Easter Sunrise 2012

He raised the widow’s on at Nain.  He raised Jairus’ daughter.  In fact, Jesus brought the house down with laughter when He said:  “She’s not dead – just taking a little nap!”  He audaciously and categorically promised Martha:  “I am the Resurrection and the Life.  He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in m will never die,” (John 11:25).  He walked to His best friend’s grave and barked out these orders to the already decomposing remains:  “Lazarus, come on out!”  And He did!  Grave clothes and all!  But all these people eventually died again.

Now Jesus is dead!  Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome are off to the tomb.  You go to the cemetery to pay your respects to the DEAD!  The Lord who preached, “I am the Resurrection and the Life” is graveyard dead! 

Can’t get any deader!  Joseph of Arimathea wrapped up the dead body and then laid it in the tomb!  The least you can do is anoint the corpse with spices.  So it’s off to the grave “when the Sabbath was over” to pay their respects to the dead – the dead and buried Jesus!

What’s this?  Oh, my …!  The tomb … is open!  The large, heavy sealed tombstone has been moved! Oh no!  It can’t be!  But it sure looks like it!  That’s the only explanation!  A tomb invasion!  A break in!  Trespassers have violated the tomb!   No doubt, they have desecrated and profaned the Lord’s body!  He had many enemies!  Wasn’t it enough to viciously murder Him?  Can’t they leave Him alone even in death?  Do we even dare to look?

They do.  They step in to the tomb.  Someone’s there!  The trespasser is still here! 

He’s no intruder.  No desecrator of the grave!  He’s a holy angel!  Strange!  Very strange!  You don’t see angels every day.  But we did see them at the Annunciation and at Jesus’ birth, after His temptation in the wilderness, and while He prayed in the Garden!  Now here too!  You’d be alarmed too!  Angels are mighty creatures.  Every time someone in the Bible sees an angel he is scared stiff! 

“Ladies, no need to be frightened!  I won’t hurt you,” the angel proclaims.  “Looking for the corpse, ladies?  The body of Jesus?  Jesus from Nazareth?  Well, are you?  You are, aren’t you?  Well, then I’ve got great news for you!  Get a load of this, ladies!  GRAVE EMPTY!  TAKE A LOOK!  SEE WHERE JOSEPH LAID THE BODY!  IT IS GONE!  NO LONGER HERE!  HERE’S WHY!  JESUS THE CRUCIFIED, DEAD AND BURIED RIGHT HERE IN THIS TOMB HAS RISEN!  RISEN FROM THE DEAD!”

This is the game changer!  The salvation game changer!  The cross is not emptied of its power because He rose!  You are no longer in your sins because He rose!  You’re faith in Him is not in vain!   

Why?  Because He did it!  Did exactly what He said He would do!  In every detail!  Betrayed.  Condemned to death.  Mocked.  Spit on.  Flogged.  Killed.  Then the clincher:  AND THREE DAYS LATER HE PHYSICALLY ROSE FROM THE GRAVE (Mark 10:33-34; 8:31)!  Awakened from the dead!  Shed the burial clothes!  Folded them up and placed there here as He left the cemetery!  Never to return! Never to die again! No one else has ever done this!  Muhammad didn’t! Buddha didn’t!  Not Joseph Smith!  Not Brigham Young!  Not even Harry Potter! No one!  Excluding the fictional character from Hogwarts, these dead and decayed bodies still remain in their graves! But not Jesus! I will trust Him!  You can trust Jesus!  He does what He says!  Does what He promises! He rose!

Many saw Jesus!  He really did come out the grave!  When St. Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians he gives evidence of this fact with witnesses.  The resurrected Jesus, he writes, “appeared to Peter and then to the Twelve … he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.  Then he appeared to [His half-brother] James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born,” (1 Corinthians 15:5-7).  It is true!  We have witnesses!  His grave is empty!  Hundreds saw Him!   

He did what He promised!  Therefore -- JESUS IS WHO HE SAYS HE IS!  Who St. Mark and the centurion at the foot of the cross confess:  THE SON OF GOD (Mark 1:1; 15:39)!  I.E. God in the flesh!  Son of God Jesus for you!  “WHO DIED FOR YOUR SINS!”

You’d be full of awe and fear too!  In the First Commandment way, that is!  Fearing, loving, and trusting in Jesus above all things!  This is always what happens when Jesus does His salvation stuff in the Gospel according to St. Mark!  He awed and overwhelmed folks when He taught from the Word and then cast out demons on the authority of His word (Mark 1:21-22, 27).  When He calmed the storm and walked on the sea (Mark 4:41; 6:51) the disciples were “terrified,” “amazed,” and “asked each other, ‘Who is this?  Even the wind and the waves obey Him!’”  When Jesus absolved and healed a paralytic the citizens of Capernaum were “amazed” and “praised God” proclaiming, “We have never seen anything like this,”  (Mark 2:12)!  The snickers turned to absolute astonishment when Jesus raised Jairus’ dead daughter with only a command, “Talitha koum,” (Mark 5:42)!  Vociferous Peter was left completely speechless – petrified into silence -- at the sight of Mount of Transfiguration Jesus (Mark 9:6)!  As Jesus led the way to Jerusalem without hesitation for the last week of His life, the disciples were astonished and the others who followed were frightened (Mark 10:32)!

So too here at the empty tomb!  First Commandment fear and awe!  With even greater intensity!  It is absolutely incredible!  Another miracle!  He did it!  He did what He said He would do!  HE ROSE FROM THE DEAD!  These shaking in their boots women now know what every disciple of the Risen Lord Jesus comes to know – that in Jesus the Son of God all divine power and mercy is present!  For the crucified and risen Jesus is God Himself! 

HIS RESURRECTION MEANS THAT JESUS IS GOD … FOR SINNERS!  Every one of them!  Including Peter – one of the worst.  Denied Jesus.  Wouldn’t be seen with Jesus in His greatest need!  Oh, Peter!  He failed so badly.  You wouldn’t fear, love and trust in Jesus above all things!  But Jesus died and rose for Peter!  Jesus wants to tell Peter that He still loves him!  Always has!  That all is forgiven!  Reconciled! 

That’s why Peter is singled out:  “Go, tell his disciples and Peter.  He’ll meet you in Galilee as He promised.” To show them His hands and His side!  To absolve these sinners!  For all of them to confess like Thomas:  “My Lord, and my God” (John 20:28)!

You too!  In His death Jesus has redeemed you.  Purchased and won you from all sins, death, and the power of the devil.  He rose for you too!  This is the Gospel – on which we take our stand!  This is the Gospel by which you are saved:  “THAT CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES, THAT HE WAS BURIED, THAT HE WAS RAISED ON THE THIRD DAY ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES!”    

However, the crucified and risen Jesus doesn’t meet you in Galilee!  He promises to meet you in the divine service through His Word and Sacrament.  To be God for you!  In order to absolve you too!  You, who are no better than Peter!  Perhaps even worse!  You too are forgiven!  Jesus shed His Blood for you!  That’s exactly His promise every Sunday in the Sacrament:  “Given and shed for your for the forgiveness of your sins.”

He is the Lord!  He is Lord God for you!  The only One!  The First Commandment One!    

For now!  And forever!  Death does not have the last word.  First Commandment God Jesus does!  After all, the Crucified Jesus is the Risen Jesus!  He is the Resurrection and the Life.  His promise still holds true: “He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in m will never die!”

Have a happy Resurrection Day!

In the Name of Jesus.  

Easter Vigil 2012

St. Matthew 27:57-66

Can it be?  Really?  Yes, it’s true.  Ask Joseph of Arimathea.  He was there.

He went to the governor Pontius Pilate and asked for the corpse.  Carefully, he handles it.  Gently, he washes the wounds.  Tenderly, he wraps it in linen cloth.  With great care he carries it and lays it to rest in his own new tomb! 

Jesus – dead and buried.  Really.  Truly.  Incredible! 

“O darkest woe!

Ye tears forth flow!

Has earth so sad a wonder?

God the Father’s only Son

Now is buried yonder.”

O sorrow dread!

Our God is dead

Upon the cross extended.

There His love enlivens us

As His life was ended.”[1]

Yes, that’s right:  “Our God is dead.”  The Father didn’t die.  The Holy Spirit didn’t die.  BUT JESUS DID!

This is what it takes to win your salvation!  God must do it!  Only God saves!  Only God forgives!  Therefore the eternal Son of the Father takes on flesh and He gives His divine life into death on the cross!  He sheds His divine blood!  That’s Jesus!  He is true God and true man!  All for you!  The “It is finished” job of salvation is done!  By Jesus!  All sin answered for!  All sin died for! 

So now He rests from the work of salvation that He won for you and for the world.  The God-man laid and sealed in the tomb!  There He lays!

But even then – even there – graveyard dead Jesus is not a nothing!  His divine and holy Word made flesh body hallows, holies, or sanctifies what it touches!  And, yes, that includes the cemetery!  The tomb!  The grave!

His three day rest in that borrowed tomb was for you!  He was buried for you!  Now your grave is holy!  Your grave is hallowed!  Your tomb is sanctified!  All because the divine and holy body of Jesus has forever changed the cemetery and the grave! 

For you who believe in this Jesus the grave is now a place of rest and peace!  Rest in Jesus!  Peace in Jesus!

So when your day of death and burial takes place it is not the end.  Death does not have the last word.  Jesus does. 

A sealed and guarded tomb couldn’t keep God-man Jesus trapped in the grave!  The Scriptures must be fulfilled!  Jesus kept His promise.  He would be raised on the third day!  That’s the joy of tomorrow! 

To you for whom He died and was buried He promises the resurrection of your body on the Last Day.  He is the Firstfruits of those who sleep!  Of those who rest in Him! 

Today and tomorrow He teaches you to fear the grave as little as your bed.  After all, He will call you from your sleep!  He will wake you!  To a bodily resurrection and then eternal life with Him together with the Father and the Holy Spirit and all those who have gone before us in the faith! 

In the Name of Jesus.        

---

     [1] LSB #448:1-2 “O Darkest Woe.”

Good Friday Tenebrae 2012

Second Commandment:  You shall not misuse the Name of the Lord

     Your God

Bible Narrative:  Luke 23:46

Jesus:  bitterly betrayed. Judas and we use our mouth to cut that dastardly deal for some cash!  Jesus:  disappointingly denied.  Peter and we use our mouth to curse and swear in order to lie!  “I swear to God I don’t know this Jesus!  I’ll be damned if I’m one of His followers!”   Jesus:  appallingly abandoned.  By the rest of His disciples and all the rest of us!  “Let’s high tail it out of here!  We could be arrested too!  We can’t be seen with Him anymore!  It’s just too risky!”  With friends like that who needs … … … enemies?

Well, they show up too!  In spades!  Hurling insults!  Mocking!  Sneering!  “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.”  “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”  “Aren’t you the Christ?  Save yourself and us!”[1]  All these are huge satanic temptations!  “Think about yourself for a change Jesus!  Good grief!  Go ahead!  Hop off the cross!  You don’t deserve this!  You don’t need to suffer like this!  Show these people that you really are the Christ!  That you truly are who you say you are!  Save yourself!”     

His enemies desperately looked for a way to lay their hands on Him![2]  Jesus predicted that He would be given over / betrayed / handed over to the “hands” of sinful men![3]  Well, their hands, our hands, get what we all want!  Judas’ treason!  Hands over Jesus to His enemies!  He is given into the hands of sinful men!  Our hands.  Clenched.  Tightened.  Opened.  Shaken.  Too many to count!  With their hands, with our hands, we all slap, beat, pummel, flog, and pierce Him and pin Him with hammer and spikes! 

In the midst of His enemies, the evil powers of death, Satan, and sin and horrific suffering – in the midst of bearing the sin of the world – facing death -- suffering its damnation – (and this is the finale of Luke’s passion narrative) -- Jesus PLACES HIMSELF … INTO … HIS FATHER’S … HANDS!  “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”  Incredible trust!  Faith!    

He Prays!  Calls upon not just some generic god – but to God the Father – His Father and our Father!  Calls upon Him by Name! In every trouble!  He was always going off and praying to His Father during His life.  “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”[4]   When everything heats up and He’s in Gethsemane he prays:  “Father, if you are willing take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”[5]  As He hangs on the cross between two terrorists He prays:  “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”[6]  

Now, Holy One Jesus, in the midst of utter agony and the most immense trouble – facing death and damnation as THE SINNER by bearing all sin for the sake of sinners – He prays to His Father at the placed named Skull!   “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” 

That’s Psalm 31:5.  Jesus probably prayed the entire psalm of which we are only given a snippet.

This may have been the very first prayer Jesus learned as a boy.  Taught to Him by Mary.  It was the “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Prayer” of all Hebrew families.  The prayer that flows from faith!  Prayer that relies on God the Father for all help!  For everything!  Even at the moment of death! 

Jesus dies with prayer on His lips:  “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”  Even then He uses God’s name properly.  He looks to His Father for all help in every need.  For all consolation!  For all deliverance! 

After all Jesus learned another prayer from the Psalter:  “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me,” (Psalm 50:15)!  From such a promise Jesus lives!  And dies!  His unwavering trust in His Father continues in the moment of His death for sinners.  And for you!  And for your salvation – the salvation He earned, won and accomplished in His bitter suffering and death on Good Friday.

His death for you has born fruit in your life.  You are baptized into His death – the only death that counts against all your sin, death, and hell!  Faith in Jesus leads to the proper use of your mouth:  calling upon the Father in every trouble -- praise and thanksgiving.  And that’s every day.  Every morning and evening.  In the evening, right before you go to bed, which is a rehearsal for lying down to die, you too pray like Jesus.  You pray the Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep prayer of Psalm 31:5: “into your hands, Father, I commend myself, my body and soul and all things” in the sure and certain hope that because of Jesus, death doesn’t have the final word.  Jesus does!  He defeated death!  He rose from the grave.  And He will raise your body on the Last Day. 

More on that this Sunday!  Until then, a blessed Good Friday!

In the Name of Jesus.    

---

     [1]Luke 23:35-39. 

     [2]Luke 20:19; 22:53.

     [3]Luke 9:44; cf. 24:7.

     [4]Luke 2:49.

     [5]Luke 22:42.

     [6]Luke 23:34. 

Maundy Thursday 2012

Third Commandment:  Remember the Sabbath Day by Keeping It

     Holy

Bible Narrative:  Mark 14:12-26

God made the Sabbath Day holy.  That’s a given.  That’s Genesis 2!  And yet the Commandment:  Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy!

What’s up with that?  Here’s the deal!  “God wants it to be holy for you.”[1]  The Sabbath Day is holy in itself but in the Third  Commandment God wants it to be holy FOR YOU!  Incredible! 

How then is the Sabbath Day kept holy FOR YOU?  The answer is this:  “when … [you] make use of God’s Word and exercise … [yourselves] in it.”[2]  The Sabbath is about you being all ears!  Being all ears to God’s Word!  I.E. it is about hearing God’s Word!

For in, with, and under His Word God talks.  God speaks.  God speaks to you through Jesus the Word made flesh!  And He speaks to you through His written Word – the Bible.  The Bible, as God’s Word is to be preached, taught, and pondered!  God’s Word is to be HEARD WITH YOUR EARS! 

It is to be heard because God’s Word is a living, dynamic, vigorous, energetic, efficacious Holy Spirit-filled act of speech!  God’s Word is vibrant and all creative.  “Let there be light!”  “Be fruitful and multiply!”  “Lazarus, come out!”  “I baptize you in the Name …”   The Lord’s Word proclaimed does exactly what it says.  It gives precisely what it commands.  The Lord does and gives what His Word says!    

I have to go on extolling!  There’s even more!  Where the Lord’s Word is going on – being mouthed – preached – proclaimed, the Holy Spirit is going on!  I.E. where the divine Word -- there the Holy Spirit bestows and grants divine holiness – sanctifies!  Hallows! 

Did you hear that?  God’s Word hallows!  God’s Word holies!  God’s Word sanctifies!  All because His Word is most holy![3]  The Word bestows and gives the very holiness of the Triune God Himself!  TO YOU!  AND FOR YOU!  Through your ears!

Any day from the New Testament on, in which God’s Word is preached, taught, proclaimed is a holy day – a Sabbath Day for you!  For in that Word God is speaking to you!  In and through that Word the Lord deals with you!  And by His Word He hallows, holies, and sanctifies you the sinner.  The Third Commandment is about being occupied with God’s Word!  Hearing the preaching!  Holding it sacred!  Gladly hearing and learning it!  Not blowing it off!  Or treating it as a nothing!    

Tonight you are given to hear!  The Lord Jesus!  He does a Passover like none ever before!  He speaks words that were never ever spoken or heard at any Passover meal in the history of Israel! 

On the very day on which it was “customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb,” the Lamb is provided.  The Lamb is there!  The Lamb is the Lord Jesus Himself!  He is THE Lamb of God!  The Lord provides!  The perfect and without blemish Lamb!  The divine Lamb – the only One that takes away the sin of the world – that atones for all sin and for every sinner!  And Passover Lamb Jesus will be sacrificed.  That’s tomorrow.  Good Friday.

This evening is the night on which He is betrayed.  Judas!  Hands the Lamb over to sinners.  To be bound!  To be crucified on the altar of the cross!  “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me – one who is eating with me … It is one of the Twelve … one who dips bread into the bowl with me.  The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him.”  

It is according to the Word!  The Word – the prophecies – are doing what they promised!  What they predicted!  “Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me,” (Psalm 41:9)!  The divine Word from that Psalm is doing what it says.  Giving what it says!  To the Word made flesh Jesus – on the night in which He was betrayed! 

In the midst of this Passover meal Jesus takes bread.  He gives thanks and breaks it.  He takes a cup.  He gives thanks for it.  Then, as He hands out the bread and the wine to His disciple there are more words!  LORD Jesus speaks!  From His mouth!  “Take this bread.  It is my body.”  “This [cup of wine] is my blood of the new covenant which is poured out for many.”

What?  Is He serious?  Yes, deadly serious!  Has He lost His mind?  No.  He is of very sound mind!  The Lord says what He says.  Means what He says.  Does what He says!  Gives what He says.  THIS IS HIS LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT. 

This is what He bequeaths!  This is the inheritance!  The gifts!  The bread IS His Body!  The wine IS His Blood! It is His Body born of the Virgin!  He doesn’t have another one!  It is His Blood that flows in His arteries!  He doesn’t have any other kind of Blood!  Both are to be received with your mouth!  Eaten.  Drunk. 

With His words Jesus makes a covenant!  Or a promise!  “This is my blood of the new covenant.”  This is the language of Exodus 24:6-8! Moses took the blood of the animal sacrifices and sprinkled it on the Israelites and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you …” 

Here, on the night He was betrayed, the LORD – the LORD Jesus takes the cup of wine and declares:  “This is my blood of the new covenant.”  Not the blood of animals!  BUT “MY BLOOD!”  BUT THE BLOOD OF THE GOD-MAN HIMSELF!    With these words Jesus suffers Himself to die!  As THE ONE AND ONLY SACRIFICE FOR SIN!  THAT IS WHAT IS “NEW” HERE!

His Blood is divine Blood that purifies from all sin!  Divine Blood for cleansing!  Divine Blood for forgiveness and salvation!  The Blood of God Himself in the very Body in that man Jesus that is given into death on the cross once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin!

With the bread He gives His Body to eat.  With the wine He gives His Blood to drink.  “This is my blood of the new covenant which is poured out for many!”    FOR MANY – AND FOR YOU!  HE IS GOD THE LORD FOR YOU!  IN THIS WAY.  THE SACRAMENT OF THE ALTAR WAY! 

In the Sacrament tonight Jesus holies you, hallows you, sanctifies you!  His most holy Word hooked together with the bread and wine bestows what He promises.  Jesus Himself speaks to you tonight.  Into your ears go His Words!  Into your mouths goes what His Words say!  “Take this bread.  Eat it.  It is my Body.  Drink the cup.  It is my Blood.  It is the new covenant in which I prove that I am God for you!” 

It is a Holy Communion!  He comes.  He gathers.  He speaks.  He takes your sin!  He clothes you with His holiness!  It is holiness -- His – for you!  And with His Words that you hear tonight at the Sacrament  you have forgiveness – the forgiveness He won for you at Calvary!  With His Good Friday forgiveness bestowed with His Words “given and shed for you,” you also are given life and salvation! 

Jesus is the LORD.  He is LORD God for you!  And you are His holy, hallowed, sanctified people!  All bestowed with His Words!

Happy hearing!  Happy eating and drinking according to His Words! 

In the Name of Jesus.    

---

     [1]LC, 398:87.

     [2]LC, 398:88.

     [3]”For the Word of God is the true holy object above all holy objects,” LC 399:91.

Lenten Midweek 3

This years Lenten Midweek Sermons are adapted from sermons prepared by Pastor Brent Kuhlman, of Murdoch, NE. We are working our way through the Ten Commandments.

Sixth Commandment:  You Shall Not Commit Adultery What does this mean?  We should fear and love God so that we lead a sexually pure and decent life in what we say and do, and husband and wife love and honor each other.  

Joseph.  Coat of many colors Joseph.  Favored by his father Jacob.  Who had dreams about the future with his brothers bowing down to him Joseph.  Who, without regard for the consequences, naively shared the dreams’ content with his family Joseph.  Envied and despised by his brothers Joseph.  Hated him so much they wanted to kill him Joseph.  Instead, they serendipitously sell him to Ishmaelite traders.  Eventually, insufferable Joseph ends up in Egypt sold into slavery.  Slavery!  Bought by captain of the guard Potiphar.  Can you imagine?  The heartache?  The pain?  The despair?  Forcibly betrayed!  Devastatingly separated from father Jacob and from the God of his fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob!

And yet through all that happened to Joseph the words repeat:  “The LORD was with Joseph.”  Not just in Canaan.  The LORD crosses the border!  Joseph is not alone.  The LORD is with him even in this foreign land of pagans and idol worshipers!  Even in his darkest hours.    

The LORD’s gracious presence garners results.  “The LORD gave him [Joseph] success in everything he did.”  Joseph’s master notices this.  Consequently, Potiphar gives Joseph control of his entire estate!  “Joseph you’re in charge of everything!  It’s all in your hands!  I trust you!  You’re like a son to me!”   Potiphar has nothing to worry about with Joseph in charge.

Then Moses adds quite a line in this history.  One that might surprise you.  One that you might have missed.  “Now Joseph was well built and handsome.”  In other words, he was an ancient Brad Pitt. And the hottie Joseph hasn’t escaped Potiphar’s wife’s eyes!  She’s taken notice.  Pronto!  She’s scoped him out! 

But hear it again, Joseph hasn’t escaped Potiphar’s wife’s eyes.  Joseph will soon learn the meaning of the phrase:  Real Housewives of the Egyptian Nile!  She’s a cougar on the prowl!  In America Mrs. Potiphar could have her own prime time reality TV show on TV Land!  Do a couple of one-night stand cameos on How I Met Your Mother and Three and A Half Men!  Get a gig on Dancing with the Stars!  Go on the interview circuit with Matt Lauer, Bill O’Reilly, and Barbara Walters!  Make millions writing steamy tell-all books!  And then receive a number of one-on-one party invitations from Ashton Kutcher and Charlie Scheen!  Why?  Because she loves to sleep around!  Especially with hot, Brad Pitt or Matthew McConaughey types! 

“And after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, ‘Come to bed with me!’”

“Come to bed with me.  I’ll show you a good time!”  The more things change the more they stay the same.  Did I mention that Mrs. Potiphar’s married?  Oh, yes, I did, didn’t I? She is wife to Potiphar! 

Fear, love, and trust in God above all things?  Not even on her radar screen!  Remain faithful to her husband?  Totally irrelevant!  Leading a sexually pure and decent life?  Downright laughable!  Honor and love only her husband?  How incredibly Victorian!  So prudish!  So 1950s-ish!  That’s so Leave It To Beaver!  Even in ancient Egypt! 

The woman has needs.  And she wants to fulfill them.  Not with her husband!  But with the new young hunk, Joseph! 

Joseph could pull a one-night stand or an extended relationship.  And who would even care?  Everyone does it!  Everyone hooks up!  What one does in the privacy of one’s own bedroom is nobody else’s business anyway!  It would be his and Mrs. Potiphar’s secret!  So what if Potiphar finds out?  He’ll get over it! 

So she applies her sultry Egyptian Mary Kay makeup. Straps on her crocodile high heels.  Slips into her sexiest see through Nile Cotton nightgowns.  Saddles right up to Joseph in her most seductive Walk Like An Egyptian moves. Puts on her bedroom eyes.  Twirls her fingers through his curly hair.  Blows into his ear and whispers: “Come to bed with me.”  What an enticing temptation!  What a thrill!  What an amazingly opportunity for a young male slave! 

And what does well built and handsome slave boy Joseph do?  Are you ready for this?  You won’t believe it!  The text says:  “BUT HE REFUSED!”   REFUSED HER I TELL YOU!  No adultery for Joseph!  Ever!  He will not adulterate holy marriage in any way!  “Here’s the deal Mrs. Potiphar!  I’ve got a secret for you!  With me in charge,” he says, “my master does not have to worry about a thing.  He trusts me.  I suppose I could do anything I wanted.  I suppose I could have you.  But I won’t.  You’re a married woman!  I will not commit adultery with you!” 

Cougars usually don’t take No for an answer.  Mrs. Potiphar tries to wear Joseph down.  Men are weak!  They’re all matrixed a certain way.  There’s always one thing on their mind.  So day after day she offers herself to him!

And day after day Joseph refused.  He even looked for ways to avoid her.  After all, to commit adultery – to have sexual relations with a woman you’re not married to – is a “wicked thing and [a] sin against God.”

Joseph has learned from God’s Word that a sexual relationship is a gift from God.  However, he also knew and believed that sexual activities in the bedroom are to be used properly – in the way that God intends it. 

Now I hope you’re not rolling your eyes and turning the preacher off right now.  Why?  Well, because Joseph offers you and I a wonderful God-pleasing example to follow.  To fear, love and trust in God even in our sexuality.  A man and a woman are supposed to have a sexual relationship.  That’s God’s intent.  A one-flesh union.  To be fruitful and multiply.  To even enjoy it!  But only after they are married. 

Marriage first.  Then the honeymoon!  The way it was from the beginning.  In Genesis when God brought Eve to Adam and married them.  Adam and Eve were both naked together and they were not ashamed.  Why?  Because they were married!  Because they were husband and wife! 

Here we all have loads to repent of!  And it’s time we had a serious talk.   

But I fear that some of us, including myself, do not want to talk.  Don’t want to hear God’s Word on this matter.  We would rather ignore the Sixth Commandment and God’s will for our life on this matter.  We would rather sin against God and continue live wicked lives on purpose!  After all, everyone else does it.  And it’s legal!  I’m afraid we talk like this:  “Joseph did what he did.  That was his choice.  That’s fine for him!  But don’t expect me to be like Joseph!  It’s my life and no one can tell me how to live it.”     

But God has!  And it is clear.  The Sixth Commandment.  Addressed specifically to each one of us:  “YOU shall not commit adultery.” 

Now you can shift the blame or spin it this way:  “Pastor mind your own business.”  Or “Mom and Dad don’t approve but they’ve gotten used to it.”  Or, “I’ve been married before!  It was such a disaster – so painful -- that I promised myself that I’d never marry again!”  But the facts are the facts.  Sin against God is sin against God. Instead of holy living, I fear that we entrench ourselves in the most wicked of all living.   

To disregard God’s Word here on this is very dangerous.  Eternal life or death dangerous!  When any sin is held outside of forgiveness, then there isn’t any forgiveness for any other sins.  Forgiveness comes entire or not at all!  No fractions!  Would you purposely hold on to your sin?  Would you dare to take back your sin from Jesus and say:  “I’ll keep them thank you!  I’ll deal with them!”  If that’s the way you want it, then sadly, you will!  Impenitence will end hellaciously! 

So tonight it is time to repent.  Time to hear God’s Word and to confess our sin that adulterates marriage in any way.  Time to repent of how we have failed in whatever way to lead a sexually pure and decent life in what we say and do.  

Why?  Because Jesus has come for sinners.  All sinners.  He was always going after Sixth Commandment sinners.  In order to … forgive them! In order to purify and cleanse Sixth Commandment sinners with His holy word of absolution! 

Jesus is the friend of sinners!  He does not avoid you.  He wants to be seen with you as His forgiven brother or sister.  He willing and completely obeys the Sixth Commandment for the entire world – for you – and every sinner!  His perfect obedience annuls our disobedience.  Jesus flawlessly does what God expects in the Sixth Commandment.  And He does it for you!  What He did counts for you! 

At the same time, Jesus does not shrink from taking all your sin and dying for it on the cross! He eagerly and categorically announces:  “I’ve got your sin!  It’s mine.  I died with it all soaked up in My body!  I buried it in the black hole of my tomb!  I forgive you!  Entirely and completely!”

The Lord’s forgiveness for all your sin is the forgiveness that counts.  So that you can begin to fear, love and trust in Him above all things.  So that you begin to fear and love in Him in order to lead a sexually pure and decent life in what you say and do, and husband and wife love and honor each other. 

Faith in Jesus the Sin-Bearer, the Sin-Forgiver.  Love for those in your life. 

In the name of Jesus.       

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.