Podcast Sermon for February 29, 2012: Words from the Cross… About the Cross: With Me… in Paradise

A sermon preached by Vicar Lewis Polzin on February 29, 2012 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Troy, MO, on Luke 23:39-43. The text of this sermon may be found at the following web address: http://apastoralapproach.blogspot.com/2012/02/sermon-for-february-29-2012-words-from.html. The sermon recording may also be accessed by clicking the title of this blog post and playing it in your browser.

Sermon for February 29, 2012: Words from the Cross… About the Cross: With Me… in Paradise

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

The text for this evening’s message comes from the Gospel of Luke, the twenty-third chapter:

One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Thus far the text.

Dear Friends in Christ,
     Today with me you will hear about Jesus. Today with me you will hear about the cross. Today with me you will hear about repentance and forgiveness and the eternal life that Jesus Himself gives. Today, today, you will be with me, and today you will be with Jesus, in paradise.

     Jesus says an amazing thing on the cross. It’s easily missed and easily misunderstood. That’s because we often miss the importance of the cross. Now, certainly, the cross is important to us Christians. For sure. we often say that we Lutherans are Christ-centered and cross-focused. That means that we look to Christ and Him alone as the atoner, the revealer of God, the propitiation of our sins, and we do that by seeing exactly what God intended, from the foundation of the earth, for His Son to do, which is to die on a cross.
But, why the cross? Why did Jesus have to die in such a way? Many people say that it could be another way, another manner. But I, and so many others, say that the cross is the only way that Jesus could die. Let’s explore that.

Podcast Sermon for February 26, 2012: 40 Days of Fulfillment

A sermon preached by Vicar Lewis Polzin on February 26, 2012 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Troy, MO, on Mark 1:9:15. The text of this sermon may be found at the following web address: http://apastoralapproach.blogspot.com/2012/02/sermon-for-february-26-2012-40-days-of.html. The sermon recording may also be accessed by clicking the title of this blog post and playing it in your browser.

Sermon for February 26, 2012: 40 Days of Fulfillment

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

The text for this morning’s message comes from the Gospel of Mark, the first chapter:

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Thus far the text.

Dear Friends in Christ,
     Today is the first Sunday of Lent. This is a season that began last Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, and will continue for the next 6 weeks, and ends in that ultimate culmination of joy, that ultimate time of God’s care and provision, that celebration and feasting time of Easter, that day when Jesus Christ, God in flesh Himself, was raised from the dead, up from the grave that He entered on that very Good Friday. It’s a time of reflection. It’s a time of meditation. It’s a time of pondering. It’s a time of sorrow. It’s a time of fulfillment.

     Lent, which is a festival time that the early Church began to celebrate goes for 40 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter, minus Sundays, which are seen as mini-Easters. After all, during this time of great sadness, we still have joy in Christ, we still are forgiven of all our sins, the Church still will celebrate the Lord’s Supper, the Church will continue to baptize and teach and preach. That ultimate act of Jesus Christ which is fulfilled on Easter Sunday is foreshadowed in each of these Sundays that we meet during this time.

HHS Mandate and Pastor Matt Harrison: "We are studiously non-partisan, so much so that we’re often criticized for being quietistic. I’d rather not be here, frankly."

Thursday, February 16, 2012, may go down in history as a day that changed how American churches interact, accept, and honor the American government.  Pastor Matt Harrison, President of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, was asked to appear before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and speak on the issue of "Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience?"

He was not the only speaker there (between the two panels, there was a Catholic bishop, a rabbi, two university professors, 3 university presidents, 1 university administrator, 1 medical director, and a denominational president) and he spoke, not on the issue of the morality or immorality of contraception, but on the government overstepping its bounds and forcing its own principles on church-directed institutions and agencies.

The transcript of President Harrison's message follows and can be heard by clicking the title of this post. It is poignant, pithy, succinct, and incredibly smart (when he refers to the bed being too short, please turn to Isaiah 28:20 and read the context of it by reading verses 14-22). The LCMS is blessed to be lead by this man who is faithful to God's Word. If you would like more resources or articles on this subject, please contact me and I'll be happy to help you. God bless His Church and its resolve to obey God rather than men.

Mr. Chairman, it’s a pleasure to be here. The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod is a body of some 6,200 congregations and 2.3 million members across the U.S. We don’t distribute voters’ lists. We don’t have a Washington office. We are studiously non-partisan, so much so that we’re often criticized for being quietistic.

“I’d rather not be here, frankly. Our task is to proclaim, in the words of the blessed apostle St. John, the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all our sin. And we care for the needy. We haven’t the slightest intent to Christianize the government. Martin Luther famously quipped one time, ‘I’d rather have a smart Turk than a stupid Christian governing me.’

“We confess that there are two realms, the church and the state. They shouldn’t be mixed – the church is governed by the Word of God, the state by natural law and reason, the Constitution. We have 1,000 grade schools and high schools, 1,300 early childhood centers, 10 colleges and universities. We are a machine which produces good citizens for this country, and at tremendous personal cost.

“We have the nation’s only historic black Lutheran college in Concordia, Selma. Many of our people [who are alive today] walked with Dr. King 50 years ago on the march from Selma to Montgomery. We put up the first million dollars and have continued to provide finance for the Nehemiah Project in New York as it has continued over the years, to provide home ownership for thousands of families, many of them headed by single women. Our agency in New Orleans, Camp Restore, rebuilt over 4,000 homes after Katrina, through the blood, sweat and tears of our volunteers. Our Lutheran Malaria Initiative, barely begun, has touched the lives of 1.6 million people in East Africa, especially those affected by disease, women and children. And this is just the tip, the very tip, of the charitable iceberg.

“I’m here to express our deepest distress over the HHS provisions. We are religiously opposed to supporting abortion-causing drugs. That is, in part, why we maintain our own health plan. While we are grandfathered under the very narrow provisions of the HHS policy, we are deeply concerned that our consciences may soon be martyred by a few strokes on the keyboard as this administration moves us all into a single-payer … system. Our direct experience in the Hosanna-Tabor case with one of our congregations gives us no comfort that this administration will be concerned to guard our free-exercise rights.

“We self-insure 50,000 people. We do it well. Our workers make an average of $43,000 a year, 17,000 teachers make much less, on average. Our health plan was preparing to take significant cost-saving measures, to be passed on to our workers, just as this health-care legislation was passed. We elected not to make those changes, incur great cost, lest we fall out of the narrow provisions required under the grandfather clause. While we are opposed in principle, not to all forms of birth control, but only abortion-causing drugs, we stand with our friends in the Catholic Church and all others, Christians and non-Christians, under the free exercise and conscience provisions of the U.S. Constitution.

“Religious people determine what violates their consciences, not the federal government. The conscience is a sacred thing. Our church exists because overzealous governments in northern Europe made decisions which trampled the religious convictions of our forebearers. I have ancestors who served in the Revolutionary War. I have ancestors who were on the Lewis and Clark expedition. I have ancestors who served in the War of 1812, who fought for the North in the Civil War – my 88-year-old father-in-law has recounted to me, in tears many times, the horrors of the Battle of the Bulge. In fact, Bud Day, the most highly decorated veteran alive, is a member of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.

“We fought for a free conscience in this country, and we won’t give it up without a fight. To paraphrase Martin Luther, the heart and conscience has room only for God, not for God and the federal government. The bed is too narrow, the blanket is too short. We must obey God rather than men, and we will. Please get the federal government, Mr. Chairman, out of our consciences. Thank you.”

Podcast Sermon for February 12, 2012: A Disobedient Leper

Sermon for February 12, 2012: A Disobedient Leper

     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 Mark, the first chapter:

And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, [Jesus] stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once, and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter.

     Thus far the text.

Dear friends in Christ,
     The text today shows us a loving God who takes pity on His servants, on those who ask Him for healing, on those who ask Him for mercy and compassion and for Him to do His will. And in this story, it’s easy for us to focus on what happened after Jesus had mercy. We like to dwell on the hidden things of God. We want to figure out, “Why did Jesus tell the leper not to tell anyone? Why did the leper disobey God Himself and spread the news regardless of Jesus’ stern charge?” And these are good to talk about. In fact, when I began to look at this text, that’s what I wanted to talk about: the disobedient leper. But as I went, as I translated, as I thought, as I prayed, it became clear that there is something more to this text than just the ending. Let’s talk about the miracle.

The Sacraments ARE Important

It begins with taking words away from Christ and then is followed by putting words in Christ's mouth that aren't there. This is the denial of the sacraments. This is sin.

Look, this may be hard to hear, but if you are a Christian and you deny the efficacy of the sacraments, either the Lord's Supper or baptism (and, of course, by extension, confession and absolution), then you are sinning against the very Christ you claim to hold dear.

The sacraments are real. The sacraments are effectual. The sacraments are not ritual. The sacraments are the forgiveness of Christ coming through a physical element and His Word. It's His promise. If you deny this promise and take yourself and other people away from it, it's sin and grievous sin at that (see Matthew 18:5-6).

Below is the best explanation of this I have ever found of why we should trust Christ's promise to us in the instituting of His sacraments. Of course, it's only a part of the whole conversation. More can be said, but this brief passage from the Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord explains the sacrament easily. I know that this looks long, but the time it will take you to read it is incomparable to the benefit of the forgiveness found in the very sacrament most of evangelical Christianity now rejects.

If you reject Christ's teaching, if you reject His Word, you are rejecting Christ. If you reject Christ, that is sin.

Quit sinning, Christian. Christ loves you (so do I). Christ lived, died, and was resurrected for you. Cling to Christ. He forgives you.

Concerning our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as our only Teacher, this solemn command has been given from heaven to all people, "listen to Him" [Matthew 17:5]. He is not a mere man or angel, neither is He just true, wise, and mighty, but He is the eternal Truth and Wisdom itself and Almighty God. [Jesus] knows very well what and how He is to speak. He can also powerfully effect and do everything that He says and promises. He says, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away" (Luke 21:33); "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me" (Matthew 28:18). 

Consider this true, almighty Lord, our Creator and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, after the Last Supper. He is just beginning His bitter suffering and death for our sins. In those sad last moments, with great consideration and solemnity, He institutes this most venerable Sacrament. It was to be used until the end of the world with great reverence and obedience. It was to be an abiding memorial of His bitter suffering and death and all His benefits. It was a sealing and confirmation of the New Testament, a consolation of all distressed hears, and a firm bond of unity for Christians with Christ, their Head, and with one another. In ordaining and instituting the Holy Supper He spoke these words about the bread, which He blessed and gave: "Take, eat; this is My body, which is given for you," and about the cup, or wine: "This is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins." 

We are certainly duty-bound not to interpret and explain these words in a different way. For these are the words of the eternal, true, and almighty Son of God, our Lord, Creator and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. We cannot interpret them as allegorical, figurative, turns of phrases, in a way that seems agreeable with our reason. With simple faith and due obedience, we receive the words as they read, in their proper and plain sense. We do not allow ourselves to be diverted from Christ's express words by any objections or human contradictions spun from human reason, however appealing they may appear to reason. 

When Abraham heard God's Word about offering his son [Genesis 22], he had reason enough to debate whether the words should be understood literally or with a tolerable or mild interpretation. They conflicted openly not only with all reason and with the divine and natural law, but also with the chief article of faith about the promised Seed, Christ, who was to be born of Isaac. Nevertheless, when the promise of the blessed Seed from Isaac was given to him, Abraham honored God's truthfulness. He confidently concluded ad believed that what God promised He could also do, although it appeared impossible to his reason [Hebrews 11:17-19]. So also about Isaac's sacrifice he understood and believed God's Word and command plainly and simply, as they read according to the letter. He committed the matter to God's almighty power and wisdom, which, he knew has many more modes and ways to fulfill the promise of the Seed from Isaac than he could comprehend with blind reason. 

We, too, are simply to believe with all humility and obedience our Creator and Redeemer's plain, firm, clear, solemn words and command, without any doubt and dispute about how it agrees with our reason or is possible. For these words were spoken by that Lord who is infinite Wisdom and Truth itself. He can do and accomplish everything He promises. 

All the circumstances of the Holy Supper's institution testify that these words of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ (which in themselves are simple, plain, clear, firm, and beyond doubt), cannot and must not be understood other than in their usual, proper, and common meaning. For Christ gives this command at the table and at supper. There is certainly no doubt that He speaks of real, natural bread and of natural wine. Also, He speaks of oral eating and drinking, so there can be no metaphor (i.e., a change of meaning) in the words bread, as thoughChrist's body were a spiritual bread or a spiritual food of souls. Christ is careful not to use metonymy either. In other words, there is no change of meaning in the word body. He does not speak about a sign for His body, or about a symbol or figurative body, or about the power of His body and benefits that He has earned by the sacrifice of His body for us. Instead, He speaks about His true, essential body (which He delivered into death for us) and about His true, essential blood (which He shed for us on the tree of the cross for the forgiveness of sins).

~Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, VII.43-49 (Emphases mine)