St. Luke 22:1-22, 42 – Holy Wednesday 2013

St. Luke 22:1-22, 42 – Holy Wednesday 2013
Zion Ev. Lutheran Church, McHenry, IL
March 27, 2013 

In the name of Jesus. Amen.   Holy Wednesday is Spy Wednesday.  The day that all the forces of darkness work behind the scenes to seize Jesus.

They plot.  They scheme.  They meet.  Judas, one of the twelve, confesses with the chief priests and the scribes against Jesus.  

Judas consented with them.  He confessed with them.  He with them instead of He with Jesus.

To confess is “to same the say with.”  To say the same with the Lord.   He speaks.  We speak what He says.  We say “Amen.”  

The Father says that He will not treat you as our sins deserve or harbor His anger forever.  He sets His sins on His Son.

We say, “Amen.”  Faith which grasps hold of the promise of the Gospel.  And we are saved.

The conspirators on Spy Wednesday confess together a different Gospel.  Judas sells Jesus.  They work out the details on how to seize Him away from the crowds who sang to Him on Palm Sunday. They leave with icky joy, evil joy.  

Jesus is on His way to the Cross.  He knows His time is short. He knows about their spying.  He will work out their evil to save us. 

So, He desires to celebrate the Passover with His disciples.  He picks the place.  He picks the room.  He’s at the head of the table.  He reclines with them.  

There they were, celebrating the passover, remember the salvation the Lord had given to His people.  Lambs blood on doors.  God rescuing His people from Egypt.  

When He took the bread, He gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to them. Then He said something that had never been said before.  

“This is My Body, which is given for you.  This do in remembrance of Me.”

Then, He took the cup and gave it to them saying, “This cup is the new testament in my blood which is poured out for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.

Seems absurd.  Eat His Body? Drink His blood?  It doesn’t make sense.  The Lord must mean something else.

The world says that Jesus must mean a symbol – the bread and the wine represent something greater.   It’d be unreasonable for the bread to be His Body and the wine His Blood.   It must be a sign for something greater reality.

The Romans thought the same thing in the first thing in the second century.  “Those Christians,” they would say, “gather together and eat the Body and drink the Blood of their Lord.”

Yet, the Church same said, confessed, with the Lord that bread is the Body of Christ and the wine in the cup is the Blood of Christ.

Not Change.  Not symbol.  Not represent.  This is My Body.  This is My Blood.  “Is” means “is.”  Just like you learned in Confirmation.

Faith confesses with Jesus.  Same says with Him.  The bread is the Body.  The cup is the Blood of Christ.

What was won on the Cross by Jesus’ holy life and bitter suffering and death is not delivered to you on the Cross.  No, salvation is achieved there.

What Jesus won for you is delivered to you in the Supper of Jesus.  His Body broken for you.  His Blood shed for you.  Eat and drink salvation..  

Confess it.  Believe that your sins are forgiven.  Live as if you are freed from your sins.  Treat others as if the Body and Blood of Jesus really do give to you the forgiveness of all your sins. 

Set aside all grudges and all the past sins of people – especially here in the family of God.  For, the Lord puts His Body into you.  He puts His Body into your brothers and sisters in Christ.  

He put His Blood into you.  He put His Blood into them.  And so, He would Body and Blood you together.  The many are made one by the one bread.

Today, as you hear about Judas scheming against Jesus, confess what Jesus gives to you confess.  He gives into you His Body.  He pours out His blood for you on the cross and gives it to you in the cup.  

Tomorrow, Jesus is betrayed into the hands of the chief priests and teachers of the law.  Watch your Savior winning your salvation for you.

Today, you are forgiven.  You are absolved.  For you eat the Body and Blood of Jesus under the bread and wine remembering His sacrifice for you.  

Confess with Jesus.  Same say with Him.  Receive Him in His Body and Blood.

And the Body and Blood of Jesus will strengthen and keep us steadfast in the One True Faith unto life everlasting.  In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Blogermons

St. John 12:19 – Palm Sunday 2013
Zion Ev. Lutheran Church, McHenry, IL
March 23-24, 2013
Watch here

In the name of Jesus. Amen.  Hosanna, loud hosanna, The little children sang; Through pillared court and temple The lovely anthem rang.To Jesus, who had blessed them, Close folded to His breast, The children sang their praises, The simplest and the best. (441, 1)

Palm Sunday.  Palm branches:  the symbol of victory.  Hail to the victor.  Wave your palm branches to the King!  

King Jesus.  King of the Jews.  King of Israel!  Riding into David’s City, Jerusalem.  Jerusalem, the city of peace on the royal donkey.

“Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion.  Shout daughter of Jerusalem!   Behold your king comes to you – righteous and having salvation.  Humble riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

Crowds followed seeking another sign and bearing witness to what He had done when for Lazarus.  Lazarus had been dead for four days.  Jesus called him out of the tomb.  He was alive.  Now that’s a King!

The Pharisees grumbling in the corner.  “See we are accomplishing nothing!  His approval rating is off the chart!  Our smear campaign is an absolute failure.  Look, the whole world is following after Him!  This is really hitting our overall attendance!”

The disciples, they are clueless.  They didn’t get it.  Not yet.  Not until Jesus was glorified.  Then, they remembered all that Jesus did and that was done to Him.

Glorified.  That’s coming on Good Friday.  There He emptied himself.  

He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  There on the Cross, naked, beaten, dying, the Son of God is glorified and God the Father is glorified in Him.

Today, they chant Hosanna.  Not just hosanna, but hosanna to the highest. “Save us! Save us to the highest!  Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!  Save us, Lord to the highest!”

We have come too.  Following Him.  Waving our palm branches. Singing as He comes to us.  

From Olivet they followed Mid an exultant crowd, The victor palm branch waving And chanting clear and loud. The Lord of earth and heaven Rode on in lowly state Nor scorned that little children Should on His bidding wait. (441, 1)

Save us.  Save us Lord from our sins.  Hosanna us from our failures – to love You and to love those around us!

We’ve wanted to do good, but we’ve failed.  We’ve wanted to show love, but we just don’t have the strength.

And we’ve been hurt so many times.  Rejected.  Disrespected.  Disappointed.  Let down – by those around us.  Hurt by God who seemed to be absent at the very moment when we most needed Him.

Save us, Lord to the Highest from our sicknesses.  Our pain.  Our grief.  All that is falling apart around us.  From the things that we think we can can control and from the universe we know we can’t. 

And in the midst of this, we can look up at the heavens and pray, “Hosanna.  Save me, to the Highest.  Please, Lord!”

He has.  He will.  He must.  For He is Your king.  Lifted up on Good Friday to save the world.  

And if He hangs there for the sin of the world, that means specifically “to save you from your sins.”  

He hangs there gloried in His death – in His suffering and death for you. 

You died with Him.  Died to your sins.  Died to your failures and to the hurt you have done to the others and the hurt that others have done to you.  Died to the unbelief that God has failed you.  

Today, we enter into Holy Week and follow Jesus as He makes His way to the Cross. Cherish this time.  Follow Jesus.   Don’t miss an opportunity this week to hear about what He did for you.

Not because you have to as if this week is some holy obligation that you have to check off.  It is a holy time.  But that’s not the reason to be drawn to church.

Receive Him this week because He comes to you.  He, to you.  Not  you to Him.  And today, He comes not on the royal donkey, but in, with, and under the bread and the wine.

His Body broken for you.  His Blood shed for you.  Receive Him.  Receive His life.  That’s what Holy Week is all about – receiving Jesus.  Receive His salvation.  Be enlivened to live another day.

Jesus has never failed you.  He didn’t let you even when they nailed nails into His hands and feet. 

Today, He’s working out your sins and failures for your good and for the good of others.  He will life you up.  He will raise you up.

He already has raised you up by faith.  For the same power that raised Christ out of the grave on Easter has raised you to new life.  A life no longer spent in despair or sadness, but in receiving His gifts.

And when your last moment comes, when your heart fails you and you are drifting to sleep.  That day, He will raise you.  You will see Him.

And you will stand before Him with the great multitude of every tribe and nation.  Robed in white – baptismal white.  And you will wave your palm branch before the Lamb, before your Victorious King.

So practice for that day today.  Sing with the children.  Take your palm branches home.  Put them up.  Remember this day and His victory over your sins.  

“Hosanna in the highest!  That ancient song we sing!  For Christ is our Redeemer The Lord of heav’n our King. Oh, may we ever praise Him With heart and life and voice And in His blissful presence Eternally rejoice!  In the name of Jesus. Amen.

St. Matthew 15:21-28 – Reminiscere 2013

St. Matthew 15:21-28 – Reminiscere 2013
Zion Ev. Lutheran Church, McHenry, IL
Sunday, February, 23-24, 2013
Listen here

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.  You know how this Canaanite woman feels, don’t you?  You understand her pain and her pleading.

You believe in this Jesus.  You know Him.  You are baptized into His Faith.  You confess Him in the Creed.  You receive Him in the Word of forgiveness and you eat His crumbs in the Sacrament. 

Why else did Jesus come and take on your flesh, do a Lent and suffer and die, and rise again on Easter other than to be your Savior?

Yet, you look at the heavens and wonder sometimes if you could catch a break.  “Lord, could you do something other than be silent? Save me, save my children, save the love of my life, make things all work out for me.”

And so when you hear the Gospel today about this woman pleading for her demon possessed daughter and you think what I think, “Jesus, cut her some slack, Jesus.  And while you are at it, I could use you to cut me some slack too.”

She uses all the right names.  Son of David. Lord.  She uses all the words.  Have mercy.  She cries.  Real tears for her daughter.  

The Lord Jesus ignores her.  How can Jesus ignore this woman?  How can He ignore her pleas?  Will He ignore you and me too?

She cries out again praying for mercy.  He ignores her some more.  The sight is so embarrassing that the disciples intercede for her, “Send her away for she cries out after us.”  

It’s so awkward!  You wanna turn away and not look, but you’ve lived the sight.  I have too. It’s the feeling when things don’t go the way you’ve prayed and all you have is the empty sinking feeling.

His answer sinks her.  “I was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  I was not sent for you.”  

She was a Canaanite.   Not a child of God.  Not a sheep of Israel.  She was a Gentile.  Jesus was saying to her, “I’m not for you.”

His answer sinks us too.  You and I are Gentiles too.  Look at our lives.  Is how we live at all distinguishable from the unbelievers?  Be honest, we live like pagans.  Us first, then others.  We should know better, but we are too busy chasing after our own religion.  Christ should speak to us the way He speaks to this Canaanite!

But, she keeps after Jesus.  There’s no rejecting her.  She doesn’t take no for an answer.  

You either.  Here are again in His house chasing after Him.  Christ simply must have mercy and answer our prayers.  For the Father for the sake of the Cross, has to forgive you of all your sins and to have mercy on you and your family.  

 “It’s not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”

Woah.  Jesus called her a dog.  No dodging it.  No making it nice.  No softening it.  Little dog.  Small dog.  Cute dog.  He called her a dog dog.  Female dog.  Ruff Ruff dog.

This is not a “what would Jesus do” moment.  It’s a racial slur.  The Jews called the Gentiles dogs.  He called her a Gentile dog.

This is why we doubt.  It’s why we despair.  God doesn’t always give us the answer we want, the answer we think we need.  Sometimes He’s silent.  Other times, His answer is “No.”  

And the big problem with what Jesus says is that He is right.  We don’t deserve God to answer us kindly.   With the way we live, the way we treat others.  It’s not hate, it’s worse than than hate.  We just don’t care.  We care only about ourselves.  We are gentile sinners.  Dogs, who deserve nothing but punishment.  God has no reason to show mercy and love.  

So, what do you do? When you feel like Jesus has turn His back on you and His answer to your pleading is “No.”

Dear Saints of God, when that happens, when you feel lost and alone in this world, you go grab the crumbs!  Come to the Supper!

The Woman said to Jesus, “I’m a dog just like you say, Lord, but to the dog comes the crumbs which fall from the master’s table.”

When all else fails, when everything seems lost, when God seems so far away, you come to His table.  You eat His Body.  You drink his Blood.  You receive His Calvary-won forgiveness in His Supper.  

Faith receives.  Believing is receiving.  It flows from your Lord Jesus’ gifts.  Faith holds fast not to external circumstances or how things appear to be going for you, but to the promise that by the holy life and bitter sufferings and death of Christ even Gentile dog sinners like you and me must be saved.

Not, possibly saved.  Not if we do well or change then God will show mercy.  Not even if we panting after Him we’ll be saved.

No, Christ must save you.  He must save me.  That’s what the Canaanite Dog woman believed.  She believed that there was no other reason for Jesus to be there than to save her.

Christ has come to go to the Cross to suffer and die.  That’s why He is here.  He must save us.  He must be the Christ He is for us.  If He’s not, there’s no reason for Lent, there’s no reason for Church, there’s no reason for the Cross.  Christ must be faithful to His promise to save you.

“O woman, great is your faith! Be it done as you desire!” and her daughter was healed at that moment.

The Canaanite woman shows us that Jesus loves to be caught in His words.  To be trapped by them.  He promises to die for you, to save you.  You can count on Him to do just that.

So, repent of doubts and despair.  Turn from your doubts.  Fast from them this Lenten season.  Your Father in Heaven gave up His Son.  His “yes” answers to your prayers will save you.  His “no” answers will save you too.

And then take your fears and doubts of God’s love for you in Christ to His Supper.  Eat the crumbs of His Body.  Drink His blood.  Be forgiven and be strengthen to chase after Jesus some more.

Easter will come for you.  The One who died will rise again.  He didn’t just rise again, He rose again for you and me.  You will raise too soon.  Just wait, you’ll see.

Until then, You know how it is to be this Canaanite woman, don’t you?  For faith, faith receives Jesus.  Faith holds Him to His words.  Faith receives the crumbs from His Table.

“And the Body and Blood of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will strengthen and keep you steadfast in the one true faith unto life everlasting.”   

Dogs get the crumbs. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

St. Matthew 4:1-11 – Invocabit 2013

St. Matthew 4:1-11 – Invocabit 2013
Zion Ev. Lutheran Church, McHenry, IL
February 16-17, 2012 
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In the name of Jesus. Amen.   Adam was created a son of God, made in the very image of the incorruptible, holy, eternal God.  He was loved.  He was cared for.  

All things were His.  All things gift.  Every word that the Lord spoke to Him true.  Every promise sure.  Everything gift – even the tree in the midst of the garden – the one of the knowledge of God and Evil – was a placed there loving by God for Adam’s good.

Then comes the serpent.  Another created thing – more crafty than all the other beasts of the field – but yet still created.  

“Did God really say that you weren’t given all the trees of the garden?  Did he really say you’d die?  You won’t die.  He just doesn’t want you to be like him.  If you listen to my preaching, instead of His, you’ll be like god and know good and evil.”

Eve ate.  Adam with her.  Sin came into the world.  And with sin, came death.  Adam and his wife died.  Round one goes to the serpent.

Round two, round three, and every other round thereafter went to serpent too.   For  Adam’s kids were born in the likeness and image not of the God who created them but of the Adam that had fallen.  

They all – one after another died.  And death reigned and had everything stopped there, we’d be lost…

Then, to save you – and that’s what today is about saving you and me from our sins – then to save you a Second Adam came.  Born of a woman, a seed of Eve, born under the Law, to redeem us from the Law by crushing the head of the serpent..

This Adam is driven into the wilderness to be tempted, tested, by the devil.  To go one on one with the ancient serpent.  What’s at stake is, of course, you and me.

Food first. Why not? It worked on the first Adam.  “Don’t you think that after forty days and nights you should eat, Jesus?  If you are a son of God, then it’s easy-peacy-lemon-squeezy for you to turn these stones into bread.”

But, this Adam lives not from bread alone but from every word that comes from the mouth of God.  

So, the serpent takes him to the top of the temple.  “If you are a son of God, take a hop of the temple and the Scripture says that angels will catch you.  Make a big show and show that you, like Adam version 1.0, are like God.”

 “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”  This Adam doesn’t have to test God to prove who He is. He trusts what His Dad says about Him is true.  He’s the beloved Son of God. 

Then, we see most clearly what this is all about.  They went to the highest mountain and the serpent showed this Second Adam all the kingdoms of the earth.  “All this is yours, all you need to do is to bow down and worship me.  I’ll be your god. You be my Adam.”

You see, the devil doesn’t care about the stuff.  You and I do, but he doesn’t really. Whether Jesus has it or Satan has it doesn’t matter.  What matters to the serpent is damning you.  

If Jesus does His own thing, if He is like every other Adam and lives for Himself, lives like you and I live daily and much, then we would be lost forever.  If Jesus fails, if He falls, then it’s game over for you and me and all the world go straight to h-e-double hockey sticks.  No passing go.  Just straight to hell.

But, the Second Adam doesn’t fail like the first Adam.  He doesn’t fail like every son of Adam since.  “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God  and him only shall you serve.’”

Satan leaves and the angels come and minister to Jesus to strengthen him.  Satan will be back in Holy Week. He’ll enter Judas. He’ll have Jesus seized, beaten, bruised, mocked, falsely accused, and crucified.  

And as the Second Adam hangs answering for our sins, the serpent will tempt Him again,“if you are the Son of God, come down from the Cross and we’ll believe in you.”  

“We’ll believe in you.”  That’s all that God has wanted all along.  To have some Adams who would love him.  

But the serpent doesn’t even care about whether you believe in God.  No, what He doesn’t want is for you to believe that this Jesus, the Second Adam, suffered and died for you.

So, desperate, the serpent struck this Adam with all the venom that He had left.  He struck Him with the punishment that was given to the first Adam.  The punishment due you and me.  Satan hit Him with death itself.  Christ dies.  And everyone knows that dead Adams stay dead.

And if you are like the world, you’d think that at this point, that God and Satan were equal adversaries.  That the angel that you picture siting on your shoulder is equal to the voice of the serpent that tempts you.

But, He’s not.  God is not equal to any created created thing.  For this Second Adam, born of the Virgin, does the serpent in by His own sting.  

As He breathes His last, the head of the serpent is struck.  Death is undone.  Satan conquered.  Game, set, match, Jesus.  Not by force, but by dying.  

The Lord Jesus is so God that every scheme and every plan of Satan, even the temptation itself is all used to save you and me from our sins.  All Satan does when He tussels with God is be a pawn in God’s plan to have Himself some Adams to love.

Now, today, we have come here again with all our sins, our problems, our sicknesses, and our pain.  The temptation for us is to look to ourselves.  To look to something else other than the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ.  

We hear that Cross stuff every year, every Lent.  Tell me something different, pastor.   Tell me how I can have some victory in my life, how I can turn the ship in the home team’s, in my team’s favor. 

But, this Gospel is all that can save you and me.  Jesus and His suffering and death for you that alone saves.  What Christ endured alone rescues us.   His forgiveness overcomes everything – sickness, suffering, death, even hell itself.

What you suffer, He’s taken upon Himself.   What you feel, He felt.  Your pain, your anger, your hurt, your loneliness, your failure, your guilt.  He bore it all on the tree.  It died with Him.

He rose on Easter morning and in your Baptism you rose with Him.  No more looking to yourself to see how it is between God and you.  No more looking at God as if He hasn’t done in the serpent for you.  

The serpent is done.  He’s dead on the side of the road.  You’ll see on the Last Day.

For God in Christ today is turning all your filth, all your failures, all your sins, all your pain, all your sickness, upon itself.  He will use it all to save you.  Or better, He’ll use it to save your neighbor.  The Adams around are important to Him too. 

God hasn’t allowed Satan to run roughshod in your life as if Satan is this unstoppable force that not even God can contend with.  No, God in Christ has turned all the devil’s schemes into your salvation.  He’s let you know it today.  You’ll see it for sure on the Last Day.

So, when you sin, repent.  When you fall, confess your sins to God.  Come clean and receive His forgiveness and life.   Cling to the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ.  For that alone can save you.

And if Satan tells you that you can’t be forgiven for what you’ve done.  That Christianity is too easy.  That you must change, do something better so that God will love you.

Tell him to go to h-e-double hockey sticks.  You can’t get any better than Christ.  He’s the one who suffered and died for you.  He’s washed you clean in your Baptism.  Christ has got to save you.  His blood given to you today simple must cleanse you.

Adam fell and in Him we all fell with Him.  But today isn’t about Adam’s fall or all the rounds that went to Satan after the Fall.  Today’s Gospel is about Jesus overcoming the devil for you.  

Your sins are forgiven.  No one can snatch that from you.  No one can take it from you.  Not even the devil himself.  In the Name of Jesus. Amen.  

Joel 2:12-19 – Ash Wednesday 2013

Joel 2:12-19 – Ash Wednesday 2013
Zion Ev. Lutheran Church, McHenry, IL
February 13, 2013 
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In the Name of Jesus. Amen.  Thank God!   Our Lord Jesus has done it again!  He’s brought us to another Ash Wednesday! 

Blow the trumpet in Zion;  consecrate a fast;  call a solemn assembly; gather the people.  Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children,  even nursing infants.  Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. (2:16) 

Weep.  Mourning.  Lament.  Rend your garments.  Rip out your hearts.  Celebrate.  Pray. Fast. Give things up.  Come to the Sacrament.  Be forgiven.  

It’s Ash Wednesday and that means we hear from the Prophet Joel that to save us, God repents!  He’s turns.  He’s changes the direction He’s headed.  He repents of the evil He’d do to us for our sins.  He gives us His Son on the Cross.  Jesus hanging there being the dust you are and the dust you shall return to.”  

That’s what Ash Wednesday is all about!  It’s about God repenting and saving us in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Oh..that wasn’t what you were expecting was it?  You thought today was all about you giving stuff up and you repenting.  Getting your religion on.  Maybe committing again to Jesus.  Getting churchy.  Actually repenting of your sins.

But, is your giving up chocolate really going to pull God off you?  He’s all wound up ready to strike with all the just and righteous wrath for all the sins committed in all the world for all time.   

Is your fasting from meat gonna cool off His burning with rage with the way you treat people in your house and in the place?

Does He look at your life and say, “She gave up Facebook and TV for Lent so that makes up for crucifying my Son?”

You think this day is about you, don’t you? You think there is something, some light, that you can change a bit, clean the lens off a bit then can point at God and that He will go, “Oh look… I just love them.  So cute.”  

Some righteousness, something right, going on in you.  It’s why you judge others.  It’s why you rip them up.  Look for them to stumble and sin.  Pushing them down so that you can climb out of the ash and be.. what.. less ashy?

Do you really believe that you don’t deserve to be covered in ashes?  Not just the little smudge on your forehead that you can wipe off before leaving church tonight…

And to make it worse, we get all religious and tweet to everyone under the sun what we have given up.   We get our reward in the ohhhh’s and awwww’s from all our friends as we all try to one up each other by how religious we are all are today..

Who will save you from God?  His impending hellfire?  He’s a  predator chasing down his prey.  Chasing you down.  

And He will catch you.  He always get His man.  Everyone dies.  For dust you are and to dust you shall return.

Then, He relents.  He turns.  He repents.  God repents.  He changes.  He doesn’t miss His target.  No, He turns.  He repents from destroying you and takes all his wraith, rage, and anger and He hits His Son instead.

But, God doesn’t change.  God is constant.  Yet, Joel says that He does.  He repents.  

God also doesn’t get seized by sinners either.  He doesn’t get beat on.  Pushed around.  He doesn’t get falsely accused.  Nails aren’t supposed to be driven into God’s feet.  God’s not supposed to die.  Yet, for you on Good Friday, He dies to save you.

This is Lent.  This is Ash Wednesday.  The Son of Man is betrayed and seized by sinful men.  He is seized by us.  Then, we beat on Him. We mock Him.  We whipped Him.  We hung Him on a tree until He suffocates and dies.

Ash Wednesday is not your change, but His change.  Not your repentance or fast.  But, His repentance, His fast, for you, to save you from your repentance and your fasting.

You can repent and change until you’ve torn out your heart and watch it’s beat it’s last beat.  But without the Cross, without God turning, you will not be saved.

But to save you, God has come and taken on your death and sin.  He has suffered the punish and reproach due you and by His death you and are saved.

You see… there’s nothing good in you and me.  Nothing worth saving.  No light.  No goodness.  I’m so evil that I sometimes wonder whether I even have a soul any more and the more I say that the more someone tells me how good I am or how pious I am and I deny it and it just looks all the more false humility. 

And the world and your conscience does the the same to you.  “You are trying.  You are doing your best.  God’s gonna cut you some slack.” 

But all of that is just more death and ash apart from the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But Christ…What saves is Christ.  Christ is God’s repentance.  Jesus is God turning His wraith away from You and relenting from His anger against you.

Your rightness, your light, your forgiveness, your salvation isn’t in you.  It’s in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.  His death for you.

So, this Lent repent of you.  Repent of your sins, repent of your idolatrous self righteousness.  Repent of your big sins and repent of your little sins.  Turn from the daily death that you live and the ashes that you spew toward others.

And be clothed again in your Baptism.  Be washed im the word of Absolution, the Voice of the Gospel that speaks into your ears that God has turned from His anger and given to you, even you, His Son.  

Rend your heart of your religion of offering up sacrifices to God of your works and receive into your mouth the very Body and Blood of Jesus given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.

For it’s Ash Wednesday.  God has done it again.  He has brought us here again.  Shout for joy.  Call a fast.  Smile.  Be glad.  Give knuckles to the next person.  Give up what you want as much as you want and don’t tell anyone while you do it.   

Less you, more Cross.  Less your religion, more receiving His religion for you achieved by His Holy Life and His bitter sufferings and death.

Smile.  It’s Lent again.  Be glad.  Blow the trumpet.  Start the fast.  God repents.   We’re saved in Jesus.  In the Name of Jesus.  Amen.

St. Matthew 20:1-15 � Septuagesima 2013

St. Matthew 20:1-15 – Septuagesima 2013
Zion Ev. Lutheran Church, McHenry, IL
January 26-27, 2013 
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In the Name of Jesus. Amen.  Pre-Season.  Gotta have one of those.  Lent needs a warm up.  Otherwise we’ll do the Mardi Gras thing where we wait til the very last minute to repent.  We’ll put off facing our evils, turning from our sins, until we think that we have to – like Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday.  Why do today, what you can put off until Lent?

Pre-Lent is the cure for that.  Repentance takes work – it takes practice – it takes change.   Before Lent comes and we go into it with what we think about Lent, it might be helpful to take a few weeks to learn about Lent before Lent.   

So, Jesus tells us a parable to tell us about His kingdom…

For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.  He agreed to pay them all a day’s pay.  

He then hires different people at different times all through out the day.  He even hires someone an hour before quiting time!

When the whistle blows, of course those who had worked the full day – hot sun and all – expected more than those who had worked only an hour.  They felt they deserved more.  Wouldn’t you?

You work hard for your money – so hard for your money.  The guy in the cubical next to you works only a few hours.  He makes the same as you for the whole day?  Yeah, you might grumble.

“Friend,” he said to them, “I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius?  ‘Take what is yours and go your way, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you…..”

If you want to get Lent – get that last sentence down.  Say it with me, “I wish to give to the last the same as you.”

He doesn’t say, “I wish to pay them what they earned.”  He doesn’t pay them what they deserve.   They deserved what they agreed to be paid!  And when He gives them what they agreed to be paid they grumble and whine. 

But He is such a God that He went out to hire more workers.  That’s the way of the Gospel – more and more.  He sent Jesus to save the children of Israel and the Gentiles too – the people loitering around even at the eleventh hour.

Notice the kingdom of God isn’t about working!  It’s about a landowner who gets workers and gives wages to those who don’t deserve it.  Given – as in freely undeserved.  

The first shall be the last, the last shall be first.  Those who have no hope, no salvation in and of themselves, are saved.  Those who work the day long, trying their best to save themselves are told to go away.  

The landowner is giving wages away free – heaven, eternal life, forgiveness, and salvation.  

Free – but the work was done by Christ for you.  He worked in your place – doing what you couldn’t do.  He earned your wage and the wages of the whole world – both those who worked from beginning and those who come on a bit late.  

Then, from the third to the six hour, before anyone got paid, He suffered on the Cross for all – both the full day laborers and the one hour guys! His death for your death – payment paid once for all time.

You died with Him in Holy Baptism – all your sins with Him, all your failures, all your sicknesses, all your death.  You rose to new life in Him.  Life lived no longer trying to work and strive to save yourself from God – but risen to live life for those around you. 

He gives the kingdom away to the likes of you and me.  Wow. 

That’s the Gospel.  That’s Lent!  The Gospel isn’t about working, but about the landowner who gives wages to people who clearly don’t deserve them – to us!

Now we don’t have pre-lent because we Lutherans so like to suffer and sing depressing hymns that we have to add a few extras weeks just so that we feel bad about ourselves for more than the forty days of Lent.

No, we have Pre-Lent so that the Lord might let us know what we are getting into – or better what He’s bringing us through in Lent. 

Jesus is going up to Jerusalem.  He will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and will deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up.”

For the religion we are born in, the religion on our tv, is a religion where we pick minor things out to change and improve.  Where we work and strive to be positive, improve our lives, and feel good about ourselves.  Where we fix the externals – overspending, your weight, not losing your temper,  fixing your marriage, being on time, and developing good habits.  

But, you don’t need Christ to feel good or improve yourself and Lent isn’t the Church’s self-help program – our forty days of purpose, or life, or whatever is needed fix the part of your life that you think needs fixing.   

What Jesus has done by His work in the field for you goes beyond all that external stuff and gets to the real issue that separates you from God and one another – your sins.  

The core of you is off center and cannot be fixed with some self-help program.  It’s more than just a negative attitude – it’s that we are all twisted inside.  We do really unspeakable things and we do them daily and much and all the while we don’t really care or think we need to be forgiven for them.

What saves you – the work that saves you – is the suffering, death, and resurrection of the Son of God.  He died.  You died in Him.  He rose.  You rose in Him.  

No majoring in minors – Lent isn’t about changing stuff that you think is wrong with you – it’s about focusing and fixing your eyes on what Christ did for you in your place.  

So run the race of your life as fast and certain as you can.  Excel in what you do – not for yourself any longer but for those around you.  

Run as if you are running to finish first – full throttle understanding fully that you don’t run to save yourself, but that your wages have already been given you in Christ.  

And if sickness tackles you – live in the work that Christ has done.  

If unemployment grabs you – meet it head on as a child of God certain that no matter what happens to you, the only wage that matters – eternal life – has been given to you in Chirst.

And when you die – when your eleventh hour comes.  No fear.  He took your death on and defeated it from the third to the sixth hour on Good Friday.  He did that for you.  

The church begins a new season.   We’re getting ready to have our attention focused on His death in the coming weeks of Lent’s pre-season.  

And so, start repenting today.  Turn from your sins – today, not tomorrow.  Get prepared, get ready.  

Start focusing your eyes on Jesus.   He is what Lent is about!  It’s about Jesus working salvation for you and giving it away like the landowner today. 

Don’t wait until Lent – That’s what a pre-season, Pre-lent, is for.   Your sins are forgiven.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

St. Luke 2:22-40 � Christmas 1 (2012)

St. Luke 2:22-40 – Christmas 1 (2012)
Zion Ev. Lutheran Church, McHenry, IL
December 30, 2012 
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Merry Christmas!  In the name of Jesus. Amen.  It’s still a Merry Christmas!  Tell me again, I could use it.  Merry Christmas!  

Christmas isn’t one day.  It’s not even two days.  It’s twelve days. You know.. On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me..    

We think of the celebration of Christmas as before Christmas, it’s actually after the Feast.  The twelve days of Christmas extend all the way to Epiphany, January 6.  Today being the the fifth/sixth day of Christmas.   So that means get your golden rings/geese a laying on!

At my house, I tried a few years ago to institute presents every day of the Christmas season!  Great idea, don’t you think?  The boys were on board until I said that we would be dividing up our presents through the whole season and not opening them all on Christmas Day.  Well, suddenly there was a revolt!

Personally, if given the chance, I’ll leave gifts under the tree and open them later in the season.  I just like to wait and enjoy the moment just a little bit longer…

Pious Simeon too!   He waited more than a bit to open His Christmas present!  You see, Simeon had been waiting His whole life.  Like the Patriarchs had been waited.  Like the children of Israel had been waited.  Like Kings and the Prophets had waited.  

They were waiting not for a stocking stuffer or even a big gift like a coat or an iPad.  They all waited on the Lord to fulfill His promise to redeem Israel and to save His people from their sins.  

They were all waiting for the gift.  The big one:  the Christ.

For Christ has come.  In the manger Christmas to save His people, to save you and me.  To rescue us from sin, from death, and the power of the devil.   Not with gold or silver, but with His holy life and innocent suffering and death.

All of the Old Testament waited.  They all looked forward, believed that God would send the Savior and that they would have a Merry Christmas.

Simeon, in his body, symbolized this Christmas hope and expectation.  The Lord told him that He wouldn’t die until He saw the the Christ.  So he was staying up just a little longer to see this gift.  Like a kid waiting for Santa, Simeon was good and tired and had been up for way too long.

And so the gift came, in a child born of Mary.  Baby Jesus shows up in Jerusalem in the temple.  Indistinguishable from every other baby that was brought up for the time of purification.  His family so common and so poor that they couldn’t even afford a lamb as the sacrifice, only two turtle doves.

Then, Simeon saw Him.  The Promised One.   The Christmas Present!  The shoot out of the dead stump of Jesse.  David’s Son – The One whose reign will be in the fear of the Lord.  The Christ.  The Messiah. 

And he scooped Him up and held him in His arms and began to sing.  For he held salvation in His hands.  Light and life and the glory of God’s people is in This Child.  Heaven for the children of Israel.  Eternal life for Gentiles even you and me.

This child will save us all by being despised and rejected by men.  He’ll redeem you by the sword that will pierce Mary’s soul – the Cross.

For Christ is born to live as you should live – fulfilling the Law right down to the time of purification.  Christ is born to be the sacrifice that makes you acceptable to God.   

No more turtle doves or sheep.  Purification before God comes only from Jesus’ pure and holy life and His sufferings and death on Good Friday.  

Simeon knew that all of this would be fulfilled and that you and me and all who believe in the Name of the Child born of Mary would be saved.  

“Let me depart in peace, Lord.  Let me go to you.  Your Word has been fulfilled.”  Salvation for you.  Salvation for me!  Even Simeon who was ready to go.  How could He not be?!  He had received Jesus.

We receive Jesus every week – in the Word, in the Absolution, in the Lord’s Supper.  Into our mouth goes the Body and Blood of Christ.  We are closer to Him than Simeon ever could be!  Closer than holding Him in our arms.

Yet, we often times do we leave this communion rail not even considering the weight, the gift, the gravity of what has gone into us.   That into our mouthes goes the very Body and Blood of Christ.  Forgiveness and life eternal on our tongue.

Dear Saints, let the forgiveness given to you at the Sacrament cleanse your world of all that was in it against others.   Give it up.  Set all of it aside.  Love one another.   You are forgiven.  They are forgiven too.

Then, leave here having received the Christmas gift of salvation.  Ready for whatever happens in your world – successes, failure, money, poverty, sickness, cancer, even death itself.  

For no matter what else happens in this world, no matter what happens this weekend for you or for your family, this is true:  

Christ has come to you.  Your salvation has come with Him.  His Word, His promise, of life eternal is certain and true.  You’ve heard it and today you’ve tasted it.

It is still Christmas and there is still gifts to unpack and open.   And if we pay attention to Simeon’s song, every Sunday is Christmas for every Sunday Christ comes to us to gift us again with Salvation.

But since it is still the Christmas Season, leave wishing folks that you meet a Merry Christmas all the way until Epiphany.  Put the baby Jesus before their eyes even into January with your Christmas greeting.

That’s one of my favorite late Christmas gifts to open.  There’s nothing more funny than to watch the funny look on people’s faces on January 5th when I wish them a Merry Christmas!  You too… for me!  Wish them and each other a Merry Christmas!

But.. enough talking.. let’s get to the present on the altar.  From Jesus to you – His Body and Blood given for you on the Cross.   Raised from the dead and delivered into your mouth so that you leave here ready for anything that comes your way.

Merry Christmas!  One more time.. I could use it.  Merry Christmas!  In the Name of Jesus. Amen.