tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86875190789513940662024-03-12T19:28:12.490-07:00Possessing the Sacred CrossPr. Ian Wolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01881301780917137208noreply@blogger.comBlogger74125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8687519078951394066.post-57551222079304677532016-03-28T13:41:00.001-07:002016-04-07T20:46:16.334-07:00Resurrection of Our Lord 3/27/16 "Just One More Thing..."<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxkXRDxgq2Xo-GXg-D1GvvEyUFdiBaoSDOQE40c9ExZASp9NlIA0mJy-xhTg7S7_5EGyFwZq2cK3oQJJwPED_ziCQXq-jjT-mJ3X49CqvSJiAc0jp4qQC8868jftJtPOUbJWnUmcFYTkki/s1600/columbo-main-pic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxkXRDxgq2Xo-GXg-D1GvvEyUFdiBaoSDOQE40c9ExZASp9NlIA0mJy-xhTg7S7_5EGyFwZq2cK3oQJJwPED_ziCQXq-jjT-mJ3X49CqvSJiAc0jp4qQC8868jftJtPOUbJWnUmcFYTkki/s320/columbo-main-pic.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Resurrection of our Lord–Homily</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">3/27/16–Year C</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Throughout my life, ever since childhood, I have been fascinated with detectives and detective stories. I still remember one Christmas, long ago, I received what I thought to be the greatest gift ever. It was a book, a Hardy Boys book. But this book was not one of their usual mysteries, rather it was something more and something greater than that. It was the Hardy Boys Detective Handbook! As a young boy, no more did I simply have to read about detectives, with this book I could be one! In it, it taught me how to dust for prints, look for clues, and ask the right questions. Unfortunately, as a child with my newly learned skills, I found out rather quickly that my case load was not as abundant as Frank and Joe Hardy's. This love of detectives remained with me throughout adolescence, from the Hardy Boys to the Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>My affinity for detectives, mind you, was not solely of the literary genre. I also watched the great detectives on television. Having read detectives and watched them on TV, I was just a bit tickled that after I took an aptitude test in high school, one of the careers listed was detective. Pastor was not listed and there in lies the humor of God. From Murder She Wrote to Law and Order, from Cagney and Lacey to Simon and Simon, from Hunter to the Rockford Files, from Monk to Longmire these detectives are forever with me. And I know I look more like Kojak, but he was before my time. Yet one detective stands above them all in my memory, the one my Grandfather and I used to watch whenever his TV specials were on in the 80’s and 90’s, the scatter-brained, bumbling mess of a detective, Lieutenant Columbo. Columbo's brilliance was that you could always tell the precise moment when he had figured out the mystery. As a skilled predator about to capture his unassuming prey, he would ask innocent question after innocent question. He lured them them into his investigative web, until he built to the moment of his most famous tag-line. The line that would pierce the hart of the hardened criminal and render their sturdy defense into a house of cards. No matter the crime, no matter the mystery, no matter how big or how small, a criminal mastermind knew the tables had turned on them, if they ever heard Lt. Columbo wearing his overcoat with half-smoked stogie in his hand utter these words, “Excuse me, Just one more thing…”</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Now why mention this? Why this on Easter Sunday? Why Columbo? Well I do so, only because of the words that Jesus spoke from the Cross on Good Friday. Moments before Jesus yielded up His Spirit, with final breaths, he proclaimed to the world, “It is finished.” That night and the whole next day the world believed him. Pilate, after sentencing Jesus to Crucifixion, believed this minor inconvenience was finished. The High Priest Caiaphas and Annas, as they watched the spear pierce his side, believed that the “Jesus problem" was solved. His death, indeed, finished the matter. So too the soldiers assigned to crucifixion duty that day, believed that at the ninth hour their work was over. The bystanders who mocked him and spit on him and chanted for his death, “crucify him, crucify him,” believed that their democratic voice had won the day. Even the apostles, who sit locked in the upper room, terrified that they would be next, believed it was finished. They believed their three year journey with their beloved Rabbi was over and they sit in that room grief-stricken. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And the devil, the devil who laughed loudest on Good Friday. The devil who had whispered into the ear of Judas, turning him away from the light and into the darkness. Who had caused a friend to turn into the worst of betrayers, believed that he had won. As he stirred the masses to chant for Jesus’ crucifixion, he thought he had seen the last of the Messiah, the Christ. With each hammer stroke, with each labored breath of Jesus, and at the last with his incarceration in the tomb, the devil firmly believed his hold on the world was permanent. Satan had done, what he was unable to do in the Garden, what he was unable to do before being kicked out of Paradise, He killed God. As our Lord’s lifeless body was laid in the tomb, the evil one began his victory dance. Confident that it was indeed finished, his grip and rule of death on the world could never be interrupted again.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Yet, as the evil one was celebrating, Jesus was picking the locks of hell's gates. This we confess in the words of the creed, “He descended into hell.” St. Peter tells us exactly what he was doing on that Holy Saturday in his First Epistle, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison.” There Christ trampled down death by his death, and upon those in the tombs He bestowed life. And on the first day of the week, at early dawn, the Almighty Father proclaimed to the world, to Pilate, to Caiaphas and Annas, to the soldeirs, to the bystandards, to the women, to the apostles, and to the devil himself, “Excuse me, just one more thing…Christ, My Son, is risen! Christ is risen, and you, death, are annihilated and your tombs are laid empty! Christ is risen, and you, devil, are cast down again and your kingdom is broken! Christ is risen and you, apostles and women, lift up your heads and rejoice! Christ is risen and you, soldiers, fall upon your knees and honor him! Christ is risen and, you mockers, hold fast your tongue, repent, and be forgiven! Christ is risen and you, Caiaphas and Annas, no longer bear false witness, but bear true witness! Christ is risen and you, Pilate, your verdict and your sentence has been overturned!" On Easter morn, the Father turned the tables on the entire world.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The Father’s proclamation this morning, His, "just one more thing,” is not only proclaimed to those who stood by the death of our Lord 2000 years ago, but it is spoken directly to you. The Father has “just one more thing” to tell you as well. Christ is risen! Jesus is risen, for you. Just when you think your life is finished. When you feel your faith is empty. When you believe sin has gotten the best of you. When you believe you are unworthy of love, from a person or from God. When you heard the doctor’s diagnosis and believe it to be the end. When your anger gets the best of you. When you find yourself captive to addiction. When you start to believe the devil’s whispers and think of yourself as worthless, unworthy of God, unworthy of grace. When you believe that death is the only end. The Almighty Father from heaven proclaims to you, just one more thing. Christ is risen. Christ is risen and nothing will separate you from Him. Christ is risen and you are forgiven and healed. Christ is risen and through His water and His Word, you also will be raised! Christ is risen and life reigns. Christ is risen and there is nothing in your life, in your past or in your present, that He has not redeem. Christ is risen and you are forever loved! </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">To Him be all glory and honor and power, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen! </span></div>
Pr. Ian Wolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01881301780917137208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8687519078951394066.post-62908305552331242952015-06-21T09:52:00.002-07:002015-06-21T14:29:46.680-07:00Pentecost 4B Sermon- Mark 4:35-41 <div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Fourth Sunday after Pentecost- Sermon</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">6/21/15- Year B</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>As I’ve been working on preaching around three-points in a sermon, some texts have been difficult to summarize into three points or topics for a homiletic outline. Some though have come rather easy, none as easy as today’s sermon. They came to me or were rather revealed to me earlier this week as I was reading the Gospel lesson in its original Greek. Reading in the Greek, I came upon a triad of things that has held my imagination as I reflected upon this sermon and the tragedies of this week. Mark in succession talks about a <i>lailaps megalā, </i>a <i>galānā megalā, </i>and lastly a <i>phobon megan</i>.<i> </i>Your ears already have probably picked up on Mark’s repetitive use of the word “megas.” This Greek word “megas" is familiar to us in English by removing the final consonant, “s.” Thus, the cognate “mega,” from which we get the old video game hero MegaMan or the lottery’s Mega-millions. Mega means “great,” “large,” or “huge.” These three <i>megas, </i>I believe, are Mark’s outline for his story. They seem to me to be an appropriate outline for this sermon as we talk about, A Mega Storm, a Mega Calm, and lastly a Mega Fear. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A Mega Storm</span></b></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The disciples and Jesus set out on what was to be a normal ordinary trip across the Sea of Galilee. We know that it is routine trip as Mark’s Gospel has them sailing from one side of the sea to the other at least once every chapter, sometimes twice. Even more is this a boring trip in that it has put our Lord asleep. When I preached earlier on the parallel text from Luke at Bethany, I gave our Lord’s napping in the stern as <i>prima facie</i> evidence for taking my own nap taking. If the Son of God needs a nap, how much more do I a son of Adam need one. Napping aside, the journey from one land to the other is a common ordinary occurrence in Mark and would have been for the disciples. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It is not surprising then that this image of the disciples with Jesus aboard a ship became throughout the centuries, from the very earliest of days, a symbol for the entire Church. It is part of the reason Danish Lutheran Churches always have a wooden ship hung from the ceiling in their sanctuaries and also why the interior of the Church, where you all are sitting is called a nave, meaning ship, related to the word navy. Thus when we come to Church, we come aboard the nave and continue our regular ordinary journey from this land to the Promised Land and Jesus is aboard with us. Fortunately so far none of you have fallen asleep. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Now what was to be a routine trip has deviated from the norm, as the winds begin to pick up and blow with ever growing velocity. They begin to swirl and with them bring loud claps of thunder, flashes of great lightening, and ever perilous darkness. As the wind blows harder and harder against the sails and the hull of the ship, the waves swell to greater and greater heights. The ship pitches to and fro in ever growing degrees. The water breaks from its pillared waves and crashes onto the deck of the ship. With wave after wave the ship begins to take on water. What once was sea mist upon the faces of the disciples has now become flood water rising over their feet to their ankles and knees. The ship is being flooded and broken apart and the disciples fear for their very lives, “<i>we are perishing.”</i> Literally in the Greek, “<i>we are being destroyed.</i>” The ship, the naus, the nave is going down at the hands of this mega-storm. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It is of no surprise then that the persecuted Church saw this story as chiefly a parable about themselves. For the Church is a ship, a navy, a sail on stormy waters. And these storms come in many different faces. The storms rise and crash against the Church and break onto her decks and has from her very first sailing. She faced the mega-storms of Nero and Diocletian and Roman persecution. She encountered upon the sea the storm of the Turk who conquered the Holy Land much of the Holy Roman Empire and who at the tip of the sword said “convert to Islam or be destroyed.” The storm of Isis bears that same message wielding the very same weapon and comes in a most horrific terror. Evil swirls around the Church all the time, no greater than in the face of a white man in his twenties who entered into a nave with thunder and the lightening flashes of a gun and murdered nine of our fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord. There in Charleston the Church felt in a horrific way the storm of this world and shared in the cry of the disciples, “<i>we are being destroyed</i>.” I had the great honor to know Pastor Clementa Pinckney as we attended seminary together. He was a good, faithful, and holy servant of God–full of life, light, and humor. We his friends mourn his death, but together with Christ we as the Church, the Navy suffer with all the people of Emmanuel AME. Against every storm that the Church faces she will need an intervention of the One who commands the wind and sea to obey. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Mega-Calm</span></b></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The disciples aboard the ship, realizing the demise of their boat do a most logical thing, they wake Jesus up. They go to Christ, they pray to him and share with him their greatest fears. They seek Jesus’ intervention, not knowing exactly what that intervention might be. They don’t know what he will do or how he will act, but only that he will do something. He who cast out demons and who has healed the sick must surely be able to do something about the storm. They run to Christ seeking and imploring him to do something, to wake up, to save them who are perishing. Rising from His slumber Jesus emerges from the hull of the ship stands aboard the deck and looks with intent upon the face of the darkened storm and he rebukes it. He says to the chaotic waters rising and pitching the boat and to the swirling winds and to the claps of thunder and flashes of lighting, “Knock it off! Calm down! Be silent!” And Lo, and behold, it is. Indeed the Lord God who created the waters can indeed calm them. What was a mega-storm has become at the Word of Christ a mega-calm. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> The first thing, then we as the Church, do when facing such storms is to turn to Christ and his Lordship over the sea and the waves. What we do not do is grab a bucket and start throwing water overboard ourselves, thinking that we can save ourselves. For we are not dealing with the storms of flesh and blood, but of brooding darkness of which St. Paul writes, “for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” In the face of such evil, the Church, we only have one recourse available to us, to run to Christ. To pray to Jesus to take up His word and run daily if need be to His holy Sacrament and be strengthened by His body and His Blood. It will take a divine intervention. It will take the power of God who alone has command over the storms to tell them to be silent. In the face of such mega-storms, you and I need a mega-word from Christ. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>This, beloved in the Lord, was modeled perfectly for us this week by the family and friends of those who died in Charleston. For they stared into the face of brooding evil at bond hearing and what did each of them say to him? Turn to Christ. May peace be with you. I forgive you. No greater words of peace of calm of Jesus can be spoken to such storms than the words of God’s peace and of His forgiveness. That my brothers and sisters is what the Church does in face of storms. It speaks the Word of Jesus Christ. It speaks words of peace and of forgiveness. For that alone is God’s intercession for us. That, my brothers and sisters, is what Divine Intervention looks like. For it is the same word that Jesus has spoken to each of us, to our own darkness to our own sin. He says to us, “Peace. Be Still. I forgive you.” God in Christ has rebuked our sin upon the Cross and He has given each of us peace in our hearts. Thus it will take nothing less that the forgiveness and peace of God to be spoken to turn a mega-storm into a mega-calm. A peace and a calm which surpasses all understanding. The peace and calm of the martyrs themselves. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Mega-Fear</b> </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The result of such a mega-calm after a mega-storm is a mega-fear. By fear here we mean awe at the result of such a deed. This too, if you have been watching any of the news coverage this week has been modeled for us in the faces of countless news reporters who stand with mouth ajar as prayer, love, and forgiveness has been the response to the storm of Charleston. They are blown away by the response of forgiveness and peace that has been shown by the family members of the victims. They are in awe that Christians would ever respond in such a way. To the bystanders and even to us, great fear is the natural response, because that is the natural response to seeing God do what He does. He alone commands winds and waves and nature responds at once to His Word. This is a fear producing reality. It is a mega-fear, because it is a sign that we are not in charge of our lives nor do we of our own power and strength control our lives. God commands the universe and it obeys, while we realize that we cannot even command our own bodies to obey us. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> In those faces of awe and fear, we realize that we are seeing, the fear of the Lord, of which the Proverbial Solomon says, is the beginning of wisdom. This mega-fear is indeed the life giving good that comes out of every evil. It is the invitation to faith in Jesus Christ and to climb aboard the ship of the Church. It is an invitation to embark with the Disciples, with Christ, and set sail towards the New Jerusalem, and arrive together in the Promised Land of heaven. Amen. </span><br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Eternal Father strong to save</span></i></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">Whose arm has bound the </i><i>restless wave,</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Its own appointed limits keep;</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">For those in peril on the sea! </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">O Christ, whose voice the waters heard</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And hushed their raging at the Thy Word,</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Who walk'st on the foaming deep,</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And calm amid its rage did sleep;</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">For those in peril on the sea!</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"Eternal Father Strong to Save" by William Whiting 1860.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<br /></div>
Pr. Ian Wolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01881301780917137208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8687519078951394066.post-45846934454920354482014-08-16T09:17:00.000-07:002014-08-16T09:17:37.639-07:00Funeral Homily–David Hasheminejad 8/6/14<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Funeral Sermon-David Hasheminejad</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">8/6/14</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 15px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the risen Lord and Savior,</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Jesus the Christ. Amen. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 15px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Having been an avid sports fan throughout his life, David, certainly would have encountered “the sign”</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">that usually accompanies every sporting event. One sees it in almost every game, from hockey to baseball, to football and sports in between. Sometimes, in rare moments, it’s even broadcasted on live television. For those who know sporting events well enough and heard the Gospel lesson read on this day, you likely know where I am going with this. The sign is usually white with plain black letters held by a random fan at the game bearing that verse of today’s gospel lesson, John 3:16, a verse from sacred scripture that has become so common that one not even need be Christian to know it. </span><span style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. </i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">To this, verse seventeen should also be added, because it is equally as powerful a witness to our Christian faith as verse 16; </span><span style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. </i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In these two verses stand the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our own beloved Martin Luther, after whom we Lutherans are named, called these verses, “the heart of the Bible, the Gospel in miniature.”</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Thus all that the Bible speaks to us of is the love of God, who withholds nothing from His children, not even His own Son. That in Jesus Christ, the Son of the Eternal Father born of Mary, fallen humanity with its sin and its death, is forgiven, healed, and given life everlasting. We Christians cling to this most gracious and holy promise of God, because in these moments when death surrounds us, we grieve and mourn, as St. Paul writes to the Church at Thessalonica, not as others do without hope. But, rather that in Christ, in His death and in His resurrection, we are a people of great and everlasting hope, even in grief. We have the hope of the Almighty God who does not wish His children to perish, but to live with Him forever in His kingdom. For this He sent His Son into the world. For David, He sent His Son into the world. For you, He sent His Son into the world. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 15px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>As well as we might know or be familiar with these verses from St. John’s Gospel, we likely are unfamiliar with their context. They have been so singled out and lifted up before the world that we forget the story in which they are spoken. Jesus is not simply speaking to the crowds or to the masses in a big block of teaching that we might find, say from St. Matthew’s Gospel. Nor is Jesus speaking to his disciples privately as we find him doing in other places, teaching them about the Kingdom of God or of the fate that will befall Him in Jerusalem, </span><span style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>he will suffer, be killed, and on the third day rise again.</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Rather our Lord is speaking to the unlikeliest of men, He is speaking to a man of the Pharisees, Nicodemus by name. The story of Nicodemus and his relationship to Jesus becomes one of the subplots of John’s Gospel. In total we hear of Nicodemus three times: here at the beginning of chapter 3, then once more in chapter 7, and lastly in chapter 19. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 15px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Here at the beginning of John’s Gospel, Nicodemus comes to Jesus under the cover of darkness, at night to ask Him questions about what He has been teaching and preaching. He comes at night to protect himself against the watchful eye of his counterparts. He comes at night to avoid their ridicule and their shame. To Nicodemus, Jesus seems like a true rabbi come from God, but he knows others do not see things that way. Thus he seeks out Jesus and inquires more from Him. Hidden away at night, Jesus speaks to Nicodemus of the new birth, the birth of water and the Holy Spirit, the birth of holy Baptism which opens the eyes of men to see the Kingdom of God at work in Jesus Christ. He speaks to him of the work of the Holy Spirit who blows where He wills, bringing the Spirit of Life to all those upon whom He lands. Jesus speaks to Nicodemus of the fate that must befall the Christ, </span><span style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">. Lifted up upon the wood of the cross for all the world to see—like the bronze serpent in the book of Numbers who healed all those who looked upon it—so too does Jesus heal all those who look upon Him crucified for us and for our salvation. Lastly, Jesus speaks to him the words of the heart of the Bible and the Gospel in miniature that we heard earlier. In this opening conversation, Nicodemus comes to learn of Christ and to hear His Word. It is the beginning of his relationship to Jesus Christ, one of seeking and finding, asking and answering. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 15px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Looking to David’s life, we might see a parallel in this beginning relationship of Jesus and Nicodemus. I do not know for certain, and I will have to ask Salme this later, yet I’m going to wager that both their relationship with each other and their relationship together in the Church of Jesus Christ began in a similar way: under the cover of darkness, not in secret, but rather in the dark of unknowing. I can imagine there was much asking and answering, coming to know Jesus throughout his life from this odd bunch Christians, called Lutherans. And even odder than that, Finnish Lutherans, with their pula, coffee, and other Lutheran things like hot dishes, potlucks, and a love for all things jello. I can almost hear those perhaps nightly conversations David and Salme had about us Lutherans: who we worship, how we worship, and what a Small Catechism is. David’s own life of faith began like Nicodemus’, by hearing about Baptism, the work of the Holy Spirit who brings faith in Jesus Christ, who upon the cross has shown the Father’s love and redeemed the world. A life of faith that began not only by his questions, but by questions asked of him, “Do you believe in God the Father? Do you believe in God the Son? Do you believe in God the Holy Spirit?”</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Then, being born anew by water and the Spirit to see the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of God mirrored in the relationship of bride and groom, of Salme and David. In their love for one another, David and Salme in their over forty years of marriage, with their joys and sorrows, their care and dedication for one another, showed us the Kingdom of God and the love of God for us His bride, His people. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 15px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> A few chapters down the road, we again encounter Nicodemus: this time in chapter 7 where he no longer appears under the cover of the night’s sky, but rather is found in broad daylight. There he stands, this time not with Jesus, but rather surrounded by his fellow Pharisees. They are arguing among themselves about what is to be done with Jesus. Should he be arrested, tried, denounced, and condemned? The prevailing thought amongst the chief priests and Pharisees is yes, yet in the brightness of day, Nicodemus stands up and defends Jesus before his brethren. In only a single verse, Nicodemus is lifted up by John as one who now speaks openly and in defense of Christ. He becomes not only a seeker of Christ, but a teacher of the scriptures, and one might say a meek and humble proclaimer of Jesus. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 15px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Here again we find a counterpart with David’s own life as His marriage blossomed and bore fruit: two sons, and later, grandchildren. There in their home, David and Salme raised their sons in the faith. They taught them and spoke to their sons of Jesus and His love for them. David taught them in his humble way to see God throughout the splendor of His creation as he took them camping and vacationing to parks all over the country. As he traveled with them to visit new lands, including going to Finland to see what Finnish Lutherans are like in their native land, he exposed His sons to the world and the goodness that is found in all people and the love that God has for us all. He undoubtedly even had to defend Jesus to them, as parents have to do with each of their children when they ask, “Do we have to go to church this Sunday?”</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Having three kids of my own, let me say that no parent, not even clergy, are immune from such questions. Throughout those years he taught his sons what it was to be a man, to be gentle and humble and to be faithful. He taught them the Bible, often pointing to Jesus’</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">words in Matthew, </span><span style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">, as the source for why he never won the lottery. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 15px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Here, in all of those ways, Daniel, Kia, Tiffany, Lola, and Leia, David taught you of God’s love for you. Through his care, play, teaching, and gentle spirit, He showed you in his way the Father’s love for you all. In his humble and caring nature, he showed and taught you the humble and caring nature of the Son, who loves you and is with you always to the close of the age. Who is with you now in this time to comfort you and remind you of the hope that we have in Him and in His resurrection. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Lastly, Nicodemus appears for the final time on Good Friday after the crucifixion, </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.</i></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0px;"> The one who had come in secret at night, who had stood up for Jesus among his brethren, now lovingly takes care of this rabbi sent from God. Here at the end of the gospel, Nicodemus walks with Jesus into the tomb. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 15px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Today, in sadness and grief, David walks with Jesus at the last into the tomb. Death is the great enemy of God and of man. It is that which separates us from one another, that which causes this body to fall apart and to fail. It hushes the breath of God that breathed the breath of life into us when we were born. The tomb is death’s victory over man, but it is not the victory over God. For David’s tomb is Jesus’</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px;">, </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and that is the place where God speaks and acts and shows His great love for us in the raising of His own son from death. Jesus’</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">death, his tomb, undoes death, so that the apostle writes, “neither death nor life…will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It is the place where God acts with all power and love, shattering death, removing the failings of this body, healing and making whole his creation that he loves so much. Death becomes not the condemnation of man, but the gate by which we enter life-everlasting. </span><span style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>O Death where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">. Today we walk with David and will this afternoon carry him to his own tomb, but we do so knowing that it is the place where God acts with the power of His love. In death David now knows fully the goodness of John 3:16-17. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 15px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And we who walk with him to the grave</span><span style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>, </i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">go too with our Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that the good byes we say this day are only good-byes for now. We know that in the glory and splendor of the resurrection, Jesus’ bursting from the tomb on the third day, we too by faith shall be raised with Him, with David, and with all the faithful. For God sent His Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. For God sent His Son into the world so that death would no longer have the final word of our lives, but rather that we might have life. Life eternal. Life forever united to our beloved father, grandfather and husband. Life together with God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen. </span></div>
Pr. Ian Wolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01881301780917137208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8687519078951394066.post-27002057485466337742014-07-27T12:52:00.001-07:002014-07-28T14:07:08.715-07:00Seventh Sunday after the Pentecost Sermon- 7/27/14<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Seventh Sunday after Pentecost-Sermon</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">7/27/14- Year A</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><i>Have you understood all these things?</i> [<b>Yes</b>.] Good, still jet lagged from my travels this past week I could use a Sunday off, especially when it comes to explicating and exegeting these numerous parables from our Lord this morning. For we’ve had in succession over the last weeks Gospel lesson after Gospel Lesson from chapter 13, the chapter of the Kingdom parables. It has been a trinity of Sundays for us hearing each week from Jesus “The Kingdom of heaven is like…”, but for the crowds and for the disciples it was likely a single day’s teaching from their rabbi. Parable after parable on the kingdom of heaven, that indescribable reality of God and His Christ, which we can only glimpse by illustration and analogy. If this was, as Matthew depicts it for us, a day of parables then this question put forward by our Lord–the question I put forward before you–and answered by the disciples takes a comedic twist. Having sat through many a college and seminary day’s lecture, let me just say that when the professor asks you if you’ve understood everything, you say YES. You do not hesitate in your response and you reply almost with the same haste as the disciples did this morning. Having taught many a confirmation class, let me also tell you that I’ve heard this rapid reply before from my confirmands. In my best guess the “Yes” of the disciples comes not because they’ve understood with Solomonic like wisdom, but rather because Jesus' words makes their brains hurt. They, not unlike me and perhaps even you, are mentally fatigued from wrapping their minds around seed, soil, wheat, weeds, pearls, treasure, mustard, yeast, the dragnet, and their explanations. Unfortunately, they could not be saved by the bell, but rather found an opening from Jesus and took it. Or at least that’s how my cynical mind reads the closing from today’s conclusion to this Thirteenth Chapter. But seeing as you are already here and I am already here let us, as St. Paul commends us, <i>press onward</i> and <i>run with endurance the race that o</i>ur Lord<i> has set before us.</i> </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It is helpful to us when we study the parables, especially these from Matthew’s gospel as they are all clustered together, to find the common themes and threads that link them all in a chain of parables. There are several books written that seek to do this, to find those red threads that hold the parables together and show commonality between them. This morning I’ve found one that my rural colored lenses have spotted. Is it just me, or has Jesus talked an awfully lot about fields? For it seems to me fields keep popping up throughout these weeks. Again I am aware how my culturally formed eyes might pick this up more quickly then some, because open fields were the very first thing I missed when I moved from Iowa to Southern California. I am also keenly aware that I might not be bringing anything new to your attention as well. You’ve probably already noticed this and are well ahead of me. For those who might not be or maybe weren’t here these last couple of weeks, a quick review might be needed. Today, we heard about the field in which treasure was hidden and mustard seed sown. Two weeks ago we heard about the various soils upon which the seed of God’s word fell, rocky, thorny, hard paths, and good ground. Now the word field was never mentioned, but if there’s good soil and you’re planting in it, well a field by another name would grow as well. Coming from Northeastern Iowa let me also tell you fields can be quite rocky as one of the pre-planting rituals of the northeastern Iowa farmer’s kids, and usually their friends, is rock-picking. Last week we heard of another field in which not only was good seed sown, but bad as well. It was a field filled to the brim with God’s good grain and the devil’s deceitful darnels and dandelions. We’ve heard much about this parabolic field, which Jesus himself finally defined for us and for the twelve as the world, </span><span style="font-family: Helena; letter-spacing: 0px;">oJ ko/smoß, </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the cosmos. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The field, the world, the entirety of the cosmos is the place where the good seed of God’s word is scattered graciously and abundantly. The world is the place where that seed grows and bears fruit, showing itself as wheat and shining forth as the sun in the Father’s Kingdom. The world, the cosmos is the place where the mustard seed will grow and become the a tree, greater than any other shrubbery. Birds will come and make a nest in its branches and it will give relaxing shade to those underneath its leaves. It is this world where <i>a treasure </i>is<i> hidden, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field</i>. Normally we first interpret this parable in terms of us. The Kingdom of Heaven is like we who are the man who finds Jesus and then gives all and does all to purchase Jesus, the treasure, hidden in the world. Yet this seems a backwards interpretation of the parable or at least a secondary reading of our Lord’s word, because it seems to destroy the thread which hold all of these parables in order, that we are not the farmer, the sower, or the finder, but rather that we are the field, the soil, the seed, and the treasure. </span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Reading the parable this way, do we not hear echoes of St. John’s famous gospel line, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him?" <i> </i></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Do we not also hear the words of St. Paul, "you were bought with a price?" </span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Or the words of the Catechism, "I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood, and with His innocent suffering and death, that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true?<i>" </i><i> </i> </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>You my brothers and sisters are the priceless treasure of God, you are the pearl of great price that God has risked everything, sold everything, given everything to have forever and ever. In the parable of the treasure hidden in the field, we see the Kingdom of God not as our ascent to Him, but rather the joy and love with which our God looks upon the world, upon the field, upon His good soil and seed, upon His wheat and gives His all for, that He gives His son for. There we see the true treasure of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not that we have purchased or found or own God for ourselves, but rather that He has purchased, found, and welcomed with joy into His barn us sinners and saints. Jesus Christ is the man who has purchased and won us for God, through His cross and passion, through the forgiveness of our sins. He did so on calvary and He does so each week as we gather around this table and have his life giving body and blood placed in our hands. This is the Good news! This is the Gospel of our salvation! This is the seed of God’s word that has been planted in the world long before its creation. It is the mustard seed which grows ever taller and richer and fuller in our hearts as day by day we cling to nothing but Jesus by faith, holding His word, His life, in our hearts and minds. It is the yeast which permeates our entire lives, leaving no batch of flour, no lumpy parts of our world, our homes, our bodies, and selves unaffected. Rising and maturing in us and in the world by faith. It is that Gospel, the outstretched arms of Jesus upon the cross, crucified for us, which is the dragnet by which the church on earth humbly and faithfully proclaims drawing into its embrace the whole cosmos, fishing for men. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It is only in knowing this, that God has loved you so very much that He would give His life for yours by faith that we can see that not only are we His treasure, but now He is ours. The Gospel of Jesus Christ received by faith, becomes our treasure in this world that we sinners stumble upon. Christ, together with the Father and Holy Spirit is by faith our pearl of great price whom we seek after in Word and Holy Sacrament to listen, to receive, and to then offer up our treasure, ourselves, our time and our possessions, the very signs of His gracious love to us. Faith in this very Gospel, moves us to continue to mine the Word of God each day to hear his word for us and to hear His Word proclaimed every Lord’s day. Faith moves us to spend our time with Him who moves mountains, forgives sins, and loves us to the end. It is faith alone by God’s grace alone that allows us—even when we struggle, confronted by conflict and pain, dealing with our own sins and brokenness, and even when our heads hurt seeking to wrap our minds around what is going on around us—to say, “Yes, Lord.” Yes, we understand, that at times we don’t understand, for our mind and our will is not yours. Yes, Lord, we understand, because we simply trust that your forgiveness will be always bigger than our sin, your mercy greater than our stinginess, your love more perfect than ours, your truth richer and deeper than we could ever fully comprehend this side of the grave. Yes, Lord, we understand that we can only see Kingdom in glimpses, parables, and shadows, but we know that despite our lack of sight you work all things for our good and at the last will reveal all for all for you love of all. Until that time we simply pray, “Yes, Lord”, your kingdom come, your will be done. Amen. </span></div>
Pr. Ian Wolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01881301780917137208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8687519078951394066.post-63654113882074888152014-07-20T17:08:00.000-07:002014-07-20T17:08:01.753-07:006th Sunday after Pentecost (A)-Sermon<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Pentecost 6–Sermon</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">7/20/14–Year A</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We know weeds. Growing up in the midwest on the farm in a house surrounded by almost 8 acres of grass one learns the difference of weeds rather quickly. Surrounded by that much green grass and fertile soil, made sure that there were plenty of those little yellow flowers dotting our verdant carpet. Dandelions were the play thing of many days growing up on the farm. Many times they were plucked for a lovely little yellow bouquet for my mom or grandma. Next to gathering them for the important women of my life at the time, the best was when they went to seed and were these little white puffs on a stem. Holding them, we made a wish and like the wind blew until all those little seeds had blown all over the grass. I’ve since learned now why we had so many dandelions. As I got a little older, I remember gathering dandelions with my friends. We’d hold one tightly between our index finger and incant, looking back on it a rather dark and morbid saying, “mama had a baby and her head popped off.” As soon as the word “head” was recited we’d flick our thumbs and pop off the dandelion’s golden mane and watch it tumble to the ground. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>From there play turned to pursuit and mission. The days of childhood games gave way to chores. Dandelions were no longer a toy, but an enemy. An enemy that threatened the very verdant blanket around our house that we prized and cherished. Weeds became pests in need of chemical warfare. From Roundup to other more potent things, the grass would be sprayed until not one little yellow bouquet remained. If chemical warfare didn’t do the trick, then we brought in the heavy artillery, especially around the house. Indeed one of the very signs I knew I had reached manhood was when my grandfather handed over to my care our gas powered Weed Eater! Pulling the trigger the cords of that head would dice up weeds better than any samurai sword. For more strategic and selective targeting, there was of course the harder and less fun work of using the weeding fork and uprooting them by hand. Weeds in Iowa, like I am sure they are in California, were only good for one thing, their removal. We see them, in our grass, in our garden, and we terminate with extreme prejudice. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In Jesus’ parable this morning we hear again about the farmer, who seems even more careless than last week by allowing weeds to invade and permeate his wheat field. <i>Let them both grow together until the harvest, </i>he tells his hired hands. Farming today, we’d say that’s a terrible idea for protecting your harvest and at the very least it just looks bad with wayward weeds jetting out from a perfectly and strategically lined row of beans. The one thing we don’t do with weeds, is leave them be. Yet that is the order our farmer issues to those who work in his field. Don’t uproot them. Don’t spray them. Don’t pull out the heavy artillery and weed eat them. Let them be. Let them grow. Let them remain in place for now in the wheat fields of Galilee. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>For there is a weed prevalent among wheat fields in that part of the world, very likely the same weed our Lord speaks of today, called the darnel weed. It, unlike the bright yellow dandelion, is a much more subtle and deceptive weed. So much so that while growing it looks no different than ordinary wheat. The plants are so closely related in appearance that it is given another name, “false wheat.” It isn’t until their ears open that the difference between them is revealed. Wheat, ripe and ready for the harvest is as we know brown. Darnel is black. There only at the last, when its fruit is revealed is the wheat so readily distinguishable from those pesky weeds, sown by the evil one. In the wheat fields of Galilee the foolish farmer is shown to be wise and discerning in his patience, in his endurance, in his long-suffering of the enemy’s dirty tricks. For in doing what we would do with weeds, he would lose his precious wheat either mistaken for weeds or because the root systems of the both are intertwined beneath the surface. In removing weeds, He would lose that good seed that He had planted and he would rather suffer the weeds than allow even one ear of his grain to perish. Thus no arial support spray, no weed eater, no plucking just for fun only patience, mercy, and long-suffering for this Lord of the harvest. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> Though He knows about Galilean wheat farming, our Lord really isn’t talking about that today, nor of fields, nor of wheat, nor weeds. He speaks of something much more precious than the clothing of the field, the withered grass, or fading flower. He speaks of His good creation, the world, the people He fashioned before the foundations of the world. Those born anew of water and the spirit and those awaiting their adoption as sons and daughters of God. He speaks to us and of our life in the church and in the world a place of both wheat and weeds. As wheat we know the weeds of the world, the dandelions with their bright and unmistakable displays of sin, evil, and lawlessness. Those who persecute the Church and try to silence the Gospel’s proclamation by force. Those weeds who harm their fellow brother or sister for the sake of their own selfish use. Those who shoot down planes from the heavens and take innocent blood upon their hands. We know the weeds and our weed-like nature knows what to do with them. Yet every generation has encountered such evil from the foundation of the world. So that in every generation it is asked why does the Lord permit this to be so? The answer to that is found in the parable and it was there proclaimed in the psalm. <i>You, O Lord, are gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger, and full of kindness and truth. </i>The Lord is patient, merciful, and long-suffering with his whole people with his whole creation. He suffers the weeds of this world, not only for the sake of the wheat, but for the sake of the weeds themselves. Where we would rush for the spray can or weed-eater, God showers down rain upon both the evil and the righteous, the waters of His mercy and of His forgiveness. Yes, even for those most heinous of dandelions. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>For He can do what we can not, where we see nothing but weeds destined for our attack, He sees the potential for new wheat. Not only does He sees that potential, it is His gracious will that all might come to know His goodness, lay down their evil ways, and receive His forgiveness. It is the very reason He planted His good seed Jesus Christ into the world. By the cross of Christ He forgives all and has forgiven all. It is the work of the shed blood and broken body of Jesus in the flesh, that redeems all flesh both the wheat and the weeds. For the wheat and for the dandelions the Father has offered up His Son, thus our God suffers. He suffers with patience waiting, hoping, and longing for their redemption, the day when they will be wheat and shine like the sun in the Father’s barn. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>As it is for the dandelion so it is for the darnels. Those unassuming weeds that grow hidden among the wheat, those who are like the wheat in every way except for one. One that only the Farmer in his keen and fatherly heart can see, discern and judg: their fruit, their faith. Looking out in the congregation I see such wheat and weeds, indeed looking to my own heart I see such wheat, such weeds. Good seed planted in his Kingdom, nurtured by water and Word, Wheat and Wine for growth, maturing, and fruit bearing for the harvest. Yet more often than not I look not unlike that darnel weed growing its own way, in need of mercy. In need of the patience and long-suffering of a good and gracious Farmer who is swift to forgive and wait, and rain down upon me, up on us all, the salvation of his life-giving baptismal water again. Thankfully He does, restoring we errant weeds to fruit bearing wheat. For He indeed is <i>gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger, and full of kindness and truth. </i>He is with the weeds, and he is with the wheat, and he calls his servants to be the same. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>He calls his wheat to show mercy, to be long-suffering, and to forgive. Not to be like our fallen nature and destroy the weeds throughout our life in this field but allow both to grow together. That is the word he speaks to the servants in the parable, interestingly enough though that is not exactly what the word in Greek is. The word is actually <i>aphihmi</i>, the word means “to forgive.” <i>Forgive them to grow together until the harvest.</i> As we live in the Church and in the world we are reminded to be like the wise and good farmer. We are called to forgive as we have been forgiven. For if God can forgive the dandelions and he has by the blood of His Son, and if he can forgive the darnels and he has by the blood of His Son, then surely we too can forgive one another for our weedish behavior and tendencies here in His field, His kingdom. God has forgiven us our sins, surely we can forgive and bear with one another in their weakness as well. Surely too, we like the wheat of the Lord of the Harvest can shine the graciousness, compassion, kindness, patience, long-suffering and truth of the one and only Son to the wheat and weeds around us. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Amen. </span></div>
Pr. Ian Wolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01881301780917137208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8687519078951394066.post-38753121615672218762014-06-23T10:31:00.003-07:002014-06-23T10:31:29.588-07:002nd Sunday after Pentecost (A)- 7/22/14<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Second Sunday after Pentecost-Sermon</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">6/22/14-Year A</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>There was a name that I remember from my youth that I knew what it denoted, but not the etymology from which it arose. Growing up with grandparents in the midwest, let me just say there were many such idioms and expressions that boggled my mind. I could use them, and use them correctly, but I had absolutely no idea where they came from and outside of their figurative usage, what they literally meant. For example, whenever something needed to be fixed, Mom or Grandpa would declare themselves to be a regular Patch Adams. Now the name itself hits at the definition and so it didn’t take me long to figure out that a Patch Adams is one who patches things, be they bicycles, lawnmowers and tractors, or even scraped knees healed and mended by a mother’s love. Yet it took me several years, and really not until the Robin Williams’ movie, to realize that Patch Adams wasn’t just an expression like a Johnny-Come-Lately, but rather a real live person. Not only is Patch a real person, but the name is indeed indicative of his vocation, a doctor. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The movie, by the same name, chronicles in Hollywood fashion (meaning more fiction than fact) the story of his journey through medical school and to becoming a doctor. In one of the more poignant subplots to the movie, Patch, rather courageously and foolishly tries to build a relationship with one of the patients, Bill, who is dying from cancer. Bill is angry and grieving. He is so filled with anger that he routinely yells and screams at the nurses and doctors, gladly hurling his bed pan at them every chance he can get. Patch himself receives such treatment, over and over again. Each time going in hopeful that he will get through to Bill, and release him from the anger and pain that is affecting every relationship around him, even with his family. In one of the more poignant scenes of the movie, Patch enters Bill’s room one last time adorned with angelic robe and wings and says, “Death. To die. To expire. To pass on. To perish. To peg out. To push up daisies. To push up posies. To become extinct. Curtains, deceased, Demised, departed And defunct. Dead as a doornail. Dead as a herring. Dead as a mutton. Dead as nits. The last breath. Paying a debt to nature. The big sleep. God's way of saying, "Slow down.” To which Bill responds, “To check out. To head for the happy hunting ground. To find oneself without breath. Buy the farm. Cash in your chips.” In naming death, in speaking of it, even in a humorous way, Patch is able to release Bill from the pain, anger, and fear that until that moment held him captive. From the moment of his diagnosis to that moment, he though still alive was dead, after that moment though dying he was filled again with laughter, life, and peace. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It seems to me that is the same thing that is going on in our second lesson from Romans this morning and the Apostle Paul. This passage is a foundational one for us Lutherans as it helps to comprise our baptismal theology and also our funeral rite. If you were listening carefully you would have heard in 11 verses, St. Paul speak of death, died, dying, or dead 13 times! Over and over St. Paul in repetitive refrain speaks of the reality of baptism in the life of the Christian. It is death. It is the death of death, the death of sin, the death of the devil, the death of the powers of this world. But why speak of these things on this Sunday, the 2nd after Pentecost? For on the Day of Pentecost a few weeks ago we spoke of the power of the endless life of God, through the Holy Spirit, pouring out upon the disciples and upon us. Last week on Trinity Sunday we spoke of our life being lived in the life of God. This Sunday, we seem to be going backwards a bit in hearing from St. Paul about death. Yet it seems to me the reason that we hear from Romans 6 this morning is found in its paring with the Gospel Lesson. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>At the end of Chapter 9, Jesus is there standing with his disciples and he asks of them what will be a rather ironic thing. He tells them, <i>The harvest is truly plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.</i> In rather rapid fashion, in the very first verses of chapter 10, the Lord of the Harvest responds by calling His laborers to His side to work in His field, <i>Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Thaddaeus, Simon the Cananite, and Judas Iscariot.</i> The irony is found in that those disciples that were praying for laborers, turn out to be the very laborers for which they were praying. For Jesus sends them out with the word of His power, “As you go, preach, saying, ‘the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons.” Our Lord sends out His disciples with the power and gift of faith to do His work in the world, to be harvesters of His field bringing life to death. His words this morning from Matthew are the continuation of that instruction to His disciples, warning them of the fate that will likely befall them for being associated with Him. <i>If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they call those of his household.</i> They are words of loving warning from Jesus to the reality of the Gospel in the world. It will be rejected, mocked, spit upon, denied, crucified and pierced. Just as the world will do to Christ himself. So will His disciples too find themselves mocked, derided, spat upon, crucified and pierced either by the instruments of persecution or by the words and looks of their peers or even their own family. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>What sin, death, and the devil do to the very Son of God, the Father himself will undue. For the Father knows the very number of the hairs on the head of His beloved Son and he will not let Him go un-vindicated or without justice. He will raise Him from the dead. He will clothe Him with life. This the Father does for all those who confess Him before the world. This He does for all the disciples of His Son, those who by faith cling to the mercy and grace of the cross. In this both Jesus and St. Paul reiterate that the final word for the Christian is a word of resurrected life. Thus St. Paul writes, <i>consider yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.</i> Thus Jesus repeats in three-fold refrain, <i>Do not fear.</i> For though the world will reject your message and though your family might reject you for your faith, the Father will never let you out of His grasp. Being dead to sin, death, and the devil, you are forever God’s, a child in his kingdom and a laborer in his field. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>This is why these words come to us on the second Sunday after Pentecost, as the focus of the Church’s calendar and year has now switched, from following closely the events of our Lord’s life to the life of the Church. It is why the color has changed from white to green, the color of the growing branches in the vine of Christ, the color of the verdant work of the Holy Spirit among the life of the faithful. The time after Pentecost, follows naturally having celebrated the Victory of our Lord’s defeat of death during Eastertide and having celebrated the church’s clothing with power and life from the Holy Spirit, to the work of the disciples in the harvest of the Lord, preaching the kingdom, healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, and raising the dead. This is the mission, the commission of the Church from Jesus himself as we heard last week. It is the natural praise of Christ and the sharing of his word that follows naturally from having received everything from Him. It is the gift and work of every disciple. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I know many of us having been praying for Reformation, for her growth and outreach, for her ministries to continue to thrive and be faithful, yet I have a sneaking suspicion that we are like those 12 men caught unawares of who they were truly praying for. For in praying for the work of our congregation, for people come and join our congregation and work in the kingdom, in Christ we find that we are praying for no one else, but ourselves. It is not someone else’s calling, it is our calling. It is not someone else’s job, it is our job. It is not someone outside to help grow our congregation, but rather it is our own names that Jesus himself calls to His side and calls to his work of laboring in His field, working in his harvest. Thus the Gospel of the Lord is read this morning and proclaimed to us all, <i>Do not fear….you are alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. </i>For though we may find His word a fearful thing, there is nothing to fear for God in Christ has defeated every enemy. Though we may find His word to go out into all nations, even out into our own homes to share His Gospel hard difficult and painful, it is the only true and everlasting joy we will ever know. Though we may even die, push up daisies, buy the farm, and kick the bucket for His sake and the sake of His gospel, we will nevertheless find our life with His, died, buried, resurrected and ascended to be with Him and the Father and Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen. </span></div>
Pr. Ian Wolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01881301780917137208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8687519078951394066.post-86679024148871980102014-06-08T16:37:00.001-07:002014-06-08T16:39:56.534-07:00Pentecost Sunday Homily- 6/8/14<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Pentecost Sunday- Sermon</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">6/8/14-Year A</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><i>We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life.</i> Some of you may remember a handful of months ago Bishop Bradosky came and spoke to our congregation. I don’t remember whether it was in his homily or in one of his addresses where he spoke a poignant word about our Christian life. He said, "apart from the Holy Spirit there is not one thing that a Christian can do in the life of faith." Again, I don’t remember specifically whether or not he referenced the Apostle Paul’s words, but the sentiment is the same, “No one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.” There is nothing in our lives of faith that does not include the work or movement of the Holy Spirit. The Bishop is right and St. Paul is right, yet for some reason or another we seem to diminish and underplay the life of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We Lutherans are known for being 2nd Article people, that is Christ focused and centered people when it comes to our theology and worship. It is even one of our four values of the NALC, Mission Driven, Congregationally Focused, Traditionally Grounded, and Christ Centered. Our great gift to the whole Church catholic, as Lutherans, is our theology of the Cross. That everything we talk about theologically, biblically, and pastorally finds itself interpreted and understood by the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We Lutherans take St. Paul seriously, “we preach Christ crucified.” Yet all of that has been stirred in our preaching and teaching, and blown into our tradition, by the Holy Spirit, the Lord the giver of Life. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>But for some reason or another we seem to be bad about speaking of the Holy Spirit. In fact one of the worst Pentecost sermons I’ve ever heard, and as pastor trust me we know we preach bad sermons, but it came from a Lutheran pastor in a Lutheran congregation. At each and every time this pastor wanted to use a pronoun for the Holy Spirit in his sermon, he chose “it.” As if the Holy Spirit were a thing, an object, or some mystical force akin to the power of the Jedi. This is not what we believe and confess regarding the Holy Spirit, although the lightsabers would come in handy from time to time. The Holy Spirit is person, a person of the Godhead, three-in-one and one-in-three, proceeding from the Father and the Son. He is worshiped and glorified. He is God, the witness of the love between Father and Son. The witness of the love of Father and Son to us. He is Lord. He is the giver of life and that is from the biblical witness, from Genesis to the end. The Holy Spirit is there at work bring life. We remember the creation, where the Spirit of God hovered about the waters. We see in Genesis 2 as God breathes the breath of His life, the Ruach Adonai, the Spirit of the Lord into the clay man, Adam. We see Him again in the Exodus as He fills the various artists and builders with the gifts they need to see that the tabernacle, the altar, the ark, the lampstand, the table of the bread of the presence, the vestments, and all the other things used in the worship are completed and used in communion with God. He is there breathing into the lives of David the King, Solomon the Wise, inspiring their psalms and wisdom. He is there breathing into the Prophets, His prophetic word for the people, the judgment and salvation, the Law and the Gospel of God. He breathes words of life and hope for a hopeless Israel. He brings them the comfort of God and the assurance of the Lord’s redemption. As Isaiah speaks, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.” Words that will find their fulfillment in Christ, upon whom the Holy Spirit will descend to do this very thing. To heal, to proclaim liberty, to give sight, and preach the gospel. He, the Lord and Give of life abides and remains with Christ throughout His ministry, the Son and Spirit joined in the one work and will of God. Giving life to creation. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Kmy68MHsiRQftkPfbUsZgTYwpgdD9AkVv257Qh2qlY2IykN91euCE1c0IVzRG9cs1EmGzAbPlhTqe9iP8LoPQLW1R8OCuZtRpDQHHXvT-2zrmB98YZdrjUQG1lDH9UMahRVXq76UWIIf/s1600/MaronitePentecostIcon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Kmy68MHsiRQftkPfbUsZgTYwpgdD9AkVv257Qh2qlY2IykN91euCE1c0IVzRG9cs1EmGzAbPlhTqe9iP8LoPQLW1R8OCuZtRpDQHHXvT-2zrmB98YZdrjUQG1lDH9UMahRVXq76UWIIf/s1600/MaronitePentecostIcon.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In our Gospel lesson we see Him again do that very same thing, in almost the same fashion as Genesis. Where God in Jesus Christ takes men, lifeless men in their fear and guilt and self-imprisonment, and does what He did to Adam of old, He breathes the breath of life, the breath of God, the Ruach Adonai into them and giving them peace and the power of His life. He did it to the ten in that locked room. He did it to the rest of the church on Pentecost, all 120 who had gathered in the upper room and out the windows and around the house in flames of fire, with the sound of a might and rushing wind, the Sound of the breath of Almighty God. He breathes His breath of life into you. At Holy Baptism the Holy Spirit, the Lord the giver of life, gave life to you. Filling you with His gifts, drawing you into the waters of the font, and clothing you with faith. The Holy Spirit breathed into you the life of God, drawing you further into God’s life by point you to Jesus Christ and the free gift of salvation, hung upon the cross and bursting forth from the tomb. He fills you with His gifts for the building up of the whole Church in service to the Kingdom of God. God Has clothed you with the Holy Spirit and with His power made you a priest in His kingdom. On this day the Church celebrates the Spirit giving life to her, but today we also celebrate that through her He, the Lord, has breathed and given life to you. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Today is not only a celebration of the Church’s birthday, but of yours and of your faith. For even at this moment God continues to bless you with His presence in the Holy Spirit, of whom the apostle writes, you are a temple. You carry within you the Spirit of God who intercedes on us with God. Who brings us to faith each day to Christ Jesus and who continues to speak His same words that he spoke to the prophets in you, of Law and of Gospel, of joy and liberty, of sight and healing, of peace and everlasting hope. <i>For the Holy Spirit has called you through the Gospel, enlightened you with His gifts, sanctified and kept you in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian Church He daily and richly forgives all your sins and the sins of all believers. On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to you and to all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true. </i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span></div>
Pr. Ian Wolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01881301780917137208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8687519078951394066.post-55365027723148414352014-06-03T14:27:00.003-07:002014-06-03T14:27:54.282-07:00Seventh Sunday of Easter (A)-Sermon<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Seventh Sunday of Easter-Sermon</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">6/1/14-Year A</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Alleluia! Christ is risen! <b>He is risen indeed! Alleluia!</b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>This past week I had the opportunity to sit in on a theology class at Crean Lutheran High School in Irvine, where our own Wes Bareford teaches and field questions from high school juniors. I would ask you to continue to pray for these kids and their school community as they mourn the loss of one of their own. The subject of the class was on the “last things” or “end times.” Now I confessed to them, as I confess to you, that I am not a scholar about these things, but being relatively familiar with the book of Revelation and other apocalyptic literature in the Bible, I fielded their questions and answered what I could. Of course the first and most asked question amongst them was “when?” When will the end be? When will all those things we read of take place? I fear I may have let them down when I answered, IDK. I don’t know. I truly don’t know other than that the end times are lived each day as the Church waits for Jesus Christ to return. We live amongst wars and rumors of wars. We see creation in turmoil and the Church continues to go through tribulation and persecution.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Next in popularity to the question of “when” was “what?” What will it look like? What will happen? What will heaven be like? What about the new heaven and the New earth? Going through the symbolical language of Revelation, we see and hear fantastic images of heaven, the four beasts, the angels and elders, the streets of pure gold clear as crystal, and the pearly gates. It is wonderful imagery that our minds simply cannot comprehend. Yet, we are regularly in the pursuit of wanting to know more about this heaven. Thus the kids continued to ask about their bodies in heaven and what the resurrected flesh will look like. They asked about what they will do in heaven; will there be work or will they have jobs? Unfortunately to most of those questions again I could only respond, IDK. For they are yet to be revealed and we will know once we get there. Their curiosity about heaven though, I think is one that is mirrored not only by us adults, but by even the culture. We as people are fascinated by this place. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The Hollywood film, <i>What Dreams May Come, </i>depicts heaven in ways that Christians, unfortunately, might also talk about heaven. In the movie it is a place that is really the creation of the person. The main character of the movie, Chris, played by Robin Williams, is given his own little corner of heaven where he is the creator of his own domain. He is given poetic and creative license to make it whatever he wants, just by the will of his own imagination. Ask a Christian about heaven and more often than not, he or she will tell you a world that is not much different than that movie. It is a world like the one they live in, but only better. Where they will catch that big fish in heaven, that got away on earth. Where they will ride that big harley in the sky, that they couldn’t afford to purchase down here. They will play cards with aunt Bernice, just like they did in the old days, only this time they will win. Heaven and life after death seems to become a place of imagination; the creation of the minds of those who think about it. Life after death seems most of all to be about <i>a place</i> where dreams come true and if that is true then the universalists are right all paths do lead there. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Unfortunately that is not what our Lord or the Scriptures reveal to us about the life to come. As we said certainly there are wonderful depictions about heaven in the book of Revelation, but relatively speaking they are few in number. For scripture and our Lord life after death has very little to do with a <i>place</i>. So little in fact that true Christian teaching would say that the end of the Christian life is not about a place at all, but rather a person. This is what Jesus reveals to us this morning in His prayer to the Father. A<i>nd this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent</i>. This is the eternal life, the heaven that we speak about as Christians, we talk not of a place, but of a person: God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The end of the Christian life is Christ through whom we know God. Heaven, depicted in Revelation, though beautiful as it is is simply the space where the saints gather around the throne of God and praise Him, day and night. It is only a place where we know God. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>This knowing of God is not mere academic or head knowledge. “To know” in the Bible is rarely only an exercise of the mind, though it definitely includes the mind. It is rather a sense of intimate knowledge. One of unity of heart, mind and will with another. It is why the word in the Old Testament is used to depict the conception of a child. It is complete intimate knowledge, where two become one: the Lover with his beloved, the Bridegroom with His bride, the Lord with His Church, the Father with His children. The knowledge of God that Jesus prays of is becoming one Him in an eternal bond of love. It is to be one with Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. Eternal life is eternal communion (one with) with God. As Christians then to speak of heaven, without primarily speaking about fully knowing and loving God and being completely one with Him, is not to speak about heaven at all. For eternal life has little to do with a place, but everything to do with a Person. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It is this eternal communion with God that Jesus prays for His Church and for which He gives thanks to the Father. An eternal communion, which they will experience in part as the church continues in this world without Him. A communion, which itself will not be on Mt. Gerazim or in Jerusalem, but in Spirit and in Truth, wherever the Church assembles to hear the Word proclaimed and to celebrate the Sacrament of that very eternal life which is ours here and now: Holy Communion. The meal of the altar is the marriage feast of that Lamb. It is where we are met by the eternal and living God and are made one with him (communion). Bread and wine eaten and drank for forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation is the unveiling of heaven on earth. This is the truer depiction of heaven that we see in the Bible, where the saints gather not primarily in a place, but chiefly around the Lord Jesus Christ, to know Him and be known by Him.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>With this eternal communion with God, which we receive and participate in each time we gather around the Lord’s table, there is another communion of which we must also speak. The communion of which our Lord Jesus fervently prayed and continues to pray for His church, <i>I pray for them…Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. </i>Communion with God is communion with His children, we brothers and sisters. It is what we pray for in the Eucharistic Prayer, that by the Holy Spirit we might be one, as we share in the one bread and one cup of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are prayed for by our Lord in heaven to be one with Him and to be one with each other. For we all share as the apostles writes, one Lord, One faith, One baptism, one God and Father of us all. As we discuss and discern our future together as a parish it is this eternal life that will bind and hold us together, the oneness we share in the confession of our faith and the oneness we share in union with God. A unity and a communion that we experience here on earth as heaven opens before us and we know God gathered not in a place, but around a person, the victorious Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The Lamb of God who takes away our sin. The Lamb of God who grants us peace. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">May He grant us peace and increase in us the bonds of fellowship and unity in Him as with one heart and one voice we live our eternal life and cry aloud, “Alleluia Christ is risen! <b>He is risen indeed! Alleluia!”</b> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; font-size: 12px; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
Pr. Ian Wolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01881301780917137208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8687519078951394066.post-33935952177813570982014-05-25T07:33:00.001-07:002014-05-25T07:33:11.955-07:00Easter 6 (A)-Sermon<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Sixth Sunday after Easter-Sermon</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">5/25/14-Year A</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Alleluia! Christ is risen! <b>He is risen indeed! Alleluia! </b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Ma nishtana ha lyla ha zeh mikkol hallaylot? [Why is this night different from all other nights?] These words begin the Jewish Seder meal and are spoken by the youngest member of the family. They are a call to order so to speak of all that will transpire on that Passover night. This call to order, this call to remember is mirrored not only by the other questions that will follow it, but will be seen in the meal itself. A meal of matzah bread only, of bitter herbs dipped in salt water, and roasted lamb. The meal accompanied by the questions and their answers not only tell the story of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt’s hands, but reenacts it. So important is this question to the Seder that even if one was forced to celebrate it alone, he is to ask and answer the question himself. Because the night of the passover, and the night of its remembrance is truly unlike any other night. It is a meal of haste, a meal of bitterness, a meal of celebration, and a meal of victory. In participating in the Seder the people participate in the story of Israel’s redemption from the bondage to slavery. In keeping the words and the story of that sacred night, Israel shows her love for God’s deliverance. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Now why am I talking about passover? Dear Pastor, some of you might be thinking, has lost it again. He’s lost track of time, doesn’t he remember Passover was about 6 weeks ago, and we’re long past that! It’s Easter, actually the 6th Sunday of Easter with 2 more to go and I can reassure you that I haven’t lost it. I bring up the seder and the meal of remembrance because though we have not traveled back in time, our gospel readings have so to speak. The words we hear from our Lord this morning are not words of the resurrection. They are not words spoken by Jesus on the shore or in the locked room, but rather they are spoken in the upper room on the night of His betrayal. It is Jesus gathered together with His disciples to remember why that night is different from all other nights, but not in the way they normally would have. It is a night that He would reinterpret the passover meal, making it a new meal with a new focus. Taking into his holy, precious, and yet to be pierced hands bread and a cup, He makes it a new passover meal, one of His own sacrifice. This is my body. This is my blood. Do this in remembrance of me. That Passover night, Jesus made it different from all other Passover nights, because He gave to them not the sacrifice of an earthly lamb, but the sacrifice of himself for them, for Israel, and for all. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>But the meal of remembrance, the meal of Christ’s haste, bitterness, celebration and victory was not the only thing different about that night than from all other nights. For it was filled, as St. John records for us, His final words to His disciples. They are the last and most important things that He wished to tell them about Himself, and about discipleship in His name. Not only did He give to them His body and blood, He washed His feet and gave to them a new commandment one that until now had not been heard before. <i>Love one another, as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.</i> Here our Lord speaks old words, but makes them new. To love one another had been known throughout Israel’s life and faith, but Jesus as he is known to do intensifies this love, not to love one another as best we are able, but to love one another as Christ has loved us. The new command to love is to love one another with the very love of God. A command insurmountable to our weakened sinful flesh. A command that is the divine goal for our lives, but one that we always and forever will fall short of. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>This He knew, and thus a new commandment was not all that He spoke of that night different from all other nights. For it was also filled with words of promise and of gospel to the apostolic band on the eve of their sorrows. <i>I am going to prepare a place for you. I will take you to myself. I am the way, the truth, and the life. I will give you the Helper to be with you forever, the Spirit of Truth</i>. <i>I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. The world will not see me, but you will see me.</i> Here in Easter 6, we remember as we stand on the verge of Pentecost Sunday that all that Jesus spoke of that night, different from all other nights, is fulfilled. That his promise to the Church has been fulfilled. The Helper came with sound of rushing wind and of flames of fire. In Him the Church has been made alive and blessed with faith and new life in Jesus Christ. He has given to us, His disciples these 2000 years later that same faith with the same gifts, not orphans abandoned by Christ, but by the Spirit’s power adopted as sons and daughters of the Father of Jesus, and brothers and sisters of our Lord. Baptized into the name of God, into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Church empowered by the Holy Spirit remembers, truly remembers Christ and His salvation. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It is why each Sunday we take bread and wine, as Christ took bread and wine, and celebrate that night different from all other nights and that Passover meal different from all the other Passover meals that had come before it. Each week we are called to remember through this holy and life giving meal all that our Lord has done for us, and the depth of love that he has for us. Such love that willingly and freely sacrifices Himself for the sake of us, for Israel, and for all the world. In the meal we participate and make present the story of God’s love for us, His redemption through the offering of His Son, and the unity, the communion we now have with God. In the celebration of the meal of Jesus, the eucharistic feast of victory, the Church shows her love for God’s redemption and for His word. Christ’s meal lovingly given to us, is the very meal of our celebration and love for God, by keeping it in remembrance of Him and with the eyes of faith given by the Helper, we see Jesus present before us. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>This is how Jesus’ words “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” can truly be understood. It isn’t a legalism that Jesus demands of his disciples if “x”, then “y”. For we cannot love Christ, except for the love by which He has loved and redeemed us. It is His victory that becomes our victory. It is His meal that becomes our meal. It is His death and resurrection, that becomes our death and resurrection. It is His love that becomes our love. It is His forgiveness that becomes our forgiveness. It is His Spirit, that creates in us clean and right spirits. It is His life that becomes our life. Thus we keep, treasure, His commandments by celebrating His feast and all that he has done for us. For we can never participate enough in communion with God and we can never remember enough why this meal, the Sunday, is different from all other days. The day of His love, His victory, and our union with God a foretaste of the banquet that awaits us in heaven. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Though our Lord’s meal is the highest and most important celebration and meal of remembrance the Church can ever have, it is more than likely not the only celebratory meal that we will have this weekend. This weekend is undoubtedly filled with vacation plans, and barbecues. An extra day given from the rest from our daily toils. Yet Monday, Memorial Day, is not unlike the Lord’s day in that it is given for the purpose of remembrance. The meal tomorrow or today with family and friends is a good celebration, but it lacks its purpose if it is not accompanied by a call and word to remember. Like the Seder, we to might want to ask of ourselves and our nation, why this Monday is different from all other Monday’s. As citizens of the Kingdom of God keep before us always the memory of God’s love and sacrifice for us upon the Cross. As citizens of this land, far below the majesty and splendor of God’s kingdom, we still ought keep before us the the memory of those who have given their last full measure of devotion for our country and for our earthly liberty. It is a day for us Christians to render unto caesar, so to speak, the respect and honor and thanksgiving that is due to our fellow brothers and sisters, those who have died defending our nation and those who still suffer from the tragedies and wounds of war. Let it be a day to keep their memory alive in your own hearts and families as you share the stories of loved ones who have served. Let it be a day to lament war and pray for Christ to come and make all wars cease. Let it be a day to honor and pray for those who continue to serve our nation. Let it be a day and a meal, to remember and hope for the peace of Christ to reign throughout the world.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Amen. </span></div>
Pr. Ian Wolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01881301780917137208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8687519078951394066.post-25704539900100773022014-05-25T07:26:00.000-07:002014-05-25T07:26:02.757-07:00Easter 5 (A)-Sermon<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Fifth Sunday of Easter </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">5/18/14–Year A</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Alleluia! Christ is risen!<b> He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!</b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> Who are we? If we think about it that might seem to be a relatively odd question or at least one that we rarely consider. The more popular question in our age of self-fulfillment and self-discovery is “who am I?” This is a central question for modernity on our fool-hardy quest to know ourselves better. Yet it is the question that drives our age and at least has a central place within each age group we find ourselves in. As children we wish to know who we are apart from the other kids on the play ground. As we grow older kids segment themselves into groups. They identify as jocks, nerds, artsy or theater types. They look for an identity that they can cling to and yet can share with a common group of those like them. In college those groups become majors and we likely have heard kids say, “I’m pre-med” or I’m a music major.” Out of college those majors become the companies or industries that we work for more often than not unrelated to our college degrees. As some get married and have a family they take up new answers to the question, “I’m a mother.” “I’m a grandfather.” Though even as adults some of us of a certain generation still find an answer to the question in the play of our youth, with depend voice and lowered brow we announce, “I’m Batman.”</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>As Christians, we have another set of answers to that question that identifies us not from within ourselves, but from without. As Luther once said that when the devil tempts you proclaim with all boldness, “I’m baptized.” Each of us washed in the water of the font are proclaimed by God as His baptized sons and daughters. Each of us who confess Christ, who believe in Him are called Christians, washed by His saving sacrifice. His death and His resurrection from the dead give us the hope and faith to believe and confess “I am a Christian.” I am saved. I am redeemed. I am forgiven by the One who can forgive sins. Each of us have a strong sense of our individual identity in Christ. We know who we are as individuals in relation to Him. I am His. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Yet that is not the question with which I began. I asked who are WE, because I wonder at times if we know who WE are. We often over look the very communal nature of the Christian faith. We overlook that the life of faith is not simply a me and Jesus alone sort of a thing. Yes we are individually baptized into His name, but we are also baptized into His body, His bride, His Church. The Apostle Peter has a rather definite answer to this question, an answer that I’m not sure many of us would acknowledge or accept, yet one that is biblically true. <i>As you come to him…you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.</i> A holy and royal priesthood, a holy nation, a chosen race, this is God’s answer to the question of who we are as the body that gathers together in His name.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We gather on every Lord’s Day as the Church to be a holy and royal priesthood and to offer to God through Jesus Christ our spiritual sacrifices. Borrowing from Exodus, the apostle, brings forth this imagery that was to be the destiny of Israel. The Lord proclaims in Ex 19 that she would “be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” For Peter what has been done by Christ in giving new and everlasting life to His sons and daughters and calling forth His body the Church, God has now fulfilled what He promised long ago. That we together are now His royal and holy priesthood. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We fulfill this very word of God to Moses in the Exodus and the very identity that St. Peter describes for us when we worship God in Christ and offer up to Him our spiritual sacrifices. For that is what priests do, but these offerings are not for the forgiveness of sin. They do not win us God’s favor or by them do we gain brownie points in the Kingdom. For there is only one sacrifice that restores man to communion with God, the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. He alone could offer to the Father the one and only sacrifice to restore humanity from the pit of death and to forgive sins. Christ’s life-giving sacrifice is the once-for-all, true, complete, and eternal offering of Himself to the Father on our behalf. Dying in our place, so that we might rise with Him in His. There is nothing, not one thing, that we can add to what Christ has done for us. We can not save ourselves, but only trust in the mercy of Christ and His salvation that He freely gives to us. For there is nothing that we can offer to God that is without the taint of our sin. As the line from the Eucharistic Prayer makes abundantly clear, “we give thanks, not as we ought, but as we are able.” We can only give thanks and offer up our spiritual sacrifices to God through the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ who redeems our brokenness, who lifts up our prayers with His own to the Father in the heavenly temple. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>So what are these spiritual sacrifices that Peter urges us to give? The liturgy is filled with these moments where we as act as priests, chiefly we see that in the offering. There we give to God, as the ordinary prayer says, “what He has first given us ourselves, our time, and our possessions signs of His gracious love.” The offering plate is not big enough to contain all of what is meant by our offering. It is not to be the check alone that we put into the plate, but it is ourselves, our gifts and talents, our hearts, our very lives that we offer to Him. It is rather easy to cut a check and be done, but God calls us to more than that. He calls us to live with Him in His kingdom in all innocence, righteousness, and blessedness. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>As a kingdom of priests, then we live each day and especially on the Lord’s day offering to Him what He is due, not just what is in our wallets, but our very selves in lives, songs, and hearts of thanksgiving and praise for all that He has done. This is why the communion part of the liturgy is called the Great Thanksgiving, the Great Eucharistia, as we lift our hearts to the Lord and give thanks for all that He has done. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Not only then do we serve as priests offering up our thanks and praise for what God has done, but there is also another dimension to our priesthood that we rarely think about. We also serve as priests to the world. When we pray the Kyrie, we pray for the peace of the whole world, because we have come from the world and live in the world. We come to worship God, carrying the world with us and what we have gone through in the past week. We bring with us the brokenness of the world and all that has transpired in these last days, the wildfires, the kidnapping of 276 girls from Nigeria, the death sentence of a Christian woman, the loss of a job, the diagnosis received, the heart broken, the family in need, the poor and suffering. We carry all of these things from the world into the temple of God and through Christ offer up our prayers for the world. We come to the place, in the words of Alexander Schmeman, “where the world is done right,”—where life, peace, love, and joy reign in the Kingdom of God—to intercede for a world not done right, broken by sin. In this we act as the priests of the world, bringing into God’s house the very problems of the world to be healed and redeemed by God. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>One of the complaints that people often make about coming to Church is that “they don’t get anything out of it.” To which I usually have two responses: First, is to ask them whether or not they heard that their sins were forgiven and whether they received Jesus Christ in Holy Communion. If the answer is yes to both of those questions, then I ask to make sure they want to stay with their original complaint. For if having received the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation, and Jesus Christ the Lord and God of the universe is not “getting anything out of it”, I’m not sure what exactly could please them. Second, is to ask what did they bring or offer in worship to God in Christ. If they don’t participate in the liturgy, sing the hymns, offer the prayers and add their loud “amens” (which is something we need to work on), but just rather sit there and wait to be entertained, well there are many many better places to do that then at Church. Because to be at church and to be the Church is to come, be active and engaged in that very task of offering prayers and spiritual sacrifices to the God who has given us everything. Who has freely called and chosen us to be His royal priesthood, His holy nation, and His chosen people in the world. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Having received everything from God, He then sends you back as priests out into the world, to be in it, but not of it and to proclaim that He alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He sends us to declare His wonderful deeds. Luther talked about this in His preaching and teaching as the priesthood of all believers. You are made by God to be little Christ’s in the world, no matter your station, no matter your vocation, because you carry Him with you. His word Has been spoken upon your lives, that you are His forever, and His very live, His body and blood is in you in Holy Communion, you are now called and made by the Spirit’s power to be His witnesses to the ends of the world. To offer up prayers for others at work or at home. To walk with someone in need and offer up our the spiritual sacrifice of ourselves, our time, and our possessions for them. Because that is what God in Christ is making RLC to be, for we are His, people His Church, His Spiritual House, His Holy and Royal Priesthood all by complete grace to live and serve with our Great-High Priest Jesus Christ in His Kingdom. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Alleluia! Christ is risen! <b>He is risen indeed! Alleluia! </b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Amen. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span></div>
Pr. Ian Wolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01881301780917137208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8687519078951394066.post-76965910068422402752014-05-25T07:25:00.005-07:002014-05-25T07:25:33.782-07:00Easter 4 (A)-Sermon<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Fourth Sunday of Easter- Sermon</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">5/11/14- Year A</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Alleluia! Christ is risen! <b>He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!</b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>This morning we come to Good Shepherd Sunday, always the 4</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><sup>th</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Sunday of Easter on the Church’s lectionary calendar, and I admit I’m always a bit reticent to preach on this Good Shepherd Sunday. It is undoubtedly the most popular image of our Lord depicted throughout Christian Art and iconography. The image of Christ the Good Shepherd is so popular within Christianity that if the world knows anything about Jesus its likely that they know and remember Him as the Good Shepherd. They’ve seen the windows or the icons, and they’ve heard the psalm depicting His relationship to His people, <i>The Lord is My Shepherd,</i> <i>I shall not want.</i> For these reasons, one might think that preaching Good Shepherd’s Sunday is a joy, and let me assure you it is! It is truly good news and another sign of His love and compassion for us. There is much joy in preaching of Him who <i>leads us beside the still waters</i> of the font, <i>and prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies </i>in the Eucharistic Meal. I am not reticent about proclaiming and heralding that He is indeed our Good Shepherd, but rather about what that means for us: it means we’re sheep. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We more than likely know sheep are not the brightest of God’s critters. Yes they may look sweet and innocent, wooly and cuddly, because that is about all there is to them. Sheep if they get caught it a fence will not work to free themselves, but rather will stay there until the worst happens. Sheep are not the likely candidates to win nature’s survival of the fittest contest. They rather quickly and easily fall prey to the wolf. For sheep have no natural defense against predators who seek to steal, kill or destroy them, except for two things 1) being faster than sheep next to them, and 2) the crook of the shepherd watching over them. Being called sheep, isn’t really a boost to our self-confidence. Humanity, the height and pinnacle of creation, the top of the food chain with big brains and opposable thumbs, are God’s dumb sheep. In a culture built on self-affirmation, self-confidence, and self-esteem Good Shepherd Sunday comes like a steamroller every Easter to humble us and flatten our self-interest, self-security, and our sense of self-importance. For though we think we are mighty we are no better in the eyes of God, in the eyes of Christ than sheep. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Fortunately though, despite their inability to defend themselves against the wolves and their tiny brains roughly 10% the weight of and about 1/3 the size of ours, sheep do have at least two redeeming quality, besides being tasty. Back in Iowa, I knew a couple of shepherds and one of them, a trusted friend, told me that sheep are actually quite good in their ability to hear. They can discern their own shepherd’s voice from any other voice in a crowd. For instance, if there were two shepherds calling to their flocks who were mixed together in the pasture land, the sheep would actually be able to discern which voice was their own shepherd’s, separate from the other sheep and follow him. They can easily discern the voice of their shepherd’s because it is familiar to them, one that they’ve heard ever-since they were a little lamb. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>How fitting then that this Good Shepherd Sunday falls upon the culture’s celebration of Mothers, because it is that ability to hear a voice and discern whose it is that we humans and the sheep find their true connection. I think all it would take is but a few seconds for most of us to close our eyes and think of our mothers an instantaneously hear her voice. Perhaps she is saying that saying that she always said. Perhaps it is the voice of her calling us by name, or by two names, or feeling the anxiety build our first middle and last names. Perhaps we hear that voice speak a word of love to us, and for some, unfortunately, the voice of their mother is burned into their memories, but for other reasons. But a good mother like, The Good Shepherd, speaks words of tenderness that become a transformative and definite sound wave pattern imprinted upon our brains, and branded onto our hearts. For like sheep, the kids lost in the moment at Disneyland always know which voice is there mother’s calling to them. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Hearing isn’t the only redeemable trait that sheep have, there is still one more. Sheep not only have a natural ability to hear and to discern voices, but they also have an innate proclivity to follow. Sheep are natural followers. If one goes, they all go. If the shepherd calls, they follow. For sheep hearing and following go hand in hand. They naturally respond to the commands of the shepherd. They step where he steps. They go where He leads. Humanity does the same, though more often than not rarely is it the voice a Shepherd that we follow. For as we know the world is filled with many loud and clanging voices attractive, appealing, and alluring. Not only is the world filled with such noise constantly surrounding us, we are also constantly burdened with the sound of our own neurotic voice as well. Indeed we are all too quick to replace our Lord’s voice with our own or with another’s. Because sin has so disordered our hearts and lives we sheep are quickly fooled, stolen, deceived, killed, and destroyed by these other voices. We like our four legged companions are defenseless. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Defenseless against ourselves and defenseless against the voices of the world Christ our Good Shepherd knows we need His crook and His voice to shelter and protect us. Thus, He never stops speaking to us. For He has given His word to us to hear and to be shaped by. He has given us His sacraments, His very life as a constant voice to the sheep: you are mine, you are beloved, here I call you by name to save and redeem you. Our Lord speaks to us this morning, “The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” An image that John’s gospel beautifully depicts as our Resurrected Lord, calls the mourning Mary by name, and at once she knows who exactly is speaking to her, and follows Jesus from grief to unending joy, from death to abundant life. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It is that abundant life that Christ bids us and gives to us in His Word to hear and by it to keep ourselves within the comfort and safety of His pasture. How else do the sheep know the shepherd’s voice or the young child his mothers? But that they’ve heard and listened to it over and over and over again. It is so familiar to them that nothing could be confused with it. So too must God’s holy Word, the true and loving voice of Jesus Christ become for us that we can not mistake it for anything else. Through the noise of the world, Christ speaks so that we might hone in on that one lone voice who calls us by name and go where He leads and follow like sheep. It is the very reason we stand and sing and herald the Gospel’s reading, “Lord to whom shall we go, You have the words of eternal life.” Because there are no other words, no other voice that gives us life, but His. He alone is the gate. He alone is the door. He alone is the True Good Shepherd through whom alone we have eternal and abundant life. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Alleluia! Christ is risen. <b>He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! </b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Amen. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div>
Pr. Ian Wolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01881301780917137208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8687519078951394066.post-2249796127234063342014-05-25T07:25:00.002-07:002014-05-25T07:25:05.573-07:00Easter 3 (A) Sermon<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Third Sunday of Easter–Sermon </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">5/1/14–Year A</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Alleluia! Christ is risen! <b>He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!</b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The two disciples leave Jerusalem Easter evening with their heads hung low. Feeling the shame and disbelief of what they had witnessed. Skeptical of the talk of women and even more skeptical of the other disciples who seem to affirm what the women had told them. They sense shame and failing at the possibility of what could have been a better deliverance, a better messiah, a better Jesus. So they leave and depart. They need to escape Jerusalem and go for a walk to clear their heads. Luke doesn't give us the reason for their sojourn, but telling us their words and their mannerisms, standing still and looking sad, they are walking away from Jerusalem as defeated losers. There in their sorrows a stranger approaches them. One who looks like a good candidate to share their laments with, for it is true that misery loves company. How else can you describe the Chicago Cubs fan base? Only about 30 games into the season and they’re already in last place! And as we all like to do when in a funk, whether Cubs fans or the disciples on their way to Emmaus, we like to find someone else in the same state and complain together. Surely they must have thought that the unsuspecting stranger on the road would join in their venting. Seeing him on that very same road, they undoubtedly must be thinking that he is leaving Jerusalem the same way they are. Dejected, depressed, and disillusioned with Jesus and his "revolution."</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> What they had hoped to find in a companion to share their complaints and grievances with is not what they encountered. In fact, they find the exact opposite. Instead of someone to share the horrible news of what happened with, they met a man who shared with them Good News. Instead of someone to complain to, they met someone who wouldn't complain at all, except maybe about them. Instead of finding a fellow compatriot to drown their sorrows with, they encountered a stranger who silenced their dejected attitude with food. On the road of their own sorrows they are not met by a fellow man of sorrows, but rather by Jesus. The one who makes eyes to open, hearts to burn with zeal, and hope to overturn despair. <i>And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. </i>Jesus opens to them the Scriptures. He told them how the Christ would suffer, be killed, and on the third day be raised, according to those same scriptures. When all they can see is darkness, He shows them that the Word of God is indeed a lamp unto their feet and a light unto their path. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Yet a bible study was not enough for them to recognize who they were talking to. Certainly their hearts were burning as he retold Salvation History to them and how it all was fulfilled in Himself. Yet they still could not see him. As far as they know it could have been another disciple whom they hadn't met. While wanting to know more and hear more from this man, they invite him to stay with them. They invite him as their guest to rest for the night, and then continue on their journey the next morning. Now normally, it is usually the host who makes sure their guests are provided for. It is his or her responsibility to see that the needs of the guests are met, including room and board. In this instance it is the guest, the invited companion who provides for their sustenance, not only physically, but spiritually. When they were at table, Jesus <i>took</i> bread, <i>blessed </i>it, <i>broke</i> it and <i>gave</i> it to them. It is in those four verbs, the four verbs of the miraculous feedings of five and four thousand and the four verbs of the Last Supper that at once their eyes were opened. In the sacred act and ritual of Jesus’ communion with them, His fellowship and breaking of the bread they immediately recognize the act and the man who had done them before. In the “eucharisted bread” Jesus gives them eyes to see that He is the risen Lord and God. Through the Word and in the Sacrament they believe and run with great joy to confess themselves the Easter proclamation. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The disciples encounter on the road to Emmaus, becomes not only another resurrection appearance of our Lord in the gospels, but the very foundation of the Church’s life with Jesus Christ. Justin Martyr, the namesake of my own Justin, wrote to the pagan emperor Antonius around the year AD 155 describing to him the life of the early Church. He wrote, "On the day we call the day of the sun, all who dwell in the city or country gather in the same place. The memoirs of the apostles and the writings of the prophets are read, as much as time permits. When the reader has finished, he who presides over those gathered admonishes and challenges them to imitate these beautiful things. ...Then someone brings bread and a cup of water and wine mixed together to him who presides over the brethren. He takes them and offers praise and glory to the Father of the universe, through the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and for a considerable time he gives thanks that we have been judged worth of these gifts. When he has concluded the prayers and thanksgivings, all present give voice to an acclamation by saying, 'Amen.' When he who presides has given thanks and the people have responded, those whom we call deacons give to those present the "eucharisted" bread, wine and water and take them to those who are absent." Listening closely to our morning's gospel lesson we see little difference between what those two wandering disciples encountered on their road to Emmaus and Justin’s description of the worship life of the early church. Indeed, we see little difference between the road to Emmaus, the early Church, and our own worship this Easter Sunday morning. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>For I would wager to bet that some of us, who have driven here this morning have come from places of our own despair, dejection, and disillusionment with life and the things that we see in the world, maybe even by what we see in the Church. Our lives are filled with those moments of grief and depression. We may even find those moments where we cannot for one reason or another see or perceive Jesus at all in our lives. Whether from the doctor’s diagnosis, the failing grade, the pink slip, the culture falling away from the pillars which once made it blossom, the reality ever looming war and global conflict that seems to be coming, the evil that is perpetrated upon the Church both from without and within, the company moving halfway across the country, or the heart broken by pain, we journey on roads to Emmaus all the time. So much so that one commentator has noted, that the Road to Emmaus, is any road or path we take to get away from the harsh reality of life. It might be the road some of us are on this morning and here we find ourselves, we find the Church’s worship just like what Jesus did on that road so many years ago. For here His word is opened and salvation History lays before us. Here we see and hear how Jesus has truly fulfilled Moses and all the prophets. Here He takes bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to us and in the consecrated bread and wine we behold Jesus, our resurrected Lord and God. What we sometimes might fail to miss in the readings, or the pastor fails to get across in the sermon, Jesus makes up for never failing to reveal to us His mercy, His grace, His love for us in the bread and wine of His body and blood. Jesus is known to us on our own road of sorrows in the breaking of bread. To see Jesus as Lord and God is to behold him in the breaking of bread. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Here in this communion meal, He gladdens hearts, he opens eyes, He makes hope overcome despair. He uplifts us disciples, forgiving our sins, strengthening our faith, and giving us everlasting life. Where we cannot see Jesus in the world, because of the world, here we can never fail to see Him and His mercy. Here our Easter joy is confirmed, pledged, and renewed week by week. Lord’s day after Lord’s day, just as it has been since the very beginning of the first Easter. Having heard from Jesus in the Word and seeing Him in Holy Communion you and I are sent with His joy to believe and confess with the whole Church that Christ is indeed risen. And to share the joy and zeal in your own hearts as the Lord God of the universe has stooped down to place his very life in your hands. For He is risen and reigns to all eternity and He is with us. Never leaving us to our sadness. Never leaving us to despair. But makes us to share in the song of the angels: Alleluia! Christ is risen! <b>He is Risen indeed! Alleluia!</b> </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span></div>
Pr. Ian Wolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01881301780917137208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8687519078951394066.post-13052192511491925462014-04-28T10:11:00.004-07:002014-04-28T10:17:03.422-07:00Second Sunday of Easter (A)- Sermon<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Second Sunday of Easter- Sermon</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">4/27/14- Year A</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Alleluia! Christ is risen! <b>He is risen indeed. Alleluia! </b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I will not go to Alabama! I will not marry Ian and move to Iowa with him! I will not not live in California! I will not will not will not eat green eggs and ham! I will not believe. It is often said, that if one wants to make God laugh we need only to tell Him our plans. And in life that seems to be the truth of it. I went on Internship to Alabama kicking and screaming and a few other things, yet ended up loving it. Alicia could not resist the my foolish charm, ended up saying “yes” and later blissfully married me and made her home with the yankees in Iowa. The lanky character from Dr Seuss loves Green Eggs and Ham to the knowing delight of Sam-I-Am. The one about California? Well, standing here before you this Sunday morning you know how well that one went. Hearing from the Lord, once again, oh yes you will…. So often have we head these words from the Lord throughout our life in spite of our objections, you might over hear us say every now and again… “I’ll never live in Hawaii. I’ll never live in Hawaii.” In a cadence not unlike Dorothy’s incantation over her ruby slippers. And Thomas? Well Thomas, believes and confesses, “My Lord and My God” to the ever-knowing delight of Christ. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Rejoining his brethren in the locked room where they had been hiding out, Thomas is told an unbelievable thing by the disciples. That not only is Christ risen from the dead, but they have SEEN Him! Gladness and peace filled their hearts as Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit into them, giving them life in the midst of fearing their death. In their gladness and joy they shared with the absent Thomas their encounter with the risen Lord. To which Thomas, perhaps thinking them at the least stir-crazy or at the most mad, replies, “I will not believe.” Where fear had been overcome by the peace of Christ for the ten, for Thomas that fear still remained. What his eyes had beheld just a few days before, could not comprehend what his ears were now hearing. His own knowledge and trusting his own insight over and above the apostolic word blocked his ability to believe. He could not comprehend the apostolic joy he found upon his return. Relying on his own word made sure that he would continue to be bound in fear for his life. Trusting in his own wisdom he made sure that he would not believe. Though the disciples were locked in a building, Thomas was locked inside himself held captive by fear. Just as it was fear that gave Alicia, Myself, and the man from Dr. Seuss to confess with absolute certainty, “I will not!” </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>As we know from our own lives, faith and trust can be a most difficult thing at times to grasp. Though the Church has often given St. Thomas the short end of the stick by referring to him as Doubting Thomas, we know his story isn’t all that simple. The mocks that we might make of him by our own pride are quickly undone when we look seriously at our own lives and the times that we too have been trapped and locked for fear. At least St. Thomas feared for his life, more often than not our own fears that keep us inside of ourselves are more about fearing the loss of status, pride, our own claims to omnipotency or the luxury of comfort. Whether trapped by pain and grief, or by the constant barrage from the world telling us that what we believe is false, or by trusting in our own wisdom of knowing better than God and His word, we along with St. Thomas have uttered similar words, “I will not. I can not”, because it easy to let fear over take us. Indeed I would say it is in our very nature. Hearing the good news from the Apostolic Word we still fear what that means for our lives, we fear being different from the world. We fear actually believing and losing our grip of control. We fear losing popularity by having our life changed and transformed from what ‘we’ want it to be. We fear actually trusting the Word to do its work in our life and the life of the congregation. These are the realties, the struggles against our flesh that we all face daily. This life of faith at times is difficult, because we live it without the benefit of sight. <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Or do we?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In great mercy, Christ comes to Thomas. Jesus appears before his eyes and confronts him with the full reality of His bodily resurrection: put your finger into my hands, stretch out your hand and place it in my side. Feel the wounds which I have suffered for your sake, Thomas. Place your fear in them. Place your own bondage to yourself, your wisdom and your strength. Place your grief in them. Place all your doubts and misgivings in them. Place yourself, your very life in the wounds which I have born for you and for all. Peace be with you, Thomas. My peace is with you! Do not disbelieve, but believe. And to the all-knowing delight of Christ, He does. He confess the faith, the faith of his brothers and sisters, the faith of the Church. Jesus is Lord and God. Jesus is our Lord and our God. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In even greater mercy, Christ Jesus comes to us who did not physically see the resurrection 2000 years ago, but who are still met by the risen Christ. Jesus says to us, “blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe!” We are blessed for He does not give us up to the doubting taunts of the world nor to the fear of our souls, thus He gave us sacraments by which to see His presence and His Word to hear, read, and know. In His Resurrection He speeds His way to us, to confront us with the Truth of His life and to give us peace. True peace which the world cannot give, by liberating us from the tempts of the world, the darts of the devil, and the failings of our own flesh our sin. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Jesus Christ comes to us and breathed into us the Lord and Giver of Life, given at Baptism. He comes into our very presence, in the closed doors of this sanctuary, truly present in Bread and wine, with words of promise and life, “This Is my Body. This Is My Blood.” Reach out your hand take it, touch it, eat and drink from it. Do not doubt, but believe! Here I am, He says to us. Hide yourself in my presence, in the meal of the remembrance of my sacrifice for you, take your life your worries and your fears and hide them in me. Christ is present with us this morning and every time we partake of the means of grace, those places where Christ is truly and really present to show us, as He showed Thomas the glory and splendor of His resurrected life. These are the places where He liberates us again and again and bestows on us His Holy Spirit. This is why, the Church and being active in the life of her worship, is so necessary for us, if we wish to be Christians, because it is only under the presence of Christ, under the shadow of His wings that we are brought from disbelief and doubt to faith. It is the reason we make parents, all parents, who seek baptism for their children to make vows to raise them in the Church: to live among God’s faithful people, to bring them to the Word of God and the Holy Supper, to teach them the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments, to place in their hands the holy Scriptures, and to nurture them in faith and prayer. For these are the placed where they will encounter the risen Lord. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>These are the same places where we encounter the Risen Lord. In them Christ comes to us, to cast away our doubt and our fears, just as he did for St. Thomas. He comes to silence the anxiety of our hearts and minds and to fill us with His peace. To strengthen us, “do not disbelieve, but believe” He says to us in Word and in Sacrament. To laugh at our plans and disarm the certainty of our fears. All of this He does for us and gives to us, Just as St. John in his gospel describes, so that we might believe He is Lord and God. And that believing we may have life, everlasting life, in His name. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Alleluia! Christ is Risen! <b>He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!</b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Amen. </span></div>
Pr. Ian Wolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01881301780917137208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8687519078951394066.post-20004697085400137782014-04-23T08:41:00.001-07:002014-04-23T08:42:14.804-07:00Resurrection of Our Lord: Easter Morning Sermon<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Resurrection of our Lord–Sermon</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">4/20/14–Year A</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Alleluia! Christ is risen! <b>He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!</b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>What more needs to be said? Is there any message, any word that could be spoken that should out do the angel’s proclamation to the Mary’s this morning; <i>He is not here, fore He has risen?</i> And I am not just saying this because I’d like to end this morning’s sermon here and sit back down, being filled with exhaustion after last night’s tremendous, wonderful, beautiful, and might I add, delicious celebration of our Lord’s resurrection at the Easter Vigil. I say that there are no more greater words to be said or added this morning simply because it is true. As you likely know we pastors work hard and are filled with much anxiety, making sure our Easter sermons are polished perfectly. Filled with every word…that we could ever say…about any thing. Because today is, so to speak, the the Super Bowl of Sunday’s in the Christian calendar. The pews are filled with more people than usual, as families and friends come on this day, and then go home for their Easter celebration. They are filled by visitors and guests who come to join the Church’s celebration on this day. And on top of that of course we worry that the council members have their note pads out this morning to make sure the pastor doesn’t mess things up too badly today. I kid, about that. Yet not even they could be harder than we pastors can be on ourselves to make sure we get it right. One might say we find ourselves heading to this Easter morning the same way the women left the empty tomb; with fear and great joy at wondering just what to say. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>But to do so, to worry about flawless words and polished sermons is to miss the point of the day and turns the Easter day of Christ’s resurrection into a day about me. Yes, even clergy, if you weren’t aware, are prone this is most prevalent vice. Today is one of those days though where fewer words are better, for anything that we would or could say can be summed up in the three words of the Church’s proclamation: Christ is risen! It alone is the foundation of our entire faith and hope in God. It is this Easter morn upon which the Church’s life of faith is built. Not Christmas or any other festival, but rather that on this morning, this first day of the week, the women go to the tomb and find it empty. That is the earth shattering, world turning, and quite literally earth shaking word which the Church is given to proclaim this morning and every Sunday morning. That Jesus whom we crucified by our sins, by our own rejection of God’s love in His Son, has not abandoned us to the abyss of death or the darkness of the grave, but has called forth speech from silence, light from darkness, and life from death. Life for His Son and life for those who cling to the mercy of Christ, his cross and his resurrection. All of this is there present in the Easter proclamation: Christ is Risen. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We see this transformative power of these three words in our Gospel lesson this morning. Women who went before the sun had even cast its first rays upon Jerusalem went to the tomb carrying spices ready to anoint and grief again over the death of their beloved. We can only guess how many tears they shed on Friday, on Saturday and early Sunday morning, but undoubtedly they were many. Yet the poor lowly and burdened women are transformed and changed, they are renewed and filled with hope and life at the angelic word. Their sorrows over death give way to the good news of life. Their world is changed as Christ is risen. At these words the lowly are raised. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We see this transformative power of three words not only in the faithful myrrh bearing women, but we also see it in the strong and haughty guards. Those roman soldiers who had been given leaven by Pilate to go at the Pharisees command and guard the tomb. They had been given what could be one of the easiest assignments a soldier could ever have, to make sure a dead man doesn’t leave his tomb! How foolish they likely were at the easiness of such an assignment! How boring it must of been for them! But at the shaking of the ground, the angel’s presence, and the stone rolled away to reveal an empty hole in the rock, these “living men” alive to their own wisdom, thought, and trust in their own strength, become as the one whom they were supposed to be guarding. St. Matthew tells us, they became like dead men. Dead, not only because these guards lost their prisoner, which was a capital offense, but they are dead to their own wisdom, beliefs, and strength as they could never be stronger than that dead man. At these words prideful are brought low. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We see this transformative power in these three words not only in our gospel lesson, but in the full reality of Christ’s death and resurrection. The victory party in hell thrown by Satan on Good Friday, thinking that he had won and outsmarted God, is interrupted by a special news bulletin. As we heard last night from St. John Chrysostom, “[Christ] descended into Hell and took Hell captive! It took a body and came upon God. It took earth and encountered heaven! It took what it saw, but crumbled before what it has not seen! O death, where is thy sting? O Hell, where is thy victory? For Christ is risen, and you are overthrown. Christ is risen and the demons are fallen!” At these powerful words the gates of death are opened and the good news is proclaimed to those held captive. At these words Satan who thought he had won the battle, has found out he has completely and forever lost the war. At these words the demons tremble and cower in fear over their own destruction. At these words the sin which marks us for death, is washed, cleansed and forgiven and we are marked for life everlasting. </span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>What truly more can be said than “Christ is risen?” For by it earth is raised to heaven; the gates of paradise are thrown open to all who believe in Christ’s free and unending love for them given in Holy Baptism and sustained by faith, prayer, Word and Holy Sacrament; and humanity is clothed with divinity. It has the power in these words to transform mourners into celebrants, the prideful living into the humble dead, bring the dead to life, turn the roaring sharped toothed devil into a fangless enemy and make we sinful rebels of God into His most loved and precious children. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>If these three words have the power to do all of that, to transform the world, how much more do they have the power to transform you and your life. This day the Resurrection of Christ comes to you and you are witnesses of it. By His glory and power YOU can not come witness this and NOT be changed. You CANNOT LEAVE the same as you CAME this morning for today you have beheld the Risen Lord in Word and Bread and Wine. As St. Paul writes, “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. (Col 3:4).” He who is your life is here and he comes to glorify Himself in you by claiming you as His own, setting you free from the bondage of your own tombs, and give you life. Therefore, when grief overtakes you, let “Christ is Risen” be your hope. When the wisdom or strength of the world puts you down or causes you to despair, let “Christ is Risen” be your support and defense. When you find yourself trusting in your own strength more than in His, let “Christ is Risen” be your humble reminder that He is Lord and you are not. When the devil seeks to thrown your sins in your face and lead you to despair of God’s grace, let “Christ is Risen” be your battle cry! When the hour of your own death draws near, let “Christ is Risen” be your anthem to everlasting and eternal life! </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“For Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice! </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Christ is risen, and the life reigns!</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in a tomb.” (St. John Chrysostom)</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">To Him be all glory, honor, and might now and ever and unto the ages of ages! </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Amen. </span></div>
Pr. Ian Wolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01881301780917137208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8687519078951394066.post-12683537874120024532014-04-23T08:40:00.000-07:002014-04-23T08:40:10.303-07:00Holy Triduum: Easter Vigil, The Paschal Sermon of St. John Chrysostom<dl style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px; text-align: center;">Easter Vigil: Sermon of St. John Chrysostom († AD 407)</dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;"><br /></dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">If anyone is devout and a lover of God, let them enjoy this beautiful and radiant festival.
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">If anyone is a grateful servant, let them, rejoicing, enter into the joy of his Lord.
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">If anyone has wearied themselves in fasting, let them now receive recompense.</dd></dl>
</dd></dl>
</dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">If anyone has labored from the first hour, let them today receive the just reward.
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">If anyone has come at the third hour, with thanksgiving let them feast.
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">If anyone has arrived at the sixth hour, let them have no misgivings; for they shall suffer no loss.
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">If anyone has delayed until the ninth hour, let them draw near without hesitation.
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">If anyone has arrived even at the eleventh hour, let them not fear on account of tardiness.</dd></dl>
</dd></dl>
</dd></dl>
</dd></dl>
</dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">For the Master is gracious and receives the last even as the first; He gives rest to him that comes at the eleventh hour, just as to him who has labored from the first.
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">He has mercy upon the last and cares for the first; to the one He gives, and to the other He is gracious.
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">He both honors the work and praises the intention.</dd></dl>
</dd></dl>
</dd></dl>
<dl style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">Enter all of you, therefore, into the joy of our Lord, and, whether first or last, receive your reward.
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">O rich and poor, one with another, dance for joy!
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">O you ascetics and you negligent, celebrate the day!</dd></dl>
</dd></dl>
</dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">You that have fasted and you that have disregarded the fast, rejoice today!
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">The table is rich-laden: feast royally, all of you!
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">The calf is fatted: let no one go forth hungry!</dd></dl>
</dd></dl>
</dd></dl>
<dl style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">Let all partake of the feast of faith. Let all receive the riches of goodness.
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">Let no one lament their poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed.
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">Let no one mourn their transgressions, for pardon has dawned from the grave.
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">Let no one fear death, for the Saviour's death has set us free.</dd></dl>
</dd></dl>
</dd></dl>
</dd></dl>
<dl style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">He that was taken by death has annihilated it!
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">He descended into Hades and took Hades captive!
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">He embittered it when it tasted His flesh! And anticipating this, Isaiah exclaimed: "<i>Hades was embittered when it encountered Thee in the lower regions</i>".</dd></dl>
</dd></dl>
</dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">It was embittered, for it was abolished!
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">It was embittered, for it was mocked!
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">It was embittered, for it was purged!
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">It was embittered, for it was despoiled!
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">It was embittered, for it was bound in chains!</dd></dl>
</dd></dl>
</dd></dl>
</dd></dl>
</dd></dl>
<dl style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">It took a body and came upon God!
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">It took earth and encountered Ηeaven!
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">It took what it saw, but crumbled before what it had not seen!</dd></dl>
</dd></dl>
</dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">O death, where is thy sting?
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">O Hades, where is thy victory?</dd></dl>
</dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">Christ is risen, and you are overthrown!
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen!
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice!
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">Christ is risen, and life reigns!
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in a tomb!</dd></dl>
</dd></dl>
</dd></dl>
</dd></dl>
</dd><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">For Christ, being raised from the dead, has become the first-fruits of them that have slept.
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">To Him be glory and might unto the ages of ages.
<dl style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.2em;"><dd style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 1.6em; margin-right: 0px;">Amen.</dd></dl>
</dd></dl>
</dd></dl>
Pr. Ian Wolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01881301780917137208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8687519078951394066.post-87854851367385760532014-04-23T08:36:00.002-07:002014-04-23T08:36:36.249-07:00Holy Triduum: Good Friday Sermon<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Good Friday-Sermon</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">4/18/14- Year A</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We are in good company this night (today), my brothers and sisters, as we stand before the scene depicted by St. John. We hear of the whole cast of characters that we are all familiar with in the Passion story. There are fellow kinsmen of our Lord who bring charges against him, arrest him by the word of his betrayer and lead him before Caiaphas and a kangaroo court. There is the begrudging Roman Governor Pontius Pilate, who seems to want to find a way not to do what the masses are begging him to do, who pushes back against them, but only ever so briefly after quickly caving to the mere mention of Caesar. There are the guards who beat our Lord, ripping his flesh open with each crack of the whip embedded by glass and metal. The ones who would also put a cross upon his shoulders, lead him outside the gate and nail him to that same tree. There are those who mock and taunt him along the Via Dolorosa and at Golgotha, deriding him as he gives up his last breaths and proclaims that all is now finished. There are the thieves who watch our Lord’s passion from crosses of their own, one to his right and the other to his left. We all know these characters make up this Good Friday for they all play a role in the sacrifice of our Lord. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We may even find ourselves in their places as we too have brought this shameful act upon our Lord, for that is the reality of our own sin, but when I say that we are in good company tonight (today) that is not the company that I mean. Rather on this Good Friday with the cross that stands before us now, raised before our eyes, we find ourselves with another company: the company of the Church and her saints. There in their agony and bitter grief—weeping tears, tears as the psalmist describes flowing down faces, flooding beds and drenching couches—they stand by Jesus’ Cross. We, brothers and sisters, find ourselves in the company of Mary His mother and her sisters, Mary the wife of Clopas, Mary Magdalene and at least from the apostles the beloved disciple John. On Good Friday, we weep with them on the fate that has befallen the one whom we love just as they did, Jesus. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We stand in the beloved disciple John’s painful shock and disbelief that all that Jesus had spoken about regarding the things regarding his end are now finished. That he would be betrayed by one who would call him Rabbi and one that John himself had likely called friend. We can feel his own sense of being betrayed by Judas and the anger that he undoubtedly felt. We might sense his own foolishness as it wasn’t long before that he was bargaining with Jesus for his own seat of glory next to Jesus. The seat of which he now sees is not in palace or throne room, but the seat of the Cross. For we too are His beloved disciples and as we hear of what happened to Jesus we can be filled with that same self-righteous anger that we would have done better. That we would have sniffed Judas out from the start. That we would have done things differently. That is our own foolishness, which is laid open and bare for the Jesus’ cross. Though we might pridefully think such things, Jesus death lays before us the true reality of that sentiment, that all have fallen short of the glory of God. Even those with good intentions, even John the beloved, will fall always short in comparison to the glory of God and His Christ. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We stand in the depth of grief that St. Mary Magdalene from whom Jesus had done a profound and remarkable work in her. Healing her from the seven demons that had taken hold of her life. While Luke mentions the number seven specifically, we must not forget the significance of such a number in the Jewish mind. Seven is not just a real number, but symbolic of wholeness and completeness. Mary was not only possessed, but thoroughly, completely, and wholly possessed and from that Jesus lovingly healed her. So great was his loving deed for her that she was almost never not by his side. She was there in the good and she stands with him now at this most dark time of her teacher and friend. She laments, she mourns of what has transpired and we too who have been washed and healed from our own possession to sin, death, and the strangle hold of the devil lament and mourn. We are in her company. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We are also in the company of the Blessed Virgin, the Mother of our Lord, who in indescribable agony watches something that no parent should ever have to watch. We stand with her as she watches the spear pierce her son’s most holy flesh and feel the words of Simeon being fulfilled, <i>a sword will pierce through your own soul also. </i>Those of us who love our Lord Jesus cannot miss or gloss over the painful sacrifice that Mary herself endures, giving up not only God’s Son, but her own Son to be crucified. That is the reality of the Incarnation that the blood He sheds is like the blood of all children given from their parents. Hearing His passion today we find ourselves like Mary throughout her life, pondering all of these words, all of His deeds, and treasuring them in our hearts. We stand in the company of these saints, these fellow disciples this night. We stand in the company of that nascent Church and hear how even from the Holy Cross, Jesus lovingly cares for them, <i>behold your mother, behold your son. </i>In his last words Jesus sees that we are cared for, by calling them not to friendship alone or cordial fellowship, but to be a family, to be His family in the world. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Lastly, we are in the company of the Crucified Lord. Looking at our hands we see no gaping holes. Feeling our side we see no gash from the spear’s carnage. Looking out I see none of us wearing a crown of thorns and having washed feet last night I know of nail wounds there either. Yet St. Paul says, we have been crucified with Christ. Gazing at our Lord’s cross we see a man who is not us, but who is one like us. We see not ourselves, but yet that is the very place that He took for us. In His crucifixion, He has taken our crucifixion. By His death, He has taken our own death. By baptism we have received upon ourselves His incarceration in the tomb, we are buried with Him. In this is found the goodness of this day. That we do not bear His wounds, but that we are marked by them. That we are not nailed to His cross, but rather it is imprinted upon our brows and becomes the redemption of our lives. His cross for our sake is remembered and recalled as we make the sign of the holy cross upon our bodies. That our body is not given up, broken and shed, but Jesus’ was. He has given His life for ours. He has loved us to the end, even to the end of the cross.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> Finding ourselves hidden in the mortal wounds of our Lord, we also then find ourselves in the Father’s love for His Son. Though He sent prophets and we stoned them. Though at the end of the ages He sent His beloved into the world to speak peace, light, and eternal love and truth and we crucified Him. He will not let His Son’s worldly sentence go unanswered. He will not let His Son be deprived His justice and His love. The eternal Father, does has His own Son did to Lazarus, He will call Jesus out of the grave, start His heart pumping again and let his own blood given for the life of all, give life to His own body once more. He will vindicate Him, raising Him from the tomb. Though our nature and bodies end in death, the Father declares life to be the final word for His son and He declares life to be the final word for those who are hidden in the wounds of His Son, under the shelter of his outstretched arms, clothed by the shadow of the cross. We, in the company of Mary, Mary of Clopas, Mary Magdalene, and John the beloved, have died with Christ and by the Father’s love we are raised with Him. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Amen. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div>
Pr. Ian Wolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01881301780917137208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8687519078951394066.post-56670421394715015022014-04-23T08:35:00.000-07:002014-04-23T08:35:04.402-07:00Holy Triduum: Maundy Thursday Sermon<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Maundy Thursday- Sermon</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">4/17/14- Year A</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Tonight, the fortieth day of Lent, marks the end of our journey that began on Ash Wednesday. Like this night, so many days ago, we gathered to begin a season of repentance and confession. We we're marked with dust and proclaimed to be like that very ashy substance. <i>We are dust and to dust we shall return </i>was the proclamation of God's judgment upon Adam and Eve for their transgression, eating the forbidden fruit and turning their backs to God and His command. We received our ashes and that same word of judgment upon us. We share Adam’s fate for our own neglect of His word and command, turning our backs to Him for the shiny objects and smooths words, the world uses day by day to lure us away from Him. Lent was given to us to call us to turn back to Him, to repent. Along with the time were given the disciplines to encourage and aid us in drawing closer to our Lord through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. These we have done not for the sake of themselves or for the sake of ourselves, but for the sake of striving ever more to listen to the voice of our Lord and Master who bids us to pick up the cross and follow him. We gave up the things that consume us, so that we might be consumed by Christ, His Holy Word, and His Holy Sacraments. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It has been a time to reflect upon our nature and to lament of it, that we are truly sinful and unclean, just as God's judgment revealed to us in the garden. We began Lent as one begins the Christian life of faith, with confession and the deep need of God’s mercy. Tonight, we will end as we began, with confession and absolution. God's word of forgiveness will be spoken to us, not in a general word of absolution, but personally and individually as hands are placed upon our heads with the word from the pastors as if from Christ himself, "I forgive you all your sins." Our season of confession ends, as God's holy word of forgiveness, grace, mercy, and love is spoken to just as it was foreshadowed on Ash Wednesday by the shape of the life-giving cross upon our brows. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>As Lent ends, we begin the Church's commemoration of the last days of our Lord's life, the Great Triduum (three-days) as it is known by tradition; Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil. We mark these remaining days of Holy Week in the shape and pattern of our Lord, conforming our actions to His and His word. As we will hear in a few moments, Jesus on this night of his betrayal, laid aside his garments and grabbed a towel, basin, and water and began to wash the feet of his disciples. Instructing them to do likewise for each other, that they might show true love and humility towards one another. Just as He showed them. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>His command to love one another was not just talk, but deed and a ritual action that would communicate the depth of love that binds them togethers as brothers and servants to one another. Another ritual act of His love that will again be displayed as he takes bread and wine, give thanks to the Father and gives to them as His very own body and blood. His love he places in their meager hands as that same body and very same blood is broken and spilt by those who beat him, those who mocked him, and those who put nail and spear to flesh. The depth of Christ’s love for them and for us is on full display before us this night and each of these three nights as we celebrate the power of His love, not in feeling or emotion, but in sacred deeds and solemn acts.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We, who have been loved by our Lord Jesus, washed by Him along with Peter and the rest of the apostles, will spend these three days in one long and continual service. You will notice that tonight there is no final or closing hymn, there is even no postlude, but we depart in silence, because Jesus’ story does not end tonight. We begin by remembering, as the choir sang tonight, remembering His sacred love for us and by following His sacred word, “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” On this night, Jesus’ washed the disciples’ feet, He instituted the New Passover meal that would define His Church, and He commanded them to love one another. And so tonight we have washed feet in remembrance of Christ’s service and humility to those who He came to call and even to those who would deny and betray him. We will once more celebrate the Lord’s Supper, the New Passover meal in remembrance of Him and receive the forgiveness He gives in bread and wine. We will ponder in our hearts His Word, to love one another as He has loved us. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Leaving in silence we will make our way back here tomorrow night, gathering again and come before the life giving cross upon which the savior of the world was hung. We will stand as witnesses like the crowds around Him did, the chief priests, the people, the disciples and confess with the centurion that surely Jesus, is the Son of God. We will weep with Mary her tears, we will be convicted by our own transgressions which have wounded and continue to wound our savior, and we will be embraced by the outstretched arms of God in Jesus Christ who loves us unto death. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Yet as we know the story doesn’t end there, with lifeless corpse, an occupied tomb and the grief that accompanies it. Thus, we will follow Jesus one more night to see again His eternal act of pure unadulterated love as we gather in darkness to keep vigil with the whole Church. Saturday night will once more be filled with those solemn and sacred acts of God, remembering that He is the light of the world, as we hear the story of salvation retold from the beginning, as we reaffirm our baptisms and in great joy we will hear of our salvation as Jesus is risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>These Three Days, we set aside—while the world passes by—to commemorate, remember, and give thanks for all that our Lord has done for us and the price that He paid for faults, for our own faults, for our own most grievous faults. Let us enter into these mysteries of our faith, with a heart and mind open to receive our Lord who comes to us through these freely and lovingly given sacred acts of His own goodness, so that we may be shaped by them. So that the command that He gives to His disciples tonight, will be the very command that forms and shapes our hearts and minds for all eternity; to love one another just as He as loved us. To love one another in all humble service and meekness. To stoop down upon our knees and wash each others feet as Christ has washed us in His love and kindness. To offer ourselves as a living sacrifice of love for the sake of our brother and sister. And to love one another even to the point of death. For that is the very length, breadth, height and depth of Jesus’ love for you, not idle talk, but in deed and power. Let us enter into these Three Days with all faith and reverence, with fear and trembling, and with anticipatory joy and watch as God will turn our own tears of grief in to tears of unending joy. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; font-size: 12px; min-height: 16px;">
<br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; font-size: 12px; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
Pr. Ian Wolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01881301780917137208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8687519078951394066.post-64131213668418933702014-03-24T08:54:00.003-07:002014-03-24T08:54:56.488-07:00Lent 3 (A)–Sermon<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Third Sunday in Lent– Sermon</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">3/23/14–Year A</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did….</i> Now I don’t know about you, but in reading and hearing these words from the Samaritan woman I am struck in by how bad they are. As far as a mission strategy or an evangelism tool, they are incredibly weak and if I may be so honest really rather terrible. There is no, umph behind them. No appeal or attraction to them. Had she spoken first to others about her suggested opening line and proclamation on the walk back to the viliage, I imagine they would be standing there shaking their heads with such words. “How is that going to bring in the youth,” they would question. “Woman, don’t you need a rock band to accompany that message and theater lighting,” others might prod as she neared the gate of her city. “Woman, don’t you need a speech writer or maybe some more time crafting a more inspiring message. Something more upbeat and positive,” the would jeer. Yes, indeed looking at these words from the woman they are all to uninspiring, all to plain, and really simply all too bad. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>They are bad not only from their un-enthusiastic, un-hip, and understated message, but they are even worse if we think about them. Let’s read it again and listen carefully to what the woman says, “Come, see a man WHO TOLD ME ALL THAT I EVER DID<i>.” </i>Think about that, all that I ever did. Do you know a better way to scare the lost and un-churched people, who don’t know the Gospel, than to tell them to encounter and meet a man who can tell them everything that they have ever done? Especially, if I were the woman, I’d want to make sure that the townspeople stayed far far away from such a man. If someone knows my deepest darkest thoughts and sins, words and deeds, I’m pretty sure I don’t want anyone else to know who he is. Especially the people that I have to see every day of my life in my tiny home town. Think of the looks, the judging gazes, people would give you, if they knew everything you had ever did as well. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>That is even more a reason why they are terrible words, because reading this encounter with Jesus and the woman at the well, it’s in all likelihood the people of Sychar already knew everything that this woman had done. Before the office water cooler to gather around, there was the town well. The women would make their daily march in the morning and again at evening to fetch the water needed for the day. They would leave early in the cool of the morning or in the shade of evening, but they would rarely if ever go at noon, in the middle of the day, in blazing heat of the noon day sun. That is unless they were avoiding running in to people, avoiding those judgmental gazes from the towns folk, and being shunned and mocked by the other women there. Her life, her deeds, her husbands in that small little town of Sychar would not have gone unnoticed by her neighbors. What became news to her at the well, news that she had to run into town leaving behind her water pitchers to tell the people, had likely already been the town gossip for years. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Because having lived in a small town, let me tell you news, especially gossip, travels at break neck speed. It was only 3 to 4 days after Alicia had gall bladder surgery after the birth of Justin, when we got a call from the former pastor of St. Paul who had just heard about Alicia’s surgery. Maynard, Iowa to Estes Park, Colorado is 845 miles. In a mater of days they knew out there, can you imagine then how quickly the news traveled just around town! I imagine it was faster in Sychar as they saw this woman move from man to man to man. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Yes, thinking about these evangelic words from the woman to her fellow Samaritans, they are indeed terrible, bad, bland and boring, but they the only words she knows how to speak. For unless she was an ISTJ, like myself who analyzes and is hyperactive in self-reflection and self-examination, the words from Jesus at the well regarding her life was a true and holy revelation for her. What might have been old news to the townspeople, was true news to her. For the first time in her life, she is encountered with the truth. How common is it just for us to go through the daily routine of life, living out our sins unchallenged, unknown, if only unknown to us and go about life as usual. The day begins and it ends, rarely without any divine intervention from above or below at the water cooler. We tend to be well versed in knowing the sins of brothers and sisters, but rarely are we told or do we have revealed to us our own. In fact, I would say we’d pay good money and expend good energy to make sure no man or woman ever knows ALL that we have ever done. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Perhaps that is the reason we only make it to church 1.3 times a month as Christians. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Perhaps that is the reason we have Bibles in our homes, kept on the shelf, and never read. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Perhaps that is the reason we fill our time and our weeks with anything and everything unrelated to God, His Word and His worship. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Perhaps that is the reason we might think these words from the woman are bad and need to be replaced by hipper, cooler, and youth attractive ones, whatever that means. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Because we fear meeting a man who knows all that we have ever done. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> Yet, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the Truth is not in us. The words from St. John’s epistle, begin our confession each week. And they maybe found boring, old and terrible, un-hip and un-cool, but they like the woman’s are words of life. For this woman at the well, calling her townspeople to see this one who knows her deeds, runs to them in pure and total joy. Her words are the exclamation and the breaking freedom of the Gospel that has taken hold of her life. Her deeds, her husbands, and all that she has ever done is made known to her in Jesus Christ, and they are drowned in the water of life that He speaks to her. The shackles, chains, and sins of her past are removed by the rushing water of life in Christ Jesus. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><i>Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?</i> Yes He can. Yes He is as should believes as do the rest of her town as they too encounter and abide with Jesus Christ. I imagine they too, were confronted with the truth of their own lives during those two days, as He told them all that they ever did and imparted to them that same living water. It is the same Jesus, the same truth that we encounter every time we come, splash, and drink from His everlasting water of life. The water that flowed from His side, the water that stirs in the Christian font, and the water mixed with wine at Holy Communion. For we are met not only with the Truth of what we have done, but with the truth of what He has done, is doing, and promises yet to do. In bland, un-hip and boring words, <i>But if we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just, will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. </i>From His mercy and His grace the well-spring of His love for us flows in and through us. For where we encounter His Law, which is nothing more than the word of His Truth, we will always encounter His Gospel and His Grace. Just as the patient must learn the truth from his doctor in order to begin to be healed, how much more so than the samaritan woman of today’s gospel lesson, how much more so for us. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Therefore, let us never fear, but with great joy continue to meet this Man, this Christ, this Jesus not 1.3 times per month or even once a week to get our allotment of religion out of the way, but let us daily meet Him, who will tell us all that we have ever done, but will even more tell us what He has done in spite of ourselves. Let us daily drink from the water of His life, in Word and Holy Sacrament. And yes, let us invite, our husbands, our neighbors, and our friends, to come and see this Man, this Jesus Christ, who knows all that we have ever done, but who loves and forgives us just the same. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style'; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: 'Iowan Old Style';">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Amen. </span></div>
Pr. Ian Wolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01881301780917137208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8687519078951394066.post-59537663967299511122014-03-09T12:11:00.001-07:002014-03-09T12:11:03.467-07:00Lent 1 (A)- Sermon<div style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">First Sunday in Lent—Sermon</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">3/9/14—Year A </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><i>Bread.</i> It would have taken nothing more than the the mere mention of the word bread, for the devil to throw his greatest tempt at our Lord. Just the world alone would have sent hunger pains raging through his body as he flirted with starvation in the wilderness. For biology is biology is biology and Jesus did not escape it, but rather entered directly into it. And I know having grown up in a family of good cooks and bakers, that there are times when the mere mention of what they are making begins that craving in my stomach. Followed by my mouth starting to salivate. How much more true of Jesus, whose own mother would have spent her day not only preparing the family meals, but baking the family’s bread. How many times would he as a child have helped Mary mix the flour and kneed the dough? How often would have the scent of bread wafted throughout their small house as the oven created its daily offering. A scent which even for us today still brings us to salivate and hunger when confronted with it. There is nothing more decadent than opening the front door of a bakery and letting the smell of bread surround and fill you. Even for those who need gluten-free, they too still know the joys of bread or pancakes as we found out on Tuesday at lunch. All of those memories would have flooded the mind of Jesus as he grew up in a home and a faith built upon bread for daily meals and daily life. From hearing about the manna (the bread of heaven), to the bread of the Presence, to the grain offerings, and the Passover meal, bread was a continual part of his life. Given the devil’s craftiness and flare for the dramatic, I wouldn’t put it past him that even his words were spoken with the breath of baked bread. This temptation strikes the hardest as it hits Jesus where he is most vulnerable and weakest, in His flesh.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> Yet our Lord knew His Torah. He knew the same weakness that Israel had shown throughout the wilderness and life in the Promised Land. He knew they did not heed the words of the Lord. That they did not receive their bread with faith, but were consumed by the need to be fed by other things; other foods, other nations, and other gods. Thus choking down the constricting pains and speaking louder than the rumbles of His stomach, He cries out with the words of His Father, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Having overcome the devil at this turn at his weakest the other temptations seem to fail in comparison, yet they are undoubtedly true temptations as well. Tempting Jesus to use His power not for the glory of the Father but for His own. Here the devil seeks to drive a wedge between the Father and the Son, who are one, by getting Jesus to do something apart from the Father’s will. To use His divine power not for the sake of those for whom He came, but solely for Himself. A temptation that will be echoed again by the masses as they shout for Jesus to come down from the cross and save Himself. And again Jesus know that this is what Israel failed to do as it sought its own glory and power, while neglecting the poor, the orphan, the widow, and the alien. Where Israel sought its own will, Jesus keeps to the Father’s, “you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” He will make that even more clear to the devil as He rejects his third temptation, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.” </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The devil wrought his worst, and where he had succeeded so many times in the past with countless men and women, he now departs defeated and rejected waiting for another opportune time to strike: the Garden, the trial, and the cross. Watching him breathe his last breath, he will foolishly think he has won and as Jesus dies. He will descend into hell, this we confess, though not as a captor, but a liberator. He will defeat the grip of death and the kingdom of the evil one, as the Father who is one with His Son will raise Him up and vindicate him. He will clothe him with the life that He is and give it back to the body that was broken. The Father will call forth his angels to bear Him up, just as He sent them to minister to Him after His first successful defeat of the devil. By the Resurrection of Jesus, the devil’s kingdom and his power is forever broken and shattered, where sin will be forgiven and the Father will bestow life upon those who persevere in the faith of His Son to the end. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> Yet that is not to say, even with the devil’s defeat, that we ourselves do not face our own temptations in a similar way as our Lord. We too are tempted when we are weakest by the hungers of the flesh, the pursuit of our own will, and giving our worship to others who are not the Lord our God. This is why, I think, Jesus’ temptation always follows immediately after his baptism, for we too after having been baptized are put on devil’s radar screen. It is after Jesus is proclaimed as the Son of God, that the devil tempts, “If you really are the Son of God.” How much truer is it of us, who in our own baptisms are claimed as sons and daughters of God, and our tempter asks, “are you really God’s”? Throwing our sins in our face, luring us to behave and speak outside of God’s will and intent, and giving us a world filled with other gods and things to worship and occupy our time with, the devil tempts us. Not simply in bread, power, or worship, but our faith in who and whose we are. It is the temptation to forget our God given identity. The devil seeks to shake us from the belief that we are loved sons and daughters of God. Yet that is exactly who we are. As we are baptized in His name, God has put the full weight and power, glory and splendor of His kingdom and nature on the line by attaching His name to ours. God’s name and his kingdom given to us in that water is what the devil truly wants to rob us of. Seeking to devour us as a roaring lion, but by Christ he does so as a toothless lion. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>This is not to say he can never lead anyone astray, but rather that one little word subdues him. That Word is Jesus Christ. It is the Word Jesus spoke to the devil in Holy Scripture and it is in the very Word of His flesh, that Jesus is our shield and defense. For though we cannot conquer, He has. For those we fall into temptation, He has not. For where we have sinned, He has covered with mercy and forgiveness. Where we have wondered astray from the path, He has sought us as a shepherd looking for His lost sheep. Therefore it is in His very life that we Christians are defended against the devil’s tricks. Through His Word and His Holy Sacrament we are given and we are made to live in the Word that will subdue ever attack against our identity as God’s own beloved. Luther writes of this necessity to avail ourselves this Word in the Large Catechism, “If you could see how many daggers, spears, and arrows are aimed at you every moment [from the devil], you would be glad to come to the Sacrament as often as you can.” Jesus is the only bread, the only Word by which will truly live.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> It is our identity as God’s beloved sons and daughters made known and given the assurance of HIs promise in the Word and Holy Sacraments, that is the foundation and sure defense, because of that our new council has spent our meetings talking about our identity and who we are at RLC. We can not move forward until we know and are assured of who and whose we are. I know others have made comments that the devil has been at work among us for some time, if doing nothing else but causing turmoil, anxiety, and worry. For we are at a weak moment and that is fertile ground for him to stir the pot, cause us to be more anxious, lose sleep, and begin to forget whose we are. But my brothers and sisters, one little word subdues him and breaks his work. It is in to that Word that we spend this season of Lent being reassured of our identity. Through Bible study, private devotion, and often reception of Holy Communion, God is making us His own and confirming our identity as His. An identity upon which God has staked heaven and earth, even His own Son, upon. It in that Word that we may rest from the devil’s anxiety and taunts for it is only His word that His church will persevere. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Amen. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
Pr. Ian Wolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01881301780917137208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8687519078951394066.post-90011616633931448772014-03-09T12:10:00.001-07:002014-03-09T12:10:24.571-07:00Ash Wednesday Homily <div style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Ash Wednesday Homily</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">3/5/14</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Curious words we hear from the prophet Joel today. Blow a trumpet. Sound an alarm. Alert FEMA and the FCC to issue an Emergency Broadcast. This one though is not a test. It is the real deal. From the height’s of Mount Zion in the Holy City the shout must go out. For a real and dire emergency announcement needs to be made. For a day upon which even the most seasoned of weather reporters would want to cover is coming. A day of pitch blackness, thick clouds and hanging fog, so dense that it obscures even the most powerful of the sun’s rays. It is a dark and dreary day of which Joel speaks, indeed, for it is the Day of the Lord. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Joel warns Israel, the Lord is coming and He is bringing with him His judgment upon the people. They have turned away. They have ran after their false gods. Thus the verdict from God is guilty and the sentence death. It is the judgment pronounced from of old. Eat of this and you shall die. He ate and we have received the due fruits of our betrayal, death. And now Joel comes to warn the people of their impending fate at the hands of the pure and Holy One of Israel. Therefore sound the trumpet and ring the alarm and proclaim from Zion. Yet the message of Joel continues in a curious way contrary to our natural inclination from impending doom. Hollywood has shown us that whenever impending doom threatens and disaster strikes, we run away. We run to the farthest spot away from it as possible. If the day of darkness is falling upon Israel, one might think South America would be a nice place to visit that time of day. Fight or flight is woven into the fabric of our biological nature and when confronted with such darkness, fleeing feels and sounds right. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>That is not what Joel is given to say to Israel, but rather a curious word. Do not run away. Do not seek to flee from His judgment. And do not fight or resist Him who comes, but rather rend your hearts and turn towards Him. Do not run away from Him, but run to Him. The prophet’s word tells them to go against Israel’s nature or first reaction, like the unnatural response of turning the steering wheel into a skid. Neither flee nor fight, Israel, but turn and repent. For the Day approaches and brings darkness, gloom and your judgment, but it is also brings His grace and mercy for you. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Curious words, which could be said of the whole of Ash Wednesday. We heard curious words from our Lord Jesus as well. At the sermon on the mount He tells His disciples when they fast to wash their face. Today marks the beginning of Lent and with it our own season of fasting and we have begun Lent by making our faces dirty. He also tells them, not to do acts of righteousness for others to see. Yet here we are gathered together in a public place, to make public confession, from which we will leave marked for the public to see where we have been. Rather curious indeed! So why this day of dark words, dark foreheads, and dark ashes?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Our Lord’s word to us is clear, that we are to be careful to not practice our righteousness for others to see as a spectacle of our religiosity. And if that is what these ashes represent, then His injunction would be binding upon us and we shouldn’t be wearing them. Yet that is not their true function or at least that is not what they are intended to be. They show no sign of our righteousness, but rather our unrighteousness. They are the sign of our judgment, a token of the prophet’s words warning about the Day of the Lord, as they are coupled with God’s word to Adam. “You are dust and to dust you shall return (Gen 3:19).” This is God’s express judgment to Adam and to all who are born after him. They are the Words of the Lord. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Our dark foreheads today do not show our righteousness, but rather that the dark words of our Lord have fallen upon us. That according to our flesh we are united to Israel and under the same Divine verdict and sentence, guilty and death. For all who are here will find themselves in their own grave of deep darkness, overtaken by death, and returning to the dust from which we came. Thus the ashes proclaim our judgment and the darkened Day that draws near for us. Yet if I have done them right, you should leave here not only with a dirty forehead or black smudge, but with the image of the holy and life giving cross imprinted upon your brow. Covering over the same cross that was traced upon your head at Holy Baptism. Yes in ashes we receive the sign of our judgment, but curiously enough they come to us in the form and shape of our redemption. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The prophet’s word fulfilled as the day of the Lord draws nigh, but it comes with mercy and healing. The blackened cross—which we Lutherans should be incredibly familiar with as it is the foundational piece of Luther’s rose—is the sign of death. But it is the sign of death’s death. In the cross we find that Jesus proves the words of Joel true. His patience, His loving kindness are there as he relents and delivers His people from their fate. By His death, he destroys death and sin. Taking upon Himself our condemnation, our sin and our sentence. To all He gives life through the offering of His own life. This is why on Luther’s Rose the black cross is set upon a red and vibrant heart. For the dark and deadly cross gives us life to those who turn to receive from Lord not His judgment, but instead His grace and mercy. Those who have not rent garments, but their very hearts, lamenting with St. Paul, “who will save me from this body of death?” That is what is given in these ashes today. Though we might think them an insignificant thing, the ashes on our brows are a rather powerful sermon spoken directly to our lives. And also through them we becoming walking and living sermons for the world to see. Bespeaking a righteousness that will never come from ourselves, but only comes to us from the righteousness of another. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Cruciform ashes become the proclamation from God, which shapes the whole of these 40 days and the whole of our lives. We are all Dead Men and women Walking and the Day of the Lord is coming, but He is coming to bring mercy to the sinner, liberty to the captive, and life to the dead. For the same God who forbade us to eat from the fruit of the tree in the garden, also curiously enough says to us “Eat my flesh and drink my blood.” We ate from the tree of death and have died, we eat now the bread of life and drink from the the cup and we live. In Christ, in His Cross, in His bread and wine our life is restored. For that is the true purpose our Lord comes, not to curse but to bless. Not to condemn or let us perish, but to save, rescue, and restore us to joys of paradise. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Therefore let us enter into these 40 days turning with hearts rent and yet full of faith i taking seriously the prophet’s call and responding to the goodness he brings. Neither fleeing nor fighting, but running to Him. Turning aside from being filled by the passions, desires, and riches of this world and flesh and to be filled with the mercy and love of God given to us in Jesus Christ. That is the true purpose of Lent, returning to the Lord our God who again shows to us how truly gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, He is, both to Israel and to us. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Amen. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div>
Pr. Ian Wolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01881301780917137208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8687519078951394066.post-64413972803504426962014-01-21T11:57:00.003-08:002014-01-21T11:57:48.603-08:00Epiphany 2 (A)-Sermon<div style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Second Sunday after the Epiphany—Sermon</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">1/19/14—Year A</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In our gospel lessons so far this calendar year we really haven’t heard anything from Jesus. Until today, we have watched and listened to what has happened <i>to</i> Jesus rather than listening to him speak. Two weeks ago it was the wise men from the east who knelt before the little child, unable to speak, and offered him the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. There in that act Jesus is worshipped and by the gifts of the gentiles he is proclaimed as the King of kings, the divine Son of God, and the one who will die for all. Last week, we heard about the baptism of Jesus Christ in the river Jordan and apart from a passing comment to John about being baptized by him the true focus of passage is the word spoken by the Father. It is there that Jesus is overshadowed by the presence of the Holy Spirit, while the word from heaven reveals that Jesus is the beloved Son of God with whom the Father is well-pleased. And this morning, we hear another revealing word about Jesus, again the Spirit rests upon Jesus and John the Baptist proclaims, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” In three short weeks, all and everything that the Church could say about who Jesus is has been said by three separate witnesses, the Magi, the Father, and John the Baptist. Jesus is the King to whom all nations will be gathered. He is the eternal Son of God in the flesh, the one sent from the Father and in whom the Spirit abides. He is the Lamb of God, who like the lamb of the old covenant will save by the shedding of His blood, but now for the forgiveness of sin. There He will fulfill the meaning of His name given to Him on January 1st, eight days after His birth, and save His people from their sins. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>These three testimonies to the nature and identity of Jesus Christ are met this morning by His first three sentences. These are the first words uttered by Jesus in John’s gospel, and except that one comment to John from last week, they also are really the first words that Jesus’ addresses to us in our lessons this new year. <i>What are you seeking?….Come and You will see….You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas. </i>Observing the construction of John’s gospel and the structure of the lectionary so far these past weeks, the statements from Jesus take on a new and deeper meaning. We, through the lessons have heard the proclamation about Jesus are now by His own word we are confronted by the King, the Son of God, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus’ very presence and the objective truth that Church proclaims about Him now confronts in a perfectly trinitarian three-fold way; with a question, an invitation, and a declaration. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><i>What do you seek? </i>As you have driven in your cars here this morning or as you open the bible to read, this question from our Lord this morning cuts to the depth of our hearts. It is the question that we as a congregation and as people need to ask ourselves in this coming new year and a question which if we are honest with ourselves should be at the forefront of our minds. When we come here what is it that we truly seek? When we open our bibles, what do we seek? When we go to God in prayer, what is it that we are truly seeking? </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>If we come seeking to be entertained for an hour, I am sorry to say you will not find it, as my soft-shoe and comedy routine undoubtedly needs much work. If you come seeking a perfect church with perfect church members, let me invite you to the Methodist church just down the road. I hear perfection is one of their goals. If you seek a perfect church with a pastor practically perfect in ever way, I am not him. Close, right Alicia?, but not quite. If you are seeking to come and be comfortable and to have everything you say, do, and believe affirmed and accepted by God and the Church, again I am sorry to say you will not find it here. Sin is not tolerated here, it is forgiven. Therefore, if you seek Jesus Christ who the Church proclaims, I have such good news to tell you. He is here! If you seek the King of kings, here you will find Him. If you seek the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, He is waiting for you to take away your sin as well. If you seek fellow sinners to gather and encounter this Lord and savior, then this <i>is</i> the place for you! For here he is present just as He has promised to us and here we are! <i>Where ever two or more are gathered in my name there I am. This is my body and this is my blood. I am with you always even to the end of the age. </i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Come and you will see.</i> To those seeking, Jesus invites them to come and promises them that they will see. That they will see Him. It is this same invitation and promise that He gives to us, this Sunday and every Sunday. Come seeking forgiveness and you will hear it, see it and taste it. Come seek me and you will find that I am already here waiting. Not just in some intangible way, but in concrete places; the external Word proclaimed and the tangible elements of bread and wine. In absolution we hear the Word straight from the voice of Jesus Christ, spoken through a broken and flawed vessel, <i>I forgive you all of your sins.</i> In Him your sins forgiven. The sins which lead to nothing but death and destruction are washed away, removed from you as far as the east is from the west. They are blotted out and covered over by the broken body and shed blood of the Lamb. That same body and blood which you will see lifted up in bread and wine and given to eat and drink. Here not only will you hear about Jesus, but you will encounter and experience the Living and eternal God. Here you will see the mercy and love of God. Heaven is opened to you and eternal life given and promised in the invitation of our Lord. How awesome it is that on this day we see that same invitation given to Sawyer, promised to her as an everlasting inheritance, through the holy and sacred water of baptism. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><i>You shall be called Cephas.</i> Rather abruptly in John’s Gospel, as we read this morning, Jesus gives Simon a new identity. There is no dialogue, no back and forth between He and Simon just a direct Word from the Lord. You shall be called Cephas, Peter in the Greek, Rocky in an over literal English definition of His name. Encountering the presence of Jesus, Simon is changed by Him. He is given a new identity and one that he will fulfill in every facet of the word. He will first confess the foundational rock of our Christian faith, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Unfortunately though he will also be rock-hard headed trying to rebuke Jesus and he will also sink, like a rock, as he ventures out upon the water. He will even crumble like a rock by the taunts of a little girl as he denies the Lord three times. Yet healed forgiven and restored again by the living presence of Jesus Christ he will become again a foundational pillar upon which the Church will grow and be built. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Seeking Christ, seeing Jesus present before us in Word and Sacrament, changes us and it changes our identity. Here through baptism we have been given a new name. It is why we traditionally don’t use the last name, because in the death and resurrection of Jesus met in the water of the font we are all given a new last name, Christian. Ian Jacob Christian. Sawyer Lynn Christian. Jesus gives us a new identity and a new name which is to be the everyday reality of our lives. Jesus calls us to be His disciples and gives us the gifts of faith and the Holy Spirit to fulfill that calling. To be sinners forgiven and saints in the world bearing Jesus Christ in our lives. As the apostle Paul writes, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” It is Christ who now lives in you by faith. In Him you are transformed, changed, and called to bear witness to His presence and carry His invitation and promise into the world, <i>come and you will see. Come and you will be changed. </i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></i>The rest of this season of Epiphany we will spend the remainder of our weeks in Matthew’s gospel hearing Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. That great teaching of our Lord which first lays out who and what those who bear His name are to be. The coming weeks will be spent with Jesus teaching us about discipleship. Which is rather nicely what we as a congregation need to continue and focus on as well this new year. As we are claimed by God, forgiven by Christ and made his disciples, we look to fulfill that calling by the strength of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore we are striving this year to focus on discipleship, mission, and ministry. A new men’s bible study has begun and some women who can’t make it to the Wednesday morning study, said they weren't going to be out done by the men and are looking to start one of their own. The new council is going to be setting a vision for our congregation to carry out mission and help form our identity as a parish. All of this because we as a congregation seek Jesus Christ alone, receive His salvation, are eternally changed by Him, and want others to come and see the goodness of God with us. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. </span></div>
Pr. Ian Wolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01881301780917137208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8687519078951394066.post-72230712862610994302013-12-29T11:18:00.002-08:002013-12-29T11:18:40.627-08:00Christmas 1 A-Sermon<div style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>First Sunday of Christmas—Sermon</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">12/29/13—Year A</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Merry Christmas! Yes, that’s right, Merry Christmas!! Though the radio has silenced its holiday tunes and the stores have shuffled out their green and red wares to make room for red hearts and white cupids, we in the Church still say Merry Christmas! For though the 25th has passed, the season has not ended! Christmas continues, the hymns keep being sung, the cheer and well wishes continue and the tree stays in its nobel place. Therefore fear not fellow Christians for there are still days remaining to send out those Christmas cards and letters….for which Alicia and I are always thankful. With the hustle and bustle of all leading up to the big day, things get overlooked and time eventually runs out, but it is not so in the Church for the season of Christmas is 12 days! The song, the 12 Days of Christmas, got its cue not from the secular world, but from the actual Calendar of the Church. Therefore, let us continue to dispel the “Bah Humbugs” and keep witnessing to that eternal and everlasting joy that is ours in the babe born at Bethlehem. For that is why we are given these 12 days, not to make Christmas a pass-over holiday, but to dwell richly and drink deeply from our Savior’s coming. To sit and be permeated with the true Truth of Christmas in order that that saving Good news will awaken the light of faith in us so that we might bear witness to Him who is our savior, Jesus Christ. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In this season we are surrounded by many such witnesses who have gone before us. December 26th, the day after Christmas, is the Feast Day of St. Stephen the first actual martyr of the Christian faith. Stephen was ordained a deacon by the apostles in Acts 6 and then carried out his work and ministry, which included the preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He did so with truth and boldness for the faith, not backing down to the darkness which surrounded him as those he preached to took exception to His cutting words. He shined his light in the darkness, but the darkness did not overtake him, even while Paul held the coats of his attackers. He with faith and hope of the resurrection, a hope born to the world at Christmas, gave His final breaths proclaiming that Jesus is Lord, as he hid his life in the hand of Christ. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>December 27th is the Feast day of St. John, the evangelist. The one who did not die a martyrs death, but was no less a witness. He lived to good age and with each passing day wrote, taught and shared the faith. It was he who gave literary form to the Word of God in His most powerful Gospel that bears His name. It is He who wrote, <i>In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God and the word was with God. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.</i> That Christmas passage that we read just a few nights ago as we turned off the lights and shared the flame of a sing candle to each other, symbolizing the sharing and passing on of our own faith to others. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>December 28th is the Commemoration of the Holy Innocents, those children who succumbed to Herod’s wrath that we heard about this morning. Whose lives witness not directly to Jesus Christ, but stand as a testament to the true evil and darkness of the world. A world in which those most precious and innocent, children, bear the wrath of a mad king. A world of deep darkness, in which our Lord entered, that made Egypt safer for a Jewish boy, than the Jewish town of Bethlehem. Listening to Matthew’s words this morning, we hear echoes both of Genesis and Exodus. In Genesis, the homeland of Jacob/Israel and his sons, had become barren and plagued with famine and therefore Joseph led his family to Egypt to save and feed them. In Exodus, Pharaoh called for the slaughter of the male firstborn sons of Israel and Moses was delivered safe through a basket down the river. In Matthew, the land of Israel has become barren and a different famine has overtaken it. The Promised Land of Israel has become it’s worst past, Egypt, with a brutal Pharaoh of its own, Herod. Like a new Moses, Jesus must escape the hand of a brutal king. Led by a new Joseph, He finds refuge in an ironic way in the Promised Land of Egypt, <i>out of Egypt I called my son</i>. To this upheaval, this upside down story of Israel, these Holy Innocents bear witness as their lives are taken from them by their own people, as faithful Rachel weeps from the grave for her children, for her exiled people. These Innocents have always, in the Church’s mind, been given the highest regard and have been understood to wear the crown of martyrs. In the loss of their lives for the sake of Christ, Jesus will undue what Herod has done, by being First born from the dead and giving life to those other first born sons. In the course of Jesus’ life, He will wipe away every tear from Rachel’s face. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Today is December 29th and the 4th day of Christmas. If we look to the Church’s calendar, we see no major feast days today commemorating the work of evangelists or martyrs. There is only us. You and I who stand now before the throne of the Almighty, the manger of His Word and His sacramental presence. The witness of Christmas event has now fallen to us, as I mentioned Christmas Eve. We are now the shepherds who witnesses to the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And our own witness finds its counterpart of the saints mentioned, like the Innocents, we witness in our lives to the great upheaval and upside down nature of the world that still plagues our mortal flesh. We testify by our sin that darkness still lurks, that a promised land can be a place of torture and evil. We stand as witness that the world, that we ourselves still so desperately need a savior. One to unite himself to our trials, our travails, our stress, our pain, our suffering, our brokenness and undue the work of our own brutal deeds and words. And He does in the water of Baptism we were given the promises and assurance of eternal life, we were cleansed saved by the life and death of Jesus Christ. Through the font we became sons and daughters of the kingdom and by faith we now witness to the forgiveness, grace, mercy and love of Jesus Christ. In faith, strengthened and replenished by the Holy Word and Holy Sacrament, in lives forgiven and redeemed we are called to join the ranks of St. Stephen and St. John. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We are called and empowered by the Holy Spirit to let the mercy and compassion of Jesus Christ, the joy of Christmas, to be the constant theme and witness of our lives. For we have been saved. We have been forgiven and undoubtedly we know people, neighbors, brutal kings of the world, dark powers and principalities in this world that need to be confronted with the Good Christmas News of Jesus Christ. They need to know and to hear that God will undue every evil that we inflict upon one another, for judgment and righteousness belong to Him alone. They need to know that there is one who is with them in the midst of their suffering from disease and illness, who has defeated all. They need to know the peace that is found in the forgiveness of Christ and they will need to hear it and see it from US. By our mercy and grace, they will know the graciousness of Christ. By our compassion and love for each other, they will know the compassion of Christ. By our witness to Jesus Christ in word and deed, even to giving our lives for His sake, they will know the power and eternal life of God. By our persistent abiding in this Christmas joy, they will know by God’s grace come to know that everlasting joy as well. So brothers and sisters keep wishing each other Merry Christmas. Keep sharing and giving gifts and finish those Christmas cards for the world is waiting, our neighborhoods is waiting, our homes, schools, and jobs are waiting for the light of Christ to shine and banish the darkness.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Amen. </span></div>
Pr. Ian Wolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01881301780917137208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8687519078951394066.post-70541747560611555042013-12-28T18:42:00.001-08:002013-12-28T18:42:17.901-08:00Christmas Eve A- Sermon<div style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Christmas Eve—Sermon</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">12/24/13—Year A</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We’ve gathered, under the cover of darkness this night, to set again the cosmic scene for the celebration of our Lord’s nativity. The night sky is darkened: a mirror of the people to whom Jesus would come, a people who sat in deepest darkness. Darkened by sin. Darkened by oppressive Roman rule. Darkened by the bitter longing for Israel’s redemption. It had been 600 years since Jerusalem was free from outside forces. Even longer since the whole people of God, His chosen Israel, had been united as one people under one king. With each foreign nation after another taking its turn to rule and scatter God’s people, hope seemed grim. Laments continued to be raised in prayer as messiah after messiah, claiming a secret wisdom or a military prowess, proved again and again to be false and powerless. Nothing changed. The poor hungered for food. The blind begged for their sight. The lame ached to be made whole. The dead remained silent in their tombs. Darkness reigned. Nothing changed. Until this most holy and joyous night. The night in which that first-spoken uncreated light from creation entered into the world, taking on our lowly flesh, and shining the brilliance of the divine light upon the world and upon His people. This great and joyous night is when the word of light is spoken to banish the darkness, not from the eternal realms, but from the cries and whimpers of a new born baby boy. Light has come upon Israel. Joy has come to a holy and just family. The dawn of Salvation has broken upon the world. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>This night is just the first glimpse of what the true messiah of Israel will be and what he will do. He will be humble. He will be one of us, a brother to our humanity. Who will endure all that we ourselves endure. He will encounter what life in the world and life in this flesh entails, but he will do so as one perfect, spotless, and sinless. He will fill humanity with divinity, and give us divine wisdom and insight as he preaches and teaches to us spotted and flawed sinners. He will change water to wine. He will give sight to the blind. He will with a word and touch heal the sick, troubled, and lame. He will welcome the unwelcome and bring in the outcast. He will give the Bread of Life to the world. He will unite His people again under a new king. A king that does not fail or corrupt, but a King Eternal and a kingdom that has no end. He, this baby boy cooing on his mother’s lap in the cave surrounded by the barnyard critters, will give life to the world. And what is foreshadowed tonight at Christmas is made clear at Easter. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Listen closely to the Christmas story that we heard and sang tonight and what do we find? We find a wooden manger, swaddling cloths, Mary, Joseph, Angels, a Light, and Shepherds singing. All things that we will hear and see again as our Lord redeems and saves His people. The wood of the manger, which holds in place this precious sleeping child, will find its counter in the wood of the Cross upon which Jesus is held aloft for the world to see. The tightly comforting swaddling cloths will be seen wrapped around him again at the last by the women who attend him. The cave of his birth sees its opposite in the rock hewn tomb. The Mary who watches with tears of joy as her son gives his first cries, smiles and awaits to hear him utter his first words, mirrors that other Mary, shedding her tears who stands waiting for her beloved Rabbi, Master, and Lord to speak her name just once more. Joseph the protector of our Lord, who in a dream cares for the Virgin, delivers them from Herod’s arm and keeps Jesus safe, too is met by another Joseph, not of Bethlehem but of Arimathea, who hears the call of God and will once more protect His </span>vulnerable<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> body. The angels who sing His triumphant entry into the world, “Glory to God in the Highest and Peace to His people on earth”, will sing once more upon the stone rolled away, “why do you seek the living among the dead! He is risen!” The light of the star brightening the cold dark sky, will be the light of Resurrection bursting forth from the cold dark tomb and will be the life of men. And the shepherds…what about the shepherds, those unlikely witness to Messiah’s birth, they will be of all people fisherman to whom the Lord will command to be shepherds, “Feed my lambs…Tend my sheep…Feed my sheep.” Indeed they will be come the most unlikely of people, as they will find their counterpart in us. </span></span><br />
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>You and I are the objects of tonight’s events. We are the ones for whom our Lord rent the heavens asunder and came down to love and save. We are the ones for whom that newborn cries and waits to share the goodness of God. We are the ones for whom Jesus has come to redeem and to welcome back into paradise. And as we gather this night, we do so like those shepherds witnessing our Lord’s arrival here among us now. We are the ones who offer to him our own hymns of praise, joy, and adoration, because He has come. Because He has conquered all and because He is our true and everlasting joy. Not presents, not cookies nor cakes, nor holiday meals. Not trees, nor twinkling lights, nor mistletoe and egg nog. Jesus alone is where this true Christmas joy is found as His divine light and word dawns upon our lives and breaks through our darkness. With each coo, with each word spoke, and with each breath given saying to us, I love you, you are mine, come for I am giving you rest from your worries. You are mine and I will never let you go. Look and see all that I have given, all that I have done, and all that I am doing for you and for your salvation. I have come down from heaven and taken for myself, your nature, your flesh so that I can know and save you from your sins. Look upon my body and my life given and live forever with me. Cast off your darkness and by faith join me forever in the eternal light of peace, joy, purity, and righteousness. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Therefore as shepherds, testifying to the miracle of our Saviors work for us, let us never tire of singing the angels' song to Him for on this night, as St. John Chrysostom writes, “the ancient slavery is ended, the devil confounded, the demons take to flight, the power of death is broken, paradise is unlocked, the curse is taken away, sin is removed from us, error driven out, truth has been brought back, the speech of kindliness diffused, and spreads on every side, a heavenly way of life has been planted on the earth, angels communicate with men without fear, and men now hold speech with angels.” On this night Salvation has dawned and we who have beheld this glorious event by faith are now shepherds to the world, carrying our little light of faith. Shining Him wherever darkness gathers, in our work, at our homes, in our towns and communities, and into the whole world, singing “Glory to God in the Highest and peace to His people on earth!”</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">May the joy of our Lord’s nativity fill your hearts and lives with His eternal and abiding peace. Amen. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
Pr. Ian Wolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01881301780917137208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8687519078951394066.post-72105778246628131832013-12-23T11:04:00.002-08:002013-12-23T11:04:20.019-08:00Advent 4 (A)-Sermon<div style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">4th Sunday of Advent—Sermon</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">12/22/13—Year A</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The beginning of the end of the beginning. Waiting at the end, before the beginning, all while the end is here, but not yet fully ended, when the final beginning will indeed begin. Past, present, and future all collide with each other as we stand on at the Church’s new year. No, you have not stepped back into the TARDIS this morning, even though we still are dressed in blue and this box that we gather in is bigger on the inside than it is on the out, filled with the saints, angels and presence of God. So no, I am sorry to say, we have not traveled back in time, only borrowing old words to further illustrate the season. If you’re hearing them for the first time, let me just say, we missed you three Sundays ago. We began Advent by looking to the end of all things, when Christ will come in clouds descending and now we conclude it, having lit our 4 candles, looking to the beginning of our Christian faith, in the first Advent of our Lord. We await that heavenly day, by looking back to when our Lord came not in power and glory, but in humility and fleshy weakness. It is in looking to the past, remembering Immanuel, that grounds our hope in the present and makes us wait with joyful anticipation for our future. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Such remembrance of Immanuel, not only in personified deity, but in etymological reality, God-with-us, is woven throughout the story of our ancestors in the faith. I would not wager to do a pop quiz on the Ten Commandments right now, but does anyone know how they begin? They do not being immediately with a commandment, but rather with a word of remembrance, <i>I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.</i> Before the Law is revealed it is grounded in the remembrance of who exactly is the One who gives this Law. It is the One that threw chariot and rider into the sea, who did signs and wonders before Pharaoh, who instituted the Passover and saved His people. Before the Lord reveals the Law, He reminds Israel of Himself, what He has done for them, and that He is with them. Moses later preaches to Israel in Deuteronomy 5 and agains remind them by setting the scene, “<i>Hear, O Israel, the statues and the rules that I speak in your hearing today, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them, The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. Not with our Fathers did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today. The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of fire, while I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord.” </i> He brings to <i>their</i> memory how the Lord redeemed <i>them</i> out of Egypt, gave <i>them</i> His promise and His covenant. In doing so, he calls Israel to remember. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Such words of remembrance weave throughout the Old Testament. The Torah, the books of History, and especially the Psalms, such as 135 & 136 are filled with calling Israel to remember that the God whom they worship is Immanuel. The One who gave manna in the wilderness, who made them victorious over the pagan kings, and who gave them the Promised Land. He is the One who opens wide His hand and satisfies the desires of every living creature. God is with Israel through the patriarchs. God is with them in the Ark and Tabernacle, the giving of His Law and the sacrifices of Old. He is with them in the the pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. He is with them in the Temple and the Holy of Holies. He is with them in the midst of their enemies, when even their own kin will turn against them, which is the scene of Isaiah’s prophecy. Syria and Ephraim (that is the Northern Kingdom) have joined forces and are at Judah’s doorstep. The kingdoms are divided and king Ahaz of Judah is given a sign; <i>Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel</i>. He is give a sign to remember the the faithfulness of God, that the Lord is with them.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Israel is told again and again to remember and we are given a son and Savior who himself will call us to remembrance at His new Passover, all because we are so deftly able to forget. Our first parents forgot the commandment of God. Israel forgot the goodness of God and His deliverance as they grumbled and mumbled and stumbled their way through the wilderness. King Solomon forgot the Sixth commandment and thus the first, giving into the pagan gods of his many wives; and Ahaz will forget and the promise of Immanuel meant to be for all, will be given only to a faithful remnant. We too quickly forget as we lose sight of the commandments of God and fall into sin, temptation, and err. We quickly forget as we curse our sister, withhold our offering to the poor, and fail to love our brothers. We quickly forget when our enemies stand at the door step waiting to sweep us away, when the darkness comes and we are surrounded by uncertainty and doubt. We are quick to forget when we don’t have the right answer or see clearly a path out of our trials and tribulations, out of our diseases, out of the bondage of our financial problems. We fallen sinners are quick to forget the reality of Immanuel. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Thus the Law is given with the proclamation of the Lord’s prior work, the prophet’s prophesy of what was and what will be, and the child conceived and born of the Virgin institutes a meal and fellowship grounded and surrounded in remembrance of Him who died and rose again. Why else do we Christians greet one another so many times throughout the service, “The Lord be with you”? Because the very mission of the Church is to have our forgetful minds renewed and replenished by the presence of God. To remember that there is One who forgives sin, who enters into the mess of the world in order to save and redeem it. To remember that this One who came as flesh and blood into the world, was there before the worlds began, and is now Immanuel with us; in Bread and Wine blessed, broken and poured, in the prayers offered in His name and wherever His body gathers to worship Him. We are brought together each Sunday that He is with us as His word is read and proclaimed, that He comes to save us and give us His eternal life. To remember that He is Lord of all things, that He leads us out of the darkness of our sins, trials and tribulations, threats of our enemies, and even out of the problems that we face personally and as a parish all by the light of His resurrection, the Lamp of His word, and the illumination of His sacraments. Behold, before us this day the prophet’s words, Matthew’s words’ are fulfilled as God is with us, in Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In the midst of trial it is hard to see exactly where He is, as we often fail to see the forest because of the trees, yet He is there. As they say, hindsight is 20-20. On the edge of the Promised Land, Israel could see clearly the Lord’s deliverance and his hand throughout the wilderness, but that only become clearer after they went through the journey. It was only after the Angel’s message that the Lord’s will became clear to Joseph. And in our own lives it will become clearer of where our Lord’s hand has been once we have reached the end. Undoubtedly, we can all look back to our own lives and the struggles and challenges that we faced, and with faith see the fingerprints of Immanuel everywhere. Leading us, holding us, correcting us, admonishing us and forgiving us, and always working His good for our betterment. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Last week at the end of worship we were faced with a clear picture of the hardship that our parish is facing. What has been a long while in the making is now on our front doorstep, as Syria and Israel were at Judah’s. We too are looking for a path of deliverance. As our council met Tuesday night, we read today’s Gospel lesson spoke of the Lord’s vision to Joseph in a dream. When he thought he had come to the best solution in his own mind, the Lord made it clear to him of another way, the Lord’s own way. He gave Him the assurance and hope of Immanuel. My brothers and sisters we are on a journey of our own and once through I am sure we will see God’s hand much clearer than we might at this time, but nonetheless He is with us. Though it might be easy to forget, because we always think we can save us from ourselves, Isaiah, Matthew, and our Lord Jesus calls us this day to remember. To remember how He has delivered us through personal times of hardship, how He has freed us from the bondage to our sins, how He has led Reformation in the past through other hardships, and to trust that He will lead and guide us through this one. That He is always and forever Immanuel. Therefore let us always and constantly remind one another, “The Lord is With you!”</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Amen. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span></div>
Pr. Ian Wolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01881301780917137208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8687519078951394066.post-51570675287857514902013-12-15T12:10:00.000-08:002013-12-15T12:10:06.044-08:00Advent 3 A—Sermon<div style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Third Sunday of Advent—Sermon</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">12/22/13— Year A</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It is, as they say, either feast or famine. In the moment of a quick passing of time from last week to this week, the beloved forerunner, the one above all those born of woman has now found himself in this dichotomy. Last week it was river front views, water repentant dunks, stirring words spoken to the masses of Jerusalem and Judea, feasting on the delicacies of the wilderness, locusts and honey, and wearing the finest threads of the prophets. This week it is abandonment, loneliness, the three walls and barred cage of a prison cell. No scenic view to gaze out upon. No rays cascading down from the heavens to warm him in the afternoon sun. No crowds, nor multitude to preach to and the honey which once flowed down like oil upon the beard has dried up and become nothing more than a matted beard of remembrance, bringing tears as glued together follicles snag and pull out. The locusts remain nothing more than the former feast of nature’s bounty, as that once popular message, “repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” has become the warrant for his arrest. The boasts of pride, hope, and faith about the one who is to come after, the one who baptizes with fire, who stands read with ax and winnowing fork to bring judgment and salvation for Israel, has now become a wandering lament, an interrogative whimper, “are you the one, Jesus, or should we look for another?” </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> Though I can’t speak from any personal experience, I imagine that prison does that to a person. Sitting in a darkened cell, remembering what was, while having forced conversations with Herod to pass the time. Knowing that He once proclaimed the Kingdom freely in the light, He now finds himself surrounded by the darkness of the world, and soon by the darkness of a seducer’s dance and a foolish king’s offer. We cannot know for certain how long before that deadly dance took place that John sent out his disciples, but knowing the word that he had spoken against Herod and Herodias; I have little doubt he knew his days would end in that prison cell. The night grows darker, the days get shorter and His present reality begins to force the question, “Are you, Jesus, really the Coming One?” Perhaps it was power and a show of force he was expecting, like others awaiting the messiah. Perhaps in his own call for repentance and the bad trees to be cut down, he sits imprisoned awaiting for One who will come and chop down that most fruitless and most pathetic excuse of a tree, Herod. Whatever the reason, whatever the cause, we hear him once again this day cry out from another type of wilderness seeking assurance and hope that it all had been for not. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> Perhaps none of us have been in a prison, but undoubtedly at one time or another we have been in that other wilderness as the Baptist. We have undoubtedly felt the darkness of life, the darkness of the world, or our own most guilty and painful sins surround us. We have felt the whispers of that evil doer proclaiming his own kingdom, not of light, truth or grace, but of sin and death, pushing us and luring us out of light to join him in the dark. Causing us to question our faith, our bold convictions of the kingdom, and even making us to doubt the One of whom John himself prepared the way. Some of you may or may not know this, but the name Ian is Gaelic for John and I know I have found myself in the wilderness with him. We all have, from sickness to divorce and broken hearts and broken families. From poverty to the seduction of wealth. We all encounter that force which stirs in us doubt and lead us on the path to despair. We do it individually and we do it communally. We do it as individual members of the body of Christ and we do it as a Congregation of the Lord. Reformation, like Ian, like John, has no doubt asked the question as it waited 7 years for a pastor, as it endured conflict and anxiety, as it built and now lives with a building. While the demands press upon us further, we wait we watch for a big act, a showy display of the Lord. We wait for a miracle, a tree to be cut down before our very eyes, and in the shedding of anxious tears as things look even darker we cry out with John our own questions, “Are you, Jesus, the Coming One or should we look for another somewhere else?”</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>To which our Lord tells John’s disciples, “<i>Go and tell him the things which you hear and see. The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”</i> The kingdom is indeed being revealed, not in great works of offensive power, but in the simple lives of all whom the Lord Jesus encounters. Our Lord brings in the true Kingdom which the forerunner longed for, but could not see. Though it looks like darkness in the prison cell, the dawn of the Lord’s salvation is breaking upon Israel as Isaiah’s words are fulfilled by Jesus. From His word and by His hand a blind man is given sight and the seeing pharisees are made blind. From His word and hand the lame woman is restored and those who walk well are made to stumble. By Jesus Christ the unclean are made clean and the poor and broken in spirit are given the good news of God. The joyous news that they are not abandoned nor forsaken. That they indeed are truly the greatest in His kingdom, for they are loved and though fasting now they will feast at the banquet which has no end. Jesus in essence reiterates the prologue of another John’s gospel to give and ground him in hope while he sits in his cell, “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot and will not overcome Him.” </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It is that same word that our Lord speaks to us and affirms and confirms in us this day and every Lord’s. We poor, tired, broken, deaf, lame, lepers are healed, cleansed and this very day have the good news of Jesus Christ proclaimed to us. We need not wait for another, because He is the One. The only One who restores and makes whole. He is the One who conquers every foe would keep us from Him. And He is the One who will bright light and illuminate our darkness: as a choir sings anew, as the youth continue to unite and grow in our congregation, as conflict resolves and dissonance becomes harmony, as a family feels like a family again, as we have the good news read and preached to us, and as we taste and see the Lord’s goodness around this table. We need not wait for another, because there is no one other than Jesus Christ who can do these things. Who does them not only in overly dramatic displays of power, but in the lives and hearts and souls touched, healed, and forgiven by His Word and by his Hand. Though we go through times of fasting, He alone makes sure that we will feast again! </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>His light shines in the depth of our darkness and He will always out last it. In the light of the resurrection He will completely and forever obliterate it. That is why this Sunday is marked by a Rose candle, and if I had the money I’d be wearing Rose colored vestments today, for this Third Sunday of Advent is known by its Latin name, Gaudete Sunday. That is, Rejoice Sunday. Though the night grows longer and the days get shorter we rejoice in the Lord always, because this is why He first entered into this world. He came to shine into our darkness and He will come again at the last to turn every night into an everlasting day. For He always and forever wins, having defeated every enemy of God and man by His death and resurrection. United to Him by faith we too will at the last wear the victor’s crown. Nothing and no one can ever over take us, for we have already been overtaken by Christ. Our darkness is removed as our sins are forgiven and the Holy Spirit moves and implants faith in us working His will in our lives. In Christ, we are sons and daughters of the eternal Kingdom and by Him we are brothers and sisters of the King! </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Therefore Rejoice in this season of Advent as we wait. In a few short days we will gather under the cover of darkness set the cosmic scene for our celebration of our Lord’s birth and we will sing with the angels. And as we do, as we make our Christmas preparations in this season we do so with our lighted candle, with the little light of faith, renewed and strengthened by the Word of Christ to John, knowing that in Him the prophets have been fulfilled. Knowing that there is absolutely no other for whom we could wait, because Christ alone has the Word of eternal life (which is why we sing it every Sunday!). A Word that speaks into our darkness, which comforts us with His presence as it did to St. John the Baptist. Who now has received the promise fulfilled, that the dead are indeed raised, and that true and everlasting feasting has returned to him. That feast of which we ourselves long to return to us while we wait, keep watch, pray, beg, and plead: </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. </span></div>
Pr. Ian Wolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01881301780917137208noreply@blogger.com0