Proper 17 - G - 2016 - The Saving Humiliation of Christ

Planned Parenthood Selling Parts of Aborted Babies

‘We are for life, no matter the cost’ Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, We logged on to the Internet and Facebook yesterday only to be hit with a sickening story: undercover video footage seemingly implicating Planned Parenthood in the sale of the body parts of aborted children. In the video, Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Senior Director of Medical Services, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, discusses how she adjusts abortion procedures to procure certain parts of a child’s body, even as she notes that “we’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver.” Listen long enough, if you can handle it, and you’ll hear her suggest that such items could eventually be listed on a Planned Parenthood “menu” for affiliate organizations to purchase for a price. Later in the day, Planned Parenthood released a “nothing to see here” kind of statement, asserting that the discussion was merely one revolving around a patient’s right to donate tissue, as with any medical procedure. But why does Nucatola then mention the costs of body parts (“Thirty to one hundred dollars,” she says)? Lord, have mercy. If what Nucatola says is, in fact, the truth, we as Christians cannot allow this story to go untold or be buried by the media. We simply cannot remain silent while the reprehensible act of killing a child in the womb is made even worse by selling portions of that child’s dismembered body simply because there is a market for them. Speaking up about the shameful act of killing children — as well as harvesting their body parts — may be uncomfortable. We may lose friends and create awkward tension at work. Our professors may mock us, and our family may roll their eyes at us. If that is the case, so be it. Because as Lutherans, as Christians, we are for life, no matter the cost. As Lutherans, we confess that every life has value, that it has worth, that it matters … from the moment of conception until natural death occurs. We confess that what Nucatola calls “17-weekers” are actually children — with beating hearts and little moving fingers and toes. We confess that even the tiniest of humans are just that — regardless of what scientific term the culture uses to make them seem like something less. We confess that they are created in the image and likeness of our Lord Himself. And we confess that because of Him, their hearts and lungs and livers matter, no matter how small they might be. We also admit our own failings in this regard. Where we have failed to speak and act for life, we repent. Where we have not cared for mothers in crisis-pregnancy situations, we ask for forgiveness. Where we have thought more of ourselves than giving to an organization that can assist those moms and babies, we are sorry. Where we have been apathetic to this pandemic of death, we grieve. But we are not without hope, because our Lord is for life too. He is so pro-life, in fact, that He has given His own life for us, even as He has laid it down for these tiniest of children. Where their short lives are taken, He offers up His willingly. Where their little bodies are sold, He gives His freely to us at His holy table for the forgiveness of our sins. Today let us confess life with renewed vigor — to our friends over supper, through letters to the editor of our local paper, by writing our congressmen, in tweets and emails to Planned Parenthood, on our Facebook pages. Let us pray that our Lord would bring an end to abortion altogether and that He would stop the horrible sale of infant bodies. And let us pray that He would forgive us, renew us and bolster us to make a good confession in season and out of season: one that is always, no matter what, for life. Rev. Bart Day, executive director Life and Health Ministries LCMS Office of National Mission Resources Two-hour video footage of Planned Parenthood executive’s discussion regarding infant body parts Eight-minute video clip version of the above Written transcript of the video footage “Planned Parenthood exec, fetal body parts subject of controversial video”(CNN) “Planned Parenthood sells dead baby parts” (Fox News)

If you have questions about this email or need assistance, please contact the LCMS Church Information Center at 888-THE LCMS (843-5267) or infocenter@lcms.org.

VBS Closing Program 2015 - Camp Discovery

*IF Video doesn't work, it is still loading

.This year we had 83 kids in our church Vacation Bible School.  We are happy to share our closing program with you.  Please see the other video's and pictures from the different days of Vacation Bible School.  

VBS Day Three

VBS Days One and Two - A few pictures

Easter 3 - F - 2015 - Refreshment

LSB 490, 483, 464, 461, 633, 458, 725

Lent 2 - E - 2015 - Jesus Saves Us While We Are Yet Sinners

Divine Service Setting 3 | 22:23-31 | Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 | Romans 5:1-11 | Mark 8:27-38

If Video doesn't play - it is still uploading.  It should be available by Tuesday morning. 

Hymns - 594| 708| 611
Communion - 431 | 439 | 634 | 637

For Shut Ins

Proper 10 - E - 2014 - Fleshly Sin and Spiritual Life

The Fifth Sunday After Pentecost

July 6, 2014- Pastor Adam Moline

Isaiah 55:10-13           Romans 8:12-17          Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Hymns LSB 686, 594, 790 Communion LSB  662

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Our text today comes from the Epistle reading, especially these words written by St. Paul.  “If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the actions of the body, you yourselves will live.”  Thus far our text today. 

Dear friends in Christ.  Our text today really has to be fit into the context of what has come right before it.  Paul cuts right to the chase, several times, with these words, “those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh,” not on God.  .  And “to set the mind on the flesh is death.  For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”  And finally, the first part of our text today, “If you live according to the flesh, you will die.” 

We hear these words, and we let them just pass through our brains, as if they don’t really matter, as if they don’t apply to us.  As if we are spiritual and holy people, and its everyone else who is fleshly and sinful.  We condemn all those around us and feign innocence. 

But innocent we are not. 

We, each one of us, so often live according to our flesh, and not according to God.  We, yes you, want what is best for you in this world.  You want what serves you most at this time, at this place.  You at times, are not concerned with eternity, but only with the here and the now.  We are fleshly, according to Paul’s thinking, because we care about ourselves so very much. 

Paul, in chapter one of Romans, describes what sorts of fleshly debauchery we fall into.  He writes, that we are “filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.  We are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.  We are gossips, slanderers, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.”

Those things, dear friends do describe us, faithful, church attending Christians, just as well as they describe those who haven’t darkened the door of our building in many years.  We Christians are not better than those whom we so often judge.  We are just as guilty, just as sinful, and live in fleshly thinking just as much as any other person on this earth.  We live according to our flesh, our own wants, and our own desires.  So hear again the Words of St. Paul, in our text “If you live according to the flesh, you will die,” and know that those words apply to you, dear friends, just as much as to any other.    

But, Paul also writes in the very first part of Romans chapter 8, “There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” “For you have been set free from sin and death.”  How?  Not by your doing, not by your holiness of life, for as St. Paul wrote, you are incapable of keeping God’s law.  No, you are set free from sin, you are released from condemnation by the work of Jesus Christ on your behalf.  He lived the life apart from sin.  He lived perfectly, and wonderfully.  He went to the cross to suffer the death fleshly sin deserves.  He died, and was buried, all in your place and for your sin. 

Jesus paid your sentence.  Though you had earned death, Jesus suffered it, in your place.  He took your punishment upon himself, your guilt into his own body.  For your “Fleshly” living, your sinful living that is, he died. 

And in his death, God the father adopted you as his child!  It says so in the text.  You have received the spirit of adoption as sons and daughters, so that when you speak and pray to God you may call him, “Abba!” “Father,” Dad, if you will.  We use those very words in the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father in heaven.”  Trusting that He is our true father, and that we are his true children, so that boldly we can ask him to love and care for us in this world and forever more.  And as we ask him, we know that he will. 

We are adopted children of God in the blood and death of Jesus.  We receive that adoption in water and the word, in baptism in to the name of God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  In that one act, our fleshly nature begins its death throws, and our spiritual life begins – the spiritual life that will never end.  You are an heir of the spiritual blessings of God.  His own child, we gladly say it now, and even forevermore.  We are forgiven, and we live, all because of Jesus, who has adopted us as heirs.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen.  

April Newsletter - Love does not rejoice in wrongdoings.

In light of some conversations with friends from my younger years, I have been pondering lately what the word “love” really means.  It seems that in our world today, the common understanding of love is extreme “tolerance”.  To show love is to tolerate the things another person is doing, no matter what the thing is, or whether it is “good” or not.

We see this in a variety of issues today.  We have talked about abortion, with many people tolerating it in the name of “loving” women.  I have even had a conversation with a friend in the last month who said it was more loving to abort a baby than to let it live in poverty. 

However, even besides the logical fallacy this argument presents, this is not really love.  Real love doesn’t just “live and let die”, but has genuine concern for what happens in a person’s life. 

Think of parents who love their children.  When a child wants to go to a party, the parent asks for details out of love.  “Who will be there?  What time will you return?  Will there be a chaperone?”  These questions are asked out of love, because the parent doesn’t want the child to end up in a bad situation.  Or think of a parent whose child uses drugs or who has a toddler that runs into the street.  A loving parent does everything in their power to stop these events from happening to their child, to keep them safe. 

This is the same way Christian love works.  We as the church ask questions about what is happening in a person’s life and show true concern for a person, even when it is not popular.  We can’t, and won’t, just let people assume their actions are ok when it is not in their best interest in the long term, or when it goes against God’s Word. We love them too much to let others continue in their sin and destructive habits.   As St. Paul writes in his famous passage, “love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.” (1 Corinthians 13:6)

So when a person falls into a sinful action, we in the church are to show love – true love.  This means we don’t just stand by while sinful actions go on.  It means we can’t say “It’s ok, they were born that way and they can’t help it”.   That answer cannot excuse true love.

When we stand up and say something, we show real love.  “Abortion is killing a baby, no matter how you justify it.”  “God’s Word proclaims the truth: it is not ok to live together outside marriage.”  “Scripture is clear: homosexuality is a sin.”  “God wants more for your life than for you to drown in a bottle of liquor.”   As we say these often unpopular things, we actually show love behind them. 

The way we say these things is important too.  If we were to say these things harshly and derogatorily, they are not said with love.  We must speak these truths in such a loving way as to not lose our platform to speak to the person.  We have all had a discussion in which the other person got so angry at us that we no longer spoke to them at all.  We should strive to avoid this, all while understanding that we cannot control how the other person responds to our words of love.

Love is not always easy.  Sometimes it is not popular.  Sometimes it hurts us immensely to do the loving thing, to tell our loved ones what is best for them.  Yet, that is the very message of Christianity. 

For 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.” (1 John 4:10).  Christ came and died for all our sins.  He takes away guilt for each of those sins above, and for countless more that you deal with.  He did this all by His own death on the cross, which we celebrate in only a few short days. 

So, dear friends, what do we say to these things?  St. Paul tells us in Romans, “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?  By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?  Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

“For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.  We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.  For one who has died has been set free from sin.  Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.  We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.  For the death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God.  So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” 

We are forgiven, and so cannot continue in our sin any longer.  We no longer can “live and let live”.  Instead, let us leave our sin behind, and dwell in the love that Christ gives to us.  It’s a cross-defined love that shows real concern about us and what goes on in our lives. 

So in conclusion, I would encourage you to show true love to those around you.  It’s a love that forgives wrongs, even while we admit that they are wrong.  It’s a love that does not begin with us at all, but begins with the grace and mercy earned on the cross of Christ.  That is true love. 

In Christ,

Pastor

Baptism of our Lord - G - 2012 - Jesus the Sponge

Genesis 1:1-5         Romans 6:1-11            Mark 1:4-11

Grace, Mercy and Peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.  Our text today comes from the Gospel lesson just read, especially these words “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”  Thus far our text.

Dear friends in Christ.  We have all seen a new sponge, sitting idly by the sink, waiting to be used.  It looks pristine.   It is clean and soft.  It isn’t missing any pieces, and it is relatively germ free.  But you know that as soon as you stick it in the dirty dishwater, that clean sponge will soak up all the grease and grime and germs of the dishes you are washing.  A clean white sponge becomes a nasty brown and crusty sponge.  It takes the dirt of the water up into itself.  It no longer is clean, but it is stained with the goop of the other things in the water. 

Friends, that is what happens in our Gospel lesson today.  Jesus Christ, the spotless, sinless Son of God gets down into the dirty water of the Jordan River, and is baptized.  The baby who was born pure and holy, the Savior who has no sin of his own soaks up all the yucky disgusting things that are in the baptismal waters in the Jordan River. 

You see, for Jesus, the baptismal waters were not clean.  They were full of filth, filth that you and I had put in the waters.  For we, just like Jesus in our text today were baptized.  We too, just like Jesus were washed in the waters of baptism.  For you and for me, those waters washed away all our bad things.  It washed away our sin. 

For our sin stains each and every one of us.  Scripture says our sin is as scarlet.  Isaiah says, “For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness.”  You are guilty.  You are dirty with sin.  It corrupts all your nature.  Your sin is so great that it is like you have been wallowing in the mire, covered in mud. 

This sin doesn’t just cover your outside, it penetrates deep into the very recesses of your soul.  It has become a very part of your nature.  You cannot help but sin, as Scripture says, you are a slave to sin.  “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin” Jesus says.  Because of your sin, when God looks at you, he sees your filth, even the hidden filth.  When God looks at you, he sees all the wrong you have done and received.  He knows your guilt.  It stains your very being. 

But you have been baptized.  You have been washed by God.  All that disgustingness of your sin was washed, inside and out, here in a few drops of water and the Word.  There you are washed, made whiter than snow.  There you no longer are guilty, but instead forgiven.  In baptism all the sin of your body of your soul, that which you know and that which you don’t know is taken away from you.  In baptism you are clean. 

We all know what happens when you wash the dirt off of something in a tub.  The water becomes dirty.  The water takes up the filth that is washed away and stains the water.  That, friends is the water that Jesus climbs into today.  Water filled with your sin.  Water filled with your guilt.  Water that is dirty.  And Jesus, the spotless lamb of God, just like a sponge, soaks up your sin and guilt.  As Jesus goes down into the water He is clean, and as He comes out he is filthy with your sin. 

In fact, you can say, that after Jesus soaks up your sin, he is the biggest sinner ever, the greatest sinner in the whole world.  For he has all the sin of you his people.  And as he comes out of the water, God says, “This is my Son, with whom I am well pleased.”  God is pleased, because you are saved.  God is pleased because Jesus has taken your sin and given you His righteousness.  Because you have traded places.  Where once he was clean and you were dirty, now he is dirty and you are clean. 

Jesus takes your sin, and he bears it through this world.  He carries it boldly and humbly onward through his life, setting his eyes on his ultimate goal.  Destroying that sin.  Killing that sin.  Eliminating it from you forever, preventing you from taking it back to yourself.  Jesus, who has soaked up your sin, goes to the cross of his own free will, to suffer and die for all your sin. 

For it is his blood, the blood that pours out of his hands, his feet, and his side.  The blood which comes from his wounds that truly cleans away your sin that he carries.  In his death you are given life.  In his death you are rescued, because in his death your sin gets killed forever.  Your filth is destroyed, run down the drain if you will.  And you are left clean forever before God.

Dear friends in Christ, you have been baptized, just as Jesus is in our text today.  And so when God looks at you, he no longer sees your filth and sin, but he sees his Son Jesus and his righteousness.  And so he looks to you and says, “You are my child, and with you I am well pleased.”  For you are cleaned in Jesus.  You are rescued in his death.  You are set free forever.  Amen. 

Epiphany Greeting from Matthew Harrison - President of the LCMS

Happy Epiphany from Matthew Harrison, president of the LCMS.  

Christmas - G - 2011 - God Breathing, God Eating, God as Man on Christmas

Isaiah 62:10-12           Titus 3:4-7       Luke 2:1-20

Grace Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text today will be the Gospel Lesson just read, especially these words, “And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”  Thus far our text. 

Dear friends in Christ, I think my favorite Christmas Hymn is “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.”  It is a hymn that pictures that glorious moment that we are celebrating today.  The birth of Jesus.  A little baby is born, not in a hospital, not in a home, not even in the inn, but in a stable.  And yet, even with such a lowly birth, with such little human fanfare, the angels sing, “Glory to the newborn king!”

The angels sing for a good reason, for even while people did not notice anything special, the babe lying in the manger is special.  He is a human, just like you and me, and yet, he is also the creator of Humans.  He is the only begotten Son of God, begotten before all the world existed, and he is also created human flesh.  When Mary nurses her child, she nurses the God who formed her in her own mother’s womb. 

That’s why the angels are singing, they know who the baby is – the word made flesh who dwells among us.  “Christ the everlasting Lord” and now “Pleased as Man with Man to Dwell, Jesus our Immanuel.”  God with us.  God with us in human flesh.  From heaven above to Earth he has come!  Christmas is here.

That’s what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown.  Jesus coming to us, to be with us, to live in our crummy world.  He witnessed and experienced first hand all our struggles.  God was hungry.  God got tired.  God was thirsty, he breathed the very air he had made in the very beginning.  He wept, he skinned his knees, he even went to the bathroom.  Mary and Joseph had to potty train God!  When he grew up, he personally knew people who were sick, who died, who struggled with sin.  Scripture records 12 that he was personally friends with, even as they doubted who he was, as they questioned him, and as they misunderstood why he had come. 

For God came and dwelt in our flesh for a reason.  This wasn’t just a field trip for God to experience His world.  He came for a specific reason, to give us something we need.  He came into flesh, so that flesh could suffer.  He came to breathe our air so that he could stop breathe his last breath, “Eloi, Eloi, Lemma Sabachthani!”  He took on our flesh that thirsts, that feels pain, and that has blood coursing through its veins, so that he could go to the cross and die. 

Don’t you see, Jesus came to die for you?  To give you forgiveness.  To take away your sin.  To give you hope.  He took on your flesh so that he could pay the payment your sin required.  Your guilt required your death.  Your sin meant you must die.  And God would have none of it, so he came here to take your place. 

So God laid his wonderful Glory aside, “Born that man no more may die, born to raise the sons of earth,” Born to give you second birth in flowing living waters of baptism.  For as the living body of God died on the cross, it rose again on the third day, meaning all human flesh will live, all human flesh will be raised, all human flesh that has died will rise again on the last day.  Some will go to everlasting condemnation, but you dear friends, in Jesus, will raise to everlasting life. 

That’s why the angels were excited.  God was saving you.  God was accomplishing his most glorious work, dying on a cross. Its Christmas!  Today you have good news of great joy that will be for all the people.   For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth, peace, good will to those on whom his favor rest.   Peace to you, peace to me, peace to the whole world.  Jesus is born.  He lays in a manger in Bethlehem.  He comes for you.  He comes to set you free from sin.  “Hark the herald Angels Sing!  Glory to the New Born King!”

Advent Greetings from President Harrison

Advent Greetings from President Matthew Harrison

Happy Advent!  Come Lord Jesus, Come Quickly!

Proper 28 - O - 2011 - The Great Day of the Lord is Drawing Near

Pentecost 22/Proper 28           Zepheniah 1:7-16        1 Thess 5:1-11             Matthew 25:14-30

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.  Thus far our text. 

Dear friends in Christ, “the great day of the LORD is near, near and hastening fast;  the sound of the day of the LORD is bitter; the mighty man cries aloud there.  A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness.”  The day is coming, and our text today paints a grim picture of what will happen. 

We are now in the last few weeks of the church year, and as we draw near to the end of the church year, we remember the coming end to our world.  St. Peter tells us that the end of the world will come with fire (I Peter 3:7) for the judgment of ungodly people.  We see all sorts of movies and televisions shows depicting the end of the world, and even they cannot depict the gruesomeness of it.  It is a scary prospect, that all we know, all we have ever experienced, all we have ever seen will be destroyed in one day. 

So often we are afraid of the end of the world.  So often we are afraid of the judgment that will one day befall us.  And dear friends in Christ, there is a good reason for that.  For we truly deserve and have earned the promise of destruction.  We deserve what our text today describes, “At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are complacent, those who say in their hearts, The LORD will not do good, nor will he do ill.'  Their goods shall be plundered, and their houses laid waste.  Though they build houses, they shall not inhabit them; though they plant vineyards, they shall not drink wine from them.”  In other words, the worldly will not be able to enjoy the wonderful things they have prepared for themselves.

Why do we deserve this?  Why must we face this promise of destruction and punishment?  Why must we face the thought of all we love and know being destroyed.  Friends, you know the answer.  You have not loved God with your whole heart.  You have not loved your neighbor as yourself.  You have not perfectly fulfilled God’s will, you have not pleased him with your thoughts.  Instead, you, just like me, just like every other person, has filled your life with filth and sin.  We have made ourselves the judge of the world, and we boldly cry out to the vices of this world, “I will make you mine!”

Sex and violence fill our televisions and our computer screens, and we keep watching.  Anger and hate fill our hearts, and we smile as we spread it around some more to those who surround us.  We disobey our parents, we disobey the government.  We cheat, we steal, we do all sorts of horrible things.  In other words dear friends in Christ, we are sinners.  There is no escaping it, just as there is no escaping the punishment for that sin, death and destruction.  We are the reason that this world will come to an end.  We are the reason that fire will destroy all we know.  Its because of you and because of me. 

So what can we do?  How can we escape the destruction of sin?  How do we save ourselves.  In countless movies we watch those who are facing the end of the world miraculously save it.  In the movie Armageddon, they prevent the asteroid from destroying earth.  In I am Legend, Will Smith invents a vaccine to save humanity.  In the War of the Worlds, a virus stops the aliens, and in 2012 they miraculously drive, fly, and run away before devastating destruction only to be saved at the last minute.  Can’t we in a similar fashion save ourselves from sin and death? 

Friends, you cannot.  The situation is too dire.  Your sin is too great.  You are lost in your sin, and you cannot save yourself.  To put it bluntly – THERE IS NOT ONE LITTLE THING YOU CAN DO ABOUT YOUR SIN!  Our text says, “Be silent before the LORD God!”  You cannot make an excuse.  Be silent!  You cannot talk your way out of it.  Be silent!  You cannot tell God a lie about why you are in sin.  He knows the truth, and he knows what it will cost.  It requires death.  It requires the shedding of blood, for without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. (Hebrews 9:22). 

But hear what our text today says, “For the day of the LORD is near; the LORD has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests.”  He has prepared a sacrifice for you.  He has prepared the necessary blood atonement to avert your destruction.  He sent Jesus to the cross to keep you safe from destruction and to give you eternal life.  He sent Jesus to shed his blood on behalf of all those sins that infect your life.  He sent his one and only begotten son, that all who believe in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

And having sent Jesus to a bloody death, and having resurrected him from the dead, Jesus now consecrates his guests.  The word consecrated means to wash and make clean and holy, to set it apart for holy usage.  Dear friends, our text says that he has consecrated you, that in the sacrifice of Jesus you were made holy.  How?  Or don’t you know, that when you were baptized, you were baptized into the death of Jesus.  You were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.  (Romans 6:3)  A new life consecrated to God. A new life forgiven in the blood of Jesus. 

I tell you the truth dear friends in Christ, because of what Jesus has done, when God looks at you he does not see your sin, not even what you believe is your most glaring fault.  When God looks at you, he sees only Jesus blood, he sees only a baptized forgiven child, he sees only the holiness that Jesus gives to you in baptism. 

And now forgiven by Jesus, we need not fear the destruction at the end of times.  We need to fear even our own death, for death has been swallowed up forever in Jesus.  On that great and dreadful day the end of the world finally arrives, those who trust in Jesus will but enter into eternal life, not death.  Peace, not destruction.  Joy, not terror.  Our faith, the great gift of God that receives God’s gifts, will save us and bring us into something more wonderful than we can understand.  As our epistle lesson says, “For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.”  Be silent before the Lord GOD!   For the day of the LORD is near; the LORD has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests.  As a baptized child of God, you will be ushered into eternity in peace and comfort.  Fear not, the Lord is with you.  Amen. 

All Saints Day - 2011 - See how God Loves You

All Saints Day 11/6/2011        149      Revelation 7:2-17        1 John 3:1-3    Matthew 5:1-12

Grace mercy and peace to you from God our Father though our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text today is the epistle lesson just read, especially these words, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.”  Thus far our text. 

Dear friends in Christ.  Today is All Saints Day, the day we celebrate the lives of all our loved ones and friends who have died in the faith over the last year.  Each of us knows several people that we cared about who have been lost over the last year.  We have had friends who died from Cancer, from heart problems, from sickness and other things.  We have felt the sting of death, as it struck our hearts with hurt and sorrow and loss. 

Death seems to fill our lives, whether it is the pictures of countless people dying in wars around the world, or whether it is in our own close knit community, we are surrounded by death.  Every year more people that we love leave this vale of tears, and every year, we are left behind to mourn them and miss them. 

Death is our lot in life, one of the things that life assures us to happen.  For just as we mourn those who have gone before us, we know too that one day it will be our turn.  Death will find us, we cannot escape it.  One day our life will come to an end, and we will be the one who is mourned, just as we mourned during our life.

The reason for all of this pain and suffering is clear from scripture.  “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” St. Paul writes in last week’s text.  “And the wages of sin is death.”  From our very first father and mother, Adam and Eve, the plague of death has gone on.  Genesis recounts life after life, “Adam lived 930 years, and he died.  Seth lived 912 years, and he died.  Noah lived 950 years, and he died.  Abraham lived 175 years, and he breathed his last and died.”  They all were steeped in sin, and they all died.

Friends, we continue in that very tradition.  We live our lives, and “The length of our days is seventy years-- or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away” according to Psalm 90.  We spend our entire life trying to lengthen our life to save ourselves, and we fail.  We cannot escape death on our own, because we cannot escape its root cause.  For our sin is too great.  In sin we were conceived, and in sin we will die. 

But as our text today says, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.”  We are God’s children whom he cares for, whom he loves.  And what a love it is that He has for us.  For even though we deserve a world of death, of pain, and of sin, that isn’t what God promises us.  He didn’t create us and then abandon us as soon as we He gave us Christmas, the incarnation of his son in human flesh, to save us from our sin.  His Son came with one purpose in mind.  To bring the Kingdom of God to us poor dead sinners. 

This path involved suffering for Jesus, suffering he didn’t deserve.  It involved pain for Jesus, pain he didn’t deserve.  It involved sin for Jesus, sin he didn’t commit.  In fact all the worlds sins, all my sins, all your sins, every last one of them were laid upon Jesus.  The sinless Son of God became the greatest sinner ever, as your sin was washed upon him. 

And then he killed it.  He died the death of sin on a cross in Jerusalem.  He gave up his life for you, in your place, for your guilt.  Jesus died, and now you are free. 

See what kind of Love the Father has for us, that we should be called children of God, in the blood of Jesus.  You see, this is the hope of our message today.  This is the goodnews for All Saints Day, that in Jesus death is not our end.  In Jesus we have no end.  For we now get what we do not deserve, we get life forever in heaven.  We get peace of being with Jesus and God resurrected, made whole, forgiven with Jesus. 

And so our first reading pictures you and me, and all who believe in Jesus before the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  “No more shall they hunger, neither shall they thirst, the sun shall not beat down upon them.  For the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and will lead them to springs of living water, and God will wipe every tear away from their eye.”  This is the gift God gives to those who trust in his son.

And it is the same gift that he gives to you.  Today, you have a foretaste of that feast.  Today you get to taste the heavenly banquet in the very presence of Jesus Christ.  Here, with angels, and arch angels and all the company of heaven, with all those loved ones you miss, with all those people who are no longer on this earth, you eat bread and wine in which the very person of Jesus exists.  A little piece of heaven on Earth.  A promise of forgiveness.  A reminder of where you will go when you die.  A blessing beyond all understanding – all in a little piece of bread, and a little sip of wine. 

Hear our text again, and listen for the promises of heaven contained therein.  “1See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are…Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.  And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”  Happy All Saints Day.  Amen.   

Reformation - E - 2011 - Grace Alone, Faith Alone, Christ Alone

Reformation Sunday Joint Service 9:00 am

10/30/2011

46

Revelation 14:6-7

Romans 3:19-28

Matthew 11:12-19

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.  Our text today is the Epistle lesson just read, especially these words, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.”  Thus far our text. 

Dear friends in Christ.  Our world is a world of law.  Everywhere we turn, there are laws that govern our lives.  If we want to receive a paycheck, we had better go to work.  If we want to avoid speeding tickets, we better go the speed limit.  We spend millions of dollars every year in elections to determine who will write our laws, and who will not.  Laws make us pay taxes, help us build roads, help us stop crime and more.  Laws are everywhere. 

But these laws, are merely human laws.  They can change at almost any time.  And these laws are ones that most of us don’t worry about too terribly much.  We know we shouldn’t speed, but we do anyways.  We know it is illegal to not pay our taxes, but we only worry about that every April.  Most of the time, we just live our lives without any fear of worldly laws.

But there is another set of laws, a set of laws that we must obey, a set of laws that are always around us, a set of laws that always displays its terrible consequences.  These laws are God’s laws, laws that we are expected to keep perfectly, laws that tell us how we ought to live our lives – in love towards God and neighbor.  These laws of God are demanding and difficult, for if we disobey them, we receive the just punishment of death. 

But we don’t obey God’s law do we?  We don’t even come close, for obedience involves perfection, something none of us, not a one, can fulfill.  For, hear again the words of our Epistle lesson today, “no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law”  No one will obey God’s law, for they can’t.  No one will perfectly love God, for they are sinners.  No one will care about all their neighbors, for they are too selfish.  Yes friends, even me, EVEN YOU, “sin and fall short of the glory of God.”

Look at your life, look at your hate, your anger, your shortcomings, your selfish deeds, your pride and false piety.  You too have sinned.  You too have fallen short of God’s glory.  You have become a slave to a law that you just cannot fulfill.  And to be honest, we don’t always want to fulfill God’s law, we don’t want to always obey what God teaches, because frankly sometimes the sinners are just more fun. 

The problem is that all these laws of God we break, all these sins we commit, all this sin does lead to suffering for us.  We have friends and family who are sick and dying.  We have people who we will no longer speak to because we are angry.  People call us names behind our back and we return the favor.  We sin daily.  We are sinful to our very core, there is no good left inside of us.

And God is a just judge.  Just as if we broke the speed limit enough times or stole a car from someone we would go to trial and be found guilty, so too does God judge us.  He looks at our care for others and say, you have fallen short.  He looks at the acts we do alone in the privacy of our homes, and says you are guilty.  He tells us that we have not lived up to his perfect expectations, and so we deserve the just punishment for those sins.  We deserve death.  We deserve an end.  We deserve what we fear in our lives.  Sickness and punishment, for we have turned against the God who gave us all that we have.

And yet, we hear in our text today, that not only have all fallen short of God’s glory, but that we have also been justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ.  In other words, though you are guilty, God declares you innocent because of Jesus.  Instead of us standing before our God and Judge as guilty sinners, we stand before him in the Righteousness of Christ.  It is that righteousness that has won us away from our sin, won us away from death, and now gives us eternal life.  It is that righteousness that was given to us as Jesus hung on a cross, suffering and dying for the very sin that we committed.  And so when God looks at you he doesn’t see you sin, he sees Christ’s forgiveness, Christ’s blood, Christ’s holiness. 

For God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished-- he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.  In that we are made God’s children. 

Today we celebrate that hope and good news.  Today we remember that it is our faith that looks to Jesus that saves us, that we are justified or declared innocent by his grace.  Reformation Day is all about that message, of remembering that Jesus face God’s wrath so that we might not have to.  Reformation day is about boldly declaring that I cannot by my own reason or sense come to Jesus my Lord, but that he has called me by the Gospel, the good news that he took away my sin on the cross, so that I may be his own and live under him in his kingdom.  Reformation day celebrates the fact that because of Jesus, your are free.  Because of Jesus, you may enter heaven.  Because of Jesus you are saved. 

By Grace alone, through faith alone, have you been saved.  And these through Jesus alone.  In Him, you have your salvation.  Amen.  

Proper 25 - G - 2011 - The Law of Love

Pentecost 19/Proper 25

10/23/2011

1

Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18

1 Thess. 2:1-13

Matthew 22:34-46

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 that was just read, especially these words, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And the second is like it:  You shall love you neighbor as yourself.”  Thus far our text.

Dear friends in Christ.  In our text today, Jesus tells us how we might fulfill the law, and the answer he gives us is love.  Love God with all your heart your soul and your mind.  Love your neighbor as you love even your own self.  If you do these things, you will fulfill God’s law, and fulfill it perfectly. 

It sounds easy doesn’t it?  And it is what we want to do in our lives too right?  I can do what God wants.  I can love the people who are around me, and I certainly can love God.  How hard could it be?  But the truth is, it is hard.  The truth is we can’t and don’t want to fulfill this law of love that Jesus speaks of in our text today.  We don’t love the people that are around us, and we don’t really love our God either.

Love is defined as a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.  To love our neighbor we need to feel tender compassion for them, we need to have affection from them.  But instead we don’t even like being around the people we know best.  We have fighting and bickering in our families.  Neighbors yell at neighbors for silly things like the way they keep up their yard or the loud noise that is made at what I deem to be too late a time.  We scornfully talk about the problems that other people are having in their day to day lives openly, not affectionately.  We gossip about people, we tell lies about people, and worst of all we work to always put other people down, and to put ourselves in the advantaged position. 

We like putting others down don’t we?  We like to put others down, because then we feel better about ourselves.  But friends, this is not love for our neighbor.  This is not what Jesus has in mind in our text.  This is the opposite.  Instead we love our neighbors less than we love ourselves.  Much less.  And friends, according to Jesus, this is the second most important law in scripture, the most important is to love God with all our hearth, all our soul, and all our mind. 

And this first important law is even harder than the first.  It is hard for us to be affectionate towards a God that we really can’t see.  It is hard to care about a God who sometimes seems to let all sorts of trouble befall us.  We struggle with sickness and disease, and we wonder, are you there Lord?  Are you taking care of us?  We have friends and family that we actually love the most die, and we get angry at God for allowing them to leave.  We find all sorts of other things to do on a Sunday morning, during Bible Study, during voter’s meetings, during any church event. 

This is not love for God with all our heart and minds.  Once again, this is love for our self.  Imagine you were in God’s shoes, and people were telling you the excuses that we tell God.  “I have a hair appointment, and can’t make it on Sunday.  I can’t hang out with you, because I am extra tired this morning.  I have a little too much on my plate now Lord.  How about later?”  We don’t like being friends with people who always have excuses, why should God be any different?

But friends, God is different.  He does things differently than we can possibly imagine.  Instead of staying angry with us for our own self-centeredness, he forgives us and loves us the very way that he would have us love him.  He loves each one of you, more than he loves himself.  If you doubt it, look at what He did for you. 

He left heaven behind for you.  There is no better place than heaven, and Jesus gave it up to come to this crummy little sinful world because he loves you.  He lived a life here, showing care and compassion for the people who were around him.  He came for the purpose of dying on an old rugged cross for your sins, for your unlove, for your guilt.  He came and died because he loved you.  And because he loved you so much, he forgave you with his own blood.

Scripture is clear friends, “No greater love is there than this, that one give up his life for his friends.”  And that is exactly what Jesus did for you.  He bought you, because he loves you, “not with Gold or Silver, but with his holy innocent suffering and death, so that you might be his own, and live under him in his kingdom.  And in loving you, he fulfilled the most important law.  He loved his neighbors, and He loved his God. 

Now friends, we are called to love the people around us, and our God.  We show compassion on the people we run into every day.  We care about the person who is struggling, we care about the person who can’t put food on the table. We give of our time and talents to take care of people.  We do all this, because it is precisely what Christ has done for us.  He loved us, and so we too love. 

Love your neighbor as you love yourself.  Its what Jesus has done for you.  Its what we do as Christians because of Jesus.  Amen.