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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Quinquagesima 2011 – LIFE TOGETHER

06. March 2011
Quinquagesima
Luke 18:31-43

Life together. Κοινονια. Κοινονια is the word the New Testament uses to describe the Christian community. It is a fellowship, participating in what is in common, LIFE TOGETHER. It is our Lord’s mercy, testified to by his witnesses, that joins us together into a common body.

This is quite difficult to believe. Look around. We have people from many different ancestries, of different bloodlines. We share the same, common faith with Christians on every continent. We are part of the same family, participants in the same gifts. We have our LIFE TOGETHER.

Its unbelievable. Just like mercy and witness, our LIFE TOGETHER is contrary to our reason, our expectation, and our view of the world. We see black skin and we can’t imagine that we share in the same blood. We see other features and doubt we have a common ancestry. Clothing, hair, and even the way we carry each other differs. Yet, from the Scriptures, we are common. We are even brothers and sisters.

Our egocentrism often gets in the way. Your greed leads to a poor use of what God has so generously given you. Your wicked thoughts or commit the sinful deeds leech out into your daily life, infecting the rest of the day and the week. Your common flesh union in marriage is weakened through power grabs and pity parties. You carry shame and guilt through your daily walk like a terrible wooden cross.

Repent. Your life isn’t your own. It was given to you to be lived in community. It was given to serve the neighbor. It was given for your spouse and children. Your life was given to serve the Lord in all your callings in family, church, and world. You have been given a LIFE TOGETHER.

This LIFE TOGETHER is most obvious in the church. At its inception at Pentecost, Peter exhorted his hearers to repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). All told, some three thousand were baptized. These three thousand souls were joined together in Christ’s name and lived in fellowship. This was a new family, not by bloodline or circumcision, but with joined in the blood of Christ. And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, [that is,] to the breaking of bread and the prayers (Acts 2:42).

Too often, we think of our fellowship in worldly terms. For some, church is a place to hang out with folks “like us.” We get together regularly because we’re friends or because we like each other’s company. The fellowship centers around the music we like to sing or the traditions we received from our parents. Maybe for you, church is best entertainment available on Sunday morning. Or maybe, you like the free donuts and coffee?

As our strategic planners helpfully pointed out, we have two kinds of fellowship. The real fellowship happens here, in the sanctuary, around Christ and his gifts. The forgiveness given in His holy Word, the blessed water, and the body given and blood poured out are what truly join us together. St. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:9) Our LIFE TOGETHER is in Christ, our brother and Lord.

The other fellowship, what we might call donut fellowship, around conversation, coffee, and cake, is secondary and a fruit or result of the fellowship of the Son. Because we have been joined to Christ in a LIFE TOGETHER, we share in each other’s joys and sufferings (Phil. 4:14; 1:7). Because we are brothers and sisters, we share with all in need, with prayer, and in service. Our goods, our wealth, our talents, and even our lives are given to each other for our mutual benefit.

LIFE TOGETHER means no one in church is alone. There is no distinction between white or black, German or Polish, rich or poor, generous or needy. Some have voices for singing, some have hands for work, some the gift of teaching, and others the time for prayer. We are many members of a common body. Therefore we each have a unique role but a common share in the inheritance of Christ. What joins us together is not treats, or service, or even history. Our fellowship is in Christ’s shed blood for our common and shared forgiveness.

In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus gives his third passion prediction. Already twice in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus has told these disciples what he must do for their sake. Now, for a third and final time he tells them, “See we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.”

The fellowship of the disciples is incomplete without the culmination of Christ’s death and resurrection. So the same, we grieve for a time as we travel through Lent towards the cross. But our shared travels do not end there. We share together in the blessings of Easter!

The  Lord of life is the Lord of our fellowship. We understand these things. We know what was said and our eyes are open to understand. We know that the fellowship of the church is fellowship with Christ. We live with Christ and we suffer with him. We die with him and we will rise with him. We inherit heaven with Him and we will reign in glory with him. Our LIFE TOGETHER is in Christ and in our Lord’s common gifts of forgiveness.

We know what Christianity is all about. We know that the church is more than another club, community organization, or charitable foundation. The fellowship of the church is the fellowship of Jesus. It is the LIFE TOGETHER of the baptized in Christ, who hear Christ, and received Christ to eat and drink.

We rejoice in this LIFE TOGETHER. We give thanks for our LIFE TOGETHER. We seek others to join us in this LIFE TOGETHER. Our witness is to Christ’s mercy given in this fellowship. As St. John writes, “… that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3).

Rejoice dear Christians! You are Christ’s, purchased through his blood, joined to his death and resurrection, and coheirs of eternal life in heaven. Rejoice and share together in this gift! “It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture” (Ps 100:3). Rejoice and share together in this fellowship now and into eternity.

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

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

Funeral of Lila E. Corman

23. February 2011
Funeral of Lila E. Corman

Dearly beloved, Richard, Eugene, and Gail, spouses, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, visitors, and fellow redeemed – Grace, mercy and peace be to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Christians, take comfort in the promise of the resurrection of the dead! Take comfort knowing that our Lord Jesus Christ conquered our mortal foes. Even the sin of each of us and of the whole world could not overcome him. The grim hands of Death could not hold him in the grave. The prince of demons was bound in chains, whose head crushed beneath the triumph of Easter morning.

Is this difficult to believe? Absolutely. Our minds have an impossible time wrapping themselves around this truth. Our reason, separated by two thousand years of history, rejects the eyewitness testimony of the Apostles. Our reason knows nothing of dead people rising from their graves to life. Our reason has not seen the angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man as Jesus himself prophesied through St. John.

Worse yet, our reason knows nothing of the corruption of our flesh and the trespasses against God. We look to ourselves with a far nobler opinion than we ought. We consider our worth in psychological terms of “self-esteem.” We look at death as the victory over life. We measure ourselves up against the yardstick of opinion and find ourselves righteous or holy enough for God.

God’s Word says otherwise. When measured not by opinion but by the holy truth of God’s standard, we learn that we are rotten, no-good, low-life, sinners. We deserve nothing by God’s righteous anger and wrath. We we consider death according the Scriptures we learn that it is the screeching halt, crash, and catastrophe. No one goes easy. No one is peaceful in death.

Even poor Lila’s flesh withered and decayed before our Lord took her to himself. I saw her just last week in the hospital. She was barely able to speak and looked nothing like the photos of memory. She had already suffered in her flesh with cancer and broken shoulder. Her suffering continued for those final days until death finally overcame even her German/Swedish will. A strong independent mind in the end still cannot transcend the inbred weakness of our mortal nature.

It was in times like these that Lila liked to remember that famous poem, “Footprints in the Sand.” The family shared this poem with you in the memorial card.

The poem goes like this:
(Copyright © 1984 Mary Stevenson, from original 1936 text, All rights reserved)

To be honest, I didn’t know much about this poem until today. Our favorite scholarly research tool, Google, came to my rescue. Apparently, there has been some dispute as to the original authorship. Not until 1991 was Mary Stevenson awarded the copyright after she found her original copy authenticated to 1939.

I remember seeing this poem in my grandparents home as one of those famous framed prints, with a beach and the single set of footprints. I never thought much of it. But my research proved interesting. The author of this poem was much like Lila. Mary Stevenson was born in near Philadelphia PA in 1922, just three years before Lila. Mary’s family describes her as an individual with strong headedness, much like Lila. Mary suffered great loss when she lost her mother to death at age six, forcing her father to raise her and the seven other children. This all happened in the midst of the Great Depression.

Lila too went through the Great Depression and she was undoubtedly affected greatly. Her confirmation in the Christian faith came in 1940, right in the midst of the Second Great War. She lost two grandchildren and her beloved husband Corky to death. Maybe the raising of three boys was a bit of a headache sometimes?

Lila understood trials. That’s why she loved the “Footprints” poem so much. She knew that sometimes the challenges of this life and even of her own flesh are too much to bear. Sometimes we’re tempted to give up, to throw in the towel, and sink into the pit of despair. Yet, her faith could not allow this. While you might chalk her resiliency up to her German bloodline, it was her faith in Jesus that got her through the toughest times.

Sometimes we’re tempted to the Puritan ideal. We’re tempted to think that when times get tough, we’re to pull up our bootstraps and have at it. Lila knew that this was often not true. Truth be told, the only thing that gets us through these times is Jesus.

The reason the “Footprints” poem is so powerful is because it confesses the holy truth of Scripture. We could quibble over the finer points of doctrine in the poem but still, I think, it conveys the Gospel of Jesus Christ in most comforting and consoling way.

The poet Mary Stevenson knew that no matter how much we try to follow Jesus, we are weak. In the lowest and saddest times of life, our best attempts aren’t enough. Actually, our best attempts to make it through the good times aren’t enough. The truth is that in good and bad times, it is our Lord who carries us.

It’s like we heard in David’s poem on the same theme, Psalm 23. The LORD does it all. He is the shepherd, the leader, the provider, the restorer, the comforter, the butler, and the anointer. Despite our enemies, despite the valley of the shadow of death, despite evil, and despite the often parched and withered lands we are forced to travel, our LORD is with us.

The end of David’s poem has one of the sweetest words of good news in all of Scripture. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. Its those words that comforted Lila in the end. Its those words that got Lila through the hard times.

What was David confessing? What truth? Jesus. Jesus is the goodness and mercy that followed Lila. He is the goodness and mercy that picked her up and carried her in sadness and trial. Lila knew in sickness and in health that every good thing, indeed everything she had came from the Lord. She rejoiced in confessing her faith, namely that our heavenly Father had given his only son into death, that we may never die. She rejoiced every Sunday in the Easter acclamation, “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!”

Even now, Lila is being carried by our Lord. To our reason, she is dead. To our faith, she is already alive. She is alive with Christ. Just like our Lord said to the widow, “She is not dead but is sleeping.” Too true! Lila is not dead but is sleeping. We don’t see her footprints anymore. But in faith, we see our Lord’s footprints in the sand and know that Lila is being carried by him to the joys of heaven and to everlasting life.

Dearly beloved, Richard, Eugene, and Gail, spouses, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, visitors, and fellow redeemed – may this faith in Jesus Christ that carried Lila through this life so also carry you into the eternal joys of heaven and eternal life. Amen.

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

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