Thanksgiving 2010

Grace Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.  Our text today is the Old Testament lesson with special emphasis on Verse 10 "When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you."  Thus our text.

Brothers and Sisters in Christ.  Today's text says, "When you have eaten and are satisfied, then praise the Lord your God."  These words ring especially true today, as we are preparing Thanksgiving feasts.  I am sure that many of you already have Turkey's in the oven, and pies freshly baked.  After we are done here at church, most of us will be going somewhere to eat to our hearts content, and our stomach's discontent!   We will fill our plates full of turkey, green beans, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy and all sort of other food, and then we eat.  If you are like me, you fill your plate 3 or 4 times, and eat until you think you will burst.  Only then, when all of the food has been tasted, and the pie and been enjoyed, do you look over to the cook and say "That was delicious! It was the most wonderful thanksgiving meal I have had ever!  Thank you for providing it for us."

That is the way it works isn't?  It is only after you have tasted the goodness of something that you can really truly thank the one who provided it for you.  The same thing is true with God.  He provides us with tremendously wonderful gifts, and only when we have received them can we truly thank Him for His grace.  Only when we receive his gifts, can we understand the cost and be truly thankful. 

But sometimes we aren't satisfied with the gifts from God.  Sometimes it seems like there is nothing that he truly provides for us.  We forget how much God cares for us and richly and daily takes care of us.  We lose trust in His promises, and instead look towards our selves.  And when we forget the gifts that God gives us, we forget to give him thanks and praise for those gifts.  So my question for you today is this, "How can we remain thankful for the gifts that God gives us?" 

This is not an easy thing for us to do.  As I have mentioned, we are sinful, even from our mother's wombs.  There is not an ounce of "goodness" with in us. This sinful part of us does not want to believe that God really takes care of us and provides for us.  Instead we sinners like to think we take care of ourselves.  We like to think that we are the supplier of all good things in our lives.  After all, we go to work everyday, just so that we can provide food and shelter for ourselves.  Thus when thanksgiving comes around, we like to think that we are the ones who are providing.  The feast is because of me, not because of God's gifts. 

And though we think sinfully believe this, Scripture does not teach this.  In fact it teaches the opposite.  In Paul's letter to Titus, the 6^th Chapter, we learn that God richly provides everything for our enjoyment.  That means that the Thanksgiving feast we will partake in later today, is provided by God.  That means that the shelter over our heads is provided by God.  In fact, the Small Catechism says that "I believe that God gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have.  He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life." 

But our sinful nature doesn't believe this, and as a result, we don't give God the credit He deserves.  Instead, that evil in our hearts wells up, and we think only of ourselves.  We don't thank god for all of our daily blessings.  We ignore him, and do whatever we want.  We don't like to be under obligation to anyone, especially God, for any free gift.  So we either despise the giver of the gift, or we work to pay them back, both of which defeat the idea of free gifts.

Or maybe we spend our lives looking for God to tell us thank you.  Many of us are guilty of this.  We look at our lives and falsely believe that we are doing pretty well on our own.  We tell ourselves that God should be rewarding us for how many great things we have done.  We go to church every week, and we expect God to reward us for that.  Wives pick up after your husbands, (or at least mine does!) Shouldn't these things earn rewards for us with God?  Shouldn't these things make him look at us and say, "Well done good and faithful servant?" 

No, In Isaiah 63, we read that all our righteous works are but filthy rags in God's eyes.  Our sin is too great to overpower them.  We don't deserve rewards or thanksgiving from God, but instead we only deserve punishment.  Immediately following today's text, Deuteronomy goes on to warn  us not to forget the Lord after we have eaten and been satisfied.  Those of us who forget the Lord, or trust in ourselves, or who look for thanks from God, will surely be destroyed, as Deuteronomy 8:19-20 say.

In our sin, destruction is what we deserve.  We do not deserve thanks from God, we deserve death.  Scripture tells us that the wages of sin are death.  And furthermore, St. John tells us that if we deny our sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  We deserve death, and we need to be honest with ourselves about it.  We are lost and alone. 

What do we have to give thanks for if all we have to look forward to is death?  Nothing.  Jesus compares us to white washed tombs, on the outside we look nice, we do great things, but on the inside we are full of dead bodies.  We are the living dead. 

But death is not the end for us.  We have a reason to be thankful.  In our sin, God has sent us a savior, who has redeemed us from all our wrongdoings.  God sent his very own son, God in human flesh, to die upon a cross for our sins.  Jesus actively obeyed all that the Laws of God demanded, so where we failed, he succeeded.  Jesus also passively was beaten bloody, crucified, and died to take away all of our sin.  In this single act, we have all blessings of heaven, and we have the promise of a life to come. 

This life to come can be seen in today's text.  In it, the Lord is reminding the people of Israel what to expect when they come into the promised land, the land of Israel.  The text says "For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land-- a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills. "  This land has everything they need to survive.  They will be able to grow prosperous and be protected from harm and danger.  That is the promise of God. 

God tells them that after they have experienced this glorious land and all that it has to offer, then they will be satisfied, and praise the Lord.  God gives all of these things and then they praise the Lord.  That is the way things work, God gives and because of his gifts, we respond.  These gifts do not originate with man or man's work, but instead completely from the grace of God.  God's gifts are unearned, they are free, they are  free of charge.  God gives, because he loves you.  The love of God shines forth from the body of Christ on the cross.

You too have the promise of life in a wonderful land, only your promise is not an earthly promise.  Your promise is for a heavenly land, where According to the Gospel of John, Christ has prepared many rooms for you. This heavenly promised land will be a place of eternal peace.  Hebrews chapter 11 tells us that it is a better country.  Through this heavenly promised land, a river of living water flows, the same water that we are baptized into.  It is the water of life.  In that water we died with Christ and were resurrected with him into life eternal.  God gives this gift to us freely through the death and resurrection of his Son.  Because of Christ, we now have this gift given to us, and this gift will satisfy all the hungers and desires that we have ever had. 

Now that we have been given this gift, and now that we are satisfied in the promised heavenly bliss, we can praise god freely and completely.  We no longer need worry about our selfish ambitions getting in the way, because God has forgiven them all.  We no longer need to worry about earning Thanks from God, because Christ himself earned all that was necessary.  Now we are free to worship God with no strings attached.

Today we will eat with our families, and more than likely will be very satisfied, but this satisfaction cannot compare with the satisfaction we have in Christ.  That satisfaction surpasses all human understanding.  So now, just as after eating we praise the cook of the Thanksgiving feast, today we can praise the architect of our faith, Jesus Christ.  We can sing the hymn, "Now thank we all our God, with hearts and hands and voices, who wondrous things hath done, in whom this world rejoices.  Who from our mothers arms, hath kept us on our way, with countless gifts of love, and still is ours today." 

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, and his mercy endures forever.  Amen!

Proper 29 - G - 2010 The Coronation of our King

Luke 23:27-43 - Christ the King Sunday

Grace Mercy and Peace to from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus, Amen.  Our text today is the Gospel lesson, especially verse 42, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."  Thus far our text. 

Dear Friends in Christ.  Every four years, we see it happen.  It is on the news all day, and then replayed again in the evening.  Even two years ago, we saw it.  The Inauguration of a new President of the United States.  Thousands of people descend upon Washington DC to enjoy the festivities.  People are excited, people want to hear the new president speak.  They want to celebrate.  All day long and even into the night, there are parties going on.  A new Ruler, a new president is installed. 

In the church year, we are celebrating the same thing today.  Today is the last Sunday of the Church year, also known as Christ the King Sunday.  Today we celebrate; today we are excited, because in our text today, Jesus is Crowned with thorns as our King and sitting on his throne, the cross.  In our text, we see

the coronation of our King, Jesus Christ.

But the coronation we see in our text, doesn't happen the way we expect it to.  Instead of celebrating, we see mocking.  Instead of smiles, we see anger.  Instead of happiness, we see death and blood and crucifixion.  Instead of celebrating the new ruler, they are killing him.  This is not what normally occurs at a coronation or an inauguration.  This is not what we want to see.  It is a raw, gruesome, dirty picture.  But even so, in our text today, Jesus is crowned King of Heaven and Earth, and all authority is given to him. 

But we modern and sophisticated people, we are offended at the image of the cross.  We don't like this bloody picture of execution to invade our clean and sanitary lives.  We don't want to witness death and gore.  We don't want to bring that image into our lives.  IN fact, when we see lifelike pictures of Jesus on the cross, we are taken aback.  We often weep and cry at the terrible suffering that Jesus is in as he hangs on the cross for 6 hours.  Often times when we see this picture, of Jesus on the cross, we weep.  We don't want to look at the cost paid by him.  We want to turn from the cross, and find another way.  We weep and we mourn, because we feel guilty of what Jesus had to do for us. 

But in our text, Jesus says, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For behold, the days are coming when they will say, 'Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!' 30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, 'Fall on us,' and to the hills, 'Cover us.'"

Friends, Jesus must suffer this way, to come into his kingdom.  Don't feel sorry for Jesus.  Jesus must suffer this way to gain for himself subjects in his kingdom.  Jesus must suffer this way… for you.  Jesus cannot avoid the cross.  Jesus cannot avoid death.  It is the only way.   Jesus is suffering this way so that you might live under him in his kingdom, so that you might be his own.  Do not weep for him, but weep for yourselves and your children.  Weep because each one of us has been born into a terrible world of sin and death.  Each one of us has been sinful even from our conception in our mother's wombs (Psalm 51).  Weep not because Jesus is dying, weep because apart from him, you are enslaved in a kingdom of sin.

We are slaves to sin.  Everywhere we turn, we see its effects. There is no place for us to escape from it.  Each one of us harbors sin within ourselves.  We have, as we confessed, sinned in our thoughts, words and deeds, by what we have done and left undone.  We are guilty of sin as we live in this world of sin.  We cannot deny it, "for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."  Our works are but dirty rags.  We murder, we steal, we hate, we despise, we gossip, we idolize, we curse and swear, and in all of these things we are guilty.  We are not holy as we often think we are.  We are not as good as we think we are.  We do not deserve anything but hell and damnation.  We need to be washed, we need to be cleansed. 

Friends, the only way we can be cleansed is in the blood of our king.  We must be covered in the blood of Jesus.  But we don't want to.  We despise the picture of Jesus on the cross.  We want to turn away from the cross, we want to turn away from our King.  We say, "Lord if that is the cost, we don't want anything to do with it.  Lord, I don't want to look at that despised and tortured man on the cross.  Can't there be another way?" 

And we look for another way.  "If I only do this and this and that, then I can earn a way apart from the cross.  If I only feel this way or that way, then Christ won't have to die.  If I could just earn it for myself…"  Friends, As sinners, we don't want to go the way of the cross, instead we want to go the way of glory.  We want fame, we want riches.  We want cheers and shouts of joy, not mocking and death. We don't want to see our King go to the cross and die for us.  We would rather save ourselves, an idea that is impossible, for scripture is clear.  In Hebrews chapter 9, we hear that without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sins.  Jesus must go the way of the cross.  Jesus must die. 

Our king goes the way of the cross, even when we don't want him to.  God gives us an escape from this kingdom of Sin, and he does it by giving us a new King, one who is willing to die for all of your short comings in body and mind, one that is willing to pay the ultimate price.  No greater love is there than this, that someone give up his life for his friends.    God gives us Jesus, our King and Lord, who loves us that much.  In Jesus, God invades this sinful world with his army of one to destroy all that would separate us from him.

And unlike the sinful kings and rulers of this world, Jesus is not here to see what he can get out of you, or to subjugate you.  Rather, Jesus is here to subjugate himself to our sinful world, so that in his own death, he might put it to death.  As Christ puts the sinful world to death, he is crowned king of the eternal kingdom of heaven.  He his robed in purple garments, which he stains with his blood, oozing from his body following a merciless beating.  He is crowned with thorns, which press into his flesh and even into his very skull.  He is enthroned upon a cross with nails that pierce his hands and feet, leaving him hanging naked before the entire world.  Dear Christians, there is your king.  There is your Lord.  There is your God, dying for you. 

As your king dies, you go with him.  As he leaves this sinful world, you too leave this world.  As St. Paul writes in Romans chapter 6, "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.  We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.  For one who has died has been set free from sin.  Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus."

Your King, in his life death and resurrection invaded this sinful kingdom, destroyed its ruler, and captured you up in baptism, and smuggled you safely into a kingdom of life, a kingdom of peace, a kingdom that will last forever.  You have been spared, as our Old Testament lesson says, "They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him."  Yes it doesn't seem like it now.  Yes, we still deal with this sinful world, but we also know that we have been rescued.  In the end, our citizenship is not here with sin, but rather it is with Christ in heaven.  All our sins in thought, word and deed have been forgiven and forgotten.  And yes, Dear friends in Christ, even our sins against God, our sins of wanting to avoid the cross, have been forgiven and forgotten. 

Today we see the coronation of our King, and from our king flows out life and salvation.  Today we see our Lord Jesus Christ regaining us for his own precious holy people.  And so, just as with an inauguration, we celebrate, we feast, we laugh and rejoice.  For we have a Righteous and Holy King, who has brought us safely into his own kingdom.  And nothing can take us out of the hand of our King, Jesus Christ.  To him alone be all glory and power.  Amen. 

Proper 28 - G - 2010 - "The End of the World as We Know it"

This sermon is a few days late due to some meetings in Fargo:

Text:  Luke 21:5-36

Grace Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen, our text today is the Gospel lesson, especially this verse "When these things take place, stand up and lift up your head, for your redemption is drawing near."

Dear friends in Christ.  We are quickly approaching the end of the church year, only this week and next week left.  And with the end of the church year comes talk of the end of the world.  As human beings, we have a fascination with the end of the world.  There are books, there are movies.  There are predictions, and my favorite - claims of aliens living on comets. The end of the world brings our the weirdest in our imaginations.  We want to know when the end is, and we want to know how we can protect ourselves from the end.  It seems like every few years, we have another blockbuster movie about people surviving the end of the world.  The Day After tomorrow, I am Legend, 2012, the list goes on and on, all of them depicting some future end of the world as we know it.

But are we really that concerned with the end of the world?  Do we really expect the world to end?  Or do we think that things will just always go on the way they have for so long?  I bet that not many of you woke up this morning and said, "Today could be the end of the world."  Instead, you probably are making plans for a tomorrow you are sure will come, planning Christmas trips, and summer vacations and more. 

The same was true in our text today.  Jesus' disciples were not worried about the end of the world in our text.  "It'll never happen," they thought.  They were with Jesus in the temple, a massive building, 150 feet tall, 150 feet square at the base, and inlaid with gold and precious stones.  While admiring this building, the disciples couldn't help but be amazed at this fantastic structure, and how long they supposed it would stand.  But Jesus shocks them, "Not one stone will be left upon another."  This huge, beautiful and expensive building will not last for ever.  It will be destroyed. 

Put yourself in the disciples shoes.  Jesus tells them that the most magnificent building they had ever seen will be destroyed.  For us it brings back memories of 9-11, of huge towers being destroyed by terrorists.  It reminds us of the Oklahoma city bombing, where a car blew up the entire front of a building, of plane crashes, of explosions.  Death and destruction are all around us, after all, Jesus says this world is heading toward its end, toward its death.  And in its death throws, there will be destruction. 

In our text, the disciples ask Jesus, "When will these things take place?"  When will the world come to an end?  Jesus responds, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.   There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.  But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake."  These are the signs of the end.

And these things are what we see in our world today.  We see nation fighting against nation, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and in Sudan, people are warring against one another.  We see earthquakes in Haiti, in Italy, in the Philippines, and other places.  In theses earthquakes we see people dying, people losing their homes, people suffering.  We see famine and pestilence, as hail destroys crops, as waters flood them, and as we turn on our televisions and see people who have no food or water, who suffer.  And we see persecution at the hands of our enemies.  People who are laughed at for their beliefs, people who are imprisoned for their confession, and even, yes in our day and age, people who are killed because of their belief in Christ. 

Friends in Christ, the end of the world is coming, every day it is drawing nearer than the day before.  The signs are there, as we daily see in the death throws of this sinful world.  And Christ has warned us, and given us a way out, just as he did the disciples in our text today.  40 years after Christ had told the disciples that every stone of the temple would be thrown down, it happened.  Roman soldiers surrounded Jerusalem and burned down the entire temple complex and threw every stone of the entire city down, killing as many inhabitants as possible, and enslaving the rest.  The destruction that Christ predicted came. 

And the other things Christ mentioned will also continue to come true.  The end will come.  There will be more earthquakes, there will be more destruction.  Some of you will be persecuted for your faith.  Some of you may even die because of what you believe.  But through all of this, in the face of all these terrible predictions of the end of the world, there is also a promise of hope.  Jesus says, "not a hair on your head will perish."  Your Father knows their number, and He knows you.  Your life is held in the hands of the One who loved you and laid down His life to save you.  Even if you die, not one hair on your head will be unaccounted for on resurrection day.  And then your faith, your trust in the promise of God in Jesus will be vindicated, and by your patient endurance you will gain your life.  Though you die, yet you will live; and living and believing Jesus, you never die forever.

This promise is from Jesus, the one who overcame the world, and purchased each of you, not with Gold or Silver, but with his innocent suffering and death.  Jesus poured out his blood and it covers you.  He gave up his own flesh, and gave it to you to eat.  He gave up his own life, so that on that last day of this present earth, you will be raised from the dead, and brought to live with Jesus for all eternity. 

As the text says, when these signs of the end take place, lift up your head for your redemption is drawing near.  When you see persecution, know your redemption is drawing near.  When you see destruction, know that your redemption is drawing near.  When you see the tribulation of this world, know that your redemption comes from Jesus on the cross, Jesus shedding his blood, Jesus for you.    

Yes, the world is coming to an end, but we need not worry about it.  Because the end of this world will not be the end of us.  We will continue on in our faith, before the throne of God for all eternity.  God tells us that at the end of the world, this world will be destroyed, but in addition to this destruction, there will also be a new heaven and a new earth created for us to live in.  In this new heaven and earth that God will share with us, there will no longer be pain or suffering.  There will no longer be destruction, and threats of destruction.  This new heaven and earth will last forever, and God will bring you in to live there for eternity. 

The end of this present world is not something that we need fear, for the end of this world is but the final destruction of sin.  In a way, the end of this world was assured by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.  In his death, all sin was killed with him, and thus this world and all of its great tribulation no longer has power over us.  Instead we have hope of life with Jesus.  We have that hope, hope in Jesus. 

The end is near.  We are certain.  The end is coming like a freight train, we have seen the signs in our world, but we also see our hope - Jesus Christ, crucified and risen for the signs of the world.  And so we pray, "Come Lord Jesus, Come quickly"  Amen.

2010 All Saints Day Sermon

Grace mercy and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text today is the entire first reading from the book of Revelation.

Dear friends in Christ:  It's been four years since my grandfather passed away.  The ornery man, who had saved every piece of scrap wood for the last 50 years, who had 35 hammers in the barn sitting in a bucket was gone.  No longer would there be IBP Root beer in glass bottles waiting for us.  No longer would he tell stories of the days when he was a traveling salesman for General Mills.  He had suffered in his last years from ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease.  And as he got weaker, this sinful world took its toll on him, his hands were weaker, the stories more difficult to understand.  And finally, he was at rest, Christ brought him to his eternal home.  The funeral had come, and my loved one no longer would be around this veil of tears, instead his body awaited the resurrection of the dead, while his soul rested with Jesus in heaven. 

How many of us have lost a loved one like this?  How many of us have loved ones who have gone before us, and now are saints before the throne of God?  I suspect most of us have.  Today we celebrate All Saints Day, a day where we remember those who have gone before us, knowing that

ONE DAY WE TOO WILL BE BEFORE THE THRONE OF GOD WITH THEM, AT PEACE, AT REST WITH JESUS.

That is what St. John describes in our text today.  He sees a picture of eternity, a picture of the countless believers in Jesus who are standing before the throne of God.  You are there, I am there.  My grandfather is there, and so are all your relatives who went before in the faith.  And the image that St. John describes is one of triumph, one of eternity, one apart from sin. 

But here on Earth, we have trouble seeing this heavenly tranquility.  Here on Earth, our text says that we are in the great tribulation, or the great suffering.  Here on earth we suffer because here on earth we deal daily with sin, death and the power of the devil.  Here on earth, things are not perfect as they are in heaven.  Here on earth, people get hurt, people suffer and people die.

And we experience that in our lives, don't we.  Suffering and death.  They seem to be everywhere we look.  We see on the TV, pictures of people in the country of Haiti suffering still not recovered from an earthquake that devastated their land almost a year ago.  We see pictures of volcanoes erupting, and destroying entire towns.  We see pictures of floods where the water rises and washes away people's entire houses.  We face drought, early snows, and water destroying crops.  There are tornados and hurricanes.  Fires destroy, and winds blow away.  Here on earth we are never really safe from the tribulation of a sinful world. 

And at times that Sin can even strike us closer than just those natural disasters.  At times there are even more serious tribulation and suffering.  Suffering as we here on earth face death and dying.  How many of us have lost a loved one unexpectedly?  Maybe in a divorce, or perhaps in a car accident.  Maybe, in a sickness like cancer or perhaps like me through Lou Gherig's disease or Alzheimer's.  Maybe, we have lost a loved one to miscarriage or still birth.  Or even if all of these fail, we know we have lost a loved one to death even just through old age.  Maybe these people have been mothers, or brothers, or fathers or sisters.  Perhaps it is your husband or your wife or a good friend that is gone.  Each of us have felt this loss in a different way.

And when that loved one is gone, we suffer, because we miss that person.  We miss the company that they provided to us.  We miss their little quirks and their same old jokes and stories that they always told.  We miss getting or giving them a hug or a kiss.  We miss sharing the events of our day or the support they give us on a difficult day. 

It is our sin that causes this loss in our lives.  It is our sin that leaves us alone and by ourselves especially during the holidays that are coming up.  Scripture is clear, the wages of sin is death, and furthermore that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  And because we all have sinned, it follows that we will all experience death at some point.  Death is not our friend, death is not a part of God's original plan.  It is a terrible invasion of the work of the devil. 

Even so, as Christians, we know that death has no power over us.  As Christians, we know that in the end, death cannot harm us.  For we have already died in and with Jesus.  Jesus himself says in the Gospel of John, "Whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die."  For St. Paul says "Did you not know that when you were baptized, you were baptized into the death of Jesus, and if you have died with him, you have also been raised with him." 

Even our text says the same thing as it speaks about you in heaven.  "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation.  They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb."  In baptism you were brought out of the tribulation and into eternity with God.  In Baptism, you were completely and totally covered with the blood of Jesus, the blood of the lamb who takes away the sin of the world.  The very blood that poured out from the hands, and side of Jesus Christ on the cross, now washes you, and makes you holy.  And that blood declares that we no longer are subject to the trials and temptations of this world, but rather, we are citizens of heaven. 

As I said earlier, it is us that St. John sees in the text; Us in our eternal, sin free life, us in heaven.  For we are they who will one day come out of the great tribulation, having washed our robes in the blood of Jesus in our baptisms.  Therefore, our text says, we will be before the throne of God and serving him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over us.  Never again will we hunger; never again will we thirst. The sun will not beat upon us, nor any scorching heat.  For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be our shepherd; he will lead us to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from our eyes."

Through Jesus, this is God's promise to us.  Eternity in heaven with all the other saints, partaking in the heavenly banquet that has no end.  In fact, we already today partake in that glorious meal.  As we gather around the altar and partake in the very body and blood of Jesus given for you, for the forgiveness of all you sin.  That is why in our communion liturgy we say, "With angels and archangels, and all the company of heaven" before the Lord's Supper.  Every time we come to the altar rail, we partake with those who have gone before us in the faith, and one day, we will partake with those who come after us. 

In Jesus, we are made whole.  In Jesus we have life.  In Jesus, we have been made a holy saint, and we have entered into the kingdom of heaven.  One day, I will be there along side my grandfather, and all the other saints who have gone before us.  I will join them, as our text says, in the forgiveness of Jesus is worshipping God for eternity.  For Salvation belongs to our God, and especially to the lamb, Jesus Christ.  To him alone, be all glory.  Amen. 

Death, Dying and the Christian Funeral Part One (testing Bible Study Material)

Death, Dying and the Christian Funeral

The theology of death and dying

LSB 708 - "Lord Thee I love with all my heart" v. 1

Lord thee I love with all my heart;

I pray thee ne'er from me depart,

With tender mercy cheer me.

Earth has no pleasure I would share.

Yea, heav'n itself were void and bare

If thou Lord wert not near me.

And should my heart for sorrow break,

My trust in Thee can nothing shake

Thou art the portion I have sought;

Thy precious blood my soul has bought.

Lord Jesus Christ, my God and Lord my God and Lord,

Forsake me not I trust Thy Word

 v.3

Lord let at last Thine angels come

To Abr'ham's bosom bear me home,

That I may die unfearing,

And in its narrow chamber keep

My body safe in peaceful sleep

Until Thy reappearing.

And then from death awaken me,

That these mine eyes with joy may see,

O Son of God, Thy glorious face

My Savior and my fount of grace,

Lord Jesus Christ, my prayer attend my prayer attend

And I will praise Thee without end.

Prayer

O God of grace and mercy, I thank You for Your loving-kindness shown to all Your servants, who having finished their course in faith, now rest from their labors.  Grant me grace to say with a believing heart, "Thy will be done," and know that Your will, though often hidden, is good and gracious.  Strengthen me through Your Word and Sacraments for that day when You will call me to Yourself, that I may also be faithful unto death, joyfully receive the crown of eternal life, and join the whole company of heaven to live with You forever.  Amen. 

Death, some misconceptions

n     Death is natural

n    Elton John's song, the "Circle of Life"

n   We are born, we eat, we live, we die.

n   Discovery Channel, National Geographic

n    Death is not natural

n   God did not intend for death to occur

n    He created the world without death, He created it good.

n    Genesis 2, "If you eat of it, you will surely die"

n    Romans 6, "The wages of sin is death."

n    Death is an invasion of God's Creation.  It is bad.  It is the Christian's enemy. 

 

Death, some misconceptions

n    Death is natural continued

n    If someone is laying there dead, you know one thing about them, they are a sinner.

n    Jesus does not accept death.

n   Jesus comes to destroy death, he comes to conquer death. 

n    Because death is the enemy, grief is not a sickness

n   We don't say, "Get over it," rather we look to Jesus for comfort and promises

n    Jesus has overcome death, and now uses it as the portal to life everlasting.

Death, some misconceptions

n     After death, we will be judged.

n    The joke about the pearly gates, and St. Peter

n    Jesus says, "All who believe in me have passed from death to life." 

n    In baptism, we die with Christ and are raised with him.

n    Judgment occurs on the cross, and is against Jesus.

Death, some misconceptions

n     When you die, you become an angel. 

n    Scripture says Death is the unnatural rending of body and soul – nothing about becoming angels.

n   You are created body and soul, in death they are separated,

n   Soul goes to Jesus, body rests in the grave.

n     Angels were all created in the beginning, they don't increase or decrease in number

Death, some misconceptions

n     When you die, you are done with your body

n    False, your body is a gift from God, and you will have the same (Sin free rejuvenated) body following the resurrection on the last day

n    We will talk more about this when we look at the funeral rite in the hymnal. 

n   We pray that God will keep this body and guard it until the day of resurrection. 

n    We care for the body, God cares for the soul.

n    It is still the person

n   (i.e. They removed the body of Jesus from the cross, that very body also raised from the dead.  Lazarus was in the tomb.  The widow's Son was being carried out etc.)

Death, some misconceptions

n           Cremation is a Sin

n          False, it is not sinful by itself.  But what is the reasoning behind cremation?

n          Four main reasons to be cremated

n         Save Money – burial is expensive

n         Save Space – Caskets take up space

n         Afraid of body decomposing, or of getting wet in the rain etc. - you won't notice this in burial. 

n         To deny the resurrection – This reason is sinful.  In ancient world, people would burn a body to show how it couldn't be raised from the dead.  Some still do, "If I burn the body, no god could put it together."  False, God created it from nothing, and will put it together no matter what. 

Death, some misconceptions

n    Funerals should only be a celebration

n    Even Jesus wept and mourned at the loss of Lazarus. John 11

n    If Death is not natural, but is the punishment for sin, we should feel somewhat sad about the consequences.

n    We may celebrate the rescue by God from our sin through Jesus' death and resurrection.  We look ahead to eternal life, not backwards at our lives on earth.

Death, some misconceptions

n    Others you can think of?