Funeral of Esther von Hagel

We gather together today to mourn the loss of Esther von Hagel and to hear the good news of Jesus Christ for all who are called according to his promises and believe in his name.

I know that today is a day of sorrow, a day for saying goodbye to one who is dearly loved.  To read a psalm like Psalm 100 might seem out of place with its call to sing joyfully.  How can we joyfully sing on a day such as today when death has done its terrible work and one whom we love can no longer be with us?  Surely it is not easy for us.  But I chose this scripture with Esther in mind, with her being in particular being the one to sing.  

During our visits together at Brentwood, Esther and I would often sings hymns.  Or rather, I would sing and she would join in by appreciating the words and remembering the melodies.  She would always hasten to explain to me, “I would so dearly love to sing.  I would love to sing.  But I just don’t have the breath.  I just don’t have the breath, pastor.” 

“Esther,” I would say, “I’ll do the singing for today, but don't you worry.  You will have plenty of breath.  When you die and are raised again with a new and perfect body, you will have your voice again.  For you to not sing is only for a short time.  But the time will come when you will sing, and it will be sweet music indeed, because you will be singing your savior’s praise in his very presence, face to face."  

Esther liked to be reminded of this.  She liked to be reminded of the promises that God had given to her.  Esther liked to be reminded that God had chosen her.  She liked to hear the promise of Communion that Jesus Christ had died for her sins.  The Bible says that faith comes by hearing, and Esther loved to hear all of these things because they strengthened the faith that she had been given.  

Now one might ask on what basis I was so willing to repeat these promises to her so extravagantly.  Was is because of her exemplary qualities or her great goodness of life?  No.  “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”  Was it because of particular actions that she had taken?  No, for it is written, “by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not the result of works.”  Was it because of her intellectual assent to a list of things that must be believed?  No, the thoughts of God are far too much for us to understand; who can count the sum of them?  Nor was it that she had undergone some spiritual experience.

Faith is none of those things.  Faith is hearing the promise of God over and over again and being grasped by it.  Esther first heard that promise in baptism.  And we have heard that promise this morning.  The Apostle Paul writes that in baptism we are joined to Christ's death so that we might also be joined to his life.  That is a promise that depends not on us, but on God himself.  That is the point of a promise.  It depends not on us, but on the one who gives the promise.  I was pleased to deliver these promises to Esther over and over again because they did not depend on her at all, nor did they depend on me.  They depended only on the one who had given them, God himself.

And those who hear these promises are enabled to confess the words of Psalm 100: "Know that the Lord, he is God!  It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture."  It is by hearing what God has to say to us, over and over again, that we are able to make a joyful noise in his presence, that we are enabled to come into his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.  It is because we have heard that we are able to say, "For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever."  And so by hearing, Esther looked forward to the day when she would have all the breath she needed to proclaim the praises of her Lord Jesus Christ, who died and was raised so that she might have life, so that she might be able to sing again.  Amen.

Baptism of Our Lord - January 8, 2012

There is a question that I had earlier this week about the gospel lesson.  Why is Jesus getting baptized?  It is a topic about which we could talk for a good long while.  As I did some reading on the matter, I ran across this quote, “The Baptism of Jesus Christ is one of the most carefully examined and extensively interpreted events in the New Testament.” 

Yes, we could talk about it for a long while.  But that isn’t what I want to do.  I’m just curious about this one thing: How is the baptism of Jesus like our baptism?

This is what the catechism says about baptism, “In Baptism God forgives sin, delivers from death and the devil, and gives everlasting salvation to all who believe what he has promised.”  So according to the teaching of the church baptism is about delivering us from three things: sin, death and the devil.

Now that makes perfect sense for us.  We sin, we are going to die, the Devil plagues this world with his wickedness and can make our lives very difficult.  It makes sense for us to get baptized because we need it so badly.  But Jesus was without sin.  Why does he need it? 

Maybe Jesus is just doing it because it is something that he knew that all of us would have done to us and it’s a way of relating to us, of being like us.  I suppose this is possible.  But it doesn’t sound like a great explanation to me. 

Another thought which occurred to me is has to do with what the Gospel of Matthew says about the baptism.  John the Baptist basically notices what we are noticing this morning, that it doesn’t seem to make much sense to baptize Jesus.  And then Jesus says to do it anyway “to fulfill all righteousness.”  When I hear that, it makes it sound like baptism is some kind of rule that you have to follow.  And even Jesus had to follow it.  But that just can’t be right, because baptism is about good news, about God giving something to us, not about us following some kind of law.  So if that’s why Jesus got baptized, that’s not anything like our baptisms.

The second lesson points out that maybe it’s a different kind of baptism altogether.  Jesus is being baptized with the baptism of John, and we are baptized with the baptism of Jesus.  That’s fine, but it doesn’t tell us what is similar between ours and his.

And then it came to me.  There is a way that the baptism of Jesus and our baptisms are exactly the same; and it comes right at the end.  Listen to what God says to Jesus as he comes up out of the water, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”  This is exactly what happened to us in our baptisms.  I won’t ask you to remember your baptism, since most of us can’t.  Instead, I am going to tell you again what God told Jesus and what God told you that day, “You are my beloved child; I am pleased with you.”

1st Sunday after Christmas - January 1, 2012

The Christmas story is so wonderfully familiar to us.  Every year we hear the story of the humble Christ Child being born in the stable.  Every year we hear of the shepherds in the fields with their animals.  Every year we hear of the angels filling the sky with their glory.  We hear these things in the scriptures that are read to us.  We hear them in the children’s program on Christmas Eve.  We hear them in the hymns that we sing.  The Christmas story is so wonderfully familiar to us.

So familiar, in fact, that it might be easy to miss something strange, something just a bit...... peculiar.  Side by side, at the birth of Jesus, are two things that just don’t make any sense together: Jesus as glorious king who is destined to be a man of power, and Jesus as lowly peasant.  This just isn’t normal.  How can he be both?

First, let us look at the signs that point to the two different descriptions of Jesus.  The angels, the messengers of God, deliver to the shepherds what they call “good news.”  “Good News” in the Old Testament had a particular kind of meaning.  Messengers would run from the field of battle to report “good news” to the king, news of victory.  Or, alternatively, messengers could be sent throughout the land, telling everyone of a great victory.  A couple of examples: When old King Saul was killed in battle, messengers came to David preaching the ‘good news’ that the man who was trying to kill him was dead and that the throne was empty for him to take.  Later on, when there was a rebellion in the kingdom, messengers came to David preaching the ‘good news’ that the rebel leader was dead.  Good news meant victory.  Good news had everything to do with power. 

When we hear the angels tell the shepherds about “good news” this is where our minds should go.  Good news means that there has been some great victory. This assumption is emphasized by the messengers themselves.  Aside from God himself, what messenger could be more glorious than a crowd of angels?  So Jesus being announced by angels certainly speaks to his power and glory. 

Now, in the normal run of things, babies being born would not be the subject of this kind of attention.  The birth of babies was wonderful, of course, a matter for a family’s personal joy, but it had nothing to do with power and victory.  So while a birth would be a great thing, it wouldn’t be “good news” in the way the term was understood at the time.

Unless, the baby was a royal baby.  The baby of a king, particularly the first born son who would himself become king, this baby would merit messengers proclaiming good news.  And so it is in this context that we must understand the circumstances of Jesus’ birth.  The angels are proclaiming “good news” because a royal baby has been born. 

Upon hearing this good news from the angels, the shepherds would no doubt have understood the royal nature of the child as the matter of primary importance.  For surely, if the baby is the messiah as the angels declared, that means that he is a descendant of David, for everyone knew that the messiah would be a descendant of David.  The baby being born in Bethlehem, the city of David, would have made all the sense in the world.  So everything fits together.  This baby Jesus is a descendant of David; he is a royal baby; he will become king.  This makes sense.  This is “good news.”

This leads us to the other side of things.  Lowly, peasant shepherds are given this news.  These are people whose closest relationships are with sheep.  They are told that they will find a baby in a feeding trough.  No doubt there will be some animals around with their saliva and their smell.  He’ll be wrapped in some spare bits of cloth.  This isn’t the romantic scene that we imagine.  Instead it points to poverty and want and squalor.

That is the strangeness of this story.  Side by side God places two things that don’t fit together.  We can imagine the royal baby; Jesus is King!  We can imagine the peasant baby; God came for the least and the lowliest!  But it just doesn’t make much sense that he is both at the same time.  We’ve gotten used to the two things being together, but we shouldn’t lose track of the fact that it doesn’t make any sense according to reason.

And yet that is what God does.  God works in ways that defy our expectations.  He is not subject to our reason or logic.

Is Jesus royalty or is he the lowest of the low?  He is both.

Is Jesus a man or is he God?  He is both.

Is Jesus an historical figure who won our salvation on the cross or is he the one who is actively giving us life today today?  He is both.

Jesus defies classification.  He will not be pigeonholed. 

Likewise, he gives to us this same nature when we are baptized in his name. 

In this baptism, are we killed or are we raised to new life?  Both.

Are we sinful ne’er do wells who can’t do anything right?  Or are we beloved saints who can’t do anything wrong?  We are both.

Are we absolutely free or are we servants who do good works in his name?  Both.

Are we to be peacemakers or are we to stand up zealously for the truth?  Both.

Can you be suffering from disease or sickness and at the same time be the subject of God's perfect favor?  Yes

Can there be brokenness in your family and  at the same time the beautiful blessings of God?  Yes

The life of a Christian is very much like the person of Christ.  God combines things that simply cannot exist together by logic or reason.  This can make us very uncomfortable as we struggle to make sense of it.  But making sense of it is never the point.  On that Christmas night, the shepherds were right in the middle of something that didn’t make sense.  And yet they heard the words of the angel, “I am bringing you good news of great joy.  To you is born this day a savior.”  Salvation comes to us and it is useless to try to pin it down or figure it out.  You have been saved by Jesus, this baby peasant king.  Against all logic and reason, you have been saved.  Alleluia.  Amen. 

Christmas Day - December 25, 2011

In the beginning was Jesus, and Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through Jesus, and without Jesus not one thing came into being.  What has come into being in Jesus was life, and the life was the light of all people.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

The Gospel of John does not begin with an account of the birth of Jesus in a stable in Bethlehem.  It says nothing of angels or shepherds or wise men.  Instead, it goes all the way back to the very beginning and it talks about Jesus in cosmic terms.  John calls Jesus, “The Word.”  And it is by this Word that God creates the world, “everything came into being through him.” 

This beautiful passage echoes the creation account in the first chapter of Genesis which says, “In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while the Spirit of God swept over the face of the waters.  Then God said, ‘Let there be light; and there was light......’ and it was good.”  It is by speaking that God creates life.  And it is by speaking that God makes it good.  And what God speaks is the Word, Jesus.

So then, what is Christmas?  Christmas is this, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us.”  Before Jesus came, how did people approach God?  When the Israelites were in the wilderness, it was Moses alone who went up on the mountain.  The rest of the people were terrified.  To stand in the presence of the living God was to die.  God allowed Moses to see a fleeting glimpse of his backside.  When Elijah stood on that same mountain, God passed by him, not in earthquake, nor in wind, nor in fire, but in the sound of sheer silence, a frightening thing.  And in the Temple, none could enter the Holy of Holies except for the High Priest and him only once a year.  The presence of God was a fearful thing, a terrifying and deadly experience.

That is, until God sent his Son, Jesus, the Word that was there at the very beginning.  And this Word came to us, not in terrifying form, but as a gentle and vulnerable baby.

Why?  Why does he send his Word at all?  And why in the form of a baby? 

God sends Jesus to do what he has always done, to create new life and to make things good by speaking.  This is what his ministry will be about.  He will heal people with his words.  He will cast out demons with his words.  He will forgive sins with his words.  And finally, as he dies on the cross, he will say, “It is finished.”

God sends the Word in the form of a human being, a mere baby, in order to be near to us, in order to speak to us face to face and deliver a word that creates us new, a word that makes us good simply because God himself has said it.

And so your God says to you, “You are my precious ones, the ones whom I love, the ones whom I have chosen.  Receive my Son, listen to him, let his words fill your ears and hearts.  He will make you new and  he will bring you to me.” 

Christmas Eve - December 24, 2011

First of all let me just express that Faith and I feel so blessed to be here, among all of you, this Christmas Eve.  We’ve been looking forward to this day all year long, looking forward to celebrating Christmas with this new family, looking forward to hearing the familiar Story in a new home. 

One of the things Faith and I decided to do to celebrate our first Christmas away from our childhood homes was to watch Christmas movies together.  We’ve watched “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “White Christmas,” “Miracle on 34^th St” and more.  Watching the movies in the living room with our Christmas tree has been wonderful.  It’s been a really nice way to spend time together and get in the mood of Christmas.  [Especially since we are noticeably lacking snow.]

                                                                                              

Aside from being fun time spent together, watching these movies has given me an opportunity to think about how our culture has viewed Christmas over the past sixty years. According to these classics, what is it that is important about Christmas?

I’ll start with one that the kids have probably seen.  “You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch.  You really are a heel.  You’re as cuddly as a cactus and as charming as an eel.  Mr. Grinch.”  This movie shows the terrible, horrible, awful Mr. Grinch, whose heart is two sizes too small, who just doesn’t have any Christmas spirit at all.  Instead of giving, he steals.  Instead of celebrating, he stews.  But on Christmas morning he discovers that the Whos down in Whoville are singing and celebrating anyway.  For you see, Christmas is not about presents and trees and stockings; it is about spirit.  This is the message of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”

“It’s a Wonderful Life” is a wonderful movie.  George Bailey, a talented young man, longs to get out of Bedford Falls, see the world and become a grand success.  Instead, he remains stuck in town because he feels responsibility for the people there.  He gives of himself, his time and his money.  He gives until it hurts.  And it does hurt.  He becomes very depressed by it all, until he is shown how much good that he has done.  And the people whom he has helped, turn around and give to him in his time of need.  Helping others, this is the Christmas Spirit in  “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

Then there’s the classic, “A Christmas Carol.”  The rotten old man, Ebenezer Scrooge, is visited by three ghosts, of Christmas Past, Present and Future.  The first shows him his former happiness, when his boss was generous and when he had love in his heart.  The second ghost shows him the present, as his own employee, Bob Cratchitt who, though he is poor, shows generosity to others and celebrates a meaningful Christmas even without money.  The final ghost shows him the future, when Scrooge will die alone and unloved.  The message is clear, the Christmas Spirit is about generosity and friendship.

All of these movies teach us about the Christmas Spirit.  Christmas is about giving, not receiving.  Christmas is about generosity with our fellow human beings, whether or not they be friends and family or complete strangers.  Christmas isn’t about material things; it’s about love, love that we share with one another.

These aren’t bad messages.  Being generous is wonderful.  Giving to others, even those we don’t know is great.  And of course Christmas is not about mere objects and stuff; it is about love. 

And yet.......  And yet this is to miss the heart of Christmas.  At its heart, Christmas is not about giving; it is about receiving.  It is not about showing generosity; it is about being the object of it.  It is not about having the right spirit; it is about an actual living, breathing, warm little body.

Christmas is about one thing.  For nine months that one thing had grown in Mary’s womb, developing fingerprints, toes and eyelashes, kicking, hiccupping, making her uncomfortable, keeping her awake at night, filling her with joy at the thought of the precious human being who was so intimately connected to her.

Christmas is about flesh and blood and bones.  It is about tiny lungs drawing breath for the first time.  Christmas is about God saying, “I must be near to you.  I will not be some far off abstraction.  I will not live beyond the clouds.  I must be near to you.  I must be with you.”  And so he has come in a way that we can understand, in a way that every human being has come.  He has come to us in childbirth: overwhelming, painful, joyful....... and real.  This is how Jesus comes.  This is Christmas.  Amen.

4th Sunday of Advent - December 18, 2011

For the past four months, our confirmation kids have been taking sermon notes based on two questions: What Law did you hear in the sermon?  and What gospel did you hear?  I have the kids listen for these two things because the Lutheran understanding is that God speaks those two words to us.  Sometimes they seem to have a pretty easy time hearing the two words and sometimes it's a little bit trickier.  Today, the two words sit side by side in a way that they can be clearly seen.  

            Now when the king lived in his house and the LORD had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.” And Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the LORD is with you.”

This is a very clear instance of David applying the Law to himself.  He is aware that the Lord has blessed him.  He knew that as a boy he was just a shepherd with little prospect of every being anything more.  And he knew that God had plucked him out of obscurity, made him into a warrior and leader of men.  And he knew that he was now the king of his people only by the grace of God.  He is very aware of these things.  And so he says to Nathan, "I'm living in a beautiful palace, but God's ark, the symbol of his presence, is living in a dumpy old tent."  And he doesn't speak it, but the implication is clearly there, "I should do something about that.  God has blessed me richly and I should pay him back."  As I said, this is David applying the Law to himself, asking, "What should I do?"  

God responds to David through the prophet Nathan and he does so in no uncertain terms.  God lays it out for him.  

            "Would you build me a house to dwell in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’

In other words, "Who told you I wanted a fancy house?  If I would have wanted one of those I would have asked one of those other leaders, you're not the only one I've asked to shepherd my people you know, I would have asked one of them to build me a house.  But I didn't.  And you sure seem to be getting just a little big for your britches."

At this point, I'd expect God to give David a real dressing down.  I'd expect God to apply the Law to David to squash that pride.  But God does nothing of the sort.  Instead God uses his other word, the word of promise, the gospel.  And he uses a play on words to deliver this promise.  David wanted to build him a house, an architectural structure, stone and wood.  Well, God is going to build a house for David made of living people.  He is going to give him a lineage, a line of descendants.  And these descendants are going to rule the country forever.  At least, that is what is understood.  And as it was understood, this is a wonderful promise indeed.  To know that one's descendants will continue to rule, that there will be stability, and that one's own name will be secured for posterity, these are the dreams of every king.

But here's the thing, God's promise to David was underestimated.  The promise was actually better than that.  The good news was much better than that.  And we begin to discover this one thousand years later when a messenger from God, an angel named Gabriel, visits a young woman named Mary.  A woman who is a descendant of... David.  And Gabriel tells her the most amazing thing.  Not the virgin birth part, though that's pretty amazing.  No, he tells her that the son she will bear...

            "...will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

This was the promise all along.  This was God's promise to David.  Not just that his descendants would be king over a country called Israel, but that his descendant would be God's own son.  God's promise to David was this, "I am going to join your family.  Your son will be my son."  Now the promise that David understood was a very good promise, but this is much better.  

I tell you this morning that we too have become a part of that family.  Through faith in Jesus Christ we have become the relatives of King David.  But better yet, we have become children of God, our sins forgiven and our futures secured.  These are the promises that we received in baptism, though, like David, we did not deserve it.  And these are good promises, amazing promises.  But I can't help but wonder if God's promise to us is even better than we expect.  Even greater and more gracious than our minds can imagine.  One day we will know, but for now we can look forward with great hope and expectation, because our God gives good promises.  Really good promises.

3rd Sunday of Advent - December 11, 2011

I confess to you that I like to make things overcomplicated.  Instead of doing things the simple, straightforward way, I have been known to spend hours or even days thinking about a project and then deciding on the complicated way. 

As I’ve probably mentioned, years ago I was a framing carpenter.  When I was on the job, I had to do things the simple and quick way, otherwise I would get an earful from my foreman.  But when I got home and went to the garage?  That was the time that I had all to myself.  That was the time I could needlessly complicate matters. 

I remember building a little end table for my sister out of scrap 1x6.  I wanted to figure out a way for it to be sturdy and elegant at the same time, while hiding the screws.  I didn’t have much in the way of tools: a circular saw and a handheld jigsaw along with a drill.  It was wonderful.  It was wonderful to puzzle over the many possibilities.

It’s the same way with sermons.  I puzzle over these things more than I should, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if I make them needlessly complicated.  I recognize this tendency in myself and I try to go back through these sermons and simplify and make things more clear.  But I still get the sense that they are more complicated than they need to be.

A perfect example of this occurred this week.  The reading from Isaiah is about as straightforward as you are going to find as long as you understand one thing.  The one thing to understand is this.  It is Jesus who is talking.  It is Jesus.  And we know it is Jesus because he has said so.  Let me just read you the proof.  [Read Luke 4:14-21]  Jesus fulfills this scripture because those were his words back in Isaiah that the prophet wrote down.  They weren’t Isaiah’s words; they were Jesus’ words.

Jesus declares that he has been anointed by God to bring good news, to comfort those in sorrow, to free those who are imprisoned, to proclaim God’s favor to us.  That’s what the prophecy said he would do.  When he came to live amongst us that is what he did.  And that is what he does now.

Are you in sorrow?  I know that some of you are.  Then Jesus has come for you. 

Do you find yourself imprisoned somehow, unable to get free?  I bet that some of you are.  Then Jesus has come for you. 

Do you need some good news instead of bad?  Does the world and its cares weigh heavily on your shoulders?  Then Jesus has come for you.

As always I am tempted to make this more complicated than it is, but it really is this simple.  Jesus has come for you.  Jesus has come for you.