March News&Views from the Pews

Dear Friends in Christ,

The March News&Views is available here

Please enjoy!

Lent 1 - O - 2012 - The Sin Sacrifice

The First Sunday of Lent

February 26, 2012 - Pastor Adam Moline

Genesis 22:1-18          James 1:12-18             Mark 1:9-15

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, especially these words, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.”  Thus far our text.

Dear friends in Christ.  Without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sins.  Scripture is clear on that point.  Adam and Eve, Noah, Terah, all the patriarchs knew this fact.  For this reason, they had killed countless animals, pouring out their blood in bowls and burning the animals on altars to God – to forgive all their sins.  To be made right with God by the death of another creature.

So when God tells Abraham what he must do, it is a tall order.  Abraham had seen sacrifices before, he had performed sacrifices before, but never one that would be as difficult or as gruesome as the one God commands him to do on this day.  God tells Abraham, “As a burnt offering, as a way of forgiving your sins, your Son must die at your hand.  And when you have killed him, when you have drained his blood out of him, he must be laid on a pile of wood and burned as an offering to me.  By his death, you will be forgiven.”

His own son must die.  He has to kill his own child, whom he loves, the one through whom he hoped to have descendants that numbered of the sand on a beach, that numbered as the stars of heaven.  His child must die, God has commanded it.

What must Abraham have done wrong?  What sins must he have committed?  Did he doubt too much?  What sin could be so great that his children had to die?  But even as he asks these questions of God, Abraham gathers the supplies, he gets the fire, he gets the wood.  They saddle up their donkey, and they head to the mountain God will show them. 

They travel for three days, riding on the donkey, when finally Abraham sees the place, Mount Moriah.  Abraham stops, gets down from his donkey, and loads the wood of the sacrifice on the his own son, his beloved son, the one who pleases him, and they begin the final journey.  Isaac carries the wood up the mountain to the place where he must die.  Abraham carries the knife and the fire, dreading what must be done.  Isaac stacks the wood upon the altar, and notices something is missing.  “Where is the goat?  Where is the Ram?  Where is the creature we are going to sacrifice father?”  Abraham’s only answer is “The Lord will provide the sacrifice.”  Isaac lays on the wood, Abraham raises the knife, mustering all his strength to bring it down on his son, his own Son, whom he loves. 

And God stops him.  Abraham wait, Abraham don’t kill your Son!  Stop!  Don’t do this!  For you were right in your confession, I will provide the sacrifice for your sins.  I will provide the lamb to be slain and burned.  I will provide, for it isn’t your son, but my Son that must die.  Its my Son – it’s Jesus, he’s the one who will die for your sin Abraham, for Isaac’s sin, and for all mankind’s sin. 

God stops the death of Isaac, and in the same way, dear friends, he stops your death as well.  For just as Abraham, just as Isaac, you too are sinful.  You too are guilty.  You too have broken God’s law, and have not trusted enough, haven’t loved enough, haven’t done enough.  You fall short by what you have done and by what you have left undone.  And dear friends its your fault, your own fault, your own most grievous fault.  That sin threatened to separate you from God, just as it did for Abraham, for God demanded a sacrifice from you to make things right. 

But you don’t have enough to fix your problem.  There isn’t enough you can do to fix it, even your own death can’t save you.  So as Abraham confessed God will provide the sacrifice – His own Son, born of the Virgin Mary, to die for you.   Hear the words of our Gospel lesson, "Behold my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."  Its that one, who will die for you.  

And so here we are in Lent, looking ahead to the sacrifice of Christ for you and your sins.  We are looking ahead, to Jesus, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, just as Isaac rode to Moriah with his Father on a donkey.  We are looking ahead to Jesus carrying a cross up to Golgotha, just as Isaac carried the wood of sacrifice p to Moriah.  We are looking ahead to Christ willingly suffering and dying at the will of his father, just as Isaac was for his father Abraham.  And as Abraham was willing to drive a knife into his own son, so too is God willing to drive nails and spear into his son. 

And its all for you.  Its all for Abraham.  Its all for Isaac.  And dear friends, on the cross, its all done.  The blood for forgiveness of sins is shed.  All of it pours out on to the ground.  Jesus suffers the death you deserve.  And with his very last breath, Christ shouts out “It is finished.” No more does God demand sacrifices from you for salvation.  No longer does He ask for your death, but instead he gives you life forever.  Instead, you walk safely down the mountain, just as Isaac did.  Instead you are free as God’s own child forever. 

Without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sins.  And blood has been shed.  But its not Isaacs.  Its not Abraham’s, its not even yours.  It is Jesus blood.  And it means your life.  Amen.  

  

Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  

Ash Wednesday - 2012

This years Lenten Midweek Sermons are prepared by Pastor Brent Kuhlman, or Trinity Lutheran Church Murdock NE.

Ninth Commandment:  You Shall Not Covet Your Neighbor’s House

Tenth Commandment:  You Shall Not Covet Your Neighbor’s Wife …

Bible Narrative:  2 Samuel 11:1-4

Tonight, 2 Samuel 11 is used in conjunction with the Ninth and Ten Commandments.  This Bible story is writing for your Lenten – repentant - learning.  For your warning AND for your repentance!  “Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall,” (1 Corinthians 10:11)!  The Law of God is good and wise.  The Ten Commandments describe what your life before God and before one another should look like. 

But you and I are sinners.  Children of Adam and Eve! Our sinful flesh does not do what the Law requires.  The commandments say:  “You shall not covet” and, because of our sinful nature, we are off to the races COVETING!  We profusely covet what doesn’t belong to us. 

And so the Commandments reveal our sin.  Point them out to us.  Like an X-ray or CAT scan machine!  It’s really ugly!  Brutal!  Shocking!  We really didn’t think we were that bad!  We could have never imagined this sin sickness to be so deep!  Corrupt to the core!  Lost and condemned persons we are due to our sinful condition!

In addition, the Commandments silence all our flimsy fig leaf excuses of self-justification before God and hold us accountable.  The Ninth and Tenth Commandments that say:  “You shall not covet,” expose us for who we really are:  SINNERS!  And this Word of God kills us!  And that’s very good.  Because that’s the only thing you can do with the old Adam / Eve!  You can’t rehab old Adam / Eve!  You can’t salvage old Adam / Eve!  The old Adam / Eve by daily contrition and repentance is to be drowned and die with all sin and evil desires!   

In addition, tonight’s Scripture is also written for our comfort.  There is forgiveness for sinners.  Every sinner!  For every sin.  No matter how heinous.  There is free and total pardon for you, me, King David, and the world through Jesus Christ our Lord and His holy week innocent suffering and Good Friday dying!  Consequently, there is a promise from Jesus Himself!  And it is this:  “I forgive you!”  This is very good too.  For all you’re left with here is faith – faith alone – in Jesus and His absolution.  And that faith is the new creation – the new creature – that lives before God now only by faith in Jesus! 

Now to the text.     

King David.  Doesn’t do his kingly vocation.  “In the spring when kings go off to war” David farms it all out to General Joab.  It’s up to General Joab to fight Israel’s enemies and defend Israel’s borders while King David loafs.  Joab ravages and besieges.  David dawdles.  Joab and all Israel are fighting in the field.  David loafs at home. 

And so one night when David can’t sleep he spots her.  He can’t believe his eyes!  She’s taking a bath!  Right out in the open!  What kind of women would do that?  It is as if she wants to be seen on purpose!  Perhaps she has something on her mind!  Hmm?

He can’t take his eyes off her.  She’s gorgeous!  Stunning!  What a body!  Kim Kardashian or Jennifer Anniston have nothing on her!  She could be the cover girl for GQ or the centerfold for Playboy every month for the next ten years! 

Who is she?  This naked bathing beauty?  As if David didn’t know. 

Her name is Bathsheba.  Daughter of Eliam.  And she has a wedding ring on her finger!  She is wedded to Uriah the Hittite!  Eliam is the son of one of David’s counselors, Ahithophel.  And both Eliam and Uriah are both members of the king’s personal bodyguards (2 Samuels 23:34, 39).  Beautiful Bathsheba:  Eliam’s daughter – Uriah’s wife.  They all know each other!  Very well!       

And King David covets her.  Doesn’t give a rip that she’s married.  He wants her.  And he wants her now!  Badly.  No low “T” with this man!  He will satisfy his desires no matter what.  No matter who he hurts.  No matter whose lives he destroys.  Now matter who he has to kill.  HE WILL have what he covets!  He will have her!  He is the king!  And what the king does is right!                                                

So he barks out orders:  “Go fetch her for me!  Chop!  Chop!”  “And don’t forget to sneak her through the back door!  I’ll have the lights dimmed, the candles lit, and the romantic music playing softly!”  Off go David’s servants.  To her house.  Right across the street no doubt! 

“Good Evening Madam Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah.  My, don’t you look ravishing tonight.  The king requests your …. presence.  Please follow us.”    And they escort the ravishing bombshell directly to the king’s bedroom.  The one-night-stand is consummated!  Underneath the canopy and between the sheets of his majesty’s royal bed!  His coveting led directly to physically adulterating his marriage and Bathsheba’s.  And David could care less.  He got what he wanted!  He got what he coveted! 

What or who is it that you covet? 

What’s that?  You say you don’t covet?  Nonsense!  Of course you do!  You are no better than King David.  You are just as bad as King David.   

Your coveting knows no bounds!  It ranges from another person’s spouse all the way to your neighbor’s land, home, or investments!  You name it.  Whatever your neighbor has – you want it!  You’re never content with what God has given you!

Taking people to court is the usual way to extend and bring to fulfillment the coveting!  All under the cover of legality!  “See I have the title!  It was awarded to me!  The inheritance is mine!  The court said so!”  The tentacles of coveting extend into everyday business transactions.  In these tough economic times – your neighbor out of work – his 401k tanked – deep in debt – has property and possessions.  With all the cunning you can muster and with an eye for more profit you harass and hustle him into selling his stuff for only half of what it is worth.  And you justify the purchase by saying:  “I got a super deal!”  And like David you could care less.  Because it’s all about you Baby!  First come first serve!  Look out for numero uno!  Survival of the fittest!

You see how deep the sin is?  It’s really bad.  “You shall not covet!”  The last two commandments reveal our sin, indict, convict and condemn us.  God is not pleased!  These commandments show God’s wrath against our coveting!  Lost, dead, and condemned you and I are in our sin!

But here is the good news!  Really, really great news!  His name is Jesus.  God was in Christ Jesus reconciling the world to Himself – NOT COUNTING YOUR SINS AGAINST YOU!  Imagine that!  God forgives.  He forgives you!  Because of Jesus!  And only because of Jesus!    

How can this be?  Here’s how!  God made Jesus, the sinless and perfectly holy one, TO BE SIN!  “He who knew no sin was made to be sin.”  And to be cursed (Galatians 3:13)!  Yes, that’s right!  Jesus was determined to go all the way for your salvation.  He wouldn’t stop until He took all that is yours – including and especially all your sin!  “God has laid on him the iniquity of us all,” (Isaiah 53). 

Perfect and holy Jesus is made to be sin by bearing all your sin, all my sin, all the world’s sin in His body.  So much so that Jesus is MAXIMUM SINNER!  He willingly goes under the Law and endures His Father’s wrath against all sin and every sinner!  In your place.  Vicariously!  The greatest and only sacrifice that atones for sin:  Good Friday’s Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Now that the Law has accused Christ on the cross, it looks all around.  It looks at you.  But you are baptized into Christ’s death.   Jesus gives you His Good Friday Body and Blood to eat and drink sacramentally.  In Christ the Law is fulfilled for you.  All the Law’s accusations are used up in Christ and His promises.  And what does He promise:  Te absolvo!      You are forgiven.  All you sin -- all your coveting is answered for!  And you have peace with God through Jesus Christ!

Have a happy Ash Wednesday! 

In the Name of Jesus. 

For you are dust, and to dust you shall return

Dear Friends in Christ,

Please see the Lenten greeting from Matthew Harrison located below.  The video runs about ten minutes.  

A reminder that we have Ash Wednesday Services tonight at 7:15 at Immanuel Lutheran Church.  Come a few minutes early to receive ashes to remind you of your own mortality.
For last years article on the Imposition of Ashes, please click here

God's Blessings this Lenten Season!

Transfiguration - G - 2012 - The Hidden God Revealed

The Transfiguration of Our Lord

February 19, 2012 - Pastor Adam Moline

Exodus 34:29-35         2 Corinthians 3:12-18; 4:1-6        Mark 9:2-9

Grace, Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text today comes from the Gospel lesson, especially these words, “And Jesus was transfigured before them.”  Thus far our text. 

Dear friends in Christ.  God hides himself.  He does it for our benefit.  He does it to protect us sinners from his holiness, his almightiness, he righteous justice.  God hides himself from us, for He is righteously angry at our terrible sin and disregard for the many gifts that He gives to us.  For sinners cannot stand before God.  God will not tolerate the sinner being in his presence with his sin unfurled for all to see.  He will not stand for those who brazenly declare “yes I have sinned, and will do it again, and who are you God to stop me?” 

But God does love you, and God does desire you to be saved.  So God hides himself from your sin, so that he can continue to proclaim his word to you. 

In the very beginning when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit they were not to eat, immediately they were afraid of a holy and righteous God – so they hid in the bushes.  God upon finding them, gives them a more suitable hiding place – animal skins.  To hide sinful man, blood had to be shed, animals had to die.  Only then could mankind be hidden from God’s wrath because of sin.  Only then could our world go on. 

Nine generations later, Noah was hidden away on the ark, hidden from the just judgment of God on a sinful world.  Safe in the ark, God was hidden from Noah as the world of sin was washed away outside of the ark.  Through water, Noah was safely brought through the terrible alien wrath of God’s judgment of sin. 

God hides himself away over and over throughout the pages of scripture.  He is hidden from Moses behind a burning bush.  He is hidden from the people of Israel in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.  The people of Israel however want to see God, they want to know who he is.  So God comes down, hidden in cloud and thunder, and the people again are afraid.  Before God reveals himself, they change their mind, knowing their sin is too great to see God for who he really is – a Good and Loving God, who is angry over sin. 

So instead, they send Moses, who is the only man to look upon God face to face.  In our Old Testament lesson today, we see the result.  “Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.”  God’s glory shone from Moses’ face, and was again graciously hidden from the fearful Israelites by a veil. 

God continues to hide throughout the pages of the Old Testament.  He is hidden on the Ark of the Covenant between the Wings of the Cherubim.  He hides in the Tabernacle in the Holy of Holies, where again the priest had to pour blood out to hide man’s sin before God.  God hides in the Temple of Solomon, and God hides himself from Elijah, only allowing him to see the back of his cloak as he heard the very word of God. 

God hates sin.  God hides sin from his presence, and thus he hides himself away from sinful people.  He hides away to protect them, to keep them away from his just judgment on sin – that the sinner should die.  That the sinner does not deserve to be in the presence of God.  That the sinner is guilty, and God the great and powerful judge delivers the judgment.  God hides, to keep you safe. 

You can imagine then John, James and Peter’s reaction on the mount of Transfiguration then.  They get to see God revealed.  They get to see God as we all will one day see him when he returns again.  They see hidden God revealed.  For God has hidden himself from them as well, hidden in our own human flesh.  The man that Peter James and John had been following was really God hidden amongst them.  The God who spoke to Moses hidden in the burning bush spoke to Peter, James and John hidden in the body of a man.  The God who hid himself away from sinners now is hidden in their very midst. 

And now only that, in our text today, God reveals himself for who he really is.  Jesus was transfigured before them, revealing his glory, glowing white.  Elijah and Moses appeared and spoke with Jesus – with God no longer hidden in a man, but revealed – about why God had come. 

You see God doesn’t want to hide from you forever.  He doesn’t always want to be separated from you.  He doesn’t want to have to hide to keep you safe from his holiness.  Instead he wants you to be holy like the very Lord your God is holy.  And there is only one way for that to happen.  God hid himself in Jesus, in a man, to reveal himself to all – not through a burning bush.  Not through a pillar of cloud and fire, not through the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant, but revealed for who he truly is – love – hanging on a cross dying for your sin, dying for your guilt, paying the price you owe. 

That’s why Jesus is revealed on transfiguration to show who he is – God.  And being revealed he will reveal himself again on a Friday we call Good, on an old rugged cross, with his own blood, not the blood of animals hiding your sin away forever.  Now, in him you have life.  Now in him you have forgiveness.  Now, in him you belong to God. 

Friends, Jesus comes to you today as well, again hidden.  For while we are forgiven, we still are in this world of sin, so God still hides, he hides in bread and wine, for forgiveness life and salvation.  He hides in water and word where he washes away your sin, and takes them upon himself.  He hides in preaching to create and sustain faith in your lives.  He hides here today, so that he can one day reveal himself to you as he did to Peter, James and John.  Not as a God angry at sin, but a holy God who forgives.  A holy God who loves.  A holy God, who through the death and resurrection of Jesus can be himself again, no longer hiding away.

It is all through Jesus. It is all through his grace, and through his mercy.  For in him God is hidden, and in him, God will reveal himself to the world, outstretched upon a cross – all because he loves you.  Amen.  

More...

More information on the HHS Mandate Questioning.  

President Harrison does a wonderful job staying focused on the issue at hand, despite partisan bickering.  Praise God!

Statement on HHS Mandate Regarding Contraceptives

As per Bible Study on Sunday, here is an update on the proposed HHS contraceptives mandate.  

I encourage you to watch and to consider President Matthew Harrison's words.

UPDATE:

President Harrison spoke on behalf of the LCMS in regard to this issue at a Congressional Committee meeting this morning.  Here is the link to his opening statement. 

Epiphany 6 - O - 2012 - Washed and Cleaned

The Sixth Sunday After Epiphany

February 12, 2012 - Pastor Adam Moline

2 Kings 5:1-14 1        Corinthians 10:19-11:1    Mark 1:40-45

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 which was just read, especially these words, “and he was clean.”  Thus far our text. 

Dear friends in Christ.  Naaman was an enemy of God.  I know that is a very strong and bold statement, but it was the truth.  He was a complete mortal enemy of God, despising his Word and hating what the true God stood for.  He was diametrically opposed to everything Godly.  He wanted to do whatever he could to destroy the idea, the thought and even the memory of God. 

Now don’t get me wrong.  Naaman probably was an average everyday person, even as he was commander of Syria’s army.  He was wealthy and influential in his own land.  He probably had a family that he loved, friends that he laughed with, and people he cared for.  He wept when they died, and smiled when something exciting happened. But even in the midst of all these everyday things, he was a mortal enemy of God. 

So it is quite the predicament that we have in our text today.  Naaman, the Great Syrian General, the powerful, the great, the wonderful deliverer of Syria from God, had one small problem.  He was a leper.  Leprosy was the ancient title for a variety of skin diseases, diseases that could eat away the flesh, which could slow healing, and could cause loss of limbs or even death.  It was not a good thing to have in that time, as not only did you have these health issues, but when you contracted leprosy, people avoided you.  They didn’t want leprosy too, so they avoided lepers.  In Israel they made them cry out from 50 feet away “Unclean!  Unclean!  Unclean!”

Imagine the day they diagnosed such a disease.  Imagine the hurt, the pain, and the questions.  “Why me, why?”  It isn’t fair, It isn’t what I deserve.  And yet, here I am cursed with this disease.

The Father Naaman, sick.  The great general Naaman, unclean.  What a turn of events.  It’s not fair, it’s not what he wanted, and it isn’t what his family wanted.  But Naaman had an Israelite slave, captured in a raid and forced to serve the Great Leper Naaman for the remainder of her life.  She had nothing that Naaman had.  But she did have something Naaman didn’t.  Faith in God.  This young slave, faithful even in her duty to serve, told her master, “Would that Naaman were with the Prophet in Israel.  He would heal you.”

So Naaman goes to Israel, to find this prophet.  All of Israel is afraid and nervous at the entrance of this great general seeking healing.  This great enemy of God now seeking rescue in God’s holy land.  And finding Elisha, Elisha says, “Go wash seven times in the Jordan river, and you will be clean.” 

It sounds preposterous doesn’t it?  Washing in a river can’t heal this.  Washing in a dirty river isn’t going to make him clean.  In fact, it will probably make him worse won’t it?  It is just a silly ritual that those religions crack jobs from Israel told him.  Naaman thinking the same thing, leaves the river behind, deciding to return to his own land. 

But as they are packing up, to go and try the same thing with the water of the Rivers of Syria, a servant speaks to Naaman, “My Father, why not give it a try.  The prophet said you would be clean, dip in the water, what could it hurt?”  Naaman washes, and is clean, his flesh no longer leprous, but instead fresh as a baby’s bottom. 

Dear friends, I know this is quite the long history of Naaman’s life.  What in the world does it have to do with us here this morning?  Why take so much time talking about it?  Because dear friends, at one time you too had been an enemy of God.  I know that is a bold statement, just as it was for Naaman, but one time you were God’s mortal enemy.  For conception you had turned your back on him.  You had hated him.  You had despised the very word of God and did everything in your power to go against him.  You hated!  Hated!  Hated God. 

And so God made you sick.  Not only as a punishment, but also so that you might realize how badly had you needed a savior.  God made you sick with death, death not just of your body but also your soul.  With suffering.  With weakness.  God gave these things to you just as he gave leprosy to Naaman. And now, before God, you are "Unclean!  Unclean!  Unclean!"

And just like Naaman, God also gave you to wash.  Not to heal your bodily ailments, but to heal your soul, so that one day your body might live forever.  He sent a man, just as he sent Elisha, to wash you, not seven times, but with the sevenfold spirit – the Holy Spirit – and with the words “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  There you were made clean, just as Naaman was.  There your old sinful self was destroyed, drowned forever in dirty water.  There he saved you, “not by righteous things you had done, but by a washing of rebirth and renewal in the Holy Spirit.”  (Titus 3:5). 

Dear friends, that washing – baptism – has made you clean, just as Naaman was made clean.  And it saves you, not because of magic water, not because of the water is holy water, but because when God’s word is present with the water, that water kills you with Jesus.  In that water, Jesus blood covers you so deeply that sinful self drowns with him as he gives up his life for you , in your place.  And then Jesus, having died for you sin rises again, and takes you with him. 

It is as if that water is glue, that glues you back to God where you belong. “Or did you not know that when you were baptized you were baptized into the death of Jesus.  You were buried with him, therefore, through baptism into death, so that just as Christ has been raised from the dead you too might raise into new life.” 

It happened for Naaman, for when Naaman came out of the water, he no longer hated God simply because of the work that God had done for him.  And in the same way when your forehead was dried off, you no longer hated God, because of what Jesus had done for you. 

Yes I know, there are times that sinful self still kicks up out of the water of baptism into your life.  I know there are times when you would like to turn back to that sinful way, that has been killed in you.  There were times in his life where Naaman was sick still, but know this.  That sin is dead, here today and now, through the baptismal waters of Jesus Christ.  That’s your promise, that’s your reality, that’s God’s promise.  

Wash me, and I shall be clean.  Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.  Pour your water and word upon me, and make me your holy, pure, clean child.  It happened to Naaman, and through Jesus, it happens to me.  Amen.  

Progress on St. John's Building Project

Progress on the St. John's Building Project:

 The Basement Project

Outside

UPDATE - Here is a link to the Basement Cabinets Design - 

Click Here

Epiphany 5 - G - 2012 - The Gift Greater than Earthly Healing

The Fifth Sunday After Epiphany

February 5, 2012 - Pastor Adam Moline

Isaiah 40:21-31           1 Corinthians 9:16-27         Mark 1:29-39

Grace, Mercy and Peace to you from God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.  Our text today comes from the Gospel lesson just read especially these words, “Jesus replied, "Let us go somewhere else-- to the nearby villages-- so I can preach there also. That is why I have come."  Thus far our text.

Dear friends in Christ.  He did it for Peter’s mother in law, he’ll do it for me too right?  In our Gospel lesson today we see Jesus coming into a town, much like our town.  A town full of people who were sick, people who struggled people who hurt.  Jesus comes to Peter’s house.  His mother in law is sick with a fever, too sick to get up and meet Jesus., too sick to help prepare the meal and the food.   Immediately Jesus takes her by the hand, lifts her up, and she is healed. 

Immediately, she begins to help cook the food, immediately she helps the part – the celebration – to get underway.  As the news spreads throughout the town, countless other people bring in their sick people.  After all, he did it for Peter’s Mother-in-law, so of course he will do it for them as well.  It is a late night of celebration as Jesus heals countless people, from various diseases.  As Jesus, casts out demons, but prevents them from speaking a single word. 

Finally, Jesus goes out to a solitary place, sneaking out to take a break from healing, and he prays.  Finally Jesus tries to catch a rest from the work of healing people, for just like you and I, the God man needs some rest.  As Jesus is praying, Peter hunts him down – “Jesus there are more people coming!  Jesus they need to be healed too  Jesus, you did it for my mother in law, you healed her.  It’s only fair if you will heal these other people too.”

Dear friends in Christ, isn’t that our cry as well.  Dear Lord, we know that you healed all sorts of people in the New Testament.  You gave the blind their sight, you gave the lame to walk, the deaf to hear.  You did all these wonderful powerful things, so won’t you just do the same thing for me?  Won’t you take away my ailment too, its only fair. 

We make these deals with God all the time, and we do it because we believe it is the most important thing.  Heal my father’s cancer.  Heal my uncles kidneys or livers.  Take away my grandfathers weakness.  That’s all I need!  That’s all I want.  Just do that, then I will believe in you, then I will trust in you.  Dear God, can’t you take away my suffering, can’t you raise my friend?  Do for me as you did in Capernaum.  That’s all I need.

Sometimes we even get angry – Dear God, how could you let that happen, when I know that you could have stopped it if you wanted.  I know you could have prevented this event!  Why didn’t you?  You did it for some, why not for others.  All I need is your help in this situation, all I need is your healing.  Give it to me!  Give it to me now!

That’s the same thing Peter says to Jesus in our text.  “Everyone is looking for you Jesus, they want you to heal their sick as well.  It’s all they need.  But Jesus stop’s Peter cold in his tracks.  And dear friends, he stops you in your tracks.  Healing from your earthly maladies is not what you need from Jesus.  It isn’t the most important thing that Jesus came for.  Hear what Jesus says to Peter in our text today. 

“Let us go somewhere else-- to the nearby villages-- so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”  Don’t you care Jesus?  Aren’t you concerned with suffering?  Don’t you want everyone to be healed and happy, and to live forever here on this earth?  Can’t you save those people, or are you showing favoritism?  Are you compassionate to some, and not to others? 

Dear friends, the problem is not with Jesus, it is completely and totally with you and with me.  Jesus does care.  Jesus will heal if it is His holy perfect will.  But Jesus has a more important, a more necessary reason that he has come for first, and he tells it to Peter in our text.  I need to preach there also.  I need to go to the next place and preach – that’s why I have come. 

Friends Jesus didn’t come for the reason you wanted him to come!  He didn’t come to be your magic healer, to take away the pain and suffering and sickness of this world through magic tricks.  Jesus came to preach – “Repent for the Kingdom of God is near.”  Jesus came to preach “I will be lifted up, and will draw all people to myself.”  And that message of Jesus preaching is more important than any miracle of healing, more important that any miraculous feeding.  Because in that word the whole ball of wax is included. 

That message Repent for I am going to die for your sins.  I will rescue you from your illness, not by healing you just to die again later, but by taking death away forever with my own death.  Repent, turn to me, and I will lead you out of death into eternity, I will spill my blood over you, cover you in it.  Whoever loves his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it forever and ever without end. 

Faith in those words, faith in Jesus will lead you from sickness into life, from death to heaven.  That’s what is most important.  That’s why Jesus came.  Not to put off your death.  Not to leave you alive for a little longer, but to take you away from death in his own cross. 

Friends, each one of us has loved ones who are sick.  Each one of us have people we know who hurt, who are in danger, and we want them to be better.  We want them not to hurt, not to suffer.  We want a perfect world.  We want God to take away their illness so we can have them to ourselves a little longer. 

But friends, Jesus came to give you something greater, something more wonderful.  He came to give you something, as difficult as it is to hear and to believe, more wonderful that the healing of your mother in law or brother.  He came to give you eternity, and to give it to you through preaching and his word.  He came to give you eternity with them before the throne of God.

God gives this to you through preaching.  He gives it to you through the words of a sinful man, who says, “In the stead, and by the command of Christ, I forgive you all your sins.”  He gives it to through the preaching of a man who says, Christ’s own words, “Take and eat, this is Christ’s body.  Take and drink, this is his blood.”  He gives you his word that says, “Christ suffered and died on a cross, and he did it for you, not as a temporary from the sicknesses of this world, but as a permanent rescue.”  Yes it may hurt for awhile.  Yes it is difficult to struggle through on this sinful earth.  But what God gives to you is something more amazing than you can imagine. 

Christ may heal your loved ones, he may not.  He may heal you, he may not.  But he has give you his word either way.  He has given you a gift of eternity, of peace of comfort beyond all understanding – all through the preaching of his word.  Come, hear God’s word.  Come believe His preaching – for that is why he came.  Amen.  

2012 February News and Views from the Pews

Below, see the link to the February Immanuel and St. John's News and Views from the Pews:

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