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Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Ash Wednesday sermon 3/1/06 "Nicodemus"

Ash Wednesday
3/1/06
Text: John 3:1-21 and 19:39
Title: Nicodemus

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen
Today, Ash Wednesday, marks the start of Lent, a time of self-reflection, a time when we focus not only on our sinfulness, but on the grace of God, who through Jesus Christ made us holy. Yes, we are truly saint and sinner. Saint in the our souls have been cleared of guilt. Sinner in that we still live in bodies that do not want to fully trust in God, bodies that want to live the way of the world.
This Lenten season we are going to take a close look at six people who are mentioned in the Passion story. The six are Nicodemus, Judas Iscariot, Pilate, Simon of Cyrene, the thief on the cross, and the centurion.
We will study their interaction with Jesus as he makes his journey toward the cross so that we will see how each of their lives were touched by Jesus and in doing so our lives will be enriched by him.
The first person we will look at is Nicodemus. I found it interesting, that in John’s Gospel of Jesus’ passion, that Nicodemus is identified in an unusual way, as the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. You have to go back to an earlier meeting with Jesus to find out more about him. John 3:1-2 tells us, “Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night.”
In that passage we see that Nicodemus is a Pharisee. In many ways, the most moral people in all Israel were Pharisees, for they spent their lives observing every tradition of the law.
Nicodemus was also one of the 70 Pharisees that made up the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council. The Sanhedrin was the highest court in the land for dealing with Jewish Law. One of the Sanhedrin’s duties was to examine and then deal with anyone suspected of being a false prophet, and according to Josephus, the Jewish historian that lived during this time, there were quite a few of them running around the countryside.
We also see that he was afraid of anyone finding out that he was talking to Jesus, so he visited him under the cover of darkness.
There is one more thing we know about Nicodemus. He was more than likely a wealthy man, for as we read earlier that when Jesus died Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about 75 pounds for his burial. Only a wealthy man could have afforded that much of them.
Nicodemus came to eventually recognize Jesus for who he is, but even while we rejoice with him, we also see tragedy in his life, for Nicodemus, being a member of the Sanhedrin, must have kept quiet at that fateful meeting where the Sanhedrin voted to kill Jesus.
Now I have to admit that even if he had spoken up, it might not have even mattered, for the Sanhedrin was set on killing Jesus. The tragedy is that, all things being equal, on this particular night, uncertainty, fear, or whatever it was, silenced the voice of Nicodemus, the voice that might have said, “Truly, this is the Son of God.”
We can understand his silence, can’t we, or at least we can explain it away, for we know from our own behavior that we too, too many times are silent when we are uncertain in our belief. Or when our security, our comfort are put ahead of telling others about Jesus, the one we publicly confess each Sunday to believe in. We have much in common with Nicodemus.
Nicodemus’s problem was that he was undecided about Jesus, a problem many people face today. They look at Jesus. They believe. They want eternal life and all that God promises, but to actually accept the fact that that God came into the flesh as an ordinary human being, is well, just simply too much to ask. That he actually died on the cross for their sins, well that just doesn’t make sense.
Nicodemus found that being born again was too much to ask, for he was not thinking spiritually. He couldn’t figure it out, until that is, Jesus delivered the eye-opener when he told him, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to the spirit.”
Nicodemus found out that believing is more than seeing signs and miracles, and being somehow drawn to him who performs them. He found out that being a sympathetic spectator is not the same as having faith. He found out that the head nod showing agreement lacks the certainty of faith, for it only says, “There is something here, but I don’t know what it is. I will just wait and see what comes of it all.”
Nicodemus left his first meeting of Jesus without the certainty of faith. We know this because later when the Pharisees shout, “Has any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in him? No!” Nicodemus only responds with “Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he is doing?” You see Nicodemus is curious, he is fair, an open minded spectator, but certainly not a certain believer who says, “Truly this is the Son of God.”
Believing is more than having sincere religious interests in Jesus as the Son of God. Believing is more than merely accepting the facts about Jesus. Believing is more than keeping the rules and traditions of the church. Believing is having faith in Jesus to do what he promised he would do.
I want to tell you a little story about a certain tightrope walker that strung a cable across Niagara Falls. After a crowd had gathered he proceeded to cross over to the other side. First he just walked across, then he walked across balancing a table. He then grabbed a wheelbarrow and started for the cable. Just before he started across, he turned and asked the crowd, “Do you believe that I can push this wheelbarrow across?” The crowd answered back, “Of course we do”. The tightrope walker said to them, “Okay which one of you will get in the wheelbarrow?” There was a rather long silence, then a single voice rang out, “Are you nuts!”
You see they believed in him, but had no faith in his ability to do what he said he could do. Belief says, “God is able. Maybe he can do what he says he can do”. Saving faith says, “God has kept his promises and so I can stake my life on him.”
Saving faith says, “I will ride in your wheelbarrow.” for saving faith is being completely dependent on God to care for you. Saving faith will never be solid if it stands back and asks with Nicodemus, “How can this be?” That is the question that comes from the sinful flesh, the old nature that still resides in the world.
We don’t know for sure when the Holy Spirit entered Nicodemus, but I would put forth that it was when Jesus was hanging on that cross. Nicodemus in the death of Jesus saw something in him that he had never seen before. He saw Jesus as his Savior.
Gone was the uncertainty. Gone was his spectator type attitude. Gone was his timidity. Gone was his cowardice, his hesitation, the careful hiding and the silence. It was all gone. It was gone because Jesus, in his death on the cross, fulfilled his own prophecy, the prophecy he made when he said, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself.”
It was not anything that Nicodemus had done, but the power of cross as it started to operate. The power of the cross was turning doubt into certainty and a spectator into a participant. Nicodemus made a confession of Jesus as the Christ as his actions told the world, “Truly this is the Son of God.”
You and I too have the privilege of meeting Jesus in a personal way, as he comes to us today in, with, and under the bread and wine. Jesus comes to us to not only to assure us of the forgiveness of sins and to strengthen us in faith, but also to enable us to love one another.
It is through his death that Jesus saved us from damnation. It is through his resurrection that he comes to us as he promised. We come and receive Jesus into our bodies as we eat this bread and drink this cup, and in doing so we proclaim the Lord’s death until he returns.
This is our confession of faith in Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and living presence, for we don’t have a dead god, or a god who sits up there someplace watching us fumble around. We have a God who is active in our lives on a minute by minute basis, who enables us to stand with Nicodemus and say through our words and actions, “Truly, this is the Son of God.” Amen

Lent sermon 3/8/05 Week 2 Judas Iscariot

Midweek service Lent 2
Date: 3/8/2006
Text: Matthew 26: 6-16 27: 3-10
Title: Judas Iscariot

Unbelief is always a mystery; the unbelief of Judas is a special mystery. He was called, and he followed Jesus. He was one of the Twelve and heard all the teachings of Jesus. He was an eyewitness to all that Jesus did and said, yet he betrayed Jesus. Afterwards he was so remorseful that he lost all hope for forgiveness, for how could he be forgiven of such an evil act, so he committed suicide.
I want to put forth to you today that his betrayal of Jesus was no worse than Peter’s denial of Jesus. Peter repented of what he had done, and later became a great Apostle. Judas, don’t forget also repented, but still killed himself.
In an effort to explain away Judas’s behavior there are those that say Judas had no choice, that he was condemned to die even before he was born, that it was his destiny, and in betraying Jesus he was only fulfilling that destiny. Why I was just reading the other day in a Christian news article that there is even a movement by some in the Roman Catholic Church to excuse Judas for his act. Their thinking is that after all if he had not done his dastardly deed, Jesus would not have died on that cross and we would not have been saved from the condemnation that we all deserve.
The problem with that theory is it takes away free will and makes human beings nothing but puppets being controlled by God. And we know by other scripture that that is not true, for God has given his human creation free will.
Free will is essential in our relationship with God. For a person to be able to love someone, that is truly love someone they must also have the freedom to not love that person. You cannot make someone love you.
One of the problems we have in understanding Judas is that we really know so little about him. The Scriptures call him “betrayer” (27:3). In John’s Gospel, we read that he did not care about the poor but that he used to help himself to what was put into the money bag that he carried for the disciples.
That is about all we know of him. We are not told in the scripture but I think that he probably belonged to a group of Jews called Zealots. They were revolutionaries who wanted to get rid of the Roman colonial rule by force. That could explain his behavior as he realized that Jesus was not the man who would lead the revolt against the Romans.
Remember that by the time Jesus came to be one of us the Jews thought that the Messiah was going to be the savior that God sent to reestablish the kingdom of David. The Messiah would be the perfect general-king who would bring with his reign not only true freedom from political oppression and, with that, economic prosperity, but also pure worship to the Jews and an end to the questionable religious practices that had afflicted God’s people in the past.
At first Jesus appeared to be the promised Messiah. Almost daily he was fulfilling the prophecies made by the Old Testament prophets. Everything pointed to him as being the Messiah, but no armies were being trained or even recruited. After three years, Judas must have realized that he was backing the wrong man and that he needed to take care of himself, so he betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, the price of a slave.
We don’t really know why Judas did what he did, and since we are not to judge the motives of others. All we can do is look at their actions and nothing more. The point is that Judas betrayed Jesus because Jesus was not the kind of Messiah Judas was waiting for.
That problem isn’t unique to Judas. When others had rejected Jesus for the same reason, Jesus compared them to spoiled children who playacted at weddings and funerals. They got mad because Jesus didn’t play their game (Mt 11:16–19). Jesus wasn’t their image of the Messiah. He was the wrong kind of Messiah for his people.
That type of mindset isn’t unique to just the people of Jesus’ day, for when Jesus doesn’t fulfill the expectations of people today, he’s rejected. When people suffer a severe loss, they want God to end their grief, and if Jesus doesn’t do it right away, he’s rejected as uncaring. When Jesus doesn’t remove the injustices of our lives, he’s rejected as weak. When Jesus doesn’t remove the consequences of sin after repentance and forgiveness, he’s rejected as useless.
Judas did reject and betray Jesus, but we can’t forget he did repent. We don’t know what it was that caused him to repent, but as we look at the Greek word that describes Judas’s repentance we see that it is not the word used when the repentance includes renewed faith. The word used for Judas’ repentance is having regret about what he had done.
Judas felt remorse, threw the money he had received for betraying Jesus into the temple, and hanged himself in despair. He fell into despair for as we all learned in Luther’s Small Catechism, “confession has two parts. First, that we confess our sins, and second, that we receive . . . forgiveness” (Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation, p. 24).
Though Judas’s repentance did not lead him to believe that he was forgiven, the word for repentance does show us that Judas did change his mind about Jesus. Seeing Jesus condemned, Judas said, “I have sinned . . . for I have betrayed innocent blood” (27:4).
There it is, a statement of belief, but not of faith, for in those words Judas without knowing it had given the unspoken confession that “Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is the Messiah.” He knew that everything Jesus did and said were true, for what Jesus said, what Jesus did, and definitely who Jesus was and is can be taken as real, believed as fact, and counted on when everything else seems to be crumbling to the ground.
Even then, Judas could have received absolution, that is, forgiveness from Jesus as God in the flesh, and lived. But cut off from Jesus, Judas despaired and died, forever. The mystery of how he could have known Jesus of Nazareth, but not known Jesus, the Christ, died with him, but his witness still endures.
He left for us the truth of his words, “Jesus is the Son of God, but he is not my Messiah.” We are warned not to reject Jesus even in our discouraging times. All of us have our weak times, those times when we are tempted to give up on Jesus. There is one thing that I am reminded of every day and that is that I am a sinner. Satan loves to remind me of my sin, especially my past sins. He loves to do that as he tries to convince me that I am unworthy to be a child of God.
And he can do that if I were to listen to him, for if he can keep me focused on my sinfulness, especially my past sins, I can begin to believe that not even Jesus the Christ, can forgive me. We all have experienced that. You try the same thing I try. I try to hide those sins from others. I even try to hide them from Jesus and it just doesn’t work. How foolish is that?
You see, Jesus knew what was in Judas’s heart. He knows what’s in my heart and yours. We can hold on to our guilt until it turns into despair, just like Judas did. Judas could have confessed anytime until his death, “I have sinned.” But he didn’t for he had sunk so low that he didn’t believe he could be forgiven by Jesus. Judas’s death warns us not to be cut off from Jesus. Jesus takes our guilt and shame and forgives us. Jesus takes our weakness. He strengthens and restores us. We have the testimony of Judas’ blood crying out from the Potters field, “Believe in Jesus. Live through Jesus. Believe he is the Son of the living God, even when you are disappointed in him, for he is your Messiah. Amen

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Lent 1 3/5/06 Text: Mark 1:9-15 Title: Life After Baptism

Lent 1
3/5/2006
Text: Mark 1:9-15
Title: Life After Baptism
Let us Pray, Lord God, Creator and Maker of us all, speak in the calming of our minds and in the longings of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
The Gospel reading that I read just a few minutes ago takes place right after a special event in Jesus Life. It is sometimes referred to as the start of his ministry. John had just baptized Jesus in the Jordan River. The Holy Spirit had come on him, and God the Father had announced that Jesus was the son with whom he was well pleased.
In those few verses Saint Mark, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit has given us, with rather breathtaking brevity, a reenactment of God’s people as it is fulfilled in Jesus. Let me give you a few examples to show you what I mean.
Israel was saved from the slavery of the Egyptians as they went between the waters of the Red Sea. Jesus is baptized in the Jordan River, as part of his saving us from slavery to sin.
Israel spent 40 years in the desert, among the tribes that were hostile to them, sinning time and time again as they failed to withstand the temptations of those they came into contact with. Jesus spent 40 days in the desert among the wild animals and temptations of Satan and never once fell into sin.
God told Israel to cross over the Jordon and conquer the Promised Land. Jesus near the Jordon announces that God’s kingdom is near at hand, and invites his listeners to enter the Promised Land, not through warfare, but through repentance and faith.
Those few examples do more than show us the foreshadowing of Jesus’ ministry. They also cause us to remember stories in God’s Holy Bible that are even older than the Exodus stories I just spoke about.
When Jesus was baptized and the voice from heaven declares him as “My Son, whom I love” it was not just a statement of fact by God. It connected Jesus with other dearly loved sons in Genesis, who were also a foreshadowing of him and his ministry.
Let’s look at a few. There is Isaac, the dearly loved son of Sarah and Abraham. God tells his father to take him on a journey to a mountaintop where he is to be offered as a sacrifice. Abraham faithfully obeys. I can’t even imagine the grief he must have felt, the questions that must have been running through his mind. I am sure he must have been praying to God for help, for deliverance. God did help by sending a ram as Isaac’s substitute and he is redeemed.
Then there is Jacob, the dearly loved son of Rebecca. Remember what happened to him? He cheats his brother out of his blessing. His life is then in danger so he seeks safety in exile. He then later returns to make peace with his estranged brother and becomes the father of a great nation. He wrestles with God’s angel, and receives a new name, Israel, the father of many.
Finally, there is Joseph, the beloved son of Rachel. He is his father’s favorite. He is thrown into a pit by his brothers, sold into slavery, falsely accused, consigned to a dungeon, and believed by his family to be dead. Yet he rises up to be the second in command of Egypt where he becomes the savior of his family.
What I have shared with you this morning is not just some trivia. It shows that Jesus is the fulfillment of those events and people. Jesus is the new Isaac. For in his appointment with the cross on Golgotha he did more than look death in the face. He died, so that we can live.
Jesus is the new Jacob. In the Garden of Gethsemane, he too wrestles with God. He willingly accepts his fate so that he can reach out to those who are estranged, and restores their relationship with God. From Jesus comes Christianity, a great nation that no one can count.
Jesus is the new Joseph. He is rejected and mistreated by his own people. He is put into a grave, thought to be gotten rid of by his enemies, yet rose in victory to become the Savior of all who put their trust in him.
Jesus is the fulfillment of those stories. He brings us hope, restores our broken relationships, and counts us among his followers. All because he willingly faced death on our behalf, thus giving us eternal life.
All of those dearly loved sons found fulfillment in Jesus. Now we could stop right here, but to do so would not be right, for all that would do is give you something more to believe in and not deepen your faith.
Those that attended the Ash Wednesday service might remember that I spoke of the difference between belief and faith. Belief only knows what God might do. Faith on the other hand trusts in God to do what he has promised. Belief in Jesus then does not save you, for it is only faith in what he has done that saves you.
Our journey on this earth is also foreshadowed in the ancient journey of Israel. They came out of slavery in Egypt. Then they spent their lives traveling in the wilderness with all of its temptations.
For a nation that was God’s chosen people their behavior was decidedly mixed. God cared for them and they rebelled. He forgave them and they rebelled. Out of the entire generation that left Egypt only two, Joshua and Caleb, survive to enter the Promised Land. Everyone else died.
They failed miserably, just as we do, but Jesus in his baptism, in his time in the wilderness, in his being tempted, in his life, death, and resurrection keeps on proclaiming the Promised Land to all who will listen to him.
There is hope for all of us, for just like Israel, we too have been saved though the power of God’s Word and water. And just like the redeemed people of Israel entered the Promised Land by crossing the River Jordon we will at some time or other in our wilderness journey leave our sinful, disobedient, prideful bodies in the desert and cross over into the Promised Land, the land of milk and honey, that is heaven. The difference between us and the Israelites is that we will not have to fight to possess the Promised Land, for Jesus has already overcome our enemy Satan. That just simply means that you are not a slave to your sinful desires.
Every Sunday here at Saint John we have a foretaste of the Promised Land when we partake of Jesus’ body and blood in his Supper. What a wonderful gift God has given us, so that we might be strengthened in our journey in the wilderness. What a wonderful gift to us when we realize that we don’t have to keep God’s commands which can’t save us anyway. What a gift.
Jacob, Isaac, and Joseph each have a story to tell. Their lives were full of intrigue, good times and bad times. They sinned and paid the price. Their lives were often down in the valleys, but there were also those times on the mountain tops, and because of that we have a tendency to think of ourselves as being rather insignificant with no story to tell.
I would disagree, for we too know what it is like to suffer. We have probably all come close to death at some time or other. We all have experienced at some time or other alienation and exile. We too have found ourselves cast down. We too seem to find ourselves spending more time in the valleys than on the mountain tops of life.
We forget that we are a part of the Body of Christ, that our stories are not insignificant, but worthy of honor, for the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Christian community, the sacraments, the church year, the history of the church in the lives of our fellow saints, all find significance within the story of God and his saving grace, the grace that shows up in the person of Jesus Christ.
So life after Baptism is simply this: God leading us through the wilderness to the Promised Land just as he has promised to do.
So through the wilderness we go, singing songs of repentance and triumph, in company with all those who have gone before us, for we like them are following Jesus on his journey to the cross at Golgotha. We are on the way to the Promised Land, that place where milk and honey flow, the kingdom of God, which by the grace of God is already ours. Amen