Sermons

What is preaching? St. Paul writes in Romans: “Whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14-15)

Therefore our Lutheran Confessions state: “It is also taught among us that one holy Christian church will be and remain forever. This is the assembly of all believers among whom the Gospel is preached in its purity and the holy sacraments are administered according to the Gospel.” (Augsburg Confession VII:1-3)

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The Abomination of Desolation – Matthew 24:15-28

06. November 2011
Trinity 25
Matthew 24:15-28

The tabernacle and temple of old was the dwelling place of God. In the holy of holies sat the Ark of the Covenant, where the Lord himself was enthroned between the cherubim dispensing mercy to the people. Each year the chief priest would sprinkle the blood of a bull upon the seat for the sins of the people. This sprinkling of blood annually atoned for the sins of the people. Forgiveness rendered by the shedding of blood.

The holy place for you is this sanctuary. Your Lord sits enthroned here upon the altar, still dispensing mercy as He did for the people of old. Not the blood of bulls but the blood of the only begotten Son of God atones for the sins of the whole world. The sacrifice is not made yearly for the people but is given freely from the cross until He comes again. Blood is not only sprinkled on you in the font but is given to you to drink. Forgiveness of sins still rendered by the blood. This blood is a life giving flood and the medicine of immortality.

Imagine a great horror would occur to this place just as it did to the temple of old, something so terrible that we shrink at the thought. Imagine this place of forgiveness was desecrated with foreign idols. Imagine the insignia of a false god placed over it. What if this place was turned into a marketplace? What if we charged for services rendered, dispensing mock forgiveness only when a coin is placed in the plate? What if we capitulated to society, ignoring the Word of God? Gay marriage performed. Abortions blessed. Divorces endorsed. Greed encouraged. The neighbors good interests ignored.

Jesus warns in today’s Gospel of the “Abomination of Desolation” to the Temple as foretold by the prophet Daniel. He was specifically speaking of the holy of holies within the temple, Daniel said:  They shall defile the sanctuary fortress; then they shall take away the daily sacrifices, and place there the abomination of desolation. The temple will be made unclean and then laid waste by lies and deceit. This prophecy was fulfilled in the temple in AD 70. It also applies to the churches of this world and even to your heart.

In the of desolation day, a great idol will sit upon the throne reserved for Christ in the Holy Place. He will speak, claiming Christ’s Word. He will command, claiming Christ’s authority. He will promise, claiming Christ’s mercy. From this idolatrous throne, he will perform great signs and wonders, trying to lead even the elect of God astray.

Such idols exist in our day, claiming to speak from Christ’s authority or in His stead, but instead speaking lies contrary to Christ’s own Word. In many places, what was once holy is made desolate by the abomination of idolatry. There are those within the church that will abandon the faith and lead you astray by betrayal, falsehood, hatred, and lawlessness. They will lead you into a rebellion against God and His truth. The abomination foretold by Daniel and by Christ himself is the rejection of the Word of God. He is warning us of the exchange of lies for the truth. This is an abomination for it ultimately destroys faith and thus salvation, leaving you desolate.

St. Paul warned the church of Thessalonica about these: Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4)

Such abominations obviously happen in Islam or Mormonism when they blatantly add and mix the Word of God with falsehood. Jesus has in mind not only them but also those who would are more clever in their deceit. Some would tell you that our faith is about being good Christian people. Some suggest that Christianity is defined by what it is not—not gay, not aborting, not Democrat. Some suggest salvation by works, acts of charity, living according to God’s law. Others fly flags out front that identify them as gay-friendly. Others talk about how they are for the hip and cool. Some talk about being family-friendly. No matter what, we want a church that is accepting of us, that lets us be just who we want to be, even if God disagrees.

Do not think you are immune from this prophecy. The old Adam is strong, sin remains tempting, and the Devil’s lies still are whispered in your ear. He wants nothing more than for you to capitulate to culture, satisfy your sinful cravings, and ignore the Word. He would have the pastors of the church ignore sin, gloss over immorality, and endorse idolatry. He would have you seek a church that is accepting, inclusive, and open to every whim and fancy of the fallen flesh.

Our faith is not defined by our targeted demographic or who we are not. It is defined solely by who God is and what God has done for us in Jesus. Remember that you are part of the body of Christ. Your own heart is the dwelling place of God, like the mercy seat of old. Yet, while in this body of death your fallen will still desires to dethrone Christ from your heart. You would rather place other idols to rule and govern your thoughts and deeds.

Perhaps you are consumed with the material of this world that you worship your “stuff” more than Christ. Thus, you horde God’s gifts for yourself and do not use them to His glory. Perhaps you have made your family and idol, giving your spouse and children priority over daily prayer and divine worship. Thus, you have cast Christ off his throne and replaced Him with other fallen creatures. You worship your family more than the one who saved you. Perhaps you have put your trust in princes, blindly following messianic politicians, who claim they can solve this country’s problems. They claim to put more money in your pocket, food on the table, and an addition on the house. You have dethroned your savior who is the sole provider for your every need of body and soul.

When these powerful enemies pursue your heart, heed the prophet’s warning. Flee to the mountains. Leap from your place of rest and run from the field. Pray that you will not be held back by cares for family. Pray that it not be winter or the Sabbath. Run fast and never turn back. That is, repent. Confess your sin and your desire to be god. He is merciful and forgives you. He suffers your idolatry and works in you a clean heart.

Do not look for solace in the false Christ’s of this world. There are those who would lead you astray. There are those who would convince you to worship them and forget Jesus. There are those who will try to lead you to believe you can “have your best life now,” that you “are not a poor, miserable sinner,” or worse yet, mix error with truth. Anyone or anything that claims to save you apart from or in addition to Jesus is against him.

They are the anti-Christ, the false prophet. They will tell you a great many things which sound good and true and may even be verified by great success. Their churches may grow by leaps and bounds. Yet, they are synagogues of Satan, abominations of desolation. This devil is a great deceiver and ruler of this world. He can convince sinful heart and mind to believe and see that which it wants.

It is only God’s Word that gives what we truly need. It is only the testimony of the Spirit in the church that brings you Jesus Christ crucified. It is only the Son of God’s atoning blood, his body sacrificed, his death, and his glorious resurrection that must be enthroned in your heart. No thoughts of self-righteousness, no looking to your wealth or prosperity, no beautiful family, nor any growing congregation will clean the temple of your heart. Only the strong man can loose the bonds, break the fetters, and release the chains that have bound you. Only your victor king Jesus can conquer and rule you in His grace and mercy.

The Lord has rescued you. The Lord has established his holy habitation in you. He has named you His child, anointed you, and set you apart for sacred worship. You and he are forever joined, bonded inseparably as the bride of Christ and the bridegroom. Within the one flesh union of the Son of God, you are purified of your evil. Christ himself has conquered your enemies, the ones who set up abominations in your heart where love alone should dwell. He has run out the idolatry of sin and reclaimed you as iconic temples to Him. Thus, as Christians, sweet prayers arise like incense from your lips, you serve as living sacrifices, and Christ sits with mercy for you in your flesh upon the ark of His Word.

Despite your sin and your future death, you need not fear. Jesus has died for you. He has redeemed you. He has rescued you from the unholy trinity of sin, death, and the devil. We are temples to God, forever purified in the blood of Christ. This is the wonderful promise of the Gospel. He has promised to show mercy to his humble servants. You trust not in our own merit, our sinful desires, or our self righteousness. Nor do you receive the severity of our just desserts. Instead you are blessed in Christ with grace and mercy. The abomination of desolation has been dethroned and Christ is restored in you.

In Name of the Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
Grace Lutheran Church
Dyer, Indiana

All Saints’ Day (observed) 2012 – Revelation 7:2-17; Matthew 5:1-12

04. November 2012
All Saints’ Day (observed)
Revelation 7:2-17; 1 John 3:1-13; Matthew 5:1-12

Today, heaven and earth dwell together. The Lord’s kingdom has come on earth as it is in heaven. The saints in heaven in bright array are singing with the saints on earth. A great multitude that no one can number, from all tribes and peoples and languages stands with us as we dwell together in this blessed place with the Holy Trinity, feasting upon His Word and rejoicing with angels and archangels. The sainted Evangelists, the prophets, the apostles, the martyr band, and all the blessed departed—the number of the sealed—confess with a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

We are children of God because of the love of the Father. God the Father gave us most precious treasure, His very Son into death for us. By His suffering, death, and burial, Christ Jesus has atoned for our sins and the sins of the whole world. The Lamb’s very blood has washed our robes clean. We are blessed because we are children and thus inheritors with Christ of his cross-bought forgiveness, life, and salvation. Salvation belongs to God and to all those who are in Him. Rejoice, O pilgrim throng! Rejoice, be glad, and sing!

That’s reality. That’s the truth. But it doesn’t look that way. It doesn’t feel that way. Is it a neurosis? Are we Christians out of our mind? How can we rejoice when more than a hundred died and much was destroyed from Superstorm Sandy? How can we sing with angels when the our lives are full of struggles, tears, and grief? It’s flat out crazy to find joy in the midst of a horrible world. You’re off your rocker. How can you sing at a time like this? How can you possibly rejoice and give thanks?

The Christian faith is built on the hope of things not seen, the expectation of things to come. What we see now is only a pale shadow of what will be. Some call our life together as living in the “now” and also in the “not yet.” The “now” is the life of a body of death in a corrupt world. The “not yet” is eternal life in a recreated and perfect creation. The old will go and the new will come.

These two realities are one. God has knit us into a single fabric of believers of all times and places. He has joined us together with His Son, Jesus Christ. We the church are joined in union with Him as one flesh, His mystical body. Our names are written in the book of Life and our song now is the song of heaven. Because we are heirs with Christ, we are already given to worship God. We already experience His blessing, His peace, and His glorious face shining upon us.

Heaven and earth dwell together. Where God dwells, there we dwell in peace and safety. God is our rock and fortress. He has redeemed our spirit and delivered us from shame. He leads us by His name in His Word. From God’s perspective, there is little difference from those who dwell with Him in eternity and we who are here in time. Both are equally saved from death, devil, and hell. Both are equally clothed in Baptism. Both are equally fed with heavenly meal and given heavenly board.

If the gifts are equal then why do we continue in this dying body? Is it wrong to desire heaven? St. Paul said he longed to depart and be with the Lord but He also knew he must remain in the flesh a while longer (Philippians 1:19ff). We are on the same journey: from death to life. We must pass through death before joining the host of heaven. We are not alone on this journey. Christ is with us. Not only does He visit us with His Word of comfort but He gives us food for the journey, the same food of saints of heaven. While we long for heaven we can persevere in the flesh a while longer. While we live in the flesh, it means fruitful labor for us in Christ’s kingdom. While we can only see our God now as in a mirror dimly, soon we will see Him face to face.

This is a message of great comfort for us at Grace. The elder said of us “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.” This time is called the “great tribulation” for good reason. There are wars and rumors of wars. Children go hungry. Storms destroy. Marriages fail. Jobs are lost. Even the young die. We are now in tribulation and then will be in everlasting bliss.

The congregation of Grace is in its own little “tribulation.” There are half as many people here today as there were in recent memory. The median age of our congregation now over 55. There are few of my generation and fewer of their children. Our resources are limited. Finances are tight. We’ve had to cut mission dollars. There’s talk of more cuts in the future. We only have seven of twelve congregational offices filled. It’s a struggle to keep the organ bench filled.

We might be tempted to panic and wring our hands. We might think this particular congregation somehow is indicative of the one holy Christian Church. Not so. Read the Epistles of the New Testament. How many of those congregations still exist? Few, if any. Does this mean that the church has failed? If Grace had to merge, close, or move, would this say anything about the Church eternal?

Congregations come and go but the Word of God remains forever. Heaven is where the holy ones of God gather to receive holy things. For some fifty years Grace has been such a place. In the future it may be somewhere else. What of that? Why weep over buildings, property, furniture, and memories? Has not God’s grace, mercy, and peace been given faithfully here? Has not God done exactly what He promised—giving forgiveness of sins week in and week out?

This is what Jesus was getting at in the Holy Gospel. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Luther said, “We are beggars, this is true.” We don’t look to the presence of a booming congregation any more than we look to our own possessions as signs of God’s love. We are blessed people of God when we come before Him as beggars, hands open in prayer to receive whatever gifts He may have for us. No matter what we have or have not the kingdom ours remains. No matter whether Grace remains small and struggling or grows and thrives, the one holy Christian church is preserved forever.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Yes, we grieve but not like those who have no hope. We believe that “that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus” (1 Thess 4:14). We are and will be comforted in the resurrection of the dead.

No matter what this life brings we know already that we are blessed. We are made holy and righteous by Christ’s blood and have the hope of heaven. There, we will be satisfied. There, we will see God. There, we will have our great reward. For now our joys are mixed with sadness but then the Lamb … will be [your] shepherd, and he will guide [you] to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from [your] eyes. Not just then but even now as we receive the Lamb’s high feast.

In Name of the Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
Grace Lutheran Church
Dyer, Indiana

Can You Vote for a Mormon? by Rev. Gifford Grobien

Can You Vote for a Mormon? | Blogia.

Luther is famously misquoted as saying that he would rather be ruled by a wise Turk than a foolish Christian, but this statement is utterly apocryphal. In fact, Luther deeply feared Turkish rule and wrote passionately that the empire should defend herself vigorously from Ottoman invasion. His fundamental concern was that Islamic rule would eliminate or hinder the freedom of the church to assemble and worship publicly, and that they would undermine faith in Christ by teaching falsely about Him.

What about a wise Mormon? Should a Christian embrace such rule or vote for it? Among the wider population, eighteen percent say they will not vote for a Mormon. To be sure, when such a question is asked in today’s context, most respondents are thinking of Mitt Romney, the Mormon Republican nominee for President. So some of this eighteen percent might really be saying they would not vote for Mitt Romney. Yet Gallup also suggests that the bias against Mormons is the only major bias to remain unchanged in the last forty-five years. The number of people who would not vote for a candidate because of a particular race or religion declined when considering Blacks, Jews, Catholics, and other groups. For Mormons, however, it remains effectively unchanged. Seventeen percent saidthey would not vote for a Mormon in 1967 (when Mitt Romney’s father was running for President), and eighteen percent said so in June of this year.

What is a faithful Christian to think of this? When considering whom to vote for, Lutherans typically appeal to the distinction between the two kingdoms. This distinction clarifies the authority for making such a decision. While God is the ultimate authority over all things, He exercises this authority in two ways: with law or with grace. Grace “rules” in the church. That is, by forgiving sins, God defeats sin and death and raises up believers to new life, a life that leads to resurrection.

In the secular, political realm, the law of God rules. Even the unbeliever has a limited awareness and understanding of God’s law via the natural law, the voice of reason that teaches human beings to pursue good and to avoid evil. So, when considering whom to vote for, one ought to vote for the candidate who will lead the country further toward good.

This question is obviously complicated by the numerous issues and laws that will be affected by the candidate. He may do good in some areas and evil in others. For example, some may judge that Mitt Romney will do a better job managing government finances, but are disturbed by his unwillingness to work actively toward the prohibition of abortion. Others may think that President Obama promotes an agenda that properly considers the poor, but has undermined the rule of law by his broad executive orders.

Although conventional wisdom speaks of an American separation of church and state, the practical reality is that Americans are deeply interested in a candidate’s faith. Faith is an indicator of values, and values indicate a person’s priorities, even in politics, where there are other strong influences, such as party platform, constituents, donors, and pragmatism. Indeed, this is what the two kingdoms distinction recognizes. The two kingdoms does not suggest that Christians check their consciences at the door, but that Christians participate lawfully in the secular political realm, obeying authority, but also using legal recourse to promote what is good (AC 16; Ap 16). Christians are to promote goodness in the law as they understand goodness through faith.

Perhaps faith is scrutinized heavily by some voters because they try to determine how a candidate’s faith stacks up in relation to other factors. Is a candidate’s faith strong enough to help keep him steadfast on an unpopular issue such as opposing abortion? Or is he only marginally religious, so that his espoused faith really would not play a great role in policymaking? To complicate matters further, his faith may interact differently between policy issues, so that, for example, his faith would play only a weak role in abortion policy, but a strong role in punishing criminals.

In theory, the question is simple: voters ought to vote for the candidate who will do more good, regardless of religion. In practice, however, determining who will do more good can be very difficult. Such a determination does consider a candidate’s faith and values, to what degree these will affect policy, and the relative importance of some issues over others. And such a determination requires a deep understanding of the doctrine’s taught according to the candidate’s faith, how faithful he is to these doctrines, and to what extent other factors may override his religious convictions.

Would you vote for a Mormon? The question is really better put: Would you vote for Mitt Romney? Or, would you vote for Barack Obama? Or would you vote for some other candidate? What is the faith of each of these candidates? What are the teachings of this faith? How loyal is the candidate to these teachings? What other values or loyalties does the candidate have, such as integrity to campaign promises, devotion to constituents, or allegiance to donors or party figures or policies?

As a faithful citizen you are called to participate in politics to the extent the law allows. As a dutiful citizen, these are the kinds of questions you should ask yourself and seek to answer as the election approaches. As a Christian, take part carefully yet joyfully and with thanksgiving in this process. Know that God works through means—and you are his means!—yet he directs events according to his will. He cares for his church and will not forsake her, even as the world faces great tribulation.