Pentecost 25 - 2Thessalonians 3:1-13

It seems that over the past week, every time you turned on the tv there was some news about the big game – It was all over the local news channels. They were reporting all of the things that were going on around town as people were anticipating the game, what was going on in Ann Arbor and of course there were reports from Coach Tressel about what his team was doing to get ready for what is for the Buckeyes the biggest game of the season. He talked about the Wolverines and the kind of things he was anticipating that they would come up against in the game as well as some of the things he was hoping that his players would accomplish both offensively and defensively. The over all message was that he felt if the Buckeyes would stick to their game plan and be successful in the things that they were trying to accomplish they would have the opportunity to come out of the game with a victory. As you are all aware, they did. They Buckeyes beat the Wolverines by a score of 14 to 3, for all practical purposes dominating every area of the game. The planning and preparation worked. The team carried out their game plan and they were successful in gaining the victory.

In our Epistle lesson for today, the Apostle Paul discusses his game plan for the Christians in Thessalonica. As we saw last week, one of the occasions that Paul mentioned in writing this letter was preparation for the end times. He talked to them about the events that would occur as they waiting for Jesus to come back. He mentioned the coming of the man of lawlessness. He talked to them about the great apostasy or rebellion. These things were mentioned in the interest of preparing the church for the things that they would face as they lived out their lives waiting for their eternal inheritance in God's heavenly kingdom. Paul had the enemies play book. In fact, God the Father had already set into motion and had planned for the outcome of the game. He knew what would happen and he was warning these Christians so that they would know and be prepared.

After laying out the plans of the enemy, Paul encouraged the Christians to be faithful. Satan would attempt to infiltrate the church so that he could lead the faithful away from God's revealed truth in his word. He would establish a rebellion. Paul encouraged the Christians to stand firm in their faith and hold to the game plan. In our text today he reminds them of what that game plan will be. He says: “Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you.”

Paul's command to the church, his “game plan” as they look ahead to their inheritance in heaven is that the church in Thessalonica be “diligent in prayer”. He commanded them to pray. And he informed them as to what they should pray for. They should pray for Paul and those who were with him. And this prayer for Paul was not merely a general prayer that he be protected or that he be okay or that God bless him. Paul's command for prayer was not so much even for him. His prayer was for the Word of God; that “the Word of the Lord would speed ahead and be honored.”

From time to time people will submit prayer requests of various kinds. We pray for specific things, such as illnesses, comfort for those who are mourning some loss, strength for those who are undergoing some kind of a trial. These things are all good things to pray for. It is good when we come before God in faith to let him know the things that we need.

Yet, often these things for which we pray are reflections of our human will. We pray for the things that we want, the things that concern us in our small corner of the world, the things that provide for us comfort. These things are certainly good things that God is concerned for, however they are limited in their reach. They are limited by our fragile human understanding of what is good and what is necessary. On the other hand, God's will is much greater and God's will is much better.

In the explanation to the 3^rd Petition of the Lord's Prayer, the Catechism reminds us that “God's Will is done when he breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the Devil the world and our sinful nature, which do not want us to hallow God's name or let his Kingdom come and when he strengthens and keeps us firm in His Word and faith until we die. This is His good and gracious will.”

There are basically two things that the Catechism identifies as the Will of God. 1. God breaks and hinders the evil purpose and plan of the devil. The Devil's plan is to devour and to destroy the church. The devil's plan is to infiltrate the church and water down her faith. (That is the work of the Antichrist who we heard about last week. He will lie to us hoping that you and I will believe that he is the true god and that we should set aside the true doctrines of the church and believe in him.) The world around us and even our own sinful nature works against God and doesn't want to obey him. Yet Jesus works in the world to destroy evil. He accomplished this when He died on the cross to save us from our sin. Jesus death destroyed the work of Satan. All of the sins that we could commit had been paid for with one decisive action. Satan's greatest act had been undone. Jesus continues to oppose the work of Satan. Every time an unbeliever hears the true Word of God preached and comes to faith, every time a baby is baptized according to the Word of God, every time you and I sing the Words of scripture in our hymns and songs of praise to God the work of the devil is broken. God does this through his Word. As our text reminded us last week, when Jesus comes again in glory, the work of Satan will be destroyed once and for all when he is judged by Christ and when he receives his final punishment in hell. This is the first aspect to the will of god. 2. The second is that He strengthens us in our faith and he keeps us strong and firm in our faith. Jesus does this again by means of His Word, he does it through the Bible. When Christians hear the Word of God preached to them, the Jesus is at work keeping us secure in the faith. He is strengthening us and he is encouraging us so that we do not fall away, so that we don't turn our backs on him and become someone who used to be a Christian. In the Lord's Prayer, God calls us to pray for these things.

The prayer that Paul commands the Thessalonians to pray – that they pray that the Word of God would speed ahead and be honored, there is no difference between that prayer and the prayer that Jesus commands us to pray in the Lord's Prayer. We pray for God's kingdom to come – it comes in his Word – we pray for God will to be done – God's will is that his word be preached and proclaimed – Paul's commands to the Thessalonians to pray is only an echo of the prayer that Jesus commanded his disciples to pray. Paul is commanding them to pray for him that he continue to preach the Word of God, that he continue to preach Jesus crucified and raised again for forgiveness for us sinners.

Last month it was published in the Newsletter that October was Pastor appreciation month. During that month, I was privileged to receive many very nice cards and gestures of your gratefulness and thankfulness to me and to my family for our service among you. I was very appreciative of those notes that were sent. It is always encouraging to know that your efforts have been appreciated.

But if I may be so bold, I would ask that you continue to pray for me even beyond the month of October. Just as Paul commanded the church to pray for him that he preach the Word of God and that it be honored, you also pray for me, your pastor who is called here to preach the Word of God to you. Pray that I preach faithfully. Pray for St Paul's, yet do not that it would grow in its reputation and respect among the community – while this is good, what is better is that God's Word would grow and be honored in the community.

The word of God proclaims Christ. It preaches Jesus who died on the cross for sinners. When the Word of God is honored, that means no more and no less that than Jesus has been preached as the Man who came from heaven, who was God himself in the flesh to die on the cross to save sinners from their sin. There is no better word to be spoken and there is no better sermon to preach. A sermon that delivers Jesus is a sermon that prepares Christian hearts for the struggle that they are sure to face as they spar with the devil and with the spirit of lawlessness, the Antichrist.

Paul, while he writes to command their prayers for the preaching of the Word of God, he also writes to commanded them regarding a secondary concern. It seems that as a result of the false belief that Jesus had already returned, there were some Christians who had taken that as an excuse to quit working. They were lazy. They thought to themselves, “if Jesus is here, than I won't need money, I won't need to continue on in my job. I can quit doing all of those things in my life that I didn't really want to do anyway and I can sit around and wait.”

Paul was highly critical of this attitude. To begin with, this attitude was lazy. God wants us to work. God has planned for us to work. Even when Adam and Eve were in the garden of Eden they had a job to do. They were caretakers of that garden. Certainly in the world as we know it, every single person has a job that they have to do. If you don't do your job, it is left undone. While you have the strength and the energy to work, it is pleasing to God that you use your god given strength to do your job.

Paul used himself as an example. When he was with the Thessalonians even though it was not necessary for him to do so, he found a job. He earned money to pay for his room and board. Paul was a pastor in the church. It was certainly within his right to accept from the churches that he served some kind of an income, but he refused it. Paul did not want anyone to be able to make the claim that he was a preacher who was only interested in making a dollar, that he only cared about money. Since Paul earned his own living this was an accusation that simply could not stick. Sticking to Paul's example, the church was to also be diligent in doing their work and not give in to an attitude of laziness.

Instead of laziness or “idleness” what Paul suggests to the Thessalonians is that they never weary of doing good. That they always be ready and active and willing to dive in and do whatever good work needs to be done.

Now I need to commend the members of our congregation. There is a spirit and an attitude of willingness to pitch in and to do the work that needs to be done. There are lots of examples of this.

Only last week we finished up our final home game for the 2007 football season at the concession stand down at Ohio State. That fund raiser is a tremendous commitment. It requires the efforts of a lot of people. And those people were there. Many of you willingly gave up your Saturday to go down to the stadium to help. You worked hard and put in a good days work for the benefit of the school and the church.

And of course there is the turkey supper. Only one week ago our congregation was busy with activity as every one of you pitched in and did your part., working along side each other to serve a turkey dinner to somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 people. That is astounding. That too is a tremendous commitment and it takes a lot of work, yet the workers were here: planning and preparing, setting up, cooking, serving, cleaning up, putting everything back in its place. The turkey supper is a success because of the hard work of the members of St Paul.

Yet despite our many successes, we are still sinners. We still struggle with that attitude of idleness or perhaps entitlement. At times we will tell ourselves that we have done enough and that we shouldn't have to work any more or any harder. Sometimes we do our work but then begrudgingly look around at those who have not done as much as we feel like they should have. At times we are critical of the work that others have done and we feel like they should know better and work harder. God doesn't call on us to be critical, to offer any kind of judgment or evaluation of our neighbor's work. God simply calls upon us to be willing servants, to do the work that is presented before us and to gladly do the Good works that we are able to do.

Along these lines and because of the tendency that we have to struggle with our own sinful flesh and sinful nature our board of Stewardship has offered to us the opportunity to make commitments this Sunday. We have all received in the mail cards to fill out, that we can take to church and keep here in our sealed envelopes for the year, we have the cards that we have filled out to keep with our weekly offering envelopes. All of these things have been prepared for us so that we don't falter in our willingness to do good, so that we don't make excuses for ourselves towards inactivity and idleness, so that we continue to tirelessly do good without growing weary of it.

The message here in our text is quite plain. As we plan for and anticipate the coming of our Lord on the last day, we need to be ready. He has made us ready as we have received from him the forgiveness of sins that he won for us when he died on the cross. That gift has been given to us through the faithful preaching of his word. It is our prayer the faithful preaching of God's Word continue to those who need to hear so that it might receive the honor and glory that it deserves as God's holy Word. In the mean time as God's word is being preached we are to continue on in our faithful service to him – being faithful in our administration of the duties that god has given to each of us as workers in his heavenly kingdom.

Amen.

Pentecost 24 - 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8, 13-17

With our readings today we are reminded of the fact that we are in the last times.

Our Old Testament and Gospel readings remind us that there is a Resurrection from the Dead. Those who die in the Lord are not in fact dead – they are alive, (although their souls have been separated from their bodies).

When The Lord said to Moses, “I AM the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” He was using a present tense verb. God did not say, I was the God, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He said I AM. I have been, I still AM, and I always will be the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who are not dead but are alive. They are in heaven. They are waiting for the Day when the Lord will return in power and glory to judge the living and the dead.

Jesus echoes the promise of the resurrection in the Gospel reading from Luke 20. The Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection, came to Jesus to try to trap him and trip him up in his teaching. Jesus scolded them for their disbelief and then proved the doctrine of the resurrection from using the text from our Old Testament lesson.

The resurrection is coming. There is a day in the not too distant future, a day that the scriptures say is “very near” when the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised from death and Christ will come to judge both the living and the dead. This day is coming.

This theme of the last days is present in our Epistle lesson as well. It is a text from 2 Thessalonians. God had given to Paul a revelation regarding the last days. God had revealed to Paul events that would occur as the day drew near. Paul shared this teaching with the Thessalonians.

After Paul had moved on from Thessalonica there were some Christians who were not clear regarding Paul's word and his teaching on what God had revealed about the coming day of Judgment. They mis-understood. They had drawn false conclusions. Their false conclusions lead to some rumors that were floating around – things that were reported to have come from Paul, that Christ had already come back. The day of Judgment came and went.

You could imagine the shock that ensued. If you were waiting for Christ to come and take you to heaven; if you were waiting for the trumpet to sound and to raise from the dead all of your deceased loved ones and so that you could spend eternity with them and with God in paradise, to hear that it had already come might be a bit of a blow. To hear that you had missed the day that you were counting on in faith would shock you.

We panic when we think that our flight on an airplane is going to take off without us, all the while knowing that there are a hundred others standing by to get us to where we need to be. If you miss your spot in heaven, you can't wait at the station for the “5 o'clock flight”. The Christians at Thessalonica were dismayed at the idea that reportedly came from Paul indicating that they had missed out on heaven, or else heaven had already come and this is all that there was.

Paul did not want them to be un-necessarily stressed out. This wrong headed idea that Jesus had already come was causing the people to be anxious and afraid. So that he might alleviate their stress, Paul wrote 2 Thessalonians to correct the error. He reminded them of what he had told them The coming of the Lord would be like. “Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, [2] not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed.”

In order to correct the error, Paul reminds them of the things that he taught them when he was still with them. He had given to them God's promise of the things that would occur as the end drew near. If they kept this direct Word from God in mind, they would not be so easily mislead when they heard all kinds of misleading information about these coming events.

This is a helpful thing for us to remember, especially when we see that there are plenty of people who assume that God gave to us this revelation through Paul so that we could have some sort of secret information that no one else knows. These interpreters will look for special codes in the words or secret messages that are hidden there.

God speaks plainly. He uses human words and language to speak, but he doesn't play games with us. God wants us to know what we should expect as the end of days will approach. And the reason that he wants us to know is illustrated precisely by what had occurred in the Thessalonian church. Due to false reports the people panicked and were afraid. God wants us to be calm and assured. He gave these revelations for our comfort. God is graciously reassuring us that yes, these things will happen, but when they do happen, when you see them happening, don't be afraid. Don't be alarmed. God has not abandoned you. He is faithful to you and he will save you.

In our text Paul refers to two parts of this end times revelation. He talks about the coming of the Man of Lawlessness and he talks about the great apostasy. These events are linked, they happen one as a result of the other. They are events that must happen before Christ returns.

The first of these events is the coming of the Man of Lawlessness. Elsewhere scripture refers to him as the Anti Christ. Those who try to interpret end times prophecies have come up with lots of ideas of who this Antichrist will be and what he will do. Some see him as a world wide political figure who will establish an earthly kingdom. Some will refer to the Antichrist as an institution or idea. There are many people who even believe that the Antichrist is already here and is already working.

As far as understanding who the Antichrist is or who he will be, we can see plainly what Paul has written to us. Paul writes, “Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, [4] who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.”

The Antichrist will seat himself in the temple of God. He will come from the church. He will have the appearance of being a Christian. He will say things that sound Christian. He will claim that Jesus is God and that the Father is God, but he will then claim for himself that same authority. He will say that he is god, that he has god's power and authority. He will say that there are no other gods besides him. He will condemn the gods of the Hindus, the Buddhists, the god of Islam and all the other world religions. He will say that the only true god is the god of the Christian church, which will sound so good to so many, but then he will claim that he is that god. In this lie will come the second event that Paul mentions, the great deception, or the apostasy.

The Antichrist will be so convincing that many will believe him. Many will fall into the trap of believing his lies. He will be so convincing and at the same time, so subtle in his lies that even faithful Christians will be tempted to believe him. Jesus says he would deceive even the elect, if that were possible.

Friends, when the Antichrist comes he will challenge the faith and belief of the church. Christians will be lead astray, church leaders will be lead astray. They will believe the lies, they will refuse to see the subtle twists of the truth and they will be deceived. Let us not be among them. Let us carefully read and interpret and understand and believe the Word of God. It is so important that we study in our homes and here in our church. That we hold on to it as the only true revelation of God for his people the church.

Jesus says that this deception will be cut short for the sake of the elect. That resisting the lies of this deceiver will be so difficult that Christ will return for the sake of preserving those who he loves. Likewise our text tells us that Jesus will come, he will meet the challenge, he will call the bluff of this Antichrist and he will destroy the Antichrist with the breath of his mouth.

There are a couple of things that are good to keep in mind here. First of all, it is helpful to understand what Paul means when he talks about “the breath of his mouth”. The word for breath in Greek is the same as the Word for spirit. The scriptures take advantage of this nuance to show that when Jesus opens up his mouth to breath he sends forth his Holy Spirit. The spirit of God is given and revealed through the mouth of Jesus. The Holy Spirit proceedes out of the mouth of Jesus by means of His Word. When Jesus speaks, he gives to us His Holy Spirit who comes to us and enters us as our ears hear those divine words and we believe. That breath is a divine breath, that Word is a divine Word. It comes with power that gives life to the believer but kills and annihilates those who oppose God. The Antichrist opposes God and is therefor destroyed. He is brought to nothing with a word.

It is also helpful to keep in mind that Jesus is closely guarding his church. We are His people. He made certain of that when he died on the cross to pay the price for our sin. Now that we are his he is not going to loose us to the lies of the devil and his servant: this Antichrist. As these lies mount and as they become more and more difficult to resist, Jesus will time his return perfectly so that no one is lost. We are too weak to resist but His love for us is too strong to let us go.

Paul's revelation is God's gift to us. It warns us ahead of time the things that will happen. God does not give us great detail so that we know the dates and the times and the names and the faces, but he gives to us enough information so that when it happens we will know. We will recognize the Antichrist for who he is and we will not be deceived or mislead. We will perceive the lie and stand firm in the truth. Thank you God for your faithfulness to us, in not leaving us to ourselves to solve this coming dilemma.

God also gives to us comfort. When this challenge to the faith and life of the church comes, when we see those being lead astray that we respect for the faith we thought they had, let us not be dismayed or frightened, when the challenges to us and our faith seem to be greater than what we can bear, let us not loose heart. Our God is faithful. He has told us ahead of time and he will see us through. He will not let us be taken from his hand. The god who sent his son to die for us and to cleanse us from our sin will keep us in the faith through his almighty power. He will bring us through to the day of salvation.

Amen.

Now may the peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and mind in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Pentecost 16 - 1 Timothy 1:12-17

God's Patience in Me

I stand before you this morning as nothing more than an example of God's patience and faithfulness. I am a sinner through to the core – sin lives in my body and wants nothing more than to tear me away from the life of faith that God has called me to live. But God has taken me in my sin and washed me clean from my sin. He has robed me in garments of righteousness and he has set me before you to be a pastor in his church. He has sanctified my heart, my mind and my mouth so that I can preach and proclaim God's Holy Word of forgiveness and so that you can know for certain that this forgiveness is for you. The fact that there is a pastor, that there is any pastor, who serves in your church is nothing but by the grace and the mercy and the love of God.

God's Patience in all of us – Our Unworthiness

This is the message today – this day that we place into service our called teachers as well as our contracted teachers. The day that these servants of God and of this congregation pledge themselves to serve your children faithfully and in accord with sound doctrine. This is the message as each one of us considers our service to God and His Holy church here in this place. There is work to be done. There are people to do it. We might be miserable examples of Christian love and faithfulness yet God himself has called us to follow him and each of us in our own way are called to do the work that he has set out before us as examples of God's grace, his faithfulness, his mercy, and his almighty power. Amen.

We are all unfit for God's Service

As we read in our text this morning, this was Paul's message to Timothy the young pastor and protege of the Apostle Paul. Paul was writing to Timothy to encourage him to be faithful in his service as a pastor to the church in Ephesus. The congregation at Ephesus was challenged by false teachers and therefore false doctrines. There were sure to be detractors to Timothy's ministry. There were sure to be those who would try to undermine his authority and undermine his message. These sorts of attacks are likely to cause one's confidence to waiver. “What am I doing here?” Timothy might have thought. “What right do I have to serve? I am not up the task. They should find someone else who is better suited to this job.”

We have all felt this way at some time or another. There are always times that our confidence waivers. There are always times that we feel intimidated by the task laid out before us. There are always times that we look at the abilities of those around us and feel inadequate to the job.

Sometimes this happens in the work place or perhaps at school – you feel less capable than your co-workers or classmates. Sometimes it happens at home: you feel unfit and unqualified as a parent, perhaps to teach and instruct your children in the Christian faith or you feel inept when it comes to getting your children to behave the way you know they should. Sometimes we feel unqualified as husbands and wives – husbands at times feel that they don't have what it takes to provide for their wives. Wives at times feel they can't meet the needs of their husbands.”

Sometimes we feel that way at church. We might say, “I can't serve in any positions at church, I can't be an elder, a chairman of some board. I am not qualified to serve in that position. What do I know? What do I have to contribute?”

And then, sometimes teachers feel that way in their class rooms. Sometimes pastors feel that way in their pulpits.

God's Call – Serve Me by Serving Each Other

Despite how we feel about what we are gifted to accomplish, each one of us has been called by God to his service. Timothy was called to be a pastor. This morning we are highlighting those who have been called to be elementary school teachers. Each one of us have received from God a job to do. A work of service to perform. We carry out that service to each other. Did you know that we serve God by serving each other? After all, If God is truly able to do anything should we think that he needs our help to preach and teach, to paint and vacuum and clean, to attend meetings, to lead meetings, to witness, to teach our children, to make plans and decisions or to meet our annual budget? God is capable of accomplishing these things by himself. God does not need our help. Our neighbors however do. Your children need parents to love them and care for them and teach them. God has given you to them to provide this for them. Union County Ohio needs to hear the true message of Jesus spoken to them so he has created ST Paul Lutheran Church as a place where the residents of Union County and Madison County can come to receive that gift from God. The parents of St Paul Church as well as residents from the surrounding community need a school where they can send their children to learn about the world that God has made so he has given St Paul Lutheran School so that children can come here to learn.

And so that St Paul church and school can exist it needs lights and walls and pews and hymnals and bible heaters and windows not to mention desks and chalkboards and text books and people to care for these things and pay for them and maintain them. It needs people to serve on its boards and committees. It needs teachers to fill its classrooms. It needs a pastor to preach from its pulpit. God has given these tasks to us so that we can serve him by serving each other.

God's Faithfulness demonstrated in Paul

And guess what – each one of us is totally unqualified to do the job. We are unfit to be servants in God's church. That was Paul's message to young Timothy as he was doing his best to scrape by as a pastor thrust into the challenge of pastoring the Christians in Ephesus. He was young. He was inexperienced. He was (of himself) unqualified and unfit for the task given to him. And worse than any of those things Timothy was a sinner. But God gave this task to him and God would support him as he fulfilled this task. Paul knew this to be true – after all he had personally experienced it.

To help Timothy understand God's faithfulness, Paul uses himself as an example. If Timothy considered himself to be unfit – just imagine how much less was Paul fit to serve as an apostle. After all, look at his track record. Paul was at one time a murderer of Christians. He was an sworn enemy to Jesus and to all who professed faith in the name of Jesus. He hunted them down. He arrested them. He threw them into prisons. He beat them. He refers to himself in our text as a “blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent opponent.” “But,” Paul says, “I received mercy. I was ignorant. I was hardened in my sin. I was an enemy of the Gospel of God. But God chose me. God made him his servant. God demonstrated his divine power in that he turned me around. He made me a public spectacle of His mercy when he broke my will and turned it so that I now follow him.”

Paul was fit to be an apostle because Jesus chose him. Jesus selected him when he was still a murderous enemy of His church and Jesus himself came to him and confronted him. Jesus himself knocked Paul to the ground. Jesus humbled him, reducing him to nothing. Jesus rebuilt him. Jesus used him to be the famous apostle who is responsible for evangelizing the Roman empire and writing the better part of the New Testament. This man who accomplished so much as a servant of God was unfit to the task. He was, at his own admission, the chief of sinners. Yet God in his great and unsearchable mercy made Paul into the vessel of honor that produced such a bountiful harvest for the kingdom of God.

That perfect patience that was at work in the apostle Paul is now at work here among us. Here at St Paul Lutheran Church, (the congregation that bears witness to the name of the apostle who was formerly a murderer and blasphemer and enemy of God), right here Jesus is again displaying that perfect patience. He is again displaying that mercy and love. He is again displaying his almighty power.

Jesus has taken you and he has taken me, when we were still in our sin. He called us out of that sin and into a life of faith. Even though you and I are chief of sinners, even though we are miserable failures at leading a life of perfect righteousness, he has redeemed us from those failures and from sin. He with his blood has bought us from the judgment that we deserved. He in his mercy has chosen to look past the many sins and failures that we are responsible for committing. Instead of seeing us as sinners he has counted us as righteous. The sin is gone, the slate is clean and we are ready and prepared to live life as servants of Jesus and as servants to each other.

And having been thus prepared we have been called to serve. We have been called to be fathers and mothers - teachers of the Word of God in our homes. We have been called to be pastor, teachers in a Lutheran Day school, teachers in the local public schools. We have been called to be farmers, factory workers, engineers, managers, accountants, medical assistants, nurses, students. We have been called to be elders, school board members, trustees, out reach or stewardship committee members, treasurers, congregational chairman or vice-chairman, and so on and so forth. Each unfit for the task given to us. But each one equipped and made ready for service to God and to our neighbor through the almighty power of God who loves us and who loves this world that he has created and who cares for this world using our hearts, hands, and voices.

This morning as our teachers pledge themselves to the work that they will do in our classrooms this year. We thank God for them and for their service. As they promise to do their work, we have the opportunity to make that same promise before God. As we are here in His house we can each quietly in our hearts pledge ourselves to serve our God joyfully and gratefully because of how he has s served us. We can devote ourselves to the jobs he has called us to do and understand that as we are serving each other we are ultimately serving the One who has called us to faith and who has sealed us in that faith through the blood of His Son Jesus. We serve in His name, even as he has served us. We will continue to serve God and our neighbor because of the immeasurable grace and patience and love and forgiveness of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Pentecost 15 - Luke 14

In our gospel text Jesus makes the radical statement that unless someone take up his cross and come after him he cannot be a disciple of Jesus. Prior to that statement he mentioned the need to hate your father or mother, your brothers or sisters, your wife and children, even your own life for the sake of Jesus. Immediately following this command to take up your cross he talks about counting the cost to make certain you have the means to fulfill what you set out to do. Clearly the cost of following Jesus, the cost of being his disciple is high. Following Jesus will cost you everything you have. Jesus' message to those who would come after him, to follow him was discipleship was costly. A true believer in Jesus, one who truly walked in the path of Jesus was one who would surrender everything in the name of Jesus, was one who would even lay down her life in the name of Jesus.

These days discipleship, being a follower of Jesus, has been downgraded to a philosophy, it is something that you might adopt or adapt to help you achieve your goals and to be successful. The cross for many today is only a symbol. For some it is an abstract sign for love. For others it means sacrifice. I once worked with a man who was into new age mysticism and he thought that the cross was an astrological symbol in the stars – a symbol of cosmic love and good will. Jesus and his listeners knew nothing of this. They would not have associated the cross with anything like cosmic good will or a symbol for love and acceptance. The only crosses they knew were the ones that were used to execute and murder their countrymen. They saw crosses every day. Every Jew who made his way into Jerusalem would walk by the place of execution. At times there was one or two. At times there were 20. They saw people on those crosses nailed to them, suffering on them, and dying from them. They saw enemies of the Roman state carrying their crosses to their place of execution. For Jesus' audience, for the people who would have been listening to him make this statement, to take up your cross meant that you were choosing the hill that you were going to die on. To them there was no pleasant association for a cross. For them, the cross meant only death.

And here in our Gospel reading Jesus says unless you take up your cross, Jesus says unless you die with me and beside me you will never be my disciple. There is no cheap salvation. There is only the costly and the precious, the expensive. We must renounce everything we have and everything we are. Discipleship. True discipleship would have nothing else.

As disciples of Jesus, we have a cross to bear. We carry the cross of Jesus. Last week we sang the hymn “Lift High the Cross, the Love of Christ Proclaim” we bear the cross to proclaim it. But more than that we bear the cross that requires of us our lives. We bear a cross that will ultimately give us our life more fully than you could ever have it on your own.

There are many crosses that people carry these days. Crosses, after all have become quite popular. You can buy them made out of chocolate to pass out to children. You can buy them on racks of costume jewelry to wear as a statement of fashion. They are printed on t shirts. Hung on thick chains around the necks of musicians. Tattooed on the biceps of pro athletes. This past week I saw a customized motorcycle that had mirrors styled to look like crosses. People have gotten into the habit of taking up crosses – but so often they are crosses that are of their own making.

The cross of Jesus was by no means stylish or hip or even edgy. The cross of Jesus was a cross of death, of punishment and penalty. It was a cross of execution. Jesus took up his cross because he intended to die on it. Jesus intended to die for the sins of the world. The cross of Jesus was a cross of execution and judgment handed down by the almighty God as the penalty for the sins of the entire human race. Our sins were piled high on the shoulders of Jesus and he carried the entire weight with him to that cross so that he could accept the punishment for every last person and so that we could be set free from our guilt and so that the outstanding debt between you and me and God could be paid. Jesus took up his cross in love and in mercy and in grace to spare us from the judgment that we otherwise were destined for. Jesus knew that he was destined for this cross. He willingly took it up and carried its weight every step of the way for you and for me.

And then he called us. Just as he called Peter and John and Andrew and all the others, he came to us and he called us to be his disciples. To sit at his feet and listen to his Word. To hear his voice and follow him where he leads us. We have been called to discipleship and faith. And this discipleship involves a cross. Just as Jesus was on his way to the cross to die for the sins of the world he calls us to follow him to that cross, to be relieved of our sins at His cross, but then to carry the cross that is laid upon each one of us as we follow him. He calls us accept this cross with all of its weight and with all of its indignity and with all of its pain and he simply follow him. The way of the cross is not an easy road to follow.

The way of the cross is a way of sacrifice. All of the things that would get in the way of following Jesus must be stripped away. We can love nothing more than Jesus. Not wealth or power, not pride or sex. Not even your mother, your father, your sister, your brother, your wife or husband your son or your daughter. Not even your self. You must surrender even your own life to carry your cross. The way of the cross is the way of death.

This morning young Jackson Burns was set on this way of death. This morning he was set on the way of the cross. In the book of Romans Paul tells us that we are baptized with Jesus into his death. We are baptized into the cross of Jesus. Through baptism we die to ourselves, to our sin, to our former way of life and we are baptized into the new life of holiness and righteousness. This is a path of suffering. This is a path that leads us to die every day.

We don't want to die. We are told that we should not have to die. We are told that whatever impulses and urges we have we should not feel that need to repress these things, we should be allowed to simply be who we are. The trouble however is that who we are is sinful. Our lives, our hearts, our choices and decisions are all filled with sin. We cannot simply be okay with sin. Sin must be laid at the foot of the cross so that it can die with Jesus.

The church at times seems to forget this. There are of course the times that the church begins to agree with the world around it and to excuse sin as natural expressions of God's created order. The church at times will pretend that as long as we show love and acceptance to all people than there are no sinful lifestyles or choices. This is contrary to the word of God. We know that. But there are also times that the church, while it may remember to condemn the sin, it forgets that this sin is to be laid at the feet of Jesus. The church often rails against these sins and condemns those who struggle with them. But the church forgets that it is called to reach out to sinners in love, in forgiveness and in support. So often sinners of different stripes are left to themselves to carry their struggles with sin and temptation and are left to carry by themselves the weight of this burden.

For example, take the young man who struggles with feelings of homosexuality – He may know that these feelings are wrong, he may know that it is sin, but he is bombarded and inundated with messages of acceptance from the world around him, he is pressured to accept himself for who he is and come out, declaring his lifestyle and demanding acceptance. This is a heavy weight to carry. This is a heavy burden to bear. Just as you and I must put to death our own sins so does this young man. Just as you and I need to confess and repent of our sins so does this young man. Just as you and I need to hear that Jesus has died for our sin so does this man. Just as you and I need the help and support of our brothers and sisters in Christ, so does this man.

Or what about the Christian brother or sister who has gone through a divorce. We know that divorce is sin, but why is it that often those who have experienced the pain of a broken relationship have that pain compounded by the feeling that they cannot go to church. Why is it that they fear the judgment and stares of those who should reach out to them in love. Why is it that instead of help and support we offer only advice or criticism.

Yes, to carry our cross means to put to death our sinful flesh. Yes to lift high the cross of Christ is to remember that God takes sin seriously, to remember that God reserves judgment for sin. But to lift high the cross is to remember that all of that judgment has been given to Jesus. All of our sin, that we struggle with, that we are tempted to give into that we are reminded of every time we look in the mirror has been crucified with Christ.

The cross of Christ carried all sin. It put to death all sin. The cross of Christ promised and guaranteed forgiveness for all people from all walks of life in all struggles with all types and all brands of sin. The cross of Christ calls us to repent of our sin. It calls us to a life that moves out of sin and it is a life that calls us to put to death our sinful urges and our sinful judgments. Let us keep in mind that Christ has died for the sins of others just as much as he has died for ours. Let us keep in mind that every one of us would have a cross to die on had it not been for the fact that Jesus got there before we had to.

As we talk about taking up our crosses and following Jesus as his disciples is that with our crosses can be quite heavy. They are in fact too heavy. These crosses that Jesus calls us to take up and carry weigh far more than what we are able to lift. Even when we try. Even when we pick it up, place it on our back and begin to head up the hill with it, it becomes more than what we can handle.

Every Christian who is honest with himself is sure to know this. As hard as we try, as much as we work hard to do what's right, to put to death our sinful selves, to carry our crosses, they slip through our fingers and roll back down the hill. Before you know it we have to head back down, pick it up and start all over again. It just seems like it is so hard to make any progress. It seems like it is so hard to get any better. As we examine ourselves it seems that we see only sin.

But that is the blessed assurance that is ours in the cross of Jesus. In the cross of Jesus it doesn't matter how far we are able to carry our cross. It doesn't matter how high up the hill we can trudge/ with it still in our arms. It doesn't matter how many times we drop it and have to start over again. Our cross is already at the top of the hill. Our hands and our feet are already nailed to it. Our blood is already flowing from our hands and feet and side and scalp and back because Jesus is there for us. We can get so easily discouraged and frustrated as we struggle against our sin and strive for our own righteousness. Yet there is no need. Because of Jesus there is no need.

As we struggle with our crosses, as we drop it yet again and head back down the hill we are not struggling alone. Your brother in Christ is struggling beside you. He is fighting his sin and temptation. You can help him to carry his cross. You can lift up his hands. You can proclaim to him the forgiveness of Jesus.

Your sister in Christ is struggling to drag her cross up one more step, you can carry her burden. Just as Jesus has carried your cross for your, you can carry hers for her. You can reach out to her in love. You can reach out to her in care and support.

Do you have a cross to bear? As one who has been baptized into the death of Jesus, you better believe it. It is a cross that will cost your your life and will make you pay more than what you could even afford. Do you have what it takes to go the distance? Not even close. You will drop your burden. You will misplace your cross you will get waylayed on your way up to the top. But Jesus is already there. He has already paid the price. He has already died your death. Now you go and died that death for your neighbor.

15th Sunday after Pentecost - Luke 14:25ff

In our gospel text Jesus makes the radical statement that unless someone take up his cross and come after him he cannot be a disciple of Jesus. Prior to that statement he mentioned the need to hate your father or mother, your brothers or sisters, your wife and children, even your own life for the sake of Jesus. Immediately following this command to take up your cross he talks about counting the cost to make certain you have the means to fulfill what you set out to do. Clearly the cost of following Jesus, the cost of being his disciple is high. Following Jesus will cost you everything you have. Jesus' message to those who would come after him, to follow him was discipleship was costly. A true believer in Jesus, one who truly walked in the path of Jesus was one who would surrender everything in the name of Jesus, was one who would even lay down her life in the name of Jesus.

These days discipleship, being a follower of Jesus, has been downgraded to a philosophy, it is something that you might adopt or adapt to help you achieve your goals and to be successful. The cross for many today is only a symbol. For some it is an abstract sign for love. For others it means sacrifice. I once worked with a man who was into new age mysticism and he thought that the cross was an astrological symbol in the stars – a symbol of cosmic love and good will. Jesus and his listeners knew nothing of this. They would not have associated the cross with anything like cosmic good will or a symbol for love and acceptance. The only crosses they knew were the ones that were used to execute and murder their countrymen. They saw crosses every day. Every Jew who made his way into Jerusalem would walk by the place of execution. At times there was one or two. At times there were 20. They saw people on those crosses nailed to them, suffering on them, and dying from them. They saw enemies of the Roman state carrying their crosses to their place of execution. For Jesus' audience, for the people who would have been listening to him make this statement, to take up your cross meant that you were choosing the hill that you were going to die on. To them there was no pleasant association for a cross. For them, the cross meant only death.

And here in our Gospel reading Jesus says unless you take up your cross, Jesus says unless you die with me and beside me you will never be my disciple. There is no cheap salvation. There is only the costly and the precious, the expensive. We must renounce everything we have and everything we are. Discipleship. True discipleship would have nothing else.

As disciples of Jesus, we have a cross to bear. We carry the cross of Jesus. Last week we sang the hymn “Lift High the Cross, the Love of Christ Proclaim” we bear the cross to proclaim it. But more than that we bear the cross that requires of us our lives. We bear a cross that will ultimately give us our life more fully than you could ever have it on your own.

There are many crosses that people carry these days. Crosses, after all have become quite popular. You can buy them made out of chocolate to pass out to children. You can buy them on racks of costume jewelry to wear as a statement of fashion. They are printed on t shirts. Hung on thick chains around the necks of musicians. Tattooed on the biceps of pro athletes. This past week I saw a customized motorcycle that had mirrors styled to look like crosses. People have gotten into the habit of taking up crosses – but so often they are crosses that are of their own making.

The cross of Jesus was by no means stylish or hip or even edgy. The cross of Jesus was a cross of death, of punishment and penalty. It was a cross of execution. Jesus took up his cross because he intended to die on it. Jesus intended to die for the sins of the world. The cross of Jesus was a cross of execution and judgment handed down by the almighty God as the penalty for the sins of the entire human race. Our sins were piled high on the shoulders of Jesus and he carried the entire weight with him to that cross so that he could accept the punishment for every last person and so that we could be set free from our guilt and so that the outstanding debt between you and me and God could be paid. Jesus took up his cross in love and in mercy and in grace to spare us from the judgment that we otherwise were destined for. Jesus knew that he was destined for this cross. He willingly took it up and carried its weight every step of the way for you and for me.

And then he called us. Just as he called Peter and John and Andrew and all the others, he came to us and he called us to be his disciples. To sit at his feet and listen to his Word. To hear his voice and follow him where he leads us. We have been called to discipleship and faith. And this discipleship involves a cross. Just as Jesus was on his way to the cross to die for the sins of the world he calls us to follow him to that cross, to be relieved of our sins at His cross, but then to carry the cross that is laid upon each one of us as we follow him. He calls us accept this cross with all of its weight and with all of its indignity and with all of its pain and he simply follow him. The way of the cross is not an easy road to follow.

The way of the cross is a way of sacrifice. All of the things that would get in the way of following Jesus must be stripped away. We can love nothing more than Jesus. Not wealth or power, not pride. Not even your mother, your father, your sister, your brother, your wife or husband your son or your daughter. Not even your self. You must surrender even your own life to carry your cross. The way of the cross is the way of death.

This morning young Jackson Burns was set on this way of death. This morning he was set on the way of the cross. In the book of Romans Paul tells us that we are baptized with Jesus into his death. We are baptized into the cross of Jesus. Through baptism we die to ourselves, to our sin, to our former way of life and we are baptized into the new life of holiness and righteousness. This is a path of suffering. This is a path that leads us to die every day.

We don't want to die. We are told that we should not have to die. We are told that whatever impulses and urges we have we should not feel that need to repress these things, we should be allowed to simply be who we are. The trouble however is that who we are is sinful. Our lives, our hearts, our choices and decisions are all filled with sin. We cannot simply be okay with sin. Sin must be laid at the foot of the cross so that it can die with Jesus.

The church at times seems to forget this. There are of course the times that the church begins to agree with the world around it and to excuse sin as natural expressions of God's created order. The church at times will pretend that as long as we show love and acceptance to all people than there are no sinful lifestyles or choices. This is contrary to the word of God. We know that. But there are also times that the church, while it may remember to condemn the sin, it forgets that this sin is to be laid at the feet of Jesus. The church often rails against these sins and condemns those who struggle with them. But the church forgets that it is called to reach out to sinners in love, in forgiveness and in support. So often sinners of different stripes are left to themselves to carry their struggles with sin and temptation and are left to carry by themselves the weight of this burden.

For example, take the young man who struggles with feelings of homosexuality – He may know that these feelings are wrong, he may know that it is sin, but he is bombarded and inundated with messages of acceptance from the world around him, he is pressured to accept himself for who he is and come out, declaring his lifestyle and demanding acceptance. This is a heavy weight to carry. This is a heavy burden to bear. Just as you and I must put to death our own sins so does this young man. Just as you and I need to confess and repent of our sins so does this young man. Just as you and I need to hear that Jesus has died for our sin so does this man. Just as you and I need the help and support of our brothers and sisters in Christ, so does this man.

Or what about the Christian brother or sister who has gone through a divorce. We know that divorce is sin, but why is it that often those who have experienced the pain of a broken relationship have that pain compounded by the feeling that they cannot go to church. Why is it that they fear the judgment and stares of those who should reach out to them in love. Why is it that instead of help and support we offer only advice or criticism.

Yes, to carry our cross means to put to death our sinful flesh. Yes to lift high the cross of Christ is to remember that God takes sin seriously, to remember that God reserves judgment for sin. But to lift high the cross is to remember that all of that judgment has been given to Jesus. All of our sin, that we struggle with, that we are tempted to give into that we are reminded of every time we look in the mirror has been crucified with Christ.

The cross of Christ carried all sin. It put to death all sin. The cross of Christ promised and guaranteed forgiveness for all people from all walks of life in all struggles with all types and all brands of sin. The cross of Christ calls us to repent of our sin. It calls us to a life that moves out of sin and it is a life that calls us to put to death our sinful urges and our sinful judgments. Let us keep in mind that Christ has died for the sins of others just as much as he has died for ours. Let us keep in mind that every one of us would have a cross to die on had it not been for the fact that Jesus got there before we had to.

As we talk about taking up our crosses and following Jesus as his disciples is that with our crosses can be quite heavy. They are in fact too heavy. These crosses that Jesus calls us to take up and carry weigh far more than what we are able to lift. Even when we try. Even when we pick it up, place it on our back and begin to head up the hill with it, it becomes more than what we can handle.

Every Christian who is honest with himself is sure to know this. As hard as we try, as much as we work hard to do what's right, to put to death our sinful selves, to carry our crosses, they slip through our fingers and roll back down the hill. Before you know it we have to head back down, pick it up and start all over again. It just seems like it is so hard to make any progress. It seems like it is so hard to get any better. As we examine ourselves it seems that we see only sin.

But that is the blessed assurance that is ours in the cross of Jesus. In the cross of Jesus it doesn't matter how far we are able to carry our cross. It doesn't matter how high up the hill we can trudge/ with it still in our arms. It doesn't matter how many times we drop it and have to start over again. Our cross is already at the top of the hill. Our hands and our feet are already nailed to it. Our blood is already flowing from our hands and feet and side and scalp and back because Jesus is there for us. We can get so easily discouraged and frustrated as we struggle against our sin and strive for our own righteousness. Yet there is no need. Because of Jesus there is no need.

As we struggle with our crosses, as we drop it yet again and head back down the hill we are not struggling alone. Your brother in Christ is struggling beside you. He is fighting his sin and temptation. You can help him to carry his cross. You can lift up his hands. You can proclaim to him the forgiveness of Jesus.

Your sister in Christ is struggling to drag her cross up one more step, you can carry her burden. Just as Jesus has carried your cross for your, you can carry hers for her. You can reach out to her in love. You can reach out to her in care and support.

Do you have a cross to bear? As one who has been baptized into the death of Jesus, you better believe it. It is a cross that will cost your your life and will make you pay more than what you could even afford. Do you have what it takes to go the distance? Not even close. You will drop your burden. You will misplace your cross you will get waylayed on your way up to the top. But Jesus is already there. He has already paid the price. He has already died your death. Now you go and died that death for your neighbor.

Amen.

C - Pentecost 13 - Hebrews 12:4-29

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The text for our message this morning is the Epistle Lesson from Hebrews 12

Introduction: Rally Day – studying the Word of God

This morning our Sunday School teachers have worked diligently to put together a Rally Day program. Certainly this morning we offered a breakfast to all who came, which is always welcome. After today our Sunday School children will make the switch to their new classes and (for some) new teachers. The Sunday School classes will update their curriculum so that their lessons fit in with our worship services. Our teachers want to help our students and parents get excited about the program so that they take advantage of it.

Sunday School is an amazing blessing for children. Now that we are mentioning it, it's not such a bad thing for adults either. Sunday School or Bible Study if you prefer to call it that is yet one more opportunity to study the word of God. To have the bible taught to our children and to study the bible ourselves. Because – and this is the key – the Bible is the means that God has given for us so that we can know him. In Sunday School our children learn the bible and therefore they learn to know God. The same thing happens in Bible Study. As you learn God's Word, the better you learn, the greater the blessing.

Our text from Hebrews talks about the kingdom that is unshakable. It says, “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe.” God's Kingdom is untouchable. It cannot be destroyed. For those who are a part of this kingdom they too are untouchable and indestructible. This Kingdom is ours. God gives it to us in his Holy Word. God's Word, reading and studying it and knowing it and believing it prepares us for that day when God, who our text refers to as “a consuming fire” will come with judgment. He will come, and he will destroy the things that are made, that is he will destroy this creation. But! Being solidly grounded in faith and in the Word of God preserves us in that kingdom that cannot be destroyed.

That is good news. It is good news for the future as we wait for the resurrection of the dead. But it is also good news for today. Today we are blessed to have the promises of God that do not fail that keep us safe during our day to day living, God's promises give me hope for today, right now, for what I am dealing with this month, this week or this hour. God's Word gives us hope as we deal with our struggles.

Our Struggle with Sin

Our text begins by saying, “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” It refers to our struggles as being struggles with sin. There are lots of different things that people struggle with. We don't always think of them as being struggles with sin.

For example, This past week I was asked to visit a young girl named Claire who had just graduated from college and was preparing to begin an advanced study program. Claire was in the hospital because she at 23 and otherwise healthy had suffered a stroke. We might not think of this as being a struggle with sin, yet it is. Every struggle that we might encounter -whether it be with your health, with some person or relationship, whether it be with stress or work or whether it be with the weakness of your sinful flesh, every struggle is a struggle with sin because every struggle is the result of sin. If there were no sin in the world there would be no strokes, no stress, no arguments, no belligerent or unreasonable people, there would be no occasion for struggle. Whether you are responsible for them or not, whether you bear some responsibility or guilt in their existence or not, All of those things are the result of sin.

And what is more, all of these things provide you with opportunity for temptation. You might be tempted to be angry with God for allowing something like this to happen. You might be tempted to be bitter. You might be tempted to try to seek revenge against the person you feel has wronged you. Your struggle is likely to become a struggle against your own sinful flesh and the temptation to sin.

God's Purpose for our Struggle

1. God Allows us to struggle. As much as we might not like our struggle and as much as we might wish that we could be without, our struggle actually is for us a blessing. In fact, our text reveals for us a remarkable (and also a somewhat surprising) truth. God allows us to be tempted. He has the power to stop temptation. He has the power to keep Satan far away. He could reduce these temptations to sin to an absolute minimum. You might wonder Why God would do that?”

Those of you who keep livestock know that you have to protect them against predators. If you have sheep, you look for ways to keep them safe from the coyotes. If you were in bed some night and you heard coyotes around your property, you might go out with a rifle to scare them away or even shoot them if you are able. Your would want to keep the predators away from your livestock because you want to be certain that they are safe and not disturbed. This is what makes sense to us. Why then would God allow the coyotes into the sheep pen? Why would God allow the devil and his evil angels to opportunity to disturb or harm us?

2. God uses our struggle to discipline us.

Our text gives us the answer – God allows us to be tempted and to struggle with sin, to struggle with the devil and his temptations because he wants to discipline us. Our text quotes proverbs chapter 3. “My Son do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord Disciplines those he loves and chastises every son whom he receives.” God allows us to be bothered by sin because he uses this testing to teach us and to chastise us. To remove sin from us so that we can grow in our faith and in our love for him. God allows these temptation to come because through them he provides for us a great spiritual benefit.

The devils role in our discipline.

One aspect of the struggle with sin and temptation that is amazing is that our struggle against temptation and suffering and even the devil himself can work out to be a great blessing. In this regard the devil and the world actually become God's servants. The Devil and all his slaves in the world who hate God and work their hardest to destroy what God loves actually serve God and help Him to accomplish His Holy Will as they go about tempting and testing Christians.

Christians are sinful people. Christians, even though they are redeemed by God and holy are sinners. Even though our spirits are made alive through faith and through Baptism our flesh is dead in sin and will remain dead until the day of the resurrection. We know this but we have short memories. We forget that we are sinners we forget that we so desperately need to be forgiven of our sin. We forget that we need to keep up the fight against our sinful flesh.

This spiritual amnesia can strike any one of us at any time. A retired pastor, yes, a pastor, told a friend of mine that he used to struggle with sin when he was younger man. But as he grew older he didn't have much of a problem with it. My friends pastor was struggling with spiritual amnesia. He had forgotten that he was a sinner, he had forgotten that his sinful flesh was still hanging on and sticking to him.

The blessing of Discipline

God our good and loving and gracious father wants to help us remember how pitiful and pathetic we are. He wants us to remember that we can do nothing about our sinful hearts and minds and bodies. So God in his love for us allows the Devil to unwittingly wage his war of temptation against us. He lays his best traps. He constructs his craftiest lies. And he places them in front of us to lure us into temptation. We in our foolishness stumble right into the trap time and time again. We struggle against it. We fight. We battle our hardest to keep the devil and our own sinful flesh at bay. We feel like we are going to be overcome, like the battle is more than we can handle.

And guess what has just happened. The devil, God's fiercest and most bitter enemy has just reminded you of your weakness. He has just reminded you of how much you need God. He has just driven you back to God. He has driven you to church, back to the place where God has promised to strengthen you in your fight with sin. Back to the place where God has promised to clean you from the filth that has stained during the battle. He has driven you back into the bible, so that you can draw strength during those times of struggle. The enemy has unwittingly acted as the servant of the one he most despises.

And what of those times that we actually give in? What happens when we realize that we have fallen into the trap and and lazily allowed ourselves to be taken? We repent. Yes! Immediately we repent and turn from the sin. We begin to struggle and fight and kick so that we will not be taken.

But even then we look to Jesus. Because while we have acted in our own best interest, while the pain and frustration of the fight has not been worth it to us, while we have looked to please our own skin rather than risk shedding our blood we thank God that he sent Jesus for us.

While our struggling has at times been painful and uncomfortable, while it has at times gotten the better of us, we are not dead yet. And thanks to Jesus we know that we never will be. Thanks to Jesus, who did shed his blood. Who was overcome. Who was killed and destroyed, our sin is forgiven. Jesus washes every sin away. And Jesus makes us clean.

The hope of the Unshakable Kingdom

As we struggle in our lives, the struggle can be intense and it can be frustrating. It can be stressful. But God gives to us hope. That while we struggle against these temptations they are struggles against things that are temporary. They are struggles against things that won't last. There is no struggle in this world that will last beyond this life. It doesn't matter what it is.

As we have been discussing things that people struggle with this morning, perhaps something has come into your mind that you struggle with. Something that is troubling for you that leads you into sin and temptation. Maybe it drags you down and overwhelms you. Maybe it there are times that it consumes you and is all that you can think about. Maybe you find yourself praying that God would just take it away because your life would be so much better and easier without it.

Maybe instead of worrying about it so much you should instead be grateful for it. Pray that God would give you his grace to help you endure it. Pray that God would keep you from being overcome by it. Trust that God has done and will do exactly what you have prayed for. And then, and this is hard, pray to God a prayer of thanksgiving. Thank God that he loved you enough to allow you to struggle. Thank God that he has blessed you with this thorn in the flesh. Thank God that he has not allowed you to be deceived by the illusion of your own strength. Thank God that he has reminded you of your weakness. Remember. This world is characterized by its weakness. Everything is temporary. Everything has its expiration date. Everything will come to an end. It will all one day burn up and be no more than a pile of ash. But not you. You have the promise of a kingdom that is unshakable and indestructible. You have the hope that because of the word of God you will live forever. You will not be overcome. You will not be overwhelmed. You will not be destroyed.

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, [13] and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

Pentecost 11 - Luke 12:22-40

So what kinds of things do you worry about? Jesus mentions many of these things in our text this morning; things like food and clothing, or health and well being - we all worry about these sorts of things all the time. But what do you worry about? Perhaps you worry about whether or not you will be able to pay your bills. Whether your job will pay you enough to enable you to maintain your current standard of living. Maybe you are worried about taxes, about the rising price of gasoline.

Perhaps you worry about the weather, whether or not it will rain, how much it will rain, whether or not the rain will be enough to help your crops to grow.

Perhaps you are worried about the new school year that is coming up – maybe your a teacher beginning a new year with new students. Maybe you are a student going into a new class with new classmates, maybe to a new school, maybe going away to college for the first time. Maybe you are a parent worried about sending your son or daughter to a new school with new challenges and new temptations.

Perhaps you are someone who is very conscientious and at times conscious of what others think. Maybe you are worried about what others think, about their perception of you, whether or not they like you, whether or not they approve of you, your personality, the way you look, the way you act.

Perhaps you are worried about your health and well being, or that of those who you love. Maybe you are worried about sicknesses, pandemics, the upcoming cold and flu season, cancer.

Maybe you are worried about accidental disasters that occur. Maybe your worried about causing some sort of calamity or being the victim of one. Maybe you are worried about war and terrorism. Maybe you are worried about national or even global politics and the upcoming election and the effect that it will have on our culture and society.

This is a long list of things to worry about. We could go on. Maybe we have covered a few of the things that you worry about. We could probably list off lots more. There are lots of things that people become anxious about.

To all of us who are worriers about anything at any time, Jesus says the same thing to all of us. Jesus says “Do not worry.” Do not worry! Stop worrying. Don't do it. And what's more, Jesus is not just encouraging us not to worry. He is not just saying, “Listen everything is going to be fine you really don't need to stress out so much.” Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the Living God, the Lord of the Church is commanding us not to worry! Just like when you send your kids off to school and tell them to do their homework, listen to their teacher, get along with the other students; Jesus is giving instructions that he expects us to obey. Not options, not soft words of encouragement – commands. Don't worry!

That presents us with a problem – doesn't it? After all, how often are we guilty of that very thing. How often are we guilty of disobeying this command, breaking his command and committing this very sin. We do it all the time. We seem to be doing it more and more. We are constantly and continually finding something to worry about, something to be anxious about. We are continually disobeying Jesus and allowing our anxiety to distract us from the one thing that is needful (as Jesus defines it here) that is, seeking first His Kingdom and His righteousness.

As Jesus gives the command that we are not to be anxious, he does so in full knowledge of the problem that worry presents for us. Jesus knows us. He sees our hearts and he knows the thoughts in our minds and in our hearts and he sees the damage and the danger that anxiety presents for us.

Now, when we talk about worry or anxiety, it is important to acknowledge that there are two different kinds of anxiety that the bible identifies. Not all worry is the same and not all worry is sin. There is a righteous anxiety and there is a sinful anxiety. The Greek word that is used here can have two different senses to it, depending on how it is used. In 2 Corinthians, Paul says that he is burdened with anxiety for the spiritual well being of his children in Christ. He is moved to anxiety because he knows of the trying times, the testing and temptations, that they are enduring. He is anxious for them that they stand up under the strain of the temptation and not be lead away into sin and apostasy. This righteous anxiety is anxiety and concern for the well being of others, especially (and this is important) as it relates to their place in the Kingdom of Christ. We are called upon to be looking out for the spiritual care of our Christian brothers and sisters, and of our own children. We should be praying for their faith and salvation. We should be praying for them fervently and ceaselessly. This is godly and righteous.

So, for example, when Paul became aware that the Christians in Corinth were suffering, when he heard about their temptations and their sin he became anxious for them. He was burdened with his concern for them. If you know that a friend is going through a difficult time, if you were worried and concerned and anxious for them as they went through their struggle, if you were worried because you want them to be okay, if you were afraid that their struggle might lead them away from the kingdom of God, then your anxiety is righteous. You need to pray to God for this person.

This godly anxiety is not the kind of anxiety that Jesus is talking about, however. What Jesus is talking about is a selfish anxiety. He is talking about an anxiety that is focused on me, on my own health, my own happiness. My own level of comfort, my reputation, my career, what I eat, what I wear. My house and transportation, my life. This kind of anxiety is sin. Jesus tells us that the pagans run after these things. Jesus tells us that our heavenly father who loves us and cares for us knows that we need them he will provide them for us beyond even what we need. Jesus gives evidence. He says, “Consider the wildflowers that grow out in the fields. Consider their delicate beauty and rich color. Even King Solomon, the wealthiest king in the history of the Nation of Israel was not dressed as richly as the grass that is here today and gone tomorrow,” God takes care of his creation. If this is how God takes care of things that are as insignificant and unimportant as grass, how more will he care for you!

We have mentioned so far that some anxiety is godly and some is sinful. You might be wondering how do you tell the difference. How do you know if your anxiety is godly anxiety or if it is worldly, pagan anxiety, Here is the test: Jesus commands us in conjunction with the command not to worry to, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.” Our first and foremost, our primary goal and concern should be the kingdom of God. It should be the salvation of our souls, of our own and that of our family members, our neighbors, even the entire world. It should be faithful worship of God. It should be right and true understanding of the Bible. We might ask ourselves if our worry is related to Christ and his kingdom. Paul's anxiety was. He was worried for his spiritual sons and daughters. He was worried that they remain faithful in their times of testing. He was worried that they be preserved from those things that would pull them away from faith and salvation.

The blessing of our text is that Jesus knows our hearts and he knows our worries. He knows that we are tempted to ungodly and sinful worry. He knows that we struggle with the worry, whether godly or ungodly, and it is his desire to comfort us in all our worry. And so he does.

If your anxiety is godly and righteous anxiety – if you are anxious for your own salvation as you are tempted and tested or if your are worried for the spiritual health of a friend or neighbor as they undergo some kind of difficulty, then Jesus offers to us wonderful words of comfort.

I had a conversation over the week with someone who was remarking about all of the evil that exists in the world today. Between the trash that is on the television, in the movie theaters, in the lyrics of the songs on popular radio, and floating around on the Internet what chance do kids have to grow up to live godly lives? Indeed we are seeing the effects of these sins in the rate of addiction to drugs and alcohol, to pornography, in the rate of divorce and children born to single parents, in the acceptance of the gay lifestyle, in the number of sexual predators. Raising a child to adulthood and sending them off to make their way in the world is a scary proposition.

But who is holding our children in His hands? As we worry about our children or our friends and neighbors for that matter, and as we worry about the testing and temptations that they are sure to undergo, as we pray fervently for them, for their health and for their faith, they are entrusted to the care of the God who as Jesus says here, wants to give to them the kingdom. It is God's “good pleasure” to give them His kingdom. He desires that they be faithful. He desires that they remain in the faith. He desires that they receive salvation. He desires that they inherit the kingdom of heaven.

Our bible class has been talking about the doctrine of election or predestination. This biblical teaching is given to us to comfort us in these very circumstances. God wants us to be sure of our salvation so he reveals to us that our salvation is God's choice – it is his electing, He makes it his job to bring us to faith and then to preserve us in that faith. He does it wholly and completely. Therefore we don't have to worry – about ourselves or about our children or grandchildren. No matter what horror we have to endure in this world, no matter how faithless our hearts might be – The God who has elected us will bring us into the inheritance that he has prepared for us. What a blessing! In spite of our worry, we can be sure that the God who baptized our children will go with them off to school, off to high school, off to college, off to their first job, or out on their first drive or worse on their first date!

But that has only covered the righteous anxiety. What about the unrighteous anxiety? What about those sins that we have committed as we have in a fit of idolatry put our own comfort or happiness or well being, our own selfishness above God's call to be servants to him and to our neighbors? What about the horrible and idolatrous sin of worry?

Know this: when you worry, when you sin against God in your self worship – seeking first the cares and concerns of this world, when you sin against your neighbor by denying to him the service that he so desperately needs from you by keeping for yourself your time and your treasures because you are worried that there isn't enough of you and your possessions to go around that God forgives that sin. Confess that sin. Repent of that sin. Do not let it tear you away from the kingdom of heaven, do not let it distract you from seeking first that kingdom and the righteousness that God has called you to. And know that your sins have been forgiven. More than that, when you worry, when you are anxious, know that Jesus himself is worried for you. Know that he has felt for you a deeper worry than you have ever felt or have ever known. Know that He has gotten down on his knees to pray for you with groans that words cannot express. Know that he has felt this anxiety and worry for you so deeply. Know that he was not just worried sick, Jesus was worried to death – literally. In his worry for you, in his anxiety for you, he died – it cost him his life. He worried until there was nothing left for him to do than to pay for your sin of worry with his own flesh and blood. Jesus worried himself all the way to the cross so that your sin of worry would never be able to keep you from enjoying the kingdom that he has prepared for you.

Jesus has called us to a life that is free from worry. He has called us to throw our worry and anxiety on him because he cares for us. But even when we have failed, even when we feel that have been overcome with worry, we will not be. Because Jesus was overcome for us.

Amen.

Now may the peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and mind in Christ Jesus.

Amen.

C - Pentecost 10 - Ecclesaistes 2:18-26

Vanity of vanities. Says the preacher. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity. And so begins the book of Ecclesiastes. It begins with the statement that everything in life is hollow and lacks any meaning or purpose.

That might seem like a bleak picture, and were it not for the grace of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ it would be. Apart from Jesus, this world is filled with hollow and shallow things, that if disconnected from the God who gives them and creates them, they would are exactly that – they are hollow. They are vain. They are meaningless.

Our Old Testament lesson for today is from the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. While the book doesn't specifically say who the author is, it is widely assumed that the book was written by King Solomon.

If you will remember, Solomon became king after his father David. When Solomon took over the throne the Lord came to him and promised to give to him anything that he would ask for. Solomon could have asked for great wealth or long life or the defeat of his enemies but instead of all of these things he asked God to give to him wisdom. God promised to give Solomon wisdom that surpassed that of any who had ever lived because his request was pleasing to God, God also granted to him those other things as well. God made Solomon exceedingly wealthy and powerful in addition to granting him wisdom. The bible record the story of the queen who traveled a great distance to see Solomon because she had heard rumors of his great wealth and the beauty of Jerusalem. As she was preparing to leave she commented that his wealth was even greater and Jerusalem more beautiful than what she had heard.

During his lifetime, Solomon had been greatly blessed by God – the legend of his wealth and his notoriety can attest to that. He had great wealth and wisdom and power. By earthly standards Solomon was someone to look up to. And while he is renowned for his wisdom, and while his request for wisdom from God is notable, the life that was chosen by Solomon was less than notable. Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, was no different from the rest of us. Solomon, just like you and me, was plagued by old-fashioned-same-as-everyone-else unfaithfulness and sin.

In the first 2 chapters of Ecclesiastes, Solomon outlines the details of his life. Solomon tells us that he kept from himself nothing that he desired. He indulged in food and drink, he built for himself nice homes and planted them with lush gardens, he surrounded himself with male and female slaves, he had 700 wives and 300 concubines, anything that he might desire he had. Yet after achieving all of this and after indulging himself with all of this, he concluded that all of these things were no more than a striving after the wind.

Having found no satisfaction in pleasure, he next devoted himself to hard work and to toil. In his hard work and labor he became famous and made a name for himself. He fame and renown was widespread. Yet in spite of his notoriety, he discovered that this too was hollow. He describes it also as vanity.

Finally he set his sights on wisdom. He devoted himself to the pursuit of wisdom and the application of wisdom. He saw that wisdom was better than foolishness, but still even wisdom was meaningless and vain because in the end, both the wise man and the foolish man die. It did not matter, for all of the things that this world has to offer, that Solomon devoted himself to possessing and achieving, in the end, they are all alike, they are all meaningless and vain.

The irony with all of this is that the world that God made is not meaningless. If you read the Genesis account of the creation, after every day of that very first week God stopped, looked at what he had made and he commented “it is good.” God did not make his creation to be meaningless. He did not make work to be a burden or toilsome. He did not make life on this world to be vain and pointless. God made his creation to be good.

The preacher of our text is commenting on the reality of living in a sinful and fallen world; that is, living in a world that has changed from the way that God made it. When God made this world our work was to be a joy. Our toil under the sun was designed to make us rejoice and be glad and fulfilled. It is only due to sin that lives in us and that lives in the world that our work becomes meaningless.

Solomon worked hard in his life. He achieved many things. Israel became a great nation under his direction. But Solomon was a sinful man. He was lead astray by his pagan wives. God had commanded that Israelites not marry these pagan women because he knew that their false gods would tempt his people to wander from the truth. This is exactly what Solomon did. He began to participate in the worship of these false gods. He constructed holy places and temples for these false gods .Solomon, in spite of his great wisdom and understanding fell prey to foolishness and he became yet another victim of our fallen sinful human nature.

Taking note of Solomon's error provides a warning for us – sometimes Christians believe that if they obtain wisdom, if they have lots of discernment and spiritual insight, that will keep them from wandering from the faith. Solomon was the wisest man that ever lived – if wisdom was going to save anyone it should have been him, yet he was no more wise than any one of us – he was just as foolhardy a sinner as we are. Faithfulness to God has nothing to do with how wise we are and how much we know and how diligently we study. Faithfulness to God has everything to do with recognizing our inherent meaninglessness, our weakness and foolishness because of our sin, confessing that sin and receiving from God his forgiveness and salvation.

While it might sound strange to say it, Our faithfulness is God's work. He leads us to repent of our sin. He leads us to his word and sacraments where we receive forgiveness for our sin. He leads us to the salvation that he bought and paid for when he died for our sins on the cross.

Solomon was exactly right as he wrote the words of our text – everything that we might pursue under the sun that is separate from Jesus is meaningless. It earns us temporary fame and fortune but in the end we still die.

This is essentially the point of the parable that Jesus tells in our Gospel reading, the Parable of The rich fool. Jesus tells the story of a man who was very prosperous. His land had produced a large crop for him and so in his pride and in his greed he decided that he would simply store up his wealth and keep it for himself. Then one night God came to the man and said to him, “You fool, this night your soul is required of you and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” And Jesus concludes. “So is the one who lays up treasures in heaven for himself and is not rich toward God.“ The wealth and prosperity that people spend their days chasing after doesn't do you a bit of good when you are standing before the judgment seat of God.

While all of these things, apart from faith are meaningless, that is not to say that they have no value. This is not to say that our lives, the work that we do, the places we go, the lives we enjoy are worthless. On the contrary! They have great worth and great value. However we must understand them and make use of them according to their God given design and purpose.

Again, like we have already said, we are sinners. Everything that we say and do, every minute of every day, we live with the fact that we are sinners, that our sin follows us around and ruins everything that we do or that we try to do. We live in the this world that God made and we just want to use it and enjoy it; but because of that sin, our use of God creation and our enjoyment of it is always damaged. So we keep that in mind. We begin every day with that thought – we confess our sin to God every morning.

And what is so beautiful is that every morning God grants to us forgiveness. Every morning God says to us your sins are forgiven. You are set free from your failures. God remembers the sacrifice of Jesus for us on the cross. God remembers that Jesus bled and died in our place on the cross. God remembers that Jesus paid the full price for our sins and so God says to us your sins have been forgiven. We are set free to live our day in joy that has been bought and paid for by Jesus.

If all you had was a job that you went to every day, earned a pay, check that was divvied up between your bills, your taxes and your other expenses, you would work hard, by the sweat of your brow come home at the end of the day. Suppose you did that day in and day out for your entire working career and as you were preparing to retire you would look back at the end of your life and wonder what the point of it all had been. If you worked just for the sake of your paycheck you might conclude that it all had been meaningless.

Now on the flip side, suppose you are a redeemed child of God. He has set you aside to spend eternity in heaven with him in paradise, where you will eat at his heavenly banquet table, where you will sleep in a room prepared for you in his mansion, where you will live as a prince or princess in his heavenly kingdom. This is your guaranteed inheritance that he has given to you. In the meantime, as you are waiting to receive your promised inheritance, he calls you to work for him in his kingdom here on earth. He prepares for you work to be done and asks you to do this work in his name and for his honor. You are a part of his kingdom working for his purpose with his .

Suddenly your work is no longer mundane. It is no longer purposeless or vanity or meaningless. It is a joy to work. It is a joy to serve. It is a joy to wake up every morning go and do the things that God has given to be done. Because God has called us to it and because God works through us to care for those who need to be cared for.

As Solomon looked back at his life, he saw that where he had wandered from God he found nothing worthwhile. It was frustrating for him and lacked meaning and purpose. When he came to his senses he realized the gift that God had given to him in calling him to his work.

“ There is nothing better for a person,” wrote Solomon, “than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, [25] for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?”

As we live our lives in faith, God provides for us the work to be done and rewards us with joy while we do it.