JESUS PRAYS

 

When you pray, do you ask God for anything? If you do, what is it? When I was your age, I asked God for friends and to be funny. I asked God to help me in baseball and school. When I got to high school, I asked God to help me be popular, and later to be successful. So, nothing I asked for was really important.

Do you know what I ask God to give me today? I ask God to make me indifferent. That means that I want to be okay with whatever God gives me. As I have gotten older, I have learned that it’s better for me to accept God’s plan for me than for me to give God my plans.

Here is what I mean. I prayed for good health, but I got sick and got well many times. I have fallen more times than I can remember and was in two car wrecks. I had teeth replaced and surgery on my shoulder. With age, arthritis accompanies me everywhere.

Maybe your parents have gone through the same thing. They pray to be successful so that they can take care of you, but they may not make as much money as they want.

I say this because in our Gospel today (Jn 17), Jesus prays not for all the things we often pray for. He prays for his disciples to be protected from evil, the evil one and that His Father make them holy. And do you know what? That is Jesus’ prayer for you too. Jesus prays for you to be protected from sin, Satan and for you to be holy. So, the next time you pray, ask Jesus what He wants for you.

With that, let us pray. Heavenly Father, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named: Bless these and all children, and give their parents the spirit of wisdom and love, so that the homes in which they grow up may be to them an image of Your Kingdom, and the care of their parents a likeness of Your love. We pray in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Ask for Anything

 

God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. My sermon is entitled “Ask for Anything,” and my focus is our Epistle (1 John 5:9-15) Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

What do you ask from God? Are your requests personal, familial, professional, ecclesial, societal or global? Do you ask God for eternal life for yourself and your loved ones? A long life? A healthy body and a healthy mind? A successful, wealthy career? Do you pray for the church? For our Synod’s leaders and pastors? For our members and Christians everywhere? Do you pray for our nation and neighborhood? Our police and border patrol officers, first responders and health care workers, military personnel and judges? Across the globe, do you pray for people’s needs? For families starving for food, religious freedom and relief from oppression? What did you ask from God today?

Let us ask God for anything, but first let us ask God to help us understand this passage. Let us understand this passage as John wrote it, as Luther interpreted it, and as we might apply it.

John opened today’s passage, “If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son.” We believe an eyewitness’s testimony. When one witnesses an event and shares the recollection with family or friends, on social media or in court, we regard this testimony as reliable. We accept testimony from men, women and children, should we not accept the testimony of God? We believe others when it concerns earthly matters, should we not believe God when it concerns His Son?

God’s testimony to His Son unified the final passage of John’s Letter. Essentially, John said, “Believers have the Son. Unbelievers do not have the Son. To have the Son is to have eternal life and eternal truth.”

To have the Son is to have eternal life and eternal truth. That was vital in a Greek culture that valued the eternal and esteemed the Ancients, e.g., Homer, Aristotle, Plato. Greeks believed no faith was certain unless its object, foundation, origin and end existed from the beginning. That prompted John to write, if you have fellowship with us – apostolic eyewitnesses – you have fellowship with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word.

John urged Christians to be confident, knowing that they alone knew the one true God through Christ and His Church. Think Joe Namath guaranteeing a Superbowl victory. Multiply that superior confidence exponentially and you have John. With an attitude of superiority, he guaranteed victory over Satan, sin and death, and so inspired fellow believers to abide in fellowship with Christ and His Church.

Though John’s letter was classic rhetoric, it appealed to his readers’ deepest emotions. He wrote not only about concepts and ideas regarding Christ and Christians, but also about behavior. John urged Christians to retain their core values against the attacks of the dark powers from whom God promised to protect them. In other words, John taught behavior reflects belief.

Because behavior reflects belief, John galvanized and steeled Christians for struggles against the world, the flesh, the devil and false teachers. If they could endure these things until the day when they would see Christ, they would see Him just as he is. Until then, they could confidently ask for whatever they needed.

Verse 14 reminded them, “To know is to be assured; to be assured is to be confident; to be confident is to ask for the very things that we know that God intends for us to have and to hold.” This assurance was not merely theoretical or a matter of inner personal experience. Christians discovered God’s assurance in life’s ambiguities through a continual relationship with God through His Son and within the common life of the Church, that is, those who share that relationship. … Here is the heart of John’s letter: Divine indwelling, abiding in God, walking as children of the light and all other expressions of belonging to God are not primarily individual but communal. In other words, Christians have fellowship with God only through the Church, not apart from it. That is why John repeated to church members, “Love one another.” Church members are all God’s children and deserve to be loved as His children.

Regarding our epistle, Martin Luther affirmed that no true prayer is unheard and unanswered. Concerning God’s promise, Luther wrote, “Do you mean to say that this promise is always true even though God often does not give what we have asked for? Did He not let David pray for the life of his son in vain? … I have often said how a prayer must be ordered and arranged. In our petitions we should not prescribe to God [some] measure, limit, place or person; but we should commit all … to Him who knows how to give … what is good for us. This is why He … set up this order … in the Lord’s Prayer [and] … put before us three objectives, which must always have precedence: the hallowing of His name, His kingdom and His will. Then follow our daily bread and deliverance from temptation and all troubles. … If this precedes, then that which is ours will certainly follow. Accordingly, St. John says, “If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us …”

Continuing, Luther wrote, “You have His complete will, and God will certainly not think otherwise in His heart than the Lord’s Prayer shows you. …  Therefore, when in trouble and danger … pray for deliverance and help, but in the way the Lord’s Prayer teaches you.”

I admire the simplicity of Luther’s theology. John’s theology, like his Letter, can be complicated, leading to hours of head scratching. Luther’s understanding clarified what John meant. We can ask God “anything, [and] according to his will he hears us,” but we must ask according to how the Son taught us to pray.

As children of God, our common denominator is the prayer Jesus taught. He said, “Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

If we ask for anything according to God’s good and gracious will, we know that he will hear us, but undoubtedly, John’s assurance puzzled countless Christians whose prayers were not answered in ways they hoped. Prayer is not an unlimited ATM card from Jesus, which purchases and produces on demand. Nothing should encourage us to suppose that God will grant anything we choose to ask, simply because we want it. It is the will of God, not the believer’s whim, which is the cardinal rule of prayer.

One who prays should know that God considers and acts on all requests to maximize the coming of His kingdom and the fulfillment of His will. Therefore, we can ask for anything because according to his will, God hears us.

According to his will, God hears us, but at times, we doubt. Like Christians, athletes have doubts, especially when the future seems like an incessant uphill battle. In these moments, athletes must find the strength to push forward, work harder and be better. Some are lucky to have coaches and mentors who put things into perspective and motivate them.

John’s Letter motivated Christians not to win a contest or a crown, but to remain faithful to God through fellowship with Christ through the Church. … Friends, remain faithful to God through fellowship with Christ through the Church.

God gave you what you need to remain faithful to Him through fellowship with Christ and His Church. God answered your prayers and gave you the means of grace. God opened His ears to your prayers through His Word and Sacraments. You have those. What else do you need? Perhaps a small catechism to learn your faith. Friends, learn your faith.

“What you learn no one can take from you,” my father often said. He applied this not only to his profession, but also to of our faith. His religious learning did not end at confirmation, but continued throughout adulthood; and his behavior reflected his beliefs. That inspires me.

My father died in 2003. He was one of many from The Greatest Generation who inspired me more than most of us from the Baby Boom Generation. I have often said that old people are much more interesting than young people, and I am serious about that because experience comes through living life, and the longer you have lived, the more you have experienced.

The elderly ask for the Lord’s Supper. They know Christ’s Body and Blood sustains them through their last days. What they learned about Christ, no one took from them, even on their deathbeds. Behavior reflects belief. That inspires me.

When you enter your last days, will your behavior reflect your beliefs? Will a lifetime of learning about your faith and fellowship in Christ accompany you to the grave? Will your relationship with Christ through his Church inspire anyone? What if you do not live to be 90 or 70? Does your behavior inspire anyone today? Does your behavior reflect belief?

As we come to the end of the school year, a test for you. When you get home, make a list of the people you think you inspire or want to inspire. Next, call them and ask them if you inspire them. Prepare yourself for unexpected responses.

If your behavior inspires no one; if your relationship with Christ through His Church inspires no one; if your behavior does not reflect your belief, talk to God. Ask the Holy Spirit dwelling in you to come alive and then, reflect on John’s words: “If we ask anything according to his will he hears us.” Finally, pray as Luther taught. Children of light, pray to the Trinity for that grace. Pray in Jesus’ Holy Name, and may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.

What's New?

 

God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. My sermon is entitled “What’s New?” and my focus is all three readings. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

If you had the chance to list of the most significant scientific and technological inventions over the past century, you might include things we use at work or at home: microwave ovens, iPhones, cordless tools, integrated circuits, communications satellites, email, Bluetooth, social media and more. There have been inventions that have saved or improved millions of lives: the polio vaccine, Kevlar, high yield rice and robotics to name a few. And if you think you’re too old to invent life-changing technology, listen to this: In 1980 John Bannister Goodenough invented the cobalt-oxide cathode, the battery that supplies your laptops and cell phones. At the time, Goodenough was a mere 94 years old.

Why all this talk about what’s new? Because while every new invention does not benefit humanity, such as viruses and worms, many new ideas do improve and change lives. With that, we look at what was new in Acts, John, 1^st John and the Church today.

First, Acts. The story of Peter and Cornelius is one of the most remarkable in the Book of Acts—and worth reading in its entirety. Yet none of it would have happened if these two men had not been open to the possibility of God doing something new.

Peter, a devout Jew, had never eaten anything unclean. When God gave him a vision asking him to eat a forbidden animal, Peter’s first reaction was to recoil in horror. But when three men arrived asking him to come to Cornelius’ house, Peter realized what the vision meant. Despite the strict separation between Gentile and Jew that had been practiced for centuries, God wanted him to go.

Cornelius was a “God-fearer,” meaning he was a Gentile who worshipped the God of Israel. His openness to God had been nurtured through years of following the Lord. So, when an angel appeared to him and told him to send for Peter, he obeyed. Then as Peter was proclaiming the gospel, Cornelius received the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues.

Second, John. Throughout John’s Gospel, the Evangelist affirms that loving words and deeds make God present. In the prologue (chapter one) the Father told the Son the whole truth of existence before sending him to earth. The Son is the only one who knows the Father and is the only one who has heard the whole truth. The possession of this truth makes the Son a perfect image of the Father. As this Sunday’s Gospel reveals, Jesus gave us the ability to become such an image for he told the disciples everything the Father had told him.

Today, the monologue that started last week with the reading of the vine and the branches continues. John used two Greek words to describe love: agapaõ and phileõ which for him are synonymous and mean “to love”.

Here’s what’s new in our Gospel. Jesus made a sharp distinction between servants and friends: “those whom one loves.” In the Old Testament, Moses, Joshua, and David were called servants of Yahweh; only Abraham was called a friend of God. Hence, love is the essential word of today’s reading. The mutual love of the Father and the Son provides the foundation for both Jesus’ love for his disciples, and the love that he commands the disciples to have for one another. It is this love that will be the source of the disciples’ joy and the condition of their intimate friendship with the Lord.

In verses 12-13, Jesus focused attention upon one specific commandment, one specific way disciples were to render obedience to Him: the commandment to practice brotherly love. This too is new! And what does this brotherly love look like? What form does it take? It is sacrificial love patterned after the Lord’s own love for his disciples and us.

Finally, 1^st John. This is a pastoral letter to churches in conflict. It was written to address the conflict and to prevent its spread. The problems in the churches were caused by false teachers who left the church. These false teachers were haughty and unloving. They denied the deity of Jesus and His Incarnation. They also claimed not to be sinners. They were precursors of the Gnostic heretics who plagued the second century Church. These false teachers remained influential and persuaded new believers to accept their heretical teachings.

In the first words of our chapter, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God,” John directly refuted the false teachers who, because they taught that the spiritual is good but the material is bad – which is dualism. In short, they did not accept the deity of Jesus the man. They did not accept that Jesus is the Christ. They did not accept that Jesus the man was “born of God.” So, throughout his Letter, John counterpunched the heretical teachings of the dualists.

Here, he gave a solid reason why anyone who loves the Father will also love Christian brothers and sisters, who are God’s children. Our heavenly Father loves His children more than any earthly father loves his children. If we have any love for the Father, we need to honor his love for his children by sharing his love for them. This too refuted the attitude of the haughty false teachers, who looked with disdain on those who did not share their spiritual vision of “true Christians”.

Now, there is much more that I can say about our readings, but, in short, you get the point. To sum up our readings, we have something new in Acts, John and 1^st John. This is especially clear in Acts. The Holy Spirit was already at work in Cornelius’s household before Peter arrived to share the Gospel and offer baptism. Peter's preaching helped Cornelius and his family to put words to their experience of God’s presence. Peter’s actions allowed the Spirit, which had been working in subtle ways, to become fully manifest.

To conclude, disciples today must continue the same task. The Spirit fills the world, and many feel the presence of God but lack the words to understand what God is doing. We who know Christ must, like Peter, help others understand their experience. We can do that only when we live by the Gospel that Jesus learned from the Father and passed on to us. We make the risen Christ present whenever we seek out the world’s broken places and, trusting in the Spirit already at work, speak of the love of God. Then we are rightly called his friends.

How can we be open to the Lord and whatever “new things” he may want to do through us? First, like Peter and Cornelius, we need to stay close to God in prayer. Because of their faithfulness, God was able to speak to both men and show them how he wanted to bring salvation to the Gentiles. Second, we should be careful not to place limits on God. Peter had to trust God with a new and different way of living his faith. Cornelius had to be open to receiving new life in the Spirit through Baptism.

Many people experience God at work in the world, but they lack the words to understand that experience, or maybe do not consider that encounter with one’s spouse, in-law or neighbor was somehow directed by God. Cornelius already encountered the Spirit before he was baptized, and Peter gave him the words he needed to understand this encounter. In this way, Peter was living out the resurrection. Peter became an icon of the risen Christ as he shared his knowledge of the loving work of God. So, how do you make Christ’s love present? What loving words can you speak to help others understand God’s presence? Are you open to anything God might ask of you?

Over the past four years, we have seen people return to Mt. Olive. We’ve witnessed men and women stepping into leadership roles, taking responsibility for our worship space and our outdoor space. We’ve welcomed new members and initiated new activities. We have witnessed these things and realize that all of it is because of the power of our Triune God at work in our lives. This is part of what happens when people turn their lives to Jesus. Until we turn our lives completely to Jesus, we may think that the credit belongs to a person or human nature.

If you have not turned your life over to Jesus, pray each day for the grace to see where you might have drawn a line in the sand that you have asked God not to cross. God can, and will, use you—as long as you remain open to him. Our life in Christ manifested in our love for him and for others, shows that we are friends of Christ today, living in imitation of him in the world.

Love for our brothers and sisters in Christ may mean the sacrifice of our time, our comfort, our personal interests, plans and desires, our resources and so on. Love for our brothers and sisters in Christ may mean the sacrifice of our pride, our wounded spirit, our sense of moral indignation against offenses perpetrated against us as we extend forgiveness to those who have wronged us.

And although my focus today is on what’s new, we turn to something old. We turn to a sermon that is 1700 years old by one of the Church Fathers, Augustine. In a sermon on Psalm 149, Augustine recited the first verse of the psalm and then said this: “‘Sing to the Lord a new song; his praise is in the assembly of the saints.’ We are urged to sing a new song to the Lord, as new men who have learned a new song. A song is a thing of joy; more profoundly, it is a thing of love. Anyone who has learned to love the new life has learned to sing a new song, and the new song reminds us of our new life. The new man, the new song, the new covenant, all belong to the one kingdom of God, and so the new man will sing a new song and will belong to the new covenant.

There is not one who does not love something, but the question is, what to love. The psalms do not tell us not to love, but to choose the object of our love. But how can we choose unless we are first chosen? We cannot love unless someone has loved us first. Listen to the apostle John: We love him, because he first loved us. The source of man’s love for God can only be found in the fact that God loved him first. He has given us himself as the object of our love, and he has also given us its source. What this source is you may learn more clearly from the apostle Paul who tells us: The love of God has been poured into our hearts. This love is not something we generate ourselves; it comes to us through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

Augustine continued to exhort and encourage Christian believers before concluding his sermon with these words. “Now it is your unquestioned desire to sing of him whom you love, but you ask me how to sing his praises. You have heard the words: Sing to the Lord a new song, and you wish to know what praises to sing. The answer is: His praise is in the assembly of the saints; it is in the singers themselves. If you desire to praise him, then live what you express. Live good lives, and you yourselves will be his praise.”

My friends, today, perhaps you have learned something new. Perhaps not. Perhaps my sermon has not inspired you as Augustine inspired Christians of the 4^th century, as Luther of the 16^th century, as Billy Graham or John Paul II of the 20^th century. If not, then perhaps your prayer today will include me as one called to preach God’s Word to you. Do that, and when you do may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your minds and hearts on Christ Jesus. Amen.

GOOD EATS!

 

God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. … My sermon today is entitled, “Good Eats!” and my focus is our Gospel (Luke 24:36-49). Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

One of my favorite shows was entitled Good Eats! If you never saw it, Host Alton Brown explores the origins of ingredients, decodes culinary customs, and presents food and equipment trends. Punctuated by unusual interludes, simple preparations and unconventional discussions, he brings you food in its finest and funniest form.[1] I mention this cooking show because of Jesus’ question, “Have you anything here to eat?” The question leads to three points about food: in Luke, the Lord’s Supper and the Church today.

First, Luke. After the Risen Lord greeted his disciples with peace, they became startled and frightened because they thought that they were looking at a ghost. Stories of ghosts and other phantoms of the night abounded in Jesus’ time, but one point worth noting is that ghosts lack material substance. You can't shake hands with a ghost or invite him to eat dinner with you.

In this Resurrection account, the disciples were startled and frightened precisely because they thought they were seeing a ghost. So, Jesus invited them to touch Him, underscoring his point by reminding the disciples that His glorified Body has flesh and bones.

To deepen this point, Jesus asked his bewildered disciples for something to eat. This was a sign that he was indeed raised from the dead – body and spirit. Recall that Jesus instructed Jairus and his wife to give their girl something to eat after he had raised her to life. Only the living require food to eat.

But there is something more important here than good eats. In Jesus’ culture dining with someone indicated solidarity with that person. To eat with someone meant you identified with that person. To take a meal with another was to offer that person the right hand of fellowship in the deepest sense of the term.

Meal fellowship is an appropriate image for an incarnational Christianity. Meal scenes and meal imagery (including parables spoken at or about a meal) serve as a “main course" here. There are ten meal scenes in which Jesus eats with others in Luke. Three of them have parallels in the other gospels; seven, however, can only be found in Luke, and are integral to and reflective of Luke’s theological interests.

Now, when it comes to sizing up Jesus' table companions, one has to speak in terms of his democratic eating habits. For Jesus it was not the food but the people he ate with that mattered most. His dining partners were diversified and inclusive. Every meal was a shared meal. Jesus never ate alone, and where Jesus was present, salvation was also. That said, there is no better image for salvation than a feast, the major metaphor for salvation.

Lastly, Luke speaks of the eucharist in a story of meals and journeys with Jesus. Unlike foxes who have dens and birds who have nests, the Son of Man had “nowhere rest his head” (9:58). His entire life was one great journey in which meals and simple hospitality played a critical part for him as well as for his followers. Jesus, his disciples, all who would follow later, and the church itself are a people on a journey, a people of hospitality, both offered and received. The eucharist is the supreme expression of that hospitality, sustaining them and us on the journey to the kingdom of God.[2]

With that, we move from my first point, food in Luke, to my second, the Lord’s Supper. Every time we receive the Body and Blood of Christ, it is like we are with his disciples, sitting at table with Jesus. We receive Him, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. What we receive is no phantom ghost, but the very substance of the Son of God Himself. Other Christians do not believe this. Some confess that because Christ is at the right hand of the Father in heaven, He cannot possibly be present in Communion. Others believe that the Lord’s Supper is simply a memorial service. That is not to say that they are unworthy to take the receive the Body and Blood of Christ, but to share the Lord’s Supper requires one to be in fellowship with that Church.

Those of you who were present for Maundy Thursday know that I spoke of Mark’s account of the Last Supper. I am not going to repeat what I taught from Luther’s Small Catechism or The Formula of Concord, however, I am going to cite an even earlier work that I recently re-read.

The Jerusalem Catechesis was one of the first catechisms of the undivided Christian Church. Its 24 teachings, given sometime around 350 AD, reflect the deep, sacramental understanding of the early Christian Church, the meaning of Baptism and all the Sacraments and the beauty of our participation in the life of the Trinity through our participation in the Church, the Body of Christ, of which we are members.

Its use of the word symbol means much more than we westerners tend to think. It means an actual participation by grace. That said, the instruction to newly baptized Christians that “it is with complete assurance that we receive the bread and wine as the body and blood of Christ. His body is given to us under the symbol of bread, and his blood is given to us under the symbol of wine, in order to make us by receiving them one body and blood with him. Having his body and blood in our members, we become bearers of Christ and sharers … in the divine nature.

Do not, then, regard the eucharistic elements as ordinary bread and wine: they are in fact the body and blood of the Lord, as he himself has declared. Whatever your senses may tell you, be strong in faith. You have been taught and you are firmly convinced that what looks and tastes like bread and wine is not bread and wine but the body and the blood of Christ.”

My friends, through grace Christ invites us to his holy meal to eat his Body and Blood. Through God’s grace and our belief as a Church body and members, we share in the divine nature. What does it mean for us? With that, we move from my second point on the Lord’s Supper to the Church today.

The Gospel passage we heard today is the last meal story in Luke. In each of the previous nine, Jesus was the host. In this one, the Church is the host. The previous passage, the Road to Emmaus, is one which speaks clearly of hospitality. It is hospitality that is vital to the Church today, and to speak to the Church today, I return to one of the Church Fathers recognized by the Synod, Gregory the Great of the 6^th century. Usually, Gregory’s sermons were detailed exegetical commentaries. Here, he dispensed with that which gave him the opportunity to sing the praises of the great virtue of hospitality.[3]

We know that the two disciples were walking on the road and, while not believing in Christ, spoke of him. The Lord “exchanged a few words with them, reproached them with their slowness in understanding, explained to them the mysteries of Holy Scripture concerning him, and yet, their hearts remaining foreign to him for lack of faith, he pretended to go further. … It was necessary to test them to see if, not yet loving him as God, they were at least capable of loving him as a traveler. Truth journeying with them, they could not remain strangers to love: they offered him hospitality, as one does for a traveler.”

Gregory points out that they begged, urged, pleaded, pressed or constrained Jesus to stay with them. He continues, “This example shows us that we should not only offer hospitality to travelers, but to accept it. The disciples set the table, offer food; and God, whom they did not recognize in the explanation of Holy Scripture, they recognize it in the breaking of bread.”

“As you can see, the Lord was not recognized when he spoke, but he deigned to be recognized when he was given food. Love, dear brothers, hospitality, love works inspired by charity.”

Hebrews reminds us, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Heb 13:2) As does Peter, “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling” (1 Pet 4:9), and Matthew, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Mt 25:35). 

After citing these passages, Gregory said, “What great virtue is hospitality. Receive Christ at your tables, to deserve to be received by him at the eternal banquet. Give shelter today to Christ who presents himself to you as a stranger, so that in the day of judgment you are not for him as strangers whom he does not know (cf Lk 13:25), but that he receives you as his own in his Kingdom.”

My friends, I am sure each of us has pressed strangers in our midst to accept our hospitality. It may have been one who was a stranger in our country or community. It may be one who was a stranger to God or the Christian Faith. At times, simply offering is met with resistance or refusal. Perhaps people are reluctant to receive hospitality. Perhaps they think that they must reciprocate a gracious act. But our salvation, as we know, is a free gift from God. That is why we should and do offer hospitality to strangers in our midst – to be channels of God’s free grace to them that they too may receive and enjoy salvation through Christ.

I was thinking about this point because periodically, I stop by the church during the week, and notice a car drive up to the Blessing Cupboard. People come when no one is around to notice, take what food they need and leave. For all I know, they are strangers in our midst to whom we offer hospitality. A while back Barb Kraynie explained the history of the Blessing Cupboard. Most of you know it, but it bears repeating.

“The blessing cupboard was started in May 2017. I had seen a Facebook page called blessing box. I thought there are many people in our area that could use the help but are not comfortable letting people know. With the cupboard they could come any time anonymously and take whatever they need. It also gives other people the ability to donate any amount anytime that is convenient for them. Not only church members but many people in the community stock the cupboard. We do not keep records of donations and what we give out. Linda has been instrumental in expanding our giving with the Christmas boxes the past few years. She also has used her contacts to get donations from Blackhawk schools and Boy Scouts. When I was working, I drove by the church every day. I would stop and check if food needed stocked. I was amazed the amount that came and went on a daily basis.”

Friends, this is a wonderful Christian ministry we provide for the community. As we move through this great Season of Easter, open yourself to God’s grace poured into your hearts. Open yourself to divine hospitality, and may the grace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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[1] https://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/good-eats

[2] Eugene LaVerdiere, Dining in the Kingdom of God, p. 9.

[3] https://sites.google.com/site/aquinasstudybible/home/luke-commentary/gregory-the-great-homily-23-on-the-gospels

Christ Matters

 

God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. … My sermon is entitled Why Christ Matters, and my focus is our Epistle (1^st John 1:1-2:2) Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

Homer. Google Homer and three results populate your screen. First, a fictional character in an animated television series, The Simpsons. Next, a fishing city in southwest Alaska. Finally, the ancient Greek author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Fishing aficionados and animation fans aside, the ancient Greek author who had a lasting effect on classical literature impacts our culture today more than the longest running American sitcom. Homer, I will save for my final point and open with an introduction of John’s Letter and its meaning to our church.

John’s letters emerged from an environment of conflict and appear to provide a window into the history of the early church where John served as pastor. Unfortunately, since our knowledge of his church is vague, we cannot reconstruct a precise picture.

The surface issue appeared to be the proper understanding of Jesus. The abiding center of life and unity in John’s Gospel became the focal point of dissension and division. Those who shared fellowship and friendship in the Fourth Gospel[1] clashed over the proper understanding of Jesus. Mutual excommunication challenged the infant church’s identity and existence.

Unlike Paul’s letters that encouraged Christians, John’s First Letter warned the community against the views of dissidents. John’s contrast between light and darkness distinguished believers from dissident evildoers. Believers walked in the light; evildoers preferred darkness.

John based his image of believers walking in the light from the attributes of God: light, fidelity and righteousness. He wrote, “God is light, and in him is no darkness … He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”[2] Believers walked in the light, claimed fellowship with God and one another, and lived lives free of sin.

John opened with a phrase that echoed the Gospel and Genesis – the beginning. He then captured the listener’s attention and interest; stated his purpose for writing; and divulged his essential plan. He did this by claiming to be an eyewitness, which underscored that he personally heard, saw and touched Jesus – the eternal Word. Then John set before his readers this: Life is in Jesus Christ. He advanced nothing new, visionary or imagined; rather, made his focus that which eyewitnesses heard, saw and handled. In short, John established that no faith was certain unless its object, foundation, origin and end are from the beginning.

No faith is certain unless its object, foundation, origin and end are from the beginning. John said, if you have fellowship with us – eyewitnesses, tradition-bearers, apostles – you have fellowship with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word. Fellowship is not simply a conglomeration of people with some things in common; fellowship is grounded in what the eyewitnesses saw and heard. In creating fellowship or church, John did it in order that OUR joy may be complete.[3]

John wrote that phrase as the last of the apostles in the last of his days. He sought to preserve the integrity of the apostolic message. Knowing those in fellowship with him believed and lived right, John strengthened their resolve to continue their beliefs and lifestyles, and warned them about the very real possibility of sin, that is, committing apostasy and wandering off into the dark as some did already.

Secessionists who committed apostasy and wandered into the dark were deceived by the day’s deadly philosophies. One danger that influenced Christians was to view the physical world, including one’s body as intrinsically alien to one’s true self. Those who embraced this philosophy actively disdained all things material and denied the reality of the incarnation and any need for blood atonement. Their remedy to overcome sin was to flee this material world, to escape this sinful world of flesh and blood. To counter this, John wrote, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. … [Jesus Christ] is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”[4] Therefore, the sinner should not fear, for the sinner’s friend is Jesus, the righteous one, the Son of God who is love. With that in mind, as Christians, we walk by faith. In fellowship with the Apostles, we walk as children of the light, and our joy is complete.

Walking as children of the light in fellowship with the Apostles, we recognize that we are still sinners who need forgiveness. Regarding this, Martin Luther observed, “We should always be suspicious of ourselves and fear and grieve that perchance some puffing up of the mind be in us still. For who will boast that he is pure spirit and does not still have the flesh in opposition to the spirit? … If you have flesh and are in the flesh, then certainly this pride is also with you and you in it, until this body becomes altogether spiritual. Always, therefore, we sin, always we are unclean. And if we say that we have no sin, we are liars, because we deny that we have the flesh, when yet the flesh is all around and has with it these evils in order to attack the spirit.”

In another place, Luther said, “Those who are truly righteous not only … plead for the grace of God because they see that they have an evil inclination and thus are sinful before God, but also because they see that they can never understand fully how deep is the evil of their will and how far it extends. [They] believe that they are always sinners, as if the depth of their evil will were infinite. Thus they [humble themselves, plead and cry] until they are perfectly cleansed – which takes place in death. This, then, is the reason why we are always sinners.”

The Lutheran Service Book reminds us that to confess our sins is not merely to benignly admit to them. Rather, it is to acknowledge them as justly deserving of temporal and eternal punishment, knowing our unworthiness, and confessing all we did in thought, word, and deed – including the good we failed to do – as that which contributes to a deadly bondage from which we are unable to free ourselves.

We are unable to free ourselves; but Christians differ from other people in that sin does not rule them. Christians must accuse sin and fight against it throughout life.[5] For that reason, we find these words in Luther’s Morning Prayer: “I pray that You would keep me this day from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please you.” … It is important to me to recognize the reality of sin in my life and pray this way daily. Otherwise, I too may become a sinful secessionist.

Having examined John’s Letter and our Lutheran tradition, what might John say to us today? What practical application does John’s Letter have for today’s Christian?

For assistance, I turn to Homer. Adam Nicolson’s book, “Why Homer Matters,” rediscovers and re-presents the ancient Greek poet, best known for the “Iliad” and “Odyssey.” Homer’s epic poems ask eternal questions about individual and community, honor and service, love and war, and tell us how we became who we are.

I mention Nicolson’s work because I want you to think about who influences your life today. Who shapes you? Who acquires you? Who’s your daddy? Ask yourself these questions because in our world, as in John’s, Homer mattered and Christ mattered. Homer influenced his world’s philosophers and teachers, legislators and leaders. Likewise, the Risen Christ influenced people then and now.

Homer influenced men like Plato, Socrates and Aristotle. In turn, their work in the fields of logic, ethics, metaphysics, scientific method, politics and religion profoundly influenced people like Alexander the Great and Greeks for centuries before Christ. 1^st century Christians and pagans put stock in the teaching of the Ancients, which forced John to open with “That which was from the beginning ...” No faith is certain unless its object, foundation, origin and end are from the beginning.

Today, we may not consider the influence of Homer and other thinkers on our personal formation but consider their influence on our culture. Francis Bacon: scientific method. Confucius: social relationships. Machiavelli: politics. Thomas Paine: individual rights. Adam Smith: economics. Tolstoy: anarchism. Thoreau: civil disobedience. Nietzsche: religion. C.S. Lewis: apologetics. John Stuart Mill: utilitarianism. Dewey: pragmatism and progressivism. Calvin: predestination. Thomas Hobbes: social contract. Albert Schweitzer: reverence for life.

Ask ten people who influence them. Most will say parents. Some might say siblings, spouse, relatives or mentors. Few say pastors or theologians like Luther, Walther or Pieper. On second thought, a number might add Jesus. However, when you consider the big picture, that is, our culture, ideas proposed by thinkers thousands of years, centuries and decades ago, influence it more profoundly than parents do. Homer matters more than we think. …

Christ matters more than we think. For the ideas of men may control cultures, but apart from the one who is the propitiation for our sins and … the sins of the whole world,”[6]who offers salvation?

Homer Alaska or Homer Simpson may sway me more than great Greek minds; but as a Christian in this culture, how often do I consider what Jesus Christ did for me? How often do I consider that I may be walking in darkness because I am influenced not by Christ and His teachings, but by other teachings? How often do I consider that I may not have fellowship with Apostolic teaching, but with false philosophies? How often do I say, “I have no sin”?

The Law shows me my sin. It convicts me rightly to condemnation. The Gospel frees me of my sin. Christ “is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”[7]

Jesus paid my debt with the only payment that can forgive me of my sins – his blood. Jesus paid the world’s debt with the only payment that can forgive it of its sins. He is propitiator and propitiation. … How often do I consider that Good News?

Let us give Homer and others their due for their great ideas but let us give God glory for His great deed. Let us give God glory in one word: forgiveness. Forgiveness is the greatest act of love I can show to my enemy and my fellow man. When challenged by Pharisees for keeping company with sinners, Jesus quoted Hosea, “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’”[8] When scoffed on the cross, Jesus pleaded, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”[9] When bestowing the Holy Spirit upon his disciples, Jesus instructed, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”[10]

Tell me, friends in Christ, whom shall I not forgive? If Christ was crucified for my sins and the sins of the world, who in this world is not deserving of forgiveness, my forgiveness? If my Risen Lord instructed me to forgive sins, who in this community is not deserving of my forgiveness?

Employees who embezzled my profits? Siblings who got what I wanted from my parents’ estate? Students who lied about me? Neighbors who gossiped about me? Teachers who failed me? Coaches who made an example of me? Principals who punished me? Pastors who reprimanded me? Police officers who ticketed me? Bosses who fired me? The list is as endless as God’s forgiveness.

Forgiveness distinguishes Christians in this world from everyone else, but forgiveness is not an idea to discuss like fishing holes, sports teams, politics or economics. Forgiveness is an act practiced daily. Forgiveness shapes you, acquires you. If you are a child of the light, forgiveness is your daddy.

Friends, know Christ forgives you and the sins of the world. Believe the Risen Lord grants you peace and forgiveness. Share the Good News of Christ’s Resurrection and what His forgiveness means to you when you are forgiving the undeserving. Praise God when you forgive and know that our joy will be complete.

You may never propose new ways of thinking or post 95 Theses. You may never craft epic poems or create a Homer Simpson, but if you forgive the unforgiveable and love the unlovable, you will make a difference – and you will give God the glory. And your joy will be complete. For that, children of light, pray to our Holy Trinity, and may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.

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[1] See John 15:1-17:26

[2] 1 John 1:5, 9.

[3] 1 John 1:4

[4] 1 John 1:9; 2:2

[5] Ibid, 144.

[6] 1 John 2:2

[7] 1 John 2:2

[8] Matthew 9:13

[9] Luke 23:34

[10] John 20:23