What Happens Next in Zimbabwe?

With the probable continuation and escalation of violence and bloodshed in his country looming in the days ahead, it's impossible to fault opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai for withdrawing from the runoff election for president in Zimbabwe. The withdrawal is certainly not because, as a Mugabe henchman said, Tsvangarai is "chicken." He has soldiered on in spite of numerous incarcerations and beatings.

Rather, his withdrawal confirms the sad state of affairs in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe's longtime president, Robert Mugabe, a murderous dictator who has ruled and economically decimated his country for nearly three decades, has both stated and publicly demonstrated that he will do anything, including murdering and intimidating anybody, in order to remain in power. “Only God, who appointed me," Mugabe said on Friday, "will remove me, not the M.D.C., not the British. Only God will remove me!”

Mugabe, who led the drive for Zimbabwean independence from Britain, loves to blame the former colonial power for his country's problems, even accusing Tsvangirai and his partisans of being British tools. But Zimbabwe's problems, from its violent repression to its disastrous economy, are the result of Mugabe's paranoid isolationism, not British intervention.

So too, is the violence that assails anyone who dares to speak in opposition to the government or its policies. After government-supported thugs once again prevented a Tsvangirai rally from happening and Tsvangirai supporters were threatened for their intention to oppose Mugabe in the upcoming election, the opposition candidate evidently decided both that enough blood had been shed and that the international community needed a dramatic wake-up call, one might cause them to find a conscience.

But if Tsvangirai is betting on regional governments suddenly doing the right things, the odds are against him. Mugabe couldn't have possibly held onto power as long as he has were it not for the legitimacy given to him by the fellowship of African leaders who, rigged election after rigged election, have declared Mugabe's wins to be the results of fair and free processes.

The most disgraceful of nations in this regard has been South Africa. The major power in that region of Africa, if the South African government were to speak the truth about Mugabe, it would set off a chain reaction involving other regional governments and the African Union that would no doubt result in Mugabe's ouster and the installation of a legitimately elected government there.

South Africa has a democratically elected government precisely because international pressure ended the former repressive, illegitimate, white minority government there. That the South African government would be party to Mugabe's continued reign of terror and incompetence is a tragic irony.

Hopefully, Tsvangirai's dramatic withdrawal from the race for Zimbabwean president, will cause South Africa and other nations in the region to tell Robert Mugabe, "We've heard from God, too. God has said it's time for you to step down, Robert. Go."

You Needn't Be Afraid!

[This message was shared during worship with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, earlier today.]

Matthew 10:24-39
Yesterday, Ann and I drove to Columbus to return the van that the congregation rented for our work camp mission trip in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We were about to turn onto Refugee Road when we got a red light. Ann was stopped ahead of me in the left-hand turn lane. Standing no more than five feet from Ann, in the slender concrete median, was a man holding a cardboard sign. I couldn’t make out what was written on it, but Ann said the message was one I could have easily guessed. He claimed to be homeless and in need of money.

Now, here I was, Mr. Mission Trip, the guy who’s always talking about the importance of our being witnesses for Christ, wishing that the light would change soon so that we could leave this guy behind.

I thought of a thousand-and-one reasons why I shouldn’t and couldn’t respond to him:

“He might not really be homeless."

“He’d probably use whatever I gave him to go get drunk or doped up.”

“I'm not sure that I have anything smaller than a twenty in my wallet.” (And I'm not going to check to find out either!)

“I prefer to work through agencies that can vet people’s legitimacy.”

I had nearly gotten to the point where I was comfortable with my reasons for not being a Christian when I saw Ann’s hand extended through her opened car window.

She handed the man some money and the light changed. After I’d returned the van at the rental place, I climbed into the passenger seat of Ann’s car and said, “You shamed me again.”

Ann explained that she couldn’t be sure that what she’d done was the right thing, but when she found a five in her wallet, she decided to give it to him. The guy may have been a big fake. But in giving, Ann did her Christian duty.

Now, the question that this little incident caused me to ask is this: Why did I refuse to do what Ann did? The answer is simple: I was afraid. Afraid of being foolish. Afraid of being played. Afraid that if I gave something away, I would have less than I needed or wanted. Afraid. Hold that thought and let’s pray.

Dear Lord: Teach us not to be afraid to live for you every moment of every day. Amen.

In recent weeks, we’ve been looking at The Small Catechism, Martin Luther’s basic primer on the Christian faith. It begins, as you all know, with an overview of the Ten Commandments. God gives the commandments, first of all, to protect us.

They protect us from worshiping false deities like money, ease, or power, for example, because doing so leads to death, while following the God we know in Jesus leads to life. To give another example, it’s to protect the reputations of is all that God tells us not to speak falsely or disparagingly of others in the Eighth Commandment.

The commands of God are always meant to protect us, sometimes from ourselves. And this is especially true of the command that appears more than any other in the Bible. Do you know what command it is? It doesn’t appear in the Ten Commandments, but God gives it in many other places: “Do not be afraid.”

Jesus gives that command to His followers once again in today’s Gospel lesson. It’s understandable that He does. In the verses leading up to the lesson, in Matthew, chapter 10, Jesus warns that because of their faith in Him, they could be persecuted. Government officials could come after them. They could be subjected to physical violence or social snubbing. People may call them disparaging names, just as they were calling Him.

These warnings are for us as well. Following Jesus Christ isn’t easy. To us today then, Jesus’ words are at least as important to hear as they were for His first hearers. To us, Jesus says, “Do not be afraid!” But what reason does Jesus give for not being afraid?

We might expect that Jesus would say something like, “Don’t be afraid because God will take care of you.” Jesus does in fact say things like that in other places.

• At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, for example, Jesus commands His followers to “make disciples of all nations” and then promises, “I will be with you always to the close of the age.”
• This is similar to the promise given by God to Moses back in the Old Testament book of Exodus. When Moses was reluctant to go the Pharaoh and demand the freedom of God’s people, God assured Moses by saying, “I will be with your mouth. I'll teach you what to say.”
• Even in today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus will say that we need not be afraid because God is with us.

But as the New Testament scholar N.T. Wright points out, after telling us not to be afraid about being persecuted, snubbed, ridiculed, or maligned for our faith, the first reason Jesus gives for fearlessness is a bit strange. He says that we shouldn’t fear because “nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.”

Most of us would regard the prospect that one day, all of our secret sins and selfish thoughts are going to be trotted out for all to see, as less than reassuring. (If we don't view this possibility as less than compelling, we haven't yet wrestled with the reality of our sin!) I know I view the prospect with dread. Jesus’ promise would seem to add to our fears, not relieve them. But let me try to explain why I think this promise of Jesus should banish our fears.

In preparation for the mission trip that began last Sunday, I made two copies of the Mapquest directions to the church building where we were to stay. But when I mentioned the copy I’d left on the seat of our rented van to John, the other driver and an experienced trucker, he told me that he knew a quicker way. I deferred to his expertise.

I just needed to follow.

That’s what I did. Except for one place on the west side of Columbus. Somehow, I got behind another van, a seeming clone of the one John was driving. I was a bit mystified when the van pulled off onto the West Broad Street ramp. I thought that John or one of the kids needed to stop for some reason. But then I noticed California and not Ohio plates on the van I was following. Fortunately, I was able to immediately get back onto the freeway and soon had the rental van in sight so that I could follow John once again.

Sometimes, as you and I strive to follow the Savior Jesus, we get sidetracked. We follow other gods.

Those are the moments we dread having displayed for all to see.

We fear that the gossip we’ve passed on, the dishonesties in which we’ve engaged, the unkindness we’ve enacted, all the sins we try to forget, will be seen by the whole universe.

But we need not be afraid. True story, told by a veteran Lutheran pastor: A man came to see him in his office. The man was a committed Christian. But he had gotten sidetracked from his walk with Christ. He’d had a brief affair. He regretted it and broke it off. Now though, the guilt was almost unbearable. The pastor assured this repentant man that though he’d lost his way for a while, God could forgive him. He could resume his journey with Christ and follow Him once more.

We are to fear and love God, of course. God is bigger than we are, greater than we are, and morally perfect.

But we are also to trust God. No matter what happens in this life and no matter how off-track we may feel our lives go, we can, as I did when I pulled back onto the freeway last Sunday and as that repentant man did when he saw his pastor, get back on the road.

We can return to Jesus Christ. That is what confession, what Luther calls “daily repentance and renewal,” is all about.

Jesus today tells us that we can draw assurance from the fact that one day, our whole lives will be displayed before the world like a movie. Every aspect of our lives—all our decisions, thoughts, and actions—will be on display. The movies of some lives will show that, in spite of detours and missteps, they kept returning to the Jesus’ path. Jesus, “the way, the truth, and the life,” will be the strong central theme of their lives, the object of their hopes, the Lord of their days. In spite of the difficulties, our faith in Christ will be vindicated. Jesus, the friend of sinners, will save those who keep following Him!

I often talk with Christian people burdened by guilt, overwhelmed by fear that God will throw them away. Jesus’ words to us today tell us that there is a place separated from God. It’s the place where those who refuse to believe in Christ choose to go.

But Jesus’ words should reassure His followers that no matter what detours they may have taken, no matter that on occasion we sin, we journey through life with a Savior Who loves us, Who wants us with Him forever.

Our call is clear:

• to keep returning to Jesus,
• to confess Him and His gracious love by our words and our deeds no matter what a disbelieving world may think, and
• to know that the Savior we claim as our own will, on the day of judgment that is coming to this world, claim us as His own.

Seek to live your life for Christ and know that because He is merciful, you need not be afraid!

"You stole from us...

...we forgive you."

And come to our church; you'd fit right in!

The Cure for Spiritual Ruts?

Obedience. Amen!

Build your vocabulary...

feed people. (Thanks to my son Phil.)

600!

Junior does it...and not a single homerun propelled by steroids. This is a legitimate and laudable achievement!

Griffey's six-hundredth home run puts him fourth on the real all-time home run list, behind Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, and Willie Mays, whose homers, like Junior's, were propelled by that combination of bat speed, braun, and smarts shared by all the best hitters. Even when Griffey strikes out, his swing is a thing of real beauty. He may have the most perfect swing I have ever seen. Were it not for an array of injuries in recent years, one of which should have ended his career, Griffey would have surpassed 600 long ago.

But Griffey doesn't rue that fact; for him, the main thing has always been having the chance to play the game. When at the top of his form, nobody has played better. And even now, in the advanced stages of his playing days, he remains a great player.

Resist Satan! by Pastor Glen Vander

[My friend and colleague Pastor Glen VanderKloot of Faith Lutheran Church in Springfield, Illinois, presented this fantastic sermon during worship yesterday. Glen has given me permission to present the sermon here. And yes, I believe that there is a Satan. A look at the daily newspaper and our own "internal conversations" will prove that to be true, I think.]

1 Peter 5:8-9
Jana used to run a small temporary staffing service. The agency did background checks on all job candidates, even though the application asked them if they had ever been convicted of a crime. One day after a round of interviews, a co-worker was entering information from a young man's application into the computer. Suddenly, he broke out into uncontrollable laughter. He called Jana over to show her that the applicant had noted a previous conviction for second-degree manslaughter. Below that, on the line listing his skills, he had written, "Good with people."

Satan is real. Satan is alive and well on planet earth. Satan is charming, intelligent and astute. Every day he tempts us to sin. Martin Luther wrote in The Large Catechism:

Therefore we Christians must be armed and daily expect to be incessantly attacked. For Satan is an enemy that never desists nor becomes tired, so that when one temptation ceases, there always arise others and fresh ones.

Satan is constantly attacking us with temptation. Satan brings us right to the edge. He convinces us every way possible how good it will be to jump, but we jump all on our own.

It is a cop out to claim, “The devil made me do it.” No he didn’t. He made it attractive and luring. But we chose to sin. It is important that we recognize our sin and confess it. That is why we include confession and forgiveness in each worship service. We join with the Psalmist and pray:

I confess my iniquity;
I am sorry for my sin. (Psalm 38:18 NRSV)

We are by nature sinful. We have a natural inclination to think, say, and do what is wrong. However, through the cleansing waters of Baptism, we are forgiven and empowered to do battle with our sinful nature.

How many think that you could get to the point of being sinless here on earth? Of course not. You can’t. None of us can. We were born sinners and we will die sinners. Jesus went to the cross so that we could be forgiven of all our sins. Yet we still cannot stop sinning.

However, we can sin less than we currently do. To sin less requires that we resist the temptations of Satan. Peter tells us:

Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him.” (1 Peter 5:8-9)

Resist him. You may be thinking: “Ok, I would like to resist the temptations of Satan. But how? How do I say, “No!” in the face of temptation?

To resist temptation it is important to decide that we will not give in to temptation and sin. No matter how desirable, alluring, appealing, tantalizing, or inviting the sin may be, we can resist. We do not have to get suckered into Satan’s web of deceit. We can say "no" to the tempter. We can say "no" to the temptation.

After Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, he was taken to Egypt and there Potiphar bought him to be his servant. Under Joseph’s management, Potiphar’s household prospered. So Potiphar gave Joseph more and more responsibility. In the mean time, Potiphar’s wife noticed that “Joseph was handsome and good-looking.” (Genesis 39:6 NRSV)

Day after day, Potiphar’s wife propositioned Joseph. She wanted Joseph to sleep with her. But day after day, Joseph resisted this temptation. Joseph said, “How then could I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9 NRSV)

Joseph predetermined that he would not commit such a sin against God. That predetermination enabled him to resist. To resist temptation, it is important to decide that we will not give in to temptation and sin.

That does not mean that we will always succeed. In fact, we won’t. Sometimes we will give in. But unless we decide ahead of time, we will quickly and often fall for Satan’s traps.

To resist temptation requires power and strength far beyond what we have. Therefore, to resist temptation it is important to rely upon the strength of God. In the Scriptures, we are told time and time again to rely upon God’s strength to fight off temptation. A friend’s favorite Bible passage is Ephesians 6:10-11:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his great power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can fight against the devil's evil tricks. (NCV)

The Denver Post reported that like many sheep ranchers in the West, Lexy Lowler has tried just about everything to stop coyotes from killing her sheep. She has used odor sprays, electric fences, and scare-coyotes. She has slept with her lambs during the summer and has placed battery-operated radios near them. She has corralled them at night and herded them during the day. Even with all these precautions, this Montana rancher has lost scores of lambs…fifty last year alone.

Then she discovered the llama, the aggressive, funny-looking, afraid-of-nothing llama. She said, “Llamas don’t appear to be afraid of anything. When they see something, they put their head up and walk straight toward it. That is aggressive behavior as far as the coyote is
concerned, and they won’t have anything to do with that.”

When Satan attacks us with his devilish schemes, we do not have to fight him alone. Instead of a llama, we can send in the Lamb of God, Jesus, to help. Satan backs down in the presence of Jesus. For on the cross Jesus defeated sin, death and the power of the devil.

What else can we do? Pray and study God’s Word. To resist temptation and sin pray for strength from God, help from God, persistence from God. When we are tempted, we can go immediately to God in prayer and ask God to help us resist the temptations to sin.

To resist temptation and sin, study God’s Word. Jesus had read God’s Word, studied the Word, and memorized the Word. Do we? Through the Word of God, Jesus was able to resist Satan.

We are constantly bombarded with desires to commit sin.

• We are tempted to lie on our income taxes.
• We are tempted to get angry and seek revenge on our enemies.
• We are tempted to lust after other human beings.
• We are tempted to be concerned primarily about me, me, me.

All of us are flooded with temptations to commit sin.

And many times we fall for those temptations.

And then after we commit the sin, we are so filled with guilt that we run from God. Remember what Adam and Eve did after they ate the forbidden fruit?

The man and his wife hid from the Lord God among the trees in the garden. (Genesis 3:8 NCV)

That doesn’t make much sense. It did not make any sense in the Garden of Eden and it still doesn’t make any sense today. God knows where we are whether we hide or stay in the open. Instead of running away or hiding when we fall to temptation, we can run to the cross, confess our sin and by the power of the Spirit pick ourselves up and try again.

Everyday we battle temptation, and at times we lose the battle. But we can keep fighting. The Bible tells us that we can resist temptation.

How? To resist temptation requires that…

• We recognize and confess our past sins.
• We decide that we will not give into temptation and sin.
• We rely on the strength of God to help us overcome temptation.
• We pray and study God’s Word.

Even though there are people who say it is impossible to resist temptation, they are mistaken. Although no one can be perfect, it is possible to resist sin and temptation and do all we can to live honest and decent lives. It is a matter of morals and ethics and actually knowing what is right and wrong. It is also true that it is easier to stay-out of trouble and temptation than it is to actually get-out of temptation and trouble.

Avoid the people and places that Satan uses to tempt you.

But when Satan does tempt you call on the strength of God to help you overcome that temptation.

Amen

Reflection questions:

1. Do I try to rely on my own strength when facing temptation?
2. What temptation do I face that I can decide not to give in to?
3. Am I familiar enough with Scripture to let it help me face temptation?

Action steps:

1. Decide not to give in to one specific temptation.
2. Pray for strength to over come temptation.

[If you'd like to receive Pastor VanderKloot's fantastic daily emailed inspirations, send an email to olwf1@gliq.net. Put SUBSCRIBE on the subject line. You will love receiving Glen's daily mailing!]

To Prepare for Worship on June 15

This week, I won't be presenting my usual look at the appointed lessons for the upcoming Sunday. Instead, here are links to a few commentaries that will provide that help. God bless!
The Bible Lessons:
Exodus 19:2-8a
Psalm 100
Romans 5:1-8
Matthew 9:35-10:8

The Prayer of the Day:
God of compassion, you have opened the way for us and brought us to yourself. Pour your love into our hearts, that, overflowing with joy, we may freely share the blessings of your realm and faithfully proclaim the good news of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

Links:
Ralph W. Klein, Lutheran Biblical scholar, on the Exodus passage here.

A Roman Catholic commentary on the Exodus passage is here.

Comments of Canadian Anglican Chris Haslam commentator on all the lessons, here. [NOTE: Haslam tends to be skeptical regarding traditional authorship of Biblical material. He usually has helpful things to say, however.]

Australian William Loader on the Romans passage, here.

Lutheran pastor Ed Markquart on the Gospel lesson, here.

Pastor Brian Stoffregen's comments on the Gospel lesson, here.

Beverly Gaventa presents an interesting take on the Gospel lesson here.

"If for this life only we have hoped..."

[This funeral sermon was given today. The deceased, widely known by his nickname of Peck, was a veteran of World War 2.]

1 Corinthians 15:12-28
I didn’t know Peck. But as I spoke with his son the other day, I realized what a large hole his passing leaves in the life of his family and friends.

That’s not surprising when you consider it. He was, in many ways, a bigger-than-life character. In his younger days, he was know throughout this area as an athlete. As a young man, he served as an Army Medic during World War 2, part of the initial invasion force at Omaha Beach on D-Day. (And we salute him for his service, for being part of that generation of Americans that made it possible for all of us to live in freedom.) Back home after the war, he became an active participant in life in this community, including his involvement with the Democratic Party. I’m told that he made a point of attending his sons’ ballgames and those of his grandsons as well. He cared for his wife while he was physically able to do so. And I’m also told that his sons regarded him as their best friend.

No words spoken here today can fill the void left in the lives of Peck’s family and friends. You who mourn today have sustained a loss and grief never fully subsides.

But this is a critical moment to latch onto an important truth: This life, with its joys and griefs, laughter and tears, is not our ultimate destination.

The Bible teaches that when we die, we will stand before God. Those who have trustingly surrendered to the love and grace of God given through Jesus Christ will be with God forever, while those who have spurned Christ will be separated from God. Jesus puts it this way in a famous conversation He had with a man named Nicodemus:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. [As a matter of fact] God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” [John 3:16-18]

Some people latch onto God because they think God is a good luck charm who can help them get through times like these. God does want to help you through your grief, of course.

But the God revealed to us in Jesus Christ wants to be more than a good luck charm and more than a crutch to help us through tough times. He wants to be our God and Helper, our Lord and Friend for all eternity.

In the New Testament, a preacher named Paul says, “If for this life only we have hoped in [the God we know in Jesus] Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

Today then, to sustain you through your grief and to give you a hope that never dies, I want to invite you to put your full trust in Jesus Christ. Jesus is God in the flesh, Who came into our world first, to live with us, then to die for us, killing the power of sin to take life away from those who believe in Him, and finally, to rise for us, demonstrating that life doesn’t end for those who believe in Him.

Jesus also established His Church as a fellowship in which ordinary believers can share their joys and sorrows, worship and get to know God better, serve others in Jesus’ Name, and hear God’s Word of hope and encouragement, among other things.

I know that your grief is great. But, I can assure you that God’s love for you and God’s willingness to comfort and help you and to love you for all eternity is even greater.

Place yourselves in God’s strong hands. That’s where an endless supply of help and hope can be found. Amen

Mercy, Not Religion

[This sermon was shared during worship with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, this morning.]

Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
Some of you have heard me tell the true story of what happened at the end of a Lutheran worship service in Cincinnati a few years ago. This was at a church not far from the one I previously served.

A family that had just moved into the area was checking out this congregation when the husband and father was approached by one of its members. “Did you have a good experience here today?” the member asked in a friendly tone. The visitor responded that he had. “I’m glad,” said the member. “But,” he continued, “you know, there are several other Lutheran churches in our area and we already have about as many members as we need. Why not look elsewhere?”

Whatever that church member’s motives, it seems that he would have fit right in with the Pharisees in today’s Gospel lesson from Matthew. They too, were less interested in letting people enjoy fellowship with Christ and His people than they were in keeping their little religious club afloat.

Our Gospel lesson says that after calling the tax collector Matthew to follow Him, Jesus settled down for dinner with other tax collectors and a number of notorious sinners. The Pharisees, those good religious folk, were horrified. But like many good religious folks, they decided not to speak directly with the person whose behavior offended them, Jesus. Instead, like centuries of religious gossips, they decided to talk behind Jesus’ back. They slithered up to some of Jesus’ disciples, apparently not wanting their words to be directly attributable to them. “Why,” they ask, “does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

But Jesus heard them, we’re told, confirming a truth I have learned through the years: No matter how confidential we think the gossip we pass on is, it always gets back to the person we gossip about.

Now, Jesus could have just ignored the Pharisees’ question. Instead, He decided to confront it. Quoting passages from the Old Testament books of Hosea and Malachi, Jesus tells the gossiping Pharisees: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I [the speaker is God] desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

Jesus doesn’t deny that He’s focused on spending time with sinners, a category of people that includes tax collectors, prostitutes, swindlers, good Pharisees and even good Lutherans. It’s sinners, people who were born alienated from God Who need Jesus to bring them God’s mercy, forgiveness, hope, and new life. “That’s why I’m here,” Jesus is saying. “That’s why I mix with the riff-raff and do things in the Name of God that good religious folks think is outrageously wrong.” The incidents that follow in our lesson underscore Jesus’ words.

It was while speaking at this dinner that, we’re told, Jesus was interrupted by a synagogue leader. “My daughter is dead,” he says. “Touch her and she will live.” On the way to the dead girl, you’ll remember, Jesus encounters a woman, afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years. She says to herself, “If I only touch His garment, I have faith that He will make me well.” The woman touches Jesus and Jesus tells her that her faith has in fact, made her well.

Then, Jesus goes to the corpse of the dead girl, touches her, and brings her back to life. Three times in the space of the these verses in our Gospel lesson, Jesus violates the rules of good religious folks—dining with sinners, allowing himself to be touched by a hemorrhaging woman, and touching a corpse and not undergoing ritual cleansing—all to drive home the point that He desires mercy more than religion and wants everybody—everybody—to experience the love of God.

A pastor named E. Carver McGriff once identified three major lessons that Jesus gives us in these incidents. First: Jesus loves us just as we are. I used to think that to be a Christian, you had to be good enough to merit Christ’s love and attention. Sometimes, in my pride, maybe a bit like the Pharisees in today’s Gospel lesson, I alternately thought that I was good enough. But Jesus didn’t ask the tax collectors and sinners to repent before He had dinner with them. He spent time with them just as they were. He didn’t ask the synagogue ruler or the hemorrhaging woman to confess their sins. He saw their faith in Him and He moved to help them immediately.

I once got a telephone call from a psychologist at Lutheran Social Services. “Mark,” he said, “I’ve been counseling with a man for some weeks. But we’ve hit a clearly spiritual snag. I don’t know what to do. Would you see him?” I wasn’t sure if I was competent to help a therapist with the treatment of one of his clients. But I said that I’d be glad to talk with the man.

The man's “snag” was that he had committed what he considered an unpardonable sin years before. He refused to believe that through Jesus Christ, his sins could be forgiven by God. I tried to show him that the only sin that is unpardonable, according to Jesus, is “sin against the Holy Spirit,” by which Jesus meant any sin which we refuse to allow the Holy Spirit to either convict us for committing or convince us that God is willing to forgive us.

The sin against the Holy Spirit is willfully blocking God’s mercy from our lives. But, I told this man, if we were willing to be forgiven, God wanted to forgive. God loves us just as we are. I don’t know whether that man believed me or not. But his reluctance to believe in God’s mercy was an object lesson for me on how important it is for we who bear Jesus’ Name in the world to share His merciful love with everyone.

Second: We see from our Gospel lesson that Jesus’ love has a strange and wonderful effect on us. When Jesus called Matthew to follow, He didn’t give Matthew a fifteen-step program for acceptance into Jesus’ fellowship. Jesus just called Matthew. And here’s the strange result: Matthew followed!

You’ve heard me speak of my mentor in the faith, Martha Schneider. Martha was in her sixties, a mature believer in Jesus, who took me, this snot-nosed, often flippant and sometimes irresponsible, twenty-two year old, under her wing, to help me get rooted in my relationship with Jesus Christ. Years later, Martha told me how crazy I drove her when I first came to faith and got involved in the church.

Once, at a meeting for a committee she was chairing and I’d volunteered to be a part of, for example, I stood off to the side with another young member of the group, pitching pennies and yucking it up. During the meeting. I think that if I’d been in Martha’s place, I would have blown up. She would have been within her rights to do so.

But she showed patience with me. Over time, the love of Christ that Martha patiently showed to me, had its effect. God used her patience to work faith and genuine repentance in me.

Who, among our acquaintances and friends might be turned toward Christ if we allowed ourselves, like my mentor Martha, to be instruments of Christ’s love? Who knows what strange and wonderful effects would result?

Third: We see from our Gospel lesson that when people encounter the love and mercy of Jesus, something good happens. Matthew, the synagogue leader, and the hemorrhaging woman all found that once the love of Jesus and the possibilities of His power touched them, their perspective on life changed. They saw things differently.

• Matthew thought that it would be okay to invite the Savior of the world to his house, no matter what the neighbors might think.
• The synagogue leader dared to believe that his dead daughter might rise again.
• The hemorrhaging woman, who would have been an outcast in her society, dared to think that Jesus would let her touch Him and that He could heal her.

Once the amazing grace of Jesus Christ soaks into our psyches and our wills, everything changes. Lives gone stale are enlivened with new possibilities.

True story. This young doctor had been hurt when his wife suddenly left him. He’d become a cynic with no place for God or others in his life. One day, he assisted in surgery and the chief surgeon began to sing a complicated piece the young doctor once sang as a Music major. He joined in with his bass voice.

The chief surgeon introduced him to the choir director from his church. The choir director, seeing the young doctor's apprehension and bitterness toward God, the world, and other people, invited him to go out for a beer. Intrigued by a church choir director that met people for beer, the younger man went.

Over time, he got involved with the church choir and eventually, the church. In the warm Christian fellowship of this congregation, a Lutheran church in the Chicago suburbs, his cynicism melted away. Christ came to be the center of his life.

It gets better. On Sunday mornings, he couldn’t keep from eying a particular young woman who always sat in the same pew. Eventually, they met and they married. Jesus Christ, the Lord of fresh starts and second chances, enlivens those touched by His love to the new possibilities of life. And that’s true whatever our ages.

Today, we can be thankful that...

• Jesus’ love accepts us we are,
• that Jesus’ love has a strange and wonderful effect on us, and
• that when we encounter Christ’s mercy, we see life with new eyes.

That’s as true today as it was on the day that Jesus called Matthew to follow. He’s making the same call to you and me and our neighbors today.

May we be quick to follow!

Real Hope

[This was a presentation I gave to cancer survivors and cancer care givers during the Hocking County American Cancer Society Relay for Life on June 7, 2008.]

I’ve been asked to focus my thoughts today on hope. I’m happy to do that. Napoleon once said that a leader is “a dealer in hope.” That’s especially true for we leaders called pastors. If I’m not dealing in hope, I fail to do my job.

The need for hope for cancer patients, cancer survivors, and their families and friends is obvious. Both the need and the impact of hopefulness is well-documented. People with hope, countless studies have shown, live longer and better, stave off illness more readily, and weather life’s storms with greater facility than do those without hope.

But as a “dealer in hope,” I must tell you that I don’t believe that all hope is equal. In the commercial world, there are things that dealers sell that are useful and helpful, everything from toothbrushes to cars, from groceries to electric fans, a really useful commodity today. But there are other dealers whose products are hurtful, things like illegal drugs, loans with extortionist interest rates, or inferior products they know will break down almost as soon as customers get them home. Similarly, there are people who deal in and believe in false hope. False hope is more destructive than illegal drugs, high interest loans, or inferior products.

Admiral James Stockdale was the highest-ranking prisoner of war during the Vietnamese conflict. He was held, often in solitary confinement, for years. I read the report of an interview with him once. “How did he survive?” the interviewer wondered. “I decided to allow it to be the most important experience of my life, the lessons from which I wouldn’t trade for anything,” he said. The interviewer let that remarkable statement sink in for a second and then asked, “Who was it that didn’t survive their POW ordeal so readily?” “That’s easy,” Stockdale said, “the optimists.” That didn’t make sense to the interviewer. So, he asked Stockdale to explain. The optimists, the admiral said, were those who would say, “We’ll be out by the end of summer” and summer would come and go. Then they might say, “We’ll be out by Christmas” and Christmas wouldn’t bring their release. You see, the people Stockdale identified as “optimists” were those who bought into “false hopes,” hopes with no basis in fact, hopes they just talked themselves into.*

You all know that’s not the kind of hope you need to sustain you through the gravest challenges of life. I’m sure that most of the cancer survivors you and I know have been sustained by authentic hope, real hope.

In my former congregation in Cincinnati is a woman I’ll call Dottie. Dottie is the most fun-loving person you’ll ever meet. She also loves to do things for others. When a teenager from our congregation there suffered third degree burns and severed his thumb while using a microwave torch and had to be hospitalized for months, it was Dottie who organized the families of the congregation to take prepared food to the young man’s household so that his family could have good meals in spite of the hours spent away from the house and in waiting rooms. Only after people got to know her well would Dottie reveal that she was a cancer survivor, twice over, from two unrelated cancers. Whenever a member of our church or a member of their extended family was diagnosed with cancer, I immediately sent Dottie to be with them. Why? Because Dottie, this fun, tough, loving ball of fire, was the best “dealer in hope” I ever met. She helped people face the reality of their diagnoses and also helped them to see that those diagnoses were not death sentences, that their fights with cancer could, as was true for her, become tremendous growth experiences, even in the midst of the pain. Dottie showed them that there is hope, real hope for all of us, irrespective of the circumstances of our lives.

It won’t surprise you to know what the source of Dottie’s hope was. It was the God Who conquered death in Jesus Christ. You see, I believe that only a hope that holds out the authentic promise of life beyond this one can sustain us, encourage us, and embolden us in this life. That is real hope! Dottie had it.

In the New Testament, Paul, a man well-acquainted with sufferings of all kinds said that through Jesus Christ, he and his fellow believers could boast of the peace they had with God and of the resurrection they one day would experience. But they could boast of something else, he said. “And not only that, but we boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through [God’s] Holy Spirit…” given to all believers. (See here.)

I am humbled and honored to be with you. You know better than I about this hope I’m dealing today. I ask you, like Dottie, to be dealers and believers in authentic hope, hope that is ours here and for all eternity, hope that comes from a tough and tender God Who gave His life on a cross so that we might live with Him forever and Who loves and sustains us always. Let the God ultimately revealed in Jesus Christ give you a hope that never dies. Thank you for allowing me to be here today.

*Here I paraphrase Jim Collins' discussion of his interview with Stockdale as reported in his book, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't.

Book Review: The Grace of It All

[From time to time through the years, I've reviewed books for the journal of my seminary alma mater, Trinity Lutheran Seminary. Here's a review I submitted yesterday.]

The Grace of It All: Reflections on the Art of Ministry. By F. Dean Lueking. Herndon, Virginia: The Alban Institute (www.alban.org), 2006. 152 pp. ISBN-13: 978-1-56699-332-6; ISBN-10: 1-56699-332-6 $17.00 (paperback)

It may be that all pastors have at least one book in them.

In their books would be presented the experiences and lessons derived from years of pastoral ministry.

From them, seminary students would gain valuable “heads up” insights and those already engaged in pastoral work would find encouragement and counsel.

Although he’s written other books, The Grace of It All is F. Dean Lueking’s attempt at such a book of a lifetime. Part memoir, part shirtsleeve pastoral theology, The Grace of It All often has the feel of a conversation with a seasoned and generous mentor. This, as Lueking explains in the Preface, is his intention, believing as he does that such conversations in print are needed. “The need is for pastoral writing that joins sound theology, biblically grounded in the mighty acts of God’s judgment and mercy, with the realities of congregation and community in our world.”

For this, Lueking is as qualified as anyone. A brilliant preacher with an extraordinary ability to make accessible sometimes difficult Biblical truths, as many will already know, he spent forty-four years in one parish, Grace Lutheran Church in River Forest, Illinois, before beginning an international ministry of teaching and mentoring pastors.

The Grace of It All is filled with tales of triumphs and failures, of lessons learned, and, maybe most helpfully, of the everyday experiences that, in the end, bring pastors their greatest sense of satisfaction. We get to see and personally experience the many ways in which the Triune God can grace pastors’ everyday lives and the everyday lives of the people and communities they serve

Lueking veers between memoir and pastoral theology here. Mostly, he manages to maintain a balance between the two, helping us to see the ways in which God sustains pastoral ministry. But at times, like a politician stumping, intent on mentioning as many locals as possible, Lueking strains the reader’s goodwill by going on for pages citing specific members of the Grace Lutheran Church family he so long served. When he does so, it reads not so much as a chronicle of the Biblical “cloud of witnesses” as it does as a series of entries in a seed catalog.

That, coupled with the fact that the last chapter seemed to slog along unnecessarily, made me feel, after reading it, that The Grace of It All would be an even stronger and more helpful book if it were reduced in length by about fifty pages.

In the end, though, I was happy to have read this book. I enjoyed spending time with Lueking if, for no other reason, than that it has encouraged me to listen to the experiences and stories of my fellow clergy, treasure troves of insight, wisdom, and testimonies to the rich grace of God. As Lueking writes, “We need each other’s stories…The disappointments, like the poor, we have always with us. But the good news of Christ’s grace abounds over sin and brings the great gain of godliness with contentment.”

In this book, Lueking manages to show us what contentment and gain come to those who, year in and year out, stick to their calls as ministers of Word and Sacrament in service to the gracious God made known in Christ.

Michael Silverstein's Funny Take on Clinton's Campaign

Check out his alternate lyrics for Try a Little Tenderness regarding the departure of Hillary Clinton from the presidential race. You might also want to look at the fun verse of Sliverstein, the Wall Street Poet, here.

A Look at This Sunday's Bible Lessons (June 8, 2008)

This week's look at the Bible lessons for Sunday will be brief.

The Bible Lessons:
Genesis 12:1-9
Psalm 33:1-12
Romans 4:13-25
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

The Prayer of the Day:
O God, you are the source of life and the ground of our being. By the power of your Spirit bring healing to this wounded world, and raise us to the new life of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

A Few Comments:
1. As I've mentioned in previous posts, the Bible lessons appointed for the Sundays after Pentecost attempt to answer the question, "Now what?" They direct us to how we live our lives in light of our faith in the God born, died, and risen in Jesus Christ and come to us in the Holy Spirit.

Each Sunday during this season then, we confront one or two important elements involved in following Jesus through our daily lives.

2. This Sunday, maybe the largest theme is the centrality of heeding God's improbable call. People of faith are called to follow where and when God calls. This is underscored in the lessons from Genesis and in Romans, both of which discuss God's improbable call of Abram and Sarai (later Abraham and Sarah) from their native Ur (in what is modern-day Iraq) to become, despite their advanced years, the ancestors of Israel. It's also seen in Jesus' call of the tax collector, Matthew, in our Gospel lesson; tax collectors were lowly regarded by Jesus' fellow Judeans, seen as notorious sinners.

3. A curiosity regarding our Gospel lesson is that Jesus' call of Matthew and Jesus' confrontation of the Pharisees horrfied by Jesus dining with tax collectors and other sinners is set amid a long string of healings and miracles recounted in chapters 8 and 9 of Matthew's Gospel.

But maybe this shouldn't surprise us, especially in light of Jesus' response to the Pharisees criticism of Him. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick," Jesus tells the Pharisees. In other words, the condition of sin, separation from God, is more fatal than any physical ailment. Jesus, the great physician, was willing to make housecalls, in order to do battle with the condition that, untreated by His grace, is eternally fatal. He still makes such calls through the Word, the Sacraments, prayer, and the fellowship of believers.

We saw Jesus implicitly connecting the forgiveness of sins to healing earlier in this chapter, Matthew 9:2. There, He forgave a paralytic of His sins. Sin is a bigger problem than disease. Notice too that there, as well as in this Sunday's Gospel lesson, Jesus forgives without any indication of repentance on the part of those to who He brings forgiveness/healing. This isn't to disdain repentance. But those who trust in Jesus, believe in Him, trust Him also to take dominion over their sins, even when they're not fully aware of them. You see, all sin is rooted in our failure to allow God first place in our lives. When we trust (have faith in) the God we see in Jesus, our sin is supplanted by God's authority. Repentance inheres in authentic trust in God. Repentance, turning to Christ, is a daily and ongoing part of the lives of Christians, who nothing but recovering sinners who trust God.

4. In our lesson from Romans, Paul discusses the nature of faith, our relationship with God. God blesses us with new life and His constant presence not because we are good people. Abraham's blessings came to him not because he was a good man, Paul says, but because he believed in God. (I laugh a little at Paul's portrait of Abraham. While what he writes of the ancient patriarch of faith is true, it overlooks those moments when Abraham's faith wavered. Twice, you'll remember, unsure that God could be counted on to protect him, Abraham told foreign kings that Sarai/Sarah wasn't his wife, but his sister. The kings briefly prepared to take her as their wives, each avoiding consummation and offense to God simply because God warned them not to go forward with their plans.) The blessings of new life in Jesus Christ belong to all with faith in Him.

5. A major point of interest to me in this Sunday's lesson from Matthew is that Jesus responds to the Pharisees' criticism, although they don't express it directly to Him. It required no supernatural abilities for Jesus to be aware of their criticisms.

Gossip always gets back to the person being gossiped about. Always. And it never contributes to the resolution of conflicts.

Jesus nipped gossip in the bud by confronting the gossips, as we see in our Gospel lesson.

This is an enormous problem in congregations, fostering feelings of distrust and enmity. This is why Jesus commands us in Matthew 18:15-20 on how to deal with situations in which we feel fellow church members have wronged us. We're not to bellyache to others. We're to go directly to the person we feel has wronged us...and we're to do so with the idea that we could be wrong and they could be right.

If their offenses against us don't rise to such a level that we feel it appropriate to confront, then we shouldn't say anything at all to anyone but God.

This has been a hard lesson for me to learn. I'm still learning it.

During this coming Sunday's Small Catechism moment, we'll be considering Luther's explanation of the Eighth Commandment, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." As always, Luther sees the manner in which God seeks to protect us in this commantment. What does the commandment mean? Luther says:

We are to fear and love God so that we do not betray, slander, or lie about our neighbor, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain his actions in the kindest way.

Notice that the commandment calls us to be co-conspirators with God in protecting, enhancing, and shoring up the reputations of others. That means not just refraining from telling lies about them, it also means speaking well of them when others are talking them down.

[Each week, I present some thoughts on the Bible lessons for the succeeding Sunday. In doing so, I hope to help the people of the congregation I serve, Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, to prepare for worship. And because, we will almost always use the appointed lessons for the Church Year, I also hope that these thoughts can help others prepare for worship too.]

Keep Praying for Zimbabwe

My interest in Zimbabwe goes back nearly a decade, when the people of my former parish became World Vision sponsors for a child in that country. I've watched with rising horror as the government of dictator Robert Mugabe has maintained power through repression, violence, and neglect. Meanwhile, inflation is out of control and unemployment presently stands at 80% of the work force.

Now, Mugabe, owing to his paranoia, is throwing out nearly all nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that provide relief to people on the ground and is intimidating diplomats seeking to document Mugabe's savage regime. See here.

Please pray for the people of Zimbabwe. Please ask that God will facilitate efforts, internal and external to that country, at bringing about the end of repression and neglect there. Please pray for a peaceful end to Mugabe's reign. Please pray that NGOs with their relief and development professionals, will be allowed back into Zimbabwe. Thanks!

Actions Do Speak Louder Than Words

[This sermon was shared during worship with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, earlier today.]

Matthew 7:21-29
Under different circumstances, it might have been cruel. But not in this circumstance.

The woman in one of my former parishes had made the lives of her husband and children impossible. She was an alcoholic, totally addicted.

"Get help or I'm taking the kids and leaving," her husband said. "Don't leave," she pleaded. "Stay and I will get help. I promise."

The husband had heard it before. The wife had made all sorts of promises. On three previous occasions, in fact, the husband threatened to leave. Each time he had stayed before the wife took steps to put her promises into action. Each time she broke her promises and the disease raged on. This time, he followed through. He left.

"How could he do this to me?" the wife asked me. Now it was my turn to be tough. "You need help," I told her.

Thankfully, she checked into a hospital and began the life-long journey of daily recovery. Today, she and her husband and family are together.*

One point in their story is this: Promises are only words unless you fulfill them. Actions really do speak louder than words,

The words of Jesus in today’s Gospel lesson conclude His Sermon on the Mount. He begins by speaking to people like you and me, people who week after week, during worship, whether in the Apostles’ Creed or the Nicene Creed, publicly confess our faith the God revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Jesus says:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.’”

Jesus is saying that our actions speak louder than our words. We may have Scripture memorized. We may be able to explain John 3:16. We may have served on Church Council. But is Jesus our Lord in the everyday places you and I live? Is Jesus the Lord of my checkbook, the Lord of my family life, the Lord of my workday, the Lord of my leisure time?

As good Lutherans, we all know that we are saved by grace, God's charity. Our works will not free us from sin and death, only the grace of God and our faith in what Jesus has done for us on a cross and from an empty tomb.

But there are many people who make promises to God, many who verbally confess Jesus on Sundays who leave Him in the dust on Monday through Saturday.

Jesus’ call and Jesus’ command to those who call Him their Lord is, as the New Testament book of James puts it, “…be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.”

To drive this point home, Jesus next tells a mini-parable, one familiar to all of you. It’s about two homebuilders, one wise and one foolish. The wise one builds his house on rock. The other builds on sand. Storms and winds blow against both houses. The one built on rock remains. The one built on sand falls flat.

If you build on My Word and on Me, Jesus is saying, your house you will stand. You will stand, through the troubles of this life and into eternity. Actions do speak louder than words. Who and what we truly build our lives on will, in the long run, predict how we weather life’s storms.

Pastor Benjamin Reaves, in a sermon based on Jesus’ parable, identifies—rightly, I think—four major lessons for you and me. First, he says, all of us are builders. Each and every day, we’re building the “houses”—that is, the habits, the practices, the lifestyles—in which we live. The woman I talked about earlier, in spite all of her good intentions, although she knew that life is best when God is at the center of our lives, allowed God to be displaced by alcohol. She was building on the wrong foundation. It caused a series of storms that harmed her children, threatened her marriage, and was destroying her health.

By contrast, another person of my acquaintance, David, decided he needed to build a different house. He had been a successful businessperson, his life made easier by a six-figure income. But he felt empty, his life defined by the next big commission. He took a different job, one that let him volunteer at church and with Habitat for Humanity. “I even pray regularly now, Mark,” he told me one day. David was building on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ and Christ’s will that we love God, love neighbor, and help others know Christ.

We’re all builders. Also, all of us must live in the houses we build. The story’s told of a wealthy business owner who told his assistant one day, “I’ve decided to take nine-month trip. While I’m away, you make all the decisions. Also, I want you to take charge of building my new house on that spot above the lake I’ve always talked about. I’m leaving the plans and the funds to build it with you.” The assistant decided that if he cut a few corners, he could score several hundred thousand bucks and the boss would be none the wiser. He hired a crooked contractor, used inferior materials, and hired sloppy workers. Still, when the house was finished, it looked pretty good.

The boss returned and went with the assistant to look over the new place. “How do you like it?” the boss asked the assistant. “I think it turned out well,” the assistant said. “I’m glad you like it,” the boss replied. “You see, I’m retiring soon and won’t need your services. I wanted you to have a nice place for your retirement. The house is yours.”**

We can cut corners in our faith. We can settle for a faith that looks good to the world. (Jesus once excoriated the Pharisees, very religious people, for being "whitewashed tombs," seemingly alive with God's love and power on the outside, but actually dead and removed from God on the inside.) But when you and I have retired from this life, we want to be living in a house founded on Jesus Christ alone.

We’re all builders and we must live in the houses we build. We must also know that every house will be tested by storms. One thing I’ve noticed in twenty-four years as a pastor and fifty-four-plus years as a member of the human race: No one is exempt from the possibility of troubles. And each of us is subject to one storm, death. Without Jesus Christ, that is one storm we cannot survive.

All of us are builders. All must live in the houses they build. All houses are tested by storms. Finally, the difference between the houses that stand and the houses that fall is their foundations. A woman I knew used to tell me about when her house and barn were wiped out by a literal storm, a tornado. Later, her son died from a horrible disease at the age of ten. How did this woman and her husband weather these storms? They built their lives on Christ. They trusted Christ completely. This is the same woman who many of you have heard me quote. When she would consider tragedies, she would ask, “How on earth do people without Christ cope, pastor? Where do they look for strength or hope?”

Storms happen to all of us. Some collapse before they. Others stand. The ones who stand are those who have built on the strong rock of Jesus Christ, who seek to live life God’s way each day.

Jesus’ words to us today are a call and a command to never settle for playing at being Christians. “Walk the talk,” He’s telling us. “Make it your aim to not just call me ‘Lord,’” Jesus is saying, “but to actually build your every moment on Me. Make it your goal to love God, to love neighbor, to forgive as you've been forgiven, and to make disciples. Then, no matter what happens, your life will have been well spent.”

Actions do speak louder than words. May our actions reflect complete reliance on the One we confess as Lord.

*Specifics have been omitted or changed in order to conceal the identities of the people in this story. But it's a true one from my twenty-four years of pastoral ministry.

**Reaves tells this little parable here.

Thank You, Sarah!

"Did you get my card yet today?" our twenty-three year old daughter, Sarah, excitedly asked me during a telephone conversation last week. "No, honey," I said.

Sarah, who lives in Florida, found a Father's Day card she wanted to send to me a few weeks ago. Last week, unable to hold onto it any longer, she'd dropped it in the mail. She sent it on Thursday and probably because of Memorial Day, I didn't get it until today.

"It's the perfect card for you," Sarah had told me.

But when I read it, I wondered. How is it that an adult child can look past a father's many imperfections and send such a precious message? God sends grace to us in many ways, even in a simple card from a young person filled with His love.

I was touched, Sarah. Thank you very much. I love you.

Dad

By the way, Hallmark folks, if this violates copyright laws, I apologize. But as you can see, Sarah cared enough to send the very best.

[You can click on the images above to enlarge them.]

Living Your Faith (A Look at the Bible Lessons for June 1, 2008)

The Bible Lessons:
Deuteronomy 11:18-21, 26-28
Psalm 31:1-5, 19-24
Romans 1:16-17; 3:22b-28 [29-31]
Matthew 7:21-29

The Prayer of the Day:
O God our rock, you offer us a covenant of mercy, and you provide the foundation of our lives. Ground us in your word, and strengthen our resolve to be your disciples, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

Comments:
1. Last week, we waded deep into the themes and purposes of the Sundays after Pentecost. We mentioned that "the themes of Bible lessons appointed for the Pentecost season, are basically, living each day with Christ and growing in our faith in Christ." We see that same overarching theme in all of the lessons for this week.

2. One important theme running through all the Bible lessons appointed for this week is this: Now that God has saved you as an act of divine charity, let God's identity and character inform your every decision and action; strive to live according to the Word of God, building your life on it alone.

3. Deuteronomy 11:18-21, 26-28: Deuteronomy is a series of sermons or messages delivered by Moses as the Hebrews are about to enter the land promised to them by God. The Hebrews didn't deserve freedom from slavery in Egypt nor did they deserve the land God was giving to them. As in the New Testament, we see that a relationship with God depends not on our virtues, but God's grace and our response of submission to that grace.

4. As more than one commentator points out, the language verses 18-21 is nearly identical to that in Deuteronomy 6:4-9, known as the Shema. The Shema embodies the central theme of Deuternomy. But its repetition in chapter 11 forms an inclusio (or inclusion), meaning both that the content in between the passages relates to the themes of the Shema and that two appearances of the Shema form the beginning and the end of one sermon in Deuteronomy.

5. The call is to respond to God's grace through a life of obedience, one in which the gracious, loving will permeates the will and the daily living of believers. We offer obedience not as a way to earn salvation, but as a way of loving God and loving neighbor. We obey not for our good, but for the good of others.

6. As Jesus does in this week's Gospel lesson, God, through the preacher Moses, lays a stark choice before His people: Be blessed by obedience or be cursed by disobedience.

Today's Western culture recoils at such stark choices. We like a glut of options, particularly when it comes to allegiance to God or to various gods. We want just enough of God to feel that all is well, but not so much as to impinge on the choices we'd rather make. We like to keep our options open. God will have none of our postmodern waffling. I don't know about you, but this makes me feel uncomfortable. I repent each day for so often putting God in the backseat of my life!

7. Psalm 31:1-5, 19-24 is an expression of complete trust in God, our refuge in the face of life's difficulties. God, the psalmist, is "a strong rock," language echoed in Jesus' mini-parable in the Gospel leson.

8. Romans 1:16-17; 3:22b-28 [29-31] can well be described as a Lutheran identity statement. That's because the portion of the reading from Romans 1 played a pivotal role in transforming Martin Luther's understanding of God, setting him on the Reformation path and the portion coming from Romans 3 succinctly states what the Reformation seeks to posit (rightly, I think) as the central doctrine of the Bible: the undeserved justification of sinners who believe in Jesus Christ. This stands as a warning to all who might be tempted to erroneously conclude from the first lesson and the Gospel lesson that one can be saved by works of religious devotion or kindness. That is impossible. The person truly infected by God's grace given through Christ will live differently. Good works will spring from the Savior living in the obedient follower. This is the clear theme of Matthew 25:31-46, where the "sheep" are totally unaware of the good deeds they have done; they flowed from their relationship with Christ, not from a desire to "look good" to God or neighbor.

9. Matthew 7:21-29: My son, Philip, during a presentation at our weekly pastors' Bible study, divides this passage into three sections: (1) Judgment (vv.21-23); (2) Parable of the Housebuilders (vv.24-27); (3) Reaction of the Crowds to Jesus (vv.28-29). For great comments on this passage, take a look at Brian Stoffregen's Exegetical Notes, here. But I'll make a few brief comments on each of the sections Phil identfies.

10. Judgment: This doesn't appeal to our postmodern ears either. Shamed by Freud, Feuerbach, Marx, and others into silence on the question of hell, we postmodern Christians tiptoe around it. Much as we Christians might prefer otherwise, Jesus was not so dainty. He talked about hell. His motive was clearly not to scare people into submission, but fair warning, truth in advertising. God allows us the freedom to reject the free gift of salvation that belongs to all with faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus does not force Himself on us.

Here, as Stoffregen so well explains it, knowing Jesus or His Name isn't good enough. Having access to God through Christ is a privilege. The question is, "Does this same God know us?" Is God a kewpie doll that we pull out when it suits us? Do we invoke the Name of God when it can help us? Or is the God we know in Jesus Christ the vital center of our existences?

11. Luther, Philip reminded us today, said that whatever "signs" we may perform in Christ's Name are meaningful insofar as they adhere and conform to the "Word of God." Anything that points to us rather than God is dead and meaningless. AMEN!

12. Parable of the Housebuilders: There is no apparent difference in the craftsmanship or the quality of the houses built by the two men in this parable. But the wise one (sophos) builds on a solid foudation, while the foolish one (moros) builds on sand. The wise person, no more able than the foolish one, nonetheless knows that it's better to build on Jesus Christ and His Word than it is on the sand of impermanent things--like fashion, physical health, money, status, and so on. [By the way, the New Testament's original Greek word, moros, which means "dull or mentally sluggish" is where we get the word moron. Sophos means wisdom and appears in many English words. Philosophy, for example, literally means love of wisdom. The word "sophomore" combines these two words, connoting a person who, in the second year of their high school or college years, is slowly becoming wiser.]

Phil suggests that this section of the Gospel lesson relates to Romans 3:31, from the optional section of our epistle lesson:

Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

We are saved by God's grace and our faith in God, not by upholding God's law. But we uphold God's law when we root our lives in God.

As we teach children to sing, "The wise man built his house upon the rock..."

13. Reaction of the Crowds: Here's where it's especially important to read Stoffregen's commentary on this passage. On the face of it, the crowds seem to be applauding Jesus. But Stoffregen gives two reasons to doubt this interpretation:

(1) Usually in Matthew's Gospel, "the crowds" have an even harder time of "getting" Jesus than the disciples. They often are portrayed as following Jesus out of curiosity or to get something out of Him. They acclaim Jesus as the Messiah on Palm Sunday and a few days later, cry for His crucifixion, for example. They're fickle and skeptical and frankly, thick, apt to build on temporary, earthly foundations. They're like the unwise housebuilder of the previous verses.

(2) The New Testament Greek verb translated as "astonished" carries the implication of, "This is crazy! We can't believe it!" The Scribes taught a perverted version of the Old Testament, one that transformed a relationship with God based on God's grace into a religious system of rules. The latter they could understand. It allowed them to keep God in a box, under their control. But Jesus was pointing to the truth God had long ago revealed to ancient Israel: salvation and life belong only to those who submit to God's authority over their lives.

Do we dare to believe that?

More importantly, do we dare to live that?


[Each week, I present some thoughts on the Bible lessons for the succeeding Sunday. In doing so, I hope to help the people of the congregation I serve, Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, to prepare for worship. And because, we will almost always use the appointed lessons for the Church Year, I also hope that these thoughts can help others prepare for worship too.]

DO NOT WORRY!

[This sermon was shared during worship with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, this morning.]

Matthew 6:24-34
In February, during one of our Midweek Lenten services, we focused on the fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread.” The Biblical text I chose to discuss in my sermon was our Gospel lesson for this morning, Matthew 6:24-34. As I thrashed around this past week--and worried over!--what I might say about this lesson, I decided that I kind of liked what I wrote three months ago. So, this morning, I’ll be presenting basically the same sermon I did then. For a few people, this will be a re-run. For most of you, including those who fell asleep in February, it will be an altogether new experience. I hope that all will find it helpful.

I spent a long time as a student: thirteen years in public school, four years in college, four years in seminary. Somewhere around the end of my twentieth and the beginning of my twenty-first and final year as a student, I figured something out. Do you want to know what it was? It was this: If the teacher repeats something, it’s probably important.

Now, I bring this up for a reason. Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel lesson come from the Sermon on the Mount. Ed Markquart, a wonderful Lutheran pastor in Seattle, has calculated that in the four gospel books of the New Testament--Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John--”there are 60 teachings, 40 parables, and 25 miracles of Jesus.” And the Sermon on the Mount contains a whopping twenty-five of Jesus’ sixty teachings. They come at us at such a furious pace in chapters 5, 6, and 7 of Matthew’s book, that you think Jesus would hardly have the time to repeat Himself in order to highlight what’s important. But He does repeat Himself in the ten verses that make up our Gospel lesson. In fact, Jesus punches home the same teaching three times in these verses. And then, to underscore His teaching, He asks seven rhetorical questions, all with the same message: DO NOT WORRY!

Jesus also gives us plenty of good reasons for heeding that imperative. He says that life is more than food or clothing and that if God the Father takes care of the birds, He’ll take care of us. He says that worrying won’t add a single second to our earthly lives and that to be consumed with these things is to be as futile in our thinking as the Gentiles who have no knowledge of God.

You and I know that Jesus is right. We shouldn’t worry. We know that God cares about our every moment. We know that we’re in the palms of God’s hands, that God hears our prayers. We know too, that all with faith in Jesus Christ belong to God eternally. Even non-believing people realize the silliness of giving our minds over to worry. The writer Mark Twain, an atheist, once said, “I am an old man and have known great troubles, but most of them never happened.”

So, why exactly do we worry?

We worry, let’s face it, because we’re control freaks. Adam and Eve were lured into sin because the serpent told them that when they ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would “be like God.” It bothers us that while, unlike all of God’s other creatures, we can project and to some extent, predict, what the future will bring, we can’t control what happens to us. This reality can play itself out in ways that are anywhere from annoying, such as when we get caught in a traffic jam on US 33, to life-threatening, as when the doctor tells us that we or a loved one has little time to live. Yet we persist in stewing over things over which we have no control.

It’s good for us to make plans and it’s good for us to be engaged in trying to solve problems. But we need to realize that worrying about things solves nothing. The number one fact of the universe is that God is God and we’re not.

So, make your plans and when the time comes, willingly move on to Plan B. Jesus puts it this way: “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” Pastor Gerald Mann summarizes Jesus’ imperative this way: Wait to worry.

Okay, you may say, worrying is a bad thing. But what’s that got to do with my relationship with God? A lot!

You see, in the final analysis, worrying is a form of self-worship. Whether we express our worry by saying things like, “What am I going to do?,” seemingly expressing helplessness, or, by trying to amass more money and power than God, the underlying assumption behind my worrying is that my immediate problems and, by extension, the long-term good of the known universe, depends on me.

People who know the God we meet in Jesus Christ know better than to think the world rests on their shoulders! One of my enduring memories as a pastor is of my visit with an elderly farmer shortly after I was ordained twenty-four years ago. “You know, Pastor,” he said, “if you’re a farmer, you have to have faith or you won’t last long.” He went on to explain that you could pick the best seeds for your crops and be diligent about cultivation and weeding. But farmers know that they have no control over the sun or the rain or temperatures that if not just right, could scorch or freeze their crops. What this farmer discovered is that over his long life, God could be trusted. For that farmer, faith supplanted anxiety and thankfulness for God’s blessings replaced worry.

And, even when life is hard or when we suffer, we followers of Jesus have much for which to be thankful. During the Holocaust, when the Nazis put people in concentration camps, they would work the imprisoned until they could no longer do anything. Then, they would execute them. One family was composed of a father, a mother, and their two children, one of whom suffered from a physical disability. Every day, the mother and two children were taken to one work site and the father was shipped to another. And every night, the father checked on his family. One night though, the father found only his one son. "What happened?" he asked. The surviving child said that the brother with the disability had no longer been able to work. And so the guards had taken him to be executed. He clung to his mother's skirt, sobbing. She picked him up and, holding him close to her, said, "Don't be afraid. I'll go with you." And so she did. That's akin to the God we have through Jesus Christ. In Christ, God stands with us in the darkest and the worst of times--even in death--so that all who trust in Him will be ushered into eternity with Him! How can we worry when we have a God like that?

Now, having heard me say how bad worry is, you all have a right to know whether I worry or not. Well, I do. But if I worry, then I suppose that I fit right in with the rest of the Church. It’s been my observation that the Church is Jesus Christ’s community of recovering control freaks. We’re learning to replace our worry over tomorrow with faith in and gratitude to the God Who tells all who believe in Jesus, “You belong to Me for eternity!”

Years ago, I learned about a man who had a “worry tree.” He had a stressful executive position and every night, before he walked through the front door of his house, he touched a tree close to the porch and said, “God, all these worries I’ve been stewing over, I’m giving to you here now at the worry tree. I’ll pick them up from You tomorrow if You seem to be telling me there’s anything I can do about them. Otherwise, I’m turning them over to You...and thank You!”

When you think about it, every time we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” we’re leaving our worries at the worry tree. Or, more accurately, we leave them with God. That’s because, as Martin Luther wrote of this petition in The Small Catechism (I’m reading an older translation here): “God indeed gives daily bread to all.., even to the wicked, without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that [God] would lead us to acknowledge our daily bread as His gift and to receive it with thanksgiving.”

The opposite of faith isn’t unbelief. The opposite of faith is worry. May we live in the assurance that God has given us eternity and so, free from worry, glorify the God Who gives us everything! May faith supplant fear. When we do worry, may God help us remember all His blessings, including our crucified and risen Lord. And may we, instead of worrying about tomorrow, learn to truly live.

Jesus Lays Waste to "the Law of Attraction"

The so-called "prosperity preachers" should consider these words from Jesus, recorded in Luke 12:15, 22-34:

15And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”

22He said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. 23For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! 25And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 26If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? 27Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 28But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! 29And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. 30For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. 32“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

These verses are the focus of a great devotion in today's Our Daily Bread. Go here.

Okay, you may say, if God provides our daily needs, why are there so many starving people? Good question!

In looking at the current disturbing inflation of food prices, some conclude that there is a worldwide food shortage. Not so, says Ian Sheldon, Andersons Professor of International Trade
Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics at The Ohio State University. Says Sheldon:

"Food price inflation is due to a combination of factors: We are producing more food than ever, so there is no shortage of supply. There is more demand due to: a move to generate more biofuels, increasing demand for food in China and S.E. Asia, where people want more meat, and a drought in Australia affecting grain prices.

“The answer may lie in technology – foods that are drought resistant or can grow in salt water.”

Sheldon's prescription is no doubt part of the solution. Another part is in the haves, of which I am one as a middle income American, resolving to share with the have-nots. That should be part of our lifestyle.

The reason we don't readily do that is, as Jesus intimates v. 32 above, fear. We're afraid that if we give away anything, there will be less for us.

At one level, of course, that's true. There will be less for us.

But we'll be giving away from our excess. For example, I'm a 54 year old man who's 5', 9" tall, weighing 178-pounds. According to this handy online calorie calculator, my daily intake should be 2487 calories. But the daily intake in the US is 3330 calories. Both in terms of our current crop yields and our needs, we've got plenty to give!

Now, back to that so-called "law of attraction." The idea behind it is that if you think about the things you want, they'll come your way. Want a new hot tub? A million bucks? Think about it, this "law" claims, and you'll get it.

Now, it's true that if you obsess on something sufficiently, you'll tend to make it a priority and tend also to mow your grandma down to get it. The headlines and gossip rags are filled with tales of wealthy businesspeople and oft-photographed celebs who have laid waste every important relationship in their lives--most tragically, their relationship with God--to get the baubles of the world. They've attracted more stuff to themselves than they will ever need...and some they'd just as soon flush.

But the fact is, Jesus doesn't promise His followers a life of ease. He promises a life of significance, purpose, and fulfillment to all who dare to follow Him. He also promises us our daily bread, enough to live each day, and He promises to be with us always. He's never welched on a promise!

[UPDATE: Among the many things I appreciate about Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, the congregation I serve as pastor, is the way in which the people respond to the needs of others. A few months ago, we began receiving food offerings for a local emergency food bank on the last Sunday of every month. The collection bins are always running over with food! What an awesome way to thank God for the gift of new life in Christ and the gift of each day.]