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Sermon on the Pandemic

We all know the news of our day. There is quite a bit of panic over the virus that has swept the world. Runs on supplies. Stocks tanking. Schools, sports, and even countries have shut down. People of Facebook and Twitter are afraid.

I get it. It’s a bit of a scary time. Even if you’re healthy and at no real risk, you could unwittingly be a carrier and expose someone who is vulnerable. It’s why I don’t blame businesses for telling people to work from home and sports leagues from shutting down. Some schools have closed. And while I don’t like it, I understand and am not going to complain about hospitals and nursing homes closing their doors to everyone except the patients, residents, and staff. They are rightly protecting their patients and residents. Let us hope and pray that this does not get to the point that they force everything, including churches, to close their doors as happened with the 1918 flu epidemic.

The impact on everyone is yet to be known. But even though many won’t be severely affected, they are worried. The more common fear for most is that a loved one will be. And worse, that they could accidentally expose them because they didn’t know they were infected. It is my hope and prayer that this passes quickly. That the death toll is as low as possible. That sanity returns and runs on things like toilet paper and soap quickly end. But in the meantime, we wait and watch for the next announcement.

I get the concern among many. But that said, plague and pestilence are not new. It has afflicted humanity since the Fall. During the late 1500s, the Black Plague devastated Europe. One pastor in Germany, Phillip Nicolai, lost around 1300 of his members from it. He lost 170 in a single week. His response to the tragedy was not fear, panic, and running away. It was to write a series of meditations and a couple of hymns for his flock, one of which you know: “Wake, Awake, for Night is Flying.“

There’s no indication we are up against anything like that. But picture something like that did come at us today. What would be our reaction? Surely there would be panic in the streets, but what about us? What about the Church? We could turn to the Introit appointed for today:

“My eyes are ever toward the Lord,
for he will pluck my feet out of the net.
Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am lonely and afflicted.”

This is not a text only for widespread sickness, but for any time of trial. It is for when you are being attacked and amid temptation. For when you have succumbed to your temptation and find yourself lamenting your sin. This is the text for you.

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
O my God, in you I trust;
let me not be put to shame;
Consider my affliction and my trouble,
and forgive all my sins.
Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me!
Let me not be put to shame,
for I take refuge in you.

In the portion of the Psalm we hear today we hear several petitions of prayer. David prays for victory, for forgiveness, for deliverance. Not included in the appointed reading are petitions for teaching and redemption.

In times of trial and tribulation; in times of sickness, pandemic, and distress; the Christian response is to repent and call out to our Heavenly Father. We call out to him and recognize our sin. We repent of our sin. We plea for forgiveness. That he would clean us of our sin. And that, having his perfect absolution, we are freed to serve our neighbor, as did Pr. Nicolai. Knowing the love and grace of God, he stood up in the face of death all around him and proclaimed the Good News of Jesus Christ to those around him. Especially those dying of the Plague.

While sickness among us will drive us to realize our own human frailties, the early church used this Sunday in Lent as the day of renunciation of the devil and the exorcisms of the catechumens. This is the day that men and women with battles raging in them and outside of them confessed that Christ will be their God. Even if it means rejection of their livelihoods or exile from their families. This is the day they announced their step out of the darkness of sin and the rule of Satan and into the light and service of the Lord Jesus.

Born in sin, we are essentially the goods of the strong man; of the devil. He has claimed us and guards us as his property, waiting for our eternal destruction. But the heart of Lent, the heart of the Gospel, is that God has kept his promise to Adam and Eve in the garden. He has sent the Seed in Jesus Christ. And he is the stronger man. He comes and attacks the devil, crushing his head. He takes away the goods that the devil has stolen from God and stored up as his own.

This happens for all men at the cross. And it is applied to you at your baptism. There, at the font, the Holy Spirit makes your body his holy temple. At baptism, the unclean spirit goes out of the person, and the Holy Spirit makes the body holy. Your bodies, death brothers and sisters, are not an empty house, swept and put into order. Your bodies are a holy temple of God. Your state is not worse than before, but it is eternally better.

Perhaps our cleansed bodies are what makes it [somewhat] easier in times such as these. For we know that our God is not only just, but he is also merciful. We know that his mercy extends to all, but especially to us as his adopted children. This is why we may, at all times, call out to him with our eyes ever toward him. Why we may turn to him in every trouble, trial, and temptation, putting our trust in him and knowing he will not put us to shame. Rather, he will continue to have mercy on us in peril and pestilence; forgive and cleanse us of our sins.

But those who still belong to the strong man fear, and fear greatly. They see peril and pestilence as a potential real and present harm to them. And it is. Not only to their flesh but to their souls. And so, we pray not only for ourselves but for those far from our merciful God. We lift not only ourselves up in our affliction, but also our neighbor who fears and is far from Christ. We pray for their physical safety and that the Light of Christ would reach them, cleanse them as he has cleansed us, and send to them the Holy Spirit who would make them his holy temple as he has done with us.

We don’t know how long or how bad this pandemic will be. We don’t know if we will contract it. If a friend or loved one will. And if we or they do, how severe the case will be. We don’t know what restrictions will be placed on us by the authorities, which, I remind you, that God himself has put in place.

But we do know some things. We know that our Lord Jesus Christ took upon our flesh to free us from the strong man. We know he paid for our sins on the cross, bleeding and dying to win victory over the strong man. We know that he has cleansed our bodies from all evil and sent the Holy Spirit to live in us and sanctify us. We know that we are always able to cry out to God in all situations and tell him whatever is on our mind. And when we do, we know that he will hear us and answer our prayer in the way that benefits our eternal good. O my God, in you I trust…Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me!…for I take refuge in you.

Rev. Brent Keller
Peace Lutheran Church
Alcester, SD

Nicodemus

Sermon on John 3:1-17

Second Sunday in Lent

Our Hope Lutheran Church

March 8, 2020

Text: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you are born from above you cannot see the kingdom of God … unless you are born of water and the Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. (John 3:3, 5)

Intro: Nicodemus was a true believer, looking for the coming Messiah. He was convinced by the signs that Jesus performed that he could well be the promised Messiah. But as a respected Pharisee, one of the few privileged to served in the Sanhedrin, he had no idea what that really meant. He thought the kingdom would come when God’s people lived righteous lives. To check all this out, he came to see Jesus at night. And Jesus turned his world upside down.

We must be born from above to enter God’s Kingdom.
1. We were born sinners.
2. Our emotions and will are hopelessly turned in on ourselves.
3. No matter what we do, we cannot free ourselves from it.
4. These sinful desires need to be drowned so that a new nature can be born.
5. This is not something we can decide to do, it is something that has to be done for us.

God gave his only Son so that we can be born from above.
1. Before he made the world, he loved us and chose us to be adopted as his heirs.
2. In the sacrifice of his Son, he redeemed us.
3. In baptism, we were baptized in the Holy Spirit, who created faith in our hearts and sealed us as God’s children.
4. We now live in his kingdom and remain in it forever.

Jesus Tempted by the Devil

Adam and Eve were created pure and given a divinely planted garden. But they were deceived by the Devil. They doubted the goodness of God and ate of the forbidden fruit. Their fall plunged all of humanity into sin and are cast us all into the wilderness. But even with this severe consequence of sin, a Promise is made: The Seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. The head of Satan and deliver to them life.

Jesus begins to reverse the curse at his baptism. It is there that the Great Exchange begins. He purified the waters of Baptism and took upon himself our guilt. The heavens opened, the Holy Spirit descended and rested upon him, and the Father spoke. Immediately after this, the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness. Jesus, who had freshly taken upon himself our guilt, is taken into the wilderness. He is cast out as were Adam and Eve.

When there, he fasted for forty days and forty nights. At the end of this time, the Tempter came. And he used the hunger of Jesus in the first temptation. He tempted Adam and Eve with food, and he does it with Jesus too. The temptation of Adam and Eve was to doubt God’s goodness. The temptation of Jesus is to use his divine abilities to serve himself rather than the people he has come to save. Jesus answers the devil with Scripture. The devil sought to make him selfish, but Jesus declares that the true bread that truly sustains us is the very Word of God.

After this swing and a miss, the devil took Jesus to the highest point of the Temple. There he again sought to get Jesus to be selfish. And he this by quoting Scripture. Well, by misquoting Scripture. Jesus again rightly used and quotes Scripture: “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” He would not fling himself off the Temple, by testing the Lord God to protect him., Jesus would draw attention to himself. And since it was not yet his time or hour for glorification, this is something he could not do.

But beyond that, the devil is twisting Scripture yet again. This should not surprise us as he is the father of lies. The Psalm isn’t about being reckless and forcing the protection of God. It isn’t about making a show for people to see that Jesus is the Christ. It is a Psalm of comfort for the afflicted Christian. In it we confess God as our shelter, our shadow, our refuge, and our fortress. God is our defender and deliverer. The Christian is not exempted from trials and tribulations, but he is protected in the midst of them. And even if our physical bodies are tarnished or destroyed, our soul is kept and preserved.

And so, now with an 0-2 count, the devil desperately tries once more time. He takes Jesus to a high mountain and shows him all the kingdoms of the world and all their glory. And he again tempts Jesus to turn away from his Father and bow down to the devil. “All these I will give to you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Sure, Satan has some dominion over this world. But this is an offer of something that is not his to give. He does not have the authority to give what is not his. Let alone at the cost of worshiping him. And so, Jesus replies, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”

With that third swing and a miss, the devil goes away. And as he leaves, angels come to Jesus and minister to him. They support him and, I am sure, provide his weary earthly body with food and drink. In the end, we see Psalm 91, the Psalm he devil twists and the Psalm we heard as our Introit this morning, is fulfilled.

With the devil defeated, Jesus does what Adam, Eve, Moses, Israel, and everyone since them including us could not: Perfectly resist the temptations of the devil. Jesus won a victory for us in the wilderness, and his march to the cross is already well underway. More trials and temptation will come his way. The devil will return and try to get him again. But the course is set. Jesus eyes the cross. Eyes your redemption.

While we concern ourselves with food and importance and power, Jesus is focused on saving his creation. While we are easily and constantly fooled by the Tempter, Jesus rebuffs him even when starving after a fast. We can be tricked by twisted Scripture, but Jesus wields the Sword expertly as it is his own Word.

In about forty days, we will gather at the altar on the night Jesus is betrayed, we will observe his death, the church will stand vigil on Holy Saturday, and then we gather to celebrate his victory over sin, death, and the devil with his resurrection. But today we begin the road to victory. Begin the road to the Great Reversal. And so let us come to Jesus.

Rev. Brent Keller
Peace Lutheran Church
Alcester, SD

Fear, Love and Trust God

“You will have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3)

In a previous post, we considered what it means to have a god. What it really is all about, Martin Luther tells us, is who or what are you going to trust. As Christians, we know that well. After all, the Holy Spirit planted trust — faith — in our hearts. So, we love God. We also remember that God is holy and know that sin has its consequences. So, we respect and fear him too. What challenges us is the “above all things” part.

There are many precious things that claim a place in our hearts. We love our spouses. We love our children. Perhaps we love our country, our home, our hobbies or possessions. These are great blessings that do have a proper place in our lives. The trouble comes when they compete with God. We can easily come to invest a trust in them. We build our lives around them, invest time and money in them. It is easy to come to trust them as much if not more than God.

The problem is that, no matter how precious these things are, they cannot bear the weight of our trust. Spouses and children become ill and die. Our nation may turn on us and make us choose between it and God. Possessions break, fade away and are lost. The only thing that endures forever is God’s word. God made the world by his word, his Word became flesh and lived with us. His suffering, death and resurrection earned for us forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. Because he lives forever, we know that we will rise to live with him forever.

So we fear, love and trust God above all others. Then other blessings fall into their proper place as we thank God for them. This love and trust, then, in turn, leads to obey the rest of the commands as well.

Meet Georg Spalatin

Georg Burkhardt, the son of a Bavarian tanner, was born in 1484, a year after his friend Martin Luther, and died in 1545, the year before the reformer. Like Luther, his father sent him to school, first in Nuremberg, and later in Erfurt, about the same time Luther attended the same university. He became a humanist scholar and changed his name to Spalatin, after the small town near Nuremberg in which he grew up.

He was ordained a priest in 1508. Frederick the Wise appointed him first as a tutor to his nephew, John Frederick, then the court librarian and later the court chaplain and his secretary. In these positions he would function much the same way a chief of staff serves the President of the United States. He would serve three Electors of Saxony during his lifetime.

In Wittenberg, Spalatin became friends with Dr. Luther and whole-heartedly embraced the theology he came to teach. From the very beginning of the indulgence controversy, Spalatin advocated for Luther with his sovereigns and communicated the will of the Electors to Luther. His diplomatic skills made him a key figure in the Lutheran Reformation, although not very well known.

Spalatin often counseled Luther on which works to write, which ones not to write and which ones to tone down. He was responsible for the successful plan to “kidnap” Luther after the Diet of Worms and put him in the Castle Wartburg while controversy cooled a bit and where the Reformer could have a much needed sabbatical.

Five Hundred years ago, in February of 1520, Spalatin reminded Martin Luther that he had promised the Elector to write a sermon, a treatise really, on the subject of good works. Now that the doctrine of salvation by faith alone was becoming known, the Elector and other rulers sympathetic to Luther’s theology were concerned their subjects would believe they did not have to do good works at all, including obeying their rulers!

The Treatise on Good Works would take until summer to complete. More about that later this year. It isn’t often talked about, since three other major works were published that year. Yet in it the familiar understanding of good works taught by Lutherans is first stated in detail. Christians do not do good works to become Christians and be saved, but do good works because they are Christians, are saved and want to please God.

Like Father, Like Son, Like Us

Sermon on Matthew 5:43, 48
Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
Our Hope Lutheran Church
Huntertown, Indiana
February 16^th and 17^th, 2020

“Love your enemies and pray for the one who persecutes you … You will then be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43, 48)

Intro: “Like Father, like son…” As Christians, we don’t need to seek out God and form a personal relationship with him. He sought us, bought us, made us his children in baptism and give us faith so that we trust him. We do not do good works to become Christians; We do good works because we are Christians. We want to please our Heavenly Father so…

Jesus urges Christians to be like their Heavenly Father
1. Forgive like your father forgives you
2. Be merciful like your father is merciful
3. Love your enemies
4. Perfect like your father is perfect
As both saints and sinners at the same time, we cannot do this perfectly
1. We can often manage outward obedience
2. Yet inside our emotions can sneak up on us without warning.
3. The result is we are constantly at war with ourselves.
Jesus lived like his father for us.
1. Jesus was born as the exact image of God.
2. He lived a life of perfect obedience to his father heart and soul.
3. He died to pay for our sins.
4. We are now being made over in his image

Discipleship: Following Where Jesus Goes

Encore Post: So just where does Jesus go? Well he goes to places that are pretty messy sometimes. If we just consider the 12 disciples who Jesus called to himself at the beginning of his ministry, we see a man in Matthew who was a tax collector. We see a zealot in Simon, we see a couple of brothers who want honor and glory. And that’s just a few of them! What we see in the 12 disciples are sinners! And all the disciples of Jesus including us are sinners! Jesus preaches to sinners like the 12 and still to you and me.

A term that comes from the bible is that of disciple. And that is a great thing to recall. We who follow Jesus as taught in the Bible according to the words of the apostles are disciples of Jesus. We believe the teaching that was handed down by Jesus to the first disciples who were later called apostles who then wrote their Gospels, Epistles, and Prophetic books that make up the New Testament.

The season of Epiphany is a great time to be talking about the disciples because we just heard the reading of Peter, James and John being called to be “fishers of men” and soon we will be hearing the words from the Mount of Transfiguration, “Listen to Him!” Disciples are and to follow and to listen to their master, their Lord Jesus. Peter on the mount shows a desire to stay on the mountain and bask in the glory, but that is not where Jesus stays. No, he goes, setting his face like flint towards Jerusalem, getting ready for the Cross, where He would atone for the sins of the world. Many people, even Peter, don’t want this to be the case, but it must be so. That is why Jesus was sent.

A disciple then follows Jesus to the cross. That is where our journey takes us, the place where our salvation is won. The place from which comes all our blessings including the blessing of being able to tell others about Jesus’ wonderful work there for all humanity. Disciples then don’t just keep this message of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus to themselves, but rather disciples tell others who do not know about Jesus to follow Jesus unto that Promised Land which he has entered and will ultimately gather us together with all the faithful disciples who have gone before us.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

The Parable of the Vineyard Workers

There is a vineyard, and it needs to be worked. Its owner goes and calls workers into his vineyard. Throughout the day, he continues to go out and call others in. At the end of the day, the wages are to be given. And when they are, it is those who worked only an hour who come first. They are given a full days’ wages. In fact, everyone gets the same. No matter if you worked an hour or the full day. All are made equal. To no one’s surprise, those who worked a long day are upset. But the master reminds them that they are receiving exactly what they were promised. Exactly what they agreed to.

Like work in a vineyard, the Christian life is not a life of leisure or sloth. We are not called to loiter around and simply wait for heaven. We have been called into the vineyard. Christ has come to you and for you. He has chosen you to work in his vineyard; to be a part of his church. He has redeemed and saved you by grace.

This parable speaks of God’s goodness and his grace. The workers receive out of the generosity and goodness of the master. They have work because they are invited. Their calling into the vineyard is by grace. So also, for us. We are brought into our Lord’s vineyard by grace and grace alone. And we receive life and forgiveness of sins out of His mercy and grace.

Rev. Brent Keller
Peace Lutheran Church
Alcester, SD

Pre-Lent

For churches that use the historic, one year lectionary (cycle of readings), Epiphany has passed and, last week, they celebrated our Lord’s Transfiguration. They now focus on our Lord’s Resurrection, the victory Christ won for us as he died on the cross and then triumphantly rose from the dead. They do this in stages: Pre-Lent, Lent, and the Passion. Today, they are in Pre-Lent (nicknamed the ‘gesima’ Sundays for the Latin titles of the Sundays). For churches using the three year lectionary, Epiphany lasts a few more weeks. When Lent comes, all of the churches will be on the same calendar again.

In the early church, catechumens (learners) were baptized on Easter, and Lent was a sort of final and intense preparation. And so, the Sundays before Lent aim to equip the students for Easter and to remind the baptized of what is to come. The Epistle texts will present the Christian life as a race, as a contest that requires constant self-discipline and self-control, as a demanding life filled with labor and suffering. In a few weeks, Lent will teach that the Christian life is selfless and motivated only by love. Our Gospel texts speak of God’s call for us to be laborers, of the education and training in God’s ‘school of life,’ of the enlightenment of God’s rich grace upon all who seek it. Pre-Lent seeks to prepare for Lent and Easter in this way because the new life we are raised to live is one that lasts forever.

This summer the world will turn their eyes to Tokyo. Some of the most elite athletes in their various sports will take the field or arena or ring. They were born with natural gifts in whatever their sport is. Yet despite this natural gift, they have still had to prepare for this moment since they were young children. They are always laser-focused not just on qualifying and competing, but on bringing home gold. They will have trained and competed with little to no regard for their body. All that matters is being on top of that podium in July and August.

The Olympic games were centuries old when St. Paul writes his first letter to the Corinthians. That said, they were a much different event then than they are now. What isn’t different, however, is the effort put in. And Paul knows it.We each have a race to run, and none of us knows how long it will last. This is why continual training is required. Why self-discipline and focus are paramount. Lent is a time of battle. It is a time of preparation and repentance. But it is also about grace. About hearing what Jesus has done for us in his coming, culminating in his death, burial, and resurrection that all your sins are put away and forgiven.

Rev. Brent Keller
Peace Lutheran Church
Alcester, SD

Theology of the Cross

Martin Luther described two ways to think or talk about God. One starts with what people do — how can we please God? It begins below with us and climbs up a staircase to heaven by our own efforts. The other starts with what God does: the Father sending his Son to save the world, the Son dying so we might live and the Holy Spirit bringing the gifts to sinners. The theology of glory is from below and gives glory to people, the theology of the Cross and is from about, focusing on Chris who died of us all.

These two approaches to understanding God end up in two very different ways of thinking. The theology of glory is not satisfied with what the Bible says about him, salvation and they way we should live our lives. It peers into the unknown things of God, using human logic and experience to form theories about him and believe them as if they were facts. Ironically, the result is making God over in our own image rather than in allowing God to remake us in the image of his Son. In reality, it makes us into god and god into our servant.

The theology of the cross, instead, knows nothing but Christ and him crucified. (1 Corinthians 2:2) It is the theology that begins with the way that God has revealed himself to us in his word, in the cradle and on the cross. It begins with the mindset of Jesus, who did not hold onto his glory as God, but emptied himself of it, became man for us, suffered and died for us. (Philippians 2:5-11)

Rather than look for our own glory, taking credit for our works, our understanding and looks for rewards in this life, the theology of the cross calls on us to think like Jesus thinks, to set aside our interests to serve God and our neighbor. It is content to take up its own cross and follow Jesus, through suffering, to death and to life eternal.