The First Commandment is: You shall have no other gods. What does this mean? Martin Luther asked that question and answered: We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.

This explanation is remarkably short and concise. Within these words of fear, love and trust there is a window for us who God is and who we are to be him as we follow his voice.

Follow with me today through these words of fear, love, and trust as we study the word of the Lord revealed in the prophet Ezekiel chapter 34.

Ezekiel was a prophet to the people of Israel and most of the book of Ezekiel is filled with images of God who is incredibly angry over sin. Ezekiel describes in his opening chapters the power and majesty of God. In chapter 16 the word of the Lord comes to Ezekiel and the Lord calls the people of Israel prostitutes who trusted in their beauty and have sold themselves out. The Lord promises to gather all of Israel’s lovers and they will show the truth of their love.

To put it mildly Ezekiel reveals the power and majesty and anger of God against Israel for her sins against God and against one another.

But in the middle of all of this anger are these words from chapter 34 that show us that our God will come back as a nurturing shepherd who will rescue and heal the broken nation.

When you hear those words that we should fear, love, and trust in God above all things, I want you to recognize that God is certainly due our fear. He alone is the one that can kill both body and soul. He is the only one worthy of this kind of fear in our lives. We don’t fear God because he is capricious, arbitrary, or foolish with his power. We fear God because he is just and right in all that we deserve. We fear God because of all that he is and all that we are.

Even as we fear in God above all things, we also trust in God above all things. We are helpless before such an awesome God. But God sees us scattered and on account of his name he brings us back to him. He does not gather us back on the day of clouds and darkness because we are victims that deserve to be rescued. He gathers us back because that is the God that he is. Those sheep, those people that are messed up and hurt by this world, all those that have been pushed aside and even to those that have pushed themselves out. You can trust in God, “for thus says the LORD GOD: Behold, I, I, myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered” (Ezekiel 34:11-12).

God sees us scattered and he gathers us.

Ezekiel then brings to us the comfort of Psalm 23 becoming realized to be true when the Lord says that he will seek the lost and find them, feed them in rich pasture, and make them lie down in safety. Our good shepherd is promised to us.

We can love God knowing that he will deal with us with His strength married to His mercy.

We can fear, love, and trust in God above all things. We trust God as we listen to his voice that he will take care of us. God’s rule over our community of faith will be defined by healing and justice. Today the last Sunday in the church year is called by some as Christ the King Sunday and by others as Christ Triumphant. Christ is our triumphant king who has come to restore us to his kingdom.

As much as we can trust God the truth is that we do not live in a world where it is easy to trust others. In fact we may not be kind to one another. The Lord says, “Behold, I, I, myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.”

As we are gathered by the Lord there are some that will not head the voice of the shepherd as he guides to springs of living waters to drink from and green pastures to feed upon.

We cannot become overconfident in God’s loving care and begin to fail to hear his voice. The fat sheep that Ezekiel described were the people that were gathered by God but no longer listened to his voice but instead followed after their own desires to satisfy themselves.

They not only feed on the good pasture, but the rest of the pasture they trample and tread down. They drink from the water but then they muddy the rest of the water with their feet. So that those who are not strong enough to push their way to the front of the line end up even more thirsty, hungry, broken, and tire.

Our community of faith is called to be a reflection of the healing and mercy that our Good Shepherd has called us by. When gathered by the Lord we are called to hear his voice. What has the Christ called you to be? He has called all of us to be his children. We fear, love, and trust in God above all things because he alone is the Good Shepherd that can lead us to springs of everlasting and life.

Martin Luther wrote about recognizing the majesty and power and mercy of God present in this world when he wrote about seeing the presence of God in our everyday lives. Luther wrote, “If anyone earnestly believed that he is receiving the Lord himself when he receives a poor brother, there would be no need for such anxious, zealous, and solicitous exhortations to do works of love. Our coffers, storeroom, and compassion would be open at once for the benefit of the brethren. There would be no ill will, and together with the godly Abraham we would run to meet the wretched people, invite them into our homes, and seize upon this honor and distinction ahead of others and say: ‘O Lord Jesus, come to me; enjoy my bread, wine, silver, and gold. How well it has been invested by me when I invest it in You!”

Martin Luther was describing our Christian lives in relation to our brothers and sisters. When we love God we will love our neighbors. The priority of the first commandment is found in how we treat God, we are called to treat one another.

We are only able to love God because he has first loved us. We have been gathered by his love out of the darkness of sin into the marvelous light of his mercy. Hear the voice of your shepherd as he calls you with his love. I know that God loves you, no matter what darkness or cloud seems to follow you. I know this because on a day of darkness and deep clouds Jesus died on the cross for you.

The voice of the shepherd is heard by his sheep. If you are worried that you are becoming deaf to the call of the shepherd get back into the Word of God. It is in the proclamation of God’s word and the physical presence of the Word of God in the sacraments that we most confidently can clearly hear the voice of Jesus at work.

Soli deo Gloria

An election year in America is an interesting time when convictions, values, priorities, and sensibilities are all tested, defined, and spoken about. People seem to speak with authority about whose side God is on and others want to pretend that God is entirely ambivalent about what goes on in American politics. The question of who you are going to vote for and who you want to be president have the potential to say so much more about what you think and believe then you are maybe prepared for.

In the book of Joshua there is an interesting scene. Joshua was by Jericho preparing for the siege that the people of Israel are about to begin. The people have wandered in the wilderness for forty years and now they have crossed the Jordan River and are in the Promised Land. But one thing they may not have prepared themselves for is that the land is already occupied by the Canaanites.

Joshua on a hill overlooking Jericho looks up and sees a man standing before him with his sword drawn in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” The man replied, “No; but I am the commandeer of the army of the LORD. Now I have come.”

Joshua’s question showed a worldview that says either you are with me or against me. But this commander, this angel responds, “Neither. I am for the LORD.”

Joshua learned the importance of following God instead of trying to own God’s plan for himself. This was a humbling experience for Joshua.

The party labels of Democrat and Republican in America can start to receive religious affiliation. But remember the question that Joshua asked, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” The commander responds, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD.”

My faith in God cannot be owned by any political party. I do not intend today to speak about the politics of either party. I hope that if you are old enough and citizen of this country that you are registered to vote and that you plan on voting in this upcoming election. But please don’t frame your vote in terms of you having the power and position to preserve God in this country. God alone is the one that will preserve his promises. We live under that promise he preserves for us. God is at work in ways we may not always be ready for.

The prophet Isaiah comes up in a lot of our readings in church. As a prophet he spoke to his people during very difficult times and continually pointed them forward to God fulfilling his promises. The prophet Isaiah gives to us the confidence that no matter what takes place around us, there is only one Lord God and He is the almighty.

In these words we heard today from chapter 45 we find that God can be at work in ways beyond our understanding. The people of Israel were a defeated nation. But did that mean that their God was defeated? If the king of Israel is powerless to make a difference in their lives, does that mean God is powerless?

Consider in a modern example that if you tie your sense of God and his power to what one particular political party stands for, and that political party then loses, did God lose?

Israel was defeated but this did not mean that God had abandoned his plans for our salvation. God had promised to Abraham, “Through you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” God does not make empty promises. He fulfills his promises in ways we are not always prepared to receive.

The Lord promised, “Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant; I formed you; you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.”

The Lord may have promised to not forget them but as Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and the people are taken away in exile, it looks bleak. Babylon did a number over on Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple and took away all the treasures of the Temple and the leaders of Jerusalem. When no victory seems to be coming from Jerusalem, does that mean no victory is coming from God?

Cyrus the Great the king of Persia was raised up by the Lord God to defeat the Babylonians and restore the people of Israel. Cyrus the Great may not have known that he was a servant of the Lord God but that did not mean the Lord was absent from what was happening.

Why would God even consider working through a foreign king that followed after foreign gods? Isaiah promised the Lord works even through Cyrus the Great, “For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, through you do not know me. I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me.”

The plan of God for our salvation was preserved through God at work in the life of a Persian king named Cyrus the Great.

How is God at work in your life? You may wonder at times like the people of Israel that you have been abandoned or that you are on the losing side of things. Or you might be so bold as to presume the mind of God and claim ownership of God and declare that God is empty in someone else’s actions.

I find it wonderfully comforting that God works in ways beyond my understanding. Even if a doctor does not know it, as this doctor uses his skills to help and support me, he is doing the work of God. A farmer in rural America may not know me or my faith in God, but he does know how to grow the food my family needs. God provides our daily bread in many ways. I do not deserve the gracious and innumerable ways God is work to preserve and protect me, but I give thanks for Him.

I never will be able to understand why our Heavenly Father would send his only begotten son Jesus Christ to die for us sinners. But my salvation does not depend on knowing why God loves me. I simply trust that God does love me and that he seeks to preserve my salvation. I am a sinner in need of rescue and God desires to rescue me and restore me to his kingdom. He does this gracious work not because of anything I have done, but entirely from a heart of mercy. I go forward this election year, this year of transition, this year that I am leaving Grace Lutheran Church to be the pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church knowing that God is at work. I know this not because I am so prideful to think that God is only at work in my life and no one else. I know that God is at work in my life because he desires to be at work in all of our lives. God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son to die so that we may not perish but have eternal life.

The election this year does mean many things for our country. For my faith though I know God will be at work in my life and in your lives to preserve our salvation no matter who is elected.

Soli Deo Gloria

Our Congress is preparing to go on a vacation so that they can campaign for reelection this fall. We want to know our congressman our working for us and so they will often advertise when they have sponsored a bill that has hometown appeal. But there is an interesting realty to some of this hometown legislation these great bills do not always have attached to them the funding to accomplish what they propose. So the legislation becomes good publicity but doesn’t really do anything because no money has been attached to it. Some people will call this a bill without legs. It is without legs because the bill can’t go anywhere. It looks good but does nothing.

Our Gospel lesson for today includes a story from Jesus about two sons. One of the sons looks good but doesn’t do anything and the other son says the wrong thing but does the right thing. The father went to the first and said, “Son, go and work in the vineyard today.” The son said, “No.” He later changed his mind and went to work in the vineyard just like his father had asked him. The father went to the second son and asked of him the same. The second son said, “I go, sir.” But he did not go.

Today I want you consider with me the authority by which Jesus acts for you and the way that he transforms your life.

Jesus asked the Pharisees that had questioned his authority as he taught in the temple, which of these two sons did the will of the father. They answered, “The first.” These critics of Jesus understood that words don’t tell the whole story but they failed to see that Jesus was more than just words he is the word of God in action.

Which is more important in our life: That we use fancy words to describe our faith but live empty lives without the promise of God … or we may not use a lot big words and fancy dress to show our faith but simply believe and act with the hope and promises of Jesus?

The scriptures promise in Romans 10:10, “For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. ” Words spoken that have no foundation of faith in the heart are empty words, they are words without legs.

Our faith is called to be living and active. James wrote, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?”

A story is told of a dear old grandmother from Tennessee who was touring Westminster Cathedral. The tour guide was very specific in reviewing the detailed splendor of the cathedral. Finally, the little old woman could hold back no more. She politely but firmly broke into the guide’s memorized presentation and said, “Pardon me, but I have to know-has anyone been saved here lately?”

Recently I saw a t-shirt that said, “Don’t go to church, be the church.” We are the body of Christ, living and active in this world transformed by his love to make a difference.

There is a challenge from the woman in the cathedral and Jesus’ story of the two sons and the father’s vineyard. The challenge is the question of authority. By what authority do you act in your life? There are some things we may do because we are told to do them. These actions are short lived and will often last only as long as we are being observed or worried about the fearful gaze of another.

Consider a supervisor who directs his workers to put up a new shed in the backyard of a house they are working on. The men go to work but as soon as they notice the supervisor has moved on to another site they sneak into the backwoods and hangout. Obviously these men had no internal motivation but only worked under the scary gaze of their foreman.

The Pharisees and other church leaders in Jesus’ time were directing people to action because of the worry of the judgment of God and not out of thanksgiving for the blessings received in God’s mercy and love.

Parents have found in their children that they can force them to go to church for only so long and at some point their children will withdraw from that fear. At that point they will often either embrace the transformative love of Jesus Christ or give up on God thinking he is just about judgment and fear and doesn’t have anything to say about their daily life. We pray that our children will believe in their heart and confess with their lips that Jesus is Lord. We want the people will love and care about to give a witness by their actions to the hope that lives within their hearts. But the truth is that children that are raised with the fear of God being a louder voice then mercy of Jesus will struggle.

Our Gospel lesson began with Jesus teaching in the temple and the chief priests and Pharisees going up to question him. They wanted to know, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”

Jesus never answers the questions that are asked him, but answers a different question that they should have asked him. He asked them about John the Baptist and what they thought they were going out to see. John the Baptist was a man that was not motivated fine clothing or eating expensive meals. John the Baptist had an internal motivation that could not be bought or sold or silenced.

Christ gets these guys to start thinking about authority that comes from heaven being different than the authority that comes from the powers on earth. This contrasting of power is essential for us to understand the transformative power that Christ brings by his love and mercy. What Christ brings to my life is completely different then anything I can do for myself or what anyone else can do for me. Christ alone is able take away my sins and make one once again with the kingdom of God.

The contrast between the power of heaven and the earthly powers is one that we often deny or ignore. Too many people place their trust and hope in the amount of earthly power they may hold. We also may feel useless or without hope because we lack earthly power. But consider by what authority do you have hope? By what authority do you trust? By what authority do you love? By what authority do you forgive?

The power to transform your life and bring you into the kingdom of God is a power that does not come from any earthly power. No government can legislate hope, trust, love, or forgiveness. Nobody can tell you to love and you will love because you have been told.

Christ came under the authority of his heavenly father. He did not come for you and me because someone told him he had to or else. Christ came with the authority of love and mercy that descends from heaven and becomes flesh in him. By his authority we are able to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the very ends of the earth.

Soli Deo Gloria

Today’s Epistle reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans allows us to imagine some of the situations that faced that first century congregation in Rome.

One of the things that we learn should not be too surprising. Problems are not new to churches but were present in even the first congregations. In fact every letter of Paul in the New Testament shows to us that the intersection between the promises of God’s mercy and our lives is an intersection filled with a lot of accidents.

The question or struggle in Rome was what to do with a fellow Christian who is still weak in regard to the faith. So consider that you are a member of the congregation in Rome and a brother in Christ has moved to the big city of Rome and presents himself for membership in the church. What will be necessary for this brother to be welcomed into your fellowship of believers? And if you do receive him into your fellowship with what attitude will you treat him?

The encouragement for the church in Rome was to keep taking into their fellowship people who may not have the same viewpoint as they do about disputable notions.

The descriptions of strong and weak are not meant to describe their prowess at the weight bench. Apparently the strong ate whatever food they wanted, considered no day inherently more sacred than any other and felt free to drink wine. The weak in faith apparently abstained from certain foods, observed one day as more sacred than the others and did not drink wine. These weak in faith did not necessarily make their decision because they wanted to make their life more boring. The pagan environment of Rome created for people questions about what was appropriate and inappropriate behavior.

So these two groups show a difference in lifestyle but the worry for Paul was not so much the questions of lifestyle but more the attitudes present. How should the strong view and treat the weak? How should the weak view the strong who have not made the same lifestyle choices?

I think Paul is helping us start a conversation about what is essential or necessary for us to be in fellowship with one another and on the other hand consider this about our life as a congregation: Do we have to agree on every matter or are their some issues that don’t necessarily have simple right and wrong or true and false answers?

How do we handle Christians that hold onto Jesus as savior but have different practices than we do? What must divide us?

The questions raised by today’s epistle lesson is interesting considering the words from Jesus that we heard last week about going to a brother who has sinned against you and showing him his fault so that you might bring about his repentance and offer him forgiveness.

Jesus was talking about sin, sin is that which separates us from fellowship with the body of Christ and from the kingdom of God. Paul is not talking about tolerating sin. Indeed if the problem in Rome was about right and wrong issues then they should be handled differently. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians he advised them saying, “I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard or swindler not event to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. ‘Purge the evil person from among you.” (1 Cor. 5:11-13)

Paul’s words to the Corinthians were clear that unrepentant and persistent sin is a different issue than the open questions that the people of Rome were struggling with.

I gather that it is our nature to add to what is necessary for our salvation so that we can claim some role of control and Lordship over the salvation of others.

The Christian Gospel truth is simply that we are saved from our sin not by our good works but by Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. This gospel truth is the core of who we are. We do not want to add our works to what Jesus Christ has done. We do not want to add issues to gospel and make our salvation dependant on anything other than Jesus Christ.

Conflict in churches happens when salvation and its reception through the Word and the Sacraments becomes clouded with other matters. A challenge for us is how many issues do we attach to our identity as a Christian. Is an organ, pews, stained glass, a hymnal, these pastor robes and all their fancy names necessary for us to be a fellowship of believers?

What is at the essence of the church is justification through the Word and Sacraments. It is in the Word of God and it is physical reality found in the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper that we find our salvation.

Our church has a received heritage of music and worship styles but this heritage, no matter how much we revel in our German heritage is not our identity as Christians, even as Lutherans. Our identity is Jesus Christ.

So we when we receive someone into our fellowship our goal is not to make them into German Lutherans, but rather together we seek to grow in our relationship with Jesus Christ.

As we take a brother or sister into our fellowship we do not do so for the purpose of arguing our opinions. In Rome the strong in faith were possibly welcoming the weak so they could eagerly remove the weakness of the new member. They were receiving new members to make them into Roman Christians. But Paul encourages them to discover how each person is honoring the Lord through their actions. We do not grudgingly extend the hand of peace and only barely tolerate our differences. We are called to welcome one another as members of the body of Christ. We should not allow differences over disputable matters to interfere with fellowship in the body of Christ. And on the other end of things the weak in faith should not look with contempt upon the others ideas either.

God is my Lord and master and I must not present myself as Lord over another but instead as brother or sister. We are servants together of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are freed from our sins by Jesus death on the cross, this freedom is true for me in these robes, it is true for the faithful in the pews that have been here for years, this freedom from sin is ours through Jesus Christ and his righteousness.

Thank God almighty that he has come to set us free from sin, hopefully we do not become a stumbling block to anyone as they discover the great joy that is found in trusting Jesus Christ as their savior from sin.

Soli Deo Gloria

Isaiah asks the question, “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?”

Words are created all the time to describe new phenomena and recently a new word was developed to explain a sickness causing discontent. Affluenza is said to be a helpful explanation for a sickness that is taking place in America. Influenza is the virus that leads to the winter flue we so much want to avoid. Affluenza is not a biological virus but a sociological virus, nevertheless it is apparently pretty dangerous. The longing for comfort and contentment is present in our lives. When people look for spiritual enlightenment, they are not seeking struggle and disappointment. No doubt we want to find peace. The question becomes, “How do we know we have found the peace, the success, the enlightenment that defines the end?”

Affluenza is the altering of the measuring stick of success with its unit of measurement becoming the attainment of stuff I can show off. It gets to the point that our sense of identity and what is necessary to maintain who we are gets distorted. As dreams and promises are built on credit and credit becomes harder to maintain the spiraling down becomes fast and frustrating.

“Can I live without my cell phone, TV, computer, car…?”

The question of what is necessary for my life… cell phone, tv, computer, car, .. is not that different from the question that Isaiah brings up. Isaiah’s question is nearly three thousand years old but still valid today, “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?”

This question is very similar to the one asked by the angels to the women that came to the tomb looking for the dead body of Jesus, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

The women went to the tomb looking for Jesus to be still dead and buried. They certainly wanted to respect his body by completing the placement of oils and perfumes but they did not understand the fullness of what Jesus came for.

Jesus did not come to be just observed and remembered as a special person who said nice things. Jesus came to be the one thing that we needed that transforms all other things. Jesus is the one thing that bridges the gap between us and God. This gap that exists because of our sin is too massive for us to reach across. We all sin and we all need a savior who can reach into our sin and death and bring us into his life.

But even as Jesus reaches into our lives to offer us that which satisfies the hungry heart, we continue to look for our answers in that which does not satisfy.

People respect Jesus, when people hear that I am a pastor they express respect for the work that I do, but that respect does not transfer to trusting the message of salvation by Christ alone through faith alone that I desire to share. I think people have a hard time trusting that the life that thrives is one that is built on Jesus Christ, the self-sacrificing messiah that dies on a cross a long time ago and rose again from the dead. There must be more, something tangible, something that I can measure against my neighbor, that I can put on my resume of success. Will I thrive with this, can I thrive without this?

It seems to me that for some they perceive that Jesus is not the one thing that satisfies, but an add-on to their life that they use on a as needed basis. But does Jesus really desire to be your backup plan?

Isaiah gives us this invitation from the Lord, “Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.”

Come to Jesus and incline your ear to his promises and you find the one thing that brings peace.

The disciples came to Jesus after a long day of him sharing good news to a crowd and said, “You need to send them away so that they can buy something to eat for dinner.” Jesus told the disciples, “You give them something to eat.” But they considered what they had and thought it impossible. But Jesus told them to bring forward the fives loaves and two fish. Jesus was able to transform what they had given up on and make it into a blessing for the crowd.

Jesus is able to be my one thing because he alone is the one that is able to transform death and bring eternal life. Nothing that I can surround myself with in this world can accomplish what Jesus desires to give me. Jesus desires to give life. Jesus takes that which we would give up and discount and actually sneer at and works by his mercy blessing. He took those loaves and fish and made a feast. He took that cross, that instrument of suffering and shame and brings glory. The women went to the tomb expecting Jesus to be dead, but Jesus transformed our graves and brings life.

But this life that Jesus brings is not an add-on to my wildly successful life. By repentance I put to death that sinful self and by the promise of God’s Word I emerge from the water of baptism a new creature. Jesus brings a new life, defined by a different measuring stick, His mercy not my works

Without hearing Jesus there is no life. Without Jesus being the one thing that is necessary for us to hear with our ears and speak with our lips we will not know the satisfaction that he brings. Jesus promises in the Gospel of Mark, “All who believe and are baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” (MK 16:16).

I want you to consider your own life and what you have valued as the one thing that is necessary. What is your one thing? Believing in Jesus does not mean giving up on everything else. But it means that Jesus takes all that other stuff and changes their purpose. Instead of surrounding myself with stuff to make me happy and look important, God blesses my life with opportunities to shine his mercy into a world of darkness.

The one thing that is Jesus takes all your things gives them suddenly a different importance and purpose. You are a part of the kingdom building work of God.

By the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ I invite you to believe that God desires to work through you to be a blessing to others. As you live in Christ and share that life with others you will find that Christ’s mercy flows.

Soli Deo Gloria

How do we react to the weeds we find in our yards?

Some people will call a company in to do the dirty work and so expect someone else to take care of the problem. Some people will get down on their hands and knees and pick by hand the dandelions out. Others will go to Home Depot get the chemicals and get the spreader out and go to town. In some neighborhoods a perfect lawn is a must. In fact I have known of neighborhoods were a person cared so much about their lawn staying perfect that he also had his neighbors sprayed on either side less there be some devious migration of weeds into his yard.

Monsanto makes a product called Roundup that is remarkably efficient in killing weeds. But unfortunately it is pretty tough on the plants as well. So Monsanto developed a genetically modified corn seed that is roundup resistant. With this special seed a farmer can lay as much roundup on his field as he needs without worrying about burning and destroying his corn.

Jesus tells his disciples another parable about farming. Jesus is not interested in developing the next agricultural school for disciples. Jesus desires to open up to the crowds the truth of the kingdom of God and lead people to trust in the victory of God.

After Jesus told the parable of the sower and the seed he told a gathered crowd a parable about a man who plants good seed in his field. While his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. The weed was probably “darnel, which looks very much like wheat while it is young, but can later be distinguished.” (Concordia Self-Study Bible)

The plants came up and bore their grain and at this time the weeds were revealed. The servants go to the master perplexed why are weeds in the field saying, “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?” The master responds, “An enemy has done this.”

The servants at this point ask, “Should we go and gather the weeds up?” But the master says no because he does not want the wheat to be pulled up with the weeds. He tells them to wait until the harvest time and the harvesters will separate the wheat from the weeds.

This parable gives an image for us of what it is like to live in this world. We may desire that everything be perfect and that we never need to worry about evil. But like this parable we find ourselves in a world of grey, that is for a time the wheat and the weeds look very similar. We may at moments get frustrated with God that he would allow things to become so confused. The master’s response to the servants was, “An evil one has done this.” We must be honest and confess that there is evil in this world and that our sin is part of that evil.

In the story the enemy shows his laziness and in a way his smarts. The enemy plants the weeds in the night but then counts on the servants of the master to do the dirty work of pulling up the good wheat along with the bad weeds.

This question of the servants, “Do you want us to go and gather the weeds?” points to our human desire to think that we can discern the good and evil like God can. We all have a delusion about the judgment of evil and good in our fallen state, believing we alone are good enough or on the other hand thinking that we ourselves are worth nothing. The truth is that the sin of the world is not nearly far enough away from who we are. Beating down and destroying the weeds is not as easy as we may first consider.

Walter Wink wrote about the struggle in this present age against evil in a 1993 book titled “Engaging the Powers” in which he asked a very powerful question, “How can we oppose evil without creating new evils and being made evil ourselves?”

The lazy work of the devil is to get us to do his dirty work because the seeds of evil are among us. When we respond to evil in this world we will find it easy to catch the contagion of evil. Consider if your kids are getting loud how easy it is for yourself to start getting louder. In the political attacks we witness the closer we get to the election, both sides have committed to a clean and above board campaign, they always do. But it seems both sides quickly get repeatedly caught in a spiral of words that attack and tear down the other person and so in the process bring down both sides.

How do we react to the evil among us without becoming and using evil ourselves? We try… We justify our evil actions by lifting up the end result as worth the path we took to get there. We go down the pit ourselves. Or we may just try to ignore the weeds and walk with blinders on but find ourselves getting attacked and unprepared.

We are not finding a call to passive submission to the power of evil in this parable nor are we being invited to take whatever means are necessary to strike out at the evil that has been planted in the world around us. Jesus does not tell us to give up but to trust in him. St. Paul says similarly, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

We engage the power of this world by trusting our yes in Christ to be louder than our sin. We do not need to attack evil with our evil or resign ourselves to being the defeated door mat Christians that are walked over by the evil in this world. In Jesus Christ we are lifted up. We are lifted up by the cross and trust the sufferings of this present age are nothings compared to the glory that will be revealed. Even when being throttled by the weeds in and around you, stand firm in Christ and remain in him. All that remain in Christ will bear fruit.

When Jesus Christ died on the cross and shed his blood for you he brought his love into competition with the power of death and evil. In this no holds barred attack between the selfless sacrificing love of Jesus and the mocking hatred of death and evil who wins? Jesus is the voice and reality of victory even in the face of a world full of evil. Three days later Jesus rose. The women came to the tomb and found it empty. The angels said, “He is arisen, just as he said.” Every time the Words of Christ are true and victorious against the powers of this present age.

Jesus told his followers to turn the other cheek if we are hit or to carry the bag an extra mile if requested to carry it one. We resist the powers of evil by engaging them with the tools of Christ. We will never beat back evil by responding back to evil with the same tools that they employ.

Christ works. Christ works for you. Indeed in a field that the servants are ready to give up on, the master encourages the servants to wait and trust in the Lord of the harvest.

The sinful action in this parable is that we will go out into the world and attempt to pull up the evil and so in the process destroy the good as well. The wheat and the weeds will only become evident in the harvest time, until then the field may look full of weeds. We may not look like much, you may have even discounted yourself as one the weeds. God’s amazing and gracious power is to dive into the fields that we would give up on and find the golden shafts of wheat.

Trust in Jesus Christ, he is the Lord of the harvest. It is by the victorious power of Christ that we bear the fruit of salvation.

Soli Deo Gloria

There are certain stories in the Bible that for a long time it was expected that people just knew. The number of Bible stories that people know now are decreasing and even when we do know the stories we may be forgetting the impact these stories had in Jesus’ time and should still have in our time.

Jesus used stories to share the greatness of the kingdom of God with others. His stories often were about simple events that people were experiencing in their everyday lives. The power of the stories he told were in how he redefined for the people their relationship to God and how they were to relate to one another. Today the parable of the sower is the story for us to consider.

The story is about the planting of seeds. Can you imagine a meeting in Hollywood with a writer trying to convince a producer about how he has this great story about a guy that plants seeds. This story will revolutionize the way we think. I don’t know how that pitch meeting would go. But it is interesting that after Jesus tells this story the disciples ask, “Huh? Why do you speak to the people in parables?”

Jesus used the stories I think about everyday events that brought a new reality to the their thinking of the kingdom of God and their relationships to their neighbors because he wants us to realize that the kingdom of God and our relationships should everyday be changed in our lives.

The parable of the sower has some basic details.

A sower went out to sow.

Some seed fell on the path, some on the rocky ground, some among the thorns, and other seeds fell on good soil. Seed from sowers hands fell on all different types of ground. Nowadays with our high tech farming practices the amount of seed is precisely planted and the percentages of fertilizer to be dropped can be computer programmed to change depending on the needs of each section of soil.

This sower does not use his opportunity to drop the seed to withhold the seed from areas that he could presume it would not succeed. He drops the seed on all ground and does not presume what is going to be the good or the bad. The sower in the story is following traditional practices of grabbing the seed from the bag and spreading it across all the ground in front of you.

What is revolutionary in this story is extending this idea of a sower spreading his seed to the idea of God’s Word being spread to all people. God in his mercy desires that all people hear the good news and come to saving knowledge of him.

One sinful tendency is to worry about losing control of God’s Word and so preventing who receives it and who gets to share it. It is remarkably easy to attempt to establish ourselves as gatekeepers of who deserves the Word of God and who does not. Remember that in the parable of the sower the seed is scattered upon all ground. Now the seed doesn’t prosper everywhere it lands, unfortunately. But nevertheless the sower does not presume what ground is going to be good and what is going to be bad.

God desires all of us to be the good soil in which the word of God is fruitful. Our sinful desire is to control access to the Word and prevent the undesirable and the undeserving from getting a chance. The truth is not everyone who hears the Word of God will lead lives of repentance and faith in Jesus as their savior. But how can they believe unless they have heard, and how can they hear unless some has preached to them?

Recently I had to alter my path while walking to a playground because an area of grass had been fenced off. The school was trying to get the grass seed to grow and so it put up a fence.

Sometimes our church community can becomes like that guarded grass. We want to prosper and grow, but we don’t want to share this with others. Daily we are called to be witnesses the grandness of God’s mercy. Indeed God has blessed even you and me with the opportunity to hear the life saving message of Jesus Christ.

When the heavenly father sent his only begotten son in the flesh to be our savior he came to rescue all of creation. Jesus did not get up on that cross for only some and he did not die on that cross for only the ones he knew would believe in him. God so loved the whole world that he gave his only son for us so that those who believe in him would not perish but have eternal life.

We trust in Jesus Christ who came to save us, all of us, those we see as good or bad or ugly, because we all are in need of rescue from sin, death, and the devil.

As you consider where and to whom we should share the good news with I want you to consider where we should find God. Where should God’s Word be found in this world? Well start by answering where did we find Jesus? We find Jesus with the hurting, the struggling, the outcast, the forgotten, the set aside, the sinner, the sick and broken. Our God came in the flesh to save us from our sin. Jesus shed his blood for us in the most ugly place that others mocked and scorned. He died on a cross, executed alongside of criminals. When you wonder if you deserve God’s love, remember where God desires to be. God desires to be in your life.

The seed was scattered on all the ground and the sower did not hold back. God desires you and he does not hold back.

Soli Deo Gloria

Last week I shared in the sermon Jeremiah’s personal struggle with how to be a prophet for the Lord when he faced so much conflict in his faith. We found that Jeremiah did not get a lot of answers to all of his questions, but he did get one very important answer from the Lord, “I will be with you to deliver you, declares the Lord.” With the confidence that the Lord would be present in his life Jeremiah went forward by the grace of God.

So if last week we searched for how Jeremiah handled his conflicts with God, this week we are going to search for how Jeremiah handled the conflicts he had with people that opposed his message.

I had looked at our lesson from Jeremiah and struggled with how I could bring the points of this lesson to play in our lives today. After all it is a story about Jeremiah wearing a yoke around his neck talking to Hananiah a false prophet who was telling Jeremiah he was wrong. I did not want this sermon to become a Biblical history lesson. I found how another pastor has outlined a sermon on this text and thought that his approach fit with my desire to bring Jeremiah’s conflict to play with our own struggles today. The basic outline for this sermon will be to look at how Jeremiah dealt with Hananiah as a model for own behavior when involved in a conflict with another person.

Many people especially like the children’s messages when I use an object to illustrate the message. The use of objects to make a point is not a new development and in fact it was a common method for the Old Testament prophets to make a point. Hosea married a prostitute to show how the people of God had adulterated themselves to false religions. Ezekiel shaved his head and beard and then burned and scattered the pieces to represent the fate that awaited the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Jeremiah used many different actions to illustrate the situation of God’s people. Jeremiah hid a linen belt in a rock crevice to show how Judah would become ruined and useless. In a gate into Jerusalem he shattered an earthenware jug to show how God would destroy both people and city.

In the situation of our lesson today Jeremiah is wearing a yoke of the type that ox would wear to be harnessed to work on the farm. The yoke showed the way that Nebuchadnezzar would bring the nations under his power. Jeremiah called to the messengers of the kings of the region and said, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: This is what you shall say to your masters: ‘It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth, with the men and animals that are on the earth and I give it to whomever it seems right to me. Now I have given these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and I have given him also the beasts of the field to serve him.”

Jeremiah also spoke to the priests and the people of Judah saying, “Thus says the Lord: Do not listen to the words of your prophets who are prophesying to you, saying, ‘Behold, the vessels of the Lord’s house will now shortly be brought back from Babylon.”

Jeremiah was frustrated that the false prophets were giving the people a false hope and encouraging armed resistance against Babylon. Jeremiah was encouraging the people to live under the yoke of Babylon and respect the time as one ordained by God. But the false prophets kept insisting that Babylon was going to collapse and everything was going to be okay within two years.

Hananiah said in response to Jeremiah, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.” Hananiah and Jeremiah both claim to be speaking for God.

How does Jeremiah handle this competing message?

The first principle in fighting fair is found Jeremiah’s choice of words. Does Jeremiah with his words demonstrate respect for the other person? Jeremiah says to Hananiah, “Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord make the words that you have prophesied come true.”

Jeremiah reflects back to Hananiah what he is saying and hopes that Hananiah would be right. Jeremiah hopes that they will only be captive by Babylon for two years and that the exiles and the temple treasures will then be released and returned to Jerusalem. With respect Jeremiah speaks to Hananiah attempting to show that they are both on the same side, they both want the truth of God and the good of the people preserved.

When in conflict with another person, how can you demonstrate to that person respect and illustrate the common goals that you share?

The second principle in fair fighting is for everyone involved to envision what things should look like after the dust settles. When we are in conflict we should consider the possibility of what kind of relationship we will have once peace and harmony is restored. The words and actions we take within a conflict should not irreparably harm the ability to have a relationship with the other person once the conflict has passed. Jeremiah attempts to respect Hananaih and talk to him in such a way that they could be together in ministry again.

The third principle is related to the second principle of envisioning peace and harmony being possible. The third principle is about leading the resolution towards bringing the glory to God and that the gospel of God’s mercy in Christ Jesus is magnified. Jeremiah demonstrates that his desire is that God’s Word would be kept and that the people of God in Israel would find continuity throughout the Babylonian captivity and afterwards.

Jeremiah did not need to be right and make sure that Hananiah was wrong. Jeremiah said, “Amen! May the Lord do what you ask.” Jeremiah knows that in the end the false prophets will be revealed by the emptiness of their promises.

Jeremiah asked Hananiah and everyone to look at the consistency of the message of the prophets in the past. Jeremiah pointed out that if Hananiah was right that would mean Hananiah’s message was different then the message of the prophets that have gone before them.

Jeremiah was concerned that if people trusted in Hananiah’s promise of a two year struggle with everything restored so quickly that the people not only not trust Hananiah but that they also would not trust God. Throughout our struggles we should ask ourselves, “Am I keeping God’s name holy in my actions and in this community through this conflict.” It is possible to become so entrenched in keeping our positions that we stop caring about God’s name and instead only stay interested  in our personal survival. Jeremiah did not care about being right, he cared about God’s name being kept holy in his midst.

Fighting fair means knowing that our words, methods, and expressions not only reflect on who we are but also on God who we say we stand on. We do not want in the middle of a conflict to become empty of our integrity. Some of St. Paul’s letters deal with conflict and his concern that conflict within congregations tears them apart from the inside out. To the Galatians Paul wrote, “If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.” Also to the Ephesians he wrote, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs.”

We must be ready to suffer in a conflict rather than respond back to angry and hurtful words with our own angry and hurtful words. The Apostle Peter wrote, “If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or as a gossip. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.”

Jeremiah through the conflict with Hananiah kept his focus on magnifying the Word of God. Hananiah later took the yoke bars from around the neck of Jeremiah and broke them. Jeremiah did not fight back in response to this aggression but trusted in the victory of God. In fact Hananiah that same year died. Now not always do our adversaries receives such immediate judgment from God, but we can trust that God will be the judge of the living and the dead.

Hananiah had promised two years and Babylon would be finished. Jeremiah was proved right by history, because 1 decade past and then another and indeed it was not till after seventy years that Babylon was destroyed and the people were able to return to Jerusalem

Possibly you may think the standard that Jeremiah and indeed what we can see in the life of Jesus is too impossible to follow. I would say you would be right. It is hard to respect our adversaries, keep envisioning peace and harmony as a possibility and keeping our integrity if we had to rely on our own strength in the middle of conflict. Jeremiah succeeded in remaining a man of integrity throughout his conflicts with Hananiah and others because he kept his faith on God and not himself.  God will be victorious through all conflicts. Have faith in the victory of Christ over the greatest conflict of sin, death and the devil and draw upon him as your strength. I am not telling you to be the victory in your conflict, I am inviting you to trust in the victory of God on the cross. Christ on the cross was not just his victory but what he came to share with you.

Sermon help provided by Homilitic Helps from CPH, Deane Schuessler.

Soli Deo Gloria

It can be difficult to handle the waterfall of frustrating, disappointing, sad, unbearable news that can seem to swirl around us. Good moments happen for all of us but there just seems to be a drumbeat of bad stuff that at times appears to become the rhythm of life.

How do we handle those times when we want to just say, “Lord, What Were You Thinking?” Lord what were you thinking giving cancer to someone in their twenties. Lord what were you thinking bringing the death of someone loved and cared for by so many. Lord what were you thinking putting our soldiers into such a difficult situation. Lord what were you thinking indeed. I have these moments when not everything makes sense and not all of the puzzle pieces seem to match the picture that I have of the ways things are supposed to be.

The prophet Jeremiah was called to bring God’s Word in a difficult time to a difficult people. The Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. Jeremiah responded, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” The Lord said to Jeremiah, “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord.”

Jeremiah’s ministry began with the conviction that the Lord would be with him as he served the Lord.

I am not as much talking about the particular way that Jeremiah may have received the Word of God. The direct revelation of God’s Word must have been a remarkable soul convincing experience. When Jeremiah spoke, he spoke with the confidence that he was not serving his own interests but speaking the very Word of God.

But the way things went for Jeremiah would put him into the position that sometimes you have found yourself. “Lord what were you thinking making my life like this?” I am interested in how Jeremiah handled the experiences that he faced in the world that seemed to be in conflict with the promise of God when God said, “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord.”

Those words to Jeremiah are echoed to the disciples by Jesus. Jesus said to his disciples, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…Lo, I will be with you always to the very end of the age.”

So Jeremiah was encouraged to go forward with the word of the Lord and indeed to go with confidence. The Lord spoke those words I shared with you in chapter 1, verse 8, and also in verse 19 of chapter one said, “They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the Lord, to deliver you.” The Lord also encouraged Jeremiah in chapter 15, verses 20-21 “And I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail over you, for I am with you, to save you and deliver you, declared the Lord. I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.

We also find in our Old Testament lesson for today Jeremiah reminding himself (20:11), “But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble; they will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed.”

Jeremiah is pretty much saying, “Lord, what were you thinking?? Putting me in this situation…but I will trust your promise.”

Jeremiah was a real man with real struggles trying to figure out God’s plan for his life. It would be wonderful if life was easy and everywhere we walked doors opened like on the starship Enterprise with “shimmp” sound. Life was not easy for Jeremiah. He faced violence and angry words. Jeremiah experienced being whipped and being put in the stockade. He was accused of treason, sedition, desertion and plotted against and opposed by his own family. He was imprisoned in the bottom of a cistern and held under arrest in the courtyard of the guard. He fled to Egypt when Jerusalem was destroyed. He faced a people that refused to hear his message and so brought destruction upon themselves.

Jeremiah is a real lesson of the story of faith that comes into contact with the world. Faith in our Lord is not just an abstract notion but a reality that puts us in conflict with the world. Jeremiah brought his faith to the world. He allowed himself to face the tough questions and he experienced the truth that the answers are not always easy. John Bright, author of the book The Kingdom of God, said, “Here, indeed, we learn what faith really is: not that smug faith which is untroubled by questions because it has never asked any; but that truth faith which has asked all the questions and received very few answers, yet has heard the command, Gird up your loins! Do your duty! Remember your calling! Cast yourself forward upon God!”

I think faith in God should put us into turmoil with the world. We should be frustrated but not surprised when family and friends turn against us, if we find ourselves at times alone or unable to enjoy the good times. God calls us to be his servants. As a servant of God Jeremiah did not find his life to be a walk in the garden. God’s people are not exempt from the harshness of living in a sinful world. Indeed it may be even more frustrating because we know how God created the world to be a very good place but that sin has stained everything.

Even when trying to live life according to God’s Word we will run into the tragic reality of sin in this world. God knew that Jeremiah would face a harsh world that would bristle at the preaching of God’s Word, that is why the Lord said to Jeremiah, “They fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the Lord, to deliver you.” (Jer 1:19)

Maybe one answer for Jeremiah would be to just ignore God’s Word and so no longer put himself into conflict with the world. Jeremiah though knew the truth that God’s Word cannot be bottled up and hidden away. When God’s word has captured our lives we can do nothing but go forward by the grace of God. Jeremiah said, “If I say, ‘I will not mention him or speak any more in his name.’ there is in my heart a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.” (Jeremiah 20:9)

When we are confronted with the unbearable, tragic, impossible situation we are encouraged to stand strong because the Lord promises to be with us. We need this promise of the presence of the Lord because without him we would never be able to stand against sin and death that rules around us. Five times in the book of Jeremiah we find Jeremiah confessing to the Lord that he cannot do what he has been called to do. The message is too hard, the people are too violent, the work is too large. But in these moments Jeremiah goes forward because he says, “The Lord is with me.”

Real faith struggles like Jeremiah with the tension between trusting in God and living in a world that pulls and tears at that trust. Jeremiah held onto his faith because the Lord has promised to be present and victorious. Jeremiah had the benefit of the direct revelation of God to maintain his confidence. Without the direct revelation of God to you will your faith not have the same foundation to stand upon?

You have been given in the flesh the work of God in Jesus Christ to give you the confidence that the Lord is with you. Jesus promised to his disciples, “Lo, I will be with you always to the very end of the age.” When Jesus made this promise it was not only words but it was backed up with the reality that he had been dead and rose again. We can have confidence that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. This confidence is not standing just on words but on the very work of God for you. Even when we would not be present for God, he remains present for us. For Christ died for us while we were yet still sinners so that we might become the righteousness of God.

Stand firm with the confidence that the Lord you God is with you and by the same power that enables him to subdues all things to himself he will bring to us the victory over sin, death, and the devil. Victory will not always be easy to see, it will be by faith that we go forward. When Jesus was in the tomb, it was hardly possible to imagine that three days later that tomb would be empty. Jesus lives. The tomb is empty. It is not empty words when we say, “The Lord Be With You.”

Soli Deo Gloria

Recently on a radio show a guy called in very frustrated with Christianity. He said, “Why can Christians say this evil guy I know down my street suddenly be okay with God when this guy says he believes in Jesus, while over in India there can be this other guy that does not believe in Jesus but doing all these good things not be okay and be going to hell.”

The question of heaven and hell and who we are and how we view others are tough questions for Christians to get into with other people. These are tough questions because most of us do not want to act out of envy or pride when sharing our Christian faith with someone else. Because of the fear of appearing holy-than-thou, too prideful with our faith, we may find ourselves being silent at a critical moment.

It is a critical, essential opportunity when the Holy Spirit gives a person the opportunity to share her Christian faith with another person. Instead of being silent I do want to share my spirit filled confidence that by my faith in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior I am saved. I want to be able to share the transformative power that the forgiveness of sins and the love of Jesus brings to how I view myself and how I view others. I want to be able to share my joy in knowing that I am never alone but always in the protective, sheltering care of my Lord.

In a hospital I would expect a doctor or a nurse in a critical care unit to speak up and act confident that the care they provide is essential. A critical care unit, is essential, time sensitive care that a medical staff provides to a person that is facing life-threatening illness or injury. A hospital might not always be able to put a name to what ails us, but they do know the need to act and care for a person who is in danger.

Not everyone knows all the Ten Commandments but nevertheless the wages of sin is death. We may not know the name for why people are living without hope and confidence and purpose, but we know that people are in danger and need.

If I am driving my car and I go through an intersection when the light is red, I cannot say to the police officer that pulls me over, “I didn’t know that you couldn’t go through a red light.” Whether I know about red lights or not, I still will get a ticket.

Erika Tuescher told in Bible study this Wednesday a story of her sister in confirmation. The pastor asked her sister a question about one of the commandments. This girl looked up at the pastor and said, “It’s not in my book.” The pastor looks down and indeed it is not in this girl’s book because she had torn out that page from her bible.

We live in a time when people are writing their own philosophies of life and attempting to live by their personally created standards. But consider this problem> I am asked to measure a room in preparation for having carpet installed. I look at the measuring stick that has been provided and decide that I would rather make my own measuring stick instead. I get out a piece of wood, look it over, and put some hash marks on it for measuring. I then use my measuring stick and come up with the dimensions of the room. I hand those numbers over to the carpet store, he comes to install the carpet and surprise, the carpet he brings is the wrong size.

St. Paul wrote, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”

Death is a result of sin. Death is not a natural part of the way that God created the world but as a result of sin, death spread to all people.

When you consider the importance and truth of the message of salvation in Jesus Christ, consider the truth of the problem. The problem is we all face the penalty of death. Science will never be able to completely take away the reality of death.

The critical, life-threatening reality is that sin is real and we cannot escape it through our own efforts. Death reigned from Adam to Moses even though it was not until the time of Moses that the commandments were given on Mount Sinai. Sin is sin, no matter what book you have read or how you measure a life. Even if you are measuring your life in submission to God’s commands, unfortunately because of sin, our disobedience to the will of God, we still will face the penalty of death. Knowledge of God does not bring us salvation. I cannot walk across the Niagara River just because I know what is on the other side. I need a bridge to be built.

The critical need is reconciliation with God. Death has entered the world because of sin. Because of sin and death the reconciliation cannot come from our end. Reconciliation with God brings life and peace and joy and confidence in the end of the story.

St. Paul encourages us to look to God for this reconciliation. From the very one that we have sinned against we find hope promised and delivered. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ dies for us. Since therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we saved by him from the wrath of God.”

Death came into the world through the sin of one man, Adam. Even if you find yourself to be a pretty good person we are all still experiencing the reality that we live in a sinful world. No one is able to break through the barrier that sin brings between us and God but God alone. He breaks that barrier. Even while were still enemies, God bridged that gap between us with the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.

The opportunity that a Christian has to share his faith with another person is critical. It is a critical event when a Lutheran Christian shares his or her faith with another person because the critical need for reconciliation is being answered with the great good news of Jesus Christ. Faith in Jesus Christ is essential and time sensitive. When is the right time to believe in Jesus as your savior from Sin and deliverer from death? What time is it right now? Now is the time to believe that God is good all the time, all the time God is good.

And all God’s people said, “Amen.”

Soli Deo Gloria