Perplexed and Running

042025 Sermon Download

Biblical Text: Luke 24:1-12

Happy Easter. Luke loves to juxtapose two groups, often male and female. And it is no different here at the Resurrection. Often it is for two ends of a spectrum. Sometimes it is to show different reactions to the same proclamation of the Word. Today the women and Peter are juxtaposed (with the apostles being an indeterminate group). The Word is the Resurrection. Both believe, but their starting place is much different. Their starting places just might be the extremes of the people showing up for Easter Services.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

A Good Friday Tenebrae Meditation

041825 Good Friday Sermon Download

Good Friday service as I run it most years is a reading by the congregation of the passion story in the gospel of the year broken into seven parts, usually: Gethsemane Betrayal, Jewish Trial, Peter’s Betrayal, Pilate, Herod, Crucifixion, Burial. After each reading there is an appropriate hymn, a short meditation, and the dowsing of the light. It’s a guided contemplative service. Every year for me as a preacher this is typically the toughest service. Those meditations have to be tight. My normal Sunday sermons runs 1500 words or around 12-15 mins. When I do occasional or midweek preaching, or the Pastor’s Corner articles, I aim for half that length. Both of those have some room to develop an argument and provide examples. Maybe even on the longer one a tangent not fully explored but offered. The Good Friday meditation is aimed at 300 – 400 words. It is a work of compression. One image, one thought, right to the point. And it needs to be emotionally obvious such that examples aren’t needed. That said, this series of seven such mediations felt right.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Remember (A Maundy Thursday Sermon)

041725 MT Sermon Download

Biblical Text: Luke 22:1-20

Remember is a consistent word used in the institution of the Lord’s Supper. If there is one thing the Reformation – really the enlightenment that followed – really distorted was remembrance. And it did so because it tends to reduce humans to minds alone. Remembrance becomes a mental activity only. Which is not what it would be to any religious person anywhere before the 17th century. Remembrance is making real, tonight, what might have happened originally long ago, but it also happens tonight. The Jew remembers the Passover by holding the same meal. And they too are brought out of slavery and saved from the Angel of Death by the blood of the lamb. After the reformation remembrance can get co-opted into a “memorial meal”, a mental construct. When this meal is to be something real. It gives us the body and blood of Christ. It gives to us his very heart, to our very heart.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Easter Mystery

The great truths of any faith are always a mystery. What do I mean by that? What is a mystery? I’m not thinking of Scooby Doo and the mystery machine, nor Sherlock Holmes or your favorite writer. Those are all mysteries that can be solved. A fact is hidden that the investigator can reveal by the end of the book or episode. No, the mystery of a faith is something that is already completely revealed. It has been revealed before the face of all people. The mystery of a faith is something that can be intuitively understood. It makes complete sense, and yet is non-sense. Our minds can’t really process it. Even though we might see it.

The sacraments are such mysteries. Water, bread and wine do amazing things. And we can see what they do in the lives of the faithful. But do we really understand how the Spirit hovers in those waters? Can we really grasp how we eat and drink the body and blood of Christ? We recognize the body of Christ. Comprehend is a different matter.

The greatest of these mysteries is the resurrection. We all have an intuitive grasp that death is a horror, an enemy, not natural. As much as the materialists of our generation want to say that death is a natural part of life, it isn’t. It’s part of the life of sinners. It is part of life in a cracked world. But death is not a rightful inhabitant. But how do sinners combat their just penalty? “For in Adam we all die.” (1 Corinthians 15:21). God in his great mercy has sent us a champion. “In Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:21).

Staring directly at the mystery is tough. Mysteries are singularity events. We can’t really penetrate them in themselves. How exactly God and man together is one Christ is the mystery of the incarnation. You can meditate on Christmas forever and not understand it. But it speaks to our souls. You can stare at the empty tomb and not understand. But it breathes hope.

Isaiah captures that hope so well. The promise of the new heavens and the new earth (Isaiah 65:17). For that is what the resurrection is, the first fruits of the new creation. And in the new creation, “the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.” It’s a common question about heaven “what about those who aren’t there?” Or, “what about fill in the blank of something that meant so much here?” They shall not come to mind. Why?

Isaiah’s answer I think is simply the reality of the resurrection shall turn this broken creation into Paul’s light momentary affliction. “I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people.” If God is glad, can we be anything but? “No more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.” And Isaiah goes on to list things that are sadly too common – not mysteries at all in this world – that shall not happen in the new. “They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity (Isaiah 65:23).” The teacher of Ecclesiastes – all is vanity – shall be out of work. And the wolf and the lamb shall graze together.

We see the effects of the mystery. Even now we can see the mystery at work. Name another place outside the church that gathers together such different people. But what we see today is nothing compared to that day. The day that the last enemy is destroyed forever. Have a blessed Easter.

Overlapping Kingdoms

041325 Sermon Download

Biblical Texts: John 12:12-19 (Palm Sunday), Luke 23:1-56 (Passion), John 18:28-38 (unread, but referenced)

It was Palm Sunday also known as the Sunday of the Passion. It’s the first Sunday of Holy Week. The passion account is given its own days the week on Thursday and Friday, but the church has cycled through periods of greater focus on the Palms and periods of greater focus on the Passion. (They 1960’s/70’s were probably a high water mark on the Palms. Growing up I never remember hearing the Passion on a Sunday. But Good Friday in those days was almost as well attended as Easter.) I’ve found the juxtaposition of the Triumphal Entry and the Trials is fruitful in preaching and meditation. (And this Hymn – LSB 444 – is the perfect bridge.)

The day structured like that is about The Two Kingdoms. The City of God and the City of Man. The Kingdom of the Right ruled directly by Christ and the Kingdom of the Left ruled through mankind. And what we call politics is often just life in the overlapping of the Kingdoms. This sermon meditates on those two kingdoms. How Christ rules the Right directly. And the responsibilities of the Left and living in the overlap for Christians.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

7 Words

I made a mistake in service planning this year. I always prefer working from assigned readings, but the Wednesday midweeks don’t have a formal lectionary. There are multiple informal ones. Each LCMS Seminary provides some cheats. The Synod worship committee itself does so as well. Along with a couple other sources. So I usually just pick up one of those as the assigned reading and run with it. Why? It prevents me from overthinking these things. Something I am prone to do. But back in late January when I was forced to think about this – Ash Wednesday was March 4^th – I was not yet thinking about Holy Week. So when the midweeks suggested reading the Passion story over the 7 weeks I said to myself “sure, that sounds good. I’ve done catechism reading the past couple. Something different.” Not thinking, “oops, that will cause the same text to be read at least three times in 10 days.”

Why? Because Palm Sunday has become Palms and Passion. Why? Because attendance at Good Friday services had dipped significantly. And Going from the King riding into Jerusalem to shouts of Hosanna to Resurrection morning seems to skip something significant to the Gospel in between. So the Passion was added to the Palms. And the typical Good Friday service is the dousing of the lights while we read the Passion. If I was thinking, I would have changed that service to an alternate “Seven Last Words” service. Maybe next year. There are several wonderful choral arrangements around that theme. Might be an interesting challenge for the choir. Lutheran Service Book 447 – Jesus, in Your Dying Woes is our hymnbook placeholder for such a service. It is a wonderfully tight three stanza each meditation on the collection of Jesus’ words from the cross.

So, I’m sorry for the repetition. But, it is something important. And there is enough in there for more than three meditations. So I thought here I’d offer the thumbnail of an alternate mediation – the Seven Last Words.

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” – Lk. 23:34

“Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” – Lk. 23:43

“Woman, behold, your son!” ²⁷ Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” – Jn. 19:26

“Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” – Matt. 27:46

“I thirst.” – Jn. 19:28

“It is finished” – Jn. 19:30

“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” – Lk. 23:46

That is the traditional ordering. The first three show Jesus’ continued care for others even while being crucified. From those farthest away who don’t know what they are doing, who he begs forgiveness for, to those closest. Making sure that his mother was cared for. In between comforting the repentant thief whose hours were almost as short as his own. There is something about the order of love in those sayings. We cannot neglect those far away, while at the same time we have a specific duty of love to those nearest.

The next two reveal something of the split of the Synoptics Jesus who is first human and revealed to be divine, and John where Jesus is always divine, but also shown to be the true man. The synoptic human Jesus suffers everything that we do, including the worries that God has forsaken us. Luke caps these human worries off with the last words, the great confession of Faith. “I trust you Father.” We all find ourselves there. Can God really be with us in suffering and death? Faith’s response is yes. “I commit my soul to the Father.”

John’s words are the words of the divine. The thirst of Jesus is not the thirst for the sour wine, it is the thirst for more to be at the table, when he will again drink of the fruit of the vine. His life, his incarnation, his passion, is for all mankind that we might come to the heavenly feast. And this divine Jesus’ last words for John are the judgement, “It is finished.” Salvation has been secured. The redemption price has been paid. The New Adam has withstood his temptation, and sin and death shall rule no more. The Righteous King has been crowned.

God cares for us – those close and those far away. He desires us all to be at the banquet. His salvation is done. The only question is the one of faith. Do we trust what God has done to commit our spirit to Him? Proofs I see sufficient of it, ‘tis the true and faithful Word.

The Spectacle

040925 LMW5 sermon Download

Biblical Text: Luke 23:26-56 (Concentrating on v48)

The full text was the crucifixion, but Luke gives us the scene through multiple pairings of people. He calls is “The Spectacle” which is something pulled from the world of Greek Theater. That world had two forms: tragedy and comedy. And Luke’s pairing of folks to me displays what kind of Spectacle they thought they were in. And Luke’s account places us as watching the Spectacle. With the question, what are we watching? The Sermon hopes to orient us toward a proper viewing of Holy Week.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Patience, Love and Promise

040625 Sermon Download

Biblical Text: Luke 20:9-20

Of all the genre of biblical literature I think we hear the parable the worst. Maybe that is in line with how they were originally told. When asked Jesus said he spoke in parables “so that they may hear and never understand. (Matthew 13:14).” We either think they are too easy and we walk away with a dead letter. Or we try and make them way too complex looking for esoteric meanings. There is usually nothing wrong with the too easy, except that they just become cute stories with no current relevance. The too complex is usually heretical. They do require some meditation. And they are usually a little more challenging than just a cute story. The parable here is of the wicked tenants. The sermon has quick examples of too easy and too hard. But what most of the parables want to tell us is what the Father is like. And in this case it is about the patience, love and promise of the Father. The parable tells us how the vineyard runs. And leaves us in the vineyard. Leaves us with the question of if we would stay in the vineyard, or will we too lose it.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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 2^nd and 3^rd 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 (4^th commandment), when we refuse to support our neighbor (5^th), destroy our neighbor’s possessions and income (7^th), entice away our neighbor’s household (10^th) 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

040225 LMW4 sermon Download

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download