Author: Sonya

Dec 14, 2016 – The Light of the Gentiles

I love the word play in tonight’s verse.

“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob – and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

The double meaning and double use of the word ‘light’ in this verse draws our attention to it and light becomes our focus tonight. The light of God is to be for everyone we’re told. No one is left out. Light helps to define and describe the servant of God that Isaiah is talking about.

That servant is given by God as light to everyone. It is too light for Him to only raise up and restore Israel. That is, His work goes beyond the scope of Israel. But it is for Him to draw the gentiles, the nations, the end of the earth to God and His salvation. No one, no one is to be left in darkness. The light of the world comes from Israel, but is not confined, limited or allocated only to the chosen people. In fact they are chosen just so that the world can see the light of the living God of heaven.

It was understood, it was a given, that Gentiles were in darkness and they lived apart from the living God of heaven. So for this verse and elsewhere here in Isaiah and in Genesis 12:1-3, we see the “great commission” of the Old Testament. If you look in Isaiah 51:4 and 42:6 along with today’s verse of 49:6, you read references to ‘light for the world’, for the Jews and the gentiles together. These are references to light being the salvation of God. These verses are what call to mind the great commission in Matthew 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. That ‘all nations’ is the place where we gentiles find a hope and the promise of salvation.  What do you do when you’re lost and without hope?

A pastor tells this story from his childhood growing up in South Dakota when, in 1952, there was a record-setting blizzard. Forecasters warned this might be a very dangerous storm, so a neighboring farmer took his jeep and rushed to town, to the one-room school house, to pick up his children and the teacher who was living with them.  On his way back, the storm struck.

He tried to force his way home through the mighty, driving sheets of snow. The jeep’s engine gave out just a short distance from his house. He left his children and the teacher and he headed for the house on foot to get help. You literally could not see your hand in front of your face. He grabbed the fence line beside the road and went hand over hand toward his house. The storm roared throughout that day and the next. On the third day, after the storm quit, the farmer’s wife and friends searched for them.

They found his body in a field just fifty feet from his house. He’d let go of the fence and had wandered in circles until he dropped from exhaustion.  Letting go of the fence not only led to his death, but also to the death of his children and the school teacher, whose bodies were found in the jeep.

Without the light of God’s salvation, we’re like that that man and those people in the jeep, we’re lost and doomed to death. It’s when we realize we are lost and alone in the darkness of our sin that the light of God – the salvation of God – brightens our path and guides us into the grace of Jesus. Jesus is the light, He is the servant who is salvation.

And that’s true because He bore our dark sin to the cross and under the crushing weight of His Heavenly Father’s rejection, He suffered the punishment that was ours for bringing sin into creation. At that time, when Jesus died we’re told in Matthew 27:45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.

That means that from noon to 3, when Jesus was hanging on the cross, dying, darkness covered the land. This was remarkable, that at noon-day, darkness should take over. And knowing who Jesus is, that only makes sense. He is the light, the salvation of the world. With His death, with the light going out of the world, it’s only natural that darkness should return and again cover the land.

But, then in Matthew 28:2 when Jesus was resurrected, it says, ^ And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. ^3 His appearance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow.     

The contrast of darkness and light in the death and resurrection of Jesus point us to the promise and hope in this verse from Isaiah tonight. Indeed, Jesus is the light of the world, He is the salvation of the world!

From Genesis and Isaiah we’ve been given the promise of God to bring light, to bring salvation, to all the world. We’re told today it is ‘too light a thing’ for the servant of God, to be the hope of only Israel. No, He is the hope, He the light – the salvation – of all people, of all time, for all time.

Only in Him is the light that pierces the darkness of sin. He alone restores the world to her creator. Darkness was, and God brings in light. There was nothing and God created everything. And what was the first thing that God said to ‘let there be… it was light!

Light is what God first spoke into creation. And light, salvation, is what the Word of God, Jesus Christ, the servant in Isaiah, brings to all people. It is that Light that we’re anticipating this advent season. He is the light that comes to the manger.

Sermon #860 Rev. Thomas A. Rhodes, Pastor – Zion Lutheran Church, Bolivar, MO

 

Dec 11, 2016 – The Greatest of All

There have been many great promises made by our society to us. I remember clearly when I was promised that we would all one day travel supersonically, past the speed of sound, regularly – I even wrote a report in jr high about one aspect of it.

Of course, with the reality of the supersonic Concorde jet being taken permanently out of service I doubt that I’ll see that great promise fulfilled again in my lifetime. I had a relative who worked in the airline industry who has ridden on the Concorde and I’ve grilled him on the details of what it’s like. I yearn for that experience though I’ll never get to have it. It’s a promise – a great promise that just won’t happen for me and for most all of society.

God made great promises to His society, His chosen people in the Old Testament. He used great people called prophets to give His promises through. One of those great promises Jesus quotes from to day from the book of Malachi when He says, “This is he of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’ Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

The greatness of John the Baptist is not because of the odd way in which he lived his life. But according to Scripture, it’s because John made every effort to point his fellow Jews to Jesus as God’s long awaited fulfillment of His promises.

As we said before God gave great promises to His people, the Jews. Today we see that one of those promises, about the messenger who would prepare the way for the messiah, has come to pass in John the Baptist. But think for a moment about what that promise meant for them in their day.

It used to be when a king came to town it was rarely a surprise event. Someone always went ahead of the king to announce to his subjects that their master, lord and king was about to come to them. This announcement was a word of warning to those who had wronged the king. And it was a word of great joy for those who loved their king and served him gladly. The words of the messenger, the herald, were the same words for all to hear. What made the difference was your attitude toward the king.

Also remember that the messenger didn’t come on his own. He didn’t just get up out of bed one day and decide to walk to town and announce the coming of the king. No, the messenger is one who is sent. He’s sent – by the king. He comes with the authority of the king to advertise the king’s arrival to one and all. The messenger, the one who made the announcement was not acting on his own. He acted because it was his office, it was the job, he was given by the king to do.

So when God in the Old Testament promised that He would send a messenger to inform the people that the messiah was coming, He was giving His authority to that herald to make such a proclamation. And the message of the herald was about another promise that God had made in the Old Testament. That He would send a savior, a redeemer a ‘promised person’ to accomplish salvation for all people.

The Old Testament lesson today contains words about that promised person. By the way, the Hebrew understanding of that promised person is best translated with the word, Messiah. Messiah carries the understanding of that ‘promised one’ as anointed by God to come. So when you hear ‘messiah’, hear promised person. Listen again to what we heard regarding that person of promise, the Messiah. He will come and save you.  Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.

Here in Isaiah today God promises that the promised person will save. He will satisfy the vengeance of God against sin. He will bring deliverance from God’s wrath. That is a huge promise!

And to give witness to the truth of that prophecy there will be things that this promised person does. He will heal the eyes of the blind. He will give hearing to those who have never had it before. All these promises will be identifiers, markers, and ways of knowing that the Messiah God promised has arrived. And the actions of Jesus, that Jesus told John’s followers in the gospel to report on, these are very signs or marks of the Messiah. This confirms for John and the world that the great promised person, the messiah of God had finally come.

Do you recognize this quote? ‘But be not afraid of greatness; some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.’ It’s from Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.” Have you ever met anyone considered a great person? I’m not referring to parents or relatives. I’m talking about people who are recognized by others as great people. It’s been estimated that there’ve probably been no more than 100,000 people in the entire history of the world that would be considered great.

Who might be on that list? Shakespeare himself certainly. And Charlemagne, Martin Luther, and Abraham Lincoln. What about Augustine and Columbus; Barishnikov, John Glenn and George Washington. There’d be terrible names too, like Mao Tse Tung, Hitler, and Genghis Kahn. What about Jackie Robinson, Madame Currie, George Washington Carver, Neil Armstrong, Marconi, Edison … and you. Before we close I’ll come back to that. But, you are great according to Jesus in today’s gospel lesson and so of course is John the Baptist.

Jesus points out that John the Baptist is the greatest of all people born in the normal natural way. That’s quite something to be at the top of a list that includes such bright lights we just listed. Jesus makes it clear that John the Baptist deserves that honor.

But isn’t Jesus Himself greater than John? We’d say yes, but that’s because Jesus didn’t come into this world in quite the same way as everyone else. He was born from the Virgin Mary, as we are preparing to celebrate as we talked about last week.

And by the way, that reminds me of the candle we lit today – the shepherds’ candle. While these guys generally wouldn’t make the list of anyone’s top ten of great people, they were certainly on God’s list. These humble men were given the great honor of hearing the good news of Jesus birth from the angels in heaven. They we’re placed above kings, priests and potentates by God’s grace. Though humble, as Mary was, they too were considered by God to be worthy of this great honor.

At any rate, this humble birth of Jesus is the beginning of what sets Him apart from us. He was born of a virgin, and that again is one of those great promises of God in the Old Testament. And that’s not like anyone else.

Jesus, who John the Baptist points to as God’s greatest promise, Jesus says that John the Baptist is the greatest of those born of women, meaning in the natural way. But Jesus also says that the least in the kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist.

Consider this carefully, if Jesus is greater than John the Baptist and Jesus says that the least in the kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist, then Jesus must also be the least in the kingdom of God. And so it is! Jesus becomes the least in kingdom of God and so He is the greatest of all, greater even than John the Baptist.

Though John the Baptist doesn’t live to see it, Jesus does become the least of all. Jesus who, when dying on the cross, is the least of all because on that cross He became sin for us. And He took the guilt and all the vengeance of God toward sin on Himself. Jesus in dying that death, was the least in the kingdom of heaven and therefore He is greater than John. Jesus is both least and greatest. And in doing that work of the Messiah, He completes and fulfills all the great promises God made to His people and to us! And because of Jesus on the cross, you are greater than everyone on the list we said a few moments ago.

You are greater than them not because of anything you did, will do or can do. To paraphrase Shakespeare, you are not born to greatness and you cannot achieve greatness, greatness is thrust upon you. It is thrust upon you by the words of Jesus from the cross, “it is finished”. This is whom John the Baptist was pointing to when he said elsewhere in scripture ‘behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’. Remember John was the herald of messiah and we said that the words of the herald, were the same words for all to hear regardless of your attitude toward the king. John’s words, pointing all people to the Messiah of God having come into the world and now completed all of God’s promises was what made John the Baptist great. You are among the great persons of the world only because of the great promise of salvation from God having its completion in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Messiah.

His work is yours by grace through faith alone.

Let us rejoice, not that we can boast in any greatness in ourselves, as we have none. But rather our greatness comes from being given the gift of salvation of the Lamb of God that John the Baptist pointed to. Jesus is the promised person, the Messiah, the One who has come into the world at Bethlehem, to take away the sin of the world at Calvary. In the name of messiah, Jesus Christ, amen.

Sermon #859 Rev. Thomas A. Rhodes, Pastor – Zion Lutheran Church, Bolivar, MO

First Reading                                                                            Isaiah 35:1-10

35 The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, 2^ it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God.

3^ Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way;

4^ say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.”

5^ Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

6^ Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. 7 The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.

8 And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way.  The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it. 9 No lion will be there, nor any ravenous beast; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there,  10^ and those the Lord has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Second Reading                                                           James 5:7-11

7^ Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. 8^ You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. 9 Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!

10^ Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

Holy Gospel                                                                Matthew 11:2-11

2 When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples 3^ to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

4^ Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5^ The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. 6^ Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”

7 As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? 8 If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces. 9^ Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is the one about whom it is written:

“‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,     who will prepare your way before you.’

11^ Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Dec 7, 2016 – A Star Shall Come Forth

Light. Light is what this advent series calls us to focus on. As we all know, this time of year, daylight decreases and diminishes till we get to the 21^st of December. If I remember correctly from my astronomy course, every day there is 4 minutes less sunlight, 2 minutes less in the morning and 2 in the evening. And on the 21^st of December that phenomenon reverses and we begin to gain 4 more minutes of sunlight every day. But that also means that between now and December 21 we have four more minutes of nighttime each 24 hours.

That gives us more time to look at the moon and the stars. The stars are what I want to draw our attention too for a few minutes. Listen again to the scripture I read earlier, Numbers 24:17

^17 I see him, but not now;     I behold him, but not nigh: a star shall come forth out of Jacob,     and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab,     and break down all the sons of Sheth.

This is foretelling of the starlight to come from Jacob. The word star, in referring to person, usually denotes royalty. This is not like a so-called tv or movie ‘star’ today. In the days of Balaam, a contemporary of Moses, Balaam is the one speaking this oracle, these words from God. At that point of history, referring to someone as a star or having starlight, was used to signify that that person was of the heavens. They were a ruler who shone in splendor. It also meant they were a guide, they lead their people. That’s also why the double image in this passage of star combined with a scepter.

A scepter was a sign of royal power and authority. Now in the course of Balaam’s oracle this would be an obvious reference to the rise of the coming of king David. There is also a school of Jewish tradition that sees in this a reference beyond David to the messiah. That promised one to come from David’s line. And what is Jesus known as – The Son of David. The one who would rule forever.

Jesus is that promised scepter and star. Look for a moment at a few of the places where the scriptures use ‘star’ as a reference for a person.

Rev 22;16 Jesus says of Himself, “I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star!”

And of course there’s Matthew 2:2 when the wise men ask, Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.

There are many other places in both old and new testaments where star is used. Ill mention just one other one, that is 1 Corinthians 15:41 where St Paul writes, There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.

Paul points out that star differs from star in its ‘glory’ or its brightness. I don’t remember the scale but I do recall that Polaris or the north star is among the brightest of all the stars in the sky. It stands out from the others.

So also with Jesus. He stands apart from all others. There is no one who bears the same brightness or glory as He. He rules above all and over all. Remember we made reference to the secpter, the stick that a ruler uses as a sign of His power.

In Balaam’s oracle, in Balaam’s words from God, that too carries the double meaning of both David and Jesus. Under David the kingdom will no longer be divided, but unified. So also in Christ, in the messiah to come. In Him, in Jesus the world is no longer divided, but all things come under His sovereign rule and authority.

He, He alone will be both starlight and scepter. Balaam also says, He is seen as now and not yet. He comes but is not yet near. We wonder at the order of scripture to let the lesser light of David point the world to the greater light to come of Jesus Christ.

And speaking of His light, could it be imagined that the star the wise men saw, is reflecting the light FROM the messiah, from Jesus the king?! No. I know better, but I also know that all creation points us to Jesus and this star light is no different.

We, this advent season, when sunlight is diminishing, we prepare to celebrate the return of the sunlight beginning soon. That only serves to point us back to The Light of the world, Jesus Christ who came into this world at Christmas.

He brought the light of God, the royal light of heaven to earth to shatter the darkness of sin. He came to die on the cross and to rise again in majesty and power, in glory and light to shine forth forever. Christmas is our celebration of the light of God come to grant us rescue from our dark world of sin.

We prepare for that celebration of light in advent. Yes the daylight now is diminishing, but we know that it will again glow and rise. We know this will happen as we have tracked it for centuries. We trust in the return of sunlight.

We also trust in the return of Jesus. Yes He is coming again to the manger that we celebrate soon. But remember He is also coming again, as Balaam’s oracle reminds, to rule over all the world. In the name of the one who is here and is yet to come, Jesus Christ, we pray amen.

Sermon #858 Rev. Thomas A. Rhodes, Pastor – Zion Lutheran Church, Bolivar, MO

 

Dec 4, 2016 – Proper Preparation

Such happy thoughts for this Advent Season! Unquenchable fire, burning chaff, winnowing forks! These are among the things that John the Baptist talked about when he was preaching repentance and baptizing people in today’s gospel lesson. John came speaking and baptizing in preparation for Jesus’ coming. True, Jesus was already among them and some of them knew Him. But John is preparing the way for Jesus earthly ministry. John is using language to stir up people and get their attention. And all that, is so he can point people to Christ.

John’s job was to tell people to prepare for the coming of Messiah, God’s holy one. Yes, people had heard this before and every time they’d been disappointed. But this time was different because this time, it was because God said it was time. It makes a difference when you prepare for the right thing, in the right time… and when you don’t.

There was one couple, Bob and Lynne, who were moved by their pastor’s message to show Christian love to your neighbors. So, when they got home from church, they saw a moving van in front of the house across the street, and decided to display the Christian love they were newly excited about. Lynn prepared some homemade bread and together she and Bob went across the street.

When someone answered the front door, Lynn said, “Hi. We wanted to welcome you to our neighborhood. Here’s some bread for you.” The woman who answered the door said, “Thank you very much for your kindness. Uh – this is embarrassing because we’ve lived here 8 years. You see, we’re not moving in. We’re moving out.”

Bob and Lynn went prepared all right, but they prepared for the wrong occasion! That’s the difference in today’s gospel lesson, and what John the Baptist was about. He was preparing people for the right thing at the right time! Jesus was the true messiah of God, the Lamb of God who had come into the world…to take away the sins of the world.

Bob and Lynn’s hearts were in the right place, but they simply weren’t prepared for the proper occasion. In the gospel lesson, we read about large crowds coming to John confessing their sins and being baptized. They were preparing based on the truth that John was preaching to them. And what John preached was… repentance. That was the proper way to prepare for the coming of Christ.

And most of those who came to the desert to see John followed what he said. Most… but not all. It says that there were those of the Pharisees and Sadducees among John’s ‘congregation’ that day. When John saw them he talked of them as a ‘brood of vipers’ who’d come to flee the wrath to come.

Now listen to Genesis 3:1 when Adam and Eve were deceived in the garden; it says in verse 1, “Now the serpent was more crafty that any of the wild animals” and then skip to verses 14-15 that read in part, “So the Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, ‘Cursed are you above all the livestock… And I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head and you will strike His heel.’”

Right here in Genesis, you see the snake, the serpent, the ‘viper’ that deceived Adam and Eve. I don’t think John chose that ‘viper’ metaphor out of thin air when he was speaking to the Pharisees and Sadducees. This would be something all the people would know about, and John was preparing the people for the coming of the One promised in that passage of Genesis. Jesus the coming One, was that One promised from the day of the fall of man into sin who would crush the snakes head and defeat sin.

That promised wrath was coming, John said. Sin was about to be destroyed and it was time to prepare for that. The Man promised by God in Gen 3 that would crush the snake’s head, that would kill the viper that deceived Eve and Adam, that promised Deliverer was coming. And with Him was coming vengeance against sin. Preparing for that meant the same thing then that it does now, repentance.

Yes, we are in advent and preparing for the coming of Christ as the infant. But be reminded also, that we prepare for Christ’s return as the Victor, the Conqueror over sin, and the Judge of all mankind. We need to also be prepared for that ‘right thing’. Let’s not be lulled into a sense of self-satisfaction or pride as the Pharisees and Sadducees displayed with John.

Take note that John equated his baptism with fleeing from the coming wrath of God. Baptism was presented as a form of salvation, protection and reconciliation with God. It still is!

The wrath of God has come as John said it would. And it was visited, in all its terrible consequences, on the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. God’s wrath against sin was poured out on the head of the innocent Babe born to Mary in Bethlehem. That was done for us, in our place. And it was done in order that we might indeed have His protection from that wrath against sin. It is only in His name that we have His protection against God’s holy justice and that is why baptism is done in His name.

Let’s compare the sin we brought into the world to another creature, the “giant water bug”. The giant water bug is a beetle that eats insects, tadpoles, fish, and frogs. It has grasping forelegs that are hooked inward to seize a victim and hold it tight. The giant water bug then, with a vicious bite, injects its victim with enzymes that paralyze it. It only takes one bite, and the poison that shoots through this one puncture dissolves the victim’s muscles and bones and organs, everything except the skin. The water bug then sucks out the victim’s body, that’s been reduced to juice.

Well, like this bug, our sins can paralyze our spirit; it too can destroy us from within, and sooner or later… suck the life out of us. In order to prepare for the coming of the Lord, we do as John preached, repent of our sin, turn away from it, and be baptized.

And when we are baptized in the name of the Triune God, the kingdom of God comes to us. And that kingdom, which comes to us in Jesus Christ alone, is what we need in order to be protected from the wrath that will come when Jesus returns a second time.

He has come once to Bethlehem as promised and as John preached about in preparation for Jesus’ ministry and work on earth. And He will come again and when He does we are promised that it will be to judge the nations and all people. Folks today don’t like that idea. But then again, they didn’t like the idea of the Messiah coming as a baby either. There’s just no pleasing us is there!

And being prepared through repentance is also something we’d like to skip. The grandmother who stands by the front-room window watching for the arrival of her family for Christmas dinner, is not going to be nearly as ready as is the grandmother in the kitchen, basting the turkey and preparing things for the arrival of family and friends.

John was calling people to be properly prepared for the coming of the Christ. And that meant to repent, to turn from sin and all its paralyzing ways. The Pharisees were known for their paralyzing legalism and self-righteousness. The Sadducees were known for their skepticism and moral laxness, like those today who think that God’s law means nothing.

Neither of these groups came out to John to confess their sins. That is crystal clear from the context. No wonder John called them “products of deadly snakes.” They were like those who had come before them and, like the snake in the garden – they were deadly to themselves and others.

Jesus came once to deliver us, as promised in Genesis, and Jesus is coming again. And He has delivered to us the righteousness we need that no works set before us by the law, the Pharisees or anyone else can accomplish. Only the free gift that Jesus came to give us, properly prepares us. Only the robe of righteousness does that.

Dressed in God’s gift of Christ’s righteousness, we’re to demonstrate a different kind of life than unbelievers. Again, we don’t do this to earn God’s love or to impress others, but we do it to give witness to others of God’s abundant and free grace, mercy and forgiveness to all people.

The story is told in Spain of a father and his teenage son whose relationship had become strained. So, the son ran away from home. His father, however, journeyed in search of his rebellious boy. Finally, in Madrid, in a last desperate effort to find him, the father put an ad in the newspaper. The ad read: “Dear Paco, meet me in front of the newspaper office at noon. All is forgiven. I love you. Your father.” The next day at noon, in front of the newspaper office, eight hundred “Pacos” showed up. They were all seeking forgiveness and love from their fathers.

What a wonderful gift is forgiveness. All people crave this gift. And this gift is yours! Though you’ve strayed from the love of your heavenly Father, He seeks you out! And He will not rest until you’re safe in His arms. To make you ready for the Day of Judgment, you’ve been awakened and given a new suit of clothes. You’ve been dressed in the righteousness and forgiveness of Christ Jesus. You are ready: you are properly prepared as you live in the grace of God, given to you in your baptism. The grace of God gives us a ‘free’ pass on sin and it gives us the freedom to pass sin by. That grace to us is, indeed, free and allows Him to pass over our sin, to pass over the sin of the world. But it was not free to God! It cost Him, the life of His Son, Jesus on the cross, which was the culmination of His earthly ministry.

And His gift of freedom and forgiveness is yours to give away to others, who like you and I, need it, because we’ve all been bitten by sin. This day and every day in Advent is a wonderful day to celebrate the love of God freely given to us in Jesus.

Advent prepares us to remember Jesus’ first coming and in so doing we are being prepared for His promised 2^nd coming. In His first coming He came, to a specific place… Bethlehem. And that is what this week’s advent candle reminds us of. It recalls for us that Jesus came in fulfillment of the promises as we spoke about last week. He came once and He will do so again. He is the new Jerusalem that will come down from heaven and call us home.

And our preparation for that second coming is always ongoing. John called the people to repentance. Luther said that repentance is the way of life for all who would follow after Jesus Christ. So, our preparation for Jesus’ return comes by following John’s words today, ‘repent for the kingdom of heaven is near’. In Jesus name, amen.

Sermon #857 Rev. Thomas A. Rhodes, Pastor – Zion Lutheran Church, Bolivar, MO

First Reading                                                                                          Isaiah 11:1-10 11 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;     from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. 2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—     the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,     the Spirit of counsel and of might,     the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord— 3^ and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.

He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,     or decide by what he hears with his ears; 4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy,     with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;     with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. 5^ Righteousness will be his belt     and faithfulness the sash around his waist.

6^ The wolf will live with the lamb,     the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together;     and a little child will lead them. 7^ The cow will feed with the bear,     their young will lie down together,     and the lion will eat straw like the ox. 8^ The infant will play near the cobra’s den,     and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. 9^ They will neither harm nor destroy     on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord     as the waters cover the sea.

10^ In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious.

Epistle Reading                                                                           Romans 15:4-13

4^ For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.

5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, 6^ so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

7^ Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. 8^ For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed 9^ and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written:

“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles;     I will sing the praises of your name.”

10^ Again, it says,

“Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.”

11^ And again,

“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles;     let all the peoples extol him.”

12^ And again, Isaiah says, “The Root of Jesse will spring up,     one who will arise to rule over the nations;     in him the Gentiles will hope.”

13^ May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Holy Gospel                                                            Matthew 3:1-12

3 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2^ and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3^ This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:                                                                                                                                                  A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord,     make straight paths for him.’”                                                                                                4 John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5^ People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6^ Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.    7^ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8^ Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10^ The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.                                                                                                                 11 “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

 

Nov 27, 2016 Advent 1 – Jesus and Jerusalem

Happy New Year and a happy start to the Advent season. Today marks the first Sunday in the church new year. We begin again on that part of the church year that celebrates and remembers the life and work of Jesus Christ. Today being the first Sunday in Advent we have lit the first candle on the Advent wreath. That candle is often referred to as the prophecy candle. It’s the candle that reminds us that the coming of Christ to earth was told ahead of time.

Jesus coming was foretold so that when it came to pass, people would remember God’s promise and again be reminded of God’s faithfulness. So, we’ve lit this candle to remind us that Christ has come and God has kept His promise.

There’s a beautiful Hebrew legend of two brothers who lived side by side on adjoining lands.  One was the head of a large family, the other lived alone.  One night, the brother with a large family lay awake and thought: “My brother lives alone, he doesn’t have the companionship of wife and children to cheer his heart as I have.  While he sleeps, I’ll carry some of my harvest into his field.”

At the same late-night hour, the other brother reasoned: “My brother has a large family, and his necessities are much greater than mine.  As he sleeps, I will put some of my harvest into his field.“  So, the two brothers went out, each carrying out his plan and each laden with harvest for the other and met… at the dividing line of their properties.  And there they embraced.  The legend says that years later, at that very place stood the temple in Jerusalem, and on the very spot of their meeting stood the temple’s altar.

Of course, that legend is meant to instill the virtue of self-sacrifice. It teaches the merits of placing the needs of others before your own; of seeking the welfare of your brother above yours. And that, of course, is the nature of what God did, in sending Jesus, our brother to the city of Jerusalem, to where the legendary brothers in the story met.

In today’s gospel, we read the story of Christ coming to Jerusalem, to the city where God meets man. It’s the place where sacrifice is made, like the brothers did for each other. It’s the place of atonement for sin. Now the context of what we read was Jesus entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. That’s not a time we normally associate with Christmas.

But remember we’re in Advent, the time of preparation for the coming of Jesus. And today is about the prophecy of Christ coming, as was promised, to do the work of salvation. That work was done at Jerusalem. But before that saving work was done at the end of the week that we read about, Jesus had come to Jerusalem many times before.

Jerusalem is the place where things that are absolutely core to our religion happened. But we don’t need to go there ourselves for our religion to be authentic. Our touchstone, the location of intersection between God and us is not the place where the core events happened. Yes, the place is significant, but it’s not what we need in order to worship – in order to meet God. The place of touching God, for us, has moved from Jerusalem. The place has shifted.

For us, that place of meeting God is now in the person of Jesus Christ. When Jesus came to Jerusalem, He entered as the sacrifice. He came as the Son of David, as the Lamb of God who’d come to take away the sin of the world.   He came to Jerusalem and He did that work on the cross, dying the innocent death in the place of sinful man. He came in fulfillment of the promises of God, the prophecies, as the candle on the Advent wreath reminds us of today.

And when Jesus left Jerusalem, He left it as the victor; the conqueror. He moved the place where we touch God from the stones and mortar of the temple… to the bread and blood of Himself. We don’t need to go to Jerusalem to be touched by God. That now happens for us through the person of Jesus Christ coming to us in Word, Baptism , and Holy Communion.

When you come and you take communion, you receive the fullness of the true body and blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself, by His word of promise, comes here and meets you! We don’t need to go to Jerusalem, Jerusalem has come to us.

And in Jesus coming to us, in Jerusalem coming to us, we’ve been given the power to freely live life in faithful service to the One who kept His promise to us and to the world. We then strive to keep our promises of faithful living and service and love to one another as Christ has kept His promise to us.

Most of us are familiar with the fate of the city of Pompeii on the Bay of Naples in Italy.  It was destroyed in 79 A.D. by a volcano.  The ruins of the city have been carefully excavated.  It’s clear that most people tried to flee the city during the volcanic eruption, but the hot poisonous gasses overcame everyone. At the city gate, however, excavators found the skeleton of one man who didn’t try to flee the eruption.  He was a Roman guard who remained at his post with both of his hands on his weapon. Even when the ground on which he stood trembled and shook and the fiery ashes descended on the city, he remained faithfully at his post.

We too remain faithfully at our post, faithful to the work the Lord Jesus has given us to do, even if the world shakes under our feet and goes to pieces around us.  When the Lord again keeps His promise, and again comes to earth, may He find us faithfully striving to do His will and to live lives faithful to the One who has made peace with God for all people.

Jerusalem, the city, has completed its role of the place where peace with God, for all people everywhere has been accomplished. Our brother, Jesus, has sacrificed Himself there for us. He came as the sacrifice. He left as the Victor and He moved the location of where we place our trust, from the city, to Him alone.

When Jesus ascended from this earth it was not from Jerusalem but from a different mountain. That’s hugely significant. It’s not that Jerusalem was no longer important but, as we said, its importance has been overshadowed by the cross. The cross where Jesus died transferred, if you will, the place of our faith. God’s promise has been fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ not in the place of Jerusalem.

Yes, Jerusalem still plays a part, but for us it now represents what Jesus has done. He is the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 that will return from heaven. Jerusalem has now been made perfect and complete and whole, because that is what Jesus has accomplished by coming… as prophesied and promised, fulfilling the work of the Lamb of God who came to Jerusalem to take away the sin of the world.

Remember we said that Jesus came to Jerusalem many times. Today He came as the sacrifice, yes. But before that, He came as the teacher during the three years of His earthly ministry.

He came before that to Jerusalem as a boy. Remember the boy-Jesus remaining behind in the temple after the family had gone up for Passover. Jesus, the boy, came to Jerusalem and to the temple to be, as He said, “in my father’s house.”

And Jesus also came to Jerusalem as an infant. He came on the 8^th day after His birth, brought there to the temple by Joseph and Mary, to be circumcised according to the law. And in doing that, by shedding His blood in circumcision they began Jesus’ process of fulfilling the law for us all that was finished by shedding His blood on the cross. Jesus completes all the stages of the law, beginning on the 8^th day after His arrival on earth that we are looking forward to celebrating when Advent ends and Christmas arrives.

Advent helps us to remember that Jesus kept God’s promise and came to earth, came to Jerusalem. He comes to us still through His promise to be with us in all the stages of our lives. He promises to come to us in word, water, bread and wine.

Remember the legend of the two brothers and the virtue of self-sacrifice. Remember the value of placing the needs of others before your own. Remember the faithful solder at his post and the importance of remaining faithful, just as Christ has been faithful to us. And that is what God did, in sending Jesus, our brother, to the city of Jerusalem.

That’s what Advent is for us, the reminder that God keeps His promises to come to us. That’s the significance of the prophecy candle we lit today.  It reminds that Jesus keeps all His promises.

Throughout all of our lives, God comes to us just as Jesus came to Jerusalem. We put our hope and faith in Him and we pray, maranatha, come again Lord Jesus, and come swiftly. Amen

Sermon #856 Rev. Thomas A. Rhodes, Pastor – Zion Lutheran Church, Bolivar, MO

First Reading                                                                                                                Isaiah 2:1-5         2 This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:

2^ In the last days

the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established     as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills,     and all nations will stream to it.

3^ Many peoples will come and say,

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,     to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways,     so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion,     the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4^ He will judge between the nations     and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares     and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation,     nor will they train for war anymore.

5^ Come, descendants of Jacob,     let us walk in the light of the Lord.

Epistle                                                                                                                         Romans 13:8-14

8^ Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9^ The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10^ Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

11 And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12^ The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13^ Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

Holy Gospel                                                                                                              Matthew 21:1-11                                                                                                        21 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2^ saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3^ If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”                                                     4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:                                              5^ “Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”                                                                                         6^ The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. 7^ They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. 8^ A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9^ The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,                                                                           “Hosanna to the Son of David!”                                                                                                 “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”                                                                 “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”                                                                                                  10^ When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”                  11 The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Nov 23, 2016 Thanksgiving Eve

A happy thanksgiving eve to all!

A doting grandmother, against her daughter’s better judgment or wishes, took the daughter’s little boy to the beach one day. Grandma thought to herself, I will take care of him—yes, she would! But in one unguarded moment the boy waded into the water, and the tide carried him out to the ocean and toward certain death. The grandmother prayed for a miracle.

Then a wave, greater than any she had ever seen, splashed across the sands, broke in front of her, and deposited the little boy safe and sound at her feet. Did the grandmother lift her voice in grateful thanks? No! Rather, lifting her angry eyes toward heaven, she hollered,  “OK, God, You brought my grandson back to me! But where’s the cap he was wearing?”

Have we ever blamed God for the lost ‘caps’ in our lives and at he same time failed to thank Him for the ‘little boys’ who were saved? This grandmother sounds like she could be one of the nine in tonight’s gospel lesson who didn’t come back to give thanks to Jesus for their healing from leprosy.

Like grandma, the 9 missed out on the blessing that comes from giving thanks to God. Oh true, she wanted the blessing of the returned grandson alright, but she wanted to dictate other blessing as well. Tonight’s gospel lesson is about the blessing upon blessing that comes to us because God chooses to give it. Not because we demand or presume upon it.

Listen again to verses 15-18. “One of them, when he was he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him – and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”

I know we talked about this guy and his 9 buddies last month, but tonight with thanksgiving being tomorrow, we need to look at this again from a bit different perspective. I think this foreigner, this Samaritan, who comes back to thank Jesus was a Lutheran. In fact, I’m rather sure he was Lutheran, don’t you? No, not because he returned to Jesus crying out in a loud voice… heavens, that would never do for a Lutheran! But it was because he returned to Jesus to give thanks.

The only reason he would’ve done this is if, after noticing he was healed, he’d asked himself the good Lutheran question that we all learned in catechism, “what does this mean?”. What does this cleansing mean; he must’ve asked himself. What does it mean that this man, Jesus, answered our cries for healing?

There’s only one answer to that; Jesus had to be the Son of the living God of heaven. That could be the only explanation. These 10 men all cried out, like the grandmother on the beach, for a miracle from God. And like grandma, they received it… simply… by… asking.

With His words, “Go and show yourselves to the priests” Jesus answered their prayer. Luther has said of this episode of Jesus, that ‘leprosy wasn’t a sin, but that it signified sin.’ That’s important to remember. Leprosy was… no… sin.

That’s not to say that this man wasn’t a sinner, but rather that neither Jesus nor this man attributed his having the disease to anything other than simply… having the disease!

And in that way, this man’s leprosy does represent sin. Sin is something we all have and have need to be cleansed of. And sin is the disease that Jesus cured, on the cross, for everyone… forever. Jesus spoke – and these 10 men were physically cured. Jesus healed, by His divine word of power, power that our ‘Lutheran’ Samaritan friend recognized as the power that could only be from God. This man realized that and returned to give glory to God.

In the same way, Jesus spoke our healing as He was dying on the cross. He spoke the words, “it is finished”. And those words are our healing from sin. With no less power than when He said, ‘go and show yourselves to the priests’, Jesus spoke our healing from sin as something fully completed as He did His healing work for us on the cross.

A friend of mine wrote, “In a world filled with a ‘fix yourself mentality’, Jesus is a refreshing truth. Some things you just can’t fix yourself! Jesus knows there’re things in our lives, things that we’ve done, and things that have been done to us, that we just can’t fix.”

That, of course, points to sin in our lives. We just can’t fix that ourselves. So Jesus comes to us with His healing and forgiveness and He acts before we even ask. He comes to us in the words of absolution saying, “You are forgiven…go in peace”. And with His words He sends us, like the lepers, on our way; restored.

The Samaritan got it, while the rest missed it. And since he did and returned thanks, he received this blessing that Jesus gave to just to him: “Rise and go. Your faith has made you well“. In returning to give thanks for the work of God’s healing in his life, the Samaritan received a blessing missed by the other 9. The guy who came back to say thanks, got blessed yet again. Even our giving thanks is an opportunity that God can use to bless us. Giving thanks is always a good thing.

A doctor decided to write and thank a boyhood schoolteacher for awakening in him a love for English poetry. Weeks later the woman wrote: “I want to let you know what your note meant to me. I am an old lady in my eighties, living alone in a small room, like the last leaf on a tree. I taught fifty years, yet in all that time yours is the first letter of appreciation I have ever received. It came on a blue, cold morning and cheered my lonely heart as nothing has in many years.”

From that time on until his death, the Dr. wrote thank-you notes to many people for the little things and many favors shown to him over the years.

Perhaps as you share thanks around your thanksgiving table tomorrow, you can come up with a few people from your life that you can write a note of appreciation to.

Remember our ‘Lutheran’ Samaritan friend returned to express appreciation for God giving him new life; a restored life that, up until then had been lost to disease. We too give thanks to God that our lives, lost to sin, have been restored by His gracious work and His powerful word of forgiveness.

My prayer for each of us is that, as we thank God tomorrow for His many blessings to us, that we would remember that our guilt has been cast aside in the shadow of the cross and that we would, like the Samaritan realize that only the power of God could accomplish that miracle. So, we too return thanks to Him and open our eyes to the further blessing of an even closer relationship with God that He longs for us know. In Jesus name, amen.

Sermon #855 Rev. Thomas A. Rhodes, Pastor – Zion Lutheran Church, Bolivar, MO

Old Testament                                                                         Deuteronomy 8:6-11 6 Observe the commands of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and revering him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land – a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; 8 a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; 9 a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.

10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.

Epistle                                                                                                      1 Timothy 2:1-4 1 I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone – 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

Holy Gospel                                                                                         Luke 17:11-19 11Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13andcalled out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

14When he saw them, he said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

15One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him – and he was a Samaritan.

17Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?

18Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

Nov 20, 2016 Paradise – It is about religion!

Associated Press –Nov 1st. 2010 BAGHDAD – Iraq’s dwindling Christian community was grieving and afraid on Monday after militants seized a Baghdad church during evening Mass, held the congregation hostage and triggered a raid by Iraqi security forces. The bloodbath left at least 52 people killed and 67 wounded — nearly everyone inside.

Outside Our Lady of Deliverance church, a Syrian Catholic church, a man leaned against the car carrying his cousin’s coffin, waiting for the police to let him bury him on church grounds. “It was a massacre in there.” he said Monday morning. “We Christians don’t have enough protection …”

A cryptically worded statement posted late Sunday on a militant website, allegedly by the Islamic State of Iraq, appeared to claim responsibility for the attack. The group, which is linked to al-Qaida in Iraq, said it would “exterminate Iraqi Christians” if (2 specific women in Egypt the group claims) as Muslim were not freed. (The women deny that they converted to Islam.)

In their message Sunday, the militants called on the Vatican, which held a meeting last month to discuss the fate of Christians in the Middle East, to release the women. “We direct our speech to the Vatican and say that as you met with Christians of the Mideast a few days ago to support them and back them, now you have to pressure them to release our sisters, otherwise death will reach you all,” it said.

Why do I read this 6 yr old news article on the last day of this church year? Because what we do here, why we gather each week of each year here, is important. It is about religion – what you believe about God to be true, will be reflected by how you act each day and in each circumstance.

Christians are told in this report the al-queda promise, that death will visit them, unless al-queda’s demands are met. Do the extremists not realize that we don’t fear death? Do you realize that you don’t fear death? The threat of death is nothing as compared to the threat of apostasy, which is the turning away from God and His promises and thereby a means to deny our religion. God said in the Old Testament lesson today, And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not. Those who do not serve God, who are apostate, do not have God’s promise for themselves. His promise of life is what we trust in. No human promise or threat of death can turn us from believing in God’s promise of life and redemption in Jesus Christ.

Like I said last week, that Sunday will be a memorable one. But again what makes it memorable are Jesus’ words, heaven and earth will pass away but my words will never pass away. That’s still true this week. His words of hope and promise, like He made today to the thief on the cross; those words of Jesus remain. “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

It is openly and publicly holding to the hope that we find in those words of Jesus, which has brought persecution and hardship to the Coptic Christians in Egypt, the Syrian catholic Christians in Iraq and Syria and to most all Christians everywhere in the Middle East. Such things should give us pause in our struggle with choices and the circumstances we each find ourselves in daily. Their realities give us some perspective on our troubles when we have these brothers and sisters literally under fire for the faith we share with them in the words of Jesus.

Do they fear death? Certainly they fear the dying process, as we all do since we know our own mortality. In the narrow sense it’s healthy to fear death. No one welcomes the pain or suffering that comes with it, especially when it takes the form of terrorism. By its very name terrorism is to be feared.

But in the wide sense, No. We Christians do not fear death for deaths sake. And that’s where the terrorists get it wrong. In their fear of the annihilation of their religion, they believe that we also fear annihilation. But we have the words of Jesus from last week and this week that remove that fear from us. In His words to the thief on the cross this week, Jesus speaks the words that promise us hope. Those words of Jesus assure the thief, and us, that we will be with Jesus in paradise.

Jesus is the heart of paradise for us because He is the resurrection and the life. And the promise of God is that all who believe in Jesus will never perish but have eternal life. Paradise is about religion

We do not perish as those who have chosen apostasy – the turning away from the words of Jesus.  ‘The posture of the Christian, is hope not realization’ (X2) so said a preacher friend of mine. We don’t expect to see the realization of paradise in our earthly life. Our ‘posture of hope’ is in the words of Jesus alone. In them we have life, not death. The words of Christ are words of life, of the truth that paradise, is being in Jesus’ presence in heaven.

I can say that because we trust in the God

who made the promise in the epistle lesson from Colossians For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Can we say that promise of peace through the blood of Jesus applies to those persecuted in Syria, Egypt and Iraq? Yes, but that doesn’t mean persecution is easy for them to bear, here’s the rest of the article:  On Monday, Iraqi authorities took extra measures to protect Christian neighborhoods and churches in Mosul, Kirkuk and Baghdad. “This is more than a tragedy,” said Iraq’s Human Rights minister, Wijdan Mikheil, who is a Christian. Choking back tears as she spoke with reporters outside Our Lady of Deliverance church, she said: “What is happening to Iraqis in general and Christians in particular is an attempt to push them out of the country…”

Karim Khalil, a 49-year-old Iraqi Christian, said he moved to Syria with his family last year because he felt his religion made him a target in Baghdad.

“Iraqi militias threatened me, saying I was on the side of the Americans because I am Christian,” Karim told the AP. “They said I would be killed if I stayed in Iraq.” Now he lives in Damascus with his wife and five children. “I have left behind my house and everything to escape with my family,” he said.

Many other Iraqi Christians living in Syria refused to speak to the Press. They said they fear militias may exact revenge on their families in Iraq.

Their persecution is a part of our world too. It impacts us because we are fellow believers with them by the words of Jesus. We can learn from them to persevere. We gain a sense of hope and even gratitude by praying for God’s care for His loved ones in the Middle East. We can support them by remaining faithful to the words of Christ that give us all a hope and a future.

That future is secure and safe with Jesus because He went to the cross willingly and died the death of a thief. And that’s because Jesus too is a thief. He came to rob Satan of his power over people to bind them under sin and to beat upon them with the law. Jesus is a thief after all. He came to steal away the hearts that Satan had bound under the penalty of sin… which is death. That’s why Jesus had to die between two thieves; He is the thief that steals away every heart who trusts in His word, as we do.

That word is what we gather together each Sunday and Wednesday to hear and to be refreshed in. We believe that His word alone will save us. We believe that in Him alone is hope and life. And because of Him and His words, our religion directs how we act according to His promise and not according to any pressures we face.

And though this is the last day of the church year and next week we being anew with advent and looking forward to Jesus’ second coming, we remember this day that no matter what comes our way, no matter what trials or struggles or persecutions are faced by Jesus’ followers  – through it all will remain the words of Jesus, which promise, as He said to His fellow thief, that we will be with Him in paradise. In Jesus name, amen.

Sermon #854 Rev. Thomas A. Rhodes, Pastor – Zion Lutheran Church, Bolivar, MO

First Reading                                                                      Malachi 3:13-18 13^ “You have spoken arrogantly against me,” says the Lord. “Yet you ask, ‘What have we said against you?’ 14^ “You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty? 15^ But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.’”

16^ Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name.

17 “On the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. 18^ And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.

Second Reading                                                                           Colossians 1:13-20 13^ For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14^ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17^ He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18^ And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19^ For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20^ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Holy Gospel                                                                                       Luke 23:27-43  27^ A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. 28^ Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. 29^ For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30^ Then

“‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!”     and to the hills, “Cover us!”’

31^ For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

32 Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. 33^ When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. 34^ Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

35^ The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

36^ The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar 37^ and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

38^ There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the jews.

39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 41^ We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Nov 13, 2016 – The Words of Jesus!

Today is going to be a day that this congregation long remembers. But why? What will we each remember about this day most? For some what may be remembered is the music. For some this day, may be remembered as the first day they’ve heard, really heard, the gospel and its message of freedom, grace and forgiveness in the blood of Jesus Christ. For others, this day may be the last time they ever hear the gospel before going home to heaven.

So, what will determine what you remember of this day? I suggest this. Let the last words of Jesus from the gospel lesson be remembered. Let those words ring in our ears throughout today and for always. Look on the front of your bulletin and say those words printed there with me please. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Heaven and earth will pass away Jesus said. And looking at the other scriptures today, along with the whole gospel lesson, we see lots of destruction and passing away talked about don’t we? In the Old Testament lesson God talks about bringing total destruction on the land. That’s truly frightening, that God, the creator would bring total destruction to His creation. That, that is something to fear.

But let’s go back to those words of Jesus. Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will never pass away. In Jesus’ words we find comfort, not fear. Though heaven, and all that we see and know of this earth will be destroyed, in Jesus’ words we have life and hope simply because they last. They endure. They triumph. Only Jesus’ words and His words alone are what we hope in.

And why is that? Because of the total destruction that Jesus Himself endured for our sakes. That’s what the cross of Christ was about, the total destruction of our sin / and our selfishness/ and our pride. And lest you think I’m talking in the abstract, this needs to be remembered by how we act with one another and speak with one another.

Jesus died the death we each deserved for our sin. And He did so willingly. He did that so that we might have the forgiveness we need to be restored to God in heaven above. That needs to be in our minds this day. Remember that what Jesus suffered for us was not in the abstract; but real, true, pain and death. This was for us so that what we read in psalms can also be taken not in the abstract but in truth.

Among other wonderful things, the psalm says, The Lord has made known His salvation; He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations. His salvation is our salvation in the gift that the Lord has made known to us by His word. Jesus died and rose again that we might live in the righteousness He won for us. That righteousness calls us to become more Christ-like. But how does that happen for us.

It comes by ‘creative destruction’. We – our sinful nature we’re born with – we are destroyed in the death of Christ in our baptism and we rise to a new life in Him just as He was resurrected from the dead. Think of it like a jeweler who cuts diamonds. In order for the beauty of the diamond to be exposed it undergoes a destructive process by the way a jeweler uses his hammer, chisel, and abrasive tools. Only through such destruction can the beauty be seen.

But how does that happen for each of us? It takes time to become the people God calls us each to be in this life. It takes God filing away the rough edges and smoothing out the harsh things in us and rebuilding us with the grace of Christ. That grace is the forgiveness won for us by Jesus on the cross.

A while back we had the joy of seeing Dana’s nephew Chris get married. When I do premarital counseling one of the key things I talk about is the glue that holds a marriage together. That glue is apologizing and forgiving. I like to talk about the fact that we have an endless supply of forgiveness because that is what Christ gives us. Forgiveness doesn’t come from what we do but what He has done. So the way to hold a marriage together is with the forgiveness that God supplies us with.

I bring this up because Satan always works to remind us of our sins in our marriages, in our other relationships and in our relationship with God. He’ll always try and turn us away from repentance and instead, remind us of our sin. I think I told you the story a while back of when Martin Luther had a vision of Satan coming to him and unrolling a scroll that showed Luther all his sins, and Luther began to quake in fear.

But then he remembered that in his baptism, all of his sins were covered under the blood of Christ. And Luther picking up an inkwell hurled it at Satan and shouted ‘Yes those are my sins, but you have forgotten that I’ve been baptized and all my sins have been washed clean in the blood of Jesus.’ The ink stains on the wall of the Wartburg castle are still there so I’m told.

I’m reminded by this story of a little-known song by Christian artist Nicole Nordeman. The song is called Rolling River God. And it has to do with baptism and new life and the smoothing of rough stones. I’m giving each of you a somewhat rough stone so that we can be reminded that it takes time to smooth away the edges and rough places in our life. The song lyrics say,

Little Stones are smooth – Only once the water passes through… So I am a stone, rough and grainy still. And the song goes on to say, I know that time brings change and change takes time. And toward the end of the song  she writes to God, my prayer would be just one, that you might pick me up and notice… that I am… just a little smoother in your hand. When you notice that I’m not as smooth as I should be or when others in our lives are still rough and not yet as smooth as we should be, I’d ask you to pick up this stone and rub it a little and be reminded that change takes time. We all need time to be smoothed out in the cleansing waters of the River of God as we all seek to be more Christ-like: We are still being shaped by the Master Jeweler.

Let us all remember this day – the glue that binds us together, that it’s the words of Jesus, His words of healing and hope, of renewal, restoration and / forgiveness that will forever remain. These are His words ringing in our ears that change us and make this day unforgettable, as we go, Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. In Jesus name, amen.

Sermon #853 Rev. Thomas A. Rhodes, Pastor – Zion Lutheran Church, Bolivar, MO

First Reading                                                                                            Malachi 4:1-6 4 “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. 2^ But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves. 3^ Then you will trample on the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty.

4^ “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel.

5^ “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”

Second Reading                                                              2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 6 In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers and sisters, to keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. 7^ For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, 8^ nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. 9^ We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate. 10^ For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”

11^ We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. 12^ Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat. 13^ And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good.

Holy Gospel                                                                                          Luke 21:20-33 20^ “When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. 21^ Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. 22^ For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. 23^ How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. 24 They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

25^ “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. 26^ People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. 27 At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28^ When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

29^ He told them this parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees. 30^ When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. 31^ Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.

32^ “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 33^ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

 

Nov 6, 2016 – Saints

Today is the Sunday we celebrate All Saints day. Now, that may sound pretty Roman Catholic to us Lutheran folk. But before we dismiss this too quickly, let’s think about what a saint is.

During family devotions, a father asked his children, “What is a saint?”  His little daughter remembered the beautiful stained glass windows in her church portraying Jesus and the Disciples.  She answered her father, “Saints are those people at church that the light shines through.”

She’s exactly right isn’t she? A saint is a person who lets the light shine through. Vs 4 of the hymn we just sang calls this to mind, we feebly struggle, they in glory shine! The light of God in Jesus Christ shines through those who’ve been redeemed by the blood of Christ. A saint is anyone in whom Christ now lives and who lets Christ’s light shine through him or her.  Christ provides the light. Remember that, we are not the light; we simply let His light shine through our lives out onto the dark world around us.

We so often restrict the meaning of saint almost beyond the bounds of scripture when we use the term only to refer to such dead Christians who once led exceptionally holy lives and / or performed miracles. The Bible speaks of all Christians as sanctified people – as saints. Saint Paul, for example, addresses the Corinthians:  “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints” (1 Corinthians 1:2 ).

Christians are saints despite the fact, the fact, that they’re still sinners. I’ve seen one list of the 5 Latin phrases every Lutheran should know. And again this week, look at your 500^th anniversary reformation coin if you have it and you’ve already got three of them there: sola scriptura, sola fide, sola gratia. And here’s a fourth, Simul iustus et peccator, literally it’s, ‘simultaneously justified and a sinner’. Another way to translate in a more memorable way is ‘at the same time sinner and saint’.

The word ‘saint’ comes from the Latin word sanctus, which means holy or sanctified or, and this one’s important, consecrated. Consecrated is that idea of; being set apart for specific use. So, a saint is one who is chosen by God for His use. That’s all. And that’s each of you.

In the reading from Revelation today it says, “Salvation belongs to our God!” You’ve not been set aside by your choice but because of God’s choosing you to be set apart for Him. The blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ accomplished that ‘setting apart’. Saints are saints, not because they’re sinless but because, by the blood of the Lamb, all their sin is forgiven. As such, God declares them just and holy in His sight. They are sanctified, set aside, and now lead a new life of faith in Christ.

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” Saint Paul teaches in 2 Corinthians 5:17. Saint Paul also urges those who are declared holy by faith, to serve God with holy works in every day of their lives. These are not works that save or redeem a person, but are done to express thanks and joyful obedience to God for His choosing you. Because the Holy Spirit has called us by the Gospel, enlightened us with His gifts, and given us faith, we too are saints.

One of the things we are called for, that we’re ‘set apart’ for, is telling others about Christ. We share Christ, so that others also may know that they are sinners, made saints – people who’re redeemed by the blood of the lamb. A saint is a person, just an ordinary person set aside by the extraordinary God of creation so that God’s light can shine through to others.

Blasé Pascal has been quoted as saying, ‘There are two kinds of people in the world: (1) saints, who know they are sinners, and (2) sinners, who arrogantly think they are saints.’ Saints are those who know that they’re sinners who need a Savior to take away their sins. And then there’re the sinners, who feel no need for a Savior from sin – they simply reject what God has said is true of them. The sinners who turn from God’s grace, are ignorant of the truth that they’re without hope. It is easy to want to reject what God has done because we think we’re pretty good on our own. It is dangerous to linger over such thoughts because that can lead us outside of God’s grace and into His judgment.

However, sinners who know they need a savoir find that salvation only in the name of Jesus Christ the Lamb of God. He has taken away the guilt of our sin. He has made us saints.

He has made us to be sinners and saints who know our need of a savoir. But saints in the classic sense are also known for what they do. We live the gospel in the community not because we’re so civic minded, but because in that way others can know that we’re no different than they are.

Saints are also known as the children of God. The epistle lesson today teaches this. The first verse of that lesson says, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”

Children are known to take after their parents. So, what does God do that we as His children take after? God loves; so we love. God acts; so we too act. We are called the children of God because of God’s love for us. We know that we are loved by God for what reason?

We know that God loves us because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. That work, that righteousness of Christ, is put on us in our baptism and marks us as God’s own children and saints. We are not of this world anymore; we’re not trying to look and act like the world. We’re the ones with the light of Jesus Christ.

But a saint, one who lets the light of God shine through them, does so by what they do. Ever heard of Saint Ambrose? If you look at hymn number 332, that hymn was written by Saint Ambrose in the late 300’s! The late 300’s! And we still sing it today usually around advent, which is coming soon. It’s a beautiful hymn of praise to the Son of God, coming into this world to live and die and rise again to make saints. Ambrose let the light of God shine through in his life. But what do you know about Ambrose?

Before he became bishop of Milan he worked in the government. He was a roman prefect, a governor of sorts. This guy, whose hymn is in our hymnal, was a government employee some 1800 years ago! Saint Ambrose was well schooled and he was brought up in a Christian home, but he served the public good before he became a bishop.

Saints do their work on earth with a heavenly purpose (X2). Saints do what they do for the sake of God’s love. They are simply people, regular people, who are acting on the faith God has gifted to them and in that way, they let God’s light shine through them.

Let me tell you about someone else who many people today consider a saint because of what she did. Mother Theresa. A reporter once watched Mother Teresa bind the disgusting wounds of a leper. He whispered to another reporter, “I wouldn’t do that for all the money in the world!” Mother Teresa’s hearing was better than he thought. She whispered to the reporter: “Neither would I!” She was willing to do this ‘disgusting thing’ for the Lord who has so dearly loved her. Through her also, shone the love of God.

What about us here? We’re also living out the gospel; with the love, with which God has first served us. Today, we have communion served to us. It is God who comes and serves us with His forgiveness and restoration in this holy meal. And as we receive that meal, we proclaim that God’s Son, Jesus, has died on the cross for us and shed His blood to redeem us. That’s the love that God has showed us. And that’s the love that shines through us to our community, friends and family.

I want you to take this piece of paper home with you. If you’ll cut off the bottom portion and then overlap the sides and tape them together, you can put a votive candle in a glass in the bottom and let the light shine through the people at the Last Supper where Jesus instituted Holy Communion. Like the little girl said to her daddy, saints are those the light shines through. We come to communion and receive again the refreshment and nourishment for our souls that renews the light of God in us.

We believe that God has drawn us together at Zion Lutheran Church to be Hearing, Sharing and Living the Gospel – to let His light shine through each of us. What form that takes for each of you I can’t tell you, but I can tell you that His light will shine through each one of you.

Remember we are ‘at the same time sinner and saint’. After all as we come to confession and communion we know we leave here forgiven of our sin and made saints by the light of His love. That light goes with you, the saints of God, wherever you go. It’s just who you are. In Jesus name, Amen.

Sermon #852 Rev. Thomas A. Rhodes, Pastor – Zion Lutheran Church, Bolivar, MO

First Reading                                                                                   Revelation 7:9-17 9 After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

11 All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12^ saying:

“Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!”

13 Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?”

14^ I answered, “Sir, you know.”

And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15^ Therefore,

“they are before the throne of God     and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne     will shelter them with his presence. 16 ‘Never again will they hunger;     never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat down on them,’     nor any scorching heat. 17 For the Lamb at the center of the throne     will be their shepherd; ‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’     ‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”

Epistle                                                                                          1 John 3:1-3         3 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

Holy Gospel                                                                Matthew 5:1-12             5 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2^ and he began to teach them.                                                                                      He said:                                                                                                                                     3^ “Blessed are the poor in spirit,     for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4^ Blessed are those who mourn,     for they will be comforted. 5^ Blessed are the meek,     for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,     for they will be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful,     for they will be shown mercy. 8^ Blessed are the pure in heart,     for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers,     for they will be called children of God. 10^ Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,     for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.^{                                                                                                                                                 Â} 

11“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12^ Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

 

Oct 30, 2016 – Reformation!

Today is Reformation Sunday, and in that spirit, I’m going to ‘reform’ my usual practice of preaching strictly from the text of today’s readings. Rest assured I am going to be preaching from scripture, just not the assigned readings only is all. And if that’s not a daring enough overhaul, I’m also going to draw our focus to the reformation using the closing hymn, which is A Mighty Fortress is Our God; Luther’s great anthem of the reformation.

The reformation is not dead history that’s over and done with – The reformation is a daily clash we’re involved in; and if it’s not that, then we’re not Christians.

That might sound a little radical, but that’s what re-formation is. It is a radical thing. And it certainly wasn’t what Luther set out to do 499 years ago this week. He set out, by pounding those 95 theses on the door of the castle church at Wittenberg, to correct the abuses that had arisen in the Roman Catholic Church in that area of Germany. But what came of his pounding on that church door is the radical movement that reverberates down to this very day, which battles against unbelief in this world and in each of our hearts.

The reformation is dead only if we see it as a past thing in history, and not something ongoing in our lives. Luther wrote his hymn, A Mighty Fortress, in about the year 1527 or 28, we can’t say for certain. But for certain by that time, Lutheranism had taken on a life separate from the Catholic Church. Luther draws his themes for A Mighty Fortress from Psalm 46. Listen to selected parts of that psalm:

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear… The nations rage… The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress… He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire. Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth! The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”

That last line, of course, leads us into the hymn and when you sing this hymn you will hear some of the themes from this psalm in there.

Now, the 1st verse of a mighty fortress is commonly misunderstood. You can often hear it being sung with such gusto that it seems people think they’re singing about Christ when in fact that line is about Satan. Listen to those words.

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing; Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing: For still our ancient foe (or satanic foe in some translations) doth seek to work us woe; His (Satan’s) craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate, On earth is not his (Satan’s) equal.

Satan is who’s defeated as we continue on with the other verses. Always remember to never stop singing at just the first verse otherwise it’s the devil and not Christ who is being praised. Also in that first line, as we’ve noted, it says that the devil has no equal on this earth. And that is true. We have no power in ourselves to defeat him. Look at our own situation today. We have death, destruction and despair if not in our own lives, it’s all around us. And that’s what Satan brings. And, according to the hymn, we are not his equal. He is the one who, in the psalms, rages against God and brings wars on the earth.

Then in the second verse we’re told that we have no strength in ourselves to fight Satan but that God Himself has sent a champion to fight. And that champion is Christ Jesus, mighty Lord who died on the cross to defeat the tyrant, and rose again in victory over sin, death, and devil. He is the sure victor. And this again recalls from the psalm, the image from verse 7 of the God of Jacob who is the fortress that does not fail.

If we see reformation as only history, we miss that God’s story continues through scripture down to today through people like Luther, Chemnitz, Walther, Meyer, Meier, and Rast. It’s the truth of God revealed in scripture that both set Martin free and bound him at the same time. He was set free from the fear of an angry God that he had been raised to understand was vengeful and capricious. And yet he was bound to the very word of God that set him free to understand that grace is by faith alone. And that his justification before God was by that grace of God alone. As its says in the reading from today in Romans But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

It was that truth, that God has granted by grace through faith alone, the righteousness of Christ that is in fact our fortress. That’s what allowed Luther to accomplish and do all that history records about him. That’s true for us as well.

We’re also set free and we’re also bound. Luther says that in battle we’ll engage and that the devil’s might is doomed to fail because of one little word. And that Word is the word of God who is Christ who forever shall abide. We are bound to that Word as soldiers engaged in battle.

When we understand the reformation as a battle that we are daily engaged in, though the outcome is certain, our whole life becomes one of reformation. Re-formation is what happens to us by the righteousness of Christ granted to us by grace through faith alone. We are changed from what we were, enemies of God, to what we are now, Christians in God’s army – in God’s service. Re- form-ation is what God does to us and by His word He forms us into Christians. That’s why I said at the outset; The reformation is not dead history that’s over and done with – it’s a daily clash we’re involved in; and if it’s not that, then we aren’t Christians.

In verse 3 of the hymn Luther tells us ‘let this world’s tyrant rage, in battle we’ll engage.’ Daily we fight against the tyrant, which is, among other things, the sin that never lets us alone so we can enjoy God’s victory and peace here and now. Our peace is not of this earth anyway, it’s in the heavenly city of God, that is the new fortress that is ours by faith.

We sing that Satan’s defeat is sure, but the battle for us continues. The battle is not to bring about a new victory, the psalm says in verse 9 that it is God that breaks the bow, shatters the spear and burns the chariots. The victory is God’s and He grants that to us.

The battle for us daily is over who is God in our lives; us or Him. Verse 10 of psalm 46 reads, be still and know I am God, (which means you and I are not!) Verse 3 of the hymn again says the tyrant rages, but we tremble not, un-moved we stand – the tyrant brings the battle to us and yet he is doomed to fail because God’s word subdues him and God’s word is ours in Christ who is the Word.

The word of God is what defeats the tyrant of ignorance, fear and sin, because the Word is Christ. The word is the gospel which had been hidden from the people in Luther’s day. So the question for us is, what or who is the tyrant today?

And for us living where we do and when we do some 499 years after Luther, the tyrant is disbelief, unbelief and belief in self as the ultimate authority. No longer do we think we answer to God. God must now meet our standards. We have become the tyrant when we place ourselves above the Word.

And that is what we, our friends and neighbors face as, this tyrant of self keeps hidden the comfort of the gospel. That is what battles against re-form-ation in peoples’ lives. And we have the word that Luther put in our hands, the gospel, that must get into our lives and those of our family and friends. We all need that fortress of comfort just as Luther wrote about.

And in the final verse of the hymn, we sing that God’s word will forever stand, no matter who opposes it. No matter what is stripped away from us externally nothing can defeat God and His word. That is the message we take from here today and engage the enemy that rages against us and our friends and loved ones.

We have been given God’s word. God, through using this one monk, Luther, has seen to it that the gospel is withheld no more by outside, external forces. Remember, the reformation’s not dead history that’s over and done with – The reformation’s a daily clash we’re involved in.

Our orders for battle from verse 4 are to be prepared as God fights by our side with spiritual weapons that cannot fail. Let’s go from here and see what God’s word, that we get to spread to others, will do and watch Him subdue the tyrant as He has accomplished the victory in the cross of Jesus Christ. We go forward reformed and renewed in that word, Who is Jesus Christ, In His name, amen.

Sermon #851 Rev. Thomas A. Rhodes, Pastor – Zion Lutheran Church, Bolivar, MO

First Reading Revelation 14:6-7 (Fear God and give Him glory)
6^ Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language and people. 7^ He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

Psalm – Psalm 46, antiphon: v.7

Pastor:  The Lord of hosts is with us;

the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Lectern side:  God is our refuge and strength,

Pulpit side:  a very present help in trouble.

Lectern side:  Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,

Pulpit side:  though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,

 Lectern side:  though its waters roar and foam,

Pulpit side:  though the mountains tremble at its swelling.

All:      The Lord of hosts is with us;

 the God of Jacob is our fortress.

 Lectern side:  There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,

Pulpit side:  the holy habitation of the Most High.

Lectern side:  God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;

Pulpit side:  God will help her when morning dawns.

 Lectern side: The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;

Pulpit side:  He utters His voice, the earth melts.

All:      The Lord of hosts is with us;

 the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Lectern side:  Come, behold the works of the Lord,

Pulpit side:  how He has brought desolations on the earth.

 Lectern side:  He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;

Pulpit side:  He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;

He burns the chariots with fire.

 Lectern side:  “Be still, and know that I am God.

Pulpit side:  I will be exalted among the nations,

                    I will be exalted in the earth!”

All:      The Lord of hosts is with us;

             the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Pastor:  Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit;

All:      as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

The Lord of hosts is with us;

                the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Epistle                                                                                                Romans 3:19-28 19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. 28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.

Holy Gospel  John 8:31-36
 31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”  34 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.