Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity

                                                                                    Trinity 4

                                                                                    Gen 50:15-21

                                                                                    7/13/14

            When Amy and I were preparing to be married, we did what every couple in that situation does – we went and registered for wedding gifts.  Now I had told Amy that for the most part, I probably didn’t have any strong feelings about the vast majority of choices that needed to be made.  However, when I did have one I would let her know.  And I think she was a little surprised to learn that I really did mean it. So when it came to the pattern for the forks, spoons and knives that I was going to hold in my hand every day for years to come, I really did want to be involved in making the final choice.

            We were registering at the Target in Bloomington, IN one day.  We had been at it for some time, when … let’s just say that nature called in a rather urgent fashion.  So I hurried off to the restroom intent on getting back to registering with Amy as quickly as I could.

            I was in the stall in the bathroom when I heard the door to the restroom open as someone else was coming inside. Immediately the sound of the shoes caught my attention because it sounded very odd – something wasn’t right.  Through a small gap where the stall door hinged I caught a glimpse of the person who walked in and was shocked to realize why the shoes sounded strange – they were women’s shoes. A woman had walked in and the thought that flashed into my mind was: “Oh my goodness!  She’s in the wrong restroom!” 

            I was beginning to collect my thoughts about how exactly to handle the situation.  Shortly thereafter the restroom door opened again as a second person entered.  A glimpse of the person revealed that this was woman too.  And then in an instant, the thought formed in my head: “Oh my goodness!  I’m in the wrong restroom!!”

            I realized that in my haste to get to the restroom I had entered the wrong door.  And now my mind really began to spin.  I was engaged to this wonderful woman.  I was about to go out on vicarage as I prepared at seminary to be a pastor – something I loved doing.  What was going to happen if I was arrested because they thought I was trying to spy on women in their restroom?

            So I waited, listening for the second woman to leave the restroom.  When she had gone out, I waited a few moments.  And then I made a dash for it and left the women’s restroom thankful that I didn’t encounter anyone who was just about to enter at that moment. And because I don’t want the thought distracting you during the rest of the sermon … yes, I did then go the men’s restroom and wash my hands.

            My experience in the Target women’s restroom illustrates the fact that sometimes perception and reality are not the same thing.  We see this in our Old Testament lesson this morning as Joseph’s brothers come to him.  Joseph looks back on events that at the time could only have been perceived as God’s absence – his abandonment of Joseph.  And yet now he is able to see the reality of what was really going on – of what God was really doing.  This text prompts us to ponder more deeply perception and reality in our own lives.

            The first time I really took a more careful look at Genesis in an Introduction to the Old Testament class at Concordia College, Ann Arbor led me to realize how big a role the account of Joseph plays in the book. Genesis is long – fifty chapters.  And of those one quarter tell the story of Joseph.  You can’t avoid the conclusion that inspired by the Holy Spirit, Moses really thought that the events of his life were important.

            Now of course, they were important because it is through the experiences of Joseph that Jacob and the descendants of Abraham ended up in Egypt.  It is their presence in Egypt that sets the stage for their eventual enslavement by Pharaoh and God’s saving action in the exodus.

            But if he had wanted to, Moses certainly could have narrated all of this with far more economy.  And here in our text at the end of the book, we learn that in addition to narrating Israel’s early history Moses has been teaching us an important truth about the way God works.

            You of course know the account about Joseph well.  It’s the story of Jacobs’s dysfunctional family.  He favors Joseph, who is to be honest, really a brat.  His brothers are so angered that one day they sell him into slavery and convince their father Jacob that Joseph has been killed by a wild animal.

            Joseph is sold as a slave in Egypt.  And there he just can’t seem to catch a break. Every time things begin to go well and start to look up, some terrible circumstance wrecks everything.  I mean, Joseph fends off the sexual advances of his owner’s wife – he doesn’t break the Sixth Commandment – and he gets thrown into prison as a result of it.

            Finally Joseph ends up as second in charge of Egypt – helping Pharaoh to provision the nation during seven good years of harvest as they prepare for seven years of famine to follow.  The famine strikes the whole region and as a result of this Joseph’s brothers come to Egypt to buy food for the family and Joseph eventually reveals himself to them. And then he brings Jacob and all the family to live in safety in Egypt.

            In our text we hear about what happened after Jacob died.  The brothers feared that with their father gone, Joseph would now seek revenge against them.  And so “they sent a message to Joseph, saying, ‘Your father gave this command before he died: ‘Say to Joseph, “’Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.’’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.’”

            Now we don’t know whether Jacob had really said this.  But we do know Joseph’s reaction.  He said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

            Joseph forgave his brothers.  He acknowledged the evil they had done to him.  But he didn’t take up the opportunity to get pay back.  Instead he focused upon what God had been doing in the midst of all his experiences.  It was the same thing he had said to them when he first revealed himself. Then he had said, “And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.”  He talked about the famine and added, “And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God.”

            Joseph looked back on his life and he could see that perception and reality had not been the same thing.  He had experienced evil.  He had been wronged. Time after time he had experienced what the world would describe as terrible luck.  It appeared that God was nowhere to be found; that God had abandoned him; that God was in fact against him.

            But the reality was that nothing could be father from the truth.  In fact God was at work all the time.  He was using the sin of others and evil in order to weave it into his own purpose.  He was active working good not only for Joseph, but also for his family and many others besides.

            Now in a story that has a “and they lived happily ever after” kind of ending it’s easy to say that God is working for good even when it didn’t seem like it.   We have these experiences in life too that look a lot like Joseph’s. We go through hardships and things turn out different than we expected.  And yet, when it is all said and done we see that God has been at work for our good. 

            But what about when you are in the midst of it?  What about when life is being crushed by the darkness of anxiety and depression?  What about when physical ailments take the joy out of life and there is no reason to expect any change in the future? And what about when there are wrenching tragedies that defy any explanation – like when Christians are exterminated in Iraq and Nigeria; like when a mother is killed and a child experiences terrible injuries just because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time recently on Route 13?

            In the face of those circumstances the notion that “God is working something good” sounds hollow and trite.  It is then that we are tempted to doubt God; to be angry with God. And you know there have been times when you have given in to that temptation.  Perhaps it’s happening right now.

            God doesn’t promise that your story will have what you consider to be a happy ending.  He doesn’t promise an ending that makes sense to you.  What he does promise is that you are his child and that he is present and at work in the midst of your life and circumstances no matter what things may look like to you.  He calls you to believe in him; to trust in him no matter what happens. And he has done one thing that gives you the ability and confidence to do so.

            In our text this morning Joseph says to his brothers, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”  This is of course, part of the story of Israel. It is the story of God keeping his promise to Abraham: “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

            It is in the fulfillment of that promise through the seed of Abraham, Jesus the Christ, that we find the ability and confidence to believe and trust in God.  Through the evil of men looking to protect their own insignificant turf God subjected his Son to torture and death on the cross. Through the evil action of those men God sent his innocent Son to die in your place as the sacrifice that takes away your sin.

            But where on Good Friday nothing but powerlessness and meaninglessness was perceived, on Easter morning the reality became clear.  God had indeed been at work through that evil.  He had removed the barrier of sin and now in the resurrected flesh of Jesus Christ he had defeated death.  He had worked forgiveness and immortality for you.

            This is what God had done for you in Jesus Christ.  And because he has done this, through the work of the Spirit he gives you the ability and confidence to trust in him no matter what is happening.  Because you have seen him work in this way in Christ, you know that you can trust that he is present and at work in your life no matter how circumstances appear.

            The death and resurrection of Christ, and your share in those events through baptism, becomes both the engine and the guidance by which you move through life. Nourished by the Word and fed with Christ’s body and blood, God enables you to trust in his presence and good purposes for you.

            You can do this no matter what the circumstances because you have seen what God did in Christ and how he did it.  You can do this because each one of you knows for sure how the story ends.  You can do this because you know that the final outcome for you will be resurrection and eternal life with Jesus Christ.

Commemoration of Isaiah

Today we remember and give thanks for the prophet Isaiah.  Isaiah son of Amoz is considered to be the greatest of the writing prophets and is quoted in the New Testament more than any other Old Testament prophet. His name means “Yahweh [the Lord] saves.” Isaiah prophesied to the people of Jerusalem and Judah from about 740 B.C. to 700 B.C. and was a contemporary of the prophets Amos, Hosea, and Micah. Isaiah was a fierce preacher of God’s Law, condemning the sin of idolatry. He was also a comforting proclaimer of the Gospel, repeatedly emphasizing God’s grace and forgiveness. For this he is sometimes called the “Evangelist of the Old Testament.” No prophet more clearly prophesied about the coming Messiah and his saving kingdom. He foretold the Messiah’s miraculous birth (Is 7:14; 9:6), his endless reign (Is 2:1–5; 11:1–16), and his public ministry (Is 61:1–3), but most notably his “Suffering Servant” role and atoning death (52:13—53:12). The apostle John’s description of Isaiah, that Isaiah saw Jesus’ glory and spoke of him (John 12:41), is an apt summary of Isaiah’s prophetic ministry.

Collect of the Day:

Lord God, heavenly Father, through the prophet Isaiah, you continued the prophetic pattern of teaching your people the truth faith and demonstrating through miracles your presence in creation to heal it of its brokenness.  Grant that your Church may see in your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the final end-times prophet whose teaching and miracles continue in your Church through the healing medicine of the Gospel and the Sacraments; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Sermon for the Third Sunday after Trinity

                                                                                 Trinity 3
                                                                                  Lk 15:1-10
                                                                                  7/6/14

                                                                                                                                          

            Many of you have met my mom during the last eight years – most recently she was here to speak at our annual ladies’ salad luncheon.  I trust that you have concluded she is, indeed, a very nice person.

            My mother was a great mom when I was growing up.  However, I have two real complaints about those years with her.  The first is the limitation that she put on drinking milk.  When I was a teenager, my mom put restrictions on how much milk my brother and I could drink.

            Now I thought this was just wrong. After all, when you come in and are thirsty, what tastes better than a nice cold glass of milk?  However, my mom said that my brother and I were going through milk too fast and that it was too expensive to drink like water. So she put limits on us. We could have one glass in the afternoon when we got home from school, and one glass at dinner.  Mom’s policy prompted my brother and me to coin a phrase for milk in our house: “white gold.”  Of course, now that I am a parent I have learned that milk is not cheap. While it is healthy for you, it is really not suitable for mass consumption and so now I find myself telling my kids that milk is not something to chug when you are thirsty.

            My other complaint is about gumballs.  To this day, when you enter a grocery store you see coin machines for gumballs and other candy.  Every time I saw one of these gumball machines I would ask my mom for a coin so that I could go get one.  And you know what?  My mom had audacity to say that I didn’t need to get a gumball every time we went to the store.  She acted like it was supposed to be some kind of treat.

            And so, ever since I have been out on my own, I have been living large.  Basically any time I go to the grocery store, I stop at the machine and buy myself a gumball.  I am making up for all those times I was denied and I take great pleasure in doing so.  When I park at the store I get a quarter out of the spare change that I keep in the car.  Sometimes, this requires me to search for the coin, because while pennies and nickels and dimes accumulate, the precious quarter needed for a gumball often dwindles.  And if I can’t find one in the spare change, I have been known to look around in the car – on the floor, under the seats – until I find that necessary quarter.

            In the second parable of our Gospel lesson this morning, Jesus tells about a woman who searches for a coin. She expends great effort looking for it because it is valuable to her, and she rejoices when she finds it.  In the parable we learn that each sinner is precious in the Lord’s eyes and that there is joy in God’s presence when a sinner repents and receives forgiveness.

            Our text this morning is from Luke chapter fifteen.  In this chapter, our Lord tells three parables about something or someone that is lost: a lost sheep; a lost coin; and a lost son.  This morning we want to focus on the parable of the lost coin.

            The first verses of our text provide the setting for all three parables.  We hear, “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’”

            One of the defining features of Jesus’ ministry was that he associated with those who were the outcasts of society.  He was regularly in the company of people that the Pharisees described as “sinners.” Now this term took in a wide range of people because of the beliefs held by the Pharisees.

            The Pharisees were primarily a lay group, and the scribes were those who had formal training in the Scriptures and also the teachings of the Pharisees.  The Pharisees sought to be a holy group within Israel. They took various practices that were required of priests who served in the temple, and they applied them to everyday life. They developed a large body of oral law that described how to keep the Torah, and some held this interpretation of the law to be on par with the Torah itself.

            In the Pharisees’ view of the world, a “sinner” could be a person who engaged in activities that actually violated God’s will – like a prostitute.  But it could also be a person who didn’t follow the Pharisees’ rules for life. Tax collectors were included in this category because they often abused their position to get extra money for themselves, and also because they were seen to be collaborators with the Romans and their puppet kings.

            These were the kind of people who gathered around Jesus.  And it’s not just that they came to see him.  Jesus received them and actually ate with them.  Even in our own day we understand that eating together with people indicates some level of acceptance and familiarity.  In the first century Palestinian world this was far more important than anything we have experienced.  To eat with someone said that you accepted them and had fellowship with them.

            Our world today has noticed this fact about Jesus – but it has drawn all of the wrong conclusions from it.  The world says that Jesus didn’t judge people.  It says that Jesus accepted people for who they were.  In fact, the pop singer Elton John said this past week that if Jesus were alive today, he would have no problem with homosexual marriage.

            However, Jesus’ own words refute this attitude.  Earlier in this Gospel Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”  We hear the same theme in our text this morning. After the parable of the lost sheep Jesus says, “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” And then at the end of the parable of the lost coin he adds, “Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”  Jesus does not affirm any decision we want to make. Instead, he calls people to confess their sin and turn away from it. 

            In the parable our Lord says, “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it?”  The woman has ten coins. Each coin represented a day’s wage – a whole day of work.  Each was valuable and she had only ten of them. When she realized that one was lost in the house she lit a lamp so that she could see better in the dim interior, swept the house and searched carefully for it.

            The parable tells us both about how God values you and also about your problem.  Created in his image, he has made each one of you to be unique – one of a kind.  Right down to your DNA there is no one else that God has made exactly like you. You are precious and valuable to him.

            Because of sin, you were also lost.  You were cut off from God.  And so as the ultimate affirmation of how much he values you, God sent forth his Son to become like you.  He sent him into this world in the incarnation as the Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.  He took on your humanity without ceasing to be God.  And then in order to overcome the sin that separated you from him, the Father sent the incarnate Son to die on the cross and rise from the dead.

            In Holy Baptism you were found. You were made to be a child of God.  You sins were washed away.  You were born again of water and the Spirit. The problem is that because of the old man – the sinful nature in you – you still at times act like someone who wants to be lost.  You make choices that place the creation ahead of the Creator. In spite of God’s unmerited love that you have received, you speak and act in hurtful ways toward others.

            And so God continues to seek you out because you are so valuable to him.  Not only are you valuable to him as his creation.  You are valuable because of the price that has been paid for you – for after all, you have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ.  He continues to call you to repentance because as he told the prophet Ezekiel, God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but instead desires us to turn from sin and live. 

            Through his word of law he confronts your sin. He does this so that you will repent – so that you will confess these sins and turn away from them.  And then he comforts you with the Gospel.  Through his Means of Grace he forgives you and strengthens you in the faith.  And our text tells us what happens when this occurs: there is joy. The joy of the woman who finds the coin – a joy that she can’t keep to herself but must be shared with her neighbors – describes the joy in heaven.

            You came here this morning knowing the ways that in this past week that you have shown yourself to be a sinner.  But God has sought you out.  He has worked repentance – the very confession you made at the beginning of the Divine Service.  And now as we are about to receive the Sacrament of the Altar you can rejoice that the words of the Pharisees are indeed true: “This man receives sinners and eat with them.”  The crucified and risen Lord invites you to his table – to this new meal fellowship were Jesus is both the host and meal.  He gives his body and blood to you the repentant sinner for the forgiveness of your sins. And because of this there is joy before the angels of God.  

           

           

           

Feast of the Visitation

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Visitation, the day when Mary went to see Elizabeth after learning that she was pregnant with the Son of God, and that Elizabeth too was pregnant.  The Church observes several days which are connected with the virgin Mary: The Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Our Lord (Feb. 2); The Annunciation of Our Lord (March 25); The Visitation (July 2); and St. Mary, Mother of Our Lord (Aug. 15).  We do this because they are festivals of the Incarnation.  On these days we confess with the Third Ecumenical Council of Ephesus (431 A.D.) that Mary was the Theotokos, the God bearer.  We confess the reality of the incarnation – that Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary as the One who is true God and true man.  In addition, Mary stands out as a great example and model of faith as she trusted God’s Word.

Scripture reading:

In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord” (Luke 1:39-45).

Collect of the Day:

Almighty God, You chose the virgin Mary to be the mother of Your Son and made known through her Your gracious regard for the poor and lowly and despised.  Grant that we may receive Your Word in humility and faith, and so be made one with Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.