Monday, May 16, 2011
SERMON GRACIOUS LIVING
Fourth Easter Sermon -Good Shepherd SundayACTS 2:46-4746And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
GRACIOUS LIVINGIn our Tuesday Bible Study we are studying the book of Acts, and we have looked at these verses. We discovered for example, that the early church, meeting in Jerusalem
In all this Jesus is not just the good shepherd, he is the gate of the sheepfold. That means that he is the one who lets us into the family, Because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, we are able to enter into a relationship with God, and with our brothers and sisters in faith and experience gracious living. That is why I am so excited that we have chosen to include the word Community in our name. It expresses our openness, our love for each other and for others and our gracious living. . And we are a part of a greater family, found not just in this house, nor this city. We are a part of a family that reaches around the world, and beyond. I say beyond because in our liturgy, we join not just other Christians but also angels and archangels and all the hosts of heaven who sing praises to God.AmenMonday, May 9, 2011
SERMON : EVEN OSAMA BIN LADEN HAD A MOM
THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER SERMON May 8, 2011
When I say to someone that the bible has two parts, most people will nod their head. But they will almost certainly think that the parts I am referring to are the “Old Testament” and the “New Testament”.
But when a Lutheran says the Bible has two parts, we are referring to a way of interpreting scripture, We divide passages of the Bible as either Law or Gospel.The first lesson today is a good example of how we can distinguish between Law and Gospel because it contains both.
Let’s take a look at Acts 2:36-41Peter, shortly after Pentecost, speaking to the strangers gathered around him and the other disciples, accuses them all of complicity in a murder. Specifically he says:
God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”Imagine the audacity of that statement. . It would be equivalent to today someone accusing you of being involved in a terrorist attack
This would not be a recommended way to win people to Christ today, and more likely it would get people to throw things at you.
This is the Law part of the Bible
O and by the way, Happy Mother’s Day.!
Why must we have a Mother’s Day?
How could we be so thoughtless and unappreciative of our mothers, the one that bore us, and gave us life, that we would have to set aside a certain day to remember them? Shouldn’t we honor and praise God for our mother’s each and every day of our lives. That is what the Fourth Commandment demands of us; that we honor our Father and our Mother each and every day. Instead, we make it easy on ourselves, and think that we can give our mother’s a couple of hours on the first Sunday of May, and think that is enough!.
What I have just done is the same thing that Peter did with his words to the crowd. His words came from the holy Spirit and were done to elicit a particular response from the people in the crowd. His words and mine, were designed to “cut to the heart”.
That is what the Law does.
What does this mean, being cut to the heart. Today we would say that the Law convicts us. Here is the way that Rev. Adrian Dieleman explains it.
To say or do something with conviction does not mean you say or do it because you know it is the right thing to do. To say or do something with conviction is to say or do it because you are aware of your own sin.
“When you are cut to the heart, you find God to be so pure and holy and glorious that His presence terrifies you. When you are cut to the heart, you are overwhelmed by your sense of sin and shame and guilt. When you are cut to the heart, God and hell become overpowering realities. When you are cut to the heart, you don't want God to be close but you don't want Him to be far away either; His presence scares you but His absence scares you even more. You feel repelled – because of the darkness of your sin. And, you feel attracted – because He is the light. Like the Pentecost crowd, you may not know where to turn or what to do.”
And that is where Peter revealed to them the other part of the Bible, the Gospel, the good news, the Kerygma. What must you do. Repent and be baptized, because God has forgiven you your complicity in Christ’s death. God has forgiven you all your sins.- for Christ’s sake!.
Now, not everyone who hears that they are complicit in the death of Jesus will respond in the same way Acts 5:33 But they, when they heard this, were cut to the heart, and determined to kill them.
When a murderer is exposed, he may either confess it, deny it or justify it.. This week we found out about the death of Osama Ben Laden. He was a murderer who justified his murder of others. For most of us, the news of his death made it a day for some celebration.
This was a man who not only is responsible for the death’s of thousands of people, but also for a lot of troublesome changes and expense in our government and our lives. And I confess that I too felt some satisfaction in knowing he is dead.
Yet, Jesus tells us to pray for our enemies? We must remember that Jesus died for the sins of all, including Ben Laden. And we should feel sorrow that Ben Laden did not repent his sins, and is lost. And if we cannot do that, it is a sign that we too need to repent of our sin, that we would rejoice in any persons death and damnation is a sign of our own sinfulness.
Even our very reasonable ,human desire to take joy in the death of a mass murderer is a sin. But again, if we are convicted of sin, and our response is repentance, we are then ready to receive the good news. God forgives us our weaknesses and failures. That promise is for us who are, in Peter’s phrase, a long way off, in both time and space.
But if we compare ourselves to Ben Laden or Hitler to minimize our sinfulness, we deceive ourselves. Each sin, no matter how apparently innocuous or harmless, adds to the pain Christ suffered on the cross., But we can take comfort in this, because that is the path to forgiveness.
On the cross, Jesus did not ask his Father to forgive everyone, He asked God the Father to forgive those involved in his crucifixion.
As Lutherans, we acknowledge, like Luther himself, that the Jews alone were not responsible for Christ’s crucifixion. Each sin of ours is another cut or bruise unto the body of Jesus. We are accessories to his murder. We have blood on our hands. But God has forgiven us. In the waters of baptism, the tell-tale blood on our hands is washed away and we are made pure and clean again.
“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:7). Amen.
SERMON MESSAGE: Acts 5 "BRIGHT SUNDAY" (SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER May 1, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
SERMON GRACIOUS LIVING
Fourth Easter Sermon -Good Shepherd Sunday
ACTS 2:46-47
46And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
GRACIOUS LIVING
In our Tuesday Bible Study we are studying the book of Acts, and we have looked at these verses. We discovered for example, that the early church, meeting in Jerusalem
Then they would move on to various homes of their Christian brothers or sisters, and break bread together. This “breaking bread” we know was the first name for the special meal we know by other names; Holy Communion, Lord’s Supper, Eucharist.
We should recognize that the things those first Christians did, we still gather and do under one roof. The first part of our service this very Sunday, the emphasis on scripture, is what we call the Service of the Word, and had its origins in the temple. The Lord’s Supper, the breaking of the bread, we also will celebrate shortly. .
But whether it happens in two places, or combined under one roof, where Christians gather with Word or Sacrament, grace happens Where you see the word favor, like in Acts 2:47, it means literally “grace”.
The phrase God’s favor is found often in the Bible. In Genesis 6:8 we learn that Noah found favor with God. We see it at the very beginning of the Gospel, when the angel appears to Mary, he says, fear not Mary, you have found favor with God, Luke 1:30 A little later, in Luke 2:52, we learn that Jesus grew in wisdom and favor with both God and the people.
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This is the concept of sacred space. From at least the time of Jacob, God’s people have marked the places where they encountered God. Its not that God can only be found there, but the place is sacred because there the people experienced God’s grace.
As Christians we believe that wherever Word and Sacrament is, that place is sacred, because there we are promised to receive God’s grace.
But our lesson tells us that we don’t only receive God’s grace in such places, but we also are empowered to do God’s grace. Grace is not just experienced in the hearing of God’s Word, or the receiving of the sacrament. It was also experienced in what God’s people do!
God’s people are empowered to gracious living. Acts 2 gives us a picture of this gracious living. Diligence in prayers and worship, frequent expressions of praise and thanksgiving in all circumstances, and a cheerful and generous disposition; these are marks of gracious living.
That is what Peter meant when he said “When you do good and suffer for it, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.
Gracious living of an awareness that we are owned by Jesus, that he was our Good Shepherd, and they were his sheep, that made all the this gracious living possible.. That is why Peter called our Lord Jesus the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls
The Lord is the overseer and shepherd of our souls because he has made us his people. He now takes responsibility for us. He gathers us into the sheepfold for our protection and our nurture, care and feeding.
This he does in the forgiveness of our sins and the promise of eternal life, and in Word and Sacraments. God has shown his generosity of Spirit in these means of grace, and moves our hearts to likewise reveal a generosity of spirit, not in material things alone, but in welcoming of others into the sheepfold. In this we become a family, having a common Father to whom we may pray confidently.
In all this Jesus is not just the good shepherd, he is the gate of the sheepfold. That means that he is the one who lets us into the family, Because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, we are able to enter into a relationship with God, and with our brothers and sisters in faith and experience gracious living.
That is why I am so excited that we have chosen to include the word Community in our name. It expresses our openness, our love for each other and for others and our gracious living. . And we are a part of a greater family, found not just in this house, nor this city. We are a part of a family that reaches around the world, and beyond. I say beyond because in our liturgy, we join not just other Christians but also angels and archangels and all the hosts of heaven who sing praises to God.
Amen
Monday, May 9, 2011SERMON : EVEN OSAMA BIN LADEN HAD A MOM
THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER SERMON May 8, 2011
When I say to someone that the bible has two parts, most people will nod their head. But they will almost certainly think that the parts I am referring to are the “Old Testament” and the “New Testament”.
But when a Lutheran says the Bible has two parts, we are referring to a way of interpreting scripture, We divide passages of the Bible as either Law or Gospel.
The first lesson today is a good example of how we can distinguish between Law and Gospel because it contains both.
Let’s take a look at Acts 2:36-41
Peter, shortly after Pentecost, speaking to the strangers gathered around him and the other disciples, accuses them all of complicity in a murder. Specifically he says:
God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Imagine the audacity of that statement. . It would be equivalent to today someone accusing you of being involved in a terrorist attack
This would not be a recommended way to win people to Christ today, and more likely it would get people to throw things at you.
This is the Law part of the Bible
O and by the way, Happy Mother’s Day.!
Why must we have a Mother’s Day?
How could we be so thoughtless and unappreciative of our mothers, the one that bore us, and gave us life, that we would have to set aside a certain day to remember them?
Shouldn’t we honor and praise God for our mother’s each and every day of our lives. That is what the Fourth Commandment demands of us; that we honor our Father and our Mother each and every day. Instead, we make it easy on ourselves, and think that we can give our mother’s a couple of hours on the first Sunday of May, and think that is enough!.
What I have just done is the same thing that Peter did with his words to the crowd. His words came from the holy Spirit and were done to elicit a particular response from the people in the crowd. His words and mine, were designed to “cut to the heart”.
That is what the Law does.
What does this mean, being cut to the heart. Today we would say that the Law convicts us. Here is the way that Rev. Adrian Dieleman explains it.
To say or do something with conviction does not mean you say or do it because you know it is the right thing to do. To say or do something with conviction is to say or do it because you are aware of your own sin.
“When you are cut to the heart, you find God to be so pure and holy and glorious that His presence terrifies you. When you are cut to the heart, you are overwhelmed by your sense of sin and shame and guilt. When you are cut to the heart, God and hell become overpowering realities. When you are cut to the heart, you don't want God to be close but you don't want Him to be far away either; His presence scares you but His absence scares you even more. You feel repelled – because of the darkness of your sin. And, you feel attracted – because He is the light. Like the Pentecost crowd, you may not know where to turn or what to do.”
And that is where Peter revealed to them the other part of the Bible, the Gospel, the good news, the Kerygma. What must you do. Repent and be baptized, because God has forgiven you your complicity in Christ’s death. God has forgiven you all your sins.- for Christ’s sake!.
Now, not everyone who hears that they are complicit in the death of Jesus will respond in the same way Acts 5:33 But they, when they heard this, were cut to the heart, and determined to kill them.
When a murderer is exposed, he may either confess it, deny it or justify it.. This week we found out about the death of Osama Ben Laden. He was a murderer who justified his murder of others. For most of us, the news of his death made it a day for some celebration.
This was a man who not only is responsible for the death’s of thousands of people, but also for a lot of troublesome changes and expense in our government and our lives. And I confess that I too felt some satisfaction in knowing he is dead.
Yet, Jesus tells us to pray for our enemies? We must remember that Jesus died for the sins of all, including Ben Laden. And we should feel sorrow that Ben Laden did not repent his sins, and is lost. And if we cannot do that, it is a sign that we too need to repent of our sin, that we would rejoice in any persons death and damnation is a sign of our own sinfulness.
Even our very reasonable ,human desire to take joy in the death of a mass murderer is a sin. But again, if we are convicted of sin, and our response is repentance, we are then ready to receive the good news. God forgives us our weaknesses and failures. That promise is for us who are, in Peter’s phrase, a long way off, in both time and space.
But if we compare ourselves to Ben Laden or Hitler to minimize our sinfulness, we deceive ourselves. Each sin, no matter how apparently innocuous or harmless, adds to the pain Christ suffered on the cross., But we can take comfort in this, because that is the path to forgiveness.
On the cross, Jesus did not ask his Father to forgive everyone, He asked God the Father to forgive those involved in his crucifixion.
As Lutherans, we acknowledge, like Luther himself, that the Jews alone were not responsible for Christ’s crucifixion. Each sin of ours is another cut or bruise unto the body of Jesus. We are accessories to his murder. We have blood on our hands. But God has forgiven us. In the waters of baptism, the tell-tale blood on our hands is washed away and we are made pure and clean again.
“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:7). Amen.
We all know lots of great jokes. But not everyone can be a comedian. Timing is a skill that the professionals practice to make a joke as good as it can be. One of the masters of comedy timing was Jack Benny. Remember his joke when a robber comes up to him and pulls a gun. He says, your money or your life. Benny stands there and says nothing for almost thirty seconds, and the thief finally says. “Well?” Benny says I’m thinking, I thinking”
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Steven Pastis, creator of the comic strip Pearls before Swine says that he writes weekly and Sunday strips two weeks to a month before they are published in our papers. And he has no way of calling them back if events overtake his stories. So he has found himself having to apologize for having a character run against a dead Senator the week that Alaska Senator Ted Stevens died in a plane crash. He was criticized for his insensitivity when his strip made fun of a 70’s pop star the week Michael Jackson died. The timing of all of that was outside his control
The Bible can tell us a lot about timing.
To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under the sun.
A time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill and a time to heal ...
a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance ...
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to lose and a time to seek; a time to rend and a time to sew;
a time to keep silent and a time to speak; a time to love and a time to hate;
a time for war and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
God has perfect timing
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law.. Galatians 4:4
AND
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Romans 5:6
Jesus also knew about the importance of timing. When Mary, his mother asked Jesus to perform a miracle at the wedding in Cana, in John 2:4 "Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied. "My time has not yet come." When his disciples asked Jesus to come up to Jerusalem, he said Jesus told them, "The right time for me has not yet come John 7:6
With Perfect timing, we should assume that Jesus has a wonderful sense of humor. For example, when Jesus says to Peter You are Peter and upon this Rock I will build my church, surely all of the apostles laughed, because they remembered how recently Peter had stepped out of a boat to join Jesus walking upon the water, and soon sunk like a rock.
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There is some subtle humor with wordplay in our first lesson today. Notice for example how Peter begins his defense in verse 30 by saying that God raised up Jesus, who the Jewish leaders killed. For us, the verb raise is a reference to the resurrection. For the Jews however, the word raise would be a reference to Deut. 18:15. There Moses promises that God will raise up another prophet like Moses. Peter even digs the humor a little deeper In verse 31, he refers to Jesus as “leader and Savior” The English word leader is a translation of a Greek word, for “pathfinder”, meaning a pioneer or someone who leads through the wilderness, like Moses did.
That is why the Jewish leaders are so angry at Peter and the other disciples. Pete is saying that the Jews killed the long awaited prophet like Moses.
A comedian would say the Jewish leaders are a tough crowd. They literally want to kill Peter and the others.
Still more Wordplay
Instead they beat them, then release them with a warning not to bring up Jesus again. Of course, the apostles refuse, again and again raising Jesus up as the subject for conversation and their preaching.
Now that we are in the Easter Season, we again sing our Alleluias that were put aside during Lent. We also sing again the Hymn of Praise that not only includes Alleluias but also begins with the words. This is the Feast of Victory for our God. Of course it didn’t immediately appear on that first Easter that everyone was ready to celebrate. For example, Thomas wasn’t with the others when Jesus appeared to them. So he didn’t see right then any reason for a feast or for shouts of Alleluia. Thomas didn’t see God’s victory over Sin death and the devil; until; a week later. He wasn’t there when Jesus appeared. He had bad timing.
As important as timing is, the best comedians also have a gift for finding humor in unexpected places. The Garden of Gethsemane for example. Iin Mark 14:51 we find out about the boy who lost his pants as Jesus was arrested.
But the real humor of Easter is the Resurrection. Some have described Christ’s resurrection as the banana peel that trips up the devil. The joke’s on Satan who thought on Friday that he had won. On Sunday he discovered all his works went for nothing.
An Easter faith is not just about the forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life. It is these things. But it is also about seeing Christ’s victory in strange and unexpected ways. For example, when Peter and the others are beaten by the Jewish authorities, their response is both amazing and unexpected. Acts 5:41 tells us Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name
Easter should be the same for us, seeing God’s hand even in hard times and difficult circumstances, and experiencing joy and hope knowing that whatever our circumstances, that we are in God’s loving hands and we share in his victory over whatever evil we are encountering..
Last week millions of people celebrated Easter like Thomas did, away from the place where their Pathfinder and Savior was. And so they did not see the risen Lord, through Word and Sacrament.. Today, indeed every Sunday, every Lord’s day, provides us with another opportunity to see him, just as Thomas was given another opportunity.
But to really experience Easter we must be willing to see the hand of Jesus in all we do and all that happens to us, every day. …and the victory that we share and proclaim with our Alleluias. . And so we can laugh at all the devil’s efforts to destroy us. Jesus has pulled the rug out from under the devils feet. Amen
SERMON Easter April 24, 2011
Many of you are old enough to remember the old Tv series, Dragnet. It wasn’t one of my favorite Tv series but it was a favorite of my mom and dad. But if I wanted to stay up late, it meant that I had to say, I want to watch Dragnet. Usually, they would relent on enforcing my bedtime so I guess my fondness for the show is because it allowed me to avoid my bedtime. The show starred Jack Webb as Los Angeles Sgt Joe Friday. I remember he had a very unusual straight forward matter of fact way of delivering his lines. In fact, can any of you remember his catch phrase that he would always say when interviewing a witness, especially a woman.
“Just the facts, mam’m’”..
Our gospel lesson today is a record of just the facts surrounding the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday. It’s a unique and special event. Matthew records, almost in a matter of fact way, what the women at the empty tomb saw and experienced. But it almost sounds like a police report, or an accident report.
The fact of the resurrection of Jesus is essential. Without that historical event, we would have no hope, and no salvation. The fact of Christ’s resurrection is part of something called the “kerygma.”. That’s a Greek word meaning proclamation, announcement or preaching. But as I said, the resurrection of Jesus is just a part of the Kerygma. The full kerygma is recorded in the sermon that makes up most of Acts Chapter 10, which is Peter’s great sermon. It includes references of Christ’s birth, life, ministry and death on a cross, as well as the Lord’s resurrection.
So I am using Acts 10 as the basis for my message today.
This is because in Acts 10, we find out why the kerygma is important. In Acts 10, we see the power of preaching of God’s Word.. Because Peter tells us how the kerygma changed his own life.
Peter was an uneducated fisherman, a man prone to rash statements and rash actions, a bit of a coward, and thoroughly a Jew. Together with all Jews, he believed that God had a special place for Jews in his heart, that God loved Jews more than everyone else.
But somehow, the experience of experiencing life with Jesus changed Peter. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus had a real impact on what Peter believed, what he did and who he became.
In this sermon Peter tells us exactly how he changed. (a slightly different translation) I NOW KNOW that God shows no partiality. but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him
You see, “Just the facts” isn’t sufficient. The facts of the matter are not enough. Many, both Christian and non-Christian, can say they believe that Jesus lived and died.. And Christians also confess that Jesus was raised from the dead. But you don’t really believe it unless the Kerygma changes you in some way.
One way that the Kerygma can change you is if you come to see God in a new way. For example, Peter had always believed that God loved Jews best because they were more faithful, that they were better, more holy.
The experience of Jesus, including His resurrection, changed Peter. Peter later realized that the only distinction that the Jews could claim was that God had chosen them to be the people to first communicate God’s love. It was God’s act of Grace, not a sign of favoritism.
And Peter also understood that the Jews had not been faithful to God’s calling, but messed it up pretty bad. They killed the One who God sent into the world.
Which leads me to an interesting point.
There is no fixed date for Easter. It can be in early March or late April. But do you want to celebrate Easter. Easter is whenever God takes our failures and makes them His victory in Christ
Another way that the kerygma can change you is by turning your beliefs upside down, so that your priorities change. Peter, like many before and since, thought that a particular religious doctrine brings us peace with God.
Peace, Peter later realized, does not come through the people of Israel
Jesus is our only priority because he died and was raised for you. He has washed away your sins by his dying on the cross. This we remember when we gather around the table, not in somber reflection but in joyous celebration that we are receiving the body and blood of Jesus, given and shed for us.
Martin Luther would later say the Kerygma, or Gospel, is the true treasure of the Church. God has entrusted this kerygma to the church as a matter of grace. If we abandon it, lock it up, put other priorities before it or twist it for our own purposes, we are no longer the Church
Do you remember the rich young man who came to Jesus, and asked him a question. What was that question?
What must I do to earn eternal life Matthew 19:16. Jesus told him to give all that he had to the poor and come and follow him.
He young man walked away disappointed because he could not do what the Law commanded.
We should recognize ourselves in that young man’s experience. The inability of that young man is a universal experience. You and I cannot earn eternal life either. None of us can do what God commands. None of us can justify ourselves. But Jesus is the solution to that problem. That incident too is a part of the kerygma because it changes us.
We live on the other side of Good Friday and Easter, we don’t have to walk away disappointed. \Christ was raised from the dead. He now has all authority on heaven and earth. And he lives you and he wants you to live. And he has made it possible for us to have the eternal life that young man sought.
When we hear and receive that Gospel, the Kerygma, it raises us from the dead too. It changes us, makes us alive, to see God, the world and each other in a new way, as we live even now, the new life that Jesus brings. That’s the facts. Amen.
