Proper Wonder

“Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath…- Isaiah 51:6”

Every landscape has its own features that if you look at them – see them – cause you to fall into wonder about time and distance, about how short and small are yours and how long and far is the earth. As a child of the Midwest being able to stare into the distance and see all the way to the horizon. Growing up on the Mississippi, and having known a kid swept away by the river, its power unknowable. The age of the Allegheny mountains worn down and centuries of mines that haven’t come close to exhausting the supply. And when moving out to Arizona, seeing actual mountains for the first time gave new meaning to the call for the mountains to fall on us. I remember the feeling driving through them up to Las Vegas for a baseball tournament. How the mountains, if they even noticed the cars traveling like ants through them, must be chuckling at all the hustle. They were there before anything and would outlast everything. And then you lift up your eyes to the heavens and consider the time span it took for the light of many of the stars to reach us, lengths so long that you have to make up words – light-years, parsecs – such that you can fool yourself that you comprehend what you are thinking about.

God tells his people to look at these things. Feel those feelings. And then He says, “for the heavens will vanish like smoke, and they earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in a like manner (Isaiah 51:6).” As magnificent and eternal as the material world looks, to God is it temporal. Nothing more than smoke that blows away. A favorite garment that eventually becomes threadbare and hole-y. That is not only the way of all flesh, but of all matter. It is here for a time. But that time is nothing compared to its purpose.

The purpose of the material is so that we might understand the glory and righteousness of God. “My salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed (Isaiah 51: 6).” Our souls which are still able to be struck by the time and distance of the heavens above and the earth beneath are able to learn through them about the one who supports them all. We are able to know that God is just and his law has gone out from him, and that his law is a light to the peoples. (Isaiah 51:4). We are also able to know, because He took on our flesh, He entered our material, that His salvation has gone out. And that salvation reaches as far as the coastlands (Isaiah 51:5). The coastlands, which to the hill people of Judea were Tarshish, the unimaginable ends of the earth, hope in the LORD. The coastlands are part of the covenant.

It is the last Sunday of the Church year. The long green season is at its end. The colors go blue or purple next week. Another cycle of fast and feast begins. In the midst of the hustle of the next month, take a minute to lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look – see – the earth beneath. Let the natural wonder come. But then let that wonder attach to what it all gives witness to. The one who made it all. While thus they sing your Monarch, Those bright angelic bands, Rejoice, O vales and mountains, and oceans clap your hands.

Delivered

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Biblical Text: Mark 13:1-13

We are in the last two Sundays of the Church Year. The Gospel readings for those Sundays are usually given over to Jesus on the Last Days or The Apocalypse. And compared to how folk American Christianity treats the Apocalypse, a Lutheran approach is quite different. Apocalypse originally just meant a revealing, a lift in the veil. And that is what the apocalypse of Jesus does. It reveals the way of the world.

Jesus’ apocalypse always starts with the disciples pointing at the temple and the great stones. The 2nd Jewish temple was one of the wonders of the world. Their point it out is pointing out something like the tower of babel. Look at this thing that “we” did. Of course in the preceding stories that take place in the temple courts, Jesus reveals everything that those beautiful stones cover over. And the revelation to the disciples is that not one thing will be left. All of the glamour of the world, every spell it casts to distract from its sin caused rot, will be exposed and destroyed.

The sermon I said it very Lutheran. There is a law reason and the gospel reason for the revelation. And that is what this sermon explores. How the apocalypse delivers us. Delivers us from the glamour. Delivers us to the authorities. Delivers us to our callings to witness. And ultimately delivers us.

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Keeping Track

One of the things I put together for congregational meetings is a summary of attendance and giving. If you’ve been to a congregational meeting you’ve seen my slide. I often joke with those close that the reason I do it is that I need more reasons to be depressed. Although that failed when I put it together for our June meeting. All the numbers were up. I could tell a glory story.

But that leads to some of the real reasons. I’d like to tell a glory story, but the glory story only belongs to Christ. As Paul wrote, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. (1 Cor. 3:6-7)” If the numbers are good, praise be to Christ who has blessed us. When things are good, thanksgiving is always a good response.

Another reason I put together such numbers is to give a moment for contemplation if they are bad. Call it a first use of the law – the curb – reason. I’d rather hit a curb than a wall. And the longer you put off some contemplations the taller the curb gets. Looking at numbers at least twice a year is the opportunity to ask “has something changed that needs repentance?” Repentance is always an appropriate response of faith.

But even if the top line numbers are down, that might be hiding a different type of growth. A growth that is not easy to measure or put a number on. Part of that contemplation is thinking about ways that we might have experienced Spiritual growth. Spiritual growth often comes about through a season of pruning (John 15:2). We tend to equate Spiritual growth with mountain top experiences. But you got to the mountain through the pain of climbing. The path Jesus often wants us to walk in through the valley to the cross (Luke 9:51). In this world the saving story is not the glory story, but the story of the cross. Adam’s curse was that all growth would come through hardship (Genesis 3:19). The world does not recognize God on the cross, but to we who believe this is the power and wisdom of God (1 Corinthian 1:24).

Which I suppose leads to the final reason which is part of our Epistle lesson this week. “Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” That reason is encouragement. We are united in our belief. We have been united in our baptisms. We are united around the body and blood of Christ. This is our confession. These are the promises of Christ. That wherever two or three are so gathered, there Christ will be. He promised to be present in Word and Sacrament. You might meet him elsewhere. We can’t bind God. But He has bound Himself there. And He is faithful to his promises. Do not neglect the gathering. Don’t let it become a habit. We so easily fall into bad habits. But take encouragement, for the Day is certainly drawing near. And taking encouragement, a renewing of faith in the one who is faithful, is the necessary response.

Authority: Temporal and Eternal

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Biblical Text: Matthew 5:1-12

The day on the Church calendar was All Saints (Observed). The day on the secular calendar is election week. It is a good time to talk about the Kingdoms of the Law and the Kingdom of the Gospel. And that is what this sermon does. It first talks a bit of doctrine. What does the church teach about authority? And the basic teaching is that all authority is God given. The real question is how it is used and how it is ordered. Rightly ordered authority places the temporal under the eternal. Rightly used temporal authority is used for the love of God and the good of our neighbor. But the role of temporal authority is primarily a curb (first use of the law). The role of gospel authority is to justify and sanctify sinners.

The sermon, reflecting on the beatitudes (the gospel text for the day), then tries to draw some applications for how Christians live in the overlap of both legitimate Kingdoms. And how our hope – realized by the church at rest, those All Saints we remember – is the perfectly sanctified sitting on the throne and the joining of the Kingdoms. Not yet, but soon.

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Saints of the World Series

So the World Series is over. I didn’t think anything could make me feel sorry for the Yankees, but that game did. I used to root for Gerritt Cole when he was a Pirate. It is inexcusable not getting over to first base for the last out. The last out before the Dodgers would score five in the inning to tie it. Five unearned runs, but also in a strange way completely earned, as the pitcher didn’t cover the bag. And Rizzo. As a Cubs fan, I will always love Rizzo. But seeing him field the ball and just hold it, as there was no one there to toss it too, painful. Then Judge dropping an easy line drive. He hasn’t dropped that one since he was 12 years old. And he was building such a redemption arc at the plate in the game. And it all dribbled out of the glove. Unlike most Yankees who are great heels (Wrestling terminology), Judge, Cole and Rizzo are babyfaces.

And the series was strangely anti-climactic. It was Yankees-Dodgers. That is the stuff of Americana. Those series are legendary. And it started off with that feel. Freddie Freeman with a walk-off grand slam in the 10^th inning. Are you kidding me? And Yamamoto pitched a gem. But then you had a bullpen game…in the World Series? What would Koufax, Gibson or even Maddux think. I’m sure they could stutter something about how the game has changed. But in their hearts aren’t they a bit judgmental? Are you kidding me, give me the ball, it’s the World Series. And then it ends 4-1. One game so it isn’t a sweep, but no grand comeback. No last flight to LA. No winning at home. Just a crisp NY evening and a celebration in front of cameras.

One of the famous lines from the movie Moneyball is “how can you not be romantic about baseball?” Cue James Earl Jones and the army of steamrollers, but the one thing that has remained constant is baseball. But Yankees-Dodgers didn’t live up to the Romance. And if Yankees-Dodgers can’t live up to it, what about any of us toiling away in the minors?

The Feast of All Saints is that day for all of us. It is that day for those of us still in the church militant. Still toiling in the minors? We feebly struggle. Even the mighty Judges. But maybe it is even more to remind us that we are part of a great Romance. The story of Christ and the church. And whether one is a saint that has their own day on the calendar, one known only to a handful, or one forgotten by the world; they are all remembered and held dear by God.

Whether represented by the mystical 144,000 (12x12x1000 or the full number of the saints of all times and places) or by the more realistic number “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages (Revelation 7:9).” All of us will in glory shine.

Today we might come out of the great tribulation. Much of that tribulation caused like those 5 runs by ourselves, because of sin not covering the bag. But our salvation, the salvation of all saints, is not by our works. “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and the lamb (Revelation 7:10),” God looked upon us and would not let the sinner die, but he had compassion. And the drops, and the missed covers and disappointments that pile up? “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes (Revelation 7:17).” We are part of a great Romance. So let the distant song steal on your ear.

Young and Old Meditation on Re-formation

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Biblical Text: Matthew 11:12-19

Reformation Day has been a lot of things through the years. This sermon is a bit of a clip show (a new show that relies on past clips to carry some of the action). In this case I think there are certain sermons that can be preached from the various assigned texts for the day. And they slot into how the preacher or the age wants to think about Luther and the Reformation. Young and Old is a reference to young Luther – skinny, single, revolutionary, and old Luther – heavy, husband and father, re-former. Most of the potential texts, and the choice of Oct 31st itself, prefer young Luther – the great Romantic Hero. You can pick the firebrand of the angel with an eternal gospel from Revelation. You can go with the doctrinal sermon from Romans, the text Luther claimed as his evangelical breakthrough. Or you can be the liberation theologian and take John’s gospel and the “son setting you free.” Me, I like the Matthew 11 gospel reading. It doesn’t let you just choose Romantic Young Luther. You have to contemplate actually re-forming the thing you tear down. It is the experiential text of law and gospel. Not just the doctrine, but what it means to live it. And Luther lived it. He didn’t get lucky and die the great Romantic Hero. He had to be a re-former. This sermon walks through those “clips” and tries to claim something of the Reformation for us.

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Reformation Slogans

I think it is inevitable. Any great movement eventually gets reduced to a slogan. And for a while the slogan works, and then the movement gets institutionalized. And institutions can’t work on slogans. And people forget what the slogan meant. And people try to add to the slogan. And it becomes trite.

The slogan of the Reformation is or was “The Solas”. As late as the 20^th Century people were still trying to add solas to the list. The Reformation really boiled down to two: Grace Alone and Faith Alone. Somewhere along the way Word Alone was added. Three points always rolls easier. Leave it to the Reformed to try and push 3 to 5. I think they wanted a Reformation parallel to TULIP, the Calvinist summary. But the two they added in the 20^th century just address later arguments that aren’t really the beating heart of the Reformation. So I stick with three: Grace Alone, Faith Alone, Word Alone.

Grace Alone. Nobody really disagrees with this. The problem that Christianity addresses is sin. You might ask what is sin? At least I think moderns do. And there are different answers. You can lean into the legalistic, breaking a commandment. You can be more general, missing the mark. That is the allusion buried in the Hebrew word translated sin. I appreciate the definition the Novelist Francis Spufford used in his work of apologetics and confession: The Human Propensity to *Mess* Things Up. Although he didn’t use *Mess*. We can’t seem to avoid it. We mess things up. Even when we don’t want to, we do. As Paul would cry from the heart, “who will save me from this body of death?” Other religions don’t all have sin as their fundamental problem, but they usually will offer some type of solution. And that solution always comes in some type of law like the Buddhist 8 fold path or the Islamic 5 Pillars or the Mormon Doctrine and Covenants. Christ says something completely different. It is by grace alone. You can’t fix it. God has. And everything worthy of the name of Christ agrees that it is by grace alone.

The first dividing point is the 2^nd Sola: Faith Alone. As Mumford and Sons once sang, “How does this grace thing work?” One answer is that it works like medicine. God grants grace. If we respond to the medicine with good works, He supplies more grace. And so there is a cycle of grace and works. And boy did Luther try the works. It was later reformation Roman polemic that would smear Luther, but all the early accounts of everyone who knew Luther would have described him as Super-Monk. He lived it. It didn’t work. How does this grace thing work? Absolute trust in God: Father, Son and Spirit. Faith Alone. The grace of God given to us freely creates faith. Non-Reformed Christianity will still talk about the process as medicinal, a steady infusion of grace to the extent that works are done. The Reformation proclaims faith alone that God’s grace is enough to cover even me.

Eventually everyone asks the question “How do you know?” One answer would be authority. The Pope or Prince says so. Another answer would be tradition. This is how it has always been, or this is how we do it. The Reformation added its third Sola for this question. How do you know? Word Alone. This often gets taken as Scripture Alone. Which is not terrible, because the Scriptures are the Word of God for Christians of all times and places. The Scriptures are the Norming Norm of our life together. But Word Alone was always bigger. The simplification to the Scriptures I think is what caused so much of the late 19^th and 20^th century angst. As critical movements and the enlightenment attacked the Scriptures themselves, for many it felt like everything was lost. But the Reformation slogan is deeper. Word Alone. The Word of the Lord Endures Forever is something of another Reformation slogan – VDMA. When you’ve heard the Word of God, you know. It is self-revealing. It does not return empty. It is not without power. How do you know? Word Alone.

Reformation Day is a banner waving day, but also a good day to understand what those banners are about beyond hooray for my side. They are about Grace. They are about how Faith holds onto that Grace. They are about How we know. The Word of God has come to us today.

The Eye of the Needle

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Biblical Text: Mark 10:23-31

These was our “stewardship Sunday.” If you are not familiar with those, they are the Sunday that we set aside to talk money. It is budget season. We ask our members to fill out pledge cards in this season. And typically the lectionary serves up a gospel lesson that is Jesus speaking about money or mammon or the like. This year the lesson in the aftermath of the “Rich Young Ruler” which was last Sunday’s lesson. Sometimes you might choose that week, but for me Jesus teaching his disciples after that encounter is more stewardship. And it opens with his blunt statement, “how difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God.” And it mostly concerns the disciples reactions.

This sermon is built around those reactions, and how they are the ditches on either side of the narrow road concerning money. It imports what I think is the first strategy around Jesus’ clear saying which is just denial that we are wealthy. There are two ways we can understand our wealth. The first is simply we are Americans, which is a relative argument. But the deeper is an understanding of providence. And that understanding sets the table for the disciple’s more subtle ways of fogging up Jesus statement.

Those ways are our natural mistaken framing of what wealth is. We take it as reward, but it really is faith challenge. The second way accepts the framing of Jesus on wealth that we are entrusted with it for Kingdom purposes, but pridefully attempts to claim heavenly credit for doing what we are called to do. The sermon develops those ditches so that we might recognize them.

It then ends with the narrow road. How the cross of Jesus is the eye of the needle.

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A Note on Stewardship

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, ¹² to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, ¹³ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, ¹⁴ so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. ¹⁵ Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ – Ephesians 4:11-15

This week’s corner has a very practical purpose. We are passing out pledge cards for the coming year 2025. They should be stuffed in your worship folder this week. They will also be available the next couple of weeks. Due to a variety of reasons I am having to write this very early, but I also expect that in this package we will have a one page summary of the council approved budget for 2025. This all has a purpose and part of that purpose is “to equip the saints for the work of ministry to build up the body of Christ.”

It has long been a slogan of the Lutheran church that Article 4 of the Augsburg Confession on Justification is the article on which the church stands or falls. We cannot be justified before God by our own strength, merits or works. We are freely justified for Christ’s sake through faith in His work for us. Now I suppose if nobody else was found to proclaim that good news the rocks would cry out. But instead of the actual rocks, God in his wisdom has chosen the living stones, us. And from these living stones He has built his church. It is through the church, in the preached word and the sacraments, that the Holy Spirit works to call, gather, enlighten, sanctify and keep a people for God. The saving word always comes from outside of ourselves. Evangelism and the mission of the church is not some heroic one-time thing, but it is the ongoing work of every congregation. In the Spirit, we keep each other evangelized sharing the word of our salvation in Christ and witnessing to His work in our lives.

That is the fundamental purpose of every congregation. Our council and elders have put together a budget that they believe is necessary and appropriate for that work here at Mt. Zion. You the congregation will have the chance to vote on this budget on November 17^th. And this is why we are passing out the pledge cards at the same time. The support of this work comes from you. While justification is God’s free gift, the life of sanctification is always a partnership with God in faith. A partnership in walking the good works that God has laid out in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10). This is equipping you to build up the body of Christ and to mature in that faith instead of being tossed to and fro by every change of inflation.

We are asking you to take these pledge cards home and over the next couple of weeks “decide in your heart how much to give (2 Cor 9:7).” The card has two lines. The first line is for a flat number. This can be a yearly, monthly or weekly number. It is your pledge for the work of Mt. Zion. The second line asks you to state that number as a percentage of your expected income. Tithing, a tenth, was an old testament practice that has often been imported into the church. Old Testament practices are good examples, although in the gospel the tithe is no longer a legal demand. Instead the intention of this like is likewise the building up of the body of Christ. That tithe is one of the few Old Testament examples where God says “test me” in this (Malachi 3:10). The purpose of this line is to encourage such intentional planned stewardship. All that we have is but ours temporarily. It is all from God and we are merely stewards of it. Do we bury it in this earth, or do we put it to work for the kingdom?

Final practicalities. First, nobody besides you and the treasurer will see your pledge. Second, we will collect pledges in service on November 10^th. For a couple weeks after we will leave a collection box in the Narthex. We hope that running the budget at the same time as the pledge both demonstrates the need and offers you the solid opportunity to respond in faith.

Foxes and Hedgehogs

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Biblical Text: Mark 10:17-22

I think this text is a hard one for us to hear because we are so far at an extreme. The key verse that jumps out is that “Jesus loved the Rich Young Rule.” The key question to ask is how did Jesus love him? What I mean by that is how did the love of Jesus manifest itself. And the answers is rather straight forward. Jesus was a good teacher. And in this man’s case that meant holding up the mirror of the law. First he hold’s up the 2nd table, what we might call the basis of ethics. But the man’s problem, the man’s idol, is not ethics. The man’s problem is God. He does not love God above all things, and he is still looking for what he must do. Man has two typical solutions to this. We either create a false law that we can keep, or we excuse ourselves from the law because we are so special and God loves us. But the love of God, what Jesus shows this man, is to hold the clear mirror of the law up. And then we can learn that we cannot free ourselves from our sinful condition. That we cannot do anything. But that Christ has done it.

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