Culture news: The rest of the world is not deciding same sex marriage through the judiciary

It is widely expected that an upcoming Supreme Court decision will impose same sex marriage on all states.  Lynn D. Warde, Elizabeth A. Clarke and W. Cole Durham note that fewer than nine percent of the countries belonging to the United Nations have redefined marriage to include same-sex relationships.  In fact of these, “Only one country on the entire planet—Brazil—has mandated via its judiciary that same-sex couples across its nation have access to traditional marriage.”  Instead, court decisions around the world “recognize that there are significant moral, religious, and social reasons for opposing same-sex marriage that are unrelated to impermissible animus.”  If the Supreme Court issues the expected decision, the results will place the United States outside of the current legal consensus about how to handle same sex marriage.

Commemoration of Anselm of Canterbury, Theologian

Today we remember and give thanks for Anselm of Canterbury. Born in Italy in 1033, Anselm is most closely associated with England, where he served as Archbishop of Canterbury for many years. A brilliant scholar and writer, Anselm used his political skills with the British kings on behalf of the established Christian church, affirming that it is the leadership of the church and not the state which has the responsibility of establishing structure and maintaining order among the clergy. Anselm is especially remembered for his classic book, Why God Became Man, which taught that the reason for the incarnation was that Jesus, the Son of God, would suffer and die in place of sinners.

Collect of the Day:

Almighty God, you give the gift of teachers to your Church.  We praise you for the gifts of grace manifested in your servant Anselm, and we pray that your Church may never be destitute of such gifts; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Sermon for Third Sunday of Easter - Misericordias Domini Jn 10:11-16

                                                                                    Easter 3

                                                                                    Jn 10:11-16

                                                                                    4/19/15

            This past December we had to put Baylor, our fourteen year old black lab, to sleep.  Anyone who has to do this with a pet, and especially a dog, will understand how difficult it was to do.  Dogs are called “man’s best friend” for a reason.  People develop profound emotional connections with these animals and it is certainly not too strong to use the word “love.”

            The loss of Baylor did not leave the Surburg house without a dog.  We still had Abigail’s little white poodle mix named Noel.  What Noel lacks in size, she more than makes up in sheer desire to be around people and show them affection.  I never thought I would like a small dog, but Noel has proved me wrong.

            There was talk about getting another large dog.  A black lab had been my choice.  Amy’s family always had golden retrievers, and so that is what she wanted the next one to be.  But Amy and I were agreed that it would definitely be awhile before we got another dog. The kids didn’t want to wait, but Amy and I had decided that we would be a one dog house for now.

            And then in March something changed.  The urge to get a golden retriever puppy suddenly arose within my wife.  And once the kids got wind of this it was a full court press on poor old dad.  The lone voice of restraint, it soon dawned on me that resistance was futile. And so I folded like a house of cards.  I think the first time a puppy was mentioned was on a Wednesday.  By Saturday afternoon we had a golden retriever puppy.

            Our puppy, named Luther, is now three months old.  He is the cutest thing you will see and it is a joy to pet him – he is so soft.  He’s all puppy right now, but already has displayed a disposition that is very endearing.  He is certainly loved by the Surburg house, a feeling that I am quite sure will only deepen in the years to come.

            However, with all of that said, there is no way that I would give my life in order to save the dog.  I wouldn’t do anything that risked my life in order to save him.  I say that because I have a wife and children who need me.  And at an even more basic level, I say that because I am a human being created in God’s image and Luther is a dog.  I would give up my life for my wife or children in a heartbeat, but I’m not going to risk doing this for the dog.

            In the Gospel lesson for today, Jesus Christ expresses a very different attitude.  Jesus calls himself the “good shepherd” when he says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”  The text doesn’t just say that Jesus is the shepherd who is willing to risk his life to save the sheep.  It says that he is the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. 

            Underlying this statement is the profound connection that exists between Jesus and the sheep – between Jesus and you.  Our Lord contrasts the actions of the good shepherd with those of the hired hand.  He says, “He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.”

            Jesus says that he, the good shepherd, gives up his life for the sheep because the sheep belong to him.  He says, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.”  Jesus knows his own, and his own also know him.  In fact just before our text he said about the shepherd, “The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.”  Jesus says that he calls each sheep by name, and that because they know his voice – because they know him and trust him – the sheep follow him.  This caring relationship is the reason that the good shepherd is willing to lay down his life for the sheep.

            Now you have heard this text many times.  The metaphor of the good shepherd is a very well known and comfortable one.  After all, Good Shepherd is the name of this congregation.  However, when I stop and think about what Jesus is really saying I have to ask the question: “Are we talking about the good shepherd or the stupid shepherd?”

            You see, shepherds didn’t sacrifice their lives for sheep in the ancient world. Certainly, the animals were valued as an economic asset that was important for supporting life.  But sheep can’t do you any good if you are dead.  A shepherd might do his very best is save the sheep in the face of wild animal, but when push came to shove he is going to sacrifice the sheep rather than risk getting killed.  I don’t find this hard to understand.  I am not going to sacrifice my life to save Luther, a beloved creature in our house.  The shepherd certainly wasn’t going to sacrifice his life to save a sheep – one really dumb animal in the midst of a flock of dumb animals.

            Yet this is where the metaphor of the good shepherd conveys an amazing truth.  The fact of the matter is that you aren’t worth the trouble – you are not worth the sacrifice of Jesus’ life.  You are just one dumb animal in the midst of a flock of dumb animals.  Time after time you make dumb choices.  You know that when you are frustrated you are likely to say things you will regret.  And yet when you find yourself in that situation, you choose to speak anyway … and guess what happens?  You know that there are situations that place great temptation before you … and guess where you keep putting yourselves?  You know that the Means of Grace are the instrument God uses to sustain you in the faith … and guess what you often choose to put in second place during the week or on Sunday morning?

            You are not worthy of sacrifice. In fact if we are just talking about behavior and how you relate to your master, the family dog probably has a better claim to it.  And yet … God values and loves you in a way that overcomes this.  You see, God made you in his image.  And in spite of your sin and all of the ways you mess up he has never ceased to love you. 

            In fact when you were unlovable because of sin the Father sent the Son into the world as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.  The Son loved the Father – and you – so much that he willingly humbled himself in a way of service.  He came as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  He came as the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep.

            But as we are celebrating during Easter, he didn’t just come to lay down his life in a sacrifice for you. Death alone was never the plan.  Instead Jesus says a little later in this chapter, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

            Jesus did this for you.  He gave his life for you on the cross, and then on the third day he rose from the dead.  He called you by name when you were baptized – when you came to share in this saving action and were born again of water and the Spirit.  He called you by name and now you continue to hear his voice.  You hear it in the Holy Scriptures.  You hear it in the word of Holy Absolution.    You hear it in the word that he speaks over bread and wine at the Sacrament of the Altar.

            And because this is true, you have comfort.  You have the certainty of eternal life with the Lord.  Jesus says in this chapter, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”

            Jesus loved you by laying down his life for you on the cross.  Because his Spirit has called you to faith in his death and resurrection, Jesus promises that nothing can snatch you out of his hand.  But the sacrificial death of Jesus and the work of the Spirit within us does more than just make you feel good about where things are going. 

            John’s Gospel tells us that at the Last Supper Jesus did something unexpected – he washed his disciples’ feet. It was the job a slave would do – and yet there was Jesus on his knees with water and a towel.  When he was done he said to them: “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.” 

            You have been saved so that you can serve.  Jesus stated it very simply, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” This love is not a warm fuzzy feeling any more than Jesus’ death on the cross was a warm fuzzy experience.  Instead the Lord’s love for us was one of service, and so we are called to serve others because of Jesus.  John put it this way in his first epistle: “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”  And so John goes on to say, “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

            We can do this because we are the sheep of the Good Shepherd.  We belong to him. We know his voice.  We follow him, and no one can snatch us out of his hand.  He gives us eternal life – eternal life that is already ours now, and which will also involve a share in his resurrection when he returns in glory on the Last Day. And so we live each and every day secure in these words of our Lord: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

           

             

           

              

           

Culture news: Outlawing therapy for "transgender" kids?

During the span of less than a decade the "T" of LGBT has arrived on the scene of our culture in full force. What was once called Gender Identity Disorder is now called Gender Dysphoria because it is considered unacceptable to say that a man who thinks he is a woman or vice versa is a "disorder."  So strong is the assertion of transgenderism that legislation has been passed and proposed that would outlaw therapy that seeks to help youth with transgender issues affirm the sex determined by the body God has given to them.  If you haven't encountered transgenderism, you will.  The cultural push suggests it as an option for young people and holds it out as a welcome "solution" to mental anguish.  

Walt Heyer discusses how the suicide rate among people who pursue physical alteration to their bodies indicates that transgenderism is not the solution many think it to be. While gender dysphoria appears to be a complex phenomenon, to view transgender change as a solution inherently ignores the real problem - psychological disorder that seeks to rebel against the body God created.    

Sermon for Second Sunday in Easter - Quasimodo Geniti Ez 37:1-14

                                                                                                Easter 2

                                                                                                Ez. 37:1-14

                                                                                                4/12/15

            In 9 AD the Roman general Varus was leading his men through the Teutoberg Forest in northern Germany east of the Rhine River.  The Romans normally did not operate this far north and did not know the area well.  But Varus had no real misgivings about this. After all he has leading the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth legions – crack professional soldiers of the Roman army.  In addition he had cavalry and supporting auxiliary units.  All told, he had more than 18,000 men.

            The Romans considered Germany to be pacified all the way east to the Elbe River.  Varus, a respected administrator, had been brought in to establish the structure of a Roman province.  A key part of his work was to establish the taxation system.

            The land was not easy for marching.  There was dense forest in this wilderness.  In this low-lying land there were steep hills in a number of places surrounded by bogs.  Varus wasn’t concerned because the course they were taking in their march had been guided by Arminius.

            Arminius was a German tribesman.  He had served with the Roman army in an auxiliary unit.  Varus had come to trust and rely on this German ally.  But unknown to Varus, all was not as it appeared.  Arminius had served with the Roman army.  He had seen it in action.  He had studied its tactics. And he had a plan.

            Arminius realized that the professional soldiers of the Roman army were highly skilled and disciplined. Far more heavily armed, they maneuvered and fought in their formations, and in a set piece battle the Germans had little chance of winning.  However, if the Romans could be engaged in a setting where they couldn’t get organized; if they could be surprised and overwhelmed by numbers, they could be beaten.

            And so Arminius led the Romans into a trap.  The Kalkrieser Berg was a 350 foot hill.  On their march the army went around the hill and through a passage that was located between the hill and a large bog.  The passage was only a half mile wide in middle and was four miles long.

            At this spot Arminius had used what had learned from the Romans about military engineering and had built a long sod berm.  Hidden behind the berm were German warriors with spears.  At the moment when the Germans sprung the trap they reigned down thousands of spears on the unsuspecting Romans.  The confined area and surprise of the attack prevented the Romans from offering an organized defense. The result was a slaughter as the entire Roman force was annihilated.

            The disaster in the Teutoberg Forest was the end of Roman hopes to establish all of Germany as a province.  Henceforth the Rhine River would serve as the eastern boundary of the empire.  But the Romans did launch several retaliatory campaigns.  And few years later a Roman army returned to the site of the ambush. They found there the scene of a land strewn with the bones of Roman soldiers.  Some lay where the soldiers has been killed.  Some had been laid out in a ritual fashion by the Germans.  Some were piled up where they had been offered as human sacrifices to the gods.

            The scene in the Teutoberg Forest is a historical example of the kind of thing that the prophet Ezekiel describes in our text today.  In a visionary experience he sees a valley filled with bones – the grisly scene of a slaughtered army.  Yet God brings this army back to life – he raises them from the dead.  Through this experience God reveals to Israel hope for their future.  And in this word of God we find resurrection hope.

            The prophet Ezekiel wrote at the beginning of the sixth century B.C.  He was a priest who had been taken into exile in Babylon in 597 B.C. It was not the entire population that had been taken, but rather like the group taken in 605 B.C., it was an educated and well-to-do part of people.  Ezekiel wrote his prophecy in Babylon.  He condemned the people for the unfaithfulness – for the fact that they were worshipping false gods of the surrounding peoples. They had even brought the idols and altars of those false gods into the temple in Jerusalem.

            The book of Ezekiel follows an exact pattern of Law and Gospel.  For the first thirty three chapters Yahweh condemns the sin of the people and tells them that judgment is coming.  In chapter thirty three Ezekiel writes, “In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month, a fugitive from Jerusalem came to me and said, ‘The city has been struck down.’”  The exiles in Babylon receive word that the city of Jerusalem has been taken in a failed rebellion and the temple has been destroyed.  All but the very poorest people in the land are taken into exile in Babylon.

            From that point on, Ezekiel speaks a word of Gospel. God had not forgotten his people.  He will restore them to their land and at the end of the book we learn that he will renew and transform things to be like the Garden of Eden.

            In the previous chapter Yahweh has said that he is going to do something new.  He says through Ezekiel, “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”  God says that he is going to do something dramatically new through the work of his Spirit.

            To illustrate this for Ezekiel, God takes him in the Spirit to see a valley filled with very dry bones.  Yahweh tells Ezekiel, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the LORD.’”

            There is a rattling sound. The bones come together; they are joined by sinews and covered by flesh.  But there is no life in the bodies.  And then, just like in the creation when God formed Adams body out of dust and breathed into it the breath of life, Yahweh has Ezekiel prophecy the breath into the bodies. They live and stand as a great army.

            And then God provides the explanation of what this means.  He says, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD.”

            In our text, bodily resurrection is a metaphor for the restoration of Israel to their land.  But if that was all there was here, this text wouldn’t be of all that much significance to us.  However, the Scriptures teach us that Israel’s return from exile was a type.  As our catechumens will tell you, a type is person, institution or event in the Old Testament that points forward to something even greater God that does in the New Testament.

            At his baptism, we learn that Jesus Christ is Israel reduced to One.  He is Israel, the Son of God who is faithful where Israel the nation failed.  And the mission that he fulfills is God’s intention for Israel to be blessing to all peoples.  During Holy Week we saw Jesus go to the cross as the suffering Servant who bore the sins of all.  He died and was buried.  But on the third day – as the vision in our text describes – God opened the grave and raised Jesus from the it. By his death and resurrection for the forgiveness of your sins, God fulfilled his promise to Abraham: “In your seed all nations will be blessed.”

            God the Father raised Jesus from the dead. And after his ascension and exaltation to the right hand, Jesus Christ poured forth the Holy Spirit just as he had promised – just as God says he will do in our text today.           The Holy Spirit who gave you new spiritual life in Baptism is within you.  And this changes everything, for as the apostle Paul told the Romans, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

            The Gospel message of forgiveness and resurrection is one that we desperately need.  In our text the words are spoken for Israel, “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.” It is easy to look around at the movement of our culture on issues of sexuality and marriage and feel this way.  It is easy to look at the circumstances of our own lives – the hardships caused by physical and mental illness – and feel this way.  It is easy to look at the continuing presence of sin – those occasions when yet again we fall into temptation – and feel this way.

            But the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ means that you are forgiven and have hope.  You are forgiven.  You are a child of God.  You have been clothed with Christ in your baptism.  Our Lord himself declares you forgiven in Holy Absolution.  He gives his true body and blood given and shed for you in the Sacrament of the Altar.

            It means that the Spirit of God who raised Jesus dwells in you and that Christ’s resurrection life is already at work in you in order to conform you to Christ. Is the old Adam still present? Yes.  That guy is a good swimmer and though daily you drown him in repentance as you return in faith to your baptism, he keeps popping up out of the water.  But nourished by the Means of Grace through the work of Christ’s Spirit our God does bring about change.  He enables you to struggle against the sin in our life – indeed he gives you the desire to struggle against it and to live in ways the please God.

            And it means that this struggle takes place with hope.  This past Monday, Duke University won the men’s NCAA basketball championship.  When a team wins a championship, they always say that it made all of the struggles – all of the work, and the ups and downs of a season – worth it. What would it be like if a team started out a season, not knowing how the season would go, but knowing for sure that they were going to be champions?  They wouldn’t know the path that would take them there, only that if they kept at it until the end they would win.  They would have the encouragement needed to push through the setbacks because they knew what awaited them.

            That is how things are for us as Christians because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We walk by faith in the midst of the struggles, but we know how it ends because the end has already started in the resurrection of our Lord.  Because Jesus rose from the dead through the work of the Spirit, we know that same Spirit who dwells in us will raise us up.  The final and ultimate restoration to which our text directs us will be ours.  It’s certain.  It’s sure.  Just as we hear in our text, “Then you shall know that I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD.”