Category: Sermons

Hiding Behind Big Words

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Biblical Text: Luke 21:5-28

The text is Jesus answering the disciple’s questions on the end of the world. The sermon is an attempt to hear it. Because like the disciples we are often in so much shock and horror about the end of something we think is eternal that we can’t hear. Jesus put them into that shock with his answer about the temple – “not a stone will be left.” But then he tries to talk about what such an end actually means. The short answer is: 1) This is this world. These things have always been. Nothing here is eternal. 2) The end of a world is not the end of the world. 3) Don’t worry about the end because your life is safe with Christ regardless of what this old world does. 4) You won’t miss it. You don’t need to look for signs or guess the time. The Son of Man comes with power and great glory. Nobody will miss it.

Now the problem is that isn’t a good a story as “The Omen” or “Left Behind” or even “The Terminator.” And for a variety of reasons theologians and pastors try and hide behind big words. And in doing so, we tend to cede the ground to those horror stories. And instead of an apocalypse being a revealing it becomes a terror. Instead of the eschatological last things causing us to lift up our heads because our redemption draws near we run from one panic to another. But Jesus point is that we already know how it ends. Christ wins. Which frees us to live now.

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Power in the Name

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Biblical Text: Exodus 3:1-15

It was a fun service to plan. All the hymns of the day contained verse about the name of God (Holy God We Praise Thy Name, At the Name of Jesus, All Hail the Power of Jesus Name, Jesus! Name of Wondrous Love, Savior Again to Thy Dear Name We Raise.) That is quite the powerhouse Sunday of beloved hymns. And all of them are pretty solid on the theology. But the Text is when Moses receives the name of God. The first solid point is that god is not a name. God is a generic word for a category. And the ideas behind that category can be quite different. What Moses receives is the name. We usually say “I AM.” And that has all kinds of philosophical points. But it is first a name. And there is power in names. Not the least that you can drop them.

This Sermon is a reflection on the 2nd commandment (Do not take the name of the LORD in vain) and Luther’s explanation. It finds it’s practical points in our language, namely the causal use of things like OMG. And how OMG might not be that big a deal in itself. It doesn’t seem to trespass any of Luther’s explanation. But that is only because of how flippantly we use it. A deeper meditation would be how such flippant use of language – not just a generic category god – influences everything else we speak or hear. That is what this sermon wants to ponder.

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Walls of the Heart

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Biblical Texts: Luke 19:1-10, Isaiah 1:10-18

The liturgical calendar gets more than a nod here, this is All Saints (Observed). The hymns carry the heavy load, maybe more so this year as I chose the lessons for the regular Sunday instead of the All Saints texts. The same texts tend to get skipped year after year. In this case the story of Zaccheaus and a rather harsh sounding Isaiah text. But I picked them for what I thought is an important, but often ignored aspect of All Saints. The day is usually given over to the Saints at Rest. Let me explain three terms. You have the Church Militant or the Saints Militant which is you and me if you are reading this. You have the Church/Saints at rest who are those who have died in the faith. Eventually you will have the church/saints triumphant who are all the saints in the resurrection. For a protestant All Saints is typically the day to remember those now with Christ. But these lessons were perfect I thought to meditate on the Church militant, and maybe even more specifically from a Protestant perspective what makes a saint.

Zaccheaus is an interesting view. The sermon connects it to an Old Testament story that I put forward in typological fashion. How different walls need to come down to enter the promised land. The walls that make a saint are the walls of the heart. It is the call of Jesus, when we are up a tree, that tells us to come down and invites himself in. And Zaccheaus complies and receives him joyfully. The sermon picks up from there.

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Standing Before God

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Biblical Text: Romans 3: 19-28

I don’t often preach from the epistle texts. A part of that is that the Epistles typically lack a hard narrative. I think we as humans understand narrative – the story of a life. And we understand how God works in our lives through the narrative. The narratives that the apostles had were ancient Isreal’s, Jesus and their own. The Epistles end up being authoritative examples of how one does theology – how you proclaim doctrine from the narrative. In that way they are great at teaching, but at least to me less for preaching.

But today was Reformation Day (Observed). And there is a narrative – the story of Martin Luther and the Reformation – that ties directly into the doctrinal teachings of the Epistle lesson. This Romans passage on the Righteousness of God is what Luther was reading when he had his “tower experience.” That experience was when the gospel was cemented in his brain.

This sermon attempts to weave that narrative, and Paul’s doctrine together with how we might live our lives – how we might tell our own stories. How the righteousness of God comes to us. How it is the sure foundation. And How we might build on that.

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On Not Losing Heart (or Who you pray to and What you pray for)

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Biblical Text: Luke 18:1-8

As a Protestant I am tied to a doctrine of perspicuity. All that fancy word means is that the typical Christian is able to read and understand the scriptures. The intro to this sermon elaborates a bit, but the reason I was thinking about that is because this gospel lesson is one that I think pushes that border. The plain reading would be something like “go be a monk and pray all the time” or “pester God more.” But neither of those I’m convinced are what it is about. Instead, like all parables, it is first about who God is. It reveals God the Father to us. And second, it is a nudge toward what we should be praying for. I’ll admit that the second point is not as direct, but I still think that the typical Christian who has been catechized can see it. Because it hinges on what is justice. The woman demands justice against her adversary. And yes, we have temporal adversaries which is why we pray for our daily bread. But our real adversaries are those comic things: the devil, the world and our sinful nature.

This sermon is about praying and not losing heart – keeping the faith – that God will finally deliver us from evil.

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Problem, Solution, and Zombies

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Biblical Text: Luke 17:11-19

The text is the 10 lepers. It is the standard text for Thanksgiving for obvious reasons – the one who gives thanks. But I have to admit that most sermons on it feel like they miss the gospel. Or maybe I should just say they all assume the gospel. This sermon is as clear as I can make it from this text.

We have a problem. Our problem is a lot like leprosy used to be. A known march toward death that you can do nothing about and which separates you from everything you love. You could say we have a trinity of problems: sin, death and the power of the devil. And like the lepers we are left to plead, “master, have pity on us.”

We have a solution, and that solution is a universal one. Jesus has defeated sin on the cross. His resurrection makes a way past death. And he has bound the strong man – Satan – stealing us. The only revealed God ever who has walked in our villages and streets has freed us from our problems. All 10 lepers were healed.

The question is – How then do we live? One of the ten returned to give thanks. Our new life begins with thanks. Thanksgiving aligns us with our Lord and Savior Jesus. And that Jesus tells us to “rise and go our way, our faith has made us well.” Our way is now the way of Christ. We travel with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We walk with angels all the way. And we walk that way by faith. There are the zombies of our problems still out there – The Devil, The World and our Sinful Flesh. But that is what they are, zombies. We have been healed. And in faith we walk past.

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God, You Cannot Be Serious

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Biblical Text: Habakkuk 1:1-2:4

I think this longer passage – the lectionary as read cuts out important parts – is one of the most important in the bible. At least to the curious. Habakkuk the prophet has had it. He asks the question that I think many people do when things are going well, “God, where are you? Why do you do nothing?” And unlike most places, here God responds. He is doing something. He’s sending “the Chaldeans.” Now the Chaldeans are just code for Assyria/Babylon/Persia, the great power that takes Israel into exile. And God elaborates on who they are. It is what God often does, set one evil against another. But we don’t like that. The prophet doesn’t like that. He pushes back at God a second time. “Really, that is what you want me to go preach? Babylon?” And God answers one more time. And he makes clear what he is after – faith.

This sermon sets Habakkuk’s story in the light of Adam, Eve and the Old Snake. What Satan is always pitching in knowledge. “You will know.” It is not that God won’t grant knowledge, but that knowledge from God comes at the appropriate time. When we have the wisdom to handle it. Satan doesn’t care the damage it leaves. The “Violence”. The “Justice perverted.” But God does this because he is not really about knowledge. He wants us to have faith. He wants us to trust Him. And that is the second answer. Habakkuk, write the vision. It’s the same vision as always. The promise of Christ and his kingdom. And its the promise, “It will come. Wait for it. The righteous live by faith.”

On a rhetorical note, these sermon gets a little hot. To me it was meant to match the prophet’s complaint.

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Looking Up

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Biblical Text: Luke 16:19-31

People want to use this text to get glimpses or insights into the afterlife. But I honestly think that is rather boring. There is nothing in the Rich Man and Lazarus that gives any special insight. It is a heaven of sorts and it is a hell of torment. You can argue a bit and make a distinction between sheol, the Old Testament pit or abode of the dead, to which apparently all went, which upon Holy Saturday the victorious Christ lead the saints out in triumph and the post resurrection reality. But this sermon doesn’t want to get lost in those weeds, and for purposes of the story itself, it’s a distinction without a difference.

This text is not about glimpses of the afterlife, but it is looking up in this one precious life. It’s about how the Kingdom of God operates on different rules than this world. And it’s about how one finds true meaning. It’s a plea to look up and recognize everything that is going on around you. To see the Lazarus at your gate. To see that person or that work of God that we have become blind to. And know that today is the only day we are given to do that work of mercy. In regards to meaning it corrects our understanding. We tend to think that we need the sign and wonder and that would give us meaning. But the signs and wonders are given. A man has risen from the dead. We are given the promises of God in the sacraments. And there are others all around. But without the Word we don’t know what they mean. Like poor Lazarus, they become part of the scenery we step over. It is the Word – Moses and the Prophets in the story – that tells us what the signs and wonders mean. And how they are incorporated into our regular lives in days and months and seasons. How we can live in sacred time illuminated by the resurrection.

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Quickly, Mark it to Zero

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Biblical Text: Luke 16:1-15

The text is probably the hardest parable Jesus uttered. It doesn’t come with an explanation. The context immediately before and after it doesn’t really help. Or maybe I should say it would lead to an interpretation that would feel contrary to much of the gospel. And there really isn’t a “natural’ understanding that at least sets you on a fruitful path. It is as close to the feeling that Jesus said the parables were actually about (Mark 4:10-12) as you get – “Hear but not understand.”

I’m not so foolish as to say “I’ve got it the key.” But this sermon puts forward my understanding of the Parable of the Unrighteous Manager. And I think people shy away from this because it makes a comparison between Jesus and the unrighteous manager. They also shy away from it because it is explicitly Trinitarian. But Jesus compared himself to a thief entering the strong man’s house (Mark 3:27). And we Christians really need to drop the dregs of Unitarianism that we inherited. The Creed is the Father is the source, the Son was begotten of the Father before all worlds, and the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. The sermon develops that and on into the parable itself.

The short key is that the Rich Man is the Father, the Unrighteous Manager is an incomplete Jesus in that he doesn’t trust the Father enough, and the debtors are us sinners. The encouragement is to trust the Father revealed by Jesus. We are never outside of the Father’s love. And there is no end to the Father’s bank account if you will. The unrighteous manager is like Abraham content with no destruction of Sodom if there are 10 righteous. We’ve all negotiated with God. It’s natural law-based thinking. And in the law we always sell God short. It’s his good pleasure to give us the Kingdom. And there we are trying to buy it. Jesus came and said to us, “write what you owe to zero.” And the Father accepted it. Because we are in his love. And it is all his anyway. You can’t empty his accounts. It’s been done, we just need to believe it.

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