gospel

There are 37 posts tagged gospel (this is page 3 of 13).

Laetare (Lent 4) – John 6:1-15

10. March 2013
Laetare (Lent 4)
John 6:1-15

We are in the midst of difficult times as a congregation. We overspent our offering receipts from last year by eight thousand dollars, drawing these funds from our reserve. The current economic climate has not improved and 2013 offerings are already falling significantly behind last year. The “writing is on the wall” and significant revisions are needed to this year’s budget to prevent the depletion of our entire reserve. Difficult choices were made and we’ll need to continue to be attentive as the year goes on.

Some think we should, as a congregation, “go gracefully into the sunset,” a euphemism for closing. Others think that we should continue to slash the budget. Others think we can do fundraisers to make up the deficit. Some say that we should cut the pastor and return to a vacancy situation. Some would have us investigate how to share pastor(s) or merge with another parish. Fiscally and physically speaking, one can understand these suggestions. Responsible and frugal actions should be taken as responsible stewards of God’s material gifts, gathering up the what remains of His miraculous barley loaves.

Something critical is missing in these discussions. There is a great spiritual danger lurking underneath the surface. Answer this question: Who built this church? If you answer, “we did,” you’re both right and wrong. You’re right in that your hands, monies, and time invested in the life of this congregation. But you’re also wrong. The holy Christian church is not made with money, or hands, or even time but by God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Church is built upon Jesus: the Word of Jesus, the washing in the blood of Jesus, the forgiving touch of Jesus, and the bread and wine sacramentally united to the body and blood of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies the Christian church on earth and keep it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. We do not confess that building, utility bills, organs, lighting projects, air conditioning, parking lots, nor fellowship times make or break churches. Buildings come and go along with the congregations within them. Air conditioning systems break, roofs leak, pews get matted and torn, and hymnals fall apart. The things of this earth see rust, moth, and decay. But the church remains forever, built upon the immovable and sure prophetic Word. Your faith cannot be starved by physical hunger nor the Holy Church destroyed when steeples crumble.

God is providential and always gives us precisely what we need to hear, taste, and see. The Holy Spirit opens our ears to hear and our hearts to understand, applying the Word of Truth to our lives. Today’s Holy Gospel is no different. It is no coincidence that today’s lesson is given during the trying time of Lent. It’s no coincidence that today’s Holy Gospel fell a week after an “emergency” congregation meeting slash congregational spending. The Word of Jesus needs to be heard by us today for our confidence and comfort in the face of difficult times.

We have a bread problem. We’re hungry and we we’re going to satisfy the need. Compared  to some we’re quite full and yet we still desire more and more. We’ve dined sumptuously on rich food, of marrow and wine. We have amassed closets of clothing. We build bigger and better houses. We “upgrade” our cars, our computers, and even our spouse. The engorgement never ends There’s a hunger deep inside us and it is never satisfied.

Saying “no” to the hunger is next to impossible. The cravings of our stomach, our heart, and our mind overwhelm us. They are irresistible. “Feed me,” says the ravenous beast within. Only later do we realize that satisfying our appetite actually increased it. “I used to get by on much less,” some say. “How did we ever live without that, “ others ponder. Our greedy sinner selves are insatiable.

This misplaced desire leads to sin and death. To want what is not given is to covet. To take what is not yours is to steal. To lust after another leads to adultery. To damage another’s reputation is to artificially inflate yours. To hate is to take life. To break God’s holy Law is desire what is not yours to have, to do, or gain. You do not want to know both good and evil but to have clean and pure heart, holy in thought, word, and deed.

Desire is not in itself evil. Only when desire is perverted into use contrary to God is it sinful. It is God-pleasing to desire your husband or wife. For your spouse been given to you for your blessing. It is God-pleasing to show love to the neighbor. This desire is a fruit of God’s love for you. It is God-pleasing to desire to help and not harm the reputation and income of the other. It is God-pleasing to desire to protect and wisely use the many gifts of body and soul He has given you.

Thus, desire can be used to be faithful to God and love neighbor. Or desire can be twisted to love oneself and hate God. Desire is always distorted. Because we are both sinners in the flesh and holy and righteous in the blood of Jesus, our desires are at odd. We both are faithful and despise God. We love and hate our neighbor. Simultaneously. Duplicitously. Even when we love what is given, we also seek to use it for our own self-interest. Even while we love our neighbor, we secretly would rather have nothing to do with him.

Confident that your desires are holy and right can only come from the Holy Word. Only by listening to the voice of Jesus can you accurately weigh your thoughts and deeds. The Word exposes the wickedness of the flesh, crushing the old Adam to death. The Word raises up a new Man, righteous and pure in the blood of Jesus. This Word is a refining fire, a two-edged sword, a bone-saw that exposes the joint and the marrow. The faithful desire to hear this Word so that their sin would be annihilated by Christ’s death and holiness be given by Christ’s Spirit.

The faithful act beyond reason and pursue this Word at all costs. They give up bread, clothing, home, family, and even their life to hear and meditate upon this Word. They will sacrifice everything to sit at the feet of Jesus and receive His life-giving bread. “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4) By their Baptism they have undergone a priority reversal. Those under the curse think of themselves first and God enters the frame only to fill in the needed blanks. Those redeemed in Christ, “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33) knowing full well that all else will be given to due measure.

Thus five-thousand men (with women and children) left everything behind and followed Jesus into the wilderness. They pursued Him to hear His every Word and receive His gifts. They were not concerned about food for the journey, shoes to make the distance, water for the desert, or even a blanket to sit upon. They desired rightly every Word that proceeded from the mouth of Jesus. Whether they knew it or not, Jesus would take care of them. The would be fed with the Holy Word, bread from heaven, for their aching souls and barley loaves, bread of the earth, for their aching bellies. Like their fathers in the wilderness, they would have meat and bread as they needed. God even provided a soft grassy earth from them to recline and feast upon the Him.

You may have the inclination to wring your hands in despair or panic, to worry about what tomorrow may bring, or to give up and throw in the towel on Grace Lutheran Church. May it not be so! Hear the Word of Jesus: “Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.” (Psalm 34:9-10) Learn from the faithful whose holy desire led them to purse Jesus into the wilderness, rightly desiring first to hear the Word of God, confident that Jesus would later take care of their other needs.

We do not know what is in store for our body, our life, or our congregation.We trust that He will preserve His Word and our faith until our end or He comes again. The fact that we here at all is testimony to the miracle of God’s grace and mercy. We give thanks for the multitude of blessings the Father has given our body and life. But we all the more store up the treasures of Jesus Christ, desiring first His Word and the holy Sacraments, confident that upon this bread from heaven, the church will remain forever.

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

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

Sexagesima 2013 – Isaiah 55:10-13; Luke 8:4-15

03. February 2013
Sexagesima
Isaiah 55:10-13; Luke 8:4-15

Another week. Another parable. Last week learned how outrageously generous our Heavenly Father is to us. He brings us into His vineyard without work or merit of our own and gives us His son’s merit and righteousness as our own. Even more, He gives this same gift of Christ’s salvation, life, and forgiveness to all, regardless of when and how they were brought into His kingdom. Thus, the kingdom of heaven is given to all with unbelievable generosity.

This week we continue with another parable of God’s kingdom. Again the earthly setting, characters, and actions defy logic. They don’t make any sense. Just as with the vineyard owner so also with the Sower. Just as with the workers so with the soils. Just as with the denarius wage so with the seed. To those without eyes of faith, the God in His kingdom is reckless, wasteful, and downright idiotic. The goodness of this flagrantly wild behavior is for those with eyes of faith. We see in these parables a God who is loving, generous, and superbly good.

Last week was about God’s call and gracious gifts. Today is about His Word and its work. By Word, we mean the Holy Scriptures. We usually call these writings the Bible. But this is misunderstood. Is the Bible information to be stored away and saved for the next time you play Bible Trivia Pursuit? Is it a manual of dos and don’ts for how to be good Christian boys and girls? Is it a handbook for life giving instructions to give you a better marriage, increase your riches, or being successful in business?

The problem is that the Bible can provide all these things. It’s full of historical details, strange facts, crazy stories, and catchy sayings. There are plenty of helpful lessons that can help form kids into moral people. The Bible is full of wisdom that will help in you in all areas of life. This is all found in the Bible. But is this the Word of God? Is this God’s purpose in speaking? He says, “It shall not return to me empty, but shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

The difficulty we have with God’s Word is not its length, its sordid tales, its difficult lessons, or its grand scale. Only by knowing the purpose which God seeks to accomplish can we understand His speech. When we look for earthly wisdom and stumble upon the Sower, we pause and wonder why anyone would waste seed on obviously unfruitful soil. No right-minded farmer would chuck his seed on the road, the rocks, and in the weeds.

God as sower and His Word as His seed doesn’t behave like agribusiness of this earth. It does not purpose to give advice to the farmer or lessons about sowing seed. This shouldn’t bother you. You have ears to hear. For you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God. Only to those who are looking for something from the Word other than what it purposes to give will hear this as a crazy story.

What does God purpose to give by His Word for you today? First, the Word of God is purposefully sown upon the whole world. This Word is Law and Promises of God, their attached curses and blessings, damnation and absolution, threats and forgiveness. This is the purpose of the word that goes out from God’s mouth, and it shall not return to Him empty. It will succeed in the thing for which He sends it. This Word is preached to the ends of the earth and works despite coming from sinful mouthpieces. It calls to repentance and forgives for the sake of Christ. It binds the sin of those who do not repent.

Second, the Word is recklessly cast upon paths, rocks, thorny brush, and fertile soil, that is, people who may or may not receive it unto salvation. From the our perspective God is wastes His preaching of the Word by scattering it where it is snatched away by the devil, it can’t take root, or is choked by the cares of this world. It is not for us to say. We aren’ to judge who, when, and where the Word will work. Nor are we to judge its result. We preach. We teach. We forgive. We baptize. We feed with Christ.

Jew or Gentile? Black, red, white? Wealthy suburbanite or low-income south-sider? Immature child or gray-haired curmudgeon? Irrelevant. We didn’t create the soil. We don’t know what days, years, or decades of God’s persistent sun, pelting rain, or annual freeze and thaw will do to those hearts. Nor do we make the Word effective. No need to dress up God’s breath into digestible portions or attractive packaging. No need dummy God down for the young (or the old). Speak what God has said. It shall not return to Him empty. That’s His promise and you can take it to the bank.

But Jesus warns us to be attentive to ourselves. While we can’t tell who will receive God’s Word nor when, we can consider our own hearts. We should consider God’s description of the soils not to judge the potential of others but to be on our guard.

It is true that you can harden your heart to God and stop being receptive to His Word. You can refuse to hear preaching. You can stubbornly avoid teaching from the Word. You can hear in one ear and let it out the other. This makes your faith easy pickings for the Devil. He comes like a raven and snatches that Word away from you. Continued resistance to the Word can make your heart so hard that it becomes like stone. Stone that cannot receive the Word nor the rain and sun of God needed to nourish it. You can let other gods grow up like thorns, distracting you from the truth, and eventually strangling God’s Word with the errors of the world.

Faithfulness is not in vogue these days. People jump around from one church to another assuming it doesn’t matter. Lutheran or Roman Catholic? Baptist or no-name non-denom? Reformed or Bible church? We’re all Christian, right? We need to ask a deathly serious question. Do all these confessions share the chief purpose for which God gives His Word? If we don’t agree why God speaks do we share the same faith?

This is a serious matter. It affects many of you in this congregation. It probably touches every family in some way. If we can profess to be Christians together ought not we preach and teach the Word of God truthfully together? Go church shopping sometime. Consider the words of their singing. Listen to the preaching. What is the chief aim of the Word coming from the congregation and preacher’s mouth? Is it consistent to what comes from God own speech in the Holy Scriptures?

You’ll discover how easy it is to be trodden by false doctrine and become resistive to the truth. You’ll see how some are hardened completely to the truth of the Word. You’ll find some churches more concerned with the cares of this world than what God says in His Word. And the greatest sadness is that many or even most have lost sight of the purpose for which God sent His Word. God sent His Son Jesus to reconcile the world unto himself. The Word of God is the good news that in the cross of Jesus Christ you are given forgiveness of all your sins. In His resurrection you see the first-fruits of your own resurrection on the day of His return.

This is the purpose of God’s Word. He will accomplish the terraforming of your heart of soil into a fertile ground for salvation. His Holy Spirit will fall like rain and His Son shine like the sun to crack open the hard path, pulverize the rocks, and scorch the thorns. You can’t make your heart any more ready for the Word than God has already. The good work He has begun in you will reach its completion in the day of Jesus Christ.

After the Holy Spirit prepares you by the Word, that same Word takes root. It is nourished by the gifts of the Spirit. The springs of eternal life water that seed until it takes root and grows in you. It is fertilized with absolution. It is nourished with heavenly food. And Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, shelters His tender shoot from the pecking of Satan’s beak, from the suffering rays of the midday sun, and from the encroachment of the thorny cares of this world. This Word came forth from the Father’s mouth to forgive, to give life, and to take you into eternal salvation. All this He will do. He will accomplish it. He will succeed in it. Amen.

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

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

“Climb Every Mountain” – Transfiguration 2013 – Exodus 34:29-35; Matthew 17:1-9

20. January 2013
Transfiguration
Exodus 34:29-35; Matthew 17:1-9

Everyone wants a mountaintop experience. Maybe you have had such an experience figuratively or literally. Would you describe any events in your life this way? Or if you considered the general contour of your life’s topography would it be more valleys and shadows than mountains and brilliance? No wonder then that when we are trudging through those ravines of life we look forward to the small peaks with the joy, hope, and clear vision they bring. We want those experiences that thrill and delight.

This desire applies not only to our daily lives but to spiritual lives, too. We desire to see the glory of God, to receive the exhilaration of His presence, to see clearly the landscape and the path of our life, and to delight in all His many gifts. We want from God a mountaintop experience to remember.

This is, of course, why we see some people in church only infrequently like on Christmas and Easter. They know those days will be filled with joy and comfort. They’re not so sure that the weekly grind of the Divine Service will provide the same. And if we’re honest, we’ll say they’re right. The weekly service often seems more of a valley with each of us more slouching than leaping towards the promised land. Our prayers are drudgery, our voices lackluster, and our attention waning.

The problem is that we are wrong to judge the value of our life experiences based on whether they make us happy or not. Anyone with the wisdom of age will tell you they learned as much or more from the rotten experiences of life as they did from the moments of joy, peace, or hope. The war-torn scars of the soldier, the withered hands of the worker, or the stretch marks of the mother all tell of an experience that was difficult yet incredibly valuable. Those experiences may have glimpses of glory but were often difficult drudgery.

God never promises your life will be easy nor every moment a mountaintop experience. Your heavenly Father “disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives” (Heb 12:6; cf. Prov. 3:11). God works this way in your life, both body and soul. He allows you to experience pain, grief, and disease to strengthen your trust in Him. You will suffer even death because of your sin. You are dust and to dust you shall return. This discipline of your body is not His final work. God promises healing and will give it. Ultimately this is the gift of Jesus in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.  Just as Christ died and rose so also you who are in Him will die and rise.

God the Father is also attentive to your soul. He gives you His commands that confess His perfect will. Given your sinful condition these accuse you and terrify your conscience. You are tempted to sin but never more than you can handle. This holy Law is a guardian or taskmaster. It restrains evil in you, shows you your sin, and shows you what God expects of you. This word is humbling for no one keeps it. It’s discipline scares our soul, frightened to death of the prospect of hell. As with bodily discipline this is not God’s proper work. His Law always gives way to the gift of the Holy Gospel. For there is forgiveness in God the Son. His death and resurrection gives you forgiveness. There is no more condemnation for you have been freed by His blood.

Our physical and spiritual experiences with God are not always what we would call a mountaintop experiences, if by the expression we mean that they are comfortable and happy. When Moses brought the God’s holy Law to the people from Mt. Sinai, did they receive him joyfully? No, this “mountaintop experience” scared them. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.

Moses came as the messenger of the almighty God and a little bit of that glory wore off onto Moses. But remember that this was after Moses’s second trip up Sinai. After the first trip he returned to discover the people worshipping a golden calf. Moses showed God’s displeasure by melting the calf and forcing the people to drink it mixed with water and God himself sent a plague upon them. In His mercy God heard Moses’s intercession and forgave the people. God called Moses to once again travel to Sinai and there cut new tablets for the Law. When Moses returned to the people they were rightly frightened. Would God again be displeased with them?

This righteous fear continued. Every time Moses went in to speak before the LORD, he would return with his face shining. The people knew that He had spoken with the LORD. When Moses lifted the veil they would hear the God’s Word. They would have a “mountaintop experience” in God’s way. The words Moses spoke did not always lift their spirits but they were always for their good. The people hated the reflected glory in Moses’s face and were terrified when the veil was lifted. For Moses’s ministry was of the Law and thus of accusation, condemnation, and death.

This is not the mountaintop experience our bodies long for nor the one that is our soul’s hope. Perhaps that is why St. Peter acted the way He did on Mt. Tabor? perhaps he thought he was finally having the mountaintop experience that everyone hoped for. After six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.

One has to wonder if Peter had not paid attention in his sabbath lessons.  Jesus and Moses shining in glory shouldn’t make happy or comfortable. He should be frightened out of his wits. When anyone goes up on a mountain and ends up with shining flesh it is a moment of terror. But not Peter. He said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. Peter wants to continue to dwell on the mountain, to be accused by the Law, and to know only God’s  terrifying glory. He wants to live under the Law and not the greater and proper work of Jesus to die for their sins.

Jesus converses with Moses and Elijah and is speaking of His exodus (according to St. Luke.) From the mountain of Transfiguration Jesus turns His face toward Jerusalem where He will climb another mountain. On Mt. Calvary the true glory of God will be revealed, the glory of the only-begotten of the Father. On that mountain Moses’s ministry of condemnation will cease. Jesus will die for the sins of the world, ushering in a new ministry of righteousness. The glory of Jesus (and Moses and Elijah) that Peter wanted to package in tents on Tabor will be shown to have no glory at all. As St. Paul said, “What once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it” (2 Cor 3:11).

Peter was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. Now Peter, James, and John make the connection. Now they know that the glory in Jesus they see is truly the glory of God. Now they are rightly terrified, fearing God’s judgment and His holy presence.

But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. Already at this mountain a new mountaintop experience begins. God’s holy Law is surpassed by the gift of Jesus. The Father’s voice that terrifies is followed by the Son’s voice of comfort. Brilliant glory is shrouded so that we would bask in the cross of Christ.

This is a different sort of mountaintop experience. It begins when Jesus comes to you. After you are terrified by the Father’s discipline, the Son comes with the touch of forgiveness. He speaks to you tenderly and says “Rise, and have no fear.” These words are greater than Moses. Their glory more brilliant than even the sun.

Jesus tells death “It is finished” and he transfigures it into eternal life. He says to water, “save” and it is transfigured into a saving flood. He says to bread and wine, “body and blood” and He is transigured for your forgiveness. He calls sinners “forgiven” and you are transfigured into the redeemed. He says to His church “shine” and we are transfigured into cities shining on hills. From that little mountain of Calvary now a greater mountain is rising up in you. For Christ has gathered you together to Mount Zion to give you the best experience of all—forgiveness in Him.

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

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