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Senior Pastor
Sermons & Articles
written for
and
published in Newspapers
November 21, 1998
Text: Luke 23:35-43
Grace Mercy and Peace to you who read from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
This Sunday is the last Sunday of the Christian Calendar year. It is known as Christ the King Sunday.
Curiously, the National celebration of Thanksgiving is observed always in the week beginning with Christ the King Sunday. This is a significant calendar conjunction for believers in Jesus of Nazerath who hold that this Jesus is indeed the King of heaven and earth.
Believers in Jesus of Nazerath as King and Lord chiefly give thanks for the wonder of God becoming incarnate ( one of us in human flesh) and enduring all that we go through including death and dying in order to rescue us from our own Sin, Death, and the Devil. This King of heaven and earth, believers hold, ransomed and purchased each of us from these forces - "not with silver and gold but with his holy and precious blood and his innocent sufferings" ( Small Catechism of Luther, Explanation of the 2nd Article of the Creed).
Through the means of Grace instituted by this Jesus (The Word [ Canonical Scripture] & The Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion) the Holy Spirit of God works to bring men and women to believe that Jesus is THE King and that He alone ( Solus Christus) has done everything necessary to obtain for a person eternal future life. He alone paid the price !
The Holy Spirit of God works through the means of Grace to create Faith and Believing. Faith and Believing are not ones own doing - lest folk should boast about when and how they helped rescue themselves.
Jesus alone has done it all. Our cooperation (Synergism) is not involved. Any effort to assert that the person has assisted or made key decisions in the process is but an attempt to make The King of heaven and earth into a figure head King. The Holy Spirit of God works on people to enable them to believe that it is Jesus who has done it all. Once one is enabled to believe this by the Holy Spirit of God then there is a response of Thanksgiving.
"Jesus paid it all - all to him I owe" as an old Gospel Hymn puts it. The means of Grace ( Word and Sacrament) are the only means by which we know for sure the Holy Spirit of God is truly at work upon us creating faith and believing. Our Faith and believing is thus not focused upon either rational cognition ( a person's own reason) or upon subjective emotion ( what a person feels). Any focus upon the Rational or upon the Emotional is but an effort to overthrow Christ as the King. Such is a revolt against the King even when done in the name of "Christian Religion" for the focus is placed upon the person rather than upon Christ Alone.
A Christian Believer holds that it is Jesus The King who who has done all that is necessary to convey the gifts of "Forgiveness, Life, and Eternal Salvation". Our Thanksgiving response is simply for Him having done it all !
The Believer in Christ as King of Heaven and Earth holds to the Doctrine of Imputed Justification. It is because of Jesus alone that one is Forgiven, Given Life, and Given eternal Salvation. Even believing is not our own doing but is created in us by the Holy Spirit (The Counselor sent to us by Jesus). We are unworthy but God looks at us and chooses not to see the Sinners that we continue to be even in our most Religious activity. God the Father chooses only to see the Righteous Sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. The righteousness of Jesus, against all logic and reason, is imputed to the believer who has come to believe through The Word and Sacraments.
The Believer in Christ The King is "Simul justus et Peccatore" - Simultaneously called just (Saint) even though still sinner). This is the heart of the amazing Gospel Proclamation and is THE basis for a Christian Believer’s Thanksgiving. Indeed it is just this view which is the basis for the portion of the ancient Christian Liturgy known as "The Thanksgiving".
The proclamation that Jesus has done it all brings forth Thanksgiving ( Eucharist).
All of this, to be sure, is scoffed at by those who are not believers as well as by those who seem to be believers but who put the emphasis upon Religious self help or self actualization.
The Proclamation of the Gospel (Jesus as King suffering on the Cross in your place) results in Thanksgiving and believers regard this as an absolute truth. It is Unconditional Promise. However, in a world mesmerized by power, wealth and control , where even many of the religious are caught up in their own works and efforts - The Cross does not evoke an emotional high! Those who are into the reasonable and logical do not view a Jesus of Nazerath dying on a Cross between two common criminals as looking much like a glorious King of heaven and earth even though the sign nailed above says that he is "King of the Jews". It is unreasonable to be thankful for that .
Yet contrary to all emotion and reason the Holy Spirit of God has enabled and continues to enable many to believe that this Jesus is indeed not only The KING OF HEAVEN AND EARTH but that He alone has done everything necessary for Forgiveness, Life and Salvation.
The Holy Spirit through Word and Sacrament continues to enable Faith and Belief in the absoluteness of the Truth that This Jesus is The Way the Truth and the Life and that no one comes to the Father except through Him. Believers give Thanks for What Jesus alone has done and they give special thanks for being enabled to believe it . Amen.
May the Peace of God which Passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in this Christ Jesus. Amen.
March 13, 1999
Text: Matthew 20:17-28 . In the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
In this Gospel text Jesus explains in detail what awaits him in the near future. His core disciples, however, didn’t listen very closely to what he said. They hear the Words of Jesus but then make substitution of their own desires, needs and wants. The amazing truth of Christian proclamation is that God chooses just such folk to be his disciples. The very imperfectness of the apostles and disciples points again and again to the Message that it is Jesus alone who conducts and fulfills the successful rescue mission.
The disciples can’t even listen closely and will not and do not truly comprehend what Jesus says and so it is clear that their efforts, understandings, and decisions (works) have nothing to do with the obtainment of Grace from God for the sake of a fallen humanity and a fallen world.
The Lenten season brings to focus the realization and confession that believers do not obtain the perfection necessary for rescue. Even believers deserve to be abandoned. However, God in His Grace becomes Flesh in order to effect the rescue of believers and of many who are not yet believers.
The sinful human tendency is seen precisely in efforts to RE-IMAGE the Word of Jesus according to our own inclinations and desires. In this world we want a God who gives us a share of power and glory etc. and who makes us feel good, prosperous, safe, and content. There are a lot of folk who base their religious choices upon just such things - Does the music make me feel emotionally good? Does the Preacher make me feel good about myself ? Did the people make me feel welcome? Does this meet my perceived needs? Am I made to feel that I have a controling part in my own destiny ? Etc. , Etc. This is exactly what was behind the request made to Jesus by Mother Zebedee and sons. They re-image the Words of Jesus, assumed his Kingship was near and wanted to get a jump on the other disciples. The other 10 disciples are bit irritated when they learn of the request.
Within Religion there are growth efforts underway known as "Needs Assessment surveying". This assessment surveying is conducted with the purpose of tailoring religious programs, activity and such so that others will become members of that religion. It is an effort to appeal to that which people want and think they need.
Now such effort might make good Sociological organizational growth sense but it appears to be a bit contrary to the Biblical witness of our Text. The clear message of our Text is that Believers in Jesus are not to "Re-Image" the Word of Jesus.
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"Behold we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and
scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles to be mocked and
scourged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day" (Matt 20:18-19 RSV)
Whose self perceived needs does this text meet ? Well from our own perception it meets none of our perceived needs. Who perceives that they need arrest, condemnation, death, mockery, scourging, execution, burial, and resurrection? Who needs such stuff ?
The Answer of Christian proclamation is that We are indeed the ones who needed just such though clearly it would not be among any expressed desire on an assessment survey. Human beings one and all have the tendency of thinking we each know best what we need. But truly we usually don’t know what we truly need and that is why it is so important , we Christians believe, to be focused in the Word and Sacraments (Means of Grace) God provides for us each and every week rather than in attempts to accommodate the self perceived needs of folk.
James and John and Mother Zebedee are examples of what happens when we are focused upon needs of our own Imaging.. Power and Glory, Self actualization and Career fulfillment, control over the future, etc. are the needs of the Zebedee boys and their mother. But that is not the purpose to which they or we have been called by Jesus.
The Zebedees see Jesus as an enabler who will bring on the good life. They want to be at the power center. But that desire corrupts from the central Christian purpose. Wherever authority is grounded somewhere other than in the clear Word of Jesus then all manner of abuse sweeps in.
Jesus promises that the Zebedees will be with him in the Future that has been prepared. But the Zebedees want more than that - they want to get the best positions of influence, power, glory, and control . That brings on the indignation of the others.
But Jesus came to accomplish a different order of things and when the Disciples finally listen clearly (after the Passion and Resurrection) they came to realize (believe) the clear meaning through the working of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost continues to teach the same lesson through the word of Jesus in each new generation.
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"You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave; even as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for man." (Matt. 20:25-28 RSV)
So Good news is proclaimed in this Text. Jesus alone accomplishes the rescue despite the wrongheaded Re-Imaging that his core disciples get caught up in. And by So doing Jesus establishes a new ordering of things - A new order that many still don’t hear clearly. Even so He is and continues to be the Ransom for many. Amen.
May the Peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus who alone is our Rescue. Amen.
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