Lent 2

In the history of the people of God, the city of Jerusalem was a grand and storied city. While its history goes back to the time of Abraham, during the reign of David it was inhabited by the Jebusites. David conquered Jerusalem and turned it into the capitol city of the nation of Israel. Once Jerusalem was captured David built for himself a palace and his son Solomon built for the Lord a temple. The city of Jerusalem became a symbol for the Jews of their nation, but also of their faith. It has been called to Holy City because it was there that the Jews went for the feasts and festivals that God had given to them, it was to Jerusalem that the Jews went for fellowship with the Lord.
Yet in spite God's continued faithfulness to the descendants of Abraham, and in spite the fact that God actually established a dwelling place on earth in the Jerusalem Temple, the Israelites were faithless. They turned their backs on the Lord who lived among them and they insisted on following the ways of their pagan neighbors. The Jews conquered the Jebusites and claimed their city, and while they expelled the people, as time wore on they invited their gods to return. The Jews worshiped the false gods of their pagan neighbors.
The idol worship of the Israelites caused God no end of grief and sadness. God wanted the hearts of his people to return to him. So he sent prophets, men like Jeremiah from our Old Testament text, to warn the Jews of the consequences of their idolatry. False gods would offer no protection from their enemies. False gods do not have the ability to save. Jeremiah approached God's people with all the words God had commanded him to say, but they would not listen.
Our reading tells us the even the priests and the prophets, the people who were supposed to be the spiritual leaders and in tune with God's Word actually were the leaders in the rejection of God's message. All together they gathered around Jeremiah and they grabbed hold of him and they wanted to kill him.
“This man deserves the sentence of death, because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.”
It is ironic, isn't it? God called on them to repent. God called on them to turn away from sin. Not because God hated them. It wasn't because he wanted to spoil their fun. God sent prophets to his people because he loved them. He didn't want to punish them. God wanted them to repent of their sin and return to him. Instead they rejected God's messenger. They were angry with the man who brought God's Word to them. They plotted violence against Jeremiah and virtually every other prophet when they came with a warning of God's punishment, but the message wasn't just punishment. The message was God's plea that they return to him and that they be restored to him.
There are many parents who understand this grief and sadness from their experience with wayward children. From time to time and for whatever reason a son or a daughter will decide they have their wild oats to sow and they will turn away from the family that loves them. Instead of the fulfilled life filled with love and comfort from their family they will insist on an empty life filled with the worst things the world has to offer. Parents will beg and plead, they will condemn the destructive behaviors. They will invite their child to return. For whatever reason, often that child just will not. That hurts. For parents who want only the best for their children, when they see that their child has chosen the things that hurt them and abandoned the things that help them, parents feel grief.
In the same way, Jesus felt grief. Grief for his wayward children. The nation he built from the descendants of Abraham, the people he gathered to himself when he rescued them from slavery, the home he built among them in the city of Jerusalem.. He sent his invitations to return, He sent His prophets to bring His Word, but they just wouldn't come. Instead his prophets were abused and even murdered. In our Gospel text we hear the words of Jesus, “How often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you would not.”
As we consider the actions of the Israelites and the response of Jesus, there are two things for us to consider. Comfort at the love and the action of Jesus, but also warning.
It is easy for us to see that the Jews were wrong. They rejected God. They murdered his prophets. They even murdered his son. They were evil, idolatrous, and violent. But let me ask you: do you think this change happened over night? Do you think that one night they all went to bed as faithful servants of the Lord and then the next morning woke up idolatrous murderers? Or do you think it happened gradually? Over weeks and years, over the span of a generation? A compromise here, an excuse there? I know idol worship is wrong, but I don't want to be rude. My friend invited me to go with him to his temple. I'll just try it out this once. It won't hurt anything. And so it goes... Overlooking a sin here, a false teaching there, a little concession to evil. And all of a sudden, before you know it, faithful servants of God have become servants of false gods, pagans and unbelievers.
And here's the next question: Are we so naïve to believe this will not also happen to us?
I think sometimes we are. I think sometimes we believe, sometimes we take it for granted that God is on our side. We tell ourselves that we can't fall, that we won't fall. “I'm a Christian. I grew up in a in a Christian home. My parents were Christians. I went to Lutheran School. I belong to a church.” We think that lets us off the hook. We think that makes us immune from sin and error. We think that as long as we hold on to those things we can say and do and think and believe anything that we want.
It's not true. It never has been. It never will be. This is a sin that has made us all guilty. We all need to repent, every last one of us. We all need to search our hearts and ask the Holy Spirit to point out this sin so that we can confess it and turn away from it – spiritual pride. Spiritual laziness. Acceptance of a self-defined status quo.
So our text issues a warning. But it also provides for us great comfort. There are two things that comfort us.
The first is this. Jesus weeps over his city. He speaks of gathering his people to him for protection as a hen gathers her brood. This should sound familiar. The same image, the same metaphor was used last week in our text from Psalm 91. The psalm said that God would gather us under his wing and cover us with his feathers.
God wants to draw us all to himself where he can offer us love and protection. He wants to cover us. He wants to save us and offer us salvation. The day is coming when it will be too late, but that day has not yet come. There is still time. Still time to repent. Still time to be gathered. Still time to receive God's love and forgiveness.
The last day, judgment day, the day of resurrection has not yet come. It's not because God is late or slow or caught up doing other things. Instead he is loving. He is patient and he is waiting for sinners to repent, to turn from their sin and be forgiven. There is still time.
That's the first comfort. Here's the second: notice how committed Jesus is to fulfilling his mission. In our text Jesus was warned by some pharisees that Herod had in mind to arrest Jesus. For you and me, a message like this might turn on our “self preservation” instincts. IT might make us feel the need to run away and save ourselves from judgment and suffering and even death.
Not Jesus. He has no fear of earthly power and authority. He calls Herod a “fox”. He defies Herod's power and authority. He sets his own agenda – Today and tomorrow and the next day I am going to cast out demons. I am going to heal the sick. And then, when I am done, then I will go on my way. And Herod can't touch me.
Jesus knew where he was going. He knew what he was doing. He had his plan set in motion and no one could stand in his way and no one could keep him from accomplishing it. Not the Pharisees and scribes, not Herod, not even Satan.
Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem – that Holy city that had received so much... so many blessings and had turned their back on all of them. Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, the city he made holy when he built his temple there. Jerusalem was a city of sacrifice, a city where sinners could go to receive forgiveness because it was a city where sin was exchanged for the death of a substitute. Jesus came to be that substitute. The stand in, the go between for you and for me. Jesus came to be sacrifice for you and for me for all time.
Jesus went to Jerusalem, the Holy City, the city of sacrifice so that he could be the sacrifice. He went to be the one sacrifice, the one death that would take the place of all others. Jesus went to Jerusalem so that sinners could be holy.
Sinners used to go the Jerusalem the Holy City, the city of holiness because that was the city of God's presence. Jerusalem was the place where sinners would go to exchange their sin for God's holiness. They would come to the city, come to the temple, participate in the temple rites and go home as God's forgiven and holy people. God's holiness was given out when God people met with him at the temple.
But then Jesus went to the Holy City. He went as the sacrifice. He went to offer himself on the altar of the cross. The one sacrifice to end all sacrifices. So that sinners themselves could be holy.
Friends because of what Jesus has done for us we don't need a plane ticket to Jerusalem and a visit to the temple to be holy. God has made us holy in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. God has even said that we are temples of the Holy Spirit.
The blood of goats isn't needed, trip across the ocean to the Holy City are needed. God has given to us his forgiveness right here. God has made us his children right here. Our sin is forgiven.
Amen.

Lent 1 Psalm 92

Text: Psalm 91
The Devil came to Jesus intent on His destruction. IT was not the first time that the devil had set his sights on destroying a man. There had been hundreds, thousands, even millions before. But the first time had been of greatest importance. The first time it was a man named Adam. And for a man created to be perfect he was pretty easy prey. Adam went down, and with him fell the entire human race - you and me included.
But then came the new Adam, the Second Adam, the new creation. A man born from a woman, but not having a human father – this man Jesus. This man spelled trouble for this old tempter, this old devil. Because, where Adam was supposed to have been perfect but was easily tempted and led into sin, this second Adam was a much more difficult case. He was greater, more powerful. This second man was none other than the Son of God, God himself in Human flesh. But still, the Devil took aim. If he could get this Jesus to sin, the entire human race wouldn't have a chance.
And the devil came. He comes to you just the same. He came to Jesus when he was weak, when he was tired, he had just been through an ordeal – a 40 day fast in the wilderness, he was hungry and he needed some rest. The devil always takes advantage of those most opportune moments. He came and he wrestled with Jesus. “Throw yourself down from the temple.” “Make stones into bread.” “Surrender yourself to me and I will give you power.” Great opportunities for a quick fix on power and glory – always sure bets for this tempter. Everyone wants power and glory. Every one wants to get it on the cheap. But not Jesus. You and I would have fallen for it in seconds flat. But Jesus resisted. It took everything he had, but Jesus resisted the devil and he did it for you.
Now, look at the Gospel reading, and then go back and look at our text – the Psalm for the day. The psalm actually shows up in our Gospel text – but in an unusual place. The words of scripture, the very Word of God is used as a tool of Satan. His slippery double-tongue utters these golden words of promise as a means for evil. (Isn't it true that the devil always masquerades as a servant of the Light?)
“Throw yourself down from the temple,” said Satan, “for isn't it written that 'he will command his angels concerning you so that you will not strike your foot against a stone'?”
And yes, it is written. Indeed our Psalm says that very thing. God will send his angels to protect us, to pick us up so that we might not even stub our toes. And there are times that he does.
A steel worker working on the beams of a high-rise office building once stumbled and began to fall from several stories up but felt himself being caught and lifted. He looked and saw a face. God sent an angel to protect the man and to keep him safe so that he did not fall and injure himself. God does truly send his angels to do his work of caring for His saints. Most of the time we don't even know they are there. Sometimes, like this time, God lets us see them.
But does that mean we should test Him? Should we do as the devil urged Jesus to do? Should we force God to choose? Rescue us or let us die? God cares for us according to His mercy, not according to our coercion, and He does so for our salvation and not for our selfish designs of earthly glory. Satan was playing games with the Word of God. Satan was turning God's Word of promise into a magic spell to manipulate God.
Jesus didn't fall for it. Neither should you.
Instead, Jesus tied himself to the rest of the Psalm. Jesus devoted himself wholly and completely to the promise that God is “My Refuge and My Fortress”, The Lord is “My God in whom I trust.” Likewise, so should you.
Our Psalm begins, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will Abide in the Shadow of the Almighty.”
Our Epistle Text from Romans helps us to properly understand what it means to “dwell in the shelter of the Most High and to abide in the shadow of the Almighty.”
Romans 10 says that “The Word is near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart.” It then goes on to make the promise that if you confess with your mouth and believe with your heart you will be saved.
It is the Word. The Word of God. It is the Word of God that is our lifeblood as Christians. The Word of God, when we confess it, that is to say, when we believe God and take Him at His Word we are saved. Therefore it is the Word that is the very voice and power of God. It takes hold in our hearts and creates believers out of us.
Today in our worship we celebrate with those who are joining our fellowship of faith. God has hidden His Word in their hearts and they are standing up confessing with their mouths the faith that God put there in their hearts. God has come near to them, just as he has come near to the rest of us, and through His Word and in His Word they dwell with us together in His shelter and we abide together in His shadow. And there is no better place to be.
After all, God's Word promises God's protection. We return to our Psalm...
Psalm 91 gives to us the assurance that God will protect us from all different kinds of calamities and disasters. It offers a few examples.
Back in the days of King David, arrows were cutting edge military technology. An archers could take out an enemy from a safe distance, at times even unknown and unseen. The message then, God can keep you safe from military enemies who have powerful and high tech weapons.
The world is suddenly alarmed because Iran is edging closer and closer to possessing nuclear weapons. Neighboring countries are afraid of the sudden threat within their borders. That threat could even spill over into our own country. Not to worry. God can protect you from an extreme Islamic nation, even from a terrorist with a nuclear weapon.
The psalm also mentions plagues and pestilence. A few months ago we were repeatedly warned of the threat of the h1n1 virus. It was supposed to be a super bug that would be hard to fight and that would claim the lives of hundreds. Before the swine flu it was the bird flu. Who knows what flu or what other disease will pose the next great threat to public health. It could turn out to be nothing. It could match the hype and kill thousands. It doesn't matter. God can protect you from the deadliest of diseases.
Car crashes. Cancer. Change. The Future. Taxes. Earthquakes. The weather. The unknown. The dark. Death. Financial collapse. People are afraid of all kinds of things. Your God is god over all of them. He can and will protect you from all of these things and from any one of them.
“Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place, the Most High who is my refuge, no evil shall be allowed to befall you. No plague come near your tent.”
“No evil...”
In the Lord's prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray, “deliver us from evil”. In that prayer we ask God to save us from all of those things we just listed, but especially we ask God to save us from the Evil One. We ask God to save us from the Devil. As much as we fear so many other things in this world and in this life, there is one enemy who is chief above all other enemies. There is the devil. He sets traps for us to destroy us. He tempts us and urges us to look to our own power and glory, to indulge our lusts and passions, to set aside the true God and replace him with a false god of our own making.
As we have said, this foe, this enemy is too great for us to defeat, too powerful for us to battle, too sneaky and sly for us to out smart. He sets traps for us that we too easily fall into. If Adam who was perfect and without sin couldn't do it, then what chance do we have? Adam was like a champion, a prize fighter, a hero, and Satan took him down with his first try. What chance do we have?
I used to visit with a shut in who would tell about her battles with (as she put it) “that nasty old devil”. He wouldn't leave her alone. He was always pestering her. She would fight him off by singing hymns. I would hear her voice, singing at the top of her lungs as I came down the hallway in her nursing home.
I talked to another man on his death bed and he confessed, in fear, the temptations he faced as the devil did his best to take him down before his time was up.
In both cases God was faithful. He saved them and he preserved them with His mighty hand and his outstretched arm.
Our God, whom you confess and in whom you dwell has just the remedy for you. You who confess His Word and live in His shadow. As the Psalm says, “He will deliver you from the snare of the Fowler. He will cover you with his wings.”
God is like a mother goose defending her goslings. When they sense some danger, they will gather them all together under their wing to defend them and keep them safe. And then if the danger persists she will shield them even with her own body. She will risk her own injury rather than allowing you to harm one of her young.
That is how God protects you. He snatches you away from the devil when he would trap you and then when the devil persists when he refuses to give up and even would claim you as his own, pointing out your many sins and those times that you were caught by his snares and you gave in to his temptations, like a mother goose, the Lord your God, the Most High who is your refuge shields you, even with His own body.
The Lord is a spirit. As such He did not have a body. So he went out and got one so He could shield you with it. He joined himself to us, to our race, to our flesh and blood so that he could use His body as the in-between thing. So He could place His body into harms way, so He could surrender His body to injury and death, so He could take your punishment and your could be saved.
In our Gospel text we see him battling it out with Satan, fighting off his temptations and standing firm the way you and I have not, the way even Adam could not. And He won. Every single time; without exception. The devil went away beaten. Jesus did what we could not do. And then He did what was needed so that we could be saved, so that we could be snatched out of the devil's trap and set free from the destruction that he had planned to bring us to .
God has saved us. God has defended us and protected us. Through faith we live and abide so close to our God that we are covered by his shadow. You and I can say to the Lord together with the Psalm, “My Refuge and My fortress. My God in Whom I trust.”

Epiphany 4

“Authority” is a dirty word. We don't like it. We don't trust it. We don't want to have anything to do with it.
You just have to say the word and It makes us think thoughts of domination. Oppression. Even lies & mistrust. If I were to yell out, “The authorities are coming.” and our first instinct would be to run away. At the very lest it might raise our blood pressure a bit.
We don't like authority. We don't trust those who have it or those who want it. We all have a natural impulse to get out from under someone else's authority. For the most part, we think of authority as something to be feared and something to be avoided.
How strange then that the thing setting apart our savior, as He begins his ministry of teaching, is that he does so “with authority”. In our text, the people remark that Jesus is not like the other teachers. He is not like the scribes, the pharisees, the temple rulers. Jesus is a teacher, for that matter, Jesus is a god who has authority.
And for you and me, we have a problem with authority.
We would like to say that it's not our fault. We would like to say that we can't help it, that we are victims of our environment and culture. After all, nobody likes authority. Nobody likes to be told what to do. This past week, President Obama gave his state of the union address. How many of you liked what he had to say? Likely there are those of you who did not. Perhaps you did not trust him, perhaps you thought him to be disingenuous in his words. And for those did like the speech and do approve of the president, the chances are good that you did not trust the words of our previous president. Maybe you don't trust any president. It would be only natural. After all, we don't like authority. We call police officers pigs. We call our Fathers “the old man”, we call our spouses “the old ball and chain”. We call our employers, we call corporate America “the Man”. Meanwhile we celebrate those who disobey authority. We think of them as heroes. The movie Avatar, the highest grossing movie ever that has already won a golden globe and is favored for an Oscar is about a soldier who breaks rank with the military in order to fight on the side of the native people of a far away world. The soldier who disobeys authority is the hero! The guy we are supposed to root for. Even the guy the film portrays on the moral high road. Yes. You and me, every single person on the planet – we've got a problem with authority. And that means, we've got a problem with Jesus.
We've got a problem with Jesus because Jesus has authority. When Jesus came, he came with authority. Everyone realized it and everyone knew it. The crowds knew it. They said as much in our text - “what is this teaching? Where does it come from? This guy has words we haven't heard before and we are perplexed by it because these word are words of authority.”
the disciples also realized it. After all, when He commanded them to leave behind their entire lives – everything; their families, their jobs, their homes, their plans, their past and their future – they did. Jesus commanded them to follow and they get up and they followed.
The pharisees realized it. After all, they perceived him to be a threat to their own authority. They were set off guard. They were uncomfortable with his authority, they even came to despise his authority. So much that they plotted to get rid of him and his authority.
Even the devils and demons recognized his authority. When Jesus commanded them to leave those they possessed, when Jesus commanded them to shut up and be silent, they obeyed. At Jesus' command, they released those they had enslaved, without even a scratch.
And so Jesus, the Son of God, came with God's authority. And the world did what the world has always done – they cut him down. Isn't that what you are supposed to do? Isn't that what we believe? Kingdoms are made to topple. Rules are meant to be broken, authorities are meant to be challenged. And so Jesus the Son of God who came with God's authority to bring near God's kingdom was crucified. He was arrested, beaten, stripped naked and shamed so that the world could show him who's boss.
But there was a fly in that ointment, a fatal flaw in the plan. There was a rule in the game that they hadn't quite counted on. This one who came with authority, this one they did not understand and could not comprehend – his authority was not just over the living. His authority extended even into death. The had forgotten, perhaps they never knew; that this one whom they hated and despised and killed, this one who possessed such authority would come as the judge; and not just of the living but also of the dead.
You see, death is final for us, for us it is the end, for us it is the great equalizer and the final arbiter of justice. But not for him. He was Lord and not just of the living he was Lord even of the dead. When he was alive, he could command even death to set free those it had taken captive. A widow's son, a little girls, even his friend Lazarus, Jesus set them free from death. And then, when he himself was killed, when he was nailed to a cross and died and placed in a tomb he was still Lord. And he proved it. He demonstrated his authority even over death when he was raised to life three days later. Death could not hold him because he held the keys to death and hell.
And so he rose – victorious. Victorious over death and the grave, over Satan and hell, over all our earthly and eternal enemies. And he said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. All authority. Authority in heaven. Authority on earth. Even authority in hell. There is nowhere that our Jesus is not lord. And believe me, that is a good message.
Because while you and I are running around wasting our time waging war against the authority of Jesus, telling ourselves that we are our own masters, that no one can tell us what to do, he has made himself busy turning His authority into our advantage. Jesus the Lord of life and death, the Lord of Heaven and earth and even hell, has used his authority to command those things that hold us captive.
We are captive to sickness. These days our world has made so many great advancements in medicine and medical technology. Illnesses that only 50 years ago would have meant certain death are today easily cured. Yet in spite of this great knowledge and wealth of information and technology and in spite of this great ability to heal, people die every day from diseases and illnesses where doctors simply throw up their hands and admit there is nothing they can do. Yet in our text, Jesus who has authority commands those illnesses, no matter what they are and how debilitating they may be, He commands them to release the ones they held captive... and the diseases, every last one of them, was no match for Jesus. Sickness and disease obey the authority of Jesus.
We are captive to this world. Earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, snow storms, floods, drought, famine, extremes of cold or heat; we are enslaved to these things. In spite of the foolish and idolatrous hearts of men that believe we can change the climate and kill the planet with our smokestacks and suv's, the truth is that we don't control the planet, the planet isn't enslaved to us. Rather we are enslaved to it. We are at it's mercy. We can't stop a hurricane from forming and flooding our cities and blowing apart our way of life. Nor can we stop an earthquake from shaking us down and breaking us apart. But God can. Jesus has authority over such events. Jesus has the authority to stop and the authority to start them. The world obeys the authority of Jesus.
Jesus also has authority over the devil. Try as we might, we do not have the authority to free ourselves from the spiritual strangle hold of the devil. Popular story tellers would tell us that we can defeat the devil with purity of heart or strength of hand. That we can thwart his plans and ruin his designs. But we cannot. We are powerless to get ourselves free from his grip. But the devil responds to the commands of Jesus. The devil obeys the authority of Jesus.
We can do none of these things. But Jesus can. Jesus has authority over all these things. He commands sickness and disease, he commands blindness, leprosy, viruses & bacteria, cancer, he commands broken bones to be healed and all of these illnesses and afflictions obey. They release those they hold captive and they set free their prisoners.
Likewise with the earth and the world around us. Jesus commands the winds. He commands the waves. He commands the movements of the oceans and the shifting of tectonic plates. And finally Jesus commands Satan and all his evil angels. He has authority over the powers of hell who would trap you and possess you and tear you apart.
And Jesus uses this authority for you. He uses this authority to set you free. To undo the bonds that hold you and release you from the grip of those things that would destroy you.
Of all of your enemies and all of your foes, the worst by far is death. Sin has destroyed this world and made a mess of God's good universe but sickness, disease, earthquakes and storms are the least of your worries. Your greatest enemy is death, because in death you receive the judgment of God. In death you are face to face with the your maker. It is dangerous for sinners to fall into the hands of an angry God.
So Jesus set you free,. Exercising all his power, all his might and all his authority he carried the full load of death's judgment on his own shoulders. He carried the punishment for the whole world when he died in your place for your sin on your cross. Jesus died your death and so now you are set free. Just as he commanded illness, and evil to release their captives so also he has commanded death to let you go. You are free. Free from death, free from judgment free from condemnation, free from sin. The doors to your prison have been flung wide open. Faith alone seizes the opportunity to walk through and be free.
And Jesus has given you that faith. He has accomplished your freedom and he has given you the gift to believe. There is nothing that holds you that Jesus cannot command. Live in the joy of your freedom.
Amen.

Advent 4

There is nothing quite like the joy and the anticipation of an expectant mother. Mom's to be, sporting their little “baby bump” get stopped in public all the time to be asked questions like “when are you due?” “How are you feeling?” “is it a boy or a girl?” and many other such questions. People love babies. People love it when a young woman is getting ready to be introduced to the joys of motherhood and are eager to share in that joy with her.
We all love children. We love babies. And it's not just because they're cute. Sure their little hands and feet and pudgy little faces are indeed cute, but there's more to it than that. We love them for who they are and we are excited for who they will be. After all, each and every new parent dreams about how their child is going to make a splash and change the world with her athletic prowess or intelligence or grace. When it comes to our children, we all have hopes and dreams about who we want them to grow up to be.
But this joy and this hope and this expectation, it's all about possibility. It is all about who the child will become. Yes, we love our children regardless of their ability, but we hope for earth-shattering achievement from our children. We invest ourselves in them for who we want them to be. We want them to grow, to learn, to mature, and one day to be self sustaining and self functioning adults. Implicit in our hope is an understanding that the child who is born is not the finished product, but is the first step in becoming a finished product.
This being the case (that part of our excitement for our kids is all about who they are going to be) we have to notice just how different this is with Jesus. Yes, Mary was pregnant and she shared in that hope and joy and expectation for the life of her son who she carried in her womb. But there was also a recognition that this boy was not just about possibility, not just about future accomplishments, not just about who he would grow up to be; the growing and developing Child in Mary's womb was her God who made her and who loved her and who was going to save her and the whole world from sin.
Try wrapping your head around that. These days child psychologists have mapped out the brain function of infants even during pregnancy. They can tell you what the child is capable of knowing and understanding even while the child is still in the womb – and it's pretty minimal. They can recognize voices, and sounds but as far as knowing who that voice belongs to and why that voice is important? Not so much. And even when they are born, infants are completely dependent on their parents, on their mothers. They need their mothers for food, they make a mess of themselves and need their clothes to be changed, they can't talk, can't reason, they can barely even see.
But all of that being the case, when Mary with the Christ Child still in her womb went to visit her relative Elizabeth, to help and assist her aged kin during her pregnancy, Elizabeth acknowledged in faith that the baby developing in Mary's womb was her Lord. She said, “Who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” The infant, the little developing child was worth excitement and hope and expectation, but not just because of who he would one day become. This baby was even then her Lord. He was God in the flesh, come to earth to save them from sin.
In our text this morning we have two expectant mothers, gathering together and sharing in the joys of their pregnancies. Both moms and moms-to-be love to share that joy with each other. They love to swap stories and be a part of each others' excitement. Moms (and dads) love their babies, their children. But I wonder if we don't, at times, love our children a little too much. I wonder if we don't at times love them with a love that we aught to reserve only for God.
Consider as an example the retail chain Baby's R Us. Expecting moms and dads go in to that store to register for all kinds of baby paraphernalia, much of which is expensive, more than they can afford, really, because they want their child to have what is the best.
If my child is going to have every opportunity, if my child is one day going to have to choose between the full-ride football scholarship to Ohio State or the full ride academic scholarship to Harvard, it's going to start right here with this state of the art diaper disposal system. And so parents pay the money.
Parents spend insane amounts of money on un-necessary baby products because they are convinced that they added expense is all a part of giving their child the best of every opportunity. Whether or not we have a diaper genie, how many of us have overlooked our child's obvious sins because we think of them as “little angels”. We love our children and that is good, but our love for our children often becomes a love that we aught to reserve only for God. This is sin that demands repentance.

But consider these two women discussing their pregnancies together just outside Elizabeth's home on that day. Elizabeth was old, beyond child bearing years. And even when she could have had children her body was incapable of producing a child. She was barren, unable to conceive. The child in her womb was improbable to say the least. More like unthinkable, unimaginable, or impossible! Yet here she was in her old age pregnant and preparing to deliver. Do you think Elizabeth might have been tempted to love her child too much, to hold on to him too tightly after having waited so long?
And then there was Mary. If Elizabeth's pregnancy was unlikely, Mary's was entirely impossible. Women don't just all of a sudden become pregnant. There is biology involved. There is a process that needs to occur. There needs to be a father, a seed, a man to provide the other half of the necessary ingredients. There was none. Mary was a virgin.
And so we had in these two women, life out of death in one, and life out of nothing in the other. Both were miraculous. Both were evidence of the hand of God. God had come in to his creation to do things that don't normally occur because all of this was a part of his great plan for our salvation.
As greatly as these two women would have been tempted to sins of pride and idolatry with their respective pregnancies, here in our text we don't see it. That is not to say that they didn't feel it, that they were innocent of these sins. It is to say that Luke would rather have us focus not on the mothers but on the sons; and among the two baby boys still in their mothers' womb, Luke would have us see and understand that the foremost Child is the Christ child, the baby in the womb of the virgin.
Old Testament Jews would have shown reverence when the Ark of Covenant passed by them. Not because there was anything of great importance in the Ark, itself. It was, after all, only a box. But the box was God's box. It was God's throne and where the Ark was, there God was. Just as the Ark of the Covenant was the vessel that carried the Lord, so also Mary was the vessel that carried the Lord. “Behold,” Mary had said, “I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be to me as you have said.” And the Word of the Lord created in Mary exactly what it said, a child was conceived in her, a baby who was Christ the Lord. He had come down from heaven and made his home with Mary.
And so when Mary, the God bearer, came in to the home of Elizabeth, she understood this properly to be the entrance of the Lord, very literally, into her life. God was with her. And so she worshiped.
Our text says that she exclaimed. True enough, but not quite the whole story. An exclamation is little more than excitement. There are lots of reasons why we might be moved to exclaim. Our school children let out an exclamation after they finished their last day before Christmas break on Friday. They teachers also let out an exclamation of their own. Christmas morning might inspire an exclamation or two at your house – hopefully one from you.
Elizabeth, when she made her exclamation was not merely expressing joy or even excitement. Elizabeth was engaged in worship. The text says that Elizabeth anefwnhsen This is a worship term. A term that the Old Testament uses in connection with the liturgical ceremonies having to do with the Ark of the Covenant. Mary was the bearer of God, as God drew near, Elizabeth, being filled with the Holy Spirit began to worship.
And she was not alone. The child in her womb, the miraculously conceived prophet to be, the infant John leaped in his mother's womb; an indication of the relationship that the two of them would share as they came into adulthood. John would preach and make ready the way for Jesus to come.
But Elizabeth and John were not the only ones to worship Jesus. On the night of his birth, all of heaven would be filled with the singing of angel choirs who were celebrating and worshiping this child. They would share their song with shepherds who would run into the town of Bethlehem to see if what they said was true. The shepherds would join their voices with the angels in songs of praise to God. (We have all had songs and melodies stick in our heads so that we hum them without even realizing it – imagine if the melody stuck in your head was first heard on the tongue of an angel...)
But there were others...
At the temple, when Mary and Joseph brought their 8 day old son for circumcision they would be met by Simeon and Anna, both of whom would worship the boy. A few years past and the magi would come with kingly gifts to lay before him as they would bow down to worship him as their God and king.
But even they were not alone. Fishermen would call him Lord and God, those who doubted him would confess him as King. The blind, the lame, the sick, the sinners, the broken and despised, the lepers, the outcasts, the unclean, the demon possessed, all would fall down before him and worship him as their God and king. All would believe him to be who he said he was – the Messiah, the Son of God who came to seek and to save what was lost.
And this God, the baby carried in the womb of a virgin, born in a barn and laid in a manger, worshiped by angels and shepherds and sinners would be your Lord. He would save you from your sin so that you might also rejoice and exclaim and worship. He has come, to die, for you. He has paid for your sins, all of them, so that you might no longer call sin or Satan your lord. Jesus is God, the baby in the womb, in the manger, the man on the cross, is your Lord. Worship Him.

Advent 2 - Philippian 1:2-11

He was a soldier in the Roman army, serving his tour of duty in the city of Philippi. He had been assigned to guard the prisoners in the jail and did his duty the way any other soldier would. He knew what was expected of him and he knew the penalty if he didn't obey. So he did what he had to do.
One night he was assigned to watch the prisoners during the evening hours. There had been a disturbance in town during the day, some rabble-rousers had caused problems for a fortune teller, a slave girl, so that she couldn't tell fortunes any more and the crowd turned against them. The two trouble makers were arrested, they got their due – a good beating to cool their heads. And were thrown into prison. The soldier was given orders to keep an eye on them so he put them in the stocks in the high security area.
Usually a good beating and a night in shackles is enough to break anybody down. But these prisoners were different. Their spirits weren't broken. Far from it. They didn't argue between themselves. They didn't pass blame to each other. In fact they seemed to be perfectly okay with their plight. They even started to sing. Not the drinking songs that he was used to hearing, that most of his prisoners were familiar with. They sang hymns and psalms. He was unnerved by it. It got to him.
And then it happened. By chance there was an earthquake that shook the prison to its very foundations. Enough so that the prison doors all fell off and the prisoners were set free. In the quake something must have landed on the guard's head so that he blacked out. When he came-to he saw the doors hanging off their hinges and he knew what had happened. Surely by now the prisoners were all long gone and he was going to be answerable. He knew the penalty. Any prisoner gets away and he had to pay for it with his life. Easier and probably less painful to do the job himself so he got out his sword and prepared to take his life. But just then a voice from the inner cell called out to him to stop. It was one of the singers. “Stop.” He said, “Don't hurt yourself. We are all here.”
The jailer had all he could take. He ran in to the prison, fell at the feet of his prisoner and begged him and his friend to tell him what he must do to be saved.
The prisoners were Paul and Silas. The story was no story. It's history recorded by St Luke in the book of Acts. You can read it yourself in chapter 16. Paul and Silas traveled to the city of Philippi where they preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the city. They were arrested and imprisoned and the result of their imprisonment was the conversion of this jailer.
I imagine when Paul wrote the words of our text, the letter to church in the city of Philippi, when he mentioned how he remembered them fondly in his prayers, the name of this Roman soldier must have come to his mind. I imagine, when these words were read for the first time at the church in Philippi, the soldier and his entire family must have thought back to that night when they took this prisoner into their home to bandage his wounds; how taught them about a man named Jesus who was God and who died to save them from their sins, and how he baptized them as believers in Jesus for their Salvation.
In our text, Paul mentions a “good work” that God began. That night was the beginning of the “good work” that Paul mentions here in our Epistle reading for today, the good work that was begun by the Holy Spirit in the heart and life of this soldier through the preaching of God's word and through his conversion to faith in Jesus. And Paul says that he who began that good work would be faithful, that he would see that good work through to the end, through to the end of his life and to the very last day when Jesus would return in Glory to judge the living and the dead.
And it was a good thing too, because it wasn't easy to be a soldier in the roman army. Roman soldiers were pagans. They worshiped pagan gods. They believed in luck and fortune telling. They wanted to stay alive and so they looked for help from any spirit or god they thought could give them help. They were a rough and tumble bunch. Not given to kindness and gentleness. You don't survive as a soldier by apologizing to people. They were immoral, given to prostitution and gambling and all kinds of vices. This man had his work cut out for him. But he was cut to heart by the preaching of the missionary and so he repented of his sin and he hoped to do better.
In that sense, in all those ways that we mentioned, the life of this Roman soldier isn't too different from our own, is it? It has been said that we live in a post Christian era. People used to believe in God, they used to know and respect Jesus. They used to know and respect what it means to be a follower of Jesus. These days, people don't care. They care to be spiritual, mind you, but Buddhism, mysticism, neo-paganism, is all just as good as any other kind of religion. We live in a immoral society. Janet Jackson, Britney Spears, Madonna, and now Adam Lambert have all flaunted their sexuality and dared us to condemn them. People these days are dishonest, likely to steal if given the opportunity, likely to cheat if they know they can get away with it. Likely to lash out at you if you would dare to tell them they are wrong. The more the world changes the more it stays the same. Wouldn't you agree?
So Paul gives those comforting words to the soldier and his family struggling to remain pure and blameless and excellent and praiseworthy in a world that is immoral and impure and filthy. “He who began the good work will also see it to completion.” He who called you to faith, who brought you to faith who raised you from the death of unbelief and gave you the new life of faith will keep you alive, resuscitate you if he has to, give you spiritual mouth to mouth to keep you living and breathing as a child of God until the day of Jesus.
That was good news for the Philippians. That is good news for us. God does not leave us to ourselves. He who called us to faith has promised to keep us in that faith through to the very end.
This past week we have all witnessed the melt down of Tiger Woods as evidence has come out to suggest infidelity in his marriage. One who seemed so straight and controlled seems to have a dark side. In truth, we should not be surprised. Tiger Woods is a sinner, the way any one of us is a sinner. Tiger is enormously successful. An abundance of the world's goods attracts an abundance of the world's temptations. Any one of us in the same situation might very well do the same thing.
Consider King David, a man after God's own heart, who had a similar indiscretion with Bathsheba – even going so far as to murder her husband to cover his sin. If there had been super market tabloids in his day, imagine what the headlines would have been. Imagine the news reporters who would have camped outside his home to catch a glimpse or uncover a little bit more dirt. The more the world changes, the more it stays the same.
The truth is, Roman Soldiers, Kings and Giant killers, professional golfers, and every day people like you and me all need Christ's forgiveness. We all do stupid things that we know we shouldn't do. We all are a hair's breadth away from our own scandal. We all need the forgiveness and healing and restoration that is ours only through the power of the One who is faithful, who does not abandon us, but sees us through, faithfully keeping to that good work that he began in us so long ago, promising to bring it to it's completion at the very end.
David had his scandal. God did not leave him to flounder in his sin. Instead God mercifully sent the prophet Nathan to him to convict him of his wrong, to uncover his wickedness (which is sure to have been painful) and then to restore him. The Spirit that David had denied, had refused to give up so easily. He stayed with David. He pierced his heart with his own guilt and crushed his spirit with his own shame. But, David wrote, “Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart oh God and renew a right spirit within me.”
In our text Paul mentions that he pray for the Philippians. He gives the content of that prayer. “That your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Christ Jesus to the glory and praise of God.”
There's a lot there. There is much that is of significance and importance. Allow me break it down for you.
It is Paul's desire that the lives of the Philippian Christians be changed. Whether you were a soldier in the Roman army, a merchant, a common laborer or a slave, life was filled with temptations. Paul did not want them to give way to those temptations – he wanted them to be pure and blameless. But that doesn't just happen – not when sinful people live in a sinful world. That only happens with Jesus. That only happens when the one who began the good work sees it through to the end. The only way to make it happen, the only way to be filled with love, to be pure and blameless, to possess that knowledge and discernment, the only way to be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, is to be where Jesus Christ is. Where he has promised to be for you.
David said, “Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean.” he was referring to the rites of temple sacrifice. The priests would sprinkle the worshipers with blood from the sacrifice with a branch from a hyssop tree. David, when he was caught in his sin, when he was guilty and shamed and broken, went to church. God restored his heart and made him new.
In the same way, Christians go where God has commanded them to go, Christians go where God has promised He will be: in church. In the means of grace. In the preaching and the reading of the Word. In the absolution. In baptism. In the Lord's Supper. Release from bondage to sin, restoration to life as God's child comes through God's forgiveness given out where he promises to give it. We come here. We confess our sins. God takes them from us and we are made whole.
This world is a minefield of temptation. Any soldier in God's army has their work cut out for them if they hope to make it through without stepping in something that will blow up in their face. So we do our best to navigate our way through the temptations, searching the Word of God for wisdom and discernment to keep us safe along the way. But we are careless. We are foolish. We fall to temptations that hurt us and would destroy us. But God heals. God restores. Through the blood of Jesus shed for us on the cross we are once again made whole. May we be, all the days of our lives, where Jesus is for us.

Amen.

Pentecost 24

And as Jesus came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings! And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
This is our text.

“What great stones” remarked one of the disciples, as they made their way out of the Jerusalem temple. They had just come from the temple, a structure that began construction under King Herod the Great about 20 years before the birth of Christ and took about 80 years to complete. As Jesus and his disciples were there for their visit on that day, the temple would have still been in the midst of construction. But the stones were magnificent – some of them as large as 37 feet long, 18 feet wide, 12 feet high. Polished smooth and then decorated with gold. They would have been a site to behold. Beautiful and impressive. They were taken by the beauty of the construction.
Surely you have had that experience before. Perhaps you were visiting a friend, attending church with them on a Sunday after a brand new construction – and they were walking you through, giving you the guided tour. Explaining the long process of coming up with a building plan, describing the construction phases and then proudly displaying the finished product. The experience must have been similar yet perhaps on a lesser scale for those disciples on that day.
Typically you and I are impressed with new constrictions, with brick and mortar, plaster and stone. Jesus was not. He acknowledged their beauty and the fine craftsmanship. Indeed they were impressive. But they would not stand. Not forever. The day was soon to come when those magnificent stones were thrown down and the temple would stand in ruins.
Jesus was speaking as a prophet. The Jerusalem temple would be destroyed. The Romans would pull it apart only about 40 years after Jesus stood there on that day. Perhaps the disciple who asked the question would have been there to witness it. But that was not the point. Nor is it the point for us. The thing that gives beauty to the walls of a house of worship is not the skill of the craftsman who assembled them. Nor is it the stones, the windows, these days we might even add the technology. Rather what gives God's house its beauty is the Word of God that is spoken inside it. Temples, cathedrals, basilicas and churches rise and fall, they come and go. But it is the Word of the Lord that stands forever.
Many of you surely recall the old church building that used to stand just down the way. Is was nice in its time. It served its function and purpose but needed to be replaced. And so our current building was constructed. But there was much in that old building worthy of remembering. Even the stained glass window has been preserved here for us to look at and remember. And now we have our current facility. Every time I have the pleasure of guiding someone through it for the first time, to a person they remark at how beautiful it is.
This is good. A house of worship should be beautiful. After all, remember what happens here. Remember whose house this is. This is not a tool shed, nor is it simply an assembly hall. This is sacred space where God comes to deliver his gifts of forgiveness to us. When we gather together here it is for “Divine Service” - the Divine, serving us. God comes to serve us in His Word and Sacraments. God comes to wash away our sins and to bless us with eternal life. This is, as we pray, a “foretaste of the feast to come”. That is to say, Christian worship is the appetizer for the feast of heaven.
Perhaps you do that for your family feasts. In a few weeks you will sit down with your family around your thanksgiving table. Some times the family chef allows some of the goodies to be served before hand to stave off the hunger pains and whet the appetites for the feast to come. This is what God does in true Christian worship. He serves us from His table. It's not about what we do – our singing, our praising, our praying. Not what the pastor does: how good he is at writing or making public presentations. It's what God does. We might perform these activities, but it is because they are His that he commands; things that we do, but as we do them He is in them working through them to serve us and forgive us. Every Sunday, God, our serving god, our giving god, ties on his apron and assembles his collection of serving utensils so that he can give us a feast of forgiveness.
The thing that makes this happen, that brings all of this about, is not the building, it is not the people, it is not our singing or our praying or our sincerity or excitement. What makes this house a house of worship, what makes these people God's people, what makes us the Church, is best said by the Augsburg Confession: “The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered.”
It's the Word of God. His Gospel taught according to how it is given in His Word. His sacraments according to how they are commanded in his word. We teach the Word of God, We preach the Word of God and as a result these walls are beautiful.
But we often get confused. How tempting it is to lay these truths aside. How tempted we are to believe that its the shine and the polish on the stones that makes this house God's house. How tempted we are to think that if we want our church to be successful in its mission we need something other than the pure and true Word of God.
I have been to churches with impressive buildings. Brand new, polished and shined. Top of the line fixtures and technology, lighting and chairs. The aesthetic experience was as good as any theater you would attend for a show or a concert.
I have been to churches where the members were intentionally friendly – there was a team of people coached to look for visitors. They walk right up to you, shake your hand, introduce you to people, give you information, point you to the bathrooms, the coat rooms, invite you to the upcoming church activities. All good things.
I have been to churches where there is a high level of enthusiasm among the members. They are pumped up and excited and happy to be there and eager to see their church advance and grow. The are enthusiastic in their worship and in their singing.
I have been to churches where their news and notes are thick with pages and announcements for all the activities and programs that they have going on during the week. There are programs for men, for women for youth for children, for singles, for couples, for couples with kids, for everything you could imagine.
All these things are good things. They are worthwhile things. It is good for churches to have shiny new buildings. This can be a great blessing. It is good when church members are zealous and eager and excited. It can be good when churches offer many actives and programs for people to be involved in. But while these things are good, they are not the church. Why is it that we so often think that they are the church? Why is it that when we visit a church we come away impressed by all these extras? Why do we come away from church and the thing that sticks in our minds is all that other stuff. The extra stuff, the un important stuff. Why don't we focus on the Word of God?
God's Word does two things. It tells us about our sin. It tells us about our savior. When we go to church, those are things we should be looking for, eager to hear, celebrating.
Consider this, when you go to church, listen for the Word of God. Listen for God's word of Law that points out your sin. In our worship we often begin with a confession of sin. We tell God that we have sinned against him in our thoughts in our words and in our actions. We confess our guilt before him and ask him for forgiveness.
There are many who will tell you that if you want your church to grow, if you want to attract new members you should throw that part of the service away – it makes people feel bad about themselves. If we are honest with ourselves, we will admit that it really only tells us what we already know. We have sinned. We have sinned against each other and we have sinned against God. The Word of God tells us this and we know it in our hearts. When we come to church, when we come to meet God, we tell him what He already knows and what he has told us in His Word. We tell him that we have sinned.
But our sin is not the focus of our worship. We don't come simply to admit that we have messed things up. We come to hear about God's forgiveness. Remember, God's word does two things. Telling us about our sin is only the first thing. It is that second thing that is really amazing.
God's Word tells us about our Savior. God's Word tells us about what God has done for us to erase that problem of sin. God's Word tells us that God has not held that sin against us. He has chosen to deal with us in mercy and compassion. He has given to us His promise that He loves us and that he will bring us to heaven, that he has reserved us for eternal life. We come to church to receive from God the fruits, the results of that promise.
God did not leave us to manage our sin by ourselves. That's what the government does: they tell you that you have broken the law, that you owe taxes, and then you have to fix the problem yourself. You have to fix what you have broken and set right what you have done wrong. That's not what God does. God takes your wrong and he does it right. He makes it right. He sent Jesus to do what is right for you. To live the right and righteous life in your place. And then, all of that wrong that you have done, all those sins that you confessed at the beginning, even the ones you forgot to confess or perhaps didn't care to confess, he has taken care of them too.
This place. These walls, the house, this is the place where God has invited you to come. We built the building, we keep it up and running with our work and our effort, but God has set it aside as His house, his forgiveness place. This house is the location where God has said, I will be here for you every time you come. Ever sin that you carry through the doors will be piled up on Jesus. He died to pay for it. In exchange, say the Lord, the God of Heaven, I will give you forgiveness and eternal life and salvation.
This house is a forgiveness house. This house is God's house. This house is the place where the Word of God is in full operation.
You want to talk beauty? You want to talk magnificence? You want to talk glory and splendor? Don't get dazzled by shiny rocks flickering lights. Look to the Word of God; the Word of God that diagnoses your sin and then in the next moment scoops it up to forgive you for all of it. Look for the Word of God that delivers to your ears the forgiveness of Jesus and the Eternal life that we have in his name.
Amen.

Pentecost 23

Truly I say to you that this poor widow put in more than all the others who were contributing to the treasury. For they all contributed from their abundance. But she from her poverty contributed all she had, the whole of her life.

So how much do you give? When you put your offering in the plate on Sunday morning, how much have you put in? Is it a lot? A little? Have you given freely and willingly? Have you held something back? How much do you put in?
And don't think I am talking about currency. Our coins and dollar bills have numbers on them to rank them in order of their value. Pennies and nickels and dimes. 5's, 10's and 20's. We count them up. We collect them. We store them away for when we think we might need them. We keep careful track of them – where we spend them, how much of them we have spent and how many of them we have left over. We compare how many of them we have versus how many of them we think we may need. And then comes Sunday morning. Time to put some of those hard earned and easily spent dollars into the offering plate. How many do we put in? How many can we afford to do without? How many have you put in?
When we begin to think about our offerings to God and to the church we always ask the wrong question. We think that the amount has to do with the little numbers in the corner of the bill – is it a 5, a 20, a 50 or even a 100? God doesn't care about those numbers. While those numbers mean everything to us, they mean nothing to God. God, after all doesn't have a buget. He doesn't need to save up for things. He doesn't need to earn things. Everything is already his to begin with. Our currency and the numbers we put on it don't impress God at all. Rather what impresses God is what is found in your heart. When you count up those dollar bills and place a few of them in the offering plate how much of your heart, how much of yourself have you placed into that envelope. That is the real question. That is the question that God is interested to answer.
In our Gospel reading for today Jesus and his disciples were witnessing the contributions given to the temple treasury. There were receptacle placed around the temple where people could come and deposit their gifts. Many, in a show of their abundant means and their great wealth, not to mention their supposed religious devotion, placed large sums into the treasury. (How impressive must that have been?) Yet Jesus was unmoved by their giving. Yes he saw what they gave, but more than that, Jesus saw what they did not give, Jesus saw what they held back in their hearts. And then a poor widow came to the temple treasury. She had two small copper coins in her hand. The sum total of her subsistence. She placed both in the temple treasury. Both of her coins. Every last penny she had to her name, the whole lot of it, she gave into the temple treasury.
We might pause to ask ourselves why. What was the point of giving those coins? Their value was small. Two pennies wouldn't do the temple much good, they wouldn't cover the cost of maintaining its building and structure. They wouldn't pay the wage for the priests. They would likely get lost in the shuffle. And for that matter, why give both of them? She had two. Why not give one and keep the second to buy a piece of bread?
Jesus knew. He understood her motive. He understood the reason for her gift. Again, Jesus was not impressed with the amounts, with the numbers, with the accounting of the coins. This woman was not giving her coins to God. She was not counting up the dollars and sense the way that we do. She gave herself. Everything she had. She held nothing back. She gave her gift to God and she gave it all. While everyone else at the temple was impressed with the numbers, Jesus was impressed with the heart.
So how about you? How much do you give? Today in our Stewardship Sunday, our pledge Sunday. Our board of Stewardship is interestd to encourage you to think about your gift to God – not just the amount. Not just the number printed on the paper that you put into the envelope. What is the condition of your heart? How much of your self have you put in to that envelope or offering plate? Have you given your all?
Let's be honest – with ourselves and with God. We haven't even come close. And I am not talking about the numbers on the bills or on the checks that you have put in. I am here talking about our hearts. We haven't even come close to giving our selves, our hearts, to God. We have held back.
These are lean economic times. I saw in the news paper that unemployment is up to 10%. That makes us nervous. That makes us feel like we have to
Stewardship sermons are always offensive to people. The pastor is going to tell me I have to give more money. Maybe we are paying him too much. Maybe we are paying too much for the school, for the teachers, to the district and synod. We might not have raised our hand either way at the voters meeting, but we still cast our ballot with our dollars.

Our currency
Every Five? Ten? Fifty? One Hundred dollars a week? Have you given enough? Could you or perhaps should you give more?
The widow in our text today gave everything. If only we could say the same...
Today is our pledge Sunday. Our Board of Stewardship has made it its intention to assist our members in planing for their gifts to God and to the Church. We do that by means of a pledge Sunday. You get a card. You fill it out and put it in an envelope. We store it away for you here at the church and send it back so you can test yourself against your pledge. Some of you will participate. Some will not. Either is fine; God does not command us to pledge. He does not even command an offering from us at all. It is up to your freedom as a Christian to decide if you will give, let alone to decide what you will give. And so we pledge. Whether you have written it down on a card to place in a box or whether you have just determined in your own heart what you will give, what have you pledged? Have you given enough?
Usually when we consider that question, we think in incremental terms. We measure out our gifts by counting coins and percentage points. We think if we give up to and including these certain amounts than we can say that we have given enough. We think that we can claim that we have done our part. Usually what we really mean, usually what we are too ashamed to say, is that I don't have to do or give any more. I have done my part, now you do yours.
Faith doesn't talk that way.
Faith doesn't count and measure. Faith doesn't weigh and compare. Faith simply receives from an empty hand and then responds with thanks. Faith says to God, “I have nothing. You have given everything.” Faith says to the neighbor, “God has given to me. Therefor I will give of myself to you.”
Notice the example of the widow. She made her way to the temple and placed her offering into the temple treasury. She was not the only one who came that day. There were others. Many bringing large gifts and ostentatiously placing them into the receptacle, wanting to attract attention for their large sums that they were giving. Jesus was not impressed with large their amounts and their outward demonstrations. The widow came with everything she had – two small copper coins. A few pennies, a she put them both in the temple treasury. Jesus took note of her gift. Because Jesus knew that while her gift was small compared to the large sums given by the wealthy, her gift was greater because she gave everything she had.
The question I would like to put before you today is this; why? Why did she give? It certainly wasn't because the temple couldn't do without her gift. After all, how much can you do with a few pennies. They weren't going to use the money to hire another priest or add a new wing. It probably wouldn't have even have paid for a loaf of the show bread that they used in their offerings. What good would her offering do for the temple? No, that wasn't why she gave. She didn't give because she thought her gift was necessary for the temple.
Also notice the amount that she gave. Mark distinctly tells us that she had 2 pennies. Not just one. She had 2. She gave them both. Surely she could have gotten by with given only one. Surely she would have had good reason to with hold one of her pennies – she needed it for her next meal. But she didn't. She was poor – had 2 pennies to her name. She went to the temple and gave both to the treasury, offered both to God. Why?
Jesus tells us why. You and I are limited in our understanding and in our knowledge. We could not determine why. But Jesus was able and he tells us. She gave her whole life.
Our translation tells us that she gave all she had to live on. This is true, but this is not the most literal translation – the text literally says that she gave “the whole of her life”. She held nothing back and she gave everything.
Oh yes, we might be tempted to say but that was easy for her. She didn't have that much to part with in the first place. I have a church worker friend who sat through a congregational budget meeting with a man who worked as an executive in a large corporation. The executive told my friend that it was easier for him to tithe since he didn't earn that much. He had a smaller check to write – True. But he also had less left over.
In a sense the man was right, however. It is easier to part with your money when you are poor. It's like Jesus says, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Rich people have more stuff, more baggage that they feel compelled to carry with them. They have worked too hard collecting it all to let it slip away so quickly. You and I fall into that same category. When we consider our offering we spend too much time worrying about what we have left when we are done. God takes his cut. Uncle Sam takes his. Everything else gets divvied up between the banks and the credit card companies.
So Jesus commends the woman for her gift, meager though it was, of two small coins. She gave more than all the other because she gave from her poverty while they gave from their abundance.
The difference is faith. When you are rich it is easy to put your faith in your bank account. It is easy to believe that you are safe and secure because you have enough money to bail you out of trouble. When you are poor all you have is faith. All you have is God. All you have is God's promise that He is good. That he will feed you, that he will clothe you, that he will shelter you. This woman believed God's promise and she put her life, the whole of it, securely into God's hands. How about you?
While we might be impressed with the example of the widow, how she gave everything and held nothing back, while she completely put her life in the hands of God, lets consider the greater example of Jesus. If the widow was completely in the hands of God, Jesus was and more so.
Jesus placed himself in the hands of his father – completely and totally. Jesus was raised in the house of a carpenter. His father taught him the trade of wood work and surely Jesus could have a career of this. He could have earned a living wage and had a house and food and family. But he did not. Jesus did not come to earn a living for himself, he came to earn life for you. So instead of a house, a business, a job, Jesus lived his life completely in the hands of His Father.
Setting aside his hammer and saw and lathe Jesus took up the vocation of Messiah. Not a well paying occupation – infact not even a paying vocation. Surely there were supporters and donors who provided him with food to eat and a place to stay when he had need. But day to day, Jesus had no home, no steady income, no promise of a meal for today let alone tomorrow. Jesus was completely dependent upon the mercy and goodness of God. And God provided for him what he needed. Likewise will God provide for you.
But Jesus is far more than merely an example of faithful living and the goodness of God. Jesus is our Saviour. The reason why Jesus placed himself into God's hands and set aside all possessions and income was so that he might be the one who earns for us the forgiveness of sins.
Again, Jesus placed himself comletely and totally in God's hands. And look where that got him. It was God's will that Jesus, not only do without earthly comforts, not only suffer from hunger and thirst and cold. But that he suffer the very wrath and anger of God. Jesus felt the full force of God's anger for sin. Jesus stood in our place to face the anger of God at a world of sin so that we could be set free.
Jesus died on the cross for you.
We hold things back. We keep things for ourselves. We horde and guard. We foolishly think this hording and guarding preserves us and our life, that it provides our security. Jesus set all o these things and he suffered what we fear the most – being completely hung out to dry being completely helpless and alone. But he did it for you.
God's promise to you is this. Follow Jesus into his selflessness, follow him into his willingness to place hiimself entirely into the hands of the heavenly Father and he will care for you.

He will provide for you. He will not allow you to go hungry. He will provide for you moer than
For those times that you are selfish, for those times that you are too tied to your job, for those times that you have held back parts of your self and your income, for those times that you have



You and I are guilty of placing our confidence in our possessions and income. Jesus did not. He could not. After all, being the Messiah was not exactly a well paying vocation. Jesus was poor. As he said, he didn't even have his own bed to sleep in. He didn't own a pillow for his head, let alone a house, a horse, a business. He owned the clothes on his back and was at the mercy of others for their generosity to provide him with meals and a place to stay.
Yes, you might say, but Jesus was God. Whenever he wanted he could feed thousands with only a few loaves. Surely he could feed himself in a pinch. Yet when presented with that very opportunity, when tempted by Satan to turn stones into bread, he could have but he did not. Jesus chose to go hungry and to suffer rather than use his divine power to serve himself. Jesus was not, nor was he ever concerned to use his power, his authority, his glory for his own comfort or advantage. Jesus was always and ever a servant.
Consider also his clothing. God in his goodness has given to you and to me closets filled with clothes of many styles and colors and textures. Jesus had the clothes on his back


Amen.