The Alpha and the Omega

Biblical Text: Revelation 7:2-17

In the Church Year the Day was All Saints (Observed). What is a saint is a little bit different from one tradition to the next. The Roman Catholic tradition a saint is only someone that the Papacy has recognized as “experiencing the beatific vision” (i.e. we know they are with God and not in Purgatory or Hell because reasons.) So All Saints becomes a catch-all feast of the recognized saints whose own day has not been celebrated. No other tradition has a formal recognition process. The Orthodox, Saints are first the martyrs, and then those recognized by public acclimation and what used to be called “the cult of the saints.” Protestants, including Lutherans here, use the term closer to how it is used in the bible meaning all the faithful. One of Luther’s slogans is simul justus et peccator, at the same time saint and sinner. That really describes us – the Church in Warfare. Or following the text of the day, the church in the midst of the great tribulation. The church at rest no longer has that problem with sin. What All Saints becomes in the Lutheran tradition is a celebration or remembrance first of those who have recently died in the faith but also of the great cloud of witnesses in general.

This sermon and the text from Revelation is a look at that great cloud from two directions: the beginning and the end – the alpha and the omega. John’s vision is a vision of All Israel, all believers in all times and all places. The first part is the sealing by God of his own before time. The last part is the outcome of that sealing at the end of the age. The time in between is the tribulation, the time under the cross. What Revelation does so well is comfort. Yes, we are in the tribulation. But you have been sealed by God in the blood of Christ, and he will bring you through it.

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Always Reforming

This was originally a sermon given to a gathering of Circuit Visitors – the middle layer of ecclesial oversight. I tended not to post occasional services (funerals, weddings, etc.) or sermons given for occasions outside the congregation when my website was the congregation’s explicitly. But the slogan Always Reforming comes up almost every Reformation Day. And I think I did a decent job in this sermon thinking through that. So I’m posting it today. Two warnings: 1) The audience it was prepared for was a bunch of CVs, so there are things that I might explain more fully on a normal Sunday that I just assume here. 2) I’m also much more free in this sermon than I might be otherwise because the audience is a trusted one doctrinally. What do I mean by that? I’m trying to push beyond cliches.

The Biblical Texts were: Mark 9:49-50, Numbers 18:8-20, Rev 2:1-7

The introduction (the full text is in the file).

When I first saw the theme of the conference – “Forever Reforming” – I was intrigued. I was intrigued because I immediately thought of semper reformanda, the Reformed slogan, or maybe I should say the neo-Reformed slogan. My time at Grove City – Calvinist Hot Bed – would tell me that it goes back to the late 1600. More recently is comes from Karl Barth, and through Barth it even found its way into the Second Vatican Council document Lumen Gentium. Depending upon your church politics, I’ve probably either just hit every bogeyman, or every hero of the past 400 years.

The phrase at the level of common sense is obviously true. Even God moved from Hebrew to Greek. Part of that word given to us says that the Spirit will guide you into all truth. Being creatures that reflect the image of a creator God, we are constantly creating. And in creating also destroying. And in all that change, the church itself changes.

The real question, the church political heat, is how and what changes. Call me crazy, join the line that I’m sure is forming to come get me, I don’t think you can read Luther deeply and not realize he was more comfortable with more change – at least in theory – than we probably are. A good place to start in that if you are interested is to read Dr. Robinson on Luther’s essay On the Councils of the Church. But at the same time that Luther is more open to Forever Reforming, I think it is fair to say that Luther is much more intransigent about a subset of things. This is the guy who banged on the table about the word “est”…

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Reformation Conundrums

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Biblical Text: Romans 3:19-28

Reformation Sunday in a Lutheran congregation can have three flavors. Vanilla is a simple celebration. We assume that everyone knows the greatness and key points of the Reformation. We just celebrate it. Chocolate is to complicate that celebration. You do that by asserting that we don’t know it or we’ve lost the Reformation script or something about it is no longer relevant. This sermon has at least a scoop of Chocolate. Strawberry is the last and a little rarer flavor. It is an attempt to make us feel Luther’s anfechtung, his problem with sin and righteousness. If you can do that, you don’t have to worry about he Chocolate, because it is immediately relevant. This sermon is an attempt at a lot of strawberry. It is an attempt to rip away the veils of the age that hide the same problems Luther wrestled with. They are there. Our veils just worked for a while. So do the veils of the Papacy for a while before Luther.

The primary veil that we depend upon can be summarized in the word acceptance. We treat acceptance as the gospel, when it is no gospel at all. Acceptance doesn’t desire or achieve righteousness. It just overlooks sin. The Gospel is absolution. The sin is no more because we have been given the righteousness of Christ. This sermon attempts to take off the veil and encourage the reception of righteousness from outside ourselves.

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LWML Zone Rally Sermon

Text: Psalm 33

Introduction

When I was originally told that the LWML zone rally was here, I was asked for a verse and a theme for an opening devotion.

No problem I say to myself. I’ll do the evangelical thing. Open the bible to the concordance, look for one word that feels good and can support a portals of prayer length opening, and shamelessly rip that verse out of context.

Then Deb tells me about 2 weeks ago, “oh, no Pastor, its an opening worship service.”

Ok, look at the fuller context of Psalm 33. Oh, I might have chosen differently…

Gospel in the Text

How many of you have a “junk drawer” in your house? Is it the first place you look or the last? I guess that falls under the “there are two types of households…”. Ours is a last place house. You run around opening every other drawer and when you don’t find what you a looking for, cursing under your breath that it’s not where it should be, you open the junk drawer. Saying a quick prayer that it is like Harry Potter’s Room of Requirement. And mystically, out of the last place, what you need is found.

The Psalmist opens up telling us to “shout for joy to the LORD!” Why?

Because the earth is full of his steadfast love.
Because by the word of the LORD the heaven were made and the deeps put in their place
Because the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

Surely God has placed everything in its correct drawer. And we know exactly where those correct drawers are. Right?

“The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples.” Oh.

Ok. So that steadfast love isn’t found in nations and peoples. But maybe it is found in the pride of place draw. The corner one with a glass front that shows off the impressive things.

“The King is not saved by his great army, a warrior is not delivered by his strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation.”

Oh, that steadfast love isn’t there in that drawer either. So where is it?

“Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love.”

God places that steadfast love where we least expect it. In those who fear Him. In those whose soul waits. In those who hope. In the junk drawer of the world.

You get a picture of an early junk drawer in the Acts reading. That early church was going to where they thought they’d find ears. “They were scattered after the martyrdom of Stephen, but spoke the word to no one except Jews.” Surely the steadfast love of God is in this drawer, his chosen people.

“But some of them spoke to the Hellenists, preaching Jesus. And the LORD was with them.”

And who does Barnabas get? He goes to Tarsus to look for Saul. The guy who had been part of the persecution. The guy who had shown up with a crazy story of meeting Jesus on the road. But everyone was afraid of him. So they threw him in the junk drawer. And Barnabas goes into the junk drawer to match the former Pharisee of the Pharisees with the former goyim who somehow had heard about Jesus. And it was in Antioch, in that Junk drawer of a city, that the disciples were first called Christians. In this junk drawer that they found the Steadfast Love of God in Christ for all peoples. It’s not the drawer that we look for, but it is exactly the drawer God has chosen.

When Barnabas came and saw the grace of God, he was glad….For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in His holy name. When we see the grace of God in action, when we realize “oh, here it was all along,” we can’t help but be glad.

Gospel in the World

The church used to have lots of drawers. And you can talk about that church as the larger institution or as the congregation.

There were lots of drawers that you’d open up. Surely what we are looking for is in this one. The seminaries, the pastoral office, the board of elders, the Praesidium, the mission execs. Surely these draws have the answers that we are seeking. Surely the steadfast love of God is found here.

And I don’t want to run those things down too much, but we’ve all opened those drawers enough and found them wanting. Or in latter days, just empty. “By their great might they cannot rescue.”

But then you see the church’s junk drawer. Funded by mite boxes. Sometimes asked, sometimes just expected to “do what needs to be done.” It is probably a little different in each of your congregations, but whether it is giving a cup of cold water to the thirsty person or knowing that God is going to show up and planning for it – when nobody else will. It is the LWML that again and again is where we find the steadfast love of God. Where we see the grace of God. Exactly where God desires it.

“He fashions the hearts of them all, and observes their deeds.”

It is the LWML that again and again demonstrated a heart after God.

It is the LWML that has always understood and continues to understand what it means to fear God.

Let your hearts be glad, because the Lord has seen you. And his steadfast love rests on you.

Conclusion

And may your trust in the name of Jesus, and hope in his word, that gladdens your hearts in service, be seen not just by God, but by our congregations. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us. May we hope in you as those gathered here today hope. Amen.

Render to Caesar

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Biblical Text: Matthew 22:15-22

“Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s” is one of the most quoted saying of Jesus. But I’m convinced that 99.9% of the time it is quoted, we quote it terribly wrong. We use it to let ourselves off the hook on our duty. That is the essence of the trap they were laying for Jesus. Which side of this divide are you on Jesus? And whichever side he is “on” he’d lose the crowd from the other side. They marveled at his answer. Not because it was simply a rhetorical masterpiece of weaving between two poles. We hear politicians daily attempt that, maybe monthly do it successfully. But those are always like the apocryphal saying of Barack Obama – “my superpower is that people hear what they want to in my words.” When Jesus said this what they marveled at was how it convicted everyone. Jesus isn’t on any of their sides. He’s the King of the Reign of Heaven. This sermon attempts to restore some of the marvel of that saying.

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Marjory Fischer Funeral Sermon

Introduction

Pastor’s wife – at least in the Lutheran or Protestant traditions – isn’t a formal role, but it typically takes on some interesting contours.

The first is that they are usually loved or hated by the congregation more than the minister himself. The pastor can utilize the collar, his wife doesn’t have the totem. The good news here is that I think I can say Marjory was on the beloved side.

And I could check off many of the reasons she was beloved by family and church family. She’s be the first to you with baked goods, but she’d also have ensured her kids got to lick the beaters. She played the organ or piano. She learned playing a piano bought off the back of a truck in 1951. And we should remember that Marjory was a true daughter of the West. People like to date the frontier closing around 1900, but rural Montana in 1941 wasn’t like Kansas City – gone about fur as they could go. Probably inappropriate, but a funny story about outhouses in use in those times was shared. More appropriate might be the story of the music found when cleaning out which was not just Bach and Hymnals but included Elvis. Given Marjory’s hymn choices I could have guessed that there would some interesting things. Lift High the Cross coming originally out of a rejected Green Hymnal project, and Borning Cry coming likewise out of an officially illicit Supplement to that hymnal. There was someone who knew themselves and was unafraid picking.

And that might point at the biggest reason for the love. Marjory was aware of herself and she never seemed to lose her way. She was solid enough to let others go and confident enough in them and God that they would come back. Knowing that she was built on the rock, she could be that for others.

The other thing about Pastor’s Wives is that they know things can get asked of them, or have their husband being away at the wrong time. And true to form, when Marjory had her stroke, that was the very day her Pastor had left for Palm Springs for a conference. But I also want to say, true to the best of the church, she was there. My wife, Marjory’s Elder Randy and Pastor Kalthoff all were able to visit. Some things are not fair, but the Lord does provide. As Paul says in the Epistle reading, “encourage one another with these words.” The work of the church is a shared thing. We lean on each other.

Text

But Marjory would probably start scolding me if I didn’t turn to preaching the Gospel at her funeral.

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end.” That is God revelation of himself to us, that He is Love. And what does that Love mean? That he is the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. That cross is the love of God made manifest to us. That cross is the pledge of mercy never ending.

“They are new every morning.” Some days those mercies might come with a collar and official approval. Some days those mercies are brought by new people. The mercy of God is never stale. And great is his faithfulness. What he has promised is secure. Even though we walk through the shadow of death we fear no evil. Even though he might cause us grief, he will have compassion. His nature is the abundance of his steadfast love.

And how might you know this steadfast love? The Good Shepherd knows his own and they know him. He calls and they will listen to his voice.

Today in these words the Shepherd calls you. Jesus calls you to now his steadfast love.

Love that even though we grieve and do not have Marjory right now, we do not grieve as those without hope. For when Jesus comes again, he comes with those who have fallen asleep.

Love that even when we feel weak and defeated, we know that the victory has been given to us. The Lord himself will descend with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

Love that hears the promise that even in that valley of the shadow of death, the Good Shepherd is with us. And his faithfulness is such that we will always be with the Lord.

The Good Shepherd has called Marjory to him and this is better by far. But today that same Shepherd Marjory knew and testified to with her life calls you. He calls you to his steadfast love. Amen.

Worthy

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Biblical Text: Matthew 22:1-14

The Gospel text is the parable of the Wedding Feast. It immediately follows last week’s text – the wicked tenants. So they are covering some of the same territory, but this one expands on the tenants in two ways. First, it answers what is counted as the wickedness. In the wedding feast is it described as being unworthy. And it is simply dishonoring the King and his son. The second way it expands is the Wedding Feast parable continues to add how the new tenants or the second invitees are both called and treated. And it is this second part that is the most important for the church. This sermon meditates on both the lessons of former Israel for us, and for what is called from us to be worthy. Or maybe the best way to put it is how are we not unworthy? Which is everything to do with the wedding garment.

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Funeral Sermon for John Vaux

Biblical Texts: Deuteronomy 29:29-30:5, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, Matthew 24:36-44

Introduction

One of the questions that I like to ask the gathered family when planning a funeral is “what is your favorite memory of the deceased?” You often hear the things that eulogists will say. But there are also people who might not be willing to get up in a pulpit who will share memories in that more private space.

And the answers that I heard regarding John spoke about his faithfulness as a Father and a Husband. The Husband part might have included stories before the wedding, but stories that pointed to loving care. Stories like pushing a girl he was sweet on with a broken foot up and down hills. Stories like figuring out how on 9/11 to get away from the Pentagon that they had somehow accidentally stumbled toward. Stories of cross country moves and the reality of a fully wired house that makes sure the doors are locked for you in case you might forget. That loving care persists.

People often make fun of Fathers in our day. And one of the ways they do it is by making fun of Dads only having kids to continue being childish. But in a religion that includes the saying “if you do not receive the kingdom like a little child you will never enter there in”, we should be careful with that. That type of fatherly loving care is different. Maybe you liked football and your child likes soccer. As it was explained to me, John “learned to love” that new game. He loved big words, something that I could certainly relate to. But that might be an example of the love moving the other way and his children flexed that vocabulary. And Fatherly care extended to doing new things together. When so much of live just unhealthily shut down in the pandemic, John recognized how it wasn’t good, and hit the road RV’ing. There were lots of such stories of Fatherly direction and shared loved. Teaching to drive with a stick shift of all things. Developing an artistic talent through magical dragons. Boardgames, puzzles and intricate builds from clocks to a Lego millennium falcon. Maybe childlike, but far from childish.

Text

Traditionally, one of those Fatherly loving care things is ensuring a foundation to answer big questions. Moses captures the deep reality of our existence. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God.” And those secret things are usually the “why?” questions. There are things that we just can’t answer from knowledge. But Moses continues, “the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever.” There is the Fatherly loving care. The things that have been revealed to us, are also for our children. And that Fatherly loving care teaches those revealed things.

For Moses that is the centrality of the LORD your God. We all wonder out, like prodigals. But when you hear the voice call, obey it. “Return to the LORD your God, you and your children…with all your heart and with all your soul.” The LORD your God is a Father who lovingly gathers and provides. “He will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed.” That is part of the revealed things. God’s love for us. Love for us as a Father.

Part of the secret things is our time. Not just our time but the world’s time. “As in the days of Noah.” We know the flood is coming. And even if it isn’t THE flood, we know out person day of reckoning is coming. But we do not know that day it will begin to rain. We do not know the day or the hour. These are the secret things.

But in God’s Fatherly care it has been revealed to us that this need not be our destruction. Noah entered the ark. And Luther’s baptismal prayer reminds us “God preserved Noah and his family, 8 souls in all.” That Ark today that has been revealed to us is that baptism. A baptism that John shared.

That ark today that has been revealed to us is what the Apostle Paul write – “having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.” God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through Jesus Christ.

That is the foundation to answer big questions. That is the Fatherly loving care of the LORD our God. Christ died for us defeating sin and ultimately death, for death could not hold Jesus. He’s risen.

Our day and hour? The secret things. And those secret things, whatever our age, sneak up on us like a thief. But the loving care of Jesus and the Father is that this has been revealed to us. That “whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.”

We live with God through faith.

We live with those awake or asleep, with what the creed calls the communion of saints.

We live with them in love and in that hope Paul preaches, and Moses spoke of, that we still reveal to you today. That God gathers his own in Fatherly love. And that today is the day of grace to hear his voice and follow, with all you heart and with all your soul. Amen

Vineyards and Cornerstones

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Biblical Text: Matthew 21:33-46

This parable of the wicked tenants as it is sometimes called feels very rooted in its specific history so much so that even through the parables were told so that “hearing they might not hear” the Chief Priests discerned Jesus told this about them. It is the summaries, conclusions or maybe so far as application that open up the parable beyond the Jewish temple leadership. In my reading Jesus gives three separate summaries.

“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone”
“The Kingdom of God will be taken away and given to those producing its fruit”
“The one who falls on the stone will be broken to pieces, the one the stone falls on will be crushed”

This sermon looks at each of those in progression and how the help us hear the parable for ourselves. The placing of the cornerstone is pure gospel. “God has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes.” The second is the moral warning to watch. If you think the vineyard is yours to do with as you want, you might be killing the heir. The third thinks about our ultimate positions regarding God: ignoring such that we might trip over, set ourselves against him, or build on the cornerstone.

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A Better Story

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Biblical Text: Matthew 20:1-16

Pay attention to the stories people tell you over and over. They are telling you about themselves. The stories that we as Americans tell over and over right now are toxic. They have erased the old stories. Their only fruits are division, death and lethargy. This sermon is about a better story. It is a story that Jesus tells about the Kingdom, which of course is a story about himself – God. And it is a story full of mischievous life. There is always work in the Kingdom. The pay is unfair, but always right, and better than we deserve. Go work in the vineyard. You won’t regret it. You won’t regret an identity built on this story.

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