Author: Robert Smith

Sermon on Revelation 7:13-17
All Saint’s Sunday
October 30, 2022
Saint Paul Lutheran Church
And Trinity Lutheran Church
McGregor and Guttenberg, Iowa

Text: “Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. “Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Prayer: For all the saints who from their labors rest, Who Thee by faith before the world confessed, Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest. Amen.

Christ is Risen!

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who by his death has destroy death and by his rising again opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

Introduction: On this All Saints 2022, a flood of thoughts and emotions occupy my thoughts. Three years ago on Reformation Day, Evangeline Charissa Keller was baptized into the name of the Triune God by her father in the NICU in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Her entrance into the world was dramatic and the shadow in the back of my thoughts as we drove there was the remote possibility that she, her mother — my daughter Hanne — and her father could be at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb by that day. The Lord had mercy and blessed the work of doctors, nurses and many others to perform near perfect procedures. They all came through well and thrived as I preached for my son-in-law that year’s All Saints divine service. It was as if the Holy Spirit whispered “not yet, not yet.”  In the years since, all is very well with them and a very bright three-year-old joined her six-year-old sister in delighting and challenging her mother and father.

Our text this morning opens the curtain of heaven for us to see the throne of God. There gathered before the Father and the Lamb of God are the children of God from every time – Adam and Noah, Joseph and Moses, David and Elijah, and all those trusting in the coming Messiah. There are also the Apostles and Evangelists, Christians from every time and place, language and nation, and people much more familiar to me.

I remember my own grandparents and grandparents-in-law, who lived and prospered through incredibly hard times, kept the faith in their own … unique … ways, who were often living examples of saints and sinners at the same time. I remember my grandmother Smith reading from the big, KJV family Bible to me as a child on her lap. I remember my grandmother Schneider and her aunt who gave me my first Greek New Testament as a confirmation gift. There are my parents and parents-in-law, troubled in troubled times, yet who still kept their faith. Also present is my father, that bruised reed the Lord did not break. And now in 2022, my beloved wife, Kris, has joined them. She loved me, her children and grandchildren through constant pain all of her life, produced endless beautiful and practical crafts that blessed many. Her straightforward, rock-hard faith was an inspiration to me and to many. All are at rest with their Savior, along with two grandchildren whom the Good Shepherd folded in his arms while still in the womb. Many others are there, too. My Fathers and brothers in the faith that taught me and many others and laid the same stole of ministry on me as I have now laid on my son-in-law and spiritual sons. I am thankful for them and for their confessions, praying to be as faithful to the Lord as they were.

So, how did they get there before the throne? Born sinners they struggled with the Old Adam and Old Eve until the day they died. Yet when they were baptized, Jesus united them with his death. When he rose from the dead, he opened the way for them – and us – to be with him forever. He, the Lamb of God took away the sins of the world – their sin, our sin. At their deaths, his angels came, gave them the white robes of his righteousness and the palms of victory they wave before the throne.

In life, he was their Rock, their Fortress, and their Might; he was their Captain in the well-fought fight. Now they rest from their labors and God has dried every tear from their eyes. Yet to me, and to you, the Holy Spirit still seems to whisper, “Not yet, Not yet!” We feebly struggle, they in glory shine!

Eight years ago, I struggled with a massive infection in my heel. Several times I told my pastor that I still believed what I taught and confessed these thirty-seven years as I went to surgery. Later I was told that I was on the threshold of attending the Marriage Feast. It was as if the Holy Spirit had said, “not yet, not yet.” In the years since, I have continued to preach, to teach, cared for my home congregation when our pastor was on the threshold himself, presided at the weddings of two of my children, seen all my grandchildren save one baptized with the same baptismal shell with which their parents and others were baptized, began to pass the baton on to four of my spiritual sons, welcomed a brand new pastor to our home congregation, and, with him, mentor vicars. God has blessed me more than I deserve.

And now I reflect that I was blessed to celebrate All Saints Day with my wife thirty-four times, thankful for each day we were together, praying to thank the Lord for those safely home. Now I pray after receiving the Lord’s Supper to thank God for my late wife, an ever-growing list of grandchildren, my children and their spouses. I will rejoice that this year I can still hold their hands, speak with them through the ether and see them all once in a while. Soon, all too soon, the angels will come for me or one of them, to join those at the Feast as the Holy Spirit no longer says, “not yet” but the Lord Jesus says to one of us, “welcome to the joy of your Father.”

And yet there breaks a more glorious day. The saints triumphant will rise in bright array; The King of glory passes on His way. Sin and death will die. The world renewed, restored and be transformed, fit for eternity. God will pitch his tent with us and live with us forever. And he will dry every tear from our eyes.

Christ is Risen! Amen, come Lord Jesus, come!

 Prayer:

Oh, may Thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold, Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old And win with them the victor’s crown of gold! Amen.

Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, set watch over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

©2022 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Sheep are not the cuddly, fluffy, pure white creatures we see in paintings
and picture books. They are dirty, smelly, noisy and interested in only one thing –
food. They wander wherever they want to go and do not pay attention to the
dangers of world around them. They often walk off cliffs, in the path of wolves and
other predators and are easily separated from the flock.

For this reason, shepherds often took their flocks out together. If one got
lost, then, helpers would watch those that did not wander while the shepherd.
Shepherds often loved their sheep the way we love our pets. If a sheep or a lamb
was too weak to walk, they would carry the sheep on their shoulders. If a lost
sheep was found, everyone would rejoice.

Shepherds and sheep appear often in the pages of the Bible. Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and David were shepherds. The Bible calls God our
shepherd. He feeds us, guides us safely through the wilderness, finds us when we
are lost, binds up our wounds and carries us home. Jesus calls Himself the Good
Shepherd. We hear His voice, we follow Him and He lays down His life for us. The
Christian Church from the very beginning called its leaders pastors, which comes
from the Latin word for shepherd. God calls pastors to care for His people – His
sheep – the way He cares for them.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

©2022 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

The Parable of the Lost Son is one the most loved of the stories Jesus told. Everyone can relate to it. We see a very strong love shown by the Father to both His sons – the responsible one as much as the wasteful one. In the time of Jesus’ ministry, a father normally did not divide his property while he was alive. In the story, when the younger son asked for his inheritance, he was saying “I wish you were dead.” Still the father did what his son wanted. The father so loved his son that he kept looking for him to return.

When the younger son came back, the father saw him and did what men at that time did not do – he ran to meet his son. He would have to pull up his robes to do so and would be embarrassing. He did not wait for the younger son to apologize. Instead, he dressed his son as one of his own heirs and threw a very big party to celebrate his return.

When the older son was so angry that he did not come to the party, he was insulting his father. Yet his father came out to plead with him. The older son continued to show disrespect when he lectured his father. Yet the father still speaks to him tenderly. “All I have is yours,” he said, “but we have to rejoice, for your brother who was dead is now alive, was lost has now been found.”

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

©2022 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Encore Post: When Martin Luther was born, Europe, including Germany, was changing. The discovery of America and trade routes to India and the Far East brought a flood of goods, gold and ideas fueled changes in everyday life. After many years of population decline due to disease, life for the lower and middle classes improved and births filled their ranks. The ideas of the Renaissance brought changes in art, music, philosophy and theology. Inventors brought new technologies to everyone, one of the most important being the printing press. People could afford to buy and own books for the first time in history.

All these changes caused the everyday languages people spoke — the vernacular language — to adapt and grow. The isolation of medieval society, made up of patchworks of small territories, free cities, and counties (territories ruled by counts, princes and knights), meant that thousands of dialects made conversation between everyday people difficult. The Latin language unified the ruling and educated classes somewhat. The Church discouraged the use of translations of the Bible, convinced that unlearned people studying it directly would multiply heresies. They did not need to worry. Most vernacular translations were virtually unreadable: wooden, word-for-word representations of the Latin Vulgate.

As the Reformation took hold, both Luther and his friends became convinced that everyday people needed to be able to read the Bible in their own language. The fast pace of events, his ever-growing insight into the teachings of God’s word and the need to write a high volume of tracts kept the reformer from translating the Bible himself. In 1521, when his prince put him in his Wartburg Castle for safe keeping, he finally had the time. He produced a first draft of his German New Testament in eleven weeks. It was published in September 1522. It sold out immediately. Luther followed with a revision in December of the same year.

Luther’s work was a masterpiece of the emerging High German Language. His use of his prince’s Saxon Court German, well understood throughout German lands, supplemented by words spoken by everyday people throughout Germany was easily understood, sounded natural to people when read aloud and designed so that no one would suspect its writers were not Saxon peasants. It was so widely published, bought and read that it brought about a common German language.

So impressed was Luther’s disciple, William Tyndale, it shaped his own translation of the Bible into English. In 1611, when King James’ translators produced the King James Version of the Bible, they, in turn, used most of Tyndale’s work. So it came to be that the standard Bible translations of Germany and the English speaking world came largely from the labors of Luther to bring the Bible to the homes of everyday people.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

©2019 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Encore Post: In my first post about accepting Jesus as your personal Savior, I explained that you do not need to do so. Why? Because God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit has already accepted you. God made you his child when God the Father loved you before he made the world, chose you to be his own, rigged your future to make sure you would be adopted as his child. The Son became man, shed his blood to redeem you and the Holy Spirit sealed you in baptism and lives within you as a down payment on your eternal life. (see Ephesians 1)

So, where does that leave those who have pledged their lives to Jesus, invited him into their hearts and believe they are born again? The bottom line is all of this shows some sort of faith in Christ and trust in his promises. That faith saves them. They are mistaken that the commitment in any way saves them. The reason: it is God’s grace alone, received by faith alone that saves us. They have the cart before the horse. Works do not save you. Salvation gives us the power to do good works — including giving our lives to Jesus. (Ephesians 2:8-10)

In fact, Lutherans make commitments to serve God and their neighbors all the time. It begins with vows at our baptism — made by us when we are baptized as adults and for us when we are baptized as children. In every divine service and in private confession, we confess our sins and confess our faith in the ecumenical creeds. At Confirmation and every time we join a new congregation, we renew these vows. These frequent confessions and pledges have a very practical value. Since Christians continue to sin the rest of their lives. It is only at death the we are sin-free. These confessions tap the power of the gospel to strengthen our faith.

The trouble with depending upon our own strength to commit our lives to Jesus for salvation is we can never be certain we’re saved. Were we sincere? Did we really commit our lives to Christ? Or were we in it for the approval of other or to escape hell. So many re-commit themselves at every opportunity. We become unsure of whether God loves us and whether he really love us. This could, ironically cost us our faith and salvation. This is why Lutherans insist on the gospel

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

©2019 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Sermon on Matthew 9:36; Luke 10:1-20
4^th Sunday after Pentecost
Our Hope Lutheran Church
3 July 2022

Text: When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest… “Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you” … “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” … Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Intro: These past few months have been filled with tragedies that made the news. School shootings, natural disasters, brutal warfare, the incredible evil one human being can do to another, especially the innocent and defenseless. We confront this coming out of a truly scary plague and the overreaction of those who meant well making it worse. We can’t help but feel bad for people. And so we reach out and offer our thoughts and prayers – and we follow through, too! It all seems so weak a response. What can you do when you want to do something! When there is not much you can do?

A question that leaps to mind – especially for a man of my generation – is what would Jesus do? The gospel lesson and its sister passage in Matthew begin to answer that question and its follow up – what would Jesus want us to do?

Jesus reacted as Jesus often does… his heart went out to them and he sent help.

1.  Christ’s heart goes out to us.
   1. There are several Greek words the New Testament uses to talk mercy talk. Two of them are:
      1. ἔλεος – to be kind to people, even if they do not deserve it. It is used in the most ancient prayer of the church — Κύριε, ἐλέησον, Lord, have mercy
      2. Σπλαγχνίζομαι – To feel compassion in your internal organs. In the New Testament, it is almost always entirely used of Jesus.  The closest we can come to translate it is to say: “his heart went out to them” or “it broke his heart.”
      3. Our English word is not too bad – it comes from latin: compassio – to suffer with.
   2. When Jesus’ heart goes out to people, compassion results in action.
      1. He feeds 5000.
      2. He heals the sick.
      3. He raises the dead.
      4. He calls on us to pray – and sends workers out.
2. Sometimes our compassion doesn’t go that far.
   1. We see something and say, “that’s awful”
   2. Sometimes we pray, which is not chump change, by the way, but that’s it.
   3. Once in awhile, our heart itself moves, and we do something. But not much.
   4. God wants us to always have compassion, but most of the time we don’t have that emotional bandwidth. Our heart is not in it.  
3. Jesus invites us to share his compassion.
   1.   Why didn’t God just crumple the world into a ball and build Earth 2.0? He loved us.
   2.   The heart of God went out to us, and his Son became one of us.
   3.  He lived a perfect life for us, suffered and died for us, rose again for us, because he had to do something, but not just anything!
   4. The Holy Spirit took out our heart of stone and gave us a heart of flesh in Baptism.
   5. Now we want to show mercy, as our Father shows mercy.

Conclusion: So what to do? Pray for sure. Jesus invites you to do so. Donate? Of course; either in kind or cash. Roll up your sleeves and go to work on the ground? There are many churches and non-profits here in the Fort that would love to have you. Mister Rogers used to say, when asked what to tell children with disaster comes to TV was, “Look for the helpers. There are always helpers.” Maybe one of them is you.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

©2022 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Sermon on Galatians 5:16-25
Pentecost Monday
6 June 2022
Kramer Chapel Fort Wayne, Indiana

Text: “But I say, keep walking with the Spirit, and you definitely will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.”

Intro: 78 years ago today, the largest amphibious assaults in history, known today as D-Day was underway on the shores of France. The battle for control of the beaches led to the defeat of Nazi Germany once and for all. We are engaged in a more ancient war – the war between the Holy Spirit and our sinful nature. The war is already won; Jesus defeated sin, death, and the power of the devil when he suffered and died to atone for our sins and rose again to break the seal of the grave forever. Yet the battle is not over. Even though our sinful nature, the flesh, was defeated on the cross and drowned in the waters of baptism, it’s not quite dead yet. As the old saying goes, the Old Adam (and Eve!) is a good swimmer! Yet because Christ has defeated it, we no longer have to sin. We already live our lives following the Holy Spirit and what he wants. If we keep walking around with him – when we follow his lead, our victory is guaranteed.

1. The war is between the Spirit and the Flesh
   1. Easier said then done! For our sin-soaked and warped emotions are very powerful.
   2. Our culture urges us to follow our dreams, to our own self be true, to pursue happiness above everything else, to ignore reality when it doesn’t feel right.
   3. As if that was not bad enough, we are told that we must celebrate the choices of others – from same-sex marriage to pretending that some men are women and some women are men, to killing babies in the womb and sick people in their beds.
2. The flesh leads to destruction
   1. When we compromise with these forces, we find ourselves curved back in on ourselves, dividing into ever smaller group and turn to fighting, even among ourselves.
   2. God warns us that the works of these desires lead to destruction and ultimately to hell.
   3. Yet the urgings of the Old Adam are a lie; He is dead.
3. The fruit of the Spirit comes from life in Christ
   1. Our New Adam or Eve lives. For when Christ rose from the dead, we rose to new life.
   2. The Holy Spirit created our new self within us when we were baptized.
   3. He brings fruit from that new nature to us and to our brothers and sisters in Christ through us.
   4. When our work in this battle is done, our life is hidden with God, until the battle is over and we rise glorious in his victory to live with him forever.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

©2022 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Sermon on Romans 6:3-5, 9-11
The Vigil of Easter
April 16, 2022
Our Hope Lutheran Church
Huntertown, Indiana

Text:  Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. … We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Intro: Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed, Allelujah! Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who by his death has destroy death and by his rising again opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

The Easter Vigil is one of the oldest worship services the church celebrates. As early as the first or second centuries, the church at Jerusalem met at sundown on Holy Saturday to tell the whole story of salvation – from the creation of the world through the death and resurrection of Jesus. People love stories. We read them, tell them, quote them and enjoy them over and over again. Even ones that are of real people, often embellished, have a charm for us.

The story of salvation is the best of them all, not only because it has great power and drama, filled with one water rescue after another, but because we are a part of it. This story is not over yet and that makes all the difference in the world. This story, you see, will actually end happily ever after, when Jesus will raise us from our graves to live with him forever.

1.  Jesus is at the center of this story
   1. As God, he created the world.
   1. He kept Noah and his family safe on the Ark.
   1. He spoke from the burning bush to call Moses and was in the pillar of cloud and fire.
   1. He is the Redeemer Job will see on the last day.
   1. He stood with the three witnesses in the fiery furnace.
   1. At just the right time he was born of the virgin Mary,
   1. As the Lamb of God, he was slain for us.
   1. Through apostles, faithful witnesses, pastors and countless others, he brought the word of God to us.
2.  We are in this story.
   1.  In our right time, his Holy Spirit, united us with him in Holy Baptism.
   1.  When he died, we died with him.
   1.  When he rose again, we rose with him, too.
   1. On a day very soon, he will come for us to bring us home.
   1. And on that last day, he will call our bodies from the grave and we will live with him forever.
   1. So now, we consider ourselves dead to sin but alive it him.

Christ is Risen!

©2022 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Sermon on Luke 15:1–32
Fourth Sunday in Lent
Our Hope Lutheran Church & Kramer Chapel
March 27^th-28th, 2022

Text:  “[The Father] said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’ ”  

Intro: The Parable of the Prodigal Son is, ironically, not about the lost son. It is about the Father and another son – the older one. Nor is the other two lost parables about the lost sheep or the lost coin. Nor are they about the ninety-nine sheep, safely grazing in the pasture or the nine coins still in the woman’s purse. They are about the friends and neighbors and the angels of God. God looks everywhere for the lost and rejoices when he finds them. He throws a party and wants us to rejoice with him. For they were dead and now are alive again; they were lost and now are found.

1. Before He made the world, God loved us.
   1. He chose us to be his children, rigged things so that we would be adopted as his heirs.
   2. In Jesus, he became one of us, sought us, died for our sins and rose so that we might live with him forever.
   3. His Holy Spirit put faith in our heart, keeps us safe in his care and is a guarantee of our salvation. 
2. God loves sinners and wants us to love them, too.
   1. Yet we are not alone. God has countless lost children, who have wandered far from home.
   2. Jesus searches everywhere for them.
   3. When he finds them, he rejoices and brings them home.
   4.  He throws a party for them and wants us to celebrate and be happy with him.
3.  Yet sometimes we do not feel like celebrating.
   1. Most of us have lived our lives as faithful Christians.
   2. Yet we live in a world that at best ignores God’s will and worst defies it.
   3. When they finally come to their senses, are we really all that happy about it?
   4. What we forget is that we are sinners, too.
4. Jesus came from heaven and sought us.
   1. He was born and lived in every way we are, except he didn’t sin.
   2. He bore our sins and complaining to the cross, where he died in our place.
   3. He rose to break the power of sin and death.
   4. He brought us home, singing and rejoicing.
   5. In the end, we will share his joy in the party that lasts forever.