This past October I presented a paper at our district’s pastors’ conference titled, “Neither Papistic nor Karlstadtian: Luther’s Principles of Adiaphora Applied to the Liturgical Life of the Church.”  I’ve already posted the paper and described the assignment in a previous post.  In this post, I’d like to expand on one of the discussions that took place during the “Question and Answer” session after the essay was presented.

For those who haven’t yet checked out the essay, I’ll provide a short summary here.  The paper had to do with Luther’s comments about adiaphora (Christian freedom) as it applies to worship.  Since there are no “worship laws” in the New Testament, there is not a set form that Christians must follow when they gather for public worship.  But Luther recognized that it is not necessarily beneficial for every church to do its own thing.  Luther encouraged a general commonality in practice, particularly for churches that were located in the same region.  His concern was for the lay people, who would be easily confused – understandably so – if churches that otherwise shared a common confession of faith used worship practices that were greatly different from one another.  The essay quoted Luther extensively, and then considered how we could put Luther’s concepts into practice in our own day and within our own church body.

One of the pastors who spoke during the question and answer period asked about the practice of sermons that seemed more like a Bible Class — more of a time to study and learn about the Word, and less of a time for straight proclamation of the Word.  The pastor who spoke was not in favor of sermons in a Bible study style, and (if my memory is correct) he thought that it might be an example of differing practices that would cause confusion for the lay people of our churches.  He sensed that Bible study style sermons were becoming more common, and wondered what my thoughts were on that particular issue.

I was glad this issue was raised.  Even though it wasn’t on my mind when I wrote the paper, it has been on my mind frequently in the past.  I can’t remember how many times others (both pastors and laypeople) have also made comments (both positive and negative) about sermons that were more like Bible classes.  Those in favor of a Bible study style sermon believe that it’s just another way to get people into the Word of God.  Those who are against it haven’t always been able to identify what they consider the problem to be, but they have sensed that something just isn’t quite right about the concept.  I am oversimplifying the situation a bit and lumping reactions into one of two groups, but those two groups of reactions have been common in my discussions with others.

In my response, I cited 2 Peter 3:18.  “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”  Peter encourages us to grow in grace and knowledge.  These are certainly not exclusive, but there are some distinctions we should note.

Growing in grace means that we grow in our reception of God’s undeserved love and forgiveness to us.  This means we come into contact with the gospel, the good news of Jesus’ redeeming work to save lost sinners.  We receive the forgiveness of sins in absolution, in the proclamation of the gospel in Scripture and sermon, in a return to and remembrance of the blessings of baptism, and in the Lord’s Supper.  Through these, we grow in grace.  We receive God’s undeserved love and forgiveness time and time again.

Growing in knowledge means that we study the Word of God.  We’re not content to remain stagnant in our knowledge of Scripture.  We build on the basic truths of law and gospel and dig more deeply into the spiritual truths God has revealed in his Word.  This learning process often benefits our growth in grace as well.  As the head elder at my congregation likes to say, when you come to Bible study, the church service makes a lot more sense.  Or, to pick up on Peter’s language, growing in knowledge often helps us to grow in grace.

But just because someone has correct Scriptural knowledge does not mean that they are growing in grace and in faith.  As an example, take the story of Jesus healing the lame man who was brought to him in Mark 2:1-12.  If someone were presenting a Bible class on this account, he would have all sorts of material to discuss.  He could put up a map on a PowerPoint slide and locate the city of Capernaum.  He could explain how ancient homes were built and how the paralytic’s friends could have lowered him on a mat from the roof of the house.  He could describe the religious presuppositions of the teachers of the law.  He could explain the points of grammar in Jesus’ response to his critics.  He could offer theories as to why the man was paralyzed.  He could remind the class of the profound nature of the miracle, that a man who hadn’t used his leg muscles for a very long time walked out in front of the entire crowd with no problem.

All of that is useful information.  But knowing where to find Capernaum on a map doesn’t strengthens faith.  All of that is biblical.  But none of it is truly the gospel, the good news of Jesus’ work of redemption, proclaimed and applied to a specific person or group of people.

I thought of this again in my recent sermon on Luke 3:1-6 for the Second Sunday in Advent.  The account begins with a list of various government officials in and around Judea at the time John the Baptist started his ministry.  In the sermon, I specifically said that if we were in Bible Class, I would spend some time explaining the background behind each official mentioned; but since this was a sermon, I simply identified the year that this information likely took us to, and then moved on to other points.  The historical information about figures like Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate, Herod, Philip, Lysanias, Annas, and Caiaphas is interesting, factual, and useful.  But this data, in and of itself, is not the gospel; therefore this data, in and of itself, does not strengthen faith.

There are times when education is necessary in order to achieve gospel proclamation.  The Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8:26-40 needed to understand what Isaiah’s words meant (vv. 30-34) before Philip could apply the good news of Jesus to him personally (v. 35).  In last Sunday’s sermon on Zephaniah 3:14-17, I felt that a fair amount of explanation (education) was necessary at the start of the sermon, because it would have been much more difficult to preach law and gospel without establishing the text’s background first.  Educating in the sermon is important, but it is not an end to itself.  Education leads to the true end or goal, which is appropriating law and gospel to the congregation.  In other words, teaching leads to preaching.  And Scripture calls us not just to teach the facts, but to preach the gospel (Mark 16:15, Romans 10:14, 1 Corinthians 1:21, 2 Timothy 4:2).

I am painting with a broad brush here, and I don’t want to deny that there are exceptions to these observations.  But I have also noticed the trend to fill sermons with lots of data — the kinds of information I described above — but with very little direct proclamation of the forgiveness of sins that was won for us by Christ’s redeeming work.  I’ve seen fill-in-the-blank sermon outlines that are geared toward increasing knowledge about the text but not necessarily increasing the opportunities to present the gospel through the text.  I’ve seen PowerPoint sermons that have been heavy on data-filled bullet points.  I’ve heard sermons where the data has filled up quite a bit of preaching time, but the application of that data through the cross and empty tomb of Jesus (i.e. the gospel!) has been limited to a passing sentence or two.  And I suspect there were quite a few lay people listening to those sermons who thought that everything was fine because the sermons were biblical — even though they weren’t necessarily evangelical (i.e. centered on the gospel).

The following distinction might be helpful: Worship and preaching are not remembrance, but anamnesis.  Remembrance is merely calling something from the past to mind.  But anamnesis recalls the past in a living way today.  The past is brought alive in the present.  As an example, think about the Lutheran understanding of the Lord’s Supper.  We do not merely remember Jesus’ institution of the Sacrament around the Passover table and his subsequent death on the cross the next day.  We may do that, but there is so much more happening:  Jesus’ body and blood are truly present and received by every communicant.  As we partake of this sacred gift in faith, Christ is present to apply the forgiveness of sins that he won for us on the cross directly to our souls.  That’s not merely data or head knowledge.  That’s grace, won for us in the past and coming to us personally in the present!  That’s anamnesis.

I believe that we pastors would do our laypeople a tremendous service if we thought of preaching as anamnesis (growing in grace) rather than remembrance (growing in knowledge).  I can’t say it enough that these are not mutually exclusive.  But they are different.  If my main goal is to increase the assembly’s knowledge, then the tools of the classroom will become my aides — PowerPoint, maps, charts, fill-in-the-blank outlines, etc.  But if my main goal is to apply the undeserved love of God in Christ to the body of believers before me, then I will view myself as less of an educator and more of a herald.  I will simply concern myself with preaching the message, and then letting the Holy Spirit do his work when and where he wills.  I may educate in the sermon, but my main goal will be anamnesis — to proclaim the wrath of God against these people’s sins, to announce the love of God for these people in the sacrifice Jesus offered for them, and to apply the forgiveness of God to these people by taking them to the cross and empty tomb as the source of their pardon and peace with God.

In other words: Preach the gospel!

Warning: The following post has nothing to do with liturgy, theology, or apologetics — although the picture was taken on a trip to Wisconsin when I was flying back to be a guest preacher for a church anniversary service, if that counts.  But I digress.

Do you know that feeling you get when you have to go through airport security?  Everyone is in a rush, the kids are tired and cranky and confused,  you have to take off your shoes and your jacket and empty out the change from your pockets, you hope everyone gets through the metal detector without setting it off because you didn’t think that the foil gum wrapper in your back pocket would set it off and lead to a body search … you get the idea.  Going through airport security can make one feel a bit discombobulated.  Well, discombobulate no more!  Our friends at the Concourse D security checkpoint at Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport have come up with the solution to make those feelings of discombobulation go away.  And here it is…

Recombobulation -- is that even a word?

Over the weekend, the number of hits on this blog since its inception crossed the 30,000 mark.  Back at 10,000 hits, I offered a post with the most popular posts to date.  Although I didn’t mention the 20,000-hit milestone, I thought that I would do the same now as I did at 10,000 hits and list the most popular posts to date.  If you’d like to compare, check out the post from March 14, 2009 when the blog crossed 10,000 hits.

At 10,000 hits, I listed the top thirteen posts, because that’s how many had received at least 100 hits.  This time, there are thirteen posts that have received at least 250 hits, so I’ll stick with a list of thirteen again — and here they are:

1. Advent Wreath 101 (2,283)
2. Sermon on Romans 8:18-25 (604)
3. WELS President Gets “Issues, Etc.” Thumbs-Up! (559)
4. YCMTU: Joel Osteen, Pork, and Shrimp (491)
5. Sermon on Acts 16:25-34 (447)
6. Good Friday Sermon (406)
7. Think You Don’t Like Ceremony?  Think Again!  (392)
8. Sermon on Romans 7:15-25 (360)
9. Sermon on Isaiah 55:6-9 (337)
10. Sermon on Matthew 25:1-13 (336)
11. Church Anniversary Sermon (317)
12. Published Essay: Proclaiming the Gospel in Worship (293)
13. YCMTU: Pastor in a Box (255)

JOY INSTEAD OF JUDGMENT

Text: Zephaniah 3:14-17

A few months ago, my brother-in-law was called into his boss’s office along with one of the other employees.  Because layoffs had already hit others, they figured that they were next.  I suppose that they mentally braced themselves for the bad news they expected to hear.  You can imagine their surprise when their boss sat them down in his office and said, “Due to the economy, we have to have another round of layoffs.  The two of you are the only ones we’re keeping.”  Now, that’s not exactly great news.  No one likes to hear that others are losing their jobs.  But they were expecting a pink slip, and instead they got some personal good news—perhaps not in the way they’d like to get good news, but still good news for them personally.

If you could travel back in time and space to the setting that today’s First Lesson was written in, and if you could interview the people that lived in ancient Judah at that time, you might find a nation of people who were expecting to be hit by some pretty awful news.  I’m not talking about unemployment.  I’m talking about being on the wrong side of God’s judgment.  Our First Lesson comes from a little, three-chapter long Old Testament book called Zephaniah.  The first two and a half chapters of Zephaniah are packed with hellfire and brimstone.  God was more than a little displeased with the moral depravity of his ancient people, and God did not pull his punches when he described what his people had coming.  But when Zephaniah’s book reached its final section, God’s words took a very unexpected turn.  This was a turn far more profound than someone who expects a layoff hearing that he still has a job.  Here was a group of people expecting the thunderbolts of God’s judgment, and instead they were given an unexpected and undeserved message of pure joy.  Joy instead of judgment—that is the gist of what Zephaniah has to say in our First Lesson.

I’m fairly certain that there are not too many of us here today who know what the state of affairs were like in Judah around 630 B.C.  And I’m equally certain that there are not too many of us here today who know much about the Old Testament book called Zephaniah.  So allow me to set the scene for you, because the larger scene will help us appreciate the specific words in today’s First Lesson. 

Zephaniah was a prophet who traced his ancestry back to Hezekiah, one of the godliest kings in Judah’s history.  Since there was royal blood in his ancestry, Zephaniah was also a distant relative of the king who reigned in Judah at the time he served as a prophet; that was King Josiah.  Josiah, like Hezekiah, was one of the good, moral, godly kings of Judah.  But Josiah took over the kingdom at a time when the nation was a spiritual cesspool.  One of the history books in the Old Testament tells us how Josiah tried to make a clean sweep of all the idolatrous practices in ancient Israel:

“In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, [Josiah] began to seek the God of his father David.  In his twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles, carved idols and cast images.  Under his direction the altars of the Baals were torn down; he cut to pieces the incense altars that were above them, and smashed the Asherah poles, the idols and the images.  These he broke to pieces and scattered over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them” (2 Chronicles 34:3-4).

We’d give an “A+” to Josiah for his reforms and for restoration of a godly direction in the nation, but we’d also have to give an “F” to the nation of Judah for constantly sinking into sin.  It’s no surprise that prophets like Jeremiah and Zephaniah, who lived at this time, supported Josiah’s reforms with their prophetic work.  In his short book, Zephaniah repeatedly referred to the “day of the Lord” – a day that was coming in their future when God would dish out his just judgment for all the godless and moral filth that permeated ancient Judah.  Read through the first two and a half chapters of Zephaniah’s little book.  You won’t get any hint of a “happily ever after” ending.  Zephaniah’s words in this book make John the Baptist’s warnings in today’s Gospel sound like “Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood” by comparison.  Judgment, judgment, judgment—that was Zephaniah’s message.

Imagine the complete shock and surprise Zephaniah’s audience experienced when they came across these words in today’s First Lesson from the end of Zephaniah’s book.  These people should have expected a message of just judgment, but Zephaniah surprises them with a message of unexpected joy.  “Sing, O Daughter of Zion; shout aloud, O Israel!  Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O Daughter of Jerusalem!  The Lord has taken away your punishment, he has turned back your enemy.  The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you; never again will you fear any harm.”

Anytime someone repeats himself, you know he is trying to make an important point.  When Zephaniah says the same thing four times at the start of our reading, you know he is trying to make an important point.  “Sing!”  “Shout aloud!”  “Be glad and rejoice!”  In four different ways, Zephaniah tells his readers to rejoice.  We have already explained why they would not have seen this coming.  Why should they rejoice over a hellfire and brimstone day of the Lord coming in their future?  “Repent” might be a better word for them—and that was certainly the message God had proclaimed through Zephaniah’s earlier comments.  But now the message is clearly, “Rejoice!”  And that begs the question: Why?

Here comes the news that none of them could have predicted.  “The Lord has taken away your punishment, he has turned back your enemy.  The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you; never again will you fear any harm.”

Breaking news!  These people were getting ready to duck at the oncoming thunderbolts of God’s judgment for sin.  Instead, “The Lord has taken away your punishment.”  Zephaniah previews God’s greatest act in all of human history and delivers news that Judah did not expect.  They could stand before God on the last, great “day of the Lord,” because “the Lord has taken away your punishment.”  Zephaniah previews for his people and reviews for us God’s unexpected and undeserved grace in Christ.  Hundreds of years after Zephaniah did his work, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, did his redeeming and reconciling work on the cross.  Another Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, vividly spoke about Jesus’ redeeming work in his book: “He was pierced for our transgressions.  He was crushed for our iniquities.  The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).  Everything that Judah had coming, came to Jesus as he endured God’s judgment for sin on the cross.  The judgment for sin is gone—and so is the barrier between God and mankind!  That’s why Zephaniah adds, “The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you; never again will you fear any harm.”  God gives them joy instead of judgment!

One of the realities of being a parent is that you are always cleaning up someone else’s mess.  Your children scatter their toys all over the living room, and pretty soon it’s almost impossible to take a step without stepping on something that’s not supposed to be there.  Even if you teach your children to clean up after themselves, you help them clean up their toys because you want them to stay focused on their task and to make sure everything is properly cleaned up.  Those are moments that you don’t exactly relish, but that’s simply reality when you are a parent.

Imagine the mess that our sins must look like to God.  He calls on his children to love him wholeheartedly, but we place anything and everything higher on our personal priority list.  He calls us to love others to the same degree that we love ourselves, and we look at others—even others in our family or in our church—like they are a nuisance, an inconvenience, an unlovable and undesirable intrusion into our lives.  Truth be told, Tiger Woods isn’t the only one who has made a mess of his life.  Each of us in our own way, a way that may not be scandalous to the world but still offensive to God, has messed our lives with sin.  And so God, our heavenly Father, sent his Son to clean up our mess, to pay the penalty for our sin, and to undo the otherwise eternal damage we had done.

That sounds like a task God wouldn’t exactly relish.  But in another unexpected statement, Zephaniah tells us that God relished and rejoiced at the opportunity to rescue us.  “The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save.  He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”  Think about that!  God not only cleaned up our mess, but he rejoices over our cleaned-up status.  Jesus not only endured your hell on the cross, but he was willing and determined to endure it on your behalf!  Jesus not only faced the death your sin deserved, but then he conquered death for you!  God delights in the people he has made his own, and that means that he delights in you!  Not only does he give you joy instead of judgment, but it brings him joy to give you the joy of his forgiveness.

Last Sunday, the Word of God really let us “have it!”  The Second Sunday of Advent has a strong repentance focus.  Last Sunday we were reminded how serious sin is, and how seriously we ought to listen to God’s call to repent.  Critics will say that a hard-hitting repentance message is just an artifact of Medieval Christianity or pagan religion.  Skeptics will claim that a hard-hitting repentance message is just the church’s way to manipulate people.  But God’s call to repent is very real and relevant.

Perhaps you felt the flames of hell nipping at your feet when we talked about repentance last Sunday.  Perhaps you feel the judgment of God coming down from the heavens as you listened to Zephaniah’s words today.  As much as that may make you uncomfortable, a spiritual reality check like that is good.  We live in a world that psychologizes sin away and sanitizes death.  Seldom do we come to grips with the reality that God’s judgment is coming, and that our life’s story ought to put us on the wrong side of that judgment.

God wants you realize that.  He wants you to know that his Son’s judgment is coming and that you ought not be on the right side of his judgment when Christ returns.  He wants you to know that so that he can take you by surprise with his shockingly generous grace.  He wants to fill your hearts with joy and take away your fear of judgment.  And in his Son Jesus, he has.  “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  “Jesus was delivered over to death for our sins and raised to life for our justification” (Romans 4:25).  “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

The Second Sunday of Advent has a strong repentance focus—and you probably sensed that last week.  The Third Sunday of Advent has a strong joy focus—and I hope you sense that today.  In fact, last Sunday’s message of judgment helps us to appreciate this Sunday’s message of joy.  We can hardly appreciate the news that Jesus came to be our Savior if we do not recognize that we need a Savior in the first place.  We can hardly appreciate the joy of the redeemed if we do not understand that we were once heading for the judgment of the damned.  The final judgment is still coming, but for you whose trust is in the wounds of your Savior, that day will be a day of joy.  Jesus has given you forgiveness and faith now, and a heavenly future with him forever.  Jesus has given you joy instead of judgment.  “Rejoice!  Rejoice!  Emmanuel shall come to you, O Israel.”  Amen.

REPENTANCE IS SERIOUS BUSINESS!

1. Isaiah previewed John’s call to repentance
2. John proclaimed God’s call to repentance
3. God desires that we come to repentance

Text: Luke 3:1-6

Introduction

We Lutherans can be some pretty odd creatures!  I’m sure that members of every Christian denomination poke fun at themselves and say similar things about themselves, but we Lutherans certainly have our unique quirks.  As the stereotype goes, Lutherans will drink coffee at any gathering regardless of the temperature outside.  It could be 110 degrees, but we still want our coffee!  Another stereotype about Lutherans is that we don’t like to change.  Maybe you have heard the joke: How many Lutherans does it take to change a light bulb?  The answer: Change?  Lutherans don’t change!

I’m not so sure those stereotypes are entirely accurate, but here is a characteristic about Lutherans that I have found to be true on many occasions.  Ask a Lutheran what his or her favorite seasons of the church year are.  When I have found myself in those discussions, the answers are usually not Christmas or Easter, the celebratory seasons.  I have no scientific way to confirm this, but in my experience it seems like the favorite seasons of the church year among Lutherans are Advent and Lent.  Think about that.  Advent and Lent, the preparatory seasons; not Christmas and Easter, the celebratory seasons.  Advent and Lent, the time you talk about sin and repentance; not Christmas and Easter, the joyous Christmas song of the angels and the joyous resurrection announcement from the angels.  Could anything be so odd as to prefer seasons that focus on repentance instead of victory?

Today is the Second Sunday in Advent.  Of all the Sundays in Advent, this is the Sunday that we especially highlight God’s call to repentance as a way to prepare for the coming of Jesus.  This appears to be a day when Lutherans can really get their fix of “Adventy” talk about repentance.  But before we assume that a repentance focus is just some odd Lutheran quirk for Advent and Lent, we should take to heart what Luke has to say in the Gospel for today.  Luke takes us to the Judean wilderness where John the Baptist called people to repentance to prepare them for the start of Jesus’ ministry.  It should become fairly obvious from this reading that Advent talk about repentance is not some odd Lutheran liturgical quirk, but a very sober and serious statement from God Almighty.  Repentance is serious business!  And that’s why Luke includes all the details he does in today’s Gospel.  He wants us to understand that repentance is serious business!  He reveals that Isaiah the prophet previewed John’s call to repentance.  He records how John the Baptist proclaimed God’s call to repentance.  And he reports why God also desires that we come to repentance.

I.

We’re going to start our study of Luke’s words at the end of our reading.  Luke maps out the historical circumstances surrounding John the Baptist’s ministry and describes his message in the first half of our reading.  But in the second half of our reading, Luke shows us that Isaiah, one of the greatest Old Testament prophets who served God’s people, previewed John’s work of calling people to repentance.  Since Isaiah’s work really preceded John’s work, let’s take a look at Isaiah’s message before we look at John’s message.  “As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: ‘A voice of one calling in the desert, “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.  Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low.  The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth.  And all mankind will see God’s salvation.”’” 

If those words from Isaiah sound familiar, it’s because all four Gospels quote a portion of this section of Isaiah’s book and connect it to John’s ministry.  Quite a few hymns have been inspired from these words.  But what does Isaiah have in mind when he imagines John calling for raised valleys, flattened mountains, and smooth, straight paths?  Remember that John’s job was to get people ready for Jesus.  God incarnate was coming among them, and it wasn’t simply a “get to know you” visit.  God incarnate was coming to bail them out of hell and buy them back from Satan.  Jesus, God in human flesh was coming to undo the damage done by the sin—and that meant that everyone who heard John’s message needed to think about the sin in his own life.  Sin is not merely a “no-no.”  Sin is not a spiritual “oops.”  Sin is the barrier we have put between ourselves and God.  Sin is the baggage that has been attached to our hearts ever since our first parents decided to listen to Satan’s lies rather than God’s goodness.  Sin’s steep mountains and deep valleys will keep Jesus removed from us.  So John’s job was to call people to repentance so that he could then bring them the good news of Jesus’ work—and Isaiah previewed that very serious message about repentance.

But if we thought that this was just a historical message for a particular time and place, or if we thought that Isaiah’s preview and John’s proclamation has little to do with us, then we’d be sorely mistaken.  Luke included a very important thought from Isaiah’s preview of John’s work: “All mankind will see God’s salvation.”  One of the threads found throughout Luke’s Gospel is the all-encompassing nature of Jesus’ work.  Jesus is not only the Savior for one ethnic race, or for generations from days gone by.  Jesus is the Savior for all mankind—and that means none of us can come up with an “excuse clause” exempting us from taking John’s repentance message seriously.

II.

Repentance is serious business.  Luke does not encourage us to weasel our way out of this very serious discussion.  At the start of our reading, Luke underscores that John’s message was a very real message.  Unlike a fairy tale, Luke doesn’t start out chapter three with the words, “Once upon a time.”  Luke puts John’s message into its factual and historical context.  “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene—during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert.”

If we were in Bible Class right now, I might offer background information about each government official that Luke mentions.  Bible Class is meant to give you information.  Sermons give information also, but the pastor’s main goal in a sermon is not to fill you with information that will increase your knowledge, but to fill you with a message that will strengthen your faith.  So let it suffice to say that the information Luke gives us takes us to the year 26 A.D. as the start of John’s repentance-preaching ministry.  And since Luke surrounds us with a historical context, this shows us that John’s call to repentance was real.  It was fact.  It was historical.  This is not “once upon a time.”  This is not a baptized version of Aesop’s fables.  John was a real person predicted by Isaiah and sent by God with a serious message about repentance.

Since John’s message is factual and serious, doesn’t that warrant a closer look at what he said?  Next Sunday’s Gospel will complete this account and look at the verses that follow, but in today’s reading, we look at the simple summary of his message in verse three.  “He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”  John the Baptist is known as John the Baptist because of a special command he received from God to baptize people.  But he didn’t merely baptize someone as an empty religious ceremony.  This was a baptism of repentance.  The people who came to John for baptism came because they took his message of repentance to heart; they wanted a real seal and promise from God that their sins would be washed away through the Prophet of prophets who followed John’s ministry.  John’s baptismal ministry was another facet of his proclamation of repentance.

III.

We’ve spent ten minutes or so talking about the way Isaiah previewed John’s message, and the way John called the crowds to repent.  This information might seem like it is far removed from our lives today, but there’s one little word in our reading that says otherwise.  When Luke quoted Isaiah’s words, he introduced the quotation this way: “As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet.”  On the one hand, that’s a standard way for a New Testament writer to quote an Old Testament writer.  But on the other hand, there is a subtle point in Luke’s word that we ought to consider.  When Luke said, “As [it] is written,” he wrote the original Greek phrase and grammar in a way that indicates that the past quote from Isaiah still has lasting value long after Isaiah first wrote the words.  And we could say the same thing about Luke’s record of John’s ministry.  When we read about John’s proclamation that called the crowds to repentance, those words have lasting significance for us today.  John may have verbally called first century people to repentance, but his recorded words in Scripture call twenty-first century people to repentance.  That call to repent has little to do with a Lutheran tradition or expectation.  It has everything to do with our sinful and lost condition.

But I have to be honest with you.  I wonder sometimes how seriously we take God’s call to repentance to heart.  I wonder if we don’t listen to preaching with “Lutheran ears.”  We know that the pastor has to preach the law, and he’s going to try to make us squirm a little bit; but eventually he’s going to preach the gospel, and then we will all “live happily ever after.”  Knowing that you are going to hear law and gospel is not a bad thing.  Tuning out the law and failing to heed the call to repent because you know the gospel is coming next—that is a bad thing, and I shudder to think how often we fall into that kind of thinking.

Some of you have no intention of returning to church next Sunday because you were here today.  You don’t come two weeks in a row.  You know that God says you should be in his house, hearing his Word, receiving his Sacrament, and growing in faith regularly, but you have no intention to change your sporadic attendance.  If you plan to leave those doors today and not come back any time soon, you ought to ask yourself where you stand with God, because that doesn’t sound like repentance.

Some of you use some pretty harsh language.  Your comments about others, even family, make it seem like you have no love for them.  Your language and attitude make others wonder what kind of Christian you are, even though they’ll never ask you that.  You know that God calls us to speak decently and to take others’ words and actions in the kindest way, but you have no intention of fighting your sinful flesh’s rough ways.  If you plan to let God’s Word go in one ear today and out the other tomorrow, you ought to ask yourself where you stand with God, because that doesn’t sound like repentance.

Some of you have disregarded God’s will for sex and marriage.  You think that if the church doesn’t know about it, then God must not know about it.  You knew that shacking up was wrong when you did it in your earlier years, but “why fuss now about something that’s in the past?”  Or you know that it’s wrong now, but instead of resisting the temptation you’ve put yourself right into it.  If you plan to outright ignore God’s will and design for marriage and sexuality, or if you have created your own excuses why it was okay then or is okay now, you ought to ask yourself where you stand with God, because that doesn’t sound like repentance.

I’m not speaking about the person who struggles with a particular sin, even to the point of losing that struggle more than winning.  I’m talking about the person who is apathetic about sin.  I’m talking about the person who is “okay” with sin.  And it doesn’t take much to find someone who fits that description.  Sometimes all it takes is a mirror with your own image staring back at you to find someone who needs to hear the call to repent.  Sometimes all it takes is a mirror to find someone who doesn’t seem to grasp that hell is real and permanent and God’s righteous answer to our sinfulness.

Why do we need to hear this?  Why do we need to consider John’s repentance message?  Is this some sort of Lutheran self-loathing exercise we do each Advent?  Or maybe this is exactly what Jesus, our spiritual Physician, ordered?  Maybe Jesus wants the law to hit our sinful nature like a bucket of cold water splashed in our face.  Maybe Jesus wants to eliminate the valleys of our sin and topple the mountains of our iniquity that separate us from him.  Maybe, just maybe, the hard, cold reality of God’s just judgment and call to repentance has a very good purpose.

When you realize that you are lost and condemned in sin, is there any better news than that Jesus “purchased and won [you] from all sin, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with his holy precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death” (Apostles’ Creed, Second Article, Luther’s Small Catechism)?  When you feel the flames of hell nipping at your feet, is there any better news than the shower of God’s love and forgiveness that he gave you at your baptism?  When you finally recognize that sin has trapped you in its snare, is there any better news than the arrival of Jesus Christ, God’s “eternal Son, whose advent has our freedom won” (CW 16:5)?  When you feel the spiritual starvation of your sinful ways, is there any better news than the Savior’s invitation, “Take, eat, and drink.  This is my body and blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins”?

Conclusion

Repentance is serious business.  Critics of Christianity will say that it’s just the church’s way to control people.  Our sinful flesh will say that it’s a message that someone else needs to hear.  But the call to repent is a message we all need to hear.  God desires that we come to repentance, not to control us with his law, but to console us with his grace.  God wants us to come to him in sincere repentance so that he can come to us with the forgiveness his Son came to win on the cross, and the promise of eternal life that his Son came to win by his resurrection.  That’s not child’s play.  That’s serious business.  Don’t take God’s call to repentance lightly.  Take it seriously, but know that God is equally serious about saving you, adopting you, calling you his own, and taking you to be with him for all eternity.  Amen.

For the past several weeks, my non-sermon posts have been pretty quiet, as other projects are keeping me busy for the final few months of the year.  Despite that, hits were quite high because a number of people found last year’s post about the Advent wreath.  Apparently “Advent” and “Advent wreath” are big web searches this time of year!  But now that Advent has started, the wave of web searching visitors (and “easy hits”) has slowed — suggesting that I need to write something new!

The Gospel for tomorrow, the Second Sunday in Advent (in Year C of the lectionary), is Luke 3:1-6.  The Second and Third Sundays in Advent always take us to the ministry of John the Baptist.  John’s preparatory work for Jesus’ ministry serves as a useful and appropriate preparatory message for Jesus’ Advent–both the celebration of his first Advent and the anticipation of his second Advent.

Luke’s record of John’s ministry, much like his record of Jesus’ birth, sets the historical stage before describing the specific details.  Luke 3 begins:

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar–when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene–during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert (Luke 3:1-2, NIV).

It seems to me that every time a biblical writer makes a historical reference, critics are right there suggesting that the reference couldn’t possibly be accurate or that there is some other flaw in what the biblical author says.  The first part of my Christmas Day sermon from last year, based on Luke 2:1-14, dealt with the critics’ comments on Luke’s historical references at the start of the Christmas account.  One chapter later, the situation isn’t much different. 

I’m preaching on the Luke 3:1-6 Gospel selection tomorrow.  In preparation for that sermon, I came across the following quotation from a Lutheran commentary on Luke’s Gospel.  The author of these comments, William Arndt, gives us a brief overview of the issues surrounding Luke’s historical references in Luke 3:1-2, and provides two possible answers (one more likely than the other).  As useful background material on the Gospel that many people will hear tomorrow — and as an easy way to offer a new post (just quote someone else!) — I’ll share with you some of Arndt’s comments here.

Luke carefully dates the appearance of John the Baptist as the special preacher of God. While he does not name the month and the day of the month when John preached his first sermon, his dating is, generally speaking, as precise as that found in ancient histories. … In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, John appeared before the public. Emperor Augustus, the predecessor and stepfather of Tiberius, died August 19, A.D. 14. The fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius began August 19, A.D. 28, and extended to August 18, A.D. 29. If we assume that Jesus was baptized when the ministry of John had been in progress for about half a year, then it was about January of A.D. 29 that this baptism occurred; and at the time of his baptism, according to Luke 3:23, Jesus was about 30 years old. Counting back thirty years from this date would place the birth of Jesus in about 3 B.C. But that year cannot be correct, because the Savior was born during the reign of Herod the Great, who died in the spring of 4 B.C. In January A.D. 29 Jesus must at least have been 33 years old. But this matter causes no difficulty. Luke says that Jesus was about 30 years old when he began his ministry, using an expression which grants much latitude. The words of Luke do not make it impossible for us to assume that Jesus was born in 5 or early 4 B.C. … One difficulty presents itself; it is quite well established that Jesus was crucified April 7, A.D. 30. If his ministry did not begin till late in 28 or early in 29, not sufficient time is available for the ministry of Jesus described in John’s Gospel.

Another interpretation must not be overlooked, and in my view is to be preferred. The scholars who sponsor it … hold that Luke may begin his reckoning as to the reign of Tiberius with the year in which Tiberius became the coruler of Augustus, which according to our chronology was A.D. 11 or 12. … If Luke begins to count the years with the time that Tiberius became coruler of Augustus, the year in which John the Baptist appeared would be 26 or 27. The birth of Jesus then would have occurred in 5 B.C. or even earlier. According to this method the age of Jesus at the beginning of his ministry would be quite accurately described in the phrase “about thirty years old.” My view, then, is that the Evangelist is referring to A.D. 26.

-William F. Arndt, Luke, Concordia Classics, pp. 105-106.

A NEW NAME

Text: Jeremiah 33:15-16

Introduction

When it was first constructed in 1966, it was called the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena.  Over the years, it has been known as the Oakland Coliseum Arena, the Oakland Arena, the Arena in Oakland, and The New Arena—basically all variations on a common theme.  But on October 20, 2006, the arena in Oakland where the Golden State Warriors play their home games was renamed, The Oracle, at least for the next decade.  Oracle, the Bay Area software company in our own back yard, paid an undisclosed price for the naming rites to the Oakland Arena, and for the next ten years the Golden State Warriors will call their home court by its new name, The Oracle – sometimes called simply, The “O”.

This is nothing new to us in the Bay Area.  In the relatively short amount of time that the San Francisco Giants have played in their new downtown stadium, the lighted letters with the field’s name have displayed three different titles: first it was Pac Bell Park, then SBC Park, and now AT&T Park.  The San Francisco 49ers home stadium has gone through the same naming metamorphosis.  We all knew it as Candlestick Park, then we woke up one morning and it was 3-COM Park, and later we blinked and it was renamed Monster Park.  Now it’s back to Candlestick Park and looks to remain that way.  The constant name changes were so ridiculous that Sports Illustrated writer Peter King referred to it as “Candle3Monsterstick.”

Do these corporate sponsorships and naming rights do any good?  Somebody must think so, because all sorts of big-name companies would love to get their corporate name on a professional sport team’s stadium.

Exposition

So what does all this naming talk have to do with our service today?  In the First Lesson for this first Sunday of the church year, something very significant was renamed.  Unless you are an expert in the Old Testament book of Jeremiah, you probably didn’t catch what the new name was, and without an explanation, you probably won’t catch it when you hear these words again.  But there is a significant new name applied to a group of people in Jeremiah 33.  Let’s start by listening again to the last two verses from this morning’s First Lesson.  “In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land.  In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety.  This is the name by which it will be called: The Lord, our Righteousness.” 

The verses I just read come from Jeremiah chapter 33.  Why is that so important to note?  There is an almost identical prophecy ten chapters earlier, in Jeremiah 23.  Both prophecies talk about the “righteous Branch” that will come from David’s line.  That was Jeremiah’s way to talk about Jesus, the promised Savior, who was a descendant of King David.  A popular hymn we hear this time of year, “Behold, A Branch Is Growing” (Christian Worship #47), picks up on that imagery.  Jesus is the Branch from the family tree of King David, the great King of Israel around 1000 B.C.  Centuries before Jeremiah, God promised David that the Savior of the world would be born from his family tree.  That’s the “righteous Branch” that Jeremiah talks about in chapter 23 and also here in chapter 33.  Jesus is the holy Son of David whose innocence and holiness is credited to those who trust in him so that they may stand before God as his righteous children.  Jesus is the “righteous Branch” of King David who would eventually journey to the tree of the cross where he would experience God’s just punishment for sins on behalf of the world so that we might be set from sin and hell.

But what about the new name?  I mentioned previously that Jeremiah chapters 23 and 33 contain a prophecy about Jesus that is almost identical – almost.  In the very last sentence there is a tiny word change, but this word change has tremendous significance.  Jeremiah said in chapter 23, “This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord, our righteousness.”  Ten chapters later, Jeremiah now says, “This is the name by which it will be called: The Lord, our righteousness.”  In chapter 23 Jeremiah says that this promised descendant of King David would be named the Lord, who is our righteousness.  In chapter 33 Jeremiah takes that name for Jesus Christ and applies it to something else: “This is the name by which it will be called: The Lord, our righteousness.”  That little word “it” refers back to the city of Jerusalem mentioned in the previous sentence.  Jerusalem was the capital city of Judah, the group from the original nation of Israel through whom Jesus was going to come.  But the prophets often referred to Jerusalem in a symbolic way.  Jerusalem was a picture of God’s people gathered together as one.  And with that image of God’s people assembled together, Jeremiah takes the name of the Lord and applies it directly to the Lord’s people and followers.  Jeremiah renames all who would believe in Jesus by giving them the name of Jesus.

Application

A name change isn’t all that noteworthy if has to do with an athletic stadium, but a name change is extremely significant when it involves a person.  We have heard the occasional news stories about newborn infants abandoned by their parents.  A number of states have enacted laws that allow birth parents that feel they are unable to be proper parents to leave their newborn at a hospital.  A foster family is contacted, and very often that foster family wants to adopt the baby.  Perhaps a few months pass for all the legal paperwork to be completed.  When all of the law’s requirements have been met, that previously abandoned baby is now adopted and given a new last name.  That new name is more than a legal technicality.  Think of the statement that name gives.  That new last name means that child is legally a member of that family.  That new name means that baby has a place to truly call home and a family that truly loves the child.  That kind of name change is extremely significant!

You and are were like that abandoned infant—yet worse.  We were not left abandoned by God.  No, because of our sinful condition, you had I legally and spiritually left the family of God.  We were helpless and hopeless on our own.  The sin in our life’s record merely confirms what we already knew.  Did our recent family Thanksgiving celebrations reduce God and his goodness to a mere afterthought at best?  Are we content to slowly coast our way into eternity, with little interest to grow in the Word and supply what is lacking in our faith (cf. 1 Thessalonians 3:10, from the appointed Second Lesson)?  Does the impending final judgment Jesus warns us about in today’s Gospel (Luke 21:25-36) seem so unimportant that we never stop to consider how our sinful thoughts and ways threaten to put us on the wrong side of Christ’s judgment?  Because of our sinfulness, you and I deserved to be deserted.  In fact, it is worse than that, for if there is any family we and our sinful baggage belong to, it is Satan’s family.

But at some gracious point, you were given a new brand name.  At your baptism, you were delivered from the clutches of hellish abandonment and brought into the arms of your loving Lord.  At your baptism, you were given a new name, the name of the Triune God, the name of Jesus, the name, “Christian.”  And that name change is extremely significant!  When the name of Jesus was applied to you, it meant that you became a part of Jesus’ family.  When the name of Jesus was applied to you, everything Jesus did for you became yours.  You have been given the name Jeremiah mentioned in our reading: “The Lord, our righteousness.”  Your new name means that, through faith in Christ, you stand holy and blameless before God, because Jesus has given you his perfection.  Your new name means that everything Jesus did to forgive your sins and redeem you from hell when he died on the cross counts for you personally!  Your new name means that you have been connected to Jesus’ death and resurrection, and because Jesus rose from the dead, you too will rise from death when our Lord returns at the end of time.  Your new name means that you are ready for Jesus’ Second Advent, because Christ’s return will mean your entrance into a new home where we will celebrate our new name for all eternity.

Conclusion

Will The Oracle have a new name in the next decade?  How many more name changes will the Giants’ home stadium go through in the next decade?  Who knows?  In the end, it really doesn’t matter.  Some name changes deserve nothing more than a quick mention in the paper—and maybe a collective yawn!  But other name changes deserve a celebration.  The new name God has given you deserves such recognition.  Through the First Advent of Christ and because of your baptism, you and I have been given the name Christian.  As we wait for the Second Advent of Christ, stay connected to the name you have been given, the name of Jesus, the name that saves you from sin and secures your new home for all eternity.  Amen.

THANKFULNESS IN ANY AND EVERY SITUATION

Text: Philippians 4:10-20

I.

As I listened to the radio last weekend, the news was not pretty.  The unemployment rate in California reached 12.5%.  One in eight California residents are out of work—and that doesn’t count those who have stopped searching for work or who are underemployed.  At a little over ten percent, the nation’s statistics aren’t much better.  With money tight and jobs at a loss, it doesn’t exactly create the kind of mood we’d want for the Thanksgiving holiday, does it?

Maybe you know someone in that situation who still manages to keep his chin up.  Maybe you know someone who says, “Well, I lost my old job, but I’m sure that God has something better in store.”  Or maybe that person says, “Well, I lost my job, and money is tight right now, but I’ve got a chance to be with family more than I ever did before, and so I’ll appreciate that perk as long as it lasts.”

In one of the Bible readings we heard a few minutes ago, the apostle Paul seemed to demonstrate that perspective, the perspective that says, “The glass is half-full.”  Near the start of our reading, he says, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances,” and a little later, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation.”  Paul seemed to be the “glass is half-full” kind of person, at least based on these comments.

II.

Maybe Paul’s life was cushy enough that he could say something like that.  He was well-educated.  He traveled the known world.  He was a well-known and highly respected missionary.  So was his “glass half-full” perspective merely because life never got hard for him?

Nothing could be further for the truth.  In fact, Paul had some real hardships facing him even as he wrote this very positive, joy-filled letter.  Paul says to the Philippians in verse 14, “It was good of you to share in my troubles.”  And troubles he had!  Philippians is one of several New Testament letters that Paul wrote while he was under house arrest in Rome, waiting for a hearing before Caesar.  Although all signs pointed to his eventual release, there was still a possibility that Paul might not walk away from his trial alive.  Even if those odds were only one or two percent, you’d think that a possibility like that might ruin your day!  You’d think Paul would launch into requests for petitioning the government and coming to his aid.  When Paul says he is content under any circumstance, even the circumstances surrounding this letter, it makes us take notice!

But it also makes our problems pale by comparison.  Paul was content in poverty and hunger.  You and I are discontent when the repair man arrives late.  Paul was content living under house arrest with restricted freedoms.  You and I are discontent when the barista forgets to put the extra shot in our beverage.  The American way of life in a hard recession is still better than most of the rest of the world!  But we’ll still Twitter about our petty troubles on our iPhones, thinking that we still don’t have the gadgets and gizmos we need (translation: want).  The last thing on our mind is the encouragement Jesus gave in his Sermon on the Mount, which was echoed in the children’s song tonight:

Seek first God’s reign, his boundless grace, His holy name in all you do:

Christ first and last in ev’ry place; All else will then be given you (CWS #762:6).

No thanks to our inbred sinful nature, we tend to seek our desires first, and make God’s kingdom last on the list.  Pews with empty places and leftovers for offerings testify where our priorities are—and aren’t.  But that’s not merely a problem with misplaced priorities.  That’s a problem with sin.  That’s a problem that fails to honor the First Commandment, to fear, love, and trust in God above all things.  That’s a problem that ought to lock us up, not under temporary house arrest, but into hell for all eternity.

III.

How is it, then, that Paul could be so positive?  Paul had real reason to be discontent—he was thrown in jail just for preaching the gospel.  What kept him holding his chin up so high?

Was this a public relations move on his part?  If he wrote to the Philippians, told them about his poor plight, but kept a positive attitude, would they be so impressed with his spirit that they would be inspired to help him out in some sort of way?  That certainly seems like it would work.  It certainly seems like a wise way to muster some ministry support.  But it wasn’t what Paul was up to.

If we take a look at our reading, Paul wasn’t trying to draw a gift out of them.  Rather, he wanted to thank them for the gifts they had already sent, including a recent gift he had just received from a messenger named Epaphroditus.  “As you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need.  Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account.  I have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent.  They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.”

Maybe there was a different reason Paul stayed so positive.  Maybe he really didn’t have to face tough times.  Sure, he was under house arrest, but when you are given your own apartment in Rome, how bad could it be?  Could it be that Paul really didn’t have it as bad as we first thought?

Paul’s circumstances may not have seemed too bad under house arrest, but that’s in comparison to his previous work as a missionary.  This is the man who was stoned and left for dead.  This was the man who endured a shipwreck on his journey to Rome for his impending trial.  This is the man who was driven out of cities by angry mobs of people who didn’t like what he had to say about Jesus.  This man meant it when he said, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”

IV.

How could Paul say that?  What was his secret?  How could he be content, satisfied, and thankful in any and every situation?  His answer is subtle, but you will find it near the end of our reading.  After thanking the Philippians for their gift, he said, “My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”  Paul told the Philippians that they could find their contentment and thankfulness in the riches of Jesus Christ.  This verse sounds quite a bit like something Paul wrote in another one of his letters.  In 2 Corinthians 8:9, Paul said, “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”

The Philippians’ real riches came from the precious blood of Jesus Christ.  The Philippians’ greatest need was satisfied when the innocent Son of God laid down his life as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  And the God who gave so great a gift to Paul and the Philippians, would also make sure that their all of their needs and necessities were met.

But Paul’s thankfulness came from even more than God’s reliable goodness and his gracious forgiveness in the past.  Notice what unusual phrase Paul used to talk about God in this verse: “I can do everything through him who gives me strength”—and we could clarify the thought this way: “I can do everything through him who keeps on giving me strength.”  If God’s grace and goodness were only past blessings, that would hardly have kept Paul smiling in his present troubles.  But the Holy Spirit used the gospel promises in the Scriptures and the gracious forgiveness of the Sacrament to keep Paul strong in faith and full of thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Day is usually a time when we think about our material blessings.  We thank God for our parents and children, for the income that pays the bills and the food that keeps our bodies fueled and the clothes that keep us warm and the roofs that keep us dry.  We certainly ought to thank God for those daily, material blessings.  But what good would any of those things be were it not for the salvation Christ won for us on the cross?  What good would a family Thanksgiving feast be if our final family reunion was going to be in hell?  What joy would love and laughter bring us if it were only a temporary delay to God’s permanent judgment?  Not much!

And so we give thanks to God today not just for food, family, and friends.  We thank God tonight, tomorrow, and always for sending his Spirit to plant faith in our hearts which clings to the forgiveness that is ours through Christ’s sacrifice, and which looks forward to the eternal future that awaits us through Jesus’ victory over death.  We thank God that he sent his Son to become one of us so that we could become one again with him.  We thank God that he did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all so that we would be declared innocent in his eyes and forgiven in his sight.  We thank God that he will not abandon us to the grave, just as he did not allow his holy Son to see decay, but raised him back to life and will do the same for us one day.  We thank God that in feast and famine, we have the riches of faith and forgiveness that no terror, trouble, or turmoil can diminish.

V.

Tonight we’ll “stretch out” our stomachs a bit with our post-service pie and ice cream social.  Tomorrow we’ll fill up our stomachs again with turkey and trimmings and fill up our minds with another set of memories.  On Friday, you might dare to fight the crowds and fill up your shopping carts with bargains and gifts for Christmas gift giving.  But it doesn’t take any of those things to fill your hearts with gratitude.  The true secret to thankfulness in any and every situation is the good news that Jesus Christ has filled your spiritual account with his holiness, he has erased the record of all your sin, and he has filled your future with the heavenly peace and bliss that he secured just for you.  That’s reason enough to conclude with Paul, “To our God and Father be glory forever and ever.  Amen.”

Things have been pretty quiet on my blog lately, I confess.  That’s primarily due to other assignments and tasks that have come my way.  Hits have still been high, because many people doing websearches for Advent wreaths are coming across the post I wrote last year, Advent Wreath 101.  But I thought it was high time that I post something new!

While preparing for our Thanksgiving service, I came across a bulletin insert that I included in last year’s Thanksgiving service folder.  Our service is always on Wednesday evening, Thanksgiving Eve, and so I provided a little family devotion for our members to use in their homes as a part of their overall Thanksgiving celebration.  Feel free to copy this and use it in your home this Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Family Devotion

A blessed Thanksgiving to you all!

IT ONLY TAKES ONE…

1. One sacrifice of Jesus to do away with sin
2. One appearance of Jesus to deliver us salvation

Text: Hebrews 9:24-28

Introduction

My father-in-law has a saying about home improvement projects: “Every home improvement project requires at least three trips to Home Depot.”  If you’ve ever tackled one of those projects around your home, you know what I mean.  About a year or so ago, one of the church council members installed a new closet in one of the parsonage bedrooms, and I’m pretty sure we made three trips to Home Depot to get that project done!  Rare is the major household improvement project that only requires one trip to the home improvement store!

The Second Lesson for today’s service talks about a “repair project” that makes any of our own personal household projects seem insignificant and unimportant.  Our reading from the New Testament book of Hebrews describes the project Jesus undertook to permanently repair the damage that sin brought into our world and into our lives.  With an eternally important divine project like that—rescuing the world from its own sin!—you would think that this would be a project that would span centuries.  But if we assume that, we would be wrong.  In just one visit to our sinful world, Jesus undid the eternal consequences of sin.  And in one return visit in the future, Jesus will bring us to the eternal blessings of heaven.  That’s what our reading from Hebrews teaches us today.  It only takes one!  It only takes one sacrifice of Jesus to do away with sin.  It only takes one appearance of Jesus to deliver us salvation.

I.

Hebrews can be a hard book for modern Christians to understand.  The biggest reason for the difficulty is because Hebrews was written to first-century Jewish Christians who were well acquainted with Old Testament Jewish customs.  The writer of this book regularly points back to Old Testament customs his readers would have known, and then shows how these customs were previews of the saving work that Jesus Christ would accomplish.  And that’s exactly what the writer is doing in today’s reading.  Listen to the first several verses again.  “For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence.  Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own.  Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world.  But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.” 

The ancient Jerusalem temple was meant to be a symbol of God’s presence in various ways.  One feature of the temple was the center room called the Most Holy Place.  This room was separated from the rest of the temple by walls on three sides and a thick curtain at its entrance.  Once a year (and only once a year) on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), the high priest (and only the high priest) entered the Most Holy Place.  He entered just after he had sacrificed a goat and had collected some of the goat’s blood.  He came into the Most Holy Place, and sprinkled the goat’s blood on a gold-covered wooden chest in the center of the Most Holy Place.  That chest was called the Ark of the Covenant.  Inside the ark were the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments.

There was an unspoken sermon in this annual ceremony.  The blood of that sacrificial animal was shed in place of the people, whose sins deserved death.  The animal died instead, and the animal’s blood covered the ark that housed the Ten Commandments.  So when God the Father peered down from heaven and looked at the ark, he didn’t see the Ten Commandments and their accusations of sin.  God saw the blood of the sacrificial animal covering up the law and its accusations.  The blood of the sacrifice covered up the guilt of the people’s sin.  Does that sound familiar?  Does that maybe, just maybe, sound like the sacrifice of Jesus, the Lamb of God, whose blood takes away the sin of the world?

But there was one major difference between the Old Testament Day of Atonement and the sacrifice of Jesus.  The Day of Atonement’s sacrifice was repeated year after year.  It wasn’t the ultimate remedy for sin, but a picture and preview of the once-for-all sacrifice that would come in the future.  But now that sacrifice had come!  And it only took one sacrifice of Jesus to do away with sin – because Jesus was no ordinary sacrifice!  Only one sacrifice of Jesus was needed to do away with sin because of the incalculable value of the sacrifice.  This was no ancient animal sacrifice.  This was no pagan human sacrifice.  This was a gracious divine sacrifice.  This sacrifice revealed the depths of God’s love for his wayward creatures!  God would actually send his Son to take up the sin of a world full of rebels!  The Son of God would actually take responsibility for that sin, even though it was not his own, and then pay for it all by his own sacrifice.  God himself, in the person of Jesus, would shed his own blood to cover up the world’s sin and cleanse it from its shame.  And in that one sacrifice, Jesus did away with the world’s sin: “[Christ] has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

If only we would believe that wholeheartedly!  If only our sinful nature would not cause us doubts and uncertainty!  If only our wandering minds would not keep us awake at night by thoughts of the foolish words of yesterday and the shameful acts of yesteryear.  If only our Old Adam would stop denying the cleansing power of Jesus’ once-for-all sacrifice which is more than sufficient to wash away my sin.  If only our human frailties would not get in the way of our hearts grasping and clinging to this message.  If only our inner desire to try to “make up” for our sin could be turned off so that the Word of God could do its work on our stubborn hearts.  If only we clung more to our Baptisms as if it was the greatest gift we had ever received.  If only we longed for the body and blood of Jesus in the Sacrament as the greatest heavenly food our souls could receive and our lips could taste.

Satan would love to take your worries and fears and turn them into despair and then unbelief.  If he can’t lead you away from Jesus in sin, he will try to lead you away in despair.  And that is why this age-old truth needs to be said again and again.  That is why the Holy Spirit reveals this truth to us again week after week—today in an illustration that our minds can picture.  It only takes one sacrifice of Jesus to do away with sin!  Your personal feelings do not erase the once-for all sacrifice Jesus offered on the cross.  Your inner worries and fears do not change the fact that God’s own Son gave his life for you.  Nothing you do or say or imagine can change the historical fact that Jesus Christ suffered and died to take away your sin, and nothing you do or say or imagine can change the theological truth that Jesus’ one sacrifice was all that it took to do away with your sin.

II.

Today is the Sunday of the church year that we call, “Last Judgment.”  We are three Sundays away from starting a new church year, and when we arrive near the end of the old church year, we usually spend about three Sundays talking about things that have to do with the end of time: the final judgment, heaven and hell, and Christ’s eternal rule over all things.  Today is the day we think about the final judgment, and the end of our Second Lesson gets our thoughts headed in that direction.  “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”

The first section in our reading used an illustration, and then drew a comparison between that illustration and Jesus’ once-for-all sacrifice on the cross.  There is a similar pattern in the last two verses we just heard, but this time the illustration isn’t one that is unique to the Jewish culture.  This time his illustration is the cold reality of death.  There isn’t a single person who hasn’t had to deal with death and issues of mortality in some form or another.  We receive reminders about the reality of death in the declining health of our loved ones or maybe ourselves, in the shocking news reports of shootings at a military base last week, and in the inevitable change and decay that is a part of everyday life.  But after our death comes the day that we stand before God to hear his just judgment and his righteous verdict.

Our reading draws a parallel to that sequence of events and the sequence of events related to Jesus’ death.  Jesus also died – not because of his sin, but because of ours.  And what eventually follows his death is the final judgment – not a judgment of Jesus, but the last judgment by Jesus.  One more appearance of Jesus is coming in the future, and at that appearance he will deliver his people their eternal salvation.  “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”

Most people don’t like the thought of being the defendant who stands before the judge in the courtroom.  Far fewer like the thought of being the sinner who stands before Almighty God at the final judgment.  Do you really want your life story to be the basis for a cross-examination?  Do you really want the prosecution to dig up and drag out the immaturity of your youth and the pride of your present?  Do you really want to stand face to face with the One who knows every incident from your past that you hoped no one would ever find out about?

But listen to our reading again, because if the final judgment frightens you, then these words are the antidote.   “Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”  At the final judgment, you will not stand before an unjust judge who is out to get you.  At the final judgment, you will stand before your loving Lord who is out to save you!  Jesus’ first entrance into this world did away with your sin, and his one remaining appearance will deliver us our eternal salvation.  His first entrance won your eternal redemption, and his remaining appearance will deliver that redemption to you personally.  His first entrance won your eternal life by his resurrection from the dead, and his remaining appearance will deliver you from this world into the eternal gates of heaven where death, hell, and sin can harm you no more.  Those who ridiculed and sold him, pierced and nailed him to the tree will be deeply wailing at his return, but with what wonder will we will gaze on his glorious scars and praise him for his glorious grace on the Last Day!  (cf. “Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending, CW #29 & CWS #704)

Conclusion

During the recent off-year elections, we again heard the encouragement to get out and vote because every individual vote counts.  Public service announcements on the radio encourage people to get involved in the community, because every individual person can make a difference.  All around us are signs and reminders that one person can make a difference for the better.

But every example we come up with will pale to the accomplishments of Jesus Christ.  One sacrifice of Jesus has done away with sin.  One remaining appearance of Jesus will deliver us our salvation.  That’s the one and only reason you need to live life with a clear conscience now as you wait for the one day when your one and only Savior delivers you the one gift that you’ve been waiting for—heaven!  Amen.