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“He went away sorrowful, for he had many possessions.”

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We are a materialistic society. Ownership, possession, acquisition, are givens for us. We are not unique, of course. We have simply elevated the possession of things and experiences to the level of a cosmic virtue. As a result we have created vast marketing enterprises to convince ourselves of our continuing deficiency. Just when you thought you had finally gotten hold of the big thing, the next big thing comes along. Neighbors cast a wary, envious glance at the new car in the driveway next door, the fear of inadequacy sets in and the planning for an even better car begins. You get the picture. You may be in it.

What lies at the heart of our insatiable need to have, to acquire? Fear. Fear of what other people think of us, fear of the future and our need to hedge ourselves against its uncertainties, fear of that emptiness into which many pour possessions and experiences, as if filling a void. But it doesn’t work. Take a good, long look at those you envy, those who reach the pinnacles of financial and material comfort. They imprison themselves within gated communities, squadrons of security guards, compounds and estates, fearing the loss of possessions, person and privacy. Self-reliance does nothing to eradicate fear. Fear simply changes its forms.

We all know the story. A wealthy young man asked Jesus what it would take to have eternal life. Jesus answer was short, simple and terrifying; Sell what you have and give the money to the poor, and follow me. The man walked away from Jesus, full of sorrow. The fear of giving up what he possessed paralyzed him with grief.

The meaning in Jesus story is clear: what we pride ourselves on, our self-reliance, is actually the great sin of unbelief – and that includes certain forms of free-will Christianity which is nothing more than self-reliance gone to church. For unbelief is not the refusal to give assent to certain doctrines, catechisms, or Biblical truths. Unbelief is nothing more than the refusal to count on God, to trust Him.

Confidence rooted in self-reliance, religious or otherwise, never shakes the fear that my efforts and willing may not deliver the goods. Confidence rooted in God’s promises results in a faith which moves with assurance through the day into God’s promised future, whether God delivers the goods or not. For reliance on God means reliance on His will, and not our own.

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 “May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

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“…and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another;…”

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The photo above was taken at a cooking class in Siena, Italy (Linda is in the back at the far left, chatting with Fabrizio). We gathered as strangers from various countries. Labor was divided, we each knew our task. Our chef guided us along the way. In the midst of the laughter, joking, the sounds of chopping, mixing, the clanging of pots and pans and much lively conversation a bond began to form among us. After a few hours our various efforts resulted in the fulfillment of our common purpose. Dinner was served.

This is not a bad picture of what a congregation is supposed to look like; people called together to engage their life’s energies and resources with a common purpose. And that purpose is to explore, together, the many facets of what it means to share the love of God in Jesus Christ.

Sadly, many ‘church kitchens’ are virtually empty when it comes to the preparations for ministry. Life’s energies and resources are invested elsewhere. Many are happy to sit down at the table and receive the meal but moving into the kitchen to assist in the preparations is another matter.

Wherever you may be as you read this, if you are a part of a Christian community, that community is the place where God has placed you to share in the exploration and preparation of ministry. The nourishing, simple fare of Word and sacrament is the main course. That never changes. It is always there for you. At the same time the many and various possibilities for expanding the feast of love and service are endless. But there is more to it than that. Engaging in active ministry with others widens and strengthens the bonds of fellowship, sets an example for children, provides a witness to family, friends, business associates and neighbors, develops leadership and multiples the joy that comes with working and serving together for the greater purposes of God’s Kingdom.

So, what are you waiting for? Grab your apron and head for the kitchen. You’ll be glad you did! Ciao!

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 “May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

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“See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.”

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After the prodigal son had returned home he may have had second thoughts. He may have wished for a forty hour week instead of being restored to the rights of a son. Now that he had been restored to his place, the full weight and obligation of being a son was upon him. He once again carried the pressures of his freedom and the responsibility of bearing the family name.

For all the moaning and complaining that comes from those who take a paycheck from an employer, the fact remains that  most people do not want the responsibilities, burdens and obligations that come with ownership. The majority are quite content to punch the clock and then walk away from the job at the end of the week, thanking God it’s Friday. 

Many also prefer an employee\employer relationship with God. It’s easier that way. Provide me with a job description and then give me what I have coming. Those who practice an employer\employee version of the Christian faith are probably more in tune with the prodigal son’s elder brother. He stayed at home, complained about his brother’s lack of work ethic and moral laxity, did what he was told, and demanded his rights. But this is not the scenario which describes sons and daughters of God’s kingdom.

In Jesus Christ God has not adjusted our job description. God has completely altered our status. This is the gift of your baptism. The New Testament uses the language of royalty to describe what it means to be a child of God. Sons and daughters of royalty do not punch clocks. They freely share the benefits and burdens of their high status.

The Christian has entered a kingdom of grace, not a business relationship. There is nothing to earn, nothing to prove. Christ has done it all. To live within this kingdom is to know the freedom of royal sons and daughters. To rule within this kingdom is to serve in love.

Martin Luther put it this way, ‘The Christian is a free lord, subject to none. The Christian is a dutiful servant, subject to all.”

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“May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep you hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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“All Scripture is inspired by God…”

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Over the centuries, the Christian Church has developed a number of important doctrines related to creation, the Incarnation, Justification and so forth. What the Church has never been able to do is develop a universal doctrine of Inspiration to set forth what we mean when we call the Bible the inspired Word of God. All Christians will acknowledge that the Bible is inspired. At the same time Christians will differ, often forcefully, over this question. For example, some in the Christian family believe that if we acknowledge one mistake or error in the Bible, the entire edifice collapses like a house of cards. Nothing it says can be trusted. Defense is their emphasis when it comes to the Bible and the faith.

If there is one mistake or error in the Bible, must I call into question the trustworthiness of everything the Bible contains?  Let’s suppose that Linda and a girlfriend have gone away on a trip. While she is away I call their hotel room but Linda is out and I get her friend on the phone. We chat momentarily then she relates to me a message from Linda: she misses me and loves me and looks forward to being home. As we close the conversation, Linda’s friend goes on to tell me that early one morning they were awakened by the song of a Bluebird. 

Now, suppose I know for a fact that there are no Bluebirds within 500 miles of where they are staying. Should I assume that because she is mistaken about the bird I should doubt her when she tells me Linda loves and misses me? 

It seems to me that the fact the Church can approach the Bible with some freedom in the matter of its inspiration allows us to emphasize the declaration of its powerful message over the defense of one form of literalism or another. After all, the Truth carries itself. We do not carry the Truth. For me, the declaration or proclamation of the message of the Bible is the proper emphasis. 

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“May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

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“Let’s have a feast and celebrate! For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate.”

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The prodigal son has dragged himself home from his far away wanderings. His father, overjoyed at his return, drops everything and orders the household to prepare a banquet. The appointed hour arrives. Wine flows, food in abundance fills the merry makers. Everyone is swept up in a whirl of laughter, celebration and dancing. But, what if?

What if the son spends the evening at his father’s side recalling over and over again the degradations of his past life.  Even as the father has forgotten it all and wants to cover it with joy and celebration, all the son can do is keep reviewing the contents of the garbage can, and tell the father about all the things he intends to do to make it up to him. This cannot be what the father had in mind. 

When Christian people permit the spectres of the past to haunt the present, or focus too much on the utilities of living, we forget that we have a right to put the past away, along with our incessant need to be doing something, and simply be swallowed up in the joys of the kingdom. Christ Jesus has given us that right. Our sins belong to Him. And he wants us to forget them, just as He has.

C.S. Lewis tells the story of a group of people who found themselves together, quite by coincidence. They all knew each other and spent an evening in casual conversation, occasionally giving one another glimpses into the deeper parts of their lives. When the evening ended, and the people returned to their homes, some felt guilty that their conversations had not confronted the pressing political, economic and social ills of the day. They had done nothing but enjoy one another.

I suspect that heaven is going to look far more like the Sunday church coffee hour than the monthly church council meeting. God is preparing a banquet for us. It will be an occasion with no other purpose than to enjoy God and one another. It will be the restoration of what God intended for us all along; the celebration of His love, crowned with unalloyed joy and pure enjoyment.

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“May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

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“I have loved you with an eveflasting love, therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.”

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Staying the course can be tough. Our minds may tell us to hang in there but the desire to do so can fade until our hearts are no longer in it. A fading resolve speaks the right words and goes through the motions. Faith can be like that too.

God has made promises. Our security does not rest in our committment to those promises, but in God’s resolve to keep them. This is, essentially, the meaning of your baptism.  “Mans’ word is vapor”, said Martin Luther, “but God’s Word is a mountain of granite.” We can put the full weight of whatever faltering faith we can muster on the promises of God. But our faith is not the focus. God’s faithfulness is the story.

One of the ancient Chinese symbols for faithfulness was the symbol of a man next to the symbol for word. Faithfulness is a man keeping his word. We have trouble here. God does not. God is faithful.

That faithfulness is most wonderfully expressed in Jesus Christ. In Christ God answers our faltering faith with the certainty of His love. The Scriptures, the preaching of the Gospel and the sacraments are all expressions of God’s faithful Word, given to you. The person who stands by that Word may falter but he will never fail. Earthly values and committments may crumble but God’s Word endures.

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“May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

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“As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

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The gods that people imagined were ruling their lives in the ancient world could be comforting, kind, just, benevolent and good. At the same time they could be capricious, vain, jealous and merciless. The net result was a pantheon of deities who were unreliable and whose behavior resulted in a world where the cry for justice was often answered with indifference or cruelty.

There were no gods of course. They were all simply manifestations of the capriciousness of our own lives. Projections of a lost humanity’s efforts to find itself within itself. 

Then the God of Israel entered the picture. The grey smokescreen of paganism was whisked away. The True, Living God broke into the cycle of caprice and injustice and through the revelation of the Law established Himself to be the God of justice. Humanity’s place in the world was not disorderly, capricious, unjust, grey and uncertain. God’s committment to justice was absolute, black and white. 

This was the world into which Jesus came. The people of Israel had over long centuries lived with God’s Law and prided themselves on the advantage it gave them. Good was rewarded. Evil was punished. So, when the disciples came across a blind man, they immediately interpreted his misfortune as punishment. He or his parents must have done something to deserve it. Maybe you think this way, too.

In a world of justice you receive exactly what you have coming. Nothing more, nothing less. A just universe is a good universe but it is disastrous in the kind of universe we find ourselves in. The person who is plagued by one stroke of ill fortune after another will eventually come to believe that he has done something to deserve it, and may be driven to despair.  On the other hand, the person who escapes disaster, for whom everything goes right, would be equally as much in peril. For she would conclude that she has deserved what she has gotten. Pride would be her destruction.

Justice isn’t good enough, not in a sinful world. We must look elsewhere for the meaning of the universe. So Jesus replied to His disciples, 

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. “

Jesus went on to heal the blind man, revealing that mercy, not justice or law, is the real center of the universe. If you want the summation of the thoughts, words and deeds of your life to be judged according to the strict standard of justice, you don’t have a prayer. Do you really want what you have coming? You who are so intent on seeing that justice is done?

In Jesus God has tipped the scales toward mercy. Like it or not, God has chosen to deal with you on the basis of His mercy, not your stellar assessments of how well you have kept your nose clean. Our deranged passion for justice put just, innocent Jesus on a cross. God’s passion for mercy trumped us and raised Him from the dead.

There is no surer pathway to hell than to insist on what you have coming. There is no surer pathway to heaven than to throw yourself on the mercy of God. You don’t have it coming but He insists on giving it to you. God’s mercy revealed in Jesus Christ is His Glorious work, and your salvation.

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“May the peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

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“Even if we or an angel from heaven preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be cursed”…or, at least, unplug the guitar.

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Jesus knew what He was doing when He chose the twelve. He didn’t intentionally look for guys who were dazed and confused. He didn’t have to. Dazed and confused is the default condition of humanity where God is concerned. Any twelve would have done nicely. It’s sort of like a congregation choosing a church council or a pastor, or a seminary choosing a faculty. The only candidates are sinners!

As a Christian there is no Archimedean point of ecclesiastical perfection beyond the taint of history where you can make everything work, where you are safely ensconced from the mischief and messiness of life – including your own. The old adage I heard somewhere says it well; ‘The church is like Noah’s ark. If it weren’t for the storm outside one wouldn’t be able to stand the stink inside.’ In fact, there are times when the storm outside seems preferable! To wit I have often found more solace and camaraderie jamming among real sinners in a blues bar with my two sons (that’s us under the Budweiser signs) than sipping coffee during the fellowship hour amidst the smug piety of sinners who are convinced of their saintliness (my current congregation excepted, of course).

While we should not be too concerned about an imperfect church, we should be very concerned about an imperfect gospel. Lutherans, perhaps more than any other Christian group, ought to be keenly aware of this. Luther picked up the tune and we have been singing the blues ever since over the state of a church that is perpetually in danger of losing it’s voice for the gospel.  And there is no shortage these days of sour notes; from free will enthusiasts with their wimpy, hat-in-His-hand God waiting for us to decide, to the social activists who are perpetually giving us the lash to get up and do something. 

Let’s be frank. You don’t need someone to beg your free will to choose God. Where God is concerned you don’t have a free will anyway. In fact, to claim that you do may very well be blasphemy, since only God is free. And haven’t we tried to claim enough of His territory as our own?  Any preacher who tries to sell this ‘will worship’ version of a gospel might provide a better service by selling used cars, where asking for your decision would at least make some sense. Anyway, the Gospel is not about your decision for God, it is about God’s decision for you.

And to those who are proclaiming a gospel of doing, doing, doing, calling us to help the perpetually unjust and suffering world, there is no doubt the world can use the help. But is this why Jesus died? To make us social workers? Is this the best we can do with the message of the New Testament?

Jesus did not come to bargain with you or to give you the perfect example you must follow. From the start He simply cast His lot with sinners.The decision had already been made. He came to love you and reconcile you to God. And you were on His mind at the bitter end when, from his own lips, He gave the Church it’s one, true Gospel, the one note to which the Church is called to tune it’s voice; “Father, forgive them…”. The free forgiveness of sins, given by grace alone, for Jesus sake, that’s God’s message, God’s gift to you, handed over in the absolution, handed over in baptism, handed over in the Lord’s Supper. And once your life is tuned to this gift, so full of love and grace, comfort, hope and freedom, you can jam on it forever. The possibilities are endless!

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“May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

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“For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

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Three pictures are the focus of the Word for today. The painting above depicts the creation of man as rendered by Michaelangelo Buonarotti. It forms the centerpiece of the famous Sistine Chapel ceiling in Rome. Linda and I have had the opportunity to stand beneath this monumental work on two separate occasions and the effect is truly overwhelming. The man knew what he was doing!

Michaelangelo worked during the height of the Renaissance, a roughly three hundred year period beginning in the 14th century. The word Renaissance comes from the Italian ‘rinasciamento’ – ‘to be reborn’. The word was meant to reflect the character of the age; a time of great artistic, political and intellectual creativity rooted in the re-discovery of the art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome, and in a kind of nostalgia for the classical world in general.

The Renaissance marks a movement away from life as preparation for eternity (with all it’s medieval overtones), to a focus on this life and the activity of man in this world.  The Renaissance represented a shift from contemplation to action. Central to this time was the elevation of the centrality of the human. And that brings us back to Michaelangelo’s painting.

When you stand directly beneath the image something significant becomes readily apparent. Michaelangelo has made Adam the same size as God. Contrast Michaelangelo’s image with the one below, from the Byzantine style cathedral in Monreale, Sicily, which dates from the 12th century. There is no question who the dominant figure is here. Christ is over all.

The final picture below depicts the set designed by the late scientist, Carl Sagan, for his television series, ‘Cosmos’. If you look carefully you will see that the set is designed in the form of a secular cathedral. The central image, representing the human future, is outer space. A control console, under the control of man, guides the human exploratory experiment into the future. Man has replaced God.