Thanksgiving Day 2016

Thanksgiving Eve & Day

November 23-24, 2016

St. Luke 17:11-19

We are not here tonight to learn good manners. If thanksgiving is merely a day to say a polite "Thank You" for the things we have been given, then we could just email in a Thank You Note to church saying: "Dear God, thank you for the nice sweater and the new video game and all that stuff."

Of course we should thank God and give Him glory for even the smallest little gifts He gives us such as each breath and every heartbeat all the way up to the biggest gifts He gives us: His Son and the forgiveness of sins. But what does it mean to be thankful?

To be thankful is to have faith. To be thankful to the Lord is to do as the Samaritan did: come back for more. Be where Jesus is. Believe and trust that Jesus is the only one who can and will take care of us. To put it another way: Being truly thankful to our Lord isn't about being polite. It's about clinging to Jesus because only our Lord will take care of us and save us and give us everlasting life.

I suppose that band of lepers is pretty typical of most people. They want something from God. They get something from God and then they don't need Him anymore until the next thing goes wrong. You know how it is: When everything's going well and you're healthy and have a job and your marriage is fine and your kids are doing well and there's money in the bank—when all that's going on, you don't really need the Lord. But when trouble comes, or you get sick, or financial trouble hits—then suddenly its time to make deals with the Lord. To suddenly start praying a whole bunch. You might even start feeling guilty that you're having problems precisely because you weren't doing those things faithfully. That's Nine Lepers thinking! Repent! The nine lepers had a nasty, gross skin disease. They needed Jesus to heal them. So He did and then they were done with Him. They got what they wanted and until the next bad thing happens they won't come looking for Jesus.

But the Samaritan, as soon as he realized he was clean, cured of his leprosy, ran back to Jesus. Why? That's faith. Faith says, "Jesus healed me”. The Samaritan learns and knows that the only guy who can help him is Jesus. Jesus gives healing. Jesus gives life. Where Jesus is, there is life. The Samaritan knows that Jesus has more gifts. He clings to Jesus. That's true gratitude, true thankfulness: to receive the gifts of Christ and expect that He has more for you.

Ten lepers were healed. But only one was saved. "Go, your faith has saved you," Jesus tells the Samaritan. What happened to the other nine? I don't know. All I know is that the Samaritan was saved because Jesus said so. What is the faith that saved Him? Jesus. Jesus is telling Him: You asked me for help and I healed you. And you have learned by the Holy Spirit to come back and expect everything good from me."

That's your salvation too, to to be where Jesus is and to glorify Him by receiving His good gifts. So be thankful! Come to hear His Word preached. Come to the font and remember you ARE baptized. Come to the feast as often as you can. Live as the Catechism teaches, that is, run to the Lord and spread wide your blanket or cloak so you can receive every good gift in Jesus. In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Parable of the Ten Virgins

The Last Sunday in the Church Year

November 20, 2016

St. Matthew 25:1-13

Grace and mercy to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I know that on a Sunday morning it’s hard sometimes to keep your eyes open during a sermon! I find that when I read God’s Word, often my mind drifts to other things and my eyelids can be heavy. We fall asleep so easily and yet the Lord tells us to be ready and watching for Him? We could never do it! Even the bridesmaids can’t keep their eyes open. They fall asleep. Well WAKE UP! The Bridegroom is going to be here! Jesus is returning soon. The difference between the wise virgins and the foolish ones isn’t that the foolish ones fell asleep and the wise ones stayed awake. It’s that the wise ones had oil for their lamps. 

Well, what’s the oil? What is it you need to be ready when the Bridegroom comes? The oil is the Holy Spirit. The Word. Faith in Jesus. In the Bible lamps were lit with oil and oil was put upon people to anoint them as God’s chosen ones. Oil was made from olives which were pressed and crushed. Think of our Lord on the cross, crushed by our sins. Pressed under the weight of God’s wrath and judgment. Squeezed by our sins until there was no life left in Him. Squeeze until the water and blood of the holy sacraments poured out of Him. 

That oil, as it were, is given to us in our lamps. It is given us by the Holy Spirit who fills up our lamps in Holy Baptism and every time we eat and drink Christ’s Body and Blood. Oil is poured for our lamps as we hear God’s Word and the preaching of the Gospel. The thing about the oil is that it is the Bridegroom Himself who has prepared us for His return by giving us the oil! We don’t even have to go get it. He gives it to us. The Bridegroom Himself makes us ready to receive Him when He comes on the last day. Even if you fall asleep, that is, even when you die, the oil makes you ready for the day the trumpet sounds and Christ returns in all His glory. You, brothers and sisters in Christ, are ready. Water. Word. Body. Blood. Oil stocked up. Ready to go when the shout goes out!

So what about those foolish virgins? They aren’t ready. The don’t have oil. They thought they didn’t have to go and hear God’s Word. They didn’t need to come and eat and drink Christ’s body and blood. They didn’t have to learn the Scriptures and have Christ fill their vessels with oil. In this life they despised the Word and Baptism and the Supper. They figured that when Jesus comes back, they’d be in just because they had good intentions or they were nice people or they lived good lives or had their name on a church’s rolls. But there was no oil. No faith. No Word. No Holy Spirit. They THOUGHT they were fine but on the Last Day they’ll be running around trying to get some oil and there won’t be any more. For when the Lord comes on that Last Day, there will be no more time for preaching and hearing God’s Word. And the foolish ones will beat on the door of the wedding hall and be told, “I don’t know who you are!” There’s a warning there for whenever we are tempted to despise Christ’s Word and gifts!

But you, dear pure and wise virgins, you are ready. Your oil is stocked up because you are stocked up with Jesus. With His Word. Your Baptism. His Body and Blood. His forgiveness. Our Lord is coming and He WILL be here soon! But you’re ready. You’re ready because the Bridegroom has made you ready and wise. Oh sure, you may drift off during a sermon here and there and we may close our eyes in death for a time. But when the Lord arrives, that shout is going to wake us up! And we’re going to be full of joy and gladness that now Christ has come for us. And He’s going to gather us up and bring us to His eternal wedding feast. The End is near! Come quickly, Lord Jesus! For you are made ready by Jesus. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Lutheran Reformation

October 30, 2016

St. John 8:31-36

It doesn’t matter to God how bad you are. Jesus died for your sins. All of them. Even if you are the worst sinner, the most vile, wretched, messed up, God-hating, neighbor-despising sinner ever it doesn’t matter. Nothing you have thought, said, or done is beyond the redemption of Jesus’ blood. Now, that’s Good News! That no matter what sins you’ve committed, no matter how sinful you really are, Jesus died for you. But here’s some more good news. And this may come as a shock. And, in fact, this is the real awesome good news that Martin Luther and the Reformation brought to light. Ready? Here it is. It doesn’t matter to God how good you are either! That’s good news because even if we can say the right words that we don’t earn our way to heaven by being good, our Old Adam still believes God will like you better if you’re good. If you’re well-behaved, God won’t let bad things happen to you. When I do nice things, that makes God happy with me. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let me say this as clear as possible. Jesus forgives all your sins. AND He forgives all your good works, too! He forgives you for thinking that when you do something good, that makes you a good person. It all comes down to this. Your goodness or badness isn’t about you. It’s about this one thing: are you in Christ or not? Outside of and apart from Jesus, there is nothing in you but sin, death, and the wrath and judgment of God. In Christ, where His Word has declared you forgiven, there is nothing in you but righteousness, innocence and blessedness. 

This is what the Jews who believed in Jesus didn’t get. And it’s the thing we miss too. They refused to believe they were slaves of sin. If you sin, you’re a slave of sin. Jesus sets us free. But sin isn’t just doing bad things. It’s also thinking your good things are all that great and make you a good person. We tend to think of sin in terms of doing bad and evil and wicked things. True enough. But our real demonstration of unbelief is thinking that any good things we do balance out the bad. That thinking we’re not people who actually deserve eternal death and judgment for how we like to parade our self-righteousness for the world. But Jesus tells them plainly. If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. So He does. By His death for you. You want to know who’s really good? Jesus. Perfect even. Spotless and without blemish. Sinless. You want to know who’s bad? Really bad? Worst sinner ever? Jesus! Because all the sins of the world are His, carried to Calvary. Bled and died for. It is by that payment for sin and the defeat of death by rising on Easter that the Son sets you free from the slavery of sin. Slavery to sin means being unable to stop sinning. It means being worried about how bad your sins are. It means thinking your good is good enough. The death and resurrection of Jesus clears all that away and sets you free. Once and for all and forever free. 

Now, the HOW of your being set free is the other big deal of which the Lutheran Reformation reminded us. It doesn’t matter to God how good or bad you are but that you are in Christ. So how do we know whether we are in Christ? Well, we don’t believe our sins because those might lead us to conclude that we’re nothing but toast! On the other hand, we don’t believe our good works either. Those might persuade us that we’re pretty good people who don’t really actually need Jesus that much. So how do we know? How do you know you are free? How do you know the Son has set you free and made you one of the family? His promises. The promise made at the font by water and the Spirit. The promise made when the pastor Jesus called absolves you. The promise made when Jesus gives you His body and blood to eat. The promise of “for the forgiveness of your sins.” These gifts, water, word, body and blood—these gifts tell you what God has to say. Your goodness or badness doesn’t matter. What matters is Jesus. What Jesus did. What Jesus gives. 

Now, I said that it doesn’t matter to God how bad or good you are. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter. It matters very much to your neighbor. Loving or not loving your parents or spouse or the people around you doesn’t make God angrier or happier with you. But it matters to your parents or spouse or the people around you! So there needs to be one more bit of good news for you today on that front. That too, your good works, is Jesus living in and through you. The Holy Spirit dwells in you. He works through you to love and care for others. You could pause and wonder how you love and care for others. But then you would either say, “I don’t do a very good job” or “yeah, I’m pretty good at that.” See the trap? Making it all about you again. Jesus loves others perfectly in you. And you, in Jesus, love others perfectly. You keep the commandments by being in Christ who keeps them always. So there you go. Your salvation. The delivery of your salvation. The life of love toward others. This is all Jesus. This really is what Jesus means when He says He sets you free. Free from worrying, calculating and measuring. Free from wondering “how bad?” or “how good?” Free from sin and its curse. For He is the Son. And He has set you free. And therefore, you are free indeed. In the Name of Jesus. Amen. 

As We Forgive Others

Twenty-Second Sunday after Holy Trinity

Text: Matthew 18:21-35

Grace and mercy to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ (Amen) 

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. . .We all have those fifty-seven words of the Lord's Prayer memorized, but they are always worthy of some slow reflection. Today reflect on this petition:  Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. 

          Does that stick in your craw a bit?  As we forgive others.  Do you hold a grudge and refuse to forgive? Do you say you will forgive but not forget? Is this the sort of forgiveness you want from God? Repent.

          Jesus today tells a parable of a man who had gotten himself into ten thousand talents worth of debt to his master.  With one talent you could retire comfortably.  This man is in debt 10,000 retirement packages.  This man is in debt well over a billion dollars.  No slave could repay this: so he was to be sold into slavery along with his family as a proper sacrifice to settle his account with the master.

          What did he have to do but weep and beg? So he fell to his knees and did just that. And in his blathering he muttered, "Be patient with me and I will pay back everything."  Now that was just a silly thing to say.  The servant had lost the 10,000 talents of silver which were the master's; he had no way of getting it back.  But the master had pity and showed mercy. The debt was canceled. The servant went free.

          As it was with this debt laden servant, so it is with you. You owed a debt to God that you could not repay. Your sins earned the penalty of death and damnation. Do not let those words roll off your ears: do not think sin a light thing. For you know how sin had to be atoned for: look to the cross and see how seriously God takes sin. There was no other way to pay for it except for Jesus, God in the flesh, to suffer and die for it. That is the mercy of God: he himself paid the debt, just like the master paid debt the 10,000 talents of silver to free his servant in this parable. The Lord paid it in full, he paid it in blood, he paid it on the cross. And you too are forgiven and free.

          And so the servant goes on his way, forgiven and free with a spring in his step.  But on his way home he spotted a fellow man who owed him a hundred denarii.  The servant grabs the man and demands that he pay him back this debt. The debtor begs for mercy, for patience and he would pay it back, but our servant throws him in debtors' prison until the money can be paid.

         He had just been forgiven north of a billion dollars and minutes later he didn't have the common sense to forgive a guy who owed him but a hundred denarii!  But before you look down on him too sharply, make sure you know what a debt of 100 denarii means. A denarius is a days wage as Jesus tells us in Matthew 20.  So a hundred denarii is not a few bucks, but a hundred days' wages: a fourth of a year's pay.

          So how can the debt free servant afford to forgive this debt? He has no debt but he also has no money to pay his bills.  Can you afford to just give up a third of a year's salary? Don't you have a mortgage to pay? Don't you have a few outstanding doctor bills?  Don't you have to heat your house this winter? You can't give up a third of your earnings!  Impossible! The debt free servant needs cash.

          So the servant does just what any reasonable person would do, thinking about the best interest of his family and their financial security he tells the guy who owes him the cash that he has to pay up. If he can't he'll have him tossed into jail so he can get his money back.  But the master hears about this and is not pleased. He says, "Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had mercy on you." And he turned him over to the jailers to be tortured until he had paid his original 10,000 talent/billion dollar debt – that is, for the rest of his life. Thus endeth the parable. And Jesus remarks, "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."  Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

          Not little trespasses either: we're not talking about forgiving someone who cut you off in traffic on your way to work. That's easy enough, after all it's only reasonable to forgive such little debts. But what about big debts where forgiveness would just be unreasonable?  What about your father who was a drunk?  What about your husband or wife who ran off with somebody else? What about that jerk of a boss at work who makes your life miserable? What about that gal at the office who stole your idea and got the promotion? What about that kid at school who is constantly bullying you? What about how your children treat you now that you are old? What about whatever is in your heart right now that you can't let go of? What about that thing about which you've said, "Well, I can forgive but I can't forget"? Because you see, that isn't forgiving your brother – and you know it in your heart.

          Well, "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."  Now how does that petition strike you?

          Repent, beloved. You are saved by God's grace alone, through faith in Jesus Christ alone: your debt went far beyond a mere billion dollars, it was an eternal debt. But Jesus died for your sins and rose for your salvation and that's the end of the story. Trust in him and you too shall be saved. But what Jesus is saying in this parable is that saving faith cannot coexist with an unforgiving heart; faith cannot coexist with willful sin.

          So what we have here today is a kind of spiritual alarm bell.  Jesus reminds you every time you pray the Lord's Prayer that those who have faith forgive as the Lord forgives. If you look into your heart today and see that there is some grudge, some debt, that you hold on to, that you want to hold on to, that you cherish and feed and keep healthy by constantly remembering it and keeping it before your eyes and talking about it with whomever will listen, then today's text is a solemn alarm for you, WARNING: YOUR FAITH IS NOT HEALTHY.  If you continue to feed this feeling of unforgiveness in your heart it will eventually eat up your faith. Your faith in Christ will be lost in a sea of hatred - crushed by a rock of unmovable unforgiveness.

          So what to do if you find this warning touching home to you today?  If you are convicted by our Lord's warning today, beware for your greatest temptation is just coming. Because now your greatest temptation will be to try harder to forgive. You will try to will yourself into forgiving the truly wicked things people have done to you (remember we're not talking about petty little debts, but real, meaty, hard-to-forget, wicked sins people have committed against you).  If you try to try harder to be a forgiving person you will fail. You will succumb to your hatred and unforgiveness even more because you will be thinking of it even more. You will begin to feel that old feeling of spite and you will try to say, "No I should be forgiving! If I'm not then God won't forgive me!" And you will brood about how to forgive this wrong done you and only find yourself spending even more time each day wallowing in the thought of that wrong. And your faith will die all the quicker.

          If trying harder to be a forgiving person won't work, what will?  Look to Jesus Christ who has forgiven every debt that can be incurred – in him is the way out, in him is life. If you keep a debt close to your heart, turn your eyes away from it, away from yourself, away from your inability to forgive and cast your eyes on Christ.  He is there on the cross earning forgiveness for you and for your neighbor. Look to him, focus on him, hold on to him and in time your faith will grow. In time his Spirit will change your heart. First you will actually desire to forgive as you have been forgiven. Then, in time, perhaps more time that you have left on earth, but in time, you will actually forgive from your heart.   Look toJesus. If you feel frightened that you are not a forgiving enough person to be saved, then forget about yourself and look to Jesus.  If you are afraid you have lost your faith and are damned, forget about your faith and cling to Christ.  If your faith is weak come where forgiveness and the power to forgive is given out, leave your burdens in the pew and come and eat his body given for the forgiveness of sins and drink the blood poured out for your salvation. The line starts right there.