GIVE THANKS FOR THE GOSPEL!

1. The gospel that first called you to faith
2. The gospel that calls you to stand firm in faith

Text: 2 Thessalonians 2:13-15

 Sermon Video (sermon starts at 25:30)

 Introduction

A little perspective can change us from people filled with complaints to people filled with thanks.  On Monday we had our monthly study meeting with the other WELS pastors in our region.  One of them asked me how I was doing, and I responded with complaints about the illness that has bothered me since the first week of the New Year.  Later in the meeting, one of the pastors talked about some of the difficult personal crosses that his family has had to bear.  Hearing his story, I thought to myself, “What right do I have to complain about being sick?  This man’s difficulties far surpass a cough and cold!”  A little perspective can be helpful, can’t it?

The section of God’s Word that we are going to look at today is one of those “perspective-changers.”  Today we will study the opening verses of the Second Lesson from 2 Thessalonians.  This excerpt immediately follows a section where the apostle Paul warned his readers about “the man of lawlessness,” who is called the “Antichrist” elsewhere in the Bible.  Talking about a terrible force within the church that would try to take the place of Christ and draw people away from Christ was a frightening thought.  But it was also a perspective-changer.  It certainly made the questions and problems that this ancient congregation dealt with pale by comparison.  It certainly made Paul thankful for the believers in Christ who belonged to the Christian congregation in ancient Thessalonica.  In the section of 2 Thessalonians that we will look at today, Paul gives thanks to God for these believers.  But in reality, he’s giving thanks to God for the gospel that had made them believers.  That’s the same thought we want to take home today.  Give thanks to God for the gospel!  Give thanks to God for the gospel that first called you to faith.  Give thanks to God for the gospel that calls you to stand firm in faith.

I.

Paul begins our section with a fresh perspective of thanks for his readers.  He wrote, “We ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.”  Obviously Paul is thankful for the people he is writing to, but he’s especially thankful to God for the way the gospel had worked in their hearts.  He calls them “brothers loved by the Lord.”  The way Paul wrote that phrase indicated that God had shown them his love in a concrete way in the past, and God’s past actions of love had ongoing significance in the future.  In the past, even before time began, God had chosen these Thessalonian Christians (and all believers) to be saved from sin and to become members of his family.  God made sure they received these blessings “through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.”  When the good news about Jesus Christ was proclaimed to them, the Holy Spirit gave them faith in the gospel facts of Jesus’ life so that they stood before God holy and righteous.

Paul was very thankful for their faith!  He had been privileged to play a role in their coming to faith.  He said, “[God] called you to this through our gospel.”  When Paul said, “our gospel,” he didn’t mean that the gospel was a message that he and his missionary coworkers made up; he meant that the gospel was a message that they had the opportunity and privilege to proclaim.  As a result of that message and that proclamation, Paul’s readers “might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  A way we could picture that thought is through the ceremony we include during a baptism.  Whenever we have a baptism in our service, the paschal candle is lit.  That large candle is a symbol of the risen Jesus.  Light is a symbol for life, and so we light the candle during Easter to remember how the risen, living Jesus appeared to his disciples after his resurrection.  The Bible also tells us that when we are baptized, we are connected to Jesus’ death and resurrection.  We become sharers of the glory that Jesus’ resurrection brings.  And so we light a baptism candle from the large paschal candle and give it to the baptized person or their family to symbolize that the newly baptized believer now shares in Jesus’ glory and life.  That is a visual way to depict what Paul says here: “He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

How thankful are you for this gospel message that first called you to faith?  How thankful for you when you hear that Jesus Christ came to earth, did battle with sin, and overcame death to win your forgiveness and your freedom from hell?  Truth be told, there are many times when our response to that message is anything but thanks.  Especially if we have been Christians all or most of our lives, we can get tired of hearing that same old seemingly tired message.  Yes, all these things happened in the past, but they have little significance for us today—so it seems.

Perhaps the best way for us to renew our appreciation for the gospel is for us to realize where we would be without the gospel!  What would happen if we rewrote the first two verses of our reading?  What would they say if Jesus Christ had not come to earth to be your Savior?  Paul would have wrote: “We have no reason to thank God for you sinners, condemned by the Lord, because from your conception you were sinful in God’s eyes and disobedient to his laws.  God’s law condemns you, and you will suffer eternally, separated from all his glory and goodness.”

Sound ridiculous?  Actually, that would be reality apart from faith in Jesus Christ!  And that is all the more reason to give thanks for the gospel which first called you to faith.  How amazing to think that God chose you to be his own before time began!  How incredible that God used the gospel message of Jesus Christ to bring you to faith in his Son who has rescued us from hell itself!  How astounding that God erased the shame of your sin through Jesus’ shed blood and placed heavenly glory in your future through Jesus’ resurrection victory!

II.

There are some things in life that we stand by in good times and bad.  We stand by our family members and support them when one of them has to go through a difficult personal challenge.  We stand by our biblical values and morals when they are under attack by the culture around us.  We even stand by our sports teams—like our own St. Mark’s Lions during yesterday’s basketball tournament.

In our reading for today, Paul encouraged his readers to stand by the gospel—that is, to stand firm in their faith in the gospel.  He wrote, “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.”  Paul told his readers to continually do two things.  One was to “stand firm”—to remain firm in their faith and not move from the gospel message about Jesus that they had come to believe.  The other was to “hold to the teachings we passed on to you.”  That’s another way of saying, “Stand firm.”  The word translated “hold to” has the picture of clinging very tightly to something because it is so important and precious.

Parents often pass things down to their children.  Those “things” could be family heirlooms.  Those “things” could be family photos.  Those “things” could be stories from the family’s history.  In our reading, Paul says that he and the other missionaries who founded this congregation had passed something else on to them.  He urged them to “hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.”  The word for “teachings” here is sometimes translated “tradition.”  The idea behind the original Greek term for tradition is something that is handed down from one person to another.  We usually don’t think of Christian teaching as a tradition.  We usually use the word “tradition” to refer to our human customs.  But Paul described Scriptural teaching as a tradition, something that needed to be handed down from one person to another.  That description does not at all undo the truth that Scripture is also the perfect and inspired Word of God.  Paul’s words simply remind his readers that he did not keep this message to himself, but he handed it down and passed it on to them.  Paul had done that in two ways: by his previous letter to them (1 Thessalonians), and by his preaching and teaching in person when he first founded this congregation on his second missionary journey.

If you want to get good at a sport, you have to practice.  If you want to get good at playing piano or organ so that we can add you to the roster of fine church musicians here at St. Mark’s, you have to practice.  If you want to do well on the next test that’s coming up in class, you have to study faithfully.  All of that goes without saying.  And so does this: If you want to stand firm in your Christian faith, you have to immerse yourself in the Word of God.

The amazing truth about God’s Word is that it accomplishes in you what it calls on you to do!  I cannot believe in Jesus on my own, but God’s Word has made that happen.  You cannot grow stronger in faith by yourself, but God’s Word makes that happen.  We cannot find strength to live a godly life inside our own hearts, but God’s Word enables us to live honorably for the One who lived and died and lives again for us.

When you have gone through one of those valleys in life—difficult and trying circumstances—you know how much you appreciate the family and friends who stand by your side through it all.  And when you have family members or friends you stand by your side in the tough times, you naturally want to stand by their side, too.  Friends, you have a good and gracious God who has stood by your side and done more for you than anyone else could ever dream of!  He sent his only Son, Jesus Christ, into this world for you.  He sent Jesus to the cross to pay the penalty of your sin.  He raised Jesus from the dead to declare your divine acquittal from sin and guilt.  Can anyone else love you like this?  Can anything else inspire you to dig into the Word regularly and to live in a way that honors God daily?  There can be no greater reason to give thanks for the gospel, because that wonderful gospel message of forgiveness enables you to stand firm in your Christian faith.

Conclusion

We have a bedtime prayer routine with our children.  The final prayers of our routine are prayers that they make up; ideally, each family member asks God for one thing and then thanks God for one particular blessing.  Sometimes it is hard for kids to come up with an item to thank God for.  Of course, it’s not just kids who have that problem.  Adults can easily think of all sorts of things to ask from God, but struggle to come up with reasons to thank him, even though we really have no shortage of reasons for thanksgiving.

Paul’s words in our Second Lesson show us that we have about 200 reasons in this building to thank God.  Every believing soul here represents someone in whom the gospel has done its work.  And that’s also a reason to thank God for the gospel itself.  The good news of Jesus’ death that paid for our sin and his resurrection that opened heaven is not some stale, old message for yesterday; it’s the very reason to give thanks to God today, tomorrow, and every day.  Friends, don’t ever take the gospel for granted.  Give thanks for the gospel!  Amen.

GREATNESS AMONG THE COMMON

Text: John 1:1-5,10-14

Service Video (sermon starts at 29:20)

Note: This sermon form, sometimes called a “story sermon,” uses a running illustration to inductively introduce the points of the text to the listeners.  The running illustration in this sermon comes from a Pulitzer-Prize winning Washington Post article from 2007 titled “Pearls Before Breakfast.”  The article describes a cultural experiment set up by the Washington Post with internationally acclaimed violinist Joshua Bell, who performed as a street musician in a Washington D.C. train station during the morning rush hour on Friday, January 12, 2007.  The idea for this came from another sermon preached by Jonathan Schroeder, who serves Faith Lutheran Church in Sharpsburg Georgia.  Pastor Schroeder used this concept for a sermon preached at a recent School of Worship Enrichment where both he and I were serving as consultants.  Pastor Schroeder’s sermon used the Washington Post article to parallel some of the thoughts at the end of John 6, his sermon text that day.  After I heard the sermon, knowing that I was going to be preaching on John 1:1-14 on Christmas morning a little more than two months later, I thought that this same article would nicely parallel the thoughts in the Christmas Day Gospel.  That is the “origin” of this sermon.  Even though its form is somewhat unique, I hope that it will help to shed new light and appreciation for the message that the Holy Spirit has revealed to us in the prologue of John’s Gospel.

-Pastor Strey

I.

On Friday morning, January 12, 2007, a young man carrying a violin case entered into one of the Metro train stations in Washington, D.C.  A white man in his 30’s, he donned a Washington Nationals baseball cap, a long-sleeved T-shirt, and jeans.  He found a spot for himself and his violin near the top of the station’s escalators, where his “neighbors” were a trash can, a newsstand, a machine selling lottery tickets, and a shoe shine station.  He opened his small violin case and took out his fiddle, threw in a couple of dollars and some change in his case as seed money, and for the next 43 minutes began to play as 1,070 commuters passed by.

But this was no ordinary street musician, and this was no ordinary performance.  This performance was really an experiment set up by the Washington Post.  The musician was internationally acclaimed violinist Joshua Bell.  Three days before this little experiment, Bell had played at Boston’s Symphony Hall, where the “pretty good” seats sell for $100 each.  Bell has played before royalty—literally.  For a typical performance, his pay averages about $1,000 a minute.  And the violin he carried with him?  It was handcrafted in 1713 by Antonio Stradivari toward the end of his career, when Stradivari had essentially perfected his craftsmanship.  The price tag on Bell’s three-century old violin is reported to be a mere $3.5 million.

Bell was the child prodigy musician whose parents, both psychologists, started him on lessons at age four.  When composer John Corigliano won an Oscar for Best Original Dramatic Score for the 1998 movie, “The Red Violin,” he credited Joshua Bell, the violinist in the recording, and said that Bell “plays like a god.”  The musician in that D.C. Metro station had limitless credentials, the instrument he played was worth seven figures, and he played some of the finest literature written for violin. 

FIND YOUR ADVENT JOY IN JESUS!

1. in the work he came to do for you
2. in the gifts he came to give to you

Text: Isaiah 61:1-3a

Service Video (Sermon starts at 22:55)

Introduction

Life is hectic this time of year.  That’s an understatement!  You have two weeks to get your Christmas shopping done.  Deadlines are looming at work, demanding your attention and taking up extra hours of your time.  The kids need to be carted around everywhere for all of the practices and plays and performances that seem to book the calendar in the last month of the year.  You might be looking forward to a vacation after Christmas, but anyone with an ounce of life experience knows that getting ready for a vacation is no picnic.  Throw in some winter colds, longer than usual rush hour traffic jams, and a few of life’s usual but unexpected setbacks, and it can be a little tricky to keep your chin up and a smile on your face this time of year.

That’s when it’s useful to have a reality check from God.  No one will deny that life this time of year can be hectic.  But let’s consider for a moment the situation that God’s Old Testament people found themselves in in today’s First Lesson.  Our reading comes from Isaiah, one of the most significant books in the Old Testament.  From chapter 40 to the end, Isaiah wrote for a generation of people that had not been born yet, but a generation of people who would find themselves exiled into a foreign land for several decades.  I think we’ll take a traffic jam over a national exile!  What’s worse, this exile was God’s punishment for their sinful waywardness—a punishment God allowed to take place after repeatedly warning them to repent and turn away from their sin.

In that situation, God used Isaiah to bring his Old Testament people some good news that would put joy in their hearts.  Isaiah’s book contained promises of deliverance from their national enemies.  But Isaiah also used the message of their future political deliverance to segue into the more important message about their future spiritual deliverance.  Their greatest joy was not to be found in good news about future political freedom, but in the greater good news that Jesus would accomplish.  And that’s the same good news we need to hear on this Third Sunday in Advent.  Our greatest joy is not in the presents we will exchange in two weeks, or the vacation that will follow the hectic holidays.  Our greatest joy is in Jesus, the Savior who came and is coming again.  Find your Advent joy in Jesus—that’s what Isaiah wants you to hear this morning.  Find your Advent joy in the work that Jesus came to do for you, and in the gifts that Jesus came to bring to you.

I.

Isaiah has sometimes been called the “Fifth Evangelist.”  The title, Evangelist, usually refers to the writers of the first four books of the New Testament, who all wrote about the life and work of Jesus.  When Christians call Isaiah the “Fifth Evangelist,” they are suggesting that Isaiah talks about Jesus nearly as much as the four Bible books that actually recorded Jesus’ life.

The section we are looking at this morning is one of many sections that earned Isaiah the nickname, “The Fifth Evangelist.”  Isaiah may be writing, but Jesus is the One doing the speaking: “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.”  This opening statement describes the Spirit of God coming down on the Speaker because God anointed and appointed the Speaker to preach the gospel.  This statement was fulfilled at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry.  Jesus’ ministry began with his baptism; at that event God sent the Holy Spirit in a visible way on Jesus to anoint him—that is, to publicly appoint him to his special task of preaching the good news that he was the Savior.  Not long after Jesus’ baptism, he served as the guest preacher in his hometown’s synagogue one Sabbath Day.  When it came time for the sermon, he quoted this very section from Isaiah and said that Isaiah’s statement was fulfilled through his preaching.  

AN ANGELIC ADVENT ANNOUNCEMENT–TO JOSEPH

1. Foretelling a miracle child
2. Revealing a miracle faith

Text: Matthew 1:18-25

Note: This sermon is part of an Advent sermon series at St. Mark’s titled, “Angelic Advent Announcements.”  The other sermons in this series include the angels’ announcements to Zechariah (Luke 1:5-25) and Mary (Luke 1:26-38).  The series will conclude with the Christmas Eve sermon based on the angel’s Christmas announcement to the shepherds (Luke 2:8-14).

Introduction

Chad and Lori weren’t quite sure how they were going to get through another Christmas.  Lori was a stay-at-home mother of four.  Her husband Chad held down a well-paying factory job until a month and a half before Christmas.  That’s when company cutbacks terminated his position.  He was a hard worker with good mechanical skills, but for the last four weeks he hadn’t had any luck finding a new job with decent benefits and a good salary.  Suddenly the bills started coming in the mail.  It was a cold winter that year, and the gas bill reflected just how expensive it was to heat their house in December.  The credit card bills had all the charges for the kids’ Christmas presents on them.  And of course, at the worst of all possible times, the family car broke down and needed some pricey repairs.  They sat at the kitchen table one night, worried that everything they had worked so hard for was slipping away before their very eyes.

The next morning, everything changed.  Chad’s great uncle, a successful businessman in his day, passed away at the ripe old age of 96.  Chad hadn’t seen him in a while, but apparently his great uncle hadn’t forgotten about him.  You see, Chad’s name was in his great uncle’s will, and Chad and Lori were about to inherit a small portion of a rather large estate.  The money they received was enough to pay off all those threatening bills and treat the family to a Christmas they would have never imagined.  My, how one little unexpected announcement, via a telephone call, changed their mood and their life!

My, how one not-so-little, very unexpected announcement from God, via his angle, changed Joseph’s mood and his life!   Tonight we turn our attention to another angelic Advent announcement.  Tonight we consider the miraculous Advent announcement to Joseph recorded in Matthew chapter one.  There are two reasons why this announcement was so miraculous.  The angelic Advent announcement to Joseph foretold a miracle child, and it revealed a miracle faith.

I.

In our midweek Advent sermon series, we are considering the angelic Advent announcements that God gave to Zechariah, to Mary, and Joseph.  Among these three, if there was any one who needed to hear his angelic advent announcement right away, it was Joseph.  Zechariah heard a message from the angel that pertained to his future.  So did Mary.  But Joseph badly needed this announcement right at the time when he got it.  Joseph learned that Mary was pregnant, and he knew that the baby wasn’t his.  The only logical conclusion was that Mary had been unfaithful to him.  Operating under this assumption, Joseph planned an action that was actually very noble.  As quietly as possible, he planned to break off his marriage with Mary, without trying to publicly take her to task for what it appeared that she had done. 

REAL THANKSGIVING IS…

1. Thanks in all circumstances
2. Gratitude for all gifts

Text: Philippians 4:10-20

Introduction

Finish this sentence: “It wouldn’t be a ‘real’ Thanksgiving without ___.”  For the first 25 years of my life, I would have said, “It wouldn’t be a ‘real’ Thanksgiving without going over to Aunt Jane’s house for dinner and then playing Royal Rummy with my mom’s side of the family.”  How about you?  “It wouldn’t be a ‘real’ Thanksgiving without ___.”  Dinner at Grandma’s house…turkey with all the fixings…that special side dish that mom makes every year for Thanksgiving…playing card games with the cousins after the meal…or something else?  Many of us have family traditions attached to our personal Thanksgiving celebrations, things we assumed will take place when we gather together to celebrate Thanksgiving Day.  The holidays just wouldn’t feel the same without those cherished traditions we have become accustomed to.

A liturgically-leaning Lutheran liturgist is the last person who is going to tell you to ditch your Thanksgiving family traditions.  Traditions and rituals are ways that we express significance and value when words seem insufficient to make that statement.  But what would happen if your Thanksgiving celebration took place without the usual hoopla?  No traditions, no turkey and trimmings, no tummies filled with delicious delicacies and desserts.  Could you still have a real thanksgiving celebration?  Our gut reaction might be to say, “No,” but our faith assures us that the answer is otherwise.  In fact, you could be standing in the unemployment line, not knowing where the next paycheck is coming from, and consuming nothing more than tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for Thanksgiving dinner, and yet you could still have a more joyous Thanksgiving celebration than the family next door who has more food than they know what to do with.

In this Thanksgiving sermon, we’re going to focus on the words St. Paul recorded in the First Scripture selection read earlier in the service.  Paul’s words will teach us that real thanksgiving is not attached to a meal or a family gathering.  Paul teaches us that real thanksgiving involves thanks in all circumstances, and giving with all gratitude. 

The Liturgy is important because it has repetition. It has been said that the Liturgy is boring. It is like water flowing over a waterfall and boring into a rock. Eventually the water has its way with the seemingly impenetrable rock. Repetition ingrains the Word of God deep into our minds and hearts. Thus, the Word of God is there in times of crisis, persecution, sudden tragedy, and old age to comfort us with what is familiar and sure. Times of tragedy and trial do not require novelty. Reciting the Lord’s Prayer or the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds in the Liturgy sometimes seems tiresome. Yet when the pastor gathers with the troubled, sick, and dying, their confident recitation of liturgical prayers brings comfort and often tears. Estranged spouses pray together, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” A dying Christian whose body is ravaged with cancer receives the Lord’s Supper and confesses with his pastor and family, “I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins, and I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.” 

“I FORGIVE YOU!”

1. Words that relieve a lifetime of guilt
2. Words that reflect the love of God

 Text: Genesis 50:15-21

 Introduction*

The topic would be perfect for Jerry Springer: “Siblings Who Sell Each Other into Slavery.”  Picture Joseph’s brothers on stage, a line up of coarse and questionable characters who openly admit to selling him as a slave.  And they’d have good reasons!  “We hated him because dad loved him best.”  “That fancy robe drove us crazy.”  “We had to stop him from getting carried away with those dreams.”  And then they’d explain how they pulled it off.  “We thought about killing him, but Reuben said no.”  “Stripped his robe right off, tossed him in a pit, and then these Ishmaelites came along.”  “Yeah – so we sold him for 20 shekels.”

Finally, Jerry brings out the surprise guest – Zaphenath-Paneah, the prime minister of world powerhouse Egypt—otherwise known as their long-lost brother, Joseph.  Jerry provokes the brothers a little bit, “Well, guys, what do you have to say to your brother now, or should I say, to the ruler of Egypt?” as Joseph strides in wearing gold jewelry, royal make-up, and flanked by hulking body guards.  Gasp!  The audience oooohs.  Once the brothers recover from shock, the dread sinks their hearts and hangs their heads.  A member of the audience hollers, “Revenge!”  Jerry sees a brawl coming.  The brothers drop to the ground in desperation and bow just like the sheaves of grain in young Joseph’s dream.  Joseph stands over them, and with a tear in his eye lifts up each one with an embrace and says, “Brothers, don’t be scared.  It’s okay.  I forgive you.  God has taken care of everything and brought us together again.”

That’s not the turn of events you’d expect on the Jerry Springer show, but that is the turn of events that took place in today’s First Lesson.  But…really?  Joseph says, “I forgive you,” and that’s it?  What about the miserable life they caused him to have for so many years?  What about the terrible things they had done to him?  Wasn’t it time for revenge?  Jerry Springer’s audience would say “Yes,” but Joseph said, “No.”  Joseph said, “I forgive you.”  And this morning we are going to see why those words of unconditional forgiveness are so remarkable, so miraculous, so amazing, so powerful.  “I forgive you.”  Those are words that can relieve a lifetime of guilt, and they are words that can also reflect the love of God. 

SIN IS SERIOUS!

1. For the ministers God calls to confront sin
2. For the sinners God calls to repent of sin

Text: Ezekiel 33:7-11

I.

You wake up one morning and your back is killing you.  It seems like it takes nothing short of a miracle to get out of bed and stand upright, except that you’re not quite up right.  The day goes on, but you don’t feel any better.  You’ve dealt with back pain before, but nothing quite like this.  So you decide that it’s time for a visit to the chiropractor.  Since you’re a St. Mark’s member, you call up Dr. LeMay.  He takes some x-rays, runs you through some tests, and asks some questions.  He’ll be able to help you, but he also has some advice.  If you want to avoid any reoccurrences of this problem, you should really take up some specific exercises that will keep your spine where it’s supposed to be, and you should think about improving your posture which might have had something to do with your sudden pain.

You’re eating lunch and all of a sudden you have pain in one of your teeth like you’ve never had before.  It seems like any time there’s pressure on that spot, the pain comes back.  You can’t eat or drink without pain, and after a day or two it doesn’t seem to be getting any better.  So you decide it’s time for a visit to the dentist.  Since you’re a St. Mark’s member, you call up Dr. Peterson.  You fill out a questioner, his assistants take some x-rays, and you have an examination.  The news isn’t pretty.  You’ve got a mouth full of cavities.  He’ll be able to help you, but he also has some advice.  If you want to avoid revisiting this situation, you’ll need to brush more carefully, floss daily, and stay on top of your dental health more faithfully.

Question: When our imaginary St. Mark’s member took these imaginary visits to Drs. LeMay and Peterson, do you think the doctors’ advice came from a general desire to boss their patients around and to make them feel miserable for not being in tip-top health?  Or maybe, just maybe, were the doctors interested in helping you avoid major problems in the future?  Of course!  In fact, if doctors are not honest with their patients—even if their honest news is not what the patient wants to hear—they put make themselves liable to a lawsuit.  We want our doctors—any doctor—to tell us what we need to hear, which is not always what we want to hear.

The point of these illustrations is not to give free advertising to medical practitioners who belong to St. Mark’s.  The point of these illustrations is to provide a modern parallel to the illustration that leads up to today’s First Lesson.  The First Lesson from the Old Testament book of Ezekiel is the basis for today’s sermon.  The excerpt you heard begins partway into a chapter.  The opening verses of the chapter, which you didn’t hear, contain an illustration that related to life in the ancient world.  Ezekiel talks about a watchman who sees an enemy coming to attack, and yet the watchman does nothing to warn the people of the city about the impending attack.  Speaking for God, Ezekiel said, “If the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.”  We are far removed from the time and culture in which a watchman guarded a city.  Citrus Heights is not surrounded by a wall and there is no watchman to alert us if the army of Fair Oaks or Roseville decided to attack.  But the point should still be obvious.  An ancient watchman who didn’t issue a warning wasn’t doing his job.  Even if his news isn’t what the city wanted to hear, he needed to report that an enemy was about to attack.  That may not be what the citizens of that city wanted to hear, but it is what they needed to hear.

With those ancient and modern illustrations in mind, listen to what God told Ezekiel in today’s First Lesson.  “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood.  But if you do warn the wicked man to turn from his ways and he does not do so, he will die for his sin, but you will have saved yourself.” 

TOUGH LESSONS FOR TRAGIC TIMES

1. Tragedies are not necessarily God’s punishment for specific sins,
2. But tragedies always call us to repentance for our sin.

 Text: Luke 13:1-5

Introduction

“Where were you when [blank] happened?”  Every generation seems to experience one of those life-changing, world-changing events—events that you’ll never forget, and that you’ll always remember where you were and what you were doing when you found out about it.  The octogenarians here probably remember where you were on December 7, 1941 when Pearl Harbor was bombed and the United States was drawn into World War II.  More of you are able to remember where you were on November 22, 1963 when President Kennedy was assassinated.  I was in my fifth grade classroom at Calvary Lutheran School in Thiensville, Wisconsin, when the principal interrupted our class to tell us that the Challenger space shuttle had exploded on January 28, 1986.  And now to that list, we have added the terrorist attacks on our nation on that fateful Tuesday morning ten years ago.  “Where were you when 9/11 happened?”  If you are at least voting age, you can probably answer that question with a fairly vivid recollection of what happened that morning and what you were doing when the news struck our nation.

A decade has passed since the terrorist attacks shook our nation, but the aftershocks have not gone away.  The American economy has never been the same.  Passing through security in an airport is not as simple as it was before 9/11.  And then there are the many, many families for whom this day is especially bitter, because the attacks on our nation also brought the death of a loved one.  A decade may have passed, but you can still feel the aftershocks, the wounds still hurt, and the questions still remain.  Why would God allow something like this to happen?  Is this some sort of divine judgment on our nation?  What possible good could God bring out of something so evil?

I remember those kinds of questions being asked ten years ago.  I remember that the answers given throughout the American religious community weren’t always in line with God’s Word.  Those questions are still being asked, and less-than-biblical answers are still being offered as conventional spiritual wisdom.

Maybe it’s time for the conventional wisdom to stop.  Maybe it’s time for us to close our lips and open our Bibles and see if the Holy Spirit has given us concrete answers to these kinds of questions in the Word of God.  I suspect that you will not be surprised when I say that there are real answers to those real questions found in Scripture.  In fact, I can think of no more appropriate section of the Bible to turn to on this national day of remembrance than the Gospel that was specifically chosen for this service of remembrance.  So let’s turn our attention to the tough lessons for tragic times that Jesus offers us in today’s Gospel from the first several verses of Luke 13.  That’s where Jesus will teach us that tragedies are not necessarily God’s punishment for specific sins, but that tragedies always call us to repentance for our sin. 

I’m currently reading through the Lutheran Confessions using the Kolb-Wengert translation.  This edition includes the rites for baptism and marriage that Luther prepared.  As I read through Luther’s comments on his marriage service, there were a number of comments that caught my attention — some for their thoughtfulness, some for their humor!  Here are some highlights from Luther (emphasis added) and a few “for what it’s worth” comments from me.

When people request of us to bless them in front of the church or in the church, to pray over them, or even to marry them, we are obligated to do this. Therefore I wanted to offer these words of advice and this order for those who do not know anything better, in case they are inclined to use this common order with us. Others, who can do better (that is, who can do nothing at all and who nevertheless think they know it all), do not need this service of mine, unless they might greatly improve on it and masterfully correct it. They certainly ought to take great care not to follow the same practice as others. A person might think that they had learned something from someone else! Wouldn’t that be a shame?

Luther’s sarcastic humor says essentially the same thing — with a little more “edge” — that he says in a pastoral manner in the introduction to his “German Mass” and in a short letter he wrote called ”A Christian Exhortation to the Livonians” (both are found in Luther’s Works, volume 53).  Luther’s point in those writings is that there is great wisdom when congregations come to a general consensus about worship practices in a brotherly manner.  The tendency for every man (or church) to do his own thing is technically permissible but pastorally unwise, especially when we consider the confusion it causes among the laity and the tension it causes among pastors within the same fellowship.

(If you’d like to read the “Christian Exhortation,” it is an appendix included with this essay).