holiday because that’s an important part of the season. But there’s always a fight of some kind or and argument leaves everyone angry or disillusioned. As the season goes on instead of getting easier to focus it gets harder. And all your ‘Christmas cheer’ has up and left. And long about the double digits of December you start to look for the end. You wish it was all over and you had everything done. Of course you can’t say anything to anyone, you don’t want to ruin the season for anyone else, because they all look like they’re having such a great time. And maybe some of them are, but you really wonder if anyone else is feeling the same way you are. Well… they are; lot’s of them. You’ve heard about the “holiday blues” they strike more people than you might think. But you just put on a brave smile and pretend that the holidays are your favorite time of the year. No one wants to be The Grinch.

You see. Jesus knows what he’s talking about. Dissipation: chasing after things that never really satisfy. The reason why all that stuff surrounding this season feels empty is because it all really is empty. Ultimately this time before Christmas isn’t about decorating your house. It’s not about creating family memories. And it’s not even about getting our hearts ready for Christmas. It’s about Jesus. It’s about God doing something about our loneliness. It’s about God doing something about our despair. It’s about God doing something about the pain in our hearts. It’s about what God has done is Jesus.

It’s become an old cliché but it’s still one of my favorites Jesus is the reason for the season. Christmas is about Jesus. Of course you agree. It’s about Jesus wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. And that’s right, but if that were then end of the story we’d be right back where we started. So what if another baby is born into this world. So what if Shepherds visit him. So what… The story of Christmas isn’t just a sweet story about the birth baby; it’s about what that baby has been born to do.

The manger of Christmas is empty if we don’t see the shadow of the cross over it. It is on the cross that Jesus gives us the reason for the season. That baby in swaddling clothes doesn’t stay a baby, he becomes a man. And he’s not just and ordinary man; he is God himself in human flesh. He is God coming to take the emptiness out of life by filling it his own life. Because everything in life that is apart from God is meaningless. You know it because you’ve felt it, every time you get caught up in the hustle of the season and forget about Jesus. You feel it every time you take your eyes of the cross, or see just the manger and forget the cross.

Remember the cross of Jesus is for you. It’s where Jesus takes the pain and suffering of sin and buries forever in death. He feels the emptiness of life lived apart from God and he cries “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” Why have you forsaken me? That kind of empty death isn’t yours anymore. What awaits you after death is a resurrection, just like Jesus. He rose from the dead and you will rise from the dead, too. That’s his promise to you in Baptism. And hey, that’s his promise to you in Christmas.

But I want you to see one more thing. Advent isn’t just about waiting for Christmas. It is, in fact, waiting for something much greater and even better than Christmas. Jesus is coming again, and this time it’s not going to be in swaddling cloths. This time he’s coming in power and glory. He is going to raise me and you from our dusty graves to life again. No day of joy that you have ever experienced is going to match the joy you’ll feel standing before Jesus in your resurrected body, seeing Jesus face to face. Every time we prepare to celebrate Christmas by thinking and focusing on Jesus we are thinking and preparing for that day. And that’s just what Jesus means when he says Watch yourselves!

So, Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Advent, and Merry Christmas! Get ready Jesus is coming. Prepare yourselves by remembering what he has done for you. Do some shopping, hang some lights, eat some Christmas cookies. Jesus is coming soon. Amen.

The Peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Proper 24, Pentecost 21, October 21, 2007, Genesis 32:22-30

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The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” (Genesis 32:22-30, ESV)

Grace and peace to you from Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

What do you do when God is your enemy? Life is full of moments like that when you are at odds with God; when it feels like He’s against you; and you are against Him. When there is a death in the family, trouble with your neighbors, illness that won’t / can’t be healed, rejection by the community, conflict in the church, and unfair treatment on the job. When things like these happen God just doesn’t seem to be doing his job. Instead of being there to help you and make things go better, go your way, God seems to be the problem, ignoring you and your prayers, or even blocking the way of progress. I don’t deserve this! You pray. You feel like Jacob, alone in the desert, wrestling with God.

Jacob, spent his whole life wrestling with God, his family and himself. He fought with his brother, Esau, over who should receive the family blessing from their father. You might remember how he plotted with his mother to steal it. Isaac, their father, sent Esau out to hunt for food, bring it back to him and receive the family blessing. He was the older son, he was entitled to it. While he was out Jacob’s mother prepared a sheep in a way to fool the old man. She dressed Jacob up in lamb’s skin so he would feel and smell like his older brother (apparently a hairy man!). Jacob took the food to his father, deceived him into thinking he was his brother, and received the blessing. He had to flee for his life. Esau pledged to kill him as soon as the funeral and mourning time were over. Jacob wrestled. His place in the family wasn’t to his liking. He took matters into his own hands to receive the blessing. It cost him his home.

And that’s not the end of Jacob’s story, or struggles. When he left his father’s house he went his live with his uncle Laban. He agreed to work for him and in return, after seven years, he would marry Laban’s younger daughter Rachel. When the seven years were up, Laban fooled him and when the wedding night was over, Jacob discovered he had married the wrong girl, Leah the old sister. So Jacob was forced to work another seven years to marry Rachel. Jacob wrestled. He wanted one girl and, just as he had deceived he was deceived. Another seven years and he had his “preferred” wife. But Jacob’s wrestling had just begun. Leah, the older, less attractive woman was very fertile. She had four boys. This didn’t set very well with Rachel, since she couldn’t seem to have any, she offered Jacob a servant girl. She had two sons for Jacob. Leah wasn’t to be out done. In response she gave Jacob her servant and she had two more sons. Leah had two more and a daughter. And finally, Rachel was remembered by God and had a son of her own, his name was Joseph. Jacob wrestled. While his wives had a birthing battle to prove who was the favorite wife, Jacob was caught in between.

But that’s not all. After working so many years for Laban, Jacob felt he hadn’t earned enough just by having productive wives and servants. He made a scheme to relieve Laban of a portion of his flocks. Under the agreement, Jacob’s flocks grew until Laban wasn’t happy with the arrangement anymore. Jacob was forced to flee again. Jacob wrestled. He had gained wealth and a huge family, but now he was homeless again. All he had spend his whole life struggling with his family.

That brings us to our reading for today. Jacob returns home to the brother who swore to kill him. He sent everything he had on ahead to meet Esau first as a buffer against his brother’s anger. Then all alone, he wrestled with a stranger all night. It is a very mysterious account. Jacob not giving up and the stranger touching his thigh putting it out of joint. Still Jacob refuses to give up the struggle. “I will not let go until you bless me!” The stranger changes his name from Jacob to Israel. “Because you have wrestled with God and with men and have prevailed.” “Please tell me your name,” Jacob insisted. He receives a blessing. Oh, by the way, do you know what Israel means. “He struggles with God.” And just so you don’t miss the point, Jacob names the place where this all happened, Penuel. Penuel means “The face of God.” So in some mysterious, miraculous way, Jacob wrestled again. This time it was with God who was a man. And he limped away with a blessing and a new name. What was the blessing? We’ll talk about that in a moment.

So here we are, also wrestlers with God. Sometimes we wrestle with him because of our own sinfulness. His Word enters our ears while we sit in the pew and strikes our hearts hard. We want to grab hold of God and wrestle Him into submission. We want God to conform to our standards of living. If God would just bend the law a bit for me, so I can do what I want to do and have a blessing and religion, too. We struggle with God over things we want. We want wealth and power and things, and we are not above bribing God to get it. If I win the lottery I’ll give a big gift to the church. God give me what I want and I’ll come to church more. Heal my sickness and I’ll tell everyone you did it. Put my family back together and we’ll spend our time serving the church.

Sometimes we wrestle with God because He just seems so absent. We pray and it seems we receive no answer. We are lonely and God doesn’t send anyone to visit. We are sick and God doesn’t heal us. We struggle with finances and God doesn’t give us what we need. We fight in our families and God doesn’t give us peace. We wrestle with God over what seems to be so right, and yet God does what God does. A lot of the time, God seems to be the enemy. He seems to want only suffering and pain for us. He seems to want us to disagree with our neighbors about what the bible teaches. He seems to want us to struggle. We don’t think we deserve this kind of treatment from God.

The truth is that God is involved in the very smallest details of our lives. He’s present even when we think He is not. He wrestles with us in our struggles. That’s when we see most clearly our need for God to intervene, for God to be in control. God engages us in the midst of a world that struggles because of sin, every day.

God comes down to be in the midst of us. God came to Jacob in human form and wrestled with him. Jesus, God in human flesh, does the same. He is God’s gift, God’s promise to Jacob. Through Jacob’s children’s children’s children God was made man in Jesus Christ. That’s the blessing that was given to him. It is the blessing given to us, through him. Jesus wrestled with the sin and brokenness of the world. He set things right. He made them new again through His death on the cross and His victory, His resurrection from the dead. God gives us a new name. He actually gives us His name, and a blessing. That’s what Holy Baptism does. We are connected to Jesus and His struggle with sin, death and hell. We come out victorious because Jesus won the victory for us. Jacob was far from the end of his wrestling. We wrestle every day too. But every day again God renews our connection to Jesus. In the face of discouragement, and loneliness, and hardship and pain and failure, He reminds us of our membership in His family, our belonging to Him.

I like this picture of Jacob clinging to the stranger. He’s in pain. He frightened. And yet he is determined, clinging to God because he knows only God can save him. That’s faith; clinging to Jesus, no matter what. That’s really hard in the face of trouble. That’s really hard when it feels like God is a million miles away. That’s really hard when we are in pain. It’s really hard when God himself seems to be the problem, wrestling with us putting our hip out of joint. But it’s God’s promise that is important here. He doesn’t bless us because we hang onto him. We hang on to Him because He is the only source of our blessing. Jesus is the fulfillment of our promise, God in the flesh, who lived and died and rose again to rebuild our relationship to God. To assure us that no matter what happens in life, God is on our side.

Jacob limped away from his encounter with God. When God wrestles with us we often are left with an injury. We limp away but God goes with us. He calls us by name. He uses us, wounded though we may be to get done what he wants done. That’s what He did with Jacob. That’s what He does with you and me. Amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

LSB Proper 22, Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, October 7, 2007, Luke 17:1-10

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And [Jesus] said to his disciples, “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. “Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ ” (Luke 17:1-10, ESV)

Grace and peace to you from Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Well, it’s another text on forgiveness. Doesn’t Jesus ever get tired of talking about forgiveness? The think is whenever Jesus talks about forgiveness he always seems to be asking the impossible. Well, just listen to what he says,

…if [your brother] he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.

It just sounds to me like an invitation for someone to take advantage of me. It’s that seven times that gets me. How do I know someone is really sorry for a sin against me when they say, “I repent?” especially if they do the same thing seven more times? When I forgive, I want there to be a change of heart. I want the person who hurts me to really be sorry. I want them to come crawling to me begging for forgiveness. Then, I’ll know they really mean it. Then I can dangle my forgiveness over their heads for a bit to show how much they really hurt me. I need to put conditions on my forgiveness. I like to wait a while to make them think really hard about what they’ve done, let them stew in their guilt for awhile before I offer forgiveness. Then they’ll really appreciate it. Maybe I’ll even hold that forgiveness as a bargaining chip for later on when I’ll really need it. And when I do forgive I want everyone to know how good I am, how forgiving I am. I want people to say, “Wow! He really is a super Christian he can even forgive someone who has done that really, really bad thing to him.”

The problem is that all those attitudes are the sin that Jesus is telling us to avoid. Temptations to sin are sure to come. The sin he’s talking about here isn’t the sin other people do to us; it’s our sin in not forgiving those who sin against us. Jesus says temptations are sure to come. Our problem is that even though we believe God’s Word and want to follow it we have difficult time forgiving people as Jesus would have us do. And when we don’t forgive it is just like we don’t believe in God’s promises of forgiveness to us. It’s difficult for us because we are so easily hurt. And there is so much trouble in our lives. Every day we run into people that hurt us. Just like the text says, it is sure to come. The cashier cheats you at the checkout. The mechanic takes advantage of your ignorance. Your neighbor schemes to take away the land you’ve been working all your life. Your friend lets you secret slip. Members of the church ignore all the work you do to keep things going. That’s the way people are. That’s the way our relationships work. It’s difficult to forgive people when they are so often thinking about themselves first. And of course Satan has his part here too. He never lets you rest, telling that you have every right to settle the score, take revenge and withhold forgiveness when you are hurt.

Jesus says we are to be different. We are not to listen to Satan’s word. When Jesus says, if your brother sins… he uses the word brother to tell us that he is especially talking about how we live together as a church. How we live together as a Christian community. Our relationships with each other are to be very different. We are to be in the forgiving business. Jesus says forgive seven times a day but that doesn’t mean we should keep a tally:

“Well that’s six for Joe, you better watch it there Joe, you’ve only got one left. Sally you’ve only got two, you’re doing well. John, that’s eight for you. I’m sorry we can no longer forgive you.”

When Jesus talks about seven times he means “as often as it happens.” In the church, forgiveness always follows repentance. Forgiveness is freely given without condition. Forgiveness is never to be held over someone’s head to get them to change. Jesus makes this most clear when he uses that “m” word, must. You must forgive him. When a brother or sister comes to us for forgiveness we are required to forgive.

But we think that Jesus simply can’t mean that. What he really means that after someone changes he is to be forgiven. There have got to be conditions. We have to make sure the repentance is real. We have to make sure they are really sorry for their sin. Anything else just doesn’t make sense to us. Anything else is simply impossible. That’s because we want to be in control of weather we forgive or not.

• I can’t forgive so-and-so for what they did to me. It just hurt me so much; I’ll never be able to forget it.
• I just can’t forgive you now. Give me some time then maybe I’ll be able to forgive you.
• Well, I forgave you, now it’s your turn to do something for me.

You know what? The disciples had the same problems. When Jesus said these words to them they looked at him and said, “Increase our faith!” We can’t do that; make us stronger so we can. Give us what we need to do the “must.”

Jesus strikes down their request. Not because he doesn’t want their faith to grow, but because they really don’t understand what faith is. They think faith is some quality in them that allows them to do what God wants them to do. The bigger it gets the more they can do God’s will. The bigger it gets the more they are able to forgive. Jesus says it’s not the size of faith that matters, the smallest faith does the impossible. What matters in faith is what the faith is in and where it comes from. It is what the faith is looking to that makes the difference. The faith that Jesus is speaking about here is utter dependence on God and his Word. It is complete reliance on Jesus Christ and his life, death and resurrection for us. Faith is looking to God to do it all. There is no part in faith for “God does his part now I can do my part.” When you try to forgive you are placing your faith in you. Jesus wants you to trust solely on him for your forgiveness. He wants you to give his forgiveness to others.

The longer I am a pastor the more I appreciate how simply Martin Luther expresses what the bible actually says in the Small Catechism. It’s no wonder that Christians have treasured this small book for all these years. We have it in printed for us in the hymnal. Open it up and turn to page 302. Look at what he says.

The Fifth Petition
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
What does this mean?
We pray in this petition that our Father in heaven would not look at our sins, or deny our prayer because of them. We are neither worthy of the things for which we pray, nor have we deserved them, but we ask that He would give them all to us by grace, for we daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment. So we too will sincerely forgive and gladly do good to those who sin against us.

Notice how it doesn’t say that we forgive because we try so hard to do it. Notice it doesn’t say that we forgive because our faith is bigger than a mustard seed. Actually look at where it starts. We forgive because we have been forgiven. We only give what we have received. We don’t deserve forgiveness, so we know that other people who sin against us don’t deserve it either. In fact, they don’t have to deserve forgiveness. If they did, we would have to deserve forgiveness too! No, God gives forgiveness to people who don’t deserve it. He gives it to people who can’t forgive each other. He gives it to people who hold a grudge. He gives it to people who take advantage of each other. He gives it to people who are very slow to forgive. He gives it to people who want to use forgiveness as a way to control each other. He gives forgiveness to you, sinner that you are, unloving as you are, undeserving as you are. So you give that very same forgiveness to those who sin against you. It isn’t yours to give. It is God’s gift to you and through you.

You see, it is all about Jesus. He does what you are unable to do. He forgives because you can’t and often don’t want to. When he was hanging on the cross, in extreme pain, he forgave those who hung him there. Just think of it. From the cross, Jesus looked out over those men who drove nails through his flesh and forgave them. He said “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34, ESV) From the cross, Jesus looked out over the Jewish leaders who manipulated the government to kill him to keep control of their own power and forgave them. From the cross, Jesus looked out over the disciples who forsook him and left him alone and forgave them. From the cross, Jesus looks out over you who are slow to forgive, who are unable to forgive, and forgave you. From the cross he looked out over the whole world and said, “It is finished.” Right there he made it possible for you to forgive, through his forgiveness. Jesus forgives because he can forgive. He earned forgiveness. The blood that dripped from his hands and feet and head and side onto the ground were the payment he paid. The pain he suffered was punishment for sins he didn’t do. It was punishment for sins you do. It was the punishment for those who sin against you. And so when Jesus tells you that you are forgiven, you can believe that it is true. His resurrection from the dead is proof that he did what he says he did. If he has forgiven you, who don’t deserve it, he also has forgiven those who sin against you, even though they don’t deserve it either. Because of Jesus you forgive just as you have been forgiven.

We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.

That’s how the reading ends. It’s saying the same thing that we pray in the Lord’s Prayer:

And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

The forgiveness we offer isn’t ours to give. It is the forgiveness Jesus offers through faith in him, through trusting that his life, death and resurrection are sufficient to forgive even the sins that hurt us deeply. Our faith in Jesus means that we give the forgiveness that he has given us. If you’re looking for that kind of forgiveness outside the church, outside of Jesus gift of faith you’re not going to find it. Here, in the church, is where God gives his forgiveness through Jesus Christ, his Word and Sacraments. Here is where he gives faith. We know what it is suppose to look like. We pray about it every time we take the Holy Supper.

We give thanks to You, almighty God, that You have refreshed us through this salutary gift, and we implore You that of Your mercy You would strengthen us through the same in faith toward You and in fervent love toward one another; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

“Faith toward you and fervent love toward one another.” Those are wonderful words. Through God’s gift of faith in the forgiveness of sins we are able to live them, even though we struggle to do them perfectly. But that’s why we are here, to receive forgiveness and pass it on to others; the forgiveness that Jesus gives freely, without condition. Amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 20), September 30, 2007, Amos.8.4-7

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Hear this, you who trample on the needy and bring the poor of the land to an end, saying, “When will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may offer wheat for sale, that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great and deal deceitfully with false balances, that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals and sell the chaff of the wheat?” The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: “Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. (Amos 8:4-7, ESV)

Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

“Oh, come, let us sin unto the Lord!” No, I didn’t forget the “g”. I really did say, “Come let us sin to the Lord.” Well, it’s what the prophet Amos is saying here. He tops his list of the sins of God’s people with not caring for the needy and preferring business to worship. “Let’s get church over with so we can get back to business. Let’s cut this stuff short so we can do what’s really important. Let’s minimize our obligations to God, so we can spend our time doing what we want to do instead. Time is money. Let’s get back to what life is really all about… the pursuit of happiness!” And what’s worse the business practices they want to get back to are less than beneficial to the customers. Crooked scales and high prices combine for great profit margins, but poor customer service. They were coming to church, but it was the last place they wanted to be. Amos was point blunt. “You’re only here to get credit for being here. You want God to notice that you are doing your part, paying your fair share, but your mind is in the market. God’s Word is far from your heart when you are far from His house. You think that you are entitled to pursue happiness because you’ve parking in the pew.”

Well, it’s a good thing that Amos isn’t talking to us. This moldy old prophet couldn’t possibly have anything relevant to say. How could words scratched out 3,000 years ago mean anything to you and me? God really couldn’t be speaking to me? Could he? Oh come, let us sin unto the Lord! Watching your clock already? How long is the sermon going to be today? The silage is fermenting in the field instead of the Harvestore. Week three Minnesota vs KC. The cattle need fed and the pigs won’t get fat. The roast is in the oven. I don’t want to spend my whole day here. Twice a month Communion would be better if it didn’t take so long. My time is valuable… Time is money… Ah, that’s what it’s really about, isn’t it? We are not so far from God’s people who were hit between the eyes by Amos’ words. We do just what they did. We put God in church, and leave Him here. We grudgingly set aside this hour for God and no more. We pretend that God gets enough of us if we look like we are enjoying our time. If we fool the pastor we must be fooling God too.

If Amos’ words are harsh, he means them to be. His hearers were confident in their place before God. We do our part and God will do his part. We give God his due and our businesses will grow and prosper. Our thoughts are not any different. If we put our time in at church on Sunday we can live any way we want to for the rest of the week. God doesn’t belong out there.

But God says differently. He sends prophets and pastors to make it clear. You cannot serve God and money. …this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me… (Isaiah 29:13, ESV) Oh, come, let us sin to the Lord, is not something God will tolerate. Sin is serious business to Him. His beautiful creation is corrupted by it. His creature’s lives are set to ruin by it. Greed provokes God’s righteous anger. Amos speaks God’s law very clearly. “I will not forget their sin, ever! I will not forget your sin, ever!”

Well we are in trouble if God won’t forget. We have a difficult time on our own forgetting sin and the sins of others against us. But we count on God’s forgiveness. We cling to Jeremiah’s words as he speaks for God.

For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34b, ESV)

But Amos goes on to describe the consequences of God not forgetting our sin.

“And on that day,” declares the Lord God, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day. (Amos 8:9-10, ESV)

So how do we reconcile what Amos says? We know our lack of faithfulness in worship; we see our sin and know we need God’s forgiveness. Amos writes about a darkened day, a day when there will be mourning for an only son. It reminds us of a dark day we call “good”; Good Friday. That is a day when God does exactly has He says, He doesn’t forget our sin. In fact, He remembers them in full, by placing them on His only Son. Jesus, on the cross, is the focus of God’s wrath and anger. God is true to His promise of not forgetting sin. All human sin is heaped on Jesus; every one remembered; every lackluster worship service; every selfish thought; every time we watch the clock; every time our mind is somewhere else; every time we set out for our own gain at the expense of others. Jesus is nailed to the cross to carry them all, to suffer God’s punishment. Jesus dies with our sin, so we are dead to it, too. Jesus takes the curse of God remembering sin, so that we can receive God’s forgiveness. Oh, come, let us sin unto the Lord… let us place our sin on Him and receive from God the forgiveness He gives though faith in Jesus.

So, does that make a difference in our worship today and in the future? Shall we continue, Oh, come, let us sin unto the Lord? Saint Paul asked the question like this:

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? (Romans 6:1, ESV)

He answers the question, too:

By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:1-4, ESV)

God remembers his promises. He places our sin and punishment on Jesus and gives us Jesus resurrection to new life. We walk in newness of life! We live and act and worship differently. What God has done for us in Jesus turns that turns our sin into sing. Oh come let us sing unto the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to the God of our salvation. He turns our sin in to song. We rejoice. We celebrate. We sing about what God has done for us. Just like we sang moment ago:

Then shall I praise you and adore
Your blessed name forevermore,
Who once, for me and all you made,
An everlasting ransom paid. (LW 362:6)

And not only that but it changes everything else, too. Worship becomes the center point of our lives. We receive from God, His wonderful gift of forgiveness through the blood of Jesus, in Word and Sacrament, and it bleeds through us to the world out there. Our lives become ways of serving others because God serves us. Our lives don’t need to be about gaining things for ourselves with crooked scales and false measures; instead our work becomes a way of giving God’s gifts to people who need them.

Now it won’t be to long and we’ll be thinking about stewardship in our church. Yes, I’m talking about the budget. God would not have us use the budget for the motivation we would work with. God gives to us so that we can give to and help others. God’s blessings to us are for our blessing other people. One way we do that is through the work of the church. We can do so much more than we do through our own congregation. But, we’ve got to start with Oh, come let us sing unto the Lord.

Oh, come, let us sin to the Lord? No! We are forgiven sinners. We do not live in sin anymore. God will not punish us for our sin because of Our Savior Jesus Christ. Instead, Oh, come, let us sing to the Lord. Amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost (proper 19), September 16, 2007, Luke 15:1-7

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Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. (Luke 15:1-7, ESV)

Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ;

Who would miss one sheep in a hundred? Sheep look very much alike, wooly balls of fluff standing in the ‘open country’ slowly walking and eating… bleating softly to one another. Baa, baa...

“Have you seen Wooly today, Fluffy?”

“Now that you mention it Cotton, I haven’t… I haven’t I wonder where she’s gone… have you seen her, Bobbin?”

One silly sheep in hundred, has wondered off… not many notice. But, there is someone who does notice. He begins looking for the sheep right away. First, he counts the sheep, because something doesn’t feel right with the flock. 97:Cotton… 98:Bobbin… 99:Fluffy… 100?!? I thought so. He looks over the flock. Wooly is gone again. The shepherd notices when even one sheep is missing. He knows every one by name… it is his job to care for them. When they wander off he goes out to get them. He has to. The world outside the flock is dangerous. There are thorns and brambles to get caught in. There are hungry animals who love the taste of lamb. The silly sheep just walks and eats, not watching where she’s going. Pretty soon she’s walked right into a thicket of thorns. The more she pulls to get free the deeper the thorns grab into the matted wool of her coat. The more she struggles the more she becomes entangled. Now the thorns have pierced her skin and blood begins to flow, coagulating as a dark red mass in his wooly white coat…. It’s a fine mess. One lost sheep, perfectly tenderized and ready for any hungry predator that happens along. One lost sheep perfectly lost all alone and no where to turn.

We very easily see ourselves here, stuck in the thorns with the sheep. Over and over again we hear about people who have strayed from the flock, we may even have our own story of how we have gotten lost, tangled up in the thorns that are out there, perfectly ‘tenderized’ for Satan to come and take his prize. All of us at one point or another in our lives have been right where Wooly is, with no where to turn? But, let’s look at the parable again. It just doesn’t talk much about the sheep. It says… "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them.” The parable really isn’t about the sheep. It’s the shepherd who gets top billing. The sheep just gets lost. The story teller doesn’t say how or why. The primary focus of this parable is The Shepherd.

The shepherd is the one who is charged with taking care of the sheep. He is the one who notices when one of a hundred has wandered off. He is the one leaves the ninety-nine to go and look for the missing one. By the way… back then, shepherds didn’t leave sheep unattended. A very large flock was broken up into sub flocks of a hundred sheep each. That’s the number a shepherd can reasonably watch. When a sheep got lost, the neighboring shepherds would watch the flock while he would go out to find the missing one. The point here is that the shepherd goes to look for the sheep, because he cares for the sheep, even one in a hundred.

Our minds automatically picture Jesus as the shepherd here. We picture him all the time with sheep on his shoulders, or standing with the shepherd’s staff in the midst of the flock. He calls himself the Good Shepherd. It is a very strong image a very meaningful word picture. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want; he makes me lie down in green pastures…” When ever we hear words like this our minds automatically turn to Jesus. And well they should, for he is the Good Shepherd, the Best Shepherd.

In the parable the shepherd goes after the lost sheep. What it doesn’t say is that he does so at great personal risk. The people listening to Jesus would know this because they know what it means to be a Judean shepherd. They know that because searching for a sheep in the hills country is dangerous for the shepherd. A lost sheep isn’t easy to find. Lost sheep don’t do anything to help the shepherd find them. They don’t sit tangled up in thorns bleating out loud until they are found. They are frightened. They quickly fall into despair and become worn out from the struggle. A lost and frightened sheep will simply ‘go into shock.’ They lie down and become still. The seeking shepherd must look under the brush, behind rocks, and in crevasses. He must crawl around on the ground, seeking the place where the sheep has become trapped... The shepherd can call out to the sheep all he wants but it does no good. A frightened sheep won’t respond, even to the shepherd’s familiar voice. It is a long, tedious, tiring and dangerous journey for the shepherd. The predators that would kill the sheep would just as well attack a seeking shepherd. But, according to the parable, the shepherd is willing to take the risk for the sake of the sheep. He goes after the sheep “until he finds it.”

Notice also how he reacts when the sheep is found. He rejoices. He doesn’t yell at the sheep for being so stupid as to get lost. He rejoices that he has found it. And yet the worst of the job, the most difficult part of the job is still ahead of him. The sheep is exhausted and frightened. You can’t drive a sheep in this condition home. You can’t lead it home; it is a quivering mass of nerves. The shepherd places the sheep on his shoulders and carries it. It is the only option. A full grown sheep weighs about 70 lbs. Remember the rocky ground, remember the thorns, and remember the predators? The journey is only half over. Yet the shepherd joyfully carries the sheep home. He bears the great cost of saving the sheep, the bruised aching body and the danger of it all. And he does it with great joy. When he returns home with the sheep, there is a great celebration because of what he has done. This really is absurd. No real human shepherd is going to haul a full-grown sheep on his shoulders. It’s beyond their ability. That’s what makes this story really about Jesus, and only Jesus. He does what human shepherds can not, will not do. He suffers himself for the sake of the sheep. He gives himself for the sake of the sheep. The story talks about the shepherd bearing the weight of the sheep, that’s Jesus bearing our weight, the weight of our stupid wandering, our sin.

Sheep get lost, it’s a part of who they are, they go about their daily business, eating and walking, walking and eating. They ignore the danger about them until it’s too late and they get lost. They get tangled up in briars, and lost in the rocky wilderness. When it happens they have no where to turn. But, this parable is good news for sheep. It talks about a Good Shepherd comes and finds them. He pays the price to bring them home. And he rejoices in it.
When we were lost and without God; when sin had us tangled in its thorns and Satan was ready to pounce on us for an easy meal; when we had no possibility of saving ourselves and nowhere to turn; the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, comes for us. He does it at great personal cost. The way is difficult and painful. The very same predators are looking to devour us turn on him and all of hell’s fury is unleashed. The cost of finding us, the cost of seeking us, is a bloody death on the cross. But it is through that cross that he carries us home. You see, we can’t. We can’t be driven. We are lost quivering sheep hiding in the darkness. We are totally lost and condemned, tangled up in the thorns and without hope and nowhere to turn. Our only hope is to be carried home. Just as Jesus carries that beam of wood that would hold his hands fast, he carries us. It is our weight, and the weight of our sins, that pulled down on the nails that are driven through his hands and feet. It is a terrible cost that he endured, but one he is willing to pay because through it he bears us home. The rejoicing comes, too. Three days later Jesus doesn’t stay dead, but brakes free from the tomb. This time Jesus carries us from death to life. And he delivers us home where the rejoicing still continues. “Look what I have done for you!” he says, “I have rescued you when you were lost! You are my precious sheep!”

Jesus knows us very well. He is the Good Shepherd, he knows his sheep. He knows how much we can stray. We just keep eating and walking, walking and eating, and before we know it the treats of the world close in on us… again. But, he keeps us from straying too far. He is always there with a comforting word, or even a gentle whack of his shepherd’s staff. He says to us again and again. “I have rescued you. I have found you. Remember the cost I have already paid for you. Remember the rejoicing in heaven over you. You are my precious sheep and I am your Good Shepherd.”

But, It’s easy to forget. Life gets busy. We think about the brambles. We think about the threatening predators. We could so easily go back to quivering. We could so easily forget about the Good Shepherd. But, he is always there. He never forgets us. He is here with us today again today. He reminds us of his great love for us saying, “I am your Good Shepherd.” Amen.

The peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, the Good Shepherd. Amen.

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Prop 18), September 9, 2007, Luke 14:25-33

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Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:25-33, ESV)

Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ;

How much is it going to cost?

That’s a good question.

Listen Bob, I’m not going to start this building project without knowing how much.

It isn’t that easy to calculate. There are a lot of variables to consider.

How am I supposed to know if I can finish the project if I don’t know the total cost.

I hear ya Tom. Maybe I can work up a reasonable estimate.

Bob, I need better than that. I need to know the worst case. Just think what it would look like if I started this project… what if I got the building half up and then the money ran out. I’d really look like a fool then wouldn’t I. I’d never be able to build another building again.

Ya, I see what you mean. I’ll get right on it.

Thanks Tom. I really need to know how much this is going to cost me.

+----+----+

How much is it going to cost? It’s a question we ask ourselves every day. Maybe not in a dramatic a fashion as Tom, the man building a building, but, it is the sensible thing to do. How much are the car payments? Can I afford to remodel the house, and add on a bedroom? Which college can I afford to go to? How much will the herbicide cost? If I don’t use it how is it going to affect the yield? We know how to count the cost. What Jesus is saying to us today is this: “You know how to count the cost of things in your life. Have you accurately counted the cost of being my disciple? Do you really know what it means to follow me?”

“First, of all,” Jesus says. “Do you realize that if you want to follow me, you have to hate your family.” I don’t know about you… but I don’t like the sound of that at all. I happen to love my family very much. After all, I work to support them. I try to provide them with everything they need, food, clothing, Christian education. I try to spend time with them, and don’t like to be away for too long. It seems to me that the Fourth Commandment: Honor your father and mother. And the Sixth commandment: You shall not commit adultery. Have something to say here too. Don’t these commandments specifically apply to my family? Isn’t what Jesus is saying here going against these commandments?

Maybe Jesus doesn’t really mean hate here when he says hate your family. Today’s theme is Count the Cost. I think we can pretty easily see what Jesus is talking about. Some people, when they become Christians are disowned by their families. When I was in Concordia College in Seward, I remember a gal from Taiwan. When she came to school she wasn’t a Christian. But over her time there God worked in her life through all the people around her. She heard the Gospel and finally gave a confession of faith. She was promptly disowned by her family. When she left for home she was not heard from again. The great fear in her case is that there are so few Christians in her home land that she was pressured to return to her family religion. Maybe the cost was too high for her. Maybe no one took the time to explain to her what Jesus is saying in this text.

But, Jesus isn’t just talking about people whose families disown them when they become Christians. He’s talking to us too. God is to take first place in our lives. We are to love him with all our hearts, all our minds, and all our being. Remember the 1st Commandment: Maybe not, so turn in your hymnal and we’ll read it together.

The First Commandment
You shall have no other gods.
What does this mean?
We should fear, love and trust in God above all things.

We should fear, love and trust God above everything else. Everything else includes our wife. Everything else includes our children and parents. God is to be first. The most difficult idols to give up are the ones that are closest to our hearts. What Jesus is saying is that when we place things in our lives in the place that only God should be, pushing them out may indeed feel like hating them; in contrast to the love we hold for them now.

What Jesus is talking about here may fall much closer to home than we are comfortable hearing. I’m sure you can think of examples of children who have fallen away from the faith… yet, parents don’t speak about it, even to each other, for the sake of family unity. It’s difficult, who wants family gatherings to become a battle ground. Who wants to ruin the all too brief visits with arguments? And yet, that is exactly what Jesus is talking about. Holding God over family unity can feel very much like hating your family.

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus speaks this idea just a little bit differently.

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. (Matthew 10:37, ESV)

It isn’t easy. It is a cross to bear, so to speak. And Jesus knows that it’s not easy. He didn’t say, “Take up your Lazy Boy and follow me.” He said “carry your cross.”

This is a very powerful image. In Jesus time especially, the person who carried a cross was the one who was going to die on it. It was a part of the execution itself. Humiliation, defeat, painful, bloody death, dealt out with cruel indifference. To bear a cross meant all of these things. Jesus is saying to us today… the Christian life a life of cross bearing, and you can’t do it unless He is the most important thing in your life.

By now we are all saying to ourselves, as we look around us to the ones we love; “The cost is too high. How can I possibly love God more than my children? to do so feels like hating them. How can I…” well remember what Jesus said. “… anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” The cross Jesus is asking you to bear is more than just keeping the first commandment. The cross Jesus is asking you to bear isn’t just suffering sickness, or family dis-unity. The cross Jesus is asking you to bear is his cross. And he expects you to carry it to your death, just as he did. “I can’t do that!” You say. Yes you can. As matter of fact you’ve very likely done it already.

And what’s more we’ve seen it happen right here in this place, right before our eyes. Right here little children have carried their crosses to their death. “We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

The promise of God there is this. The sin in your life, the things that you put before God, I have done something about. I have killed you. I have raised you. You are my precious child. Just as I killed my own Beloved Son, just as I raised my own Beloved Son, this baptism is my promise to you that I have done all this for you. Go now live your life bearing your cross.

A little child that is baptized here isn’t your going to love God all the time. You don’t love God with your whole heart as you should. Sometimes you love other people, like a child or parents or a spouse more than God. That’s because of the sin that is in your life. At times it pushes God out of first place. But, that’s why Jesus lived and died for you, because we can’t do what God demands. But, you see, from the day that you were baptized you bore the cross of Christ. We make that sign: “Receive the sign of the cross both upon your forehead and upon your heart to mark you as one redeemed by Christ the Crucified.” Jesus also said it this way:

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. (Luke 9:23, ESV)

That’s one of the reasons why we come to church every week. To be reminded again and again of Jesus life, death and resurrection for us. To be reminded that we live as God’s baptized child every day.

So what about the cost? Well, the cost is still there. We don’t try to build a building with out knowing how much it’s going to cost. Jesus is describing what our lives, as God’s beloved baptized children, are going to be like. It isn’t going to be easy… sometimes we’ll have to confront our children… sometimes there is going to be family disunity… sometimes our actions are going to feel like, well, like hating them… we need to know the cost of following Jesus. He wants us to know what’s coming, so that when it does, we can remember to bear the cross, his cross… and remember what he did there on that cross for us. He wants us to remember how our Baptism ties his death to our death… how Baptism ties his resurrection to our resurrection. When we remember that, God will once again be first in our lives. Amen.

The peace that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 17), Sept 2, 2007, Luke14:-14

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One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” And they could not reply to these things. Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” (Luke 14:1-14, ESV)

(Thanks to Rev. Mark Louderback)

Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

• Oh say can you see… the star spangled banner.
• I once was lost but now and found, was blind but now I see. Amazing Grace.
• There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see. Leonardo da Vinci
• People only see what they are prepared to see. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• The more I see the less I know for sure. John Lennon
• People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts. Albert Einstein
• The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see. Winston Churchill
• Don't be afraid to see what you see. Ronald Reagan
• Every man can see things far off but is blind to what is near. Sophocles
• See how many are better off than you are, but consider how many are worse. Lucius Annaeus Seneca
• I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. Confucius
• You and I do not see things as they are. We see things as we are. Henry Ward Beecher
• Human beings, from their own point of view, are very different than what people see. Kurt Russell

What do you see? That’s kind of the question we might ask about this text for today.

Look at the Pharisees. What do they see? Right off the bat we see that they are “…watching [Jesus] carefully.” They have their reasons. Jesus isn’t who they’d like him to be. He constantly insults them. He constantly belittles them. He constantly tells them they don’t know what they are talking about. They are watching Jesus, which is a good thing, but they don’t see what they should be seeing. Jesus actually uses three examples at this dinner party to try to get the Pharisees to see things differently. He confronts them directly with their sinful nature.

First, the man with dropsy. What is “dropsy?” It comes from the word “hydrops” that has to do with water. This man was suffering from a condition that caused his body to retain water. He isobese, especially in his wrists and ankles. When the text says “there was a man before him who had dropsy” I doubt very much if this man is an invited guest. He is probably standing around outside with the crowds that followed Jesus everywhere. As far as the Pharisees were concerned when you have a deforming illness it is because of some sin you are guilty of. If you are fat you deserve to be. They look away when this man is walking down the street. They cross over to the other side to avoid his smell. The Pharisees don’t see the man; they only see something to be avoided. Jesus sees differently. He loves the outcast. He cares about his life. Jesus heals him and sends him home. Jesus questions the Pharisees. “Is it lawf