Twelfth Sunday after Trinity - August 30, 2009

The Church Season of Trinity
The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, One Year Series
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (August 30, 2009)

“Be Opened”

Readings:
Psalm 146
Isaiah 29:17-24
1 Cor. 3:4-11
Mark 7:31-37

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen

The text for today’s message is as recorded in the Gospel Lesson from the 7th chapter of St. Mark

Mark 7:31-37 (NIV)

31 Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. 32 There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man. 33 After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. 34 (Jesus)He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means, “Be opened!”). 35 At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly. 36 Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. 37 People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

Jesus has just traveled from the region of Tyre and Sidon, a place where He cast out a demon that held a young girl in its grip. Now, our Lord is by the Sea of Galilee, and again He comes face to face with a person in the bondage of Satan. The people bring to Jesus a man whose ears are imprisoned with deafness and whose tongue is bound by an impediment of speech. For when a person cannot hear, neither can he speak clearly or rightly. Such is the goal of the devil: to disrupt and tear down the lives and the capacities of those who were created in the image of God, to cause people trouble in both soul and body. The evil one does this in an attempt to turn our hearts away from the Lord.

We do see the working of the devil in our physical troubles. For was it not through Satan's temptations that sin entered the world, bringing with it sickness, pain, and death itself? Indeed, that is why St. Paul refers to his "thorn in the flesh," his bodily ailment, as "a messenger of Satan to buffet me."

It is so true that we often turn to God most eagerly and pray to Him most passionately in difficult times–like when we're facing financial difficulties, right before a surgery, in the midst of illness, ongoing bodily pain or when we loose someone we love. But you know through those bad things the devil, the destroyer, is turned in against himself. For though we may be weak by ourselves, and our own efforts, yet we are made to be strong in the Lord. For our trust is then directed ever more fervently to God's strength and His mercy. When Satan buffets us, the Holy Spirit draws us to pray in faith the words of the Psalm, "Make haste, O God, to deliver me! Make haste to help me, O Lord!"

However, we cannot pray in this way unless the Lord first opens our ears and unlooses our tongue. For like the man in the Gospel we are by nature deaf and mute towards God. Being bound by Satan even from birth, our ears are closed off and calloused towards God. We don't naturally grasp His words or perceive what He says. We don't "speak His language." Just like the 12 disciples, we don’t how to pray, but Jesus taught them. For Jesus said to His disciples, “When you pray...”(Mt. 6:9) And Jesus teaches us too, and He does so by speaking to us through the curing of a deaf-mute man.

For us the impediment in our hearing causes an impediment in our talking and our praying. It's sort of like listening to music on headphones with the volume up. If someone tries to talk to you, the noise keeps you from hearing them. Your hearing something but at the same time not able to hear what the person is saying. And if you try to speak back to them, your speech is liable to be slurred and funny sounding because you can't really hear yourself. That's also how it is in our relationship with God. The noise of the world and of our own fallen nature keeps us from hearing Him speak, from listening to and grasping His words. And our speech back to Him, if there is any, is slurred and garbled and turned inward by sin. Indeed, in a very real way, we are just like the deaf-mute in today's Gospel.

When Jesus touched someone, they were touched by the hands of God. God is a hands-on God, who stepped down from His glory in heaven, to step into our human flesh, to dwell among us and touch us through His own true humanity–fingers in the ears, spitting and grabbing tongues. He is the God who deals with us as the human creatures that we are. None of this out of body "spiritual" nonsense we hear about today. God deals with us in the grubby, ordinary, earthy, everyday way of our human existence. When Jesus stuck his fingers into that man's ears, they were the fingers of God. When Jesus touched the man's tongue, it was God touching his tongue.

Even now our Lord comes into contact with us not only according to His divine nature but also according to His bodily human nature. He touches us tangibly in the sacraments. We meet Him face to face in the Holy Supper of His true body and blood. He takes us aside and lays His hands on us in baptism and in private absolution and speaks to us His words of forgiveness and release. Indeed, our Lord still attends to us, His people, and He does so personally and hands on.

Our Lord's words also shatter the chains which bind and enslave you. He says to you, too, "Ephphatha! Be released!" And by water and the Spirit you are set free from the powers of darkness. "Depart, O unclean spirit, and make room for the Holy Spirit." So it is that at the baptismal font the Lord liberates you from the control of the oppressor–and that is a miracle no less marvelous than the one here by the Sea of Galilee. Christ releases and frees you from Satan's grip and brings you into the loving and uplifting hands of God, as the Psalm says, "The Lord gives freedom to the prisoners."

That freedom, however, does not come without a price. For as Jesus is about to speak, He sighs, He groans. Our Lord groans because He takes on Himself all the things that has caused us to groan–the pain, the loneliness, the troubles, the sorrows, or weaknesses, our mis-directions, and misgivings–whatever binds and imprisons us.

Yet for us to be released from the prison of our self-centeredness and sin. In trade Jesus Christ makes Himself a captive. For you see, in order to release us from the captivity of satan, the Lord paid a tremendous ransom to set us free. He let Himself be placed into the hands of the powers of darkness, who finally killed Him. There on the cross He made direct contact with our sin–like fingers in the ears–and He groaned and breathed His last in our place. However, in that death He was not defeated but victorious. For in so doing Christ took away the sin that gives Satan his power. He overcame all that makes us sigh and groan in this fallen world and put it to death. And by rising bodily from the grave, He restored the bodies of all the faithful to a life which is whole and immortal and imperishable–no more deafness and blindness and disease and death. The humble also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

God has freely given us our faith by His grace. God has freely given us himself in the life and death of His Son on the cross. This freeing Gospel of Christ cannot be restrained, nor can it be bound. It proceeds ever onward in the ears and on the lips of His church, given freely for you, His people. Jesus says to you “Ephphatha!” (which means, “Be opened!”), and in His heavenly home you will most certainly hear the voice of your savior, and together with all the saints who have gone before us, we will open our lips and declare His praise for all eternity. Amen.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

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+ In Memoriam - Diane Eichinger +

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In memory of Diane Eichinger, who was received by our Lord on August 23rd, 2009,
beloved wife, mother, teacher, and
formerly our organist and choir director here at Our Savior Lutheran Church.

We thank God for the many years Diane gave in service to our Lord Jesus Christ.

We thank God for giving us Jesus Christ in whom we are given the promise of eternal rest.

Blessed are they who die in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.

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A Service of praise and thanksgiving to God will be held at
Zion Lutheran Church, 510 W. Ivy St., Bay City, at 11:00 a.m. Thursday, August 27.

Visitation will be held at Penzien-Steele Funeral Home on
Tuesday, August 25, from 6-9 p.m. and
Wednesday, August 26, from 2-4 & 6-9 p.m.

Eleventh Sunday after Trinity - August 23, 2009

The Church Season of Trinity
The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity, One Year Series
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (August 23, 2009)

“Confident of Righteousness”

Readings:
Psalm 50:7-23
Genesis 4:1-15
Ephesians 2:-10
Luke 18:9-14

Sermon Form Deductive

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

The text for today is as recorded in the Gospel Lesson from the 18th chapter of St. Luke, especially the following verse:

Luke 18:9-14 (NIV)

9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ 14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

Jesus told the parable in our Gospel lesson to some who were in the crowd around Him. But quite frankly He knew that He was telling this parable to us all. The Pharisee in this parable would be by definition a fictional person, but his attributes are shared by all mankind. The Pharisee was confident of his own righteousness because he thought that he was made perfect in simple words like…I thank, I am not like, I fast, I give, I get, I, I, I. Then there was the tax collector who did not speak with I’s nor could he even bring himself to lift his eyes toward God. So we have a Pharisee pointing to himself for righteousness and a tax collector who couldn’t stop bludgeoning himself with the shame of his own guilt. One person declaring himself to be righteous and high and the other holding himself as unrighteous and lowly. We also know that it is God, who will always be the righteous judge. It is God who makes the determination of who is righteous and who is not righteous. And it is only by the Word and actions of God that anyone hearing this parable can be eternally..

“Confident of Righteousness”

In this parable the proud Pharisee sought to define righteousness by human standards, well better stated in the standards he set for himself. He prayed to God speaking words that reflected only the things that were of his own making. He thanked God for something that he had accomplished without any help from God. He was glad that he was not like all those other people, those bad people, he thanked God that he was not a robber, not a bad man, not an adulterer. He fasted twice in the week, although God never said how often Jews should fast. He set apart for the Lord a tenth of everything he acquired, all that he did was on his own. And in stating his righteous in this manner he failed to mention that for all, “Our help is in the name of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”(Ps. 124:8) Oh but he did thank God that he was “not like other men.”(v.11)

And what of the tax collector in the parable? Jesus said, "This man went home justified rather than the other one."(v. 14) He did not justify himself, he was justified from an outside source. The story of salvation in the whole Bible is summarized in one sentence: "Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness." Gen. 15:6. Righteousness comes to sinful people, not by their own works or worthiness but by the grace of God through faith. Paul explains this in Rom. 4. The last vss. reads, "It was not written for him (Abraham) alone that it was counted to him, but also on account of us, to whom it is counted, to us who believe in the one who raised our Lord Jesus from the dead who was delivered for our sins and raised for our justification."

So, we could hear this parable in several levels. Don’t be like the Pharisee who thanked God that he (the Pharisee) was high and mighty, but that means he held himself above God. We could hear how lowly the tax collector was and model him as the person whom we should model our lives after. We could see this whole parable as a good guy bad guy story, and cast our angst against people who hold themselves to be high and mighty and then smiling only at those who would join us in our own stellar striving toward our own perfect Christian nature.

Or maybe we could reflect upon the suffering and death of Jesus Christ who gave us forgiveness for all our sins and reckoned unto us His righteousness to our account. That's what the tax-collector believed. He could not even bear to raise his eyes toward God because he knew of all his sin, also knew that righteousness does not come from within. This is not man’s standard, rather it is God's standard. All the prophets in the Old Testament told the people to repent of their sins. And John the Baptist also said: "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is here." When John the Baptist baptized the people, they confessed their sins. And so the tax-collector said: "God be merciful to me, a sinner."(v. 13)

Martin Luther wrote, “If you truly wish to know an individual, then you must not look at outward pious show, which any scoundrel may simulate, but you must rather assess what is righteous before God. As far as his outward life, the Pharisee is pious; in fact, one would wish the whole world were like him. But such outward piety even a scoundrel can duplicate. Therefore, don’t judge by outward appearances. You will find that hidden under such an apparent holy life is a devil’s haughtiness” (House Postil).

Under our appearances we all live according to the principle of sin. We all live under the law, and we can not keep the law of God. When we raise our own opinion to exceed the Word of God, to place our thoughts and opinions as the standards above scripture, we raise ourselves, and our opinions above God Himself. It is not the task for self appointed humble people to being down the self-indulgent, self-righteous people. God in Christ Jesus will humble those who exalt themselves.

So, be comforted that you are given Jesus Christ who humbled Himself to be born of the virgin Mary, and He was made man, and He was crucified and He died for our sins. In your baptism, in the water combined with God Word, you were brought forth as a humble sinful person, and there Christ exalted you. For He washed away all your sins. Each week as we begin the worship service we humbly seek God’s forgiveness, and He grants that to us, and in so doing He exalts us, because He said, “he who humbles himself will be exalted.” And when we confess our sins we no longer look inside ourselves to measure how the world should be. Rather we look to God and His incarnate Word Jesus Christ whose life, death, and resurrection makes the world as it always should be. Christ is the one who is exalted to the “right hand of the Father”(Acts 2:33), and that is the “highest place.”

So which of the two men in the parable are we most like? We are both. We are sinners who thank God we are not like others, we are saints who thank God that He has set us apart. Either way it is not by our own reason or strength that we can be confident of our righteousness. That can only come by the power of the One who authored the parable. For the author of the parable is Jesus Christ who has written the story of our salvation. And your story is no parable, for in fact it is the true story of how Jesus will humbly exalt you in His kingdom for all eternity. Amen.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Tenth Sunday after Trinity - August 16, 2009

The Church Season of Trinity
The Tenth Sunday after Trinity, One Year Series
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (August 16, 2009)

“ON HIS WORDS”

Readings:
Psalm 92
Jeremiah 8:4-12
Romans 9:30 – 10:4
Luke 19:41-48

Sermon Form Deductive

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father

and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

The text for today is as recorded in the New Testament Lesson from 19th chapter of St. Luke, especially the following verse:

Luke 19:41-48 (NIV)

41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42 and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.” 45 Then he entered the temple area and began driving out those who were selling. 46 “It is written,” he said to them, “ ‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” 47 Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. 48 Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

Jesus came into Jerusalem, He “saw the city, He wept over it.”(v. 41) Then Jesus prophesied exactly how that city of Jerusalem would fall nearly 40 years later. It has been noted that it was the custom of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod for over 70 years, that on this very Sunday, the account of the fall of Jerusalem would be read in all its wicked and gruesome detail. In fact, the whole account of the destruction of the city of Jerusalem the destruction of the temple, and the murder of 900,000 Jews, was printed right out in the hymnal. Yet for us who sit here today we think to ourselves, “Well, I’ve never heard that story of how Jerusalem was conquered in my entire life and it’s certainly hasn’t been in any hymnal I’ve ever seen.” And if you’re thinking those thoughts, you would be right. For in fact this tradition was literally lost in the translation. When our Lutheran hymnals were translated from German into English the account no longer appeared. And the important thought here is not an appeal to tradition, but that we have lost an insight as to why Jesus went into the Jerusalem Temple and overturned the tables and drove out the sellers. The point is that some of the people heard Jesus words prophesying of their coming destruction and death, and others refused to listen to...

“HIS WORDS”

Today’s Scripture tells us that the people who “hung on His words”(v. 48) were the ones who would live, and the ones who did not listen were the ones who were to be hung by His words. There is an old proverb which says this, “You can not help the person who refused to accept advice.” If a person is wicked, and you say to him, “My dear friend, if you’ll just listen, all your sins will be forgiven,” but [if he is wicked] he not only refuses to listen, but blasphemes and knocks out the teeth of the one who is admonishing him to change his ways, what help is there for such a person?” And so it was for the two groups of people gathering around before Jesus in God’s Temple in Jerusalem. There the self proclaimed, “chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill Him.”(v. 47) At then there was also, all the other people who hung on Jesus’ words of salvation.

A few years later those leaders would be among those 900,000 people who were brutally murdered in Jerusalem. They were clinging to their old laws, they were clinging to their old tradition. They did not want to hear the words from this upstart of a man Jesus who was new in town. Quite frankly Jesus must have sounded very silly to them. Just think of it from the perspective of these people of stature, of long held office, who knew all the tradition in excrutiating detail. They thought they knew everything that there was to know. They were probably laughing in the backrooms of the Temple, throwing quips and barbs and asking who is this guy? He comes into Jerusalem and tries to change everything, when we like it just the way it is. And the irony is that they very well could have spoken the sum of their deisres in Latin words which we still understand to this very day, for what theses leaders wanted was the status quo. And what does status quo mean? Well a few years ago, someone said, "Status quo, you know, that is Latin for the mess we're in."(Ronald Reagan) The so called leader’s had not only failed, but they refused, to hear the Word of God in Jesus’ prophesy.

And so failing to hear God’s Word and going about with their old laws and traditions, Jerusalem did indeed fall, just as Jesus said it would. Jesus warned that Jerusalem would be, “hemmed in on every side.”(v. 43) About forty years later, Romans soldiers “hemmed in” the 1,000,000 people in Jerusalem and with great effort and at great expense the Romans conquered wall after wall. Then they went after the Temple and it was burned to the ground on August 10, 70 A.D. Thus the most beautiful city of the east was destroyed just as our Lord had repeatedly foretold it. He Himself wept over the city because of its unbelief and rejection of God, His Son, and the Covenant. Sin caused Christ to be “hidden from their eyes.”(v. 42) Sin causes Christ to be hidden from our own eyes.

Repent, for our sin is indeed the cause of any mess in which we find ourselves. We build walls around ourselves made with the bricks of status quo. We know more of our own laws and tradition than we know of God’s Word. We spend more time taking down our fellow man and talking up ourselves, than we do taking down our Bibles and talking up the Word of God. And as Jeremiah asked, “12 Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when they are punished, says the Lord.”(Jer. 8:12) Ultimately that is the fate that would awaits us for that kind of thinking. And the punishment is no less brutal than it was for those 900,000 who died in in the fall of Jerusalem. For St. Paul tells us we have, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”(Rom. 3:23) We have heard in the Psalms that, “10 The length of our days is seventy years— or eighty, if we have the strength; yet [our] span is but trouble and sorrow, for [we]quickly pass, and we fly away.”(Ps 90:10) One day, just like all those who fell in Jerusalem, we too will die.

But thanks be to God that we have a Savior who is Jesus Christ. Jesus is our Prophet, Priest and King, who came to destroy death and the status quo of the Law. In fact scripture reminds us that, “Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”(Rom. 10:4) and that, “the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.”(Gal 3:24) Prophesy tells us that Jesus Christ was given to us by God. In taking Himself down from heaven He came to speak to us the very Word of God. Into Jerusalem Jesus came and He wept for a people turned inward on themselves, and on their own rules, thoughts, and deeds. But Jesus came into to Jerusalem just the same, proclaiming salvation not by the action or opinions of men, but rather from the love of a most gracious God who sent Him here for us. Jesus was grieved for His people so much that He allowed Himself to be taken up a cross, to taken down into Hell, so that He would conquer death to rise again. And Jesus did all this so that in hearing of Him you may freely receive the grace which He won for you and that you and I may be taken up into heaven with Him. In Christ we are no longer hemmed in by the Law which reveals the mess of our own sin. In Christ, the status quo, has been conquered for all time. Rejoice for in your Baptism the victory over all that was, is now freely given to you. In Baptism, in the water combined with God’s Word, the sin of your old Adam has been put to death. Christ Himself has encircled you and given Himself to you from all sides. In Holy Communion you are given Christ’s true body and blood, and there you are given a foretaste of the heavenly Jerusalem.

In that heavenly Jerusalem there is no more weeping, for there, “He will wipe every tear from [your]eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”(Rev. 21:4) In Christ, the old order of the things, all the rules, and deeds of all sinful people in every generation will pass away. In the deeds of Christ and by hearing of His words, He gives us all the promise of the perfection of a heavenly Jerusalem. And so Jesus Christ proclaims the last word, and it is an eternal, Amen.

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Funeral Sermon for Fred John Berlin - August 14, 2009

The Church Season of Trinity
Trinity 10
Funeral Service for Fred John Berlin
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI October 10, 2009

Readings:
Psalm 23
Luke 2:25-32

“A Place for You”

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

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Friends and family of Fred, especially Marie, Larry and Angie, and all the grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and a great-great-grandchild, Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. Let us remember with thanksgiving what God has done through His servant Fred John Berlin who was given life by his creator and was born on May 5th, 1922, the child of Fred and Emma Schaefer Berlin. He received the gift of Holy Baptism and became a child of God, and later publicly confessed his faith and was confirmed at St. John Lutheran Church of Midland. He often received the precious gift of the Lord’s life giving body and blood. On October 11, 1947, he received the gift of a companion Marie, his beloved wife, and they were married for over 61 years. Fred and Marie were blessed with the gift children, Fred and Steven who are in heaven with their father, Larry who married Angie, and there are 8 grandchildren, and 9 great-grandchildren and 1 great-great-grandchild. On August 10th, God blessed Fred with a holy death and took him home to rest in the arms of Jesus to await the resurrection of the Lord.

Blessed are they who die in the Lord, from this time forth and for evermore.

The text for today’s message is from the Gospel lesson of St. John the fourteenth chapter where it is recorded that Jesus was comforting His disciples, the people whom He had chosen and who had been with Him daily for 3 ½ years. The disciples were concerned and very troubled because Jesus had told them that He was leaving them. They did not want Jesus to leave, they wanted Him to stay, but it was not to be. Jesus told His disciples, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.”(v. 1)

We, like the disciples, become troubled and challenged by the effects of the world in which we live. We are affected not only by our own struggles, but the struggles of those around us too. When we are engaged in such a struggle our trust in the Lord is challenged to the point of despair. And so it was for the disciples. They had come to love the Lord and He loved them very much too. The disciples did not want their time together with the Jesus to come to an end. But, it would seem, that is exactly what was about to happen. They mourned the thought of the loss of their Lord, their teacher, their companion, and their friend. They did not want Jesus to leave, they wanted Him to stay right there in that place with them.

On this day, we can certainly all understand and relate to the disciples concern and anguish. For today we mourn the thought of the passing of our dearly beloved friend Fred Berlin. And I know we would all rather have him right here with us or even better still out and about working on the farm. In times like this when we struggle for words of encouragement, we often say, ‘Well, you know, he is in a better place.’ And that is most certainly true. Yet that thought does not always fill the voids left by a loved ones absence. And Fred’s absence from the farm is certainly well noticed. For Fred spent his whole life on that farm. He grew up on the land, and he worked the soil. He helped prepare it for planting with his own hands. Fred helped to raise the livestock and to bring the crops to harvest, and all the while for many years he worked at Dow Chemical too. Fred knew what it meant to work hard. He loved that place, he was very proud of the farm. Although he did leave the farm to honorably serve his country in the military. And while it may be hard to believe, somehow the Army found Fred a colder place than Michigan, as he served out his tour of duty in Alaska. But when his time of service to his country was done, Fred came home to the place he loved. And not only that, he came home to marry the person that he would love for over 61 years. And that farm would be the place where he would bring his bride Marie to make their home. Through the years there would be camping trips to Florida and Northern Michigan, snowmobiling, and motorcycles, and many other adventures. Yet home for Fred was the place where his family lived and where he could be with the people he loved. It was not in Fred’s mindset to leave that place and to go move somewhere else. All of that makes it so much harder to comprehend that place without Fred.

And so we can directly relate to the Gospel lesson and the sadness which Christ’s disciples felt. It was hard for them to comprehend a world or a place where Christ would be anywhere else but with them. But Jesus knew of a better place. A place which had to be prepared, not only for His disciples, but for all who would believe in Him too. Jesus knew that that place was, “In His Father’s house.”(v.2) Yet there was much to be done so that all may join Jesus in His Father’s house. In His infinite wisdom and love God knew this preparation was needed, so, “He gave, His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”(John 3:16) Jesus came to us in this world to prepare the way for our eternal salvation. That preparation was indeed hard and so Jesus told His disciples that He would die, so that they may live. It had to be that way, for Jesus knew that all the sin, death and evil in this world had to be put to death, so that all may be given the promise of eternal life.

The disciples didn’t understand all that. Quite frankly, neither do we comprehend the thought of Jesus dying so that we may live. But Jesus did understand dying to live, and He knew of the necessary trials He would face to prepare the world so that we may enter into the Father’s house. Jesus knew that He would face a trial, a conviction, a brutal scourging, humiliation, insults, and ultimately a horrid death upon a cross. Jesus Christ knew what the hard work of salvation was and He knew that He had to do it all with His own nail stained hands. Yet in His death and resurrection, Jesus did conquer all our sin, our death, and all that is evil in this world. Jesus did all that for us.

Yet in this world, it would seem that all Christ did for us has receded into a distant and fading story of a man who lived in a different time and place. A place which for many has little or no connection to our here and now. But Christ is connected to our here and now. And it is times like this we feel and understand that connection. We feel the need for God’s grace to get us through our days of sorrow and grief for loved ones who are no longer with us. And we must also face that one day we too will pass from this earth to a better place.

Fred is now in that better place. He is there in God’s house even though the last two years or even the last two weeks for Fred seemed to pass by agonizingly slow. In these times, and in all times, know that Jesus has gone before you to prepare for you a room in His Father’s house. Jesus bears your burdens and your grief. He lifts you up and carries you and all your sorrows. There is healing, in His Holy Body and most precious blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.

Fred loved and trusted in God His Father in heaven and so He is now there rejoicing with his sons Fred and Steven, and all who have gone before us in the faith. Jesus prepared that place in His Father’s house where He gives rest to us all who are, “weary and burdened,” and there “you will find rest for your souls.” (Mt. 11:28-29)

Fred was a man who was very blessed. He lived his entire life in one place. He lived out his life with Marie, the woman whom he loved. He was proud of his children and their children and even their children. And though he did leave this world and this place, now he is indeed in a far far better place. For Fred will now spend his entire eternity in one heavenly place, in a room in God’s house prepared just for him by Jesus Christ.

Blessed are they who die in the Lord Jesus Christ from this time forth and forevermore. Amen.

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Ninth Sunday after Trinity - August 9, 2009

The Church Season of Pentecost
The Ninth Sunday after Trinity, One Year Series
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (August 9, 2009)

“ALL OUR DEBTORS”

Readings:
Psalm 51:1-12
2 Samuel 22:26-34
1 Corinthians 10:6-13
Luke 16:1-13

Sermon Form Deductive

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

The text for today is as recorded in the New Testament Lesson from 16th chapter of St. Luke, especially the following verse:

Luke 16:1-13 (NIV)

1 Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2 So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’ 3 “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— 4 I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’ 5 “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 “‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied. “The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’ 7 “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’ “‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied. “He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’ 8 “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. 10 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? 13 “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

A certain rich man had a steward, a manager, who oversaw and took care of his goods. This rich man found out that his steward was squandering his possessions and mismanaging his affairs. So he told the steward that he could no longer work for him. There was to be an audit. The books were to be opened and examined.

The steward then thought to himself, "What am I going to do? I can't do manual labor. It would be too embarrassing to beg." (v. 3) Then he decided what to do so that people would receive him into their homes and provide for his needs. He went to all of his master's debtors and reduced the amount that they owed. One person’s debt he cut by 20% another by 50%. In this way he ingratiated himself to these people and curried their favor so that they might return the favor to him when he was out of a job.

Now this steward had cheated his master twice–once by his wasteful mismanagement, and again by forgiving portions of the loans that were owed the master. But the Gospel says, "The master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly." And Jesus goes on to say, "The sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light."(v. 8) We could say, ‘What are we to learn from all of this?’ But better still, we are what we learn from this.

Well certainly Jesus is not promoting corruption. Rather what our attention is drawn to here is the shrewdness of the steward. The point of comparison is how, at least in a worldly sense, he acted very wisely. He used his master's riches as a way of seeing to it that he would be provided for. Jesus' point is that the people of this world do a better job of using the resources at their disposal for selfish and temporary purposes than we do at using the resources at our disposal for loving and eternal purposes. We are to follow the example of the steward's shrewdness and use the possessions our Lord and Master has given us to do good to our neighbor and for the good of Christ's church. Our hearts are to be set not simply on an earthly home but an everlasting home which He is preparing for us.

You see, there will come a time when every single one of our possessions, even our favorite stuff, will become utterly meaningless. Our possessions cannot provide for our eternal future. They will fail us when death comes into view and probably before. God is concerned about how we use our bodily life and the material belongings He has entrusted to us in the meantime. Jesus said, "If you have not been faithful in the worldly wealth, who will commit to your trust the true riches?"(v. 11) His conclusion is that we "cannot serve both God and money."(v. 13)

The children of the world, like this unjust steward, do indeed set a good example for the Christian in terms of their diligence and zeal and shrewdness. We who are the baptized children of God also ought to try applying ourselves to eternal things.

Jesus said, "Make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home."(v. 9) Like the unjust steward, we are to be shrewd in our use of material things; however, not in the way of the world but in the way of Christ, not selfishly but in love. Proverbs 19:17 says, "He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord."

That's the sort of investing we do as Christians–using our efforts and our goods to help build up your neighbor, especially those in need, and to promote the mission of the church. God has made us all stewards. Everything belongs to the Lord; He's the master and the owner. We are simply managers of the possessions He's given us. And in a very real sense He wants us to be like the unjust steward, squandering His possessions, using them "recklessly" for the good of our fellow man and to support and help the church's proclamation of the saving Gospel of Christ.

It is the way of faith to use material things, for in so doing you are trusting that your Maker can and will provide for you. And you are showing that your desire is to have what is eternal. We are not saved by such works. But such works give evidence that our hope is fully in the salvation won for us by Christ.

So also, we trust that our God is a God of mercy who will forgive our debts through Christ, that we may be received into an everlasting home. We stake our salvation and our future on the generosity and forgiveness of our God. It is that faith God desires and praises. We believe that God the Father will be merciful to us because of the debt He paid on our behalf through His Son Jesus Christ.

In the end Jesus Himself is the Unjust Steward, who is unjustly good to us. Accusations were brought against Jesus, too, that He was too free with His mercy, consorting with tax collectors and sinners, squandering God's grace on such miserable wretches. But Jesus didn't concern Himself with that. For it was His mission to bear every accusation, to take all that we are justly accused of and make full payment for our debts. Jesus made eternal friends of us, not by hoarding things for Himself, but by living as one with no home of his own, no place to lay his head. The material things of this world He used entirely in the service of others, having nothing but literally the clothes on His back. He became poor so that we might know and receive the riches of His mercy. He even gave away His own body into death, that through His atoning and all-sufficient sacrifice we might be cleansed from all unrighteousness. Jesus relied on His Father's mercy. He trusted that the Father would honor His death in our place to cover what we owed.

What debts do we owe because of sin, what do our bills say? What impossible debt do you we think owe because of our sin? Jesus tells us to Sit down, take your bill, and write 0, paid in full. Jesus already paid the bill for us. In His triumphant march to the cross He gathers all the debt of our sin and heaps it upon Himself and carries it to the cross. On the cross Christ gave us the most gracious gift, freedom from our sin and the hope of eternal life in His name. He promised us that “He who believes and is baptized will be saved.” What comforting words from our Lord and good Shepherd. Thank God that Jesus came to this earth and dwelt among us, gathered all our sins and paid our debts. For in Christ there a new life, a new life free from all the debts of our past, and present. Free to live with Him in everlasting peace in His heavenly kingdom. Amen.

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Eighth Sunday after Trinity - August 2, 2009

The Church Season of Pentecost
The Eighth Sunday after Trinity, One Year Series
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (August 2, 2009)

“The Spirit of God”

Readings:
Psalm 26
Jeremiah 26:16-29
Romans 8:12-17
Matthew 7:15-23

Sermon Form Deductive

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

The text for today is as recorded in the Epistle Lesson from the 8th chapter of Romans, especially the following verse:

Romans 8:12-17 (NIV)

12 Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

In most times and places we do not talk about it, yet it is indeed an elephant in the backrooms and lofty spaces of our minds. Although here in our text, St. Paul, faces the issue head-on, he sums it up, and not so many words points out the obvious, “If you live, you will die.” Nobody wants to talk about death, nor for that matter sickness, nor disease. Just watch the faces of people who are forced into that type of discussion. Either their eyes begin to glaze over, or they’re waiting for their turn to offer how they can top your sickness or brush with death. But for some reason we like those same topics if they’re on T.V., in the movies, or in a book. In fact, I think we like to see a bad guy get his due. And we love to see a hero cross the impossible bridge to overcome unbeatable odds to defeat an overwhelmingly armed opponent. Then the villain is rightly sent off into oblivion. But as we all know, real life isn’t always so glamorous. In our world, our spirit seems to be broken by all the things which we face. And as we journey through life gaining wisdom and experience, our bodies seem to be increasing in weakness, aches, and pains. In fact that is what is meant by that old saying isn’t it, the mind is willing but the spirit is weak? But this in not the Spirit of which St. Paul speaks, for He speaks of,

“THE SPIRIT OF GOD”
(I – In the spirit of the world we die)

Yet with all the blessings God offers freely to us, we let our hearts and minds to be dimmed and dulled by the spirit of the world that we live in. St. Paul states, “we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; “ Well that sets up a pretty dismal scenario because we know that we all die. So it also follows that we must also admit that we all sin. The Holy Spirit through the hand of St. Paul has reminded us again and again that where sin reigns, there will be death. Yet it seems that that realization does not come to the forefront of our minds until we have either grown older or we have faced serious challenges in our lives.

So long ago, when we were young and in confirmation classes it was easy to remember that the S.O.S. of the Law of God, means that the Law shows our sins. But just like King David’s word in our Psalm today we cry out, “Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have led a blameless life; I have trusted in the Lord without wavering. 2 Test me, O Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind; 3 for your love is ever before me, and I walk continually in your truth.”(Ps. 26:1-3) We cry out for mercy based upon the fact that while we may not have lived by the whole Law of God, we certainly have lived by the spirit of the Law. We cry out, why me what have I done to deserve all this? And that would be the thought process of us all who are and have become modern day Pharisees, meaning we have become those who would find the loopholes to all that is given us in scripture. To live by the spirit of the Law. To drive 80 miles per hour because we’re just going with the flow of traffic. To break each of the commandments not by actuality, but by really just a series of technicalities. There is a difference isn’t there? Have I really murdered? Have I really stolen? Have I really committed adultery? Have I really coveted my neighbors wife, manservant, or maidservant, his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to my neighbor? Come on I’ve lived and breathed my whole life by the spirit of the Law, isn’t that good enough? Well I suppose one way to find the answer that question would be to just wait and see. If you and I have lived by the spirit of the world, and the spirit of the Law, and if that is good enough, then the proof of our own innocence will be that we will live forever. But, no matter how spirited we think we are, or how wonderfully we think we live, you and I both know the answer to that question. And all the aches and pains, the twinges and the challenges we face everyday remind us that living in the spirit of this world can only lead us to a bitter end.

(II – In the Spirit of God we live)

We are called to repent. And to repent means to turn around 180 degrees and that would mean not looking inward toward the spirit of what we have done, but rather acknowledge the reality of all that Christ has done for us. For where Jesus Christ is Lord, sin is overcome and the Law no longer controls and condemns us. There is a new “law,” a new and compelling order of things which sets men free from the old dark orders of sin, pain, turmoil, and death. Christ’s order is the order of life. And the life which Jesus gives us we hear by the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of life. This new order of the Spirit of life was given to us by the Father when He sent His Son Jesus Christ. The old order of the Law could not be overcome by our will, because our will and free choice from birth leads us to be in opposition to God. Martin Luther said, “Christians, are not led by free choice but by the Spirit of God, [according to Romans 8:14;] and to be led is not to lead, but to be carried along, as a saw or an ax is wielded by a carpenter.” (AELW 33:160) And that carpenter of whom Luther spoke, and of whom the Holy Spirit still speaks to you is Jesus Christ. For Jesus carries you along and through all of life’s trials, tribulations, operations, medications, accidents, and incidents, all the pain, suffering and sorrows that this world could ever dish out.

For God not only overcame all the misdeeds of our lives He overcame the resulting death of all our sins too. God, in sending His Son Jesus Christ into the flesh, identified with us, and gave us a man who would feel our pain. And Jesus would not only feel the pain of life in this world, He felt all the pain, all the sin, all the suffering of every person in the world, and that even includes you who are here today. Jesus Christ came into this world and went to the cross knowing that He would die, knowing that He would not only endure all that pain for you. He knew that He would conquer the spirit of this world, for you.

In Christ’s death, He conquered your death. In His agony and loss of life, He suffered just as you do. Yet the spirit of death could not hold Him. All of mankind, including you and me, could not overcome, nor hide from our sin, so we are faced each day with its effects. God said, “Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?”(Jer. 23:23) The answer is no, we cannot run, and we cannot hide. But the Spirit seeks you out and you receive that Spirit in the hearing of God’s Word. You receive the Spirit in Holy Baptism, and God tells you, “you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.”(Rom 8:15) God knows that you live by His Spirit, He knows all that you are facing. He knows all that you are going through, for in Christ He has lived it. In Christ He has also died so that in your death you will not die, but you will live with Him and “share in His glory.”(Rom 8:17) The reality is that spirit of this world would leave us to die a forlorn and bitter death. But the reality of the Spirit of God leads us not to death, but to Jesus Christ who won for you an everlasting life.

Amen.

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