Pentecost - OT - 2012 - Dead Bones Alive

Pentecost Sunday

May 20, 2012 - Pastor Adam Moline

Ezekiel 37:1-14                       Acts 1:1-21                 John 15:26-27; 16:4b-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 just read, especially these words, “Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people.”  Thus far our text. 

Dear friends in Christ:  “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”  Its true, it happened this way.  God made everything you see, and then to finish His work of creation, he made man out of the very dust of the earth and breathed the very breath of life into him.  He knelt down, got dirty, and caused that first man to breathe.  And thus began life, your life was given there.  The life of the world came from the source of life, the breath of God – the very spirit of God

But as you know, it didn’t last long.  Our forefathers and mothers fell into sin in a very short matter of time.  And as soon as sin was a part of their lives, so too was the consequence – Death!  Death that effects you and me, death that we fear and dread.  Death that hurts us and our loved ones. 

That deadly sin is there in you.  That deadly sin is in me.  And that deadly sin was in the people of Israel 3000 years ago when the prophet Ezekiel wrote the words of our Old Testament text.  For years before that time, the people of Israel had been warned – turn away from your sin.  Stop blaspheming the name of God.  Stop turning your back on him.  Stop ignoring the preaching of his word.  Stop despising your authorities, stop hurting people stop fighting. And despite years of warnings, generations of warnings, the people continued in their sin.  And so they were conquered by foreign armies.  Their people were killed and those who were left alive were carried off into exile. 

They were dead bones.  The Lord says to Ezekiel, “these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.”  The gifts of the Lord had departed them in their sin, and all that was left was death, ruin and damnation.  Because of their sin, they died.  Because of their sin, their lives ended. 

And dear friends in Christ, because of your sin, the same fate awaits you.  Because of your sin too, you will be dry bones one day – and yes, even now you are already dry bones – dead in sin yet still alive for a time here on earth.  You’re dead in sin.  You’re gone, your bones are dried up, your hope is so often lost and you often feel dried up. 

You are guilty, just as those ancient peoples were.  You too have turned your back on God.  You blaspheme, you dislike preaching – especially if it hits too close to home.  You fight with each other – even with those whom you love the most.  You lust, you curse you swear.  You hate authorities and you do more and worse than even this.  You’ve turned your back on the God who knelt down next to you and breathed life into your body.  You!  You’re a sinner – and the sinner must die. 

Its uncomfortable isn’t it?  Knowing that when Ezekiel sees a valley of dry, dead bones, that it is you that he sees.  That your flesh has rotted away, and that your situation is as bad as last year’s dead cow lying in the field. 

But hear what God tells Ezekiel about the dry bones of Israel.  Hear what God says to you dry bones!  “I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD.”

He will open your grave, dear Christians.  He will put the sinews back on your bones – as he does in the valley of dry bones.  He will build again the flesh of your body out of the dust into which it will rot.  He will put the hair back on your head, the skin back on your body.  He will recreate you, just as he created our first parents in the very beginning.  And for you, dear friend on that last day he will kneel down next to your recreated body, and breathe into you and give you life.  The Holy Spirit will enter you again and you will be raised forever.  The breath will come into you, and you will live and stand on your feet.

How can this be?  It is the work of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  God the Father will rebuild your body.  Why?  Because God the Son has suffered and died in its place.  He gave up all he had, his life, his blood, and more so that you would not have to remain a dead dry bone.  And now, today on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is poured out upon you to create and sustain faith in each one of you that looks to the blood bought sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  Its this Holy Spirit that calls you by the Gospel, enlightens you with his gifts, and makes you holy keeping you in the one true faith.  This is most certainly true. 

And so dear friends, it is this Holy Spirit that Ezekiel prophesies to.  It is this Holy Spirit that comes to you today, making you alive again. Pointing you only to Jesus Christ who takes away the stain of sin, death and the devil.  Its this Holy Spirit, the very breath of God, that enters your cold dead bones, and makes you alive again forever – an Army of the Lord. 

In the beginning, God created man in his image.  He formed him out of the dust of the earth, and breathed the very life giving Spirit into his lungs to give him life.  Man turned away and died, but again, God will breathe that spirit into those who believe in Jesus.  He will raise all the dead, and give eternal life to all who believe.  This is most certainly true.  Amen.    

Easter 7 - G - 2012 - The Name of Jesus

The Seventh Sunday of Easter

May 20, 2012 - Pastor Adam Moline

Acts 1:12-26           1 John 5:9-15            John 17:11b-19

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, with special emphasis on the first two verses. 

Brothers and Sisters in Christ.  Is your name important?  Does it actually mean something, or does it mean nothing?  In the play Romeo and Juliet, Juliet determines that a name doesn’t really mean anything, saying “What’s in a name?  A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet.” 

It seems like names don’t mean anything.  We toss them around and use them like they don’t matter.  I can’t remember how many times, when I was in trouble as a kid, that my mom would call me both of my brothers names before finally realizing that it was me, Adam, that was in trouble.  She knew which one was the one who was in trouble, but she the name wasn’t the important thing at the time. 

And many of us don’t like our names either, we change them or shorten them, we pick nicknames and demand that people call us that instead.  For us people in today’s day and age, names just aren’t really that important at all are they?  No matter what you call something, it just doesn’t change what it is. 

But to God, names are important.  To God names mean something.  Throughout the pages of scriptures, God gives people names that mean something.  These names identify who the person is, and what they have done or will do.  We have Peter, whose name mean rock, and upon whose confession, “You are the Christ” the church is founded.  We have Abraham, whose name means Father of the People, who became the father of many nations.  The list goes on and on, but the most important name is the name of Jesus, which means the Lord saves. 

In today’s text, Jesus prays that the Father might keep us in the name that God has given, the name of Jesus, the name “The Lord Saves.”  In that name we are one, in that name we are united as the Church of Christ.

I.                   We were in the name of Death, the name of Sin, the name of Satan.

But we haven’t always been in that name.  We were born of another name, We were born into the name of sin, into the name of Death, into the name of the Tempter.  We have been held captive to this name.  We could serve no other name on our own.  Instead we were held bondage to the owner of this name, Satan. 

We have been subject to the name of Satan since almost the very dawn of time.  It was when our forefather Adam ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil that we have been bound to that name.  In that act, all of us have been sold into slavery to Sin death and the devil. 

And we can see that in our daily lives.  We are slaves to sin, and because of that we can not truly love God.  Our sin shows itself in every way imaginable.  St. Paul tells us in Galatians 5, that the acts of the sinful nature are obvious:  Sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like.  Those are the things we are guilty of.  WE are guilty of these things because each one of them stems from our broken relationship with God.  These things are sin.  Sin tarnishes the name of God, it separates us from him. 

When we are separated from God, we no longer have his name upon us, instead we have the name of Sin Death and the Devil.  And really, we don’t want to have God’s name upon us do we?  How many times in our lives do we avoid the opportunity to witness to who’s name is upon us?  WE are at times embarrassed to be known to be a Christian, to have Jesus’ name upon us. Our text tells us that because we have God’s word, that the world will hate us. We don’t want to be hated, we want to be liked.  We want to have friends.  We want respect.   Instead we brazenly claim any other name we can, but we ignore the name of God.  WE don’t want to claim that name for ourselves. 

I am an American.  I am a South Dakotan.   I am a republican, or I am a democrat.  I am doctor, I am a Teacher, I am a whatever, but when it comes to faith we feel like we have to be careful who knows what we believe.  We have to be careful who we share our faith with.  I don’t want to put my job on the line by claiming to be a Christian.  I don’t want to offend anyone who thinks differently then me because I am a Christian.  So I will just keep it quite and inside.  I won’t tell anyone.  I don’t want to be embarrassed infront of my friends, so I ignore my faith in public. 

Its easier to do that.  We don’t want people to think badly of us.  We don’t want to be criticized.  Instead we want everyone to like us.  But God says in our text today that he has given us his word, and that the “world has hated them” because of it.  The world hates Christianity because it is not of this world. 

II.                Now we are in the name of Jesus, and belong to him who saved us by his death.

But we do have God’s name upon, even though we are in sin.  Even though we deny it before the world, we are God’s possession, and we do have His name upon us. 

a.       Through Baptism

You received that name in the waters of Holy Baptism.  You received a new name, the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  That name is the name above all names, the name at which all other names will bow.  That is the name of Jesus.  You receive it upon you, and it claims you as its own. 

In the ancient Christian church, all the baptisms, for both adults and children were done at one time, the day before Easter.  At that time all the baptismal candidates would come into the church in the very early morning before Easter Dawn, and they would be washed in the baptismal waters.  Upon coming out of the water, they would receive a new Christian name, and leave behind their old pagan name.  Instead of having the name of Apollo, the pagan god, you would have the name Christopher, the bearer of Christ. Instead your pagan name you received a Christian name, one that marked you as Christ.

In modern baptism, we have a remnant of that, as the Pastor asks, “What is this child to be named?” and immediately following, that baby is baptized into the name of God.  In baptism we too have left behind our old name, the name of Sin, the name of Death, the name of the devil.  Now we have a new name, one that marks us as belonging to Christ. 

In the book of Revelation, we see that name being recorded in the book of Life.  In baptism, your name was recorded into that book, written in the blood of the lamb.  You see it isn’t just claiming the name “Christian” that saves you.  Instead it is that by being washed in that name, you are connected to the very death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  When you received the name of God, you died with Christ on the cross.  When you received the name of God, you laid dead with Christ in a tomb for three days. When you received the name of God, you rose victoriously with Jesus, and now will never die again.  Now you have eternal life and you have it to the full. 

Friends in Christ, Jesus has given you his name, so that when God the Father looks at you, he doesn’t see your former name of sin, he doesn’t see all those times when you thumbed your nose at Him.  Instead, God sees Jesus every time He looks at you.  Thus He says, “Well done, good and faithful servant, you are serving me in Christ’s name, the name of Jesus, the name which means God saves.” 

Jesus prays in today’s text that you might be kept in that name.  IN our world today, we will face many struggles.  People will die unexpectedly.  Friends will suffer from sickness and disease.  People will hate you because you are in that name.  Through it all, God has promised to keep you in that name.  God has promised that you will remain His, for nothing can snatch you out of his had.  He has promised, and that promise is written in the blood of Jesus Christ, crucified for the sins of the world. 

Jesus name means God saves.  Jesus name is written upon you.  Jesus name cannot be erased by anyone else no matter what.  You are His.  He will now guard and protect you even to life ever lasting.  Names do mean something.  God’s name means you have forgiveness life and salvation.    Nothing is so sweet as that promise.  Life in Jesus Name.  Amen.  

Easter 6 - E - 2012 - These Three Testify

The Sixth Sunday of Easter

May 13, 2012 - Pastor Adam Moline

^{Acts 10:32-48             1 John 5:1-8               John 15:9-17}

He is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!  Amen!  Our text today comes from the Epistle lesson just read especially these words, “For there are three that testify:  the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.”  Thus far our text. 

Dear friends in Christ.  We all know what testimony is, we have all seen it, when in court a person puts their hand on the bible and swears to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  We have seen in court television shows and news reports this very process take place time and time again.  Witnesses testify to what they have seen, they tell the truth about a situation, about what is going on. 

And dear friends, you too are witnesses.  Every day of your life you testify to that which is inside of you; that which is your hope, that in which you live, breathe and have meaning.  You testify with you words, your thoughts and your actions.  You testify, and your testimony isn’t that good.  You fall short time and time again.  You speak about people behind their back.  You get drunk, you curse and swear.  You look at pornography, you hoard your money, you don’t give and share your wealth.  You hate.  You steal.  You skip church whenever you feel like.  You testify and your testimony so often is “I’m really indifferent about God.  I really don’t care too much.  I know what’s best for me more than some old archaic bible.” 

You make this testimony.  I make this testimony.  We openly and publically deny our faith time and time again.  We testify that we are sinners.  We testify that we don’t believe in God, or at the very least that we really aren’t that concerned about Him.  We testify that our main concern is me, myself and I. 

Sin.  Sin that fills each of us.  Sin that infects each of us.  Sin that defines who we are.  Dear friends can’t you see it in yourself?  Don’t you know that it’s there?  “What a wretched man I am! What a wretched person you are!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?” 

For that is what scripture testifies to.  If you are in sin, you are dead.  If you turn your back on God, he will condemn you to eternal flames and fire and torture.  He will send you to the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, and where the worm will not die.  Scripture’s testimony about sin is clear. 

Our actions and words testify against us.  Scripture testifies about our sin.  And when we are confronted with this testimony, there is only one conclusion:  We are doomed.  We have no hope.  Our sin is so great that there is no rescue within us.  We cannot by our own reason or strength believe or save ourselves.  We have chosen the wrong course, and we cannot, no matter what we do, change that course. 

But there is a testimony that is true, a testimony that speaks on our behalf.  A testimony of three things that assure your rescue, three things that testify that you are forgiven, that you will be saved.  Water.  Blood. Spirit.  These three agree in their testimony.  That you are forgiven because Jesus has come, has died, and has set you free from sin forever more. 

There is Water that testifies.  Water that has washed each of you.  Living water that washes your sin away, making you holy and blameless in the eyes of God.  Water that in your baptism carried you through the raging flood of sin in this world, just as it carried the ark of Noah through the flood so many years ago.  In Baptismal water your sinful nature was drowned and killed, and a new person, a holy person was resurrected with Jesus.  Water testifies that you are forgiven.

There is blood that testifies.  Blood that was shed from a cross, from the body of Jesus, from the body of God incarnate.  Blood that poured out and speaks a better word than that of Abel – that speaks a word not of condemnation but of forgiveness.  There is blood that testifies, that as you were baptized with water you were covered in the blood of Jesus washed whiter than snow.  The blood of Jesus atones for your sin before God.  It is a blood that testifies in place of your blood, blood shed instead of yours. 

This water, and this blood both testified together on a Friday we call good, when as Jesus cries out “It is finished” on your behalf, his own side was pierced, and what poured forth?  Water and blood!  Water and blood that come from the dead and risen again savior, water and blood that cover you to testify on your behalf “not guilty!”  “Not wrong!”  Not condemned!  Forgiven!  All in the name of Jesus.  All for your sake. 

And finally the spirit testifies to you today about the truth of this matter.  He testifies in the Word of God that you have now hear.  He testifies in the hymns that we have sung, the service we have participated in.  He testifies to you through the words of this sermon, delivered by this poor lowly sinner.  Dear friends, hear these words, as the Holy Spirit works faith in you – You are forgiven in Jesus!  The Holy Spirit now calls you by the Gospel, Enlightens you with his gifts, and sanctifies and keeps you in the one true faith.  You may be a sinner, yes, but you are a redeemed sinner through Jesus Christ. 

Water testifies that you are a new creation in baptism.  Blood testifies that your sin was atoned for.  And the Spirit who now testifies and creates faith in you through his holy gifts. 

Water, blood and spirit these three testify – they testify that you belong to God.  Amen.  

Random Church Father Quote

"Every kind of honor and happiness was bestowed upon you, and then was fulfilled that which is written, 'My beloved did eat and drink, and was enlarged and became fat, and kicked.' Hence flowed emulation and envy, strife and sedition, persecution and disorder, war and captivity. So the worthless rose up against the honored, those of no reputation against such as were renowned, the foolish against the wise, the young against those advanced in years. For this reason righteousness and peace are now far departed from you, inasmuch as as every one abandons the fear of God, and is become blind in His faith, neither walks in the ordinances of His appointment, nor acts a part becoming a Christians, but walks after his own wicked lusts, resuming the practice of an unrighteous and ungodly envy, by which death itself entered into the world."


And then later:


"Let us look steadfastley to the blood of Christ, and see how precious that blood is to God, which having been shed for our salvation has set the grace of repentance before the whole world.  Let us turn to every age that has passed, and learn that, from generation to generation, the Lord has granted a place of repentance to all such as would be converted unto him."

- First Epistle of Clement

Confirmation - G - 2012 - Dead Branches Made Alive with Promise

Confirmation Sunday - Fifth Sunday of Easter

May 6, 2012 - Pastor Adam Moline

Acts 8:26-40               1 John 4:1-21              John 15:1-8

He is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!  Amen!  Our text today comes from the Gospel lesson just read, especially these words, “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”  Thus far our text. 

Dear friends in Christ, especially our confirmands today.  Today we celebrate confirmation.  Today we celebrate the bold public confession that two young people from our parish make, that they believe in Jesus and would rather be killed, that they would rather die than renounce their faith.  It’s a huge promise.  It’s a bold promise, with years of Sunday School and years of confirmation study leading up to this day.  It’s a difficult promise to make, especially in this day and age, when faith is laughed at, ridiculed, and often forgotten. It’s a promise made here in the very presence of God.  And dear friends, it is a promise that all of you who are confirmed have made as well. 

In a few minutes we will turn to page 273 in your hymnal and ask these questions.  Do you intend to live according to the Word of God , and in faith, word and deed to remain true to God, Father Son and Holy Spirit, even to death?  Do you intend to continue steadfast in this confession and Church, and to suffer all even death, rather than fall away from it?  Do you intend to hear the Word of God and receive the Lord’s Supper faithfully?  In other words will you come to church regularly?  Will you participate?  Will you give to the church of your time and talents?  And will you continue to do this – whatever the circumstances – until at last your life comes to its end?

Today, (Betsy/Theresia) will make this promise.  And many of you have made this same promise.  So how well have you done?  How well will you do?  Have you kept your promise to God?  And I don’t mean just a little bit, or even 99% of the time, have you kept your promise completely and totally?  And will you, young confirmand, will you keep it as well? 

I am the vine, and you are the branches.  Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.  You promise today to be a faithful branch, to remain connected to the vine, to bear fruit in this church, and in every part of your life forever more.  We make that promise, and then we forget about it.  We move on with our life, we “graduate” from church and have more important things to do with our time. 

We don’t have time to serve on a church committee or board.  We don’t have extra money to give to our church.  The world offers us all sorts of other activities to do on Sunday mornings – many of them important no doubt, many of them maybe even more fun than church.  We can’t seem to find just one hour, maybe an hour and a half if the sermon is long, to come to church.  We become dead branches.  We don’t bear the fruit we promise in our confirmation.  We are cut off from the church and as our text says, deserving to be burned in the eternal fire.  Because of your sin, you are a dead branch. 

But today, on confirmation day, Christ speaks to you, and as the text says, “you are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.”  And the word that Christ speaks to each one of you confirmands, both past and present, is this:  “God is love.  In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.  In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

God loves you dear confirmands.  He knows that you have sinned, and still he has sent his only Son into the world to die on your behalf.  He takes your sin away.  He rescues you from sin death and the devil.  He purchases and wins you as his own, not with gold and silver, but with his holy precious blood, and innocent suffering and death.  He delivers you from evil, calls you by the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, and now will sanctify and keep you in the true faith.  And he does it all because of his love for you.

Dear confirmands, you are grafted back onto the vine.  He takes you a dead branch, and firmly reattaches you to himself, using his own blood shed for sin as the glue.  He sends eternal life coursing through your veins, raising you to life in baptismal waters.  He feeds you with his own body and blood, so that you can blossom and grow in the true faith and so that you can bear much fruit in service to your neighbor.  And all of this he does only out of his divine goodness and mercy, without and worthiness or merit in you at all.  That’s his love.  And it is for you, you dead branch, so that you might become alive once more, and this time forever. 

Dear friends, that’s our confession of faith.  That’s what the catechism says because that is exactly what scripture says.  You poor sinner are rescued because Jesus loved you and give his life for you.  Today is not really about you at all.  It’s not really about what you are promising to do for God, it isn’t about what you should do or worse what you have failed to do.  Its about what Christ has done.  He created you.  He baptized you into his own Triune Name.  He brought you here today, and he will be with you as you go throughout the rest of your life. 

He will guard and keep you in the one true faith as you grow older.  He’ll be with you as you leave for college.  He’ll be there when you finally get married.  He’ll serve you as your hair turns gray and as your body slowly falls apart.  He promises.  And dear friends, he will raise you from the dead to serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity. 

“I am the vine,” Jesus says “and you are the branches.  Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing… If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. ” 

Dear friends, dear confirmands both young and old, both this years and those from years gone by, today is Confirmation Day.  Today is the day for promises, promises made by God, sealed by Jesus’ blood, and given to you freely by your gracious and loving God.  You have overcome the world, for he who promises to dwell with in you in greater than the world.  You are dead branches who are made alive again in Christ.  Amen.