A New Thing



I can’t remember when I first ran across this comic but it captures something deep, both about the sinful nature, but also about the deep magic of creation.  The 2nd and 3rd panels are the sinful nature portions. It isn’t the first panel because new things are not necessarily sinful.  It is when we refuse to love and cherish the relations we’ve been given (4th commandment), when we refuse to support our neighbor (5th), destroy our neighbor’s possessions and income (7th), entice away our neighbor’s household (10th) that we throw things up into the air just to see where they might land.  We want things to be different, and the only way the sinful nature knows how to do that is by destroying our neighbor or even ourselves. And when we do, “oh no.”  The punishment of sin is living with its effects.

But our Old Testament lesson for this Sunday (Isaiah 43:16-21) is a good meditation and captures that first panel.  God has a habit of intervening in the lives of his people, of wanting things to be different.  Before the flood “The LORD was sorrowful he had made them (Genesis 6:6).” So he pledged to do something new, saving eight souls in all.  Getting off the Ark things continued as they were, culminating in the Tower of Babel.  So God chose Abraham as his own giving over the nations.  You can walk through other such changes. Judges ruled for 400 years until God has Samuel anoint Saul King.  Saul’s Kingship didn’t last his lifespan when God decides on something new and anoints David. The monarchy reaches something of an end and God sends them to Babylon – something new. And with each something new from God you could say he is just doing it like the central panel.  Throwing stuff up and seeing what sticks.  But that is not God’s revelation of himself.

“Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters (Isaiah 43:16).” The waters are always the chaos of the world.  God is the one who separates waters from waters bringing order out of chaos. God is the one who makes a way. The mighty men – “the chariot and horse, army and warrior (Isaiah 43:17)” – are brought forth and extinguished by God. In the midst of sinful man throwing things up and going oh no, God makes a way.  God makes good things happen out of our oh nos.

The great “new thing” that Isaiah is ultimately talking about is Christ. As a hymn puts it, “The Ancient Law departs/and all its fears remove/For Jesus makes with fearful hearts/A covenant of love..” “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old (Isaiah 43:18).”  When we are standing in the middle of our next “oh no”, God has already made a way in Christ.  And the response of the people of God is “that they might declare my praise (Isaian 43:21).” God wants a new you.  He wants a you that has been formed by himself and his word.  He wants a you justified and sanctified by his indwelling Spirit.

But it is verse 19 of our lesson that has always intrigued me.  “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” As much as we might want things to be different, the sinful nature wants to control the change. We don’t want the change if it is not in our control.  But the way of God is the “new thing.” The will of God is done, but is it done amongst us? Do we see the way that God is making for his people?  Are we willing to stop trying to force our ways that end up in “oh no” and attempt to perceive God’s way? That way doesn’t always look great.  It’s in the wilderness, past wild beasts and jackals.  But the way God makes brings rivers to the desert and extracts honor from the beasts. It gives drink to my chosen people. It’s the opposite of just throwing stuff up; it builds up and provides. Do we see it? Are we willing to let Christ make us different?

Jesus’ Quiet Confidence

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Biblical Text: Luke 23:13-25

We are continuing our midweek read through the passion story. And we are up to the trials of Jesus. In Luke there are really two phases. The Jewish trial ends when Jesus answers the Chief Priests questions. That is the last time that Jesus Answers anything. Jesus is completely quiet with Pilate and Herod. And it is interesting how in Luke Pilate is the chief arguer for Jesus. His failure to me is like one of the visual trick pictures that have two images in one. That’s where this meditation starts.

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Father’s Welcome

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Biblical Text: Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

The parable of the Prodigal Son is the text. It remains one of the few biblical stories in common purchase. Which is good because at it most simplistic it is the Old Old Story. It is the pure gospel of the Father’s Welcome. But Jesus’ parables are always deeper than the simple application if we are willing to ponder them a bit. This sermon is an attempt to do that. Starting with the fact that the Bible doesn’t seem to like eldest children. There are three main points:

  1. The Providence of God is for everyone. The rain falls on the just and the unjust alike.
  2. There is only one way into the Father’s house, as a son.
  3. The feast is going to happen, the question is if you are there. (And to be there means to live as a member of the household whose currency is love.)

Give it a listen and think along with it. I could be wrong, but we tend to emphasize the love of God, but we don’t really think about the means. We think about it as some generic force that has no implications. But the parable brings one son back, but at the end leaves the son who had never left outside the festival tent.

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Meditation on Now and Not Yet

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.  – 2 Corinthians 5:17

It’s a person theory, but all the trouble in Christendom stems from what this verse is talking about.  Here the Apostle Paul is talking Old Creation and New Creation, but he has other ways of talking the same thing. The Kingdom which is passing away and the Kingdom Come. The Old Adam and the New Man. And there are many others.  The way that it fixes in my mind is actually from John. “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared (1 Jn. 3:2 ESV).” – the now and the not yet. Now we can already claim the resurrection. Now the promises are all fulfilled in Christ. But stubbornly some of them are not yet ours by sight.  They are ours by faith.

If you are within the church we all wish that we were now perfect.  There is an expectation that if we are not part of the Kingdom things should be smooth.  So when minor disagreements crop up, not even mentioning gross sins, how is this place the Kingdom is a natural question. That fact that the church now is the gathering of sinners, forgiven by Christ, but still dealing with the Old Adam is often forgotten.  Yes, the new has come, but the old is still passing away.  Daily the old Adam must be drowned.

Externally the church now still deals with the old creation.  And the Old Creation recognizes the church for what it is, the Omaha Beach of the New Creation, the place where now the Kingdom Comes, if not yet in full power. Now the church forgives sins.  “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18).” And that reconciliation comes through the proclamation. Now, your sins are forgiven.  “As a called and ordain servant of the world, I pronounce the grace of God onto all of you.” Not yet have we been made perfect.  Not yet does the truth of that proclamation shine forth to all who hear it.  The Prince of this Old World knows it and now fights hard against. But the residents of it? Not yet have all seen the way, the truth and the life.

Living in the overlapping of the now and the not yet is constantly frustrating. Not only in dealing with others both inside and outside of the church.  The most frustrating part is when that now and not yet are within ourselves. Now we know what we should do, but we do not yet do it. Not yet have we mortified the flesh, because now sin still lives in our members. We often find we are at war with our very selves. We are the new creation, but the old hangs around.  And the fact of the old hanging around, if we are wise, prevents us from claiming and acting on the now, when what we are desiring is not yet. If we are foolish we plunge ahead only to find ourselves worse than the starting point.  The law has not been put away, and not a jot or tittle will disappear until the fulness of the Kingdom.

The now and the not yet is the right division of the law and the gospel. Now the gospel comes to us in word and promise.  The not yet becomes the now by faith.  But the day comes when that Kingdom will come in power. But the power is not yet. Now it comes in poorer form. A message of reconciliation. A rumor of resurrection. “God making his appeal through us. (2 Corinthians 5:20).” And we implore you, be reconciled to Christ, now. Trust the Word.

Living a Confession

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Biblical Texts: Psalm 115, Luke 22:54-71

This is a meditation on how one’s belief – one’s confession – shapes who we are. Psalm 115:8 lets us know that you become like what you worship. Your belief forms you. But that belief is not an immediate change. Formation is not an overnight experience. Even the Apostle Paul was not as immediate as you think. The meditation then looks at Peter’s betrayal and Jesus’ confession.

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Competitive Suffering

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Biblical Text: Luke 13:1-9, Ezekiel 33:7-20

The Gospel Lesson for the day is one of the great teachings of Christianity even though it is not explicitly in the creeds. It is one of the teachings that you won’t really find in world religions and goes contrary to our natural intuition. And that is its teaching about suffering. Our intuition and most of world religion teaching about suffering would fall under the idea of karma – “you get what you deserve.” That might be a little crass, the more refined teachings might allow for some randomness or spread over time, or multiple lives, but the gap between crass and refined isn’t that great. Nothing compared to Jesus outright rejection that suffering tells us anything about the status of an individual soul. Suffering in Christian thought, the kind the spurs thought – that of the innocent – is only good for two things. First the recognition of the general sinfulness of the world, and second as a sign calling for repentance. The cross, the place of the suffering of the truly innocent, is the ultimate call to repentance. It is also the place where we see the guilt of the entire world paid for. The Christian cannot look at suffering and derive a moral status hierarchy. Because we all deserve that cross.

Jesus proceeds to talk about fruitfulness. The parable he tells is mostly about a truer theodicy. God who is after repentance, faith and fruitfulness is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The soul is given plenty of time, support and chance by God. But if suffering cannot be used as an external sign of faithfulness and love. Fruitfulness can. The parable contemplates the soul planted in grace that bears no fruit. It just takes up ground. It is not works righteousness to encourage fruitfulness. The soul where repentance has taken root will produce the outward signs of faithfulness towards god and love for the neighbor. The sermon meditates on these two movements: suffering and fruitfulness.

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What Story are You In?

I’ve never been one to re-read or re-watch things. Outside of the Scriptures, a few select books or poems, or a couple of movies, the 2nd or 3rd time through just never added anything. Someone told me once it is the Germanic besetting sin of novelty. Although anyone who knows how much I love my daily routine would never say that.  Which is why the last few months have been strange for me.  I’ve found myself re-watching some TV series.

Television has changed. It started before streaming with HBO. A season of say The Sopranos was 13 episodes.  That’s about half a season of older TV.  A third of a season of really old TV.  And the stuff coming out today, say Stranger Things, are 8 to 9 episodes per season. The difference being between the older serial nature of television and the current story nature. Every episode of Gunsmoke was exactly the same story.  You tuned in every week for 20 years because you liked the characters of Marshall Dillon, Doc and Miss Kitty.  Every Episode of Star Trek was the same.  But you liked the adventures of the characters of Kirk, Spock and McCoy or Picard, Riker and Data.  If you wanted a story, you went to the movies.  HBO and streaming changed that.  But the shows I’ve found myself rewatching – because they are easily available on streaming – are something of a blend.  They have a story that runs through usually a season, but also what I’ll label a meta-narrative story over the entire series. They also were producing 20-24 episodes a year, so each episode has roughly the same serial nature. They eventually fail as a show when the story is played out. House and Cuddy were never going to get married and raise a family. It took a season to play that one out. The Baker Street Irregulars of his team eventually had to stand on their own. The real story was always Sherlock and Watson, House and Wilson. It is the rare story of male friendship that was not sexualized.  Will the genius ever recognize his own need?  “He saved others, let him save himself.”

Being a Pastor’s Corner and not The Critical Drinker, this should eventually turn to Jesus. So here goes, maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t. We’ve all been cast in our own serial story. Shakespeare as always has the deep intuition.  “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances.”  I know that it’s a joke – main character syndrome – the guy who thinks that nothing else happens in the world because the spotlight is always on him.  But this world is more complex than any single stage. Another show that I’ve been rewatching has been Person of Interest. And the Machine is watching you, every minute of every day. Every one of you. You are all main characters. It is an interesting metaphor for God.  Does the machine intend your story for ill, or for good. Will He intervene on your behalf? And the only way The Machine intervenes in the world is through Mr. Reese and Mr. Finch.  Although occasionally The Machine is seen to break its own rules. Bad characters are redeemed, others wish to serve in inappropriate ways and good characters hate the machine.

The story – our story – eventually runs out. We reach the judgement; the show gets cancelled. And we want to say “The Way of the LORD is not just (Ezekiel 33:17).” We’ve been given this life – those serial episodes each day – to solidify our character. Are we the character, like Mr. Reese, who turns from his injustice? And even though he dies, lives.  Do we decide in faith that we are living in a Comedy, even through we have our daily tragedies, we know the wedding feast is at the end. Or is this life a tragedy, and we should get our pound of flesh today?  Whether your story is in Act 1 or Act 5 it is right to ponder the arc. As Paul says, “these things took place as examples for us (1 Corinthians 10:6).”  What story are you in?  

Agony of the Soul

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Biblical Text: Luke 22:39-53

Sometimes you come up with something you really like. For example, this sermon. I think this is really good. Except that it might miss the time a bit. For a midweek meditation, it is probably a little too serious. I’m sure that agony of the spirit is a real thing. I’m not sure if our age experiences it. What we call agony is usually more a paper cut. But the image of Gethsemane, even if our agony between the Spirit and our Spirit doesn’t rise to the same level, it is still ours. And the promises are still given. The Angels are there. Prayer is available. The Will of God will be done.

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Fox and Hen

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Biblical Text: Luke 13:31-35

Luke to me is a master of phrases that drip with pathos. By that I mean phrases that have entire Russian novels behind them. Phrases that church your guts with recognition. You know he was talking to eyewitnesses, and that he was a very good listener. He felt it with them. And the gospel text today has more than one of those phrases.

There is one about the time. We all have a fox like sense of low cunning. But that low cunning might put on Herod’s path, or there is a slight change it just might tell us what time it is. That the time is short – “today, tomorrow, maybe the third.”

There is one about being gathered, and refusing to gather. And there is one about houses left forsaken. That last one is the toughest one. I think I might have even hedged a bit in the sermon. A line or two I contemplated were just too tough.

But the sermon, if we have ears to hear, tells us who God is, and what today is.

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Funeral of Dale & Marge Kussrow

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Dale and Marge were wonderful members of the Mt. Zion family who passed away in a terrible car crash. Marge had left wonderful instructions. Three wonderful hymns that she wanted sung.

  • LSB 687 Thine Forever God of Love
  • LSB 895 Now Thank We All Our God
  • LSB 770 What a Friend We Have in Jesus

This sermon, after a short memory that hopefully sets the stage, attempts to let Marge and Dale speak to us through those hymns.

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