Redemption Tour: Witness

Biblical Text: Psalm 81, Acts 7:9-10

We continue our Midweek Lenten Series – The Redemption Tour. This week the theme is redemption of our witness. The Acts text comes from Martyr Stephen’s sermon as he was being stoned. And the big question for Stephen in a strange way becomes the big question for the Apostle Paul, who as Saul was holding the coats and heard that word of the martyr. And I think it might just be a big question for us. It focuses on Joseph and his brothers. Those brothers, the founders of the tribes of Israel, rejected their brother and essentially killed him. He was sent to Egypt and a land of strange tongues. But God was with him and paradoxically it was their evil action that was turned to good and saved the entire world including them. And this is Paul’s wonder about his fellow Jews who would not accept the message of Jesus and killed him. His ministry was to the gentiles and it was saving the world. Would the Jews return. The American church has seen a good deal of the same rejection and honestly the attempts to kill the message of the gospel. And it is in a terrible shape. The gospel has gone to strange tongues. Will we return? God redeems the witness. The Word goes out and it does not return empty. It may not return as we wish, but we rarely know the whole story. Our call it to witness. God redeems it.

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Ruthian Apologetics

You occasionally get asked, “how do you know it is true?” It being the Bible or Christianity in general or maybe even simplistically God. And there are all kinds of apologetic answers. You could start with Anselm’s Ontological argument as one of the oldest and Philosophically speaking still an active form. You could go with Aquinas’ Five Ways. Three of them versions of the Cosmological Argument. The final one an argument from design. All of them fancy ways of saying, “Have you looked out the window? You really think that came from nothing?” I think the Apostle Paul might agree with my tongue in cheek summary, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made (Romans 1:19-20).” Paul saying “look out the window.” The problem with all such arguments is that they are really arguments for a god. And arguments for a god are not the same thing as knowing that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is real. How Luther would qualify it would be that they are all arguments for the hidden god, Paul’s invisible attributes. And while we can observe the attributes, we don’t’ know God.

The Bible taken as a whole is the story of the Revealed God. It is the story of God no longer hiding behind the masks of power and might riding upon the storm. Ultimately we have the full revelation of God in the person of Jesus Christ. As Jesus replies to Philip’s plea, “Lord, Show us the Father…Whoever has seen me has seen the Father (John 14:8-9).” In Christ we see the steadfast love of God for his creation. We see the God who says he is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. And so Luther would say that when the hidden god troubles us, we turn to the revealed god in faith that “yes, we have seen the father. And he is not the god we so much dread, but our savior.”

But when you ask the “how do you know” question I think someone is asking for what makes it work for you. And the final answer has to be the Holy Spirit. “I believe I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him. Bu the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.” That Luther’s explanation to the third article of the creed. And final answers are true, but that question might be rephrased as something like “How has the Holy Spirit enlightened you?”

And Pentecostals might say something like “I spoke in tongues.” Likewise people might have seen a miracle. Now I might personally be somewhat skeptical of this one. We seem to have an infinite ability to say “that didn’t happen.” But Jesus does say, “even though you do not believe me, believe the works (John 10:38).” Maybe you had your own personal Eunice and Lois and you believe them (2 Timothy 1:5). “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed (John 20:29).” That is probably the most common way. But for my part, it is books like the book of Ruth, our old testament lesson for today (Ruth 1:1-19).

There is no way, absent the power of God, that this story survives history. You can place it alongside the lineage of Jesus is Matthew. Not that Luke’s genealogy is bad, but Luke’s goes back to Jesus as “the son of Adam and the Son of God.” And that is something typical for ancient Kings. They were all the son of God. Like Augustus, the Son of the Divine Julius. The story of Ruth is part of the genealogy of David. And it is the type of story that ancient Kings would have stamped out. Don’t focus on the romance of it. The revealed God parts. Focus on foreigner. Ruth was a Moabite. Focus on the poverty. Naomi leaves Israel because they are poor and returns poorer without a husband. Focus on how the family line is all but dead. Focus on how they are nothing and it is the mercy of Boaz that saves. And then realize that Ruth and Boaz are King David’s great grandparents (at least in Matthew’s genealogy.) No ancient human king is admitting any of that. And even if the King does, his line three generations later would clean it up. “We were always royal.” But this is the genealogy of Jesus. This is a King who is not about his invisible attributes of power and might, but about love and salvation. Which is the story of Ruth and Boaz. And the fact that it survives is an act of the revelation of the Father of Jesus, the Christ.

High Anxiety

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Biblical Text: Luke 24:36-49

There are lots of things that can cause anxiety or fear or doubt. WW3 might be up there this week. This sermon addresses that, but not in the way everyone that will get attention would do so. The gospel text for the weeks addresses 4 big things:

The Resurrection of the body
The Role of the OT and Scripture
The call to witness
These things are spiritually discerned

Those 4 things should go a long way to helping our anxiety. And turn our hearts toward the proper requests of God.

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Witnesses to the Light

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Biblical Text: John 1:6-8, 19-28

It is interesting to me how different John the Baptist is in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) from the Gospel of John. Not impossible to reconcile, especially when you consider the reasons for the Synoptic portrayal, but the evangelist John has a much different purpose. The Baptist is not so much the last Old Testament prophet as a Christian pattern. To the evangelist the Baptists is not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor The Prophet. He is simply a witness to the light that all might believe. Which is not so different from the Christian calling – to be a witness to the light.

And it is in that witness that the Christian finds their authority. The authority to make straight the paths. Discerning what that means in any issue is not easy, but like John, if you have people asking you “who do you think you are?” You have an answer. I am a witness.

Personal note: Most sermons you have a vague idea how they might be received. It is the sermons that you are attempting to say something a little deeper that you don’t know. Sometimes you love it, but it was too personal and just confuses people. Sometimes you don’t like it (but the clock has run out) and people like it much better than you expect. Sometimes you divide congregations. This is one that I felt right giving. It is also one where the audio contains a couple extra lines in the moment that I think made it better.

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Dating the Reign

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Biblical Text: Acts 1:1-11

We observed Ascension Day this Sunday. So I swapped out the first reading for the Ascension Day one. The recent coronation of the English King had me thinking about some things in regards to the Kingdom of God, the phrase Jesus consistently used. I guess the two questions would be: a) when does that reign start? and b) how does it manifest itself? Ascension Day is one of the logical times to date it from. (There are some nice theological arguments to be had about this, but the Kingdom in its full recognition starts here.) Our problem with this is the first royal decrees are not what we would do. “Are you now going to restore the Kingdom to Israel?” That was the disciples’ question. Because it is payback time. It is time to get ours. That is not what The King does. This sermon looks at the first royal decrees upon Ascension, and how they direct us today.

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The East and the West

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Biblical Text: Luke 13:22-30

This is my first sermon at Mt. Zion. I think the text hovers around something quite important but rarely talked about. “Will many be saved?” is the question that kicks it off. That question plays on the fears of our loved ones and the doctrine of election. The all too easy answer is universalism. It also plays on our prejudice. Just our people, right? But Jesus’ answer is “the east and the west, the north and the south.” Anytime we become too concerned – taking responsibility for – the salvation of others Jesus and the apostles but the onus back on ourselves. “You strive to enter through the narrow door.” The election of God is God’s business. And the way he has chosen to work it out in time is our witness to our hope in how we live and faith in the work of Jesus Christ. Today is the day of grace for those who would here by those means.

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Where God Acts

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Text: Luke 17:10-19

We are on the three year lectionary. What that means is that the scripture texts we read each week are on a three year cycle. What the three year cycle does really well is allow you as a congregation to read through entire books. There are other lectionary schemes. A not small number in the LCMS uses a 1 year lectionary. And this is a gross simplification, but the 1 year lends itself to a dogmatic approach. You’ve got these teachings of the church. You want to remind/teach people every year on them. You build your readings around those teachings. The 3 year lends itself to an exegetical approach. That is a 10 dollar would for deep reading. Deep in that word exegetical is a root word meaning turning the soil. The 3 year continuous reading turns the soil of the gospel because each year has a primary gospel text. Since Advent 2009 we’ve been in the Gospel according to Luke. If it takes me say 15 hours to prepare a sermon (roughly 1 hour for each minute talking), in a year you will spend around 600 hours (the gospel of John gets read occasionally) with one gospel. You get to know it well.

The text for this sermon pulled me up short. In 9 perfectly artful verses, Luke asks the eternal questions. It puts the question to its readers – where is God acting? And if you know that, are you ready to go there? Even if it means putting yourself between Samaria and Galilee, being the peacemaker and healer? Even if it means walking toward Jerusalem, toward the cross? That is the path of being made whole.

Irony at the Cross – Lent 6

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I am a member of my Generation. We are finely tuned to irony. The gulfs between what one person says and what another, or the reader or God observes. When we read Mark’s account of the crucifixion (Mark 15:25-32), the weight of the irony is amazing.

An exerpt from this sermon…
…Coming off the cross, would only prove there are limits to God’s love. It would have been a sign of a lesser God. But we have the great God, the God, whose love was not limited. Jesus saved others, by not saving himself. While the establishment was demanding signs of a lesser God, the Father saw the greatest sign of love and belief imaginable. His son gave his life to save the lost world, and He entrusted all to the justice of the Father…

Don’t look inward, look outward for our salvation and our mission

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Text: Mark 14:32-42

Two poles – 1) It’s about Jesus and 2) He’s got a mission. That has been the core summary of this series through Holy Week in Mark’s Gospel. Our spiritual adversary tries to push us off that second pole. The last thing he wants is faithful Christians actually sharing the Word that frees us from his kingdom of chains. He will shoot us a variety of lies: You don’t measure up to the saints, you don’t talk well enough, you aren’t a perfect person. Gracefully, it is not about us. If it were, the devil would be right. We aren’t enough of anything. But it is about Jesus and what He has done for us on that cross. Peter, the leader and example of the disciples, is our great biblical example. The disciple who fell asleep and denied his Lord at the hour of great distress, is never told by Jesus to go away, but is always invited along. Peter, after all that betrayal, is told to, ‘feed my sheep’. If the devil has you looking inward, you will never get the mission. Our salvation and our mission come from outward. They come from the one it is all about – Jesus Christ.

Ritual – Mark 14:22-26

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Wow, it was a busy week. This text was the core of my lenten devotion last week. Prepping for Mauday Thursday as well. It was Mark’s account of the Last Supper. In these lenten devotions, we’ve been walking through the Markan account of Holy Week. I’ve also been using a phrase to look at the events. It’s about Jesus, and He has a mission.

The cloud of biblical images around the last supper supports that bi-polar sentence better than many. The OT cloud is the passover. In the Last Supper Jesus redefines every element as pointing to him. A 1500 year old ritual is redefined in startling ways. Not the least of which is it becomes forward looking instead of a remembrance meal. The passover remembered when God acted. The Last Supper/Lord’s Supper recalls/longs for the day Jesus drinks again in the Kingdom. The NT cloud is all about mission and it is in parables. The wedding banquet at the end of time. In those parables the Kings says go bring everyone in. The city dwellers and the country folk, the crippled, the blind and the poor. That missional imperative is something we definitely know. We would often rather argue about theological points or fine shadings. We don’t know much of that for certain. What we do know – It is about Jesus, and He’s got a mission…and he wants us on that mission.

In finance there is a term – safe harbour. What it means is that there are gray areas of tax law and accounting rules. You can explore those grey areas, usually through the tax courts. If you lose, you will owe penalties. There is usually a safe harbour, behavior spelled out at appropriate. The tax courts may eventually rule the behavior wrong and change the regulations, but if you were in that safe harbour there will be no penalty. Theologically speaking there is a safe harbour – personally, believe and be baptized; as a church, be about mission.