How to Live in Tough Times

[This was shared with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church at both worship services today.]

Philippians 4:4-7

Chances are when you read and heard the words of today’s second Bible lesson, you gave it little thought. The familiarity of the words threatens to bleach them of their meaning. 

And because they don’t narrate a story or paint a picture or give some lofty teaching, they wash over us like a TV commercial we've seen a hundred times.

This morning though, consider that these words may deserve more of our attention than we usually give to them. 

In fact, Philippians 4:4-7, four short verses dictated by the apostle Paul to be sent to the church in the Greek city of Philippi back in the first century, give us a roadmap for how to live in tough times. 

“In tough times,” really means “in this lifetime,” because every season of life on earth brings its own tough times. 

It has been that way since Adam and Eve rebelled against God and it will remain that way until the return of Jesus at the end of this old creation’s history. 

In this life, there’s no way around tough times. But there is always a way to live in tough times.

Paul tells us about that way in this morning’s second lesson with three simple admonitions. You might want to write them down, because following them will help you avoid becoming riddled with fear or resentment; they will help you to keep on living, no matter how tough the times get.

Paul says in verse 4: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” Do we want to learn to live in tough times? First, we need to know how to rejoice in the Lord. 

Years ago, a band had a song called Rejoice. For the music video, they interviewed people on the streets of New York City to ask them what made them rejoice. A good percentage of those interviewed looked at the person asking that question like they were crazy. We live in a tough world, these folks seemed to be saying, who rejoices?

Maybe part of the problem is that we don’t know what it means to rejoice in the Lord. Pastor Steven J. Cole points out that to understand what it means to rejoice in the Lord, we need first to understand what it does not mean. 

For one thing, rejoicing in the Lord doesn’t mean that we’ll never be depressed or unhappy. Jesus, you know, wept. So, what makes us think that those who bear Jesus’ name will always be happy? There’s a difference between being happy and rejoicing. 

Cole points out that the Bible paints Christians as people characterized by “sorrow for sin,” yet filled with an “irrepressible joy” that comes from knowing that, by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ, we belong to God. 

Romans 8, reminds us, that nothing can separate those who trust in Christ from the love of God. So, the Christian has reason to rejoice--to be deeply assured by the love, presence, and promises God given through Christ--even when we go through difficult times.

Another thing we may not understand is that rejoicing in the Lord isn’t mainly about feelings. Rejoicing is an attitude of contentment and certainty about God’s presence and power.  

The person who rejoices says, “I’m going through tough times: It seems that there are more days than money to pay for them each month. I worry about the violence and nastiness in our world today. My child gets bullied. My spouse and I argue. Health care costs are astronomical. College is expensive. I hate seeing my kids exposed to movies and music that depict sexual intimacy as something other than a gift to men and women in the covenant of marriage. But still I know that God is faithful and I have hope and all who trust in Christ belong to God forever. So, I can rejoice!”

So, to get through tough times, we must first learn to rejoice always in the God Who loves us always and, through Christ, has saved us from sin and death and darkness.

Paul then says in verse 5: “Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.” The second thing we need to get through tough times then, is gentleness. 

Gentleness is not a strong suit of our contemporary world. 

We tell little kids that they need to get straight-A’s in finger painting because otherwise they might not make it into Harvard. 

We savor the nastiness of reality TV cage matches. 

But Saint Paul tells us that unless we learn gentleness, none of us will be able to weather life’s tough times. Gentleness is how people toughened by the hope, grace, and honesty that comes from Jesus get through tough times. 

They can be gentle because they know, in a phrase used by Paul also in Romans 8, we are “more than conquerors through Him Who loved us.” More than conquerors!

The word translated as gentleness in our lesson is epieikes. It’s an adjective that can also mean being patient, forbearing, or reasonable. In fact, my favorite translation of the Bible, the English Standard Version, renders Paul’s words in this verse as, “Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.” Despite the turmoil of the world, we can be reasonable in our dealings with life, the world, and the people in our lives. Christians can live, if I can make up a word, unbefuddled.

Since we belong to God for eternity, we can be free of the impatience or the sense of entitlement, or the unreasonableness that so often characterizes this world. 

As a young pastor, I learned what this means when visiting people from my first parish, people who were in the hospital and had just learned that they were fatally ill or who were in great pain. I was struck by how patient and forbearing they were in their suffering...not passive, but patient. 

One man, Arnold, who had a long history of heart trouble, was in the ER, having suffered another heart attack. “How are you, Arnold?” I asked. He chuckled and struggled to say, “I’ve been better, Pastor.” We prayed together and he told me he knew he was in God’s hands. No tears. No railing against the unfairness of it all. Just a smile and a squeeze of the hand. He trusted in God. Moments later, he was gone and I asked God to help me to be more like him.

To be gentle is not to be passive. 

A Christian shouldn’t be passive in the face of injustices perpetrated against the innocent. We should fight on behalf of others: the powerless, the hurting, the despised. That’s our call as people of God. 

And we shouldn’t be passive when we confront unbelief, either. There are people who will be separated from eternity unless they repent for sin and come to know Jesus as their God and Savior. And Jesus has left it to us as His people to share Jesus with others. We should fight to give them life with Christ. But, if it’s to have any impact, this too, must be done gently. First Peter 3:15-16 tells us: “...be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have [from Christ]. But do this with gentleness and respect…”

So, to live in tough times, we need to rejoice and we need to be gentle and reasonable. 

Paul gives one more admonition here. Philippians 4:6: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” 

In other words, the third strategy for living in tough times is to stop worrying and start praying. And we can do that with thankfulness to God for the fact that whenever life seems too big or overwhelming, we have a God Who loves us and has conquered everything that could separate us from life with Him. 

He has even conquered the sin that the devil likes to remind us of, but which in Christ, is forgiven when we repent.

I’m a slow learner. It’s bizarre how many times in my years as a Christian I’ve allowed myself to stew over a problem before I finally ask myself, “Why haven’t I prayed about this?” 

And when I do pray about things, the answers don’t usually come right away--though, as we have seen in recent events here at Living Water, answers do sometimes come that quickly. 

But the main thing that happens when I pray about things and I look to God’s Word for guidance through my life is that I’m filled with the assurance that God has got me. 

He’s got my problem. 

He’s got my family. 

He’s got my temptation. 

He’s covered my sin. 

He’s got things under control. 

These are exactly the assurances I need to live in tough times! 

In his explanation of the Second Commandment, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain…,” Martin Luther celebrates the fact that we can “call upon [God] in every time of need.”

Worrying, you know, can be a subtle form of idolatry. We live with the delusion that we can “be like God” and in control. 

When we stop worrying and start praying, we cede control to the only One Who “in all things God works for the good of those who love him.” [Romans 8:28] 

This doesn’t mean that every bad thing that happens in this fallen world is good. Terror killings aren’t good. The death of the young isn’t good. 

But the God Who has conquered sin and death through Christ can bring good out of the most horrific situations. He can even raise the dead who have trusted in Christ to an eternity filled with life and joy, where death has died and suffering is a distant memory.

How do we live in troubled times? 

• We rejoice always in the Lord Who sent His Son at Christmas to be our Savior. 
• Knowing that the Lord is always near us, we live with gentleness toward others. 
• And when tempted to worry, we pray with thankfulness to the God Who cares about and hears our prayers. 

These three strategies are central to the lifestyles of people who actively surrender their lives to Jesus Christ each day.

The result of living like this, Paul tells us is this (verse 7): “...the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” 

Even in a fearful world, we can know God’s peace. 

We trust that the Baby born at Bethlehem Who died and rose, is our Lord and our Savior and that nothing can change that. 

And it's in Him that is where peace is found. Amen

All I Know by Art Garfunkel

From Garfunkel's memorable solo LP, Angel Clare. His voice was at the height of its powers when this was recorded in 1973. The tune was written by Jimmy Webb.

The late and wonderful Larry Knechtel, a studio musician who also performed with a group of fellow studio musicians in the band, Bread, played the piano. Knechtel's most famous piano solo came in the Simon and Garfunkel tune recorded about four years before All I Know. That song was Bridge Over Troubled Water.

What Faith Is

[This was the message at a funeral service for Tim.]

Hebrews 11:1-16
John 11:21-27

"...faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what do not see." 

So says the first verse of one of Tim’s and Debi’s favorite passages of Scripture, Hebrews 11. 

Since I have been Living Water’s pastor for little more than two years, I never knew a time when Tim wasn’t ill. B​ut I also never knew Tim when he didn’t have the kind of faith that Hebrews talks about.​

He had confidence in the eternity of perfect peace and healing with God he would experience one day. And he had the assurance that the Savior Jesus he could not see had won this eternity for him. 

Tim was confident of the central teaching of Scripture: W​e are not saved by the good we have done, but by the great good God has done for us through Christ and by our faith in Christ alone.​

Christ died for sinful human beings like us, taking on Himself the death sentence each of us deserves for sin and then Christ rose from the dead, taking all who turn from sin and follow Him by faith with him, to lives of purpose on this earth and of everlasting life with God in eternity.

Tim often told people he was unafraid of dying. He knew where he was going and to Whom he belonged. 

This faith, this confidence in the God we cannot see, was forged early in his life, when he suffered from cancer at the age of twelve. He received the then­-newest treatments for cancer at Miami Valley Hospital. He told me, as I’m sure he told you, that his father­,­ who was Tim’s hero­­, often assured Tim that Jesus was right there with him and, when Tim asked what would happen should he die, his dad assured him that Jesus would be right there, leading him by the hand and giving him a hug when he entered heaven.

Are you letting Jesus hold you today? 

Or do you only have a passing relationship with Jesus? 

Tim held onto Jesus. One of the great joys in Tim’s life was that the Early Risers Bible study group purchased a device that made it possible for him for some time to read Scripture, the Word of God. And no one I have ever known more craved receiving the Sacrament of Holy Communion, the body and blood of Jesus, given to believers to receive the presence of Jesus with them in a tangible way and, through it, just as Jesus promises, the forgiveness of sins.

In fact, it was during one visit with Tim at Saint Leonard’s rehabilitation center, sharing Holy Communion, that Tim had an amazing experience that I was privileged to witness. 

We had just considered Jesus’ words, “This is My body, given for you...This is My blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” I then handed Tim the bread and said, “The body of Christ, given for you.” He took the bread and then stopped, seemingly stricken. 

“Oh,” he exclaimed. I thought that he was in pain. 

“Are you alright?” I asked. 

He was silent for some moments and then said, “I just had an experience I have never had before. I felt the Lord in this room. Just as I took the bread in my hand, I had the overwhelming sense of His presence, a feeling of peace like I’ve never had. I felt it throughout my body."

Now, lest you be skeptical, Tim was not on any medication at the time that would have induced an hallucination of some sort. Five minutes before, we’d been having as pedestrian a conversation as you and I might have over a dinner, at a barber shop, or in the clubhouse at a golf course. N​o, the God we cannot see, had come to Tim to reassure Tim that, no matter what may lie ahead of him in this earthly life, all was well.​

And all is well for you today if, like Tim, you trust in the God in the flesh Jesus to be your Lord, Savior, King, and Best Friend.​

In our Gospel lesson for this morning, Martha, one of Lazarus’ sisters, seemed to condemn Jesus. “Lord, if you had been here," she said, "my brother would not have died.” 

We need not feel that Jesus was absent from Tim’s years of suffering or his death. We know that the Savior Jesus, Who bore scourging and death for us, was with Tim through all of his sufferings...and with Debi, who cared for him so faithfully, too. 

And Tim knew something else which Jesus claims about Himself later in his conversation with Martha. J​esus said: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.”​

Tim is alive today and with the Lord in Whom He believed, the Lord He experienced through the Word of Scripture, through the Word proclaimed in words and in the hymns he loved singing, through the waters of Baptism in which God washed and claimed Tim as a child of God, through the body and blood of Christ that Tim so gratefully received “in, with, and under” the bread and the wine.

But Tim also experienced the presence of Jesus in another way. I would be remiss in not mentioning this other way now: He experienced Christ through the fellowship of believers. 

He loved the guys of the Early Risers Bible study group. That’s something he often expressed to me. 

He appreciated the ad hoc group of singers from Grace, Epiphany, and Living Water who came to sing for and with him recently. 

And he also often expressed appreciation for the people of Living Water.

In fact, if there’s one sadness I have this morning it’s that Tim couldn’t fulfill the one ambition he expressed to me many times. 

“I want to get strong enough,” he would say, “to speak to the people of Living Water. I want to thank them. I want to tell them how much their prayers and their encouragement have meant to me. I want them to know what a special church it is.” And then, he would always add, “I feel the love of Christ the moment I open the doors to Living Water. Every person is just filled with the love of Christ.”

"...faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see."

We ​can trust in Christ this morning. He’s the God and King Who can destroy the power of sin and death over the lives of those who turn away from sin and turn each day to Him. 

He’s the Lord Who promises that He will never leave nor forsake those who trust in Him, even when we experience illness, grief, or adversity. 

He’s the Lord Who can be counted on to one day welcome to eternity those who have been faithful in following Christ, faithful in returning to Christ even after we have sinned. 

There, those who trusted in Christ will be told by their Lord, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Welcome to the joy of your master.” 

(And some of the saints who enter into the joy of the Lord in eternity might next hear, “By the way, the heavenly choir needs a bass. Report for duty immediately.”)

Today, I invite you to follow Jesus. 

Today, you can find Jesus where Tim found him: in the fellowship of believers; in the Word of God; in the sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion. 

And when you do find Jesus in these places, latch onto His strong hands of grace and power and never let go. 

When we hold onto Jesus on this earth, we may not see Him. But one day, like Tim the moment he closed his eyes to this world, we will see Christ face to face. 

And we will know that our lives with Christ here have been, in C.S. Lewis’ words, “....only...the cover and the title page,” as we step into the first chapter of a never-ending book entitled, Eternity with God.

Trust in Christ and let him give you your story with God to live out forever and ever. 

The Way of Life

[This was shared during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church on Sunday, December 6, 2015.]

Luke 13:1-14

Some of our vacations over the years have taken us through mountains in places like West Virginia and Colorado. Whenever we drive through mountains, I think about all that was involved in building the piece of highway we’re on. Mountains and foothills had to be blasted through and dug out, low areas filled in with concrete, dirt, and gravel. Road-builders create straighter, clearer paths to the places we want to go.

Our Gospel lesson for this morning tells us about a road-builder we call John the Baptist. According to Luke, the writer of the book from which our lesson is taken, John fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, written hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus. Luke cites Isaiah 40:3-5; they make up verses 4-6 of our Gospel lesson. John the Baptist, Luke tells us, is “a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all people will see God’s salvation.’”

Long before John was born, God had defined John’s mission in life. He was to be a road builder who would create a clear pathway for “all flesh” to “see the salvation of God.” 

How did John do this? 

And what does it have to do with us?

This morning, we’re going to focus on just the first six verses of our Gospel lesson. We'll look at Luke 3:1-6. Luke writes: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene—during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, ...” 

From what Luke tells us with this list of kings and priests, scholars believe that John the Baptist’s ministry began in 28 or 29 AD.

But Luke wants us to know more than just when John the Baptist began his ministry. He wants us to know why John began his ministry. If we were reading Luke straight through, we already would have gotten a hint back in Luke 1:52. Mary, the virgin God chose to be the mother of Jesus, tells Elizabeth, then in the sixth month of her pregnancy for John that “[God] has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.”

The world kowtows to the Caesars, the kings, the wealthy, and the powerful, but people who believe in the God revealed to all the world through Jesus Christ know Who’s really in charge. They know too that God is at work even when most people think that God has disappeared. Even when terrorists, despots, and superstars are “getting away with murder,” God is still moving the world and all who trust in Him toward a certain destiny, ensuring that at a time both the Old and New Testaments call “the day of the Lord,” all will be made right. On that day, despots will get their comeuppance and those who trust in the Lord will step into the joy of their inheritance from God. Rulers will be brought down from their perches of power and the lowly will be lifted up.

Back in verse 2 of our Gospel lesson we’re told that: “the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.” These words are a clear signal that like Jonah, Hosea, and Joel, to whom God’s Word came in the Old Testament, John the Baptist was to be a prophet, a tough calling.

The word from God that the prophets were expected to spread was often a message that people didn't want to hear, but needed to hear if they were going to have right relationships with God. 

The lives of the prophets were, as a result, often difficult. Many were killed, just as John the Baptist would be, not because God had abandoned them, but because they were being faithful to the word God gave to them. 

And people then, no less than today, didn’t want a God Who told them what to do.

In Luke 3:3, we read, “[John] went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” 

Out in a wilderness like the one where God had spent forty years preparing His people to enter the promised land, John preaches the message that he’s been given by God. It’s simple: “Repent.” 

This is how John the Road Builder did his job of creating a pathway by which people could see God’s  salvation given in Christ. 

Repentance, to this day, remains the only roadway by which we can find salvation from sin and death, the only roadway by which we can have peace with God and peace within ourselves.

The Bible teaches that all of us are born in sin. That’s why God sent Jesus into the world. He took our sin on His own shoulders on the cross. He rose from the dead to tear down the walls of sin and death for us and to allow us to enjoy peace and intimacy with God. 

But sin can set us down pathways so far from Jesus that even if we’ve been churchgoers all our lives, regarded as “good people” by the rest of the world, we can get to the point where we can’t really see Jesus any more. 

To see Jesus, the arrogant must be laid low and the lowly must be lifted up. 

We need a straight, clear path to the salvation God wants to give to all people through Christ. John pointed people (he points us still today) to the pathway of repentance as the way to salvation through Jesus.

To many people today, repentance is a dirty word. A woman sent me an angry email a few years back complaining that in a message I’d shared on a Sunday morning, I’d intimated that all of us in church that day--including me--might have reason to be repentant. She didn’t like that at all. 

Truth is, we all recoil at accepting responsibility for our sinful thoughts and actions. This is why Jesus tells us that to be with Him, we must take up our crosses--that is, admit our sin--and follow Him. We must be honest: We cannot receive Jesus as the One Who saves us from our sins until we can acknowledge that we have sins from which we need to be saved.

For many people though, repentance is a great word, a joyful word! That’s because true repentance is made up of two elements. First: It means to be sorry for my sin. Second: It means to trust that when I confess my sins to God through Jesus, God will forgive me and I will be at peace with God. 

The believer in the God we know in Jesus is filled with the assurance voiced by King David in Psalm 103:12: “...as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” They know the joy of repentance.

Imagine two people, each headed for the same destination. One takes a mountain path, following ever upward through switchbacks and hairpin curves, sure that she’s headed in the right direction, only to find herself at the pinnacle of a mountain, nowhere close to where she intended to go. 

The other person, with the same destination, descends into a deep valley, slogging through swamps and streams, equally certain that he’s going right, only to find himself mired in mud, his destination nowhere in sight.

These two people illustrate the lives of people who have lost their ways in life, far from the God we know in Christ. 

The only way off the mountain paths of egomania and selfishness that lead us away from Christ is through repentance. The selfish person must say, “You’re right, Lord. I’m not in charge. I’m not God. I’m not entitled. Forgive me and let me be Your child.”

Similarly, the only way off the lowly path of self-condemnation is through repentance. The lowly person says, “You’re right, Lord. I’ve been expecting too little of my character, I’ve thought too little of myself, and so, given myself a pass for engaging in sin that dehumanizes me. I thought that who I am and what I’ve done didn’t matter. But You died and rose for me. Because of that I know that I matter! Forgive me for denying the truth about myself and lift me up to live as Your child.”

And then the repentant person, whether they started from a position of lowliness or arrogance, trusts Jesus to be as good as His promise to give life, peace, hope, and the power to live with purpose to those who believe in Him.

Romans 8:1 says: “...there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus...” Let that sink in for a moment. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!

Those who repent--who own and regret their sins and trust Christ to forgive them--know what that passage is saying: Though we are sinners who deserve condemnation, Christ sets the repentant free to live as the human beings we were all meant to be!

Chances are that if you’re like other Christians (including me), you follow Jesus well sometimes. But sometimes, you lose your way. You sin and maybe you find, as I find, that the more you sin or ignore the will of God, the easier it becomes to sin again and the harder it can become to really worship God or to have peace with God or peace with yourself. 

This is why regular, daily repentance is so important. It clears away the blindness of our sin, helping us to see how deadly our sin is. It helps us to see the God we know through Jesus, the love He has for us, and the life He gives to those who turn their backs on sin and follow Him.

It was while repenting that David wrote in Psalm 139:23-24: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me,and lead me in the way everlasting.”

John the Baptist was a road-builder. But the road to life with God and the second chances of God are open even today to all. We travel the road of repentance when we turn from sin and trust in Christ alone for life. May this be the road we travel each day.

Oh, Come, Oh, Come, Emanuel

This is one of my favorite versions of an Advent classic, sung by Bryan Duncan. It appeared on the Our Christmas collection by various artists released in 1990.

Emanuel (or Emmanuel or Immanuel) is one of the designations of Jesus, first appearing in Old Testament prophecy. It's a title that means, God with us. And that is what Jesus is, God in the flesh, who came into our world to be with us and to bear the punishment for sin we deserve and to set all who repent and believe in Him free to live with God for eternity.

One day, God with us will return to this world and all who have entrusted their lives to Him will live in the new creation that God gives as an act of grace to those who surrender to Emanuel, Jesus the Christ. Oh, come, oh, come, Emanuel.

The Biblical roots of Lutheran worship

A good overview who wonder why Lutherans worship as we do, whether in contemporary, traditional, freaked out, or blended settings.

God doesn't promise to make us happy

Nicole Cottrell identifies five lies that Christians believe. Number five is one to which I've been susceptible, the notion that God promises believers in Jesus that He will make us happy. But Cottrell is dead-on when she writes:

Happiness in scripture is usually mentioned in terms of a fleeting moment or a temporal, earthly event. Neither the scriptures or Christ (or anyone else for that matter) ever tell us that God wants us to “be happy.” He wants us to be a lot of things: righteous, holy, godly, pure, sanctified, etc … but “happy” ain’t in the list. 

It’s cliche, but man is it true: God is more concerned with our holiness than our happiness.

Read the whole amazing article.