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July 6, 2025 - Galatians 6:1-10, 14-18
Today we are in the fourth week after Pentecost. It is also the final week the lectionary takes us to the Book of Galatians. Next week the lectionary will take us to the Book of Colossians. But before we get there, let us continue and or finish our discussion from a couple of weeks ago on Christian freedom and also Christian identity. It is after all, Independence Day weekend and who doesn’t like freedom. We’ve been in the letter to the Galatians for a short time, but I hope you have learned a lot about what it means to be free. Galatians can be a difficult thing to read. It is sometimes described as choppy. It moves very quickly forwards and then seemly backwards. Paul is having an argument. The whole letter is an argument, an argument about what it means to be a Christian, and about who it is that really belongs to the people of God. Paul established the Church in Galatia. He taught them, stayed with them and then moved elsewhere to establish a church somewhere else. While he was gone, member of the church of Jerusalem came and they announced to the people of Galatia that Paul was not really a first class apostle, that he was subservient to the apostles in Jerusalem, and what he was preaching was an incomplete message. They insisted Jesus was a Jew, that all His first apostles were jews, therefore if you wanted to be a Christian you must also become a Jew. In other words, you must embrace the Law in its entirety. Paul, when he heard this was livid. I mean burning mad. And he wrote this letter. The letter to the Galatians is one of the most important letters within the New Testament. It predates all the Gospels, the Book of Acts, and Revelation. It is called the Magna Carta Liberatum, the Great Charter of Liberty. In this book Paul has argued for the Gospel, what it means to embrace the Gospel. Ultimately, what it looks like to live the Gospel in the world. In Galatians 3 Paul had argued that we are justified through faith in Jesus Christ. Simply saying we are justified through faith apart from works is not the whole story. We are justified through faith that’s true. But we have also been declared righteous on account the works of Jesus. That means Jesus, only Jesus, can and did accomplish our salvation. That’s the Gospel. As the letter continued, Paul argued the law was a gift of God and that it functioned much like a baby sitter. He called it a (paiduntos) literally, a leader of children. But now that Christ has come, we are to grow up into Christ, we are to get in line with him. That was the discussion a couple of weeks ago. This week we will look further into what that means and what it looks like. I heard a funny story about Margret Thatcher. Margret Thatcher was the Prime Minister of Great Brittan from 1979 to 1990. She is the only woman in history to hold that position. One day she decided it would be good to go from room to room meeting senior citizens in a nursing home. As the prime minister of Great Brittan, she did this. The people were amazed “the prime minister came to my room.” But there was this one women who showed no signs of recognizing who she was. She said politely, “do you know who I am?” The old woman replied, “no dear, but I would ask the nurse if I were you. She is good with that sort of thing.” In a real sense, Galatians 6 is about forgetting one identity and living and building another. Today’s discussion will be about living together in unity, but it is also a discussion about freedom. By now, I hope you have gathered your Christian freedom doesn’t justify you to do whatever you want. If anything, your freedom is not about you. More than that, if your freedom is to have any use at all, it must be matched by a sense of purpose. Paul said in Galatians 5 “we were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.” Paul was an amazing preacher. And we need to understand his angry, biting, and sometimes sarcastic letter was not an exercise in ugliness. He is addressing the important question: who am I, who are you, and even more fundamental, who is a Christian really. Most people would say this is a religious question. And in our culture, religious questions are to be private matters. Wouldn’t it be nice if the call was to live as autonomous free private individuals. You take care of yourself and I’ll take care of me. I could do this pretty well, if it weren’t for other people. Ah, but that’s Ann Rand’s world not God’s world. But the goal of today’s passage is that your identity shapes your Christian freedom. In Galatians 6, being free means to work towards the mending and repairing and recovering of peace within the community of Christ. It is precisely the opposite of what Paul calls the way of the flesh, which is a way of living that causes conflict. The word in Galatians 6:1 that is translated “restore” is also used in the Gospel of Mark to describe the mending of fishing nets. Let that be the idea that governs your actions next time you encounter a worn out, broken, or torn person. Furthermore, understand that Paul continually appeals to the fact that we are all members of an extended family. Recall back in Galatians 3 where Paul said we are sons and daughters of Abraham through faith. And when Paul says we are Sons of God, meaning we are inheritors… that also means we have a responsibility to the rest of the family. If we take our familiar task, of being accountable to each other seriously, we will not only bear the burdens of each other, but we will in fact, be burden bearers of Christ. I understand this to be a message that could strike a sour tune in our culture. I doubt you will find a culture in the history of the world that champions the individual any more than ours. The individual is the subject of our laws, the subject of rights and wrongs, his belief, her values… in my own head, I am the subject of objectivity… be careful with that. This might be Independence weekend for us, but Paul has the boldness to assert Christian freedom is not about you. You are involved in it, to be sure, but we can take our rights and park them at the door. Why? Because in this place you are in the presence of God. And in this place it is about God’s Gospel, God’s work, and God’s plan for his community. To live for yourself, or only for the people you adore, is to live a life contrary to your calling. Paul says you are called to burden bearing, to mending, to admonishing, forgiving, helping, and improving the community at large but the Christian community in particular. If one suffers, Paul says, the whole body suffers. If one is in need, we are all afflicted. Paul is not holding back, why? Because we are all family. Luther said, he loved this letter so much he said he was betrothed to it. He said, it is freedom in print. How so? He said, “On account of the Gospel, a Christian is an utterly free man, lord of all, subject to none.” Then in the next sentence, Luther said, “a Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject of all, subject to all.” Are those things antithetical? Absolutely not! Through the work of Christ, and in faith in Christ, you are free from sin, death, and eternal judgement. But you’re still bound to God, to his will, his plan, and to each other… It is ironic that through bearing each other’s burdens that you learn to be free. Reason being, is that you are called to become a participant in the cross of Christ and that is a freeing thing. It is the Cross of Christ that freed us. On this weekend in particular, we often reflect upon the fact that freedom is not free. It cost a hefty free… Our Christian freedom cost Jesus his life. Paul says no man can cause me trouble, because I bear the marks of Jesus. May that also be true for all of us. But now, let me ask you this, Paul says in Verse 2 we are to bear each other’s burdens and then in verse 5 he says each will have to bear his own load. What does he mean? Paul is saying two different things. In Verse 2 he is giving an exhortation that we need to bear each other burdens, but let that not mean, you do not need take it upon yourself to examine yourself. Both are foundational. Because God will judge the world and he will also judge every individual. To bring this all together, let me give you an illustration from the New Testament Scholar N. T. Wright. He says the game of Cricket can help us to understand what Paul the Apostle is saying in Galatians 6. Wright said, he was reading an autobiography of a world famous Cricket player. And he described how for the first 10 years he played the game with a team that never succeeded in winning a title. They had star players but they were all out for themselves. Their own success and their own reputation. After those 10 years, some of the senior players retired and a now younger team, less well known, immerged. With a new captain, even though less experienced, they began to work as a team. The key point was that every player began to work for the good of the team, not the good of themselves. If someone was having a difficult time, they would help him instead of taking the opportunity for himself. That is when the miracle occurred. They began to win. N. T. Wright went on to say, the church in Galatia looked very much like the first Cricket team. People were identifying themselves as particular types of Christians and they were looking down on others. Rather than seeing each other as redeemed sons of God and seeking each other’s common good, they saw others doing something wrong or seemingly improper, they would get all smug, and saying “that is not the way we do things.” Instead of defining them as equal at the foot of the cross, equal in Christ, and equal as members of the same family. Some were using the law to set themselves apart from each other, rather than to work together. To be fair, these were some of the first Christians in general let alone just in Galatia; they believed the Gospel, they were baptized, but there was no president, nothing to base their actions upon. Which is why Paul wrote his letters…. Paul ends this letter by saying, “following the law does not make you a Christian. Jesus makes you a Christian. More than that, Jesus makes you a new creation. And may you never boast except in the cross of our Lord. From now on, peace and mercy to all who follow this rule… what counts is the new creation. Grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ be with your spirit. You are brothers and sisters. You are free! Live like it, Amen.
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June 22, 2025 - Galatians 3:23-4:7
Three weeks ago was Ascension Day. Two weeks ago was Pentecost. Last week was Trinity Sunday. Ascension, Pentecost, and Trinity Sunday… That trifecta of the church year has thrown us into the longest season of the church we call Pentecost. The green signifies growth. May you use this time to grow, mature, and be fruitful in your faith. To get us started on the right track, let’s begin with a sermon based on our Epistle reading from the Book of Galatians. I’m going to call it “Freed”. Just like this sermon, the book of Galatians is a short letter. That beings said, do not be confused by the length. The Book of Galatians is important, and what you learn in the book could very well free you from sin and save your life. Speaking of the Book of Galatians, Martin Luther once wrote, “This is ‘my’ epistle. I am wedded to it.” It was on the masthead of the Reformation. It has been called the Magna Carta of the early church. It is the manifesto of Christian liberty, the impregnable citadel, and a veritable Gibraltar against any attack on the heart of the gospel. As someone else put it, “immortal victory is set upon its brow.” May you learn to be free, and may you, through the words of Paul, learn and grow in the grace of God. Martin Luther has said “he was betrothed to this Book”, so may you, by becoming betrothed to it, ironically, also be set free. I read a story about a missionary. While in the field of service, he adopted a child from the slums. Sometime after the adoption, they discovered the boy had stollen his father’s comb. While that may seem like a small thing, they also knew it was in his pocket. When confronted about it, the boy lied and denied the charge. When they revealed the comb was indeed in his pocket, believing a return to the slums was not far away in his future, the boy ran and hid under the bed. That is when his mother went to him, as he was hiding under the bed and she said, “what you did did not get you into this family. And what you do now cannot get you kicked out.” That is what Paul is saying both to the Galatians and to us. No one is in God’s family because of what we did. And what we do now cannot get us kicked out or loved more. More than we would like to admit, everyone of us finds ourselves gravitating towards hiding under the bed… because of what we have done, because of what we have left undone. As we revert to the posture of an orphan, questioning the love of our father, failing miserably as we seek to earn the favor of the family, all of us are hiding under the bed of our Christian life. But the truth of the Gospel is in Verse 26, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” Understand, if we were to neuter that verse into saying “We are all Children of God” as both the NIV and the King James does, we would lose a whole lot of meaning. This is not an exclusive statement on gender. Later Paul says, “There is Neither Jew nor Greek, male or female, slave or free.” What is being say is a stunning statement with cultural meaning. “You are all, women and men, slave, free, jews, Greeks… you are all sons.” In that culture, women were forbidden to inherit. The ones who had the right, the ones who had the favor, the ones who had the bounty, were the sons. Paul is saying, I’m not demeaning or excluding a gender, I’m magnifying your reality. Just understand, apart from the work of the Son and the work of the Spirit, none of us have any hope to enjoy Sonship with the Father. Without faith every one of us would be stuck under the bed with our fear and failure. But today, you are being called to hear and you are being called to believe in your “sonship”. How can you know you have this identity, this security? Verse 26 and 27 you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you were Baptized into Christ and clothed yourself with Christ. What marks us is a faith that fastens ourselves with Jesus. We are bound to him. We are united to him. To make this point, Paul speaks of clothing. In a sense, you are what you wear… I think our culture speaks this point to its detriment. But to use me as an example. I don’t wear this liturgical garb to lord it over you. I wear this white robe because I have been clothed with Christ and it identifies me as the pastor. Now, let me further clarify what’s being said… Baptism is passive (literally, it is an aorist passive indicative verb), meaning in Baptism you don’t put on anything. Christ cloths you. You are made one in Him. You are justified by faith through Him. On the topic of Baptism: what happened in Baptism is you got washed. Your old sinful self was drowned in those waters and you arise something new, an heir according to the promise. You used to be a slave, but now you are a son. You cannot make yourself a son. Adoption is 100 percent the father’s decision. So everyone is on the same page, Paul went to Galatia to preach Christ to the Gauls, modern day Turkey. Paul was very successful in Galatia. The people heard and believed. They became baptized and the church grew. Paul then left to preach elsewhere. In his absence, a group of Jewish Christian began to teach. Maybe they were well-intentioned, but they were teaching Paul was not really an Apostle, and more than that, his teachings were not quite right. They taught Jesus was a Jew. And if you are going to be a Christian, you also need to be a Jew and follow the Jewish laws. It makes perfect sense. And upon hearing this, the church of Galatia began to get circumcised, and to follow the Jewish customs. When Paul heard this, he wrote this letter. At times Paul’s words are red, hot, and angry. At times Paul says, “who has fooled you to be so asinine as to turn away from the freedom of Christ!” Hear Paul’s word, God’s Word, to the Church of Galatia… and to the Church of today. “So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. Hear a different translation: “So then, the law was our baby-sitter until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a baby-sitter, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.” The word translated as baby-sitter literally means leader of children. In a Greco-Roman culture, this word could be used for a slave who’s sole duty was to guard or watch the children. This individual would care for them, take them places, and watch ever move they made. Usually this individual would be strict… a real disciplinarian... but once the children grew up this individual was no longer needed. Paul is at pain to explain and argue for how the Gospel frees us. Paul says, did you receive the Holy Spirit because you obeyed the law or because you believed the Good news of the Gospel. It was the latter. Which of these two things came first: Abraham or Moses? Abraham. Which of these two things came first: the promise given to Abraham or the law given to Moses? The promise. Paul’s point is we are not saved by obeying the law but by believing the promise. Paul says we are justified by faith. Why? Because it is His faithfulness that saves us not our faithfulness. The Small Catechism begins with the 10 Commandment. If we are saved by grace through faith, why would we study the 10 commandments? It’s because the law was good. Because the law still is good. Luther calls it a curb, a mirror, and a guide. The law can show us our sin and just how short we have fallen, but what it cannot do is save us. You are saved by grace and mercy, it is not your own doing. “For in the fulness of time God has sent his son to be born of a woman, born under the law, to redeemer those who were under the law. You are no longer a slave, but free.” Understand, faith is not a work that gets you something or somewhere. It is a badge that identifies you. Ultimately, here is the logic, faith is a gift. It is a deep conviction which makes you do things that you would never have done without it. Galatians 5:13 says, “Do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” Finally, Paul said, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male not female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. What does all of this mean? Paul wants you to be free. He insists whether you are a slave or free, a Roman citizen or something else, in Jesus Christ, we are all equals. That’s what the Gospel does. It brings us together as equal inheritors. One Lord, one Baptism, one faith. In the midst of all that divides, the Gospel brings us together, the Gospel forgives our failures, and the Gospel redeems. The Gospel restores. The Gospel has done it all! What is there left to do? Be free and believe. You are Son! In the Grace of God, which surpasses all understanding, trust your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.
June 15, 2025 - Trinity Sunday
Dear Christian friends, we are now in the Season of Pentecost. The first Sunday following Pentecost is a day in the Church year traditionally known as Trinity Sunday. It should not surprise us that Trinity Sunday would follow Pentecost, given that the Holy Spirit has arrived and made himself known to the Church, by doing so, we now have far more to consider when we talk about God. I suppose I should say, that Christians are Trinitarian every Sunday, but today, in particular, we concentrate on the gift of knowing what we know about our God. If you recall, we just articulated our Christian belief concerning the Trinity with that rather lengthy but precise Athanasian Creed. I’d like to spend our time today discussing the Trinity and by doing so I intend to provide you some implications for your life. I would like to be honest upfront. The Trinity is a doctrine, and that means, it is a teaching of the Church. But to be fair, it is based on Scripture, even though the doctrine of the Trinity was never elaborated upon in Scripture like it was in the later Creeds. Let it be known, there is a reason for that, simply stated, years after the Bible had been written errors were creeping into the Church and the early Church Fathers felt as though they had to stand up against false teachings. But hear me out, even though the Trinity is not explicitly stated in the Scriptures, understand it is not based on our own understanding. It is not our own best guesses about God. Rather it is a concise formulation of all what God chose to reveal to us through His Word and our experience of Him. I hope you find this discussion stimulating, helpful, and edifying. It is not meant to be purely academic, however, it is meant to be didactic, or in other words, I do mean to teach you something. It should not be lost on us that Jesus called his followers disciples or learners and they in turn called Jesus teacher. The Trinity is not an easy subject, but the reason why we talk about it is the same reason why the early church talked it… because if we don’t grave and erroneous doctrine creeps in to take its place. So here we are, on Trinity Sunday, here to take a stand and to articulate our faith in the one true triune God. I heard a story in which a Sunday school teacher asked her students who is God. One of the boys said, “I know god… I even know what he looks like.” The teacher said, “Oh yeah? Explain.” He pulled out his offering and he said, “Here he is. His picture is right here.” He went on to say, “Look it even says ‘In God we trust’ right next to his picture.” If I were the teacher I would have wanted to pull out a different bill and ask the student this question: so which one is your God, “Jefferson, Lincoln, Washington…?” “In God we trust”. If you ask me, that phrase begs the question. What God do you trust in? Who is your God? Lincoln? The God of Abraham? The God of Mohamad? That is what Trinity Sunday is all about. Trinity Sunday reminds us who God is and what God is like. Because ultimately, how can we have a relationship with a God that we don’t know? One time I was teaching a Bible class. It was Lutheranism 101. We were reading the chapter on the Creed. And I said, the Mormons don’t believe in the same God as the Christians. How do I know? They reject the creed. A man in the Bible study got up and left. The reason why this discussion about the Trinity is so important is not just to defend against error but honestly it is not enough to say that these things are simply a mystery. It is not enough, and surely it’s detrimental, to shrug our shoulders when our children or grandchildren ask us these inevitable questions about our faith. It’s not enough to say “ask the pastor”. Why? Because you are not saved by my faith. You are saved by your faith. And what is your faith in? You need to know. The Trinity is important because it is how we have come to understand God, and we should at least strive to understand and believe nothing less than what God says about Himself. Trinity Sunday reminds us about who God is, and more than that, that God is God and we are not. It reminds us that God, who is and was, has always been God, and furthermore, we need him. Now let’s be fair, there is a whole lot about God that is mysterious, but let’s not get hung up with that, because there is a lot about God that He has been made known to us. In the Old Testament God revealed Himself as Yahweh the all-powerful creator of all that exists. Yahweh (I am who I am) said, he is a god like no other. He also said, He is literally the only God…. and that you will know nothing about Him unless He shows you. Well, luckily for us Yahweh is a verb and that means He is a God of action and oh how His actions clue us into his personhood. In the Old Testament, God revealed Himself as a mighty Father who cared for his chosen people. That leads us into the New Testament in which God revealed himself in the person and the work of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus is the manifestation of God in Human flesh. He called Himself God and he also called himself the Son of His Father Yahweh. At the end of the Gospels, Jesus promised to send the Spirit of truth and that Spirit descended on the disciples in the Book of Acts Chapter 2 at Pentecost. It is at that time, post Pentecost, that our understanding of this “One God” was turned on its head and became in need to revision. The Church was forced to reread and rethink what we thought we had known about God. The Apostle’s Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed all sought to bring clarity to the all important question: who is God. The Athanasian Creed confesses many important pillars of our Christian faith. It confesses that God is one. Deuteronomy Chapter 6 states, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” The Athanasian Creed confesses that God’s actions in the world are also an indication of His personhood. So in the words of Matthew Chapter 28, who is God? Answer, God is one, and also “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” It is true that this distinction lies beyond human comprehension. That beings said, one thing I can say is that we normally think of persons as autonomous individuals. But when you consider what “persons” means in reference to the Trinity it does not mean that at all. To be a person of the Trinity is to be self-giving and inter-related to the others. God the Father is inter-related to the Son, the Son is inter-related to the Spirit and all three are inter-related in such a way that they are unified. Notice what all of this means. It means that Father is not greater than the Son nor the Son greater than the Spirit. All are equal and all are perfect. I realize in the lectionary reading last week Jesus said, “The Father is greater than I.” In that context Jesus was speaking about his humanity. And it was not long after that text that Jesus would go on to die on the cross. As I said, one of the motivations for writing the Creeds was a rejection of false teaching. One such teaching was called modalism. This teaching stated that God was one but revealed himself using three different modes. The problem with this teaching was that it suggested that God had put on three different masks. What modalism failed to see is that Jesus Christ is really God and not just a mask that God at times chooses to wear. What many died to defend was that the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ was not just a mask that God could put on and take off. God is not disguised as Jesus Christ. God is Jesus Christ. I imagine that you can see that many of these ancient Christian heresies reinvented into many of the false religions of present day. The truth is they are just as present and insidious as they have ever been. I imagine Peter would say that is why this discussion is important… because you want to know your God, don’t you? And we should always be ready to give answers whenever called upon. I’d like to talk a little about what all this means for you. The doctrine of the Trinity makes very clearly that God has a life apart from you and me. That might not sound all that comforting, but I think it is and here’s why. God did not create you because he need to. He did not create you to keep Himself from being lonely. Rather, He created you because He wanted to and because he lives in and for relationships. The great Lutheran theologian Francis Pieper wrote that the purpose of Religion is not so much to define God as much as it is defined by our relationship to God. Ultimately, that is what the Doctrine of the Trinity is all about… it is about God but it is also forever related to you and me because what it says and what it discloses about God it also says and discloses much about us. Our God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is fundamentally a relational being. The Trinity is a beautiful example of what it means to live relationally. The Father gives himself by offering his own Son in love. The Son gives himself by being sacrificed in love by the Father. And the Holy Spirit gives himself by presenting us to the Father and the Son for reconciliation. The truth is that this sacrificial relationship is at the heart of God’s being and the only way for you to prefect your own relationships is for you to be selfless and for you to have a relationship with Him. God has already done all the work to make you, redeem you, and reveal Himself to you. Now and only now can we love God as he first loved us. Understand that God made you to be like him. What does that mean? It means, we too are relational beings; only unlike God, who does not need us, we do need Him. But thanks be to God that God almighty, who is beyond our capacity to grasp, He is a being who loves through relationships. He is a being that is defined by self-sacrifice, and above all, He desires to be in communion with you. What a mighty fine thing that doctrine of the Trinity affirms... wouldn’t you agree? Let go on to confess the Athanasian Creed once again… just kidding. In the grace of God, which surpasses all understanding, trust your hearts and minds in the Triune God.
June 8, 2025 - Acts 1:1-21
To the Church of Jesus Christ, Happy Pentecost. This may sound weird for a Lutheran so say, but I pray that this congregation might be Pentecostal. What I mean by that is not that you speak in tongues, but may you experience Pentecost. May you today hear the Word preached in your own tongue. May you hear the Gospel preached to you and for you… may it change you. Most importantly, may the Holy Spirt continue to bring us together into unity, understanding, proper doctrine, community, continuity, action, and most importantly into a Spirit of forgiveness. To this end, as a congregation, I pray that we might experience Pentecost not just once but over and over again. There is a reason why Pentecost is such a long season of the church year. There is also a reason why the parament colors will soon turn to green. It is a time for you to grow. Grow in your faith and grow in His church. Understand, we, very appropriately, confess in the Apostles’ Creed and Nicene Creed, our faith is not just founded in Jesus… “I also believe in the Holy Spirit and I believe in the Holy Christian Church.” Therefore, you cannot separate God from His Church. You cannot love Jesus and hate the Church. No one, including me thinks the Church is perfect. Organized religion is no more organized than anything else. But despite our imperfection, the Church is Jesus’ bride, and He loves her. And more than that, the systems of the Church are in place to protect you. For example, it is fine and dandy for me to feel an internal call. But to validate that call and to actually get a job working in the church, I had to go to college and then go to grad school, and then be sign-off by the district presidents, and then work for a year at an actual church, and then finally actually receive a call from a church. Bad people can get through the system but the system is intended not just to weed bad people out but also to help validate people who received legitimate calls from the Holy Spirit. It is sadly a too common sentiment even among people that believe in Jesus… they think being part of the Church is a dispensable thing. I can claim her when I want her/ or need her like for my wedding or my funeral, but for the rest of the time I’ll reject her when I don’t need her…. I frankly hope there is nothing else in their life they treat like the church. But sadly, as it comes to church, I know several people willing to claim her enough to be counted on our roles, but not enough to actually sit here next to you and I or to actually support us in our mission. Before we get any deeper, let me give you an application. Spiritual birth and spiritual church are connected. Personal wellbeing and communal living are connected. Growing deeply with God requires growing in deep connection with others. Finally, and most importantly, no one will grow as deep as they should as a private practice… period. If you attend an African American church service, you will more than likely encounter an expression among those African American Christians. Following a spirit filled service, more than likely you will hear someone say, “Man, we really had church today.” When was the last time you left church and said, “We really had church today?” How long has it been since you completely lost track of time because you were so caught up in the spirit of prayer, song, or the sermon… that you didn’t want it to end. Is church the last thing you don’t want to end? I’ve heard people admit to not want to go to heaven because they don’t want to go to a place that will be worship all the time. Is that you? Perhaps you need to experience Pentecost or reexperience it. We are getting to the point that very few will actually remember this, but you might remember your mother or grandmother telling you about it… it was not all that long ago when parts of the United States still remained without electricity. It took a government program of rural electrification called REA to get electricity to all the rural areas of this country. The REA was launched in 1935 and over the following decade it succeeded in getting power even into the most remote areas. I read a story about a man that petitioned to get electricity for his farm that stood on the edge of the North Dakota badlands. He worked hard to bring electricity to his state. He envisioned what electricity would mean for all of those people. He spread his enthusiasm throughout all of North Dakota and he even wired his home in anticipation ready for the day the juice would be turned on. One day he noticed the light bulb he screwed into a wired socket began to glow with a brilliance no oil kerosene lamp ever made possible. He ran out the door, rushed down the road and shouted the “good news” to everyone who would hear. “The power is on!” “The power is on!” In Acts 1:8 Jesus said to his disciples “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” The English word “power” is derived from an old French word meaning to be able. The Greek word translated as power is Dunamis. Alfred Nobel named his invention dynamite after the Greek word for power. But the real question behind this definition becomes: what do you want to be able to do, feel, enjoy? The power of Pentecost is an enabling force. And the power of the Holy Spirit is not just any kind of power. He is the power of the living God. He is power with compassion, power with grace and mercy. He is the power of the Church. The Holy Spirit is the power of God to forgive, the power of God to overcome, the power of God to discipline desire, the power of God to be holy and Christ-like. The Holy Spirit is the living presence and power of God. The Holy Spirit is who enables you and me to become children of God and members of His Church. When you look at the situation of the Church in this country, it is pretty depressing. Statistics suggest the numbers within our denomination were getting smaller and the number of congregations closing are getting larger. Let’s be honest, we can see and feel that statistic right here. We are increasingly finding ourselves at a vulnerable point in which our core group is becoming too small to sustain the activities we used to do or to have. We are finding ourselves increasingly at a watershed moment. What I mean by that, is luckily it is not too late. I might just talk to the video for a moment… I might be talking into thin air and wasting breath, but in the off chance there is someone listening that doesn’t attend or participate but could… The church needs you. And God wants more for you and from you. As for the church she might not be there for you when you need it, because you where there for her while she needed you. Soren Kierkegaard once said, “you can look back on life by remembering but you can only live life by walking into the future.” The Day of Pentecost marked out our future right now. The way forward is the only way there is. The traditional definition of the church is “the body of God’s people who gather, who rightly distribute His Sacraments, and preach His Word.” God’s Church is not dying, it is just not thriving here. It’s growing in places like Africa and South America. I pray the Holy Spirit continues work among us. I have no idea what the Church in America will look like in a 10 years… 20 years. But I know it will be here. How do I know? Because the Church is the body of Christ, the body of people saved in Christ by his very blood and it is the people filled with the Holy Spirit. And wherever people are gathered in His name, be it few or many, God is present among them. But I’m asking you about your faith. How is it with you? Are you full of the Holy Spirit? Does your faith fill you with joy even in the midst of all the depressing circumstances surrounding us? Are you sure in your soul that God almighty is with you? If not, what you need is the Holy Spirit, for only the Holy Spirit makes God real in your life. I recently stumbled upon Carl Barth’s exposition on the Apostles’ Creed. He began the third article with these words, he wrote, “you notice now we begin the third article of the creed by repeating the phrase I believe for the third time. The first time I believe in God the Father almighty. The second time I believe in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord. Now we say I believe in the Holy Spirit and the Holy Christian Church. What does this third section on the Spirit and the church have to do with the proceeding two sections? Literally everything! And before you begin it, take a deep breath. And pray that God will give us the Holy Spirit.” I heard a story about a young man who was very gifted in his abilities to work with stained-glass. He visited one of the great artists who made beautiful stained-glass windows. The old man agreed to take the young man as his apprentice. The young man was good. He worked with diligence and energy but he was not satisfied with what he could do. One day he approached the master and said may be borrow your tools, sir? The young man took the old man’s tools but it still lacked something. He said, “What am I doing wrong?” The old man said, “You have great talent and you have the tools of the master but what you lack is the spirit of the master.” Wherever the Spirit of the Lord resides there is the church of Jesus Christ. You could have a big building, fabulous programs, and be magnificent at everything, and without the Holy Spirit you just have a big building, big numbers, and a magnificence that has no genuine importance. Jesus said, “if we, meaning you and me, being evil know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will our heavenly father give us the Holy Spirit if we ask. Ask, pray, seek. Carl Barth had said, the Holy Spirit is received when the Holy Spirit is sighed for, cried for, prayed for. If you want Jesus to be real in your life, If you want to be on fire for God, ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit. That is my prayer every day. May you hear and believe and trust that the Word has become flesh and He has dwelt among us. Believe as Peter preached that it was our sin that put him on the cross. Most importantly, believe that it was His death and resurrection that conquered our human problem. And we are made partakers of the promise of forgiveness and life everlasting through the Holy Spirit and through our Baptism we are made members of His holy Church. I believe in the Holy Christian church. And I pray with the help of the Holy Spirit “May we really have church today.” Come Holy Spirit. Descend in power.
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June 1, 2025 - Revelation 22:1-6
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from Him who is and was and who is coming again, the risen and ascended Lord Jesus. Amen. Today is the culmination of several things. Today is the seventh and final Sunday in the Easter Season. Today is the final day we are in our sermon series from the Book of Revelation focused on “seeing Jesus”. Today is Ascension Sunday in which we celebrate the day in which Jesus was lifted up from their sight. Finally, but certainly not least, today is Confirmation Sunday and we celebrate the faith of our youth here at Saint Paul’s. Emmett, last weekend your brother Corbin graduated from High School. And by the way, congratulations Corbin. I am aware that some people treat Confirmation like a graduation. It is true that your course work has ended. Your tests are over and your classes will no longer meet. That is where the graduation analogy ends, because, in no way have you graduated from the Christian life. Let me remind you of some things you wrote in your faith papers. Emmett you wrote, “being confirmed is important to me because this education helps build a stronger relationship with God. The process also helps me understand my faith so that my faith will stay strong as I grow up.” Emma you wrote, “Confirmation is important to me because I will be able to continue my life of being a Lutheran in the Christian world, and I will be able to represent my church to other Christians.” Shae, you wrote, “the things I learned in Confirmation Class will be carried with me for the rest of my faith, and for the rest of my life.” You all recognized that Confirmation is not a graduation. Confirmation is about you becoming an adult member of the church. It is about experiencing the joy of serving the Lord's Church and sharing in the responsibilities of making the church do what God would have it do. Confirmation, therefore, is about stepping-up and become the mature Christian God intends for you to be, and this is just the beginning… not the end. Over the years I have heard pastors lament over their Confirmation classes because sometime they can feel more laborious than glorious. Meeting on Wednesday nights for two years after a long day of school is a bore, a chore, a snore. That might be true, but without a doubt one of the high points was when we meet with the elders and you read and discussed your faith papers. I took that evening as a beautiful confession of your faith and the faith of all the people around that table that were there for you. I hope you gleaned from that night that you can articulate your faith and also there are a lot of people here that support you and love you. Each one of you received a Confirmation sponsor. That was to express to you that I’m not the only one that cares about your Confirmation instruction and the growth of you as a believer in Christ. And to be sure, your instructions and growth is far from over. If anything, it is just beginning. Today you will receive your first Communion. Shae, one thing I’ve always appreciated about you was that you have always held your hand out to receive Communion for years. And today you will do just that. But before we get there, hear these words of Jesus. Jesus told his disciples at the last supper, “I still have many things to say to you…” If that’s the case, why don’t you just say it? Jesus answered, “You cannot bear these things now.” That was not a put down. Jesus was just making an observation. The disciples were not ready for what Jesus had to say. Indeed, it was not just more facts to fill your heads. But Jesus wanted to communicate to their hearts. And first they needed to undergo life experiences. What kind of life experiences? Today is also Ascension Sunday. The Collect prayer appointed for Ascension Day, which was Thursday, was this: “Assist us oh Lord, and grant that since we believe the Savior of Mankind to be seated with you in your majesty, that we might feel that he abides with us even until the end of the age.” That is a nice prayer for Confirmation Sunday. It’s also a nice prayer to end our sermon series in which for the past six weeks we have been focused and fixated on “seeing Jesus”, but more than that, as the prayer for Ascension Day indicates, may we, you, continue to feel Jesus’ presence in your lives even when he is not overtly visible. What do you think? Is “feeling Jesus’ presence” an odd goal to have on Ascension Day? Isn’t the point of the Ascension that “Jesus was lifted up from their sight?” I suppose that’s true, but let’s just be clear as to what we confess on Ascension Day. Let’s be clear what we confess in the Apostles’ Creed. When we say Jesus Ascended to the “right hand of the Father” that is not so much designating his location, but rather designating his authority. Ascension Day is not a celebration that we have an absentee God. It is a celebration that Jesus, who had descended from this authority in order to endure all of humanity’s pain and sin and sorrow on the cross, He has now ascended to reclaim His throne. This morning, as we close out the Easter Season, and an important chapter of your faith lives, I admit that I don’t remember that much from my Confirmation days. I remember getting confirmed on Pentecost and I remember getting confirmed along-side Stephanie’s older brother Michael. I remember standing before the congregation and speaking my vows. I also remember my pastor, who although he is no longer at Heavenly Host and neither am I, but I’d like to point out that he remains still very close to me, and still very much a part of my life. He officiated at Stephanie and I’s wedding. And he also baptized Adeline. I tell you this because I don’t expect you to remember everything we talked about in Confirmation Class nor do I expect you to remember everything about your confirmation day. The two years and this one day is surely but a stepping stone into the rest of your life. Yet, on this day that you will make a commitment to follow Jesus, and I also pledge that I too will be part of your Christian life in whatever capacity you’ll allow me to be a part of. That means I offer you my continued assistance, guidance, and best advice whenever you need it- wherever you are- because realistically, although you progressed beyond my confirmation class, you are doing so without all your questions of life answered. To be fair, you have not even lived long enough to have formulated all the big questions of your life. But that beings said, allow me to suggest, there are many people in this church who have been through the things you will go through, they have fought the good fight, and they have come out on the other side. And like I said, they are here to help you. I have not required sermon notes recently, but I’m sure you remember I always asked the question “what is the law” and “what is the gospel.” I asked those questions not to waste your time, but to prepare you to distinguish law and gospel in your life. Admittedly, it is not easy to recognize God’s grace in the midst of tragedy. But know this, time and time again Jesus took tragedies and turned them into triumphs. “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live.” Did you know when John wrote Revelation he was alone in exile? He was on the desolate island of Patmos as a prisoner of Domitian on account of the Word of God and John’s faithfulness to it. He was there because of his role as a leader of the church. He was there because of his refusal to bow to worship Cesar as God. Left to sit in a mouth of a cave, surely he had nothing else to do than imagine the worst. I’m sure his pastoral heart was sick thinking about the people across the Aegean sea he had been exiled from them. About how they too were suffering persecution, about how they too were having their faith tested by Domitian’s threats. On those long days and nights, surely he had time to reflect on how he had seen Jesus, all the time he spent with Jesus and heard him teach, all the good times, all the miracles of Jesus, the lessons he heard, the sermons he heard. (I hope you take the time to reflect on those things especially on your Confirmation Day). But also, he must have remembered the night he fled the Garden of Gethsemane. The horrible things he saw and heard at the foot of the cross. His bewilderment when he stepped into the empty tomb. And also his joy that evening in the upper room and the days to follow as he spent time with his risen savor. He had been there to see Jesus ascend to his rightful place of glory. He was there on Pentecost and was filled with the Holy Spirit of power from on high. He has been part of the great missionary advances. Thousands upon thousands had been coming to the faith. It was victory upon victory and all with the expectation that Jesus would come again at any moment. But now years had gone by, about 60 of them. And John was being feed illusions of Domitian’s power and what all the persecution was doing to the church. The people dying, the people falling away, the damage Satan was doing. Lord I’m thirsty… and I desire to take the water of life without price. I want a world with no more pain, and sorrow, and sickness, and sadness, and waiting? A world where you are the king and I can see your face. “Lord, why don’t you at this time restore the kingdom and do it now?” To that very question, in Acts 1:8 Jesus replied, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” I think the point is clear. Jesus has a plan of salvation and the plan was and still is in the present for you to be my witnesses. What the Ascension tells us is that we have a glorious future, that one day we will all be with Jesus and like Jesus. John was moved to confess “Come Lord Jesus come quickly.” Let us on this day come to the final Word, the exclamation-point at the end of the book… Jesus made several “I am” statements: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, I am the first and the last, I am the beginning and the end, and behold, I am coming Soon!” How do we retain our faith in the midst of life? Pray and hang on to the promise that Jesus is coming soon. The Jesus, who is coming soon, is the very same Jesus who died and rose so that we might have life in his name. The Jesus, who is coming soon, is the very same Lord of our Baptism. And He, who is life itself, will bring us healing and wholeness when he returns. In the mean-time, we are to devote ourselves to service, prayer, and to participate in the Lord’s Supper. Why the Lord’s Supper? Interestingly enough, Paul says, “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.” Jesus is the promise and the fulfillment of a glorious new heaven and new earth. Jesus has come to strengthen our faith and to send us once again with a message, a message to a church still under pressure. Let us say with confidence “come Lord Jesus” because although we have yet to see the fulfillment, the new heaven and new earth, the river of life, the tree yielding its fruit each month, a place without tears and no more death, none the less, blessed are those who have washed their robes in the Blood of the lamb… The Kingdom of God and my membership is made more sure through the Ascended Lord Jesus. Finally, I’d like to say to all of you that I have enjoyed being the conductor of this portion of your faith journey. Given your journey ahead, my wish for you, my prayer for you, is that you might have an ever growing and an ever-deepening personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ. May you continue to grow in faith, and may you continue to stand up for what you believe in. This being the last Sunday of Easter, let us recall the words of Job: “I know that my redeemer lives and in the end he will stand on the earth and I myself will see him with my own eyes.” May you see Jesus, Come Lord, Jesus come quickly.
May 25, 2025 - Revelation 21:9-14
Throughout the Easter season, our goal, as we journey through the Book of Revelation, is to “see Jesus”. Today the angel declared to John, “Come and I will show you.” Brothers and sisters in Christ, heed the invitation of the angel in Revelation 21, as he invites John to behold, may you too behold Jesus… and much much more. “Come and you shall see a mountain, the bride, the city with walls and gates. You shall see rare jewels like Jasper clear as crystal. Back in Chapter 1, John had been instructed by Jesus to write down what he saw. And that is what he did. Once again heed the invitation to see what he saw. To be fair, there is almost too much to see and there is no way to exhaust this text without exhausting you. First consider our attempts at city building. We all want our city to be a happy healthy place to live. We want people to desire to move here, to live here, to thrive here. And we argue about how to do that. What we need is a new name. Change it from Glencoe to Wildwood. No, what we need is entertainment. No, what we need is fences and less deer. No, we need better advertising, better parking, and better play grounds. Some say we need all of those things. How are we doing? How is any city doing? Recall last week when I suggested we all have the same problems. Has any city since the dawn of time accomplished the task of irradicating drugs and violence and poverty, and creating a seemingly utopian society? Genesis 11 tells the story of Babel, “Let us build a city for ourselves, and a tower whose top will reach into the heavens.” Over time we made attempts to quote unquote “improve” on those plans be it in Plato’s “Republic”, or Thomas Moore’s’ “Utopian”, or Johann Andreas’ Christianopolis, or Francis Bacon’s “New Atlantis”. We have tried and failed many many times. The best we can do is write about it. Above all, we want the same thing, a better place to live. The truth is it doesn’t take much to loose track of who we are, whose we are, and where home really is. The Poet Edward Robinson once observed “the world is as it were a kind of spiritual kindergarten where millions of bewildered children are trying to spell God with the wrong blocks”… or allow me to add with blocks that spell their own name because frankly those are the only letters we seem to know. But we are making progress, aren’t we? We are learning to build cities made of glass and steel that scrape the sky, and better, that can blaze with lights all night long without regard for the rhythm God created with evening rest. And beyond the physical, our attitudes run confident that we can fine tune society through wars on poverty, wars on drugs, promises to end crime, and most recently promises to take care of us and our health. I don’t know if you know this but my father is one of the world’s leading researchers of concrete. One thing my dad strikingly remarked upon was the fact that, for some reason even with all our research and fine-tuned machines we cannot seem to produce a product nearly as good as the concrete the Romans could make 2000 years ago. Enough about us, there is no significant progress to be made in that discussion. What does God build? After all, the Bible says, “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build labor in vain.” Before we behold the text, let’s consider how this text could function for us. Reading this text, is quite literally like opening a book to the last couple of pages and reading the ending before we read the beginning. I for one don’t want to see the last episode of the last season of a show until I see the others first. But I recognize you know and feel the beginning’s problems. Therefore, reading this text is kind of like watching a movie for the second or third time through. And I’m sure you would admit there is value in that. With a tangible ending in mind, it could help you see things or make connections that you might otherwise have missed the first time through. That’s how I’d like for it to function for you today. In Revelation 21 we get a glimpse of the ending, the final outcome for us, for the church, and for all of creation. And the purpose, an application, is to help us, comfort us, and strengthen us as we are still going through the details of the story. Today we get invited to read the back of the Book and we are invited to see a wedding, although the image is not what we would have expected. The wedding is far from anything we would see in a Disney princess movie or even anything else we know from Scripture. For example Paul in Ephesians 5 describes how Jesus loves the church and we are his bride. Ephesians 5 says he has made US holy and radiant by cleansing US by the washing of the waters of Baptism. The picture in Revelation 21 is not one of a royal princess or even the church but instead a royal city. Jerusalem is coming down from heaven, beautiful, royal, and magnificent. But to stretch that image, in 1 Peter that city includes living stones, stones like us. So, understand by faith we are in that scene, a part of that enormous city, the perfect cube, which is as wide as it is long and has high as it is wide. God, as the architect waists no materials, including us. Even us… as imperfect as we are, God takes miss cut blocks and hopelessly flawed stones and he pays the infinite price of his Son to make them new again. The city cost so much not only because the materials need to be reworked but also because there will never be another one to supersede it. This city has no enemies. The walls and the gates are a testament to the power of God and his art; but they never need to be closed. God has made life in this city perfect. And yes, we will be there, even though we are imperfect now, we will be made perfect just like his Son. How do we know? It says the impure shall not enter. Yes, the impure will have a different place to go. But check your Baptismal record. Note your name and recall the promise God made to you on that day. You are on the list of God’s building materials. Hear his Word and believe. Living near St. Louis, at the Seminary and even now, I heard a lot about Lewis Sullivan. Lewis Sullivan was known as the father of the sky scraper. He was the first architect to use steel and in so doing he could build bigger and higher, and then he would wrap the building in stone or bricks. He built two of the first sky scrapers in down town St. Louis and then some in Chicago and elsewhere. In some of his most notable buildings, he would leave some of the steel exposed to remind, to teach, and to show what matters. The same thing happens in Revelation 21 as he reveals in the foundation the names of the twelve Apostles. And perhaps the most striking part of all… is the negative space…. Did you catch it? No temple. Why? Because God and the lamb are the temple. Recall when Jesus when had said, “tear down the temple and in three days I will build it back up again… do make the connection, he was literally talking about himself and there will be no more need for sacrifice or for priests to make intercession because the lamb once dead lives and stands at the center of everything. I’ll have to find a new Job… I’m quite ok with that. It is far different than anything we know or have experienced, none the less, it is a concrete reality that as my dad would say, is better than the anything the Romans could have built. Above all, I thank God for the invitation to see the ending because it is so easy to get bogged down in my own short story line. Can knowing the ending give you encouragement? I don’t want to know how I’m going to die, or anything like that, but knowing my name is written in the Book of life with the very blood of Jesus, that is encouraging. He has put his name upon you and me, and we can have the assurance that we are his. By his grace and through faith in Jesus, cling to the promise, that even though things are tough now, Revelation 21 says we will live happy ever after. I suppose in that sense, Revelation 21 does end like a Disney movie. But here is the point, Revelation 21 is not a fantasy or wishful thinking. It is a concrete reality that awaits those who believe. And I want you to be able to use the concrete reality of the end to help you face the reality of life right now. Right now some of you have children to raise, jobs to do, some of you have rehabs, and all of us have the effects of sin waning heavy. Although none of us know exactly that awaits us in the new heaven and new earth, it will be something much better than simply gold and jewels. Something that defies our language and even our logic. I take refuge in Paul’s memorable reminder, “no eye has seen, or ear has heard, or human mind has conceived -- the things God has prepared for those who love him--” That being said, it would be just like God, who even after the resurrection chose to retain his physical body along with the scars, it is that very God who also choses to give us a new life along with him. I’m sure we will find the image of Revelation 21 to be but a small trickle of water compared to the Niagara Falls of what it will actually be like. None the less, do not be surprised when God has spared no expense, for his Son has already paid the infinite price. It will be a city unlike anything else, bigger, taller, more magnificent. Lewis Sullivan wont know what to say. But with eyes of faith, may we be moved to respond in the words of John, “Come Lord Jesus Come quickly.”
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Wildwood, MO 63038
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