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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All Israel Will Be Saved

Anytime Israel enters the news cycle, things get apocalyptic. And that is usually because of something that is only described with very big words. The short words would be Left Behind or The Late Great Planet Earth. If you have read either one of those works you have dipped your toe in dispensational eschatology of the premillennial variety. Now if I told you that this particular understanding of “what the bible teaches” comes from John Nelson Darby around 1830. It was incorporated into the Scofield Reference Bible in 1907 where it moved from being the peculiar teaching of the small Plymouth Brethren to being the in the air default of American Evangelicals. If I told you that – all true – you wouldn’t believe me. That is how potent an end times story it became. And for me it became so potent because of one particular quirk, it offered Christians what appeared to be a free pass to be “nice” regarding Jews after the holocaust. They are part of an older dispensation is what it offered.

I obviously can’t summarize everything in 700 words. The best I can do is state the Church’s historic teachings and point at where they are based upon.

1. Salvation is through Christ Alone. Nobody has their own dispensation.

Jesus would say “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6).” He would also say things like “I am the vine and you are the branches (John 15:5).” Paul would pick that idea up and talk about Gentiles as ingrafted branches and the ability to graft the Jew back in (Romans 11:17-23). Christ has always – even in the Old Testament all the way back to the first promise after the fall in the garden (Genesis 3:15) – been the only way. Romans 9 through 11 is Paul’s pondering of this in regards to his kinsman. And his abiding prayer is “that they might be saved (Romans 10:1).” And the meaning behind saved is come to faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed. Darby’s dispensationalism says you don’t have to preach Christ to Paul’s brothers of the flesh, which is contrary to the gospel Paul preached.

2. The modern nation state of Israel is not The Israel of God.

The idea of Israel is being a “chosen people” (Deuteronomy 7:6). This chosen-ness is to be in Christ by faith. It is not based on anything in us, but in God’s faithfulness to his promises. Paul says in Romans 9 that “not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel…the children of the promise are counted as offspring.” Israel is not Israel by genetic descent, but Israel is Israel by faith. This is how Peter can say the same words in 1 Peter 2:9 that “you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession” to the church – Jew and Gentile. The Israel of God is always by faith by God’s sovereign choice in Christ.

3. This does not mean that “The Jews” are without purpose.

The opposite of dispensationalism’s desire to be nice has often been a Christian hatred of “the Jews”. Luther himself was not beyond such, but it should also be said that Luther was basically expressing common ideas. This misses Paul’s warning in Romans 11. “Do not be arrogant toward the (cut off) branches…”. If God can graft in wild branches, how much easier to restore the cultivated ones? It also misses Paul’s prophecy, “a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved.” Paul doesn’t elaborate on that, and given the shifting meanings of Israel the saying is complex, but what most have thought is: a) even unbelieving Israel is a witness to the faithfulness of God in that they are not lost to history in that God preserves a remnant and b) all Israel – Jews and Gentiles who believe – will be saved which very well might include a ingathering at a late date after the fulness of the Gentiles.

What does this mean for our current intrigues? The purpose of the Apocalyptic (Revelation, Daniel and a few other places) is not to establish a timeline or a checklist of events. “You know neither the day nor the hour (Matthew 25:13).” Don’t be searching for Gog and Magog to meet at Megiddo. This is just an image of the nations of the world at war. “There will be wars and rumors of war (Matthew 24:6).” “Why do the nations so furiously wage together? (Psalm 2:1)” Because the nations of this old world have always usurped the power of Christ. Gog is always meeting Magog at some Megiddo. But the end is not yet. Likewise, don’t worry about 3^rd Temples. The 3^rd Temple is already built. It is built of living stones on the cornerstone of Christ. The end has already come in this way. The purpose of the Apocalyptic is to remind you that however big and wild things appear in this old earth, God is steering them for his people. And you have eternity. “But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the Kingdom forever, forever and ever (Daniel 7:18).”

I’ve blown past my allotted limit. None of this says anything about what our national foreign policy should be. Which is in the realm of sanctified practical wisdom anyway. What it hopefully has done is remind us of the basics. This world is passing away. Its ruler, Satan, knows his time is short. But all Israel will be saved. Have faith.

Funeral Sermon for John Vaux

Biblical Texts: Deuteronomy 29:29-30:5, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, Matthew 24:36-44

Introduction

One of the questions that I like to ask the gathered family when planning a funeral is “what is your favorite memory of the deceased?” You often hear the things that eulogists will say. But there are also people who might not be willing to get up in a pulpit who will share memories in that more private space.

And the answers that I heard regarding John spoke about his faithfulness as a Father and a Husband. The Husband part might have included stories before the wedding, but stories that pointed to loving care. Stories like pushing a girl he was sweet on with a broken foot up and down hills. Stories like figuring out how on 9/11 to get away from the Pentagon that they had somehow accidentally stumbled toward. Stories of cross country moves and the reality of a fully wired house that makes sure the doors are locked for you in case you might forget. That loving care persists.

People often make fun of Fathers in our day. And one of the ways they do it is by making fun of Dads only having kids to continue being childish. But in a religion that includes the saying “if you do not receive the kingdom like a little child you will never enter there in”, we should be careful with that. That type of fatherly loving care is different. Maybe you liked football and your child likes soccer. As it was explained to me, John “learned to love” that new game. He loved big words, something that I could certainly relate to. But that might be an example of the love moving the other way and his children flexed that vocabulary. And Fatherly care extended to doing new things together. When so much of live just unhealthily shut down in the pandemic, John recognized how it wasn’t good, and hit the road RV’ing. There were lots of such stories of Fatherly direction and shared loved. Teaching to drive with a stick shift of all things. Developing an artistic talent through magical dragons. Boardgames, puzzles and intricate builds from clocks to a Lego millennium falcon. Maybe childlike, but far from childish.

Text

Traditionally, one of those Fatherly loving care things is ensuring a foundation to answer big questions. Moses captures the deep reality of our existence. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God.” And those secret things are usually the “why?” questions. There are things that we just can’t answer from knowledge. But Moses continues, “the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever.” There is the Fatherly loving care. The things that have been revealed to us, are also for our children. And that Fatherly loving care teaches those revealed things.

For Moses that is the centrality of the LORD your God. We all wonder out, like prodigals. But when you hear the voice call, obey it. “Return to the LORD your God, you and your children…with all your heart and with all your soul.” The LORD your God is a Father who lovingly gathers and provides. “He will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed.” That is part of the revealed things. God’s love for us. Love for us as a Father.

Part of the secret things is our time. Not just our time but the world’s time. “As in the days of Noah.” We know the flood is coming. And even if it isn’t THE flood, we know out person day of reckoning is coming. But we do not know that day it will begin to rain. We do not know the day or the hour. These are the secret things.

But in God’s Fatherly care it has been revealed to us that this need not be our destruction. Noah entered the ark. And Luther’s baptismal prayer reminds us “God preserved Noah and his family, 8 souls in all.” That Ark today that has been revealed to us is that baptism. A baptism that John shared.

That ark today that has been revealed to us is what the Apostle Paul write – “having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.” God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through Jesus Christ.

That is the foundation to answer big questions. That is the Fatherly loving care of the LORD our God. Christ died for us defeating sin and ultimately death, for death could not hold Jesus. He’s risen.

Our day and hour? The secret things. And those secret things, whatever our age, sneak up on us like a thief. But the loving care of Jesus and the Father is that this has been revealed to us. That “whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.”

We live with God through faith.

We live with those awake or asleep, with what the creed calls the communion of saints.

We live with them in love and in that hope Paul preaches, and Moses spoke of, that we still reveal to you today. That God gathers his own in Fatherly love. And that today is the day of grace to hear his voice and follow, with all you heart and with all your soul. Amen

Vineyards and Cornerstones

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Biblical Text: Matthew 21:33-46

This parable of the wicked tenants as it is sometimes called feels very rooted in its specific history so much so that even through the parables were told so that “hearing they might not hear” the Chief Priests discerned Jesus told this about them. It is the summaries, conclusions or maybe so far as application that open up the parable beyond the Jewish temple leadership. In my reading Jesus gives three separate summaries.

“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone”
“The Kingdom of God will be taken away and given to those producing its fruit”
“The one who falls on the stone will be broken to pieces, the one the stone falls on will be crushed”

This sermon looks at each of those in progression and how the help us hear the parable for ourselves. The placing of the cornerstone is pure gospel. “God has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes.” The second is the moral warning to watch. If you think the vineyard is yours to do with as you want, you might be killing the heir. The third thinks about our ultimate positions regarding God: ignoring such that we might trip over, set ourselves against him, or build on the cornerstone.

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Pastoral Anxiety

When I go to a Pastor’s Conference I usually try and share a few things. Not a travelogue; Nobody wants to see your vacation pictures. An attempt to extract some wisdom.

All pastor’s conferences have two expressions. There are the “right hand kingdom” issues. These are the anxieties and efforts to rule, govern and guide the church in the world, to make decisions and address problems. There are also the “left hand kingdom” issues. These are the worship, prayer, study and consolation of the brethren. Depending upon the group you are in, networking can be in the right or the left. Using right and left is theological language for those things which are of power and the law and those things which are of grace. The right, the power-hand (sorry lefties), is the straight ahead law, commands, hierarchies and governance. “Do this, and you will live.” The left, the sinister sneaky hand (sorry lefties), is the one that you don’t see coming. We never expect grace. “Believe this, and you are already good.”

In that right hand kingdom stuff I had three observations. And I don’t mean any of these observations to be positive or negative. Most things in the right hand kingdom simply are. Being humans we are all struggling toward the best outcomes we can imagine. Sometimes there is a lack of imagination, sometimes too much. But we tend to fall in predictable paths. First observation, The Eastern District is probably the poorest one in the LCMS which colors my visions, but man there was a lot of money floating around the PSD. Having money allows for less anxiety and more imagination of what we might do. Lacking money, a certain fatalism sets in. The hopefulness of the PSD was refreshing. Second observation, the political reality of the district is that CA drives everything. The money and the weight of congregations is Southern Cal. The third observation is that the pastors of the PSD clearly see themselves apart from the larger Synod. Not that they would separate, but the anxieties are different. And they believe the anxieties of the rest of Synod are misdirected. There are deeper conversations that could be had around each of those, but that is enough for this space.

Because as much head space that we give to the anxieties and expressions of the right hand kingdom, the church is ultimately about the left. How do we proclaim the grace of Jesus Christ and him crucified for our salvation? One of the biggest anxieties of the conference is the current state of the pastorate. The two expressions of this anxiety being a perceived shortage of pastors and specific to CA congregations a shortage of pastors willing to move to CA. And this is not a small issue for a Lutheran Church body that confesses “so that we may obtain this faith, the ministry of teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted. (Augsburg Confession Article 5).” The primary study of the conference lead by Dr. Leopoldo Sanchez I felt was spot on. Dr. Sanchez, who I had for a couple of classes back in Seminary, is “Mr. Holy Spirit.” And you could summarize his study as “It is OK to Pray to the Holy Spirit.”

An older book was titled “The Half Remembered God” and the Holy Spirit is often that, half-remembered. But it is the Spirit that works in the life of the church. The Spirit is half-remembered because He is always testifying to Jesus, also because He works through means – Word and Sacrament. We see the effects of the Spirit, like the wind in the trees, but often miss Him. What Dr. Sanchez shares was a summary of his book “Sculptor Spirit”. And in that work he outlines five different models of sanctification, five different biblical ways the Spirit works. And the two that address the expressed anxiety I felt were what he labels renewal and dramatic. Renewal is the fact that “The Holy Spirit works through death and resurrection.” Dramatic is that the life of the church is one in the wilderness. We learn to trust God and prayer as the Spirit leads us through trail and temptation. Wherever we find ourselves, we have been lead there by the Spirit. And it is for our good that we might know God more fully. It is only in God that we find our true rest from all our anxieties.