[Second in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: Moses tells the story of creation twice. Hebrew writers believed that if something is important, you repeat it, but cover different details each time. The first story tells us how God created most of the universe simply by speaking — and it came to be! The creation of Adam and Eve is much different. God gets down on His hands and knees and makes us with His own hands. He does this because we are much more important to Him.
When God said, Let us make man in our own image, He did not mean that we look like Him or that we are the only beings that make decisions like He does. God made Adam and Eve to be holy like He is. Sadly, by trying to be just like God (Genesis 3:5) Adam and Eve became less like Him. By the Cross, God once again makes us to be just like Him by making us to be just like Jesus. (Romans 8:28-29)
The creation of Adam and Eve reveals more about God and people than just that. God made Adam first and all alone. His first task was to name all the animals. Along the way, Adam noticed something was missing. There was no one just like him. God sums it up when he said, “I will make him a helper fit for him. ” So God made Eve from one of his ribs. With joy, Adam said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” (Genesis 2:23)
In doing this, God established marriage. From that day forward, a man and a woman will leave their parents and form a family, which, when God blesses, includes children. No other relationship prospers like this one, made and blessed by God. In it human beings come as close as they can come to reflecting the Holy Trinity. Two people, distinct and individual, become one. Although sin has damaged the relationship between husbands and wives, parents and children, still God blesses families where father and mother love each other and care for their children. Those who grow up in families do better than all other situations in which they might find themselves. God was right. It is very good indeed.
During the nearly twenty years my wife was Sunday school superintendent in two congregations, I wrote a weekly newsletter to help parents review the week’s lessons and apply the point we made to their children’s live. One feature was the Did you know? paragraphs. The idea was to teach the parents something they did not know about the story. These posts expand on those paragraphs for this blog.
[First in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: There are two stories about creation in the beginning of the Bible. The first one is an overview of how God made the world and everything in it. The second one tells the story of how God made Adam and Eve.
The first story in the Bible has a rhythm to it. Every day we hear that “God said let … and it was soand God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1) Every day ends: “evening and morning was the __ day.” God made everything in a very orderly fashion. First He made the land, sea and sky. Then He filled it with living creatures. On the sixth day, He made men and women in His own image. When God had finished creation, He called it very good.
The world is far from very good today. The sin of Adam and Eve brought sin, suffering, grief and death into the world. Yet the beauty and wonder of creation is still there. One day, Jesus will return and take away this curse once and for all. Then we all will see the work God has done and say with Him, it is very good.
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The theme of today’s sermon is this: The Day of the Lord is certainly frightening, but not for us.
What will the Last Day be like? This is a natural question for all Christians. It comes up regularly. The rest of the Bible stories have happened already, and they have been written down. We have read them or heard about them, and we know them. There is nothing “frightening” about the stories about King David. He was king, and now he isn’t. History has moved on. But there is a genuine curiosity: what will the Last Day be like?
And there is something “frightening” about prophecy in general, because in some cases, the events foretold have not happened yet. In today’s case, Zephaniah reports to us in detail about the judgment side of the Day of the Lord. He speaks to those who have not obeyed the voice of the Lord and those who are not saved from the judgment. Zephaniah is a prophet at the same time as Jeremiah, and the two of them are facing a nation that has rebelled against God. Babylon will overthrow them.
And so, as you might imagine, these preachers were heavy on the Law and light on the Gospel. They were calling to repentance God’s own people, that they would believe in Him and trust in Him. There are four parts to Zephaniah’s message today.
There will be punishment.
There will be repentance.
God will find every soul.
God is the Lord.
First, there will be punishment. Zephaniah is like a father who wants his children to listen or like a teacher who wants the students to quiet down. Zephaniah says Be silent before the Lord God! This is not a time for prayers; this is not a time for singing and dancing. This is not a “Be still and know that I am God” moment. This is a “sit down, don’t talk, and listen to me” moment for Zephaniah to God’s people.
Zephaniah preaches: For the day of the Lord is near; the Lord has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests. The prophet starts at church, as most preachers do. And for the people of that day and time, the day of the Lord was the Day of Atonement that we learned about in Leviticus 16. The day of the Lord was a holy day set aside for God’s work. And we think the same thing. That we come to church for God to work among us. That we come to church and that He consecrates us for His service in the world. That the Lord is the sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins.
But instead of promise, Zephaniah prophesies punishment. He says, “I will punish the officials and the king’s sonsand all who array themselves in foreign attire.I will punisheveryone who leaps over the threshold,and those who fill their master’s housewith violence and fraud. What we notice first is that Zephaniah blames the leadership. Don’t we know that to be true? As goes the leader, so goes the army. Or put another way, If the shepherd falls, the sheep will be scattered. Or even one more example, the sins of the father will be punished to the third and fourth generation, to his own wife and their children. Zephaniah rightly punishes the leadership for getting God’s people into this mess.
But you might ask, How did the leaders get the nation into this mess? Zephaniah claims that they “wore foreign attire” and “jumped over the thresholds.” Wearing foreign attire in this context does not mean wearing something made in China. What it means is that they were trying to live like the world. They were walking away from God and trusting in themselves. As to “jumping over thresholds,” this was a pagan religious practice of the Philistines. And the point of that is this: that the leaders were worshipping false gods and leading the people astray from the Old Testament Church.
That was the message that the people needed to hear. And they had to be silent and listen up to Zephaniah when he preached it. But on that day, the Day of the Lord that Zephaniah is talking about, it will not be silent. He says, “On that day a cry will be heard from the Fish Gate, a wail from the Second Quarter, a loud crash from the hills. Wail, O inhabitants of the Mortar! It is almost as if Zephaniah is waving his hands while he is preaching. For there are cries and wails and loud crashes in every direction. It would be the same as if I said, There is a cry from Farnam and there is wailing from Curtis, and there is a loud crash from Hayes Center. Wail, O inhabitants of Stockville!
This is not just screaming at the top of the lungs. This is repentant prayer or fearful prayers to God on the Last Day. The Lord shall return for judgment and, like I said at the beginning, it will be frightening, but not for us. We will not be screaming or wailing or worrying and running. We will be waiting and hoping and seeing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on that day. The day of the Lord surely is a day of punishment, but it is also a day of repentance and prayer. And for us, the day of the Lord is the day of great hope.
But what Zephaniah says next is my favorite part. For on that Day, God will find every soul. Like a shepherd looking for his lost sheep, God will search the world for believers. Like a father trying to find his children in the dark, our Lord shall check every house and every corner for those who are His. Like the angel of death at the Passover, the Lord will pass over our homes and spare us and deliver us from this valley of sorrow.
But for those who do not believe in God, Zephaniah says, At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the menwho are complacent. In other words, you cannot play hide-and-seek with God. Just ask Adam and Eve. The Lord finds every soul, both the sheep and the goats. And he will punish the self-righteous, complacent modern-day Pharisee characters of every nation. For they thought that heaven belonged to them because of their good works. But they rejected the good work that Jesus Christ did on the cross. They thought that they had riches enough to earn glory, but they will go away sorrowful like the rich, young ruler. For they reject that Christ for our sakes became poor so that we might become rich in grace and God’s mercy.
The Day of the Lord is certainly frightening, but not for us. The message is simple for us: On that Day, God is the Lord! We believe that because on that cross, Jesus Christ paid for our punishment and our guiltiness. Jesus Christ was both High Priest and sacrifice on that day of Atonement. He made the sacrifice because He is the sacrifice.
Instead of us, Jesus was punished by the men of foreign attire, Herod and Pilate and Caiaphas. At Jesus’ death, there was no leaping over thresholds, only the temple curtain torn in two and access to God made forever possible. The old religion was fulfilled and the new testament enacted in Christ’s own body and blood for the forgiveness of sins.
That day of the Lord when Jesus died on the cross extended far past the Fish Gate and way further than the Second Gate and up and down every hill on the earth. For the death and resurrection of Jesus changed the whole world then and now and forever.
And when God Himself shall search this house with lamps, He shall find us, quietly, patiently, fervently worshipping Him. He shall find His Church upon the earth here and there and throughout His creation. And we shall not be frightened, for the Lord comes back for us to take us home on the Last Day.
Campus Ministry Night Joel 2:12-19 October 9, 2024
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The theme is this: Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love!
Tonight’s reading is the most famous passage in the book of Joel. What we heard tonight is the Old Testament reading for Ash Wednesday, and the passage that follows these words is the Old Testament reading for the Feast of Pentecost. These are some of our most cherished days in the life of the Church.
But there’s more! Every year during the season of Lent, we sing the passage that we just heard tonight; we sing it at the announcement of the Gospel reading each week. And that song is our theme for today: Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
What I learned this week about the prophet Joel, I pass on you, dear people of God. Joel is unlike the other prophets because he speaks so broadly. The other prophets deal with specific sins and with specific kings and with specific tragedies that the nation faces. But on the other hand, Joel speaks to everybody. The prophet Joel speaks to you.
As I prepared for this text, I noticed that there are five verbs that define Joel’s message. The five verbs are these: RETURN, RELENT, WORSHIP, SPARE, AND SEND. It’s actually pretty easy to memorize because the first two words start with “r.” And the last two words start with “s.” And right in the middle is the word we all know, “Worship.”
And I think that this passage in Joel is so famous because it expresses to us our lives in this world as Christians. The first thing that we must do is RETURN! Our text declares, “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” There are any number of reasons that people leave the church, and there are any number of reasons that we forsake our God. But here it is clear: Joel calls us to return to the Lord with all of our heart.
No, God does not want robots, followers that obey at all times. Actually our God wants us to love Him. Our God wants us to return home to the church. Our God wants us to return completely. Fasting can sometimes help us to refocus on our Lord. Certainly, weeping and mourning are common experiences in our human lives that often cause us to seek out Jesus. Finally, the last phrase is one of the best known: Rend your hearts and not your garments. The Lord does not want nakedness for its own sake. The Lord really wants repentance and faith.
As it says in the passage for our theme this evening, Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. Dear people of God, we do not return to a hateful God. We do not return to a God who kills us. When we return to the Lord, He is gracious and merciful. When we return to the Lord, He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
That is our God. And He is our God who relents over disaster. That brings us to the second verb of our text tonight: RELENT! Joel declares to us these words, Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God? These are magnificent words. Have we not seen it with our own eyes that God relents? Consider Noah, that when God destroyed the whole earth, He kept Noah alive.
Consider the slaves in Egypt, that after 400 hundred years, the Lord delivered His people out of certain destruction. Consider Nineveh, a city that did not deserve God’s mercy, and yet the Lord relented and did not destroy that city. Consider Jesus, that God relented and sent His own Son to give grace and to forgive sins and to save souls by His death on the cross.
This is why Joel calls us all to worship the gracious and merciful Lord. The next verb in our reading tonight is WORSHIP! Isn’t this the natural response in our Christian lives? We returned, and by God’s grace, God relented and did not punish us. Now it is time to acknowledge the Lord and to believe in Him. What I love about this passage is that when the people of Israel worship, they ALL worship. Listen to the detail of the procession of people who worship our Lord. Joel says, Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. While we usually think of repentance in a personal way, Joel shows to us what repentance of an entire congregation looks like. Usually we focus on our own hearts and souls and what God has done for “me,” but here are words that remind us that the whole congregation returns and the God relents from disaster for all the people in the Church. We all gather together and worship the Lord.
And at that service, the priests preach, SPARE! What better sermon can we imagine than a “spare us O Lord!” sermon? Joel has moved us from Law to Gospel, then to worship and to preaching. Consider and imagine what a moment this was for God’s people. Joel writes, Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests weep and say, “Spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. When the preachers preach the fervent prayer of the people, that is much greater than torn clothes. When the preacher preach the fervent faith of God’s people, that is much better than a burnt offering.
This is our life as Christians. That the Holy Spirit calls us by the Gospel, enlightens us with His gifts, and sanctifies and keeps us in the one true faith. This is the beauty of our faith that day by day we return and repent. And that God loves us dearly. That the Lord relented and that He Himself delivered us from all the evils in this world. What Joel has preached we have heard and believed this evening.
What then is the final verb of our text? SEND! It is most common throughout the Scriptures that our hearts are changed completely and that we fervently follow the Lord. And it is just as common that the Lord sends us blessings that we do not deserve because He loves us. Consider these words from Joel’s passage this evening, “Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.” What a Lord that we have! For the Christian life is never easy, and many times we have to start over believing in God and living for Him. But on the journey God will provide for us all that we need to support this body and life.
Why? That’s simple. Our God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. So as often as we sing this in the liturgy, and as often as we worship in this sanctuary, and as often as we return to this Lord, let us remember who our God is and how He has changed our hearts to the fervent faith that we have because of His grace and mercy.
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
On the 26th day of the 3rd month, in 2025th year of Christ’s reign, the theme is this: The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former.
Have you ever noticed that the church is better in our minds back in the olden days? Back then, there were more people in the pews and our kids were here with us. Back then, the building was newer, and there were more people willing to serve on committees. Or the really big reason … back then, the preacher was more to my liking. Back then, we had this thing or we did that thing. It’s a bit of a trap to think this way. There is always this desire in the back of our minds to return to the glorious golden age of St. John’s in Curtis, Nebraska.
Or maybe we think even further back. Surely, when CFW Walther or Francis Pieper were alive, that was the golden age of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. There were these larger-than-life church leaders that wrote extensively and worked tirelessly for the sake of the church. If not that, then the good old days of the LCMS was back when the hymnals were in German or Danish! Related to this idea, I have been reading Martin Chemnitz from the 1580s and every Lutheran parish had a school, and everybody went to individual confession and absolution, and the preacher preached for two hours every Sunday. (That sounds impossible, but oh so glorious!)
That obsession about important dates in the life of the church is something that Haggai knew well. He put a date on each of his sermons unlike most of the prophets and indeed most of the Scriptures. He marked the life of the church by the proclamation of the Word. And he preached on this occasion about the good old days. Haggai preached, ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? Haggai is the preacher about 60-70 years after the Babylonians exiled the people of God and tore down the temple and the Ark of the Covenant was destroyed or removed from the house of God and His people. Can you imagine preaching to the church after all that they had been through?
It reminds me of when I visited churches in Russia and Latvia and Lithuania and Estonia. The communists slaughtered the priests and turned the churches into basketball gyms or swimming pools. And the people of God were not allowed to gather for Word and Sacrament for decades. Can you imagine if that was our history? Would any of you remember the church in its former glory before the pastors were killed and the buildings destroyed from the inside out?
To be sure, gathering together after such a long time would feel a bit empty and depressing. Haggai preaches along this vein when he says, How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? The church is small, and the destruction was great. The gold is gone, and the joy went with it. In fact, the Ark of the Covenant is gone. Where can the sacrifices take place? What would we do if the altar was gone and the sacramental vessels were melted down into swords and shields?
But hold up. I want to be clear: Haggai is by no means a doom and gloom preacher. In fact, he shows us exactly how to rebuild the church. First, he encourages the priests and preachers, Zerubbabel and Joshua. As I said before, Haggai defines the life of the church by the proclamation of the Word. Without new church leaders, the church in that time and place stood no chance of recovery.
And then he speaks to the church directly and encourages them: Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. What a magnificent Word from Haggai! Be strong, every single one of you! Work; I am with you! Haggai compares the Babylonian exile to the first tribulation of the people of God, the 400-year slavery of God’s people in Egypt. And they knew and we know that the 40 years in the wilderness were no glory days for the life of the church. But the point is that the Lord was with them then and was with them at the time of Haggai’s sermon.
And here come the present promises of God. Haggai preaches, God’s Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. And this is what I want you to think about. Certainly the temple at the time of Haggai was a worthy structure, but it too would be destroyed over time. The temple would be rebuilt again by King Herod.
But something way greater than a building in the capital city was in store. And when Haggai says, “Fear Not” I immediately think of the most famous “Fear Not” in the whole Scriptures. “Fear not, for behold, is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is the Christ the Lord.” What glory days of the Old Testament could compare to the glory days of Jesus Christ born of a virgin and walking the earth to eventually die on the cross? Didn’t Jesus say, “I will destroy this temple, and I will rebuild it in three days?”
But let Haggai say it in his own words: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The Lord shook the heavens at Jesus’ baptism and spoke out of the cloud. And the Lord caused the sea to be calm and not to shake any longer. And the Lord shook the earth at Jesus’ crucifixion when He gave up His spirit. And the Lord shook the dry land in order to roll away the stone that lay in front of Jesus’ tomb on Easter Sunday.
And the Lord shook up the nations by the power of His Spirit and the proclamation of His Word throughout the whole earth. And like Haggai says, the treasures of nations have been given to God to continue the ministry of the Gospel even up to the present day and in this present place. Remember this: The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. It all belongs to Him, and we too belong to Him. What we thought were the glory days of the church do not compare to the glorious days of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ for each and every one of us.
What the Lord says is absolutely true: The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’” In other words, Haggai points us to the future and to hope. In his day, he preached to the people who were preoccupied with the past, the good old days of the Old Testament. And he preached that what was to come is greater than what they currently were experiencing.
And he meant that Jesus would be greater than every temple. And Jesus most certainly was much greater than the sacrifices in the temple. But for us today, Haggai preaches to us about those good old days of Christ’s death and resurrection. And yet he also preaches to us that our temple here does not compare with the heavenly glory that we shall experience on the Last Day.
We are right now St. John’s Lutheran Church in Curtis. But we look forward to the day when we are St. John’s Lutheran Church in heaven. We await an even greater temple, the presence of God the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, worshipping at his altar forever and ever. Indeed, the latter glory shall be greater than the former in every way! In the holy name of Jesus, Amen.
Lent Midweek I Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4 March 12, 2025
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Do you pray? I think for most of us we say, “Yes!” We pray at meals and we pray at bedtime. And we pray according to our needs. I imagine that if we asked most of our non-Christian friends, “What makes so-and-so a Christian?” Many of them would say, “Well I know that he prays.” And if our relationship is close enough to that person, they may even say, “Yes, so-and-so has prayed with me and for me when I was going through a tough time.”
Have you ever realized that praying is probably the most public display of your faith to your friends, family, classmates, and coworkers? I imagine that very few of you are reading the Scriptures out loud in a public space or that you are sharing your devotional time with others during break times. And please, do not baptize your little brothers in the lake!
As you can see, most of our faith is private. And only those who gather in this place on a regular basis really understand what you believe, what you teach, and what you confess to be the truth. Only this group really values your faithfulness to God, to His Word and Sacraments, to your giving offerings or making food.
It is time that we begin to think that our prayers are a witness to our faith in this world. If you already realized that, I am proud of you. But at least for me, it was a new thought. And I do not mean to make prayer so great and meaningful that you worry about what to pray or what to say. As you know, there are pre-written prayers and there are prayers in our own words. Both are fine outward training of faith.
But you know that when a father or a mother prays for the children, the children listen to every word and learn to pray from them. And you know that when you pray for a struggling student, it calms their fears and helps them learn and retain the lesson. And you know that when your loved one is in the hospital, that your prayer for them helps them heal.
And you know that your pastor prays for you. You know that this congregation prays for you, both publicly and privately, anytime and anywhere that you need a prayer. That’s who we are, dear people of God. We pray for one another.
Here in Habakkuk, the preacher prays for his people to God and says, O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,and you will not hear?Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save?Why do you make me see iniquity,and why do you idly look at wrong? Habakkuk prays like we so often do. He starts with questions. He asks God why He will not help them in their distress. The people were perishing, and the nation was struggling, and Habakkuk knew that only God could answer. Why aren’t you doing anything, God? That is definitely a prayer that we pray from time to time.
Habakkuk prays like we so often do. He prays for His nation, and for peace therein. Does anyone want violence? Of course not. Does anyone want war and bloodshed? Of course not. We pray for peace instead of war. We pray for tranquility instead of strife. We pray for unity and not division. We pray for what only God can do in His world for our nation.
Why do we pray for these things? What is our reason for praying about such matters? That is the next part of the prayer that Habakkuk prays today. Habakkuk explains the situation to God Most High. He says, Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted. This is what Habakkuk is praying against. This is what he hopes will come to an end. But I ask you, Why do we tell God Almighty about what He already knows? And the answer to that is that God wants us to tell Him.
Does a father know what a daughter needs before she asks him for it? Of course. Does a mother know what a son needs before he asks her for it? Of course. Does this church know your needs before you ask for help? In most cases, yes. But even greater than that, there is nothing that your heavenly Father does not already know, and He can give to you whatever it is in all creation that you need.
God must answer! Take it from the prophet. God cannot make us see iniquity and sit idly by! God must make right what only He has the power to restore and reconcile.
And in the case of the text today, the Lord answered: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.”
The first part of the Lord’s response is that “he who runs may read it.” In other words, it will be written clearly and in large letters so that even the ones who are chased by the enemy in the days of Habakkuk will know the truth of God’s answer. It would be like putting the message “God answers prayers” on a big posterboard and walking through the college campus with it. It would be like putting the Gospel out into the public spaces, like we do with our prayers. It would be like our signs out front inviting people to our church to pray, and reminding them of our usual refrain, “Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.”
And the second part of the Lord’s response is that answers to your prayers arrive according to God’s timing. We want instant service and on-demand problem-solving. But sometimes our prayers need repeating because we ourselves are not ready for God’s eventual answer. God does not promise answers on our timetable or in the fashion in which we expect. How often has it been that God answers our prayers even better than imagined, even if it took a while to see God’s work in our prayers.
But the third part of the Lord’s response is far and away the most famous part of this passage. And it is the theme for this sermon and it is the theme for our prayers.
The righteous shall live by faith. This is how the Lord answered the Habakkuk prayer where he stood on the watch post and waited for the answer from the Lord about the destruction and violence that the believers were facing. In a word, “trust me, Habakkuk!”
The righteous shall live by faith. This was what Paul quoted in the book of Romans and Galatians as he proclaimed the Gospel to the new churches and explained the Christian life to God’s people. Paul himself was not righteous by his own efforts; he was a persecutor of the church until the Lord blinded him, converted him, and appointed him as the apostle to the Gentiles. Paul, like Habakkuk, constantly prayed for the congregations that he visited in each one of his epistles. It is like the Father answered his prayers and said, “Trust me, Paul!” I will care for my flock according to their needs.
The righteous shall live by faith. If there ever was an instance where public prayer became a witness to the world, it was this passage that relieved Luther and kick-started the Reformation. The church had suffered for 1500 years under a law of works, much like the early Christians did at the time of Paul in the midst of Judaism. And Luther, like Habakkuk, prayed for relief and comfort. He certainly prayed the prayer of Habakkuk that we have been studying tonight. And yet, his prayers were never good enough until this passage cleared it all up.
And so I tell you, dear people of God, the righteous shall live by faith. Never stop praying, but know for certain that the Lord will answer. And in the meantime, while you wait on the Lord, this Lord simply says, “Trust me!” And while you pray, know that you are being a witness to this community and for the sake of your neighbor.
You, like Habakkuk, Paul, and Luther before you, are not at fault for the world’s demise. You, like them, are unable to change sin, death, and the devil, destruction, or violence.
But you are saved by grace through faith, not by works, so that no one may boast. And you are God’s child, praying to your Father for everything that you need. And you are righteous because of the death of Jesus. And you are living by His holy Word each of your days. And you receive this sacrament for the forgiveness of your sins and for the life everlasting.
God will answer, and He did answer this prayer through the birth, death, and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. And because of Him, we live in the world as His righteous people.
[Eleventh in a series of posts on church words] Confessional Lutherans have an uneasy relationship with the word “Protestant.” In 1526, with Emperor Charles V engaged in war with France and their Ottoman Turk allies. At the first Diet of Speyer, the papal princes and territories of the Holy Roman Empire agreed with their Lutheran peers to back the empire militarily in exchange for toleration and the calling of a church council in Germany. With France defeated, Charles V revoked the agreement at the Second Diet of Speyer. The Lutheran princes responded by submitting a document of protest of this action. For that reason, Lutheran princes and territories were nicknamed Protestants by their papal opponents.
Lutherans more or less rejected the term, preferring to be called, “Evangelicals.” But by the middle of the 17th century, the term was used to refer to all Christians in the West that did not accept the authority of the pope. Yet Confessional Lutherans have been unwilling to apply the term to themselves because the majority of theological traditions called Protestant deny the sacraments and their power to save and to create faith, among other things.
As we have discussed over the last seven posts, Lutherans have been drawn to various titles to describe them. Each has its charms and the ones that attract us tell us more about what the individual believe than the definition itself. Because many of these titles are claimed by other Christians, Confessional Lutherans are not entirely comfortable with any of the terms, so what do we do?
Perhaps C. F. W. Walther’s advice is best. We call ourselves Lutheran, not because we worship Luther, but because our Lutheran Confessions faithfully teach the doctrine of Holy Scripture and that all may know what we believe by reading them. It is not loving to hide what we stand for from others. Truth-in-advertising is the best policy in an age when many are looking for something enduring.
I recently interacted with an individual online who seemed to have a legitimate struggle with this issue as a Christian seeking to do good to their neighbor. In part, isn’t there a contradiction between our duty to serve our neighbor (the stranger) and strong immigration policy enforcement?
Applying Matt 25:31-46 to immigration policy is a misapplication of God‘s law. Jesus’ command concerning the sheep and the goats has two very important takeaways:
A) It is a command for me and a command for you. Neither of us can or should force our neighbor to follow God’s law in their individual self. We can and should certainly admonish against sin, but it is not ours to force.
B) both the sheep and the goats are mystified by their condition. The sheep are surprised that they have done well, because they only see the sin that remains in themselves, and no good works. The goats are angered, because they have justified themselves according to what they perceive as good works, which, apart from faith, are nothing.
Now, government functions exclusively in the first use of the law, the curb which forcefully constrains gross sin, under the fourth commandment. Government possesses the ability to punish and to kill. It is their duty to determine which stranger may or may not be among us. Government has a head of household responsibility over the entire household of this nation. All preventable harms and dangers are theirs to address.
A bad father, who does not make his children buckle up in the car when they refuse, is responsible under God‘s law when a crash causes a preventable broken arm.
A bad mother, who allows her children to indulge their love of sweets, well beyond the limits of good nutrition, creating a lifelong obsession with bad dietary habits, is still responsible in part for their adult obesity.
The fourth commandment duties of those in charge are not the most likable duties. They are necessary to prevent the obvious risks of blatant and preventable evil. In order for proper order to be maintained, the government must have absolute control over the border, and who does or does not enter the country.
That then brings us back to the Matthew 25 commandment. The person who is legally permissible in this nation, and under no threat of legal punishment, who has fallen on bad luck and needs our assistance, is our individual responsibility. When a stranger, sojourner, or foreigner comes to my door in need, I must help them.
When the government discovers an illegal entrant, they are responsible to extract or deport them. Both of these things are true. And neither one conflicts with the other.
Let us seek to avoid the confusion of office and vocation concerning ourselves and those whom God has placed to rule over us.
1 Kings 8, Revelation 21, Luke 19 Pastor James Peterson December 31, 2023
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The theme is this: God will dwell with us, and we will be His people!
Will the children come home for Christmas? This is the greatest concern for many. I hope that you all have had a chance to spend time with your families this Christmas. I am more and more convinced that the reason that we feel this way is that this is exactly what happens in the Christmas story. Jesus comes to earth. Jesus is born in Bethlehem. God is with us. God dwells with His people and lives with us in the flesh.
The other question is this: Will the children come to our church? This too is the question for so many churches in our day. It is absolutely true that the persons that the world cares so little about are exactly the persons that the church cares the most about. Why do we think this way? Probably at least for some of us, we think this way because Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” And Jesus says it more and more, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Certainly, it is no stretch of the imagination to realize that God the Father has this same concern. It is as if He asks, How can my children come home to live with me forever? It is important that we spend time with our families when we are able. And it is important that children are brought to this church. But God’s will and our hope is that all of God’s children will go home to heaven with God. This is why our church exists and why we celebrate today and why we support this ministry and why we come to church and why we believe what we do- that all of God’s children will enter the kingdom of heaven.
What is heaven like? Hear the words of St. John today: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. God the Father has a home prepared for us with plenty of room, for every soul in this room to dwell with Him and to be His people. Every Christmas gathering at its greatest moments gives us a foretaste of this. And yet every Christmas gathering is full of sinners and sometimes falls apart and sometimes makes things worse. But when God takes us home forever, all of that sin will go away, forgiven, forgotten, forever.
What is heaven like? John says, And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Heaven is like the biggest, best, church service there ever was. Even praying in the grandest cathedrals or singing in the best choirs does not compare with the wedding feast of the Lamb in His kingdom which shall have no end.
Let us mark this 75th anniversary of Word and Sacrament, of prayer and praise, of faith and fervent love for one another now. But let this day remind us too that one day the preacher will be Jesus and not me, and there will be one flock and one shepherd, and there will be no voters’ meetings and there will be plenty of fellowship hour. There will be songs and hymns and spiritual songs. Moses himself will teach you everything you need to know about Deuteronomy and Paul will teach all the richness of Ephesians. In a word, all God’s children will go to church to hear about Jesus.
What is heaven like? Here is the promise spoken and fulfilled. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. Here is the Gospel is a nutshell. Here is the story of the Bible reduced to one sentence. That God wants to dwell with us, live with us, and be with us. God wants to be our God and He wants us to be His people. God wants us to be His children. God wants to be our heavenly Father.
This is why Jesus came to earth on Christmas. And this is why He walked with us in Galilee and Samaria and Jerusalem. This is why He died on the cross. This is why He rose from the grave. For God desired our souls to save.
This is also why He built this church and why He continues to bless us. For here He continues His work, baptizing, teaching, and administering the Sacraments for the forgiveness of sins and the salvation of our souls. His promise throughout the Scriptures remains true for us: God will dwell with us, and we will be His people. That’s the relationship we need, that God loves us dearly, and that we will live with Him forever.
What is heaven like? St. John can only describe heaven in earthly terms. And he can only use the opposite of what we know and experience. John says, He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” In a word, there will be no more funerals, only a wedding between Christ and His Church. In another way, there will be no more hospitals, for cancer will be healed and bones will be strong. We will be well and made new by God’s abundant grace and never-ending mercy.
For God Himself will dwell with us and we will be His people. For now, let us gather with our families each Christmas. For now, let us gather as St. John’s all our lives. For now, let us remember that God has promised that all of His children will come home to heaven. For now, let us rejoice and sing as we wait with faith toward God and fervent love toward one another.
I say to you once more, “God will dwell with you, and you will be His people!”
Encore Post: [Sixty-Seventh in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism] That seems odd, doesn’t it? It’s most noticeable when we pray for our national and synodical presidents: Donald J. Trump and Matthew C. Harrison. In the prayer of the church, they are Donald and Matthew.
Surely, not one of us would address Pres. Trump or Pres. Harrison by their first names. Our discomfort is informed by the 4th Commandment. We are to honor those who God has placed in authority over us. It feels uncomfortable to use familiar terms with these folks.
Though the common culture around us has left formality behind in the last 30 years or so, we still rebel in the church. Especially in our southern culture, there are still vestiges for forgotten formality. Our children often learn to address Ms. or Mrs. Linda, Becky, Lori, or Mandy with a title, even when speaking their first names.
But, in the prayers, we speak differently. Taking our cues from David in the Psalms, we pray in humility before the throne of the Lord. All sinners seeking forgiveness and blessing are of the same status coram deo (before God). So, in confessing the truth about ourselves and everyone for whom we pray, we use first names.
Even POTUS and our synodical president are Donald and Matthew on Sunday morning in the prayer of the church. If we were to pray for Pope Francis, we would pray for him using his Baptismal name: Jorge. This is how we pray.
Let us lift up our voices to petition God, Our Father, through Jesus Christ, His Son.
