Author: Sonya

Mar 26, 2017- A Sabbath Healing
We’ve talked in recent weeks about the when and where of Jesus activities in the gospel lessons. We’ve seen Him on the mountains – like the surprise of Lake Tahoe, Jesus’ surprise on the Mount of Transfiguration. We saw Jesus in the dark with Nicodemus and discovered darkness is daylight when Jesus is there. Then last week we saw Him in the bright light of midday with the woman at the well in Samaria where we heard about the Living Water of life that Jesus gives us.

And today we are again in the light but now we are in new location – we’re back in Jerusalem, somewhere near the temple and it’s the Sabbath day.

OK, so what’s so wrong about the Pharisees ‘scolding’ Jesus to the man who was healed for healing on the Sabbath? After all we used to have, and still have in some places, blue laws in this country. Who knows what blue laws are about? Right, on the Sabbath there are certain things we don’t do. So why isn’t Jesus towing the line on this? He’s acting outside the custom of His society, isn’t He?

And also, look at where He did this. If you look at the previous verses you see He is, as we said, leaving the temple when He encounters this… man born blind. Interesting that a blind man is near the temple, near the leaders that we learn later in this lesson have decided that anyone who says that they follow Jesus will be put out of the fellowship, out of the temple, right where this man now sits.

This man’s state of darkness not only points out the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees, but it also reminds us of the state of darkness of one particular, Pharisee, Nicodemus. His darkness that we talked about a few weeks ago, was something that he chose, coming at night as he did. But for the man born blind in today’s gospel lesson, his state of darkness is absolute and was not of his doing or choice. He has never seen… daylight, sunshine or a blue sky.
Can you imagine that? Close your eyes and imagine… no light at all, anywhere… from any source, total absence of shadow even. Nothing – even the blackness has no color.

As far as the Pharisees and Jesus own disciples were concerned, this man’s blindness was punishment for some specific sin that someone did. But Jesus said no. The reason for this man’s blindness, according to Jesus, was simply so that on this day, this Sabbath day, the glory of God in the person of Jesus would be revealed.

Is there a better day than the Sabbath to reveal God’s glory? Jesus didn’t think so. The Sabbath is not about the laws of man, but of the grace of God. It has always been so, even through the distortions heaped on it by the religious leaders.

And this man’s blindness like any congenital or other birth defect is not a punishment for a specific sin. If it were there’d be no reason for the cross of Christ. We wouldn’t need the cross because all we’d have to do would be to avoid sin – which we can’t do. Rather, this man’s blindness was to give that man, his family, the disciples, the Pharisees and you and I a greater understanding… of God’s compassion for His creation.

This Sabbath day was unlike any other Sabbath day. Jesus changed the meaning of that Sabbath day for that man and his family, for Jesus’ own disciples and for the Pharisees as well. Part of the season of Lent is to remind us that we are like this man. We too need healing from the condition of sin, from the blindness of sin, that we are all born with. We talked of that a week or so back in our look at Jesus saying ‘ego emi, I am the light of the world.’ For us, we are in darkness apart from Him That is simply the state that we are in.

Another thing about his man is that… he did nothing. He didn’t even ask to be healed; Jesus did it purely on His own initiative. The same thing is true also with our own salvation, with our healing from the blindness of sin. Jesus came of His own love, to lead us who are blind along unfamiliar paths. These are the paths of righteousness; the righteousness of Jesus given to us freely by His compassion alone. That is what He chose to give us, on His own. It is His compassion that heals us.

And notice what Jesus used to heal this man, clay, soil, dirt! This was the stuff that Jesus used to create man in the first place and it’s what He used to heal this man. It was also what Jesus used to heal us of our sin. Think about it, it was flesh and bone that Jesus took on Himself as an infant. It was clay, dirt, and soil that He put on in coming to earth to work out salvation for us. Jesus came in the flesh, in dirt, clay, and soil, to redeem those whom He’d created in flesh from the dust of the earth.

Only the great physician, Jesus can heal like that. And yet people remain blind to what He offers, blind to the riches that He longs for us to have in the healing light that He’s revealed through His word.
Kenneth Klaus of Lutheran Hour Ministries tells of Rose Crawford who also had been blind since birth. At the age of 30 she discovered that there was a type of delicate eye surgery that could help her see. When the bandages were removed, Rose wept at the beautiful colors that greeted her. What’s unusual about Rose’s story is that 20 years of blindness were unnecessary. She was simply unaware. She was unknowing of the advancements of medical science that had taken place when she was a small girl and just figured that there was nothing that could be done.

How many of our friends and family are spiritually blind because they are simply not aware of the Great Physician, who can remove the darkness and bring the marvelous light of salvation?

After being healed, and given his sight for the first time, the man in the gospel lesson then lived with the consequences of what Jesus had done for him. And for simply being healed by Jesus of his blindness he was persecuted. He was attacked, his family was questioned and he was hounded – all because He simply told the truth of the man, Jesus, who had healed him. He lived the rest of his life as “that man, you know, the one born blind whom Jesus healed”. That was his reputation.

He was a child of God, healed by the Son of God, on the day set aside to worship God. And from then on he testified, just by living his life, about who Jesus was and what he had done for him. I like to imagine that perhaps he became an artist or a painter of some sort. But however he lived; he now lived by the light of the Lord. Jesus revealed Himself as the Lord of life to this man when he spoke with Jesus after being thrown out of the temple of the Jews.

We sang in the hymn a few minutes ago, “While lightened eyes could see and know the healing Christ of long ago.” Jesus restored to this man more than physical wholeness and healing of sight, He opened this man’s eyes and soul to the truth of who Jesus is – the Messiah!
Again, Jesus says, Yahweh, I am the light of the world. This is echoed in the Old Testament lesson today in vs 16 it says, I will lead the blind by ways they have not known… I will turn the darkness into light before them… these are the things I will do
And this is exactly what Jesus has done – taken away the darkness and granted the light of life.

You know if you fly over northern Arizona at night, the darkness hides from us the massive beauty of the Grand Canyon. Similarly, the darkness of sin blinds us to God’s unfathomable love and compassion for all people. Sin’s darkness separates us from God. But the light of Christ from the cross and the empty tomb, grants us sight to see the vast beauty of the love of God.

In Eph today we’re told, For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. We’re now light in the Lord. The light of Christ from the cross is the renewed condition we now live in, like this man who was born blind.

We are no longer blind. The Great Physician, the creator-Jesus, grants us Sabbath healing every Sunday for our blindness by the proclamation of His cross, death, and resurrection. And He gives us a new eye condition: we now go through life ‘cross’-eyed! Being now ‘cross-eyed’ opens our eyes to see all things in the light of Jesus.
The light of the cross points out not only what Christ has done for us, by His own action and grace and mercy, but we now have a new vision; we now have a real hope for the future.

Phillip Yancey, an author I met, wrote in his book, “The Jesus I Never Knew” “The miracles Jesus performed, breaking as they did the chains of sickness and death, give me a glimpse of what the world was meant to be and instill hope that one day God will right its wrongs. To put it mildly, God is no more satisfied with this world than we are; Jesus’ miracles offer a hint of what God intends to do about it.”

And in the miracle of giving sight to this man born blind we are given a real-world demonstration of the real world in Christ that is to come – a world where there will be no more tears, or sorrow. There will be no more darkness or loneliness or night. In Jesus Christ, we are given a Sabbath healing of all our sin both now and for all time and eternity. In being given our sight, in being given our salvation, we’ve been given the riches of the certain hope of heaven.

That Jesus healed on the Sabbath is also a reminder of why we come to church on our Sabbath, on our Sunday of rest. When we come here we too are healed – by light from the gospel and the sacraments.

Like the man whom Jesus healed, we too now live with the consequences of His work for our redemption. And like that blind man we have the good news of Jesus to share. After all, our mission here is Hearing, Sharing and Living the Gospel. Through Jesus Christ we’ve been given sight and light to work in while we wait for the sure promise of His return. In Jesus name. Amen.

Sermon #879 Rev. Thomas A. Rhodes, Pastor – Zion Lutheran Church, Bolivar, MO

Old Testament Reading Isaiah 42:14-21
14 “For a long time I have kept silent,
I have been quiet and held myself back.
But now, like a woman in childbirth,
I cry out, I gasp and pant.
15 I will lay waste the mountains and hills
and dry up all their vegetation;
I will turn rivers into islands
and dry up the pools.
16 I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,
along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;
I will turn the darkness into light before them
and make the rough places smooth.
These are the things I will do;
I will not forsake them.
17 But those who trust in idols,
who say to images, ‘You are our gods,’
will be turned back in utter shame.
18 “Hear, you deaf;
look, you blind, and see!
19 Who is blind but my servant,
and deaf like the messenger I send?
Who is blind like the one in covenant with me,
blind like the servant of the Lord?
20 You have seen many things, but you pay no attention;
your ears are open, but you do not listen.”
21 It pleased the Lord
for the sake of his righteousness
to make his law great and glorious.

Epistle Reading Ephesians 5:8-14
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. 14 This is why it is said:
“Wake up, sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

Holy Gospel John 9:1-41
9 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
6 After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
8 His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some claimed that he was.
Others said, “No, he only looks like him.”
But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”
10 “How then were your eyes opened?” they asked.
11 He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”
12 “Where is this man?” they asked him.
“I don’t know,” he said.
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14 Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. 15 Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”
16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”
But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided.
17 Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.”
The man replied, “He is a prophet.”
18 They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. 19 “Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?”
20 “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. 21 But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. 23 That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
24 A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”
25 He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”
26 Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
27 He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”
28 Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29 We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”
30 The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
34 To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.
35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
36 “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”
37 Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
38 Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
39 Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”
40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”
41 Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

Mar 22, 2017 –I am the Gate

In the opening of today’s reading the shepherd is; greeted at the gate by the watchman; listened to by His sheep; knows His sheep by name and calls them; leads His sheep out of the sheepfold; and goes ahead of them and they follow BECAUSE they know His voice!! Jesus says, “A stranger they will not follow, but will run away from that voice they do not recognize.”

Jesus then makes clear the meaning of this image – this figure of speech – from life with which they would all have some understanding. With the emphatic and attention getting device of saying, I tell you the truth, Jesus then says those words again that just grate on their ears, ego emi, I am.

I am the gate for the sheep. You might be thinking, ‘wait, the gate? I thought I could sit back and not pay attention because I knew that you were going to say shepherd, what do you mean Jesus says ‘I am the gate?’

Now it’s true that Jesus later in this passage uses that metaphor of shepherd to describe Himself and His role in our life, but not here. And we’ll talk about that particular role on Good Friday as it has such deep meaning for us at that time. But this role, as the gate to the sheepfold, is vital to understand before then as Jesus continues His talks with His followers, the crowds, and religious leaders who come to hear Him between now and when Jesus is put on the cross.

So, this image, as the gate, is there very clearly in tonight’s reading. Jesus says it twice, just so we don’t miss the point, I am the gate.

‘What does this wandering rabbi think He’s playing at’, those who heard Him might be thinking. Jesus is saying clearly, along with that divine identifier; I Am, ego emi, Yahweh; Jesus is saying with this phrase, that He and He alone controls access to God because He alone is the gate into the sheepfold of God. This is in contrast to what He said in earlier verses about the thief and the robber.

Jesus is making clear that He is the only legitimate way into a relationship with, and therefore the protection of, God. In fact, the thief and the robber come only to steal and kill. Jesus as the gateway is the one and only way into the care and protection of the Owner. The thieves and robbers are not concerned with the sheep, other than to make a meal of them. Their lives are as nothing to them.

And when Jesus speaks of ‘going out and coming in’, that’s a Hebrew phrase that speaks to the whole life of a person. It carries with it the idea of the complete person and their needs for all of life. So, when Jesus says this, His hearers understand that Jesus is not talking about coming ‘in and out’ of salvation at will; but rather that the whole life of a person, their entire needs, especially for the saving relationship that God wants for them comes only through the gateway of Jesus Christ.

This would not have been misunderstood in His day. That’s why in verse 6 where it’s clear they are not getting the message; Jesus goes on to say what He’s saying about being the gateway. And they, especially the religious leaders, would have resented the clear message of Jesus as being the only legitimate entry into a relationship with God.

Jesus says He is the one way into the sheepfold just as there was only one way into the tabernacle of God that the Jews followed for 40 years in the wilderness. And also, just as there was only one way into the temple of God at the time of Jesus as well. This would have been a powerful and familiar image for these religious leaders.

Jesus has already insulted them and put all the people listening on notice that those leaders are in fact imposters and usurpers. When Jesus stated ‘all who came before me are thieves and robbers’ everyone knew this was aimed at the religious leaders and their hypocrisy and insincerity.

Then He goes and says, ego emi, not once but twice, I am the door. Jesus simply scandalizes those in His hearing with this statement. Jesus is not pussy-footing around here. This is not about ‘playing nice’. Jesus wants them and all people to understand that God’s only legitimate provision for a restored relationship with Him comes through one source and one source only, Jesus Christ. And Him crucified and risen again!

This role as the door to the sheepfold helps us all to understand Jesus is specifically claiming to be the redeemer of the world. And that for His hearers, including us, is a scandal. We’d like to think that we merit some brownie points with God by what we do and how religiously we act.

After all here we are on a Wednesday night going to church, doesn’t that count toward how good God thinks I am. And there it is again; I am.

Jesus is the ‘I am’ not me, and not you. Jesus is Yahweh, Jesus is ego emi. He is the only source of righteousness and justification with God. And so the scandal of believing that is what we and all who hear the message of Christ must come to terms with. Jesus is the I am gateway. To believe that is to have peace with God, otherwise, we’re no more than robbers and thieves. Amen.

Sermon #878 Rev. Thomas A. Rhodes, Pastor – Zion Lutheran Church, Bolivar, MO

 Holy Gospel                                                                       John 14:1-10
1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered,
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well.
From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.

 

 

Mar 19, 2017 Living Water!

There’s nothing quite as refreshing as water is there? Life is sustained by water. To be eternally refreshed is a longing for all of us, much like the woman in the gospel lesson today, and also like the Jews in the Old Testament lesson.

But unlike them, we can simply go to the tap and draw all the water we need, we don’t need to tap a rock for water as Moses did by the instructions and power of God. No, God has graciously given most people, water in abundance in our own homes. And that’s important because as we all know, water equals life. Now I’m having bottled water handed out to you, but you can’t open yet. Hold on to it, but don’t drink it till I tell you.

Part of the reason to wait, is for us to take a few moments while we want to drink that water, and consider what it was like for those thirsty Jews, wandering in the wilderness who had no easy access to water.

And yet we’re told that they were traveling from place to place as the LORD commanded. So, a question might be, why did the Lord lead them to a place with no water? Perhaps part of the answer is in the last line of the lesson. There the Israelites, we’re told, grumbled against God and tested Him by asking, is the Lord among us or not?

And the answer is, of course, from our perspective after the fact, that He is. We’re told in the epistle lesson today, And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. But those in wilderness were still enduring the perseverance that would bring them to that trust. So, they needed to understand that God was with them through the leading of Moses. It was Moses who obeyed God and tapped the rock with the staff and God brought forth water for them, where before they had no water.

And it was flowing, living water that God gave them through the obedience of Moses. In this way God answered their grumbling, complaining, and questioning. And also, showing us again, that He supplies all that is needed for life. They were taught in this way, yet again, to depend on God and His grace, for all things needful. Their experience of God’s grace teaches us that same lesson of dependence upon God and His leading.

Going now back to the gospel lesson and the woman at the well – one thing must be clearly understood when talking about this woman – she would be known, now, as an ‘easy’ woman. There are others terms that could be applied, but suffice it to say, she was ‘well known’. And she was ashamed of it. How we know that is by the description of when she comes to the well to get water.

It says it was “about the sixth hour” when she came to the well. It also indicates that she came alone because it says she was “a Samaritan woman”. Going to the well in the sixth hour and alone, these things along with the conversation she has with Jesus all indicate her ‘status’ in the community. The sixth hour was noon, the hot part of the day, and not the time of day when a woman would normally do the heavy work of carrying water home. That was traditionally done in the morning and the evening, the cooler parts of the day. Also, going out to the well was a community thing. The women would gather there, much like we gather around the water cooler at work to share time with others.

All of this indicates that she was either shunned by the other women or embarrassed to see them. So, she came at loneliest part of the day, trying hard to avoid having to see others. But today she can’t avoid the Jewish man sitting near the well.

And as she talks with Jesus, He makes her an offer she wouldn’t want to refuse. He offers to give her water that will quench her thirst, eternally. She missed the fact that Jesus was not referring to just water or even to the water down in this well of Jacob.

He was making a reference to water from God that flows, that moves, that’s alive, like river water, and like the supernatural water given to the wandering Jews in the Old Testament. It’s the water of eternal life Jesus is talking about.

She was so wrapped up in trying to get daily water without having to come to the well, that she missed His meaning, as probably any of us would’ve. And of course, in the context of the conversation the larger meaning of Living Water – of that refreshment of God’s forgiveness that all people need – which comes because of the gift of God, that will later become clear to her.

Living water is moving water, its water that flows through us. Jesus’ life flows through us beginning with faith. For most of us, that began with the waters of our baptism. Living water, like living faith is moving and active. Faith that’s not moving is dead, like stagnate water. A dead faith is no faith. It gives nothing because it receives nothing. There’s no flow in or out. We all know what it’s to turn from faith in God and grumble at Him like the wandering Jews in the desert. And like them we too have seen only death around us.

In the early days of the American effort to build the Panama Canal many then also saw only death around them. And much of that death came from stagnate water. That’s because stagnate water in that climate breeds mosquitoes.

And the mosquitoes there at the time carried yellow fever. There were literally thousands of workers that died of this dreaded disease. But through the work of Dr. Gorgas, yellow fever was eradicated mainly by eliminating the standing water that was kept in homes, in planters and in the canal area. It took, more than $2 million in 1908 dollars to do, but by eliminating that one disease, through eliminating the standing water, the canal work would be successful. The irony is that while standing water brought death in the Canal Zone, it is moving, living water that makes the canal operate.

The flowing water of the Chargres River is what makes the canal work. Without that supply of flowing water the ‘water-bridge’ that the canal is, would never work. That water is what lifts you up, fills the lake that you cross and then gently lowers you back down to sea level so you can continue your journey: All by controlling the flow of moving water. There’s power in living water.

And that is what Jesus was trying to get the woman at the well – and you and I – to understand. The power of the living water of God. Another place in the Old Testament that makes this clear is in Zech 14:8. That verse says: Behold, a day is coming for the Lord… On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem.

So, living water is what’s promised to flow from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth in the day of Lord. That’s a reference to the cleansing flood of the mercy of God for the whole earth. And that comes from the work of this Man at the well talking to this Samaritan woman. His work on the cross, where, as He died as the substitute for all of sinful mankind, blood and water indeed flowed from His side and became a cleansing flood that accomplished God’s life-giving will. Like Moses tapping the rock, Jesus was obedient to the will of God in heaven.

We know that water has many properties. It can cleanse and refresh. That’s what the woman at the well came for. So now, you can open your water bottles and drink. Water can heal and give life. Again, that’s what Jesus, the Man at the well, does for us through His death and resurrection.

The water of baptism into the death and resurrection of Christ is what cleanses us. That cleansing is what causes us to worship in spirit and in truth as Jesus makes clear to the Samaritan woman. Without that purifying flood, from which we receive the Holy Spirit, we would never be prepared to worship as Jesus said. The Holy Spirit is the one who testifies to us of the truth of Jesus being the Son of God, our savior.

Our hearts have been made clean for us by His power, not by any doing on our part. We need not try and ‘fill our buckets’ on our own. We could never gather enough water by ourselves to wash away the stain of our sin on our own. Such cleansing and refreshing is God’s gift to us in His Son. Listen again to what Jesus says to the woman, “if you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink you would have asked him and He would have given you living water”

It’s His gift alone that supplies the power of the cleansing flood of baptism to forever remove all stain of sin. Living now in the repentance prompted in us by the Holy Spirit, we are daily made new. By the Holy Spirit coming into us at baptism, the cleansing of Jesus death and the empty grave is made ours. That resurrection power is what gives the waters of baptism their power to cleanse us and refresh us forever in the freedom of Christ’s power over death.

And that now has set us free… free to truly worship God. Like living water that flows, His grace and mercy are poured into us by His Word and Spirit and through the sacraments. And we are set free to serve God, free to serve others with good works and along with that, give them the good news that He has poured into us. That by His living water we are refreshed forever. In Jesus name, amen.

Sermon #877 Rev. Thomas A. Rhodes, Pastor – Zion Lutheran Church, Bolivar, MO

Old Testament Reading                                    Exodus 17:1-7
1 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”

Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?”

3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

4 Then Moses cried out to the LORD, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

5 The LORD answered Moses, “Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”

 Epistle Reading                                                               Romans 5:1-8
1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

 Holy Gospel                                                       John 4:5-26
1 The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?”

13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

17 “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

21 Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

26 Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.”

 

Mar 15, 2017 –I am the Light of the World II 

Tonight as we look into the scandal of Jesus claiming to be the I Am – Yahweh God – we see Him drawing His followers into a closer understanding of this and what that means for them to believe this. In verse 4 Jesus speaks of ‘We must do the works of him who sent me…” Jesus includes the disciples in the acting and the doing of what God the Father has sent Jesus, the Son, to accomplish.

This is important to see as Jesus is drawing the disciples into recognizing that the work of Jesus is now their work as well. It’s important for them to see this because, as we come to the end of this verse and get into the next verse, we come up against the time limit Jesus has left on earth to do these things.

In verse 5 Jesus makes His claim I Am the light of the world and that He is the One who gives the light whereby they together, can do the work God has given them of spreading the gospel of God. This verse is a clear indicator of the humanness of Jesus Christ. Don’t miss this; Jesus is fully human and this verse as much as any other indicates this to us.

Jesus is here saying that His time, His time on earth will come to an end… and He knows it. Does His work continue and does the light of His life give us light today? Yes, indeed. However, that is not the focus of this verse in its context. To be honest with the text we must understand that the pressure of time weighed on Jesus because He was truly human.

He knew that only with the time remaining to Him, before He went to the cross, would He be able to work the works and teach the teachings that would be necessary for His followers and ultimately the world, to understand the significance of the great I Am going to the cross.

So, Jesus saying I Am the light of the world in this context teaches us that He knew His time on earth, as the disciples knew Him, was limited and coming to its end. There would indeed be darkness because Jesus, then, would no longer be able to light their way.

Once He had died; from then on, they would no longer see Him in the same way. The disciples would no longer know Him as only their rabbi, but also as their risen Lord. He would no longer be the Man who walked with them in the flesh but rather He would sojourn in them through the power of the Holy Spirit.  He would be the crucified and risen savior of the world and not be confined to the limits that He lived under while He was with them.

This intimate time would be at an end and Jesus understood this. His time of I AM the light that has come into the world, as the promised fulfillment of prophecy and scripture would end: with His death.

Consider how a match works. Its light is in and of itself. It’s only useful for a certain amount of time. But when you take that match and place it in the midst of a pile of paper, wood and kindling, the match is used up and is lost in the bonfire that results from its efforts. That’s a poor analogy but perhaps it sheds a bit of ‘light’ on understanding Jesus’ time on earth in the flesh before His death and resurrection.

We tend to think of Jesus time with the disciples as a glorious thing and something that would be obvious to all. But remember, what we know of Jesus life, death, resurrection and ascension hasn’t, at the time of speaking these words, all transpired yet. The time that Jesus had on earth was limited. He knew it and was teaching this to the disciples. God limited Jesus time so that with the end of His earthly time, the fire of His love could be seen timelessly by the whole world in the cross and resurrection of Christ. So, Jesus as the I am the light of the world, had an expiration date on it as far as the earthly experience of Jesus and His disciples were concerned.

The contrast of light and dark that Jesus speaks of in verse 4 as we started with is evident in the blind man Jesus heals also. Darkness is this mans natural-born state. We will talk more about him on Sunday in few weeks. But for now, the only thing that changes his darkness is God’s intervention through the action of Jesus. This mirrors what Jesus is doing as His time on earth comes to an end. He is going to die so that He might defeat death forever and for everyone who believes in Him. And in doing that, in that action of His, Jesus will bring the light of life to all who will trust in Him, just as this man trusted in Jesus and so was transformed from his darkness to light.

Our natural state is darkness, just as we talked of last week about the natural state of the universe is darkness. And it is only by the word of God speaking light into being that darkness is overcome. This man’s darkness is turned into light by Jesus. And Jesus by His work on the cross and in the tomb, that will mark the end of His time on earth, will also dispel all our darkness because He is as He says today, Yahweh, ego emi, I am the light of the world. In His name, amen.

Sermon #876 Rev. Thomas A. Rhodes, Pastor – Zion Lutheran Church, Bolivar, MO

Holy Gospel                                                                               John 9:1-12
1As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3″Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. 4As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

6Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7″Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

8His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” 9Some claimed that he was.  Others said, “No, he only looks like him.”  But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”

10″How then were your eyes opened?” they demanded. 11He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.” 12″Where is this man?” they asked him. “I don’t know,” he said.

 

Mar 12, 2017 – Darkness is Daylight when Jesus is there.

What we just sang is up on the screen, Christ be my leader by night as by day – safe through the darkness for He is the way. That song could have been written by Nicodemus, the chief actor in today’s gospel. I say Nicodemus is the chief actor because it’s Nicodemus that took a risk and came, by night, to see Jesus. That was a dangerous and risky thing to do.

But Nicodemus steps out into the dangers of the night because Truth is what matters for him. That’s what drives him to take the risk to go to Jesus. Besides the danger of being attacked at night and the risk to his reputation and standing in the community, Nicodemus takes another chance. There’s risk in seeking the truth. There’s danger in seeking the truth. The danger is you won’t like what the truth is and the risk is that the truth will change you. Fortunately, that risk has come true for Nicodemus and for you and I.

The truth that Nicodemus risked his night-journey to Jesus for, changed Nicodemus. The change began right there when Jesus brightened the night for Nicodemus with the truth that ‘God so loved the world… ’ So also for you and I; our change happened when Jesus entered our lives through the gift of faith. We are living a risky life because we are living by the truth of Jesus Christ.

We also are in danger as Nicodemus was. It was a danger for Nicodemus to come and ask his questions and he was not happy with the answer as the tone of his response tells us. Look at verse 4, Nicodemus says, ‘how can this be, surely a man cannot enter as second time into his mother’s womb and be born again’!

So often times we also are not happy with God’s answer to our questions. We want the truth but, like at burger king, we want it our way. A fisherman had spent the entire day on a lake and had no luck. Not wanting to go home empty-handed, he stopped at the local fish shop and asked for three large trout. “Shall I wrap them for you?” asked the clerk. “No!” replied the fisherman. “Just toss them over the counter to me… carefully, one at a time!”  The clerk was puzzled. “Why do you want me to throw them to you? You might drop them on the floor.” The fisherman explained, “I’ve been fishing all day and I haven’t caught a thing. Now I may not be a very good fisherman, but I’m an even worse liar. When I get home my wife is going to ask me if I ‘caught’ anything. I want to be able to tell her the truth.”

The danger about truth is, unlike the fisherman, we don’t get to decide what truth is or how God should put ‘it’ in our hands. All truth is God’s truth. That, by the way, is why science is not a scary thing to Christians. Science helps us to understand the truth of God’s creation. But science does not define for us the whole of the experience of God’s creation. God is not confined to His creation nor is He confined to what scientists say He should be.

Truth changes you. That is inevitable. You may want to hide from it, as Nicodemus seemed to want to do at first, but later we know he didn’t. Later he embraced the truth that Jesus is the One sent from God to restore and reconcile this world to God. And that was because of God’s compassion for His creation. That’s what John 3:16 is all about. For God so loved the world… that! That He sent Jesus Christ His only Son to redeem creation. And the truth is that anyone, anyone who trusts in Jesus as the One sent to do that will of God, has taken the risk, and suffered the danger of being changed by that truth. And they are made children of God by His gift of faith.

The truth of God coming to earth in the form of a man, this man, Jesus Christ, was what compelled Nicodemus to come to see Him and ask Him his questions. Nicodemus had to know if this man was indeed the Promised One of God.

Now, Jesus honors Nicodemus’ coming to Him by being up-front with him. Jesus didn’t pull His punches in order to curry favor with a high muckety muck. In fact, Jesus put Nicodemus in his place when He said, ‘still you people do not accept our testimony.’ That was like saying ‘you ignorant simpleton’! Nicodemus was a member of the Pharisees! He was, as Jesus acknowledged, a teacher of the people. But Jesus needed this teacher to understand the lesson Jesus was teaching.

This was a man who was feared in the society of his day. Nic could make life difficult for a Jew. But Jesus wasn’t afraid of the difficulties that might arise from offending this man and Jesus needed the disciples, and you and I, to see that.

We need to understand that the truth of Jesus Christ stands up to any scrutiny. And that we contend not for a mere intellectual proposition, nor some vague spiritual understanding or superficial awakening, no! We contend for the explosive truth that Jesus is the living Son of God. It’s dangerous, what we believe. It’s dangerous to us and it’s dangerous to those around us.

When Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born again of water and the Spirit and that it is, of the Spirit, that man must be born again, Nicodemus finds himself again, in the darkness, but rather than the darkness of night, it is the darkness of his own limited, human, reasoning. He is in no different a position than you and I when we try to reduce the truth of God to something that we can get reduced down into our own comfortable mental grasp.

I heard of a man who came up to a preacher one time after the preacher had talked about the truth of the holy trinity and told him that, while he understood the words, the idea of the trinity just didn’t make sense to him. The preacher asked the man, ‘what’s your hat size?’ The man said, ‘7 and ¾, why?’ The preacher said, ‘I was wondering how you expected to fit the knowledge and understanding of the God of the universe inside such a small amount of space?’

The truth of God, that we are loved by Him so much that He would sacrifice His own Son to die for us on the cross to pay for our sinful, dark ways and rise to new life again from the grave to put us on the path of light, that is not something that fits into a person’s natural conception of God. That natural conception of God is how a person without the gift of God’s grace sees Him.

And we must remember that, as we seek to share Christ with others. We must be patient with them and remember they are in the dark, as we were before the light of Christ was given to us, by grace through faith alone. It’s only as we are born again, as we are born of water and the Spirit, as Jesus told Nicodemus, that we have the light of truth dawn on us – and in us.

The Hindus have a festival that literally lights up their cities and homes. Oil lamps line every windowsill and fireworks explode in the sky through the night. The festival is in honor of the idol Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of good fortune and wealth. Hindus light up their homes and explode fireworks into the sky to attract this goddess so that she will bring them wealth and good fortune for the coming year. But our God, the only true God, at Christmas sent His Light and Truth to us, shining with divine glory, to attract us to His grace and gifts. We can do nothing to attract God to us.

That explosive truth is what Nicodemus came to understand that night. And explosives, like the truth, when handled right, can do great good. And that’s what we’re called to do, great good. We’re to do great good, in Jesus name. Great good is done by properly handling God’s word. That means laying hold of what Jesus is doing in this gospel lesson today with Nicodemus. We understand that Jesus came because of the love of God for us and for this whole world. That’s the lesson Jesus is trying to teach this teacher of Israel.

When people are not given the truth, they live in darkness. ‘Darkness is Daylight when Jesus is There’ is the truth we sang in the hymn a few minutes ago. That’s true because Jesus is the light of truth Who has come to us in this world – we didn’t or couldn’t do anything to try and entice Him to bring His light of truth to us.

When we’re left to ourselves and to our own limited human reasoning we are in the dangerous-dark as Nicodemus was when he tried to sort out Jesus words in the gospel lesson today. We’ve had the capacity for reason given to us by a reasonable and rational God. But God, as we said earlier, is not limited to our understanding of Him. If He was… He would not be God.

And so we can appreciate Nicodemus’ confusion at Jesus’ words on this night. But like Nicodemus, Jesus does not leave us alone in our darkness. The light of God’s love that explodes in the words of John 3:16 give us hope, assurance and security through the darkness around us.

These words are useful for us in bringing light to those around us in our lives as we see them struggling alone in the darkness of their own soul. These words of truth are the risky words that changed Nicodemus, and you and I. Say these words with me as we close, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. In the light of Jesus, we pray, amen.

Sermon #875 Rev. Thomas A. Rhodes, Pastor – Zion Lutheran Church, Bolivar, MO

Old Testament Reading                                                     Genesis 12:1-9
12 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. 2^ “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3^ I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

4^ So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5^ He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.

6^ Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

8^ From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.

9 Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.

Epistle Reading                                                                 Romans 4:1-8, 13-17
4 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? 2^ If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. 3^ What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

4^ Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. 5^ However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. 6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

7^ “Blessed are those     whose transgressions are forgiven,     whose sins are covered. 8^ Blessed is the one     whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”

13^ It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14^ For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, 15^ because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.

16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. 17^ As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

 Holy Gospel                                                                                      John 3:1-17
3 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2^ He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

4^ “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7^ You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11^ Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12^ I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13^ No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15^ that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17^ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

 

 

Mar 8, 2017 – I Am… the Light of the World
Last week we discovered how Jesus’ use of ‘I Am’ rocked the world of His day with it’s scandal. Jesus’ use of Yahweh, the self-identity of God to Moses, for a reference to Himself created a crisis for the Jewish leaders and Jesus’ hearers. And so today in the lesson, we see that there is conflict over Jesus identity and His use of ego emi.

But today this “I Am” of Jesus happens within the backdrop of the Jewish feast of booths. For us to grasp the scandal of this we need to get hold of what this festival meant and in particular why Jesus statement of “I Am… the light of the world” in John 8:12 sets His hearers teeth on edge.

The festival of booths or tabernacles took place only in Jerusalem and was not to be celebrated anywhere else. This was to acknowledge that God’s saving presence was at the temple. This celebration was done to recall that the saving presence of God led the children of Israel through the wilderness for 40 years. And during those 40 years they lived in tents or tabernacles. They “tabernacled” in the presence of God as they traveled in the wilderness led by the ark of the covenant and one other important thing as well.

But before we get to that, we must remember that God’s presence, as seen by the ark and tabernacle that traveled with them, was a reassurance that God was present with them and that He Himself had given to them salvation and freedom from the oppression of pharaoh. So, His presence among them meant the presence of their salvation.

And as God led them He provided for them both food – manna – and water. The water came from the rock that Moses hit with his staff and that followed them all those years. So, one of the features of the festival of booths was when the women went to draw water, as they did from the rock. On the evening of this portion of the festival they would light lights and go out surrounded by this light to draw water.

Now, as to the other thing that reminded them of God’s presence that we talked about, and that is – that God’s presence was also made known those 40 years as they were led by the pillar of fire and cloud.

That pillar was also God’s presence and light. So, at the feast of tabernacles they would set up lights to remind them of this pillar of God’s salvation. Jewish tradition says “there was not a courtyard in Jerusalem that was not illuminated by the light of the place of the water-drawing.”

There is yet another thing that has to be taken into account when we speak of the scandal of Jesus saying “I Am the light of the world” set in this context. We must recall the Genesis account of creation. The first thing that God creates is what? That’s right, light. And the order in which creation takes place is important because without light nothing that God creates after it could survive.

The days of creation began with light. Light is necessary to for life. And the default condition of the universe is darkness as we’re told in Genesis. Only as God speaks light into being does that change. Light overcomes darkness. Light is proactive. Light goes out; it can never be light if it is hidden, enclosed or removed. Darkness is not a force like light. Darkness is simply the absence of light. And into darkness God speaks and there is light and after that… life.

So also for us. Without Jesus’ light, our life is futile. In fact, we can have no life apart from the light of Christ; the light from the cross. In John 1:4-5 we’re told, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” That light, Jesus, draws all people to it because all else is darkness.

Jesus in the gospel lesson tonight comes and speaks light and life and overcomes the darkness within us. We are described by Paul as dead in our sins and trespasses and Jesus, by His crucifixion and resurrection, overcomes that death with the light of His life. Then why is  Jesus saying “I Am the light of the world” a scandal?

It’s a scandal because Jesus is saying I’m the pillar of fire. He’s saying “the light of the world I am”, just as at creation. Jesus is clearly equating Himself with the salvation of the Hebrews by God and that is scandalous. ‘We’re all expected to believe that this man is God’s salvation-presence now?’  Even in our day today most people find that truth offensive and hard.

The scandal then was and remains to today that, to believe Jesus saying, “I Am the light of the world” is to believe He and God the Father in heaven, are indeed one. It is to believe that God’s salvation is now located in the person of Jesus alone and not in an ark, or tabernacle or the light of the pillar of fire that the Hebrews came to celebrate at this feast.

And that is a scandal those Hebrews then and this world today cannot abide. And for that, for you and I to receive the scandalous gift of faith in Him, He had to suffer and be killed. He is the sacrifice that kindles the light of faith the true light of life for all who trust in Him. In His name, amen.

Sermon #874 Rev. Thomas A. Rhodes, Pastor – Zion Lutheran Church, Bolivar, MO

Holy Gospel                                                                                       John 8:12-20
12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  13 The Pharisees challenged him, “Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.”  14 Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. 16 But if I do judge, my decisions are true, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me. 17 In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. 18 I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me.”

19 Then they asked him, “Where is your father?” “You do not know me or my Father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” 20 He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.

 

 

Mar 5, 2017 – The Voice of God

Sitting in his living room one evening, a father was wondering what time it was. Knowing his small son was in the kitchen, where there was a large clock on the wall, he yelled out, “Bobby, what’s the little hand on?” After a brief pause, Bobby replied, with some remorse in his voice, “A chocolate chip cookie.” The boy thought he had been caught doing something he was not supposed to do. Bobby’s response was from guilt. Guilt saturates the human condition.

And why does guilt saturate the human condition? Because the human condition is one that has rejected God and what God has desired for us, His creation. My stars, in this day and age we feel just fine partitioning off our lives into the ‘religious’ and ‘non-religious’; that is, we’re just fine to leave God out of our daily living and only acknowledge His word for us when we need it, or it’s convenient for us or we want someone to blame when things are bad.

When the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan a few years back, that became one of those times when people who might not otherwise do so, turn to God. And yet even in the face of such an event as this we still think of ourselves as in control and able to leave God out. Here’s what I read in one news report:

Technologically–advanced Japan is well prepared for quakes and its buildings can withstand strong jolts, even a temblor like Friday’s, which was the strongest the country has experienced since official records started in the late 1800s. What was beyond human control was the killer tsunami that followed.

The assumption seems to be that humans are ‘in control’ just because we can build buildings that can tolerate an extremely strong earthquake. And yet is that assumption true? Are we ‘in control’? Heavens, we can’t even control our own tongues let alone the forces of nature as God has arranged them. And not only has God arranged the forces of nature in such a wondrous way, those same forces have been groaning under the weight of sin since we were ‘in control’ on the day we disobeyed God’s one command. The day we chose to sin.

In Romans 8:19-22 it speaks of creation being in bondage to decay and longing for liberation, it also says: We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

And what has put it under such pains and bondage? Why is creation under such a curse?  Well we read about that in the Old Testament lesson today. God says to Adam: “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you…” There it is, because of Adam’s sin, the earth bears the curse. Because of Adam’s sin, we are like Bobby in our opening story, we’ve been caught with our hand in the cookie jar and that stain of sin is what permeates all of life and creation.

And what was Adam’s sin? Again, God makes it plain in what He said: “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’”. The woman was deceived, but Adam wasn’t –he just chose to not listen to the voice of God. He chose to follow after the deception of Satan that had lured his wife into disobedience by not obeying what God had told Him. Adam’s sin is pure disobedience. He refused to listen to what God had told him to do.

In 1984 an Avianca Airline jet crashed in Spain. Investigators studying this tragic accident made a sad and an eerie discovery. The ‘black box’ cockpit voice recorder revealed that shortly before the fatal impact a shrill, computer-synthesized voice from the plane’s automatic warning system told the crew repeatedly, “Pull up! Pull up! Pull up!” The Spanish pilot thought the system was malfunctioning and snapped (to this American machine), “Shut up Gringo!” and he switched the warning system… off. Just moments later the plane crashed into the side of a mountain. Everyone on board was killed.

Because of his refusal to listen to the word of warning, everyone died. That is what has happened to us. We have the stain of Adam’s refusal to listen to God that saturates our human condition, and all of creation, with death. Yes, Eve was deceived by the voice of the serpent, but Adam disobeyed the voice of God. And that is why sin is passed on from father to child. Because of that, Jesus was born sinless.

His mother yes, was sinful as we all are. But Jesus didn’t inherit sinfulness because His Father was not Joseph, or any other human, but the Father in heaven working through the word of the Holy Spirit in Mary. The word of God to Mary brought about her pregnancy – that’s also why Jesus is known as the Word made flesh.

But getting back to today’s lessons. St Paul in the portion of Romans we read today said, “For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. We have in these words the confirmation that it was Adam’s disobedience that made us sinners. But we also have in these words the hope of the gospel.

The ‘one man’ Paul refers to in the first case is Adam and the second ‘one man’ is the second Adam, Jesus Christ. That title, the second Adam, is applied to Jesus because He, like Adam, began His earthly life without sin. And like the first Adam, Jesus also faced the temptation of Satan to disobey the voice and the command of God. That’s what we read about in the gospel lesson today.

Jesus said to Satan with the first temptation that was put before Him. “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Every word from the mouth of God. That is what supplies us with all that we need, so Jesus says today.

But that is where the first Adam failed. He failed so badly that following his disobedience Adam tried to cover his new-found nakedness and shame using fig leaves. Again, listen to the Old Testament lesson: Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” 10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

Did you notice God’s question to Adam? Who ‘told you’ you were naked? Again, it has to do with the power of words. God knew that they’d violated His word to them and with His question drives home the point that it is His word alone that they were to have listened to and obeyed.

And what was their reaction to God’s question, where are you? Just like little boy Bobby, out came the very first embarrassing words ever spoken “I was afraid… so I hid”. We are still trying to hide from God. We are still like Adam, afraid of God, because of our disobedience.

And like Adam tried to cover himself with the work of his own hand sewing fig leaves, God knew that that wasn’t good enough or going to last.  So, God sacrificed the life of one of His creation in order to cover the sin and shame of man’s sin. To cover Adam’s shame properly God had to shed blood on that day. The last line of the lesson says, The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. The only way to make a garment of skin was to kill an animal. So, God sacrificed the life of one of His creation in order to cover the sin of man. The book of Hebrews reminds us that ‘without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness’.

And so, God shed the innocent blood of His creation to properly cover man’s sin. And He did so yet again, with the second Adam, sacrificing His holy precious blood on the cross of Calvary. In doing that all the guilt of our sin is forever wiped away, and covered for all time. In His obedience, Jesus saved us. Because of the second Adam, we need not fear or hide from God, do we?

Remember the words in the epistle: so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. And that we are. We’re made righteous through the One Man, Jesus Christ – who was obedient, in our place.

In the gospel lesson Jesus obeyed the command of God the Father and refused to be led astray by the voice of Satan’s temptations. As we go through Lent and ponder the suffering of Christ and cross of Christ and the cost of our righteousness that He paid in love, we do well to give thought to the voices we listen to in our lives.

Even in the midst of tragedy and great loss and suffering we are called to compassion by the voice of God. We are called to listen to the voice of God. We are not called to despair or disobedience.

Remember that though creation groans and suffers under the weight of sin, as we do, God in Christ has won the victory over sin, death and the devil through Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. There will be battles that we lose and there will be losses that we suffer in this war of our making under sin. But God has spoken His promise. His voice has assured us that the victory is won and we need not fear the battle. We remain hopeful and confident in God’s word; the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, our savior, and our redeemer. In His name, amen.

Sermon #873 Rev. Thomas A. Rhodes, Pastor – Zion Lutheran Church, Bolivar, MO

Old Testament Reading                                                                 Genesis 3:1-21 

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

“Cursed are you above all livestock     and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly     and you will eat dust     all the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity     between you and the woman,     and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head,     and you will strike his heel.”

16 To the woman he said,

“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;     with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband,     and he will rule over you.”

17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;     through painful toil you will eat food from it     all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,     and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow     you will eat your food until you return to the ground,     since from it you were taken; for dust you are     and to dust you will return.”

20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

Epistle Reading                                                                                 Romans 5:12-19

12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—

13 To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law.14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.

15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

18 Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

Holy Gospel                                                                             Matthew 4:1-11

4 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,     and they will lift you up in their hands,     so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

 

 

Mar 1, 2017 –Ash Wed -  I Am 

This year in Lent we’re going to be confronted with the scandal from seven of Jesus’ “I Am” declarations. Jesus uses these declarations in the Gospel of John to lead His disciples toward His cross and resurrection. The power of these scandalous declarations is such that they change the disciples’ world. Their power is rooted in the Old Testament lesson from Exodus. It’s appropriate that our first lesson for Lent on Ash Wednesday comes from the book of Exodus as we consider Lent to be our journey into the wilderness of our 40-day pilgrimage focused on reflection and repentance. This is then followed by our crossing over into the Promised Land that takes place for us in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As we wander through Lent, we are faced with the outrageous claim that Jesus is “I Am” and we too, with the disciples, will learn that the power of who Jesus truly is also transforms us.

So, we begin today with the understanding that Jesus is revealed as God in this word Yahweh, ego emi, I am. And that is one of the reasons why He is put to death. That’ll be seen as we go along in the weeks ahead.

But know and understand that Jesus’ use of I Am is a scandal in His day – it is shocking and even rude. It’s as if I were to use the “N” word to describe an American with black skin. That would be such a shock, that would create such a scandal, that I would hope to be run out of here on a rail.

Or perhaps, think of it this way, if I were to try and preach communism as the gospel of God. That too should be so scandalous to you that my days as a pastor among you, you would bring to an end.  The scandal, the shock of that would be so offensive to you that you would hear nothing more of what I say. That is what you need to keep in mind as we walk through the I Am sayings of Jesus.

When Jesus uses this phrase, it comes right out of the Old Testament reading for tonight. When God answers Moses’ question of ‘who should I say sent me’ God’s reply is Yahweh. I Am. In fact, He repeats it, and says to Moses, tell them I Am that I am.

When you study this word Yahweh, you learn some fascinating things. First is, that it’s in the first person, always. God is I am. Not I was and not I will be, but I am. God is always now! Now! God has never not been. That alone stops us in our tracks.

Also, when you hear this word Yahweh, you learn that you are hearing God is. There has never been when He was not. And there will never be when He is not. Without God there is no past, present, or future because without Him there is no now. He is always now.

Saint Thomas Aquinas was, among other things, a leading intellectual and philosopher. Among the things he put forward as true is, that the first cause is Yahweh. That idea of ‘first cause’ must be given a moment of thought.

If God is ‘first cause’ then all else, all else, is derived. There is nothing original besides God. Only God is, everything else comes from the Eternal now.  Which means that God, and only God, is unique and therefore the only holy thing. Because God is alone unique, only God alone should be worshipped.

So, when God answers Moses question of who should I say sent me, God says to tell them that the One who alone is creator, initiator, the source of all that is, has sent you. So why is this important to understand this Lenten season? It’s important because when Jesus uses this phrase, which in the Greek on the front cover of the bulletin, is ego emi, and in the English, I Am; when Jesus says this, the Jewish listeners are hearing Jesus essentially say, “the God who sent Moses is who I am”.

I know it sounds odd to be talking this way. We all think of who we are as “I am so and so or I am such and such.” But when you look in to this word, Yahweh, you begin to realize that I am… not. I am is what only God can say, for He is the initiator of all that is. We exist; we are, because He has chosen to make us to be.

The Jewish people of Jesus day and before then, as well as the orthodox Jews down to today will not speak this name, Yahweh. They will not do so because, as we read in the Old Testament from Isaiah, we are people of unclean lips. To speak the name of God with lips that also curse, swear, lie, and deceive is to cheapen, demean and in so doing, to bring shame to that name.

Therefore, the Jews would say, adoni, or Lord as – in the master or ruler. Or they would say elohim, meaning God in the sense of the Creator.  But that was not what they would write. They would write the tetragammaton, so as to be faithful to the revelation of God. The tetragammaton literally means ‘the 4 letters’. That is what is on the front cover of the bulletin and that we pronounce Yahweh. But, so bound to the idea of God’s revealed name, the tetragammaton, as being holy, they would not speak it.

And so, in the Lenten weeks ahead we’re going to look at the ways, and the contexts in which Jesus uses this name for Himself. What God chose to reveal with this name is that He is a personal God. He is not wood, stone, or metal, a thing made with hands.

This name of God, Yahweh, is a God who chooses to put His name on our hearts, and in our lives, and yes, on our lips as well. His name brings His presence among us just as it did when Moses spoke it to the elders of Israel in exile in Egypt.

For us that is comfort as we go through our journey in this foreign land that we live in. We, like the Israelites in Egypt are sojourners here on earth. We too, like them, are merely passing through. And like them we’re given the personal name of God to see us through the hardships and trials that come our way.

Like the Hebrews of old, we revere and keep as holy, the name of God among us. And like them we are comforted by its living presence among us. And yet unlike them, we recognize that Jesus is one true possessor of that name. Jesus is the only one who can claim it of Himself because He is the only man who is also, truly God.

And that is also Jesus’ offense and scandal. That He is God and yet He is human. That He is Yahweh, ego emi, I Am, is what as we will see in the days ahead in Lent, that drives others to put Him on the cross. And yet it is only that He is the “I Am” that makes His blood, shed on the cross a covering for you and me. For if Jesus is not ‘I Am’ then we are lost in our sin and trespasses. Thank God, that Jesus is Yahweh and that by Him we are redeemed.

In His – holy – name –, amen.

Sermon #872 Rev. Thomas A. Rhodes, Pastor – Zion Lutheran Church, Bolivar, MO

Old Testament Reading                                                                  Exodus 3:1-17

1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”  And Moses said, “Here I am.”

5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

7 The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”

13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”

14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”

15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.

16 “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. 17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’

Feb 26, 2017 Mountains

Going up to the mountains changes you, doesn’t it? Mountains, big rocks, all are monuments to God’s creativity. I’m always amazed when I get to go up into the mountains. I loved going up to the Sierras when I lived in Folsom.  I love the forests and the vistas, the clean air and wildlife.

Mountains provide inspiration look at a work of Thomas Kinkade’s, it’s just gorgeous and uplifting. It’s serene and powerful all at the same time. Mountains seem to draw us away from the mundane and the daily to something beyond ourselves. Mountains give us a perspective on life that calls us to something bigger than who we are.

The Sierras in particular however, also provide a surprise, something you simply don’t expect when you head up to the high country.

When I went up to my first pastor’s retreat at Meyers I was struck by what a surprise Lake Tahoe is. It startled me and made me think, what must it’ve been like to come from the east, across the miles and weeks of nothing but dry desolate desert, and then to put out the effort to hike the dry-side of the mountains and suddenly to see what looks like a sea! This vast body of fresh, clear water is where you’d have no reason to expect it to be.

Why would there be such a gigantic amount of water right there in the midst of the high mountains after days and days and days of dry, arid desert? Coming across that desert you’d have no expectation of ever seeing such a sight and yet… there it is (!), just waiting to surprise and delight you.

Yes, you’d’ve had water from streams, rivers, and the occasional spring, but this; this overabundance of water; such a thing is just simply not to be believed here on the top of this mountain!

And it’s that; that – not believing what you see in the mountains – that’s what happened for Moses and the Israelites in the Old Testament lesson today isn’t it? For them meeting God on the mountain was something that you just would not expect from wandering the desert after leaving Egypt. And reading further on in the text, it would have been amazing for the people of Israel to come to Mt Sinai and have their leader talk with God.

And notice this talk between Moses and God took 40 days – it’s like what we’re going through in Lent starting Wednesday. After Moses had been on that mountain with God for those 40 long days, he then returns and gives you, from God’s own hand, stone tablets with God’s own handwriting!

Never has anything like it been seen by anyone at anytime. This is simply not to be believed, but, like the water of Lake Tahoe, it can’t be denied. It is true! God has given to Moses, to the people of Israel and the world; God has given His word of covenant and law here on the mountain called Sinai.

But as you read the history of the people of God in the Old Testament we learn that the novelty of obeying God’s law… sort of wears off after a bit. Again, it’s like Lake Tahoe becoming something ho-hum for those who live there, the Jews had simply become accustomed to the amazing law God had given them. Its freshness and uniqueness had turned into the mundane and ordinary. The fantastical revelation became just a functional reality. The expectation of more – of wanting the ‘Wow factor’ along with a feeling of entitlement replaced the people’s awe and humility that first filled them at receiving God’s hand-written words It now became about… “What’s next, God? You rescued us, You fed and clothed us, You guided us and met us on the mountain, You gave us a covenant, but…  what’s next? What are You going to do now? We’re getting a bit bored and You need to do something else to get our attention.” How jaded we can become.

We get bored with life and its responsibilities for our relationships – both our earthly and our heavenly relationship. And so we want to escape it all. God gave His covenant and it was greeted by the people with enthusiasm and a commitment to follow-through, but (!) But that energy failed over time as they became more concerned with themselves and less on their relationship with God. They became tired of living with what God had given them and with caring… for Him.

There was a sad story in the Seattle Times newspaper back in the early 90’s of a U.S. army enlisted woman who killed her healthy 4-week old baby daughter by leaving her in a closet while she went on a vacation.  She placed her in a closet in her apartment in Germany and flew to Atlanta, Georgia for a 3-week vacation. When she returned, she called the military police to report that her daughter had died. She pled guilty to charges of premeditated murder during her court martial.

She just let her baby die because she wanted a vacation! Yes, it’s an extreme example, but it speaks to the truth of what happened over time with God’s people and how they came to treat their relationship with Him.  Though He had brought them up out of the land of slavery and oppression, they sought to kill that relationship through their indifference, their self-absorption, and their neglect toward God.

But God wasn’t about to let that relationship be destroyed by such callous disregard. God knows the hearts of people. He knows because He created us… and we turned away in rebellion. And He knows we need rescue; we need saving from our sin.

And so God brings us to yet another mountain. In the gospel lesson today, He again comes to a mountain and speaks and again gives us His word. The mountain this time is what we call the Mount of Transfiguration. Look in the gospel at the first verse. Read it with me… “After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.” And then skipping down to verse 5 it says, “While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

St Peter, in the epistle lesson today, gives us His testimony to these words having been spoken by God. Peter was there on that mountain with Jesus when God spoke. And remember Peter, James, or John, had no idea what was yet to come after this mountain-top experience. They had no clue what you know is going to happen when Jesus takes them to Jerusalem. They didn’t know, like you do, that God was giving us, in His Son, something new. God gave us, in Christ a new covenant – one not based on a new law but rather on the fulfilling of the law given to Moses on Mt Sinai.

And that new covenant was sealed with blood on yet another mountain, on the mount of Calvary. And on that mountain also, God speaks. He speaks through the words of Jesus when He says, “It is finished”. And on that mountain, we’ve been given grace; grace through the person of Jesus Christ.

Again, like the overabundance of water in Lake Tahoe in the mountains – on the mountain of Christ’s death on the cross He supplies us with surpassing grace to more than meet our every need of forgiveness for our sin. This One who died on Calvary is the same Son of God revealed on the Mount of Transfiguration to Peter, James and John in today’s gospel reading.

At His Transfiguration, Jesus is changed in His appearance to show us, through the witness of these three disciples, the fullness of the Godhead in the One person of Jesus Christ. The transfiguration wasn’t so Jesus could change; it was so that His followers understanding of Who He was could change! It’s to us that this change has been revealed so we could have a hope to live in throughout all our days. God cares for His creation and wants a real relationship with His people. That’s why He does this on this mountain.

God’s words to the disciples there on the mountain of Jesus transfiguration were, “this is my Son… listen to Him!” God is giving us yet again, there on that mountain His Word. He gives us His Living Word, Jesus Christ, not stone tablets carved from a mountainside but His word now made flesh! And in Jesus, in our baptism into Jesus, God writes His Word on our hearts! Jesus, the Son of God, begotten of the Father from before the foundation of the world, has come to the mountain and put God’s word into us.

Mountains are places of inspiration and beauty as we said at the start. King David in psalm 121 said, “I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” These words give us a reminder of the source of our help, Jesus Christ who was revealed to be God in human flesh there on a mountain.

Even when the mountains are obscured by distance, cloud or fog we know that they’re there. And when our experience of the relationship with God seems distant, clouded and foggy to us, we know that He is there, just like the mountains. We rely and trust on what He has done in creating a better relationship, on what He has said, “this is my Son… listen to Him!”

The next time you go driving through mountains, stop someplace up there and get out for a quiet moment. Think about what God has done on all the mountains in scripture. And remember the Mount of Transfiguration and the better relationship with God that’s yours as a result of that. And then pick up a rock from that mountain and bring it down with you. Let it remind you that the mountain is there even when you can’t see it.

Remember, the Mount of Transfiguration wasn’t so Jesus could change; it was so that His followers understanding of who He was could change! Jesus is our overabundant source of help and hope. He’s the one on whom our relationship with the Father in heaven is based. He is the mighty rock, the mountain high and lifted-up, that our faith and hope rely on. In His name, amen.

Sermon #871 Rev. Thomas A. Rhodes, Pastor – Zion Lutheran Church, Bolivar, MO

Old Testament Reading                                 Exodus 24:8-18
8 Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

9 Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up 10^ and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. 11^ But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.

12 The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.”

13^ Then Moses set out with Joshua his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain of God. 14^ He said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you, and anyone involved in a dispute can go to them.”

15 When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, 16^ and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud. 17^ To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. 18 Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

Epistle Reading                                                                  2 Peter 1:16-21
16^ For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17^ He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” 18^ We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.

19 We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20^ Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 21^ For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Holy Gospel                                                                     Matthew 17:1-9
17 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2^ There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3^ Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

4^ Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

5^ While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

6 When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. 7^ But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” 8^ When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

 

 

Feb 19, 2017 “impartial passion”

Jesus continues His catechism lessons from the Sermon on the Mount this week by turning to some popular and well-known sayings of His day. This first one, an eye for eye and a tooth for tooth has something in the culture of Jesus’ day that’d helpful for us to understand. This saying carried with it not simply the idea that if someone harms you, you get to do the same thing back to them.

(Though when you read this in the Old Testament it sounds that way). This saying, by Jesus day, was not about revenge. Rather it was meant as a limitation on retribution. It was meant to limit payback and so prevent an escalation of hostilities between people. It carried with it the idea of no more than eye for eye and do no more harm than tooth for tooth.

That little bit of insight for me revealed something about me when I thought about it. How often on a freeway when you get cut off or someone does something outrageously stupid have I wanted to get back at them by thinking of what I could do to ‘teach them a lesson’? And that ‘lesson’ was often not limited to only what they’d done to me. But this saying, eye for eye and tooth for tooth, reveals that I wanted to see it as giving me permission to strike out in anger. That’s what I wanted to see in it; whereas it really means to keep me and my pride in check.

I’m to limit any retribution I may seek to no more than the supposed harm done to me. So, having this ugly part of me revealed shows me just how much I think I’m the center of the universe. But in this epiphany season, it also helps me to see that, in fact, Jesus is the One who is revealed as universe’s true center. Having seen how ugly I can be only points out how much I need the beauty of God’s gospel and grace revealed in His only son, Jesus Christ.

The revelation of Jesus Christ as God’s Son also reveals that God wants us to behave toward one another as He has behaved toward us. In mercy, not vengeance or anger. He sent His Son to this very world where people reject the passionate love of God, they even hate God in fact. He sent Him so that we could have revealed to us what love really is. The actions of Jesus, His coming to earth and to live the perfect life and then die on the cross and rise again, show us that the love of God is the content of the gospel.

Today, to live the gospel, is revealed in how we act toward those who act badly toward us. God’s impartiality is what we have as our guide. God shows His mercy impartially. Impartiality not indifference is the key here. God treats all people the same. Today Jesus tells us of God: “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” God gives rain and sun to those who love Him and to those who hate Him, equally. Equally is the key.

We show the wisdom of God when we do not act like those of this world act. St Paul today speaks of God’s wisdom as ‘foolishness’ to those who think they are wise in this world. So why do we try to be like them? Why are we willing to sacrifice what we believe, teach, and confess of God to try and fit into a model of life based on this world’s wisdom? Again, God is impartial and He judge’s impartially.

His judgment is based on the blood of Jesus Christ alone. And His blood is impartial, in that anyone, a n y one who calls on Jesus’ name finds in that name the salvation they need. They find equal protection from the wrath of God on sin. God cares not for skin color, language, clothing, or possessions of any kind.

No matter how hard we try to pretend otherwise, we still judge people by their appearance, clothes, skin color, and even by height. Some time back a University of Pittsburgh survey showed that its graduates who were six feet two and over had a starting salary $125 per week higher than those below six feet. Just because of how we judge others.

Such conditions matter not to God. It matters not to Him the condition we compare ourselves to with others because He knows that everyone’s condition is one of desperation and lost-ness. Everyone needs the passionate love of God. Equally. Because all have hated God and His ways.

You think you’re the exception, you think that you’re not one who hates God? Think of how you live life? Is it by the standards of what this world sees as good and wise? Or is how you live based on God’s ways. If you’ve turned from God’s way in even the slightest, if you’ve demonstrated even the merest indifference to being what God has said, to be righteous and perfect, then you have hated God. That’s not my judgment but His.

In the Old Testament lesson God through Moses says “to be holy for I the Lord your God am holy.” To turn from God’s holy ways is to reject God. A former missionary to India told this story.  One day when she was visiting some villagers, she came across a man who was critically ill and desperately needed to get to the medical station nearby. She needed help carrying the man there.  Two “holy men” were sitting nearby, performing their prayers and meditation. She asked for their help. She said she’d never forget the fire of resentment and anger that blazed in the eyes of one of the men as he said: “We are holy men! Don’t bother us with such things!” What a strange concept of holiness! Can you honestly say that there’s never been a time when you’ve not ignored what you know you should do according to God’s holiness?

Of course not, you and I equally, like those ‘holy men’ have turned away from God. And yet in spite of that, we still experience God’s goodness; the same goodness He shows to all sinners.

He still gives rain and sun equally to the just and the unjust. He still gives what’s needed to all in spite of all the spite everyone has shown to Him. And He goes beyond even that to give what this world truly needs; restoration. Wholeness. And redemption. He, of His mercy, redeems us from our wicked ways because He loves His creation so passionately. And as He shows His great mercy, He demonstrates how we are to treat each other.

In spite of the spite we show each other we’re to go beyond that and, instead, demonstrate love. Remember we said at the start, our retribution is to have limits. We do not harm someone who’s harmed us, beyond that harm, no more than an eye for an eye. That’s the point of Jesus coming and dying on the cross, to show that God’ seeks not wrath on His creation but demonstrates mercy. We have no need to seek our own retribution. We leave that to God and His impartial judgment. We are to love each other as we have been loved by God. God, Who, rather than throw the weight of His judgment at we who deserve it, instead has turned His perfect wrath on His own perfect and beloved Son.

A century ago those who lived in the wide-open spaces of the West had to worry about prairie fires. When a prairie fire would sweep across the fields, there wasn’t much you could do to protect yourself. You usually couldn’t outrun the fire because it moved too fast. Obviously, it wouldn’t help to hide from the fire in your house. One option though was to set a fire and burn out all the grass around you. Even though the flames would roar nearby, you would be safe in that burned-out space because there would be nothing around you to burn.

The fire of God’s wrath against sin has burned itself out in Jesus Christ our Savior.  He willingly endured agony of body and soul in the furnace of God’s wrath against sin, so that we might be saved on the coming Day of Judgment and wrath. And His protection, that ‘burned out’ area of safety is what God – through the cross of Jesus – gives equally to all who ask. And that protection comes from Jesus who fulfilled perfectly the entire demands of God’s law.

Remember again the Old Testament lesson “Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy”. And we heard it in the gospel lesson also when Jesus said, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Anyone who’s ever played a musical instrument knows the challenge of trying to play a piece of music perfectly. Children are encouraged, of course, to practice and practice. At one time or another, a parent or teacher likely tells them the old adage “practice makes perfect.” And so, they practice and practice. Occasionally a piece might be learned so well that sometimes it is played perfectly. But as soon as that song is mastered, then it’s on to another, more difficult, piece.

For those few performers who make it in the ‘big leagues’ of music, the pressure for perfection can, at times, overwhelm even the best. No matter how much effort is expended, there always seems to be someone else who’s better, someone else who’s gone just a little further in that quest for perfection. While that person may enjoy considerable satisfaction in making music, it can’t give any real lasting peace and contentment.

We’ll never find peace in our own efforts to be perfect before God – however hard we practice. But Jesus was perfect for us – in his life and in his death. And as we are in Him through Baptism, God declares us to be what Jesus is… Perfect in His eyes. We live life, not on a quest for revenge against those who don’t measure up for us, nor as an exercise in the futility of trying to be perfect ourselves.

Rather we live under the protection of God’s impartial, yet passionate grace, that grants all things needed to His whole creation. His grace covers all our sin and makes us His own through Christ. His grace sets us free to do the best we can and in so doing, show to others just how true it is that God loves each person equally and, again in the cross of Christ, demonstrates His mercy personally.

As we close hear again the words of St Paul. “All things are yours, whether… the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ.” In His name as He protects and preserves us, Amen.

Sermon #870 Rev. Thomas A. Rhodes, Pastor – Zion Lutheran Church, Bolivar, MO

Old Testament Reading                             Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18

19 The Lord said to Moses, 2^ “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.

9^ “‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10^ Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.

11^ “‘Do not steal.

“‘Do not lie.

“‘Do not deceive one another.

12^ “‘Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.

13^ “‘Do not defraud or rob your neighbor.

“‘Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight.

14^ “‘Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the Lord.

15^ “‘Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.

16 “‘Do not go about spreading slander among your people.

“‘Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life. I am the Lord.

17^ “‘Do not hate a fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in their guilt.

18^ “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

 Epistle                                                                       1 Corinthians 3:10-23

10^ By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. 11^ For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12^ If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13^ their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14^ If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.

16^ Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17^ If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. 19^ For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; 20 and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” 21^ So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, 22^ whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

 Holy Gospel                                                            Matthew 5:38-48

38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39^ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 41^ If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. 42^ Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

43^ “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44^ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45^ that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46^ If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47^ And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.