Saved!

[Below you'll find the text of yesterday's Palm Sunday sermon as well as live stream video of both worship services with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

John 12:12-19

When it comes to disasters, natural or humanly-made, it has been an eventful week.

Tornadoes and high winds ripped through many parts of the country, including our own area, leaving some dead and many homes damaged or destroyed.

A mass shooting at a Nashville school resulted in six people being murdered, including three children.

Putin’s war on Ukraine rages on.

We gather on this Palm Sunday morning, palm fronds before us, and call out to Jesus, “Hosanna!,” which means, “Save us!”

Our cry is understandable. We need to be saved.

But the problem is that all too often, our reading of what we need to be saved from is fixed on the symptoms, rather than on the deeper issue from which all of us need to be saved.

The real issue–the deeper problem–from which we need saving is stated by the apostle John in a verse where he describes two things Christian disciples know. “We know,” John writes, “that we are children of God [that is, we have been claimed by Christ in Baptism and we have been brought to faith by the proclamation of the Gospel Word about Jesus and so, know that we are are children of God], and [we know] that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” (1 John 5:19)

That second statement–”the whole world [or the whole cosmos] is under the control of the evil one,” the devil, may surprise some people.

Of course, the God we meet in Jesus Christ is in ultimate control of the universe. Even when Jesus went to the cross, He was in control of the moment and circumstances by which that would happen.

Of course, God created the cosmos and has died and risen to take it back and set it free of sin and death.

Of course, evil has already been defeated by Jesus Christ.

But until the day when the risen and ascended Jesus returns, the devil and the sin into which he lured our first parents (and lures us) and into which you and I are born, will have the upper hand in this fallen creation. This is why in his hymn, A Mighty Fortress, reminds us that on earth, the devil has no equal and that Jesus Christ has come to be our Champion Who fights for us and saves us from the devil.

Nonetheless, this world is now under the devil’s control. This is why the devil was able to offer Jesus “all the kingdoms of the world” if Jesus would bow down and worship the devil. (Matthew 4:8-9)

Right now, this world and we ourselves are born in bondage to sin, incapable of freeing ourselves. Even baptized believers in Jesus Christ will continue to wrestle with the sinfulness that fills us and is around us until the day we die to this world.

This is the deeper problem from which all of us need to be saved. Human beings, first created in the image of God, have been decimated, our identities, personalities, and desires completely infected and controlled by, sin and the death to which it inevitably leads. That includes you and me. All of us.

If we are going to be saved from our real problem of sin and death, the half measures you and I might try will never do the job.

We may find ways to mitigate or lessen the impact of inclement weather.

We may find the proper formulation of public policies and private actions that decrease the numbers of gun killings in our country.

We may find a way to get Putin out of Ukraine.

I pray that all of these things will happen.

And the human race actually has a decent track record when it comes to solving what I would call secondary problems like these. Polio and COVID-19 were conquered. Hilter, Mussolini, and Tojo were defeated. In little more than one-hundred years, human beings have learned to fly, light up cities, farm with incredible efficiency, and even land on the moon.

But even when God answers our prayers for protection from the weather, safety for our kids, and Putin’s removal from Ukraine, as I believe will happen, the fundamental human problem will not have been solved. No human effort ever could solve our basic human problem.

The day after these issues and others like them are resolved, the ratio of human birth to death will still be 1:1.

New outbreaks of chaos will occur.

And we will continue to run up against the intractable reality of sin and death.

All our human efforts toward saving ourselves amount to little more than putting lipstick on a pig or spraying Febreeze in a garbage dump! The pig will still be a pig and garbage will still stink.

Our continuing impulse will be to worship ourselves or things in the creation–money, power, comfort, success, sex–rather than to worship God Himself. We’ll still want to break free of any accountability to God, parents, spouses, families, friends, church, government, community, country. We’ll still dislike others who rub us the wrong way to the point of murder, whether in fact, speech, or thought. We’ll still commit adultery, whether physically or in our minds. We’ll tear others down, still covet what others have.

Our biggest problem is us.

My biggest problem is me.

Your biggest problem is you.

The crowd that greets Jesus on the first Palm Sunday five days before His crucifixion seems not to have any notion that what they most need saving from is their own sin and the death it brings.

Many know about, some actually saw, Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.

Most know of the miracles Jesus has performed.

They sense Jesus is some sort of conquering king.

Maybe, they figure, Jesus can save them from paying taxes to the Romans, from poverty, from the authority of foreign overlords.

These kinds of things are all they have in mind–it’s often all we have in mind–when shouting, “Hosanna! Jesus, save us!”

It’s no surprise then, that many of those celebrating in today’s Gospel lesson will, in a few days, disappointed that Jesus hasn’t “saved” them as they want to be saved, call for Jesus’ crucifixion.

Just like the Palm Sunday crowd, we want a king who will do exactly what we want him (or her) to do for us and not be critical of the sins we like doing.

We want kings who will save us from what we think we need saving from and leave our favorite sins alone.

We want kings who don’t call us to go to the cross with Him so that we can be saved from our old selves, so that our old selves can die on Jesus’ cross, allowing the new self to rise.

But Jesus will not be a king on our terms.

He won’t save us from little things and leave us dead in our sin, separated from God forever.

So, Jesus comes to you again this morning.

He comes to you in His Word and in the bread and in the wine.

He comes to save you.

He invades this sanctuary the way He once invaded Jerusalem, the King of all kings, come to claim all that has been lost to Him through sin.

He comes to save you from condemnation for your sin.

He comes to save you from your love of sin.

He comes to save you from death and the dominion of the devil.

He will say shortly after the events recorded in our Gospel lesson today: “Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.” (John 12:31)

The devil and sin and death have no power over those who, by the power and at the prompting of the Gospel Word about Jesus delivered to us by the Holy Spirit, turn from sin and turn to Christ, the Saving One!

As we cry our Hosannas to Jesus today, He takes all our sins upon Himself. He walks in here among us as He once walked into Jerusalem and He takes all your sins–all our sins–on Himself.

And then He goes to the cross, taking the cross we deserve and the death we deserve so that sin and death have no power over us any longer!

Sin and death have no power over you at all! Not even just a little bit! Jesus Christ died and rose to make you righteous, free of sin, clean. And when Jesus says you are clean, you are clean, fit for life with God now and for all eternity!

Jesus saves us from ourselves, moving us from the darkness and futility that marks our path on even the best and healthiest and most joyful days in this world this world can offer. And He promises that we will be with Him in the perfection of the new heaven and the new earth!

Friends, Jesus hears your cries of Hosanna–”Lord, save me!”–even when you yourself don’t fully understand what it is you need to be saved from.

Because of what He did for you on the cross, when He said, “It is finished,” I can tell you, as He commissioned His whole Church to proclaim, “Your sins are forgiven.” (John 7:48)

Your old self has been crucified and is being crucified each day as you walk with Jesus.

All your sins are forgiven, conquered by Jesus on the cross, His victory confirmed by His resurrection.

Jesus has come to us once more today to answer your prayers to be saved.

He assures you that you are saved.

You are forgiven.

You are His.

As you take refuge in Him, know that you are saved now and eternally.

Amen

Eyes Opened to New Life

"...if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age [the devil] has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)

When I was an atheist and thought that Jesus was a nice guy that Christians misconstrued, I was unable to hear or to see Who Jesus really was, is, and claims to be. My eyes were blinded to the gospel by the devil whose resentment of humanity's place in God's eyes--the only of God's creatures made in the image of God--has placed a veil over human thinking until it's finally pierced by the gospel truth that we are sinners in need of saving and that we are only saved by God's grace through faith in Christ.

But God doesn't give up on enlightening we sinners to the truth of His gospel--the good news--for the human race that can save  us from sin, death, and ourselves. This is why the apostle Paul told the first-century Christians in Rome, " For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile." (Romans 1:16)

The eyes of unbelieving people can be opened to see and believe in the gospel, to believe in Jesus, so that we're no longer blind and no longer dead in our sin. This is what God is doing to and in me through Jesus.

My call is to keep sharing Christ's Gospel. The Holy Spirit can used my simple sharing of it to open the eyes of the blind and bring them life with God.

Gracious God, help me to faithfully proclaim Christ and His Gospel so that through this Word, the Holy Spirit can open people's eyes and give them life with You that never ends. Amen 

Where to Turn in the Crisis

[This message was shared during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio, earlier today.]

Luke 12:49-56
During the recent Lutheran Week in Indianapolis, I tried to eat a sandwich made with the kind of crumbly, disintegrating bread that used to give gluten-free a bad name. After lunch, Wayne asked me about the diet I had to keep in light of Celiac Disease and a heart attack I had nine years ago. As we rode down an escalator, I told him, “You know, some days I can’t wait to be with Jesus in eternity, partly because I’ll be able to eat whole wheat bread and run and play baseball again.” 

Some people near us on the escalator giggled when they heard me say that. And it is funny. I chuckled too. But don’t all Christians sometimes fantasize about the things we’ll do in eternity with Jesus once we’re free of the constraints of sin, death, and darkness that pervade this life?

But there’s a danger to our lives as Christians in focusing too much on eternity: It may cause us to ignore what Jesus calls the crisis of living each day in this world, in this life, as followers of Jesus Christ. 

We can get so accustomed to thinking that Jesus is on our sides, taking Him and the free gift of eternal life with God He gives to all who believe in Him, for granted, and thus, feeling free to do, say, and live any way we decide to. 

Listen: Jesus has not set us free from sin and death so that we can ignore His will. 

He has not set us free from sin and death so that we can ignore the needs of our neighbors or the injustice, bigotry, or hatred with which the world treats them. 

Jesus has not set us free from sin and death so that we can view our church membership as a get-out-of-hell pass while ignoring the need our neighbors have for Jesus’ salvation, ignoring that about a quarter or more of our neighbors have zero religious belief.

This means that every day a Christian lives on this earth faces a crisis. I’m using that word as Jesus does in John 12:31, where He says, “Now is the time for judgment on this world,” which is more literally translated from the Greek in which all the New Testament writers originally composed their books: “Now is the crisis [κρίσις] of this world.” 

Here, Jesus is saying that, in this life, in each moment of this life, you and I deal with a decision point, a moment when we must make a judgment. And the judgment we must make is this: 

Will we turn to Jesus or will we turn away from Him?  

Will we turn to the world, to what’s easy, to what’s socially acceptable, to what’s safe, to what’s advantageous to us if heedless of the needs of my neighbor, to go along to get along or will we turn in repentance and faith to Jesus?

Our gospel lesson for this morning, Luke 12:49-56, finds Jesus turning abruptly from answering questions about the end of earth’s days after which all who have trusted in Him will live in His fully perfected kingdom, to the crisis the confronts us each day: the judgment you and I must make as to whether in this moment--at work, in our relationships, at home, in the world--we will turn to Jesus and live or walk away from Jesus and experience death.

Take a look at our lesson, please. Jesus begins: “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” 

These words don’t fit with the world’s usual image of Jesus, the Jesus of the sentimentalists who think Jesus was a wonderful guy, but not someone they have to answer to. 

Fire, an image that Jesus and the early Church used in talking about the Holy Spirit, is a symbol of judgment and of cleansing. 

Jesus, to be sure, has come into the world to bring salvation and peace with God to all who believe in Him. 

But He has also come to singe us in the purifying flames of God’s judgment, to burn away all that’s evil, unwholesome, and unloving, in order to refine us like precious metals, separating us from sin and death. 

To truly trust in Jesus begins with truly understanding, daily, that we are sinners who need to confess our sin, divesting ourselves of our addiction to sin. Then, purged of death and darkness, we can rise to newness of life. 

This is what happens to us in Holy Baptism: first, our old selves are drowned, then our new selves, God’s brand new creatures, rise. 

Because the old self still lurks until the days of our physical deaths and resurrections, the Christian life is composed of returning each day to the Lord of the baptismal font for this same death and resurrection to happen again and again. 

Romans 6:4 reminds us, “We were therefore buried with [Jesus Christ] through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” This new life is what God wants to give to all people through faith in Jesus every single day!

Then Jesus says: “But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed!” 

Jesus wants to bring each person who hears His name to the crisis point to which we all need to come in order to receive Him and the life that only He can give to us. 

But before that could happen, Jesus had to undergo the baptism of death on a cross. 

His mission on earth would only be fulfilled when He did this and could say, “It is finished.” 

On the cross, Jesus shares the death that belongs to every human being from the moment we are born: the death of separation from the One Who gives life. It was from this place of separation that Jesus cried from the cross, “My God! My God! Why have You forsaken me.” 

But because God the Father raised Jesus from the dead, in the waters of Baptism, we share in Jesus’ death so that the Father too, can raise those who trust themselves and their whole lives to Jesus. It was to accomplish this for you and me that Jesus couldn’t wait--He felt constrained to go to the cross, set His face for Jerusalem--that Jesus went to the cross.

Jesus then says: “Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

In this life, anyone who dares to follow Jesus, who daily turns to Jesus to seek the death of their old selves and the creation of their new selves, who live in what we Lutherans call “daily repentance and renewal” can expect that even members of our own families will turn against us. 

Or that, at any rate, they won’t understand us. 

Likely, everyone here has taken shots for following Jesus from someone in their family: siblings, cousins, parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren. Or, they have experienced not being understood. I know that I have. It’s just part of following Jesus.

At this point in our lesson, Jesus addresses the end of this world when He will return to judge the living and the dead in light of how we address the crisis--the judgment points--we face every day. “He said to the crowd: ‘When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, “It’s going to rain,” and it does. And when the south wind blows, you say, “It’s going to be hot,” and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?'”

Where Jesus lived in the first century AD, if people saw clouds in the west, they knew that rain was coming in from the Mediterranean and if they felt hot winds coming from the Negev to the south, they knew were in for a heatwave. People knew how to read those meteorological signs. 

But here is Jesus, God the Son, standing right in front of these people, His identity as God and Savior repeatedly confirmed by miracles, signs, and wonders, by His words, by His compassion, by His sinlessness, yet they ignore all these signs. 

They don’t see that they need to turn to Jesus now and believe in Him. 

It’s as though they’re holding out for more proof, which will soon come in His death and resurrection, though most of the crowds who thronged to Jesus during His life on earth would never believe in Him even after He rose from the dead. 

It’s as though too, the crowd is waiting for a better offer. “Maybe,” they seem to think, “we can follow Jesus, but from a distance, getting just enough of Him to get the blessings He offers, but not close enough to actually have to give up the old sins we love so much, not close enough to actually hear Him call us to a life of love of God and love of neighbor, of worship and prayer, of witness to others for Jesus. Maybe we can have Jesus without being changed by Him, without being His disciple.” 

Folks, it doesn’t work like that. As you’ve heard me say before (and as I need to be constantly reminded myself): We will either have all of Jesus or we will have none of Jesus at all.

I’m guessing that the hesitation of the crowd surrounding Jesus that day is no different from the hesitation felt by most people in most churches in North America. They don’t perceive the crisis of each moment, the need to turn to Jesus for life and forgiveness right now in every right now of life because life in this world can end in the blink of an eye and then there will be no more opportunity to turn to Jesus and live. 

It’s because of this hesitation in the churches of the US, Canada, and Europe that, 

Today, there are nearly as many Lutherans in Ethiopia as there are in the U.S. There are now more Baptists in Nagaland (an eastern state in India) than there are in [all of] the southern states of the U.S. There [are] more Christians worshipping in China [on this] Sunday than there [are doing so] here in the U.S. or in all of Europe! 

Christians in America have largely lost their sense of urgency about being and making disciples--about turning to Jesus and inviting others, despite the possibility of rejection, to turn to Jesus too. 

We have forgotten the moment to moment crisis that is the permanent state of being in this fallen world.

But Jesus’ call is still urgent, folks. He says: “The time has come...The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” 

There isn’t a better moment to follow Jesus than right now, in this moment in which God allows you to live on this earth. 

There isn’t a better moment to share Jesus with others than right now on this earth. 

Because Jesus saves us by grace through faith in Christ alone, may this always be our prayer: 

Jesus, what do you want me to do or say, who do you want me to listen to, pray for, or serve right now?

And then may we do what He calls us to. 

We don’t have to wait for a perfect time to live in the freedom Jesus gives to His disciples.

In the crisis moments--the decision points--of each day, may we always turn to Jesus. Amen

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]