6th Sunday of Lent - April 17, 2011

“It is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.”  What we say reveals a lot about who we are.  During his trial and crucifixion those around Jesus say quite a bit.  Their words paint an ugly picture.  ........

Let’s start with Pilate.  He was the governor of the region, the most powerful man around.  He is aware that Jesus isn’t guilty and he is aware that those who accuse him are motivated by envy.  This is what he says,  “I am innocent of this man’s blood.  See to it yourselves.” 

The first thing we can learn from his words is that he is aware of the standards of justice.  He knows right from wrong.  For instance, he knows that it is wrong to execute an innocent man.  It is not from ignorance that he acts.  We can also know from his words that he is willing to pass the buck.  That is to say, he is willing to let someone else take responsibility for what is rightfully his decision.  Through his words, the picture that we get of Pilate is of a weak man who, though he knows the right, is unwilling to do it.

Then there is the crowd to which Pilate is speaking.  These are the people of Jerusalem and also people visiting the city for the Jewish Passover festival.  Obviously we don’t have a list of the names in the crowd, but likely these contain many of the same people whom we heard in our initial gospel reading this morning, people who were praising Jesus and waving palm branches as he entered the city only days before this trial.  These are their words, “Let him be crucified!” and “His blood be on us and on our children.” 

The first thing we can learn from their words is that they are fickle.  One minute they are giving praise, looking to Jesus as a prophet and a savior, the next moment they have completely changed their minds and are seeking to have him killed.  Fickle people are easily manipulated and can have huge swings of opinion and behavior as we can see here.

The second thing we learn from their words is that they are bloodthirsty.  The governor has told them that he doesn’t think Jesus is guilty of anything, “what evil has he done?” but they are calling not just for punishment, not just for the death penalty, but for the worst form of the death penalty.  There is a bloodthirstiness here that is shocking. 

The third thing we learn from their words is that they are selfish.  They drag their own children into this mob scene by invoking a curse upon them, “his blood be on us and our children.”  They have so little regard for their children that they are willing to put them in harm’s way just to prove how much they want Jesus to die.  Their words show how selfish they are.

Then there is the group of Roman soldiers who are responsible for beating Jesus before the crucifixion.  It is their job to do such things, not to determine guilt themselves, but their words betray something ugly indeed.  “Hail, King of the Jews” is what they say.  They are not satisfied to simply comply with their orders.  With their words they add derision and mockery to the punishment.  That is the first thing we learn.  The second thing is that they are ignorant.  They are actually speaking true words, Jesus is the King of the Jews, but they don’t know it, and so the truth is only a joke to them.

Now we get to the cross.  As Jesus hangs on the cross there are passersby, people who have gone out of their way to exit the city and come to a place of execution in order to speak.  This is what they say, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself!  If you are the son of God, come down from the cross.” 

The first thing they reveal by their words are their expectations.  They were expecting Jesus to be a man of power.  This is the meaning of all of that cheering and praising as he entered the city.  A man of power, a true messiah, a true savior, would not just hang there dying.  The Son of God would never suffer the indignity of just hanging there.  At the very least, he would come down off of the cross and prove his power.

The second thing is related to the first.  The words of the passersby reveal that they despise the weak.  Here they are, in the presence of a man who is in agony and who will soon die, and they don’t have the decency to keep silent or offer words of kindness.  No, they despise him because they think that he cannot get down from the cross.  He is weak, and therefore pathetic

And then there is another group of people who come to Jesus as he is on the cross: the chief priests, the scribes and the elders:  They do not speak to him, they just speak about him as he hangs there.  This is what they say, “He saved others; he cannot save himself.  He is the King of Israel; let God deliver him now, if he desires him.  For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

Their words reveal many things and they are ugly indeed.  First, they show contempt for humanity.  They admit that Jesus has saved others, that he has healed the sick, cast out demons, cured the lame and so on.  They have seen it for themselves.  But they don’t care.  These acts of mercy are of no concern to them, the good is of no consequence.  What ultimately matters is power, not goodness.

Also by their words, these leaders of the Jews show their contempt for God.  “Let God deliver him now, if he desires him.”  Where is the humility that should be shown before an almighty God?  These religious leaders should surely fear God and be in awe at a moment of death like this.  But they are not.  For them, it seems God is nothing but a reflection of their own attitudes.  “What would God want with this weak and dirty man who is nailed to a cross?”  In spite of abundant scripture to the contrary, they can’t imagine God having mercy, because they have mercy. 

And finally there were the centurion and his guards, the ones who cast lots for the condemned man’s clothing and perhaps even the ones who had beaten and mocked him before.  They seem like a lone bright spot on this terrible day of cruel words, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God.”  But their words don’t mean quite as much as we’d like.  More than anything they reveal superstition.  At the moment of Jesus’ death they felt the earth tremble and saw some rocks split.  They saw power revealed in the natural world and were therefore moved to confess his divinity.  But the Jesus who had been dying before their eyes for hours on end, this weak and pitiful man?  He had meant nothing to them. 

So what is the sum of all of these words?  What does it all add up to?  I hear two things that come through louder than anything else.  First, these people were looking for power and they hated weakness.  They glorified Jesus when he seemed to come in power and they turned on him in anger when he showed weakness.  As he hung on the cross they despised him all the more because he could not come down.  What good can come from weakness?  The messiah must be strong.

The second conclusion is that though they hated weakness, the people themselves were weak.  Pilate is the most powerful man in the region and he’s too weak to stand up for justice in the face of an angry crowd.  The crowd is weak minded, letting frustration dictate their actions.  What is to be done with the one who disappoints?  Kill him of course.  Exerting such power over those who do not resist makes the weak feel more powerful.  What’s even better is for those same weaklings to go taunt the dying man, the man who isn’t interested in fighting back, the man who couldn’t fight back anyway because his hands and feet were nailed in place.  Instead of saying that “though they hated weakness, the people themselves were weak” perhaps it would be better to say, “because they were weak, these weak people despised those who were weaker than themselves.”  They wanted to be strong.  They yearned for strength and power, if not for themselves, then at least in their leader, in their savior.

At the end of the day, all they are left with is a dead man on a cross and the transient satisfaction of having killed him.  It is a terrible disappointment.  They’ve gone and killed the one who could have saved them because they didn’t recognize him.  What a terrible waste.

Except for one thing.  God is not like them.  And God is not like us.  God chooses to work through weakness.  God chooses to work through what is despised.  God chooses to work through that which disappoints us.  God chooses to work through this dead man on a cross.  This man......

“who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.

THEREFORE God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,  to the glory of God the Father.”

Please rise and we will confess that Jesus is Lord in the words of the Apostle’s Creed:

I believe in God the father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only son, our Lord,

Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

Born of the virgin Mary

Suffered under Pontius Pilate,

Was crucified, died, and was buried;

He descended to the dead.

On the third day he rose again;

He ascended into heaven,

He is seated at the right hand of the Father,

And he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

The holy catholic church,

The communion of saints,

The forgiveness of sins,

The resurrection of the body,

And the life everlasting.

Amen.

5th Sunday of Lent - April 10, 2011

Imagine walking out of the church and over to the cemetery.  But instead of looking at the gravestones that neatly kept and cared for, imagine instead look off to the East, over the plain and over the rolling hills towards Highway 75.   Instead of dried up grass and unplanted fields, imagine a sea of bones, corpses picked dry by the vultures and baked white by the sun.  This is the scene that God presents to the prophet Ezekiel in our reading this morning, a field of death. 

Now of course, the point of the vision is not death, but life.  We read the lesson today to hear not about dead bones, but resurrection.  Nevertheless, we must attend to death for awhile.  We must take a closer look at the bones as they lie. 

We need some context for all of these bones.  Why are there so many bones?  Why are they lying out in a field and not properly buried?  This isn’t a normal scene for us to be seeing.  It must have some explanation.  And so it does.

The story all begins like this.  Back in Genesis, God chose Abraham.  He told him, “I will give you descendants more numerous than the stars in the sky.”  This was the first indication that God was going to choose a people and give them a promise.  Beyond that, God also promised Abraham his own country, the Promised Land.  And he also promised that through him and his descendents other nations would be blessed.  For a childless man who was 75 years old at the time it sounded like a pretty good promise indeed.  The ball got rolling pretty slowly, but finally at the age of one hundred, the first descendent, the heir of the promise, Isaac, is born. 

In Exodus, we meet a large group of Abraham’s descendents who are slaves of Pharoah down in Egypt.  God uses Moses to bring his people out of Egypt, across the Red Sea and into the wilderness.  It turns out they don’t have much faith in God, so instead of getting into the Promised Land, they stay in that wilderness for 40 years until a new generation is born and grows up to replace the unfaithful ones.  And so then they finally get into the Promised Land. 

As the years go by, the people go through cycles of faithfulness and unfaithfulness.  When they screw things badly enough, God punishes them.  Then they call out to God for his help.  God has mercy on them.  And then they forget and they screw things up badly again.  God punishes them.  Then they call out to God for his help.  God has mercy on them.  And then they forget and they screw things up badly again.  This goes on for centuries.  During this time we meet people like Samson, King David, King Solomon, Elijah, and Isaiah.  During this time the Temple is built and becomes the center of worship.  These are the glory years of Israel.

Finally, there comes a point when God says, “I am going to raise up a people called the Babylonians and they will destroy Jerusalem and take you prisoner and lead you OUT of the Promised Land.”  This does indeed happen.  The Babylonians come with a huge army.  They conquer all the towns in the countryside and then finally lay siege to Jerusalem.  It is a horrible time.  Many, many people die; Jerusalem gets leveled; the Temple gets leveled; the people are carted off to Babylon as slaves. 

At this point, everything has fallen apart.  There is no hope.  They have no homeland.  No temple.  No King.  No nothing.  The promise has been squandered and the fat lady is singing for Israel. 

It is at this point that the prophet Ezekiel has his vision.  The bones in the field are the descendents of Abraham, the Israelites, the people who have been unfaithful.  They have been  killed and left out in the field by the Babylonians, because God has pronounced a judgment against them for their unfaithfulness.  These are not random bones nor are they merely bones in a vision.  These are the bones of the people who have squandered the promise and rejected their God.

God comes to Ezekiel and he shows him this vision and he asks him an extraordinary question, “Can these bones live?”  God was asking Ezekiel, “Will I have mercy on my people?  Can I give them the promise again, even though they squandered it and reviled it?  Must the dead stay dead?  Or can the dead be brought back to life?  Can I have mercy on such a people?”  Ezekiel replies noncommittally, “You know Lord.”  He may as well have said, “I have no idea what kind of God you are.  I don’t know if you are going to have mercy or not.  I’ve seen what happened to Jerusalem.  It was terrible.  Here we are in Babylon and we are slaves.  It’s terrible.  I don’t know what you are going to do.  Life is tough; we’ve messed it badly; and I don’t know what you are going to do.”

 “Prophecy to the bones!” God says.  “Use your mouth Ezekiel.  Preach to these bones and tell them that they are going to live!” 

Ezekiel isn’t about to disobey the living God and so he prophesies, he uses his mouth, he preaches to the dry bones.  And then the remarkable thing begins to happen.  That which was dead starts to rattle about, bone meets bone, sinews tie them together, flesh grows over the top of them all......  But there is something missing.

“Prophecy to the breath!”  God says, “Tell the bones that I am putting my life into them!”  And so Ezekiel speaks.  He uses words.  He preaches to these bones.  And the Spirit of God responds to this speech and comes blowing into these bodies and they come to life.

The vision of Ezekiel is saying loudly and clearly that, though they have been faithless, God will not leave his people in exile.  He will restore them to their own country, their own land, their own homes.  It’s not that they deserve to be restored.  No, they are ever the faithless people.  But God is declaring to Ezekiel that he has made a decision about them.  He has decided to have mercy.  He has decided to bring them back from the dead.

Now this is all well and good.  It’s nice to hear a story about restoration.  But how does this relate to us?  I think there are all kinds of connections that you could make to your own lives, about the cycle of faith and faithlessness, about being a slave to sin, about receiving mercy.  This could be a very long sermon.  But I just want to talk about one particular thing.  It has to do with how God works.  Think for a moment about how God worked to raise those bones from the dead. 

God sent them a preacher, Ezekiel, who spoke his word.  This spoken word had actual power in it, power to bring the dead back to life.

This is the heart of the matter.  If you are taking sermon notes, here is something for you to write down. 

God sends preachers who speak his word.  This spoken word has actual power in it, power to bring the dead back to life.

Now when I hear that, my mind immediately goes to the idea of finding someone who has died and bringing them back to life.  It can happen.  It has happened.  But that is a lesser power than what we are talking about.  What we are talking about is this.  Every Sunday morning, piles of bones drive here in their cars and their trucks.  Bones like those old Israelites, bones who have heard the promise, but have been picked over and dried up by a long week out in the world.  Maybe your faithlessness has been dramatic and flagrant.  Or maybe it’s just been steady and consistent.  Or maybe it’s been so subtle that you hardly even know it’s there.  However it is that you have squandered the promise and rejected your God.  No matter.  The point is that it has dried up your bones.  That’s what sin does.  It kills us. 

And then we assemble in this place, a big pile of bones, a bunch of dead people.  And God sends a preacher to prophecy.  Not to prophecy any old thing, mind you.  No, God sends a preacher to say something very particular.  God sends a preacher to give you a promise.  God sends a preacher to tell this assembly of dry bones, “I therefore declare unto you the entire forgiveness of all of your sins.”  God sends a preacher to tell this assembly of dry bones, “After supper Jesus took the cup and gave thanks, blessed it and gave it for all to drink saying, ‘this cup is the testament in my blood, shed for you.’”  God sends a preacher to tell this assembly of dry bones, “You are dead.  Your sins have killed you.  Nevertheless God has a promise for you.  You are going to live.  Whatever it is that has been happening to you or that you have been doing.  Whatever your faithlessness has been.  It is over.  You are going to live.”  That is the decision that God has made for you.  And he sends a preacher to give it to you.  Amen.

4th Sunday of Lent - April 3, 2011

For years I have heard that sheep aren’t the brightest bulbs in the animal kingdom.  But recently I have heard from someone who raises sheep and I am told that this isn’t quite true.  In fact, sheep are dumb as a box of rocks.  They are absolutely dependent, but hopelessly incapable of knowing what is best for them.  Now I know that you didn’t come here this morning to be insulted, but......  we’re all sheep.  We think we understand everything quite well.  We make our decisions and go about our business and so on.  Left to our own devises, we are in all kinds of trouble even though we might not ever realize it.  Far from being bad news, however, this is actually great news, because we are sheep who have a shepherd.  Our shepherd is the Lord and he gives us promises.  Let us lie down in the pasture this morning and listen to the words of promise from our shepherd in Psalm 23.

1st promise- “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”

The Lord our shepherd takes care of everything we need for life.  Martin Luther, the founder of our church, writes in the Small Catechism, “He provides me with food and clothing, home and family, daily work, and all I need from day to day.”  The devil, on the other hand, would love to convince us that, ultimately, we don’t really have any help in this world except for ourselves.  Now he’s not so foolish as to be obvious about it.  He doesn’t say, “Work yourself to the bone and neglect your family.”  Instead he’ll say, “You need more money in order to be secure.” Harumph. I tell you today that the Lord is your shepherd and that you have everything you need.

2nd promise- “He restores my soul.”

What does this mean? God takes care of our emotional needs.  You have all experienced at least some of the following: heartbreak and loss, hatred and anger, boredom and a sense of being lost.  Life burdens us with more cares than it seems that we can carry sometimes.  These days we call it stress.  Like foolish sheep we might seek to get rid of it elsewhere, but I tell you today that the Lord is your shepherd and it is only he who takes your stress away.

3rd promise- “He leads me in paths of righteousness...”

What does this mean?  God gives us direction.  One of my first weeks here Wayne and Julie picked me up and we were driving down one of the gravel roads that was such a mystery to me.  They told me that until recently there weren’t even signs to tell you which road was which.  You just had to know.  I thought to myself at the time, “Boy would I be in trouble if there were no signs!  I wouldn’t know Juniper from Hickory without a sign.”  But on that day it wouldn’t have mattered, because Wayne and Julie were giving me direction by driving me to the place I needed to go. 

Knowing what choices to make in this life is often hard.  Sometimes it doesn’t even seem like there are any good choices available.  But I tell you today that the Lord is your shepherd and that he will give you direction.

4^th promise- “......for his name’s sake.”

What does this mean?  God takes away our selfishness.  When I was single I was mainly concerned with myself.  I could do what I wanted with myself.  All my time was my own.  With marriage and then with a baby I find that it doesn’t work that way anymore.  Often enough I’m not doing what I would have chosen to do because I’ve got responsibilities towards other people.  And this has made my life much better.  I’d be willing to bet that most of you have had a similar experience.

I tell you today that the Lord is your shepherd and he takes away your selfishness and directs you towards others for his name’s sake.

5^th promise- “Even when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me......”

What does this mean?  Death is all around us and we won’t be able to escape it in this life.  The presence of God when death is near is a comfort because God is Lord over death.  By ourselves we are subject to death; we will die.  But God has decided that death has no power over us.  This is to say that we will die, but we will not stay dead.

I tell you today that the Lord is your shepherd and that you need not fear death.

6^th promise- “You prepare a meal for me in the presence of my enemies......”

What does this mean?  Well, first of all, you’ve got enemies.  I don’t think that’s the way we prefer to think about things these days, but it is foolish to deny reality.  At the very least the Devil is your enemy.  And so is anyone who opposes the well-being and safety of your family.  But God will provide for us in spite of these foes.  The enemies will not disappear, mind you, not in this world, but God will provide for us even though these enemies oppose it.

I tell you today that the Lord is your shepherd and that your enemies cannot stop God from blessing you.

7^th promise- “You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”

What does this mean?  Anointing the head with oil is a royal metaphor.  The ceremony to declare the new king always involved anointing his head with oil.  There is another important meaning for anointing as well.  The word for it in Hebrew is messiah.  Jesus was the Messiah, that is to say, the anointed one.  The Jews at the time of Jesus were waiting for God’s chosen one to save them.  It turns out that God became a man in order to be the chosen one.

I tell you today that the Lord is your shepherd and that he has anointed you; he has chosen you.

8^th promise- “I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”  [length of days]

What does this mean?  This means that we are a part of God’s household both now, in this life, and in the life to come.  Being in the household of the earthly king means protection and provision, special advantage, even when times are tough.  Being in the household of the heavenly king means all the benefits of Christ, including most especially the forgiveness of sins and life eternal. 

I tell you today that the Lord is your shepherd and that you will live with him and know his benefits from this time forth and forevermore.

To be a sheep is not what any right thinking human would aspire to.  Sheep are foolish and stupid.  They don’t know what they need.  They often work against their own best interests.  To the world, being a sheep is nothing to write home about.  But we can rejoice that we are sheep.  We do not know how it has happened to us or what has happened to make us deserve it, but we have a shepherd and we have his promises to us. 

I tell you today that the Lord is your shepherd and that it is wonderful to be a sheep.  Amen.

2nd Sunday of Lent - March 20, 2011

I’d like to tell you the tale of Nicodemus this morning, or the first part of it anyways.  It’s a sad account, though you might not guess it.  It’s sad, not so much because of what was said, for these words are among the most beloved in all the world, but because of the words that weren’t said.  Like so many conversations that matter in our lives, it only takes a few words to make all the difference.

Let’s start by taking a look at the end of John chapter two, the verses right before our gospel lesson.  Jesus is in Jerusalem for the Passover festival.  This is near the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry and he is making quite a splash.  He has been teaching and preaching and performing “signs.”  It doesn’t tell us exactly what those signs were, but likely they were healings and exorcisms.  And he is butting up against the religious authorities, not least because he threw all the moneychangers out of the temple and caused a ruckus, but also because some people are seeing these signs and are starting to believe in him on the basis of the signs.  People are beginning to believe in him based on some signs that he has performed.  They see with their eyes some miracles and they make the judgment with their heads, “Wow, this guy can heal the sick; he must be somebody special.” 

Now Jesus isn’t a big fan of this kind of belief.  It seems that “belief” that is based on signs does not meet with his approval.  This is what it says, “Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover festival, many believed in his name when they saw the signs he was doing.  But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all men and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.”  Belief of the eyes, belief that comes from people making judgments based on evidence, belief that is produced by the self does not meet the approval of Jesus.

Now Nicodemus enters the story.  Actually, he’s already been in it.  He’s one of those folks we’ve just been talking about.  So let’s hear that last passage again.  “Many believed in his name when they saw the signs he was doing.  But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all men and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.  Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus......”

The gospel writer is telling us something about who Nicodemus is.  He is a “man.”  He is a man like the ones we’ve just spoken about.  He is a man who sees things in terms of signs and then thinks that he can understand, thinks that he can make proper judgments.  But no, we have been told that Jesus sees what is in the heart of such men.  And it doesn’t sound good.  This conclusion is reinforced by another bit of information that we are given.  Nicodemus arrives in the dark.  Does this mean that he comes at nighttime?  Yes, but it’s a double meaning.  Nicodemus arrives without understanding.  Nicodemus has seen the signs that Jesus has performed and he thinks he understands and can make judgments, but he cannot; he is in the dark. 

And that is what makes his first words almost humorous if they weren’t so sad.  This blind man among blind men comes to Jesus and says as confident as you like, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God.”  Wrong.  Nicodemus knows no such thing.

Jesus interrupts him and changes the subject immediately.  “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”  What?  Nicodemus has come to Jesus to talk about what Jesus is doing and by whose authority he is doing it.  Jesus ignores that and starts talking about Nicodemus, and what he must do.  “You must be born from above.” he says.  Other translations put it, “You must be born again.”  Either way, Jesus is getting at the same thing.  Instead of being put on the spot by Nicodemus, he is putting Nicodemus on the spot.  Nicodemus and the others who “believed” in Jesus thought that they were capable of judging the situation, “We see the signs, therefore, according to our judgment, you must be......”  They don’t have a clue and Jesus know this very well.  And so he begins to attack this presumption. 

He attacks the presumption by demanding the impossible.  “You must be born again.”  He may as well have asked Nicodemus to fly like a chickadee or grow a horn on his head.  It is an impossible demand.  Nicodemus is absolutely befuddled by it.  “How can anyone be born after having grown old?  Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”  We can laugh at this ridiculous question if we like, but Nicodemus has it mostly right.  “How is the impossible supposed to be possible?”  Good question.

Jesus answers by adding another measure of the impossible, “You must be born of water and Spirit.”  This is more of the same.  Jesus is pointing to what must happen; But how?  How in the world is Nicodemus supposed to be born of water and Spirit?  He doesn’t even get the chance to ask another question or think it over, because Jesus just plows ahead, attacking poor Nicodemus.  “The wind blows where it chooses,” Jesus says, “and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.  So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”  The wind, the Spirit is totally out of Nicodemus’ control.  It blows where it chooses to blow, it doesn’t ask his permission or even consult him.  The Spirit has free will.  Nicodemus does not.

At this point, you might say that Nicodemus is blown away.  He asks weakly, “How can these things be?”  Jesus responds, “If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?”  Jesus knows very well that Nicodemus cannot, CANNOT, understand these things.  Not by himself.  Not by his own wisdom.  Not because he saw some signs.  ........  The problem is that Nicodemus thinks that he can understand.  The problem is that Nicodemus thinks that he can believe for himself.  But he cannot.  He cannot conjure up belief within himself.

Jesus continues with just six words more.  “No one has ascended into heaven......” he says.  And this is the bad news cherry on top of the bad news Sundae.  There is no hope.  No one has ascended into heaven.  All your best efforts, Nicodemus, fall short.  You cannot know by yourself.  You cannot believe by yourself.  All of your attempts are worth exactly squat.  Zero.  Zilch........   Nicodemus doesn’t say a word.

Jesus finishes his sentence and dawn breaks.  “No one has ascended into heaven EXCEPT THE ONE WHO DESCENDED FROM HEAVEN, the Son of Man.”  There is, in fact, ONE.  There is ONE who is able.  And so here is the beginning of hope.  Here is the beginning of the gospel.  Because God has sent Jesus to be among us.  None have ascended, but God has descended.  He has become a man.  And still Nicodemus is silent.

Jesus continues, “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up........”  The good news starts with God becoming a man, a mere servant.  Now the good news continues with that man being nailed to a cross.  Jesus continues, “that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”  We’re almost there.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life!” 

But wait.  Wait a second.  There is something wrong here.  “Whosoever believes?”  Jesus has been putting Nicodemus through the wringer, telling him, in effect, that he cannot do what is necessary, that he cannot understand, that he cannot create his own faith.  And at the end of all of that, at just the moment we would expect for Jesus to speak words of comfort directly to Nicodemus, instead he makes a beautiful, poetic generalization.  And what’s more, there is a condition.  The very thing that Nicodemus cannot produce, faith,  is the thing that is required. What is a man like Nicodemus to do? 

And there again, as always, is the problem.  There is nothing to be done.  Nicodemus isn’t capable of doing what is required.  He is entirely at the mercy of  Jesus. 

And here is why I find this story to be sad.  And here is where I want just a few more words.  I want to hear Jesus say, “Nicodemus, God loves you.  Your sins are forgiven.  You cannot produce your own faith, but I give you mine.”  But we don’t hear it.  We don’t know what was said. 

And so I want to make absolutely sure that you hear those words. 

Not just the words that condemn,

nor words that leave you wondering,

but words from outside of you that create faith within you. 

"For God so loved you, that he gave his only son, so that you should not perish, but have eternal life.”

Amen.

1st Sunday of Lent - March 13, 2011

It was the best of times.  It was the worst of times.  It was the age of wisdom; it was the age of foolishness.  It was the epoch of belief; it was the epoch of incredulity.  It was the season of Light; it was the season of Darkness.  It was the spring of hope; it was the winter of despair.  We had everything before us; we had nothing before us.  We were all going direct to heaven; we were all going direct the other way." 

Today, we plunge not into the world of Charles Dickens and his Tale of Two Cities, but into Adam and Eve’s world, the world of darkness and sin, selfishness and self-reliance,  on the one hand.  And on the other, the world in which some glimmers of redemption are beginning to shine, the world of Jesus Christ.  We plunge into both worlds, which are linked by a common experience, temptation.  We plunge into these worlds which are our own.  For these are both worlds in which we reside.

First, in the garden, we hear about Adam and Eve, living in a paradise where God has provided everything for them.  They do not know any of the cares of our life.  They do not know hunger, biting cold nor sweltering heat, hatred nor uncertainty.  They do not know sickness.  They do not know death.  And yet into this paradise comes temptation.  The serpent comes and tempts them with the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  He entices them.  "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?'"  Eve replies, "We may eat of the fruits of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die."  The serpent continues his temptation, “ You shall not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  Well then, there are Adam and Eve, facing a choice, right?  "What do we do?"  The prospect of being like God and knowing good and evil wins the day.  They eat the fruit.  Then they realize that they are naked.  They try to cover up their sin, but it is too late.  They chose the evil over the good.  So there is the temptation of the first lesson.  Adam and Eve fail the test and sin and death enters the world.  It was the worst of times indeed.

So what about the temptation in our gospel lesson?  Here we've got a much different situation.  Instead of taking place in a beautiful garden, where there is plentiful food and companionship, where there is no sin and no death, it takes place in the wilderness, in a wasteland, where there is no food and very little water.  It is a wasteland where no one goes at all because it is so inhospitable to life.  And Jesus is led there by the Spirit.  After forty days of fasting and being baked by the heat, the Devil appears to him with a temptation.  "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loves of bread."  Unlike Adam and Eve, who had a garden full of food to eat when they were tempted, Jesus has nothing.  He is starving.  It would be understandable if he were to use his power to provide for himself.  But he doesn't.  The Devil tries again two times, taking Jesus to the pinnacle of the Temple and to a very high mountain.  The Devil even quotes scripture to Jesus to try to convince him to give in to temptation.  But Jesus stands firm.  Choices are set before him, just like they were set before Adam and Eve and he makes the right choices.

So then, we can see clearly enough the moral of the lessons this morning.  Adam and Eve were tempted and made a lousy choice.  Jesus Christ was tempted and made good choices.   Yes, the moral is clear enough for us: Make good choices!  Well, if you buy that, I've got a Minnesota Vikings Super Bowl ring that I can sell to you cheap.  

That is not the point!!!

Let's take a quick look at those stories again.  First, Adam and Eve.  They didn't trust God and so because they did not trust him they were faced with a decision.  ... The problem with Adam and Eve isn't that they made a lousy choice.  The problem came before that.  The problem is that they didn't trust God.  Imagine, for a moment, that Adam and Eve actually trusted God.  Some snake comes up to them and starts badmouthing their creator, their father.  If they trusted God, what would they have done?  “Push off you stupid snake!  Our God wants good things for us and we trust him.  We don’t even know you!”  But no, that isn’t what happens.  They do not trust God and so the words of the serpent find willing ears.  This lack of trust in God has a name.  It is called sin.

Jesus too is faced with temptations.  But unlike Adam and Eve, he isn't led astray because he trusts his father.  He trusts that his Father will do what is best, no matter what anyone else may say.  Because he trusts, he isn't relying on himself.  He doesn't have to worry about doing something miraculous to feed himself, because he knows God will provide.  He doesn't have to worry about proving himself with some fancy miracle, because God's plan for him will work just fine without unnecessary bells and whistles that some other yahoo comes up with.  This trust has a name.  It is called faith.  Faith in his father will  lead Jesus all the way to the cross.  

I have something to tell you today.  You have got a foot in both of these worlds.  You are Adam.  And you are Christ.  Here is how.  You were born into the sin of Adam, the sin of unbelief.  But in baptism God chose you for his own.  There was no decision there for you to make.  God drowned your old Adam in the waters of baptism and made you like Jesus Christ, a new creation who lives by faith.  But, as Martin Luther once wrote, the old Adam is a good swimmer.  And so we die daily to sin by repenting, by confessing our sin to God. 

Confusing?  Well, the long and the short of it is that we go through life, living as both an old sinful creature like Adam, incapable of choosing or doing the right thing, incapable of living by faith.  And we also go through life living as a faithful child of God like Jesus Christ, incapable of doing anything but trusting our Father. The good news that I have for you this morning is that when God looks at you, he does not see the old sinner.  He doesn’t see the old Adam or Eve that just can’t trust.  No, God doesn't see a sinner; he sees his Son.  He looks at you and he sees his son.  To return to our opening quotation from Dickens: God is pleased with you.  Amen

"It was the best of times.  It was the age of wisdom.  It was the epoch of belief.  It was the season of Light.  It was the spring of hope.  We had everything before us.  We were all going direct to heaven."  It is the best of times, indeed, for

Why

Because there are a few people (or at least Mom) who might like to read the sermons of the pastor in question.  And also because electronic record keeping makes a lot of sense.  I'll even be able to do word searches, "Have I ever mentioned Hezekiah in a sermon?"

Transfiguration - March 6, 2011

Up at the top of a tall mountain, you see the world a little differently. Roads and rivers are mere ribbons in the valley below; speeding cars crawl and churning boats make no progress at all. Vast lakes seem to be mere puddles. The horizon bends so that you can actually see with your eyes the curve of the earth. One can look in any direction and see for miles upon miles upon miles. In a word, it is glorious.

God our creator, the maker of heaven and earth, of the infinitely large and the infinitesimally small, of the lush and vibrant, of the hard and unyielding, of the long ago and the yet to come, God the Lord of life and ruler of death, God the judge over all creation including ourselves, especially ourselves, God is glorious.

Our lessons this morning point to glory. The first lesson testifies, “Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai ; and the cloud covered it for six days.” There is glory here. The second lesson testifies, “For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” There is glory here, majestic glory even. And our gospel lesson testifies, “And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.” There is glory here, is there not? Yes there is.

And so one would be forgiven if she were to think that our gospel lesson today was all about glory. Everything points to glory. The glory shines. But our gospel is not about glory. Glory is only the frame in which a masterpiece is displayed. So what is this masterpiece? What is it that steals all the glory from glory? We shall see in due time.

One of the attributes of glory is that it attracts attention. We want to look at it. Even when it isn't the point, we want to look at it. Even when we are told that it isn't important, we still want to look at it. That certainly is the case with the people around Jesus. Take the disciples, for example. Just prior to coming up the mountain, Jesus was giving them a little blunt talk about what was important. Let me read it, "From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed..." A few verses later Jesus continues, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." These are not words about glory. They are words about dying and suffering. This, Jesus says, is the point.

So then, after getting this blunt and sobering lesson about what is really important, Jesus takes three disciples up on the mountaintop with him where they see him transfigured, bathed in the glory of God. Immediately all that talk about death and suffering, that we just read, goes down the memory hole. It vanishes from their minds altogether and Peter says, "Lord it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah." Peter sees the glory and he wants to hold onto it. He wants to make it permanent. He's willing to make some buildings if only the glory will stay. You see, the glory is something that he understands and desires. He earnestly desires for God to be at work in his time and place. And since God is glorious, God must work with glory to accomplish his purposes. This experience on the mountaintop is exactly what Peter has been waiting for. All that talk about dying and suffering didn't quite make sense, but seeing a powerful, glorious Jesus? That makes all the sense in the world. So this is a dream come true.

And then the very voice of God comes, booming and impressive, glorious. And God says, "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him." This is all brilliant. It's just perfect. It's glorious. Peter and the disciples fall to the ground and hide their faces. They are in awe. It couldn't get any more perfect.

And then Jesus begins to speak. "Get up," he says. And so they do. And the glory is gone. Elijah and Moses are gone. The cloud is gone. The light is gone. The booming voice of God is gone. The glory is gone. And they are left to climb down the mountain to the valley below. And as they walk down, Jesus tells them again what is really important. He tells them that he must die. He tells them that he must suffer and die. There is no glory here. What is important does not have a trace of glory in it.

I think that most of us are a bit like Peter. We prefer that God do his work in our lives with glory as opposed to the cross. We don't want people to die while they are still young. We don't want families that tear apart and leave scars. We don't want to fall on hard times. We don’t want bad things to happen. Surely if God is at work in our lives these things won't happen, right? Isn't that how God works? No, it really isn't. God works by the cross not by glory. God does not spare us from hardship, he saves us from it. God leaves his glory behind, and walks down the mountain to be among sinners, to die for them and to save them. God leaves his glory behind be with you. God leaves his glory behind to forgive your sins. God leaves his glory behind to save you. It isn't how we would choose to do things. But it isn't us who has chosen. It is God who has chosen.