The Alpha and the Omega

Biblical Text: Revelation 7:2-17

In the Church Year the Day was All Saints (Observed). What is a saint is a little bit different from one tradition to the next. The Roman Catholic tradition a saint is only someone that the Papacy has recognized as “experiencing the beatific vision” (i.e. we know they are with God and not in Purgatory or Hell because reasons.) So All Saints becomes a catch-all feast of the recognized saints whose own day has not been celebrated. No other tradition has a formal recognition process. The Orthodox, Saints are first the martyrs, and then those recognized by public acclimation and what used to be called “the cult of the saints.” Protestants, including Lutherans here, use the term closer to how it is used in the bible meaning all the faithful. One of Luther’s slogans is simul justus et peccator, at the same time saint and sinner. That really describes us – the Church in Warfare. Or following the text of the day, the church in the midst of the great tribulation. The church at rest no longer has that problem with sin. What All Saints becomes in the Lutheran tradition is a celebration or remembrance first of those who have recently died in the faith but also of the great cloud of witnesses in general.

This sermon and the text from Revelation is a look at that great cloud from two directions: the beginning and the end – the alpha and the omega. John’s vision is a vision of All Israel, all believers in all times and all places. The first part is the sealing by God of his own before time. The last part is the outcome of that sealing at the end of the age. The time in between is the tribulation, the time under the cross. What Revelation does so well is comfort. Yes, we are in the tribulation. But you have been sealed by God in the blood of Christ, and he will bring you through it.

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Ebbs and Flows

“One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. (Rom. 14:5 ESV)”

Paul in that extended passage of Romans puts things like how you mark time into the realm of Christian Freedom. God neither demands days to be observed of the Christian, nor does he scorn such piety. The church in most times and places found setting aside certain days to be a healthy piety. We live in the United States, which is largely the creation of the Reformed strains of Christianity (Presbyterian, Congregational, Methodist, Baptist). And the Reformed strains were the highwater mark of Reformation iconoclasm, the destruction of the icons or any other representational form, like a church year. The Pilgrims would not have even marked Christmas. The best construction on that is their assertion that every Sunday is Easter Sunday. The week started on the LORD’s Day. When that week to week same framework hits industrial capitalism you get how we mark time. Monday starts the week. Monday to Friday are for work with Saturday and Sunday being the weekend for play.

The Christendom that inspired the Church Calendar marked time in a different way. It didn’t run in machine like precision. It ebbed and flowed, hurried and then waited. We move feasts – like All Saints – to the nearest Sunday after as a concession to the industrial-Reformed way. But we should recognize what this does. We are moving the things of God, at least those that we supposedly are convinced in our own minds are important to piety, to satisfy the things of man. We should not be surprised then when other things insert themselves between what we say we are convinced of and our personal piety. We neither have a Church calendar that affords us days of holy obligation which we take off from work to worship God, nor do we have the every Sunday is Easter piety of the Pilgrims. We have 5 days of work and 2 days of play. Worship doesn’t fit easily in that.

One of the religious effects of observing a Holy Day on the nearest Sunday is that the assigned texts for that Sunday get erased from ever being heard. The first letter that Paul ever wrote – 1 Thessalonians – is one of those that gets erased. The Sunday prior to Reformation Sunday we read the opening, but the next two weeks get erased for the fixed Reformation and All Saints texts. In Sunday Bible study we have continued with the Thessalonians reading. There are three short observations that I feel might be good to hear.

“So as always to fill up the measure of their sins…” (1 Thessalonians 2:16)

There are two other such mentions of filling up sins in the bible. Genesis 15:16 where Abraham is told of 400 years of slavery in Egypt so that the sin of the Canaanites would be full. Daniel 8:3, in reference to the final empire of this world. This world has two streams. The streams of the river of life which the children of God have washed themselves receiving forgiveness, and the stream of those sins collected until the day of the LORD. Part of Paul’s message to the Thessalonians is his thankfulness that “you received the Word of God.” This causes trouble in this world, but it is because you are being prepared for eternity.

“For you are our glory and joy.” (1 Thessalonians 2:20)

This is Paul’s expression toward the Thessalonians. Those people that he has instructed in the faith are both his glory and his joy. Jesus would tell the apostles that “they would sit on thrones judging the tribes of Israel (Matthew 19:28).” The glory and joy that Paul is talking about is that here is his tribe. On All Saints we see the 144,000 in their tribal ranks. This is in Paul’s mind. What is also in Paul’s mind is that these Thessalonians have imitated him in this. They have “become an example to all the believers of Macedonia and Achaia (1 Thessalonians 1:7).” The faith is received and spread by discipleship. It is rarely learned mystically like Paul, but it is taught.

“For this is the will of God, your sanctification…(1 Thessalonians 4:3)”

Paul’s metaphor for sanctification is walking. There is a way that we should walk. It is a walking in the footsteps of Jesus which he has laid out for us (Eph 2:10). It is a walking that is pleasing to God and which they learned from Paul (1Thess 4:1-2). You have heard and believed the Word of God and so have been justified in Christ. Now walk in His way. Walk toward your glory and joy.

Always Reforming

This was originally a sermon given to a gathering of Circuit Visitors – the middle layer of ecclesial oversight. I tended not to post occasional services (funerals, weddings, etc.) or sermons given for occasions outside the congregation when my website was the congregation’s explicitly. But the slogan Always Reforming comes up almost every Reformation Day. And I think I did a decent job in this sermon thinking through that. So I’m posting it today. Two warnings: 1) The audience it was prepared for was a bunch of CVs, so there are things that I might explain more fully on a normal Sunday that I just assume here. 2) I’m also much more free in this sermon than I might be otherwise because the audience is a trusted one doctrinally. What do I mean by that? I’m trying to push beyond cliches.

The Biblical Texts were: Mark 9:49-50, Numbers 18:8-20, Rev 2:1-7

The introduction (the full text is in the file).

When I first saw the theme of the conference – “Forever Reforming” – I was intrigued. I was intrigued because I immediately thought of semper reformanda, the Reformed slogan, or maybe I should say the neo-Reformed slogan. My time at Grove City – Calvinist Hot Bed – would tell me that it goes back to the late 1600. More recently is comes from Karl Barth, and through Barth it even found its way into the Second Vatican Council document Lumen Gentium. Depending upon your church politics, I’ve probably either just hit every bogeyman, or every hero of the past 400 years.

The phrase at the level of common sense is obviously true. Even God moved from Hebrew to Greek. Part of that word given to us says that the Spirit will guide you into all truth. Being creatures that reflect the image of a creator God, we are constantly creating. And in creating also destroying. And in all that change, the church itself changes.

The real question, the church political heat, is how and what changes. Call me crazy, join the line that I’m sure is forming to come get me, I don’t think you can read Luther deeply and not realize he was more comfortable with more change – at least in theory – than we probably are. A good place to start in that if you are interested is to read Dr. Robinson on Luther’s essay On the Councils of the Church. But at the same time that Luther is more open to Forever Reforming, I think it is fair to say that Luther is much more intransigent about a subset of things. This is the guy who banged on the table about the word “est”…

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Reformation Conundrums

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Biblical Text: Romans 3:19-28

Reformation Sunday in a Lutheran congregation can have three flavors. Vanilla is a simple celebration. We assume that everyone knows the greatness and key points of the Reformation. We just celebrate it. Chocolate is to complicate that celebration. You do that by asserting that we don’t know it or we’ve lost the Reformation script or something about it is no longer relevant. This sermon has at least a scoop of Chocolate. Strawberry is the last and a little rarer flavor. It is an attempt to make us feel Luther’s anfechtung, his problem with sin and righteousness. If you can do that, you don’t have to worry about he Chocolate, because it is immediately relevant. This sermon is an attempt at a lot of strawberry. It is an attempt to rip away the veils of the age that hide the same problems Luther wrestled with. They are there. Our veils just worked for a while. So do the veils of the Papacy for a while before Luther.

The primary veil that we depend upon can be summarized in the word acceptance. We treat acceptance as the gospel, when it is no gospel at all. Acceptance doesn’t desire or achieve righteousness. It just overlooks sin. The Gospel is absolution. The sin is no more because we have been given the righteousness of Christ. This sermon attempts to take off the veil and encourage the reception of righteousness from outside ourselves.

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LWML Zone Rally Sermon

Text: Psalm 33

Introduction

When I was originally told that the LWML zone rally was here, I was asked for a verse and a theme for an opening devotion.

No problem I say to myself. I’ll do the evangelical thing. Open the bible to the concordance, look for one word that feels good and can support a portals of prayer length opening, and shamelessly rip that verse out of context.

Then Deb tells me about 2 weeks ago, “oh, no Pastor, its an opening worship service.”

Ok, look at the fuller context of Psalm 33. Oh, I might have chosen differently…

Gospel in the Text

How many of you have a “junk drawer” in your house? Is it the first place you look or the last? I guess that falls under the “there are two types of households…”. Ours is a last place house. You run around opening every other drawer and when you don’t find what you a looking for, cursing under your breath that it’s not where it should be, you open the junk drawer. Saying a quick prayer that it is like Harry Potter’s Room of Requirement. And mystically, out of the last place, what you need is found.

The Psalmist opens up telling us to “shout for joy to the LORD!” Why?

Because the earth is full of his steadfast love.
Because by the word of the LORD the heaven were made and the deeps put in their place
Because the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

Surely God has placed everything in its correct drawer. And we know exactly where those correct drawers are. Right?

“The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples.” Oh.

Ok. So that steadfast love isn’t found in nations and peoples. But maybe it is found in the pride of place draw. The corner one with a glass front that shows off the impressive things.

“The King is not saved by his great army, a warrior is not delivered by his strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation.”

Oh, that steadfast love isn’t there in that drawer either. So where is it?

“Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love.”

God places that steadfast love where we least expect it. In those who fear Him. In those whose soul waits. In those who hope. In the junk drawer of the world.

You get a picture of an early junk drawer in the Acts reading. That early church was going to where they thought they’d find ears. “They were scattered after the martyrdom of Stephen, but spoke the word to no one except Jews.” Surely the steadfast love of God is in this drawer, his chosen people.

“But some of them spoke to the Hellenists, preaching Jesus. And the LORD was with them.”

And who does Barnabas get? He goes to Tarsus to look for Saul. The guy who had been part of the persecution. The guy who had shown up with a crazy story of meeting Jesus on the road. But everyone was afraid of him. So they threw him in the junk drawer. And Barnabas goes into the junk drawer to match the former Pharisee of the Pharisees with the former goyim who somehow had heard about Jesus. And it was in Antioch, in that Junk drawer of a city, that the disciples were first called Christians. In this junk drawer that they found the Steadfast Love of God in Christ for all peoples. It’s not the drawer that we look for, but it is exactly the drawer God has chosen.

When Barnabas came and saw the grace of God, he was glad….For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in His holy name. When we see the grace of God in action, when we realize “oh, here it was all along,” we can’t help but be glad.

Gospel in the World

The church used to have lots of drawers. And you can talk about that church as the larger institution or as the congregation.

There were lots of drawers that you’d open up. Surely what we are looking for is in this one. The seminaries, the pastoral office, the board of elders, the Praesidium, the mission execs. Surely these draws have the answers that we are seeking. Surely the steadfast love of God is found here.

And I don’t want to run those things down too much, but we’ve all opened those drawers enough and found them wanting. Or in latter days, just empty. “By their great might they cannot rescue.”

But then you see the church’s junk drawer. Funded by mite boxes. Sometimes asked, sometimes just expected to “do what needs to be done.” It is probably a little different in each of your congregations, but whether it is giving a cup of cold water to the thirsty person or knowing that God is going to show up and planning for it – when nobody else will. It is the LWML that again and again is where we find the steadfast love of God. Where we see the grace of God. Exactly where God desires it.

“He fashions the hearts of them all, and observes their deeds.”

It is the LWML that again and again demonstrated a heart after God.

It is the LWML that has always understood and continues to understand what it means to fear God.

Let your hearts be glad, because the Lord has seen you. And his steadfast love rests on you.

Conclusion

And may your trust in the name of Jesus, and hope in his word, that gladdens your hearts in service, be seen not just by God, but by our congregations. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us. May we hope in you as those gathered here today hope. Amen.

Three Things…

There are two things I wanted to write about, three things that this column is for. If you were in our Wednesday morning bible study, you might get the joke about that opening. The two things….three things is the start of a Hebrew wisdom poetry form. You can see examples in Proverbs 6:16-19 and 30:15-16, 18-19. So that would be the first thing. That bible study meets at 10 AM weekly and you are invited. I’ve called it “Necessary Stories”, but what it has been to date is a tour of the Old Testament. The goal was to provide a foundation for personal reading. Both in terms of the stories that always hover in the background and some methods for understanding the variety of genres and books that are in the bible. Don’t worry about “being behind” because each session is meant to be a stand alone. But also, if you are worried, there will be a couple of good jumping in points. The last section of the OT tour which will start Nov 8^th will be on the Prophets. Then sometime after the New Year we will be starting the New Testament tour.

The second thing. If you are a visitor this Sunday, I’d like to welcome you. Mt. Zion is a Lutheran church. What is the Lutheran church? There are different answers, but I’m picking a historical one today. Historically there is a period of time called The Reformation. Roughly 1517 – when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to a Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany – to roughly 1563 – the end of the Council of Trent, is the time span called The Reformation. You can back it up before then and it unwinds all the way out until today, but 1517-1563 is the basic time. Coming into that time span you had The Old Western Church roughly defined by the Scriptures, the Apostles Creed and the Bishops. (There had already been a schism with the Eastern Church in 1054 simplistically over which Bishop was more important.) Over those years of the Reformation the various churches that we know today defined their particular doctrines. The Lutheran church in 1530 with the Augsburg Confession. The Anglican Church published their 39 Articles in 1563. The Reformed published the Heidelberg Catechism in 1563 summarizing various prior agreements. And the Roman Catholic in 1563 at the close of the Council of Trent. Alongside those Magisterial Reformation bodies – meaning that monarchs and rulers signed onto those documents – you had the Radical Reformation which is represented today by Amish, Mennonites and Pentecostal groupings. So, what is a Lutheran church? It is a church that kept the Scripture and Creeds as the appropriate norms of our life together, it also kept as much of church life as was in accord with those, while holding that Bishops are a valid man made way to govern ourselves but not the final authority. So how do we argue? Which we are human and sinful, so we argue. We argue over Scripture. The Reformation started with a phrase “Ad Fontes” – to the sources – and as a church body we are concerned with constantly renewing ourselves in those streams of living water.

Third thing. That historical answer and the doctrinal formulations often seem dry. Why should we care about something so far away? Surely there is nothing meaningful for us today? But in an age of chaos and confusion, those simple doctrinal formulations contain a lot of wisdom. What is the foundation? Augsburg Confession 1 (AC1): God. Proverbs would say “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom (9:10).” Without God we are just lost in foolishness. What is the problem with the world? AC2, we are sinful beings. Which makes us deny God. What is the solution? AC3, we can’t get to God, so God sent His son Jesus to us. How does that help us? AC4, by faith Christ justifies us. You have been forgiven by the work of Christ. How do we know this? AC5, to obtain this faith the ministry of the Gospel was instituted. That Gospel is proclaimed every Sunday and whenever 2 or 3 are gathered in Jesus’ name. The map continues. But if you are lost, and much of our world today is lost, here is a map, and food and drink for the journey. You are invited to journey with us.

Render to Caesar

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Biblical Text: Matthew 22:15-22

“Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s” is one of the most quoted saying of Jesus. But I’m convinced that 99.9% of the time it is quoted, we quote it terribly wrong. We use it to let ourselves off the hook on our duty. That is the essence of the trap they were laying for Jesus. Which side of this divide are you on Jesus? And whichever side he is “on” he’d lose the crowd from the other side. They marveled at his answer. Not because it was simply a rhetorical masterpiece of weaving between two poles. We hear politicians daily attempt that, maybe monthly do it successfully. But those are always like the apocryphal saying of Barack Obama – “my superpower is that people hear what they want to in my words.” When Jesus said this what they marveled at was how it convicted everyone. Jesus isn’t on any of their sides. He’s the King of the Reign of Heaven. This sermon attempts to restore some of the marvel of that saying.

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Marjory Fischer Funeral Sermon

Introduction

Pastor’s wife – at least in the Lutheran or Protestant traditions – isn’t a formal role, but it typically takes on some interesting contours.

The first is that they are usually loved or hated by the congregation more than the minister himself. The pastor can utilize the collar, his wife doesn’t have the totem. The good news here is that I think I can say Marjory was on the beloved side.

And I could check off many of the reasons she was beloved by family and church family. She’s be the first to you with baked goods, but she’d also have ensured her kids got to lick the beaters. She played the organ or piano. She learned playing a piano bought off the back of a truck in 1951. And we should remember that Marjory was a true daughter of the West. People like to date the frontier closing around 1900, but rural Montana in 1941 wasn’t like Kansas City – gone about fur as they could go. Probably inappropriate, but a funny story about outhouses in use in those times was shared. More appropriate might be the story of the music found when cleaning out which was not just Bach and Hymnals but included Elvis. Given Marjory’s hymn choices I could have guessed that there would some interesting things. Lift High the Cross coming originally out of a rejected Green Hymnal project, and Borning Cry coming likewise out of an officially illicit Supplement to that hymnal. There was someone who knew themselves and was unafraid picking.

And that might point at the biggest reason for the love. Marjory was aware of herself and she never seemed to lose her way. She was solid enough to let others go and confident enough in them and God that they would come back. Knowing that she was built on the rock, she could be that for others.

The other thing about Pastor’s Wives is that they know things can get asked of them, or have their husband being away at the wrong time. And true to form, when Marjory had her stroke, that was the very day her Pastor had left for Palm Springs for a conference. But I also want to say, true to the best of the church, she was there. My wife, Marjory’s Elder Randy and Pastor Kalthoff all were able to visit. Some things are not fair, but the Lord does provide. As Paul says in the Epistle reading, “encourage one another with these words.” The work of the church is a shared thing. We lean on each other.

Text

But Marjory would probably start scolding me if I didn’t turn to preaching the Gospel at her funeral.

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end.” That is God revelation of himself to us, that He is Love. And what does that Love mean? That he is the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. That cross is the love of God made manifest to us. That cross is the pledge of mercy never ending.

“They are new every morning.” Some days those mercies might come with a collar and official approval. Some days those mercies are brought by new people. The mercy of God is never stale. And great is his faithfulness. What he has promised is secure. Even though we walk through the shadow of death we fear no evil. Even though he might cause us grief, he will have compassion. His nature is the abundance of his steadfast love.

And how might you know this steadfast love? The Good Shepherd knows his own and they know him. He calls and they will listen to his voice.

Today in these words the Shepherd calls you. Jesus calls you to now his steadfast love.

Love that even though we grieve and do not have Marjory right now, we do not grieve as those without hope. For when Jesus comes again, he comes with those who have fallen asleep.

Love that even when we feel weak and defeated, we know that the victory has been given to us. The Lord himself will descend with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

Love that hears the promise that even in that valley of the shadow of death, the Good Shepherd is with us. And his faithfulness is such that we will always be with the Lord.

The Good Shepherd has called Marjory to him and this is better by far. But today that same Shepherd Marjory knew and testified to with her life calls you. He calls you to his steadfast love. Amen.

Singing from the Same Hymnbook

Sometimes you write about topical things driven by events – like last week on Israel. Sometimes you write about one of the texts of the week because there are good things in it, but it isn’t the sermon text. Sometimes you write about a point of theology because from reading and meditation you have a handle on it. And sometimes you write about purely local happenings. There is an old phrase that “if you are explaining you are losing.” It comes from politics and it is probably true. It is probably true because most people aren’t persuadable. Explaining is attempting to persuade and if nobody is open to it, if you are doing it, you lose. Better off pandering even if badly. But while I might be that cynical about our body politic, I’m not ready to be that cynical about the church. I like to believe that the Holy Spirit still works.

So, I’m going to talk about “singing from the same hymnbook.” That is a phrase for a reason. Institutions, like the church, used to form people. You didn’t join something because you already agreed 100%. You joined something, or honestly you were born into it, and how it behaved formed you over time. Everyone grew together – like the body of Christ – into singing from the same hymnbook. Now there are legitimate complaints about that, but we’ve heard all those complaints turned up to 11 for two generations. To the point that I’m not sure how many hymnbooks are left. And what is the result of this? Weak institutions that can’t form anything and that nobody trusts. Is that really the world we want to inhabit?

How did we get into this place where we don’t even know our own hymnbook? From my observation there were two paths. The first path is the one of decay. The hymnbook – absolutely true – used to be called “the layman’s bible”. The most used religious book in any Lutheran household used to be the hymnbook. The Anglicans called theirs The Book of Common Prayer. And that is what the hymnbook used to be, a daily companion to personal and family prayer life. Part of the decay was the decay of personal and family prayer life. As the hymnbook was less used in personal life, many pastors responded by shrinking the hymns used in worship. Every congregation has a repertoire. A healthy congregation should have at least 200 hymns in that repertoire. Many that I know of have about 50. The problem with this is that the overall service becomes non-sensical. For example, when the gospel reading is the Parable of the Wedding Banquet, it makes complete sense to sing a bog-standard Lutheran hymn LSB 514 “The Bridegroom Soon Will Call Us.” In a congregation that has decayed to 50 hymns, you sing Amazing Grace – a great hymn – once a month. Even if Amazing Grace has nothing to do with the Wedding Feast which warns about our attitude toward that gift of grace. The second path was defection. There is something more popular over here. Heck with the rest of the institution, I’m going to benefit personally at their expense by hopping on the bandwagon. The result is churches theoretically with the same teaching pulling in separate ways.

Our hymnbook – Lutheran Service Book – along with those prayer and study supports and liturgies at in the start, has 635 hymns deemed appropriate to support a congregation’s spiritual life. They cover both church seasons – Advent to End Times – and topics – sacraments, sanctification, trust, praise and others. In 15 years at my prior congregation did we ever sing every one of those 635 hymns? No way. How many did we sing? Roughly 400. Ok, but how many yearly, or on a regular basis? We sang roughly 200 hymns in a given year. Say 4 per week for 52 weeks ignoring advent, lent and other occasional services. Now within those 200 there were probably 50 that were sang a couple times or more a year, think A Mighty Fortress or Jesus Sinners Doth Receive. There were about 100 that would be sang at least yearly, think On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist’s Cry or Stricken’ Smitten’ and Afflicted. And there would be another 100 that would probably be 2 years out of the 3 year cycle of readings. Out of that you form a congregational repertoire of about 200.

Part of the job of the pastor is forming the faith. I am not doing my job if I allow the faith to swim around in in a shallow pool. Partly because that shallow pool might appeal to one section, but another truly hates it. And partly because life is ocean deep. And if all you have is Amazing Grace, and you don’t have I Walk in Danger All the Way, your faith might get eaten by leviathan. So, my suggestion, if we sing a hymn you don’t know is take it home. That is why we publish it with the melody line. It will be coming back. Use it for your personal piety during the week. Let it form you for a week in your thoughts and words. Let us work toward being Christians who can swim in the deep.

Worthy

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Biblical Text: Matthew 22:1-14

The Gospel text is the parable of the Wedding Feast. It immediately follows last week’s text – the wicked tenants. So they are covering some of the same territory, but this one expands on the tenants in two ways. First, it answers what is counted as the wickedness. In the wedding feast is it described as being unworthy. And it is simply dishonoring the King and his son. The second way it expands is the Wedding Feast parable continues to add how the new tenants or the second invitees are both called and treated. And it is this second part that is the most important for the church. This sermon meditates on both the lessons of former Israel for us, and for what is called from us to be worthy. Or maybe the best way to put it is how are we not unworthy? Which is everything to do with the wedding garment.

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