The One About a Three Legged Pig

Biblical Text: Acts 11:1-18; (Revelation 21:1-7)

The text of the sermon is largely Peter’s vision of the heavenly tablecloth descending which ended up at Gentile Pentecost. It’s a story about ceremonial laws – clean and unclean – and how they play no role in the Kingod of God. Now most of us probably don’t think we have ceremonial laws which is crazy. Because we are constantly making clean and unclean distinctions. And constantly making new ones. They are much easier to render judgement upon. What this sermon does is two things. It attempts to teach some distinctions in the law: moral, civil and ceremonial. And then it proclaims like Jesus to Peter, “what God has made clean, do not call common.” For God made all things good. And Christ is remaking all things. Our clean and unclean distinctions, our ceremonial laws, better not get in the way of the Work of God.

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A Thought on Travel

“Wherever you go, there you are.” I tend to think about that aphorism anytime I have to travel. For some reason I couldn’t remember where it comes from this time, so I made the mistake of googling it. It appears that there has been a popular book by that name recently. So, all the current links google served up were from some Western Buddhist wannabe. But the original place I remember it from is Thomas A Kempis in his “The Imitation of Christ.” His larger context was The Cross.

“No one is so touched with a heartfelt sense of the Passion of Christ, as the man whose lot it has been to suffer like things. The cross, then, is always at hand, and everywhere awaits you. You cannot escape it, run where you will; for wherever you go, you take yourself with you, and you will always find yourself.”

A more modern translation of that runs:

“So, the cross is always ready and waits for you everywhere. You cannot escape it no matter where you run, for wherever you go you are burdened with yourself. Wherever you go, there you are.”

I usually hate travel. Unless I’m going to some all inclusive beach resort, the effort and expense of travel just never seem worth it. I’m not unmoved by the Romance of it. I’d love to go to Constantinople. The problem is that Constantinople doesn’t exist. And even Istanbul doesn’t exist as it is in my conception. I’m convinced that travel is on so many people’s lists of dreams to do because they are running from the cross. They have bought into the simple Jimmy Buffet transaction – Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude – without contemplating He Went to Paris, or even better “Hell, it could be my fault.” We think we can run away from the cross. Yet wherever we go, there we are. Whatever we thought we were escaping, we bring it with us. But what is it we bring?

When Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me (Mark 8:34),” we often take this as a call to some form of the ascetic life. We look at the cross as doing something that our authentic selves does not want. But that is the way to works righteousness, or maybe even worse, to the perennial martyr. What it really means is crucifying the Old Adam. It means mortifying the sin that lives within our members. For it is only then that we meet our true self. For Jesus’ invitation is followed by the saying, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. (Mk. 8:35 ESV)” We can travel around the world sucking the morrow out of life, and we shall lose it. For wherever we go, we are like poor Marley’s ghost, adding links to the chain of who we think we are.

But wherever we are, at whatever age, or place or spin of fortune’s wheel, there is a cross. Christ chose the cross. He set his face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51). And it is only through the cross that the true Christ was shown. “This man is the son of God (Mark 15:39).” It is in picking up our cross that we for the first time know who we are. Who is the person we have stopped running from? What have we accepted as the call of love in our lives?

Wherever we go, we are burdened by our sinful nature. It used to be standard reading – Pilgrim’s Progress. The initial picture of Christian on his pilgrimage is carrying this heavy bag. And he thinks that bag is everything. It is only at the cross that the bag falls off and Christian knows himself. His pilgrimage is just beginning. His travels are extensive. But from that point on it is himself. And his walk is heavenward all the way. We imitate Christ when embrace the cross, when we attempt to live the call of love in our lives and stop running from it.

153 Large Fish

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Biblical Text: John 21:1-19

I think this is about calling. And for me I’d take it as calling in the broad sense. We all know there are things that we should be doing. And the very bedrock it is answering the question who am I? and whose am I? If we answer those calling then is being true to ourselves. The text is the contradiction of what happens when we ignore the calling (nothing) and what happens when we follow it (the grace of God.) It is also about things that stand in the way. Sometimes those are small things, like being hungry. Sometime those are huge things, like betrayal. This sermon is a meditation the weaves back and forth between Peter and the disciples and ourselves and how we deal with calling and the things that get in the way. And how Christ helps in all these things.

Recording note: the first 15 secs of the actual sermon sound bad. My microphone was muted at the board. So I amplified the ambient recording. After 15 secs the mute was taken off and it sounds much better.

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Trusting Providence

We are reading through Genesis in the Wednesday bible study. Only slightly tongue in cheek I shared that the rest of the bible is footnote to Genesis. It is all there in the beginning. Yes, the entire history of Isreal, and then Jesus, and the church, certain fill things out. But one of the New Testament’s favorite words is to be made full – “When the time was fulfilled…that the scriptures might be fulfilled.” (You can look up that word fulfilled in your concordance and see all it’s uses.) The mental picture of the word is that the form is already present like a pitcher or a jug or 40 gallon vat of water. Events fill it up or even change the water into wine. The form is fulfilled, made full. Genesis is the empty 40 gallon vat. And it all fits in the there.

As part of that form, there is a funny little story in Genesis 12:10-20. Most interpreters pick up on the Exodus parallels. Going into Egypt because of a famine. Plagues. The plunder when leaving. All of which are fulfilled. But in the midst of that I think there is something better to ponder with Abram. In the immediate prior verses, God has made his covenant with Abram. And it is that covenant of pure grace and promise. “Go…I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3).” If the covenant with Noah was the promise of temporal providence – “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease (Gen 8:22)” – this is the promise of eternal providence.

And immediately comes the test. “Now there was famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt. (Gen 12:10).” Now one of the things we have to understand about Abram is that he is a very rich man. He has a full household. He has herds and flocks and slaves and everything. So when Abram goes to Egypt, a symbol for the world, he is dealt with by Pharoah as an equal. So does Abram deal with Pharoah out of faith in the providence of God, or does Abram try and deal with Pharoah on worldly terms? If you know the story, or if you just know human nature, you know Abram immediately defaults to worldly terms. He tells his wife Sarai to say she is his sister. He passes Sarai over to Pharoah as part of a treaty. And Abram, already a rich man, receives everything that world can give. “And for her sake [Pharoah] dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.”

It’s a repeating pattern with Abram. He believes the promise, but he’s always trying to figure out how he can speed God up, or how he can help God fulfill the promise. It’s a repeating pattern with us. It is not that we don’t believe God’s providence. We just have trouble seeing His time and His ways. And living in the midst of the Egypt – in the midst of the world – we are always trying to cut deals to help God out. The problem is that our deals with the world are the equivalent of giving our wife to Pharoah’s harem. We hand over the one through whom the offspring is promised to those who would mistreat her. We might get everything the world offers, but we’ve given up the pearl of great price.

The good news is that with signs and wonders – the plagues here, eventually the God-man who takes the plague of the cross upon himself – God still provides. His covenant with us in Jesus doesn’t depend upon our perfection. It is not upon us to make it full. God fulfills it. He has fulfilled it in Jesus, and he is at work fulfilling it in you.

The next time we find ourselves deep in negotiation with the world, pause for a second. Do we need what the world is offering? What are we giving in exchange for it? Has not God promised us “everything we need to support this body and life?” It might feel like a famine, even to a rich man with herds like Abram. But is our deliverance truly in Egypt?

Mission and Witness

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Biblical Text: John 20:19-31, Acts 5:12-32

The second Sunday of Easter, the end of the octave of Easter, is always the appearance to Thomas. And for most of my life this has been the Sunday to talk about doubt – doubting Thomas. Which I happen to think is a terrible reading of the text. Sure, Thomas doubts, but Jesus’ words to him are a gentle rebuke. Something like, “Thomas, stop being a fool, and believe. Do you really know these 10 so little that you think they’d lie to you about something like this?” If you want to talk Dark Nights of the Soul go read Job or Ecclesiastes or maybe even Paul on his fellow Jews. But Thomas is about mission. “As the Father sent me, I am sending you. Receive the Holy Spirit. Forgive Sins.” This is about the mission of the church in all times and places carried out through Word and Sacrament. And the first lesson of the day from Acts is a perfect example.

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Why Pray for the Cardinals?

It is not something that modern Lutherans or Protestants spend a lot of time thinking about, but then you only get a new one every decade or so. In my lifetime there have been 5 popes: Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis. And John Paul I barely counts. And the reality is that as the leader of roughly 1.5 Billion Roman Catholics what any Pope says or does has an impact on the church as a whole. There is an old saying often applied, “if Rome catches a cold, Wittenberg sneezes.” There is a list of doctrines that the church has always taught, that many protestant branches have changed with the spirit of the age, but if Rome were to change them, the worldly politics would be rough for any church continuing to confess them. That might explain some of the anxiety of the Francis years because that occasionally looked like a possibility. As a Lutheran it is easy to say “popes and councils may err.” (Luther wrote a treatise under that title.) But to a believer in Papal infallibility, that 2000 years of Popes could teach one thing in faith and morals and you could wake up the next day with the living Pope teaching something else; it went right to the heart of what they confessed.

So, as over the next week, weeks(?), months(??) that we see a new Pope elected, I thought it might be worthwhile to review what we Lutherans believe, teach and confess about that office. Maybe surprisingly the Augsburg Confession – the 1530 primary confession of the Lutheran Church – is rather silent on the bishop of Rome. Everyone, maybe Luther excluded, still hoped for a church council at that time to adjudicate all the issues. And it was only Luther himself who was excommunicated and declared an outlaw. The Augsburg Confession later section restricts itself to commenting on practices it believes need to be universally reformed: Marriage of Priests, The Mass, Confession, Monastic Vows along with some others. It also closes with an article on Church Authority (Art 28). Maybe foreshadowing the fuller teaching, it limits itself to speaking about “the power of bishops.” The pope by implication being merely the Bishop of Rome and not a universal Bishop. The authority of all bishops is simply “that which they have according to the gospel. For they have been given the ministry of Word and Sacrament (paragraph 20-21).” “If they have any other authority or jurisdiction…they have this by human right. (paragraph 29).”

In 1537, what was implied in the Augsburg Confession, is made explicit in two works: The treatise titled The Power and Primacy of the Pope and Article III.4 of the Smalcald Articles entitled The Papacy. Both are rather short and clear. You can read any of the Confessional articles yourself at https://bookofconcord.org/ or ask me for a copy of them, we have some extras. The treatise puts forward three claims of the papacy, which the modern papacy would still hold. 1. The Pope is by divine right supreme over all bishops. 2. That by divine right the pope operates in both the Kingdom of the Right (the gospel) and The Kingdom of the Left (the Civil Realm) with the authority to appoint and remove rulers. 3. That the pope is “The Vicar of Christ” which means simply that he is in the person of Christ in all that he does. Now the modern Roman church may moderate on these occasionally due to practicality, but just like indulgences, they are still there. The treatises teaching can be boiled down to the assertion that all of these are usurping the throne of Christ. It is Christ that is the head of the church. It is Christ who appoints both church and state rulers through various means. And Christ needs no vicar as he is present wherever the church gathers. The treatise holds out a distinction that none of these claims are proper by divine right. The pope cannot bind consciences over his actions in these areas. But, by human right and custom, one can certainly consult the bishop of Rome. Philip Melanchthon the writer was still hopeful of a council healing the schism.

Luther in the same year wrote his article on the Papacy which is more strident, although it really addresses the same three claims. It opens, “The Pope is not, according to divine law or God’s Word, the head of all Christendom. This name belongs to One only, whose name is Jesus Christ. The pope is only the bishop and pastor of the Church at Rome and of those who have attached themselves to him voluntarily or through a human agency. Christians are not under him as a lord. They are with him as brethren.” Luther continues to imagine a “by human right” papacy, but concludes that this would have to be a failure. And in his toughest statement asserts, “This teaching shows forcefully that the pope is the true Antichrist. He has exalted himself above and opposed himself against Christ. For he will not permit Christians to be saved without his power (paragraphs 9-10).” That “saved” is the confession that our sins are forgiven by faith alone. The absolution does not require the pope’s penance. If we believe Christ, our sins have already been forgiven and not even the pope can stand in the way. To the extent the pope stands in the way of the absolution, he opposes Christ.

But there are roughly 1.5 Billion Roman Catholics, fellow Christians. In the words of the confessions they have “attached themselves to him voluntarily or through a human agency.” And it is only good and right that we should pray for them at such a time. Both that a good and faithful man might be elevated to such an office, and that he would not get in the way of the proclamation of the gospel, but that he would be their brother in the faith.

Perplexed and Running

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Biblical Text: Luke 24:1-12

Happy Easter. Luke loves to juxtapose two groups, often male and female. And it is no different here at the Resurrection. Often it is for two ends of a spectrum. Sometimes it is to show different reactions to the same proclamation of the Word. Today the women and Peter are juxtaposed (with the apostles being an indeterminate group). The Word is the Resurrection. Both believe, but their starting place is much different. Their starting places just might be the extremes of the people showing up for Easter Services.

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A Good Friday Tenebrae Meditation

041825 Good Friday Sermon Download

Good Friday service as I run it most years is a reading by the congregation of the passion story in the gospel of the year broken into seven parts, usually: Gethsemane Betrayal, Jewish Trial, Peter’s Betrayal, Pilate, Herod, Crucifixion, Burial. After each reading there is an appropriate hymn, a short meditation, and the dowsing of the light. It’s a guided contemplative service. Every year for me as a preacher this is typically the toughest service. Those meditations have to be tight. My normal Sunday sermons runs 1500 words or around 12-15 mins. When I do occasional or midweek preaching, or the Pastor’s Corner articles, I aim for half that length. Both of those have some room to develop an argument and provide examples. Maybe even on the longer one a tangent not fully explored but offered. The Good Friday meditation is aimed at 300 – 400 words. It is a work of compression. One image, one thought, right to the point. And it needs to be emotionally obvious such that examples aren’t needed. That said, this series of seven such mediations felt right.

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Remember (A Maundy Thursday Sermon)

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Biblical Text: Luke 22:1-20

Remember is a consistent word used in the institution of the Lord’s Supper. If there is one thing the Reformation – really the enlightenment that followed – really distorted was remembrance. And it did so because it tends to reduce humans to minds alone. Remembrance becomes a mental activity only. Which is not what it would be to any religious person anywhere before the 17th century. Remembrance is making real, tonight, what might have happened originally long ago, but it also happens tonight. The Jew remembers the Passover by holding the same meal. And they too are brought out of slavery and saved from the Angel of Death by the blood of the lamb. After the reformation remembrance can get co-opted into a “memorial meal”, a mental construct. When this meal is to be something real. It gives us the body and blood of Christ. It gives to us his very heart, to our very heart.

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Easter Mystery

The great truths of any faith are always a mystery. What do I mean by that? What is a mystery? I’m not thinking of Scooby Doo and the mystery machine, nor Sherlock Holmes or your favorite writer. Those are all mysteries that can be solved. A fact is hidden that the investigator can reveal by the end of the book or episode. No, the mystery of a faith is something that is already completely revealed. It has been revealed before the face of all people. The mystery of a faith is something that can be intuitively understood. It makes complete sense, and yet is non-sense. Our minds can’t really process it. Even though we might see it.

The sacraments are such mysteries. Water, bread and wine do amazing things. And we can see what they do in the lives of the faithful. But do we really understand how the Spirit hovers in those waters? Can we really grasp how we eat and drink the body and blood of Christ? We recognize the body of Christ. Comprehend is a different matter.

The greatest of these mysteries is the resurrection. We all have an intuitive grasp that death is a horror, an enemy, not natural. As much as the materialists of our generation want to say that death is a natural part of life, it isn’t. It’s part of the life of sinners. It is part of life in a cracked world. But death is not a rightful inhabitant. But how do sinners combat their just penalty? “For in Adam we all die.” (1 Corinthians 15:21). God in his great mercy has sent us a champion. “In Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:21).

Staring directly at the mystery is tough. Mysteries are singularity events. We can’t really penetrate them in themselves. How exactly God and man together is one Christ is the mystery of the incarnation. You can meditate on Christmas forever and not understand it. But it speaks to our souls. You can stare at the empty tomb and not understand. But it breathes hope.

Isaiah captures that hope so well. The promise of the new heavens and the new earth (Isaiah 65:17). For that is what the resurrection is, the first fruits of the new creation. And in the new creation, “the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.” It’s a common question about heaven “what about those who aren’t there?” Or, “what about fill in the blank of something that meant so much here?” They shall not come to mind. Why?

Isaiah’s answer I think is simply the reality of the resurrection shall turn this broken creation into Paul’s light momentary affliction. “I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people.” If God is glad, can we be anything but? “No more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.” And Isaiah goes on to list things that are sadly too common – not mysteries at all in this world – that shall not happen in the new. “They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity (Isaiah 65:23).” The teacher of Ecclesiastes – all is vanity – shall be out of work. And the wolf and the lamb shall graze together.

We see the effects of the mystery. Even now we can see the mystery at work. Name another place outside the church that gathers together such different people. But what we see today is nothing compared to that day. The day that the last enemy is destroyed forever. Have a blessed Easter.