With Apologies

I didn't get last Midweek's info up, but will do better tomorrow.

Here are a few things, though:

I could tell most of the kids worked on their memory the previous week. I certainly don't expect that the 3rd graders would know the memory as well as the 7th graders. What I'm looking for from each child is some sign that they are thinking about the memory, and that this is becoming part of their life. I also wanted to send a reminder that the kids need to work on memorizing both the catechism lesson and the bible verse provided in their folders.

Last Wednesday we worked on the 3rd and 4th Commandments. Questions to consider might be, "What does despising preaching and God's word look like?" "What is special about God's word?" "Why does God demand such honor and respect for our parents?" "Why does the explanation to the 4th commandment feature 'honor' before 'love' in how we are to treat our parents?"

Note to 7th grade parents and guardians: Please plan on joining us for a short meeting after Midweek at 5:35. If you can't make it please let me know another time when we can meet.

Sermon from 2 Sundays Ago

Trinity 13 – Luke 10: 23-37

September 18, 2011

Rev. Micah R. Gaunt

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

1.                  You’d think there are a million and one ways to live. So many different religions and philosophies. But really they can all be reduced to two.

2.                  There are only two possible way to live. One can live by the law. That is, one can find assurance and confidence, and orient one’s life according to what one does. Or, one can live by faith; that is to live by the shocking even scandalous news that, despite what may be seen, life and all good things are a pure undeserved gift from God. What’s more, there’s nothing you can do to make God love you any more. There is nothing you can do to make God love you less. The ones who work 1 hour are payed the same as those who work 12 hours, and in God’s kingdom murderers, adulterers, and traitors are forgiven and go free.

3.                  Well, in the gospel, the lawyer tries to live by the law. Look at his question to Jesus. “Teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life?” To which Jesus replies, “Okay you want to work for your inheritance? You want to play that game? What does the law say? Every Jewish child knows the answer to that one. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your hear and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” There it is. Correct. If you will live by your works, do that… perfectly.

4.                  Notice the lawyer’s response. He doesn’t say, “Alright, I’ll do it! I can’t wait. Don’t hold me back!” Instead, he tries to justify himself. “Who is my neighbor?” That’s the way it goes when life is lived by the law. People look for loopholes. The question is always what’s the least I have to do. People invest their time and energy in justifying their actions. Moreover, life under the law does not engender in us the impulse to love and serve our neighbor. Actually, the most pious outward behavior can often mask a hidden evil. Osama bin Laden lived according to a religion that taught that you could achieve paradise by the merit of your works. I’m sure he followed the Islamic law to the letter, outwardly. Yet, after the raid on his compound, he was found to possess a great deal of pornography.

5.                  This is always the way it works if your hope and confidence is found in your work. If you’ve ever dieted you know. Breakfast: half of a grapefruit, plain low fat yogurt, one piece of low carb, low calorie bread, hold the butter. Dinner: garden salad with a splash of low fat vinegrette, quarter cup of cottage cheese, half a slice of takeout pizza. Supper: 7 and a half slices of pizza dipped in ranch, half a bag of Doritos, half the container of double fudge brownie and peanut butter ice cream, and 64 ounces of Mountain Dew (but it’s diet). When you live by the law, it can keep the burning desires of the flesh at smolder for awhile, but as soon as the flesh gets fed… it’s like lighter fluid gets thrown on the fire. Flames erupt. They find new dry kindling and it gets out of control.

6.                  There is no life under the law. On the contrary, Paul tells us that law was given not to give life but to imprison everything under sin, so that people would stop trying to earn anything from God, and simply receive what He wants to give them – the promise of true life.

7.                  So it is that when the lawyer, in the gospel, tries to justify himself, Jesus tells him a story. A man goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho and falls in among robbers who strip him, beat him and leave him half-dead. His own people a priest and a Levite pass by and leave him to die. After all according to the law, if they touched him they would be unclean. But it’s an outsider, a Samaritan who stops to help the Jewish man. Now, think of the Jewish man as a Husker fan, and its Saturday December 4^th, 2010 and the Samaritan is an Oklahoma fan. Again, it’s the Samaritan who helps at great personal expense. He binds the man’s wounds and pours oil and wine upon them. He set the man on his own animal, and took care of him in the inn. Then he pays for the suffering man’s further care. The Samaritan even promises to pay for any further expense.

8.                  Then Jesus asked, “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who had fallen among the robbers?” That’s a better question than the lawyer’s. The lawyer who tried to figure out who he had to love asked “Who is my neighbor?” Answer: everyone. Jesus asked, “Who proved to be the neighbor?” That’s only one person. That’s the question worth your time, because that’s the question that brings you to Jesus.

9.                  We are the man in the ditch fallen among thieves. If I can shift the image we have been like a person strung out on drugs, lifeless, useless. Our talents and resources have been bent only on getting our next hit. We’ve been so addicted to sin that even if we did manage to do something good it was tainted. We’ve either held back and not done everything we could for someone. Or we have done our work with self-interested intent. We’ve wanted others to notice.

10.              But Christ has proven to be the neighbor. He has seen our need. He didn’t avoid us, or plug His nose, or put on protective gloves. Without counting any costs he has come to save us, to clean us up and nurse us back to health. Perhaps you’ve seen in Christian artwork the image of a pelican and her young. It was once thought that a pelican mother, if needed, would pierce her own breast so that her young could be nourished by her own blood. Whether or not this is true, doesn’t matter. Because this is the true story of your life. Christ willingly was pierced and bled out for you, so that today would happen. Christ suffered for this moment. So that now you would be encouraged and strengthened by His word of promise. That you would even be nursed to health by His blood. So this is true, even though we waste away outwardly, we are renewed inwardly, day by day.

11.              And so as you listen to the words “the true blood of Christ shed for you” see in your minds eye your savior lain upon the cross. Hear in your head, Christ’s declaration from the cross, “It is finished.” All the work required for you to truly live has been done. Now you simply eat and drink the blessings.

12.              For that is how we live – by faith. We receive God’s gifts and the promises attached to them, and say, Amen. Look at what this simple receptive faith accomplishes. Not only are we now able to live forever, now Christ even serves others through us. So that when we have served our neighbor we say, “It was not I who served, for I no longer live but Christ lives in me.” Did you notice that in the collect we prayed “make us love that which you command?” We prayed, thus, because even the ability to love God’s commands is a pure gift from Him.

13.              What great things have been revealed to you! The first two verses of the gospel were not added by accident. Jesus privately says to his disciples “…I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” What is Jesus getting at? The lawyer sees Jesus just like the disciples and it doesn’t do him any good. Actually, the lawyer illustrates Jesus’ point. The lawyer wants to find assurance by his works. He wants to live by the law. He doesn’t see. Not so you. You have come to see that you live by faith in Christ. And so I tell you today, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.” There are people in this world who it is truly good to be. Thanks be to God, you are one of them. In + Jesus name, amen. 

Midweek: September 14, 2011

Midweek has begun again and we give thanks to God for the children who have come, and the message that is shared among them.

We're trying something a little different this year. We are all working on memorizing the catechism together, so all six grades are doing the same recitations at the same time. The first 15-20 minutes is devoted to simply drilling the catechism.

The memory work this week is the 1st and 2nd commandements and explanations along with Deuteronomy 6: 4-5.

Another feature is that we are trying to focus on singing the faith. The last half hour of Midweek is devoted to learning the service of Evening Prayer, a catechism hymn and another hymn if we have time.

In "The Church at Prayer" on each Sunday's bulletin you will find the catechism lessons and bible passage for memory. Also, the hymn that we have sung that week. In this way the whole congregation is invited to ponder, pray, and sing the same texts.

The rest of Midweek is when the grades are divided up and we each study a different bible story or topic. Yesterday went as follows:

3rd and 4th grade looked at Luke 1 where the angel Gabriel announces the birth of John to Zechariah. Consider Zechariah's response to the angel's message from God.

5th and 6th grade looked at the Ascension of Christ. The texts from scripture were Acts 1: 1-26, Ephesians 2: 19-22; 4: 8, 11-15.

7th and 8th grade read  Luke 16: 19-31, the story of the rich man and Lazarus. We talked about who or what the rich man put his fear, love, and trust in. Also, we noticed that Lazarus was a sinner, too, but He trusted in God's mercy, and God's mercy did not fail him.

Further thoughts for family discussion: What are the false gods you see all around you in the day to day activities of your life? What are the false gods we are tempted to turn to? How do these gods fail to provide what we really need. Find ways to rejoice in the true God who gives all good gifts.

Sermon - Trinity 12 (Unedited)

Trinity 11 – Luke 18: 9-14

September 4^th, 2011

Rev. Micah R. Gaunt

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

1.                  Somewhere around the 3^rd and 4^th centuries of the church, in come Christian circles, people would postpone their baptism till they were about die. Can you guess why? They thought that having all of their previous sins washed in baptism there was a chance that they wouldn’t sin again before they died.

2.                  This practice not only reflects a misunderstanding of the power of baptism, but it also reflects a great mystery: The persistence of sin in the life of the baptized. Certainly the greatest mystery is that there are three persons in one God. Another mystery is that there are two natures, human and divine, in one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. But not too far behind in the mystery of the human creature is that those who have been baptized into Christ still sin. Why is it that you just can’t seem to lick that one sin that keeps hounding you? Why when no one’s looking do you do the very thing you swore you weren’t going to do again? It’s not that you don’t know better. It’s not that you don’t want to do better. Why the continual battle? If nothing else, after we’re baptized, why doesn’t the Lord take us in death right away? That was the thinking of those who took matters into their own hand and baptized right before death.

3.                  We can understand this sort of reasoning. We want to see results. We want to see some sort of airtight argument that forces people to see or do what’s right. So if nothing else, we have yet another example of how God does not think the way we do. He’s not interested in forcing people not to sin. Struggles with sin still persists in the baptized.

4.                  However, there’s more to the mystery. The problem of sin is so bad, we are so blinded that we don’t even see it. That’s what we find in Jesus’ description of the Pharisee. What the Pharisee does notice are the good things he’s done. He does see how he truly has not sinned as badly as some (extortioners, unjust, adulterers, tax collectors, drug dealers, arsonists, and terrorists). He lives only by what he sees, and he sees that he fasts twice a week and gives a tenth of all that he gets. Then to top it all off, the Pharisee piously thanks God that the Pharisee is so wonderful. Now the Pharisee can say he gave God credit.

5.                  The Pharisee reflects that the sin we’ve inherited has caused such a deep, evil corruption of our nature that reason does not comprehend it. Rather it must be believed on the basis of Scripture. There’s all kinds of ways to avoid the truth of sin. We’ve thought, I’m struggling enough with life, I don’t need to be weighed down with my sin. I need a pick me up. Or, we’ve been so preoccupied with the sin and weaknesses of others that we fail to recognize our own. That’s the way the devil wants it. After all the Pharisee didn’t see his sin. All he saw was his “good works,” and the Pharisee didn’t go home justified.

6.                  But really, truth be told, how easily your minds turn to unrighteous anger, gossip, lust, envy, jealousy. You don’t have to work at it. Your mind is really quite willing. Yet, how hard it is to concentrate on God’s word. Likewise, when you really stop to think about it we are not that creative. We think about the same things, talk about the same things, have the same dreams. Yet there are times when you have accused God’s word of being tedious and repetitive.

7.                  And so repent. Listen to God’s judgment. “you are all of no account – whether you appear publicly to be sinners or saints. You must all become something different from what you are now and act in a different way, no matter who you are now or what you do. You may be as great, wise, powerful, and holy as you could want, but here no one is righteous” (SA).

8.                  This is God’s word of law. And its good. It can’t be broken. It’s just true. And if God stopped speaking we would be in despair.  But look at this – the tax-collector – he doesn’t put before God all the good he’s done. He puts his sin before God. Yet He goes home justified, forgiven. God is pleased with him. So it goes for all who repent of their sin before God. God’s righteous law turns you into sinners so that God can turn you into holy people. Even today, Jesus still speaks by the power of the Holy Spirit, through His word, and says, “Repent and believe the good news.” All the captives are free. Sinners are forgiven. From terrorists and traitors to petty thieves and liars, the only thing God wants to hold against you is Christ’s perfection.  Repent and believe. THIS is how you become something different from what you were. This is how you act in a different way.

9.                  The tax collector became something new. He was a brand new creation. Not because he no longer sinned, or had everything worked out. Rather, here is what his new creation-ness looked like: the tax collector did what he wasn’t able to do before. He trusted that his only hope for survival was God’s goodness and mercy.

10.              Now, this does not explain the mystery of the persistence of sin in the life of the Christian. However, it does show that God is patient, and for a time He wants to put up with sin and all sorts of messes we make for ourselves. Because, first and foremost, He wants you. More than you accomplishing a spot free life, God want you to trust Him. To believe that He truly is good, and that His every desire and purpose for you is only good.

11.              This is why the Christian strives to do good, and fights evil. But this is also why the Christian does not keep count of sins and keep record of what’s a sin and what’s not. That’s the old way of living. We are new creatures. We simply lump everything together and say, “Everything is pure sin with us. Why would I want to waste time investigating and distinguishing.” God doesn’t do things in fragments or parts. He forgives us completely and in whole. He doesn’t only forgive the sins you know or confess.

12.              This is the sort of repentance that endures among Christians until death, because until that time sin persists in the life of the baptized. However know this: you ARE baptized. This means you have been brought into Christ’s body the church. “And everything in the church is ordered toward this goal: that we shall daily receive in the Church nothing but the forgiveness of sin through the Word and sings, to comfort and encourage your consciences as long as you live here. So even though you have sins, the grace of the Holy Spirit does not allow them to harm us. For we are in the Christian Church, where there is nothing but continuous uninterrupted forgiveness of sin. [How is there continuous, uninterrupted forgives of sin in the Church?] Because God forgives us, and because we forgive, bear with and help one another” (LC 3^rd article). In +Jesus Name, Amen.