CHRISTIAN, SPEAK UP!

1. Recognize the possibility of rejection
2. Realize the importance of your message

Text: Romans 10:13-17

Introduction

“Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary, use words.”  This oft-repeated saying has been attributed to St. Francis of Assisi (1181 or ’82—October 3, 1226), although research indicates that he never said these words that are so often attributed to him.  I find it kind of ironic that a man who was known for his lively and unapologetic preaching has a quotation attributed to him that essentially downplays preaching.  But that incorrectly attributed quote seems to have a lot of traction today.  After all, “preach” and “sermon” have almost become dirty words!  Telling others about your Christian faith and why they need to come to grips with Jesus Christ is about as popular as standing up for traditional marriage in downtown San Francisco.  To many, it seems preferable to try to extend Christianity with kind deeds and good works than with a message of the Son of God dying on a cross and being raised back to life.

In the Second Lesson for today’s service, the Apostle Paul has something to say to the modern way of thinking that says that we need more deeds and fewer creeds in the church today.  You can’t preach the gospel without speaking!  The word gospel means “good news,” and the Church can preach the good news in actions about as well as Brian Williams can deliver the NBC Nightly News with mime and skits—in other words, not very well!  News needs to be proclaimed!  And that’s why the Apostle Paul says to each of us this morning: Christian, speak up!  The message of salvation in Christ that you know and believe and need to hear also needs to be heard by others who do not know and believe in Christ.  So Christian, speak up!  When you speak up, recognize the possibility of rejection, but speak up anyway because you realize the importance of your message!

I.

A few moments ago you heard the Gospel account of Jesus calling some of his first disciples (Luke 5:1-11).  He called Peter, James, and John to follow him and become “fishers of men.”  I find it ironic that Jesus calls disciples to proclaim the gospel in Luke chapter five, when just one chapter earlier (and just last Sunday in our weekly church readings) Jesus’ message was resoundingly rejected by the residents of his hometown.  As God, Jesus knew that the incident in Nazareth was only the first of many rejections that would occur, not the least of which was the rejection by his own disciples and his people’s religious leaders that would put him on the cross.

We’re focusing on the Second Lesson from Romans chapter ten in this sermon.  Paul encourages the same kind of missionary activity in this reading as Jesus calls for in the Gospel.  And Paul also recognizes the possibility of rejection along the same lines that Jesus experienced.  Near the end of this reading, after Paul has walked through a series of questions to demonstrate the importance of confessing our Christian faith, he says this:  “Not all the Israelites accepted the good news.  For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our message?’”  Paul was a Jew.  He knew that his fellow countrymen had the advantages and privileges of God’s prophets around them throughout their history.  Even with those advantages, even with the Old Testament ceremonies and prophets pointing to the promised Savior, many of Paul’s countrymen failed to recognize that Jesus was the Messiah they had been waiting for.  Yet Paul’s words in this entire section encourage us to speak up about Christ even in the face of potential rejection.

That’s hard.  That’s really hard.  Who likes rejection?  Kids at recess don’t like rejection when they are shut out of a game that another group of children is playing.  High school boys don’t like it when they girl they ask out to prom says, “No.”  College graduates don’t like it when their job applications are rejected and they can’t find work.  Faithful employees don’t like it when they are rejected for a raise or a promotion.  Our natural distaste for rejection can lead us not to speak up about our faith when rejection seems likely.  But we need to remember that what  is at stake here is not our self esteem, but the salvation of other souls! 

This post is just a short note to let you know that I’ve made a few long-overdue updates to this site.

Due to the recently updated websites operated by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) and Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary (WLS), some links on the Bible Information Class page, the Sunday Bible Class page, and the Media Links page that connected to the WELS and WLS websites were inoperable.  All links should now be up-to-date.  A few of the links connect to the archived version of the old WELS website; while those links work now, they might not in the future when content is moved to the new synod website or if the content is no longer made available.  If you find a link that doesn’t work either now or in the future, please send me an email message.

Secondly, the links on the sidebar have been categoried more precisely under several groups:

• Apologetics Links
• Confessions Links
• Educational Links
• Local Links
• Media Links
• Miscellaneous Links
• WELS Links
• Worship Links

I hope these revisions and updates are helpful!

Here we go again!  Another reason to lure people into church that has nothing to do with the gospel, that fails to understand the essence of the Great Commission and how the means of grace work, that brings people into the local congregation but not into the Holy Christian Church, and that turns the church into a sanctified “Price Is Right.”  But hey, the numbers are up, and we know that it’s always and only about the numbers — but who’s counting?  Much of what I said in a previous “You Can’t Make This Up” post on the Pastor in a Box stunt applies here as well!

CNN:  It Pays to Go to Church

Kudos to a friend and fellow pastor who serves a WELS congregation in Kenosha, Wisconsin, for bringing this to my attention.

P.S. Since it’s Super Bowl Sunday this weekend, you might also enjoy this YCMTU post from last year.

THE FORMULA FOR A FAITHFUL PASTOR

1. The prayers of God’s people
2. The influence of godly parents
3. The gift of God’s power

Text: 2 Timothy 1:3-7

Introduction

Our national church body, the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, holds some pretty high standards for training pastors.  We have about two dozen Lutheran high schools supported by groups of our churches around the country, but as a national church body we also operate two preparatory schools that begin ministry-training for young people already at the high school level.  At the college level, the typical pastor track student must take four years of Greek and two years of Hebrew before entering the Seminary so that he can work with the original languages of the Bible – not to mention all of the other education required for a well-rounded pre-seminary student.  At the seminary level, we have three years of intense academic training, plus a full year of field experience before the final year of classes.  People skills are very important, but we don’t want our pastors to just be people-persons.  We want them to be theologians.  We want them to be scholarly and faithful students of the Word of God.  That is one very important part of the formula for producing faithful pastors.

But it is not the only part of the formula.  The occasion we are observing today helps us to think about several other aspects of the formula for faithful pastors.  Church calendars designate today, January 24, as a day to remember Saint Timothy, the young coworker of the Apostle Paul who personally received two of the letters that Paul wrote and that are included in the New Testament today.  As we think about the way Paul mentored and encouraged his young associate, Timothy, to be a faithful pastor, we naturally think about the formula for producing faithful pastors for the church today.  As we concentrate on words Paul wrote to Timothy in the last book he authored before his death, we will see three very specific and useful ingredients in the formula for a faithful pastor.  Those ingredients are the prayers of God’s people, the influence of godly parents, and the gift of God’s power.

I.

I just mentioned that this letter, 2 Timothy, is the last epistle, or New Testament letter, that Paul wrote before his martyrdom.  When he wrote this letter, he was in prison in Rome for the second time, and it was fairly clear to him that he wasn’t going to make it out alive this time.  That left him with time to think and time to pray.  Paul said, “I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.  Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy.” 

We are presently in the Epiphany season of the church year.  The season begins with Epiphany Day on January 6, which brings an end to the twelve days of Christmas and celebrates the “Gentile Christmas,” the arrival of the Magi from the East who came to worship the boy Jesus in Matthew 2:1-12.  Like Christmas, Epiphany is a festival attached to a particular day on the calendar.  Unlike Christmas, our society doesn’t make much mention of Epiphany.  It’s not a national holiday, and most of our churches do not have a separate service for Epiphany.  Epiphany seems to have unfortunately degenerated into something that we merely count Sundays after: “The First Sunday after Epiphany,” “The Second Sunday after Epiphany,” and so on.  The exception occurs in years when January 6 lands on a Sunday, and Epiphany is celebrated in the regular Sunday morning service.

Since Epiphany is one of the five major festivals in the church calendar (along with Christmas, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost), it seems — at least to this writer — that we ought to consider a way to give this occasion greater attention in worship.  Epiphany suffers a similar fate as Ascension – always occuring 40 days after Easter Sunday, therefore always on a Thursday.  Many congregations move their Ascension celebrations to the Seventh Sunday of Easter (i.e. the Sunday after Ascension) so that the festival isn’t forgotten.  After several years of a sparsely attended Thursday night Ascension service despite promotion, I finally caved a few years ago and moved our celebration to the following Sunday.  I know that some will respectfully disagree, but in my present setting it seems to be the best way to ensure that the occasion is observed by the majority of the congregation.

While fully acknowledging that my proposed solution has its flaws, I would like to suggest that we could handle Epiphany in a similar manner – especially for those settings where a midweek evening service is not feasible.  Several years ago, I prepared a chart that maps out an approach for celebrating Epiphany each year, as well as the other minor festivals that show up during the twelve days of Christmas.  Here are a few thoughts about this proposed approach: 

A WEDDING MISHAP REVEALS THE SAVIOR’S GLORY

1. He uses his glory on his time table
2. He uses his glory to benefit our faith

 Text: John 2:1-11

 Introduction

At a smaller congregation like Gloria Dei, we don’t have many weddings in any given year.  In eight and a half years of ministry, I’ve conducted ten weddings.  But in the twelve years prior to the time I became a pastor, I played organ for several dozen weddings.  And all of those experiences have taught me one thing: Something always goes wrong at a wedding!  With all of the plans and details and logistics that go into a wedding ceremony, something invariably goes awry.  I was once the organist at a wedding that started over a half hour late because that’s when the bride and groom finally arrived—and believe me, you don’t want that to happen if you’re the main musician!  I remember a wedding where the unity candle just wouldn’t be lit—kind of an embarrassing mishap as far as symbolism is concerned!  And those are my “tame” wedding mishap stories.  I can think of far more embarrassing wedding stories, and I’m sure some of you have stories of your own that you could tell.

In the Gospel for today, we have a first century wedding mishap story.  Jesus, his mother, and his disciples were guests at a wedding where a major mishap occurred—not during the ceremony, but during the celebration that followed.  Running out of wine at a Jewish wedding was sort of like a Sunday morning at Gloria Dei without coffee hour—it just doesn’t happen!  But this social faux pas provided the perfect opportunity for the Son of God to reveal his glory for the benefit of his disciples.  Who else but God could take a couple’s social blunder and turn it into something positive and praiseworthy?  And that’s exactly what Jesus did at the wedding in Cana.  A wedding mishap revealed the Savior’s glory.  We will see how Jesus uses his glory on his own timetable, and we will see how Jesus uses his glory to benefit our faith.

I.

Just a few days after Jesus had begun calling disciples to follow him, he arrived in a town called Cana in north central Galilee.  If you can envision a map of the Holy Land in your mind, Cana is located about half way between the large Mediterranean Sea to the west and the small Sea of Galilee to the east.  Jesus was present with his mother, Mary, and his newly called disciples.  We don’t know much about the wedding itself or the particular connection that Mary and Jesus had with the newlywed couple.  Even if we did know the details, they would still pale in comparison to the details that John tells us in our reading.

What John does tell us is that there was a mishap at the wedding celebration.  The wine ran out.  That’s not good news in a day and place when wedding celebrations lasted an entire week.  Not only was this a major social faux pas, but one author I read suggested that couples could have actually been fined if they ran out of food or drink at a wedding!  No wonder Mary felt the need to say to her son, “They have no more wine.”  Mary had not seen Jesus perform a miracle—this account would be his first.  But Mary had not forgotten the angel Gabriel’s appearance to her 30 years earlier, or the visiting shepherds who came after an angelic announcement on the night of Jesus’ birth, or the Wise Men who visited a year or two after that.  These events and everything that occurred since then had been pondered in her heart and percolating in her mind for three decades.  She may not have known specifically what Jesus could do, but she knew that he could do something. 

GOD REVEALS HIS KINDNESS AND LOVE

1. By the appearance of his Son
2. In the sacrament of Baptism
3. With the hope of eternal life

Text: Titus 3:4-7

Introduction

Last week I heard a radio commercial from a northern California casino that was trying to lure listeners into wasting – um, I mean spending – money at their casino.  The commercial advertised a new drawing for a new car that one lucky customer would win.  And here was their radio sales pitch: “Nothing says, ‘I love you’ more than a new car.”  Really?  Now, if some generous person or benevolent business wants to hand me the keys to a new car, who am I to complain?  But what have we come to as a society if we think that the best way to say “I love you” is with an expensive new vehicle?  I can think of plenty more meaningful and less expensive ways to express love!

So can God.  We rightly recognize that God is the giver of every good earthly gift we enjoy.  But in today’s Second Lesson, the apostle Paul gives us three very real ways that God reveals his kindness and love to us, and these ways are far greater and meaningful than any earthly, physical gift anyone else could give us.  This morning, Saint Paul will help us understand that God reveals his kindness and love by the appearance of his Son, in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, and with the hope of eternal life.

I.

We have just begun the season of the church year called “Epiphany.”  The word Epiphany comes from the Greek word epiphaino, which means to reveal something.  For example, when we heard the story of Jesus’ baptism this morning, we saw how God the Father’s words and the Holy Spirit’s descent revealed Jesus as the Savior.

Paul uses that special Greek word epiphaino in this section from his letter to Titus.  It is translated appear in verse four: “When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.”  Jesus’ appearance in this world, whether we think of his birth that we just celebrated or his ministry that began at his baptism, was an act of God’s kindness.  Jesus’ work as our Savior from sin was God’s benevolent action to do what we most needed someone to do – to save us from hell.  Jesus’ appearance was also an act of God’s love – it reveals his affection for humankind, the crown of God’s creation. 

An article I recently wrote has been published in the January 2010 edition of Worship the Lord, a bi-monthly worship newsletter for pastors, published by the WELS Commission on Worship.  The Worship the Lord newsletter is currently offering a twelve-part series on “Worship Words.”  The “worship word” I was asked to write about was catholicity, and the article is titled, “Catholicity: Beyond our Borders.”  Some excerpts from the article are below.  Click here if you would like to see the entire January 2010 edition of Worship the Lord.

The adjective catholic and the noun catholicity, both with lower-case c’s, do not refer to unique practices of the Roman Catholic Church.  Rather, catholic and catholicity point to church practices that are in some sense universal.  A practice may be catholic because it connects us with the church of ages past.  A practice may be catholic because it connects us with other Christians around the world.  Striving for catholicity in worship says that the Church is greater than our local congregation.  Striving for catholicity testifies to the invisible Church.  It comforts us with the knowledge that the Spirit uses the gospel to bring other souls to faith and sustain them in faith (Isaiah 55:10,11) despite their churches’ heterodox confession.  It acknowledges the truth that “we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1).  It takes to heart the encouragement to “remember your leaders, who spoke the Word of God to you.  Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith” (Hebrews 13:7). …

Contrary to the spirit of the radical reformers, Luther’s worship reforms honored the principle of catholicity.  In the preface to his Latin service, Luther stated that his goal was never to start anew, but to preserve what was good and to eliminate the bad.  “It is not now nor ever has been our intention to abolish the liturgical service of God completely, but rather to purify the one that is now in use from the wretched accretions which corrupt it and to point out an evangelical use.”  Since there was really nothing objectionable in the basic outline of the mass, and since the gospel could be proclaimed through a purified liturgy, Luther retained the liturgical flow of worship—and, consequently, a connection with the lower-case c catholic church. 

The following quotation comes from the American Edition of Luther’s Works, Volume 22, a collection of Luther’s sermons on the Gospel of John (chapters 1-4).  This sermon excerpt expounds on the first phrase of John 1:14: “The Word became flesh.”  I offer it here as devotional reading for the 12 days of Christmas.

In our text the Word gets a new name. Earlier in our chapter the evangelist called the Word God, then a Light which came into the world and created the world and yet was not accepted by the world. Now he uses the term “flesh.” He condescends to assume my flesh and blood, my body and soul. He does not become an angel or another magnificent creature; He becomes man. This is a token of God’s mercy to wretched human beings; the human heart cannot grasp or understand, let alone express it. …

The dear church fathers took particular delight in these words; they set great store by them, and they praised God, as we read here and there in their books, for the great honor conferred on us when He humbled himself and assumed our flesh and blood. In Heb. 2:16 we hear: “He did not take on Himself the nature of angels, but humbled Himself and He took on the seed of Abraham.” He became our flesh and blood. Who can express this adequately? The angels are much holier than we poor sinners, and yet He adopted our nature and became incarnate from the flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary.

This fact elicited the awe of St. Bernard and gave rise to many fine thoughts, found especially in his devotions. He gave it as his opinion that this had caused the archfiend Lucifer’s fall and eviction from heaven. Perhaps Lucifer, so St. Bernard supposed, had fore-knowledge of God’s eternal resolution to become a man in time, and not an angel. This provoked his insolence against God. He was aware, of course, that he was a creature more beautiful and excellent in appearance than man. This also aroused his envy of mankind; he begrudged man the high honor of God’s assumption of human nature. This vexed him and his companions. They became envious when they learned that God would despise them and assume human nature. Therefore Lucifer and his hosts fell and were driven out of heaven. …

Although these ideas expressed by St. Bernard do not constitute an article of faith, they do sound plausible. It is indeed annoying to our nature to see God Himself take on this poor, feeble, and corrupt human nature, and disdain the holy, glorious, angelic nature. Thus St. Bernard’s heart and mind gave free play to his reflections on the words of our text, and his meditations betoken his wondering delight over them. That is also what he wants to convey to and impress on us.

LESSONS ABOUT THE 12-YEAR-OLD JESUS FOR THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

1. See his perfect love for his Father’s house
2. See his perfect obedience to his parents’ command

 Text: Luke 2:42-51

Introduction

Two days ago, Jesus was a newborn infant in Bethlehem’s manger.  Two Sundays from today, Jesus will be a thirty-year-old adult who inaugurates his ministry by his baptism in the Jordan River.  That’s quite a bit of material that we’re supposed to cover in the next two weeks!  Maybe it seems that the framers of the church year tried to skip over the details of Jesus’ early life, but the reality is that we do not have many details about Jesus’ first thirty years.  We know about his naming and circumcision on the eighth day of his life.  We know that he was presented to the Lord in the temple according to Jewish law on the fortieth day of his life.  We know that Magi from the East came to worship the toddler Jesus when he was around18-24 months old.  We know that King Herod tried to kill the toddler Jesus when he learned about the Magi’s visit, and that Jesus’ family escaped to Egypt.  We know that after the death of King Herod, Jesus’ family moved to the town of Nazareth.  But that’s about it for the early years of Jesus’ life.

Well, there is one more story.  In the Gospel for today, Saint Luke tells us about an interesting incident that took place when Jesus was a twelve-year-old boy.  Considering that we will start the Epiphany season very soon and focus on the ministry of the adult Jesus, there seems to be no better time to consider this lesson about the twelve-year-old Jesus than during these twelve days of Christmas.  So this morning we will consider what lessons we can learn about the twelve-year-old Jesus and how they apply to us and our faith.  Luke encourages us to see Jesus’ perfect love for his Father’s house, and to see his perfect obedience to his parents’ command.

I.

A street corner evangelist was preaching to all the passers-by at a busy intersection, telling the passing pedestrians they needed to find Jesus.  As one little girl walked by, he said to her, “Little girl, have you found Jesus?”  And the little girl said, “Found Jesus?  I didn’t know he was lost.”  We all know what the street corner evangelist meant, but the little girl made his question sounds kind of ridiculous.  How does the Son of God become lost?

But as silly as it sounds, that’s what happened in the Gospel for today.  Mary and Joseph had the embarrassing distinction of losing God—not figuratively, but literally!  Mary and Joseph dutifully made an annual journey from Nazareth south to Jerusalem each year for the Passover.  (Our reading says that they went “up” to Jerusalem even though they traveled south, because the city itself was 2,500 feet above sea level).  When Jesus was twelve years old, he was able to come on the trip with his parents for the first time.