Podcast Sermon for January 22, 2012: What Did He Say?

Sermon for January 22, 2012: What Did He Say?

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
     The text this morning is from the book of the prophet Jonah, the third chapter:

Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
… When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Thus far the text.

Dear friends in Christ,
     The story of Jonah is one that can easily pass our understanding, and not in the way that God’s peace passes all understanding. No, we have tendency to miss the story for the whale. Yes, indeed, you heard me right. We miss the story for the whale.

Podcast Sermon for January 15, 2012: Behind the Scenes

Sermon for January 15, 2012: Behind the Scenes

     Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

     The text this morning is from the Gospel of John, the 1st chapter, especially starting at verse 47:

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.”

Thus far the text.

Dear friends in Christ,
     When I was in high school, and this is something you may not know about me yet, I was a major choir geek. A major choir geek. By the time I reached my senior year of high school, I was regularly performing in three choirs, one of which was an a capella group that I helped to found, another was the show choir, where I did my dancing and singing pop songs, and the other was the chamber choir, where I got to sing with 80 talented other people in 4-part or better harmony, and was also part of a couple of rated performance groups, singing for judges. I was a major choir geek. In some ways, I still wish I was…

The beauty (and unintended pain) of the Lord's Supper

A fantastic statement from Luther, not on the efficacy of the Lord's Supper, though it is that, but on the beauty of the Lord's Supper to be held between communicants, neighbors, in order to build each other up and help in every need. This is why Witness, Mercy, and Life Together matters. All the time. This is why theology matters. This is why the eighth commandment matters. This is why communion matters. All the time. And this is why we often fail. All the time. We sin. But God is good and forgives all our sin. All the time.

"There behold how unbelievably great a thing it is regarding that sacrament when one uses it in the right way, that a man must therein be delivered from death when he correctly perceives it for the great thing that it is.  Reason cannot conceive of it.  Is it not great that the high majesty steps forth for me and gives Himself to me for mine own, thereupon that all saints step forth for me and stand, take upon themselves what is mine and have concern for me, serve and help me?  Thus God places us in the fellowship of Christ and all His chosen; there we have a great consolation where we forsake ourselves.  If I am a sinner, thus Christ stands there and says, "The sinner is mine whom I grab hold of with My holy fingers.  Who will grumble about that?"  Thus my sin falls away and I partake of His righteousness.  Thus we Christians also do with each other, take upon ourselves that of another, so that one person bears the sin and failings of another and serves the other with his piety.  This we don't understand, and if we likewise often hear and understand it, we don't believe it.  And so we retreat ever more and experience no fruit or improvement."

~Martin Luther, "A Sermon on the Lord's Supper," Maundy Thursday, 1523

I'm 30

I am one day into my 31st year. Yes, I know that I turned 30 last month.

30 years ago yesterday, I became a full member of the Kingdom of God, with all the rights, responsibilities, and privileges thereof. I was baptized. I was an infant, I was passive, there was nothing I could do but be baptized by the hand of the pastor, by Christ's steward, serving as the hand of Christ.

I have been a Christian for all these years; the faith that God imputed to me in my baptism, His own faith of which I am a steward, has led me to rely on and look to Christ, albeit imperfectly in my sin.

Yet, I am just as redeemed today as I was as an infant. I am just as saved as I was January 3, 1982. I was just as justified by Christ's own merit, not my own. I am saved, I was saved. I was baptized, I am baptized. God claimed me as His own and, by His grace, I have remained so.

God is good. Here's to the next 30 years in Christ.