When It Seems the Great Physician Won't Heal - Mark 1:29-34

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

I have spent a great deal of time, over the years, with the sick, the dying, and their families. We’ve been together in their homes, in care facilities, in hospice centers and in funeral homes. After hundreds of these visits, I have come to expect this question: “Why isn’t God healing me or my loved one?” If we’re in a funeral home, the question is slightly different: “Why didn’t God heal my loved one?” Sometimes, there are other questions – sometime spoken, sometimes left hidden in the shadows of the mind: Is God unable to heal me? Does He not care how much Dad hurts? Did my son do something so terribly wrong in this life that he had to suffer so much?

I want you to know that I do not believe these are questions that come from a lack of faith, or from someone who is doubting the love, or mercy, or grace of God that is given to us in Christ. This is not a Christian denying the baptismal covenant given to them in water and word. It’s not a Christian telling the Holy Spirit to get out. No…these questions are asked from faith while staring full-on into the harsh reality of life in a fallen world. It’s recognizing that we, as Christians, live under the cross of Christ.  These kinds of questions say, in effect, “I know and believe these things are true: that God loves me and does not desire my death and suffering; that Christ suffered once and for all and made satisfied God’s anger against sin; that, by faith, Christ’s Easter victory is given to all who trust the promises of God.” Faith speaks the “amen” and the “this is most certainly true.”  

But we still are human beings who live in a world that is fallen. We see all around us where the promises of God collide with the devastation of the post-fall world. So faith says, “God is the great physician of body and soul,” but hospitals are full of people in pain. Faith says, “Christ suffered, once for all,” but you  or Christians whom you know wrestle with breaking marriages, depression and anxiety, and bodies wracked with pain. Baptized into Christ, faith says that Christ’s victory is mine and death has been conquered, but when a mom or dad, a husband or wife, a son or daughter is lying in the ICU and the doctors say, “I’m sorry…there is nothing more we can do,” in moments like these where faith and life seem to collide, and our very lives and the lives of our loved ones are at the breaking point, we simply pray, “Lord have mercy.”

And so when we hear this morning’s Gospel reading where Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law, we are quick to listen with both hope and with envy. And when we hear that all of the city were bringing their sick and demon-possessed friends and family members to Jesus and he healed them, we wonder if the same mercy might be extended to us today. Should we become critically, life-or-death ill, God will miraculously heal us so that lives can continue on, uninterrupted. If only God would do this miraculous act and heal my wife, my daughter, my daddy…if only.

If only… Have you noticed the number of free-standing emergency rooms and clinics around? Back in Houston, it seems every neighborhood now has some kind of health care place. A friend of mine is friends with a doctor who owns a partnership in a ER. He said they need about 8 patients a day to break even on costs. This doctor then told my friend that since the first week they opened, they average twice that each day. It’s not just there. I’ve been to hospitals to see sick members when the ER waiting room was standing room only. Think of the hundreds of people just in Victoria suffering with the flu right now. There are almost a dozen funeral homes in town, each one with services already pending for this week. Wouldn’t it be great if Jesus would just step in and stop all of this – put the ER, the hospital, the hospice, and the funeral home all out of business?

It is tempting to turn Jesus into this Messiah-as-healer. But, I want you to notice something in this morning’s Gospel lesson: Jesus doesn’t stay there in Capernaum. While he was by himself the next morning, praying, his disciples found him with the news that everyone is looking for him. There are more who are sick; more who need Jesus miraculous care; more who are dying without His intervention.

Jesus answers the disciples with this statement: “Let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” He leaves behind those who were suffering with illness and ailments, with aches and pains, with deadly disease, and with some already at death’s doorstep. He leaves them all behind.

People ask me if I have Bible passages that I struggle with. This is one. It sounds so cold…so callous…so unloving and unlike Jesus. I mean, doesn’t Jesus have some kind of divine Hippocratic Oath that he has to do this? No –That’s not why he came. He didn’t come to heal everyone from their sicknesses and illnesses in this lifetime. He didn’t come to restore bodies to health. He came to allow His body to carry our sins with Him to His own death on the cross. The way Jesus heals, the way Jesus silences demons, the say Jesus shuts the grave is to die, Himself.

But first, Jesus has to preach. He must tell that this is His purpose, His mission: to be the Savior for whom the world had long waited. He must move on so others can hear, so others can believe. The miracles are important, but their importance is not the miracle in and of itself. The miracles demonstrate His God-ness, His divinity. Only God can do such a thing, and His doing the miraculous healing shows the people He is God in flesh, Immanuel, Messiah – the Christ – that Israel has long waited for. He comes to preach, to declare He is this One. That the Kingdom has arrived in His ministry. That He must suffer and die and be raised. That He will take all of our sicknesses, all our frailties, all our weaknesses that are a result of the fallenness of our bodies and the fallenness of this world and He will take each and every one to the cross. And He will die your death. And He will defeat it into eternity. The miracles are evidence of the new creation that will be restored. They are precursors, sneak peaks of His resurrection, when He – the Creator and Redeemer of the World – begins restoring Creation again.

You see, the irony is that every one of those people whom Jesus healed in Capernaum, every one of them eventually did die – whether it was from another illness, or an accident, or simply old age: every one of those people died.

But His preaching – His preaching gives life that cannot be taken away.  By the power of the spirit of God, who is active in the written, read, and preached word of Jesus Christ – whether it was on a hillside in Capernaum 2000 years ago, or in the Valley of Mission today, the preaching of Jesus gives life that cannot be taken away.

I started by sharing the question, “Why isn’t God healing” or “Why didn’t God heal?” If this is you – if you have ever asked that question, I want you to hear this: it isn’t God’s desire that you are sick. He doesn’t cause disease. Illness isn’t a punishment from God. Rather, God has all things under his control. I cannot tell you why He may be allowing these things to happen – the “why” is hidden from us all, and we are foolish to dare hazard a guess. Reconsider the question: Is God healing? Yes. Maybe, according to His divine will, you’ll be like Peter’s mother in law and, after a couple days, get back up and moving. Maybe it will take longer and it might include painful surgeries and treatments before it happens. Because we don’t know, we follow in the footsteps of those people of Capernaum, and we carry our sick and ill to the Lord in prayer, placing them at the feet of Jesus, asking for His divine intervention and grace. And, it is also possible, that it is the Lord’s will that you fall asleep in Jesus. But even here, the Lord is still at work. Pastor Guido Merkins, a retired Lutheran pastor in San Antonio, was fond of saying, God will heal you of every disease and illness except one: that is what He will use to take you into eternity with Himself.” And, on that day, He will reach down to you – as He did to Peter’s mother in law, and take you by the hand and raise you up from your grave. And, in that moment, all of the prayers for health and healing that you spoke or others uttered for you, all will be answered with a “yes” in your own resurrection.

So, carry them - your parents and your children; your sons and your daughters; your brothers and sisters; your friends and co-workers – all of those who have requested your prayers, faithfully carry them to Jesus and pray, “Thy will be done.” Know that even before you have uttered these prayers, in faith, they are already known by God, for Jesus has already carried your tears, and hurts, and petitions, and requests to His Father on your behalf. He has heard them and He has done something about them all: He died, and rose, and lives. And, buried and raised with Christ, this is true of all of God’s baptized children as well. You know this. Believe it.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Christ Silences the Devil's Distraction - Mark 1:21-28

Audio file

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Magicians practice the art of prestidigitation. It’s a fancy word for magic tricks. Prestidigitation. Do you hear the word, “digit” in there? Prestidigitation comes from Latin through French and it means “quick fingers.” That’s what a magician does. With his quick fingers, he does his illusions to make you think something is happening. Prestidigitation is all about misdirection. The magician wants you to focus on this hand so that you don’t realize the other hand is doing something. You are an unwilling participant: You focus so hard on the misdirection that you miss what is really taking place. Is it magic? No…it’s quick-fingers that lead you away from what is true so you see what the magician wants you to see. Prestidigitation.

Satan likes to do something like this. He doesn’t use magic, of course, but he will do whatever he can to cause you to take your eyes off of Jesus. He will do it by hook or by crook, by using his own wicked powers, the world in which we live, our friends and family, and even our own inborn sinful nature. Any time he can get us to look somewhere other than Jesus, or listen to someone other than Jesus, or obey something other than Jesus, he wins – or, he thinks he wins.

This morning’s Gospel lesson gives us a very powerful example of how he did this in the form of a man who has an unclean spirit. Boy – that’s something that will get the attention diverted, won’t it? I mean, there is something…well, otherworldly about the demonic. It strikes our curiosity. Movies and TV shows get the heart pumping with a fear-injected, turbo-charged boost of adrenaline coursing through our body and mind. Characters search for endoplasmic residue with proton packs and ghost traps, using high-tech cameras to discern the presence of the departed in homes, businesses and – yes – even in 18 wheelers (thank you Kevin Bacon and Maximum Overdrive).  It works; it sells.

So, instead of focusing on the side-show, let us turn our attention to Jesus instead. In this morning’s Gospel lesson, Jesus is teaching in Capernaum in their synagogue. In a synagogue, like a local church or chapel, the Scriptures would be read. If a rabbi were available, he would then expound and teach about the text. It was a cross between a sermon and Sunday school. Rabbinic tradition was important in that day and age, and because the teaching was oral, rabbis would cite their favorite rabbis to demonstrate the expertise of the teaching.

Jesus’ teaching, though, is different. He teaches as one who has authority, Mark records, not having to cite other rabbis. He doesn’t need to include footnotes in his sermon or a bibliography in his bulletin. When He teaches, He doesn’t have to say, “Here’s what I think.” Every time He opens His mouth, He can say, “This is most certainly true.” Where rabbis would teach about God’s word, Jesus is the very Word of God in flesh.

You recall John the Baptizer’s ministry. St. Mark simply says, “John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mk. 1:4). John’s preaching preparing people for the reign of God in Christ; God’s rule in the coming Messiah. Now, as Jesus begins His ministry, the Kingdom of God has arrived. The Kingdom is present in that Capernaum synagogue. Without their realizing it, the Scriptures are being fulfilled in their very presence as Jesus reads and preaches to them. The Word, in flesh, has made His dwelling among them. What does He preach? If His Easter sermon to the Emmaus disciples is any indication, He takes the text and, tracing through the Law, the Writings and the Prophets, he connects the Biblical dots to Himself and His ministry so that the people of Capernaum might know and believe that the Messiah has come. 

And the devil hated every second of it. He hated that the poor in spirit were being enriched. He hated that those who were mourning Israel’s faithlessness were being filled with joy in these words. He hated that people who were hungering and thirsting for righteousness were being filled and empty cups were overflowing. The devil needed to do something to stop this…this…this faithfulness in receiving Jesus’ words!

St. Mark says, “And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the holy one of God!”

Christian missionaries and pastors in Africa tell us that there are far more demonic possessions in their country than the United States. These things don’t happen, by and large, in the United States. African pastors say that the devil doesn’t need to do these dramatic things here. Why break out the big stuff when he gets such great results with something much more sneaky and subversive?

Some of it seems so harmless and mundane: the coach calls for practice on Sunday morning so you can’t go to church. An unexpected project takes up our personal devotion and prayer time. We are surrounded by images on screen and in print that glorify the sexuality of the human body in the name of “art” while degrading the gift of husband and wife to each other.

Other times it rears its sinister and ugly head and we see it for the evil that it is: Children are treated worse than animals and locked in a basement. This past week, two angry teenagers felt that murdering classmates was a perfectly good strategy to deal with their anger and hurt. We are taught that if you want something, get it by any means necessary – even if you have to beg, borrow, steal or murder. We see people scream at each other; love for others is left behind; selfishness is fueled, grudges are held and honed to a razor’s edge. And we – the people of God – stand in the middle of it, in the world but not of the world – and see the chaos around us. It is so easy to get caught up in it, to get wrapped up in it, and be distracted by it so that we lose sight of the one who can rescue us from this world: Jesus.

Jesus entered into this very chaos to put satan back into his place. He comes to establish the Kingdom of God and put down the kingdom of darkness. He comes to destroy the destroyer. He speaks truth to the father of lies. He comes to rescue and save.

This is why Jesus entered Capernaum’s synagogue: to face satan’s lies and distractions, to silence the lies and return order to creation. With a Word, Jesus silences the man with the unclean spirit. Jesus is able to speak for Himself; He is able to show His own power and authority – He doesn’t need the devil to do it for him, or to mislead those gathered. Jesus speaks again and the evil spirit is driven out. This demonstrates Christ’s power, not only in Word but also in action. In that moment, Jesus is showing that the Kingdom of God is truly present and that He has come to establish His throne.

It’s not much of a throne, really. It’s made of rough wood. The throne isn’t housed in a palace. It’s driven into the ground outside of the city walls. And instead of a kingly crown of gold, He will wear a crown of thorns. But from that throne, Jesus defeats and silences the devil eternally and restores perfect order into the world.

We’re not there, yet. While these things have all happened in Christ’s cross, we are still waiting for the fulfillment of them in His return. We live in the “now,” as we wait for the “not yet.” For a little while, the devil roars about like a hungry lion seeking whom he may devour, and he does everything he can to distract us. When your eyes are tempted, look to Jesus. When the siren songs try to pull you away, listen to Jesus. When the chaos of this world incites fear, trust in Jesus. And, when you do sin, do not despair. Turn to Jesus: confess your sins and trust in His perfect forgiveness that He won for you at that very cross. No tricks…no distractions. Simply Jesus and His promises for you.

When those people left the Capernaum synagogue, they went back out into the world, but they did so telling what they had heard and seen that day. In a few moments, you will leave this house of God and re-enter the world with all of the devil’s distractions. Do so, likewise remembering all that you had seen and heard this morning. Go back to you homes and places of work, to your restaurants and grocery stores in the sure and certain confidence that is yours in the cross of Christ. Remember your baptism and trust the promises that God made for you there. You are His; He is yours.  Nothing can separate you from Him. In His name. Amen.

The Sign of Jonah - Jonah 3:1-5, 10

Audio file

Germans have a great word for the feeling of satisfaction you have when someone else experiences pain. It’s called schadenfreude. Pleasure at pain. Let me explain.

You’re cruising along Zac Lentz loop when a turned-up Dodge Charger roars by you. A couple miles down the road, you see a DPS Trooper writing a ticket to the driver. A smile creeps across your face. That’s schadenfreude. Or, you’ve been working up the courage to ask a girl out at school when another guy swoops in and asks her out instead. Schadenfreude is what you feel when he fails his math class and his dad cancels all his future dates for a month. When your sister, who always seems to skate by, suddenly gets caught cutting corners while you get praised, you feel schadenfreude. Pleasure at someone else’s pain.  

Jonah is loaded up on schadenfreude. Here he was, a faithful Israelite, a son of Abraham, called by God to preach to the Israel’s most feared enemy, the Assyrians and in their capitol city, nonetheless. “Call out against it the message that I tell you,” God said. “Yet forty days and Ninevah shall be overthrown.”  Eight words: possibly the shortest sermon in the history of the world. Eight words…what can eight words do?

Both preachers and hearers of God’s Word know it’s majesty. God’s Word is a remarkable gift. It is all powerful. When God’s Word is spoken, everything obeys. From the “Let there be” that God thundered into the hollow nothingness in Genesis one, to the “Be still” that Jesus uttered into the winds tearing apart the Sea of Galilee; from the prophets of old to the evangelists of today who cry out “Repent,” God’s Word is powerful and active, as sharp as any two-edged sword (Heb. 4:12), containing both Law, which shows our sins, and Gospel, which shows our Savior. Together, the whole counsel of God.

At Ninevah, the eight word message from God is crystal clear:  In seven of those words, Jonah says that in forty days, Ninevah – the power center of the Assyrians – will be destroyed. That is the Law, remember. It is good. It is holy. It identifies the sin and the curse that will follow. The Law leaves you hopeless and without means of rescue. The Law leaves you alone.

Jonah just got to preach a wonderful message of bold, powerful, 200-proof Law to the enemies of God’s people and now he’s going to have front row seats for when God exacts his full wrathful vengeance on these terrible sinners. He, Jonah the Israelite, will get to watch Ninevah get exactly what it deserves as enemies of Israel and enemies of God. Schadenfreude…remember?

At Ninevah, seven of the eight words from God are crystal clear Law.

But there is one word, one-eighth of the sermon, literally, just a kernel, where there is a nugget of Gospel-hope. It’s the word, “yet.” The Gospel is God’s antidote to the Law. Gospel literally means Good News, and it is the Good News that God will not leave you to the destruction you deserve. God will intervene out of His mercy for broken people and He will not let them die eternally. In His grace, He will offer forgiveness and life to people who do not deserve it.

“Yet…” That one word is the entirety of the Gospel preached by Jonah. “Yet” is not the full, fleshed out Gospel. A more accurate Hebrew translation would be “A continuance for forty more days, but then the city will be destroyed.” There is nothing about a Savior. There is nothing about Messiah who is to come. There is nothing about mercy or grace that is specifically stated. There is no connection to the promises of God made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that are waiting to be fulfilled in the fulness of time when Christ takes on flesh for us. But that one word, yet, is loaded full of the mercy of God. He does not desire Ninevah would be destroyed. His desire is that they repent, turn, change their hearts so that the entirety of His grace and mercy can be received by the people. Yet: it stands against the sure certainty of the Law and offer – literally – a word of hope.

Remember: God’s Word does what it will accomplish. The Holy Spirit, at work in the words of the prophet, does what only He is able to do: he breaks the hard hearts of the Ninevites. When the people of Ninevah hear these words of God, they repent. To demonstrate their sorrow, they put on sackcloth – think burlap – and fast from eating. The king, likewise, hears every word of Jonah’s message from God. He, too, repents and orders the nation into a state of penance where neither animal nor person eats or drinks. He calls people to repent and turn away from their sinfulness, their evilness and violence.  And then holding God to his one-word Gospel promise, he says, “Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

You are familiar with the story of Jonah and the great fish and God’s miraculous saving of Jonah. This is an even greater miracle: that they believe the Word of the Lord and trust in what is only a crumb of mercy. You notice the change of heart: it’s a complete reversal of both behavior and lifestyle, turning away from their old way of heathen living and toward God and his mercy. The change is so great that they even go above and beyond what is commanded: where God demands they turn from their evil way, the people of Ninevah demonstrate it with sackcloth and fasting. The people of Ninevah are saved – not because they suddenly become good people. They are saved because of the promise of God contained in “yet.”

Make no mistake: schadenfreude, pleasure in someone’s pain, is not just a guilty pleasure. It’s a guilty, sinful mindset and hardness of heart that stands 180 degrees contra the mercy and grace of God. Listen to the words you speak, the voice in your head as you think of other people. We watch the news to see what is happening in Washington and take satisfaction that a politician is forced to resign in shame over sexual misconduct while secretly hiding our own use of internet porn. With an arrogant high that comes from juicing on schadenfreude, we take sideways, self-righteous glances at people whose marriages are troubled, we look down our noses at parents whose children don’t behave the way ours did thirty years ago, and we self-righteously whisper, “You know…he likes his beer,” or “Her momma was that way, too,” and “what else can you expect?” all the while patting ourselves on the back for not being like those people.

What if Jonah stood here this morning and said, “Yet forty days and Mission Valley would be destroyed,”? Check your heart. More than that, repent and ask the Holy Spirit to change your heart and break its hardness toward others. We are not called to be self-righteous lawyers, building up ourselves over and against someone else’s pain.

The cure for our pleasure in someone else’s pain is God’s pleasure for us. Isaiah 53:10 says that it was the pleasure of God to crush [the Messiah]; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt….” It is the pleasure of God to substitute His only begotten, sinless Son for the sins of the world. Christ has taken your schadenfreude into himself. He, without any self-righteous arrogance, did not consider Himself above anyone. He, who humbled Himself to kneel before sinners and serve those who turned their backs to Him, yet He was obedient even unto death on the cross to die for you. It was his pleasure as God’s Son to take your pain – all of it.   

Evidence of this is in the three-day sign of Jonah. Not in Jonah being swallowed by the whale and being spit up three days later, but in Jesus being swallowed by the grave and his resurrection three days later. And now you, baptized into this sign of Jonah, this death and resurrection of Jesus, are also called - not to be a prophet, but to live out the “yet” of the Gospel. Yet, while you were still a sinner, Christ died – and rose – for you. You don’t have to go to a foreign, enemy country; you live the Gospel right here: in your home, in your place of business, where you shop, where you conduct your daily work, where you play. You, who have received mercy, are called to be distributors of mercy; providers of mercy; purveyors of the hope that is given to us to share through Christ.

I Could Have Been A Statistic: A Personal Reflection on Roe v. Wade

I Could Have Been A Statistic: A Personal Reflection on Roe v. Wade

January, 2018, marks the 44^th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States. In the four decades since then, it is estimated that over 50 million babies were not born due to elective abortion procedures.

Fifty million: it’s hard to put that number into perspective and realize how huge a population that entails. According to www.census.gov, the state of Texas has about 27 million citizens. That’s only half of the number of children who were not allowed to live since 1973. Historians speak of the great burden of deaths suffered by Great Britain during World War I. I recall reading in one of John Keegan’s books – probably The First World War – that he estimated that England lost roughly a third of her men of military age from 1914-1918 and what a great burden that placed on the nation’s recovery post-war.  Ernest Hemmingway popularized this as “The Lost Generation.” Yet, during only a four-year period (2010-2014), studied by the World Health Organization in conjunction with the Guttmacher Institute, it was estimated that roughly 25% of pregnancies were terminated by abortion (see the full article at http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(16)30380-4/fulltext). 

Unfortunately, rather than mourning the loss of 25 percent of a generation, our culture lauds this act of genocide as “freedom,” “choice,” and “rights.”  

January will also marked my 44th birthday. I was born a year and a week after the Roe decision was rendered. Even as I remember my birthday – and give thanks to God for two faithful parents who had me baptized in the hospital at 2 days of age when doctors told them I probably would not survive because I couldn’t keep food down and was losing weight rapidly – I also remember those who were not given the chance at life.

You see, I could have been part of a very sad statistic. I could have been that part of the lost generation after Roe v. Wade who did not live to be baptized. Let me explain.

One of the rationales offered by pro-choice groups is that children who are born with severe mental or physical handicaps will not have a high quality of life. Now, I realize that those terms are somewhat nebulous.  “Severe” means different things to different folks. Doctors have metrics to determine how badly challenged a person must be before labeled “mildly,” “moderately,” or “severely” handicapped. Likewise, quality of life can be rather slippery. And there are degrees of being handicapped. But, at the risk of being overly broad, because these are the terms one generally sees, I am going to use them here as well.

Thanks to modern medicine, parents can see on a sonogram a remarkably clear picture of their child in the mother’s womb. In fact, parents can have a 3-D photo made of their baby in the womb, allowing them to see amazing details of their baby ever before getting to hold the little one. In 1974 such technological wonders didn’t exist, at least not in rural Iowa where my parents lived. But, if this technology had existed then or was available, it would have shown a couple of strange things about my little body.

By definition, my body was physically handicapped. I say “by definition,” because I’ve never considered myself “handicapped.” But, no matter what I say, the fact is that my body is malformed. I was born without toes on either foot. Look down at your shoes. See where the laces end? My feet don’t make it that far. They look more like traumatically-amputated stumps than feet.  Both of my hands are dwarfed. My left hand has full fingers, but my 13-year-old son now has longer fingers than I do. Where your middle knuckles allow your fingers to bend and flex, that is where the fingers on my right hand stop. Although I can bend my right thumb, I cannot flex my right fingers at all. In the 70’s there was a medication given to some mothers who suffered from morning sickness that caused such deformities, but my mom never took that. Likewise, there is sometimes a situation where an umbilical chord can wrap itself around a body part, effectively amputating it in utero. We do not believe this was the case with me, however, for two reasons: one, two distinct areas of my body were impacted (feet and hands); and, more significantly, my younger sister had dwarfism in both of her hands as well. My birth defects seem to be genetic – a flaw, if you will, in the genetic code that makes fingers and toes. 

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that modern sonograms were available in 1974 and it showed my physical malformation. Further, and again for the sake of argument, let’s say that Mom and Dad were counseled that my quality of life would be negatively impacted because of my problems. Depending on whether the doctor was a glass half full or a glass half empty guy, the conversation could have been as bad as this: “Your son is handicapped; he might not be able to walk or run; he might never be able to throw a ball or manipulate anything with his right hand.  He will certainly be different than other children. Do you want your son growing up to be the one every other child stares at?” What if Mom and Dad agreed and decided to abort me? My family of 6, growing up, would have been a family of 5…well, perhaps 4 had they followed the same line of thinking for my sister when they discovered her situation.

I could have been one of the lost generation.

I thank God every day for a lot of things. I thank God that Mom and Dad chose to have a baby who was able to play baseball (throwing right handed!) and football (throwing left-handed); lettered in the high school marching band (making it to the state finals two years in a row); mowed acres of lawns; hauled thousands of bales of hay each summer; and walked home from school many afternoons. I’ve stood on beaches and mountains; in forests and deserts. I’ve held hands with a beautiful woman who became my wife. With tears in my eyes, I prayed that my children would be “normal,” and then I wept with joy when the sonograms showed all three of our children to have normal hands and feet, and I counted each precious finger and toe on their newborn feet multiple times to be sure we didn’t miss something. I’ve fed my children and changed plenty of dirty diapers as a result. I’m a pretty good typist – I average around 80WPM with 95+% accuracy. I enjoy woodwork and have made all sorts of things, from benches to pens and all sizes in between. All these things were done because my parents weren’t worried about my quality of life. They were simply thankful God had given them a child. The name Jonathan, incidentally, means “God gives.”

My second pair of prosthetic feet.

Talk about fast growing feet: I went from a size 13 kid's shoe to a 11E within minutes!

Don’t misunderstand me: I wouldn’t wish my hands or feet on anyone. Without toes, the shock of walking and running was directly transferred to my hips and spine. I have three herniated lumbar discs and my knees and hips are starting to hurt most days. Although I wear a full-foot prosthetic, my gait is odd.  Standing for long periods of time is uncomfortable. Buying shoes and gloves is a challenge – no one makes gloves with only inch-long fingers, so the finger-tips on the right glove flop uselessly. Over the years, plenty of people have given me “the look.” At the swimming pool, people stare when I walk by.  My nephew once quipped, “Uncle Jon – push your toes out!” While I’ve grown used to seeing a look of surprise when a stranger and I shake hands for the first time, I’ll never forget when my own toddler-aged brother bluntly asked – as only a young child could do – “What is wrong with you?”

From "crook" of right thumb to tip of pointer finger: ~2.5"

But I thank God for my hands and my feet. I see them as they are: imperfect, but part of what makes me, me. I wanted to be a Marine, but the Marines couldn’t take me because of my hands and feet. I tried the Army, the Navy and even the Air Force – no one would take me. Yet, the Lord had already taken me – hands, feet, and all my members and senses – and made me His. Called His child through Holy Baptism, He later called me into the Holy Ministry. As a pastor, I’ve stood next to newly-minted parents with their own baby, and I’ve sat next to parents, weeping, because their child died all-too-soon. My hands have poured baptismal water over a baby’s head and poured sand upon the grave of the elderly who have died in the faith. I’ve made the sign of the cross in holy absolution and in blessing.

God has given me these feet and hands – malformed, though they may be – and, in Christ, even these have been redeemed. God doesn’t see them as ugly. He sees them as beautiful, through Christ.

And one day, when Christ returns, they will be fully, completely, wholly and holy “resurrectedly” beautiful indeed.

God's Gift of Sexuality - 1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Audio file

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

A year or so ago, my brother in law, sister in law, their daughter and two sons were at church like they are every Sunday. My niece likes to take notes during the sermon, so she carried a small notebook with her and every Sunday she would dutifully record what the sermon was about. This particular Sunday, she was sitting, waiting for the pastor to begin his sermon, and with notebook open and pen in hand, she was poised for action. To her surprise – and to the surprise of everyone in the church – the pastor began by saying something like this: “I had intended to continue preaching the series that we started a couple weeks ago, but the Lord has led me to preach about sex…” My niece turned her head slightly to see her friend - the pastor’s son - slowly lower his head into his hands and watched the red color rise in his neck. She turned back towards her mom and, without breaking her stare, slowly closed her notebook and mouthed the word, “Nope…”

If any of you want normally take notes on sermons and want to close your notebooks, now is the time… The text is the Epistle lesson for today from 1 Corinthians, “The body is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord and the Lord for the body.”

By way of a quick introduction, part two, I had every intention of preaching the Gospel lesson this morning. I even helped a friend of mine by giving him my rough line of thought of what I was intending to preach about Jesus’ instruction to follow. But when it came time to put my own sermon together, it wasn’t working. Square peg; round hole. Then, it hit me…someone had stopped by and talked about concerns about a girl in the family who was going back to college and moving in with her boyfriend. “Pastor, are there any Bible verses that talk about how Christians are to live our lives before we are married?” I said, “well, yes, but nothing is coming to mind…let me get back to you.” Now – remember how I said the sermon wasn’t coming together working with the Gospel lesson? So, I shifted to look at the Epistle. It’s funny how the Lord provides. First, I sent the text to the individual who had been talking with me. Second, I started working on this text myself.

In a preaching class, a prof taught us the Grannie Rule for preaching: “If you think you ever need to use the law in a sermon to really put someone in their place, imagine it’s your grandmother on the receiving end of such a message. Would you do it?” I tell you this so that you know I am not directing this at any particular members of Zion or at extended families. I also want you to know that I have not, am not, and will not use a sermon to browbeat any individual. I can’t promise a sermon won’t make you uncomfortable – that’s what the Law does – I will not use the pulpit to “put you in your place.” But, with the help of God, we will attempt to talk about something that often isn’t talked about in churches, let alone in Christian homes: God’s gift of sexuality.

Answer this in your head: at what age do people have sex. (Repeat). What’s your best guess? 30? 20? 15? 10? When do you think people have sex?

Whatever age you guessed, let me assure you, it’s much younger than you thought.

Thanks to modern, conventional wisdom, sex is a verb, that is to say, it is something you do. Listen to how people talk about sex: euphemisms for intercourse include hooking up, making love, and “doing it.” There are other, much more colorfully graphic words, of course, and you’ve probably heard of them as well, but they don’t need to be repeated here.

Television, movies, advertisements and photos are all designed to get the heart rate elevated, eyes to wander, the mind to wonder, and the Old Adam and Old Eve to start responding at a base level. In short, they’re designed to create and then fuel lust. No Mad Men advertising executive would admit this, of course, but the reality is that if sex sells, then sin sells – and buys - this idea of sex.

Back to the question, when do people first have sex? Very shortly after conception, the chromosomes have aligned to determine whether the baby will love frogs and snails and puppy dog tails, or sugar and spice and everything nice. Your body, with your gender, is made by God for His glory. I guess I should apologize for the question about sex at the start of this sermon. I admit it: it was a deliberate misdirection, but it was done to prove a point. The point is this: we associate sex with a verb to the exclusion of forgetting that first and foremost, sex is a noun. Yes, it is a verb but, more than that, sex describes gender, the male sex and the female sex. In Genesis, God made created man in his own image; in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them (1:12), each with a unique sexual gender.

Here is where the world’s view and God’s word separate.

God gives sexuality as His gift to you, to be treasured and maintained with highest of regard, held in reserve for your spouse who, likewise, has held his or her sexuality in the same regard to be given to you in marriage.  Gift is the key word: it is from God, delivered to us, through the vehicle of our bodies. Gifts of God are to be treasured, not used lightly or in a way that is displeasing to Him. That’s true whether it’s body or belongings; vehicles in the garage or vegetables in the pantry; time or talents – they are all from God, given to us.

But the body, our sexuality, is an extra special gift of God. Baptized into Christ, redeemed by Christ, and forgiven by Christ, we are also united with Christ into Himself. Too often we think of this as just a spiritual connection – as if we can separate our body from our soul – but the entire person, body and soul, is united with Christ. We are so closely connected to Jesus through baptism, Paul says, that our body is the Spirit’s temple. He lives in us and connects us to and with Jesus. 

The world views things through fifty shades of the unholy trinity of me, myself and I. This god is worshipped, pleased and appeased above all gods – please note, this is used in the lower-cased sense. This devilish lie seeks out whatever makes the individual happy, whatever is fun, whatever feels good and it is willing to sacrifice almost anything to attain those goals, including the gift God has given you in your sexuality. Sex – heterosexual, homosexual, it doesn’t matter, not as long as it’s whenever you want, however you what, with whomever you want. It’s all about me, myself and I. Love, true self-giving, self-sacrificing love, is displaced. The gift, where sexuality is centered outside of us in God’s love, is confused with ability, and my attempting to please myself by doing what I want to do. Everything gets pushed aside, particularly caring for the gift of a sexually pure and decent life. In fact, those become punch-lines to jokes as the devil compounds his lies: everyone is doing it; it’s no big deal; how can love be wrong?; it’s not like we’re getting married or something.

But it’s not just the teens and twenties and thirty-somethings that have bought into these lies. We all have. We have surrendered God’s Word and the responsibility delivered to us as parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles.  We don’t teach our children and our grandchildren the truth of God’s gift of sexuality, leaving it up to Hollywood and the magazines in plain brown wrappers to teach. We buy the lie about “That’s old-fashioned,” or “It’s just not how it’s done.” We whine about it being uncomfortable or – really old school – we dismiss it as something that “good people don’t talk about.” As much as I love my Dad, I remember in the early 90’s, I was laying on the floor watching TV with him one night. There was a television commercial about the rising AIDS crisis. The voiceover actor said, “Kids – learn about AIDS and AIDS prevention. Ask your parents.” I rolled over, looked at my Dad and said, “OK, Dad – tell me about AIDS prevention.” He paused for a second and said, “Just be a good Christian and you won’t have to worry about it.” End of conversation. For the sake of expediency, family peace, and not wanting to be the old fuddy-duddy, we keep our mouths shut instead of speaking the truth of God’s gift of sexuality. In so doing, we also dishonor God’s Word, we dishonor God’s gift of our children and grandchildren.

In short, we are unfaithful: unfaithful to wedding vows – whether married or not; unfaithful to our spouse or future spouse; unfaithful to God who loves us enough to give us these gifts in the first place, entrusting them to us to cherish and preserve. Exposed of our sins, like Adam and Eve in the garden, we try to hide ourselves. But our Lord Christ jesus loves us too much to leave us alone in our exposed nakedness. He seeks us out and finds us and calls us to repentance.   And when He finds us, He does something remarkable: He gives His body for your body. Our bodies can only be saved by Him who gives His body and blood for us all. Jesus takes up your sins where we have sinned sexually against God, our spouse or future spouse, and even ourselves and carries each and every one to the cross. His death cleanses your body of your sin. His body is broken for your brokenness; His purity is given for your impurity; He gives Himself for the times you have given yourself away. And He dies for you to save your whole self – body and soul.

What does the life of repentance look like? Confess your sins. Be forgiven, trusting in the promises of God in Christ. Turn away from the source of temptation. Flee from sexual temptation. If suggestive television or movies tempt you, change the channel or walk out of the theater. If magazines behind the gas station counter lure you, shop elsewhere. If living together, separate and seek to get married as soon as possible.

And, if your conscience is burdened by your past, remember that in Christ the sins of your past have all been buried in His tomb and they did not rise with Him on Easter. This kind of living is counter-cultural. The world will look at us and laugh that we are not part of the sexual revolution. It’s not a revolution; it’s a rebellion…a rebellion against God, His Word and His gifts.

“The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body.” Don’t glorify a revolution with your body. Glorify God in your body.

The Baptism of Jesus - Mark 1:4-11

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Bible begins with the phrase, “In the beginning, God…” It’s a remarkable phrase: in the beginning, before there was anything – light, dark, day, night, man, animal, vegetable or mineral – there was God. He has always been, always is, and always will be. He is infinite without beginning or end.

He is also omnipotent, all powerful. Each piece of creation was spoken into existence, “Let there be,” and it was so and it was good. God’s Word is infinitely, omnipotently powerful.

And, don’t forget, in the beginning, the Triune God is fully and completely and mysteriously present. I say mysterious, only to our human minds: how can God be three persons in one being? Philosphers, theologians, scholars all seek to explain it and in the end we simply say, “I believe this because the Scriptures tell us there is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.” The triune God is present in creation: Father, Son and Spirit. Jesus, pre-incarnate – that is to say, before he becomes flesh via the womb of Mary – is present at Creation. Don’t forget that. In fact, it is so important to understand and know this that John actually begins His Gospel by saying, “In the beginning [note the connection to Genesis 1] was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Jesus is the Word; the Word is God; Jesus is God; the Word spoke all things into existence. We will confess this in the Creed in just a few minutes: “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made…”

Jesus is God. That means He carries all of the attributes of God: infinite, omnipotent, holy, sinless, perfect. He was there at the beginning.

And, then, by the power of the Holy Spirit, God is enfleshed and born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem. The early church took special note of this and called Mary “The Mother of God.” And this is true. God deigns to dwell among man. Jesus, God’s Son and Mary’s Son – fully God, willfully setting aside his full Divine power and majesty; fully Man, taking onto Himself our physical body with all of our physical attributes. In His flesh, Jesus will know a beginning; He will not know all things; He will experience all human emotion including hunger and pain; joy and sorrow; rest and fatigue.

But, the one human experience he will not have is to sin. He will be tempted by those around him, including the Jewish leaders, the crowds, His own disciples, even face to face by Satan himself. Yet, the Scriptures tell us He is like us in every way except without sin.

This is what makes this morning’s Gospel reading so remarkable: John is baptizing in the River Jordan. St. Mark is clear: “John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”

Jesus has no sins to confess. He has done nothing wrong. He is God and God is holy and sinless. Yet, Jesus humbles himself, in flesh, to descend into the water to be baptized. Remember: He is taking the place of every man. He steps into humanity to take our place. It is the undoing of man’s unholiness. So, in His baptism, instead of having his sins washed away, our sins are being washed onto Jesus. Baptismal water, which washes our sins away, carries all of our sins and pours them all onto the sinless son of God.

There is an ancient technique for making delicate, silk veils. A pan is filled with clean water. The artist then uses different colored oils and, carefully, drips the oils into the desired pattern on the surface of the water. The veil maker and their apprentice will then carefully lower the clean, white silk onto the surface of the oiled water. Instantly, the oil bonds to the silk. They lift the now-stained cloth up and it has taken the oil’s stain into itself. The water, left behind in the pan, is clean and ready to be used again.

The analogy is in your baptism, your sins were washed into the water. Unlike the oils, you can’t see the sins in the water. But they are there. And Christ, the pure, sinless son of God, takes up our sins into Himself. He, who knew no sin, became sin for us.

This is no analogy: your sins - Your trusting your bank account more than the saving promises of God; Your casually tossing God’s name in disgust when the receiver drops the big pass; Your failure to study the Scriptures; your hateful speech to your kids and your parents; your taking things that don’t belong to you, or trying to figure out ways to get them; your staring at that calendar with the cool firetrucks and cars – oh, and the scantily clad fire-studs and babes in bikinis that make your heart skip a beat;  and so much more – all of your sins that deserve condemnation get exactly what they deserve. Jesus, baptized into your sins, dies the sinner’s death of condemnation and separation from God. He takes each and every one to the Cross. He does it so you do not. He does it out of His great love for you, while you were still a sinner, Christ died for you.

A wonderful exchange takes place in Baptism. With your sins removed from you, Christ’s righteousness rushes in. You are declared holy, washed clean in Christ.

So you do not doubt this, not only does Jesus die, He also rises. His death pays the price; His resurrection is the proof-evidence that satisfaction is made. Baptized into Christ, you died with Christ; baptized into Christ, you have risen with Christ. Do you understand what a remarkable gift this is? All of your sins, removed from you in Christ. They can no longer be held against you. The debt is paid in full.

Jesus public ministry is about to begin. He will enter the three years of public service of teaching and preaching, performing miracles, healing and raising the dead. He will call disciples to follow and enemies will rise against him. Through it all, the devil will work to derail Jesus purpose of being the world’s Savior. As Jesus climbs out of the riverbed, with the cross on the horizon, the Spirit descends on Him in the form of the dove and the Father’s voice is heard, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

We are now beginning the season of Epiphany. It’s an oddity of the church year: we don’t follow the life of Jesus, chronologically. Last week, Jesus was a baby; this week, he is a man. Epiphany means “revealing,” that is, Christ being revealed as Savior. The season also begins to show people’s response to Jesus and His ministry. Those words serve to strengthen Him. No mere man; Jesus is God’s own Son – with God in the Beginning, now beginning His earthly ministry as Savior.  

Living Each Moment in Faith - Luke 2: 22-40

Audio file

In a blog called, “Wonderoak,” a mother wrote about the phrase, “Enjoy every moment.” It’s a difficult phrase to agree with, she argues, because there are some things that are pretty hard to enjoy. She said:

Nothing makes me feel quite as overwhelmed as the words “enjoy every minute”.

Like do you mean right now while my kid is spread eagle on the Target floor demanding a slushy? Do you mean when I make dinner and half of the family is crying because it looks weird?...

I can do it; it’s worth it. But enjoying every minute is a different type of pressure.

In truth, there are a whole lot of minutes I feel annoyed or tired.  [1]

The difficulty of “enjoy every moment” is also true for fathers. I will never forget the helpless feeling of holding a child while the anesthesiologist put her to sleep and feeling her go deathly limp. “Daddy, I’m scared…will it hurt when they take my tonsils out?” What do you say to that? There was the week the whole family had the flu, at the same time, and the sewer line decided it was the time to break and back up. I’ve stayed up late and gotten up early. I’ve cried tears of joy and tears of pain and tears of heartache with my kids and for my kids. “Enjoy every moment?”  No…I don’t think so.

This morning’s Gospel lesson gives us St. Luke’s matched bookend to the Christmas narrative. What began with the Angel Gabriel appearing to Mary and telling her that she would become the Mother of God, giving birth to a child by the power of the Holy Spirit, now ends when Mary, Joseph and the Baby Jesus go to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices of purification. There, in the Temple, was another strange messenger of God. This, not a heavenly angel, but an old man who had been patiently and prayerfully waiting for God’s promises to be fulfilled. We don’t know much about him, other than Simeon had waited in patient faith for Messiah. He is probably most well known for the song that he sings. We call it the Nunc Dimittis, after the Latin translation of the first few words he sang, “Lord, let me depart in peace.” We sang these words in our midweek services: “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word…” Those words thank God for allowing Simeon to see the fulfillment of God’s promises, in allowing him the baby Jesus.

If you will allow a little bit of creative license, I imagine Mary and Joseph beaming with pride as this man of God sings about their son. After all, the last 9 months had been filled with wonder as angels spoke, shepherds arrived, and the news that her son was God’s Son. Simeon’s song was yet another beautiful moment for them to enjoy and to want to remember forever.

Or is it?

Before the echoes of his melody fade away, Simeon adds this:  “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce your own soul, also) so that the thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” With these words, Simeon identifies that Jesus life and ministry will be neither easy nor peaceful. Because of His preaching, people will react strongly towards Jesus – some favorably in faith, some in curiosity, and some in angry denial. He will be opposed by the religious and civil leaders who will go so far as to have Jesus arrested and falsely convicted for heresy. Before He has taken his first steps, the cross is already being spoken about, being teased from the shadows into the periphery of Mary’s view of her Son. In fact, the Cross will not only be for Jesus. A sword – in the form of the cross - will pierce Mary’s own heart as she stands at the foot of the cross and hears her Son say, “It is finished.”

I do not think this would be a moment that Mary would want to recall. No parent would want to think of such things and remember them…not while holding their newborn in their arms. Yet, this is God’s plan of salvation, enfleshed for the entire world.

It’s tempting for us to try to hold on to the romance of Christmas. Filled with the beautiful, majestic message of the angels, Christmas Eve was filled with beauty, wonder, and joy. We left here to go to our homes where gifts waited under the tree, families gathered to celebrate, and the smells of Christmas ham made hungry stomachs growl.

We realize this, in a small way. The presents are already assimilated into our homes and toy boxes. The wrapping paper has been recycled. Already, just a few days later, many of us have already taken down the Christmas tree. The ornaments are boxed up; the lights are dark; the stockings – once full – now are in a pile in the corner. It’s funny…Christians lament how early stores put up their Christmas displays in November, but we’re right with them when it comes time to move on.

I don’t say that to make anyone feel guilty. We did it last night, too. And, as we were packing up the ornaments I came across this one: a baby Jesus in the manger. But hanging under the manger is a small sign. In the center of the sign is a cross with the word “Sacrifice” across it. This ornament is titled “Sacrifice/Life.” It could just as easily be titled “The Song of Simeon.” Simeon will not leave us at the manger. Simon pulls us from the “peace on earth and good will among men” of Christmas Eve to the reality that that peace will only be restored between God and man by the death of this boy in his arms. Simeon takes us from manger to cross where Jesus’ name will be on display. Remember: Jesus means “Savior.”

Did Mary and Joseph understand all of this on that day in the temple? Did they know what Simeon was talking about? The crosses that they passed by as they entered Jerusalem…did they have any idea that one of those crosses would one day be their son’s throne as King of the Jews? Could they even begin to understand how difficult it would be to “enjoy every moment” of Jesus life and ministry? I don’t know. I don’t think so. What I do know is that the Scriptures tell us that Mary and Joseph remained faithful, trusting the promises of God for them and for all of God’s people.

In her blog, (see previous reference) the Wonderoak writer said this:

Being a mom is hard work, and that’s okay. It’s okay to admit it. It’s okay to cry about it and to vent about it. That doesn’t make us bad at this, and it doesn’t mean we love our kids any less.

It makes us human.

You do not need to understand everything in the Scriptures to be God’s people. There will be days that life doesn't make sense over and against the life of faith. You may cry about it and vent about it. That doesn’t make you a bad Christian, or that you love Jesus less, or that He looks down on you as a less-than other Christians. There are things contained in the Bible, things about the Christian faith that I do not understand, to be honest. God does not call us to understand; He calls us to faith as His people. As we stand on the cusp of a new year, perhaps that is the greatest thing for us to remember today. We – like Mary and Joseph – have no idea of what this earthly life has in store for us or our families. There will be times that we want to “enjoy every moment” of what is taking place; and there will be moments that we will wish we could forget forever. Wherever that moment falls, whatever that moment may be, believe and take comfort in this: the Bethlehem Babe is also the Christ of the Cross and Lord of Life. I didn't pay attention to the ornament last night. I only noticed this today: on the back of the cross and "Sacrifice" side is an empty tomb that reads "Life." Because He is Jesus – Savior – and because you are baptized into Him, you are able to look through the cross, through your own grave, and into eternity where truly you will enjoy every moment.

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[1] https://wonderoak.com/2017/12/22/please-stop-telling-moms-to-enjoy-every-minute/