Good Friday 4/6/12

GOOD FRIDAY 4/6/12 TEXT: PSALM 130 TITLE: DIVINE FORGETFULNESS We read in Psalm 130 verses 3 and 4, “If You, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with You there is forgiveness, that You may be feared.” What would happen to us if God kept score? What would happen if our Lord had a divine scorecard, where every deed and every misdeed is added up? Every time you sin, it counts against you, and every time you do something out of completely selfless motives that is out of pure love for another; well, then those count in your favor. What would happen? Would you win or would you lose? Seems fair enough doesn’t it, at least if we are behaving ourselves and doing godly things, for certainly we would have more good things than bad things list in the book. That is the way it works in the world, for in the world you get what you pay for, or, you get what’s coming to you both on the good side and bad side of life. But if God kept score, we would all languish in hell forever. God reminds us of this again and again in his Law; you must be perfect. Sometimes an event will happen in your life or a sermon or scripture passage will hit you right between the eyes, and God’s Law brings you to realize just how lost you are. If God kept score, We would be lost, as our psalmist writes in our Psalm for today. “If You, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” That is the question. The answer, of course, is no one. Not one of us could stand up to the unending gaze of God’s Law and say we are not guilty . This is why the psalmist cries out in verse 1 of our Psalm for today, “Out of the depths I cry to You, O LORD!”. As we gaze upon our Lord’s Passion and death, it is clear that He is dying upon the tree because of your sins and my sins. We are the crowd crying, “Crucify Him!” We are Herod, who gaped and hoped for some show. We are Pontius Pilate, who committed Jesus to death. We are the soldiers, who nailed him to the cross. We are the disciples, who scattered at the thought of being caught on the wrong side. It is our sins that put him there. They are real, and you and I killed the Son of God. In verse three of our Psalm for today we read, “If You, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” Left to ourselves, we are lost, alone and dead. But we are not left to ourselves. That is the great, wonderful message of salvation that comes to you today. For the psalmist writes in verse 4, “But with You (that is God) there is forgiveness, that You may be feared” We learn two things from seeing God die on the cross that Good Friday so many years ago. First, we learn that our sins put him there. Second, we learn that God forgives. Forgiveness; it’s a word that slips off our tongue like it costs nothing. Yet it is the most expensive word in the whole world. That word, forgiveness, cost Jesus Christ, the Son of God. his life. That word sent him down to earth to be mocked and killed for you and me. “But with You there is forgiveness, that You may be feared.” When Jesus cried out from the cross, “It is Finished!” he paid the price for that word, forgiveness. He cried from out of the depths, for he was abandoned and smitten by God, so that you would never face that great pain and suffering that he endured. It is in his death that we have forgiveness. It is only in his death that we may rejoice in God’s forgiveness. As the psalmist prayed in verse 8, “He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities [from all their sins]”. God bought back your soul from Satan. God himself brought you out of the pit. And his work of forgiving your sins goes on to this very day. His Word of absolution and forgiveness is like the sweetest wine upon our lips; long for that gift from God. Flee to his Word of forgiveness! Don’t let the sun go down upon your sins. Confess your sins, and God will nail them to the cross, for the cross of death is in actuality a tree of life for you. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life”. It was your sins, my sins that put him on the cross, but it was also God’s love that put him on the cross. Jesus could have come down. He could have given in and gone his own way. But he stayed the course. He said Amen to God’s love for you. And his love for his Father meant that his love for you would never end. “If You, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with You there is forgiveness, that You may be feared” Thank God that God forgives. He gives you himself. He washes you and makes you clean. He feeds you with his very body and blood. He puts the word of absolution; that is forgiveness into your ears, so that you know you will not die, but live, and proclaim the great works of God. Truly this is Good Friday, for the greatest good was accomplished by Jesus Christ on that Friday; the redemption of your body and soul. Amen.

Maundy Thursday 4/5/12

Maundy Thursday 4/5/12 Text: Psalm 116 Title: Delivered Why is this night different from every other night? That is the question Jewish boys ask of their fathers every Passover. It begins the Seder meal, that meal where Jewish people recount everything God had done for the Israelites in delivering them from the hand of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. It is unlikely that anyone asked this exact question on the night our Lord was betrayed in that Upper Room, but it is a very good question, nonetheless. What makes this day so different? Why gather here on a Thursday in the middle of the week? We gather together today because today is the day when we pay special attention to our need for deliverance to look at the means that God uses to deliver us from our sinful life today. In order to understand our need, we first have to look back to Israel. Israel on the night of the first Passover had been in bondage for four hundred years. They had slowly but surely moved from being guests of Pharaoh’s house to being feared slaves. There were so many of them that Pharaoh was not sure what to do with them. What if they sought to overthrow him? Out of fear he put them in bondage. And that bondage only got worse as time went on. Their bondage got to the point where life itself was really at stake for them. Nine times through Moses God had begged and commanded and urged Pharaoh to let his people go, and nine times Pharaoh refused. Finally, God sent the angel of death to come and take the firstborn of all Egypt, to crush Pharaoh and his armies, and to release God’s people from their slavery. In their bondage to Pharaoh we can see our bondage to sin, death, and the power of the devil. While our slavery may not always seem too hard and there are times when the slavery of sin seems more appealing than the freedom of the cross. Make no mistake about it; it is slavery never the less. Our slavery is such that death itself surrounds us. The enemies around us are so great that it is impossible for us to escape on our own. Like the Israelites so many years ago, only God Himself can deliver us from this bondage of death. This deliverance does not come easy. Our deliverance has a price. On that first Passover night the Israelites sacrificed a lamb and put its blood on the doorposts. That lamb was but a shadow and a picture of the one great Lamb who was to come. This Lamb is Christ, our soul’s great friend. This Lamb offers himself up this night for you, for me, and everyone else. The Lamb even prepares to suffer the pangs of Sheol itself for us. In a few short hours he will cry out with the psalmist, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” So on the night when our Lord is betrayed, the night when he makes this one, great sacrifice for all people and all time, he meets with his disciples. He serves them, washing their feet as a sign of humility. He acts as their slave. He then delivers the greatest of all gifts to them. He delivers them himself, as he gives them his body and his blood to eat and to drink. The Israelites of old ate of the Passover lamb to remind them of God’s deliverance from the Egyptians. But now, all of God’s people eat and drink of the one, great Passover Lamb without spot or blemish. He is the true and perfect sacrifice not made with hands. So what does this mean for you, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ? It means that this day we remember that Jesus’ sacrifice is once and for all. But when we remember, it isn’t something really that we do. We remember because Jesus gives Himself to us. It is his work, this holy remembering. He sacrifices himself on the cross, and now delivers that one, great sacrifice to you in his body and blood. This is, quite literally, how we remember his death. This is how we are delivered. We remember his death by participating in it. By eating his body and His blood, we show the world that Jesus died, that he rose again from the dead, and that he now sits at the right hand of God, where he gives himself for the life of the world. God himself actually gives you this deliverance today. As we pray in the catechism: What is the benefit of this eating and drinking? These words, “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,” show us that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation. This day is unlike any other day. This is the day when Jesus delivers you from the great enemies of sin, death, and the power of the devil. This day God delivers his people. The angel of death passes over you and rests upon Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. This day he pours his own blood into the cup of salvation, so that you may drink of his deliverance. Come, feast upon the Lamb who was slain. Come, lift up the cup of salvation, and rejoice in his mighty salvation for you, for our God delivers what he has promised; forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life in his Sacrament, for you. Amen.

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday 4/1/12 Text: Matthew 21:1-8 Title: Sometimes You Cannot See the Messiah for the Palm Branches. Today is one of those wonderful turning points in the Christian Church year. We have been in Lent, a somber time of reflection. Next week we enter Passion Week that time when we follow our Savior to the cross. But today we celebrate with the people of long ago that Sunday we now call Palm Sunday that marks Jesus triumphant entrance into Jerusalem. It is a time of mixed feelings. Joy, because, as New Testament people we know the outcome of the story. Jesus’ death is not the end, but the beginning for us. Sorrow, because we know, or at least we should know, that since there is no good in us according to what God’s Word tells us we are each responsible for Jesus’ death. I hope that all of you will attend Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services, for without attending those services you really cannot get the true meaning of the Resurrection which we will celebrate on Easter Sunday. That first Palm Sunday so long ago Jesus was being treated like a rock star by the oppressed people of God who were enslaved by the Romans and lorded over by their religious leaders. It is true he did not look like a king when he came into the city that day riding on a donkey. No, he did not appear very kinglike, but they had heard of him and his miracles, so they knew he was going to be the king they had been waiting for. For after all he had made wine out of water, fed five thousand plus people with just five loaves of bread and two small fish, healed people, and on top of that he was really good at putting their religious leaders in their place; those self-righteous Pharisees and Sadducees who imposed so much misery on them with all laws they had come up with over time. They needed help, serious help and Jesus was their man. But yet we hear the question even as they welcomed him, “Who is this?” The question is a fair question, one that has to be asked and answered by anyone who is seeking relief from the pain of life. Did the people back on that first Palm Sunday know that the person they were adoring and honoring that day realize the full impact of what they were saying? I doubt it. Did they understand the spiritual nature of Jesus’ kingdom, that he would establish his kingdom by his suffering, death, and resurrection and that he would rule in peoples’ hearts and lives by the power of the gospel? I doubt that too. I say that most did not, just like most do not know today, because Saint John tells us in the Twelfth chapter of his Gospel that he wrote that even “his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that they had done these things to him.” Nevertheless, Jesus accepted the divine praise and messianic acclamations by which the people honored him in word and deed, for the crowds were speaking the truth about Jesus that day. Their words have been immortalized in Scripture so that people of all times and places may learn and know the truth about Jesus through their words. "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!" Hosanna, by the way means, “Save us!” We, just like the people of Jesus’ day have a hard time knowing the true Jesus, for we by our very nature want a Jesus who we have formed in our own image. For some it is a Jesus of power who is going to get those people they don’t like. For others it is a Jesus who is going to bless them with worldly wealth and honor. Still, for others Jesus sets a great example of how to live. The list could go on and on as Jesus gets molded into whoever it is that makes a person comfortable with him. There is an old saying, “You can’t see the forest for the trees” which means you can get so caught up in small things that you can’t see the point of what is being talked about. That is why I titled my sermon for today, “Sometimes You Cannot See the Messiah for the Palm Branches.” Just like so many people in Jesus’ day could not see him for who he really is, many people today cannot, as I just mentioned see the true Jesus because they have made him into something he isn’t, a glorious king who is going to give us all we want, if we just worship, pray, give, and belief enough. Life is going to be good, if we just work with Jesus, for after all doesn’t God want us to have a good life? That is what they believed on that day so long ago. That is what is believed today. But then, suddenly, everything changed in less than a week. It was terrible. Their hope for a better life was betrayed, arrested, put on trial, and nailed to that terrible cross. Hopes and dreams shattered. There is nothing left except the haunting image of his hands, the unbearably large gashes, and the deep, dark red of his wounds. Those nails, you see ruined their whole plan. Their life did not turn out the way they had planned just like our life doesn’t always turn out the way we plan. The older you get, no matter how successful you are, the more you discover how true that statement is. The excitement, the energy, the wonder you experience as a child slowly fades away, leaving you with the mundane routine of bills, work, and family obligations. You come to learn that the hopes and dreams of your youth never quite seem to be fulfilled. There is a sense of lostness and emptiness. We spend our lives thinking, if only my marriage were a little bit better; if only I could make a little more money; if only my children were a little more successful; if only I were just a little more attractive; then I would be happy. Then I would finally be content. But all too often, loving marriages grow cold, exciting careers turn dull, gifted children lose their way, and youthful bodies grow old. And then, when we least expect it, tragedy strikes. Suffering, disease, and death disrupt our lives. And we cry out with those that were there the day Jesus came into Jerusalem, “Hosanna” which means have mercy. Save us. Why, God, would you allow this to happen? Why, God, does life always have to be so full of sorrow and pain and hurt?” These are the ultimate questions we all must face. They won’t be answered by the Jesus of prosperity and good health. They can only be answered and understood in light of the suffering, weak appearing Jesus, as he hung on that bloody cross. For, as we will soon celebrate at the end of this Holy Week, a few days after he died, Jesus rose again from the dead and appeared before his disciples in the Upper Room where they had been hiding frightened and lost with no hope. Strong and full of life, Jesus appeared in the room. Raising his arms into the air; his hands opened wide, inviting all to see. Incredibly, just above both wrists, the large gashes left by the nails could still be seen, except they were somehow now beautiful. Filled with wonder, joy, and awe, those that saw Jesus after his resurrection stared at his wounds, realizing in that moment that the nails hadn’t ended everything, but had redeemed everything; the prophecies from so long ago had been fulfilled. Jesus had conquered suffering and death. Someday each one of us will also stand before the Lord in glory, gazing upon his nail-scarred, but yet beautiful outstretched hands. And in gazing on him each of us will realize that everything we thought had been making our life miserable was actually being used by God to save it. For now we live our lives both in joy and sorrow. At times there might seem to be more sorrow than joy. But since Jesus bore our sins, our suffering, our death we can be confident that we will be transformed into a people of everlasting joy. That is the promise of the cross and resurrection. Amen.