Sermon for the First Sunday in Lent

 

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Mathew 4).   

Jesus is our example to follow when it comes to temptations. But a better way to look at it is Jesus is our Champion and Victor when it comes to temptations. 

The first thoughts that come from hearing of the temptation of Christ in the wilderness is to say to ourselves, “Let’s be like Jesus. Don’t be like the devil.”

A tall order to be sure – be like Jesus. He is the Son of God and the perfect Son of Man. None on earth can pretend to be divine or perfect.  Nevertheless, the life of Jesus is shown to us that we may see an example of righteousness and holy living. As it is said, in the book of Hebrews, we have “one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

So follow Jesus example when tempted in the following ways:

• ·        Be like Jesus and know your enemy. Be aware of the unseen tempter. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).
• ·        Be like Jesus and use the word of God. So like Jesus, we have the words of God, written for our learning and our defense against temptation. When Jesus was tempted three times, three times He responded by proclaiming the word of God. Hear the Word. Read, mark, learn and inwardly digest it. That when temptations come to your mind, you can push them aside and replace them with what is true and eternal, namely, the law and promises of God.
• ·        Be like Jesus and expect there will be temptations. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the temptations he necessarily had to face. Let that be a lesson for you. Followers of Jesus do not expect a happy easy life. But there will be attacks of the evil one, ungodly desires of the flesh, and pressures from the unbelieving world.
• ·        Be like Jesus and be intentional in your fight against temptation. We see in Jesus words and actions, intentional obedience to that word of God that He knew and used so well. So also, in your temptation, commit to total obedience – no compromises.
• ·        Be like Jesus and remember your baptism.  Notice this also, the Spirit was on Him. This event followed right after the baptism of Jesus by John in the Jordan River. We follow Jesus in this baptized life, with the Holy Spirit on each of us who believes. You are united with Christ in your baptism, so also in your temptation.

 

So what are your temptations? They are unique to each of us. You have to recognize them on your own, in each specific setting. Is it like some forbidden fruit, something that looks desirous but in reality is bad for your body and soul? We can hear what was going on in Eve’s head when she was tempted. Not just the fruit, but underlying that physical temptation was the more serious to doubt God. Did he really say, that you can’t eat that fruit? It was tempting to think she knew better than God. She thought she would put God to the test. She and Adam could be gods themselves.

When you are tempted let God be God and you be you, under His care and control.

Let Jesus Christ be Jesus Christ. Here’s where He is more than just a good example to follow. He is your solution to temptation. He is your Champion and Victor.

Jesus Christ gives us Christians certainty even and especially in times of temptation.

We pray fervently “lead us not into temptation.” When you say this, don’t just have in mind the low hanging fruit. But also plead for Christ’s help for the underlying, more deadly temptations. that the devil, the world, and our sinful nature may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice. Temptations ultimately lead us to doubt God, ignore His commandments, and second guess His holy word.

Oh how, our temptations can be demoralizing and discouraging! What wretched, miserable sinners we are, that just when we think we’ve got one temptation put away, a new one pops up seemingly out of nowhere to torment us!

But our Lord and Great Example has become for us so much more than an example – He has given us victory over all evil, and over every temptation. By His death on the cross and by His blood shed for us, He has won for us the eternal prize of life, forgiveness from the guilt when we’ve fallen for temptations, righteousness and freedom from the pestering of the devil, the world and our sinful flesh. More than a pattern to follow, He brings us through temptations.

For those of us who can’t win at sin, for us fights the Valiant One. He gives us the Vicory. Amen.

Ash Wednesday Sermon

 

Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
    and uphold me with a willing spirit.

¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
    and sinners will return to you.
¹⁴ Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
    O God of my salvation,
    and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
¹⁵ O Lord, open my lips,
    and my mouth will declare your praise.

Psalm 51:12-15

This is the Psalm appointed for Ash Wednesday. If you look it up in your Bible, you’ll see that like many of the Psalms, this one has a heading. This longer than usual heading, gives the context that led up to David praying this prayer. The heading goes: To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

 

David had committed adultery with Bathsheba and didn’t regret it a bit, not right away. He tried to cover it up. Tried to make it seem ok. He arranged to have her husband killed. He sinned and increased the sin, adding guilt against the 5^th commandment,  on top of the guilt against the 6^th commandment. How the mighty have fallen! In Psalm 51, we hear fallen David ask the Lord to raise him up.

Throughout our Wednesdays in Lent we will be considering how the Lord redeemed some figures of the Old Testament, starting here with David. He took the fallen, and raised them up. He found those who were lost and redeemed them. He had compassion on the broken, and rebuilt them, resurrected them.

And while we’re hearing about them, we will be confessing that we too have need of mercy, forgiveness, and God’s re-creative Grace. We need him to redeem us from death and sinfulness and make us alive in Christ our risen Savior.

By means of the preaching of Nathan the prophet, David was led by the Holy Spirit to repent of his sins and plead for help and forgiveness. He says, “have mercy on me, O God.”

“Cleanse me from my iniquity.”

“Create in me a clean heart.”

“Restore to me the joy of your salvation."

As an unforgiven sinner, he has no joy.  Oh, he might have been having fun. But that’s not the same, not comparable to the joy of salvation.

As an unforgiven sinner, David was broken, dirty, Not good for heaven, but really, not much good for earth, either. No good for God, no good for humanity either.

 See, an unforgiven sinner gets all turned in on himself. Doesn’t look beyond himself to God or to neighbor.

David wants the Lord to turn that all around and Redeem him so that will be good for something.

    Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
    and uphold me with a willing spirit.

¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
    and sinners will return to you.

The Redeemed David does teach transgressors in this Psalm.

·        He teaches you to recognize and admit your sinfulness – sinful by nature, sinful by actions, words and thoughts, by what you’ve done and what you’ve left undone.  There’s no way we can cover that up. It’s foolish to pretend it’s “OK”.

·        He teaches sinners how to return to the Lord. By taking and cherishing the things the Lord gives us to save us, that is the Word and the Sacraments. He honors the Words of God. He reminds Christians to remember they are baptized, as they repentantly pray Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!

·        He teaches us what this forgiveness we’re asking for looks like, and what all goes along with it. Joy, holiness, righteousness, and truth.

·        He then shows us what we should expect the rest of our life. Redeemed and risen, we can be useful for the Lord. “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.”

Be sorry for sin. Stop attempting to cover it up. Seek your Lord’s forgiveness and salvation. Then expect to do better. Declare His praise in your words and actions of love.

 

Amen.

Sermon for February 15

Quinquagesima

 

 

 

“Be strong; fear not!” Isaiah 35:4

 

3Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.
4Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not!
Behold, your God will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.” (Isaiah 35)

 

These words are found in about the middle of the book of Isaiah. Just so you understand the setting, Isaiah was tasked by God to write and preach a message of warning to the Old Testament Jews. They were neglecting the word of God, in danger of falling from their faith completely. Isaiah prophesied a coming destruction of their nation. There’d be a great fall from  glory for the Dynasty and Kingdom of David. God would turn them over to their enemies, the Babylonians.

Then alongside the warning was the invitation to return to the Lord and He would restore them. After a great loss to the Babylonian armies and the captivity of many of the people in Babylon, there was a promise that they would return to Judea and the temple, Jerusalem, the whole nation would be rebuilt and renewed.

When the Jews were led captive into exile in Babylon, they had this message from the Lord to take with them: “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come and save you.”

Be strong; fear not. Face the frighting situation without being frightened. Go forth with boldness—a boldness that comes not from within themselves, because by themselves, they would be weak and helpless not strong. But a boldness and confidence that comes from above and from the promises of God that he would restore, would rescue, would resurrect what had fallen.

God laid it onto Isaiah to preach to the men of Judah to repent of the foolishness of fear that made their hands go limp. He had a message to preach to the women to have peace and faith replace their anxious hearts. “Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God, he will save you.”

Now lately, I’ve noticed a lot of fear among us. We are getting a continuous stream of frightful news.

What’s the world coming to?

Where is goodness, morality, hope for the family and society.

There’s this fear that there are powerful, evil, secret elites controlling world events, at work behind what we can see. There’s a fear that behind the news there’s some conspiracy at work to bring evil and destroy good. It’s clear that there are those who market fear. Fear sells. Fear is much more motivating and captivating than hope.

Whenever you get word of great national and international plots and manipulations, you should ask yourself, “What can I do about it?” When you admit that you can’t do anything, or only very little, to save the world, it helps to put the fear in perspective.

Spend your mental energy on the things that you can affect and control. Focus more attention on the problems near you and within you. But with these also, fear must not reign over faith and hope. Isaiah says “to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not!”

There’s the fear of losing what’s precious to me: my loved ones, my comfortable earthly existence, my health, my sanity. Picture those men and women, boys and girls of Old Isaiah’s day, facing a frightening situation without being frightened. 

As those people of old took their punishment from God with repentance and faith, you too must handle the tribulation of this life with a recognition that our suffering comes because of sin, our own sins especially. Fear God, because you are a sinner. But don’t fear anything else on earth or in hell, because you are a saint, saved by Christ. Repenting of our sins, we readily hear of God’s redemption in Christ’s blood.

Fear accomplishes nothing, other than eroding your faith and postponing your work. When you are afraid, you won’t be much good to others. A frightened animal will lash out and bite and claw all the other animals and people around it to try to escape. A frightened person won’t be nice to others, may even hurt others unintentionally as they try to escape.

The Lord calls you to love, not fear. Love casts out fear. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

For love’s sake, “Be strong; fear not.” You don’t have to be oblivious to the dangers and evil that lie ahead of you, but instead of fearing these, do what you can to prepare and to work to correct what’s wrong and avoid catastrophe.  And pray for the help and deliverance that only God can give.

 We read in the Gospel of Luke today, 18:31Taking the twelve, [Jesus] said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. 32For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. 33And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.”

This is our invitation to go into Lent, to follow Jesus into that frightful situation without being frightened. See how boldly our Lord goes into the danger of suffering, shame and death, not with fear, but with confidence. He was confident in the promises of God that on the third day He would rise.

The resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is what we were baptized for. We walk this path of life daily with the reality of His resurrection and ours. In this life that seems chaotic, unpredictable and indeed sometimes frightening, the road we tread has a destination, a purpose, and a home at the end, Jesus our risen Lord and Savior. Amen.

Sermon for February 8

 The Parable of The Sower

Luke 8:4-15

    4When a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to [Jesus], he said in a parable: 5“A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

   9And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, 10he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ 11Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12The ones along the path are those who have heard. Then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. 14And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. 15As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.”

 

God says in Isaiah 55: "So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it."

 

You ever wish you could say that? “My word shall accomplish that which I purpose.” How frustrating it is when you’re trying to tell someone something very important and they just won’t listen!e I’m picturing the preschool teachers whose words often seem to return empty, as if no one heard a thing. The parents of teenagers who have just delivered powerful truth about life and the future, and those for whom the words were meant, respond with “huh?” The manager whose emails go unread by the staff; The healthcare worker whose advice and warnings go unheeded. The preacher who preaches to a congregation of ears attached to distracted minds.

 

We are going to meditate now on Jesus’ Parable of the Sower, but to start I wanted to hear again what God says about His word:  “It shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” Whether people will listen or not, whether people will pay attention or not, whether people will believe it or not, God’s Word is powerful and good and true.

 

A sower went out to sow his seed.

 

 

The Parable (earthly story)	The Interpretation  (heavenly meaning)
The Sower	The Lord
The seed	Word of God
That on the path	Those who do not hear
The bird	The devil
That on the rock	Those who give up the faith In hardships
That among thorns	Those who give up the faith for earthly pleasures
Thorns	Earthly riches and pleasure
The good soil	Those who hear and bear fruit with patience
Hundredfold yield	life of faith-eternity with God

 

 

The Sower is the Lord and the Lord explains it for us that “The seed is the word of God.”

 

The Sower broadcasts his seed graciously, apparently recklessly. As he throws it out by the handful, some falls on the path where the soil has been beaten down by people and animals walking by. Birds come and the seed on the path is easy picking – the birds snatch it away.

 

So the Lord sends his word, graciously, recklessly into many places, into many ears but some won’t let it sink in. Some wont cherish that seed of the word and hold it dear. So the devil can snatch it away and there will be no growth, no faith.

 

You can see this in the generations of people. Parents won’t teach their children to pray. They won’t bring their children to church and Sunday school. Instead they will play games on Sunday. the sports field has far more children than the Sunday school. And the parents, “let these children decide for themselves when they grow up. Then, if they want to, they can go to church, they can hear about the Lord and His word then.”

 

But how can they decide rightly for themselves? There’s been no preparation of the soil. That particular spot of ground was never plowed. It’s has been left hard and impenetrable for the seed that is the Word of God. Jesus warning here is clear. He explains the meaning. Anyone can understand it. But so many don’t listen.

 

And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture.

 

Jesus explains that this is about those who hear the word but give up the faith when hardships come. We all have hardships in life. And we have seen how others have it much worse. Hardships should drive a person to repent and ask for help from heaven above. But many times, especially if the sprouting faith is not well rooted, despair sets in. Instead of the hope of everlasting salvation, there’s only the expectation that it’s only gonna get worse and then we die.

And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it.

 

Jesus explains that this about those who hear the word but give up the faith for earthly pleasures. That’s a good way of looking at it. Chasing after riches, the love of luxuries, the excess of pleasures of the flesh are like thorns. Be careful of these thorns, they can get so thick they choke out everything else.

So the two extremes cause problems: Hardships or riches can both be fatal for faith. Poverty of money, poverty of health, poverty of social standing and you could give up the faith. But if you are rich with money, or rich with health, or rich with family and friends – such could choke out a weak faith.

Church doesn’t need to be the place to teach you how to be financially successful. Leave that to financial advisors and salesmen. Nor should this be place to discuss how to have a healthy lifestyle, diet and exercise. You can get that by listening and obeying healthcare experts. Actually much of the rest of your week can be consumed by pursuing financial and health goals. Our Lord  deemed it necessary to warn you against those very things that they not choke out what’s most important: faith. He warns you not to let your concerns about poverty or riches, sickness or health take over your life so much that there’s no room for God.

And then our Lord directs your attention to what is truly valuable, fruitful, and eternally good.

And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.

 

Seed is sown. A crop grows. The word of the Lord goes forth. Faith grows. In the good soil of your life, your heart, faith grows. And faith is a productive thing. It produces hundreds of benefits. Hope for your future, patience amidst hardships, Love for God, and benefits good for your neighbor, love for your family, compassion for those who are suffering, encouragement for the friend who is struggling with faith.

You have received the seed of faith, that is the Word of God. The Word of Christ crucified and risen again for us and for our salvation. We are about to go into Lent. 10 days from now is Ash Wednesday. We will have extra opportunities to hear the word, to have it planted and have it grow.