Covenant Ministries

Matthew 4:12-23

2011-01-24T14:19:00.001-06:00

It has been said that every new beginning is some other beginnings end. This is the case in our gospel reading for today. In The Gospel of John 3:30, John the Baptist is quoted as saying, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” The end of John the Baptist’s ministry, being arrested by King Herod, is the que for Jesus to begin His public ministry. John the Baptist decreases Jesus increases.
“Now when He heard that John had been arrested He withdrew into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth He went and lived in Capernaum by the sea.” Jesus goes from Nazareth to Capernaum which was just outside of Herod’s and Roman jurisdiction. Why? Three reasons: 1. Christ’s time had not yet come to go to the cross and he had to wait until things settled down a little after the arrest of John, 2. It fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, and 3. That is where His; yet to be chosen disciples were living. Capernaum was the home of the apostles Peter, Andrew, James and John as well as the area where scripture tells us that Matthew is collecting taxes. It is interesting that Jesus starts His ministry in a land where the majority of the population is Gentile. Gentiles are anyone who is not of the Jewish faith. You people in other words. Jesus starts His public ministry preaching and teaching to non-Jews. The fact that Matthew is the most Jewish of the gospels as it seeks to prove that Jesus is the foretold Messiah is even more interesting. Incidentally if you misspell Gentile, your Microsoft Word spell check will correct it as genitals which I found out the hard way after sending this week’s Bible study question to the entire congregation. Go ahead have a laugh at my expense I have thick skin.
When we study a scripture we seek first to distinguish the law from the gospel. The law being anything that God or the world requires of us and gospel as anything that is promised to us by God. Verse 16 from our reading in Matthew is a great BIG PROMISE FOR EACH OF YOU!!! LISTEN CAREFULLY GENTILES! “THE PEOPLE DWELLING IN DARKNESS HAVE SEEN A GREAT LIGHT, AND FOR THOSE DWELLING IN THE REGION AND SHADOW OF DEATH ON THEM A LIGHT HAS DAWNED!!!!
Darkness is Biblical langue for total and complete and utter spiritual bankruptcy!!! The shadow of death is the state that one is in until they are called by Jesus to be claimed as His own. How are we to know for sure that one is being called and chosen by Christ? Well, they are baptized of course. Baptism is the bestowal of Christ’s promise upon a child or an adult. This outward act is living proof that Jesus Christ has claimed the person being baptized as His own. The water in baptism symbolizes the death of the old sinful nature by drowning and the brining up out of the water and the anointing of the head of oil is the outward symbol of grace, the very power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, given to a person being baptized. The water alone is nothing without the presence of the Word of God Jesus Christ Himself. The water and the Word make baptism the claiming of a person for Christ, not the water alone or the technique.
At your baptism, regardless of denomination and regardless of technique, Jesus Christ makes a promise to you that He has died ONCE AND FOR ALL to destroy your sin and He has risen from the dead SO THAT YOU MAY HAVE ETERNAL LIFE. THE SECOND YOU COME UP OUT OF THE WATER YOU ARE A NEW CREATION IN CHRIST!!! THIS IS A PROMISE FROM THE LIVING GOD THROUGH HIS ONE AND ONLY SON JESUS CHRIST TO YOU! You have heard me say it before and you will hear me say it again, “When someone make you a promise they are on the hook for its fulfillment not you!!! Jesus Christ alone=salvation!
Jesus Christ, the great light, the light that has dawned, is Jesus Christ given totally and completely to you. He is given to YOU PERSONALLY!!! This is good news, this is gospel, and this is Christ’s promise to you, for you!!!
Jesus begins His public ministry to the gentiles and how does Matthew sum up Jesus’ message? “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” Repent, command, law, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, promise gospel. Jesus Christ, like John before him, is declaring that the Kingdom of Heaven is here. It is now!!! It isn’t a promise of a future reward it is now and it is coming more and more into the reality of this world!!! This is why it seems like the whole world is going to Hades, Sin, death, and the Devil are trying to make their last stand and they are losing!!!! And they will lose!!
Now please don’t mishear me that I am predicting the end of the world. The Kingdom of Heaven is here but it has not come into completion quite yet. And the time that it will come into completion, is not for us to know, we are not to be concerned with SPECULATION ABOUT WHEN! We are to be, like Christ, about our Father’s work loving and serving our neighbors drawing God’s elect to Him. Know your place, or as my friend Bill Dooley says, “Don’t exceed your pay grade.”
The rest of our Gospel reading for today can be summed up simply by saying, “Jesus said FOLLOW ME AND IMMEDIATELY THEY FOLLOWED!!” Now we have talked about the meaning of several Greek words over the past few months that I have preached. And each of those Greek words had several meanings. Do you know the meaning of the Greek word “εὐθέως,d \{yoo-theh'-oce?” It has one and only meaning! It means IMMEDIATELY!!!!!
Peter, Andrew, James and John heard to very Word of God Himself Jesus Christ command them to follow him and the followed immediately. Now I ask you, “Does that sound like a God who sits around like a broken lover waiting for His beloved to make a decision to choose and love Him?” Absolutely NOT! God is not some impendent love sick being, He is the great and mighty warrior the CREATOR OF THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH, THE ALMIGHTY AND ALL POWERFUL LORD OF ALL. And when God speaks with the authority only He has things happen. God said follow and they left everything, their families, their houses, their possessions, their iPods and iPhones, their DVD players, their sport utilities, their knitting needles. They left everything and IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWED HIM! Thank the Heavenly Father that we are not all called to be apostles. We are not all called to drop everything and follow immediately however we are called out of our old life into a new existence, that existence being? Loving and serving our neighbors.
How can I be for sure that it was the power of God that caused the apostles to follow Jesus immediately? John 6:44, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” God has drawn you here today right here and right now for the purpose of hearing and receiving the Holy Spirit nurturing and growing the faith given to you at your baptism, for the purpose of 1. Making you a better servant to your neighbor in this life and 2. Preparing you for life eternally.
Let us pray, Lord God all Mighty and Powerful Warrior, we thank you for your call to be your children. We ask Father that you continue the work that you started in us. Free us Father from the bondage and the consequences of short comings in this life, so that we may be the examples to the world of what you can do in a time. In the Holy, Precious and Powerful Name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen

All Saints Day Matthew 5:1-12

2010-11-08T12:57:00.000-06:00

Today we celebrate All Saints Day. Most typically I am up here telling you about how your salvation comes into being. But today I get to answer the questions, “So I have been baptized and claimed by Christ and as a result I am one of the saints, now what?” What does the life of a saint look like in today’s world?
But before I answer those questions I need to tell you a story. I have been told by some in the congregation that the experiences that I share with you about the homeless men that helped shape me as a pastor are not relevant to this community however I am going to tell you one today because I think that you will find relevance in it.
My friend Steve was in his fifties when I had first met him. He was a resident at the Bethel Rescue Mission in Des Moines and worked there in exchange for his rent. Steve had tried several times to stop drinking. When I had first met him he was one year sober and was well on his way to turning his life around. He knew the rules at the shelter better than anyone and he actually trained me on how to work the desk which involved filling out reports, enforcing security issues, allowing people access to the building, and even deciding who would not be able to stay that night as a result of a disciplinary action.
Steve fell a month later and returned to drinking and camping along the river. Sometimes we can only ignore our pain for so long by immersing ourselves in our work. He was burned out from working 12 hour days. It seems that he had replaced working with drinking and as long as he stayed locked in the shelter he would not go out and drink. You see unless we invite Christ into and help us to deal with our past hurts and traumas we will never be free from them. The devil knows exactly where your pain buttons are and how to push them. He is a ruthless coward who doesn’t fight fair.
About 6 months later my friend Albert came to the mission and told me we had to do something about Steve. Albert is a hopeless alcoholic in his fifties on the streets of downtown Des Moines. The victim of sexual abuse and mental illness my hope for Albert’s recovery is fading. However I talk to him each week and even took him to dinner a couple of weeks ago; much to the dismay of the restaurant employees. Albert is the perfect example of saint and sinner. He knows Jesus is his savior, in his own diminished capacity, and spend his life caring for homeless people in Des Moines. If only he would use his skills to care for his own needs. But Albert understands that he is a sinner and God loves him regardless. Albert is a saint, he understands the concept of loving and caring for his neighbor more than anyone I have seen. Once he asked me why I looked so stressed and I told him that money was so tight I didn’t know how I was going to buy the baby milk. He took me to a dumpster in an alley where he was living am took out $20 form his hiding place and gave it to me. It was all the money he had. He loves Joey, Ally and Gabby and had met them several times and couldn’t stand the thought of having the money to get Gabby her milk. Let say it again, “HE WAS LIVING BEHIND A DUMPSTER WHICH HE ATE OUT OF BUT GAVE ME ALL OF HIS MONEY BECAUSE HE WAS WORRIED ABOUT MY KIDS.” Albert loves his neighbor, Albert loves my family.
Albert told me that Steve as in a camp and his feet were rotting and he could not walk out to get to the hospital. So I went with him to the camp and called an ambulance helping them carry Steve 300 yards over sand weeds and gravel to the ambulance. After he was treated at the hospital we took him back to the shelter to recover.
This time I thought Steve had the booze licked. He started to talk to me about his childhood and how he had abandoned his son because he didn’t want to do to the son what had been done to him. His heart was pure and beautiful. We prayed and prayed and asked Jesus to come into his past and heal it. Eventually we contacted his son in Ohio and attempted to start a dialogue with him. He was reluctant at first but eventually invited Steve to come out and stay with them for Thanksgiving to meet his 2 year old granddaughter for the first time.
I had lost touch with Steve as I moved to St. Paul to go to seminary. I had heard from Albert that he was back in Des Moines and not doing well. I made a mental note that I would look in on him at his camp one Friday as I was going through Des Moines. Time got away from me and I never made it to see him. Steve was found dead in a weekly rent sleazy hotel in Des Moines last Thursday morning. Steve knew the Lord and professed Jesus as His Savior but he dealt with chronic depression. He had gone to Broad Lawns Hospital in Des Moines to be treated for his depression and as usual they prescribed him lithium and kicked him out. When they found Steve he was black from the waist up which means he had a stroke and had broken every blood vessel in his upper body. He must have overdosed on lithium and alcohol. Why did my friend have to die alone? What must those final hours of his life been like? Staying a in a sleazy hotel room alone unable to call for help listening to his breath get shallower and shallower until it was no more. My heart is broken for Steve and I know that this is most likely how Albert’s story will end as well.
In today’s gospel reading Jesus tells us how we are to live as his called and claimed saints. “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” The Kingdom of Heaven is not for the super spiritual that boast about and find fulfillment in their good works and try to set themselves above everyone else as special. NO! It’s for people like Albert and Steve who know that they are broken and know that they only hope they have is in the mercy of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
“Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.” My heart is broken and I cannot tell you how much I blame myself for not being there for Steve. My rational mind knows that there is no way that I could have known that this would be the night or that this was where I was needed however my irrational feelings are tearing me apart. All I can do in my time of complete and utter turmoil thinking that I failed and lost one which God had called me to serve is to cling with all my effort to the promise that God is merciful and has ended the pain that Steve was in both emotionally and physically. I trust and cling to the promise that Jesus Christ is Holding Steve in His loving embrace was we speak.
“Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” The meek “πραΰς,a \{prah-ooce'}” in Greek meaning: 1) mildness of disposition, gentleness of spirit, meekness. Those who are daily afflicted with the pains and traumas of the past that destroy any hope of a happy future; and know that their righteous and hope for peace and serenity comes not from anything in this world but form the hope in the one who has taken all of their pain and died with it destroying all of the punishment for due to them because of their wretched existence. Faith in JESUS CHRIST!
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied.” Those who know that they do not belong to this world and daily are reminded by the devil, society, and their own sinful desires that are broken, unwanted, and unacceptable. Those who for once in their lives hunger and thirst to be acceptable to someone anyone! JESUS PROMISES HERE THAT THEIR HUNGER AND THIRST WILL BE SATISFIED!
“Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy.” Jesus promises us that if we show mercy we will receive mercy. Mercy means: “The act of sparing, or the forbearance of a violent act expected.” If someone angers you and you feel the need to strike out against them in a violent way but rather show mercy and forgive them then your Lord will show you mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Blessed are the “kath-ar-os” in Greek. “Katharos” means: 1) clean, pure 1a) physically 1a1) purified by fire 1a2) in a similitude, like a vine cleansed by pruning and so fitted to bear fruit 1b) in a levitical sense 1b1) clean, the use of which is not forbidden, imparts no uncleanness 1c) ethically 1c1) free from corrupt desire, from sin and guilt 1c2) free from every admixture of what is false, sincere genuine 1c3) blameless, innocent 1c4) unstained with the guilt of anything. Who here claims to be katharos? The book of Romans chapter 3 tells us that not one is found pure. However this is the state that the Lord God sees you in on account of the work of Jesus Christ. You may not be pure but Jesus has made you pure in the sight of God because he gave to you His purity by the shedding of His blood.
“Blessed are the peace makers for they shall be called sons of God.” Be the peaceful presence to your neighbors. Like Albert when you find someone afflicted, either physically or mentally, bring them peace by helping them or getting the help they need.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” Dallas Willard, a professor of religion and philosophy at USC, wrote a book entitled, “The Divine Conspiracy.” In it he says that the divine conspiracy is the promise that since you have been made righteous through your faith in Jesus Christ all of you worldly troubles are over. Quite the contrary Willard says, now that you are counted righteous all the powers of Hell are coming after you. Jesus promises here that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are persecuted because they belong to him.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” How many times are you called hypocrites or are your actions described as unloving because you profess Jesus Christ as your Savior; or because you hold fast to any type of Christian moral principle?
So in answer to the questions now that I am saved so what and what does a saintly life look like in this world? Today Jesus tells us recognize that we are poor in spirit, to look to Christ in our mourning for comfort, we should approach all situations with meekness, we are to hunger and thirst for righteousness, show mercy, be pure in heart, be peace makers, and rejoice when we are persecute on account of Christ.
But what does that have to do with Steve and Albert? Everything! Because all of these characteristics we are to have and do for one purpose, for the sake of our neighbor. These things matter to your neighbor! Confirmands this is our small catechism. Memorizing the content of this book may not seem worth wile or even entertaining. But the day you sit at the death bed of someone and have these words memorized and can recite tot them the promises of Christ bringing them comfort and peace before death; that is the day when your neighbor doesn’t have to die alone in a sleazy hotel room with no preacher to deliver Christ’s promises. These WORDS MATTER, THEY BRING COMFORT AND PEACE NIT TO MENTION ETERNAL SALVATION. THESE ARE NOT JUST WORDS ON A PAGE THEY ARE THEY POWER OF GOD, HIS COMMANDS HIS PROMISES. AND TELLING THEM TO YOURSELF AND DOING THE GOOD WORKS IN THIS BOOK MAY NOT AMOUNT TO A HILL OF BEANS TO YOU BUT THEY MEAN EVERYTHING TO YOUR NEIGHBOR. Especially in their time of suffering. YOUR ARE ALL PRIESTS, JESUS HAS GIVEN TO YOU THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. WHENEVER YOU ENCOUNTE ONE WHO ASKS, CONFESSES, ORSHOWS THE LEAST BIT OF INTEREST IN JESUS CHIRST YOU TAKE OUT YOUR KEYS AND LOOSE THEM OF THEIR SIN. YOU PROCLIM TO THEM THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS ON ACCOUNT OF CHIRST. So they do not have to die alone or suffer another minute without being reminded of Jesus Christ and His promise. This is what you are to do as a saint claimed by Jesus from Himself. You belong to Him and He has given you the authority to claim others for Him. Let us pray.
Lord Jesus we thank you that you have given us the keys to your Kingdom. Lord we ask that you give us the boldness and awareness to recognize when we are in the presence of one who is in need of your promise. Lord Jesus I commend to you the soul of my friend Steve. Have mercy on him and welcome Him into your eternal Kingdom. Lord I thank you for the lives of each and every baptized saint before me today. Continue Lord to use this congregation and Your Church to further Your Mission in Jefferson County. In the name of Jesus we pray.

Reformation Sunday

2010-11-08T12:56:00.000-06:00

“You awake us to delight in your praise; for you made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” The Confessions of St. Augustine.
Restless hearts that find peace in God, this is one of Augustine’s most famous quotes. Rest, peace; those are such nice words. Can you imagine an eternity of rest and peace? Right now I can’t even imagine 5 minutes of it let alone all of eternity.
But this is the promise that Jesus brings to us today in our gospel reading. “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”
Abide, Jesus uses the Greek word “meinate” from the root word “meno.” Meno means: remain, dwell, continue, tarry, endure. The depth of the meaning of “meno” is to stay in one place for a extended period of time; to dwell, literally to live. If you live in my “logos,” the word. Do you remember how the Gospel of John starts out? In the beginning was the logos, the word, and the logos, was with God and the logos WAS GOD. Jesus is telling us that if we dwell in Him then we are His true disciples and therefore we will know the truth, the truth the Jesus is not only the word of God but He is God! This is THE TRUTH! Jesus says, and knowing this sets you free. Free from sin free to love the law and follow it.
This is the promise that we heard from Jeremiah in our Old Testament reading today, this is that very promise fulfilled, Jesus Christ the Savior, God Himself addressing us, as He does, with words. And not just words, not just hot air expelled for the sake of something to say. NO! Words from God do something. This proclamation from the very mouth of God Jesus Christ declares to you that if you live in His word you are His true disciples and you will know the truth and you are now free from your own efforts to live up to the law to justify yourself because there is a new way in which God is justifying you and that is through your faith in His only son Jesus Christ. Your faith in His word, not belief in your own efforts to behave yourself rather faith in the promise of eternal life and freedom proclaimed to you by God Himself.
Your heart no longer need be restless; it need no longer cling to whatever lover of God that comes along. You are free from idol worship; you are free from the search to find the truth. The truth is here and the truth is NOW! Jesus Christ is the truth He is God and He is standing right here with us today proclaiming to you through His called and your ordained preacher that you belong to Him!
You no longer have to look to Abraham and the covenant of the Old Testament to see what God expects of you, Jesus dies to end that old covenant and now there is a new one and that new covenant says there is no longer any law for you to live up to to be justified, or righteous before God. He has done it all, FOR YOU! IT IS FINISHED! IT IS DONE! SIN AND YOUR OLD FLESH ARE DEAD AND GONE FOREVER AND NOW YOU CAN SIMPLY REST YOUR RESTLESS HEART, MIND, AND CONSCIENCE IS THE PROMISE GIVEN TO YOU FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD HIMSELF!
“Truly, truly, I say to you everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever.” You have sinned and are a slave to sin. You cannot free yourself from the demands and the accusations of the law. You are in prison and it is a life sentence and the only way out is to receive a pardon from the governor. Your freedom comes not from your love of good nor your love of sinful things but through the proclamation from the one who has the authority to pardon you and set you free by simply speaking it into existence. The walls of you prison, death itself, can no longer hold you because they could not hold your Savior.
On this day we celebrate the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Here is what Luther was told by God Himself through His written word the Bible. Just in case you were wondering and were not for sure. JESUS CHRIST IS GOD! JESUS CHRIST DID EVERYTHING NECESSARY FRO YOU TO BE COUNTED AS RIGHTEOUS BEFORE GOD! JESUS CHRIST ROSE BODILY FROM THE DEAD! THE DISCIPLES DID SEE HIM IN THE FLESH AFTER HIS BURRIL! THIS MOST CETAINLY IS TRUE! THE BIBLE IS JESUS CHRIST THE VERY WORD OF GOD AND YOU DO NTO INTERPRET IT IT INTERPRETS YOU. IT SAYS THAT ON ACCOUNT OF YOUR BAPTISM CHRIST CLAIMING YOU AS HIS OWN YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN! THIS IS TRUE, THIS IS REAL! THIS IS WHAT I WOULD SACIRFICE MY LIFE FOR , THIS VERY PROCLIMATION. I WOULD STAND BEFORE DEATH ITSELF AND SAY, “I AM SCARED THIS IS TRUE BUT I WILL NOT DENY MY SAVIOR! NEVER! DO TO ME AS YOU WILL! BECAUSE IT IS THE ONLY TRUTH THAT I KNOW WITHOUT A DOBUBT. I AM NO DIFFERENT THEN THE DISCIPLES BEFORE ME! THEY KNEW IT JUST AS I KNOW IT AND THEY DECLARED IT TO ME AS I HAVE DECLARED IT TO YOU AND NOW YOU KNOW IT! AMEN AMEN AMEN AMEN!

Luke 18:9-24

2010-11-08T12:55:00.000-06:00

Me church; I don’t care who you are that’s funny.
In today’s gospel reading we see this attitude of” it’s all about me” in the prayer of the Pharisee. Bothe men have gone to the temple to pray therefore both men are seeking an encounter with the divine. But which man’s prayer is heard? A better question would be which man’s prayer is not turned inward upon himself?
Our gospel passage for today starts with the setting of the parable. “He (Jesus) also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.” No I know that there are no people in this congregation who think more highly of themselves than they should because most of you come here every weekend and hear me tell you that your works count for nothing. Are you tired of hearing that yet? But let’s still see if there is anything that we can learn from this man’s self righteous dissertation on himself.
The Pharisee , STANDING BY HIMSELF, prayed, God I thank you that I am not like OTHER MEN, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.” Standing by himself, this shows his utter love for himself separating himself from everyone else. God, thank you; is this really a prayer of thanks or is it an exhortation of himself. He seeks to demonstrate this exhortation by listing his good works. It is clear that this man thinks that he is righteous before God because of these works. But similar to moral of the parable of Unworthy Servant from a couple of weeks ago; when you do what is expected of you there is no reward. This man is clearly under the delusion that he can gain righteousness before God through his own actions. In other words his relationship with God is not a proper one because his relationship hinges upon the works he has done for God and not on trust in the grace that God has given him for his short comings.
In contrast we have the tax collector. You will remember that tax collectors were social outcasts as they were viewed as betrayers of their people. They were residents of their respective community who collected money for the Romans; most were crooked and collected more than what was required keeping the difference for themselves. Keep in mind in this time in history if you could not pay your taxes all of your possessions could be seized. Let me put that in perspective, women and children were considered as possessions. So your family could literally be sold into slavery for not paying your taxes. Do you see the kind of wretchedness that tax collectors represented? Consequently, for Jesus to use a tax collector as the one who was found righteous was scandalous indeed. But in chapter Luke 5:31-32 Jesus says, “31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” And in Luke 15:17 He says, “7 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.”
The tax collector has much different posture about himself than the Pharisee. “But the tax collector, STANDING FAR OFF, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but BEAT HIS BREAST saying, GOD, be merciful to me, a SINNER.” This is a true confession of a true sinner who has been afflicted by the law who realized that he was in desperate need of the grace of God. This prayer is not asking to be judged by the law. This man does not seek justice for if God gave him based upon justice then he would immediately be put to death and sent to hell on account of his sin. No1 this man seeks the gospel, he seeks grace and forgiveness; the tax collector’s pray is the type of prayer that brings celebration in heaven.
I realize that both prayers may seem inwardly focused however they are not. The Pharisee focuses his prayer on his works and the tax collector focuses his prayer on the work of God.
So, what does a parable about two Jewish men praying in the temple? Well let me break it down.
1. This parable shows us that through the law God is just. He doesn’t accept the prayer of the self righteous.
2. It shows us that through the true repentance of sin God is merciful.
3. It illustrates for us that God truly does desire mercy not sacrifice Jesus stated in Matthew 9 & 12 echoing the proclamation of the prophet Hosea.
4. It forces us to ask ourselves if we have the heart like the self righteous man or a heart like the humble broken sinner.
Today I will confess to you that I indeed have the heart of the humble broken sinner. You see it has been brought to my attention that I have failed to live up to the expectations of a few people in our congregation. I publically acknowledge that their expectations were both valid and reasonable and that the failure is totally and completely mine. I am learning each day what it means to be a follower of Christ just like the rest of you and there are times that I will fall short. I simply wanted to thank you for your patience with me thus far and ask for your forgiveness and mercy in the future. I am not trying to exude a false sense of humility here nor am I looking for affirmation. I have been wrestling night after night with how I could make it up to or how I should handle this situation. I am really tired of looking for solutions as it has been impossible for me to rest. While I was writing my sermon the answer to this dilemma came to me, I am not to try to fix it with righteous actions instead I am to simply ask for forgiveness and mercy and go on learning what I can from my mistakes and trying not to repeat them in the future.
Let us pray, Lord Jesus Christ, the mercy and grace of God has been shown to us through Your death and resurrection. Today Lord we acknowledge that you did in fact come to die for us so that we may have life and have it abundantly. An abundant life is one of the easy yoke, one free from worry, guilt, and anxiety. I humbly ask Lord Jesus that you send your Holy Spirit to each and each man, woman and child in this congregation with the purpose of the nurturing of faith. Faith in the promise that Your yoke is the easy on and faith in the promise of everlasting life given to each in their baptism and in the sacrament of The Lord’s Supper in which we are about to partake. I ask all of this in Your holy and precious name. Amen

Luke 17:11-17

2010-10-11T17:22:00.001-05:00

Where do we find a lesson that applies to us in today’s gospel reading? Leprosy isn’t exactly something we see on a daily biases. We do not have camps outside of town where these people are forced to live and we do not require them to cry out “UNCLEAN, UNCLEAN” if they come close to us. Do we no longer have lepers in our society or are we just better at hiding them and their disgrace?
As He entered the village he encountered 10 lepers who cried out, “Jesus, Master have mercy on us.” It is interesting that these men knew exactly who Jesus was. They were not just calling out to a passerby for alms rather they knew of Jesus and His power to heal and they desired Him to have mercy upon them.
The term they used to address Jesus here is the word “epistates” in Greek. It means teacher, master, or lord. They only other people in Luke’s gospel who use this Greek term fro Jesus are the disciples. Therefore this story is about discipleship.
They cried out in unison! These men were united in their sickness and suffering. The text doesn’t tell us right away that only one of them is a Samaritan. Because of the specific location of this story, as described in the opening lines of the passage, people who lived in this area were either Jews or Samaritans. So if one was identified as a Samaritan it would serve to reason that they others were not Samaritans. And if they were no Samaritans then they were in fact Jews. So the cultural divide between them had broken down due to their common affliction. There is no difference between a leprous Jew and a leprous Samaritan; they were simply lepers.
When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. In this time in history only the priests at the synagogue had the authority to proclaim a leper healed. This authority was given to them under the law.
Notice it says “as they went they were cleansed.” God’s grace is freely given, this most certainly is true, however it was in their response to Jesus command that they were healed. They could have just as well of laughed at Him knowing that there was no human cure for their disease, but then I venture to guess that their healing would not have come. So it was through their response in faith to do as Jesus commanded that their healing came to be.
Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16 and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. One of them praising with a loud voice, I imagine it was the same loud voice that he was using to praise God as the one he used to cry out for mercy. He returned to Jesus and fell on his face at Jesus’ feet. This man no longer had a use for the law to proclaim that he was healed. Rather he recognized that he had been healed by Jesus not his own righteousness and adherence to the law. What is also important her is the phrase “when he SAW.” When I was writing my sermon I was trying to deceiver the difference between the nine that did not return and the one that did. The one who returned SAW. What is it that Jesus says, Luke 10:23, “Then turning to the disciples he said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!” Seeing is a theme in this gospel. Seeing means that a person’s eyes have been opened to the reality of who Jesus really is, the seeing person has faith. This is confirmed when Christ says to the grateful man, “And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
What about the other nine? Where are they? Are they not grateful? Jesus asks about them he says were not 10 cleansed? Notice Jesus did not say healed rather he said cleansed. They were not only healed of their sickness they were cleansed of their sin. It was common in this time to believe that these men had this sickness because of some sin they had committed. There for their healing was proof of the forgiveness of that sin.
But where were they? My guess is that since they were Jews and they were now healed the cultural boundary between them and the Samaritan had returned. What’s more they sought to comply with the law and have themselves declared clean so that they could be restored to their righteous place in society. They were still looking to the law for their righteousness because they did not see as the Samaritan did that the cleansing came as a gift from the righteousness of Christ and not through the law.
Oh but there is more. This parable of the ten lepers comes directly after the parable of the unworthy servant form last week. Both are instructions in discipleship. For those of you who were here last week you will remember that the parable of the unworthy servant tells us that when we do as God has commanded us to do, not to expect any reward. For we are not gaining righteousness with God by abiding by His commands we are simply doing what is expected of us. SO what of the other nine lepers? Perhaps they knew all along that their disease was not from some sin that they had committed. Perhaps they thought that God owed them their healing. They were wrongfully stricken with this disease so justice demanded that they be healed. For those of you who were here last week, does God ever owe you anything or are his gifts and blessings pure grace?
Gratitude to Christ for the gift of faith and salvation is a sign of the proper response in faith. Gratitude and humility may be the purest measure of a person’s spiritual condition and faith. There are those who have been cleansed in this world who believe that God owed them. They claimed it and named it. The prospered because God promised them they would and He Owed it to them. They can unsin what is clearly called a sin in the Bible, after all God made them that way and he owes it to them, they deserve to be happy and indulge their sinful desires. I am telling you these people are the other nine these are people of a false gospel.
How does this story apply to us today? Jesus is still cleansing people every day; first and foremost at their baptism. Some respond in faith and gratitude some take the gift for granted and feel that it was owed to them by God.
In this story we are the lepers. We may have not been plagued with a physical element but I most certain that we are plagued with filthy minds and spirits. Well, at least I have. But Jesus cleansed me and for that I am eternally grateful and I will spend the rest of my days pointing to the grace and righteousness of Christ for my cleansing and salvation. Join me in pointing that finger where it belongs; pointing to the gospel and the righteousness of Christ for our justification. But looking to the law as a guide, as a task master if you will, one that tells us how we should live our lives in a way that honors God. Jesus said the law is summed up like this, love one another and I have loved you.
Let us pray, Lord Jesus Christ we are sorry that we have taken you gifts and blessings for granted and we humbly ask for Your forgiveness. Continue Father to remind us that we must continue to rely upon You alone for our ever breath. Continue to love and bless the devoted disciples seated before me this day, and continue to bless our congregation and may we always remember that we are blessed to be a blessing to your creation and that we are not blesses because You are in debt to us. We ask all of this in the precious name of You Son Jesus Christ Amen.

Luke 17:1-17

2010-10-04T11:42:00.000-05:00

Well, another demanding series of parables from The Gospel of Luke. There are actually four sermons here, the warning against causing a little one to fall, forgiveness of your brother and sister, faith as a mustard seed, and the servant and the master. However I will try not to preach four sermons today as I am currently a seminary student and have compassion for your back sides.
In today’s reading Jesus is specifically addressing the disciples and although it may seem that there are four sermons in this reading it is actually one teaching that falls into four parts; a teaching that is specifically for disciples of Jesus Christ; that would be all of you, so listen up.
The first of the four parts of today’s reading is a warning about causing another, a “little one” to sin. Little ones “mikros” in Greek meaning: 1) small, little 1a) of size: hence of stature, of length 1b) of space 1c) of age: less by birth, younger 1d) of time: short, brief, a little while, how little! 1e) of quantity: i.e. number, amount 1f) of rank or influence. Here Jesus is using “mikros” to mean “less of age,” in other words new believers. From micros comes our English prefix micro, although you might have already guessed that.
If you cause a “mikros” to stumble or “skandalon” in the Greek (where our English word scandal comes from) it would be better for you to have a millstone hung around your neck and cast into the sea. Well now any of you who think that God is only love I ask you this, “If God is only love what’s with this putting a four foot tall solid stone with a hole in the center around someone’s neck and throwing that person into the sea?” It’s because God is not only love, He is also wrath, as our Psalm speaks of today. God is only love when He comes to you masked in Jesus Christ; the unmasked or naked God is a God of wrath as a consequence for your sin.
“Skandalon,” means: 1) to put a stumbling block or impediment in the way, upon which another may trip and fall, metaph. to offend 1a) to entice to sin 1b) to cause a person to begin to distrust and desert one whom he ought to trust and obey 1b1) to cause to fall away 1b2) to be offended in one, i.e. to see in another what I disapprove of and what hinders me from acknowledging his authority 1b3) to cause one to judge unfavorably or unjustly of another 1c) since one who stumbles or whose foot gets entangled feels annoyed 1c1) to cause one displeasure at a thing 1c2) to make indignant 1c3) to be displeased, indignant.
How might one cause another to sin, to stumble, to cause a person to begin to distrust and desert one whom he ought to trust and obey? By false teaching possibly? By teaching that God is only love and that He is pleased with you on account of your good works? If God is only love and is pleased with you for your good works, then where does Jesus fit into the equation? By teaching that one earns their salvation, or any favor with God, through good works is denying Christ’s mission of the cross and encouraging one to turn away from the gospel (the message of Jesus Christ crucified For You!) to the law as the way to salvation. The law being the demands of God made upon His creation, St. Paul says in Romans 3:20, “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” NO ONE WILL BE JUSTIFIED IN HIS SIGHT THROUGH THE LAW. Through the law comes the knowledge that you are a sinner and in need of a Savior.
If you cause a little one to sin through false teaching, it is better to have a millstone around your neck and cast into the sea. This is a severe penalty indeed. A millstone was a round stone about 4” high. After the grain was separated from the chaff the grain was crushed or ground under these stones. The severity of this penalty is the intention of Jesus, to cause another to stumble is a very bad thing.
The second of the four parts in today’s reading is a teaching of forgiveness. If your brother or sister sins REBUKE THEM! That’s point out their sin and encourage them to turn away from it. That’s funny when we as Christians point out the sin of others what happens? We are called names and our integrity is questioned. “Well you’re just a homophobe, you’re so self-righteous, and who are you to rebuke me?” It’s interesting that Jesus uses the term brothers here and not neighbors. Jesus is saying that you should rebuke not unbelievers, rather fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. This is a commandment to be accountable to one another as believers in Christ. If someone claims to be a Christian but then acts in a way that is in contradiction to scripture you should rebuke them. Even if he is the called and ordained pastor, most likely that will be the biggest sinner in the church anyway. Trust me no one in our society likes to have the darkness of their sins brought into the light, so expect some negative response. However if they are truly a believer in Jesus Christ and see that you are obeying scripture then they will eventually come to you and ask for forgiveness. Jesus says you are to forgive them right then and there. When a person asks for your forgiveness the burden then transfers from them to ask to you to act; you are to forgive not judge if nor require them to prove that they are truly repentant just forgive.
The disciples response to these commands of, do not cause another to fall and to rebuke and forgive your brothers and sisters over and over, is a response of shear fear. Fear that they do not have the faith to do what Christ commands. “INCREASE OUR FAITH!” they cry out in desperation. Jesus tells them that if they had the faith of a mustard seed then they could, simply using only words, command a tree to be uprooted and planted in the sea. How many you believe that you have this kind of faith? I mean it’s a mustard seed the smallest of seeds; someone here must have that kind of faith. No takers huh. Well don’t look at me I’m the pastor the biggest sinner remember. Jesus is telling the disciples that they do not have that much faith either. What’s more faith is not something that they find within themselves rather it comes from an external source; more precisely from Jesus Christ. The very act of asking Christ for faith proves that faith is a gift from God and not something that we muster within ourselves.
Jesus tells them this in the form of the parable of the mustard seed so that they will not take the fact that they do actually have some faith and use it to puff themselves up and believe that they are more spiritual them anyone else.
Faith is not something to be measured nor is it to be used to perform magical sings or miraculous wonders. Faith is the element of God that is given to you through the preached word and the sacraments for the purpose of making you useful to the Lord to fulfill His purpose His plan here on earth.
Then we have the fourth lesson the parable of the master and his servant. This master must be a small farmer because he has only one servant who does both the field work and the housework. Jesus never tells us about the desires of the servant rather he tells us what has been commanded of him by his master. And here is the kicker, they servant works in the field all day and them comes in and serves the master supper before he himself get to eat and is not even thanked for his trouble. Why? Because he was only doing what was commanded or what was expected of him to do. God is saying I am the master I command you to do good works. But don’t you dare believe that you gain anything by doing them nor should you believe that I owe you anything for doing what is expected of you. God owes us nothing for our good works, therefore anything that we receive from Him in the form of a gift or blessing is purely given out of grace not obligation. Let me say it a little plainer, if you believe that God blesses you because of all of your good works then you believe that God is indebted to you for them. God owes you nothing and your best works count for nothing before this all powerful righteous God.
Is that hard to hear? That nothing you do pleases God. That’s because the human will doesn’t want an all powerful, almighty, righteous God. What’s more the human will doesn’t want to put the control of their salvation in the hands of a Savior; especially one who shines the light of truth on their sinful ways exposing their unrighteousness.
Well I believe that if I had an almighty God, I would simply profess that He was almighty then deny it in my mind by believing that there was something I could do to earn His favor. Then if He sent a Messiah to tell me that my works counted for nothing and that I had to believe in Him to be saved, well I guess I would sentence that Messiah to death and nail Him to a cross thus doing away with the offense of an almighty God forever. However if that God was almighty He would then raise that Messiah from the dead and then say, “There, in your face sinner, the offense still stands for I AM! I AM almighty indeed and there is nothing that you can do about it.” That story sound familiar.
Let’s sum it up: 1.Do not cause a weaker one to fall away through false teaching, 2. Rebuke your brothers and sisters in Christ when you see them in a state of sin and forgive them as often as they ask, 3. Exercise your faith through simple works for your neighbor, as is God’s will, not through miraculous signs and wonders. 4. When you do as your commanded don’t you dare believe that God owes you anything.
All of this week’s reading is law. It consists of commandments from God regarding how you ought to live in this world. The Law exists to 1. Regulate society and to 2. to make you aware that you are a sinner.
So now that you have been accused by the law and are sitting in the pew felling convicted and writhing with uncomforted as one who has ears to hear should be, let me now profess to you the gospel, You are forgiven and God is pleased With You on account of your belief in Christ. There now you can continue your Sunday knowing that you have been put to death and raised up. But remember this is a daily dying and rising.

Luke 16:19-31

2010-09-27T09:25:00.000-05:00

Is today’s gospel reading good or bad news? If you are a poor beggar with oozing sores you get into heaven and are comforted eternally. Well who wants to be a beggar with oozing sores? If you are a rich man you dine with the best foods and in the best conditions that this world can offer but you end up in eternal torment. Who wants to be in eternal torment? What are we as neither rich folks nor beggars to do with this parable?
Let’s break it down a little.
“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table.” The rich man wore purple and fine linens.” In the Roman culture only royalty wore purple. The dye for purple came from Egypt and was very expensive and fine linen was just as expansive and only worn by the extremely wealthy. He had gates in front of his house; hence he was very important and sought to keep out the riff raff like this poor beggar Lazarus.
In stark contrast we have Lazarus; a poor beggar, with oozing sores. YUK! Not a pretty picture. Who desired to be fed, χορτάζω,v \{khor-tad'-zo} 1) to feed with herbs, grass, hay, to fill, satisfy with food, to fatten 1a) of animals. Jesus is showing how lowly this man was by using the Greek word khor-tad-zo which is the word reserved to describe the feeding of animals. He was viewed as an animal. Not only that the dogs came and licked his sores. He is an animal among the dogs. Dogs were not pets in this time; rather they were viewed as scavengers, filthy animals that ate from the garbage. You see Lazarus desired to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. What fell from his table were not crumbs nor scraps but pieces of bread. Rich folks in that time used bread to wipe the grease from their fingers and from their plates and threw it on the ground knowing that the filthy dogs would eat it. Lazarus wasn’t even daring to dream of eating at the rich man’s table he just wanted to eat the dirty bread that fell from it; a very low self esteem indeed.
Lazarus, this is the only parable that Jesus tells us the name of the person in the parable. Lazarus is short for Eleazar which means “God helps.” We gather three pieces of information from the naming of the beggar. 1. God is going to help him and he does as the angels carry him to heaven to eternal comfort. 2. This is not simply a parable told to illustrate a point this event really happened, scary huh. 3. This man’s story will have something to do with the man Lazarus that Jesus raises from the dead.
The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abrahams’ side, literally bosom. This vision of Lazarus reclining on Abraham is a picture of the heavenly feast. Lazarus is receiving the eternal reward promised to Abraham and his offspring because of his and their faith in God; remember Abraham was counted righteous because God made him a promise and he believed God. And since Lazarus is reclining at the table with the host, Lazarus is the guest sitting in the seat of honor. Much like John was at the last supper.
The rich man dies, is buried, an honor that wasn’t given poor Lazarus, but the rich man goes to hell and is in eternal torment. The rich man sees this beggar in heaven, perhaps part of the torment, and calls out to Abraham, “Father.” He is playing the “I am your descendant” card by calling Abraham Father. “And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.” He seeks mercy when he was unwilling to give it himself. What’s more he knows Lazarus’ name. This shows that he knew Lazarus, so when Lazarus was at his gates begging back on earth the rich man intentionally ignored Lazarus and his needs, He INTENTIONALLY REFURSED TO EXTEND MERCY to Lazarus; the rich man didn’t just mistakenly over look him.
Oh but it gets better! Not only does he know Lazarus he expects Abraham to show mercy to him by having Lazarus serve him and administer to HIS needs. As Clarence Jordan is quoted, “Lazarus aint gonna run no mo’ yo’ errands, rich man!”
Abraham has no mercy for this false humility and is insulted that this man would ask for Lazarus to relieve his suffering after he never gave Lazarus as much as a greasy hand wipe on earth.
“But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.”
First Abraham calls the rich man child confirming that he is in fact one of Abraham’s descendants. Why is this significant? Not all of Abraham’s descendants get into heaven. It takes more than being born into the proper family to receive the rewards of the covenant God made with Abraham.
Abraham then goes on to explain that the rich man received his blessing, his reward on earth and he, like the prodigal son, and the dishonest manager from last weeks sermon, squandered this inheritance by using in only on themselves and for their comfort and ignored the needs of their neighbors; especially the one sitting right outside his gates. Lazarus was not blessed on earth so he receives his reward now.
The great chasm between the rich man and Abraham’s feast is impossible to cross. Once you are dead there is no second, third or fourth chance.
“And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house— 28 for I have five brothers —so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” Oh ho oh! The rich man now shows all of his cards. Send him to my father’s house, the rich man doesn’t really consider Abraham as his father his concern is still for what would benefit him on earth. And still seeks Lazarus to serve him and his family. Does this jerk just not get it?
“But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” Abraham is saying that salvation comes from faith in the proclaimed Word of God. Proclaimed by the prophets, Moses, and now the Word has been made flesh as Jesus Christ. And even is a man rises from the dead they will not believe. This is our allusion to the Lazarus that Jesus resurrects and to Christ Himself. Some just won’t believe and therefore will be condemned.
What does this mean for us? Should we be beggars with sores instead of seeking to live comfortably? All rich people go to hell? Not at all! God is saying that the promise of eternal life have been made to you. At your baptism you were given the faith that saves, but you must now preserver and not lose that faith by being generous to those who have less. By not being selfish and squandering your riches rather use them to help others in need. Abraham was a rich man and he didn’t go to hell, so that fact that the man in today’s story was rich was not what condemned him rather it was how he used his wealth or more to the point didn’t use it that condemned him.
Jesus is telling this parable to His disciples and the Pharisees. It is no different than last week; those who have here on earth aren’t necessarily blessed by God. The blessing comes from how they use their wealth.
So get your go going and go into the world, show mercy, love you neighbor, and use your worldly possessions for the benefit of others as well as yourself. Amen.

Luke 16:1-13

2010-09-23T13:43:00.001-05:00

So what do we do with the parable of the Dishonest Steward? Most of the commentaries I read on this parable said the same thing, “Do you think this parable is difficult, well you’re not the only one, good luck.” So much for modern day Christian scholarship.
We talked this morning in our Luther study about what makes a true theologian. Is a true theologian one of the cross or one of glory? A true theologian, according to Luther, is a theologian of the cross and is one that can distinguish between the law and the gospel. So let’s start there.
The Dishonest Steward has been given a job; manage the master’s business affairs. But he was not righteousness in his job therefore was wasting the master’s possessions. We are not told particularly how he was wasting them but he was wasting them none the less. I would imagine that if he was employed he had certain rules to follow and certain things were expected of him. Therefore his wasting of the master’s possessions was breaking those rules and expectations thus he was breaking the law. Thus this is the law part in this passage.
Being caught in his trespasses he was subjected to the consequences of his actions. He was to be fired. Break the law suffer the consequences.
What is unusual about this parable is that when a sinner is confronted with their sin that sinner, the Dishonest Steward, does not repent and receive the gospel. Rather he delves deeper into sin by stealing more form the master by erasing the interest due on the debts owed his master. Seeing that this servant was shrewd in his dealings, in other words he was creative in saving his own neck, the master decided that a man who knows how to manipulate the people for his own gain and thus profit from it is just the kind of man that he wants running his business. For this man is shameless in his dealings and will do anything for a profit.
“The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.” Who are the sons of this world? The master in this parable is the devil and the Dishonest Steward is a human who has fallen under his influence. The influence the master has on the Dishonest Steward is the love of money and personal security. You see when the Dishonest Steward proved that he truly loved money and not mercy, for if he desired mercy he would have begged the master for it but instead he went on in his sin trying to keep this sense of security. Jesus tells us that satan and those under his influence, the sons of this world, are tricky in their dealing with us. It may seem that they are doing something kind for us but in the end their actions are self serving. They are dishonest with little therefore they will be dishonest with a lot.
Who are the sons of light then? The sons of light are the ones who have heard the gospel and repented of their ways; the ones who have chosen God over money and things of this world. The sons of light have been trusted with little and have done well therefore they are now trusted with much. Here in lies the gospel of today’s parable.
You have a choice to make. Serve God or serve money. Are you here in this planet to accumulate as much wealth and possessions as possible? Or are you here to serve God by loving and serving your neighbor?
“And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.” To be a honest steward is to use your unrighteous wealth, money and possessions, to gain friends so when your money and possessions fail you, when you die and they can no longer serve you, you will be received in to eternal life.
It is not bad to have money and possessions, as long as you use them to love and serve others and do not elevate them over God.
You cannot serve both God and money. Where are your priorities during the week? Where are your priorities on the weekends? During the week are you working for a paycheck to use to party on the weekends? Or during the week are you serving your neighbor through you God ordained profession with the result of a paycheck that allows you to provide for your family and your neighbors? Are you spending Sunday morning loving and serving your neighbors in your vocation or are you elevating work over church because you need the money. Are you at church if you are not working so that you may hear the gospel proclaimed thus building within you salific faith making you more useful for your family and friends? Or are you choosing the lure of money or self serving activities.
Are you serving God or money?
The gospel message in today’s reading is that you have a choice; there is hope, you do not have to be a slave to the devil and the things of this world. If you have been baptized then you are claimed by Christ, you are His. You are free to either squander that freedom or serve him and be rewarded with eternal life. If you have not been baptized then see me soon! We can baptize you anytime day or night. All we need is water, the Word and two witnesses.
You have been called by Christ to love and serve your family and neighbors with all of the resources at your disposal. Money, time, talent, love, kindness, selfless giving the list goes on. If you want to be free, truly free then turn away from the worship of things in this world that are finite and worship Christ who is eternal.

Julius Diers Funeral Sermon

2010-09-23T13:42:00.001-05:00

Joshua 4:1-7 (ESV)
4:1 When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, 2 “Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man, 3 and command them, saying, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests' feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.’” 4 Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe. 5 And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, 6 that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ 7 then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.”

One evening when Julius was in the hospital I had the opportunity to visit with him just the two of us. As I had been taught in Pastoral Class this was the time for the preacher to ask the difficult questions.
You see one of the most rewarding times for a minister to proclaim the gospel to an afflicted soul is when they are near death. This is when they are listening, really listening. They have despaired of their own ability and are searching for comfort. Most of the world doesn’t know where to look for comfort so they look in many different places all of which leave them empty and still waiting for the comfort they seek. The only place to find comfort in this world is the Christian Church. And which church, you might ask, is the true Christian Church? The true Christian Church is wherever sins are being forgiven in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now God is omnipresent (present everywhere) so what is the difference between where sins are being forgiven and other places? Well my friends it the difference between God naked and God clothed. The naked God, God not clothed in Jesus Christ, is a God of wrath and is a God present yes but not present FOR YOU! As a matter of fact it is God present against you; this is the God of law, the God that seeks to shine the light of truth on your sins. In contrast God present clothed in Jesus Christ, hence forgiving sins: in confession, preaching, worship and in the sacraments is God FOR YOU! This is a God of grace, a God of love, a God who seeks to reconcile His beloved creation onto Himself at whatever cost. This is the God of the gospel. The God clothed in Jesus Christ, the God FOR YOU, is the God that the minister brings to an afflicted soul when they are near death. Please do not mishear me, I did not say that this is the God that a called and ordained minister of the church brings to an afflicted soul when they are near death; I said this is what a minister brings. You all ARE the ministers I speak of. Yes, for the sake of order, in most cases this task is performed by a called and ordained minister however ordination is not what qualifies you for this task. Baptism and a profession of faith in response to that baptism is what qualifies you for this task. You are the priesthood of all believers! You are qualified to proclaim the gospel!
Anyway back to my story. This was the time to ask the difficult questions. So I asked, “Julius, are you afraid to die?” Then waited for what I believed would be a positive affirmation of his fear thus I was standing ready to proclaim to him that on account of his baptism and his repentance his sins were forgiven. But, he sent me spinning. Seminary does not prepare you for the answer that Julius gave. He looked at me and said, “Pastor, the good Lord will take me when He is good and ready.” I was speechless. Which, for any of you who know me, know that this was a rare occasion.
You see in this world the rebellious human nature is always seeking better words from God. The human will asks, “Could it really be that salvation is found in a first century peasant whom claimed to be God incarnate, and was thus crucified outside the walls of Jerusalem, the promised city, next to the sewer of the city in which unclean rotting animal carcasses were thrown?” “Surely not!” they say. “God must be holding back the good stuff from us. His very best must be hidden behind this man Jesus Christ whom John proclaims as the very Word of God in the flesh.” They then seek to get a peek at God in the nude; the naked God. And we have already discussed the result of that sad story.
But not Julius Diers! Julius took God at His word. In 1916, at First Lutheran Church, Jesus Christ claimed Julius as His own at his baptism. That Day Christ promised Julius that he would someday be with His Savior in the promise land, in paradise for eternity. Our reading from Joshua toady is a prelude to that promise. This reading describes Joshua leading the nation of Israel in to the land promised to Abraham and his offspring. Land on this earth was the promise to Abraham the promise of the old covenant. But Christ fulfilled that covenant, the covenant of the law, by his death on the cross and through His resurrection from the dead establishing the new covenant, the covenant of the gospel; the promise of eternal life for all who believe both gentile and Jew.
Julius Diers was a man of His word! When he gave his word he meant it and he did whatever it took to keep it! Julius understood the integrity of keeping one’s word, of keeping a promise. For goodness sake he promised to love Margret until the day he died! A littler thing like her death did get in the way this man of his word from keeping his promise. He was love sick for his bride 13 years after her death. He was love sick for his bride whom he toady has been reunited with for eternity.
Julius also knew how to keep the golden rule. Do on to others as you would have done to you! He taught his children that if you just follow God’s Word, you will never go wrong. He embodied scripture in his love and service to his neighbors.
Jesus made Julius a promise and he knew that if he, being a fallen rebellious human knew how to keep his word, how much more would the creator of the universe keep His. He was not scared to die; he was not scared because he knew whom he was going to meet face to face; his beloved Savior Jesus Christ and his bride who went before him.
In ancient Israel outside the city walls were rocks raised up on end. Each time God did something miraculous for His people they would set a stone on end to reminded them of the event. Jacob did it with a stone when he had the vision of the ladder to heaven with angels ascending and descending upon it. Today’s reading form Joshua is no different. You see this was an oral culture they didn’t write things down as very few people we literate. It wasn’t until the Babylonian exile that things were written down; when the fear of losing their oral stories their traditions hung in the balance. Before that time they raised up stones. When strangers to the cities came by they would ask what is with the stone, the people would then remember and tell the story of what God had done for them.
In a little while we are going to the cemetery where there is already a stone raised in memory of Julius. This stone means something. It isn’t there to remind us where he is buried; rather it stands to remind us of his life. Each time from now until the end of your days when you pass that cemetery, even if you cannot see the stone from the road, know that it is there and remember what God did for you, what God taught you, through his humble and beloved servant Julius Diers. Amen

Luke 15:1-10 09/12/2010 Word of Life

2010-09-11T22:40:00.000-05:00

Nelson, you have a cow or two don’t you? Tell me would it be a wise business decieion to risk the safety of 99 of them to save one? Mary Lou, you are pretty good at budgeting money correct? Tell me would you turn all the lights on, sweep the floor, and clean your entire house if you lost a penny in an effort to find it? Most likely not. Well then what is the passage of scripture telling us today? Is it telling us that we should make poor business decisions and waste time looking for something that isn’t worth wasting time looking for? This is a trap that we can all fall into; the trap of believing that Jesus is only an example and that we should literally follow everything her says or demonstrates in his parables. You see Jesus hides the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven in parables so that those who do not have ears to hear do not hear. Jesus is not saying that if you are a shepherd you should risk the safety of 99 sheep for one, nor is he saying that you should spend precious time searching for a coin that is practically worthless. What he is doing is explaining the Kingdom of Heaven in terms of the kingdom of this world.
Luther believed that there are two kingdoms; the kingdom on the left, the kingdom of this world and the kingdom on the right, the Kingdom of Heaven. After a called and chosen Christian is baptized they have one foot in the kingdom on the left and one foot in the kingdom on the right; a dual citizenship if you will both sinner in the kingdom on the left and saint, a new creation in the Kingdom on the right.
Because a called and chosen Christian’s comprehension of the Kingdom of Heaven is limited Jesus uses images from the kingdom on the left to explain how things work in the Kingdom on the Right. So the question is not, “What would Jesus do?” Rather it is, “What is Chris telling us about the Kingdom of heaven in this parable?” If Jesus came to be an example for us to follow then we are saved through the works of the law that imitate His righteousness. This is simply not true. We are saved by faith in the risen Christ.
So, in today’s reading Jesus is not setting up a business plan nor is he telling you who you should spend you spare time rather he is saying that when it comes to the Kingdom of Heaven no lost sheep is left unfound and no matter how small the worth of a coin it is precious to God and worth finding, in fact when either is recovered not only God but the entire citizenship of Heaven rejoices and celebrates.
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.” The Pharisees and the scribes grumbled. They “dee-ag-ong-good'-zo.” deagongoodzo is Greek for: 1. to murmur 1a) either of a whole crowd, or among one another 1b) always used of many indignantly complaining. Luke uses this term to describe the actions of the Pharisees and the scribes many times in His gospel. There is a certain lack of integrity in grumbling. You see they want to discredit Jesus and His actions but they are not bold enough to speak loud enough from Him to hear.
Notice in both of Jesus’ parables today that God is the seeker. God is the shepherd. Shepherds were the outcasts of society the undesirables who roamed the prairies away from others for months at a time. God is also the woman, who apparently lives alone because she has no one to ask to help her search. And when she finds the coin she asks her neighbors, her “ghi'-tone” to come and celebrate with her. Ghi-tone is in the feminine gender here so she asks her female neighbors to come and celebrate with her. This woman does not have a husband if she did she would have invited her neighbor couples to come and celebrate with her. So God is the woman single frail, in this cultural context. But either way God is the protagonist in this story and He searches for the lost. He finds the lost and He brings them back. The coin and the sheep are both in the passive voice in Greek in these parables. They are completely passive to the seeker and the finder. God chooses God elects.
In His introduction to His commentary on the book of Galatians Vol. 26 of Luther’s works if you are interested, Luther explains the difference between active and passive righteousness. In the work of salvation the sinner, the elect, the chosen child of God is completely passive. And since God chooses you to bestow salific faith upon by the power of the Holy Spirit you are counted as righteous; righteous through faith, righteous through a faith that is given not found nor chosen. However after salific faith has been given the sinner is now free to and desires to adhere to God’s law. How well they adhere to God’s law is active righteousness. Active righteousness is for service to the neighbor it cannot save, but a broken sinner is saved by passive righteousness.
Let me ask you this, who celebrates with all of their neighbors when they find a lost animal? Who celebrates when they find a penny? I would be that the answer is few to none. These are everyday activities and do not warrant such a celebration. But when on sinner is given salific faith and they repent of their sins the entire host of angels and the entire citizenry of heaven rejoices.
These are interesting parables. You see most parables call for a sinner to repent of their sins, to see the wrongness of their actions. This parable is spoken to the Pharisees and the scribes. They don nto call for the repentance of the sinner rather they show that the sinner is completely passive in the action of salvation. So what is the message for us who have been baptized and chosen for the kingdom? Christ has already found us, how does this parable apply to us? We are not Pharisees or scribes are we? Well maybe. You see the Pharisees and the scribes are grumbling about Jesus eating with sinners. Sinners whom he has chosen to dine with. Sinners who He has chosen to preach to. And yet the religious leaders grumble about it. Do you know the next parable that Jesus tells in the Gospel of Luke? It’s the parable of the Prodigal Son. Which character in today’s reading are the Pharisees and the scribes acting like? Perhaps the son who stayed and did not wander. The one who was angry because the Father threw a celebration for a son who repented and did not deserve grace. Today’s reading is a warning to us to not be like the Pharisees and the scribes to not be like the older son who was jealous of the younger; it is a warning that you are God’s chosen, and therefore you must celebrate when God has mercy on one who does not deserve mercy. For instance is a MIUer came in here right now and confessed that he or she have received the salific faith given by the Holy Spirit you are not to scoff and say well I have been a Christina for xxxx years they are not as favored in the Lords eyes as I am. Or they do not deserve the grace of God. For if you deny the grace of God to the undeserving then you are not welcome by the grace of God at the feast.
We at Word of Life Lutheran Church exist to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ through love and service to our neighbors. We are not to be selective of who we serve and we are not to ask if they deserve it. Yes we will in some instances be taken advantage of. But whether it is fair or not, whether the person deserves it or not, is not up to us we are commanded to serve and let Jesus judge the heart of the person.

Luke 14:25-33

2010-09-07T10:21:00.002-05:00

Hate? Jesus do you really want us to hate our fathers, mothers, wife, children, sisters and brothers? “Miseo,” is the Greek word used here; if you do not “miseo” your family you cannot be my dieciple. Miseo is a Greek term that has many deep meanings, used here in the 3rd person, present tense, indicative mood, singular and active voice, didn’t know one word could have so many categories did you, well that is Greek for ya, it means: to be disinclined to, disfavor, disregard. So Jesus isn’t saying that one should hate their family, to do that would be to break the fourth commandment of honoring your father and mother. No, Jesus is saying I am first; your spouse or parents if you are unmarried are second, your children, if you have any, are third and so on. Jesus is calling you to put Him first.
Since Jesus is commanding something here we call this part of today’s text the law and remember Luther believed that the law has two functions or uses; Luther’s first use of the law declares that the law exists first and for most to regulate society. But in today’ passage Jesus is using the law in Luther’s second use which comes from Romans 3:20 which states:
“For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”
The second use of the law is to afflict the consciences of poor wretched sinners’ by making them aware that they are, in fact, poor wretched sinners therefore unable to live up to the law. Why would Jesus command something from us that He knows that we cannot perform to God’s satisfaction? For the purpose of putting to death our flesh and there by drive us to the realization that we are all in need of a Savior. Luther is quoted as saying, "It is certain that man must utterly despair of his own ability before he is prepared to receive the grace of Christ."
This is how law and gospel function in our lives. The law is constantly driving the human soul to the gospel by the afflicting of the human flesh, by requiring of that flesh what it is both unwilling and completely unable to do. This is the tension that we live in; the tension between saint and sinner. The good Rev. Dr. Sundberg told us yesterday, “You cannot have the gospel without law and you cannot have a God of love without a God of wrath.” He taught me that form Luther’s commentary on the Psalms.
“Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” Again bear your cross, something that we have the neither ability nor the desire to do. So how does this get done in the life of a disciple of Christ? Through Baptism by the power of the Holy Spirit.
In baptism the washing by means of water is not only a symbol of the washing away of our sins, it is also a symbol of our drowning. In baptism we are buried with Him in His death and then raised with Him in His resurrection. At baptism your sinful flesh is put to death and is therefore dead indeed. In your baptism you become raised as a new creation with Christ for eternity. You see your eternal life doesn’t start at your physical death, NO; it starts at your baptism. If you have been baptized you are new creatures, right now, living eternally. However even though your flesh is dead spiritually it is still functioning right here on earth for one purpose, to love and serve your neighbor thus calling God’s elect on to Him. And since you are both new creation and dyeing flesh you need both law and gospel.
Our lives, after baptism, are just one long drawn out crucifixion. Jesus is saying that if you are baptized into the faith and you respond to that baptism by seeking to follow the law all the while knowing that you cannot and are therefore in need of a Savior thus are saved by faith; then you are Christ’s disciple and you are being put to the cross to die daily and you are resurrected to new life daily by the power of the Holy Spirit. Those who are in the Spirit are in Christ. Luther said a Christian life is a life of constant repentance.
“For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost?” I have heard sermon after sermon on this passage that encourages people to actually sit down and figure out the cost of following Christ. How misguided is that. How do you think that I would have responded to Jesus if he would of came to me over 5 years ago and said, “you know Jamie I know that you live in a new home and make good money but I want you to follow me so you are going to lose everything even the house, be poor go back to school for 5 years all the while living on food stamps and the generosity of my body. Then I am going to send you to Southeastern Iowa to a small town where you will completely fall in love with the people and do mission.” And still remain financially dependent upon food stamps and the generosity of My body.” Do you honestly think I would have sat down and figured the cost of following Christ and then, in the lust for money and power said Okay doky JC let’s do it. ABSURD! Jesus doesn’t fully fill you in on the full cost of following Him so you can then make an informed choice. So much for decision theology. This parable about the builder counting the cost is a parable of Christ mission to the cross, FOR YOU!
Jesus is the wise builder who sat down and figured the cost of building His new kingdom by dyeing on the cross for the forgiveness of sins then being raise from the dead thus ending the old covenant and establishing a new one. Jesus is the wise builder, the wise king!! Not you and your decision. If it is up to Jesus’ finished work on the cross and then your decision to follow Him then salvation is Jesus plus! Jesus plus your decision. Then if that is the case you can sit around a try to determine if it is 90% Jesus and 10% you or is it 80% Jesus and 20% you? I will bet my life that it is 100% Jesus and 0% me! And I will find comfort in that reality.
The Holy Spirit engulfs us after our baptism both putting to death our flesh and nurturing and raising our soul to new life. For God’s purpose! Not you benefit! Because God chose you. If it has to do with you and your choice then it isn’t about Jesus. You can’t have both complete despair at the crushing accusation of the law and free choice. It just doesn’t work that way.
So where the gospel message in today’s reading? It is in the fact that Jesus has counted the cost and paid the price, built the tower calculated the war, and He is perfect and has not left the most important decision, the decision to follow Him, up to selfish, rebellious, and sinful human will. It too important of a decision for that.
You are sitting in front of a called and now ordained preacher sent to you for the purpose of declaring to you that you are Christ’s chosen and you can’t screw that up. Here is the gospel promise, here is the message today that will raise you up to new life, here is the proclamation that will give you salific faith.!!! Are you ready? Are you listening? Christ died and rose from the dead so that those whom He foreknew and predestined would have eternal life with Him. You are those foreknown and predestined. How do I know? You have been baptized and now sit in front of a true preacher, one who points to Christ alone for salvation, in response to the calling of Christ bestowed upon you at baptism. You are saved, Christ has chosen you and He sent me here to tell you so. AMEN.

Sermon to Word of Life 08/29/10 Luke 14: 1, 7-10

2010-08-29T18:42:00.002-05:00

I spent numerous hours pouring myself out over this reading from Luke entitled, “The Parable of the Wedding Banquet.” All of the commentaries I read talked about the social norms of the seat of honor and the hierarchy of the seating assignments given at a traditional Jewish wedding feast. Then they talked about being humble in life and out of your humbleness you will receive your reward in heaven. Well that all seemed like contextual and historical criticism and a lot of works righteousness to me. I could not stop thinking that there was more going on here than historical Jewish edict and a lesson of false humility put forth for the sake of a reward thus earning a prized place in heaven.
I believe that the idea of earning a place in heaven has been referred to as ladder theology. In ladder theology you spend your life climbing up the ladder of good works to God. How did that work for the folks who tried to build the Tower of Babel? Oh yeah! God came down and squashed their best efforts like it was an ant hill on a sidewalk.
Now don’t just take my word for it, you can strive to earn you righteousness by climbing that ladder. Just know that we do not climb up to God rather Jesus comes down to us. And if you try to climb up to Him you will be knocked on your keester by Jesus in His decent to give to you what you do not have the power, the ability, nor the skill to obtain; eternal righteousness, it is a free gift! It is not earned.
Well call me captain oblivious, but this parable is about a wedding banquet and our Hebrews reading for today encourages us to hold marriage in honor and not to defile the marriage bed. Oh! MARRIAGE! This parable is about MARRIAGE. DUH!
I have said it before that Christ is to the Church as a man is to his wife. It is not a mistake that in the Bible Jesus is referred to as the Bridegroom and the Church is called the bride of Christ. So the lesson of humility in today’s parable, “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. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Is not how you earn a better place at the table of the Lord in Heaven (although that might be true) it is telling us to be humble and seek the lowest position in our marriages so that our marriages may be exalted. Imagine if both spouses sought nothing else but to love and serve their beloveds. What would that look like?
However this is not the reality of Christian marriage in our world today. One in two Christian marriages, in our country, end in divorce; that’s 50%! Our society is one of self seeking, self serving, and indulgence of the sinful nature.
It’s not fair, I give them everything and I get nothing! It’s not fair I never get ME time! It’s not fair I deserve to have fun with my friends! That is a load of festering boils, oozing puss all over a pile of fresh hog crap! It is a lie out of the pit of Hell and a cry of the sinful nature to be gluttonous. Where in the marriage vows does it say that we are entitled to ME time? Where does it say that we are entitled to party with our friends? Those are self indulgent lies coming from the mouth of the great deceiver.
When we are joined in the union of marriage to our spouse our lives cease to be our own and they become one with the other. Married people have no business at a party or in a bar without their spouse. You are just asking for T-R-O-U-B-L-E! If you feel that the spark is gone in your marriage, or that things have become mundane, then get into prayer and the Word of God! Turn to your Savior to give you the strength to carry on in the vows that YOU took before Almighty God and your family and friends!
Adultery: is not just always a physical act. Adultery is any time one spouse gives to a member of the opposite sex what belongs to their souse. For instance if you are a woman and you turn to another man for comfort, support, or encouragement (other than your minister of course) no matter how innocent, then you are committing adultery. If you are a man and you turn to a woman other than your spouse in a lustful way to fulfill your ego, no matter how innocent, its adultery. I didn’t make these rules up people they are right here in the Word of God!
I am angry this morning folks. I have too much time talking with men whose wives have abandoned any hope of staying marriage. I have spent too much time watching as the sacred office of marriage is attacked and destroyed by satan and the sinful flesh. I can’t help you in your marriage when I want to save it far more than either of you
Thank God that there are couples in our congregation who are sold out to their spouses. I am begging you who know that you are still in love with your spouse to make yourselves available to those in this congregation who are fighting to keep their love alive.
When you honor your spouse in this way you are honoring Christ for the office of marriage is a peek into the intense intimacy that is to come with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the next life. If we do not fight RIGHT NOW for the sanctity and honor of the office of marriage then our faith in Christ will be close behind. Abandon the sacred office of marriage for the indulgence of the self and your love of the Savior will diminish as well.
God hates divorce! The Bible says so over and over and over. Do you think that it’s because it breaks His law? Well that is part of it but hate in Hebrew is stronger than just dislike. It is despised it puts a stench in the nostrils of God that is comparable to a pile of boils oozing pussing, well you get the idea. When we divorce the image of the relationship of the Savior to His Church is defiled, defamed, and degraded. This is why God hates divorce.
But keep in mind God hates divorce not divorced people. Divorce is sin divorced people are God’s beloved creation swirling is a pool of pain, agony, and personal distress. In the midst of our pain, yes even in the midst of divorce our Savior seeks us. But I beg you those whose marriages are in trouble. Talk about it with another couple; a couple who perhaps has been where you are. If you do not talk about it or seek to hide or deny it you are fueling the lie and giving your marriage over to satan.
So toady I stand before you my beloved congregation who has called, supported, and provide for Zanny and I and all of our needs. Join me this week in deep and heartfelt prayer for the office of marriage in our world, our country, our state, and yes even our congregation. Prayer and the Word of God heals, I am more than convinced.

Sermon to Word of Life 08/22/10 Luke 13:22-30

2010-08-27T19:19:00.001-05:00

Jane, “Do a lot of people like what they hear here on Sunday?” That is kind of a self serving question isn’t it? But it is one that is not too uncomfortable to ask or answer. For instance I am not asking Jane her sole opinion rather I am asking her impression of the larger group’s opinion. And I am not asking Jane if she likes my preaching, nor if the congregation likes my preaching, I am just asking in general do they like what they hear which may be music, scripture, preaching etc... However this question is not really what I am asking Jane is it? The question behind what I am really asking Jane is, “Do you like me?” Now that question is not as safe. It asks for a specific answer about a specific person. The answer to the real question being asked can either uplift and give hope or tear down and bring about despair. In our society we don’t always ask the questions that we intend to ask. This happens today in our gospel reading.
“Lord will those who are saved be few?” On the surface this seems like a great question. It is the desperate question; nay the desperate cry of a sinner looking for reassurance that there will be many called and saved thereby upping their chances of being included in that number.
Nevertheless, as with many questions asked in our society today, this question isn’t the real question. There is a question that is behind this one. The true question that the unidentified person is asking here is, “Will I be among those who are saved?” This question is the crux or the core of the matter. But this question is a scary one. “Will I be among the saved?” Wow, the answer to that question can only go one of two ways, and one of those ways I’m not for sure I would want to hear; What if the answer to this question was no! Talk about taking the wind out of your sails. No, no that question is too tough of one to ask, it may take away all hope. So instead the person asks Christ if it will be many who are saved. The answer to this question is not so definite and doesn’t put one’s personal eternity on the line.
Jesus answers, knowing the real question behind the smoke screen, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” That doesn’t quite get at it but it leaves hope and yet still leaves room for doubt. I think Zanny took lessons from Jesus. I will ask her, “Are you mad at me?” And she will answer, “Not really.” Well which is it?!!!!
“Strive to enter through the narrow door.” What is the narrow door? I asked myself this and assumed all week that it was Jesus. But now I am not for sure. If there is a narrow door this logically leaves the possibility of a wide door. Otherwise Jesus would have said strive to enter through the only door. Jesus says to strive to enter through the narrow door. I believe that Jesus is telling us to strive to enter through the door of the law. He is commanding works of the law from those who seek to follow Him. We are free from the law yes, but that is not a license to be a jerk. Jesus is saying you are now free from the law but you are also now free to abide by it. The freedom of a Christian is not freedom from something as much as it is freedom to do something. You see good works or works of the law come from a saved person not the other way around. Therefore if you are striving to enter through the door of the law then you are among the chosen because your works are coming from a heart of faith.
“When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.” When the master has risen; “eg i ro” in Greek; literally meaning: 1) to arouse, cause to rise 1a) to arouse from sleep, to awake 1b) to arouse from the sleep of death, to recall the dead to life. “egiro” is the same Greek word use in Luke 24:6, “He is not here, but has risen.” Jesus is not the narrow door Jesus is the Master who when he rises from the dead will close the door. Jesus, when He rose from the dead, shut the narrow door of the law. And when you knock on the door of the law He will say to you, “I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!” As I said last week the judgment has been rendered we are all guilty of breaking God’s law and have been sentenced to death for our sins. And through the door of the law no one gets in. “And for those there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth;” Luther said that a true theologian of the cross calls a thing what it is, so let’s call this what it is HELL!
Yes Virginia there is a Hell for those who believe they can enter the Kingdom of Heaven through the door of the law and not through faith in Christ. It is not an imaginary place made up by early Christians who were too into Greek mythology. Hell is real and it exists for those who are cast out of the Kingdom for their unbelief.
“And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” Who is first on earth? Those who are accepting of all beliefs? Those who live and let live? Those who say well there are many ways to God, Jesus is just one of them? These are the ones that Jesus tells us will come and say, “We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.” Universalism and antinomianism have become a plague in the main line denominations for too long. Universalism is the attitude that whatever you believe you will be saved. Diane Eck popular Methodist author of the book, “Encountering God” is quoted as saying, “Jesus Christ is no more important than any Hindu avatar.” Antinomianism represents an extreme idea, wherein adherence to the Mosaic Law is considered inessential in the Christian lifestyle. Did you hear that? Allow me to repeat, antinomianism is the idea that as a Christian you do not have to and are not expected to adhere to the law. Does this sound familiar? It should its one of the heresies that Luther railed against. Oh wait you all are no Lutheran historians are you? So how does it sound familiar to you? Are you telling me that today in this day and age there are Christians who believe that the law has passed for those of us on earth and we are now free to go “willy nilly” into sin because we are saved regardless? But I say Jesus told you that you are still to strive to enter through the narrow door even if it is not possible. And St. Paul said in Romans that the gospel is not a license to sin. I think you are in agreement with me that homosexual marriage, homosexual ordination, and sex between two committed unmarried people is a product of this heresy. But you see those who follow this heresy will tell you that history is nothing and the authority of scripture is nothing because we are now “enlightened” and more educated than those silly Bible people. So we need to read the bible and history through the lens of our own conscience because we now know more. You mean through the lens of a fallen, broken rebellious to God conscience? Well I will have none of that thank you very much! And the very fact that you folks are sitting before me right now is proof that you won’t either.
We should and will continue to love and pray for our antinomianism neighbor, our Muslim neighbor, our homosexual neighbor, and yes even our Universalists neighbor. But we are absolutely not to condone their behavior and give them a pass as if their view is just as faithful.
Gabby is my three year old and I love her dearly. But if I saw her playing with razors I would take them away from her, even if it meant that she might be unhappy with me, even if it meant her saying and she has, “Daddy you hate me, your mean and I hate you.” Even then out of love, true love I would openly forbid her to continue in her harmful practices. Who is more loving to their neighbor; one who will let them persist in their sin on to their own damnation or the one who will, even at the risk of persecution, say, “No! I love you but what you’re doing is wrong and I will not condone it nor allow it.” Who is the one who truly love their neighbor?
I say the one who truly loves their neighbor is the one who will be viewed by society as last; as unenlightened, as an adherent to an ancient book in an ancient tradition that no longer applies today.
Jesus says that the last on earth will be first and will recline with Him at the table of the feast of the Kingdom of heaven. This is our gospel promise today. Even if your convictions make you last one earth you will still dine with the King in heaven. Because of your faith and trust in Christ.
Don’t miss hear me, Jesus is the only way to heaven and only through faith in him might one be saved. But in today’s reading the narrow door is the door of the law which we are now free to and asked by Christ to strive to enter for the good of our neighbor. And in today’s reading Jesus is not the narrow gate rather he is the master who will shut the door on those who seek to do good in the eyes of the world, and let in those who have faith in Christ and stand on their convictions for the sake of the gospel and as a example for their neighbor.
Fear not little flock , it isn’t easy but its faithful.

Luke 12:49-53 Delivered to Word of life Lutheran Church 08/15/2010

2010-08-14T18:48:00.000-05:00

I was reading an atheist website this week that was commenting on this passage in Luke. The atheist said, “Well, if that is Jesus’ attitude then I don’t want to have any part of Him.”
“I have come to cast fire on the earth, and would that it already kindled!” In this sentence in Greek the wording of this passage would be literally, “Fire I came to cast on the earth!” By putting the word “poor” or fire first in the sentence shows the level of intensity that Jesus intended in this verse. I guess if I were an atheist and heard a passage like this I wouldn’t be interested either. But what if I was an atheist and saw Jesus bringing fire upon the earth? Well I guess, as my seminary professor good Rev. Dr. Sundberg says, I hope that I was wearing brown trousers.
What on earth is this passage all about? What about a God of love a God of peace? This passage is quite contrary to that image. Dennis, you have seven kids, you’re a love machine right? I mean you are a loving father. Did you ever get angry at any of your children? Let me ask them, Liz, have you ever seen you father anger? Did he ever inflict any kind of judgment or punishment on you? Well Dennis as a loving father, you are not limited to the emotion of tender, gentle, make peace not war kinds of emotion are you? Well if you being human are not limited to one nature the how can we possibly limit an eternal being like God to one nature? God is love but He is not only love.
Jesus says I have come to cast fire in the earth. Let’s consider this verse in light of the entire Bible not just one line. Where else in the bible to we hear about fire? How about in Exodus? Did God not lead the Israelites through the desert as a pillar of fire? And what about sacrifices made to God in the OT? Weren’t most of the “burnt” offerings? In 1 Kings 18 Elijah calls down fire from the Lord and it consumes the sacrifice. Then Elijah orders that all the prophets of Baal be slaughtered, and they are. And what about earlier in Luke 3:16, “John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water but He who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”
Baptism, fire, judgment? Is it not completely fitting that we held our first Baptism at Word of Life today? Well perhaps I should explain a little further.
What is baptism? Baptism is the Word of God (Jesus Christ Himself) present in the water of the baptismal font. This Word present in the water permeates the life of the one being baptized making them a light to shine for the glory of Christ. The water alone is nothing rather the Word in the water pronounces to the person that they are claimed for Christ upon hearing this promise the Holy Spirit enters the person and delivers to them all that they need for saving faith. The person being baptized comes up from the water a new creation in Christ. Baptism, while witnessing to those watching does not function solely to witness. The only thing that is needed for baptism is water, the Word and two witnesses that promise to guide and direct the one being baptized. The ritual of baptism is a symbol of what will take place all throughout the life of that person.
What is it that is taking place? Well you can’t have a resurrection without a death. I have asked many people but I have never found anyone who has made it or thinks that they will make it out of this life alive. Everyone dies. During our lives we are creeping closer and closer to our physical death. Why do we die? Because God’s judgment has already taken place and each of us has been found guilty of our sin. As a result of this guilty verdict we have been sentenced to death. No one is innocent, no one gets out alive.
But the guilty verdict is not the last Word we hear from God is it. No! There is another. After we are sentenced to death by the law those who have been given saving faith in Jesus Christ at their baptism and have been nurtured in the saving faith in Jesus Christ thus responding to this saving faith in Jesus Christ are then resurrected as new creations and are given eternal life.
Does anyone know how gold or silver is purified? It is done through fire. Heating the metal up so hot that the sludge rises to the top. The sludge is then cleansed away from the metal and it becomes pure. The refining fire that Jesus claims that He has come to bring functions the same way. After our baptisms we live our lives through the refining fire of Jesus Christ. Why? So that Christ can make us into someone that is useful in the service of their neighbor. Then when the refining process is complete, at our physical death, Christ takes what is left, the purity of the new creation and grants them eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven.
This sermon may be hard for some of you to hear.
In our gospel reading today Jesus says, “and would that it were already kindled!” Jesus can’t wait until you join Him completely in the Kingdom of Heaven. After a person is baptized they are a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. So we live our lives in a duality; completely condemned to death but completely forgiven and eternal. Simual ustes et percator, simultaneously sinner and saint.
“I have a baptism to be baptized with, how great is my distress until it is accomplished!” The Greek word “baptidzo” can mean “to dip repeatedly, to immerse, to submerge 2) to cleanse by dipping or submerging, to wash, to make clean with water, to wash one's self, bathe 3) to become overwhelmed by God’s judgment.” Jesus is saying that He is going to the cross to be put to death under the Judgment of God; FOR YOU! And He is a little stressed out about it. As a matter of fact He says, “I will be in distress until IT IS Accomplished.” What are Christ’s last words on the cross? Oh yeah, “It IS ACCOMPLISHED!” There is no doubt that when Christ refers to the upcoming baptism that He will face He is talking about going to the cross.
So what about those who are kindled in the fire of the judgment of God and have not been given saving faith? What about the evil, the arrogant and the evildoers who seem to prosper in this life. Listen close because here is the promise Malachi 4:1-3, “4:1 [1] “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. 3 And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.”
Jesus goes on to say in our gospel reading for today “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” The peace that is promised through Christ is the peace found in the eternal Kingdom of Heaven not here on earth. We will never be at peace as long as evil exists in the world. This doesn’t mean that there won’t be times of peace or that we shouldn’t work for peace but it does mean that evil will always seek to destroy and disrupt peace and there will always have to be men and women who are called to protect the peaceful. Thank you Scott for your service.
This is the division that Jesus is talking about in the last part of this passage. When the Word of Christ, saving faith, really takes hold of a sinner they change. Their lives change, sometimes much to the dismay of their family and friends. What do you mean you won’t go to that movie with me? What do you mean that two beers is your limit, you used to drink with me all night! What do you mean you want to pray before dinner and eat together every night? What are you now some kind of pious Jesus freak? Don’t force your religious garbage on me! Take you Bible and thump it elsewhere I am not interested. And these very words may come from your best friend, your mom, dad or mother in law. But notice Jesus says nothing about husband and wife in this passage. He intentionally leaves out division in marriages because Jesus doesn’t will divorce. What God has joined let no man come in between. If you hear someone say and it is said in this day and age, God wanted me to get divorced may wife and marry my secretary, it is a lie and that person is being deluded by the devil. Now I am not saying that when one spouse turns to Christ and the other doesn’t, that division will not arise. What I am saying is that the division that arises is not of Christ. He came to separate the sheep from the goats not husband from wife. This doesn’t mean that divorced people are bad. I am sure that most of you do not realize that Zanny is in fact my second wife. It does means that even in and through Godly people evil will seek to destroy peace.
In God ordained relationships there is always a way but both parties are not always willing. This is a sad commentary on the state of marriage in our world today. And evil even seeks to pervert this God ordained office by legally bringing together same sex partners. This is against the order of creation, in these kinds of relationships St. Paul says in Romans chapter one God will abandon them to the lust and impurity of their hearts, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!
Let each of us pray for the sacred office of marriage in our world today. May God restore to it the purity, honor, and example of the Christian relationship. As husband is to wife so is Christ to the Church.
So Christ beings with Him the judgment of God however to those who have been baptized, thus bestowing upon them saving faith, there is no need to fear. Remember last week’s gospel reading? “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

2010-05-16T19:19:00.001-05:00

Jamie Strickler
NT4275 Revelation
Koester
Spring 2010
Final Paper
May 14, 2010
To the Church in Pergamum: Revelation 2:12-17
12 “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword.13 “‘I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. 14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. 15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. 17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’
Translation explanation:

It was my original intention to create my own translation of Revelation 2:12-17 however while in the process of comparing and contrasting the ESV, NRSV, NIV, NET, and NASB I found that there really isn’t any major discrepancies between these translations. The Greek is pretty straight forward. The only discrepancy that I did find between these versions was in the translation of the Greek word “.” The ESV translated the term “to follow” verses the NET translated the term as “hold to.” Neither translation changes the meaning of the passage. With this in mind I clung to the ESV translation.

Textual Variants: Taken from “A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament” by Bruce Metzger.

2:13 
The omission of x P 046 most minuscules) appears to be a modification introduced by copyists who did not perceive its ascensive force here (“even”). The word is adequately supported by A C 1854 2053 2344 it61 vg syrph copsa,bo.

2:13 
Although it is possible that, because of homoeoteleuton, was accidentally omitted in transcription (yet even when is included, the following -clause involves anacoluthon), the reading which explains best the origin of the others appears to be attested be A C 2053 2065 2344 it61 vg syrph copsa, bo al. Not observing that the following must be taken as an indeclinable proper name, standing in a genitival relationship with copyists sought to adjust the strained syntax by introducing either (046 1006c syr h eth al) pr (X a (X* P 1611 1854 it gig arm al).

2:13 
Since the context seems to demand the genitive several modern exegetes (including Swete, Charles, Zahn) adopt Lachmann’s conjecture that, after accidental dittography of the definite article (C) the first omicron was taken as a sigma. The Committee, however, regarded the conjecture as more than compelling.

2:16 
Then Textus Receptus, following X P 1 2053 vg syrh al, omits A majority of the Committee preferred the reading with which is supported by A C 046 1006 1611 1854 syrph copsa,bo , and explained its absence in other witnesses as due either to transcriptional oversight (after -or to taking with the preceding 

Theories for the authorship of Revelation:

Traditionally the authorship of “Revelation” (sometimes called “The Revelation of John”) has been attributed to the beloved disciple John. External evidence for this theory came early in the Christian Tradition. Justin Martyr was the first to speak about the apostle of Christ who prophesied of the apocalypse commenting particularly on Rev. 20:4 ESV, “4 Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” Revelation seems to be a partner to the Gospel of John because the Christian tradition is so adamant about linking the two works. Also the traditional idea that John son of Zebedee died in Ephesus links this author to Asia Minor which is the setting for Revelation. However Montanist and Dionysius of Alexandria denied that John was the author.

On the other hand the Gospel of John is the least apocalyptic book in the New Testament. Throughout history it has been used as an example of the brand of Christianity that rejects the idea of apocalyptic theology. In support of this idea John Aston calls the Gospel of John “an apocalypse in reverse” In other words the heavenly mysteries are to be sought in Jesus who “makes the Father known” not in heaven.

We will never know for sure who wrote Revelation; except for the fact that the author identifies himself simply as John. I personally would like to cling to the romantic idea that the beloved disciple did in fact write this book and the differences in the structure and symbolism between the Gospel of John and Revelation can be attributed to divine revelation that didn’t care for consistency of style and content rather sought to deliver its message to the people as it needed to be heard. Believe me I understand that this idealistic theory is not good scholarship nonetheless I, being somewhat of a traditionalist and fundamentalist, sometimes still cling to my delusions. Either way the authorship of this work is not a deal breaker. It doesn’t add or take away anything from a person’s personal faith.

Time of Authorship:

Traditionally the time of authorship of Revelation has been set in the mid 90’s A.D. during the reign of the Roman Emperor Domitian. As external evidence for this theory scholars site that Domitian punished some of the members of his household for their “atheism” which is quite possibly a reference to Christianity. Some of the Romans misunderstood Christianity to be a godless religion because they did not worship the Roman emperor nor did they fit in with the Jews. But evidence for the authorship of Revelation to be around 68 A.D., the time of Nero’s death is just as potentially valid.

Main Characters of Revelation:

John, the author, is the main character in this book. He is receiving a vision from God. This vision is a message of warning and of promise to the seven churches in Asia Minor. (Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea) This prophecy contains both the threat of the wrath of God and His promise of victory to those who he has called.

Other characters include the false teachers Nicolaitans and Jezebel as well as Satan who is sometimes pictured as a beast or a dragon.

Nicolaitans taught that it was right to indulge in the meat offered to idols and pagan gods as well as encouraged Christians to participate in sexual immorality. Nicolaitans is particular to the church of Ephesus.

Jezebel called herself a prophetess and seduced the members of the Church in Thyatira into sexually immoral acts as well as heresy. It is not certain if the prophetess was actually named Jezebel or if this was an allusion to the Jezebel who led Israel into the worship of false deities.

Purpose of Revelation:

The purpose the author had for writing the letter of Revelation was to bring a message of comfort to Christians who were suffering and to encourage them in their faithful witness. John uses prophetic portraits of the victory that already belongs to those chosen by God to be in the Book of Life. This victory comes in the message of the risen and living Lamb of God Jesus Christ. Also this letter served as a warning to the seven churches of the wrath of God that would fall upon them if they did not repent of their current sinful practices. Revelation defines these sinful dealings in different ways particular to each congregation’s own practice in the dealings of unfaithfulness.

Law Themes:

God communicates with His chosen for people written in the Book of Life through His Word in terms of law and gospel therefore it is pertinent to discuss these particular themes found in Revelation. One of the main themes of Revelation is t apply the law and show where it is at work in the lives of the chosen. The law themes found in Revelation include: the deception of false prophets, call to repentance, beasts, dragon, God’s wrath, plagues, torment, woe, bottomless pit, tribulation, Babylon the great, second death, judgment, call to patient endurance. Each of these themes are tactical ways in which God, the world, and the Devil are accusing believers in Asia Minor in the time of Revelation as well as today.

Gospel Themes:

Another main purpose of Revelation is to deliver the gospel promise of Christ to God’s chosen whose names are written in the Book of Life. God’s people are a people who are engaged in sin and are feeling the crushing weight of the law but through the weight of the law they become aware of their sin and realize that they are a people in need of a Savior. (Romans 3:20 EVS, “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”) This Savior has already arrived and completed everything that is necessary for their salvation. This message is communicated in terms of the gospel promise. The gospel themes include in Revelations are as follows: the Word of God, made a kingdom, priests, Jesus’ love, Lamb of God, truth, Christ who conquers, Lord of God Almighty, tree of life, Bride of the Lamb (church), God is faithful and true, water of life.

The Culture and Environment of the Church in Pergamum:

At the time in which Revelation was written Pergamum was the center of the cult of the emperor hence the reference to “Satan’s throne” in Rev. 2:13. In contrast to the stones mentioned in Rev. 2:17 which were white and pure the stone of Pergamum was dark. Pergamum was a cultural and administrative center of Asia Minor. The good Rev. Dr. Koester describes the city this way in his book entitled “Revelation and the End of All Things,” “The city was built around a citadel hill that rose a thousand feet above the plains, dominating the surrounding region. Many of the city’s public buildings were situated on terraces that were built into the side of the hill, and at its summit was an acropolis with a massive altar to Zeus. The city was the home of a renowned library, a temple to the emperor Augustus, and a shrine of Asclepius, the god of healing. Those seeking judgment in legal cases came before the Roman proconsul at Pergamum for hearings. It is possible that the epithet “Satan’s throne” refers to one of the pagan temples or to the Roman presence in the city, although it can best be understood in more general terms as the power that threatens the church.”

The Lord’s complaint against Pergamum:
It is obvious from our passage of study above (Rev. 2:12-17) that the complaints that the Lord has against His Church in Pergamum are that they were eating meat sacrificed to idols, and that they indulged in the practices of fornication or sexual immorality. The Lord was angry because the people were following the false teachings of Nicolaitans and Balaam; both of which encouraged the practice of sexual immorality and the eating of meat sacrificed to idols.

Imagery in Rev. 2:12-17:

Images or “picture language” are a common tool utilized by John in his letter to the seven churches. Revelation utilizes picture language to help illustrate or bring to life the reality of the struggle with the unseen forces which are running ramped and are engaged in battle in Asia Minor. The images that are used in our passage of study (Rev. 2:12-17) are: the double-edged sword, the throne of Satan, the promise of hidden manna, and the white stone with a name only know to those who receive it. I have already discussed the throne of Satan in the above section.

The double-edge sword that is coming out of the mouth of Christ is the image of the Word of God. This illustrates that Christ fights not with sword of shield rather he fights by preaching the Word of God. For God to speak is to do. For instance Genesis 1:3 ESV, “And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.” God created all things by speaking them into existence. His power comes from His proclaimed Word.

The double-sword image shows that God’s Word is functioning two ways in this passage: to kill and to make alive. God’s judgment is his proclamation that you are a sinner and therefore you are put to death by the wrath of God for your sinfulness. In Rev. 2:16 Jesus says, ESV “16 Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.” This is a warning that if the people of the Church in Pergamum do not turn form their sinful ways then God will come and pronounce them sinners ending their lives.
But there is also a word of promise in Christ’s proclamation in this passage. Rev 2:17 ESV, “17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.” In other words God is saying to those who believe the One who sent Jesus and are terrified by this warning (Psalm 111:10 ESV, “10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!) and do in fact turn form their sinful ways have ears to hear. These are spiritual ears given to a chosen child of God for the purpose of recognizing their Father’s voice and obeying. Those who hear and turn form their wicked ways will receive their daily bread from their Father and will be pure in His sight.

The hidden manna promised to the faithful that turn form their sinful ways goes hand in hand with the image of a white stone with a name on it. For the hidden manna is in fact the white stone. Hidden manna is a reference to Jesus Christ the bread of life and the white stone (white being the color of Christ’s robe and hair therefore a positive color in Revelation) posses the name of the rider of the white horse. This name, of course, is the name of Christ and everyone who turns from sin will poses the name of Christ in contrast to the worshipers of the beast who are identified by a mark and not a name. This imagery comes from Isaiah 62:2; 65:15 ESV, “2 The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give.” “5 You shall leave your name to my chosen for a curse, and the Lord God will put you to death, but his servants he will call by another name.” Referring to the message of the Old Testament prophets in image and not in exact indication is a common practice of John in Revelation.

Conclusion:

While John’s letter to the seven churches was written to a particular group at a particular time I believe that its message is still relevant to Christians today. Revelation is not a prediction of events to come that students of the Bible need to decode through world events and put on a time line. Rather it is a message of the coming wrath of God for those who do not repent of their wicked ways as well as a word of promise to those whose names are written in the Book of Life and are suffering under the persecution of the law, world, and the devil. Who among us modern Christians has not partaken, or at least thought of partaking, in fornication or sexual morality? We may not have a whole lot of pagan God sacrifices today however we do have idols. And we sacrifice our time, our money, and our children to these idols in the name of connivance, entertainment, and sometimes just in the name of fitting in. Turn from you wicked ways Pergamum (America) or the wrath of God is coming.

Bibliography:

1. Bauckham, Richard. New Testament Theology Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo, Delhi
2. Friesen, Steven, Satan's throne, imperial cults and the social settings of Revelation, in Journal for the Study of the New Testament 27 (2005) 351-373
3. Koester, Craig R. Revelation and the End of All Things. William B. Erdman’s Publishing Company. Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, U.K.
4. Metzger, Bruce M. A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament. United Bible Societies
5. The New Interpreter’s Bible Vol.XII Abingdon Press Nashville
6. The Lutheran Study Bible Concordia Publishing House Saint Louis

2010-05-16T19:17:00.001-05:00

Jamie Strickler
Sermon 5 Jacob Wrestles God

Jacob Wrestles with God
22 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. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. 24 And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. 25 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. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 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.” 29 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. 30 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.” 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh.

Was Jacob really wrestling a physical person or is today’s story symbolic of the struggle that was going on inside of him? Well it’s not like we can ask him now is it? So I guess that we will just have to take the Bible at its Word and assume that there was someone else there physically wrestling with Jacob.
Hosea tells us that Jacob wrestled and angel on behalf of God. Far be it from me to argue with the Word of God but Jacob named the place “Peniel” which means “the face of God.” So I am thinking whether it was an angel or God in the form of flesh; something profound happened to our friend Jacob that night.
Last week I talked about Romans 8 which is God’s promise to you the elect; the promise of future glory as co-heirs with Christ. Romans 9 tells us that God chose Jacob over Esau before they were born. The promise that St. Paul speaks of for you as co-heirs in Christ was promised to you before you were even born. You like Jacob are God’s chosen.
The question might be running through your minds, “How do you know that we are the elect; the chosen?” Well it has to do with how God elects. Romans 10:14-17, “14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” God calls His elect to Himself by sending to you a called and sent preacher to deliver the promise of Jesus Christ; better known as the gospel. You see I am a called and sent preacher standing before you today. This call is not in my own mind rather it was and internal call validated and confirmed by Christ’s church. The very fact that there is a called and sent preacher before you today is the very proof that God is calling you to himself and validates that you are His elect.
So what does all of this have to do with Jacob? Well like Jacob you were elected before your birth. Now up until the today’s reading Jacob certainly isn’t acting like God’s elect; wrestling his brother in the womb, taking his brother’s birth rite in a very unethical way, steeling his brothers blessing by posing as Esau, and tricking his father-in-law in a revenge scheme for having been tricked. Granted his father-in-law had it coming to him but so did Jacob.
But now at the ford of the Jabbok, Jacob has burned his bridge, so to speak, with his brother and his father-in-law and has no other place to go. Just like an alcoholic or an addict Jacob has no other choice but to surrender to a power greater than himself to return to sanity. Jacob must change his ways and he cannot do it under his own power.
The 12 steps of AA and other programs go like this:
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become
unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to
sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we
understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature
of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make
amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do
so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly
admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with
God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us
and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to
carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our
affairs.
Copyright _ A.A. World Services, Inc

Jacob is fulfilling these steps all at once. He is wrestling with God, because he cannot face who he has been alone. He cannot stay sane and complete step 4, searching and fearless inventory. Jacob is wrestling with his old Adam, the old self. He is God’s chosen and at this point God has decided to have him start acting like it. But this requires Jacob to wrestle have his old self put to death so that the new might come.
Jacob fights valiantly with God and holds His own. But as the day breaks God gets tired of this and commands Jacob to let Him go. Is this a test? Is God seeing how strong the desire to change is inside Jacob? I believe that God gave Jacob both the resistance and the ability to cling to His Lord and say, “I will not let you go until you bless me.” IN my own struggles with my past I hear that as, “Daddy HELP ME I CAN’T GO ON UNLESS YOU ARE WITH ME. THE PAIN IS TOO GREAT TO HANDLE ON MY OWN.” And here it is, broken, wounded, and exhausted Jacob still clings to his Lord for comfort and hope. Then the redemptive moment is at hand. God give Jacob the chance to receive a blessing but this time in a honest and straight forth way. “WHAT IS YOUR NAME?!!!” Jacob must own up, he must admit who he is and what he has done, “I am Jacob.” Jacob means “HE CHEATS.” Yes Jacob has to admit that he is a cheater. He is God’s chosen but is nothing more than a con-man and a crook. By admitting that he is Jacob he has made a searching and fearless inventory and has admitted to God, himself and one other person the nature of his wrongs; he has become entirely ready for God to remove his defects of character. By asking for a blessing; BROKEN, WOUNDED, and EXHAUSTED, the cheater is ready to have God destroy his old self and become a new creation. God gives Jacob a new identity. He becomes Israel, one who wrestles with God. Israel thinks that this is too good to be true. “Is that it? God is your grace so great that a undeserving cheat like me can simply become a new by your proclamation? PLEASE TELL ME YOU’RE NAME! I NEED TO KNOW! ARE YOU REALLY GOD? DO YOU REALLY LOVE ME?” But God has already given Israel all that he needs to know, “Why do you ask my name?” “I AM WHO I AM.” I AM AND YOU KNOW IT. BUT IF I MUST PROVE IT TO YOU THEN HERE, HERE IS YOU BLESSING.” And Israel knows for sure, “I have seen the face of God and lived.” Israel now goes to make amends to those whom he has harmed and carries the message to other.
What lasted one night for Israel, Martin Luther tells us, takes us a life time. Being prepared to have the old self put to death, Luther says, is a daily dying and rising. Today some of you are in the midst of a terrible struggle with yourselves. The law, the devil and the world, are accusing you of your sin. It is convicting you and you feel as though your hip has been wounded. You are limping through the battle. I declare to you that your Lord is with you in this time of struggle! Cling to Him as tightly as you can! Read His word, pray, and talk with other Christians. Not because you can gain the power to bring God to yourself. You cannot. Do these things because today THIS DAY God has said to you, “I HAVE ALREADY GIVEN YOU ALL THAT YOU NEED.” I HAVE GIVEN YOU JESUS CHRIST BROKEN, CRUCIFIED, AND RAISED FROM THE DEAD! FOR YOU!” Amen.

2010-05-10T12:17:00.001-05:00

Matthew 13:31-33
The Mustard Seed and the Leaven
31 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
33 He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”
Matthew 13:44-52

The Parable of the Hidden Treasure
44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
The Parable of the Pearl of Great Value
45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, 46 who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
The Parable of the Net
47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. 48 When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. 49 So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous 50 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
New and Old Treasures
51 “Have you understood all these things?” They said to him, “Yes.” 52 And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”
I once knew a man named Randy who was a partner in a management training company. He lived a upper middle class lifestyle with his wife and their two sons.
Randy had had some exposure to the Bible and Christianity in his teens while he was in a rock band. He once shared with me that he took a girl back stage to their bus one night, as he did most nights, and experienced something quite to the contrary of what he expected. Randy envisioned an evening of once again indulging his flesh but soon discovered that this girl was a Christian and wasn’t buying into any of his false promises and empty rhetoric. To appease her and to try to win her confidence he agreed to read the Bible with her. Randy couldn’t remember exactly what he read that night but when he heard the description of a sinner and the promise of a life free from sin he started to cry. He cried for the next six hours straight. That night he quit his rock band and returned to college.
When I met Randy that first encounter with the Word of God seemed to be lost in him. Sure he attended church with his wife and kids but there was no fire or passion in his profession of faith. Honestly I took him as one who had never actually died to himself since he seemed very proud of his income and his personal success and was unafraid to share how proud he was with anyone that would listen.
At the nagging of his wife Randy took a Christ based course, through their church, exploring false childhood paradigms. This course ripped open every wound that he had sought to cover up with his facade of personal success. Randy was again reminded of his sinfulness and failure to be what God had called him to be.
One night tearfully and painfully confessing to his wife all of his questionable business dealings and his flirtations with other women, his wife asked him, “What is it then that you think that God wants you to be?” He looked her in the eye and said, “I want to be a pastor.” Randy said that he felt like he had undone one button and a whole suite of heavy armor had fallen from him. He was completely unburdened and completely vulnerable.
Randy acted upon that experience solely relying upon faith. The partners at his firm though he was insane but they agreed to buy out his portion of the business over a two year period. This gave Randy and his family a monthly income for the next two years as he pursued his MA in Christian studies.
Every time it seemed like he or his family were in need of something it appeared to them through the caring and sacrifice of God’s saints. For instance they were running low on groceries and a friend of his showed up to his house with half of a deer to give them. He needed car repairs and someone from their congregation would slip him an envelope with just enough money to cover his expenses.
Today Randy has a very successful house church with several dedicated attendees. Both he and his congregants work to serve people in their neighborhood and city. They do simple things like mow their elderly neighbor’s lawn and more advanced things like supply free marriage counseling. They even find time to minister to the homeless.
Today we heard Jesus describe the Kingdom of Heaven as being like a mustard seed. The smallest of seeds planted and then grows into the largest plant in the garden. Once the tree is mature all different kinds of birds make their nests in it. I believe that just such a seed of faith was planted in Randy in his teenage years and when it reached fruition it drew to itself people of all walks of life. For instance one day Randy and I were walking through the flooded riverside homeless camps helping homeless folks rescue whatever they could of their possessions before it washed away. The very next day Randy and I had lunch in a private restaurant on the top of a building with corporate executives discussing how they could use Biblical principles in their management training classes. Randy truly attracted all kinds of birds indeed. As we heard in our reading today the leaven of faith slowly worked through the whole batch of dough.
We also heard Jesus talk about the Kingdom of Heaven as being a pearl or land with treasure buried on it. Randy is like both the pearl merchant and the land owner. He gave up all his worldly success and business possessions for the privilege of serving his Lord Jesus Christ through service to his neighbors. He surrendered all the things that gave him identity in this world so that he could be free to follow his God ordained calling.
Randy is also like the fisherman in our reading today who threw the net into the sea catching fish of every kind. We already discussed that through his constant witness my friend attracts all different kinds of people. But unlike the coming judgment Randy is not sorting fish rather he is being a witness to the fish that he catches. He is seeking to share the Word of God with the fish he catches so that the fish that are the right kind of fish will come to know their identity in Christ and go out into the sea and serve their fellow fish.
And finally, Randy is a scribe for Christ who like a house master that brings out all his treasures both what is old and new. In other words through his service and preaching Randy plants new seeds in the people that he comes into contact with as well as harvesting aged seeds that are now ripe and ready to be of service and fulfill their calling.
So today you heard of the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven and the coming of judgment. My friends if the seed of faith is planted in you and is growing than you should have no fear of the coming judgment because if that seed is in you then you are the right kind of fish. The fact that you are here now listening to my voice preach the Word of God is proof that that seed is within you therefore you are all the right kind of fish. I encourage you to go now and care for that seed of faith that has been planted in you and is growing into maturity. Come to church on Sundays, attend Bible studies, establish a daily time for prayer, and look for ways to serve your neighbor. Through these activities you will nourish your seed of a faith and come to know the freedom that my friend Bob found. The freedom of a Christian is to be what God created you to be and not what others expect you to be. Go and serve God in ways that make you happy and in ways you feel called by God to serve. I give you the permission to be free Christians, free to love, serve and forgive others. Not to earn the privilege of being the right kind of fish but because you are already the right kind of fish.

2010-05-10T12:15:00.002-05:00

Romans 8:12-17
12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

In our reading today St. Paul seems to have both good news and bad. The good news is that you are claimed as heirs with Christ because you are lead by the Spirit. You no longer belong to the flesh because the deeds of the flesh have been put to death. The context in the Greek tells us that the putting to death of the flesh is a continuing action. The death of the flesh is not just a onetime affair rather it is a daily dying. That is, of course, the bad news; the thought of daily dying to the desires of the flesh, the very desires that seem the most natural to you, and putting your faith in the leading of the Holy Spirit sounds like a tough act to perform. And it is. But St. Paul assures you that you are not to fear because the leading of the Spirit bears witness to the truth about your identity and the truth is that you are “children of God.”
You are children of God through faith; the gift of faith was bestowed upon you at your baptism. The very act of baptism is the claiming of a child for Christ. The imagery in baptism is much like the imagery Paul uses in Romans; the putting to death of the flesh and the rising to life as a new creation, claimed as a child of God thus the leading of the Spirit.
But there is even worse news then the death of your flesh in Paul’s message today; that news is the message that as Christ suffered you will be joined in His suffering so that you may be glorified with Him.
Are you suffering today? I know many who are. How do you make sense of Paul’s message that God knows that we must suffer as a child of God? I have decided that there is a divine conspiracy in the Christian message in our world today. The conspiracy states that, “If you are chosen to follow Jesus than all you’re suffering will cease and you will have every material possession that you desire. After all God wants you to be happy why wouldn’t he give you all the desires of your flesh?” What a load of garbage! That promise is empty and if you hang your faith on the conspiracy then you will be sorely disappointed.
Siddhārtha Gautama was the founder of Buddhism. Gautama was a prince and was kept within the gates of his palace all his life. One day he decided to take a walk outside his palace and say the suffering of the people. He saw the wretched conditions that the people of his time endured. He immediately renounced his throne, left his wife and children, and formed the Buddhist philosophy. This philosophy states that suffering is caused by desire and we you have no desire that you will not suffer. Well he was right. However I submit to you that it is exactly the sufferings that you endure that makes you who you are. Only a coward would avoid things like falling in love, having children, or preaching the gospel because there is a chance that in these events their heart might get broken.
The Christian identity is not an easy one. I fall short daily. Sometimes I scream at God, “I have had enough! I am done, I quit, if you want these freaking people then claim them yourself! This is not the life that I desire. This life is more pain that I can handle! I don’t want to even get up in the morning! Jesus, you have sold me a false bill of goods. I don’t care about eternal life when I must watch my family and friends suffer right here and now in the only reality that I know. Didn’t you go to the cross so that my sins would be forgiven? What is with this mess that I find myself in? I am so tired of being a maggot on a pile of poop, eating said poop to survive. I used to make an obscene amount of money and want for nothing financially. Why did you take that away? Why must I suffer the life of a maggot? Whyyyyyyyyyy?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry6udsW9leA
Then I hear Jesus softly responding to my lament, “I am not afraid of your pile of poop circumstances. I came into your world and suffered your fate so that you may have eternal life. I am omnipresent, present everywhere. Just as present in church on Sunday as in your pile of poop covered with maggots; I love you; you are a co-heir with me to the Father’s riches. This is your identity, a child of God forever and ever. Your circumstances do not define your identity; being claimed by me is what makes you who you are. You no longer live according to the flesh because you were baptized and I claimed you, I choose you to follow me not the other way around. And what seems like suffering is tearing you away from gratifying the desires of the flesh. That is all that you have known in this world. But these things that you feel make you hole yet are against my ways are in fact not good for you. You’re a father, you know that sometimes you must say no because you love your child not because you are punishing them.
I suffer with you, you are not alone! You are not a slave to this world, you are mine. You are free if only you would realize that the state of sin is the pile of crap and I came into that pile and ransomed you out for eternal life. For now though it is my will that you stay in that pile because I love you just as I love your neighbor and I have chosen you to call your neighbor to myself. Your bonds have been releases you are no longer a slave to sins of the flesh you are free because I have claimed you as a child of God. I claimed you at your baptism! YOU ARE MIN E Therefore regardless of your circumstances Your identity is in me.”
Understand that suffering the death of flesh functions as law in our lives. The law exists to make you aware that you are sinners and unable to obtain salvation on your own. The law can only accuse and put to death the sinner, until Jesus invades. Then the gospel promise comes in to your lives apart from the law but attested to by the law and the prophets. The gospel is delivered to you by a true, called and sent preacher that points to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and proclaims to you, “I have claimed you by the authority of Jesus Christ through faith.” Jesus accomplished for you what the law was powerless to do.
Earlier I played a video of lament, a video of a crushed sinner crying out to God for mercy; challenging Him, if you will, to come into that sinner’s life. I end today with another visual aid. The message of the gospel from a called and sent preacher, the message is fittingly entitled “Inheritance;” the very promise that delivered to you today in our reading.
PLAY VIDEO! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEisSxR2cps
Amen.

Woman at the Well

2010-05-10T12:15:00.001-05:00

5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
Deb’s story is a sad one. I first met her when she came to our church service. She was very scary looking with dark black hair and black painted fingernails. She tried to conceal her many tattoos but they rose up above the collar of her shirt and covered her hands. I wondered how to approach such a person. I wanted to be welcoming but I was skeptical of her motivations for attending our church. After the service I introduced myself to her and she began to cry and asked if I had time to visit with her.
I could hardly believe my ears when she told me that she was a high priestess of a satanic cult and she had come to our service because she was taught that evil spirits flee from people when they attended church services and she wanted to be available for those evil spirits to come and make a home in her. However that day she had heard the gospel of Jesus Christ preached that day in a way she had never heard it preached before and something as she put it, “had changed within her.”
Upon further visits with Deb we found out that she was the product of an affair that her father had had with the single woman who lived down the street from her family. Her step mother took her into their family but never gave her the attention and love that she needed. For instance one time the family went on a trip to Disney Land and she was left at home with a sitter.
On e time when she was 12 and was staying at a friend’s house it was discovered, while playing with a weggie board, that she had a deep connection with dark forces and an aptitude for black magic. The parents of her friend took her into their satanic cult and at the age of 13 she became a high priestess. She was so open and receptive to their group because it was the first and only time in her life that she felt accepted. They believed that they drew power from drinking the blood of children so she was the center piece of most of their rituals and was pierced several times. Deb was molested and abused but this she understood to be love and acceptance. She left home immediately to live with her friend’s family. Her parents didn’t even put up a fight. Her parents were glad that she was gone.
The cult consisted of some prominent people in her community who supplied her with a car, money, alcohol, drugs, and a place to live when she was old enough to live on her own. I think that they took better care of their priestesses than we do our pastors. That is kind of sad.
At any rate, she had found her way to our church and had felt the piercing of her heart by the Holy Spirit through the Words that were preached to her that day. She never went back to the cult again. Although they didn’t make it easy for her to leave; she has been shot at by cult members, beaten up by cult members, one Halloween we arranged for her to spend the night at a police station for her safety. Today she leads a children’s program at that church and has a love for Jesus Christ like I have never seen before.
In our reading today Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well around noon. It is important that it was noon because most people came for their water in the morning or evening. But this particular woman came at noon showing that she was outcast in the community and was making sure that she would not run into anyone else.
Like my friend Deb this woman was a product of her circumstances and not of her choices. Deb didn’t choose to be born in to an adulterous relationship; nor did she choose to be raised by a mother who resented her very presence. She didn’t choose the group that would show her affection and acceptance. These things were all results of her circumstances. Later in today’s story we find out that the Samaritan woman has had 5 husbands and they one that she is living with now is not her husband. At first we would think that this woman was promiscuous however in that time and culture women were powerless to divorce anyone for any reason. This means that she either buried 5 husbands or 5 husbands had divorced her or any combination of the two. She didn’t choose to lose her husband’s they rejected her. And because of the many times that she was rejected by husbands the society had rejected her as well. The Samaritan woman in today’s reading was truly a product of her circumstances and not her choices.
Like my friend Deb this Samaritan woman encountered Jesus and He spoke to her. Her, a Samaritan woman who had been rejected by her village; Deb a blood drinking Satanist rejected by her family; Jesus met them each in their everyday lives and spoke to them.
Can you imagine going to the well, an everyday activity, to get water in the hottest part of the day so that you don’t bump into anyone and then meeting this strange Jewish man who asks you for a drink? In shock you smart off to him saying, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” Then he says the strangest thing about having water that you drink of and will never thirst again; Jesus finding you in the everyday activities of live and giving you living water, faith that leads to eternal life. This is what the Samaritan woman and my friend Deb found. Jesus came to them in everyday life and delivered to them living water.
The image of flowing water is interesting in this passage. Jewish people recognize that flowing water cleanses a person. Jacob had given them a well to water their animals and themselves. This water sustained their life on earth but could only sustain them while here on earth; much like the law. God’s law functions on this earth to make us aware that we are sinners and cannot live up to Gods’ expectations. However we try to follow the law because it is a good way to live and it sustains us while we are here on earth. But it is only the living water; water that is flowing that cleanses a person and returns them acceptable to God; the flowing water of faith that comes from the hearing of the gospel preacher by a true preacher.
Both Deb and the Samaritan woman received this cleansing water and ran to tell everyone about their experience. Once a person has heard the gospel, really heard it, and the fountain of bubbling water of faith springs up inside them; their circumstances no longer dictate who they are. They are made new and have been given a new identity in Christ. Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit is now where they draw their identity from; regardless of their circumstances.
This is the living water that was poured over you at your baptism. This water cleansed you and now is bubbling up inside you. As you grow closer to Jesus the fountain overflows more and more. This water was given to you so that you would go and share it with all you come into contact with even in the most mundane of activities you are called to be preachers delivering the power of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of Jesus Christ. Our Savior, our redeemer, our Lord. And just like the Samaritan woman, you can leave your earthly vessel behind. She left her water jar at the well and ran off to tell everyone in the village the good news. Deb left her old life behind to follow Jesus. You can leave the current circumstances that you believe define you behind and return again to what really gives you identity, your baptismal promise that you have been claimed by Jesus Christ and you are a child of God no matter what your circumstances. This is your identity go and live freely in it.

Sermon delievered to The Crux a mission church plant in down town Minneapolis

2010-02-24T22:27:00.003-06:00

“Justified by Faith”

Romans 4:20-25: “No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”
I once worked with a 52 year old homeless man named Ricky. Ricky was drunk 24/7 and was living under a bridge in downtown Des Moines when the shelter I was working for found him and invited him to come and see what we had to offer. He was a small man and the way he always looked at the ground and walked with his shoulders slumped forward made him appear even smaller and meek. It was obvious that he was broken and had no self confidence. Ricky was assigned to my case load and as a part of the program had to do a preliminary interview with me. I had a hard time hearing him as he stared at the ground and talked in a hushed tone. After several open ended probing questions Ricky looked me in the eye with a look of hate and anger that I had become familiar with in the ministry that God had called me to. “What the hell do you want from me?” He asked in a growling tone. “Just to get to know you man and find out if there is anything that I can do to help.” “You can’t help me I am worthless and beyond help. Are we finished? Can I go?” I explained to him that his stay was completely voluntary and I encouraged him to stay at the shelter for a month rent free and take a break from life. The residents were allowed to stay at the shelter during the day if they desired. Three meals a day were served at the shelter exclusively to the residents so they didn’t have to interact with anyone from the neighborhood if they didn’t desire to. Ricky took my advice and I left him alone for a couple of days.
One thing I noticed about Ricky was that he was no longer drinking and he wasn’t smoking. Attendance at chapel was required daily for the residents and I noticed that during this time Ricky’s eyes were glued to the preacher. After service one night I invited him into my office and asked him how he was getting along. He apologized for the way he talked to me during our first meeting and I explained to him that I was sure that it wasn’t me that he was angry with and whoever it was that he held such contempt for must have wronged him terribly. I assured him that he had every right to be angry with them. His feelings are valid, he gets to have feelings and he gets to be angry if that is how he feels.
Immediately he looked me in the eye and asked, “Pastor, can I share something with you?” “Sure,” I responded. “No I mean you can’t repeat anything I tell you; right?” “Not without your permission Ricky, as long as it isn’t illegal that is.”
Tears filled his eyes as he told me story after story of how he had been molested by his father form the time he was 6 until he was 10 and ran away from home. “My daddy told me that I existed on this earth for the sole purpose of gratifying him sexually and I was worthless otherwise. “Pastor” he said, “I believed my father; all these years I believed that I was worthless and that I had no further purpose on this earth. Until the day I took my last drink. I knew somehow it was my last and later that day I ran into the people from this shelter. These people I hardly knew came looking for me in the rain, through the mud, and under the bridge. They told me that My Father in heaven loved me and wanted better for me. I instantly became angry at my earthly father for not telling me about my other father. So I came here to find out who this father is. When I arrived I figured that there was something that you wanted from me. But you didn’t, you didn’t require anything from me. You just let me sit and try to figure out what was happening to me. Tell me about Jesus.” I am telling you about Ricky because it was this very chapter that we discussed that night; Roman’s chapter 4.
Today’s reading form Romans shows the faithfulness of Abraham. Verse 25 says, “No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God.” I was admiring the faithfulness of Abraham all week as I read and reread this chapter pondering what message God was trying to communicate to me and share with you this evening. I wished that I could have had Abraham’s steadfast love and faith. He was even willing to sacrifice his son, the son of a promise from God. I could not bring myself to have such a faith. I get frustrated when funds are low or a class at school isn’t going my way. Let alone have God ask me to do something great and historic. I fail daily on such a simple level, how in the world could a human have such a faith as Abraham? The reality of becoming that faithful escaped me. To some degree I even started to question my call. If I can’t be faithful in the simplest of situations how can I truly be called to be a pastor? This thought kept spinning in my head all week.
Then I remembered Ricky and the conversation that we had had that night. You see Ricky’s earthly father had promised Ricky that he was worthless; an object to be used and then discarded. Ricky believed that promise, not because, he mustered up his own strength and got his free will in motion and believed. But because his father told him and he knew of no other authority figure and had no choice but to believe. I asked myself, “Does the promise made to us depend upon the promise receiver of the promise giver?” If stranger told Ricky that he was worthless, would it of had such an effect upon him? I think not. The validity of a promise and its effect upon our belief in that promise must therefore depend on who is making the promise.
That night, with Ricky, I went to Romans chapter 4 and its explanation of this event in Genesis 17. I reviewed with Ricky the events in order in which they occurred.
1. God made a promise to Abraham.
2. Abraham believed.
3. God declared Abraham righteous.
Abraham shouldn’t be congratulated for having enough faith. The validity of the promise is dependent upon the promise giver. God, the Creator of the Universe! God made the promise and Abraham, like Ricky, had no choice but to believe what his father had told him was true. Abraham’s faith wasn’t dependent upon his own works or how well he lived up t the law. Romans 4:9-11 states, “Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well,”
It wasn’t by Abraham’s own ability that he believed, it was because of who made the promise that he had no choice but to believe. It wasn’t that Abraham earned righteousness because he worked at his belief; it was because God declared him righteous that he was counted righteous. It was because God promised him that his descendants that believed, both circumcised, the nation of Israel, and the uncircumcised, the genitals or us, would be counted righteous that we are counted righteous. Not because we have the ability to believe on our own. Rather our faith and our response in faith to the promise of salvation depend on the promise giver. Our faith in Christ’s and our response to that promise is not a work but a gift from the Holy Spirit.
God promised Ricky that he belonged to Christ and his response to come and see wasn’t his own work but the working of the Spirit with in him. I assured Ricky that night that the fact that he was here was proof that Christ had claimed him and that he was not worthless.
Remembering this I took my own advice and prayed for the gift of Abraham’s faith and stopped trying to muster it under my own power.
By the way Ricky completed the recovery program, reconciled with his wife and two sons and now lives with them. He shares his testimony with everyone who will listen. He has forgiven his earthly father not for his father’s sake but so that he can go on with life and be the father to his boys that he never had.

Article written for the Nation Association of Christian Ministers February News letter.

2010-01-24T15:13:00.001-06:00

What are our actions saying to others that our words are not?
I was visiting a homeless outreach center in downtown Minneapolis last month and became engaged in a conversation with a man who had lost his job due to the recent recession. This center offers free medical care, a clothing room, three meals a day, and a place to shower, and a food pantry. They also have a window that opens from 2-4pm everyday where a person can go for help with rent, utilities, bus tokens, shoes, school supplies for children, and any number of specific needs. This particular man was looking for some financial assistance with his rent.
Before each meal about 150 homeless and impoverished folks gather to pray for God’s blessing. The founder of this ministry then proceeds to say, “God loves you and we love you and we will help you through this difficult time in your lives.” Then the children are served first as they sit at a table after which everyone else is allowed to get into line and gather their food.
To get specific individual help from the window a person is allowed to get into line at 1:30pm. Thirty full minutes before the window opens. Now, this kind lady just finished telling these folks that God loves them and that they are here to help them. But if a person gets in line for the window at 1:29pm or before one of two huge security guards, both about 6’ 7” and weighing about 300-350 lbs., escort them to the door and they are no longer allowed to return for the day.
I stood in line with my new found friend and his three children (8, 6, and 3 years old). His wife was still employed but didn’t make near enough to support a family of five and daycare was out of the question. “This in my first time here to get help,” he explained to me as if he were ashamed of his position in life. He stared at the ground as he explained to me how his church had offered to help them but he was too embarrassed to take their charity. A majority of Americans will not attend the church where they receive charity. My new friend explained that he had returned to school because the industry in which he had worked before was in terrible financial strain but the financial aid that was left over after paying tuition wasn’t enough to pay for all the medical bills, rent, car payment, insurance, groceries, books and school supplies that were needed each month.
If this man had any amount of pride and dignity left he lost it all as we watched the people standing next to us get thrown out by a female employee of this ministry because her kids were restless. We had been in line for two hours! How in the world can you expect young kids to stand in line, be quite, and not pick on each other for two hours?
Thrown out? What happened to God loves you, we love you, and we will help you through this difficult time? Not to mention the employee took it upon herself to scream at these children and tell them that they were rude undisciplined children. Undisciplined? They were all under the age of 6 I would guess; what does one expect? The actions of this ministry were in complete contrary to their words!
Please don’t misunderstand me; this ministry does a ton to help out people in need in Minneapolis. They offer more services and assistance in more areas than any other ministry or social service that I have ever seen; but at what cost? Must the people who are already stressed to the limit (studies show that those in poverty carry a stress load up to 75% greater than the those in middle and upper class families) sacrifice the remaining shreds of dignity and pride to get the help that they so desperately need? And in the name of Jesus no less! What are these people seeing from the followers of Jesus?
God’s law exists to make sinners aware that they are sinners and are in need of a Savior. (Roman 3:20 ESV “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”)
I understand “the law” to be any standard that God or the world puts on our lives. People in poverty are already at the point of being crushed by the law. They know that they do not live up to the standards of God or the world. So what should a disciple of Jesus do with a person whom they encounter that is being crushed by the law? Continue to apply the law? Continue to kick and beat an already crushed sinner? NO! A true disciple of Jesus Christ would know that they are the preacher sent to this person to deliver the gospel! (Romans 10:14-17 ESV “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”) And what is the gospel? Why Romans 3:20-22 ESV sums it up quite well “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”
You can’t live up to the law under your own power! You are in need of a Savior! But that Savior has already arrived and His death on the cross for your sins and His resurrection so that you may have new life and be counted righteous in the eyes of God is already complete! He is Jesus Christ! Repent and believe the good news! It is not my intention to be Moses (the law giver) to this ministry. I am sure that they would not hear my teaching even if I offered it. I am called though to be a disciple of Christ and continue to look for where the law is crushing a sinner and deliver the gospel.
Look around you. Are there folks suffering in silence? Are they in need of the ultimate promise from our Lord? Do they need to hear this promise proclaimed in the midst of their despair? God gave us the law and it is just. But no one lives up to the law. (Romans 3:22b-23 ESV “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”) And through the law can only sin and death can result. Because under the law we are found guilty and through the disobedience to the law sin came into existence. But the law was not God’s last word to his chose people. There is another word; a word of promise. The gospel is God’s final Word to his beloved!
So beloved, go now into the world and proclaim the good news to the suffering and hurting. Be disciples of Jesus (delivers of the gospel) and not bringers of the law (disciples of Moses).

Sermon About Zechariah From Luke 1 delivered to The Crux 12/6

2009-12-06T21:32:00.000-06:00

There once was a small town in Iowa which was being inflicted by a drought. The crops were drying up fast and they need rain in the worst way. So the local pastor decided to call for a prayer meeting on a Wednesday night. The whole congregation showed plus some others from the town. The pastor took the pulpit and said, “Every one of you go home and sit in judgment upon yourselves and when you really believe come back.” An elderly woman in the front row stood up and said, “But pastor we have filled the church to pray for rain, why are you sending us home?” The Pastor answered, “Because not one of you brought an umbrella.”

Zechariah in today’s reading is a lot like these people in the Iowa small town. Zechariah had prayed and prayed for a son and when an angel of the Lord appears and tells him his prayer has been answered he questions the angel and demands proof.

Zechariah was a temple priest. Luke calls he and his wife Elizabeth “righteous and blameless in all the commandments and status of the Lord.” Luke was a physician and an educated man. We can tell by the style of Greek that he used. Luke was also a companion of St. Paul on some of his missionary journeys and he collected the information for his gospel from several sources. This is the only use of this particular form of righteousness in Greek in Luke’s gospel. This would lead me to believe that Luke didn’t take this description of them as a Godly declaration about them rather the idea that they were righteous and blameless must have been what those who knew them thought of them. So they were well thought of in the community.

It is interesting that Zechariah and Elizabeth are described as righteous and blameless and yet in the nest verse we find out that they are barren which was considered a curse from God. This contrast reminds me that while we are servants of the Lord here on earth we are all both saint and sinner.

What seemed to be a curse for this couple in the end would be a blessing. Their advanced age and Elizabeth’s barrenness was the perfect setting to get the attention of God’s people whom he was about to call unto Himself. You see there hadn’t been a prophet in Israel for at least 500 years. And God was about to come to His creation incarnate in the man Jesus Christ. The scriptures had promised a fore runner, and Elijah if you will that will announce the arrival of the Messiah. John’s birth to a barren woman of advanced age was his first sermon to a people hungry for guidance and looking for a Savior.

At any given time, historians tell us, there were 20,000 temple priests and only 56 of them were selected by the casting of lots to officiate in the temple. So for Zechariah to be chosen to offer the incense sacrifice was a great honor. Especially if he was of advanced age his chances were running out.

So Zechariah enters the temple and the Holy of Holies alone. You might remember from the days of Moses when a Levite entered the temple they tied a rope around his foot so if he messed up the sacrifice and God struck him dead they could pull him out without any further loss of life. I bring this up to give you the idea of fear and trembling that Zechariah must have been feeling as he entered the space where only few in history were allowed by God to go.

Gabriel appears to Zechariah and tells him that his prayers have been answered, his barren wife is about to give birth to a son who will be great before the Lord and he will turn many of his people to the Lord and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. In the Spirit and the power of Elijah he will prepare a people for the Lord. Not to shabby of a commission for an only child.

Zechariah answers in with questions. He did a little better then Abraham who fell to the ground laughing that God told him that a 99 year old woman would give birth. You see a short 1500-2000 years ago God had made this same promise to Abraham and it came true. But just like we are today Zechariah was human and he couldn’t see any rational way that this could happen. But God doesn’t always operate in the rational, he is God he can do whatever he pleases. Just by speaking he created the universe is helping and elderly couple conceive a child really that much of a stretch?
An angel of the Lord appears to Zechariah and delivers a promise from the Creator of the Universe that his prayers are to be answered and he will have a son and a miraculous one at that; a son that will prepare the way for the coming of the Lord. And Zechariah demands proof, Luke 1:18, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”
As the reader of the story don’t you just want to say, “Hey Zach, my man, there is an angel of the Lord in front of you; does this happen every day? Come on dude something fantastic and beyond all human reason is happening here. Do a little more listening and a lot less talking.”
But Zechariah being a stubborn human not carrying an umbrella while he prays for rain, messes with the bull and gets the horns. Zechariah gets what he is looking for a sing as proof he is struck mute until the naming of the child. Mute until he fulfills the angel’s commission of him to name the child John; which in Hebrew is pronounced Yochanan and means “The Lord has shown favor.”
So Elizabeth becomes pregnant and she recognizes right away that this is a gift from God. However she does a curious thing she hides her pregnancy for five months. Perhaps she is afraid that her neighbors down at the local Templeabiou Coffee would gossip as to the Father of the child. “Zechariah hasn’t been able to perform in this way in the past maybe she took things into her own hands,” they might spew their poison. Or perhaps it is just too good to be true for her. After all it wasn’t like she was the one in the presence of an angel of the Lord.
I don’t think the reality of the child and his importance hit Elizabeth until Mary’s visit and her child leaped in her womb and she was filled with the Spirit. It wasn’t her human reason that brought this miracle to reality for her it was the revelation of the Holy Spirit. Possessing the Holy Spirit must a contagious thing because then Mary becomes filled and sings praises to God.
When John is born there is no more doubt and no more fear there, as the angel has promised joy; joy for this elderly couple and joy for their neighbors. Everyone realizes that the birth of this child was truly an act of God.
Jewish boys were circumcised on the eighth day after their birth. This is also the day that they name the child and everyone thought that this child would be named after his father. But Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, and Zechariah, still mute from his doubt, refused to question God again and the boy was named John. And Zechariah was cured.
Three things that we can learn from the account of the birth of John the Baptist; first when God makes you a promise it will be fulfilled regardless of what your human reason and experience tells you. And second, when you pray for something, pray expecting that it will be done for you. Our God is a God that chooses to work through every day people like Zechariah and Elizabeth and you and me to accomplish His will on earth. The Creator of the universe seeks to have a relationship with His creation in which they will trust and work with Him for the well being of our neighbor.

Sermon delievered to Waldorf College Football Team 08/23

2009-08-22T22:43:00.002-05:00

I once knew of a little boy growing up in Iowa. He had a wild spirit and a loving heart; a heart so big that he needed a big body to contain it. Yep he was the fat kid and he was bullied and beaten mercilessly by his peers. Why did they hate him so much? He had such a loving heart and just wanted to be accepted; he just wanted to live up to whatever standard that his peers were holding him up too. But he didn’t know the standards nor could he find it within himself to live up to them.
As this boy approached high school he discovered that under the layers of fat laid a strong foundation for weight lifting. He out bench pressed everyone in his freshman class. As a freshman he was bench pressing 265 lbs. This gained him some attention and notoriety. For the first time in his life he thought he had found the standard that his peers wanted him to live up to; the more weights he lifted the angrier he got at himself for not being perfect and this sent him on a quest for physical perfection. He then discovered that he had a talent for wrestling. Every time he walked on the wrestling mat he envisioned one of his childhood bullies as his opponent. His many victories gained him more acceptances from his peers and the ones that didn’t accept him he either physically intimidated or wrote them off as losers and destroyed them verbally.
There isn’t anything that he would not do to win a wrestling match. He gouged eyes; he twisted parts of boys that shouldn’t be twisted, one of his opponents was carried off the mat on a stretcher with broken ribs. What happened to that big heart? Had it turned black in the face of competition and an attempt to live up to a standard that is understood in our society today but is never spoken of or written down anywhere?
His senior year he stood 5’ 9” and weighed 195lbs and boasted an 8% body fat. He squatted well over 600lbs and bench pressed 475lbs. He visited Veterans’ Auditorium in Des Moines twice in a quest for the title of Iowa State Wrestling Champion. But he was never satisfied. He could never live up to the goals he set and he could never fulfill the standards that he felt society wanted him to fulfill. He got angrier and angrier and his heart got blacker and blacker. He would physically assault boys in school for simply wearing white shoes. He wasn’t really angry after all; he was actually scared! He was scared that if he lost too many matches that people would see the he really was still the loser of his youth and everything he worked for would count as nothing. You see anger is never an emotion by itself; it is always covering up an inferior emotion.
His senior year he got hurt in practice of all places and placed 6th in the state tournament. 6th place behind 5 guys he had beaten earlier in the year. How could this happen? How could he let his loser self fail in front of thousands of people? He never stepped on a mat again and as far as I know has never returned to watch or take part in the Iowa High School State Wrestling Tournament after that 6th place finish.
He graduated from high school and his wrestling career was over. How can he be justified now? What can take the place of wrestling and weightlifting to gain the respect and acceptance of his peers? I will give you a hint she was 5’ 1, blond and weighted 105 lbs. Sure, this was it. Growing up his uncles, his brother, and his friends all bragged about the babes they seduced. He would gain a reputation as a ladies’ man with this new girlfriend and then he would be good enough.
But this boy wasn’t the only one who thought that this girl hung the moon. She liked attention from men all men and she found another lover and left him rejected and empty. He was crushed and he went off to college a train wreck waiting to happen.
College offers many things to a broken hearted boy looking to escape from reality. But the most important thing it offered was beer! This young man found out that if he could stay drunk then he could numb the pain and drown out the feelings of insecurity. He lived on the 12th floor of a dormitory. Now I am not saying that his living arrangements were the cause of his problem, however no one on that floor made the honor roll if you know what I mean. The inevitable happened he left school and married the next girl he met.
She was a pretty gal and came from a good family. But he was way too focused upon himself and his own misery to pay any attention to her needs. He got a job as a loan office for a finance company and wasn’t making very much money but he liked the power it gave him. His thirst for money and power increased as these seemed to be the things that gained him acceptance now. With his experience in finance he took a job as a finance manager in a car dealership. At 23 years of age he was making over $100k a year. His financial success allowed him to be drunk on the best beers and wines the world had to offer. He had not yet gotten over the defeat of his past and he found a few other damaged souls in the world who made a lot of money and drank enough beer to fill a swimming pool to share in his misery.
Well his wife got into the party lifestyle and in his constant absence she fell for another man and divorced him. Their divorce was final on the day of their three year anniversary. Again he was crushed, rejected and defeat and no amount of money could make him whole again; his depression persisted and his drinking increased.
There was a hot young gal whose father was a salesman at the dealership where he worked. He started to pursue her with a vengeance. This girl is the hottest thing that ever walked the face of the earth. I have seen pictures boys this chick is smoking. With his new found negotiating skills he convinced her to lower her standards and marry him. They lived the party life together. If they wanted to fly to Jamaica for the weekend they would, regardless of the cost, money was not an obstacle. But then their lifestyle started to outspend their income. They were making over $100k/year but living like they made over $200k. Debt started to pile up as the pressure to perform to make the commission to cover the payments increased. As the pressure built the drinking increased and I think you know where this is leading.
The 911 attacks were a sad and shocking time for all Americans but it killed the car business. This boy moved his wife and 2 small children to a bigger city with a bigger dealership in hopes of outrunning the debt of their current life style. But after the 911 attacks he ended up taking a $100K/year pay cut and they lost everything. They lost their house, their cars, and their credit rating, everything except each other. Again trying to live up to impossible standards had taken their toll on this boy.
One day driving home from a party this young man heard God say to him that he could no longer live this way. He took that message seriously and left the car business to start over. But something was different he could not get this God’s message out of his head. He spent the next nine months reading every Christian book he could get his hands on. He consumed about 2-4 books a week. And read the Bible in three months. But his thirst for learning was never quenched. His pastor friends started to send men to him that had addictions and financial difficulties just like he had had. He felt a great kinship with these men and took a great joy in understanding their problems and giving them hope. He confessed all the sins of his past to his wife and she forgave him as she saw that something was different about him. He decided that he was being called to be a pastor in Christ’s church so he applied for school and his wife went to work full time.
Grand View College admitted him on a probationary period. You see he had completed his AA degree but he completed it with a 1.97 GPA. At Grand View if you come in with an AA degree your GPA starts over and all the core classes are not required. He spent the next two years studying Religion and Philosophy and worked as a chaplain part time at a homeless shelter in Des Moines.
He came to realize that only one thing kept him from ending up like these men at the shelter was that his wife took him back and forgave him. She became the example of Christ’s unconditional love in his life.
After two short years this boy graduated magna-cum-laude from Grand View College, now Grand View University, with a BA in Religion and Philosophy. With his graduation status and being inducted into three national honor societies he earned a full academic scholarship to Luther Seminary in St. Paul MN.
The boy who once tried to gain his own righteousness under his own power is now dead. If you haven’t figured it out yet that boy was me and he died; but he has now been resurrected as the man you see before you today. You see that is our baptismal vows Romans 6:4 says:
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
Your “self life” must be put to death and a new creation must be resurrected if you are to be counted as righteous before God.
What does it mean to be righteous? Webster’s Dictionary defines it two ways:
1. acting in accord with divine or moral law : free from guilt or sin
2. : morally right or justifiable b : arising from an outraged sense of justice or morality
Webster’s definition makes it sound like there two different kinds of righteousness; 1 right before God according to His law and 2 right in human society or social morality. I would agree with Webster’s on this, I believe that there are two kinds of righteousness. However I name them by how we receive them. There is passive righteousness and active righteousness.
Passive righteousness is what we receive from God due to Christ’s finished work on the cross. This type of righteousness is like Webster’s first definition. We are right before God not because of how we lived our lives or how well we lived up to God’s divine law but because Jesus did it for us. No person can live up to God’s law to the extent that it will gain them salvation before God. Romans 3:20 says:
Because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.
Romans 5:20 says:
The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
God’s divine law doesn’t exist as a path to earn your way into heaven. It is not some ladder upon which you climb your way up to God under your own strength and your own ability. As a matter of fact as Romans 3:20 says it doesn’t justify you it makes you aware that you are unjustifiable. The only way to earn this kind of righteousness is to be completely passive in your actions and have faith in Jesus and his finished work FOR YOU on the cross. Faith not works saves a person. Faith not works is what makes you righteous in God’s sight. It is not based upon how many games you win, it is not how many beers you can drink and still walk back to the dorm, it is not based upon how many A’s you get school, it’s not based on how many chicks that you talk into sleeping with you! It is a supernatural righteousness that is given to you as a free gift if you only believe and trust that in God's one and only Son sent to die for your sins. This I submit to you is the most important righteousness a person can posses. For this righteousness is eternal and can never be taken away from God’s chosen believers.
If I am counted righteous before God by being completely passive and cannot earn anything by being moral then why should I be moral? Why shouldn’t I just believe in Jesus and do whatever I want? The more I sin the more he forgives me right? And isn’t more grace better?
These are good questions. Why behave yourself if God will forgive you for being naughty? The book of James 2:26 says:
For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
Out of passive righteous comes active righteousness. A person that has been given the faith in Jesus that saves them for eternity cannot help but desire to perform this kind of righteousness. Active righteousness is like Webster’s second definition. It is the righteousness of your life while you exist on earth. This righteousness is important because it fulfills what Jesus commanded. Jesus said love you neighbor as you love yourself. This active righteousness exists not to gain your way in to heaven rather it exists for the service of and the fulfillment of your neighbors needs. After you have received passive righteousness your only purpose on this earth is for active righteousness. Have you ever wondered why when someone is given faith in Jesus that saves them for eternity they don’t just disappear into heaven? Well here is why, they stay here to live out their life in service to their neighbor. This can take on many forms. Working as a grocery store carry out boy is serving your neighbor. Changing your child’s diaper is serving your neighbor. Ethically selling your friend a car at a fair price is serving your neighbor. Drawing the plans for a building that will house people is serving your neighbor. Walking a girl safely back to her dorm from a party when she has had too much to drink is serving your neighbor. You see there are activities that are God’s work that we perform each day for His people and don’t even realize it. I would even go as far as to say that playing football is God’s work. It provides entertainment for the crowd. It gives the linemen a chance to block for the back field. It gives the defense the chance to keep the other team from scoring so that the offense can get the ball back and so on and so on. Active righteousness does not save you but those who are saved act righteously. God will complete His work for His people through you whether you believe it or not. And in life there are consequences for not acting righteously.
For instance: let’s say that a salesman overcharges a customer for a good or service. This is not acting in a righteous way and can result in a law suit or the customer may never buy from them again. One time non-repeat customers does keep you in business very long. Let’s say that your friend ticks you off and so you go and spew evil words about him to those around you. This is not only breaking the 8th commandment it also may get back to your friend and affect your friendship. Let’s say that in a fit of hormones you cave casual sex with a girl drunk at a party. That girl could get pregnant and you have not only affected one life but three. Or else you could get some disease and things will start falling off you. Well that is what my mother told me anyway.
How does one obtain this passive righteousness that leads to active righteousness one may ask? We look again to the Bible for the answer, Romans 10:17 says:
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
Faith that gives passive righteousness comes from the hearing of the Word of Christ preached to you by a true preacher, one who is sent by God and one who speaks with authority. Before you today stands a true preacher that is speaking to you with this authority. Not an authority of my own, you have been told of my past transgressions, rather an authority that is given by Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. In the Words I have spoken to you today concerning righteousness the Holy Spirit has been delivered to you and is at work within you as we speak putting to death your flesh and creating a new creature.
Now I know that all this seems like a tall order. You might be asking yourself, “How can I ensure that I will act righteous for the rest of my life? How will become this person of integrity that God is calling me to be?” Relax; you can’t perfectly adhere to righteous action under your own power. If you could then Jesus wouldn’t have needed to come, Galatians 2:21 says:
"I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly."
Let me get you started on the road to being a person of integrity who posses passive righteousness and acts righteously. First it doesn’t start with comparing yourself to anyone else in the world. It starts with you believing God’s promise that your sins are forgiven on account of His son Jesus Christ. Then it’s simply doing the next right thing. Whatever situation crosses your paths after you leave here today, do the right thing. How will I know what is the right thing you might ask? God’s law is written on your heart, you know what is right and wrong. If you don’t ask one of your coaches I am sure they would be glad to guide you. So let me give you a for instance: you leave here today and you are tempted to turn to your team mate and say, “What was that dude talking about man, or who is he to tell me how to live my life, or That guy is full of what I shoveled in the horse barn, or my grandfather’s favorite, That guy was as worthless as tits on a boar man!” Doing any of these would not only be breaking the eighth commandment it would be proving that you do not have ears to hear what God is saying to you. Besides it would terribly detrimental to my fragile ego.
What I am saying guys is that you were all called here to Waldorf to compete together as a team. That is not an easy task and you may not want to love and serve your teammates and coaches all the time. But God has called you here for His purpose not yours. And all that He asks is that you believe His promise to you of forgiveness of your sins on account of His Son Jesus Christ and then go and do the next right thing; and then the next, and then the next. And when you realize that you do not have the power to do any of this under your own power, pray and ask Him to give it to you.
You see I spent the first 30 years of my life trying to make it count for something through active righteousness. I wasted the first 30 years of my life trying to make it count for something through active righteousness. And it wasn’t until I failed at every attempt and had every material thing stripped from me that I believed in God’s promise and then my life and my active righteousness counted because it made a difference in the lives of my neighbors.
May the peace of the risen Christ be with you all and thank you for giving me this chance to tell my story.

Mission II final paper reflecting upon a visit to an Islamic Mosque in Minnesota.

2009-07-20T16:46:00.000-05:00

Jamie Strickler
Mission of the Triune God II
Summer 2009
Final Paper
Visit to Islamic mosque
July 18, 2009

I love Jesus! There is no doubt that I could not have repented of my past sinful ways unless a power greater than myself had taken over and lead me out of the darkness. That is not to say that I don’t still sin. I still sin but I desire not to; as St. Paul what I will to do I do not do but what I will not to do I do. Before the Holy Spirit came to me, through God’s ordained preachers of the gospel of Christ, I had an uncontrollable desire for alcohol, parties, depravity, and an unhealthy lust for money, material things, and the world. Now I only desire Jesus and to be like Him in every way. Even though I know that it is an impossible task to adhere to God’s holy law and be exactly like Jesus, I ask God everyday to make me less like me and more like Jesus.
Growing up in Iowa may sound like heaven as per the Kevin Costner movie, “Field of Dreams.” However it isn’t any different than growing up in any other part of America when it comes to the binding of the human will to the endless tread mill of compete and perform, compete and perform. I must say that any success that I had ever achieved was limited and never lasted. In the end I failed miserably at everything I tried to use to justify myself outside of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. My loving Father in heaven knew this about me. He knew my pain and He wanted to deliver me from it so He sent His only son to die on the cross to atone for all my sins. When I say all sins I mean all sins past, present, and future. Christ’s dying on the cross and rising from the dead for me meant that I may eventually be free from God’s good and precious law. And although I am now free from God’s holy law, which only brings about sin and death, I may now follow God’s holy law with the confidence, love and freedom that exist only through faith in the saving bold of Jesus Christ given to a believer through the preached word of Jesus Christ by a true preacher. This preached word of Jesus Christ delivers the Holy Spirit that indwells me, God’s baptized and chosen disciple, creates faith where there was no faith before putting to death the desires of the flesh and rising to new life a new creation for the purpose of love and service to the neighbor. I, and anyone who has had a preacher and believes, now exist with Christ in the conscience and the law in our appendages for our neighbor. To Jesus Christ be all the glory and honor forever and ever!
So if this is a paper about my experience at an Islamic mosque, you may be asking yourself, then why am I reading a testimony, about what Christ has done and can do in the life of a wretched sinner, filled with Lutheran theology? That would be a great question and the answer would not be, just trying to take up space in a ten page paper. The answer would be that Luther’s theology of law and gospel, taught to me by a true preacher in my undergraduate classes, truly unbound me from the endless treadmill of compete and perform, compete and perform. But the real answer would be that my love for Christ and the appreciation of what He has done for me, and for whoever believes in Him and His finished work on the cross, has been deepened by the experience of visiting a Muslim mosque. There I encountered the law of God without the Gospel of Christ. But I am getting ahead of myself; let me start from the beginning.
On Friday July 17th two friends, Matt Magara and Michael Peuse, and I visited Columbia Heights Mosque in Columbia Heights Minnesota. We were hosted by Mr. Owais Bayunus the President of the Islamic Center of Minnesota. I had previously contacted President Bayunus by phone and asked him for his permission for us to attend an event at his mosque. He was very excited to welcome us and eagerly started telling me about all the interfaith work and dialogue that the Islamic Center of Minnesota is involved in. They are a part of the oldest interfaith dialogue group in Minnesota. Their mosque will host this dialogue group the third Sunday of July. He gladly invited us to join them the Sunday after the Friday prayer service appointment we had set. I had to regretfully decline as I have three children and my wife works on Sundays however I will keep it in mind for the future.
We were supposed to arrive shortly before 2:00p.m. for a 2:00p.m. Friday prayer service. However we were running late because Michael Peuse had to primp himself and he drives like an old lady. Matthew and my cars were with our wife’s at their respective work places. So, we arrived at 2:05 p.m.
There were about 50 Middle Eastern looking men visiting with each other outside the building. President Bayunus hurriedly came off the porch, of what looked like an old church, to greet us. Keep in mind I have never met him before but I guess he picked three white guys out of the crowd of Middle Eastern looking folks as the Luther seminarians. After our introductions and my apologies to him for our tardiness he quickly ushered us inside the building to an entry way. Here he instructed us to remove our shoes and place them under a bench which was defiantly a refurbished church pew. Like a moron I tried to put my shoes on the bench which was frowned upon by President Bayunus. I quickly figured out my error and corrected it.
The emum had already started his sermon and as we entered the mosque I noticed that there were about 10 little boys sitting on the floor in the Northeast corner of the building in front of a pulpit from which the emum was delivering his teaching. In the rear of the building in the Southwest corner sat all the women. They were not on the floor however they were sitting in church pews against the back walls. There were women of all ages there in long dresses and head coverings. President Bayunus seated us in church pews set against the South wall of the mosque. He then explained to me that the sermon would last about 30 minutes and then promptly at 2:30 p.m. there would be a prayer service which would be comparable to our worship service.
I noticed that whenever we were being addressed I was the one that was being addressed. Even after the service when Michael asked a question the speaker answered his question looking at me. I believe that I remember hearing that in the Middle Eastern culture elders have respect. I’m only 34 but I am a couple of years older than Michael and quite a few years older than Matthew. I think that it was oblivious to them that I was the oldest and this was the reason that I was the one being addressed.
The emum’s sermon was about the requirements of the law concerning accusations of adultery and he was attempting to discredit any teachings about mercy killings. He stated that if there were to be any mercy killings they weren’t carried out in the name of Allah or Islam rather mercy killings were a cultural thing. He claimed that they could be called Egyptian or Pakistani but never Islamic. He went on giving example after example of how people could be falsely accused before a judge and that Islam required four witnesses.
There was once a woman, he said, that had left her caravan to go to the bathroom. When she returned to her caravan she realized that her necklace had fallen off so she went back to the spot where she had been to find it. When she returned to her caravan it had moved on without her so she sat down to wait for someone to come along. A man came down the road and honorably sat her on his camel and took her to catch-up with her people. When her people saw her mounted on a man’s camel, that wasn’t her husband, they began to gossip about her and her previous whereabouts. The gossiping was, he explained, human nature but was forbidden by Islamic law.
The emum told another story of three men who heard some noises coming from a closet. When they opened the closet they found two people fornicating. They then proceeded to go out to find a fourth to be a witness against these two people. When the judge asked the fourth what he saw he answered that he saw two people in a closet, a woman trying to cover herself and a man crying. The judge continued to ask the fourth man if he actually saw the sexual act and the fourth man said no so the judge ordered 80 lashes be given to all four men as they did not have four witnesses; kind of harsh if I do say so myself.
As the emum’s sermon progressed the mosque slowly filled up with men who prostrated themselves three times before sitting on the floor to listen to the rest of the teaching. I was somewhat relieved because by their standards we were way early.
There were all kinds of men, older, younger, children and teenagers. They were primarily Middle Eastern or Egyptian but there were some African Americans and one Caucasian man that I guessed to be in his twenties. The women were all Middle Eastern or Egyptian except for one girl who looked Caucasian and didn’t quit fit in with the rest. We later found out that she was a student from Bethel College observing that day like we were. I did observe two young girls about 6 or 7 that went onto the main floor accompanied by their fathers. This I found out of place, Matthew and Michael agreed. Maybe Matthew and I are the orthodox police for the Muslims as well.
The emum repeated at least 15 times that there must be four witnesses before anyone could be convicted before an Islamic judge. He then told the crowd; the three of us included, that there was no such call from the holy Qur’an for the killing of the people convicted rather they received 80 lashes. He had a thick Egyptian accent so I had trouble making out the whole sermon but I wondered how he was applying this passage to life today. Was he saying that people should be beaten for breaking the laws today just like in the times of Muhammad? I never got the answer to that question but I will return to Friday July 24th with Phil Roushey and I will ask him then. Some of the sermon was in Arabic. The Arabic parts were when the emum was quoting the Qur’an. I had never heard Arabic spoken so fluently by anyone; it was almost hypnotic.
The inside of the mosque had Arabic writing all over it. The writing was painted in gold on white walls. There were only two pictures hanging in the building, one of Mecca, the other of an extravagant mosque somewhere in the Middle East. The floor was bare and carpeted. There were church pews lining the inside walls of the building. No one seemed to use the pews except for the women and the visitors. There was a smell of a type of incense that I had never smelled before but I couldn’t tell where it was coming from and I didn’t want to ask about the smell for fear that there wasn’t any incense and I would then have offended our gracious hosts. In the pew on the Eastside of the mosque were all kinds of Islamic literature and Qur’ans which were offered to us after the service.
When the prayer service started the men were all instructed to stand toe to toe shoulder to shoulder no gaps. This was to insure that the devil would not sneak through, we were told later. The emum, as well as all the men and women, faced northeast and began to pray. The emum would chant and the rest would repeat after him. Now some of the women were off the benches and were prostrating themselves toward the northeast. It is significant that the men had their backs to the women as it was explained to us that the reason for the separation of men and women was for the reason of decency. The women were seated behind the men because they were stronger than the men when it came to sexual temptation. A woman prostrating herself in front of a man might lead his mind to wander away from God and render his prayers unheard. I being a man of sane mind can understand their point.
After the service the emum and some of his flock came over to us to visit. They were very adamant to explain that women in Islam were to be considered equal with men. They went into detail to explain that men and women were separated for the reason of decency not because they were unequal. I am suspicious of this idea. This may be the case in their mosque however traditionally Islam women have been considered property and below men. Every piece of literature I picked up referred to the Islamic man and uses gender specific langue. I appreciate the profession of these Islamic people but the evidenced does not add up and there was a lot of emotional voltage behind their explanation. As a matter of fact the hour that we visited with them after the service was spent proving that Jesus was not God and defending preconceived misconceptions that they believed we had about Islam. I noted that they spent very little time telling us what they stood for and a whole lot of time telling what they stood against and what others falsely believed about their religion. Please don’t misunderstand they were cordial and welcoming; I just believe that they have some emotional voltage about the way they have been received, or lack thereof, in America. They were all 1st generation immigrants and I believe that they feel that they have not been treated with the respect and dignity that they deserve. I am in no place and in no way would minimize their feelings. I believe if that is how they feel then that is their reality and therefore valid.
I also noted that they hated Fox News as they pointed out that you wouldn’t hear the good things about Islam on that network. The emum also told us about an Islamic woman who was stabbed to death in a court of law in Germany by a man who wasn’t Islamic. He said that we heard nothing about this in American and that this wasn’t the type of thing that Fox News is interested in reporting. However if the man had been Islamic and the woman a Christian it would be breaking news on Fox News. This may be true but again there is emotional voltage in this communication. I personally am a Fox News fan but I was not insulted because this seemed to be an outlet for their pain. However I find it hard to believe that one news network is responsible for all the misconceptions about Islam.
When I visited this mosque I saw over 100 good God loving people trying their best to live up to God’s law. These people were more pious and upright in their behavior then I have seen in almost any Christian church; however they did not seem to me to be free and happy. I recognized in them that same desire that I had in the past, the desire to live up to the law under my own power. They were on a treadmill; the endless treadmill of religious piety, the endless tread mill of competes and perform. It broke my heart when I heard the emum tell us that there was no original sin only our personal sin and on the Day of Judgment every one of our appendages will testify against us before God. Our tongues will say they made me lie, our hands will say they made me steal, and our feet will say they made me walk in unclean places. I wanted to jump up and say, “Yes, yes, that is true, that is all true but then when my God looks at me He will only see His Son Jesus Christ and I will be righteous in His sight.” I wanted to give them that same freedom.
Don’t misunderstand what I am saying here. I love these Muslim people and I have an appreciation for the beauty that is their prayer service and their devotion to God and the piety that Islam tries to instill in its members. I picked up a brochure that was entitled, “The Man Islam Builds.” This brochure talked about da‘wah, mission, which is the mission of Islam to work its “brainstorming” in its men to make them “supermen.” The da‘wah, “becomes an extensive course of action through which one’s personality develops day by day, until one reaches the highest level of intellectual and spiritual development.” I witnessed and read about the law without the gospel.
I had extreme compassion for them as their burden seemed heavy and almost unbearable. Perhaps I was projecting my personal feelings upon them but this was my observation and my reality. I wanted to deliver the Word of Christ to them and set free from the burden of the law and the treadmill of compete and perform. But this wasn’t the time or the place. I believe that conversations like that come after a relationship has been established. This was their mosque, their holy place of worship. We were invited to it as their guests and a trusting relationship had not yet been established. These was a time for them, for the venting of their pain and as called Disciples of Christ it was our duty to listen and to and hear their confession; although this was not easy at times especially when they quoted the Bible out of context as if we would not know the difference.
Easy isn’t our calling as Disciples of Christ. Easy is saying live and let live or to profess to each their own as communicated in Diana Eck’s book, “Encountering God: A Spiritual Journey from Bozeman to Banaras.” But live and let live or to each their own is not what we are called as Disciples of Christ to do; we are not called to always be popular. We are to profess Jesus Christ and Him crucified for the sinner even when it is not a popular message. But we must be smart about how we go about this. We must not run into a situation and ram our faith down someone’s throat in hopes of a conversion no matter what the consequences. We must pick our time and first be the gospel to them, showing them how much we love and care for them before we can share the gospel with them. We must be patient and listen to their concerns and identify the source or sources of their pain and then speak healing into their pain once we have established their trust. And we must pray for each and every one of those people that God has called us to be preachers to with the hope that God is at work around them before our preaching arrives; that way their hearts are prepared to hear Christ’s message of salvation. However true this approach may be we are also not called as Disciples of Christ to go along quietly when a spirit is present that is in opposition to God’s law and the gospel and is forcing its self upon us. But no one was forcing anything on us in this situation so it was a time not for preaching rather it was a time for us to listen and build a relationship.
I have now seen what it looks like to have law without gospel. It is not a sight that I admired but was one that I had compassion for. I know that in Galatians 1:8 St. Paul warned of an angel form heaven coming and preaching a gospel contrary to the one in which he preached. He said that this angel was to be accursed. This warning came almost 700 years before Muhammad received his teaching from an angel. Muhammad’s teaching communicated many things; the most blasphemous being that Jesus was not God incarnate. 1 John 2:23 professes, “No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.” Are the Islamic people being deceived by the enemy of God? Are the Islamic people condemned to hell for their unbelief in Jesus? These are questions that I have asked myself over and over for years and years. These are questions that seem obvious however I have a hard time looking at these God fearing pious people as condemned to hell. Luther was and single predestinationist; he believed that some are chosen and that is where he left it. I take Luther’s perspective. Who is condemned or who is saved is God’s prerogative and I trust that whatever He decides is fair. After all He is God all powerful, all knowing, and creator of all. I do know this; no one comes to the Father unless drawn through Jesus Christ. The rest is not my concern. I am to preach to those that I have called to preach to and let God be god in all matters of salvation.
Today I am a thankful and grateful Disciple of Jesus Christ. I am in no way perfect in my faith or in my actions. The reality of the power of God’s forgiveness through the gospel of Jesus Christ has taken upon a new depth for me and for that I give thanks and glory to God.

Sermon on Ephesians 1:3-14 delievered to St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church 07/12

2009-07-11T23:48:00.001-05:00

John was a man I met while serving as a chaplain at a homeless shelter. It seems like all my sermons start that way but believe me serving there had a profound effect on my life. John was a huge man standing 6 foot six and weighing about 250 lbs. His hands were bigger then my whole head and I have a big head. John was a black man from the streets of Chicago. Now it didn’t matter to me if John was black, white, green, purple, or even poke-a-dotted but to him I was a white man and therefore could not be trusted. He wore a jacket with the words, “Gangster for Life” embroidered on the back. He put up this persona of a very angry man who demanded respect and demanded to be feared.
John came to Des Moines in an unusual and scary way. He was involved in drugs and gang violence in Chicago and a rival gang had committed an act of aggression against his group. The rival members, who had committed this act of aggression, fled to hide in Des Moines and John was set to Des Moines to take them out. John was a hit man. When he shared this with me I wasn’t excited about making him angry.
However John is a child of God and had been redeemed through the blood of Christ as verse 7 in our reading in Ephesians tells us today. The idea of being claimed by Christ for the Kingdom of Heaven came to John as he was traveling to Des Moines and he had a change of heart; he decided to give his intended victims a pass and he was now hiding in the mission from his own people.
John was assigned to my case load and I trusted that God wasn’t looking for me to leave this earth just yet, so I engaged him in a conversation about his faith. He knew a great deal about the Bible and the finished work of Christ on the cross. He knew of the inheritance that he had received in Christ that Ephesians 1:11 speaks of. I couldn’t understand how he had fallen into a life of drugs, crime, and gangsters and I certainly couldn’t see how this gangster could change his devotion from his gang to his God so quickly. But as our Ephesians text for today says in verse 4-5, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will” John wasn’t going to stay a “Gangster for Life” as his jacket professed for God and chosen John, in Christ, before the creation of the world to be Holy and blameless in His sight.
In the Old testament God chose Abraham to be the Father of the coming nation of Israel Genesis 12:1-3
1 The LORD had said to Abram,
"Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.
2 "I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you."
God also chose Jacob over Esau when they were in the womb, Genesis 25:23
The LORD said to her,
"Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you will be separated;
one people will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger."
He chose Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, Exodus 3:10
“So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."
God chose King Saul and King David by having Samuel anoint them, 1 Samuel 1:19
When Samuel caught sight of Saul, the LORD said to him, "This is the man I spoke to you about; he will govern my people."
1 Samuel 16:1
The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king."
1 Samuel 16:12-13
12 So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one."13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power. Samuel then went to Ramah.
He chose Jeremiah as prophet, Jeremiah 1:4-5
4 The word of the LORD came to me, saying,
5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
Jesus, God in the flesh, chose twelve disciples and later St. Paul who was known as Saul at the time.
Our God is a God who chooses His people. Now this can be a scary thought. Martin Luther devoted an entire work to this subject entitled “The Bondage of the Will.” How does one know if they are one of God’s elect or chosen? How does one become elected or chosen? In Romans St. Paul address these questions, Romans 10:14-15
14How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"
Further in Romans 10:17 he says
17Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
How does God choose? Well, God sends a preacher with the Word of Christ on their lips and in their hearts. A Word meant just for you. How does one know if they are chosen? Why you have heard God’s preacher concerning the Word of Christ and you have received the Holy Spirit through this Word. The Spirit then created faith within you and you believed in Christ the one sent by God. Those who believe are chosen.
John had received his preacher long before I knew him. He was raised in a Christian home and his mother had taken him to church often. The Holy Spirit was at work inside of John almost his whole life. Why then did he turn to drugs, crime, and gang violence? Well, as Paul Harvey used to say, now the rest of the story.
John and I became friends. He reminded me daily that he could not believe that a short, fat, balding, white guy would be one with which he could talk about faith and share his deepest pain. I asked John if he would enter the S.T.E.P. program at the shelter. S.T.E.P. stands for Spiritual Training and Evaluation Program. This is a 30 day program where participants are given Biblical lessons to read and learn. They are breathalyzed every time they enter the building and they stay in a separate 20 bed dorm away from the other 100 beds. After 30 days they are drug tested and transferred to Hope Ministries’ other men’s shelter outside of town, called The Door of Faith where they spend the next 18 -24 months in a recovery program. The night John was to be drug tested he showed up in my office, high, begging me to look the other way while poured clean urine that he had purchased in to the test receptacle. He claimed to have been clean all thirty days and had only fallen into temptation that day. I tried to convince him to talk to the pastor in charge of the S.T.E.P. program and tell him the truth and ask for mercy and grace. But it was to no avail. John then disappeared. Before he left that night I gave him a rock with the inscription of a cross on it and told him to stand firm on his faith. I didn’t see John for almost 6 months.
I had just arrived at the shelter for the evening shift to a ringing phone in my office. The desk man said that John was at the door asking to see me. I told the desk man to send him in. John came into my office closed the door and sat in a chair between me and the door. He stared at the floor in what seemed like an hour of silence but was most likely only a moment. I have to admit I was scared for my life and I had not escape from this monstrous sized man. After a few silent prayers for my life I asked John where he had been. Still staring at the floor he recounted the last 6 months of his life. “Well,” he started, “I went back to Chicago to face the music with my gang and I was jumpted out.” Jumpted out is the term used for getting the crap kicked out of you by the whole gang as a way of getting from your obligation to the gang. He continued, “I then found my old girlfriend and stayed with her. She is a drug user and the temptation was too much so I got back into drugs. I went from pot to crack to heroin.” He confessed. “My girlfriend kicked me out and the rest is a blur. But two days ago I woke up in an alley, beat up, tired, and a needle still stuck in my arm. There was a trail of blood from the needle down to a puddle in my hand and in my hand was this.” He held up the rock that I had given him. “And in my other hand was a bus ticket to Des Moines. I’m here now and I want you to do something for me.” I must admit after his last request of me I feared the worst. But this man was one of God’s chosen and the Holy Spirit had been at work inside him and was now taking over his flesh and its desires. He looked me in the eye for the first time since he had been in my office, “Tell me how to completely surrender to Christ,” he pleaded. Then the water works started. I don’t know who was crying more him or me. I was sure that Christ was now present in that office. I was also now sure that this wasn’t the day I was going to die. John entered the S.T.E.P. program and was moved to the Door of Faith. He didn’t stay at the Door however but went to another treatment facility.
Through the grape vine of the homeless John got word back to me that he was one year clean and sober is now working in a large metropolitan area with homeless teens. Why if John was chosen by God before he was born did he have to go through hell to find his calling? Well, like me, it’s his past that gives him the right, the desire and the ability to reach out to those who are still in hell and be their preacher; to be Christ’s vessel to guide the hurting to their inheritance in Christ.
Now as for you all, you are here, most of you every week, listening to the Word of Christ being preached. You all have pasts and you all have stories. Not to mention that you all are chosen in Christ and have a calling to love God and love and serve your neighbor. If you still are in doubt let me clear it up for you; you are all God’s chosen. Is there a John in your life? For your sakes I hope your John isn’t an hit man for a street gang however you all know of someone in need of a preacher. That person lonely and forgotten in a nursing home, the folks who join us here on Thursday night’s coffee house, that neighbor in the hospital, that couple next door who work long hours and have trouble making ends meet with child care, that son, daughter, niece or nephew that you talked to for a while, that homeless person begging for money on the interstate, You fellow office worker who is overwhelmed with life’s demands, that lawyer who helped you write you will or plan your estate, the check out person in the grocery store of gas station; these people are all in need of a preacher and you are all called to preach to them and pray for them. Oh yeah and don’t forget to pray for that seminarian who preaches from time to time at your parish and proclaims the wildest ideas. Believe me I know him and his family and they need your prayers. You have been given the greatest inheritance ever, the righteousness of Christ. And it is yours to give to those you chose. And it should and out of pure joy and gratitude, not out of a sense of duty that you want to give it freely. Leave here today with joy and peace in your hearts knowing that you are God’s chosen and you have the power to choose others. May the peace of Christ be with you all. Amen

Romans 6:1-11 Exegeticial Paper

2009-06-30T22:32:00.001-05:00

Introduction:

Of all the books of the Christian New Testament, St. Paul’s letter to the Church in Rome is one of the most inspirational and life giving texts that exists. Romans is Paul’s letter seeking the support of the Church of Rome for his future missions therefore he uses this letter to explain his theology and mission to its congregants so that when he arrives they are already informed of his theological stance and his intentions. This God inspired work of scripture is packed full of passages that set the bound conscience free from the demands of the law while still maintaining that Christians are not given a license to sin so that grace may abound. Romans 6:1-11 is one of these passages. It not only explains the death of the sinner’s flesh but also the freedom and the mission of the new creation. This death of the flesh and resurrection of the new life of a Christian is the chief thought behind the sacrament of baptism. While exegeting any New Testament text one must first translate the Greek to English and consider any textual variants contained in this translation.
Translation & Explanation of Textual Variants Romans 6:1-11:
What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it not be! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many as have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the power of the Father, so we too may walk in the newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also of his resection. 6 Knowing this that our old self has been crucified with him in order that the body of sin would be done away with, with the purpose that we would no longer be serve sin. 7 (For someone who has died has been made free from sin.) 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 Knowing that since Christ, having been raised from the dead, he is never going to die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So also you consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:1-11 is a straight forward passage. There are no major controversies in translation between the NRSV, NET, NASB, etc…. The differences are all minor.
The only major textual variance comes in verse 11 when the term “to kurio amon” (our Lord) was left out of some of the manuscripts. In his textual commentary of the New Testament Bruce Mertzger is quoted as saying, “The words appear to be a liturgical expansion, derived perhaps from v. 23. If they were original, no good reason can be found why they should have been deleted from such weighty witnesses as p46, A B D G etc…” While interesting this variance isn’t enough to change any meaning in this passage.
Purpose for Romans 6:1-11:
Chapter 5 of Paul’s Letter to the Church in Roman concludes the apostle’s discussion of sin, the law, faith, righteousness, and reconciliation in answer to his critics. Stuhlmacher states, “ Paul’s remarks concerning justification and reconciliation in chapter 5 again immediately engaged those critics in battle who are attacking his proclamation of Christian freedom (Gal. 5:1) by accusing the apostle, all the way to Rome, of preaching cheap grace to the Gentiles (Gal. 3:8). These objections are of such significance to the apostle that he now takes them up directly in 6:1 and 15 and refutes them in detail.” Chapter 6 then expresses his views concerning the fundamental questions of the new life which the Christians are to lead under the reign of righteousness. Verses 6:1-23 is the discussion of the freedom from the power of sin and service to righteousness; the area of concentration thus far has been Romans 6:1-11 which addresses the change of Lordship in baptism. I will continue with this section.
Stuhlmacher states, “With 6:1 Paul begins a new discourse. The catchwords “sin,” “Christ,” “Jesus,” “righteousness,” “rule,” and so on show, of course, that the apostle is arguing on the foundation of his statements in 5:12-21.” Paul is stating the position of his critics that we heard in 3:8. Verse 2 is his answer to this accusation and then he goes on to explain his position in verses 3-10 and then sums up his position in verse11.
The remembrance of their baptism becomes Paul’s reminder to them of their confession in Christ. His assertions of Christ’s death on the cross was a once and for all death to sin and that they have been buried with Christ in this death and are now raised with him in his resurrection to new life through their belief in Jesus’ finished work on the cross servers to invoke the law within them putting to death their old self and yet giving them the gospel promise of resurrection to raise them up to new life.
The controversy between adult, “believer’s baptism,” and infant baptism was not yet an issue. Both adults and infants were baptized when the head of the household became a believer. The person being baptized was immersed entirely in flowing or still water. Baptism was viewed as a complete transformation of the self and was viewed as washing away sins. This bestowed to the person being baptized both sanctification and justification through the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God. Instead of being slaves to and lorded over by sin they are now servants to and Lorded over by Christ.
The purpose for Romans 6:1-11 is to reiterate the false claim of Paul’s critics as a discussion ender form chapter 5, to answer to this claim, and to state the proof for and explain his answer.
Application of this passage to life today:
Doug was a man I met while serving as a chaplain at Hope ministries’ Bethel Rescue Mission. He was a kind and loving man who cared very deeply for his wife and daughter whom recently had asked him to leave home. He wasn’t a scholarly man nor was he completely uneducated rather he was an average American trying to make his way in the world. He knew about God and worshiped Jesus in a rather surface kind of relationship at a Pentecostal church on the south side of Des Moines. He knew of Jesus but I would suspect that when I met him he didn’t really know Jesus or the implications that Christ’s death on the cross meant for his life.
For years Doug worked the night shift, enriching Sam Walton’s pockets, at a Wal-mart in Des Moines. This night shift was responsible for stocking the shelves with the affordable and practical merchandise that Wal-Mart sells to those who are lured in by the store’s slogan promise of “Save money, Feel Better.”
Doug was in his mid forties when I met him but he looked like man well beyond that age. You see while lifting boxes of bicycles onto a shelf Doug strained his back terribly. So bad in fact that it would take surgery to fix it; however Wal-mart’s health insurance refused to cover this surgery so Doug was given a variety of pain pills to keep him comfortable until he could either come up with the money for the surgery or litigate the insurance company into covering the procedure. Doug started on Vicodin covered by insurance but when he was unable to return to work he was relieved of his job and insurance and had to go to Broadlawns Hospital in Des Moines who deals with those who do not have insurance. He was switched to the generic form of Vicodin called Hydrocodone. Both pills sell for about $25 a pill on the street behind the mission. But Doug wasn’t selling his medication; he had become addicted to it.
He spent most of his days asleep or in a daze. When he was awake he would talk to you but wouldn’t be looking at you but it seemed like he was looking through you. Looking into his eyes it was obvious that nobody was home. Fearing for the well being of their teenage daughter his wife asked him to leave. With no money and no prospect of being physically able to work he came to the mission.
When I met Doug he still had moments of clarity in which he would come into my office and cry uncontrollably about the state of affairs that his life had fallen into. We would devise a plan to wean him off the pain pills but he would inevitable stop cold turkey and his pain would become unbearable and he would then take way too many pills and return to his daze. Several times when he passed out at or near the mission he would have his medication stolen from him however when he entrusted his pills to the secure area behind the desk he couldn’t take them as he desired so that plan ended quickly. To have a pharmacy refill a narcotic due to theft there must be a police report filled out. After the third report the police told him they would not fill out a fourth so he better get his life straight.
Doug was baptized in a Lutheran Church as a child, so I knew that inevitably his soul belonged to Jesus. Doug would ask me to assign him parts of the Bible to read and he read them diligently; when he was coherent. I knew what I was witnessing in Doug was the death of his body and the salvation of his soul.
Don’t miss understand me Romans 6:1-2 reads, “What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase? 2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Rom 6:1 NET) Doug didn’t have a license to sin so that he could have more grace but as Luther explains it in his “Lectures on Romans,” quoting Augustine, “Beginning with this passage, the apostle describes exclusively a man who has been placed under grace, where in his mind he already serves the law of God even though in the flesh he may still serve the law of sin.” Doug was baptized as a child therefore his mind and soul belonged to Jesus as Christ’s promises had been bestowed upon him. But his body, the body of death as the apostle puts it in Romans 7:24, was a still serving sin. Luther goes on to say in his “Lectures on Romans,” “But we should note that it is not necessary that all be found in this stage of perfection as soon as they are baptized into this kind of death. For they are baptized “into death,”..ie, toward death; in other words: they have taken only the first steps toward the attainment of this death as their goal. In fact though they are baptized to eternal life and the Kingdom of God, they do not right away possess its fullness, but they have taken only the first steps toward it---for baptism was ordained that it prepare us for this death and through it give us life –therefore it is necessary that we comply with what has been ordained for us.” Doug, like most of you, desired to follow the law in his heart but he did what he desired not to do in his body. Baptism doesn’t immediately transform behavior however it does transform the eternal resting place of your soul. Again this doesn’t give you the right to keep sinning, quite the contrary; you should make a conscious effort to follow the law of God; not to gain your salvation but because of it.
Doug was baptized therefore he was buried with Christ in his death so that he could be raised with him into new life through the glory of the Father. “Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.” (Rom 6:4 NET) Doug was struggling every day with the dying of his flesh so that he could become a new creation. Luther states, “To destroy the body of sin means, therefore, to break the desires of the flesh and of our old man by exertions of penitence and the cross, and so to decrease them from day to day and out them to death.” Life after baptism is a day to day struggle with sin; to each day die a little more to the old sinful self. This process is not some ladder that you climb and based upon on how high you get determines you worthiness before God. You salvation is secure after baptism based on the promise giver not the promise receiver.
Doug continued to slip further and further into his drug educed state. In the end he was on ten different medications by seven different doctors at Broadlawns. Not only pain pills now he was also on Lithium a lethal combination. He was so drugged out in the end that he had mixed all his pills together in a sack and took handfuls of them at a time. I took him to the hospital one night and explained to them that he was on several medications from several doctors and that I was not a doctor but this guy was going to die. That is exactly what happened one week later. Doug died in the hospital of an overdose. I was furious and felt helpless. All I could say to his wife and daughter, when they came to the mission to collect his car and things, was that Doug was a child of God and even though his body is gone his soul is eternally with Jesus.
When Doug died he completed the process that was started at his baptism. He is now completely a new creation. Romans 6:11 tells us, “So you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Rom 6:11 NET) I encourage each of you to become what you are, dead to sin and alive to Christ.

Bibliography:

1. Bornkamm, Gunther. “Paul.” Minneapolis, Fortress Press
2. Cousar, Charles B. “The Letters of Paul.” Nashville, Abingdon Press
3. Hultgren, Arland J. “Paul’s Gospel and Mission.” Philadelphia, Fortress Press
4. Metzger, Bruce M. “A Textual Commentary on the New Testament.” London, New York. United Bible Societies
5. Pauck, Wilhelm editor. “Luther Lectures on Romans.” Philadelphia. The Westminster Press.
6. Stuhlmacher, Peter. “Paul’s Letter to the Romans A Commentary.” Louisville, Kentucky. Westminster/John Knox Press.

Sermon on 2 Kings 5:1-15

2009-05-15T16:35:00.000-05:00

In today’s reading we hear the story of Naaman, a great man in high favor with his master, a mighty man of valor. But that isn’t Naaman’s whole story is it? Naaman was also a leaper.
The term Leaper takes on all kinds of meanings in the OT. We would imagine that this meant that Naaman had some type of skin condition, most likely brought about by his sin or so the people of the time would have thought. But if Naaman was such a great man how could he be a sinner cursed with this kind of obvious imperfection? Was leprosy really Naaman’s problem?
The Bible never discusses how or why Naaman was or had become leprous so any discussion of this matter would be pure speculation and irrelevant to what the story of Naaman is communicating to us.
When I was serving as a chaplain at Hope Ministries’ Bethel Rescue Mission I encountered a man that we will call Ricky. Ricky came to the mission directly from living under a bridge in downtown Des Moines. He was a hopeless alcoholic and at 50 years of age had abandoned his wife and two sons. Ricky was tired of living this way and wanted to change but didn’t know how.
Upon further conversation with Ricky I found out that his father had sexually abused him from the age or 5 years old until the age of 12 at which time he had ran away from home. Ricky’s father was a wretched man, an alcoholic who had convinced Ricky that the reason that God had put Ricky on this earth was to sexually gratify his father. Not knowing the difference this was the only idea of God that Ricky had.
I mention Ricky not because he was a great man like Naaman rather because they seem to have the same problem, leprosy. Naaman’s leprosy was external while Ricky’s was internal. I asked myself these questions, “If Naaman’s leprosy had been removed from him by any means other than visiting Elisha, would he have been changed to the degree that we see in the story; if Ricky simply had not been abused, although that is a horrific thing that no one should be subject to, would he truly be free from the alcohol and his anger and hatred for his dad?” My guess is that if Naaman had been healed by some other means then he would still consider himself a slave to his master and if Ricky hadn’t been abused he would still have followed his father’s example of self destructive behaviors. Leprosy was not the problem for these men it was a symptom of a deeper problem that these men shared and that problem was unbelief. Both of these men were sinners condemned to hell because neither had a “true preacher.”
In the Book of Romans St. Paul asks the questions, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” (Romans 10:14) Both these men were elected by God for salvation but their preacher had not arrived yet. Enter Elisha and well, me. When God is ready to elect a sinner for salvation he sends a preacher with a word for that sinner; a word so powerful that when preached the word itself delivers Jesus himself to the hearer and creates within that sinner a faith that saves. Naaman and Ricky’s problem wasn’t leprosy rather it was sin itself, the sin of not having a preacher.
Elisha’s sermon to Naaman was simple, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” (2 Kings 5:10) It wasn’t the washing that made Naaman clean but the faith in the promise made to him by Elisha that caused him to be clean. How can we tell if this was a successful conversion? By Naaman’s confession of faith after his healing, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel.” (2 Kings 5:15) A confession of faith is a sure sign that a conversion has taken place. Naaman was now free from the burden of his leprosy and his deepest problem of unbelief was now healed thanks to the arrival of a preacher.
What about Ricky? I spent the next two months explaining to Ricky that he had not chosen to come to the mission instead he had been drawn there by God himself because God had a message for him and that message was, “On account of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins both past and present, both conscious and unconscious.” This message of forgiveness, this promise from God himself, set Ricky free. He began to forgive himself and see that God had bigger plans for his life than what his father had told him. Ricky became a model student in the recovery class and was filled with a joy that can only come from the freedom that Christ gives to his chosen. Ricky let go of the hatred for his father and was able to forgive him for his sickening actions. When he had forgiven himself and his father, through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, he then found his wife and reconciled with her and his sons. Ricky lives with his wife and his teenage sons somewhere in Missouri to this day. His purpose in life is no longer to drink away the problems of the past rather he spends his time loving and serving his wife, his sons, and any other alcoholic that will listen to his story. He truly exists to love and serve God and neighbor.
Both Naaman and Ricky had a true transformation through the hearing of the preached word of God. And now I stand before you today with the same word for you, “On account of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins both past and present, both conscious and unconscious; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Go in peace now to love and serve God and neighbor not to gain God’s favor but because you already have his favor.

Wednesday March 25th Lenten Service Sermon to St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church.

2009-03-24T16:08:00.004-05:00

Acts 2:14-21

May 14-21, 2008

Lutheran church plans a “mass-baptism”

Eisleben, Germany -- On November 11th, 1483, the great reformer, Martin Luther, was carried up the street from the house where he was born to the church of Saints Peter and Paul. With Martin’s father and godparents standing by, the local priest held the day-old little Luther naked over the baptismal font and dunked him three times into the cold November waters of God’s certain grace. “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” He was named Martin because November 11th is the feast day for Saint Martin of Tours. Certain that Martin was now saved for all eternity, his father brought him home to begin his life as the son of a copper mining prospector.
It is 525 years later in the same city now called Lutherstadt Eisleben. The pastors of that same church where Martin Luther was baptized, along with a couple of neighboring pastors from Eisleben, are planning something big in honor of the 525th anniversary of Martin Luther’s baptismal birthday. Their goal: baptize 525 people in Saints Peter and Paul church on November 11th, 2008. It is a lofty goal to be sure. But will they be able to make it happen? Claudia Bergmann, one of the pastors of the historic church says, “Will we reach 525? I don’t know. But what better way is there to find out then to try?”
There is a lot of excitement surrounding this event. There are already people registered to be baptized or to have their children baptized. Lot’s of people are talking about what baptism means in a town where only 13% of the population is Christian. Some are traveling from all over Germany in order to receive the sacrament of Baptism in this historic place at the remains of the very font in which Martin Luther was baptized.
Hundreds of newspapers throughout Europe picked up the story and have been writing about the “mass-baptism”. The pastors in Eisleben are thrilled about the press, but not about the choice of words. “We aren’t going to baptize 100, 200, or 525 people all at once,” says Pastor Claudia Bergmann. “It won’t be a mass-baptism. No fire hoses or anything unworthy of the sacrament of Baptism. One at a time. If we reach our goal of 525, we will still only be around 18% of the number that were baptized on Pentecost. I think that’s a pretty humble start, don’t you?”

So what does 525 people being baptized on the 525th anniversary of Martin Luther’s Baptism have to do with today’s reading? Other than the fact that the article refers to the reading. Baptism. Yes, both stories contain mass Baptisms and conversion.
Our theme for today is, “The Evangelization of Every People.” Today’s reading from Acts is part of the sequence of events following the Pentecost account of the Holy Spirit coming upon the disciples, causing them to speak in tongues. Following this event Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, goes out into the crowd and preaches a sermon so profound so convincing that 3000 people were baptized and became believers that very day. Some in the crowed thought that the apostles were drunk. I would say that these people were like the liberal theologians of today who cannot conceive of anything supernatural happening, even if God is involved.
What was it about Peter’s sermon that was so compelling? What purpose does a preacher serve? It’s because Peter preached with authority, filled with the Holy Spirit that the people were “cut to the heart” as verse 37 states. This is how God evangelizes all people he sends a true preacher who preaches the gospel message with the authority and the power that comes from the Holy Spirit. A true preacher delivers the gospel message in a way that causes faith to happen in the hearers of this message. This faith brings forth repentance and baptism is the seal put upon this conversion.
Romans 10:14-17 (ESV)
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Article 5 of the Augsburg Confessions states:
That we may obtain this faith, the Ministry of Teaching the Gospel (the office of preaching) and administering the Sacraments was instituted. For through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Ghost is given, who works faith; where and when it pleases God, in them that hear the Gospel, to wit, that God, not for our own merits, but for Christ's sake, justifies those who believe that they are received into grace for Christ's sake.
They condemn the Anabaptists and others who think that the Holy Ghost comes to men without the external Word, through their own preparations and works.
Article 5 follows article four, I’m from southern Iowa and even I can do that math, Article 4 states that we are saved by faith alone. And how does this saving faith happen? Article 5 explains through hearing the gospel proclaimed by a true preacher and receiving the sacraments.
The sacrament that today’s message concentrates on is baptism. Baptism is the first time in your lives that you heard a true preacher bestow the promises of Christ upon you and elect you for the kingdom of heaven, even if you do not remember it or did not choose it, God’s work was done within you. Baptism is a once and for all thing. I am often asked, “ but can’t we deny our baptism or reject God?” To which I simply answer, with the Dr. Phil response “ how is that working for you?” I believe that the good Lord would get a fine laugh out of one of us mere humans trying to break his all powerful grip upon us. You see we as humans , by nature are forgetful of God’s promises and therefore God doesn’t just send a preacher one time but over and over to remind us of His all powerful, fatherly , divine love, mercy, and grace. This repetition is not for the sake of salvation, as I said Baptism is a once and for all thing, but for the sake of your consciences and the work for your neighbors that comes from you after hearing a true preacher.
The Baptism promise can be found in
Romans 6:4:
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.
In your baptism your flesh was put to death and God raised up a new creation. So why, if your flesh is dead, is it still functioning here on earth? Luther believed that you are not called to one time repentance but a life of repentance. Baptism’s claim is a onetime thing but the death that it bestows is a daily dying to self and flesh. The repentance that comes out of this death to self is the result of the new creation’s existence within you. Today’s reading says in verse 21 quoting from the book of Joel 2:32 21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ This calling upon the name of the Lord isn’t gaining you New life, and it isn’t you asking to be created a new rather it is the proof or the fruit of the repentance that is being worked within you by the power of the Holy Spirit. You do not call upon the name of the Lord in order to be saved but because he has saved you. In answer to my previous question, “Why is our flesh still here when you are a new creation?” Because God chooses to use you in this world to witness to and serve your neighbors who have not yet been saved or chosen. You are to do God’s electing. You are to live a life of repentance as witness to your neighbors, not to gain your salvation but because of it.
In the newspaper article I read earlier we see that God is still calling people to himself. He is still calling people to be baptized and saved. He is still creating the body of believers just as he was at Pentecost. How magnificent would it be to see 3000 people come forward to be baptized, compelled by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the evangelization of all people. This is your call as the priesthood of all believers.
If you came here tonight wondering if you were one of the elected and are still not for sure, then I am now telling you you are! If you didn’t think that you had yet been elected then I am electing you. I’m sure that all of you have been baptized and if not then call Pastor Wells and be baptized. As for the rest of you go in the peace that salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord brings loving and serving your neighbor. Go live a life worthy of your calling, not to gain salvation or the favor of the Lord but because you have already obtained favor and salvation. Go and give it away.

Ethics final paper

2009-03-22T21:52:00.001-05:00

Currently in the ELCA one question threatens to split the church; that question is, “Should the ELCA ordain openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship?” This is an interesting debate; one side believes that the Bible is the final authority for the church, with tradition and the Book of Concorde as a second. Both scripture and tradition condemn homosexuality as sin therefore the ordination of homosexuals is threatening Luther’s stance of (sola scriptura) scripture alone as authority. The other side claims that the Bible is outdated in this circumstance as it could not comprehend a committed homosexual relationship therefore the verses that condemn homosexuality as sexual immorality should be ignored.
To consider this question from an ethical stand point is to consider it through the lens of the ethical theory “Divine Command.” In this paper I will: explore Biblical text that proves that it is unethical, from a Divine Command Theory perspective, to ordain openly homosexual persons, explain the Divine Command Theory, present both sides of the current argument, then draw a conclusion based upon the most convincing evidence.
Genesis 1:26-31 (ESV):
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
In the above Genesis passage God is forming creation and then He establishes an order to that creation. He made man and woman in His own image and then gave them domain over the creatures of the earth. So, God established a creation then created man to rule over and care for that creation. It is obvious that God didn’t create the fish in the sea to subdue the earth or the birds in the sky for that matter rather they are to be creatures in creation not rulers of it. The point is that there is a certain order to this creation account.
God created humans male and female; again establishing an order to this creation. Then He blessed them and gave them His first command, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” He commanded man and woman to multiply; this is the first office (or vocation) that God created. Man and woman are to reproduce through sexual intercourse and fill the earth with their offspring. Their second office is to subdue the earth. Webster’s dictionary defines “subdue” as, “to conquer and bring into subjection.” “To bring into subjection” supports the stance that there is an order to God’s plan for creation. He creates offices and set ups the law so that creation will remain in order and will not fall into chaos. Then in verses 29 and 30 God supplies everything that is required for humans to fulfill their calling (vocation). This is creation in the form it was intended and ordered; anything to the contrary would be immoral and contrary God’s command.
The “Divine Command Theory” is the theory that moral values are derived from the commands of God therefore to perform an action contrary to God’s commands would be an immoral action. For instance the seventh commandment states, “You shall not commit adultery;” thus if a person has sexual intercourse with another person other than their spouse they are committing an immoral action.
It is only right and ethical to consider the evidence from both sides of the argument for or against the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship before a decision on its morality can be reached. First, I will consider the evidence in favor of the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship.
The argument for the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship is based upon three premises: Jesus’ command to love your neighbor, contextual criticism of particular Biblical passages, and the idea that every person is in a sinful state.
Matthew 22: 34-39 (ESV)
34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The lawyer in the above passage was trying to trick Jesus into answering a question in a way in which they could accuse Him of Blasphemy. But Jesus, being the master of debate that He is, didn’t quote any of the commandments instead He went to the book of Deuteronomy:
Deuteronomy 6:5
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Jesus followed this answer with a summary of all the commandments: 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. It is from this passage that the first argument for the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship comes from. Proponents arguing from this passage are saying that above all the other commandments and laws of the Bible we must first love God and then love our neighbor. Many of these proponents are very devout people as they hold God in the highest regard in their hearts and take their calling to serve their neighbor with the utmost sincerity. By excluding openly homosexual persons from the ordained ministry, in their view, we are not obeying our calling to love and serve our neighbor.
Contextual criticism is defined as: A form of criticism which views the literary text as a self-contained verbal structure. Akin to the New Criticism, contextualism holds that a work of art generates self-referential meanings within its own internal and autonomous context. (Glossary of Literary Theory by Greig E. Henderson and Christopher Brown) This theory considers Biblical passages in their original context. It asks questions of the text like: What was the author’s original intent? What were the circumstances the author was addressing in this passage? What was the cultural context in which this text was written? These are all valid and helpful questions that help us to form a deeper understanding of the Biblical text. Proponents for the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship that are arguing from contextual criticism are saying that Biblical passages like:
1 Corinthians 6:9 (ESV)
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,
And
Romans 1:24-27 (ESV):
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
could not conceive of a committed homosexual relationship therefore the context in which they were written does not apply to today’s understanding of a committed homosexual relationship.
Romans 3:21-24 (ESV):
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
No human on this earth or in the history of this earth has ever transcended their sinful state outside of the grace of God through Jesus Christ. Romans 3:21-24 is law and gospel. 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, in this verse we find the result of the law applied to human righteousness; no one lives up, all fall short of the Glory of God, and this is the judgment applied to sinners, Guilty! But then we have the gospel: 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Proponents of the ordination of homosexual persons in a committed relationship view this piece of scripture as saying that we are all sinners, there is no difference, and therefore homosexuality is no greater sin as another.
On the surface these three arguments in favor of the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship seem like pretty compelling evidence but in reality they are twisting scripture to fit a certain world view. These interpretations are made by persons who approach scripture to stand over it and interpret it to fit their position as opposed to one who approaches scripture as the authoritative Word of God, letting scripture interpret them, there by standing under its authority. I cannot, in good conscious, leave these arguments in this paper without pointing out the deceitfulness of their content and make the argument against the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship in the process.
Matthew 22: 34-39 (ESV)
34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
This is the divine Word of God and it is authoritative! The greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart and the second is to love your neighbor. But what does loving our neighbor entail? If this were God’s only command then I could see the logic in the idea that by excluding openly homosexual persons from ordained clergy we are not loving our neighbor. However, this is not God’s only Word on this issue and to view it as the only word is to twist scripture. Verses such as:
1 Corinthians 6:9 (ESV)
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,
Or
Romans 1:24-27 (ESV):
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
contradict the idea that we should just accept our neighbor no matter what their sexual orientation. I am the father of three beautiful children. If my son Joey (7) was putting candy from a store in his pocket with the intent to steal it from the store I would not let him do so even if by pointing out his sinful behavior I might offend him. My point is that you would have a hard time finding a neighbor that I loved more than my wife and kids as I am first called to the office of husband and father. However loving Joey does not mean that I should avoid hurting his feelings by not teaching him that stealing is a sin. Loving him means that I should point out when his behavior if sinful and correct his behavior so that he may avoid the sinful behavior in the future.
Galatians 6:1 (ESV):
6:1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
Loving our neighbor means correcting them when they’re behavior is sinful. To allow a neighbor to continue to sin would be contrary to the teaching of scripture even if it brings persecution upon us from “the world,” which leads me to the second false teaching in this argument.
To consider scripture in its original context is a fine way to study the Word. It helps us to understand the author’s original intent which aids us in comprehending what God is requiring of us today. However to say that the teachings of the Bible are not applicable to life today is blasphemy. In the Lutheran church scripture is meant to be the final authority for the church. The Word of God does not have an expired shelf life. The proponents for the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship are denying the Word of God by saying that its lessons do not apply to life today in this particular circumstance. The denying of the Word of God as authority leads us into the discussion of the final false argument for the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship.
The desire to hold up the homosexual life style as an example of a proper relationship for a Christian leader is to deny that this lifestyle is sinful as it is considered sexual immorality. As the Bible verses I have pointed out in this paper show, it is clearly sinful and to lift this lifestyle as an example of a proper healthy Christian relationship is to blatantly disobey God’s divine command.
The argument against the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship is based upon the belief in sola scriptura, scripture alone as authority. Scripture as authority is a belief that has been held by the Christian church since the first century. Tradition has also been proposed as a source of authority since this time. Neither scripture nor tradition has ever supported the homosexual life style as a God ordained position. To lift up this lifestyle as a proper Christian relationship is to let today’s world view override scripture and tradition as the authority of the church. It scares the life out of me to hand of the authority of Christ’s church to the world view of those who would call our two thousand year belief in scripture and tradition as outdated.
Not only is this lifestyle against the clear commands of God to avoid sexual immorality, it is also contrary to God’s order of creation as stated in Genesis 1:26-31. God created man and woman, not man and man nor woman and woman, for the purpose of multiplying and filling the earth and with the intention of them subduing the earth and ruling over it. There is no physical way that a homosexual relationship could produce offspring because it is not a God ordained office. In fact by partaking in a homosexual relationship a person is denying the very first command of God and is denying the office in which they were called. To deny God’s command and His order of creation is to behave in an unethical way according to the Divine Command Theory.
There are those who the question this argument by asking what about the spiritual gift of celibacy or the elderly or a barren woman who doesn’t poses the ability to multiply? Again this is rhetoric. There is not found in scripture anything that states that celibacy is a sin but is in fact considered a spiritual gift. This is a different office created by God and not one contrary to his commands. As for the barren and the elderly, this is a physical state not a behavior and therefore is a cross that that person if chosen to bear and not a behavior that contradicts the divine commands of God.
I started this paper by looking at Genesis 1:26-31 and stating that the intention of this paper was to show that the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship was unethical when viewing it through the lens of the ethical theory of Divine Command. I have made the arguments for and against his practice and have concluded that not only does scripture condemn this life style as sinful and sexual immorality but it is against the order of creation therefore is an unethical behavior.

Article Written for "The Concord" Luther Seminary's school paper.

2009-03-19T13:54:00.000-05:00

Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life. (Romans 6:4)

This passage is a promise from God given through the pen of Paul the Apostle. It doesn’t sound very cheery to hear that God promises to put us death, although, in reality, that is what we all deserve. In the end, life is finally fair: we all die for our sins but the good news is that on account of Christ we are then resurrected as a new creation.
Luther would say that our old selves, although already put to death, still cling to the new creation like a sack of worms until our eventual physical death. Why has Jesus Christ taken us out of this world only to send us right back into it? We, as new creations, exist for one purpose: to love and work for the sake of others in the offices which God has called each one of us to serve.
What does all this have to do with the preservation of life? Good question! God has put us to death with his left hand and has raised us up to life with his right hand. Nonetheless, we sometimes still cling to the habits of the old self. Why do we worry about money, our reputation, our space, personal time, or the next cup of Starbucks? Does a new creation in God’s kingdom need money and all those things we feel provide happiness and comfort? Regardless of what I am told, we will not cease to exist if we do not have another cup of Starbucks God has created you anew for the sole purpose of serving your neighbor. Academic degrees or any other thing you think you have earned are not for you, but for the sole purpose of making you a better servant to your neighbor.
As I reflected upon my first full semester here at Luther I came to realize that this is the most important thing I have learned. I exist first as a husband and father to serve my wife and children, second as a son and brother to serve my family and third as a preacher called by God to deliver the gospel message to bring comfort to afflicted consciences. I am called to each of these offices to serve wholly in Christian faith and love. I am not called by God to the office of “me” and all of the creature comforts I suppose necessary for daily living. God is the very one who provides for me, giving me all I need from day to day so that I might be sustained for the work of serving others. This is God’s greatest gift to me because there was indeed a time in which I thought I was god and only served myself. I never want to be that miserable again. Yet, I have been raised up from the dead and called from my misery, only to be given a new whole life.

Sremon on Matthew 16:13-20

2009-01-11T22:07:00.001-06:00

Who do you say that I am? Who do I say that I am? I am a son, a husband, a father, a brother, a preacher, and a friend. Is this the kind of question Jesus is asking in this passage? I think so; all the things that I am identified as being are offices that God has called me to fulfill and Peter identifies Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This is the office that Jesus was called to fulfill.
Romans 10:9-10 states: 9”That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” This is what is occurring here with Peter’s confession. Is Peter now saved because he has confessed with his mouth that Jesus is Lord? Are we today saved because we attend church every Sunday? No, he is saved because of the belief in his heart. Jesus states, “Blessed are you Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you but the Father in the Heavens.” It wasn’t Peter’s confession at all but the faith given to him by the Holy Spirit that caused his mouth to speak this truth therefore his salvation, and ours, has come through the faith that he and we have in his and our hearts and not the act of confession or attendance.. And what is faith but the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus has set up this dialogue with Peter to separate those who understand and those who don’t understand, those who have faith and those who do not yet have faith. Those who confess that Jesus is Jeremiah, Elijah, John the Baptist, or any other person are missing faith; thus are void of the Spirit working in their hearts. These people are in need of a true preacher.
Jesus then proceeds to tell Peter, “I say to you that you are stone and on this very rock I will build up my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” Is Jesus talking about Peter as the stone or is he talking about his confession through the power of the Holy Spirit? Honestly the Greek is not clear as “stone” was never used as a name in Greek. Either Jesus is naming Peter as the first to have received the salvation by faith, given through the Holy Spirit, or Jesus is talking about those mirroring of Peter’s confession through the power of the Holy Spirit. What’s important here is Peter’s preaching and proclamation! After all what is Peter really doing? Is he answering Jesus’ question or is he preaching one of the first gospel sermons? As my Greek professor Dr. Jim Boyce would say, “Yeeeeessss.” I have already said that Peter was surrounded by people who didn’t understand and were in need of a true preacher not unlike our situation today. True preaching gives Jesus to those who have been afflicted, or crushed, by the demands of the law; it rescues them from their despair. Peter is one of the first preachers that God has sent to deliver the gospel in a way that saves. Preaching is the rock, the stone upon which Christ will build his church. Not some dunderhead that happened to get one answer right.
Jesus then proceeds to declare, “And the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” What are these gates of Hades but death itself? Romans 8:38-39 “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Nothing will stand between God and His chosen elect.
Jesus then delivers his directive, “I will give to you the keys to the Kingdom of the Heavens and what you bind on Earth you bind in the Heavens and what you loose on the Earth you loose in the Heavens.” It’s clear that Jesus is saying as a result of your faith I give to you the keys to the Kingdom of Heavens; in other words the power to preach and forgive sins. He has just assigned the office of preaching to Peter and to the reader of this gospel; not to gain their salvation but as a result of it.
So, I stand before you today as a true preacher sent by God with a word that saves. On account of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins, both conscious and unconscious, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You, like Peter, have heard the gospel and are chosen, you are the elect, whether you like it or not, whether you know it or not, you now will confess Christ with your mouth and with your actions. Your old self will cling to you like a bag of worms until your physical death but it is in fact dead. Your old self can no longer serve you in any way but instead stays here on this earth to serve your neighbor. Take the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and loose away serving your neighbor, not to gain salvation but because of it. Amen.

Sermon Genesis 11:1-9:

2008-12-16T21:02:00.001-06:00

Sermon Genesis 11:1-9:
Is God mean? Is he hiding from us? Why did he scatter the people? Why is this text in the Bible? These are four main questions that occurred to me as I pondered this text. The first question I need to answer before answering these four questions would be “Are these the questions in which this passage is answering?” or am I asking the wrong questions?
Is God mean? Is God hiding from us?
It sure seems like it in this passage. These people go through all the trouble of building a city and a tower with in the city in which to use to climb up to God and say “hi” and he comes down and prevents them from communicating with each other and then scatters them throughout the earth.
One the most important things to notice in this text is that God comes down. It appears that the people of Babel have it all wrong. God doesn’t want us to climb up to him but instead he comes down to us.
This idea of climbing up to God has plagued society for centuries. Aristotle thought that we needed to turn ourselves from vice to virtue and in the process make ourselves virtuous or earn our way to a higher existence, perhaps reach God... Today we are still trying to climb that ladder to God by saying the right things, owning the right house, driving a hybrid, tithing the right amount, attending enough services, praying the right way, etc.. I think, like the people in Babel, we have missed the point; God comes down to us, we don’t climb up or earn our way up to him.
God comes down to us in two ways: hidden and revealed. When we seek God where he doesn’t want to be found in things like 401ks, stocks, homeownership, sharing the wealth, and in the government then he hides from us and all we end up finding is his wrath. The people in today’s story were trying to build a tower up to God to “make a name for themselves,” much like a person today going on T.V. to tell the world how God changed them from sinner to saint and if you only send their ministry $X then you to can have prosperity. Obviously this is not where God wants to be found and what these poor people of Babel experienced was the wrath of God.
The first commandment states, “You shall have no other gods.” The people Of Babel, much like the people in today’s society, are turned in upon themselves and are looking for their own glory thus, like Adam and Eve, are trying to become like God. Our God is a jealous God and he will have none of that. He is to be our only God and we are not to seek him in ways in which he does not wish to be found or else we will find the wrath of God. To answer the questions, “Is God mean, and is God hiding from us?” then would be to say, “Yes, God is mean when you seek him where he doesn’t want to be found and yes, in these places he hides.”
Why did God scatter the people?
God has a plan. That sounds so cliché I know, but it’s true. To attempt to peer in to the mind of God would be pure speculation so it doesn’t behoove us to look for the answer to this question in this text as it doesn’t seem to be answering this question. However there are some things that we can know about God from other passages. For instance Acts 1:8 reads “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the farthest parts of the earth." and Matthew 28:19 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Our God is a God of mission and he has chosen us to be his missionaries. He won’t let a little thing like “what we want” stand in his way. God overcomes all obstacles to accomplish his plan.
In the Gospel According to St. Matthew 16:13-20 we hear about Jesus questioning his disciples. He is inquiring into the peoples’ idea of who they believe him to be. Then Jesus questions the disciples directly, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answers, “You are the Christ the Son of the Living God.” Jesus acknowledges that Peter didn’t come up with this confession on his own, Peter very rarely got anything right, but that this confession came through the power of the Holy Spirit working upon his heart. Peter’s confession, according to Jesus, is the “petros” or rock upon which he will build his church. Unknowingly Peter preached a gospel sermon. Jesus then promises to give to Peter the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven and then states, “whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven." Jesus gave Peter the power to forgive sins. “Romans 10:14-15&17 says, “14 How are they to call on one they have not believed in? And how are they to believe in one they have not heard of? And how are they to hear without someone preaching to them? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How timely is the arrival of those who proclaim the good news."15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How timely is the arrival of those who proclaim the good news?” 17Consequently faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the preached word of Christ.” This is how faith happens, God sends a preacher, like Peter and the scattered people in our text, to proclaim Christ through his Word in a way in which the Holy Spirit grabs hold of their heart and changes them forever. Usually this is done in the form of an absolution. If I were to speculate about God’s plan based on these other verses I would say that God scattered the people so that the message of what he had done in their lives would be spread to the ends of the earth.
Why is this text in the Bible?
From a faith stand point I would say that I have already answered this question. This is a story of God coming down to his disobedient people to overcome all the obstacles that they have created there by accomplishing his desire, his plan to send preachers to proclaim his Word in a way in which faith happens. I have also said that there are some places in which God doesn’t want to be found and if we seek him there we will only find his wrath. I have in addition stated that God promises to be our only God and he won’t stand for us turning in upon ourselves making ourselves, or our possessions, god by seeking him in places in which he doesn’t want to be found. This seems to be the points that this text communicates. This story tells us what happens when we try to impose our will over God’s.
But from an academic stand point this text is to communicating a story about our ancestors and an explanation of how there came to be so many different languages all over the world. Considering the authorship of this text, and the text by itself, this would be my conclusion.
Sending:
But here, from the pulpit, I am proclaiming to you a Word from God that you will hear in a way in which the Holy Spirit grabs hold of your heart and changes you forever. So, I stand before you today as a true preacher sent by God and I claim you for the Kingdom of Heaven by declaring to you the entire forgiveness of your sins both conscious and unconscious in the name of the Father , the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now go into the world and stop seeking God in areas in which he doesn’t want to be found. Stop putting your faith and trust in your investments, in your possessions, and your government and put your faith and trust in the preached Word of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Go in peace to love and serve your neighbor. Amen

Galatians Paper

2008-10-28T17:27:00.000-05:00

St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians is one of his best works and reminds modern day Christians of the freedom that is found in Christ Jesus. Over time many theologians have written commentaries to expound upon the good news of the gospel in this work but no two men have ever grasped the concepts in St. Paul’s Epistle better than St. Augustine and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther. The timeless works of these men are still teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, believers in the twenty-first century. There are differences and similarities in how each man approaches their interpretation. For instance St. Augustine interprets the work, as he did with his book “Confessions,” through Plotinus’ Neo-Platonic view and Luther interprets the work through his doctrine of Law and Gospel. Differences aside, both men agree that the core of the message St. Paul conveys is the echo of Christ’s teaching in John 8:36, Jesus sets you free.
St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians serves both as a rebuke and a reminder to the churches he started in Asia Minor. The people of Galatia were young in their Christian walk and had not yet gained the gift of discernment that comes through experience. Paul had delivered the good news of the gospel of Christ to them, but his message was now being perverted by the Jewish Christian converts from Jerusalem. The free gift of salvation that Christ Jesus gives to God’s elect was intended for both Gentile and Jew. The Jewish converts didn’t yet grasp the freedom of a Christian. They felt that they were still bound to the law and were convinced that the Gentiles must therefore be bound to it as well. They took this belief to the churches of Galatia and were teaching circumcision to the Gentiles.
Paul was astonished that the people of Galatia had so quickly abandoned his teaching of freedom in Christ Jesus and proceeded to rebuke them. To prevent any future perversions Paul states, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed.” (Gal 1:8) He continued to explain to them that if they partake in circumcision, they are then bound to obey the whole law and that Christ is of no use to them. For if they could gain their righteousness through the law then Christ died for nothing. Furthermore, the law came to Moses 430 years after God had reckoned onto Abraham righteousness for his faith. Therefore the righteous live by faith not by the law.
After the rebuke section of his Epistle, Paul begins to remind them that they had received faith through the power of the Holy Spirit when he preached and reiterated the importance of Christ’s sacrifice. He continued to assure them that anyone who belongs to Christ must have their flesh crucified and now live life by the Spirit because life by the flesh is subject to the law and can only bring death and despair. But life by the Spirit sets you free from the law. Paul then encourages them to live like good Christians. According to the Apostle, a good Christian lives in joy, love, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
In the preface of his work “Commentary on the Letter to the Galatians,” St. Augustine observers:
“The reason the Apostle writes to the Galatians is so they may understand what it is that God’s grace accomplishes for them: they are no longer under the law.” (Augustine’s Commentary on Galatians p.125)
He further explains that the grace of the gospel that was preached to them by the Apostle had been abandoned. They had returned to the burdens of the law. Augustine recognizes that this line of thinking came from an influence outside their church.
The people of Jewish influence were claiming that, to be a Christian, you must both receive grace and be subject to the law. They were creating doubt in the minds of the church of Galicia in regard to the authority of St. Paul. Because of this, St. Paul reaffirms his authority.
“For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” (Gal 1:11-12)
By stating that his gospel had a divine, not a human, origin St. Paul claims that the authority of his gospel is infallible, in contrast to a human origin which is corrupt and self seeking.
In addition Augustine recognizes a theme of Christian correction in St. Paul’s Epistle: the correction of the Galatians, the correction of St. Peter, and the “how to” example explained in Gal. 6:1. The entire letter serves as a correction of the Galatians.
St. Paul observes St. Peter eating apart from the gentiles when a group of Jewish converts come to visit:
“When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.” (Gal. 2:11-13)

Previously St. Peter had lived like a gentile but now out of the fear of these men he returns to observing the law. St. Paul didn’t let this hypocrisy go uncorrected. In his letter to the Galatians Paul details his rebuke and correction of Peter which in Augustine’s view is being used as an example of how Christians should correct each other.
In the final chapter of Galatians St. Paul explains that the rebuking of a fellow Christian should be done out of love.
“Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” (Gal. 6:1-2)
He didn’t want them to neglect “fraternal correction,” however he didn’t want them fighting each other so he stresses that we should correct each other gently and in a spirit of love.
Augustine was influenced by Plotinus’ doctrine of neo-Platonism. Plotinus’ main concern was to detail the path of the human soul as it pursued union with God. In doing so he gave rise to his theories on the One, the mind, the World-Soul, and the place of humans in the scheme of things.
The One is the Light-Source out of which the world comes into existence. Although the One is the source of being, it does not posses being, as it is beyond being. The nature of the One is to create, thus becoming the Godhead. Its emanation is overflowing and leads to his next concept the Mind.
The Mind is the same as Plato’s concept of real ideas as it is a collection of infinite ideas and it gives the forms or templates for everything that actually exists in the world. The Divine Mind is the source of all other minds. To think rationally is to think the thoughts of God’s. The Mind feels both the urge to return to the Godhead and to create and its creation gives rise to Plotinus’ next concept the World-Soul.
The World-Soul is the agent of creation because the Mind is passive. Human souls are the highest level of creation. The World-Mind is composed of the same substance of the human soul and is eternal and immortal. The World-Soul feels a relentless urge to return home to the One. It also functions to create the material world as it is the energy and force that generates matter. Therefore Nature and all things in nature are the result of the overflowing World-Mind. Nature then becomes the furthest thing from the Godhead and therefore is evil. An enlightened soul views all made things as unworthy and shuns them.
A human’s place in this world is to nurse the soul as it journeys back to the Godhead. James L. Christian states in “The Wisdom Seekers”
We must disconnect from the world of trivial preoccupation; we must withdraw from the seductive environment of the senses that would detour our mind and body from the constant cultivation of our spiritual life. Our every effort is to become uncontaminated by flesh and body.” p.275
The soul’s job then is to, through its own free will, deny the material world thus purifying itself in the process of seeking the return to the Godhead.
Plotinus’ influence on St. Augustine is significant to the way he views freedom as presented in St. Paul’s Epistle, specifically the denial of the flesh and the journey of the soul back to God. According to St. Augustine the law is of the flesh as it came to humans through a human, Moses. Although God wrote the law he did so to serve as a disciplinarian for human life. Augustine believes that over time humans have added to it their own traditions making it worldlier. The law was never meant to impart righteousness onto the human soul but to humble it.
The law was ordained, therefore for a proud people so that they might be humbled by their transgression (since they could not receive the grace of love unless they were humbled, and without this grace they could not fulfill the precepts of the law at all), so that they might seek grace and not assume they could be saved by their own merits (which is pride), and so that they might be righteous not by their own power and strength, but by the hand of a mediator who justifies the impious. (Augustine’s Commentary on Galatians p.167)
For Augustine, St. Paul’s concept of freedom from the law and its oppression is denial of the flesh and the material world. For Augustine the freedom that Christ brings the human soul is grace giving a person the ability to deny the material world and return to God.
“Now a kind of death is brought about through the disciplinarian, with the intended result that the disciplinarian is not necessary, just as an infant is breast-fed with the result that it’s mother’s milk is no longer necessary, and one arrives at one’s homeland by ship with the result that the ship is no longer necessary. Another explanation is that through the law understood spiritually he died to the law, in order that he might not live under it carnally.” (Augustine’s Commentary on Galatians p.149)
St. Augustine also demonstrates his Neo-Platonic influence in book VIII of his “Confessions,” in which he is struggling with his conversion to Christianity.
“So let us hear no more of their assertion, when they observe two wills in conflict in one man, that there are two opposing minds in him, one good and the other bad, and that-they are in conflict because they spring from two opposing substances and two opposing principles.” (Confessions p.174)
Clearly in this passage Augustine is referring to the desire of the World-Soul to return to the One and the desire to create things in the material world. In a very Neo-Platonic way he calls the desire to return to the divine good and the desire for the world bad. In addition, the completion of his conversion demonstrates the purification of the soul on its journey to return to the One.
Through a Neo-Platonic lens Augustine interprets Paul’s message as one of freedom though denial of worldly things and desires so that a soul may be purified and focus solely on God. Augustine sets an example for his future parishioners in his “Confessions.”
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther often referred to St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians as “my Katie von Bora.” This Epistle captivated Luther’s heart and he preached from it habitually.
“But it is because, as I often warn you, there is a clear and present danger that the devil may take away from us the pure doctrine of faith and may substitute for it the doctrine of works and human of human traditions. It is very necessary, therefore, that this doctrine of faith be continually read and heard in public.” (Luther’s Works vol. 26 p.3)
According to Luther’s commentary, St. Paul’s Epistle is an argument establishing the doctrine of faith, grace, and the forgiveness of sins. It teaches Christians to distinguish between Christian righteousness and all other kinds of righteousness so that in the midst of despair through the temptation of the devil, a Christian may gain freedom by shifting their focus to this passive righteousness and cling to the promise of the gospel.
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore.” (Gal. 5:1)
In his commentary, Luther explains that the freedom that Paul is referring to in the above passage isn’t a political freedom, but the freedom of the spirit from the conscience.
“For Christ has set us free, not for a political freedom or a freedom of the flesh but for a theological or spiritual freedom, that is, to make our conscience free and joyful, unafraid of the wrath of God.” (Luther’s Works vol. 27 p.5)
Luther believes that the spirit must be trained so that it can recognize an accusation from the law and abandon the despair it causes for the freedom of Christ. His doctrine of law and gospel comes from this idea of oppression and freedom.
For Luther, the law is the law that Moses delivered to the Israelites in the Old Testament or anything else that puts a burden upon the human conscience and causes them to seek active righteousness, active in the sense that a person tries to obtain righteousness through their own works. The law serves as the “Hammer of God” hammering away at the flesh with its demands until it brings about a level of despair that crushes a person’s pride. Its purpose is not to bring about righteousness but to create in the human soul the need for the gospel.
What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. (Gal. 3:19)
The gospel is the promise that God gave through faith in his son Jesus Christ.
Faith in the gospel comes from the hearing of the word of God from a elected preacher causing faith to spring to life in the soul of the elect believer through the power of the Holy Spirit. This faith sets you free from the supervision and demands of the law obtaining righteousness passively not by your own merits.
“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” ( Gal. 3:26-27)
The gospel is God’s free gift of reconciliation through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Through law and gospel Luther is able to comprehend Paul’s theology and detect God’s work in the lives of his parishioners through the example set forth in the Galatians Epistle. God comes down to us and uses the law to show humans that they are sinful, causing despair.
When a man’s sin has been disclosed by the law that the law shines into his heart, he finds nothing more odious and intolerable than the law.”(Luther’s Works vol. 26 p.320)
After being convicted by the law, a person is comforted by the mediator Jesus Christ.
That mediator is Jesus Christ. He does not change the sound of the law, as Moses did; nor does he cover it with a veil or lead me away from view of the law. But he sets himself against the wrath of the law and abolishes it; in his own body and by himself he satisfies the law. Afterwards he says to me through the gospel: “Of course, the law is horrible and wrathful. Do not be afraid , however, or run away; but stand fast. I take your place and make satisfaction to the law for you.” (Luther’s Works vol. 26 p.325)
For example, the Galatians were being told that they must become circumcised to be Christians. This is the law in action. But St. Paul delivers the promise of the gospel reminding them that righteousness is passive, not active there, by abolishing their obligation to the law.
Of the two commentaries discussed, I would choose Luther’s view to adopt into my own personal theology. Luther puts the obligation of salvation on God not humans; where as St. Augustine puts the burden on the human to nurse and purify the soul as it travels back to God. Being a human I would rather have the omnipotent being God in charge instead of a depraved, fallen being such as myself. Luther’s theology also unyokes a person from the law in a sense that it gives relief from the pressures of society. For instance, according to Luther, the gospel is there to give serenity and comfort to a soul. In contrast, St. Augustine’s commentary views the gospel as a guide on a tiresome journey.
I believe the freedom that is given through Christ is a better understood by Luther and is a better model for pastors to use with their parishioners. It sets them free from the standards of society, the law, and allows them to enjoy the things God has given us, as opposed to Augustine’s view of everything of the world being evil and should be shunned. Augustine’s view stresses a person out, as they are constantly worrying abou t being too worldly. Luther gives God’s grace and freedom to enjoy life and do what makes you happy as long as it doesn’t conflict with Christ’s new commandment of love God and neighbor.

Bibliography:

Augustine, St. Augustine’s Commentary on Galatians Oxford Early Christian Studies
Translated by Eric Plumer

Luther, Martin Luther’s Works Vol. 26&27 Concordia Publishing House
Translated by Jaroslaw Pelkian

Augustine, St. Confessions Penguin Classics
Translated by R.S. Pine-Coffin

Christian, James L. The Wisdom Seekers Vol. 1 Thompson Learning Inc.

The New Oxford Annotated Bible New Revised Standard Version

Luther Seminary Entrance Essay!

2008-10-08T18:37:00.000-05:00

Jamie Strickler
Law and Gospel Study
Autobiography
December 10, 2007

Since my baptism the Lord has been using the Law, through events in my life, to hammer my flesh into submission and sending preachers to deliver His promises to strengthen my faith and preserve my hope. The most significant events that come to mind are: being bullied as a child, a career as a high school wrestler, a failed relationship, a failed marriage, and a failure to succeed financially.
As a third grader it became evident that I was the fat kid, I was tormented mercilessly. There were a number of bullies and at thirty-three years old I can still remember their names and still feel the humiliation and pain they inflicted. Each crushing blow to the gut or pop to the nose reminded me that I wasn’t good enough and obviously wasn’t living up to the standards or law of the world. These crushing blows inflicted by the agents of evil sent me on a journey to find out how, in this world, I could obtain righteousness. Believing that the world couldn’t accept me for who I am, I believed that a perfect being like God to love me? There must be some way in which I could perform to earn God and the world’s acceptance.
First I tried to build my body. As a freshman in high school I discovered that I was stronger that everyone else and that gained me some notoriety. I spent the next four years of my life working out and seeking out more mature lifters to learn new techniques to become bigger and stronger. As a senior in high school I weighed one hundred ninety-five pounds and had obtained a low six percent body fat. To my delight I was feared and caught the attention of a couple of young girls. At the time I mistook fear as respect and sexual conquest as love.
I also discovered that I had a talent in the sport of wrestling and punished each opponent as if they were one of my childhood bullies. In competition I broke opponent’s ribs, fingers, and did my share of eye gouging. Anything to win! Acquiring the rank of captain of the team I won more and more matches and became more feared. But it seemed with each victory I became angrier, in hind sight I see that my anger wasn’t the real emotion I was experiencing. Anger never presents itself alone, it is always covering up some more vulnerable emotion and for me that emotion was fear of losing. In my subconscious mind I couldn’t lose a match or else everyone would see me for who I really was a weak fat kid in an athlete’s body. But in my conscious mind I no longer needed God because I had become God. But the Law was about to strike again. Just before the State Tournament my senior year I received a crushing blow that I would never be able to overcome. I had justified myself physically in the flesh and my merciful Savior knew that is was causing me pain and one day in practice my right knee got caught in the mat and was super flexed ruining my chances of a State Championship. Wrestling at fifty percent I placed sixth to opponents I had beaten earlier in the year. As I stood and received my reward, a bronze medal, I knew that I would never wrestle again, I had failed, and once more I wasn’t good enough.
Not being in the spot light was more than I could bear and I turned to the only one, at the time, who could make me feel like a man, my high school girlfriend. She was a college student standing five foot one and blonde, every young boy’s dream. She introduced me to the party life and I found that by drinking alcohol I could somehow forget, for a short time, all my failures. She was, I thought at the time, my dream girl until she entered someone else’s dream and became my nightmare. I was attending college now and I couldn’t handle the loss of the one thing that made me somewhat whole. I quit school and entered a deep depression. The Law had struck again.
I then turned to my faith. I had been baptized and confirmed in the Catholic Church and I knew of no other place to look for meaning except mass. I attended church regularly and had enrolled in community college, I was back on track. I met a nice high school girl whose mother was a born again Christian. She introduced me to a non-denominational church which lead me to start reading Christian literature. I found, in their church a loving, forgiving God, not the condemning, vengeful God of my past. Marrying that girl and finding success in the auto business I believed I was on my way.
At twenty-two I was making six figures and had found yet another way to gain my own righteousness or so I thought. Torn between the party life, work, family and church on Sunday I failed to notice that my new bride had become lonely. When she turned to drugs and an older man I felt the Law once again knock me on my kester. She filed for divorce and we celebrated our three year anniversary with the dissolution of the marriage. I was crushed and felt more rejected that I ever had in my life. Then my loving and rescuing Savior came to me through a man He had called to the office of Pastor, Kerry Jecht. Kerry was the pastor of my ex-wife’s church and we had met to try to save my marriage. Becoming friends I found my faith strengthening as he delivered the promises of the Gospel, planting the Jesus seed if you will, but I still couldn’t leave the security of an intoxicated weekend to drown my pain. As St. Augustine said, “Lord make me chaste, but not yet!”
A salesman at the dealership in which I was working introduced me to his oldest daughter Zanny. We fell immediately in love and were married, by Kerry, in less that a year. Through out our seven plus years of marriage God has used Zanny to demonstrate to me what unconditional love and forgiveness truly looks like, she is a living breathing example of what God can do in a marriage. After the birth of our son, Joseph Michael, we decided that we better find our place in a church and since we were both raised Catholic, it was time to return there. I went through the process of having my first marriage annulled and then we had our marriage blessed and our son baptized. By the time our daughter, Ally Rae, was born we were good “Sunday” Catholics. But there was something missing, we kept drifting deeper in to debt as we were making over one hundred thousand dollars a year but living like we made two hundred thousand. I had abandoned God again for my new Gods power, things, and money and again the Law had its way with me.
911 was a horrible time for a lot of people and it killed the car business. We left the comfort of our small town so that I could take a job with a larger dealership in hopes that our new income could out run our current lifestyle. It didn’t. We were bankrupt, spiritually and financially. It was on Memorial Day 2003 that the Holy Spirit seed planted inside me became a fruit bearing tree. I had had enough, the Hammer of God had taken its toll on my flesh; I had been yoked to the Law too long.
I didn’t know what to do but I knew I had to leave the car business. It was amazing, I no longer bound to the bondage of guilt for having to manipulate people and that alone set me free from the abuse of alcohol. I spent the next nine months working as a loan officer in a mortgage company helping people, like me, fresh out of bankruptcy save their houses and my spare time searching for Christ. That was it, this was my calling, I was called to help people in trouble.
I ran into an old friend from the car business, Bob Eckhart, who invited me to his non-denominational mega church and I again discovered the forgiving merciful God. I started training with them part-time to become an associate Pastor with their upcoming satellite branch. For nine months I mentored with two pastors, Jason Stark and Tom Clegg. I had a hunger for the Word of God and devoured three to four Christian books a week. On Jason’s recommendation I started mentoring and counseling men from our church, but now matter how hard I tried it was never enough to satisfy my hunger to do the work of God; I was never quit good enough.
Tom asked me what it was I wanted to do with my life and I told him I wanted to return to school and become a Pastor. He referred me to Grandview College. Then the Law struck again, when the new satellite church opened I was passed up for the associate pastor position. My heart was broken, and we left the church.
In the mean time I had registered for school full time and Zanny excitedly reentered the work force managing a retail store. We had lost our house but we were able to secure a small two bedroom town home. We were dirt poor but extremely happy and free. To add to our joy Zanny unexpectedly became pregnant.
At Grand View College I met Doctors Ken Jones and Mark Mattes and they became my new delivers of the Gospel promise. Through my spiritual father, Dr. Ken Jones, I leaned of Luther and his theology of Law and Gospel. Finally it was all clear, all this really wasn’t up to me, my will was bound to God by God. Everything I thought I understood about God was turned upside down and inside out. Hidden in all the trials I had experienced God was drawing me to himself, hammering away at my flesh with Law and building my faith with the promise delivered by his elected preachers. I was finally free from the obligation to gain my own righteousness; Jesus had done it for me. We joined Faith Lutheran Church in Clive Iowa where I serve as a care minister and we had our third child, Gabriella Suzanne, baptized.
Through the tutelage of Dr Jones I have been unyoked of the burden on the Law by embracing the theology of justification by faith alone explained through Luther, St. Augustine, and St. Paul. I once asked Dr. Jones, “Now that I am free from the Law, what do I do now?” He answered, “What do you want to do?”
Well I’m doing it, for the past year and a half I have served as a chaplain with Hope Ministries’ Bethel Rescue Mission not because I have some debt of service to pay God, but because I am completely happy being called to take up the mission of John the Baptist pointing my bony finger to the cross of Christ for the broken to see.
I want to attend Seminary because I feel an internal call to be an ELCA pastor and want to explore it further. The fruit that is associated with Luther Seminary entices me, for instance, Ken Jones, Steve Paulson, Gerhard Forde, David Nerdig, Jack Mithelman, and Mark Mattes.
I am Lutheran through and through. I am convinced that God elects people to eternal salvation and draws them to himself through a bound will. No more searching for righteousness through works. I see Luther’s theology of Law and Gospel lived out each day in lives of the men I encounter at the shelter and using Luther’s theology am able to explain to them the freedom I have been freely given. The Sacraments of baptism and communion have become very dear to me, baptism being the bestowing of Christ’s promise upon God’s elect and in communion experiencing Christ’s presence. I am in complete agreement with the Nicene Creed, and the Apostles Creed. I see that as Christians we are just sinners now justified by and set free to follow Jesus and obey his Laws of loving God and neighbor. Through the gift of Christ crucified I am free from relying on my emotions, feelings, or understanding and in times of trial can cling to God’s Gospel promises. I no longer dread the Law I embrace the Gospel

Pregame Sermon to Waldorf College Football Team

2008-08-31T13:14:00.000-05:00

There once was a powerful army who seemed unstoppable. The general of this army had set his sites upon a small kingdom that he believed he could conquer very easily. He sent a messenger ahead of his army to the king of the village to offer them the chance to surrender as their army would be greatly out numbered. After the messenger delivered the terms of the general’s offer the king called his best solider into the court room. He looked at his finest example of a military leader and said to him, “Fall on your sword,” the man instantly and without hesitation did as his king commanded. Then the king called his second best solider and commanded the same, again without hesitation the solider fulfilled the command of his king. The king then looked at the messenger and said, “I may only have a few but every man I have is willing to give all he has for me.” The messenger returned to the general and said, “Sir we can not defeat these men because they are already dead.”
My name is Jamie Strickler and I am here tonight to talk to you about being part of a team. I understand that your football team comes fourth; faith is first then your family then your education then football. But none the less in any of these priorities you are functioning as a part of a team. And as a part of these teams you are expected to do your part with intensity, respect, commitment, and trustworthiness. It doesn’t matter if you are complying with the wishes of your heavenly Father, your earthly father, your professors, or your coach. It is all team work.
In the story I told you of the small kingdom did you find it surprising that men would take their own life with out question? You see when each man joined the king’s army they gave their up their former lives to server a higher righteous calling. I hope that none of you will ever have to face that dilemma. I know that most likely coach Youngblood will never as you to fall on your sword for the team, although after three a day practices if may have felt like it. But none the less you are asked to do your part on this team without question or complaint and to the best of you ability. The quarter back isn’t to be worrying about the linemen and the linebackers are not to be worrying about the safety. Each man should be focused on his job and trust that everyone else is doing the same. This selflessness my friends is what makes a team champions.
Waldorf College is a school of the church. It is expected that Jesus the Word of God will be part of your team. There is no greater power. The power of Christ is what I am willing to die for without question. You see we are all apart of the body of Christ in which Christ is the head.

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. (1 COR 12:12)

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. (1 COR 12:27)

We are all members of His team. And as part of His team we are all expected to do our duty without question or complaint. Whether you believe it or not and whether you know it or not, you have been called here by God to be student athletes. God is using this period in your life to shape each of you into the man He is calling you to be. In Matthew chapter 25:31-46 Jesus tells of the separating of the sheep from the goats. The sheep are the ones who believed in Jesus and did his work feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty and so on. The goats are the ones who may have professed belief but then didn’t do the work of Christ. Low and behold it was the doers that were saved and not the professors. Believe me as a student there are some professors that I would like to condemn to hell but I don’t think that is the kind of professor Jesus meant. You are the doers. God has called you here to play football for His glory. This is a school of the church! And He is not asking you to hand out Bible tracts or give some over emotional prayer in public. He is calling you to perform with the gifts he has given you, your talents as a student and as an athlete. He is calling you to serve His team without question or complaint. I know that each of you is up for the challenge because you wouldn’t be here if that weren’t the case.

Don’t mistake what I am saying. I am not talking about winning every game. Although that is obtainable sometimes it isn’t the way in which we learn the most. We can learn something from every defeat in our lives. Mostly I have learned that if God isn’t in it I will loose in the end. What I am talking about is playing your guts out for the glory of God and your team. Giving everything you have focusing on your duty alone for the good of the team. If you win you win as a team and praise God, if you loose you loose as a team and praise God. Either way there better not be anything left in you gas tank when you walk off the field.

When I was young I was the fat kid and was bullied mercilessly. I know you can’t tell it by my masculine physique toady. Every punch to the gut and every bloody nose was a reminder to me that I didn’t live up to some standard. I spent most of my life trying to live up to the standards of this world. My senior year of high school I was 5’ 9” and weighed 195lbs with 8% body fat. I was a two time all state wrestler and I was terrified to loose. My fear expressed itself as anger and I broke fingers, cracked ribs, and gouged eyes, anything to win. I competed with a hate and a rage that became way out of control. You see if I lost then I would confirm the fact that I was a looser but if I won then I confirmed that I was a winner. Not for my team not for God, I was god. God had called me to be a wrestler for His glory to teach and shape me but I used His calling for self glorification and revenge. In pursuit of my own glory the inevitable happened I got hurt and place sixth in the state tournament behind 5 guys I had beaten earlier in the year. I had lost. It sent me into a drunken spiral that I didn’t soon recover from. I found new gods power and money. At the age of 22 I was making over 150k a year. I was working 70 hours a week performing for the love of power and money. When I wasn’t working I was drunk because of the pressure, guilt, shame, and fear that I would someday not perform well. Well it happened. I was working as a business manager with a car dealership working on commission. When the 911 attacks took place the car business died. 70% of my income came from the finance charge of the loans I was putting together. Anyone care to guess how much commission is paid to the business manager on a 0% loan? I took a $30,000 pay cut the first year. And eventually took a $100,000 a year pay cut. My wife and I lost everything: our house, our cars, everything. One night I was driving home from a party so drunk that I could only focus with one eye. God came to me that night and told me that I could no longer live the way I had been living. My life was never the same after that. I returned to school, finished my BA in Religion graduating magna cum laude and as part of three national honor societies. I now attend Luther Seminary in St. Paul MN. on a full academic scholarship. Not for me but for God. You see sometimes you don’t know Jesus is all you need until He is all you have left. I encourage you to learn from my mistakes. Fear of failure and being filled with hate and revenge is no way to live your life and it most certainly is not how you serve God or your team.

God will use your academic ability as well as your athletic ability mold and shape you. Your God given talents will take you places in this world. Tomorrow is your first chance to give your abilities to God. When you step on that field be apart of God’s team. Over all God’s team is a small one but each member of His team is willing to give their life for Him and their team mates. Sounds like a championship team to me. Tomorrow learn from my mistakes, put yourself aside for the glory and love of God and your team.

(Ephesians 4:22-24) You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Play tomorrow like you are new men and apart of an eternal team. Play your guts out and may Almighty God bless you and keep you safe. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen!

Justifying Grace

2008-07-30T13:33:00.007-05:00

Below is a speech I made during a Walk to Emmaus Weekend. For more info on Walk to Emmaus go to http://www.gracehouse.org/

Justifying Grace Talk:

In the nineteen-fifties a cake mix company came up with a new mix that only required the addition of one cup of water. The cake mix was a complete failure. Although in blind taste tests it always surpassed its competitors the company could not get people to buy the product. The company’s marketing department decided to ask shoppers in the cake mix isle of a grocery store why they chose other mixes over theirs. The result was shocking. The only reason that people refused to purchase the mix was that they believed that if it only required one cup of water that it must not be any good. The company immediately changed the recipe and the mix sold like the proverbial hot cakes. What did they do to the recipe? The mix now required one cup of water and one egg.

My name is Jamie Strickler and this talk is entitled “Justifying Grace.”
Fist a little about myself. I am a forgiven sinner crushed by the law and resurrected by the gospel of Jesus Christ. I have been married to Suzanne, better known as Zanny, for eight years and we have three children: Joey 6, Ally, 5 and Gabby 1. I spent nine years as a finance director at some of the larger car dealerships in Iowa before God called me to be a preacher. In the last two years I have completed my BA in Religion from Grand View College in Des Moines IA, graduating Magna Cum Laude, and now I attend Luther Seminary in St. Paul MN on a full academic scholarship. While completing my undergraduate degree I served at Hope Ministries’ Bethel Rescue Mission, in downtown Des Moines, as a night chaplain.

Introduction:

Justifying Grace tells the story of how an individual responds to God’s calling of them into a relationship with Him. It is the moment when we realize that we do not merit the relationship; it’s not something we work our way into. We come to this realization when we understand that God accepts you as you are to then make something new out of you. God accepts your unacceptability. Justifying Grace is the Holy Spirit turning us around, it's our awakened awareness, our eyes being opened to the love and companionship of God; the Holy Spirit making God’s claim on you irresistible and changing you from the inside out. In the Old Testament God used the prophets to call His people’s wicked, unfaithful hearts back to a genuine relationship with Him by reminding them of His covenant.

As we have heard, in the Prevenient Grace talk, God is constantly pursuing us, sometimes referred to as the hounds of heaven. Throughout the Bible we hear of God calling His people into a mutual love relationship through a covenant. In the Old Testament times when two parties wanted to make a covenant with each other they chose a covenant representative from either party. Each covenant representative would bring an animal and sacrifice it before the other party. The animals represented each party’s willingness to die to up hold the covenant.

In the New Testament God makes a New Covenant. He sends Jesus, His very Word, as a sacrificial Lamb to die for the forgiveness of sins and as an act of His law convicting sinners in an attempt to call them back to Him. Those who believe in His promise are counted as righteous, or in a right relationship with Him. Through His grace God sends the Holy Spirit to create in you a new heart through faith. And how does this faith happen? This faith happens through the hearing of the Word of God.

Romans 10:17
17Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

In His mercy God sends a preacher with the Word of God on his tongue to deliver to sinners a message that releases the Holy Spirit and causes faith to come to life inside of the repentant sinner. Our relationship with God happens by faith in Jesus Christ.

Romans 10:14-15
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"[a]

In the first part of my talk I told you of a cake mix company and how they sold their mix by giving the consumer more of a part to play in the creation of the cake. Well God is like the cake mix company. He wants to give you a very tasty cake. But as humans we have a hard time believing that all we have to do is add one cup of water or just believe in Jesus. Men always want to have control in their lives and a relationship with God isn’t any different. But the truth is that the cake company doesn’t need our help to complete the cake. But to sell our rebellious minds on the mix God lets us believe that we have a part to play, saying yes when he calls.

When the Holy Spirit has created enough faith within you to accept the fact that God’s grace is more than you could ever hope for you are said to have had a conversion. St. Paul calls it being crucified with Christ or putting the old self to death.

Galatians 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me

The more you hear the Word of God the more your faith grows. Through faith you gain a better understanding of yourselves and gain the desire to care for the needs of your brothers and sisters. You come into a fuller understanding of God’s purpose for your life. Please understand that from faith comes good works. You don’t do good works then have faith. Your relationship with God isn’t something you merit, remember the cake company.

Romans 3:20-26

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. 21But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement,[a] through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

No one will be justified by the law in other words by how well you serve or pray. You can no longer lean on your own strength and understanding to follow Jesus. You must pull away from yourselves so that the Holy Spirit can do His work inside of you. If you think you have control over your sinful body, try to invoke that control the next time you have diarrhea or try to stop your heart from beating or hold your breath.

Humans can’t always trust their emotions. I’ll be honest some days I wake up and I don’t feel saved. Those are the days when my faith must cling to the promises of Jesus; “My body broken for you, My blood shed for you.” By remembering Jesus’ finished work on the cross I know that regardless of how I feel, God is at work in my life. God is infinitely patient, even through your days of unfaith, He is there working in your lives putting to death the flesh and raising up the spirit.

Romans 6:4

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.

God’s grace is the enabling factor for the change in your life. What are some disciplines that you may practice so that God’s graciousness grows in you? We have already discussed the importance of the hearing of the Word of God therefore church attendance is important. Even if the sermon on a particular Sunday isn’t any good, even if the choir is off key and even if your child is disruptive you still hear the Word of God proclaimed and your faith is the better for it. Some other disciplines that involve the Word are prayer, scripture reading, meditation, and doing what you were called to do. By doing what you were called to do I mean loving your neighbor. God doesn’t need your good works, something about Him being all powerful, but your neighbor does. If your neighbor needs help moving then go help them move. Don’t go with some ulterior motive of converting them. That only leads to trying to merit souls for the Lord and that is way beyond your ability. You show them God’s love and grace and let God do the converting. You might be surprised; your neighbor might ask you why you are such a helpful friend. That question is God opening the door for you to discuss you faith. Never try to pry that door open. Hard human hearts won’t allow it. Trust me I’ve tried it.

Let me tell you the story of a homeless man named Al. Al was the third and unwanted child. He was tied to a bed until he was two years old. At the age of six his parent sent him to a mental institution where he was molested. At the age of eight he was sent to reform school where he was molested. At fourteen he ran away and was selling his body on the streets to pedophiles to earn money for food. At sixteen his parents allowed him to come home where he raped his older sister and younger brother. Al has done time in jail for kidnapping a woman during a car jacking. Al is a hopeless alcoholic on the streets of down town Des Moines. Try as I may I just couldn’t convince Al of God’s love. I learned that I didn’t have that power. My job was to love him right where he was and not for what I wanted him to be. I was to love him, answer his questions about God when asked, and pray for him daily. When I say I have tried to break down the door I have. But through that experience it was me that God was changing not Al. I still talk to him on the phone about once a month and pray for him daily. I’m doing what I was called to do.

I have learned a semester of Greek in the last three weeks so let me share a word with you. Agape. It is one of the three Greek words for love. Agape is the love that God has for you. It is a love so deep that the finite human mind can not comprehend it. Agape is what you’re receiving this weekend. The kitchen crew, the agape team and even the people of the Emmaus Community have written you letters to let you know about this agape. Believe me it is a rare occurrence in this world to see it in action.

So when you return to your lives remember this agape, remember that you are called to love your neighbor. That is your calling, your vocation. In his essay “On the Freedom of a Christian” Martin Luther said, “Don’t go looking for crosses to bear, a man who has a family has cross enough.” Our crosses are the people God calls us to care for. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord! De colores!

Lessons learned amoung the homeless!

2008-06-11T16:42:00.006-05:00

One of the greatest life shaping experiences I have ever had in my community was serving as a chaplain for Hope Ministries’ Bethel Rescue Mission. Bethel is a men’s rescue mission in down town Des Moines and is a faith based mission. In other words they do not take any government funding so that they can talk about Jesus. Ninety-five percent of their funding comes in the form of individual donors and five percent in the form of local business support. Not only was I introduced to a whole new cultural, one that is at times ignored by our society, but the experience changed my life forever as it changed the meaning of the phrase “the least of these.” I encountered horrific stories of child abuse, molestation, alcohol and drug abuse, all resonating from broken families. I still have nightmares today about some of the stories I heard. Although horrifying this experience shaped me to have compassion for the truly broken people in our society, as well as tolerance for those who are mentally or intellectually incapable of caring for themselves, let alone the children they have birthed. Five of the most tragic lives that I encountered and had a sever effect on me were the lives of “A,” “B,” “R,” “J,” and “JF.” I use only their first initials for confidentiality reasons.

“A” was one of the first men I encountered at the shelter. He was the third child and was unwanted. When he was two his parents tied him to a bed and fed him only beans, at six they committed him to a mental intuition where he was molested by a staff person. After committing some childhood crimes he was sent to a reform school where he was molested by a staff member. He escaped from this school at fourteen and sold his body on the street to homosexual men for food money. His parents let him move back home at sixteen where he had a sexual affair with his older sister and his little brother. A has been in and out of jail all his life. He is now fifty and cannot stay sober for one minute because he can’t face where he has been or what he has done, and is completely without the skills it takes to live in today’s society. Yesterday he called me and is in jail again for another alcohol related crime.

So, what do I do with this man? Through A God has showed me what it means to be a truly broken person. All that I though I knew about what these men needed went out the window when I heard his story. So, I asked A, “What can I do for you?” He answered, “Give me a hug.” So I held him for about fifteen minutes as he cried like a child. I wish I could say that this cry was cleansing and cured his ails but it didn’t. I learned that God sent me to the mission to change me not for me to change these men, as changing them fell under the category of miracle, a category that belongs to the Almighty. Dealing with A has shaped me to realize that I cannot save the world but I am called to do my part. My part is to see when the law, whether secular or God’s law, is crushing a man and bring him the message of comfort that comes through the revelation of Jesus Christ. Although God didn’t cure A, He was able to give him comfort and a promise to cling to through me. For fifteen minuets that day A was safe and let go of what has been building in him for years. For all I know this may have been the only fifteen minutes in his life where he has ever felt safe and loved. Those fifteen minutes gave A a reference point from which he could draw hope and security. He now knew that someone in the world loved him for who he really was, a broken child in a man’s body. He admitted to me on the phone that when he is in despair he remembers that moment. I do as well. I never really took time to consider the feelings of others; I only wanted them to know how their actions affected me. For the first time in my life I was thinking like a pastor, shepherding and loving my flock regardless of their wandering.

B is a handsome man of Native American descent. Alcohol is B’s poison but it is not his problem. For B alcohol is just a symptom of a deeper issue. B has an older sister who experimented with sex at the tender age of eleven. What good sister wouldn’t show her little brother what she had learned? At the age of seven B was having a full fledge sexual affair with his sister, not to mention interceding on behalf of his mother as his alcoholic father beat her. It’s no wonder that B is now a closet homosexual. He is searching for the loving father he never knew, he feels like his sister has stolen his innocence, and has given up on loving women because he couldn’t take the burden of not being able to protect his mother. He hates himself so he drinks to numb the pain which causing him to loose good jobs and rendering him homeless, broken, and hiding the only part himself that he feels is good. B, like A, is in need of a savior and has adopted alcohol as an escape.

This was my first contact with a closeted homosexual. Nothing I had learned in church about sexual immorality seemed like what he needed to hear. In fact B had heard it all already and it only made him despise himself the more. It is one thing to have a pious opinion on homosexuality and quite another to be responsible for delivering the Gospel promises of Jesus Christ to a person afflicted by this feeling. My experience with B shaped how I feel about gay people. Through B, God shaped me from an attitude of intolerance to an attitude of tolerance. You see this experience sent me to the scriptures where I found that sexual immorality is no greater a sin than drunkenness, adultery, or murder. Society puts sin into a hierarchy but God does not. Again I was reminded that my job wasn’t to tell B how to live his life or that he was a bad person. My job was to love him unconditionally and accept him as a child of God right where he was because being or not being gay wasn’t going to get him into heaven, faith was. I let go of my insecure homophobia and hugged B tight letting him know that Jesus and I loved him just the way he is, he doesn’t have to live up to some standard for God to love him because Jesus lived up to the standard for all of us. B found new comfort in the Bible and I had another part of my ignorant flesh put to death.

R is an interesting story. He has a BA in business from Syracuse University, which he earned while climbing the ranks of the IBM Corporation. The plague of addiction to alcohol, drugs, and homelessness do not discriminate; their victims come from all walks of life. R discovered that cocaine kept him alert longer which gave him more motivation to sell IBM products until his habit out weighed his income. He then tried to rob a liquor store, was caught, and spent seven years in jail for armed robbery. It is amazing to me how much drug use changes people. To meet R today you would never know that he had a violent bone in his body. And he doesn’t apart from the drugs. R is no longer a coke addict but alcohol has become his vice to escape the failure and embarrassment of his past. He has tried many recovery programs but they only help him stop drinking which is the symptom and don’t attack the problem his shame. Or maybe it’s R who can’t face his shame. Either way like the other men R is in need of a Savior.

My experience with R allowed me to see that I could be duped. There were times when I would swear that R believed in the promises of Jesus and wanted to deal with his past but each time I would get to close the next time I would see him he was drunk. I was humiliated several times when I went to bat for R with the staff and he would end up doing what they said he would, get drunk.
It was hard to love R unconditionally but I feel this was the lesson that I was to learn. God showed me that people will fail you constantly and you must love them any way. Jesus loves me every time I fail Him. Unconditional love doesn’t sprout in a person naturally; it is something that is endured and shaped over time. In these situations society has two different effects on people, either they become hardened and pessimistic, or they learn to love the person and not their actions. Through the grace of God I learned compassion and unconditional love.
J is another interesting story fraught with tragedy and joy. J is a U.S. Marine veteran of the Vietnam conflict. He was thrown in to a jungle at the age of eighteen, given a gun and told to kill or be killed. Not only that but that he was doing so, or as he was told, out of the love of his country. Imagine his confusion when he was spit on and called baby killer when he returned home. He had lost his sense of trust in everything he thought was good and right in the world and had gained a server hate for himself. He had met a girl in Phoenix and moved to Grinnell Iowa to live with her. In her home surroundings he found out that she had a multiple personality and was an intravenous drug user. Her dominate personality must not of like him because she kicked him out and he hitch hiked to Des Moines. A truck driver picked him up on I80 and drove him to the mission which he had no previous knowledge of. God must have a lot of angels that are truck drivers as this story is very common. J was sick and I feared he had pneumonia so I took him to the VA Hospital. The good news was that he didn’t have pneumonia; the bad news was that he had contracted the HIV virus from his girlfriend and it had developed into full blown AIDS. The doctors told him to go home and get his affairs in order he was going to die.

What do you tell a man with a death sentence? J was not a drug user or an alcoholic and he sure as hell didn’t deserve this. I love J very much and he became very close to my family and I. I held him as he cried for quit some time, it was all I could do to comfort him, I had no great words of advice. Through his tears he asked me to tell him about Jesus. What he wanted to know was if he was condemned to hell for murdering all those people in the war. He felt like a leper because no one would touch him. So, I showed him the love of Jesus by being sure to hug him each time I saw him and I even brought my then six month old daughter for him to hold.

Previously to meeting J I had thought that AIDS was a disease for gay men and drug users and it scared me. Through my experience with J I learned that in the darkest times of our lives comfort comes through love and God is love. There are no atheists in fox holes; surprisingly this whole world is one big fox hole. My fear of AIDS was gone, now I just hate that wicked disease.
J thought he was the only one of his brothers and sisters still alive, he was wrong. I found his older brother in a suburb of Chicago and when we contacted him he was in Des Moines to see J in less than five hours. He had been searching for J for quite some time. Through a miracle of God J’s body started to kill the HIV virus. His case was featured in the JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) and they are trying to duplicate his results as I write this paper. Within seven weeks J became well enough to travel to Illinois where he now lives with his brother. We still talk on the phone ever other week.

Jf is another interesting character and maybe the scariest. Jf is one of the biggest men I have ever seen standing six foot seven and weighing about two hundred sixty pounds. Jf is an ex-gang banger from Chicago and came to Des Moines under contracted to kill someone until he had a change of conscious. He came to the mission not knowing what to do with his new found sense of right and wrong which is where I met him. He wasn’t very fond of me, or any other white person for that matter, at first but little by little we found that we both possessed a similar interpretation of the Bible. I know it seems strange to believe that a gangster hit man was schooled in the Bible but the fact is that he was raised in a very Christian home. Jf disappeared for about two months after we started to get to know each other and when he resurfaced he showed up in my office a broken individual. He told me that he had returned to Chicago and had gotten back into drugs. The last two month had seemed like a blur but two days prior he came down from a meth induced high and had nothing in his pocket but a bus ticket to Des Moines and a rock that had “Jesus Rocks” inscribed on it. I had given him that rock months ago. He then shut the door to my office and asked me how to surrender to Jesus. I hooked Jf up with a recovery program and he is now working with at risk kids in Des Moines. Jf, the ever tough guy, never told me that he loved me but he did say that he would “kill a nigger for me,” which I think comes just as close in his heart.

Racial prejudice was a big thing in my up bringing. I was taught to think of black people as a lesser being. Not by my parents but by my peers. My experience with Jf changed all that. I know this unconditional loving and accepting thing seems to be a reoccurring theme here but that is exactly what it was, not just for me but Jf as well.

There were several men and women I had contact with that helped shape my life through my experience at Bethel: Ja, A, C, Ri, C, l, Am, T, J, K, P, E, the list goes on but this is a paper not a book.

As I reflect on the way God used my experience at Bethel to shape me I have identified three major themes; unconditional love, destruction of prejudice, and the unyoking of societal law.

Unconditional love, wow this was a lesson involved in every testimony I have to tell. Jesus loved everyone especially the lepers, the poor and the prostitutes. I encountered all three at the mission and found my heart broken for each of them. To truly ache for the needs of another person, I believe, is one of the most important lessons a Christian must learn.

The destruction of my prejudice against homosexuals and blacks still amazes me. I am surprised at how little I see color as a road block to unity and sexual preference as just another sin, no more, no less. The true spirit of Jesus unites people. I have preached in an entirely black, intercity church and felt more loved and at home than I do, sometimes, in my own congregation.

I am now free to love others as Jesus loves me. When Jesus said, “love others as I have loved you,” he wasn’t commanding anything. That would make Jesus just another law giver like Moses. Jesus didn’t come to make new laws; he came to fulfill the law so that we wouldn’t have to be held accountable for our adherence to the law. The law exists not for our salvation but to make us aware that we are sinners. When Jesus said, “love others as I have loved you,” He was showing as a faction of the freedom that belief in Him gives us. Now that we are saved by faith, we are free to love everyone and are unyoked from the burden of the stereotypes that society dictates. Now that I am not judged by the law I am free to follow it. This is the Gospel message.