“I WILL BE WITH YOU ALWAYS”

1. Jesus provides us the message
2. He also provides us the ministers

 Introduction

Now what?  After four years of school, you have completed your assignments, written the essays, passed the exams, and are ready to receive your degree.  Graduation day comes, you walk across the stage to receive your diploma from the president of the college, and then have a party with family and friends to celebrate your accomplishment.  But now what?  You’ve been in school your entire life.  Going to class is the only routine you know.  But life goes on.  The routine changes.  You need to find employment and put your education to work in the real world!

Now what?  After three years of “Jesus seminary,” the apostles had been taught everything Jesus was going to teach them, Jesus’ saving work was completed, and they had witnessed the risen Lord over the 40 days following his resurrection.  But now what?  Life went on.  The routine changed.  They had a new assignment, and it was time to put their education to work and carry out the mission of the church.

Today is the Sunday between Ascension (celebrated last week Thursday) and Pentecost (celebrated next Sunday).  The First Lesson for today’s service records a gathering of leaders in the infant Christian church that took place between Ascension and Pentecost.  Jesus’ apostles had finished their educational program with Jesus and had even participated in the commencement exercises known as Jesus’ Ascension.  Now what?  Were they now completely on their own?  Was the Christian Church bound to stand or fall based on their strategic planning?  It might look like they were left to their own, but Jesus promised them in today’s Verse of the Day, “I will not leave you as orphans.”  And before the Ascension he promised, “I will be with you always to the very end of the age.”  And he has.  Today’s First Lesson shows us that although Jesus was not with his church physically, he was still with them because Jesus provided the message they were to proclaim, and he would also provide them the ministers to proclaim that message.

I.

Our reading begins with a problem.  Luke writes, “In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) and said, ‘Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus—he was one of our number and shared in this ministry.’”  Judas, one of the original twelve apostles, was no longer an apostle.  On Thursday night of Holy Week, he betrayed Jesus, leading his enemies to Jesus in the dark of night.  It was not long after this that Judas realized what he had done and hung himself in despair.  I’m not going to reread verses 18-19 from our reading, but they depict the gory scene that followed Judas’ suicide.  The bottom line is the apostles were now missing one from their number.

Perhaps someone could argue that there wasn’t necessarily a reason to replace Judas.  And if God hadn’t spoken about the issue, that would be a fair observation.  But God not only knew what Judas would do before it happened; he also wanted there to be a replacement.  The proof comes in verse 20, where Peter quotes two different verses from the Psalms.  The first verse came from Psalm 69: “May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it.”  The original quote used the plural: “May their place be deserted,” but the Holy Spirit directed Peter to see that this verse, which spoke about the Savior’s enemies, could be applied to one specific enemy who had betrayed Jesus.  The other quote came from Psalm 109, and spoke about the need to replace Judas: “May another take his place of leadership.” 

Now churches can share the Lord’s supper … and nothing more.

It has been a long time since I posted, and it’s been an even longer time since I posted something in the YCMTU category, which stands for “You Can’t Make This Up!”  Not only have I not been blogging much, but I also haven’t been following the blogosphere nearly as much as I used to.  (That’s probably a good thing).  But every now and then I cave and check out what others have written.  This YCMTU gem comes after my visit to Cyberbrethern yesterday, the blog of CPH editor Paul McCain.  He said, “No, I’m not making this up.”  And I say, “You can’t make this up!”

Passing the bread and wine may also be passing 80% of all contagious illnesses.

It’s troubling, but true. The majority of all infectious diseases are passed by human contact.* During cold and flu season congregations are all at a greatly increased risk for shared sickness every time the cup and bread are passed.

Purity Communion brings an innovative way to keep the host both sacred and sanitary. The Body + Blood Host and Dispensing System provides a totally hygienic way to protect the participants and sanctity of communion. Wafers are wine-infused, baked and packaged in sleeves for the Purity dispenser – ready for your communion service.

*Source: Web MD

That’s a direct quote from the website selling hands-free host dispensers.  The desire not to spread germs is the selling point.  Let’s think about this!  Our Lord Jesus probably did not use Purell hand sanitizer prior to distributing the bread during the institution of Holy Communion, nor did he consult the Centers for Disease Control and ask for their opinion regarding the wisdom of a common chalice for the distribution of the wine.  American pragmatism aside, I wonder if anyone considered the implications of this position.  Do we really want to imply that our omniscient Lord was unwise and unsanitary when he instituted the Sacrament for his Church?

I’m not at all suggesting that church leaders should strive to be obnoxiously unsanitary in their approach to the distribution of Holy Communion.  But it seems to me that we would be better spent sharing more concern about the real harm that could come when we do not receive the sacrament properly (a.k.a. 1 Corinthians 11:27-30) rather than the assumed harm that could come via germs.  At some point, we need to have a simple faith in the Sacrament of our Lord’s body and blood.

Yep.  You can’t make this up.

On March 11, 2012, I have the privilege to preach for the installation service of Pastor Brian Doebler, one of my seminary classmates who is being installed as the new pastor at Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church in Redding, California.  Here is the sermon for that service.

THE RIGHT RESOLUTION FOR MT. CALVARY CONGREGATION

1. Don’t focus on a pastor’s personal style
2. Focus on the pastor’s faithful preaching

Text: 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

Introduction

Significant events on the calendar or in our lives tend to be times when people make resolutions.  The start of a New Year is also the start of New Year’s resolutions.  Ash Wednesday isn’t much different, as many Christians use the start of Lent as the time to stop doing something.  Getting married, or the birth of a child, or another major life event is also the trigger for people to make resolutions about their lives and their futures.

Today appears to be no exception.  The dialogue we spoke at the start of this service suggests that you have been thinking about what it means to be a Bible-based, Christ-centered, gospel-proclaiming, Means-of-Grace-administering, Lutheran congregation.  The installation of your new pastor today is the ideal time to make some resolutions for your future together as pastor and people.  The worship committee of this congregation selected 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 as the Second Lesson for this service, and these words of St. Paul provide a fitting focus as you begin your time together as pastor and people.  St. Paul’s inspired words will help you to make the right resolution for Mt. Calvary congregation.  And that resolution is quite simple: Don’t focus on a pastor’s personal style, but focus instead on the pastor’s faithful preaching.

I.

What do you suppose the apostle Paul was like as a pastor and preacher?  You wouldn’t find too many people who would argue against the idea that Paul was the greatest missionary the Christian church has ever seen.  He is the author of nearly half of the New Testament’s books.  After Jesus, it seems safe to say that Paul is the most important figure in the New Testament.  Surely he must have had a quite a “pulpit presence” when he preached and taught.

Well…that’s not what it sounds like if we listen to Paul’s own description of himself.  Our reading begins, “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.”  Paul said that he had neither words nor wisdom that would have been perceived to be superior to everything else they had ever heard or learned.  There was nothing flashy about Paul’s message.  He simply proclaimed “the testimony about God,” a message that he defined in the next verse as “Jesus Christ and him crucified.” There was nothing particularly impressive to talk about a guy that died a criminal’s death via the most gruesome form of capital punishment concocted in the first century.

But then Paul takes his self-analysis a step further.  Not only does he say that his message wasn’t all that stunning by worldly standards, but he says that his own personal style was rather unimpressive.  “I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.” 

While doing some research on a different topic, I came across the following quotation about the benefits of using a lectionary — a predetermined series of readings for Sundays and festivals built around the seasons of the church year.  The quote comes from James White, author of the book, Protestant Worship, a long-time professor at Notre Dame University, who died in 2004.

A curious link unites the worship of many liberal and fundamentalist congregations. Their use of Scripture in worship falls into the “when convenient” category. Scripture functions in the worship of thousands of Protestant congregations only as a means of reinforcing what the preacher wants to say. This use makes the Bible an optional resource rather than the source of Christian worship. It is forgotten that Scripture is read in worship not as a sermon text but as God’s word to God’s people. The sermon follows as a faithful exposition of what the Scriptures mean for our time. The new reforms encourage the reading of three lessons plus the singing of a psalm each week. 

The recent ruling from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has caused a great deal of concern among religious institutions that will now be required by the federal government to provide forms of contraception, through their insurance providers, that violate Christian beliefs and values about the beginning and sanctity of human life.  Several fine statements have been issued by other confessional Lutherans, including the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS, the “sister synod” of the WELS; see text) and the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS; see text, video).  Today the following statement was released by Pastor Mark Schroeder, president of my national church body, the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS):

Recently the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that it will require all health care plans, including those provided by religious organizations, to include coverage for contraceptives, abortive drugs, and medical procedures that are contrary to the doctrinal positions of many Christian churches and denominations. This action is a clear and unprecedented threat to the religious liberty guaranteed to all citizens by the First Amendment. No religious organization should be required by the government to support or facilitate activities which are in clear violation of its principles and beliefs.

The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod holds to the biblical teaching that human life begins at conception and that the unborn are fully human beings, created by God. We are deeply distressed that the government of the United States would require the health care plans of our church-affiliated organizations to provide abortion-inducing drugs or other procedures that would end the life of an unborn child and would require coverage for any other medical treatment that violates our teachings and conscience. 

Other than sermons, and despite intentions otherwise, I have been rather quiet on my blog lately.  You may have noticed that I added a serious of pictures that rotate as the header; the pictures come from past and present congregations I have served (going back to my vicar year), and from the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary chapel, the Martin Luther College chapel, and past WELS National Worship Conferences.  There are also a few updates on the pages (specifically the Media page, Sunday Bible Class page, and Bible Information Class page), but I haven’t written any new posts lately.  So what’s the solution?  Answer: Quote someone else! 

Earlier today, WELS President Mark Schroeder sent an email message to called workers; his message follows these preliminary comments.  Over the past year or so, WELS has been dealing with the issue of Bible translations in the publications of Northwestern Publishing House (NPH), the official publishing company for the WELS.  In the past, NPH publications used the New International Version (NIV), which had last been updated in 1984.  When Zondervan, the NIV’s publisher, released a newly updated translation of the NIV in 2011, it appeared that WELS materials published by NPH could no longer use the previous NIV 1984 in its products.  Pres. Schroeder’s email message noted an interesting development: NPH will not be prevented from using the “old” NIV 1984 in future publications so long as it does not comprise more than 20% of a product’s content.  This development would allow WELS and NPH to continue to use the NIV 1984 after 2013, which had previously been thought to be the final year that the NIV 1984 could be used in publications.  More importantly, this provides more time for an unhurried discussion and decision on the translation that NPH will use for its future publications.

I won’t rehash all of the arguments for and against the “new” NIV 2011.  Personally, I find the entire matter to be a “pick your poison” discussion.  There are revisions that I appreciate about the new NIV, especially as I work with it and other translations side-by-side in personal study.  But I also find the most common arguments against it to be persuasive (with respect to gender neutrality and Old Testament prophecy).  While I personally don’t mind the literal nature of the English Standard Version (ESV), and I do appreciate The Lutheran Study Bible (which uses the ESV) as a helpful resource, I do not find the ESV’s ”formal correspondence” approach to be beneficial for public worship or Catechism instruction.  The average adult in the pew or teen in the classroom is going to have a difficult time understanding some of the ESV’s archaic-sounding language, and it is the average person that we ought to be most concerned about.  I’m also a little bothered by claims from some voices that say that Luther was in favor of a very literal, word-for-word, ”formal correspondence” translation; there is plenty of documentation to the contrary (here’s one essay on that matter), including Luther’s own comments about translation.  The Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) interests me, and I have heard positive comments about it from voices outside WELS circles, but I am aware that its present version has some quirkiness, especially with the way the proper name for God is translated in the Old Testament (both “Yahweh” and “LORD”).  Truth be told, I have changed my opinion on the “translation vote” several times; if you asked me for a vote right now, about all I could say with confidence is, “present.”  That’s not exactly a bold statement, but it is an honest one. 

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. 

GREATNESS AMONG THE COMMON

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

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

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.