Author: nfuller

Jesus sends his workers to us in mercy

Posted on by nfuller

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we recognize God’s mercy to us. We prayed the in the opening line of the Collect prayer: O God, Your almighty power is made known chiefly in showing mercy.  There is no greater love, no greater story than God’s mercy to us. 

As we celebrated Independence day just a few days ago, we should keep in perspective that the only reason we can even have a national birthday is because of God’s mercy to us. God created us and has upheld the order of our society by which we can live and prosper.   

We are a nation that has enjoyed prosperity over our history, with much land and resources. But it is not the resources that makes us unique, but instead the people. People who because of their faith founded our government on Christian principles of liberty, love and respect for citizens, and a recognition that God alone can save our nation by his mercy.

God’s mercy is not just to the U.S., but to the whole world.  And just like every other nation on the earth, our nation from its start has in its nature the impulse to rebel against God. As Christians we see with our own eyes that this rebellion is growing in intensity in recent years. We should keep in mind the rebellion of sin has been going on since our nation’s founding. There was never a golden age of our nation obeying the Lord. 

In the same way, even ancient Israel was always steeped in rebellion.  We see it throughout the Old Testament, and it is referenced in our reading from Ezekiel this morning and seen again in how the people of Nazareth responded to the miraculous teachings and healings from the man who was from their own town- Jesus. 

The LORD spoke to Ezekiel “Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day.”  In response to God’s mercy Israel rebelled over and over.

Only the church can make the transition from rebellious Israel to the New Jerusalem that worships the Lord day and night.  And even in the church we must fight this rebellion to sin. We can easily be like the people of Nazareth, and reject the very Messiah who lives among us. As the church, we must face our rebellious nature, and understand that we can either respond to the Lord’s mercy with gratitude and joy or with rebellion.

The great tragedy of human behavior we are seeing in God’s Word this morning is that even with God right in our midst, sometimes we do not respond to God’s mercy with gratitude, but with rebellion.  We need God’s Word to change us.  The fullness of God’s grace leads us to the repentance that leads to life. Without this repentance we will choose rebellion. We have never fully arrived until the day our Lord returns, we always need to be repenting of our sins and depending on the Lord’s mercy.  

A huge part of the Lord’s mercy toward us is that the LORD earnestly desires this repentance in us.  Why else would He send Ezekiel to speak to the rebellious people the words of  prophet, if not for love and mercy that Israel would return to the LORD. 

In the next few verses beyond our reading: “And you son of man, be not afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. And you shall speak my words to them whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house.”

Ezekiel was told to not be surprised at how harshly his word may be received, by a rebellious people, but to continue speaking the Word of God.  Here in our time we should not be surprised at the tendency for people to rebel against God, and we should not let this departure from the truth discourage our own faith.    

After all, we cannot be that amazed at unbelief when like Israel before us, we are a rebellious house- so often putting ourselves above God’s truth.  We need God’s Word to correct us and get us back on track. Everyday we need to remember our baptism, remember what the Lord has done for us, so that we may turn and live in Christ.

Ezekiel was part of the house of Israel, but as he spoke to his own about the rebellion they all shared, he was looked at strangely as he delivered the word of repentance of God’s Word.  Aren’t you just another on of us? Why should we listen to you?

Our Lord Jesus also received these same looks when he proclaimed God’s law and God’s mercy. “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not his sisters here with us? And they took offense at him?

But Jesus did not let such objections discourage him. Instead, he sent the 12 disciples out two by two to proclaim the good news of the kingdom.  Jesus knew all along that what a rebellious people think of him is of no consequence as compared to what God’s Word says of Him.

Ezekiel was shown in the next chapter, chapter 3 that Gold’s Word brings a sweet taste to our mouths, even if we should be facing hardships or persecution. 

Ezekiel 3:3 “Son of man, feed your belly with this scroll I give to you and fill your stomach with it. “Then I ate it, and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey.”

We heard at the beginning of our worship service the words of Psalm 34 “O taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!”  When the world around us seems so bitter, we have before us the sweetness of God’s Word.

In our gospel lesson we hear how Jesus sent the disciples out two by two in order that they should preach the gospel and give a message of repentance. This message is not just that people turn away from sins, but that they turn to the sweetness of God’s Word, that they taste and see Christ their Savior.

Just as Jesus gave the disciples authority over unclean spirits, the truth of God’s Word gives us authority to speak, no matter how low the view of Christian truth becomes in our world.  No matter how much we rebel, even if we are ashamed of the gospel, the Lord restores us and gives us a place in His kingdom.

A prophet is not without honor in his hometown, and even pastors face this same problem, not just about preaching in their hometown, but preaching as God’s representatives, but being seen by the people as just one of us, as part of American culture and not as one who is sent from God.

Often we want to pay attention to what a pastor is like in his personality, what image he gives in how he presents himself, what seminary he might have went to and many other factors of categorization: is he young, is he old? It is just in our nature to zero in on details that do not matter.  

Yet what matters is that Jesus sends us shepherds, one after another who overlook our rebellious ways and care for us in love. In the LCMS a pastor may challenge a particular sin and call someone out of the need for repentance. Speaking the truth in love, instead of proclaiming what itching ears want to hear.  

But that is not where a pastor ends his message toward us. Pastors predominate in their message to us the good news of God’s mercy.

In our Epistle reading St. Paul talks about how three times he asked to be delivered of the thorn in the flesh that invited harassment from Satan and his humbling. Paul would have liked to be free of those sins that cause hm to wrestle with his right priorities in his life and in his faith.

We are no different, we don’t want to be the rebellious people who have so much mercy to ask of the Lord. And the Lord’s answer is the same to us as it was to Paul, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’

Even as you find yourself in rebellion with God because of your sin, know that Jesus’ grace is sufficient for you, that you can know the full meaning of God’s mercy, that comes to you freely in spite of your sin.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, know that your pastor is the one who is sent from God for your benefit. The meaning of the pastoral office for us- God’s mercy to us, God’s amazing love to us. The Lord Jesus brings us this love and forgiveness, and he will never leave or forsake us. Amen.

In following Jesus the battle lines are drawn

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Our gospel reading begins with people that doubt Jesus, and in fact accuse him of being crazy. Out of contempt for what Jesus is able to accomplish, they accuse Jesus of building his foundation with Satan as the driving force for his miraculous works.

When people question Jesus and doubt him and even suggest that he is possessed by Satan, the battle lines are clearly drawn. There are those who follow God and those who are being driven by Satan, whether they realize it or not.

     Our Old testament reading from Genesis chapter 3 was selected on this Sunday not only to once again remind us of man’s fall into sin, but specifically to highlight the enmity between man and Satan that the LORD established after the fall into sin: 15I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

The result of the fall into sin is the first promise of the gospel, where Adam and Eve’s descendant, the Savior and all those who follow him- are pitted against Satan and all his works in the world. 

The battle lines were already drawn there in the garden of Eden. When we follow Jesus, Satan hates us, he envies us, he is pitted against us because he sees us as one and the same as Jesus.

As a result we should not be surprised by persecution.  Satan hates our faithfulness and seeks to lead us astray, he is always pitted against the faithful- because they are the ones who threaten him the most.

We see how easily in our world today battle lines become drawn. When an event of political significance happens in history, people take sides and quickly develop an: “us and them” mentality.

Tragically when a divorce happens, sides are taken and lines are drawn. Sometimes mutual friends before the divorce are pressured to take one person’s side or the other, as if one person is good and the other evil.

Such divisions caused by sin can lead us to miss the greater truth that there is only one side any of us can be on, that of the Lord Jesus. Either we are on the side of Jesus, or we are slaves to our sinful human nature, essentially slaves to Satan.  

Jesus speaks to this truth about the two sides pitted against one another when he says a house divided against itself cannot stand.

“Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” Psalm 127        There are two ways to look at what can be built and established in this world.  What God establishes and what man establishes under the curse of sin.

How could Jesus perform any of the works he does without the power of the Lord? – unless the Lord builds the house. By this time in Mark chapter 3 we hear about how Jesus has cleansed a leper, cleanses a man with an unclean spirit and helps a paralyzed man walk, and healed many others. 

Of even greater significance than the healings and expelling of demons, Jesus accomplished the obedience to God’s Word that all mankind before were unable to achieve. For forty days after his baptism, Jesus took our place in the wilderness and faced temptations by Satan.  And Jesus overcame the temptations through the power of God’s Word. Clearly the labors of Jesus were built by the Lord.

The tower of Babel was built by people in the years after the flood, so that they could make a name for themselves. As the church we don’t try and build a Tower of Babel 2.0, we recognize the folly in trying to build a name for ourselves and not for God.  Not even the most poorly though through building committee would set out to build a tower of Babel. If you try and build something that is opposed to God’s design, something that tries to compete with God- it will certainly fall with a great crash!  

Yet if we are honest with ourselves, we are very often in the business of building our own house.  After all we live in a world that rebuilds the tower all of the time.

Part of our American identity is that we often expect that whatever plans we make in life, they will come true because we work hard and stay determined in life. As if we are entitled to have our wishes for success come true.

We often come up with an idea of what is going to work out in life, or what we would like to see happen.  And we may pray about decisions we are going to make in life, but so often our minds are already made up. We have a good handle on what is going to work in our lives, and too much deliberation on God’s Word very well may slow us down from where we are going.

And what happens as we move forward so quickly in life with our own plans? We are of course humbled. God’s ways are not our ways. We face disappointment and failure as we see for ourselves how difficult life in the fallen world can be as we try to chart our own future.  Some of our plans may come together, but if the motivation for our plans is for our selfish gain or material pursuits, we will find empty results.

The imagery of a house does not only describe our future plans, but also our very lives, body and soul. If our house is built on something other than the foundation of

Christ the cornerstone, our labor is in vain. Apart from Christ you may build and rebuild and redesign things in your life, but there will not be a maturation of purpose and identity.

What ties a life together if only for this world you have hope? What is life from one year to the next? From one day to the next even? Thanks be to God for Jesus who gives us the victory over sin and death, who is our life and our hope’s foundation.

Jesus answered the scribes who came down from Jerusalem, he refuted the logic of their claim that He was possessed by Satan.  “How can Satan cast out Satan?”  If Jesus was really drawing on the power of Satan, how would Satan possibly stand for Jesus casting out demons and tearing down Satan’s kingdom?

The only possible answer is that the power of Jesus is of God.  Only as the Son of God could Jesus have the power to drive out demons.  This is what Jesus means when he talks about how the strong man must be bound in order to plunder his goods.  How could anyone take Satan’s minions down a notch if Satan himself is there defending the house?

The Lord built the house of salvation in Israel through the promises of a Savior.

This house was built not on human logic- it was built with a genealogy, and people who were imperfect and marred by sin. Patriarchs like Jacob who gained an inheritance though deception and greed. 

The house of salvation was built by the greatest scandal of all- that the Son of God should suffer humiliation and bitter pains and die on the cross.

On this house of salvation, on the rock who is our Savior Jesus, nothing can harm or destroy.  Listen to the words from our gospel lesson about the forgiveness Jesus promises:  “Truly I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter.”

In the context of talking about how He alone is powerful enough to bind Satan- the strongman who tries to occupy our house, Jesus talks about the sin against the Holy Spirit, which alone cannot be forgiven.  

This sin is to exclude Jesus from your life, reject the confession that He is your Lord and Savior, and open the door for the strongman Satan to be unbound and be the ruler of this world to you.

LSB 668 lays out our battle plan against this threat of Satan: Rise! To arms! With prayer employ you, O Christians lest the foe destroy you; for Satan has designed your fall. Wield God’s Word, the weapon glorious; against all foes be thus victorious, For God protects you from them all. Fear not the hordes of hell, Here is Emmanuel, Hail the Savior! The strong foes yield to Christ our shield, and we the victors hold the field.

Wisely fight for time is fleeting; the hours of grace are fast retreating; short, short is our earthly way. When the Lord the dead will waken and sinners all by fear are shaken, the saints with joy will greet that day. Praise God, our triumph’s sure. We need not long endure scorn and trial. Our Savior King his won will bring To that great glory which we sing.

As we journey to the last day, the Lord does indeed build our house, and our labors of faith are never in vain. Amen.

Jesus is our true Sabbath rest- now and in eternity.

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Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath. With these words Jesus teaches us about the true purpose of worship- not to fulfill obligations for God by external actions and commitments of our hearts- but instead to receive Jesus and his salvation. Sabath was made for man, just as Jesus became incarnate and died on the cross for the sake of our salvation.

The Pharisees saw Jesus and the disciples walking through grainfields and they saw the disciples plucking grains of wheat. They think thy have caught Jesus and the disciples red handed doing what amounts to work on the Sabbath. Perhaps they hoped this could prove Jesus was a false prophet and not from God.

They have no compassion for why the disciples were plucking grains of wheat. In reality the disciples were not actually breaking the law in that they were gleaning, which is permitted in the law. The traditions of the Pharisees was always to add extra requirements beyond what the law states, so that people were less likely to break it. Jesus consistently condemns them for their pride in keeping man made rules and their judgement of those who do not follow their own standards.  

In response Jesus points the Pharisees to King David, who was anointed King of Israel one thousand years before Jesus was anointed as the Messiah. He is challenging them as to whether they would condemn King David for breaking one of their rules. And he is teaching them something more about what the Sabbath means through this event in the Bible that they would know well about.

David is well know to have faced persecutions from those like King Saul, and not long after Jonathan warned David of danger from King Saul, David and his men find themselves in a position where they do not have food and they go to the priest at Nob. There is no bread on hand and David asks that the bred of presence be used for food for him and his men.

What was meant for only priests to eat in this house of God was given to David and his men. The priest presided over this house of God faithfully, and when the anointed of the Lord was in his presence, he fed him with the bread that was meant to be left before God.

David’s request had the effect of illustrating that God provides for his people who are in need and call to Him. God provides for His people and the needs of His anointed King are important. The ceremonial law to have bread on the altar was like the eternal light we have in our sanctuary area, a testament to the Lord’s abiding presence.

The bread of the presence is there so that people know the Lord is present. It was there in obedience to God’s commandments, but God does not need the bread, the house of God in Nob was made for man to worship and know God’s mercy, not for God’s benefit.    

David and his men eating the bread of the presence was also a prophetic foreshadowing of Jesus and his disciples facing criticism from the pharisees for gleaning wheat and healing the sick on Sabbath days.  Jesus now was the one who was putting man’s well being in body and soul, above man’s duty to maintain ceremonial laws. Not that Jesus downplayed or abandoned ceremonial laws. Instead Jesus taught the proper context of what the ceremonial laws were for, that they were part of the Sabbath that was made for man.

Since the Sabbath is made for man we can understand that worship is not only about honoring God, but also about our healing.  This healing is a rest for both body and soul. Rest for body in the sense of remembrance that Israel was a slave in Egypt to where they were unable to rest. Israel faced affliction and hardship just as the Lord Jesus also faced affliction. But now the Lord has saved Israel with a mighty arm, and they can remember this with Sabbath rest, and feel this in their bodies. And so, we the New Israel also have Sabbath rest for our bodies, because Jesus has freed us from the slavery of sin, freed us from the obligation to always work to earn our keep.  Instead, the Sabbath gives us eyes to see the goodness of Creation and how much the Lord provides without our work.

And the Sabbath is a rest for our souls. Jesus has freed us from the curse of death. So that no matter how much the trials of this world and the frailties of our flesh haunts us, we are actually safe and secure through Christ in an eternal Sabbath rest.  Jesus is the true Sabbath rest for God’s people. He invites to us, “come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give rest for your souls.”

A good way to appreciate what our Sabbath rest does for us is to think about what people are missing who do not go to church. Have you ever pictured what life is like for those who wake up on Sunday mornings and have no intention of ever going to church in their life? Think of a young man or a young woman in this community waking up late on a Sunday morning and hearing our church bells toll at 10:30 and the bells mean very little to them.

What routines do these people have, and what do they think of God’s Word. At a minimum I would imagine God’s Word is underestimated, “it’s just not for m, not my thing”. And when it comes to man’s tendency to put himself as chief false idol, God’s Word if it were understood by people, would be despised.

As we heard in our Collect prayer: Eternal God Your Son Jesus Christ is our true Sabbath rest. Help us to keep each day holy by receiving His word of comfort that we may find our rest in Him.  Those who do not go to church cannot know true Sabbath rest because they do not know the Son of God.

As Luther’s explanation to the 3rd Commandment reads: “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.”  Those who treasure God’s Word, who consider it sacred- those are the ones who seek to be in church, who find true rest in the joy of hearing the Word.

Here at Christ Lutheran Church Jesus offers us Sabbath rest. This church was raised up and given birth so that God’s people in this place could know and experience Sabbath rest, could touch and see the Lord’s Salvation, even with Jesus’ very body and blood. So that through every ebb and flow of life, every change in stage of life whether gradual or sudden- that the Lord is our hope and our foundation. As we confessed in the Introit:

For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. 5 For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.8 Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him;  God is a refuge for us. 

It goes without saying that Jesus is our true rest everyday of the week, not just Sundays. Sunday is the most important day of our week, it is our opportunity for the gifts given in the Divine Service shared with the Body of Christ. But each day with our Lord is also a mini Sabbath.

Although we may be on our own through the week, we are still part of the body of Christ when not at church, our Lord still intercedes for us each day as do Christians for one another.

Although we may not devote as much time during the week to hearing God’s Word as on Sunday, through the week you can read one Psalm per day or be in the Word in any number of daily routines. Not out of obligation to keep a Sabbath rule, but out of thanksgiving, and out of our need to find rest in our Lord each and every day. Amen.

Christ leads the Church to the Ministry of life

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We prayed in the Collect Prayer:  O King of glory Lord of hosts, uplifted in triumph far above all heavens, leave us not without consolation but send us the Spirit of truth who you promised from the Father, for You live and reign with Him and the Holy Spirit one God now and forever. Amen  The church celebrated last Thursday the Ascension of Jesus, observing how our lives have a purpose beyond the material needs of this world since Jesus has ascended and Jesus will return in Glory to take us to heaven with Him.

And now today the church looks forward to the celebration of Pentecost, where Jesus sends the gift of the Holy Spirit. As we await Jesus’ return we are not alone, we are not without consolation, Jesus has made arrangements for us to continue in the faith.

In our gospel lesson we have the final prayer Jesus prays before his departure to the cross, John 17 gives us Jesus’ will for us the church: that the Father would keep us in His name, that we would be one in faith and doctrine in His name, that we would be kept from the evil one, knowing we are in the world but not of the world. Jesus prays that we would be sanctified in the truth of God’s Word, that the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth and set our lives apart to live in this truth.

As the Church we have a truth that comes entirely from outside of the wisdom and knowledge of this world, that comes from God in heaven. Accordingly, when we live in this truth the world hates us. People who are of the world will not understand this truth unless someone is born again of Water and the Word and thereby sanctified into the truth.

Look at the architecture of this church through spiritual eyes. See the Baptism font, the altar, and the communion rail. Gaze at the candelabra, the two altar candles, the eternal light and the Christ candle all lit.   There is nothing before your eyes that is of the world. See the inner sanctuary of the church for what it is, that this is not simply a church on the East Side of Indianapolis in the state of Indiana and in the US. Not simply a church with history dating back to this buildings construction, but instead see it is part of Jesus’ prayer for his church- a place set aside for the Holy Spirit to lead people into all truth.  

This place of worship is an outpost of God’s kingdom, this church could be located in any part of the world and at any time in history since Jesus’ resurrection, and it would mean the same thing, that Jesus has overcome the curse of sin and death on the cross. That he calls all people of every nation and land to be joined into this church to make a holy people offering sacrifices of Thanksgiving.

The gifts of life and salvation that come from the baptism font, the altar and the pulpit, these gifts were not designed by man. They are not a fruit of Western civilization or American history, they are a direct design of the Lord Jesus himself, instituted to the disciples in Jerusalem in those great days of our salvation.

We are the New Israel, we are here in this church in our own corner of Heaven on Earth. When we are here the ways of the world no longer matter. When we are here, we share the sentiment of the hymn:  What is the world to me!

As Jesus prayed, he described how none of those who were given to him were lost except the son of destruction, so that the scripture may be fulfilled. In our church year we do not talk much about Judas. During holy week when we hear about his betrayal of Jesus, our attention is on our Lord’s passion. This Sunday we hear from our reading from Acts and our gospel lesson about the significance that one of Jesus’ followers should betray him.

 If the 11 disciples became apostles of Jesus to proclaim the gospel to the world, then Judas can be understood as the opposite, although originally a disciple of Jesus he is now no longer a disciple, there are just 11 now, Judas is no longer numbered among the faithful, he traded the birthright to be an Apostle of Jesus to be instead an Apostle of Satan.

Through Judas, Satan finds opportunity to do violence to Jesus. Judas is a mediator or a minister of not life or salvation, but of murder. The power of darkness has many ministers, all those who have been called into service of sin rebellion and death. 

In fact, Satan even seeks to enlist us into His service. And he can do this without our changing many parameters of our lives. His agenda can replace God’s law from our hearts and our minds simply through enticing us to live according to our sinful nature and putting God’s law behind us so as to live for ourselves.

In our reading from Acts we hear about how Judas is replaced with a new Apostle, someone who has been following Jesus since the beginning. Matthias is chosen to continue the office of life. Although Satan tried to bring death to God’s kingdom, his efforts were in vain.  

For just as Matthias was appointed to replace Judas and continue the ministry of the gospel, so also has the Lord Jesus has continued to send laborers into the mission field to proclaim life.  Although the world may shout its values and rage fiercely, when we are here in this church the message of the world is not heard.

Although it was necessary for the scripture to be fulfilled as prophesied by David that Jesus would be betrayed by one who was numbered among us. There are also qualities of the followers of Jesus that are also necessary by divine decree.

Listen to these words from the gospel of Luke, as the risen Jesus teaches: 44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

It was necessary that the scripture be fulfilled, that Christ must suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and forgiveness must be preached to all nations. Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are participating in the final must happen necessity, that the forgiveness of sins be preached to all nations.  

This must happen so that the Father’s will is met, that the church be kept in His name, kept in the truth. The forgiveness of sins must be preached through Matthias and all other ministers of the Word. So that through this Ministry of truth Christ’s life becomes our life, his death becomes our freedom from sin, his resurrection our victory, and his ascension our sure and certain hope.  

Satan would prefer that instead of the preaching of God’s Word there would be silence. Satan wants us to keep silent in the world. He wants to use our silence, our laziness, our timidness for his will to be done on earth.

Satan celebrated when Adam was silent in the face of his lies to Eve. Joseph’s brothers were silent when Judah introduced his plan to sell their youngest brother into slavery. Aaron went along with Israel’s desires to build the golden calf.  Yet the ministry of God will not be silent, we will not be silent. We will proclaim Christ and his salvation, we will hold to his truth and his truth alone.

Thanks be to God, it is divinely ordained that this ministry of Life will continue from one generation to another, until the end of the age. Amen.

New life in Christ and new beginnings for His Church

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So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every situation everyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”  Peter opened his mouth and spoke God’s truth. Peter who on many occasions was known to act before thinking, Peter who was so often impulsive.  Who said he would die with Jesus and then days later denied Jesus three times, who even at the Transfiguration interrupted the holy conversation Jesus was having with Moses, and Elijah. This same Peter spoke after the resurrection of Jesus about God’s love for all people- Jews and Gentiles alike.

Something changed in Peter’s life. How he saw things, what life meant to him, and how God’s mercy is manifested in the world- all of these looked different to Peter.  What allowed for this change in Peter’s life? Clearly Peter beheld the glory of the risen Lord Jesus and his life could not go on the same.

The month of May is a month of change, often changes that are full of emotions, as the school year comes to a close and another Summer comes.   

In the month of May High school and college students typically close out their school year and about a quarter of college students are finishing a degree program. From first steps to first day of school.  First lost teeth, to first day with a driver’s license. And now walking across the stage a young man has graduated high school and is now starting a new direction in life – leaving behind the years of life with family. 

Yet changes from ‘what was’ are not entirely bittersweet endings, they are also beginnings of new stages in life.  When the Lord Jesus is in our lives, changes are never just losses over stages of life that will never be again, they are fruits of his work in our lives.

Like Peter we can look at changes through the lens of the resurrection of Jesus. Because he is risen, our lives are filled with meaning as those who life in the New Creation that Jesus brings to us by undoing the curse of sin. If you ever feel like nothing goes your way, that life is one loss and disappointment after another, consider the greatest change of all for the better that happened in your life and continues to bear fruit- The  drowning of our old sinful nature and the rebirth of Water and the Spirit.

Earlier in Acts chapter 10 Peter is on a roof top praying and the Lord put him into a trance where he sees the heavens opened and a great sheet being let down by four corners. The sheet holds and abundant array of animals that are not part of the designated clean foods outlined in the law- including birds and reptiles.  Accompanying this great sight Peter receives a voice that says: “Rise Peter, Kill and Eat.”

Right on cue Peter answers with the obedience of one who follows God’s law: “By no means, Lord: for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” Now Peter receives a more clear statement with the same message: “What God has made clean do not call common.”

Peter grew up knowing the difference between what was clean and what was unclean. He knew well what things you can eat and who you can eat with.   What once Peter knew and experienced about life is now changing rapidly before Peter’s eyes.  Next Peter has a gentile visitor, Cornelius. Peter catches on that where in the past it would be unlawful for him to receive him in his home- now this is God’s good and perfect will.  

Peter learned a lesson about God’s love to all people. Jesus has made everything clean. Jesus has made everything new.  On the cross as Jesus paid for the sin of the world all of the old distinctions between clean and unclean no longer mattered- for in Christ all is made clean.  Peter saw that this new birth is available to all people, Jews and gentiles alike.  Peter saw firsthand how the death and resurrection of Jesus made all things new.

And so our Lord promises the same to us. Through the ordinary means of Water and the Word He brings us to the joys of the Kingdom, and he opens to us the portal of everlasting life. 

Ephesians chapter 2 talks about the change Jesus brought to all of the nations of the world:  13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

Peter experienced this change- where the Jews and Gentiles, the clean and unclean where now all one in hope through the Lord Jesus.   

Peter preached this change boldly to all who would hear.  He could never go back again to the old way of seeing everyone as either clean or unclean, Jew of Gentile- all he could see instead was the righteousness of Christ adorning his people with gladness and joy.

When you have reached the next step in your life- when you see one stage of life is coming to a close-  you move on to the next things the Lord has planned for you. 

Age brings changes we are never ready for, and changes bring new roles of service in the Lord’s Church. Many faithful older members of the body of Christ learn to recognize when one avenue of service has run its course you can always pray for others and meditate on the scripture and hymns, and encourage those in the church to faithfulness.

Jesus knew ahead of time the changes that were coming in our lives and in the lives of the twelve disciples. In our gospel lesson Jesus is speaking with the twelve at length for the last time before his arrest and crucifixion. Jesus knew it was time to prepare them for this change where their lives would never be the same again.

“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

Jesus asked them to remain in His love and to keep his commandments- these are one and the same things. To remain in Jesus’ love is to remain as a new creation in Christ, leaving behind our sinful nature, leaving behind all of those old outdated and useless ways of our flesh.  Looking not to serve ourselves, but to serve God and one another.  

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

In our hymn of the day we sang how things will never be the same because Christ has come to bring life for all. “In a watery grave are buried All our sins that Jesus carried, Christ the arc of life has ferried us across death’s raging flood. Dark the way, yet Christ precedes us, past the scowl of death he leads us; spreads a table where he feeds us with his body and his blood.” 

What beautiful words to hold onto this day, Christ the arc of life ferries us through death’s raging flood, Christ the light of life leads us though dark the way, he spreads out a fest before us as we receive his gifts of his body and blood.  

We are the church, the Lord’s New Creation by Water and the Word. We are the bride of Christ, the Lord has turned our mourning into dancing. And thanks be to God, filled with these promises, our lives will never be the same.  Amen.

Jesus is the true Good Shepherd who lays down his life for His Sheep

Posted on by nfuller

“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.” Every year During this stage of the season of Easter we listen to words from the gospel of John as Jesus describes how he is the one true Good Shepherd of Israel who willing laid down his life for his sheep so that he may take it up again for our sake. 

When Jesus says he is the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep, he is describing himself as unlike what any other shepherd can be. If another shepherd were to lay down his life for the flock of four legged sheep in his care, he would be foolish. If he lays down his life, his family no longer has his help, and he is of no use to the sheep in the future if he lays down his life for them.  

Jesus lays down his life for us because caring for us and other sheep in his charge is his chief purpose. He is entirely unlike the shepherds who are hired hands, who only have a certain investment of interest in the well being of the sheep. Jesus lays down his life for us so that we are carried to a better life, to eternal life with him.

He is the Good Shepherd who can help you in a way that no family member or friend can, he can forgive your sins and release you from death’s hold. So that you can say: even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for you are with me.

In today’s world there are more distractions than ever before, we are often rushing from one thing to another. Keeping busy and filling up life with a lot of things is often the liturgy of our daily life. The more we fill up our life with things, the less space we have to receive what the Lord does for us, that he makes us to lie down in green pastures and restores our souls.

We know from the scriptures that David experienced the very poetic scenes used in Psalm 23. King David tended sheep when he was a boy on Jesse’s farm.  As a shepherd he saw that although he cared for sheep and was like God to them- he was not the one who made life safe and pleasant for the sheep- he saw that all of creation is in the Lord’s hands.

He saw the Lord’s good creation of the green pastures and still waters of the pastoral life caring for sheep. The experience of oil running down his head as the prophet Samuel anointed David as king. And the experience of persecution and danger as foes sought his life.

As David was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write Psalm 23, he put into words the meaning of a Shepherd in terms of God’s care for his people.    In the first three verses David refers to the LORD in the third person, describing what YHWH does for him and  all of His people. 

But then as David reflects on the valley of the shadow of death He switches to the second person, “I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”  David is no longer just talking about what God does for him, he is talking to the God who is near to Him and with him.

Jesus is the one who is near to us. He is the Savior who is with us in the time of difficulty. He is the Shepherd we can call to in our greatest time of need- the Shepherd who has overcome death.

In our Collect prayer we prayed, Almighty God, merciful Father, since you have wakened from death the Shepherd of Your Sheep…  The Good Shepherd who lays down his life for His Sheep is himself raised up. Were Christ not raised from the dead he would not be powerful enough to shepherd and protect us.  Our lives are changed as we look to our resurrected Lord Jesus to be our Good Shepherd. The God who lives and has the power to give us life.

In our Introit the words of Jesus surround the words of Psalm 23- Jesus is the shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep.  Jesus is David’s greater son who was anointed with oil as the Messiah. Jesus is the true Shepherd who seeks after all the lost sheep. Who seeks even the sheep who are not of his fold- a reference to the Gentiles who are brought into God’s family through His unending love.

Christians all over the world pray Psalm 23. It is the most often memorized psalm.  But often people may miss the bigger picture that Psalm, like all other psalms. is fulfilled in Christ.  Jesus is the Shepherd who makes us lie down in green pastures and leads us beside still waters.   

In the book of 1st Samuel David was called to play the harp for King Saul to relieve his tortured Spirit. The harp or lyre was played by David and then King Saul would have relief from his personal torment. But it was not the music alone that helped King Saul, but the faith of David and the message of God’s Word that accompanied this music, the Psalms David would sing.  

Hearing God’s Word makes everything better for us. Singing Hymns of Faith makes everything better. In a simpler time the church could easily offer several worship services per week that people could walk to and attend to without missing work or school commitments, and thereby receive the comfort of hearing God’s Word and singing God’s Word more regularly.

Yet even now the Lord leads us besides still waters with the comfort of His Word. The paths of righteousness we are led on come from hearing Jesus’ forgiveness and undying love to us.

So many people today live in a tormented existence where their sense of worth comes from the values of this world. Their worth comes from self righteousness, whether they are Christians or unbelievers. More people than not in today’s world believe that you earn your place in the universe or in God’s kingdom through external good works, things you do to make yourself look good. People will even justify violence and murder as if they are good things, if they think their actions are part of a crusade against traditional Christian values.

  Even those who think they need to fight a holy war against the infidels need to hear God’s Word as balm to their troubled spirits! They need to hear the message of the gospel of John that Jesus did not come to exploit us or divide us, or to advance racism- but instead to lay down his life for us on the cross. 

And by that cross he gathers us all together, Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for my the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock and one shepherd.     

Jesus alone can gather us all together as divided as our hearts are with sin. As we listen to His voice we become one body so that there is one voice and one Shepherd over us all.

This past year has brought times of sadness to our congregation as we have worked to come to an understanding of what it would mean to sell our building out of necessity and become renters. We have all in different ways looked back at periods in the past when our congregation was in a more prosperous state. Yet the time in the present is no less valuable than the past was to us. Here in the present Jesus is our Good Shepherd, and he has led us to this point in the present.

Here in the present, we are called to listen to his voice.  In God’s Word we hear his voice, there we have the promise that God’s Word does not return without result.

We know there is great profit to confess the words of our First reading today from Acts chapter 4 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among menby which we must be saved.”

In an uncertain time who can you put your trust in? Who can shepherd you through uncertain times. Who can stand by you even when all else is falling apart around you? Who is your Shepherd at the hour of death?  It is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for us. Amen.

We spread the aroma of Christ’s resurrection to the world.

Posted on by nfuller

When Jesus died on the cross, it looked like all was lost all. For the disciples who had believed in Him, all hopes were gone. To the mortal eye, it looked as if God had lost and the devil had won. There hung the world’s great Redeemer—dead, defeated, and humiliated.

That is where our gospel reading from Mark begins, the purchasing of spices once the Sabbath was over and the stores were open again. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome had come to the tomb so that they could anoint Jesus with these spices- so that they could take away the stench of death during those initial days of the decomposition of a body.

If the story had ended there, Two thousand years of Baptisms, confirmations, sermons, Communions, and ordinations into the pastoral office would mean nothing. And we would all still be dead in our trespasses and sins. You would have no hope of eternal life. Death would hold just as much terror for you as it did for everyone else.

Opponents of traditional Christianity know how essential this piece of the puzzle is. They know that without the resurrection of Christ, the whole house of cards falls down. And that is why they do everything possible to call into question the truthfulness of this event. They do whatever they can to put Jesus back in that tomb, to say it was all a lie invented by later followers of Jesus to preserve His memory. They desire for the sting of death to fester and linger until the end.

Today we rejoice that this is not where the story ended. Death’s victory was short-lived. Its rule over the souls of men was brought to an end on the first day of the week, when early in the morning our Lord Jesus  Christ rose from the dead.

And now we continue to celebrate his resurrection year after. People are almost always in a good mood on Easter Sunday, it’s like all of the problems in life we contend with just go away in the joyous light of celebrating our Lord’s resurrection.

Things seem so clear in life when we meditate on Christ’s work for our salvation and how his resurrection has changed the course of our life. Instead of being just one person in chain of life, destined for death and decay and composition to the earth, In Christ I am God’s new creation of water and the Spirit. My life, like all Christians, is a fragrant offering before the Lord. In the words of Psalm 141:

“Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.”

Our lives as God’s children are a fragrant offering before the Lord because death was not the end for Jesus. His body did not succumb to decay and the stench of death. The purpose of the tomb Jesus was laid in was for the flesh to decompose on the burial stone slab and then for his bones to be collected for a later time. The gospel’s describe how Jesus was laid in a tomb in which no one had been laid. It clarifies this because

Stone burial slabs were typically used over and over for different bodies to decay.

Jesus did not remain on that burial slab, death could not hold him. Ephesians calls his willingness to die for us a fragrant offering to God. “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

 Until Christ returns we live in a world still with the stench of decay, sin and death. This is a reality that unbelievers like to point out- how death always wins.  But especially today we see a bigger picture.  And not just that we see a bigger picture we smell a bigger picture. And what a sweet smell it is. This pleasant aroma is not just the lilies here adorning the church, or the fragrances we apply to ourselves in getting ready for church- or even the smell of Easter breakfast items wafting into the Nave here.

This is the aroma of Christ. From 2 Corinthians chapter 1: 14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.  

The risen Christ leads us in triumphal procession this Easter morning. Because he is risen from the grave we sing these songs of triumph, we process with the cross, and process to the altar later to receive his body and blood. And we go out and spread the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.

There are a few popular comedy movies I can think of with scenes where a character is ambushed by an overbearing department store employee, spraying a perfume with dramatic unsettling requests. I’m almost sure that the Seinfeld character Kramer was probably blown away by a perfume ambush in at least one episode. 

But that is not the type of spreading of the fragrance of Christ that we are talking about. St. Paul describes how we the church spread the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ. The knowledge of Christ permeates every aspect of how we live our lives, how we carry ourselves, how we react to difficult situations.

Just like a scent can quickly fill a whole room, so does our Lord call us to be the aroma of Christ to those who are being saved, and to those who reject Christ the scripture says they are going from death to death- as in they remain unmoved by the aroma of Christ sent to them.

The sense of smell permeates our being and teachers us things that words cannot express. Smells evoke unique places and memories.  And the aroma of Christ in us translates to the world in ways that transcend the words we can speak. 

When you think of all that we have been through in life, how hard you have to work to make it in this fallen world at time, and how often the sins we commit weigh us down, you would think we would give off more of a foul stench than the aroma of Christ.

When Lazarus’ tomb was about to be opened the people warned Jesus of the stench there would be after four days.  But there was no stench, Jesus had transformed Lazarus from death into life.

And he has transformed us as well. He has gives us the sweet aroma of the resurrection.  Everything we do is scented with this new life in Christ. As Colossians chapter 3 describes for us: 2 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Jesus is the only one who can lead us through the journey through the wilderness.

Posted on by nfuller

We are on a journey through the wilderness.  On this journey we are challenged with temptations from many directions to follow a path of self deliverance- to find salvation within. Lutheran theologians have called this man’s worship- the attempt to justify ourselves by our actions without the help of God. Man’s worship is seeking to understand the world and somehow control our future destiny through this understanding. Man’s worship always ends in death. 

God’s worship contains the truth. The truth is that God so loved us that he gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life. 

In our Introit we heard words from one of the favorite Psalms of God’s people Psalm 27.  “The LORD is my light and salvation, whom shall I fear”

 These words in the Psalm speak to the predicament we all face on this side of eternity, we walk through darkness and we are on a journey through the wilderness of a fallen world.

In our time of wilderness we ask for Jesus to lead us by the light of His truth. This is what Psalm 27:4 asks:

“One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD an inquire in his temple.”   For this season of Lent it is especially meaningful for us to pray that we may gaze upon the beauty of the LORD.   

Lent is a time to look to Jesus and see the beauty of the LORD. “Come let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of God.”  But as we fix our eyes on Jesus, what is the beauty of the LORD? Is it a beauty in the sense of a clean and perfect appearance? No, we are told in the book of Isaiah about the appearance of the Messiah: he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.  

Instead, the beauty is in Jesus’ selfless love toward us.  The beauty is seen in the gory picture of the Son of God humbled to the point of death on the cross. What revolts us, blood and gore- is also what shows the beauty of God’s love toward us.  When see him lifted up on the cross, we truly are gazing on the beauty of the LORD.

In our world today you cannot count on seeing beauty everywhere you turn, it seems more often you see ugly things related to the fallen nature of the world and man’s rebellion against God. Life on our wilderness journey often involves going forward without anything beautiful right in front of you to encourage you onward.

In our Old Testament reading we see a vivid image of the dangers of life in the wilderness and the means of salvation. The people of Israel grew impatient along the journey to the promised land. They questioned of Moses why should they even be there. Did you bring us out into the wilderness only to die?

They implied they were better off in slavery to Pharaoh.  They were ungrateful for the food that the LORD provided for them. Earlier in the book of Numbers we learn about the Manna that came from the sky in which they collected and ate.  “We loathe this worthless food.”

The people saw only their own complaints and did not see the deliverance that was right before them. In not seeing the promise of deliverance, in ignoring the promise of a Savior the people departed significantly from God’s favor. They were lost in their sin.

We see in our reading from Numbers that the punishment for their sin was quick and severe. They complained about bread from heaven from the Lord, and now they have something truly worth complaining about from the Lord.

The LORD sent fiery serpents among the people and the bites were killing the people. This is a terrifying picture of the consequences of sin. The pain and the fear the people experienced was unbearable so that they asked Moses to pray to the LORD to take away the serpents.

There in the wilderness the people could no longer pretend they could save themselves. When they complained to Moses they thought they could make things better for themselves, but now they saw fully how perilous the journey is without the LORD’s help. 

The LORD was merciful to them and provided a unique means of deliverance. Moses was commanded to make an image of the very fiery serpent that was killing the people and put it on a pole, and simply looking at this bronze serpent the one who was bit would not die but instead live.

The visual symbol of the people’s sin would by God’s grace serve as the people’s deliverance.

Jesus himself verified this meaning when he spoke of how just as Moses lifted up this bronze serpent it was necessary that he be lifted up on the cross for people to live and have eternal life.  Jesus on the cross was a visual representation of the price of the sin of the whole world.

And looking at Jesus’ death on the cross in faith we live. We live because of God’s free gift of grace. As our reading from Ephesians highlights, we were dead in our trespasses and sins- we had nothing to commend ourselves before God that we should be saved. We were like the people of Israel overcome with fiery serpents with no way to protect ourselves.

“But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ- by grace you have been saved- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

Because Jesus was raised up on the cross, and because Jesus rose from the dead we are also lifted up high. We are raised from the depths of our sin to the heights of heavenly places.

How do we make it through the journey of this life? We can see life as a struggle in which we must fight our way through tooth and claw day after day- or we can see our life as depending entirely on God’s mercy.  We can see our life as safe and secure in God’s faithfulness.  We can look to Jesus and see the path of life.

Yes, there are many things we can look upon with our eyes that cause us discouragement.  Whether it is neighborhoods in disrepair or the imperfections of our own lives that discourages us- what we see does not tell the whole story.

Although we see evidence of our fallen world all around us and evidence of the results of our sin- we also see clear evidence of God’s mercy and love toward us. We see that Jesus is for us as we sit in church and see the jeweled cross and see on the altar the elements of bread and wine through which we will see Jesus body and blood given to us.  

We see also that we are not alone on the journey. The inside of a church worship space has been called the Nave, which is a maritime name for the heart of the ship. We are traveling together in this ship of the church toward the glories of eternal life. And just like on a ship at sea during a storm, it is all hands on deck.  Everybody has a role to play in keeping the ship traveling the seas as well as it is designed.

We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand.  Because of the great news that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, because we can look to the Savior and be saved, we are free to do our best workmanship.

Instead of just trying to survive in life, as our perspective helps us see that we are already saved, we can relax and do the works God has made us to do. Works of kindness and patience, works of courage, works of creativity and hope, labors of love.

We are on a journey through the wilderness of this world, a journey where we support one another, as His workmanship. Looking to Jesus and believing in faith that He is our way, our truth and our life. Amen. 

Jesus is our anchor through the wilderness journey of this fallen world

Posted on by nfuller

Why me?  We have probably all said those words to ourselves at one point or another.  When a difficult situation or unbearable trial comes along in life, we often wonder why this should be happening to us now.  Why a car problem of this of all days?  Why this extra assignment at work, why this unexpected costly home repair?

Here in this first Sunday of Lent we are reminded of our state of walking in the wilderness, where hardship are to be expected.   

In our Old Testament reading for today Abraham faces a hardship directly of the Lord’s doing. Abraham would have been without doubt justified in asking God, “Why me?”  The Lord had asked him to give up his only son by means of a three day journey up to Mt. Moriah to sacrifice him.   

God tested Abraham with this request. Talk about walking through the wilderness of uncertainty, how could Abraham make sense of an action that had nothing to do with God’s love and faithfulness? In God’s order for creation, people are never intended to be sacrificed, especially not children. Child sacrifice was present in some false idol worship over history- but never from the God who created the world.

How strange this command must have also sounded to Abraham!  After all the years of waiting God had promised Abram that he would bear a son. How could this same promised heir now receive the fate of sacrifice on the mountain?  Why me indeed.

Isaac was a walking testimony to the miracle of God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah in their old age.  Isaac illustrated the gift and promise of God and carried with him the future promise as Abraham’s heir who would continue God’s covenant promise to Abraham.

We can only imagine how much Abraham loved Isaac with all of these promises of God wrapped up in Isaac’s existence.  And that is not to mention on top of all of that is the love a parent has for a child from the start.  The love that grows with everything from those first steps, and first words to those favorite activities and rituals that a parent and child develop together. Certainly at that time Abraham had a right to ask God, “why me?” He was in the middle of the wilderness with no clear direction home.

Abraham met God’s requests with faith and obedience all the way until God intervened to save Isaac.   Abraham obeyed despite the great love he had for his son.  He even obeyed through the three day journey to Mt. Moriah in which he had the chance to change his mind. Trusting in God’s Word to him was his anchor in the midst of the confusion of life in this fallen world. 

When Abraham thought why me, God said “I will provide.”  Whenever we want to ask “Why me” we have an example in scripture of how God is at work in the midst of life’s trials. 

The testing of Abraham preached a sermon about Jesus to God’s people. It was a message about God providing the sacrifice in our place which was fulfilled some 2,000 years later. This testing was not about seeing whether God could trip up Abraham, but instead this served as a means of strengthening Abraham’s faith. His son Isaac said it himself, the fire , the wood, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice. God will provide for himself the lamb for an offering.

While Abraham would have been justified in asking “why me”, God was answering “I will” provide the lamb.  God provided the lamb for Abraham, just as Abraham spoke in faith to Isaac, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering my son.”  God provided the lamb in the form of his own son, not on the mountain of Moriah but on the hill of Calvary.  The ram caught in the thicket served to illustrate that God always will provide through Jesus.

God sent the angel to stop Abraham from taking the knife to his son. Abraham was not permitted to make this sacrifice because God would do so instead in sacrificing his Son on the cross.  For as painful as it is to think of what it would be like for Abraham to take his son’s life, God provided his son Jesus to die on the cross as the sacrifice for us. 

This “I will” of God is a demonstration of His love for all sinners.  It gives us a picture of how God’s determination and love goes beyond what we could ever offer ourselves.  We look at the prospect of personal sacrifice and loss from the perspective of the “why me” personal cost. 

In contrast Jesus did not look to his own interests and carefully calculate the cost of helping others.  He willingly embraced the ultimate “why me” situation of dying on the cross for our sake.  Instead of asking the question why does this have to happen to me?, Jesus remained focused on what his sacrifice would accomplish for you and I, and the whole world.

Just as God provided for Abraham, He works in the midst of our “Why Me’s” to provide this great “I will” in our lives.  No matter the challenge we face Jesus provides for us with his “I will”.  His sacrifice for us has provided us with a forgiveness and grace that brings a lasting hope and renewal to our lives no matter the adversity or trial.

Jesus provides His “I Will” for us in the sense that He is faithful even when we struggle and fail to be faithful in trusting God through the trial of the moment.  We may chronically worry about how something in the near future will turn out, where we struggle to have faith and trust that God is in control and has our best interest in mind.  Yet Jesus remains just as faithful to us.  In response to this undeserved Grace, we can say “why me” as in, why am I so richly blessed with God’s love!

When we as Christians undergo trials and persevere in faith, we serve as invaluable examples to our brothers and sisters in Christ.  When we undergo difficulties of life with patience, trust and faith, we demonstrate and model to others what it means to live in faith in our Savior through the perils of this fallen world.    

In our gospel reading we are reminded of how Jesus overcame temptation for us. He journeyed from Nazareth to the land of Judea where he was baptized by John in the Jordan river. Next the Holy Spirit drove him to the wilderness to be tempted by Satan.  After the forty days of testing he returned to Galilee, commenting on the meaning of his coming, his baptism and his victory over Satan’s first round of temptations: “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel.”

The time was fulfilled and the kingdom was at hand because of what Jesus was doing for us, living in righteousness where we failed, consecrating himself for his journey to the cross and the tomb.

In the midst of significant trials in life our first instinct certainly is to speak those words, “Why me”  But through faith we know that God is at work in the midst of those trials.  So perhaps a more appropriate response to the trials of life is to say, “Lord, what are  accomplishing in me through this situation?”

Christ has undergone testing and trials to restore paradise, he has overcome the devil for us.  Jesus overcame the temptations of Satan in order to fulfil what we could not do, in order to obey God where Adam and Eve failed. 

Now at the start of this season of Lent, we are called to live in courage not according to our sinful flesh, but according to the new life he gives us in our resurrection. In Christ we have already now a foretaste of the feast to come. As we draw near to Him in the Sacrament of the Altar, we experience in that moment the relief that the knife of the Father’s wrath has been held back from us, and in its place the Lamb of God is sacrificed for us. His life given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.  

May the Lord continue to bless us with faith and trust in his leading and guiding- safe through the wilderness of this world and into the joys of his eternal kingdom. Amen.

Jesus shines in glory unsurpassed and we share in His glory

Posted on by nfuller

We are completing today the season of Epiphany. The Transfiguration is a great close to the season with its majestic mountaintop revelation of the full glory of Jesus as the Son of God.  The vision of Jesus shining as bright as the sun transcends the worries of yesterday and today and tells us something about ourselves- that we are destined for a share in His glory.  

We sang a few moments ago:

“O Father with the eternal Son and Holy Spirit ever one, We pray Thee bring us by Thy grace to see Thy glory face to face.”  The transcendent glory of the transfiguration of Jesus is for us the church to share. He showed His glory to us so that we could know that our God is here for us, He has not left us alone, he has revealed his face to us.  As the Epistle reading describes, with the coming of Jesus into the world, the veil that covered the face of Moses and concealed the glory of God has been uncovered. 

In Christ we now can see the glory of God completely uncovered, shining as bright as the sun.  2Corinthians 3:18 celebrates this change: “and we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”   We are indeed destined to share in the glory of the Son of God from one degree of glory to the next.

What does it mean to say that the scripture says we have unveiled faces?  Sin is the covering that keeps us from seeing Jesus. On account of the fallen nature of humanity the flesh cannot see the glory of God.

Yet in Christ we are unveiled as we look on the glory of Jesus without barrier- when we look with the eyes of faith, our sinful nature no longer clouds how we see Jesus.  By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can look at Jesus and see His glory.   

Sadly, a veil remains for many in this world on account of their sin.  Many people in the church have asked me how can people persist in unbelief with the countless ways that Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of the scripture and countless ways in which God’s Word has proven to be true?

 How could people hold onto a stubborn belief in evolution despite all of the evidence for an intelligent design in creation and all of the evidence throughout the earth of a Biblical flood? Instead of beholding the beauty of the Son of God they long to see a world where death rules.

In 1 Corinthians 2:14 we have an answer to these questions:

“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”

The things of the Spirit of God are folly to the unbeliever. Each and every one of us came into this world turned away from God, and even an enemy of God.  This is why the gospel of John says : “He came to his own , and his own people did not receive him.”  But God in His infinite love and mercy called us as his own.   

The waters of baptism washed away the covering of sin so that we could be called as his own and actually see the glory of God. 

Often people who have struggled with addiction and learned how to obtain sobriety will talk about how difficult it was to think or do anything with clarity while under the influence of alcohol or other drugs. They could not see rightly.

Our church has hosted a weekly AA meeting for many years. Society may look down on those who have struggled with addiction, but we as the church can learn from the experiences of those who have struggled with addictions and made humbling mistakes of great magnitude in life, their experiences are a testimony of how thick and dark the veil of sin can be on our vision.

Even when Peter James and John first saw Jesus transfigured before them, the covering of sin shaped their reaction.  Just prior to the events of the Transfiguration Jesus begins to tell the disciples about the cross.  Peter tries to rebuke Jesus in regards to this fate.

“Far be it from you Lord! This shall never happen to you.” What Peter saw and wanted for Jesus was different than what was his purpose.  Peter needed a realignment of focus.  Jesus told him “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hinderance to me. For you are not setting your minds on the things of God, but on the things of man.”  

And as they made their way up a high mountain six days earlier Jesus was transfigured before them.  They recognized Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus.  Instead of simply marveling at how amazing it was to be able to recognize Moses and Elijah without ever seeing a painting or sculpture of either prophet, instead of marveling at the meaning of these great prophets of the past now talking with Jesus- Peter interrupts this magnificent meeting with his own agenda.

 “Rabbi it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified.

Under the veil of sin we are terrified before the presence of God. Yet in listening to the Son, the Lord Jesus- there is no need for fear.  As the scripture teaches in 1 John  “Perfect love casts out all fear.”  In listening to Jesus there is no uncertainty in our life of who we are in this world and what is our purpose. 

Moses and Elijah as great as they were, they were only meant to point to Jesus. They faded away on the mountain and there was only Jesus. The majesty of Jesus, confirmed by the voice of the Father was something they could put their hope and faith in, something that they knew with complete certainty.

And we have this same certainty because we have God’s Word which shows us the glory of Jesus.  In the Old testament times people only had the law playing a role as a teacher and a guardian until Jesus came. Yes, they were shown the glory of God in Old Testament times, but it was always a reflected glory. 

Now as the church we see the full picture of the glory of God in our Lord Jesus Christ.

As the prologue to the gospel of John records: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father full of grace and truth.”  This glory of Jesus- grace, truth, and perfect love.

And because we have seen this glory, we shall share in this glory. Though the body dies, like our sister in Christ Laura, it will be raised a spiritual body that is entirely without sin, raised not in imperfection but instead in the image of Jesus.

After the disciples heard and saw all they did on this mountain the scripture records: 9 And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

This revelation was only for their eyes and ears until after the crucifixion and resurrection. They were given a glimpse of the glory for a few moments to prepare them for the trials to come in the days leading up to their master’s betrayal and crucifixion. 

We know from church history that all of the disciples faced persecution in one way or another after Jesus ascended into heaven.  The Transfiguration gave them a foretaste of the eternal joys of heaven that awaited them. As we are gathered here this morning we also can rejoice at the clear revelation that the Son of God has revealed his glory to us, he has forever lifted the veil of sin.  No matter the difficulties we face in the coming days- may we always look to the glory of the Son.  Amen.